Hi guys,

So, I got my field renamer plugin working great for Entities yesterday.

This was the inner code - works great:

    For Each objEntity As EntityDefinition In MyBase.Entities
          For Each objField As EntityFieldDefinition In objEntity.Fields
            MyBase.ProgressSubtaskStart("Processing Entity Field: " & objEntity.Name & "." & objField.FieldName)
            objField.FieldName = Left(objField.FieldName, 1).ToLower & Mid(objField.FieldName, 2)
        Next

        MyBase.ProgressSubtaskComplete()
    Next

(the indenting doesn't show up in the Forum sadly...)

I'm trying to do the same job with the TypedLists though, here is the code which dies:

    For Each objTypedList As TypedLists.TypedListDefinition In MyBase.TypedLists
        For Each objEntityAlias As TypedLists.EntityAlias In objTypedList.EntityAliases
            MyBase.ProgressSubtaskStart("Processing TypedList EntityAlias: " & objTypedList.Name & "." & objEntityAlias.Alias)
            objEntityAlias.Alias = Left(objEntityAlias.Alias, 1).ToLower & Mid(objEntityAlias.Alias, 2)
        Next

        MyBase.ProgressSubtaskComplete()
    Next

Exception on the line "For Each objEntityAlias...":

Unable to cast object of type 'System.Collections.DictionaryEntry' to type 'SD.LLBLGen.Pro.ApplicationCore.TypedLists.EntityAlias'.

Where am I going wrong?

Haven't played with TypedListDefinition yet, but from what the exception says, objTypedList.EntityAliases is an hastable, with elements being of type DictionaryEntry.

Each DictionaryEntry holds Key/Value properties, I guess the value will be what you're looking for.

So you may go:

For Each objDictionaryEntry As System.Collections.DictionaryEntry In objTypedList.EntityAliases

dim objEntityAlias As TypedLists.EntityAlias  = objDictionaryEntry.Value

etc... 

Not sure what the key stands for though, but you just have to check...

Sadly, that's not the one..

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

That's when I try to access "objEntityAlias.Alias"

This was my code (I had to DirectCast as my project is Option Strict On):

        For Each objDictionaryEntry As System.Collections.DictionaryEntry In objTypedList.EntityAliases
            Dim objEntityAlias As TypedLists.EntityAlias = DirectCast(objDictionaryEntry.Value, TypedLists.EntityAlias)

            MyBase.ProgressSubtaskStart("Processing TypedList EntityAlias: " & objTypedList.Name & "." & objEntityAlias.Alias)
            objEntityAlias.Alias = Left(objEntityAlias.Alias, 1).ToLower & Mid(objEntityAlias.Alias, 2)
        Next

It's a shame the plugin model doesn't use generics

Any other ideas?

Key is alias name (the name you type in in the designer), value is an EntityAlias object.

Hey Otis,

The EntityAlias object appears to empty, or the Value property on the DictionaryEntry is..

Can you show me the correction I need to make to my code? I'm just trying to drop the first letter into lowercase...

Thanks

I don't know where precisely you'll find your Entityaliases, but it shouldn't be too hard browsing the objects at runtime.

You should place a break point and add a watch to examine the structure of the properties and find what you need.

Alternatively, loading your project with the project explorer from the template studio might give you some insights to.

Then, for the renaming, I'd suggest using the RenameAlias which probably holds some business logic, rather than doing it manually.

Hope that helps

renesisx wrote:

Hey Otis,

The EntityAlias object appears to empty, or the Value property on the DictionaryEntry is..

Can you show me the correction I need to make to my code? I'm just trying to drop the first letter into lowercase...

Thanks

You're absolutely correct, I didn't check the code, I should have done so.

EntityAliases contains as key the EntityAlias object, as value a null. So you can browse all EntityAlias objects by browsing the keys. It's used to check if an alias is already there.

