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  • TFS API-Process Template currently applied to the Team Project

    - by Tarun Arora
    Download Demo Solution - here In this blog post I’ll show you how to use the TFS API to get the name of the Process Template that is currently applied to the Team Project. You can also download the demo solution attached, I’ve tested this solution against TFS 2010 and TFS 2011.    1. Connecting to TFS Programmatically I have a blog post that shows you from where to download the VS 2010 SP1 SDK and how to connect to TFS programmatically. private TfsTeamProjectCollection _tfs; private string _selectedTeamProject;   TeamProjectPicker tfsPP = new TeamProjectPicker(TeamProjectPickerMode.SingleProject, false); tfsPP.ShowDialog(); this._tfs = tfsPP.SelectedTeamProjectCollection; this._selectedTeamProject = tfsPP.SelectedProjects[0].Name; 2. Programmatically get the Process Template details of the selected Team Project I’ll be making use of the VersionControlServer service to get the Team Project details and the ICommonStructureService to get the Project Properties. private ProjectProperty[] GetProcessTemplateDetailsForTheSelectedProject() { var vcs = _tfs.GetService<VersionControlServer>(); var ics = _tfs.GetService<ICommonStructureService>(); ProjectProperty[] ProjectProperties = null; var p = vcs.GetTeamProject(_selectedTeamProject); string ProjectName = string.Empty; string ProjectState = String.Empty; int templateId = 0; ProjectProperties = null; ics.GetProjectProperties(p.ArtifactUri.AbsoluteUri, out ProjectName, out ProjectState, out templateId, out ProjectProperties); return ProjectProperties; } 3. What’s the catch? The ProjectProperties will contain a property “Process Template” which as a value has the name of the process template. So, you will be able to use the below line of code to get the name of the process template. var processTemplateName = processTemplateDetails.Where(pt => pt.Name == "Process Template").Select(pt => pt.Value).FirstOrDefault();   However, if the process template does not contain the property “Process Template” then you will need to add it. So, the question becomes how do i add the Name property to the Process Template. Download the Process Template from the Process Template Manager on your local        Once you have downloaded the Process Template to your local machine, navigate to the Classification folder with in the template       From the classification folder open Classification.xml        Add a new property <property name=”Process Template” value=”MSF for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0” />           4. Putting it all together… using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Data; using System.Drawing; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Windows.Forms; using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client; using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Client; using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Server; using System.Diagnostics; using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client; namespace TfsAPIDemoProcessTemplate { public partial class Form1 : Form { public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); } private TfsTeamProjectCollection _tfs; private string _selectedTeamProject; private void btnConnect_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { TeamProjectPicker tfsPP = new TeamProjectPicker(TeamProjectPickerMode.SingleProject, false); tfsPP.ShowDialog(); this._tfs = tfsPP.SelectedTeamProjectCollection; this._selectedTeamProject = tfsPP.SelectedProjects[0].Name; var processTemplateDetails = GetProcessTemplateDetailsForTheSelectedProject(); listBox1.Items.Clear(); listBox1.Items.Add(String.Format("Team Project Selected => '{0}'", _selectedTeamProject)); listBox1.Items.Add(Environment.NewLine); var processTemplateName = processTemplateDetails.Where(pt => pt.Name == "Process Template") .Select(pt => pt.Value).FirstOrDefault(); if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(processTemplateName)) { listBox1.Items.Add(Environment.NewLine); listBox1.Items.Add(String.Format("Process Template Name: {0}", processTemplateName)); } else { listBox1.Items.Add(String.Format("The Process Template does not have the 'Name' property set up")); listBox1.Items.Add(String.Format("***TIP: Download the Process Template and in Classification.xml add a new property Name, update the template then you will be able to see the Process Template Name***")); listBox1.Items.Add(String.Format(" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -")); } } private ProjectProperty[] GetProcessTemplateDetailsForTheSelectedProject() { var vcs = _tfs.GetService<VersionControlServer>(); var ics = _tfs.GetService<ICommonStructureService>(); ProjectProperty[] ProjectProperties = null; var p = vcs.GetTeamProject(_selectedTeamProject); string ProjectName = string.Empty; string ProjectState = String.Empty; int templateId = 0; ProjectProperties = null; ics.GetProjectProperties(p.ArtifactUri.AbsoluteUri, out ProjectName, out ProjectState, out templateId, out ProjectProperties); return ProjectProperties; } } } Thank you for taking the time out and reading this blog post. If you enjoyed the post, remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Have you come across a better way of doing this, please share your experience here. Questions/Feedback/Suggestions, etc please leave a comment. Thank You! Share this post : CodeProject

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  • White Paper/Case Study on ICONICS’ Use of StreamInsight for its Energy AnalytiX&#174; Solution

    - by Roman Schindlauer
    A couple of days ago, we released a new StreamInsight white paper/case study on TechNet and MSDN. The paper is joint work with ICONICS and discusses how ICONICS is using StreamInsight technology for its Energy AnalytiX® solution. The paper is available for download here in the Technical Articles section of the StreamInsight documentation. Today, businesses and organizations need to pay more and more attention to energy usage, as customers and the general public are becoming increasingly concerned about a respectful and sustainable use of resources. Organizations therefore need to carefully manage their use of energy and provide better visibility into their energy consumption. In this paper, we discuss how software solutions can help address these challenges. Besides providing some background on the drivers behind energy management, the paper discusses how organizations manage their use of energy with current product and service offerings from Microsoft and ICONICS. In the main body of the paper, a case study explains in depth how ICONICS Energy AnalytiX® is using Microsoft data platform components such as SQL Server StreamInsight to deliver market leading energy management solutions. Regards, The StreamInsight Team

