MOSS 2007, Testing and Musing

Introducing StyleCop to Legacy Code

2010-10-22T03:54:00.002-04:00

I found this link to an MSDN article on 'Introducing StyleCop to Legacy Code

stsadm -o createsiteinnewdb

2010-10-13T03:50:00.002-04:00

Ever used the createsiteinnewdb and passed in a database name only for MOSS to use one of it's PIA Guid ones? Well check that if the command had failed before that the MDF and LDF files had not been created. Have a look in Data and delete if it exists.

Drop into GAC on Windows Server 2008

2010-08-25T05:42:00.001-04:00

If you are getting the message that access is denied when trying to drop a dll into the GAC on a Windows Server 2008 and you have administrator priviledges

1. From the Administrative Tools select ‘Local Security Policy’
2. From ‘Local Policies’ select ‘Security Options’
3. Scroll down to ‘User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode’ and disabled it
4. Reboot for the policy to be applied.

“User Account Control: Run all users, including administrators, as standard users.

This security setting determines the behavior of all UAC policies for the entire system.

The options are:

• Enabled: Admin Approval Mode and all other UAC policies are dependent on this option being enabled. Changing this setting requires a system reboot.

• Disabled: Admin Approval Mode user type and all related UAC policies will be disabled. Note: the Security Center will notify that the overall security of the operating system has been reduced.

Default: Enabled”

Upgrade error installing SharePoint 2007 on Windows Server 2008 (x64)

2010-08-24T10:33:00.001-04:00

I came across this installing SharePoint 2007 onto a Windows Server 2008 (x64).

The server was a fresh install and had Office 2010 installed before the SharePoint installation was started.

The error is caused by InfoPath 2010 – uninstall InfoPath/Office 2010 and then run the SharePoint install again.

MOSS Deployment

2009-07-01T11:41:00.001-04:00

If you have a deployment job that hangs in the running state where it had previous failed then try this:

on source and target please do the following:

Open Central-Admin - Operations - Timer Job Status.

Choose "Service" for the "View"

Select "Central Administration" for the Service

Can you find a Content Deployment timer job?

If not, then the job is indeed no longer running.

In this situation you can change the status to Failed manually to allow restart:

Browse to http://central-admin-url/Lists/Content%20Deployment%20Jobs

choose the list item related to the job that shows the incorrect status

edit the job and change the "LastStatus" field to "2" which means Failed.

Now you can restart the job manually using the manage content deployment paths and jobs page.

Thanks to Stefan Goßner

Intro to Pex and TDD

2009-06-16T18:18:00.001-04:00

I need to work on the presentation for the dev team at work and have the samples and presentation from the Pex site but am not sure which code samples to use or to mix in some work code?

Do I include Contacts and Stubs as well or would that be to much for a 2 hour session?

Pex Explorations

2009-06-05T06:38:00.002-04:00

So after last night I decided to break out a couple of methods for testing from the main project.

and running Pex generate unit tests gave me the following

and added

Pex

2009-06-04T18:14:00.001-04:00

Didn’t get as much done as I would have liked. Though one thought did cross my mind why do VS templates not conform to things like StyleCop and R#

Must admit though I like Pex as it helps create tests I think I might need to pick a fresh project to add it to.

Do take the time to read through the documentation and the slide decks are good for teams.

First pass at Pex

2009-06-03T17:27:00.001-04:00

I have a class that I need to serialize out for remoting which has information about an order with addresses, payment details and order items.

This object will be sent to a message queue and deserialized before process into out MS Dynamics Nav database.

The first thing I did was download the latest version of Pex and get the class to build. Once this was done I ran the Pex explorations and encountered an error ‘failed to generate project CSharp\Test\TestProject.zip’ the post explains about file path lengths and how to get passed this. It’s a bit confusing here as this was my home machine and it’s not difficult to move solutions around but I think it my be more tricky on the dev box at work where paths can be long as projects can be nested quite deeply. This has also caused Reshaper to throw exceptions as well so it is something to watch out for.

So what happened next – well everything went smoothly and Pex found that I was missing an entry in my app.config. True – i had copied the code over but not the solution so I had missed the app.config even though everything built. A .stubx file is built by default for the class under test.

It is worth pointing out that I had seen previous demos of Pex at DDD7 and read through, though so far not in great detail the documentation.

I’ll go through the other tests tomorrow.

Stubs

2009-06-02T18:51:00.001-04:00

Just run the Bowling Game application created to run unit tests from the TDD book and used Pex to create parameterized unit test stubs and it creates a .stubx for each of the classes. Wondered how each class had to be stubbed out.

Stubs and Pex

2009-06-01T08:53:00.001-04:00

Should have paid more attention to the ‘Getting Started’ document where it mentions that Stubs only supports mocking of Interfaces and abstract methods.

Pex 0.13 Released

2009-05-29T07:15:00.001-04:00

Pex 0.13 Released with this release and some new project work I’m going to try and use Pex to create tests. Should be interesting as I’ve got to test webservices and serialization for messaging.

MOSS 2007 SP2 Expiration Issue

2009-05-22T07:46:00.001-04:00

MOSS SP2 Expiration Issue there is an issue where the expiration date on an SP2 updated server will as they say “During the installation of SP2, a product expiration date is improperly activated. This means SharePoint will expire as though it was a trial installation 180 days after SP2 is deployed. The activation of the expiration date will not affect the normal function of SharePoint up until the expiration date passes. Furthermore, product expiration 180 days after SP2 installation will not affect customer’s data, configuration or application code but will render SharePoint inaccessible for end-users.”

