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  • The Best Tools for Enhancing and Expanding the Features of the Windows Clipboard

    - by Lori Kaufman
    The Windows clipboard is like a scratch pad used by the operating system and all running applications. When you copy or cut some text or a graphic, it is temporarily stored in the clipboard and then retrieved later when you paste the data. We’ve previously showed you how to store multiple items to the clipboard (using Clipboard Manager) in Windows, how to copy a file path to the clipboard, how to create a shortcut to clear the clipboard, and how to copy a list of files to the clipboard. There are some limitations of the Windows clipboard. Only one item can be stored at a time. Each time you copy something, the current item in the clipboard is replaced. The data on the clipboard also cannot be viewed without pasting it into an application. In addition, the data on the clipboard is cleared when you log out of your Windows session. NOTE: The above image shows the clipboard viewer from Windows XP (clipbrd.exe), which is not available in Windows 7 or Vista. However, you can download the file from deviantART and run it to view the current entry in the clipboard in Windows 7. Here are some additional useful tools that help enhance or expand the features of the Windows clipboard and make it more useful. Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer Why Enabling “Do Not Track” Doesn’t Stop You From Being Tracked

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  • Developing a Cost Model for Cloud Applications

    - by BuckWoody
    Note - please pay attention to the date of this post. As much as I attempt to make the information below accurate, the nature of distributed computing means that components, units and pricing will change over time. The definitive costs for Microsoft Windows Azure and SQL Azure are located here, and are more accurate than anything you will see in this post: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/offers/  When writing software that is run on a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering like Windows Azure / SQL Azure, one of the questions you must answer is how much the system will cost. I will not discuss the comparisons between on-premise costs (which are nigh impossible to calculate accurately) versus cloud costs, but instead focus on creating a general model for estimating costs for a given application. You should be aware that there are (at this writing) two billing mechanisms for Windows and SQL Azure: “Pay-as-you-go” or consumption, and “Subscription” or commitment. Conceptually, you can consider the former a pay-as-you-go cell phone plan, where you pay by the unit used (at a slightly higher rate) and the latter as a standard cell phone plan where you commit to a contract and thus pay lower rates. In this post I’ll stick with the pay-as-you-go mechanism for simplicity, which should be the maximum cost you would pay. From there you may be able to get a lower cost if you use the other mechanism. In any case, the model you create should hold. Developing a good cost model is essential. As a developer or architect, you’ll most certainly be asked how much something will cost, and you need to have a reliable way to estimate that. Businesses and Organizations have been used to paying for servers, software licenses, and other infrastructure as an up-front cost, and power, people to the systems and so on as an ongoing (and sometimes not factored) cost. When presented with a new paradigm like distributed computing, they may not understand the true cost/value proposition, and that’s where the architect and developer can guide the conversation to make a choice based on features of the application versus the true costs. The two big buckets of use-types for these applications are customer-based and steady-state. In the customer-based use type, each successful use of the program results in a sale or income for your organization. Perhaps you’ve written an application that provides the spot-price of foo, and your customer pays for the use of that application. In that case, once you’ve estimated your cost for a successful traversal of the application, you can build that into the price you charge the user. It’s a standard restaurant model, where the price of the meal is determined by the cost of making it, plus any profit you can make. In the second use-type, the application will be used by a more-or-less constant number of processes or users and no direct revenue is attached to the system. A typical example is a customer-tracking system used by the employees within your company. In this case, the cost model is often created “in reverse” - meaning that you pilot the application, monitor the use (and costs) and that cost is held steady. This is where the comparison with an on-premise system becomes necessary, even though it is more difficult to estimate those on-premise true costs. For instance, do you know exactly how much cost the air conditioning is because you have a team of system administrators? This may sound trivial, but that, along with the insurance for the building, the wiring, and every other part of the system is in fact a cost to the business. There are three primary methods that I’ve been successful with in estimating the cost. None are perfect, all are demand-driven. The general process is to lay out a matrix of: components units cost per unit and then multiply that times the usage of the system, based on which components you use in the program. That sounds a bit simplistic, but using those metrics in a calculation becomes more detailed. In all of the methods that follow, you need to know your application. The components for a PaaS include computing instances, storage, transactions, bandwidth and in the case of SQL Azure, database size. In most cases, architects start with the first model and progress through the other methods to gain accuracy. Simple Estimation The simplest way to calculate costs is to architect the application (even UML or on-paper, no coding involved) and then estimate which of the components you’ll use, and how much of each will be used. Microsoft provides two tools to do this - one is a simple slider-application located here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing-calculator/  The other is a tool you download to create an “Return on Investment” (ROI) spreadsheet, which has the advantage of leading you through various questions to estimate what you plan to use, located here: https://roianalyst.alinean.com/msft/AutoLogin.do?d=176318219048082115  You can also just create a spreadsheet yourself with a structure like this: Program Element Azure Component Unit of Measure Cost Per Unit Estimated Use of Component Total Cost Per Component Cumulative Cost               Of course, the consideration with this model is that it is difficult to predict a system that is not running or hasn’t even been developed. Which brings us to the next model type. Measure and Project A more accurate model is to actually write the code for the application, using the Software Development Kit (SDK) which can run entirely disconnected from Azure. The code should be instrumented to estimate the use of the application components, logging to a local file on the development system. A series of unit and integration tests should be run, which will create load on the test system. You can use standard development concepts to track this usage, and even use Windows Performance Monitor counters. The best place to start with this method is to use the Windows Azure Diagnostics subsystem in your code, which you can read more about here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sumitm/archive/2009/11/18/introducing-windows-azure-diagnostics.aspx This set of API’s greatly simplifies tracking the application, and in fact you can use this information for more than just a cost model. After you have the tracking logs, you can plug the numbers into ay of the tools above, which should give a representative cost or in some cases a unit cost. The consideration with this model is that the SDK fabric is not a one-to-one comparison with performance on the actual Windows Azure fabric. Those differences are usually smaller, but they do need to be considered. Also, you may not be able to accurately predict the load on the system, which might lead to an architectural change, which changes the model. This leads us to the next, most accurate method for a cost model. Sample and Estimate Using standard statistical and other predictive math, once the application is deployed you will get a bill each month from Microsoft for your Azure usage. The bill is quite detailed, and you can export the data from it to do analysis, and using methods like regression and so on project out into the future what the costs will be. I normally advise that the architect also extrapolate a unit cost from those metrics as well. This is the information that should be reported back to the executives that pay the bills: the past cost, future projected costs, and unit cost “per click” or “per transaction”, as your case warrants. The challenge here is in the model itself - statistical methods are not foolproof, and the larger the sample (in this case I recommend the entire population, not a smaller sample) is key. References and Tools Articles: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/patrick_butler_monterde/archive/2010/02/10/windows-azure-billing-overview.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg213848.aspx http://blog.codingoutloud.com/2011/06/05/azure-faq-how-much-will-it-cost-me-to-run-my-application-on-windows-azure/ http://blogs.msdn.com/b/johnalioto/archive/2010/08/25/10054193.aspx http://geekswithblogs.net/iupdateable/archive/2010/02/08/qampa-how-can-i-calculate-the-tco-and-roi-when.aspx   Other Tools: http://cloud-assessment.com/ http://communities.quest.com/community/cloud_tools

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  • Server 2012 DFS New Member Issue

