christopherDeweese.com

Visual Studio/.NET/WCF/LINQ and NIEM Tips

chris — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:30:00 -0500

Over the years while working with .NET and NIEM I’ve run into a few kinks that require a setting tweak or an extra step to get it to work.

.NET General

Choices for working with NIEM Xml (From the .NET Base class library. There are third-party tools out there to assist as well):

Serialization / Deserialization – building objects from Schemas using utilities like Xsd.exe, Wsdl.exe, SvcUtil.exe or an open source tool such as WSCF/WSCF.Blue.
System.Xml – .NET Classes to work directly with Xml Structures. Includes X-Path, Xsd, etc.
Linq to Xml – LINQ queries designed and optimized for Xml. VB.Net supports Xml Literals within class files and intellisense in Linq to Xml queries.

Linq

System.Xml.Linq.XDocument, XElement, et. al. are not Serializable. You cannot accept them as an input or return them as an output from services (Web/Sockets/Queues/etc) or any place that will attempt serialize them.
With Linq to Xml using XDocument or XElement changes the axis for your query. If you parse a string to an XDocument your query starts at the root node. If you parse a string into XElement your query starts from the first element in the Xml and not at the root. Typically this isn’t a major hassle but the problem is that you may not notice it until you actually try a query at run time and do not get the results you expect. (See also Unit Testing!)

WCF

MaxReceivedMessageSize and MaxStringContentLength will be your enemies. Every service you write, you will want to change those values from the default 65536 otherwise callers to your service will get a nice Fault Exception when they send you a message larger than that.
MaxItemsInObjectGraph will need to be adjusted if you are going to be serializing large objects using direct serialization or you try to return a very large list or array of objects.
MaxArrayLength should be adjusted in conjunction with MaxItemsInObjectGraph. Typically you’ll need to adjust both. You’ll use arrays more if you do any interop work between .NET and other technology stacks as Arrays are typically safer for Xml serialization.
For interop scenarios your best bets are to stay with simple data types supported by Xml Schema (Xsd): String, Date, Integer, and arrays thereof. Adding specific .NET types like GUID, List<T>, etc will add additional schemas to your service contract and may cause issues with other technology stacks.
Data Contract Serialization (the default) gives you less control over your Xml messages. Xml Serialization gives you fine grain control and is usually a better fit for working with NIEM in WCF.

Visual Studio

Visual Studio solutions only allow an Xml Namespace to be defined once. If you try to import two XSDs that define the same namespace you will not be able to leverage the Xml Intellisense and document validations provided by the Xml parser in Visual studio. This really comes into play if you attempt to import LEXS digest and payload schemas in the same solution.
Typically I would create a project in a VS Solution just for Xml Schemas. You can use a class library and it is not necessary to reference it from other projects. Schemas are used at the solution level, even when the schemas are in a project.
While navigating an Xml document if you type an opening bracket, select an Xml element, and press tab twice studio will create an Xml fragment with all the required elements.

These are certainly not all the tips, but its a start. Feel free to contact me if you have some to share or have any questions!

Zune Pass and why Microsoft will get $14.99/month from me

chris — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:44:03 -0500

For my 30th birthday I was convinced by my wife and a friend to get something fun, so I went with the Zune HD. The day it came out I chased one down and was filling it with music that night. I encountered the ZunePass trial but decided to hold off as I had a pretty large MP3 collection from years past. Just over a week ago I decided to go for the trial as I found some music I had been searching for and it seemed like a convenient way to get it. A few hours after activating the trial, I was ready to drop $14.99/month.

Here’s why:

Unlimited downloads, any time, any where. If I’m sitting in bed looking for a song and I find it, bam, it’s there. Next time I sync up it’s on my laptop too. You keep the music as long as you pay your subscription and there is no change in the agreements for that music to be subscription eligible. By the way, you can sync the Zune HD wirelessly.

