Software-Smith's Commerce Server & SharePoint Blog

MOS 2010 Study Guide for Microsoft Office SharePoint

2011-12-05T02:54:00.000-08:00

I was invited to take the Beta version of the user exam for SharePoint, officially called Microsoft Office Specialist, SharePoint 2010. This was the first time that I have taken a Microsoft Office Specialist exam, though I have taken around 50 Microsoft Certified Professional Exams. But they are quite different, basically it is a simulation of SharePoint and one is assigned many different tasks to perform. Great fun.

After getting the certification I am teaching the SharePoint user interface to two students who would also like to write the exam. Since I had received it as part of a review program, I decided to use Geoff Evelyn’s MOS 2010 Study Guide for Microsoft® Office SharePoint® from O’Reilly. The books is a good match to the exam objectives, I did not spot an exam objective that is not covered here. The intended audience would be someone who has been working with SharePoint for a while, and wants to write the exam. The book does not work as well outside the intended audience, for example, a SharePoint beginner. The exercises do not work just doing them in order, as an instructor I had to fill in the gaps and do some preliminary work to get the exercises to work. Another example, page 24 mentions content types but they are not explained until page 75, where they are explained very well. A step in the direction of giving more SharePoint background is the only companion download to the book, a 13 page Appendix: Overview of SharePoint 2010.

Commerce Server Inventory System Part 5

2011-11-30T05:08:00.000-08:00

Building the Inventory Catalog

Creating the Inventory Catalog

The process of creating the inventory catalog is straightforward and relies on the same tools used to create product catalogs. Before you create the inventory catalog, however, take the time to determine if your inventory needs require any changes to the inventory schema. Is there additional information that you’d like to store along with your inventory data that the default schema doesn’t support? For instance, would you like to store information about the inventory’s location in the warehouse? Maybe, in addition to naming your inventory catalogs, you want to store the unique identifiers used by your partners to help identify the catalogs. There are many difference scenarios that may justify changing the inventory and adding additional metadata to the inventory schema. Make sure to take the time to think these scenarios through before you begin to extend the inventory schema, although it is possible to add additional metadata to the schema at a later time.

Extending the Inventory Metadata

Extending the inventory schema is no different from extending the catalog or property schemas. The first step is to define a property definition to define the data you want to store along with your inventory data. Once the property definition has been defined, you can then add the new definition to either the inventory catalog metadata, thereby extending the descriptive data related to the inventory catalog, or to the inventory SKU metadata, thereby extending the descriptive data related to inventory SKUs.

The golf pro shop requires that our inventory catalog has an inventory unique identifier associated with the inventory catalog. This unique identifier is passed along with exports to trading partners, so that the trading partners know which inventory catalog they received. Additionally, all SKUs must have a warehouse location number that relates to the SKUs location in the warehouse. To accomplish this, you must first create two new property definitions: Inventory Catalog Id, and Warehouse Location. These two property definitions should have the following characteristics:

Property	Inventory Catalog Id	Warehouse Location
Property Name	InventoryCatalogId	WarehouseLocation
Display Name	Inventory Catalog Id	Warehouse Location
Data Type	Text	Text
Multilingual	False	False
Display On Site	False	False
Specification Searchable	False	False
Free Text Searchable	False	False
Minimum Length	0	0
Maximum Length	128	128
Assign To All Product Types	False	False
Store For Data Analysis	False	False
Display In Products List	False	False
Is Required	True	True
Default Value
Display as Base Property	True	True

Table 5-2

When defining property definitions for the inventory catalog and inventory SKU metadata, make sure you do not select the Multilingual property. If the Multilingual property is set to True then the property definition will not be available for selection within the inventory catalog and inventory SKU metadata. This is because the inventory catalog and SKUs have no concept of multilingual values, and are specifically excluded.

Now that the two property definitions have been defined, you must associate each of them as metadata to the appropriate entity. To assign the Inventory Catalog Id to the Inventory Catalog Metadata, you can use the Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager.

1. Click Start > All Programs > Microsoft Commerce Server > Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager.
2. Under the Task pane, click Edit Inventory Catalog Metadata. This will open the Edit Inventory Catalog Metadata screen.
3. Select “Inventory Catalog Id” from the Available Properties list, and click the Add button. This will assign the property to the assigned properties list (see Figure 4-5).

Figure 4-5

4. Click the Save and Close button to finish.
The process for extending the inventory SKU metadata to include the Warehouse Location is similar to extending the inventory catalog metadata, except that you click the Edit Inventory SKU Metadata from the task pane and then add the Warehouse Location to the Assigned Properties list box (see Figure 4-6).

Figure 4-6

Now that the inventory catalog schema has been extended, you can create your inventory catalog. Since the two property definitions were created with the Display as Base Property set to True, these property definitions will display as base properties for the inventory catalog and the inventory SKU screens rather than custom properties. Creating the inventory catalog will be in our next blog post in this series.

Based on my book on Commerce Server. Part 6 to follow soon. Part 1.

Book Review: Pro SharePoint 2010 Search

2011-06-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

Just read the book Pro SharePoint 2010 Search yesterday, looking for gaps in my understand of search. It is a good coverage of SharePoint Search, it does not cover FAST Search. That the authors had real life experience was obvious from the coverage also of third party, I found this part especially interesting. Also enjoyed the brief discussion of the search algorithm. The discussion on changing the ranking model was good, and some of the issues with changing the user's language settings were clearly explained. I would recommend this book. I received it as part of a review program.

Commerce Server Inventory System Part 4

2011-06-13T01:57:00.000-07:00

Inventory Site Resources

In addition to metadata stored about the Inventory System, Commerce Server also has inventory settings stored as site resources. Site resources are entities that provide functionality to a specific Commerce Server site. These settings can be viewed and modified through the Commerce Server Manager (see Figure 4-3). Inventory site resources override properties defined within the Inventory System metadata.

The inventory site resources include the following:

· Display Backordered Items. This resource is used to indicate whether or not backordered SKUs are displayed on the Web site. If the value is -1 (True), then backordered SKUs are displayed on the Web site, whereas a value of 0 (False) indicates that backordered SKUs are not displayed on the Web site.

· Display Out of Stock Items. This resource is used to indicate whether or not out-of-stock SKUs are displayed on the Web site. If the value is -1 (True), then out-of-stock SKUs are displayed on the Web site, whereas a value of 0 (False) indicates that out-of-stock SKUs are not displayed on the Web site.

· Display Preordered Items. This resource is used to indicate whether or not pre-ordered SKUs are displayed on the Web site. If the value is -1 (True), then pre-ordered SKUs are displayed on the Web site, whereas a value of 0 (False) indicates that pre-ordered SKUs are not displayed on the Web site.

· Ignore missing Skus. This resource is used to indicate whether products that are missing SKUs are treated as in stock or out-of-stock. A product or product variant may be missing a SKU if the inventory metadata has not yet been defined for the product or product variant. If the value is -1 (True), then products or product variants missing SKUs are treated as in stock, whereas a value of 0 (False) indicates that products or product variants missing SKUs are treated as out-of-stock.

· Inventory Database. This resource is used to store the inventory database connection string. This connection string must be unique across all Commerce Server sites.

· Record Inventory Deltas. This resource is used to indicate whether or not to record quantity decrements and increments when buyers purchase items or return items on the Web site. If the value is -1 (True), then increments and decrements are recorded, whereas a value of 0 (False) indicates increments and decrements are not recorded.

· Stock Handling. This resource is used to indicate whether or not there is special handling associated to SKUs. Special handling includes back-orders and pre-orders. A value of 0 (False) indicates that there is no special handling, and that SKUs cannot be back-ordered or pre-ordered. A value of 1 (True) indicates that there is special handling, and that SKUs can be back-ordered and pre-ordered. This setting overrides the Backorderable and Preorderable metadata settings associated with the Inventory System.

· Use stockout threshold for floor. This resource is used to indicate whether to use a global value for the stockout threshold or to identify the stockout threshold individually for each SKU. A value of 0 (False) indicates that the stockout threshold for all SKUs is overridden to be 0. A value of -1 (True) indicates that the stockout threshold defined for the SKU (i.e. the floor value) is used.

Figure 4-3

Figure 4-3 shows the Inventory System site resources that are modified through the Commerce Server Manager.

Determining the condition of the SKU is an important concept to understand. The condition of a SKU could be out-of-stock, in stock, back-ordered, or pre-ordered. Settings from both the Inventory System metadata, as well as Inventory Site Resources, are used in determining the condition of a SKU. This model is depicted in Figure 4-4.

Figure 4-4

The first aspect that is evaluated is whether or not the product catalog is mapped to an inventory catalog. If not, then the site resource setting for “Ignore missing Skus” is evaluated to see how the lack of an inventory catalog should be handled. If the value is false, then the SKU is considered to be in stock. If the value is true, then the SKU is considered to be out-of-stock. If the product catalog is mapped to an inventory catalog, then the “Stock Handling” resource setting is evaluated to see if special handling rules are applied.

If the “Stock Handling” value is false, then the SKU “Status” property is evaluated. If the status is disabled, then the SKU is considered out-of-stock. If the status is ignored, then the SKU is considered in stock. If the status is enabled, then the onhand quantity is compared to the effective stockout threshold. If the onhand quantity is greater than the effective stockout threshold, the SKU is considered in stock. If the onhand quantity is less than or equal to the effective stockout threshold, the SKU is considered out-of-stock.

If the “Stock Handling” resource setting is true, then the process is the same for the disabled and ignored statuses. If the status is enabled, then the special handling rules are evaluated. If the onhand quantity is greater than the effective stockout threshold, then the SKU is considered in stock. If the SKU is pre-orderable and the onhand quantity is greater than the effective stockout threshold and the pre-order limit, then the SKU is considered pre-orderable. If the SKU is back-ordered and the onhand quantity is greater than the effective stockout threshold, the pre-order limit, and the back-order limit, then the SKU is considered back-order. Otherwise, the SKU is considered out-of-stock.

This example serves as an excellent example of how the Inventory System metadata and site resources work together to manage inventory in Commerce Server. The various settings and configurations allow for a great deal of flexibility and control over how the Commerce Server inventory processes operate.

Based on my book on Commerce Server. Part 5 is here. Part 1.

Using Today in a SharePoint calculated column

2011-06-13T01:19:00.000-07:00

Sometimes one can be too tricky for ones own good. Was recently talking about the workaround to name a column Today, then create a calculated column using Today, and then to delete the placeholder column. Works like a treat, but of course the Calculated column does not automatically update the calculated column unless the item changes. Now we know why they hid this feature. Of course one could make a timer job....With thanks to Vaidotas.

