I work for a small digital marketing company as a programmer, and we are not a Microsoft partner or any sort (Gold/Silver/Bronze). However, we use .NET.
What I am confused about is that the developer before me has left, and he gets subscription DVDs of latest Microsoft tools, delivered to the company (Sql Server etc).
I am assumign this is not a personal subscription, because if it was he'd have changed addresses.
Anyway, the subscription is Professional and we use the tools for commercial purposes. Is this allowed? Also, am I allowed to use the tools that we get, at home? I want to use Windows Server at home for dev purposes (learning it for my exams).
Thanks
Thanks for the advice guys.
The license is registered in my boss name but I think a networking guy has added himself as an additional user.
MSDN FAQ says I can have up to 10 instances of the tools installed. I was thinking if I use a product key off MSDN, then that key is forever in use and no additional licenses can be installed.
For the definitive answer read through the MSDN subscription FAQ which includes the license terms.
My understanding is that you can use the software to support development work for your company, but not run production servers. Ie. you could develop Exchange add-ins but not run your company's email using the Exchange Server that comes with MSDN.
Using the software at home is probably a grey area. If it is on company owned equipment and supports your development goals then it sounds OK. If it is on your own equipment then it likely goes against the details of the EULA. You could always try calling Microsoft and asking.
In short, no, you can't use any of the MSDN disks for production services at all. Dev and Test only. If you develop an app using them, then put it into production (eg you develop a timesheet app for yourselves) once it starts being used as a timesheet app, you need to buy full versions of everything it needs.
There's one more thing you need to consider. You need to buy a copy of the MSDN for each developer. Just because it says you can use up to 10 instances does not mean anyone else can (otherwise I could use some of your licences, if you wouldn't mind :) ).
So if there's 3 devs in your team, you need to buy 3 MSDN licences. That also applies if you run a server using the MSDN licence that the other devs access - I think you might be OK if the other devs bought CALs to access it, but the T&C is confusing to say the least.
You also need to bear in mind that MSDN licences are recurring - we bought them on a 3 year select agreement, you might have different terms.
We're being audited by MS at the moment. Turns out developing for Windows can get very expensive :(
Read Microsoft's white paper on Visual Studio 2013 licensing
Example: A developer with an MSDN subscription uses MSDN software at work during the day, but occasionally needs to develop at home as well, using a different computer. Under the MSDN license, there is no difference between a PC at work and a home PC; the home PC is just another device on which the developer is entitled use the MSDN software.
However, the restrictions for the MSDN software running on the developer’s home PC remain the same as in the work environment: the MSDN software installed on the home PC must only be used for design, development and testing purposes; and only other users with an appropriate MSDN subscription can use the software.
Visual Studio and MSDN Licensing White Paper
If the subscription was paid for by the company, you should be able to change the named individual to yourself (or someone else in the company). This would allow you to access MSDN using the subscription to download software and submit problem reports. We had a license that we switched one when one of the licensed individuals left. Unfortunately, our software licensing office took care of it, so I don't know the details of how it was done. We also purchased it under a Select license, so it would probably be different anyway.
Heed #Rob Walker's advice and check out the FAQ for what you can do with the software.
Related
I'm looking at taking a possible contract role as an MS Dynamics developer. In the interim, I'd like to play around with x++. Am I right in thinking that the only code editor available is the one that ships with AX?
I'd really like a freebie alternative to use for now, but I haven't come across one.
Not sure that you can get something for free, but you can create a dynamics ax instance accessible from the web, with microsoft lifecycle services.
https://lcs.dynamics.com/
you can also ask your new Company to download a demo VM for you. It's available on the Customer and on the Partner Source.
https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/northamerica/AX/downloads/service-packs/AX2012DemoToolsMaterials
Unfortunately, besides MorphX, the native IDE in MS Dynamics, and Visual Studio(for C# dev), you don't have much of a choice.
However, there a portal called 365 Talent portal, where you can register as a freelance MS Dynamics Developer and request for an access to the Dynamics Learning Portal (DLP).
Finally , after your access to the DLP is granted, you can play around with some VMs(with AX installed), read documentation, etc.
I had a genius idea today to try and create a website that would access our CRM database and will report on support cases.
The idea would be to have a page that would be visible in the office and members of the support team can view the current status of support cases.
I've downloaded the CRM SDK and I've read a couple of manuals, but I can't seem to find a decent starting point for a complete rookie..
Are there are good tutorials out there on how to create a website that will communicate with CRM's database, preferrably for a VB.NET application.
There are several products that implement your idea.
The most famous one is the Adxstudio, you can find a community edition (also for CRM 4.0) at this address:
http://community.adxstudio.com/products/adxstudio-portals/
After you can check the source code, but they use C#
I am trying to make life a little easier for several coworkers and of course ME!. We need to update a database that controls our invoicing function. This database is housed in SQL Server 2008 R2. I need to provide users with a way (based on their function) to enter information affecting the invoice. For example, John has customer interaction and sends them a pdf of a document on Monday. We need to capture that John sent Customer A a pdf on Monday and it was associated with Project 123. Simultaneously, Ann is color correcting a piece for Customer A but on Project 126. I have over 50 people working in various areas who may or may not need to enter information. My hope is to make the application generic enough that the user simply selects from drop downs tied back to the original database.
