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IIS6 Virtual Directory 500 Error on Remote Share

- by David Boike

We have our servers at the server farm in a domain. Let's call it LIVE. Our developer computers live in a completely separate corporate domain, miles and miles away. Let's call it CORP. We have a large central storage unit (unix) that houses images and other media needed by many webservers in the server farm. The IIS application pools run as (let's say) LIVE\MediaUser and use those credentials to connect to a central storage share as a virtual directory, retrieve the images, and serve them as if they were local on each server. The problem is in development. On my development machine. I log in as CORP\MyName. My IIS 6 application pool runs as Network Service. I can't run it as a user from the LIVE domain because my machine isn't (and can not be) joined to that domain. I try to create a virtual directory, point it to the same network directory, click Connect As, uncheck the "Always use the authenticated user's credentials when validating access to the network directory" checkbox so that I can enter the login info, enter the credentails for LIVE\MediaUser, click OK, verify the password, etc. This doesn't work. I get "HTTP Error 500 - Internal server error" from IIS. The IIS log file reports sc-status = 500, sc-substatus = 16, and sc-win32-status = 1326. The documentation says this means "UNC authorization credentials are incorrect" and the Win32 status means "Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password." This would be all and good if it were anywhere close to accurate. I double- and trouble-checked it. Tried multiple known good logins. The IIS manager allows me to view the file tree in its window, it's only the browser that kicks me out. I even tried going to the virtual directory's Directory Security tab, and under Authentication and Access Control, I tried using the same LIVE domain username for the anonymous access credential. No luck. I'm not trying to run any ASP, ASP.NET, or other dynamic anything out of the virtual directory. I just want IIS to be able to load static images, css, and js files. If anyone has some bright ideas I would be most appreciative!

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TFS2010 Hangs “Waiting for Build Agent”

- by Qpirate

I have asked this question over on SO the link to the question is here but i am hoping this is a better place to ask it. I have 3 VM's each running the TFS Build Host Service 1 has 1 controller and 1 agent 2 have 2 Build Agents each. Most of the time (7\10 builds) it comes back with the following error message TF215097: An error occurred while initializing a build for build definition BUILD_DEFINITION: There was no endpoint listening at http://MACHINE1:9191/Build/v3.0/Services/Controller/14 that could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details. and there is no errors when i do get this message. the following is the config file that i have created <configuration> <appSettings> <add key="traceWriter" value="true"/> </appSettings> <system.diagnostics> <switches> <add name="BuildServiceTraceLevel" value="4"/> <add name="API" value="4"/> <add name="Authentication" value="4"/> <add name="Authorization" value="4"/> <add name="Database" value="4"/> <add name="General" value="4"/> <add name="traceLevel" value="4"/> </switches> <trace autoflush="true" indentsize="4"> <listeners> <add name="myListener" type="Microsoft.TeamFoundation.TeamFoundationTextWriterTraceListener,Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Common, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" initializeData="c:\logs\TFSBuildServiceHost.exe.log" /> <remove name="Default" /> </listeners> </trace> </system.diagnostics> </configuration> I do have my own custom activities in my build process but this does not seem to be a problem as sometimes the build actually does go. I have tried refreshing the template as some sites suggest. Has anyone come across a solution for this problem? or can anyone tell me how to catch these errors when they happen?

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SSL support with Apache and Proxytunnel

- by whuppy

I'm inside a strict corporate environment. https traffic goes out via an internal proxy (for this example it's 10.10.04.33:8443) that's smart enough to block ssh'ing directly to ssh.glakspod.org:443. I can get out via proxytunnel. I set up an apache2 VirtualHost at ssh.glakspod.org:443 thus: ServerAdmin [email protected] ServerName ssh.glakspod.org    ProxyRequests on ProxyVia on AllowCONNECT 22 <Proxy *> Order deny,allow Deny from all Allow from 74.101 </Proxy> So far so good: I hit the Apache proxy with a CONNECT and then PuTTY and my ssh server shake hands and I'm off to the races. There are, however, two problems with this setup: The internal proxy server can sniff my CONNECT request and also see that an SSH handshake is taking place. I want the entire connection between my desktop and ssh.glakspod.org:443 to look like HTTPS traffic no matter how closely the internal proxy inspects it. I can't get the VirtualHost to be a regular https site while proxying. I'd like the proxy to coexist with something like this: SSLEngine on SSLProxyEngine on SSLCertificateFile /path/to/ca/samapache.crt SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/ca/samapache.key SSLCACertificateFile /path/to/ca/ca.crt DocumentRoot /mnt/wallabee/www/html <Directory /mnt/wallabee/www/html/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride None Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory>  <Directory /mnt/wallabee/www/html/sanctum> SSLVerifyClient require SSLOptions +FakeBasicAuth +ExportCertData SSLVerifyDepth 1 </Directory> So my question is: How to I enable SSL support on the ssh.glakspod.org:443 VirtualHost that will work with ProxyTunnel? I've tried various combinations of proxytunnel's -e, -E, and -X flags without any luck. The only lead I've found is Apache Bug No. 29744, but I haven't been able to find a patch that will install cleanly on Ubuntu Jaunty's Apache version 2.2.11-2ubuntu2.6. Thanks in advance.

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I want to virtualize my workstation (Tier 1), Looking for Bare Metal Hypervisor for consumer grade components

- by Chase Florell

I find myself in this similar bind at least once a year. The bind whereby I'm either upgrading a motherboard, or an OS hard drive. It drives me crazy to have to reinstall Windows, Visual Studio, all my addins, reconfigure my settings etc... every single time. I have a layout and I like and I want to stick with it. My question is... Is there a Bare Metal Hypervisor on the market that will enable me to virtualize my consumer grade workstation? I really want to avoid Host/Client virtualization. Bare Metal is definitely a better way to go for my needs. Is this a good approach, or am I going to suffer some other undesirable side effects by doing this? Clarification My machine has very limited purposes. My primary use is Visual Studio 2010 Professional where I develop ASP.NET MVC Web Applications. The second piece of software that I use (that's system intensive) is Photoshop CS3. Beyond that, my applications are limited to Outlook, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, LinqPad, and various other (small) apps. Beyond this, I'm considering working on a node.js project and might run ubuntu on the same hypervisor if possible. System Specs: Gigabyte Motherboard Intel i7 920 12 GB Ram basic 500GB 7200RPM HDD for OS 4 VelociRaptors in Raid 1/0 for build disk Dual GTS250 (512MB) Graphics cards (non SLI) for quad monitors On a side note I also wouldn't be opposed to an alternative suggestion if the limitations are too great. I could install the ESXi (or Zen Server) on my box, and build a separate "thin client" to RDP into the virtual machine. It appears as though RDP supports dual monitors. Edit (Dec 9, 2011) It's been nearly a year since I first asked this question. Since then, there have been a lot of great strides in Hypervisor technology... AND MokaFive is now released for corporate use. I'd love to dig into this question a little more and find out if there is a solid BareMetal Hypervisor for workstations running consumer grade components (IE: not Dell, HP, Lenovo, Etc).

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How can I create an appointment on a shared Outlook calendar

- by roryhewitt

This isn't as basic a question as it may seem. Hence all the descriptive text... I and my team use Outlook 2007. I have my own personal calendar and also I share a calendar with others in my team (which is mainly used to notify everyone of vacations etc.). The others in my team are NOT technical people. I would like to create a shortcut or template that any of us can use to create an appointment in the shared calendar. My initial though was to create a new appointment, but rather than actually put it in the calendar, I would save it as an Outlook Template (.oft) file. Once created, I would send this to my team and tell them to put it in their Templates file and put a shortcut on their desktop. Then, if they want to put a vacation in the shared calendar, they just double-click on the shortcut, change the dates etc. and then save & close it. However, when I do that, it doesn't save the fact that it's an appointment on the shared calendar - it just adds the appointment to the team member's personal calendar. There doesn't seem to be a way to specify a calendar in the template. I've also tried this by saving the template as a .ics or .vcs file, with no better luck. Additionally, if a team member adds an appointment to the shared calendar, other 'sharees' aren't notified, unless the appointment is actually created as a meeting and the other sharees are explicitly invited. I found this online (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/keep-everyone-informed-about-time-away-from-the-office-HA010209819.aspx) which APPEARS to say that what I want to do isn't built in functionality (since it shows a bunch of steps to go through. I'd PREFER not to have to add this stuff to everyone else's personal calendar directly. So... Is this possible to do, natively (i.e. directly in Outlook)? Would a Sharepoint calendar make more sense and allow this functionality? Is there a way to do what I want which will allow the other team members to be notified? Like I said, I'm looking for as simple an interface as possible - these people aren't going to want to do much more than open something and change dates. Additionally, they're probably not going to have any fancy software on their PC's, although they will be up to date with Java and (maybe) .NET frameworks. Also, before anyone gets funny, yes, this has to work with Outlook 2007, as it's a corporate standard - we're not able to change that, even though e.g. Google Calendar would do this wonderfully. Obviously if this functionality is available in Outlook 2010, then fantastic - we might be able to upgrade. Thanks!

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Moving default web site to another drive

- by Chadworthington

I set the default location from c:\inetpub\wwwroot to d:\inetpub\wwwroot but when I access my .NET 4.0 site get this error: Description: An error occurred during the processing of a configuration file required to service this request. Please review the specific error details below and modify your configuration file appropriately. Parser Error Message: Unrecognized attribute 'targetFramework'. Note that attribute names are case-sensitive. Source Error: Line 105: Set explicit="true" to force declaration of all variables. Line 106: --> Line 107: <compilation debug="true" strict="true" explicit="true" targetFramework="4.0"> Line 108: <assemblies> Line 109: <add assembly="System.Web.Extensions.Design, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> When I try to Manage the Basic Settings on the Site and click the "Test Settings" button, I see that I have a problem under "authorization:" The server is configured to use pass-through authentication with a built-in account to access the specified physical path. However, IIS Manager cannot verify whether the built-in account has access. Make sure that the application pool identity has Read access to the physical path. If this server is joined to a domain, and the application pool identity is NetworkService or LocalSystem, verify that <domain>\<computer_name>$ has Read access to the physical path. Then test these settings again. 1) Do I need to grant rights to IIS to the new folder? Which user? I thought it was something like IIS_USER or something similar but I cannot determine the correct name of the user. 2) Also, do I need to set the default version of the framework somewhere at the Default Site level or at the Virtual folder level? How is this done in IIS6, I am used to IIS5 or whatever came with XP Pro. 3) My original site had a subfolder under wwwroot called "aspnet_client." How was this cleated? I manually copied it to the corresponding new location. My app was using seperate ASP specific databases for storing session state and role info, if that is relevant. Thanks

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Network switching issues with MacOS 10.7?

