1.0.0.853 - Issues in actions and logging

Hi,

We encountered the following issues when running some tests:

* Assembly info updater action. The check box for Log Each Updated -property does not seem to do anything. Even though it's checked the log only contains "AssemblyInfo update action completed successfully".

* Copy action has similar issue. The logging is pretty much useless in determining what is being copied to where, even though it's requested to log files being copied.

Copy [C:\ContinuaAgent\Ws\11\Output] 12:24 PM 12:24 PM 0 milliseconds Success
Messages
Copy action completed successfully

* Log date format does not adhere to locale, nor is general (ie. ISO8601)

Hi Olli

I had a look at the AssemblyInfo Updater action and it only logs if it actually updated or added an attribute. It appears to be working ok here in our build process :

Messages
Updated ‘AssemblyVersion’ to ‘“1.0.0.858”’
Updated ‘AssemblyFileVersion’ to ‘“1.0.0.858”’
AssemblyInfo update action completed successfully

Can you post what settings you have on the action?

The same goes for the Copy Files action (I just tested that here under the debugger to see what happens).

* Log date format does not adhere to locale, nor is general (ie. ISO8601)

Not sure where you are referring to here? I can tell you that all dates are stored and operated on relative to UTC and converted to the user’s timezone for display. Not sure if anything is done locale wise, and I’m not sure if we can detect that without having the user set that somewhere in the options. I’ll check with the team tomorrow.

Hi,

Apparently the AssemblyInfoUpdater is bit quirky somehow, I got it to work but not sure what actually was changed. One thing I noted was however that it's (too) easy to generate invalid assemblyinfos by leaving a space after version numbers for example. The update itself goes OK, but the VS compiler freaks when trying to use the unit.

Additionally it would be helpful if there is some reference for the common properties in the help, so that it would not be necessary to look up the correct form for each one separately.

I personally find that the logging is bit lacking when it does not tell what it did not do, despite being instructed. I mean that it would be helpful if the action could log also the properties it did not update to the file.

For copy action the logging in the example is bit lacking for debugging purposes, as the sample log entry is quite useless in trying to determine what has actually taken place, as there is only the source directory stated. There is no information concerning the action settings (fail if zero moved, overwrite existing), what files were being copied, nor what was the intended target directory. Now it just says that file copying was successfull, without saying what was being copied (and yes the option was checked), to where.

The logging itself is sometimes rather tedious to work with as all output is located under the messages -node, which is in many cases totally superflous. I can see the need for the separate node when the output is lengthy, but when the output is just line or two having to expand the separate node is just pure excise task. For short ouputs either get rid of the separate Messages -node, or autoexpand it.

Our server is set for the finnish locale, so I'd expect the dates in output from the server being either in standard format (ISO8601) or in the format of the server locale. Currently it's neither - the finnish locale settings do not have AM/PM appended to times.

I also noted that when used with Firefox there are some buttons for example in Configuration Wizard clean up page and in couple other places that are invisible until mouse is hovered on them.

Hi Olli,

I've added some more logging to the AssemblyInfoUpdater action. As long as logging is turned on (I've renamed the Log Each Updated Property option to Log Each Property), you will see a log message when a property was updated, not updated when it existed and not updated/set when it didn't exist.

I've also updated the wiki page (http://wiki.finalbuilder.com/x/hwEK) and added some common attributes and a link to an MSDN which shows lots more attributes you can use. The inputs to the attributes are impossible to validate or verify, some are done at compile time and some at run time. In this instance, the onus is on the user to understand what attributes they're using and the valid value(s) for those attributes. I have however added a clause to handle AssemblyVersion values containing spaces.


With the FileCopy Action, I've re-worked what it logs (make sure you select Log each file's result). Files are now grouped by pattern, under each pattern you will see a list of files that matched the pattern. It will list any files copied, any files that were meant to be copied by weren't because they matched an exclude rule and any files matched but not copied because the overwrite option wasn't specified.


The build log needs to some work, we're still playing around with a few things. We'll get around to sorting out the irrelevant Messages header and add support for locale.


The Configuration Wizard button has been fixed and hopefully any other like it!