John Powell has a great article (with piccys) that will hopefully get you out of a pickle.

http://blogs.msdn.com/johnwpowell/archive/2008/08/14/error-configuring-biztalk-sharepoint-adapter-on-sharepoint-sp1.aspx

Thanks John!

 Register - here

Folks I hope you're heading to TechEd this year - it's a brand new breed! Why....????

Because myself and my team are covering the entire event with RFID tags, we'll give you tags - enabling you the delegate to 'live' the technology!!! (seen Tron lately) we'll set up some great RFID interactive capabilities.

Sample card TechEd tag

It all started when... I went to MS and said..."I've got an idea...." and the teched committee(s) saw the plan and loved it (there were some sleepless nights there as well :).

I've been to over 10+ yrs of TechEd (sometimes 3 a yr, US, Oz + NZ) and I figured it should be a chance to play with the technology! Hands on - get dirty. Build, break, play + learn...all that stuff.

As a MS Ptr Readiness trainer/Regular teched speaker - I appreciate the value of sessions but as a delegate I would be looking for the show me/talk to me/let *me* see how it's done.... a bit like plasticine to mould and meld the way that I (as a delegate) would need it!!!!!

So in light of this - Breeze is providing a (huge) BizTalk RFID based RFID Event System that you guys can interact with/we'll walk you through the making of, setup & how the system is put together. We're getting some posters made up and myself as a trainer, would want to share the knowledge around this system.

Let's see what the system does.....(as of 5pm today...nothing like moving targets... :)

The vision we have is:

1. You walk into a room and the welcome screen will say "Hi Paul" (and you'll fade out, do something special...we've got a couple of ideas here). This component actually is a 'real-time visual display' of out in the field events. In our case it's people walking past readers...or it could be boxes, trucks, palettes etc. Built in Silverlight 2 harnessing the WCF Eventing Services in real time. (We've been able to crank our code up to 150 people walking past *exactly* the same spot)
   
   Fellow Breezer.... Scotty (a member of the BizTalk Virtual TS team) has a blurb on some of the details on the initial RFID/Silverlight nuts 'n bolts
   
   (we've also got a webcast on how this is created)
   
2. So you guys as an interactive experience as you walk in the room with various graphs (developers in the room, it pros...) and charts - some DRAFT IDEAs
   All done in Silverlight
   
   
   We've actually got MS Shane Morris on the case here - he never gives up a chance to get down and dirty with Silverlight.
   Check out his thoughts at the moment - big thanks Shane :)
   
   So there may be an 'Avatar' thingy that gets displayed up on the screen (as Shane mentions).....a quiet secret .....you want to 'pimp your avatar'???? Come and see the Breeze room and we'll make it happen...only those who rock up - I've got a Windows Mobile App that will do it for you.....
   
   
3. Some other areas that may/may not make the final show are having things like:
   1. 'Information Points' - areas that you could simply be standing near, talking to someone and a screen may show where your collegues are, or what you may have in common with the person you're talking to. e.g. belong to community User Groups; where the next sessions of interest are for you.
      These may be distributed throughout the conference.
      
   2. As you go to a session - if you stay longer than 15 mins (for e.g.) the system contacts Commnet and makes a session eval available for you to fill out (could be done while you're sitting in the session
      
   3. Breeze will have a room that will be driving all this - be sure to come and see us. Our guys will be more than happy to take you through 'the bunker'
      
   4. No more hold ups at the doors (hopefully :) with people individually reading your barcodes, you can just walk straight in (imagine if skiing chairlift lines were like that :)
      
4. The other major component to the system is an Exhibitor System which is run on a PDA equipped with a Kenetics RFID Reader built on BizTalk RFID 1.1 Mobile (still in beta - nervous who me?). The Kenetics crew have been very helpful and when I embarked on this application I was given the H/W and a C++ DLL....."What..you don't know C++?" - not since uni folks....developed the RFID component in 4 days!!!
   1. The application is for when exhibitors on the floor, they scan your RFID Tag and you can continue the conversation. The scan range is around 2-10cms.
   2. There is also local SqlCe storage, with store/fwd capabilities. I'm using SqlCe merge replication to keep the data safe centrally - which proved to be interesting.
   3. Currently - the MS Stand and the HP stand will have the devices, the RFID Reader + this mobile App (the other exhibitors are still reading barcodes)
      