- by Denis

I'm having a wired problem and hope somebody can tip me, what way should I dig to. I'm using MacBookPro with Lion 10.7.3 both at my working place & at home. At working place, we have a domain-based network with 802.1x authorization (more than 400 computers) and to connect it I'm using Ethernet cable. IP range is 10.10.2.*. All network settings are setup automatically by DHCP. Also, in settings, I have Network Account Server setup in the User&Groups Settings for my work Domain server - and it is available only from corporate network. At home, I have an ADSL router, that shares Internet connection by WiFi in NAT mode. I'm using WiFi to connect it. Router gives out addresses from 192.168.1.* range and all settings are also set up by router's DHCP. So, my problem is the following. When I come back home from the office, I open my MacBook and AirPort automatically connects my WiFi network. After this, for about 1 minute I'm able to browse sites & ping hosts successfully. But after this minute, network connection is broken down. All pings return time-out. trace route to google.com stops on 192.168.1.1 (which is my router). This lasts for 3-4 minutes. After that network connection is automatically repaired and all pings go smoothly again. At the same time, when my MacBook return timeouts, I can successfully ping any host from my wife's MacBook - so this doesn't look like router issue. When I come to the office, I don't have any issues and Internet connection is available & stable moments after ethernet cable plugged in. Do anybody has any clues about this? What should I monitor & what settings look for resolving this issue? Please, ask, what additional information should I provide. Hoping for good advice & thanks in advance!

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Is there a Distributed SAN/Storage System out there?

- by Joel Coel

Like many other places, we ask our users not to save files to their local machines. Instead, we encourage that they be put on a file server so that others (with appropriate permissions) can use them and that the files are backed up properly. The result of this is that most users have large hard drives that are sitting mainly empty. It's 2010 now. Surely there is a system out there that lets you turn that empty space into a virtual SAN or document library? What I envision is a client program that is pushed out to users' PCs that coordinates with a central server. The server looks to users just like a normal file server, but instead of keeping entire file contents it merely keeps a record of where those files can be found among various user PCs. It then coordinates with the right clients to serve up file requests. The client software would be able to respond to such requests directly, as well as be smart enough to cache recent files locally. For redundancy the server could make sure files are copied to multiple PCs, perhaps allowing you to define groups in different locations so that an instance of the entire repository lives in each group to protect against a disaster in one building taking down everything else. Obviously you wouldn't point your database server here, but for simpler things I see several advantages: Files can often be transferred from a nearer machine. Disk space grows automatically as your company does. Should ultimately be cheaper, as you don't need to keep a separate set of disks I can see a few downsides as well: Occasional degradation of user pc performance, if the machine has to serve or accept a large file transfer during a busy period. Writes have to be propogated around the network several times (though I suspect this isn't really much of a problem, as reading happens in most places more than writing) Still need a way to send a complete copy of the data offsite occasionally, and this would make it very hard to do differentials Think of this like a cloud storage system that lives entirely within your corporate LAN and makes use of your existing user equipment. Our old main file server is due for retirement in about 2 years, and I'm looking into replacing it with a small SAN. I'm thinking something like this would be a better fit. As a school, we have a couple computer labs I can leave running that would be perfect for adding a little extra redundancy to the system. Unfortunately, the closest thing I can find is Dienst, and it's just a paper that dates back to 1994. Am I just using the wrong buzzwords in my searches, or does this really not exist? If not, is there a big downside that I'm missing?

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How to use AD/GPO/Print Services to "push out" a new printer driver to replace a broken one? How did my server get a broken driver?

- by Zac B

Context: We have an AD/GPO-managed corporate network with a little over a hundred PCs running Windows 7 x64, and a few managed printers. Our Server2008R2 primary domain controller is configured as a print server for them all. Problem: After a recent windows update and restart (no printer driver updates were included) on the DC, a particular shared printer (Lexmark T650) has begin exhibiting some strange behavior. First, it prints a preceding and following blank page for almost every document, on jobs submitted by about half of client machines (no separator page is configured on the server or any of the clients I've seen). Second, whenever someone tries to access "Printing Preferences" on any client, they recieve the following error message (this happens everywhere, 100% of the time, and didn't happen before the update on the DC): Once they click "OK", the prefs screen appears (with no separator page selected) and everything seems fine. I'm not even sure if these two issues are related, but everyone seems affected by one or both of those issues. What I've Tried: I've been hesitant to un-deploy the problem printer, or remove it via GPO, as it's pretty heavily used. I've tried updating (via MS update and our internal WSUS server) client machines and the DC. No printer driver updates have appeared, and no number of updates or restarts on the server or the client seems to have achieved anything other than my boss getting grumpy that I'm bouncing the domain controller so often. I've tried deleting the drivers on the server, and re-installing them from the original source that has worked for the past year...no change. I've tried selecting "New Driver" for one of the shared printers on a client machine, running as domain admin, and pushed the latest driver found by MSupdate back up to the DC. This changed the version number of the driver recorded in the print server manager, but caused no change--on the client I pushed from, or on any other. The error still appears. Question: Why the heck is this happening? Obviously, I got a bad driver from somewhere, but how do I get rid of it? I don't know of any "roll back drivers" functionality for centrally managed print drivers like Windows offers for other devices. How would I a) get this issue resolved on a client, and b) push the fix to the other members of the domain?

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ntpdate works, but ntpd can't synchronize

- by dafydd

This is in RHEL 5.5. First, ntpdate to the remote host works: $ ntpdate XXX.YYY.4.21 24 Oct 16:01:17 ntpdate[5276]: adjust time server XXX.YYY.4.21 offset 0.027291 sec Second, here are the server lines in my /etc/ntp.conf. All restrict lines have been commented out for troubleshooting. server 127.127.1.0 server XXX.YYY.4.21 I execute service ntpd start and check with ntpq: $ ntpq ntpq> peer remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset jitter ============================================================================== *LOCAL(0) .LOCL. 5 l 36 64 377 0.000 0.000 0.001 timeserver.doma .LOCL. 1 u 39 128 377 0.489 51.261 58.975 ntpq> opeer remote local st t when poll reach delay offset disp ============================================================================== *LOCAL(0) 127.0.0.1 5 l 40 64 377 0.000 0.000 0.001 timeserver.doma XXX.YYY.22.169 1 u 43 128 377 0.489 51.261 58.975 XXX.YYY.22.169 is the address of the host I'm working on. A reverse lookup on the IP address in my ntp.conf file validates that the ntpq output is correctly naming the remote server. However, as you can see, it appears to just roll over to my .LOCL. time server. Also, ntptrace just returns the local time server, and ntptrace XXX.YYY.4.21 times out. $ ntptrace localhost.localdomain: stratum 6, offset 0.000000, synch distance 0.948181 $ ntptrace XXX.YYY.4.21 XXX.YYY.4.21: timed out, nothing received ***Request timed out This looks like my ntp daemon is just querying itself. I am thinking about the possibility that the router-I-don't-control between my test network timeserver and the corporate network timeserver is blocking on source port. (I think ntpdate sends on port 123, which gets it around that filter and is why I can't use it while ntpd is running.) I have email in to the network folks to check that. Finally, telnet XXX.YYY.4.21 123 never times out or completes a connection. The questions: What am I missing, here? What else can I check to try to figure out where this connection is failing? Would strace ntptrace XXX.YYY.4.21 show me the source port ntptrace is sending from? I can deconstruct most strace calls, but I can't figure out the location of that datum. If I can't directly examine the gateway router between my test network and the timeserver, how might I build evidence that it's responsible for these disconnections? Alternately, how might I rule it out?

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Sharing files between multiple sites using only desktop software

- by perlyking

Our organisation has three sites; a head office, where the master copies of company files are stored, plus two branch offices using only workstations and a NAS or two. Currently we're talking about <10GB. At the main office, we have no admin access to the file server, as this is entirely controlled by the larger institution where we are located. For the same reason, we have no VPN remote access to this network. Instead, we simply have access to a network share using over a Novell LAN. Question: how can we share files between offices in way that minimises latency, i.e. that gives us a mirror of the main network share at each site? (There is little likelihood of concurrent editing, and we can live with the odd file conflict now and again). Up to now branch office staff have had to use GotoMyPC-type solutions to remotely access files held at the main office. Or email. I was hoping to use Google Drive on a dedicated workstation at each office to sync the contents of the network share (head office) or NAS (branch offices) via the cloud, but at my last attempt (29 Jun '12), the Google Drive installer would not allow me to designate the remote network share as the "target" folder. (I chose Google Drive over Drobbox et al. as we already use GMail for corporate mail) The next idea was to use a designated workstation at head office to mirror the network share to a local drive, then use Google Drive to push that to the cloud. This seems a step too far. Nor do I have any good ideas about how to achieve this network/local mirroring, as we can't, for example, install the rsync daemon on the server. I do not want to use Google Drive locally on each workstation as this will inconvenience users, and more importantly, move files off the backed-up, well-maintained (UPS, RAID etc) network share at head office. Our budget is only in the £100's. Should we perhaps just ditch the head office server and use something like JungleDisk? At least this presents the user with what appears to be a mapped drive.

