The ever vibrant Andrew Coates pinged me an email yesterday asking for my involvement in becoming a TechTalk Blogger........

I'm currently on this Island called 'Hamilton' at a 'Partner' Conference (yeah right!!! :)) so naturally I said 'yes!' (not too many people are saying 'no' around here)

I've got some great stories around RFID, BizTalk R2 and obvious integration into WSS/MOSS and what that means.

Hope you're going to join me on a great journey together! Gotta dash the scuba diving boat is waiting for me... (erm...the next 'partner activity')

Mick. 

I'm currently kicking back at the partner conf. here on Hamilton Island - I have to kick myself to remind me that I am on a conference. Beautiful scenery and temperature....I'm sure you get the classic sunset palm tree over a beach image in your mind........no more need to be said.

What I did want to share - I'm currently listening to Ian Polangio (MS Sharepoint TS) where he brought up a couple of great (beta) Search sites.

1. http://mrsdewey.com/ - here's a talking person who acts and 'shows' parts of your search results.
(She has a bit of attitude to boot as well)
 

2. http://www.tafiti.com/ - silverlight based search site. Builds trees and it's quite interactive.
I did a search on my name 'Mick Badran' and some interesting results came up

Very interactive in Silverlight - lots of things spinning and moving and pinning

BizTalk 2006 R2 when installing the EDI/AS2 component (or when re-installing), sometimes there are some SSIS packages/jobs left that need to be manually deleted

My good mate Rahul has entered the world of blogging!!! and has blogged about this very issue and what he did to get around it.

Well done Rahul!!!!

Also I might add upon  a reinstall of BTS 2006/R2 sometimes there are the BAM Alerts notification service instance left over as well - that typically needs to be manually removed from within the Sql Workbench.

Enjoy

The other day I came across a great MSDN article that explains how to do this across all the BTS Services from SSO through to the rules engine.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa561505.aspx

The launch has been set and I couldn't have it better as the BizTalk World Wide launch is based in Sydney!!! Cool.

The Event is Free and would be a great chance for you to come on down and talk to members from the BizTalk Product Group that are flying over.

We'll all be there and looking forward to the event.

Remember that an upgrade path exists from 2004, 2006 and 2006 R2 B2 to the release of BTS.

Register here - R2 Event

What a great relase of a new WSS/MOSS SDK (couldn't have come at a better time for me .

In this latest release we have some goodies packed in to the SDK - the BDC Tool - which allows you to visually create a BDC Application Config file (.xml) that is based on both OLEDB/ODBC and Web Service data sources.

This was one of the major complaints from business when looking into the BDC (BDCMan did do a great job)

Sharepoint SDK Refresh (175MB!!)

BDC TOOL

Brief Summary of What's included (taken from the Sharepoint page above):
-ECM Start kit also included
-updated workflow samples
-SSO provider samples (to use SSO to access your own people stores)
-BDC Tool + further BDC samples (SAP, custom etc)
-Document Inspector custom sample
-Document Converter custom sample
...and the list goes on.....

either which way - this release is BIG!

Enjoy

Folks, I know we're all interested in the next and latest release of BizTalk R2.

The big question is - "What will happen to my existing setup?".

The answer is - "R2 has a 'Wizard based upgrade' that will upgrade from 2004/2006/2006R2 Beta 2".....so things going to plan all bases will be covered :)

We'll have to wait and see....

To give you guys an idea of what's happening around Australia on some of the Partner Readiness events - lock this one in.

The Readiness Team is covering both IT Pro & Developer tracks.....maybe a bit of Powershell, VS.NET 2008....

