tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-93073382024-03-17T02:15:22.776-07:00McGeeky's ThoughtsOffice 365 SharePoint Online and AzureMcGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-58458405003957973952012-01-19T10:48:00.000-08:002012-01-19T10:50:38.842-08:00New Features in Files To GoNew features have been released today for our file migration tool for SharePoint Online called <a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/SharePoint-Online-File-Migration-Tool/">Files To Go</a>. Here's what's new:<br />
<ul>
<li>Support for long running migrations. Files To Go will automatically re-authenticate with SharePoint Online when the security token times out</li>
<li>File upload timeouts are now more generous and linked directly to the size of the current file being migrated. This means if you have a slow connection Files To Go is less likely to timeout uploading a large file</li>
<li>SharePoint Online blocks files over 250MB in size. Files To Go will now filter these files out automatically from the migration. These files can be identified in the analysis report</li>
<li>Files To Go will display a countdown of the data left to migrate on large files</li>
<li>Files To Go will manage checkouts and checkins of documents automatically where a document library has been set to specifically require a checkout</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/SharePoint-Online-File-Migration-Tool/">Try Files To Go for Office 365 Now!</a>McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-8296750827116118412011-03-24T15:17:00.000-07:002011-03-24T15:17:20.074-07:00Office 365 - First 50 External Users Free To All SharePoint Online Customers!The March update of the SharePoint Online Office 365 beta <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=6c6ecc6c-64f5-490a-bca3-8835c9a4a2ea">service description</a> has a welcome change; the first 50 external users invited to your site collection are free! This makes collaboration that much easier - from the get-go you can bring in your customers or suppliers in to your site collection at no extra charge to collaborate on documents and projects.<br />
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Here's the relevant text lifted from the service description document (emphasis mine):<br />
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Sharing Externally: The external sharing capabilities in SharePoint Online enable a company to simply invite external users in to view, share, and collaborate on their sites. A site collection owner can turn on external sharing, and then invite external users to collaborate on sites, lists, and libraries. An external user has access to only the site collection they are invited into. <strong><em>And the best part is every Office 365 customer will get 50 partner access licenses (PAL) free, and customers purchasing our enterprise offerings can purchase additional PALs as needed.</em></strong>McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-52971289587321435872010-11-19T06:05:00.000-08:002010-11-19T06:22:38.970-08:00Data Transfers Between Azure & SharePoint Online Are BillableMicrosoft's policy for Azure is to charge for data transfer from Azure to the outside world, but not between the various Azure services when they are hosted in the same data centre.<br />
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Now we have built several business solutions that involve Azure talking to SharePoint Online. We deploy our solutions to the same data centre which happens to be in Dublin covering the EMEA region.<br />
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That got me curious as to whether we would be billed for the data transfer between Azure and SharePoint Online. I raised a question on the Azure forums but didn't receive a definitive answer. However, one suggestion was to raise the question through the Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal.<br />
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I did this, and after a few email exchanges I got an answer, though not the one that I wanted!<br />
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<blockquote>"I have just heard back from the Azure Business desk, they have informed me that you will still be charged for data transfers between Share Point and Azure. They are in the same physical data center but the servers do not naturally speak to each other; for data transfer they are considered to be in different locations even though they share a building."</blockquote>McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-41401795066704816202010-10-06T05:10:00.000-07:002010-10-06T08:11:49.653-07:00Is My Data Secure In SharePoint Online?"Is My Data Secure In SharePoint Online?". This is a question that is frequently asked by our customers that are considering a migration to SharePoint Online. This question was also raised by a Microsoft partner during my Q&A on stage at Microsoft's "Transitioning to the cloud" event at the International Convention Centre in London yesterday and it also came up on the <a href="http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/onlineservicessharepoint/threads">SharePoint Online forum</a> recently.<br />
