Yves Lorphelin's Weblog

BizTalk 2006 Rule Engine Invoking Static Members of a Class on 64bits

Yves Lorphelin — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:32:08 GMT

To use a static member of a class as a Fact in the Business Rule Engine
, we need to set the StaticSupport registry key under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\BusinessRules\3.0

This is true for the 32bits version of BizTalk on a 64bits the key is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\BusinessRules\3.0

Identify a Nullable Type at runtime

Yves Lorphelin — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:29:46 GMT

Problem:

I want at runtime to check if , in the following , n or i is Nullable<>

Nullable<int> n = 0;
int i = 0;

>
If you read this, http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms366789(vs.80).aspx, you'll think it's impossible.

Well , let's not use reflection, let's have method overloading to the rescue

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Nullable<int> n = 0;
    int i = 0;
    Console.WriteLine(IsGeneric(n)); // returns true
    Console.WriteLine(IsGeneric(i)); // returns false
    Console.WriteLine(n is Nullable<int>); // returns true
    Console.WriteLine(i is Nullable<int>); // returns true
    Console.WriteLine(n is int); // returns true
    Console.WriteLine(i is int); // returns true
}
public static bool IsGeneric(Nullable<int> n)
{
    return true;
}
public static bool IsGeneric (int i)
{
    return false;
}
}>

Food for thought:

What do you think will happens with those pieces of code ?

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Nullable<int> n = 0;
    int i = 0;
    Console.WriteLine(IsGeneric(n));
    Console.WriteLine(IsGeneric(i));
    }
  public static bool IsGeneric(Nullable<int> n)
  {
    return true;
  }
}

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Nullable<int> n = 0;
    int i = 0;
    Console.WriteLine(IsGeneric(n));
    Console.WriteLine(IsGeneric(i));
    }
  public static bool IsGeneric(int i)
  {
    return true;
  }
}

Automatic Updates Hell - I'm not alone

Yves Lorphelin — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 07:32:00 GMT

Seems Wally has the same problem:

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20060818.html

BizTalk 2004 :Value Extractor functoid produces inconsistent results

Yves Lorphelin — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 08:50:07 GMT

Just a quick bookmark

FIX: The Value Extractor functoid may return a value that is not correct when BizTalk Server 2004 is under a heavy load

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;888309&spid=1444&sid=695

Edited 9 August 2006
This KB article suggest that this problem occurs when BizTalk is under heavy load
Well no, we have a production environment that is not under heavy load and that had the exact symptoms described.
Our Biztalk solutions does have a lot of maps that uses a database lookup to the same database table.
Applying the hotfix corrected the situation

The Bloggers Guide to BizTalk: Release 1.8

Yves Lorphelin — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 20:25:29 GMT
I've missed this one by a month.
Alan Smith released a new version (1.8) of The Bloggers Guide to BizTalk .
Check it out on the gotdotnet workspace

Logging to files using EntLib & virus scanner.

Yves Lorphelin — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 16:05:14 GMT

Yesterday I had quite a performance issue on a production server.

I have an intranet Asp.Net application running on this server (Win 2003).
It was reacting so slooooooooowwww after an update of the web application.
A quick look at the event log showed an IIS problem: application pool crash
Application pool 'xxxxxxxxxx’ is being automatically disabled due to a series of failures in the process(es) serving that application pool A process serving application pool xxxxxxxxx' terminated unexpectedly. The process id was '2352'. The process exit code was '0x800703e9'.
What seemed odd because I have the same application running on a test server without any performance issues!

I also noticed that the virus scanner installed on the production machine was taking up to 50% cpu time when users where making requests to the application.

Now after quite some time I realized what mistake I made when upgrading: too much debug logging going on.
I have lot of logging code in this application; I use EntLib for this and configured it to write the logs to files.
My log settings were way too high: so there was too much writing to disk.
The virus scanner had a lot of work checking each write access, hence the high cpu utilization, hence the application pool crashing regularly.

