阿俊戰記 - IT

Viewing detailed Workflow history list (Hidden List)

2010-02-25T16:27:00.001+08:00

Overview

When writing MOSS 2007 Workflow, you can log events (e.g. Log exceptions detail for debugging) to workflow history, which can be view in the task item page.

However, the task item page only shows simplified version of workflow history item. To view detailed workflow history list. You will have to enter the URL of the hidden list, in the format shown below:
http://[servername]/[sitename]/lists/Workflow%20History

For example if your site’s default page is:

http://servername/sites/sitename/default.aspx

then the detailed workflow history list URL will be:

http://servername/sites/sitename/lists/Workflow%20History

Getting selected RadioButton value

2010-02-03T18:05:00.001+08:00

Overview

Stephen Gray has a post about getting selected RadioButton value in Flex. It points out the use of RadioButtonGroup.

Reference

Flex getting selected RadioButton value

Steps

Source from Stephen Gray’s blog post:

Create a “RadioButtonGroup” MXML tag and give a id to it.

Assign the RadioButtons’ “groupName” attribute to point to the RadioButtonGroup at step 1 (remember to use “{}”)

         <mx:RadioButtonGroup id="myRadioButtonGroup" enabled="true" />

        <mx:RadioButton label="I like RadioButtons" groupName="{myRadioButtonGroup}" left="505" top="64" selected="true" value="true"/>

        <mx:RadioButton label="I don't like RadioButtons" groupName="{myRadioButtonGroup}" left="348" top="62" value="false"/>

Access the selected value by the RadioButtonGroup

        Alert.show(myRadioButtonGroup.selectedValue.toString());

PHP crash with some MySql functions

2009-10-09T23:58:00.000+08:00

Overview

I has been playing with a WAMP web site using Joomla 1.5 as the CMS. Actually I am just doing the setup when I encounter this issue. When I reached the “Database Configuration” step in Joomla installation, Apache keeps crashing when I proceeded, and the Event Log said that:

Faulting application httpd.exe, version 2.2.11.0, faulting module > php5ts.dll, version 5.2.10.10, fault address 0x0000ac6a.

Again, with some Googling I found that I am not alone and there are several solutions for this issue, which is caused by wrong "libMySql.dll" module used.

Both MySQL and PHP provides the "libMySql.dll" module. When using PHP, we should use the "libMySql.dll" module provided by PHP, but not MySQL.

Reference

PHP Installation, MySQL

php使用MySql函数导致Apache(iis)崩溃的问题

PHP Crash when use some mysql function

Steps

There are several ways to solve this problem, I use the first method:

Rename the "libMySql.dll" file located at your MySQL “<InstallDir>/bin” folder
Remove your MySQL “<InstallDir>/bin” folder path from the system’s path environment variable
Copy the "libMySql.dll" file from your PHP install folder to “%SystemRoot%/system32” folder

Unlock files used by processes

2009-10-07T10:51:00.001+08:00

Overview

I think most of the Windows users have seen the screen saying that “Cannot delete XXX: It is being used by another person or program”. This is quite annoying as you don’t have a clue what is actually locking the file. Now I would like to share some of the programs I used (or heard) to solve this problem.

Reference

Unlocker - http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

It is a very nice program which add a extensions to your Windows Explorer, so that you can right-click on any file/folder and select the “unlocker” option. It will shows all processes locking the file for your to decide what to do next. However the latest version (1.8.7) does not supports 64-bit OS.

LockHunter - http://lockhunter.com/

LockHunter is a similar tool to Unlocker, Windows Explorer extensions. However it works for both 32-bit and 64-bit OS, and it delete files to recycle bin.

Process Explorer - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Finding what files (handles) is used by a process is just one of the features of Process Explorer. As it actually shows much more information than the list of handles used. Because it is more powerful, it is also more complicated to use.

To use Process Explorer for unlocking files from processes, following the steps below:

Select "Find" –> "Find Handle or DLL"
Enter the full path of the file as the Handle substring, click "Search"
For each of the search results that match the file you want to delete, right-click on the handle and choose "Close Handle"
Done! However I recommend using “LockHunter” if you ONLY want to unlock files. ;-)

Single Sign-on for ASP.NET 3.5 and Legacy ASP

2009-09-16T18:30:00.001+08:00

Overview

I got a task on setting Single Sign-on (SSO) for a ASP.NET site and legacy ASP site. For this, Ting Huang has written a very nice post on wwwcoder.com. The idea behind is to create a “bare bone” API for the FormsAuthentication class (without the need of HttpContext), and wrap it in a COM object, which can be used by ASP page. However the post is regarding ASP.NET 1.1 and I am using ASP.NET 3.5, for which the FormsAuthentication class is quite different.

With some more googling I found the way to manually create the authentication ticket, encrypt it and save it to cookie. Using these technique I can make a ASP page create a authenticate cookie which can be consumed and recognized by a ASP.NET web application.

Reference

Steps

Write the “bare bone” API for the FormsAuthentication class

using System;

using System.Web.Security;

namespace SingleSignon

{

public class AuthAPI

{

public AuthAPI()

{ }

public string FormsCookieName

{

get { return FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName; }

}

public void Initialize()

{

FormsAuthentication.Initialize();

}

public string SetAuthCookie(

string userName,

bool createPersistentCookie)

{

try

{

FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(userName, createPersistentCookie);

return "success";

}

catch (Exception e)

{

return "error: " + e.Message;

}

public string GetAuthCookieValue(

string userName,

bool createPersistentCookie

)

{

try

{

FormsAuthenticationTicket newticket = new FormsAuthenticationTicket(userName, createPersistentCookie, 30);

return FormsAuthentication.Encrypt(newticket);

}

catch (Exception e)

{

return "error: " + e.StackTrace;

}

public void GetAuthTicketInfo(

string cookieValue,

out string cookiePath,

out string expireDate,

out bool expired,

out bool isPersistent,

out string issueDate,

out string userName,

out string userData,

out int version

)

{

FormsAuthenticationTicket ticket = FormsAuthentication.Decrypt(cookieValue);

cookiePath = ticket.CookiePath;

expireDate = ticket.Expiration.ToShortDateString();

expired = ticket.Expired;

isPersistent = ticket.IsPersistent;

issueDate = ticket.IssueDate.ToShortDateString();

userName = ticket.Name;

userData = ticket.UserData;

version = ticket.Version;

}

Setup web.config file for Forms Authentication

</authentication>

</authorization>

Be reminded to set the "machineKey" for the ASP.NET web application and share it with legacy ASP site.

Add “AuthAPI” assembly to Global Assembly Cache (GAC) and register it as a COM object

The legacy ASP site is going to use the AuthAPI through COM interface, so we should first register the API as a COM object. To do this, we have to:

Sign the assembly
Add the assembly to GAC. I use the “gacutil.exe” tool at
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\gacutil.exe
Register the assembly as a COM object. Use “regasm” tool at
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\regasm

Indeed you can use the "Post-build event command line" in Visual Studio to do these actions every time you rebuild the assembly. Just remember to unregister the COM object and uninstall the assembly from GAC first.

Setup/Create the “dllhost.exe.config” file for the legacy ASP site

You may wonder how the “AuthAPI” load the Forms authentication settings, does it read from the web.config file of the ASP.NET web app? No, actually it does not have any linkage to the web app. So how can we know which config file is the AuthAPI looking for? We can get the file path from “AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile”, and it turns out to be a config file at “C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllhost.exe.config”. It make sense as “dllhost.exe” is the “DCOM DLL Host Process”.

OK so we have to edit this “dllhost.exe.config” file to configure the FormsAuthentication component of “AuthAPI”. You may not see this file in “C:\WINDOWS\system32\”, so just create it and put the Forms authentication configuration in it.

Sample of “dllhost.exe.config” file

</sectionGroup>

</configSections>

<system.web>

</system.web>

</configuration>

Use “AuthAPI” in legacy ASP site to create a Cookie with valid authentication ticket

Now we have the COM object setup and configured, we can use it in our legacy ASP site. The following code shows the function of creating a authentication ticket and putting it into a Cookie. If the ASP.NET web app and the legacy ASP site share the same domain. The Cookie will be shared between them and the Single Sign-on is achieved!

     <body>

        <%          

                Set ulogin = Server.CreateObject("SingleSignon.AuthAPI")

                userName = "TestUser"

                Call ulogin.Initialize()

                response.write("FormsCookieName: " + ulogin.FormsCookieName() + "<br>")

                authCookieValue = ulogin.GetAuthCookieValue(userName, true)

                response.write("AuthCookieValue: " + authCookieValue)

                Call AddCookie ( ulogin.FormsCookieName(), "", authCookieValue, 30, "")

                set ulogin = nothing

        %>

    </body>

Disabling Time Synchronization under Virtual PC 2007

2009-09-09T18:55:00.001+08:00

Overview

VPC with Virtual Machine Additions installed will automatically synchronize its time with host. Virtual PC Guy tells us how to disable it in his post.

Reference

Disabling Time Synchronization under Virtual PC 2007

Steps

Shut down the VPC (I found that cannot use “Save state”)
Open the .VMC file with notepad and add the "components" element in it:

<integration>

<microsoft>

    <mouse>

      <allow type="boolean">true</allow>

    </mouse>

    

    <components>

      <host_time_sync>

        <enabled type="boolean">false</enabled>

      </host_time_sync>

    </components>
Save the .VMC file and restart VPC, done!

Associate XSD to XML file to enable IntelliSense

2009-09-09T16:42:00.001+08:00

Overview

We .Net developers use IntelliSense extensively in our everyone work. I am happy using IntelliSense for XML files like web.config file. Then one day I come across a XML file with schema not available out-of-the-box from VS (think about NHibernate hbm files). How can I use IntelliSense with it?

Reference

XML Schemas dialog in Visual Studio 2008

Steps

To use schema(s) for a XML file

Open a XML file in Visual Studio 2008
In menu bar, select "XML" => "Schemas…"
In the "XML Schemas" windows, select "Use this Schema" in the "Use" column next to your desired schema
Click OK, done!

The "XML Schemas" windows will search for schema files (.XSD) in your project or in folder %VS 2008 install folder%\xml\Schemas. You can also manually add schemas files using the "Add…" button

Introduction to ASP.NET Forms Authentication

2009-09-09T11:08:00.001+08:00

In ASP.NET, forms authentication means that users authenticate themselves using a Web form. This feature is provided by the HTTP module FormsAuthenticationModule. Setting up forms authentication in ASP.NET is quite simple and is presented in a post at WindowsDevCenter.com.

Reference

Steps

Enable anonymous access in IIS.

Anonymous access is enabled by default. If not, enable it manually for the web application.

Modify web.config file to allow Forms Authentication

To allow Forms Authentication, first we have to add the "authentication" element under "system.web" in web.config.

In the "authentication" element, set the "mode" attribute to “Forms” to specify Forms Authentication.
Add a "forms" element under "authentication" element to specify configuration settings for Forms Authentication
Add a "authorization" element under "authentication" element to deny all anonymous users and redirect them to login page.

Code Snippet (web.config):

<system.web>

<forms name="DEMO"

loginUrl="login.aspx"

protection="All"

timeout="30"

path="/" />

</authentication>

</authorization>

</system.web>

</configuration>

Create the login page

The login page is where denied users will be redirected to. It is referenced by "loginUrl" attribute in "forms" element. As shown by the above code snippet, our login page will be “login.aspx”.

Code Snippet (login.aspx.cs)

protected void Login_Click(Object sender, EventArgs E)

{

if ((UserName.Value == "username") &&

(UserPass.Value == "password"))

{

FormsAuthentication.RedirectFromLoginPage(UserName.Value, PersistCookie.Checked);

}

else

{

lblResults.Text = "Invalid Credentials: Please try again";

}

The above code snippet is the onClick event of the login button. When it is fired, it will:

Validate the user credentials entered. In this case the validation logic is completely provided by us and only allow one user to login.
If the user is valid, FormsAuthentication.RedirectFromLoginPage() is called to authenticate the user and redirect back to the page he/she wants to visit.
Else a warning message is shown.

Configure user credentials in web.config

Usually we will store the user credentials in a Database. However for easy implementation (or for testing purpose) we can also set user credentials in web.config file.

By adding "credentials" element under "forms" element, we can add user credentials in username/password pair format.

<forms>

</credentials>

</forms>

Then we can use FormsAuthentication.Authenticate() method to validate user credentials against those stored in web.config.

ASP.NET MVC - Get Started

2009-09-03T17:36:00.001+08:00

Overview

I just started learning ASP.NET MVC, and would like to list some learning materials links here.

