Is there any way to view the local storage of a Windows 8 Store application in debugger? - windows-8

In my Windows 8 store application I keep all data in the local storage and I need to debug the data update. Is there any way to access the storage from Visual Studio 2012 debugger to see what data the application currently works with?

Why look in the debugger? You can get the location and then go look in the file using Windows Explorer. Use the debugger to get the location from
Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder;
and then open that location in Windows Explorer.

Another way is tu run:
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder.Path);
which shows exact path in Output window.

If you are looking for what an application that you didn't write installs you can look in C:\Users[user-name]\AppData\Local\Packages[app-guid].

Related

VB.net with access database

I have a program that uses access database to store the information. The problem I am encountering is when I shared from my desktop and I go to another desktop it doesnt want to add a new record or the query that is appending the information is not working. It only works in the desktop that I ran the msi. Can anybody help me what I am doing wrong. I am not using remote desktop nor team viewer. I am not using remote services like remote desktop or team viewer. First thing I ran the msi and install the program in my desktop. Secondly I got to my c drive and share that forlder where the program lives. Third I go to another computer click on network and I look for my computer and go to that folder and run that application. Next I tried to test my program by adding a new record but it gives me a message there is no query to update this record. I go back to my desktop and it works find.
It's because the program is referencing to the location of the database on THAT pc you're running it to...
C:\ on your pc is not same C:\ on the other pc.

Monitor changes made by a desktop app to a file created by my Windows Store app

I'm making a Windows Store app that gets files from a server and store it locally for quick access. I also want to make it sync the file with Dropbox and push changes to Dropbox if the user make any. I looked into CachedFileUpdater and it seems to work if I use another Windows Store app to edit the file. However I ran into a great trouble trying to monitor changes made by a desktop app. This matters a lot because many files are office documents and Office 2013 is available to Windows RT and I would also like the app to be available to Windows 8.
First I tried to use CachedFileUpdater on all files but when I open the file using a desktop app, it will be opened in read-only mode and I can't save it in desktop mode. If I dont use it if the user chooses to open it with desktop app, the change will be saved but later my app won't be able to access that file somehow. I guess it is because the owner changes to the desktop app. Now not only I seem to have no way to monitor the file changes, but also can't I access those changes once it is modified by a desktop app.\
Is there some trick that may help? Thank you very much!

Accessing application's documents from device through USB?

I'm working with a Windows Phone 8 application that writes logs to a file on the device. Is there a way to get access to that file? If not, what are my alternatives to seeing log information outside of using Visual Studio?
Yes you can read the file from isolated storage as long as it's a developer app installed on a developer unlocked phone. I use the Windows Phone Power Tools to do this, and there is a command line tool that comes with the SDK itself as well called IseTool.exe.
For your own access you can just use the advice in Paul's answer. If you want to get the files from other users you can use the Email Task and attach the log file to the email and have it sent to you or use some form of server logging.

vb.net - keeping program updated?

I'm looking for suggestions on keeping a program that is running on a network updated. Installation consists of 15 users, each have the program on their local pc, but they all access same date from sql server.
I am looking for a clean method that would allow me to update one folder on the network and for each computer to get updated when they run the program and the programs sees a later ver on that folder on the network. (Obviously I can do this inside the program itself since it won't allow being overwritten while opened.)
You should have a look at
ClickOnce is a deployment technology
that enables self-updating
Windows-based applications that can be
installed and run with minimal user
interaction.
Using ClickOnce Deployment in
VB.NET
ClickOnce - A new VB.NET 2005 Deployment Tool
ClickOnce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications
ClickOnce Deployment in .NET Framework 2.0
Another option is to create a second program that will check the network for an updated version of your application. Let's call this program "updater.exe".
You can run updater.exe on system startup like Adobe Reader or Sun Java do.
Or, when your application is started it can load updater.exe. If updater.exe finds an update, it can close/unload your application, download the newer version, restart your application and close itself.
astander's answer above is correct, you can use ClickOnce for this. Another option is creating this application as a web application.
Web applications basically work the way you described, the application's files reside in a web server, all the users connect to it using a browser, and to update the application you only need to update the files in the server.

ClickOnce Online-Only Application as a TS RemoteApp

I've attempted just about everything to get our ClickOnce VB.NET app to run under Terminal Services as a RemoteApp. I have a batch file that runs the .application file for the app.
This works fine via RDP desktop session on the terminal server. As a TS RemoteApp, however, well... not so much.
I get a quick flash of command prompt (the batch file) on the client system and then... nothing...
Same goes for having it point to the .application file directly (without using a batch file) or even copying the publication locally and having it point to that.
I found a technet.microsoft.com discussion about a similar issue, but there's no resolution to it listed.
For anyone who has run into this before and got it working, what did you have to do?
We currently use RemoteApp's for everything else on that server, so I'm hoping to stick with that if possible.
The current workaround is to build and run an MSI-based installer for the app on our terminal server whenever we publish via OneClick out to the network, but this can be quite a pain at times and is easy to forget to do.
Since the app works fine via Terminal Services when run in full desktop mode but not during RemoteApp, I don't think it's anything specific to Terminal Server permissions so much as ClickOnce requiring something that isn't available when running as a RemoteApp.
The Key to getting it to work is to use Windows Explorer "C:\windows\explorer.exe". This process is the base process when you login to a full session.
If you setup the RemoteApp to use Windows Explorer and the command line argument of the path to the .application file for the ClickOnce application then it will work when launched as a remote application. Windows Explorer will flash for a second when it starts, but it will disappear then the ClickOnce application will launch.
Why does it have to be a ClickOnce application? I would consider just deploying the exe file and assemblies.
I know it only half a solution, but if the application does not change much, it might be a good solution.
I believe your problem is related to the fact that ClickOnce needs to store it's data in a special user folder called the ClickOnce application cache. Apparently because of how Terminal Services sets up user folders ClickOnce can't access this in TerminalServices mode.
See this link for more information.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/267k390a(VS.80).aspx
There may not be a way to do it :(
Can you launch the .exe directly? It's buried under your profile in \AppData\Local\Apps\2.0[obfuscated folders], but you should be able to find it.
That will skip the built-in update process, but if it can be launched that way you could then write code to do a manual update after the application starts.
Faced the same problem this morning and got it resolved by copying the clickonce app's directory from the user settings folder to somewhere like c:\MyApp\ - I know its nasty and not very ideal.. but good enough for me!
We recently ran across this issue and decided to post a bug report on this issue to the Visual Studio development team. Feel free to comment on the bug report. It has to be a bug in ClickOnce caused by some changes in Server 2008.
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/653362/net-clickonce-deployment-not-working-as-remoteapp-or-citrix-xenapp-on-server-2008-server-2008-r2
We also have a discussion on the MSDN forums covering this issue:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winformssetup/thread/7f41667d-287a-4157-be71-d408751358d9/#92a7e5d9-22b6-44ba-9346-ef87a3b85edc
Try using RegMon and FileMon when starting the app - You may be able to track it down to a file and/or registry permission issue.
Also maybe check the event logs to see if anything's getting logged when the process fails.