    - by David
    I am trying to add a new member to our DFS topology. We have 3 DCs (VMs - VMware) running Windows server 2012, two servers are located in or Primary site and the third at our DR site. Currently the two servers at our primary site are currently replicating DFS (full mesh) and are working fine. I have tried several times to add the third DC to our DFS topology, every time i configure the replication path e.g E:\MSI and click ok the MMC snap in crashes. Below is the crash info, any idea what is causing this? What i am doing is fairly straight forward and don't see why this would be happening. Windows Crash Error: gnature: Problem Event Name: CLR20r3 Problem Signature 01: mmc.exe Problem Signature 02: 6.2.9200.16496 Problem Signature 03: 50ece2e8 Problem Signature 04: System.Windows.Forms Problem Signature 05: 4.0.30319.18046 Problem Signature 06: 51552cda Problem Signature 07: 6291 Problem Signature 08: 25 Problem Signature 09: RML5K4UDBMA5NI04CIYRWVDHKEWFDHCV OS Version: 6.2.9200.2.0.0.272.7 Locale ID: 3081 Additional Information 1: b979 Additional Information 2: b97911c958b3d076b53a1d80c1c56088 Additional Information 3: 4fee Additional Information 4: 4fee5b9baabd694859b15dfc5e1863b7      Crash Report Version=1 EventType=CLR20r3 EventTime=130165974300817209 ReportType=2 Consent=1 ReportIdentifier=d15d0d38-dd36-11e2-93fb-005056af764c IntegratorReportIdentifier=d15d0d37-dd36-11e2-93fb-005056af764c NsAppName=mmc.exe Response.type=4 Sig[0].Name=Problem Signature 01 Sig[0].Value=mmc.exe Sig[1].Name=Problem Signature 02 Sig[1].Value=6.2.9200.16496 Sig[2].Name=Problem Signature 03 Sig[2].Value=50ece2e8 Sig[3].Name=Problem Signature 04 Sig[3].Value=System.Windows.Forms Sig[4].Name=Problem Signature 05 Sig[4].Value=4.0.30319.18046 Sig[5].Name=Problem Signature 06 Sig[5].Value=51552cda Sig[6].Name=Problem Signature 07 Sig[6].Value=6291 Sig[7].Name=Problem Signature 08 Sig[7].Value=25 Sig[8].Name=Problem Signature 09 Sig[8].Value=RML5K4UDBMA5NI04CIYRWVDHKEWFDHCV DynamicSig[1].Name=OS Version DynamicSig[1].Value=6.2.9200.2.0.0.272.7 DynamicSig[2].Name=Locale ID DynamicSig[2].Value=3081 DynamicSig[22].Name=Additional Information 1 DynamicSig[22].Value=b979 DynamicSig[23].Name=Additional Information 2 DynamicSig[23].Value=b97911c958b3d076b53a1d80c1c56088 DynamicSig[24].Name=Additional Information 3 DynamicSig[24].Value=4fee DynamicSig[25].Name=Additional Information 4 DynamicSig[25].Value=4fee5b9baabd694859b15dfc5e1863b7 UI[2]=C:\Windows\system32\mmc.exe UI[3]=Microsoft Management Console has stopped working UI[4]=Windows can check online for a solution to the problem. UI[5]=Check online for a solution and close the program UI[6]=Check online for a solution later and close the program UI[7]=Close the program LoadedModule[0]=C:\Windows\system32\mmc.exe LoadedModule[1]=C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll LoadedModule[2]=C:\Windows\system32\KERNEL32.DLL LoadedModule[3]=C:\Windows\system32\KERNELBASE.dll LoadedModule[4]=C:\Windows\system32\GDI32.dll LoadedModule[5]=C:\Windows\system32\USER32.dll LoadedModule[6]=C:\Windows\system32\MFC42u.dll LoadedModule[7]=C:\Windows\system32\msvcrt.dll LoadedModule[8]=C:\Windows\system32\mmcbase.DLL LoadedModule[9]=C:\Windows\system32\ole32.dll LoadedModule[10]=C:\Windows\system32\SHLWAPI.dll LoadedModule[11]=C:\Windows\system32\UxTheme.dll LoadedModule[12]=C:\Windows\system32\DUser.dll LoadedModule[13]=C:\Windows\system32\OLEAUT32.dll LoadedModule[14]=C:\Windows\system32\ODBC32.dll LoadedModule[15]=C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\combase.dll LoadedModule[16]=C:\Windows\system32\RPCRT4.dll LoadedModule[17]=C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\sechost.dll LoadedModule[18]=C:\Windows\system32\ADVAPI32.dll LoadedModule[19]=C:\Windows\system32\SHCORE.DLL LoadedModule[20]=C:\Windows\system32\IMM32.DLL LoadedModule[21]=C:\Windows\system32\MSCTF.dll LoadedModule[22]=C:\Windows\system32\DUI70.dll LoadedModule[23]=C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.9200.16579_none_418ab7ef718b27ef\Comctl32.dll LoadedModule[24]=C:\Windows\system32\SHELL32.dll LoadedModule[25]=C:\Windows\system32\CRYPTBASE.dll LoadedModule[26]=C:\Windows\system32\bcryptPrimitives.dll LoadedModule[27]=C:\Windows\system32\urlmon.dll LoadedModule[28]=C:\Windows\system32\iertutil.dll LoadedModule[29]=C:\Windows\system32\WININET.dll LoadedModule[30]=C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\clbcatq.dll LoadedModule[31]=C:\Windows\system32\mmcndmgr.dll LoadedModule[32]=C:\Windows\System32\msxml6.dll LoadedModule[33]=C:\Windows\system32\profapi.dll LoadedModule[34]=C:\Windows\system32\apphelp.dll LoadedModule[35]=C:\Windows\system32\dwmapi.dll LoadedModule[36]=C:\Windows\System32\oleacc.dll LoadedModule[37]=C:\Windows\system32\CRYPTSP.dll LoadedModule[38]=C:\Windows\system32\rsaenh.dll LoadedModule[39]=C:\Windows\system32\NetworkExplorer.dll LoadedModule[40]=C:\Windows\system32\PROPSYS.dll LoadedModule[41]=C:\Windows\system32\SETUPAPI.dll LoadedModule[42]=C:\Windows\system32\CFGMGR32.dll LoadedModule[43]=C:\Windows\system32\DEVOBJ.dll LoadedModule[44]=C:\Windows\system32\mlang.dll LoadedModule[45]=C:\Windows\system32\xmllite.dll LoadedModule[46]=C:\Windows\system32\VERSION.dll LoadedModule[47]=C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\mscoree.dll LoadedModule[48]=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\mscoreei.dll LoadedModule[49]=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\clr.dll LoadedModule[50]=C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\MSVCR110_CLR0400.dll LoadedModule[51]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\mscorlib\fa44d07a6b592198dfeae841489f295b\mscorlib.ni.dll LoadedModule[52]=C:\Windows\system32\sxs.dll LoadedModule[53]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\System\577825eedb03a45fd7327050e85d0c44\System.ni.dll LoadedModule[54]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\MMCEx\9b714b187bfb304526df6d4e6160e15c\MMCEx.ni.dll LoadedModule[55]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\MMCFxCommon\3804721e3998fdf29b06e86bcfe92eb8\MMCFxCommon.ni.dll LoadedModule[56]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\System.Configuration\e3873005e8829578178618d41d012849\System.Configuration.ni.dll LoadedModule[57]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\System.Xml\aea95442f7e98cffc3c849fe3b0658d6\System.Xml.ni.dll LoadedModule[58]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\System.Drawing\f28da0d8140095c5c86e9f2443878807\System.Drawing.ni.dll LoadedModule[59]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\System.Windows.Forms\c2f5f2174cecd9faaf74a0cdeebfdd49\System.Windows.Forms.ni.dll LoadedModule[60]=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\diasymreader.dll LoadedModule[61]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\Microsoft.Mff1be75b#\3c16df28b2935a005a7fd0da96e0ff6c\Microsoft.ManagementConsole.ni.dll LoadedModule[62]=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\clrjit.dll LoadedModule[63]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\DfsMgmt\ed2ebd5dc4469285040f2e21c5e990dc\DfsMgmt.ni.dll LoadedModule[64]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\DfsObjectModel\43ed7ca19e7c26cbf27c5c8a2e0fec93\DfsObjectModel.ni.dll LoadedModule[65]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\CfsCommonUIFx\aea54a98ed63ebeaa6703e9f0a724ac8\CfsCommonUIFx.ni.dll LoadedModule[66]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\Interop.DFSRHelper\3780b83ee96c137664d8807e7042768f\Interop.DFSRHelper.ni.dll LoadedModule[67]=C:\Windows\system32\WindowsCodecs.dll LoadedModule[68]=C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_5.82.9200.16384_none_7762d5fd3178b04e\comctl32.dll LoadedModule[69]=C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft.windows.gdiplus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.1.9200.16518_none_726fbfe0cc22f012\gdiplus.dll LoadedModule[70]=C:\Windows\system32\DWrite.dll LoadedModule[71]=C:\Windows\system32\COMDLG32.dll LoadedModule[72]=C:\Windows\system32\Netapi32.dll LoadedModule[73]=C:\Windows\system32\netutils.dll LoadedModule[74]=C:\Windows\system32\srvcli.dll LoadedModule[75]=C:\Windows\system32\wkscli.dll LoadedModule[76]=C:\Windows\system32\clusapi.dll LoadedModule[77]=C:\Windows\system32\cryptdll.dll LoadedModule[78]=C:\Windows\system32\WS2_32.dll LoadedModule[79]=C:\Windows\system32\NSI.dll LoadedModule[80]=C:\Windows\system32\mswsock.dll LoadedModule[81]=C:\Windows\system32\DNSAPI.dll LoadedModule[82]=C:\Windows\System32\rasadhlp.dll LoadedModule[83]=C:\Windows\system32\IPHLPAPI.DLL LoadedModule[84]=C:\Windows\system32\WINNSI.DLL LoadedModule[85]=C:\Windows\System32\fwpuclnt.dll LoadedModule[86]=C:\Windows\system32\DFSCLI.DLL LoadedModule[87]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\System.Dired13b18a9#\0acd265b442254788d2d1429c296558c\System.DirectoryServices.ni.dll LoadedModule[88]=C:\Windows\system32\ntdsapi.dll LoadedModule[89]=C:\Windows\system32\LOGONCLI.DLL LoadedModule[90]=C:\Windows\system32\activeds.dll LoadedModule[91]=C:\Windows\system32\adsldpc.dll LoadedModule[92]=C:\Windows\system32\WLDAP32.dll LoadedModule[93]=C:\Windows\system32\adsldp.dll LoadedModule[94]=C:\Windows\system32\SspiCli.dll LoadedModule[95]=C:\Windows\system32\DSPARSE.dll LoadedModule[96]=C:\Windows\system32\msv1_0.DLL LoadedModule[97]=C:\Windows\system32\cscapi.dll LoadedModule[98]=C:\Windows\system32\DSROLE.DLL LoadedModule[99]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\System.Dire5d62f0a2#\819205bfacb57978948171e414993369\System.DirectoryServices.Protocols.ni.dll LoadedModule[100]=C:\Windows\System32\objsel.dll LoadedModule[101]=C:\Windows\System32\Secur32.dll LoadedModule[102]=C:\Windows\System32\credui.dll LoadedModule[103]=C:\Windows\system32\CRYPT32.dll LoadedModule[104]=C:\Windows\system32\MSASN1.dll LoadedModule[105]=C:\Windows\System32\DPAPI.DLL LoadedModule[106]=C:\Windows\system32\riched32.dll LoadedModule[107]=C:\Windows\system32\RICHED20.dll LoadedModule[108]=C:\Windows\system32\USP10.dll LoadedModule[109]=C:\Windows\system32\msls31.dll LoadedModule[110]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.Globalization.dll LoadedModule[111]=C:\Windows\System32\Bcp47Langs.dll LoadedModule[112]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\System.Serv759bfb78#\e44b9230fcc7dc263820eff07cfc6353\System.ServiceProcess.ni.dll LoadedModule[113]=C:\Windows\system32\kerberos.DLL LoadedModule[114]=C:\Windows\system32\bcrypt.dll LoadedModule[115]=C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\Accessibility\e69795104b16b74fe9c1e7dff4f3f510\Accessibility.ni.dll LoadedModule[116]=C:\Windows\system32\MPR.dll LoadedModule[117]=C:\Windows\System32\drprov.dll LoadedModule[118]=C:\Windows\System32\WINSTA.dll LoadedModule[119]=C:\Windows\System32\ntlanman.dll LoadedModule[120]=C:\Windows\system32\explorerframe.dll FriendlyEventName=Stopped working ConsentKey=CLR20r3 AppName=Microsoft Management Console AppPath=C:\Windows\system32\mmc.exe NsPartner=windows NsGroup=windows8 Application Log Event ID: 1000 Faulting application name: mmc.exe, version: 6.2.9200.16496, time stamp: 0x50ece2e8 Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.2.9200.16451, time stamp: 0x50988aa6 Exception code: 0xe0434352 Fault offset: 0x000000000003811c Faulting process id: 0xd30 Faulting application start time: 0x01ce71411a7b775b Faulting application path: C:\Windows\system32\mmc.exe Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\KERNELBASE.dll Report Id: d15d0d37-dd36-11e2-93fb-005056af764c Faulting package full name: Faulting package-relative application ID: Application Log Event ID: 1026 Application: mmc.exe Framework Version: v4.0.30319 Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception. Exception Info: System.Runtime.InteropServices.SEHException Stack: at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.ThemingScope.DeactivateActCtx(Int32 dwFlags, IntPtr lpCookie) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context) at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Internal.SnapInMessagePumpProxy.Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Internal.ISnapInMessagePumpProxy.Run() at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Executive.SnapInThread.OnThreadStart() at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object) at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

