.Net Goodies

Service Pack 1 for SharePoint 2010 Products is Now Available for Download

2011-06-28T23:09:00.001-07:00

Service Pack 1 for SharePoint 2010 Products is Now Available for Download

Service Pack 1 includes stability, performance, and security enhancements that are a direct result of your feedback.

It is strongly recommended to install the June 2011 Cumulative Update immediately after the installation of Service Pack 1. The June Cumulative Update includes several important security and bug fixes that are not included Service Pack 1.

Prior to installing Service Pack 1 you should carefully read the known issues and release notes at

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2532126

Service Pack 1 for SharePoint 2010 Products is Now Available for Download

by sharepointblog@live.com on 6/28/2011 7:02 AM

Category: SharePoint 2010

Service Pack 1 for SharePoint 2010 Products is Now Available for Download

Service Pack 1 includes stability, performance, and security enhancements that are a direct result of your feedback.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Installing Service Pack 1

Prior to installing Service Pack 1 you should carefully read the known issues and release notes at

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2532126

Service Pack 1 includes all fixes released through April 2011 so it can be installed directly to RTM builds of SharePoint 2010 Products, or any prior Cumulative Update.

Install the service packs in the following order on every server in the farm.

1. Service Pack 1 for SharePoint Foundation 2010

2. Service Pack 1 for SharePoint Foundation 2010 Language Pack (if applicable)

3. Service Pack 1 for SharePoint Server 2010

4. Service Pack 1 for SharePoint Server 2010 Language Pack (if applicable)

The SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard or "psconfig –cmd upgrade –inplace b2b -wait” should be run once on every server in the farm following the final update installed.

The version of content databases will be 14.0.6029.1000 after successfully installation. For more in-depth guidance for the update process, we recommend reviewing the following articles. These articles provide a correct way to deploy updates and identify known issues (and resolutions).

Prepare to deploy a software update for SharePoint Foundation 2010

Install a software update for SharePoint Foundation 2010

Prepare to deploy a software update for SharePoint Server 2010

Install a software update for SharePoint Server 2010

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I install Service Pack 1 on RTM builds of SharePoint 2010 Products?

A: Yes, Service Pack 1 can be installed directly on RTM builds; however, we suggest you install Service Pack 1 then apply the June 2011 Cumulative Update.

Q: Do I need to run psconfig after the install of every package?

A: No, apply all of the available packages then run psconfig - the database will only be updated once, to the newest version.

Q: Do I need to run psconfig on every machine in the farm?

A: Yes. Although database is already updated, the binaries on each server need to be set and permissioned using psconfig.

Q: Will there be a slipstream build including Service Pack 1 available for download?

A: At this time a slipstream build including Service Pack 1 is not available.

Serialize Multiobject ArrayList to XML

2011-05-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

This is a code snippet which shows how to Serialize an ArrayList to XML. ArrayList contains objects of different types.

using System.Collections;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{

static void Main(string[] args)
{
AListWrapper wrapper = new AListWrapper();

XmlSerializer mySerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(AListWrapper));

StreamWriter myWriter = new StreamWriter("c:\\myFileName.xml");

mySerializer.Serialize(myWriter, wrapper);
myWriter.Close();
}
}

public class Animal
{
public string Type { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
}

public class Employee
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public double Salary { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
}

[XmlRoot("ArrayList")]
public class AListWrapper
{
[XmlElement(Type = typeof(Employee)),
XmlElement(Type = typeof(Animal))]
public ArrayList list = new ArrayList();

public AListWrapper()
{
Animal animal = new Animal()
{
Age = 1,
Type = "Dog"
};

Employee emp = new Employee()
{
Address = "Address",
Name = "SomeName",
Salary = 2000.50
};

list.Add(animal);
list.Add(emp);
}
}
}

jQuery 1.6 Released

2011-05-04T00:39:00.000-07:00

jQuery 1.6 is now available for download!

jQuery CDN:

Microsoft Ajax CDN:

http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-1.6.min.js

You can read more about this on the following link: http://blog.jquery.com/2011/05/03/jquery-16-released/

SharePoint 2010 Word Automation Services

2011-05-02T00:38:00.001-07:00

In SharePoint 2010, you can add "Word Automation Services" from Central Admin as shown below

Once the service is in place, we can easily convert Word documents to PDF as shown in below snippet

private voidConvertDocFileToPDF(SPFile filex)
{
    ConversionJobSettings settings = newConversionJobSettings();
    settings.OutputFormat = SaveFormat.PDF;
    ConversionJob job = newConversionJob(ConfigurationHelper.Instance.DocumentConversionService, settings);
    job.UserToken = SPUserToken.SystemAccount;
    stringpdfFile = filex.Url.Replace("docx", "pdf");
    job.AddFile("http://<your site URL>/"+ filex.Url, "http://<your site URL>/"+ pdfFile);
    job.Start();
}

Ensure to add reference to “Microsoft.Office.Word.Server” present under 14 hive “ISAPI” folder.

To test this, run “Word Automation Services Timer Job”

DataTable to GenericList | C# and LINQ

2011-05-02T00:29:00.000-07:00

using System;
using System.Data;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{

static void Main(string[] args)
{
DataTable table = new DataTable
{
Columns = {
{"Id", typeof(int)},
{"Name", typeof(string)}
}
};

table.Rows.Add(1, "Amal");
table.Rows.Add(1, "Fousiya");
table.Rows.Add(1, "Munna");
table.Rows.Add(1, "Hussain");         

var listOfEmployees = from row in table.AsEnumerable()
select new Employee
{
Id = row.Field<int>("Id"),
Name = row.Field<String>("Name")
};

foreach (Employee emp in listOfEmployees)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}   {1}", emp.Id, emp.Name);
}
}
}

class Employee
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public String Name { get; set; }
}
}

MVP 2011 - For the second time

2011-04-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Today I got awarded as MVP for the second time in a row. See the mail i got...feeling really happy.

From: support@mvpaward.com
To: amal.hashim@hotmail.com
CC: abhishek@microsoft.com
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2011 09:12:39 -0500
Subject: Congratulations 2011 Microsoft MVP!

Dear Amal Hashim,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2011 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Visual C# technical communities during the past year.

Also in this email:

About your MVP Award Gift
How to access www.mvpaward.com to begin taking advantage of your award benefits
Your MVP Identification Number
MVP Award Program Code of Conduct

The Microsoft MVP Award provides us the unique opportunity to celebrate and honor your significant contributions and say "Thank you for your technical leadership."

Toby Richards
General Manager
Community & Online Support

Color Coding SharePoint List – With or Without Grouping

2011-01-24T22:54:00.001-08:00

Using jQuery we can easily color code lists in SharePoint 2007.

Try using the following script

<script type="text/javascript" src="/_layouts/jquery-1.4.4/jquery-1.4.4.min.js"></script>

<style type="text/css">
.MyStyle
{
    font-size: 11px;
    background-color: red;
}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">

$(document).ready(function(){

$(".ms-vb2:contains('Completed')").each(function(){
$(this).addClass(MyStyle);
});
});

</script>

Problem with this approach is, it won’t work in views with grouping. The problem is, on grouping, collapsed group data is not rendered on page load. To tackle this we need to tweak scripts in INIT.js, but directly modifying is not a good practice. To overcome this we can override the method which is rendering the data as shown in the below script block.

<style type="text/css">
.MyStyle
{
    font-size: 11px;
    background-color: red;
}
</style>

<script type="text/javascript" src="/_layouts/jquery-1.4.4/jquery-1.4.4.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">

//wait until all of the SharePoint stuff is loaded...
_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("CustomExpGroupByFix"); 

function CustomExpGroupByFix() 
{
  //Replace the function in INIT.JS with our custom function
  window.ExpGroupReceiveData=function(x,y){ExpGroupReceiveDataC(x,y)}

}

//This is the exact replica of INIT.JS "ExpGroupReceiveData", we have added color coding code at the end
function ExpGroupReceiveDataC(htmlToRender, groupName)
{
    var ctxId="ctx"+groupName.substring(0, groupName.indexOf("-"));
    var indexBeginCTXName=htmlToRender.indexOf("CTXName=\"");
    if (indexBeginCTXName !=-1)
    {
        if (ctxId !="ctx1")
        {
            htmlToRender=htmlToRender.replace(/ CTXName=\"ctx1\" /g, " CTXName=\""+ctxId+"\" ");
        }
    }
    var needOuterWrap=false;
    if (htmlToRender.length < 4)
    {
        needOuterWrap=true;
    }
    else if (htmlToRender.substring(0,3) !="<tr")
    {
        needOuterWrap=true;
    }
    if (needOuterWrap)
    {
        htmlToRender="<TR><TD>"+htmlToRender+"</TD></TR>";
    }
    ExpGroupRenderData(htmlToRender, groupName, "true");
    g_ExpGroupInProgress=false;
    if (g_ExpGroupQueue.length > 0)
    {
        ExpGroupFetchData(g_ExpGroupQueue.shift());
    }
        
        //Color coding the cells
        $(".ms-vb2:contains('Completed')").each(function(){
                  $(this).addClass(MyStyle);
        });
}
</script>

To use this script, edit the page –> add a content editor webpart.

MOSS | Using WSPBuilder for Creating a List Instance

2010-10-22T05:32:00.001-07:00

In this post I am going to explain how we can make use of WSPBuilder for creating a List instance.
First we need to install SharePoint Solution Generator. You can download the same from here
http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/0/b/40b62080-6295-4d63-b396-d779fb9b4449/VSeWSSv12.exe
Now follow the steps for generating List Definition. Here I am going to create a List Definition of a List named “Configurations”
Start SharePoint solution generator

Select List Definition and click on Next button

Specify the Site Url where the list is present and click Next

Select the List and click Next

Provide a project name and path, then click Next

Click Finish

Before clicking Exit, click “Click here to open the generated solution” and click Exit

You can see the “Configurations” folder. Let it be opened. Now open visual studio and create a WSPBuilder project

Once the project is created, add a new blank feature

Now, copy the folder “Configurations” and paste it under the feature folder as shown below

Open the ListDefinition.xml file and copy the following content

Once the content is copied, paste it in the elements.xml file as shown below and delete the file "ListDefinition.xml" from visual studion project

You can also see ListInstance, make a similar entry in your elements.xml file. Also replace the FeatureId with the FeatureId specified in the feature.xml file
Now build the wsp, deploy it and activate the feature. This will add the list to the site.
Hope this was helpful!!!

MOSS | Using People Editor Control

2010-10-21T02:41:00.001-07:00

People editor can be used whenever we want the user to select user, AD groups or SharePoint groups. For using the control, 1st we need to register the assembly as shown below

<%@ register tagprefix="SharePointWebControls" namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls"
assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

Once this is done, we can use the following tag for placing the control

<SharePointWebControls:PeopleEditor ID="ppeUser" runat="server" Rows="1" 
CheckButtonImageName = "/_layouts/Images/user.png" 
BrowseButtonImageName = "/_layouts/Images/addressbook.png"                                   
PlaceButtonsUnderEntityEditor="false" MultiSelect="false" AutoPostBack="true"/>

In C#, the following code demonstrate the usage

this.ppeUser.CommaSeparatedAccounts;

Using the above code we can get information user has selected/entered in the people editor control.

public static void UpdatePeoplePicker(string login, PeopleEditor editor)
{
ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
PickerEntity entity = new PickerEntity();
entity.Key = login;
entity = editor.ValidateEntity(entity);
list.Add(entity);
editor.UpdateEntities(list);
}

The above code can be used to update the People Editor control using code.

We can restrict the selection of the People Editor using the SelectionSet property. It accepts the following values

User – In case the selection to be restricted only for users
AD – In case the selection to be restricted only for AD groups
SPGroup – In case the selection to be restricted only for SharePoint Groups

Hope this was helpful!!!

MOSS 2007 | Enumerate User Profile Properties

2010-10-08T00:29:00.001-07:00

Below is the code to enumerate the User Profile Properties

using System;
using Microsoft.Office.Server;
using Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
             using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://server:port/"))
            {
                ServerContext context = 
                ServerContext.GetContext(site);
                UserProfileManager profileManager = new UserProfileManager(context);
                string sAccount = "domain\\user";
                UserProfile u = profileManager.GetUserProfile(sAccount);
                PropertyCollection props = profileManager.Properties;

                foreach (Property prop in props)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(prop.DisplayName + ">>" + prop.Name );
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

C# | Automating Facebook Login using WebBrowser Control

2010-09-24T04:40:00.001-07:00

Create a new windows forms application project.

Add two button and place the web browser control as shown below. Rename the button as “btnShowPage” and “btnLogin”.

On form load event use the following code

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    btnLogin.Enabled = false;
}

Now on button btnShowPage use the following code

private void btnShowPage_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    webBrowser1.Navigate("https://login.facebook.com/login.php?login_attempt=1");
    webBrowser1.DocumentCompleted += new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(webBrowser1_DocumentCompleted);
}

void webBrowser1_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    string s = webBrowser1.DocumentText;
    btnLogin.Enabled = true;
}

On btnLogin click event use the following code

private void btnLogin_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    HtmlElement ele = webBrowser1.Document.GetElementById("email");
    if (ele != null)
        ele.InnerText = "amalhashim@gmail.com";

    ele = webBrowser1.Document.GetElementById("pass");
    if (ele != null)
        ele.InnerText = "password";

    ele = webBrowser1.Document.GetElementById("Login");
    if (ele != null)
        ele.InvokeMember("click");
}

That’s it :-)

Custom Application MasterPage | Sharepoint 2007

2010-08-30T04:12:00.001-07:00

Recently I have involved in branding one of our clients sharepoint portal. As part of the branding process we needed to modify the application.master file, so even the layout pages will have the same look and feel. As part of the investigation, we come up with the best approach for doing this.

1. Create a custom master page, with all the placeholders which are available in the original application.master file. Its better to take a copy of the application.master file and add the styles/images etc as you wish

2. Create a custom HttpModule which will set the new custom master page if the current page is having the master page “application.master”. We preferred HttpModule on top of HttpHandler because HttpModule can be deployed only to the web applications we wants, while HttpHandler will hit across all web applications.

