Greetings,

Windows Live Agents Blog has been moved.

New location is: http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsliveagents/

Thank you,

Windows Live Agents Team.

PHI - Hosting Process

Partner Hosting Infrastructure, or PHI, is a tool that will allow developers to apply for Microsoft to host their Agent projects. Developers will be able to upload their code, manage projects, and be informed of the current state of their projects. This section will go over the tools that developers have available to them when developing a project, taking it live, and making changes to project files.

The following is a quick overview of the PHI process, followed by a detailed explanation of the hosting process.

• Initial project application – log in to PHI and click on “Apply for New Agent”. Fill in the application form.
• Apply for Hosting – after your application is filled in, you will be in the “Initial” state. Once you are satisfied with your application, click “Apply for Hosting”. Microsoft will then review your project application. Don’t forget to sign and submit the Hosting Agreement.
• Project check-in – once your project application has been approved and Microsoft has received your signed Hosting Agreement, you can check in your project. For details on how to do this, see Step 2 below.
• Hosting – Once the project is checked in, Microsoft will review your project files and get them hosted in the data center. You must provide a screen name for your Agent before being hosted. You will then be able to talk to your Agent online. You can edit your Agent at any time.
• Going Live – Once you are satisfied with your Agent’s content, click “Submit Project Details for Review”. This will trigger another review by Microsoft, after which your project will go live.

A more detailed description:

Step 1: Initial Project Application

1.     Let’s assume that you have already created a project called sampleProj and you now want it to be hosted and take it live.

2.     Go to http://phi.agents.live.com

3.     In the top right corner, click on the “Sign In” link and sign in with your WLID.

4.     In the “Agents Home” page, click on “Apply for New Agent”.

5.     Enter “sampleProj” as the Agent Name, and fill out the rest of the form.

6.     Ensure that you complete, sign, and send back the Hosting Agreement (if this is your first Agent) or the Statement of Work (if you have already completed a Hosting Agreement).

7.     Once you have filled out and sent back the appropriate documents, check the “I have signed and sent back the hosting agreement.” checkbox and then click “Save”. You will be taken back to the Agents Home page, and your project should be in the “Initial” state.

Step 2: Check in Code for a Project

To be able to check in your project code, you must first apply for hosting. To do this:

1.     Click the “Apply for Hosting” link next to your new project.

2.     Click the “Apply for Hosting” button

3.     You should be taken back to the landing page, and the project state should now be “Awaiting Initial Project Hosting Approval by Microsoft”.

At this point, you must wait for the reviewers at Microsoft to go over your application and approve it. You will know that a project has been approved when the state changes from “Awaiting Initial Project Hosting Approval by Microsoft” to “Waiting for Legal Documents from Developers”. The reviewers will need to ensure that they have received legal documents from you. If they have, they will update your project to the “Awaiting Initial Project Checkin by Developer” state.

Once your project is in this state, you can check in your code. To do so:

1.     Open up your project in the Visual Studio IDE.

2.     Go to Tools -> Windows Live Agents Tools ->Code Management -> Sign in to Windows Live

3.     Sign in using the same WLID that you applied for the project with in PHI

4.     Go to Tools -> Windows Live Agents Tools -> Code Management -> Check In Project

5.     Select the project. Make sure it has the SAME NAME as the project you applied for in PHI (in our case, sampleProj). Then click “Check In”.

6.     Note: This initial check in will be version 2. This is expected.

Your project is now checked in!

Step 3: Hosting and Testing Your Project

After checking in your code, the state of your project should be “Awaiting Critical File Review by Microsoft”. Microsoft will need to review your critical files (in this stage, the only critical file is the .connections file) before proceeding.

Once your code review is in progress, your project will be in the “Initial Critical Files Under Review by Microsoft” state.

If the files are approved, the state will change to “Pending Hosting in Data Center by Microsoft”. This means that you are waiting for the Operations team to move your files to the data center. Once this is complete, your project will be hosted, and the state will change to “Hosted”. At this point, your files are live in our data center.

From the Hosted state and going forward, files can be modified and checked in at any time. The only file modifications that will require review are checkins of the connections file. You can think of being in the Hosted state as being in a staging environment.

To talk to your agent on Messenger, you will need to add a staging screen name to your project. To do this, click on the “Manage Screen Names” link in the “Actions” column next to your project. Enter a WLID that you would like for your staging screen name. The WLID will be validated before being added to your project.

Step 4: Going Live

Once you are satisfied that your project is ready to go live, you need to submit your project for review. To do this:

1.     Click the “Submit Project Details for Review” link in the “Actions” column next to your project.

2.     Click the “Submit Project Details for Review” button.

3.     The project state should now be “Hosted: Awaiting Go-Live Approval from Microsoft”.

Once the Microsoft reviewers have reviewed and are satisfied with your project, they will submit the project files to Ops for deployment in the data center. The state of your project will change to “Hosted: Pending Go-Live in Data Center by Microsoft”.

Once your project has been put in the data center, the project state will be updated to “Live”.

To add your live screen name and talk to your Agent via Messenger, you again use the “Manage Screen Names” link on your PHI landing page. Enter the WLID that you would like your Agent to have. The WLID will be validated before it is added to the project.

How to Modify Files

You have two options available to you when you would like to modify files in your project.

Using the Console

You can use the KMS Console at https://sampleProj.console.agents.live.com to modify the project. This will allow you to edit topics and responses fairly easily. For more control, however, you would want to use the IDE to make project changes.

Using the IDE

You can use the IDE to check in files in the same way that you checked in the project originally. Please note that using the IDE will check in an entire project, and does not allow you to check in just a single file.

To check out using the IDE, you must first sign in and then acquire the lock by clicking on Tools -> Windows Live Agents Tools -> Code Management -> Check Out Project. You can then edit whichever files you wish. While a project is checked out to you, no one will be able to edit any of the project files using the IDE or KMS.

To check in, click on Tools -> Windows Live Agents Tools -> Code Management -> Check In Project.

Checking In the Connections File

When you check in the connections file, it must be reviewed and approved before being hosted or going live in the data center. Check in the connections file as you would check in any other file (see directions above).

Checking in your project when the .connections file has not been modified will not trigger a review. Those changes should propagate immediately.

Adding Project Developers/Contributors

Besides the project owner, there are two other roles that you may have:

·         Developer – A developer is allowed to check out, modify, and check in a project

·         Consumer – A consumer is allowed to check out a project, but all project files will be read-only. They cannot check in any changes.

To add a developer or consumer to your project, click on the “Manage Developers” link in the “Actions” column next to your project name. Enter a valid Windows Live ID that your developer/consumer will be using to log in, and select the appropriate role.

Summary

Using PHI will allow you to apply for hosting and track your project online. It also allows you to upload your code using the Visual Studio SDK. The tools that are available in PHI make it much easier for developers to get projects hosted in the Microsoft data center.