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  • Slides and Links from SQL Azure session at BizSpark Azure Day in London

    - by Eric Nelson
    A big thanks to all who attended my two sessions on SQL Azure yesterday (29th March 2010). As promised, my slides and links from the session. SQL Azure Overview for Bizspark day View more presentations from Eric Nelson. Related Links: UK Azure Online Community – join today. UK Windows Azure Site Start working with Windows Azure SQL Azure maximum database size rises from 10GB to 50GB in June TCO and ROI calculator for Windows Azure SQL Azure Migration Wizard

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  • Northwind now available on SQL Azure

    - by jamiet
    Two weeks ago I made available a copy of [AdventureWorks2012] on SQL Azure and published credentials so that anyone from the SQL community could connect up and experience SQL Azure, probably for the first time. One of the (somewhat) popular requests thereafter was to make the venerable Northwind database available too so I am pleased to say that as of right now, Northwind is up there too. You will notice immediately that all of the Northwind tables (and the stored procedures and views too) have been moved into a schema called [Northwind] – this was so that they could be easily differentiated from the existing [AdventureWorks2012] objects. I used an SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) project to publish the schema and data up to this SQL Azure database; if you are at all interested in poking around that SSDT project then I have made it available on Codeplex for your convenience under the MS-PL license – go and get it from https://northwindssdt.codeplex.com/. Using SSDT proved particularly useful as it alerted me to some aspects of Northwind that were not compatible with SQL Azure, namely that five of the tables did not have clustered indexes: The beauty of using SSDT is that I am alerted to these issues before I even attempt a connection to SQL Azure. Pretty cool, no? Fixing this situation was of course very easy, I simply changed the following primary keys from being nonclustered to clustered: [PK_Region] [PK_CustomerDemographics] [PK_EmployeeTerritories] [PK_Territories] [PK_CustomerCustomerDemo]   If you want to connect up then here are the credentials that you will need: Server mhknbn2kdz.database.windows.net Database AdventureWorks2012 User sqlfamily Password sqlf@m1ly You will need SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 2008R2 installed in order to connect or alternatively simply use this handy website: https://mhknbn2kdz.database.windows.net which provides a web interface to a SQL Azure server. Do remember that hosting this database is not free so if you find that you are making use of it please help to keep it available by visiting Paypal and donating any amount at all to [email protected]. To make this easy you can simply hit this link and the details will be completed for you – all you have to do is login and hit the “Send” button. If you are already a PayPal member then it should take you all of about 20 seconds! I hope this is useful to some of you folks out there. Don’t forget that we also have more data up there than in the conventional [AdventureWorks2012], read more at Big AdventureWorks2012. @Jamiet  AdventureWorks on Azure - Provided by the SQL Server community, for the SQL Server community!

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  • SQL Azure Reporting Limited CTP Arrived

    - by Shaun
    It’s about 3 months later when I registered the SQL Azure Reporting CTP on the Microsoft Connect after TechED 2010 China. Today when I checked my mailbox I found that the SQL Azure team had just accepted my request and sent the activation code over to me. So let’s have a look on the new SQL Azure Reporting.   Concept The SQL Azure Reporting provides cloud-based reporting as a service, built on SQL Server Reporting Services and SQL Azure technologies. Cloud-based reporting solutions such as SQL Azure Reporting provide many benefits, including rapid provisioning, cost-effective scalability, high availability, and reduced management overhead for report servers; and secure access, viewing, and management of reports. By using the SQL Azure Reporting service, we can do: Embed the Visual Studio Report Viewer ADO.NET Ajax control or Windows Form control to view the reports deployed on SQL Azure Reporting Service in our web or desktop application. Leverage the SQL Azure Reporting SOAP API to manage and retrieve the report content from any kinds of application. Use the SQL Azure Reporting Service Portal to navigate and view the reports deployed on the cloud. Since the SQL Azure Reporting was built based on the SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Service, we can use any tools we are familiar with, such as the SQL Server Integration Studio, Visual Studio Report Viewer. The SQL Azure Reporting Service runs as a remote SQL Server Reporting Service just on the cloud rather than on a server besides us.   Establish a New SQL Azure Reporting Let’s move to the windows azure deveploer portal and click the Reporting item from the left side navigation bar. If you don’t have the activation code you can click the Sign Up button to send a requirement to the Microsoft Connect. Since I already recieved the received code mail I clicked the Provision button. Then after agree the terms of the service I will select the subscription for where my SQL Azure Reporting CTP should be provisioned. In this case I selected my free Windows Azure Pass subscription. Then the final step, paste the activation code and enter the password of our SQL Azure Reporting Service. The user name of the SQL Azure Reporting will be generated by SQL Azure automatically. After a while the new SQL Azure Reporting Server will be shown on our developer portal. The Reporting Service URL and the user name will be shown as well. We can reset the password from the toolbar button.   Deploy Report to SQL Azure Reporting If you are familiar with SQL Server Reporting Service you will find this part will be very similar with what you know and what you did before. Firstly we open the SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio and create a new Report Server Project. Then we will create a shared data source where the report data will be retrieved from. This data source can be SQL Azure but we can use local SQL Server or other database if it opens the port up. In this case we use a SQL Azure database located in the same data center of our reporting service. In the Credentials tab page we entered the user name and password to this SQL Azure database. The SQL Azure Reporting CTP only available at the North US Data Center now so that the related SQL Server and hosted service might be better to select the same data center to avoid the external data transfer fee. Then we create a very simple report, just retrieve all records from a table named Members and have a table in the report to list them. In the data source selection step we choose the shared data source we created before, then enter the T-SQL to select all records from the Member table, then put all fields into the table columns. The report will be like this as following In order to deploy the report onto the SQL Azure Reporting Service we need to update the project property. Right click the project node from the solution explorer and select the property item. In the Target Server URL item we will specify the reporting server URL of our SQL Azure Reporting. We can go back to the developer portal and select the reporting node from the left side, then copy the Web Service URL and paste here. But notice that we need to append “/reportserver” after pasted. Then just click the Deploy menu item in the context menu of the project, the Visual Studio will compile the report and then upload to the reporting service accordingly. In this step we will be prompted to input the user name and password of our SQL Azure Reporting Service. We can get the user name from the developer portal, just next to the Web Service URL in the SQL Azure Reporting page. And the password is the one we specified when created the reporting service. After about one minute the report will be deployed succeed.   View the Report in Browser SQL Azure Reporting allows us to view the reports which deployed on the cloud from a standard browser. We copied the Web Service URL from the reporting service main page and appended “/reportserver” in HTTPS protocol then we will have the SQL Azure Reporting Service login page. After entered the user name and password of the SQL Azure Reporting Service we can see the directories and reports listed. Click the report will launch the Report Viewer to render the report.   View Report in a Web Role with the Report Viewer The ASP.NET and Windows Form Report Viewer works well with the SQL Azure Reporting Service as well. We can create a ASP.NET Web Role and added the Report Viewer control in the default page. What we need to change to the report viewer are Change the Processing Mode to Remote. Specify the Report Server URL under the Server Remote category to the URL of the SQL Azure Reporting Web Service URL with “/reportserver” appended. Specify the Report Path to the report which we want to display. The report name should NOT include the extension name. For example my report was in the SqlAzureReportingTest project and named MemberList.rdl then the report path should be /SqlAzureReportingTest/MemberList. And the next one is to specify the SQL Azure Reporting Credentials. We can use the following class to wrap the report server credential. 1: private class ReportServerCredentials : IReportServerCredentials 2: { 3: private string _userName; 4: private string _password; 5: private string _domain; 6:  7: public ReportServerCredentials(string userName, string password, string domain) 8: { 9: _userName = userName; 10: _password = password; 11: _domain = domain; 12: } 13:  14: public WindowsIdentity ImpersonationUser 15: { 16: get 17: { 18: return null; 19: } 20: } 21:  22: public ICredentials NetworkCredentials 23: { 24: get 25: { 26: return null; 27: } 28: } 29:  30: public bool GetFormsCredentials(out Cookie authCookie, out string user, out string password, out string authority) 31: { 32: authCookie = null; 33: user = _userName; 34: password = _password; 35: authority = _domain; 36: return true; 37: } 38: } And then in the Page_Load method, pass it to the report viewer. 1: protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) 2: { 3: ReportViewer1.ServerReport.ReportServerCredentials = new ReportServerCredentials( 4: "<user name>", 5: "<password>", 6: "<sql azure reporting web service url>"); 7: } Finally deploy it to Windows Azure and enjoy the report.   Summary In this post I introduced the SQL Azure Reporting CTP which had just available. Likes other features in Windows Azure, the SQL Azure Reporting is very similar with the SQL Server Reporting. As you can see in this post we can use the existing and familiar tools to build and deploy the reports and display them on a website. But the SQL Azure Reporting is just in the CTP stage which means It is free. There’s no support for it. Only available at the North US Data Center. You can get more information about the SQL Azure Reporting CTP from the links following SQL Azure Reporting Limited CTP at MSDN SQL Azure Reporting Samples at TechNet Wiki You can download the solutions and the projects used in this post here.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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  • Windows 8 RTM ‘Keyboard Shortcuts’ Super List

