How To : SAP Integration with .Net 4.0 (SAP Connection Manager) & SharePoint

This is a simple, C# class library project to connect .NET applications with SAP.

 

This component internally implements SAP .NET Connector 3.0. The SAP .NET Connector is a development environment that enables communication between the Microsoft .NET platform and SAP systems.

This connector supports RFCs and Web services, and allows you to write different applications such as Web form, Windows form, or console applications in the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.

With the SAP .NET Connector, you can use all common programming languages, such as Visual Basic. NET, C#, or Managed C++.

Features
Using the SAP .NET Connector you can:

Write .NET Windows and Web form applications that have access to SAP business objects (BAPIs).

Develop client applications for the SAP Server.

Write RFC server applications that run in a .NET environment and can be installed starting from the SAP system.

Following are the steps to configure this utility on your project

Download and extract the attached file and place it on your machine. This package contains 3 libraries:

SAPConnectionManager.dll
sapnco.dll
sapnco_utils.dll

Now go to your project and add the reference of all these four libraries. Sapnco.dll and sapnco_utils.dll are inbuilt libraries used by SAP .NET Connector. SAPConnectionManager.dll is the main component which provides the connection between .NET and SAP.

Once the above steps are complete, you need to make certain entries related to SAP server on your configuration file. Here are the sample entries that you have to maintain on your own project. You need to change only the values which are marked in Bold. Rest remains unchanged.

<appSettings>
<add key=”ServerHost” value=”127.0.0.1″/>
<add key=”SystemNumber” value=”00″/>
<add key=”User” value=”sample”/>
<add key=”Password” value=”pass”/>
<add key=”Client” value=”50″/>
<add key=”Language” value=”EN”/>
<add key=”PoolSize” value=”5″/>
<add key=”PeakConnectionsLimit” value=”10″/>
<add key=”IdleTimeout” value=”600″/>
</appSettings>

To test this component, create one windows application. Add the reference of sapnco.dll, sapnco_utils.dll, andSAPConnectionManager.dll on your project.

Paste the below code on your Form lode event

SAPSystemConnect sapCfg = new SAPSystemConnect();
RfcDestinationManager.RegisterDestinationConfiguration(sapCfg);
RfcDestination rfcDest = null;
rfcDest = RfcDestinationManager.GetDestination(“Dev”);

That’s it. Now you are successfully connected with your SAP Server. Next you need to call SAP business objects (BAPIs) and extract the data and stored it in DataSet or list.

Demo Code available on request!!

NEW MS TEST MANAGER TOOL AVAILABLE!!

Copy and Cloning Test Suites and Tests  OVER Team Collections

MTM Copy  can copy and cloning Test Suites and Tests over Team Projects and Team Collections.

Since 2012 Microsoft Introduce Clone feature from Microsoft Test Manager 2012, but you can only clone in the SAME Team Project ONLY . http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh543843.aspx

1. Empty Team Project

1. Open MTM Copy Tool, specify the Source and Target Team Projects, can be on Different Collections.
2. On the mapping panel select the desire Test Plans, Test Suites and Test Cases you wish to Clone.

1. Create Test Plan on Target Project, or select an existing Test Plan.

1. Click “Start Migration”, and you’re done!

1. Each Test Case that were copy is saved in Completed Items Mapping, this will prevent copy that save Test Case twice to prevent duplication’s.

 

How To : Understanding and Use the Search logic for Silverlight controls in Coded UI Test

Understanding the Search logic for Silverlight controls in Coded UI Test

 

One of the primary objectives during recording in Coded UI Test is to generate a robust search condition for a UI control to be uniquely identifiable during playback. In this post I’ll mention some of the search logic specific to the Silverlight UI Automation support within Coded UI Test introduced in the VS 2010 Feature Pack 2.

Search condition generation during Recording

 

For Silverlight control, Coded UI Test relies primarily on the Automation properties of the control. The sequence of looking for a search property in order descending of priority is

AutomationId,

Name,

LabeledBy,

HelpText,

AccessKey,

AcceleratorKey

Specific controls support additional searchable properties. For instance, Button supports  “DisplayText”, Image supports “Source”, DataGrid Cell supports “ColumnIndex” searchable property and likewise. The various search configurations mentioned here are applicable to Silverlight control search too (except for the SearchConfiguration.VisibleOnly configuration).

For a Silverlight object hosted in IE, the search hierarchy will consist of an IE search part and Silverlight search part –

 

Top Level Window à {IE Search Hierarchy} à Silverlight Root Visual Element à Parent of Target Element à Target Element.

 

Additional hierarchy can be generated in between the Parent and Silverlight Root Visual element based on the specific control requirement. For example, certain controls such as Datagrid, Tree, TreeItem, Tab, List Item are, at almost all times, included in the search hierarchy if they are found in the ancestor hierarchy of the target element. As an example, the extended search hierarchy of a DataGrid Cell will show up as something like

 

TopLevelWindow à {IE Search Hierarchy} à Root Visual Element (Silverlight) à DataGridTable (Silverlight) à DataGridRow(Silverlight) à DataGridCell (Silverlight)

 

 

Search path during Playback

 

The overall search logic remains identical to what is followed in other UI technologies. It is a breadth first search wherein the top level window is first searched and used as a container for searching the next control in the search condition hierarchy. This is done recursively until the leaf control in the search hierarchy is found.

 

As an example, for a simple button inside a Silverlight page, the search hierarchy will be typically of the format –

 

TopLevelWindow à Document (IE BODY Tag) à Pane (IE DIV Tag) à Custom (IE OBJECT Tag) à Root Visual Element (Silverlight) à Button (Silverlight).

 

For the top-down search till the IE Object Tag, the existing search features and settings in Coded UI Test are applicable. Once the search switches to the Silverlight technology (i.e. Root Visual element of the Silverlight page), there are few limitations to the search.

 

What is missing currently in Silverlight control search?

 

1. PlaybackSettings.ShouldSearchFailFast

• This setting is not honored currently. However, there is some level of customization that can be done using the PlaybackSettings.SearchTimeout and the Playback.PlaybackSettings.WaitForReadyTimeout settings to tweak the timeout at which the search should abort. The later may not seem obvious, and is hence explained in more detail in a section below.

 

2. PlaybackSettings.MatchExactHierarchy

Silverlight control search does not currently honor  MatchExactHierarchy = false. So, the search condition specified for the entire Silverlight hierarchy needs to be accurate for the search to succeed. In the above example, it is the Root Visual Element and the Button control.

 

3. Playback.PlaybackSettings.SmartMatchOptions

• Control level smart match is not currently supported i.e. Control

Note that Regex match is not yet supported in Coded UI Test. So the only option available is to specify the PropertyExpressionOperator.Contains condition operator in the search properties.

For example, if the button’s name is of format “Submit<SomeDynamicId>”, the search property can be defined as –

uISubmitButton.SearchProperties.Add(“Name”, “Submit”, PropertyExpressionOperator.Contains);

 

4. There is no concept of FilterProperties as supported in Web Technology in Coded UI Test.

 

 

How to handle search failures because of slow page loading?

 

If the XAP download takes a huge amount of time to load, the search during playback would fail since the Silverlight controls will not have been rendered in the visual tree. The internal search algorithm uses a wait and retry logic to search for a control while checking the visual tree rendering status at each wait interval (this time interval is upped exponentially on each iteration).

I will not be explaining the details here, but the important thing to note is that if there is no rendering happening within a polling interval, the search will return with failure status.

This polling interval is currently set to half of the Playback.PlaybackSettings.WaitForReadyTimeout which has a default value of 60 seconds (i.e. the default polling interval is 30 seconds). So to tackle slow page loading time, you can configure this Playback.PlaybackSettings.WaitForReadyTimeout to a desired value.

Note: Playback.PlaybackSettings.WaitForReadyTimeout does affect the normal search failure time in scenarios where there is some visual rendering happening in the Silverlight page. So you would need to strike an appropriate balance based on the type of application you are testing.

How To : Automate a Test Case in Microsoft Test Manager & Setup Automated Build-Deploy-Test Workflows

To automate a test case, link it to a coded test method. You can link any unit test, coded UI test, or generic test to a test case. You’ll want to link a test method that performs the test described by the test case. Typically these are integration tests.

The results of automated and manual tests appear together. If the test cases are linked to backlog items, stories, or other requirements, you can review the test results by requirement.

Link test cases to test methods

You can make links one at a time, or you can generate test cases from an assembly of test classes.

Link a single test case to a test method

1. Using Visual Studio, create or choose a test method. It can be an ordinary test method, a coded UI test, ordered test, or a generic test method.

   Check the method into Team Foundation Server.

