After exploring the theoretical side of an automation project over the last few weeks, it is now time to get our hands dirty and write some code. There are many options for code generation, but I prefer the T4 templates. We have been using them for years and they are so stable that they form an excellent basis for our automation project.
When we settled with a standardised approach on how to do the work and we simplified it as much as possible, we can finally enter the phase of automation. In this last phase we face a new set of challenges that may left you baffled. Let us explore the traps so that we know what to look for.
Before we dive into making the work as simple as possible, we should have decided on the one way we want to do the work. Make sure that everyone is on the same page, otherwise you will need to repeat the simplification step for every variation of the not yet standardised approach!
Last week we elaborated on the different phases we need for a successful automation project. Today we explore the phase of standardisation in more depth.
A nice side effect of the standardisation is that we get a more consistent output. Instead of the many different ways of doing things, we end up with a single approach and that by itself will reduce the inconsistencies.
There are not many topics in which success and failure are that close together than in an automation project. It does not matter if you automate a process or code generation – it is a small misstep to turn a possible success into a definitive failure. To change the odds to our favour, we should split our automation project into three distinct phases:
While everyone has their own ideas what could go into these phases, let us take the time to define them so that we have a common base of understanding.
Microsoft Word offers us a great feature called “Read Aloud” that I often use to check if I mistakenly wrote a similar but wrong word in my posts.
After installing a new computer, that feature was still there but it sounded awful. Instead of the nice realistic voice I am used to, I got a mechanically sounding robot that butchered the English language. Oh no!
We use Seq to find valuable insights in the vast sea of our structured log messages. While the search usually works straightforward without any surprises, this time we run into a minor problem.
DbUp is a great tool to manage changes to our database schemas. While its strength is with changing tables, we can use DbUp to insert seed data as well. It even works with binary data, if we use the right settings and find the correct method of SqlCommand.
I needed to find all columns with an underscore (_) in their name and came up with this query:
As long as your application does not use Blazor, upgrading from .Net 7 to .Net 8 is a walk in the park. The only obstacle we run into while upgrading the user group site was the publish task. Microsoft has made some simplifications to the runtime identifiers that are a breaking change.