    - by Asian Angel
    Now that Windows 8 RTM has been out for a bit you may be wondering about all of the new keyboard shortcuts associated with the system. Yash Tolia from the MSDN blog has put together a super list of all the keyboard shortcuts you could ever want into one awesome post. A quick copy, paste, and save/print using your favorite word processing program will help keep this terrific list on hand for easy reference whenever you need it! List of Windows 8 Shortcuts [Nirmal TV] HTG Explains: What The Windows Event Viewer Is and How You Can Use It HTG Explains: How Windows Uses The Task Scheduler for System Tasks HTG Explains: Why Do Hard Drives Show the Wrong Capacity in Windows?

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  • We are hiring (take a minute to read this, is not another BS talk ;) )

    - by gsusx
    I really wanted to wait until our new website was out to blog about this but I hope you can put up with the ugly website for a few more days J. Tellago keeps growing and, after a quick break at the beginning of the year, we are back in hiring mode J. We are currently expanding our teams in the United States and Argentina and have various positions open in the following categories. .NET developers: If you are an exceptional .NET programmer with a passion for creating great software solutions working...(read more)

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  • Windows Azure Myths

    - by BuckWoody
    Windows Azure is part of the Microsoft "stack" - the suite of software and services we offer. Because we have so many products in almost every part of technology, it's hard to know everything about all parts of what we do - even for those of us who work here. So it's no surprise that some folks are not as familiar with Windows and SQL Azure as they are, say Windows Server or XBox. As I chat with folks about a solution for a business or organization need, I put Windows Azure into the mix. I always start off with "What do you already know about Windows Azure?" so that I don't bore folks with information they already have. I some cases they've checked out the product ahead of time and have specific questions, in others they aren't as familiar, and in still others there is a fair amount of mis-information. Sometimes that's because of a marketing failure, sometimes it's hearsay, and somtetimes it's active misinformation. I thought I might lay out a few of these misconceptions. As always - do your fact-checking! Never take anyone's word alone (including mine) as gospel. Make sure you educate yourself on your options. Your company or your clients depend on you to have the right information on IT, so make sure you live up to that. Myth 1: Nobody uses Windows Azure It's true that we don't give out numbers on the amount of clients on Windows and SQL Azure. But lots of folks are here - companies you may have heard of like Boeing, NASA, Fujitsu, The City of London, Nuedesic, and many others. I deal with firms small and large that use Windows Azure for mission-critical applications, sometimes totally on Windows and/or SQL Azure, sometimes in conjunction with an on-premises system, sometimes for only a specific component in Windows Azure like storage. The interesting thing is that many sites you visit have a Windows Azure component, or are running on Windows Azure. They just don't announce it. Just like the other cloud providers, the companies have asked to be completely branded themselves - they don't want you to be aware or care that they are on Windows Azure. Sometimes that's for security, other times it's for different reasons. It's just like the web sites you visit. For the most part, they don't advertise which OS or Web Server they use. It really just shouldn't matter. The point is that they just use what works to solve a given problem. Check out a few public case studies here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/case-studies/ Myth 2: It's only for Microsoft stuff - can't use Open Source This is the one I face the most, and am the most dismayed by. We work just fine with many open source products, including Java, NodeJS, PHP, Ruby, Python, Hadoop, and many other languages and applications. You can quickly deploy a Wordpress, Umbraco and other "kits". We have software development kits (SDK's) for iPhones, iPads, Android, Windows phones and more. We have an SDK to work with FaceBook and other social networks. In short, we play well with others. More on the languages and runtimes we support here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/overview/ More on the SDK's here: http://www.wadewegner.com/2011/05/windows-azure-toolkit-for-ios/, http://www.wadewegner.com/2011/08/windows-azure-toolkits-for-devices-now-with-android/, http://azuretoolkit.codeplex.com/ Myth 3: Microsoft expects me to switch everything to "the cloud" No, we don't. That would be disasterous, unless the only things you run in your company uses works perfectly in Azure. Use Windows Azure  - or any cloud for that matter - where it works. Whenever I talk to companies, I focus on two things: Something that is broken and needs to be re-architected Something you want to do that is new If something is broken, and you need new tools to scale, extend, add capacity dynamically and so on, then you can consider using Windows or SQL Azure. It can help solve problems that you have, or it may include a component you don't want to write or architect yourself. Sometimes you want to do something new, like extend your company's offerings to mobile phones, to the web, or to a social network. More info on where it works here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx Myth 4: I have to write code to use Windows and SQL Azure If Windows Azure is a PaaS - a Platform as a Service - then don't you have to write code to use it? Nope. Windows and SQL Azure are made up of various components. Some of those components allow you to write and deploy code (like Compute) and others don't. We have lots of customers using Windows Azure storage as a backup, to securely share files instead of using DropBox, to distribute videos or code or firmware, and more. Others use our High Performance Computing (HPC) offering to rent a supercomputer when they need one. You can even throw workloads at that using Excel! In addition there are lots of other components in Windows Azure you can use, from the Windows Azure Media Services to others. More here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/scenarios/saas/ Myth 5: Windows Azure is just another form of "vendor lock-in" Windows Azure uses .NET, OSS languages and standard interfaces for the code. Sure, you're not going to take the code line-for-line and run it on a mainframe, but it's standard code that you write, and can port to something else. And the data is yours - you can bring it back whever you want. It's either in text or binary form, that you have complete control over. There are no licenses - you can "pay as you go", and when you're done, you can leave the service and take all your code, data and IP with you.   So go out there, read up, try it. Use it where it works. And don't believe everything you hear - sometimes the Internet doesn't get it all correct. :)

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  • Windows Azure Myths

    - by BuckWoody
    Windows Azure is part of the Microsoft "stack" - the suite of software and services we offer. Because we have so many products in almost every part of technology, it's hard to know everything about all parts of what we do - even for those of us who work here. So it's no surprise that some folks are not as familiar with Windows and SQL Azure as they are, say Windows Server or XBox. As I chat with folks about a solution for a business or organization need, I put Windows Azure into the mix. I always start off with "What do you already know about Windows Azure?" so that I don't bore folks with information they already have. I some cases they've checked out the product ahead of time and have specific questions, in others they aren't as familiar, and in still others there is a fair amount of mis-information. Sometimes that's because of a marketing failure, sometimes it's hearsay, and somtetimes it's active misinformation. I thought I might lay out a few of these misconceptions. As always - do your fact-checking! Never take anyone's word alone (including mine) as gospel. Make sure you educate yourself on your options. Your company or your clients depend on you to have the right information on IT, so make sure you live up to that. Myth 1: Nobody uses Windows Azure It's true that we don't give out numbers on the amount of clients on Windows and SQL Azure. But lots of folks are here - companies you may have heard of like Boeing, NASA, Fujitsu, The City of London, Nuedesic, and many others. I deal with firms small and large that use Windows Azure for mission-critical applications, sometimes totally on Windows and/or SQL Azure, sometimes in conjunction with an on-premises system, sometimes for only a specific component in Windows Azure like storage. The interesting thing is that many sites you visit have a Windows Azure component, or are running on Windows Azure. They just don't announce it. Just like the other cloud providers, the companies have asked to be completely branded themselves - they don't want you to be aware or care that they are on Windows Azure. Sometimes that's for security, other times it's for different reasons. It's just like the web sites you visit. For the most part, they don't advertise which OS or Web Server they use. It really just shouldn't matter. The point is that they just use what works to solve a given problem. Check out a few public case studies here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/case-studies/ Myth 2: It's only for Microsoft stuff - can't use Open Source This is the one I face the most, and am the most dismayed by. We work just fine with many open source products, including Java, NodeJS, PHP, Ruby, Python, Hadoop, and many other languages and applications. You can quickly deploy a Wordpress, Umbraco and other "kits". We have software development kits (SDK's) for iPhones, iPads, Android, Windows phones and more. We have an SDK to work with FaceBook and other social networks. In short, we play well with others. More on the languages and runtimes we support here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/overview/ More on the SDK's here: http://www.wadewegner.com/2011/05/windows-azure-toolkit-for-ios/, http://www.wadewegner.com/2011/08/windows-azure-toolkits-for-devices-now-with-android/, http://azuretoolkit.codeplex.com/ Myth 3: Microsoft expects me to switch everything to "the cloud" No, we don't. That would be disasterous, unless the only things you run in your company uses works perfectly in Azure. Use Windows Azure  - or any cloud for that matter - where it works. Whenever I talk to companies, I focus on two things: Something that is broken and needs to be re-architected Something you want to do that is new If something is broken, and you need new tools to scale, extend, add capacity dynamically and so on, then you can consider using Windows or SQL Azure. It can help solve problems that you have, or it may include a component you don't want to write or architect yourself. Sometimes you want to do something new, like extend your company's offerings to mobile phones, to the web, or to a social network. More info on where it works here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx Myth 4: I have to write code to use Windows and SQL Azure If Windows Azure is a PaaS - a Platform as a Service - then don't you have to write code to use it? Nope. Windows and SQL Azure are made up of various components. Some of those components allow you to write and deploy code (like Compute) and others don't. We have lots of customers using Windows Azure storage as a backup, to securely share files instead of using DropBox, to distribute videos or code or firmware, and more. Others use our High Performance Computing (HPC) offering to rent a supercomputer when they need one. You can even throw workloads at that using Excel! In addition there are lots of other components in Windows Azure you can use, from the Windows Azure Media Services to others. More here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/scenarios/saas/ Myth 5: Windows Azure is just another form of "vendor lock-in" Windows Azure uses .NET, OSS languages and standard interfaces for the code. Sure, you're not going to take the code line-for-line and run it on a mainframe, but it's standard code that you write, and can port to something else. And the data is yours - you can bring it back whever you want. It's either in text or binary form, that you have complete control over. There are no licenses - you can "pay as you go", and when you're done, you can leave the service and take all your code, data and IP with you.   So go out there, read up, try it. Use it where it works. And don't believe everything you hear - sometimes the Internet doesn't get it all correct. :)

