LitwareHR Wiki & Documentation Rss Feed

New Comment on "SaaS Architecture Workshop 070402"

kkbava — Wed, 18 May 2011 02:19:37 GMT

Hi, All content links from skyscrapr.net are broken. Are they available anywhere else? cheers, kk

New Comment on "Troubleshooting error while creating virtual folder"

girish — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 05:54:17 GMT

i followed setup instruction provided in readme file, still i m getting the same problem " SERVER ERROR IN '/litware' Application, i checked the web.config file and the path is set correctly, provisioning user is added to administrators group, still i am getting the error can any one tell me why i got the erro

Updated Wiki: News

jwanageladmin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:59:20 GMT

News

Just Released! LitwareHR November 2007 & Multitenant Database Performance Guide

Thursday, November 15, 2007

We've just released a new version of LitwareHR which includes enhanced backend functionality, a new Smart Client and integration with Silverlight Streaming. This release is targeting Windows Server 2008 (RC) and Visual Studio 2008. Among the new features demonstrated:

Upgraded and improved codebase
Simple RSS support for Open Positions
Simple REST interfaces for Open Positions
Enhanced multi-tenant data access for increased performance (based on the results of the Performance Guide)
Integration with Silverlight Streaming for "Video Resumes" feature. Demonstrates use of aggregated services in a SaaS delivered application
A new version of the Smart Client with integration with Desktop Search, enhanced metadata services (e.g. automatic schema update), ClickOnce deployment, etc.
Much improved install process, including a "Dependency Checker" utility to verify and install all pre-requisites.

Also available is a new package to help you assess performance and scalability of databases with different extensibility patterns: extension tables, fixed columns and XML data types. Check the releases sectionof this website to download the bits.

SaaS Architecture Workshop

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.

Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning

Friday, April 24, 2007

These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):
WBH and MPS overview
WBH 4.5 overview

How MPS works

MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams

WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests
MPS01 explained screenshots

"Tenant Provisioning" screencast released

Friday, March 23, 2007
Once the Datacenter Provisioning is completed, tenants will be able to start trying LitwareHR application. First of all, they will have to create a tenant account at LitwareHR so they can use the application.
The process that takes care of allocating the resources that tenant will use is called "Tenant Provisioning":

This screencast shows the "behind the scenes" actions this service does:
creates one virtual folder and two virtual directories in IIS for tenant's public and private sites

adds tenant basic information in MetadataStore database

inserts default tenant preferences in MetadataStore database, such as entity extension fields, workflow definitions and rulesets

creates the view filter for the position entity

creates an sql view that the tenant will use to retrieve the position entity fields

creates an Organizational Unit (OU) in the Authorization store (ADAM) with users and roles support

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

"The holy grail of Enterprise SOA security" article, by Matias Woloski

Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Matias Woloski's post about SOA Enterprise Security using WCF includes a step by step explanation on how the Federated Security Scenario works in LitwareHR. Take a look at this really interesting post here.

What do you think? Send us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Dependency Checker included in source code

Monday, March 12, 2007

We are working on a tool to help you identify all required components to run LitwareHR and automate eventual configurations and/or setups. This is a preview for the tool. We are still working on a few details, but would appreciate any feedback from you. Thanks!
Download the Dependency checker included in the last Change Set

Just released! LitwareHR installer for Windows XP

Thursday, March 8, 2007
Based on customer feedback, we are releasing a Windows XP specific installer for LitwareHR that automates the procedures documented in this HowTo. Hopefully this will make your evaluation of LitwareHR easier.

LitwareHR was originally designed to run on Windows Server 2003 because of the real-world datacenter features it provides such as the ability to run multiple websites in the same box (Windows XP’s IIS 5.1 doesn’t allow that). In the Windows XP version, we use different virtual directories instead:

Get the release here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: This installer will not work under Windows Vista because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

HowTo: run LitwareHR on a Windows XP box

Monday, February 26, 2007

LitwareHR was designed and built as close to a real world environment as possible. A production datacenter needs features provided by Windows Server 2003 and the design and implementation of the application were optimized against this platform. In particular, we believed using many websites as LitwareHR does,(www.litware.com, www.litwarehr.com, etc.) was an important feature to demonstrate and therefore we chose Windows Server 2003.

The feedback we received is that many of you would prefer to run the application on Windows XP for evaluation purposes.

This how-to describes the changes that you need to make to the original version so you can run it on Windows XP. Note that the MSI will still install on Windows XP.

Read about the steps here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: Even if you follow the how-to steps, LitwareHR will not work under Windows Vista (yet :)) because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

"Datacenter Provisioning" screencast released

Thursday, February 22, 2007

This screencast shows in detail the actions performed by the script in charge of setting up the structure needed to support LitwareHR's application.
This is what we call "Datacenter Provisioning" and creates databases in SQL server, users and roles structures in the ADAM and websites in the IIS.
After this Datacenter Provisioning is done, each tenant will be able to perform a "Tenant Provisioning" which will add tenant information in those repositories and will let the tenant to start trying the application.

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

Litware HR on ARCast.net

Monday, February 19, 2007
Ron Jacobs published two videos about Litware HR on ARCast.net. You can see Gianpaolo Carraro and Fred Chong introducing the application and showing the main architecture aspects:
Introduction on SaaS and LitwareHR approach: http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/13/746.aspx

Demo and architecture breakdown part 1 (Tenant Provisioning Presentation Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/15/759.aspx

Update (February 20, 2007) Demo and architecture breakdown part 2 (Datamodel Business Process Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/20/774.aspx

Updated Wiki: Home

jwanageladmin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:53:07 GMT

Welcome to the LitwareHR community site
SaaS is a journey walk with us! This has been our motto since we started our SaaS architecture guidance about one year ago.
In this journey, the release of LitwareHR represents an important milestone; most likely the most important since the launch of the SaaS architecture web site on MSDN back in August. Aimed at software architects and developers, the goal of LitwareHR is twofold:
To be the embodiment of the architectural guidance described in our whitepapers

To demonstrate how the Microsoft platform is used in the creation of SaaS solutions

With this release of LitwareHR, we are moving forward in the understanding of designing and building SaaS applications, but as mentioned, this is a journey, LitwareHR will evolve over time. New knowledge will impact future implementations, new technologies will change how certain aspects will be implemented.

Below you will find information on how to get the code (Getting Started) and maybe even more importantly how to participate (To Participate).

We have been very excited about discovering ways of taming the 3 headed monster that haunts all SaaS ISVs, we are even more now we can do it with you.

Quick Links

Just Released! LitwareHR on SQL Server Data Services (New!)

Performance Guidance

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning

SaaS Architecture Workshop Material: Slides and labs

News

Getting started

Download release installer and documentation

FAQ and troubleshooting

Discuss in forums or report issues

News

Just Released!: SSDS based BlogEngine.NET provider inspired on LitwareHR data access

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Inspired in LitwareHR's recently released data access implementation for SQL Server Data Services, this sample demonstrates a BlogEngine.NET blogprovider implementation running on that service for persistence. It uses a redesigned version of the Repository approach used in LitwareHR. Among other things, it leverages Microsoft patterns & practices Unity Application Block to resolve dependencies. Check the releases section to download the bits. More information on Eugenio's blog.

Just Released!: LitwareHR on SQL Server Data Services

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
A new enhanced version of LitwareHR including some major enhancements on the UI and persistance layers. It includes a new data access layer leveraging SQL Server Data Services and and completely new UI. Check out the release section to download the bits.

Just Released!: LitwareHR November 2007 and Multitenant Database Performance Guidance

Thursday, November 15th, 2007
We've just released a new version of LitwareHR which includes enhanced backend functionality, a new Smart Client and integration with Silverlight Streaming. Also available is a new package to help you assess performance and scalability of databases with different extensibility patterns: extension tables, fixed columns and XML data types. Check the releases section of this website to download the bits.

LitwareHR Smart Client (beta) Released

Thursday, July 26th, 2007
Just released! LitwareHR Smart Client demonstrates how to consume LitwareHR's functional and non-functional On-Line services from a desktop application. Based on WPF for richer visualization, it also includes support for offline scenarios. More information see the Planned Releases section here. Stay tuned to our blogs for more information and send us feedback please!

SaaS Architecture Workshop

Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning

Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):
WBH and MPS overview
WBH 4.5 overview

How MPS works

MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams

WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests
MPS01 explained screenshots

More news

About the Project
LitwareHR is a fictitious HR application providing recruitment management software delivered as a service. But the important aspects are not what the application does but how it is implemented.

LitwareHR is implemented as a Single Instance Multi Tenant application, which means that all LitwareHR customers (or tenants) share the same instance of the application including a single database. Showing how to be multi tenant efficient as well as allowing tenant specific customization in a single instance environment was one of the key objective of LitwareHR.

Getting Started
The Getting Started provides recommendations on how to quickly install and start using LitwareHR.

Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting Guide
Have a question? You'll probably get the answer here.

To Participate
There are several ways you will be able to participate to this project.
Discuss in forums

Report issues

Submit feature requests (feature requests are entered as issues)

Contribute code: Consistent with standard practice on community development sites, we will ask any community contributors to (1) assign us ownership of the contributions, (2) have your employers, if any, waive any claim to the contributions, and (3) warrant against IP infringement License. If you can comply to these 3 points, please contact LitwareHR community lead and notify your interest in contributing code.