How’s that for an issue!!!

401.1 Unauthorized access

2009-05-14T17:34:00.001-04:00

Our Infrastructure 'guru' has advised that, the IE7 update be removed and the registry entry be deleted while he investigates it further.

401.1 Unauthorized access

2009-05-12T15:58:00.007-04:00

IE7 Security Update KB963027

After installing this update IE7 stopped authorizing access to sites on our MOSS 2007 SP2 box. Unistall this update and it allows access.

If you leave the update in place (recommended) I found method 2 worked http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;896861

Host Headed Site Collections

2009-05-12T05:42:00.005-04:00

Running through the creation of host headed site collections and deployment can be frustrating at times as there doesn't seem to be much documentation out there.

Our environment is an application/source server sitting within our domain and a WFE farm out in the DMZ. All content is sent to the WFE by content deloyment.

Create a standard publishing site on the application server with the required host header. Then with the stsadm createsite command with the values for the host header site collections - you can add the sitetemplate to the createsite command or login to each site and set the template from there.

Create a host headed blank site on the WFE and a blank site collection. Then with the stadm createsite command create the host headed site collections.

stsadm -o createsite -url hostheadedurl-owneremail owneremail-ownerlogin ownerlogin-hhurl rootsiteheadedurl-title sitetitle-sitetemplate BLANKINTERNETCONTAINER#0

[There are other options that can be set]

It was at this point that I found an issue where, if I used the STS#0 template as the sitetemplate the deployments later would not run. Login to each site and pick the blank site template and accept the permission defaults.

On the application server - content deployment - create a path from the root site collection to the root site collection on the WFE. You'll need to create a path for each of the host headed site collections and then create a job for each one.

Don't forget, as I did the first time round, to add the host headers onto IIS and either have them registered on your DNS or add them to the hosts file.

Edit: I forgot to mention that AAM will have no entries for these host headed site collections. You can add a flag to create the site with it's own content database if you need (maybe easier for the DBA to control)

MOSS 2007 & WSS 3.0 SP2

2009-04-28T16:22:00.001-04:00

MOSS 2007 & WSS 3.0 SP2 released

StyleCop Update

2009-03-17T07:20:00.001-04:00

An update for StyleCop was released on March 13. After removing the previous version and installing the new one I had to rerun the StyleCop for Resharper addin.

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/sourceanalysis (v4.3.1.3 released March 13, 2009)

http://stylecopforresharper.codeplex.com/ (0.0.14317.000 released March 14, 2009)

http://stylefix.codeplex.com/ (haven’t tried this)

Adding Metadata to a MOSS 2007 Publishing Portal pt2

2009-03-04T03:35:00.003-05:00

Add three columns to the Content Type that you use for WCM. In this example I've used PageTitle, PageDescription and PageKeywords.

Add the assembly to the Master Page and reference the MetaData dll
<%@ Register TagPrefix="metaControl" Namespace="MetaData.Render" Assembly="MetaData.Render, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=198d2f392e054e3e" %>

Example: In the head
<metaControl:SharePointMetaTag runat="server" ID="metaTag1" MetaName="DESCRIPTION" MetaAttributeName="Content" PublishingPagePropertyName="PageDescription" DefaultAttributeContent=""/>

The DefaultAttributeContent is where the editor has not completed the field as we've made them non manditory

namespace MetaData.Render
{
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.IO;
// using System.Linq;
using System.Security.Permissions;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

///

/// A webpart to render MetaData information onto a published page
///

[ParseChildren(false), ToolboxData("<{0}:MetaTag runat=\"server\" name=\"\"> "), PersistChildren(true),
AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.InheritanceDemand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal),
AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.LinkDemand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal),
DefaultProperty("Name")]
public class MetaData : WebControl
{
///

/// Name to render out
///

private string name;

///

/// Initializes a new instance of the MetaData class.
///

public MetaData() : base(HtmlTextWriterTag.Meta)
{
}

///

/// Gets or sets the Tag name to render out
///

[Bindable(true), Category("Appearance"), DefaultValue(""), Description("Sets the MetaTag's name attribute.")]
public string Name
{
get { return this.name; }
set { this.name = value; }
}

///

/// Render the control
///

/// Render this writer
protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
{
// Render control only if there is a tagname specified
if (!this.name.Equals(string.Empty))
{
base.Render(writer);
}
}

///

/// Add attributes to Render
///

/// The writer to add the attributes to
protected override void AddAttributesToRender(HtmlTextWriter writer)
{
// Write the name attribute
writer.AddAttribute("name", this.name);

// Write the value attribute
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
base.RenderContents(new HtmlTextWriter(sw));
writer.AddAttribute("value", sw.ToString());
}

///

/// Render the content out
///

/// The writer to be rendered
protected override void RenderContents(HtmlTextWriter writer)
{
// this control does not render any contents
}
}
}

Silverlight Unit Testing, RhinoMocks, Unity and Resharper

2009-03-03T03:59:00.001-05:00

This is a great article that helps explain how to test Silverlight

http://silverlight.net/blogs/justinangel/archive/2009/02/25/silverlight-unit-testing-rhinomocks-unity-and-resharper.aspx

Adding Metadata to a MOSS 2007 Publishing Portal

2009-02-26T15:59:00.002-05:00

I found a way of adding MetaData to each page within a public facing website. There are still discussions on whether it is of any value, as some search engines don't always read it, to change the description and keywords.

In the Content Type(s) that the pages use add three fields - one for page title that will appear in the browser and will not affect the title used for the .aspx and in menus, one for the description as for some reason the description added when the page is created is not used (though I don't know it is crawled and returned in search results) and keywords.

