****The information contained here is just a personal
excursion and no liability, implied or express, will be entertained. Use
at your own risk****
Skip to the end to jump to the github link for the template files if you want to give the grueling details a miss.
I've been wracking my head to find an Apache Cordova project template for Visual Studio. I am following along with the MVA (Microsoft Virtual Academy)'s - Developing 2D Games with HTML5 video
tutorial. **note Cordova, formerly PhoneGap, requires Node.js
installed, and is currently deployed using ndm(node packaged modules)
and might require some level of git repository, neither of which are
discussed here**
As often as happened with MVA tutorials, the specifics of
setting up a system or framework has already changed since the video was
released. And being there's no feedback system in MVA, user issues and
such are voiced elsewhere, disparately. It's not only hard to find but
ascertain whether issues noted elsewhere are directly based on what you
might land on from the video.
Now a slight hitch I ran
into intially was not being able to create Windows 8 template files to
drop into Visual Studio to start a project/tutorial/session what have
you. The video explains downloading the zip file containing the Cordova
templating instructions (I'm assuming) and then running a batch file
called "createTemplates." Even though the video gives a direct link to
download the exact version they refer to and have used in the tutorial,
when you download it no such file exists. **As explained, the current
setup requires that you install Cordova using ndm from the command
line.**
So what is one to do, when one is a stickler
for coloring inside the lines? Well usually just go a bit out of the
lines and come back in the lines when you can. The current method of
creating projects is using the CLI, steps can be found here website. But I thought it was handier just being able to open up Visual Studio and creating a new project.
So
what I did was create my own template file by extracting choice bits
from the sample project that's created as described in the above
mentioned link and using a version of windows 8 distro found on their site.
I
have yet to test it and use it, but so far it loads without any errors
when I create a new project using the template. I've tried using other
distros of files which contains the original 'createTemplates.bat' file
but after it created the designated template and was inserted into the
Visual Studio's template folder, it failed to load with a handful of
errors. So hopefully this will help ease the process for anyone who's
stuck or doesn't like to use the command line to dally about creating
projects.
The template files can be found on my github repo : https://github.com/donyd/CordovaWP8
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Sunday, December 7, 2014
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Free Microsoft Ebooks - Programming Windows Store Apps, SQL Server, Windows Server
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| English: Microsoft's logo with the old slogan, "Where do you want to go today?" (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Now these aren't around Software testing per se but good starting off points for the topics they represent, and some as adding to the skill set any good software tester should have:
So get them while they're hot, off the presses...well.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
One Plus One - The flagship killer
After what seemed like forever, actually 3 months, I finally managed to get my hands on the elusive One Plus One. Stories abound of this much hyped smart phone with its top tier specs and incredibly low prices - stuff of legend.
I had initially planned on doing a few reviews (videos included *gasp*) of the features and what I primarily bought such a device for - reading PDF books on the go go. Unfortunately time constraints and other pressures will prevent me from anything other than a quick and dirty one with a few pictures and call it even, Steven. So here's a few unboxing shots, terrible though the quality of some may be.
Final picture is on my first smartphone - the Vodafone Smart 858, Samsung S4 and the One Plus One - for a size comparison.
I had initially planned on doing a few reviews (videos included *gasp*) of the features and what I primarily bought such a device for - reading PDF books on the go go. Unfortunately time constraints and other pressures will prevent me from anything other than a quick and dirty one with a few pictures and call it even, Steven. So here's a few unboxing shots, terrible though the quality of some may be.
Final picture is on my first smartphone - the Vodafone Smart 858, Samsung S4 and the One Plus One - for a size comparison.
Monday, May 26, 2014
GIT and PowerShell - Fast food, for thought [or learning]
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| (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
However, in some instances a great introduction that familiarizes you with the basics of technology and which builds the proper foundation for future learning and improvement is a different story.
A primer of sorts, here's a few that will get you started down the right paths, if not a cursory familiarity with the basic lingo.
GIT
One of the more popular distributed version control systems. This handy tutorial walks you through the basic command line operations you can use with GIT and push it to one of many GIT based repositories - GitHub.Without going in depth, using GIT enables you to keep track of changes to files that have been 'marked'. This can be done locally and/or pushed to an online repository like the aforementioned GitHub or BitBucket.
The beauty of this allows from one to many people to access, modify and submit changes to a group project or otherwise single project which you've made available for updating by others. Also a great way to keep your own development changes and a backup incase you mess up royally and need a fall back. This tutorial will git you started on how to use this wonderful technology.
PowerShell
Ye olde command prompt. I rue the day my machine booted right into the GUI when I purchased a machine with windows 95. I could not understand what went wrong; I figured it must have been set to autostart.DOS was where it was at if you wanted to be with the cool kids, or just get things to work. Win 95 was a memory hog and disorienting. Anyway the command prompt was relegated but not forgotten and it's still a powerful tool. Enter PowerShell.
This revamped shell is set to completely forgo the command prompt. With it comes a set of new commands and tricks and this little resource should see you get up and running to a comfortable level. It's fairly old school compared to the GIT tutorial, you know links and what not, minimal interactivity but that's alright in my books.
Now go forth and take your system by its reins and your storage to the next level.
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