5. TechEd Event information is to be made available through Analysis Cubes so you guys can pull up a pivot table (looks impressive to your boss) and play with the event data. Things like attendance in sessions, audience breakdown by interest or by technology etc. - it would be great to do something like an 'Amazon' - such as if you're a .NET developer having.... "Other people who are also .NET developers went to these other sessions...."
   
   So as a delegate I can get a 'group feel' for what sessions I should be seeing next - sometimes there's a time where non of the sessions are on my immediate agenda, it would be great to have this information available to help me make my decision on what session I should see in that time slot.
   (e.g. 85% of SQL developers chose this session....)
   
6. There's a whole bunch of H/W coming from Kenetics which we'll be giving a session at TechEd on how we built it all!!!
   
7. Lastly I thought I'd just mention a quick blurb on the RFID info.
   - there *may* be some apprehension about a delegate getting a 'tag' and the whole "big brother is watching" thing. Let me dispel a couple of rumours
   1. tags are similar to barcodes - they simply contain a number. read differently but from that respect the same (imagine if you could go into your favourite sporting store, and say "I'll have a new shoes" and they knew your size, your brand, and whether it's in stock instantly - now you could even have a self-serve kiosk around that as well!!!)
      
   2. Your tag can't be read from satellites - lots of physics comes into play here...namely a big one of power. If you think about when TV stations need to broadcast to space, they have a large dish somewhere, 50 guys peddling bikes to generate the power and then they transmit bursts.
      
      So...no. - simply cover the tag with your hand and you can't be read. (water and radio waves don't go that well)
      
   3. My vision is to make this *your* teched - as you can see we're being transparent and open about the system and how it works. Any time drop in and we'll show you through.
      

ON ANOTHER NOTE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT - my workflow session I'm delivering - you've got rare oppty....

SOA305
Getting Workflows Running and Talking in Your Applications
04/09/2008 2:00PM-3:15PM

Once you understand the basics of Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and can put together a workflow using the built-in activities, you will need to know how to get that workflow running in a variety of hosting environments and communicate between the workflow and the host application or the outside world. This session gives you a solid foundation to get started with these techniques. Gain a better understanding of how workflows exist in a hosting process and how to control the hosting services. Learn about the various forms of communication that can exist between a running workflow and the hosting application as well as with outside Web and WCF Services. Also, learn about the persistence and tracking features of WF.

- I've got a technical session on Workflow Foundation.
- Of course you're planning on seeing my session :) - WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO COVER? WHAT DO *YOU* WANT TO KNOW ABOUT?

(You've got the opportunity to provide feedback and while I'm still 'building' the session - hopefully I can incorporate your needs!)

More later and I'd love to hear your thoughts on above with a comment or two.....be great to see you at TechEd!!!!

Over and out

Mick.

"Access Granted. This IP Address now has admin access to the restricted printer pages. Please Click here to proceed."

Wow! I had to venture into the 'cave' and solved this problem - talk about a character building experience!

I'm currently building a Mobile BizTalk RFID 1.1 solution for TechEd08 that runs on a PPC with a Kenetics CFUHF Reader.

*** Early Screen Shot *** :)

So in building out this application the details always bring unforeseen challenges to light:

1) The application houses all the BizTalk RFID pieces (providers, device proxies etc) so registration, and starting/stopping providers/device discovery and applying properties to the device needs to be all taken care of.

2) I built an RFID Mobile Provider for the Kenetics device - I worked with their support engineers solidly for a week to build what I needed. I took a trip down memory lane and have had enough pinvoking to last till Christmas.

3) The app also manages a several local SQLCe databases - one for my app, the others for the operation of BizTalk RFID Mobile locally on the device (mainly for it's OOTB store/forward mechanism).

