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• FIX: Visual Studio Post Build Event Returns &ndash;1 when it should not.

  - by ChrisD

  I had written a Console Application that I run as part of my post build for other projects..  The Console application logs a series of messages to the console as it executes.  I use the Environment.ExitCode value to specify an error or success condition.  When the application executes without issue, the ExitCode is 0, when there is a problem its –1. As part of my logging, I log the value of the exit code right before the application terminates.  When I run this executable from the command line, it behaves as it should; error scenarios return –1 and success scenarios return 0.   When I run the same command line as part of the post-build event, Visual Studio reports the exit code as –1, even when the application reports the exit code as 0.   A snippet of the build output follows: Verbose: Exiting with ExitCode=0 C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Common.targets(3397,13): error MSB3073: The command ""MGC.exe" "-TargetPath=C:\TFS\Solutions\Research\Source\Framework\Services\Identity\STS\_STSBuilder\bin\Debug\_STSBuilder.dll" C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Common.targets(3397,13): error MSB3073:  C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Common.targets(3397,13): error MSB3073: " exited with code -1. The Application returns a 0 exit code.  But visual studio is reporting an error.  Why? The answer is in the way I format my log messages.  Apparently Visual Studio watches the messages that get streamed to the the output console.  If those messages match a pattern used by visual studio to communicate errors, Visual Studio assumes an error has occurred in the executable and returns a –1.  This post details the formats used by Visual Studio to determine error conditions. In my case, the presence of the colon was tripping up Visual studio.  I Replaced all occurrences of colon with an equal sign and Visual Studio once again respected the exit code of the application. Verbose= Exiting with ExitCode=0 ========== Build: 3 succeeded or up-to-date, 0 failed, 0 skipped ==========

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• Installing a DLL to Global assembly cache (GAC)

  - by DAXShekhar

  Install you DLL assembly by using the ‘gacutil.exe’, before installing the DLL ensure it has a strong name, to assign a strong name refer to the link Assigning a DLL strong name .   1) open the Command prompt, and navigate to the folder of gacutil. 2) To install a DLL assembly gacutil /I "C:\[PathToBinDirectoryInVSProject]\gac.dll" 3) To uninstall gacutil /U  “Name_of_The_DLL”

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• Overview of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor

  - by Akshay Deep Lamba

  Problem Like most organizations, we are planning to upgrade our database server from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008. I would like to know is there an easy way to know in advance what kind of issues one may encounter when upgrading to a newer version of SQL Server? One way of doing this is to use the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor to plan for upgrades from SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005. In this tip we will take a look at how one can use the SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor to identify potential issues before the upgrade. Solution SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor is a free tool designed by Microsoft to identify potential issues before upgrading your environment to a newer version of SQL Server. Below are prerequisites which need to be installed before installing the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor. Prerequisites for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor .Net Framework 2.0 or a higher version Windows Installer 4.5 or a higher version Windows Server 2003 SP 1 or a higher version, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP SP2 or a higher version, Windows Vista Download SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor You can download SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor from the following link. Once you have successfully installed Upgrade Advisor follow the below steps to see how you can use this tool to identify potential issues before upgrading your environment. 1. Click Start -> Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server 2008 -> SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor. 2. Click Launch Upgrade Advisor Analysis Wizard as highlighted below to open the wizard. 2. On the wizard welcome screen click Next to continue. 3. In SQL Server Components screen, enter the Server Name and click the Detect button to identify components which need to be analyzed and then click Next to continue with the wizard. 4. In Connection Parameters screen choose Instance Name, Authentication and then click Next to continue with the wizard. 5. In SQL Server Parameters wizard screen select the Databases which you want to analysis, trace files if any and SQL batch files if any.  Then click Next to continue with the wizard. 6. In Reporting Services Parameters screen you can specify the Reporting Server Instance name and then click next to continue with the wizard. 7. In Analysis Services Parameters screen you can specify an Analysis Server Instance name and then click Next to continue with the wizard. 8. In Confirm Upgrade Advisor Settings screen you will be able to see a quick summary of the options which you have selected so far. Click Run to start the analysis. 9. In Upgrade Advisor Progress screen you will be able to see the progress of the analysis. Basically, the upgrade advisor runs predefined rules which will help to identify potential issues that can affect your environment once you upgrade your server from a lower version of SQL Server to SQL Server 2008. 10. In the below snippet you can see that Upgrade Advisor has completed the analysis of SQL Server, Analysis Services and Reporting Services. To see the output click the Launch Report button at the bottom of the wizard screen. 11. In View Report screen you can see a summary of issues which can affect you once you upgrade. To learn more about each issue you can expand the issue and read the detailed description as shown in the below snippet.

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• Problem with WCF-SQL Adapter

  - by Paul Petrov

  When using WCF receive adapter with SQL binding in Polling mode please be aware of the following problem. Problem: At some regular but seemingly random intervals the application stops processing new requests, places a lock on the database and prevent other application from accessing it. Initially it looked like DTC issue, as it was distributed transaction that stalled most of the time. Symptoms: Orchestration instances in Dehydrated state, receive location not picking up new messages, exclusive locks on database tables, errors in DTC trace. Cause: Microsoft has confirmed that there is a bug in the WCF-SQL adapter. In the receive adapter binding configuration there's receiveTimeout property set to 10 minutes by default. If during this period data is not found in the table the adapter would start new thread and allocate more memory without releasing old resources. Thus if there's no new data in the table for a long time a new thread will be created in the host instance every 10 minutes until it reaches threshold (1000) and then there's no threads left for this host instance and it can't start/complete any tasks. Then this host instance won't be able to do anything. If other artifacts are hosted in the instance they will suffer consequences as well. Solution: - Set receiveTimeout to the maximum time 24.20:31:23.6470000. - Place WCF-SQL receive locations in separate host to provide its own thread pool and eliminate impact on other processes - Ensure WCF-SQL dedicated host instances are restarted at interval less or equal to receiveTimeout to flush threads and memory - Monitor performance counters Process/Thread Count/BTSNTSvc{n} for thread count trend and respond to alert if it grows by restarting host instance If you use WCF-SQL Adapter in the Notification mode then make sure to remove sqlAdapterInboundTransactionBehavior otherwise this location will exhibit the same issue. In this case though, setting receiveTimeout doesn't help and new thread will be created at default intervals (10 min) ignoring maximum setting.

