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  • SQL Server (2012 Enterprise) Browser service failing

    - by Watki02
    SQL Server (2012 Enterprise) Browser service failing I have a problem as described below: I have an instance of SQL Server 2012 Enterprise (thanks to MSDN) for local development on my PC. I try to start SQL server Browser Service from SQL Server Configuration Manager and it takes a long time to fail, then fails with: The request failed or the service did not respond in a timely fashion. Consult the event log or other applicable error logs for details. I checked event logs and found these errors in this order (all within the same 1-second time frame): The SQL Server Browser service port is unavailable for listening, or invalid. The SQL Server Browser service was unable to establish SQL instance and connectivity discovery. The SQL Server Browser is enabling SQL instance and connectivity discovery support. The SQL Server Browser service was unable to establish Analysis Services discovery. The SQL Server Browser service has started. The SQL Server Browser service has shutdown. I checked firewall rules and both port 1433 (TCP) and 1434 (UDP) are wide open, just as well - the programs and service binary had been "allowed through windows firewall". I started the "Analysis Services" service by hand and it works fine. Browser still won't start. Some History: Installed SQL 2008 R2 express advanced Installed SQL2012 Express advanced Uninstalled SQL 2008 R2 express advanced Installed 2012 SSDT and lots of features with Express install Installed a unique instance of SQL 2012 Enterprise with all features Uninstalled SSDT and reinstalled SSDT with Enterprise (solved a different problem) Uninstalled SQL 2012 Express Uninstalled SQL 2012 Enterprise Removed anything with "SQL" in the name from Control panel "Programs and features" Installed SQL 2012 Enterprise without Analysis services (This is where I noticed SQL Browser service was failing to start even on the install) Added the feature of Analysis Services (and everything else) via the installer (Browser continued to fail to start on the install) ======================== Other interesting facts: opening a command window with administrator and trying to run sqlbrowser.exe manually yielded: Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601] Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C:\Windows\system32cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Sharedsqlbrowser.exe -c SQLBrowser: starting up in console mode SQLBrowser: starting up SSRP redirection service SQLBrowser: failed starting SSRP redirection services -- shutting down. SQLBrowser: starting up OLAP redirection service SQLBrowser: Stopping the OLAP redirector C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared As I try to repair the install it errors out saying The following error has occurred: Service 'SQLBrowser' start request failed. Click 'Retry' to retry the failed action, or click 'Cancel' to cancel this action and continue setup. For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=20476&ProdName=Microsoft%20SQL%20Server&EvtSrc=setup.rll&EvtID=50000&ProdVer=11.0.2100.60&EvtType=0x4F9BEA51%25400xD3BEBD98%25401211%25401 Clicking retry fails every time. When clicking cancel I get: The following error has occurred: SQL Server Browser configuration for feature 'SQL_Browser_Redist_SqlBrowser_Cpu32' was cancelled by user after a previous installation failure. The last attempted step: Starting the SQL Server Browser service 'SQLBrowser', and waiting for up to '900' seconds for the process to complete. . For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=20476&ProdName=Microsoft%20SQL%20Server&EvtSrc=setup.rll&EvtID=50000&ProdVer=11.0.2100.60&EvtType=0x4F9BEA51%25400xD3BEBD98%25401211%25401 When I go to uninstall the SQL Browser from "Programs and Features", it complains: Error opening installation log file. Verify that the specified log file location exists and is writable. Is there any way I can fix this short of re-imaging my computer and reinstalling from scratch? A possible approach would be to somehow really uninstall everything and delete all files related to SQL... is that a good idea, and how do I do that?

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  • IMAP proxy as a POP3 hub?

    - by mailman stan
    Simple scenario, complicated technology: One family receiving mail from five email addresses via POP3 into one Outlook inbox on a single PC. Now we'd like to be able to replicate that single inbox across multiple devices (eg. desktop PC, laptop, netbook, smartphone). If we continue using POP3 as the mail transfer protocol, messages will be downloaded to one device and will not be visible to the others; replies will likewise be isolated on the sending machine. If we switch to IMAP, I understand that we can have multiple devices maintaining a shared view of an inbox hosted at the server end, but what about multiple accounts? I tried changing the account configuration in Outlook to fetch from the mail providers' IMAP service instead of POP3, which does give a shared view across multiple devices but also causes Outlook to create a separate inbox and PST for each account. This is awkward because it means there are five separate folders that need to be checked, and Outlook tools like search filters and rules don't seem to work across accounts. To get what I want (five accounts delivered into one shared mailbox) it seems that I would need some sort of intervening server that collects mail (using POP3) from all our accounts into a single inbox while preserving the original destination addresses, and then serves it up to all our devices using IMAP. Is this workable? Is it a good approach? Is there an easier way?

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  • Mystery Print Separator Page

    - by Jesse Bradlee
    Good morning! After a recent site upgrade to WebSphere 7.0 from 6.1 on an AIX server, our users reported a print separator page appearing on a certain type of report, and only on one printer. Trouble is, no one (devs, sysadmins, users) knows where it came from or where to turn it off. Based on the info, the first step was to check the app, but we don't have print separators in our code. The report they're using also lacks even an option to separate. Then I asked the WebSphere gurus but they shook their heads. Ditto the network/print server team. If anyone can identify the source of this separator, I can take that back to the relevant team and have it switched off. They look like this (some whitespace removed for brevity): *################################################## *################################################## *################################################## *************************************************** TITLE: [document name] TIME PRINTED: Fri Sep 20 08:21:45 2013 TIME QUEUED: Fri Sep 20 08:21:45 2013 PRINTED AT: hp@hp41 (generic) @ [app name] SUBMITTED BY: root DELIVER TO: =====> root <===== *************************************************** FLAG VALUES: a-0, b=0, d=a, f=, g=1, h=, i=0, j=+, l=00, p=10, t=0, v=6, w=3--, x=2, A=1, B=gn, C=!, H=, J=+, L=+, N=1, P=[printer name]:hp@hp41, X=ISO8859-1, Z=+, 0=ibm.850 *************************************************** Thank you!

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  • ssh connection operation timed out using rsync

    - by Mark Molina
    I use rsync to backup my remote server on my local device but when I combine it with a cron job my ssh times out. Just to be clear, the data is stored on a remote server and I want it stored on my local server. The backup request must be sent from my local server to the remote server. The command for backup up the data is working when I just type it in terminal like this: rsync -chavzP --stats USERNAME@IPADDRES: PATH_TO_BACKUP LOCAL_PATH_TO_BACKUP but when I combine it with a cron job like this: 10 11 * * * rsync -chavzP --stats USERNAME@IP_ADDRESS: PATH_TO_BACKUP LOCAL_PATH_TO_BACKUP the ssh connection times out. When the cronjob executes it send a mail to the root user with the output like this: From local.xx.xx.xx Tue Jul 2 11:20:17 2013 X-Original-To: username Delivered-To: [email protected] From: [email protected] (Cron Daemon) To: [email protected] Subject: Cron <username@server> rsync -chavzP --stats USERNAME@IPADDRES: PATH_TO_BACKUP LOCAL_PATH_TO_BACKUP X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh> X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin> X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=username> X-Cron-Env: <USER=username> X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/Users/username> Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 11:20:17 +0200 (CEST) ssh: connect to host IP_ADDRESS port XX: Operation timed out rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [receiver] rsync error: unexplained error (code 255) at /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-42/rsync/io.c(452) [receiver=2.6.9] So the rsync command is working when just typed in terminal but not when used by a cronjob. Can anybody explain this?

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  • Yahoo marked my mail as spam and says domainkey fails

    - by mGreet
    Hi Yahoo is marking our mail as spam. We are using PHP Zend framework to send the mail. Mail header says that Domain Key is failed. Authentication-Results: mta160.mail.in.yahoo.com from=mydomain.com; domainkeys=fail (bad sig); from=mydomain.com; dkim=pass (ok) We configured our SMTP server (Same server used to send mail from zend framework.) in outlook and send the mail to yahoo. This time yahoo says domainkeys is pass. Authentication-Results: mta185.mail.in.yahoo.com from=speedgreet.com; domainkeys=pass (ok); from=speedgreet.com; dkim=pass (ok) Domainkey is added in mail header on our server which is used by both outlook client and PHP client. yahoo recognize the mail which is sent from outlook and yahoo does not recognize the mail from PHP client. As far as I know, Signing the email is done on the server side with help of domain key. PHP and Outlook uses the same server to sign the mail. But why yahoo handling differently? What I am missing here? Any Idea? Can anyone help me?

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  • Tripwire help Required

    - by ramaperumal
    I have created the policy file in Tripwire and also I have created the rules as well mentioned below: /opt/jboss/server/gis/conf -> $(SEC_CONFIG) +aipm +c+g+a+i+s+t+u+l+M; /usr/local/gtech/eseries/ -> $(SEC_CONFIG) +a+c+g+i+s+t+u+l+M ; After running the integrity check the output should be a(Access timestamp),c (Inode timestamp (create/modify),g (File owner's group ID),i (Inode number),s (File size),t (time stamp),u (File owner's user ID),l(File is increasing in size (a "growing file"),M (MD5 hash value). I am getting the output as below: [root@xxsi1242 tripwire]# tripwire --check Parsing policy file: /etc/tripwire/tw.pol *** Processing Unix File System *** Performing integrity check... Wrote report file: /var/lib/tripwire/report/xxsi1242.gtk.gtech.com-20131106-053812.twr Open Source Tripwire(R) 2.4.1 Integrity Check Report Report generated by: root Report created on: Wed 06 Nov 2013 05:38:12 AM EST Database last updated on: Wed 06 Nov 2013 05:31:17 AM EST =============================================================================== Report Summary: =============================================================================== Host name: xxsi1242.gtk.gtech.com Host IP address: 156.24.65.171 Host ID: None Policy file used: /etc/tripwire/tw.pol Configuration file used: /etc/tripwire/tw.cfg Database file used: /var/lib/tripwire/xxsi1242.gtk.gtech.com.twd Command line used: tripwire --check =============================================================================== Rule Summary: =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section: Unix File System ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rule Name Severity Level Added Removed Modified --------- -------------- ----- ------- -------- Invariant Directories 66 0 0 0 Temporary directories 33 0 0 0 * Tripwire Data Files 100 0 0 1 Tech Stack 100 0 0 0 User binaries 66 0 0 0 Tripwire Binaries 100 0 0 0 * CLPS bins 100 0 0 2 CLPS Configuration files 100 0 0 0 ESCommon 100 0 0 0 Shell Binaries 100 0 0 0 OS executables and libraries 100 0 0 0 Security Control 100 0 0 0 ESCommon Configuration 100 0 0 0 (/etc/gtech/escommon) Total objects scanned: 12358 Total violations found: 3 =============================================================================== Object Summary: =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Section: Unix File System ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rule Name: Tripwire Data Files (/etc/tripwire/tw.pol) Severity Level: 100 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Modified: "/etc/tripwire/tw.pol" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rule Name: CLPS bins (/opt/jboss/server) Severity Level: 100 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Modified: "/opt/jboss/server/esapps1/data/hypersonic/localDB.lck" "/opt/jboss/server/gis/data/hypersonic/localDB.lck" =============================================================================== Error Report: =============================================================================== No Errors ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** End of report *** Note: In the output I only am getting the files which are modified. I need the detail output for this. But unfortunately I am not getting what I expected. Please help me to proced further.

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  • Almost All Xenserver Logical Volumes Disappeared - Recovery?

