by community-syndication | Feb 6, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
As some of you probably know, I’ve been a
big fan of InfoPath since it first came out. What type of XML aficionado wouldn’t love a product like that? Recently I’ve been digging into InfoPath 2007 along with the new Forms Server 2007 or Forms Services (packaged in SharePoint 2007). Compelling is an understatement.
The #1 complaint about InfoPath 2003 was that you had to have InfoPath installed on the client in order to fill out or even view a form. Although the product was built on things like XML, XSLT, and HTML, it simply wasn’t design for browser rendering. Hence, many organizations didn’t consider it a viable option given the resulting client deployment requirements.
The good news is 2007 changes all that.
With InfoPath 2007 you can design forms against a browser compatibility setting, which restricts the set of controls and features you’re allowed to use, thereby making it compatible with the browser rendering engine supplied by Forms Server/Services. This allows you to design a form once while choosing to render it in multiple environments, such as the rich InfoPath 2007, various browsers (IE, Firefox, etc), or even mobile devices. The richer the rendering environment, the richer the feature set, but now reach is indeedpossible.
Both SharePoint and Outlook 2007 have been enhanced quite a bit with some native InfoPath integration that makes the experience within those environments even more compelling.
Check out Ted’s
screencast on creating browser-enabled forms for a quick ramp-up. You can also learn more about InfoPath 2007 at the InfoPath Developer Portal.
by community-syndication | Feb 6, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Appears as though the Microsoft Readiness Crew have teamed up with Breeze Training to deliver some BizTalk 2006 R2 training in the coming months here in Aus. Details can be found here: https://www.local.microsoft.com.au/australia/events/register/home.aspx?levent=531566&linvitation Don’t get this confused with the training that Breeze is offering as well. http://blogs.msdn.com/cvidotto/archive/2006/12/14/biztalk-2006-r2-training-in-mel-syd-australia-in-april-2007.aspx
Primary Technology Focus: BizTalk 2006, Windows Workflow & Windows Communications Foundation
Time: 8:30am Registration
Dates:
Sydney: March 6 – 8 th
Melbourne: March 26 – 28 th
Perth : April 2 – 4 th
Adelaide : April 2 – 4 th
Cost: $751inc. GST
Objectives:
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Upgrade your skills and learn about the features of BizTalk Server 2006.
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Discover the enhancements in BizTalk 2006 R2
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Explore Microsoft Windows Workflow and Windows Communication Foundation.
by community-syndication | Feb 5, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Last week AdapterWorx launched a new site with a lot of new and enhanced functionalities. This was possible due mainly to the hard work of Danny del Rio (Community Program Manager) and Joel (graphic artist) from our team. We sincerely hope you find this site much easier to use; the team is actively looking for your feedback.
by community-syndication | Feb 5, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
One of the things I like best about Team Foundation Server is the ability to structure our entire "data warehouse solution" as a TFS Project and to match this structure in Source Control. For us, this includes our Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals (VSTEDP) projects and any other related Visual Studio projects such as SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and SQL Server Reporting Services.
We had done a lot of thinking and research about how best to organize our database solutions in Team Foundation Server and after a lot of trial and error, settled on the structure shown above. We decided to store our entire data warehouse solution in TFS using a "solution centric" model where all the inter-related Visual Studio projects are divided logically by project type since this helps us break down the "solution" into small, more manageable areas of work. We also wanted to be able to branch the entire "data warehouse solution" when we need to deploy a new major version (such as described in our recent case study) but still be able to employ continuous integration practices when adding features or bug fixes to the existing solution. And since we're a pretty small development team, we wanted to do this with a minimum of time and effort.
One of the great things we've found using this "solution centric" approach is that it helps remind us how changes in individual VS projects affect the entire solution. Take for example when we decide to pull some additional information from our ERP system into the data warehouse for an existing report we are working on. This (relatively small) change will require a change to one or more VSTEDP projects, SSIS projects and SQL Reporting Services projects with each change building upon the previous change (DB –> SSIS –> SQL Report). By structuring our TFS Project and Source Control in this manner, we are visually reminded of how all the pieces fit together in our solution and we are able to use the Scenario and Work Item Tracking features of TFS to manage the entire "development workflow" even though it spans multiple VS projects. We can test our changes through each step of the development workflow as well as at the "solution" level before we deploy this to our production servers.
The good news is that this structure works really well for us and is very easy to manage. The bad news is that we tried about ten different structures before settling on this one and all these previous "trials" are still stored (although hidden) in Team Foundation Server. Hopefully when we upgrade to the next release (TFS Orcas) we'll be able to "destroy" all this obsolete stuff and move forward with a less cluttered TFS server.
Lessons I Learned:
- Structure your TFS Projects and Source Control at a high level to follow your corporate solution or application.
- Use your TFS Project and Source Control structure to make it easy to manage change because change happens all the time.
- Setup a "sandbox" instance of TFS where you can try different project and source control structures. Don't do this on your main TFS instance until the Orcas release.
Technorati Tags: Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals
by community-syndication | Feb 5, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Last month I’ve written an article about Using design time properties in Biztalk Server. Initially the white paper was published on the download section of Microsoft site and there was no link from Biztalk pages.
This morning I bumped into msdn looking for some other resource and found my article right on the home page of biztalk as a very first link
Thanks Luke and editors for making this happen.
Nandri!
Saravana
by community-syndication | Feb 5, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Formless application or in my terms invisible .NET applications. I recently end up in a situation where I want to run my console application on a regular schedule via Scheduled task. Problem with that is, it opens ups the schedule every time it runs the application.
There were few suggestions in the newsgroups to create a Windows NT service, or WinForms application and make the form invisible etc, etc. None of them were appropriate for me.
At last I ended up with a quick and efficient fix.
Go to project properties and set “Output Type” to “Windows Application” for your Console application.
Now, I can’t see the console anymore, and the application runs in the background quietly.
Nandri!
Saravana
by community-syndication | Feb 5, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Although somewhat
stale news, I thought I should mention here that my article on the
The Service Factory for WCF has hit the Web.
Check out
Don Smith’s blog for his
recent announcement on the December release — he outlines the new features they nailed and tells you what they’re working on next. They’re definitelyup to some cool stuff.
You can learn more about Service Factory here, and you can get the latest bits here.
by community-syndication | Feb 5, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
We had a great session last Wednesday at Microsoft – I gave the above session.
As promised, here’s the slide deck
Meeting
2007 Jan 31 – A Lap around WCF Adapters in BTS R2.zip (2.54 MB)
by community-syndication | Feb 5, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
Unlike BizTalk, the HIPAA EDI Subsystem group needs to be set up as a domain group when setting up a distributed system. Local groups will give this error about invalid characters, and all places that log the data, event log, log file, do not explain any further the issue when going thru the configuration of the HIPAA EDI accelerator.
by community-syndication | Feb 5, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication
I honestly have to say that last night’s A-League Soccer (Football) semi final game that I went to here in Melbourne was the best sporting event I have ever attended live! Having an Italian heritage means that growing up as a kid, I used to play soccer (until my mid teens) so seeing such an amazing crowd here in Melbourne and the awesome atmosphere put a tingle in my heart 😉 Just for the record, we (Melbourne Victory) had to win to (a) make it through to the national final (b) host the final in Melbourne – and we did it in the 93rd minute! Awesome game! Here are some pics that I took!
