The Rules
The EntitySpaces forum is a place of community, and we encourage you to post and to share ideas and techniques with each other. These forums should act as a very large knowledge base allowing users to find information and solutions quickly. In order for these forums to function as they need to, we are going to enforce a strict set of rules. Please take the time to read the following rules before you begin posting or your post could wind up being deleted. Those constantly ignoring the rules could end up being banned.
Searching for Answers
This is always the best place to start. It is the fastest way to get your question answered so you can continue working. Most likely the question you are about to ask has already been answered on the forums. The searches are not case sensitive. They do look at whole words. Searching for "aggregate" may return a dozen hits, while searching for "aggregates" may not find any. The Forums can be searched anonymously, no login required. If you ask a question that has been answered already you will be told the answer is on the forums, we will not do the searches for you and provide you with URLs.
Provide Enough Information for us to Help You
One of the biggest problems in supporting a technical community like this is that the original post usually doesn't provide enough information for us or other users to even begin to offer help. So, if you need help, you need do your part and provide us with the proper context and information to help you. Gone are the days where it takes 3 or 4 follow up posts to obtain the information we need in order to help you. If you do not supply the proper information, you will simply receive a reply reminding you to follow these rules and provide the information, thus delaying your resolution. Please, take the time to write a coherent post, with the appropriate code snippets to provide context. Check the EntitySpaces API help first.
The "EntitySpaces API" Forum
The "EntitySpaces API" forum is only for problems or questions surrounding the EntitySpaces API itself. If you post a question in the "EntitySpaces API" area that is really a general .NET programming issue, it will be moved, or could be deleted. The "EntitySpaces API" forum is for true questions relating to the use of the EntitySpaces API. Finally, the EntitySpaces team is not here to offer programming lessons in .NET.
Not EntitySpaces issues ...
- "How do I get two grids to bind to the same collection?"
- "How can I do paging in a grid"
These types of subjects belong in the Peer to Peer forum. This is not to say that the EntitySpaces team will ignore your post. We will be participating in the Peer to Peer forums. However, the EntitySpaces team is not responsible for finding a resolution to those issues in the Peer to Peer forum. We cannot take the time to write an application that does exactly what you're looking for. We apologize if this sounds harsh but we need to direct our resources toward providing future versions of the EntitySpaces Architecture which benefits everybody involved. We realize there is a pretty wide range here as to what applies to the EntitySpaces API and what does not, and it will take time to work out a complete understanding.
Forming a Proper Post
Follow these rules when posting, failure to do so will result in a reply asking you to read these rules.
Members should use an appropriate and descriptive title when posting a new topic. Examples of bad titles include; "Query Fails", "Help me!", "I'm stuck!", "I've got an error!". Do not use ALL CAPS or use ! and other symbols in the title of your post as if to scream. Screaming will not expedite your resolution. Your title should be the result of your tracking down the issue so you know what the true problem is.
Please provide this information when you post
- EntitySpaces Version
- MyGeneration Version
- Database - such as Microsoft SQL, Oracle, MySQL, ....
Finally include
- What you expected to happen.
- What actually happened.
- If it is an Exception, include both the Exception and the Stack Trace (post as source code).
- A relevant code snippet
That last one can be tricky. In most cases, about 10 lines of code should be enough, but that is not a hard limit. Show as much as needed to illustrate the question, but not so much that the main point gets lost. You can use ellipses (...) to indicate that code has been omitted, but be careful not to remove something important. Getting the code looking right can be quirky. In the editor, position the cursor where you want the code to appear in the message body. Click the "Source Code" icon. (It's to the right of the "Spell Check" icon, and looks like a page with curly braces on it '{ }'. Paste your code in the area provided. Choose the type of code (VB, C#, etc.) in the Language dropdown list. Click OK. We recommend that you do not use line numbers; It makes it hard to copy and paste sample code into an IDE. You may want to break up long lines into multiple lines before clicking 'OK' to prevent a lot of side-scrolling.
To format code simply click on the code button (last button while in edit mode) and paste the source into the popup window. It is best to copy the code into notepad and then out rather than directly from within Visual Studio.
Code:
EmployeesCollection emps = new EmployeesCollection;
emps.LoadAll();
foreach(Employees emp in emps)
{
// Logic here ...
}
// This is throwing an exception
emps.Save();
Don't Hijack Other or Older Threads
If you have a related issue to an old thread, still post a new thread. You can refer to the other thread if you want, but often the issue isn't as related as you might think, the old thread might be very long or outdated, and it takes more time to understand your question as we've to re-understand the old thread.
Reporting a Bug
Normally, this will flow naturally out of a thread that asks for help. If our replies do not solve a problem, we will try to reproduce it. If a bug has been uncovered, a number of things will happen. We will post that it is a bug. We will add a unit test to reproduce it. If we can, we will post a fix or work-around. It will be added to our issue tracking system. It will be fixed in the next maintenance release.
In some cases, our ideal solution is not your ideal solution. We are very receptive to enhancement requests. We will try to prioritize them based on how many people chime in on it, how difficult it is to implement, whether or not it would delay already promised features, etc. We cannot promise that every feature will be included, and you should never base a purchasing decision solely on a roadmap, but they will be heard and seriously considered.
In Conclusion
The forums are a great way for us to provide some guidance and best practices for using EntitySpaces, solve problems, and point people in the right direction. Our users are encouraged to jump in if they already have an answer to a question. We have learned a few new tricks ourselves by paying attention to them. If a topic is outside the scope of EntitySpaces, or slightly off-topic and more about using the .NET framework, we may state that in a post. This is not meant as discouragement. We do not like to leave messages sitting there without any sort of acknowledgement. It just means that we saw your post and cannot divert the time required to give you an "official" reply. Other users may be able to help. If you feel the topic deserves our attention, then perhaps restating it might help.
Getting the most out of a forum post is as much art as it is science. We enjoy interacting with our forum members. They are knowledgeable, generous, and more than a few have a twisted sense of humor that leave us roflol. So, let us hear from you.
- The EntitySpaces Team