C# Online .Net

The C# Online.Net site looks like it will become another good C# Resource. Bookmark it now!

[via GotDotNet Resource Centre]

C# Online.NET is a wiki-based C# and .NET resource featuring articles, code snippets, tutorials, and forums.

[via C# Online.Net]
C# Online.NET! (CSharp-Online.NET) lets you learn the C# language, research an API, or find a helpful code snippet. There is something here for C# programmers of all experience levels.

WSUS Content file download failed on SBS 2003

After installing WSUS on SBS 2003 I was unable to get any updates to download. The application event log showed the following error:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Windows Server Update Services
Event Category: Synchronization
Event ID: 364
Description:
Content file download failed. Reason: Access is denied. Source File: /msdownload/update/v3-19990518/cabpool/windowsinstaller-kb893803-v2-x86_830994754ba721add8a13bd0266d2e092f21cab0.exe Destination File: d:\WSUS\WsusContent\B0\830994754BA721ADD8A13BD0266D2E092F21CAB0.exe.

After checking the Network Service account had the appropriate permission on the destination folder, it was time to Google. Turns out that the Network Service account also needs at least Read permission on the root of the drive the content is stored on.

Thanks to the WSUS Wiki for helping me out on this one.

Enterprise Library for .Net Framework 2.0 released

[via Chuck]

I know a few people have been waiting for this one. Download Enterprise Library for .Net Framework 2.0 here.

note. Hands on Labs available March 2006.

MCMS integration into Sharepoint in Office 12

Andrew Connell points to an excellent post on the Sharepoint team blog here about how they decided to integrate the MCMS 2002 features and functionality onto the Sharepoint platform, giving birth to what's now called Web Content Management in Office 12.

If you currently work with MCMS 2002 now, you'll find some answers about migration and support for existing APIs in the new version.

Check it out here

WCF and WF Beta 2 with Go Live License

Chuck blogged about it here, and Chris blogged about it here.
Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) have now made Beta 2 with a Go Live License.
Check out http://www.windowsworkflow.net and http://windowscommunication.net for all the info.
Download the WinFX runtime components here, the WinFX SDK here,
and the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for WWF here.

I'm looking forward to playing with this kit to see how it can help my user's have a more seamless experience with technology.

Check out what the gurus Angus Logan and Mick Badran did here and here with VSTO and WF when they got together at the BPI+WF conference last year. This is just the tip of the iceberg!

WSS and Sharepoint Server Service Pack 2 - What's supported in each

MS have released a white paper describing what .Net Framework scenarios and enhanced features are supported for Service Pack 2 of both Windows Sharepoint Services and Sharepoint Portal Server.
In brief,

Windows SharePoint Services
with SP2
SharePoint Portal Server 2003
with SP2
Ability to run on Microsoft Windows Server™ 64-bit versions Yes Yes
Use of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Yes Yes
Improved extranet deployment options Yes Yes
Support for the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
Common Language Runtime (CLR) and ASP.NET 2.0
Yes No

Check it out Here

SQL Server 2000 error 7391 on Windows Server 2003 SP1

Server: Msg 7391, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
The operation could not be performed because the OLE DB provider 'SQLOLEDB' was unable to begin a distributed transaction. OLE/DB provider returned message: New transaction cannot enlist in the specified transaction coordinator.

The default MS DTC configuration under Windows Server 2003 is to have network access disabled. This stops the ability to run transactions across linked servers from MS SQL Server 2000.

Microsoft refers to this error in KB329332 and has a procedure to enable MS DTC network access for Windows Server 2003, however it seems that the dialog box referred to has changed in Service Pack 1.

Another article, KB899191 explains the new functionality in the Distributed Transaction Coordinator fo Windows 2003 SP1 and Windows XP SP2. You now have the ability to enable both inbound and outbound network access as well as the authentication level. If the linked servers you are trying to access are not Windows 2003 SP1 also, the only authentication level that will work is the "No Authentication Required" option.

