Technical Ramblings

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2010-03-10T09:00:00.001-05:00

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SharePoint 2007 Custom workflow failed to start.

2010-01-15T11:15:00.005-05:00

I am doing some custom SharePoint 2007 Workflow development utilizing WSPBuilder and I had this one workflow that just would not run no matter what I did. I disabled all the activities in it except a Workflow History logging activity but still the workflow would not start. I am a little embarrassed to say this was driving me insane for the better part of a day.

No matter what I did when I ran the workflow I would get

1/15/2010 11:06 AM Error

System Account

Trans failed to start. 1/15/2010 11:06 AM Workflow Canceled

System Account

Workflow Trans was canceled by System Account.

I searched through the SharePoint logs over and over again and all I was seeing was unable to load workflow assembly, but I knew it would load since I had other workflows in this library and they all ran no problem.

Here is the error message out of the log file, I hope you spot the problem:

Load Workflow Assembly: System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'com.XXXX.Sharepoint.Workflows\, Version\=1.0.0.0\, Culture\=neutral\, PublicKeyToken\=$PublicKeyToken$' or one of its dependencies. The given assembly name or codebase was invalid. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131047) File name: 'com.XXXX.Sharepoint.Workflows\, Version\=1.0.0.0\, Culture\=neutral\, PublicKeyToken\=$PublicKeyToken$' at System.Reflection.AssemblyName.nInit(Assembly& assembly, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean raiseResolveEvent) at System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection) at System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(String assemblyString) at ...

Well that part I was not seeing was PublicKeyToken\=$PublicKeyToken.

It turns out that when I created the feature using the WSPBuilder create SyncSharePointWorkflow option it must have had an error I did not notice and this error caused it not to add the PublicKeyToken to the elements.xml file. Or maybe it never did and I just forgot to update this line.

CodeBesideAssembly="com.XXXX.Sharepoint.Workflows, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=$PublicKeyToken$"

Anyway once I added the correct Public Key, retracted and redeployed the workflow, it ran fine.

Hope this helps someone else save a day!!!

Windows Media Center

2009-03-12T10:55:00.003-05:00

I dont know how may of you out there are using Windows Media Center for your TV viewing needs, but I have to say http://www.secondrun.tv/ is the best add-on that I have come across yet!
I have completely dropped my Dish Network and almost exclusively use this to watch my favorite shows.

The underlying connection was closed: A connection that was expected to be kept alive was closed by the server

2009-02-13T16:31:00.004-05:00

Well the bad news is that this worked for some time but then started to not work again. Looks like i am back to the drawing board.

Ok it took me 2 days to track this down but I think I have solved it.

I have 2 different .net 2.0 libraries in the same application that both access the same third-party Java web service. Oh by the way this worked no problem in .net 1.0

Well this was throwing an System.Net.WebException "The underlying connection was closed:" randomly.

InnerException: System.IO.IOException
Message="Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host."
Source="System"
StackTrace:
at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)
at System.Net.PooledStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)
at System.Net.Connection.SyncRead(HttpWebRequest request, Boolean userRetrievedStream, Boolean probeRead)
InnerException: System.Net.Sockets.SocketException
Message="An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host"
Source="System"
ErrorCode=10054
NativeErrorCode=10054
StackTrace:
at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.Receive(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size, SocketFlags socketFlags)
at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)

I spent forever searching the net looking for a solution to this, with little to no success.
Well I finally came across this link. To resolve this problem you need to disable the keep-alive feature.

In the .NET Framework, you need to set the HttpWebRequest.KeepAlive property to FALSE.
To do this I created a web service reference then modified the generated Reference.cs class and added

protected override System.Net.WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri uri)
{
HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)base.GetWebRequest(uri);
webRequest.KeepAlive = false;
return webRequest;
}

now I know this will probably add a little over-head to my application but so what it solved my devastating error :-)

My new HTPC

2008-12-10T17:03:00.002-05:00

Ok I just created a new HTPC (Home Theater PC) and let me just say how the hell did I live with out this before. I actually was able to drop my Dish Network service since most of what I was watching is offered online.
When I get a chance I hope to list everything I went thru in creating it.