Reference

Official ASP.NET MVC Tutorials - http://www.asp.net/learn/mvc/

Download "Microsoft Web Platform Installer" to get ASP.NET MVC - http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx

NerdDinner at CodePlex - http://nerddinner.codeplex.com/

NerdDinner Site - http://www.nerddinner.com/

Installing Driver for Legacy Network Adapter on Win2k3 x64 VPC (Hyper-V)

2009-07-22T16:45:00.001+08:00

Overview

I installed a 64-bit Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise SP2 on one of my Hyper-V VPC, and add a Legacy Network Adaptor to it. However the network adapter is not automatically installed in the x64 win 2k3 because its driver is not available.

With some Googling I found that 64-bit version of win 2k3 and xp are not supported with corresponding Legacy Network Adaptor driver. Someone suggested a workaround by using the equivalent Vista driver (both x86 and x64).

So I go the driver files from a machine running on x86 Vista and tried it. But the driver installation terminated with Error: "Driver not intended for this platform".

Suspecting this maybe due to the x86/x64 difference, I got another set of driver files from a x64 Windows Server 2008. This time the driver installation ran smoothly and the Network Adaptor works well!

Directory containing Legacy Network Adaptor driver:

Vista:
%windir%\system32\driverstore\FileRepository\dc21x4vm.inf_7d8c6569

Windows Server 2008:
%windir%\system32\driverstore\FileRepository\dc21x4vm.inf_e14caac7

Reference

Windows XP x64 in Hyper-V - Network Drivers

ASP.NET User Control - Part 1

2009-07-20T18:20:00.001+08:00

Overview

User Control is quite useful in creating a customized control which can be reused throughout pages. Instead of creating a custom server control, developers can create user control which (in my opinion) is easier to create and modify the control layout.

In this part, I will talk about how to create a user control and include it in an .aspx page.

Reference

ASP.NET User Controls Overview

How to: Include a User Control in an ASP.NET Web Page

Steps

Create a User Control

Creating a user control is very simple with few steps:

You need to have a Web Application Project
In Solution Explorer, right-click on the project's name (or a folder), select "Add" => "New Item..."
Select "Web User Control" under "Web" category, give the control a name and click "Add"
Done!

The newly created user control consists of a .ascx (not .aspx) page and a code behind file (just ignore the designer file). The .ascx page currently contains nothing but a "@ Control" directive.

User control .ascx page is very much like a snippet of an .aspx page, you can modify the layout of the user control by adding HTML tags or ASP.NET controls in it just like what you do to .aspx page. Below is the code of a very simple .ascx page:

<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="TestUserControl.ascx.cs" Inherits="MyTestWeb.Web.Controls.TestUserControl" %>

<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text="Label"></asp:Label><br />

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox><br />

<asp:Button ID="BtnSubmit" runat="server" Text="Submit" />

Include a User Control in an .aspx page

After a User Control is created, it can be used by any .aspx page within the same Web Application by including the control into the page.

To Include a User Control, we have to do 2 things:

Create a "@ Register" directive which specify the "TagPrefix", "TagName" and "Src" (Source file) of the User Control.
Declare the User Control with tag "<TagPrefix:TagName />" just like any other ASP.NET control (the difference is ASP.NET Control start with TagPrefix "asp")

Below shows the code of a simple .aspx page including the User Control we just created.

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Pages/Global.Master" AutoEventWireup="true"

CodeBehind="TestPageWithMaster.aspx.cs" Inherits="MyTestWeb.Web.Pages.TestPageWithMaster"

Title="Untitled Page" %>

<%-- "@ Register" directive --%>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="uc" TagName="TestUserControl" Src="~/Controls/TestUserControl.ascx" %>

<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="head" runat="server">

</asp:Content>

<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">

<%-- User Control declaration --%>

<uc:TestUserControl ID="TestUserControl1" runat="server" />

</form>

</asp:Content>

Client side validation skipped if submit Button have "onClientClick" JavaScript function

2009-07-08T16:27:00.001+08:00

Overview

I have a form using ASP.NET validation controls, I have been using these ASP.NET validators for quite a time and they behaved well. However the problem come when I added a "onClientClick" event handler to the form submit button, and then the validation is just skipped and the form post back every time.

The problem is that the "onClientClick" event get fired before the validation so the validation is skipped. To solve this, we can use the JavaScript function "Page_ClientValidate()" to trigger the client side validation.

Reference

asp:Button Validation with OnClientClick javascript - Not Validating

ASP.NET Validation in Depth

Code Snippet

You can tell "Page_ClientValidate()" to only validate controls of a particular validation group by passing the validation group name as parameter.

function BtnSubmitButton_click()

{

if (Page_ClientValidate("ValidationGroup"))

{

return confirm("Submit this form?");

}

return false;

}

Moved files cannot inherit destination folder's permission, but copied files can.

2009-05-29T10:26:00.001+08:00

Overview

When I want to share a file with others in the same network, I move the file to my shared folder. However, sometimes I receive complains from my colleagues saying that they don't have permission to read the shared files.

At the end, I found that a copied file can inherit the permission of the destination folder, but a moved file cannot. I think that it is because the copy action create a new file while the move action (within same volume) only change the hosting folder of the original file.

With some googling, I found that this behaviors is documented by Microsoft. The article also provide a way to change this behavior by modifying registry.

Reference

How permissions are handled when you copy and move files and folders

Step

Let moved files inherit destination folder's permission like copied files

Run "regedit" (Fire up Registry Editor)
Go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer"
Add a "DWORD" value with name "MoveSecurityAttributes" and Value "0"

Using mdev of busybox

2009-05-19T12:08:00.001+08:00

Overview

mdev is a device manager like udev, actually it is a "mini udev". mdev is very useful in embedded system as it is included in newer version of busybox. mdev can also shorten boot up time significantly compared to udev. This can be vital to some embedded system.

Below shows a sample startup script for mdev.

Reference

mdev – mini udev in busybox

mdev的使用方法和原理。

Code Snippet

Here is the startup script I used:

#!/bin/sh

echo "Mounting sysfs"
mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys

echo "Mounting /dev"
mount -t tmpfs mdev /dev

echo "Creating /dev/pts"
mkdir /dev/pts

echo "Mounting pts"
mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts

echo "Echoing hotplug"
echo /sbin/mdev > /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug

echo "mdev -s"
mdev -s

Create Private Network for VPCs with Microsoft Loopback Adaptor

2009-05-17T12:03:00.002+08:00

Overview

If you want to add your VPCs into a network so that they (and your host machine) can access other via TCP/IP, what will you do? You can assign your physical network adaptor to VPCs so that they will be on the same network as your host machine, but first you need a DHCP server, and all your VPCs will be exposed to external.

Indeed you can use "Microsoft Loopback Adaptor" to add a virtual network adaptor to your host computer. Then you can assign the Loopback Adaptor to your VPCs to form a Private Virtual Network, so that each VPC can communicate with each other and host machine, but not accessible by external computers.

Reference

Install Microsoft Loopback Adapter

Using Microsoft Loopback Adapter

Virtual PC IP Routing: enabling VPC NAT & loopback connector at the same time

Step

To Install Microsoft Loopback Adaptor

Adding Microsoft Loopback Adaptor is like adding a new hardware in Windows. This part is copied from Reference 1.

In the host operating system, right-click My Computer, and then select Properties. Depending on the style of the start menu, My Computer may be located in the Start menu.
In the System Properties dialog box, on the Hardware tab, click Add Hardware Wizard.
In the Add Hardware dialog box, click Next.
When the Is the hardware connected? dialog box appears, click Yes, I have already connected the hardware, and then click Next.
In the Installed hardware list, click Add a new hardware device, and then click Next.
In the What do you want the wizard to do? list, click Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced), and then click Next.
In the Common hardware types list, click Network adapters, and then click Next.
In the Manufacturer list, click Microsoft.
In the Network Adapter list, click Microsoft Loopback Adapter, and then click Next twice.
If a message about driver signing appears, click Continue Anyway.
In the Completing the Add Hardware Wizard dialog box, click Finish, and then click OK.

To assign Loopback Adaptor and corresponding IP to each VPC

After you installed the Loopback Adaptor, you should see a new network connection in "Network Connections" screen of the host computer. Right-click on the Loopback Adapator network connection and select "Properties". In the "Microsoft Loopback Adapter Properties" dialog box, verify that the "Virtual Machine Network services" check box is selected. Now the VPCs can be assigned this adaptor in VIrtual PC settings.

Start Virtual PC 2007.
Right-click on your target VPC and click "Settings".
In the "Settings" dialog box, select "Networking" in the "Settings" list, then select "Microsoft Loopback Adaptor" for the network adaptor. (I would suggest assigning the second network adaptor to Loopback Adaptor as we want to reserve the first one for "Shared networking NAT")
For assigning IP, just treat it like other physical network and set the appropriate IP and netmask. Leave the Default gatway blank for the Virtual network

Configure firewall and test the network

At this point each VPCs should be able to "see" and ping others and the host. However the firewall settings on them may block the connection. You can disable windows firewall for the Loopback Adaptor to solve this problem:

On your host computer, go to "Windows Firewall"
Select "Advanced"
Uncheck the network connection (in this case, the "VPC Virtual Network") that you don't want firewall to monitor.
Click "OK".
Repeat 1~4 on every VPCs.

Writing, Starting and Stopping Linux daemon (w/ start-stop-daemon)

2009-04-07T11:43:00.001+08:00

Overview

The first page written by Devin Watson shows a tutorial on how-to write a daemon (with an example). The second one at Tony's Cafe shows how to write scripts for Debian Linux to run the daemon. The last one is the Manpage of "start-stop-daemon" program.

Reference

Linux Daemon Writing HOWTO

Creating a Daemon in Debian Linux

Manpage of START-STOP-DAEMON

U-Boot related documentation

2009-04-07T11:35:00.001+08:00

Overview

I have been fighting with embedded Linux system for the past two months, here is what I found when the card crash and I have to flash the Kernel.

Reference

U-Boot bootloader Wiki (Gumstix)

U-Boot Environment Variables

Some JavaScript / AJAX Resources

2009-04-07T11:28:00.001+08:00

Overview

Including Script.aculo.us and others scripts.

Reference

20 Top Script.aculo.us Scripts you can’t live without

80 AJAX solutions that are excellent and useful

70 New, Useful AJAX And JavaScript Techniques

Concurrent remote desktop sessions in Windows XP sp3

2009-04-07T11:12:00.001+08:00

Overview

This is a hack for allowing concurrent remote desktop sessions in Windows XP sp3

Reference

Concurrent Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP SP2

Enabling Concurrent Remote Desktop Sessions on Windows XP SP3 - Patched file included

Cannot view the contents of a (.chm) file

2009-02-14T21:37:00.001+08:00

Overview

I just get an e-book and find that all of the pages are dead. With some searching I find that the file is blocked by windows.

The solution is to unlock the .chm file. To do this:

Right-click on the .chm file, select "Properties"
Click "unlock"
Done!

Reference

解决打开CHM格式文件出现“网页不能浏览”错误的方法

You cannot open HTML Help files....

Add a select / deselect all checkbox to an ASP.NET checkbox list control

2009-02-05T17:04:00.001+08:00

Overview

The code below demonstrate how to use JavaScript to get all the checkbox elements of a particular checkbox list, and then check / unchecked them base on the status of another checkbox (the sender).

This technique is also useful when you want to do other operation (e.g. ensure single selection) to all checkboxes of a checkbox list.

Reference

Check/Uncheck all items in a CheckBoxList using ASP.NET and Javascript

Code Snippet

This code is directly copied from Check/Uncheck all items in a CheckBoxList using ASP.NET and Javascript

function CheckBoxListSelect(cbControl, state)

{

var chkBoxList = document.getElementById(cbControl);

var chkBoxCount= chkBoxList.getElementsByTagName("input");

for(var i=0;i<chkBoxCount.length;i++)

{

chkBoxCount[i].checked = state;

}

return false;

}

Multi-line Text boxes (Text area) behave incorrectly with Default Button in Firefox

2009-02-03T12:09:00.001+08:00

Overview

I open form with a default button and a Multi-line ASP.NET text box (text area) in Firefox 3. When I hit "Enter" key in the text area, I expect the text area to start a new line. However, the default button is triggered.