Keep 10 songs per month forever, in raw MP3 format (when available) or in protected WMA. Go DRM free with MP3s at your own risk (i.e., you lose it you may not be able to download it again) or go with DRM protected WMA files and deal with some limitations. The choice is yours and you keep the songs forever whether you keep your subscription or not.

As you listen and rate Zune finds artists for you. Creepy, maybe? Does it get it right? Actually, yes. Scarily so. The Zune software already pegged me as a alt rock/new rock junkie and some of my other tastes are surfacing as well. As of the Zune Firmware v4.3 update the song count glitch on the Zune HD which is good news because the Zune software uses your counts to award badges and find new music for you.

Find like-minded listeners and see what they are listening too. If the Zune software metrics aren’t enough it will point you to like minded listeners. Your Zune account is also tied to your Xbox Live account and it will pull in your friends too. I discovered several of my friends are heavy Zune users. Who knew?

Are there other software packages out there doing this? Yes. Do I care? Not really. For once I’m able to leverage software to help me find music that I wouldn’t otherwise encounter. It also helped me find CDs I lost years ago. Given what I spent on CDs in my youthful years, $14.99/month is a bargain to have access to 1000s of artists and be able to discover music that you won’t find on your typical HD radio stations (Which the Zune HD supports as well). The way I see it is that $10 a month goes to stuff I keep, forever, and the other $4.99 gives me access to anything I want.

Other fun things I didn’t know about the Zune:

Plug it into an available USB Port on your Xbox 360 to play any content off your Zune, including protected content. I’ve taken to playing a little Chopin for the kids to bring some peace to the house.

Earn badges for being a music junkie. Like the Xbox 360 achievement system the Zune software gives you meaningless awards for listening to music. Bragging rights are often worth the price.

Download songs from the marketplace that you hear using the Zune HD’s built in HD radio. Forget scouring the stations website for a playlist, just go get the song already!

Tweets Preserved: NIEM NTE Tweetbook

chris — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:09:42 -0500

Yesterday afternoon @NIEMNTE posted: “#NIEM 2009 National Training Event Tweetbook is posted on-line! http://bit.ly/3kOE90”

This is the first I’ve seen of a Tweetbook and the concept is really a neat one. Weighing in at 84 pages the NIEM NTE Tweetbook collects the tweets from 52 individuals who were actively tweeting during the conference using the #niemnte hashtag. A great way to get a glimpse of what happened during those three days in Baltimore.

If you’ve never seen a Tweetbook or are curious as to what value tweeting could bring to a conference, give it a read. There are lots of great tweets highlighted that show how much you can say in 140 characters.

Fortune Cookie Says…Volume 2

chris — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:02:25 -0500

Following Fortune Cookie Says…Volume 1, this fortune is also very timeless as I can think back to many times in my life when I’ve had to live with some discomfort.

Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. It may get tough.

I know many people that have had some level of discomfort during 2008/2009. The last two years have been “tough all over” as it said. But these are not the only years that we’ve all had to live with some discomfort. Looking back across history we can see many periods in time full of discomfort or talk to relatives who can relate their experiences during those uncomfortable times. For me, the time that taught me the most to be comfortable being uncomfortable was during my struggles with cancer in my early 20’s. There were never any certain answers and everything was based on statistical analysis of survivors and cure rates.

Growing up with a complete Star Wars education, Han Solo tells us best “…never tell me the odds!”

Fortune Cookie Says…Volume 1

chris — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:34:16 -0500

While cleaning out old files I found several fortunes that I kept around because the fortunes seemed very timeless, as fortunes often are.

Past Experience: He who never makes mistakes never did anything that’s worthy.

A very simple statement that reminds us all that mistakes are part of the effort when striving for greatness. If you’re making mistakes, you’re probably doing some things wrong while on your way to doing something right. Learn from the mistakes and keep at it. Bruce Lee reminds us “Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”

I have quite a few of these lying around and I will post them from time to time. Enjoy!

