I’ve recently had an issue installing legacy software on Server 2019. This legacy software uses IIS 7 or newer.
Server 2019 comes with IIS version 10.
Unfortunately the installer could not pick up that a version newer than 7 was installed. This is due to how it checked the registry to find the version installed.
For fix this, I amended the following Registry value using RegEdit:
Within BPA it is possible to add a custom message body. These are not in the documentation, but are very useful. These functions override the standard operation and allow you to modify the document before it is sent by POST.
(In the screenshot below, the word “TEST” appears before the XML generated as part of the input step.)
Operations need to be wrapped within Curly brackets.
A few examples:
{=ThisOperation.XML}
The XML created from the input data.
{=ThisOperation.JSON}
The JSON created from the input data
{=FunctionCall(ThisOperation.XML)}
Call the function “FunctionCall” passing in the XML Input Data.
{=ThisOperation.Parameters(“ParameterName”)}
The parameter “ParameterName”.
Multiple steps can be wrapped together too, for example:
This calls the “BuildRequest” function, passing in the XML, the text “CREATE” and the inputparameter “APIKEY”. The output is wrote into the body of the message.
The following handy script will show the size of tables, sorted by size.
SELECT schema_name(tab.schema_id) + '.' + tab.name AS [table]
,cast(sum(spc.used_pages * 8) / 1024.00 AS NUMERIC(36, 2)) AS used_mb
,cast(sum(spc.total_pages * 8) / 1024.00 AS NUMERIC(36, 2)) AS allocated_mb
FROM sys.tables tab
INNER JOIN sys.indexes ind ON tab.object_id = ind.object_id
INNER JOIN sys.partitions part ON ind.object_id = part.object_id
AND ind.index_id = part.index_id
INNER JOIN sys.allocation_units spc ON part.partition_id = spc.container_id
GROUP BY schema_name(tab.schema_id) + '.' + tab.name
ORDER BY sum(spc.used_pages) DESC
I use http://mockbin.org/ to test web service calls, and quite recently have been using it with BPA in order to test integrations when access to a live service is not available.
Recently I’ve had an issue with BPA not picking up MockBin correctly and completely ignoring the data which has been returned via the web service call.
After lots of head scratching, in order to fix this, I had to add the headers of “charset: utf-8”. After adding this, Mockbin works perfectly with BPA.
With Microsoft Teams, it is possible to create webhooks. A webhook is an URL which is opened up to the internet and allows other applications to interact with the application.
In the case of teams, these webhooks allow notifications to be shown in Microsoft Teams.
The document which is sent to Teams via the webhook is in JSON format, and teams then takes this JSON and displays accordingly.
{
"type": "AdaptiveCard",
"$schema": "https://adaptivecards.io/schemas/adaptive-card.json",
"version": "1.0",
"padding": "none",
"body": [
{
"type": "Container",
"style": "emphasis",
"items": [
{
"type": "ColumnSet",
"columns": [
{
"type": "Column",
"width": "stretch",
"items": [
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "**SATISFACTION SURVEY**",
"weight": "bolder"
}
]
},
{
"type": "Column",
"items": [
{
"type": "Image",
"horizontalAlignment": "Right",
"verticalContentAlignment": "center",
"url": "https://qms3.blob.core.windows.net/test/servicenow.png",
"height": "20px",
"altText": "Service Now Logo"
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "Container",
"padding": {
"right": "padding",
"left": "padding"
},
"items": [
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "Help us improve by taking our short satisfaction survey.",
"weight": "bolder",
"wrap": true
}
]
},
{
"type": "Container",
"padding": {
"right": "padding",
"left": "padding",
"bottom": "padding"
},
"items": [
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "1\\. How satisfied were you with the response time to your incident?",
"wrap": true
},
{
"type": "Input.ChoiceSet",
"id": "responseTime",
"isRequired": true,