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• How to nest transactions nicely - &quot;begin transaction&quot; vs &quot;save transaction&quot; and SQL Server

  - by Brian Biales

  Do you write stored procedures that might be used by others?  And those others may or may not have already started a transaction?  And your SP does several things, but if any of them fail, you have to undo them all and return with a code indicating it failed? Well, I have written such code, and it wasn’t working right until I finally figured out how to handle the case when we are already in a transaction, as well as the case where the caller did not start a transaction.  When a problem occurred, my “ROLLBACK TRANSACTION” would roll back not just my nested transaction, but the caller’s transaction as well.  So when I tested the procedure stand-alone, it seemed to work fine, but when others used it, it would cause a problem if it had to rollback.  When something went wrong in my procedure, their entire transaction was rolled back.  This was not appreciated. Now, I knew one could "nest" transactions, but the technical documentation was very confusing.  And I still have not found the approach below documented anywhere.  So here is a very brief description of how I got it to work, I hope you find this helpful. My example is a stored procedure that must figure out on its own if the caller has started a transaction or not.  This can be done in SQL Server by checking the @@TRANCOUNT value.  If no BEGIN TRANSACTION has occurred yet, this will have a value of 0.  Any number greater than zero means that a transaction is in progress.  If there is no current transaction, my SP begins a transaction. But if a transaction is already in progress, my SP uses SAVE TRANSACTION and gives it a name.  SAVE TRANSACTION creates a “save point”.  Note that creating a save point has no effect on @@TRANCOUNT.  So my SP starts with something like this: DECLARE @startingTranCount int SET @startingTranCount = @@TRANCOUNT IF @startingTranCount > 0 SAVE TRANSACTION mySavePointName ELSE BEGIN TRANSACTION -- … Then, when ready to commit the changes, you only need to commit if we started the transaction ourselves: IF @startingTranCount = 0 COMMIT TRANSACTION And finally, to roll back just your changes so far: -- Roll back changes... IF @startingTranCount > 0 ROLLBACK TRANSACTION MySavePointName ELSE ROLLBACK TRANSACTION Here is some code that you can try that will demonstrate how the save points work inside a transaction. This sample code creates a temporary table, then executes selects and updates, documenting what is going on, then deletes the temporary table. if running in SQL Management Studio, set Query Results to: Text for best readability of the results. -- Create a temporary table to test with, we'll drop it at the end. CREATE TABLE #ATable( [Column_A] [varchar](5) NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GO SET NOCOUNT ON -- Ensure just one row - delete all rows, add one DELETE #ATable -- Insert just one row INSERT INTO #ATable VALUES('000') SELECT 'Before TRANSACTION starts, value in table is: ' AS Note, * FROM #ATable SELECT @@trancount AS CurrentTrancount --insert into a values ('abc') UPDATE #ATable SET Column_A = 'abc' SELECT 'UPDATED without a TRANSACTION, value in table is: ' AS Note, * FROM #ATable BEGIN TRANSACTION SELECT 'BEGIN TRANSACTION, trancount is now ' AS Note, @@TRANCOUNT AS TranCount UPDATE #ATable SET Column_A = '123' SELECT 'Row updated inside TRANSACTION, value in table is: ' AS Note, * FROM #ATable SAVE TRANSACTION MySavepoint SELECT 'Save point MySavepoint created, transaction count now:' as Note, @@TRANCOUNT AS TranCount UPDATE #ATable SET Column_A = '456' SELECT 'Updated after MySavepoint created, value in table is: ' AS Note, * FROM #ATable SAVE TRANSACTION point2 SELECT 'Save point point2 created, transaction count now:' as Note, @@TRANCOUNT AS TranCount UPDATE #ATable SET Column_A = '789' SELECT 'Updated after point2 savepoint created, value in table is: ' AS Note, * FROM #ATable ROLLBACK TRANSACTION point2 SELECT 'Just rolled back savepoint "point2", value in table is: ' AS Note, * FROM #ATable ROLLBACK TRANSACTION MySavepoint SELECT 'Just rolled back savepoint "MySavepoint", value in table is: ' AS Note, * FROM #ATable SELECT 'Both save points were rolled back, transaction count still:' as Note, @@TRANCOUNT AS TranCount ROLLBACK TRANSACTION SELECT 'Just rolled back the entire transaction..., value in table is: ' AS Note, * FROM #ATable DROP TABLE #ATable The output should look like this: Note                                           Column_A ---------------------------------------------- -------- Before TRANSACTION starts, value in table is:  000 CurrentTrancount ---------------- 0 Note                                               Column_A -------------------------------------------------- -------- UPDATED without a TRANSACTION, value in table is:  abc Note                                 TranCount ------------------------------------ ----------- BEGIN TRANSACTION, trancount is now  1 Note                                                Column_A --------------------------------------------------- -------- Row updated inside TRANSACTION, value in table is:  123 Note                                                   TranCount ------------------------------------------------------ ----------- Save point MySavepoint created, transaction count now: 1 Note                                                   Column_A ------------------------------------------------------ -------- Updated after MySavepoint created, value in table is:  456 Note                                              TranCount ------------------------------------------------- ----------- Save point point2 created, transaction count now: 1 Note                                                        Column_A ----------------------------------------------------------- -------- Updated after point2 savepoint created, value in table is:  789 Note                                                     Column_A -------------------------------------------------------- -------- Just rolled back savepoint "point2", value in table is:  456 Note                                                          Column_A ------------------------------------------------------------- -------- Just rolled back savepoint "MySavepoint", value in table is:  123 Note                                                        TranCount ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------- Both save points were rolled back, transaction count still: 1 Note                                                            Column_A --------------------------------------------------------------- -------- Just rolled back the entire transaction..., value in table is:  abc

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• Like camping on the moon

  - by Marc Schluper

  No Silverlight today. I made a mistake. I created an application to upload a file and store it encrypted on a server. But I forgot to check on what machine it needed to be deployed. Yesterday I heard it was on an old ASP.NET 1.1 machine. Oops. Oh well, how hard can it be to change this simple application? Answer: much harder than I thought. Today I took out: Encryption using X509 Certificates Master Pages Compression Using statements Generic lists Upload control ASP.NET Membership All via a key hole to access a virtual machine. It has its charm, though, doing primitive things. Like camping on the moon.

