Auto-generating XML serialization classes from BizTalk schemas 1

UPDATE: (18th February 2011) I’ve now packaged this template as a NuGet package. Read more about it here. UPDATE: (4th October 2010) A customer of mine has just pointed out that there was a bug in the template, so I’ve updated it. Thanks Sébastien for spotting this one! The bug was caused by the template generating partial serialization classes for all the root elements defined in each schema. However, if these root elements also included simple types, like enumerations, these aren’t generated as partial classes by the XML serializer, and so you get a compile error indicating two type definitions with the same name. The fix was to ensure that the template only generates partial serialization classes for root elements that are complex types. When building BizTalk applications you often need to generate the XML serialization classes for your schemas. Sometimes this is a more efficient and simple way gain ...

Subversion and Windows Search

I’m a regular Subversion user, specifically TortoiseSVN and VisualSVN, but I’m also a big fan of Windows Search, particularly with all the improvements introduced in Windows 7. However, when Windows Search indexes areas of the file system where you’ve checked out a Subversion repository to, then by default it will index the checked out files and the base files that Subversion keeps in the hidden .svn directories. In addition it indexes all the other files in the .svn directories. This means you can get a slightly odd search experience as you often get garbage in the results and two hits for every matching file, one that’s the file you’re looking for and one that’s the base file in the .svn directory. So, what’s the solution? Well one solution is to slightly alter the query you use when searching directory hierarchies that contain Subversion managed files. Just add -folder:.svn to the ...

Migrated to WordPress

Well, I finally got fed up with Graffiti, it’s lack of features and pace of development, so I’ve switched to WordPress. So far, I’m quite impressed. The migration was a bit of a pain, but I got there in the end! Hopefully a new blog platform will re-energise my writing and I’ll get some more interesting posts up here.