.net Exception list

2008-09-09T14:45:00.003-05:00

Jeff Atwood wrote a great little block of code to list all the exceptions in .net. I just needed the most common ones so I posted them here.

System.AppDomainUnloadedException
System.ApplicationException
System.ArgumentException
System.ArgumentNullException
System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException
System.ArithmeticException
System.ArrayTypeMismatchException
System.BadImageFormatException
System.CannotUnloadAppDomainException
System.ComponentModel.Design.CheckoutException
System.ComponentModel.Design.Serialization.CodeDomSerializerException
System.ComponentModel.InvalidEnumArgumentException
System.ComponentModel.LicenseException
System.ComponentModel.WarningException
System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception
System.Configuration.ConfigurationException
System.ContextMarshalException
System.Data.ConstraintException
System.Data.DataException
System.Data.DBConcurrencyException
System.Data.DeletedRowInaccessibleException
System.Data.DuplicateNameException
System.Data.EvaluateException
System.Data.ExprException
System.Data.InRowChangingEventException
System.Data.InvalidConstraintException
System.Data.InvalidExpressionException
System.Data.MissingPrimaryKeyException
System.Data.NoNullAllowedException
System.Data.Odbc.OdbcException
System.Data.OleDb.OleDbException
System.Data.ReadOnlyException
System.Data.RowNotInTableException
System.Data.SqlClient._ValueException
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException
System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlNullValueException
System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlTruncateException
System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlTypeException
System.Data.StrongTypingException
System.Data.SyntaxErrorException
System.Data.TypedDataSetGeneratorException
System.Data.VersionNotFoundException
System.DivideByZeroException
System.DllNotFoundException
System.Drawing.Printing.InvalidPrinterException
System.DuplicateWaitObjectException
System.EntryPointNotFoundException
System.Exception
System.ExecutionEngineException
System.FieldAccessException
System.FormatException
System.IndexOutOfRangeException
System.InvalidCastException
System.InvalidOperationException
System.InvalidProgramException
System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException
System.IO.EndOfStreamException
System.IO.FileLoadException
System.IO.FileNotFoundException
System.IO.InternalBufferOverflowException
System.IO.IOException
System.IO.IsolatedStorage.IsolatedStorageException
System.IO.PathTooLongException
System.Management.ManagementException
System.MemberAccessException
System.Messaging.MessageQueueException
System.MethodAccessException
System.MissingFieldException
System.MissingMemberException
System.MissingMethodException
System.MulticastNotSupportedException
System.Net.CookieException
System.Net.ProtocolViolationException
System.Net.Sockets.SocketException
System.Net.WebException
System.NotFiniteNumberException
System.NotImplementedException
System.NotSupportedException
System.NullReferenceException
System.ObjectDisposedException
System.OutOfMemoryException
System.OverflowException
System.PlatformNotSupportedException
System.RankException
System.Reflection.AmbiguousMatchException
System.Reflection.CustomAttributeFormatException
System.Reflection.InvalidFilterCriteriaException
System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException
System.Reflection.TargetException
System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException
System.Reflection.TargetParameterCountException
System.Resources.MissingManifestResourceException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.ExternalException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.InvalidComObjectException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.InvalidOleVariantTypeException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalDirectiveException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeArrayRankMismatchException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeArrayTypeMismatchException
System.Runtime.InteropServices.SEHException
System.Runtime.Remoting.MetadataServices.SUDSGeneratorException
System.Runtime.Remoting.MetadataServices.SUDSParserException
System.Runtime.Remoting.RemotingException
System.Runtime.Remoting.RemotingTimeoutException
System.Runtime.Remoting.ServerException
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException
System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicUnexpectedOperationException
System.Security.Policy.PolicyException
System.Security.SecurityException
System.Security.VerificationException
System.Security.XmlSyntaxException
System.ServiceProcess.TimeoutException
System.StackOverflowException
System.SystemException
System.Threading.SynchronizationLockException
System.Threading.ThreadAbortException
System.Threading.ThreadInterruptedException
System.Threading.ThreadStateException
System.Threading.ThreadStopException
System.TypeInitializationException
System.TypeLoadException
System.TypeUnloadedException
System.UnauthorizedAccessException
System.UriFormatException
System.Web.HttpApplication+CancelModuleException
System.Web.HttpCompileException
System.Web.HttpException
System.Web.HttpParseException
System.Web.HttpRequestValidationException
System.Web.HttpUnhandledException
System.Web.Services.Discovery.InvalidContentTypeException
System.Web.Services.Discovery.InvalidDocumentContentsException
System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException
System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHeaderException
System.Windows.Forms.AxHost+InvalidActiveXStateException
System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaException
System.Xml.XmlException
System.Xml.XPath.XPathException
System.Xml.Xsl.XsltCompileException
System.Xml.Xsl.XsltException