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The approach I always take with my customers when asked the question is to provide them the relevant information they need to make an informed decision about security. Ultimately, it's up to them to decide - I am just the facilitator. But, to make that right decision, it's important the customer has all the relevant information to hand.<br />
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So the purpose of this post is to bring that information together in one place to help you answer that question.<br />
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<h4 class="post-content-heading">Global Foundation Services</h4>First up, let's start with <a href="http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/">Microsoft Global Foundation Services</a>. This is the team that operate, and secure, Microsoft's data centres worldwide. Microsoft spun out this separate group specifically for this task.<br />
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Understanding how GFS works and the standards they adhere to is key to understanding data security in SharePoint Online.<br />
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This is one of the most significant documents from GFS: <a href="http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/security/documents/SecuringtheMSCloudMay09.pdf">Securing Microsoft's Cloud Infrastructure</a>. Just a quick browse of the contents page in that document will show you security is ingrained in to GFS procedures.<br />
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Microsoft calls their initiative for security in the cloud as "trustworthy cloud", achieved through focus on three areas:<br />
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<ul><li>Utilizing a risk-based information security program that assesses and prioritizes security and operational threats to the business</li>
<li>Maintaining and updating a detailed set of security controls that mitigate risk</li>
<li>Operating a compliance framework that ensures controls are designed appropriately and are operating effectively</li>
</ul>This document goes in to detail how GFS deals with compliance and the certifications they have attained: <a href="http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/documents/MicrosoftComplianceFramework1009.pdf">Microsoft Compliance Framwork</a><br />
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GFS make the point that since 1994 Microsoft have been running online services. So you can imagine they'd have vast experience by now.<br />
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<h4 class="post-content-heading">SharePoint Online Service Description</h4>The <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=1bef6a35-9785-4a0b-b227-387c0ee85a36&displayLang=en">SharePoint Online Service Description</a> document is a good place to start for SharePoint Online specific security information. These are the choice pieces from that document that specifically reference security:<br />
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<b>Secure access:</b> Microsoft Online Services are accessed via 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption. Anyone who intercepts a communication sees only encrypted text<br />
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<b>Security audits:</b> Ongoing assessment of the Microsoft Online Services infrastructure ensures installation of the latest compliance policies and antivirus signatures, along with high-level configuration settings and required security updates<br />
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<b>Virus filtering:</b> Microsoft Online Services helps guard against online threats. Microsoft Forefront™ Online Security for Exchange automatically removes viruses and spam in incoming and outgoing e-mail. Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint scans for viruses in intracompany e-mail and in all documents that reside in SharePoint Online sites<br />
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<h4 class="post-content-heading">Tips for Microsoft Partners</h4>If you are selling SharePoint Online to your customers and get confronted with the same question, here some tips to help you:<br />
<ul><li>Legal considerations. Your customer may be bound by law or contractual agreements that means their data cannot be migrated to SharePoint Online. In these circumstances, there is still potential for a sale. Why? Because it's not always the case that all your customer's data will be bound by those restrictions. SharePoint Online can still give your customer a whole heap of benefits for the rest of their data. Also, there is no reason why SharePoint Online could not provide a link through to that information for convenience: so although it is not held in SharePoint Online, users can still find their way to it from SharePoint Online. We have exactly this situation for a successful UK law firm</li>
