Develop Reference

Executing AddMembershipRule on SMS_Collection through REST Admin Service

We're trying to use the REST API of Administration Service to manage the Configuration Manager
(What is the administration service in Configuration Manager?)
We have successfully queried entities of different types and executed some custom static methods (i.e. MoveMembers Method on SMS_ObjectContainerItem). It's all mostly blind shots as there is barely any documentation, but those basic functionalities seem to work fine.
Now we have hit the wall, trying to add collection rules to a SMS_Collection (existing or new). This was normally done calling the AddMembershipRule on the instance itself, that was previously fetched by e.g. WqlConnectionManager or some other proxy. However, this is clearly a no-go on a plain object fetched from the REST service.
We have tried to use the wmi OData service (by a generated proxy) as it clearly offers similar functionality, but this ends up with a "Not supported exception":
var savedCollection = Proxy.SMS_Collection.Where(c => c.CollectionID == result.CollectionID).FirstOrDefault();
savedCollection.AddMembershipRule(inclusionRule);
Proxy.UpdateObject(savedCollection);
Proxy.SaveChanges(); //EXCEPTION
I have tried running POST request in numerous ways, using urls like:
SMS_Collection.AddMembershipRule?CollectionID=DV000037 -> 404
SMS_Collection/DV000037/AddMembershipRule -> 404
SMS_Collection.DV000037.AddMembershipRule -> 404
SMS_Collection/DV000037.AddMembershipRule -> treated it as post to SMS_Collection/DV000037, and therefore triggers an update
or just
SMS_Collection.AddMembershipRule with collectionID as param
As for the request body I've used (or just the AddCollectionMembershipRuleRequestRule):
public class AddCollectionMembershipRuleRequest
{
public AddCollectionMembershipRuleRequestRule CollectionRule { get; set; }
}
public class AddCollectionMembershipRuleRequestRule
{
public string RuleName { get; set; }
public string IncludeCollectionID { get; set; }
}
I have also tried to Post an existing or new collection, with CollectionRules prefilled, but this ends up with an exception complaining about IncludeCollectionID not being part of CollectionRule (base class) - looks like validation being too strict and not dealing well with the inheritance.
var collectionRequest = new ECMCollectionCreationRequest()
{
Name = collectionName,
CollectionType = 2,
RefreshType = 4,
LimitToCollectionID = DefaultLimitingCollectionID,
CollectionRules = new List<SMS_CollectionRule>()
{
new SMS_CollectionRuleIncludeCollection()
{
RuleName = "MembershipRule",
IncludeCollectionID = "DV100020"
}
}
};
Stil, no luck with any of those. Do you have any idea if such a scenario (modification of CollectionRules) is even supported with the Rest /OData service? If so, what would be the right way to achieve so?

It looks like this part is simply not supported at the moment. Looking at the code it seems that the service is not interpreting the arguments properly and therefore causing validation issues.
However, the same can be achieved, in a bit less clean and structured way, using ManagementScope and ManagementObject
var scope = new ManagementScope(siteAddress);
scope.Connect();
using (ManagementObject collection = new ManagementObject(scope, new ManagementPath($"SMS_Collection.CollectionID='{collectionID}'"), new ObjectGetOptions()))
{
if (collection == null)
throw new Exception($"Unable to find collection with ID '{collectionID}'");
collection.Get();
using (ManagementBaseObject inParams = collection.GetMethodParameters("AddMembershipRule"))
using (ManagementClass ruleClass = new ManagementClass(scope, new ManagementPath("SMS_CollectionRuleDirect"), new ObjectGetOptions()))
using (ManagementObject rule = ruleClass.CreateInstance())
{
rule["ResourceClassName"] = "SMS_R_System";
rule["ResourceID"] = ecmResourceID;
rule["RuleName"] = machineName;
inParams["collectionRule"] = rule;
collection.InvokeMethod("AddMembershipRule", inParams, null);
}
}
One can add and remove all the other rule types in similar way.
Another alternative is of course to use PowerShell. Sill, I hope that with one of the next iterations of the Administration Service, support of those methods will be added.
Similarly, there seems to be no way to add/remove application or package and import/export them, using the admin services or even in the way mentioned above.

