Ok, last time I mentioned I was having problems using VSSwSe 1.3 on my 2008 r2 server, in particular the problems developing Sharepoint Workflows. After going through the process of manually creating a workflow WSP, I decided that this workaround was just not good enough as I'm wanting to concentrate on workflow. Instead I thought I'd jump ship and try WSPBuilder. To be honest, the ast time I had used this I wasn't too impressed as there seemed to be too much manual work to do. However, that was when I was learning sharepoint development. This time around I found it very straightforward and provided the flexibility to do everything I wanted, plus building workflows on my 2008 r2 machine worked without a hickup....guess I'll be sticking with WSPbuilder until MS convince me that VSSwSe can beat it.

Workflow

So, back on to my workflows. First things first and I put together a nice simple workflow just to test things out end to end. After this worked, I then wanted to start to look at what I would really want from Workflow. Having spent a lot of time recently using K2 Blackpearl to put together some beefy workflows to support line-of-business applications, I want to see if Sharepoint WF can do the same and not just provide nice simple 'approval' style workflows.

My first step here is poducing a flexible form solution for task processing. To be honest I really don;t like having to use Infopath for this, so I want to support something that will provide beefy forms processing using ASPX. Now, there is a built in way to do this by using ContentTypes with custom Display/edit pages, along with the custom association/mod forms. My aim here is to build a generic form handler (like the IP forms handler), that will load up on-demand ascx files based on the task definition.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Ok, so before I delve into my solution, I decided to go through the Visual Studio Sharepoint Exensions 1.3 to see if the sales pitch matched expectations. I wanted to try out the various templates and the new deployment methods, so I started with the Team Template, and added a custom list, and a new Theme (deployed and activated via a feature).This compiled and deployed without a hitch, so far so good. Then tried a few other templates to build a few features and web parts. Have to say, at this point I was impressed.

Finally, I thought I'd check out the workflow templates. Hmm, launching the template says that this only works on 32 bit Sharepoint environments, bit of a drawback now as on my laptop I have Windows 7 (which doesn't run Sharpeoint very well), and Windows 2008 r2 (which is 64 bit only).  So after a fine start, looks like the extensions are going to let me down on the workflow front. Now there may be a patch due out, but if R2 is hoing to be the new server O/S, you really wouldn't expect to have to drop to an older version of Windows server just to do your development. So, lets hope this gets resolved p.d.q.

In the meantime, looks like I'll have to build the Workflow packages the old fashioned way........ 7 out of 10 must try harder......

This blog aims to follow an ongoing development project which I am using as a model to test and cover every area of development relating the Sharepint and Biztalk that I except to use as part of general business activities. These products cover a wide set of functionality on an any individual customer project, there are areas that you don't touch. Rather than simly ignring them, I'm using an ongoing project to set mysefl development objectives to cover as wide an area of this functionality as possible and push my developer skills into the areas that you donlt bother with as part of the usual learning process.

Step 1 - A working environment.

While doing this process, I decided that I'd build a fresh environment on Windows 2008 r2 so that I could start to play with the new O/S and get into the detail. I'd originally started on Windows 7, but after hitting the restrictions and limitations that you get trying to run Sharepoint on WIndows 7 I decided to bite the bullet and do it properly. So, after creating a bootable VHD via Windows 7, I installed Windows 2008 r2 onto this VHD - which I have to say, worked like a dream. I did have a couple of issues but these were down to my knowledge rather than any problems. The main one being that wireless network access is disabled by default on Windows 2008 r2....which for a Server is a very sensible default option to take. However, as I was installing this onto a laptop, which only had connectivity via the wireles adapter, I thought I'd hit a hardware compatibility issue until I rebooted Windows 7 and had a sniff around the web until I spotted an article indicating that twirless was disabled and how to enable it, after which things worked like a dream.

So, I installed SQL2008 and Visual Studio 2008, both without a hitch, then installed Biztalk 2009 which was again too simple - I was becomng suspitious. Then I got to MOSS. Currently MOSS only works with SP2, and there is no install package for MOSS with SP2, so you have to create your own slipsteamed install by copying the MOSS ISO image onto a disk drive, expanding the SP2 files into the updates directory of this install and performing the install from here.

This worked great, however, it wasn't until later that I noticed that I had not been given the option about which install type I wanted and that it had defaulted to install the Web Front End intstall. What this meant was that I had no indexing service, which meant that I couldn't set up session state which then prevented workflow from operating. Asthis was my whole development objective I was gutted. I searched around for solutions and didnt get anywhere. I suspect that this might have been particular to my environment or how I had done things as I did not see anyone else with the same problem. 

Looking on the Microsoft site, I noticed that there was a WSS install that had SP2 bundled in. So I thought I'd give this a try instead (if it worked I could always upgrade). After downloading (and removing the MOSS install) I was relieved to see the Installation Type selection when I started the install. So, afte selecting FULL, the installation continued liek a dream and 15 minutes later I had a Sharepoint environment with Workflow enabled. All I needed to do then was  re-run the MOSS install and the upgrade resulted in a fully working MOSS environment... Result.

Last step was to create a sharepoint site, then load up the Biztalk WSS adapter and I'm good to go.

One more thing. I'd also used the VS Sharepoint Extenstions 1.2 for development, but thought I'd go with the 1.3 this time to see how much better it is. From my initial play I'd say its much better than before, but will keep you upto date with my findings. Next step, put together my requirements for my test app.......