DEV Community: ⎝Dominic Böttger⎠

Optimize Visual Studio Code for C# .NET Core development

⎝Dominic Böttger⎠ — Sun, 10 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Visual Studio Code is my favorite Code Editor and I like that it's so lightweight and also wanted to use it for C# development instead of the full-blown Visual Studio experience.

Some time ago I tried to use Visual Studio Code instead but I was missing some things to improve the development workflow. I wanted to have features like live unit testing and better guidance while coding C#. I tested some plugins and some configurations and now I think I found a solution to fulfill my needs.

Some of the extensions I use:

C# - This is THE C# extension for Visual Studio Code powered by OmniSharp.
.NET Core Test Explorer - An important extension to have live testing while coding in VScode.
Auto-using - Automatically adds the dependencies with using in the head of the current file.
C# FixFormat - It helps to automatically format the code. With the right settings, the code is also formatted when saving the file.
Coverage Gutters - Show the code coverage visualized with color in the editor.
.NET Core Extension Pack - Bundle of helpful extensions.
.NET Core Snippet Pack - A pack of around 120 snippets for .NET Core.
Fakesharper - Integrates Resharper into VSCode
EditorConfig - Overwrites the VScode settings with the settings provided in the .editorconfig file.

The extensions were one part of the solution.

The other part was the settings. I provide the settings for VSCode with every project to install the recommended modules, activate the Roslyn Analyzer feedback ( which provides the StyleCop information,... ), activate the TestExplorer to use the Live Testing feature and activate the automatic format of the code.

The important settings in my .vscode/settings.json in the project are typically the following:

  "dotnet-test-explorer.testProjectPath": "**/*Test.csproj",
  "dotnet-test-explorer.autoWatch": true,
  "dotnet-test-explorer.testArguments": "/p:CollectCoverage=true /p:CoverletOutputFormat=lcov /p:CoverletOutput=./lcov.info",
  "cSpell.words": [
      "Xunit"
  ],
  "omnisharp.enableRoslynAnalyzers": true,
  "csharpfixformat.sort.usings.enabled": true,
  "csharpfixformat.sort.usings.systemFirst": false,
  "csharpfixformat.style.braces.onSameLine": false,
  "csharpfixformat.style.spaces.beforeParenthesis": false,
  "csharpfixformat.style.spaces.afterParenthesis": false,
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "[csharp]": {
      "editor.defaultFormatter": "Leopotam.csharpfixformat"
  }

If you add StyleCop.Analyzers via NuGet to your projects the "omnisharp.enableRoslynAnalyzers": true - setting will provide this information in the editor.

To adjust the StyleCop ruleset and use the Ruleset in the root folder append the path to the ruleset in the csproj of all projects.

<PropertyGroup>
  <CodeAnalysisRuleSet>..\StyleCop.ruleset</CodeAnalysisRuleSet>
</PropertyGroup>

To get the coverage statistics working it's also needed to add the coverlet.msbuild package to the Test project.

A complete example template is available under github.com/dominicboettger/vscode-csharp-template

Pretty Windows Terminal and PowerShell Setup

⎝Dominic Böttger⎠ — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The new Windows Terminal is a big step forward for all people who like to work with the command line. It's available in the Store or via Chocolatey. I suggest using the Store version to automatically stay up to date.

I did some modifications to the basic Terminal and PowerShell configuration which can eventually be helpful for some people.

PowerShell modules used by my configuration:

posh-git: Provides status information about a repository and offers tab completion in the terminal.
oh-my-posh: Beautifies the terminal
z: It's a port of the z bash shell script and lets you quickly navigate through your filesystem based on your history. For instance, if you once did a z ~/development/project and the next time just enter z project you will be guided to the same directory.

Installation

Choco - Package manager for windows:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

PowerShell Core:
I typically use the core version of PowerShell.

choco install powershell-core

Cascadia Code Font:
A font supporting Powerline and Ligatures

choco install cascadiacodepl

Windows Terminal:
I recommend installing the Terminal from the Microsoft Store. https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9N0DX20HK701

Configuration

First, you should configure your Terminal settings and especially set the font to "Cascadia Code PL".

To open the configuration for the Windows Terminal open the Windows Terminal application and click on the "down-arrow" - sign next to the tab bar and click on "Settings". This will open a text editor with the profiles.json.

