In the healthcare business today, a problem exists in integrating various information systems. The issue can be partially attributed to the fact that these systems onlyserve one specific department within a healthcare business. Having such an issue can lead to inefficient patient care. For example, if patient’s health information is spread out over a […]
The WorkflowApplication is a great way to execute your workflows in process. Usually the fact that the WorkflowApplication is asynchronous is a great thing but there are cases when a little more synchronous execution is nice. For example executing a workflow and updating the state of the user interface is much simpler when the WorkflowApplication.Run() doesn’t finish until all work is done.
The key to creating a synchronous WorkflowApplication is using its SynchronizationContext. Normally you set this to SynchronizationContext.Current so everything executes on the current UI thread. However this is still an asynchronous call and the Run doesn’t block.
Take this very simple workflow and its execution output.
var workflow = new Sequence()
{
Activities = {
new WriteLine(){ Text="Workflow is running"}
}
};
var app = new WorkflowApplication(workflow);
Console.WriteLine("Before WorkflowApplication.Run()");
app.Run();
Console.WriteLine("After WorkflowApplication.Run()");
As you can see the Run() didn’t block and the message after the Run() was printed before the message from the workflow.
Executing the workflow synchronously
Making this workflow execute in a synchronous fashion is easy and requires only a very small change by setting the SynchronizationContext to a custom implementation.
var workflow = new Sequence()
{
Activities = {
new WriteLine(){ Text="Workflow is running"}
}
};
var app = new WorkflowApplication(workflow);
app.SynchronizationContext = new SynchronousSynchronizationContext();
Console.WriteLine("Before WorkflowApplication.Run()");
app.Run();
Console.WriteLine("After WorkflowApplication.Run()");
The SynchronousSynchronizationContext used is real simple. The workflow internals always call the Post() method to execute work, so all we need to do is just execute the delegate passed with the state passed.
class SynchronousSynchronizationContext : SynchronizationContext
{
public override void Post(SendOrPostCallback d, object state)
{
d(state);
}
}
Executing an asynchronous workflow
Using this same SynchronousSynchronizationContext with an asynchronous workflow works just fine. If I add the following simple bookmarked activity to the workflow and execute it I get the following result:
The code to execute the workflow is as follows
var workflow = new Sequence()
{
Activities = {
new WriteLine(){ Text="Workflow has started"},
new MyBookmarkedActivity(),
new WriteLine(){ Text="Workflow is done"}
}
};
var app = new WorkflowApplication(workflow);
app.SynchronizationContext = new SynchronousSynchronizationContext();
app.Idle = e => Console.WriteLine("WorkflowApplication.Idle called");
Console.WriteLine("Before WorkflowApplication.Run()");
app.Run();
Console.WriteLine("After WorkflowApplication.Run()");
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Before WorkflowApplication.ResumeBookmark()");
Console.WriteLine("ResumeBookmark: {0}", app.ResumeBookmark("MyBookmark", null));
Console.WriteLine("After WorkflowApplication.ResumeBookmark()");
And the bookmarked activity is as follows:
class MyBookmarkedActivity : NativeActivity
{
protected override bool CanInduceIdle
{
get { return true; }
}
protected override void Execute(NativeActivityContext context)
{
Console.WriteLine("Creating bookmark");
context.CreateBookmark("MyBookmark", BookmarkResumed);
}
private void BookmarkResumed(NativeActivityContext context, Bookmark bookmark, object value)
{
Console.WriteLine("Bookmark resumed");
}
}
Conclusion
A simple yet effective addition to the workflow runtime for that special case where the asynchronous behavior is not quite what you want but the WorkflowInvoker is not flexible enough
Enjoy!
www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu
If you have not yet registered for CloudCamp LA next week, sorry, but it’s sold out.
