Sharepoint SP1 is NOW out….no need to wait for Santa

by | Dec 11, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

Well looks like the team have made ready some great goodies in WSS 3.0 SP1, MOSS SP1
and SPD SP1.

These are Service Packs with enhancements also.

You need to install WSS 3.0 SP1 first then install MOSS SP1 (if you have a MOSS server)

Grab the details from the links below for both x86 AND x64 versions….

Link Details  
WSS
3.0 SP1 (download)

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 1 delivers important customer-requested
stability and performance improvements, while incorporating further enhancements to
user security. This service pack also includes all of the updates released for Windows
SharePoint Services 3.0 prior to December of 2007. You can get a more complete description
of SP1, including a list of issues that were fixed, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base
article 936988: Description of the
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 1.

 
MOSS
2007 SP1 (download)

The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 1 delivers important customer-requested
stability and performance improvements, while incorporating further enhancements to
user security. This service pack also includes all of the updates released for the
2007 Microsoft Office System servers prior to December of 2007. You can get a more
complete description of SP1, including a list of issues that were fixed, in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base article 936984: Description
of the 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 1.

 
New Features
in SP1 whitepaper (download)		 This white paper describes features that are included in Microsoft%u00ae Office SharePoint%u00ae
Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows%u00ae SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack
1 (SP1). In addition, this paper provides some guidelines for planning your solutions
to work with current and future versions of Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies.		  
Sharepoint
Designer 2007 SP1 (download)

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Service Pack 1 delivers important customer-requested
stability and performance improvements, while incorporating further enhancements to
user security. This service pack also includes all of the updates released for Office
SharePoint Designer 2007 prior to December of 2007. You can get a more complete description
of SP1, including a list of issues that were fixed, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base
article 937162: Description of the
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Service Pack 1.

 


Enjoy,

Mick.

Honey, where are my keys???

by | Dec 11, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

No, really? Suppose, you’ve got a certificate from some certificate authority, installed it in the localmachine store, and then your application cannot see it!!! What happened? Is it a bug? Is it  a virus? Did somebody stole you precious key??? Not quite


 


Let’s see what’s happening when you install the certificate. The certificate itself is stored in the registry, and it includes the public key. However, the private key is stored separately in a special folder. That’s “%system drive%\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys”, or whatever it is in a localized version.


 


This folder is quite special. First of all, a normal consumer Windows does not have much to keep there. Sometimes, it’s just empty. Unfortunately, this is important to our story. Read on!


 


So, you install the certificate, and the file with the private key is created in this folder. Where does it gets its permissions? Right, from the folder. That’s quite logical, isn’t it?


 


Step 2, and that a smart thing, maybe a too smart thing, happens. Crypto layer, which created this file, removes the permissions for Everyone (WD) identity on this file. Which is also quite logical, you cannot have a private key that everybody can read, can you?


 


Now, what does it mean if Everyone was the only one having access to this folder? Right, nobody can get your key. Not even Admin or SYSTEM – semi-divine identity in Windows used to run system processes.


 


That’s not fun, but wait, here is more! If for some reason at some moment in the history of the machine this folder gets empty, it may – I repeat, it may – be deleted by the same code that created file for private key and maintained it so far. Then, some other application starts and tried to import a private key. Guess, what happens? The folder is magically recreated. Sounds good? Wait a bit for a small detail. It’s recreated under the current user. Ouch, ouch, ouch!


 


What does it mean for you? It means that on any well used Windows system you don’t have a predictable state of this folder and your private keys. And if you install certificates under one user, it may not work under another user.


 


So, the generic word of wisdom is: take care of ACLs on your private keys, if you install them, or it may be the last time you’ve seen them!


Site Map

by | Dec 10, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

This blog site is divided into 2 sections. Posts and Pages. I recently discovered that the rss feed does not include pages. So to help resolve that issue and to provide better navigation, I have highlighted the sitemap.
Post – available in heirarchal order
XML Tools
Batching
PAM
R2 Engine Send
R2 Engine Receive
Introduction to Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 EDI
Welcome […]

Can you do better than Microsoft? Here is your chance thru the MSDN Wiki!

by | Dec 10, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

Microsoft’s documentation team has given you (those registered with MSDN online) the ability to add your own content to MSDN.

