Step 1: Create your Orchard blog if it doesn’t exist already

Step 2: Turn on remote blog publishing

Step 3: Retrieve your blog id

Ochard’s remote blogging interface implements the MetaWeblog API. Whilst some clients such as windows live writer support self discovery using the real simple discovery mechanism. Your blog id is required by some iphone clients

Simple navigate to the following url: http://[path_to_your_blog]/rsd for my local development orchard install that was: http://localhost:30320/OrchardLocal/blog/rsd

Take a note of the blog id which in this case was 24

Step 4: Configure your iphone app

I was very surprised to find out how few generic iPhone blogging clients there are.  Whilst investigating this task I paid for and tried two apps:

1. BlogPress – (very buggy, does not seem to work with Ochard)
2. BloggerPlus – Does work!

Step 5: Configuring blogger plus to work with orchard

• Enter your blogID from step 3
• Note the XMLRPC is http://[ochardhost]/XmlRpc
• RSS is the same as XMLRPC

Step 6: Patching Orchard is required if v.1.3.10 or <

As of today 07/02/2012 my patch has not made it to the main Orchard code base, so if you are running Orchard v.1.3.10 or < you need to download this change set http://orchard.codeplex.com/SourceControl/network/Forks/ewilde/18414/changeset/changes/1bda35a0f8f8 and rebuild orchard

Part of the official .Net 4.0 framework release.

WCF WebHttp Services is the flavor of WCF that is most appropriate for developers who need complete control over the URI, format, and protocol when building non-SOAP HTTP services— services that may or may not subscribe to RESTful architectural constraints.

Documentation

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb412169.aspx

Example

Introducing WCF WebHttp Services in .NET 4: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/endpoint/archive/2010/01/06/introducing-wcf-webhttp-services-in-net-4.aspx

WCF WebApi

This project focuses on allowing developers to expose their apis for programmatic access over HTTP by browsers and devices.

Essentially this is a continuation of work done on the WCF Rest starter kit, and could be considered as a preview of wcf http services for .net 5.0?

WCF REST Starter Kit (depreciated)

The new WCF Web Api’s recently announced at PDC replace the REST Starter Kit and provide significant enhancements including better access to HTTP, more flexibility with representations and support for jQuery. Please go to http://wcf.codeplex.com/ for more information.

Source: http://aspnet.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=WCF%20REST&ProjectName=aspnet

Open Rasta

OpenRasta is a development framework targeting the Microsoft .NET platform for building web-based applications and services, and distributed under an Open-Source MIT License.

By focusing development around resources and HTTP methods, OpenRasta simplifies the creation of ReST-friendly interfaces.

Example

How to create a rest service using Open Rasta: http://blogs.7digital.com/dev/2011/02/02/rest-in-practice-and-openrasta/

RestSharp

http://restsharp.org/ A client only api for consuming rest services

RestSharp is a simple, open source REST client for .NET designed primarily for consuming third-party HTTP APIs. RestSharp is NOT:

• A REST server framework
• A SOAP client

System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: An error occurred creating the configuration section handler for userSettings/Microsoft.SqlServer.Configuration.LandingPage.Properties.Settings: Could not load file or assembly 'System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

Solution: surprisingly easy just press Continue!

Today I had the requirement to add custom validation logic to a SharePoint edit form. The edit form is being displayed using a ListFieldIterator. The requirement was to make sure the Date field could not be set to a date in the past.

The solution (Other solutions are available and are most probably better!) I came up with involved subclassing ListFieldIterator and attaching ASP.NET validators at run-time.

Challenge 1

How do you attach a ASP.NET validation control at run-time.

• Attach the validator at the correct stage of the page/control life-cycle. In the case of the ListFieldIterator I wanted to attach it after the control had build it’s control tree. Override CreateChildControls, call base, then attach.