<li>Few companies can meet the same level of standards as Microsoft can. Even the largest of companies would find it hard to get even close to the security standards that Microsoft has adopted for their data centres. Just about every box that can be ticked has been ticked. I challenge my customers to compare their data security to that which Microsoft provide. I haven't had a case yet where a customer has bettered Microsoft</li>
<li>Building trust takes time. One of the best ways to convince your customer about security of their data is to get them to use SharePoint Online in some limited way. The sooner they begin using SharePoint Online, the sooner they can start building up trust in the platform. For example, migrating a single department, or a project team from your customer to SharePoint Online is a great way for them to build up that trust but with minimal perceived risk. If you make the initial conversations too big then your customer is going to feel very uncomfortable about taking that step in to SharePoint Online</li>
</ul>McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-58951568101479371282010-08-15T12:07:00.001-07:002010-08-15T12:13:48.914-07:00Great Feedback on Files To GoWe have received some great customer feedback on Files To Go, our file share migration tool for SharePoint Online.<br /><br />With large file shares, our customers often found they could not migrate all the files in one hit. Which meant they had to let their users edit documents on the file shares again otherwise they wouldn't be able to work.<br /><br />But in doing that the files got out of date in SharePoint Online.<br /><br />So we developed a migration re-run feature. This means you can migrate all your files up front whilst users are still working on them. Then when you are ready to switch over to SharePoint Online, just re-run the migration again to pick up only the changes.<br /><br />You can request a free trial of Files To Go <a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/SharePoint-Online-File-Migration-Tool/">here</a>.McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-82935164169877824382010-05-28T03:13:00.000-07:002010-05-28T03:35:25.924-07:00How Do You Migrate Thousands Of Files To SharePoint Online?Manually migrating many thousands of files to SharePoint Online is not fun... it's time consuming and frustrating. One problem file can interrupt the whole process meaning you have to babysit it from start to finish.<br /><br />Well, listening to customer feedback Thinkscape have built a tool that makes all those problems go away: its called Files To Go. Files To Go is specifically built for SharePoint Online.<br /><br />You can find more details on Files To Go <a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/SharePoint-Online-File-Migration-Tool/">here</a>.McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-86509287253720215222010-02-07T05:35:00.000-08:002016-07-23T08:36:12.507-07:00Your client does not support opening this list with Windows Explorer<a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/Map-Network-Drives-To-Office-365-OneDrive/">Check out our new tool for mapping network drives to Office 365 and OneDrive for Business</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/OneDrive-Business-We-Couldnt-Set-Up-This-Library/">Find out how to resolve sync issues with OneDrive for Business, URL too long</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/Open-With-Explorer-Ssl-Davwwwroot-Is-Not-Accessible/">Find out how to resolve Ssl Davwwwroot Is Not Accessible</a><br />
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This post is to help you troubleshoot the infamous error message “Your client does not support opening this list with Windows Explorer” that can occur when you try to open a <strong>SharePoint Online</strong> document library in Windows Explorer on either <strong>Windows 7</strong> or <strong>Windows Vista</strong>.<br />
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The point at which this error message is displayed is when the option "Open with Windows Explorer" is selected on the Actions menu of a document library:<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435512863389975634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjmFeKk3fCV2YxMSBlmnNoF2fPaAWtKYvOos2vKACMdNeXHaJJRyA4RTp76dcmmbd-GobEUgOX5t5Mb2jgHKKlmwdtuwPr_J74ZvCWVSroYak4NjGL4kK0Yqfo9qZIE4FfqfiSaw/s320/Actions+Menu.gif" style="height: 158px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 254px;" /><br />
And this is the error message:<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435513562174355890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDTwBn8pfTsOxOM5Uo4t_ZAi3WbfcKVW4VjFCvypD5SQYJOXOt10BHNKDpw5bELB3fTr1uQPA96dZGlAfpcel0X8Ppc7lo9waiFxqIeqZk_UMtaBFms08ujzcVLPMb5RxmzhnoZQ/s320/Error+Message.gif" style="height: 109px; width: 320px;" /><br />