Reference

Multiline Textboxes and DefaultButton in Firefox

Restrict date range in Calendar

2009-01-21T12:23:00.001+08:00

Overview

By default, Calendar control won't allow you to restrict the selectable date range. However, we can achieve this by doing two things:

Restrict user from navigating to a month outside the range
Restrict user from selecting a day outside the range

Reference

Visual Studio .NET - restrict date range in Calendar - eggheadcafe

Disable calendar day select link - eggheadcafe

Steps

Restrict user from navigating to a month outside the range

To achieve this, we can set the "NextMonthText" and "PrevMonthText" fields of the Calendar control to hide the link navigating to next or previous month.

Code Snippet:

protected void Cal_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (Cal.VisibleDate.Year > 2009 || (Cal.VisibleDate.Year == 2009 && Cal.VisibleDate.Month >= 12))

{

Cal.NextMonthText = string.Empty;

}

else

{

Cal.NextMonthText = ">";

}

if (Cal.VisibleDate.Year < 2000 || (Cal.VisibleDate.Year == 2000 && Cal.VisibleDate.Month <= 1))

{

Cal.PrevMonthText = string.Empty;

}

else

{

Cal.PrevMonthText = "<";

}

Restrict user from selecting a day outside the range

This can be achieved by controlling the "IsSelectable" field in the "onDayRender" event handler of the Calendar.

Code Snippet:

protected void Cal_DayRender(object sender, DayRenderEventArgs e)

{

if (e.Day.Date.Year == 2009)

{

e.Day.IsSelectable = false;

}

ListView Control vs Repeater Control

2009-01-21T11:55:00.001+08:00

Overview

Repeater control is one of my favorite ASP.NET controls because of its flexibility in UI design. However it lack some useful functions like "Sorting", "Paging" & "Data modification".

Now in ASP.NET 3.5 we have a ListView control which seems to do all of the Repeater's jobs and more. Below are some article talking about ListView control.

Reference

The asp:ListView control (Part 1) - Scott Guthrie

The ListView Dominates The Repeater - SingingEels

ListView Web Server Control Overview - MSDN

Understanding ASP.NET Page Life Cycle and TRULY understanding ViewState

2008-12-11T16:22:00.001+08:00

Overview

I once thought that writing an ASP.NET page is like writing a Form in a Desktop Application, all I have to take care are just about event handlers likes "Page_Load", "Button_Click". There is no concept of persisting states in page or controls in my mind ( I am just a Noob...)

Actually I have heard of "ViewState" and used it a few times, but without understanding what a creature it is. It was until I accidentally found that one of my pages had a ViewState of 10+ KB, that I started learning about ViewState.

In order to understand ViewState, one must first have an understanding of ASP.NET Page Life Cycle. Besides, there are two excellent posts by Dave Reed and Milan Negovan that will make you TRULY Understand ViewState.

Reference

ASP.NET Page Life Cycle Overview - MSDN
TRULY Understanding ViewState - Dave Reed
ASP.NET State Management: ViewState - Milan Negovan
Understanding ASP.NET View State - MSDN

Using custom workflow for SharePoint page approval (web content management)

2008-12-11T15:26:00.001+08:00

Overview

SharePoint provides a out-of-the-box mechanism for Web Content Management (WCM) in document library (for example: a page author must seek web master approval before his page can be viewed by publish). But sometimes we may want to use our custom workflow for the approval process, and indeed it is possible to do so with SharePoint "workflow settings".

Reference

Terminal Service Gateway in Windows Server 2008

2008-12-11T15:19:00.001+08:00

Overview

Terminal Service & Remote Desktop allow you to access your computer/server virtually anywhere with Internet access. They are very useful and commonly used. However, there is no way to pre-authenticate client or have centralized Authorization Policy settings. Now, with Windows Server 2008 Terminal Service Gateway, we can make use of all this features.

Reference

Configuring the Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services Gateway (Part 1)

Dmitrii blog: Windows Terminal Services Gateway

Steps (Outline only, refer to reference links for Detailed Steps)

Setup the TS Gateway Server

On a server with Windows Server 2008 installed
Add "Terminal Services" role, select "TS Gateway" as Role services
Create a Certificate for SSL connection (Common name must be pointing to the TS Gateway Server IP)
At "TS Gateway Manager", configure the following:
- Install the Cert created at Step 2 to the TS Gateway Server
- Configure the "Connection Authorization Policies (CAP)"
- Configure the "Resource Authorization Policies (RAP)"

Connect to Remote Desktop/Terminal Services thru TS Gateway

For Windows XP / Windows Server 2003 (Not needed for Vista)
- Download and Install "Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 Terminal Services Client" by this Link
Open "Remote Desktop Connection", click "Options >>"
Go to "Advanced" Tab, "Settings"
Select "Use these TS Gateway server settings" and input the Server name (Common name of the SSL Certificate) and Logon method.
Press "OK" to exit and enter the IP of the computer you want to connect. Beware that the IP here is for the TS Gateway, so it should be IP within the TS Gateway's local network.
Click "Connect" to start the connection.

Add validation function to ASP.NET AJAX Tab control

2008-12-03T19:19:00.001+08:00

Overview

In my previous post, I talked about how to make AJAX Tab control panel to load on-demand. Now I would like to extend that sample and implement validation function to each tab, so that user cannot change tab if the information they enter is not valid.

I am going to use the out-of-the-box ASP.NET Validator to do the validation, as they provide many useful client-side properties and methods:

Page_IsValid - By MSDN it indicates whether the page is currently valid and it is kept up to date at ALL TIMES. it is not very true though... because it need time to update.
Page_Validators - An array containing all of the validators on page.
Page_ValidationActive - Indicates whether validation should take place, can be turned off at run time.
ValidatorValidate(val) - Takes a validator as input and make the validator start validation on its target.
isvalid - Very useful property of a validator, it shows that whether a particular validator's state is valid.

For other properties or functions related to validators, please refer to Reference section.

Reference

ASP.NET Validation in Depth

Validator Control Samples

Steps

Modify the AJAX Tab Container in previous example

I will build on the example code in my previous post, here is the modified Tab Container (For "TabPanel1" only):

Code Snippet:

<ajaxToolKit:TabPanel runat="server" ID="TabPanel1">

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server" />

<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator1" runat="server" ControlToValidate="TextBox1" ErrorMessage="Please enter something!" />

</ContentTemplate>

</ajaxToolKit:TabPanel>

The only thing that I've added is the "RequiredFieldValidator", which will ensure that "TextBox1" has something entered, otherwise displaying the error message "Please enter something!"

Modify the Javascript function "ActiveTabChanged()"

Next and the final thing to do is to modify the "ActiveTabChanged()" function to do validation on Tab changed and return to previous Tab if the input is invalid.

Code Snippet:

var preActiveTabIndex = 0;

function ActiveTabChanged(sender, e)

{

if (sender.get_activeTabIndex() != preActiveTabIndex) // This line is important, otherwise: Infinite Loop!!!

{

var valid = true;

// Validate current tab before switching tab

switch(preActiveTabIndex)

{

case 0:

ValidatorValidate($get('<%=RequiredFieldValidator1.ClientID%>'));

valid = $get('<%=RequiredFieldValidator1.ClientID%>').isvalid;

break;

}

if (!valid)

{

// Invalid, return to previous tab

sender.set_activeTabIndex(preActiveTabIndex);

}

else

{

// Change Tab

preActiveTabIndex = sender.get_activeTabIndex();

switch(sender.get_activeTabIndex())

{

case 1:

// Reload "UpdatePanel1"

__doPostBack('<%=UpdatePanel1.ClientID%>','');

break;

}

</script>

As the "TabContainer" object don't store previous active tab index, we have to store it with a variable "preActiveTabIndex".

So the algorithm is to validate the Tab based on "preActiveTabIndex". If the result is valid, then go ahead and change tab, otherwise force the Tab Container to previous tab.

Done!!!

Make ASP.NET AJAX Tab control panel load 'on-demand'

2008-12-03T17:38:00.001+08:00

Overview

ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit is surely a very useful toolbox for ASP.NET web developer. However, some of the Toolkit's controls are not fully "AJAX" enabled in my point of view.

"AJAX Tabs" is one of the controls that I like the most but also want it to be better. One of the feature I want to (must) have is to make a control panel load 'on-demand' in order to reflect changes made on previous control panels.

Shawn Burke have a post showing a implementation on this feature. I copy it and change it a bit, mainly because I don't need a button to reload the panel. Instead I can just call "__doPostBack('<%=UpdatePanelControl.ClientID%>','')" to reload the update panel.

Reference

How To: Make Tab control panels load "on-demand"

Steps

Build the "AJAX Tab Control"

Building the Tab Control is pretty easy, provided that you have your AJAX Control Toolkit setup properly. (If you don't please go to Here to download the components need to setup ASP.NET AJAX and Here to download the AJAX Control Toolkit)

Code Snippet:

<ajaxToolKit:TabContainer ID="TabContainer" runat="server" OnClientActiveTabChanged="ActiveTabChanged">

<ajaxToolKit:TabPanel runat="server" ID="TabPanel1">

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server" />

</ContentTemplate>

</ajaxToolKit:TabPanel>

<ajaxToolKit:TabPanel runat="server" ID="TabPanel2">

<asp:UpdatePanel ID="UpdatePanel1" runat="server" OnLoad="UpdatePanel1_Load" UpdateMode="Conditional">

<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" />

</ContentTemplate>

</asp:UpdatePanel>

</ContentTemplate>

</ajaxToolKit:TabPanel>

</ajaxToolKit:TabContainer>

There are several things that make it works:

First of all, an "Update Panel" inside the Tap Panel you want to load on-demand. Set the "UpdateMode" attribute to "Conditional" is the key to make it reload only when it is supposed to.
A Javascript function which tell server side to load the Update Panel. In this example the function is "ActiveTabChanged" and it is set to "OnClientActiveTabChanged" attribute of the Tab Container, so that it is fired whenever active tab is changed.
A server-side on-load event handler "UpdatePanel1_Load" for the Update Panel in step 1.

Javascript function "ActiveTabChagned" to load the Update Panel

As stated above, a Javascript function attached to "OnClientActiveTabChanged" event of the Tab Container is used to load the Update Panel. Basically it will check the active tab index and do postback of the corresponding Update Panel.

Code Snippet:

function ActiveTabChanged(sender, e)

{

// Change Tab

switch(sender.get_activeTabIndex())

{

case 1:

// Reload "UpdatePanel1"

__doPostBack('<%=UpdatePanel1.ClientID%>','');

break;

}

In the function I use get_activeTabIndex() method provided by the AJAX Tab Container (the sender) to get the active tab index. On the other hand you may use set_activeTabIndex() method to change active tab at client side.

Update Panel on-load event handler

At this time I have successfully make the Update Panel to load on-demand. Now in order to make sure that it actually reloaded, let's write an on-load event handler to change the text of the Label inside it.

Code Snippet:

protected void UpdatePanel1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (Page.IsPostBack)

{

Label1.Text = "On".Equals(Label1.Text) ? "Off" : "On";

}

That's it, Happy Coding ;-)

AJAX Control Toolkit - Tab Control Themes

2008-12-02T20:19:00.001+08:00

Overview

Damien White have a post discussing how to customize theme in a ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit Tab Control.

Reference

AJAX Control Toolkit - Tab Control - Themes

ASP.NET CAPTCHA implementation with C#

2008-10-28T18:09:00.001+08:00

Overview

CAPTCHA stands for "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart." It is used to distinguish human end users from machines (including software).
This implementation is posted on CodeProject by BrainJar. A zip files containing the source code is attached with the post too.

Reference

CAPTCHA Image

Repeater with Empty Data Template

2008-10-28T17:39:00.001+08:00

Overview

Apart from Paging Support, one of the features that Repeater lacks is the "Empty Data Template" that will be shown when there is no result too display. MONA blogged a very simple method to implement a "Empty Data Template" for Repeater, and this implementation does not include writing anything in code behind.

Reference

Repeater with Empty Data Template

Code Snippet

I modified the code from MONA's blog a bit, by changing the "Label" to "Panel" inside the Footer Template. In this way we can treat the "Panel" as "Empty Data Template".

<asp:Repeater ID="RptrContacts" runat="server">

</ItemTemplate>

<asp:Panel ID="pnlEmpty" runat="server" Visible='<%#bool.Parse((RptrContacts.Items.Count==0).ToString())%>'>

<asp:Label ID="Label1" Text="no result" runat="server" />

</asp:Panel>

</FooterTemplate>

</asp:Repeater>

Adding Paging Support to the "Repeater"

2008-10-28T17:15:00.001+08:00

Overview

Repeater is very useful in displaying data with a fully customized layout. However, repeater does not have built-in paging support. I found an article in "4GuysFromRolla" by "Harrison Enholm", talking about how to add paging support to the Repeater or DataList, with the use of "PagedDataSource" Class.