Below is the code i have created for the http module.

using System;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace Company.HttpModules
{
    /// <summary>
    /// All the layout pages will be using application.master
    /// inorder to make the application consistent. we have created a custom application master page
    /// this module will check whether the current request is having the master page as application.master
    /// then change it to our custom page
    /// </summary>
    public class ApplicationMasterModule : IHttpModule
    {
        public void Init(HttpApplication context)
        {
            if (context == null)
                throw new ArgumentNullException("context");

            context.PreRequestHandlerExecute += new EventHandler(context_PreRequestHandlerExecute);
        }

        void context_PreRequestHandlerExecute(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Page page = HttpContext.Current.CurrentHandler as Page;
            if (page != null)
            {
                page.PreInit += new EventHandler(page_PreInit);
            }
        }

        void page_PreInit(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Page page = sender as Page;
            if (page != null)
            {
                if (page.MasterPageFile != null)
                {
                    if (page.MasterPageFile.Contains("application.master"))
                    {
                       

                        using (SPSite connectSite = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Site.Url))
                        {
                            using (SPWeb currentWeb = connectSite.RootWeb)
                            {
                                string url = currentWeb.ServerRelativeUrl + "/_catalogs/masterpage/our_custom_app.master";
                                page.MasterPageFile = url;
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
        }
    }
}

Now comes the important aspect of deployment. Its better to create the master page as well as http module to be deployed as a feature. See the feature.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Feature  Id="b1531032-19b5-4fb1-87a6-6892b280c90d"
          Title="Custom Application Master Page"
          Description="Custom Application Master Page"
          Version="12.0.0.0"
          Hidden="FALSE"
          Scope="Site"
          DefaultResourceFile="core"
          ReceiverAssembly="Company.MasterPages, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=6c27a5016ad8e167"
          ReceiverClass="Company.MasterPages.CustomAppMasterPage"          
          xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <ElementManifests>
    <ElementManifest Location="elements.xml"/>
      <ElementFile Location="our_custom_app.master" />
  </ElementManifests>
</Feature>

and elements.xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
    <Module Name="CustomApplicationMasterPage"
            Url="_catalogs/masterpage"
            Path=""
            RootWebOnly="False">
        <File Url="our_custom_app.master"
              Type="GhostableInLibrary" IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="FALSE">
            <Property Name="ContentType"
                      Value="$Resources:cmscore,contenttype_-9masterpage_name;" />
            <Property Name="PublishingPreviewImage"
                      Value="" />
            <Property Name="Description"
                      Value="Custom Application Master Page"/>
        </File>            
    </Module>
</Elements>

See the Feature Receiver assembly which will add the web.config entries so the HttpModule will work without manually modifying the web configuration file

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace Company.UIUpdates
{    
    /// <summary>
    /// On Feature Activation => Add HttpModule Entry in Web.Config file
    /// On Feature DeActivation => Remove the HttpModule Entry from Web.Config file
    /// </summary>
    class CustomAppMasterPage : SPFeatureReceiver
    {
        static SPWebConfigModification CreateModification(string Name, string XPath, string Value)
        {
            SPWebConfigModification modification = new SPWebConfigModification(Name, XPath);
            modification.Owner = "Custom Application Master Page.wsp";
            modification.Sequence = 0;
            modification.Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode;
            modification.Value = Value;
            return modification; 
        }

        public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
        {            
            try
            {                
                using (SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite)
                {
                    SPWebApplication webApp = site.WebApplication;
                    string name = "add[@name='ApplicationMasterModule']";
                    string path = "configuration/system.web/httpModules";
                    string value = @"<add name=""ApplicationMasterModule"" type=""Company.HttpModules.ApplicationMasterModule,Company.HttpModules, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=f2391931b556f037"" />";
                    if (webApp != null)
                    {
                        SPWebConfigModification modification = CreateModification(name, path, value);
                        webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(modification);
                        webApp.Update();
                        SPWebService.ContentService.ApplyWebConfigModifications();
                        SPWebService.ContentService.WebApplications[webApp.Id].Update();
                        //Applies the web config settings in all the web application in the farm
                        SPWebService.ContentService.WebApplications[webApp.Id].WebService.ApplyWebConfigModifications();
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                WriteMessageToEventLog(ex.ToString());
            }        
        }

        static private void WriteMessageToEventLog(string message)
        {
            string EVENT_SOURCE = "CustomAppMasterPage Feature Receiver";
            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            {
                if (!EventLog.SourceExists(EVENT_SOURCE))
                {
                    EventLog.CreateEventSource(EVENT_SOURCE, "Application");
                }

                EventLog.WriteEntry(EVENT_SOURCE, message);
            });
        }

        public override void FeatureDeactivating(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
        {
            try
            {
                using (SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite)
                {
                    SPWebApplication webApp = site.WebApplication;
                    string name = "add[@name='ApplicationMasterModule']";
                    string path = "configuration/system.web/httpModules";
                    string value = @"<add name=""ApplicationMasterModule"" type=""Company.HttpModules.ApplicationMasterModule,Company.HttpModules, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=f2391931b556f037"" />";
                    if (webApp != null)
                    {
                        SPWebConfigModification modification = CreateModification(name, path, value);
                        webApp.WebConfigModifications.Remove(modification);
                        webApp.Update();
                        SPWebService.ContentService.ApplyWebConfigModifications();
                        SPWebService.ContentService.WebApplications[webApp.Id].Update();
                        //Applies the web config settings in all the web application in the farm
                        SPWebService.ContentService.WebApplications[webApp.Id].WebService.ApplyWebConfigModifications();
                    }                    
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                WriteMessageToEventLog(ex.ToString());
            } 
        }        

        public override void FeatureInstalled(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
        {
            
        }

        public override void FeatureUninstalling(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
        {
            
        }
    }
}

As part of the WSP, we included the following

1. Custom Master Page

2. Http Module dll which will go into GAC

3. Feature Receiver

Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me if you have any queries.

Microsoft Sync Framework 2.1 Software Development Kit (SDK) Released

2010-08-19T23:12:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Sync Framework is a comprehensive synchronization platform that enables collaboration and offline scenarios for applications, services, and devices. Using Microsoft Sync Framework, developers can build applications that synchronize data from any source using any protocol over any network.

Sync Framework 2.1 introduces new features that let you synchronize a SQL Server or SQL Server Compact database on your computer with a SQL Azure database. This release also introduces parameter-based filtering, the ability to remove synchronization scopes and templates from a database, and performance enhancements to make synchronization faster and easier.

SQL Azure Synchronization

With Sync Framework 2.1, you can extend the reach of your data to the web by leveraging the Windows Azure Platform and SQL Azure Database. By synchronizing a SQL Server database on your business premises to SQL Azure, you make some or all of your data available on the web without the need to provide your customers with a connection to your on premises SQL Server database. After you configure your SQL Azure database for synchronization, users can take the data offline and store it in a client database, such as SQL Server Compact or SQL Server Express, so that your applications operate while disconnected and your customers can stay productive without the need for a reliable network connection. Changes made to data in the field can be synchronized back to the SQL Azure database and ultimately back to the on premises SQL Server database. Sync Framework 2.1 also includes features to interact well with the shared environment of Windows Azure and SQL Azure. These features include performance enhancements, the ability to define the maximum size of a transaction to avoid throttling, and automatic retries of a transaction if it is throttled by Windows Azure. Sync Framework gives you flexibility in the way you structure your synchronization community, but two typical ways are to use a 2-tier architecture or an N-tier architecture.

2-tier architecture: Sync Framework runs on the local computer and uses a SqlSyncProvider object to connect directly to the SQL Azure database without going through a middle tier or a web server, such as Internet Information Services (IIS).
N-tier architecture: A Sync Framework database provider runs in a Windows Azure hosted service and communicates with a proxy provider that runs on the local computer.

Bulk Application of Changes

Sync Framework 2.1 takes advantage of the table-valued parameter feature of SQL Server 2008 and SQL Azure to apply multiple inserts, updates, and deletes by using a single stored procedure call, instead of requiring a stored procedure call to apply each change. This greatly increases performance of these operations and reduces the number of round trips between client and server during change application. Bulk procedures are created by default when a SQL Server 2008 or SQL Azure database is provisioned.

Parameter-based Filtering

ync Framework 2.1 enables you to create parameter-based filters that control what data is synchronized. Parameter-based filters are particularly useful when users want to filter data based on a field that can have many different values, such as user ID or region, or a combination of two or more fields. Parameter-based filters are created in two steps. First, filter and scope templates are defined. Then, a filtered scope is created that has specific values for the filter parameters. This two-step process has the following advantages:

Easy to set up. A filter template is defined one time. Creating a filter template is the only action that requires permission to create stored procedures in the database server. This step is typically performed by a database administrator.
Easy to subscribe. Clients specify parameter values to create and subscribe to filtered scopes on an as-needed basis. This step requires only permission to insert rows in synchronization tables in the database server. This step can be performed by a user.
Easy to maintain. Even when several parameters are combined and lots of filtered scopes are created, maintenance is simple because a single, parameter-based procedure is used to enumerate changes.

Removing Scopes and Templates

Sync Framework 2.1 adds the SqlSyncScopeDeprovisioning and SqlCeSyncScopeDeprovisioning classes to enable you to easily remove synchronization elements from databases that have been provisioned for synchronization. By using these classes you can remove scopes, filter templates, and the associated metadata tables, triggers, and stored procedures from your databases.

Upgrading the Metadata Format

The metadata format for the database providers changed in Sync Framework 2.1. The new metadata format is incompatible with previous versions of the database providers. The upgrade to the new metadata format cannot be undone, and when you try to use an earlier version of the database providers to synchronize a database that is in the 2.1 format, Sync Framework throws an exception. However, the SqlSyncProvider class in Sync Framework 2.1 detects whether the metadata is in the 2.0 or 2.1 format, and operates in a backward compatibility mode to synchronize a database that contains metadata in the 2.0 format. Sync Framework can synchronize a database in the 2.0 format with a database in either the 2.0 or the 2.1 format. Therefore, it is not necessary to upgrade all of the databases in your synchronization community at the same time. For example, in an N-tier architecture you can upgrade the server Sync Framework components and database metadata format and continue to synchronize with clients that use Sync Framework 2.0. Clients can then upgrade when it is convenient for them to do so.

SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 Compatibility

The Sync Framework 2.1 SqlCeSyncProvider database provider object uses SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2. Existing SQL Server Compact databases are automatically upgraded when Sync Framework connects to them. Among other new features, SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 makes available a change tracking API that provides the ability to configure, enable, and disable change tracking on a table, and to access the change tracking data for the table. SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 can be downloaded here.

Sync Framework 2.1 Redistributable Package

To download the Microsoft Sync Framework 2.1 redistributables, rather than the SDK package, click on the link: Microsoft Sync Framework 2.1 Redistributable Package

Sharepoint 2007 Deploying Styles as Feature

2010-08-12T03:28:00.001-07:00

Assuming you have WSP Builder installed.
Open Visual Studio, From File –> New Project

Clicking OK will create a solution with the following folder structure

Now right click the Project “Test_Style” –> Add –> New Item

From the Add New Item dialog Select WSPBuilder –> Blank Feature

Clicking Add will bring up the following dialog

If you want the style to be applied on Site Collection level, then select the scope as Site, and Click OK will add feature/element files as shown below

Now add your style file under the folder TestStyle as shown below

Open feature.xml file and copy paste the following replacing the existing ElementManifests tag
<ElementManifests>
<ElementManifest Location="elements.xml"/>
<ElementFile Location="MyStyle.css" />
</ElementManifests>

Open elements.xml file and copy paste the following replacing existing contents

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<Module Name="New Style" Url="Style Library" Path="" RootWebOnly="TRUE" >
<File Url="MyStyle.css" Type="GhostableInLibrary" IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="TRUE"></File>
</Module>
</Elements>

Now build the WSP by Right Clicking the project from Solution Explorer

Add the solution, and activate the feature.

Now, if you notice the feature was suppose to overwrite the file if it exists. But, if the file exists its not overwriting, even if we provide “IgnoreIfAlreadyExists” flag in elements.xml file. As a solution for this, we need to handle the FeatureActivated event and manually checkout the file and overwrite it and checkin the file. To achieve this we need to build a class library, which should go to GAC.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using System.IO;
using System.Diagnostics;



namespace UpdateStyleReceiver
{
class UpdateStyle : SPFeatureReceiver
{
SPWeb web = null;
string directoryPath = null;

// copy to location
string url = null;

public override void FeatureInstalled(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) { }

public override void FeatureUninstalling(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) { }

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{
WriteMessageToEventLog("Feature Activated");

try
{
web = ((SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent).RootWeb;

// set the directory path on the file system where the feature was activated
directoryPath = properties.Definition.RootDirectory;

// run with elevated permissions so we can overwrite the file
SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(OverwriteFile);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
WriteMessageToEventLog(ex.ToString());
}
}

public void OverwriteFile()
{
// create a new site object so that elevation works properly
SPSite site = new SPSite(web.Site.ID);

// copy to location
string url = null;

// get the url to the local file
string[] localFile = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(directoryPath, "*.css", System.IO.SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);

// define a fstream object so we can read the contents of the file into a byte array
FileStream fstream = File.OpenRead(localFile[0]);

byte[] contents = new byte[fstream.Length];
fstream.Read(contents, 0, (int)fstream.Length);
fstream.Close();

// get a handle to the master page gallery
SPList styleLibrary = site.OpenWeb().Lists["Style Library"];

// get a handle to the folder we want to upload the file to
SPFolder editingMenuFolder = styleLibrary.RootFolder;

SPFile customQuickAccessFile = editingMenuFolder.Files["MyStyle.css"];

// build the destination copy url
url = site.Url + "/" + editingMenuFolder.Url + "/";

// check out the file, replace it with the modified one, and check it back in, publish and approve
customQuickAccessFile.CheckOut();
customQuickAccessFile.CopyTo(url + "MyStyle_Original.css", true);

WriteMessageToEventLog(editingMenuFolder.ServerRelativeUrl);
WriteMessageToEventLog(editingMenuFolder.Url);

// check in new file
customQuickAccessFile = editingMenuFolder.Files.Add(url + "MyStyle.css", contents, true);
customQuickAccessFile.CheckIn("File over-written by activiating the Published Page View Feature");
customQuickAccessFile.Publish("File published by activating the Published Page View Feature");
customQuickAccessFile.Approve("Approved by Published Page View Feature");

site.Close();
}

public void DeleteFile()
{
// create a new site object so that elevation works properly
SPSite site = new SPSite(web.Site.ID);

// get a handle to the master page gallery
SPList styleLibrary = site.OpenWeb().Lists["Style Library"];

// get a handle to the folder we want to upload the file to
SPFolder editingMenuFolder = styleLibrary.RootFolder;

SPFile customQuickAccessFile = editingMenuFolder.Files["MyStyle_Original.css"];

// build the destination copy url
url = site.Url + "/" + editingMenuFolder.Url + "/";

customQuickAccessFile.MoveTo(url + "MyStyle.css", true);

customQuickAccessFile.Publish("File published by activating the Published Page View Feature");
customQuickAccessFile.Approve("Approved by Published Page View Feature");

site.Close();
}

public override void FeatureDeactivating(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) 
{
WriteMessageToEventLog("Deactiviating Feature");

try
{
web = ((SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent).RootWeb;

// run with elevated permissions so we can overwrite the file
SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(DeleteFile);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
WriteMessageToEventLog(ex.ToString());
}
}

private void WriteMessageToEventLog(string message)
{
SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
{
EventLog.WriteEntry("Copy Feature Receiver", message);
});
}
}
}

Modify the feature.xml as follows

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Feature  Id="20402429-a875-482d-a4c8-e8449f48d04c"
Title="Update Style"
Description="Description for Update Style"
Version="12.0.0.0"
Hidden="FALSE"
Scope="Site"
DefaultResourceFile="core"
ReceiverAssembly="UpdateStyleReceiver, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7701372303d9a778"
ReceiverClass="UpdateStyleReceiver.UpdateStyle"

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<ElementManifests>
<ElementManifest Location="elements.xml"/>
<ElementFile Location="MyStyle.css" />
  </ElementManifests>
</Feature>

Obfuscation with Dotfuscator

2010-05-12T23:14:00.001-07:00

From wiki

Obfuscated code is source or machine code that has been made difficult to understand. Programmers may deliberately obfuscate code to conceal its purpose or its logic to prevent tampering, deter reverse engineering or as a puzzle or recreational challenge for readers. It is a form of security through obscurity. Programs known as obfuscators transform readable code into obfuscated code using various techniques that might induce anti-debugging, anti-decompilation and anti-disassembly mechanism.