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The open in Windows Explorer feature is a very useful part of SharePoint Online as it makes managing files and folders in document libraries simple. For example, you can just drag and drop a whole folder structure from your local system to your remote document library using this feature. Therefore, its important this feature works for you so you get the most from your investment in SharePoint Online.<br />
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This post has two parts. The first part deals with the standard steps you should take to ensure your Windows 7/Vista client is configured correctly to use the feature. The second part is about troubleshooting if you still get the error message, which is quite likely in some corporate environments that lock down the security settings of Internet Explorer.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: 130%;">Configuring Your System</span></strong><br />
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<em>Step 1</em>. Ensure your system has the latest Windows updates applied. Obvious, but best to check! To do this, open the Windows Update program (Start menu then search for Windows Update). Click the "Check for updates" link. If there are any updates to install then click the "Install updates" button.<br />
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<em>Step 2</em>. Ensure the WebClient service is not disabled. The WebClient service is critical to the Open in Windows Explorer feature. Its the WebClient service that does all the hard work and cleverness to make Windows Explorer think that a SharePoint Online document library is just a regular Windows folder. To check the WebClient service is not disabled, open up the Services program (Start menu then search for Services). Scroll down until you find the WebClient service. Its startup type should be set to either Manual or Automatic. If it is set to Disabled then change it to Manual. Note that it will start automatically when it is needed; you don't need to start it yourself.<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435654986738310898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigwbvEjfTRojkWBSnL20u5g5Yg__DraxyU4lcZNkiyj2_BodYw-Prxdoa6qljGLnqyuQwV3KZZP4-BKEqwPWiLSf2bCgnUvbaebF_YxzPIhr3-2ojFUAdaEoocs0SofX1_Uf1i0w/s320/WebClient.gif" style="cursor: pointer; height: 70px; width: 320px;" /><br />
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<em>Step 3</em>. Install the Microsoft Online Services sign in tool. To ensure the best experience of SharePoint Online you should install the sign in tool. To do this, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5c2ca866-4107-4ae5-98d5-76bf1b18ff87&displaylang=en">click here</a> to go to the sign in tool download page. Download and install the sign in tool. Once installed, run the program and enter your Online Services username and password. The sign in tool will prompt you that Internet Explorer needs to be configured. Click the "Continue" button.<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435652330946689138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8np-yqupzulJ2Zaiv831OIY2WiiwF77_5dOcBUDU4azZ_ES4wKGgAw1HL7vkvNzAxk9uuA4H4IVUCIYu9qPgNbuqsdUikc8ZxRN0uVHTt9l4kHsng-POM-HZv38yOiJqWd_rWQA/s320/Configure.gif" style="height: 261px; width: 320px;" /><br />
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<em>Step 4</em>. Check it works! OK, now open up your SharePoint Online site in Internet Explorer. Look at the status bar at the bottom of Internet Explorer. You should see the message "Local intranet Protected Mode: Off". That's the magic for Internet Explorer to recognise your SharePoint Online site is a trusted web site - critical for the feature to work. Now when you select "Open with Windows Explorer" from the Actions menu of your document library... you should get Windows Explorer opening automatically!<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435654310023512498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1KCq3yflVcP5nq1S-BdfUV57U6pgvPKLoEeRtN9dOQsXW2LFcANFZFDkgkBzCzWi7BzGeco4wBpknkG6ok0JEqUyXow2dMlnbw8GjnCLYbqvvebPog0RgQIz2zGqDES2sFXBKGg/s320/ProtectedModeOff.gif" style="height: 29px; width: 224px;" /><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: 130%;">Troubleshooting</span></strong><br />
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OK, that's great if it works. But what if it doesn't? In some environments, it can be quite typical for this to fail even after you perform all the configuration steps above. This is because Internet Explorer can be locked down for security purposes by your administrator, a valid thing to do. But the side effect of this is the sign in tool cannot make the necessary changes to Internet Explorer for the feature to work.<br />