After weighing up several options in this solution and how to get data to/from the device reliably I decided to go with SqlCe Merge Replication as we needed to push/pull data from several tables and schema changes.

4) Which leads me onto one of the most little known items......

How do I setup SqlCe Merge replication? it's a mine field, change something here and boom over there.

The picture

Phase 1:

Forget ISA for the moment. If you can, aim to get replication running in a local environment first (e.g. Local LAN on same network, through VPNs etc)

Getting the SQL bits Setup
Ok - the pieces to the initial puzzle.....

1. Sql Server Side
   1. Sql Server and it's additional Sql Mobile Replication Bits - download from here.
   2. IIS to expose a replication 'end point' where the remote devices will connect to and replication will take place through. IIS can be separate out onto a different machine.
   3. As in my case, somewhere that the 'snapshot' DB information will live to merge down to the devices. Mine was a UNC share - SQL created this after I completed the Publication wizard.
   4. Installation -You want the SQL Server Compact 3.5 Server Tools installed on BOTH the IIS AND SQL Machines (if these are one and the same, then you only need it once)
      The server tools has two main components - one being the bits that drive IIS and the other being a wizard that configures the exposed virtual directory and sets security onto it.
      If IIS and SQL are on separate machines, the easiest way to go is:
      - get SQL to publish the snapshot to a UNC share e.g. \\sqlserver\data
      - On the IIS box, run the Configure Web and Synchronization Wizard (installed with the above server tools) and a later screen will ask you where this data is coming from - simply point to the UNC share.
2. Mobile Device Side
   1. The equivalent SQL Mobile Replication tools need to be installed (above and beyond just normal SqlCe database components install) - SQL Server Compact 3.5 for Windows Mobile
      *** NOTE: make sure that the bits on both the Mobile + Servers all match ***
3. Server Side Security - For this let's work backwards, from the publication through to the exposed endpoint.
   1. Publication Security - this is set through the Publication Access List within SQL Mgmnt Studio
      The group in question is the ExhibitorsGroup
      
      Create a publication within the SQL Management Studio
      
      
      (Publication General Properties)
      
      
      (Snapshot Properties - note the file location)
      
      
      (FTP Snapshot + Internet - I've just used Internet and no IIS server name as this is configured in the Mobile Wizard)
      
      
      (Publication access list - I've blanked out sensitive info, but you can see the BETDEV\ExhibitorGroup being manually addded to the list)
      The rest of the publication settings are defaults - for me anyway.
      
   2. Let's go to the UNC share - = C:\Public\Exhibitor.SqlCE.FileShare
      This is the UNC share that IIS repl component will connect to at the back end.
      Note: the BETDEV\ExhibitorsGroup obviously needs r/w access to this folder.
      
      
   3. Let's run the 'Configure Web and Synchronization Wizard' to configure the IIS component.
      (you'll find it off the tools menu after you've installed the Mobile Server Tools from the links above)
      Note: one of the interesting things I found here is that after running the wizard, I normally go a tweak a few things in IIS - directory browsing etc. As a rule of thumb, if you want to change something with the Virtual Directory that is created at the end of this wizard, re-run the wizard to do it!!! :)
      
      
      Press next if prompted with the welcome screen note my options here - SQL Mobile and press Next.Cool
      
      
      Select the site and Create a Virtual Directory (I'm re-running the wizard so I'm going to select Configure Existing). Press Next.
      
      
      I created an alias of SqlCERepl directory and accepted a sub-directory under the SqlMobile dir.
      (you can change this, but looking around the forums it was a source of grief - I could do without :) )
      
      
      Here - I selected HTTP and not HTTPS access to the VirtualDirectory (and SQL Service agent).
      I did this as if you remember the diagram at the top of this post, ISA will serve as the HTTPS endpoint and will fwd the request via HTTP to our IIS/SQL box.
      IF you do want to change from HTTP to HTTPS or visa versa - re-run this wizard. Save you about 4 hrs of head banging.
      Click Next when ready.
      
