Support

VS 2008 disappears after .NET Runtime Fatal Execution Engine Error on a system with ASP.NET MVC

Nick (DevExpress Support) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:55:00 GMT

Does your Visual Studio 2008 crash occasionally? I mean it works correctly most of the time, but suddenly it vanishes and you have to restart it. That happened to me and it drove me nuts, so I started looking for a solution. Honestly, I was suspecting CodeRush and Refactor! Pro for being the cause of my crashes, but at the bottom of my heart I knew they were guiltless :-)

I noticed the following error entry in the Event Log that later helped me find the solution:
.NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.3082 - Fatal Execution Engine Error (7A035FC0) (80131506)

It looks like the problem appears on systems with ASP.NET MVC installed (that was my case). And there is a patch available:
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=16827

I installed it and it has fixed my problem. Before you go ahead downloading and installing the patch, make sure that the problem reveals these symptoms on your system:
1. ASP.NET MVC is installed.
2. .NET Runtime - Fatal Execution Engine Error is in the Event Log.

It took me awhile to figure out which hot-fix I needed to download. NDP20SP2 stands for Windows XP, and Windows6.0 stands for Windows Vista. A patch for Windows 7 is not yet available, AFAIK. There is an issue report on MS Connect that looks very similar, though it's closed as Not Reproducible:
VS.Net 2008 closes when I try to use the Toolbox

Here are more links on the topic:
Visual Studio closes all the time
Hotfix Available for ASP.NET MVC Crashes

I hope this helps.

Localizing resources for DevExpress ASP.NET controls

Nick (DevExpress Support) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:07:00 GMT

If you develop web applications with DevExpress' ASP.NET controls and the language used by your customers is anything other than English, this message is for you.

The ASPxGridView and other ASPx components show messages to end-users in certain situations. These messages are written in English, but can be easily translated into any other language, as explained in the Localizing Developer Express ASP.NET Controls help topic.

The popularity of our How to localize .NET Windows Forms components article has made me think about collecting language resources for our ASP.NET components. Last week I wrote the Localized resources for ASPx controls knowledgebase article with only two language packs: Italian and Polish. This language collection will certainly grow as time goes by, and you, our customers, will be able to pick up the required resources from it any time.

I invite all non-English speakers to participate. If your native language is other than English, and you don't mind contributing to the community, take the RESX files from the attachment, translate the strings into your language, and submit them back to me via the Support Center as a new Question or Suggestion. By the way, you may already have these files localized, in which case, just pack them up and send them to me if you want to help the cause. Once I get them, I'll add the new localized resources to the knowledgebase.

Updated CHM and PDF Documentation

Alan (DevExpress) — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:56:00 GMT

This is a quick update to the previous article, in which Mehul discusses the CHM and PDF documentation for all DXperience products. These docs are useful if you like to work off-line, or want to print PDF files, and read the hard copy of our documentation.

So, what was updated?

1. Now you can download the documentation for DXperience v2008 vol 1, including help files for our recently released ASPxHTMLEditor, ASPxSpellChecker and ASPxTreeList controls.

2. The PDF help file for every product is now accompanied by a Table of Contents file, which contains the list of all help topics from the main PDF file, as well as their page numbers. You can find this file in the same zip archive that contains the main PDF file.

If you're interested in getting our CHM or PDF help files, please see the related Knowledge Base article.

Download DXperience Documentation by Product

Mehul Harry (DevExpress) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 08:25:00 GMT

Do you need to download documentation for a specific DXperience product?

Now it's available and you don't even need to install DXperience.

What?

Yes, all the DXperience documentation is available in printable PDF or CHM form.

Please use the following links to download DXperience documentation for the latest version of the Suite (v2007 vol 2).

NOTE: You can't redistribute this documentation to your end-users "as is". However, you can use information from the required topics to create your own documentation for your end-users, and then distribute it along with your application.

CHM format

- ASPxDataControls
- ASPxEditors
- ASPxGridView
- ASPxperience
- ASPxPivotGrid
- DXperience
- XPO
- XtraBars
- XtraCharts
- XtraData
- XtraEditors
- XtraGrid
- XtraLayoutControl
- XtraNavBar
- XtraPivotGrid
- XtraPrinting
- XtraReports
- XtraScheduler
- XtraSpellChecker
- XtraTreeList
- XtraUtils
- XtraVerticalGrid

PDF version

- ASPxEditors
- ASPxGridView
- XPO
- XtraGrid

For more information please see the related knowlegebase article.

The Update on "Upgrading Projects"

Nick (DevExpress Support) — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 01:42:00 GMT

Now it's time to issue an update on my Upgrading Projects post.

The ProjectConverter tool has been significantly improved since version 6.1. Visually it remains the same (quite an ascetic design, in my opinion), but internally it now has a more sophisticated functionality.

The ProjectConverter modifies the following files of your project/solution:

Project files (~.csproj / ~.vbproj) - updates assembly references. Please note that the ProjectConverter currently supports only C# and VB.NET projects.
Resource files (~.resx) - updates assembly references in type declarations.
License files (~.licx) - clears references to DevExpress.~ assemblies.
Web Page files (~.aspx) - updates assembly references in Register tags.
web.config - updates assembly references.