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  • MVVM in Task-It

    As I'm gearing up to write a post about dynamic XAP loading with MEF, I'd like to first talk a bit about MVVM, the Model-View-ViewModel pattern, as I will be leveraging this pattern in my future posts. Download Source Code Why MVVM? Your first question may be, "why do I need this pattern? I've been using a code-behind approach for years and it works fine." Well, you really don't have to make the switch to MVVM, but let me first explain some of the benefits I see for doing so. MVVM Benefits Testability - This is the one you'll probably hear the most about when it comes to MVVM. Moving most of the code from your code-behind to a separate view model class means you can now write unit tests against the view model without any knowledge of a view (UserControl). Multiple UIs - Let's just say that you've created a killer app, it's running in the browser, and maybe you've even made it run out-of-browser. Now what if your boss comes to you and says, "I heard about this new Windows Phone 7 device that is coming out later this year. Can you start porting the app to that device?". Well, now you have to create a new UI (UserControls, etc.) because you have a lot less screen real estate to work with. So what do you do, copy all of your existing UserControls, paste them, rename them, and then start changing the code? Hmm, that doesn't sound so good. But wait, if most of the code that makes your browser-based app tick lives in view model classes, now you can create new view (UserControls) for Windows Phone 7 that reference the same view model classes as your browser-based app. Page state - In Silverlight you're at some point going to be faced with the same issue you dealt with for years in ASP.NET, maintaining page state. Let's say a user hits your Products page, does some stuff (filters record, etc.), then leaves the page and comes back later. It would be best if the Products page was in the same state as when they left it right? Well, if you've thrown away your view (UserControl or Page) and moved off to another part of the UI, when you come back to Products you're probably going to re-instantiate your view...which will put it right back in the state it was when it started. Hmm, not good. Well, with a little help from MEF you can store the state in your view model class, MEF will keep that view model instance hanging around in memory, and then you simply rebind your view to the view model class. I made that sound easy, but it's actually a bit of work to properly store and restore the state. At least it can be done though, which will make your users a lot happier! I'll talk more about this in an upcoming blog post. No event handlers? Another nice thing about MVVM is that you can bind your UserControls to the view model, which may eliminate the need for event handlers in your code-behind. So instead of having a Click handler on a Button (or RadMenuItem), for example, you can now bind your control's Command property to a DelegateCommand in your view model (I'll talk more about Commands in an upcoming post). Instead of having a SelectionChanged event handler on your RadGridView you can now bind its SelectedItem property to a property in your view model, and each time the user clicks a row, the view model property's setter will be called. Now through the magic of binding we can eliminate the need for traditional code-behind based event handlers on our user interface controls, and the best thing is that the view model knows about everything that's going on...which means we can test things without a user interface. The brains of the operation So what we're seeing here is that the view is now just a dumb layer that binds to the view model, and that the view model is in control of just about everything, like what happens when a RadGridView row is selected, or when a RadComboBoxItem is selected, or when a RadMenuItem is clicked. It is also responsible for loading data when the page is hit, as well as kicking off data inserts, updates and deletions. Once again, all of this stuff can be tested without the need for a user interface. If the test works, then it'll work regardless of whether the user is hitting the browser-based version of your app, or the Windows Phone 7 version. Nice! The database Before running the code for this app you will need to create the database. First, create a database called MVVMProject in SQL Server, then run MVVMProject.sql in the MVVMProject/Database directory of your downloaded .zip file. This should give you a Task table with 3 records in it. When you fire up the solution you will also need to update the connection string in web.config to point to your database instead of IBM12\SQLSERVER2008. The code One note about this code is that it runs against the latest Silverlight 4 RC and WCF RIA Services code. Please see my first blog post about updating to the RC bits. Beta to RC - Part 1 At the top of this post is a link to a sample project that demonstrates a sample application with a Tasks page that uses the MVVM pattern. This is a simplified version of how I have implemented the Tasks page in the Task-It application. Youll notice that Tasks.xaml has very little code to it. Just a TextBlock that displays the page title and a ContentControl. <StackPanel>     <TextBlock Text="Tasks" Style="{StaticResource PageTitleStyle}"/>     <Rectangle Style="{StaticResource StandardSpacerStyle}"/>     <ContentControl x:Name="ContentControl1"/> </StackPanel> In List.xaml we have a RadGridView. Notice that the ItemsSource is bound to a property in the view model class call Tasks, SelectedItem is bound to a property in the view model called SelectedItem, and IsBusy is bound to a property in the view model called IsLoading. <Grid>     <telerikGridView:RadGridView ItemsSource="{Binding Tasks}" SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedItem, Mode=TwoWay}"                                  IsBusy="{Binding IsLoading}" AutoGenerateColumns="False" IsReadOnly="True" RowIndicatorVisibility="Collapsed"                IsFilteringAllowed="False" ShowGroupPanel="False">         <telerikGridView:RadGridView.Columns>             <telerikGridView:GridViewDataColumn Header="Name" DataMemberBinding="{Binding Name}" Width="3*"/>             <telerikGridView:GridViewDataColumn Header="Due" DataMemberBinding="{Binding DueDate}" DataFormatString="{}{0:d}" Width="*"/>         </telerikGridView:RadGridView.Columns>     </telerikGridView:RadGridView> </Grid> In Details.xaml we have a Save button that is bound to a property called SaveCommand in our view model. We also have a simple form (Im using a couple of controls here from Silverlight.FX for the form layout, FormPanel and Label simply because they make for a clean XAML layout). Notice that the FormPanel is also bound to the SelectedItem in the view model (the same one that the RadGridView is). The two form controls, the TextBox and RadDatePicker) are bound to the SelectedItem's Name and DueDate properties. These are properties of the Task object that WCF RIA Services creates. <StackPanel>     <Button Content="Save" Command="{Binding SaveCommand}" HorizontalAlignment="Left"/>     <Rectangle Style="{StaticResource StandardSpacerStyle}"/>     <fxui:FormPanel DataContext="{Binding SelectedItem}" Style="{StaticResource FormContainerStyle}">         <fxui:Label Text="Name:"/>         <TextBox Text="{Binding Name, Mode=TwoWay}"/>         <fxui:Label Text="Due:"/>         <telerikInput:RadDatePicker SelectedDate="{Binding DueDate, Mode=TwoWay}"/>     </fxui:FormPanel> </StackPanel> In the code-behind of the Tasks control, Tasks.xaml.cs, I created an instance of the view model class (TasksViewModel) in the constructor and set it as the DataContext for the control. The Tasks page will load one of two child UserControls depending on whether you are viewing the list of tasks (List.xaml) or the form for editing a task (Details.xaml). // Set the DataContext to an instance of the view model class var viewModel = new TasksViewModel(); DataContext = viewModel;   // Child user controls (inherit DataContext from this user control) List = new List(); // RadGridView Details = new Details(); // Form When the page first loads, the List is loaded into the ContentControl. // Show the RadGridView first ContentControl1.Content = List; In the code-behind we also listen for a couple of the view models events. The ItemSelected event will be fired when the user clicks on a record in the RadGridView in the List control. The SaveCompleted event will be fired when the user clicks Save in the Details control (the form). Here the view model is in control, and is letting the view know when something needs to change. // Listeners for the view model's events viewModel.ItemSelected += OnItemSelected; viewModel.SaveCompleted += OnSaveCompleted; The event handlers toggle the view between the RadGridView (List) and the form (Details). void OnItemSelected(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {     // Show the form     ContentControl1.Content = Details; }   void OnSaveCompleted(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) {     // Show the RadGridView     ContentControl1.Content = List; } In TasksViewModel, we instantiate a DataContext object and a SaveCommand in the constructor. DataContext is a WCF RIA Services object that well use to retrieve the list of Tasks and to save any changes to a task. Ill talk more about this and Commands in future post, but for now think of the SaveCommand as an event handler that is called when the Save button in the form is clicked. DataContext = new DataContext(); SaveCommand = new DelegateCommand(OnSave); When the TasksViewModel constructor is called we also make a call to LoadTasks. This sets IsLoading to true (which causes the RadGridViews busy indicator to appear) and retrieves the records via WCF RIA Services.         public LoadOperation<Task> LoadTasks()         {             // Show the loading message             IsLoading = true;             // Get the data via WCF RIA Services. When the call has returned, called OnTasksLoaded.             return DataContext.Load(DataContext.GetTasksQuery(), OnTasksLoaded, false);         } When the data is returned, OnTasksLoaded is called. This sets IsLoading to false (which hides the RadGridViews busy indicator), and fires property changed notifications to the UI to let it know that the IsLoading and Tasks properties have changed. This property changed notification basically tells the UI to rebind. void OnTasksLoaded(LoadOperation<Task> lo) {     // Hide the loading message     IsLoading = false;       // Notify the UI that Tasks and IsLoading properties have changed     this.OnPropertyChanged(p => p.Tasks);     this.OnPropertyChanged(p => p.IsLoading); } Next lets look at the view models SelectedItem property. This is the one thats bound to both the RadGridView and the form. When the user clicks a record in the RadGridView its setter gets called (set a breakpoint and see what I mean). The other code in the setter lets the UI know that the SelectedItem has changed (so the form displays the correct data), and fires the event that notifies the UI that a selection has occurred (which tells the UI to switch from List to Details). public Task SelectedItem {     get { return _selectedItem; }     set     {         _selectedItem = value;           // Let the UI know that the SelectedItem has changed (forces it to re-bind)         this.OnPropertyChanged(p => p.SelectedItem);         // Notify the UI, so it can switch to the Details (form) page         NotifyItemSelected();     } } One last thing, saving the data. When the Save button in the form is clicked it fires the SaveCommand, which calls the OnSave method in the view model (once again, set a breakpoint to see it in action). public void OnSave() {     // Save the changes via WCF RIA Services. When the save is complete, call OnSaveCompleted.     DataContext.SubmitChanges(OnSaveCompleted, null); } In OnSave, we tell WCF RIA Services to submit any changes, which there will be if you changed either the Name or the Due Date in the form. When the save is completed, it calls OnSaveCompleted. This method fires a notification back to the UI that the save is completed, which causes the RadGridView (List) to show again. public virtual void OnSaveCompleted(SubmitOperation so) {     // Clear the item that is selected in the grid (in case we want to select it again)     SelectedItem = null;     // Notify the UI, so it can switch back to the List (RadGridView) page     NotifySaveCompleted(); } Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • MSDN Simulcast Event: Take Your Applications Sky-High with Cloud Computing and the Windows Azure Pla