      
      On this page - I selected 'Authentication required' and not anonymous. This has something to do with the data that I'm replicating as I'm using a Filter based on 'UserName'. So in my case, the username that the devices connect with will be my differentiator (I looked into using something like 'deviceID' but didn't get too far)
      Click Next.
      
      
      Select the type of authentication to be made against IIS - I selected NTLM (basic is fine also - but you need to be mindful that we're using HTTP at this point)
      Quick note on Security: So far, we've got 2 areas that need authentication.
      1) the IIS virtual directory and 2) accessing the actual SQL Publication in the UNC share and SQL Publisher Access List.
      
      So if the two machines are separated (IIS + Sql), NTLM will no transverse these machines (known as the 'double-hop' problem) so I'm assuming Basic or Kerberos is the safer bet.
      Click Next when ready.
      
      
      On the Directory Access Screen note the presence of the ExhibitorsGroup and also this publication is accessing the UNC Share we created earlier.
      Next to continue.
      
      
      UNC path specified - here you can see how this could be pointing to this SQL Share sitting on another machine as in the 2 machine hosted scenario.
      Click Next and Finish to see something like:
      
      
      You're virtual directory is now configured.
      To test your configuration so far go to:
      /sqlcerepl/sqlcesa35.dll?diag" temp_href="http:///sqlcerepl/sqlcesa35.dll?diag">http://<server>/sqlcerepl/sqlcesa35.dll?diag - diagnostics screen to get something like:
      You should be prompted to login - enter account details that have access.
      
      This is our fallback screen - next we will configure the ISA component and come back to our test screen to make sure.
      You're done - here. :)
4. Configure ISA Server
   ISA server will be the bridge between our public SSL access and our internal IIS/SQL Server. We would effectively like ISA to simply route the request and pass it through without to much tampering with our good packets.
   
   ISA Server is on IP address: IP:Y_Internal
   The Internal Server here is : 10.1.0.191
   The public Interface on the ISA Server is for our purpose known as IP:X_Public
   and it's FQDN is : demo.micks.org (in otherwords - this is the public DNS name that will point to the public interface of your ISA box)
   
   NOTE: Make sure you have your SSL cert ready - I created an inhouse cert from a standalone cert server.
   You need at least a 'Server Authentication' Certificate to apply within ISA.
   (I'll show you a little trick in the mobile app to get round the fact that the certificate is from a non-trusted Cert. Authority by default)
   The friendly name on the cert should be - 'demo.micks.org' (without the quotes)
   All this keeps SSL happy.
   
   
   1. Create a publishing rule in ISA 2006 that will effectively route all requests coming to the public interface to our internal IIS/SQL Server.
      
   2. Fire up the ISA MMC and create a New Web Server Publishing Rule - I've called this sample rule, "Public to Internal IIS/SQL Repl"
      
      
      Click Next when done.
      
   3. Rule Action - set to Allow
      
      Next
      
   4. Publishing Type=Single Web
      
      Next
      
   5. Server Connection Security - SSL.This means that SSL is going to be used over the public network.
      
      Next
      
   6. On the Internal Publishing Details - I tend to hardcode the IP address in, just to reduce any ambiguity.
      Note the IP address - internally acessible only. 10.x.x.x
      
      Next
      
   7. Further settings on the Internal Publishing Details
      NOTE: the option of fwding the original client host headers to the internal IIS/SQL (I found a variety of incomplete  HTTP Header details errors attempting to sync if I cleared this checkbox)
      
      We also can restrict the access on this rule by specifying the path of /SqlCeRepl/* (this is obviously the Virtual Directory created earlier)
      
      Next
      
   8. Fill in your public DNS name - don't worry that the wizard screen is showing http://demo.micks.org and NOT https://demo.micks.org
      
      Next
      
   9. Create a listener (if you need to ) as follows:
      (I've modified the screen shot slightly - from my listener)
      Note the ports: 8443 that SSL requests is coming on. You can use 443 if you prefer, I had other things on those ports)
      Also - I setup NO Authentication and replication works. You *could* try setting up Basic Authentication here and using Delegated Authentication (ISA server will login to the IIS/SQL box on your behalf with the inputted security credentials).
      
