Is it possible/supported to have a CRM 2011 host work with two different host names? We have tried this, but not everything works perfectly.
Example:
A server with server name "app1".
An AD/DNS entry pointing the host name "crm" to "app1".
When users navigates to "crm" the requests work 99% of the time, but a few internal javascripts in CRM targets the original "app1" server. For example a request from normal edit forms that retrieves the roles. The javascript variable called "*SERVER_NAME*" always has value of "app1", no matter the request URL. A cross-server warning might appear or the functionality may just silently fail.
This also happens when accessing the FQDN of the server, so "app1.mydomain.com" still produces the same result and failing/warning functionality.
I imagine this would be a similar problem when dealing with load balanced installations? How do they handle this? I.e. they target host name X and can get host name Y or Z.
Edit: I've understood that this may be called "domain alias" or "host alias" since it is an active directory entry.
You cannot have multiple hostnames for the CRM system.
You have to specify an address which is used by the CRM system itself, for scripts like you have seen. But it is also used for the Discovery mechanisms.
Multiple bindings in IIS are not supported due to a limitation with the web service endpoint
Open the deployment manager on the CRM server.
Go to Actions -> Properties -> Addresses
Adjust the stated addresses to the one which you use to access the CRM system. These settings are important for the CRM to define its "identity".
If you have configured IFD you configure an additional external identity.
By the way. Depending on your environment it might be necessary to set an SPN. See http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webtopics/archive/2009/01/19/service-principal-name-spn-checklist-for-kerberos-authentication-with-iis-7-0.aspx
Regarding NLB: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh699803.aspx
Daniel Cai seems to have a good way round the problem of getServerURL returning the value held in deployment manager rather than the calling page URL when you have different names used. He has come up with a replacement function:
CRM 2011: Get the Right Server URL in Your CRM Client
This looks like it works for all scenarios with Outlook offline client as well as online browser.
Related
I'm currently trying to get my Protractor tests working with Browserstack. My (automated) tests are run on a staging server that can only be accessed from within a VPN. I am using Browserstacklocal to access the staging server without a problem.
My question: Is it possible to direct ONLY the staging server URLs through Browserstacklocal? For exemple, during my test, I go to PayPal Sandbox to purchase an item. I would like the Paypal connection to be made directly from the Browserstack remote machine.
The "-only" parameter restricts the Local Testing access to specified local servers and/or folders. Consider the following example:
./BrowserStackLocal ACCESS_KEY -only localhost,443,1
In this case, only the traffic for the domain “localhost” will be directed to your private server and rest all URL’s/domains will be accessed directly through our remote VM’s.
More details on all the Local Testing modifiers can be found here.
Seems like Browserstacklocal's -only flag does the trick. Refer to this article for more info. Although I wouldn't mind someone explaining what the parameters are.
Apologies if there is an answer already out here but I've looked at over 2 dozen threads and can't find the specific answer.
So, for our ASP.NET (2.0) application, our infrastructure team set up a load balancer machine that has two IIS 7.5 servers.
We have a network file server where the single copy of the application files reside. I know very little about the inner workings of load-balancing and even IIS in general.
My question is regarding sessions. I guess I'm wondering if the 'balancing' part is based on sessions or on individual page requests.
For example, when a user first logs in to the site, he's authenticated (forms), but then while he navigates around from page to page--does IIS 7.5 automatically "lock him in" to the particular server that first logged him in and authenticated him, or could his page requests alternate from one server to the next?
If the requests do indeed alternate, what problems might I face? I've read a bit about duplicating the MachineKey, but we have done nothing in web.config regarding MachineKey--it does not exist there at all.
I will add that we are not experiencing any issues (that we know of anyway) regarding authentication, session objects, etc. - the site is working very well, the question is more academic, and I just want to make sure I'm not missing something that may bite me down the road.