Visual Studio 2010 Project Conversion, Xml Intellisense Improvements, and a Few Other Tips

chris — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:15:36 -0500

A few days ago the VS 2010 Beta 2 was announced and I snagged it from MSDN (MSDN is also sporting a new look and feel which is a nice change!). This evening I finally got around to installing it on my laptop. For Beta 1 I had installed it to my alternate boot-to-VHD copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. But I was feeling risky tonight and installed it on my main copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
The full install weighed in at 6.4gb and included all the bits needed to start developing in Microsoft’s next evolution of Visual Studio.

To get started with VS 2010 I decided to take a copy of the Linq2NIEM project and convert it to 2010 to test out Xml Intellisense, MS Test Changes for VS unit testing as well as the VB Linq to Xml queries which I have grown very fond of in my previous work with NIEM Xml.

I hit a few snags during the conversion process:

The copy of the project still included source binding files – those were removed by the conversion wizard.
The Linq2Niem class library and Linq2NiemTests projects did not convert successfully with the solution. I had to manually convert each project.
Post conversion there were target framework errors pointed out by the Test project. I changed the target framework on the Linq2Niem class library but discovered that you cannot change the target framework on a Unit Test project. This was a little disappointing, but I was able to just create a new project and import my existing test class file and it worked like a charm.

Other things I noticed:

VS 2010 picked up my existing Vibrant Ink theme from my VS 2008 install. This was great because I would have hated to have to go manually pick all those colors :)
Overall performance is improved from Beta 1, or so it seems. Intellisense seems more responsive and the Xml Intellisense seems much faster than in VS 2008.
VB Linq to Xml Intellisense does not provide hints for Abstract element substitutions. The NIEM nc:DateRepresentation is a good example. nc:DateRepresentation can be substituted as nc:Date or nc:DateTime, but neither of those shows up as a choice. This is how things were in VS 2008 so it seems like a connect bug report/suggestion is called for here. You can work around it but you have to fight intellisense to get it to do what you need it to.

Figure 1: At this node the actual element should be nc:ActivityDate – but it’s not displayed

Figure 2: You can see in the query above – nc:DateTime is the appropriate element, however, only the abstract date representation is shown.

Figures 3 & 4 show how the Xml editor properly provides hints for the substitutable elements. Looks like the issue is really in the VB Linq to Xml parser.

Lastly, how about some gratuitous Windows 7 + VS 2008 “Vibrant Ink” porn? Looking good!

Coders 4 Charities: Geeks Give Back!

chris — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:26:26 -0500

The first annual Coders 4 Charities St. Louis was held this past weekend, October 16-18 at the CAIT facility in downtown Clayton, MO. The event brought together over 50 geeks volunteering their time and talent to help nine organizations chosen for IT makeovers. Needs included the setup and configuration of a network server & file shares, website makeovers, a brand new website for an organization that never had one, and applications to help charities fulfill their mission.

None of what was accomplished this weekend would have been possible without the work of Kevin Grossnicklaus who began the process of identifying organizations in need back in March. With the help of the United Way, Kevin identified the nine organizations that were chosen for this years Coders 4 Charities event.

Along with the nine projects were nine team leads, each of which was responsible for doing some pre-event work to determine options for the project they were assigned, selecting a team, and working to execute the plan during the event. I was one of those nine project leads and chose a project for the Violence Prevention Center of Southwestern IL which included a website makeover to provide the center with new capabilities and tools to fulfill their mission by making better use of their on-line presence. Jessica Brandon, the director of the VPC worked closely with me to define their needs and what they would like to have in a website.

Robbie Prince of Royal Solutions the IT provider for the VPC also worked with our team to provide access to the hosting infrastructure. Robbie was able to help us with accessing the web host to install and configure the content management software we used for our project.

The Project

The VPC has an existing website which is static and does not have any dynamic capabilities such as an event calendar, the ability to easily move content, nor the ability to accept on-line donations. Jessica understands the need to have a website that both reflects the organization and provides tools for the organization to maintain their on-line presence to reach their audience and further support the organizations mission. She was very excited to receive a website makeover and worked hard to prepare content for the new website.