I didn't add these fields to the page layout as there are lots of pages for our Marketing department, who own the content, to redo.

I'll post up the rest of the code tomorrow as I don't have the code at home.

Create custom 404 in MOSS 2007

2009-02-13T06:51:00.001-05:00

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941329/en-us

We had an issue where our new site had the same Url as the old one and Google search results were returning the old one which was no longer visible (Url pointing to new IP address) the above link is to the Microsoft Knowledge Base article for a solution. It worked for us.

Entity Framework

2009-02-10T03:37:00.001-05:00

Finally got the EF to install!! It appears that VS2008 did not have SP1 and non of this was picked up on the updates. Once installed the DataModeller appered

Entity Framework Tests

2009-02-09T12:00:00.001-05:00

Just a quick one – guess I was being an idiot (no change there then). I was creating a couple of tests for my entity model and got an error

"The specified named connection is either not found in the configuration, not intended to be used with the EntityClient provider, or not valid."

A little bit of searching revealed that I needed an app.config for the test project with the connection settings for the model – makes sense but was confusing at first.

Entity Framework

2009-02-09T03:44:00.001-05:00

Had some problems, and still do, installing the Entity Framework on my home laptop. At one point after un-installing 3.5 SP1 and the updates VS2008 decided that it would also delete all my templates.

IE8 RC1 Released

2009-01-27T03:37:00.001-05:00

It has been announced that IE8 has gone to RC1. See the notes for known issues

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/worldwide-sites.aspx

Content Deployment Manifest Reader

2009-01-21T05:23:00.001-05:00

I found this tool from Maxime Bombardier about troubleshooting content deployment issues along with a link to an excellent tool for debugging the manifest file to see where the content deployment is failing.

http://blogs.msdn.com/maximeb/archive/2008/05/16/sharepoint-content-deployment-manifest-reader.aspx

Remote debugging

2009-01-15T06:25:00.001-05:00

I was looking at a way to get remote debugging working for debugging MOSS custom webparts from an VS2008/XP PC to the Win2003 server running MOSS.

The section “The Remote Debugging Monitor is the one accepting your debug calls and the talking back to Visual Studio on your client, so to get these things to work you have to start the client as the user running Visual Studio (or have administrative permissions on the client). You can either log in to the remote host using that user or, as I prefer, right-click on the msvsmon.exe and choose Run As... Make sure that the user you are using to run the monitor with is member of the local Administrators group.” was a ‘gotcha’ that I missed first time round.

http://www.wictorwilen.se/Post/How-to-get-Remote-Debugging-work-properly.aspx

Do remember that when you attach to the w3p process during debugging it will prevent other users on MOSS from performing any actions.

Ted Patterson Free Webcast

2009-01-15T06:17:00.001-05:00

Introduction to SharePoint 2007 Development Using Features and Solution Packages Instructor: Ted Pattison Date: January 20, 2009 Time: 1 - 2 PM EST Price: FREE!

In this one hour seminar, Ted Pattison will give you a jumpstart into the world of SharePoint development and explain how Features make it possible to design and implement reusable business solutions. Ted will also show you how to develop Features using a Visual Studio 2008 project as well as how to build a solution package which will enable you to deploy and to update your Features in a production environment using best practice techniques. Register today at http://cts.vresp.com/c/?TedPattisonGroup/a4a92fb4b0/a244052983/c1faaf5642

Announcing: Community Technology Preview of Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint v1.3

2009-01-13T03:34:00.001-05:00

Announcing: Community Technology Preview of Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint v1.3

There is a CTP for VS2008 extensions for Sharepoint released.

The final release of VSeWSS 1.3 is planned for the North American Spring of 2009.

Removing Webparts

2008-12-19T03:20:00.001-05:00

I had an instance where I needed to remove webparts from a page but MOSS would allow it in the usual manner directly from the page. To get around this append ?contents=1 to the url and you can check off which parts to remove – the page needs to be in edit mode for this to work.

Call of Duty: World at War

2008-10-15T03:57:00.001-04:00

I had a chance last night to play the beta of Call of Duty:World at War. First impressions were not bad, but everything is going to difficult comparing anything to Call of Duty4:Modern Warfare – which is such an awesome online experience.

I didn’t play much, just a couple of games of TDM, there are three maps available – this is a beta after all, and the ranks only go up to 11. In the RTM there are 65 ranks and (?)prestige's, perks etc to be had. As this is set back in time the UAV, Airstrike and chopper are gone and are replaced by spotter planes, artillery and dogs. If anyone has played the single player mode of CoD4 they will remember the dogs and they are as much a pain in this one as choppers are in 4 – though you do get points for shooting them.

There are additional slots for custom classes, 5 at first but more once you prestige, so all those people who haven’t taken prestige in CoD4, will now have to decide whether to take it in this game for the added benefit of the custom slots.

There is the opportunity to look back at stats and view stats of people in the lobby. Stats are also broken down by game type, if you prefer one game type over another this will give the leaderboard a different look.

Within the beta there are a few game types but looking through the leaderboard filters it looks as though there are quite a few hardcore modes including Headquarters which is touted to come out on CoD4:MW soon (www.fourzerotwo.com)

The maps may be small but I found it quite difficult to guess friend or foe – which leads to the obvious result. You can turn off the icon or customize it above your teammates heads.

You can set the locale for which the lobby so those people who experience lag a lot may find helps.

Would I recommend it – the jury is still out on that one. Will I play it more – no, still a CoD4:MW player working through the 6th prestige and will keep going.

