To implement a proxy with DynamicObject the pattern is very simple:

1) Write a class that inherit from DynamicObject and implement a constructor that accepts an instance of the object that you want to incapsulate:

public class Proxy<T> : DynamicObject
    {
        private T _obj;

        public Proxy(T obj)
        {
            _obj = obj;
        }

        public T Unwrap()
        {
            return _obj;
        }

        public void Wrap(T obj)
        {
            _obj = obj;
        }
    }

2) Starting from 1, add overrides to TryInvokeMember to intercept method calls. TrySetMember and TryGetMember to intercept property calls and use reflection to execute member calls on the encapsulated object.

With Entity Framework 4.1 now you have the new DbContext class. With this, is very easy to handle insert, update and delete operation with disconnected entities.

For example: suppose that you want to perform an update operation using an instance of a class named Customer for CustomerId = 3.

Now you can write code like this:

using (var db = new MyDBContextClass())
{
       Customer c = new Customer()
       {
             CustomerId = 3,
             LastName = "Vincenzo",
             FirstName = "Tenisci"

        };

        db.Entry(c).State = System.Data.EntityState.Modified;
        db.SaveChanges();
}

Very simple! All you have to do is to attach your Customer instance to your DbContext class via the Entry method and put this instance in a Modified state with the System.Data.EntityState enum. After this you call SaveChanges method to perform update.

Armed with this knowledge now we are ready for our DbContext proxy class.

Suppose that you want to write code like this:

using (var db = new EntityDemoDBContext())
{
      dynamic proxy = new DbContextProxy(db);

      proxy.InsertCustomer(c);

   OR

   proxy.DeleteCustomer(c);

   OR

  proxy.UpdateCustomer(c);
}

without writing explicitly Insert, Update or Delete methods!

Here is the class:

public class DbContextProxy : DynamicObject 
{
   DbContext _context;

   public DbContextProxy(DbContext context)
   {
       _context = context;
   }

  public override bool TryInvokeMember(InvokeMemberBinder binder, object[] args, out object result)
  {
       string methodName = binder.Name;
       result = null;

       if (args[0] == null)
           return true;

       if (methodName.StartsWith("Insert"))
           result = InsertMethod(args[0]);
       else if (methodName.StartsWith("Delete"))
           result = DeleteMethod(args[0]);
       else if (methodName.StartsWith("Update"))
           result = UpdateMethod(args[0]);

       return true;
   }

   private object UpdateMethod(object entity)
   {
       _context.Entry(entity).State=System.Data.EntityState.Modified;
       return _context.SaveChanges();
   }

  private object DeleteMethod(object entity)
  {
      _context.Entry(entity).State = System.Data.EntityState.Deleted;
      return _context.SaveChanges();
  }

  private object InsertMethod(object entity)
  {
       _context.Entry(entity).State = System.Data.EntityState.Added;
       return _context.SaveChanges();
  }

}

To use this class (see example above) you have to follow this two rules:

1) Your dynamic method names must start with Insert, Update or Delete prefix.

2) You have to pass an instance of the entity that you want to insert or update or delete.

Hope this helps

Vincenzo

Well, as freelance MCT Trainer and Solution Architect is very important to stay on top on technologies and sometimes you have to stop your activities to take new certifications that you are interested in for your professional career.

Now, I have about eighteen years of experience with Microsoft Technologies and it is about six years that I work deeply with Sharepoint as MCT Trainer and Architect. Principally I am a developer but as you know, Sharepoint is a so complex product and if you want to work with it you have to master all the facets starting from configuring to programming to administering to SQL Server to .NET to……. and believe me, in spite of the number of years that you work with Sharepoint, each day that you have to face it, you ALWAYS discover something new.

First of all let me express some thoughts about what I mean with the term of certification.

As I have noticed, there are two kind of approaches to the exams:

1) Without knowing or knowing little the subject, download various TestKing, vce, pass4sure and so on, memorize exam questions and… CONGRATULATIONS! you have passed and now you are certified!

2) Follow these general steps

i) Go to http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-default.aspx and print the skill measured section of the exam you are interested in.

ii) For each argument in point (i) buy some very good books on the subject, study MOC courses (if you are MCT) or follow them, read Technet/MSDN articles, training kits, search arguments on internet, try to experiment with Virtual Machines or trial software and so on….

iii) The day before exam try to perform some tests to have an idea of how the exam is structured.

iv) CONGRATULATIONS! you have passed and now you are REALLY certified!

