Read the post from his blog

Ed K

I woke up to a FAILED build report in my inbox this morning... Not the best of signs but it happens, right?

So I'm trying to figure out what in the world could have gone wrong.  What did we change since the last build that could have caused this madness?  OK, I know I'm being over-dramatic

Here's what I had in the build report:

Target ResolveKeySource: 
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets(1718,7): error MSB4018: The "ResolveKeySource" task failed unexpectedly. 
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets(1718,7): error MSB4018: System.InvalidOperationException: Showing a modal dialog box or form when the application is not running in UserInteractive mode is not a valid operation. Specify the ServiceNotification or DefaultDesktopOnly style to display a notification from a service application. 
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets(1718,7): error MSB4018: at System.Windows.Forms.Form.ShowDialog(IWin32Window owner) 
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets(1718,7): error MSB4018: at System.Windows.Forms.Form.ShowDialog() 
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets(1718,7): error MSB4018: at Microsoft.Build.Tasks.ResolveKeySource.ResolveManifestKey() 
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets(1718,7): error MSB4018: at Microsoft.Build.Tasks.ResolveKeySource.Execute() 
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets(1718,7): error MSB4018: at Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.TaskEngine.ExecuteTask(ExecutionMode howToExecuteTask, Hashtable projectItemsAvailableToTask, BuildPropertyGroup projectPropertiesAvailableToTask, Boolean& taskClassWasFound) 
Done building target "ResolveKeySource" in project "untimyrm.tmp_proj" -- FAILED. 

I think I knew what happened... I had just set up the Click-Once settings in our app and I bet the build server doesn't have the key file we are using.  Sure enough, I happened to be write!  I found out this could also happen if you are signing your assemblies as well with a strong name.  MSDN Forums has the details.

Here's Nagaraju Palla's answer:

For password protected signing keys to work on build without prompting, they need to be exported into a key container crypto store on the build machine under the account that performs the build. Once exported, the build will not ask for a password anymore. The crypto store will do the signing and take care to keep private key safe.

One of the quicker ways to do this:

- Logon to the build machine using the build service account

- Run msbuild on any project that uses this signing key. It will prompt for the password and will export the key.

- Now start the TeamBuild full build.

Ed B.

I was  recently elected Vice President of Meetings for the Dallas BizTalk User Group. My responsibilities include managing sponsors and speakers. I am looking for speakers and sponsors for the rest of 2007 and early 2008.

We meet the 2nd Wednesday of each month @ the Microsoft Campus in Irving. The next meeting is August 8, 2007 and the speaking spot is open, so submit your topics. The speaking topics can be on BizTalk, WCF, or WF.

The current format we use for the meetings is as follows:

Each Meeting:
2 topics – 2 speakers
First speaker presents 30min beginner to intermediate level topic
Second speaker presents 1hour advance level topic

Leave a comment on this post if you are interested in presenting for the August Meeting or any future meetings and I will email you.

Meeting Location:
Microsoft Campus
7000 State Highway 161
Irving, TX 75039

Ed K

This post actually applies to many different situations in which you would automate a build on a separate server.  I just happen to be familiar with Team Build.

Because of how NetAdvantage deals with licensing each build server will need a full copy of NetAdvantage installed.  Some build engineers have only copied the NetAdvantage assemblies over to their build server and will see LicenseException errors in their build reports.  Even copying them into the GAC isn't enough...  Just to save yourself a couple of headaches, take a few minutes to install using the product installer.  There is an option in the installer to install just the assemblies and licensing components.  I'd recommend deselecting all of the options if you don't need them installed on the build server.  Be sure to also apply any hot fixes that your application may use as well.

As an aside, according to Infragistics' current licensing agreement, each build server you install NetAdvantage on must have a separate license whoever creates the build script must be licensed.  If your team has separate build engineers, each of them should be licensed if they will be working on the build script.

Happy Building!

Ed B.

This weekend we had our annual "4th of July Paintball War" at my Dad's place. This year we had about 12 people playing, we divided the teams up by age, everyone 27 and under on team 1, everyone over 27 on team 2. If your wondering....I was on team 2 with the old farts.

The reason I am posting this is because something different happened this year during the big war.... I ending up having Surgery. I fell in a cactus patch and one of the cactus needles went into my wrist down to my tendon.  I had to go to the ER and then they put me in surgery to removed the 2 inch cactus needle.

I had no idea Cactus could cause so much damage.... and be so expensive lol

3 Days after Surgery:

 

Ed K.

Is it possible for the iPhone to work without AT&T service?

Here is a hacker that claims he has done it: Jon Lech Johansen’s blog

Here is the Bloomberg post about it: Apple's IPhone Can Work Without AT&T Service, Hacker Claims

Ed K.

How is the Team Project limitation going to be addressed in Orcas? Is the problem going to be solved in Orcas or will it really be in Rosario? Read Brian Harry's blog post to learn more:  Orcas and Team Projects.

