Two annoying issues in Visual Studio regarding XSDs and WCF should be fixed immediately

In my daily work I am always stumbling on two annoying features in Visual Studio, and I think it could be improved easily. Here is what I am complaining about.

WCF Test Client

WCF Test Client might be a nice tiny tool for small WCF tests, especially when you are testing smaller scenarios or when you are starting to learn how to implement web services with .NET. But it can be very annoying when you are working on more advanced stuff and your are testing with your local IIS. WCF Test Client always(!) starts automatically when you press F5 for debugging and your opened .svc.cs file has the focus:

When I have configured local IIS is the target for debugging, then I expect my application will start with local IIS and not with WCF Test Client. Always.

Here is my first urgent request: Please give me an option to disable WCF Test Client completely!

Update 03.03.2014: Workaround for WCF Test Client Issue

Select project file -> Right click -> Properties -> Web -> Select Don’t open a page.

XSD Design Start View

When you open XSD files, which are part of your solution file it will always be opened with XSD Design Start View:

And here is my second urgent request: Please give me the option in the settings to always jump into the plain text file without jumping into this XSD Design View first!

Update 03.03.2014: Solution for XSD problem

The solution can be found here:

XSD: Right-click -> Open With.... Then select the XML Editor and hit Set As Default

How to integrate AVM smart devices into HomeKit by using openHAB

After some evaluating openHAB (Vers. 2.2.0) on my NAS I wanted to do it right and started with this (German) article to use openHABian together with a Raspberry Pi.My primary goal was to integrate my AVM smart home devices to control them with HomeKit . To get started I used the following items: Raspberry PI SD Card 16 GB And the following software (I used a Mac, so you might need to replace some tools if you use another OS): Download the latest openHABian image here . This is a dedicated linux distribution to provide an openHAB server. Download SD Formatter here . Needed to format your SD card. Download Etcher here . Needed to install the openHABian image on the SD card. Installation openHABian Insert the SD card Connect the Raspberry Pi via LAN with your network Plugin the Raspberry Pi Wait about 45 minutes until all updates were installed When everything went well you should be able to connect to http://openhabianpi:8080 Connect via ssh: ssh openh...

How to move iTunes library to NAS folder

This is nothing new, but to free up some space on my MacBook I decided to move my iTunes library to a network drive on my NAS. I got some inspiration from this old German video. I tried to collect all relevant information for doing so. I did it by following this steps I closed iTunes I mounted a network drive with AFP I copied my iTunes library folder to a folder on the network drive (it is important to keep the folder name "iTunes"!) I opened iTunes while pressing the "alt" key. Now you can create a library or choose one from another location I set the new iTunes folder I deleted the local iTunes library My iTunes settings look like this now, iTunes took over the selected folder: Keep in mind the following You cannot open the iTunes library with two accounts at the same time. When you choose to set "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" iTunes will set your folder structure for artists an albums and also the file pattern for your s...

Install and verify IIS HttpModules with custom config sections

A week ago I started to learn about HttpModules and HttpHandlers watching a pluralsight course by Robert Boedigheimer . First of all I want to really recommend this course, I learned a lot of stuff which I could not find in any other course, book or blog post. As I already did in the past with another course , I want to add some comments and extend the HttpModule part. I refer to the course example with the serverMaskModuleGAC. I walked into some trap doors and thereby I found another approach to simplify the installation process of the module to GAC a little bit. With this approach I am able to verify my custom config sections and module registration is correct. Here is my approach: 1. When you have finished your implementation for serverMaskModule, install it in the GAC as usual by using the gacutil tool. By the way, there are some traps when you need to install it on Windows Server 2012 . Here I am using Windows 8.1 64 Bit. I created my HttpModule with .NET 2.0 because it se...

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