.Net

Browser Memory Hogs......

BizTalk Visionary — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:08:24 GMT

Have a look at the following investigation by Sam Allen.....

"The author developed a program to snapshot memory usage per process every 3 seconds on Windows. Using this he recorded 3 hours of memory usage for five different browsers under real-world usage scenarios: Safari 3.1, Firefox 3, Flock 1.2 (a browser based on Firefox 2), Opera 9.5, and Internet Explorer 8. A million data points indicate that Firefox 3 has a surprising advantage over the other browsers tested. These are real-world tests and not contrived benchmarks."

Technorati Tags: Firefox,IE,Opera,Flock

Microsoft: Volta Web developer toolset

BizTalk Visionary — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:46:48 GMT

Microsoft is releasing on Wednesday a technology preview of its Volta Web developer toolset, which is intended to make it easier to build multitier Web applications, including applications useful in SaaS (software as a service) environments.

With Volta, developers can use C#, Visual Basic, IronPython, or other .Net languages that utilize .Net libraries and tools, Microsoft said. But taking advantage of Volta requires the newly released Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 toolset because Volta will not work with the earlier Visual Studio 2005 release, said Alex Daley, group product manager for Microsoft Live Labs, which is helping to develop Volta.

The preview is accessible on Microsoft Live Labs' Web page. With Volta, developers do not have to tailor the application specifically for the Web, said Daley.

'Orcas' for Christmas

BizTalk Visionary — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 06:55:40 GMT

At Teched 2007 in Barcelona, Spain S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division, announced that Visual Studio 2008 and .Net Framework 3.5 will be released at the end of November.

It's the first major update to Visual Studio, Microsoft's flagship integrated development environment (IDE), since 2005. Some of the key features in VS 2008 include:

LINQ. Language Integrated Query (LINQ) is the most-anticipated new feature of Microsoft's next IDE. LINQ will make access to databases and XML faster and more efficient.
Tools for Microsoft Office. Programming for Office 2007 will be enhanced with new tools, including tools that enhance collaboration.
Support for multiple versions of .NET. For those with older versions of the .NET Framework, VS 2008 allows developers to build applications for .NET Framework versions going back to 2.0, without leaving the IDE.

Note that the Java-like language of J# will not be in VS 2008, as Microsoft has decided to drop support for it.

Vista RC1

BizTalk Visionary — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:33:00 GMT

RC1 is now available for download from all the usual places!

Thats the good news...

Bad news is that MS hints that Vista may be delayed in Europe because of all the issues with the EU :-)

Previously posted at blog.Solidsoft.com

Cross-Blogging

BizTalk + WWF Visionary — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 01:57:00 GMT

To achieve cross-blogging the target blog must be Metablog API enabled. Its then a simple case of setting up the target URL in my case it would be: http://www.geekswithblogs.net/ajames/services/metablogapi.aspx and then adding username and password. This is all done in the Ping & Cross-posting section of My Blog in Community Server.

Previously posted at blog.Solidsoft.com

Fun and Games Posting

BizTalk + WWF Visionary — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:08:00 GMT

Having set up the company blog site the problm is do I move my old site across or do I maintain two sites?

We are using community server that seems to allow Cross-posting.In attempt to keep the 'old' blog running I intend to cross-post. This posting is the first attempted. If it works my next post will explain how!

Previously posted at blog.Solidsoft.com

BizTalk 2006 R2

BizTalk + WWF Visionary — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 20:47:00 GMT

More:

BizTalk 2006 R2 - RFID Support
The Microsoft RFID Infrastructure Services in BizTalk 2006 R2 provide device abstraction and manageability to RFID-based solutions. An integrated engine for rich data filtering, enrichment, and transformation allows for sophisticated applications for different automation scenarios. Application developers can also integrate with advance technologies such the as the Business Rules Engine, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Windows Communication Framework to create state-of-the-art business end-to-end systems.

