I admit...I am posting this question because I still don't have an answer to my other question and thought I would take a different tact.
Can someone explain to me WHERE the values for intellisense and namespace/class/member completion works. I figured if I can drill into where/how it is deriving that data I can try to reconfigure my project so that it will resolve my namespaces correctly.
Seth
The name space and intellisense information, for the CLR, comes from a database hidden inside the VS install.
The information for the working project, is scanned and archived (I think in a file) when you open the project. It then periodically updates it as you work.
If you want the exact path, I doubt that Microsoft publishes that information.
After looking at your other question, I wanted to add that it is possible (somehow) to have Visual Studio rebuild the index information for a given project. It eludes me on how to do this right now. Have you tried this and did you end up with the same results?
Update in regards to comments:
Refreshing the cache is easy but not
necessarily obvious. There are two
ways to refresh the cache: 1) Go to
Edit -> IntelliSense -> Refresh Local
Cache and 2) Hit Ctrl+Shift+R
Source: Dan's Blog - Refreshing the IntelliSense Cache
I don't know how it's done in Visual Studio, but here is the general approach:
Collect all the public members and methods.
This is done, in case of managed libraries like those produced by VB.NET, by reflection. The documentation comes from xml files related to those libs. That's the approach for Referenced libraries.
For the project you are currently working on, it just constantly parses the source files where the documentation is combined with the code.
How the namespace resolving is done depends on the language offcourse, but that is answered in your other question.
Related
I have a problem with several references in my VB.NET project.
For example I have this line of code:
Dim m As New Chilkat.Email
It comes from the library "ChilkatDotNet45.dll".
When I click on "References" and locate this dll, I can see that it has the settings "Use local copy" and "Do not include interop types".
When I switch to Release mode, the compiler tells me that "Chilkat.EMail" is not defined.
I have this problem with several DLLs, so it is not specific to Chilkat.
Can somebody tell me what I did wrong?
Thank you.
One of the standard approaches to solving any programming-related issue is trying to reduce the scope of the investigation. If you have a big project, in which something doesn't work, try to create a smaller project, and try to replicate desired functionality in it. Reduce as much as possible, down to a brand new project with maybe 5-10 lines of code in it.
If you were unable to solve your problem after making a reduced test case, now it's good time to post it on StackOverflow. I am usually reducing problems while writing a question on SO (not before, as one might think), constantly thinking "ok, is it minimized enough"; and this is how 90% of the questions never get posted - I often find a solution along the way of reducing my question to bare bones. :)
In your case, can you build a simplified project which has this problem and post a link here? We could then try switching Debug to Release on our machines and see if the we can reproduce. There are too many options to do the guesswork.
Where do you store your old classes and files, which you don't longer use in a current project?
I have quite a few classes and files, which are no longer required, but which I would like to keep somewhere in case I need to reuse some of the code later.
Currently, I am just copying and pasting the code in a tool called Code Collector Pro.
However, since this seems not to be the most elegant way of storing old code, I would like to ask you: How do you save your old code?
If you are talking about handy snippets of code that you might use often I store them in Xcode's Code Snippet Library (just drag selected code in to create a snippet.)
Generally though, I delete unused code. If I need it again it will be in my version control system.
I would definitely use a version control system (I'm most familiar with Subversion, but am getting into Git now). If this is code that's worth keeping around then it's code you'll likely use and modify in multiple projects over time. You'll want to be able to review the history of your changes, compare how you used it differently in project A vs. project B, and maintain notes to help refresh your memory and to help in keyword searching when you're trying to find that bit of code you remember using two years ago.
You can set up repositories however makes sense for your work - by project, by code type, etc.
I'm not familiar with Code Collector Pro - if it works as a GUI for a version control system, it may be fine for what you're doing.
I'm seeing a strange build bug a lot. Sometimes after typing some code we receive the following build error.
Class 'clsX' must implement 'Event PropertyChanged(sender As Object, e As PropertyChangedEventArgs)' for interface System.ComponentModel.INotifyPropertyChanged'.
And
'PropertyChanged' cannot implement 'PropertyChanged' because there is no matching event on interface 'System.ComponentModel.INotifyPropertyChanged'.
Those error should never go together! Usually we can just ignore the exception and build the solution but often enough this bug stops our build. (this happens a lot using Edit and Continue which is annoying)
We're using Vb.net and c# mixed in one big solution.
