Jeff Lynch [MVP]

Commerce Server 2007: Importing Excel Catalog Data

2008-05-08T14:07:30Z

This just came up in the Commerce Server forums and I wanted to remind everyone that FarPoint Technologies has an Excel parser component (FarPoint Spread for BizTalk Server 2006) that can be used to create a simple process for uploading Excel catalog data into Commerce Server 2007.

The FarPoint website contains training videos, the case study I participated in, and lots of other technical information on this very cool tool!

If you missed my previous posts, you should take a look!

BizTalk Server 2006- Excel Parser News!

BizTalk Server 2006- FarPoint XLS File Pipeline Component Schema Wizard

BizTalk Server 2006- FarPoint Spread for BizTalk Server 2006 Beta

BizTalk Server 2006- FarPoint's Spread for BizTalk Server 2006 Released!

Just ping me at jeffrey.t.lynch@[nospam]comcast.net if you need a copy of my entire BizTalk solution for this. It's free of charge for any existing Commerce Server customer that buys the FarPoint Spread for BizTalk Server 2006 component as my way of saying thanks!

Best regards,

Jeff

ASP.NET "Head" Rendering Issues!

2008-05-02T22:05:34Z

Are you one of "those" ASP.NET web developers that care passionately about not only about writing "good" code, but writing "easily" understood and "readable" code? Are you looked upon as perhaps a little bit "obsessive" about your code? Do you understand what "semantic" really means?

If the answer is yes, have you ever looked closely at the HTML markup your ASP.NET code generates? I mean taken a really, REALLY close-up look?

If you have and you're anything like me, it bugs the hell out of you when adding something as simple as <head runat="server"> produces this mess in the <head> of your otherwise beautiful HTML markup.

Of course, there are ways to fix this mess. You could always forget using Master Pages and code each .aspx page by hand or even write your own base-page class like I've seen done. You could even revert to using "static" .html pages with JavaScript and forget about all the great features .NET brings to web development. Or you could just forget about ever creating truly "semantic" HTML markup using ASP.NET!

However, if you Google (or Live Search) long enough, you'll find a few posts about something called Adaptive Control Behavior in the MSDN Library and three very well hidden posts by Anatoly Lubarsky with some great sample code!

http://blogs.x2line.com/al/archive/2007/01/10/2773.aspx

http://blogs.x2line.com/al/archive/2007/01/31/2814.aspx

http://blogs.x2line.com/al/archive/2007/01/31/2816.aspx

These three posts and the sample code you can download here, turn this code ...

into this markup ...

which is exactly what the <head> element of any respectable HTML markup should look like! And yes, I know it doesn't matter one hoot to the browser (even IE6) which will faithfully render the web page correctly, but IT MATTERS TO ME.

I use "View Source" and Firebug almost every day to look at my own markup as well as the markup of sites who's authors I respect. I want my markup to look every bit as professional as the markup of a professional web "designer" such as Dan Cederholm, John Gruber or Andy Clarke.

Don't you?

Currently listening to: "Caravan of Dreams" by Peter White

More Thoughts on HTML5, CSS3 & WebKit Advances!

2008-04-25T17:28:00Z

Yesterday I wrote a post on Why Safari May Become the Browser of Choice and got some great feedback (both positive and negative) in the comments and several emails. I thought I'd take this opportunity to address this feedback and explain a little bit more about why I believe these new "features" in WebKit are so important to the future of web development and design.

First off, let me set the record straight and tell you that I am an unqualified supporter of Microsoft technologies such as SQL Server, BizTalk Server, Commerce Server and the .NET Framework. I'm also a Microsoft MVP for Commerce Server and an avid C#, ASP.NET and BizTalk developer. In my day job, I use these Microsoft technologies to create business-to-business e-commerce applications for the company that I work for.

But at night and on the weekends, I moonlight as a free-lance web designer/developer using mostly non-Microsoft technologies such as Ajax, PHP & mySQL. In both areas I strive to create "standards" based web sites and applications and my overriding goal is always to "create the best user experience requiring the least bandwidth" and this is where WebKit comes in.

Think about how we (ASP.NET) developers create great user experiences today and two things come to mind; ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight. Both technologies allow you to create really great user experiences on the web but only at the cost of bandwidth (download time, initial or otherwise). The same rule holds true for Flash and any Ajax library such as Prototype, script.aculo.us or jQuery (all of which are excellent Javascript frameworks).

