We ended up converting an entire ASP.NET 1.1 web site to 2.0 in under a week. It turned out to be easier than I imagined - I estimated 2 people for 2 weeks, and it looks like it will be 1 person for 2 weeks.

I don't want to understate how many problems there were. In the project as a whole, there were THOUSANDS of warning and error messages after the conversion wizard that done its work. But because of the duplicate nature of these problems, it was usually a search and replace job to fix them. One search and replace could fix 50 warnings at once. And even the ones that had to be fixed manually, I could usually just F3 from occurrance to occurance and paste in the corrected code.

The site is now up and working. There is still a lot of testing to do obviously, but I am extremely happy that it has turned out so well.

 

OK, perhaps saying "too easy" in my last post was asking for trouble. Because trouble is what I have.

I have a weird situation and I need some help figuring out what the solution is... Any clues, please email me or leave a comment.

We have a "base page" that inherits from System.UI.Web.Page. My base page is called "BasePage.aspx".

All other web pages of our application inherit from that. So "default.aspx" inherits from BasePage.aspx.

So my problem is that the codebehind page for BasePage, called BasePage.aspx.cs, has been saved in the App_Code folder. Now I don't know this folder or what it's for, thats my first problem.

Now all the pages that inherit BasePage.aspx now fail because the class doesn't exist.

If I move BasePage.aspx.cs out and put it at the root folder, then another page breaks about the BasePage class (one of our User Web Controls).

Ugh. I am sure once I figure the underlying problem out, fixing all pages won't be a problem. This isn't a problem relating to the number of pages, it's a problem every web site would have during a migration with base pages, web controls, etc.

 

So here is the status of my .NET 2.0 application conversion. I converted the 71568 lines of C# code and 38452 lines of VB code in the business object and services tier with little error. No errors really, just a few things that Visual Studio 2005 warns about that Visual Studio 2003 did not.

When I got to the web portion, I started finding lots of interesting errors. It's going to take a full day or so to go through them all.

All in all, it's not as scary a proposition as I thought. It's the kind of conversion that can be completed in a couple of days. I thought it might have required weeks before.

 

We have a rather large project that currently runs in ASP.NET 1.1, and we want to convert it to 2.0. Now it's not huge compared to some projects, but it's pretty big.

71568 lines of component C# code

38452 lines of component VB code

100401 lines of ASPX C# code

It should be fun seeing how the .NET conversion wizard handles this... I'll document my progress here as I go through it for the sake of posterity and the benefit of anyone else contemplating a rather large conversion.

 

Microsoft recently released a toolkit called Atlas at http://atlas.asp.net/

Atlas is an AJAX framework for ASP.NET 2.0. If you don't know what AJAX is, it is best described as a web programming technique where the page appears to update itself (or actually does update itself) without a full refresh of the page by the server. This can be automatic or at the request of the user viewing the page.

For instance, the up-arrow images on the left side of this page are AJAX-type controls that allow the user to alter their view of this page. This happens without a trip back to the web server.

An example of automatic updating would be a page with stock quotes embedded inside a news article (like http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/5x12BB8tQmtNw49x3nlsrfJ?siteid=mktw&dist=TNMostRead ), and every few seconds the stock quotes update themselves with the latest values, but the rest of the page stays the same. In this case, the web browser is actually going back to the server to get a new quote, and updating a small part of the web page with the new value. The reason this is useful is that full page refreshes are slow, and annoy the user by making the page flicker or become unreadable.

For a live example of Atlas, check out the official samples page at http://atlas.asp.net/atlastoolkit/

Look at the Accordion control. As you click the headers, all other headers collapse and only the one selected is open. Or try the slider control - a control not normally available in HTML web pages. These controls are cross-browser compatible with IE and Firefox.

I saw a demo of this last week and it was very cool. http://www.msdnevents.com/ 

 

I'm busily studying for the next MCPD upgrade exam: 70-552. I took 70-551 last week.

Now you don't have to take both (one is for Web and one is for Windows Forms developer)... but since they are free I figured “why not?”

And since the questions on both exams overlap, taking 70-551 actually gives me an advantage for the exam tomorrow. I have seen 1/3 of the questions before.

So if I didn't pass 70551 (or barely passed it), I should have a better score on this one.

