I have not used short cut keys all that extensively in the past, but of late I have become more and more addicted to them. The problem is there are so many of them, and unless you use them often it is easy to forget them.

Of course they are documented, but like everything that Microsoft puts on its web site, the location for that documentation moves frequently.

As of this writing the best documentation for them that I could find is here. You can also download a poster in either color or gray scale for 2005 here, and for 2008 here. These downloads are actually PDF's. I was able to read, barely, the text printed in landscape of an 8 1/2 X 11 page. Because these locations move frequently I have also attached the files to this post.

Another excellent reference for keyboard shortcuts is this post from  Gustavo Bonansea which is basically a link listing of numerous references for shortcuts for numerous aspects of Windows based programs. The initial paragraph in this post is not in English, but the links and descriptions are.

Sara Ford's Weblog is an excellent all around source for Tips, Tricks, Keyboard Shortcuts, and lots of just good information. I heartily recommend subscribing to her blog.

And finally I am sure there are VB.NET specific versions of each of these. Google for them as needed.

If any of you find other resources of interest for this kind of information, please leave a comment or drop me a line and I will update this post.

Cheers,

Robert Porter

Files PDF's in ZIP format.

If you get this error trying to set and hit a breakpoint, there are a couple of things to look for to resolve it. Typically what this error means is that the compiler cannot find debug information for the file you are trying to set a breakpoint in.

The first thing to check is that you have compiled the assembly in debug mode.

If you build the assembly in Release mode it will not generate the necessary debug information. Also be aware that there are two modes the compiler can use to generate the necessary program database (pdb) file for debugging, but only one of them actually enables incremental linking of the debug info.

/debug:full or /debug:pdbonly. Building with /debug:full generates debuggable code. Building with /debug:pdbonly generates PDBs but does not generate the DebuggableAttribute that tells the JIT compiler that debug information is available.

Depending on how you are building your solution you either need to look at the msbuild file or if you are building from within Visual Studio you can right click the project file and select properties. Then select the Build tab, and then the Advanced button. You will get the following dialog (VS2008, 2005 may look slightly different.)

Notice under Output the line for Debug Info, make sure this is set to full. The other values available are none, and pdb-only. Neither of the latter two values will result in debuggable code.

The next most common cause is that the [assemblyname].pdb file is not being copied or updated correctly to the bin folder of the startup project in a multi project solution.

You can manually copy the assembly file and the pdb file from the bin folder of the assembly you want to debug into the bin folder of the startup or calling project. Or into the web application bin folder if you are calling the assembly from a web application.

Thanks to Adam McKee of Ironworks who recently reminded me of the fix for this problem. I have put the information here to hopefully help the next person.

Cheers,

Robert Porter

My first project at Ironworks also involves my first experience with Commerce Server from Microsoft. I had not previously worked with Commerce Server so it has been a bit of a learning curve.

I expect to blog about my experiences with this product as I reach a point where I have something significant to say about it. For now I am very much in learning mode.

The other technology areas this project involves are ASP.NET, Plumtree Portal, Javascript, and some BizTalk integration. With the exception of Plumtree I am familiar with the remaining technologies. May or may not post about Plumtree, as I have to say I am less than impressed. I think Sharepoint does a better job than what I have seen of Plumtree but will reserver final judgment for later.

Cheers,

Robert Porter

Hmmm