These files contain the full version information about an assembly, i.e. they include the assembly minor version number. That is why you should convert your project after installing each minor (maintenance) update. Since DXperience v6.3, the setup suggests that you launch the ProjectConverter after completing the installation. To launch the ProjectConverter manually, please click the link in the Start\All Programs\Developer Express .NET [2005] v6.x\Tools menu.

The ProjectConverter updates only assembly references (user code remains unaltered), hence you can use it both for upgrading and downgrading. For example, if you have a project for DXperience v6.3.2, you can downgrade it, for example, to v6.2.5 by launching the ProjectConverter of the DXperience v6.2.5 installation. That is, the ProjectConverter of your DXperience version is suitable for all projects created with any DXperience suite version. For instance, please use the ProjectConverter to update Knowledge Base articles' sample projects. In this case, you don't really have to worry about which particular version of our controls was used in a given sample; simply process the project's folder with the ProjectConverter that you have installed.

By the way, ProjectConverter.exe accepts some command line parameters. The following switches are currently supported:
/r - recursively process subdirectories.
/s - auto-start the conversion.

Example:
ProjectConverter.exe C:\MyProjectPath /r /s

P.S. Thanks to blogging, I have a good chance to tell you: Merry Christmas! Dear guys and gals who wrote to Support during this year and whom I replied personally! I appreciate your business and your valuable feedback on our products. My warmest wishes for Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your families.

Are you a big fan of XML/HTML tags? Now you can add formatting to your Support Center posts

Nick (DevExpress Support) — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 11:48:00 GMT

The Developer Express Support Center has recently been improved. Now it supports some formatting tags, which we use in our Knowledge Base. This feature is available to you, as a user of our Support Center.

1. If you wish to change the font style of some phrase in your question, you can easily do this by surrounding text with the <italic></italic> and/or <bold></bold> tags. For example, this text:
    "Hey guys, are you kidding? Your solution <bold>does not work</bold> either!"
Will appear on the web page like this:
    "Hey guys, are you kidding? Your solution does not work either!"

Another example:
    "I really don't have a clue about what you mean by saying <italic>"This is the designed behavior"</italic>..."
Will appear as:
    "I really don't have a clue about what you mean by saying "This is the designed behavior"..."

You can apply both tags to the same phrase so it's displayed in italics and bold:
<bold><italic>Now the question is</italic></bold> ...
Now the question is ...

2. You can insert Internet hyperlinks inside a <link href="..."/> tag. In this case, other users will be able to follow the link when reviewing your question and our answer in the Support Center. Here are two examples:

A) To replace an URL with words or a phrase, use a pair of <link href="..."></link> tags:
<link href="http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/WinForms/XtraReports/Index.xml">Here</link> you say that XtraReports causes terrible headaches...
Here you say that XtraReports causes terrible headaches...

B) To make an URL clickable use a single <link href="..."/> tag. Please notice the slash before the right angle bracket, which closes the link tag:
<link href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1t3y8s4s.aspx"/>
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1t3y8s4s.aspx

3. You can separate code snippets from question text with the <code lang="language_name"></code> tags which enable programming language syntax to be highlighted according to the specified language. The supported values for the lang parameter are:
vb       - Visual Basic.NET
cs       - C#
delphi   - Delphi
cbuilder - C++Builder
c        - C++
vb6      - Visual Basic
html     - HTML
xml      - XML
js       - JavaScript?
vbs      - VBScript
sql      - SQL

Here is an example:
<code lang="vb">
Private Sub GridView1_CustomDrawCell(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As _
    DevExpress.XtraGrid.Views.Base.RowCellCustomDrawEventArgs) Handles GridView1.CustomDrawCell
    If e.Column.FieldName = "Photo" Then
        ' I want to paint a picture here. How do I?
        e.Graphics.DrawImage(PictureBox1.Image, New Point(0, 0))
    End If
End Sub
</code>

In this case, it will appear similar to this code block:

Private Sub GridView1_CustomDrawCell(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As _
    DevExpress.XtraGrid.Views.Base.RowCellCustomDrawEventArgs) Handles GridView1.CustomDrawCell
    If e.Column.FieldName = "Photo" Then
        ' I want to paint a picture here. How do I?
        e.Graphics.DrawImage(PictureBox1.Image, New Point(0, 0))
    End If
End Sub

Notes
1. If you misspell tags or forget to include a closing tag, they will appear as plain text in a Web browser without changing any formatting. The current version of the Support Center does not allow you to modify the text of a question, which you've already submitted.
2. Our e-mail notifications are currently sent as plain text. You will see formatting tags instead of formatted text.
3. Currently, tags should be entered manually if you wish to use them. Perhaps, we will create an advanced editor for the Support Center in the future... I just wanted to disclose this "undocumented feature" now, as you can start using it right away. Hopefully, it will make it even easier for you to get your message across to us.