Xsl function to testing if text only contains footnote marks

2008-07-09T12:54:00.004-05:00

The situation come up were I had a table of data and in on of the columns it had just footnote marks. Well I had to merge these footnote marks over to the previous column, but in order to do this I needed to know if the only value in the cell were marks. So I realize there are many ways to do this but I thought this was a cool way. It reads in an external xml file with all the footnote refs I want to search for the ref value is a regex.
<footnotes>
<footnote ref="\*"/>
<footnote ref="\+"/>
<footnote ref="†"/>
<footnote ref="$[a-z]$"/>
<footnote ref="$[1-9]$"/>
</footnotes>

I then concat the refs together with a | and do a replace on the string value. If nothing is left then it is a footnote ref.


<xsl:function name="txt:IsFootnoteRef" as="xs:boolean">
<xsl:param name="pText" as="xs:string"/>
<xsl:variable name="vFootnotes" select=" document('./footnotes.xml')/footnotes/footnote"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="not($vFootnotes)">
<xsl:value-of select="false()"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="not($pText)">
<xsl:value-of select="false()"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="normalize-space($pText) = '' ">

<xsl:value-of select="false()"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:variable name="vFootnoteRef">
<xsl:value-of select="$vFootnotes/@ref" separator="|"/>
</xsl:variable>

<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test=" normalize-space(replace($pText, $vFootnoteRef , '' , 'i')) = '' ">
<xsl:value-of select="true()"/>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="false()"/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:function>

Comparing XML attributes with parents attributes

2008-03-04T13:38:00.004-05:00

I had a need to test if all/most of the attributes of a child node were equal to its parent and strip out the child node if true.

My XML structure was basically:

Helloworld

</SPECIALTEXT>

</PARAGRAPH>

Output needed to be:

Helloworld

</PARAGRAPH>

Now this only works on the first level after the PARAGRAPH but that’s all I needed, and it could be changed to do this recursively I guess. Basically I am matching on any paragraph that contains a child element SPECIALTEXT with the same style attribute and calling the template CompareKeyAttributes.
PARAGRAPH has more attributes than SPECIALTEXT in most cases so I compare only the ones that exist in SPECIALTEXT.

CompareKeyAttributes will return a string of all the
attributes that don’t match so then I just check if I care that the attribute
is different and output accordingly.