Pex Automated Testing

2008-10-15T03:39:00.001-04:00

“Pex is a tool being developed by Microsoft Research which has the potential to dramatically improve the quality of software testing while requiring minimal, if any, effort on the part of the developer. Pex can automatically generate a set of inputs for a paramaterized unit test which can effectively exercise most, if not all, possible code paths.“

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/briankel/Pex-Automated-Exploratory-Testing-for-NET/

There is a talk at the DDD7 at Reading on the 22nd November that include Pex, presentation by Ben Hall, along with ‘TDD and Hard to Test code’, IoC, MVC and lots more.

MSDN: Prescriptive Guidance for MOSS 2007 WCM Sites

2008-10-10T09:17:00.001-04:00

I found this on Andrew Connell’s excellent site

http://andrewconnell.com/blog/archive/2008/10/09/NOW-AVAILABLE-MSDN-Prescriptive-Guidance-for-MOSS-2007-WCM-Sites.aspx

TDD and Style Cop

2008-09-26T04:29:00.001-04:00

In this ever changing world the powers that be, that is to say me and my line manager have decided that it is time to introduce some stability/readability into the code that we and rest of the team produce.

To that end over the next few weeks we’ll be pushing for the use of tools, like StyleCop, to get consistency. Before the end of the year the introduction of TDD. TDD will be the more difficult as we’ll have to factor in the initial hit in code production.

Still around

2008-07-28T08:11:00.001-04:00

One final requirement that our end users had was that there should be a vertical menu system that would hide previously selected items and expend the current selection. The OOTB ASP.Net menu system did some of this but when displaying a deep hierarchy it didn't quite do what we wanted it to do. Dipping back into an OOTB publishing site and creating the predicted hierarchy to see how MOSS dealt with showed that after 3 levels the vertical menu gets truncated and a horizontal breadcrumb is created. The breadcrumb was the problem as none of our templates had a breadcrumb in. To resolve the issue we ended up buying the Telerik RAD Controls suite and using the Treeview for the navigation. The styling of the Treeview was done by adding the relevant CSS information into our site CSS.

With the deployment to our production environment, which so far has gone well, focus has moved to Phase 2. In the first part of this phase all the building blocks have been, or will be created, which include all the lists that will be used within the site.

Part of this phase will be using filtered lists - which seem like fun - where the user will select a value in one list and this will be used to populate another.

Code Metrics don't run with a reference to Microsoft.SharePoint.dll

2008-06-30T10:56:00.001-04:00

I thought it might be worthwhile to run some code metrics on an event receiver that I'm writing to send emails when someone submits a request.

When running the metrics an error is returned:

Message: An error occurred while calculating code metrics for target file <YourFileName> in project <YourProjectName>. The following error was encountered while reading module 'Microsoft.SharePoint': Security attribute type does not have a default constructor: Microsoft.SharePoint.Security.SharePointPermissionAttribute, Microsoft.SharePoint.Security, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, Publickeytoken=71e9bce111e9429c.

Solution: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/Workaround.aspx?FeedbackID=324796

UDC Creator

2008-06-27T11:24:00.001-04:00

Whilst we are in the final stages of our phase 1 development we're already scoping phase 2 (just for fun ;) ). Part of that exercise is to assess the best way forward for some use of forms within MOSS, more specifically, whether InfoPath would be a help or hinderance.

Whilst browsing around I found the following which is link to a UDC Creator http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb431899.aspx guess most people will have already found it but I thought it might be useful for someone.

Cannot compare two elements within an array

2008-06-19T06:06:00.001-04:00

I had this error message appear whilst moving between our development and staging environments. I had created a backup of the site I wanted to move and copied it over to the staging environment. Created the sites, there were four host headed sites to be created on staging to replicate our production environment. On three of the sites the stsadm -o restore command worked fine and on the fourth it would not. So after much scratching around comparing features, using utilities such as WssAnalyzeFeatures and FaultyFeatures, there was nothing obvious or indeed showing up as an error.

So to resolve the issue I used the stsadm -o export, to get a cab file and used the stsadm -o import -versions 2 and everything was fine.

Deployment of Reusable Content pt2

2008-06-17T10:59:00.001-04:00

It has been confirmed that the issue with versioning of automatically updateable reusable content within content deployment is a 'known issue' and will be addressed as either a hotfix or within the next service pack.

Deployment of Reusable Content

2008-06-10T11:42:00.001-04:00

I came across this issue the other day, which has been raised with MS who initially said they could reproduce it but now say they can't but are looking at it.

In the first instance where there is an approved version (v1.0) of the reusable content, it is added to the page and the page is deployed and the correct information is displayed.
When the reusable content is changed, so that we have a pending version (i.e. v1.1), and the deployment process is run it removes all previous versions, so that only the pending version exists, on the destination server. So if you have v2.1 pending and run the process, the destination server will have v2.1 from the source server but shows v0.1

The view on the source server is fine and so is a predeployment view (which is the site extended to Internet Zone)

Steps to reproduce the issue:

add some reusable content, with automatic updating, and approve it
add to a page (standard article page will do) approve the page so that it deploys
deploy to the destination server and it works as expected
edit the reusable content and leave it in a pending state, on the source server, this now shows as v1.0 published and v2.0 pending.
run the deployment
the content disappears from the destination server page that contained the original v1.0 – unexpected
on the destination server the reusable content shows v1.0 pending with the content from v2.0 pending from the source server and no previous versions.

