Adrian Spear

I am Iron Man!

AdrianSpear — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:53:00 GMT

I am in Nirvana! Two of my favourite things in the world combined into one.... Black Sabbath and Comic Book Movies.
Iron Man is slated for a May 2008 release - check it out here.

Visual Studio 2008 and .Net 3.5 Beta 2 Released Today

AdrianSpear — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:40:00 GMT

[via Scott Guthrie]
The next beta is here! Fuller details from Scott Guthrie's blog here.

VSTS Rosario CTP Release

AdrianSpear — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:42:00 GMT

Brian Harry of the VSTS Team at Microsoft has announced a milestone for the next version of Team Foundation Server CodeName 'Rosario' which will be ultimately released following the next version of Visual Studio CodeName 'Orcas'. The milestone is marked by a CTP release: See the post here

This blog now available on Feedburner

AdrianSpear — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:50:00 GMT

http://feeds.feedburner.com/AdrianSpear

Load Testing Sharepoint 2007

AdrianSpear — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:03:00 GMT

Apologies to all for my extended periods of absence over the last several months but hopefully I will have more opportunity to blog a little more regularly from now on!

To get back in the flow I thought I would flag up some interesting blogs on using Visual Studio Team System load testing features and also how to apply this to load testing your Sharepoint 2007 since I've been getting more and more involved with using Visual Studio Team System of late.

Performance Testing Guidance Project

Team System testing videos available

Posts by Ed Glas:

Sharepoint Load Tests

A pattern for successful load testing- Component Load Testing

Performance testing guidance

Vista Gadget Visual Studio 2005 Template for C# and VB.Net

AdrianSpear — Fri, 11 May 2007 06:20:00 GMT

Get installable project templates for creating Vista Gadgets in C# and VB.Net here.

HSDPA Mobile Handset for Mobile Broadband in Vista

AdrianSpear — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:11:00 GMT

I have bought a Samsung SHG-Z560 HSDPA handset on a web n walk contract from T-Mobile to get broadband access to my laptop via my mobile handset.

This seemed a more logical choice than a data card since I have devices with PCMCIA and Express card form factors using varying MS OS's (namely XP and Vista).

For Vista I simply plugged in the handset via the supplied usb and allowed it to download and install the required drivers from the web.

I then followed these instructions to create the modem connection item and I am very happy to report it rocks and I didn't have to install any dodgy Samsung PCStudio apps etc.

I would point out though that I am using this phone purely as a modem so syncing contacts etc is not required hence no need for PCStudio ;0)

Windows Mobile Device Center Bluetooth Sync to Windows Mobile 5

AdrianSpear — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:05:00 GMT

I recently bought a Dell XPS M1210 (fab laptop btw) and have been trying to get the damn thing to sync with my iPAQ hw6915 via bluetooth.

The recurring issue was that even after configuring WMDC to accept bluetooth connections my iPaq could not find the necessary service to create the bluetooth sync.

I found the answer here:

Follow the instructions and reboot to get the serial port visible and then just use the WM5 wizard to create a new bluetooth activesync connection and you're away!

Use .Net Assemblies in your Vista Sidebar Gadgets

AdrianSpear — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 07:15:00 GMT

I have been researching developing Sidebar gadgets for Windows Vista recently and came across this great article.

Basically, it allows you to use a .Net Interop Component to consume .Net assemblies directly within the scripting files for your gadget.

This basically unlocks the full potential of .Net within the sidebar. Kudos, Acoustic!

To setup SSL on multiple Sharepoint 2007 web applications using host headers under IIS 6.0

AdrianSpear — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 03:44:00 GMT

I frequently require to setup several web applications on my development box and for convenience almost without fail will use host headers to distinguish between them rather than configure and maintain multiple IPs.

This approach serves well until secure http is required and I need to assign SSL certificates to my web applications.

If you have ever tried this you will know that the IIS Manager does not have anywhere to allow you to specify a host header when configuring the SSL for the web application.

