Installing "RIA Services" on IIS 7

To install "RIA Services" in an IS 7.x environment:

1) Download the "RiaServices.msi" file from the Microsoft download page for "WCF RIA Services Release Candidate 2 for Silverlight 4 and Visual Studio 2010".

2) Since you are not expected to have Visual Studio .NET 2010 on the server, it suffices that you only install the assemblies into the GAC. This is done by installing the msi file with these command line swithches:

msiexec /i RiaServices.msi SERVER=TRUE

Cannot uninstall "WCF RIA Services Beta"

There is a bug in "WCF RIA Services Beta" software that makes it almost impossible to uninstall it from add/remove programs in windows. The side effect is that you cannot install the "Silverlight tooks for Visual Studio 2010" without completely uninstalling "WCF RIA Services Beta".

I found this article that proposes a brute force solution to this problem:

http://forums.silverlight.net/forums/p/149912/334721.aspx

How do you add a list ID to a form?

Add a calculated field column with formula "=ID".

Building LOB Applications with Silverlight 3

I had a blast at the TechFest 2009 event held at BCIT in Burnaby, BC on Saturday November 21, 2009. We had about 250 attendees out of 500 registrations. The initial feedback I got from attendees was very positive. My only disappointment is that I lost the camera used to take pictures of the event. It is more to do with the value of the pictures rather than the camera itself. Oh well, shit happens.

I gave a talk at TechFest 2009 on the topic of "Building LOB Applications with Silverlight 3". You can download the powerpoint and demo code from this link:

http://penguin.bcit.ca/medhat/techfest2009/SilverlightLobApps.zip

Vancouver TechFest 2009

All user group and technology community leaders in Vancouver are working closely together in organizing Techfest-2009. Mark November 21, 2009 on your calendar; it's a Saturday and as usual the sessions will appeal to both Developers and IT Professionals. More details are at http://codecamp.ca/.

The event will be held at three lecture theatres at the BCIT campus in Burnaby, BC. We are oganizing a nerds dinner at the Professor Mugs pub, also at BCIT, a night before the event on Friday November 20, 2009 from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM. Attendees to the dinner are expected to pay for their own food and drink. Come to the dinner and mingle with your community leaders, fellow nerds, John Bristowe of Microsoft, and speakers.

Registration is now open! Register at: http://vantechfest.eventbrite.com/. This event is filling fast so don't wait.

Get ready for an exciting line up of industry professionals providing you with free training; and be sure to bring your laptops, FREE WiFi will be available for all attendees.

Don't bother to bring lunch, its FREE as well, courtesy of Microsoft!

Although Rob Chartier is spear-heading this event, I am very proud that all user groups leaders in Vancover are actively involved in things like:

- securing the BCIT venue
- securing sponsorship
- finding speakers
- spreading the word
- developing an event website

I should also thanks John Bristowe of Microsoft for being actively involved in planning with us this event and offering valuable ideas. He also organizes a weekly conference call where we all update one another on the status of things pertaining to TechFest 2009. It is shaping up to be a super festival of technology.

Tweaking IIS & web.config connection timeout setting

Microsoft Internet Information Services

If IIS is timing out when you upload large files, you can change "Connection Timeout" property to ensure that larger files can be uploaded successfully.

1. Go to Start –> All Programs -> Administrative Tools –> Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. Right-click the virtual server you want to configure, and then choose Properties.
3. Click the Web Site tab.
4. In the Connections section, in the Connection timeout box, type the number of seconds you want IIS to wait before timing out.
5. Click OK to save settings.

Web.config

There are other settings that you can change in the web.config file that also affect connection timeout.

Update maxRequestLength and executionTimeout attributes belonging to the httpRuntime tag.

executionTimeout = <Time in Seconds>

maxRequestLength = <File size in KB> (by default for ASP.NET applications, its set to 4096 (4MB), but because SharePoint supports 50MB so its set to 51200)

Example:

<!-- 102400 = 100MB -->
<httpRuntime executionTimeout="999999" maxRequestLength="102400" />

Extending session timeout for SharePoint 2007 instance using forms-based autentication.

Change the timeout attribute belonging to the forms tag in the web.config file:

<forms loginUrl="Login.aspx" timeout="300"/>

This will force a timeout in 5 minutes of inactivity.

This setting equally applies to any ASP.NET application that uses forms-based authentication.