Thanks,
Jim
while he navigates around from page to page--does IIS 7.5 automatically "lock him in" to the particular server that first logged him in and authenticated him
That depends on the configuration of the load balancer and is beyond the scope of a single IIS. Since you haven't provided any information on what actual balancer you use, I can only provide a general information - regardless of the balancer type (hardware, software), it can be configured for so called "sticky sessions". In such mode, you are guaranteed that once a browser establishes connection to your cluster, it will always hit the same server. There are two example techniques - in first, the balancer just creates a virtual mapping from source IP addresses to cluster node numbers (which means that multiple requests from the same IP hit the same server), in second - the balancer attaches an additional HTTP cookie/header that allows it to recognize the same client and direct it to the same node.
Note that the term "session" has nothing to do with the server side "session" where you have a per-user container. Session here means "client side session", a single browser on a single operating system and a series of request-replies from it to your server.
If the requests do indeed alternate, what problems might I face
Multiple issues. First, encryption, if relies on machine key, will not work. This means that even forms cookies would be rejected by cluster nodes other than the one that issued the cookie. A solution is to have the same machine key on all nodes.
Another common issue would be the inproc session provider - any data stored in the memory of one application server will not "magically" appear on other cluster nodes, thus, making the session data unavailable. A solution is to configure the session to be stored in a separate process, for example in a sql server database.
I will add that we are not experiencing any issues (that we know of anyway) regarding authentication, session objects
Sounds like a positive coincidence or the infrastructure team has already configured sticky sessions. The latter sounds possible, the configuration is usually obvious and easy.
I have my oracle apex database application built in a oracle web hosting server. For ex, it is like http://www.myapexhostingserver.com/pls/apex/f?p=4550:1:13225322000472
Here I have created many apex database applications. Now I have specific domains for each of these apex applications. Currently, I have written a redirect in each of these domain settings to my apex application.
For ex,
http://www.domain1.com has a redirect url set to http://myapexhostingserver.com/pls/apex/f?p=162:LOGIN:16888048444232
http://www.domain2.com has a redirect url set to http://myapexhostingserver.com/pls/apex/f?p=165:LOGIN:16888048444232
A redirect is not google friendly. But I cannot purchase oracle web hosting for each domain too. Is there any other good solution available?
Meaning, when I buy a shared hosting server, I can create as many PHP applications I want. But not sure if this is also possible in oracle apex.
Can someone help?
Developing Oracle Apex Applications with Search Engine Visible Designs
This is a discussion on the issues with the varying style of APEX Application url syntax. There also is an explanation of how APEX work space namespaces are organized to show how application url's can be customized using a single database instance.
Comments: Some Internet searches can yield an answer that you're looking for. There are a number of developers and consulting gigs out there who have tackled the problem of converting between the popular, canonical url paths and the notation used by Oracle APEX.
Some search terms that proved useful include: oracle apex pretty url, url mapping, and http url mapping plsql. The most useful guides were examples in Oracle PL/SQL, but you can also dive deeper and set up rules on the web server engine (i.e., Apache HTTP Server) that re-interprets URL requests so that the APEX styled addresses are masked. This isn't necessary, but some techniques such as "url remapping" are among the possible solutions.
What this post is NOT is a guide on specifics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which may be distantly related to the OP's question about "Google Friendliness", but is beyond the scope of this solution guide.
Are Oracle APEX Websites Search Engine Friendly?
A comment quoted directly from the original post was worth researching and addressing. This is mostly an incorrect conclusion.
A redirect is not google friendly.
This actually depends on how you set things up on your APEX website. Redirects are one way of managing incoming traffic that use alternate url naming schemes, but this is not the only approach.
Some Successful Blogs and Websites Done in Apex:
Some online groups such as the APEX developer team with APEX Ninjas continue to report growing referrals from search engines such as Google without many changes to the way their Oracle APEX powered site and blog.
Another good example is the active APEX website: "ASK Tom", which was created by Oracle's Tom Kyte. This site has run on APEX for many years now and references to pages on this website continue to appear on search engine result pages the familiar APEX style url formatting from the "ASK Tom" website.
