Formerly known as Teamplain Web Access for Team System, Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Web Access has been released and freely available as a download to licensed customers of Visual Studio Team Foundation Server.  Microsoft recently purchased devBiz and is offering their former product for free as a Power Tool.  At some point I'm sure they will bake into the main product but for now, it's a great value-add to the TFS product line.

It's really a great tool for you to use if you don't feel like installing a lightweight version of Visual Studio for users who really don't need all of it.  It reproduces pretty much everything that you could do in Team Explorer but in a nice web application.  I'd say It's nice to have even as a developer!

Ed B.

What the heck is a Guidisan?  Here at Infragistics, we don't like HR titles...  In our group we have people that are Codemunicators, Webinaries, and of course Guidisans.  My role in the UXG is as a Guidisan which is essentially a blend between "guidance" and "artisan."  It sums it right up.  We just happen to be hiring another Guidisan so check out the unofficial posting and then the official post (under Research & Development) and let me know if you're interested!  We've got several other openings at the moment so if you happen to see something you're interested in as well, feel free to let me know.

What do guidisans do? 

• Help gather, specify, and document application vision, scope, and requirements.
• Take application requirements and create an application design that meets the requirements and follows best known practices for both Microsoft .NET and Infragistics products.
• Implement applications following requirements, best practices, and design specifications.
• Create supplemental content such as articles, white papers, screencasts, podcasts, etc. that help elucidate example code and applications.
• Research emerging technologies and create prototypes based on emerging technologies.
• Contribute to joint design sessions as well as coding and design discussions.

What do I need to qualify?

• Bachelor’s Degree.
• 4+ years of full-time, professional experience designing and developing business applications.
• 2+ years designing and developing.NET applications (UI development in particular).
• Be able to create vision, scope, and requirements documents based on usage scenarios.
• Demonstrated experience with object-oriented design; familiarity with behavior-driven design, domain-driven design, and test-driven development a plus.
• Demonstrated knowledge of best practices for .NET application development.
• Accept and provide constructive criticism in group situations.
• Follow design and coding guidelines.
• Clearly communicate technical concepts in writing and speaking.

Ed B.

Come check us out if you'll be in the area!  Ambrose Little and I will be giving our WPF and UX talk on Thursday, August 2 at the New Jersey Microsoft Developer's Group in Iselin, NJ.  We've got some exciting new stuff if you've already heard this talk from us!

August 2nd, 2007

Windows Presentation Foundation, Infragistics

Humanizing Software: Creating Better User Experiences with WPF Ed and Ambrose will discuss the concepts and disciplines involved in the field of user experience and show how WPF can be used to empower developers to create better user experiences through some of its built-in features.

Ed B.

Give Visual Studio 2008 a Spin

Ed K.

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