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• C # - a variable using the Encrypt md5

  - by Guilherme Cardoso

  When we are dealing with more sensitive data and important as a keyword, it is not appropriate at all stores them in database without encrypting for security reasons.  For this we use MD5  MD5 is an algorithm that allow us to encript an string, but doesn't leave us desencrypt it (not sure if it is already possible, but at least I know there are many databases already having a record).  The method below will return us a variable encrypted with md5. For example: md5_encriptar (pontonetpt.com ");   The result will be: 34efe85d338075834ad41803eb08c0df This way we save tthese encrypted data into a database, and then to make comparisons we often use the method to compare with the records kept. public string md5_encrypt(string md5) { System.Security.Cryptography.MD5CryptoServiceProvider x = new System.Security.Cryptography.MD5CryptoServiceProvider(); byte[] bs = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(md5); bs = x.ComputeHash(bs); System.Text.StringBuilder s = new System.Text.StringBuilder(); foreach (byte b in bs) { s.Append(b.ToString("x2").ToLower()); } string password = s.ToString(); return password; }

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• VS2012 - How to manually convert .NET Class Library to a Portable Class Library

  - by Igor Milovanovic

  The portable libraries are the  response to the growing profile fragmentation in .NET frameworks. With help of portable libraries you can share code between different runtimes without dreadful #ifdef PLATFORM statements or even worse “Add as Link” source file sharing practices. If you have an existing .net class library which you would like to reference from a different runtime (e.g. you have a .NET Framework 4.5 library which you would like to reference from a Windows Store project), you can either create a new portable class library and move the classes there or edit the existing .csproj file and change the XML directly. The following example shows how to convert a .NET Framework 4.5 library to a Portable Class Library. First Unload the Project and change the following settings in the .csproj file: <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" /> to: <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\Portable \$(TargetFrameworkVersion)\Microsoft.Portable.CSharp.targets" /> and add the following keys to the first property group in order to get visual studio to show the framework picker dialog: <ProjectTypeGuids>{786C830F-07A1-408B-BD7F-6EE04809D6DB}; {FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}</ProjectTypeGuids>   After that you can select the frameworks in the Library Tab of the Portable Library:   As last step, delete any framework references from the library as you have them already referenced via the .NET Portable Subset.     [1] Cross-Platform Development with the .NET Framework - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg597391.aspx [2] Framework Profiles in .NET: http://nitoprograms.blogspot.de/2012/05/framework-profiles-in-net.html

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• Silverlight Cream for March 10, 2011 -- #1058

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Ian T. Lackey, Peter Kuhn, WindowsPhoneGeek(-2-), Jesse Liberty(-2-), Martin Krüger, John Papa, Jeremy Likness, Karl Shifflett, and Colin Eberhardt. Above the Fold: Silverlight: "Silverlight TV 65: 3D Graphics" John Papa WP7: "Developing a Windows Phone 7 Jump List Control" Colin Eberhardt Shoutouts: Telerik announced a special sale on their RadControls for WP7... check it out: RadControls for Windows Phone 7 - on Sale from March 16th at a Special Promo Price! From SilverlightCream.com: Prism BootStrapper Load ModuleCatalog Ansyc Ian T. Lackey has a post up about reading the module catalog for Prism from an XML file asynchronously... fun stuff... this is how we kick-started our app... XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 6 - Input (accelerometer) Peter Kuhn has Part 6 of his XNA for Silverlight devs up at SilverlightShow. This post is on the use of the accelerometer... some great diagrams and explanations of it's use along with some code to play with... including a 'problems and pitfalls' section, and some good external links. Getting Started with Unit Testing in Silverlight for WP7 WindowsPhoneGeek has an introduction to Unit Testing in general, and then moves into Unit Testing in Silverlight for WP7, providing 3 options with links to the materials and code demonstrating the concepts. Using DockPanel in WP7 Responding to reader's questions, WindowsPhoneGeek's next post is on the DockPanel from the Silverlight Toolkit, and using it in WP7... defined declaratively and in code. Reactive Extensions–More About Chaining Jesse Liberty has post number 10 on Rx up and is a follow-on to the last one on Chaining. This time he exercises the chaining aspect of SelectMany. Yet Another Podcast #26–Walt Ritscher In his next post, Jesse Liberty has his 26th 'Yet Another Podcast' up and is chatting with my friend Walt Ritscher. If you don't know who Walt is, check out the links Jesse has on the post... I'm sure you've crossed paths. How to: Create A half square from a regular polygon (triangle) Martin Krüger demonstrates the exact placement of a half-square (isosceles right triangle), formed with a regular polygon in Blend... this is much more involved than I've made it sound... check out his post. Silverlight TV 65: 3D Graphics John Papa has Silverlight TV number 65 up and it's all about the 3D graphics stuff we saw at the Firestarter. John is talking with Danny Riddel, the CEO of Archetype, the company that built the awesome 3D demo we all gushed over. Jounce Part 12: Providing History-Based Back Navigation Jeremy Likness has part 12 of his Jounce exploration up... and discussing the stack of navigated pages that Jounce retains and providing a 'go back' functionality... and provides a good example of using it all. Prism 4 Region Navigation with Silverlight Frame Navigation and Unity Karl Shifflett has a post for all us Prism afficianados... Prism, Unity, and the Silverlight Frame Navigation framework. Some great external links for 'required reading' too. Developing a Windows Phone 7 Jump List Control Colin Eberhardt has an awesome tutorial up for creating a JumpList control for WP7... what a bunch of effort... this is a step-by-step description of designing the control he built and blogged about a while back... and it's still cool! Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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• Android - passing data between Activities

  - by Bill Osuch

  (To follow along with this, you should understand the basics of starting new activities: Link ) The easiest way to pass data from one activity to another is to create your own custom bundle and pass it to your new class. First, create two new activities called Search and SearchResults (make sure you add the second one you create to the AndroidManifest.xml file!), and create xml layout files for each. Search's file should look like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout     xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     android:layout_width="fill_parent"     android:layout_height="fill_parent"     android:orientation="vertical">     <TextView          android:layout_width="fill_parent"      android:layout_height="wrap_content"      android:text="Name:"/>     <EditText                android:id="@+id/edittext"         android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>     <TextView          android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:text="ID Number:"/>     <EditText                android:id="@+id/edittext2"                android:layout_width="fill_parent"                android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>     <Button           android:id="@+id/btnSearch"          android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:text="Search" /> </LinearLayout> and SearchResult's should look like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout     xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     android:layout_width="fill_parent"     android:layout_height="fill_parent"     android:orientation="vertical">     <TextView          android:id="@+id/txtName"         android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>     <TextView          android:id="@+id/txtState"         android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:text="No data"/> </LinearLayout> Next, we'll override the OnCreate method of Search: @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {     super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);     setContentView(R.layout.search);     Button search = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnSearch);     search.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {         public void onClick(View view) {                           Intent intent = new Intent(Search.this, SearchResults.class);              Bundle b = new Bundle();                           EditText txt1 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.edittext);             EditText txt2 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.edittext2);                                      b.putString("name", txt1.getText().toString());             b.putInt("state", Integer.parseInt(txt2.getText().toString()));                              //Add the set of extended data to the intent and start it             intent.putExtras(b);             startActivity(intent);          }     }); } This is very similar to the previous example, except here we're creating our own bundle, adding some key/value pairs to it, and adding it to the intent. Now, to retrieve the data, we just need to grab the Bundle that was passed to the new Activity and extract our values from it: @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {     super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);     setContentView(R.layout.search_results);     Bundle b = getIntent().getExtras();     int value = b.getInt("state", 0);     String name = b.getString("name");             TextView vw1 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txtName);     TextView vw2 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txtState);             vw1.setText("Name: " + name);     vw2.setText("State: " + String.valueOf(value)); }

