WCF: Hosting Service with multiple end points

In continuation of previous post regarding WCF, here goes another. In this post I will do step step explanation for hosting service using config file (remember this is the beauty of WCF, we don’t need to recompile to add multiple endpoints).

The assumtion is readers have already implemented the service contract. I will use a dummy class named IService for my explanation

1. Create a instance of ServiceHost. 
   1. ServiceHost servicehost = new ServiceHost(typeof(Examples.ServiceImplementation));
2. Use the Open to start listening.
   1. servicehost.Open();
3. Now put the following in the App.Config file

Let me explain each of the element

• The host element declares the base address for the endpoint. In this case its declaring two base address the http address and another one is the tcp address. The host address is used by the ServiceHost to listen on the respective port and address.

• There are three endpoints

Each endpoint basically is collection of address, contract and binding. Here in the above case the address is not specified as we have already sepcified in the base address. The contract is Examples.IService and the binding is HTTP.

• The second endpoint

is the TCP endpoint for the same service. Smilar to the previous one this definess the endpoint as collection of Examples.IService as contract and binding as TCP and address is not mentioned and taken from the base address.

• The last endpoint

is used by the client to generate the meta information about the Service. This  is standard and ideally should be there for each service.I hope the above helps in understanding this beautiful technology.

The author has 10+ years experience with Enterprise Poduct Development. He is also the Co-Founder of PCVITA. He have expertise in Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Messaging Platform Migration, Email Archiving.

Understanding WCF

Windows Communication Foundation(WCF) that is part of .NET Framework 3.0 is in the line of Microsoft(MS) classic work of abstraction. MS have been innovator in providing abstraction over various technologies from many years. In the same tradition I do believe WCF is another achievement. Undoubtedly they understand the difficulties in any technologies being faced by technology implementors and then they use their experience to nake the technology simple by intoroducing the layer of abstraction.

Let me talk about WCf in particular now

1. It was always challenge from many years to talk to remote objects.
2. Many technologies have come and gone or become extinct as dinosors.
3. To name a few will be CORBA or DCOM.
4. But there was always problem with the technology itself and its implementation.
5. Web Service was the most pouplar of all the technology and it still one of the best for such communication.
6. The problem comes when we want to expose a remote object interface with multiple protocol interface such as HTTP, TCP etc.
7. The problem with existing technology is that we have create multiple interface for the remote object i.e. each specific to each protocol.
8. This really become a stumbling block while deciding on the protocol to be used as creating multiple interface results in maintainence overhead.
9. So if we want a complete interoperable solution we need a web service based interface but if its standalone system the same Web Service interface becomes a performance bottleneck.
10. WCF really becomes a great help for such scenario. It allows developer to create interface irrespective of the protocol to use.
11. Developer can then configure the so called end points to decide on which protoocl to used for communication.
12. The developer will create the interface and implement it. It will then expose the interface using multiple end points i.e. HTTP, TCP, Named Pipes.
13. The client using the interface then can use the appropriate end point based their need.
14. WCf as infrastructure takes care all overheads related to messaging etc.

Calling Web Service using XMLHTTP Object

Follow the steps to invoke a webservice using a XMLHTTP object in javascript

Step  1: Create a soap envelope for the requested method.

 var envelope = <The above string>;

Step 2: Create Instance of XMLHTTP Object

Now in the Javascript method create an instance of the XMLHTTP object

 

 Step 3: Prepare the Webservice Request

 As shown above the url points the target webservice which is Service.asmx file and named of the method is HelloWorld. The syntax to be used

http://<Host Name>/<Virtual Directory>/<Webservice>/Method Name

in the next line we are initiating a POST request for the webservice url.

Step 4: Handling the Callback

Here when the response from the web service returns it just display the return string in alert box.

Step 5: Sending the  Request

 

As shown above, the send message is send with the envelope  for the Web Method prepare in the Step 1.

Step 6: Executing the Web Service

Refer to this link for more  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/893659

Hello World using Apollo/Adobe AIR

Its been days that I was trying to write a simple app using AIR, the buzz word these days, so downloaded the following

1. Adobe AIR SDK.
2. Adobe AIR SDK documentation.

Extract these above stuff after downloading. The documentation is quite good for a HTML /Javascript developer like me. Here I write a Hello World html file using AIR framework.

