Updated 12 June 2009 - I have been having problems using this technique of Typemock with Sharepoint Workflows, the workflows keep unexpectedly idling as opposed to activating. If you suffer similar problem please check for later posts as to any solutions I find. After reading Gil’s blog on writing simpler tests I have done some tidying of the code from my previous post. In this version I have extracted the boiler plate code to run the workflow to a static helper method and modified my tests to incorporate Gil’s comments, they are certainly more readable. ...

I am speaking in Wednesday the 8th at Agile Yorkshire, on Crystal Clear and lessons learnt in Agile projects. The user group is meeting at the Victoria Hotel in Leeds as usual, and thanks to our sponsors there is a free drink for all attendees. Hope to see you there.

For a while I have had a problem that when I tried to add a hyperlink via the toolbar in Live Writer I get a dialog that Live Writer has stopped working, it doesn’t exit, it just des not open the modal window for adding a hyperlink. It was irritating, but as I could edit the HTML source and put in the link by hand I could not be bothered to work out how to fix it. ...

Updated 12 June 2009 - I have been having problems using this technique of Typemock with Sharepoint Workflows, the workflows keep unexpectedly idling as opposed to activating. If you suffer similar problem please check for later posts as to any solutions I find. Updated 6 April 2009 – Also see Testing SharePoint Workflows using TypeMock Isolator (Part 2) I have for a while been trying to test SharePoint workflows using TypeMock Isolator to mock out the SharePoint fixtures, I want to remove the dependency of having SharePoint on any test boxes where possible. I have at last got this working after getting a new version of TypeMock Isolator 5.3.0 + a fix from the very helpful team at TypeMock ...

A book arrived recently on my desk ‘Software Testing with Visual Studio Team System 2008’ by Subashni. S and N Satheesh Kumar. On reading the book it provides a workmanlike coverage of the testing features of Visual Studio 2008 including some of the API options in the testing namespace, but I can’t see what it adds to the subject beyond what a user already has access to in the general introductions on MSDN/Help files. ...

Thanks to everyone who attended my session at SQLBits IV. My slides on Visual Studio 2008 Database edition GDR release can be downloaded from the Black Marble website. Also a bit thank you to the organiser for putting on such as successful event, it is really good to not have to travel to the London or Reading for IT events.

As I am sure you noticed there was an unfortunate clash of dates between Alt.net ‘in the North’ in Bradford and WebDD in Reading on the 18th of April. Well I see that WebDD over the weekend has published it’s agenda, opened registrations and is now full. So if you are disappointed that you can’t get a place for the WebDD event have you thought of trying an Open Spaces event like Alt.net? We still have some spaces left. The key difference of this type of event, as opposed to the more traditional lecture format of WebDD, is that the attendees decide the agenda when they arrive and most sessions take the format of an open discussion of peoples real work experiences and opinions. ...

As well as speaking on the GDR release of VSTS Database Edition at SQLbits this weekend I will also be at VBug Newcastle on the 22nd April.

Whilst preparing for my session at SQLBits next weekend I was re-watched Gert Drapers’ PDC session (TL45) where he used a command tool to deploy a database via a USB pen drive (about 30 minutes into the session). Now it seems that the createdeployment command line tool he used is not currently available outside Microsoft, but the same effect can be achieved use the VSDBCMD command. Step 1 - get the files onto the distribution device ...

I have been away at the MVP summit and then on holiday for a couple of weeks. On this trip every hotel I stayed in had free internet, though often only wired. Seem many hotels have Wifi contracts with mobile phone companies and they are still charging for. So top tip make sure you have UTP cable in your bag. The ‘most interesting’ system I had was at a hotel in Whistler. ...