Forget Role Based Security! (Geneva)

With the arrival of the Beta 1 of the "Geneva" Claims Based Access Platform you should forget everything you know about role-based security.

Claims based security is everything! It really  is!

Especially in any SAAS,  Heterogeneous or WCF-Services environment using Security Token Services is the technology to use... But honestly, it should be the security route for any solution!

I recommend reading this excellent document by David Chappel which gives a perfect conceptual (no code) explanation of what "Claims Based Access" and "Geneva" are about.

I also recommend reading this excellent document by Keith Brown which gives a perfect introduction (with code) to the whole "Geneva" suit!

For more informatie see msdn: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/aa570351.aspx

Note: the "Geneva" framework cannot be installed on Windows XP nor on Windows 2003. A temporarily solution can be found here: http://travisspencer.com/blog/2009/02/installing-geneva-framework-on.html

Happy Claiming!

Quote about planning

Planning is everything, but the plan is simply the starting point...

(Source: Agile Manivesto 2.0)

TestCleanup quirks! (Unittesting)

Today, I am having problems with one of my unittests. The problem is that my resources are not cleanedup when they need to. This has to do with the unexpected time the 'TestCleanup' runs!

According to msdn one should use 'TestCleanup' to cleanup resources. Why are my other unittests failing that need to reuse this resource? 

I found a clear description of the 'problem' (is it really a problem or by design?) here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ploeh/archive/2007/01/06/ClassCleanupMayRunLaterThanYouThink.aspx

Anyway, to me it is a pain! 

If you have a suggestion, let me know!

PS: I don't violate the 'do not depend on unittest order' - rule... this is about cleaning!

Generating testrecords for your unittests

If you are using Visual Studio Database Edition you are able to have VS generate testdata for you. Just what we need to have repeatable testresults.

But how does one execute these so called 'Data Generation Plans' from (unittest)code and from your build server?

You can find the answer here:

http://drowningintechnicaldebt.com/blogs/thomaswaldron/archive/2008/01/08/kick-off-a-data-generation-plan-programmtically.aspx


Happy testing!

Harvard Business Video's!

IT is about Business in the first place...

Therefor, to be succesfull in IT, generally, one needs to really understand the business.

To become a succesfull Software or Enterprise Architect you have to know Business Management principles. Therefor my repeating advice, read the Harvard Business Review Magazines and Harvard Business Review Onpoint's, there are just excellent!

To make things even more easy for you to start leaning Business Management Principels, Harvard is publishing some Video's on YouTube...

In my opnion a perfect place to start, though the magazines are so much better: http://www.youtube.com/user/HarvardBusiness

I hope you will enjoy Business Management as I do...

Happy learning!

To MVC or not to MVC?

A lot of exposure has been given to the recent releases of the ASP.Net MVC Framework recently.

It made me curious what it exactly is and in what projects I should use it and perhaps more importantly in which projects not?

After evaluating the current framework version, I have come to the following conclusions:

• The Framework is perfect for you if you go down the JQuery route;
• The current version is not for you if you go down the 'old' postback / webcontrols route; Currently form support is really limited but open for extention.
• Biggest advantage: by default the urls are decoupled from the filenames. (think about security, flexibility and searchengine friendlyness!)

Note that this decoupling can just as well be accomplished by using for example:

• UrlRewriter.net
• UrlRewriting.net

For me, I keep an close eye on new versions hoping to see webcontrols/postback and a richer user interface being supported, soon.

Happy Viewing and Modelling!

No overload for method 'WaitOne' takes '1' arguments (foutmelding)

Do you receive the "No overload for method 'WaitOne' takes '1' arguments" error message?

Big change that you are need to install .Net Framework 3.5 Servicepack 1!

Happy programming...