This is an interesting bit of .Net code put together by Microsoft. I was able to get my hands on this software and installed all of the wonderful components needed for it. Mainly one needs to have .net Framework 2.0 and MSDE2000a installed for the analyzer to work. Why they did not just drop this data to XML I am unsure.
Ok, first, let me explain that I did every possible thing I could think of to verify the information I was seeing. Instead of getting an explanation as to why this tool seemed like FUD, I was presented with more data to show me that it was definately FUD. Now, true, Microsoft did say that this was "Beta" but it looks more like alpha software. The only true connection this tool does to a database is getting database header information. After that, it deposits that information in to the MSDE database I created and then imports the data into the Crystal Report templates that are delivered with the application.
I think what scared me the most was I kept getting the same recommendations - WSS, Other.
It would seem this is a Sharepoint selling tool. I tried to get it to look at my local mail template but alas, it would not look at the mail directory. So I tried to move my local mail file to the data directory... the analyzer WOULD NOT READ IT. Strange huh?
Another interesting thing is the naming of the DLLs and the Forms, Functions, etc. inside them. Why do they start with Microsoft.Exchange.AppAnalyzer.* ? Trying to figure that one out.
After looking through the Microsoft.Exechange.AppAnalyzer.DataCollection DLL I see absolutely no methods or functions reading design in this application. All the DataCollection is doing is reading the database header information. Being the disbelieving soul that I am, I restarted my machine with the SoftIce suite. Re-Ran the Analyzer and pulled up Softice during the "Data Collection" stage. Much to my surprise, there are functions that I missed that are being called that access the database. With method names such as "StartDataCollection" and "StartDataImport" I thought maybe I had missed so methods looking through these DLLs when it dawned on me that SoftIce was not lying that they returned null values. There is no code in these methods. They do NOTHING. So, after confirming that this application just gets header information with SoftIce, I pulled out my trusty HexEditor and scanned through the DLLs looking for clues and verified what my DLL search had brought to my attention.
So, on top of the fact that this tool does really nothing other than looks ok aesthetically, they paid a programmer to make a neat interface, use the "lcppn30.dll" that Lotus so nicely provided them in some form or fashion to access the Notes databases (which I have a problem since I do not think IBM/Lotus meant for it to be used in this fashion but.. oh well....), and they got some database information and told everyone that it can be replaced with Sharepoint. Huh... that's a big bloody surprise.
Wow MS - you have really stooped lower than low on this one in my book. At this point, Gates bashing is pointless. Maybe we as Lotus people can pull together and write a SharePoint/Exchange/SQL Server/Windows Server System/Live Communicator analyzer... but that would be interesting because of the fact that Notes/Domino platform does what all of these do combined.
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Thursday, February 02, 2006
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8 comments:
This is very surprising.
When I read that the 2003 version only supports pre-R6 release, I thought they are taking the new design elements added to R6 into consideration.
You can take a look at a number of forms, check to see if there are any script libraries used, check the number of agents etc and then atleast come to the conclusion that it's something more than easy. So surprising that they didn't even do this.
Well, if they are only looking at WSS/SPS as the suggestion,I think they only want to find out if the notes application is based on one of the existing templates. There are some 30+ share point templates that are the solutions to "common notes applications" like say time sheets etc.
It refused to process Mail database? They should modify the code to suggest Exchange as the replacement :)
Long way to go MS. They may have to outsource the project to OpenNTF, where some .NET knowledgable folks can help.
Good work fella!
---* Bill
http://www.billbuchan.com
It seems to me that the final nail in the coffin will be provided if you simply alter the template inheritance property in a couple of databases and see if it alters that results.
Thank yall for your support... I will have to say, while thinking about how all this will work.. without Proposion code for .Net>COM or without MS writing this mostly in C++, they will never get this to work properly.
They can write it in C++ or even investigate using COM objects or probably use DXL(R6 & above) with matching transformation to analyse.
The question is what can they finally figure out? Can you read through the lotus script code, understand the business context and figure out the complexity?
At the maximum, considering the number of design elements, measuring the lines of lotus script code, fucntions & script libararies, you can make a rough decision.
But then, the code could have been badly written, that is 40 lines of code where a few lines could be enough.
Also, what you do with several lines of lotus script code could have been done with a simple select formula (check Jake's blog : One Week's solution).
What if I am writing complex two line formula but multi-line simple ormula? ComputeWithForm method alone can spell disaster sometimes!
So, the question is, what is the ultimate objective of the analyzer? To determine notes application complexity & how are you going to do it? Just a design sysnopsis in notes database would give me more information than what I get out of that analyzer.
Sorry for the lengthy post.
Well, what gets me is if they think they can analyze some of the code I have seen over the past few months, they are crazy. Wonderful things like looping through one document and using while loops that exit in the middle on all values... and initialized array that use half of the available values because there will never be more than half... I fear this stuff...
Fantastic analysis sir. Is it just me that is looking forward to the final product release????
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