Developer Dashboard

2011-06-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

$cs=[Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService]::ContentService
$dds=$cs.DeveloperDashboardSettings
$dds.DisplayLevel=[Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPDeveloperDashboardLevel]::On
$dds.Update()

Links for dialog

2011-06-09T01:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.learningsharepoint.com/2010/09/05/passing-parameters-to-the-dialog-sharepoint-2010-client-object-model/

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jfrost/archive/2009/11/08/how-to-display-a-sharepoint-dialog-from-ribbon-button-and-get-selected-item-context.aspx

Recipe: IIS 7.0 Compression for SharePoint 2010

2011-05-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

%Windir%\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config around line 445

cd \windows\system32\inetsrv

APPCMD.EXE set config –section:httpCompression /dynamicCompressionDisableCpuUsage:75

APPCMD.EXE set config –section:httpCompression /dynamicCompressionEnableCpuUsage:20

APPCMD.EXE set config –section:urlCompression /dynamicCompressionBeforeCache:true

XML rendered in blog with help of http://centricle.com/tools/html-entities/

2011-05-24T03:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.mctsummit.eu/Sessions.aspx?ID=8

See you there! I will be presenting one SharePoint Deep Dive for ITPros and one for Developers.

Writing programmatically to the web.config file

2011-04-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

SharePoint 2010 has a change that requires the following PowerShell:

$cs = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService]::ContentService

$cs.RemoteAdministratorAccessDenied = $false

$cs.Update()

OnTaskCreated not firing in loop

2011-04-25T07:34:00.001-07:00

This bug with OnTaskCreated still exists

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointworkflow/thread/2273b142-46d8-49a0-bd33-1f953d84b2c8

Errata MOC 10175 SharePoint Dev

2011-04-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

1. Lab 13 is gets message office not activated. Workaround to copy theme file from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Document Themes 14 or run ospprearm from Office 2010 directory

2. Page 4-46 Lab 4, should delete the where clause.

3. Careful with timing in lab 2 page 2-53, allow the timer job time to run at each step, otherwise you will get errors.

4.Page 5-39 Lab 5, unfortunately has access denied problems changing the web config file, Lab works as stated, as long as the students do not look in the web config file to see if it really changed! Fix is this Powershell:

$cs = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService]::ContentService

$cs.RemoteAdministratorAccessDenied = $false

$cs.Update()

5. Page 5-41 needs to add the references as well as just the using statements, but the students should be able to work that out.

6. Page 10-34 needs also a test for .jpeg files to make it harmonize with the page 10-32 test.

7. Page 10-34 needs to add to create a new page called training.

8. Page 12-24 has the students typing in unneccessary xml to link to a taxonomyreporter page that does not exist.

9. Page 1-28 Best practice would have been to store value of CatchAccessDeniedException and set it back afterward to its original value, but not to false again at the end of the try code.

10. The manuals have bad spacing in Lab 6, use the lab instructions at the back of the manual instead.

11. The manuals also have wrong spacing in Lab 2 PowerShell commands.

12. Solution file for Lab 9 has a wrong elements.xml file.

13. Lab 2 does not update the content type for outcomes, so new item does not show the new fields. Quickest solution is to delete the content types section from the schema.xml.

REST is not handled, but would need to load down the ADO patch to get it to work on the vm.

A hotfix is needed if the host OS for this course is W2008 and not Windows 2008 R2. Hotfix 971677.

I would have liked some best practice double dot referencing on page 9-28, but I recommending talking the lab thru afterward to point this out.

Module 5 says that after events are asynchronous, but there is a new setting with SP2010, the SPEventReceiverDefinition that can set to SPEventReceiverSynchronization.Synchrononous, to make the after event sychronous.

Commerce Server Inventory System Part 3

2011-03-20T04:04:00.000-07:00

The Inventory Schema

Just as the Catalog System has a schema used as a template to define the product catalog, so too does the Inventory System have a schema used to define an inventory catalog. There are two types of inventory metadata: Inventory Catalog Metadata, and Inventory Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) Metadata.

* Inventory Catalog Metadata: This metadata is similar to catalog metadata, except that it pertains to the Inventory System. This metadata includes the catalog name, date created, description, and the last modified date.

* Inventory Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) Metadata: The SKU is the unique identifier for a product, and allows a product to be tracked for inventory purposes. See Table 4-1 for detailed SKU metadata properties.

Inventory Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) Metadata

Property Name	Property Description
Backorder Availability date	The backorder availability date property is the earliest date when the back-ordered SKU is available for shipping.
Backorder Limit	The backorder limit property defines a limit for the number of SKUs that can be back-ordered. This value must be below the stockout threshold, and is used to prevent overselling and the inability to fulfill orders. If an item is pre-orderable and back-orderable, the pre-order limit is applied before the back-order limit.
Backorderable	The backorderable property is used to indicate that a SKU can be back-ordered. This is applied when the onhand quantity is less than the stockout threshold. A SKU is backordered when it has already been selling and gone out-of-stock. If the SKU has not been selling and is out-of-stock, it is considered pre-orderable.
Backordered Quanity	The backordered quantity property indicates the number of units that have been back-ordered for a particular SKU. This property is maintained by the system.
Catalog Name	The catalog name property indicates the inventory catalog used to store SKU information.
Excess Onhand Quanity	The excess onhand quantity property indicates the total quantity of SKUs above which the inventory is in excess. This property can be used to indicate that there’s too much inventory for a particular SKU.
Last Modified	The last modified property indicates the last time a modification was made to the SKU. This property is maintained by the system.
Last Restocked	The last restocked property indicates the date when the inventory for a SKU was last restocked.
Memo	The memo property is a repository for notes or comments about the SKU.
Onhand Quantity	The onhand quantity property indicates the quantity of a SKU in inventory that is available to be sold.
Preorder Availability Date	The preorder availability date indicates the earliest date when the pre-ordered SKU will be available for shipping.
Preorder Limit	The preorder limit property defines a limit for the number of SKUs that can be pre-ordered. This value must be below the stockout threshold, and is used to prevent overselling and the inability to fulfill orders. If an item is pre-orderable and back-orderable, the pre-order limit is applied before the back-order limit.
Preorderable	The preorderable property is used to indicate that a SKU can be pre-ordered.
Preordered Quantity	The preordered quantity property indicates the number of units that have been pre-ordered for a particular SKU. This property is maintained by the system.
Reorder Point	The reorder point property is used to indicate when the inventory should be replenished for a particular SKU if the onhand quantity falls below the specified value.
Status	The status property is used to determine the condition of the inventory. There are three statuses: Disabled, Ignored, and Enabled. If the status is disabled, then the inventory SKU condition is considered out-of-stock and unavailable. If the status is ignored, then the inventory condition is considered in stock but unavailable. If the status is enabled, then the inventory condition is can either be in stock, pre-ordered, back-ordered or out-of-stock, depending on the values specified in other SKU properties. See Figure 4-4 for more information.
Stockout Threshold	The stockout threshold property defines the lowest quantity of items that must be available for a SKU to be considered in stock.
Target Quantity	The target quantity property is the amount of inventory you want to have available before reordering the SKU. This value should be set based on observed buying patterns.
Unit Of Measure	The unit of measure property defines the meaning of the unit value for a SKU.

Table 4-1

All of the properties listed in Table 4-1 work together to drive the functionality of the Inventory System. It is important to again reiterate that it’s not enough to simply set these values and expect that your Web site will automatically work the way it should. The Web site must use the Inventory APIs to drive the functionality.

Based on my book on Commerce Server. Part 4 is here. Part 1.

InfoPath FormService MemoryCacheSize default

2011-03-14T05:03:00.000-07:00

Technet says 250 MB. MSDN says 300 MB.

I suspect the first figure is correct. The 300 MB is the threshold as explained here.

Kerberos for SharePoint 2010

2011-02-25T00:32:00.000-08:00

Just reading this excellent white paper http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff829837.aspx

and want to be sure that I have the main points clearly in mind. My previous blog on Kerberos is here. http://software-smith.blogspot.com/2010/02/using-kerberos-with-moss-2007-and.html

1. Service Apps only use C2WTS if incoming auth is classic or Windows claims.

2. Reporting Services is not claims aware, needs classic Kerberos as does RSS viewer with authenticated feed.

3. When C2WTS with Kerberos, must use constrained delegation. eg. Excel, PerfomancePoint, InfoPath, Visio services. All require C2WTS with Kerberos. Cannot cross domain boundaries.

4. Basic delegation: BDC, Access, Reporting, Project. Can cross domain boundaries, no protocol transition.

5. According to the documentation PowerPivot is claims aware and does not need delegation. It uses C2WTS to get Windows Identity to connect to AS Vertipaq. On refresh Vertipaq/PP service uses SSS and NTLM to connect to data source, there would only be a need for Kerberos if this SQL was linked to a second SQL server. PowerPivot refresh and data collection requires classic authentication. I think the statement that PowerPivot is claims aware is wrong.

6. In multihop scenarios, cannot change from Constrained to Basic delegation.

7. SharePoint does not support Kernel mode authentication.

8. Cross forest Kerberos delegation is not possible, even with trusts.

SharePoint Myths

2011-02-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

Myth 1. It takes 3 synchs for a profile deletion to work. See the mythbuster here.

Myth 2. You cannot use SharePoint for good looking internet sites. See some of the sites here.

Do you have a SharePoint myth you would like to see busted? Please send an email to the address here.

SharePoint 2010 Mirroring and Log Shipping

2011-02-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

All databases can be mirrored for high availability except:
WebAnalyticsServiceApplication_StagingDB_
User Profile Service Application_SyncDB_
User Profile Service Application_SocialDB_
FASTSearchAdminDatabase
Reporting Services databases.

The only databases that can be logged shipped or use async mirroring:
WSS_Content
WSS_UsageApplication (not recommended)
Secure_Store_Service_DB_
All ProjectServer DBs if all db logs are synched
DefaultPowerPivotServiceApplicationDB (SQL server only)

This is according to this TechNet article updated July 29, 2010.

Another TechNet article also updated July 29, 2010 indicates that the following databases can also be log shipped:

Application_Registry_server_DB_
Managed Metadata Service_
PerformancePoint Service Application_
WebAnalyticsServiceApplication_StagingDB_
WebAnalyticsServiceApplication_ReportingDB_
User Profile Service Application_SocialDB_

Technically, I would concur with extending this list to include these.

With thanks to C. Liu

CQWP (Content Query Web Part) and Dynamic Filtering

2011-02-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

Basically you can use the token PageFieldValue to use a value on the current page layout. This works if it is a Managed MetaData field. Similarly you can use the PageQueryString to add a value to use in the query. A good example of using these values is here.

CQWP (Content Query Web Part) and Common View Fields

2011-02-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

SharePoint 2010 exposes the Common View fields on the web part tool pane. Hence it is no longer necessary to export the web part, edit these fields and reimport. The documentation should be updated to reflect this.

SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Search

2011-01-27T10:47:00.000-08:00

Although you can have the query component and the query processor on two separate machines, the "Did you mean?" functionality will not work since it only uses the local query component.

List of sites using Commerce Server 2007 or 2009

2011-01-27T05:24:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of public sites using Commerce Server 2007 or 2009. As we do partner training, we have a section called "Notes from the field" where a partner presents some of their sites and the interesting facets of those projects. Let us know if you know of other sites and we will add them to the list.

http://www.20minutenmobile.ch/
http://www.360-5.com/
http://store.aigle.com/
http://www.amway.com/
http://www.apoteket.dk/
http://www.apoteket.se/
http://www.astleyclarke.com/
http://www.bd.dk/
http://www.bilka.dk/
http://www.bolia.com/
http://www.booksdirect.co.uk/
http://www.brandsource.com/
http://www.buylifetime.com/
http://www.bwt-filter.com/
http://www.bwt-group.com/
http://www.bygghemma.se/
http://www.camaieu.fr/
http://www.calphalon.com/
http://www.camaieu.fr/
http://www.chaparral-racing.com/
http://www.chem.agilent.com/
http://www.clarks.co.uk/
http://store.ctvolympics.ca/
https://www.dolce-gusto.de/
http://www.doubleday.com.au/
http://www.doubleday.co.nz/
http://www.douweegbertsenmeer.nl/
http://sites.dymo.com/Pages/home.aspx?locale=enUS
http://www.dynamicsexchange.com/
http://www.ebgames.com/
http://educacional.bmf.com.br/
http://www.extra.com.br/
http://www.festool.de/
http://www.gamestop.com/
http://www.gevalia.com/
http://www.gracobaby.com/
http://www.hanes.com/
http://www.hsslivehire.com/
http://www.jules.fr/
http://www.kalligo.fr/
http://www.ocean.slb.com/
http://rockshop.hardrock.com/
http://www.harrods.com/
http://www.mathon.fr/

http://emea.microsoftstore.com/ outside the US only
http://www.musicnet.com/
http://www.mynslc.com/
http://www.newlook.co.uk/
http://www.nike.com/
http://www.officer.com.br/
http://www.petsupermarket.com/
http://www.pilgrim.dk/
http://www.plchardware.com/
http://www.politikensforlag.dk/
http://www.quiksilver-store.com/
http://www.rdw.nl/
http://www.reliancemoney.com/
http://www.roxy-europe.com/
http://www.royalcopenhagen.com/
http://www.rubbermaid.com/
http://www.rya.org.uk/
http://www.schaufensterschweiz.ch/
http://www.savilerowco.com/
http://www.solanopower.com/
http://www.trollbeads.com/
http://www.trumf.no/
http://www.verawangonweddings.com/
http://www.volvopentashop.com/
http://www.wupti.dk/
https://myservice.xbox.com/
http://www.zuneoriginals.com/ (US only)

Sample credit card numbers for testing Commerce Server 2009

2011-01-22T05:10:00.000-08:00

• American Express: 3400-0000-0000-009
• Visa: 4111-1111-1111-1111
• MasterCard: 5111-1111-1111-1118
• Discover: 6011-0000-0000-0004

Commerce Server Inventory System Part 2

2011-01-07T03:53:00.000-08:00

Inventory Systems Features

The Inventory System in Commerce Server comes with many important features that aid in the real-time management of inventory for items in your catalog. These features allow you to do the following:

* Display real-time inventory conditions of your products and product variants, including in stock, out-of-stock, back-ordered, or pre-orderable.

* Filter products and product variants listings to show only those products that are currently available in stock.

* Decrement inventory levels when orders are processed.

* Receive notifications when inventory levels reach an out-of-stock threshold.

* Integrate inventory levels with LOB applications.

* Gain insight into how well products and product variants are selling.

As the Inventory System deals with physical items that can be sold, it is common to refer to items as a stock-keeping unit (SKU) rather than a product or product variant. A SKU is a unique identifier that enables a product to be tracked for inventory purposes.

Inventory Conditions

There are two primary inventory conditions that exist for your SKUs: in stock and out-of-stock. When a SKU is in stock your customers should be able to purchase it normally, with each processed order decrementing the inventory total for the SKU. When a product is out-of-stock, however, special handling conditions may apply.

The easiest way to handle out-of-stock inventory is to not show it on the Web site, thereby preventing customers from purchasing the SKU. While this is a simple way to handle out-of-stock inventory, it is probably not an acceptable solution for most online Web sites. Instead, many Web sites prefer to display out-of-stock inventory as back-ordered. Back-ordered indicates that the SKU is temporarily out-of-stock. Typically a back-order availability date is also displayed with the SKU, indicating the earliest date that the back-ordered SKU is available. It is possible to still allow the customer to purchase back-ordered SKUs and indicating to the customer that the order cannot be fulfilled until the inventory has been replenished.

In addition to the back-ordered inventory status, a SKU may be listed as pre-orderable. A Web site may want to list a SKU as pre-orderable, indicating that the SKU is not in stock and is not available until a future availability date. Marking SKUs as pre-orderable is a popular way to satisfy the demands of customers that want to purchase popular items before they are available. Allowing the pre-order of SKUs is quite popular in the book publishing industry, and is how many books end up as best sellers before they are even published.

If a SKU is both pre-orderable and back-ordered, the Inventory System first uses the associated pre-order limit to satisfy purchases. Once this limit has been exceeded, the back-order limit is then applied. Once both the pre-order and back-order limits have been exhausted, the SKU is then considered out-of-stock and no available for purchase.

Figure 4-2

Figure 4-2 shows the possible purchasing conditions that can exist for SKUs in the Inventory System. If an item is in stock, then it is available for purchase. If an item is out-of-stock, then it is either not available for purchase, back-orderable, or pre-orderable. It is important to recognize that while the Inventory System may have various conditions attached to SKUs (such as back-ordered or pre-orderable) the Web site itself must manage these conditions appropriately. Unless you use the Starter Site, your Web site will not automatically associate these purchasing states to the SKUs. You have to develop your Web site to respond in this fashion, through the Inventory APIs.

Integration into the Orders System

The Inventory System is able to work directly with the Orders System so that inventory levels remain accurate and the customer’s orders are processed appropriately. The interaction between these two systems through the use of two pipeline components: CheckInventory and UpdateInventory.

The CheckInventory pipeline component is part of the Basket pipeline and checks the inventory status for SKUs in the customer’s basket. This component will return information to the Web site that indicates the current condition of the SKU. Based on the condition of the SKU, the Web site can then render the customer’s basket appropriately.

The UpdateInventory pipeline component is part of the Checkout pipeline, and checks the inventory status for SKUs and updates the SKU quantities in the Inventory System. In addition to updating inventory quantities for the SKUs, this component also handles out-of-stock conditions. If there are multiple SKUs currently being processed, and one is out-of-stock and is not back-orderable or pre-orderable, the other SKUs are not processed.

Both the CheckInventory and UpdateInventory pipeline components have the ability to return warnings and errors through the pipeline. The Web site can then respond to these warnings and errors appropriately.

Additional Inventory Features

The Inventory System also includes the following features:

* Inventory APIs. The Inventory APIs allow developers to directly interact with the Inventory System.

* Imports and exports of data. Inventory data can be imported and exported either using the Catalog Manager or by directly using the Inventory APIs.

* Bulk updates and deletions. With bulk updates and deletions, you have the ability to update or delete multiple SKUs in the inventory catalog from a single operation.

* Transactional operations. All operations performed during an import or an export can be run in a transaction, so that any errors that occur cause the entire operation to roll-back.

* Integration into LOB systems through BizTalk adapters. The Commerce Server BizTalk adapters allow you to integrate the Inventory System with other LOB systems.

* Full text search. All metadata associated with the Inventory System can be searched and queried along with metadata from the Catalog System.

While the Inventory System has a rich set of inventory management functions, it may not satisfy the inventory needs of all companies. The Inventory System for Commerce Server is an extension of the Catalog System designed to provide real-time management of inventory. Consequently, the Commerce Server Inventory System does not provide any warehousing, manufacturing, or logistical information about the inventory. If your company has these types of requirements you will need to weigh the benefits of using a third party application or extending and customizing the Inventory System. In some situations it may be best to purchase a 3^rd party application to manage and control these processes, and utilize the BizTalk adapters to integrate it into Commerce Server.

Based on my book on Commerce Server. Part 3 is here.

Commerce Server Inventory System Part 1

2010-12-07T03:30:00.000-08:00

Inventory management is a vital part of any retail business, whether it’s a traditional brick-and-mortar shop or an online Web site. Inventory management provides you with critical information about the condition of your products, such as whether you are low on stock and your inventory needs to be replenished. Inventory management also provides your customers with accurate information, letting them know when items are out-of-stock, back-ordered, or pre-orderable. Failure to provide your customers with this information puts you at risk of losing future business. Inventory management also gives you insight into which products are selling well and which products are not. This information allows you to make better business decisions on how to market your products, and whether or not to even carry them.

Previous versions of Commerce Server to 2007 did not have an out-of-the-box inventory system. Instead, developers were either required to customize and extend the catalog schema, as well as write custom processes to track inventory levels, or develop their own processes for integrating into a line-of-business (LOB) inventory system.

Commerce Server has made significant advances with regards to inventory management, and has an out-of-the-box Inventory System capable of providing the following functionality:

* Real-time inventory management for product catalogs

* Full integration into the Catalog System and Orders System

* Integration into LOB systems through the Commerce Server BizTalk adapters

Keeping track of inventory is vitally important for any successful retail enterprise. Inventory systems let you know when it is time to stock up on items that are running low and can also prevent you from over selling products and then having to inform customers that their items are either unavailable or must be backordered. Inventory systems can provide insight into which products are selling well and which products are selling poorly. With this information you can make intelligent decisions on how to maximize your sales and make your Web site more effective.

In previous versions of Commerce Server it was a challenge to incorporate real-time inventory management into your Web site. Keeping the inventory levels synchronized to the product catalog required a great deal of effort and custom software development. Many custom solutions require the product catalog schema to be extended so that it can accommodate inventory information and modifications to the basket pipeline to check the inventory levels of the product added to the basket. This in and of itself is a challenge; more complex tasks, such as configuring items as back-orderable or pre-orderable, are levels of magnitude more complex to develop.