Existing site:

Based on the requirements of the project, the hosting environment, and the teams experience I identified Dot Net Nuke as a candidate to provide the content management features. Because of the availability of modules, themes and skins, as well as local resources who are very familiar with Dot Net Nuke it was a good choice overall. Our choice was further validated when we realized that by the end of the weekend we had not written one line of .NET code.

The team researched and identified two specific DNN modules to help meet the VPC’s needs. One was the Calendar & Events module which provides the capability for users to register for events and pay on-line via Paypal. The other was the Forms & List module which provides the capability for the DNN administrators to create forms on their website and have the forms be submitted to the database and an E-mail address.

The Team

Jessica Brandon, Director, VPC SW IL
Rob Brown
Chris Deweese
Pat Illert
Becky Isserman
Ian Lackey
David Phillips
Kevin Queen
Joyce Tritt

Left to right: Rob Brown, David Phillips, Joyce Tritt, Kevin Queen, Jessica Brandon, Chris Deweese

Collaboration Tools

For teams to collaborate, Assembla was selected as the source control and issue tracking system. By the end of the weekend I was the “Ticket Master” and the team was used to my affinity for using tickets in the Assembla system to assign work and track progress. Because we did not write code we only used the version control for the theme and skin files.

I am 100% impressed with Assembla and we will continue to use it beyond this weekend as we support the transition of the website.

The DNN Experience

Three members of the team were moderate to advanced DNN users and greatly helped the rest of us understand DNN concepts & terms and identify the right modules to use. The rest of the team quickly learned the ins and outs of setting up DNN. Initially we started with version 4.8.2 which was the version offered by the web host. Robbie at Royal Solutions used the “Easy” button to install that for us on Friday evening.

The next morning as the team began to add content provided by Jessica, we determined upgrades were needed. We followed some excellent blog posts by Mitch Sellers and upgraded seamlessly from 4.8.2 to 4.9.X and then to 5.1.4.

The Result

Final Thoughts

As I said, none of this would have been possible without the work of Kevin and Jessica, the assistance of Robbie, and the team. Everyone on the team felt strongly enough that we are going to continue supporting the VPC as they transition to the new website and until they feel comfortable with all the new capabilities they have. I can’t say enough good things about everyone involved. They all pitched in and worked hard through the weekend on-site and virtually. Knowing that there are so many geeks in the community that were willing to give their time over the weekend is a good feeling.

As IT professionals we have a unique set of skills that can help organizations fulfill their mission. Having the opportunity to use those skills to benefit organizations in need has been a very fulfilling experience. I come from a background of working with non-profits and I know how hard times are at many of those organizations. The bottom-line is that these organizations needed help and we were able to provide it.

I thank Jessica Brandon and the VPC staff, as well as the other eight organizations for taking a chance on us and allowing us the opportunity to give something back to the community. I look forward to continuing to work with these organizations and a Coders 4 Charities 2010!

A Quiet Week

chris — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:48:41 -0500

The week of being “technically unemployed” has been going well and I’ve had a chance to spend a lot of time with the wife & kids. You probably won’t hear much for another few days as we are ramping up for Coders 4 Charities.

If you haven’t volunteered and have the time, please visit the site and sign-up. I will be working on a website upgrade for the Violence Prevention Center of South Western IL. We’ll post some before & after shots when it’s all done. Our goals are to provide the staff with more content management capabilities as well as an updated look and feel to the site. The director is very excited to be one of the nine charities we will be helping out this weekend.

Check out the news article which features our very own Kevin Grossnicklaus, one of three St. Louis community members awarded with an MVP in October!

NIEM National Training Event 2009 – Focus on Architecture; Focus on Community

chris — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:59:30 -0500

Chris Deweese shaking hands with Kshemendra Paul, Federal Chief Architect (Yes it was Friday and yes that is his @meshirt)
Photo Courtesy Christina Bapst, DHS (using Anthony Hoang’s awesome camera)

The 2009 NIEM National Training event took place from September 30th to October 2nd in Baltimore, MD. I had the honor of attending this years event and delivering two presentations over the three days of the conference. You can view all of the sessions on-line with a free registration here. The sessions were great; a mix of hands on, practical NIEM implementation as well as informational sessions on NIEM and NIEM tools. Instead of typing up a review of the three days of sessions I will skip to the final half-day because that is where the prior days were summed up and the lessons learned and shared really came to life.