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ClickOnce manifest problem

- by TWith2Sugars

We are currently deploying a WPF 4 app via click once and there is a scenario when the installation fails. If the user does not have .Net 4.0 Full install and attempts to install our app the framework installs fine but the app fails to install. If we re-run the installation again the app installs fine. Here is a copy of the log: PLATFORM VERSION INFO Windows : 6.1.7600.0 (Win32NT) Common Language Runtime : 2.0.50727.4927 System.Deployment.dll : 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900) mscorwks.dll : 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900) dfdll.dll : 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900) dfshim.dll : 4.0.31106.0 (Main.031106-0000) SOURCES Deployment url : [URL REMOVED] Server : Apache/2.0.54 Application url : [URL REMOVED] Server : Apache/2.0.54 IDENTITIES Deployment Identity : Graphicly.App.application, Version=0.3.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=c982228345371fbc, processorArchitecture=msil Application Identity : Graphicly.App.exe, Version=0.3.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=c982228345371fbc, processorArchitecture=msil, type=win32 APPLICATION SUMMARY * Installable application. ERROR SUMMARY Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log. * Dependency Graphicly.WCFClient.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.WCFClient.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.Design.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.Design.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency GalaSoft.MvvmLight.WPF4.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file GalaSoft.MvvmLight.WPF4.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency Graphicly.Infrastructure.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.Infrastructure.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency Graphicly.AutoUpdater.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.AutoUpdater.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency System.Windows.Interactivity.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file System.Windows.Interactivity.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency Graphicly.Fonts.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.Fonts.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency Graphicly.Reader.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.Reader.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.Generic.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.Generic.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency Graphicly.Controls.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.Controls.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency Graphicly.SocialNetwork.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.SocialNetwork.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency Graphicly.Archive.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.Archive.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency Graphicly.App.exe cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.App.exe: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Dependency GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.WPF4.dll cannot be processed for patching. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.WPF4.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. * Activation of [URL REMOVED] resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected: + Exception occurred loading manifest from file GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.WPF4.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. + Cannot load internal manifest from component file. COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY No transaction error was detected. WARNINGS * The file named Microsoft.Windows.Design.Extensibility.dll does not have a hash specified in the manifest. Hash validation will be ignored. * The file named Ionic.Zip.Reduced.dll does not have a hash specified in the manifest. Hash validation will be ignored. * The file named Newtonsoft.Json.dll does not have a hash specified in the manifest. Hash validation will be ignored. * The file named Microsoft.WindowsAzure.StorageClient.dll does not have a hash specified in the manifest. Hash validation will be ignored. * The file named Dimebrain.TweetSharp.dll does not have a hash specified in the manifest. Hash validation will be ignored. * The file named Microsoft.Windows.Design.Interaction.dll does not have a hash specified in the manifest. Hash validation will be ignored. * The file named HtmlAgilityPack.dll does not have a hash specified in the manifest. Hash validation will be ignored. * The file named Facebook.dll does not have a hash specified in the manifest. Hash validation will be ignored. OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS * [20/05/2010 09:17:33] : Activation of [URL REMOVED] has started. * [20/05/2010 09:17:38] : Processing of deployment manifest has successfully completed. * [20/05/2010 09:17:38] : Installation of the application has started. * [20/05/2010 09:17:39] : Processing of application manifest has successfully completed. * [20/05/2010 09:17:40] : Request of trust and detection of platform is complete. ERROR DETAILS Following errors were detected during this operation. * [20/05/2010 09:17:40] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.WCFClient.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:40] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.Design.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:40] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file GalaSoft.MvvmLight.WPF4.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:40] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.Infrastructure.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:40] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.AutoUpdater.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:40] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file System.Windows.Interactivity.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:40] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:40] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.Fonts.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:40] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.Reader.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:40] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.Generic.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:41] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.Controls.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:41] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.SocialNetwork.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:41] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.Archive.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:41] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file Graphicly.App.exe: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:41] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.WPF4.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.AddFilesInHashtable(Hashtable hashtable, AssemblyManifest applicationManifest, String applicationFolder) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: * [20/05/2010 09:17:41] System.Deployment.Application.InvalidDeploymentException (ManifestLoad) - Exception occurred loading manifest from file GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.WPF4.dll: the manifest may not be valid or the file could not be opened. - Source: System.Deployment - Stack trace: at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.ManifestLoadExceptionHelper(Exception exception, String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.Manifest.AssemblyManifest.LoadFromInternalManifestFile(String filePath) at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.ProcessDownloadedFile(Object sender, DownloadEventArgs e) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.DownloadModifiedEventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, DownloadEventArgs e) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.PatchSingleFile(DownloadQueueItem item, Hashtable dependencyTable) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.PatchFiles(SubscriptionState subState) at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.Download(SubscriptionState subState) at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDependencies(SubscriptionState subState, AssemblyManifest deployManifest, AssemblyManifest appManifest, Uri sourceUriBase, String targetDirectory, String group, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options) at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.DownloadApplication(SubscriptionState subState, ActivationDescription actDesc, Int64 transactionId, TempDirectory& downloadTemp) at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.InstallApplication(SubscriptionState& subState, ActivationDescription actDesc) at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl) at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state) --- Inner Exception --- System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (InvalidManifest) - Cannot load internal manifest from component file. - Source: - Stack trace: COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS No transaction information is available. I'm baffled. Any ideas what this could be? Cheers Tony

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Sharepoint Error: [COMException (0x80004005): Cannot complete this action.