• Find the FormField associated with the SharePoint field (SPField) you want to validate.I have an extension method that I use to parse the control hierarchy of a ListFieldIterator as follows:

Usage:

FormField formField = listFieldIterator.GetFormField("MyInternalFieldName");

public static class ListFieldIteratorExtensions
{
    public static FormField GetFormField(this ListFieldIterator listFieldIterator, string fieldName)
    {
        return GetFormField(listFieldIterator, GetFormFields(listFieldIterator), fieldName);
    }


    public static FormField GetFormField(this ListFieldIterator listFieldIterator, List<FormField> formFields, string fieldName)
    {
        FormField formField = (from form in formFields
                               where form.FieldName.Equals(fieldName, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)
                               select form).FirstOrDefault();

        if (formField == null)
        {
            throw new GeneralApplicationException("Could not find form field: " + fieldName);
        }

        return formField;
    }

    public static List<FormField> GetFormFields(this ListFieldIterator listFieldIterator)
    {
        if (listFieldIterator == null)
        {
            return null;
        }

        return FindFieldFormControls(listFieldIterator);
    }        

    private static List<FormField> FindFieldFormControls(System.Web.UI.Control root)
    {
        List<FormField> baseFieldControls = new List<FormField>();

        foreach (System.Web.UI.Control control in root.Controls)
        {
            if (control is FormField && control.Visible)
            {
                FormField formField = control as FormField;
                if (formField.Field.FieldValueType == typeof(DateTime))
                {
                    HandleDateField(formField);
                }

                baseFieldControls.Add(formField);
            }
            else
            {
                baseFieldControls.AddRange(FindFieldFormControls(control));
            }
        }

        return baseFieldControls;
    }

    private static void HandleDateField(FormField formField)
    {
        if (formField.ControlMode == SPControlMode.Display)
        {
            return;
        }

        Control dateFieldControl = formField.Controls[0];
        if (dateFieldControl.Controls.Count > 0)
        {
            DateTimeControl dateTimeControl = (DateTimeControl) dateFieldControl.Controls[0].Controls[1];
            TextBox dateTimeTextBox = dateTimeControl.Controls[0] as TextBox;
            if (dateTimeTextBox != null)
            {
                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(dateTimeTextBox.Text))
                {
                    formField.Value = DateTime.Parse(dateTimeTextBox.Text, CultureInfo.CurrentCulture);
                }
            } 
        }
    }
}

• Find the Control that is rendered by the FieldControl.Field.FieldRenderingControl. In my specific case a DateTimeField will render a DateTimeControl. Now that we have the form field we grab the rendering control:

Usage:

Control renderedControl = GetControl(formField);

private static Control GetControl(FieldMetadata formField)
{
    return formField.FindControlRecursive(x => x.GetType() == GetChildControlBasedOnFieldType(formField.Field.FieldRenderingControl));
}

private static Type GetChildControlBasedOnFieldType(object field)
{
    if (field is TextField)
    {
        return typeof(TextBox);
    }

    if (field is DropDownChoiceField)
    {
        return typeof(DropDownList);
    }

    if (field is DateTimeField)
    {
        return typeof (DateTimeControl);
    }

    return null;
}

public static Control FindControlRecursive(this Control control, Func<Control, bool> evaluate)
{
    if (evaluate.Invoke(control))
    {
        return control;
    }

    foreach (Control childControl in control.Controls)
    {
        Control foundControl = FindControlRecursive(childControl, evaluate);
        if (foundControl != null)
        {
            return foundControl;
        }
    }

    return null;
} 

• Now we have found the control we want to validate, we can add the ASP.NET to it’s parent’s control collection

renderedControl.Parent.Controls.AddAfter(control, validator as Control);

Uses another little extension method:

public static void AddAfter(this ControlCollection collection, Control after, Control control)
{
    int indexFound = -1;
    int currentIndex = 0;
    foreach (Control controlToEvaluate in collection)
    {
        if (controlToEvaluate == after)
        {
            indexFound = currentIndex;
            break;
        }

        currentIndex = currentIndex + 1;
    }

    if (indexFound == -1)
    {
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("control", "Control not found");
    }

    collection.AddAt(indexFound + 1, control);
}

Created By

The internal field name for the person who created a list item is ‘Author’ use SPBuiltInFieldId.Author to access this field. The display name for this field is ‘Created By’ it can be seen in the UI circled below:

Last modified

The internal field name for the person who created a list item is ‘Editor’ use SPBuiltInFieldId.Editor to access this field. The display name for this field is ‘Modified By’ it can be seen in the UI circled below:

Updating Created By, Modified By

The trick here is to call SPListItem.UpdateOverwriteVersion() instead of SPListItem.Update()