The final half-day of the 2009 NIEM National Training Event was a town hall meeting with the IT leaders of this country. Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, Federal Chief Architect Kshemndra Paul, DHS CIO Robert Spires, DOJ CIO Vance Hitch, and DHS EDMO Director Donna Roy. Vivek delivered the closing keynote and the remaining group fielded questions from the audience regarding NIEM, information sharing politics, the implementers community, and more in a town hall style meeting.

The questions were pointed and the answers were open and candid. The group is aware of where things have fell short and aware of where NIEM has enabled the ability to deliver business value at all levels of government. Throughout the closing keynote and the town hall, all members of the panel hit on several key success factors.

Speak to the Business in Terms of Business Value and Not Fancy Technical Terms

The business does not speak your language, they do not speak Xml, NIEM, SOA, IEPD. But they do speak value, and cost savings, vision, and innovation. Speak to the business in those terms. Don’t silo your self by speaking in your language.

“Architecture is a 12-letter word for planning.” –Ksmendra Paul

This was *the* quotable moment for an architect listening to this group. This quote was spoken but Mr. Paul himself, and the others on the panel echoed his sentiments. As federal CIO Vivek Kundra put it, architecture must be used to solve real problems or it becomes an academic exercise. SOA is designed to solve real problems and handle real complexity and that is at the center of the strategies the federal government is using to enable information sharing, reduce costs, and put NIEM to use as the data model standard for federal enterprise projects. These leaders talked about SOA, the bus, and how they are using it to provide value to the American people, reduce IT costs, and remain agile.

NIEM Needs a Community for Implementers to Keep the Grass Roots Effort Going

In a question that took me 10 minutes to build up the nerve to ask, I asked what the plans are to build a community for the implementers because it is the implementers that can help drive NIEM adoption in a way that speaks to the grass-roots which started it. Donna Roy fielded the question and candidly put it that the NIEM committee knows they have not reached out using the best means; using one-way communication with a static website and monthly news-letter. Donna said they need to leverage Web 2.0 and help us collaborate better and that they are working on it. And during her answer Donna paid homage to my humble beginnings as the NIEM Guy, when I started blogging about NIEM because no one else was and I had questions.

Community is where the real connections happen. When I was in front of a room that was 80% full of .NET developers looking to see how to connect the dots of NIEM and .NET, I realized how much of a community we need; because there are many out there who just need some quick answers to point them in the right direction of best practices and how to handle various situations. We need a community that will be open and will bring people in. As Donna phrased it, we need to be more like open source communities.

My pledge to everyone that is part of the NIEM community is that though I am leaving .gov employment, I will remain a part of the community and continue to contribute where I can to help others succeed in bridging the gap in information systems.

Along with all this is a shout out to all the #NIEMNTE Tweeps (in no particular order and I am sorry if I miss some of you!) – let’s keep the tweets going for #NIEM and #NIEMNTE.

Datachick
Malawto
Akprakas
nmccready
g_christensen
NIEMIfy (whoever you are)
NIEMExecDir (Donna Roy herself!)
webbr
Bluemont (thanks for the lift to BWI!)
Jim_Cabral
jbiala
orand
gotNiem
CarlCNelson
NIEMBizArch
Kurt_Cagle
JoelByford

… and all the others I missed. Keep the community going!

LINQ to NIEM On CodePlex

chris — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:37:21 -0500

Following up on the “IEPD Development in the .NET Environment” that I co-presented with Carl Nelson, I have posted the source code to the LINQ to NIEM example on CodePlex at http://linq2niem.codeplex.com/.

Look through the source and shoot me any questions you might have!

There is more NIEM and .NET goodness to come. Stay tuned!