<xsl:template match="PARAGRAPH[SPECIALTEXT[@Style=./@Style] ] ">

<xsl:copy>

<xsl:apply-templates select="@*"/>

<xsl:for-each select=" child::*">

<xsl:variable name="RESULT">

<xsl:call-template name="CompareKeyAttributes">

<xsl:with-param name="PARA" select=".."/>

<xsl:with-param name="SPEC" select="."/>

</xsl:call-template>

</xsl:variable>

<xsl:choose>

<xsl:whentest="$RESULT='number' ">

<xsl:apply-templates select="child::node()"/>

</xsl:when>

<xsl:otherwise>

<xsl:copy>

<xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>

</xsl:copy>

</xsl:otherwise>

</xsl:choose>

</xsl:for-each>

</xsl:copy>

</xsl:template>

<xsl:template name="CompareKeyAttributes">

<xsl:param name="PARA"/>

<xsl:param name="SPEC"/>

<xsl:for-each select="$SPEC/@*">

<xsl:variable name="SPEC_ATT" select="name()"/>

<xsl:variable name="PARA_ATT" select="$PARA/@*[name()= $SPEC_ATT]"/>

<xsl:choose>

<xsl:when test="$PARA_ATT != .">

<xsl:value-of select="name()"/>

</xsl:when>

</xsl:choose>

</xsl:for-each>

</xsl:template>

Let me know if you find this useful or have anyway to make it better. Enjoy

Upgrading MOSS2007 to SP1

2008-02-19T12:42:00.003-05:00

Jason had some good references for upgrading MOSS07 to SP1. I have tried the upgrade on my development server with out any issues, but that is a single server env. I will try the upgrade next week on QA servers but anyway here is the link http://blogs.informationhub.com/jnadrowski/archive/2008/01/11/24045.aspx

Changing Virtual Hard Drive from IDE to SCSI

2008-01-02T10:26:00.000-05:00

Well I created virtual server with a single Virtual IDE hard drive (VHD) that ran out of space so I decided I was going to find a way to enlarge it and also switch to SCSI, because I read it was better performing. Well I found alot of post about expanding the hard drive and I will post the details of that in another post.

Here I want to post the steps to switching to a SCSI drive.

Open the Virtual Server Web Administration site and select configure your specific Virtual Machine
In the Virtual Machine Configuration windows, select Add SCSI Adapter ID 7
Make sure you leave your boot disk as IDE disk
Start your virtual machine
You should see the following when the adapter is registered "Adaptec AIC-7870 PCI SCSI Adapter". The virtual machine will now be able to boot with SCSI but this SCSI driver is very slow.
Right-click on the Adaptec driver and select Update Driver
Choose the Install from a list or specific location and Have Disk options
Browse to the C:\Program Files\Virtual Machine Additions folder and click OK
The Microsoft Virtual Machine PCI SCSI Controller driver should now be installed
Shutdown your virtual machine
In the Virtual Server Virtual Machine configuration select hard disks in the configuration section
Change your boot hard disk to the SCSI ID 0
Click OK
Start the virtual machine

good luck and remember backups..

The Local Security Authority cannot be contacted

2007-10-30T09:13:00.000-05:00

Where to start... I have setup a MOSS 2007 site running on Windows Server 2003 R2 with sp2 and all current updates. The site is setup to allow anonymous access as well as integrated Windows login. Everything seems fine, no errors on the server all is running smoothly as long as you enter the correct password. If you miss type your password, instead of prompting you 3 time like IIS should, it immediately displays "The Local Security Authority cannot be contacted". The only thing you can do from here is close your browser and start over again. I have been trying to track down this problem for weeks now with little to no luck, I even wiped out the server and reinstalled all components to no avail.

the web server does register the error:

Event Type: Failure Audit
Event Source: Security
Event Category: Logon/Logoff
Event ID: 537
Date: 10/30/2007
Time: 10:53:03 AM
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: XXXX-XXX
Description:
Logon Failure:
Reason: An error occurred during logon
User Name: XXXX@XXXX.XXX
Domain:
Logon Type: 3
Logon Process: NtLmSsp
Authentication Package: NTLM
Workstation Name: TELESTO
Status code: 0xC0000225
Substatus code: 0x0
Caller User Name: -
Caller Domain: -
Caller Logon ID: -
Caller Process ID: -
Transited Services: -
Source Network Address: 192.###.##.###
Source Port: 2705

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

While I am looking into this more if anyone has any ideas PLEASE let me know.

One more tidbit it does not have the same problem on all computers, some workstations seem to work as expected.

Recursively adding files to Visual Source Safe

2007-10-03T13:02:00.000-05:00

Ok first off, I have to say I hate Visual Source Safe (VSS)!
Actually hate isn't right I despise it, I loath it, it is the worst source control software I have ever used! Well I feel better getting that of my chest.

