Adding HTTP Authentication for a user in Subversion

If you've already got your HTTP Authentication setup (instructions for that can be found here) then you can add a new user (eg. xyz) like this:

$htpasswd2 -m /etc/svn-auth-file xyz

Note that for Apache 2, you use the htpasswd2 command, NOT htpasswd.

Solution to the ORABEL-08021 "partnerlink not found" problem!

I was seeing an ORABPEL-08021 error when calling a Oracle BPEL web service via C# in .Net. Specifically, the error returned was:

<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <env:Header/>
  <env:Body>
    <env:Fault xmlns:env="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
      <faultcode xmlns="">env:Server</faultcode>
      <faultstring xmlns="">ORABPEL-08021 Cannot find partner wsdl. parnterLink "MyService" is not found in process "MyService" (revision "1.0") Please check the deployment descriptor of the process to find the correct partnerLink name.
      </faultstring>
      <faultactor xmlns=""></faultactor>
    </env:Fault>
  </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

The problem was that I was using the wrong URI to access the service. I was using:

http://myserver:8888/orabpel/default/MyService/1.0/MyService

and I should have been using:

http://myserver:8888/orabpel/default/MyService/1.0

So, my own silly fault really! Normally I can take the WSDL address (eg. http://myserver:8888/orabpel/default/MyService/1.0/MyService?wsdl) and just drop the "?wsdl" off the end to get the service endpoint. Not with these Oracle BPEL services though. If I had bothered to read the WSDL, I would have seen that the endpoint address is clearly specified. One more thing to note: with an Oracle BPEL service, you can also drop the version number off the end and it will still work, calling the latest version by default. eg:

http://myserver:8888/orabpel/default/MyService

Where should I put my .Net DLL for COM Interop?

I have a .Net DLL which I want to use from VB6 via COM interop. Where should I put it when I deploy it? (look here to see how to make a .Net DLL useable via VB6)

The key thing is that in order to use your .Net dll from VB6 you do need to register the .Net DLL. You don't need to to do anything special in the VB6 program - it doesn't matter how you reference the .Net DLL in your VB6 program. The command to register a .Net DLL is "regasm". This lives under "C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v2.0.50727" (or whatever .Net framework version you have).

There are three options for where to put your .Net DLL:

1. Put it in the GAC. If you want to share the same .Net DLL with more than one VB6 program then you can put it in the GAC (Global Assembly Cache). To do this, you can use an MSI file, or manually, you can copy it to c:\windows\assembly, and then register it via "regasm c:\winnt\assembly\mydotnet.dll".

2. Put it in the EXE folder. If you want the .Net DLL to live in the same place as your VB6 EXE then you can copy it to that folder, and then use "regasm c:\vb6\exe\folder\mydotnet.dll". Note that the .Net DLL has to be in the same folder as the VB6 EXE. So if you have VB6 EXE calling a VB6 DLL which calls your .Net dll then it must go in the EXEs folder - it won't find it in VB6 DLLs folder.

3. Put it in any folder via codebase. If you want the .Net DLL to live anywhere else, you can use use "regasm c:\program files\vanwills\mydotnet.dll /codebase". This will register the .Net DLL to the path you provide. This is a bit like the old VB6 regsvr32 command. So using this we can have the .Net DLL sitting in the "c:\vb6\dll\folder" folder.

The only other point to note is that .Net will always check the GAC first before other locations. So if we have a .Net DLL in the GAC, then even if we register the same DLL somewhere else via the "/codebase" option, it will always use the GAC DLL. You can get around this by changing the version number on the DLL - it will always load the version with the highest number first.