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Here's how to check if Internet Explorer is not configured correctly and what to do if it isn't...<br />
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Ensure you are signed in with the sign in tool then open up your SharePoint Online site and check the status bar at the bottom of Internet Explorer. If it says "Internet Protected Mode On" then you know Internet Exporer is not configured correctly.<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435659098718699906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUK1Xs7Maq50b9nA2gSkazOf74OLNanHS7TcjeyokhqVNhduBdeJFbmhkZjp-q7c4Cbu_6_KLxBRHpTAOkau6kyyZyE6fllk0tyKEAaGt0Wp1Zri96_W4I89agnUgga0qpMfZQRA/s320/ProtectedModeOn.gif" style="height: 24px; width: 193px;" /><br />
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Double click the "Internet Protected Mode On" message on the status bar. This will open up Internet Explorer's security dialog. Click the "Local intranet" icon, then click the Sites button. A new dialog will pop up. Click the "Advanced" button. You should see the dialog below displayed. In a properly configured environment you will see an entry in the Websites list for <a href="https://*.microsoftonline.com/">https://*.microsoftonline.com/</a>. If that entry is not present then you have found the cause.<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435659091786777922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFutir02dpTENNXon3q_ocA9r4KRVhB5PnuaUAljYXz-6Eb99NJQKjkOMYNIeZbEk8aDlldUDTlkzesqeJjb_adRVKPbqY7Du3Yqg67XMENb1b2KEl6Wlj1BtffKUxUAt6g2B2Q/s320/LocalIntranet.gif" style="height: 282px; width: 320px;" /><br />
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In a locked down environment you will not have permission to add this entry in. You will need to ask your administrator to do this for you. This will likely result in a change to a group policy to push the change to Internet Explorer on your system.<br />
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If you do have permission, then you can simply add the entry yourself. Close Internet Explorer and open your SharePoint Online site again.<br />
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For more information, check out this link from the Online Services help: <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/online/help/en-us/bpos/html/6a8b3b3c-cec9-4a1d-9f19-09bb23731602.htm">About Internet Explorer Configuration</a>McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-74221626714699236472009-07-21T23:59:00.000-07:002009-07-22T00:11:33.492-07:00What Can Microsoft SharePoint Online Do For You?SharePoint Online is a new service available from Microsoft: It's SharePoint, but hosted by Microsoft. SharePoint Online is a key part of the Microsoft Online Services stable.<br /><br />One of the concerns often raised to me about SharePoint Online is that "you can't do much with it at the moment". This is understandable, because although SharePoint Online is based on MOSS 2007, it is in reality a very locked down version of it. For example: no custom code.<br /><br />However at Thinkscape, my employer, we are finding that the locked down nature of SharePoint Online is not a blocker to building creative business applications. As early adopters and specialists with SharePoint Online we have been quick to find out ways around the apparent limitations. For example, by using Silverlight for advanced user interfaces.<br /><br />We are now looking at integration of SharePoint Online with on-premises SQL Server Reporting Services and front-end ASP.Net websites. The potential applications are quite limitless.<br /><br />We have published a video of a solution we built for SharePoint Online on our website, shortly to be included in Microsoft's Partner Solution Showcase. The video should help provide an insight in to what you could do.<br /><br />Check it out here: <a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/Telemarketing-Solution/">http://www.thinkscape.com/Telemarketing-Solution/</a>McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-56801828440502136532009-07-09T23:45:00.000-07:002009-07-09T23:58:14.267-07:00Loving The New Name For SQL Services: SQL AzureMicrosoft have just been through a rebranding exercise for their "database in the cloud". Formerly known as SQL Services, now known as SQL Azure - the database specific service is called SQL Azure Database. This ensures a consistent convention with the already named Windows Azure.<br /><br /><a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/ssds/archive/2009/07/09/9827971.aspx">http://blogs.msdn.com/ssds/archive/2009/07/09/9827971.aspx</a><br /><br />However, there is still one anomaly in the Azure Services Platform... ".Net Services". What's the betting that it will also go through a similar rebranding? But ".Net Azure" does not have a good ring to it and is also rather misleading as ".Net Services" is more middleware than .Net.