EDI Solution Infosheet
Microsoft is highly committed to the B2B space with a dedicated team focusing on B2B messaging solutions integrated with the BizTalk Architecture. This EDI solution joins a group of solutions delivered with BizTalk 2006 including HIPAA, HL7, SWIFT, RosettaNet, cXML, and xCBL.

The goal is to drive Customer value by:

• Reducing TCO of managing B2B relationships

• Increase agility in establishing new B2B relationships

• Improve the timeliness and effectiveness of B2B decision making

EDI Support

Runtime

• X12 and EDIFACT support

– Encoding rules supported all the way to X12 5020 and EDIFACT-ISO9735 v4.1

– ACK (single and two phase) processing.

– Optional EDI syntax and schematic rule validation including optional duplicate detection.

– Envelope Information available in all Interchange Receive processing options.

– Char set support includes: X12 – Basic, Ex and Unicode; EDIFACT – UNOA to UNOK v& UNOX; and KEDIFACT

• Batching:

– Inbound: Configurable to preserve Interchange XML structure and split as Transaction Set XML

– Outbound: release algorithm based of schedule (hour/day/week); and count (char/doc count)

• Integrated with various Protocol and LOB Adapters.

• HIPAA: Support for v4010A1 transaction sets. Support includes ‘Transaction Set (Claim) splitting’

Design Time

• XML Tools – Schema Editor Extensions for processing TransactionSet and Interchange – Schema & instance validation and instance generation

• 6K+ Schema Templates X12 and EDIFACT

• Upgrade Tools (EDI/HIPAA EDI Adapter artifacts and MapText-to-XSD)

Operations

• Partner Agreement Manager: captures partner contact, runtime/enveloping information.

• Batch Status and ACK Reconciliation and Reporting

• EDI Deployment Wizard

AS2 Support

Features

• Solution is payload agnostic

• s/MIME encoding settings include:

– 8bit/base64 encoding

– RC2/TDES encryption

– SHA1/MD5 signing hash

• Non Repudiation of Receipts support including storing messages/MDN in Native/Wire format.

• Configurable MDN Generation (off incoming message or UI)

• Drummond Interoperability Certification expected

Subsystems delivered as:

• Receive and Send Pipeline components

• NRR Data Store and C# UI

• BT Admin MMC SnapIn

Schema Support

EDIFACT (2602 files)

X12 (3417 files)

– D05n – D02n

– D01B

– D01A

– D00B

– D00A

– D99B

– D99A

– D98B

– D98A

– D97B

– D97A

– D96B

– D96A

– D95A

– D95B

– D94A

– D94B

– D93A

– 5020

– 5010

– 4050

– 4040

– 4030

– 4020

– 4010

– 4010A1 (HIPAA)

– 3070

– 3060

– 3050

– 3040

– 3030

– 3020

– 3010

WCF Adapters

Overview

The BizTalk WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) Adapters align BizTalk with Microsoft’s Web Services strategy by exposing WCF channels to BizTalk processes.

Features

The BizTalk R2 will contain the following WCF Adapters

WsHttp Adapter – provides the WS-* standards support over HTTP transport. WCF-WsHttp adapter provides a transport/protocol stack implementation compatible with other next generation Web Services (platforms that also implement the same Web Services Architecture standards). It provides full access to SOAP security, reliability, and transaction features. This adapter uses the HTTP or HTTPS transport, and messages have a text or Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) encoding

NetTcp Adapter – provides the WS-* standards support over TCP transport. WCF-NetTcp adapter provides efficient communication in a .NET to-.NET environment. It provides full access to SOAP security, reliability and transactions features. This adapter uses the TCP transport and messages have binary encoding.

WCF-NetMsmq Adapter – provides queued messaging using MSMQ transport. WCF-NetMsmq adapter provides queued communication in a .NET-to-.NET environment. It uses MSMQ transport, and messages have a binary encoding

WCF-BasicHttp – compatible with first generation web services. WCF-BasicHttp adapter provides a transport/protocol stack implementation compatible with first-generation Web Services. This adapter uses the HTTP or HTTPS transport, and messages have a text encoding.