Resources
Additional Resources can be found:
On MSDN:

SaaS Architecture Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas

LitwareHR sample application on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/sampleApp

On Skyskrapr.net:

The “Making Of” LitwareHR on Skyscrapr: http://www.skyscrapr.net/architects-in-action.aspx

On blogs:

Gianpaolo’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/gianpaolo

Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS News Feed
Multi Tenant Data Access (MTDA) Blueprint
Monday, August 25, 2008 11:05:49 PM | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS
Make a movie on S+S and win a trip to Macau!
Monday, June 23, 2008 4:05:44 PM | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS
Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS News Feed

Fred’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/fred_chong

Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS News Feed
Application Marketplaces and the Money Trail
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 1:57:00 AM | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS
An Application Marketplace Architecture for Commercializing Software and Services
Monday, February 11, 2008 7:14:00 AM | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS
Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS News Feed

Eugenio’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop

Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS News Feed
Windows Azure 101 – Primitives and Application Patterns – Playing Mendeleyev
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 11:42:44 PM | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS
Azure IssueTracker Enterprise - Simple Demos
Monday, March 16, 2009 8:09:35 PM | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS
Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS News Feed

Ariel’s blog: http://staff.southworks.net/blogs/ariel

Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR News Feed
test
Thursday, June 12, 2008 9:58:43 PM | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR
CSF and LitwareHR: Kickoff week
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 2:03:06 AM | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR
Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR News Feed

Thanks
We would like to thank Southworks for their critical help in building this application as well as the people at the Platform Adoption Center for allowing us to use their resources for part of this project.

Updated Wiki: Home

eugeniop — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:14:12 GMT

Welcome to the LitwareHR community site
SaaS is a journey walk with us! This has been our motto since we started our SaaS architecture guidance about one year ago.
In this journey, the release of LitwareHR represents an important milestone; most likely the most important since the launch of the SaaS architecture web site on MSDN back in August. Aimed at software architects and developers, the goal of LitwareHR is twofold:

To be the embodiment of the architectural guidance described in our whitepapers
To demonstrate how the Microsoft platform is used in the creation of SaaS solutions

With this release of LitwareHR, we are moving forward in the understanding of designing and building SaaS applications, but as mentioned, this is a journey, LitwareHR will evolve over time. New knowledge will impact future implementations, new technologies will change how certain aspects will be implemented.

Below you will find information on how to get the code (Getting Started) and maybe even more importantly how to participate (To Participate).

We have been very excited about discovering ways of taming the 3 headed monster that haunts all SaaS ISVs, we are even more now we can do it with you.

Quick Links

Just Released! LitwareHR on SQL Server Data Services (New!)
Performance Guidance
What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
SaaS Architecture Workshop Material: Slides and labs
News
Getting started
Download release installer and documentation
FAQ and troubleshooting
Discuss in forums or report issues

News

Just Released!: SSDS based BlogEngine.NET provider inspired on LitwareHR data access
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Inspired in LitwareHR's recently released data access implementation for SQL Server Data Services, this sample demonstrates a BlogEngine.NET blogprovider implementation running on that service for persistence. It uses a redesigned version of the Repository approach used in LitwareHR. Among other things, it leverages Microsoft patterns & practices Unity Application Block to resolve dependencies. Check the releases section to download the bits. More information on Eugenio's blog.

Just Released!: LitwareHR on SQL Server Data Services
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
A new enhanced version of LitwareHR including some major enhancements on the UI and persistance layers. It includes a new data access layer leveraging SQL Server Data Services and and completely new UI. Check out the release section to download the bits.

Just Released!: LitwareHR November 2007 and Multitenant Database Performance Guidance
Thursday, November 15th, 2007
We've just released a new version of LitwareHR which includes enhanced backend functionality, a new Smart Client and integration with Silverlight Streaming. Also available is a new package to help you assess performance and scalability of databases with different extensibility patterns: extension tables, fixed columns and XML data types. Check the releases section of this website to download the bits.

LitwareHR Smart Client (beta) Released
Thursday, July 26th, 2007
Just released! LitwareHR Smart Client demonstrates how to consume LitwareHR's functional and non-functional On-Line services from a desktop application. Based on WPF for richer visualization, it also includes support for offline scenarios. More information see the Planned Releases section here. Stay tuned to our blogs for more information and send us feedback please!

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

More news

About the Project
LitwareHR is a fictitious HR application providing recruitment management software delivered as a service. But the important aspects are not what the application does but how it is implemented.

LitwareHR is implemented as a Single Instance Multi Tenant application, which means that all LitwareHR customers (or tenants) share the same instance of the application including a single database. Showing how to be multi tenant efficient as well as allowing tenant specific customization in a single instance environment was one of the key objective of LitwareHR.

Getting Started
The Getting Started provides recommendations on how to quickly install and start using LitwareHR.

Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting Guide
Have a question? You'll probably get the answer here.

To Participate
There are several ways you will be able to participate to this project.

Discuss in forums
Report issues
Submit feature requests (feature requests are entered as issues)
Contribute code: Consistent with standard practice on community development sites, we will ask any community contributors to (1) assign us ownership of the contributions, (2) have your employers, if any, waive any claim to the contributions, and (3) warrant against IP infringement License. If you can comply to these 3 points, please contact LitwareHR community lead and notify your interest in contributing code.

Resources
Additional Resources can be found:
On MSDN:

SaaS Architecture Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas
LitwareHR sample application on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/sampleApp

On Skyskrapr.net:

The “Making Of” LitwareHR on Skyscrapr: http://www.skyscrapr.net/architects-in-action.aspx

On blogs:
Gianpaolo’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/gianpaolo

Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS News Feed

Nephologist: The Hottest Job in the Software Industry!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

You liked LitwareHR v1, You loved LitwareHR v2, You are going to die for LitwareHR 'cloud storage' edition :)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS News Feed

Fred’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/fred_chong

Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS News Feed

Application Marketplaces and the Money Trail
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

An Application Marketplace Architecture for Commercializing Software and Services
Monday, February 11, 2008 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS News Feed

Eugenio’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop

Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS News Feed

End to end demo of LitwareHR on SSDS
Sunday, April 27, 2008 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

LitwareHR on SSDS - Part V - Searching across Containers
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS News Feed

Ariel’s blog: http://staff.southworks.net/blogs/ariel

Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR News Feed

test
Thursday, June 12, 2008 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

CSF and LitwareHR: Kickoff week
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR News Feed

Thanks
We would like to thank Southworks for their critical help in building this application as well as the people at the Platform Adoption Center for allowing us to use their resources for part of this project.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

eugeniop — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:01:25 GMT

Welcome to the LitwareHR community site
SaaS is a journey walk with us! This has been our motto since we started our SaaS architecture guidance about one year ago.
In this journey, the release of LitwareHR represents an important milestone; most likely the most important since the launch of the SaaS architecture web site on MSDN back in August. Aimed at software architects and developers, the goal of LitwareHR is twofold:

To be the embodiment of the architectural guidance described in our whitepapers
To demonstrate how the Microsoft platform is used in the creation of SaaS solutions

With this release of LitwareHR, we are moving forward in the understanding of designing and building SaaS applications, but as mentioned, this is a journey, LitwareHR will evolve over time. New knowledge will impact future implementations, new technologies will change how certain aspects will be implemented.

Below you will find information on how to get the code (Getting Started) and maybe even more importantly how to participate (To Participate).

We have been very excited about discovering ways of taming the 3 headed monster that haunts all SaaS ISVs, we are even more now we can do it with you.

Quick Links

Just Released! LitwareHR on SQL Server Data Services (New!)
Performance Guidance
What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
SaaS Architecture Workshop Material: Slides and labs
News
Getting started
Download release installer and documentation
FAQ and troubleshooting
Discuss in forums or report issues

News
Just Released!: LitwareHR November 2007 and Multitenant Database Performance Guidance
Thursday, November 15, 2007
We've just released a new version of LitwareHR which includes enhanced backend functionality, a new Smart Client and integration with Silverlight Streaming. Also available is a new package to help you assess performance and scalability of databases with different extensibility patterns: extension tables, fixed columns and XML data types. Check the releases section of this website to download the bits.

LitwareHR Smart Client (beta) Released
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Just released! LitwareHR Smart Client demonstrates how to consume LitwareHR's functional and non-functional On-Line services from a desktop application. Based on WPF for richer visualization, it also includes support for offline scenarios. More information see the Planned Releases section here. Stay tuned to our blogs for more information and send us feedback please!

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

More news

About the Project
LitwareHR is a fictitious HR application providing recruitment management software delivered as a service. But the important aspects are not what the application does but how it is implemented.

LitwareHR is implemented as a Single Instance Multi Tenant application, which means that all LitwareHR customers (or tenants) share the same instance of the application including a single database. Showing how to be multi tenant efficient as well as allowing tenant specific customization in a single instance environment was one of the key objective of LitwareHR.

Getting Started
The Getting Started provides recommendations on how to quickly install and start using LitwareHR.

Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting Guide
Have a question? You'll probably get the answer here.

To Participate
There are several ways you will be able to participate to this project.

Discuss in forums
Report issues
Submit feature requests (feature requests are entered as issues)
Contribute code: Consistent with standard practice on community development sites, we will ask any community contributors to (1) assign us ownership of the contributions, (2) have your employers, if any, waive any claim to the contributions, and (3) warrant against IP infringement License. If you can comply to these 3 points, please contact LitwareHR community lead and notify your interest in contributing code.