SPListItem item = list.Items[0];
item[SPBuiltInFieldId.Author] = "1;#Edward Wilde";
item[SPBuiltInFieldId.Editor] = "1;#Edward Wilde";
copiedItem.UpdateOverwriteVersion();

Problematic unit test

[Test, Isolated]
        public void PublishToExternalDocumentLibrary_Calls_CopyTo_Correctly()
        {
            ApprovalWorkflow approvalWorkflow = Isolate.Fake.Instance<ApprovalWorkflow>(Members.CallOriginal, ConstructorWillBe.Called);
            SPWorkflowActivationProperties activationProperties = Isolate.Fake.Instance<SPWorkflowActivationProperties>(Members.CallOriginal, ConstructorWillBe.Called);
            SPListItem item = Isolate.Fake.Instance<SPListItem>();

            Isolate.WhenCalled(() => approvalWorkflow.PublishWhenComplete).WillReturn(true);
            Isolate.WhenCalled(() => approvalWorkflow.PublishDocumentLibraryUrl).WillReturn(ExternalDocumentLibraryUrl);
            Isolate.WhenCalled(() => approvalWorkflow.WorkflowActivationProperties).WillReturn(activationProperties);
            Isolate.WhenCalled(() => activationProperties.Item).WillReturn(item);
           
            Isolate.WhenCalled(() => item.Name).WillReturn("test.docx");
           
            // Fire the workflow completed event
            Isolate.Invoke.Event(() => approvalWorkflow.Completed += null, new object[] { this, EventArgs.Empty });

            Isolate.Verify.WasCalledWithExactArguments(() => item.CopyTo("http://xdev03.trading.ad.int.corp.local/Policies/test.docx"));
        } 

When executed it throws the following exception:

System.NotSupportedException: Cannot dynamically create an instance of System.Void.
at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceCheckThis()
at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean fillCache)
at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks, Boolean fillCache)
at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(Boolean publicOnly)
at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic)
at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type)
at hi.b(MethodBase A_0)
at hi.a(MethodBase A_0, fk A_1)
at a.a(fk A_0)
at a.c(fk A_0)
at fz.a(fk A_0)
at fz.a(Object A_0, MethodBase A_1, Object[] A_2)
at fz.a(Object A_0, String A_1, String A_2, MethodBase A_3, Object[] A_4, Object A_5)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Security.SharePointPermissionAttribute.CreatePermission()
at System.Security.PermissionSet.CreateSerialized(Object[] attrs, Boolean serialize, Byte[]& nonCasBlob, PermissionSet& casPset, HostProtectionResource fullTrustOnlyResources)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowActivationProperties.get_Item()
at Total.SharePoint.Approval.Workflow.Test.ApprovalWorkflowFixture.<>c__DisplayClassd.<PublishToExternalDocumentLibrary_Calls_CopyTo_Correctly>b__9() in ApprovalWorkflowFixture.cs: line 44
at TypeMock.MockManager.a(String A_0, String A_1, Object A_2, Object A_3, Boolean A_4, Object[] A_5)
at TypeMock.InternalMockManager.getReturn(Object that, String typeName, String methodName, Object methodParameters, Boolean isInjected)
at Total.SharePoint.Approval.Workflow.Test.ApprovalWorkflowFixture.PublishToExternalDocumentLibrary_Calls_CopyTo_Correctly() in ApprovalWorkflowFixture.cs: line 0 

Fix:
I can work around this issue by replacing the line:

Isolate.WhenCalled(() => activationProperties.Item).WillReturn(item);

With:

Isolate.NonPublic.WhenCalled(activationProperties, "get_Item").WillReturn(item); 

See thread on Typemock forum

Exception occurred during request processing. (User: DOMAIN\xx, Form Name: , IP: , Request: http://localhost/_layouts/CstWrkflIP.aspx?List={ID}, Form ID: , Type: InfoPathLocalizedException, Exception Message: The specified form cannot be found.)

Make sure that:

• Your feature file has the RegisterFroms property correctly pointing to a folder in your solution package that contains your infopath forms

  
  In my example all my info paths forms are contained in a sub directory called ‘Forms’ relative to feature file:
  

• Once the feature has been installed using stsadm –o install feature check that the forms have been placed in the InfoPath template library.

