All posts by Julie

Great .NET Events: Feelin’ left out in the boonies

Just Rambling

Sheesh first it’s David Chappell at Boston.NET and in another few weeks in D.C. Brad Abrams and Kit George are in Atlanta as part of a CLR tour.

I know our beautiful scenery, great maple syrup and small but very warm and engaging .NET community aren’t enough for Microsoft to justify spending big bucks to get people like that here. It requires bigger reasons than a user group and outside of IDX, there really isn’t a potential client big enough in Vermont to justify the trip. Heck we don’t even get MSDN events anymore.

All the more reason for a Vermont.NET Code Camp…. don’t ya think?

http://www.AcehAid.org

Thinking about Team99?

Just Rambling

Robert is tasked with recreating Team 99. Since they are only talking about 20 people, think hard if you really are up for this. Sure it’s an honor and sounds cool, but will you install Longhorn? Play with it a lot? Talk about it a lot? Evangelize it? These are the things you should be willing to do. I know that I definitely can’t make that commitment. I’m too busy with Whidbey and WSE and wegular work (sorry couldn’t help it).

http://www.AcehAid.org

Attempting to install SQL Server 2005 April CTP without repaving the machine

Just Rambling

It didn’t go well.

I used the VS2005 Cleanup tool and then uninstalled all sql server 2005 stuff from the add/remove programs panel. Maybe I didn’t do the sql correctly.

VS2005 Beta 2 installed charmingly. I did not install SQL 2005 Express with that.

Then I ran into a not uncommon problem with my SQL Server 2005 install which told me that all of my key SQL Server stuff was still installed.

Indeed it was still there. And I could not get rid of it.

I found info (thanks Wally) about using MSIINV.EXE (here’s a link to download) to list the offending products, grab their GUIDs and then use MSIEXEC -x to uninstall them but the MSIEXEC failed too… on every single one.

So after the 5 hours I have invested in this, now it’s time to give in and just repave the entire machine.

Since I have to travel with it (so I don’t have to carry two computers) I also need to install a bunch of other stuff on it, so I think my day is shot.

🙁

(No, this box will not handle VPC but thanks in advance for the many suggestions to do so. I will, however, install the base stuff and ghost it before I install any of the beta bits.)

http://www.AcehAid.org

SQL Server 2005 Security for Developers

Community Cheerleading

Don Kiely has an article in the June MSDN Magazine (I still haven’t gotten my copy yet but it is online now) where he looks at what he thinks are the most interesting security enhancements in SQL Server 2005. It’s called Hackers Beware: Keep Bad Guys at Bay with the Advanced Security Features in SQL Server 2005. This is all good stuff for us developers who have to work with SQL Server all the time but still are not DBAs. This will be good reading for my plane trip I am taking tomorrow.

http://www.AcehAid.org

Love my new Dell Optiplex SX280

Tools

Getting this computer fulfilled some of the satisfaction of the Mac Minis, I think, since I got it for a steal!

This box has a really small footprint at about 10″ x 10″ x 3″. It has an Intel 3.2 Ghz processor and usb ports for keyboard and mouse. The video is DVI so it’s ready for digital and multi monitors. It came with 1 GB Ram, a DVD/CDRW combo drive and even a 64MB thumb drive. I got the whole thing (no tax and free shipping) for $374! Okay – so it’s refurbished from the Dell Outlet but it has a 3yr warranty. This was the best geek buy I think I have gotten away with in a long time!!

http://www.AcehAid.org

Beta2 and File Server Web Services – Some problems and solutions

dotNET

I had two problems calling web services with a VS2005 app that I moved from Beta1 (Feb CTP) to Beta2.

I have a client asp.net and a web service app. Both are running on a file based web server, not IIS.

The web service was functioning properly when I ran it directly, but not when I tried to call it from the client app.

Problem #1: Web Server Port #
Error: “No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.”

When you set a web reference to a web service, the port number currently associated with that web service is embedded into the web.config file inside of the <app settings> section.

<add key=“localhost.Service“ value=“http://localhost:1719/MyServices/ServiceFoo.asmx“/>

I had mucked around with moving my files around enough that the saved port number was still in my web.config, but the computer had assigned a new port.

You can edit the web.config to identify the correct port number or just remove and readd the web reference which will update the web.config for you.

Problem #2: Authentication problem
Error: “The request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized.”

This threw me because I was not using IIS and that is such an IIS message. I had an inkling that it was because I had been trying to run vs2005 as a non-admin and I had messing with folder permissions, file sharing, etc. After hours and hours of googling to no avail, I finally noticed the new “NTLM Authentication” setting in the [still very unfamiliar feeling] property pages for the web projects (Start Options). I crossed my fingers and turned off the NTLM Authentication on the web service project, and my problem disappeared.

I believe that this might be related to something that I found listed in the VS Known Issues doc for Beta 2. There was a reference to getting 401’s when doing unit tests in asp.net and the workaround suggested is to remove the credentials.

I hope my pain and suffering saves someone else from wasting a Sunday afternoon. 🙂



http://www.AcehAid.org

Beta2 – Consuming datatables from web services…

dotNET

Although you can now output DataTables from web services in .NET 2.0, there is still a problem when trying to consume them using a web reference in a client project in VS2005. (I know there are plenty of people who think this is evil anyway…)

The problem is apparently in the proxy generation.

Here is the code from the web service:

The web service functions perfectly well.

But when trying to code up the client app to consume this, it does not recognize that the function is returning a DataTable. Instead it has cobbled some of the proxy info together by mistake.

I did submit this but thought I would put it here in case someone else ran into it and thought they were doing something wrong. This worked for me up until one of the recent CTPs where it seemed to be broken.