Managed code compilers (C#, VB.NET, etc) generate IL, not native assembly code. This IL tends to be consistently structured and fairly easy to reverse engineer. Most optimization happens when the IL is JIT-compiled into native code, not during compilation. This means it's pretty easy to take a compiled assembly and de-compile it into source code, using a tool such as Reflector. While this is a non-issue for web scenarios where all the code resides on the server, it's a big issue for some client scenarios, especially ISV applications. These client applications may contain trade secrets or sensitive information in their algorithms, data structures, or data. This is where obfuscation tools come in. Visual Studio ships with the community edition of Dotfuscator, a popular obfuscation package.

How To

From Visual Studio 2010 Tools menu, click Dotfuscator Software Services as shown in the figure below.

This will start the obfuscation service. Once you start building the application/library the following form will come up.

Right click Dotfuscator1 tree node and select “Add Assemblies”

Browse the assembly you want to obfuscate.

Once you have selected the assemblies, build it using the Build Menu. If there is no error, then the new output will be obfuscated.

Microsoft Dektop Player

2010-05-06T04:27:00.000-07:00

This site has been built with Microsoft Silverlight. Microsoft Silverlight delivers a new generation of high-quality audio and video, engaging media experiences, and interactive applications for the Web.

Click to install now!

By clicking "Click to install now!" you accept the Silverlight License Agreement.

Internet Explorer 9: Test Drive

2010-05-06T04:23:00.001-07:00

Microsoft has released the second platform preview edition of their upcoming web browser edition Internet Explorer 9. The second release is pretty much similar to the first one with no major changes in user interface. All the updates are in the engine powering the browser. Microsoft stated that they are working on improving the performance of various engines powering the browser (JavaScript and so on).

http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

Let's become an MVP

2010-04-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

Here is your chance to prove the world how worthy you are. Lets showcase the efforts you have put to help communities.

LINQ Performance Benchmark

2010-04-11T01:34:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I was reading “LINQ To Objects Using C# 4.0” by Troy Magennis and find a good LINQ usage example. I got curious about how the LINQ implementation will perform and thought of writing this article.

The example is related to an entity having 3 fields State, LastName and FirstName. The aim is to Group the objects by state and sort by LastName. For calculating the execution time I am using Stopwatch class in System.Diagnosis namespace.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.IO;

namespace ConsoleApplication2
{
public class Customer
{
public string State { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
}

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<Customer> custList = FillListAndGetList();

Stopwatch sw = new Stopwatch();
sw.Start();
#region C# 2.0 Approach

///Sorting by LastName
custList.Sort(
delegate(Customer c1, Customer c2)
{
if (c1 != null && c2 != null)
return string.Compare(c1.LastName, c2.FirstName);
return 0;
});

///Sort and Groupby State [SortedDictionary]
SortedDictionary<string, List<Customer>>
sortedCust = new SortedDictionary<string, List<Customer>>();

foreach (Customer c in custList)
{
if (!sortedCust.ContainsKey(c.State))
sortedCust.Add(c.State, new List<Customer>());

sortedCust[c.State].Add(c);
}

foreach (KeyValuePair<string, List<Customer>>
pair in sortedCust)
{
Console.WriteLine("State : " + pair.Key);

foreach (Customer c in pair.Value)
Console.WriteLine("Last Name : {0}" +
"FirstName : {1} ", c.LastName,
c.FirstName);
}

#endregion

sw.Stop();
File.WriteAllLines("C20", new string[] { sw.ElapsedTicks.ToString() });

custList = FillListAndGetList();
sw.Reset();
sw.Start();

#region LINQ Approach

var query = from c in custList
orderby c.State, c.LastName
group c by c.State;

foreach (var group in query)
{
Console.WriteLine("State : " + group.Key);

foreach (Customer c in group)
Console.WriteLine("Last Name : {0}" +
"FirstName : {1} ", c.LastName,
c.FirstName);
}

#endregion

sw.Stop();
File.WriteAllLines("C20", new string[] { sw.ElapsedTicks.ToString() });
}

private static List<Customer> FillListAndGetList()
{
List<Customer> custList = new List<Customer>();
for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++)
{
Customer c = new Customer();
if (i % 2 == 0)
{
c.State = "State2";
c. FirstName = "FirstName2" + i.ToString();
c.LastName = "LastName2" + i.ToString();
}
else if (i % 3 == 0)
{
c.State = "State3";
c.FirstName = "FirstName3" + i.ToString();
c.LastName = "LastName3" + i.ToString();
}
else if(i % 7 == 0)
{
c.State = "State7";
c.FirstName = "FirstName7" + i.ToString();
c.LastName = "LastName7" + i.ToString();
}
else if (i % 11 == 0)
{
c.State = "State11";
c.FirstName = "FirstName11" + i.ToString();
c.LastName = "LastName11" + i.ToString();
}
else
{
c.State = "OtherState";
c.FirstName = "FirstName" + i.ToString();
c.LastName = "LastName" + i.ToString();
}

custList.Add(c);
}

return custList;
}
}
}

Once I ran the application, I got the following result.
C# 2.0 version : 627373008
LINQ version : 692116906
LINQ version has a slight performance problem, but compared to the chunk of code that has gone in 2.0 I think LINQ is far better.

C# – Read, Insert, Update, Delete From SQL Database

2010-04-06T07:03:00.001-07:00

Code snippets for reading, inserting, updating and deleting from SQL database.

static void Read()
{
    try
    {
        string connectionString =
            "server=.;" +
            "initial catalog=employee;" +
            "user id=sa;" +
            "password=sa123";
        using (SqlConnection conn =
            new SqlConnection(connectionString))
        {
            conn.Open();
            using (SqlCommand cmd =
                new SqlCommand("SELECT * FROM EmployeeDetails", conn))
            {
                SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();

                if (reader.HasRows)
                {
                    while (reader.Read())
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Id = ", reader["Id"]);
                        Console.WriteLine("Name = ", reader["Name"]);
                        Console.WriteLine("Address = ", reader["Address"]);
                    }
                }

                reader.Close();
            }
        }
    }
    catch (SqlException ex)
    {
        //Log exception
        //Display Error message
    }
}

static void Insert()
{
    try
    {
        string connectionString =
            "server=.;" +
            "initial catalog=employee;" +
            "user id=sa;" +
            "password=sa123";
        using (SqlConnection conn =
            new SqlConnection(connectionString))
        {
            conn.Open();
            using (SqlCommand cmd =
                new SqlCommand("INSERT INTO EmployeeDetails VALUES(" +
                    "@Id, @Name, @Address)", conn))
            {
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Id", 1);
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Name", "Amal Hashim");
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Address", "Bangalore");

                int rows = cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

                //rows number of record got inserted
            }
        }
    }
    catch (SqlException ex)
    {
        //Log exception
        //Display Error message
    }
}

static void Update()
{
    try
    {
        string connectionString =
            "server=.;" +
            "initial catalog=employee;" +
            "user id=sa;" +
            "password=sa123";
        using (SqlConnection conn =
            new SqlConnection(connectionString))
        {
            conn.Open();
            using (SqlCommand cmd =
                new SqlCommand("UPDATE EmployeeDetails SET Name=@NewName, Address=@NewAddress" +
                    " WHERE Id=@Id", conn))
            {
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Id", 1);
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Name", "Munna Hussain");
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Address", "Kerala");

                int rows = cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

                //rows number of record got updated
            }
        }
    }
    catch (SqlException ex)
    {
        //Log exception
        //Display Error message
    }
}

static void Delete()
{
    try
    {
        string connectionString =
            "server=.;" +
            "initial catalog=employee;" +
            "user id=sa;" +
            "password=sa123";
        using (SqlConnection conn =
            new SqlConnection(connectionString))
        {
            conn.Open();
            using (SqlCommand cmd =
                new SqlCommand("DELETE FROM EmployeeDetails " +
                    "WHERE Id=@Id", conn))
            {
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Id", 1);
                
                int rows = cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

                //rows number of record got deleted
            }
        }
    }
    catch (SqlException ex)
    {
        //Log exception
        //Display Error message
    }
}

C# | 3 Tier Architecture

2010-04-04T11:05:00.001-07:00

In this article I am going to explain how easily we can build up a 3 layered application using .net framework and c#. I have an Employee database. For demonstration I have cut the scope by talking only to one table, EmployeeDetails.

In 3 tier, we are dealing with

1. Data Access Layer

2. Business Layer

3. Presentation Layer

Here is the code of my Data Access Layer

static class DAL
{
    const string ConnectionString = "server=.;initial catalog=Employee;user id=sa;password=sa123";

    public static int ExecuteNonQuery(string commandText, SqlParameter[] parameters)
    {
        try
        {
            using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConnectionString))
            {
                conn.Open();
                using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(commandText, conn))
                {
                    foreach (SqlParameter param in parameters)
                        cmd.Parameters.Add(param);

                    int rowsAffected = cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

                    return rowsAffected;
                }
            }
        }
        catch
        {
            throw;
        }
    }

    public static SqlDataReader GetReader(string commandText, SqlParameter[] parameters)
    {
        try
        {
            using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConnectionString))
            {
                conn.Open();
                using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(commandText, conn))
                {
                    foreach (SqlParameter param in parameters)
                        cmd.Parameters.Add(param);

                    SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();

                    return reader;
                }
            }
        }
        catch
        {
            throw;
        }
    }
}

To resemble the table EmployeeDetails I have created the following entity class

class EmployeeEntity
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Address { get; set; }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        sb.Append("Employee Name = ").Append(this.Name);
        sb.Append(" Have Id = ").Append(this.Id);
        sb.Append(" Lives In = ").Append(this.Address);

        return sb.ToString();
    }
}

Now comes the business layer

static class Employee
{
    public static int AddEmployee(EmployeeEntity e)
    {
        SqlParameter[] param = new SqlParameter[3];
        param[0] = new SqlParameter("@Id", e.Id);
        param[1] = new SqlParameter("@Name", e.Name);
        param[2] = new SqlParameter("@Address", e.Address);

        return DAL.ExecuteNonQuery("INSERT INTO EmployeeDetails VALUES(@Id, @Name, @Address)", param);
    }

    public static EmployeeEntity GetEmployee(int id)
    {
        SqlParameter[] param = new SqlParameter[1];
        param[0] = new SqlParameter("@Id", id);

        SqlDataReader reader = DAL.GetReader("SELECT * FROM EmployeeDetails WHERE Id = @Id", param);

        if (reader.HasRows)
        {
            EmployeeEntity emp = new EmployeeEntity();
            while (reader.Read())
            {
                int temp = 0;
                int.TryParse(reader["Id"].ToString(), out temp);
                emp.Id = temp;
                emp.Name = reader["Name"].ToString();
                emp.Address = reader["Address"].ToString();

                break;
            }
            return emp;

        }
        else
            return null;
    }
}

Finally my presentation

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Employee.AddEmployee(new EmployeeEntity() { Id = 1, Name = "Amal", Address = "MyAddress" });
        Employee.AddEmployee(new EmployeeEntity() { Id = 2, Name = "Hashim", Address = "Hashim Address" });
        Employee.AddEmployee(new EmployeeEntity() { Id = 3, Name = "Rooney", Address = "Manchester" });

        EmployeeEntity emp = Employee.GetEmployee(1);

        Console.WriteLine(emp);
    }
}

For better demonstration, you can think the presentation layer as a windows form application. With a 3 textboxes and one button. You can enter Id, Name and Address and use the button event for adding the data.

Sql | Parameterized Queries

2010-04-04T08:00:00.001-07:00

In msdn forums, a common question is regarding database retrieval and updation. To help such users I thought of bringing up this article. I want to give a concrete example, which will demonstrate the usage. To start with, I have a Employee database with a table named EmployeeDetails witht the following structure.

In the below code sample, I will show how to insert a record and get it back. To avoid the problems that can cause from SQL Injection, .Net framework has introduced Parameterized queries. Another way to get around this situation is using stored procedures.

using System;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

namespace ConsoleApplication2
{    
    class Program
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string connectionString = "server=.;initial catalog=employee;user id=sa;password=sa123";

            using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
            {
                conn.Open();
                using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("INSERT INTO" + "EmployeeDetails Values(@Id, @Name, @Address)", conn))
                {
                    cmd.Parameters.Add("@Id", System.Data.SqlDbType.Int);
                    cmd.Parameters.Add("@Name", System.Data.SqlDbType.VarChar);
                    cmd.Parameters.Add("@Address", System.Data.SqlDbType.VarChar);

                    cmd.Parameters["@Id"].Value = 4;
                    cmd.Parameters["@Name"].Value = "Rooney";
                    cmd.Parameters["@Address"].Value = "Manchester United";

                    int rowsInserted = cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

                    Console.WriteLine("Rows inserted = " + rowsInserted);
                }

                using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("SELECT * FROM EmployeeDetails", conn))
                {
                    SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                    if (reader.HasRows)
                    {
                        while (reader.Read())
                        {
                            Console.WriteLine(reader["Id"].ToString() + " " + reader["Name"].ToString() + " " + reader["Address"].ToString());
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("No Rows");
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Hope this was helpful.