<br /><br />I think it should be along the lines of IIS Azure, borrowing from Internet Information Services.McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-51641680527123139802007-12-29T17:24:00.000-08:002007-12-29T17:41:54.897-08:00Miis for The SopranosAre you a fan of the Sopranos and the Nintendo Wii? Well, you can have your very own Soprano Mii!<br /><br />You'll need to download the Mii Contest channel on your Wii first. Then go to the posting plaza and search for the Mii by its number.<br /><br />These are the Mii numbers for the Sopranos characters;<br />Tony Soprano - 9576-3170-7808<br />Christopher Moltisanti - 9425-9802-3171<br />Silvio Dante - 7698-5483-7517<br />Paulie 'Walnuts' - 7857-3261-9685<br /><br />Enjoy!McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-10050846587045336362007-07-30T17:21:00.000-07:002007-07-30T17:25:36.085-07:00New home for the BizTalk Script AdapterThe BizTalk Script Adapter has a new home at <a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/">www.thinkscape.com</a>, my employer's website.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/BizTalk-Script-Adapter/BizTalk-Script-Adapter.aspx">Download the BizTalk Script Adapter</a>.<br /><br />The Script Adapter used to be hosted on Got Dot Net. But Microsoft have ceased support for the site.<br /><br />Thinkscape have been kind enough to host the adapter, and even better, they will be providing support and working on enhancements - and it's still free!McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-61194026337676910592007-03-15T00:22:00.000-07:002007-03-15T00:57:08.345-07:00Don't believe the SOA hype, its a sequelWhy I continue to read articles on SOA I don't know, because more often than not the articles bug me. What bugs me? The hype that is whipped up around it.<br /><br />One common theme around SOA is the benefits from reuse; if you have done something once, why do it again? Sounds logical... at first glance. This is the main driver for the hype; its an easy sell to an executive who doesn't understand technology. Everyone appreciates that doing a job once is cheaper than doing it twice.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">However</span>, if only it were that simple. A common mistake is to think that reuse <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> simple. In fact, with SOA, reuse is doubly hard than something that is commonly reused in IT; the API (application programming interface). How many times has your company produced a common API to be used throughout the organisation only to find barely a handful of projects actually making use of it; most having gone their own way because they found the API difficult to use, or doesn't include a feature they need, or the feature that they do need could be weeks away from being implemented, or that a new version of the API has just been released and they now have to recode their application to be compatible with it, or there are so many versions of the API in use it is difficult to support them all.<br /><br />SOA is in the same boat as an API and suffers from all the same issues. But, it has an additional complication; whereas each application will have its own copy of an API, there will only be one instance of a SOA service. This causes issues such as competing for the resources of that service instance and that any downtime of the service instance means affecting every dependent application. What if your service is 99% reliable but the application wanting to use it needs 99.99% reliability? What if you need to take the service down for maintenance yet applications dependent upon it don't have the same maintenance window? How are you going to release a new version of the service and migrate existing applications across when the application teams refuse to change because it works perfectly well at the moment?<br /><br />Well, reuse is certainly possible. We reuse things all the time in our work lives and home lives; but there are a whole bunch of things that we could reuse but we don't because it simply doesn't make sense. The same applies to software, and SOA. Jump in with your eyes wide open!McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-62407091145214378822007-02-28T04:55:00.000-08:002007-02-28T05:10:11.685-08:00Browsers Just Another OSInteresting reading what Mozilla have planned for Firefox version 3.0 and beyond in this article for CIO.com: <a href="http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=29040">Firefox 3.0 Opens Door to Web Apps, Mozilla Says</a><br /><br />It is becoming apparent that in order for online applications to go to the next level and truly be successful, they will require a much greater level of cooperation from the browsers. Coincidentally, I only just posted a comment on Michael Jung's blog on the problems that online applications must overcome, namely they are <a class="active" href="http://blogs.cio.com/the-heavyweight-battle-weve-all-been-waiting-for-google-takes-on-microsoft-office#comment-37620">Internet connection dependent</a>.