Now think about our potential to create great user experiences using nothing more than the new HTML5 and CSS3 capabilities found in the latest WebKit builds. Gradients, shadows and rounded-corners without images, transforms and animation without Javascript, client-side data that goes way beyond cookies and support for highly compressible vector graphics (SVG). All in a fully "standards" based HTML/XHTML/CSS framework that (hopefully) renders the same in all browsers, both desktop and mobile.

Now we're talking about actually having the tools to "create the best possible user experience requiring the least bandwidth". This may be a pipe dream but it looks like the WebKit folks and I are drinking the same Kool-Aid at the moment!

Currently listening to: "Still Feels Good" by Rascal Flatts

Why Safari May Become the Browser of Choice!

2008-04-24T17:04:23Z

If you're a web designer, web developer or just someone that keeps up with the latest "Web 2.0" technologies, you know that a lot of progress is being made by ALL the major browsers to become "standards compliant". You also know that the Web Standards Project has created a number of "Acid" tests that help all the browser developers ensure that their browser works as "expected". If you're an experienced web designer or developer, you probably use several different browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera, Camino, Safari, etc.) to test your sites against everyday.

What you may not be aware of is some of the very "advanced" features Safari (WebKit actually) has in the works which may well change the way we think about developing Web 2.0 applications.

If you look at any one of these new features individually, they are very cool! If you look at integrating these new features together, you begin to see the potential for replacing today's Javascript (Ajax) "eye-candy" with native browser rendering support!

And why you ask, is WebKit (and Safari) pushing these advanced features out the door so quickly?

Safari on iPhone!

Starts you thinking, doesn't it!

Currently listening to: Eric Merienthal's "Just Around the Corner"

Consolas Font: Old Age & Tired Eyes!

2008-04-23T13:56:39Z

There is a great little post on this morning's IEBlog that talks about the (relatively) new Consolas font and how to enable it for use in a command prompt!

Here's an excerpt from the post...

Bryn Spears on the Internet Explorer team gave me the following simple instructions to turn on Consolas in the CMD Window:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont" /v 00 /d Consolas

logoff

Note: In Windows Vista, you need to run the reg command from an elevated command prompt.

When you log back in, Consolas will be an option in the “Command Prompt” Properties. (n.b., Bryn tells me it actually shows up before you relog, but it won’t work.)

You can install Consolas on your Windows system even if you don’t have Vista or Office 2007 with a free download from Microsoft.com

Being an old fart, I've really come to appreciate the little things in life, like a 22" wide-screen monitor and the new Consolas font in Visual Studio 2008.

Thanks to the IE team for explaining how to enable this in a command prompt!

Jeff

I'm Back (Sort Of)!

2008-03-22T19:33:00Z

I'd really like to thank everyone for your kind words, notes of concern and continued readership. My health issues have still not been diagnosed (constant lower back pain, uncontrolled muscle spasms in the lower back and legs and sometimes severe muscle cramps) but my daily regimen of medication, physical therapy, exercise and prayer seem to be working and my condition has stabilized to the point where I feel I can blog once again.

My first order of business will be to answer the backlog of questions and comments that I've received over the past several months and to let you know about some of the exciting new projects I'm working on.

iPhone E-Commerce Using Commerce Server 2007, ASP.NET 3.5 & Apple's iPhone SDK!

Yes, you've read it correctly and I'd like to begin by apologizing to the Windows Mobile folks but Apple offers a much (MUCH) better user experience in Safari on iPhone than Microsoft does on Internet Explorer Mobile. Safari on iPhone is a much faster and more standards compliant browser than the current version of IE Mobile and those two factors alone make the iPhone / iPod Touch a much more compelling platform to target for a mobile e-commerce web application.

Having said that, I still feel that Commerce Server 2007 running on IIS 6 or 7 using ASP.NET 3.5 (web forms & ASP.NET AJAX or the new ASP.NET MVC) offers a much more robust development platform one which to create a data driven web app than any of the other platforms out there!