    Join your local MSDN Events team as we take a deep dive into Microsoft Windows Azure. We'll start with a developer-focused overview of this brave new platform and the cloud computing services that can be used to build amazing applications. As the day unfolds, we'll explore data storage, Microsoft SQL Azure, and the basics of deployment with Windows Azure....Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • White Paper/Case Study on ICONICS’ Use of StreamInsight for its Energy AnalytiX&#174; Solution

    - by Roman Schindlauer
    A couple of days ago, we released a new StreamInsight white paper/case study on TechNet and MSDN. The paper is joint work with ICONICS and discusses how ICONICS is using StreamInsight technology for its Energy AnalytiX® solution. The paper is available for download here in the Technical Articles section of the StreamInsight documentation. Today, businesses and organizations need to pay more and more attention to energy usage, as customers and the general public are becoming increasingly concerned about a respectful and sustainable use of resources. Organizations therefore need to carefully manage their use of energy and provide better visibility into their energy consumption. In this paper, we discuss how software solutions can help address these challenges. Besides providing some background on the drivers behind energy management, the paper discusses how organizations manage their use of energy with current product and service offerings from Microsoft and ICONICS. In the main body of the paper, a case study explains in depth how ICONICS Energy AnalytiX® is using Microsoft data platform components such as SQL Server StreamInsight to deliver market leading energy management solutions. Regards, The StreamInsight Team

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  • Powershell STA watin

    - by Mike Koerner
    Wow, two posts on the same day. I was working on a quick DLL project to do some web scripting using the awsome power of Watin.  In the past I use to create a vbscript as the test handler to call the DLL but lately I got a Powershell bug to call .NET DLLs. When I tried to debug the Watin call I received: The CurrentThread needs to have it's ApartmentState set to ApartmentState.STA to be able to automate Internet Explorer. I couldn't find a quick google answer to powershell apartmentstate .  Apparently you can set the powershell apartment state by the command line -STA.  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd315276.aspx I've found that the powershell documentation and examples is lacking compared to the Microsoft support I've come to expect.  Why is the Powershell v2.0 in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\windowspowershell\v1.0 ?

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  • Set App Windows to Always be on Top

    - by Asian Angel
    Sometimes you have a small app or other software that you want to keep topmost but how do you keep it on top without a lot of hassle? If this sounds like your situation then you might want to have a look at OnTop. Before For our example we had four individual apps open…any of the four could easily be on top at the moment. OnTop in Action The exe file for the app comes in a zip file. Simply unzip the file, place it in the Program Files Folder, create a shortcut and you are ready to go. Once you start OnTop you will see a new System Tray Icon…right click to access the Context Menu with a list of currently open apps. We decided to set Winamp to be always topmost first. Note: OnTop detected all three individual sections of our Winamp Player along with the individual monitors running in our Taskbar. Clicking on Paint.NET brought it forward over Firefox and Microsoft Word but Winamp was still sitting on top. Clicking on Microsoft Word next still did not affect Winamp’s topmost status. Nice. As soon as we switched the topmost status to Microsoft Word you can see that it immediately came to the front. One thing that we did note in our tests…the best method for switching topmost status is either to choose a different app or close the app that was topmost. Conclusion OnTop might be considered niche software but if you have an app window that you need to keep on top of other windows then you might want to give this small app a try. Links Download OnTop at Softpedia Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Use the Windows Key for the "Start" Menu in Ubuntu LinuxIncrease the Cached Logon Count for Windows Computers on a DomainUsing Windows 7 or Vista Compatibility ModeQuick Tip: Change the Registered Owner in WindowsMake Safari Stop Crashing Every 20 Seconds on Windows Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 2010 World Cup Schedule Boot Snooze – Reboot and then Standby or Hibernate Customize Everything Related to Dates, Times, Currency and Measurement in Windows 7 Google Earth replacement Icon (Icons we like) Build Great Charts in Excel with Chart Advisor tinysong gives a shortened URL for you to post on Twitter (or anywhere)

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  • Keyboard Function Keys Do Not Work

    - by Anthony Burman
    I use the Microsoft Natural MultiMedia Keyboard 1.0A. The keyboard is not a wireless board. The Escape button and the function keys have never worked. I am currently running on 10.10. On previous incarnations the keys never worked either. However a recent journey through all the Microsoft options in System Preference Keyboard Layouts suggested that the Escape button could be functional. The current setting is Generic 105-key (Intl) PC. Can I find out whether the keys can be made to work or not? Of the top buttons, nothing happens when I press My Documents; a small red cross appears at the top right of the screen when I press My Pictures and the Media, Mail and Web/Home buttons work just fine. Thanks, Anthony.

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  • Lync Server 2010

    - by ManojDhobale
    Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software and its client software, such as Microsoft Lync 2010, enable your users to connect in new ways and to stay connected, regardless of their physical location. Lync 2010 and Lync Server 2010 bring together the different ways that people communicate in a single client interface, are deployed as a unified platform, and are administered through a single management infrastructure. Workload Description IM and presence Instant messaging (IM) and presence help your users find and communicate with one another efficiently and effectively. IM provides an instant messaging platform with conversation history, and supports public IM connectivity with users of public IM networks such as MSN/Windows Live, Yahoo!, and AOL. Presence establishes and displays a user’s personal availability and willingness to communicate through the use of common states such as Available or Busy. This rich presence information enables other users to immediately make effective communication choices. Conferencing Lync Server includes support for IM conferencing, audio conferencing, web conferencing, video conferencing, and application sharing, for both scheduled and impromptu meetings. All these meeting types are supported with a single client. Lync Server also supports dial-in conferencing so that users of public switched telephone network (PSTN) phones can participate in the audio portion of conferences. Conferences can seamlessly change and grow in real time. For example, a single conference can start as just instant messages between a few users, and escalate to an audio conference with desktop sharing and a larger audience instantly, easily, and without interrupting the conversation flow. Enterprise Voice Enterprise Voice is the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) offering in Lync Server 2010. It delivers a voice option to enhance or replace traditional private branch exchange (PBX) systems. In addition to the complete telephony capabilities of an IP PBX, Enterprise Voice is integrated with rich presence, IM, collaboration, and meetings. Features such as call answer, hold, resume, transfer, forward and divert are supported directly, while personalized speed dialing keys are replaced by Contacts lists, and automatic intercom is replaced with IM. Enterprise Voice supports high availability through call admission control (CAC), branch office survivability, and extended options for data resiliency. Support for remote users You can provide full Lync Server functionality for users who are currently outside your organization’s firewalls by deploying servers called Edge Servers to provide a connection for these remote users. These remote users can connect to conferences by using a personal computer with Lync 2010 installed, the phone, or a web interface. Deploying Edge Servers also enables you to federate with partner or vendor organizations. A federated relationship enables your users to put federated users on their Contacts lists, exchange presence information and instant messages with these users, and invite them to audio calls, video calls, and conferences. Integration with other products Lync Server integrates with several other products to provide additional benefits to your users and administrators. Meeting tools are integrated into Outlook 2010 to enable organizers to schedule a meeting or start an impromptu conference with a single click and make it just as easy for attendees to join. Presence information is integrated into Outlook 2010 and SharePoint 2010. Exchange Unified Messaging (UM) provides several integration features. Users can see if they have new voice mail within Lync 2010. They can click a play button in the Outlook message to hear the audio voice mail, or view a transcription of the voice mail in the notification message. Simple deployment To help you plan and deploy your servers and clients, Lync Server provides the Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool and the Topology Builder. Lync Server 2010, Planning Tool is a wizard that interactively asks you a series of questions about your organization, the Lync Server features you want to enable, and your capacity planning needs. Then, it creates a recommended deployment topology based on your answers, and produces several forms of output to aid your planning and installation. Topology Builder is an installation component of Lync Server 2010. You use Topology Builder to create, adjust and publish your planned topology. It also validates your topology before you begin server installations. When you install Lync Server on individual servers, the installation program deploys the server as directed in the topology. Simple management After you deploy Lync Server, it offers the following powerful and streamlined management tools: Active Directory for its user information, which eliminates the need for separate user and policy databases. Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Control Panel, a new web-based graphical user interface for administrators. With this web-based UI, Lync Server administrators can manage their systems from anywhere on the corporate network, without needing specialized management software installed on their computers. Lync Server Management Shell command-line management tool, which is based on the Windows PowerShell command-line interface. It provides a rich command set for administration of all aspects of the product, and enables Lync Server administrators to automate repetitive tasks using a familiar tool. While the IM and presence features are automatically installed in every Lync Server deployment, you can choose whether to deploy conferencing, Enterprise Voice, and remote user access, to tailor your deployment to your organization’s needs.