In summary, the steps to enable MS DTC network access in Windows 2003 are:

  1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Component Services.
  2. In the Component Services Wizard, expand Component Services, and then double-click Computers.
  3. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
  4. Click the MS DTC tab, and then click Security Configuration.
  5. In the Security Configuration dialog box, click to select the Network DTC Access check box.
  6. (Windows 2003 only) Under Network DTC Access, click Network Transactions.
    (Windows 2003 SP1 only) Under Network DTC Access, select Allow Inbound and/or Allow Outbound depending on whether the server is initiating or receiving the request. Select No Authentication Required if the linked servers are not also running Windows 2003 SP1.
  7. Make sure that DTC Logon Account is set to NT Authority\NetworkService.
  8. Click OK.
  9. In the message box, click Yes to continue.
  10. In the DTC Console Message dialog box, click OK.
  11. In the System Properties dialog box, click OK.
  12. Reboot the computer for these changes to take effect.

MCMS 2002 SP2 Upgrade Guide

Stefan Goßner has posted the availability of Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 SP2 with support for .Net Framework 2.0.

It looks like there are some very specific steps that need to be taken to do perform this upgrade, especially on a developer's machine and for SQL 2005.
Stefan has since posted some follow up links to guide you through the process here:

Knowledge Base articles for MCMS 2002 SP2

  • 906142 - How to obtain the latest Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 service pack
  • 906145 - Content Management Server 2002 Service Pack 2 installation information
  • 894691 - A list of the bugs that are fixed in Content Management Server 2002 Service Pack 2

Glitches with MCMS 2002 Service Pack 2

 

IE Developer Toolbar Beta Refresh

The awesome Internet Explorer Developer toolbar has had a refresh (October 31, 2005) with a few bugs ironed out. Thanks Renaud for pointing out the update.

(via Microsoft Downloads)

Overview

The Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar provides several features for exploring and understanding Web pages. These features enable you to:

-- Explore and modify the document object model (DOM) of a Web page.
-- Locate and select specific elements on a Web page through a variety of techniques.
-- Selectively disable Internet Explorer settings.
-- View HTML object class names, ID's, and details such as link paths, tab index values, and access keys.
-- Outline tables, table cells, images, or selected tags.
-- Validate HTML, CSS, WAI, and RSS Web feed links.
-- Display image dimensions, file sizes, path information, and alternate (ALT) text.
-- Immediately resize the browser window to a new resolution.
-- Selectively clear the browser cache and saved cookies. Choose from all objects or those associated with a given domain.
-- Choose direct links to W3C specification references, the Internet Explorer team weblog (blog), and other resources.
-- Display a fully featured design ruler to help accurately align objects on your pages.


The Developer Toolbar can be pinned to the Internet Explorer browser window or floated separately.

This version of the Developer Toolbar is an updated version of Beta 1; it was updated on October 31, 2005. Several issues are resolved and some feedback has been incorporated.

-- Element bounding box calculations are more accurate.
-- Outlining of elements is now significantly faster.
-- The image report no longer crashes.
-- Installation no longer requires a reboot. (Beta 1 users will still be prompted to reboot because the current installer invokes the original uninstaller).
-- The minimize and maximize buttons now refresh after the "Resize" command.
-- The "Select element by click" bounding box is now more visible on pages with blue backgrounds.
-- The attributes editor (middle pane) now has variable width fields (for example, you can type beyond the width of the box).
-- Fixes for some pages that do not trigger OnDocumentComplete events.
-- Fixed the continuity of using "element" rather than "tag" in the menus.
-- The ruler is easier to use and to scroll.
-- Enabling/disabling images no longer restarts Internet Explorer.
-- The Resize menu now contains more resolutions.
-- Editing a property is now much less likely to let keystrokes "leak" back to IE and navigate without the user expecting it.
-- Trying to use the ruler while IE is in "folder mode" should no longer crash the browser.

New features and functionality have also been added.

-- Default styles (in the third pane) now appear in gray, separating them from explicit styles.
-- The ruler dialog is always populated with the ruler information if there is just one ruler.
-- The ruler dialog now describes advanced features.
-- "Undo all" reverts the page to the initial state.
-- You can now remove all outlines.

Now Available to MSDN Subscribers: Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005

Its here at last!!!!!!

(via MSDN)

Now Available to MSDN Subscribers: Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005
The final versions of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 are now at manufacturing; MSDN subscribers can download these products immediately. Redistributable packages, including the .NET Framework, are also now publicly available  

del.icio.us - share your bookmarks online

From playing with Flock I've discovered del.icio.us, a cool service that lets you post, tag, aggregate and filter all your web favorites online!

Now I can share my bookmarks between my home and work PC and the rest of the world (and they're RSS enabled). It even tells you how popular a link is by how many other people have linked to the same URL. Apparently the service is pre-Alpha and there's a lot of cool stuff in the works for these guys, so check them out.