    - by Alex
    We had a hard disc crash of one of two hard discs in a software raid with a LVM on top. The server is running Citrix xenserver. On the hard disk which is still intact, the volume group gets detected well, but only one LV is left. (some hashes replaced by "x") # lvdisplay --- Logical volume --- LV Name /dev/VG_XenStorage-x-x-x-x-408b91acdcae/MGT VG Name VG_XenStorage-x-x-x-x-408b91acdcae LV UUID x-x-x-x-x-x-vQmZ6C LV Write Access read/write LV Status available # open 0 LV Size 4.00 MiB Current LE 1 Segments 1 Allocation inherit Read ahead sectors auto - currently set to 256 Block device 253:0 root@rescue ~ # vgdisplay --- Volume group --- VG Name VG_XenStorage-x-x-x-x-408b91acdcae System ID Format lvm2 Metadata Areas 1 Metadata Sequence No 4 VG Access read/write VG Status resizable MAX LV 0 Cur LV 1 Open LV 0 Max PV 0 Cur PV 1 Act PV 1 VG Size 698.62 GiB PE Size 4.00 MiB Total PE 178848 Alloc PE / Size 1 / 4.00 MiB Free PE / Size 178847 / 698.62 GiB VG UUID x-x-x-x-x-x-53w0kL I could understand if a full physical volume is lost - but why only the logical volumes? Is there any explanation for this? Is there any way to recover the logical volumes? EDIT We are here in a rescue system. The problem is that the whole server does not boot (GRUB error 22) What we are trying to do is to access the root filesystem. But everything was in the LVM. We have only this: (parted) print Model: ATA SAMSUNG HD753LJ (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 750GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 32.3kB 750GB 750GB primary boot, lvm And this 750GB LVM volume is exactly what we see on top. edit2 Output of vgcfgrestore, but from the rescue system, as there is no root to chroot to. # vgcfgrestore --list VG_XenStorage-x-b4b0-x-x-408b91acdcae File: /etc/lvm/archive/VG_XenStorage-x-x-x-x-408b91acdcae_00000.vg VG name: VG_XenStorage-x-x-x-x-408b91acdcae Description: Created *before* executing '/sbin/vgscan --ignorelockingfailure --mknodes' Backup Time: Fri Jun 28 23:53:20 2013 File: /etc/lvm/backup/VG_XenStorage-x-x-x-x-408b91acdcae VG name: VG_XenStorage-x-x-x-x-408b91acdcae Description: Created *after* executing '/sbin/vgscan --ignorelockingfailure --mknodes' Backup Time: Fri Jun 28 23:53:20 2013

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  • Windows Server wbadmin recover with commas

    - by dlp
    I want to do a recovery of files with commas in their names from the command line, ala: wbadmin start recovery -version:10/01/2013-12:00 -itemType:File -overwite:Overwrite -quiet "-Items:C:\Path\To\File, With Comma.txt,C:\Path\To\File 2, With Comma.txt" So there are two files: C:\Path\To\File, With Comma.txt C:\Path\To\File 2, With Comma.txt The problem is wbadmin assumes commas separates each file, so it sees 4 files specified instead of 2. I've tried putting a \ in front of commas that are part of the file names like so: wbadmin start recovery -version:10/01/2013-12:00 -itemType:File -overwite:Overwrite -quiet "-Items:C:\Path\To\File\, With Comma.txt,C:\Path\To\File 2\, With Comma.txt" but it doesn't work, it just says there's a syntax error. The documentation on Technet doesn't seem to mention anything that'll help either. OS is Windows Server 2008 R2. A clarifying comment: I've changed the file names to be different than the actual names to be less revealing, but I also see I dumbed it down too much. The comma can occur either in the file name itself like C:\Path\To\File, With Comma.txt' or in the path to the file, like:C:\Path, To\Other\File.txt`.

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  • Audit file removal (auditctl)

    - by user1513039
    For some reason, some script or program is removing a pid file for the service on the linux server (centos5.4 / 2.6.18-308.4.1.el5xen). I suspect a faulty cron script, but manual investigation did not lead me to it. And i still want to track it down. Have been using auditctl rule: auditctl -w /var/run/some_service.pid -p w Which helped me to see something, but not quite exactly what i wanted: type=PATH msg=audit(11/12/2013 09:07:43.199:432577) : item=1 name=/var/run/some_service.pid inode=12419227 dev=fd:00 mode=file,644 ouid=root ogid=root rdev=00:00 type=SYSCALL msg=audit(11/12/2013 09:07:43.199:432577) : arch=x86_64 syscall=unlink success=yes exit=0 a0=7fff7dd46dd0 a1=1 a2=2 a3=127feb90 items=2 ppid=3454 pid=6227 auid=root uid=root gid=root euid=root suid=root fsuid=root egid=root sgid=root fsgid=root tty=pts0 ses=38138 comm=rm exe=/bin/rm key=(null) Problem here is that i see ppid of the script that removed the file, but at the analysis time the (p)pids are already invalid as probably scripts/programs have been shutdown. Imagine a cron script deleting the file. So i need some way to expand/add audit rule(s) to be able to trace the parents of the /bin/rm at the time of removal. I have been thinking to add some rule to monitor all process creation, something like: auditctl -a task,always But this happen to be very resource intensive. So i need help or advice how to combine these rules, or how to expand any of the rules to help track the script/program. Thanks.

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  • Ethernet cable unplugged after updating from windows 8.0 to 8.1

    - by Pehmolelu
    Yeah, so I went and updated my windows 8 pro to 8.1. Now everything else seems to work but the network. The Ethernet just says that Network cable is unplugged, even though it is plugged and I have tried different cord as well and I have tested that the router works. I have tried uninstalling the network drivers (Realtec PCIe GBE) and reinstall them with no success. After installing drivers the Device Management gives error for it "Device could not be started. Code 10" Before 8.1 update I had rt630x64.inf, after update it was netrt630x64.inf, and after installing the latest driver rt630x64.inf. With rt630x64.inf there isn't any error, but it's still not just working. New downloaded version: 8.020.0815.2013 (From Realtek website) The driver before: 8.1.510.2013 (After updating the windows to 8.1) I'm using Desktop PC, no VM. I dont have VirtualBox or Vmware installed. I have checked from BIOS that the card is enabled. I have booted in safe mode with network enabled. Says unplugged there as well. I have put the power off for few minutes and put back on, no effect. If anyone has any kind of suggestions, please tell.

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  • Failed Software RAID0 on Linux - Attempting to recover data

    - by Gizmo_the_Great
    I have a two disk RAID0 software raid (not hardware raid) that is reported to have failed during boot and my OS won't start. Using a Live CD, I get the following output : sudo mdadm -E /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sdc1: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 1.2 Feature Map : 0x0 Array UUID : 3710713d:fb301031:84b61247:d1d53e0f Name : HP-xw9300:0 Creation Time : Sun Sep 1 15:22:26 2013 Raid Level : -unknown- Raid Devices : 0 Avail Dev Size : 1465145328 (698.64 GiB 750.15 GB) Data Offset : 16 sectors Super Offset : 8 sectors State : active Device UUID : ad427cd2:9f885f57:7f41015f:90f8f6af Update Time : Sun Jun 8 12:35:11 2014 Checksum : a37407ff - correct Events : 1 Device Role : spare Array State : ('A' == active, '.' == missing) /dev/sdd1: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 1.2 Feature Map : 0x0 Array UUID : 3710713d:fb301031:84b61247:d1d53e0f Name : HP-xw9300:0 Creation Time : Sun Sep 1 15:22:26 2013 Raid Level : -unknown- Raid Devices : 0 Avail Dev Size : 976771056 (465.76 GiB 500.11 GB) Data Offset : 16 sectors Super Offset : 8 sectors State : active Device UUID : 2ea0199d:cb08d9e7:0830448a:a1e1e348 Update Time : Sun Jun 8 13:06:19 2014 Checksum : 8883c492 - correct Events : 1 Device Role : spare Array State : ('A' == active, '.' == missing) GParted lists both disks, detects the flags as 'Raid' and lists the data usage. Can anyone please help me re-assemble just so that I can copy some of the data off that I have not backed up recently? Thanks

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  • apache access and error log written in same file

    - by user196075
    i have issue that access and error log are written in same file ! , the configuration in virtualhosts.conf as the following : <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName ************ ServerAdmin support@************8 DocumentRoot /var/www/html/*********.com ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/********/********.com_error_log CustomLog /var/log/httpd/********/********.com_access_log combined <Directory /var/www/html/***********.com> Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All </Directory> </VirtualHost> as you see from the configuration each access and error logs should be save separately , but both logs are written in *.com_access_log , i have double check all permission , group and owner ... can't find anything wrong previous error in log file : [Thu Sep 19 14:15:02 2013] [error] [client 192.168.10.54] client denied by server configuration: /var/www/html/**********/show_has_offers.php i have tried to generate same error , i can find the hit in access log only as the following : 192.168.10.75 - - [24/Oct/2013:08:11:14 +0000] "GET /show_has_offers.php HTTP/1.1" 404 1586 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:22.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/22.0" 0 17332 and nothing in error log !! Please advice ...

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  • Office 2010: It&rsquo;s not just DOC(X) and XLS(X)

