AD is a tricky beast. Not only do you need a server version of Windows, but experimenting with it no so simple too. Microsoft created ADAM for that: AD Application Mode, that basically means that you can start it just like any other program. And…you can run it with Windows XP Pro (SP1 +) too.
Microsoft has released a step-by-step guide how to implement it, and instructions how to bundle it with your application.
ADAM itself can be downloaded here.
Thanks for pointing, TSS.
When you define a form, it’s class is an inherited class (from the one Microsoft defined in their .NET framework). When reading/setting values from components from the form-class you defined, things work like you would expect. But…when you create another class and try to access the components, you will get the error described in the previous post. Why? It does not matter if you define the components on the form as public: you can not access members (variables, subclasses, etc) of inherited classes from another class. That’s by C# design. Oh well, I learned it the hard way.
Please comment if you know a way around it. For now I just pass the values I need to read, but how about writing?
Because of the filesize, I decided to split up my main .cs file into smaller pieces. The namespace is E2O everywhere, and one of the files I created should hold all database-related stuff. So, it looks like this:
namespace E2O
{
public class DB
{
public DB()
{
//constructor
}
public static void xyz()
{
if(E2O.frmMain.checkbox1.Checked)
{
blabla...
}
}
}
}
Now why can’t I refer to checkbox1? The compiler gives the error:
An object reference is required for the nonstatic field, method, or property ‘E2O.frmMain.checkBox1’
The object is defined as public (not the default private), but I can’t get to it. HOW? I know, I should probably go out and buy a C# book, but the only thing I want to accomplish is make the maintainability a little easier, the functions work perfectly when they are in one big file.
If anybody knows, please comment, your help will be greatly appreciated.
I’m not sure why they call this product a beta, but it already is a very complete and stable product. Installation went without a glitch, opening one of the starterkits and running it was without problems. I just converted E-Sync to Visual Studio 2005, and the conversion was without any problems. Two warnings about deprecated properties with a suggestion what to change the code to. After that, no warnings or errors and the program runs fine. So for the future, changing to the .NET Framework 2.0 will not be a problem.
To keep E-Sync’s code clean, I need to experiment with C# 2.0’s generics. Now I have two different functions (methods) to basically do the same thing, but with different parameters. It’s ugly.
Update: Errr…I mixed up overloading with generics. Overloading was already possible with C# 1.x.
Included are 4 DVD’s:
– Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite beta 2
– SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition CTP (365-day limit on use)
– Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server beta 2
– WeFly247.net (the training application)
Microsoft beware! The new beta of OpenOffice has features to be a Microsoft Office killer. It opens and saves Microsoft Office documents flawlessly. It has the option to export to PDF, without a need to buy extra software. It includes an Access-like database product BASE (Access is only available in bigger Office versions, or as a standalone product). Most of all: OpenOffice is free.
True, it lacks a good email program like Outlook, but if you can’t live without it, buy it seperately for about $110. Free OpenOffice + $110 <<< MS Office Standard!
Click on the title for a review of the new beta.
As a sidenote, OASIS (an organisation defining/approving e-business standards) has approved the OpenDocument format, a minor extension of the format OpenOffice 2.0 beta uses. The OpenDocument format will save you from the vendor lock-in, since you can switch Office applications without losing your documents.
To be able to quickly recognize if an appointment from the ERP-software was already synchronised to Outlook, E-Sync had to be able to recognize the appointments already in Outlook. Since all fields I filled until now are standard-fields that anyone can fill or change in Outlook, I needed custom-fields. For C#, this is not a very well documented area, like more Office development stuff. Lot’s of code reference and samples in VBA or VB, if you’re lucky VB.NET, but C# is scarce. I’m not sure why this is, C# has been around long enough now.
Anyways, E-Sync now recognizes the appointments it made in Outlook by the same unique number that is used in the ERP-software. And since there is no default-form in Outlook showing custom-fields, the user can’t see or change it.
I’ll have to talk to the manufacturer of the ERP-software first, but I guess this is the basis for 2-way synchronisation. And since the user can’t see/change the custom-field, the appointment has to be created in the ERP-software.
The Serverside.NET has a free ebook “COM and .NET interoperability”. Click on the title for details.
While gardening last weekend, I’ve found an Acorn with a little tiny root coming out of it. So, I planted it in a pot with some nice fresh soil, and after hardly a week, it already looks like this:
It’s about 13-15cm high, and the biggest leaf is about 5cm. I like it. Now where’s that online Bonsai tutorial???
E-Sync already proved it’s value before being in a production-state, because one company (in the same business as I’m building it for) asked for more information and about the price. They were definitely interested in buying tool and putting it to good use (saving on hours secretaries have to make manually synchronizing calendars from the ERP application to Outlook).
This is so cool!
For the moment, there will be no “real” information about E-Sync on this blog or on other parts of this webserver. If you need info, just send me an e-mail and we’ll go from there. The application is created for one type of ERP application (which stores it’s data in Oracle), but you can always hire me to create a custom version for your (ERP) application.