Reference

Adding Paging Support to the Repeater or DataList with the PagedDataSource Class

Steps

Add a Repeater to the aspx page:

<asp:Repeater ID="RprChild" runat="server" OnItemDataBound="RprChild_DataBound">

     <ItemTemplate>

          <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "FirstName") %>

     </ItemTemplate>

</asp:Repeater>
Setup a property to stored the "Current Page" variable of the Repeater in ViewState:

public int CurrentPage

        {

            get

            {

                // look for current page in ViewState

                object o = this.ViewState["_CurrentPage"];

                if (o == null)

                    return 0;    // By default shows the first page

                else

                    return (int)o;

            }

            set

            {

                this.ViewState["_CurrentPage"] = value;

            }

        }
Declare a method "ItemsGet()" to assign a list of objects to the "PagedDataSource" objPds, and bind it with the Repeater:

protected void ItemsGet(List<Profile> children)

        {

            // Populate the repeater control with the Items DataSet

            PagedDataSource objPds = new PagedDataSource();

            objPds.DataSource = children;

            objPds.AllowPaging = true;

            objPds.PageSize = 6;

            objPds.CurrentPageIndex = CurrentPage;

            // Disable Prev or Next buttons if necessary

            LkbPrevPage.Enabled = !objPds.IsFirstPage;

            LkbNextPage.Enabled = !objPds.IsLastPage;

            RprChild.DataSource = objPds;

            RprChild.DataBind();

        }
Add a "Previous Page" & a "Next page" button, with their OnClick Event like these:

protected void LkbPrevPage_OnClick(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            CurrentPage -= 1;

            ItemsGet(member.Children);

        }

protected void LkbNextPage_OnClick(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            CurrentPage += 1;

            ItemsGet(member.Children);

        }
Done!

Switching Culture in an ASP.NET web app

2008-10-21T19:45:00.001+08:00

Overview

In my previous blog post Globalization of ASP.NET with Resources File, I talk about my experience in providing multi-language support for an ASP.NET web app. In that example, the web app get the cultures from preference of user's browser. If a user wants to change the preferred culture, he/she has to change it in browser.
Is there a way to do it in the web app, so that user can change the culture by clicking a button / select from a dropdown? The answer is yes, and Michael Ulmann had done a very nice implementation of that by using "Master Page".

Reference

Developing an ASP.NET page with MasterPage and Localization

How to: Set the Culture and UI Culture for ASP.NET Web Page Globalization (MSDN)

Steps

Store the current culture name in a session variable.
Make a new class (e.g. BasePage) inheriting System.Web.UI.Page, override method "InitializeCulture()". You cannot override this method in the MasterPage as the "MasterPage" class does not inherit System.Web.UI.Page, as Example Code Snippet:

protected override void InitializeCulture()

        {

            //retrieve culture information from session

            string culture = Convert.ToString(Session["MyCulture"]);

            Culture = culture;



            //set culture to current thread

            Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture(culture);

            Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo(culture);

            //call base class

            base.InitializeCulture();

        }
In the Master Page, make two Buttons with "Command Argument" set to "zh-TW" and "en-US" respectively. Assign the following method as their On-Click event:

protected void LbnCulture_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

    // Change Culture

    Session["MyCulture"] = (sender as LinkButton).CommandArgument;
    // Reload Page to let new culture take effect

    Server.Transfer(Request.Path);

}
Create a new ASP.NET page (e.g. SamplePage) using the above Master Page, inherit "SamplePage" from "BasePage" (the class created in Step 1). Then you can test the buttons.

Using parameter with Microsoft Query 'CONTAINS' criteria

2008-10-07T19:33:00.001+08:00

Overview

Microsoft Query does provide the "CONTAINS" criteria to check whether a field contains a value, the SQL 'WHERE' clause for this is "WHERE criteria_field LIKE '%value_to_check%'". The problem is how to use parameter with "CONTAINS" criteria?

Steps

With the '&' operator we can easily concatenate the parameter in the "LIKE '%%'" clause. The SQL is:
WHERE criteria_field LIKE '%' & ? &'%'

Query Access DB from Excel 2007 by "Microsoft Query"

2008-10-07T19:17:00.001+08:00

Overview

Let's consider this scenario: I have a Access DB and want to retrieve the data in Excel. In Excel 2007, the easiest way to do it (as far as I know) is to use built-in Access connect ("Data" tab => "Get External Data" group => "From Access").

However, in this way I cannot pass parameter into the query, how about if I want to use the value of a cell as the query parameter? In this case, you can use "Microsoft Query" in Excel 2007.

Seems that "Microsoft Query" can be used on other DB, but I haven't tried it out yet.

Reference

Steps

Build a parameter query with "Microsoft Query"

In Excel 2007, select "Data" tab => "Get External Data" group => "From Other Sources" => "From Microsoft Query"
Select your Access database
In the "Query Wizard", setup your query and select "View data or edit query in Microsoft Query" to open "Microsoft Query"
In "Microsoft Query", click the "Show/Hide Criteria" button (the button with a pair of glasses on it)
Select the Criteria Field (Field to be compared in SQL 'WHERE' clause), and enter "[Parameter Name]" in "Value" to specify a parameter in the SQL query.
Switch to SQL view and you should see a 'WHERE' clause like this:
WHERE customer_id = ?
The question mark "?" represents a parameter.
Go ahead and modify the SQL as you like. When finished, select "File" => "Return Data to Microsoft Office Excel" to save and exit.

Use a cell's value as parameter (For more detail, go to Reference 3)

Click on any cell of your query result
Select "Data" tab => "Connections" group => "Properties" (If "Properties" button is grayed out, redo Step 1 )
Click "Connection properties" (The little button next to Connection Name)
Select "Definition" tab, click "Parameters" (If there is no "Parameters" button, it means that your query doesn't contain parameter, redo Step 1-7 in previous section)
Select the desired parameter, click "Get the value from the following cell:" and select the cell, you may also select "Refresh automatically when cell value changes"
Done. Change the value of the cell to test the query.
Happy building query! (Hopefully...)

Eliminate error messages with "IFERROR" in Excel 2007

2008-10-06T00:05:00.001+08:00

Overview

In making dynamic Excel spreadsheet, sometimes we may have a function with result "#REF" or "#DIV/0". Some of these error messages are avoidable, but some of them aren't. In this case we have to conceal (hide) the error message. In Excel 2003 or before, we were using the "IF" function to check whether the function results in an error. However, this workaround is cumbersome and not efficient, because we have to put the function twice inside the "IF" statement.

Now in Excel 2007, we have a new function "IFERROR" designed to due with this particular situation. Let's see how we can benefit from it.

Reference

Eliminate those unfriendly error messages with Excel 2007’s IFERROR function

Step

The step is very simple, just replace your old "IF" function:

=IF(SOME_FUNCTION(),”Error Message”, SOME_FUNCTION())

with this one

=IFERROR(SOME_FUNCTION(),”Error Message”)

and you are good to go~

香港寛頻轉IP方法

2008-09-11T17:55:00.001+08:00

(轉用香港話...)

前幾日見到呢個blog講點樣可以轉香港寬頻派俾我地既IP, 本來我都以為香港寬頻係用static IP無得轉. 點知仲有個咁簡單既方法, 真係道高一尺....

來原

香港寬頻轉IP方法

轉ip方法簡介

按 "開始" -> "執行" -> "輸入 cmd"
彈出 Command Prompt, 輸入 ipconfig/all
記低 "Physical Address"
到 "控制台" -> "網路連線" -> right-click "區域連線" -> "內容"
0向 "區域連線內容" 內, 按 "設定", 再選 "進階"
在新彈出來既視窗中, 於左面 "內容" 選 "本地管理位址"
在右面 "數值" 下填上之前記低既 "Physical Address"
在填上既 "Physical Address" 入面, 隨意更改一個數字或字母
(輸入的數值只可以是十六進制, 即是 0-9 或 A-F, 並且如原來數字是雙數, 就填雙數, 否則填單數)
按 "確定", 檢查 IP 係咪改左, 完成

"Page is customized" in SPD 2007

2008-09-08T11:44:00.001+08:00

Overview

I come across a situation that the "Edit Page" menu item is missing for certain page in a SharePoint Site. Later I found that it is caused by "Customized Page" created by SharePoint Designer (SPD).
If want to enable the "Edit Page" function of customized page, you can navigate to the page in SPD, right-click on it and select "Reset to Site Definition". However, this action will remove the customized page content.
Links below talk more about "customized page", "customized files" in WSS 3.0 & MOSS 2007

Reference

Delete users from a Site collection

2008-09-05T16:32:00.001+08:00

Overview

A user might belongs to many user groups in a MOSS site collection. Below steps show how to remove users from all groups of a site collection.

Reference

Removing Selected Users in MOSS 2007/WSS v3

Steps

Select "Site Actions" -> "Site Settings"
Click "People and groups" under "Users and Permission"
In "People and Groups" page, click "All People"
Select the users you want to remove, then select "Actions" -> "Delete Users from Site collection"

Save MOSS sub sites as a template

2008-09-04T10:05:00.001+08:00

Overview

Site templates are very useful when creating sites with similar structure & settings. However the link "Save site as template" is only available under Look and Feel at the Top Level of the site collection. So can I create site template of my sub site? Yes, and the way to do it is indeed quite simple.

Reference

MOSS 2007 - Save site as a template missing

Steps

Navigate to the site you want to create site template.
Copy its URL (e.g. "http://www.abc.com/demo/default.aspx")
Change the URL to "http://www.abc.com/demo/_layout/savetmpl.aspx", this will lead you to the "Create site template" page.

Silverlight + SharePoint integration (Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint)

2008-09-01T15:29:00.001+08:00

Overview

Microsoft provides a Blueprint for integrating Silverlight 2 applications with SharePoint sites. The Blueprint includes guides to configure SharePoint runtime environment for hosting Silverlight 2 application, as well as VS 2008 development environment for building Silverlight 2 wrapper webparts. Besides, 5 examples application are included in the Blueprint.

Reference

Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint Beta 2

Steps

Below only briefly shows the steps required for the integration, for details please refer to Silverlight Blueprint Guidance.

Configure VS 2008 development environment

Install the Microsoft Silverlight 2 Beta 2 plug-in
Install VS 2008 SP1 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
Install Microsoft Silverlight 2 Tools Beta 2 for VS 2008
Install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: VS 2008 Extensions

Configure SharePoint runtime environment

Install Service Pack 1 for your SharePoint (either WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007)
Deploy System.Web.Silverlight.dll into Global Assembly Cache
Add a new MIME type for (.xap) file to the IIS Web Application hosting SharePoint Sites
Modify the web.config file of the IIS Web Application hosting SharePoint Sites to enable ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 and Silverlight 2 applications.

Silverlight Get-started tutorial

2008-08-27T10:27:00.001+08:00

Overview

To get started with Silverlight, I search for tutorial on web and found this blog by Scott Guthrie giving out a tutorial on building a complete Silverlight application with VS 2008.

Reference

Really Simple steps

Install Silverlight 2 (if you don't have one)
Install VS 2008
Install Silverlight Tools Beta 2 for VS 2008 (download from reference 2)
Create a Silverlight Application in VS 2008
Happy coding!

Sending test email through Telnet

2008-08-21T11:09:00.001+08:00

Overview

How to test if a SMTP server function properly in sending email? The simplest way is to send a test email. In this blog I will talk about how to send a simple test email by Telnet to the SMTP server.

Reference

How Simple is SMTP?

Steps

Start a Telnet connection to the SMTP server by using the following command in command prompt:
telnet $smtp_server_ip$ $port$
Note that the ip & port is separated by a "space" but not "colon", For SMTP server, the port is "25"
Once the connection is established, type in "HELO" or "EHLO" before enter other commands
After saying hello, we can use the following command to specify the email sender:
MAIL FROM: sender@domain.com
Next we can specify the receiver by the following command:
RCPT TO: receiver@domain.com
Now the last thing to do is entering the mail body, you can enter your mail after sending this command:
DATA
After you enter command "DATA", the server will tell you to enter mail and indicate how to end the mail body. Follow it and the server will reply that your email is on its way!
After all is done, enter "QUIT" to close the connection.

Globalization of ASP.NET with Resources File

2008-08-20T15:58:00.001+08:00

Overview

Resources files can be used to provide multi-languages support in ASP.NET web applications. The web app can be set to display different languages based on the settings of client browser. Following shows how to use resources files in a web application project.

