This Microsoft Windows-based application was developed to aid in the management of the entire code build process from its initial compilation through deployment and notification.

This project was constructed mostly in my spare time. It was based on a very crude version constructed years before my arrival to Parker. Aside from a very clumsy and difficult to use interface, its underlying structure was based on the SOAP protocol. Overtime I have converted it to use standard XML which makes it much easier to maintain as well as enable end-user's to have the ability to more easily read and/or modify it directly.

Shown here is a typical main window displayed when the Code Builder application starts up:

The Code Builder application has a main menu bar containing File, Edit, Project, Build, Tools, SVN, and Help along with a full range of sub-menu items for each:

This is the File menu:

It provides commands to :

• Create a New project.
• Open an existing project.
• Save the current project.
• Save the current project using a new name and/or location.
• Revert any changes made to the current project since it was last saved.
• select a Recent opened project.
• Exit from the application.

This is the Edit menu:

It provides commands to :

• Undo the last edit.
• Cut the selected text from the current textbox to the clipboard.
• Copy the selected text from the current textbox to the clipboard.
• Paste the text on the clipboard into the current textbox selection.
• Delete the selected text from the current textbox.
• Select all the text in the current textbox and highlight it.

All text fields located elsewhere on the window, also have available a right-click 'Edit' context menu :

This is the Project menu:

The 'Project' menu contains commands for working with project-specific items among them being:

• New FIle List... -
• View Log - performs the same function as when clicking the View Log button on the main window.

  Clicking either the menu item or the button results in the current log file being opened using the default text editor.

  For example :

  • PAC.log
  • PAM.log
  • PMM.log

• Append Log - performs the same function as when clicking the Append Log checkmark on the main window..
Unless this control contains a checkmark, the log file is automatically overwritten every time a 'Run' is performed

This is the Build menu:

The Build menu provides the following commands:

• Run Now - runs the project immediately.
• Auto-Run - runs the project at a specified time.
• Run Multiple - runs multiple projects one after another (which at the present time has not been implemented).

Two additional commands become enabled when a project is in the process of running:

• Stop - ends the run after the current action has finished.
• Force Stop - terminates the run immediately (which should only be used as a last resort).

This is the Tools menu:

The Tools menu contains the following commands:

• Generate Report - displays an HTML Report consisting of all information related to the current project

This is the SVN menu:

This is the Help menu:

You can execute the following menu items:

• View Help - which essentially opens this help file.
• Check for a new version of this application.
• Show a help dialog with some minimal information about this application.
• Perform a Test which is mainly for debug purposes.

The following shows a typical list of projects which were recently opened by the user. If a project is opened from a folder other than the default ‘Projects’ folder described above, the entire path is displayed. Note the current project’s filename is also displayed in the title bar. This information is particularly helpful when the application is minimized to the taskbar.

Shown here is the mouse being hovered over a window control - in this particular example - the Email Remote Addresses field:

A tooltip describing the field is displayed temporarily...

The following shows the mouse being hovered over an action - in this particular example - the Test Running a Command File action:

For all actions the following information is displayed in the tooltip:

• The name of the action.
• The description of the action.
• The command to be run.
• The arguments to the command to be run.
• The amount of time the action last took to run.

The following shows the mouse being hovered over an action - in this particular example - the Clean PAM Install Output Directory action:

Note the information displayed this time is related to this particular action.

Click the Check All button to place a checkmark into all the Action list items and the Run checkmark control at the top of each list of actions.

Click the Uncheck All button to remove the checkmark from all the Action list items and the Run checkmark control at the top of each list of actions.

In addition to the ability to check or uncheck all the checkboxes pertaining to ‘all’ the actions lists at once by clicking either the 'Check All' or 'Uncheck All' button, you can also check all or uncheck all items in a specific actions list by right-clicking the list and choosing the corresponding menu item:

Select this menu item to revert any changes made to the project to whatever was last saved.