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  • Understanding “Dispatcher” in WPF

    - by Pawan_Mishra
    Level : Beginner to intermediate Consider the following program MainWindow.xaml 1: < Window x:Class ="DispatcherTrial.MainWindow" 2: xmlns ="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 3: xmlns:x ="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 4: Title ="MainWindow" Height ="350" Width ="525" > 5: < Grid > 6: < Grid.RowDefinitions > 7: < RowDefinition /> 8: < RowDefinition /> 9: </ Grid.RowDefinitions...(read more)

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  • Changing Focus on my Blog

    - by D'Arcy Lussier
    I try to limit these types of blog posts – the ones where I communicate some change as if I have a loyal subscriber base that will be somehow affected. Still, I think its of worth if for nothing else than to document for myself an acknowledgement that my career is evolving. For the last who knows how long, I’ve had this as my banner: It’s funny how technology focuses change over time. 3.5 – 4 years ago I was wanting to immerse myself in BizTalk. Then I shifted, focussing on Silverlight. I even started a short-lived Silverlight user group here in Winnipeg that had, IMO, one of the *best* UG logos ever (do a Google search for the old school Winnipeg Jets logo if you don’t catch the reference)… And even how I identified myself – as a Developer – isn’t really accurate anymore as I’ve shifted more into an architect/analyst role at Online Business Systems as well as getting much more involved in business development. So I’m switching the focus of this blog a bit. Nothing too great, but you’ll find my posts aren’t necessarily tied to a technology or platform. Instead I’ll be focussing on current passions and interests. Solution Architecture Before a line of code is written, a solution is envisioned. The process of performing solution analysis and architecture is an intriguing process that encompasses negotiation and interpersonal skills as much as technical knowledge. Business & Entrepreneurship Creating things, building things, and working with others – business is fascinating and exciting! Entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship, are growing trends that I’ve been exploring over the last few years through my conference (www.prairiedevcon.com) and within Online. Microsoft At Online one of my roles is “Microsoft Practice Lead” and my entire career has been built around the Microsoft stack of technologies. That focus won’t change here on my blog, and there’s tonnes of exciting new products and technologies coming out of Redmond. Adoption This is a very personal subject that’s extremely close to my heart. I’m not talking about technology adoption, I’m talking about human adoption. Almost three years ago we adopted our first daughter, Sadie, and two years ago we adopted our second daughter, Skylar; an amazing new chapter in my life as I became a “parent”. Adoption is very much misunderstood, and many people have questions about it. Hopefully I can shed some light into our experiences and provide some guidance for those that are looking into it. So come along with me as I start chronicling the next phase of my career and life.

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  • SQLAuthority News – SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide – A Comprehensive Whitepaper – (454 pages – 9 MB)

    - by pinaldave
    Microsoft has just released SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide. This guide is very comprehensive and covers the subject of upgrade in-depth. This is indeed a helpful detailed white paper. Even writing a summary of this white paper would take over 100 pages. This further proves that SQL Server 2012 is quite an important release from Microsoft. This white paper discusses how to upgrade from SQL Server 2008/R2 to SQL Server 2012. I love how it starts with the most interesting and basic discussion of upgrade strategies: 1) In-place upgrades, 2) Side by side upgrade, 3) One-server, and 4) Two-server. This whitepaper is not just pure theory but is also an excellent source for some tips and tricks. Here is an example of a good tip from the paper: “If you want to upgrade just one database from a legacy instance of SQL Server and not upgrade the other databases on the server, use the side-by-side upgrade method instead of the in-place method.” There are so many trivia, tips and tricks that make creating the list seems humanly impossible given a short period of time. My friend Vinod Kumar, an SQL Server expert, wrote a very interesting article on SQL Server 2012 Upgrade before. In that article, Vinod addressed the most interesting and practical questions related to upgrades. He started with the fundamentals of how to start backup before upgrade and ended with fail-safe strategies after the upgrade is over. He covered end-to-end concepts in his blog posts in simple words in extremely precise statements. A successful upgrade uses a cycle of: planning, document process, testing, refine process, testing, planning upgrade window, execution, verifying of upgrade and opening for business. If you are at Vinod’s blog post, I suggest you go all the way down and collect the gold mine of most important links. I have bookmarked the blog by blogging about it and I suggest that you bookmark it as well with the way you prefer. Vinod Kumar’s blog post on SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide is a detailed resource that’s also available online for free. Each chapter was carefully crafted and explained in detail. Here is a quick list of the chapters included in the whitepaper. Before downloading the guide, beware of its size of 9 MB and 454 pages. Here’s the list of chapters: Chapter 1: Upgrade Planning and Deployment Chapter 2: Management Tools Chapter 3: Relational Databases Chapter 4: High Availability Chapter 5: Database Security Chapter 6: Full-Text Search Chapter 7: Service Broker Chapter 8: SQL Server Express Chapter 9: SQL Server Data Tools Chapter 10: Transact-SQL Queries Chapter 11: Spatial Data Chapter 12: XML and XQuery Chapter 13: CLR Chapter 14: SQL Server Management Objects Chapter 15: Business Intelligence Tools Chapter 16: Analysis Services Chapter 17: Integration Services Chapter 18: Reporting Services Chapter 19: Data Mining Chapter 20: Other Microsoft Applications and Platforms Appendix 1: Version and Edition Upgrade Paths Appendix 2: SQL Server 2012: Upgrade Planning Checklist Download SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide [454 pages and 9 MB] Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Database, DBA, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Documentation, SQL Download, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL White Papers, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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  • 11gR2 11.2.0.3 Database Certified with E-Business Suie