- by ifunky

Hi, I've created a site basic definition that uses different master and default pages. Everything works quite well except for whenever I create a new site based on the definition I receive the following error when browsing to the new site: [COMException (0x80004005): Cannot complete this action. Please try again.] Please try again.] Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.GetFileAndMetaInfo(String bstrUrl, Byte bPageView, Byte bPageMode, Byte bGetBuildDependencySet, String bstrCurrentFolderUrl, Boolean& pbCanCustomizePages, Boolean& pbCanPersonalizeWebParts, Boolean& pbCanAddDeleteWebParts, Boolean& pbGhostedDocument, Boolean& pbDefaultToPersonal, String& pbstrSiteRoot, Guid& pgSiteId, UInt32& pdwVersion, String& pbstrTimeLastModified, String& pbstrContent, Byte& pVerGhostedSetupPath, UInt32& pdwPartCount, Object& pvarMetaData, Object& pvarMultipleMeetingDoclibRootFolders, String& pbstrRedirectUrl, Boolean& pbObjectIsList, Guid& pgListId, UInt32& pdwItemId, Int64& pllListFlags, Boolean& pbAccessDenied, Guid& pgDocId, Byte& piLevel, UInt64& ppermMask, Object& pvarBuildDependencySet, UInt32& pdwNumBuildDependencies, Object& pvarBuildDependencies, String& pbstrFolderUrl, String& pbstrContentTypeOrder) +0 Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.GetFileAndMetaInfo(String bstrUrl, Byte bPageView, Byte bPageMode, Byte bGetBuildDependencySet, String bstrCurrentFolderUrl, Boolean& pbCanCustomizePages, Boolean& pbCanPersonalizeWebParts, Boolean& pbCanAddDeleteWebParts, Boolean& pbGhostedDocument, Boolean& pbDefaultToPersonal, String& pbstrSiteRoot, Guid& pgSiteId, UInt32& pdwVersion, String& pbstrTimeLastModified, String& pbstrContent, Byte& pVerGhostedSetupPath, UInt32& pdwPartCount, Object& pvarMetaData, Object& pvarMultipleMeetingDoclibRootFolders, String& pbstrRedirectUrl, Boolean& pbObjectIsList, Guid& pgListId, UInt32& pdwItemId, Int64& pllListFlags, Boolean& pbAccessDenied, Guid& pgDocId, Byte& piLevel, UInt64& ppermMask, Object& pvarBuildDependencySet, UInt32& pdwNumBuildDependencies, Object& pvarBuildDependencies, String& pbstrFolderUrl, String& pbstrContentTypeOrder) +219 [SPException: Cannot complete this action. Please try again.] I'm able to work around this by checking out the new master page and checking it back in again and after doing so there are no further issues at all. Any ideas to what could cause this? Thanks Dan ONET.XML module section: <Modules> <Module Name="CustomMasterPage" List="116" Url="_catalogs/masterpage" RootWebOnly="FALSE"> <File Url="Shoes.master" Type="GhostableInLibrary" IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="TRUE" /> </Module> <Module Name="Default" List="116" Url=""> <File Url="default.aspx" Name="default.aspx" NavBarHome="True" IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="FALSE"> <AllUsersWebPart WebPartZoneID="Left" WebPartOrder="1"> <webParts><webPart xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v3"><metaData><type name="BCM.SharePoint.Shoes.ShoesComponents.FooterLinks, BCM.SharePoint.Shoes.ShoesComponents, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=2881713f39360b71" /><importErrorMessage>Cannot import this Web Part.</importErrorMessage></metaData><data><properties><property name="AllowClose" type="bool">True</property><property name="Width" type="string" /><property name="MyProperty" type="string">Hello SharePoint</property><property name="AllowMinimize" type="bool">True</property><property name="AllowConnect" type="bool">True</property><property name="ChromeType" type="chrometype">None</property><property name="TitleIconImageUrl" type="string">/_layouts/images/BCM_SharePoint_Shoes/wp_FooterLinks.gif</property><property name="Description" type="string">FooterLinks Description</property><property name="Hidden" type="bool">False</property><property name="TitleUrl" type="string" /><property name="AllowEdit" type="bool">True</property><property name="Height" type="string" /><property name="MissingAssembly" type="string">Cannot import this Web Part.</property><property name="HelpUrl" type="string" /><property name="Title" type="string" /><property name="CatalogIconImageUrl" type="string">/_layouts/images/BCM_SharePoint_Shoes/wp_FooterLinks.gif</property><property name="Direction" type="direction">NotSet</property><property name="ChromeState" type="chromestate">Normal</property><property name="AllowZoneChange" type="bool">True</property><property name="AllowHide" type="bool">True</property><property name="HelpMode" type="helpmode">Modeless</property><property name="ExportMode" type="exportmode">All</property></properties></data></webPart></webParts> </AllUsersWebPart> <AllUsersWebPart WebPartZoneID="Left" WebPartOrder="0"> <webParts><webPart xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v3"><metaData><type name="BCM.SharePoint.Shoes.ShoesComponents.SubFooterLinks, BCM.SharePoint.Shoes.ShoesComponents, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=2881713f39360b71" /><importErrorMessage>Cannot import this Web Part.</importErrorMessage></metaData><data><properties><property name="AllowClose" type="bool">True</property><property name="Width" type="string" /><property name="MyProperty" type="string">Hello SharePoint</property><property name="AllowMinimize" type="bool">True</property><property name="AllowConnect" type="bool">True</property><property name="ChromeType" type="chrometype">None</property><property name="TitleIconImageUrl" type="string">/_layouts/images/BCM_SharePoint_Shoes/wp_SubFooterLinks.gif</property><property name="Description" type="string">Shoes home page links (under the hero image)</property><property name="Hidden" type="bool">False</property><property name="TitleUrl" type="string" /><property name="AllowEdit" type="bool">True</property><property name="Height" type="string" /><property name="MissingAssembly" type="string">Cannot import this Web Part.</property><property name="HelpUrl" type="string" /><property name="Title" type="string" /><property name="CatalogIconImageUrl" type="string">/_layouts/images/BCM_SharePoint_Shoes/wp_SubFooterLinks.gif</property><property name="Direction" type="direction">NotSet</property><property name="ChromeState" type="chromestate">Normal</property><property name="AllowZoneChange" type="bool">True</property><property name="AllowHide" type="bool">True</property><property name="HelpMode" type="helpmode">Modeless</property><property name="ExportMode" type="exportmode">All</property></properties></data></webPart></webParts> </AllUsersWebPart> <NavBarPage Name="$Resources:core,nav_Home;" ID="1002" Position="Start" /> <NavBarPage Name="$Resources:core,nav_Home;" ID="0" Position="Start" /> </File> </Module> </Modules> LOG OUTPUT: 05/21/2010 12:22:55.11 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 72nz Medium Videntityinfo::isFreshToken reported failure. 05/21/2010 12:22:55.19 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services Fields 88yv Medium Creating default lists 05/21/2010 12:22:55.19 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 72lp Medium Creating directory Lists 05/21/2010 12:22:55.26 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services Fields 88yf Medium Creating list "Master Page Gallery" in web "http://mmm-dev-ll/sites/Shoes/test" at URL "_catalogs/masterpage", (setuppath: "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Template\global\lists\mplib") 05/21/2010 12:22:55.28 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services Fields 88y1 Medium No document templates uploaded for list "Master Page Gallery" -- none found for list template "100". 05/21/2010 12:22:55.28 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 72kc Medium Failed to find generic XML file at "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Template\xml\onet.xml", falling back to global site definition. 05/21/2010 12:22:56.22 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services Fields 88yz Medium Creating default modules at URL "http://mmm-dev-ll/sites/Shoes/test" 05/21/2010 12:22:56.22 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 8e27 Medium Ensuring module folder _catalogs/masterpage 05/21/2010 12:22:56.89 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 72h7 Medium Applying template "SubSite#1" to web at URL "http://mmm-dev-ll/sites/Shoes/test". 05/21/2010 12:22:57.09 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services Fields 88yy Medium Activating web-scoped features for template "SubSite#1" at URL "http://mmm-dev-ll/sites/Shoes/test" 05/21/2010 12:22:57.12 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 8l1c Medium Preparing 20 features for activation 05/21/2010 12:22:57.14 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 8l1d Medium Feature Activation: Batch Activating Features at URL http://mmm-dev-ll/sites/Shoes/test 'AnnouncementsList' (ID: '00bfea71-d1ce-42de-9c63-a44004ce0104'), 'ContactsList' (ID: '00bfea71-7e6d-4186-9ba8-c047ac750105'), 'CustomList' (ID: '00bfea71-de22-43b2-a848-c05709900100'), 'DataSourceLibrary' (ID: '00bfea71-f381-423d-b9d1-da7a54c50110'), 'DiscussionsList' (ID: '00bfea71-6a49-43fa-b535-d15c05500108'), 'DocumentLibrary' (ID: '00bfea71-e717-4e80-aa17-d0c71b360101'), 'EventsList' (ID: '00bfea71-ec85-4903-972d-ebe475780106'), 'GanttTasksList' (ID: '00bfea71-513d-4ca0-96c2-6a47775c0119'), 'GridList' (ID: '00bfea71-3a1d-41d3-a0ee-651d11570120'), 'IssuesList' (ID: '00bfea71-5932-4f9c-ad71-1557e5751100'), 'LinksList' (ID: '00bfea71-2062-426c-90bf-714c59600103'), 'NoCodeWorkflowLibrary' (ID: '00bfe... 05/21/2010 12:22:57.14* w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 8l1d Medium ...a71-f600-43f6-a895-40c0de7b0117'), 'PictureLibrary' (ID: '00bfea71-52d4-45b3-b544-b1c71b620109'), 'SurveysList' (ID: '00bfea71-eb8a-40b1-80c7-506be7590102'), 'TasksList' (ID: '00bfea71-a83e-497e-9ba0-7a5c597d0107'), 'WebPageLibrary' (ID: '00bfea71-c796-4402-9f2f-0eb9a6e71b18'), 'workflowProcessList' (ID: '00bfea71-2d77-4a75-9fca-76516689e21a'), 'WorkflowHistoryList' (ID: '00bfea71-4ea5-48d4-a4ad-305cf7030140'), 'XmlFormLibrary' (ID: '00bfea71-1e1d-4562-b56a-f05371bb0115'), 'TeamCollab' (ID: '00bfea71-4ea5-48d4-a4ad-7ea5c011abe5'), . 05/21/2010 12:22:57.15 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 8l1f Medium Feature Activation: Batch Activated Features at URL http://mmm-dev-ll/sites/Shoes/test 'AnnouncementsList' (ID: '00bfea71-d1ce-42de-9c63-a44004ce0104'), 'ContactsList' (ID: '00bfea71-7e6d-4186-9ba8-c047ac750105'), 'CustomList' (ID: '00bfea71-de22-43b2-a848-c05709900100'), 'DataSourceLibrary' (ID: '00bfea71-f381-423d-b9d1-da7a54c50110'), 'DiscussionsList' (ID: '00bfea71-6a49-43fa-b535-d15c05500108'), 'DocumentLibrary' (ID: '00bfea71-e717-4e80-aa17-d0c71b360101'), 'EventsList' (ID: '00bfea71-ec85-4903-972d-ebe475780106'), 'GanttTasksList' (ID: '00bfea71-513d-4ca0-96c2-6a47775c0119'), 'GridList' (ID: '00bfea71-3a1d-41d3-a0ee-651d11570120'), 'IssuesList' (ID: '00bfea71-5932-4f9c-ad71-1557e5751100'), 'LinksList' (ID: '00bfea71-2062-426c-90bf-714c59600103'), 'NoCodeWorkflowLibrary' (ID: '00bfea... 05/21/2010 12:22:57.15* w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 8l1f Medium ...71-f600-43f6-a895-40c0de7b0117'), 'PictureLibrary' (ID: '00bfea71-52d4-45b3-b544-b1c71b620109'), 'SurveysList' (ID: '00bfea71-eb8a-40b1-80c7-506be7590102'), 'TasksList' (ID: '00bfea71-a83e-497e-9ba0-7a5c597d0107'), 'WebPageLibrary' (ID: '00bfea71-c796-4402-9f2f-0eb9a6e71b18'), 'workflowProcessList' (ID: '00bfea71-2d77-4a75-9fca-76516689e21a'), 'WorkflowHistoryList' (ID: '00bfea71-4ea5-48d4-a4ad-305cf7030140'), 'XmlFormLibrary' (ID: '00bfea71-1e1d-4562-b56a-f05371bb0115'), 'TeamCollab' (ID: '00bfea71-4ea5-48d4-a4ad-7ea5c011abe5'), . 05/21/2010 12:22:57.15 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 88jb Medium Feature Activation: Activating Feature 'RadEditorFeatureRichText' (ID: '747755cd-d060-4663-961c-9b0cc43724e9') at URL http://mmm-dev-ll/sites/Shoes/test. 05/21/2010 12:22:57.15 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 75fb Medium Calling 'FeatureActivated' method of SPFeatureReceiver for Feature 'RadEditorFeatureRichText' (ID: '747755cd-d060-4663-961c-9b0cc43724e9'). 05/21/2010 12:22:57.20 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 75f8 Medium Feature Activation: Feature 'RadEditorFeatureRichText' (ID: '747755cd-d060-4663-961c-9b0cc43724e9') was activated at URL http://mmm-dev-ll/sites/Shoes/test. 05/21/2010 12:22:57.51 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services Fields 88yv Medium Creating default lists 05/21/2010 12:22:57.51 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 72lp Medium Creating directory Lists 05/21/2010 12:22:57.51 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services Fields 88yz Medium Creating default modules at URL "http://mmm-dev-ll/sites/Shoes/test" 05/21/2010 12:22:57.51 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 8e27 Medium Ensuring module folder _catalogs/masterpage 05/21/2010 12:22:57.56 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 72ix Medium Not enough information to determine a list for module "Default". Assuming no list for this module. 05/21/2010 12:22:57.87 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x18A4 Windows SharePoint Services General 72h8 Medium Successfully applied template "SubSite#1" to web at URL "http://mmm-dev-ll/sites/Shoes/test". 05/21/2010 12:22:59.48 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x0980 Windows SharePoint Services General 8e2s Medium Unknown SPRequest error occurred. More information: 0x80070057 05/21/2010 12:23:07.06 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0884) 0x106C Office Server Setup and Upgrade 8u3j High Registry key value {SearchThrottled} was not found under registry hive {Software\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0}. Assuming search sku is not throttled. 05/21/2010 12:23:07.08 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0884) 0x106C Search Server Common MS Search Administration 90gf Medium SQL: dbo.proc_MSS_PropagationGetQueryServers 05/21/2010 12:23:07.09 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0884) 0x106C Search Server Common MS Search Administration 8wni High Resuming default catalog with reason 'GPR_PROPAGATION' for application 'SharedServices1'... 05/21/2010 12:23:07.11 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0884) 0x106C Search Server Common MS Search Administration 8wnj High Resuming anchor text catalog with reason GPR_PROPAGATION' for application 'SharedServices1'... 05/21/2010 12:23:07.14 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0884) 0x106C Search Server Common MS Search Administration 8dvl Medium Search application '3c6751cc-37b0-470a-bfa2-bfd0b5635fe1': Provision start addresses in default content source. 05/21/2010 12:23:07.15 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0884) 0x106C Search Server Common MS Search Administration 7hmh High exception in SearchUpgradeProvisioner Keyword Config System.InvalidOperationException: jobServerSearchServiceInstance is null at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchUpgradeProvisioner..ctor(SearchServiceInstance searchServiceInstance) at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.OSSPrimaryGathererProject.ProvisionContentSources() 05/21/2010 12:23:29.19 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0884) 0x0FFC SharePoint Portal Server Business Data 79bv High Initiating BDC Cache Invalidation Check in AppDomain 'DefaultDomain' 05/21/2010 12:23:29.19 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0884) 0x0FFC SharePoint Portal Server Business Data 79bx High Completed BDC Cache Invalidation Check in AppDomain 'DefaultDomain' 05/21/2010 12:23:45.84 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0884) 0x08A8 SharePoint Portal Server SSO 8inc Medium In SSOService::Synch(), sso database conn string: 05/21/2010 12:23:50.80 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0884) 0x0F14 Excel Services Excel Services Administration 8tqi Medium ExcelServerSharedWebApplication.Synchronize: Starting synchronize for instance of Excel Services in SSP 'SharedServices1'. 05/21/2010 12:23:50.80 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0884) 0x0F14 Excel Services Excel Services Administration 8tqj Medium ExcelServerSharedWebApplication.Synchronize: Successfully synchronized instance of Excel Services in SSP 'SharedServices1'. 05/21/2010 12:23:52.31 w3wp.exe (0x1E40) 0x0980 SharePoint Portal Server Runtime 8gp7 Medium Topology cache updated. (AppDomain: /LM/W3SVC/1963195510/Root-1-129188762904047141)

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WCF REST on .Net 4.0

- by AngelEyes

A simple and straight forward article taken from: http://christopherdeweese.com/blog2/post/drop-the-soap-wcf-rest-and-pretty-uris-in-net-4 Drop the Soap: WCF, REST, and Pretty URIs in .NET 4 Years ago I was working in libraries when the Web 2.0 revolution began. One of the things that caught my attention about early start-ups using the AJAX/REST/Web 2.0 model was how nice the URIs were for their applications. Those were my first impressions of REST; pretty URIs. Turns out there is a little more to it than that. REST is an architectural style that focuses on resources and structured ways to access those resources via the web. REST evolved as an “anti-SOAP” movement, driven by developers who did not want to deal with all the complexity SOAP introduces (which is al lot when you don’t have frameworks hiding it all). One of the biggest benefits to REST is that browsers can talk to rest services directly because REST works using URIs, QueryStrings, Cookies, SSL, and all those HTTP verbs that we don’t have to think about anymore. If you are familiar with ASP.NET MVC then you have been exposed to rest at some level. MVC is relies heavily on routing to generate consistent and clean URIs. REST for WCF gives you the same type of feel for your services. Let’s dive in. WCF REST in .NET 3.5 SP1 and .NET 4 This post will cover WCF REST in .NET 4 which drew heavily from the REST Starter Kit and community feedback. There is basic REST support in .NET 3.5 SP1 and you can also grab the REST Starter Kit to enable some of the features you’ll find in .NET 4. This post will cover REST in .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010. Getting Started To get started we’ll create a basic WCF Rest Service Application using the new on-line templates option in VS 2010: When you first install a template you are prompted with this dialog: Dude Where’s my .Svc File? The WCF REST template shows us the new way we can simply build services. Before we talk about what’s there, let’s look at what is not there: The .Svc File An Interface Contract Dozens of lines of configuration that you have to change to make your service work REST in .NET 4 is greatly simplified and leverages the Web Routing capabilities used in ASP.NET MVC and other parts of the web frameworks. With REST in .NET 4 you use a global.asax to set the route to your service using the new ServiceRoute class. From there, the WCF runtime handles dispatching service calls to the methods based on the Uri Templates. global.asax using System; using System.ServiceModel.Activation; using System.Web; using System.Web.Routing; namespace Blog.WcfRest.TimeService { public class Global : HttpApplication { void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) { RegisterRoutes(); } private static void RegisterRoutes() { RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("TimeService", new WebServiceHostFactory(), typeof(TimeService))); } } } The web.config contains some new structures to support a configuration free deployment. Note that this is the default config generated with the template. I did not make any changes to web.config. web.config <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration> <system.web> <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0" /> </system.web> <system.webServer> <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"> <add name="UrlRoutingModule" type="System.Web.Routing.UrlRoutingModule, System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" /> </modules> </system.webServer> <system.serviceModel> <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true"/> <standardEndpoints> <webHttpEndpoint>  <standardEndpoint name="" helpEnabled="true" automaticFormatSelectionEnabled="true"/> </webHttpEndpoint> </standardEndpoints> </system.serviceModel> </configuration> Building the Time Service We’ll create a simple “TimeService” that will return the current time. Let’s start with the following code: using System; using System.ServiceModel; using System.ServiceModel.Activation; using System.ServiceModel.Web; namespace Blog.WcfRest.TimeService { [ServiceContract] [AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Allowed)] [ServiceBehavior(InstanceContextMode = InstanceContextMode.PerCall)] public class TimeService { [WebGet(UriTemplate = "CurrentTime")] public string CurrentTime() { return DateTime.Now.ToString(); } } } The endpoint for this service will be http://[machinename]:[port]/TimeService. To get the current time http://[machinename]:[port]/TimeService/CurrentTime will do the trick. The Results Are In Remember That Route In global.asax? Turns out it is pretty important. When you set the route name, that defines the resource name starting after the host portion of the Uri. Help Pages in WCF 4 Another feature that came from the starter kit are the help pages. To access the help pages simply append Help to the end of the service’s base Uri. Dropping the Soap Having dabbled with REST in the past and after using Soap for the last few years, the WCF 4 REST support is certainly refreshing. I’m currently working on some REST implementations in .NET 3.5 and VS 2008 and am looking forward to working on REST in .NET 4 and VS 2010.