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• APress Deal of the Day 10/August/2014 - Pro ASP.NET Web API Security

  - by TATWORTH

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/TATWORTH/archive/2014/08/10/apress-deal-of-the-day-10august2014---pro-asp.net-web.aspxToday’s $10 Deal of the Day from APress at http://www.apress.com/9781430257820 is Pro ASP.NET Web API Security. “ASP.NET Web API is a key part of ASP.NET MVC 4. It has become the platform of choice for building RESTful services. Securing ASP.NET Web API applications requires a move away from traditional WCF-based techniques in favor of new SOAP-less methods. The evaluation, selection and analysis of these new techniques is the focus of this book.”

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• SQL Injection - some sense at last!

  - by TATWORTH

  I see various articles that proclaim means to guard against SQL injection. As individual steps they are of use but since they were often proclaimed as "the solution" they were potentially misleading. At http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/learn-sql-server/sql-injection-defense-in-depth/ there is an article entitled "SQL Injection: Defense in Depth" - this article argues what I have argued myself. Remember that however low-grade the information on your web site is, if your site is hacked, the public may percive the hacking as your most sensitive information was exposed.

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• Scribe Workbench Update Source

  - by Dave Noderer

  I’ve been working with a program Scribe, similar in function to SSIS although I’m still an SSIS fanboy!! The main feature my customer has Scribe for is to load data into Microsoft CRM 4.0. A lot of what I’ve been doing is loading campaigns into CRM which are staged in SQL Server but I need to mark each one as imported so it will not get imported again. The screen shot below shows how to setup the Source update. One important thing is that the source SQL table has to have a primary key defined (this was a staging table and I did not do that at first)

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• Playing HTML5 Video with fall back for IE8/IE7 and earlier versions of other browsers using Silverlight

  - by Harish Ranganathan

  One of the popular HTML5 tags is the video tag.  The ability to play videos without depending on a plugin is something that excites web developers to a great extent and no wonder you end up seeing video demos in all HTML5 conferences. Now, coming to HTML5 Video, the tag itself is simply <video id=”ID” src=”FILENAME.mp4/ogv/webm” > in the simplest form.  This also means that the video needs to be H.256 encoded MP4 format or some of the other formats as mentioned above.  For a detailed specification on this, check this Wikipedia article HTML5 video is supported by all the modern browsers such as IE9 (currently in RC stage), Mozilla Firefox 4 and Chrome latest versions.  Here below is a simple example of a HTML5 video tag and the screen shot of how it looks like in IE9 RC <!DOCTYPE html> <head></head> <body> <h1>This is a sample of an HTML5 Video</h1> <video src="video.mp4" id="myvideo">Your browser doesn’t support this currently</video> </body> </html> You can add attributes to the video tag such as “autoplay” which will automatically start playing the video.  Also, you can specify “poster” to display an initial picture before the video starts playing etc., but I am not going into those for now. This would play well in the modern browsers as mentioned above.  However, if the end users are viewing this page from an earlier version of browsers such as IE8/IE7 or IE6, this video wouldn’t play.  Whatever text that is specified between the video tags, would just show up. Note: for demo purposes, I went to the IE9 developer toolbar and chose IE8 as Browser Mode to exhibit this legacy behaviour.  However, in the interest of serving the larger community of users who visit the site, we would like to have a fall back mechanism for playing videos on older version of browsers. Now, Silverlight is supported in IE6/7 & 8 and other browsers too.  If we can have the same video encoded for Silverlight, we can put the fall-back code, as follows:- <video src="videos/video.mp4" id="myvideo">     <object height="252" type="application/x-silverlight-2" width="448">         <param name="source" value="resources/player.xap">         <param name="initParams" value="deferredLoad=true, duration=0, m=http://localhost/DemoSite/videos/video.mp4, autostart=false, autohide=true, showembed=true, postid=0" />         <param name="background" value="#00FFFFFF" />     </object> </video>   Note, this sample uses a Silverlight XAP file with the same video and uses the object tag to embed it instead of the HTML5 video tag. So, when I now run this sample and switch to IE8 (using the IE9 Developer toolbar’s Browser Mode), I get and when clicking on the “Play” icon, Note, there are multiple ways to play videos in Silverlight and this is one of the ways.  For a complete list of Silverlight samples, visit http://www.silverlight.net/learn/  Also, we can use Flash to play video in the fall-back mechanism as well. Thus, we can create a fall-back mechanism for playing HTML5 videos for the older browsers and hence ensure that the end users get to experience the same. Cheers !!!

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• Using commands with ApplicationBarMenuItem and ApplicationBarButton in Windows Phone 7