Contains the list of local email addresses to send a message to when a job has successfully completed and has been published to the local archive.

Email is normally sent out immediately following a successful run to the email addresses defined in two separately maintained lists (or groups of users). You can choose to send email to either one or both of the groups by using the corresponding checkboxes located to the left of each. In fact, at any time during a run, you can change these email settings before the email gets sent. Separate emails are sent out for each destination (i.e., ‘Local’ or ‘Remote’) that gets published to. Whenever publishing to a local destination, email is sent out immediately after the local destination is published to.

Contains the list of remote email addresses to send a message to when a job has successfully completed and has been published to the remote archive.

Because publishing to a remote location takes a significant amount of time to perform, whenever a remote destination is published to, email is not sent out to the remote location until the very end of the run.

Although you can resize (stretch the window) to see more email addresses at a glance, you can also click the down arrow located to the right of the email addresses field to display the information in an easy to view list form as shown here

Append an asterisk to any email addresses that you only want to have email sent to if and when a run should fail. Email addresses are normally delimited by a semicolon, but you can also use a space.

This is an example email sent out to all users in the list of email addresses showing that the run completed successfully:

What got published to the archive and a hypertext link to the archive is included in the message.

This is an example email sent out to only users having an asterisk beside their email address showing that the run failed:

The general cause of the failure is part of the email message.

When a run fails a red message immediately becomes visible in the middle of the main application window:

Hover the mouse over the red area to show a tooltip describing the error in general terms.

It must be acknowledged (i.e., the red rectangle clicked on) before you can proceed.

You should examine the log file for further explanation as to the cause for the error.

Click the 'View Log' button at any time during or after a run to open the log file containing more detailed information regarding the run.

This is the Action context menu:

You can perform edit commands (i.e., 'Cut', 'Copy' 'Paste' and 'Delete') on individual actions the same as you edit standard text.

If you want to rearrange the order of actions in a particular action list, right-click the action to display its context menu and select either the 'Move Up' or 'Move Down' menu item.

Right-click an action in the list and select the 'Edit Selected Action...' menu item to open the 'Edit Action' dialog coinciding with the selected action or just simply double-click an action in the list.

This shows the Edit Action dialog:

Click the Macros >> button on the 'Edit Action' dialog to expand the list of macros.

Click the << Macros button on the 'Edit Action' dialog to collapse the list of macros.

You can optionally show or hide the macros by just manually resizing the dialog.

A macro is helpful for several reasons:

• Provides information (such as the build number) which would otherwise not be readily available.
• Often condenses the amount of text needing to be displayed.
• All references are automatically updated if the value corresponding to a macro changes.

Click the << Macros button to hide the macro grids.

The left column of each grid contains the name of the macro and the right column contains the value it corresponds to.

From a UI standpoint, the currently active macro field (i.e., the Command textbox or the Arguments textbox), is shown highlighted in yellow.

Similarly, the active row in the active macro grid (i.e., a row in the Command Macro grid or the Variable Macro grid), is highlighted in yellow.

Click the Insert button to copy the macro name from the highlighted row of the macro grid into the highlighted macro field’s current selection.

Alternatively you can just double-click a row in either macro grid to place the macro name into the highlighted macro field’s selection.

Click the Command button just to the right of the Command field and hold the mouse down to display a context menu:

Click the Command button and select the Validate menu item to determine whether the information entered into the Command field represents a valid 'file' or 'folder path':

Click the Command button and select the Open File in Text Editor menu item to open the file specified in the Command field using the default text editor:

Click the Command button and select the Open Folder in Windows Explorer menu item to open the folder in a new Windows Explorer window:

Hover the mouse over a field in the Edit Action dialog to temporarily display a tooltip containing information relative to the field being hovered over.

Click the Command button and select the Insert a File Path... menu item to open a new 'Select File' dialog corresponding to the currently displayed action.

Click the 'Select Folder' dialog

When you open an existing 'Edit File List' dialog you will see the list of assembly files:

Select one or more lines in the list of Assembly Files and then click the Comment button.