    - by andrewbrust
    Office 2010 has released to manufacturing.  The bits have left the (product team’s) building.  Will you upgrade? This version of Office is officially numbered 14, a designation that correlates with the various releases, through the years, of Microsoft Word.  There were six major versions of Word for DOS, during whose release cycles came three 16-bit Windows versions.  Then, starting with Word 95 and counting through Word 2007, there have been six more versions – all for the 32-bit Windows platform.  Skip version 13 to ward off folksy bad luck (and, perhaps, the bugs that could come with it) and that brings us to version 14, which includes implementations for both 32- and 64-bit Windows platforms.  We’ve come a long way baby.  Or have we? As it does every three years or so, debate will now start to rage on over whether we need a “14th” version the PC platform’s standard word processor, or a “13th” version of the spreadsheet.  If you accept the premise of that question, then you may be on a slippery slope toward answering it in the negative.  Thing is, that premise is valid for certain customers and not others. The Microsoft Office product has morphed from one that offered core word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and email functionality to a suite of applications that provides unique, new value-added features, and even whole applications, in the context of those core services.  The core apps thus grow in mission: Excel is a BI tool.  Word is a collaborative editorial system for the production of publications.  PowerPoint is a media production platform for for live presentations and, increasingly, for delivering more effective presentations online.  Outlook is a time and task management system.  Access is a rich client front-end for data-driven self-service SharePoint applications.  OneNote helps you capture ideas, corral random thoughts in a semi-structured way, and then tie them back to other, more rigidly structured, Office documents. Google Docs and other cloud productivity platforms like Zoho don’t really do these things.  And there is a growing chorus of voices who say that they shouldn’t, because those ancillary capabilities are over-engineered, over-produced and “under-necessary.”  They might say Microsoft is layering on superfluous capabilities to avoid admitting that Office’s core capabilities, the ones people really need, have become commoditized. It’s hard to take sides in that argument, because different people, and the different companies that employ them, have different needs.  For my own needs, it all comes down to three basic questions: will the new version of Office save me time, will it make the mundane parts of my job easier, and will it augment my services to customers?  I need my time back.  I need to spend more of it with my family, and more of it focusing on my own core capabilities rather than the administrative tasks around them.  And I also need my customers to be able to get more value out of the services I provide. Help me triage my inbox, help me get proposals done more quickly and make them easier to read.  Let me get my presentations done faster, make them more effective and make it easier for me to reuse materials from other presentations.  And, since I’m in the BI and data business, help me and my customers manage data and analytics more easily, both on the desktop and online. Those are my criteria.  And, with those in mind, Office 2010 is looking like a worthwhile upgrade.  Perhaps it’s not earth-shattering, but it offers a combination of incremental improvements and a few new major capabilities that I think are quite compelling.  I provide a brief roundup of them here.  It’s admittedly arbitrary and not comprehensive, but I think it tells the Office 2010 story effectively. Across the Suite More than any other, this release of Office aims to give collaboration a real workout.  In certain apps, for the first time, documents can be opened simultaneously by multiple users, with colleagues’ changes appearing in near real-time.  Web-browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will be available to extend collaboration to contributors who are off the corporate network. The ribbon user interface is now more pervasive (for example, it appears in OneNote and in Outlook’s main window).  It’s also customizable, allowing users to add, easily, buttons and options of their choosing, into new tabs, or into new groups within existing tabs. Microsoft has also taken the File menu (which was the “Office Button” menu in the 2007 release) and made it into a full-screen “Backstage” view where document-wide operations, like saving, printing and online publishing are performed. And because, more and more, heavily formatted content is cut and pasted between documents and applications, Office 2010 makes it easier to manage the retention or jettisoning of that formatting right as the paste operation is performed.  That’s much nicer than stripping it off, or adding it back, afterwards. And, speaking of pasting, a number of Office apps now make it especially easy to insert screenshots within their documents.  I know that’s useful to me, because I often document or critique applications and need to show them in action.  For the vast majority of users, I expect that this feature will be more useful for capturing snapshots of Web pages, but we’ll have to see whether this feature becomes popular.   Excel At first glance, Excel 2010 looks and acts nearly identically to the 2007 version.  But additional glances are necessary.  It’s important to understand that lots of people in the working world use Excel as more of a database, analytics and mathematical modeling tool than merely as a spreadsheet.  And it’s also important to understand that Excel wasn’t designed to handle such workloads past a certain scale.  That all changes with this release. The first reason things change is that Excel has been tuned for performance.  It’s been optimized for multi-threaded operation; previously lengthy processes have been shortened, especially for large data sets; more rows and columns are allowed and, for the first time, Excel (and the rest of Office) is available in a 64-bit version.  For Excel, this means users can take advantage of more than the 2GB of memory that the 32-bit version is limited to. On the analysis side, Excel 2010 adds Sparklines (tiny charts that fit into a single cell and can therefore be presented down an entire column or across a row) and Slicers (a more user-friendly filter mechanism for PivotTables and charts, which visually indicates what the filtered state of a given data member is).  But most important, Excel 2010 supports the new PowerPIvot add-in which brings true self-service BI to Office.  PowerPivot allows users to import data from almost anywhere, model it, and then analyze it.  Rather than forcing users to build “spreadmarts” or use corporate-built data warehouses, PowerPivot models function as true columnar, in-memory OLAP cubes that can accommodate millions of rows of data and deliver fast drill-down performance. And speaking of OLAP, Excel 2010 now supports an important Analysis Services OLAP feature called write-back.  Write-back is especially useful in financial forecasting scenarios for which Excel is the natural home.  Support for write-back is long overdue, but I’m still glad it’s there, because I had almost given up on it.   PowerPoint This version of PowerPoint marks its progression from a presentation tool to a video and photo editing and production tool.  Whether or not it’s successful in this pursuit, and if offering this is even a sensible goal, is another question. Regardless, the new capabilities are kind of interesting.  A greatly enhanced set of slide transitions with 3D effects; in-product photo and video editing; accommodation of embedded videos from services such as YouTube; and the ability to save a presentation as a video each lay testimony to PowerPoint’s transformation into a media tool and away from a pure presentation tool. These capabilities also recognize the importance of the Web as both a source for materials and a channel for disseminating PowerPoint output. Congruent with that is PowerPoint’s new ability to broadcast a slide presentation, using a quickly-generated public URL, without involving the hassle or expense of a Web meeting service like GoToMeeting or Microsoft’s own LiveMeeting.  Slides presented through this broadcast feature retain full color fidelity and transitions and animations are preserved as well.   Outlook Microsoft’s ubiquitous email/calendar/contact/task management tool gains long overdue speed improvements, especially against POP3 email accounts.  Outlook 2010 also supports multiple Exchange accounts, rather than just one; tighter integration with OneNote; and a new Social Connector providing integration with, and presence information from, online social network services like LinkedIn and Facebook (not to mention Windows Live).  A revamped conversation view now includes messages that are part of a given thread regardless of which folder they may be stored in. I don’t know yet how well the Social Connector will work or whether it will keep Outlook relevant to those who live on Facebook and LinkedIn.  But among the other features, there’s very little not to like.   OneNote To me, OneNote is the part of Office that just keeps getting better.  There is one major caveat to this, which I’ll cover in a moment, but let’s first catalog what new stuff OneNote 2010 brings.  The best part of OneNote, is the way each of its versions have managed hierarchy: Notebooks have sections, sections have pages, pages have sub pages, multiple notes can be contained in either, and each note supports infinite levels of indentation.  None of that is new to 2010, but the new version does make creation of pages and subpages easier and also makes simple work out of promoting and demoting pages from sub page to full page status.  And relationships between pages are quite easy to create now: much like a Wiki, simply typing a page’s name in double-square-brackets (“[[…]]”) creates a link to it. OneNote is also great at integrating content outside of its notebooks.  With a new Dock to Desktop feature, OneNote becomes aware of what window is displayed in the rest of the screen and, if it’s an Office document or a Web page, links the notes you’re typing, at the time, to it.  A single click from your notes later on will bring that same document or Web page back on-screen.  Embedding content from Web pages and elsewhere is also easier.  Using OneNote’s Windows Key+S combination to grab part of the screen now allows you to specify the destination of that bitmap instead of automatically creating a new note in the Unfiled Notes area.  Using the Send to OneNote buttons in Internet Explorer and Outlook result in the same choice. Collaboration gets better too.  Real-time multi-author editing is better accommodated and determining author lineage of particular changes is easily carried out. My one pet peeve with OneNote is the difficulty using it when I’m not one a Windows PC.  OneNote’s main competitor, Evernote, while I believe inferior in terms of features, has client versions for PC, Mac, Windows Mobile, Android, iPhone, iPad and Web browsers.  Since I have an Android phone and an iPad, I am practically forced to use it.  However, the OneNote Web app should help here, as should a forthcoming version of OneNote for Windows Phone 7.  In the mean time, it turns out that using OneNote’s Email Page ribbon button lets you move a OneNote page easily into EverNote (since every EverNote account gets a unique email address for adding notes) and that Evernote’s Email function combined with Outlook’s Send to OneNote button (in the Move group of the ribbon’s Home tab) can achieve the reverse.   Access To me, the big change in Access 2007 was its tight integration with SharePoint lists.  Access 2010 and SharePoint 2010 continue this integration with the introduction of SharePoint’s Access Services.  Much as Excel Services provides a SharePoint-hosted experience for viewing (and now editing) Excel spreadsheet, PivotTable and chart content, Access Services allows for SharePoint browser-hosted editing of Access data within the forms that are built in the Access client itself. To me this makes all kinds of sense.  Although it does beg the question of where to draw the line between Access, InfoPath, SharePoint list maintenance and SharePoint 2010’s new Business Connectivity Services.  Each of these tools provide overlapping data entry and data maintenance functionality. But if you do prefer Access, then you’ll like  things like templates and application parts that make it easier to get off the blank page.  These features help you quickly get tables, forms and reports built out.  To make things look nice, Access even gets its own version of Excel’s Conditional Formatting feature, letting you add data bars and data-driven text formatting.   Word As I said at the beginning of this post, upgrades to Office are about much more than enhancing the suite’s flagship word processing application. So are there any enhancements in Word worth mentioning?  I think so.  The most important one has to be the collaboration features.  Essentially, when a user opens a Word document that is in a SharePoint document library (or Windows Live SkyDrive folder), rather than the whole document being locked, Word has the ability to observe more granular locks on the individual paragraphs being edited.  Word also shows you who’s editing what and its Save function morphs into a sync feature that both saves your changes and loads those made by anyone editing the document concurrently. There’s also a new navigation pane that lets you manage sections in your document in much the same way as you manage slides in a PowerPoint deck.  Using the navigation pane, you can reorder sections, insert new ones, or promote and demote sections in the outline hierarchy.  Not earth shattering, but nice.   Other Apps and Summarized Findings What about InfoPath, Publisher, Visio and Project?  I haven’t looked at them yet.  And for this post, I think that’s fine.  While those apps (and, arguably, Access) cater to specific tasks, I think the apps we’ve looked at in this post service the general purpose needs of most users.  And the theme in those 2010 apps is clear: collaboration is key, the Web and productivity are indivisible, and making data and analytics into a self-service amenity is the way to go.  But perhaps most of all, features are still important, as long as they get you through your day faster, rather than adding complexity for its own sake.  I would argue that this is true for just about every product Microsoft makes: users want utility, not complexity.

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  • Native ComboBox not displaying choices correctly

    - by anothershrubery
    EDIT: It seems that ListPicker is the way to go but I have had further problems with that detailed Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit ListPicker throws XamlParseException I have the following ComboBox in code: <ComboBox x:Name="Result" Grid.Column="6" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Foreground="Black" Background="White"> <ComboBoxItem Content="Win" /> <ComboBoxItem Content="Place" /> <ComboBoxItem Content="Lose" /> </ComboBox> But it does not display as I would have expected. When you drop down the ComboBox the options don't appear, it's just like empty items. See below: However, when an item is selected, it displays correctly and the correct index/item is returned. See below: I'm sure there is something simple I have missed but can't put my finger on it. EDIT: Ok I am posting the full code for this. I have a user control, OddsRow, that looks like this: <UserControl xmlns:toolkit="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone.Controls.Toolkit" x:Class="MojoPinBetOddsCalculator.OddsRow" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" mc:Ignorable="d" FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}" FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}" Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}" d:DesignHeight="480" d:DesignWidth="480"> <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="{StaticResource PhoneChromeBrush}"> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="70"/> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="50*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="30*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*" ></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="100*"></ColumnDefinition> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <TextBlock x:Name="RowNumber" Grid.Column="0" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center"></TextBlock> <TextBox x:Name="OddsNumerator" Grid.Column="1" Width="90" Height="70" HorizontalAlignment="Center" TextAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" MaxLength="3" InputScope="TelephoneNumber"></TextBox> <TextBlock x:Name="Slash" Grid.Column="2" Text="/" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center"></TextBlock> <TextBox x:Name="OddsDenominator" Grid.Column="3" Width="90" Height="70" VerticalAlignment="Center" TextAlignment="Center" MaxLength="3" HorizontalAlignment="Center" InputScope="TelephoneNumber"></TextBox> <CheckBox x:Name="EachWay" Grid.Column="4" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="10,0,0,0" /> <CheckBox x:Name="Place" Grid.Column="5" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" BorderThickness="0" Width="71" Margin="10,0,0,0" Padding="0" /> <ComboBox x:Name="Result" Grid.Column="6" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Foreground="Black" Background="White"> <ComboBoxItem Content="Win" /> <ComboBoxItem Content="Place" /> <ComboBoxItem Content="Lose" /> </ComboBox> </Grid> </UserControl> And it is displayed in the MainPage like so: <phone:PhoneApplicationPage xmlns:my="clr-namespace:MojoPinBetOddsCalculator" x:Class="MojoPinBetOddsCalculator.MainPage" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:phone="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone" xmlns:shell="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Shell;assembly=Microsoft.Phone" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="480" d:DesignHeight="768" FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}" FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}" Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}" SupportedOrientations="Portrait" Orientation="Portrait" shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="True"> <!--LayoutRoot is the root grid where all page content is placed--> <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent"> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/> <RowDefinition Height="*"/> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <!--TitlePanel contains the name of the application and page title--> <StackPanel x:Name="TitlePanel" Grid.Row="0" Margin="12,17,0,28"> <TextBlock x:Name="ApplicationTitle" Text="BET ODDS CALCULATOR" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}"/> <TextBlock x:Name="PageTitle" Text="calculate" Margin="9,-7,0,0" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextTitle1Style}"/> </StackPanel> <!--ContentPanel - place additional content here--> <Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" Margin="12,0,12,0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"> <Grid x:Name="Scrollable"> <ScrollViewer> <Grid x:Name="BettingGrid"> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="*"></RowDefinition> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <Grid x:Name="BetList"> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="30"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> <RowDefinition Height="70"></RowDefinition> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="50*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="30*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="70*"></ColumnDefinition> <ColumnDefinition Width="100*"></ColumnDefinition> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <TextBlock Text="EW" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="4" HorizontalAlignment="Center" /> <TextBlock Text="Place" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="5" HorizontalAlignment="Center" /> <TextBlock Text="Result" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="6" HorizontalAlignment="Center" /> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="1"/> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="2" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="2"/> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="3" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="3"/> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="4" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="4"/> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="5" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="5"/> <my:OddsRow Grid.Row="6" Grid.ColumnSpan="7" Row="6"/> </Grid> <Grid x:Name="ControlsGrid" Grid.Row="1"> <Button x:Name="AddRowButton" Background="#BFFFFFFF" BorderBrush="#BFFFFFFF" Foreground="Black" Content="Add Row" FontSize="16" Click="AddRowButton_Click" Height="70" /> </Grid> </Grid> </ScrollViewer> </Grid> </Grid> </Grid> </phone:PhoneApplicationPage> Separately the ComboBox works, and also the code for the OddsRow works as expected... separately. When combined it doesn't display the items. OddsRow.xaml.cs public partial class OddsRow : UserControl { private int m_Row; public OddsRow() { InitializeComponent(); } public int Row { get { return m_Row; } set { m_Row = value; RowNumber.Text = m_Row + " - "; } } }

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  • Aggregate SharePoint Event/Items into your Calendar view using Calendar Overlay