  - by Laurent Bugnion

  Unfortunately, in the current version of the Windows Phone 7 Silverlight framework, it is not possible to attach any command on the ApplicationBarMenuItem and ApplicationBarButton controls. These two controls appear in the Application Bar, for example with the following markup: <phoneNavigation:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar> <shell:ApplicationBar x:Name="MainPageApplicationBar"> <shell:ApplicationBar.MenuItems> <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem Text="Add City" /> <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem Text="Add Country" /> </shell:ApplicationBar.MenuItems> <shell:ApplicationBar.Buttons> <shell:ApplicationBarIconButton IconUri="/Resources/appbar.feature.video.rest.png" /> <shell:ApplicationBarIconButton IconUri="/Resources/appbar.feature.settings.rest.png" /> <shell:ApplicationBarIconButton IconUri="/Resources/appbar.refresh.rest.png" /> </shell:ApplicationBar.Buttons> </shell:ApplicationBar> </phoneNavigation:PhoneApplicationPage.ApplicationBar> This code will create the following UI: Application bar, collapsed Application bar, expanded ApplicationBarItems are not, however, controls. A quick look in MSDN shows the following hierarchy for ApplicationBarMenuItem, for example: Unfortunately, this prevents all the mechanisms that are normally used to attach a Command (for example a RelayCommand) to a control. For example, the attached behavior present in the class ButtonBaseExtension (from the Silverlight 3 version of the MVVM Light toolkit) can only be attached to a DependencyObject. Similarly, Blend behaviors (such as EventToCommand from the toolkit’s Extras library) needs a FrameworkElement to work. Using code behind The alternative is to use code behind. As I said in my MIX10 talk, the MVVM police will not take your family away if you use code behind (this quote was actually suggested to me by Glenn Block); the code behind is there for a reason. In our case, invoking a command in the ViewModel requires the following code: In MainPage.xaml: <shell:ApplicationBarMenuItem Text="My Menu 1" Click="ApplicationBarMenuItemClick"/> In MainPage.xaml.cs private void ApplicationBarMenuItemClick( object sender, System.EventArgs e) { var vm = DataContext as MainViewModel; if (vm != null) { vm.MyCommand.Execute(null); } } Conclusion Resorting to code behind to bridge the gap between the View and the ViewModel is less elegant than using attached behaviors, either through an attached property or through a Blend behavior. It does, however, work fine. I don’t have any information if future changes in the Windows Phone 7 Application Bar API will make this easier. In the mean time, I would recommend using code behind instead.   Laurent Bugnion (GalaSoft) Subscribe | Twitter | Facebook | Flickr | LinkedIn

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• Why I&rsquo;m Getting an iPad

  - by andrewbrust

  I have never purchased an Apple product in my life.  That’s a “true fact.”  And, for that matter, the last Apple product I really wanted was an Apple IIe, back in the 1980s.  I couldn’t afford it though (I was in high school), so I got a Commodore 64 instead…it had the same microprocessor, after all.  If the iPhone were on Verizon, I probably would have picked one up in December, when I got my Droid.  And if the iPod Touch worked with my Napster subscription (which of course it does not, but my Sonos does) I might have picked on of those instead. That’s three strikes, but Apple’s not out.  I’ve decided I want the iPad.  Why?  Well, to start with, my birthday is March 31st…the iPad comes out on April 3rd, and my wife wanted to know what to get me.  Also, my house is a 7-minute walk from the Apple Store on West 14th Street in Manhattan.  This makes it easy to get my pre-ordered device on launch day, and get home quickly with it.  Oh, and I agreed to write an article for Redmond Magazine, the fee for which will pay for the device…that way the birthday present doesn’t have to be an extravagant expense.  Plus, I’m a contrarian, so I want to buy the one device from Apple that the fanboys have actually panned. Think those are bad reasons? How about this: I want to experience iPhone and iPad development and, although my app will probably never hit the App Store and run on the actual device, I still think owning one will help me develop something better.  i want to see if the slate form factor has good business usage scenarios.  I want to see if Business Intelligence technology on a device like this can work.  Imagine a dashboard on this thing. And, for the consumer experience, I really want a touch device on which I can surf the Web while I’m in the kitchen, or on the couch.  I don’t want the small form factor of my phone, I don’t want to use my TV, and I don’t want a keyboard that will get dirty or in my way. I don’t want to watch movies on it (my TV is good for that), so I don’t care that the iPad has a 4:3 screen.  I don’t want to read books on it, so I don’t care that the display is backlit LCD, rather than eInk. But really what I want is to understand, first hand, why people have such brand loyalty to Apple.  I know the big reasons; I’m not detached from society.  But I want to know the subtle points of what Apple does really well, and also what they do poorly.  And I’d like to know, once and for all, if Microsoft can beat Apple, if Microsoft can think the right way to beat Apple and if Microsoft should  even try to beat Apple. I expect to share my thoughts on these questions, as they develop.

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• Microsoft hosting free Hyper-V training for VMware Pros

  - by Ryan Roussel

  Microsoft will be hosting free training for virtualization professionals focused on Hyper-V, System Center, and virtualization architecture.  Details are below:   Just one week after Microsoft Management Summit 2011 (MMS), Microsoft Learning will be hosting an exclusive three-day Jump Start class specially tailored for VMware and Microsoft virtualization technology pros.  Registration for “Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals” is open now and will be delivered as an online class on March 29-31, 2010 from 10:00am-4:00pm PDT.    The course is COMPLETELY FREE and OPEN TO ANYONE!  Please share with your customers, blog, Tweet, etc. – help us get the word out to strengthen support for Microsoft’s virtualization offerings. What’s the high-level overview? This cutting edge course will feature expert instruction and real-world demonstrations of Hyper-V and brand new releases from System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta (many of which will be announced just one week earlier at MMS).  Register Now!   Day 1 will focus on “Platform” (Hyper-V, virtualization architecture, high availability & clustering) 10:00am – 10:30pm PDT:  Virtualization 360 Overview 10:30am – 12:00pm:  Microsoft Hyper-V Deployment Options & Architecture 1:00pm – 2:00pm:  Differentiating Microsoft and VMware (terminology, etc.) 2:00pm – 4:00pm:  High Availability & Clustering Day 2 will focus on “Management” (System Center Suite, SCVMM 2012 Beta, Opalis, Private Cloud solutions) 10:00am – 11:00pm PDT:  System Center Suite Overview w/ focus on DPM 11:00am – 12:00pm:  Virtual Machine Manager 2012 | Part 1 1:00pm –   1:30pm:  Virtual Machine Manager 2012 | Part 2 1:30pm – 2:30pm:  Automation with System Center Opalis & PowerShell 2:30pm – 4:00pm:  Private Cloud Solutions, Architecture & VMM SSP 2.0 Day 3 will focus on “VDI” (VDI Infrastructure/architecture, v-Alliance, application delivery via VDI) 10:00am – 11:00pm PDT:  Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 1 11:00am – 12:00pm:  Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 2 1:00pm – 2:30pm:  v-Alliance Solution Overview 2:30pm – 4:00pm:  Application Delivery for VDI     Every section will be team-taught by two of the most respected authorities on virtualization technologies: Microsoft Technical Evangelist Symon Perriman and leading Hyper-V, VMware, and XEN infrastructure consultant, Corey Hynes Who is the target audience for this training? Suggested prerequisite skills include real-world experience with Windows Server 2008 R2, virtualization and datacenter management. The course is tailored to these types of roles: · IT Professional · IT Decision Maker · Network Administrators & Architects · Storage/Infrastructure Administrators & Architects How do I to register and learn more about this great training opportunity? · Register: Visit the Registration Page and sign up for all three sessions · Blog: Learn more from the Microsoft Learning Blog · Twitter: Here are a few posts you can retweet: o Mar. 29-31 "Microsoft #Virtualization for VMware Pros" @SymonPerriman Corey Hynes http://bit.ly/JS-Hyper-V @MSLearning #Hyper-V o @SysCtrOpalis Mar. 29-31 "Microsoft #Virtualization for VMware Pros" @SymonPerriman Corey Hynes http://bit.ly/JS-Hyper-V #Hyper-V o Learn all the cool new features in Hyper-V & System Center 2012! SCVMM, Self-Service Portal 2.0, http://bit.ly/JS-Hyper-V #Hyper-V #Opalis What is a “Jump Start” course? A “Jump Start” course is “team-taught” by two expert instructors in an engaging radio talk show style format. The idea is to deliver readiness training on strategic and emerging technologies that drive awareness at scale before Microsoft Learning develops mainstream Microsoft Official Courses (MOC) that map to certifications.  All sessions are professionally recorded and distributed through MS Showcase, Channel 9, Zune Marketplace and iTunes for broader reach.