My Terminal configuration looks like that ( it defaults to PowerShell core )

{
    "$schema": "https://aka.ms/terminal-profiles-schema",
    "alwaysShowTabs" : true,
    "defaultProfile" : "{574e775e-4f2a-5b96-ac1e-a2962a402336}",
    "initialCols" : 120,
    "initialRows" : 30,
    "keybindings" : 
    [
        {
            "command" : "closeTab",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+w"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "newTab",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+t"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "newTabProfile0",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+1"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "newTabProfile1",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+2"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "newTabProfile2",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+3"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "newTabProfile3",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+4"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "newTabProfile4",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+5"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "newTabProfile5",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+6"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "newTabProfile6",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+7"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "newTabProfile7",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+8"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "newTabProfile8",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+9"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "nextTab",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+tab"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "openSettings",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+,"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "prevTab",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+tab"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "scrollDown",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+down"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "scrollDownPage",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+pgdn"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "scrollUp",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+up"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "scrollUpPage",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "ctrl+shift+pgup"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "switchToTab0",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "alt+1"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "switchToTab1",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "alt+2"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "switchToTab2",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "alt+3"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "switchToTab3",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "alt+4"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "switchToTab4",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "alt+5"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "switchToTab5",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "alt+6"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "switchToTab6",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "alt+7"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "switchToTab7",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "alt+8"
            ]
        },
        {
            "command" : "switchToTab8",
            "keys" : 
            [
                "alt+9"
            ]
        }
    ],
    "requestedTheme" : "system",
    "showTabsInTitlebar" : true,
    "showTerminalTitleInTitlebar" : true,
    "profiles" : 
    [
        {
            "acrylicOpacity" : 0.5,
            "background" : "#012456",
            "closeOnExit" : true,
            "colorScheme" : "Campbell",
            "commandline" : "powershell.exe",
            "cursorColor" : "#FFFFFF",
            "cursorShape" : "bar",
            "fontFace" : "Cascia Code PL",
            "fontSize" : 10,
            "guid" : "{61c54bbd-c2c6-5271-96e7-009a87ff44bf}",
            "historySize" : 9001,
            "icon" : "ms-appx:///ProfileIcons/{61c54bbd-c2c6-5271-96e7-009a87ff44bf}.png",
            "name" : "Windows PowerShell",
            "padding" : "0, 0, 0, 0",
            "snapOnInput" : true,
            "startingDirectory" : "%USERPROFILE%",
            "useAcrylic" : false
        },
        {
            "acrylicOpacity" : 0.75,
            "closeOnExit" : true,
            "colorScheme" : "Campbell",
            "commandline" : "cmd.exe",
            "cursorColor" : "#FFFFFF",
            "cursorShape" : "bar",
            "fontFace" : "Cascia Code PL",
            "fontSize" : 10,
            "guid" : "{0caa0dad-35be-5f56-a8ff-afceeeaa6101}",
            "historySize" : 9001,
            "icon" : "ms-appx:///ProfileIcons/{0caa0dad-35be-5f56-a8ff-afceeeaa6101}.png",
            "name" : "cmd",
            "padding" : "0, 0, 0, 0",
            "snapOnInput" : true,
            "startingDirectory" : "%USERPROFILE%",
            "useAcrylic" : true
        },
        {
            "acrylicOpacity" : 0.5,
            "closeOnExit" : true,
            "colorScheme" : "Campbell",
            "commandline" : "wsl.exe -d Ubuntu",
            "cursorColor" : "#FFFFFF",