    - by eJugnoo
    One of the most common features I have seen in common use for SharePoint (prior to 2010) in Intranet environments for Team site is Calendar’s. Not only the Calendar list type, but also the ability to add a Calendar view to any list that has the desired columns to construct a Calendar – such as Start, End, Title etc. While this was all great for a single site/calendar, the problem of having to track numerous calendar’s remained. With introduction of Outlook 2007 bi-directional integration with SharePoint, and particularly the ability of Outlook to overlay calendar helped bridge the gap. Now one could connect to number of team sites, and setup Calendar overlays in Outlook using varying colours, to easily identify event source and yet benefit from the plotting of events on single Calendar view. This was all good, but each user in your Enterprise was supposed to setup in a “pull” fashion. This is good for flexibility, not so good when you need to “push” consistency and productivity (re-use). So, what was missing on SharePoint is the ability to have server-side overlay’s that everyone can see – in a single place, aggregating multiple sources. Until SharePoint 2010 arrived! Calendars Overlay in SharePoint 2010 There are Calendar lists and Calendar views. View can be created for almost all lists, as far as you have desired column’s in a list like Start, End, Title etc. to be able to describe and plot an item in a Calendar format. In SharePoint 2010, create a new Calendar list. Go to Calendar ribbon tab, and click Calendar Overlay. You get the screen with list of existing Overlay’s associated with current Calendar (list – in our case). Click on “New Calendar”… Notice the breadcrumb! You are adding Overlay to existing list (Team Calendar – in our case). You have choice of “pulling” Calendar info from an existing Calendar (list/view) in SharePoint or even from Exchange! Set standard info like a name, description and decide the colour you want for the items in aggregated Calendar overlay. Select the source site/list/view, anywhere in farm. When you select Exchange as source of Calendar, you get option to add OWA and Exchange Web Service url. I will cover details of connecting with Exchange in another post, and focus on Overlay’s with SharePoint for this one. Once you have added a new Calendar overlay to existing Calendar veiw, you get something like below for Day view, Week view, and Month view respectively Notice the Overlay colours: Now, if you decide to connect this Calendar to Outlook to sync the items, it will only sync items from main view, and not from Overlay source. So such Overlay of calendar’s is server-side aggregation only. That increases my curiosity, so I try adding the Calendar list view as a web-part on a new page. As you see, this instance of view didn’t include item from source that we had added to default Calendar view. This is – probably – due to the fact that this is a new web-part view for the page. If you want to add overlay to this one, you have to redo that from Ribbon. This also means, subject to purpose and context you get the flexibility to decide what overlay is suited. Also you can only add 10 Overlay’s to an existing view instance. Conclusion Calendar Overlay is clearly a very useful feature that fills a gap of not being able to aggregate information from multiple sources into a Calendar view within context of current items. Source of items can be existing SharePoint calendar views on any site, or even Exchange (via OWA/Exchange web services). List type for source doesn’t matter, it just need a Calendar view type available. You can have 10 overlays. Overlays are for the specific view only, and are server-side only – which means they do not get synced in Outlook. While you can drag-drop current list items, you cannot edit overlay items as they are read-only within scope of current Calendar view. You can of course click on source Overlay item to edit at the source. I’d like to hear, how you think Overlay’s will help you in your case, or how you are already using them... Enjoy SharePoint! --Sharad

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  • Building applications with WPF, MVVM and Prism(aka CAG)