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• Calculated Columns in Entity Framework Code First Migrations

  - by David Paquette

  I had a couple people ask me about calculated properties / columns in Entity Framework this week.  The question was, is there a way to specify a property in my C# class that is the result of some calculation involving 2 properties of the same class.  For example, in my database, I store a FirstName and a LastName column and I would like a FullName property that is computed from the FirstName and LastName columns.  My initial answer was: 1: public string FullName 2: { 3: get { return string.Format("{0} {1}", FirstName, LastName); } 4: } Of course, this works fine, but this does not give us the ability to write queries using the FullName property.  For example, this query: 1: var users = context.Users.Where(u => u.FullName.Contains("anan")); Would result in the following NotSupportedException: The specified type member 'FullName' is not supported in LINQ to Entities. Only initializers, entity members, and entity navigation properties are supported. It turns out there is a way to support this type of behavior with Entity Framework Code First Migrations by making use of Computed Columns in SQL Server.  While there is no native support for computed columns in Code First Migrations, we can manually configure our migration to use computed columns. Let’s start by defining our C# classes and DbContext: 1: public class UserProfile 2: { 3: public int Id { get; set; } 4: 5: public string FirstName { get; set; } 6: public string LastName { get; set; } 7: 8: [DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Computed)] 9: public string FullName { get; private set; } 10: } 11: 12: public class UserContext : DbContext 13: { 14: public DbSet<UserProfile> Users { get; set; } 15: } The DatabaseGenerated attribute is needed on our FullName property.  This is a hint to let Entity Framework Code First know that the database will be computing this property for us. Next, we need to run 2 commands in the Package Manager Console.  First, run Enable-Migrations to enable Code First Migrations for the UserContext.  Next, run Add-Migration Initial to create an initial migration.  This will create a migration that creates the UserProfile table with 3 columns: FirstName, LastName, and FullName.  This is where we need to make a small change.  Instead of allowing Code First Migrations to create the FullName property, we will manually add that column as a computed column. 1: public partial class Initial : DbMigration 2: { 3: public override void Up() 4: { 5: CreateTable( 6: "dbo.UserProfiles", 7: c => new 8: { 9: Id = c.Int(nullable: false, identity: true), 10: FirstName = c.String(), 11: LastName = c.String(), 12: //FullName = c.String(), 13: }) 14: .PrimaryKey(t => t.Id); 15: Sql("ALTER TABLE dbo.UserProfiles ADD FullName AS FirstName + ' ' + LastName"); 16: } 17: 18: 19: public override void Down() 20: { 21: DropTable("dbo.UserProfiles"); 22: } 23: } Finally, run the Update-Database command.  Now we can query for Users using the FullName property and that query will be executed on the database server.  However, we encounter another potential problem. Since the FullName property is calculated by the database, it will get out of sync on the object side as soon as we make a change to the FirstName or LastName property.  Luckily, we can have the best of both worlds here by also adding the calculation back to the getter on the FullName property: 1: [DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Computed)] 2: public string FullName 3: { 4: get { return FirstName + " " + LastName; } 5: private set 6: { 7: //Just need this here to trick EF 8: } 9: } Now we can both query for Users using the FullName property and we also won’t need to worry about the FullName property being out of sync with the FirstName and LastName properties.  When we run this code: 1: using(UserContext context = new UserContext()) 2: { 3: UserProfile userProfile = new UserProfile {FirstName = "Chanandler", LastName = "Bong"}; 4: 5: Console.WriteLine("Before saving: " + userProfile.FullName); 6: 7: context.Users.Add(userProfile); 8: context.SaveChanges(); 9:  10: Console.WriteLine("After saving: " + userProfile.FullName); 11:  12: UserProfile chanandler = context.Users.First(u => u.FullName == "Chanandler Bong"); 13: Console.WriteLine("After reading: " + chanandler.FullName); 14:  15: chanandler.FirstName = "Chandler"; 16: chanandler.LastName = "Bing"; 17:  18: Console.WriteLine("After changing: " + chanandler.FullName); 19:  20: } We get this output: It took a bit of work, but finally Chandler’s TV Guide can be delivered to the right person. The obvious downside to this implementation is that the FullName calculation is duplicated in the database and in the UserProfile class. This sample was written using Visual Studio 2012 and Entity Framework 5. Download the source code here.

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• SPRoleAssignment Crazy Caviats

  - by MOSSLover

  I’m not sure if this bug exists on any other environment, but here are a few issues I ran into when trying to use SPRoleAssignment and SPGroup: When trying to use Web.Groups[“GroupName”] it basically told me the group did not exist, so I had to change the code to use Web.SiteGroups[“GroupName”]. I could not add the Role Assignment to the Web and run a Web.Update() without adding an additional Web.AllowUnsafeUpdates= true; , however on my virtual machine I could do a Web.Update() without the extra piece of code.  I kept receiving an error in my browser stating that I should hit the back button and update my permissions. So after fixing those two issues I was able to copy the permissions from a page item into a Site for my migration.  Hopefully, one of you can learn from my error messages if you have any issues in the future. Technorati Tags: SPRoleAssignment,MOSS,SPGroup

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• APress Deal of the Day 17/Oct2013 - Pro SharePoint 2013 Branding and Responsive Web Development

  - by TATWORTH

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/TATWORTH/archive/2013/10/17/apress-deal-of-the-day-17oct2013---pro-sharepoint-2013.aspxToday's $10 deal of the day from APress at http://www.apress.com/9781430250289 is Pro SharePoint 2013 Branding and Responsive Web Development "Pro SharePoint 2013 Branding and Responsive Web Development is a complete guide to planning, designing, and developing modern, responsive websites and applications using SharePoint 2013 and open standards like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript"

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• We have completed our 100th recording!