Both servers have WSS3.0 SP1 and MOSS 2007 SP1 installed, Windows 2003 OS

Visual Studio extensions for Visual Studio 2008

2008-06-05T03:25:00.001-04:00

Got this from the SharePoint blogs:

Announcing the VSeWSS version 1.2!

Hi everyone, Chris Johnson from the WSS PM team here. We are really excited and pleased to announce that Version 1.2 of the Visual Studio extensions for WSS is now available for download!

This version adds Visual Studio 2008 support to the extensions. This is something many of you have been asking for.

Download VSeWSS 1.2 right here.

Today we are releasing the English edition of the Version 1.2 extensions. We will be releasing the German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, and Korean language versions shortly.

We know many of you have been eagerly awaiting VS2008 support, so we hope this release will help you build fantastic SharePoint solutions with the latest Visual Studio toolset.

Note: Version 1.2 is only for Visual Studio 2008. If you use Visual Studio 2005, you should still use Version 1.1 (download).

Also, I'm very excited to introduce: http://www.MSSharePointDeveloper.com! If you want to learn about SharePoint development, we designed this website to be the best place for you to get started. It has links to whitepapers, virtual labs, webcasts, screencasts, quickstarts, and other useful resources. You can also download a virtual machine that has been optimized for SharePoint development and includes all the tools you need to get started. So, go to http://www.MSSharePointDeveloper.com now! It's an easy URL to remember, so pass it along to your friends!

VSeWSS User Guide

In case you have not seen our User Guide for VSeWSS, you can download it here. It is a great resource that explains how you can use VSeWSS in many common SharePoint development scenarios.

What's in VSeWSS?

Version 1.2 of the Visual Studio 2008 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services contains the following tools to aid developers in building SharePoint applications:

Visual Studio 2008 Project Templates

Web Part
Team Site Definition
Blank Site Definition
List Definition
Empty SharePoint Project

Visual Studio 2008 Item Templates (items that can be added into an existing project)

Web Part
Custom Field
List Definition (with optional Event Receiver)
Content Type (with optional Event Receiver
Module
List Instance
List Event Handler
Template

SharePoint Solution Generator

This stand-alone program generates a Site Definition project from an existing SharePoint site. The program enables developers to use the browser and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer to customize the content of their sites before creating code by using Visual Studio.

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Q: Does VSeWSS 1.2 support Visual Studio 2008?
A: Yes.
Q: Does VSeWSS 1.2 support Visual Stuido 2005?
A: No, you must use Version 1.1 with Visual Studio 2005.
Q: What additional features are in Version 1.2?
A: For Version 1.2 we focussed on Visual Studio 2008 support only.
Q: Does VSeWSS support Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
A: Yes, VSeWSS supports both Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server.
Q: Does VSeWSS support Windows XP or "remote debugging"?
A: No, VSeWSS only works against local SharePoint installations.

Thanks!

Chris Johnson
Program Manager – SharePoint

Publication End Date displayed

2008-05-21T09:24:00.001-04:00

I've just had a request from our tester that the PublishingConsole.ascx control display the publication end date. Looking at the code, I thought no problem, as the publication start date, version and status are displayed, the end date must be exposed as well! Quick trip into MSDN to see the properties of the Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls to see the name guessing that it would be something similar the the PagePublishDateIndicator or the PublishingPageVersionIndicator and, you've guessed it, the end date is not exposed as an indicator.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.publishing.webcontrols.aspx

Site Definition Viewer

2008-05-15T05:41:00.001-04:00

I came across this handy little tool for viewing Site Definition files.

More Deployment Issues

2008-05-08T08:18:00.001-04:00

Having struggled with this for what seems like an eternity - and has since resulted in the project being put back by some considerable margin - it was reading through some more blogs that I came across what seemed to be the solution to the Masterpage problem (see previous posts).

By developing a feature that will create a site based upon a specific Masterpage and have it deploy correctly, the feature creation was OK and seemed to work but the associated contentTypes I could get to be created at the same time. After a lot of time yesterday the feature installed, but only at a site level because if the scope is changed to 'Farm' or 'Web' it would not install. So with this in mind I copied the relevant files to the WFE and installed/activated the feature. Created a new site on the backend as it was created as required and then ran the deployment - guess what the Masterpage was reset again!!!!

This has gone beyond a joke and I would recommend anyone thinking about going down the customization and deployment routes to seriously consider the time and resources required.

We will be raising this issue with our Gold Supplier and get them to raise a ticket with MS.

Create a Custom Site Definition

2008-05-07T07:44:00.001-04:00

I just came across this article by Eric Shupps on how to create a custom site definition. It looks as though it may help in the deployment issues where custom masterpages are not carried across to the WFE.

User security information cannot be properly imported without setting UserInfoDateTime option to ImportAll.

2008-04-25T09:59:00.001-04:00

After running a deployment the error message 'User security information cannot be properly imported without setting UserInfoDateTime option to ImportAll.' appears.

Despite setting the 'Security information in the deployment' to 'All' the message still appears, though the deployment still goes through. I've changed the setting to 'Role Definitions Only' and - guess what - it still appears. If the selection is reset to 'All' it is still there. The reason for resetting it was to check that it was actually being set, but from the tests it appears that the value is never actually passed.

Updating web.config with SafeControl entries

2008-04-23T10:59:00.001-04:00

I've had to find a method for updating web.config with a SafeControl entry programmatically. Whilst searching I found this article by Mark Wagner http://www.crsw.com/mark/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=32

It updates all the web.config files for the farm web applications so I'll have to look at another method, maybe just use a straight forward Xml update.

