CSS mixer is really cool.  Good job.  Is there a JavaScript mixer?

It’s the main content of a mail I received last week.

It decided me to write a JS Mixer application, based on CSS Mixer.
The big part of the work was already done, I just needed to adapt my code.

Just like CSS Mixer, you can download it from codeplex : http://jsmixer.codeplex.com/

You can also download it from some software websites.

Remark :

With ASP.NET WebForms, you can achieve the same result by setting a few propertie to the ScriptManager control.

But the advantage to use a tool like JSMixer, is that your server doesn’t have to do the work : it’s already done !

And when you spare some work to your server, your server is happy !

Here is the Scott Guthrie’s post about it : http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2011/01/13/announcing-release-of-asp-net-mvc-3-iis-express-sql-ce-4-web-farm-framework-orchard-webmatrix.aspx

• ASP.NET MVC 3
• NuGet (codeplex project)
• IIS Express 7.5
• SQL Server Compact Edition 4
• Web Deploy and Web Farm Framework 2.0
• Orchard 1.0
• WebMatrix 1.0

You can install most of these products from the Microsoft Web Platform Installer

I already installed webmatrix :

Let’s examine a few solutions…

Manual backups

So you can do manual backups, naming them by date or by functionality and saving them on different supports but this can quickly become a real hell to maintain.

SVN

You can also us a svn tool, which is really nice : backups are usually on a remote server but you have to remind to do a “sumbit” when you want your sources to be saved.

There are some really good and free svn hosting (such as xpdev.com) but usually with annoying advertisements and limitations. Furthermore, for a single person project, it’s maybe be taking the bazooka to kill the fly…

Other source control solutions

There are plenty other solutions like git, cvs, or Microsoft team server but once again it’s maybe unneccesary for a single person project.

My current solution

The solution I use for my personal projects is “DropBox”.

What is DropBox ?

Here is the description on the website

Dropbox is software that syncs your files online and across your computers.

Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they’ll be instantly available on any of your other computers that also have Dropbox installed (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!). Because copies of your files are stored on Dropbox’s secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device using the Dropbox website.

How to use it like I do ?

First register at DropBox then install it.

Create your project directory

Put your project files there.

That’s it !

Now you have an automatic backup and versioning system for your files.

Look at the versioning system : it’s great !

Now if you want to develop with other persons, DropBox is certainly not the solution.

You can use it but you will have to be sure that the different persons aren’t working on the same files !

There is no merge system !

If your are about to create a new account, please use this link : I will earn extra storage space.

I’ve already test the  express edition when it was in beta phase, but it’s not the same …

So, let’s install it !

I install it on a Fujitsu Siemens laptop with 4 GB Ram and a Intel Core 2 Duo processor (2,53 GHz) running  Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate edition.

Launch the auto run program

Loading screen

Click Next

Read and accept the license terms

Choose your installation mode : Full installation (takes more than 6 GB) or Custom installation

I choose Custom

Select the features you want :

(notice that “Microsoft SharePoint Developer Tools” are integrated)

I just don’t want Dotfuscator community to be installed, so I uncheck  it

I keep the rest because I want to test some features

Click Install

Installation running :

After less than 10 minutes, the installation asked me to restart my computer:

I click “Restart Now”

When restarting, a loading form is showing

Then the setup continue

After about 45 minutes, the setup is finished

You can choose to install the documentation, but I choose to click on the “Finish” button.

The installation windows appears :

I Click Exit

Visual Studio 2010 is now installed

The installation takes me about one hour, and no problem occurred.

Now I can launch the product

I choose my default environment settings (I used to choose Visual C# Development settings so I pick this one).

I Click on “Start Visual Studio”

First time loading form

Visual studio is up and running

Help and documentation are on the start page:

A What’s new section is available on the start page :

• Visual Studio 2010 Overview
• What’s new in .NET Framework 4
• What’s new in Visual C#

Some other links are available :

• Creating application with Visual Studio
• Extending Visual Studio
• Community and Learning Resources

Some resources for Windows, Web, Cloud, Office,SharePoint and Data development are accessible too.

Next step : migration of a Visual studio 2008 solution !

You can use it to improve you ASP.NET Themes or your CSS files for all your web projects.

If you have many css files linked to a page, you can group them in a single file with CSS Mixer.

You can also minify CSS files to save the bandwith.

To use it, open a folder containing CSS files,

choose an action (simple combine, or combine and minify) then click Save as …

Download the last version of CSS Mixer on codeplex.

I hope you’ll find it usefull. please give me feedback on it