WCF-NetNamedPipe – provides cross process messaging using NamedPipes transport. WCF-NetNamedPipe adapter provides efficient cross-process communication in a .NET-to-.NET environment. This adapter provides full access to SOAP reliability and transaction features. The adapter uses the named pipe transport and messages have a binary encoding. This adapter cannot be used in cross-machine communication.

WCF-Custom – provides customization for using WCF components (bindings, behaviors and binding elements). WCF-Custom adapter is used to enable usage of WCF extensibility components in BizTalk Server. The adapter enables complete flexibility of the WCF framework. It allows users to select and configure a WCF binding for the receive location/send port. It allows users to set the endpoint behaviors and security settings.

WCF-CustomIsolated – provides customizations for using WCF components (bindings, behaviors and binding elements) and using the HTTP transport. WCF-CustomIsolated adapter is used to enable usage of WCF extensibility components in BizTalk Server, but out of proc in IIS. The adapter enables complete flexibility of the WCF framework. It allows users to select and configure a WCF binding for the receive location/send port. It allows users to set the endpoint behaviors and security settings. This adapter should only be used by transports than can be hosted in IIS.

Supported Use Cases

The BizTalk R2 WCF Adapters will support the following Use Cases:

· Exposing BizTalk orchestration as a WCF web service

· Exposing BizTalk Content Based Routing application as a WCF web service

· Consuming a WCF service from BizTalk orchestration

· Consuming a WCF service from Content Based Routing application

· Transactional message receive

· Transactional message send

· Using WS-* headers for routing and message processing

· Using custom headers for routing and message processing

· Using custom binding elements

· Using custom bindings

· Using BizTalk dynamic send ports

· Using BizTalk as SOAP intermediary

· Consuming a WCF Service originating from WCF-LOB Adapter (SAP, Siebel, Oracle DB, and Tibco RV)

Consuming a WCF Service originating from the WCF-Adapter Framework (Custom Adapters)

Supported Transports

· HTTP / HTTPS

· SOAP

· MTOM

· TCP

· MSMQ

· Named Pipe

WinFX Adapter Framework

Overview

The framework provides a common basis for building integration adapters that can be consumed by a variety of client applications (BizTalk, Office, .Net, etc) and usage scenarios via WinFX (Microsoft’s next generation messaging framework). The .Net 3.0 Adapter Framework aligns the adapters strategy with Microsoft’s Web Services strategy by exposing integration adapters as WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) channels.

Features

The Adapter Framework consists of the following components:

Adapter Framework Runtime

The run-time consists of services that expose the adapter logic as WCF channels. This layer hides most of the complexity of the channel architecture and lets the adapter developer focus on Line of Business (Siebel, SAP, etc) specifics. These services auto generate much of the channel-level code based on declarative attributes used by the adapter developer. The framework also extends the channel architecture with Metadata components. The framework provides for metadata cache mgmt, connection mgmt etc that adapter developers can leverage to simplify the development process.

Adapter Development Tools

The development tools include Visual Studio extensions and project wizards that automate much of the tedious and busy work required to wire up adapters including the adapter deployment projects.

Adapter Development SDK

The SDK includes project samples, walkthroughs and an Adapter Development Cook Book that goes thru in detail the various aspects of adapter development

WinFX Line of Business (LOB) Adapters

An adapter is fundamentally a module that bridges a client program and an external system, exposing well-defined and standardized interfaces over various programming models to the client program while internally mapping them to proprietary interfaces and protocols supported by the external system.

Application adapters provide an interface to Line-of-Business (LOB) systems like SAP, Siebel, Oracle Financials, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards. Database adapters provide an interface to database systems like Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase and DB2. Transport adapters provide an interface to transport protocols like HTTP and FTP and message-oriented middleware (MOM) like Tibco, Websphere MQ and MSMQ.

The WinFX Adapters deliver application, database and transport adapters by implementing a common Adapter Framework, which in turn is built on top of the Windows Communication Framework (WCF). Technically the WinFX adapters are exposed as WCF transport channels to clients, enabling connectivity, metadata exchange and business data exchange with external systems.