            "cursorShape" : "bar",
            "fontFace" : "Cascia Code PL",
            "fontSize" : 10,
            "guid" : "{2c4de342-38b7-51cf-b940-2309a097f518}",
            "historySize" : 9001,
            "icon" : "ms-appx:///ProfileIcons/{9acb9455-ca41-5af7-950f-6bca1bc9722f}.png",
            "name" : "Ubuntu",
            "padding" : "0, 0, 0, 0",
            "snapOnInput" : true,
            "useAcrylic" : false
        },
        {
            "guid": "{b453ae62-4e3d-5e58-b989-0a998ec441b8}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "Azure Cloud Shell",
            "source": "Windows.Terminal.Azure"
        },
        {
            "guid": "{574e775e-4f2a-5b96-ac1e-a2962a402336}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "PowerShell",
            "source": "Windows.Terminal.PowershellCore",
            "acrylicOpacity" : 0.75,
            "closeOnExit" : true,
            "colorScheme" : "Campbell",
            "cursorColor" : "#FFFFFF",
            "cursorShape" : "bar",
            "fontFace":  "Cascadia Code PL",
            "fontSize" : 10,
            "padding" : "0, 0, 0, 0",
            "snapOnInput" : true,
            "startingDirectory" : "%USERPROFILE%",
            "useAcrylic" : true
        }
    ],
    "schemes" : 
    [
        {
            "name": "Framer",
            "black": "#141414",
            "red": "#ff5555",
            "green": "#98ec65",
            "yellow": "#ffcc33",
            "blue": "#00aaff",
            "purple": "#aa88ff",
            "cyan": "#88ddff",
            "white": "#cccccc",
            "brightBlack": "#414141",
            "brightRed": "#ff8888",
            "brightGreen": "#b6f292",
            "brightYellow": "#ffd966",
            "brightBlue": "#33bbff",
            "brightPurple": "#cebbff",
            "brightCyan": "#bbecff",
            "brightWhite": "#ffffff",
            "background": "#111111",
            "foreground": "#777777"
          },{
            "background" : "#0C0C0C",
            "black" : "#0C0C0C",
            "blue" : "#0037DA",
            "brightBlack" : "#767676",
            "brightBlue" : "#3B78FF",
            "brightCyan" : "#61D6D6",
            "brightGreen" : "#16C60C",
            "brightPurple" : "#B4009E",
            "brightRed" : "#E74856",
            "brightWhite" : "#F2F2F2",
            "brightYellow" : "#F9F1A5",
            "cyan" : "#3A96DD",
            "foreground" : "#CCCCCC",
            "green" : "#13A10E",
            "name" : "Campbell",
            "purple" : "#881798",
            "red" : "#C50F1F",
            "white" : "#CCCCCC",
            "yellow" : "#C19C00"
        },
        {
            "background" : "#282C34",
            "black" : "#282C34",
            "blue" : "#61AFEF",
            "brightBlack" : "#5A6374",
            "brightBlue" : "#61AFEF",
            "brightCyan" : "#56B6C2",
            "brightGreen" : "#98C379",
            "brightPurple" : "#C678DD",
            "brightRed" : "#E06C75",
            "brightWhite" : "#DCDFE4",
            "brightYellow" : "#E5C07B",
            "cyan" : "#56B6C2",
            "foreground" : "#DCDFE4",
            "green" : "#98C379",
            "name" : "One Half Dark",
            "purple" : "#C678DD",
            "red" : "#E06C75",
            "white" : "#DCDFE4",
            "yellow" : "#E5C07B"
        },
        {
            "background" : "#FAFAFA",
            "black" : "#383A42",
            "blue" : "#0184BC",
            "brightBlack" : "#4F525D",
            "brightBlue" : "#61AFEF",
            "brightCyan" : "#56B5C1",
            "brightGreen" : "#98C379",
            "brightPurple" : "#C577DD",
            "brightRed" : "#DF6C75",
            "brightWhite" : "#FFFFFF",
            "brightYellow" : "#E4C07A",
            "cyan" : "#0997B3",
            "foreground" : "#383A42",
            "green" : "#50A14F",
            "name" : "One Half Light",
            "purple" : "#A626A4",
            "red" : "#E45649",
            "white" : "#FAFAFA",
            "yellow" : "#C18301"
        },
        {
            "background" : "#002B36",
            "black" : "#073642",
            "blue" : "#268BD2",
            "brightBlack" : "#002B36",
            "brightBlue" : "#839496",
            "brightCyan" : "#93A1A1",
            "brightGreen" : "#586E75",
            "brightPurple" : "#6C71C4",
            "brightRed" : "#CB4B16",
            "brightWhite" : "#FDF6E3",
            "brightYellow" : "#657B83",
            "cyan" : "#2AA198",
            "foreground" : "#839496",
            "green" : "#859900",
            "name" : "Solarized Dark",
            "purple" : "#D33682",
            "red" : "#DC322F",
            "white" : "#EEE8D5",
            "yellow" : "#B58900"
        },
        {
            "background" : "#FDF6E3",
            "black" : "#073642",
            "blue" : "#268BD2",
            "brightBlack" : "#002B36",
            "brightBlue" : "#839496",
            "brightCyan" : "#93A1A1",
            "brightGreen" : "#586E75",
            "brightPurple" : "#6C71C4",
            "brightRed" : "#CB4B16",
            "brightWhite" : "#FDF6E3",
            "brightYellow" : "#657B83",
            "cyan" : "#2AA198",
            "foreground" : "#657B83",
            "green" : "#859900",
            "name" : "Solarized Light",
            "purple" : "#D33682",
            "red" : "#DC322F",
            "white" : "#EEE8D5",
            "yellow" : "#B58900"
        }
    ]
}