 

Just got back from taking the 70-551 exam (71-551 in beta).

3 sections, 30 questions each (for a total of 90 questions). Each section correlates to the Official Exam Objectives published by Microsoft. At the end of 90 questions (at around 87 actually), I was exhausted and could not wait to be done. Luckily, I felt I did pretty well on the last section so did not have to spend much time reviewing it and could just end it. The whole test took roughly 2 1/4 hours (although I had 3 to complete it if I wanted).

Each section allowed 60 minutes to complete. No going back once you've completed a question although the usual Previous/Next is allowed within a section, and a review at the end of each section.

I found the test hard in some places and easier in others. The first section (on .NET Framework) I may have barely gotten 60%. The next section, on web development, was also tough but I did slightly better, say 70%. And the final section, on design and development in general, I did better still at 80%-90%.

So who knows if I passed. I don't. The results come in 8 weeks apparently.

Anyways, on to the Windows test next Sunday. Don't forget to visit my 70-551 Wiki. I am starting one for the Windows exam 70-552 as well.

 

One fun way to learn - for me at least, your mileage may vary - is to watch a training video and do the exercise alongside the instructor. The instructor creates a new project, I create a new project. The instructor adds a TreeView control to the web page and creates a new dynamically bound data source, well... you get the idea.

Some great ASP.NET 2.0 videos are here. Useful for studying for the certification, hint hint.

 

I somehow signed up to take a couple of upgrade exams in the next couple of weeks - 70-551 for web development and 70-552 for Windows development. This will get me the new Microsoft MCPD certifications.

I have started adding content to my Wiki to cover this upgrade exam.

 

I don't know what I did specifically to deserve it, but thanks to Microsoft for sending me a Microsoft Award for Customer Excellence (ACE) for Visual Studio 2005, otherwise known as the Ship-It Award.

It arrived today. A nice square Lucite cube. A bit smaller than I expected, but nice nonetheless.

The funnest part, oddly, was opening it. It came enclosed in three nested boxes. That;s three times better than if it just came wrapped in one box.

Some of the most anticipated components of Visual Studio 2005, the tools known as Team Foundation, are being delayed from their initial launch date of Nov 7 to Q1 2006. Microsoft will instead offer one more beta to developers. Team Foundation includes tools such as integrated bug tracking, version control, reporting, and automated builds.

 

I am actually starting on a Visual Studio 2005 project at work. The thing is barely in Beta 2, but enough people here are excited about the new features in the .NET Framework that we've been told to use that as the platform for our next project.

(Of course, it will have a SQL Server 2005 back end.)

I. Can't. Wait.

 

The next beta version of Visual Studio 2005 (with Team System) is now up on MSDN for those with access.

I was lucky to get a preview build of Beta 2 just over a month ago since I am writing a book for Manning on it. All I can say is that it has been an extremely smooth experience installing it and playing with it over the past month or so. Almost everything works. A few hiccups here and there, but that is to be expected in Beta software, especially since I have it configured in a non-standard way. (I have seen a couple of things with the MS Project integration that needs more finish.)

So, don't just stand there. Go out, get it, install it, and play!

 

The world is anxiously waiting the next release of Visual Studio 2005 with Team System. I haven't heard any news lately as to what the hold up is. There must be some major bug that has to get fixed before it can get out the door.

Anyways, as I may have mentioned before, I have a version of Team System installed and it has been working great. I'm slowly chugging along at a Team System book I am writing, so this is forcing me to get into all the cool new parts of the system. I am seeing some cool things.

Anyways, I have to get back to writing. But I just thought I should stop and say thanks to all the great people at Microsoft who have worked on this incredible product. All the belly-aching over pricing and licensing is for nothing - this thing is really worth it.

 

Here is a really helpful post on customizing process templates. The author links to a download on the Microsoft site called “Team System Extensibility Kit”. This kit contains XML schema, documentation and utilities to help in the customization of process methodology templates.

 

According to this article on CRN, Beta 2 of Team System will be released at the end of March or first week of April. This beta will come with two predefined process methodologies: MSF Agile and CMMI.

MSF for Agile Software Development (or MSF Agile for short) is a “scenario-driven, context-based, agile software development process”. It is, basically, the extreme programming (XP) model for software development, adapted to fit the Microsoft Solutions Framework. It is sometimes called a lightweight model, in that it is both flexible and adaptable. These types of programming models are great for small projects, or projects that have to be completed quickly.