1.            Upcoming Partner Readiness training on Windows Server 2008 

Windows Server 2008 : IT Pro
	Sydney	Sept 11 - 12	This 2 day Windows Server 2008 Essentials is intended for IT professionals and partners currently experienced on the technologies included in Windows Server 2000 and Windows Server 2003. The course will focus on and discuss the following product scenarios and technologies: Centralized Application Access, Branch Office, Security & Policy Enforcement and Server Management.  CLICK HERE FOR MORE
	Melbourne	Sept 13 & 14
	Perth	Sept 10 & 11
	Adelaide	Sept 18 & 19
	Brisbane	Sept 17 & 18
Windows Server 2008 : Developer
	Sydney	Sept 10 & 11	This two-day technical readiness event is designed to introduce developers to many of the new features of Windows Server 2008.  As Microsoft prepares to release the most advanced version of their server platform ever, now is the time to start learning how to use many of the great enhancements in the applications you write and deploy. Learn how Windows Server 2008 provides a compelling application foundation and makes huge leaps forward in the area of Microsoft’s DSI (Distributed Systems Initiative) and DFO (Design for Operations). CLICK HERE FOR MORE
	Melbourne	Sept 13 & 14th
	Brisbane	Oct 8 & 9

 

2.        Exciting Partner Readiness Special offers – take advantage of the special offers and ensure your place at the Microsoft Readiness events.

microsoftreadiness@jackmorton.com.au

In the previous beta this tool supported a huge range of different blogs and their respective APIs....except Sharepoint.
(There was a tweak we could do, but essentially you had to turn off NTLM authentication and go with Forms.....generally this wasn't going to happen anytime soon)

Enter - LW Beta 2 - pick up your copy HERE

Enjoy!

Wow what a session!! Being a Level 400 session my expectation (from those who make teched) was to go reasonably deep. I had a fantastic crowd with standing room only in the theatre room - my last session of the day (being my 3rd) I was knackered and ready to go out with a bang.

So I decided to jump into the Workflow Foundation and discuss *what is actually done behind the scenes* with Sharepoint's WF management. This was well received (and I'm sure a few people in the audience were saying 'So I just want to know how to approve something'....we got onto that later) and opened up a few concepts explaining why we do the things we do within our Sharepoint Workflows. e.g. Task Correlation Tokens and new Task IDs, why we need to generate new ones if we handle a task changed event.

I then got onto some of the Sharepoint Workflow Implementations and wanted to highlight the use of a State based workflow as opposed to the usual SequentialWorkflow.

*** DEMO CODE WILL BE POSTED SOON FOLKS *** (don't have my vpc with my to extract out my projects for you right now)
Slide Deck:OFC409_Mick_Badran_Workflow_Deep_Dive.v1.2.pdf (977.98 KB)

Having 3 sessions in 1 day at the conference, this was session number 2.
 

We had a great session here and all my demos came off again!!! Except for the screen size and the projector this particular 'room' used.
I was presenting at 800x600 - talk about feeling techno chlostrophobic. I feel like I was in quick sand, trying to gasp for air...but we use what we have.

I was hoping to do an RFID demo but 'last minute technical difficulties' forced that one on the back burner - I had more than enough demos for this session.

Thanks to all the folks that attended this - I had fun as I hope you did. This session made the top ten sessions at TechEd! Whooo hooo

The demos went something like:

1. Publishing and Consuming WCF Services from R2 - published a couple of Orchestrations and consumed the published WCF WS Service from a basic client app.
   I then moved the published IIS WCF WS Service into the BTS Instance host by using a custom WCF Adapter and configuring it accordingly.
   Next I exposed the same service as a Socket Address - all called from the same client with no code recompile. Which is what we want to highlight using WCF Services.
   
   I then fired up a WCF WF Webservice and consumed it from BizTalk - all pretty simple, but good to highlight.
   
2. For the second major demo I created a WF workflow and using the BizTalk Extensions for Workflow, hosted this within BizTalk.

Slide Deck: CON309 - Mick_Badran_Advanced BizTalk R2 Concepts.pdf (595.48 KB)
Demos: BizTalk TechEd2007 demos.zip

Well firstly what a fantastic TechEd and all my 3 sessions went very well (with respect to all the demos - 15 in ONE day! :)



For this session - CON308 Building an Enterprise-Wide Instrumentation Solution Using the Microsoft BizTalk BAM Infrastructure 
I had the pleasure of Rahul Garg our great local Microsoft BTS TS. I had the pleasure of being his first ever Microsoft presentation (virgin presenter).

