Today I passed the TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - Implementation and Maintenance exam (70-431). I managed to use my free exam voucher given out at the Visual Studio 2005 launch with just eleven days before it expired. The exam had a good mix of multiple choice and interactive questions. It was the first exam I’ve taken with interactive questions. I found them straight forward providing you know the tool.

There has been a lot of talk between my friends and colleagues about the place for these certifications, especially with so many braindumps available on the net. My feeling is that it’s like many other things in life - what you get from it depends on what you put into it. If you study and practice without cheating, the exams can be a great way of gaining insight and a thorough knowledge about the software.

Microsoft, SQL Server 2005, Microsoft Certification, 70-431

The release of the K2.Net Service Pack 4 included an extensive logging framework that records and stores every K2.Net Server event. In a recent workflow project I thought I would implement logging using the Logging Framework provided. The framework contains an XML configuration file that the Logging Framework Configuration uses. It also has a list of message categories and specific predefined messages. The configuration file allows for settings to be altered after a solution has been deployed without the need for a redeployment. There is no need to restart the K2.net 2003 Server unless the ProcessModel section has been changed. There are a couple of steps involved when implementing logging.

Step 1: Configuring the Logging Configuration File
The configuration file can be altered using a text editor or the Logging Configuration Editor (LogConfig.exe found under the [InstallDrive]:\Program Files\K2.Net 2003\Bin directory). It provides a graphical interface that can be used to edit and save the configuration properties. It looks as follows:

The configuration file is made up of three sections:

• General Settings: allows for setting the log file name, file path, level of logging, log to Console, log to Event Viewer, log to File, max log size, etc.
• Message Category: allows for setting categories under which messages can be logged.
• Predefined Message List: contains known predefined messages and allows for more to be added.

Step 2: Implementing Logging in the K2.Net 2003 Studio Solution

Anywhere in the K2.Net 2003 solution where code is written you can add logging as long as you have a reference to the K2 ProcessInstance. An example would look as follows:

The Logger.LogDebugMessage which takes has four overloads. The following parameters can be set:

• string MessageSource (set in example)
• string MessageName
• string MessageString (set in example)
• string MessageCategory
• long MessageID

Step 3: Restart the K2 Service

You need to restart the K2 Service to kick off logging to the file, event viewer, etc.

Pretty easy, happy logging!

K2.Net, K2 Logging Framework

The other day I was trying to add a reference to an assembly that was in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) from Visual Studio 2005. I couldn’t find the assembly listed in the Add Reference dialog. I noticed that none of the GAC’d assemblies were showing up. So after a little research I found a way to add the reference. Go to the Browse tab and type the file path with assembly version and token in the File name: textbox. As an example, if you want to add a reference to the PIA interop assembly for Word 2003, you type:

C:Windows\assembly\GAC\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word11.0.0.0__71e9bce111e9429c\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.dll

Visual Studio 2005, Global Assembly Cache, GAC