    - by Elke Phelps (Oracle Development)
    The 11gR2 11.2.0.2 Database was certified with E-Business Suite (EBS) 11i and EBS 12 almost one year ago today.  I’m pleased to announce that 11.2.0.3, the second patchset for the 11gR2 Database is now certified. Be sure to review the interoperability notes for R11i and R12 for the most up-to-date requirements for deployment. This certification announcement is important as you plan upgrades to the technology stack for your environment. For additional upgrade direction, please refer to the recently published EBS upgrade recommendations article. Database support implications may also be reviewed in the database patching and support article. Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i Prerequisites 11.5.10.2 + ATG PF.H RUP 6 and higher Certified Platforms Linux x86 (Oracle Linux 4, 5) Linux x86 (RHEL 4, 5) Linux x86 (SLES 10) Linux x86-64 (Oracle Linux 4, 5) -- Database-tier only Linux x86-64 (RHEL 4, 5) -- Database-tier only Linux x86-64 (SLES 10--Database-tier only) Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit) (10) Oracle Solaris on x86-64 (64-bit) (10) -- Database-tier only Pending Platform Certifications Microsoft Windows Server (32-bit) Microsoft Windows Server (64-bit) HP-UX PA-RISC (64-bit) HP-UX Itanium IBM: Linux on System z  IBM AIX on Power Systems Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 Prerequisites Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.0.4 or later; or,Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.1 or later Certified Platforms Linux x86 (Oracle Linux 4, 5) Linux x86 (RHEL 4, 5) Linux x86 (SLES 10) Linux x86-64 (Oracle Linux 4, 5) Linux x86-64 (RHEL 4, 5) Linux x86-64 (SLES 10) Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit) (10) Oracle Solaris on x86-64 (64-bit) (10)  -- Database-tier only Pending Platform Certifications Microsoft Windows Server (32-bit) Microsoft Windows Server (64-bit) HP-UX PA-RISC (64-bit) IBM: Linux on System z IBM AIX on Power Systems HP-UX Itanium Database Feature and Option CertificationsThe following 11gR2 11.2.0.2 database options and features are supported for use: Advanced Compression Active Data Guard Advanced Security Option (ASO) / Advanced Networking Option (ANO) Database Vault  Database Partitioning Data Guard Redo Apply with Physical Standby Databases Native PL/SQL compilation Oracle Label Security (OLS) Real Application Clusters (RAC) Real Application Testing SecureFiles Virtual Private Database (VPD) Certification of the following database options and features is still underway: Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) Column Encryption 11gR2 version 11.2.0.3 Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) Tablespace Encryption 11gR2 version 11.2.0.3 About the pending certifications Oracle's Revenue Recognition rules prohibit us from discussing certification and release dates, but you're welcome to monitor or subscribe to this blog for updates, which I'll post as soon as soon as they're available.     EBS 11i References Interoperability Notes - Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0) (Note 881505.1) Using Oracle 11g Release 2 Real Application Clusters with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i (Note 823586.1) Encrypting Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i Network Traffic using Advanced Security Option and Advanced Networking Option (Note 391248.1) Using Transparent Data Encryption with Oracle E-Business Release 11i (Note 403294.1) Integrating Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i with Oracle Database Vault 11gR2 (Note 1091086.1) Using Oracle E-Business Suite with a Split Configuration Database Tier on Oracle 11gR2 Version 11.2.0.1.0 (Note 946413.1) Export/Import Process for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i Database Instances Using Oracle Database 11g Release 1 or 2 (Note 557738.1) Database Initialization Parameters for Oracle Applications Release 11i (Note 216205.1) EBS 12 References Interoperability Notes - Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0) (Note 1058763.1) Database Initialization Parameters for Oracle Applications Release 12 (Note 396009.1) Using Oracle 11g Release 2 Real Application Clusters with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Note 823587.1) Using Transparent Data Encryption with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Note 732764.1) Integrating Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 with Oracle Database Vault 11gR2 (Note 1091083.1) Export/Import Process for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 Database Instances Using Oracle Database 11g Release 1 or 11g Release 2 (Note 741818.1) Enabling SSL in Oracle Applications Release 12 (Note 376700.1) Related Articles 11gR2 Database Certified with E-Business Suite 11i 11gR2 Database Certified with E-Business Suite 12 11gR2 11.2.0.2 Database Certified with E-Business Suite 12 Can E-Business Users Apply Database Patch Set Updates? On Apps Tier Patching and Support: A Primer for E-Business Suite Users On Database Patching and Support:  A Primer for E-Business Suite Users Quarterly E-Business Suite Upgrade Recommendations;  October 2011 Edition The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction.  It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract.   It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decision.  The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle's products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

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  • Windows 8 Will be Here Tomorrow; but Should Silverlight be Gone Today?

    - by andrewbrust
    The software industry lives within an interesting paradox. IT in the enterprise moves slowly and cautiously, upgrading only when safe and necessary.  IT interests intentionally live in the past.  On the other hand, developers, and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) not only want to use the latest and greatest technologies, but this constituency prides itself on gauging tech’s future, and basing its present-day strategy upon it.  Normally, we as an industry manage this paradox with a shrug of the shoulder and musings along the lines of “it takes all kinds.”  Different subcultures have different tendencies.  So be it. Microsoft, with its Windows operating system (OS), can’t take such a laissez-faire view of the world though.  Redmond relies on IT to deploy Windows and (at the very least) influence its procurement, but it also relies on developers to build software for Windows, especially software that has a dependency on features in new versions of the OS.  It must indulge and nourish developers’ fetish for an early birthing of the next generation of software, even as it acknowledges the IT reality that the next wave will arrive on-schedule in Redmond and will travel very slowly to end users. With the move to Windows 8, and the corresponding shift in application development models, this paradox is certainly in place. On the one hand, the next version of Windows is widely expected sometime in 2012, and its full-scale deployment will likely push into 2014 or even later.  Meanwhile, there’s a technology that runs on today’s Windows 7, will continue to run in the desktop mode of Windows 8 (the next version’s codename), and provides absolutely the best architectural bridge to the Windows 8 Metro-style application development stack.  That technology is Silverlight.  And given what we now know about Windows 8, one might think, as I do, that Microsoft ecosystem developers should be flocking to it. But because developers are trying to get a jump on the future, and since many of them believe the impending v5.0 release of Silverlight will be the technology’s last, not everyone is flocking to it; in fact some are fleeing from it.  Is this sensible?  Is it not unprecedented?  What options does it lead to?  What’s the right way to think about the situation? Is v5.0 really the last major version of the technology called Silverlight?  We don’t know.  But Scott Guthrie, the “father” and champion of the technology, left the Developer Division of Microsoft months ago to work on the Windows Azure team, and he took his people with him.  John Papa, who was a very influential Redmond-based evangelist for Silverlight (and is a Visual Studio Magazine author), left Microsoft completely.  About a year ago, when initial suspicion of Silverlight’s demise reached significant magnitude, Papa interviewed Guthrie on video and their discussion served to dispel developers’ fears; but now they’ve moved on. So read into that what you will and let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, speculation that Silverlight’s days of major revision and iteration are over now is correct.  Let’s assume the shine and glimmer has dimmed.  Let’s assume that any Silverlight application written today, and that therefore any investment of financial and human resources made in Silverlight development today, is destined for rework and extra investment in a few years, if the application’s platform needs to stay current. Is this really so different from any technology investment we make?  Every framework, language, runtime and operating system is subject to change, to improvement, to flux and, yes, to obsolescence.  What differs from project to project, is how near-term that obsolescence is and how disruptive the change will be.  The shift from .NET 1.1. to 2.0 was incremental.  Some of the further changes were too.  But the switch from Windows Forms to WPF was major, and the change from ASP.NET Web Services (asmx) to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) was downright fundamental. Meanwhile, the transition to the .NET development model for Windows 8 Metro-style applications is actually quite gentle.  The finer points of this subject are covered nicely in Magenic’s excellent white paper “Assessing the Windows 8 Development Platform.” As the authors of that paper (including Rocky Lhotka)  point out, Silverlight code won’t just “port” to Windows 8.  And, no, Silverlight user interfaces won’t either; Metro always supports XAML, but that relationship is not commutative.  But the concepts, the syntax, the architecture and developers’ skills map from Silverlight to Windows 8 Metro and the Windows Runtime (WinRT) very nicely.  That’s not a coincidence.  It’s not an accident.  This is a protected transition.  It’s not a slap in the face. There are few things that are unnerving about this transition, which make it seem markedly different from others: The assumed end of the road for Silverlight is something many think they can see.  Instead of being ignorant of the technology’s expiration date, we believe we know it.  If ignorance is bliss, it would seem our situation lacks it. The new technology involving WinRT and Metro involves a name change from Silverlight. .NET, which underlies both Silverlight and the XAML approach to WinRT development, has just about reached 10 years of age.  That’s equivalent to 80 in human years, or so many fear. My take is that the combination of these three factors has contributed to what for many is a psychologically compelling case that Silverlight should be abandoned today and HTML 5 (the agnostic kind, not the Windows RT variety) should be embraced in its stead.  I understand the logic behind that.  I appreciate the preemptive, proactive, vigilant conscientiousness involved in its calculus.  But for a great many scenarios, I don’t agree with it.  HTML 5 clients, no matter how impressive their interactivity and the emulation of native application interfaces they present may be, are still second-class clients.  They are getting better, especially when hardware acceleration and fast processors are involved.  But they still lag.  They still feel like they’re emulating something, like they’re prototypes, like they’re not comfortable in their own skins.  They are based on compromise, and they feel compromised too. HTML 5/JavaScript development tools are getting better, and will get better still, but they are not as productive as tools for other environments, like Flash, like Silverlight or even more primitive tooling for iOS or Android.  HTML’s roots as a document markup language, rather than an application interface, create a disconnect that impedes productivity.  I do not necessarily think that problem is insurmountable, but it’s here today. If you’re building line-of-business applications, you need a first-class client and you need productivity.  Lack of productivity increases your costs and worsens your backlog.  A second class client will erode user satisfaction, which is never good.  Worse yet, this erosion will be inconspicuous, rather than easily identified and diagnosed, because the inferiority of an HTML 5 client over a native one is hard to identify and, notably, doing so at this juncture in the industry is unpopular.  Why would you fault a technology that everyone believes is revolutionary?  Instead, user disenchantment will remain latent and yet will add to the malaise caused by slower development. If you’re an ISV and you’re coveting the reach of running multi-platform, it’s a different story.  You’ve likely wanted to move to HTML 5 already, and the uncertainty around Silverlight may be the only remaining momentum or pretext you need to make the shift.  You’re deploying many more copies of your application than a line-of-business developer is anyway; this makes the economic hit from lower productivity less impactful, and the wider potential installed base might even make it profitable. But no matter who you are, it’s important to take stock of the situation and do it accurately.  Continued, but merely incremental changes in a development model lead to conservatism and general lack of innovation in the underlying platform.  Periods of stability and equilibrium are necessary, but permanence in that equilibrium leads to loss of platform relevance, market share and utility.  Arguably, that’s already happened to Windows.  The change Windows 8 brings is necessary and overdue.  The marked changes in using .NET if we’re to build applications for the new OS are inevitable.  We will ultimately benefit from the change, and what we can reasonably hope for in the interim is a migration path for our code and skills that is navigable, logical and conceptually comfortable. That path takes us to a place called WinRT, rather than a place called Silverlight.  But considering everything that is changing for the good, the number of disruptive changes is impressively minimal.  The name may be changing, and there may even be some significance to that in terms of Microsoft’s internal management of products and technologies.  But as the consumer, you should care about the ingredients, not the name.  Turkish coffee and Greek coffee are much the same. Although you’ll find plenty of interested parties who will find the names significant, drinkers of the beverage should enjoy either one.  It’s all coffee, it’s all sweet, and you can tell your fortune from the grounds that are left at the end.  Back on the software side, it’s all XAML, and C# or VB .NET, and you can make your fortune from the product that comes out at the end.  Coffee drinkers wouldn’t switch to tea.  Why should XAML developers switch to HTML?