Resources
Additional Resources can be found:
On MSDN:

SaaS Architecture Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas
LitwareHR sample application on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/sampleApp

On Skyskrapr.net:

The “Making Of” LitwareHR on Skyscrapr: http://www.skyscrapr.net/architects-in-action.aspx

On blogs:
Gianpaolo’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/gianpaolo

NEWS FEED

You liked LitwareHR v1, You loved LitwareHR v2, You are going to die for LitwareHR 'cloud storage' edition :)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

An "S+S World"
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Fred’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/fred_chong

NEWS FEED

Application Marketplaces and the Money Trail
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

An Application Marketplace Architecture for Commercializing Software and Services
Monday, February 11, 2008 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Eugenio’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop

NEWS FEED

End to end demo of LitwareHR on SSDS
Sunday, April 27, 2008 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

LitwareHR on SSDS - Part V - Searching across Containers
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Ariel’s blog: http://staff.southworks.net/blogs/ariel

NEWS FEED

CSF and LitwareHR: Kickoff week
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

Some SaaS Links
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

NEWS FEED

Thanks
We would like to thank Southworks for their critical help in building this application as well as the people at the Platform Adoption Center for allowing us to use their resources for part of this project.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

eugeniop — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:00:46 GMT

Welcome to the LitwareHR community site
SaaS is a journey walk with us! This has been our motto since we started our SaaS architecture guidance about one year ago.
In this journey, the release of LitwareHR represents an important milestone; most likely the most important since the launch of the SaaS architecture web site on MSDN back in August. Aimed at software architects and developers, the goal of LitwareHR is twofold:

To be the embodiment of the architectural guidance described in our whitepapers
To demonstrate how the Microsoft platform is used in the creation of SaaS solutions

With this release of LitwareHR, we are moving forward in the understanding of designing and building SaaS applications, but as mentioned, this is a journey, LitwareHR will evolve over time. New knowledge will impact future implementations, new technologies will change how certain aspects will be implemented.

Below you will find information on how to get the code (Getting Started) and maybe even more importantly how to participate (To Participate).

We have been very excited about discovering ways of taming the 3 headed monster that haunts all SaaS ISVs, we are even more now we can do it with you.

Quick Links

Just Released! LitwareHR on SQL Server Data Services (New!)
Performance Guidance
What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
SaaS Architecture Workshop Material: Slides and labs
News
Getting started
Download release installer and documentation
FAQ and troubleshooting
Discuss in forums or report issues

News
Just Released!: LitwareHR November 2007 and Multitenant Database Performance Guidance
Thursday, November 15, 2007
We've just released a new version of LitwareHR which includes enhanced backend functionality, a new Smart Client and integration with Silverlight Streaming. Also available is a new package to help you assess performance and scalability of databases with different extensibility patterns: extension tables, fixed columns and XML data types. Check the releases section of this website to download the bits.

LitwareHR Smart Client (beta) Released
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Just released! LitwareHR Smart Client demonstrates how to consume LitwareHR's functional and non-functional On-Line services from a desktop application. Based on WPF for richer visualization, it also includes support for offline scenarios. More information see the Planned Releases section here. Stay tuned to our blogs for more information and send us feedback please!

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

More news

About the Project
LitwareHR is a fictitious HR application providing recruitment management software delivered as a service. But the important aspects are not what the application does but how it is implemented.

LitwareHR is implemented as a Single Instance Multi Tenant application, which means that all LitwareHR customers (or tenants) share the same instance of the application including a single database. Showing how to be multi tenant efficient as well as allowing tenant specific customization in a single instance environment was one of the key objective of LitwareHR.

Getting Started
The Getting Started provides recommendations on how to quickly install and start using LitwareHR.

Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting Guide
Have a question? You'll probably get the answer here.

To Participate
There are several ways you will be able to participate to this project.

Discuss in forums
Report issues
Submit feature requests (feature requests are entered as issues)
Contribute code: Consistent with standard practice on community development sites, we will ask any community contributors to (1) assign us ownership of the contributions, (2) have your employers, if any, waive any claim to the contributions, and (3) warrant against IP infringement License. If you can comply to these 3 points, please contact LitwareHR community lead and notify your interest in contributing code.

Resources
Additional Resources can be found:
On MSDN:

SaaS Architecture Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas
LitwareHR sample application on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/sampleApp

On Skyskrapr.net:

The “Making Of” LitwareHR on Skyscrapr: http://www.skyscrapr.net/architects-in-action.aspx

On blogs:
Gianpaolo’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/gianpaolo

NEWS FEED

You liked LitwareHR v1, You loved LitwareHR v2, You are going to die for LitwareHR 'cloud storage' edition :)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

An "S+S World"
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Fred’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/fred_chong

NEWS FEED

Application Marketplaces and the Money Trail
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

An Application Marketplace Architecture for Commercializing Software and Services
Monday, February 11, 2008 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Eugenio’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop

NEWS FEED

End to end demo of LitwareHR on SSDS
Sunday, April 27, 2008 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

LitwareHR on SSDS - Part V - Searching across Containers
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Ariel’s blog: http://staff.southworks.net/blogs/ariel

NEWS FEED

CSF and LitwareHR: Kickoff week
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

Some SaaS Links
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

NEWS FEED

Thanks
We would like to thank Southworks for their critical help in building this application as well as the people at the Platform Adoption Center for allowing us to use their resources for part of this project.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

eugeniop — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:53:13 GMT

Welcome to the LitwareHR community site
SaaS is a journey walk with us! This has been our motto since we started our SaaS architecture guidance about one year ago.
In this journey, the release of LitwareHR represents an important milestone; most likely the most important since the launch of the SaaS architecture web site on MSDN back in August. Aimed at software architects and developers, the goal of LitwareHR is twofold:

To be the embodiment of the architectural guidance described in our whitepapers
To demonstrate how the Microsoft platform is used in the creation of SaaS solutions

With this release of LitwareHR, we are moving forward in the understanding of designing and building SaaS applications, but as mentioned, this is a journey, LitwareHR will evolve over time. New knowledge will impact future implementations, new technologies will change how certain aspects will be implemented.

Below you will find information on how to get the code (Getting Started) and maybe even more importantly how to participate (To Participate).

We have been very excited about discovering ways of taming the 3 headed monster that haunts all SaaS ISVs, we are even more now we can do it with you.

Quick Links

Just Released! new version of LitwareHR and new Performance Guidance (New!)
What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
SaaS Architecture Workshop Material: Slides and labs
News
Getting started
Download release installer and documentation
FAQ and troubleshooting
Discuss in forums or report issues

News
Just Released!: LitwareHR November 2007 and Multitenant Database Performance Guidance
Thursday, November 15, 2007
We've just released a new version of LitwareHR which includes enhanced backend functionality, a new Smart Client and integration with Silverlight Streaming. Also available is a new package to help you assess performance and scalability of databases with different extensibility patterns: extension tables, fixed columns and XML data types. Check the releases section of this website to download the bits.

LitwareHR Smart Client (beta) Released
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Just released! LitwareHR Smart Client demonstrates how to consume LitwareHR's functional and non-functional On-Line services from a desktop application. Based on WPF for richer visualization, it also includes support for offline scenarios. More information see the Planned Releases section here. Stay tuned to our blogs for more information and send us feedback please!

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

More news

About the Project
LitwareHR is a fictitious HR application providing recruitment management software delivered as a service. But the important aspects are not what the application does but how it is implemented.

LitwareHR is implemented as a Single Instance Multi Tenant application, which means that all LitwareHR customers (or tenants) share the same instance of the application including a single database. Showing how to be multi tenant efficient as well as allowing tenant specific customization in a single instance environment was one of the key objective of LitwareHR.

Getting Started
The Getting Started provides recommendations on how to quickly install and start using LitwareHR.

Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting Guide
Have a question? You'll probably get the answer here.

To Participate
There are several ways you will be able to participate to this project.

Discuss in forums
Report issues
Submit feature requests (feature requests are entered as issues)
Contribute code: Consistent with standard practice on community development sites, we will ask any community contributors to (1) assign us ownership of the contributions, (2) have your employers, if any, waive any claim to the contributions, and (3) warrant against IP infringement License. If you can comply to these 3 points, please contact LitwareHR community lead and notify your interest in contributing code.

Resources
Additional Resources can be found:
On MSDN:

SaaS Architecture Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas
LitwareHR sample application on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/sampleApp

On Skyskrapr.net:

The “Making Of” LitwareHR on Skyscrapr: http://www.skyscrapr.net/architects-in-action.aspx

On blogs:
Gianpaolo’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/gianpaolo

NEWS FEED

You liked LitwareHR v1, You loved LitwareHR v2, You are going to die for LitwareHR 'cloud storage' edition :)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

An "S+S World"
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Fred’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/fred_chong

NEWS FEED

Application Marketplaces and the Money Trail
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

An Application Marketplace Architecture for Commercializing Software and Services
Monday, February 11, 2008 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Eugenio’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop

NEWS FEED

End to end demo of LitwareHR on SSDS
Sunday, April 27, 2008 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

LitwareHR on SSDS - Part V - Searching across Containers
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Ariel’s blog: http://staff.southworks.net/blogs/ariel

NEWS FEED

CSF and LitwareHR: Kickoff week
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

Some SaaS Links
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

NEWS FEED

Thanks
We would like to thank Southworks for their critical help in building this application as well as the people at the Platform Adoption Center for allowing us to use their resources for part of this project.

UPDATED WIKI: News

eugeniop — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:26:13 GMT

News

Just Released! LitwareHR November 2007 & Multitenant Database Performance Guide
Thursday, November 15, 2007
We've just released a new version of LitwareHR which includes enhanced backend functionality, a new Smart Client and integration with Silverlight Streaming. This release is targeting Windows Server 2008 (RC) and Visual Studio 2008. Among the new features demonstrated:

Upgraded and improved codebase
Simple RSS support for Open Positions
Simple REST interfaces for Open Positions
Enhanced multi-tenant data access for increased performance (based on the results of the Performance Guide)
Integration with Silverlight Streaming for "Video Resumes" feature. Demonstrates use of aggregated services in a SaaS delivered application
A new version of the Smart Client with integration with Desktop Search, enhanced metadata services (e.g. automatic schema update), ClickOnce deployment, etc.
Much improved install process, including a "Dependency Checker" utility to verify and install all pre-requisites.