.Net Framework | Value Types

2010-04-04T01:04:00.001-07:00

Value type holds data in the variable. They are stored in “Stack”. Because of this the performance is good and causes minimal overhead. Mainly there are three value types

1. In built

2. User defined(structs)

3. Enums

All the above are derived from System.Value

Type	Bytes Occupied	Range
System.SByte	1	-128 to 127
System.Byte	1	0 to 255
System.Int16	2	-32768 to 32767
System.Int32	4	-2147483648 to 2147483647
System.UInt32	4	0 to 4294967295
System.Int64	8	-9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807
System.Single	4	–3.402823E+38 to 3.402823E+38
System.Double	8	-1.79769319486232E+308 to 1.79769319486232E+308
System.Decimal	16	-79228162514264337593543950335 to 79228162514264337593543950335
System.Char	2
System.Boolean	4
System.DateTime	8	1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM to 12/31/9999 11:59:59 PM
System.Boolean	4	True/False
System.IntPtr	Platform Dependent

Nullable Types

In some scenarios we might need to store the value null in the basic types. For doing that we can make the type nullable as shown below

bool? isValid = null;
            //or
Nullable<bool> isSelected = null;

Structures or User Defined Types

Struct as mentioned is also a value type and is stored on the stack. Struct resembles class, but have several differences. Structures are composite types. They form a meaningful data. The most common example give for structures is the Point type available in System.Drawing namespace. Each point can be represented using x and y coordinate and hence a structure can be formed as

struct Point
{
    public UInt32 X;
    public UInt32 Y;
}

I have enhanced the Point structure as shown below

using System;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication2
{
    struct Point
    {
        public UInt32 X;
        public UInt32 Y;

        public Point(uint x, uint y)
        {
            this.X = x;
            this.Y = y;
        }

        public static Point operator +(Point p1, Point p2)
        {
            Point newPoint = new Point(p1.X + p2.X, p1.Y + p2.Y);

            return newPoint;
        }

        public static Point operator -(Point p1, Point p2)
        {
            Point newPoint = new Point(p1.X + p2.X, p1.Y + p2.Y);

            return newPoint;
        }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            sb.Append("The current point has X = ").Append(this.X.ToString())
                .Append(" and Y = ").Append(this.Y.ToString());
            return sb.ToString();
        }
    }
    
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Point p1 = new Point(10, 20);
            Point p2 = new Point(20, 30);

            p1 += p2;

            Console.WriteLine(p1);
            
        }

    }
}

As you can see the structure has a parameterized constructor and can have methods. It also has overloaded operators.

Note: We can’t use default constructors in Structure. Default constructor is used by the framework to initialize the fields in structure.

Note: Always make use of a structure only if the entire data in it constitute less than 16 bytes.

Enumerations or Enum

Enums are grouped constants. They are introduced mainly to make the code readable.

Lets extend the above application by adding an Enum Direction. Based on the direction the point will be moved.

using System;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication2
{
    struct Point
    {
        public UInt32 X;
        public UInt32 Y;

        public Point(uint x, uint y)
        {
            this.X = x;
            this.Y = y;
        }

        public static Point operator +(Point p1, Point p2)
        {
            Point newPoint = new Point(p1.X + p2.X, p1.Y + p2.Y);

            return newPoint;
        }

        public static Point operator -(Point p1, Point p2)
        {
            Point newPoint = new Point(p1.X + p2.X, p1.Y + p2.Y);

            return newPoint;
        }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            sb.Append("The current point has X = ").Append(this.X.ToString())
                .Append(" and Y = ").Append(this.Y.ToString());
            return sb.ToString();
        }

        public void Move(Direction d)
        {
            switch (d)
            {
                case Direction.Up:
                    if (this.X > 0)
                        this.X--;
                    break;
                case Direction.Down:
                    if (this.X < 1000)
                        this.X++;
                    break;
                case Direction.Left:
                    if (this.Y > 0)
                        this.Y--;
                    break;
                case Direction.Right:
                    if (this.Y < 1000)
                        this.Y++;
                    break;
                default:
                    break;
            }
        }
    }

    enum Direction
    {
        Up,
        Down,
        Left,
        Right
    }
    
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Point p1 = new Point(0, 0);
            Console.WriteLine(p1);
            p1.Move(Direction.Left);
            Console.WriteLine(p1);
            p1.Move(Direction.Down);
            Console.WriteLine(p1);
            p1.Move(Direction.Left);
            Console.WriteLine(p1);
            p1.Move(Direction.Right);
            Console.WriteLine(p1);            
        }

    }
}

MVP – Visual C# – 2010

2010-04-02T06:10:00.001-07:00

Dear Amal Hashim,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2010 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Visual C# technical communities during the past year.

The Microsoft MVP Award provides us the unique opportunity to celebrate and honor your significant contributions and say "Thank you for your technical leadership."

Toby Richards
General Manager
Community & Online Support

SQL Server | Resetting Identity Column

2010-03-29T09:57:00.001-07:00

Identity column’s are used when you want to have a serial number for each row that get inserted into the table. In other word, it will create a numeric sequence. We can make a column identity while creating the table. Check this simple query which will create an Employee table.

CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE(EmpID int identity(1, 1), EmpName varchar(20))

The above statement will create a table named EMPLOYEE with two columns, EmpID and EmpName. EmpID is an identity column, the 1st record will have the EmpID as 1 and all subsequent records will have a value incremented by 1. So if you give identity(1,2), each record will have the EmpID as an increment of 2

At some instant we might require the identity value of the insert statement.

SELECT @@IDENTITY

If you want to insert a value into an identity column you can use the SET IDENTITY_INSERT statement.

Once you delete all the data from the table, the identity column won’t get reset to the initial value. For doing this we must use the following statement.

DBCC CHECKIDENT('Employee', RESEED, 0)

Another approach is to Truncate. This will delete all data as well as reset the Identity column.

TRUNCATE TABLE Employee

MOSS Site Export Import

2010-03-29T04:58:00.001-07:00

MOSS comes with a handy utility named “stsdam”. The utility is present in the following folder by default.

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\BIN

For exporting a site use the following command

Either move to the BIN folder or SET path to BIN folder. The complete command is

stsadm –o export –url http://sites/site –filename filename.cab –overwrite

Replace http://sites/site with your site name and filename with the required filename you want. The switch overwrite will overwrite the file if the name you specified already exist. For getting the complete help of export, try the following command

stsadm –help export

If the exporting runs without error, you will get the following message

For importing you can use the import statement with stsadm.

stsadm –o import –url http://newsites/site –filename filename.cab

On success you will get a similar screen with the message “Operation completed successfully” at the end.

For more help on import use

stsadm –help import

Hope this helps!!!

Cookie manipulation through JavaScript

2010-03-10T06:23:00.001-08:00

<script type="text/javascript">
    currentuser = "amal"
    window.onload=function() {
        if (navigator.cookieEnabled) {
            var username = readCookie("username");
            if (username) {                
                alert("cookie name = " + username);
                if (username != currentuser) {
                    eraseCookie(username);
                } else {
                    setCookie("username",username);
                }
            } else {
                alert("setting cookie");
                setCookie("username", currentuser);
            }
        }
    }
    
    // set cookie expiration date in year 2010
    function setCookie(key,value) {
        var cookieDate = new Date(2010,11,10,19,30,30);
        document.cookie=key + "=" + encodeURI(value) + "; expires=" + 
        cookieDate.toGMTString() + "; path=/";
    }
    
    // each cookie separated by semicolon;
    function readCookie(key) {
        var cookie = document.cookie;
        var first = cookie.indexOf(key+"=");

        // cookie exists
        if (first >= 0) {
            var str = cookie.substring(first,cookie.length);
            var last = str.indexOf(";");

            // if last cookie
            if (last < 0) last = str.length;

            // get cookie value
            str = str.substring(0,last).split("=");
            return decodeURI(str[1]);
        } else {
            return null;
        }
    }
    
    // set cookie date to the past to erase
    function eraseCookie (key) {
        var cookieDate = new Date(2000,11,10,19,30,30);
        document.cookie=key + "= ; expires="+cookieDate.toGMTString()+"; path=/";
    }

</script>

Accessing an ASP.Net WebMethod From JavaScript

2010-03-10T01:50:00.001-08:00

Lets start by creating a sample webservice.

Create a new Web Service application project from Visual Studio
Click Ok

For demonstration lets keep the webservice simple. The template automatically create a HelloWorld webmethod.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Services;

namespace TestWebService
{
   /// <summary>
   /// Summary description for Service1
   /// </summary>
   [WebService(Namespace = "http://tempuri.org/")]
   [WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]
   [System.ComponentModel.ToolboxItem(false)]
   // To allow this Web Service to be called from script, using ASP.NET AJAX, uncomment the following line.
   // [System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptService]
   public class Service1 : System.Web.Services.WebService
   {

       [WebMethod]
       public string HelloWorld()
       {
           return "Hello World";
       }
   }
}

For demonstration lets keep the webservice simple. The template automatically create a HelloWorld webmethod.

Add a new website to the Project
Now we need to add the TestWebService reference to our TestWebsite. For this, right click the TestWebsite reference and select Add Service Reference.

This will bring up the following window, hit the discover button and press OK

Now onload of the webpage I am going to call the WebService method using JavaScript.

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
   window.onload = CallWebService();
   var xmlHttp;
   function CallWebService() {
       xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
       xmlHttp.open("post", "http://localhost:2700/Service1.asmx/HelloWorld", false);
       xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=doUpdate;
       xmlHttp.send();
       return false;
   }

   function doUpdate(){
       if (xmlHttp.readyState == 4) {
           var startTag = "<string xmlns=\"http://tempuri.org/\">";
           var endTag = "</string>";
           var exch;
           var valueStart = 0;
           var valueEnd = 0;
           valueStart = xmlHttp.responseXML.xml.indexOf(startTag, valueEnd) + startTag.length;
           valueEnd = xmlHttp.responseXml.xml.indexOf(endTag, valueEnd + 1);
           exch = xmlHttp.responseXML.xml.substring(valueStart, valueEnd);
           alert(exch);
       }
   }   
</script>

View the default.aspx in browser will bring the following alert window

What we are doing is, registering a method CallWebService() to the window onload event. In this method we are creating an XMLHttp object. This is used for AJAX call. Once we have this object, we will use the Open method for posting the request to the webservice. The false argument makes the call synchronous. If you are looking for asynchronous, the simply pass true. We need to assign a callback method. This method will get executed once the request object got changed. XMLHttp object has a property called ReadyState which can hold the following value0- uninitialized
1- loading
2- loaded
3-interactive
4-complete

We will check if ready state is complete, means our request was successful. Now we need to parse the returned xml string and get the value.

Note: I will update this article and add some more details like passing parameters back and forth. Keep checking :-)

ASP.Net Password Input Width Issue

2010-03-09T22:33:00.001-08:00

I came across a strange issue with Password input and IE browser. I have set the width property as same as that of the other controls. But while rendering it in IE, the width of Password field was coming as around 10 pixel less than the other control. The best way to get rid of this issue was using CSS.

Before applying CSS I was using the below code

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
   <body>
       <form id="form1" runat="server">
           <table width="25%">
               <tr>
                   <td style="width:100%; text-align:left">UserName: </td>                  
                   <td style="width:100%; text-align:left"><asp:TextBox ID="txtUserName" runat="server"></asp:TextBox></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                   <td style="width:100%; text-align:left">Password: </td>                  
                   <td style="width:100%; text-align:left"><asp:TextBox ID="txtPassword" TextMode="Password" runat="server"></asp:TextBox></td>
               </tr>
           </table>
       </form>
   </body>
</html>

And in IE it’s coming as

Resolution, I have defined the following style

<style type="text/css" >
       .TextBox
       {
           font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, Calibri;
           font-size: 12px;
           color: Black;
           height: auto;
           width: auto;
       }
   </style>

And modified the HTML as

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
   <body>
       <form id="form1" runat="server">
           <table width="25%">
               <tr>
                   <td style="width:100%; text-align:left">UserName: </td>                  
                   <td style="width:100%; text-align:left"><asp:TextBox CssClass="TextBox" ID="txtUserName" runat="server"></asp:TextBox></td>
               </tr>
               <tr>
                   <td style="width:100%; text-align:left">Password: </td>                  
                   <td style="width:100%; text-align:left"><asp:TextBox  CssClass="TextBox" ID="txtPassword" TextMode="Password" runat="server"></asp:TextBox></td>
               </tr>
           </table>
       </form>
   </body>
</html>

Now in IE it’s coming as

Viola!!!!! issue resolved. Hope this helps.

jQuery A to Z – Part 2

2010-03-09T10:52:00.001-08:00

As I promised in this part i am going to cover in depth of how to select/find elements from the DOM. One important thing I want to point out is about jQuery objects. We will use various methods for getting the DOM element. Once we get it, it will be in the form of jQuery object and this object is entirely different from the HTML element. And hence the properties and method will be different.

Selectors start with $() function which basically removes the need for a loop to access the group of elements as the objects are automatically looped and added by jQuery. Some examples

$(‘div’) – get all div elements in the document
$(‘#elementid’) – get all elements in the document having the given id
$(‘.classname’) – get all elements in the document having the class assigned to the given classname

Lets start Part 2 example by creating a website as we discussed in Part 1. Replace the code in default.aspx with the one provided below

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="Part2._Default" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
<title>Untitled Page</title>

<script src="jquery-1.3.2.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<style type="text/css">
.horizontal
{
float: left;
list-style: none;
margin: 10px;
}
</style>
</head>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
</script>

<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<ul id="os">
<li>Windows
<ul>
<li>DOS</li>
<li>Win 95</li>
<li>Win 98</li>
<li>Win ME</li>
<li>Win XP</li>
<li>Win Vista</li>
<li>Win 7</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Unix
<ul>
<li>Unix</li>
<li>Solaris</li>
<li>Linux</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</form>
</body>
</html>

The output of the website will be as follows

Now lets apply the Style “horizontal”. Add the below code in your page file.

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
$('#os > li').addClass('horizontal');
});
</script>

Here we are using the child combinator ( > ) to get all list items that is a child of an element with an ID of os (#os). The output of this query will make the page as follows

We can use the negation pseudo-class to identify all list items that do not have a class of horizontal. For that we will be using the following code.

$('#os li:not(.horizontal)').addClass('sub-level');

and the sub-level class will be

.sub-level
{
background-color: Yellow;
}

The jQuery will get all list items that do not have class horizontal, and for those list items it will apply the style sub-level. The output will be as shown below.

jQuery supports a set of basic XPath selectors. For selecting attributes jQuery uses XPath selectors. For example, for selecting all div which as width attributes

$('div[@width]')

Another scenario is if we want to get the element which contains another element

$('div[table]')

The above statements will get all the div’s which has a table.
Using XPath we can find if the attribute starts with a string as follows

$('a[@href^="mailto:"')

The above statement will get all anchor tag with attribute href starts with mailto

Similarly for finding the ending with

$('a[@href$=".aspx"')

This will find all anchor tags with href attribute ending with aspx extension

$('a[@href*="domain"')

Above query will find all anchor tags with href attribute containing the string domain anywhere.

All the selectors discussed return a set of elements, from the set if we want to access elements by index, we can use the Custom selector. Similar to array index, the index starts with 0.

$('div.horizontal:eq(0)')

Since CSS index is one based, in CSS selector we must use 1 to get the 1st element.
Two important custom selector included in jQuery are odd and even. For demonstrating this, let’s add a table element to our as shown below.

<table>
<tr>
<td>
SomeData1
</td>
<td>
SomeData2
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
SomeData3
</td>
<td>
SomeData4
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
SomeData5
</td>
<td>
SomeData6
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
SomeData7
</td>
<td>
SomeData8
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
SomeData9
</td>
<td>
SomeData10
</td>
</tr>
</table>

Include the below style for creating alternate rows

<style type="text/css">
.odd-style
{
background-color: Olive;
}
.even-style
{
background-color: Aqua;
}
</style>

Now let’s see how jQuery can apply those styles to the table.

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
$('tr:odd').addClass('odd-style');
$('tr:even').addClass('even-style');
});
</script>

Here is the output

The first row index is 0 so its treated as even.