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  • Cloud-Burst 2012&ndash;Windows Azure Developer Conference in Sweden

    - by Alan Smith
    The Sweden Windows Azure Group (SWAG) will running “Cloud-Burst 2012”, a two-day Windows Azure conference hosted at the Microsoft offices in Akalla, near Stockholm on the 27th and 28th September, with an Azure Hands-on Labs Day at AddSkills on the 29th September. The event is free to attend, and will be featuring presentations on the latest Azure technologies from Microsoft MVPs and evangelists. The following presentations will be delivered on the Thursday (27th) and Friday (29th): · Connecting Devices to Windows Azure - Windows Azure Technical Evangelist Brady Gaster · Grid Computing with 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles - Connected System Developer MVP Alan Smith · ‘Warts and all’. The truth about Windows Azure development - BizTalk MVP Charles Young · Using Azure to Integrate Applications - BizTalk MVP Charles Young · Riding the Windows Azure Service Bus: Cross-‘Anything’ Messaging - Windows Azure MVP & Regional Director Christian Weyer · Windows Azure, Identity & Access - and you - Developer Security MVP Dominick Baier · Brewing Beer with Windows Azure - Windows Azure MVP Maarten Balliauw · Architectural patterns for the cloud - Windows Azure MVP Maarten Balliauw · Windows Azure Web Sites and the Power of Continuous Delivery - Windows Azure MVP Magnus Mårtensson · Advanced SQL Azure - Analyze and Optimize Performance - Windows Azure MVP Nuno Godinho · Architect your SQL Azure Databases - Windows Azure MVP Nuno Godinho   There will be a chance to get your hands on the latest Azure bits and an Azure trial account at the Hands-on Labs Day on Saturday (29th) with Brady Gaster, Magnus Mårtensson and Alan Smith there to provide guidance, and some informal and entertaining presentations. Attendance for the conference and Hands-on Labs Day is free, but please only register if you can make it, (and cancel if you cannot). Cloud-Burst 2012 event details and registration is here: http://www.azureug.se/CloudBurst2012/ Registration for Sweden Windows Azure Group Stockholm is here: swagmembership.eventbrite.com The event has been made possible by kind contributions from our sponsors, Knowit, AddSkills and Microsoft Sweden.

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  • Scheduling runtime-specified Activity in Workflow 4 RC

    - by johnny g
    Hi, so I have this requirement to kick off Activities provided to me at run-time. To facilitate this, I have set up a WorkflowService that receives Activities as Xaml, hydrates them, and kicks them off. Sounds simple enough ... ... this is my WorkflowService in Xaml <Activity x:Class="Workflow.Services.WorkflowService.WorkflowService" ... xmlns:local1="clr-namespace:Workflow.Activities" > <Sequence sap:VirtualizedContainerService.HintSize="277,272"> <Sequence.Variables> <Variable x:TypeArguments="local:Workflow" Name="Workflow" /> </Sequence.Variables> <sap:WorkflowViewStateService.ViewState> <scg3:Dictionary x:TypeArguments="x:String, x:Object"> <x:Boolean x:Key="IsExpanded">True</x:Boolean> </scg3:Dictionary> </sap:WorkflowViewStateService.ViewState> <p:Receive CanCreateInstance="True" DisplayName="ReceiveSubmitWorkflow" sap:VirtualizedContainerService.HintSize="255,86" OperationName="SubmitWorkflow" ServiceContractName="IWorkflowService"> <p:ReceiveParametersContent> <OutArgument x:TypeArguments="local:Workflow" x:Key="workflow">[Workflow]</OutArgument> </p:ReceiveParametersContent> </p:Receive> <local1:InvokeActivity Activity="[ActivityXamlServices.Load(New System.IO.StringReader(Workflow.Xaml))]" sap:VirtualizedContainerService.HintSize="255,22" /> </Sequence> </Activity> ... which, except for repetitive use of "Workflow" is pretty straight forward. In fact, it's just a Sequence with a Receive and [currently] a custom Activity called InvokeActivity. Get to that in a bit. Receive Activity accepts a custom type, [DataContract] public class Workflow { [DataMember] public string Xaml { get; set; } } which contains a string whose contents are to be interpreted as Xaml. You can see the VB expression that then converts this Xaml to an Activity and passes it on. Now this second bit, the custom InvokeActivity is where I have questions. First question: 1) given an arbitrary task, provided at runtime [as described above] is it possible to kick off this Activity using Activities that ship with WF4RC, out of the box? I'm fairly new, and thought I did a good job going through the API and existing documentation, but may as well ask :) Second: 2) my first attempt at implementing a custom InvokeActivity looked like this public sealed class InvokeActivity : NativeActivity { private static readonly ILog _log = LogManager.GetLogger (typeof (InvokeActivity)); public InArgument<Activity> Activity { get; set; } public InvokeActivity () { _log.DebugFormat ("Instantiated."); } protected override void Execute (NativeActivityContext context) { Activity activity = Activity.Get (context); _log.DebugFormat ("Scheduling activity [{0}]...", activity.DisplayName); // throws exception to lack of metadata! :( ActivityInstance instance = context.ScheduleActivity (activity, OnComplete, OnFault); _log.DebugFormat ( "Scheduled activity [{0}] with instance id [{1}].", activity.DisplayName, instance.Id); } protected override void CacheMetadata (NativeActivityMetadata metadata) { // how does one add InArgument<T> to metadata? not easily // is my first guess base.CacheMetadata (metadata); } // private methods private void OnComplete ( NativeActivityContext context, ActivityInstance instance) { _log.DebugFormat ( "Scheduled activity [{0}] with instance id [{1}] has [{2}].", instance.Activity.DisplayName, instance.Id, instance.State); } private void OnFault ( NativeActivityFaultContext context, Exception exception, ActivityInstance instance) { _log.ErrorFormat ( @"Scheduled activity [{0}] with instance id [{1}] has faulted in state [{2}] {3}", instance.Activity.DisplayName, instance.Id, instance.State, exception.ToStringFullStackTrace ()); } } Which attempts to schedule the specified Activity within the current context. Unfortunately, however, this fails. When I attempt to schedule said Activity, the runtime returns with the following exception The provided activity was not part of this workflow definition when its metadata was being processed. The problematic activity named 'DynamicActivity' was provided by the activity named 'InvokeActivity'. Right, so the "dynamic" Activity provided at runtime is not a member of InvokeActivitys metadata. Googled and came across this. Couldn't sort out how to specify an InArgument<Activity> to metadata cache, so my second question is, naturally, how does one address this issue? Is it ill advised to use context.ScheduleActivity (...) in this manner? Third and final, 3) I have settled on this [simpler] solution for the time being, public sealed class InvokeActivity : NativeActivity { private static readonly ILog _log = LogManager.GetLogger (typeof (InvokeActivity)); public InArgument<Activity> Activity { get; set; } public InvokeActivity () { _log.DebugFormat ("Instantiated."); } protected override void Execute (NativeActivityContext context) { Activity activity = Activity.Get (context); _log.DebugFormat ("Invoking activity [{0}] ...", activity.DisplayName); // synchronous execution ... a little less than ideal, this // seems heavy handed, and not entirely semantic-equivalent // to what i want. i really want to invoke this runtime // activity as if it were one of my own, not a separate // process - wrong mentality? WorkflowInvoker.Invoke (activity); _log.DebugFormat ("Invoked activity [{0}].", activity.DisplayName); } } Which simply invokes specified task synchronously within its own runtime instance thingy [use of WF4 vernacular is certainly questionable]. Eventually, I would like to tap into WF's tracking and possibly persistance facilities. So my third and final question is, in terms of what I would like to do [ie kick off arbitrary workflows inbound from client applications] is this the preferred method? Alright, thanks in advance for your time and consideration :)

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  • Multi-step Workflows: make Workflow A depend on results of Workflow B and/or Workflow C