We have a setup file that creates and adds features and also restores from a backup - this is so we have a clean installation for use. In some cases where features/solutions have already been added but this is a new site rather than rely on the creators to add the SafeControl entry I was looking at a way of doing it within the setup file.

Windows Live Writer

2008-04-22T11:55:00.001-04:00

I'm trying out the Windows Live Writer

Cross Farm Deployment pt 3

2008-04-22T04:33:00.007-04:00

We've got our base sites ready and the deployment process completed. The next step is to get our UAT and system testing complete. These tests were the ones that threw up the problems we had with recursive workflows and inherited permissions on lists.

If all goes well then we should be ready for the end of the week to go live - thankfully someone else is looking at the URL and Host Header mapping and DNS changes required.

Cross Farm Deployment pt 2

2008-04-19T09:44:00.003-04:00

The issue with the failure of the export/import was due to some pages that had been approved/published had a parent that had not been approved/published. So much for asking the rest of the team to ensure all content was ready for the deployment.

On another issue we have a number of custom groups that are used where we have broken inheritance on reuseable content and image libraries so that the end users cannot delete or edit these. When the deployment is run to the WFE these custom groups are not exported, the deployment runs but warns that groups could not be imported. No matter which options you select in the deployment process nothing happens. You will not notice this if the default groups are only used.

As a work round we have backed up and restored the site to the staging and production servers and users will edit content from there and the deployment will be to WFE's and anonymous access turned on so it will not matter. But it is a gotcha!

Cross Farm Deployment pt 1

2008-04-16T06:55:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted in a while because I have been stuck in the 'hell' that is content deployment in MOSS 2007.

We've a 3 tier environment - one for development, one for staging and one for live. As these environments were not all available at the time of initial construction it has been a pain to get the deployment working. I think I have described the topology that we have but I'll quickly run through it again. In dev we have 2 x virtual MOSS boxes, in staging we have 1 x MOSS box and SQL in the domain and 1 x WFE in the DMZ, in live we have 1 x MOSS box , 1 x SQL cluster in the domain and 2 x WFE in the DMZ with a Domain Controller.

The initial pain was to get all the boxes talking to each other through the relevant ports - this is where if you have a third party running your firewalls you'll need them on call to create the relevant rules for the traffic(port 80, 433, 1433 etc). Once this was done it was the tedious process of getting each of the boxes into the relevant farm and get the services running - so far so good.

Once this was done the deployment process was started from between the development servers. If you running these as virtual machines ensure that the SQL box is a physical box as the processes will grind to a halt/very slow with the disc read/write operations in the virtual environment. This is where we are at the moment - the deployment has been proven between all the boxes as necessary.

We have a publishing site which has been heavily customized and needs to be deployed between the two development boxes and it has failed a number of times. It appears that the customization of the base pages etc is causing an issue. I'll write some more later in the week.

MOSS 2007 Internet Development

2008-03-26T11:14:00.002-04:00

We've got a deployment going on here that has the WFE's in a DMZ and an application server and SQL server on the LAN.

The installation of MOSS is fine on the LAN as you get authentication from the Domain Controllers - when you add the WFE in the DMZ you don't!! A trust relationship has to exist between the DMZ and the LAN - OK so far but if you have more than 1 WFE in the DMZ you can't run PSConfig to use SQL authentication. So our solution is to have a Domain Controller in the DMZ and establish trust back to the LAN, use Port 1433 for SQL and Port 80 as per normal and use content publishing between the application server (where users will edit content) and the DB's that the WFE's are pointing to.

U2U CAML Query Builder

2008-03-12T04:42:00.002-04:00

I recently installed and used the CAML Query Builder from U2U. It's a good tool but there was one gotcha - in the XML that is built, the query is nested in <Query></Query>, - alright so far and the tool returns results. Copy this and use it in the SPQuery object and all results are returned regardless of the query used !? Well by removing the <Query></Query> tags it resolves the issue.

Trace and Event Log Categories

2008-02-29T11:27:00.000-05:00

Least critical event to report to the event log

None

Error

Warning

Audit Failure

Audit Success

Information

Least critical event to report to the trace log

None

Unexpected

Monitorable

High

Medium

Verbose

Event Throttling Categories

2008-02-29T11:15:00.003-05:00

All	Administration
Backup and Restore	Backward Compatible Administration
Backward Compatible Site Object Model	Business Data
Communication	Content Deployment
Database	Document Management
E-Mail	Excel Calculation Services
Excel Services Administration	Excel Services Cache
Excel Services External Data	Excel Services Session
Excel Services Web Front End	Excel Web Access
Excel Web Services	Feature Infrastructure
Fields	Forms Services Administration
Forms Services Conversion and Deployment	Forms Services Data Binding
Forms Services Data Objects	Forms Services Deployment
Forms Services File Open	Forms Services Object Model
Forms Services Rendering	Forms Services Runtime
Forms Services Runtime	Forms Services Runtime - Business Logic
Forms Services Runtime - Data Connections	Forms Services Runtime - Session State
Forms Services Validation	General
Group Approval Enhanced Group Management Library	Group Approval Enhanced Group Management Pages
Group Approval Library	Group Approval Pages
Group Approval Schedules	Group Approval SOAP
Information Policy Management	IRM
Knowledge Network Server	Launcher Service
Load Balancer Service	Long running operation infrastructure
MCMS 2002 Migration	MS Search Administration
MS Search Advanced Tracing	MS Search Indexing
MS Search Propagation	MS Search Query
MS Search Query Processor	Office Server General
Office Server Shared Services	Project Server - General
Project Server Active Cache Enterprise Resource Load	Project Server Active Cache Load
Project Server Active Cache operations	Project Server Active Cache Save
Project Server Active Directory Synchronization	Project Server Analysis Cube Building
Project Server Archive, Restore	Project Server Calendars
Project Server Global	Project Server Notifications
Project Server Portfolio Management	Project Server Provisioning
Project Server Queue	Project Server Reporting
Project Server Resource	Project Server Security
Project Server Server-Side Events	Project Server Sharepoint Integration
Project Server Status Reports	Project Server Summary Resource Assignments
Project Server Task Statusing and Updates	Project Server Timesheet
Project Server-side Project Operations	Project Web Access
Publishing	Publishing Cache
Publishing Provisioning	Records Center
Runtime	Runtime
Server Help	Session State Service
Setup and Upgrade	SharePoint Services
Site Directory	Site Management
SSO	Timer
Timer Job	Topology
Unified Logging Service	Upgrade
User Profiles	Web Controls
Web Parts	WebParts
Workflow Features	Workflow Infrastructure