The WinFX adapters make line-of-business applications, databases and messaging platforms visible and interoperable with standard business processes, workflows and .NET applications They promote reusability and “plug ‘n play” across disparate applications. Different programming models can be built on top of the WCF adapter framework giving client programs the choice of programming models based on business needs. ADO.NET, WCF proxy programming and WCF channel (message-level) programming are a few programming models. The adapter framework eases adapter development in terms of providing simplified abstractions that handle common infrastructure and plumbing aspects of adapter building besides providing common runtime services. This enables adapter writers to focus on business logic required to interface with and surface external system functionality. It also empowers partners to develop custom adapters. The choice of WCF is essentially inline with Microsoft’s next generation communication framework optimized for the web services enabled world. It automatically web service enables external systems that are being adapted using WinFX adapters.

Note: All information cleaned from http://connect.microsoft.com/

Security Best Products

BizTalk + WWF Visionary — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 17:27:00 GMT

I will survive:

1. Hardware firewall. For small-office Wi-Fi networking, the most affordable secure firewall is the Linksys Wireless-G WRT54G router (left, about $60 USD street), which also offers four ports for wired Ethernet. If you wish to install third-party Linux firmware, get the WRT54GL ($70). To cover more than a few adjacent rooms, consider the Linksys WRT54GX ($160), which doubles the usual "g" range. Be sure to enable WPA or WPA2, either of which provide strong Wi-Fi security. The WRT54G and WRT54GX are PC Magazine Editors' Choice winners.

2. Security suite. ZoneAlarm Security Suite 6 (left, $60 street) is rated as the best all-in-one software firewall, antivirus program, and antispam filter — now with antispyware scanning and Windows OS kernel protection. It's received Editors' Choice awards from both PC Magazine and CNET. With the ZA Security Suite, there's no longer any reason to purchase separate antivirus, antispam, and software-firewall applications. (Turn off ZA's real-time spyware protection so this can be handled by your antispyware program, shown below.) Note: One magazine, PC World, recently rated Panda Platinum Internet Security 2005 higher than ZA Security Suite.

3. Antispyware program. For individual PC users, the most effective remover of spyware is Webroot Spy Sweeper 4.5 (left, under $35 per year), according to comparative tests published by PC Magazine. The previous version, 4.0, was also top-rated in tests by PC World. (Note: PC Mag has also given an Editors' Choice to Encore PC Tools Spyware Doctor 3.2.) For businesses that are looking for a centrally managed solution for 10 or more seats, Webroot's Spy Sweeper Enterprise ($240 per year for 10 users) has won the latest comparative review by Windows IT Pro and was rated a Best Buy by SC Magazine.

4. Update management. Individual users should opt into the new, free Microsoft Update, an improvement over Windows Update. You should also turn on the auto-download features of any installed apps you may have. For small to medium networks, Microsoft provides the free WSUS (Windows Server Update Services), which automates the downloading of critical patches for Windows, Office, and Exchange. For larger businesses, GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner (left, $375 for 25 users) is a broader product, top-rated by WindowSecurity.com and MCSE World. The latter site also publishes a helpful tutorial on LANguard NSS and Shavlik's HFNetChkPro ($900 for 25 users).

Sorry prices for US!

Developing a solid foundation for delivering transaction services

BizTalk + WWF Visionary — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 20:16:00 GMT

Walking on the moon:

Developing a solid foundation for delivering transaction services

Andy James, Chief Technology Officer, describes Solidsoft’s approach to delivering a common architecture for creating end-to-end business processes – the Solidsoft Solution Foundation

http://www.valuefromitingovt.com/oct05/article_solution.php

How can I be sure?: Improve your web security

BizTalk + WWF Visionary — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 18:54:00 GMT

Quote

Threats and Countermeasures: Improve Your Web Application Security

This guide gives you a solid foundation for designing, building, and configuring secure ASP.NET Web applications. Whether you have existing applications or are building new ones, this guide is for you.

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