MSF for CMMI Process Improvement (or MSF CMMI for short) is aimed at “mature application development“. It is a more formal model for development, requiring a more rigid processes be put into place. There are many CMMI models to choose from, and so a development team (typically a large project, with a longer development timeframe) can choose what is best for them.

Of course, you can still choose to implement NO software development model, or customize your own model. VSTS gives you many options in this regard.

 

Here's a fresh article indicating that the next team system beta (officially, Beta 2) is coming soon, and the product itself should be available “after the summer”.

Microsoft developer division corporate VP S Somasegar, said, "We shipped the beta last summer, we are going to ship another beta in the next month or so and we hope to be able to ship the product after summer sometime this year."

I guess the good news is that it sounds like progress is still being made in getting the product to a releasable state. The bad news, I guess, is that the final ship date is deliberately vague: “after summer”. Hmm, is that Fall? Or Winter?

 

The Visual Studio Team Foundation team had a chat this evening which was very informative. I look forward to reading the transcript, as there was lots of information in there.

VSTS Team Foundation Public Chat
Chat with members of the Team Foundation team of Visual Studio Team System. We'll be answering questions and discussing our suite of source control, work item tracking, Excel and Project integration, reporting, WSS integration, and build automation tools.

Chat room

There is another chat tomorrow morning, at 8am Pacific, for those that missed it. A bit early for me (8am Eastern), but if I was a west coaster, I would definitely try and make it.

Update: D'oh. 8am Pacific is actually 11am Eastern. I'm usually pretty good with time zones, so I don't know why I messed that up. I attended the 11am chat, and I am still keeping an eye out for the transcript.

 

Last night I witnessed someone giving a demo of Visual Studio Team System.

Much to my relief, they got the exact same error on Portfolio Creation that I am getting. And I noticed their application threw the occasional error at certain places in the tool.

So it's not just me. This product is partly broken. Whew!

 

Korby Parnell recently stated on his blog that a second beta release of Team System is due out this month. Considering the problems I have been having installing this, I can't wait.

Last night, I blew away the application server completely and reinstalled it from scratch. This is the third complete reinstall (including a fresh Windows OS). I can't count the number of times I've reinstalled pieces of it.

The application server is now working properly. The SharePoint portal web site is back up and running. Earlier, I was getting an error “Cannot connect to configuration database”. I think I know what caused it - I had moved the primary domain server from the application tier to the database tier, without uninstalling Sharepoint Services.

I didn't realize this, but installing SharePoint Services also installs a version of SQL Server. Inside SQL Server is a configuration database STS_Config. Inside STS_Config is a number of database tables that have the name of the server hard-coded inside. I must have inadvertantly changed the name of the server when I moved the primary domain from the application tier to the database tier, because the configuration database has some wrong server names in it.

Once I blew everything away and reinstalled, it is now working better.

I am still having problems with the client tier. I might just blow that away and reinstall as well, since I finally have a working middle and database tier.

 

I wrote this in response to an email question, and I thought it would make sense to post the answer here as well.

The question is, how do you clean up the SQL database after a failed install?

If you load the SQL Management Console in SQL Server 2005, you may see a number of databases there: BisDB, BisDWDB, CurrituckDB, ELeadDB, psshared, VSTEAMSCC and VSSTEAMSCCAdmin. Those should all be deleted. The only databases to keep would be ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB and anything under System.

(If you do NOT see any databases after a failed install, that could be a sign that the user installing Team System on the application tier does not have the proper SQL Server permissions.)

There might also be new directory called C:\VSTS on the database server. This should be deleted as well.

I have found if the databases are created but the C:\VSTS folder has not, your problem might be one of permissions. The TFSIdentity user needs admin priveleges on the SQL Server machine. Or, in my case, I was specifying the domain wrong - I used VSTS.x4.ca instead of just VSTS.

This series of blog entries is running 2 or 3 longer than I had expected at the start. I'm sorry if this saga is getting old from the reader's perspective. How do you think I feel, trying to install this thing 10 times at least?

Finally, I have some good news to report.