   Keep the solution open in Visual Studio.

2. Open the test case in Visual Studio.
   
3. Associate the test method with your test case.
   

   If you want to change or delete the association later, choose Remove Association.

We don’t recommend linking load tests or web tests to test cases.

Create test cases from an assembly of tests methods

1. Open a Developer Command Prompt, and change directory to the output director of your Visual Studio solution.

   cd MySolution\MyProject\bin\Debug

2. To import all the test methods from the solution:

   tcm testcase /collection: CollectionUrl /teamproject:MyProject /import /storage:MyAssembly.dll /category:”MyIntegrationTestCategory“

   The category parameter is optional but recommended. You only want to create test cases from integration or system tests, which you can mark by using the [TestCategory (“category”)] attribute.

3. In the Test hub in Team Web Access or in Microsoft Test Manager, use Add Existing to add the test cases to a test suite.

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Set Your Test Plan to Use Your Build

Provide the build location so that the test method can be found.

1. In Microsoft Test Manager, choose Testing Center, , Properties.
2. Under Builds, set Filter for builds. You can set the build definition and quality attribute of the builds you want to choose from.
3. Choose Modify to assign a build to the test plan. You can compare your current build with a build you plan to take. The associated items list shows the changes to work items between the builds. You can then assign the latest build to take and use for testing with this plan. For more information, see What development has been done since a previous build?.

I’m not using Team Foundation Build to build my application and tests. How can I run automated lab tests?

Create a build definition that contains just the location where your assemblies are shared. Then create a fake instance of this build from the developer command prompt:

TfsCreateBuild.exe /collection:http://tfsservername:8080/tfs/collectionname /project: projectname /builddefinition:”MyBuildDefinition” /buildnumber:”FakeBuild_1.0″

Specify the build definition in your test plan.

Create a Lab Environment and Settings to Run Your Tests

To run your automated tests tests using Microsoft Test Manager, you must use a lab environment. It must have roles for each of the client and server machines used in your tests. (If you’ve used lab environments for manual tests, notice that automated tests must have a machine for the client role.)

1. Create or choose either a standard lab environment or an SCVMM lab environment.

   If you create a new environment, choose a machine for each role.

   

   If you’re planning to run coded UI tests, configure it on the Advanced page of the wizard. This sets the test agent to run as a user. You have to supply a user name under which the agent will run.

   We recommend that you use a different user account than the lab service account used by the test controller.

   
2. Set the test plan to use your environment for automated tests.
   
3. If you want to collect more than the basic diagnostic data from the test machines, create a test settings file.
   

   In the test settings wizard, choose the data you want to collect for each machine.

   

Run the Automated Test

Start automated tests the same way you do manual tests.

In Microsoft Test Manager, choose Testing Center, . Then select a test suite or an individual test and choose .

If you want to run a test in a different environment or with different test settings, choose Run with Options.

If you want to run an automated test manually, choose Run with Options.

If you have multiple build configurations, the test assemblies to run the automated tests are searched for recursively from the root directory of the build drop folder. If it is important which assemblies are selected when you run your automated tests, you should use Run with options to specify the build configuration.

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View and Update the Test Results

1. In Microsoft Test Manager, choose Testing Center, , Analyze Test Runs.
2. Double-click a test run to open it and view the details. You can:
   • Update the title of the test run to reflect the outcome.
   • Choose Resolution to indicate a reason, if the test failed.
   • Add comments.
   • View the details of an individual test.
   • Create a bug.

Q: Can I generate the test method from a manual run of the test case?

Yes. Verifying Code by Using UI Automation (Various Blog Post can be found on my Blog about Coded UI Test Automation)

Q: I want my automated test to repeat with different data. Do I use the same test parameters that the manual version of the test case uses?

To make the automated test iterate over different data, write that into the code of the test method.

Test parameters are only used with the manual version of the test. They aren’t visible to the automated test code.

Automated build-deploy-test workflows

You can use a build-deploy-test on Team Foundation Server to deploy and test your application when you run a build. This lets you schedule and run the build, deployment, and testing of your application with one build process. Build-deploy-test work with Lab Management to deploy your applications to a lab environment and run tests on them as part of the build process.

If your lab environment is an SCVMM environment, you can also use workflows to create and restore snapshots that automatically create a clean environment before you run tests, and to the state of your environment when a test fails. This ensures that each test isn’t influenced by changes to the lab environment from previous test runs. In addition, it ensures that testers can accurately reproduce that state of a lab environment when they reproduce bugs.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Ultimate, Visual Studio Premium, Visual Studio Test Professional

You can use a build-deploy-test in the following scenarios:

Tip
Build, or Build and Test: If you are building your application in a drop folder without deploying it to a lab environment, then you can use the default build process template. For more information, see Use the Default Template for your build process. If you also want to test your application without deploying it, see Run tests in your build process

• Build, Deploy, and Test − Build your application, then deploy it and run tests on it in a lab environment. This workflow enables you to run a series of tests from a test plan, on a deployed application, as part of your build process. This scenario is common when running build verification tests.
• Deploy and Test − This scenario is similar to the “build, deploy, and test” scenario, except a new build isn’t created during the workflow. Instead, the workflow uses an existing build from a drop folder.
• Deploy Only – Deploy an existing build from a drop folder to a lab environment without running automated tests during the workflow. Once a build has passed your build verification tests, and is ready to be sent to a test team, you might want to send that build to the test team so they can run additional tests that aren’t part of your workflow. This scenario is common when running manual tests.
• Build and Deploy – This scenario is similar to the “deploy only” scenario, except a new build is created during the workflow.

A build-deploy-test workflow is a Windows Workflow file that defines how a build definition will run a build, deploy an application, and run tests. A build-deploy-test workflow is created in a build definition by choosing a build process template called the lab default template (LabDefaultTemplate.11.xaml), and configuring the settings.

You can also create a customized build process template for your workflow depending on your requirements. You configure your build definition after you set up your build machine, test machines, and lab environments.

The deployment settings in a -deploy-test workflow define how an application is deployed by specifying the deployment scripts to run on in your lab environment. You can specify a lab management role to run each deployment script on, or you can specify a machine in your lab environment.

Creating deployment scripts is a major part of setting up -deploy-test workflows. Deployment scripts copy files from your build to your lab environment, and then run your installation packages.

The following diagram describes how a build is deployed by a build-deploy-test workflow:

The following steps are displayed in the diagram above.

1. The build-deploy-test workflow starts a build, and then gets the deployment scripts.
2. The build definition copies the build files to the drop location.
3. The workflow runs each deployment script in the working directory of the specific machine or machine role that the script is assigned to.
4. Each deployment script retrieves build files from the drop location.
5. Each deployment script copies or installs the specified build files onto machines in the lab environment.

A Look At : The New Search Functionality in SharePoint Online and how Developers can make use of it

http://en.gravatar.com/sharepointsamurai/

 

Search functionality in SharePoint 2013 includes several enhancements, custom content processing and a new framework for presenting search result types. SharePoint Server 2013 presents a new search architecture that includes substantial changes and additions to the search components and databases.

Also, there have been significant enhancements made to the Keyword Query Language (KQL).

Some of the features and functionalities have been depreciated from the previous version of SharePoint 2013. There has been a more search user interface improvement which brings the user more interactive with search results. For example, users can rest the pointer over a search result to see the content preview in the hover panel to the right of the result.

Now you can see Office 365 SharePoint 2013 and its admin features of Search Service Application. It’s a breakthrough advancing; nearly all the new features listed here are missed in Office 365 – SharePoint 2010. The following screen capture shows the SharePoint central administrator view for the Search section.

Manage all aspects of the Search experience for your end users improving the relevancy of your results per your content and metadata.

Search helps users quickly return to important sites and documents by remembering what they have previously searched and clicked. The results of previously searched and clicked items are displayed as query suggestions at the top of the results page.

In addition to the default manner in which search results are differentiated, site collection administrators and site owners can create and use result types to customize how results are displayed for important documents. A result type is a rule that identifies a type of result and a way to display it.

 

Manage Search Schema

Managed properties are used to restrict search results, and present the content of the properties in search results. Crawled properties are automatically extracted from crawled content. All the changes to properties will take effect only after the next full crawl.

Under the search schema section, administrator can:

• View, create, or modify Managed Properties and map crawled properties to managed properties
• View or modify Crawled Properties, or to view crawled properties in a particular category
• View or modify Categories, or view crawled properties in a particular category.

While creating a new managed property, the ‘Mappings to crawled properties’ is one of the key attributes for the configuration set in our new property.

