Problem

In a TeamCity CI setup using MSDeploy for packaging and deployment, I started getting the following error:

[12:44:05]_build\build.xml.teamcity: Build target: Deploy (39s)
[12:44:05][_build\build.xml.teamcity] Deploy (39s)
[12:44:43][Deploy] CallTarget (1s)
[12:44:43][CallTarget] CleanSitecoreDeploy (1s)
[12:44:43][CleanSitecoreDeploy] Exec (1s)
[12:44:44][Exec] EXEC error Code: ERROR_COULD_NOT_CONNECT_TO_REMOTESVC
[12:44:44][Exec] Error (503) Server Unavailable.
[12:44:44][Exec] EXEC error count: 1.
[12:44:44][Exec] D:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\acbf438b080c752e\_build\build.xml(97, 3): error MSB3073: The command "".\MsDeploy\msdeploy.exe" -verb:sync -source:package="D:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\acbf438b080c752e\_build\package\sc531CleanDeployPackage.zip" -dest:iisApp=dev.MYSITE.dk,computerName=localhost" exited with code -1.
[12:44:44][_build\build.xml.teamcity] Project _build\build.xml.teamcity failed.

Solution

Extremely simple. In my case, the Web Deploy service had stopped for an unapparent reason. I couldn't find a clue, though, in the event log other than that it just stopped. I will update here, if this continues, and I find a solution.

Problem

You get either of the following 2 compile-errors:

• Cannot define a new extension method because the compiler required type 'System.Runtime.CompilerServices.ExtensionAttribute' cannot be found. Are you missing a reference to System.Core.dll?
• Cannot use 'this' modifier on first parameter of method declaration without a reference to System.Core.dll. Add a reference to System.Core.dll or remove 'this' modifier from the method declaration.

What's probably the case

You defined an extension method in VS2010, but forgot, the project you're working on has to compile to ASP.NET v. 2.0.

What you should do

Chillax - you can fix it!

Solution

Create a file in your project called ExtensionAttribute.cs (or whatever, really) and paste the following into it:

namespace System.Runtime.CompilerServices
{
	public class ExtensionAttribute : Attribute { }
}

Hit F6!

References

Read here: http://www.danielmoth.com/Blog/Using-Extension-Methods-In-Fx-20-Projects.aspx. 

Problem

Today, when googeling through Chrome's address bar, Chrome suddenly started just redirecting me to Google instead w/o the search terms, just a blank google.com.

Solution

1. Go to "Wrench" -> Options -> Basics -> Search. Change search engine dropdown to something else than google
2. Open a new tab and do a search via the address bar
3. Go back to the options-tab, change search engine dropdown back to Google
4. This should work!

Problem

If you export your Visual Studio settings to yourFile.vssettings and try to import this file into an older version of Visual Studio, you will encounter the following error:

The file 'C:\Projects\Settings\SettingsFile_date.vssettings' was created with an unsupported version of this application and cannot be added to the settings file list.

Solution

Open the .vssettings-file in e.g. Notepad and change the following attribute:

<UserSettings>
	<ApplicationIdentity version="10.0"/>

-----lot's of stuff here...------

</UserSettings>

to the corresponding value of your Visual Studio version, which would be

Visual Studio 2008:

<ApplicationIdentity version="9.0"/>

Visual Studio 2005:

<ApplicationIdentity version="8.0"/>

I use the free MS SQL Server Express a lot for smaller projects and development, since it's free and fully featured. One thing, though, I always find myself missing from the free version is the SQL Server Profiler, which is only included in the paid version of MS SQL Server.

Today I stumbled upon the AnjLab Sql Profiler - a lightweight (4.1MB, quick install) profiler, that does exactly what I need, i.e. spoof the SQL, that is actually executed on the server; useful e.g. when using NHibernate or another Sql abstraction layer, where I find myself not always knowing what's going on underneath the hood.

And: you can actually sort your results by clicking on the columns for duration, reads, and so on - a thing I really never understood why you can't do with Microsoft's profiler.

It works with SQL Server Express v.9 (2005) and up.

Screenshots (stolen from Alternativeto.net)

Problem

I wanted to install the FTP Service 7.5 downloaded from IIS.NET, and got the following:

Obviously, you should uninstall the old FTP Service first. But how?

Solution

Is is a feature? Is it a role? No - it's a <blink>Role Service</blink>. To get to it, click Go to Roles and uncheck the thing.

As described here, this error most probably arises, when a script on your pages attempts to modify an element, that is not (yet) in the DOM or is a parent of the current element. Oh, and when viewed in IE7.

In my case, this error was triggered by trying to execute a jQuery extension-method, before the DOM was loaded. Or to cut directly to the chase: the call to the custom extension was not wrapped in the $(document).ready(function() { ... }) thingie.

So, instead of this:

$.fn.MyGreatFunction = function (args) {

//stuff here.............