I reinstalled the database and application servers from scratch. Reinstalled Windows Server 2003, and did everything in the proper order. I made sure the TFSIdentity user had admin permissions on the database, and did a few tests to ensure the permissions were properly set. And I hit the install button again...

And it failed. Again.

So, I deleted the databases that were created. I noticed it was the C:\VSTS folder that was not created this time, so I tried something different when installing the second time. I hit the install button...

And it succeeded. Yay!

What did I do differently between the two attempts? Well, during the install it asks you for four things:

• database server name
• TFS domain user name
• TFS domain
• TFS domain user password

During my first attempt, I used “vsts.x4.ca” as my domain name. Because that is the domain I created on the application server. The second attempt, I only used “vsts” as the domain name. And voila!

I really wish the install program would be smart enough to tell me “vsts.x4.ca” is not in the proper format. That would have saved me a TON of time. Heck, if they just had an example there (or in the documentation) that showed what a valid domain looked like, I would have known what to use and some of this mess would have been avoided.

Lessons learned:

* Follow the directions from the start. Once you've discovered you've skipped a step (by not installing all the options at the database tier, or by having disjointed domain server names), realize that you might have to start over. Try the install first, but be prepared to start over.

* This domain name requirement is a pain in the neck. If you understand Active Directory and domains, no problems for you I guess. But if you're like me and don't, be prepared to learn some new things.

* The install instructions may not be enough. Find someone who has installed it already and written about it on their blog. Blogs make good adjuncts to the official documentation.

Whew! You should see the relief on my face today.

 

That's it. I'm starting over.

I could not convince the application server install to finish completely. Add to this the fact that I was now getting an error when trying to shutdown the database server, and an error when starting the application server. Time to start over.

This time, I am following the install instructions to the letter right from the start. That was my big mistake last time. I was forced to install certain things out of order. It possible that since I installed SQL Server 2005 before installing IIS, something just wasn't right.

So, I've now reinstalled the database server. Windows Server 2003, IIS, all critical Windows Updates, and SQL Server 2005. Easy as punch.

I am in the process of reinstalling the application server. I'll get the domain controller thing right from the start this time, so that might go a lot smoother.

 

Installing VSTS has not been easy. But at least progress is being made.

My first big hurdle was getting past the problem where the instructions said to configure ADAM using one set of port numbers, while my computer refused to do so. I solved that in my last VSTS post, by accepting my computers defaults and ignoring the instructions.

My second big hurdle came during the install of the application server (Team Foundation). If you'll recall, I am installing the application tier in a Virtual PC 2004 instance. I tried installing VSTF directly from the DVD. I tried it a couple of times, but each time it failed reading one of the files from the DVD. I tried accessing that file directly from Windows Explorer inside Virtual PC, and no luck.

My first suspect was the DVD (media) itself. I tried that DVD in a different computer and it worked. So it appears the DVD is fine.

So of course I then suspected the external DVD player I was using. So I downloaded and installed the latest firmware upgrades from the manufacturer and retried the install. No luck.

Now I realize that you can “Capture an ISO” and use it as a drive image. So I tried buring this DVD to ISO. No luck - Virtual PC did not recognize it as a valid ISO.

Finally, I just XCOPY'ed the files into a shared folder. That worked.

It turns out, from this Ask Burton blog entry, that Virtual PC does not support DVD's over 2GB. What? Well, several hours of my life lost for nothing.

That problem solved, I am now facing my third major hurdle. This time, I am really getting frustrated. The install goes all the way to the end, apparently creates a bunch of databases, and then dies with a mysterious 26201 and 26204 errors. Ask Burton again has some hints.

My problem is that the database tier almost completely installs. So I know we have connectivity, the database is running, app server has rights to the database, etc. Ugh. I am painstakingly cleaning the DB server up after each attempt.

I think I might finally worked past the SQL DB issues, but I am not sure. The last time I ran the install, it completed everything and then did a rollback on its own. I'll give it one last try tonight.

 

OK, I had to backtrack a little on installing Team System.

* I reinstalled SQL Server 2005 to include all components, including Reporting Services. I'm not sure how this matters, but the instructions say to include all components.

* I removed DNS Server, DHCP Server and Active Directory Server as roles from the application server. This is because ADAM was refusing to install on the indicated ports. I may have to turn the database server into an Active Directory Server.