 

 

Manage Search Dictionaries

	Taxonomy Term Store
People	Search Dictionaries	System
Department	Company Exclusions	Hashtags
Job Title	Company Inclusions	Keywords
Location	Query Spelling Exclusions	Orphaned terms
	Query Spelling Includings

 

Manage Authoritative Pages

Search in SharePoint 2013 will analyze the collection of authoritative and non-authoritative pages to determine the ranking of search results. The authoritative sites are of two kinds:

• Authoritative Site Pages
• Non-authoritative Site Pages

Authoritative site pages are the links, which administrator authorized to be the most relevant information. There can be multiple authoritative pages in each environment. There is an option for specifying second and third-level authorities for search ranking. Non-authoritative site pages are the content from certain sites can be ranked lower than the rest of the content in the site.

 

Query Suggestion Settings

SharePoint Search comprises various features that you can leverage for building productivity solutions. One of the interesting and useful competencies are Query Suggestions. The query suggestions are administrated by two options as follows:

• Always Suggest Phrases
• Never Suggest Phrases

Manage Result Sources

Result Sources are used to frame the search results and confederate queries to external sources, such as internet search engines, etc. Once the result source are defined, we can configure search web parts and query rule actions to use the result source.

How the Result Source is managed? A SharePoint Online administrator of SharePoint Online Tenant can manage result sources for all site collections and sites reside under the same tenant. A site collection administrator or a site owner can manage result sources for a site collection or a site, respectively.

SharePoint 2013 provides 16 pre-defined result sources. The pre-configured default result source is Local SharePoint Results. We can state a different result source as the default as per our requirement

.

While creating a new Result Source, there is Protocol and Query transform are the two important parameters which tells the Result Source what to do in the SharePoint.

Protocol – Local SharePoint for results from the index of this Search Service. OpenSearch 1.0/1.1 for results from a search engine that uses that protocol. Exchange for results from an exchange source. Remote SharePoint for results from the index of a search service hosted in another farm.

Query Transform – Change incoming queries to use this new query text instead. Include the incoming query in the new text by using the query variable “{searchTerms}“.

Use this to scope results. For example, to only return OneNote items, set the new text to “{searchTerms} fileextension=one“. Then, an incoming query “sharepoint” becomes “sharepoint fileextension=one“. Launch the Query Builder for additional options.

 

Manage Query Rules

Query rules are to conditionally stimulate the search results and show hunks of supplementary results based on the rules created in the SharePoint. In a query rule, you can specify conditions and correlated actions without any help of code. The user with Site Collection, Site owner permission level can create and manage the query rules.

 

Manage Query Client Types

Query Client Types are one of the new search features in SharePoint 2013. Client Type identifies an application where a search query is sent from. Applications are prioritized by tiers. Top tier has the highest priority. When resource limit is reached, query throttling becomes ON, and search system will process the queries from top tier to bottom tier.

System Client Types are available out-of-the box, and cannot be deleted. We can add a new custom Client Type by clicking on New Client Type.

 

Remove Search Results

To remove data from the search results, type the URLs which needed to remove from it. All the URLs listed in the textbox will be removed from search results immediately, once after the Remove Now button is clicked.

View Usage Reports

Here the administrator will be able to see the usage reports and search related report, example Query Rules usage by day, Top Queries by Day, etc.

Search Center Settings

In this setting, the default search system will be mapped. Usually the Enterprise Search Center site that has been created for search entire SharePoint sites in the organization.

Export Search Configuration

Create a file that includes all customized query rules, result sources, result types, ranking models and site search settings but not any that shipped with SharePoint, in the current tenant that can be imported to other tenants.

Import Search Configuration

If you have a search configuration you’d like to import, browse for it below. Settings imported from the file will be created and activated as part of the site. You can modify any of the settings after import.

Crawl Log Permissions

Grant users read access to crawl log information for this tenant.

Search Client Object Model

SharePoint 2013 Search includes a client object model (CSOM) that enables access to most of the Query object model functionality for online, on-premises, and mobile development. You can use the Search CSOM to create client applications that run on a machine that does not have SharePoint 2013 installed to return SharePoint 2013 Preview search results.

The Search CSOM includes a Microsoft .NET Framework managed client object model and JavaScript object model, and it is built on SharePoint 2013. First, client code accesses the SharePoint CSOM. Then, client code accesses the Search CSOM.

NOTE: Custom search solutions in SharePoint Server 2013 do not support SQL syntax. Search in SharePoint 2013 supports FQL syntax and KQL syntax for custom search solutions.

We can configure crawled and managed properties. Configure Result Sources which were Federated Result / Scopes in SharePoint Search 2010.

 

Introduction to Business Connectivity Services (BCS)

BCS has the ability to connect and query the data sources and returns the results to the user through an external list, or app for SharePoint, or Office 2013. The Microsoft Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 include Microsoft Business Connectivity Services (BCS).

The SharePoint 2013 and the Office 2013 suites include Microsoft Business Connectivity Services. With Business Connectivity Services, you can use SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013 clients as an interface into data that doesn’t live in SharePoint 2013 itself. It does this by making a connection to the data source, running a query, and returning the results.

Business Connectivity Services returns the results to the user through an external list, or app for SharePoint, or Office 2013 where you can perform different operations against them, such as Create, Read, Update, Delete, and Query (CRUDQ). Business Connectivity Services can access external data sources through Open Data (OData), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) endpoints, web services, cloud-based services, and .NET assemblies, or through custom connectors.

Business Connectivity Services can access external data sources through Open Data (OData), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) endpoints, web services, cloud-based services, and .NET assemblies, or through custom connectors. The Open Data Protocol is known as OData. It is an open web protocol for querying and updating data.

Business Connectivity Services uses SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013 as a client interface for data which doesn’t reside SharePoint 2013 environment.

The following screen capture is the BCS features and configuration options available under the SharePoint Administration Center in the Office 365.

Windows 8.1 Updated Reources and Tools

With Windows 8.1 also come lots of updates to the tools and templates that you can use to create Windows Store apps. These updates can help cut down the work in your development and test cycles.

 

Get the updated tools described below at our Windows 8.1 page.

 

New or updated in Windows 8.1

• General updates
• Diagnostics
• JavaScript editor
• C++ development
• HTML design tools
• XAML design tools
• Windows App Certification Kit 3.0

General updates

Area	Description of update
Support for updating your Windows Store apps to Windows 8.1.	Migrate your Windows 8 app to Windows 8.1. This may first require updating your app code for Windows 8.1.
Windows Store app templates	We’ve updated all templates for Windows 8.1, and we’ve added a new Hub template too.
Azure Mobile Services and push notification wizards	The Services Manager makes it easy to connect your app to Azure Mobile Services or Microsoft Advertising. The push notification wizard makes it easy to set up a Azure Mobile Service to send push notifications to your app.
App bundle support	Now you can combine resource packages (like multiple scales, languages, or Microsoft Direct3D feature levels) into a single .appxbundle file for submission to the Windows Store. For your customers, this means that your app is only deployed with the resources they need for their device and locale.
App validation on a remote device	The Create App Package Wizard in Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 now makes it easy to validate your app using Windows App Certification Kit 3.0 on a remote device (such as Windows RT PCs).
Create coded UI tests using XAML	Write automated functional tests for testing Windows Store apps using XAML and the cross-hair tool. Note  Touch interactions are now supported for controls.
New Visual Studio theme/ and Visual Design	We’ve added a third theme, Blue, to the existing Light and Dark themes. The Blue theme offers a mid-range color scheme reminiscent of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. Also, based on user feedback, we’ve enhanced all themes with additional color and clarity in icons, revised icons, more contrast across the development environment , and clearer segmentation of regions within the environment.

 

Diagnostics

Area	Description of update
Mixed-language debugging	For Windows Store apps that use JavaScript and C++, the debugger now lets you set breakpoints in either language and provides a call stack with both JavaScript and C++ functions.
Managed app debugging	The debugger now displays return values. You can use Edit and Continue in 64-bit managed apps. Exceptions that come from Windows Store apps preserve information about the error, even across language boundaries.
Asynchronous debugging improvements	The call-stack window now includes the creation stack if you stop in an asynchronous method.
Native “Just My Code”	For native code, the call stack simplifies debugging by displaying only the code that you’ve created.
DOM Explorer	The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) editor supports improved editing, Microsoft IntelliSense, inline style support, shorthand, specificity, and notification of invalid properties. The Computed and Styles panes have been enhanced. The DOM Explorer supports search, editing as HTML, IntelliSense, and undo stacks.
JavaScript Console	The console now supports object preview and visualization, new APIs, multiline function support, IntelliSense, evaluation of elements as objects or HTML, and legacy document modes.
JavaScript Memory Profiler	Dominators view shows memory allocation retained by each object. The profiler notifies you of potential memory leaks caused by detached or disconnected DOM nodes.
JavaScript UI Responsiveness	The Details pane includes hyperlinks to event source locations, plus a chart showing the percentage of time that each child event contributed to the selected event’s overall duration. You can now expand instances of Layout and Style calculation events to display the HTML elements that were affected by the operation.
XAML UI Responsiveness	For C#/VB/C++ XAML-based Windows Store apps, the XAML UI Responsiveness tool allows you to diagnose performance issues related to app startup and page navigation, panning and scrolling, and input responsiveness in general.