Fortunately, the Inventory System available in Commerce Server is specifically designed to integrate with the Catalog System, and provides an excellent solution for all the stake holders of your Web site, including customers, business users, Web site administrators, and software developers. Customers benefit from a much richer integration into the product catalog, allowing them to know if items are in stock, pre-orderable, or back-orderable. Customers can also filter products by those in stock, allowing them to ignore items that are currently unavailable (assuming you have developed this capability through the Inventory APIs). Business users benefit by having a far more robust and reliable method of coupling the inventory and product catalogs, as well as gaining insight into inventory levels and trends. Web site administrators benefit by easy import and export functionality, as well as synchronization to external LOB applications. Software developers benefit from all of the above, as well as a rich API layer that has methods for searching, browsing, and viewing the details of the inventory catalog, as well as sophisticated search options.

It is important to fully understand the role that the Inventory System plays within Commerce Server, and how it works together with product catalog to allow you to manage your inventory.

The Relationship between the Inventory and Catalog Systems

Before diving into the features of the Inventory System, you should take the time to understand the relationship between the Inventory and Catalog Systems. The Inventory System consists of inventory catalogs, much as the Catalog System consists of product catalogs. These inventory catalogs contain information about products and product variants that are stored in the product catalogs. As such, inventory catalogs can store inventory information for one or more product catalogs. Moreover, these product catalogs can be both base and virtual catalogs. Consider the following examples in Figure 4-1.

Figure 4-1

Scenario A describes a straightforward relationship between an inventory catalog and a product catalog. In this scenario, an inventory catalog has been defined and one product catalog added to it. When a product catalog is added to an inventory catalog it is considered to be mapped to the inventory catalog. Scenario B is similar to Scenario A, except that two product catalogs are mapped to the inventory catalog. Consequently, the inventory catalog contains inventory information for product and product variants stored in both catalogs.

As previously mentioned, virtual catalogs can also be mapped to inventory catalogs. Consider scenario C, in which the virtual catalog is the aggregation of two base catalogs. In this scenario, the virtual catalog is mapped to the inventory catalog. Consequently, the two base catalogs do not contain any inventory information. Instead, the inventory information is specific to the virtual catalog. Mapping virtual catalogs to an inventory catalog is a very powerful way to manage the inventory for aggregated base catalogs with specific pricing rules. For example, you could create a virtual catalog that gave preferred customers 15% off of various products and map it to an inventory catalog that limits the total quantity of these discounted products to 50.

The final scenario shows a more advanced set of relationships. In scenario D there are two base catalogs and one virtual catalog. The virtual catalog aggregates the products and product variants in both of the base catalogs and may apply special pricing. The virtual catalog and one of the base catalogs are mapped to the inventory catalog, while the second base catalog is not mapped to the inventory catalog. As a result, the mapped base catalog has the ability to track its own inventory, while the non-mapped base catalog cannot. The virtual catalog is able to track its own inventory on the products and product variants aggregated from both of the base catalogs. These four scenarios demonstrate the flexibility of the Inventory System, and how it can be used for a number of different and unique situations.

Based on my book on Commerce Server. Part 2 is here.

Commerce Server Template Pack for SharePoint 2010

2010-11-08T09:39:00.000-08:00

At our User Group meeting last week, I installed the Template Pack live on a SharePoint 2010 installation. Several asked to have the procedure I used, so here goes.

The main point with the template pack is that it works with CS2009, you do not have to wait for R2.

1. First you will need a functioning SharePoint 2010 installation. This has quite a high Hardware Spec, with 64 bit and 8 GB. I did my Hyper V installation with 4 GB, but I am not recommending this. If you are using virtual images you will need a separate machine as a domain controller. Yes, I know you there are other options, hacking SharePoint (for local accounts) or hacking Commerce Server (so that you can install on a domain controller) but the whole point is to have a supported installation.

2. Second you will need to go through the usual fun process: Install Commerce Server 2007, Configure, Install Commerce Server 2009, Configure. Make sure you have everything you need (eg. Business Tools) otherwise you will have to uninstall CS2009, to get these. I usually unpup rather than use a CS project, so I have no VS2005/2008/2010 problems here. You of course will need the 64 bit version of the cab file:
CSRedistW2k3EN64.cab
If you are installing on W2008 R2 as I was you will get an error that Net 3.5 SP1 is not installed, even if it is automatically installed as part of W2008 R2. Installing will of course give the error that it is already installed. The only way out of this infinite loop is hotfix KB 975567, the hotfix was filed under Vista, but worked fine.

3. Now is a good time to switch User Account Control off. I have my reservations about this step, but it is in black and white in the Template Pack installation instructions. I leave it to you if you do it with the UI or Group Policy, I preferred the registry entry setting key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\System\
EnableLUA to 0

Then install the Template Pack.

4. Next you should create your web app and extend it. You can use the SharePoint Commerce Services Wizard for this, I preferred to do this with SharePoint central admin. Add your host headers to DNS.

5. Now create your Commerce Server site. I unpacked the DefaultSiteWithData and made sure I named the site ContemporarySite. The reasons for doing this step manually are because of the next step. Make sure that all accounts have the rights in SQL they need.

6. If you run the SharePoint Commerce Services Wizard now (with Windows 2008 R2), the Wizard will fail with an error creating the Profile encryption key. I suspect this is because Windows 2008 R2 restricts Registry entries, perhaps things will be better after W2008R2 Sp1.
So with thanks to Ravi Kanth's blog, you will have to run
ProfileKeyManager.exe /kn /O (Note: Ravi has a typo here, it should not be a zero.)

ProfileKeyManager /ke /kf "NewKeyPair_2010_9_15_20_46_14_35.xml" /reg "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Commerce Server 2007 Keys\ContemporarySite"

(you will have to adjust the key file name to match the autogenerated name from the first command.)

7. Now you can run the SharePoint Commerce Services Wizard and select the web app you have created and the Commerce Server site you created. Press View Site and ....

8. You should have the Contemporary Site coming up, obviously the Channel needs to be set.

Careful, you cannot run the Wizard twice, without getting an DLL open error. The product team says that you can fix this by retracting and removing the solution before running again, makes sense to me. But some claim the only way to fix this is to run reflector and skip one line.
According to the product team there is another known issue on CS default zone with SP2010 if an IIS Hotfix (KB979917) is installed (which is recommended by SP2010). The workaround is to change the AllowAnonymousImpersonation value from default value “true” to “false”

Don't forget, there is a new extensibility kit that comes with the template pack, you will need to use this one if you are changing web parts.

9. If you open the Forms authenticated site in your browser you will get the unusually helpful message in your error log:

Object Cache: The super reader account utilized by the cache does not have sufficient permissions to SharePoint databases.

To configure the account use the following command 'stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname portalsuperreaderaccount -propertyvalue account -url webappurl'. It should be configured to be an account that has Read access to the SharePoint databases.

Additional Data:

Current default super reader account: NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE

This is because this claims authentication does not resolve this account. To fix, use the stsadm command as they suggest to set the portalsuperreaderaccount to an appropriate domain account

Caveat: Obviously you should read and follow the entire Template pack installation instructions, especially if doing a production installation. There are more hotfixes needed for production, but this quick guide should get you going with a working installation. As with any technical procedure, there are bound to be mistakes in my write up, please let me know, so I can correct them.

The Microsoft Certified Master program

2010-08-30T01:31:00.000-07:00

I just added the MCM logo to my blog. Why? Just another certification from Microsoft? Last time I looked on my transcript, I had the following, MCT, MCSD, MCDST, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSA, 2 MCITPs, 19 MCTSs, 5 MCPDs and 3 MCSEs. Each of those certifications took a lot of work and study and I consider each a good proof of competence in a technical area. Why am so excited about 3 more unpronounceable letters? ( so much so that when the email came late at night on Friday, our whole family was dancing around our home).

The key lies with the difficulty of the Master certification. The Master certification in effect certifies that one is an expert in a particular area, in my case SharePoint 2007. When I came to the three weeks of intensive course in Redmond in March 2009, I considered myself very competent in SharePoint, I had worked with SharePoint from the early beginnings of Digital Dashboard, all though the incarnations 2001, 2003 and 2007. I had gained a lot of experience, coaching a consultancy to become a SharePoint consultancy, retraining their consultants and developers to become SharePoint consultants and developers and fielding all the more difficult problems that came up. However, coming to Redmond I was a Commerce Server expert, not a SharePoint expert and to obtain the Masters certification I had to become an SharePoint expert. The 3 written exams are difficult enough, but it is the lab exam that is the real monster. 8 and a half hours of real world tasks that would usually take 8 and a half days in the real world. Because of the time difference between Europe and the US, by the end of my retake it was after midnight and I was so exhausted I would have had difficulty spelling SharePoint let alone doing any tasks. It took me more than a year after the Redmond training to reach the level of expertise required. Some of the recipes on this blog are the product of that preparation. Does that mean that I now think I know everything about SharePoint? No, it means that I have to continue learning constantly just to keep up. Being a master requires clearly identifying what you do not know and constantly filling in the gaps.

What advice do I have to others considering the same path? Firstly, I would advise you to be sure you are an expert before you get to Redmond. You will get much more out of the class. The experience is unique, you are sitting with a class with vast experience and the program tries to get the instructors who have the best knowledge in the world. Not all of them are natural teachers, so you also have to be able to draw the information out of them. It is also much easier if you can concentrate just on one product, my life is made a lot more difficult in effect trying to be a master of both SharePoint and Commerce Server, (even though there is no master program for Commerce Server).

Now that I have joined an small group of MCMs, (I calculate that I am the 18th outside Microsoft to obtain this qualification for SharePoint), do I think that we know SharePoint better than anyone else? No, I am very conscious that there are doubtless many good SharePoint experts who will not get this opportunity. (Having my own company meant that it was easier to convince my boss.) What about MVP's? I realize that MVP is an award given in recognition of services to the community, it does not in itself certify that one is an expert in that area. That said, we had 2 MVPs in our class and they were among the best in the class. The Master certification however, certifies that one is an expert right across SharePoint not just one particular area. Thus it is especially the case that although there is a focus on the architecture of large farms, since this is where you especially need a Master, a Master also has to know the development side well also. While there can always be gaps in a Masters knowledge, the breadth and depth of the exams sure tries to make sure that those gaps are small.

What is the Return On Investment from the Masters program? The jury is still out on that one. It would help us if Microsoft would require (or strongly recommend) having an MCM on board for large installations. It would help if a Gold Partnership received an advantage in competencies for having a Master involved. Unfortunately, they have recently gone the other way, and the Partner program no longer counts an MCM as counting as two MCPs.

What is my next step? I need to first make sure that my understanding of Commerce Server and SharePoint 2010 is at the same level as my understanding of SharePoint 2007. And that is a challenge enough for today.