These are the categories available for logging under the Event Throttling Category in Diagnostic logging in MOSS 2007

MOSS 2007 Webpart Control Events not Firing

2008-02-20T03:37:00.003-05:00

I found this an 'interesting one'.

protected override void CreateChildControls()
{
try
{
PopulateDataTable();
CreateDropDown();
base.CreateChildControls();
}
catch(Exception ex)
{...}
}

When creating a Webpart and I had the events wired up in the CreateDropDown() they would not fire but when I moved them into the CreateChildControls() they did!

All the CreateDropDown() did was populate a drop down from the table created in the PopulateDataTable() and wire up the Click event.

I haven't found an answer yet as to why this would happen but I'll look into it later but it worked for me.

Basic MOSS 2007 Installation

2008-02-12T08:41:00.000-05:00

I found this article about the steps to configure a basic MOSS 2007 Farm

http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2006/11/07/installing-rtm.aspx

Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare

2008-01-31T10:45:00.000-05:00

Just a side note I made it to the 1st prestige level last night and decided to go for and start the ranking again.

2008-01-30T04:53:00.000-05:00

I'm looking at setting the search scope and results page for our dev MOSS 2007 installation.

After setting the scope for the Shared Service Provider (SSP) it appears that this is used for all sites that use this SSP - that may cause a problem if we are going to use the same SSP for our public Internet facing site and an Extranet/Intranet. So more reading required. If anyone has the answer drop me a line here.

With the settings I have I want to restrict anon users, from our Internet access, from searching on the lists that we have set up for populating drop downs.

Web Part bin vs _app_bin vs GAC

2008-01-24T08:19:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd just post this up. After struggling with the creation of the webpart that displays drop downs using the SharePoint Object Model (i.e. SPSite and SPList) to get to the lists it turns out that the errors are related to the permission that the part has to this object model. (No surprise there then)

What was surprising was that there were a number of different solutions to the problem:

1. Install the dll into the bin
2. Install the dll into the GAC
3. Install the dll into the _app_bin

If the dll is installed into the GAC then it runs under full trust, if you install into the bin then Code Access Security Policy has to be applied and the wss_minimaltrust.config has to be edited, or installing into the _app_bin runs OK.

So far I have not found a definitive solution - even from good sources the response seems to be mixed as the best place for these dll's.

Well happy days!!

MOSS 2007 WebPart

2008-01-18T07:06:00.000-05:00

Here is some code for a WebPart that is a clickable image (you'll need to edit the out HTML):

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;

namespace FMWebPartImage
{
[Guid("4f37cd37-d097-41c1-9c1c-37d8faea816d")]
[XmlRoot(Namespace = "FMWebPartImage")]
[ToolboxData("<{0}:WebPart1 runat=server>")]
public class FMWebPartImage : Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart
{
public FMWebPartImage()
{
this.ExportMode = WebPartExportMode.NonSensitiveData; //Set so no export
this.ChromeType = PartChromeType.None; //Set so no title by default
}
protected string imageLocation = "";
protected string imageAlternateText = "";
protected string imageURL = "";
protected int imageHeight = 100;
protected int imageWidth = 100;
[Browsable(true),
Category("Miscellaneous"),
DefaultValue(""),
WebPartStorage(Storage.Shared),
FriendlyName("Location"),
Description("Location of image")]
public string ImageLocation
{
get
{
return this.imageLocation;
}
set
{
this.imageLocation = value;
}
}
[Browsable(true),
Category("Miscellaneous"),
DefaultValue(""),
WebPartStorage(Storage.Shared),
FriendlyName("Alternate Text"),
Description("Alternate text for image")]
public string ImageAlternateText
{
get
{
return this.imageAlternateText;
}
set
{
this.imageAlternateText = value;
}
}
[Browsable(true),
Category("Miscellaneous"),
DefaultValue(""),
WebPartStorage(Storage.Shared),
FriendlyName("Image Url"),
Description("Image click goto Url")]
public string ImageClickUrl
{
get
{
return this.imageURL;
}
set
{
this.imageURL = value;
}
}
[Browsable(true),
Category("Miscellaneous"),
DefaultValue(100),
WebPartStorage(Storage.Shared),
FriendlyName("Height"),
Description("Height of image")]
public int ImageHeight
{
get
{
return this.imageHeight;
}
set
{
this.imageHeight = value;
}
}
[Browsable(true),
Category("Miscellaneous"),
DefaultValue(100),
WebPartStorage(Storage.Shared),
FriendlyName("Width"),
Description("Width of image")]
public int ImageWidth
{
get
{
return this.imageWidth;
}
set
{
this.imageWidth = value;
}
}
protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
{
string outHTML =
"<a href='" + imageURL + "' style='text-decoration:none;'><img src = '" + imageLocation +
"' alt = '" + imageAlternateText +
"' height = '" + imageHeight +
"' width = '" + imageWidth +
"' /%gt;</a>";
writer.Write(outHTML);
}
}
}