 

JavaScript editor

Area	Description of update
Completion of enclosing character pairs	The editor automatically inserts the closing character when you type a left brace (“{“), parenthesis (“(“), bracket (“[“), single quotation mark (“`”), or (“””). A smart auto-format and indent of your source is also made as it auto-completes.
Editor navigation bar	This new UI feature helps you identify and move through the important elements in your source code. New for JavaScript developers, the navigation bar will highlight important functions and objects in your source.
Deprecation notes in IntelliSense.	If a Windows API element has been deprecated in Windows 8.1, IntelliSense tooltips identify it as “[deprecated]”.
Go To Definition for namespaces	You can right-click a namespace you use in your code (such as WinJS.UI) and then click Go To Definition to be taken to the line where that namespace is defined.
Identifier highlighting	Select an identifier (for example, a variable, parameter, or function name) in your source and any uses of that identifier will be highlighted in your source code.

 

C++ development

Area	Description of update
Windows Store app development for Windows 8.1	Boxed types in value structs You can now define value types by using fields that can be null—for example, IBox<int>^ as opposed to int. This means that the fields can either have a value, or be equal to nullptr. Richer exception information C++/CX supports the new Windows error model that enables the capture and propagation of rich exception information across the Application Binary Interface (ABI); this includes call stacks and custom message strings. Object::ToString is now virtual You can now override ToString() in user-defined Windows Runtime ref types.
C++11 standard compliance	Compiler support for ISO C++11 language features Default template arguments for function templates Delegating constructors Explicit conversion operators Initializer lists and uniform initialization Raw string literals Variadic templates Updated Standard Template Library (STL) to use the latest C++11 features Improvements to C99 libraries C99 functionality added to Complex math functions in new header, <complex.h> Integer type support in new header, ; includes format string support for “hh” Support for variable-argument scanf forms in . C99 variants of vscanf, strtoll, vwscanf/wcstoll, and isblank/iswblank are implemented. New conversion support for long long and long double in <stdlib.h>
C++ REST SDK	Modern C++ implementation of Representational State Transfer (REST) services. For more info see C++ REST SDK (codename “Casablanca”).
C++ Azure Mobile Services SDK	The shortest path to a connected C++ app with a Azure backend.
C++ AMP	SxS CPU/GPU debugging (for WARP accelerator), enhanced texture support (mipmaps and new sampling modes), and improved diagnostics and exceptions.
IDE productivity features	Improved code formatting. Brace completion. Auto-generation of event handler code in C++/CX and C++/CLI. Context-based member list filtering. Parameter help scrolling. Toggle header/code file. Resizable C++ project-properties window. Faster builds. Numerous optimizations and multi-core utilization make builds faster, especially for large projects. Incremental builds for C++ apps that have references to C++ WinMD are also much faster.
App performance	Pass vector type arguments by using the __vectorcall calling convention to use vector registers. Reduction or elimination of CPU/GPU data transfer in C++ AMP. Auto-vectorization improvements. C++/CX optimizations in allocations and casting. Performance tuning of C++ AMP runtime libraries. New: PGO for Windows Store app development.
Build-time performance enhancements	Compiler throughput improvements for highly parallel builds.

 

 

HTML design tools

Area	Description of update
CSS animation	The timeline editor helps you create CSS animations.
JavaScript behaviors	Add JavaScript event listeners to any element without writing code. Choose from a list of supplied event handlers or create your own.
Custom font embedding	Create a branded experience by using custom fonts for HTML text.
Data binding	Set the data binding for any template.
Rules and guides	Create custom guides.
Border radius	Easy-to-use handles on each element help you create rounded corners and ellipses.
Searching and setting CSS properties	The search box lets you set CSS property values directly and quickly.
Finding elements with CSS syntax	The live DOM search now supports CSS syntax. For example, you can automatically select all elements with class “myclass” by searching for “.myclass”.

 

XAML design tools

Area	Description of update
XAML editor improvements	The XAML editor in Visual Studio 2013 includes IntelliSense for data bindings and resources, smart commenting, and Go To Definition.
Rulers and guides	Create custom guides.
Better style editing support	Edit styles and templates in the context of the document where they’re used, even if they’re actually defined in another, shared location.
Sample data support	The data panel enhances sample data support in XAML projects for the Windows Store. This includes the ability to create sample data from JSON content. For an example of how to set this up, see the updated Windows Store app project templates for XAML.
View state authoring	The device panel in Blend for Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 and Visual Studio 2013 supports updated view states properties and requirements to support variable minimum widths.

 

Windows App Certification Kit 3.0

Use the latest version of the Windows App Certification Kit to test the readiness of Windows Store apps for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 before on-boarding, and for the Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 Windows Desktop App Certification.

We’ve also updated the Windows App Certification Kit to give you a smooth experience. For example, you can now run tests in parallel to save time, and you have more flexibility in selecting the tests you run.

New validation tests

As with previous releases of Windows, we’ve revised the kit content to include more validation, helping to make sure that Windows apps running on the latest update are well behaved. Here’s a high-level breakdown of the new tests.

Test	Description
Direct3D additional check	Validates apps for compliance with Direct3D requirements, and ensures that apps using C++ and XAML are calling a new Trim method upon their suspend callback.
Supported directory structure	Ensures that apps don’t create a structure on disk that results in files longer than MAX_PATH (260 characters).
File extensions and protocols	Limits the number of file extensions and protocols that an app can register.
Platform appropriate files	Checks for packages that contain cross-architecture binaries.
Banned file check	Checks apps for use of outdated or prerelease components known to have security vulnerabilities.
JavaScript background tasks	Verifies that apps that use JavaScript have the proper close statement in the background task, so the app doesn’t consume battery power unnecessarily.
Framework dependency rules	Ensures that apps are taking the right framework dependencies for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

 

Test reports

We’ve made a number of changes to the test report generated by the Windows App Certification Kit. These reports include new information, are easier to read, and provide more links to resources that can help you resolve issues. Significant additions and updates include:

• Expanded error-message details.
• Actionable info for supported and deprecated APIs.
• Details about the configuration of the current test device.
• A language toggle (if the report is localized).

For more information on how to use this kit, see Using the Windows App Certification Kit.

How To : Use the CSOM to Update SharePoint Web Part Properties

I wanted to share two methods I developed for retrieving and updating web part properties from JavaScript using CSOM in SharePoint 2013 (I haven’t seen a reference for getting a page’s web part manager through REST).

The web part ID should be available through the “webpartid” attribute included in the page markup.

The methods use the jQuery deferred object, but that could easily be replaced with anything else to handle the asynchronous events. Using this I’m hoping to create configurable client side web parts which is a problem I’ve recently had to tackle.