    - by Joey
    I have been tasked with creating a Software Installation Approval section for our Intranet. When a person requests that a particular piece of software be installed on their workstation, we need to get IT approval and then business approval. Once those are obtained, it is to be installed. I am using Sharepoint Designer to do this. I have List A, where the user enters the information on the requested software. Workflow A then creates a Task in List B, which is then assigned to the IT approver. Workflow B works on List B on item creation, setting the due dates, titles, and other fields, and then pauses until the due date. The IT approver works with the business side and completes the task. Once List B task is complete, the item in List A should be marked as complete -- I have everything up to this point working fine. I want to make this more robust in 2 ways. As the only real option is to mark List B task as "completed", which essentially means "Approved", we have no way of really denying a request. What I want to add is the option to approve or deny a request through the task on List B -- if it is approved, I want the item in List A to continue to show "In Progress" with a custom status of "Approved", and I want to create a new task for software installation; once the installation task is marked as completed, then I want List A to show "Completed" with a status of "Installed". If it is denied, I want the item in List A to show as "Completed", with a status of "Denied". The problem is, I'm not even sure where to start making these modifications. Creating and modifying the custom status fields isn't that big of an issue -- I have messed around with this and I'm fairly confident I can do this easily. My main concern is that I know I will need a Workflow C, but I don't know where or how to trigger this to get the results I need. I've managed to get Workflows A and B working fine, but anything beyond this is really pushing the limit of my knowledge. It's probably obvious that I am rather new to Sharepoint workflows. I was very much thrust into this position and I am still feeling my way around. Thanks in advance for any help!

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  • The Best Free Alternatives to the Windows Task Manager

    - by Lori Kaufman
    The Windows Task Manager is a built-in tool that allows you to check which services are running in the background, how much resources are being used by which software programs, and the all-to-common task of killing programs that are not responding. Even though the Windows Task Manager has several useful tools, there are many free alternatives available that provide additional or expanded features, allowing you to more closely monitor and tweak your system. How To Play DVDs on Windows 8 6 Start Menu Replacements for Windows 8 What Is the Purpose of the “Do Not Cover This Hole” Hole on Hard Drives?

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  • Workflow versioning

    - by Nitra
    I believe I have a fundamental misunderstanding when it comes to workflow engines which I would appreciate if you could help me sort out. I'm not sure if my misunderstanding is specific to the workflow engine I'm using, or if it's a general misunderstanding. I happen to use Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF). TLDR-version WWF allows you to implement business processes in long-running workflows (think months or even years). When started, the workflows can't be changed. But what business process can't change at any time? And if a business process changes, wouldn't you want your software to reflect this change for already started 'instances' of the business process? What am I missing? Background In WWF you define a workflow by combining a set of activites. There are different types of activities - some of them are for flow control, such as the IfElseActivity and the WhileActivty while others allows you to perform actual tasks, such as the CodeActivity wich allows you to run .NET code and the InvokeWebServiceActivity which allows you to call web services. The activites are combined to a workflow using a visual designer. You pretty much drag-and-drop activities from a toolbox to a designer area and connect the activites to each other. The workflow and activities have input paramters, output parameters and variables. We have a single workflow which sometimes runs in a matter of a few days, but it may run for 5-6 months. WWF takes care of persisting the workflow state (what activity are we currently executing, what are the variable values and so on). So far I think WWF makes sense. Some people will prefer to implement a software representation of a business process using a visual designer over writing all of it in code. So what's the issue then? What I don't really get is the following: WWF is designed to take care of long-running workflows. But at the same time, WWF has no built-in functionality which allows you to modify the running workflows. So if you model a business process using a workflow and run that for 6 months, you better hope that the business process does not change. Because if it do, you'll have to have multiple versions of the workflow executing at the same time. This seems like a fundamental design mistake to me, but at the same time it seems more likely that I've misunderstood something. For us, this has had some real-world effects: We release new versions every month, but some workflows may run for a year. This means that we have several versions of the workflow running in parallell, in other words several versions of the business logics. This is the same as having many differnt versions of your code running in production in the same system at the same time, which becomes a bit hard to understand for users. (depending on on whether they clicked a 'Start' button 9 or 10 months ago, the software will behave differently) Our workflow refers to different types of entities and since WWF now has persisted and serialized these we can't really refactor the entities since then existing workflows can't be resumed (deserialization will fail We've received some suggestions on how to handle this When we create a new version of the workflow, cancel all running workflows and create new ones. But in our workflows there's a lot of manual work involved and if we start from scratch a lot of people has to re-do their work. Track what has been done in the workflow and when you create a new one skip activites which have already been executed. I feel that this alternative may work for simple workflows, but it becomes hairy to automatically figure out what activities to skip if there's major refactoring done to a workflow. When we create a new version of the workflow, upgrade old versions using the new WWF 4.5 functionality for upgrading workflows. But then we would have to skip using the visual designer and write code to inject activities in the right places in the workflow. According to MSDN, this upgrade functionality is only intended for minor bug fixes and not larger changes. What am I missing?

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  • How to fix “Add Host to Workflow Farm problem” when installing Windows Azure Workflow in SharePoint2013 Preview

    - by ybbest
    Problem: When I try to configure the windows Azure workflow in SharePoint2013 preview, I got the following error see screenshot below. Detailed log can be found here. Solution: I asked the question in SharePoint StackExchange , Rajat’s help me to fix the problem .The solution for this is quite simple, instead of using the short form for your RunAs account, you should use the fully qualified name. So change administrator@YBBEST to [email protected] make the problem go away as shown below. References: How to: Set up and configure SharePoint 2013 workflows

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  • How to fix “The requested service, ‘net.pipe://localhost/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/appsts.svc’ could not be activated.”

    - by ybbest
    Problem: When I try to publish a SharePoint2013 workflow, I received the error: The requested service, ‘net.pipe://localhost/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/appsts.svc’ could not be activated. After that, my workflow stopped working and every time I start a work I receive the following error message: System.ApplicationException: PreconditionFailed ---> System.ApplicationException: Error in the application. --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Activities.Statements.Throw.Execute(CodeActivityContext context) at System.Activities.CodeActivity.InternalExecute(ActivityInstance instance, ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager) at System.Activities.Runtime.ActivityExecutor.ExecuteActivityWorkItem.ExecuteBody(ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager, Location resultLocation) Analysis: After analysis, I found the error by visiting the http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc and the error I got on the message is                                                                                                                                              Solution: The solution is basically getting more memory to the server. For development environment, you can restart your noderunner.exe or some other services to release some memories. To verify you have enough memory    you can browse to http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc , it should return the information below. Then you can republish your workflow and it will work like a charm.

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  • jQuery and Windows Azure

