Create a UCMA application with presence aware workflow

In a webcast which I did together with Joachim Farla about Unified Communications Development For Non Professional Developers I talked about creating a UCMA workflow. It is based on the inbound/outbound sample which you can download from GotUC.net.

It is a pretty simple application; it starts a collaboration platform, registers an OCS endpoint and begins listening for incoming calls (or IMs). In this example, it uses client credentials. For production usages, take a provisioned application to do this.

At the same time it also starts a Windows Workflow runtime. When a message is received, it is passed to this workflow so it can be handled. The workflow is the standard XOML workflow of the Windows Workflow Foundation but enhanced with a communications service and OCS activities.

It will first accept the call, determines the presence of a configured SIP address and with an if/else construction choices the right branch. If the user is online, an instant message is send with a question and answer activity. if the user is offline, a outgoing voice call will be created. Using the text to speech functionality, the user will hear some text spoken to him/her and a question is being asked. After giving an answer, the call is disconnected. Meaning you can still reach the user over the phone but use IM primary when he/she is available.

You can configure the actions with your own answer/question systems, call other users, disconnect the call or use speech. There are a lot of OCS activities to pick.

Very simple, but it shows how to use the workflow to make interactive sessions with a user.

To run this sample, make sure you have Visual Studio 2008/2010 and the UCMA SDK installed. You can create an OCS test account at GotUC.net or use your own.

Please see the video for a demonstration of the code.

Presence Aware Workflow with OCS 2007 R2 from e-office on Vimeo.

Installing UCMA SDK requires .NET 3.5 Framework error message

When trying to install the latest UCMA SDK for OCS 2007 R2 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=B20967B1-6CF5-4A4B-B7AE-622653AC929F&displaylang=en), I got the error message stating that the installation could not continue because of a missing .NET 3.5 Framework.

Strange, because I program in Visual Studio 2008 and certainly had installed the latest version of the framework.

However, I also installed the Visual Studio 2010 RC recently including the .NET 4.0 Framework. Just uninstall this version, install the UCMA SDK and reinstall the .NET 4.0 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a9ef9a95-58d2-4e51-a4b7-bea3cc6962cb&displaylang=en) Framework to get it to work.

SQL2005SP2 Performance Can Degrade with OCS2007RTM

Today i was reading the Readme of OCS2007RTM. There was an interesting part in that overview.

SQL Server 2005 SP2 Performance Can Degrade Over Time
Issue: When running SQL 2005 SP2 on the back-end server of an Enterprise pool, over time performance can degrade and the total CPU usage increases. This is a known issue with SQL Server 2005 SP2. For more details, see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/927396

Workaround: Use one of the following two options:

Option 1

Use the following steps to add a SQL trace flag for T4618

1. Open SQL Server Configuration Manager: Point to Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, point to Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Configuration Manager.

2. Select RTC SQL server instance in SQL Server 2005 Services, right click on the instance and then click Properties.

3. Click the Advanced Properties tab and Edit Startup Parameters.

4. Append ;-T4618 to the end of the Startup Parameters list (note that startup parameters are separated by semicolons).

Option 2

Or manually add the following registry value:

Name | Value

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\{0}\MSSQLServer\Parameters\SQLArgN | -T4618

(where N is the next SQL parameter number and {0} is the SQL instance name found under the following key below that maps to the RTC instance)

Name | Value

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\Instance Names\SQL

I did implement option 1 and the overall performance was significally better.

MOC2007 and OCS2007 RTM released @ MSDN

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 (English) is released at MSDN on 8/17/2007 6:32:39 PM

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition (English) is released at MSDN on 8/17/2007 6:22:44 PM

AudioCodes rocks!

AudioCodes makes it possible to test your OCS2007(RTM) (Enterprise Telephony) environment with a free AudioCodes gateway MP-114 2 FXS/2FXO!!!!
1 month for free!

For more information see: http://cardero.textdrive.com/~netbytes/thx1138/nieuwsbrieven.php?nid=65&aid=00002692
(Language Dutch) for more information in english do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Topic's UC event e-office

As you can read in my previous post we organize an UC-event on 27th of september. We also demonstrate the new development platform behind OCS2007. OCS2007 comes with a bunch of API's. More information on that see: http://blogs.msdn.com/jcalev/archive/2007/05/07/introduction-to-the-ucma-api-part-1-api-overview.aspx

We will demonstrate 2 very nice capabilities of OCS2007. We will also integrate our stuff within MOSS2007.

Topic 1: Automated bot which will integrate with the Enterprise Search of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Short description of functionality: search within MOSS2007 looking for IT competence (so looking for people with knowledge of for example "IT infrastructures") The automated bot will re-publish this to the end-user. There is no logical access between the end-user (anonymous) and your MOSS "internal" infrastructure. So great for internet facing websites which you can create with the new version of SharePoint (2007 aka MOSS)

Topic 2: Sending SharePoint alerts through IM

Short description of functionality: No, alerts emailed from SharePoint within you inbox but managed by IM. We will build functionality in it to choose whether or not receive alerts through email. So it's the decision of your information worker. IM messages will be pushed by OCS2007! We will build our code to finally deliver an Timer Job for SharePoint.

So....stay tuned on this blog! We will publish our demo material (code)

Subscribe event @: http://www.e-office.com/eog/nl/website.nsf/wwwVwContent/l4sessieunifiedcommunications.htm

Location of this event: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=duwboot+20,+houten&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=52.418008,92.285156&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=cent&om=1