  - by van

  Well we did it.  We made our 100th recording.  It also had a record breaking attendance of over 100 attendees. So check it out, our 100th recording on Software Craftsmanship with Robert Martin. Thanks for everyone's help and support over the last few years. Zachariah Young http://virtualaltnet.com

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• SharePoint 2010 Information Worker VM available for download

  - by Enrique Lima

  If you interested in a test drive of the technologies around the Wave 14 launch, take look at the VM made available from Microsoft. It is a very well rounded option to explore the new products. 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine Note:  It is important to understand you will need a system with Hyper-V to import this VM and get it off and working.  Also, make sure you keep a copy of the original unpacked VM as this is based on a trial version of the OS (time bombed) and there is a chance to rearm the VM, but you are better off either keeping the original files or taking a snapshot as soon as the VM is living in your Hyper-V environment.

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• Silverlight MEF – Download On Demand

  - by PeterTweed

  Take the Slalom Challenge at www.slalomchallenge.com! A common challenge with building complex applications in Silverlight is the initial download size of the xap file.  MEF enables us to build composable applications that allows us to build complex composite applications.  Wouldn’t it be great if we had a mechanism to spilt out components into different Silverlight applications in separate xap files and download the separate xap file only if needed?   MEF gives us the ability to do this.  This post will cover the basics needed to build such a composite application split between different silerlight applications and download the referenced silverlight application only when needed. Steps: 1.     Create a Silverlight 4 application 2.     Add references to the following assemblies: System.ComponentModel.Composition.dll System.ComponentModel.Composition.Initialization.dll 3.     Add a new Silverlight 4 application called ExternalSilverlightApplication to the solution that was created in step 1.  Ensure the new application is hosted in the web application for the solution and choose to not create a test page for the new application. 4.     Delete the App.xaml and MainPage.xaml files – they aren’t needed. 5.     Add references to the following assemblies in the ExternalSilverlightApplication project: System.ComponentModel.Composition.dll System.ComponentModel.Composition.Initialization.dll 6.     Ensure the two references above have their Copy Local values set to false.  As we will have these two assmblies in the original Silverlight application, we will have no need to include them in the built ExternalSilverlightApplication build. 7.     Add a new user control called LeftControl to the ExternalSilverlightApplication project. 8.     Replace the LayoutRoot Grid with the following xaml:     <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Beige" Margin="40" >         <Button Content="Left Content" Margin="30"></Button>     </Grid> 9.     Add the following statement to the top of the LeftControl.xaml.cs file using System.ComponentModel.Composition; 10.   Add the following attribute to the LeftControl class     [Export(typeof(LeftControl))]   This attribute tells MEF that the type LeftControl will be exported – i.e. made available for other applications to import and compose into the application. 11.   Add a new user control called RightControl to the ExternalSilverlightApplication project. 12.   Replace the LayoutRoot Grid with the following xaml:     <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Green" Margin="40"  >         <TextBlock Margin="40" Foreground="White" Text="Right Control" FontSize="16" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" ></TextBlock>     </Grid> 13.   Add the following statement to the top of the RightControl.xaml.cs file using System.ComponentModel.Composition; 14.   Add the following attribute to the RightControl class     [Export(typeof(RightControl))] 15.   In your original Silverlight project add a reference to the ExternalSilverlightApplication project. 16.   Change the reference to the ExternalSilverlightApplication project to have it’s Copy Local value = false.  This will ensure that the referenced ExternalSilverlightApplication Silverlight application is not included in the original Silverlight application package when it it built.  The ExternalSilverlightApplication Silverlight application therefore has to be downloaded on demand by the original Silverlight application for it’s controls to be used. 1.     In your original Silverlight project add the following xaml to the LayoutRoot Grid in MainPage.xaml:         <Grid.RowDefinitions>             <RowDefinition Height="65*" />             <RowDefinition Height="235*" />         </Grid.RowDefinitions>         <Button Name="LoaderButton" Content="Download External Controls" Click="Button_Click"></Button>         <StackPanel Grid.Row="1" Orientation="Horizontal" HorizontalAlignment="Center" >             <Border Name="LeftContent" Background="Red" BorderBrush="Gray" CornerRadius="20"></Border>             <Border Name="RightContent" Background="Red" BorderBrush="Gray" CornerRadius="20"></Border>         </StackPanel>       The borders will hold the controls that will be downlaoded, imported and composed via MEF when the button is clicked. 2.     Add the following statement to the top of the MainPage.xaml.cs file using System.ComponentModel.Composition; 3.     Add the following properties to the MainPage class:         [Import(typeof(LeftControl))]         public LeftControl LeftUserControl { get; set; }         [Import(typeof(RightControl))]         public RightControl RightUserControl { get; set; }   This defines properties accepting LeftControl and RightControl types.  The attrributes are used to tell MEF the discovered type that should be applied to the property when composition occurs. 17.   Add the following event handler for the button click to the MainPage.xaml.cs file:         private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)         {                   DeploymentCatalog deploymentCatalog =     new DeploymentCatalog("ExternalSilverlightApplication.xap");                   CompositionHost.Initialize(deploymentCatalog);                   deploymentCatalog.DownloadCompleted += (s, i) =>                 {                     if (i.Error == null)                     {                         CompositionInitializer.SatisfyImports(this);                           LeftContent.Child = LeftUserControl;                         RightContent.Child = RightUserControl;                         LoaderButton.IsEnabled = false;                     }                 };                   deploymentCatalog.DownloadAsync();         } This is where the magic happens!  The deploymentCatalog object is pointed to the ExternalSilverlightApplication.xap file.  It is then associated with the CompositionHost initialization.  As the download will be asynchronous, an eventhandler is created for the DownloadCompleted event.  The deploymentCatalog object is then told to start the asynchronous download. The event handler that executes when the download is completed uses the CompositionInitializer.SatisfyImports() function to tell MEF to satisfy the Imports for the current class.  It is at this point that the LeftUserControl and RightUserControl properties are initialized with composed objects from the downloaded ExternalSilverlightApplication.xap package. 18.   Run the application click the Download External Controls button and see the controls defined in the ExternalSilverlightApplication application loaded into the original Silverlight application. Congratulations!  You have implemented download on demand capabilities for composite applications using the MEF DeploymentCatalog class.  You are now able to segment your applications into separate xap file for deployment.

