VSTS 2008 Web Test and Windows Authentication Login Popup

You are a user (Domain A\Ray) in domain A. If you use VSTS 2008 web test to test the URL in domain B, IE 7 will have the Windows Authentication login popup to remind you of entering the username (Domain B\Ray) and password in domain B. You will see the login popup as follows:

The server XXX.XXX.com at XXX.XXX.com requires a username and password.

After you enter your username and password, the web test moves on and finally makes your test fail. When you see the test result, you find one of the requests is: You are not authorized to view this page.

After you generate the codes and find that VSTS 2008 doesn’t record the username and password you just entered. How can you handle this situation?

You need to add the following source codes.

this.UserName = "abc\raylin";
this.Password = “12345”;

After you add them and if the test case still fails, please check if you install VSTS 2008 SP1. You might also need to add the proxy in your source codes too. You will make your test case pass.

VSTS 2008 Web test-The remote name could not be resolved

If you use VSTS 2008 to do the web test, you might have one issue- the remote name could not be resolved. It is hard to say what makes your web test case failed.

When I have this issue, I always think it is the proxy issue. When I add the following source code, it works all the time.

this.Proxy = “XXX.XXX.com";

VSTS 2008 web test recorder bar does not show up

During this month, I have used VSTS 2008 web test to create more than 200 automated tests in my current Microsoft Project without any problem. The test automation runs very smoothly every day.

Today I used my personal PC in my house to create one simple automated test. Unluckily, the recorder bar didn’t show up. My PC environment is as follows:

Windows XP SP3, IE 7, VSTS 2008 SP1.

I finally found that my Microsoft Web Test Recorder was disabled. Only what I needed to do was launch IE 7, go to Internet Options/Programs/Manage Add-ons and enable Microsoft Web Test Recorder.

After that, the issue was fixed. I could create the simple web test successfully.

VSTS 2008 could not load file or assembly Interop.SHDocVw

Today I downloaded WatiN (Web application test in .Net) tools and wanted to run the web test using Visual Studio .Net 2008. I got the following error:

Could not load file or assembly 'Interop.SHDocVw, Version=1.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)

If you see this in the future, it is easy to fix it. You can just go to C:\Windows\System32 and copy shdocvw.dll to the bin directory of your current project.

Open your Visual Studio project, add shdocvw.dll in your references and run the test again. The problem will be disappeared.

Always install SQL Server 2008 RTM first before you install Visual Studio 2008

If you have Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta on your PC, and then you want to install SQL Server 2008 RTM, you might have the following error.

A previous release of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is installed on this computer. Upgrade Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 to the SP1 before installing SQL Server 2008.
(see : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956139)

That’s because you have Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta on your PC, not Visual Studio 2008 SP1. If you don’t have SP1, you can’t install it successfully. Today is August 9, and we need to wait until Microsoft releases Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

If you really want to install SQL Server 2008 RTM now, you need to uninstall Visual Studio 2008 and SP1 , install SQL Server 2008 RTM and then reinstall Visual Studio 2008. When Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is released, you can install it later.

The lesson I learn :
Always install SQL Server 2008 RTM first before you install Visual Studio 2008 +SP1

Microsoft doesn’t support upgrading from SQL Server 2008 RC0 to SQL Server 2008 RTM

If you have SQL Server 2008 RC0 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta on your PC and then you want to upgrade to SQL Server 2008 RTM, You may feel disappointed.

At this moment, Microsoft doesn’t support upgrading from SQL Server 2008 RC0 to SQL Server 2008 RTM.

You need to uninstall SQL Server 2008 Beta and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta first and then install SQL Server 2008 RTM.

Will it change in the future??

The installation package cannot be installed by the installer service

SQL Server 2008 RTM is released now. Today I used my Windows Server 2008 PC to download SQL Server 2008 Books Online (SQLServer2008_BOL.msi). I tried to install it, but it had the following message.

The installation package cannot be installed by the installer service. You must install a windows service pack that contains a newer version of the windows installer service.

This message showed that I didn’t have Windows Installer. After I installed Windows Installer 4.5 Redistributable (Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x86.msu), everything was fine.

How to upgrade to SQL Server 2008 RC0?

If you have SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008 Feb CTP on your PC and then if you want to upgrade to SQL Server 2008 RC0, on the UI side, you only can see the link which can let you upgrade from SQL Server 2000 or 2005 to SQL Server 2008 RC0.

How do you upgrade from SQL Server Feb CTP to SQL Server 2008? I would like to say that you can click the above link to try if the upgrade is working. I believe this link also supports Build-to-Build upgrade.

If you don’t want to use UI to do the upgrade, you can also use the command line to do the upgrade as follows:

setup.exe /ACTION=Upgrade /INSTANCENAME=yourInstancename

After entering the command line, you will know how to upgrade to SQL Server 2008 RC0.

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 doesn’t support Windows Server 2008

Today when I wanted to install Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 on my PC with Windows Server 2008, I found the install had no UI. The black console showed up quickly and then disappeared.

The UI showed the error messages with the incomplete install and the complete install , which made me feel confused. Did it mean that the install is incomplete or complete? Actually there was no real install.

Finally I found that Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 only supports the operating systems: Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista. Therefore , I can't use Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 on Windows Server 2008.

Will it change in the future?

Can’t you install SQL Server 2005 tools after you install VSTS 2008?

If you install VSTS 2008 first successfully on your PC and then if you install SQL Server 2005 with default instance later, you might get the dialogue box saying that you can’t install SQL Server 2005 Tools (Workstation Components, Books Online and Development Tools) . If you try to install SQL Server 2005 tools with named instance, it is not working either. You may feel disappointed.

That’s because when you install VSTS 2008, you also install SQL Express automatically, which blocks you to install SQL Server 2005 tools.

Don’t worry. You can just do the following steps:

1. Go to Add/Remove Programs

2. Choose Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

3. Uninstall Workstation Components, Books Online and Development Tools.

4. Install SQL Server 2005 Tools again.

You will fix the problem.