I’ll be there doing a lightening talk. I’m trying something new, File|New|PowerPoint, and pretty radical and hip given it is, after all, Los Angeles. I’m pushing my creative limits to come up with a compelling yet non-commercial rapid-fire presentation. This could go either way, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be entertained!
Registration for the San Diego CloudCamp is open, at http://cloudcamp.org/sandiego/2011-02-09. It will be Feb 9, and I’ll be posting more details as the time gets closer. I’ll be doing a lightening talk there as well.
San Diego will also likely sell out, so don’t procrastinate, sign up NOW to ensure your spot.
Our team is busily working on some great new stuff to bring first class support for Workflow to Windows Azure. We want to hear from you so we can be sure to deliver on what you need.
Drop me a line if you want to chat and you
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One of the best career decisions I’ve made was to join the Windows Azure Platform Evangelism team last July. Yes, it was a lot of work to uproot the family and move to Seattle, but it was absolutely worth it. I pinch myself nearly everyday to make sure that it’s not just a dream – […]
Recently I had to integrate with Oracle db using the BizTalk 2006 Oracle adapter (Note: just our vanilla Oracle adapter, not the WCF one). I experience huge challenge setting it up on a Windows 2003 64 bit machine. It’s mainly around getting the correct Oracle drivers, using the 64 bit version of ODBC data source interface, giving permission to certain folders, etc.
We had to do this on a production server on limited window, so its crucial to get the steps spot on. Here are the steps that?s required.
The first step in configuring the BizTalk 2006 Oracle adapter is to make sure the underlying Oracle ODAC components are correctly configured. You can download the required files from the following location
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/windows/downloads/utilsoft-087491.html
The page will display various links, with various flavours. The one we are interested in (the one we tested successfully) is
Download the Oracle Universal Installer version – ODAC112012.zip
The key thing to look out for in the list is the “Oracle ODBC Driver 11.2.0.1.0”
The other important bit here is not to confuse too much with the 64 bit and 32 bit versions. You only need 32 bit version of the ODAC installer.
Once you have downloaded the ODAC112012.zip (around 270mb), extract the content and identify setup.exe file. Double click the file to start the installation process.
On the first screen select the option “Oracle Data Access Components for Oracle Client 11.2.0.1.2”
In the next screen you need to specify the path, by default it puts the current user name at the end. Just replace the username with “Oracle”
In the component selection screen, select only the following components
Note: While unselecting you need to do it from bottom up, else you will get error about dependencies.
Once the Oracle ODAC components are successfully installed, you need to configure the tnsnames.ora file (found under your install folder d:\app\Oracle\Network\admin) with the environment specific connection string. Example:
ORACLEWEB =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = yourservername)(PORT = 1523))
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVER = DEDICATED)
(SERVICE_NAME = FILEMFU1)
)
)
Oracle DBA’s should be able to provide these details.
Next we need to create a system DSN to connect to the oracle database. On a 64 bit system it?s important to use the 64bit or Wow64 enabled ODBC datasources interface instead of using the standard one present under Administrative Tools\DataSources ODBC.
In order to do that, open the odbccad32 application found under the following location C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe
Navigate to System DSN tab and click “Add” button. Then Select “Oracle in OraClient11g_home1” and click finish
In the next screen, Set
Data Source Name = ORACLEWEB
TNS Service Name = ORACLEWEB (This should correspond to the name provided in the tnsnames.ora file)
UserID = <<environment specifi>>
Then click the “Test Connection” button, provide password and make sure the connection is successful.
Once establishing the successful oracle connection from the BizTalk machine, the next step is to install the BizTalk 2006 Oracle adapter. The installer files are present in a separate CD called “Microsoft BizTalk Server Adapters for Enterprise”, if you can?t find the CD you can download it from MSDN using the subscription account.
Once downloaded, open the setup.exe file and select “Install Microsoft BizTalk adapters for Enterprise Application” link.
In the next screen, only select the “Oralce? Database” (not the Oracle? E-Business Suite) and make all other options disabled.