      I've also supplied the Certificate here as well (add your cert to the machine store ahead of time)
      
      A way to test if your auth is going to work - fire up your browser and try /sqlcerepl/sqlcesa35.dll?diag" temp_href="http:///sqlcerepl/sqlcesa35.dll?diag">http://<server>/sqlcerepl/sqlcesa35.dll?diag
      
      You should be prompted for login details ONLY ONCE. If you need to supply them twice and then you see the diagnostic page, your mobile application replication will fail :-(. Once and once only.
      
      Next.
      
   10. Authentication Delegation- we want the client to auth. directly against the backend (routed through ISA of course :) )
       
       Next.
       
   11. User Sets - because we don't have authentication here, ISA can't determine users, so All Users is our only option.
       
       Next.
       
   12. What a glorious site....almost done......
       
       Click Finish to complete the wizard.
       
   13. Right click on the rule just created and select Properties - we need to change the Link Translation to OFF
        
       This was the major source of my grief - I kept getting 'HTTP Headers malformed...' ERROR:28035 when trying to sync from the Device - yay!
       
       I was fortunate to be able to contact a friend of mine Darren Shaffer (Mobile MVP) that explained what was required to be sent back/forth in the headers during the conversation - big thanks there Darren!
       
   14. You should be able to browse to /sqlcerepl/sqlcesa35.dll?diag" temp_href="https:///sqlcerepl/sqlcesa35.dll?diag">https://<yourserver>/sqlcerepl/sqlcesa35.dll?diag - it should WORK :)
       If not - resolve before moving on. (you may get IE grumbling about the Certificate being invalid if it's an inhouse cert)
5. Configure the MOBILE replication piece!!!
   1. Make sure you have installed the SQL CE 3.5 Core + Repl CABs at least.
   2. On the mobile device, I tend to have routines to Add and Remove DB Subscriptions as I found that if any publication changes on SQL Server happened - e.g. a field was modified, or a table added/removed from the Publication, then Merge Repl would fail even though it previously was working.
      
      Easier to Remove the Subscription on the local SQLCE db, and then add it again.
      
      Note: InternetUrl = " temp_href="https://">https://<yourserver.com>
      Username + pass must be a user that has access to all the bits we configured above. In my case, someone who is a member of the ExhibitorsGroup.
      
      The code looks like this:
      

         1:   public void AddReplAndSync()

         2:          {

         3:              //using System.Data.SqlServerCe;

         4:              bool bAddRepl = false;

         5:              try

         6:              {

         7:                  if (DoDBLookup("SELECT count(*) as cRow FROM __sysMergeSubscriptions WHERE Subscriber='ExhibitorSubscription'", "cRow") != "1")

         8:                  {

         9:                      bAddRepl = true;

        10:                  }

        11:              }

        12:              catch 

        13:              {

        14:                  bAddRepl = true;

        15:              }

        16:   

        17:              SqlCeReplication repl = new SqlCeReplication();

        18:              repl.InternetUrl = AppSettings.Settings.ReplServer +  "sqlcesa35.dll";

        19:              repl.InternetLogin = AppSettings.Settings.ReplUser;

        20:              repl.InternetPassword = "XXXXXX";

        21:              

        22:              repl.Publisher = AppSettings.Settings.ReplPublisher;

        23:              repl.PublisherDatabase = AppSettings.Settings.ReplPubDB;

        24:              repl.PublisherSecurityMode = SecurityType.NTAuthentication;

        25:              repl.Publication = AppSettings.Settings.ReplPubName;

        26:              repl.Subscriber = AppSettings.Settings.ReplSubName;

        27:              repl.SubscriberConnectionString = string.Format("DATA SOURCE='{0}'", ESDAL.GetDBPath());

        28:              

        29:              try

        30:              {

        31:                 if (bAddRepl)

        32:                     repl.AddSubscription(AddOption.ExistingDatabase);