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  • DLL-s needed to run ASP.NET MVC 3 RC on Windows Azure

    - by DigiMortal
    In this weekend I made one of my new apps run on Windows Azure. I am building this application using ASP.NET MVC 3 RC and Razor view engine. In this posting I will list DLL-s you need to have as local copies to get ASP.NET MVC 3 RC run on Windows Azure web role. Besides assemblies that are already references you may need to add references to some more assemblies. List of assemblies is here: Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure System.Web.Helpers System.Web.Mvc System.Web.Razor System.Web.WebPages System.Web.WebPages.Razor WebMatrix.Data You can find Razor and ASP.NET Web Pages related assemblies from folder: C:\Program Files\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET Web Pages\v1.0\Assemblies\ NB! If your project is using dynamically loaded assemblies that are not referenced from any of your project make sure you are including them as project items that are located in bin folder. This way these DLL-s are also put to deployment package and you don’t have to create code level references to them.

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  • Windows Embedded Compact 7

    - by Valter Minute
    I’m back from Seattle where I attended the MVP Summit and presented the Windows Embedded Compact 7 training materials during the Train The Trainer in Bellevue (many thanks to all the people attending and providing great suggestions to improve the materials!). The MVP summit was a great chance to discover new things about all the different technologies, to see old friends and meet new ones. The TTT location (Microsoft training facilities at Lincoln square in Bellevue) was great and here’s the landscape that the attendees could enjoy (partially ruined by my presence in the foreground!). In the meantime Windows Embedded Compact 7 has been released: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/evaluate/windows-embedded-compact-7.aspx You can download an evaluation version and start to discover its new features (SMP support, support for 3GBs of RAM, Silverlight for Windows Embedded tools, ARM v5,v6 and v7 compilers and many more…) and, maybe, decide to attend a training about it.

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  • Initial Look: Storing SQL Compact Data on a Windows Phone 7 Series

    - by Nikita Polyakov
    Ok, the title is misleading – I’ll admit it, but there is a way to store your data in Windows Phone 7 Series. Windows Phone 7 Silverlight solutions have what is called Isolated Storage. [XNA has content storage as well] At this time there is no port of SQL Compact engine for Silverlight Isolated Storage. There is no wind of such intention. [That was a question way before WP7 was even rumored to have Silverlight.] There a few options: 1. Microsoft recommends you “simply” use client-server or cloud approach here. But this is not an option for Offline. 2. Use the new Offline/CacheMode with Sync Framework as shown in the Building Offline Web Apps Using Microsoft Sync Framework MIX10 presentation see 19:10 for Silverlight portion [go to 22:10 mark to see the app]. 3. Use XlmSerializer to dumb your objects to a XML file into the Isolated Storage. Good for small data. 4. Experiment with C#SQLite for Silverlight that has been shown to work in WP7 emulator, read more. 5. Roll your own file format and read/write from it. Think good ol’ CSV. Good for when you want 1million row table ;)   Is Microsoft aware of this possible limitation? Yes. What are they doing about it? I don’t know. See #1 and #2 above as the official guidance for now. What should you do about it? Don’t be too quick to dismiss WP7 because you think you’ll “need” SQL Compact. As lot of us will be playing with these possible solutions, I will be sure to update you on further discoveries. Remember that the tools [even the emulator] released at MIX are CTP grade and might not have all the features. Stay up to date: Watch the @wp7dev account if you are on Twitter. And watch the Windows Phone Dev Website and Blog. More information and detail is sure to come about WP7 Dev, as Windows Phone is planned to launch “Holidays” 2010. [For example Office will be discussed in June from the latest news, June is TechEd 2010 timeframe btw]

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  • Selling Visual Studio ALM