Here are some of my classmates blogging about their experience:
http://www.houberg.net/archive/2009/04/06/master-training_are-you-ready.aspx
http://www.sharepointchick.com/archive/2009/04/08/the-microsoft-certified-master-experience.aspx
http://harbar.net/archive/2009/04/28/certified-master-for-sharepoint-2007-ldquor2rdquo.aspx
http://www.bluedoglimited.com/SharePointThoughts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=301
http://www.sharepointbits.com/blog/2009/10/31/freshly-minted-microsoft-certified-sharepoint-master.html
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ramg/archive/2009/05/16/my-mcm-experience.aspx

Creating a generic Data Form web part with SharePoint Designer 2010

2010-08-27T04:38:00.000-07:00

If you create a List Form web part and save it to a file or gallery you get a prompt whether you want the web part saved with a relative path (list name is stored in the web part) or fixed to thesite (list id is saved in the web part)

If you create a Data Form web part and save it to a file or gallery you do not get this prompt.

Insert > Data View > Empty Data View

Select a Data Source, then insert fields as Single Item Form.

Save Web Part to a gallery.

To make the web part generic and referencing a file name you need to do the following changes.

In the property ParameterBindings replace:

ParameterBinding Name="ListID" Location="None" DefaultValue="{01CF5B35-CB1E-4A5A-82D1-144C6A0312E2}"

with

ParameterBinding Name="ListName" Location="None" DefaultValue="Shared Documents"

Also replace

property name="ListName" type="string">{01CF5B35-CB1E-4A5A-82D1-144C6A0312E2}

with

property name="ListName" type="string">Shared Documents

remove this line

01cf5b35-cb1e-4a5a-82d1-144c6a0312e2

And replace each occurence of

ParameterKey="ListID" PropertyName="ParameterValues" DefaultValue="{01CF5B35-CB1E-4A5A-82D1-144C6A0312E2}" Name="ListID"

with

ParameterKey="ListName" PropertyName="ParameterValues" DefaultValue="Shared Documents" Name="ListName"

Make sure that the ListId and the List Guid do not appear any where else in the webpart.

Now you have a generic Data Form web part!

With thanks to Sandeep and the folks at Trinedy.

Commerce Server Training in Canada

2010-06-10T06:18:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Ottawa, after giving my Commerce Server Training there. Thanks to Itplanit, it was an excellent training center, everything worked well. Did not get a chance to get across and visit those I know at Cactus, will have to do that next time.

Using SSL in Windows 2008

2010-06-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

Our old friend SelfSSl does not work in IIS 7.0. But it is easy enough to set up a certificate and use SSL. Here is the brief version:
Server Name > Server Certifications > Create Self-Signed Cert
Go to site > Right click > Edit Bindings > Add one for https with unused port
Select the cert you created.
Restart web site then click on the correct browser link for the port on the right
You will get a warning that the cert is unsafe, but you can continue to the site.

Here is a longer version if you get stuck:
http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/144/how-to-setup-ssl-on-iis-70/

Recycling Application Pools in Windows 2008

2010-06-01T04:27:00.000-07:00

C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv>appcmd stop apppool sharepointapppool
C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv>appcmd start apppool sharepointapppool
Here is the a command file that does the above.

2nd Commerce Server User Group Meeting - Commerce Server Staging

2010-05-14T01:32:00.000-07:00

Great user group meeting. Especially enjoyed the practical tone of the questions.

Here are the links I mentioned in my talk:

Using SQL instead of Access

http://blogs.msdn.com/charles/archive/2008/09/15/how-to-configure-css-to-log-to-sql-database.aspx

Using command line

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/bb521018(v=CS.70).aspx

Developing with the Staging API

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/bb520964(v=CS.70).aspx

Creating log files

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918312

We will have the next meeting on November 5, subject will be CS and SharePoint 2010.

Sychronizing SharePoint Profiles with Active Directory

2010-05-03T05:01:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of urban myths about importing profiles from AD, particularly on some blogs where it is claimed that deleted users are only erased from SharePoint on the third try.

Here are the steps when a user is deleted from Active Directory:

1. When the profiles are synchronized with Active Directory, the bDeleted flag is set to true in the SSP's UserProfile_Full table.

Full description is here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/8/858F2155-D48D-4C68-9205-29460FD7698F/%5BMS-UPIESP%5D.pdf

2. Every hour the MySiteCleanup job runs.

If bDeleted is true the job deletes the profile from UserProfile_Full table and adds it to the deleted users.

The manager gets a email and ownership of the MySite.

3. Every five minutes each Content DataBase sychronizes its UserInfo table with the SSP. This is the Quick Profile Synchronization (WSSSweepSynch).

4. Every hour there is a complete synchronization Profile Sychronization (WSSProfileSych).

This is bidirectional, in the up direction the Profiles are updated with the site collection membership list. In the down direction, the UserInfo table is updated with the Profile information. If a user flagged as deleted in the UserProfile_Full table, he is also marked as such in the UserInfo table. It is not be deleted in the UserInfo table, as it is needed for Auditing.

The procedure is the same in SharePoint 2010.

(With thanks to Chris Gideon, I based this on discussions with him at MCM training and Ignite. All mistakes are my misunderstandings, not his)

Recipe:RSS Viewer in MOSS 2007

2010-05-03T01:09:00.000-07:00

1. To add a feed for a list or document library.

Go to list, actions, rss feed. Save address.

Go to page, add web part, copy address into url.

2. To set refresh for rss feed.

Site collection rss settings.

Settings for web part.

But...refresh is hard coded at 60 minutes!

Kerberos Authentication, needed even if sql on same box.

Kerberos debugging tips:

NETDIAG /TEST:KERBEROS /DEBUG >KERBTEST.TXT

Add the following registry value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\Kerberos\Parameters

Registry Value: LogLevel

Value Type: REG_DWORD

Value Data: 0x1

But you will get some false errors.

Kerbtray gives the tickets for the current logged in user only. See great blog.

When cross forest trust, make sure that forest and domains are 2003 level, otherwise will only have external trusts which will not use kerberos. Make sure the web site is trusted site to see RSS feed.

Recipe: Using Kerberos with MOSS 2007 and Windows 2003

2010-05-02T00:09:00.000-07:00

1. SPN for SQL

Install ADSIEdit on DC from W2003 Support Tools.

Change SPN of SQL Service Account to:

MSSQLSvc/sql1.litware.com:1433

MSDN also says add not just FQDN but NetBIOS name also:

MSSQLSvc/sql1:1433

Don't understand why this is necessary.

If the SQL is on the same machine as MOSS Kerberos will not be used. Ditto named pipes are used. See blog.

You can also check your work by using the SetSPN -L SQLService

From the the W2003 Resource kit you can use Klist and Kerbtray

To list or purge the Tickets use Klist tickets or Klist purge.

2. SPN for Central Admin

Add SPNs to Central Admin App Pool Identity.

HTTP/moss01:12345

HTTP/moss01.litware:12345

Change Central Admin to negotiate

Use this link to get to stsadm

stsadm -o authentication -url http://moss01:12345 -type windows -usewindowsintegrated

Browse to site.

If you get following error

Logon Failure:

Reason: Unknown user name or bad password

User Name:

Domain:

Logon Type: 3

Logon Process: Kerberos

Authentication Package: Kerberos

Workstation Name: -

Caller User Name: -

Caller Domain: -

This is because the browser does not send the port number with the spn.

For 32 bit I used the following registry change to ie6. Details are here, but the hotfix dlls were an older version than my dlls. Still needed the registry change.

If you need to check if the iis virtual directory has kerberos enabled you can say

adsutil.vbs get w3svc/1998432558/root/NTAuthenticationProviders or set it with

adsutil.vbs set w3svc/1998432558/root/NTAuthenticationProviders "Negotiate,NTLM"

(get Vir Dir Id from log file directory name)

3. SPN for main sharepoint site

Add SPNs to App Pool Identity.

HTTP/moss01

HTTP/moss01.litware.com

Change SharePoint app to negotiate

Use this link to get to stsadm

stsadm -o authentication -url http://moss01 -type windows -usewindowsintegrated

Browse to site.

Recipe: IIS Compression with IIS 6.0

2010-04-28T02:12:00.000-07:00

CSCRIPT.EXE ADSUTIL.VBS SET W3Svc/Filters/Compression/DEFLATE/HcFileExtensions "htm" "html" "txt" "css" "js"

CSCRIPT.EXE ADSUTIL.VBS SET W3Svc/Filters/Compression/GZIP/HcFileExtensions "htm" "html" "txt" "css" "js"

CSCRIPT.EXE ADSUTIL.VBS SET W3Svc/Filters/Compression/DEFLATE/HcScriptFileExtensions "asp" "exe" "axd" "aspx"

CSCRIPT.EXE ADSUTIL.VBS SET W3Svc/Filters/Compression/GZIP/HcScriptFileExtensions "asp" "exe" "axd" "aspx"

CSCRIPT.EXE ADSUTIL.VBS SET W3Svc/Filters/Compression/DEFLATE/HcDynamicCompressionLevel "9"

CSCRIPT.EXE ADSUTIL.VBS SET W3Svc/Filters/Compression/GZIP/HcDynamicCompressionLevel "9"

blobcache location="C:\blobCache" path="\.(gif|jpg|png|css|js)$" maxsize="10" age="86400" enabled="false">

Commerce Server - Cannot connect to named instance

2010-04-21T01:52:00.000-07:00

Have seen this several times during install or CSConfig, have found that the best solution is to give the exact port number of the SQL instance and to make sure that you are communicating over TCP.

Bug in Catalog System - Error Cannot delete default Language

2010-04-18T01:27:00.000-07:00

Haven't seen this documented anywhere.

If the default Catalog language is not en-US, it will not let you delete en-US, you get the error "cannot delete default language.

Heard the solution from one of the delegates in my Commerce Server Experts Training, you need to change the language of the Catalog Manager temporarily away from en-US.

With thanks to Ralf Höppner.

Publicly accessible CS2009 site on SharePoint!

2010-04-14T02:16:00.000-07:00

Just came across this site built on SharePoint and Commerce Server 2009. Would be interested to hear of any other public sites on the same architecture.

Virtualpc has no networks when booted in hyper-v

2010-04-12T02:28:00.000-07:00

Seems to be a HAL problem. Use MSconfig.exe to change boot options, advanced to detect HAL.

CS: Direct Mailer

2010-04-08T01:58:00.000-07:00

Reminder:

Add the Marketing Web Service account(not just the DM Service Account) to the DML_SG Group

Add CommerceDirectMailerAuthenticationModule to the HttpModule section of the web.config

Recipe: SharePoint Excel Services

2010-04-07T06:42:00.000-07:00

From MSDN:

By default, cross-domain workbook and data connection access is not allowed. To allow workbooks in trusted file locations

stsadm.exe -o Set-EcsSecurity -Ssp -AllowCrossDomainAccess true|false

The requesting Web pages and the workbooks or data connections must reside in the same farm.