Removing the PropertyChanged event and retyping the same code! sometimes fixes this.
Question:
Has anyone else seen this problem and has some suggestions how to prevent his?
We're using a code generator that causes this error to surface but just editing some files manually triggers this exception too. This error occur's on multiple machines using various setups.
Someone had the same exact issue discussed here. It sounds like there is an issue with this build picking up an old version of a binary. I would try the following in order:
Verify all assembly references use project references where possible within the Visual Studio solution.
Disable build parallelization in case there is some weird file locking issue with concurrent project builds. Go to Tools -> Options, Projects and Solutions -> Build and Run, then set "maximum number of parrellel project builds" to 1. Not the best solution but it may help narrow down the problem.
Disable the Hosting Process in case it's locking some file causing an assembly to not get rebuilt correctly. For C# project go to Project Properties, Debug tab, and uncheck "Enable the Visual Studio hosting process". For VB.NET project you'll need to Unload Project, Edit the project file, and add <UseVSHostingProcess>false</UseVSHostingProcess> to the PropertyGroup of each configuration. Again, not the best solution but you probably won't notice a difference.
Lastly, try doing a Clean + Build to try and resolve the issue when it occurs (I know this is not a fix but it's easy enough to do), also Rebuild may be slightly different than Clean + Build so try the latter if the former doesn't work.
As I can not comment due to lack of appropriate points.
But I would like to share one of my experience:
In an aspx.cs page I was working, used to compile fine and some time gave mysterious error of a variable not defined or function not defined or sometime variable or the function defined two times. I changed possibly each and every variable and function name but there seemed no effect , but after entering a simple space or a new line at any place in the file used to solve the compile error. At one time I tried to save the file (in a different encoding as i am used to experiments) and found that the file was not saving in the correct encoding (i.e. the ansi encoding because the file had a unicode character ), I removed the unicode character and that compile error didn't bothered me again.
This unicode character problem could be (not a hard and fast rule) there so you could check it.
Nuke & restore using source control (TFS instructions here):
Make sure you have everything checked in
Exit Visual Studio
Rename the project directory to .Bak (effectively deleting it)
Reopen Visual Studio and in source control:
Get Specific Version
check 'Overwrite... not checked out' and 'Overwrite ... even if local version matches'
Re-open project
Another problem: Make sure some source files are not newer than the current date (or your date is set back). Often this happens in apps where you are doing logic that requires certain things to happen differently on certain dates. You change your clock to test it, make a revision to the source with the date advanced, set the date back, and viola, rebuild does not rebuild that file.
You say 'typing it in again' - can you try just saving? After 40 years since MULTIX the .net build still decides what has changed by checking the file timestamp.
good luck!
When you get the error, is it always on the VB calling C# side, or vice-versa, or does it work both ways?
If the answer is either of the first two situations, try building the "callee" project within the solution before building the "caller" project to see if it stops the situation.
Also, just in case it may jog something for you to think about, does this error crop up when you change a VB file or a C# file, or is there no correllation?
Oh, and sorry this looks like an answer instead of a comment, I cannot post comments yet (need 50 rep).
I've got a really strange error and any light that anyone can shed on this would be greatly appreciated.
I made some changes to some VB6 source which builds a COM object. The automated build which builds our app returned an error. No problem I thought--I'll just back out my changes. Well backing out my changes isn't making the problem go away.
Specifically when I attempt to build the app via a .vbg file, with a command line like path\to\vb6\vb6 ProjectFile.vbg /make
I get a message
"Compile Error in File '', Line : Object library
invalid or contains references to object definitions that could not be
found."
As I said, I reverted the source code so I'm really stumped as to why this error is still occurring. Any VB6 gurus around who might be able to point me at an answer?
I can post the exact code in question but the fact that it was building correctly, stopped building correctly and now refuses to build correctly makes me think this is not a problem with my code but rather some problem in the environment. Like something got put in the registry as a result of the previous build error.
Any tips, hints, or suggestions greatly welcome. I realize my question is a bit sketchy but I'm not even sure what's important to include and what isn't.
EDIT 1:
Thanks for the excellent suggestions guys. I think it is something to do with VB6 doing some sort of auto-registration.
