Vitendy

Do you know your LDAP string?

2008-11-02T14:16:59Z

You should. But here is a tool that can help get it:

http://www.infopathdev.com/files/folders/help_files/entry25827.aspx

CLR .Net Versions

2008-09-29T12:09:30Z

Do you know the difference between .Net CLR versions? Is 2.0.50727.1433 newere than 2.0.50727.42? What's the difference?

Here is a nice reference:

http://alt.pluralsight.com/wiki/default.aspx/Keith/DotnetVersionWiki.html

Import Excel Sheet to SQL Server 2005 database

2008-07-15T04:20:42Z

What should be a simple engagement turned into a headache this evening. Importing from Excel in Sql 2005 has become more cumbersome due to various 'issues' with the import/export wizard. So here is a good solution:

SELECT * INTO XLImport4 FROM OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0','Excel 8.0;Database=C:\test\xltest.xls', [Customers$])

May have to enable Ad Hoc Remote queries in SAC.

May have to place the Excel file on the SQL server's file system.

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321686/en-us

Work and Fun

2008-06-18T03:41:17Z

Today I was finishing up an application to be used in MOSS. It's been a fun process building this app with another developer at work. He did the biz objects (using a 3rd party framework our company owns to hide the data layer) and I'm putting together the UI. Setting up use cases was handy. When it comes to UI controls, there are several ways to bind data to them. But having a clear visual map of where the UI needs to be helps focus on the actual work, instead of guessing how many pixels to the left of the drop down the NEW button needs to be. I'll let the designer worry about that. :) CSS rocks!

This evening setup Windows Mobile Center on my Vista Ultimate. Of course I crashed Vista before I could make the Q sync or even connect. The solution is to unplug the Q before installing MDC. Once MDC is happily running, plug in Q and sync away. Happy world! That was a nice distraction. Now back to WSS 3.0 web parts and wsp building.

Tech Ed 2008 Wednesday

2008-06-05T03:15:23Z

Bill Gates was at the Tech Ed in Orlando. I found a spot about 5 rows back so I could actually see him. He looked pretty real. All those rumors about him being projected on the stage with secret holographic technology are untrue. :) He's actually leaving the board of Microsoft (going part time) to work full-time on his Foundation's board.

Overall the whole Tech Ed experience is awesome. 6000 developers (some females too) from all over the world. Ran into a guy from Denmark. He works for a beer company. How cool can that be? SharePoint and beer...

I still can't get my mind wrapped around Silverlight. Though I do belive it has its uses especially for Intranet implementations. But - as someone pointed out - it won't be long before SilverLight is pushed down by a Windows Update to ALL PCs running Windows. So public implementations of Silverlight applications are just a stone throw away.

SWAG is in full swing. Got a bunch of T-shirts and such. Oh, almost forgot, Andrew Connell signed his new book, Professional SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007. As far as I'm concerned, he "wrote the book" on customizing Moss (Heather Solomon is my other hero). It was like seeing a celebrity.

Actual solutions. I'm getting convinced about upgrading to Visual Studio Team Server. It's possible to track bugs and EVEN maybe not too long from now let my designer have access to the same files the developers are working on USING Expression Web. I'm optimistic Mr. Gates will make it happen.

I'm looking forward to some sessions on SharePoint on Thursday and Friday. Andrew Connell is presenting on Thursday and Rob Bogue on Friday.

My wife is flying in to Orlando tomorrow. Can't wait to see her. We're headed off to Daytona for the weekend. In a convertible and all...

New Theme for WSS 3.0

2008-01-25T17:17:33Z

Themes are a good way to visually differentiate and/or brand SharePoint sites. Here is how to install a new theme.

1. modify an existing theme

2. add preview image to 12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES

3. modify the SPTHEMES.XML file in 12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033 folder.

4. IISRESET

References:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa979310.aspx

Plesk windows command line tool

2008-01-19T04:30:46Z

What happens when your SmarterMail Enterprise server gets out of sync with Plesk? Among other things, Plesk gets fussy. I swear, just a few days ago I could add and remove mailboxes just fine. Today I spend some time figuring out how to make Plesk and SmarterMail play nice again.

mchk.exe --domain --domain-name=mydomain.com

It's a Plesk command line tool that makes Plesk see SmarterMail at a "special" level. Yes, it works. It doesn't sync up mail accounts, but I just needed to delete the domain anyway. This did the trick.

The tool itself has a bite, be careful with it.

http://download1.swsoft.com/Plesk/Plesk7.5/Windows/Docs/plesk-7.5-win-advanced-features-manual/9781.htm

http://www.swsoft.com/

http://www.smartertools.com/ -- corporate e-mail -- customizable, stables, I love it!

Setting up Google Analytics with Subtext

2008-01-10T03:45:14Z

SubText is the blog engine of my choice. Skinning is simple, it's free, it's written in .Net and it's feature rich. Now if I we could only get some visitor stats. Google Analytics to the rescue.

JavaScript tracking code is what makes GA work. Adding the tracking code to SubText was simple enough. DTP.asxp is the page that SubText uses to dynamically render content. So we just insert the JavaScript snippet right above the </body> tag and we're all set.

GA takes a few hours for the stats to show up... still waiting.

References:

http://idunno.org/archive/2007/04/21/Adding-Google-Analytics-to-Subtext.aspx

http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?answer=55488&topic=11126

Free Image Gallery DNN Module

2008-01-06T03:29:15Z

I thought the name for this module is perfect. It's a gallery module that lots you page a single folder with arrows. I'll improve the basics at some point, but for now, it is what it is.

Download theOh So Simple Gallery all zipped up and ready to go.

Warning: download and use at your risk. you should be comfortable with vb.net to fix anything or to make improvements.

A new website ready

2008-01-02T05:56:40Z

http://www.oaksvillage.org/default.apsx is still under development. But the pure CSS skin with DNN backend is ready. Thanks to a very friendly graphic designer the site looks very nice. Next step is SEO and analytics software hookup!

Frustrations include the fact that DNN does not produce validatable code. So, I ended up with quirksmode in transitional HTML. I ended up using the new DNN:Nav navigation control. CSS flow box drop-down was fixed by overflow:hidden and using an admin skin for editing content in controls that would otherwise break the page. A day's labor.

I'm using my home-made javascript transition module that I used MooTools based on the article here: http://www.electricprism.com/aeron/slideshow/ nifty. If you'd like the source code for the module let me know.

Happy New Year! Be nice to mice this year...