IM an Expert for Lync Server 2010 is an instant messaging question and answer service that you can set up within your organization. With the IM an Expert service, you can use Microsoft Lync or the IM an Expert Welcome page to submit a text question to the service. The IM an Expert service will locate an expert for you within your company and initiate an IM session between you and an expert.  Answers are recorded and can be made available for later reference. You can specify your privacy and question preferences on the IM an Expert Website.  IM an Expert is based on UCMA 3.0 and at a high-level, consists of a BOT, a Web Site, and a SQL database. You can download the sofware and documentation from the following pages in the Microsoft Download Center:

• IM an Expert for Microsoft Lync Server 2010
• IM an Expert for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Documentation

Hi Arturas

You should be able to do this. Your best bet would be create a Windows service and have that service call Bot.exe.

Thanks for using IM-an-Expert!

Ryen

OK, but what tools should i use for creating a service?

We need the Page Crawler utility to crawl through pages that are protected under basic authentication. The Page crawler application could use the Lync users credentails which has been set in imx.config file.

Is there any other specific configuration that needs to be done for the Page Crawler application to crawl through pages protected under basic authentication?

The PageCrawler doesn't use any of the credentials specified in imx.config.

Instead, PageCrawler will crawl using the credentials of the user under which the PageCrawler.exe is run. If you want to access pages that require authentication, then the account from which the EXE is run must have permissions to view those pages.

Thanks, Ryen

In Im-an-Expert database, in table users we have imported the user list of 22,000 employees. It happened that while importing random_questions column for all the employees was 1. So when we fired a question a log file of around 50 MB was created. and while writing to this log during the conversation resulted in the bot getting hanged.

The bot should look for experts in the area. If the experts are not found then it should pick up 10 users capable of answering random questions. Check for their availability and then go ahead with the next 10. It should not pick up the entire list.

Hi Ryen,

i tried crawling to a basic autheticated site for which our Lync ID had access. But the result was that the crawling was unsuccessful.

What could be the result of the unsucessful crawl?

Hi Guys,

I've already tested BOT and INDEXER and they are working correctly.
But now i have problems with Web Site. I cannot login to the site http://imanexpert.<domain>.com

It ask me three times for the credential and then it gives me a HTTP Error 401.2 - Unauthorized:

I have already:

1. Create a new Web Site with a new application pool using ApplicationPoolIdentity
2. Disable anonymous and enable windows authentication
3. Set WebsiteUsesHTTPS as false
4. Stop Default Web site and start New Web Site to run on port 80
5. Change the imx.config file about the Web Site configuration
6. Modified the Contact.aspx and Default.aspx files
7. Re-create the Web Site
8. Modified the permissions on website folder

But none of them help me to solve this problem. Does anybody knows how could i solve this problem?
It seems to be a IIS problem but i am not sure about it.

Hi Adam,

When we kept the bot running on one of our server maybe a week or two, we found that the RAM consumption was around 1GB for that duration of time. What could be the issue with the bot consuming so much of RAM. 

Is there any settings in IM an expert to prevent such high RAM consumption?

Please could you elaborate on how you made the service? I have tried adding the bot.exe as a service using SC which causes the service just to time out as you would expect.

Ideally this could do with a socket or web interface to control/query the bot directly!

Hi Adam

Can I ask if this is still a live and supported project by Microsoft as there seems little in the way of "chatter" about it?

If it is not is there any possibility of it becoming an Open Source project to let the community run with it?

Cheers

Dave

Hi  Adam

I have deploy Im An Expert and every works perfectly but how can I let bot.exe run as a service I have create a service but that won´t start

regards

Sigurjon

Hi  Adam

I have deploy Im An Expert and every works perfectly but how can I let bot.exe run as a service I have create a service but that won´t start

 

regards

Sigurjon

 

Hi  Adam

I have deploy Im An Expert and every works perfectly but how can I let bot.exe run as a service I have create a service but that won´t start

 

regards

Sigurjon

 

Hi sigurjon,

for creating service i have used this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/system/xyntservice.aspx

Hi  Adam

I have deploy Im An Expert and every works perfectly but how can I let bot.exe run as a service I have create a service but that won´t start

 

regards

Sigurjon

 

Hi sigurjon,

for creating service i have used this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/system/xyntservice.aspx

Hi Arturas

Are you confirming that you have been able to do this with Bot.exe?

Cheers

Dave

Hi  Adam

I have deploy Im An Expert and every works perfectly but how can I let bot.exe run as a service I have create a service but that won´t start

 

regards

Sigurjon

 

Hi sigurjon,

for creating service i have used this: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/system/xyntservice.aspx

Hi Arturas

Are you confirming that you have been able to do this with Bot.exe?

Cheers

Cool.

Thanks for the quick response. Looks like we have another piece of work to do this week then :)

Cheers

Dave

Thanks Arturas, works for me to

Dave

Hi Adam!