Looks like for Orcas they will be addressing the cost issue of having to purchase more servers to scale for greater number of team projects. Can you imagine what the Server and License cost is for a set up like CodePlex.... I would not like that bill. Orcas will support SQL named instances, so you can have multiple data tiers on one box. You will still have to have the app tiers on separate boxes but those are way cheaper than a beefy SQL box; you can (should) just VM the app tiers anyway's.

Ed K

What we've done with the iPhone is we've made it so that it will automatically switch to a known Wi-Fi network whenever it finds it. So you don't have to go hunting around, resetting the phone, flipping a switch or doing anything. Most of us have Wi-Fi networks around us most of the time at home and at work. There's often times a Wi-Fi network that you can join whether you're sitting in a coffee shop or even walking along the street piggybacking on somebody's home Wi-Fi network. What we found is the combination is working really well.

"Known Wi-Fi Network" please explain. I would not want my phone connecting to some wireless access point, especially if I will be purchasing products online or viewing my bank details.

"PiggyBacking on somebody's home Wi-Fi Network" .....so...... Apple thinks this is ok?

Read the whole interview "iPhone 'Surfing' On AT&T Network Isn't Fast, Jobs Concedes"

Tomorrow @ 6pm is the official launch, I sure hope my Stock soars in the morning :)

Ed K.

I have downloaded and installed Safari 3 Beta on my laptop today. I am not a Browser Guru, I just want to make sure our site looks pretty :)

Ed K. 

I've been asked so I'll just say, "Sorry, I'm not the Ed B. in today's Daily WTF."  Although very funny, it's not me.

Ed B.

Ouch! Look at this map. I need to see what is happening in some of these functoids. What is a developer to do?????

A map is just complex XSL.... So to debug the functoids we need to treat it as such. First, lets Validate our map and get the location of the XSLT.

Since it validated (no errors) we have the XSLT output location in the Output Window. Copy this location to your clip board. 

Open the file with Visual Studio:

Now, right click on your XSL working area and select properties. Here you will enter the input file that will be used for the transform:

Mark your break points, just as you would a code file, and start the debug:



Now you can step through just as if it was .Net code:

Even step into the functoid code:

Ed K.

 The next set of Team System chats with the product group will be on July 3rd. 

Join the chat on Tuesday, July 3^rd , 2007 from 10:00am - 11:00am Pacific Time. Add to Calendar | Additional Time Zones

                -and-

Join the chat on Tuesday, July 3^rd, 2007 from 4:00pm - 5:00pm Pacific Time. Add to Calendar | Additional Time Zones

Team System product group chats on July 3rd

Ed K.

So, if you didn't know I'm a huge fan of the Quality Indicators report in the MSF for Agile Software Development process template in Team Foundation Server.  Here at Infragistics, we're evaluating the Conchango Scrum Process Template for Team System and I don't get that wonderful report I love :-(  I've been stalling (because I haven't ever written a SQL Reporting Services custom report for TFS) but I finally did it today.  It really wasn't that bad.  Thank God I already had most of the report set up for me!  There are a TON of data and metrics you can get from the OLAP cube in the TFS Data Warehouse.

If you haven't read the Wrox Professional Team Foundation Server book, then it's a great avenue for learning TFS.  It also has a good section on how to creating custom reports with the Visual Studio Report Designer.

Really the only issue with just importing the original report to the Scrum team project is the fact that Bugs are actually Sprint Backlog Items with an Item Type of Bug (as opposed to the MSF Agile template that just has a separate bug work item type) and the status of an active bug is actually "In Progress."

Steps to Modify Report

1. You need to get a copy of the Quality Indictors RDL file.  Take a look at Customizing Reports to get more information on how to do this.  I happened to create a whole new Reporting Services Project in Visual Studio called TFS Scrum Reports because I may be creating some new ones later.
2. Be sure to add the two shared Data Sources to your new Visual Studio project.  You can use the settings of the existing shared data sources on your TFS SQL Reporting Services server.  (Usually found at http://[TFS Server Name]/Reports/ or you can right-click the Reports folder under your team project in the Team Explorer window and choose "Show Report Site...")
    
3. With the report open, navigate down to the section that gets the Active Bugs metric:
    
4. Notice what it grabs for the work item type and state:
   
   MEMBER [Measures].[Active Bugs] AS ([Measures].[Cumulative Count], [Work Item].[System_State].[Active], [Work Item].[System_WorkItemType].[Bug], STRTOMEMBER([Measures].[Build Date])) + 0
   
5. Now, change these values to the following:
   
   MEMBER [Measures].[Active Bugs] AS ([Measures].[Cumulative Count], [Work Item].[System_State].[In Progress], [Work Item].[Conchango_VSTS_Scrum_SprintBacklogItemType].[Bug], STRTOMEMBER([Measures].[Build Date])) + 0
   
6. All you have to do now is save the report and upload it to the SQL Reporting site in your team project's reports folder.
   