Anyway back to the reason for this post. If you need to recursively add files and folders to VSS you simple drag the folder from Windows Explorer and drop in in the correct location in your VSS project.
You might think there is a menu option to do this but there isn't. You may also think well if I hit insert I will be asked to recursively add, and you would be wrong. Then you may think Let me look in the doc, maybe it is a command line option, good luck.

Anyway I hope I am not the only id10t to forget how to do this and had to go hunting for it.

Redirecting DOS stdout stderr

2007-09-07T09:36:00.000-05:00

Every time I need to redirect DOS output I have to go look it up. There is only so much space in my brain and unless I want to forget how to speak something had to go. Well I got tired of searching thru different sites to get what I wanted, so the last time I came across this info (this happens to be from Microsoft) I posted it here.

Using command redirection operators

The following table lists operators that you can use to redirect command input and output streams.

Redirection operator	Description
>	Writes the command output to a file or a device, such as a printer, instead of the Command Prompt window.
<	Reads the command input from a file, instead of reading input from the keyboard.
>>	Appends the command output to the end of a file without deleting the information that is already in the file.
>&	Writes the output from one handle to the input of another handle.
<&	Reads the input from one handle and writes it to the output of another handle.
\|	Reads the output from one command and writes it to the input of another command. Also known as a pipe.

By default, you send the command input (that is, the STDIN handle) from your keyboard to Cmd.exe, and then Cmd.exe sends the command output (that is, the STDOUT handle) to the Command Prompt window.

The following table lists the available handles.

Handle	Numeric equivalent of handle	Description
STDIN	0	Keyboard input
STDOUT	1	Output to the Command Prompt window
STDERR	2	Error output to the Command Prompt window
UNDEFINED	3-9	These handles are defined individually by the application and are specific to each tool.

The numbers zero through nine (that is, 0-9) represent the first 10 handles. You can use Cmd.exe to run a program and redirect any of the first 10 handles for the program. To specify which handle you want to use, type the number of the handle before the redirection operator. If you do not define a handle, the default < redirection input operator is zero (0) and the default > redirection output operator is one (1). After you type the < or > operator, you must specify where you want to read or write the data. You can specify a file name or another existing handle.

To specify redirection to existing handles, use the ampersand (&) character followed by the handle number that you want to redirect (that is, &handle#). For example, the following command redirects handle 2 (that is, STDERR) into handle 1 (that is, STDOUT):

1<&2

Duplicating handles

The & redirection operator duplicates output or input from one specified handle to another specified handle. For example, to send dir output to File.txt and send the error output to File.txt, type:

dir>c:\file.txt 2>&1

When you duplicate a handle, you duplicate all characteristics of the original occurrence of the handle. For example, if a handle has write-only access, all duplicates of that handle have write-only access. You cannot duplicate a handle with read-only access into a handle with write-only access.

Redirecting command input (<)

To redirect command input from the keyboard to a file or device, use the < operator. For example, to get the command input for the sort command from File.txt:

sort<file.txt

The contents of File.txt appear in the Command Prompt window as an alphabetized list.

The < operator opens the specified file name with read-only access. As a result, you cannot write to the file when you use this operator. For example, if you start a program with <&2, all attempts to read handle 0 fail because handle 2 is initially opened with write-only access.

Redirecting command output (>)

Almost all commands send output to your Command Prompt window. Even commands that send output to a drive or printer display messages and prompts in the Command Prompt window.

To redirect command output from the Command Prompt window to a file or device, use the > operator. You can use this operator with most commands. For example, to redirect dir output to Dirlist.txt:

dir>dirlist.txt

If Dirlist.txt does not exist, Cmd.exe creates it. If Dirlist.txt exists, Cmd.exe replaces the information in the file with the output from the dir command.

To run the netsh routing dump command and then send the command output to Route.cfg, type:

netsh routing dump>c:\route.cfg

The > operator opens the specified file with write-only access. As a result, you cannot read the file when you use this operator. For example, if you start a program with redirection >&0, all attempts to write handle 1 fail because handle 0 is initially opened with read-only access.