    - by skjagini
    In this article I am going to walk through an application using WPF and Prism (aka composite application guidance, CAG) which simulates engaging a taxi (cab).  The rules are simple, the app would have3 screens A login screen to authenticate the user An information screen. A screen to engage the cab and roam around and calculating the total fare Metered Rate of Fare The meter is required to be engaged when a cab is occupied by anyone $3.00 upon entry $0.35 for each additional unit The unit fare is: one-fifth of a mile, when the cab is traveling at 6 miles an hour or more; or 60 seconds when not in motion or traveling at less than 12 miles per hour. Night surcharge of $.50 after 8:00 PM & before 6:00 AM Peak hour Weekday Surcharge of $1.00 Monday - Friday after 4:00 PM & before 8:00 PM New York State Tax Surcharge of $.50 per ride. Example: Friday (2010-10-08) 5:30pm Start at Lexington Ave & E 57th St End at Irving Pl & E 15th St Start = $3.00 Travels 2 miles at less than 6 mph for 15 minutes = $3.50 Travels at more than 12 mph for 5 minutes = $1.75 Peak hour Weekday Surcharge = $1.00 (ride started at 5:30 pm) New York State Tax Surcharge = $0.50 Before we dive into the app, I would like to give brief description about the framework.  If you want to jump on to the source code, scroll all the way to the end of the post. MVVM MVVM pattern is in no way related to the usage of PRISM in your application and should be considered if you are using WPF irrespective of PRISM or not. Lets say you are not familiar with MVVM, your typical UI would involve adding some UI controls like text boxes, a button, double clicking on the button,  generating event handler, calling a method from business layer and updating the user interface, it works most of the time for developing small scale applications. The problem with this approach is that there is some amount of code specific to business logic wrapped in UI specific code which is hard to unit test it, mock it and MVVM helps to solve the exact problem. MVVM stands for Model(M) – View(V) – ViewModel(VM),  based on the interactions with in the three parties it should be called VVMM,  MVVM sounds more like MVC (Model-View-Controller) so the name. Why it should be called VVMM: View – View Model - Model WPF allows to create user interfaces using XAML and MVVM takes it to the next level by allowing complete separation of user interface and business logic. In WPF each view will have a property, DataContext when set to an instance of a class (which happens to be your view model) provides the data the view is interested in, i.e., view interacts with view model and at the same time view model interacts with view through DataContext. Sujith, if view and view model are interacting directly with each other how does MVVM is helping me separation of concerns? Well, the catch is DataContext is of type Object, since it is of type object view doesn’t know exact type of view model allowing views and views models to be loosely coupled. View models aggregate data from models (data access layer, services, etc) and make it available for views through properties, methods etc, i.e., View Models interact with Models. PRISM Prism is provided by Microsoft Patterns and Practices team and it can be downloaded from codeplex for source code,  samples and documentation on msdn.  The name composite implies, to compose user interface from different modules (views) without direct dependencies on each other, again allowing  loosely coupled development. Well Sujith, I can already do that with user controls, why shall I learn another framework?  That’s correct, you can decouple using user controls, but you still have to manage some amount of coupling, like how to do you communicate between the controls, how do you subscribe/unsubscribe, loading/unloading views dynamically. Prism is not a replacement for user controls, provides the following features which greatly help in designing the composite applications. Dependency Injection (DI)/ Inversion of Control (IoC) Modules Regions Event Aggregator  Commands Simply put, MVVM helps building a single view and Prism helps building an application using the views There are other open source alternatives to Prism, like MVVMLight, Cinch, take a look at them as well. Lets dig into the source code.  1. Solution The solution is made of the following projects Framework: Holds the common functionality in building applications using WPF and Prism TaxiClient: Start up project, boot strapping and app styling TaxiCommon: Helps with the business logic TaxiModules: Holds the meat of the application with views and view models TaxiTests: To test the application 2. DI / IoC Dependency Injection (DI) as the name implies refers to injecting dependencies and Inversion of Control (IoC) means the calling code has no direct control on the dependencies, opposite of normal way of programming where dependencies are passed by caller, i.e inversion; aside from some differences in terminology the concept is same in both the cases. The idea behind DI/IoC pattern is to reduce the amount of direct coupling between different components of the application, the higher the dependency the more tightly coupled the application resulting in code which is hard to modify, unit test and mock.  Initializing Dependency Injection through BootStrapper TaxiClient is the starting project of the solution and App (App.xaml)  is the starting class that gets called when you run the application. From the App’s OnStartup method we will invoke BootStrapper.   namespace TaxiClient { /// <summary> /// Interaction logic for App.xaml /// </summary> public partial class App : Application { protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e) { base.OnStartup(e);   (new BootStrapper()).Run(); } } } BootStrapper is your contact point for initializing the application including dependency injection, creating Shell and other frameworks. We are going to use Unity for DI and there are lot of open source DI frameworks like Spring.Net, StructureMap etc with different feature set  and you can choose a framework based on your preferences. Note that Prism comes with in built support for Unity, for example we are deriving from UnityBootStrapper in our case and for any other DI framework you have to extend the Prism appropriately   namespace TaxiClient { public class BootStrapper: UnityBootstrapper { protected override IModuleCatalog CreateModuleCatalog() { return new ConfigurationModuleCatalog(); } protected override DependencyObject CreateShell() { Framework.FrameworkBootStrapper.Run(Container, Application.Current.Dispatcher);   Shell shell = new Shell(); shell.ResizeMode = ResizeMode.NoResize; shell.Show();   return shell; } } } Lets take a look into  FrameworkBootStrapper to check out how to register with unity container. namespace Framework { public class FrameworkBootStrapper { public static void Run(IUnityContainer container, Dispatcher dispatcher) { UIDispatcher uiDispatcher = new UIDispatcher(dispatcher); container.RegisterInstance<IDispatcherService>(uiDispatcher);   container.RegisterType<IInjectSingleViewService, InjectSingleViewService>( new ContainerControlledLifetimeManager());   . . . } } } In the above code we are registering two components with unity container. You shall observe that we are following two different approaches, RegisterInstance and RegisterType.  With RegisterInstance we are registering an existing instance and the same instance will be returned for every request made for IDispatcherService   and with RegisterType we are requesting unity container to create an instance for us when required, i.e., when I request for an instance for IInjectSingleViewService, unity will create/return an instance of InjectSingleViewService class and with RegisterType we can configure the life time of the instance being created. With ContaienrControllerLifetimeManager, the unity container caches the instance and reuses for any subsequent requests, without recreating a new instance. Lets take a look into FareViewModel.cs and it’s constructor. The constructor takes one parameter IEventAggregator and if you try to find all references in your solution for IEventAggregator, you will not find a single location where an instance of EventAggregator is passed directly to the constructor. The compiler still finds an instance and works fine because Prism is already configured when used with Unity container to return an instance of EventAggregator when requested for IEventAggregator and in this particular case it is called constructor injection. public class FareViewModel:ObservableBase, IDataErrorInfo { ... private IEventAggregator _eventAggregator;   public FareViewModel(IEventAggregator eventAggregator) { _eventAggregator = eventAggregator; InitializePropertyNames(); InitializeModel(); PropertyChanged += OnPropertyChanged; } ... 3. Shell Shells are very similar in operation to Master Pages in asp.net or MDI in Windows Forms. And shells contain regions which display the views, you can have as many regions as you wish in a given view. You can also nest regions. i.e, one region can load a view which in itself may contain other regions. We have to create a shell at the start of the application and are doing it by overriding CreateShell method from BootStrapper From the following Shell.xaml you shall notice that we have two content controls with Region names as ‘MenuRegion’ and ‘MainRegion’.  The idea here is that you can inject any user controls into the regions dynamically, i.e., a Menu User Control for MenuRegion and based on the user action you can load appropriate view into MainRegion.    <Window x:Class="TaxiClient.Shell" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:Regions="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Regions;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism" Title="Taxi" Height="370" Width="800"> <Grid Margin="2"> <ContentControl Regions:RegionManager.RegionName="MenuRegion" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" VerticalContentAlignment="Stretch" />   <ContentControl Grid.Row="1" Regions:RegionManager.RegionName="MainRegion" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" VerticalContentAlignment="Stretch" /> <!--<Border Grid.ColumnSpan="2" BorderThickness="2" CornerRadius="3" BorderBrush="LightBlue" />-->   </Grid> </Window> 4. Modules Prism provides the ability to build composite applications and modules play an important role in it. For example if you are building a Mortgage Loan Processor application with 3 components, i.e. customer’s credit history,  existing mortgages, new home/loan information; and consider that the customer’s credit history component involves gathering data about his/her address, background information, job details etc. The idea here using Prism modules is to separate the implementation of these 3 components into their own visual studio projects allowing to build components with no dependency on each other and independently. If we need to add another component to the application, the component can be developed by in house team or some other team in the organization by starting with a new Visual Studio project and adding to the solution at the run time with very little knowledge about the application. Prism modules are defined by implementing the IModule interface and each visual studio project to be considered as a module should implement the IModule interface.  From the BootStrapper.cs you shall observe that we are overriding the method by returning a ConfiguratingModuleCatalog which returns the modules that are registered for the application using the app.config file  and you can also add module using code. Lets take a look into configuration file.   <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration> <configSections> <section name="modules" type="Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity.ModulesConfigurationSection, Microsoft.Practices.Prism"/> </configSections> <modules> <module assemblyFile="TaxiModules.dll" moduleType="TaxiModules.ModuleInitializer, TaxiModules" moduleName="TaxiModules"/> </modules> </configuration> Here we are adding TaxiModules project to our solution and TaxiModules.ModuleInitializer implements IModule interface   5. Module Mapper With Prism modules you can dynamically add or remove modules from the regions, apart from that Prism also provides API to control adding/removing the views from a region within the same module. Taxi Information Screen: Engage the Taxi Screen: The sample application has two screens, ‘Taxi Information’ and ‘Engage the Taxi’ and they both reside in same module, TaxiModules. ‘Engage the Taxi’ is again made of two user controls, FareView on the left and TotalView on the right. We have created a Shell with two regions, MenuRegion and MainRegion with menu loaded into MenuRegion. We can create a wrapper user control called EngageTheTaxi made of FareView and TotalView and load either TaxiInfo or EngageTheTaxi into MainRegion based on the user action. Though it will work it tightly binds the user controls and for every combination of user controls, we need to create a dummy wrapper control to contain them. Instead we can apply the principles we learned so far from Shell/regions and introduce another template (LeftAndRightRegionView.xaml) made of two regions Region1 (left) and Region2 (right) and load  FareView and TotalView dynamically.  To help with loading of the views dynamically I have introduce an helper an interface, IInjectSingleViewService,  idea suggested by Mike Taulty, a must read blog for .Net developers. using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel;   namespace Framework.PresentationUtility.Navigation {   public interface IInjectSingleViewService : INotifyPropertyChanged { IEnumerable<CommandViewDefinition> Commands { get; } IEnumerable<ModuleViewDefinition> Modules { get; }   void RegisterViewForRegion(string commandName, string viewName, string regionName, Type viewType); void ClearViewFromRegion(string viewName, string regionName); void RegisterModule(string moduleName, IList<ModuleMapper> moduleMappers); } } The Interface declares three methods to work with views: RegisterViewForRegion: Registers a view with a particular region. You can register multiple views and their regions under one command.  When this particular command is invoked all the views registered under it will be loaded into their regions. ClearViewFromRegion: To unload a specific view from a region. RegisterModule: The idea is when a command is invoked you can load the UI with set of controls in their default position and based on the user interaction, you can load different contols in to different regions on the fly.  And it is supported ModuleViewDefinition and ModuleMappers as shown below. namespace Framework.PresentationUtility.Navigation { public class ModuleViewDefinition { public string ModuleName { get; set; } public IList<ModuleMapper> ModuleMappers; public ICommand Command { get; set; } }   public class ModuleMapper { public string ViewName { get; set; } public string RegionName { get; set; } public Type ViewType { get; set; } } } 6. Event Aggregator Prism event aggregator enables messaging between components as in Observable pattern, Notifier notifies the Observer which receives notification it is interested in. When it comes to Observable pattern, Observer has to unsubscribes for notifications when it no longer interested in notifications, which allows the Notifier to remove the Observer’s reference from it’s local cache. Though .Net has managed garbage collection it cannot remove inactive the instances referenced by an active instance resulting in memory leak, keeping the Observers in memory as long as Notifier stays in memory.  Developers have to be very careful to unsubscribe when necessary and it often gets overlooked, to overcome these problems Prism Event Aggregator uses weak references to cache the reference (Observer in this case)  and releases the reference (memory) once the instance goes out of scope. Using event aggregator is very simple, declare a generic type of CompositePresenationEvent by inheriting from it. using Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Events; using TaxiCommon.BAO;   namespace TaxiCommon.CompositeEvents { public class TaxiOnMoveEvent:CompositePresentationEvent<TaxiOnMove> { } }   TaxiOnMove.cs includes the properties which we want to exchange between the parties, FareView and TotalView. using System;   namespace TaxiCommon.BAO { public class TaxiOnMove { public TimeSpan MinutesAtTweleveMPH { get; set; } public double MilesAtSixMPH { get; set; } } }   Lets take a look into FareViewodel (Notifier) and how it raises the event.  Here we are raising the event by getting the event through GetEvent<..>() and publishing it with the payload private void OnAddMinutes(object obj) { TaxiOnMove payload = new TaxiOnMove(); if(MilesAtSixMPH != null) payload.MilesAtSixMPH = MilesAtSixMPH.Value; if(MinutesAtTweleveMPH != null) payload.MinutesAtTweleveMPH = new TimeSpan(0,0,MinutesAtTweleveMPH.Value,0);   _eventAggregator.GetEvent<TaxiOnMoveEvent>().Publish(payload); ResetMinutesAndMiles(); } And TotalViewModel(Observer) subscribes to notifications by getting the event through GetEvent<..>() namespace TaxiModules.ViewModels { public class TotalViewModel:ObservableBase { .... private IEventAggregator _eventAggregator;   public TotalViewModel(IEventAggregator eventAggregator) { _eventAggregator = eventAggregator; ... }   private void SubscribeToEvents() { _eventAggregator.GetEvent<TaxiStartedEvent>() .Subscribe(OnTaxiStarted, ThreadOption.UIThread,false,(filter) => true); _eventAggregator.GetEvent<TaxiOnMoveEvent>() .Subscribe(OnTaxiMove, ThreadOption.UIThread, false, (filter) => true); _eventAggregator.GetEvent<TaxiResetEvent>() .Subscribe(OnTaxiReset, ThreadOption.UIThread, false, (filter) => true); }   ... private void OnTaxiMove(TaxiOnMove taxiOnMove) { OnMoveFare fare = new OnMoveFare(taxiOnMove); Fares.Add(fare); SetTotalFare(new []{fare}); }   .... 7. MVVM through example In this section we are going to look into MVVM implementation through example.  I have all the modules declared in a single project, TaxiModules, again it is not necessary to have them into one project. Once the user logs into the application, will be greeted with the ‘Engage the Taxi’ screen which is made of two user controls, FareView.xaml and TotalView.Xaml. As you can see from the solution explorer, each of them have their own code behind files and  ViewModel classes, FareViewMode.cs, TotalViewModel.cs Lets take a look in to the FareView and how it interacts with FareViewModel using MVVM implementation. FareView.xaml acts as a view and FareViewMode.cs is it’s view model. The FareView code behind class   namespace TaxiModules.Views { /// <summary> /// Interaction logic for FareView.xaml /// </summary> public partial class FareView : UserControl { public FareView(FareViewModel viewModel) { InitializeComponent(); this.Loaded += (s, e) => { this.DataContext = viewModel; }; } } } The FareView is bound to FareViewModel through the data context  and you shall observe that DataContext is of type Object, i.e. the FareView doesn’t really know the type of ViewModel (FareViewModel). This helps separation of View and ViewModel as View and ViewModel are independent of each other, you can bind FareView to FareViewModel2 as well and the application compiles just fine. Lets take a look into FareView xaml file  <UserControl x:Class="TaxiModules.Views.FareView" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:Toolkit="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Windows.Controls;assembly=WPFToolkit" xmlns:Commands="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Commands;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism"> <Grid Margin="10" > ....   <Border Style="{DynamicResource innerBorder}" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" Grid.RowSpan="11" Grid.ColumnSpan="2" Panel.ZIndex="1"/>   <Label Grid.Row="0" Content="Engage the Taxi" Style="{DynamicResource innerHeader}"/> <Label Grid.Row="1" Content="Select the State"/> <ComboBox Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" ItemsSource="{Binding States}" Height="auto"> <ComboBox.ItemTemplate> <DataTemplate> <TextBlock Text="{Binding Name}"/> </DataTemplate> </ComboBox.ItemTemplate> <ComboBox.SelectedItem> <Binding Path="SelectedState" Mode="TwoWay"/> </ComboBox.SelectedItem> </ComboBox> <Label Grid.Row="2" Content="Select the Date of Entry"/> <Toolkit:DatePicker Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="1" SelectedDate="{Binding DateOfEntry, ValidatesOnDataErrors=true}" /> <Label Grid.Row="3" Content="Enter time 24hr format"/> <TextBox Grid.Row="3" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding TimeOfEntry, TargetNullValue=''}"/> <Button Grid.Row="4" Grid.Column="1" Content="Start the Meter" Commands:Click.Command="{Binding StartMeterCommand}" />   <Label Grid.Row="5" Content="Run the Taxi" Style="{DynamicResource innerHeader}"/> <Label Grid.Row="6" Content="Number of Miles &lt;@6mph"/> <TextBox Grid.Row="6" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding MilesAtSixMPH, TargetNullValue='', ValidatesOnDataErrors=true}"/> <Label Grid.Row="7" Content="Number of Minutes @12mph"/> <TextBox Grid.Row="7" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding MinutesAtTweleveMPH, TargetNullValue=''}"/> <Button Grid.Row="8" Grid.Column="1" Content="Add Minutes and Miles " Commands:Click.Command="{Binding AddMinutesCommand}"/> <Label Grid.Row="9" Content="Other Operations" Style="{DynamicResource innerHeader}"/> <Button Grid.Row="10" Grid.Column="1" Content="Reset the Meter" Commands:Click.Command="{Binding ResetCommand}"/>   </Grid> </UserControl> The highlighted code from the above code shows data binding, for example ComboBox which displays list of states has it’s ItemsSource bound to States property, with DataTemplate bound to Name and SelectedItem  to SelectedState. You might be wondering what are all these properties and how it is able to bind to them.  The answer lies in data context, i.e., when you bound a control, WPF looks for data context on the root object (Grid in this case) and if it can’t find data context it will look into root’s root, i.e. FareView UserControl and it is bound to FareViewModel.  Each of those properties have be declared on the ViewModel for the View to bind correctly. To put simply, View is bound to ViewModel through data context of type object and every control that is bound on the View actually binds to the public property on the ViewModel. Lets look into the ViewModel code (the following code is not an exact copy of FareViewMode.cs, pasted relevant code for this section)   namespace TaxiModules.ViewModels { public class FareViewModel:ObservableBase, IDataErrorInfo { public List<USState> States { get { return USStates.StateList; } }   public USState SelectedState { get { return _selectedState; } set { _selectedState = value; RaisePropertyChanged(_selectedStatePropertyName); } }   public DateTime? DateOfEntry { get { return _dateOfEntry; } set { _dateOfEntry = value; RaisePropertyChanged(_dateOfEntryPropertyName); } }   public TimeSpan? TimeOfEntry { get { return _timeOfEntry; } set { _timeOfEntry = value; RaisePropertyChanged(_timeOfEntryPropertyName); } }   public double? MilesAtSixMPH { get { return _milesAtSixMPH; } set { _milesAtSixMPH = value; RaisePropertyChanged(_distanceAtSixMPHPropertyName); } }   public int? MinutesAtTweleveMPH { get { return _minutesAtTweleveMPH; } set { _minutesAtTweleveMPH = value; RaisePropertyChanged(_minutesAtTweleveMPHPropertyName); } }   public ICommand StartMeterCommand { get { if(_startMeterCommand == null) { _startMeterCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(OnStartMeter, CanStartMeter); } return _startMeterCommand; } }   public ICommand AddMinutesCommand { get { if(_addMinutesCommand == null) { _addMinutesCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(OnAddMinutes, CanAddMinutes); } return _addMinutesCommand; } }   public ICommand ResetCommand { get { if(_resetCommand == null) { _resetCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(OnResetCommand); } return _resetCommand; } }   } private void OnStartMeter(object obj) { _eventAggregator.GetEvent<TaxiStartedEvent>().Publish( new TaxiStarted() { EngagedOn = DateOfEntry.Value.Date + TimeOfEntry.Value, EngagedState = SelectedState.Value });   _isMeterStarted = true; OnPropertyChanged(this,null); } And views communicate user actions like button clicks, tree view item selections, etc using commands. When user clicks on ‘Start the Meter’ button it invokes the method StartMeterCommand, which calls the method OnStartMeter which publishes the event to TotalViewModel using event aggregator  and TaxiStartedEvent. namespace TaxiModules.ViewModels { public class TotalViewModel:ObservableBase { ... private IEventAggregator _eventAggregator;   public TotalViewModel(IEventAggregator eventAggregator) { _eventAggregator = eventAggregator;   InitializePropertyNames(); InitializeModel(); SubscribeToEvents(); }   public decimal? TotalFare { get { return _totalFare; } set { _totalFare = value; RaisePropertyChanged(_totalFarePropertyName); } } .... private void SubscribeToEvents() { _eventAggregator.GetEvent<TaxiStartedEvent>().Subscribe(OnTaxiStarted, ThreadOption.UIThread,false,(filter) => true); _eventAggregator.GetEvent<TaxiOnMoveEvent>().Subscribe(OnTaxiMove, ThreadOption.UIThread, false, (filter) => true); _eventAggregator.GetEvent<TaxiResetEvent>().Subscribe(OnTaxiReset, ThreadOption.UIThread, false, (filter) => true); }   private void OnTaxiStarted(TaxiStarted taxiStarted) { Fares.Add(new EntryFare()); Fares.Add(new StateTaxFare(taxiStarted)); Fares.Add(new NightSurchargeFare(taxiStarted)); Fares.Add(new PeakHourWeekdayFare(taxiStarted));   SetTotalFare(Fares); }   private void SetTotalFare(IEnumerable<IFare> fares) { TotalFare = (_totalFare ?? 0) + TaxiFareHelper.GetTotalFare(fares); } ....   } }   TotalViewModel subscribes to events, TaxiStartedEvent and rest. When TaxiStartedEvent gets invoked it calls the OnTaxiStarted method which sets the total fare which includes entry fee, state tax, nightly surcharge, peak hour weekday fare.   Note that TotalViewModel derives from ObservableBase which implements the method RaisePropertyChanged which we are invoking in Set of TotalFare property, i.e, once we update the TotalFare property it raises an the event that  allows the TotalFare text box to fetch the new value through the data context. ViewModel is communicating with View through data context and it has no knowledge about View, helping in loose coupling of ViewModel and View.   I have attached the source code (.Net 4.0, Prism 4.0, VS 2010) , download and play with it and don’t forget to leave your comments.  

