Kalmunai IT Hub Monthly Meetup and Expert Talks – April, 2018

I will be speaking at Kalmunai IT Hub Monthly Meetup and Expert Talks – April, 2018
Venue: IDM Nations Campus, Kalmunai Branch
Date: 28th of April 208
Time: 10 AM – 12 PM
Title: Store Data in Azure SQL Database
Microsoft Azure platform provides a database as a service offering that allows developers to use SQL in the same way as they would in an on-premises location.

In this session we will discuss on Azure SQL Database and management tools. Also we will be developing a web application using Azure SQL Database.
Event Url: https://www.facebook.com/events/812530305608147/

Create SharePoint Online Lists and Fields using PnP PowerShell

Introduction

In this blog post we will be looking how to create Lists and Fields using PnP PowerShell. You can download and install PnP PowerShell here.

Solution

First you have to connect to SharePoint Online using PnP PowerShell.

Connect-PnPOnline –Url “site collection name” –Credentials (Get-Credential)

Creating List

Generic List

  

New-PnPList -Title "ListName" -Url "ListUrl" -Template GenericList 

Sri Lanka SharePoint Forum monthly gathering – February 2018

Title: Office 365 CLI: Managing Office 365 tenant and SharePoint Online

Description: Office 365 CLI is an open-source project driven by the SharePoint Patterns and Practices initiative. Using the Office 365 CLI, developers can manage the different settings of SharePoint and Office 365 no matter if they use Windows, macOS or Linux. In this session we are going to look at some cool features of Office 365 CLI.

Event Url: https://www.facebook.com/events/1880475591994592/

Slides which used for the event.

Clicks during the event

Awarded Microsoft MVP for Office Servers and Services

All the praises belong to Almighty

Today I'm honored to be a new member of the Microsoft MVP community for Office Servers and Services.

I would like to thank our mentor Prabath Fonseka for guiding me throughout my professional career, Dinusha Kumarasiri for nominating me and guiding me.

In addition, I would like to thank Wellington Perera, Upul Weerasinghe, Sachira Chinthana Jayasanka and Fiqri Ismail for the support and encouragement which they have given me.

Also I would like to thank Hibathul Careem sir, my family, friends who are with me always.

Trigger a Microsoft flow only when a SharePoint list item is modified – An alternative approach

Introduction

One of my friend asked me whether there is a Microsoft flow action to trigger the flow only when a SharePoint Online list item is modified. Unfortunately there is no out of the box trigger available.

Solution

We can overcome this by adding a condition at the beginning of the flow - we have to check whether the created date time and modified date time are not equal. So the flow will execute only if the created time and modified time is not equal.

Please check the below screenshot for the reference.

Invoke a code activity (Native Activity) and retrieve the results using code – Workflow Foundation 4.5

Introduction

We can create code activity as a part of workflow solutions using workflow foundation 4.5. In this post I will show how we can create a native code activity and access the results in asp.net controller. Native code activity

 

   //The string mentioned in NativeActivity is the resut type.  

     public sealed class MySampleNativeCode : NativeActivity     {

         // Define an activity input argument of type string

         public InArgument Name { get; set; }



         protected override void Execute(NativeActivityContext context)

         {

             var name = context.GetValue(Name);

             //Here we set the string value to the Result property in NativeCode

             context.SetValue(base.Result, "Hello from Native Code Activity " + name);



         }

     }

Invoke the code activity The code activity is invoked in asp.net web api controller.

 
 // GET: api/CustomerRegistration

         public string Get()

         {

             //Create a instance of the native code

             Activity wf = new MySampleNativeCode();



             //Define the input argumentes

             Dictionary arguments = new Dictionary();

             arguments.Add("Name", "Suhail");



             //Invoke the workflow

             IDictionary outputs = WorkflowInvoker.Invoke(wf, arguments);



             //Get the output value and assign to return string

             var returnString = outputs["Result"].ToString();



             return returnString;

         }

Conclusion

You can see the value in “returnString” which is returned from Native Code Activity.

Cannot add .Net Standard 2.0 Class as .Net Type in Workflow Foundation Activity Designer projects in Visual Studio 2017

Introduction

I was working on Workflow Foundation 4.5 using Activity Designer Library template in Visual Studio 2017.

Problem Background

When I try to add a class library as input Type through Type Browser in Activity designer it shows an error as “The selected type could not be created” as shown in the image below.

I compared another machine with the latest update of Visual Studio which was working fine. The problem seems to be I didn’t have .Net framework 4.6.2 SDK and .Net framework 4.7 SDK installed.

Solution

I modified the Visual Studio as below using Visual Studio Installer.

Conclusion

You will can refer .Net Standard 2.0 projects and dlls in workflow foundation project templates and use without any issue.