Note

•	One is the default handle for the > redirection output operator.

Using the <& operator to redirect input and duplicate

To use the redirection input operator <&, the file you specify must already exist. If the input file exists, Cmd.exe opens it as read-only and sends the characters contained in the file as input to the command as if they were input from the keyboard. If you specify a handle, Cmd.exe duplicates the handle you specify onto the existing handle in the system.

For example, to open File.txt as input read to handle 0 (that is, STDIN), type:

<file.txt

To open File.txt, sort the contents and then send the output to the Command Prompt window (that is, STDOUT), type:

sort<file.txt

To find File.txt, and then redirect handle 1 (that is, STDOUT) and handle 2 (that is, STDERR) to the Search.txt, type:

findfile file.txt>search.txt 2<&1

To duplicate a user-defined handle 3 as input read to handle 0 (that is, STDIN), type:

<&3

Using the >& operator to redirect output and duplicate

If you redirect output to a file and you specify an existing file name, Cmd.exe opens the file as write-only and overwrites the file's contents. If you specify a handle, Cmd.exe duplicates the file onto the existing handle.

To duplicate a user-defined handle 3 into handle 1, type:

>&3

To redirect all of the output, including handle 2 (that is, STDERR), from the ipconfig command to handle 1 (that is, STDOUT), and then redirect the ouput to Output.log, type:

ipconfig.exe>>output.log 2>&1

Using the >> redirection operator to append output

To add the output from a command to the end of a file without losing any of the information already in the file, use two consecutive greater than signs (that is, >>). For example, the following command appends the directory list produced by the dir command to the Dirlist.txt file:

dir>>dirlist.txt

To append the output of the netstat command to the end of Tcpinfo.txt, type:

netstat>>tcpinfo.txt

Using the pipe operator (|)

The pipe operator (|) takes the output (by default, STDOUT) of one command and directs it into the input (by default, STDIN) of another command. For example, the following command sorts a directory:

dir | sort

In this example, both commands start simultaneously, but then the sort command pauses until it receives the dir command's output. The sort command uses the dir command's output as its input, and then sends its output to handle 1 (that is, STDOUT).

Combining commands with redirection operators

You can create custom commands by combining filter commands with other commands and file names. For example, you can use the following command to store the names of files that contain the string "LOG":

dir /b | find "LOG" > loglist.txt

The dir command's output is sent through the find filter command. File names that contain the string "LOG" are stored as a list of file names (for example, NetshConfig.log, Logdat.svd, and Mylog.bat) in the Loglist.txt file.

To use more than one filter in the same command, separate the filters with a pipe (|). For example, the following command searches every directory on drive C:, finds the file names that include the string "Log", and then displays them in one Command Prompt window at a time:

dir c:\ /s /b | find "LOG" | more

By using a pipe (|), you direct Cmd.exe to send the dir command output through the find filter command. The find command selects only file names that contain the string "LOG." The more command displays the file names that are selected by the find command, one Command Prompt window at a time. For more information about filter commands, see Using filters

Upgrading GuidanceAutomationExtensions and GuidanceAutomationToolkit

2007-08-22T12:41:00.000-05:00

Well silly me I went and checked if there was and update to the GuidanceAutomationExtensions and GuidanceAutomationToolkit and low and behold there was.
So I downloaded the new installs and went about the task of installing the new versions. Well they still don't have an upgrade path in the installation program so I had to go and uninstall the old products. I had the "Web Service Software Factory - December 2006 (refresh)" installed as well so I started there. As I expected this uninstall did not go well.
After trying multiple time to uninstall (with reboots and everything else I could think of) I accidentally installed the "Web Client Software Factory - January 2007". Well to my surprise the Web Service Factory now uninstalled. Well I assumed that was the hard part, and boy was I wrong. Next after uninstalling the accidental install of "Web Client Factory" I tried uninstalling "Enterprise Library April 2007". This went as good as the Web Service Factory. So I thought maybe something in my environment got corrupted and i repaired the GuidanceAutomationExtensions, Toolkit and Enterprise Library. Still no joy.
After doing a lot of googling I came across Savij blog. His/Her problem wasn't the same as mine but the solution worked.
I tracked down the file RecipeFramework.xml in Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Recipe Framework folder. I removed