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• My experience working with Teradata SQL Assistant

  - by Kevin Shyr

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/LifeLongTechie/archive/2014/05/28/my-experience-working-with-teradata-sql-assistant.aspx To this date, I still haven't figure out how to "toggle" between my query windows. It seems like unless I click on that "new" button on top, whatever SQL I generate from right-click just overrides the current SQL in the window. I'm probably missing a "generate new sql in new window" setting The default Teradata SQL Assistant doesn't execute just the SQL query I highlighted. There is a setting I have to change first. I'm not really happy that the SQL assistant and SQL admin are different app. Still trying to get used to the fact that I can't quickly look up a table's keys/relationships while writing query. I have to switch between windows. LOVE the execution plan / explanation. I think that part is better done than MS SQL in some ways. The error messages can be better. I feel that Teradata .NET provider sends smaller query command over than others. I don't have any hard data to support my claim. One of my query in SSRS was passing multi-valued parameters to another query, and got error "Teradata 3577 row size or sort key size overflow". The search on this error says the solution is to cast result column into smaller data type, but I found that the problem was that the parameter passed into the where clause could not be too large. I wish Teradata SQL Assistant would remember the window size I just adjusted to. Every time I execute the query, the result set, query, and exec log auto re-adjust back to the default size. In SSMS, if I adjust the result set area to be smaller, it would stay like that if I execute query in the same window.

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• FTP Publishing with the new Windows Azure Release

  - by Harish Ranganathan

  There is a good chance you might have stumbled upon the new Windows Azure Release that we made on June 6th.  Scott Guthrie’s Post quite summarizes the overall new features. One of my favorite features is the Windows Azure Websites and the ability to do publish files to Azure using your FTP Client. Windows Azure Websites offers low cost (free upto 10 websites) web hosting where you can deploy any website that can run on IIS 7.0, quickly. The earlier releases of Azure SDKs and the Azure platform support .NET 3.5 & above for running your applications.  This was a constraint for many since there are/were a lot of ASP.NET 2.0 applications built over time and simply to put it on Azure, many of you were skeptical to migrate it to .NET 4. Windows Azure Websites offer the flexibility of running IIS 7.0 supported .NET Versions which means you can run .NET 1.1, 2.0, 3.5 and .NET 4.  Not just that! You can also run classic ASP Applications. Windows Azure Websites don’t need you to go through the complexity of adding the Cloud Project Template and then publishing the Configuration Files.  Lets take a step by step understanding of Websites and publishing using FTP. I downloaded the Club Website Starter Kit from http://www.asp.net/downloads/starter-kits/club It also requires a database and I downloaded the SQL Scripts and created a SQL Server Database called Club. This installs a Web Site Project Template.  Note that I am running Windows 8 Release Preview and Visual Studio 2012 RC.  After installing the template, select File – New – Website and don’t forget to choose the Framework version as .NET 2.0 You can see the “Club Website Starter Kit” .  Once you select the Website gets created.  You would encounter a warning indicating that the Club Website Starter Kit uses SQL Express and the recommended database is LocalDB Express.  Click ok to continue.  Once the Website is created open up the Web.config and locate the “ClubSiteDB” connection string.  By default, it points to a SQL Express Database.  Instead configure it to use your local SQL Server. Also, open up Global.asax and comment out the following line if (!Roles.RoleExists("Administrators")) Roles.CreateRole("Administrators"); There seems to be an issue in the code that doesn’t create the role.  Post that, hit CTRL+F5 and you should be able to see the Website Running, as below So, now we have the Club Starter Kit site up running locally.  Moving to Azure Visit http://manage.windowsazure.com/ and sign up for a trial account.  This allows you to host up to 10 websites for free and a host of other benefits.  The free Websites can be extended to an year without any charge.  Once you have signed up, sign in to the portal using the Live ID used for sign up. After signing in, you would be presented with the “All Items” listing page which lists, Websites, Cloud Services, Databases etc.,  If this is the first time, you wouldn’t find anything. Click on the “Websites” link from the left menu.  Click on “New” in the bottom and it should show up a dialog.  In the same, select Website and click on “Quick Create” and in the URL Textbox, specify “MyFirstDemo” and click the “Create Web Site” link below. It should take a few seconds to create the Website.  Once the Website is created, click on the listing and it should open up the Dashboard.  Since we haven’t done anything yet, there shouldn’t be any statistics Click on the “Download publish profile” link in the right bottom.  This file has the FTP publishing settings. Also, if you scroll down you can see the FTP URL for this site.  It should typically start ftp://waws-xxxx-xxx-xxxx In the downloaded publish profile file, you can also find the ftp URL.  Pick the following from this file publishUrl (the 2nd one, the one that features after publishMethod =”FTP”) and the userName and userPWD that follows. Note that we have everything required to publish the files.  But since the Club Starter Kit uses Databases, we need to have the Database running on SQL Azure.  Go back to the Main Menu and click on “New” in the bottom but this time select “SQL Database” and provide “Club” as Database name for “Quick Create” If this is the first time a Server would be created.  Otherwise, it would pickup the existing server name. Once the database is created, you can use the SQL Azure Migration Wizard http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/ and provide the credentials to connect to local database and then the SQL Azure database for migrating the “Club” database.  The migration wizard UI hasn’t changed much and is the same as explained by me in one my posts earlier http://geekswithblogs.net/ranganh/archive/2009/09/29/taking-your-northwind-database-to-sql-azure-and-binding-it.aspx Once the database is migrated, come back to the main screen and click on the Database base in the Azure Management Portal.  It opens up the dashboard of the database.  Click on “Show connection Strings” and it would popup a list of connection string formats.  Choose the ADO.NET connection string and after editing the password with the password that you provided when creating the database server in the Azure Portal, paste it into the config file of the Club Starter Kit Website.  Just to reiterate, the connection string key is ClubSiteDB. Try running the Website once to ensure that the application though running locally could connect to the SQL Database running on Azure. Once you are able to run the website successfully, we are all set to do the FTP Publishing. Download your favorite FTP tool.  I use http://filezilla-project.org/ In the Host Textbox, paste the FTP URL that you picked up from the publish profile file and also paste the username and password.  Click on “QuickConnect”.  If everything is fine, you should be able to connect to the remote server.  If it is successfully connected, you can see the wwwroot folder of the Website, running in Azure Make sure on the “Local Site” in the left, you choose the path to the folder of your Website.  Open up the Website folder on the left such that it lists all the files and folders inside.  Select all of them and click select “Upload” or simply drag and drop all the files to the root folder that is listed above.  Once the publishing is done, you should be able to hit the SiteURL that you can find the dashboard page of the website.  In our case, it would be http://MyFirstDemo.azurewebsites.net That’s it, we have now done FTP publishing in Azure and that too we are running a .NET 2.0 Website on Azure. Cheers !!!

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