The solution I use goes as follows:

1) Install the IIS Resource Kit for IIS 6.0 - it comes packaged with a selfssl utility to generate self-signed certificates. (Of course, feel free to generate them with Perl scripts or any other method since they are not from trusted sources they're only useful for dev and testing purposes anyways.)

2) Create/extend the required web applications using the Administration interface of MOSS (ensuring to select 'Use SSL').

3) Use the selfssl utility to generate and assign a certificate to the first of your web applications as follows:

selfssl /N:CN=*.mydomain.com /K:1024 /V:3650 /S:site id of your first site from IIS /P:443

This will generate a 3650 day certificate with a 1024 bit key and assign it to the web application with the site id supplied.

4) Use IIS Manager to assign the same certificate to the other web applications.

5) If you restart IIS at this point only 1 of your sites will actually start - you still need to manually configure the secure bindings for the remaining sites:

cscript.exe C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs set /w3svc/site id/SecureBindings ":443:host header"

This will set the secure bindings for the site identified on the supplied host header.

6) If you wish you can also now configure the web applications in IIS Manager to require SSL.

7) iisreset and you're done....

Unit Testing Custom NAnt Tasks - Mocking Project object

AdrianSpear — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 19:55:00 GMT

Just a quickie I hope might be of interest to some and save you a little time.

I recently had cause to write some new custom NAnt tasks for a Cruise Control build I have running. Natch, I wanted to develop the tasks using TDD.

I then found I had need to use the Project object to log some info during the task and following a sample I found on the web duly created:

Project.Log(Level.Error, e.Message);

I figured Project was a static so used TypeMock's MockAll method and ran the test - it failed == object reference not set!

Turns out looking at the NAnt Element object in Reflector that Project is a property - and a public virtual one at that.

Solution == use TypeMock to mock Project, set expectations and assign the object to my task instance - voila!

Mock mockProject = MockManager.Mock(typeof (Project), Constructor.Mocked);

mockProject.ExpectCall("Log").Args(Check.IsEqual(Level.Error), Check.IsEqual("Foo Test Exception"));

Project mockProjectInstance = new Project(new XmlDocument(), Level.None, 0);

this.versionInfoCreator.Project = mockProjectInstance;

Veni, vidi, Vista!

AdrianSpear — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 00:42:00 GMT

Vista has finally been released to manufacturing yesterday so Subscribers should be getting our grubby mitts on it sometime before the end of the month with any luck.

Microsoft Windows Vista

1 + 1 = 3;

AdrianSpear — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 00:38:00 GMT

I have been completely out of the blog for a while now but the reason is that my wife and I have just spawned our first attempt for vicarious global domination in the form of Imogen Grace, our new arrival.

She was born on 27 October 2006 at 0659 GMT weighing 9lb 13oz (most women I know have winced at this point).

We're all doing really well and loving being new parents.

Sharepoint Install Failed - unable to locate .... hosts file

AdrianSpear — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:54:00 GMT

I have seen another error which cropped up during my install/uninstalls and occurred after I installed and created site collections using the Configuration Wizard to create the web sites.

When I uninstalled MOSS it appears that the uninstall procedure also (*very helpfully!*) removed my hosts file from my server 2003 IIS 6 box. When I attempted to re-install MOSS the installation phase failed because the install was unable to locate my hosts file. I missed it at first and attempted to re-install to the same effect.

I created a new hosts file and it installed just fine next time around (natch!)

Moral :: Even if you think you've seen the error screen before - read it again anyways!

Office Sharepoint Server 2007 :: Installation Error and Solution

AdrianSpear — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 08:40:00 GMT

I have been installing/uninstalling and creating/deleting web applications galore the last few days and eventually the MOSS installation blew up on me. Re-installing MOSS after an uninstall the installer failed with error : The directory name was invalid. Further inspection of the install log revealed that the error occurred attempting to perform an iisreset. I uninstalled IIS and reinstalled it - reinstalled Asp.Net 2.0 (aspnet_regiis /i) and then removed/reinstalled WWF before re-running the MOSS installer - Bob's your uncle and Robert's your mother's brother - the installer succeeded. Hopefully you won't see the error but if you do - this is what fixed it for me!