The first beta of Silverlight 3 was recently announced at MIX09 conference. The changes are really exciting and the new release brings Silverlight closer to ASP.NET as well as WPF. There are several great features in Silverlight 3 including:

• Enhanced data validation support
• Support for business objects via RIA Services
• Deep linking and Navigational support within an application
• Library caching support
• Out of Browser Capabilities
• New controls like DataForm and DataPager
• And much more

GoodCore is already developing an enterprise application in Silverlight 2, and the organization look forward to Silverlight 3 development as well.

Settng up a Navision database on SQL Server requires a few steps. Here’s a quick checklist:

Navision requires traceflag 4616 to be set ON. We have two choices for this:

1. Execute the following SQL-statement.
   DBCC TRACEON (4616,-1)
   This approach will turn the flag on for the current session only, that is, as long as the SQL Server is not restarted. Once the server gets restarted, you will have to run the above query again.
2. Add the startup parameter -T 4616 to the SQL server database service: MSSQLSERVER. The best way to do this is to use the SQL Server Configuration Manager. This solution is rather a permanent one and the flag is set across system/service restarts.

If you try to open a Navision database using Windows authentication, it displays a missing stored procedure xp_ndo_enumusersids error in xp_ndo.dll. To solve this, you will need to copy xp_ndo.dll to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn (default path) and run the following SQL-script:

USE master
EXEC sp_addextendedproc xp_ndo_enumusergroups, 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\xp_ndo.dll'
GO
GRANT EXECUTE
ON [xp_ndo_enumusergroups]
TO PUBLIC
 
GO
USE master
EXEC sp_addextendedproc xp_ndo_enumusersids, 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\xp_ndo.dll'
GO
GRANT EXECUTE
ON [xp_ndo_enumusersids]
TO PUBLIC
GO

Useful References:

DBCC TRACEON:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187329.aspx

SQL Startup options:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190737.aspx

Adding xp_ndo.dll manually:
http://www.dynamicsnation.com/NAVNavision/Forums/tabid/61/forumid/53/threadid/67/scope/posts/Default.aspx

We’re hiring again. This time for someone senior to join our team that works on financial trading systems. Requires hands-on .NET development experience, solid software engineering fundamentals, and familiarity with the practices of agile development.

For details, check out the job ad here.

Recently I evaluated a few tools for the automation of testing for one of our web applications. I tried a few tools, which are as the following:

• AutomatedQA’s TestComplete – It is a very nice product offering a very rich set of features. This produce could be used very nicely for GUI application testing automation. It provides scripting support in C# and has native support for .NET application.
• Watir – I couldn’t try this much but it was mainly dropped from the list due to the learning curve involved in learning Ruby for using this whole suite efficiently. It is a very good testing automation suite both for web and desktop applications. Later after my evaluation, I also got to know that there is a .Net port available for Watir named Watin. I am looking forward to try that some time later.
• Sahi – I evaluated it and found it super fit for my testing automation. I chose Sahi mainly for the ease of use and the scripting language being Javascript. It provides an easy to use interface for recording and playing back the test cases. I started automating testing of the web application and to date I have been able to automate a very large portion of it. I hope to achieve about 60-70% of automated testing for my web application.

In the next post, I will write more in detail about Sahi that how we used it.

by Meraj Khattak

GoodCore recently added a new powerful computer to its servers. Here’s our configuration:

• Intel® Server Board S3200SHV
• Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor (2.4GHz/1066MHz/8MB)
• 4GB RAM (2*2GB DDR2-800MHz)
• 320 GB*2 HDD (7.2k/32MB/Sata2) (RAID 1)

This quad-core machine will be providing us the services of:

• SQL server
• VSS server
• Virtual Server

Performance looks great. Moreover, the reliability will also be excellent due to RAID-1 mirroring. Happy computing to all office members.

Hassan Basharat was interviewed by BusinessPlus and discussed software applications for financial institutions, ERP systems, the scope for Pakistani companies in IT.

This week we played our Foosball tournament after a few weeks and our winners are Adnan & Fareed. Adnan is the tournament winner for 3rd time.

• Food: The Kebab
• Finalists: Hassan & Hassan Basharat

We’re looking for someone with strong programming concepts, having a 4-year bachelor’s degree in the field of MIS or computer systems engineering equivalent.

Fresh graduates with an ability to learn quickly are also encouraged to apply.

Compensation: According to experience and skill level.

To see the posting on rozee, click here.

Our this week’s winners are Fawad & Hassan Basharat. Fawad, who played final for three times, but only managed to win for the first time.

• Food: Hot n Spicy / Student Biryani
• Finalists: Adnan & Meraj