The majority of the users (80%) use Mac OS. I have donwloaded XCode and I was hoping to use this to create the application that will update the backend database.
I am new to creating this type of application. I have done this with VB and VBA but do not have access to those tools here. So if there is another tact that I should take, I am more than willing to rethink my approach.
Key points are that I need to draw information from and update a SQL 2008 database. Second, I cannot use something like Excel as a front end, since I will have multiple users accessing information simultaneously.
You're unlikely to find many examples of connecting a Mac app directly to SQL Server, because that's a rare combination. Macs, unlike Windows PCs, aren't often used in an enterprise setting, so the software ecosystem to support enterprise development is much weaker.
If you're feeling brave, there are vendors out there that sell ODBC drivers for Mac OS X, some of which connect to SQL Server. So your problem becomes finding Mac ODBC examples, which is IMHO an easier problem. Google "mac os x odbc drivers". I have not tried any of them, so I can't speak to their quality.
This is going to be a lot of work, especially since you're new to the platform. You might want to consider exposing the database as an OData source (the name of the server-side technology is "WCF Data Services"). There are OData client-side librarires for the Mac. Google "mac os x odata". This approach completely bypasses the business of ODBC drivers, at the cost of some server-side development.
http://cmsreport.com/content/2010/03/ten-content-migration-tools-sharepoint-platform is a link that shows many software that exist migrating "content" from a 2007 to 2010 platform.
Barring web farm / sql server 32 - 64 bit issues, what is that which will NOT be migrated (assuming that I do a Attach / detach database upgrade method. In place upgrade is not an option in my farm.
I have a web farm with one app server and one sql server box.
Thanks in advance
Note: I did look at other similar posts but they did not have the kind of information that I was looking for.
Have a look at the following Technet article which should give you a starting point for planning your upgrade:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303429.aspx
The article should give you an idea of what to plan ahead for and what the pros and cons for each method would be.
I am aware of of the infamous Considerations for server-side Automation of Office from Microsoft and it clearly lists products from the 2010 suite.
However, today I was made to believe by an IT ops techie that Office 2010 does not suffer from the issues mentioned in that article and can be used without issues within a server environment. I have been unable to find any reference or supporting doc that would substantiate the claim. (I will follow up with him on this, however he must have been referring to some other server side technique) My gut tells me he was smoking his socks!
Is there an Microsoft based solution for server side automation for Office 2010? If yes, can you please provide a relevant link that supports the claim.
(I am not looking for a Spreadsheet Gear, OpenXML SDK, OpenXML etc. related answer)
If he's referring to automating the Office 2010 client on the server, he continues to be wrong. If he's referring to newly available functionality on the server that automates some Office document processing, he's right. It's likely he's referring to the later and has just skimmed some marketing material and came to a conclusion in his head that Office client can now be a headless automation server or some such thing.
Office 2010 on the server side came with a number of Application Services that work with SharePoint 2010 that significantly assist with server-side processing of some Office documents and functionality. In particular:
Word Automation Services
Excel Services
InfoPath Forms Services
and Visio Services
It would seem that the techie was not that far off and there actually was some validity to his claim. I refer you to Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 which deals with High Performance Computing (so this does not apply to your run of the mill type workbooks that I guess most people deal with) . This does make sense considering the company I am working at is with the insurance sector. Note: this only works for for a High Performance Computing server
I refer you to a Microsoft techincal whitepaper
Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 now enables running multiple instances of Excel 2010 in a Windows HPC cluster, where each instance is running an independent calculation or iteration of the same workbook with a different dataset. Many complex and long-running workbooks run iteratively—that is, they perform a single calculation many times over different sets of input data. These workbooks might include intensive mathematical calculations contained in multiple worksheets, or they might contain complex Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) functions.
...
workbooks may need to be modified to work with this solution. When Excel 2010 runs on the server, it does not support user interaction. Windows HPC Server 2008 R2 includes a comprehensive pop-up manager that can handle occasional dialog boxes and pop-up messages, but it is not designed to support interactive Excel 2010 features
There is also another doc: : Accelerating Excel 2010 with Windows HPC Server 2008 R2: Building VBA applications and workbooks for a Windows HPC Cluster which goes into detail as to how to building Excel solutions for a HPC server.
Your IT OPS techie should send you a link to any information that suggests this. You should then post the link here.
That way, we can try to get the link corrected. Office hasn't stopped being a COM-based desktop application. Do not attempt to automate it in a multithreaded (server) environment.
Your techie may be thinking of the fact that there are now web versions of some of the Office products.
I think everyone has proven your colleague has his wires crossed.
If the problem you are trying to solve is "how do I automate the generation of Word Documents?" then check out www.intelledox.com these guys have a .NET based Doc Gen engine which consumes data from anywhere, web service, XML etc to create documents.
They are then delivered somewhere like in an email, into an ECM system, SharePoint etc.
Means you can stand up an engine that creates standard letters and correspondence etc.