$('td:contains("somedata4")').addClass('bold');

will produce the following output

Let’s explore some DOM Traversal methods

$('tr').filter(':odd').addClass('odd-style');

This is another way to traverse the DOM and the impact is same as the statement we used for applying odd-style in previous scenario. I am going to add headers to our table by placing the following to the beginning of the table element.

<tr>
<th>Column1</th>
<th>Column2</th>
</tr>

Now the jQuery is modified as follows

$('th').parent().addClass('heading-style');
$('tr:not([th]):even').addClass('even-style');
$('tr:not([th]):odd').addClass('odd-style');
$('td:contains("SomeData3")').addClass('bold');

1st statement will get the parent of ‘th’ which will be the 1st tr and apply the style heading-style
2nd statement will get all tr even which don’t have a th element and applies the even-style
3rd statement will get all tr odd which don’t have a th element and applies the odd-style
4th statement remains the same as previous but only change is here i am making the 3rd cell bold. This is done to explain the next statement :-)

$('td:contains("SomeData3")').next().addClass('bold');

This will apply the style bold to the next cell following cell which has data “SomeData3”.

Some more samples.

$('td:contains("SomeData3")').siblings().addClass('bold');
$('td:contains("SomeData3")').parent().find('td:gt(0)')
.addClass('highlight');
$('td:contains("SomeData3")').parent().find('td').not(':contains("SomeData3")')).addClass('bold');
$('td:contains("SomeData3")').parent().find('td:eq(1)').addClass(
'bold').end().find('td:eq(2)').addClass('bold');

Hope you reached a level to understand the above statements. Else add it to your website and do some experiments :-)

Add one more column to our table and use the following jQuery

$('td:contains("SomeData3")')  //get every cell containing "SomeData3"
.parent()  //get its parent
.find('td:eq(1)')  //find inside the parent the 2nd cell
.addClass('bold')  //add the "bold" class to that cell
.end()  //revert back to the parent of the cell containing "SomeData3"
.find('td:eq(2)')  //find inside the parent the 3rd cell
.addClass('bold');  //add the "bold" class to that cell

If you want to find the tag name of an element with id “myId”, use the following statement

var myTag = $('#myId').get(0).tagName;
var myTag = $('#myId')[0].tagName;

Both will do the same job. This is the end of part 2. Hope it was a good learning. In part 3 I am planning to explain about Event and jQuery.

Disabling Network using C#

2010-03-08T07:04:00.001-08:00

In C# there are several ways to interact with network interfaces. Which include WMI, NetworkInformation Namespace, Win32 API’s etc. In this article I am going to explain, how easily we can query network information's and play with it.

///Check whether network is available or not
bool isNwUp = System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface.GetIsNetworkAvailable();

///Get all network cards and display status
System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface[] networkCards = System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces();

foreach (System.Net.NetworkInformation.NetworkInterface ni in networkCards)
{
Console.WriteLine(ni.Name + ": " + ni.OperationalStatus.ToString());
}

Now let’s see how we can enable/disable a network connection. I have written a generic class wrapping all required methods.

/// <summary>
/// This is a generic class for disconnecting TCP connections.
/// This class can be used to
/// 1. Get a list of all connections.
/// 2. Cloas a connection
/// </summary>
public static class DisconnectWrapper
{
/// <summary>
/// Enumeration of connection states
/// </summary>
public enum ConnectionState
{
All = 0,
Closed = 1,
Listen = 2,
Syn_Sent = 3,
Syn_Rcvd = 4,
Established = 5,
Fin_Wait1 = 6,
Fin_Wait2 = 7,
Close_Wait = 8,
Closing = 9,
Last_Ack = 10,
Time_Wait = 11,
Delete_TCB = 12
}

/// <summary>
/// Connection information
/// </summary>
private struct ConnectionInfo
{
public int dwState;
public int dwLocalAddr;
public int dwLocalPort;
public int dwRemoteAddr;
public int dwRemotePort;
}

/// <summary>
/// Win 32 API for get all connection
/// </summary>
/// <param name="pTcpTable">Pointer to TCP table</param>
/// <param name="pdwSize">Size</param>
/// <param name="bOrder">Order</param>
/// <returns>Number</returns>
[DllImport("iphlpapi.dll")]
private static extern int GetTcpTable(IntPtr pTcpTable, ref int pdwSize, bool bOrder);

/// <summary>
/// Set the connection state
/// </summary>
/// <param name="pTcprow">Pointer to TCP table row</param>
/// <returns>Status</returns>
[DllImport("iphlpapi.dll")]
private static extern int SetTcpEntry(IntPtr pTcprow);

/// <summary>
/// Convert 16-bit value from network to host byte order
/// </summary>
/// <param name="netshort">network host</param>
/// <returns>host byte order</returns>
[DllImport("wsock32.dll")]
private static extern int ntohs(int netshort);

/// <summary>
/// //Convert 16-bit value back again
/// </summary>
/// <param name="netshort"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
[DllImport("wsock32.dll")]
private static extern int htons(int netshort);

/// <summary>
/// Close all connection to the remote IP
/// </summary>
/// <param name="IP">IP to close</param>
public static void CloseRemoteIP(string IP)
{
ConnectionInfo[] rows = getTcpTable();
for (int i = 0; i < rows.Length; i++)
{
if (rows[i].dwRemoteAddr == IPStringToInt(IP))
{
rows[i].dwState = (int)ConnectionState.Delete_TCB;
IntPtr ptr = GetPtrToNewObject(rows[i]);
int ret = SetTcpEntry(ptr);
}
}
}

/// <summary>
/// Close all connections at current local IP
/// </summary>
/// <param name="IP">IP to close</param>
public static void CloseLocalIP(string IP)
{
ConnectionInfo[] rows = getTcpTable();
for (int i = 0; i < rows.Length; i++)
{
if (rows[i].dwLocalAddr == IPStringToInt(IP))
{
rows[i].dwState = (int)ConnectionState.Delete_TCB;
IntPtr ptr = GetPtrToNewObject(rows[i]);
int ret = SetTcpEntry(ptr);
}
}
}

/// <summary>
/// //Closes all connections to the remote port
/// </summary>
/// <param name="port">Port to close</param>
public static void CloseRemotePort(int port)
{
ConnectionInfo[] rows = getTcpTable();
for (int i = 0; i < rows.Length; i++)
{
if (port == ntohs(rows[i].dwRemotePort))
{
rows[i].dwState = (int)ConnectionState.Delete_TCB;
IntPtr ptr = GetPtrToNewObject(rows[i]);
int ret = SetTcpEntry(ptr);
}
}
}

/// <summary>
/// //Closes all connections to the local port
/// </summary>
/// <param name="port">Local port</param>
public static void CloseLocalPort(int port)
{
ConnectionInfo[] rows = getTcpTable();
for (int i = 0; i < rows.Length; i++)
{
if (port == ntohs(rows[i].dwLocalPort))
{
rows[i].dwState = (int)ConnectionState.Delete_TCB;
IntPtr ptr = GetPtrToNewObject(rows[i]);
int ret = SetTcpEntry(ptr);
}
}
}

/// <summary>
/// Close a connection by returning the connectionstring
/// </summary>
/// <param name="connectionstring">Connection to close</param>
public static void CloseConnection(string connectionstring)
{
try
{
//Split the string to its subparts
string[] parts = connectionstring.Split('-');
if (parts.Length != 4) throw new Exception("Invalid connectionstring - use the one provided by Connections.");
string[] loc = parts[0].Split(':');
string[] rem = parts[1].Split(':');
string[] locaddr = loc[0].Split('.');
string[] remaddr = rem[0].Split('.');
//Fill structure with data
ConnectionInfo row = new ConnectionInfo();
row.dwState = 12;
byte[] bLocAddr = new byte[] { byte.Parse(locaddr[0]), byte.Parse(locaddr[1]), byte.Parse(locaddr[2]), byte.Parse(locaddr[3]) };
byte[] bRemAddr = new byte[] { byte.Parse(remaddr[0]), byte.Parse(remaddr[1]), byte.Parse(remaddr[2]), byte.Parse(remaddr[3]) };
row.dwLocalAddr = BitConverter.ToInt32(bLocAddr, 0);
row.dwRemoteAddr = BitConverter.ToInt32(bRemAddr, 0);
row.dwLocalPort = htons(int.Parse(loc[1]));
row.dwRemotePort = htons(int.Parse(rem[1]));
//Make copy of the structure into memory and use the pointer to call SetTcpEntry
IntPtr ptr = GetPtrToNewObject(row);
int ret = SetTcpEntry(ptr);
if (ret == -1) throw new Exception("Unsuccessful");
if (ret == 65) throw new Exception("User has no sufficient privilege to execute this API successfully");
if (ret == 87) throw new Exception("Specified port is not in state to be closed down");
if (ret != 0) throw new Exception("Unknown error (" + ret + ")");
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new Exception("CloseConnection failed (" + connectionstring + ")! [" + ex.GetType().ToString() + "," + ex.Message + "]");
}
}

/// <summary>
/// Get all connection
/// </summary>
/// <returns>Array of connection string</returns>
public static string[] Connections()
{
return Connections(ConnectionState.All);
}

/// <summary>
/// Get connections based on the state
/// </summary>
/// <param name="state"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static string[] Connections(ConnectionState state)
{
ConnectionInfo[] rows = getTcpTable();

ArrayList arr = new ArrayList();

foreach (ConnectionInfo row in rows)
{
if (state == ConnectionState.All || state == (ConnectionState)row.dwState)
{
string localaddress = IPIntToString(row.dwLocalAddr) + ":" + ntohs(row.dwLocalPort);
string remoteaddress = IPIntToString(row.dwRemoteAddr) + ":" + ntohs(row.dwRemotePort);
arr.Add(localaddress + "-" + remoteaddress + "-" + ((ConnectionState)row.dwState).ToString() + "-" + row.dwState);
}
}

return (string[])arr.ToArray(typeof(System.String));
}

/// <summary>
/// The function that fills the ConnectionInfo array with connectioninfos
/// </summary>
/// <returns>ConnectionInfo</returns>
private static ConnectionInfo[] getTcpTable()
{
IntPtr buffer = IntPtr.Zero; bool allocated = false;
try
{
int iBytes = 0;
GetTcpTable(IntPtr.Zero, ref iBytes, false); //Getting size of return data
buffer = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(iBytes); //allocating the datasize

allocated = true;
GetTcpTable(buffer, ref iBytes, false); //Run it again to fill the memory with the data
int structCount = Marshal.ReadInt32(buffer); // Get the number of structures
IntPtr buffSubPointer = buffer; //Making a pointer that will point into the buffer
buffSubPointer = (IntPtr)((int)buffer + 4); //Move to the first data (ignoring dwNumEntries from the original MIB_TCPTABLE struct)
ConnectionInfo[] tcpRows = new ConnectionInfo[structCount]; //Declaring the array
//Get the struct size
ConnectionInfo tmp = new ConnectionInfo();
int sizeOfTCPROW = Marshal.SizeOf(tmp);
//Fill the array 1 by 1
for (int i = 0; i < structCount; i++)
{
tcpRows[i] = (ConnectionInfo)Marshal.PtrToStructure(buffSubPointer, typeof(ConnectionInfo)); //copy struct data
buffSubPointer = (IntPtr)((int)buffSubPointer + sizeOfTCPROW); //move to next structdata
}

return tcpRows;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new Exception("getTcpTable failed! [" + ex.GetType().ToString() + "," + ex.Message + "]");
}
finally
{
if (allocated) Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(buffer); //Free the allocated memory
}
}

/// <summary>
/// Object pointer
/// </summary>
/// <param name="obj"></param>
/// <returns>Pointer</returns>
private static IntPtr GetPtrToNewObject(object obj)
{
IntPtr ptr = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(Marshal.SizeOf(obj));
Marshal.StructureToPtr(obj, ptr, false);
return ptr;
}

/// <summary>
/// IP to Int
/// </summary>
/// <param name="IP">IP Address</param>
/// <returns>Integer</returns>
private static int IPStringToInt(string IP)
{
if (IP.IndexOf(".") < 0) throw new Exception("Invalid IP address");
string[] addr = IP.Split('.');
if (addr.Length != 4) throw new Exception("Invalid IP address");
byte[] bytes = new byte[] { byte.Parse(addr[0]), byte.Parse(addr[1]), byte.Parse(addr[2]), byte.Parse(addr[3]) };
return BitConverter.ToInt32(bytes, 0);
}

/// <summary>
/// IP int to String
/// </summary>
/// <param name="IP">IP</param>
/// <returns>String</returns>
private static string IPIntToString(int IP)
{
byte[] addr = System.BitConverter.GetBytes(IP);
return addr[0] + "." + addr[1] + "." + addr[2] + "." + addr[3];
}
}

Add the class. For getting all connections use the following code

string[] connections = DisconnectWrapper.Connections();

Once you get the connection, you can disconnect it as follows

DisconnectWrapper.CloseConnection(connection[0]);

You can get connection based on the state

string openConnections[] = DisconnectWrapper.Connections(DisconnectWrapper.ConnectionState.Established);

Hope this helps you.

jQuery A to Z – Part 1

2010-03-07T01:19:00.001-08:00

jQuery is a powerful JavaScript library created by John Resig. Its an open source project. jQuery abstracts common web scripting situations. It has the following features

Easily traverse the DOM without writing large chunks of JavaScript.
Helps to change the CSS even after the page has been rendered.
Easily alter the page content with minimal code.
Efficient event handling.
Animations to the page.
Integrated with AJAX.
JavaScript tasks such as array manipulations and iterations.
Multiple actions in one line of code.
Library file size is minimal.

The official jQuery site is http://jquery.com. You can download the latest jQuery file from this site. For using jQuery in our site, we just need to provide the jQuery.js file path in script tags so it will get included.
Let’s create our first jQuery website. For this follow the steps outlined below.

Open Visual Studio and add a new website, name is Part1
Now we will add the jQuery js file we have downloaded. Right click the solution, Add Existing Item, open the folder where the file was downloaded. And click Ok.
Now our solution will have the following structure.

Open default.aspx and paste the following code

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="Part1._Default" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
<title>Untitled Page</title>

<script src="jquery-1.3.2.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<style type="text/css">        
.oldstyle
{
margin: 0 2em;
}
.newstyle
{
font-style: italic;
border: 1px solid #888;
padding: 0.5em;
color:Red;
}
</style>
</head>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
$('.oldstyle').addClass('newstyle');
});
</script>

<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<h1>
Part 1</h1>
<div>
by Amal Hashim
</div>
<div class="oldstyle" id="part-1">
Easily traverse the DOM without writing large chunks of JavaScript. Helps to change
the CSS even after the page has been rendered. Easily alter the page content with
minimal code. Efficient event handling. Animations to the page. Integrated with
AJAX. JavaScript tasks such as array manipulations and iterations. Multiple actions
in one line of code. Library file size is minimal.
</div>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Right click the default.aspx file and View in browser.