Combine Commerce Server's profiles, catalog and basket systems with the clean, standards compliant XHTML markup possible in ASP.NET 3.5, along with the CSS2.1 / CSS3 UE goodness found only in the iPhone SDK's new version of Safari on iPhone and Dashcode and you've got a potential winner!

Putting this all together should prove to be one of the most exciting projects I've ever worked on and a whole lot of fun!

Commerce Server 2007: Development Tip #4 - Returning Site Terms

2008-01-09T00:00:00Z

I'm going to repost this series of "development tips" related to Commerce Server 2007 to help other folks get started with their development work. All of these "tips" come directly from what I've learned (the hard way) over the past eight months and are intended to save you time and effort. All code samples are now based upon the RTM version and have been tested in our production environment.

Tip #4 - Returning Site Terms

One of the really great things about ASP.NET 2.0 is just how easy it is to bind data to server controls like the DropDownList. Commerce Server 2006 includes many new "bindable" collections and custom DataSets which take advantage of this feature of ASP.NET 2.0.

<asp:DropDownList
ID="UserRoleDropDownList"
DataSourceID="UserRolesDataSource"
DataTextField="Name"
DataValueField="Value"
runat="server"
TabIndex="8">
</asp:DropDownList>

<asp:ObjectDataSource
ID="UserRolesDataSource"
runat="server"
OldValuesParameterFormatString="original_{0}"
SelectMethod="GetUserRoles"
TypeName="UserManager">
</asp:ObjectDataSource>

In the .aspx code shown above I've created a simple DropDownList bound to an ObjectDataSource which calls the GetUserRoles() select method to return a SiteTermElementCollection (new in CS2007) which can be directly bound to any list control.

public SiteTermElementCollection GetUserRoles()

        // Get the SiteTermElementCollection for data binding on the site

        return CommerceContext.Current.ProfileSystem.GetSiteTerm("user_role").Elements;

Commerce Server 2007: Development Tip #1 - Returning a User's Catalogs

2008-01-07T22:15:00Z

I've decided to repost several of my older Commerce Server 2007 posts after spending some time reviewing questions on the Commerce Server forums. Please note: I've edited the code in this post to better explain exactly how to return a user's catalogs in the site.

Question: "How Do I Return the User's Catalogs in the Commerce Server 2007 Site Code?"

Tip #1 - Return a User's Catalogs

Commerce Server 2007 brings many changes and improvements, especially in the "Catalog" subsystem. First and foremost, the "Catalog" subsystem now returns strongly-typed objects in many cases which greatly simplifies your site code.

The following code returns a strongly-typed "CatalogsDataSet" using the new CatalogSetsContext.GetCatalogs(CatalogSetId) method.

This example could obviously be extended to fall back to one of the two default CatalogSets (DefaultUserCatalogSet or AnonymousUserCatalogSet) as well and the new strongly-typed DataSet can be directly bound to any number of ASP.NET 2.0 server controls or to (my personal favorite) the ObjectDataSource as it's "Select" method.

Off Topic: Quiet Time

2008-01-04T22:10:00Z

I'd like to apologize to everyone that regularly reads my blog and has been awaiting something (anything) new. I've been having some health issues over the past nine months that culminated in several hosptial stays including emergency surgery on Christmas eve. The bad news is that not all of my conditions have been fully diagnosed so the doctors are treating the symptoms rather than working on a cure. The good news is that my emergency surgery went just fine and I've returned to work this week. I plan to continue blogging as time and energy permits but my posts may be a little more sporatic than usual.

I'd really like to thank everyone that reads my blog and send in comments. Your continued readership and support really means a lot to me!

Jeff Lynch

BizTalk Server 2006 R2: Small Installation Gotcha!

2007-09-19T19:30:34Z

The BTS2006 R2 install guide points to the BTS2006 CAB files and this may cause errors during installation or configuration of R2. Microsoft has issued a KB article (KB 942181) that points to the correct CAB files. This only applies if you download the CAB file yourself. If you let the install routine download the CAB file, then everything works just fine.

And yes, the KB article also includes the CAB files for running BizTalk Server 2006 R2 under Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit!

Technorati Tags: BizTalk Server 2006 R2

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Finally Arrives!

2007-09-12T23:27:00Z

I apologize for being noticeably quiet for the past few months but it's been a very busy summer with lots of work and little free time for blogging.

