Thursday, December 22, 2011
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year
I just wanted to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May 2012 be a good one.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Loading pictures to Active Directory via FIM
I've recently noticed a few discussions (one thread is in the FIM 2010 forum) on how to get pictures loaded into FIM and maybe into Active Directory (AD); for a recent customer project I did a VERY quick Extensible Management Agent (ECMA) with an extension to load pictures from a file share and into to FIM.
I want to strees that this ECMA has not been extensively tested for production and is missing some error handling and good logging. But it is currently running a burn-in at customer site and seems to be working properly, so if it will help you go in the right direction - well, then it is all yours for inspiration.
The current version basically loads JPG files from a file share specified as a Config Parameter and turns the pictures into a Base64 string. The Extension then actually converts the string back to a byte array which can be directly exported to Active Directory thumbnailPhoto.
Remember that the general recommendation is to store pictures in Active Directory at a size of 96x96 pixels and a size of less than 10Kb; however, I have heard from Microsoft that the attribute thumbnailPhoto actually supports up to 100Kb size pictures, so you'd would have to check with the different applications for size and dimensions expectations, i.e. Outlook enjoys a 96x96 picture but other application may have other preferences and SharePoint generates three different size, 144x144, 96x96 and 32x32 pixels for use in different situations.
Get the compiled version and source code for both the XMA and the Extension here.
Enjoy.
I want to strees that this ECMA has not been extensively tested for production and is missing some error handling and good logging. But it is currently running a burn-in at customer site and seems to be working properly, so if it will help you go in the right direction - well, then it is all yours for inspiration.
The current version basically loads JPG files from a file share specified as a Config Parameter and turns the pictures into a Base64 string. The Extension then actually converts the string back to a byte array which can be directly exported to Active Directory thumbnailPhoto.
Remember that the general recommendation is to store pictures in Active Directory at a size of 96x96 pixels and a size of less than 10Kb; however, I have heard from Microsoft that the attribute thumbnailPhoto actually supports up to 100Kb size pictures, so you'd would have to check with the different applications for size and dimensions expectations, i.e. Outlook enjoys a 96x96 picture but other application may have other preferences and SharePoint generates three different size, 144x144, 96x96 and 32x32 pixels for use in different situations.
Get the compiled version and source code for both the XMA and the Extension here.
Enjoy.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
MARunScheduler
I, sometimes, miss the old MASequencer from the Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003 Resource Tool Kit 2.0.
Recently, I missed it so much that I decided to rewrite it for use with FIM. It is actually able to load and work using the old MASequencer XML files (nice!?). It is currently in released for free as a limited version which is already running a some of my customers as well.
There is a commercial full-version of this available that has more features, including clearing of old run histories and customizable log filenames and more. Write me an email if you want more information on the commercial version which also comes with support and free feature requests.
You can find the manual and download here.
Recently, I missed it so much that I decided to rewrite it for use with FIM. It is actually able to load and work using the old MASequencer XML files (nice!?). It is currently in released for free as a limited version which is already running a some of my customers as well.
You can find the manual and download here.
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