The $ construct is used to select the document part. Here in our example $(‘oldstyle’) will find all part of the document having oldstyle. $() is a factory for the jQuery object. jQuery object encapsulates DOM elements. The .addClass() method helps to apply the newstyle for the selected oldstyle. The counterpart of addClass is removeClass() method. Our example will simply add newstyle.

Now the next question if when this code get’s executed. JavaScript is interpreted language, and it executes as and when it is encountered. But in our case, we want to have newstyle to be applied once the page gets loaded. One way to do this is using the onload event of the body tag. But in this case we will be modifying the HTML. But this is against the design pattern jQuery suggest, whose aim is to separate the tight coupling of HTML and JavaScript. To avoid this jQuery gives $(document).ready() construct. This does not require any HTML modification, on the other hand will get executed as and when the document is loaded. In our example we are using lambda function. Using the function keyword without method name, we are creating a method as and when its required. We mainly use lambda function as those methods are not being reused.

Hope all of you have read and had a good starting experience with jQuery. In Part 2 of this series i will cover in depth of how to select elements. jQuery supports XPath as well has jQuery’s own custom selector for traversing DOM. See you in Part 2.

Creating a Timer job in MOSS

2010-02-24T05:09:00.000-08:00

First we need to have a class derived from SPJobDefinition

Below is the skeleton of that class.

namespace TimerNameSpace
{
#region Using
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;  
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;  
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;
#endregion Using

/// <summary>
/// Timer service
/// </summary>
public class MyTimerService : SPJobDefinition
{
#region Constructor

/// <summary>
/// Initializes a new instance of the TimerService class
/// </summary>
public MyTimerService()
: base()
{
}

/// <summary>
/// Initializes a new instance of the MyTimerService class
/// </summary>
/// <param name="jobName">Job Title for the timer service</param>
/// <param name="webApp">Web appication for which this service will run</param>
public MyTimerService(string jobName, SPWebApplication webApp)
: base(jobName, webApp, null, SPJobLockType.ContentDatabase)
{
this.Title = "My Timer";
}
#endregion Constructor

#region Execute

/// <summary>
/// Overriden Execute method
/// </summary>
/// <param name="targetInstanceId">guid of the target object</param>
public override void Execute(Guid targetInstanceId)
{
try
{
/// Here the timer logic goes
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//Log exception
}
}

#endregion Execute      
}
}

One this class is ready. Next thing we need to look into is creating a Feature. This feature will internally schedule the timer as a Job and runs it. Below is the snapshot of this class.

namespace TimerNameSpace
{
#region Namespace Inclusions
using System;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;  
#endregion Namespace Inclusions

/// <summary>
/// Class is feature receiver for feature to install approval timer service
/// </summary>
public class MyTimerFeature : SPFeatureReceiver
{
/// <summary>
/// Notifications job name
/// </summary>
public string MyTimerFeatureName = "MyTimerServiceFeature";

/// <summary>
/// Occurs after a Feature is installed.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="properties">An  object that represents the properties of the event.</param>
public override void FeatureInstalled(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{
}

/// <summary>
/// Occurs when a Feature is uninstalled.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="properties">An object that represents the properties of the event.</param>
public override void FeatureUninstalling(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{
}

/// <summary>
/// Occurs after a Feature is activated.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="properties">An object that represents the properties of the event.</param>
public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{
// register the the current web
SPWeb web = (SPWeb)properties.Feature.Parent;

SPSite site = web.Site;

// make sure the job isn't already registered
foreach (SPJobDefinition job in site.WebApplication.JobDefinitions)
{
if (job.Name == this.MyTimerFeatureName)
{
job.Delete();
break;
}
}

MyTimerService myJob = new MyTimerService(this.MyTimerFeatureName, site.WebApplication);

SPMinuteSchedule schedule = new SPMinuteSchedule();
schedule.BeginSecond = 0;
schedule.EndSecond = 5;
schedule.Interval = 2;

myJob.Schedule = schedule;
myJob.Update();
}

/// <summary>
/// Occurs when a Feature is deactivated.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="properties">An object that represents the properties of the event.</param>
public override void FeatureDeactivating(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{
// current web
SPWeb web = (SPWeb)properties.Feature.Parent;

SPSite site = web.Site;

// delete the job
foreach (SPJobDefinition job in site.WebApplication.JobDefinitions)
{
if (job.Name == this.MyTimerFeatureName)
{
job.Delete();
break;
}
}
}
}
}

Similar to SPMinuteSchedule, there is Hourl Schedule also. Use the one as per your requirement.
Once this much is done, we need to create Feature.xml file for the feature we have built and paste it under the Features Folder (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES). Create a folder named MyTimerFeature and under this folder create Feature.xml with the following content.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Feature xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"
Creator="Amal Hashim"
Id="{76D2F200-5CA0-4882-B64F-9FC6208C1234}"
Title="MyTimerFeature"
Description="My Timer."
Scope="Web"
Hidden="FALSE"
Version="1.0.0.0"
ReceiverAssembly="MyTimer, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=12344ab009fa4028"
ReceiverClass="TimerNameSpace.MyTimerFeature">
</Feature>

You can activate the feature using the Stsadm command as shown below.
stsadm -o installfeature -name MyTimerFeature

For checking whether the timer has activated successfully or not, you can go to the central admin page
Central Administration –> Operations –> Timer Job Status

Listing all modified objects in SQL Server by Date

2010-02-24T02:46:00.001-08:00

select * from sys.objects where modify_date >= '2010-02-16'

This will list all the database objects modified after 16th Feb 2010

New Security Patches

2010-02-10T06:27:00.001-08:00

Hi all, Microsoft has released new set of security patches. These all are marked as critical, so install it as early as possible

Critical (2000, XP, W7, 2003, 2008 R2)/Important (Vista, 2008): This is another in the recent problems for Windows’ SMB handling; this one is a remote code execution exploit. The only nice thing about this one is that it requires the attacker to get you to try to connect to their rigged SMB server, and that’s pretty unlikely to go through many corporate firewalls. All the same, get this patch installed as soon as you can. 191KB - 1.2MB
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-006.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978706

Critical (2000, XP, 2003): There is a bug in the ShellExecute API call (which allows programs to ask the OS to perform commands) which allows a remote code execution attack to occur. This patch should be installed immediately. 606KB - 1.4MB
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-007.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975713

Critical (2000, XP)/Important(Vista, W7)/Moderate(2003)/Low(2008, 2008 R2): This is an important update to the ActiveX Kill Bits system that fixes a bug that could allow remote code execution exploits, and adds some addition controls to the kill bits system. Install this as soon as you can. 27KB - 1.0MB
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-008.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978262

Critical (Vista, 2008): A problem in the TCP/IP stack of Vista and 2008 allows and attacker to perform a remote code execution exploit if IPv6 is turned on. You should install this patch immediate. 1.4MB - 2.7MB
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-009.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974145

Download all images from a Webpage using C#

2009-11-18T08:23:00.001-08:00

In this article I am going to explain how we can use the power of .Net framework class library for downloading the images imposed on a web page. There is a class called WebBrowser. Check here for msdn documentation.

WebBrowser browser = new WebBrowser();
browser.DocumentCompleted += new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(browser_DocumentCompleted);
browser.Navigate(“http://www.msn.com”);

In the above code snippet, I am creating a new WebBrowser object. After that registering DocumentCompleted event. Now the most important statement, WebBrowser.Navigate, this method will accept a url and will load the webpage. Once the entire webpage is loaded, DocumentCompleted event will get fired. In this method we will do as follow

void browser_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    WebBrowser browser = sender as WebBrowser;
    HtmlElementCollection imgCollection = browser.Document.GetElementsByTagName("img");
    WebClient webClient = new WebClient();

    foreach (HtmlElement img in imgCollection)
    {
        string url = img.FirstChild.GetAttribute("src");
        webClient.DownloadFile(url, url.Substring(url.LastIndexOf('/')));
    }
}

First we will convert the sender object to a WebBrowser. Then we will get all the img tag’s in the loaded webpage. For each img tag we will use the WebClient object to download the image. We will be downloading the file to the current working directory.

Image slide show using JQuery

2009-11-15T03:57:00.001-08:00

In this article I am going to explain, how we can use JQuery for preparing a slid show using various images. You can download JQuery from the following link.

Download JQuery

Below is the aspx page content

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title>Image slide show</title>
    <script type='text/javascript'
        src="JQuery/jquery-1.3.2.min.js">
    </script>
  
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $(function() {
            var img = $("img.imgclass");           
            $(img).hide().eq(0).show();
            var cnt = img.length;

            setInterval(imgRotate, 5000);

            function imgRotate() {
               $(img).eq((img.length++) % cnt).fadeOut("slow", function() {
                    $(img).eq((img.length) % cnt)
                    .fadeIn("slow");
                });
            }
        });
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
            <img src="Images/1.jpg" class="imgclass" alt="Image1"/>
            <img src="Images/10.jpg" class="imgclass" alt="Image2"/>
            <img src="Images/11.jpg" class="imgclass" alt="Image3"/>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

In the code what I am doing is straight forward. Get all img tags with class “imgclass”. Hide them initially. Every 5 second, call the method “imgRotate”. This method will fadeout the previous image and fade in the current image. Inside the form tag, you can add as many images you needed.

Hope this was helpful

Enabling IIS and ASP.Net 32 bit on 64 bit Windows OS

2009-11-13T22:49:00.001-08:00

Assuming .Net framework is not installed. In that case follow the below step to enable IIS to run 32 bit ASP.Net applications.

Navigate to %WINDIR%\Inetpub\AdminScripts directory and run the adsutil.vbs script using the following command line

cscript.exe adsutil.vbs set W3SVC/AppPools/Enable32BitAppOnWin64 "true"

If you have .Net framework pre installed. Then after following the above step. Run the following command on the command line from the directory %WINDIR%\Mircosoft.Net\Framework\v2.0.50727

aspnet_regiis -i

Now you can install 32 bit ASP.Net applications.

The above solution is for IIS 6.0 on Windows Server 2003 64 Bit.

Now I am going to explain how to achieve the same on IIS 7.0

As compared to all Microsoft products IIS 7.0 is also backward compatible. This is achieved through IIS 6.0 metabase compatibility and IIS 6.0 WMI compatibility. Installing this will make IIS 6.0 Default Application Pool on IIS 7.0. For installing these options, if IIS 7.0 is already installed, configure it using the Add Roles option under Server Manager.

From Server Manager, Select Web Server(IIS). Now from left pane click on "Add Rol Services". In the new windows, scroll down, to check "IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility" and "IIS 6 WMI Compatibility".

Now open IIS Manger. From left pane select "Set Application Pool Defaults...". Now under General, select "Enable 32-Bit Applications" as true.

Paging and Sorting Optimized with ASP.Net GridView

2009-11-13T05:41:00.001-08:00

Lets start by creating an Employee table

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Employee](
   [EmpID] [int] NOT NULL,
   [Name] [varchar](50) NULL,
   [Department] [varchar](50) NULL,
   [Salary] [decimal](18, 0) NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

For optimization, we need a stored procedure at database level, which will return one page of data. The following stored procedure is the bottom line of optimization

Create PROCEDURE spGetAllEmployee
(
   @startIndex     int,
   @pageSize       int,
   @sortBy     nvarchar(30),
   @totalEmployees int OUTPUT    
)
AS
   SET NOCOUNT ON
   DECLARE @sqlStatement nvarchar(max)
   DECLARE @upperBound int
   IF @startIndex  < 1
       SET @startIndex = 1
   IF @pageSize < 1
       SET @pageSize = 1
   SET @upperBound = @startIndex + @pageSize
   Select @totalEmployees=Count(*) From Employee
   SET @sqlStatement =
   'SELECT E.EmployeeID, E.EmployeeCode, E.Name, E.Department, E.Salary
       FROM (
       SELECT  ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY ' + @sortBy + ')
           AS rowNumber, * FROM    Employee
       ) AS E
       WHERE  rowNumber >= ' + CONVERT(varchar(9), @startIndex) + ' AND
              rowNumber <  ' + CONVERT(varchar(9), @upperBound)

   exec (@sqlStatement)

The stored procedure accepts page index, page size and sort expression. It returns the sorted data for that page index. The procedure contains two SELECT statements. The first one will find out the total employee count while the second statement is dynamic, which will return the sorted records of one page according to the provided page index and page size. If you look into the second SELECT statement you can see the use of ROW_NUMBER() function, which is an addition to SQL Server 2005 and above. What it will do is, it will add an additional column to the record set and places a record number for each row. In the outer query we will filter the result rows by using lower bound and upper bound indexes so that we return only the rows between lower and upper bounds.

Now take a look at the aspx page

<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" DataKeyNames="EmpID" runat="server" 
AllowPaging="True" AutoGenerateColumns="False"
CellPadding="4" DataSourceID="ObjectDataSource1" ForeColor="#333333" 
GridLines="None" AllowSorting="True" PageSize="5" >
       <RowStyle BackColor="#EFF3FB" />
       <Columns>
           <asp:BoundField DataField="EmpID" HeaderText="EmpID" 
ReadOnly="true" SortExpression="EmpID" />           
           <asp:BoundField DataField="Name" HeaderText="Name" 
SortExpression="Name" />
           <asp:BoundField DataField="Department" HeaderText="Department" 
SortExpression="Department" />
           <asp:BoundField DataField="Salary" HeaderText="Salary"
SortExpression="Salary" />
       </Columns>
       <FooterStyle BackColor="#507CD1" Font-Bold="True" 
ForeColor="White" />
       <PagerStyle BackColor="#2461BF" ForeColor="White" 
HorizontalAlign="Center" />
       <SelectedRowStyle BackColor="#D1DDF1" Font-Bold="True" 
ForeColor="#333333" />
       <HeaderStyle BackColor="#507CD1" Font-Bold="True" 
ForeColor="White" />
       <EditRowStyle BackColor="#2461BF" />
       <AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="White" />
   </asp:GridView>
  
   <asp:ObjectDataSource ID="ObjectDataSource1" runat="server"  
SelectMethod="GetAllEmployees" EnablePaging="true"
   TypeName="WebApplication1.EmployeeData" 
StartRowIndexParameterName="startIndex" MaximumRowsParameterName="pageSize"
   SortParameterName="sortBy" SelectCountMethod="GetTotalEmployeesCount" >   
   </asp:ObjectDataSource>

We will be using the ObjectDataSource, which allow Virtual Paging. For achieving this we will be using the following property of ObjectDataSource

StartRowIndexParameterName - Specifies the parameter name of the Select method of ObjectDataSource’s bounded Type. ObjectDataSource will pass the value to this parameter when the user changes the page index. For example, if Grid View page size is 10 and the user clicks page number 3 to view the 3rd page, then the ObjectDataSource will calculate the value of StartRowIndexParameter by using the (page Size * page Index) formula. In this case it will be 10 * 3= 30. Default value of this property is startRowIndex, which means that if we don't mention any value for this property then the Select method should have the startRowIndex parameter.