Notice that comment characters (::) are prepended to each file currently selected in the list.

This maintains the item in the list, but temporarily prevents it from being processed whenever the action that references this file is run.

Select one or more lines and then click the Uncomment button to reverse the affect of clicking the Comment button.

This dialog is displayed should you click the Close button in the File List dialog and there are unsaved changes.

Click Yes to perform the save and close this dialog and the File List dialog.

Click No to close this dialog and the File List dialog without performing a save.

Click Cancel to close this dialog and reshow the File List dialog.

Right click on an the Action in the list of actions to display this menu:

In this example we are clicking the Run Selected Action menu item.

A CodeBuilder notifier dialog is displayed whenever you select an action to be run which currently does not contain a checkmark.

Click the Yes button to run the action.

Click the No button to not run the action.

Post-Build Actions has three separate (non-editable) actions associated with it that are always available for all projects at all times.

These three fields are located at the bottom of the Post-Build Actions list:

Increment Build Number when checked, automatically increments the current build number following a successful run.

Save Project when checked, will automatically save the project when the run finishes.

Commit Project when checked, will automatically commit the project to Subversion.

Placing a checkmark into the Commit Project action will automatically place a checkmark into Save Project action. Likewise, removing the checkmark from the Save Project action will automatically remove the checkmark from the Commit Project action.

Click the Stop button any time during a run to halt the execution of any more actions following the currently running action. The run stops only after the currently running action finishes.

Click the Force Stop button to halt a run immediately no matter what, even if in the middle of running an action.

Before this request is carried out, a dialog is displayed providing you an opportunity to change your mind:

While a project is being run, information is displayed in the status bar :

The App Settings tab provides you with options related to the application as a whole:

The E-Mail Config tab provides you with options related to sending email:

The SubVersion tab provides you with options related to source control:

The Project Macros tab provides you with options related to the maintenance of Project Macros:

The App Macros tab provides you with options related to the maintenance of Application Macros:

A grid containing all available Application Macros in the form of key/value pairs is displayed.

Note that the areas shown in gray are read-only.

Click the Command Macros tab in the Options dialog to display:

A grid containing all available Command Macros in the form of key/value pairs is displayed.

Note that the areas shown in gray are read-only.

Select the Check for New Version... menu item in the Help menu in the main menubar to check whether there is a new version of CodeBuilder available in SubVersion:

This menu item is only displayed when SubVersion is truly available and only when you have previously indicated to use SubVersion for version checking the Code Builder application using the Options dialog.

If the version of Parker Code Builder is current, no dialog is displayed. Instead the information is temporarily displayed in the status bar indicating you are already using the most current version.

If the version of Parker Code Builder is NOT current, a dialog is displayed asking you if you want to upgrade to the new version.

Select the Project Info... menu item in the SVN menu in the main menubar:

The Project Info window is displayed:

Select the Project Log... menu item in the SVN menu in the main menubar:

The Project Log window is displayed:

This window provides a complete history - i.e., each date and time the project was checked into SubVersion.

Select the Help menu | About Parker Code Builder menu item to display the 'Help About Parker Code Builder' dialog:

Click the System Info... button on the About Parker Code Builder dialog to display the 'System Info' dialog:

This dialog provides information about the current PC such as the version of Windows installed and all of the versions of .Net installed on the PC, among many other things.

For publishing to an archive, there are special ‘publish files’ which contain a tab-delimited list of files to be published. These special files are designated by a ‘.cbp’ extension.

The default text editor is used by this application for editing these Publish files.

The text on each line contains two items delimited by one or more tabs. The first item defines ‘what is to be copied’ and the second item ‘the sub-folder to copy to’ at the destination.

If the second item is left blank, the file is copied to the root folder of the destination.

Note that you can 'comment out' (i.e., designate data inside the publish file to be ignored), by simply prefacing the line with a double colon (“::”).