Righthand blogs

Why would I need a DataSet visualizer?

How often does a programmer wonder what data a dataset holds? It is certainly not easy to see the data in regular debugger windows. It is even harder to check the structure of DataSet or find which row has an error or which row has been changed. Or even which column of a row has been changed. If you ever worked with either normal or strong typed datasets you should see what I mean.
That’s why the fine folks at Microsoft introduced visualizers – a debugger feature that makes the inspection of complicated data easier. Even Visual Studio 2005 beta 2 already ships a DataSet visualizer (and some others, such as Text, HTML and XML) which is pretty ascetic. Is there a better replacement? Yes, welcome to RightHand.DataSet.Visualizer, a powerful tool that lets you do almost anything on a DataSet including extraordinary UI feedback.

Important notice

RightHand isn’t liable for any possible problem that is (in)directly caused by RightHand.DataSet.Visualizer.
At this time there shouldn’t be any such problems.

Updates:

0.9.1: Compiled with Visual Studio 2005 July CTP and new expiration date is 11/7/2005

0.9.5: Compiled with Visual Studio 2005 RTM and new expiration date is 2/2/2006

0.9.12: There are two versions, both unrestricted by time: for VS2005 and for VS2008. This is the last version for VS2005.

Requirements

• Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 (two separate versions).

Download

Check out download section.

Installation

Copy files in zip file to one of these two folders (number next to Visual Studio stands for: 8...VS2005, 9...VS2008):
\Common7\Packages\Debugger\Visualizers
i.e.: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\Packages\Debugger\Visualizers
or
My Documents\Visual Studio\Visualizers
The difference is that the former is visible to all users while the latter is visible only to current user.
As an alternative, you can just register DevExpress.* assemblies to GAC (no need to copy them to that folder).
That’s it. No need to restart (if you have it open) Visual Studio at all.

Running

Run to a breakpoint in your application, hover over a dataset variable either in editor or in one of the debugger windows (locals, auto, watch, …). Click on the arrow near magnify glass and pick RightHand DataSet Visualizer. Here is an example:

Main Screen

The main screen also provides the ability to either save or load dataset through usage of WriteXml and ReadXml methods. See File/Open, File/Save and File/Save As.. menu items. When you are done using visualizer you can commit changes and exit (File/Commit And Exit) or just exit and cancel changes.

Table MDI child window

About

More screens

Master-Detail view

Images in grid

Print Preview