Just published out version 1.2 of uManage.  It now includes a little more automated setup process as well as the new Admin Portal which as of right now only allows the system administrator to view and change some system settings.  The next release (~ 1.5) will really have a lot of the new functionality that will start to make the product really usable in an organization for managing users.  I got a request from one of the previous releases for some screenshots.  I added more to CodePlex and will include them here as well.  If you have an Active Directory test environment the app takes less than 10 minutes to have up and running, so just give it a shot, worst comes to worse and you remove it.

Check it out now: http://umanage.codeplex.com

Check back here for more in the future!

-Brent

Well, it has been a busy week but I managed to find a few hours to update uManage to include a setup wizard as well as fix the first issue.  For those who just want to download it visit Codeplex.

The setup wizard was always in the master plan to make it easy to setup the application as well as in the future allow IT Pro’s who may not know much about ASP.NET to simply download the application as part of Microsoft’s Web Platform Installer.  So essentially, once downloaded IIS and the File System would already be configured and simply need someone to run through the wizard to configure everything else.  Pretty simple I think.

In addition the first issue fix was included.  Of course I was the one that logged it but nonetheless it was important.  In Version 1.0 the membership section was not encrypted which meant that the username and password could potentially be read by anyone who has access to the file system and possibly not to the domain.  They could be employees or potential hackers who want to cause problems.  Either way when the setup wizard is run it encrypts the membership provider section which makes it pretty hard to get to the username and password for the application.

Of course anyone who uses this application really should create a new user account that has delegated rights to mitigate any major security problems.  I will have a new post soon on how to set all of that up as I have a feeling the developers out there might not know what that is all about.  Security is still important people!

Well off to pack for a trip, but check back soon for updates.

-Brent

Well, over the past week or so I have been working on a new ASP.NET web application.  It really served two or three purposes for me.  One was to brush up on Active Directory programming which is really not that much fun, but is still required in most enterprise programming scenarios simply because it is usually readily available for SSO type services for applications.  The second which was way more fun was to get more familiar with Visual Studio 2010 and in particular the .NET 4.0 framework.  A lot of the new ASP.NET features are well needed and deserved in my opinion but that is a whole other post on its own.  The last reason to do this was really the fact that I could not find a self-service style portal available on the internet for free or that was a regular website and not some SharePoint implementation.  So I wrote my own!

The initial plan was simply to create a website that allows users to access the site and update their personal information like telephone numbers to take the burden off of IT and HR to have to add the information.  Of course not to pawn off any more work from IT to HR but the next logical step is to create an HR dashboard in the system that allows help desk techs and HR to create new employees in the system or even to disable and delete employees from the system.  After all HR already enters employees into Payroll, benefits, and god knows what else.  At least now the information can be stored in AD and potentially be usable by other applications.  The current implementation does not implement a lot of the hidden attributes like Assistant, Employee ID, Badge Number, etc. but depending on feedback they can easily be added.

The best part about all of this is that Administrators still have full control over how users are created, which OU’s they should be added to, etc.  In the future I want to integrate Exchange support as well so that it really is a seamless process for creating users.  Worst case scenario the System Administrator’s job is a little easier.

The project is hosted on CodePlex and is available under the Ms-PL license which is an OSI compliant license so its really a benefit to all.  Did I mention it’s free?

That’s all for now!

-Brent

OK,

So here is the long awaited update.  We have had a few major things hit our family pretty hard right here at the end of the year and it looks like 2010 will be a long rough year as well.  I figured the best way to convey what has happened is by letting my dad tell the story which he did through an email to our close family and friends:

Beth had surgery for a subcutaneous cyst Monday before Christmas.  Late Wednesday the surgeon called and informed us it was not a cyst.  It was a B-Cell Lymphoma (http://www.lymphomainfo.net/nhl/b-cell.html).  The tumor was slightly smaller than a golf ball.

On the positive side, with Beth working on the Oncology/Orthopedics floor at Wake Med she was able to reach out to an Oncologist she is most impressed with.  They chatted Saturday morning and he said it was fine to make our trip to Baltimore to be with family.

We went to Baltimore; but by Sunday morning Beth was having extreme difficulty breathing.  We had to have EMS take her to Carroll County Hospital Center in Westminster, MD.

To make a long story short, she has blood clots in both her lungs and in her left leg (Bi-Lateral Pulmonary Embolism and a Deep Vein Thrombosis in the lower left extremity).  They are pumping her full of Heparin to dissolve the clots and thin her blood.  There are multiple possible reasons for the clots including a downstream effect from the Lymphoma.  However, no one seems sure how we got where we are and they are just trying to get her blood and pulmonary function back to a therapeutic level.  That is a good thing because she could not walk 10 feet before she was totally out of breath and her heart rate spiking.

So with that being said it is now New Years Day and she has still not been released from the hospital.  We are currently expecting her to be released sometime early next week.  Once she returns we begin to meet with oncologists and others to figure out exactly what to do next.  In the mean time we appreciate all of the thoughts, prayers and help from all of our friends and family.

-Brent