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  • Uninstalling Reporting Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008

    - by Piotr Rodak
    Ha. I had quite disputable pleasure of installing and reinstalling and reinstalling and reinstalling – I think about 5 times before it worked – Reporting Server 2008 on Windows Server with the same year number in name. During my struggle I came across an error which seems to be not quite unfamiliar to some more unfortunate developers and admins who happen to uninstall SSRS 2008 from the server. I had the SSRS 2008 installed as named instance, SQL2008. I wanted to uninstall the server and install it to default instance. And this is when it bit me – not the first time and not the last that day . The setup complained that it couldn’t access a DLL: Error message: TITLE: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Setup ------------------------------ The following error has occurred: Access to the path 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\perf-ReportServer$SQL2008-rsctr.dll' is denied. For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=20476&ProdName=Microsoft+SQL+Server&EvtSrc=setup.rll&EvtID=50000&ProdVer=10.0.1600.22&EvtType=0x60797DC7%25400x84E8D3C0 ------------------------------ BUTTONS: OK This is a screenshot that shows the above error: This issue seems to have a bit of literature dedicated to it and even seemingly a KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956173 and a similar Connect item: http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/363653/error-messages-when-upgrading-from-sql-2008-rc0-to-rtm The article describes issue as following: When you try to uninstall Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services from the server, you may receive the following error message: An error has occurred: Access to the path 'Drive_Letter:\WINDOWS\system32\perf-ReportServer-rsctr.dll' is denied. Note Drive_Letter refers to the disc drive into which the SQL Server installation media is inserted. In my case, the Note was not true; the error pointed to a dll that was located in Windows folder on C:\, not where the installation media were. Despite this difference I tried to identify any processes that might be keeping lock on the dll. I downloaded Sysinternals process explorer and ran it to find any processes I could stop. Unfortunately, there was no such process. I tried to rerun the installation, but it failed at the same step. Eventually I decided to remove the dll before the setup was executed. I changed name of the dll to be able to restore it in case of some issues. Interestingly, Windows let me do it, which means that indeed, it was not locked by any process. I ran the setup and this time it uninstalled the instance without any problems:   To summarize my experience I should say – be very careful, don’t leave any leftovers after uninstallation – remove/rename any folders that are left after setup has finished. For some reason, setup doesn’t remove folders and certain files. Installation on Windows Server 2008 requires more attention than on Windows 2003 because of the changed security model, some actions can be executed only by administrator in elevated execution mode. In general, you have to get used to UAC and a bit different experience than with Windows Server 2003. Technorati Tags: SQL Server 2008,Windows Server 2008,SRS,Reporting Services

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  • Consolidation Strategy References

    - by BuckWoody
    I have a presentation that I give on SQL Server Consolidation Strategies, and in that presentation I talk about a few links that are useful. Here are some that I’ve found – feel free to comment on more, or if these links go stale:   Consolidation using SQL Server: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee692366.aspx SQL Server Consolidation Guidance:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee819082.aspx   More references for SQL Server and Hyper-V: http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/KIMBERLY/post/Virtualization-with-SQL-Server.aspx Quick overview of Virtual Server licensing implications: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/licensing/morethan250/learn/virtualisation.mspx SQL Server and Hyper-V best practices: http://sqlcat.com/whitepapers/archive/2008/10/03/running-sql-server-2008-in-a-hyper-v-environment-best-practices-and-performance-recommendations.aspx High-Availability and Hyper-V: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.10.higha.aspx Virtualization Calculator: http://www.microsoft.com/Windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-calculators.aspx   May not be current, but here’s a whitepaper from VMWare for SQL Server: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/SQLServerWorkloads.pdf More information on SQL Server and VMWare: http://blogs.msdn.com/cindygross/archive/2009/10/23/considerations-for-installing-sql-server-on-vmware.aspx   Server Virtualization Validation Program: http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx?svvppage=svvp.htm Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Using Unity – Part 3

    - by nmarun
    The previous blog was about registering and invoking different types dynamically. In this one I’d like to show how Unity manages/disposes the instances – say hello to Lifetime Managers. When a type gets registered, either through the config file or when RegisterType method is explicitly called, the default behavior is that the container uses a transient lifetime manager. In other words, the unity container creates a new instance of the type when Resolve or ResolveAll method is called. Whereas, when you register an existing object using the RegisterInstance method, the container uses a container controlled lifetime manager - a singleton pattern. It does this by storing the reference of the object and that means so as long as the container is ‘alive’, your registered instance does not go out of scope and will be disposed only after the container either goes out of scope or when the code explicitly disposes the container. Let’s see how we can use these and test if something is a singleton or a transient instance. Continuing on the same solution used in the previous blogs, I have made the following changes: First is to add typeAlias elements for TransientLifetimeManager type: 1: <typeAlias alias="transient" type="Microsoft.Practices.Unity.TransientLifetimeManager, Microsoft.Practices.Unity"/> You then need to tell what type(s) you want to be transient by nature: 1: <type type="IProduct" mapTo="Product2"> 2: <lifetime type="transient" /> 3: </type> 4: <!--<type type="IProduct" mapTo="Product2" />--> The lifetime element’s type attribute matches with the alias attribute of the typeAlias element. Now since ‘transient’ is the default behavior, you can have a concise version of the same as line 4 shows. Also note that I’ve changed the mapTo attribute from ‘Product’ to ‘Product2’. I’ve done this to help understand the transient nature of the instance of the type Product2. By making this change, you are basically saying when a type of IProduct needs to be resolved, Unity should create an instance of Product2 by default. 1: public string WriteProductDetails() 2: { 3: return string.Format("Name: {0}<br/>Category: {1}<br/>Mfg Date: {2}<br/>Hash Code: {3}", 4: Name, Category, MfgDate.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt"), GetHashCode()); 5: } Again, the above change is purely for the purpose of making the example more clear to understand. The display will show the full date and also displays the hash code of the current instance. The GetHashCode() method returns an integer when an instance gets created – a new integer for every instance. When you run the application, you’ll see something like the below: Now when you click on the ‘Get Product2 Instance’ button, you’ll see that the Mfg Date (which is set in the constructor) and the Hash Code are different from the one created on page load. This proves to us that a new instance is created every single time. To make this a singleton, we need to add a type alias for the ContainerControlledLifetimeManager class and then change the type attribute of the lifetime element to singleton. 1: <typeAlias alias="singleton" type="Microsoft.Practices.Unity.ContainerControlledLifetimeManager, Microsoft.Practices.Unity"/> 2: ... 3: <type type="IProduct" mapTo="Product2"> 4: <lifetime type="singleton" /> 5: </type> Running the application now gets me the following output: Click on the button below and you’ll see that the Mfg Date and the Hash code remain unchanged => the unity container is storing the reference the first time it is created and then returns the same instance every time the type needs to be resolved. Digging more deeper into this, Unity provides more than the two lifetime managers. ExternallyControlledLifetimeManager – maintains a weak reference to type mappings and instances. Unity returns the same instance as long as the some code is holding a strong reference to this instance. For this, you need: 1: <typeAlias alias="external" type="Microsoft.Practices.Unity.ExternallyControlledLifetimeManager, Microsoft.Practices.Unity"/> 2: ... 3: <type type="IProduct" mapTo="Product2"> 4: <lifetime type="external" /> 5: </type> PerThreadLifetimeManager – Unity returns a unique instance of an object for each thread – so this effectively is a singleton behavior on a  per-thread basis. 1: <typeAlias alias="perThread" type="Microsoft.Practices.Unity.PerThreadLifetimeManager, Microsoft.Practices.Unity"/> 2: ... 3: <type type="IProduct" mapTo="Product2"> 4: <lifetime type="perThread" /> 5: </type> One thing to note about this is that if you use RegisterInstance method to register an existing object, this instance will be returned for every thread, making this a purely singleton behavior. Needless to say, this type of lifetime management is useful in multi-threaded applications (duh!!). I hope this blog provided some basics on lifetime management of objects resolved in Unity and in the next blog, I’ll talk about Injection. Please see the code used here.

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  • What is Linq?

    - by Aamir Hasan
    The way data can be retrieved in .NET. LINQ provides a uniform way to retrieve data from any object that implements the IEnumerable<T> interface. With LINQ, arrays, collections, relational data, and XML are all potential data sources. Why LINQ?With LINQ, you can use the same syntax to retrieve data from any data source:var query = from e in employeeswhere e.id == 1select e.nameThe middle level represents the three main parts of the LINQ project: LINQ to Objects is an API that provides methods that represent a set of standard query operators (SQOs) to retrieve data from any object whose class implements the IEnumerable<T> interface. These queries are performed against in-memory data.LINQ to ADO.NET augments SQOs to work against relational data. It is composed of three parts.LINQ to SQL (formerly DLinq) is use to query relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server. LINQ to DataSet supports queries by using ADO.NET data sets and data tables. LINQ to Entities is a Microsoft ORM solution, allowing developers to use Entities (an ADO.NET 3.0 feature) to declaratively specify the structure of business objects and use LINQ to query them. LINQ to XML (formerly XLinq) not only augments SQOs but also includes a host of XML-specific features for XML document creation and queries. What You Need to Use LINQLINQ is a combination of extensions to .NET languages and class libraries that support them. To use it, you’ll need the following: Obviously LINQ, which is available from the new Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 that you can download at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7755937.You can speed up your application development time with LINQ using Visual Studio 2008, which offers visual tools such as LINQ to SQL designer and the Intellisense  support with LINQ’s syntax.Optionally, you can download the Visual C# 2008 Expression Edition tool at www.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/download. It is the free edition of Visual Studio 2008 and offers a lot of LINQ support such as Intellisense and LINQ to SQL designer. To use LINQ to ADO.NET, you need SQL

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  • What You Need to Know About Windows 8.1