Just to add a bit more detail: this problem does not occur when I build the referenced vbp file from the IDE. It only happens on the make on the .vbg which contains the vbp. Also the build tool in question automatically pulls latest source and the error happens on both my local box and the dedicated build box.
EDIT 2:
Hi again all,
The release engineering fellow figured out how to get this to build in his build environment so it's currently ok. Once we're past this crunch, I'll try to interrogate him about what he did and share the details with everyone.
Thanks again for all the great suggestions. This is what's so great about SO; that is, I asked about a 10-year-old technology and I got several great and on-point ideas.
Make sure that the VBG and all the VBP's got rolled back as well. That error is consistent with a project trying to reference a CLSID that is no longer valid for the dependency. Have you tried loading up the project group and building from the IDE, if that works and you save and check in all the changes to the group and project files, you might be fixed up.
I'm guessing the fact that you mention that it was a COM component might be the source of the problem. If any of the public method's or properties have changed then I seem to remember that VB6 will change the interface GUIDs and auto register the new ones.
My suggestion would be to check the registry to look for any mention of the component name, make a note of any associated CLSIDs, back up the registry, and then delete the references.
As cmsjr mentions it could also be a bad CLSID reference in your .vbp files.
The other option is that the failure has caused a problem with some .tlb (type library) or olb (object library) files.
The best thing to do is move all your compatibility DLL to a separate and combined directory. The reason for this is control over what VB6 is using to check for binary compatibility. In addition the Typelibs that are generated IMPORT the references. So if you using Binary DLL Ver 10 for compatibility however the import is pulling in Binary DLL Ver 9 you will have issues. By keeping all the libraries in a single folder and pointing your projects to the DLLs in that folder you ensure that the respective TypeLib Import the correct version.
Finally if you have multiple levels of DLL reference each other. You may run into mysterious error where the VB6 is unable to compile using binary compatibility. In such cases you need to compile the lowest DLL in the hierarchy (Utility DLL perhaps) copy it over into the compatibility folders. Work your way up the chain until everything compiles in one shot again.
This is because if have DLL A reference DLL B which Reference DLL C. VB6 will get sometimes get confused if you make a change to A and C. will compile fine but A will not until the compatibility libraries are updated.
Hunt down and delete any .obj and .exp files that may be lying around from the previous failed build.
You will have to open the project & re-type in the lines that you changed.
Save the project alongwith VBG and re-compile after that.
I think that will fix it.
EDIT: The idea is that the cls/bas file remember the class (CLSID) that you used. So, if you change the references but don't change the lines in the cls/bas - it is a mismatch of type (what was referenced vs what is typed in cls/bas file).
I realize this question has been asked before, but I was not able to find anything that worked for me yet.
Things I have tried:
Switched settings back to default (mulitple ways)
Project Builds/Compiles fine
Closed VS and restarted
The only thing I haven't been able to try is deleting the ".ncb" file, but that's only because I can't find it. In fact not a single one of all our projects have such a file!
So the first question is why can't I find this file in the solution's root directory? The only file I have there besides the .sln is the .suo.
Then if that doesn't work what other options do I have short of un-installing and re-installing?
As for how it happened this might help. While using VS2008 and VSS6.0 (yuck) I made a number of changes to a lot of files via Find&Replace that I didn't mean to(had Entire Solution selected instead of current document). To undo the changes I exited without saving, reopened the solution, then Undid checkout. After that I lost intellisense! I can't imaging how they're related but it might help.
Thanks,
Jeff
IntelliSense usually stops working when it can't compile correctly. Try a new simple project from scratch and see if it works, if it does you have your answer.
Is this for C++ code? If it is, my suggestion is not to try fixing built-in IntelliSense at all, rather try some 3rd party replacement. My favourite is definitely Visual Assist X, which is lot more robust (it almost never stops working, and it is able to parse even very complicated templated and preprocessed stuff, which often makes IntelliSense "lost".
Visual Assist works with other languages including Visual Basic, however this is something I have no practical experience with. Still, there is a free trial - you may try it, I expect it will be superior to IntelliSense even for VB.
Answer:
I figured out how to fix it. Apparently while I was undoing those changes I somehow excluded the file that I wasn't getting intellisense in from the project.
I just right-clicked on it and said "Include in Project" and viola! Intellisense worked again.
Sorry for the false alarm but I appreciate the effort.
Jeff