<br /><br />But if browsers are going to become more specialised and offer similar services that an operating system does, then aren't they just another operating system? And with that in mind, what is the point of downloading an operating system (a browser) to run on an operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac etc.)? Will browsers become THE operating system that runs on your computing device whether that be a PDA, smartphone, or PC?<br /><br />And with that in mind again, and going off at a complete tangent, how exactly would that threaten Microsoft's monopoly <a href="http://blogs.cio.com/node/716">Michael</a>? They have beaten off many OS competitors over the years.McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-1145436177564088192006-04-19T01:22:00.000-07:002006-04-21T02:16:24.176-07:00Reuse or Misuse?I am sticking my neck out here for flaming, but here we go - reuse drives me mad! Or more to the point, the complete misuse of reuse.<br /><br />A case in point is the hype surrounding SOA. Can any two people actually agree on what SOA is? No. But it seems that they can agree that its benefits are from reuse. Oh please!<br /><br />Reuse is hard. A lot of time reuse doesn't offer any benefits, it doesn't make any business sense. Reuse for the sake of reuse leads to overly interdependent business applications and blurred boundaries of ownership and responsibility.<br /><br />Seeing as I am a crap writer and don't want to bore you I'll point you to an article that gets across the point far better than I: <a href="http://blogs.cio.com/node/261">Is SOA Another Fake Path to IT Agility?</a><br /><br />Reuse? Reuse this - Thwack!!McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-1114510200447614892005-05-12T09:35:00.000-07:002005-05-12T01:39:09.090-07:00Visual Message Instance Creator - BizTalk Needs One!<p>Scott Colestock has highlighted an important <a href="http://www.traceofthought.net/PermaLink,guid,c1164c59-72e2-49e2-be7a-47e4e8dc46d4.aspx">point</a> that often causes me consternation with BizTalk: creating a new message instance from scratch in an orchestration. I generally hard code the skeleton xml and load it up in to an XML document then assign the attributes using promoted properties or xpath (see Scott's post on how it is done).</p><p>What would be really nice however, is to have a visual way to construct message instances. Here we are dropping shapes on to orchestrations in a very visual way only to disrupt this harmony by having to handcraft xml and embed it within an expression shape!</p><p>But what I find really frustrating is that BizTalk is so close to having a visual message instance creation tool already available out of the box; its the mapper. If Microsoft could just tweak the mapper, as explained below, it would be so easy and a far more natural way to create message instances.</p><ol><li>It should be optional as to whether a source schema is required on the left hand side. In many cases when creating a new message you just don't need one</li><li>There should be a new functoid to access message context properties. Drop one on to the pallete, indicate which context property you want and then link it to an element on the destination schema</li><li>There should be a new funtoid to access orchestration variables. This would be used in a similar way to the context property functoid above</li><li>Some other functoids would be useful such as "static value" functoids where a value can be hard coded in to it</li></ol><p>This way it will be possible to visually construct a new message instance without the need of having a source message instance to seed it. These message instance definitions should not be stored in a separate xml file, as the maps currently are, but stored within the orchestration xml file instead. This would help to keep them self contained within the orchestration and reduce the number of files created in your project. Even better would be a new orchestration shape to represent them. Simply double click it and your message instance creation definition would open up.</p><p>Because BizTalk is managing the definition it can also do error checking on it. So when you change the destination schema BizTalk would know about it and flag it up as an error. This would at a stroke eliminate those awkward hard to find bugs when using handcrafted xml.<br /></p>McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-1111019205799779242005-03-16T16:09:00.000-08:002007-07-30T17:21:21.716-07:00BizTalk Script AdapterAfter finding myself in several similar situations where I needed to get a job done quickly with BizTalk but it just wasn't playing ball, I decided to do something about it. I developed a send adapter for BizTalk that integrates with Windows scripts.