Also available is a new package to help you assess performance and scalability of databases with different extensibility patterns: extension tables, fixed columns and XML data types. Check the releases sectionof this website to download the bits.

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

"Tenant Provisioning" screencast released
Friday, March 23, 2007
Once the Datacenter Provisioning is completed, tenants will be able to start trying LitwareHR application. First of all, they will have to create a tenant account at LitwareHR so they can use the application.
The process that takes care of allocating the resources that tenant will use is called "Tenant Provisioning":

This screencast shows the "behind the scenes" actions this service does:

creates one virtual folder and two virtual directories in IIS for tenant's public and private sites
adds tenant basic information in MetadataStore database
inserts default tenant preferences in MetadataStore database, such as entity extension fields, workflow definitions and rulesets
creates the view filter for the position entity
creates an sql view that the tenant will use to retrieve the position entity fields
creates an Organizational Unit (OU) in the Authorization store (ADAM) with users and roles support

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

"The holy grail of Enterprise SOA security" article, by Matias Woloski
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Matias Woloski's post about SOA Enterprise Security using WCF includes a step by step explanation on how the Federated Security Scenario works in LitwareHR. Take a look at this really interesting post here.

What do you think? Send us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Dependency Checker included in source code
Monday, March 12, 2007

We are working on a tool to help you identify all required components to run LitwareHR and automate eventual configurations and/or setups. This is a preview for the tool. We are still working on a few details, but would appreciate any feedback from you. Thanks!
Download the Dependency checker included in the last Change Set

Just released! LitwareHR installer for Windows XP
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Based on customer feedback, we are releasing a Windows XP specific installer for LitwareHR that automates the procedures documented in this HowTo. Hopefully this will make your evaluation of LitwareHR easier.

LitwareHR was originally designed to run on Windows Server 2003 because of the real-world datacenter features it provides such as the ability to run multiple websites in the same box (Windows XP’s IIS 5.1 doesn’t allow that). In the Windows XP version, we use different virtual directories instead:

Get the release here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: This installer will not work under Windows Vista because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

HowTo: run LitwareHR on a Windows XP box
Monday, February 26, 2007

LitwareHR was designed and built as close to a real world environment as possible. A production datacenter needs features provided by Windows Server 2003 and the design and implementation of the application were optimized against this platform. In particular, we believed using many websites as LitwareHR does,(www.litware.com, www.litwarehr.com, etc.) was an important feature to demonstrate and therefore we chose Windows Server 2003.

The feedback we received is that many of you would prefer to run the application on Windows XP for evaluation purposes.

This how-to describes the changes that you need to make to the original version so you can run it on Windows XP. Note that the MSI will still install on Windows XP.

Read about the steps here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: Even if you follow the how-to steps, LitwareHR will not work under Windows Vista (yet :)) because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

"Datacenter Provisioning" screencast released
Thursday, February 22, 2007

This screencast shows in detail the actions performed by the script in charge of setting up the structure needed to support LitwareHR's application.
This is what we call "Datacenter Provisioning" and creates databases in SQL server, users and roles structures in the ADAM and websites in the IIS.
After this Datacenter Provisioning is done, each tenant will be able to perform a "Tenant Provisioning" which will add tenant information in those repositories and will let the tenant to start trying the application.

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

Litware HR on ARCast.net
Monday, February 19, 2007
Ron Jacobs published two videos about Litware HR on ARCast.net. You can see Gianpaolo Carraro and Fred Chong introducing the application and showing the main architecture aspects:

Introduction on SaaS and LitwareHR approach: http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/13/746.aspx
Demo and architecture breakdown part 1 (Tenant Provisioning + Presentation Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/15/759.aspx
Update (February 20, 2007) Demo and architecture breakdown part 2 (Datamodel + Business Process Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/20/774.aspx

UPDATED WIKI: News

eugeniop — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:22:52 GMT

News

Just Released! LitwareHR November 2007 & Multitenant Database Performance Guide
Thursday, November 15, 2007
We've just released a new version of LitwareHR which includes enhanced backend functionality, a new Smart Client and integration with Silverlight Streaming. This release is targeting Windows Server 2008 (RC) and Visual Studio 2008. Among the new features demonstrated:

Upgraded and improved codebase
Simple RSS support for Open Positons
Simple REST interfaces for Open Positions
Enhanced multi-tenant data access for increased performance (based on te results of the Performance Guide)
Integration with Silverlight Streaming for "Video Resumes" feature. Demonstrates use of aggregated services in a SaaS delivered application
A new version of the Smart Client with integration with Desktop Search, enhanced metadata services (e.g. automatic schema update), ClickOnce deployment, etc.

Also available is a new package to help you assess performance and scalability of databases with different extensibility patterns: extension tables, fixed columns and XML data types. Check the releases sectionof this website to download the bits.

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

"Tenant Provisioning" screencast released
Friday, March 23, 2007
Once the Datacenter Provisioning is completed, tenants will be able to start trying LitwareHR application. First of all, they will have to create a tenant account at LitwareHR so they can use the application.
The process that takes care of allocating the resources that tenant will use is called "Tenant Provisioning":

This screencast shows the "behind the scenes" actions this service does:

creates one virtual folder and two virtual directories in IIS for tenant's public and private sites
adds tenant basic information in MetadataStore database
inserts default tenant preferences in MetadataStore database, such as entity extension fields, workflow definitions and rulesets
creates the view filter for the position entity
creates an sql view that the tenant will use to retrieve the position entity fields
creates an Organizational Unit (OU) in the Authorization store (ADAM) with users and roles support

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

"The holy grail of Enterprise SOA security" article, by Matias Woloski
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Matias Woloski's post about SOA Enterprise Security using WCF includes a step by step explanation on how the Federated Security Scenario works in LitwareHR. Take a look at this really interesting post here.

What do you think? Send us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Dependency Checker included in source code
Monday, March 12, 2007

We are working on a tool to help you identify all required components to run LitwareHR and automate eventual configurations and/or setups. This is a preview for the tool. We are still working on a few details, but would appreciate any feedback from you. Thanks!
Download the Dependency checker included in the last Change Set

Just released! LitwareHR installer for Windows XP
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Based on customer feedback, we are releasing a Windows XP specific installer for LitwareHR that automates the procedures documented in this HowTo. Hopefully this will make your evaluation of LitwareHR easier.

LitwareHR was originally designed to run on Windows Server 2003 because of the real-world datacenter features it provides such as the ability to run multiple websites in the same box (Windows XP’s IIS 5.1 doesn’t allow that). In the Windows XP version, we use different virtual directories instead:

Get the release here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: This installer will not work under Windows Vista because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

HowTo: run LitwareHR on a Windows XP box
Monday, February 26, 2007

LitwareHR was designed and built as close to a real world environment as possible. A production datacenter needs features provided by Windows Server 2003 and the design and implementation of the application were optimized against this platform. In particular, we believed using many websites as LitwareHR does,(www.litware.com, www.litwarehr.com, etc.) was an important feature to demonstrate and therefore we chose Windows Server 2003.

The feedback we received is that many of you would prefer to run the application on Windows XP for evaluation purposes.

This how-to describes the changes that you need to make to the original version so you can run it on Windows XP. Note that the MSI will still install on Windows XP.

Read about the steps here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: Even if you follow the how-to steps, LitwareHR will not work under Windows Vista (yet :)) because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

"Datacenter Provisioning" screencast released
Thursday, February 22, 2007

This screencast shows in detail the actions performed by the script in charge of setting up the structure needed to support LitwareHR's application.
This is what we call "Datacenter Provisioning" and creates databases in SQL server, users and roles structures in the ADAM and websites in the IIS.
After this Datacenter Provisioning is done, each tenant will be able to perform a "Tenant Provisioning" which will add tenant information in those repositories and will let the tenant to start trying the application.

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

Litware HR on ARCast.net
Monday, February 19, 2007
Ron Jacobs published two videos about Litware HR on ARCast.net. You can see Gianpaolo Carraro and Fred Chong introducing the application and showing the main architecture aspects:

Introduction on SaaS and LitwareHR approach: http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/13/746.aspx
Demo and architecture breakdown part 1 (Tenant Provisioning + Presentation Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/15/759.aspx
Update (February 20, 2007) Demo and architecture breakdown part 2 (Datamodel + Business Process Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/20/774.aspx

UPDATED WIKI: Home

eugeniop — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:52:59 GMT

Welcome to the LitwareHR community site
SaaS is a journey walk with us! This has been our motto since we started our SaaS architecture guidance about one year ago.
In this journey, the release of LitwareHR represents an important milestone; most likely the most important since the launch of the SaaS architecture web site on MSDN back in August. Aimed at software architects and developers, the goal of LitwareHR is twofold:

To be the embodiment of the architectural guidance described in our whitepapers
To demonstrate how the Microsoft platform is used in the creation of SaaS solutions

With this release of LitwareHR, we are moving forward in the understanding of designing and building SaaS applications, but as mentioned, this is a journey, LitwareHR will evolve over time. New knowledge will impact future implementations, new technologies will change how certain aspects will be implemented.

Below you will find information on how to get the code (Getting Started) and maybe even more importantly how to participate (To Participate).

We have been very excited about discovering ways of taming the 3 headed monster that haunts all SaaS ISVs, we are even more now we can do it with you.

Quick Links

Just Released! new version of LitwareHR and new Performance Guidance (New!)
What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
SaaS Architecture Workshop Material: Slides and labs
News
Getting started
Download release installer and documentation
FAQ and troubleshooting
Discuss in forums or report issues

News
Just Released!: LitwareHR November 2007 and Multitenant Database Performance Guidance
Thursday, November 15, 2007
We've just released a new version of LitwareHR which includes enhanced backend functionality, a new Smart Client and integration with Silverlight Streaming. Also available is a new package to help you assess performance and scalability of databases with different extensibility patterns: extension tables, fixed columns and XML data types. Check the releases section of this website to download the bits.

