Me

Hi there, i'm Ben Simmonds

A microserf's adventures with BizTalk, Azure, AppFabric, SQL Server, WCF, SharePoint and ASP.NET

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Recent Posts

Apr 29 2012

How to pass 70-513 Windows Communication Foundation 4 Development

My experience preparing for and gaining the TS Windows Communication Foundation Development 4 certification.

WCF
Apr 23 2012

F# Cheatsheet

The VS11 beta includes a really slick cheatsheet style F# language reference. A gem for groking F# syntax.

F#
Apr 16 2012

T4 Template Custom Host and BizTalk Pipeline

A tiny pipeline component that leverages T4 (text template transformation toolkit) templating within a BizTalk pipeline.

BizTalkT4
Apr 11 2012

WCF Error Handling using IErrorHandler and log4net

A plugabble catch all WCF behavior that sinks faults into log4net.

WCF
Mar 22 2012

Autofac Your WCF

Quick guide on using Autofac's WCF integration.

WCFAutofac
Feb 26 2012

Azure Service Bus WRAP Token Renewal

Azure Service Bus ACS token acquisition using REST. Consider using the token optimistically (for its default lifetime of 20 minutes) until expiry.

AzureServiceBusACS
Feb 26 2012

Azure Essentials List

A living post of the tools, frameworks and guidance that have made life with Azure better.

Azure
Oct 24 2011

OAuth Certificate Authentication with ACS

My experience authenticating clients with the Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control Service (ACS) using (X.509) certificates.

AzureAppFabricACS
Sep 15 2011

How to pass 70-573 SharePoint 2010 Application Development

My experience preparing for the TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development exam.

SharePoint
Jul 21 2011

Time Dimension Populate Script

Here is a very simple TSQL script that will flesh out a time dimension, for use with analysis services cubes.

SSASCubes
Jul 11 2011

The BizTalk WCF SQL Binding and MSDTC

Highlights a common misconfiguration of the BizTalk WCF Adapter Pack 2.0 SQL binding.

BizTalk
Jul 9 2011

.NET 4.0 GAC Post-build Event Command

"%programfiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\gacutil.exe" /i "$(TargetPath)"

Jun 26 2011

BizTalk Custom WCF Behaviour

This post highlights one area of extensible goodness that WCF offers. In the context of BizTalk's WCF Adapter runtime opens up amazing possibilies.

BizTalkWCF
Dec 5 2010

WordPress Blog and ASP.NET MVC Integration

This was too easy/cool to keep tucked away. I wanted the most cheap and cheerful way of listing the top 10 blog posts, into a larger, containing website I am building for a client. I started out b...

software
Nov 24 2010

SSO Configuration Road Block

Recently I’ve had the need to setup a BizTalk Server 2006 R2 virtual machine. Quietly confident about my experience with this version of BizTalk, I jumped in head first to quickly get a simple s...

BizTalk
Oct 3 2010

BizTalk Server 2010 Prerequisite CAB Files

Exciting times! BizTalk Server 2010 is out and as per every major release of the product there are a fresh set of redistributable CAB links to hunt down. These links available from the official in...

BizTalk
Aug 2 2010

BizTalk Servers Slow First Hit

Lately I been thinking about BizTalk Server, and a particular behavior that it consistently demonstrates without fail. It takes a dreadful amount of time to service a “cold” request, however once ...

BizTalk
Jun 12 2010

Back To Basics: Sharing Libraries in a Team

When developing in a team consisting of more members than yourself, you’ll quickly run into the scenario where shared libraries and/or other similar resources need to be shared in someway. Its es...

BizTalk
Jun 12 2010

BizTalk Server 2009 Unit Testing

I feel like i’ve missed the boat with this, but the “first class” unit testing support that has been added to BizTalk Server 2009 is terrific...

BizTalk
Jun 5 2010

Back To Basics: Managing Databases

On a new clients site the other day, observed that over time the more companies I work for the deeper my knowledge for applying effective work practices becomes. In other words, over time you see ...

software
Apr 17 2010

Subversion Repository

I’ve been working on a number of personal projects lately and need a reliable, fast and possibly multi-user source control. There are many of options available, but for me VS.NET integration is a ...

softwaresubversion
Apr 12 2010

Azure BizSpark Camp

Last month I was invited to attend the Azure BizSpark Camp in Sydney. Given minimal detail about the event, 7 small Australian startups pitched...

events
Dec 25 2008

C# 3.0 Language Extensions

Put together a little snippet to remind myself of the some of the beautiful language extensions that shipped with the C# language. namespace CSharpLanguageExperiment{    using System;    using Sys...

BizTalk
Dec 21 2008

70-235 Certified

A few weeks ago I sat the 70-235 exam. Coming from a real-world perspective I wasnt overly impressed with the exam. To me it felt mind numbingly robotic and very 2006 R1 feature set focused (e.g. ...

BizTalk
Dec 21 2008

XHTML Formatted Messages

BizTalk messages are very XML centric. A while ago there was a requirement to produce a neatly formatted XHTML report, which was destined to be emailed. At the time I stumbled across a customised ...

BizTalk
Dec 21 2008

BizTalk 2006 Install Problems on WinXP

Today while doing some vanilla BizTalk 2006 R2 installs, discovered the installer was choking with: Error 5003.Regsvcs failed for assembly C:\ProgramFiles\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006\Microsoft.B...

BizTalk
Dec 17 2008

R&D Todo List

Now my post-grad studies are finalised ive got some spare time to inject into technology. I plan to inject some solid hours into running through the .NET 3.0 certification stream. Some areas tha...

BizTalk
Nov 23 2008

Font Smoothing with Remote Desktop and Windows Server 2003

Microsoft has recently released a hotfix to enable font smoothing over remote desktop (RDP). If your addicted to font smoothing (aka ClearType) you will love this hotfix. At least service pack 1 i...

BizTalk
Oct 4 2008

Why Enterprise Service Bus?

To provide a messaging infrastructure that will: Break the communication complexity problems associated with distributed software – such as the ability to deal with ongoing change, providing man...

BizTalkESB
Sep 10 2008

ESB Guidance - Dynamic Resolution

The goal of dynamic resolution is to avoid defining end-points anywhere statically. The responsibility of carrying and managing this knowledge, which is specific to the interaction, is frequently ...

BizTalk
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