Category Archives: Software

Information related to software

C# Debug Exception Viewer

January 24, 2023

It’s simple enough to add a try/catch block around code to catch any exception. But when you are in the initial stages of generating code, you want quick feedback and it doesn’t exactly need to be pretty. In the catch block, pass the exception to this method to create a string with easy to read information. The Code… Read More »

Rendering Documents and Reports via API

February 28, 2023

The capability to display and print documents programmatically in Select has existed since Select version 4.1. The information below is the curation of multiple topics in the DevForum. Hopefully this presentation is easier to digest. Documents and Reports represent different things under the covers but are all treated in a similar manner. We will refer to all of… Read More »

Get IEnumValue Based Values

March 19, 2021

Select use dynamic “enumerations” to hold values that are user defined and maintained in the database. A partial list of these classes is IBillCode, IState, and ITitleStatus. Below is a static helper to get a member value. Here is an example of how to use the helper. Note that you can pass either an order instance to the… Read More »

Display Value in Engineering Notation

November 26, 2020

As all electrical engineers, I work with a large range of numbers for various components – from 22 pF capacitors (22* 1e-12) to 2 MΩ resistors (2* 1e+6). To make the work a little easier, we tend to use Engineering Notation. This ensures the SI prefixes are multiples of three. Just try quickly adding 4 deciFarad to 7… Read More »

Embed File in Assembly with MSBuild Targets

February 28, 2023

I have a problem – I want to automatically generate a license file then embed the file in my C# assembly. This solution works by creating a new MSBuild targets file and embedding it in my project (csproj) file. Let’s start by modifying my project file. I imported the new MSBuild targets file near the bottom of my… Read More »

Azure Pipeline Debugging Snippets

September 11, 2024

These are pipeline YAML snippets that I have found very handy. Print all Environmental Variables This is essential for debugging paths and composite variables. It generates an output similar to this. Notice that the environment variables are sorted and the trailing Format-Table with the -wrap parameter will ensure the values are not cut off at the end of… Read More »

Azure Pipeline Variables

August 14, 2024

There exists several types of variables that can be added to YAML scripts. I really like the Microsoft page that lays out a table that specifies the type of variable and when its value is computed and set. I have reproduced it below. The Azure documentation is listed in the Links section. Variable Naming Restrictions User-defined and environment… Read More »

Conditions and DependsOn in Azure Pipeline YAML

October 26, 2020

I needed the ability to automatically build one of several possible build types for testing. I also wanted to just change one variable in the YAML to update the build type. This is an excellent use for pipeline “conditions”. Conditions can be used to enable a step, job, or stage. In this example, the user can select between… Read More »

Typical Environment Variables in Azure DevOps Pipeline

August 13, 2024

This an an example of many of the environmental variables available to the build pipeline. The following YAML step… …created the following (excerpted) list. Variables are treated in different ways depending on the type it is and how it is references in the YAML file. See Azure Pipeline Variables article for more information.