The BizTalk (Connected Systems Group) team has done an excellent job and shipped the latest version of their flagship product BizTalk Server 2006 R2. In many ways this is much more than just an"R2" release, especially with all the new adapters, accelerators and partners (like GXS that we work with) involved. Not to mention built in support for EDI, AS2 and RFID. In other ways it's a great "upgrade" release from BizTalk Server 2006 since all your old BTS2006 assemblies and projects should work perfectly on "R2".

Click here for a larger view

As you can see from the screen shots above, all aspects of BizTalk Server 2006 R2 run just fine on Windows Vista with the exception of those features that require Windows SharePoint Services. I know this feature seems small but I have a very hefty new Dell D830 notebook as my main development machine and it's just a lot more productive developing under Vista and then testing on a Win2K3 virtual machine.

And in case you're wondering what I've really been up to for the past few months you can read about it in the following Microsoft case studies (shameless personal plug)

Industrial Seal Maker Eliminates the Uncertainty from Electronic Invoicing

Global Distributor Avoids Cost, Risk While Upgrading Mission-Critical Data Warehouse

Seal Maker Expects $5 Million Revenue Boost from Internet Ordering System

The only thing lacking in BizTalk Server 2006 R2 is support for development running under Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 but I expect the BizTalk team will issue a service pack sometime after Visual Studio 2008 ships later this year or early next year.

On a final note, I'd just like to say thanks to Mitch Stein MSFT] and Richard Hughes [MSFT] as well as the PSS folks for all their support and help during our testing and deployment. You folks ROCK!

Technorati Tags: BizTalk Server 2006 R2

E-Commerce News: Commerce Server 2007 & BizTalk Server 2006 R2

2007-07-01T14:40:00Z

I apologize for being such an infrequent blogger lately but it's been a very busy spring and I'm just now getting caught up on all my projects. To get things rolling again, here's some e-commerce related stuff that's been happening around the net.

Max Akbar leaves Microsoft and forms new Commerce Server training company!

Max decided to leave Microsoft and head back to sunny California to be closer to friends and family. Max has been an important part of the Commerce Server team for many years, serving as a Program Manager and Senior Product Manager. I've known Max for several years now and he is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced Commerce Server guys around. Contact Max via his new web site (http://commerceservertraining.com) for an excellent Commerce Server trainer and consultant!

Wade Wegner is writing the definitive guide to Commerce Server 2007!

Wade Wegner is hard at work on his new book Professional Commerce Server 2007 to be published by Wrox sometime in late 2007 or early 2008. I can't wait to give it a full read! You should also check out Wade's blog.

Commerce Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Released!

The Commerce Server team has released the first service pack for Commerce Server 2007 which includes support for Windows Vista and some urgently needed bug fixes. You can read all about it on the team's blog. Wade has also posted a complete setup walk-through and configuration walk-through that you should read before installing the service pack on any of your development or production servers.

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and Commerce Server 2007 Work Great Together!

I've been using the Commerce Server 2007 BizTalk Adapters on BizTalk Server 2006 R2 for a few months now and they work just fine together! The BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Beta release is really a feature release and everything I've developed for BizTalk Server 2006 works just great on R2, especially my Commerce Server related applications.

Commerce Server 2007: Mapping the OrderGroupCollection Schema (Series Post #3)

2007-05-12T20:29:00Z

This is the third post in my Commerce Server 2007 B2B Solution Development series and if you've been following the first two posts (1, 2), you'll remember that I like to "begin with the end in mind". In Commerce Server 2007 terms, this means figuring out how to map the XML produced by the Orders Receive Adapter (OrderGroupCollection schema) to something a little easier to work with as you integrate your Commerce Server orders into your ERP system.

BTW, this is one of the most widely asked questions I've seen in the past year and there's nothing in the Commerce Server docs to suggest how to use the XML produced by the Orders adapter.

The new Orders Receive Adapter produces a single message type which is used to periodically export order information from the Commerce Server Orders subsystem. This adapter is unique among the four new adapters in that it performs everything within a transaction, which allows roll-back in case of an error. The Orders adapter produces an XML document which conforms to the OrderGroupCollection schema as shown below from the BizTalk Schema Editor.

