2015
DotNetNuke - Streamlining Module Development Workflow
When developing DotNetNuke modules people take many different approaches but they boil down to two alternatives in terms of workflow:
Both approaches require that you "attach to process" from within Visual Studio in order to debug your module.
Automating DotNetNuke deployments with Octopus Deploy
Because I am an awesome dude, i'll share with you how I automate dotnetnuke delivery / deployments. This works. It takes some effort to get this set up though, but it will be well worth it in the end.
First i'll explain the process for automating the deployment of the DotNetNuke website itself. Then I'll explain how you can automate the deployment of modules / extensions on a continous basis.
How far does the XRM SDK's ExecuteMultipleRequest get you?
In this post, I will explore what kinds of things can be achieved using the SDK's ExecuteMultipleRequest, by starting of with a simple SQL command, and implementing a semantically equivalent ExecuteMultipleRequest, and then slowly introducing some additional complexity - so that, we can see some areas where the SDK starts to fall short!
ASP.NET 5 (vNext) Projects - Your NuGet Package May Fail to Install Correctly
Over the past year or so, I have authored a number of NuGet packages - because, well... I am just an all around great guy.
Recently, I was contacted by someone who was trying to use one of my NuGet packages with an ASP.NET vNext project (Preview release). Not something I have tried before - and this is where things get a little interesting.
2014
CRM / Plugin Generated Values - and Reducing Roundtrips!
Imagine we have an application that uses the CRM SDK. It needs to:
The 'I don't care about network latency' way of dealing with this is to just do 2 seperate Requests (roundtrips) with the CRM server.
This approach is sub optimal where network latency is a concern, as it incurs the penalty of making two roundtrips accross the network with the server, where 1 is possible.
Let's now have a look at the "I'm running on a 56k modem method" of doing the same thing!
Unit Testing Dynamics CRM Plugins
The purpose of this post will be to look at the code for a fairly typical looking crm plugin, and examine how to implement a unit test with the least possible effort. Reduced Effort == Reduced Person Hours == Reduced Cost.
Remember, this is Unit Testing, not Integration testing - so at test time - there is no CRM!
A Proclamation
On this day the 16th November 2014, let it be known that Darrell's blog was rendered forth unto the internet.