The Problem Solver : SqlCe

Updated SQL Server Compact Workflow Persistence Service

Maurice — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:46:12 GMT

Yesterday I uploaded a new version of the SQL Server Compact Workflow Persistence Service to code.msdn.com. No major changes this time just two new features to get it more in line with the standard SqlWorkflowPersistenceService.

I added a GetAllWorkflows() function that returns all persisted workflow's in the database.
I added a LoadExpiredTimerWorkflowIds() function that will return a list of workflow instanceId's of all workflow's with an expired timer.

Both new functions should help make the SqlCeWorkflowPersistenceService even more like the out of the box SqlWorkflowPersistenceService. And as before it is completely free .

You can download the source code for the SqlCeWorkflowPersistenceService here: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SqlCeWFPersistence.

PS should you need to develop a custom WorkflowPersistenceService for some other database this would be a good starting point!

Enjoy.

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

PDC session download

Maurice — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:17:52 GMT

Want to download and watch all PDC content? Then there are a couple of ways to get at them. The official way if to go through the session agenda at the conference site. See https://sessions.microsoftpdc.com/public/timeline.aspx. You see all sessions but it takes a bit of work. Another nice way is through Channel 9 by using the following feed: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/pdc2008/RSS/?tag=videos.

But the best as far as I am concerned is using the list compiled by Greg Duncan. Check this list http://coolthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2008/10/pdc2008-quick-video-link-list.html. And it even has the Visual Basic source code used to generate the list

Enjoy the videos!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
Wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

Red Gate to continue development of .NET Reflector

Maurice — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:04:54 GMT

.NET Reflector, by Lutz Roeder, must be one of the most useful tools I have when developing .NET code. Usually it is the first thing I install right after Visual Studio not even waiting until I need it because I know I will.

So the big news is that Red Gate, makers of the Ants profiler and lots of other tools, are taking over from Lutz Roeder and will continue developing .NET Reflector. Interesting move and I hope this means a bright future for the .NET Reflector.

.NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit

Maurice — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:32:52 GMT

Want to know what is new in the .NET 3.5 SP1 framework or Visual Studio 2008 SP1? Then check out the presentations and labs here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=355C80E9-FDE0-4812-98B5-8A03F5874E96&displaylang=en

Overview

The .NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit includes presentations, hands-on labs, demos, and event materials. This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the .NET 3.5 Enhancement features including: ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Dynamic Data, ASP.NET AJAX History, ASP.NET Routing, ADO.NET Data Services, ADO.NET Entity Framework, WCF 3.5 SP1, and the .NET Framework Client Profile.

Now this is nowhere near complete but a good place to start.

Enjoy!

Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 available

Maurice — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:33:33 GMT

It is available from the subscriptions download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx

Get it while it is hot

Enjoy!

SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1 released

Maurice — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:47:58 GMT

Steve Lasker just announced that SQL Server Compact 3.5 service pack 1 is released, read his announcement here.

They added support for the entity framework, great stuff. And another neat feature is native 64 bits support. No longer do you need to target X86 and use WoW [:0]. Great if you are using my SQL Server Compact Workflow Persistence Service.

Enjoy!

CodeCamp 2008

Maurice — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:39:22 GMT

Afgelopen jaar hebben we het eerste CodeCamp in Nederland georganiseerd en dat was een groot succes. De meeste deelnemers vroegen om meer, sommige zelfs om een CodeCamp per kwartaal of een heel weekend lang. Nou hebben we dat laatste nog niet gedaan maar we zijn wel aan de slag gegaan om een nieuw CodeCamp te organiseren. Als datum hebben we zaterdag 6 september gekozen. Gelukkig waren Microsoft en Class-a behulpzaam en kunnen we, net als vorig jaar, weer in het Microsoft Innovation Center in Barneveld terecht. Een mooie datum en locatie om uitgerust van de vakantie een hoop kennis uit te wisselen.

Het programma staat nog niet helemaal vast, hou daar de website voor in de gaten, maar je kan er ondermeer de bekende Nederlandse sprekers verwachten. Uiteraard kan je zelf ook nog een sessie voorstellen dus als je een idee hebt voor een leuke sessie laat het dan zo snel mogelijk weten.

Dus zet de datum vast in je agenda en meld je zo snel mogelijk aan op de website www.code-camp.nl.

Het CodeCamp is een gezamenlijk initiatief van de SDN, de stichting DotNed en VB Central.

SQL Compact 3.5 on a 64 bit Windows

Maurice — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:48:36 GMT

SQL Compact is a great little database and highly recommended. However it was designed for use on small compact, hence its name, devices and that has some drawbacks. One of these is that it doesn't run as a 64 bits application. And by default if you create a .NET application it is compile as "Any CPU" meaning it will run as a 64 bits application on a 64 bits version of Windows.

I, or I should say Ron Jacobs, ran into that using my SqlCeWorkflowPersistenceService because the sample/test application was set to the default of "Any CPU". The result is that the LINQ provider cannot load the runtime and a InvalidOperationException with message "Cannot open 'WorkflowPersistenceDatabase.sdf'. Provider 'System.Data.SqlServerCe.3.5' not installed." is the result. Now the fix is rather easy but it has to be done in the main program and that is to compile it for X86 instead of Any CPU.

Do this and any application using SQL Compact 3.5 will happily run on Windows 64bit as a WOW Application.

Enjoy!