Using Better Navigation URLs for Clarity
Web server REDIRECTS are one approach to mapping cleaner url address syntax on top of an Oracle Apex Listener. We use the Abyss Web Server Engine, which is a light-weight http server that sits on the front of our company APEX application server. It's not absolutely necessary, but we chose it for its simplified management of a singlular web server task. Redirects work fine for us as well. Though we have not explored further, advanced features such as virtual hosting and url rewriting rules may take you further regarding your requirement to separate out multiple TLDs (primary domains) or C-NAMEs (sub-domains) on the same Apex listener instance.
The ugliest of the URL forms in APEX Applications is the default. It is decipherable, but not friendly to the human eye or simple enough to remember. Here is an example shot of the URL assigned to the HOME page of my application named: APEX-LAB-PUB
This is a common format of the URLs that an Oracle APEX web server will interpret. So the general format to observe is that everything after the clause: f?p=...
http://somedomain.com/pls/apex/f?p=1312786:5:987529480
By using the alternative option of setting ALIAS names, you can create short-cut url forms in the same layout, but with human readable alias assignments:
This is good, but there is also a common practice which uses Oracle Apex's native REST Web Service listener so that internal and external links look simpler. Simplified url syntax can also make setting up redirect hooks cleaner and more organized.
Oraganizing APEX Application Websites Using REST Web Services
To develop this example, I used Oracle's free Apex hosting tier. Although it has some limitations on what features are available, RESTful web services are enabled on the Apex listener of this platform, which is what we need.
Mapping a Web Service URI to an Apex URL Request
This is the url syntax we will be using will look something like this:
https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/...(workspace)/...(uri request)
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)
This is the part that will be appended to the end of the base url of the Oracle Apex hosting listener. The example below is just a generic template:
Generic URI Syntax This Solution URI
hr/employees/{ID} display/{app}/{page}
|_|_________|____| |______|____________|
| | | | |
| | -Handler Bind Variable | -Handler Bind Variable(s)
| | |
| - URI Template - URI Template
|
- Module URI Prefix
-- RESTful Service Design Summary
Module Name: superEasyURL
URI Prefix (optional): (none)
URI Template: display/{app}/{page}
Handler Method: GET
Handler Source Type: PL/SQL
Handler Source:
declare
url varchar2(500);
baseurl constant varchar2(2000):=
'https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=';
begin
url:= baseurl || :app || ':' || :page;
:URL := url;
:STATUS := 303;
end;
Note: You will also need to set two OUT parameters for this REST Service to represent the two bind variables in the above PL/SQL statement for the values of URL and STATUS:
About the HTTP 303 Status Header Code
There is another kind of HTTP status code called an HTTP 303. You can use APEX to deliver pages and content that are not redirects. Oracle Application Express and its RESTful Web services can receive traditional url requests that convert to the APEX format on the back-end.
303 See Other has been proposed as one way of responding to a request for a URI that identifies a real-world object according to Semantic Web theory (the other being the use of hash URIs).
For example, if http://www.example.com/id/alice identifies a person, Alice, then it would be inappropriate for a server to respond to a GET request with 200 OK, as the server could not deliver Alice herself. Instead the server would issue a 303 See Other response which redirected to a separate URI providing a description of the person Alice.
Reference Excerpt: Wikipedia.com
Demonstration of a Working Example
This is an example created in my personal, Oracle hosted workspace. This is the url which will be interpreted by the REST Service built earlier.
https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/rgpascual/display/{app}/{page}
|_________|
|
|
- Workspace ID String (required by the listener) -
Note that on the shared instance, an additional reference to the user's workspace name was required to make this translation happen. I am not 100% sure if it is required, but I was able to complete this demo by using it in the final path references.
Display of: HOME page (aliased) from the APEX-LAB-PUB Application (aliased as: APEXLABPUB01).
Conclusions, Questions and General Advice
The efforts of this post offers the possibility of using pretty url syntax to represent navigation links within an Apex Application website. Instead of the default notation defined by Oracle, a navigation link list may look like:
Note: These links do not work. They are just to illustrate the advantages of this presented solution.