As I always say to my students and colleagues, certification is only a matter of conscience and responsibilities. You are responsible of yourself. If you go straight to point 1, you have to know that, as certified, you have great responsibilities with your customer and your customer have great expectations about you. Some year ago, I assisted at the dismissal of a (certified point 1) freelance guy after FOUR days of work. If you follow that way you throw off a great opportunity to learn great new stuff that before or after you need for your job.

OK now let’s talk about Exams.

First of all I have to say that I really enjoyed the study/preparation of these exams. I started to use Sharepoint 2010 since the first beta. When I was speaker at the BASTA! Italy Conference http://www.bastaitalia.it/conferenza/speaker/ I performed the conference with the Beta 1 version and it worked very well… after spent nights in building the demo environment. (I have to say that as MCT MOSS 2007 certified I had only access to the Beta 1 version, but at that time, the various MVP had the RTM version…. no comment). Studying for these exams, I went deep with topics that I had no time to explore in the day by day work. Not only!, I have also reviewed some kind of solutions that I have performed during the last months in the light of what I have learned.

Enter the exams:

70-667 MCTS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring

First of all…. is not an easy exam.

1) Study carefully this book: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-SharePoint-2010-Administration-Klindt/dp/0470533331/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285406373&sr=1-1 it’s a great book and covers about 70% of the exam. Now is available also the Bill English’s book http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-SharePoint-2010-Administrators-Companion/dp/0735627207/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285407101&sr=1-6

2) Study CAREFULLY ALL the menu’s of the Sharepoint 2010 Central Administration. For each menu go deeply with Books, Technet articles and other BLOG Posts, if you do so, you have covered 90% of the exam

3) Study carefully RBS (Remote BLOB Storage) and PowerShell

4) Master Sharepoint Security at various level: Farm->Applications->Site Collections->Site->Lists->Item

5) Try to experiment Backup/Restore and the new options: offline and granular backup/restore

6) Study SQL Server administration (database options, high availability…)

7) Study carefully Search, Metadata management and People management

Go deep with migration from Sharepoint 2007 to Sharepoint 2010

9) Study, Study, Study… and… Experiment, Experiment, Experiment

70-573 MCTS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development

First of all…. I think that it’s easier than 70-667, if you have already experience with Sharepoint programming, you pass it without problems but…..

1) Study carefully this book: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-SharePoint-2010-Development-Programmer/dp/0470529423/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285407944&sr=1-4. Great book! it covers about 90% of the exam! I’m also waiting for the new Tedd Pattison’s book: http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Microsoft-SharePoint-2010-Pattison/dp/0735627460/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285406373&sr=1-8

2) Experiment with Sharepoint 2010 Training Kit and SDK

3) Study, Study, Study… and… Experiment, Experiment, Experiment

Hope this Helps

Vincenzo

Well, as freelance MCT Trainer and Solution Architect is very important to stay on top on technologies and sometimes you have to stop your activities to take new certifications that you are interested in for your professional career.

Now, I have about eighteen years of experience with Microsoft Technologies and it is about six years that I work deeply with Sharepoint as MCT Trainer and Architect. Principally I am a developer but as you know, Sharepoint is a so complex product and if you want to work with it you have to master all the facets starting from configuring to programming to administering to SQL Server to .NET to……. and believe me, in spite of the number of years that you work with Sharepoint, each day that you have to face it, you ALWAYS discover something new.

First of all let me express some thoughts about what I mean with the term of certification.

As I have noticed, there are two kind of approaches to the exams:

1) Without knowing or knowing little the subject, download various TestKing, vce, pass4sure and so on, memorize exam questions and… CONGRATULATIONS! you have passed and now you are certified!

2) Follow these general steps

i) Go to http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-default.aspx and print the skill measured section of the exam you are interested in.

ii) For each argument in point (i) buy some very good books on the subject, study MOC courses (if you are MCT) or follow them, read Technet/MSDN articles, training kits, search arguments on internet, try to experiment with Virtual Machines or trial software and so on….

iii) The day before exam try to perform some tests to have an idea of how the exam is structured.

iv) CONGRATULATIONS! you have passed and now you are REALLY certified!