Shutting the debug logging down solved the problem.
Well that was a really silly mistake I made there.

Automatic Updates Hell

Yves Lorphelin — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 09:30:43 GMT

Yesterday I was home,

I started my computer, en begun reading some PDF document.

2 minutes later, ...
Comes the usual Micorosft Update popup 'Updates are available do you want to install them ?'
Why My , ... Yes do that.

2 minutes later, ...
McAfee antivirus pops-up with , 'You're antivirus has been updated , please reboot!'
Why My, ... erh yes do that, ... no wait, I' want the windows update to finish first...

2 minutes later, ...
Not enough time yet to read the first pages of my PDF document, windows update has finished.
Why My, ... erh yes ok reboot for McAfee.

1 reboot later,
I opend my PDF document again,
Adobe Reader pops-up with : "There are update available, do you want to download them ? Choose wich one you want."
Why My, .. erh yes do that.

2 minutes later, ...
Adobe Reader tells me I need to reboot my computer ?@#!? for a READER ?
Why do I need to reboot it's not like adobe reader lives in the kernel...
Why My, ... erh yes do that, ok for this time.

1 reboot later,
I don't open my PDF document again,
I decide to scan my pc for malware and others... I decide to do it with Spybot
Why My , ... erh, I first need to check for updates....
Ok do that, update the definitions.

And I also have Ad-Aware personal , ... I'm going to look for updates there too.

....

#!?#!

Fortnuately Office is updated with Microsoft Update .

Windows Defender also ...
Erh no, ..., Windows Defender just told me there is a new version available...and there is a link to the download.
ARRGGHHHHH another update
Why My, ... erh, yes do that, I'm going to download it.
I wonder If it's need to reboot also ....

....

No no reboot.
But it ask if I want to update my definitions now !
Why my YES DO IT.

....

So How many automatic and not-so-automatic updates ?
About 1 per software I use on my home computer......
About 1 per software I use on my laptop....

....

A few years ago it was DLL hell
Now it's UPDATE HELL!
Each software has now an automatic update feature. I don't mind that, I think it's good.
But It's absolutely not good that each software has it's own way of updatings, it's own settings, it's own timing, it's own reasons - good and bad - for asking a reboot.

...

I want Microsft to provide a SERVICE and an API that every software that runs on windows needs to register to, at installation time.
The service and Api name is "Universal Automatic Update Service"
It allows for a software to tells the "Universal Automatic Update Service" that it has an automatic update feature.
When a software registers to this service, at installation time, an entry is made for this software.

The "Universal Automatic Update Service" is a central configuration tool , it does not install the updates. It might provide some download service.

When I open the management console of the "Universal Update Service" I see a list of all softwares that wants to update themselves.

I can then CHOOSE between

Automatic ( + timing)
Download only
Notify me but don't do anything.
Turn it off.

When I get an update I get a notification BEFORE it installs itself with the following information

What is going to be updated
The severity of the update
That it's going to need a reboot and WHY it thinks it needs a reboot.

The "Universal Automatic Update Service" Management console allows to see the history of all updates made to all registerd software.

And when I get this "Universal Automatic Update Service" I will only install software that make use of the update service.
Any sofware that has an automatic update feature NOT using the "Universal Automatic Update Service" will be erased from my systems.

End Of Automatic Update Hell.

My daughter is one year old

Yves Lorphelin — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 14:48:29 GMT

My love for you grows by the day.

Windows Workflow Foundation is not...

Yves Lorphelin — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 19:52:17 GMT

...a tool for Business Analyst, that's what I think... Not in it's present form anyway.

There seems to be some confusion about that. WWF is, in it's present form, a developper tool.

People ask about swiwlanes, role/resource management,... Windows Workflow foundation does not provide that kind of functionality. It's "just" a workflow engine.

www.perdu.com

Yves Lorphelin — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 16:08:01 GMT

is back online :-) saved