There are three things to be done

1. Application XML file.
2. HTML File.
3. Executing the application.

Application XML File

1. Create a XML file named <AppName>-app.xml, here appname can be HelloAIR.
2. The structure of XML is

The text of rootContent element represents the name of the html file that is associated with the xml.

HTML File

The following the html code

The appLoad is invoked when the page is loaded. As shown above we are including the standard AIRAliases.js file in the HTML file, so AIR runtime will be initialized. If its initialized the Air.Trace statement is used to print on AIR console “Hello Air”. Then XMLHTTP request is made for getting request.txt file and dumping the content of that file onto the AIR console.

Executing the Application

When the AIR sdk is extracted there are two programs that come

1. ADL: To execute the AIR application
2. ADT: to package the AIR application

Use the adl command to execute the AIR application.

The ADL command

When you execute the command with XML as parameter then the following is displayed

As shown above the Hello.AIR is the Air.Trace output and the white console displays thee content of the request.txt file.

Windows Form Life Cycle

A link to Windows Form Life Cycle

http://codebetter.com/blogs/paul.laudeman/archive/2005/04/17/Windows-Forms-_2D00_-Basic-events-in-the-Lifecycle-of-Forms-and-Controls.aspx

Morphological Image Processing

Morphological Image Processing.

Leave approval workflow using CloudCodes gFlow

Continuing from previous post, today we will show how easy is to configure typical leave approval using CloudCodes gFlow.

1. Click on Admin/Setup section from the top menu.
2. Click on Forms/Flows
3. Click on Add Flow
4. Provide the basic information about the approval
5. Provide approval route information
6. Configure form
7. Define approval chain

Basic Information for Approval

The basic information approval includes

1. Title of the approval workflow i.e. “Leave Approval Form” in this scenario.
2. Description i.e. “Leave approval form request”.
3. Organisation Unit(OU)to whom the form have to be made visible. This provides a flexibility to create leave form for each OU or create different approval chain for different OU.
4. Form category to which the approval form will belong.
5. If the form is set to enabled then it is displayed in the list of forms else it is store in the archive. We do maintain versioning of forms.

Approval Route Information

The approval route information includes

1. Define the approval category/group. For e.g. if the leave approval has multiple phases or stage i.e. Internal Team, Human Resource, Finance then we can create 3 approval group and configure approver for each group.
2. The approval across group can work in a sequential manner or in parallel depending upon the Approval Mode. For e.g. if it set to sequential then Internal Team will go for approval first and once all approvers are done then only it goes to next group.
3. The approver type define whether the approvers can be pre-define or user define. In case of pre-define the administrator while creating the form can define the approval chain. In case of user define the end user can define the approval chain.
4. Approver File Upload can be used to configure whether approver can upload the file or not.
5. Approver process if flow is Resubmitted is configure to ensure how cancel approval can be sent for approval again. If it set to “Start from begining”  then re-submitting for approval will have all approvers irrespective of whether they have approved previously and if it set to “Continue where left off” then re-submitting for approval will only have the approvers who have rejected and pending for previously.

Configure Form

Configuring form is creating the approval form. The form can be categorized into multiple sections. Each section have their own fields relevant for approval. The section can configured to display in

• One column layout
• Two column layout

Configure the field as required by the approval form. Each field can be define to store particular type of data such as

• Text/String
• Date

We can also define list of values to be displayed in combo box. The type of field is “Select List” for such list of values.

Define Approval Chain

Configure the approval chain for the leave approval. For e.g the approval chain is

1. On submit, the manager of the user should approved it.
2. After manager, the HR should approved it as it need to check the leaves details.
3. The HOD can be marked as FYI.

Once its save the user can see their requests within the form category specified i.e. HR in this case.

The use clicks on Start for the Leave  approval and provide information and submit for approval.

Approval workflow on Google Apps without the need of IT team

CloudCodes gFlow provides business users of SMB customers for Google Apps to automate their approval workflow without the continuos need of IT team. The following are the dependency for the IT team

• Install the gFlow from Google Marketplace.
• Assign the business user as administrator for gFlow.