        33:                 CloseAllDBConnections();

        34:                 repl.Synchronize();

        35:              }

        36:              catch (SqlCeException e)

        37:              {

        38:                  MessageBox.Show(e.ToString() + e.NativeError.ToString());

        39:              }

        40:              

        41:          }

        42:   

        43:          public void ReplRemove()

        44:          {

        45:              CloseAllDBConnections();

        46:              SqlCeReplication repl = new SqlCeReplication();

        47:              repl.SubscriberConnectionString = string.Format("DATA SOURCE='{0}'", ESDAL.GetDBPath());

        48:              repl.InternetUrl = AppSettings.Settings.ReplServer +  "sqlcesa35.dll";

        49:              repl.InternetLogin = AppSettings.Settings.ReplUser;

        50:              repl.InternetPassword = "XXXXXX";

        51:              repl.Publisher = AppSettings.Settings.ReplPublisher;

        52:              repl.PublisherDatabase = AppSettings.Settings.ReplPubDB;

        53:              repl.PublisherSecurityMode = SecurityType.NTAuthentication;

        54:              repl.Publication = AppSettings.Settings.ReplPubName;

        55:              repl.Subscriber = AppSettings.Settings.ReplSubName;

        56:              try

        57:              {

        58:                  CloseAllDBConnections();

        59:                  repl.DropSubscription(DropOption.LeaveDatabase);

        60:              }

        61:              catch (SqlCeException e)

        62:              {

        63:                  MessageBox.Show(e.ToString() + e.NativeError.ToString());

        64:              }

        65:          }

        66:   

        67:          private void CloseAllDBConnections()

        68:          {

        69:              if ((_dbCon != null) && (_dbCon.State != ConnectionState.Closed))

        70:              {

        71:                  _dbCon.Dispose();

        72:                  _dbCon = null;

        73:                  GC.Collect();

        74:              }

        75:   

        76:          }

Trick to deal with Inhouse generated certificates -
Within your mobile app we create a class that essentially returns True when asked 'Is this Cert. valid?'

Somewhere upon starting up your app - e.g. Form_Load - insert LINE#1 below.

LINE#3 onwards describes the class 'MyCustomSSLPolicy'

   1:  System.Net.ServicePointManager.CertificatePolicy = new MyCustomSSLPolicy();

   2:  ......

   3:  using System;

   4:  using System.Collections.Generic;

   5:  using System.Text;

   6:  using System.Net;

   7:  using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;

   8:   

   9:  namespace MicksDemos.Utilities

  10:  {

  11:      public class MyCustomSSLPolicy : ICertificatePolicy

  12:      {

  13:          public bool CheckValidationResult(ServicePoint srvPoint,

  14:          X509Certificate certificate, WebRequest request, int certificateProblem)

  15:          {

  16:              return true;

  17:          }

  18:      }

  19:  }

Closing note:

Hope you find this useful - I've done this a few times now and am amazed with the lack of info around this especially through ISA.

If you get any errors around "Can't contact SQL Reconciler..." etc errors - GENERALLY try and rebuild the snapshop server side, then try syncing again.

Nighty night!

Folks - fellow MVP Richard Seroter has written a VERY comprehensive series around this very topic including the new BizTalk Adapter Pack V1.0 (V2.0 is in Beta at the moment).

Over 20+ thousand words + 178 screen shots - all for the love of BizTalk/WCF.

Complete with Source Code!!!

What a champion series - I'm looking forward to in tucking into some of his great material!

The BizTalk community is in debt to you Richard - well done!!!

SERIES SUMMARY FOUND HERE

This one came from Paolo Salvatori (a senior PM within the MS Connected Systems Division Team... I know a bit of a mouthful) whom has gotten in touch with his creative side and drawn a picture for all us common folk :) - well done Paolo.

The scenario is - a Request/Response Port is published at the 'front end', goes through BizTalk and the work is done by a backend system that operates via a One-Way Send and BTS gets the response via another One-Way Receive.