    - by Stephen Walther
    The goal of this blog entry is to describe how you can host a simple Ajax application created with jQuery in the Windows Azure cloud. In this blog entry, I make no assumptions. I assume that you have never used Windows Azure and I am going to walk through the steps required to host the application in the cloud in agonizing detail. Our application will consist of a single HTML page and a single service. The HTML page will contain jQuery code that invokes the service to retrieve and display set of records. There are five steps that you must complete to host the jQuery application: Sign up for Windows Azure Create a Hosted Service Install the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio Create a Windows Azure Cloud Service Deploy the Cloud Service Sign Up for Windows Azure Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/ and click the Sign up Now button. Select one of the offers. I selected the Introductory Special offer because it is free and I just wanted to experiment with Windows Azure for the purposes of this blog entry.     To sign up, you will need a Windows Live ID and you will need to enter a credit card number. After you finish the sign up process, you will receive an email that explains how to activate your account. Accessing the Developer Portal After you create your account and your account is activated, you can access the Windows Azure developer portal by visiting the following URL: http://windows.azure.com/ When you first visit the developer portal, you will see the one project that you created when you set up your Windows Azure account (In a fit of creativity, I named my project StephenWalther).     Creating a New Windows Azure Hosted Service Before you can host an application in the cloud, you must first add a hosted service to your project. Click your project on the summary page and click the New Service link. You are presented with the option of creating either a new Storage Account or a new Hosted Services.     Because we have code that we want to run in the cloud – the WCF Service -- we want to select the Hosted Services option. After you select this option, you must provide a name and description for your service. This information is used on the developer portal so you can distinguish your services.     When you create a new hosted service, you must enter a unique name for your service (I selected jQueryApp) and you must select a region for this service (I selected Anywhere US). Click the Create button to create the new hosted service.   Install the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio We’ll use Visual Studio to create our jQuery project. Before you can use Visual Studio with Windows Azure, you must first install the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/ and click the Get Tools and SDK button. The Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio works with both Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010.   Installation of the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio is painless. You just need to check some agreement checkboxes and click the Next button a few times and installation will begin:   Creating a Windows Azure Application After you install the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio, you can choose to create a Windows Azure Cloud Service by selecting the menu option File, New Project and selecting the Windows Azure Cloud Service project template. I named my new Cloud Service with the name jQueryApp.     Next, you need to select the type of Cloud Service project that you want to create from the New Cloud Service Project dialog.   I selected the C# ASP.NET Web Role option. Alternatively, I could have picked the ASP.NET MVC 2 Web Role option if I wanted to use jQuery with ASP.NET MVC or even the CGI Web Role option if I wanted to use jQuery with PHP. After you complete these steps, you end up with two projects in your Visual Studio solution. The project named WebRole1 represents your ASP.NET application and we will use this project to create our jQuery application. Creating the jQuery Application in the Cloud We are now ready to create the jQuery application. We’ll create a super simple application that displays a list of records retrieved from a WCF service (hosted in the cloud). Create a new page in the WebRole1 project named Default.htm and add the following code: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Products</title> <style type="text/css"> #productContainer div { border:solid 1px black; padding:5px; margin:5px; } </style> </head> <body> <h1>Product Catalog</h1> <div id="productContainer"></div> <script id="productTemplate" type="text/html"> <div> Name: {{= name }} <br /> Price: {{= price }} </div> </script> <script src="Scripts/jquery-1.4.2.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="Scripts/jquery.tmpl.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> var products = [ {name:"Milk", price:4.55}, {name:"Yogurt", price:2.99}, {name:"Steak", price:23.44} ]; $("#productTemplate").render(products).appendTo("#productContainer"); </script> </body> </html> The jQuery code in this page simply displays a list of products by using a template. I am using a jQuery template to format each product. You can learn more about using jQuery templates by reading the following blog entry by Scott Guthrie: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/05/07/jquery-templates-and-data-linking-and-microsoft-contributing-to-jquery.aspx You can test whether the Default.htm page is working correctly by running your application (hit the F5 key). The first time that you run your application, a database is set up on your local machine to simulate cloud storage. You will see the following dialog: If the Default.htm page works as expected, you should see the list of three products: Adding an Ajax-Enabled WCF Service In the previous section, we created a simple jQuery application that displays an array by using a template. The application is a little too simple because the data is static. In this section, we’ll modify the page so that the data is retrieved from a WCF service instead of an array. First, we need to add a new Ajax-enabled WCF Service to the WebRole1 project. Select the menu option Project, Add New Item and select the Ajax-enabled WCF Service project item. Name the new service ProductService.svc. Modify the service so that it returns a static collection of products. The final code for the ProductService.svc should look like this: using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ServiceModel; using System.ServiceModel.Activation; namespace WebRole1 { public class Product { public string name { get; set; } public decimal price { get; set; } } [ServiceContract(Namespace = "")] [AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Allowed)] public class ProductService { [OperationContract] public IList<Product> SelectProducts() { var products = new List<Product>(); products.Add(new Product {name="Milk", price=4.55m} ); products.Add(new Product { name = "Yogurt", price = 2.99m }); products.Add(new Product { name = "Steak", price = 23.44m }); return products; } } }   In real life, you would want to retrieve the list of products from storage instead of a static array. We are being lazy here. Next you need to modify the Default.htm page to use the ProductService.svc. The jQuery script in the following updated Default.htm page makes an Ajax call to the WCF service. The data retrieved from the ProductService.svc is displayed in the client template. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Products</title> <style type="text/css"> #productContainer div { border:solid 1px black; padding:5px; margin:5px; } </style> </head> <body> <h1>Product Catalog</h1> <div id="productContainer"></div> <script id="productTemplate" type="text/html"> <div> Name: {{= name }} <br /> Price: {{= price }} </div> </script> <script src="Scripts/jquery-1.4.2.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="Scripts/jquery.tmpl.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $.post("ProductService.svc/SelectProducts", function (results) { var products = results["d"]; $("#productTemplate").render(products).appendTo("#productContainer"); }); </script> </body> </html>   Deploying the jQuery Application to the Cloud Now that we have created our jQuery application, we are ready to deploy our application to the cloud so that the whole world can use it. Right-click your jQueryApp project in the Solution Explorer window and select the Publish menu option. When you select publish, your application and your application configuration information is packaged up into two files named jQueryApp.cspkg and ServiceConfiguration.cscfg. Visual Studio opens the directory that contains the two files. In order to deploy these files to the Windows Azure cloud, you must upload these files yourself. Return to the Windows Azure Developers Portal at the following address: http://windows.azure.com/ Select your project and select the jQueryApp service. You will see a mysterious cube. Click the Deploy button to upload your application.   Next, you need to browse to the location on your hard drive where the jQueryApp project was published and select both the packaged application and the packaged application configuration file. Supply the deployment with a name and click the Deploy button.     While your application is in the process of being deployed, you can view a progress bar.     Running the jQuery Application in the Cloud Finally, you can run your jQuery application in the cloud by clicking the Run button.   It might take several minutes for your application to initialize (go grab a coffee). After WebRole1 finishes initializing, you can navigate to the following URL to view your live jQuery application in the cloud: http://jqueryapp.cloudapp.net/default.htm The page is hosted on the Windows Azure cloud and the WCF service executes every time that you request the page to retrieve the list of products. Summary Because we started from scratch, we needed to complete several steps to create and deploy our jQuery application to the Windows Azure cloud. We needed to create a Windows Azure account, create a hosted service, install the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio, create the jQuery application, and deploy it to the cloud. Now that we have finished this process once, modifying our existing cloud application or creating a new cloud application is easy. jQuery and Windows Azure work nicely together. We can take advantage of jQuery to build applications that run in the browser and we can take advantage of Windows Azure to host the backend services required by our jQuery application. The big benefit of Windows Azure is that it enables us to scale. If, all of the sudden, our jQuery application explodes in popularity, Windows Azure enables us to easily scale up to meet the demand. We can handle anything that the Internet might throw at us.

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  • How to fix “The requested service, ‘net.pipe://localhost/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/appsts.svc’ could not be activated.”

    - by ybbest
    Problem: When I try to publish a SharePoint2013 workflow, I received the error: The requested service, ‘net.pipe://localhost/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/appsts.svc’ could not be activated. After that, my workflow stopped working and every time I start a work I receive the following error message: System.ApplicationException: PreconditionFailed ---> System.ApplicationException: Error in the application. --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Activities.Statements.Throw.Execute(CodeActivityContext context) at System.Activities.CodeActivity.InternalExecute(ActivityInstance instance, ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager) at System.Activities.Runtime.ActivityExecutor.ExecuteActivityWorkItem.ExecuteBody(ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager, Location resultLocation) Analysis: After analysis, I found the error by visiting the http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc and the error I got on the message is                                                                                                                                              Solution: The solution is basically getting more memory to the server. For development environment, you can restart your noderunner.exe or some other services to release some memories. To verify you have enough memory    you can browse to http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc , it should return the information below. Then you can republish your workflow and it will work like a charm.

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  • Identity alternative for SQL Azure Federation : are Azure Queues or Service Bus Queues a good choice?

    - by JYL
    As many of developers, I'm looking for a way to integrate my existing app to SQL Azure Federations, and replacing the Identity columns (the primary keys of my tables) is a big problem. For many reasons, I do NOT want use GUID for my primary keys (please don't open the debate about the GUID or not, it's not my question : i just don't want a GUID, period). So I need to build a key provider to replace the "identity" feature of a standard SQL database. I'm using Entity Framework, so i can easily find one place to set the Id value just before the insert (by overriding the SaveChanges method of my ObjectContext class). I just need to find a "not too complicated" implementation for getting the current Id, which is "farm-ready". I've read this SO post : "ID Generation for Sharded Database (Azure Federated Database)" and "Synchronizing Multiple Nodes in Windows Azure from MSDN Magazine", but this solution sounds a bit complicated for me. I'm thinking about creating (automatically) one azure queue for each SQL table, which contain a pre-loaded list of consecutive integer. When I want an Id value, I just have to get a message from the queue (which becomes invisible and is deleted on the way), which give me the current available Id. About the choice between "Windows Azure Queues" and "Windows Azure Service Bus Queues", I prefere "Windows Azure Queues", due to the "high" latency of Service Bus Queues. I don't think that the lack of "ordering garantee" of Azure Queues is a problem. What do you think about that idea of using Azure Queues to provide Id values ? Do you see any argument to give up that idea ? Do you have a better idea, or even a good practice, to provider integer ids in SQL Azure Federation databases ? Thanks.

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  • How to create a link to Nintex Start Workflow Page in the document set home page

    - by ybbest
    In this blog post, I’d like to show you how to create a link to start Nintex Workflow Page in the document set home page. 1. Firstly, you need to upload the latest version of jQuery to the style library of your team site. 2. Then, upload a text file to the style library for writing your own html and JavaScript 3. In the document set home page, insert a new content editor web part and link the text file you just upload. 4. Update the text file with the following content, you can download this file here. <script type="text/javascript" src="/Style%20Library/jquery-1.9.0.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_layouts/sp.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function() { listItemId=getParameterByName("ID"); setTheWorkflowLink("YBBESTDocumentLibrary"); }); function buildWorkflowLink(webRelativeUrl,listId,itemId) { var workflowLink =webRelativeUrl+"_layouts/NintexWorkflow/StartWorkflow.aspx?list="+listId+"&ID="+itemId+"&WorkflowName=Start Approval"; return workflowLink; } function getParameterByName(name) { name = name.replace(/[\[]/, "\\\[").replace(/[\]]/, "\\\]"); var regexS = "[\\?&]" + name + "=([^&#]*)"; var regex = new RegExp(regexS); var results = regex.exec(window.location.search); if(results == null){ return ""; } else{ return decodeURIComponent(results[1].replace(/\+/g, " ")); } } function setTheWorkflowLink(listName) { var SPContext = new SP.ClientContext.get_current(); web = SPContext.get_web(); list = web.get_lists().getByTitle(listName); SPContext.load(web,"ServerRelativeUrl"); SPContext.load(list, 'Title', 'Id'); SPContext.executeQueryAsync(setTheWorkflowLink_Success, setTheWorkflowLink_Fail); } function setTheWorkflowLink_Success(sender, args) { var listId = list.get_id(); var listTitle = list.get_title(); var webRelativeUrl = web.get_serverRelativeUrl(); var startWorkflowLink=buildWorkflowLink(webRelativeUrl,listId,listItemId) $("a#submitLink").attr('href',startWorkflowLink); } function setTheWorkflowLink_Fail(sender, args) { alert("There is a problem setting up the submit exam approval link"); } </script> <a href="" target="_blank" id="submitLink"><span style="font-size:14pt">Start the approval process.</span></a> 5. Save your changes and go to the document set Item, you will see the link is on the home page now. Notes: 1. You can create a link to start the workflow using the following build dynamic string configuration: {Common:WebUrl}/_layouts/NintexWorkflow/StartWorkflow.aspx?list={Common:ListID}&ID={ItemProperty:ID}&WorkflowName=workflowname. With this link you will still need to click the start button, this is standard SharePoint behaviour and cannot be altered. References: http://connect.nintex.com/forums/27143/ShowThread.aspx How to use html and JavaScript in Content Editor web part in SharePoint2010