Follow the rest of wizard with standard steps and finish the installation.
Once the oracle adapter setup is completed, open up BizTalk Administration console and navigate to Platform Settings\Adapters, right click and select “New”
In the new window, enter “OralceDB” for name and select “Oracle? Database” from the drop down box as shown below:
Click OK.
Navigate to the oracle ODAC installation folder ex: “D:\app\Oracle” in the windows explorer. Right-click and select Security. Add the service account user name under which the host instance is running and provide full control
Make sure you restart the required host instances. Note: There is no requirement to create a 32 bit host/host instances.
You can test the configuration by creating a new Receive Port, Receive Location.
Open “BizTalk Application 1” and
As shown below:
Click ?Apply? and then ?OK?. Click the ?Configure? button again and this time click on the ?Manage Events? option, which will pop up a new window. On LHS navigate to ?Native SQL?.
Note: If you are able to see the LHS expand as shown below, then it a sign showing everything configured correctly.
Click “OK” all the way through, and enable the “Receive Location”. After a while you should see some messages coming into BizTalk server and gets suspended (since there are no subscribers). But this will just prove the oracle configuration is successful.
Earlier in October, at our Professional Developer Conference (PDC), we made some exciting announcements regarding the future and roadmap of Windows Azure AppFabric.
If you want to learn more regarding these announcements you can visit the Windows Azure AppFabric website, and also read content and watch sessions from PDC.
Today, we wanted to highlight a paper the leading analyst firm Gartner published following PDC regarding these roadmap announcements.
Here is a quick summary and link to the paper:
Windows Azure AppFabric: A Strategic Core of Microsoft’s Cloud Platform (Gartner, November 15, 2010) Examines Microsoft’s strategy with Windows Azure AppFabric and the AppFabric services, concluding that “continuing strategic investment in Windows Azure is moving Microsoft toward a leadership position in the cloud platform market, but success is not assured until user adoption confirms the company’s vision and its ability to execute in this new environment.”
This reinforces that the investments we are making in Windows Azure AppFabric are leading us in the right direction in the cloud.
Besides the exciting roadmap, Windows Azure AppFabric provides great capabilities and benefits already today. So be sure to try it out using our free trial offer.
Click the link below and get started!
This blog post is for those folks comfortable with creating a data stream from an IEnumerable, IObservable or StreamInsight adapter data source. If you’d like more details on creating those, have a look at this blog post, which covers creating an IEnumerable ’canned’ data source then wrapping a LINQPad context around it.
Creating a data context is very straightforward:
| Download the sample project here. |
That’s it! Here’s what this looks like in practice. First we establish the basic class
Now we’ll go ahead and expose three types of streams. The first will be one generated from an IEnumerable.
Next, we’ll use IObservable (created via Observer.Interval) to generate a “live” stream of events:
Finally, we’ll leverage the DataGenerator sample adapter (from http://streaminsight.codeplex.com/) to demonstrate creating a LINQPad stream from an adapter.
To test, we’ll need to configure LINQPad with our assembly as a data context. To do this:
The context streams should now be visible in LINQPad, similar to the screenshot below. Create a new Query, and select C# Statements as the Language, and StreamInsight: SampleContext as the database.
Let’s dump our streams, using this LINQ code:
This will show us our enumerable and observable streams:
Finally, let’s dump out some data from our adapter stream:
Resulting in:
Note – I had to make one change to the adapter code to make it work with ToObservable. The GeneratedEvent definition doesn’t define a default constructor (which is needed by ToObservable). In GeneratedEvent.cs, on line 23 I added the code:
|
That’s it – a LINQPad data context in a nutshell.
This blog post is about EPiServer CMS on the Windows Azure platform. Which possibilities and challenges that lie ahead and how far we’ve come this far. The Azure story so far
For you that have been…
Daniel Berg’s blog about ASP.NET, EPiServer, SharePoint, BizTalk