7. Last thing, you may run into a problem with the report finding the shared data sources.  If this happens, go into the properties of the report on the SRS site and choose the shared data sources that are being used by SRS.

Really, you can use this method to port this great report into just about any process template you might be using.  Pretty much any of the OLAP metrics can be changed.

What other kinds of reports should we have?  Do you have any interesting custom reports that you find useful for the major process templates that are available on the Internets and what not?

UPDATE:  I've attached a modified report if you don't want to go through all the steps of customizing.  Just download it and start at Step 6.  It's much more fun doing it yourself though!

Ed B.

P.S. We're changing up some of our tags to better organize all of our blog posts.  May take some time...

What Does the Updated Quiescing GDR Fix?

• TFS SP1 and Hotfixes fails to install on a SQL Clustered Data Tier.
• TFS SP1 and Hotfixes may fail to install due to issues connecting to the TFS databases.
• TFS Databases may be left in Single-User mode after SP1 or Hotfix installation failure.

Source: Brain Harry Blog

Patch Download

Ed K.

There's a new Scrum process template and it looks like Microsoft has developed it this time.  You can pick it up here:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=55a4bde6-10a7-4c41-9938-f388c1ed15e9&displaylang=en

Overview

eScrum is a Web-based, end-to-end project management tool for Scrum built on the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server platform. It provides multiple ways to interact with your Scrum project: eScrum Web-based UI, Team Explorer, and Excel or Project, via Team Foundation Office Integration. In addition, it provides a single place for all Scrum artifacts such as product backlog, sprint backlog, task management, retrospective, and reports with built-in context sensitive help.

We'll have to evaluate it and see where it ranks among the other Scrum process templates.  For now, check out some of the other ones:  (Did I miss any?)

• Conchango:  http://www.scrumforteamsystem.com/en/default.aspx
• CodePlex:  http://www.codeplex.com/VSTSScrum

Update:  HOLY CRAP! There is a ton of post-installation steps that you have to take and other items that you have to download.  If you don't happen to have the specific version of the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit that eScrum requires, then you are going to have to do a binding redirect.  If you download it from the ASP.NET AJAX Website, it is a later version.  See the Readme after you install. This setup and install experience is probably one of the worst I have ever done!  Even rivaling the TFS Beta 3 to Beta 3 Refresh upgrade!  That's saying a lot.

Now I'm just having problems with the reports after I've rebuilt the TFS Warehouse five time!  This process template undoubtedly deserves a Colbert Wag of the Finger.

Ed B.

Several people who had attended TechEd 2007 in Orlando, Florida last week had the opportunity to see the shuttle launch.  It's pretty awesome because they don't happen all of the time.  A group of us who had stayed for the weekend decided to head out to Cape Canaveral for the event.  We made our stakeout for about five hours and played cards but I have to tell you it was totally awesome.  It was extremely bright too!  I don't have the most awesome camera in the world but got some pretty cool shots.

Oh yeah - Congrats to Ed K on passing the TFS exam!  I guess I'll have to go take it now too

Ed B.

Whatever happened to this webcast? It was kinda cool...ok, somewhat cool, but I really like how it turned coding into a reality show. If anyone knows what happened or if there are any "lost episodes" please leave a comment.

Here is the WebSite. All it has on it now is "This IP address cannot be used for browsing".

Here is a list of the only 3 episodes made (as far as I know):
Pilot Episode - December 9, 2004
Building Mobile Apps and Bluetooth Enabled Kiosks - May 19, 2005
Breaking Into Vegas - February 23, 2006

Ed K

The connector, Release 1, is available for download today from CodePlex.

This is the first release of the PS2007 VSTS Connector. We've done our best to ensure that this Connector is easy to install and well documented, but if you encounter issues, please be sure to let us know via email at tfpstalk@microsoft.com, we'll do our best to get you up and running.
For other feedback and questions, please send mail to tfpstalk@microsoft.com.

Thanks for your interest in the Connector solution!
- VSTS Rangers

Source: CodePlex

Ed K

Topic : BizTalk Solution Design Review
Speaker: Dustin Hicks
Date: June 13th 2007
Location: Microsoft Campus at 7000 State Highway 161, Irving, TX 75039
Time : 6:30 PM

Description :
Dustin Hicks will be discussing the implementation details of an SAP integration project utilizing a custom written decorator pipeline framework.  Architecture design and production details will be presented and discussed in detail.  We will review the code for a generic decorator pattern, it’s implementation in a pipeline component, value passing context properties, DocumentProcessor classes and development patterns.  In addition, purchase order integration including RosettaNet (3A4) to SAP (ORDERS05) transformations and processing pattern will be presented.

June Meeting - Dustin Hicks with a BizTalk Solution Design Review

Ed K

If you use Juice as your podcast receiver and have upgraded to Vista, here is a post that will show you how to make it work.

Running Juice on Vista

Ed K