My del.icio.us links

Flock - New Mozilla based browser

Thought I'd check out a new Mozilla based browser under development. Flock looks to be doing some quite interesting things i.e. building a lot of the new ideas gaining popularity on the web into the browser, including del.icio.us online bookmarks, flickr images, RSS feed discovery and caching as well as history searching, blogging, and of course, tabbed browsing.

Download the Flock Developer Preview binaries or source for Windows, Mac OSX or Linux here

Darwin posts our MSFT SQL Support Case

Darwin, a Microsoft Developer Support Engineer from Sydney, Australia has started a blog here: Darwin's Idle Times and posted the resolution to our PSS Support case here: Kerberos Delegation to SQL Server.
SQL Server and Kerberos authentication seems to be a tricky issue when things go wrong. With the problem Darwin describes, we had 2 SQL/Developer consultants, a first-level MS Support Engineer as well as ourselves unable to find the fault.

Well done Darwin for sorting this out for us, and for taking the next step and blogging about it!

As Darwin describes, the following MS White paper is the ultimate guide to troubleshooting kerberos delegation: Troubleshooting Kerberos delegation in Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, and the way to find the offending SPN in our case was to use the following LDIFDE tool query: ldifde -f ldif.txt -j c:\ -d -l serviceprincipalname -r (serviceprincipalname=MSSQL*)

Free MCMS eBook Downloads

(via Jawad Khan)

Here are few useful online free books listed on MSDN that will get you started with Microsoft Content Management Server before you do your own investment and buy a MCMS 2002 Book or take an official MOC Training.

Note these books are not meant for beginners though. For beginners I will still Recommend the Book Building Websites with Microsoft Content Management Server as per my post here earlier.You can get good deal on this book from Amazon and other online book sellers.

(1) Building, Deploying, and Maintaining Intranet Sites for the Enterprise

           Chapter 1. Setup
           Chapter 2. Examining OTGWeb's Network Architecture
           Chapter 3. Day-to-Day Operations
           Chapter 4. Building OTGWeb with Best Practices
           Chapter 5. Final Thoughts

This book discusses how a small team within the Operations and Technology Group (OTG) at Microsoft uses Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) 2002 to build, deploy, and maintain OTGWeb, an internal Microsoft site. OTG uses OTGWeb to provide information and tools to keep Microsoft employees informed and productive. OTGWeb is, as far as we know, the largest intranet site running MCMS today.

(2) Integration Techniques and Strategies for Internet Business

  • Using the MCMS .NET-based managed APIs
  • Using the MCMS COM-based Site Deployment API
  • Creating user controls and dialog boxes within the Web Author
  • Creating custom placeholder controls in Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET
  • Creating components that communicate with each external system

In Integration Techniques and Strategies for Internet Business, we'll examine a variety of integration options available to you when designing your Web sites. The methodology we present is simple, secure, and extendable. We take the WoodgroveNet sample site which shipped as a sample with MCMS 2002 and build integration components to show integration with search engines, workflow engines, authentication systems, and other software.

(3) Performance Planning and Deployment with Content Management Server 2002

  • Explains performance planning for MCMS 2002
  • Demonstrates capacity planning with transaction cost analysis for MCMS 2002
  • Provides detailed instructions and best practices for installing a sample MCMS 2002 deployment that can be scaled out to meet your needs.
  • Provides troubleshooting information and answers to frequently asked questions for getting the best from your MCMS 2002 site.

This Book shows you how to plan your MCMS 2002 deployment to maximize performance, how to estimate site capacity with transaction cost analysis, and provides best practices and instructions for installing an MCMS 2002, 13-computer, 3-tier, sample, secure deployment that can easily be scaled out to meet the needs of your enterprise. Additionally, it provides troubleshooting tips and answers frequently asked questions about installing and using MCMS 2002

Sauce Reader v2.0.2, a non-expiring version has been released.

If you currently use Sauce Reader, the 2.0.1 Beta version will expire today (30/09/2005). Synop has closed for business and put the Product and Source Code up for sale.

Fortunately, a non expiring version has just been made available. Download it here . Thanks Synop! :)

Hopefully somebody picks this product up and continues development. It's certainly the best RSS reader I've used.

SQL Server error 14274

Encountered the following SQL Server error today that prevented modifying a job:
Error 14274: Cannot add, update, or delete a job (or its steps or schedules) that originated from an MSX server. The job was not saved.