Here is your chance to tell the world of your knowledge in a bigger venue than a place like blogs (that most likely are not as frequented as much as MSDN).

Some things to keep in mind:

Code of Conduct

MSDN Wiki Frequently Asked Questions

Contribution Agreement

An example is here:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa560332(VS.10).aspx

2 Additional Product Group Blogs To Track

by | Dec 10, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

I wanted to highlight two great blogs for everyone to keep track off.


              Those of you who use our forums frequently, you must have come across Mohsin Kalam at some point.  Mohsin constituently ranks as the top and the most helpful forums answerer.  You can follow Mohsin’s blog for helpful articles.


 


              For those interested in RFID, Sudhir’s RFID blog is a great one to follow to keep track of key events, announcements and other helpful information in the RFID world.


Regards,


Marjan Kalantar

Wiki is enabled for BizTalk and RFID documentation

by | Dec 10, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and BizTalk RFID documentation is released to MSDN library online with Community Content (Wiki) feature enabled.  


This feature allows anyone registered with MSDN online using a passport account to contribute to the content of the documentation.  A nice example for a community content post can be found at the bottom of this topic inside the Community Content control.  The Community Content control allows you to extend the content of the topic with your own content such as code examples, tips and tricks, links to other relevant content in other blogs, etc.  Anyone registered with MSDN online can contribute. When you click Add Community Content link in the control, it will guide you through the registration process if you have not already registered.


Please note that the Community Content feature is not provided to give documentation feedback or ask questions on the topic. 


              To give feedback on documentation, please use the Click to Rate and Give Feedback link at the top-right corner of a topic in the documentation. 


              To ask questions and for community support, please visit the BizTalk Server and RFID forums.


We look forward to your contributions to the community content and feedback on the documentation. 


Please see the following for more information:


              Code of Conduct


              MSDN Wiki Frequently Asked Questions


              Contribution Agreement


Regards,


Marjan Kalantar

Connect To Mainframe Apps With BizTalk Adapters and .NET

by | Dec 10, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

There is a great new article on MSDN magazine on how to connect to mainframe applications with BizTalk Adapters and .NET.


This article discusses:


              Connecting to a host system


              Exposing COBOL apps as endpoints


              .NET Framework integration


              Terminal screen-scraping






Almost every major industry that uses mainframe for business critical systems still uses COBOL.  In this article, you will learn about BizTalk adapters for mainframes, exposing COBOL applications as endpoints and .NET assemblies and adding them to any business process managed by BizTalk.


For more articles from the author, please see Bash’s blog.


Regards,


Marjan Kalantar

BizTalk Mapping Design Template

by | Dec 9, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

I visit a lot of customers and I hear many of the same questions.  One of the most common at the beginning of a project is how do I document and design the transformations.


 


I have created a template (that you can download) that I use and provide when I am on a project to the architects, developers and business analysts.  I find that the business analysts are typically in the best position to do this part of the analysis and they are most often very comfortable with an Excel spreadsheet.


 


Each map will have an associated Excel spreadsheet.  Within the spreadsheet are 4 tabs.  The first contains history information such as the author, date, version and description.  The second and third tab are the mappings for a request and response message scenario.  If this map represents a one way message then delete one of the tabs.  On these mapping tabs I have included the source schema information in column B, destination schema information in column J (there is other data on the form pertaining to the schemas) and the transform information in column G.  Column G maps to the fourth  tab which represents the transformation functions. 


 


In the template, I have included a sample of a public schema mapped to a canonical schema as well as a sample response message mapping.  On each of the tabs I have included examples of the types of mapping that you will encounter including:


Mapping from source to destination


Creating a destination value  with no mapping from the source


Mapping source to destination through the use of a functoid


Mapping a source element to two destination elements