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Our Look at the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview

- by Asian Angel

Have you been hearing all about Microsoft’s work on Internet Explorer 9 and are curious about it? If you are wanting a taste of the upcoming release then join us as we take a look at the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview. Note: Windows Vista and Server 2008 users may need to install a Platform Update (see link at bottom for more information). Getting Started If you are curious about the systems that the platform preview will operate on here is an excerpt from the FAQ page (link provided below). There are two important points of interest here: The platform preview does not replace your regular Internet Explorer installation The platform preview (and the final version of Internet Explorer 9) will not work on Windows XP There really is not a lot to the install process…basically all that you will have to deal with is the “EULA Window” and the “Install Finished Window”. Note: The platform preview will install to a “Program Files Folder” named “Internet Explorer Platform Preview”. Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview in Action When you start the platform preview up for the first time you will be presented with the Internet Explorer 9 Test Drive homepage. Do not be surprised that there is not a lot to the UI at this time…but you can get a good idea of how Internet Explorer will act. Note: You will not be able to alter the “Homepage” for the platform preview. Of the four menus available there are two that will be of interest to most people…the “Page & Debug Menus”. If you go to navigate to a new webpage you will need to go through the “Page Menu” unless you have installed the Address Bar Mini-Tool (shown below). Want to see what a webpage will look like in an older version of Internet Explorer? Then choose your version in the “Debug Menu”. We did find it humorous that IE6 was excluded from the choices offered. Here is what the URL entry window looks like if you are using the “Page Menu” to navigate between websites. Here is the main page of the site here displayed in “IE9 Mode”…looking good. Here is the main page viewed in “Forced IE5 Document Mode”. There were some minor differences (colors, sidebar, etc.) in how the main page displayed in comparison to “IE9 Mode”. Being able to switch between modes makes for an interesting experience… As you can see there is not much to the “Context Menu” at the moment. Notice the slightly altered icon for the platform preview… “Add” an Address Bar of Sorts If you would like to use a “make-shift” Address Bar with the platform preview you can set up the portable file (IE9browser.exe) for the Internet Explorer 9 Test Platform Addressbar Mini-Tool. Just place it in an appropriate folder, create a shortcut for it, and it will be ready to go. Here is a close look at the left side of the Address Bar Mini-Tool. You can try to access “IE Favorites” but may have sporadic results like those we experienced during our tests. Note: The Address Bar Mini-Tool will not line up perfectly with the platform preview but still makes a nice addition. And a close look at the right side of the Address Bar Mini-Tool. In order to completely shut down the Address Bar Mini-Tool you will need to click on “Close”. Each time that you enter an address into the Address Bar Mini-Tool it will open a new window/instance of the platform preview. Note: During our tests we noticed that clicking on “Home” in the “Page Menu” opened the previously viewed website but once we closed and restarted the platform preview the test drive website was the starting/home page again. Even if the platform preview is not running the Address Bar Mini-Tool can still run as shown here. Note: You will not be able to move the Address Bar Mini-Tool from its’ locked-in position at the top of the screen. Now for some fun. With just the Address Bar Mini-Tool open you can enter an address and cause the platform preview to open. Here is our example from above now open in the platform preview…good to go. Conclusion During our tests we did experience the occasional crash but overall we were pleased with the platform preview’s performance. The platform preview handled rather well and definitely seemed much quicker than Internet Explorer 8 on our test system (a definite bonus!). If you are an early adopter then this could certainly get you in the mood for the upcoming beta releases! Links Download the Internet Explorer 9 Preview Platform Download the Internet Explorer 9 Test Platform Addressbar Mini-Tool Information about Platform Update for Windows Vista & Server 2008 View the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview FAQ Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Mysticgeek Blog: A Look at Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 on Windows XPMake Ctrl+Tab in Internet Explorer 7 Use Most Recent OrderRemove ISP Text or Corporate Branding from Internet Explorer Title BarWhy Can’t I Turn the Details/Preview Panes On or Off in Windows Vista Explorer?Prevent Firefox or Internet Explorer from Printing the URL on Every Page TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Awesome Lyrics Finder for Winamp & Windows Media Player Download Videos from Hulu Pixels invade Manhattan Convert PDF files to ePub to read on your iPad Hide Your Confidential Files Inside Images Get Wildlife Photography Tips at BBC’s PhotoMasterClasses

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ASP.NET MVC Custom Profile Provider

- by Ben Griswold

It’s been a long while since I last used the ASP.NET Profile provider. It’s a shame, too, because it just works with very little development effort: Membership tables installed? Check. Profile enabled in web.config? Check. SqlProfileProvider connection string set? Check. Profile properties defined in said web.config file? Check. Write code to set value, read value, build and test. Check. Check. Check. Yep, I thought the built-in Profile stuff was pure gold until I noticed how the user-based information is persisted to the database. It’s stored as xml and, well, that was going to be trouble if I ever wanted to query the profile data. So, I have avoided the super-easy-to-use ASP.NET Profile provider ever since, until this week, when I decided I could use it to store user-specific properties which I am 99% positive I’ll never need to query against ever. I opened up my ASP.NET MVC application, completed steps 1-4 (above) in about 3 minutes, started writing my profile get/set code and that’s where the plan broke down. Oh yeah. That’s right. Visual Studio auto-generates a strongly-type Profile reference for web site projects but not for ASP.NET MVC or Web Applications. Bummer. So, I went through the steps of getting a customer profile provider working in my ASP.NET MVC application: First, I defined a CurrentUser routine and my profile properties in a custom Profile class like so: using System.Web.Profile; using System.Web.Security; using Project.Core; namespace Project.Web.Context { public class MemberPreferencesProfile : ProfileBase { static public MemberPreferencesProfile CurrentUser { get { return (MemberPreferencesProfile) Create(Membership.GetUser().UserName); } } public Enums.PresenceViewModes? ViewMode { get { return ((Enums.PresenceViewModes) ( base["ViewMode"] ?? Enums.PresenceViewModes.Category)); } set { base["ViewMode"] = value; Save(); } } } } And then I replaced the existing profile configuration web.config with the following: <profile enabled="true" defaultProvider="MvcSqlProfileProvider" inherits="Project.Web.Context.MemberPreferencesProfile"> <providers> <clear/> <add name="MvcSqlProfileProvider" type="System.Web.Profile.SqlProfileProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" connectionStringName="ApplicationServices" applicationName="/"/> </providers> </profile> Notice that profile is enabled, I’ve defined the defaultProvider and profile is now inheriting from my custom MemberPreferencesProfile class. Finally, I am now able to set and get profile property values nearly the same way as I did with website projects: viewMode = MemberPreferencesProfile.CurrentUser.ViewMode; MemberPreferencesProfile.CurrentUser.ViewMode = viewMode;

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MySQL 5.5 brings in new ways to authenticate users

- by Georgi Kodinov

Ever wanted to use your server's OS for authenticating MySQL users ? Or the corporate LDAP repository ? Unfortunately options like the above are plentiful nowadays. And providing hard-coded support for protocol X or service Y is not the best possible idea. MySQL 5.5 has taken the step into the right direction by providing an infrastructure allowing one to make the server understand different authentication protocols by creating a set of simple plugins (one for the client and one for the server). So now you can easily extend MySQL to search for and authenticate users in your favorite user directory. In fact the API supplied is so versatile that we took the possibility to re-design the current "native" authentication mechanism into a built-in always-on plugin ! OK, let me give you an example: Imagine we have a bunch of users defined in your OS, e.g. we have a user joro with his respective password. And we have a MySQL instance running on the same computer. It would not be unexpected to need to let joro access and/or modify MySQL data. The first step is to define him as a MySQL user. And there's a problem right there : MySQL's CREATE USER joro@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'joros_password' statement needs a password. And this is a password in no way related to the password that joro have set up in the OS. What's worse : if joro changes his OS password this will in no way be reflected in MySQL. So he'll need to change his MySQL password in a separate step. Not very convenient, specially when you have a lot of users. This is a laborious setup for joro's DBA as well : he'll have to disable his access in both MySQL and the OS should he decides that joro's out of the "nice" list. Now mysql 5.5 to the rescue: Imagine that the smart DBA has created a MySQL server plugin that will check if the name of the user logging in is a valid and enabled OS name and if the password supplied to the mysql client matches the OS and has called this plugin 'auth_os'. Now all that's left to do is to define joro as a MySQL user that will be authenticated externally. This is done by the following command : CREATE USER 'joro'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH 'auth_os'; Now joro can login to MySQL using his current OS password. Note : joro is still a valid MySQL user, so you can grant privileges to him just like you would for all other users. What's better: you can have users that authenticate using different mechanisms in the same server. So you can e.g. safely experiment with external authentication for selected users while keeping your current user base operational. What happens under the hood when joro logs in ? The server will find out by the user definition that it needs to use a non-default authentication and will ask the client to "switch" to using the appropriate client-side plugin (if of course the client is not already using it). If the client can't do this (e.g. because it's an old client or doesn't have the necessary plugin available) the server will reject the login. Otherwise the server will let the server-side plugin decide (while possibly talking to the client side plugin and the OS user directory) if this is a valid login or not. If it is the login process will continue as usual, while if it's not the login will get rejected. There's a lot more that MySQL 5.5 can do for you than just the simple case above. Stay tuned for more advanced use cases like mapping groups of external users to a single MySQL user (so you won't have to have 1-to-1 mapping between your external user directory and your mysql user repository) or ways to control the process as a DBA. Or you can simply skip ahead and read the relevant topics from MySQL's excellent online documentation. Or take a look at the example plugins in plugin/auth. Or take a look at the test suite in mysql-test/t/plugin_auth.test. Changelog entry: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/news-5-5-7.html Primary new sections: Pluggable authentication Proxy users Client plugin C API functions Revised sections: New PROXY privilege New proxies_priv grant table Passwords might be external New external_user and proxy_user system variables New --default-auth and --plugin-dir mysql options New MYSQL_DEFAULT_AUTH and MYSQL_PLUGIN_DIR options for mysql_options() CREATE USER has IDENTIFIED WITH clause to specify auth plugin GRANT has PROXY privilege, IDENTIFIED WITH clause to specify auth plugin The data structure for writing client plugins