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Windows 8.1 is available to everyone starting today, October 19. The latest version of Windows improves on Windows 8 in every way. It’s a big upgrade, whether you use the desktop or new touch-optimized interface. The latest version of Windows has been dubbed “an apology” by some — it’s definitely more at home on a desktop PC than Windows 8 was. However, it also offers a more fleshed out and mature tablet experience. How to Get Windows 8.1 For Windows 8 users, Windows 8.1 is completely free. It will be available as a download from the Windows Store — that’s the “Store” app in the Modern, tiled interface. Assuming upgrading to the final version will be just like upgrading to the preview version, you’ll likely see a “Get Windows 8.1″ pop-up that will take you to the Windows Store and guide you through the download process. You’ll also be able to download ISO images of Windows 8.1, so can perform a clean install to upgrade. On any new computer, you can just install Windows 8.1 without going through Windows 8. New computers will start to ship with Windows 8.1 and boxed copies of Windows 8 will be replaced by boxed copies of Windows 8.1. If you’re using Windows 7 or a previous version of Windows, the update won’t be free. Getting Windows 8.1 will cost you the same amount as a full copy of Windows 8 — $120 for the standard version. If you’re an average Windows 7 user, you’re likely better off waiting until you buy a new PC with Windows 8.1 included rather than spend this amount of money to upgrade. Improvements for Desktop Users Some have dubbed Windows 8.1 “an apology” from Microsoft, although you certainly won’t see Microsoft referring to it this way. Either way, Steven Sinofsky, who presided over Windows 8′s development, left the company shortly after Windows 8 was released. Coincidentally, Windows 8.1 contains many features that Steven Sinofsky and Microsoft refused to implement. Windows 8.1 offers the following big improvements for desktop users: Boot to Desktop: You can now log in directly to the desktop, skipping the tiled interface entirely. Disable Top-Left and Top-Right Hot Corners: The app switcher and charms bar won’t appear when you move your mouse to the top-left or top-right corners of the screen if you enable this option. No more intrusions into the desktop. The Start Button Returns: Windows 8.1 brings back an always-present Start button on the desktop taskbar, dramatically improving discoverability for new Windows 8 users and providing a bigger mouse target for remote desktops and virtual machines. Crucially, the Start menu isn’t back — clicking this button will open the full-screen Modern interface. Start menu replacements will continue to function on Windows 8.1, offering more traditional Start menus. Show All Apps By Default: Luckily, you can hide the Start screen and its tiles almost entirely. Windows 8.1 can be configured to show a full-screen list of all your installed apps when you click the Start button, with desktop apps prioritized. The only real difference is that the Start menu is now a full-screen interface. Shut Down or Restart From Start Button: You can now right-click the Start button to access Shut down, Restart, and other power options in just as many clicks as you could on Windows 7. Shared Start Screen and Desktop Backgrounds; Windows 8 limited you to just a few Steven Sinofsky-approved background images for your Start screen, but Windows 8.1 allows you to use your desktop background on the Start screen. This can make the transition between the Start screen and desktop much less jarring. The tiles or shortcuts appear to be floating above the desktop rather than off in their own separate universe. Unified Search: Unified search is back, so you can start typing and search your programs, settings, and files all at once — no more awkwardly clicking between different categories when trying to open a Control Panel screen or search for a file. These all add up to a big improvement when using Windows 8.1 on the desktop. Microsoft is being much more flexible — the Start menu is full screen, but Microsoft has relented on so many other things and you’d never have to see a tile if you didn’t want to. For more information, read our guide to optimizing Windows 8.1 for a desktop PC. These are just the improvements specifically for desktop users. Windows 8.1 includes other useful features for everyone, such as deep SkyDrive integration that allows you to store your files in the cloud without installing any additional sync programs. Improvements for Touch Users If you have a Windows 8 or Windows RT tablet or another touch-based device you use the interface formerly known as Metro on, you’ll see many other noticeable improvements. Windows 8′s new interface was half-baked when it launched, but it’s now much more capable and mature. App Updates: Windows 8′s included apps were extremely limited in many cases. For example, Internet Explorer 10 could only display ten tabs at a time and the Mail app was a barren experience devoid of features. In Windows 8.1, some apps — like Xbox Music — have been redesigned from scratch, Internet Explorer allows you to display a tab bar on-screen all the time, while apps like Mail have accumulated quite a few useful features. The Windows Store app has been entirely redesigned and is less awkward to browse. Snap Improvements: Windows 8′s Snap feature was a toy, allowing you to snap one app to a small sidebar at one side of your screen while another app consumed most of your screen. Windows 8.1 allows you to snap two apps side-by-side, seeing each app’s full interface at once. On larger displays, you can even snap three or four apps at once. Windows 8′s ability to use multiple apps at once on a tablet is compelling and unmatched by iPads and Android tablets. You can also snap two of the same apps side-by-side — to view two web pages at once, for example. More Comprehensive PC Settings: Windows 8.1 offers a more comprehensive PC settings app, allowing you to change most system settings in a touch-optimized interface. You shouldn’t have to use the desktop Control Panel on a tablet anymore — or at least not as often. Touch-Optimized File Browsing: Microsoft’s SkyDrive app allows you to browse files on your local PC, finally offering a built-in, touch-optimized way to manage files without using the desktop. Help & Tips: Windows 8.1 includes a Help+Tips app that will help guide new users through its new interface, something Microsoft stubbornly refused to add during development. There’s still no “Modern” version of Microsoft Office apps (aside from OneNote), so you’ll still have to head to use desktop Office apps on tablets. It’s not perfect, but the Modern interface doesn’t feel anywhere near as immature anymore. Read our in-depth look at the ways Microsoft’s Modern interface, formerly known as Metro, is improved in Windows 8.1 for more information. In summary, Windows 8.1 is what Windows 8 should have been. All of these improvements are on top of the many great desktop features, security improvements, and all-around battery life and performance optimizations that appeared in Windows 8. If you’re still using Windows 7 and are happy with it, there’s probably no reason to race out and buy a copy of Windows 8.1 at the rather high price of $120. But, if you’re using Windows 8, it’s a big upgrade no matter what you’re doing. If you buy a new PC and it comes with Windows 8.1, you’re getting a much more flexible and comfortable experience. If you’re holding off on buying a new computer because you don’t want Windows 8, give Windows 8.1 a try — yes, it’s different, but Microsoft has compromised on the desktop while making a lot of improvements to the new interface. You just might find that Windows 8.1 is now a worthwhile upgrade, even if you only want to use the desktop.     

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  • Integrate Bing Search API into ASP.Net application

    - by sreejukg
    Couple of months back, I wrote an article about how to integrate Bing Search engine (API 2.0) with ASP.Net website. You can refer the article here http://weblogs.asp.net/sreejukg/archive/2012/04/07/integrate-bing-api-for-search-inside-asp-net-web-application.aspx Things are changing rapidly in the tech world and Bing has also changed! The Bing Search API 2.0 will work until August 1, 2012, after that it will not return results. Shocked? Don’t worry the API has moved to Windows Azure market place and available for you to sign up and continue using it and there is a free version available based on your usage. In this article, I am going to explain how you can integrate the new Bing API that is available in the Windows Azure market place with your website. You can access the Windows Azure market place from the below link https://datamarket.azure.com/ There is lot of applications available for you to subscribe and use. Bing is one of them. You can find the new Bing Search API from the below link https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/5BA839F1-12CE-4CCE-BF57-A49D98D29A44 To get access to Bing Search API, first you need to register an account with Windows Azure market place. Sign in to the Windows Azure market place site using your windows live account. Once you sign in with your windows live account, you need to register to Windows Azure Market place account. From the Windows Azure market place, you will see the sign in button it the top right of the page. Clicking on the sign in button will take you to the Windows live ID authentication page. You can enter a windows live ID here to login. Once logged in you will see the Registration page for the Windows Azure market place as follows. You can agree or disagree for the email address usage by Microsoft. I believe selecting the check box means you will get email about what is happening in Windows Azure market place. Click on continue button once you are done. In the next page, you should accept the terms of use, it is not optional, you must agree to terms and conditions. Scroll down to the page and select the I agree checkbox and click on Register Button. Now you are a registered member of Windows Azure market place. You can subscribe to data applications. In order to use BING API in your application, you must obtain your account Key, in the previous version of Bing you were required an API key, the current version uses Account Key instead. Once you logged in to the Windows Azure market place, you can see “My Account” in the top menu, from the Top menu; go to “My Account” Section. From the My Account section, you can manage your subscriptions and Account Keys. Account Keys will be used by your applications to access the subscriptions from the market place. Click on My Account link, you can see Account Keys in the left menu and then Add an account key or you can use the default Account key available. Creating account key is very simple process. Also you can remove the account keys you create if necessary. The next step is to subscribe to BING Search API. At this moment, Bing Offers 2 APIs for search. The available options are as follows. 1. Bing Search API - https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/5ba839f1-12ce-4cce-bf57-a49d98d29a44 2. Bing Search API – Web Results only - https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/8818f55e-2fe5-4ce3-a617-0b8ba8419f65 The difference is that the later will give you only web results where the other you can specify the source type such as image, video, web, news etc. Carefully choose the API based on your application requirements. In this article, I am going to use Web Results Only API, but the steps will be similar to both. Go to the API page https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/8818f55e-2fe5-4ce3-a617-0b8ba8419f65, you can see the subscription options in the right side. And in the bottom of the page you can see the free option Since I am going to use the free options, just Click the Sign Up link for that. Just select I agree check box and click on the Sign Up button. You will get a recipt pagethat detail your subscription. Now you are ready Bing Search API – Web results. The next step is to integrate the API into your ASP.Net application. Now if you go to the Search API page (as well as in the Receipt page), you can see a .Net C# Class Library link, click on the link, you will get a code file named “BingSearchContainer.cs”. In the following sections I am going to demonstrate the use of Bing Search API from an ASP.Net application. Create an empty ASP.Net web application. In the solution explorer, the application will looks as follows. Now add the downloaded code file (“BingSearchContainer.cs”) to the project. Right click your project in solution explorer, Add -> existing item, then browse to the downloaded location, select the “BingSearchContainer.cs” file and add it to the project. To build the code file you need to add reference to the following library. System.Data.Services.Client You can find the library in the .Net tab, when you select Add -> Reference Try to build your project now; it should build without any errors. Add an ASP.Net page to the project. I have included a text box and a button, then a Grid View to the page. The idea is to Search the text entered and display the results in the gridview. The page will look in the Visual Studio Designer as follows. The markup of the page is as follows. In the button click event handler for the search button, I have used the following code. Now run your project and enter some text in the text box and click the Search button, you will see the results coming from Bing, cool. I entered the text “Microsoft” in the textbox and clicked on the button and I got the following results. Searching Specific Websites If you want to search a particular website, you pass the site url with site:<site url name> and if you have more sites, use pipe (|). e.g. The following search query site:microsoft.com | site:adobe.com design will search the word design and return the results from Microsoft.com and Adobe.com See the sample code that search only Microsoft.com for the text entered for the above sample. var webResults = bingContainer.Web("site:www.Microsoft.com " + txtSearch.Text, null, null, null, null, null, null); Paging the results returned by the API By default the BING API will return 100 results based on your query. The default code file that you downloaded from BING doesn’t include any option for this. You can modify the downloaded code to perform this paging. The BING API supports two parameters $top (for number of results to return) and $skip (for number of records to skip). So if you want 3rd page of results with page size = 10, you need to pass $top = 10 and $skip=20. Open the BingSearchContainer.cs in the editor. You can see the Web method in it as follows. public DataServiceQuery<WebResult> Web(String Query, String Market, String Adult, Double? Latitude, Double? Longitude, String WebFileType, String Options) {  In the method signature, I have added two more parameters public DataServiceQuery<WebResult> Web(String Query, String Market, String Adult, Double? Latitude, Double? Longitude, String WebFileType, String Options, int resultCount, int pageNo) { and in the method, you need to pass the parameters to the query variable. query = query.AddQueryOption("$top", resultCount); query = query.AddQueryOption("$skip", (pageNo -1)*resultCount); return query; Note that I didn’t perform any validation, but you need to check conditions such as resultCount and pageCount should be greater than or equal to 1. If the parameters are not valid, the Bing Search API will throw the error. The modified method is as follows. The changes are highlighted. Now see the following code in the SearchPage.aspx.cs file protected void btnSearch_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {     var bingContainer = new Bing.BingSearchContainer(new Uri(https://api.datamarket.azure.com/Bing/SearchWeb/));     // replace this value with your account key     var accountKey = "your key";     // the next line configures the bingContainer to use your credentials.     bingContainer.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(accountKey, accountKey);     var webResults = bingContainer.Web("site:microsoft.com" +txtSearch.Text , null, null, null, null, null, null,3,2);     lstResults.DataSource = webResults;     lstResults.DataBind(); } The following code will return 3 results starting from second page (by skipping first 3 results). See the result page as follows. Bing provides complete integration to its offerings. When you develop search based applications, you can use the power of Bing to perform the search. Integrating Bing Search API to ASP.Net application is a simple process and without investing much time, you can develop a good search based application. Make sure you read the terms of use before designing the application and decide which API usage is suitable for you. Further readings BING API Migration Guide http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=248077 Bing API FAQ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=252146 Bing API Schema Guide http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=252151

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  • Add Scheduled Task to reset search indexes for Exchange 2007

    - by Samosa
    I simply want to run a ResetSearchIndex -force on a schedule. What is the correct usage for the command in the Scheduled Task properties? It seems I would first need to start Powershell, then load the console file or snap-in for Exchange, which one of these is the closest: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINDOW~2\v1.0\POWERS~1.EXE -"D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Scripts" ResetSearchIndex.ps1 -force dbname or C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINDOW~2\v1.0\POWERS~1.EXE -PSConsoleFile "D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\bin\exshell.psc1" -noexit -command ".'D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Scripts' ResetSearchIndex.ps1 -force dbname or C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINDOW~2\v1.0\POWERS~1.EXE -PSConsoleFile "D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\bin\exshell.psc1" -noexit -command ".'D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Scripts\ResetSearchIndex.ps1' -force dbname