The thing I like about Paolo's piece of work is that he shows all the Message Context Properties required to be set by BizTalk for message correlation.
Which makes this a Messaging Only Solution and NO Orchestrations required!!!! (how cool)

Click on the image to enlarge......one day I'll get Silverlight Zoom Composer control running for these.... :)

While building up some BizTalk R2 developer images I can across the answer to my question "Is R2 supported on 2008 Hyper-V?"

Look no further than here.....

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5c5d86ad-5e17-4ff2-abc9-5a81177f4b30&DisplayLang=en

After the more than normal pain in getting this done for my previous post, I decided to post the fruits of my labour (not labor that my wife tells me about watermellons and men wouldn't know the first thing about birth....I'm not about to do the pepsi challenge on that :))

- this is a stock standard Web.Config for a MOSS install NOT a plain WSS install (there's about 3 lines different from a plain WSS install to a MOSS install - mainly anything that references SharePoint.Publishing....)

Grab this and these are the changes that WORK!

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Mick.

"Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.Silverlight, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies."

You're starting to Roll your sleeves up and get dirty with Silverlight 2 Beta 2, load up some of the Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint Samples, run the installer (it's great that most of these examples have an installer) and Boom! you get the above error!!!

Here's a list I've compiled to get Silverlight working - I'm currently running this on Win2008 IIS7

(1) Install WSS SP1/MOSS SP1 on your SharePoint box if you haven't already. You need the SP1 to support .NET 3.5 calls through SharePoint - my guess is that these tell SharePoint not to intercept the calls and let them go to their rightful owners.

(2) Create a 'dummy' site collection on a test Web Application - e.g. http://localhost:81 - This is so you can see all the changes to the web.config that are made through the installation process, in isolation. By keeping this separate to your usual web.config, you'll be able to merge changes at a later date.

(3) Install the Silverlight 2 Beta 2 runtime and other developer bits - From http://Silverlight.net - VS2008 Developer Bits and just the runtime if you want from here

(4) Do one installation of a Silverlight for BluePrint Sample - the installer creates a 'virtual directory' under your Web Site called ClientBin where the various Silverlight 2 files go (*.js, *.XAP). This is a handy install so you can see what the directory execution settings are required to make this work through SharePoint. i.e. Execute permissions only. Take note of this directory.

(5) Add a IIS MIME type - With Silverlight 2 beta 2 - there is a new file type added which is a *.XAP file type. IIS by default doesn't know how to encode/translate or send these files down over the wire.
Add a mime type of: Extention: xap Mime Type: application/x-silverlight-app to your IIS Test Web Site

(6) Make Web.Config changes - there's a whole series of Web.Config changes to be made to your SharePoint Web Application to support AJAX/.NET 3.5 and now Silverlight.... fortunately other hard working folks have done this for you!!!! :) Bless their cotton socks! - grab the Feature that makes the modifications from here (** NB: you want the 3.5 config feature)

You're almost done........ :)

(7) EXCEPT for the error above!!! After much inspection of your system, you'll realise that you *don't* have that DLL (on a clean install). The Silverlight Ninja will know that this is from Silverlight 2 Beta 1 and not found in the Beta 2 kits!! Yay team!

The System.Web.Silverlight.dll is found in the Silverlight 2 beta 1 SDK - so download that puppy, extract out the DLL and either GAC it, or add it to your BIN directory on your SharePoint site. (I added it to my BIN directory - as I reckon when SL2 is released, this problem would have been resolved)
(**UPDATED: Due to how painful that was, I decided to package up the DLL for you - HERE**)

Here are the Compiled Files - FOR SL2 BETA 2 - they WORK!!

(I grabbed the Blueprint Hello World Web Part and updated to work)

1. Silverlight Web Part DLL

2. Silverlight *.XAP updated for Beta 2, copy straight to the *sub-directory* under your client BIN

3. Sample SharePoint Web.Config with all the changes!

A couple of Key registry settings for the HL7 adapter that I thought I'd jot down onto my online diary.