LitwareHR Smart Client (beta) Released
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Just released! LitwareHR Smart Client demonstrates how to consume LitwareHR's functional and non-functional On-Line services from a desktop application. Based on WPF for richer visualization, it also includes support for offline scenarios. More information see the Planned Releases section here. Stay tuned to our blogs for more information and send us feedback please!

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

More news

About the Project
LitwareHR is a fictitious HR application providing recruitment management software delivered as a service. But the important aspects are not what the application does but how it is implemented.

LitwareHR is implemented as a Single Instance Multi Tenant application, which means that all LitwareHR customers (or tenants) share the same instance of the application including a single database. Showing how to be multi tenant efficient as well as allowing tenant specific customization in a single instance environment was one of the key objective of LitwareHR.

Getting Started
The Getting Started provides recommendations on how to quickly install and start using LitwareHR.

Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting Guide
Have a question? You'll probably get the answer here.

To Participate
There are several ways you will be able to participate to this project.

Discuss in forums
Report issues
Submit feature requests (feature requests are entered as issues)
Contribute code: Consistent with standard practice on community development sites, we will ask any community contributors to (1) assign us ownership of the contributions, (2) have your employers, if any, waive any claim to the contributions, and (3) warrant against IP infringement License. If you can comply to these 3 points, please contact LitwareHR community lead and notify your interest in contributing code.

Resources
Additional Resources can be found:
On MSDN:

SaaS Architecture Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas
LitwareHR sample application on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/sampleApp

On Skyskrapr.net:

The “Making Of” LitwareHR on Skyscrapr: http://www.skyscrapr.net/architects-in-action.aspx

On blogs:
Gianpaolo’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/gianpaolo

NEWS FEED

ISVs are from Mars, and Hosters are from Venus
Thursday, November 08, 2007 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

Complexity does not go away, it just changes hands...
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Fred’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/fred_chong

NEWS FEED

The SaaSy Tale of Martians and Venusians
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

Going After the Long Tail? Think Channel as a Service (CaaS)
Monday, October 08, 2007 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Eugenio’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop

NEWS FEED

LitwareHR - Smart Client - Architecture Overview - Part II - Use of LitwareHR On-Line Services
Wednesday, August 01, 2007 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

LitwareHR-Smart Client - Architecture Overview - Part I
Monday, July 30, 2007 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Ariel’s blog: http://staff.southworks.net/blogs/ariel

NEWS FEED

CSF and LitwareHR: Kickoff week
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

Some SaaS Links
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

NEWS FEED

Thanks
We would like to thank Southworks for their critical help in building this application as well as the people at the Platform Adoption Center for allowing us to use their resources for part of this project.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

eugeniop — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:49:47 GMT

Welcome to the LitwareHR community site
SaaS is a journey walk with us! This has been our motto since we started our SaaS architecture guidance about one year ago.
In this journey, the release of LitwareHR represents an important milestone; most likely the most important since the launch of the SaaS architecture web site on MSDN back in August. Aimed at software architects and developers, the goal of LitwareHR is twofold:

To be the embodiment of the architectural guidance described in our whitepapers
To demonstrate how the Microsoft platform is used in the creation of SaaS solutions

With this release of LitwareHR, we are moving forward in the understanding of designing and building SaaS applications, but as mentioned, this is a journey, LitwareHR will evolve over time. New knowledge will impact future implementations, new technologies will change how certain aspects will be implemented.

Below you will find information on how to get the code (Getting Started) and maybe even more importantly how to participate (To Participate).

We have been very excited about discovering ways of taming the 3 headed monster that haunts all SaaS ISVs, we are even more now we can do it with you.

Quick Links

Just Released! new version of LitwareHR and new Performance Guidance (New!)
What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
SaaS Architecture Workshop Material: Slides and labs
News
Getting started
Download release installer and documentation
FAQ and troubleshooting
Discuss in forums or report issues

News
Just Released!: LitwareHR November 2007 and Multitenant Database Performance Guidance
Thursday, November 15, 2007
We've just released a new version of LitwareHR which includes enhanced backend functionality, a new Smart Client and integration with Silverlight Streaming. Also available is a new package to help you assess performance and scalability of databases with different extensibility patterns: extension tables, fixed columns and XML data types. Check the releases section of this website to download the bits.

LitwareHR Smart Client (beta) Released
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Just released! LitwareHR Smart Client demonstrates how to consume LitwareHR's functional and non-functional On-Line services from a desktop application. Based on WPF for richer visualization, it also includes support for offline scenarios. More information see the Planned Releases section here. Stay tuned to our blogs for more information and send us feedback please!

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

More news

About the Project
LitwareHR is a fictitious HR application providing recruitment management software delivered as a service. But the important aspects are not what the application does but how it is implemented.

LitwareHR is implemented as a Single Instance Multi Tenant application, which means that all LitwareHR customers (or tenants) share the same instance of the application including a single database. Showing how to be multi tenant efficient as well as allowing tenant specific customization in a single instance environment was one of the key objective of LitwareHR.

Getting Started
The Getting Started provides recommendations on how to quickly install and start using LitwareHR.

Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting Guide
Have a question? You'll probably get the answer here.

To Participate
There are several ways you will be able to participate to this project.

Discuss in forums
Report issues
Submit feature requests (feature requests are entered as issues)
Contribute code: Consistent with standard practice on community development sites, we will ask any community contributors to (1) assign us ownership of the contributions, (2) have your employers, if any, waive any claim to the contributions, and (3) warrant against IP infringement License. If you can comply to these 3 points, please contact LitwareHR community lead and notify your interest in contributing code.

Resources
Additional Resources can be found:
On MSDN:

SaaS Architecture Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas
LitwareHR sample application on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/sampleApp

On Skyskrapr.net:

The “Making Of” LitwareHR on Skyscrapr: http://www.skyscrapr.net/architects-in-action.aspx

On blogs:
Gianpaolo’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/gianpaolo

NEWS FEED

ISVs are from Mars, and Hosters are from Venus
Thursday, November 08, 2007 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

Complexity does not go away, it just changes hands...
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Fred’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/fred_chong

NEWS FEED

The SaaSy Tale of Martians and Venusians
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

Going After the Long Tail? Think Channel as a Service (CaaS)
Monday, October 08, 2007 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Eugenio’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop

NEWS FEED

LitwareHR - Smart Client - Architecture Overview - Part II - Use of LitwareHR On-Line Services
Wednesday, August 01, 2007 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

LitwareHR-Smart Client - Architecture Overview - Part I
Monday, July 30, 2007 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Ariel’s blog: http://staff.southworks.net/blogs/ariel

NEWS FEED

CSF and LitwareHR: Kickoff week
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

Some SaaS Links
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

NEWS FEED

Thanks
We would like to thank Southworks for their critical help in building this application as well as the people at the Platform Adoption Center for allowing us to use their resources for part of this project.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

eugeniop — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:04:28 GMT

Welcome to the LitwareHR community site
SaaS is a journey walk with us! This has been our motto since we started our SaaS architecture guidance about one year ago.
In this journey, the release of LitwareHR represents an important milestone; most likely the most important since the launch of the SaaS architecture web site on MSDN back in August. Aimed at software architects and developers, the goal of LitwareHR is twofold:

To be the embodiment of the architectural guidance described in our whitepapers
To demonstrate how the Microsoft platform is used in the creation of SaaS solutions

With this release of LitwareHR, we are moving forward in the understanding of designing and building SaaS applications, but as mentioned, this is a journey, LitwareHR will evolve over time. New knowledge will impact future implementations, new technologies will change how certain aspects will be implemented.

Below you will find information on how to get the code (Getting Started) and maybe even more importantly how to participate (To Participate).

We have been very excited about discovering ways of taming the 3 headed monster that haunts all SaaS ISVs, we are even more now we can do it with you.

Quick Links

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning (New!)
SaaS Architecture Workshop Material: Slides and labs (New!)
News
Getting started
Download release installer and documentation
FAQ and troubleshooting
Discuss in forums or report issues

News
Just Released!: LitwareHR November 2007 and Multitenant Database Performance Guidance
Thursday, November 15, 2007
We've just released a new version of LitwareHR which includes enhanced backend functionality, a new Smart Client and integration with Silverlight Streaming. Also available is a new package to help you assess performance and scalability of databases with different extensibility patterns: extension tables, fixed columns and XML data types. Check the releases section of this website to download the bits.

LitwareHR Smart Client (beta) Released
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Just released! LitwareHR Smart Client demonstrates how to consume LitwareHR's functional and non-functional On-Line services from a desktop application. Based on WPF for richer visualization, it also includes support for offline scenarios. More information see the Planned Releases section here. Stay tuned to our blogs for more information and send us feedback please!

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

More news

About the Project
LitwareHR is a fictitious HR application providing recruitment management software delivered as a service. But the important aspects are not what the application does but how it is implemented.

LitwareHR is implemented as a Single Instance Multi Tenant application, which means that all LitwareHR customers (or tenants) share the same instance of the application including a single database. Showing how to be multi tenant efficient as well as allowing tenant specific customization in a single instance environment was one of the key objective of LitwareHR.

Getting Started
The Getting Started provides recommendations on how to quickly install and start using LitwareHR.

Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting Guide
Have a question? You'll probably get the answer here.

To Participate
There are several ways you will be able to participate to this project.

Discuss in forums
Report issues
Submit feature requests (feature requests are entered as issues)
Contribute code: Consistent with standard practice on community development sites, we will ask any community contributors to (1) assign us ownership of the contributions, (2) have your employers, if any, waive any claim to the contributions, and (3) warrant against IP infringement License. If you can comply to these 3 points, please contact LitwareHR community lead and notify your interest in contributing code.