Reference

Example

In the following example I will create a web application project in Visual Studio 2008 and add English & Traditional Chinese support for a simple page containing only one Label.

Create the Web Application Project

Note: In order to make the resources files editable even after the application is published, we have to use "ASP.NET Web Application" as the project template.

In VS 2008, select "File" -> "New" -> "Project"
In "Project types", select "Visual C#" -> "Web".
In "Template", select "ASP.NET Web Application". Enter the Name of the web and the solution

Add Global Resources files (for default language: English) to the application

Right-click on the web application project
In the appeared menu, select "Add" -> "Add ASP.NET Folder" -> "App_GlobalResources", a folder named "App_GlobalResources" created
Right-click on folder "App_GlobalResources"
In the appeared menu, select "Add" -> "New Item..."
In "Add New Item" window, select "Resources File", name it as "Resource.resx"
Open "Resource.resx" and add a row with
Name: TestString
Value: Test

Add another Global Resources files for Trad. Chinese

Right-click on folder "App_GlobalResources"
In the appeared menu, select "Add" -> "New Item..."
In "Add New Item" window, select "Resources File" under "Visual C#" category, name it as "Resource.zh-Hant.resx"
Note: The phase between "Resource" & "resx" indicate the culture represented by this resources file. In this case, "zh-Hant" is the culture for "Traditional Chinese" which includes Locales for "Hong Kong", "Taiwan" etc.
Open "Resource.zh-Hant.resx" and add a row with
Name: TestString
Value: 測試

Configure "web.config" to change Language based on client browser's setting

Open file "web.config"
Add the following code under "system.web" tab

Add an ASP.NET page with a Label to see the result

Right-click on the web application project
In the appeared menu, select "Add" -> "New Item..."
In "Add New Item" window, select "Web Form", name it as "Test.aspx"
Open "Test.aspx", add a Web Control Label to it with the following code:

<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text="<%$ Resources: Resources, TestString %>" />

Debug the project to see the result

If your browser (take IE 7 in this case) don't have any language preference setting, then the page should shows "Test". You can change the Language setting by:

Select "Tools" -> "Internet Options"
In "General" Tab, select "Languages"
Click "Add" to add more preferred Languages, you can also change the priority of preferred Languages

Multiple Delete in GridView

2008-08-12T11:44:00.002+08:00

Overview

By default GridView allows us to delete only a record (a row) at a time, it will be better if we can select multiple rows with check boxes and delete them in a batch.

Reference

Reference 1 shows a example of multiple delete in GridView with SqlDataSource. Reference 2 demonstrates the same thing and add a simple JavaScript asking user to confirm deleting.

I'm using ObjectDataSource in my code, which is very similar to what Reference 1 shows.

Connecting NHibernate to Oracle Database

2008-08-08T10:56:00.001+08:00

Overview

In my previous blog - NHibernate Setup, I shared my experience on setting up NHibernate with ASP.NET and SQL Server 2005 Database. Now I would like to talk about my experience on connecting NHibernate to Oracle Database.

Reference

About the Oracle Client Driver

There are two types of commonly used Oracle Client Driver: Microsoft's .NET driver & Oracle's own .NET driver. Using Microsoft's .NET driver in NHibernate is very very simple, but according to Reference 2 talking about NHibernate documentation, this driver does not handle long character strings correctly.
In the following blog, I will show the configuration for BOTH Drivers.

Steps - Microsoft's .NET driver

Install "Oracle Client", you can download it at "http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/index.html" but registration required. I use Client 10g.
Replace the original "hibernate-configuration" section in "web.config" with the following XML:

<session-factory>

      <property name="dialect">NHibernate.Dialect.Oracle9Dialect</property>

      <property name="connection.provider">NHibernate.Connection.DriverConnectionProvider</property>

      <property name="hibernate.connection.driver_class">NHibernate.Driver.OracleClientDriver</property>

      <property name="connection.connection_string">Data source=DATASOURCE;User Id=ID;Password=PASS;</property>

    </session-factory>
That's it!!! One thing to note is that in the connection string "Data source" is defined in "Net Manager" of Oracle Client. You can also find that in "$ORACLE_HOME\NETWORK\ADMIN\tnsnames.ora". $ORACLE_HOME is the installation folder of your Oracle Client, mine is "C:\oracle\product\10.2.0\client_1".

Steps - Oracle's .NET driver

Install "Oracle Client", you can download it at "http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/index.html" but registration required. I use Client 10g.
Set Environment Variable "ORACLE_HOME" to installation folder of your Oracle Client, mine is "C:\oracle\product\10.2.0\client_1".
Make sure that "Oracle.DataAccess" is available in your Global Assembly Cache (GAC). You can view your GAC at "Administrative Tools" => ".NET Framework 2.0"
In "web.config", add reference to "Oracle.DataAccess" by adding "qualifyAssembly" section in "assemblyBinding" section:

<assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">

<qualifyAssembly partialName="Oracle.DataAccess" fullName="Oracle.DataAccess, Version=10.2.0.100, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89b483f429c47342" />

</assemblyBinding>
Replace the original "hibernate-configuration" section in "web.config" with the following XML:

<session-factory>

      <property name="dialect">NHibernate.Dialect.Oracle9Dialect</property>

      <property name="connection.provider">NHibernate.Connection.DriverConnectionProvider</property>

      <property name="hibernate.connection.driver_class">NHibernate.Driver.OracleDataClientDriver</property>

      <property name="connection.connection_string">Data source=DATASOURCE;User Id=ID;Password=PASS;</property>

    </session-factory>

Note that the "driver_class" is "OracleDataClientDriver" instead of "OracleClientDriver".

Convert NHibernate result iList to DataSet

2008-08-05T19:20:00.001+08:00

Overview

Just like Hibernate, NHibernate returns query result in List of Objects (that's the idea of O/R mapping). It is very good, but some ASP.NET tools only work with DataSet, so we have to explicitly convert the iList returned by NHibernate to DataSet. The following simple code snippet mainly copied from Ayende's Blog can server this purpose.

Reference

Converting an object collection to a DataSet

Code Snippet

public static IList<Company> ShowCompanies()

{

// Get the List of Companies

ICriteria criteria = NHibernateHttpModule.CurrentSession.CreateCriteria(typeof(Company));

IList<Company> companies = criteria.List<Company>();

// Convert the List into DataSet & return it

DataTable dt = new DataTable();

dt.Columns.Add("Name", typeof(string));

dt.Columns.Add("CompanyCode", typeof(string));

foreach (Company comp in companies)

{

DataRow row = dt.NewRow();

row["Name"] = comp.Name;

row["CompanyCode"] = comp.CompanyCode;

dt.Rows.Add(row);

}

DataSet ds = new DataSet();

ds.Tables.Add(dt);

return ds;

return companies;

}

Using CopySourceAsHtml in VS 2008

2008-08-04T17:42:00.001+08:00

Overview

CopySourceAsHtml (CSAH) is a very useful tools for us "Programming Oriented Blogger". But after I switched to VS 2008, I soon found that there is no CSAH officially supporting it. Luckily with a little bit of googling, I was able to find a couple of Blogs of how to use CSAH in VS 2008.

Reference

Using CopySourceAsHtml with Visual Studio 2008 (beta 2 and yes, also RTM)

CopySourceAsHtml VS2008

Hibernate for .NET - NHibernate Setup

2008-08-04T17:05:00.001+08:00

Overview

Hibernate offers O/R mappings between Database and Java persistence classes. Many Java programmers get used to Hibernate would like to use the same technology (and syntax!) on their .NET projects too~ The answer to this is called NHibernate.
Below I will share my experience on how to set up NHibernate with C#, it should be similar for other .NET languages.

Reference

Environment

Database: SQL Server 2005
NHibernate: 1.2.1 GA
.NET Language: C#

Steps

Setup SQL Server Database

It is assumed that your Database is setup properly, so I will skip this step.

Download and install NHibernate

Download NHibernate at Here (I downloaded 1.2.1 GA-bin.zip)
Extract the zip file and navigate to folder "net-2.0"
We are going to use "NHibernate.dll" as reference in our project

Create Web Site and do NHibernate Configuration in VS

Add a Web Site to your Solution, and a C# class library project with name "Solution.Domain".
There are two ways to do configuration for NHibernate, one is by "System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler", the other is by "NHibernate.Cfg.ConfigurationSectionHandler". I choose to use method 2 because it is supported in NHibernate 2.0
Open "web.config" file and add "hibernate-configuration" section with the following code snippet:

<configuration>

<configSections>

        <section name="hibernate-configuration" type="NHibernate.Cfg.ConfigurationSectionHandler, NHibernate"/>

</configSections>



<hibernate-configuration xmlns="urn:nhibernate-configuration-2.2">

    <session-factory>

      <property name="dialect">NHibernate.Dialect.MsSql2005Dialect</property>

      <property name="connection.provider">NHibernate.Connection.DriverConnectionProvider</property>

      <property name="hibernate.connection.driver_class">NHibernate.Driver.SqlClientDriver</property>

      <property name="connection.connection_string">Server=(local);Initial Catalog=Test;Integrated Security=SSPI;</property>

      <mapping assembly="Solution.Domain" />

    </session-factory>

</hibernate-configuration>

</configuration>
Now we have the "web.config" ready, we still have to add two helper classes for handling NHibernate sessions. I extracted This zip file attached to Reference 1 and used the "NHibernateHttpModule.cs" and "SessionHelper.cs" files.
However, I modified "SessionFactory" method in "SessionHelper.cs" as my configuration method is different from that of Reference 1.

My modified "SessionFactory" method:

private static ISessionFactory SessionFactory

        {

            get

            {

                if (_sessionFactory == null)

                {

                    Configuration config = new Configuration();

                    config.Configure();

                    _sessionFactory = config.BuildSessionFactory();

                    if (_sessionFactory == null)

                        throw new InvalidOperationException("Could not build SessionFactory");

                }

                return _sessionFactory;

            }

        }

Defines Mapping and the persistence class

The NHibernate mapping file is just like that of Hibernate: A XML file with extension ".hbm.xml". Here is my mapping file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<hibernate-mapping xmlns="urn:nhibernate-mapping-2.2" namespace="Solution.Domain" assembly="Solution.Domain">

<class name="User" table="app_user">

    <id name="Username" column="username" type="String">

      <generator class="assigned"/>

    </id>

    <property name="Name" column="name" type="String"/>

    <property name="Password" column="password" type="String"/>

</class>

</hibernate-mapping>
This XML mapping file must be included in the assembly with the name "Solution.Domain". To do this, right-click on the XML mapping file and select "properties", then choose "Embedded Resource" for "Build Action".
Next, let's move on to the persistence class.

namespace Solution.Domain

{

    public class User

    {

        public User()

        {

        }

        public virtual string Username

        {

            get;

            set;

        }

        public virtual string Name

        {

            get;

            set;

        }

        public virtual string Password

        {

            get;

            set;

        }

    }

}

Show the result in ASP.NET page

Add a aspx page to the Web Site and then add the following code snippet to the aspx page:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        ISession session = NHibernateHttpModule.CurrentSession;

        IQuery query = session.CreateQuery("FROM User");

        IList result = query.List();

        GridView1.DataSource = result;

        GridView1.DataBind();

    }
If everything works fine (and you have some Data in your SQL Server Table!), then you should see the data is retrieved and displayed on the aspx page~

Changing the default browser used in VS 2005/2008

2008-08-01T19:07:00.001+08:00

Overview

I always use Firefox except browsing SharePoint sites (or sites with Active-X). However when I was debugging my projects with VS 2005/2008, I don't want it to use Firefox to open aspx pages. With a little bit of searching, I found below page showing how to set default aspx browser in VS (it can be either FF or IE or other Browsers)

Reference

Changing the default browser used in VS 2005 and Visual Web Developer - ScottGu's Blog

Steps (Copied from reference link)

Right click on a .aspx page in your solution explorer
Select the "browse with" context menu option
In the dialog you can select or add a browser. If you want Firefox in the list, click "add" and point to the firefox.exe filename
Click the "Set as Default" button to make this the default browser when you run any page on the site.

How to: Set Team Foundation Server Administrator Permissions

2008-07-30T18:20:00.001+08:00

Overview

Below MSDN post shows the steps to grant sufficient privileges to a new Team Foundation Server Administrator.

Reference

How to: Set Team Foundation Server Administrator Permissions

Hands-Free TFS 2008 Install

2008-07-30T18:09:00.001+08:00

Overview

Installing VSTS Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2008 is way more than just run "setup.exe" and keep clicking "Next". Actually if you have all the prerequisites ready then the installation is simple, but usually you have to prepare all the prerequisites by yourselves.