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  • 10 Essential Tools for building ASP.NET Websites

    - by Stephen Walther
    I recently put together a simple public website created with ASP.NET for my company at Superexpert.com. I was surprised by the number of free tools that I ended up using to put together the website. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to create a list of essential tools for building ASP.NET websites. These tools work equally well with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. Performance Tools After reading Steve Souders two (very excellent) books on front-end website performance High Performance Web Sites and Even Faster Web Sites, I have been super sensitive to front-end website performance. According to Souders’ Performance Golden Rule: “Optimize front-end performance first, that's where 80% or more of the end-user response time is spent” You can use the tools below to reduce the size of the images, JavaScript files, and CSS files used by an ASP.NET application. 1. Sprite and Image Optimization Framework CSS sprites were first described in an article written for A List Apart entitled CSS sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death. When you use sprites, you combine multiple images used by a website into a single image. Next, you use CSS trickery to display particular sub-images from the combined image in a webpage. The primary advantage of sprites is that they reduce the number of requests required to display a webpage. Requesting a single large image is faster than requesting multiple small images. In general, the more resources – images, JavaScript files, CSS files – that must be moved across the wire, the slower your website. However, most people avoid using sprites because they require a lot of work. You need to combine all of the images and write just the right CSS rules to display the sub-images. The Microsoft Sprite and Image Optimization Framework enables you to avoid all of this work. The framework combines the images for you automatically. Furthermore, the framework includes an ASP.NET Web Forms control and an ASP.NET MVC helper that makes it easy to display the sub-images. You can download the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework from CodePlex at http://aspnet.codeplex.com/releases/view/50869. The Sprite and Image Optimization Framework was written by Morgan McClean who worked in the office next to mine at Microsoft. Morgan was a scary smart Intern from Canada and we discussed the Framework while he was building it (I was really excited to learn that he was working on it). Morgan added some great advanced features to this framework. For example, the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework supports something called image inlining. When you use image inlining, the actual image is stored in the CSS file. Here’s an example of what image inlining looks like: .Home_StephenWalther_small-jpg { width:75px; height:100px; background: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAEsAAABkCAIAAABB1lpeAAAAB GdBTUEAALGOfPtRkwAAACBjSFJNAACHDwAAjA8AAP1SAACBQAAAfXkAAOmLAAA85QAAGcxzPIV3AAAKL s+zNfREAAAAASUVORK5CYII=) no-repeat 0% 0%; } The actual image (in this case a picture of me that is displayed on the home page of the Superexpert.com website) is stored in the CSS file. If you visit the Superexpert.com website then very few separate images are downloaded. For example, all of the images with a red border in the screenshot below take advantage of CSS sprites: Unfortunately, there are some significant Gotchas that you need to be aware of when using the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework. There are workarounds for these Gotchas. I plan to write about these Gotchas and workarounds in a future blog entry. 2. Microsoft Ajax Minifier Whenever possible you should combine, minify, compress, and cache with a far future header all of your JavaScript and CSS files. The Microsoft Ajax Minifier makes it easy to minify JavaScript and CSS files. Don’t confuse minification and compression. You need to do both. According to Souders, you can reduce the size of a JavaScript file by an additional 20% (on average) by minifying a JavaScript file after you compress the file. When you minify a JavaScript or CSS file, you use various tricks to reduce the size of the file before you compress the file. For example, you can minify a JavaScript file by replacing long JavaScript variables names with short variables names and removing unnecessary white space and comments. You can minify a CSS file by doing such things as replacing long color names such as #ffffff with shorter equivalents such as #fff. The Microsoft Ajax Minifier was created by Microsoft employee Ron Logan. Internally, this tool was being used by several large Microsoft websites. We also used the tool heavily on the ASP.NET team. I convinced Ron to publish the tool on CodePlex so that everyone in the world could take advantage of it. You can download the tool from the ASP.NET Ajax website and read documentation for the tool here. I created the installer for the Microsoft Ajax Minifier. When creating the installer, I also created a Visual Studio build task to make it easy to minify all of your JavaScript and CSS files whenever you do a build within Visual Studio automatically. Read the Ajax Minifier Quick Start to learn how to configure the build task. 3. ySlow The ySlow tool is a free add-on for Firefox created by Yahoo that enables you to test the front-end of your website. For example, here are the current test results for the Superexpert.com website: The Superexpert.com website has an overall score of B (not perfect but not bad). The ySlow tool is not perfect. For example, the Superexpert.com website received a failing grade of F for not using a Content Delivery Network even though the website using the Microsoft Ajax Content Delivery Network for JavaScript files such as jQuery. Uptime After publishing a website live to the world, you want to ensure that the website does not encounter any issues and that it stays live. I use the following tools to monitor the Superexpert.com website now that it is live. 4. ELMAH ELMAH stands for Error Logging Modules and Handlers for ASP.NET. ELMAH enables you to record any errors that happen at your website so you can review them in the future. You can download ELMAH for free from the ELMAH project website. ELMAH works great with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. You can configure ELMAH to store errors in a number of different stores including XML files, the Event Log, an Access database, a SQL database, an Oracle database, or in computer RAM. You also can configure ELMAH to email error messages to you when they happen. By default, you can access ELMAH by requesting the elmah.axd page from a website with ELMAH installed. Here’s what the elmah page looks like from the Superexpert.com website (this page is password-protected because secret information can be revealed in an error message): If you click on a particular error message, you can view the original Yellow Screen ASP.NET error message (even when the error message was never displayed to the actual user). I installed ELMAH by taking advantage of the new package manager for ASP.NET named NuGet (originally named NuPack). You can read the details about NuGet in the following blog entry by Scott Guthrie. You can download NuGet from CodePlex. 5. Pingdom I use Pingdom to verify that the Superexpert.com website is always up. You can sign up for Pingdom by visiting Pingdom.com. You can use Pingdom to monitor a single website for free. At the Pingdom website, you configure the frequency that your website gets pinged. I verify that the Superexpert.com website is up every 5 minutes. I have the Pingdom service verify that it can retrieve the string “Contact Us” from the website homepage. If your website goes down, you can configure Pingdom so that it sends an email, Twitter, SMS, or iPhone alert. I use the Pingdom iPhone app which looks like this: 6. Host Tracker If your website does go down then you need some way of determining whether it is a problem with your local network or if your website is down for everyone. I use a website named Host-Tracker.com to check how badly a website is down. Here’s what the Host-Tracker website displays for the Superexpert.com website when the website can be successfully pinged from everywhere in the world: Notice that Host-Tracker pinged the Superexpert.com website from 68 locations including Roubaix, France and Scranton, PA. Debugging I mean debugging in the broadest possible sense. I use the following tools when building a website to verify that I have not made a mistake. 7. HTML Spell Checker Why doesn’t Visual Studio have a built-in spell checker? Don’t know – I’ve always found this mysterious. Fortunately, however, a former member of the ASP.NET team wrote a free spell checker that you can use with your ASP.NET pages. I find a spell checker indispensible. It is easy to delude yourself that you are capable of perfect spelling. I’m always super embarrassed when I actually run the spell checking tool and discover all of my spelling mistakes. The fastest way to add the HTML Spell Checker extension to Visual Studio is to select the menu option Tools, Extension Manager within Visual Studio. Click on Online Gallery and search for HTML Spell Checker: 8. IIS SEO Toolkit If people cannot find your website through Google then you should not even bother to create it. Microsoft has a great extension for IIS named the IIS Search Engine Optimization Toolkit that you can use to identify issue with your website that would hurt its page rank. You also can use this tool to quickly create a sitemap for your website that you can submit to Google or Bing. You can even generate the sitemap for an ASP.NET MVC website. Here’s what the report overview for the Superexpert.com website looks like: Notice that the Sueprexpert.com website had plenty of violations. For example, there are 65 cases in which a page has a broken hyperlink. You can drill into these violations to identity the exact page and location where these violations occur. 9. LinqPad If your ASP.NET website accesses a database then you should be using LINQ to Entities with the Entity Framework. Using LINQ involves some magic. LINQ queries written in C# get converted into SQL queries for you. If you are not careful about how you write your LINQ queries, you could unintentionally build a really badly performing website. LinqPad is a free tool that enables you to experiment with your LINQ queries. It even works with Microsoft SQL CE 4 and Azure. You can use LinqPad to execute a LINQ to Entities query and see the results. You also can use it to see the resulting SQL that gets executed against the database: 10. .NET Reflector I use .NET Reflector daily. The .NET Reflector tool enables you to take any assembly and disassemble the assembly into C# or VB.NET code. You can use .NET Reflector to see the “Source Code” of an assembly even when you do not have the actual source code. You can download a free version of .NET Reflector from the Redgate website. I use .NET Reflector primarily to help me understand what code is doing internally. For example, I used .NET Reflector with the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework to better understand how the MVC Image helper works. Here’s part of the disassembled code from the Image helper class: Summary In this blog entry, I’ve discussed several of the tools that I used to create the Superexpert.com website. These are tools that I use to improve the performance, improve the SEO, verify the uptime, or debug the Superexpert.com website. All of the tools discussed in this blog entry are free. Furthermore, all of these tools work with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. Let me know if there are any tools that you use daily when building ASP.NET websites.

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  • Are you cashing in on the MVP complimentary subscriptions ?

    - by Tarun Arora
    The two most asked questions in the Microsoft technology communities around the Microsoft MVP program are, 1. How do I become a Microsoft MVP? 2. What benefits do I get as an MVP? The answer to the first question has been well answered here. In this blog post, I’ll try and answer the second question.           Please find a comprehensive list of Not for Resale personal subscriptions of various products that Microsoft MVP’s are eligible for Product Description Details JetBrains Resharper, dotTrace, dotCover & WebStorm  https://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/buy/mvp.html RedGate Sql server development, database administration, .net development, azure development (merged with Cerebrata), mySQL development, Oracle development http://www.red-gate.com/community/mvp-program Pluralsight Pluralsight on demand training http://blog.pluralsight.com/2011/02/28/pluralsight-for-mvp/ Cerebrata Cloud storage studio and Azure Diagnostic Manager (part of redgate now) https://www.cerebrata.com/Offers/mvp.aspx Telerik Telerik Ultimate collection & Telerik TeamPulse http://blogs.telerik.com/blogs/posts/11-03-01/telerik-gift-for-microsoft-mvps.aspx Developer Express DevEx controls http://www.devexpress.com/Home/Community/mvp.xml InnerWorking 600 hours of .net training catalogue http://www.innerworkings.com/mvp Typemock Typemock Isolator, Typemock Isolator for Sharepoint developers, Typemock Isolator for web developers, TestDriven.NET http://www.typemock.com/mvp SpeakFlow A suite of tools for creating, managing, and delivering non-linear presentations http://www.speakflow.com/ TechSmith Camtasia Studio, SnagIt, screen cast http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html Altova Altova XML spy http://www.altova.com/xml-editor/ Visual SVN VisualSVN Subversion integration plug-in for Visual Studio http://www.visualsvn.com/visualsvn/purchase/mvp/ PreEmptive Solution Professional PreEmptive Analytics, Dotfuscator http://www.preemptive.com/landing/mvp Armadillo Armadillo Adaptive Bug Prevention http://www.armadilloverdrive.com/ IS Decisions NFR license to Userlock, RemoteExec, FileAudit & WinReporter http://www.isdecisions.com/download/mvp-mct-program.htm Idera SQL tools http://www.idera.com/Content/Home.aspx West Wind Help Builder Help builder solution http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/posts/2005/Mar/09/Are-you-a-Microsoft-MVP-Get-a-FREE-copy-of-West-Wind-Html-Help-Builder Bamboo Sharepoint tools http://community.bamboosolutions.com/blogs/partner-advantage-program/archive/2008/08/01/partner-advantage-program-mvp.aspx Nitriq Nitriq code analysis http://blog.nitriq.com/FreeLicensesForMicrosoftMVPs.aspx ByteScout Components, Libraries and Developer Tools http://bytescout.com/buy/purchase_nfr_for_mvp.html YourKit Java and .net Profiler http://yourkit.com/.net/profiler/index.jsp Aspose .NET components http://www.aspose.com/corporate/community/2012_05_08_nfr-licenses-for-community-leaders.aspx Apart from google bing fu; stackoverflow and breathtech were a great help in compiling the above list. If you know of any other benefits, offers or complimentary subscriptions on offer for MVPs not cover in the list above, please add to the comment thread and I’ll have it updated in the list. Enjoy

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