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Installing Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Service Pack 1

- by Martin Hinshelwood

As has become customary when the product team releases a new patch, SP or version I like to document the install. Although I had no errors on my main computer, my netbook did have problems. Although I am not ready to call it a Service Pack problem just yet! Update 2011-03-10 – Running the Team Foundation Server 2010 Service Pack 1 install a second time worked As per Brian's post I am installing the Team Foundation Server Service Pack first and indeed as this is a single server local deployment I need to install both. If I only install one it will leave the other product broken. This however does not affect you if you are running Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server on separate computers as is normal in a production deployment. Main workhorse I will be installing the service pack first on my main computer as I want to actually use it here. Figure: My main workhorse I will also be installing this on my netbook which is obviously of significantly lower spec, but I will do that one after. Although, as always I had my fingers crossed, I was not really worried. Figure: KB2182621 Compared to Visual Studio there are not really a lot of components to update. Figure: TFS 2010 and SQL 2008 are the main things to update There is no “web” installer for the Team Foundation Server 2010 Service Pack, but that is ok as most people will be installing it on a production server and will want to have everything local. I would have liked a Web installer, but the added complexity for the product team is not work the capability for a 500mb patch. Figure: There is currently no way to roll SP1 and RTM together Figure: No problems with the file verification, phew Figure: Although the install took a while, it progressed smoothly Figure: I always like a success screen Well, as far as the install is concerned everything is OK, but what about TFS? Can I still connect and can I still administer it. Figure: Service Pack 1 is reflected correctly in the Administration Console I am confident that there are no major problems with TFS on my system and that it has been updated to SP1. I can do all of the things that I used before with ease, and with the new features detailed by Brian I think I will be happy. Netbook The great god Murphy has stuck, and my poor wee laptop spat the Team Foundation Server 2010 Service Pack 1 out so fast it hit me on the back of the head. That will teach me for not looking… Figure: “Installation did not succeed” I am pretty sure should not be all caps! On examining the file I found that everything worked, except the actual Team Foundation Server 2010 serving step. Action: System Requirement Checks... Action complete Action: Downloading and/or Verifying Items c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\VS10-KB2182621.msp: Verifying signature for VS10-KB2182621.msp c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\VS10-KB2182621.msp Signature verified successfully for VS10-KB2182621.msp c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\DACFramework_enu.msi: Verifying signature for DACFramework_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\DACFramework_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for DACFramework_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\DACProjectSystemSetup_enu.msi: Verifying signature for DACProjectSystemSetup_enu.msi Exists: evaluating Exists evaluated to false c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\DACProjectSystemSetup_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for DACProjectSystemSetup_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\TSqlLanguageService_enu.msi: Verifying signature for TSqlLanguageService_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\TSqlLanguageService_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for TSqlLanguageService_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SharedManagementObjects_x86_enu.msi: Verifying signature for SharedManagementObjects_x86_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SharedManagementObjects_x86_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for SharedManagementObjects_x86_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SharedManagementObjects_amd64_enu.msi: Verifying signature for SharedManagementObjects_amd64_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SharedManagementObjects_amd64_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for SharedManagementObjects_amd64_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SQLSysClrTypes_x86_enu.msi: Verifying signature for SQLSysClrTypes_x86_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SQLSysClrTypes_x86_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for SQLSysClrTypes_x86_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SQLSysClrTypes_amd64_enu.msi: Verifying signature for SQLSysClrTypes_amd64_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SQLSysClrTypes_amd64_enu.msi Signature verified successfully for SQLSysClrTypes_amd64_enu.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.cab: Verifying signature for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.cab c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.cab Signature verified successfully for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.cab c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.msi: Verifying signature for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.msi Signature verified successfully for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x86.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SetupUtility.exe: Verifying signature for SetupUtility.exe c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\SetupUtility.exe Signature verified successfully for SetupUtility.exe c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.cab: Verifying signature for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.cab c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.cab Signature verified successfully for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.cab c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.msi: Verifying signature for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.msi Signature verified successfully for vcruntime\Vc_runtime_x64.msi c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\NDP40-KB2468871.exe: Verifying signature for NDP40-KB2468871.exe c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\NDP40-KB2468871.exe Signature verified successfully for NDP40-KB2468871.exe Action complete Action: Performing actions on all Items Entering Function: BaseMspInstallerT >::PerformAction Action: Performing Install on MSP: c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\VS10-KB2182621.msp targetting Product: Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010 - ENU Returning IDOK. INSTALLMESSAGE_ERROR [Error 1935.An error occurred during the installation of assembly 'Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WebAccess.WorkItemTracking,version="10.0.0.0",publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a",processorArchitecture="MSIL",fileVersion="10.0.40219.1",culture="neutral"'. Please refer to Help and Support for more information. HRESULT: 0x80070005. ] Returning IDOK. INSTALLMESSAGE_ERROR [Error 1712.One or more of the files required to restore your computer to its previous state could not be found. Restoration will not be possible.] Patch (c:\757fe6efe9f065130d4838081911\VS10-KB2182621.msp) Install failed on product (Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010 - ENU). Msi Log: MSI returned 0x643 Entering Function: MspInstallerT >::Rollback Action Rollback changes PerformMsiOperation returned 0x643 PerformMsiOperation returned 0x643 OnFailureBehavior for this item is to Rollback. Action complete Final Result: Installation failed with error code: (0x80070643), "Fatal error during installation. " (Elapsed time: 0 00:14:09). Figure: Error log for Team Foundation Server 2010 install shows a failure As there is really no information in this log as to why the installation failed so I checked the event log on that box. Figure: There are hundreds of errors and it actually looks like there are more problems than a failed Service Pack I am going to just run it again and see if it was because the netbook was slow to catch on to the update. Hears hoping, but even if it fails, I would question the installation of Windows (PDC laptop original install) before I question the Service Pack Figure: Second run through was successful I don’t know if the laptop was just slow, or what… Did you get this error? If you did I will push this to the product team as a problem, but unless more people have this sort of error, I will just look to write this off as a corrupted install of Windows and reinstall.

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If You Could Cut Your Meeting Times in ½ Would You?

- by Brian Dayton

I know it sounds like a big promise. And what I'm thinking about may not cut a :60 minute meeting into :30 minutes, but it could make meetings and interactions up to 2X more productive. How? Social Media for the Enterprise, Not Social Media In the Enterprise Bear with me. I'm not talking about whether or not workers should or shouldn't have access to Facebook on corporate networks. That topic has been discussed @ length. I'm also not talking about the direct benefits of Social Networking tools like Presence (the ability to see someone online and ask a question in real-time), blogs, RSS feeds or external tools like Twitter. The Un-Measurable Benefits Would you do something that you believe will have a positive effect--but can't be measured? It's impossible to quantify the effectiveness of a meeting. However, what I am talking about would be more of a byproduct of all of the social networking tools above. Here's the hypothesis: As I've gotten more and more busy with work, family, travel and kids--and the same has happened to my friends and family--I'm less and less connected. But by introducing Facebook to my life I've not only made connections with longtime friends whom I haven't spoken to in years--but I've increased the pace and quality of interactions, on and offline, with close friends who I see and speak to every week. In some cases it even enhances the connections and interactions with those I see or speak to every day. The same holds true in an organization. Especially a larger one with highly matrixed organizational structures. You work with people on a project, new people come in with each different project and a disproportionate amount of time is spent getting oriented and staying current. Going back to the initial value proposition--making meetings shorter/more effective--a large amount of time is spent: - At Project Kick-off: Meeting and understanding team member's histories, goals & roles - Ongoing: Summarizing events since the last meeting or update email In my personal, Facebook life today I know that: - My best friend from college - has been stranded in India for 5 days because of the volcano in Iceland and is now only 250 miles from home - One of my co-workers started conference calls at 6:30 this morning - My wife wasn't terribly pleased with my painting skills in our new bathroom (disclosure: she told me this face to face too) Strengthening Weak Links A recent article in CIO Magazine, Three Dangerous Social Media Misconceptions (Kristen Burnham, March 12, 2010) calls out the #1 misconception as follows: 1. "Face-to-face relationships are far more valuable than virtual ones." While some level of physical interaction will always add value to relationships, Gartner says that come 2020, most relationships and teams will be based on "weak links"--that is, you may not have personally met a contact, but you'll know of or may have interacted with him via social sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The sooner your enterprise adopts these tools, the sooner your employees will learn them, and the sooner you'll begin to cultivate these relationships-of-the-future. I personally believe that it's not an either/or choice between face-to-face and virtual interactions. In fact, I'll be as bold as saying it doesn't matter. I can point to two extremely valuable work relationships that I've had over the past 5 years: - I shared an office with one of them - I met the other person, face-to-face, only once Both relationships were very productive. The dynamics were similar. The communication tactics differed immensely. What does matter is the quality, frequency and relevance of interactions. Still sound like too much? An over-promise? Stay tuned for my next post The Gap Between Facebook and LinkedIn. I'll also connect some of the dots with where Oracle Applications and technologies are headed.