MaximumRowsParameterName - Specifies the parameter name of the Select method of ObjectDataSurce’s bounded Type. ObjectDataSource will pass the value to this parameter when the user changes the page Index. ObjectDataSource source gets its value from GridView's PageSize property. Default value of this property is maximumRow, which means that if we don't set any value for this property then the Select method should have the maximumRow parameter.

SelectCountMethod - Specifies the method name of ObjectDataSource’s Type. This method will be called by ObjectDataSource to get the total number of records in the database. This count will help ObjectDataSource to create virtual paging in the Grid. For example, if GridView page size is 10, and SelectCountMethod returns 100 as total number of employees in the database then ObjectDataSource will display 10 page indexes in the GridView's pager area, even if we didn't get all the 100 records from the database.

SortParameterName - Specifies the parameter name of the Select method of ObjectDataSource’s bounded Type. ObjectDataSource will pass the value to this parameter when the user clicks on any column header to sort the data according to that column. ObjectDataSource fetches the value from the SortExpression property of the particular GridView column.

public class EmployeeData
   {
       private static int employeesCount;

       public EmployeeData()
       {
           //
           // TODO: Add constructor logic here
           //
       }

       [DataObjectMethod(DataObjectMethodType.Select)]
       public static List<Employee> GetAllEmployees(int startIndex,
int pageSize, string sortBy)
       {
           List<Employee> result;
           int totalEmployees = 0;
           if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(sortBy))
               sortBy = "EmpID";
           result = GetAllEmployee(startIndex, pageSize, sortBy, 
ref totalEmployees);
           employeesCount = totalEmployees;
           return result;
       }

       public static int GetTotalEmployeesCount()
       {
           return employeesCount;
       }

       public static List<Employee> GetAllEmployee(int startIndex, 
int pageSize, string sortBy, ref int totalEmployees)
       {
           System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection connection;
           System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand selectCommand = null;
           List<Employee> employeeList = new List<Employee>();

           try
           {
               using (connection = new
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection(
"Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=deptStore;Integrated Security=SSPI;"))
               {
                   if (connection.State != ConnectionState.Open)
                       connection.Open();

                   using (selectCommand = new System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand())
                   {
                       selectCommand.CommandText = "dbo.spGetAllEmployee";
                       selectCommand.Connection = connection;
                       selectCommand.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

                       selectCommand.Parameters.Add(new 
SqlParameter("@startIndex", SqlDbType.Int));
                       selectCommand.Parameters[0].Value = startIndex;
                       selectCommand.Parameters.Add(new 
SqlParameter("@pageSize", SqlDbType.Int));
                       selectCommand.Parameters[1].Value = pageSize;
                       selectCommand.Parameters.Add(new 
SqlParameter("@sortBy", SqlDbType.VarChar, 30));
                       selectCommand.Parameters[2].Value = sortBy;
                       selectCommand.Parameters.Add(new
SqlParameter("@totalEmployees", SqlDbType.Int));
                       selectCommand.Parameters[3].Value = totalEmployees;
                       ((System.Data.SqlClient.SqlParameter)
selectCommand.Parameters["@totalEmployees"]).Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;
                       SqlDataAdapter adapter = new SqlDataAdapter(selectCommand);
                       DataSet empDS = new DataSet();
                       adapter.Fill(empDS);
                       totalEmployees = Convert.ToInt32(((
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlParameter)
selectCommand.Parameters["@totalEmployees"]).Value);

                       for (int index = 0; index < empDS.Tables[0].Rows.Count;
index++)
                       {
                           Employee emp = new Employee()
                           {
                               EmpID = Convert.ToInt32(
empDS.Tables[0].Rows[index][0].ToString()),
                               Name = empDS.Tables[0].Rows[index][1].ToString(),
                               Department =
empDS.Tables[0].Rows[index][2].ToString(),
                               Salary = Convert.ToInt32(
empDS.Tables[0].Rows[index][3].ToString())
                           };

                           employeeList.Add(emp);
                       }
                   }
               }
           }
           catch (System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException ex)
           {
               throw ex;
           }
           return employeeList;
       }
   }

   public class Employee
   {
       public int EmpID { get; set; }
       public string Name { get; set; }
       public string Department { get; set; }
       public int Salary { get; set; }
   }

ASP.Net to Check whether request is coming from mobile device

2009-11-12T23:32:00.001-08:00

For checking this use the following code

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (Request.Browser.IsMobileDevice == true ||
        Request.UserAgent.ToLower().Contains("iphone"))
    {
        Response.Redirect("DefaultIPhone.aspx");
    }
}

The UserAgent property contains the data which tells from which device the request is coming. On problem with this approach is that there are lot of mobile devices and browsers which runs on mobile. One solution I found for this problem is by using a library called 51degrees.mobi.

Basic usage of LINQ

2009-11-12T23:18:00.001-08:00

We can use LINQ in any scenario where we want to iterate through a list of items. For example how about listing all types in the current application domain?

var asm = from a in AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies()
         from type in a.GetExportedTypes()
         select type;

foreach (var val in asm)
{
   Console.WriteLine(val.Name);
}

How about listing all 3.5 assemblies order by length

var alist = asm.Where(x => x.Assembly.FullName.Contains("3.5.0.0")).
   OrderByDescending(x => x.Name.Length);

foreach (var val in alist)
{
   Console.WriteLine(val.Name);
}

Lets find the total count of types for each version

var vers = asm.Select(
       x => x.Assembly.FullName.Split(",".ToCharArray())[1])
.GroupBy(y => y)
.Select(z => new { VerName = z.Key, Count = z.Count() });

foreach (var ver in vers)
{
   Console.WriteLine(".NET {0} has {1} types\n", ver.VerName, ver.Count);
}

Interesting right?

Highest value in each group using LINQ

2009-11-12T22:47:00.001-08:00

First of all, let me thank Suportim for explaining how to achieve this. For demonstrating I have created an employee class as shown below.

public class Employee
   {
       public string Name { get; set; }
       public string Department { get; set; }
       public int Salary { get; set; }
   }

Our aim is to find those employee from each department who earns the most. Here I am manually creating some employee as shown below

List<Employee> employeeList = new List<Employee>();
           employeeList.Add(new Employee() { Name = "John", Department = "Web", Salary = 1000 });
           employeeList.Add(new Employee() { Name = "Frank", Department = "Web", Salary = 2000 });
           employeeList.Add(new Employee() { Name = "Loyd", Department = "Web", Salary = 3000 });
           employeeList.Add(new Employee() { Name = "Peter", Department = "IT", Salary = 1500 });
           employeeList.Add(new Employee() { Name = "Tevez", Department = "IT", Salary = 2500 });
           employeeList.Add(new Employee() { Name = "James", Department = "IT", Salary = 3500 });
           employeeList.Add(new Employee() { Name = "Peter", Department = "Finance", Salary = 500 });
           employeeList.Add(new Employee() { Name = "Tevez", Department = "Finance", Salary = 1500 });
           employeeList.Add(new Employee() { Name = "Cameron", Department = "Finance", Salary = 3250 });

Now check the LINQ statement for finding the most earning employees for each department.

var employees = from e in employeeList
   group e by e.Department into egrp
   let max = egrp.Max(sal => sal.Salary)
   select new
   {
       Department = egrp.Key,
       Name = egrp.First(val=>val.Salary == max).Name,
       Salary =  egrp.First(val=>val.Salary == max).Salary
   };

For demonstrating lets print the values to screen

foreach (var emp in employees)
{
   Console.WriteLine("In Department {0}, Employee {1} has the highest salary {2}",
   emp.Department, emp.Name, emp.Salary);
}

Hope this helps.

ASP.Net Dropdown List and Tooltip

2009-11-11T05:01:00.001-08:00

In some cases the dropdown list will be having large text. And the size of dropdown list is small. In such cases the item won’t be visible to the end user. One option is to expand the dropdown list. But if the size of text is large then it won’t look good in UI. One workaround is to place the item as tooltip. For achieving this you can use the following code.

DropDownList1.Items.Add("1");
DropDownList1.Items[0].Attributes.Add("Title", "Some1");
DropDownList1.Items.Add("2");
DropDownList1.Items[1].Attributes.Add("Title", "Some2");
DropDownList1.Items.Add("3");
DropDownList1.Items[2].Attributes.Add("Title", "Some3");

The title attribute will just add the provided value as the tooltip.
Hope this helps.

Sharepoint List Webservice, access data from folders

2009-11-09T09:23:00.001-08:00

Recently, for my project I was trying to do the same thing, but unfortunately there was no material available in the net. The only help I got was from MSDN Sharepoint Development forum. So I thought of documenting this, so if anyone who is looking for this can be find it useful.

First of all, if you want to get data recursively, then use the following code.

System.Xml.XmlElement queryOptions = xmlDoc.CreateElement("QueryOptions");

queryOptions.InnerXml = "<ViewAttributes Scope=\"Recursive\" />";

Now for getting data from a particular folder inside a list, use the following code

string url = "http://server/sites/site/list/folder";
queryOptions.InnerXml = "<Folder>" + url + "</Folder><ViewAttributes Scope=\"Recursive\" />";

The remaining portion of accessing the webservice is already documented in the following post.

Sharepoint List Webservice

SQL Server 2008 Creating FILESTREAM Enabled Database

2009-11-06T07:24:00.001-08:00

In this post I am going to explain how you can create a database with the new FILESTREAM feature enabled. If you want to know, how to enable FILESTREAM in instance level, please refer to my previous post "SQL Server 2008 FILESTREAM Feature".

Lets start by creating a database name TestFileStream using the below scripts.

CREATE DATABASE [TestFileStream] ON PRIMARY
( NAME = N'TestFileStream', FILENAME = N'C:\DB\TestFileStream.mdf' ,
SIZE = 25MB , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED, FILEGROWTH = 12% )
LOG ON
( NAME = N'TestFileStream_log', FILENAME = N'C:\DB\TestFileStream_log.ldf' ,
SIZE = 25MB , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED , FILEGROWTH = 12%)
GO

Now the database is ready. Lets go ahead and add the filegroups.

ALTER DATABASE [TestFileStream]
ADD FILEGROUP [TestFileStreamGroup] CONTAINS FILESTREAM
GO

ALTER DATABASE [TestFileStream]
ADD FILE (NAME = N'TestFileStream_FSData', FILENAME = N'D:\DB\TestFileStream')
TO FILEGROUP TestFileStreamGroup
GO

One important fact is the usage of

CONTAINS FILESTREAM

clause. Atleast for one filegroup we must specify this clause. Open the properties window of the newly created database, and look into the Files section. There you can see that for the file “TestFileStream_FSData”, the file type is “File Stream Data”. Now open the folder “C:\DB”. There will be folder named “TestFileStreamData”. All the FILESTREAM related data gets stored in TestFileStreamData folder which is also known as FILESTREAM Data Container. Inside this folder you can see the following files

Among this, the file “filestream.hdr” is the most important one. As the name suggests it hold the file stream information.

Let go ahead and create a table. Before creating keep a note of the following points.

Must have a column of type VARBINARY(MAX) along with the FILESTREAM attribute.

Table must have a UNIQUEIDENTIFIER column along with the ROWGUIDCOL attribute.

Try this query

Use TestFileStream
GO
CREATE TABLE [FileStreamTable]
(
[ID] [INT] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[Data] VARBINARY(MAX) FILESTREAM NULL,
[DataGUID] UNIQUEIDENTIFIER ROWGUIDCOL NOT NULL UNIQUE DEFAULT NEWSEQUENTIALID(),
[DateTime] DATETIME DEFAULT GETDATE()
)
ON [PRIMARY]
FILESTREAM_ON TestFileStreamGroup
GO

Lets insert some data

Use TestFileStream
GO
INSERT INTO [FileStreamTable] (Data)
SELECT * FROM
OPENROWSET(BULK N'C:\DSCN5021_large.jpg' ,SINGLE_BLOB) AS Document
GO

This will create a folder under “C:\DB\TestFileStream”, if you can travel inside the subfolder and one file will be there. Open it in any image viewer and you can see the image you have inserted.

To retrieve the data, use the following query

USE TestFileStream
GO
SELECT ID
, CAST([Data] AS VARCHAR) as [FileStreamData]
, DataGUID
, [DateTime]
FROM [FileStreamTable]
GO

For updating, use the following query

USE TestFileStream
GO
UPDATE [FileStreamTable]
SET [Data] = (SELECT *
FROM OPENROWSET(
BULK 'C:\DSCN5022_large.JPG',
SINGLE_BLOB) AS Document)
WHERE ID = 1
GO

For deletion, use the following query

USE TestFileStream
GO
DELETE [FileStreamTable]
WHERE ID = 1
GO

On updating/deleting, the table will be updated/deleted immediately. But the FileStream container data will be removed once the Garbage Collector Process runs.

That’s all for this post. In my next post I am planning to explain optimizing FileStream objects.

SQL Server 2008 FILESTREAM Feature

2009-11-06T04:27:00.001-08:00

One of the new feature addition to the SQL Server 2008 is FILESTREAM. This enables the storage of BLOBs in File Sytem instead of database file.

We can enable FILESTREAM feature as follows:

Open SQL Server Configuration Manager
(Start->All Programs->Microsoft SQL Server 2008->Configuration Tools->SQL Server Configuration Manager)
From SQL Configuration Manager select "SQL Server Services as shown in below figure.

Now from the right pane right click SQL Server and select properties. A new window will be bought up as shown below.

Now go to the FILESTREAM tab, and Select the option “Enable FILESTREAM for Transact-SQL access.

If you want to enable reading/writing FILESTREAM date from windows, then select the option “Enable FILESTREAM for file I/O streaming access” and provide the window share name.

If you want to enable remote client access for FILESTREAM data, then enable the 3rd option and hit “Apply”.

Another way to enable the option is through T-SQL query. Open SQL Server Management Studio. Open new query window and execute the following query.

USE master
Go
EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options'
GO
--0 means FILESTREAM is disabled
--1 means FILESTREAM is enabled for this instance
--2 means FILESTREAM is enabled with window streaming
EXEC sp_configure filestream_access_level, 1
GO
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE
GO

Another way is using SQL Server Management Studio. Open SQL Server Management Studio. From the object explorer, select the server and right click.

Click on the properties menu item

There from the Advanced property, you can see FileStream Access Level. Set the level you want and click OK.

Another way to enable this feature is during the installation of SQL Server 2008. If you have referred to my post related to SQL Server 2008 installation over here. You can find how to do that.

Now we are done with enabling FILESTREAM on our database server.

On my next post I will describe, how to create a FILESTREAM database and tables fields.

Hope you have nice reading. For more queries and information ping me.

