The final day of the conference came around to quickly. Soon it would be time to go. I can happily report that I won a handsome bet of $1 last night at the bowling alley!

Development Reference
Mike Talley, SourceCode

Mike went through the development reference that comes with K2 [blackpearl]. He went trough what existed and what was planned. The following is planned for release this year:

i - Database schemas of all 14 K2 databases.
i - Architecture diagrams and discussions.
ii - More How To topics e.g. how to debug.
iv - Event Bus topics e.g. calling another another assembly, starting a process.
v - Impersonate a user (and reverting to a user).

Training
Codi Kaji, Source Code

Codi discussed planned training content for the year, including:

i - A K2 Infrastructure course
ii - A Getting Started guide
iii - A K2 Developers course - once the Development Reference is complete

Smart Objects
Jason Apergis, Colin Murphy and Gabe Malherbe (K2 Insiders)

Jason, Colin and Gabe went through a discussion of Smart Objects, highlighting the advantages and mentioning pitfalls to avoid. They started with a quick overview of K2.net 2003 advantages and shortcomings:

i - It was easy to drop into code from wizards
ii - When  using code to access external systems, it was time consuming, complex is not generally considered a best practice.
iii - When storing workflow data in XML or process data fields, you could run into performance issues when storing large amounts of data.
iv - When creating custom wizards for non-technical users to consume your custom code, it was very time consuming and could lead to problems during deployment.

When using K2 [blackpearl], Smart Objects can solve many of the aforementioned shortcomings.

i - Smart Objects are reusable business entities which are deployed centrally and available to be consumed by non-technical business workflow authors.
ii - The SmartBox is the storage location for process data.
iii - Allows for quick access to external Line of Business (LOB) data.
iv - Allows for the aggregation of data from multiple back-end systems (e.g. AD, SAP, SQL Server) into a single composite object.
v - Can be created without writing code.
vi - Can be accessed by the workflow and can be used for reporting.

There was some discussion about the positioning of Smart Objects within the application layer (see the diagram below) and some things to consider:

i - Don’t circumvent the data warehouse.
ii - Think carefully about whether there is a need to save the data from the Smart Object in the workflow context to the database layer.
iii - Consider the reporting benefit that comes from the Smart Objects.

Diagram 1 - The Smart Object position within the application layer.

Next came a discussion about Smart Objects services. These services are wrappers to functionality that Smart Objects can call. The following are available out of the box:

i - SmartBox (although these can’t be used for custom SQL Server databases).
ii - Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
iii - Microsoft Active Directory
iv - K2 [blackpearl]
v - SalesForce.com

There are more available on K2 [blackmarket]:

i - Dynamic SQL Server Stored Procedure Service
ii - Dynamic Smart Object Services Service
iii - Dynamic Web Services Service
iv - Microsoft Office Communication Server Service
v - SharePoint Users in Groups Service

K2 [blackmarket] is part of K2 Underground - the community site that allows community to create and share projects and code on the K2 Underground site.

Forms Discussion
Mike Talley, SourceCode

Mike led a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of using InfoPath and ASP.net for forms development in a K2 Solution. The table below summarizes the discussion.

Microsoft ASP.Net
Advantages	Disadvantages
Flexibility	Longer development lifecycles
Separate from the K2 solution	Custom code requires more complex maintenance and management of projects
More control over form session state and or attachments	Outside the scope of the K2 process
Standard debugging	Can’t be used with Microsoft Office SharePoint Integrated workflows
Microsoft InfoPath 2007
Advantages	Disadvantages
Better now that there’s a browser option. Actions can be handled outside the form. Multiple form templates and views can be used.	The form file is left in the SharePoint document library. This can be changed in Advanced Mode but only with client forms. Browser-enabled forms will always remain in the document library.
Smart Object integration	Managed code should be avoided - it’s not officially supported
InfoPath forms become part of the K2 project	Browser-enabled forms require MOSS enterprise licensing
Quick to develop and deploy	It can only be used with an InfoPath integrated process - not with SharePoint integrated process
Can be used in server events for XML storage	Requires specialized trouble-shooting for hosted and client forms - it’s difficult to debug
XML captured becomes part of the process and is accessible through the K2 object and context browsers	There is a Kerberos issue which has not been fixed with MOSS SP1 (KB941470)
Allows for disconnected (offline) use	Controls bound to secondary data sources are not easily validated
	Complex browser-enabled forms may fail to convert when deployed
	InfoPath needs to be installed on the computers of workflow participants (for client forms)
	Browser-enabled forms are limited to Active Directory authentication
	Browser-enabled forms can’t use the full set of controls that are available in the client InfoPath application

So after three action packed days, the inaugural K2 Insiders Conference comes to an end. It was a great opportunity to meet some of the people behind K2 and other Insiders. Thanks to Chris who went to a great deal of effort to organize this. Well done!

SourceCode, K2, K2[blackpearl], K2 [blackmarket], K2 Underground, Smart Object, SmartBox, Microsoft SharePoint Office Server, MOSS, ASP.net, InfoPath 2007

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