View on GitHub

app.js

1. //pass in the web part ID as a string (guid)
2. function getWebPartProperties(wpId) {
3. var dfd = $.Deferred();
4.  
5. //get the client context
6. var clientContext =
7. new SP.ClientContext(_spPageContextInfo.webServerRelativeUrl);
8. //get the current page as a file
9. var oFile = clientContext.get_web()
10. .getFileByServerRelativeUrl(_spPageContextInfo.serverRequestPath);
11. //get the limited web part manager for the page
12. var limitedWebPartManager =
13. oFile.getLimitedWebPartManager(SP.WebParts.PersonalizationScope.shared);
14. //get the web parts on the current page
15. var collWebPart = limitedWebPartManager.get_webParts();
16.  
17. //request the web part collection and load it from the server
18. clientContext.load(collWebPart);
19. clientContext.executeQueryAsync(Function.createDelegate(this, function () {
20. var webPartDef = null;
21. //find the web part on the page by comparing ID’s
22. for (var x = 0; x < collWebPart.get_count() && !webPartDef; x++) {
23. var temp = collWebPart.get_item(x);
24. if (temp.get_id().toString() === wpId) {
25. webPartDef = temp;
26. }
27. }
28. //if the web part was not found
29. if (!webPartDef) {
30. dfd.reject(“Web Part: “ + wpId + ” not found on page: “
31. + _spPageContextInfo.webServerRelativeUrl);
32. return;
33. }
34.  
35. //get the web part properties and load them from the server
36. var webPartProperties = webPartDef.get_webPart().get_properties();
37. clientContext.load(webPartProperties);
38. clientContext.executeQueryAsync(Function.createDelegate(this, function () {
39. dfd.resolve(webPartProperties, webPartDef, clientContext);
40. }), Function.createDelegate(this, function () {
41. dfd.reject(“Failed to load web part properties”);
42. }));
43. }), Function.createDelegate(this, function () {
44. dfd.reject(“Failed to load web part collection”);
45. }));
46.  
47. return dfd.promise();
48. }
49.  
50. //pass in the web part ID and a JSON object with the properties to update
51. function saveWebPartProperties(wpId, obj) {
52. var dfd = $.Deferred();
53.  
54. getWebPartProperties(wpId).done(
55. function (webPartProperties, webPartDef, clientContext) {
56. //set web part properties
57. for (var key in obj) {
58. webPartProperties.set_item(key, obj[key]);
59. }
60. //save web part changes
61. webPartDef.saveWebPartChanges();
62. //execute update on the server
63. clientContext.executeQueryAsync(Function.createDelegate(this, function () {
64. dfd.resolve();
65. }), Function.createDelegate(this, function () {
66. dfd.reject(“Failed to save web part properties”);
67. }));
68. }).fail(function (err) { dfd.reject(err); });
69.  
70. return dfd.promise();
71. }

Microsoft Site Templates Upgraded and are now available

 

One of the main goals of the application templates is to provide a demonstration of the application building power in SharePoint and as a potential starting point for larger, more robust applications. While these templates are fully functional and usable out-of-the-box, I’ll be happy to reply on your comments and supporting you as needed.

 

note: those templates were collected from several resources and no source code for them.

All templates are compatible with SharePoint Server 2010 and Foundation Server 2010.

Case Management

The Case Management application template helps case managers track the status and tasks required to complete their work. When a case is created, standard tasks and documents are created which are modified based on the work each case manager has completed.

Clinical Trial Initiation and Management

For those who work in Academic Medical Centers, the Clinical Trial Initiation and Management application template helps teams manage the process of tracking clinical trial protocols, objective setting, subject selection and budget activities.

Employee Activities Site

The Employee Activities Site application template helps departments, such as HR and Marketing, manage the creation and attendance of events for employees.

Employee Training Scheduling and Materials

The Employee Training Scheduling and Materials application template helps Instructors add new courses and organize course materials. Employees use the site to schedule attendance at a course, track courses they’ve attended and to provide feedback.

Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management

The Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management application template helps provider departments manage requests for out of office days and provides dashboards showing which users are signed up for a set of responsibilities

Event Planning

The Event Planning application template helps teams organize events efficiently through the use online registration, schedules, communication and feedback.

Discussion Database

The Discussion Database application template provides a location where team members can create and reply to discussion topics.

Team Work Site

The Team Work Site application template provides a place where clinical and business teams, can upload background documents, track scheduled calendar events and submit action items that result from team meetings.

Document Library and Review

The Document Library and Review application template helps people to manage the review cycle common to processes like publication, knowledge management and project plan development.

Knowledgebase

The Knowledgebase application template helps teams manage the information that is resident within their organization. The template enables team members to upload/create documents using Web-based tools and tag them with relevant identifying information.

Policies and Procedures Solution Accelerator

The Policies and Procedures Solution Accelerator assists healthcare organizations create, maintain, publish and easily access policy and procedure information. It also provides the ability to upload documents, maintain a version history and manage tasks.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors application template provides a single location for an external group of members to store and locate common documents such as quarterly reviews, shareholder meeting notes and annual strategy documents.

Business Performance Reporting

The Business Performance Reporting application template helps health organization managers track the satisfaction of internal customers/patients through a combination of surveys and discussions.

Request for Proposal

The Request for Proposal application template helps manage the process of creating and releasing an initial RFP, collecting submissions of proposals and formally accepting the selected proposal from amongst those submitted.

Compliance Process Support Site

The Compliance Process Support Site application template helps both teams and executive sponsors to manage compliance implementation endeavors, such as HIPAA.

Expense Reimbursement and Approval

The Expense Reimbursement and Approval application template helps manage elements of the expense approval process, including creation and approval. Users can monitor the status of their reimbursement request through a filtered view listing.

Scorecards Solution Accelerator

The Scorecards solution accelerator acts as a template for configuring a management dashboard to track organizational metrics. It contains four example dashboards ranging from a primary care practice to a healthcare organization’s CEO dashboard.

Call Center

The Call Center application template helps departments manage the process of handling customer service requests. The application template helps teams manage service requests from issue identification to cause analysis and resolution.

Help Desk

The Help Desk application template helps departments manage the process of handling service requests. Team members use the application template to identify a service request, manage identification of the root cause and track solution status.

Physical Asset Tracking and Management

The Physical Asset Tracking and Management application template helps departments, such as Facilities, BioMedical, Surgery, etc. manage requests and the tracking of physical assets.

Inventory Tracking

The Inventory Tracking application template helps organizations track elements associated with inventory, including creation of inventory. Users are notified when each part reaches the reorder quantity and helps manage customer and supplier information.

Cafeteria Menu Management

The Cafeteria Menu Management application template helps hospital Food & Nutrition staff easily communicate daily menu choices to hospital staff and visitors. It allows staff to develop/schedule menus and provide related nutritional information.

Budgeting and Tracking Multiple Projects

The Budgeting and Tracking Multiple Projects application template helps project teams track and budget multiple, interrelated sets of activities. Management tools such as assignment of new tasks, Gantt Charts and common status designators.

Change Request Management

The Change Request Management application template helps users track risks associated with a design change. Team members can submit a change request, notifying stakeholders of the risks involved with the change.

IT Team Workspace

The IT Team Workspace application template helps teams manage the development, deployment and support of software projects. It also includes help desk functionality, allowing team members to guide service requests from initiation to resolution.

Project Tracking Workspace

The Project Tracking Workspace application template helps small team projects manage project information in a single location. The application template provides a place where a team can list and view project issues and tasks.

 

 

 

How To : Use the Microsoft Monitoring Agent to Monitor apps in deployment

You can locally monitor IIS-hosted ASP.NET web apps and SharePoint 2010 or 2013 applications for errors, performance issues, or other problems by using Microsoft Monitoring Agent. You can save diagnostic events from the agent to an IntelliTrace log (.iTrace) file. You can then open the log in Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 to debug problems with all the Visual Studio diagnostic tools.

If you use System Center 2012, use Microsoft Monitoring Agent with Operations Manager to get alerts about problems and create Team Foundation Server work items with links to the saved IntelliTrace logs. You can then assign these work items to others for further debugging.

See Integrating Operations Manager with Development Processes and Monitoring with Microsoft Monitoring Agent.

Before you start, check that you have the matching source and symbols for the built and deployed code. This helps you go directly to the application code when you start debugging and browsing diagnostic events in the IntelliTrace log. Set up your builds so that Visual Studio can automatically find and open the matching source for your deployed code.

1. Set up Microsoft Monitoring Agent.
2. Start monitoring your app.
3. Save the recorded events.

Step 1: Set up Microsoft Monitoring Agent

Set up the standalone agent on your web server to perform local monitoring without changing your application. If you use System Center 2012, see Installing Microsoft Monitoring Agent.

Set up the standalone agent

1. Make sure that:
   • Your web server is running supported versions of Internet Information Services (IIS).
   • Your web server has .NET Framework 3.5, 4, or 4.5.
   • Your web server is running Windows PowerShell 3.0 or later. What if I have Windows PowerShell 2.0?
   • You have administrator permissions on your web server to run PowerShell commands and to recycle the application pool when you start monitoring.
   • You’ve uninstalled any earlier versions of Microsoft Monitoring Agent.
2. Download the free Microsoft Monitoring Agent, either the 32-bit version MMASetup-i386.exe or 64-bit version MMASetup-AMD64.exe, from the Microsoft Download Center to your web server.
3. Run the downloaded executable to start the installation wizard.
4. Create a secure directory on your web server to store the IntelliTrace logs, for example, C:\IntelliTraceLogs.

   Make sure that you create this directory before you start monitoring. To avoid slowing down your app, choose a location on a local high-speed disk that’s not very active.

    

   Security Note
   IntelliTrace logs might contain personal and sensitive data. Restrict this directory to only those identities that must work with the files. Check your company’s privacy policies.

5. To run detailed, function-level monitoring or to monitor SharePoint applications, give the application pool that hosts your web app or SharePoint application read and write permissions to the IntelliTrace log directory. How do I set up permissions for the application pool?