Recipe: Setting up Interfarm SSP

2010-04-06T02:42:00.000-07:00

1. Parent farm

Find out Sql name and configdb name.

Give read rights to config db to whom?

msdn says child farm administrator account

Provide ssp to child farms

Give child farm user rights to parent ssp

blog says child farm CA app pool

2. Child farm

Set up to consume web services

msdn says parent farm admin must be granted Full Read to each child Web application using Web App policy

Assign WApps to parent ssp

Schema changes CS 2007 SP2 and CS2009

2010-04-01T01:35:00.000-07:00

Have been upgrading some systems from CS2007 SP1 to SP2 and then on to CS2009. The question came up if there are any schema changes between these versions. I took a backup of the product catalog before and after these changes and used Red Gate SQL Toolbelt to compare the databases. There were changes to contraints and stored procedures but no schema changes.

I survived the First User Group Meeting

2010-01-01T08:09:00.000-08:00

The technology worked well. We used Live Meeting. It was a new experience for me to talk to the webcam instead of a room full of people. The interchange was interesting, it was interesting to hear about the present projects and hear why some are waiting for R2. Hope to put on a second meeting soon.

First online Commerce Server User Group Meeting

2009-12-07T00:04:00.000-08:00

We will be having our first online Commerce Server User Group Meeting on Wednesday 30 December, 2009.

Please see the Commerce Server User Group page for further details.

Well done Microsoft Switzerland!

2009-08-18T06:44:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Switzerland put on a Commerce Server 2009 day for their partners. This was the program:

Commerce Server Day - Switzerland
Morning (0900-1200), Sales content
Module 1:
Trends, Sales Strategies, Solutions
• Key e-commerce market trends
• Roadmap and history
• New Commerce Server 2009 features
• How to sell Commerce Server 2009

Module 2
PreSales Consulting
• Understand the positioning
• Avoid the pain points
• Building a basis for a successful project.
• Cross sell, BizTalk, SharePoint
• Reference Cases, Marketing Materials

Afternoon (1300-1700), Technical content
Module 3
· Architecture
· Subsystems, Catalog, Inventory, Profiles, Orders, Marketing
· Data Warehousing
· Staging

Module 4
· SharePoint Commerce Services
· Commerce Server Foundation
· Integration to BizTalk
· Performance
· Resources

The partners were of high calibre, and had a number of customers evaluating Commerce Server 2009, and went deeply into performance issues and the aspx vs SharePoint issues. It would be great we could have a similar day in the neighbouring countries also.

Thanks Max!

2009-08-11T03:30:00.000-07:00

Max reports on his site that he is winding up his Commerce Server business. http://www.maxakbar.com/blog.aspx?id=23. We had talked about this back in June but he asked me to keep it to myself for a while.

I would like to thank him for all his work for the Commerce Server community and wish him well for his new endeavours. I personally have learned a lot from him, particularly in the area of pipelines. Thanks Max!

This means that Commerce Server 2009 training is now pretty thin on the ground, so I have been expanding our presence in North America to make up the slack. We have a great new CS2009 training manual, running to about 1000 pages, and it seemed to work well in class. We were a little ahead of ourselves, our labs included BizTalk 2009, but fortunately this is now supported.

Commerce Server 2009 R2 (CS 2010)

2009-07-07T09:22:00.001-07:00

Tried out R2 today. Since R2 is 64 bit only it had to wait until I had finally got myself a 64 bit laptop and installed Windows 2008 and HyperV. The installation went well, was the way it should be without the old complexity that a CS2009 installation must have CS2007 installed. (That said, I didn 't find any migration options.) Was a little puzzled that the IIS 7 still had to have IIS 6 compability installed, surely we can make a clean break here. Haven't tried the new Business toolbar yet, that is next on my list. The broker still can't do authentication so the dream of a true CS application server must wait a little longer.

Commerce Server User Group

2009-07-01T22:49:00.000-07:00

We formed the Commerce Server User Group last week. Meetings will be held online. We have members from 4 countries so far: US, Denmark, France, Germany. Details here: http://www.software-smith.com/usergroup.htm

Commerce Server Book Released and Available!

2009-05-28T01:52:00.000-07:00

I finally got my Commerce Server 2007 book back from the printers today. Here is the information how to order.

Adding the path to stsadm

2009-05-23T04:52:00.000-07:00

I often need to quickly set run a stsadm machine on a virual machine where the path has not been set up. Here is the command ready to cut and paste to save time:

PATH=%PATH%;"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN"

Upgrading Windows 2003 Evaluation Edition to Enterprise Edition

2009-05-21T04:38:00.000-07:00

have a large number of virtual pc's, some of which were installed with the evaluation edition of Windows 2003. I tried to upgrade some of them recently to Windows 2003 Enterprise with SP2. Basically there is no upgrade option, one does a repair using the Windows 2003 disks. However I kept getting the message that the repair could not find install.exe on disk 2. This file does not exist on disk 2. The workaround is to uninstall the .Net framework 2.0 and upgrade and then reinstall the framework afterward.

Update: I have also succeeded without uninstalling the .Net framework 2.0. I have unpacked the .Net framework and pointed the Windows 2003 to this install.exe file when it asks. Installation works fine, but I likely because I have 2.0 SP2 I have found that I also have to repair the framework after installation.

Microsoft SharePoint Courses

2009-04-21T04:29:00.000-07:00

There used to be just two (not very well designed) SharePoint MOC courses, one on WSS, one on MOSS. They can be great courses if the instructor does a lot of extra work. Now there is an explosion of SharePoint courses on the Microsoft courseware library. Some are excellent, some do not work at all.

MOC courses.
MOC 5060 WSS I have given this one. Needs quite a bit of work to make it into a great experience for the student.
MOC 5943 German version of 5060. No extra problems in the German version.MOC 5061 MOSS. Same problems as 5060.
MOSS 5945 German version of 5061. Need to check first if administrators really use the German version of SharePoint.
MOC 6438. This is the 5060 using Windows 2008 instead of 2003.

Courseware Library
Wherever there is no vpc for a course, this means quite a bit of work to set up the labs and make sure they work.
50003A Customizing and Extending Enterprise Content Management Solutions No vpc. 1 day course.Lab on reusable content should work fine, just need to make some other pictures available.Lab on creating a custom field control should be fine, there is one in the SDK, or can use the one from Andrew Connell's book.Labs on exporting content with sts admin and record management should work.Ditto with labs on user look and feel and navigation.Master pages lab will need litware.jpg, there is one in the CD for Inside MOSS.
50004A Implementing Advanced Portals and Collaboration Solutions No vpc. 1 day.500026 Hand on Labs. Note the vpc has expired
500046- Mindsharp Programming no vpc. Much typing, cannot cut and paste from pdf.
50047A Advanced IT Pro Course for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Vpc works, put needs powerful hardware.
50048A Enterprise Search Solution Architect Workshop. No vpc
50049A Architecting Web Content Management Solutions with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with vpc Same vpc as 50049A. Too many discussion labs, but useful labs on Content deployment, Compression caching and Customizing the page editor toobar.
50050A Architecting Documents and Records Management Solutions with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Same vpc as 50049A.
50051A Architecting Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Portals and Collaboration Solutions same vpc as 50049A.
50064B Advanced SharePoint Development (with vpc)
50146A SharePoint 2007 Programming Part II (no vpc)
50149A SharePoint Operations (with vpc).
50196A Site Owner/Power User (no vpc)
50204A Search Customization (no vpc)
50205A Web Dev No vpc.
50207A, 50208A, 50209A Sharepoint Designer Like Penny's book. No vpc.50227A End User. No vpc.
50228A Sharepoint Governance. No vpc.

Commerce Server 2009 Resources

2009-04-09T05:16:00.000-07:00

Commerce Server bloggers:
Ryan Donovan
Tom Schultz
Commerce Team Blog
Ravi Kanth
Glen (Software) Smith

Commerce Server resources:
Commerce Server on microsoft.com
Commerce Server TechNet Site
Commerce Server MSDN Site
Commerce Server 2009 at MSDN Forums

List of sites using MOSS 2007.

2009-04-01T05:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of public sites using MOSS 2007. Let us know if you know of other sites and we will add them to the list.
www.hedkandi.com
www.threewill.com
www.paulmitchell.com
www.shareview.co.uk
www.fifteen.net
www.hawaiianair.com
http://pfgc.com/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.jo.zain.com/English/Pages/Home.aspx
www.energizer.com
http://www.westrac.com/Pages/Index.aspx
http://www.westernaustralia.com
http://www.ferrari.com
http://www.tourism.wa.gov.au
There is a much longer list here: http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/websites.aspx

Personalization of the Business Managers

2009-03-10T05:33:00.000-07:00

You have likely noticed that each of business applications stores the connection information to the web services. Where do they store this information?

The Catalog Manager stores the information in a file at a path similar to the following: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.ADVWORKS\Application Data\Microsoft\Commerce Server Catalog Manager\CatalogManager2007_UserPreferences.xml
Here is a sample of the xml from my machine. You can see that apart from the connection to the web services most of the other settings have to do with settings changed by the Column Chooser.

Here is the url to the Catalog Schema Manager preferences.
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.ADVWORKS\Application Data\Microsoft\Commerce Server Schema Editor\CatalogAndInventorySchemaManager2007_UserPreferences.xml
Here is a sample of the xml from my machine.

The other managers store their preference files at quite a different place.
Customer and Order Manager stores its preferences here:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.ADVWORKS\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft_Corporation\CustomerAndOrdersManager._StrongName_3mb1ccmqsifja4zex4l3jyde4dcgmrof\6.0.1.0\user.config
Here is a sample of this file.

Marketing Manager stores its preferences here: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.ADVWORKS\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft_Corporation\MarketingManager.exe_StrongName_kxy0aqggpha01yxhz4sldhsz3p2hukkw\6.0.1.0\user.config
Here is a sample of this file (renamed to Marketing.user.config)

Commerce Server 2009 RTM product images not displaying

2009-03-06T04:41:00.000-08:00

I found that I had to make the following tweaks to the default site to get product images to display:1. Add the Image_FileName property to the ImageViewer web part on the Product Page.2. Correct the spelling Image_FileName in the Product Query template. Doubtless because my vpc has been updated all though the beta cycle, but wanted to post it here in case someone else had the same problem.

Commerce Server 2009 released

2009-03-04T04:43:00.000-08:00

Commerce Server 2009 RTM was released on MSDN last night. Installed it this morning and have it working

Resetting Commerce Server site cache from the browser

2009-03-03T05:06:00.000-08:00

.For example: http://localhost/startersite/sitecacherefresh.axd?Cachetorefresh=CatalogCache http://localhost/startersite/sitecacherefresh.axd?Cachetorefresh=ProfileCache

First Commerce Server 2009 course!