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  • How to create Adhoc workflow in UCM

    - by vijaykumar.yenne
    UCM has an inbuilt workflow engine that can handle document centric workflow approval/rejection process to ensure the right set of assets go into the repository. Anybody who has gone through the documentation is aware that there are two types of work flows that can be defined using the Workflow Admin applet in UCM namely Criteria and Basic While criteria is an Automatic workflow  process based on certain metadata attributes (Security Group and One of the Metadata Fields) , basic workflow is a manual workflow that need to be initiated by the admin. Any workflow  that can be put on the white board can be translated into the UCM wokflow process and there are concepts like sub workflows, tokens, events. idoc scripting that be introduced to handle any kind of complex workflows. There is a specific Workflow Implementation guide that explains the concepts in detail. One of the standard queries i come across is how to handle adhoc workflows where at the time of contributing the content, the contributors would like to decide on the workflow to be initiated and the users to be picked for approval in each step, hence this post.This is what i want to acheive, i would like to display on my Checkin Screen on the kind of workflows that a contributor could choose from:Based on the Workflow the contributor chooses, the other metadata fields (Step One, Step Two and Step Three)  need to be filled in and these fields decide who the approvers are going to be.1. Create a criteria workflow called One_Step_Review2.create two tokens StepOne <$wfAddUser(xWorkflowStepOne, "user")$>,  OrginalAuthor  <$wfAddUser(wfGet("OriginalAuthor"), "user")$>View image3.create two steps in the work flow created (One_Step_Review)View image4. Edit Step1 of the Workflow and add the Step One token and select the review permissionView image5. In the exit conditions tab have atleast One reveiwerView image6. In the events tab add an entry event <$wfSet("OriginalAuthor",dDocAuthor)$> to capture the contributor who shall be notified in the second step of the workflowView image7. Add the second step Notify_Author to the workflow8. Add the original author token to the above step9.  Enable the workflow10. Open the configration manager applet and create a Metadata field Workflow with option list enabled and add the list of values as show hereView image11. Create another metadata field WorkflowStepOne with option list configured to the Users View. This shall display all the users registered with UCM, which when selected shall be associated with the tokens associated with the workflow. Refer the above token.View imageAs indicated in the above steps you could create multiple work flows and associate the custom metadata field values to the tokens so that the contributors can decide who can approve their  content.

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  • The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

    - by BuckWoody
    At the Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC) in 2010 we announced an addition to the Computational Roles in Windows Azure, called the VM Role. This new feature allows a great deal of control over the applications you write, but some have confused it with our full infrastructure offering in Windows Hyper-V. There is a proper architecture pattern for both of them. Virtualization Virtualization is the process of taking all of the hardware of a physical computer and replicating it in software alone. This means that a single computer can “host” or run several “virtual” computers. These virtual computers can run anywhere - including at a vendor’s location. Some companies refer to this as Cloud Computing since the hardware is operated and maintained elsewhere. IaaS The more detailed definition of this type of computing is called Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) since it removes the need for you to maintain hardware at your organization. The operating system, drivers, and all the other software required to run an application are still under your control and your responsibility to license, patch, and scale. Microsoft has an offering in this space called Hyper-V, that runs on the Windows operating system. Combined with a hardware hosting vendor and the System Center software to create and deploy Virtual Machines (a process referred to as provisioning), you can create a Cloud environment with full control over all aspects of the machine, including multiple operating systems if you like. Hosting machines and provisioning them at your own buildings is sometimes called a Private Cloud, and hosting them somewhere else is often called a Public Cloud. State-ful and Stateless Programming This paradigm does not create a new, scalable way of computing. It simply moves the hardware away. The reason is that when you limit the Cloud efforts to a Virtual Machine, you are in effect limiting the computing resources to what that single system can provide. This is because much of the software developed in this environment maintains “state” - and that requires a little explanation. “State-ful programming” means that all parts of the computing environment stay connected to each other throughout a compute cycle. The system expects the memory, CPU, storage and network to remain in the same state from the beginning of the process to the end. You can think of this as a telephone conversation - you expect that the other person picks up the phone, listens to you, and talks back all in a single unit of time. In “Stateless” computing the system is designed to allow the different parts of the code to run independently of each other. You can think of this like an e-mail exchange. You compose an e-mail from your system (it has the state when you’re doing that) and then you walk away for a bit to make some coffee. A few minutes later you click the “send” button (the network has the state) and you go to a meeting. The server receives the message and stores it on a mail program’s database (the mail server has the state now) and continues working on other mail. Finally, the other party logs on to their mail client and reads the mail (the other user has the state) and responds to it and so on. These events might be separated by milliseconds or even days, but the system continues to operate. The entire process doesn’t maintain the state, each component does. This is the exact concept behind coding for Windows Azure. The stateless programming model allows amazing rates of scale, since the message (think of the e-mail) can be broken apart by multiple programs and worked on in parallel (like when the e-mail goes to hundreds of users), and only the order of re-assembling the work is important to consider. For the exact same reason, if the system makes copies of those running programs as Windows Azure does, you have built-in redundancy and recovery. It’s just built into the design. The Difference Between Infrastructure Designs and Platform Designs When you simply take a physical server running software and virtualize it either privately or publicly, you haven’t done anything to allow the code to scale or have recovery. That all has to be handled by adding more code and more Virtual Machines that have a slight lag in maintaining the running state of the system. Add more machines and you get more lag, so the scale is limited. This is the primary limitation with IaaS. It’s also not as easy to deploy these VM’s, and more importantly, you’re often charged on a longer basis to remove them. your agility in IaaS is more limited. Windows Azure is a Platform - meaning that you get objects you can code against. The code you write runs on multiple nodes with multiple copies, and it all works because of the magic of Stateless programming. you don’t worry, or even care, about what is running underneath. It could be Windows (and it is in fact a type of Windows Server), Linux, or anything else - but that' isn’t what you want to manage, monitor, maintain or license. You don’t want to deploy an operating system - you want to deploy an application. You want your code to run, and you don’t care how it does that. Another benefit to PaaS is that you can ask for hundreds or thousands of new nodes of computing power - there’s no provisioning, it just happens. And you can stop using them quicker - and the base code for your application does not have to change to make this happen. Windows Azure Roles and Their Use If you need your code to have a user interface, in Visual Studio you add a Web Role to your project, and if the code needs to do work that doesn’t involve a user interface you can add a Worker Role. They are just containers that act a certain way. I’ll provide more detail on those later. Note: That’s a general description, so it’s not entirely accurate, but it’s accurate enough for this discussion. So now we’re back to that VM Role. Because of the name, some have mistakenly thought that you can take a Virtual Machine running, say Linux, and deploy it to Windows Azure using this Role. But you can’t. That’s not what it is designed for at all. If you do need that kind of deployment, you should look into Hyper-V and System Center to create the Private or Public Infrastructure as a Service. What the VM Role is actually designed to do is to allow you to have a great deal of control over the system where your code will run. Let’s take an example. You’ve heard about Windows Azure, and Platform programming. You’re convinced it’s the right way to code. But you have a lot of things you’ve written in another way at your company. Re-writing all of your code to take advantage of Windows Azure will take a long time. Or perhaps you have a certain version of Apache Web Server that you need for your code to work. In both cases, you think you can (or already have) code the the software to be “Stateless”, you just need more control over the place where the code runs. That’s the place where a VM Role makes sense. Recap Virtualizing servers alone has limitations of scale, availability and recovery. Microsoft’s offering in this area is Hyper-V and System Center, not the VM Role. The VM Role is still used for running Stateless code, just like the Web and Worker Roles, with the exception that it allows you more control over the environment of where that code runs.

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  • How to fix “Add Host to Workflow Farm problem” when installing Windows Azure Workflow in SharePoint2013 Preview

    - by ybbest
    Problem: When I try to configure the windows Azure workflow in SharePoint2013 preview, I got the following error see screenshot below. Detailed log can be found here. Solution: I asked the question in SharePoint StackExchange , Rajat’s help me to fix the problem .The solution for this is quite simple, instead of using the short form for your RunAs account, you should use the fully qualified name. So change administrator@YBBEST to [email protected] make the problem go away as shown below. Having other problems , check out AC’S blog on trouble-shooting the installation. References: How to: Set up and configure SharePoint 2013 workflows

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  • The Best Free Tools for Creating a Bootable Windows or Linux USB Drive

    - by Lori Kaufman
    If you need to install Windows or Linux and you don’t have access to a CD/DVD drive, a bootable USB drive is the solution. You can boot to the USB drive, using it to run the OS setup program, just like a CD or DVD. We have collected some links to free programs that allow you to easily setup a USB drive to install Windows or Linux on a computer. NOTE: If you have problems getting the BIOS on your computer to let you boot from a USB drive, see our article about booting from a USB drive even if your BIOS won’t let you. What Is the Purpose of the “Do Not Cover This Hole” Hole on Hard Drives? How To Log Into The Desktop, Add a Start Menu, and Disable Hot Corners in Windows 8 HTG Explains: Why You Shouldn’t Use a Task Killer On Android

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