Q: What if I have Windows PowerShell 2.0?

Use the Windows PowerShell Start-WebApplicationMonitoring command to start monitoring your app. If you use System Center 2012, see Monitoring Web Applications with Microsoft Monitoring Agent.

Q: How do I set up permissions for the application pool?

Step 2: Start monitoring your app

1. On your web server, open a Windows PowerShell or Windows PowerShell ISE command prompt window as an administrator.

    

    

2. Run the Start-WebApplicationMonitoring command to start monitoring your app. This will restart all the web apps on your web server.

    

   Here’s the short syntax:

    

   Start-WebApplicationMonitoring “<appName>” <monitoringMode> “<outputPath>” <UInt32> “<collectionPlanPathAndFileName>”

    

   Here’s an example that uses just the web app name and lightweight Monitor mode:

    

   PS C:\>Start-WebApplicationMonitoring “Fabrikam\FabrikamFiber.Web” Monitor “C:\IntelliTraceLogs”

    

   Here’s an example that uses the IIS path and lightweight Monitor mode:

    

   PS C:\>Start-WebApplicationMonitoring “IIS:\sites\Fabrikam\FabrikamFiber.Web” Monitor “C:\IntelliTraceLogs”

    

   After you start monitoring, you might see the Microsoft Monitoring Agent pause while your apps restart.

    

    

   “<appName>”	Specify the path to the web site and web app name in IIS. You can also include the IIS path, if you prefer.   “<IISWebsiteName>\<IISWebAppName>” -or- “IIS:\sites \<IISWebsiteName>\<IISWebAppName>”   You can find this path in IIS Manager. For example:     You can also use the Get-WebSite and Get WebApplication commands.
   <monitoringMode>	Specify the monitoring mode:   Monitor: Record minimal details about exception events and performance events. This mode uses the default collection plan. Trace: Record function-level details or monitor SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 applications by using the specified collection plan. This mode might make your app run more slowly.   Make sure that the application pool has read and write permissions to the IntelliTrace log directory. How can I get the most data without slowing down my app?   This example records events for a SharePoint app hosted on a SharePoint site:   Start-WebApplicationMonitoring “FabrikamSharePointSite\FabrikamSharePointApp” Trace “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Monitoring Agent\Agent\IntelliTraceCollector\collection_plan.ASP.NET.default.xml” “C:\IntelliTraceLogs”   Custom: Record custom details by using specified custom collection plan. You’ll have to restart monitoring if you edit the collection plan after monitoring has already started.
   “<outputPath>”	Specify the full directory path to store the IntelliTrace logs. Make sure that you create this directory before you start monitoring.
   <UInt32>	Specify the maximum size for the IntelliTrace log. The default maximum size of the IntelliTrace log is 250 MB. When the log reaches this limit, the agent overwrites the earliest entries to make space for more entries. To change this limit, use the -MaximumFileSizeInMegabytes option or edit the MaximumLogFileSize attribute in the collection plan.
   “<collectionPlanPathAndFileName>”	Specify the full path or relative path and the file name of the collection plan. This plan is an .xml file that configures settings for the agent. These plans are included with the agent and work with web apps and SharePoint applications: collection_plan.ASP.NET.default.xml Collects only events, such as exceptions, performance events, database calls, and Web server requests. collection_plan.ASP.NET.trace.xml Collects function-level calls plus all the data in default collection plan. This plan is good for detailed analysis but might slow down your app.   You can find localized versions of these plans in the agent’s subfolders. You can also customize these plans or create your own plans to avoid slowing down your app. Put any custom plans in the same secure location as the agent.   How else can I get the most data without slowing down my app?

    

   For the more information about the full syntax and other examples, run the get-help Start-WebApplicationMonitoring –detailed command or the get-help Start-WebApplicationMonitoring –examples command.

3. To check the status of all monitored web apps, run the Get-WebApplicationMonitoringStatus command.

Duet Enterprise – Creating and Deploying a Mobile Adapter Class for Business Data Action Web Parts

Learn how to create a mobile adapter class to display mobile views for Business Data Action Web Parts.

In Microsoft SharePoint 2010, mobile views are available for both the Business Data Builder Web Part and the Business Data Item Web Part. In the Starter Services site of Duet Enterprise for Microsoft SharePoint and SAP, a mobile view is available for only the Business Data Item Web Part. You must define a mobile adapter class to make mobile views available for other Business Data Web Parts. This topic describes how to write a mobile adapter class for Business Data Action Web Parts.

Creating and Deploying a Mobile Adapter Class for Business Data Action Web Parts

---

The procedures in this section describe how to create and deploy a mobile adapter class for displaying Business Data Action Web Parts.

The following are the basic steps to create and deploy a mobile adapter class:

1. Create a mobile adapter class for Business Data Action Web Parts.
2. Edit the compat.browser file.
3. Register your adapter as a safe control.

To create a mobile adapter class for Business Data Action Web Parts

1. In Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, create a new class library project named DuetMobileCustomization. Add references to the System.Web assembly and Microsoft.SharePoint.dll assembly.
2. Add a using statement for the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages namespace. Depending on the details of your adapter implementation, add using statements for other namespaces. Commonly, mobile adapters make calls to types in the System.Web.UI.MobileControls namespace, Microsoft.SharePoint namespace, and Microsoft.SharePoint.MobileControls namespace.
3. Add a class named WebPartClassMobileAdapter, where WebPartClass is a placeholder for the name of the Web Part that you are adapting. For example, if you are adapting the BusinessDataActionsWebPart, name the adapter class BusinessDataActionsWebPartMobileAdapter. This class should inherit from the WebPartMobileAdapter class.
4. Add a namespace named MyCompany.SharePoint.WebPartPages.MobileAdapters. (Replace MyCompany with your company’s name.)
5. Copy the following code into the new BusinessDataActionsWebPartMobileAdapter class.
   C#

   Copy

   using System;
   using System.Collections;
   using System.Collections.Generic;
   using System.Globalization;
   using System.Security.Permissions;
   using System.Web;
   using System.Web.Security;
   using System.Web.UI.MobileControls;
   
   using Microsoft.BusinessData.MetadataModel;
   using Microsoft.BusinessData.MetadataModel.Collections;
   using Microsoft.BusinessData.Runtime;
   
   using Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.MobileControls;
   using Microsoft.SharePoint.MobileControls;
   using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;
   using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
   using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages;
   using Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls;
   using Microsoft.Office.Server.Diagnostics;
   
   namespace Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages
   {
       public class BusinessDataActionsWebPartMobileAdapter : WebPartMobileAdapter
       {

6. Because the WebPartMobileAdapter.Control property cannot be overridden, you might have to create a custom version of it by hiding and replacing it. You can do this by declaring a new Control property in your derived class by using the new keyword, as shown in the following example.
   C#

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   protected new BusinessDataActionsWebPart Control
           {
   [Microsoft.SharePoint.Security.SharePointPermission(System.Security.Permissions.SecurityAction.Demand, 
   ObjectModel = true)]
               get { return base.Control as BusinessDataActionsWebPart; }
           }

   For more information about how to create a custom version of WebPartMobileAdapter.Control and hiding and replacing it, and why you might have to do this, see the Control property.

7. If the default implementation of the CreateControlsForSummaryView method of the WebPartMobileAdapter class is not appropriate for mobile access to the Web Part in your specific implementation, override it. An override should create any necessary child controls and add them to the Controls collection in the order in which they should appear on a mobile device. The display should contain at least a small icon and a title for the summary view on a mobile device. If those are the only display elements that that you must have, you do not have to override the CreateControlsForSummaryView method. The WebPartMobileAdapter class contains two helper methods you can use to create your display: CreateWebPartIcon() and CreateWebPartLabel().When you must display more information than what appears in the default summary view (for example, when your adapted Web Part has multiple child items that are the same type), you can add a count of the total number of children to the summary view by placing a Label control after the icon and title. The following code shows how to do this.

   Note
   This example assumes that the custom Web Part that you are adapting has a Count property of type String that returns the total number of child items.