2009-02-22T04:45:00.000-08:00

We are giving a combined CS2007 and 2009 course on the 9th to 11th March. We have delegates from the Netherlands and Sweden. We will take half a day and cover the delta between 2007 and 2009 as well as SharePoint architecture

Commerce Server 2009 and Developer Edition

2009-02-15T04:46:00.000-08:00

You cannot upgrade a Developer edition of Commerce Server 2007 to 2009. You have to first upgrade the Developer edition to the Enterprise Edition.That means (after packaging and backing up databases):Uninstall Dev, install Enterprise, Run SP1, Run Config Wizard.You can get the Enterprise Edition for free if you have an MSDN subscription.I do not see this as a big problem for us as a training center, I have not come across a student who does not have access to MSDN. This is the recommended method.

We do not recommend changing the key:
/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Commerce Server 2007
to have productName: Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 Enterprise Edition and SKU: ENT.
This will leave your machine in an unsupported state!

PerformancePoint 2007 Planning module is not dead yet

2009-02-12T04:49:00.000-08:00

Since Microsoft announced discontinuing the PerformancePoint 2007 Planning module, we are considering rebuilding the Planning module and offering it as a standalone product. But first we have to establish that there is a business need for it. If you think this product would be useful to you, please drop me an email. If you think that you would like to help with creating this product we would also like to hear from you. The Microsoft team has encouraged us, but cannot offer support. Please email pps at software-smith.com

Update: Microsoft has made the source code for the planning module available. See http://bieasystreet.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/financial-planning-accelerator/

Video - Using Visual Studio 2008 and Workflow

2009-02-10T04:24:00.000-08:00

Here is my video in from the Sharepoint Konferenz. As you can see from the spelling of "Konferenz", the video is in German.

How to change the currency of the Starter Site

2009-02-07T04:22:00.000-08:00

The Starter Site documentation tends to lead you astray here, most people start trying to change the catalogs without success. The answer is to change the Web.config from

commerceComponents baseCurrencyCode="USD" baseCurrencyCulture="en-US"

to (for example)

commerceComponents baseCurrencyCode="EUR" baseCurrencyCulture="de-DE"

Video - How to Skin the Starter Site.

2009-02-01T04:20:00.000-08:00

Still waiting for Microsoft to release my Commerce Server 2007 video. I have cached it here until it appears on MSDN.

Virtual Lab Broken

2009-01-30T04:18:00.000-08:00

The MSDN Virtual Lab: Customization and Extensibility with Commerce Server 2007 lab has the lab manual as a blank page. Not too useful. As a public service I am caching it here, until the lab is fixed

Another Software-Smith video on MSDN.

2009-01-22T05:02:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to give you a link here to my video on MSDN. It explains how to use SharePoint backup and restore.

My SharePoint video on MSDN

2009-01-20T04:13:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to give you a link here to my video on MSDN. It explains how to use Sharepoint workflow with Visual Studio 2008. I also created a Commerce Server 2007 video but it seems to have disappeared into the MSDN cellars.

Getting Virtual Server running under Vista Home Premium

2009-01-18T04:08:00.000-08:00

Virtual Machines are essential part of life in the Commerce Server/Sharepoint space. I have been working on getting several Virtual Machines running at the same time and need them as fast as possible. I need them for some demos for Sharepoint courses that I am giving for Mindsharp/Combined Knowledge and also for some Microsoft internal Sharepoint training courses I am teaching for the Microsoft field engineers in London, Paris and Munich. Of course, I also need a fast Commerce Server 2007 virtual pc.

My first step was to get a laptop with enough memory, I chose a Lenovo 3000 N200 TY2BEGE with 3GB RAM for Euro 699,00 from www.cyberport.de First surprise, the internet price was 729,00 in spite of having the latest printed catalogue. But still seemed reasonable, about GBP 540,00 or $1070, including tax. The laptop and the memory arrived separately, but it was easy enough to install. Seemed reasonable to buy 3GB, does not seem that buying 4GB would let me address more than 3GB at present with 32 bit.

Next step, operating system. XP or Vista? 32 or 64 bit? Since my laptop came preinstalled with Vista Home Premium 32 bit, I took a deep breath and said to myself, let me work for a while with Vista, if I becomes necessary to install a new operating system and hunt down the drivers, I can always start from scratch later. I have almost all my data on USB drives, so I can work from almost any machine. My concern with Vista was that it would eat up memory that I could use more effectively in my virtual machines. But I decide to bite the bullet for now. (or in German there is an idiom about biting sour apples, but it doesn’t make any more sense!). The difficulty with drivers when I noticed a web cam on the laptop although it was not mentioned in the documentation, the reason being, there is no driver for this hardware under Vista.
Next step, which virtual machine software to use. I basically have to stick with Microsoft software rather than VMWare, since I do so much training and consulting for Microsoft. Also as a Microsoft Certified Trainer, I am supplied virtual machines prepared and tested for Virtual Server. Running several machines at once would push me in the direction Virtual Server 2005 R2. I will miss the dragging and dropping of files to the desktop feature that in Virtual pc 2007 has.

But have you ever tried to install Virtual Server under Windows Vista Home? You straight away get an error message that this is not supported. No problem, thought I and clicked through the error messages, expecting it to install anyway. But instead it aborted the installation. Googled and found contradictory info if installation was possible or not. Got the tip to try installing IIS. Here are the Windows features I switched on under IIS: (under Web management tools)IIS Management console(Under IIS 6 Management compatibility) IIS Metabase and IIS 6 configuration compatibility IIS 6 WMI compatibility(Under WWW services) Common http features (all) Application development features (all) (Under Perfomance features) Static Content compression (Under Health and Diagnostics) HTTP Logging Request Monitor Security (all)Note that there is no Windows authorization under security for Vista Home Premium. I may not have the feature names word perfect, my Vista is German. Then I allowed anonymous access to the IIS and added a password to my user account. After this I could install Virtual Server 2005 R2, (make sure of the R2) and it worked. I fiddled quite a bit with IIS authentication, but I think I set the settings back to the default, so hope I have not forgotten a step here.

Was it worth all the work? It seems to be running well. I have also tried out the VMRCplus which is a free download from here It is certainly very comfortable, but using unsupported software always seems such a temporary gain.

Book review time

2009-01-13T04:57:00.000-08:00

Another few Microsoft books came accross my desk recently courtesy Microsoft Press.

I was very impressed with Microsoft® .NET: Architecting Applications for the Enterprise by Dino Esposito and Andrea Saltarello. I often teach dot.net programmers and there was much in the book I could use in class when passing on architectural principles. For example, rather than just warning about spaghetti code they have the alternative, lasagna code. Absolutely uptodate at the moment, the entity framework is also discussed.

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework—Application Development Foundation, Second Edition is fairly dry since it has just the information needed for the exam. Competently done however with each module selfcontained and would work well for reference as well. I will use some of the concepts on Code Access Security in my SharePoint developer classes.

Cartooning (with apologies to Picasso)

2009-01-10T03:49:00.000-08:00

How to skin the Starter Site

2009-01-03T03:41:00.000-08:00

How to skin the Starter Site Why would you skin the starter site? Perhaps for a proof of concept, a demo just sizzles if it has the corporate look and feel. Or, you may have built your entire site on the starter site basis. It can be a good idea, at least it is a guaranteed solution. You just have to get used to having code not exactly to your personal taste, but it can drastically reduce project times. The starter site came out 3 months after Commerce Server itself. Make sure you install it properly according to the installation instructions. You can use the SpeedSmith installation method of this for a demo, the rights would be too generous for a production system.

Ok. Hold your mouse back. Don't start changing the CSS just yet! Starter Site is a real ASP.NET 2.0 site so you can go to the App Themes directory and see the default theme. Simply right click and create a new Theme. You can start by copying the CSS and gif's into this theme directory. Now change the webconfig to use the new Theme. Why do this work, if you are not planning to change themes programmatically? I find it a debug help to quickly change back to the Adventure Works theme if I have problems. I have seen css bugs make lines invisible, for instance. The CSS has a nice comment at the front as to which colors are used in the CSS, why not comment your changes too? Don't forget to replace search, the colors are used in more than one style.

You probably want to change the logo, this is referenced in the style sheet. (aw-banner.gif) Nice touch, because you will always want to change the logo if you are changing the theme. I usually get my gif's from the company web site if I am doing a demo. You will probably want to change the adverts also, you can put new url's in the adverts using the Marketing Manager. I like to demo the feature of the revolving ads, and make ad's from other divisions of the company, or from their web site directly. Usually goes over well.

Because Starter Site is a proper ASP 2.0 everything page is based on the master page. However every page seems to reference the master directly, so you would have to do a project wide search and replace if you want to switch to another master page. It could have been done better, allowing just a change in the web.config to change the master. I just make a copy and then make my changes directly in the default.master

But this is not real skinning you say? Just getting there. Add a new item to your App theme directory. Make it a skin file and call it default.skin. Now it does absolutely nothing! Well, it is empty apart from a comment. Now copy a button from another page. (e.g. login.aspx) . Now delete everything from the button except runatserver. Add a style change to the button eg(backcolor=lightblue). Save and look at any button on your site. Voila! Try out Text boxes and have fun. If you need more info, just go to the ASP.NET pages in MSDN, this is not a Commerce Server specific feature.

What is left to do? I usually massage the catalog, creating a test category to hide all the Adventure Works categories and creating a little navigation structure to model the customer's. And then I create a few products and gif's for the demo.

The demo awaits. Don't forget to practise your demo in a real dry run. And resist the temptation to make last minute changes.

(Don't ask me why I said that, I don't want to be reminded of the time...)

Happy skinning!

The real quick CS2007 installation guide (SpeedSmith)

2009-01-02T03:15:00.000-08:00

Have you looked at the ''quick'' installation guide for Commerce Server 2007?

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=79888.

21 pages of step by step instructions?

Most customers I know just sort of wing it trying to get Commerce Server going and then run into problems because they missed a step.

I needed a Commerce Server 2007 with a Starter Site that I can get up quickly, that I know works, and that I can let the customer change as a Proof of Concept. One option is to give him a virtual machine with everything already installed, but I then I have two options:

1. If I make the machine using evaluation software, next time I want to use the virtual machine much of the time periods are just about to expire.

2. If I use my own versions of software, I cannot leave the virtual machine with the customer. Plus I would like to teach him how to install and change his own machine.

For some situations it is enough to use the virtual labs for Commerce Server, but see that they do not have the Starter Site installed. If I just want to check something on the CSharp site, they are the quickest way I know: (see previous blog)

So here is the real quick installation guide we use in class.