The configuration will be automatically refreshed in the Terminal as soon as the file has been saved.

After the Terminal settings have been modified it's time to improve the PowerShell profile.

The profile for the traditional Windows PowerShell can be found here:
C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

The profile for PowerShell Core can be found here:
C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

Depending on which PowerShell you use ( maybe both ) you can place the content into the files. I typically open the files with VSCode from the PowerShell by typing

code $profile

I added a function to automatically load or install modules depending on their installation state. If a module is missing my system tries to install the missing module from PSGallery.

My PowerShell profile:

function Add-Module ($m) {
  if (Get-Module $m) {
    Write-Output "Module $m is already imported."
  }
  else {
    try {
      Import-Module $m -ErrorAction Stop
    }
    catch {
      Write-Output "Module $m not found locally or error while importing"
      # Find the module online
      if (Find-Module -Name $m | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq $m }) {
        Install-Module -Name $m -Force -Verbose -Scope CurrentUser -AllowClobber
        Import-Module $m -Verbose
      }
      else {
        Write-Output "Module $m not available"
      }
    }
  }
}

function checkFont($font) {
  [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing") | Out-Null
  $families = (New-Object System.Drawing.Text.InstalledFontCollection).Families
  $families -contains $font
}

Add-Module "posh-git"
Add-Module "oh-my-posh"
# cd which remembers your history https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/z/
Add-Module "z"
# Set the posh theme
Set-Theme Paradox

# Nice colors for listings
Add-Module "Get-ChildItemColor"
# Set l and ls alias to use the new Get-ChildItemColor cmdlets
Set-Alias l Get-ChildItemColor -Option AllScope
Set-Alias ls Get-ChildItemColorFormatWide -Option AllScope
# Remove the Username from the terminal
$DefaultUser = $env:USERNAME

# Setting for git posh
$GitPromptSettings.DefaultPromptAbbreviateHomeDirectory = $true

# Chocolatey profile activates tab completion for powershell
$ChocolateyProfile = "$env:ChocolateyInstall\helpers\chocolateyProfile.psm1"
if (Test-Path($ChocolateyProfile)) {
  Import-Module "$ChocolateyProfile"
}

# Command to jump to my dev directory
function dev { Set-Location ~/Development }

# Java HOME for Android Development ( only if you need it )
$env:JAVA_HOME = "C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\jre\"
# Adnroid HOME
$env:ANDROID_HOME = $HOME + "\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\"

# NVM path and path to the android tools
$env:Path = $env:Path + ";" + $env:NVM_HOME + ";" + $env:NVM_SYMLINK + ";" + $env:Android_Home + "\tools;" + $env:Android_Home + "\platform-tools"
# Path to kubectl config
$env:path += $HOME + "\.azure-kubectl"

# only enter a single character to use git or kubectl 
Set-Alias -Name g -Value "git" -Description "git"
Set-Alias -Name k -Value "kubectl" -Description "Kubernetes CLI"

After modifying the Powershell profile file you should close all open instances of Powershell and the Windows Terminal.

If you open the Terminal and a Powershell Tab the described Powershell Modules should be installed and activated automatically.

Additional Ressources

A website with some copy-paste configuration for Windows Terminal themes: https://atomcorp.github.io/themes/

Send templated AWS SES emails with Powershell

⎝Dominic Böttger⎠ — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 18:11:07 +0000

There is a lot of documentation and examples for the Amazon Web Services cli tools but there are less examples for the AWS Powershell module. I had the problem that I did not find a working example to send emails via AWS SES and had to find a solution by myself. I hope the following post will save your time.

I assume that you already have the Powershell tools installed and your AWS credentials have been set up.

As I already had the AWS cli installed my credentials were already stored and I just had to install and load the powershell module.

Install-Module -Name AWSPowerShell.NetCore
Import-Module AWSPowerShell.NetCore

If you need to install it differently or further informatins on how to set up the credentials you should have a look at the offical AWS Powershell tools documentation

Creating and storing the template

First I created a json file for the template and saved the contents below as mytemplate.json.

{
  "Template": {
    "TemplateName": "MyTemplate",
    "SubjectPart": "Greetings, TESTSTRING!",
    "HtmlPart": "<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN\" \"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitiona
l.dtd\"> <html xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\"> <head> <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=UTF-8\" /
> <title>Demystifying Email Design</title> <meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0\"/> </head> <body>
Español üäü {{name}}</body> </html>",
    "TextPart": "Dear TESTSTRING,\r\nYour favorite animal is TESTSTRING."
  }
}

To load the template into the SES template store the content of the json needs to be loaded ( Unicode is important! ), converted from json to a object and then piped to the New-SesTemplate CmdLet.

Get-Content -Path ./mytemplate.json -Encoding UTF-8 | convertFrom-Json | New-SesTemplate

Sending the mail

After the template has been created you are able to send mails with the content of the template and fill the placeholders in the template with data.

For this you should save the contents below in a file named myemail.json.

{
  "Source":"Mary Major <mary.major@example.com>",
  "Template": "MyTemplate",
  "Destination_ToAddress": [ "test@example.com" ],
  "TemplateData": "{ \"name\":\"Español\", \"favoriteanimal\": \"alligator in IL template\" }"
}

The json needs to be adjusted to fulfill your needs. Which means especially the mail adresses should be replaced to align with your SES and domain configuration.

To send the mail you just need to execute the code below.

 Get-Content -Path ../myemail.json -Encoding UTF-8 | convertFrom-JSON | Send-SESTemplatedEmail

Congratulations for delivering your email via SES with Powershell! :-)