The Cause: For inexplicable reasons, Microsoft chose not to include a FontWeight.Bold in their xaml specification

The Solution: Microsoft did include a FontWeights (note the S) class  To bold text in the codebehind, all you have to do is write this

tbbDownloader.FontWeight = FontWeights.Bold;

And presto!  Bold Text.

The Problem: I could find no obvious way to update the mscorlib reference in my solution, so I decide to simply delete it and add it again, and hope that it magically updates to the most recent version.  This is actually what usually happens with Visual Studio.  However, I delete the mscorlib reference, and I am unable to add it back again, I get the error message telling me that mscorlib is already included in the project.

The Cause: This is a known problem in Visual Studio.

The Solution: I just went into my project (.csproj) file and added the following line

<Reference Include=”mscorlib” />

And that fixed it.  I still have no idea how to make it use the most recent .Net Framework though.

photo credit: dasapfe

1. Open up your template document in word, and put any target areas in special Brackets, the text would read something like “I, [FULLNAME] do hereby affirm that”.  I found that the target area had to be in uppercase, I’m not sure why
2. Go to “Save As Html, Filtered”, and save it in a writeable directory.
3. In your C# code, first load the entire document into a string
4. Convert that string into an instance of StringBuilder
5. Use the StringBuilder Replace function, it would look something like this –  sb.Replace(“[FULLNAME]“, strFullName);
6. Create a TextWriter, and write the StringBuilder to it – make sure you’re saving it with a “.doc” extension.
7. Close the TextWriter

All told, the code looks like this

//Create a new filename

string strFileName = System.Guid.NewGuid().ToString();

string strPathRoot = “d:\\domains\\MyDomain\\Word\\”;

string strPath = strPathRoot + “TemplateHtml.doc”;

string str = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(strPath);

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

sb.AppendLine(s);

//replace the text

sb.Replace(“[FULLNAME]“, strFullName);

//save it out

TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(strPathRoot + strFileName + “.doc”);

// write a line of text to the file

tw.WriteLine(sb.ToString());

// close it

tw.Close();

tw.Dispose();

That’s it!

photo credit: pvera

The service cannot be activated because it requires ASP.NET compatibility. ASP.NET compatibility is not enabled for this application. Either enable ASP.NET compatibility in web.config or set the AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsAttribute.AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode property to a value other than Required.
at System.ServiceModel.Activation.HostedAspNetEnvironment.ValidateCompatibilityRequirements(AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode compatibilityMode) at System.ServiceModel.Activation.AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsAttribute.System.ServiceModel.Description.IServiceBehavior.Validate(ServiceDescription description, ServiceHostBase serviceHostBase) at System.ServiceModel.Description.DispatcherBuilder.ValidateDescription(ServiceDescription description, ServiceHostBase serviceHost) at System.ServiceModel.Description.DispatcherBuilder.InitializeServiceHost(ServiceDescription description, ServiceHostBase serviceHost) at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostBase.InitializeRuntime() at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostBase.OnBeginOpen() at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostBase.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open() at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.ActivateService(String normalizedVirtualPath) at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.EnsureServiceAvailable(String normalizedVirtualPath)

The Cause: A generic Google search will tell you to check the AspNetCompatibilityMode in your web service (.svc) file, specifically to change it from

[AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Required)]

to

[AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Allowed)]

However, before you do that, make sure that the web.config file actually exists in the web directory where the application actually resides.  If the web.config file is not there at all it will throw the same error as if there was the compatibility error in the web.config file itself.

The Solution: In my case I was publishing the same website in a variety of slightly different directories, and due to a bug in my publishing system the web.config file was not copied over to the final, production directory.   Surprisingly the application (a Silverlight application in this case) was able to run without the web.config being there, but none of the web services would work.

The lesson is, before you delve into the web.config file too deeply, make sure that the file exists.

