Category: DevTips

Sharing my best software development tips and tricks. From quick tips to actual guides and solutions. 

Some men want to watch the build fail

How to fix “MSB4044: The AndroidSignPackage task was not given a value for the required parameter KeyPass

This article explains a quick fix to an error along the lines of “AndroidSignPackage” task was not given a value for the required parameter “KeyPass”. In my case the issue occurred in a GitHub Actions pipeline, but you could get it in Azure DevOps or even when running the build…Continue reading How to fix “MSB4044: The AndroidSignPackage task was not given a value for the required parameter KeyPass

.NET MAUI

How to solve “System.TypeInitializationException: ‘The type initializer for ‘WinRT.ActivationFactory`1’ threw an exception.'” in the MAUI application?

… or “How to bang your head on a wall for hours on end when developing a MAUI application?” 😂 This article explains how to fix a surprising error you might get when trying to run a MAUI app in Windows. For me, it was thrown when I was simply…Continue reading How to solve “System.TypeInitializationException: ‘The type initializer for ‘WinRT.ActivationFactory`1’ threw an exception.’” in the MAUI application?

Azure IoT Hub IoT Edge pipeline

Fixing “Encountered error while fetching the list of EventHub PartitionIds.” with an IoTHub trigger in Azure Functions

This article explains how to (possibly) fix an error along the lines of “Encountered error while fetching the list of EventHub PartitionIds” which is thrown by your Azure Function (or other code) trying to trigger based on IoT Hub or Event Hub messages. Problem When trying to debug or run…Continue reading Fixing “Encountered error while fetching the list of EventHub PartitionIds.” with an IoTHub trigger in Azure Functions

Variable reference is not valid. ':' was not followed by a valid variable name character. Consider using ${} to delimit the name

How to fix Azure DevOps “Variable reference is not valid. ‘:’ was not followed by a valid variable name character. Consider using ${} to delimit the name”

This article explains one possible reason why you might run into an error like “Variable reference is not valid. ‘:’ was not followed by a valid variable name character. Consider using ${} to delimit the name” when using a PowerShell task in an Azure DevOps pipeline. But hey – at…Continue reading How to fix Azure DevOps “Variable reference is not valid. ‘:’ was not followed by a valid variable name character. Consider using ${} to delimit the name”

Microsoft Graph g-raph (giraffe) - the spirit animal of Microsoft Graph

One way to fix “Unsupported or invalid query filter clause specified for property” for your Microsoft Graph API queries

This article explains one possible fix to an annoyingly generic exception thrown by the Microsoft Graph API (namely, “Unsupported or invalid query filter clause specified for property”) or an even more generic exception thrown by PnP PowerShell (“Exception of type ‘PnP.PowerShell.Commands.Model.Graph.GraphException’ was thrown.”) when you’re trying to query Graph API…Continue reading One way to fix “Unsupported or invalid query filter clause specified for property” for your Microsoft Graph API queries

PostgreSQL everywhere

How to store a complex object as JSON in a PostgreSQL database using Entity Framework (Npgsql)?

Okay, that’s a title and a half. But let’s see – what are we actually doing and why? In my particular case, I had to store a Dictionary<string, string> in a Postgres database. By default, that’s not something Entity Framework handles. But as usual, there’s a way around that –…Continue reading How to store a complex object as JSON in a PostgreSQL database using Entity Framework (Npgsql)?

Entity Framework - am I right?

How to fix another weird Entity Framework Core dependency issue?

Okay – so that’s a non-descriptive title if I’ve ever written one – I apologize for that! I just couldn’t figure out a way to shorten the error when “Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics.EntityFrameworkCore” is referencing “Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Abstractions”, and even though you’re not referencing that dependency directly, you get an error where you have both…Continue reading How to fix another weird Entity Framework Core dependency issue?