I found two post by Grant Holliday and William Bartholomew talking about how to automate Installation process of TFS 2005 & 2008. I have never tried it (cos by the time I see these post I was already finishing the installation...), but I think it is good for understanding the process of TFS installation, and it may come in handy someday!

Notes: The guides is for Windows Server 2003, and when I installed TFS 2008 on Windows Server 2008, WSS 3.0 installation cannot be included as part of TFS installation. I must install and configure WSS 3.0 first before I start TFS installation (You may use existing SharePoint sites on other computer for TFS)

Reference

Hands-Free TFS Install (VSTS 2005)

Hands-Free TFS 2008 Install

Renaming a SharePoint 2007 / WSS 3.0 Server

2008-07-30T11:48:00.001+08:00

Overview

Sometimes you have to rename a Server, it can easily be done in "System properties". However, if the Server host a SharePoint Services/Server, then renaming will cause SharePoint sites to stop functioning. Eventually I found a Blog showing the steps to rename a SharePoint 2007 / WSS 3.0 Server, and I have repost the steps below.

Reference

Renaming a SharePoint 2007 / WSS 3.0 Server (I copy the steps from here)

Rename a stand-alone server (Office SharePoint Server)

Steps

Change each alternate access mapping for your MOSS/WSS deployment in Central Administration

Open Central Administration
Click on the "Operation" Tab
Click on the "Alternate access mappings" link under the "Global Configuration" heading
Modify each mapping item to reflect your newly chosen server name, making sure to keep port numbers the same (this also include the mapping for Central Administration, don’t worry it's cool)

Use stsadm.exe to invoke the "renameserver" command option

Open a command prompt window and navigate to the folder where stsadm.exe sits. Normally "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN".
Use the "renameserver" command as follows, replacing and with the new and old names of your server:

stsadm -o renameserver -newservername <newname> -oldservername <oldname>

Rename your Server via Change Name Operation in Windows Server 2003

Now the last step is to simply right click on My Computer
Open “Properties”
Click on “Computer Name” tab
Click “Change” button
Input your new server name and reboot the server

Use stsadm.exe to invoke the "updatefarmcredentials" command option

Open a command prompt window and navigate to the folder where stsadm.exe sits. Normally “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN”.
Type in the following command and press [enter]:

stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -identitytype NetworkService

Uninstall WSS 3.0 MICROSOFT##SSEE Database

2008-07-29T17:16:00.001+08:00

Overview

I come across a situation that I was installing WSS 3.0 but the "SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard" failed at half-way and it keep crashing even after I uninstall and reinstall WSS. The result is the broken "MICROSOFT##SSEE" Database which is the configuration database created by WSS. After I followed instructions of the below link, I successfully uninstalled the database and the WSS 3.0 configuration wizard run again!

Reference

Uninstall WSS 3.0 MICROSOFT##SSEE Database

Problems installing SQL Server 2005 with IIS 7

2008-07-28T18:11:00.001+08:00

Overview

When I install SQL Server 2005 Enterprise on Windows Server 2008 with IIS 7, I was warned that "Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is either not installed or is disabled". Actually this misleading warning means some features of IIS 7 are not installed, and SQL Server 2005 installation needs those features.

Reference

Problems installing SQL Server 2005 on Vista and IIS7

Installing PHP with FastCGI in Windows Server 2008 (IIS 7)

2008-07-22T19:09:00.001+08:00

Overview

FastCGI can greatly improve the performance of CGI applications. I will share my experience of installing and configuring PHP 5.2.6 with FastCGI in Windows Server 2008 environment (the main difference is between IIS 7 and IIS 6).

Reference

Install PHP

Install IIS FastCGI

Steps

Install & Configure PHP

Download PHP 5.2.6 form http://www.php.net/downloads.php
Extract the ZIP file to C:\php
Copy "php.ini-recommended" to the Windows directory (C:\Windows) and rename it to "php.ini"
Open the "php.ini" and change the following settings"
- extension_dir = "C:\php\extensions"
- uncomment and set: cgi.force_redirect = 0
- short_open_tag = On

Install & Configure IIS 7

Add "Web Service" role at Windows Server 2008 "Server Manager" to install IIS 7.0
Go to IIS Manager, select "Handler Mappings"
Select "Add Module Mapping"

Input *.php in "Request Path"
Select "FastCgiModule" in "Module"
Input "C:\php\php.exe" in Executable
Input Name

Press "OK"

Uploading Multiple Files using Struts FormFile

2008-07-22T11:07:00.001+08:00

Overview

It is convenient to group same type of Form Inputs with an ArrayList (or other types of List). For checkbox this is easily done in Struts Framework, but how about "File" or other types of input?

Reference

Uploading Multiple Files using Struts FormFile

Code Snippet

I copy the code from the reference link above and do some change on it in order to get the uploaded files in the order shown in the User's Form.

In JSP File

<tr>

<td>Photo 1</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Photo 2</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<tr>

</form>

In struts-config.xml

</action>

<form-bean name="PhotoUpload" type="com.uploads.forms.FileUploadForm">

</form-bean>

In FileUploadForm.java

  public class FileUploadForm extends ActionForm {                
              
    private List formFiles = new ArrayList();                
              
    public List getUploads() {               
      return this.formFiles;               
    }                
              
    public void setUploads(int iIndex, FormFile formFile) {               
      if ( !formFile.getFileName().equals("") ) {               
        if ( this.formFiles.size() <= iIndex ) {               
          // Fill the list to the specified size               
          for ( int i=this.formFiles.size(); i < iIndex; i++ ){               
            this.formFiles.add(null);               
          }               
          this.formFiles.add(formFile);               
        } else {               
          this.formFiles.set(iIndex, formFile);               
        }               
      }               
    }                
              
  }

Lock-down Internet Explorer with password

2008-07-15T14:31:00.001+08:00

Overview

You can prevent others from using IE to surf the Internet by using its built-in "Content Advisor". A Supervisor password can be set to control the usage of IE.

Reference

Yahoo! Answers: Block other users from accessing the Internet Explorer

HOW TO: Use the Internet Explorer 6 Content Advisor to Control Access to Web Sites in Internet Explorer

Steps (For IE 7)

Open up Internet Explorer
Click Tools
Click Internet Options
Click on the tab Content
Underneath 'Content Advisor', Click Enable
Then click on the tab General
Under 'Supervisor Password click Create
Make you password then click Ok.
Then Apply and finally Ok

My struggle with Browser enabled InfoPath Form connection to 'UserProfileService' Web Service

2008-06-26T10:49:00.001+08:00

Overview

I faced a silly error when trying to use data connection in a Browser-enabled InfoPath Form to connect to MOSS built-in 'UserProfileService' web service in order to retrieve the display name (Preferred Name) of the logged in user. It works great without any error when I preview the form in InfoPath. However, I keep seeing the "ID 5566" error after I published the form to a document library and open it in browser. On the other hand, the published form works to show the current logged in user of the computer (not the MOSS portal) when opened in a client application (i.e. InfoPath).

Symptom

Fail with "ID 5566" error when the form is opened in web browser.
Work without error when opened in preview mode or in client application, shows the logged in user of the computer.
Fail to work with all methods in 'UserProfileService' web service.

Cause

After many googling and trial & error, I still can't find the cause. Or I actually overlooked one suggestion in a post. That is the "Allow Anonymous login" option. I thought that this is the option in "Central Administration" -> "Application Management" -> "Authentication Providers" -> "Edit Authentication". But actually the main problem is at IIS settings of the web applications' authentication.

Reference

InfoPath - Get the current user without writing code

Steps to disable "anonymous login" in "IIS Manager"

In Windows Server 2003 R2, click "Start" -> "Administrative Tools" -> "Internet Information Services (IIS) Manger"
In "IIS Manager", expand the name of your computer on the left pane, expand "Web Sites"
Right click on the web application you want to edit (e.g. mine is "SharePoint - 80", select "Properties"
In "Properties", select "Directory Security" tab. Press "Edit" in the "Authentication and access control" category
Uncheck "Enable anonymous access" in "Authentication Methods", click "OK" to go back to IIS Manager

Deploy old SQL Reporting Services Reports to SharePoint Site

2008-06-19T15:15:00.001+08:00

Overview

In my previous post, I discussed about how to setup SharePoint Integrated SQL Server Reporting Services (RS). Now that I have the Integrated RS ready, I can deploy the reports to the SharePoint site. But wait, how can I deploy a Pre-SP2 RS report to SharePoint site? Below shows the steps I used.

My RS reports consists of two files: a Report Definition file (.rdl) and a Data Source file (.rds). To deploy a Pre-SP2 RS report to a SharePoint site, I have to upload the Report Definition file, and create a new SP2 Data Source file (with extension changed to : .rsds).

Reference

Steps

Upload Report Definition file

Create a New Document Library (or use an existing one) in SharePoint site to store the Report Definition file and the Data Source file.

Upload the Report Definition file (.rdl) of your report to the Document Library created in Step 1.

Add "Report Data Source" Content Type to the Document Library

Before we can "New" a Data Source in SharePoint Document Library, we must first add the "Report Data Source" Content Type.

Navigate to the Document Library, select "Settings" -> "Document Library Settings"

Select "Advanced Settings"

Select "Yes" for "Allow management of content types", click "OK"

At "Document Library Settings", select "Add from existing site content types" under "Content Types" Category

Make sure that "All Groups" is selected for "Select site content types from:", then select "Report Data Source" Content Type and click "Add"

Click "OK"

Create a Data Source file in Document Library

Navigate to the Document Library, select "New" -> "Report Data Source"

Fill in the properties of the Data Source, I opened my old data source in visual studio and copy all the properties to the new one.

Click "OK"

Bind the Report Definition file to the new Data Source

Navigate to the Document Library, click to display the drop-down list of the Report Definition (.rdl) File

Select "Manage Data Sources" in the drop-down list

Click on the name of the Data Source to edit it.

Specify the URL of the newly created Data Source (.rsds) file in "Data Source Link" and click "OK"

Click "Close" to go back to Document Library, click on the Report Definition file to see the result. If a report is displayed successfully, then the deployment is done!

Guides on setting up SharePoint integrated SQL Server Reporting Services

2008-06-18T17:05:00.001+08:00

Overview

This is going to be a long post, in this post I am trying to describe how I setup Integrated SQL Server Reporting Services on a Standalone SharePoint Server. According to my understanding, these steps can be applied to SharePoint Services too.

Software Configuration

SQL Server 2005
SharePoint Server 2007
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Download

Reference

Guides to install and configure

Information on MOSS integrated SQL Server Reporting Service

Steps

Prepare the software package

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Download

SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies Download

Install software package

Install .NET Framework 3.0 (My server originally has this installed)

Install SQL Server 2005 SP 2

Install SQL Server 2005 RS Add-in for SharePoint

Create a Report Server DB for SharePoint Integrated Mode (Check Reference 3 for details)

Go to "Report Services Configuration" in SQL Server 2005 "Configuration Tools"

Connect to the Instance you want to create the Report Server (Mine is "MSSQLSERVER")

Click "Database Setup" on the left pane, then select the Server you want to connect and click "Connect"

Click "New" button next to the Database Name.

In "SQL Server Connection" dialog box, enter the name for the new Database, make sure to select the "Create the report server database in SharePoint Integrated mode" check box.

Click "OK"

On the Database Setup page, specify the Credential you want to connect to the report server, Click "Apply"

Configure Report Server Integration Feature in SharePoint Central Administration (Check Reference 4 for details)

Go to "SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration"

In Central Administration, select "Application Management", then click "Manage integration settings" under "Reporting Services"

Specify the "Report Server URL" and "Authentication Mode", normally the Report Server URL will be something like "http://server-name:8080/reportserver" where port number should follow your configuration but not always "8080". I use "Trusted Account" for "Authentication Mode"

Click "OK" to go back to "Application Management", then select "Grant database access".

Specify the "Server Name" and "Instance" of the Report Server (In standalone case the server name should be the same as the SharePoint Server).

In the pop up windows, specify the "User Name" and "Password" to connect to report server. Enter the administrator account here. Then click "OK" twice to go back to "Application Management".

Select "Set server defaults", if you enter this page successfully, then it means that SharePoint connect to report server successfully. Actually I didn't change any settings here, and the report service works fine in SharePoint Site.