There isn't much help available on the internet regarding this amazing IM an Expert idea. I seem to have configured all settings correctly, but when I run bot.exe it gives an error that Bot.exe has stopped working and crashes.

I even tried reinstalling the whole IM an Expert thing, even though I did NOT delete the database. I just re-run the scripts to ensure anything missing was created.

Bot.exe has stopped working error persists, even when I try running with run as Administrator credentials.

Early days with this so I might be doing something silly here, Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi Adam!

There isn't much help available on the internet regarding this amazing IM an Expert idea. I seem to have configured all settings correctly, but when I run bot.exe it gives an error that Bot.exe has stopped working and crashes.

I even tried reinstalling the whole IM an Expert thing, even though I did NOT delete the database. I just re-run the scripts to ensure anything missing was created.

Bot.exe has stopped working error persists, even when I try running with run as Administrator credentials.

Early days with this so I might be doing something silly here, Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

And of course you are starting bot.exe from command line? From your screenshot it looks like you start it directly.

No I was doing it directly. But I just reinstalled UCMA 3.0 and tried running from command line to get the same result.

Thanks for your time

C:\Program Files\Microsoft IM an Expert\bin\bot>bot.exe
Starting IM an Expert for Microsoft(R) Lync(TM) Server 2010: Bot

Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or ass
embly 'Microsoft.Rtc.Collaboration, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyT
oken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the fi
le specified.
File name: 'Microsoft.Rtc.Collaboration, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, Publi
cKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35'
   at Microsoft.Lync.ImAnExpert.IMXBot..ctor()
   at Microsoft.Lync.ImAnExpert.Program.Main()

WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.
To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\M
icrosoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.
Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure lo
gging.
To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fus
ion!EnableLog].

Favad,

Be sure to Run the command prompt as an Administrator with an account that has local admin rights on the IM an Expert host Server.

Hi

I had same issue. I did run Run the command prompt as an Administrator with an account that has local admin rights and still end up having the same error when tried starting bot as specified by Favad in the initial post.

Hi Arturas,

I can run the bot and monitor from the command prompt using the domain user service accounts I have created for this purpose, as directed by the admin doc, but can't get the service running using xyntservice.

Can you tell me what parameters you have used in the xyntservice ini i.e. did you set credentials in the ini file? Also what did you set as the working directory? And are you running the service itself as localsystem or the domain user?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

James.

Hi,

I have found the combinatin that works ;)

For anyone else.... Using domain user service accounts:

xyntservice.ini file: WorkingDir = c:\Program Files\Microsoft IM an Expert\bin\
                              User credentials = <domain service account>

Windows service runs under localsystem with interract with desktop.

Regards,

James.

FYI - We just released an update for IM-an-Expert.

One of the features included in the update is the ability to run IMX as a Windows service.

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2677043 for a list of the feature additions and bug fixes in v1.5.

Installer: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=8475

Documentation: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=16104

Thanks, Ryen

Hi

I've started installing IM and Expert.

As per the software requirements, I've downloaded and installed UCMA 3.0 (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=20958).  However, while OCSCORE.MSI is copied to the system as part of the Bootstrapper Prerequisites Installer Package, it isnt mentioned in the UCMA 3.0 Runtime Requirements.

So, the question is, do you have to install OCSCORE.MSI when building an IM an Expert server ?

Thanks

1.Go in the imx folder.

2. Edit the imx.config as -

<add key="BotRunAsService" value="true">

<add key="BotServiceStartupTiming" value="ImmediateThenDelayed"/>

<add key="BotServiceStartUpDelaySeconds" value="60"/>

3. Run the command installutil.exe Bot.exe from the bot directory in a command window eith administrator rights

4. Run the services Management Console (Start> services.msc)

5. Find the ImAnExpert service in the list of local services,Start the service.

Use Im An Expert version v1.5

This was a problem with Im-An Expert bot version v1.0.

This problem has been fixed with Im-An Expert version v1.5

Edit imx.config file as below

<add key="BotCleanMemoryIntervalhours" value="1"/>

This will call garbage collector  forcefully with the given configured period to  delete unreferenced objects which resides on heap memory

area. Bot uses UCMA 3.0 SDK . UCMA uses asynchronous methods like BeginXX and EndXX which queues the operation

and assigns to worker thread pool. This threaded operations are performed by UCMA 3.0 runtime which is installed

as a prerequisite software for running Im-An Expert Bot.  

I am running version 1.5 and receive the following error when trying to test bot.exe.  I have following the instructions properly and installed UCMA 3.0:

A 415 (unsupported media type) response was received from the network and the operation failed.  See the exception details for more information.

Any help would be appreciated!!

I am running version 1.5 and receive the following error when trying to test bot.exe.  I have following the instructions properly and installed UCMA 3.0:

A 415 (unsupported media type) response was received from the network and the operation failed.  See the exception details for more information.