Home
Actual Requested URL:
someapexserver.../pls/apex/mywork/display/new-app/home
About Us
Actual Requested URL:
someapexserver.../pls/apex/mywork/display/new-app/about
Contact
Actual Requested URL:
someapexserver.../pls/apex/mywork/display/new-app/contactus
Associates
Actual Requested URL:
someapexserver.../pls/apex/mywork/display/new-app/associates
Business Ops
Actual Requested URL:
someapexserver.../pls/apex/mywork/display/new-app/businessops
Now, referring links and navigation is uniform and consistent using the URI template chosen in the initial design of this solution.
Additional Questions: Application Capacity of a Single Apex Instance
There was an additional question about the way that Oracle Apex manages applications created in a single instance.
... Meaning, when I buy a shared hosting server, I can create as many PHP applications I want. But not sure if this is also possible in oracle apex.
You should consider reviewing the Apex documentation put out by Oracle to understand how the Apex security framework affects the possibilities or organizing multiple applications created from the same database instance.
A few things to note however:
A single database installation, or INSTANCE can contain multiple divisions called WORKSPACES. Workspaces by default cannot see what is in other workspaces but applications within may share access to the same database schemas on the back-end.
A WORKSPACE may contain any number of APEX applications. Each application enabled with login security may have its own user authentication or it may use the "native" authentication process. Without further configuration, Application User accounts in the same Workspace will have have access to the other apps in the same workspace.
The USER NAMESPACES of each Workspace are separate, i.e. there may be two user accounts with the same name between two or more different Workspaces. (a user named ADMIN in both WORKSPACE1 and WORKSPACE2 are NOT the same user.)
NAMED DATABASE USERS may have access across other multiple Apex workspaces. A user defined this way is unique across every workspace and application permitting its access. Access users defined as Named Database Users are defined unique across a given database INSTANCE.
So in conclusion, Apex is designed to support multiple applications similarly to hosting on a single, shared hosting set up. Chances are however, if you are looking for the amount of control you describe in the OP, your shared hosting will most likely be your own Dedicated Server solution, VPS (Virtual Private Server) or AWS (Amazon Web Services) host.
You will need a host with enough access to server resources to: (a) Permit the installation of Oracle database software on the host. (b) Allow the configuration (opening and/or closing) of server networking ports. (c) Enough server resources to support the active operation of the installed database instance and the web-requests serviced by the accompanying HTTP based listener.
If you want your installation to manage multiple moderately sized and trafficked web applications, you will need a lot more than the minimum server specifications described in the installation instructions of the Oracle database version and edition you choose.
I have a Flex based application which is using Flash Media Server (FMS) server (version 4.0) for live video streaming between two users (i.e. a one to one teleconferencing service). This streaming is one-to-one, as defined by business rules, so that no third person can join a teleconference. Either person can start the video stream via a browser-based Flex client and communication gets established once the second user joins. Validation for connecting the streams of the two users is implemented on the FMS server (as server side scripting defined in main.asc). I am facing three critical problems with our teleconferencing solution.
1.Often times, full communication can not be established between the two users. One user can not usually see or hear the other user. There is a client side 'refresh' button that when clicked, attempts to establish a connection via the server side script. This sometimes works. Before implementing our current server side script, I tried establishing a stream by using methods found here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/905613
I think the method below may work as it would give me an array of subscribers to the stream.
getLiveStreamStats(appInst:String, stream:String) : Object
But the problem is that server returns the following:
<level>error</level>
<code>Admin.API.MethodNotAllowed</code>
<description>getlivestreams - Method not allowed!</description>
<timestamp>8/7/2012 10:05:38 AM</timestamp>
Question - Do I need to do anything different with the client or is it a server setting that needs modification?
