This time it’s the Web Service Facade for Legacy Applications. Unlike many of the other patterns and practices, this is very lightweight – a scant 20 pages after you take out the coverage of the included sample application. However, a bigger issue that the lack of content is the definition of “legacy application”. This guide discusses three possible legacy apps – those that expose a COM interface, those that expose a DLL and those in a standalone EXE. However, when my customers talk about legacy apps, they’re usually referring to apps running on the mainframe. A more relevant guide in this vein would talk about using Host Integration Server to provide Web Service Facades for mainframe transaction programs.

It’s taken long enough, but I’m finally getting WSS RSS v0.4 out the door. Primary new feature is support for customizing the RSS feed on a list type basis. I had made a slight unreleased change to expose pubDate as well as dc:date. Now, that stuff is all in the wssrss.config file so it’s easy to add support for whatever item elements you want. There is also support for expiring items in the feed based on age or on value match (for example, exclude tasks that are marked completed), again configured via the wssrss.config file. In even bigger news, I didn’t change the installer process this time.

It’s going to be a while before I do a v0.5 release. I want to enable configuration of the RSS feed on a per-list basis, instead of just on a per-list-template basis. Plus I’ve got a few bugs and I want to figure out how to expose a UI link to the OPML and RSS feeds on a WSS website. But I think I want to wait until a later build of WSS is available. I’ve gotten email from a WSS early adopter program members who is having issues with WSSRSS and a later build of WSS (sorry, v0.4 will have the same issue). I’m hoping to get access to a later build, but obviously, I’m not going to publicly post a new version of WSSRSS if the corresponding build of WSS isn’t generally available. Also, while there has been some strong interest in WSSRSS, it started life as a demo to help me learn how to program WSS. I’ve got other things I want to try with WSS that have sat on the back burner while I worked on WSSRSS. I promise to post code when I get something working.

I’m quoted in Microsoft Watch, again. This time it’s about my disclaimer.

I don’t quite get all the hullabaloo about a potential corporate blogging policy. I meet with customers every day and usually I am privy to information that I can’t share. My boss, the product groups and Microsoft in general trusts my judgment about the handling of this information, otherwise I wouldn’t have a job here. I’m sure there’s a policy for what I should and shouldn’t say to a customer. This blog is no different. I don’t talk about stuff I can’t talk about going on inside the big house. I do offer my opinion on topics that interest me such as web services, programming language innovation and the use of XML vs. Objects. Some topics, such as my opinion on the recent deal between SourceGear and the Mono project, might be considered sensitive subjects. I put the disclaimer in order to make sure there’s no mistake about what is my opinion and what is “official” Microsoft messaging.

I’ve never been at a company where the employees are more empowered (and valued) than Microsoft. I have a hard time imaging that Microsoft would issue some heavy-handed policy that effectively neuters employee blogs.