    - by Tarun Arora
    Introduction As a consultant I have been selling Application Lifecycle Management services using Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server. I’ve been contacted various times by friends working in organization telling me that ALM processes in their company were benchmarked when dinosaurs walked the earth. Most of these individuals already know the great features Microsoft ALM tools offer and are keen to start a conversation with the CIO but don’t exactly know where to start. It is very important how you engage in your first conversation, if you start the conversation with ‘There is this great tooling from Microsoft which offers amazing features to boost developer productivity, … ‘ from experience I can tell you the reply from your CIO would be ‘I already know! Our existing landscape has a combination of bleeding edge open source and cutting edge licensed tools which already cover these features quite well, more over Microsoft products have a high licensing cost associated to them.’ You will always find it harder to sell by feature, the trick is to highlight the gap in the existing processes & tools and then highlight the impact of these gaps to the overall development processes, by now you would have captured enough attention to show off how the ALM tooling offered by Microsoft not only fills those gaps but offers great value adds to take their development practices to the next level. Rangers ALM Assessment Guide Image 1 – Welcome! First look at the Rangers ALM assessment guide Most organization already have some processes in place to cover aspects of ALM. How do you go about proving that there isn’t enough cover in place? This is where Visual Studio ALM Rangers ALM Assessment guide can help. The ALM assessment guide is really a tool that helps you gather information about Development practices and processes within a customer's environment. Several questionnaires are used to identify the current state of individual development lifecycle areas and decide on a desired state for those processes. It also presents guidance and roll-up summaries to help with recommendations moving forward. The ALM Rangers assessment guide can be downloaded from here. Image 2 – ALM Assessment guide divided into different functions of SDLC The assessment guide is divided into different functions of Software Development Lifecycle (listed below), this gives you the ability to access how mature the company is in different areas of SDLC. Architecture & Design Requirement Engineering & UX Development Software Configuration Management Governance Deployment & Operations Testing & Quality Assurance Project Planning & Management Each section has a set of questions, fill in the assessment by selecting “Never/Sometimes/Always” from the Answer column in the question sheets.  Each answer has weightage to the overall score. Each question has a link next to it, clicking the link takes you to the Reference sheet which gives you more details about the question along with a reason for “why you need to ask this question?”, “other ways to phrase the question” and “what to expect as an answer from the customer”. The trick is to engage the customer in a discussion. You need to probe a lot, listen to the customer and have a discussion with several team members, preferably without management to ensure that you receive candid feedback. This reminds me of a funny incident when during an ALM review a customer told me that they have a sophisticated semi-automated application deployment process, further discussions revealed that deployment actually involved 72 manual configuration steps per production node. Such observations can be recorded in the Issue Brainstorming worksheet for further consideration later. It is also worth mentioning the different levels of ALM maturity to the customer. By default the desired state of ALM maturity is set to Standard, it is possible to set a desired state by area, you should strive for Advanced or Dynamic, it always helps by explaining the classification and advantages. Image 3 – ALM levels by description The ALM assessment guide helps you arrive at a quantitative measure of the company’s ALM maturity. The resultant graph plotted on a spider’s web shows you the company’s current state of ALM maturity and the desired state of ALM maturity. Further since the results are classified by area you can immediately spot the areas where the customer needs immediate help. Image 4 – The spiders web! The red cross icons are areas shouting out for immediate attention, the yellow exclamation icons are areas that need improvement. These icons are calculated on the difference between the Current State of ALM maturity VS the Desired state of ALM maturity. Image 5 – Results by area Conclusion To conclude the Rangers ALM assessment guide gives you the ability to, Measure the customer’s current ALM maturity level Understand the ALM maturity level the customer desires to achieve Capture a healthy list of issues the customer wants to brainstorm further Now What’s next…? Download and get started with the Rangers ALM Assessment Guide. If you have successfully captured the above listed three pieces of information you are in a great state to make recommendations on the identified areas highlighting the benefits that Visual Studio ALM tools would offer. In the next post I will be covering how to take the ALM assessment results as the base to actually convert your recommendation into a sell.  Remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. I would love to hear your feedback! If you have any recommendations on things that I should consider or any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment. *** A special thanks goes out to fellow ranges Willy, Ethem and Philip for reviewing the blog post and providing valuable feedback. ***