There's also another hashtable, EntityToEntityAliases, don't know if you need that one, but it contains per entity in the typedlist (key) all EntityAlias objects in an arraylist as value. So pick either one

It doesn't use generics because I didn't want to port all designer code over to .NET 2.0 generic constructs just to use generics .

A tip: right-click the project node in the project explorer and select the project inspector plugin, it will show you the live Project object graph, which can help you with what is stored where.

OK, let me fill you in more on what I'm trying to do and we'll see if we can crack this!

I changed to use the Key property, but now it dies on the MyBase.ProgressSubtaskComplete() line with "Value of '1' is not valid for 'Value'. 'Value' should be between 'minimum' and 'maximum'. Parameter name: Value"

Here is the chunk of my code:

        For Each objTypedList As TypedLists.TypedListDefinition In MyBase.TypedLists
            For Each objDictionaryEntry As System.Collections.DictionaryEntry In objTypedList.EntityAliases
                Dim objEntityAlias As TypedLists.EntityAlias = DirectCast(objDictionaryEntry.Key, TypedLists.EntityAlias)

                MyBase.ProgressSubtaskStart("Processing TypedList EntityAlias: " & objTypedList.Name & "." & objEntityAlias.Alias)
                objEntityAlias.Alias = Left(objEntityAlias.Alias, 1).ToLower & Mid(objEntityAlias.Alias, 2)
            Next

            MyBase.ProgressSubtaskComplete()
        Next

Essentially what I'm trying to do is as follows...

When creating a Typed List in the designer I set up the fields I want in the "Fields Mapped On Entity Fields" tab. There is a column called "Field Alias" and this contains the name of the .NET Properties that will be created. I'm trying to rename those with my plug-in.

I've had no problems renaming the field names on the standard Entities - that code works perfectly - I'm just a bit stuck trying to find the right properties on the TypedList object!

renesisx wrote:

OK, let me fill you in more on what I'm trying to do and we'll see if we can crack this!

I changed to use the Key property, but now it dies on the MyBase.ProgressSubtaskComplete() line with "Value of '1' is not valid for 'Value'. 'Value' should be between 'minimum' and 'maximum'. Parameter name: Value"

Here is the chunk of my code:

        For Each objTypedList As TypedLists.TypedListDefinition In MyBase.TypedLists
            For Each objDictionaryEntry As System.Collections.DictionaryEntry In objTypedList.EntityAliases
                Dim objEntityAlias As TypedLists.EntityAlias = DirectCast(objDictionaryEntry.Key, TypedLists.EntityAlias)

                MyBase.ProgressSubtaskStart("Processing TypedList EntityAlias: " & objTypedList.Name & "." & objEntityAlias.Alias)
                objEntityAlias.Alias = Left(objEntityAlias.Alias, 1).ToLower & Mid(objEntityAlias.Alias, 2)
            Next

            MyBase.ProgressSubtaskComplete()
        Next

You start a subtask task on the progressbar in a loop but only close it once. Every ProgressSubtaskStart has to have a ProgressSubtaskComplete() call. It's in general not of great value to enlist which entity is being processed as the task description, as it's in general very fast so before you've read the first characters of the text, it's already updated.

Essentially what I'm trying to do is as follows...

When creating a Typed List in the designer I set up the fields I want in the "Fields Mapped On Entity Fields" tab. There is a column called "Field Alias" and this contains the name of the .NET Properties that will be created. I'm trying to rename those with my plug-in.

I've had no problems renaming the field names on the standard Entities - that code works perfectly - I'm just a bit stuck trying to find the right properties on the TypedList object!

The fields of a typedlist are stored in the collection returned by the Fields property. This property returns a TypedListFieldsCollection which contains TypedListFieldDefinition objects. Simply traverse these and rename these objects' Alias property.

You were right about me not setting the SubTasks complete. I didn't spot that

And thanks - the info on the TypedList fields got me what I needed.

Cheers!