Note: After reading Darren J's blog again, I see that I should let ADAM use the other port settings instead of worrying about the exact numbers.

* So, I reinstalled a primary Active Directory domain and DNS.

* I added the database server to the domain.

* I finished installing ADAM. No issues.

* I installed .NET Framework 2.0 Beta.

 

Lesson for today: read the install instructions.

Well, as soon I a stuck the Team System DVD into the drive, the install instructions came up. They are excellent - well written and helpful. I just wish I saw them earlier today.

So it turns out I missed several important steps.

* Both the application and database server needs to have the Application Server role configured. The application server needs ASP.NET while the database server does not. Neither server uses Frontpage Extensions.

* I had to download all the Windows Updates. There were a lot (22).

* I had to download and install SharePoint Services 2.0. Then had to download and install the Windows Update for that.

* I had to download and install ADAM (Active Directory Application Mode). I'm currently stuck, as the install instructions appear to require ADAM running on a specific port number, but my server says that port (SSL) is already in use.

Anyways, it's way past my bed time. I'll have to tackle the rest of this tomorrow.

 

I am just about to start installing Team System. I must admit I am a bit intimidated by it. It's a three-tier install:

• SQL Server 2005 Beta 2
• Team System Foundation Server
• Visual Studio 2005 Client Beta 1

The SQL Server bits do not coexist peacefully with the Team System Foundation bits, and even if they did I would be afraid of the CPU/memory overload of running all three on one box. And since I want to use Virtual PC, the lack of speed will likely kill me.

So I decided to install SQL Server 2005 on my laptop. Now I run XP Home on my laptop, and that is not one of the supported operating systems. So I will have to install Windows Server 2003 as a dual boot to get the database installed.

Foundation Server should run fine in a Virtual PC instance on my main PC. I will install Windows Server 2003 as the Operating System for that.

And of course the client can run natively in Windows XP Professional on my main PC.

So here goes:

Sun Oct 3

3:30 pm: Repartitioned laptop, to free up 10GB for dual boot OS.
4:00 pm: Started Windows Server 2003 install in new partition.
5:30 pm: Windows Server 2003 install finished without problem. Started SQL Server 2005 install.
5:45 pm: Created new Virtual PC image on my main PC, and began Windows Server 2003 install on it.
(Took a break for dinner and a movie.)
8:00 pm: SQL Server 2005 installed without problem. It looks quite different from SQL Server 2000 - so this is one more thing I will have to play around with and learn.
11:00 pm: Windows Server 2003 installed without problem.

Still To Do

I am going to set the Win2K3 on my main PC as the domain controller. I have read that the server components must run under a domain. I need to install the Team System Foundation Server bits into that VPC instance. Finally, I need to install the client components under Windows XP Professional.

 

Darren J has an excellent blog entry on how he was able to install Visual Studio 2005 Team System Beta 1 Refresh onto a single PC using Virtual PC. The most telling line was the last, however:

If you haven’t got 2GB ram on your laptop and your running this on VPCs, you best get an upgrade.

Uh oh. I'm going to do the install this afternoon. I might need to run out to Best Buy really quick!

 

Microsoft was kind enough to send to me the latest DVD of Visual Studio 2005 Team System. I am looking forward to installing this thing, starting tonight.

Here is an interesting article on the trials and tribulations of installing Team System using Virtual PC.

Klaus Aschenbrenner Blog:

Last week 've "tried" to install Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 Refresh with the Team Foundation Services. First of all I want to say that it doesn't work, because the whole process is a little bit quite complex. To get the whole thing running you need 3 "separate" computers...

One important thing to mention: you must install all tiers on separate computers. Otherwise it doesn't work. Furthermore you need for the whole stuff a domain. So Microsoft also suggests to install on the database tier a domain controller...

Reading Klaus' site, I am a bit worried about the level of deep Windows technical knowledge required to perform the install. His site mentions the need to change the computer's SID. And I suppose these Virtual PC's need to talk to one another... (Hold me, I'm scared.)

Very informative. Thanks Klaus.

 

I read an interesting article today about Team System:

Above all, LaPlante promised BorCon attendees, VS Team System will be simple to use. "If you have to go and hire a consulting firm to figure out what you installed, we have failed," he says. "If, in order to collaborate, you have to do 20 more steps, then you are using Rational's tools."