$Rule="{'collectionRule':{`"#odata.type`": `"#AdminService.SMS_CollectionRuleDirect`", `"ResourceClassName`": `"SMS_R_System`", `"ResourceID`": $DeviceID,`"RuleName`": `"$MachineName`"}}"
$RuleCreated = (Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri "https://$($CMProvider)/AdminService/wmi/SMS_Collection('$CollectionID')/AdminService.AddMembershipRule" -Body $Rule -ContentType 'application/json' -Credential $Cred)

How to get all installations when using Azure Notification Hubs installation model?

Using NotificationHubClient I can get all registered devices using GetAllRegistrationsAsync(). But if I do not use the registration model but the installation model instead, how can I get all installations? There are methods to retrieve a specific installation but none to get everything.

You're correct, as of July 2016 there's no way to get all installations for a hub. In the future, the product team is planning to add this feature to the installations model, but it will work in a different way. Instead of making it a runtime operation, you'll provide your storage connection string and you'll get a blob with everything associated with the hub.

Sorry for visiting an old thread... but in theory you could use the GetAllRegistrationsAsyc to get all the installations. I guess this will return everything without an installation id as well, but you could just ignore those if you choose.
Could look something like this
var allRegistrations = await _hub.GetAllRegistrationsAsync(0);
var continuationToken = allRegistrations.ContinuationToken;
var registrationDescriptionsList = new List<RegistrationDescription>(allRegistrations);
while (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(continuationToken))
{
var otherRegistrations = await _hub.GetAllRegistrationsAsync(continuationToken, 0);
registrationDescriptionsList.AddRange(otherRegistrations);
continuationToken = otherRegistrations.ContinuationToken;
}
// Put into DeviceInstallation object
var deviceInstallationList = new List<DeviceInstallation>();
foreach (var registration in registrationDescriptionsList)
{
var deviceInstallation = new DeviceInstallation();
var tags = registration.Tags;
foreach(var tag in tags)
{
if (tag.Contains("InstallationId:"))
{
deviceInstallation.InstallationId = new Guid(tag.Substring(tag.IndexOf(":")+1));
}
}
deviceInstallation.PushHandle = registration.PnsHandle;
deviceInstallation.Tags = new List<string>(registration.Tags);
deviceInstallationList.Add(deviceInstallation);
}
I am not suggesting this to be the cleanest chunk of code written, but it does the trick for us. We only use this for debugging type purposes anyways

RallyAPI: How do I create a UserStory and relate it to a Feature?

So, I'm writing an app to 'flesh out' new clients in Rally. It will have tools to create templates which will add first:
add a 'Feature'
add 'UserStories' under that 'Feature'
add 'Tasks' under those 'UserStories' individually
I have figured out step 1. But how to associate anything I can't figure out from the horrible and cryptic documentation. Here's what I have so far:
var FeatureToAdd = _featureRepository.GetFeatures().FirstOrDefault(x => x.Id == 2);
// Initialize the REST API. You can specify a web service version if needed in the constructor.
RallyRestApi restApi = GetRallyRestApi();
//Create an item
DynamicJsonObject toCreate = new DynamicJsonObject();
toCreate["Name"] = FeatureToAdd.Name;
toCreate["Description"] = FeatureToAdd.Description;
// important to which this belongs, but I no ID I ever use works
//toCreate["Workspace"] = "/workspace/" + WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["RallyAPIWorkspaceID"];
//toCreate["Project"] = "/project/XXXXX";
//toCreate["Iteration"] = "/iteration/XXXXXX";
// create feature - feature is under PortfolioItem
CreateResult createFeatureResult = restApi.Create("PortfolioItem/Feature", toCreate);
// scrape ID off the end of the reference
var pureId = createFeatureResult.Reference.Substring(createFeatureResult.Reference.LastIndexOf('/') + 1);
// add UserStories
foreach (UserStory u in FeatureToAdd.UserStories)
{
toCreate = new DynamicJsonObject();
toCreate["Name"] =u.Name;
toCreate["Description"] = u.Description;
toCreate["WorkProduct"] = "PortfolioItem/Feature/" + pureId;
//toCreate["WorkProduct"] = createFeatureResult.Reference;<- tried this too
// hierarchicalrequirement = UserStory
CreateResult createUserStoryResult = restApi.Create("hierarchicalrequirement", toCreate);
}
Running this creates both, but no association happens. I get a warning:
Ignored JSON element hierarchicalrequirement.WorkProduct during processing of this request.
Why did it arbitrarily ignore this?...