"placeholder": "Select a rating",
"choices": [
{
"title": "Very Satisfied",
"value": "1"
},
{
"title": "Not Satisfied",
"value": "2"
}
]
},
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "2\\. How courteous and respectful was the technician who responded to your query?",
"wrap": true
},
{
"type": "Input.ChoiceSet",
"id": "technicianQuery",
"isRequired": true,
"placeholder": "Select a rating",
"choices": [
{
"title": "Excellent",
"value": "1"
},
{
"title": "Very Good",
"value": "2"
}
]
},
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "3\\. Was the technician able to resolve your issue during their first consultation?",
"wrap": true
},
{
"type": "Input.ChoiceSet",
"id": "firstConsultation",
"isRequired": true,
"isMultiSelect": false,
"style": "expanded",
"choices": [
{
"title": "Yes",
"value": "yes"
},
{
"title": "No",
"value": "no"
}
]
},
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "4\\. How satisfied are you with the overall service experience?",
"wrap": true
},
{
"type": "Input.ChoiceSet",
"id": "OverallRating",
"isRequired": true,
"placeholder": "Select a rating",
"choices": [
{
"title": "Excellent",
"value": "1"
},
{
"title": "Very Good",
"value": "2"
}
]
},
{
"type": "TextBlock",
"text": "5\\. Is there any other comment you would like us to know?",
"wrap": true
},
{
"type": "Input.Text",
"id": "comment",
"isMultiline": true,
"placeholder": "Add a comment"
},
{
"type": "ActionSet",
"actions": [
{
"type": "Action.Http",
"method": "POST",
"title": "Submit",
"isPrimary": true,
"body": "{\"responseTime\": \"{{responseTime.value}}\", \"technicianQuery\":\"{{technicianQuery.value}}\", \"firstConsultation\":\"{{firstConsultation.value}}\", \"OverallRating\":\"{{OverallRating.value}}\" }",
"url": "https://actionsplayground.azurewebsites.net/workspaces/IREXSqpHRk-hkfa7y7CAAw"
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
Designing these cards can be quite complex and time consuming, however the following websites are very useful, as these allow you to experiment with the JSON and visually show the results:
Recently I’ve had an issue where some text was presented in a table, and I needed to normalise the text.
For example:
TESTiNG 123
Would need to become:
Testing 123
With thanks to Justin Cooney this was possible using the SQL below:
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE FUNCTION NormalizeCase (@InputString VARCHAR(8000))
RETURNS VARCHAR(8000)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @OutputString VARCHAR(500)
DECLARE @Location INT
SET @Location = 1
-- Pre-set to a character string if the input string exists and has a length. otherwise the out string remains a NULL
IF DATALENGTH(@InputString) > 0
BEGIN
SET @OutputString = ''
END
WHILE @Location <= DATALENGTH(@InputString)
BEGIN
DECLARE @CheckCharacter VARCHAR(1)
DECLARE @PrevCheckCharacter VARCHAR(1)
DECLARE @OutCharacter VARCHAR(1)
-- Set the current character to lower case in case a capitalization condition is not met.
SELECT @CheckCharacter = LOWER(SUBSTRING(@InputString, @Location, 1))
SELECT @PrevCheckCharacter = SUBSTRING(@InputString, @Location - 1, 1)
-- Set the current letter to uppercase if the preceeding letter is a non-letter character
-- and the current character is a letter
IF @PrevCheckCharacter NOT LIKE '[a-z]'
AND @CheckCharacter LIKE '[a-z]'
BEGIN
SELECT @OutCharacter = UPPER(@CheckCharacter)
END
ELSE
BEGIN
SELECT @OutCharacter = @CheckCharacter
END
SET @OutputString = @OutputString + @OutCharacter
SET @Location = @Location + 1
END
RETURN @OutputString
END
GO
The code can be used as follows:
SELECT dbo.NormalizeCase('THIS IS a reaLLY GooD example')
As part of this migration, windows became un-activated – most likely because Vultr runs it’s own KMS service and it is no longer able to contact the server:
Within SQL Server an index is used to optimise the reading of data from the database.
However the side effect of having such an index is reduced write speed for inserts and updates. This is because SQL Server will need to update and maintain the index.