This occurred in our instance because the server was built and SQL Server installed with a different name prior to going into production. Jobs created in SQL prior to the name change were recorded as having a different 'originating_server' to what the name of the server is now.

A quick google search revealed MS kb281642 that suggested

1. Rename the server back to the original name.
2. Script out all of the jobs and then delete them.
3. Rename the server to the new name.
4. Add back the jobs by running the script generated from step 2.

As this seemed a bit drastic under the circumstances, I took a look into msdb.sysjobs. It revealed the offending originating_server field and the pre-production server name values. Changing these to the current server name resolved the problem in this instance.

 

PDC 05 Slide deck Download

If you weren't fortunate enough to get to the PDC this year (like me), you can download all the slide decks from here. Thanks to Mark Harrison for posting this link

Vista Beta 1 first look

Having seen some of the cool Avalon Windows Presentation Foundation stuff demoed in the keynote at Tech.Ed, I can't wait to see the next Beta. However, onto Beta 1.

Startup time: It seems that for about 10 minutes after booting the Virtual PC, the CPU sits at 100%, rendering it all but useless. Things get a lot better after this though.

My Computer: The "My" has been dropped from My Computer

Local Drives: The C: drive we all know and love seems to have become E: drive. Interesting.

Search: Desktop search is now firmly integrated into the operating system. Available from the Start Menu.

Add/Remove Windows Components: I went looking for this to install IIS, in preparation for Visual Studio .Net 2005. I still can't find it.

Web Application Server: IIS Web site as well as ftp site is installed by default. The Services are disabled.

Firewall: The Windows firewall is not enabled by default.

Network Presentation: A new folder on the "All Programs" part of the Start Menu. I'll have to check this one out a bit more.

Vista Beta 1 Install Experience

Some notes on installing Windows Vista Beta 1.....

Machine: Dell Inspiron 6000, 2.0 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 7200rpm Hard Disk, Windows XP Pro
Install Environment: Virtual PC SP1, 256MB RAM dedicated to VPC

All in all a very smooth, straight forward install experience. Very lengthy however. Understandably the Vista team have a lot higher priorites than optimising the installation routine at the moment, especially as it's only Beta 1.

Install time took just over 3hrs with the above configuration, including 2 reboots. A few images captured with Cropper (a cool screen capture utility written in c# by Brian Scott) are shown below:

  

The "Supplemental Driver Pack Installation Wizard", shown below, started up after the install had completed and had good intentions, but wasn't able to help out in the VPC environment

  

The Virtual Machine Additions installed successfully, but took over 10 mins. It seems that when Vista boots, it maxes the CPU out at 100% for around the same amount of time.

  

Best Practices - Developing MCMS and Sharepoint for the Future

With all the exciting new announcements at the PDC, the futures of both Sharepoint and MCMS have been confirmed. (were they ever in question?)

In line with this, we should all be ensuring that any development work we do will place us in the best possible position for doing an upgrade when the time comes.

Arpan has linked to a couple of MSDN whitepapers to help us out:

Designing Your MCMS 2002 Solution for Reusability 
Summary:  Use best-practice design recommendations for Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 applications and Web sites to help you create your site in a way that prepares it for future versions of MCMS technology.

Best Practices for Ensuring Application Reusability and Upgrade in Windows SharePoint Services
Summary: Revisit key Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Software Development Kit (SDK) information to know best practices for writing code that will be optimally reusable when software updates, upgrades, or security updates are applied to a deployment.

(via Arpan)

There were several large announcements made at PDC that are very relevant to SharePoint and CMS customers. I'm personally super excited about this and to be part of this. Microsoft revealed Office "12" - client and servers and talked about our investment in ECM. This is great news for CMS and SharePoint customers that there is one integrated architecture for end-to-end document and content lifecyle.

Another huge announcement was the introduction of Windows Workflow Foundation - WinFX. http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/building/workflow/ Office "12" servers will build on this technology to provide some great workflow!

A lot of CMS and SharePoint customers and partners are wondering what they can do to better prepare for the next version of the technology. If you are a CMS customer, take a look at the newly published whitepaper at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnmscms02/html/CMSDesigningCMS2002Sol.asp.

If you are a SharePoint customer, make sure you follow guidelines published at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/odc_SP2003_ta/html/WSSSharePointCodeReuse.asp