   C#

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   protected override void CreateControlsForSummaryView()
           {
               this.CreateControlsForWebPartHeader();
               this.CreateControlsForBusinessDataActions();
           }
   
           private void CreateControlsForWebPartHeader()
           {
               Image iconImage = this.CreateWebPartIcon(WebPartIconLink.NoLink);
               iconImage.BreakAfter = false;
               this.Controls.Add(iconImage);
               this.Controls.Add(this.CreateWebPartLabel());
           }
   
           private void CreateControlsForBusinessDataActions()
           {
               try
               {
                   IList<string> result = this.Control.SelectedActions;
                   try
                   {
                       if (this.Control.BdcEntity != null)
                       {
                           IList<IAction> displayActions = GetActionsToDisplay(this.Control.BdcEntity);
                           result = new List<string>();
   
                           foreach (IAction action in displayActions)
                           {
                               Link l = new Link();
                               l.Text = action.Name;
   // This example does not create the Parameter value. 
   // Add logic to set the action of the parameter before storing this value in the Link Navigation URL.
                               l.NavigateUrl = action.Url;
                               this.Controls.Add(l);
                           }
                       }
                   }
                   catch (MetadataException)
                   {
                       // Metadata error. Just default to returning the Web Part's selected Actions.
                       result = this.Control.SelectedActions;
                   }
               }
               catch (Exception e)
               {
                   throw e;
               }
           }
   private IList<IAction> GetActionsToDisplay(IEntity entity)
           {
               IList<IAction> result = new List<IAction>();
               INamedActionDictionary namedActionDictionary = entity.GetActions();
               if (namedActionDictionary.Count != 0)
               {
                   // First add all the currently selected actions.
                   foreach (string selectedActionName in this.Control.SelectedActions)
                   {
                       if (namedActionDictionary.ContainsKey(selectedActionName))
                       {
                           result.Add(namedActionDictionary[selectedActionName]);
                       }
                       // else
   
                   }
   
                   // Action may not be in the SelectedActions list,
                   // but the Web Part is configured to display new actions and
                   // this action is not one of the explicitly de-selected ones. Add it to UI.
                   if (this.Control.DisplayNewActions)
                   {
                       foreach (IAction action in namedActionDictionary.Values)
                       {
                           if (!result.Contains(action)
                               && !this.Control.DeselectedActions.Contains(action.Name))
                           {
   
                               result.Add(action);
                           }
                       }
                   }
               }
   
               return result;
           }
   
           public void cmd_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
           {
               string CommandText = ((Command)sender).Text;
   
           }

8. If the default implementation of CreateControlsForDetailView is not appropriate for mobile access to the Web Part in your specific implementation, override it. The default implementation renders an icon and title followed by a message that states that there is no detailed view for the Web Part. If you have overridden the CreateControlsForSummaryView method and do not want to provide a detailed view, override CreateControlsForDetailView and have it do nothing, as shown in the following example.
   C#

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   protected override void CreateControlsForDetailView()
           {
               // No Detail View
           }

9. To change the icon that appears next to the Web Part title, override one or more of the following properties:
   • SummaryViewTitleIconUrl  The icon that appears next to the title when the Web Part is collapsed.
   • DetailViewTitleIconUrl  The icon that appears next to the title when the Web Part is expanded.
   • TitleIconUrl  The icon that appears next to the title when the mobile device does not support expand or collapse scripting.

   The code in the following example shows how to override the TitleIconUrl property. In this override, if the Web Part displays a list and the list has an icon of its own in its ImageUrl property, that icon is displayed.

   C#

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   protected override string TitleIconUrl
   {
       get
       { 
           SPContext context = SPContext.GetContext(HttpContext.Current);
   
           if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(context.List.ImageUrl))
           {
               return base.TitleIconUrl;
           }
           return context.List.ImageUrl;
       }
   }

10. Compile the assembly, give it a strong name, and then deploy it either to the global assembly cache or to the \BIN folder of the Web application on every front-end web server in the farm. To deploy it to the global assembly cache, ensure that GlobalAssemblyCache is selected in the Assembly Deployment Target of the Properties pane of your class library project in Visual Studio 2010. This topic assumes that you are deploying to the global assembly cache.

To edit the compat.browser file

1. In a text editor, open the compat.browser file that is located at \\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\port_number\App_Browsers\compat.browser, where port_number is the port of the web application. Scroll to the <browser> element that has the refID attribute value of default. This element will have a child element named <controlAdapters> that looks much like the code in the following example.
   XML

   Copy

   <controlAdapters>
     <adapter controlType="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.XsltListViewWebPart, Microsoft.SharePoint, 
   Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"
       adapterType="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.XsltListViewWebPartMobileAdapter, Microsoft.SharePoint, 
   Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />
     <adapter controlType="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ListViewWebPart, Microsoft.SharePoint, 
   Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"
       adapterType="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ListViewWebPartMobileAdapter, Microsoft.SharePoint, 
   Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />
     <adapter controlType="Microsoft.SharePoint.Applications.GroupBoard.WebPartPages.WhereaboutsWebPart, Microsoft.SharePoint, 
   Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"
       <adapter controlType="Microsoft.SharePoint.Applications.GroupBoard.WebPartPages.WhereaboutsWebPart, Microsoft.SharePoint, 
   Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"
                        adapterType="Microsoft.SharePoint.Applications.GroupBoard.WebPartPages.WhereaboutsWebPartMobileAdapter, Microsoft.SharePoint, 
   Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />
               <adapter controlType="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ImageWebPart, Microsoft.SharePoint, 
   Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"
                        adapterType="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ImageWebPartMobileAdapter, Microsoft.SharePoint, 
   Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />
   </controlAdapters>

2. Add an <adapter> element as a child of the <controlAdapters> element. This child element maps your adapter class to the custom Web Part that it adapts. Notice that both the controlType attribute and adapterType attribute are required. The value for both should be the fully qualified name of the class and the four-part name of the assembly. To obtain your adapter assembly’s public key token, in Visual Studio 2010 on the Tools menu, click Get Assembly Public Key. For another way to obtain the public key token, see How to: Create a Tool to Get the Public Key of an Assembly (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee539398.aspx). For more information about this XML markup, see Browser Definition File Schema (browsers Element) (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ms228122.aspx). The following code shows one example of an <adapter> element.
   XML

   Copy

   <adapter controlType="Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.BusinessDataActionsWebPart, 
   Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, 
   Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" 
   adapterType="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.BusinessDataActionsWebPartMobileAdapter, MobileCustomization, 
   Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=<assemblyPublic Key>" />

   Note

   To deploy your adapter class to a server farm, you must change the compat.browser file as described earlier on every front-end web server. Do not overwrite the existing compat.browser file with a compat.browser file of your own because this might cancel adapter mappings that are made by other Microsoft SharePoint 2010 solution providers. Consider deploying the adapter as part of a SharePoint 2010 Feature. In the FeatureActivated event handler, create a timer job that adds the required <adapter> element to the compat.browser file on every front-end web server. For detailed information about programmatically editing the compat.browser file on all servers by using a timer job, see How to: Run Code on All Web Servers (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff464297.aspx).

To register your adapter as a safe control

1. In your Visual Studio 2010 project, add an XML file named webconfig.CompanyName.xml, where CompanyName is the name of your company or another name that is not likely to be used by any other SharePoint Foundation 2010 solution providers.

   Tip

   We recommend that you register your adapter by deploying it inside a SharePoint 2010 solution. The steps in this section are required only if your development computer is a single front-end web server. A SharePoint 2010 solution enables you to register controls as safe on all front-end web servers when your solution is deployed. For more information about using solution deployment to register controls as safe, see Solutions Overview (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa543214.aspx), Manually Creating Solutions in SharePoint Foundation (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa543741.aspx), and Solution Schema (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms442108.aspx).

2. Add an <action> element that follows the model in the example below to the file. The TypeName attribute of the <SafeControl> element can be the name of your adapter class, such as UserTasksWebPartMobileAdapter. If you have multiple adapter classes in the same namespace, you can use an asterisk (*) as the value of TypeName.
   XML

   Copy

   <action>
      <add path="configuration/SharePoint/SafeControls">
       <SafeControl
         Assembly=" MobileCustomization, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=<myPublicKeyToken>"
         Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages"
         TypeName="*"
         Safe="True"
         AllowRemoteDesigner="True"
       />
     </add>
   </action>

   Caution
   Using an asterisk (*) as the value of TypeName makes every class in the namespace a safe control. If you have some classes in the assembly that should not be designated as safe, move them to a different assembly or avoid using the asterisk (*) value.

   For more information about the <SafeControl> element and web.config files, see How to: Create a Supplemental .config File (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms439965.aspx) and Working with Web.config Files (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms460914.aspx).

3. Save the file. You must now copy it to the %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\CONFIG folder on your development computer. The simplest way to do this on your development computer is to add the following lines to a post-build event command line or to a batch file script.
   Copy

   xcopy /y webconfig.MyCompany.xml "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\CONFIG"
   stsadm –o copyappbincontent

   Note
   This code assumes that you have followed the recommendations in How to: Add Tool Locations to the PATH Environment Variable (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee537574.aspx).