Resources
Additional Resources can be found:
On MSDN:

SaaS Architecture Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas
LitwareHR sample application on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/sampleApp

On Skyskrapr.net:

The “Making Of” LitwareHR on Skyscrapr: http://www.skyscrapr.net/architects-in-action.aspx

On blogs:
Gianpaolo’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/gianpaolo

NEWS FEED

ISVs are from Mars, and Hosters are from Venus
Thursday, November 08, 2007 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

Complexity does not go away, it just changes hands...
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Fred’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/fred_chong

NEWS FEED

The SaaSy Tale of Martians and Venusians
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

Going After the Long Tail? Think Channel as a Service (CaaS)
Monday, October 08, 2007 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Eugenio’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop

NEWS FEED

LitwareHR - Smart Client - Architecture Overview - Part II - Use of LitwareHR On-Line Services
Wednesday, August 01, 2007 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

LitwareHR-Smart Client - Architecture Overview - Part I
Monday, July 30, 2007 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Ariel’s blog: http://staff.southworks.net/blogs/ariel

NEWS FEED

CSF and LitwareHR: Kickoff week
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

Some SaaS Links
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

NEWS FEED

Thanks
We would like to thank Southworks for their critical help in building this application as well as the people at the Platform Adoption Center for allowing us to use their resources for part of this project.

UPDATED WIKI: News

aschapiro — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 04:17:46 GMT

News

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

"Tenant Provisioning" screencast released
Friday, March 23, 2007
Once the Datacenter Provisioning is completed, tenants will be able to start trying LitwareHR application. First of all, they will have to create a tenant account at LitwareHR so they can use the application.
The process that takes care of allocating the resources that tenant will use is called "Tenant Provisioning":

This screencast shows the "behind the scenes" actions this service does:

creates one virtual folder and two virtual directories in IIS for tenant's public and private sites
adds tenant basic information in MetadataStore database
inserts default tenant preferences in MetadataStore database, such as entity extension fields, workflow definitions and rulesets
creates the view filter for the position entity
creates an sql view that the tenant will use to retrieve the position entity fields
creates an Organizational Unit (OU) in the Authorization store (ADAM) with users and roles support

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

"The holy grail of Enterprise SOA security" article, by Matias Woloski
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Matias Woloski's post about SOA Enterprise Security using WCF includes a step by step explanation on how the Federated Security Scenario works in LitwareHR. Take a look at this really interesting post here.

What do you think? Send us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Dependency Checker included in source code
Monday, March 12, 2007

We are working on a tool to help you identify all required components to run LitwareHR and automate eventual configurations and/or setups. This is a preview for the tool. We are still working on a few details, but would appreciate any feedback from you. Thanks!
Download the Dependency checker included in the last Change Set

Just released! LitwareHR installer for Windows XP
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Based on customer feedback, we are releasing a Windows XP specific installer for LitwareHR that automates the procedures documented in this HowTo. Hopefully this will make your evaluation of LitwareHR easier.

LitwareHR was originally designed to run on Windows Server 2003 because of the real-world datacenter features it provides such as the ability to run multiple websites in the same box (Windows XP’s IIS 5.1 doesn’t allow that). In the Windows XP version, we use different virtual directories instead:

Get the release here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: This installer will not work under Windows Vista because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

HowTo: run LitwareHR on a Windows XP box
Monday, February 26, 2007

LitwareHR was designed and built as close to a real world environment as possible. A production datacenter needs features provided by Windows Server 2003 and the design and implementation of the application were optimized against this platform. In particular, we believed using many websites as LitwareHR does,(www.litware.com, www.litwarehr.com, etc.) was an important feature to demonstrate and therefore we chose Windows Server 2003.

The feedback we received is that many of you would prefer to run the application on Windows XP for evaluation purposes.

This how-to describes the changes that you need to make to the original version so you can run it on Windows XP. Note that the MSI will still install on Windows XP.

Read about the steps here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: Even if you follow the how-to steps, LitwareHR will not work under Windows Vista (yet :)) because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

"Datacenter Provisioning" screencast released
Thursday, February 22, 2007

This screencast shows in detail the actions performed by the script in charge of setting up the structure needed to support LitwareHR's application.
This is what we call "Datacenter Provisioning" and creates databases in SQL server, users and roles structures in the ADAM and websites in the IIS.
After this Datacenter Provisioning is done, each tenant will be able to perform a "Tenant Provisioning" which will add tenant information in those repositories and will let the tenant to start trying the application.

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

Litware HR on ARCast.net
Monday, February 19, 2007
Ron Jacobs published two videos about Litware HR on ARCast.net. You can see Gianpaolo Carraro and Fred Chong introducing the application and showing the main architecture aspects:

Introduction on SaaS and LitwareHR approach: http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/13/746.aspx
Demo and architecture breakdown part 1 (Tenant Provisioning + Presentation Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/15/759.aspx
Update (February 20, 2007) Demo and architecture breakdown part 2 (Datamodel + Business Process Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/20/774.aspx

UPDATED WIKI: News

aschapiro — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 04:00:20 GMT

News

LitwareHR Smart Client (beta) Released
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Just released! LitwareHR Smart Client demonstrates how to consume LitwareHR's functional and non-functional On-Line services from a desktop application. Based on WPF for richer visualization, it also includes support for offline scenarios. More information see the Planned Releases section here. Stay tuned to our blogs for more information and send us feedback please!

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

"Tenant Provisioning" screencast released
Friday, March 23, 2007
Once the Datacenter Provisioning is completed, tenants will be able to start trying LitwareHR application. First of all, they will have to create a tenant account at LitwareHR so they can use the application.
The process that takes care of allocating the resources that tenant will use is called "Tenant Provisioning":

This screencast shows the "behind the scenes" actions this service does:

creates one virtual folder and two virtual directories in IIS for tenant's public and private sites
adds tenant basic information in MetadataStore database
inserts default tenant preferences in MetadataStore database, such as entity extension fields, workflow definitions and rulesets
creates the view filter for the position entity
creates an sql view that the tenant will use to retrieve the position entity fields
creates an Organizational Unit (OU) in the Authorization store (ADAM) with users and roles support

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

"The holy grail of Enterprise SOA security" article, by Matias Woloski
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Matias Woloski's post about SOA Enterprise Security using WCF includes a step by step explanation on how the Federated Security Scenario works in LitwareHR. Take a look at this really interesting post here.

What do you think? Send us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Dependency Checker included in source code
Monday, March 12, 2007

We are working on a tool to help you identify all required components to run LitwareHR and automate eventual configurations and/or setups. This is a preview for the tool. We are still working on a few details, but would appreciate any feedback from you. Thanks!
Download the Dependency checker included in the last Change Set

Just released! LitwareHR installer for Windows XP
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Based on customer feedback, we are releasing a Windows XP specific installer for LitwareHR that automates the procedures documented in this HowTo. Hopefully this will make your evaluation of LitwareHR easier.

LitwareHR was originally designed to run on Windows Server 2003 because of the real-world datacenter features it provides such as the ability to run multiple websites in the same box (Windows XP’s IIS 5.1 doesn’t allow that). In the Windows XP version, we use different virtual directories instead:

Get the release here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: This installer will not work under Windows Vista because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

HowTo: run LitwareHR on a Windows XP box
Monday, February 26, 2007

LitwareHR was designed and built as close to a real world environment as possible. A production datacenter needs features provided by Windows Server 2003 and the design and implementation of the application were optimized against this platform. In particular, we believed using many websites as LitwareHR does,(www.litware.com, www.litwarehr.com, etc.) was an important feature to demonstrate and therefore we chose Windows Server 2003.

The feedback we received is that many of you would prefer to run the application on Windows XP for evaluation purposes.

This how-to describes the changes that you need to make to the original version so you can run it on Windows XP. Note that the MSI will still install on Windows XP.

Read about the steps here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: Even if you follow the how-to steps, LitwareHR will not work under Windows Vista (yet :)) because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

"Datacenter Provisioning" screencast released
Thursday, February 22, 2007

This screencast shows in detail the actions performed by the script in charge of setting up the structure needed to support LitwareHR's application.
This is what we call "Datacenter Provisioning" and creates databases in SQL server, users and roles structures in the ADAM and websites in the IIS.
After this Datacenter Provisioning is done, each tenant will be able to perform a "Tenant Provisioning" which will add tenant information in those repositories and will let the tenant to start trying the application.

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

Litware HR on ARCast.net
Monday, February 19, 2007
Ron Jacobs published two videos about Litware HR on ARCast.net. You can see Gianpaolo Carraro and Fred Chong introducing the application and showing the main architecture aspects:

Introduction on SaaS and LitwareHR approach: http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/13/746.aspx
Demo and architecture breakdown part 1 (Tenant Provisioning + Presentation Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/15/759.aspx
Update (February 20, 2007) Demo and architecture breakdown part 2 (Datamodel + Business Process Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/20/774.aspx

UPDATED WIKI: Home

eugeniop — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 01:16:02 GMT

Welcome to the LitwareHR community site
SaaS is a journey walk with us! This has been our motto since we started our SaaS architecture guidance about one year ago.
In this journey, the release of LitwareHR represents an important milestone; most likely the most important since the launch of the SaaS architecture web site on MSDN back in August. Aimed at software architects and developers, the goal of LitwareHR is twofold:

To be the embodiment of the architectural guidance described in our whitepapers
To demonstrate how the Microsoft platform is used in the creation of SaaS solutions

With this release of LitwareHR, we are moving forward in the understanding of designing and building SaaS applications, but as mentioned, this is a journey, LitwareHR will evolve over time. New knowledge will impact future implementations, new technologies will change how certain aspects will be implemented.