  Central Administration –> Application Management –> Manage Form Templates:

  

As always, your mileage my vary. If this doesn’t help you could try some of the tips on Lucy’s blog: http://blogs.tamtam.nl/lucy/2007/06/08/WorkflowErrors.aspx

• Start Visual Studio in safe mode using:  Start->Run->devenv /safemode
• In the Toolbox “Choose items”, accept any error message the appear
• Restart Visual Studio as per normal and the problem should be fixed.

SPException “Cannot change the lookup list of the lookup field.”

Once a lookup field (SPFieldLookup) has had it’s LookupList and LookupWebId set you can’t change them.

There is a good reason for this if your lookup field is used in multiple lists or already has data entered, you would effectively break the referential integrity of the data. So what I’m showing here as a work-around to this error message should only be used if you are *sure* no lists reference the lookup column or no lists have any data using this column

Okay with the health warning out of the way the work-around is simply to update the Schema property to overwrite the intervalues for List & WebId

I created a handy extension method for dealing with the string manipulation:

Usage:

SPFieldLookup field = (SPFieldLookup)site.RootWeb.Fields[MyId];
field.UpdateLookupReferences(newWeb, newList);

Implementation:

public static class SPFieldLookupExtensions
{
    public static void UpdateLookupReferences(this SPFieldLookup lookupField, SPWeb web, SPList list)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(lookupField.LookupList))
        {
            lookupField.LookupWebId = web.ID;
            lookupField.LookupList = list.ID.ToString();
        }
        else
        {
            lookupField.SchemaXml =
                lookupField.SchemaXml
                    .ReplaceXmlAttributeValue("List", list.ID.ToString())
                    .ReplaceXmlAttributeValue("WebId", web.ID.ToString());
        }

        lookupField.Update(true);
    }
}

public static string ReplaceXmlAttributeValue(this string xml, string attributeName, string value)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(xml))
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("xml");
    }

    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("value");
    }


    int indexOfAttributeName = xml.IndexOf(attributeName, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase);
    if (indexOfAttributeName == -1)
    {
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("attributeName", string.Format("Attribute {0} not found in source xml", attributeName));
    }

    int indexOfAttibuteValueBegin = xml.IndexOf('"', indexOfAttributeName);
    int indexOfAttributeValueEnd = xml.IndexOf('"', indexOfAttibuteValueBegin + 1);

    return xml.Substring(0, indexOfAttibuteValueBegin + 1) + value + xml.Substring(indexOfAttributeValueEnd);
}

Engine RunWorkflow: System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Compiler.WorkflowValidationFailedException: The workflow failed validation.     at System.Workflow.Runtime.WorkflowDefinitionDispenser.ValidateDefinition(Activity root, Boolean isNewType, ITypeProvider typeProvider)     at System.Workflow.Runtime.WorkflowDefinitionDispenser.LoadRootActivity(Type workflowType, Boolean createDefinition, Boolean initForRuntime)     at System.Workflow.Runtime.WorkflowDefinitionDispenser.GetRootActivity(Type workflowType, Boolean createNew, Boolean initForRuntime)     at System.Workflow.Runtime.WorkflowRuntime.InitializeExecutor(Guid instanceId, CreationContext context, WorkflowExecutor executor, WorkflowInstance workflowInstance)     at System.Workflow.Runtime.WorkflowRuntime.Load(Guid key, CreationContext context, WorkflowInstance workflowInstance)     at System.Workflow.Runtime.WorkflowRuntime.GetWorkflowExecutor(Guid instanceId, CreationContext context)     at System.Workflow.Runtime.WorkflowRuntime.InternalCreateWorkflow(CreationContext context, Guid instanceId)     at System.Workflow.Runtime.WorkflowRuntime.CreateWorkflow(Type workflowType, Dictionary`2 namedArgumentValues, Guid instanceId)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOeHostServices.Send(SPWinOeWorkflow winoeworkflow, SPWorkflowEvent e)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOeEngine.RunWorkflow(Guid trackingId, SPWorkflowHostService host, SPWorkflow workflow, Collection`1 events, TimeSpan timeOut)

If your workflow uses validation rules it might be:

1) A problem with your validation rules, restart Visual Studio re-compile are any errors picked up?

2) Missing the .net 3.5 workflow targets in your project file see: http://blog.hhebnes.no/post/WSPBuilder-Workflow-Failed-On-Start.aspx