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, February 05, 2011

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, February 05, 2011Popular ReleasesNuclex Framework: R1323: This release is a pure XNA 4.0 release that no longer includes any XNA 3.1 binaries or projects. All x86 assemblies have been compiled targeting the .NET 4.0 Client Profile. Requires either Visual C# 2010 Express or Visual Studio 2010, both with XNA Game Studio 4.0. 3rd party libraries needed to compile and run the source code are included, so everything will compile out of the box. Changes: - Thanks to a generous contribution by Adrian Tsai, the TrueType importer now accepts standard Windo...Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V43: Release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open source NNTP bridge. This release has added some features / bugfixes: Bugfix: Now supporting multi-line headers in all headers ;) / Thanks to Kai Schätzl for reporting this! Debug output optimized / Added a "Copy to clipboard" button in the debug windowFacebook C# SDK: 5.0.2 (BETA): PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO GIVE US SOME FEEDBACK: Facebook C# SDK Survey This is third BETA release of the version 5 branch of the Facebook C# SDK. Remember this is a BETA build. Some things may change or not work exactly as planned. We are absolutely looking for feedback on this release to help us improve the final 5.X.X release. This release contains some breaking changes. Particularly with authentication. After spending time reviewing the trouble areas that people are having using th...ASP.NET MVC SiteMap provider: MvcSiteMapProvider 3.0.0 for MVC3: Using NuGet?MvcSiteMapProvider is also listed in the NuGet feed. Learn more... Like the project? Consider a donation!Donate via PayPal via PayPal. ChangelogTargeting ASP.NET MVC 3 and .NET 4.0 Additional UpdatePriority options for generating XML sitemaps Allow to specify target on SiteMapTitleAttribute One action with multiple routes and breadcrumbs Medium Trust optimizations Create SiteMapTitleAttribute for setting parent title IntelliSense for your sitemap with MvcSiteMapSchem...Rawr: Rawr 4.0.18 Beta: Rawr is now web-based. The link to use Rawr4 is: http://elitistjerks.com/rawr.phpThis is the Cataclysm Beta Release. More details can be found at the following link http://rawr.codeplex.com/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=237262 As of the 4.0.16 release, you can now also begin using the new Downloadable WPF version of Rawr!This is a pre-alpha release of the WPF version, there are likely to be a lot of issues. If you have a problem, please follow the Posting Guidelines and put it into the Issue Trac...ArcGIS Editor for OpenStreetMap: ArcGIS Editor for OpenStreetMap 1.1 beta3: This is the beta3 release for the ArcGIS Editor for OpenStreetMap version 1.1. Bug fixes in beta3: make the user interface for editing attributes keyboard friendly make the geoprocessing tools available for Python scripting (incl. sample scripts in the tool documentation) change in the logic for sending updates to the OpenStreetMap server updates to point symbology for the feature templates Changes from version 1.0: Multi-part geometries are now supported. Homogeneous relations (consi...patterns & practices SharePoint Guidance: SharePoint Guidance 2010 Hands On Lab: SharePoint Guidance 2010 Hands On Lab consists of six labs: one for logging, one for service location, and four for application setting manager. Each lab takes about 20 minutes to walk through. Each lab consists of a PDF document. You can go through the steps in the doc to create solution and then build/deploy the solution and run the lab. For those of you who wants to save the time, we included the final solution so you can just build/deploy the solution and run the lab.Mobile Device Detection and Redirection: 0.1.11.11: Improvements to Beta Release The following changes have been made in version 0.1.11.11: BlackBerry Version 6 devices (such as the 9800 Torch) are now correctly identified with a dedicated handler. Android powered devices are now correctly identified. Minor change to Provider.cs to improve performance and optimise data sent to 51Degrees.mobi if the option is enabled. GC.collect is no longer called at any point. All garbage collection now happens automatically IMPORTANT CHANGES This rele...TweetSharp: TweetSharp v2.0.0.0 - Preview 10: Documentation for this release may be found at http://tweetsharp.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=UserGuide&referringTitle=Documentation. Note: This code is currently preview quality. Preview 9 ChangesAdded support for trends Added support for Silverlight 4 Elevated WP7 fixes Third Party Library VersionsHammock v1.1.7: http://hammock.codeplex.com Json.NET 4.0 Release 1: http://json.codeplex.comFacebook Graph Toolkit: Facebook Graph Toolkit 0.7: Version 0.7 updates (2 Feb 2011)new Facebook Graph objects: Link, Note, StatusMessage new publish features: status update, post with link attachment new Graph Api connections in User object: statuses, links, notes internal code path improvement on Api object bug fixed: extra "r" character appears for strings with "\r" symbols in Json Objects bug fixed: error when performing Postback to the same page Tutorial and documentation available at http://fbgraph.computerbeacon.netHammock for REST: Hammock v1.1.7: v1.1.7 ChangesAdded support for cookies Added support for custom Content-Disposition types Fixes based on user feedback Supported Platforms.NET 2.0 .NET 3.5 SP1 and .NET 3.5 Client Profile .NET 4.0 and .NET 4.0 Client Profile Windows Phone 7 Silverlight 3 and 4 Mono 2.6 (See Mono and HTTPS)Phalanger - The PHP Language Compiler for the .NET Framework: 2.0 (February 2011): Next release of Phalanger; again faster, more stable and ready for daily use. Based on many user experiences this release is one more step closer to be perfect compiler and runtime of your old PHP applications; or perfect platform for migrating to .NET. February 2011 release of Phalanger introduces several changes, enhancements and fixes. See complete changelist for all the changes. To improve the performance of your application using MySQL, please use Managed MySQL Extension for Phalanger....Chemistry Add-in for Word: Chemistry Add-in for Word - Version 1.0: On February 1, 2011, we announced the availability of version 1 of the Chemistry Add-in for Word, as well as the assignment of the open source project to the Outercurve Foundation by Microsoft Research and the University of Cambridge. System RequirementsHardware RequirementsAny computer that can run Office 2007 or Office 2010. Software RequirementsYour computer must have the following software: Any version of Windows that can run Office 2007 or Office 2010, which includes Windows XP SP3 and...Minemapper: Minemapper v0.1.4: Updated mcmap, now supports new block types. Added a Worlds->'View Cache Folder' menu item.StyleCop for ReSharper: StyleCop for ReSharper 5.1.15005.000: Applied patch from rodpl for merging of stylecop setting files with settings in parent folder. Previous release: A considerable amount of work has gone into this release: Huge focus on performance around the violation scanning subsystem: - caching added to reduce IO operations around reading and merging of settings files - caching added to reduce creation of expensive objects Users should notice condsiderable perf boost and a decrease in memory usage. Bug Fixes: - StyleCop's new Objec...Minecraft Tools: Minecraft Topographical Survey 1.4: MTS requires version 4 of the .NET Framework - you must download it from Microsoft if you have not previously installed it. This version of MTS adds MCRegion support and fixes bugs that caused rendering to fail for some users. New in this version of MTS: Support for rendering worlds compressed with MCRegion Fixed rendering failure when encountering non-NBT files with the .dat extension Fixed rendering failure when encountering corrupt NBT files Minor GUI updates Note that the command...MVC Controls Toolkit: Mvc Controls Toolkit 0.8: Fixed the following bugs: *Variable name error in the jvascript file that prevented the use of the deleted item template of the Datagrid *Now after the changes applied to an item of the DataGrid are cancelled all input fields are reset to the very initial value they had. *Other minor bugs. Added: *This version is available both for MVC2, and MVC 3. The MVC 3 version has a release number of 0.85. This way one can install both version. *Client Validation support has been added to all control...Office Web.UI: Beta preview (Source): This is the first Beta. it includes full source code and all available controls. Some designers are not ready, and some features are not finalized allready (missing properties, draft styles) ThanksASP.net Ribbon: Version 2.2: This release brings some new controls (part of Office Web.UI). A few bugs are fixed and it includes the "auto resize" feature as you resize the window. (It can cause an infinite loop when the window is too reduced, it's why this release is not marked as "stable"). I will release more versions 2.3, 2.4... until V3 which will be the official launch of Office Web.UI. Both products will evolve at the same speed. Thanks.xUnit.net - Unit Testing for .NET: xUnit.net 1.7: xUnit.net release 1.7Build #1540 Important notes for Resharper users: Resharper support has been moved to the xUnit.net Contrib project. Important note for TestDriven.net users: If you are having issues running xUnit.net tests in TestDriven.net, especially on 64-bit Windows, we strongly recommend you upgrade to TD.NET version 3.0 or later. This release adds the following new features: Added support for ASP.NET MVC 3 Added Assert.Equal(double expected, double actual, int precision) Ad...New Projects.NET Micro Framework PTP library: .NET Micro Framework PTP library is implementation of Picture Transfer Protocol for .NET Micro Framework. It's developed in C# language. This library allows microcontroller with .NET Micro Framework to communicate with digital cameras. Asp.net learning: asp.net learningbrainydexter demos: Demos I have developed over time to showcase different techniques, ranging from graphics/opengl to crazy language specific (C++/C#) techniquesBrickFramework: BrickFrameworkCodecoFW-SL: CodecoFW-SL é um Framework desenvolvido em C# para trabalhar com Silverlight. Contem alguns controles e extensões para ajudar o desenvolvimento com Silverlight.Csharp Learning: My C # Learning examplejigsby: personal code dumpJuego de la Vida: Crearas vida con el mouseLogon Screen Launcher: Allows you to run applications at the Windows (XP/Vista/7) logon screen (Ctrl+Alt+Del) on system events, including logon/logoff, screen lock/unlock and startup/shutdown.MEF Silverlight Control Extensions: The Mef Silverlight Control Extensions gives you a declarative way of implement control importing using MEF.Membership, Roles and Profile Library (MRPLibrary): This project provides a simple abstraction for the Membership, Roles and ProfileManager ASP.NET providers as well as ASP.NET FormsAuthentication. The library creates required database objects automatically and uses web.config Membership, Roles and ProfileManager sections.Netpad: Basic .Net based text document editorOrchard Jumpstart: A jumpstart Orchard module, implementing basic module functionality. Created to make Orchard module creation a bit quicker:)Orchard Rewrite Rules: Orchard module to add rewrite rules to your website using Apache .htaccess file format.Outlook Social Connectors: The Outlook Social Connectors project was started as a 24 Hour Challenge Project. The project has several Outlook Social Connectors (Twitter, Fogbugz, ...) and aims to provide a framework for developing new connectors.Rail.Net: Small rail net application For rail analysisregistrudecasa: registrudecasaRelDB: A true relational database management system compatible with Tutorial D.RTP Tooltip: This DNN module instantiates an instance of DNNToolTipManager and allows you to enter a list of ClientIDs to TooltipifySSIS Report Generator Task (Custom Control Flow Component): SSIS Report Generator Task (Custom Control Flow Component)The Ministry of Technology Framework Extensions: The aim of the MOT Framework extensions project is to offer a variety of solutions for common 'boilerplate' development requirements and speed up the development process. Ongoing discussions and information on the library is posted up to http://www.theministryoftechnology.co.ukWindowsPhone 7 Live Soccer Scores: An Windows Phone 7 app which displays the live soccer scores from the Dutch eredivisie, English premier league, Champions league and Europa league.Wolfram Alpha Api 2.0: 20 january 2011 open new version of wolfram alpha api, version 2.0. This project will help you to work with the new api. Knowledge is power!Wurfl 51degrees Mobile Capabilities Viewer: A Web App to display all the Mobile Capabilities for a given user Agent, uses 51degrees.Codeplex.com .Net dll and Wurfl device files. The current sample in the downloads section of [http://51degrees.codeplex.com] doesnt display all Browser and Wurfl Capabilities for a UserAgent.XNA Command Console (XNACC): XNACC is a component that adds an interactive command console to your XNA project. It supports many built-in commands, as well as custom commands, key bindings, simple functions (macros), console variables and can use functions in external assemblies. Implemented in C#/VS2010.Xteq5: Xteq5 is an (hopefully) easy to use open source Windows computer management solution to get the job done.ZipArchiveReader: ZipLib is a ZIP file reader. It provides a simple way to read and write .zip files. The purpose of ZipLib is give ZIP file capabilities to ASP.Net applications which were granted minimum permissions. It can be a partial trust DLL that can run in Internet Zone and probably ...

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