As I always say to my students and colleagues, certification is only a matter of conscience and responsibilities. You are responsible of yourself. If you go straight to point 1, you have to know that, as certified, you have great responsibilities with your customer and your customer have great expectations about you. Some year ago, I assisted at the dismissal of a (certified point 1) freelance guy after FOUR days of work. If you follow that way you throw off a great opportunity to learn great new stuff that before or after you need for your job.

OK now let’s talk about Exams.

First of all I have to say that I really enjoyed the study/preparation of these exams. I started to use Sharepoint 2010 since the first beta. When I was speaker at the BASTA! Italy Conference http://www.bastaitalia.it/conferenza/speaker/ I performed the conference with the Beta 1 version and it worked very well… after spent nights in building the demo environment. (I have to say that as MCT MOSS 2007 certified I had only access to the Beta 1 version, but at that time, the various MVP had the RTM version…. no comment). Studying for these exams, I went deep with topics that I had no time to explore in the day by day work. Not only!, I have also reviewed some kind of solutions that I have performed during the last months in the light of what I have learned.

Enter the exams:

70-667 MCTS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring

First of all…. is not an easy exam.

1) Study carefully this book: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-SharePoint-2010-Administration-Klindt/dp/0470533331/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285406373&sr=1-1 it’s a great book and covers about 70% of the exam. Now is available also the Bill English’s book http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-SharePoint-2010-Administrators-Companion/dp/0735627207/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285407101&sr=1-6

2) Study CAREFULLY ALL the menu’s of the Sharepoint 2010 Central Administration. For each menu go deeply with Books, Technet articles and other BLOG Posts, if you do so, you have covered 90% of the exam

3) Study carefully RBS (Remote BLOB Storage) and PowerShell

4) Master Sharepoint Security at various level: Farm->Applications->Site Collections->Site->Lists->Item

5) Try to experiment Backup/Restore and the new options: offline and granular backup/restore

6) Study SQL Server administration (database options, high availability…)

7) Study carefully Search, Metadata management and People management

Go deep with migration from Sharepoint 2007 to Sharepoint 2010

9) Study, Study, Study… and… Experiment, Experiment, Experiment

70-573 MCTS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development

First of all…. I think that it’s easier than 70-567, if you have already experience with Sharepoint programming, you pass it without problems but…..

1) Study carefully this book: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-SharePoint-2010-Development-Programmer/dp/0470529423/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285407944&sr=1-4. Great book! it covers about 90% of the exam! I’m also waiting for the new Tedd Pattison’s book: http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Microsoft-SharePoint-2010-Pattison/dp/0735627460/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285406373&sr=1-8

2) Experiment with Sharepoint 2010 Training Kit and SDK

3) Study, Study, Study… and… Experiment, Experiment, Experiment

Hope this Helps

Vincenzo

Some time ago I wrote on my old BLOG a post titled SQL 2008 FILESTREAM and Sharepoint Document Libraries…. why not? where I posted a proof of concept to see how to use the new SQL Server 2008 FILESTREAM File Group type within a Sharepoint 2007 site. Naturally that is a not supported Microsoft solution because you have to alter the content DB but I had the satisfaction to see Sharepoint documents stored outside SQL Server! . This is a great problem for Sharepoint when you have to manage lots of documents. As all you know SQL Server is the only Sharepoint file system so all the the documents inside a document library for all the Site Collections are stored inside the SQL Server content DB’s for the Sharepoint Application in witch they live.

Naturally you can split your application with more than one content DB and this is the best practice for large size document storage.

Now we have Sharepoint 2010 beta and naturally MS have worked on this and with SQL Server 2008 R2 introduced RBS: Remote BLOB storage. But wait! before we go along I give you some links that you have to know:

1. If you want to learn all about RBS go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748592(office.14).aspx.
2. You can download RBS as a feature pack of SQL Server 2008 R2 at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=165839&clcid=0×409
3. You can download samples for RBS at http://www.codeplex.com/sqlrbs

As independent MCT/Architect, when we came along BLOB storage problems during my training and architect job, people ask me the same kind of questions: how do you store BLOB using SQL Server? And how and where Sharepoint store documents?  As you know, principally you have two choices that are the same techniques used in programming languages when you copy a variable by value or by reference:

1. Store all the BLOB content inside a SQL Server Table column of type varbinary(max)/image
2. Create a varchar column that you can use to store the relative path of your file. Use an application configuration file or a new SQL Table to store the root path of all your documents. This root path could be a local path or a network drive that target an external file server. Store file outside SQL Server.

