Category: Administration

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K2 Blackpearl Re-Resolve Group to Users

K2 Blackpearl Re-Resolve Group to Users

We have a system built around the K2 Blackpearl workflow engine that routes requests to the appropriate destinations. We switched a number of users from one active directory domain to an entirely different one, which K2’s cache wasn’t aware of. This caused some users to be missed when resolving the workflow destination active directory group to its members.

Force K2 Workflow Activity to Re-Resolve AD Group Destination to Members

The first thing we need to do is force K2 to refresh its cache for the problematic active directory group.

  1. Navigate to the server where K2 is hosted.
  2. Find the ForceIdentityServiceRefresh application shipped with K2. For us, that’s in the C:\K2 folder.
  3. Enter the Group name, select the “Group” object type and check each checkbox to force a full cache refresh for the given group.K2 Cache Force Identity Refresh
  4. Click the Clear Identity Cache button.

Now that the cache is cleared K2 will have a reference to the latest members associated with the group in question. It’s time to make the K2 workflow re-resolve its destination:

  1. Open the K2 Workspace.
  2. Navigate to the Management Console.
  3. Within the Management Console menu tree, navigate to the Instances node of the workflow process that has a problematic instance, which is typically under the following path:

    K2ServerName -> Workflow Server -> Processes -> Your.Process.Name -> Your.Workflow.Name -> Instances

  4. Search for the workflow instance you want to re-resolve destinations for, select it, then click Goto Activity.K2 Workflow Instance
  5. Within the Goto Activity screen you’ll see a list of all available activities associated with the workflow. Select the same activity the workflow is currently at, then press OK.K2 Workflow GoTo Activity

The result of following the above steps will force the given instance of your K2 workflow process to re-evaluate the selected activity, effectively causing a re-resolution of the destination group to its members from K2’s refreshed cache. 

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Polaroid TV Turns On by Itself

Polaroid TV Turns On by Itself

We went out on a limb and purchased the Polaroid 4K Ultra HD TV. For the most part this TV was a good buy: great picture, sound and built-in functionality. One feature, however, made the TV appear to have a mind of its own. Periodically throughout the day we found that the TV turns on by itself as if there was a ghost inside the machine.

After doing some research I discovered the Consumer Electronics Control (CEC), which is a feature of HDMI ports. If you’ve ever turned your TV on by pressing the remote of an Apple TV or Amazon Fire Stick, you’ve made use of this handy feature. In short, it enables third-party systems like an Amazon Fire Stick to control the power of the TV itself, effectively avoiding the need for multiple remotes.

I never realized how much I enjoyed this feature until it was gone. That’s right, sadly the solution to our ghost problem was to disable CEC support. This feature is built-in to many different TV models, so this same fix may be relevant elsewhere. Sadly, not all manufacturers label CEC as obviously in the settings, so you may need to search for it. Fortunately, Polaroid stuck to the classic (and correct) CEC nomenclature. 

Disabling Polaroid TV Consumer Electronics Control CEC

Our Polaroid TV has a malfunction in the Consumer Electronics Control which caused the power to randomly cycle on when anything was plugged into the HDMI ports. While disabling this feature is a bummer, it did permanently resolve the issue (and beats unplugging the HDMI cord every night!). Here’s how you can test whether this solution works for you:

Press the Menu button on your remote, then choose Settings:

Polaroid TV Menu

In the Settings menu, select CEC:

Polaroid TV Settings Menu

Within the CEC Settings view, turn CEC Control: Off

Polaroid TV Settings CEC Off

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WordPress Error Thrown: Call to Undefined Function

WordPress Error Thrown: Call to Undefined Function

Suddenly I began receiving a “call to undefined function” error when accessing my website. The admin section worked without issue, and there were no changes to the website aside from the automatic updates, but the website decided to no longer function correctly.

The full error message was as follows:

Error thrown
Call to undefined function lighthouse_posted_on()

The fact that the function lighthouse_posted_on() was in the error message was a pretty great clue: for some reason my theme-specific function was not being found, which points fingers toward the issue being with my theme rather than the WordPress install.

Note: if you’re seeing a WordPress specific function in the error, it’s likely that your automatic install failed and you should try manually installing the latest version again.

Verifying Your Theme Parent Theme

I’m using the lighthouse theme which I customized through child theming. After realizing the issue had to be with my theme, I navigated to Appearance -> Theme in the WordPress admin and noticed a parent/child theme related error at the very bottom stating:

ERROR: The parent theme is missing. Please install the “Lighthouse” parent theme.

This was verified when I looked for the theme and couldn’t find it anywhere. Somehow, the Lighthouse parent theme was deleted!

WordPress conveniently provided a button to download and install the theme again. After doing so, I was able to re-activate my child theme, which immediately resolved the Call to Undefined Function error, making my website accessible once again.

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Bluehost Domain Account Email Forwarding to Gmail

Bluehost Domain Account Email Forwarding to Gmail

Every website deserves its own email with the domain name in the address. I’m using Bluehost for my wordpress blog which comes with several free email accounts, it’s just up to you to make use of them. You have the option to utilize a free mail client, use an existing one, or forward along any received emails to a personal account. I use Gmail as my primary mail client, and want to enjoy the comfort I have in the application while managing my domain account email, so I’ll be setting up email forwarding. Along with forwarding, I’ll want to have the ability to respond from my Gmail account with my Bluehost domain account email as the sender.