Some tweaks to apply under heavy load to the HL7 adapter

1. Create the registry key MLLPSendFlushTimeout
1. Create new registry key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\BizTalk Accelerator for HL7/Version 2.0 with following details:
2. Name : MLLPSendFlushTimeout
3. Value : 0
2. Set MaxReceiveInterval to 50 ms
1. Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
2. Expand Databases node and select BizTalkMgmtDb database.
3. Expand Tables node and open table adm_ServiceClass.
4. Set the value of MaxReceiveInterval to 50ms corresponding to the Name=Messaging InProcess.
   Initially it is 500ms.

One of the handiest tools I've used in the last year - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx

If you're presenting, even just showing your code, screen to colleagues then this is superb

Guys - this document has recently hit the shelves and what a great guide it is. Written and reviewed by a huge team within MMS mostly - the two main authors Ewan Fairweather and Rob Steel (both MS and very much project/client oriented guys - out in the field!) did a superb job.

Firstly - grab the Performance Optimisation Guide
(checkout Ewan and Rob's blogs as there's some great bits on there, as well as a section dedicated to the BizTalk Performance Explorer)

What's the meaty stuff I can expect to read? (I hear you ask...)

1. It serves as 2 things - a prescriptive guidance and two - best practices around optimisation
(It's also great to see BizUnit in there for testing and as part of LoadGen)

I've summarised below:

The key sections of the guide are:

· Getting Started: Provides an overview of the BizTalk Server functional components that can affect performance. It also describes the phases of a BizTalk Server performance assessment.

· Finding and Eliminating Bottlenecks: The Finding and Eliminating Bottlenecks section describes various types of performance bottlenecks as they relate to BizTalk Server solutions and information about how to resolve the bottlenecks.

· Automating Testing: Describes how to implement an automated build process and how to automate functional and load testing using Visual Studio Team System, BizUnit and Loadgen.

· Optimizing Performance: The Optimizing Performance section provides guidance for optimizing performance of specific components in a BizTalk Server environment

Other 'related stuff' to download while you're in the mood

1. Microsoft BizTalk Server Operations Guide
2. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Installation and Upgrade Guides
3. BizTalk Server 2006 Tutorials
4. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Runtime Architecture Poster
5. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Capabilities Poster

I was recently working on a AS2/EDI project using BizTalk 2006 R2 and came across an interesting question:

How do I create 500+ parties? and with the AS2 Properties included (or even HL7 for that matter)

After a little digging - there is the BizTalk.ExplorerOM that we could drill into and create the parties through code.

However, there's a more hands off approach....using Bindings!!!!

(1) Export Bindings from an existing setup including Parties!!! to an xml file.

(2) Modify the XML file - particularly the Party information.

(3) Import Bindings back into your new environment.

There's a great blog post by the BizTalk Team on this subject a while back - http://blogs.msdn.com/biztalkb2b/archive/2006/10/25/automated-deployment-of-edi-properties-also-useful-for-bulk-import-of-party-properties.aspx

You'll get this error when using WCF/IIS and host headers.....fortunately a fellow colleague Paul Glavich figured it out!!! Well done Paul! (It involves an IIS reshuffle, you may be able to do something within a custom WCF Binding.)

Remember: There is a limit on the number of IIS Websites you can have on a single machine.

There's a great line up this month that are too good to keep secret.

Some fellow CSD experts are lining up for some great topics to give all around Workflow and WCF!!!

Does it get better? Get on and register.

For more, check out the Live Calendar 

Live Webcasts

MSDN Webcast: Transactional Windows Communication Foundation Services with Juval Lowy (Level 200)

Monday, July 7, 2008

10:00 A.M.–11:15 A.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: Using Windows Workflow Foundation to Build Services with Jon Flanders (Level 300)

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

10:00 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: WCF Extensibility Deep Dive with Jesus Rodriguez (Level 400)

Friday, July 11, 2008

10:00 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: Bringing Enterprise Data to Life with SharePoint Server and Windows Communication Foundation (Level 300)

Friday, July 18, 2008

10:00 A.M.–11:00 A.M. Pacific Time