Running the below SQL will highlight indexes which have not been used recently, allowing you to remove these indexes (if these are no longer required). This is sorted by the number of updates, as tables with high number of updates will most likely benefit from removal of this index.
SELECT TOP 200 o.NAME AS ObjectName
,i.NAME AS IndexName
,i.index_id AS IndexID
,dm_ius.user_seeks AS UserSeek
,dm_ius.user_scans AS UserScans
,dm_ius.user_lookups AS UserLookups
,dm_ius.user_updates AS UserUpdates
,p.TableRows
,'DROP INDEX ' + QUOTENAME(i.NAME) + ' ON ' + QUOTENAME(s.NAME) + '.' + QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(dm_ius.OBJECT_ID)) AS 'drop statement'
FROM sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats dm_ius
INNER JOIN sys.indexes i ON i.index_id = dm_ius.index_id
AND dm_ius.OBJECT_ID = i.OBJECT_ID
INNER JOIN sys.objects o ON dm_ius.OBJECT_ID = o.OBJECT_ID
INNER JOIN sys.schemas s ON o.schema_id = s.schema_id
INNER JOIN (
SELECT SUM(p.rows) TableRows
,p.index_id
,p.OBJECT_ID
FROM sys.partitions p
GROUP BY p.index_id
,p.OBJECT_ID
) p ON p.index_id = dm_ius.index_id
AND dm_ius.OBJECT_ID = p.OBJECT_ID
WHERE OBJECTPROPERTY(dm_ius.OBJECT_ID, 'IsUserTable') = 1
AND dm_ius.database_id = DB_ID()
AND i.type_desc = 'nonclustered'
AND i.is_primary_key = 0
AND i.is_unique_constraint = 0
AND dm_ius.user_seeks + dm_ius.user_scans + dm_ius.user_lookups = 0
ORDER BY UserUpdates DESC
The following line can also be altered in order to include indexes which are rarely used (The code above is for unused), as there may be some indexes which are expensive to maintain, but only used once a day for example!
AND dm_ius.user_seeks + dm_ius.user_scans + dm_ius.user_lookups = 0
Had a very odd issue with Windows 10 and taskbar menu items missing:
After lots of research, I’ve partially fixed this by running the following from an elevated command prompt:
for /R "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\" %f in (.lnk) do copy /b "%f"+,, "%f" 1>nul
for /R "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\" %f in (.lnk) do copy /b "%f"+,, "%f" 1>nul
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
explorer.exe
What this does is:
Update “Last Update Date” attribute on Start Menu Links
Kill Explorer process
Start Explorer process
The result being:
The one missing icon is for Microsoft Edge (also other Microsoft Store Apps have missing icons too, such as Calculator etc).
After lots of research, investigation and trial-and-error, I solved the problem by uninstalling “Google Drive File Stream” (plus I dont really use this anyways):
The “Call Task” tool in Taskcentre is a useful tool in calling other tasks.
The task can run in two modes:
Synchronous
Queue
Queue
This adds the task to the queue, to be scheduled at a future point in time
Synchronous
This queues the task and awaits a response.
Sometimes in Taskcentre you wish to know if a task you have called has failed. This is useful in cases where there’s a queue of objects which require some work completing and you are processing these in a batch. Examples include:
Invoices to send
Sales Orders to process
Records require uploading to website
etc
The issue with calling tasks Synchronously is that you cannot easily tell if the task being run has failed or not, however by analysing the output of the task, you can record this information and make decisions accordingly.
The “TaskRunStatus” flag is the important part here. If the value is “2”, then the task completed successfully. Value “4” is a failure.
Using the “XML To RecordSet” tool, each results from the “Call Task” can be mapped to a Recordset:
From there, we can then use the “VBScript” tool to loop around all the RecordSet entries:
Here’s the VBScript:
If ThisStep.RecordSource("OutputData_TaskRunStatus") = 2 Then
Variables("SuccessCount") = Variables("SuccessCount") + 1
Else
Variables("FailCount") = Variables("FailCount") + 1
End If
From there, you can use these variables within your other steps. For example, here’s a HTML document which is posted to HipChat using code here.