   The copyappbincontent Stsadm.exe command performs the action defined by the <action> element in your Web configuration .xml file. In this case, it inserts the new <SafeControl> element of your adapter into the web.config file at the root of the web application. It first removes any existing <SafeControl> elements for the adapter. This lets you rerun the Stsadm command with every build without creating duplicate <SafeControl> elements.) For more information about Stsadm, see Stsadm command-line tool (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288981(office.12).aspx).

 

Publishing apps for Office and SharePoint to Windows Azure Websites

This post will focus on provider-hosted apps for SharePoint and apps for Office. Provider-hosted (as opposed to SharePoint-hosted or Autohosted) means that the developer is responsible for hosting the web content – which is precisely where Azure Websites can help. At the end of the post, I will also look at advanced topics, including options for publishing to a non-Azure environment (like an on-premise server).

Direct web publishing to Azure

Creating a profile

Suppose you have an app for SharePoint or an app for Office that you’re ready to publish for the first time. To begin publishing your app, choose the app for SharePoint or app for Office project, and choose “Publish”.

Figure 1. Publish menu in Solution Explorer

A guided publishing experience will appear, as shown below.

Figure 2. Guided publishing experience

For a new project, there is no current publishing profile. You can create one by selecting <New…> from the profile dropdown, which will open the following dialog box.

Figure 3. Creating a new publishing profile

If you’re publishing to Azure, choose the “download your publishing profile” link, and you’ll be redirected to the Azure portal. There, if you have not already, you can create a new website by choosing the +NEW at bottom-left corner of the portal. The bottom portion of the screen will expand, allowing you to create a new website via the Quick Create or Custom Create menu items.

Figure 4. Creating new website on Azure portal

Once the website entity is created, choose it from the list of websites to reveal the website details. Then choose Download the publish profile and save the profile to your computer. The profile contains all the information necessary to deploy your web content, including any auxiliary information like linked database connections.

Figure 5. Downloading the publish profile from the Azure portal

Back in the Visual Studio dialog box, and with the import publishing profile option still selected, choose the “browse” button and browse to the newly-downloaded file. Depending on the type of app:

• For apps for Office, the profile is now complete.
• For apps for SharePoint, you can now configure the Client ID and Client Secret on the second page of the wizard. These values uniquely identify your app to SharePoint, and allows the app to access SharePoint data. Client IDs and Secrets are generated and registered automatically when you debug your app, but they must be registered in a more permanent fashion when publishing the app. To do so:
  • If you will be publishing your app on the Office Store, or using the app on more than one tenant, use the Seller Dashboard to register your app.
  • If you will be publishing your app to a single SharePoint tenant only, register your app using appregnew.aspx.

At the completion of either registration process, you will be granted a Client ID and Client Secret. Transfer those values into the Profile-creation dialog, and then choose Finish.

Deploying and packaging

Once the profile is set, the publishing buttons will activate. You now have a choice of deploying the web project and/or packaging the app. When publishing for the first time, you will need to do both – but it generally makes sense to start with deploying the web project first.

Deploy your web project

Deploying your web project is exactly what it sounds like: it will publish the entire contents of your web project (but not the SharePoint app or Office manifest) to the web. To do this, choose deploy your web project and you will see the familiar web publishing experience – complete with Preview, deployment settings, and more. The Connection tab has been pre-filled with information from your publish profile, and you can go to Settings to customize the publish configuration and options like Remove additional files at destination. Note that if your project requires a database, you can set it on the Settings page of the Wizard – and that, if your publish profile came from Azure, you can simply choose the database from the dropdown list.

Figure 6. Deploying a web project to Azure

The Preview functionality is helpful to ensure you’re publishing the right set of files. By choosing a file in the Preview list, you can see the impending changes that you’re about to commit to your live site.

Figure 7. Preview functionality in Visual Studio

Packaging your app

Once the web project is deployed, packaging the app is designed to be simple, and most fields should be pre-populated. If you used a publishing profile, the URL will already be pre-populated, though you’ll need to change the URL from “http” to “https”. Note that with Azure Websites, https hosting is automatically included for any website hosted on *.azurewebsites.net (for custom domains or other hosting providers, you may need to follow additional steps).

For apps for Office, that’s all you need: Just choose Finish, and a manifest file that points to your live web content will get generated for you. For apps that you wish to sell on the Office Store, see the next section. Otherwise, if it’s just an in-house app, you can upload the app to a file share or to a corporate catalog.

For apps for SharePoint, you will need to provide or confirm the Client ID, which you may have already entered during the profile-creation step. After that, click “finish” – and an app package will get created for you. Again, see the next section for apps headed for the Office Store. Otherwise, if you only intend to distribute the app to users of your SharePoint site, follow the documentation for uploading the app to a SharePoint corporate catalog.

Publishing to the Office Store

After your app package (apps for SharePoint) or manifest file (apps for Office) is created, you can use the Visit the Seller Dashboard button to get started with publishing to the Office Store.

For apps for Office, you can also run your app through a validation utility, which will catch common mistakes (like not specifying required information in the manifest). This will save you time and hassle when submitting the app to the Store.

Figure 8. Validation utility for apps for Office

Upgrading an app

When it comes time to upgrade an existing app that you have already published, what steps do you need to take?

For both apps for Office and apps for SharePoint, if all that you’ve updated is just in the web project, you can just re-publish the web content via the Deploy your web project button. These changes will go live immediately, and you’re fully in control of deploying these whenever you’d like.

If you made changes to the app manifest (apps for Office and apps for SharePoint) or if you have modified any SharePoint artifacts (lists, event receivers, or anything outside the web project), you need to re-publish those artifacts instead via the Package the app button. If your app is listed on the Office Store, you will then need to re-submit to the produced app package or app manifest to the Store, so it may take a few days before those changes go live – and remember that applying an update is at the discretion of the user.

In general, remember to be considerate of the upgrade impact when modifying anything outside of the web project. Especially for apps for SharePoint, which have a more involved upgrade process, see the Apps for SharePoint update process article for an in-depth upgrade discussion and for guidance on how to avoid breaking older app packages when deploying new web artifacts.

Advanced topics

Specifying multiple publish environments

One common request we heard is to publish an app to different environments. For example, one might want to publish to a “staging” environment first, ensure that the app works properly, and only then publish to “production”.

With the new Publish experience, switching between multiple environments is only a dropdown away. Each publish profile remembers its own URL, Client ID, and Secret, so publishing to a different profile is as easy as changing the profile dropdown and choosing the appropriate “Deploy your web project” and “Package the app” buttons.

Figure 9. Publishing to multiple environments

Configuring Client Secret (or other environmental variables) in the Azure Portal

Sometimes, the “Client Secret” for the production app might be a closely-guarded secret. As a developer, you might have the ability to publish to the website, but you might not have access to the Client Secret itself. The same thing might be true for any other such variables.

One way to solve this scenario is to have your Azure account Admin manage these environmental variables through the Azure Portal. For each Azure Website, it is possible to have the Client Secret – or any other variables – be set via “app settings” section of the Configure tab. The “app settings” values take precedence over values in Web.config, so you get the best of both worlds – your local F5 scenario continues to work as before, yet your published app can make of a Client Secret that you might not even have access to.

Figure 10. Configuring a Client Secret in the Azure portal

Deploying outside of Azure (or to a local IIS server)

If you need to deploy to a non-Azure hosting provider – particularly if you are publishing to an on-premises machine – you can still use the many improvements to the app-publishing experience.

During profile-creation, choose the Create new profile radio button.

Then, once you are ready to deploy your web content, enter the Connection credentials in the “Publish Web” wizard.

The rest of the flow should be the same. Remember to ensure that your hosting server supports the HTTPS protocol.

Creating a Web Deploy Package

An alternate, but similar, case for publishing to a local IIS server is when only an IT admin has the ability to publish a website. To simplify deployment, you can provide the IT admin with a Web Deploy Package – a .zip file that contains all web artifacts.

To do this, create a new profile rather than importing one from Azure. In the case of an app for SharePoint, you will also need to fill in some dummy Client ID and Secret values.

Now go to Deploy your web project – but be sure to choose Web Deploy Package as the publish method in the “Connection” tab.

Figure 11. Creating a web deploy package

Choose a package location (any new folder will do) and proceed with the wizard. At the end, a set of deploy scripts and a .zip file with your web content will be generated.

Figure 12. Web deploy package files

Your IT Admin should be able to take things from here (registering the app with SharePoint and providing the Client ID and Secret into the deployment scripts). Once the web content is deployed, ask your admin to provide you with the Client ID (the secret is not needed) and proceed with the “Package the app” step. You can then send the app package – now containing the SharePoint artifacts, and pointing at the live web content – back to the IT admin to deploy to SharePoint.