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject:    Any Subject

Sent: 6/4/2010 2:31 PM

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:

This User on 6/4/2010 2:31 PM

Server error: ‘550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable or not local’

The Cause: Both sender and recipient are on the same mail server, but the recipient’s mail server is hosted by Google Apps (or some other mail server).  Your smtp server makes a preliminary request to the wrong server, and causes this false error message.

The Solution: The recipient (who has the mail server hosted by Google Apps) needs to disable mail services for their domain.  You can do it in IIS directly (assuming you are running Windows).  In Plesk simply go to Domains > Mail > Disable Mail

photo credit: jaqian

The Cause: URL Rewrite is new, and it was an oversight on Microsoft’s part.

The Solution: You have to use two rules, first checking to see if the url contains the https.  Here is a sample below

<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name=”Canonical Hostname – No HTTPS”>
<match url=”(.*)” />
<conditions logicalGrouping=”MatchAll” trackAllCaptures=”false”>
<add input=”{HTTPS}” pattern=”OFF” />
<add input=”{HTTP_HOST}” pattern=”^stronico\.com$” negate=”true” />
</conditions>
<action type=”Redirect” url=”http://stronico.com/{R:1}” />
</rule>
<rule name=”Canonical Hostname – With HTTPS”>
<match url=”(.*)” />
<conditions logicalGrouping=”MatchAll” trackAllCaptures=”false”>
<add input=”{HTTPS}” pattern=”ON” />
<add input=”{HTTP_HOST}” pattern=”^stronico\.com$” negate=”true” />
</conditions>
<action type=”Redirect” url=”https://stronico.com/{R:1}” />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>

That’s it! It took me an embarassingly long time to figure that one out.
photo credit: Marco Fedele

Subject Line: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
Message: Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
user@domain.com
Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 #5.1.0 Address rejected user@domain.com (state 14).

The Cause: There is no “mail.domain.com” in the dns system.  In my case I was sending the mail via an alias (it was a notification email from the web server).  The receiving mail server sees the email as forged and bounces it.

The Solution: Go to the dns system and create a mail.domain.com and point your MX records to that.  It’s a bit silly, but it has to be done that way.

photo credit: derrickkwa

The Cause: While the web project portion of the solution is being compiled and run, the Silverlight project is not being built.  This just happened to me recently.  Visual Studio crashed and somehow the Silverlight project portion of the solution decided to remove itself from the build list.

The Solution: Right-Click on the solution, then select “Configuration manager”.  Make sure that the “Build” checkbox is selected for both projects.  That’s it!

photo credit: Mooganic

Message: Unhandled Error in Silverlight 2 Application An exception occurred during the operation, making the result invalid.  Check InnerException for exception details.   at System.ComponentModel.AsyncCompletedEventArgs.RaiseExceptionIfNecessary()
at StronicoMain.ServerUtil.AddressTypeListCompletedEventArgs.get_Result()
at StronicoMain.Page.proxy_AddressTypeListCompleted(Object sender, AddressTypeListCompletedEventArgs e)
at StronicoMain.ServerUtil.ServerUtilClient.OnAddressTypeListCompleted(Object state)
Line: 1
Char: 1
Code: 0
URI: http://www.servername.com/Silverlight.js

You spend an hour or so trying to decifer the InnerException, which gives you no useful information.  You then try to access the web service via a web browser, like http://www.servername.com/MyService.svc, and you get a 404 error.  You then add that to the mime type list and still the problem is not fixed.

The Cause: Your WCF services are not mapping properly to the IIS 7 metabase.

The Solution: Run the following command “%Windir%\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v3.0\Windows Communication Foundation\ServiceModelReg.exe -r” in a command prompt.  That clears everything up.  Please see this page on social.msdn.microsoft.com for more information.

photo credit: ⓙanet

The Cause: The correct event is the Shown event, which is not intuitive (to me anyway).

The Solution: Just add in the following code:

private void MyForm_Resize(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (FormWindowState.Minimized == WindowState)
{
Hide();
}
}

private void MyForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.Hide();
}
private void MyForm_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized;
Hide();
}

and you’re done!  You can then the start the program and it will automatically minimnize itself to the tray.