Solution 1 is better for security and storage management. Nobody can touch or even see the files if you don’t have access to DB. If you want to move all the storage to another server you have to simply perform a backup/restore operation.

Solution 2 is far better for DB storage size handling because you store only a reference inside DB, the file is stored outside so you have small DB size for very large document storage with better DB performance and fast backup/restore operations.

The principal weak points of this two kind of solutions are:

• Solution 1: slow backup/restore operations and slow DB performance for very large size document storage. Very difficult and poor performing real time streaming with varbinary(max)/image data types.
• Solution2:  security weakness, people can access/modify/delete external files even if they don’t have DB access.

In my experience, I have noticed that the pass by reference solution 2 is the far more accepted and implemented solution in large scale applications and believe me, when people discover that Sharepoint adopt the pass by value solution 1 the general reaction is: oh my God!

Then came SQL Server 2008 and the new FILESTREAM file group. I don’t go deep with this subject, you can go to my old BLOG post, but I want put your attention on this concept: FILESTREAM solves the BLOB storage problem taking the better on point 1 and 2. SQL Server stores a reference inside your table and BLOB content outside SQL Server files. So, FILESTREAM is a storage solution implemented inside SQL Server, you have no control on file names and organization inside the file system, SQL Server became the only access point to your files and your files are secured by SQL Server. But, what if I have already setup a storage of my documents in a certain place like another DB (Oracle for example or another file server) and I don’t want to move them but I want to access inside Sharepoint or I want to design a SQL Server DB for my applications that have to access that documents?  Enter RBS.

RBS is a new API that you can use to perform a storage layer for BLOB data types in a standardized way. The architecture of RBS is based on the concept of Provider so you can use your own storage to archive large BLOB. Actually RBS ships with the RBS FILESTREAM provider but if you download the RBS samples on codeplex you can find source code for a file File Store sample provider Microsoft.Data.BlobStores.FileBlobStore so you can see how to write your own RBS provider.

I’ve noticed that there are some errors for the installation steps because I incurred in the same error that is signaled in this post http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010setup/thread/f93a677b-9434-4334-9d08-359127bdf1fe

So as described by TechNet documentation and from the post, after you downloaded RBS_x64.msi you have to:

1. For Each Sharepoint content DB that you want enable setup a FILESTREAM file group.
2. Run in sequence these scripts (I copied them into two batch files):

msiexec /qn /lvx* rbs_install_log.txt /i RBS_X64.msi TRUSTSERVERCERTIFICATE=true FILEGROUP=PRIMARY DBNAME="YOUR CONTENT DB NAME" DBINSTANCE="YOUR SQL SERVER INSTANCE NAME" FILESTREAMFILEGROUP=YOURFILESTREAMFILEGROUP FILESTREAMSTORENAME=FilestreamProvider_1

msiexec /qn /lvx* rbs_install_log.txt /i RBS_X64.msi DBNAME="YOUR CONTENT DB NAME" DBINSTANCE="YOUR SQL SERVER INSTANCE NAME" ADDLOCAL="Client,Docs,Maintainer,ServerScript,FilestreamClient,FilestreamServer"

After this you have to run one by one these power shell commands as indicated by TechNet:

$cdb = Get-SPContentDatabase –WebApplication http://sitename

$rbss = $cdb.RemoteBlobStorageSettings

$rbss.Installed()

$rbss.Enable()

$rbss.SetActiveProviderName($rbss.GetProviderNames()[0])

$rbss

After this your Sharepoint Application has FILESTREAM enabled so each Document Library for each site collection will store the documents outside SQL Server using FILESTREAM File Group.

In a future post I will dig the RBF API so… stay tuned!

Hope this helps

Vincenzo

This is my new blog (the old one is  http://vincy2005.spaces.live.com/blog/)

By now I would like to share experiences made during my Architect and MCT Training on those subjects:

• Sharepoint
• SQL Server (expecially BI)
• .NET from 4.0

Hope that you enjoy with me!

Vincenzo