Problems in deploying / debugging SQL Report Server Project: Permissions granted to user 'domain\username' are insufficient (rsAccessDenied)

2008-06-17T17:44:00.001+08:00

Overview

I came across an issue that the project created from "Report Server Project Wizard" Template in Visual Studio did not deploy successfully and the "permissions granted to user 'domain\username' are insufficient for .... (rsAccessDenied)" error was shown.
Finally I was able to get it done by restoring the IIS 'ReportServer' Active Directory. Below shows the steps I follow to do the restore.

Reference

"The permissions granted to user '' are insufficient for performing this operation." when trying to view Report Site.

Steps

Click "Start" -> "All programs" -> "Microsoft SQL Server 2005" -> "Configuration Tools" -> "Reporting Services Configuration"
Enter the "Machine Name" & "Instance Name" and click "Connect"
Select "Report Server Virtual Directory" at the left pane and check "Apply default settings", and click "Apply"
Done!!!

Set the Start Up display Form in Access 2007

2008-06-13T16:30:00.001+08:00

Overview

In my previous blog showing How to convert Access 2007 App into Runtime Mode, I discuss how to convert Application to Runtime Mode. However, you need to specify a Start-Up Form so that the Runtime Application have something to show when started.

Reference

Change Access 2007 database options for your application

Steps

Fire up Access 2007 and open your application (NOT in Runtime Mode)
Click the "Office" button
Click the "Access Options" button, then choose "Current Database" in left pane
Click the "Display Form" drop-down list and set your start-up form
Finish!

Convert application to Runtime Mode in Access 2007

2008-06-13T16:06:00.001+08:00

Overview

Access Forms let you create a user-friendly interface to end-user, it can also restrict what your users can view/modify. However user can still modify your table directly if your application is not run in Runtime Mode. Below shows the steps to convert your Access 2007 application to runtime before you put it to production.

Reference

Convert your Access 2007 application from design to runtime mode by changing its extension

Steps

Open the folder that contains your application (with .accdb extension)
Ensure that extension is shown in filename (this can be set in "Folder Options"), rename the application to have .accdr extension (e.g. "myApp.accdb" rename to "myApp.accdr")
Finished!

Customizing Web Parts Outlook with XSL Editor

2008-06-04T14:08:00.003+08:00

Overview

Out-of-the-box web parts in MOSS is very useful in development. However some of their looking might not fit your needs. However, the looking and style of web parts can be customized by editing the XSL(Extensible Stylesheet Language) file.

Steps

Navigate to the Page containing the Web part you want to customize.
Choose "Site Actions" -> "Edit Page"
At the title of Web part, click "edit" -> "Modify Shared Web Part"
At the Web part Tool Pane just opened on the right, under the "Data View Properties" category, click the "XSL Editor..." button to open a text editor containing XSL of the Web part.
As the so called "XSL Editor" is just a very simple text editor (without Search Function), better copy the XSL inside to Visual Studio for editing. To do this, just new a file in VS and select XSLT as the template.
When you finish editing the XSL in VS, copy it back into the "XSL Editor" and press "Save", then click "Apply" in the Web part Tool Pane to see the change.

Embed SQL DB connection ID & password into BDC Definition File

2008-06-03T11:44:00.001+08:00

Overview

(From MSDN: BDC Overview) Business Data Catalog (BDC) is a new business integration feature in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, it enables Office SharePoint Server 2007 to surface business data from back-end server applications without any coding.

Business Data Catalog provides built-in support for displaying data from databases and Web services. That is, you can use Business Data Catalog to display data from your SAP, Siebel, or other line-of-business (LOB) application via Web services or databases.

Water-blowing

(By me) BDC is a very good tool in connecting SharePoint with other system (DB or Web Services), it is good because the information collected from BDC application can be displayed in some out-of-the-box (but not good looking...) webparts, and be searched just like other information in SharePoint (Yes~ you can search your BDC connected DB in SharePoint!), you can also make site columns based on BDC information and embed it into content type too! One example is to make a SharePoint generated Word Document able to crawl data from DB thru BDC, quite amazing....

Besides all these exciting features, writing a BDC application is quite a pain in the xxx (Sorry I can't control myself for this). The Microsoft claimed "NO CODE" experience is equivalent to writing a XML file with several hundred to thousands of lines. This infernal XML file is called (Application Definition File).

Connecting to DB in BDC - SSO

Writing the damn Definition File is one thing, getting your application to connect to remote DB is another mountain to climb. I used to get it work by using Single Sign-On in MOSS, which is VERY difficult to setup, and required the server to be connected to an Active Directory.

Recently I come across this method to embed connection UserID and Password into the Definition File, so no more SSO nightmare~~ (This method is obviously NOT the best practice and should be used in development environment ONLY)

Code Snippet

<Property Name="DatabaseAccessProvider" Type="Microsoft.Office.Server.ApplicationRegistry.SystemSpecific.Db.DbAccessProvider">SqlServer</Property>

<Property Name="AuthenticationMode" Type="Microsoft.Office.Server.ApplicationRegistry.SystemSpecific.Db.DbAuthenticationMode">PassThrough</Property>

<Property Name="rdbconnection Data Source" Type="System.String">ServerName_Here</Property>

<Property Name="rdbconnection Initial Catalog" Type="System.String">DataBaseName_Here</Property>

<Property Name="RdbConnection Pooling" Type="System.String">false</Property>

<Property Name="RdbConnection User ID" Type="System.String">UserID Here</Property>

<Property Name="RdbConnection Password" Type="System.String">Password Here</Property>

<Property Name="RdbConnection Trusted_Connection" Type="System.String">false</Property>

In the above Code Snippet, actually what you have to customize is "ServerName", "DataBaseName", "UserID" & "Password", and the authentication should work.

Note that I am using SQL Authentication here, so make sure to SQL Server you are connecting to have SQL Authentication enabled and have a matching UserID and Password.

Using Features and Solutions to do Deployment in MOSS / WSS

2008-05-30T16:47:00.001+08:00

Overview

"Feature" is a new concept in MOSS / WSS 3.0, it defines a collection of functionality or site customization in a SharePoint site (For example, adding "Content Type", "Columns" or "Workflow"). Feature can be installed into a specific server machine, and then be activated or deactivated on specific sites.

A Feature must consists of a definition file (Feature.xml), plus any number of manifest files in XML format. Location of manifest files is specified in <ElementManifests></ElementManifests> tags in "Feature.xml" file.

"Solution" is used as a mean to deploy custom code, files and other components to SharePoint. With the Solution Framework, developers can deploy custom components such as Web Parts, Features, site definitions and templates, custom code access security (CAS) policies, and add assemblies to a specific SharePoint site's BIN directory or to the global assembly cache (GAC).

Each Solution contains one solution file, called a Windows SharePoint Package (WSP) file, which is essentially a cabinet (*.cab) file with (*.wsp) extension.

Reference

Creating a Custom Feature in Office SharePoint Server 2007

Creating a Solution

Working with InfoPath Repeatable Table/Section in MOSS workflows

2008-05-20T13:45:00.001+08:00

Overview

With an InfoPath form as a workflow list item, we can gain access to its data via workflowProperties.Item. However, there is no native support in MOSS workflows for repeating table/sections. So we developers have to write custom helper method to gain this function.

Reference

Julie's Office Dev Blog : InfoPath 2007, SharePoint Workflows and Whatnot

Code Snippet

Parse repeating data in an InfoPath form (normally this is the submit form)
This code is copied form "MOSS SDK Workflow Example - Inter-System Purchase Order" by Microsoft

1 private void GetLineItemsFromOrder(out DateTime dueDate, out LineItem[] items)

2 {

3 List<LineItem> LineItems = new List<LineItem>();

5 //Load the bytes for the document

6 byte[] xmlBytes = this.workflowProperties.Item.File.OpenBinary();

8 //Remove the BOM from the xml file so XmlDocument Can handle it

9 string Xml = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(xmlBytes);//, 1, xmlBytes.Length - 1);

10 if (Xml[0] == (char)0xfeff)

11 {

12 Xml = Xml.Substring(1);

13 }

15 XmlDocument Document = new XmlDocument();

16 Document.LoadXml(Xml);

18 XmlElement RootElement = Document.DocumentElement;

20 XmlNamespaceManager Manager = new XmlNamespaceManager(Document.NameTable);

21 Manager.AddNamespace("my", RootElement.NamespaceURI);

23 //Get Due Date

24 dueDate = DateTime.Parse(RootElement.SelectSingleNode("//my:ShipBy", Manager).InnerText);

26 //Get Order Details

27 XmlNodeList OrderItems = RootElement.SelectNodes("//my:OrderItem", Manager);

28 foreach(XmlNode OrderItem in OrderItems)

29 {

30 LineItem LineItem = new LineItem();

31 LineItem.ProductID = OrderItem.SelectSingleNode("my:ProductID", Manager).InnerText;

32 LineItem.Quantity = OrderItem.SelectSingleNode("my:Quantity", Manager).InnerText;

33 LineItems.Add(LineItem);

34 }

36 items = LineItems.ToArray();

38 }

Passing repeating data to an InfoPath task form
In MOSS workflows, InfoPath task form is receiving data by setting up a secondary data source bound to a "ItemMetadata.xml" file. Unfortunately, repeating data schema is not supported in this file.

In this example, I will try to send the data in original list item file to the InfoPath task form, I am sending over the actual xml of the original list item file as a string value in the ItemMetadata. To get the actual xml of the original list item file, we can use the code snippet extracted from above example:

//Load the bytes for the document

byte[] xmlBytes = this.workflowProperties.Item.File.OpenBinary();

//Remove the BOM from the xml file so XmlDocument Can handle it

string Xml = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(xmlBytes);//, 1, xmlBytes.Length - 1);

if (Xml[0] == (char)0xfeff)

{

Xml = Xml.Substring(1);

}

Here we get the string variable "Xml" as the xml of the original list item file, and we can pass it to ItemMetadata. Next step is to parse this xml string into repeating data in the InfoPath task form, to do this, we have to write custom code in the InfoPath task form, will require the form to be "Fully Trust". The code snippet of the task form is as below:

public void FormEvents_Loading(object sender, LoadingEventArgs e)

{

string xmlSource = this.DataSources["ItemMetadata"].CreateNavigator().SelectSingleNode("/z:row/@ows_repeatData", NamespaceManager).Value;

XmlDocument nodeDoc = new XmlDocument();

nodeDoc.LoadXml(xmlSource);

XPathNavigator sectionNode = this.MainDataSource.CreateNavigator().SelectSingleNode("/my:myFields", NamespaceManager);

string ns = sectionNode.NamespaceURI;

//we need to delete the default one Infopath adds in

this.MainDataSource.CreateNavigator().SelectSingleNode("/my:myFields/my:repeatDetail", NamespaceManager).DeleteSelf();

foreach (XmlNode thisNode in nodeDoc.DocumentElement.ChildNodes)

{

if ((thisNode.LocalName == "repeatDetail"))

{

//Start populating the data

XmlWriter write = sectionNode.AppendChild();

write.WriteStartElement("my", "repeatDetail", ns);

write.WriteElementString("my", "DataColumn1", ns, "Value1");

write.WriteElementString("my", "DataColumn2", ns, "Value2");

write.WriteElementString("my", "DataColumn3", ns, "Value3");

write.WriteElementString("my", "DataColumn4", ns, "Value4");

write.WriteEndElement();

write.Close();

}

Adding Workflow Task Link in Auto-generated Email

2008-05-19T15:59:00.001+08:00

Overview

Sending Email is a common activity in MOSS workflows. When alerting the task assignee to finish the task, it is quite a normal thought to include the Workflow Task Link in the Email. Below is how to do this.

Reference

Task URL in workflows..

Code Snippet

1 private string returnTaskUrls(string taskId)

2 {

3 //Use this to return the relevant URL's for use in e-mail of tasks.

4 string weburl = workflowProperties.WebUrl;

5 string taskUrl = "/_layouts/WrkTaskIP.aspx?List=";

6 string listId = workflowProperties.TaskListId.ToString();

7 string fulltaskUrl = weburl + taskUrl + listId + "&ID=" + taskId;

8 string htmlTaskLink = "<a href=" + "\"" + fulltaskUrl + "\"" + ">Click here to open the task directly in SharePoint</A>";

10 return htmlTaskLink;

11 }

Steps

The above function will return the HTML code for task link given the "taskId" parameter.

The main idea here is to get the "taskId" parameter, which is actually the "ListItemId" of the task. In order to get its value, we can bind this task properties with a variable.

In your code, create a public Int32 variable
Navigate to "Workflow Designer" view
Right Click on the "Create Task" activity of the task you want to link, select "Properties"
In properties, select "ListItemId", then clicks the ellipsis (...) button that appears
Select the variable created in "Step 1" and click "OK" to bind it.
Finish!