Below you will find information on how to get the code (Getting Started) and maybe even more importantly how to participate (To Participate).

We have been very excited about discovering ways of taming the 3 headed monster that haunts all SaaS ISVs, we are even more now we can do it with you.

Quick Links

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning (New!)
SaaS Architecture Workshop Material: Slides and labs (New!)
News
Getting started
Download release installer and documentation
FAQ and troubleshooting
Discuss in forums or report issues

News
LitwareHR Smart Client (beta) Released
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Just released! LitwareHR Smart Client demonstrates how to consume LitwareHR's functional and non-functional On-Line services from a desktop application. Based on WPF for richer visualization, it also includes support for offline scenarios. More information see the Planned Releases section here. Stay tuned to our blogs for more information and send us feedback please!

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

More news

About the Project
LitwareHR is a fictitious HR application providing recruitment management software delivered as a service. But the important aspects are not what the application does but how it is implemented.

LitwareHR is implemented as a Single Instance Multi Tenant application, which means that all LitwareHR customers (or tenants) share the same instance of the application including a single database. Showing how to be multi tenant efficient as well as allowing tenant specific customization in a single instance environment was one of the key objective of LitwareHR.

Getting Started
The Getting Started provides recommendations on how to quickly install and start using LitwareHR.

Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting Guide
Have a question? You'll probably get the answer here.

To Participate
There are several ways you will be able to participate to this project.

Discuss in forums
Report issues
Submit feature requests (feature requests are entered as issues)
Contribute code: Consistent with standard practice on community development sites, we will ask any community contributors to (1) assign us ownership of the contributions, (2) have your employers, if any, waive any claim to the contributions, and (3) warrant against IP infringement License. If you can comply to these 3 points, please contact LitwareHR community lead and notify your interest in contributing code.

Resources
Additional Resources can be found:
On MSDN:

SaaS Architecture Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas
LitwareHR sample application on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/sampleApp

On Skyskrapr.net:

The “Making Of” LitwareHR on Skyscrapr: http://www.skyscrapr.net/architects-in-action.aspx

On blogs:
Gianpaolo’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/gianpaolo

NEWS FEED

Efficient Software Delivery through Service Delivery Platforms
Thursday, July 05, 2007 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

Either I don't get it or I'm calling (at least partial) BS on SaS 70
Saturday, June 30, 2007 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Fred’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/fred_chong

NEWS FEED

Implications of Self-, Outsourced- and OEM-Hosting
Tuesday, June 12, 2007 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

SaaS in Innovation Celebration Event
Wednesday, May 02, 2007 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Eugenio’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop

NEWS FEED

Software + Services - LitwareHR Smart Client
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

Microsoft Silverlight Streaming - An example of a specialized Service Delivery Platform
Thursday, July 05, 2007 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Ariel’s blog: http://staff.southworks.net/blogs/ariel

NEWS FEED

CSF and LitwareHR: Kickoff week
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

Some SaaS Links
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

NEWS FEED

Thanks
We would like to thank Southworks for their critical help in building this application as well as the people at the Platform Adoption Center for allowing us to use their resources for part of this project.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

aschapiro — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 22:39:12 GMT

Welcome to the LitwareHR community site
SaaS is a journey walk with us! This has been our motto since we started our SaaS architecture guidance about one year ago.
In this journey, the release of LitwareHR represents an important milestone; most likely the most important since the launch of the SaaS architecture web site on MSDN back in August. Aimed at software architects and developers, the goal of LitwareHR is twofold:

To be the embodiment of the architectural guidance described in our whitepapers
To demonstrate how the Microsoft platform is used in the creation of SaaS solutions

With this release of LitwareHR, we are moving forward in the understanding of designing and building SaaS applications, but as mentioned, this is a journey, LitwareHR will evolve over time. New knowledge will impact future implementations, new technologies will change how certain aspects will be implemented.

Below you will find information on how to get the code (Getting Started) and maybe even more importantly how to participate (To Participate).

We have been very excited about discovering ways of taming the 3 headed monster that haunts all SaaS ISVs, we are even more now we can do it with you.

Quick Links

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning (New!)
SaaS Architecture Workshop Material: Slides and labs (New!)
News
Getting started
Download release installer and documentation
FAQ and troubleshooting
Discuss in forums or report issues

News
SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

More news

About the Project
LitwareHR is a fictitious HR application providing recruitment management software delivered as a service. But the important aspects are not what the application does but how it is implemented.

LitwareHR is implemented as a Single Instance Multi Tenant application, which means that all LitwareHR customers (or tenants) share the same instance of the application including a single database. Showing how to be multi tenant efficient as well as allowing tenant specific customization in a single instance environment was one of the key objective of LitwareHR.

Getting Started
The Getting Started provides recommendations on how to quickly install and start using LitwareHR.

Frequently Asked Questions and Troubleshooting Guide
Have a question? You'll probably get the answer here.

To Participate
There are several ways you will be able to participate to this project.

Discuss in forums
Report issues
Submit feature requests (feature requests are entered as issues)
Contribute code: Consistent with standard practice on community development sites, we will ask any community contributors to (1) assign us ownership of the contributions, (2) have your employers, if any, waive any claim to the contributions, and (3) warrant against IP infringement License. If you can comply to these 3 points, please contact LitwareHR community lead and notify your interest in contributing code.

Resources
Additional Resources can be found:
On MSDN:

SaaS Architecture Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas
LitwareHR sample application on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/saas/sampleApp

On Skyskrapr.net:

The “Making Of” LitwareHR on Skyscrapr: http://www.skyscrapr.net/architects-in-action.aspx

On blogs:
Gianpaolo’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/gianpaolo

NEWS FEED

Recommendation: Add Eugenio's Blog to Your List
Friday, April 20, 2007 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

SaaS Undertaker ++
Monday, April 16, 2007 | From Gianpaolo's blog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Fred’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/fred_chong

NEWS FEED

Spring Time Christmas Gift: SaaS Architecture Workshop
Tuesday, April 03, 2007 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

SaaS in China
Friday, March 02, 2007 | From Fred Chong's WebBlog : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Eugenio’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop

NEWS FEED

UX and SaaS, second part. Other implications of using the right UI
Thursday, April 26, 2007 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

Importance of User Experience in SaaS Applications
Friday, April 20, 2007 | From Eugenio Pace - Software as a Service Architecture Guidance : SaaS

NEWS FEED

Ariel’s blog: http://staff.southworks.net/blogs/ariel

NEWS FEED

Some SaaS Links
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

SaaS Workshop
Friday, March 30, 2007 | From Ariel Schapiro : Litware HR

NEWS FEED

Thanks
We would like to thank Southworks for their critical help in building this application as well as the people at the Platform Adoption Center for allowing us to use their resources for part of this project.

UPDATED WIKI: News

aschapiro — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 22:39:10 GMT

News

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

"Tenant Provisioning" screencast released
Friday, March 23, 2007
Once the Datacenter Provisioning is completed, tenants will be able to start trying LitwareHR application. First of all, they will have to create a tenant account at LitwareHR so they can use the application.
The process that takes care of allocating the resources that tenant will use is called "Tenant Provisioning":

This screencast shows the "behind the scenes" actions this service does:

creates one virtual folder and two virtual directories in IIS for tenant's public and private sites
adds tenant basic information in MetadataStore database
inserts default tenant preferences in MetadataStore database, such as entity extension fields, workflow definitions and rulesets
creates the view filter for the position entity
creates an sql view that the tenant will use to retrieve the position entity fields
creates an Organizational Unit (OU) in the Authorization store (ADAM) with users and roles support

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

"The holy grail of Enterprise SOA security" article, by Matias Woloski
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Matias Woloski's post about SOA Enterprise Security using WCF includes a step by step explanation on how the Federated Security Scenario works in LitwareHR. Take a look at this really interesting post here.

What do you think? Send us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Dependency Checker included in source code
Monday, March 12, 2007

We are working on a tool to help you identify all required components to run LitwareHR and automate eventual configurations and/or setups. This is a preview for the tool. We are still working on a few details, but would appreciate any feedback from you. Thanks!
Download the Dependency checker included in the last Change Set

Just released! LitwareHR installer for Windows XP
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Based on customer feedback, we are releasing a Windows XP specific installer for LitwareHR that automates the procedures documented in this HowTo. Hopefully this will make your evaluation of LitwareHR easier.

LitwareHR was originally designed to run on Windows Server 2003 because of the real-world datacenter features it provides such as the ability to run multiple websites in the same box (Windows XP’s IIS 5.1 doesn’t allow that). In the Windows XP version, we use different virtual directories instead:

Get the release here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: This installer will not work under Windows Vista because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

HowTo: run LitwareHR on a Windows XP box
Monday, February 26, 2007

LitwareHR was designed and built as close to a real world environment as possible. A production datacenter needs features provided by Windows Server 2003 and the design and implementation of the application were optimized against this platform. In particular, we believed using many websites as LitwareHR does,(www.litware.com, www.litwarehr.com, etc.) was an important feature to demonstrate and therefore we chose Windows Server 2003.

The feedback we received is that many of you would prefer to run the application on Windows XP for evaluation purposes.

This how-to describes the changes that you need to make to the original version so you can run it on Windows XP. Note that the MSI will still install on Windows XP.

Read about the steps here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: Even if you follow the how-to steps, LitwareHR will not work under Windows Vista (yet :)) because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

"Datacenter Provisioning" screencast released
Thursday, February 22, 2007

This screencast shows in detail the actions performed by the script in charge of setting up the structure needed to support LitwareHR's application.
This is what we call "Datacenter Provisioning" and creates databases in SQL server, users and roles structures in the ADAM and websites in the IIS.
After this Datacenter Provisioning is done, each tenant will be able to perform a "Tenant Provisioning" which will add tenant information in those repositories and will let the tenant to start trying the application.