Since this schema was developed to match the Commerce Server Orders subsystem it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to use the XML produced by it “as is.” This is where the BizTalk Map comes in to play. In most cases, you’ll want to “normalize” the XML documents received from the Orders Adapter by mapping to some standard XML schema used by your organization. In our case, we normalize all inbound purchase orders (whether from an external trading partner or from Commerce Server) to an internal format that’s easier to work with and one which “fits” better into our existing BizTalk applications. This normalized XML sales order schema is shown below.

One of the challenges in mapping from the OrderGroupCollection schema is how to map weakly-typed (indexer) properties found in the various elements within the schema. Luckily, the BizTalk Mapper tool includes several functoids that make this process pretty simple. In the example below, the Equal functoid returns true if it finds a certain string in the WeaklyTypedProperty element’s Name attribute and the Value Mapping (Flattening) functoid will then map the Value attribute to the shipping_method_name attribute in the outbound schema. Using these two functoids, you can “look up” all the weakly-typed properties used in your Commerce Server application by their name and map them as needed.

Another challenge in mapping from the OrderGroupCollection schema is how to map the correct OrderAddress attributes, since the OrderAddress elements are located on the same level as the OrderForm they correspond to in the schema. This makes mapping using standard techniques very difficult but thankfully, BizTalk Server includes some advanced functoids created for just this kind of mapping challenge.

In the sample shown below, I’ve used the Database Lookup and Value Extractor functoids linked to the ShippingAddressId attribute to lookup all the required address information directly from the Commerce Server “transactions” database. Since the ShippingAddressID property is set in the Commerce Server web application and persisted to the “transactions” database, it should be present in all saved orders. A word of caution should be noted however. The Database Lookup and Value Extractor functoids call the database directly from the BizTalk map and as such, they could cause performance issues when used in a high volume scenario. Always test your BizTalk applications thoroughly before deploying into your production environment.

Obviously, mapping from the Commerce Server OrderGroupCollection schema directly to the schema used by your ERP system is "possible" but in my experience, mapping to a simpler XML schema (normalizing) and then to your final schema is much more effective. Remember, in BizTalk Server you can map on a Receive Port, a Send Port, in an Orchestration or in any combination of the three. This flexibility makes it possible to map from the OrderGroupCollection schema to just about any schema you require.

Team Foundation Server: Corporate Development Branching Scenario Questions

2007-05-11T17:37:00Z

I’ve read the Team Foundation Server Branching Guidance several times but I still have some questions I’m hoping the development community at large can help answer.

The small team I lead does typical corporate development projects including data warehousing, business-to-business integration, e-commerce and intranet/extranet web applications. We develop all our corporate “applications” using Microsoft tools such as Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite, SQL Server 2005, BizTalk Server 2006 and Commerce Server 2007. Our development efforts are driven by both internal customers and external trading partners and all projects continue to “evolve” over time, adding new scenarios as the business continues to grow.

Although we don’t use this term, we “continuously integrate” these new scenarios into our TFS projects at a very rapid pace and deploy them on an “as needed” basis. We rarely “roll back” something that we have deployed and we tend to fix our “bugs” as we (or our internal or external users) find them. I believe this is a pretty typical corporate development scenario. What we need is guidance on setting up a branching/merging strategy that “fits” a corporate development scenario where “releases” are small and incremental (such as deploying a new SQL Reporting Service report or SSIS Package) and happen very often (sometimes several per week).

Today, we use a “branch per major release” strategy and only create a new branch when we need to temporarily maintain our “Release 1.0” code while deploying a “Release 2.0” to our users. After deploying the “Release 2.0” bits we discontinue supporting the “Release 1.0” branch. So far, we have never merged from branch to branch.

Questions:

1) Is this a legitimate branching strategy for a small corporate development team?

2) If not, how do we deploy a more traditional DEV/MAIN/PRODUCTION strategy without the “overhead” of merging almost continuously?

Team Foundation Server: Orcas Beta 1 Install Works Great!

2007-05-07T18:58:00Z

I spent most of the morning setting up my new server and installing / configuring my new Team Foundation Server Orcas Beta 1 instance. The installation went perfectly with no errors, hick-ups or warnings! As with TFS 2005, follow the installation instructions EXACTLY (especially when creating the three domain accounts you'll need) and don't skip any steps. The Team Build install also went flawlessly.

Kudos to Brian Harry and his entire team!