Using XPath in C#

2009-11-03T04:17:00.001-08:00

In this blog I am going to give an overview of how we can easily parse and get the data from an XML file. For demonstrating, I have created a sample XML file listed below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Employees>
  <Employee>
    <Name>Amal</Name>
    <Age>26</Age>
    <Address>333 Indiana Street</Address>
  </Employee>
  <Employee>
    <Name>Munna</Name>
    <Age>20</Age>
    <Address>222 West Region</Address>
  </Employee>
</Employees>

Add the following namespace in your application

using System.Xml.XPath;

Now we can open the XPathDocument object as follows

XPathDocument Doc = new XPathDocument("emp.xml");

Once this is done, we need a XPathNavigator

XPathNavigator navigator = Doc.CreateNavigator();

Using this navigator object, we can traverse through the document. We can provide XPath expressions as shown below

XPathNodeIterator iterator = navigator.Select("/Employees");
while (iterator.MoveNext())
{
     Console.WriteLine(iterator.Current.Name);
     Console.WriteLine(iterator.Current.Value);
}

Try changing the XPath expression as demonstrated below.

iterator = navigator.Select("/Employees/Employee");

iterator = navigator.Select("/Employees/Employee[Age>22]");

iterator = navigator.Select("/Employees/Employee[Age>22]/Name");

Hope this helps :-)

SQL Server 2008 Installation

2009-11-03T02:37:00.001-08:00

Start the SQL Server 2008 installation by clicking the following icon

This will bring up the following screen

From right pane, click on “Installation link”. You will get the following screen.

From the left pane, click on the link “New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation”. The 1st action performed by the installer is checking the setup support rules.

You can get a detailed report, by following the link “View detailed report”. Click OK.

Now we need to specify, which version we are going to install. If you have purchased SQL Server 2008 then enter the product key. Click Next.

Accept the agreement and Click Next.

Hit Install.

For detailed report, follow the link “View detailed Report”. Click Next.

Select the features you want to install and Click Next.

Select the instance name and Path. Click Next.

From the screen we can understand that the minimum disk space we need in C drive is 2040. Click Next.

In this screen we can specify on which account each of the SQL services should run. Click Next.

Specify the Authentication Mode. If you want to add the Current User in the SQL Administrators list, then Click Add Current User. You can enable the FILESTREAM feature by opening the FILESTREAM tab.

Once you are done, Click Next.

Provision the accounts that require have admin privileges. Click Next.

In this screen, we must specify how the Reporting Server must be configures. The available options are “Native Mode”, “Sharepoint Integrated Mode”. If you want to access the data from sharepoint lists, then select Sharpoint integrated mode. Else Native mode will be fine. Click Next.

Click Next.

Click Install.

Installation Completed. Click Next.

Sharepoint and Silverlight - 1

2009-11-02T22:49:00.001-08:00

As part of setting up the environment we must be careful to do the following points

Point #1

Changing the MIME type in IIS to support Silverlight application. This can be done as follows

1. Open run window from Start Menu

2. Enter inetmgr and click OK

3. This will bring up the Internet Information Services Manager. From the folder structure on the left side, select the site which is your Sharepoint application.

4. Now from the right pane select "Mime Types" and "Open Feature"

5. In Mime Type View, Click Add, add the file extension, and type .xap as the file extension and "application/x-silverlight-2" as the Mime type.

Point #2

In the web.config of your Sharepoint application, add the required configurations.

Point #3

Make sure the System.Web.Silverlight.dll is in the GAC

Installing Sharepoint Extensions for VS 2008 in XP/Vista

2009-11-02T22:48:00.003-08:00

The extensions installer can be downloaded from the following location

Download

Once you have downloaded. You need to modify the registry, for doing that follow the below steps

1. Open run window from Start Menu

2. Enter Regedit and Click OK

3. Open the following location

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\

Now create a new Key named “12.0”

Under 12.0 create a new String “Sharepoint” and give the value “Installed”

4. Now run the installer you have downloaded from the link above.

Sharepoint Top-Level Object Model

2009-11-02T22:48:00.001-08:00

Building and Deploying a Web Part

2009-11-02T22:46:00.000-08:00

In this article am going to explain how we can develop a simple web part and deploy it in Sharepoint.

There are two way we can build a web part.

1. Using Sharepoint extensions for Visual studio.
2. Developing a Class library and manually deploying it in Sharepoint.

Sharepoint extensions for visual studio can be downloaded from the following location

Download

Once you have installed the extension, from Visual Studio->File->New Project->Share Point->Web Part

This will provide a template with all setting ready for building a web part. Once you have done with the web part, you can deploy it directly from Visual Studio. For doing that open the properties dialog by right click the project from solution explorer, go to the debug tab and enter the sharepoint web application URL and save the settings. You can use the same right click context menu for deploying the web part directly to sharepoint server by clicking the deploy menu item.

Manual development and deployment steps

From visual studio File->New Project->C#->Class Library

Right click and Add Reference of System.Web

Rename Class.cs to NewWebPart.cs

Open NewWebPart.cs and add the following code

Right click project->Properties->Signing, and sign the assembly with a key

Now build the project

Open visual studio command prompt and use the following command

Open your sharepoint web application's web.config file and add the following entry

Open Site Setting from Site Actions menu

Click on Web Parts

Click New

SQL Server 2008 Installation Pre-Requisites

2009-11-02T21:36:00.001-08:00

In this blog series, I am going to explain in details about how we can install SQL Server 2008 dev edition on a windows XP box.

My current configuration is

Windows XP SP3
Visual Studio 2008 (No service pack installed)
.Net Framework 3.5 SP1

Once I started installing SQL Server 2008 on my dev box, I started complaining that it need the KB(KB942288-v2) to be installed.

This KB installer is a hot fix for Windows installer. I clicked Ok and an installer window comes up, and installed that hot fix. Once this hot fix is installed, we needs to reboot our machine.

Once the system reboots, execute the SQL 2008 installer. This will bring up the following screen.

In this screen if you notice, there is an option called “System Configuration Checker”. Click on that link, which will bring up a utility that can scan and show the components which has passed/failed as shown below.

Now, we are ready to start our SQL Server 2008 installation :-)

Using Sharepoint List Webservice

2009-10-31T00:52:00.000-07:00

Sharepoint exposes some really useful webservices. One among the most useful is the List Webservices.

We can take the webreference from the following location

http://mossserver/_vti_bin/lists.asmx

Once we have added the webservice, we can use following generic method to call webservice

XmlNode CallWebService(bool isRecursive, ListsService listService,
string listName, string queryObj, string viewID, string viewFieldsInnerXml)
{
  try
  {
      NetworkCredential credential = new NetworkCredential();
      credential.UserName = "UserName";
      credential.Password = "Password";
      credential.Domain = "Domain";
      listService.Credentials = credential;

      // Instantiate an XmlDocument object
      System.Xml.XmlDocument xmlDoc = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();
   
      string viewName = string.Empty;
      if (string.Empty != viewID)
      {
          viewName = viewID;
      }
      string rowLimit = "150";

      System.Xml.XmlElement query = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Query");
      System.Xml.XmlElement viewFields = xmlDoc.CreateElement("ViewFields");
      System.Xml.XmlElement queryOptions = xmlDoc.CreateElement("QueryOptions");

      if (isRecursive)
          queryOptions.InnerXml = "<ViewAttributes Scope=\"Recursive\" />";
      else
          queryOptions.InnerXml = "";

      if (string.Empty == queryObj)
      {
          query.InnerXml = "<Where><Gt><FieldRef Name=\"ID\" />" +
                              "<Value Type=\"Counter\">0</Value></Gt></Where>";
      }
      else
      {
          query.InnerXml = queryObj;
      }

      // Assign View fields
      if (string.Empty != viewFieldsInnerXml)
      {
          viewFields.InnerXml = viewFieldsInnerXml;
      }
      else
      {
          viewFields.InnerXml = "<FieldRef Name=\"Title\" />";
      }
      System.Xml.XmlNode nodeListItems =
          listService.GetListItems(listName, viewName, query,
viewFields, rowLimit, queryOptions, null);

      return nodeListItems;
  }
  catch (Exception ex)
  {
      throw ex;
  }
}

You can use this generic method for getting the list items.

Pass true to “IsRecursive” if you want to get items inside folder.

Example:

string fields = "<FieldRef Name=\"FieldName1\" />
<FieldRef Name=\"FieldName2\" />";
XmlNode nodeListItems = CallWebService(true, l, "Answer Choices",
string.Empty, string.Empty, fields);

foreach (System.Xml.XmlNode listItem in nodeListItems)
{
   if (listItem.ChildNodes.Count > 0)
   {
       foreach (XmlNode node in listItem.ChildNodes)
       {
           string choice = node.Attributes["ows_Title"]
.Value;               
       }
   }
}

SSRS report and Webservice as datasource

2009-10-29T00:15:00.000-07:00

One good feature i found in SSRS report is that, we can provide webservice as the datasource. We can create dataset using webservice methods.

For creating a dataset using webservice, do the following steps.

Create a new Datasource

From solution explorer, right click "Shared Data Sources".
Click on "Add new Datasource".
In the new window, provide a name for the new datasource.
Select type as "Xml".
In connection string, provide the path of wsdl. Ex: http://localhost/Service1.asmx?wsdl
Hit Ok.

Create a new Dataset

Select the Data tab.
From the Dataset dropdown, select "New Dataset".
In the Dataset window, Select the dataset we have created.
Select Text as command.
Use the following query

<Query>
<Method Namespace="http://tempuri.org/" Name="MethodName">
<Parameters>
<Parameter Name="parameter1">
<DefaultValue>1 </DefaultValue>
</Parameter>
</Parameters>
</Method>
<SoapAction>http://tempuri.org/MethodName </SoapAction>
</Query>

MethodName is the method you want to invoke in the webservice.
parameter1 is the name of the parameter the webservice method is expecting. You need to create a Report Parameter. And in the "Create New Datset" window, open the Parameter tab and add that parameter.

Now in the query window, execute the query by clicking the "Red Exclamation Icon".

Done!!!

For queries and suggestions, please feel free to ping me.

Report Viewer control and Local Reports

2009-10-29T00:09:00.001-07:00

There will be cases in which we need to load a local report on ReportViewer control. The below code will help to do the same.

//Declare ReportViewer object

public Microsoft.Reporting.WebForms.ReportViewer reportViewer1;

reportViewer1.ProcessingMode = ProcessingMode.Local;
reportViewer1.LocalReport.ReportPath = path;
reportViewer1.LocalReport.
ExecuteReportInCurrentAppDomain(
System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().
Evidence);

// The application is responsible for collecting
// parameters
ReportParameterInfoCollection parameterInfo =
reportViewer1.LocalReport.GetParameters();
if (parameterInfo.Count > 0)
{
List<ReportParameter> param = new List<ReportParameter>();
ReportParameter yearParam = new ReportParameter("Year", “2009”);
param.Add(yearParam);
// Add report data sources

ReportDataSource rds = new ReportDataSource("ds", dataSourceObject);
reportViewer1.LocalReport.DataSources.Add(rds);
// Add report parameters
reportViewer1.LocalReport.SetParameters(param);
}

reportViewer1.LocalReport.Refresh();

Hope this helps :)

If you have any query, please feel free to ping me.

Sharepoint Calculated Field - Week Number

2009-10-28T23:50:00.000-07:00

The following formula will help us to find the week number for a date value.

=INT(([Date]-DATE(YEAR([Date]),1,1)+(TEXT(WEEKDAY(DATE(YEAR([Date]),1,1)),"d")))/7)+1

Hope this helps :)

Integrating SSRS + Sharepoint + Report Viewer

2009-10-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

Scenario:

We need to display a report based on the data spread across multiple list. In such a case we won't be able to use either List View or Data View. One easier way to solve this problem is to create a custom webservice which will basically call the List Web Services provided by Sharepoint, create the dataset and return it back to the SSRS report.

One problem which we will face is while the deployment in production server. What we can do is in the report viewer control, lets take the rdl file from local instead of server. We can keep the rdl file in sharepoint list only. Thus the rdl file will be secure and can be replaced only by administrators. One drawback of the approach is that, the rdl file will not be available in the Sql Reporting Server. But compared to the ease of deployment, I think we can live with this :)

Sharepoint List View - Calculated Columns

2009-10-14T06:32:00.001-07:00

In some scenarios, while creating views we might need to filter based on complex queries. In List View, filters are available but they are not powerful. For example, if we want to group the condition based on And and or, that feature is not available.

One workaround for this problem is to add a calculated column in the list and the result of the calculation will say whether that row should be placed in the view or not.

Example query will be as follows:

IF(AND(OR([Col1]="Some Value", [Col2]="Some Value"), AND([Col3]="Some Value", [Col4]="Some Value")), "Show Row", "Dont Show")

SSRS - Creating reports with specific rows per page

2009-10-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

In layout tab, select the table and open the properties windows by right clicking and selecting properties. From the properties windows move to the Groups tab. Click Add and enter the following expression

=Ceiling(RowNumber(Nothing)/20)

Replace 20 with the required number of rows per page. Select "Page Break at Start" and uncheck "Page break at Start". If you want the header and footer to be appear on each page then select those options.

Hope this helps :-)

Login to FTP Server

2009-09-15T10:52:00.001-07:00

In this post I am going to put a piece of code I have written for my friend. The requirement was to validate the given username and password are valid for the specified FTP server.

static bool CheckFTPLogin(String ftpServer, uint ftpPort, String userName, String password)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(ftpServer) ||
String.IsNullOrEmpty(userName) ||
String.IsNullOrEmpty(password))
return false;

using (TcpClient client = new TcpClient())
{
try
{
client.Connect(ftpServer, Convert.ToInt32(ftpPort));
NetworkStream nStream = client.GetStream();
StreamReader myReader = new StreamReader(nStream);
StreamWriter myWriter = new StreamWriter(nStream);

string retValue = myReader.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine(retValue);
if (retValue.EndsWith("ready.") && retValue.StartsWith("220"))
{
myWriter.WriteLine(string.Format("USER {0}", userName));
myWriter.Flush();
retValue = myReader.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine(retValue);
if (retValue.StartsWith("331"))
{
myWriter.WriteLine(string.Format("PASS {0}", password));
myWriter.Flush();
retValue = myReader.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine(retValue);
if (retValue.StartsWith("230"))
{
///Login Success
myReader.Close();
myWriter.Close();
return true;
}
}
else
{
///Login Error.
myReader.Close();
myWriter.Close();
return false;
}
}
else
{
///FTP Connection error.
myReader.Close();
myWriter.Close();
return false;
}
return false;
}
catch
{
///FTP Connection Error
return false;
}
}
}

CheckFTPLogin is a generic method which will return a boolean value true if and only if the username and password are valid credentials in the given ftpServer.

Check a URL exist or not using C#

2009-08-27T00:13:00.001-07:00

static bool CheckURL(String url)
{
if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(url))
return false;

WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(url);

try
{
HttpWebResponse res = request.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;

if (res.StatusDescription == "OK")
return true;
}
catch
{
}

return false;
}

Creating a zip file using C#

2009-08-27T00:12:00.000-07:00

Using the System.IO.Compression namespace in Codeplex a classlibrary project is going on name DotNetZip

The class library has a ZipFile class. Using this, you can create zip files using the below code

ZipFile zip= new ZipFile("MyNewZip.zip");

zip.AddDirectory("My Pictures", true); // AddDirectory recurses subdirectories

zip.Save();