You didn't specify if you were making the remote calls using HTTP or RMTP. If you're using RMTP you shouldn't have to do anything. If you're using HTTP you will need to modify the following files:
{Flash/Adobe Media Server Root}\conf\AMS.ini (or FMS.ini if you're on an older version)
{Flash/Adobe Media Server Root}\conf\Users.xml
In the first, you will need to set the USERS.HTTPCOMMAND_ALLOW option to true. In my version of the AMS.ini file it is at the very bottom of the configuration page.
In the Users.xml file, you will need to locate the block. In my version, this is also located towards the bottom of the page. The default install of Adobe Media Server 5 (in my case anyways) only allowed the "ping" method and all other methods were disallowed. You will either need to update that block to reflect a comma-delimited list of the methods you want to make accessible via HTTP (white listing) or allow all and deny none (I wouldn't recommend that).
Don't rely on a soft restart of the Adobe/Flash Media Server via the web based Administration Console. This did not work for me. I needed to restart the AMS service from within the Windows Services panel in order for the changes made in the configuration files to take effect.
I hope that this helps!
Rick
Say we have a website that responds to a host header "kebab-shop.intra.net"
Is is possible to have both SOAP and RESTful in this URL?
That is, both of these are handled within the deployed code.
kebab-shop.intra.net/takeaway.asmx
kebab-shop.intra.net/kebab/get/...
I've been told this can't be done, without much explanation. Like this answer. This could be, I'm a database monkey, but I'd like some thoughts on what options I do or don't have please.
Thoughts so far
Separate host headers eg add kebab-shop-rest.intra.net
Separate web sites
Ideally, I'd like to have one web site, one URL domain name, one host header. Zero chance?
This is IIS 6 with .net 4. And we have some large corporate limitations that mean we are limited to a zip file to drop into the relevant folder used by the web site. This is intended to allow our clients to migrate without incurring the large corporate support, infrastructure and deployment overhead. The co-existence will only be for a month or three.
Edit: I'm asking because I'm not web developer. If my terms are wrong, this is why...
So... I want both SOAP and REST on kebab-shop.intra.net on IIS 6 without complexity.
That is, both of these are handled
within the deployed code.
* kebab-shop.intra.net/takeaway.asmx
* kebab-shop.intra.net/kebab/get/...
Yes, that should definitely be possible. If you have a single WCF service, you could easily expose two separate endpoints for the same service - one using e.g. basicHttpBinding (roughly equivalent to ASMX), and another with webHttpBinding (REST).
The complete URL's must be different - but the first part can be the same, I believe.
If you're hosting in IIS6, you need one virtual directory and that will partly dictate your SOAP endpoint - it will have to be something like:
http://kebab-shop.intra.net/YourVirtDir/takeaway.svc
(or: http://kebab-shop.intra.net/YourVirtDir/takeaway.asmx if you insist on using an ASP.NET legacy webservice).
and the REST endpoint can live inside the same virtual directory and define URI templates, e.g. you could have something like:
http://kebab-shop.intra.net/YourVirtDir/TakeKebab/gbn
or similar URL's.
However: checking this out myself I found that you cannot have both service endpoints "live" off the same base address - one of them has to have another "relative address" associated with it.
So either you add e.g. "SOAP" to your SOAP endpoint
http://kebab-shop.intra.net/YourVirtDir/takeaway.svc/SOAP/GetKebab
http://kebab-shop.intra.net/YourVirtDir/TakeKebab/gbn
or you add something to your REST service
http://kebab-shop.intra.net/YourVirtDir/takeaway.svc/GetKebab
http://kebab-shop.intra.net/YourVirtDir/REST/TakeKebab/gbn
I don't see a reason why you can't. Typìcally your SOAP endpoints will be one specific URLs per service, whereas for resources exposed via REST you will have one URL per resource (following 'URL patterns').
Example URLs for SOAP:
http://kebab-shop.intra.net/soap/service1
http://kebab-shop.intra.net/soap/service2
Example URL patterns for REST:
http://kebab-shop.intra.net/rest/{resourcetype}/{id}/
e.g.: http://kebab-shop.intra.net/rest/monkeys/32/
etc...