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Seriously, It’s Time to Get Your Content Act Together

- by Mike Stiles

Branded content, content marketing, social content, brand journalism, we’re seeing those terms more and more. Why? The technology tools are coming together. We should know. We can gather big data, crunch it, listen to the public, moderate, respond, get to know the customer intimately, know what they like, know what they want, we can target, distribute, amplify, measure engagement and reaction, modify strategy and even automate a great deal of all that. An amazing machine, a sleek, smooth-running engine has been built such that all the parts can interact and work together to deliver peak performance and maximum output. But that engine isn’t going anywhere without any gas. Content is the gas. Yes, we curate other people’s content. We can siphon their gas. There’s tech to help with that too. But as for the creation of original, worthwhile content made for a specific audience, our audience, machines can’t do that…at least not yet. Curated content is great. But somebody has to originate the content for it to be curated and shared. And since the need for good, curated content is obviously large and the desire to share is there, it’s a winning proposition for a brand to be a consistent producer of original content. And yet, it feels like content is an issue we’re avoiding. There’s a reluctance to build a massive pipeline if you have no idea what you’re going to run through it. The C-suite often doesn’t know what content is, that it’s different from ads, where to get it, who makes it, how long it should be, what the point of it is if there’s no hard sell of the product, what it costs, how to use it, how to measure it, how to make sure it’s good, or how to make sure it will keep flowing. It could be the reason many brands aren’t pulling the trigger on socially enabling the enterprise. And that’s a shame, because there are a lot of creative, daring, experimental, uniquely talented entertainers and journalists chomping at the bit to execute content for brands. But for many corporate executives, content is “weird,” and the people who make it are even weirder. The content side of the equation is human. It’s art, but art that can be informed by data. The natural inclination is for brands to turn to their agencies for such creative endeavors. But agencies are falling into one of two categories. They’re failing to transition from ads to content. In “Content Era, What’s the Role of Agencies?” Alexander Jutkowitz says agencies were made for one-hit campaigns, not ongoing content. Or, they’re ready and capable but can’t get clients to do the right things. Agencies have to make money, even if it means continuing to do the wrong things because that’s all the client will agree to. So what we wind up with in the pipeline is advertising, marketing-heavy content, content that was obviously created or spearheaded by non-creative executives, random & inconsistent content, copy written for SEO bots, and other completely uninteresting nightmares. Frank Rose, author of “The Art of Immersion,” writes, “Content without story and excitement is noise pollution.” In the old days, you made an ad and inserted it into shows made by people who knew what they were doing. You could bask in that show’s success and leverage their audience. Now, you are tasked with attracting, amassing and holding your own audience. You may just want to make, advertise and sell your widgets. But now there’s a war on for a precious commodity, attention. People are busy. They have filters to keep uninteresting and irrelevant things out. They value their time and expect value back when they give it up. Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, says, "Your customers don't care about you, your products, your services…they care about themselves, their wants and their needs." Is it worth getting serious about content and doing it right? 61% of consumers feel better about a company that delivers custom content (Custom Content Council). Interesting content is one of the top 3 reasons people follow brands on social (Content+). 78% of consumers think organizations that provide custom content want to build good relationships with them (TMG Custom Media). On the B2B side, 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company info in a series of articles vs. an ad. So what’s the hang-up? Cited barriers to content marketing are lack of human resources (42%) and lack of budget (35%). 54% of brands don’t have a single on-site, dedicated content creator. And only 38% of brands have a content marketing strategy. Tech has built the biggest, most incredible stage for brands that’s ever been built. Putting something on that stage is your responsibility. Do a bad show, or no show at all, and you’ll be the beautiful, talented actress that never got discovered. @mikestilesPhoto: Gabriella Fabbri, stock.xchng

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Commercial Drupal Modules & Themes

- by Ravish

A discussion at Drupal.org forums prompted me to give my input about commercial ecosystem around Open Source Content Management Systems. WordPress and Joomla have been growing rapidly since past few years. But, growth rate of Drupal seems to be almost flat. Despite being the most powerful CMS around, Drupal is still not being adopted by masses. Many people will argue that Drupal is not targeted towards masses, but developers. I agree, Drupal is more of a development platform than a consumer CMS. Drupal is ‘many things to many people’, and I can build almost any type of website with it. Drupal is being used for building blogs, corporate websites, Intranet portals, social networking and even a project management system. Looking at the wide array of Drupal implementations, it deserves to be the most widely adopted CMS. I believe there are few challenges that Drupal community needs to overcome. To understand these challenges, I surveyed some webmasters who use Joomla or WordPress but not Drupal. I asked them why they don’t want to use Drupal, following are the responses I got from them: Drupal is too complicated, takes time to learn. Drupal is great, but its admin panel is overwhelming. I couldn’t find any nice themes for Drupal. There is no WYSIWYG editor in Drupal. Most Drupal modules do not work out of the box. There aren’t enough modules like Ubercart which provides any out of the box functionality. I tried modules like CCK, Views and Panels. After wasting several hours struggling with them, I decided to give up on Drupal. I don’t use Drupal because of pushbutton and Garland theme. I had hard time trying to customize Garland and it messed up the whole layout. There are no premium modules and themes for Drupal. Joomla has tons of awesome themes and modules. I don’t want a million hacks like CCK, Views, Tokens, Pathauto, ImageCache and CTools just to run a simple website. Most of the complaints from users are related to the learning and development curve involved with Drupal, and the lack of ecosystem. While most of the problems will be gone in Drupal 7, ecosystem is something that needs to be built by the Drupal community. Drupal distributions are a great step forward. There are few awesome Drupal distributions available like Open Publish, Open Atrium and Drupal Commons. I predict, there will be a wave of many powerful Drupal distributions after Drupal 7 release. Many of them will be user-friendly and commercial supported. Following is my post at Drupal.org forums: Quote from: http://drupal.org/node/863776#comment-3313836 Brian Gardner (StudioPress) and Woo Themes launched premium WordPress themes in 2007, the developer community did not accept it at first. Moreover, they were not even GPL licensed. There was an outcry in WordPress community against them. Following that, most premium theme providers switched to GPL licensing. Despite controversies, users voted for premium theme and plugins by buying them. Inspired by their success, hundreds of other developers started to sell premium themes and plugins. It is now the acceptable and in fact most popular business model among WordPress community. Matt Mullenweg once told me, they would not support premium themes. If he supported, developers would no more give out free GPL themes & plugins. He pointed me towards Joomla, there were hardly any nice free themes & modules available. Now two years forward, premium products are not just accepted but embraced by the WordPress community – http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/commercial/ The quality and number of themes & modules has increased, even the free ones. This also helped to boost the adoption and ecosystem of WordPress. Today, state of Drupal is like WordPress was in 2007. There are hardly any out of the box solutions available for Drupal. Ubercart, Open Publish and Open Atrium are the only ones I can think of. Many of the popular Drupal modules are patches and hole-fillers. Thankfully, these hole-filler modules are going to be in Drupal 7 core. Drupal 7 and distributions will spawn a new array of solutions built upon Drupal. Soon, we will have more like Ubercarts and Open Atriums. If commercial solutions can help fuel this ecosystem and growth, Drupal community will accept them eventually. This debate will not stop your customers from buying your product. If your product is awesome, they will vote for you by buying your product.

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Book Review Charlene Li's New Book: Open Leadership

- by david.talamelli

A few weeks ago, I was surprised when I looked in our mail box. I had received an Advance Copy of Charlene Li's new book titled "Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead". Charlene sent a tweet a while back asking anyone interested in receiving the book to submit their details. I sent off my details and didn't think I would hear anything back, so it was a pleasant surprise. With that I almost feel bad that it has taken me 3 weeks to read her book. It took this long mainly because it has been hard to fit in some quality reading time for myself with work, the kids, volunteering, etc..... I am happy to report I have finished her book and wanted to run through my initial thoughts with you. I first came across Charlene Li after reading her book "Groundswell" a few years ago, her latest book "Open Leadership" is a follow on from Groundswell and to me it seems like a natural progression from the question "Ok the business landscape is changing, what do we do now?" For me these two books have a different writing style to them. Groundswell from memory spoke about broad social media concepts and adoption and alerted us to some of the changes taking place in the SM landscape. Open Leadership seems to be focussed on taking those broad concepts and finding ways to implement them into your environment. That is breaking broad concepts down into individual action items that can be measured and analysed. As the business world changes Leaders must change their approach and let go of control to more control. One of the things I love reading about is seeing real life examples of how people and organisations are making these things happen. In this book Charlene has collected some great collateral and case studies from companies such as Cisco, Best Buy, The Red Cross and The State Bank of India (as a side-note, I wish now that I submitted my input for the Leaders I work with here at Oracle - there are some great examples here of people who empower their staff). As society becomes more adept at using social media it is inevitable that Leaders must become open with their employees, clients and partners. From the book some of the key points I took away are (I actually took away a lot more from this book, this is just an overview) : 1) Organisations should encourage risk taking. Without being a "hacker", how can we improve ourselves, our processes, our business, etc... The old saying you only fail by not trying applies here. If Leaders create a culture where people are afraid to stick their neck out - how will you innovate? 2) Leaders need to lead by example - if you want to promote an open and transparent business, a Leader needs to exemplify the traits they would like to see out of their employees. 3) The definition of a Leader is changing, open leadership is about being a catalyst to change that uses networks to spread a vision as opposed to traditional leadership that is viewed as a role. 4) There is a cultural and business shift taking place. Information is more wide-spread and is being disseminated faster than any other time in the past. Leaders who are open and transparent will thrive in this new business environment. 5) Leadership is not defined by a title - it is defined by a person's actions. Also anyone can be a Leader or has Leadership potential in them- it is a matter of drawing that out of people. I found this book useful and I also found myself looking at my own actions and the actions of others around me (including my management) to see how open and transparent I am in my work. For me I am glad I read this book as it validated my own thoughts of the changes we are seeing take place. This book has certainly given me some new ideas and helped me push my own boundaries of what I can do. The book has a number of action plans at the end of some of the chapters such as "Conducting you Openness Audit" that I think have helped me take thoughts and ideas and turn them into concrete action items. I have included a link to the introduction of the book here if anyone wants to have a read of it. If anyone else has read this book, it would be great to hear your thoughts/comments/review. Leave your comments below. This article was originally posted on David Talamelli's Blog - David's Journal on Tap

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What’s Your Tax Strategy? Automate the Tax Transfer Pricing Process!