};

$(".myElem").MyGreatFunction();

use this:

$.fn.MyGreatFunction = function (args) {

//no here, actually.............

};

$(document).ready(function () {

    $(".myElem").MyGreatFunction();

});

In general, you should never assume, that your DOM is ready by trying to bind any behaviour outside the $(document).ready block.

Follow this guide:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/knom/archive/2009/04/07/windows-7-vhd-boot-setup-guideline.aspx

Except:

between step 3 and step 4 - that is, if your disk is not initialized (you don't have a "C:" drive) - do approx. this:

1. (...be in DISKPART....)
2. SELECT DISK 0
3. CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
4. ASSIGN LETTER=C
5. SELECT PARTITION 1
6. FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="Mofo-disk.." QUICK

Problem

When sending out email through .NET, I sometimes use the MailMessage.AlternateViews collection to offer email-clients to choose between an html- and a plain-text-version of the message.

However, recently I found a problem, where - when providing these 2 options for the receiving client - Gmail would always choose the plain-text version, although Gmail most certainly can display html.

Solution

It seems, that Gmail will always choose the latter of the 2 options (in this case only? I don't know), so you should simply add the AlternateView with MIME-type "text/plain" before the "text/html" one.

References

http://www.bennadel.com/blog/188-GMail-Chooses-ONLY-Non-HTML-Mail-If-Given-The-Option.htm (Tim-dude in comment)

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/csharpgeneral/thread/2b22fdbe-af6d-4c90-ae30-3c8b109c0818 (Franklin Neves in comment)

Instead of

var decoded = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.HtmlDecode(textToDecode);
var encoded = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.HtmlEncode(textToEncode);

use

var decoded = System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(textToDecode);
var encoded = System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(textToEncode);

This component seems to be outdated/legacy, but for a customer, I needed to port some code, that used the component.

Download the WebPlatFormInstaller, run it and choose Web Platform (pane) > Security (bottom) > IP and Domain Restrictions. Restart your IIS Manager, and the feature should be there!

http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebPlatformInstaller.aspx

Problem

- bummer. This is some permission issue. It seemed, 2 things can cause this error:

1. trying to attach an mdf-file, that has not been detached (properly)
2. some other stuff, which was my case. Never found out what (as I did, indeed, detach this database first)

What I tried first

• Moving mdf- and log-files to somewhere else, retry -> fail
• trying to give my SQLSERVER/SQLEXPRESS service(s) modify-permissions on my DB-folder. The use NETWORK_SERVICE as default. This caused, btw, an error, when applying the modify-rights to the individual (db-)files in the folder. Oh: -> fail
• Cursing, random rebooting. Lots of that kind of stuff

Solution

1 hour of googling and uber-fail led me to somewhere (i closed the tab - sorry for the missing reference), suggesting running the Management Studio Instance as an administrator. Guess what: WIN!

------------------------------------------------

UPDATE 25/11-2010:

You should upgrade to 2.8.7 (even if using 2.8.5) asap. You can download it here: http://download.openx.org/openx-2.8.7.zip.

The 2.8.5 has some serious security-holes, that could lead to cross-site script-injections (and even worse stuff). I know -- since the installation, I was working with (2.8.5), was - in fact - compromised. If 25/11-2010 is a long time ago, you might check http://openx.org/ for an even more recent version.

------------------------------------------------

(Scroll down for the no-bull solution)

On a site, I'm working on, the statistics page in the administration-section of an OpenX-installation (2.8.2 on php/IIS, Windows Server 2008) a few weeks ago stopped displaying anyting. It looked like this:

- which sucked. So I asked google and tried a number of possible solutions, like e.g.:

• upgrading OpenX to latest version, as of writing this blogpost ver. 2.8.5 2.8.7
• traversing log-files, looking for possible damaged MySQL tables and the like
• executing "repair" on all MySQL tables, just because, hey...
• drank some wine, went to bed, woke up, yelled at my laptop
• googled some more

Automatic Maintenance Task not run: could not acquire lock

Solution

(I'm assuming, you know how to execute SQL on a MySQL server instance. Otherwise, you should really call someone now, who does)

1. Delete a possible duplicate administrator-account from the "ox_accounts" table. It will have an account_type with value ADMIN. The one you want to delete, is most likely the one with the higher ID. Your "real" admin-account will probably have id = 1, as this is the first account that is created upon installation. But: please check.
2. Goto table "ox_application_variable" and set the value of the variable "admin_account_id" to that of your primary (and only!) administrator-account (most likely '1', see above). The SQL for this would be "update ox_application_variable set value = 1 where name ='admin_account_id';"

Kudos to the Greg-guy in this thread:

http://forum.openx.org/index.php?showtopic=503470661

NB: There might be other reasons as to why the stats might not show in OpenX. If you run into some other possible solutions, feel free to drop a link in the comments. Thank you.

Blog up!