Let’s go over the goals of this post:

  • Setup an email with Bluehost
  • Forward emails from Bluehost to your Gmail, and setup Gmail to respond as your Bluehost domain account email

Create Your Bluehost Domain Account Email

A domain account email is one where the domain name of your website comes after the @. For example, [email protected]. Looks pretty good, right? Fortunately, this is incredibly easy to setup.

  1. Log into your Bluehost control panel, then select the Email tab on the left-hand menu
  2. Once selected, enter a solid password (look at that 100/100) and create your account

Bluehost Domain Account Email

Now we have a new email address created which can begin receiving emails. Perfect, now let’s forward those emails to a client we’re more comfortable with like Gmail.

Forward Domain Emails to Gmail

When an email is sent to your Bluehost domain account email, a copy of that email will be forwarded along to the email you specify in the below steps. Email forwarding in this case will allow us to avoid having to manage our email through a separate client:

  1. Back in the Bluehost cPanel, under the Email tab on the left-hand menu, click Forwarders
  2. In the forwarders screen, click the Add Forwarder button. You can also click the Add Domain Forwarder if you’d like to forward any and all emails sent to any Bluehost domain account email you have configured. For now, we’ll stick to just forwarding the onecPanel Forwarders
  3. Fill in the forwarding email account, then click Add Forwarder

    Add Forwarder

That’s it, now your domain email account will have its mail forwarded along to your personal account. Give it a shot: email your domain account email and see if your personal gets a copy. This didn’t work immediately for me, there may be a delay for these changes to propagate. If at first it doesn’t work, give it a little while and try again.

Email forwarding is configured, nice work! Now let’s setup our personal Gmail to allow replying as our domain account email.

Replying to Forwarded Emails as the Domain Account

Gmail allows you to setup additional “send as” accounts when composing a new email. By defining another “send as” email account, we can reply to emails that are forwarded from our website domain account email as the domain account email. Let’s set that up:

  1. Log into your Gmail account
  2. At the top right, click the settings icon Gmail Settings Gear, then choose Settings
  3. In the settings window, select Account and Import, then Add another email addressGmail Add Another Email Address
  4. In the resulting window, enter your domain account email that you’re forwarding from. Leave the Treat as alias checkbox checked, then click Next
  5. You’ll be prompted for the SMTP server, username and password. The SMTP server should be your website domain name prefixed with “mail”. For example, mail.storiknow.com. Your credentials will be whatever you use to log into Bluehost.
  6. Once authenticated, Google will send a verification email to your domain account email. Log into your Bluehost email client and click the verification email
  7. Back in Gmail, compose a new email and verify the newly added account is available in the From field

 

There you have it. We’ve successfully created a domain account email, forwarded emails to our personal account, and configured our personal account to respond as our domain account. This allows seamless receipt and response!

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Resolving the Visual Studio “Project Types May Not Be Installed” Error

Resolving the Visual Studio “Project Types May Not Be Installed” Error

I recently received a new work laptop and went through the pains of installing all the necessary software. Of course, things were missed, one of which was the SQL Server Data Tools. We’ve created a number of Report Server Project’s using the SQL Server Data Tools in Visual Studio. When attempting to open one of these projects I received an error stating:

This version of Visual Studio is unable to open the following projects. The project types may not be installed or this version of Visual Studio may not support them

 

Visual Studio Unsupported Project Error
Visual Studio Unsupported Project Error

Visual Studio 2015 certainly supports these reporting projects, so I knew that couldn’t be the issue. I then realized I completely forgot about those poor SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT).

Installing SQL Server Data Tools

SQL Server Data Tools is being used by Visual Studio to create these reporting projects (rptproj, dtproj). In order for Visual Studio to understand how to support them we need to install SSDT:

  1. Open the SQL Server 2016 Installation Center (or whichever version you’re using)
  2. In the installer window, click the Installation tab in the left-hand menu, then choose Install SQL Server Data Tools
    Install SQL Server Data Tools Link
  3. In the feature selection window, select all the SQL Server services, then click nextSQL Server Feature Selection
  4. Lastly, accept the terms and conditions, then click the Install buttonSQL Server Data Tools Install

Now that SQL Server Data Tools is installed with the necessary features, you should no longer receive the “Project Types May Not Be Installed” error when loading your SSDT dependent project in Visual Studio.

 

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Active Directory Users and Computers Missing on Windows 10

Active Directory Users and Computers Missing on Windows 10

If you’ve ever needed to maintain any information in Active Directory, you’ve undoubtedly utilized the Active Directory Users and Computers app. According to Microsoft:

Active Directory Users and Computers is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that is a standard feature of Microsoft Windows Server operating systems. It can be used to administer and publish information in the directory.

I recently received a new laptop from work and had to go through the pains of installing all the necessary (and unnecessary) programs. After thinking I finally finished I realized Active Directory Users and Computers was missing. It turns out my WIndows 10 machine didn’t have the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) installed.

Install Remote Server Administration Tools on Windows 10

Microsoft makes installation of the remote server administration tools fairly straightforward. Start by navigating to the Remote Server Administration Tools page, then download the installer and step through the installation wizard. Once the install finishes you may need to reboot your machine. After rebooting, you should see the Remote Server Administration Tools as an enabled windows feature:

Remote Server Administration Tools
Remote Server Administration Tools

Now that Remote Server Administration Tools is enabled you can load up the Active Directory Users and Computers application:

Active Directory Users And Computers
Active Directory Users And Computers

The Author

Sam Storino

Hi, I'm Sam.
I'm a programmer and a DIYer. When I'm not finding things to build I enjoy cooking, hiking, camping and traveling the world with my best friend. Say Hello!