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

Litware HR on ARCast.net
Monday, February 19, 2007
Ron Jacobs published two videos about Litware HR on ARCast.net. You can see Gianpaolo Carraro and Fred Chong introducing the application and showing the main architecture aspects:

Introduction on SaaS and LitwareHR approach: http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/13/746.aspx
Demo and architecture breakdown part 1 (Tenant Provisioning + Presentation Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/15/759.aspx
Update (February 20, 2007) Demo and architecture breakdown part 2 (Datamodel + Business Process Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/20/774.aspx

UPDATED WIKI: News

aschapiro — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 22:34:03 GMT

News

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

"Tenant Provisioning" screencast released
Friday, March 23, 2007
Once the Datacenter Provisioning is completed, tenants will be able to start trying LitwareHR application. First of all, they will have to create a tenant account at LitwareHR so they can use the application.
The process that takes care of allocating the resources that tenant will use is called "Tenant Provisioning":

This screencast shows the "behind the scenes" actions this service does:

creates one virtual folder and two virtual directories in IIS for tenant's public and private sites
adds tenant basic information in MetadataStore database
inserts default tenant preferences in MetadataStore database, such as entity extension fields, workflow definitions and rulesets
creates the view filter for the position entity
creates an sql view that the tenant will use to retrieve the position entity fields
creates an Organizational Unit (OU) in the Authorization store (ADAM) with users and roles support

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

"The holy grail of Enterprise SOA security" article, by Matias Woloski
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Matias Woloski's post about SOA Enterprise Security using WCF includes a step by step explanation on how the Federated Security Scenario works in LitwareHR. Take a look at this really interesting post here.

What do you think? Send us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Dependency Checker included in source code
Monday, March 12, 2007

We are working on a tool to help you identify all required components to run LitwareHR and automate eventual configurations and/or setups. This is a preview for the tool. We are still working on a few details, but would appreciate any feedback from you. Thanks!
Download the Dependency checker included in the last Change Set

Just released! LitwareHR installer for Windows XP
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Based on customer feedback, we are releasing a Windows XP specific installer for LitwareHR that automates the procedures documented in this HowTo. Hopefully this will make your evaluation of LitwareHR easier.

LitwareHR was originally designed to run on Windows Server 2003 because of the real-world datacenter features it provides such as the ability to run multiple websites in the same box (Windows XP’s IIS 5.1 doesn’t allow that). In the Windows XP version, we use different virtual directories instead:

Get the release here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: This installer will not work under Windows Vista because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

HowTo: run LitwareHR on a Windows XP box
Monday, February 26, 2007

LitwareHR was designed and built as close to a real world environment as possible. A production datacenter needs features provided by Windows Server 2003 and the design and implementation of the application were optimized against this platform. In particular, we believed using many websites as LitwareHR does,(www.litware.com, www.litwarehr.com, etc.) was an important feature to demonstrate and therefore we chose Windows Server 2003.

The feedback we received is that many of you would prefer to run the application on Windows XP for evaluation purposes.

This how-to describes the changes that you need to make to the original version so you can run it on Windows XP. Note that the MSI will still install on Windows XP.

Read about the steps here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: Even if you follow the how-to steps, LitwareHR will not work under Windows Vista (yet :)) because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

"Datacenter Provisioning" screencast released
Thursday, February 22, 2007

This screencast shows in detail the actions performed by the script in charge of setting up the structure needed to support LitwareHR's application.
This is what we call "Datacenter Provisioning" and creates databases in SQL server, users and roles structures in the ADAM and websites in the IIS.
After this Datacenter Provisioning is done, each tenant will be able to perform a "Tenant Provisioning" which will add tenant information in those repositories and will let the tenant to start trying the application.

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

Litware HR on ARCast.net
Monday, February 19, 2007
Ron Jacobs published two videos about Litware HR on ARCast.net. You can see Gianpaolo Carraro and Fred Chong introducing the application and showing the main architecture aspects:

Introduction on SaaS and LitwareHR approach: http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/13/746.aspx
Demo and architecture breakdown part 1 (Tenant Provisioning + Presentation Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/15/759.aspx
Update (February 20, 2007) Demo and architecture breakdown part 2 (Datamodel + Business Process Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/20/774.aspx

UPDATED WIKI: News

aschapiro — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 22:33:32 GMT

News

SaaS Architecture Workshop
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Fred Chong, Gianpaolo Carraro, Erik Weis and Matias Woloski gave a 3-day workshop on SaaS, at Microsoft HQ in Redmond. Attending Microsoft employees and ISVs used a SaaS reference application based on LitwareHR to get inside of the architectural challenges solutions for data model configuration, tenant provisioning, workflow configuration and security.
!!!Get the labs, slides and more information here

What are we working on now? MPS provisioning
Friday, April 24, 2007
These days we’ve been doing some research on how the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) could be used for LitwareHR’s provisioning tasks.

The current version of LitwareHR executes command scripts and custom code for its datacenter and tenant provisioning actions (scripts located in \Setup\DataCenter\ and tenant provisioning code in LitwareHR.Portfolio.Services.ProvisioningLogic.DoProvisioning method).

MPS is part of the Windows-Based Hosting solution (WBH) and provides a standard interface for provisioning tasks. Through it, LitwareHR can take advantage of WBH and MPS features like provisioning plans, auditing, metering, and billing.

As a first step, we are working on changing current tenant provisioning code into a MPS request that performs the same tasks (creation of virtual directory in IIS, adding an OU in ADAM and inserting tenant data in SQL databases).
What do you think? Have you ever used MPS? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Post your comments here

More details about MPS and how we are working with it (external links or anchors in the same wiki page):

WBH and MPS overview

WBH 4.5 overview
How MPS works
MPS provisioning process architecture

MPS architecture diagrams
WBH lab for development and testing of provisioning requests

MPS01 explained screenshots

"Tenant Provisioning" screencast released
Friday, March 23, 2007
Once the Datacenter Provisioning is completed, tenants will be able to start trying LitwareHR application. First of all, they will have to create a tenant account at LitwareHR so they can use the application.
The process that takes care of allocating the resources that tenant will use is called "Tenant Provisioning":

This screencast shows the "behind the scenes" actions this service does:

creates one virtual folder and two virtual directories in IIS for tenant's public and private sites
adds tenant basic information in MetadataStore database
inserts default tenant preferences in MetadataStore database, such as entity extension fields, workflow definitions and rulesets
creates the view filter for the position entity
creates an sql view that the tenant will use to retrieve the position entity fields
creates an Organizational Unit (OU) in the Authorization store (ADAM) with users and roles support

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

"The holy grail of Enterprise SOA security" article, by Matias Woloski
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Matias Woloski's post about SOA Enterprise Security using WCF includes a step by step explanation on how the Federated Security Scenario works in LitwareHR. Take a look at this really interesting post here.

What do you think? Send us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Dependency Checker included in source code
Monday, March 12, 2007

We are working on a tool to help you identify all required components to run LitwareHR and automate eventual configurations and/or setups. This is a preview for the tool. We are still working on a few details, but would appreciate any feedback from you. Thanks!
Download the Dependency checker included in the last Change Set

Just released! LitwareHR installer for Windows XP
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Based on customer feedback, we are releasing a Windows XP specific installer for LitwareHR that automates the procedures documented in this HowTo. Hopefully this will make your evaluation of LitwareHR easier.

LitwareHR was originally designed to run on Windows Server 2003 because of the real-world datacenter features it provides such as the ability to run multiple websites in the same box (Windows XP’s IIS 5.1 doesn’t allow that). In the Windows XP version, we use different virtual directories instead:

Get the release here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: This installer will not work under Windows Vista because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

HowTo: run LitwareHR on a Windows XP box
Monday, February 26, 2007

LitwareHR was designed and built as close to a real world environment as possible. A production datacenter needs features provided by Windows Server 2003 and the design and implementation of the application were optimized against this platform. In particular, we believed using many websites as LitwareHR does,(www.litware.com, www.litwarehr.com, etc.) was an important feature to demonstrate and therefore we chose Windows Server 2003.

The feedback we received is that many of you would prefer to run the application on Windows XP for evaluation purposes.

This how-to describes the changes that you need to make to the original version so you can run it on Windows XP. Note that the MSI will still install on Windows XP.

Read about the steps here and please do keep sending us feedback on the discussions boards or the Issue Tracker.

Note: Even if you follow the how-to steps, LitwareHR will not work under Windows Vista (yet :)) because ADAM is not yet compatible with that Windows version. See the related discussion.

"Datacenter Provisioning" screencast released
Thursday, February 22, 2007

This screencast shows in detail the actions performed by the script in charge of setting up the structure needed to support LitwareHR's application.
This is what we call "Datacenter Provisioning" and creates databases in SQL server, users and roles structures in the ADAM and websites in the IIS.
After this Datacenter Provisioning is done, each tenant will be able to perform a "Tenant Provisioning" which will add tenant information in those repositories and will let the tenant to start trying the application.

Watch the screencast here and tell us what you think here.

Litware HR on ARCast.net
Monday, February 19, 2007
Ron Jacobs published two videos about Litware HR on ARCast.net. You can see Gianpaolo Carraro and Fred Chong introducing the application and showing the main architecture aspects:

Introduction on SaaS and LitwareHR approach: http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/13/746.aspx
Demo and architecture breakdown part 1 (Tenant Provisioning + Presentation Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/15/759.aspx
Update (February 20, 2007) Demo and architecture breakdown part 2 (Datamodel + Business Process Configuration): http://www.skyscrapr.net/blogs/arcasttv/archive/2007/02/20/774.aspx