Any help would be appreciated!!

I am having the same issue. after following the guides out there and pulling my hair out for 4 days i finally have:

1) the bot running with no errors

2)the monitor running and connecting to the bot with no errors

3) the website up and running and showing images (on non IE9 browsers, on IE9 browsers the images do not load for some reason)

but still i am left with a bot that does not respond. i can send it a message using my client and i get no response. if i look at the bot window i see that it received my question and tried to respond but i get the SEND_MESSAGE_FAILED followed by what it was trying to send and then after that it says the 415 (unsupported media type) response was received from the network and the operation failed.  See the exception details for more information.

can anyone in this thread that has it working correctly enlighten me on how????

Hi Menz_01,

Same error here, did you have any luck?

Hi Menz_01,

Same error here, did you have any

Is there any way to have IM An expert not require user registration? We'd like to have our users able to ask a question but not register so they have a question possibly asked of them? I know I can probably just import all the users in the company if need be. 

I would like to make use of groups and create profiles and put users into groups. I want to have groups of experts and everyone else is a questioner. I want to decouple the questioners from the experts.

Ideas?

Ok, easy enough to add users to the DB but now that I have a bunch of users (IT types) I see that the questions seem to be randomly going to users seemingly ignoring what is in their profile keywords list. There is a setting ('Only ask me questions related to my profile' -- randomquestions column in users table) but if set this for all users, then I just get 'no one available' for any questions.

Testing with a smaller group of users it is quite clear that if that bit is set, this simply does not work. Only the random setting works.

I wonder if the source code could be made available. I really think you have a product that is almost ready for production I just need to fix a few items.

Hi

Can I use SQL 2008 R2 Express for IM an Expert?

Thank you

Hi again, 

I am asking about SQL 2008 R2 express because I cannot run below step in my impementation of IM an Expert.

SQL 2008 R2 express has got limitation that SQL Server Agent service cannot start :/

Is this step is required, and will IM an Expert will work properly without SQL Server Agent and re-indexing user profiles?

Creating and Testing the SQL Server Agent Scheduled Rebuild Task

To ensure successful re-indexing of user profiles, administrators need to create a SQL Server Agent scheduled rebuild task using SQL Server Management Studio. 

Hi, you can ignore question about SQL express - sorry for that

I noticed the same issue as Christopher King. When I have got enabled checkbox "Only ask me questions related to my profile" I have got every time answer: "unfortunately, nobody is available at this moment to answer your question. To ask a new question, close this window and start a new one."

When checkbox is disabled all question are going to random people.

Is this issue is know? How to fix it?
Thank you

Log from bot.exe:

On the issue where I did not find any experts (when checking 'Only ask me questions related to my profile')...

Turns out I did not actually run the indexer. This will populate the table 'userProfiles' in IM-an-Expert_Index DB.

If this table is empty, it does not work. Make sure you have done the Indexer part of the set up.

Hi

I see two users in IM-an-Expert_index database

I run Indexer and SQL server agant job again

But issue still apear?

Do you have any idea

Did you enter the 'where can I find iphone profile ?' type entries? Try keeping it simple only using one word keywords. (but maybe that was updated by the program??) Just wondering if that question mark is messing up the works.

I assume ocsuser is your 'im an expert' account? I don't have a profile for that one. If so, you in essence have one 'expert' when you ask questions. If your sure that user is available (not busy or offline/etc.) and you are asking questions that relate to them?

Also, I recall that I had modified the below entry (default was zero though) and put it too high. I got clever and put it to .75 and no one was ever weighted that highly. I settled on .1 for testing so far. But if you did not modify it, you are ok.

In imx.config (on im expert server c:\Program Files\Microsoft IM an Expert\config )

  <!-- What is the mininum expertise match required for an expert to be contacted. Match scores are typically between 0 and 1 -->
  <add key="BotMatchThreshold" value=".1"/>

Does this link work for you? This will return the weights for test questions (q=the+question) using the Web API. Useful for testing.

http://im_expert_url/api.aspx?cmd=suggestusers&q=what+is+sql

Web api dont work :( I try to get http://localhost/api.aspx?cmd=sql+install+how and http://imanexpert/api.aspx?cmd=suggestusers&q=what+is+sql

and I have got 403 Bad or unknown command

I have got sql as a key word

Make sure all of the database configurations are correct in the imx.config

It is quite tedious as there are several lines you have to adjust. Maybe one of them is wrong. I know that suggestusers command did not work until I got all the DB stuff ironed out.

Read the Web API section of the docs and try some of the other commands to see if that part is working at all. I assume your profile webpage is working ok?

Hi,

Has anyone got IM an expert running as a service under version 1.5? Have followed the admin guide and created the service using installutil.exe but the service fails to start.

I have mutilple versions of .net framework and the installutil.exe installed on the server? Do I need to run a particular version?

Any other suggestions?

Many thanks.