Architecture Modeling in VS 2010

Microsoft Visual Studio has now become a good Integrated Requirements, and Architecture and Modeling tool by embracing Unified Modeling Language (UML) into VS 2010, thereby making architecture, design, development, and testing seamlessly possible with its IDE. Visual Studio 2010 has support for following UML 2.1.2 diagramming types;

• Class diagram
• Sequence diagram

• Use Case diagram

• Activity diagram
• Component diagram

The "Modeling Project" type is used for the architecture modeling. Here Activity and Use case diagrams can be used for requirements modeling. Then Layer diagrams can be used to represent the layered view of the system. If the system is component oriented, subsystems or components are represented using component diagram. Note: Code generation capability is added to the sequence and class diagrams only.

Visual Studio 2010

The official Visual Studio 2010 version is now released and trial versions can be downloaded from the Microsoft site this location.
Here is a feature comparison of different VS 2010 products.

Feature Description when you install VS 2010 Ultimate:
Installs the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate integrated environment together with modeling, development, testing, and deployment components that can simplify the entire development process and help ensure high-quality solutions. Provides tools for building solutions on Windows, the Web, Azure, the Office system, SharePoint, SQL Server, and other platforms by using Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, or Visual F#.

Includes these advanced features: Test Impact Analysis, Coded UI testing, Test Case Management, Database Development, Profiling Tools, Code Analysis Tools, IntelliTrace, Code Coverage, Modeling and Architecture Diagram Tools and Team Explorer. Also includes SQL Server Express, the Windows SDK, Sync Framework, a graphics library, and more.

Office Live Workspace

Office Live Workspace (Workspace.OfficeLive.com) is an online extension to Microsoft Office and any of Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) can be added and accessed through the Workspace. It is a free service for storing and sharing documents online.

Office Live Workspace requires web access and a compatible browser. In order to access workspace directly from MS Office; users of Word, Excel and PowerPoint must install an Office Live Update. Then documents can be ‘checked out’, ‘checked in’ and edit in MS Office.

With Office Live Workspace users can save up to 5GB of files and can access them even if Office isn't installed. Also users can share a workspace or a single document, collaborate online as a group, all you need for that is their email address. Workspaces are password protected and owner can control who views and edits information.

Dynamically Loading .NET Custom Controls Using Reflection

The usual way of adding custom controls on a Web Forms page is by specifying the required HTML markup in the Web Page. But in real world applications we may need to dynamically load custom controls. Here is one way of doing so using Reflections.

System.Reflection.Assembly a = 
            System.Reflection.Assembly.Load("Myproject.Controls");
Type t = a.GetType(string.Concat("Myproject.Controls.", "CustomControl1"));

if (null != t)
{
   Control c = ((Control)(Activator.CreateInstance(t)));

  // Then we can access the properties of the control by 
  // casting the it to the relevant type.
  ((Myproject.Controls.CustomControl1)c).ID = "ctrlCustomControl1";
}

Visual Studio Projects - Project Type GUIDs

Visual Studio projects have a project type (in some cases more than one type) and it is identified by a unique GUID. This GUID is generally available in the project file. But in projects like Web Site projects which do not have a project file; this GUID is stored in the solution file.

A list of known project type GUIDs are as follows:

Windows (C#)

{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}

Windows (VB.NET)

{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}

Windows (Visual C++)

{8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}

Web Application

{349C5851-65DF-11DA-9384-00065B846F21}

Web Site

{E24C65DC-7377-472B-9ABA-BC803B73C61A}

Disdivibuted System

{F135691A-BF7E-435D-8960-F99683D2D49C}

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)

{3D9AD99F-2412-4246-B90B-4EAA41C64699}

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

{60DC8134-EBA5-43B8-BCC9-BB4BC16C2548}

Visual Database Tools

{C252FEB5-A946-4202-B1D4-9916A0590387}

Database

{A9ACE9BB-CECE-4E62-9AA4-C7E7C5BD2124}

Database (other project types)

{4F174C21-8C12-11D0-8340-0000F80270F8}

Test

{3AC096D0-A1C2-E12C-1390-A8335801FDAB}

Legacy (2003) Smart Device (C#)

{20D4826A-C6FA-45DB-90F4-C717570B9F32}

Legacy (2003) Smart Device (VB.NET)

{CB4CE8C6-1BDB-4DC7-A4D3-65A1999772F8}

Smart Device (C#)

{4D628B5B-2FBC-4AA6-8C16-197242AEB884}

Smart Device (VB.NET)

{68B1623D-7FB9-47D8-8664-7ECEA3297D4F}

Workflow (C#)

{14822709-B5A1-4724-98CA-57A101D1B079}

Workflow (VB.NET)

{D59BE175-2ED0-4C54-BE3D-CDAA9F3214C8}

Deployment Merge Module

{06A35CCD-C46D-44D5-987B-CF40FF872267}

Deployment Cab

{3EA9E505-35AC-4774-B492-AD1749C4943A}

Deployment Setup

{978C614F-708E-4E1A-B201-565925725DBA}

Deployment Smart Device Cab

{AB322303-2255-48EF-A496-5904EB18DA55}

Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA)

{A860303F-1F3F-4691-B57E-529FC101A107}

Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)

{BAA0C2D2-18E2-41B9-852F-F413020CAA33}

SharePoint Workflow

{F8810EC1-6754-47FC-A15F-DFABD2E3FA90}

XNA (Windows)

{6D335F3A-9D43-41b4-9D22-F6F17C4BE596}

XNA (XBox)

{2DF5C3F4-5A5F-47a9-8E94-23B4456F55E2}

XNA (Zune)

{D399B71A-8929-442a-A9AC-8BEC78BB2433}

SharePoint (VB.NET)

{EC05E597-79D4-47f3-ADA0-324C4F7C7484}

SharePoint (C#)

{593B0543-81F6-4436-BA1E-4747859CAAE2}

Silverlight

{A1591282-1198-4647-A2B1-27E5FF5F6F3B}