I have previously written about this, and today I’ve had occasion to set up another server. I found out some details doing that, so I thought I’d post an update (as much for my own benefit in case I need to do it again, as for anybody else’s).

So, last time I had been wondering about the problems I saw with the SVNService – basically it didn’t seem to be included in the package. After I had finished the whole process, I had had the idea that maybe the problem was a result of the fact that I skipped repository generation. So this time I just went ahead and had a repository created, even though I didn’t really need one. And that step had the expected result: the SVNService was up and running immediately.

I went on to copy my SNVService.exe.config from my previous installation and restarted the service. Expecting to be able to connect to the service now, I was disappointed – it just didn’t work, without any useful error message. After some clicking around in the TortoiseSVN repo-browser, I found that I had access to the new dummy repository I had created, but not to my own one. The path was also wrong – apparently the repository root pointed into the repository directory, instead of the level above the repository (which is essential if you want to access more than one repository). It became evident that my config file was not being read. A look at the source code of SVNService didn’t show me anything I wasn’t aware of so far. I also thought of the registry, but couldn’t find any setting that appeared relevant.

My next step was to restart the service with FileMon and RegMon running, and that finally came up with the explanation: there is actually a setting in the registry for this version of SVNService, but it hides at HKLM\Software\Clansoft. I have no idea who these Clansoft people are, and Google can’t come up with anything but a few dead links when searching for them. Not the best idea for this package to be included in the 1–Click setup… anyway, I changed the parameter in the registry setting to point to the correct repository root and everything was fine.

Just upgraded BlogJet to version 2. Just looking at the application is quite a treat now – it’s just really pretty. At a glance, they also added made some important changes, like the fact that I can now switch between various blogs in the toolbar, as opposed to basically restarting the application like they did before. Gives me more confidence in the application, somehow.

At the same time, some important features I have requested in the past appear to be still missing. I’ll have to look up the details of my requests, but one thing I still can’t find is a way to add my own tags around elements… for instance, I have a custom tag for formatted code that I like to use, and it would be great to add it to a menu or use a keyboard shortcut for it instead of having to remember what it looks like and type it in manually. Seems like a very natural feature to me…

Since I originally bought version 1 about a year ago, this has also been the first update I have ever seen, minor or major. I just went ahead and paid the $20 for the upgrade. I remember that back when I reported some problems I was having, communications with the author was a bit slow as well, and as I can see, my ideas have not been used – I’ll try again now and see whether things are better with the new Coding Robots company. Otherwise I’m sorry to say I shall have a much closer look at Windows Live Writer, which I have so far avoided to support the 3rd party market.

Update: Just to make sure everybody sees this - this issue has been solved, the info can be found in Robin’s comment below. Thanks, Robin!

I’m trying to go through this URL to activate the copy of Microsoft Reader installed on my laptop. I don’t see any problems until I get to the point where the activation process is actually running with the small progress bar… but every time I get this error message before the progress bar has filled up completely:

The Activation process has failed. There may be a problem connecting to the Microsoft Activation Server. Please try again later.

Originally I thought there could be a problem on Microsoft’s side of things, as I found a number of references on the web that talked about the problem going away after a while. But I’ve been trying this over the course of about a week now, and nothing has changed.

Now, the activation FAQ has this entry:

This seems to make it pretty clear that Windows Vista is not among the supported operating systems. I read this early on, but I didn’t really pay that much attention because I couldn’t imagine that (a) this kind of software, which does obviously not depend on any OS specific features, would be written in such a way that it wouldn’t run on Vista and (b) if that would actually be the case, that Microsoft hadn’t provided for compatibility by this time.

Can anybody shed any light on this? Is it actually possible that Microsoft Reader activation doesn’t work on Vista? I tried searching the net, but I found no information about this particular scenario.

At the London .NET User Group, I did a session last Thursday about validity checking. This was based on a library I had written a rather long time ago, and I promised to make not only the slides and samples from the session, but also the library itself available for everyone to download. So here it is.

  The slides, the samples and the library including source code (286 KB)

I’m releasing the library itself under the GNU Lesser General Public License, which basically means you can use it in your own applications without having to open source them as well.

One important thing to note is that I used the UI control libraries from Developer Express for the UI parts of the library (but no, this wasn’t written while I was working for them, it was before that). I can’t help that now and I don’t think I’m going to take the time right now to change it – it’s definitely possible and not too much work, as UI elements are used only in a few parts of the application.

But note that the actual validity checking parts of the library do not depend on anything but the standard .NET Framework!

For testing purposes I’m making the following download available, which includes all the compiled assemblies and also the required Developer Express runtime assemblies. Note that this does not entitle you to deploy the Developer Express assemblies with your own products (or in any way, actually), you’ll have to buy a license to do that!

  Compiled assemblies and DX runtime (2714 KB)

Please feel free to ask any questions you have, either here or by sending me email. Have fun!

Microsoft’s Vista and Office 2007 launch is in Reading on the 19th and 20th, and I’m not going to make it after all… there’s a Developer Express company meeting that I’m attending at the same time. Too bad, because I’m missing out on all the freebies

Another thing I’m missing is Zi’s geek dinner, which takes place on the evening of the 19th. There’s a little sign-up list that you need to get on, so make sure you do that if you are in Reading on the 19th. Have fun!