It ignored WorkProduct because WorkProduct is not a valid field on HierarchicalRequirement. The field you want to specify to set the feature parent of a story is called PortfolioItem.
toCreate["PortfolioItem"] = Ref.GetRelativeRef(createFeatureResult.Reference);
Also, object relationships are specified as in WSAPI as refs (/type/id) so you can just directly pass in the reference from the createFeatureResult.
Sorry you're finding the api to be frustrating. It definitely has some weird dark corners but once you use it a bit and get a feel for how the various domain objects are related I think you'll find it to be quite powerful and consistent.

How can I get the LastRunTime for a report using the Business Objects Web Services SDK?

I'm using the Business Objects Web Services SDK to access our Business Objects data. I've successfully got a list of reports, and from that found the LastSuccessfulInstance of a report that has been previously run. However, I can't seem to get the LastRunTime to be populated. When I do a query with no attributes specified it comes back as not set, and I get the same result when I ask for that attribute in particular. I've looked at the report itself and the instance and they both don't have this information. Does anyone know where I can get it from?
Here's my code (hacked from one of SAP's demos):
var sessConnUrl = serviceUrl + "/session";
var boConnection = new BusinessObjects.DSWS.Connection(sessConnUrl);
var boSession = new Session(boConnection);
// Setup the Enterprise Credentials used to login to the Enterprise System
var boEnterpriseCredential = new EnterpriseCredential
{
Domain = cmsname,
Login = username,
Password = password,
AuthType = authType
};
// Login to the Enterprise System and retrieve the SessionInfo
boSession.Login(boEnterpriseCredential);
/************************** DISPLAY INBOX OBJECTS *************************/
// Retrieve the BIPlatform Service so it can be used to add the USER
var biPlatformUrl = boSession.GetAssociatedServicesURL("BIPlatform");
var boBiPlatform = BIPlatform.GetInstance(boSession, biPlatformUrl[0]);
// Specify the query used to retrieve the inbox objects
// NOTE: Adding a "/" at the end of the query indicates that we want to
// retrieve the all the objects located directly under the inbox.
// Without the "/" Path operator, the inbox itself would be returned.
const string query = "path://InfoObjects/Root Folder/Reports/";
// Execute the query and retrieve the reports objects
var boResponseHolder = boBiPlatform.Get(query, null);
var boInfoObjects = boResponseHolder.InfoObjects.InfoObject;
// If the reports contains a list of objects, loop through and display them
if (boInfoObjects != null)
{
// Go through and display the list of documents
foreach (var boInfoObject in boInfoObjects)
{
var report = boInfoObject as Webi;
if (report == null)
continue;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(report.LastSuccessfulInstanceCUID))
{
var instanceQuery = "cuid://<" + report.LastSuccessfulInstanceCUID + ">";
var instanceResponseHolder = boBiPlatform.Get(instanceQuery, null);
var instance = instanceResponseHolder.InfoObjects.InfoObject[0];
}
}
}
Both report.LastRunTimeSpecified and instance.LastRunTimeSpecified are false and both LastRunTime are 01\01\0001, but I can see a last run time in the Web Intelligence UI.