SQL Server Compact Workflow Persistence Service updated

Maurice — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:47:21 GMT

I have just updated the SQL Server Compact Workflow Persistence Service to better handle deserialization issues when loading a workflow. The service now makes sure the WorkflowRuntime ServicesExceptionNotHandled is raised, something it should have done in the first place.

You can download the SQL Server Compact Workflow Persistence Service from here.

Enjoy!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
http://wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

FaultHandlerActivity and workflow persistence

Maurice — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:11:17 GMT

I was just working on an issue reported against the SQL Server Compact Workflow Persistence Service I released some time ago. It turns that if you are using workflow persistence your workflow will actually be persisted to the store when an exception is caught. Now in itself not a big problem as your whole workflow needs to be serializable anyway. Except this time where is an additional exception object and when the exception itself cannot be serialized this brings the whole workflow down. In fact it brings more that just the workflow as the whole workflow runtime crashes, not good

The culprit in this case was a SqlCeException which is not serializable! Don't worry about the more common SqlException because that is perfectly ok.

Still something to double check as these exceptions are, by their very nature, the exceptional case and therefor less likely to be tested.

Enjoy!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
http://wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

SQL Server Compact and 64 bits

Maurice — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:32:18 GMT

The current version of SQL Server Compact has no support for 64 bits computing. While this may seem a problem if you want to deploy you application on a 64 bits version of Windows it really isn't most of the time. In fact if you change your assembly from the default AnyCPU to x86 compatible it will work just fine using Windows On Windows (WOW).

But even better there will soon be a native 64bits version of SQL Compact. This isn't in the beta version that is distibrited with Visual Studio 2008 SP1 beta but Steve Lasker promises it will be in the final version when that releases.

Another nice feature that will be added is support for LINQ to Entities. And that includes the designer support we now lack with LINQ to SQL.

More info about the change can be found in this blog post by Steve Lasker.

Enjoy!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
http://wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu

How to Download all of Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Maurice — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:05:00 GMT

VS2008 SP1 Beta is quite a package. By default the installation downloads the packages as needed and when needed. Now that is just fine if you only need to install a single machine. But when you need to install multiple, possibly virtual, machines like I have to it just wastes a lot of bandwidth and time . Fortunately there is a solution and it can be found here in the blog post by Heath Stewart.

Enjoy!

Workflow Persistence Service using SQL Server Compact

Maurice — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:11:29 GMT

As I mentioned previously I was working in a Workflow Persistence Service using SQL Server Compact as the back end store. Now this might not be the best persistence store to use in every application but it has a number of advantages.

One of the main advantages is ClickOnce deployment. In the case of the standard SqlWorkflowPersistenceService you need to have SQL Server installed and running and create the database, with a name of your choosing, using two scripts. Not a big problem but something that needs to be done first and is outside of the realm of what you would like to do with ClickOnce. Not so with SQL Server Compact. No with SqlCe you can just deploy a number of DLL's with your application and you are ready to go, so much easier and very ClickOnce compatible Add easy installation is just what you want when you are creating sample applications.

I actually did all the data access using LINQ to SQL which fully supports SqlCe as a client. It might appear not to as there is no designer support like with SQL Server itself but runtime it works just fine . using LINQ to SQL actually made the data access very easy and has an additional benefit, if you want to use the full SQL Server all you need to do is provide a different database connections string. One additional benefit of using LINQ to SQL was that is can check if the database exists and, if not, create it with a single function call. No need to mess with those tedious Create Table statements in SQL scripts!

Imports TheProblemSolver.Workflow.Hosting.Persistence

Module Module1
    Class Program
        Shared Sub Main()
            Using workflowRuntime As New WorkflowRuntime()

                Dim connectionStr As String = "Data Source=WorkflowPersistenceDatabase.sdf"
                Dim unloadOnIdle As Boolean = True
                Dim loadingInterval As TimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(15)
                Dim persistence As New SqlCeWorkflowPersistenceService(connectionStr, _
                                                                       unloadOnIdle, _
                                                                       loadingInterval)
                workflowRuntime.AddService(persistence)

                Dim workflowInstance As WorkflowInstance
                workflowInstance = workflowRuntime.CreateWorkflow(GetType(Workflow1))
                workflowInstance.Start()

                Console.WriteLine("Press enter to stop...")
                Console.ReadLine()
            End Using
        End Sub
    End Class
End Module

Usage is real simple and pretty much the same as the standard SqlWorkflowPersistenceService type. The only extra is to set a reference to the TheProblemSolver.Workflow.Hosting.Persistence.dll that includes the SqlCeWorkflowPersistenceService type.

using System;
using System.Workflow.Runtime;
using TheProblemSolver.Workflow.Hosting.Persistence;

namespace TestClient
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            using (WorkflowRuntime workflowRuntime = new WorkflowRuntime())
            {
                string connectionStr = @"Data Source=WorkflowPersistenceDatabase.sdf";
                bool unloadOnIdle = true;
                TimeSpan loadingInterval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(15);
                SqlCeWorkflowPersistenceService persistence = 
                    new SqlCeWorkflowPersistenceService(connectionStr, unloadOnIdle, loadingInterval);
                workflowRuntime.AddService(persistence);

                WorkflowInstance instance = workflowRuntime.CreateWorkflow(typeof(Workflow1));
                instance.Start();

                Console.WriteLine("Press enter to stop...");
                Console.ReadLine();
            }
        }
    }
}

If you want to download the SqlCeWorkflowPersistenceService you can find it here. Any feedback, hopefully good, will be appreciated!

Enjoy!

www.TheProblemSolver.nl
http://wiki.WindowsWorkflowFoundation.eu