<br /><br />Because scripting is so easy and fast, I find that for certain tasks, productivity can go through the roof using the Script Adapter. Simply develop a script (say using VBScript) and implement a procedure called OnMessage where all your code goes. Then, when BizTalk receives a message and forwards it on to the Script Adapter it will load your script and call your OnMessage procedure. Simple as that.<br /><br />For a two way send, just return a string value from the procedure. The Script Adapter converts the string in to a message and returns it BizTalk.<br /><br />Be warned, this is a first release. Consider it a beta. So I would appreciate feedback on it.<br /><br />You can get the Script Adapter at my employer's website, Thinkscape: <a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/BizTalk-Script-Adapter/BizTalk-Script-Adapter.aspx">Download the BizTalk Script Adapter</a>.<br /><br /><em>[Update 2007-07-30 - Note that the Script Adapter was previously hosted at Got Dot Net but Microsoft has closed the site down. Thinkscape have been kind enough to host the adapter, and even better, they will be providing support and working on enhancements - and it's still free!]</em><br /><br />Note that on installation of the Script Adapter there is a choice to install it for <i>Everyone</i> or <i>Just Me</i>. Sometimes I have found that selecting <i>Just Me</i> can cause issues when you come to register the adapter with BizTalk (something to do with registry access permissions I think). Therefore to be on the safe side install it for <i>Everyone</i><br /><br />There is a guide included with the installation that walks you through setting up the samples. That should hopefully clue you up enough to develop your own scripts for the Script Adapter.McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9307338.post-1103320177062585152004-12-17T13:39:00.000-08:002009-09-01T14:11:24.083-07:00Sequence GuardI had the need recently to implement an orchestration that would process messages one at a time in a strict sequence only. It was wholly feasible that messages could be received out of order - therefore the orchestration would have to ensure that those messages would wait their turn to be processed until the missing message in the sequence arrived.<br /><br />There are a couple of approaches I have seen for implementing a pattern such as this. One, for example, is the resequencer (from Enterprise Integration Patterns). I have a concern with its approach, namely that one orchestration instance is responsible for consuming all the messages and spitting them out in order - something which makes me feel uncomfortable, mostly I think due to the "single point of failure" placed on that one orchestration instance.<br /><br />The Sequence Guard uses a different approach. One orchestration instance is associated with each message received. As its name implies, it uses a "Guard"; an additional receive shape that is correlated on the same sequence number as the first receive shape. It acts as a block on the orchestration. It will not let the orchestration progress until a matching guard for the message has been received.<br /><br />When a matching guard is received, the orchestration can progress. At this point any processing logic you want can be carried out on your message, safe in the knowledge that it will only happen in the correct order, and one at a time.<br /><br />The very last thing that the orchestration does is to send a new guard message that is <em>next</em> in the sequence. If that orchestration instance has already received the message then the arrival of the guard will make it process immediately otherwise it just waits for the message to arrive.<br /><br />The Sequence Guard on first use must always be initiated by sending a guard message - after that it takes care of itself. Any messages received out of sequence will simply wait for the matching guard to arrive.<br /><br />I tried to bind the receive and send ports for the guard message directly to the message box - but then correlation would not work. Therefore, you must ensure that the receive port for the guard message is receiving messages from the same place that the send port is sending guard messages to (a loopback). I do this by having the send port write out to a folder on the file system and the receive port read from that folder. A queue would probably be better.<br /><br />Its interesting to watch this work through the HAT or through the debug viewer utility when you have a bunch of messages queued up all waiting for the missing message in the sequence. As soon as it arrives it causes a domino effect with all the waiting messages being activated and processed in turn.<br /><br />Download the example <a href="http://www.thinkscape.com/SequenceGuard.zip">here</a>. There are some example message files provided with the download.<br /><br /><img height="722" alt="SequenceGuard" src="http://photos1.flickr.com/2290437_0e5c08e687_o.gif" width="640" />McGeekyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336069219510275135noreply@blogger.com6