GuidancePackage Name="StrongNamingGuidancePackage" Version="1.0" Caption="Strong Naming Guidance Package" Description="Guidance Package that simplifies strong-naming of multiple projects" Host="VisualStudio" Guid="2d4b99e7-3126-4452-8882-edfd826ea78a" ConfigurationFile="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Enterprise Library 3.0 - April 2007\Strong Naming Guidance Package\StrongNamingGuidancePackage.xml" Timestamp="633113779240000000"

GuidancePackage Name="GuidanceBlockFactory" Version="1.0" Caption="Application Block Software Factory" Description="Application Block Software Factory" Host="VisualStudio" Guid="8643B63B-A2A4-4ccc-933E-379645A3002E" ConfigurationFile="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Enterprise Library 3.0 - April 2007\Application Block Software Factory\BlockFactory.xml" Timestamp="633113779040000000"

from the GuidancePackages elements and tried to uninstall GuidanceAutomationExtensions again.
Hooray, it worked.
The only thing left now was to try the Enterprise Library and to my surprise that uninstalled successfully also.

Now I am of to try and reinstall it all again.

Introducing XslCompiledTransform

2007-06-22T09:40:00.000-05:00

I was look into learning more about xslt and .net and found this site very helpful

http://blogs.msdn.com/xmlteam/articles/Introducing_XslCompiledTransform.aspx

Retrieving application settings from another assembly

2007-04-26T12:06:00.000-05:00

I was writing a windows service that referenced a DLL I had previously written when I came across a problem reading the ApplicationSettings of the parent EXE. Well after starting down the path of writing my own class to accomplish this I came across this post from "Niall Fallon".
Well he/she had done exactly what I was working on so I had to copy their post here so I would have it later.
Thank you Niall

dotNET - Use app.config ApplicationSettings and UserSettings

When using Settings in an Assembly or .exe you can use the Settings Designer to generate a config file using Settings. The Settings Designer provides a wrapper class which allows you to provide defaults and access the config data using Properties.
But what if you're not working inside that Assembly or .exe? this presents a problem.
If your loading the Assembly externally and want to access that Assembly's .config file you'll probably wish to use something in the System.Configuration namespace... unfortunately it's not of much use if you've created the .config file from the Settings Designer in Visual Studio!!
This is because the Designer creates Sections and ApplicationSettings and UserSettings, the System.Configuration namespace does not provide a method to access these (it has a method to access AppSettings which are a different thing.
Below I've written a workaround which locates the app.config and accesses the ApplicationSettings and UserSettings using XML instead of System.Configuration.

_server = GetAssemblySettingOrDefault(Path.Combine("C:\temp\MyAssembly.dll"), "serverLocation", "http://localhost/mydefaultserver/mydefaultserver.asmx");

Return a key/value list of ApplicationSettings and UserSettings for a given .exe's of .dll's .config file.

public static KeyValueConfigurationCollection GetAssemblySettings(string assemblyPath)
{
Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(assemblyPath);

XmlDocument dom = new XmlDocument();
dom.Load(config.FilePath);

//UserSettings and ApplicationSettings
KeyValueConfigurationCollection returnList = new KeyValueConfigurationCollection();

string[] settingsTypes = { "applicationSettings", "userSettings" };
foreach (string settingType in settingsTypes)
{
XmlNode node = dom.SelectSingleNode("//configuration//" + settingType);
if (node != null)
{
try
{
if (node.HasChildNodes)
{
foreach (XmlNode childNode in node.ChildNodes)
{
if (childNode.HasChildNodes)
{
foreach (XmlNode settingNode in childNode.ChildNodes)
{
if (settingNode != null)//the Settings node
{
if (settingNode.Attributes.Count > 0) //there should be at least one attribute
returnList.Add(settingNode.Attributes[0].Value, settingNode.InnerText);//the setting name and the setting/value
}
}
}
}
}