Custom 'Save' Button in InfoPath Form to save into MOSS Document Library

2008-05-15T11:30:00.001+08:00

Overview

I always try to hide the Top and Bottom Toolbar (the one showing "Save", "SaveAs", "Close") in my Browser-enabled InfoPath Forms. But how can I let the user to save the Form into a Document Library without showing the toolbar?. The answer is to submit the form to the destination MOSS Document Library.

Reference

Create a custom Save Button in InfoPath

Steps

In InfoPath 2007, choose 'Tools' => 'Submit Options'
Check 'Allow users to submit this form', choose 'Send form data to a single destination' radio button, select 'SharePoint document library' in the dropdown under the 'Send form...' radio button.
Under the 'SharePoint document library' dropdown, click 'Add' button.
In 'Data Connection Wizard', enter the full URL of the Document Library (e.g. "http://localhost/Doc Lib/Forms/AllItems.aspx" ) in the 'Document Library' Text box.
Enter File name for the saved Form, you can add function to dynamically create file name. (By clicking the 'fx' button on the right). Click 'Next'
Enter the name for this data connection.
After you create the data connection, you should convert it into .udcx file and saved in inside the MOSS server for administrator approval. Check My Previous Post for detail steps.

Banksy - 英國街頭藝術家

2008-05-13T00:42:00.001+08:00

Banksy 是一個英國的"塗鴉"藝術家, 他反戰, 反權威, 崇尚人權, 愛好和平... 不過目無法紀(隨處塗鴉可是犯法的東西, 大家不要亂學. 欣賞塗鴉則沒問題 :P). 不單英國街頭會出現他的"墨寶", 連以色列, 法國甚至倫敦國家藝術館裡 (他自己偷偷放入) 也能看到他的作品.

他其中最為人津津樂道的系列是數幅塗在 "以巴圍牆" 上的作品 (註: 2), 目的都是宣示反對以色列建圍牆及反戰的意想. 至於對他人指他 "破壞" 圍牆的指責, 他則認為 "How illegal is it to vandalize a wall, if the wall itself has been deemed unlawful by the International Court of Justice?"

本來都是在做著不見得光的勾當 (畫的時候不見得光), 想不到竟有人想出高價買他的 "塗鴉". 不過看看我們香港已故的 "塗鴉宗師" 九龍皇帝, 寫的大字不也一樣有商業價值嗎？

Banksy's 作品:

大象也無力負起戰爭的沉重

令人心情愉快的 "雙黃線"

唱著"盧冠庭 - 天鳥"的小女孩... "呀吓~ 我要飛往天上...."

"Prison Break" for kids

Reference

http://www.banksy.co.uk/
Banksy - PALESTINIAN JOB 以巴圍牆塗鴉

How to embed browser-enabled InfoPath Forms into Webpart

2008-05-11T14:43:00.001+08:00

Overview

To have a browser-enabled InfoPath Form is nice, but to have an InfoPath Form embed webpart that can be put at anywhere in your page is even more nicer!!! The following PDF file by Nick Grattan Consultancy Limited will shows you how to used out-of-the-box "XmlFormView" Library as a webpart container of browser-enabled InfoPath Forms.

Reference

How to Host Microsoft InfoPath Forms in SharePoint 2007 Web Part Pages (PDF)

Copying Files between Document Libraries in WSS 3.0 Workflow

2008-05-11T14:26:00.001+08:00

Overview

Sometimes you would need to move/copy files to different Document Libraries during a workflow process, but when using 'File.CopyTo' or 'File.MoveTo' method there may be build errors. If this is the case, then you can use the following snippet (Copied from 'cwogle' ) to manually 'copy' a file to the destination Document Library.

On the other hand, if you want to copy the whole SPListItem to another Document Library, then you can use 'SPListItem.CopyTo()' method.

Reference

moving sharepoint files to different folder

Code Snippet

1 // Get Destination Folder

2 SPWeb currWeb = workflowProperties.Web;

3 SPFolder destnFolder = currWeb.GetFolder("http://host/DocLibrary/");

5 // Copy the File to there

6 SPListItem item = workflowProperties.Item;

7 Byte[] fileContents = item.File.OpenBinary();

8 SPFile newFile = destnFolder.Files.Add(

9 destnFolder.ServerRelativeUrl + "/" + item.File.Name,

10 fileContents,

11 item.File.Author,

12 item.File.ModifiedBy,

13 item.File.TimeCreated,

14 item.File.TimeLastModified);

Update Workflow Task properties with 'UpdateTask Activity'

2008-05-11T00:10:00.001+08:00

吹水

OK~ 之前幾個post打左咁多英文, 都係時候講下廣東話啦... :p
話說我今個星期接到單非常好玩既job, 就係無人做過既 WSS/MOSS Workflow 啦~ 個期仲要鬼咁急, 不過只係做demo啫~
由於我係用 Sequential Workflow + Looping + Create / Update / Delete Tasks, 所以出現好多問題, 最後我用左個折衷方法就係只用一個task, 靠update佢既 "Title" 同 "AssignedTo" properties 黎 "扮" 不同既 tasks. 不過最後我發覺原來要 update 一個 task 既 properties 係幾煩既....

Reference

Task reassignments using UpdateTask Activity

Overview / Steps (用返英文啦)

In order to update the task properties, 'UpdateTask' Activity should be used in VS2005 Workflow Designer. If you cannot find this in the Toolbox, try making a new Tab in Toolbox and then right-click and select "Choose Items...", then add "Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.dll".

After 'UpdateTask' Activity is inserted, double click on it in Workflow Designer and use "UpdateTask" class to set new value for the task properties.

Code Snippet:

113 private void updateTask1_MethodInvoking(object sender, EventArgs e)

114 {

115 UpdateTask task = (UpdateTask)sender;

116 task.TaskProperties.AssignedTo = this.assignee;

117 task.TaskProperties.Title = "Please update...";

118 }

In the above snippet, the "AssignedTo" and "Title" properties are updated.

Key Point: Setting "AfterProperties" for "OnTaskChanged" Activity and "TaskProperties" for "UpdateTask" Activity

Very often you will find that using the method state above could not update the task properties, this is because the "OnTaskChanged.AfterProperties" and "UpdateTask.TaskProperties" are both bound to the same "SPWorkflowTaskProperties" object. So make sure that they are NOT bound to the same Properties.

I also found that if you have more that one "OnTaskChanged" Activities and "UpdateTask" Activities for a certain task, you only need two "SPWorkflowTaskProperties" objects. One for all "OnTaskChanged" Activities and the other for all "UpdateTask" Activities.

Development/Deployment Steps of Workflow in MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0

2008-05-10T17:20:00.001+08:00

Overview

Both MOSS 2007 & WSS 3.0 supports workflow features. However, the steps in developing and deploying workflow in them are quite different. This is because two different types of Visual Studio Project templates are provided for MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0 separately.

According to my experience, MOSS 2007 can use both types in development and deployment, yet WSS 3.0 can only use "SharePoint Services Workflow Template" in deployment, using "SharePoint Server Workflow Template" will result in error.

Typical Error:
"System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature, assembly 'Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature"

Development Environment

IDE: Visual Studio 2005 (VSTS)
Others:
MOSS SDK v1.2 (For MOSS 2007)
VS extension for WSS (For WSS 3.0)
VS extension for Workflow

MOSS 2007

Development

In Visual Studio, "New" => "Project"
Expand "Visual C#" section, select "Share Point Server (Sequential / State Machine) Workflow Template"
Develop Workflow, Forms (Association, Initiation, Modification or Task Form), and coding.

Deployment

Setup "feature.xml", "workflow.xml"
Open "PostBuildActions.bat" inside "DeploymentFIles" and modify it according to instructions inside the .bat file.
Right-click on Project Name in "Solution Explorer" and select "Properties"
Select "Build Events" tab, at "Post-build event command line", change parameter UNDEPLOY to DEPLOY
Build / Re-build the project
Done!

WSS 3.0

Development

In Visual Studio, "New" => "Project"
Expand "Visual C#" section, select "Share Point Services (Sequential / State Machine) Workflow Template"
Develop Workflow, Forms (Association, Initiation, Modification or Task Form), and coding.

Deployment

Setup "feature.xml", "workflow.xml"
Open "Install.bat" and modify it according to instructions inside the .bat file.
Build / Re-build the project
In Command Prompt, navigate to your project folder. Run "Install.bat"
Done!

Solution for WSS 3.0 'Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature NOT FOUND' Deployment Error

Warning: This is only a small workaround when you develop the whole WSS 3.0 workflow based on MOSS 2007 Project Template and get error in deployment. This is not guarantee to work and the workflow might not run even after it is activated in WSS 3.0. Always use "SharePoint Services Workflow Template" for WSS 3.0 Projects.

To workaround this error is simple, just open the "feature.xml" of your workflow project in Visual Studio and delete the two lines beginning with "ReceiverAssembly=...." and "ReceiverClass=.....". After that, try re-build your project and you're done!

Reference

WSS 3.0 - Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature file not found??

Accessing Data from Workflow Association and Initiation Forms in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

2008-05-09T16:37:00.001+08:00

Reference

Accessing Data from Workflow Association and Initiation Forms in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Overview

It is often that a Workflow template would need some initial parameters when it is first associated to a document library or started by an event. In SharePoint Products, it is supported by adding Association and Initiation Forms to the Workflow template.

However, WSS 3.0 does not support InfoPath Form Services (I remember only MOSS 2007 Enterprise Edition supports this). We are going to create the Assoc/Init Forms by ASP.NET Forms, and apply the form value into the Workflow instance.

WSS 3.0 - "Value does not fall within expected range" after installing Workflow feature

2008-05-08T15:47:00.001+08:00

Reference

Deploying a custom MOSS 2007 workflow

Symptoms

After installing "Workflow Feature" (by modifying feature.xml, workflow.xml & install.bat and then run install.bat), Error "Value does not fall within expected range" returned when clicking "Document Library Settings" at ANY Document Libraries.

Results behind

Corrupted feature.xml or workflow.xml (e.g. typing error, Type in wrong "TaskListContentTypeId")

Solution

Run:
stsadm -o deactivatefeature -filename %Path of the feature.xml (e.g. C:\XML\feature.xml)% -url http://%YourServerURL% -force <= to deactive the corrupted feature

stsadm -o uninstallfeature -filename %Path of the feature.xml (e.g. C:\XML\feature.xml)% -force <= to uninstall the corrupted feature

Remarks

This solution should be applicable to MOSS 2007

MOSS 2007 BDC - Action

2008-05-06T16:31:00.001+08:00

Overview

Action 係 BDC 既一個 feature, 佢既功能係為每一個 record 加上 Custom Link, 而 Link 入面亦可以放入 parameters. 如果配合InfoPath Form / Web Services, 就可以實現用 BDC update / create / delete 既功能.

Reference

MSDN - Action

Sample application definition XML

90 <Actions>

91 <Action Position="1" IsOpenedInNewWindow="false" Url="http://localhost/edit.aspx?id={0}" ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/delete.gif" Name="Delete">

92 <ActionParameters>

93 <ActionParameter Index="0" Name="Id" />

94 </ActionParameters>

95 </Action>

96 </Actions>

於 Share Point Central Administration 為 Entity 加 Custom Actions

其實除了 definition file, 我們還可以在 Import 了 BDC Application 之後, 在 "Share Point 3.0 Central Administration" Web Page 那裏再加減 Custom Actions. 這樣做的好處不單是可以隨時更改 Actions, 不用每次都改動那個大得恐怖的 XML (之後還要 import...), 而且在 central administrationh 做錯的可能性幾乎是零 (錯了也可輕易改正).

在 "Share Point 3.0 Central Administration" 改 Actions 的 Steps:

在左邊的 navigation bar 按 "SharedServices"
在 "Business Data Catalog" Section 按 "View entities"
選擇想要加 Actions 的 Entity
在 "View Entity" 版面 scroll 到下面, 在 "Actions" Section 選想要更改的 Action, 或按 "Add Action" 增加 Action.

在 BDC Data List Web Part 裏面 display Actions dropdown list.

要在 Data List 裏面 display Actions dropdown list, 方法是要於 web part 中選好title column. 而選 title column 的方法如下:

去想要更改的 Web Part Page 選 "Edit Page"
在想要改的 Web Part 右上角選 "Edit View"
在 "Edit View" Page, "Column" Section, 選 Column Name 左邊的 Radio Button 來 set Title Column.

效果如下︰