Once gFlow is installed on the Google Apps domain, the business user can do the one setup for the following

• Roles
• Department
• Users
• Approval Categories

Once the setup of above is done, the business user can start converting paper based approval form on gFlow. Isn’t that simple?

If a new user needs to have access to gFlow then the user can request for access by clicking on gFlow from the More link. The administrator(business user not IT admin) receives an email notification and can add the user in a couple of minutes.

The objective of gFlow is to allow the business user to bring efficiency in their approval process and not get involved in IT administration of the product along with IT team which indirectly increases the risk to increase their budget.

CloudCodes is very much committed to ensure gFlow is able to meet the various complex need of Approval process within a customer organization. CloudCodes will keep on adding those features to meet such complex requirement.

 

CloudCodes SecureCloud+: Advanced Single Sign On(SSO) for Google Apps

CloudCodes SecureCloud+ is another solution by CloudCodes Software to overcome the IT issues related to Google Apps deployment for enterprise.

SecureCloud+ provides enterprise to implement Single Sign On(SSO) with Google Apps. It provides great control on how user within enterprise uses Google Apps. SecureCloud+ is deployed on Google App Engine.

Custom Login  Page

SecureCloud+ allows enterprise to customize login page. The login page can be changed to match the brand guidelines of the enterprise.

 

Redirect to Selected Google Site

SecureCloud+ allows you to forced the user to redirect to particular Google Site page after successful login. This is useful in case user should be forced to redirect to Corporate Portal on Google Apps.

IP Restriction

SecureCloud+ allows Google Apps administrator to restrict users to access their Google Apps enterprise account from a particular set of IP address. SecureCloud+ will not allow to login the user from any other IP address apart from the assigned one. It also takes care of the roaming user by assigning them as special user and allow them to access from any IP address.

 

Reports

SecureCloud+ provides auditing report in the form Google Spreadsheet. It provides the following information

a. UserName

b. Event (Login Success/Login Failure/Change Password)

c. IP Address

d. Time

e. Browser

Contact support@cloudcodes.com for more details.

 

 

Active Directory Google Apps Password Sync

CloudCodes Software provider of Google platform based product provides password synchronization tool for Active Directory and Google Apps.

The synchronization tool is simple and easy to use. Once the product is installed on the primary domain control and configured with Google Apps, any password changes by user on the AD is synchronized with Google Apps.  The product has the following system/technical requirements

1. Windows Server 2003/2008

2. .NET Framework 3.5

Once the product is installed and configured it need to go through a restart process. After the restart the AD the tool is installed within the AD.

The tool send the password to Google Apps in an encrypted manner. The password is encrypted before updating to Google Apps.

Read More

 

Links for Skype Crash

A link provided by Skype

Skype Support

https://support.skype.com/en-us/faq/FA10382/Why-does-Skype-crash-on-my-computer

Forum

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=64026

Skype Crash Globally

Everyone is blaming Microsoft acquisation for the global crash of Skype crash today. But I found this unfair. Its just 2 weeks old news and I believe nothing have changed in Skype to have such impact.

Though it affected our support through our website www.pcvita.com

A news article on the same topic

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2074186/skype-suffers-disastrous-crash-users-question-microsoft-buyout

Sharepoint Migration: Migrate the content to Microsoft Sharepoint

PCVITA Express Migrator for Sharepoint is next generation migration product for Sharepoint Server as part of Sharepoint Migration. It equally fits into Migration 2.0 generation of migration products. The products supports migration of file system content such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint, Adobe Acrobat PDF and various other types of document to Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2010 as part of Sharepoint Migration.

With the high adoption rate of Microsoft Sharepoint Server among enterprises which are small, medium and large in size. It is becoming very difficult for System Administrator to quickly migrate the existing organisation common internal documents related to finance, administartion ,HR, Research and Development and other related documents to quickly migrate them to Microsoft Sharepoint Server.

PCVITA Express Migrator For Sharepoint acts as a smart bridge which is easy to use, effective and efficient to move their existing file system content to Sharepoint as part of Sharepoint Migration.