- by tobyehatch

Does your business operate in multiple countries? Well, whether you like it or not, many local and international tax authorities inspect your tax strategy. Legal, effective tax planning is perceived as a “moral” issue. CEOs are being asked to testify on their process of tax transfer pricing between multinational legal entities. Marc Seewald, Senior Director of Product Management for EPM Applications specializing in all tax subjects and Product Manager for Oracle Hyperion Tax Provisioning, and Bart Stoehr, Senior Director of Product Strategy for Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management joined me for a discussion/podcast on this interesting subject. So what exactly is “tax transfer pricing”? Marc defined it this way. “Tax transfer pricing is a profit allocation methodology required to be used by multinational corporations. Specifically, the ultimate goal of the transfer pricing is to ensure that the global multinational pays their fair share of income tax in each of their local markets. Specifically, it prevents companies from unfairly moving profit from ‘high tax’ countries to ‘low tax’ countries.” According to Marc, in today’s global economy, profitability can be significantly impacted by goods and services exchanged between the related divisions within a single multinational company. To ensure that these cost allocations are done fairly, there are rules that govern the process. These rules ensure that intercompany allocations fairly represent the actual nature of the businesses activity- as if two divisions were unrelated - and provide a clear audit trail of how the costs have been allocated to prove that allocations fall within reasonable ranges. What are the repercussions of improper tax transfer pricing? How important is it? Tax transfer pricing allocations can materially impact the amount of overall corporate income taxes paid by a company worldwide, in some cases by hundreds of millions of dollars! Since so much tax revenue is at stake, revenue agencies like the IRS, and international regulatory bodies like the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are pushing to reform and clarify reporting for tax transfer pricing. Most recently the OECD announced an “Action Plan for Base Erosion and Profit Shifting”. As Marc explained, the times are changing and companies need to be responsive to this issue. “It feels like every other week there is another company being accused of avoiding taxes,” said Marc. Most recently, Caterpillar was accused of avoiding billions of dollars in taxes. In the last couple of years, Apple, GE, Ikea, and Starbucks, have all been accused of tax avoidance. It’s imperative that companies like these have a clear and auditable tax transfer process that enables them to justify tax transfer pricing allocations and avoid steep penalties and bad publicity. Transparency and efficiency are what is needed when it comes to the tax transfer pricing process. Bart explained that tax transfer pricing is driving a deeper inspection of profit recognition specifically focused on the tax element of profit. However, allocations needed to support tax profitability are nearly identical in process to allocations taking place in other parts of the finance organization. For example, the methods and processes necessary to arrive at tax profitability by legal entity are no different than those used to arrive at fully loaded profitability for a product line. In fact, there is a great opportunity for alignment across these two different functions.So it seems that tax transfer pricing should be reflected in profitability in general. Bart agreed and told us more about some of the critical sub-processes of an overall tax transfer pricing process within the Oracle solution for tax transfer pricing. “First, there is a ton of data preparation, enrichment and pre-allocation data analysis that is managed in the Oracle Hyperion solution. This serves as the “data staging” to the next, critical sub-processes. From here, we leverage the Oracle EPM platform’s ability to re-use dimensions and legal entity driver data and financial data with Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management (HPCM). Within HPCM, we manage the driver data, define the legal entity to legal entity allocation rules (like cost plus), and have the option to test out multiple, simultaneous tax transfer pricing what-if scenarios. Once processed, a tax expert can evaluate the effectiveness of any one scenario result versus another via a variance analysis configured with HPCM’s pre-packaged reporting capability known as Oracle Hyperion SmartView for Office.” Further, Bart explained that the ability to visibly demonstrate how a cost or revenue has been allocated is really helpful and auditable. “HPCM’s Traceability Maps are that visual representation of all allocation flows that have been executed and is the tax transfer analyst’s best friend in maintaining clear documentation for tax transfer pricing audits. Simply click and drill as you inspect the chain of allocation definitions and results. Once final, the post-allocated tax data can be compared to the GL to create invoices and journal entries for posting to your GL system of choice. Of course, there is a framework for overall governance of the journal entries, allocation percentages, and reporting to include necessary approvals.” Lastly, Marc explained that the key value in using the Oracle Hyperion solution for tax transfer pricing is that it keeps everything in alignment in one single place. Specifically, Oracle Hyperion effectively becomes the single book of record for the GAAP, management, and the tax set of books. There are many benefits to having one source of the truth. These include EFFICIENCY, CONTROLS and TRANSPARENCY.So, what’s your tax strategy? Why not automate the tax transfer pricing process!To listen to the entire podcast, click here.To learn more about Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management (HPCM), click here.

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Logical Domain Modeling Made Simple

- by Knut Vatsendvik

How can logical domain modeling be made simple and collaborative? Many non-technical end-users, managers and business domain experts find it difficult to understand the visual models offered by many UML tools. This creates trouble in capturing and verifying the information that goes into a logical domain model. The tools are also too advanced and complex for a non-technical user to learn and use. We have therefore, in our current project, ended up with using Confluence as tool for designing the logical domain model with the help of a few very useful plugins. Big thanks to Ole Nymoen and Per Spilling for their expertise in this field that made this posting possible. Confluence Plugins Here is a list of Confluence plugins used in this solution. Install these before trying out the macros used below. Plugin Description Copy Space Allows a space administrator to copy a space, including the pages within the space Metadata Supports adding metadata to Wiki pages Label Manages labeling of pages Linking Contains macros for linking to templates, the dashboard and other Table Enhances the table capability in Confluence Creating a Confluence Space First we need to create a new confluence space for the domain model. Click the link Create a Space located below the list of spaces on the Dashboard. Please contact your Confluence administrator is you do not have permissions to do this. For illustrative purpose all attributes and entities in this posting are based on my imaginary project manager domain model. When a logical domain model is good enough for being implemented, do a copy of the Confluence Space (see Copy Space plugin). In this way you create a stable version of the logical domain model while further design can continue with the new copied space. Typical will the implementation phase result in a database design and/or a XSD schema design. Add Space Templates Go to the Home page of your Confluence Space. Navigate to the Browse drop-down menu and click on Advanced. Then click the Templates option in the left navigation panel. Click Add New Space Template to add the following three templates. Name: attribute {metadata-list} || Name | | || Type | | || Format | | || Description | | {metadata-list} {add-label:attribute} Name: primary-type {metadata-list} || Name | || || Type | || || Format | || || Description | || {metadata-list} {add-label:primary-type} Name: complex-type {metadata-list} || Name | || || Description | || {metadata-list} h3. Attributes || Name || Type || Format || Description || | [name] | {metadata-from:name|Type} | {metadata-from:name|Format} | {metadata-from:name|Description} | {add-label:complex-type,entity} The metadata-list macro (see Metadata plugin) will save a list of metadata values to the page. The add-label macro (see Label plugin) will automatically label the page. Primary Types Page Our first page to add will act as container for our primary types. Switch to Wiki markup when adding the following content to the page. | (+) {add-page:template=primary-type|parent=@self}Add new primary type{add-page} | {metadata-report:Name,Type,Format,Description|sort=Name|root=@self|pages=@descendents} Once the page is created, click the Add new primary type (create-page macro) to start creating a new pages. Here is an example of input to the LocalDate page. Embrace the LocalDate with square brackets [] to make the page linkable. Again switch to Wiki markup before editing. {metadata-list} || Name | [LocalDate] || || Type | Date || || Format | YYYY-MM-DD || || Description | Date in local time zone. YYYY = year, MM = month and DD = day || {metadata-list} {add-label:primary-type} The metadata-report macro will show a tabular report of all child pages. Attributes Page The next page will act as container for all of our attributes. | (+) {add-page:template=attribute|parent=@self|title=attribute}Add new attribute{add-page} | {metadata-report:Name,Type,Format,Description|sort=Name|pages=@descendants} Here is an example of input to the startDate page. {metadata-list} || Name | [startDate] || || Type | [LocalDate] || || Format | {metadata-from:LocalDate|Format} || || Description | The projects start date || {metadata-list} {add-label:attribute} Using the metadata-from macro we fetch the text from the previously created LocalDate page. Complex Types Page The last page in this example shows how attributes can be combined together to form more complex types. h3. Intro Overview of complex types in the domain model. | (+) {add-page:template=complex-type|parent=@self}Add a new complex type{add-page}\\ | {metadata-report:Name,Description|sort=Name|root=@self|pages=@descendents} Here is an example of input to the ProjectType page. {metadata-list} || Name | [ProjectType] || || Description | Represents a project || {metadata-list} h3. Attributes || Name || Type || Format || Description || | [projectId] | {metadata-from:projectId|Type} | {metadata-from:projectId|Format} | {metadata-from:projectId|Description} | | [name] | {metadata-from:name|Type} | {metadata-from:name|Format} | {metadata-from:name|Description} | | [description] | {metadata-from:description|Type} | {metadata-from:description|Format} | {metadata-from:description|Description} | | [startDate] | {metadata-from:startDate|Type} | {metadata-from:startDate|Format} | {metadata-from:startDate|Description} | {add-label:complex-type,entity} Gives us this Conclusion Using a web-based corporate Wiki like Confluence to create a logical domain model increases the collaboration between people with different roles in the enterprise. It’s my believe that this helps the domain model to be more accurate, and better documented. In our real project we have more pages than illustrated here to complete the documentation. We do also still use UML tools to create different types of diagrams that Confluence do not support. As a last tip, an ImageMap plugin can make those diagrams clickable when used in pages. Enjoy!

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Leaks on Wikis: "Corporations...You're Next!" Oracle Desktop Virtualization Can Help.

- by adam.hawley

Between all the press coverage on the unauthorized release of 251,287 diplomatic documents and on previous extensive releases of classified documents on the events in Iraq and Afghanistan, one could be forgiven for thinking massive leaks are really an issue for governments, but it is not: It is an issue for corporations as well. In fact, corporations are apparently set to be the next big target for things like Wikileaks. Just the threat of such a release against one corporation recently caused the price of their stock to drop 3% after the leak organization claimed to have 5GB of information from inside the company, with the implication that it might be damaging or embarrassing information. At the moment of this blog anyway, we don't know yet if that is true or how they got the information but how did the diplomatic cable leak happen? For the diplomatic cables, according to press reports, a private in the military, with some appropriate level of security clearance (that is, he apparently had the correct level of security clearance to be accessing the information...he reportedly didn't "hack" his way through anything to get to the documents which might have raised some red flags...), is accused of accessing the material and copying it onto a writeable CD labeled "Lady Gaga" and walking out the door with it. Upload and... Done. In the same article, the accused is quoted as saying "Information should be free. It belongs in the public domain." Now think about all the confidential information in your company or non-profit... from credit card information, to phone records, to customer or donor lists, to corporate strategy documents, product cost information, etc, etc.... And then think about that last quote above from what was a very junior level person in the organization...still feeling comfortable with your ability to control all your information? So what can you do to guard against these types of breaches where there is no outsider (or even insider) intrusion to detect per se, but rather someone with malicious intent is physically walking out the door with data that they are otherwise allowed to access in their daily work? A major first step it to make it physically, logistically much harder to walk away with the information. If the user with malicious intent has no way to copy to removable or moble media (USB sticks, thumb drives, CDs, DVDs, memory cards, or even laptop disk drives) then, as a practical matter it is much more difficult to physically move the information outside the firewall. But how can you control access tightly and reliably and still keep your hundreds or even thousands of users productive in their daily job? Oracle Desktop Virtualization products can help.Oracle's comprehensive suite of desktop virtualization and access products allow your applications and, most importantly, the related data, to stay in the (highly secured) data center while still allowing secure access from just about anywhere your users need to be to be productive. Users can securely access all the data they need to do their job, whether from work, from home, or on the road and in the field, but fully configurable policies set up centrally by privileged administrators allow you to control whether, for instance, they are allowed to print documents or use USB devices or other removable media. Centrally set policies can also control not only whether they can download to removable devices, but also whether they can upload information (see StuxNet for why that is important...)In fact, by using Sun Ray Client desktop hardware, which does not contain any disk drives, or removable media drives, even theft of the desktop device itself would not make you vulnerable to data loss, unlike a laptop that can be stolen with hundreds of gigabytes of information on its disk drive. And for extreme security situations, Sun Ray Clients even come standard with the ability to use fibre optic ethernet networking to each client to prevent the possibility of unauthorized monitoring of network traffic.But even without Sun Ray Client hardware, users can leverage Oracle's Secure Global Desktop software or the Oracle Virtual Desktop Client to securely access server-resident applications, desktop sessions, or full desktop virtual machines without persisting any application data on the desktop or laptop being used to access the information. And, again, even in this context, the Oracle products allow you to control what gets uploaded, downloaded, or printed for example.Another benefit of Oracle's Desktop Virtualization and access products is the ability to rapidly and easily shut off user access centrally through administrative polices if, for example, an employee changes roles or leaves the company and should no longer have access to the information.Oracle's Desktop Virtualization suite of products can help reduce operating expense and increase user productivity, and those are good reasons alone to consider their use. But the dynamics of today's world dictate that security is one of the top reasons for implementing a virtual desktop architecture in enterprises.For more information on these products, view the webpages on www.oracle.com and the Oracle Technology Network website.

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