}
catch { throw; }
}
}
return returnList;
}

// Get the value of the Assembly ApplicationSetting or UserSetting from the key.
// If the key does not have a value then return the default supplied by the caller.

public static string GetAssemblySettingOrDefault(string assemblyPath, string assemblySettingKey, string assemblySettingDefaultValue)
{
string result = assemblySettingDefaultValue;
KeyValueConfigurationCollection settings = GetAssemblySettings(assemblyPath);
if(settings != null)
{
KeyValueConfigurationElement key = settings[assemblySettingKey];
if(key != null)
result = key.Value;
}
return result;
}

Getting Multiple file extensions with Directory.GetFiles()

2007-03-30T15:25:00.000-05:00

I was looking for a way to list the files in a folder with different extensions and I came across a solution that Andreas Kraus(http://www.sunlab.de) wrote. So I took that and modified it a little


public static string[] GetFiles(
                                string path,
                                string searchPattern)
{
    string[] m_arExt = searchPattern.Split(';');

    List<string> strFiles = new List<string>();
    foreach(string filter in m_arExt)
    {
        strFiles.AddRange(
               System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(path, filter));
    }
    return strFiles.ToArray();
}

Thanks Andreas.

SelectSingleNode with a default namespace

2007-03-26T09:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, I have a simple xml file with a default namespace as shown here:

< test xmlns="http://www.shaune.net/test">
< config>
< data>test< /data>
< settings>
< moredata>test< /moredata>
< /settings>
< /config>
< /test>

I loaded the xml file using
XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader("C:\\xml\\My.Config.xml" );
nsm = new XmlNamespaceManager(reader.NameTable);

//I read that this is how you specify a default namespace
nsm.AddNamespace("", "http://www.shaune.net/test");

configDoc.Load(reader);
reader.Close();

and then I do a SelectSingleNode
XmlNode test2 = configDoc.SelectSingleNode("//Config");

This should work right? Wrong!!!
It turns out that XPath 1.0 doesn't support default namespace. XPath 2.0 does but I guess that doesn't help right now with .net 2.0.

What I needed to do was give the default namespace a name
nsm.AddNamespace("cfg", "http://www.shaune.net/test");

Then all my selects need to specify this namespace
XmlNode test2 = configDoc.SelectSingleNode("//cfg:Config");

What a pain.

Sharepoint 2007 OpenDocuments Class ActiveX Control

2007-02-28T11:52:00.000-05:00

I recently started having trouble with IE 7.0 and my Sharepoint 2007 site were if I selected open Edit Document from the dropdown list on any file in a Document Library nothing would happen. I also noticed if a file was not already checked out and I clicked on the link to look at it nothing would happen. I could right click and open the link in a new window or tab but that just didn't help if I need to edit the file in Word or Excel.

I have tracked down the problem to an ActiveX Control Sharepoint adds to your browser "SharePoint OpenDocuments Class".

If you disable this Add-on the SharePoint Site behaves like you would expect except you don't get the Edit Document option in you Dropdown. This is by no means a solution to my problem, but I have at least tracked it down. I hope to find a Real solution soon.
Anyone have any idea? Anyone having the same problem?

Anyway I will let you know if I find more info.

---
Ok I did a little more research on this and found that many other people are having the same problem. It turns out to be a conflict with Sharepoint Designer 2007 OWSSUPP.DLL version 12 and Office 2003 OWSSUPP.DLL version 11.
I really didn't have the option to remove Sharepoint Designer since we are using it for custom workflow creation.
I ran Microsoft Office Diagnostics and it found 1 problem but unfortunately it didn't go into any detail as to what the problem was.
Lets hope this solves the problem once and for all!

Hello

2007-02-23T10:56:00.000-05:00

Ok just created my first blog. Soon as i get a chance i will be adding what I can