Jim Jackson

Opening and Reading an XML file in a document library

2008-06-26T23:59:00Z

So in a recent SharePoint implementation, I was required to allow users to create links in web parts that performed server side functions. Most of the functions were known quantities but they were almost all external systems. Most of the requirements were to just display security trimmed links to Oracle and other external systems. I had envisioned a single sign-on, BDC system but it turned out the client didn't have the infrastructure to support getting the external data in that way. My solution...(read more)

SharePoint Logs - Tracing Service lost trace events

2008-05-13T14:27:00Z

So in the farm I'm trying to deploy to, the tracing service starting logging some "failed to write template" messages. Thousands of them. Nobody was on the machine at the time. It wasn't available to anyone so it was internal to SharePoint, whatever it was. Then it suddenly turned into the "Tracing Service lost trace events" log entries. Finally, it stopped logging altogether. I found in a forum post on MSDN that when this happens, you need to restart the Windows SharePoint Service Tracing service...(read more)

Content Query Web Part Customization Overview

2008-02-27T20:39:15Z

Oskar asked me today if I could walk some folks on his team through what can be done with the CQWP out of the box with no code. So before I write that up tonight, I figured I'd quickly describe what I know how to do and what I don't. Unfortunately, the later list is larger and more formidable than the former. So the problem that I solved was this: Project portal has four sub-sites for sub-projects. Each sub-site has a list of Scrum sprints. The actual names of the lists are not important, what is...(read more)

MOSS Configuration Certification Study Links - 70-630

2008-02-22T13:31:29Z

I'm currently going through some study materials for the 70-630 exam. I think it's going to take a pretty long time before I am there because my foundational knowledge of this technology is still pretty slim. At any rate, I located a bunch of tech-net links describing Shared Service Providers and security. Here they are in no particular order. I intend to walk through each of these as I have time (hence the time to get the cert). If I have the time and patience and I find other links I'll pass them...(read more)

Link Like

2008-02-15T17:45:53Z

As opposed to Link Love, that is... Here you go Oskar now stop calling me that... http://austegard.blogspot.com/ http://mo.notono.us JJ ;)...(read more)

New BI and SharePoint Blog

2008-02-12T16:05:00Z

Have you ever had one of those guys who you could ask any technology question to and he'd know the answer right off? Like he had just did this very same thing 20 minutes ago and could rattle off what it took to make it happen? That's Tad. And now he's blogging. Some of his friends have been on him to do this for a long time but I'm glad to say he's finally out here in space. I look forward to watching his content... http://weblogs.asp.net/tvanfleet/ JJ...(read more)

SQL Server Management Studio Double Vision

2008-02-11T18:26:00Z

Took a second to realize what the heck was going on here. I think that this was due to a number of tries at installing VS 2008 and some MS BI tools and then uninstalling VS 05 and then putting it back. Everything still works but the UI looks like something out of 1992......(read more)

Get a SharePoint List GUID from the Browser

2008-02-11T13:54:00Z

Super simple. Go to the list settings page. Right click on "Title, description and navigation" and copy the URL. Paste that into notepad and copy everything after "List=" in the string. That's your URL Encoded GUID for the list. All you need to do is decode it. I found this php page that does it for you so you don't have to whip up a quick program to do it. I'm sure there are zillions of others around. Or maybe there is a URL decoder somewhere in the MS stack that I'm not aware of. Anyone? Anyone...(read more)

Notes on Customizing the Content Query Web Part Without Code

2008-02-08T20:03:00Z

There are lots of articles on the net about doing this but there were some things that I found really problematic in my efforts to get an update out. My Business Problem My company uses Scrum (generally) for project management. Therefore, we have planned "Sprints" that break down into tasks. These sprints have start and end dates and a status value. There is a specific project that is quite large and will involve a number of sub-projects that will be managed individually. So, naturally, we set up...(read more)

Two New Tools for SharePoint Development

2008-02-06T13:20:00Z

Some colleagues have recently turned me on to two new tools for SharePoint development. Both fit perfectly my personal analogy of what software should be. For me, its a tool that gets the job done. The better the tool, the less you notice it. Think journeyman carpenter with expensive hammer. He just gets the job done better and faster and doesn't spend a lot of time admiring his tool. ;) Both of these tools are open source which is also nice. STSDev The first tool is STSDev , a console utility that...(read more)

Completely Delete a Site and URL from a SharePoint Portal

2008-01-31T17:32:00Z

Note to self, you'll need this later... So one of the issues with SharePoint is the fact that the tasks you need to complete anything are pretty straight forward as long as nothing goes wrong. Case in point: I tried to deploy one of the "Fab 40" templates on a VPC and forgot that I had not previously deployed the application core template on that machine. The solution deployment went fine and the site template was available for creating a new site. Good to go except the site creation failed. Whoops...(read more)

Back in the Saddle

2008-01-28T15:12:00Z

Back to the grind. Actually, I've been back to the grind for weeks but haven't been blogging due to time constraints. 2007 ended with a fender bender followed by my eldest daughter going to the hospital in East Podunk New Hampshire with 105 F fever and pneumonia. She's much better and the folks were nice enough if not exactly happy to be there on Christmas Day. Then 2008 started with my dog being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She had to be euthenized immediately because a tumor had completely...(read more)

Linq to SQL Null Value Handling

2007-12-12T16:00:00Z

Here is what SQLMetal generates when you have a column in your database that allows nulls: private System. Nullable < int > _DiscountTypeID; This means that when you have a null value in the database, the value that is returned by the Linq to SQL engine is a .net null, not a crazy datetime.minvalue or some other such nonsense. Nice and intuitive. For a nested entity, you get this: private EntityRef < DiscountTypes > _DiscountTypes; This also handles null referenced values as nulls. So...(read more)

SQL Metal and Linq - Refreshing Schema Warnings

2007-12-12T15:15:00Z

So it turns out the simplest way to update your dbml schema is to just delete the existing files and recreate them with SQL Metal. Then, when you include the updated dbml file in your VS 2008 project you will get new dbml.layout and .designer.cs files. You'll of course have to reset your layout if you've modified that. If you do this, you're safe. If you need that layout, continue reading. Just regenerating the file with SQL Metal will overwrite the dbml file but it will not touch the other two files...(read more)

Good Day to be a Programmer

2007-12-10T13:52:00Z

So I'm looking at all the new stuff that was just released and the things that are going to be released soon. It's a good time to be a programmer in the Microsoft way as long as you are aligning yourself appropriately with the stars. ASP.Net MVC So we now have an actual complex pattern that you can read about from years gone by that has been implemented into a framework that we can use right now. Pretty darn cool and perhaps a step in the right direction. Entity Framework This is my personal holy...(read more)