PCVITA Express Migrator for Sharepoint also supports migrating content which is residing in Exchange Server  Public folder to Sharepoint as part of sharepoint migration strategy. Many organisation are using Public Folder to keep their common document and share across the organisation. These can now be easily migrated to Sharepoint as part of the Sharepoint Migration. This is great in scenario where the Sharepoint Administrator doesn’t need two products to perform the Sharepoint Migration.

PCVITA Express Migrator for Sharepoint comes with the following features

• Support for adding files and folders.
• Support for associating meta information with the files.
• Select the destination document library on target sharepoint server.
• Create a new document library.
• Apply filters on the content getting migrated.
• Report on the migration.

Check more at http://www.pcvita.com/file-system-to-sharepoint.html

Monitor Website 24X7 FREE

PCVITA Page Monitor empowers webmaster and overcome the concern related to website monitoring. The 24X7 FREE monitoring services monitor the configure web pages on a periodic basis. It checks for the following

1. Unavailability of website page.
2. HTTP 404 Error code.
3. Script attack on website page.
4. Page getting slower based on response time.

PCVITA Page Monitors provides the webmaster the ability to configure website page at granular level with the following

1. Website Page.
2. Monitoring Frequency.
3. Expected Response Time.
4. Alerts Notification.
5. Priority of the Page.

The granularity allows the webmaster to segregate the pages for monitoring based various parameters. Particularly the alert notifications. This allows the webmaster to ensure to get particular set of notifications instead of getting loads of notifications.

The notification that are sent as part of alerts are very specific and have very specific information such as what has changed in case content changes being monitored for the page. This allows the webmaster to verify what changes have been applied on the pages and it is same that was planned.

The dashboard is the USP of PCVITA Page Monitor. It is rich and provides various aspects of the website monitoring life cycle. The following things are displayed on the dashboard

1. Daily Monitoring Status of Website Pages.
2. Response Time for the configured pages.
3. Weekly Monitoring Status.

This provides the webmaster with a unique way of getting to know how are the website pages doing without the need to generate the reports. PCITA Page Monitor does have the facility to generate the reports.

Email Archiving for Microsoft Outlook

Email Archiving is becoming an alternative for Email Backup solution. From the days where we would regularly take backup of the emails residing in the Micorosft Outlook PST file and storing it onto a different drive. And when we need them then we used to load from the cold storage. Even though it serve the primary purpose of the offloading the old emails and reducing the size of the PST file. It may not be the right solution.

Email Archiving is today’s need and user should understand why this is important for them. Archiving will allow the email content within the PST to be stored on a separate repository say a database but also at the same time ensure the primary objective of reducing of PST file is also served.

I always used the term “Online Backup” for the layman users. The backup which doesn’t need the conventional way of restoring the data from a different storage but can be accessed anytime by the user without the intervention of IT administrator. This is where it really remove the dependency for the user.

Typically an email archiving solution will allow users to configure mailbox residing in the Microsoft Outlook PST file to different data repository. While doing so it also provides various flexibility which empowered users for archiving emails such as setting up the location for archiving, archiving frequency and various filters to choose what to archive and what to archive and what not to archive.

Apart from the basic feature, the power of email archiving solutions comes with the power of search. The search is the important aspect of any email archiving solution. Search can be categorized by

• Search Within Content
• Search Within Attachments
• Search Based on Dates
• Search Based on Folders
  • Body of the Email Message.
  • Subject of the Message.
  • Sender Email Address
  • Receiver Email Address

Search Within Content

Any email archiving solution should without any failure SHOULD provide search within content of the email. This include

User SHOULD be able to perform free text based search. The email archiving solution should provide the results based on matching terms. User are used to Google Search so providing such search will only increase the usability of the product.

Search Within Attachments

One of the most important feature is providing free text based search within the contents of the attachments including the file name. Not only the email should come in result due to presence of the search words within the attachments but also the email archiving product should provide proper highlighting feature to allow user to understand which attachment have the search words. This is really a chaos situation where an email is part of search result but the product doesn’t highlight the attachment which has those relevant words.

Search Based on Dates

Providing search based on dates allow user to narrow down the search on the huge email archiving store. This is really a good feature to have for an email archiving solution provider.

Search Based on Folders

This may not be a necessary feature but to provide an ability to include or exclude folders will help user narrow down the search.