What makes it real quick is that we have already downloaded everything we need onto a USB disk! The 30 days evaluation only starts with Step 1 and with a MSDN Windows 2003, is easily extensible to 120 days. (1 year if you use MSDN Commerce Server and Visual Studio).

Step 0 Download

Download everything you need. This is the longest part of the procedure, but only has to be done once! In class we go directly to step 1.1.

0.0 Download Virtual PC 2007 (30MB).

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=04D26402-3199-48A3-AFA2-2DC0B40A73B6&displaylang=en

? Why not VMWare? Because we want to use the evaluation Virtual machine from Microsoft with Windows 2003 and SQL 2005 Preinstalled.

? Why not Virtual Server 2005 FP1? Because most of our developers have workstations.

I have Virtual PC 2007 already installed, but I have some students who bring their own laptops, and so loaded this down all the same.

0.1 Download Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition 2005 90 Day Trial. (2734.3 MB) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b2c27a7f-d875-47d5-b226-e2578a116e12&DisplayLang=en

We had a DVD already with 180 Day Trial, and just uploaded to disk to speed up the installation. If our students have a MSDN licence, then we use that version.

0.2 Download the Commerce Server 2007 Evaluation Edition 120 Day Trial (62.0 MB)

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/comm/2007/downloads/trials/privacy.mspx

Save yourself time later and unpack this file now.

If our students have a MSDN licence, then we use that version.

0.3 Download Windows 2003 SP2 (62.0 MB)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=95ac1610-c232-4644-b828-c55eec605d55&DisplayLang=en

This came out after the release of Commerce Server, but rolls up many of the smaller patches mentioned in the long installation instructions.

0.4 Download SQL 2005 SP1 (252.7 MB)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=cb6c71ea-d649-47ff-9176-e7cac58fd4bc&displaylang=en

0.5 Download ASP.NET Fix (KB913393) (34MB)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=63706

Save yourself time later and extract KB913393.exe from the CAB file now.

0.6 Download ADO :NET Fix (5MB)

http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/c/5/2c5bcdc9-3241-443a-9f96-4e0b0edfa727/ndp20-kb916002-x86.exe

0.7 Download the Starter Site (1MB)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c1a8cc18-dc9e-4c50-b598-86e640a79910&displaylang=en

Save yourself time later and unpack this file now.

0.8 Download the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit (5,8MB)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=59276.

0.9 Download the Evaluation Virtual machine from Microsoft with Windows 2003 and SQL 2005 Preinstalled. (3504.9 MB)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7b243252-acb7-451b-822b-df639443aeaf&DisplayLang=en

This is the big one! I left it running overnight. Extract the files by clicking on the EXE, but do not start the virtual machine. This step took me 13 minutes. Make a copy now of the extracted files, if something goes wrong during activation you will not have to load them down again.

? Would it not be quicker to create my own virtual machine? As long as you have Windows 2003 installed and the whole of SQL 2005 including Reporting and Analytics, this is fine. But we have done our testing on the Evaluation Virtual Machine we downloaded

? I do not want my version to expire in 30 days. You are given an opportunity later to give a MSDN Windows key, so that the Windows version will not expire.

0.10 Create a virtual disk in an existing Virtual PC using the Wizard. Copy all the downloaded and extracted files from 0.2 to 0.8. into this disk.

Step 1 Preinstallation

1.0 Install Virtual PC 2007, if needed.

1.1 Setup and Start the Virtual PC (3 minutes).

In Virtual PC, run the wizard for new virtual computer. Use an existing virtual computer and point to the vmc file you extracted under Step 0.9. Leave the box checked to enter the configuration. You will get an error message that it is expecting Virtual Server. Click the box not to show this message again and OK. Click Settings and adjust the memory to 700MB or more. Click on Disk2 and link the installation disk you created on Step 0.10. Then, start the Virtual Machine

1.2. Sign in as Administrator and password Evaluation1. Use disk manager to give a drive letter to the installation hard disk.

1.3. Apply Windows 2003 SP2. 20 minutes. Restarts.

1.4 Apply SQL Server 2005 SP1. 20 minutes

1.5 Install Visual Studio 2005. 13 minutes

To speed up the installation I deselected the following:

Visual Basic,

Visual C++

Visual J++

Dotfuscator

Tools for Redistibuting

Crystal Reports

SQL Express Edition

Optional (Install MSDN 15 min)

1.6 Add the following components: (2 minutes)

Indexing Service

Application Server: ASP.Net, DTC

Application Server, IIS: FTP, SMTP Service

When you are asked for the CD browse to the c:\WindowInstallationFiles

1.7 Add the following components:

Run the KB913393.exe from the installation drive you made in step 0.10. (1 minute)

Run ndp20kb916002-x86.exe from the same installation drive (2 minutes) Reboots.

1.8 Add the administrator to the IIS_WPG.

Change the identity of the DefaultAppPool to Administrator

Do this first so can benefit from reboot

2.0 Install Commerce Server 2007

Select all options. It will not reboot. 8 minutes. Uncheck the box for configuration wizard.

Install the Business User Applications ( 1 minute)

Configure Commerce Server with the default options.(but I checked the box for create Virtual Root for staging). Ignore the warnings about Admin privileges and ASP net. (1 minute)

Use the Commerce Server Site Packager and unpack the StarterSite. (4 minutes)

2.1 Create the ASP.NET login in SQL2005 and give him the db_reader role for MSCS_Admin

2.2 Run IIS60rkt.exe from the Installation drive.

Select Programs>IIS Resources > SelfSSL > SelfSSL

From the command prompt type selfssl /t /V:400

2.3 Now import the Starter Site catalog. (1 minute)

From the Install drive, where you had the starter.pup file.

Type:

Sampledataimport c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\StarterSite

And you are done! The installation itself takes just over an hour, which is doable in class. What is not possible in class of 10 students is to expect students to follow 21 pages, and have each student with an installation that works.

Perhaps having everything running as adminstrator might be strange, but wasn't that the way we always used to build evaluation software before? In class, I first demo the working software, and the starter site. When the students are confident that their virtual machine works, we then introduce your favorite utility Azman and start locking things down.

I don't expect that even my 4 page SpeedSmith Installation is without bugs, but I think it is a foundation to build upon. Let me know what you find. I will add blog entries for bugs I find in class. Can we speed it up still further? Windows 2003 SP2 is not strictly necessary, we could do individual hotfixes and save the 20 minutes, but that sounds like a temporary solution. We also want to do some performance tests with updating the virtual machine utilities.

Tip: Misuse the virtual labs!

2009-01-01T03:02:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had Commerce Server 2007 up and running on a virtual pc and then wondered if a setting was correct? Or, you need to explain the BizTalk connectors, but don't have the time to install Biztalk as well on your machine? Or just want do show something about the CSharp site. The virtual labs for Commerce Server 2007 are a great help. Unfortunately they do not have the Starter Site installed, but you remember how much later the Starter Site came. Don't forget, you are essentially using terminal services to connect to a virtual machine, you can basically do anything you like, it will be all discarded when the virtual machine changes are discarded at the end of your lab session. There is no reason to stick to the lab guide. Don't be put off by the registration, you are up and into the virtual machine quicker than you can say: Microsoft.CommerceServer.Profiles.UpmMembershipProvider...

Lab1: Connected Commerce http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6650616This is the BizTalk one. Basically the lab consists of settting up a send port to import a catalog into Commerce Server. Most people with a knowledge of Biztalk say Aha! when they see the dropdown for Commerce Server Catalog in the Port type. (Non-Biztalk people will say nothing during entire lab)

Lab 2: Customizability and Extensibility http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5836744 Adding an audit trail to the Catalog using stored procedures and Visual Studio.

Lab 3: Profile Integration and extension http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5584696 This is a good teaching lab. Adds Dot.Net authentication to Commerce Server and then adds an extra column to the UserObject table. Those who know ASP 2.0 will find the first part trivial, those who know CS 2002 will find the second part trivial, but if you know everything why are you taking a lab?

Mojave Installation Step by Step

2008-11-18T05:04:00.000-08:00

Here are my installation instructions for installing Mojave and Windows SharePoint Services to try out the web parts. (18.11.2008)

Book review time again

2008-08-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

Two books have just come across my desk, as courtesy from Microsoft Press. Microsoft Office SharePoint Best Practices and MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit Windows Presentation Foundation.

Obviously I looked at the SharePoint one first. I am a MindSharp Authorized Trainer and so am not completely independent, but I must admit that I came to the book with considerable skepticism. I already add a lot of best practices from my consulting experience into my classes and so expected to be frustrated by dogmatic opinions that were formed simply by different experience. The book was much more reasonable and less prescriptive than I feared, I would not take every statement as gospel, and obviously there are differences this side of the Atlantic, but it is an excellent start to planning a SharePoint project and is a book that is sorely needed. Pity is has no index.

The Training kit for WPF was especially interesting to me since I had been doing technical writing for Microsoft for much of NET 3.5 but I had concentrated mostly on WCF and WF. This book is fine for its purpose, the style is dry and factual. It does have an index. Not that I wish to be pedantic about indexes, I am preparing an 600 page+ book for publication this year and I might not get a chance to add an index either!

Late breaking information links

2008-07-22T05:37:00.000-07:00

I don't usually do content aggregation on my blog, but there are a couple of links that I have to share.

There is a great post on getting Google to index Commerce Server that I think will affect almost any public site.http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3661687&SiteID=1

I wanted to also mention Wade Wegner's blog on Development Environments at http://www.architectingwith.net/2007/08/11/CommerceServer2007DevelopmentEnvironments.aspx

There seems to be a bug with SiteCacheRefresh under IIS7 which bears watching. http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3600495&SiteID=1

Public Release of Commerce Server Roadmap.

2008-07-18T05:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the information that was released for public distribution at the WPC.

Extra considerations about Commerce Server 2007 SP2

2008-07-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

Note that there is no rollback for SP2.
You also have to make sure that you have no post SP1 hotfixes installed. How do you make sure of this?
See the list of fixes in this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953394/en-us
Or if you are having problems then you may need the CS2007SP1QFERemover tool:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954001/en-us

Unattended install of SP2 is possible but unsupported:
sp2setup /q /msioptions "QUIETINSTALL=1" /NoRestart /Log "%TEMP%\CS2007SP2.log"
And SP2 is English only.

System Center Operation Manager 2007 pack released

2008-03-07T04:15:00.000-08:00

No need to hack the MOM 2005 pack any more, the OM pack for Commerce Server 2007 is released here. But you have to install the backward compatiblity update.

My Session at SharePoint Conference.

2008-02-19T04:11:00.000-08:00

Just preseneted a session at the German SharePoint Konferenz which was combined with the Visual Studio 2008 launch. Hope they will have a Commerce Server conference sometime! Here is a link to my slides.