With a little help from Ted Ueda at SAP support I figured it out. Not all the properties are populated by default you need to append #* to the query string to get everything, i.e. change the line:
const string query = "path://InfoObjects/Root Folder/Reports/";
to:
const string query = "path://InfoObjects/Root Folder/Reports/#*";

Open Lotus Notes database by Replica ID in C#

I created a program a while ago using C# that does some automation for a completely different program, but found that I need to access data from a Lotus Notes database. The only problem is, I can only seem to figure out how to open the database by the server's name (using session.GetDatabase())... I can't figure out how to open it by Replica ID. Does anyone know how I would go about that? (I don't want my program going down every time the server changes.)
public static string[] GetLotusNotesHelpTickets()
{
NotesSession session = new NotesSession();
session.Initialize(Password);
// 85256B45:000EE057 = NTNOTES1A Server Replica ID
NotesDatabase database = session.GetDatabase("NTNOTES1A", "is/gs/gshd.nsf", false);
string SearchFormula = string.Concat("Form = \"Call Ticket\""
, " & GroupAssignedTo = \"Business Systems\""
, " & CallStatus = \"Open\"");
NotesDocumentCollection collection = database.Search(SearchFormula, null, 0);
NotesDocument document = collection.GetFirstDocument();
string[] ticketList = new string[collection.Count];
for (int i = 0; i < collection.Count; ++i)
{
ticketList[i] = ((object[])(document.GetItemValue("TicketNumber")))[0].ToString();
document = collection.GetNextDocument(document);
}
document = null;
collection = null;
database = null;
session = null;
return ticketList;
}
This code is working fine, but if the server changed from NTNOTES1A, then nothing is going to work anymore.

you'll need to use the notesDbDirectory.OpenDatabaseByReplicaID(rid$) method. To get the NotesDbDirectory, you can use the getDbDirectory method of the session
Set notesDbDirectory = notesSession.GetDbDirectory( serverName$ )
So you can use the code below to get a database by replicaID.
public static string[] GetLotusNotesHelpTickets()
{
NotesSession session = new NotesSession();
session.Initialize(Password);
Set notesDBDirectory = session.GetDbDirectory("NTNOTES1A")
// 85256B45:000EE057 = NTNOTES1A Server Replica ID
NotesDatabase database = notesDBDirectory.OpenDatabaseByReplicaID("85256B45:000EE057")
string SearchFormula = string.Concat("Form = \"Call Ticket\""
, " & GroupAssignedTo = \"Business Systems\""
, " & CallStatus = \"Open\"");
NotesDocumentCollection collection = database.Search(SearchFormula, null, 0);
NotesDocument document = collection.GetFirstDocument();
string[] ticketList = new string[collection.Count];
for (int i = 0; i < collection.Count; ++i)
{
ticketList[i] = ((object[])(document.GetItemValue("TicketNumber")))[0].ToString();
document = collection.GetNextDocument(document);
}
document = null;
collection = null;
database = null;
session = null;
return ticketList;
}
Unfortunately, this only solves half of your problem. I know you'd rather just tell Notes to fetch the database with a particular replicaID from the server closest to the client, just like the Notes Client does when you click on a DBLink or Bookmark. However, there is (or appears to be) no way to do that using the Notes APIs.
My suggestion is to either loop through a hard-coded list of potential servers by name, and check to see if the database is found (the OpenDatabaseByReplicaID method returns ERR_SYS_FILE_NOT_FOUND (error 0FA3) if the database is not found). If that's not a good option, perhaps you can easily expose the servername in an admin menu of your app so it can be changed easily if the server name changes at some point.

set database = new NotesDatabase("")
call database.OpenByReplicaID("repid")