So to set the scene - we discussed earlier that during the session we would both be up on stage together and he would do a bit (20 slides) and I would do a bit (15 sldies) then a demo. He was driving my slides (i.e. moving next through them while I was talking)

To add a small amount of spice to the session I decided to *hide* a BSOD slide I made in the middle of my part of the deck. This came up when Rahul was driving up on stage - worked a treat! Very funny BSOD Slide.pptx (361.73 KB)

Rahul took it like a pro and the folks in the room loved it - this came up when Rahul was hiting next through my slides.
Slide deck: CON308_MickRahul_BAM.v1.1.pdf (1.54 MB)

The Demo:  (all TechEd2007_Demos.zip (7.25MB))
Essentially the whole running system reported back to the following Vista Desktop Gadget - green light, orange light, or red.


We did an End to End Demo of BAM + a WF exposed via a WCF Service which highlighted the following technologies:

1. Simple BRE call
2. Dynamic Party Resolution with Role Link Shapes
3. Dynamic Send Ports + Correlation.
4. Publishing Orchestrations as an Isolated WCF Service (+ also a one-way WCF WebService)
5. BAM - Activities, Views + the BAM Portal
6. Publishing BAM data from Windows Workflow
7. Intermixing BAM Tracking Profile Editor (TPE) and BAM APIs within an Orchestration.
8. Creating Alerts, Subscribing to Alerts and using a Vista Gadget to reflect the state of the System.
9. WF BAM Interceptor Configuration file
   

Here's the Orchestration that drives it all - takes an OrderProcess Request in, then sends it to the resolove Supplier through a Role Link shape and waits for the return call via the one way WCF WS.

In the interim the Supplier calls a WF Workflow to help their process and returns the results back to BizTalk.

The Client application (that is the first to iniate the whole process)


The supplier fulfills the request via a WF and returns the results back to the client (in the received section above)
 

The supplier's Workflow that basically assigns the FulFilled and Comments elements depending on the Total of the Order.
It's all pretty simple stuff here, just illustrating a concept - this workflow is hosted within the Supplier WinForm application.

Another piece of software has come up and saved my bacon - a couple of days out from a conference and I would love to Demo RFID. Do I migrate my images to VMWare? (that's another story in itself - I've heard good + bad)

After researching I came across this....... USB Anywhere
*** UPDATED: USB Redirector solves a  couple of 'driver not working' issues I found on the others ***

This guy is GREAT!! Let's you share USB devices via IP addresses between host + remote machines.
(you even get plug and play messages!)

Now all my RFID devices are rocking!!!

Hey folks, I've been flat chat lately burning the candle at both ends getting ready for my sessions at TechEd/Deep Dives.

In a *spare* moment - I am asked to do a Channel9 GeekSpeak session - talking about Workflow and BizTalk Integration.
(I've had my xbox360 confiscated for 1 month to help me get through this month - that's a story for another time :)

This session is on tomorrow morning - so for those of you feeding babies, can't sleep etc. I'd love to have you along for moral support as this will be my very first session in Geek Speak.

So if you're up for a 5am - 6am start Thursday morning I'll see you there. Put something Aussie in your nick name!

Update: The Results have come in.......well this was done at 4am my time in the morning and all I can say is thanks to the folks that attended for being understanding :)

Customer satisfaction scores are based on a scale from 0 to 9 points.  
The average score for a webcast is 7.8.

Usefulness of Information: 8.0
Speaker Presentation Skills: 7.8
Effectiveness of Demonstration: 8.0
Overall Presentation Rating: 7.8

Link to see the webcast over and over again
 Looks like I got around the average at 4am in the morning.....I'm amazed I even made sense!!!:)