MOSS 2007 Webparts

2008-01-18T06:58:00.000-05:00

After much searching and hitting my head on the desk I got the following to work: I was looking at getting a drop down on a web page, for our public facing MOSS site, that has a list of items from a list. Here is the code (there is still an issue if I create another WP, pointing to a different list, and add it to the page - it raises a DISP_E_EXCEPTION)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Data;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages;

namespace ListMenu
{
[XmlRoot(Namespace="ListMenu")]
[Guid("F10D314C-6CFF-4098-BF03-4F763099B0A5")]
[ToolboxData("<{0}:LocationDetail runat=server>")]
public class ListMenuLocation : Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart
{
private DataTable tblLocation;
///

/// Set the Export Type, Chrome State/Type of the Web Part
///

public ListMenuLocation()
{
this.ExportMode = WebPartExportMode.NonSensitiveData;
this.ChromeState = PartChromeState.Normal;
this.ChromeType = PartChromeType.None;
}
///

/// Populate the DataTable with the publicly visible location
///

private void PopulateDataTable()
{
try
{
tblLocation = new DataTable();
using (SPSite spSite = SPContext.Current.Site)
{
SPList spList = spSite.AllWebs[0].Lists["Locations"];
SPQuery oQuery = new SPQuery();
...
SPListItemCollection spLIC = spList.GetItems(oQuery);
tblLocation = spLIC.GetDataTable();
}
}
catch (SPException ex)
{ throw ex; }
catch (Exception ex)
{ throw ex; }
}
protected override void CreateChildControls()
{
try
{
PopulateDataTable();
CreateDropDown();
base.CreateChildControls();
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox message = new TextBox();
this.Controls.Add(message);
message.Visible = false;
message.Text = ex.Message.ToString();
}
}
///

/// Create and Populate the drop down
///

private void CreateDropDown()
{
System.Web.UI.WebControls.DropDownList ddlLocation = new DropDownList();
ddlLocation.ID = "LocationDropDown";
ddlLocation.DataSource = tblLocation;
ddlLocation.DataTextField = "Title";
ddlLocation.DataValueField = "TabID";
ddlLocation.DataBind();
ddlLocation.Items.Insert(0, new ListItem("Please select...", "0"));
ddlLocation.SelectedIndexChanged += new EventHandler(ddlLocation_SelectedIndexChanged);
this.Controls.Add(ddlLocation);
}
void ddlLocation_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
...
WriteOutURL(redirectTo);
}
///

/// Write out the location for the redirect to a text box.
///

/// string: Redirect URL
private void WriteOutURL(string url)
{
...
}
}
}

MOSS2007 and Virtual Earth

2007-11-30T05:41:00.000-05:00

I came across this article on Dev Live for intergrating Virtual Earth with SharePoint 2007 lists. I've changed the mapcontrol script file to run with v6 rather than v4. It was a bit of b***h at times to get it run but I had to change the list to include longitude and latitude for the addresses I wanted mapped - but not big deal.

Progressing with the creation of a complete Internet MOSS site for April '08 and a demo to do before the end of December. The MOSS install is on a virtual machine it takes ages at times for things to run.

Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare

2007-11-20T05:37:00.000-05:00

Just realised that I haven't posted in a long while. Well Halo3 has been and gone and now I'm getting into Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare. The game play in CoD4 is much better in my opinion than in H3 - it is also a lot more fun. The single player is quite short but there are 4 ways of playing it, Recruit, Regular, Hardened and Veteran. So once you have played a level through you can go back and change the class. In multiplayer various game types are opened up as you progress and gain experience points. Also different weaponry is available, along with perks, as you progress.

It is one great game - let's do this :)

Weekend

2007-10-08T05:33:00.000-04:00

After some Halo3 online play at the weekend I'm still bad at it.

There has been much written on the Bungie.net site about the stats not updating - well it's not surprising because of the sheer amount of data collected and the weekend is always likely to be the busiest time, but it's getting frustrating along with the lag in the game. There were several times that I got the first hit in only to take one and get killed.

So I would recommend the game but as these problems persist I'm looking forward to CoD4:MW which has a November release date. Hopefully they won't be as swamped as Halo3 servers in XBL.

Finished the Fight

2007-10-04T07:58:00.001-04:00

Finished the Fight - Halo3 - last night. I must say that I was a bit disappointed in the last mission. Very little shooting and more about driving - oh well you can't please all of the people all of the time.

So it's now time to get all the skulls and terminals - whilst also looking at getting some MultiPlayer action in to get the rankings up.

Ajax Calendar Extender and Master Pages

2007-10-02T10:33:00.000-04:00

I thought I might as well share this, if it's not common knowledge.

If you have a MasterPage.page and you want to include styles based on the child page you can add the script into the page but this will result in an issue with viewing the designer in Visual Studio 2005. I eventually found a solution to add the stylesheet to the header in code:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
HtmlLink cssLink = new HtmlLink();
cssLink.Href = "~/default.css";
cssLink.Attributes.Add("rel", "stylesheet");
cssLink.Attributes.Add("type", "text/css");
Header.Controls.Add(cssLink);
}

On the calendar extender I was puzzled to see that when a user selected the date the control remained visible. To get round this use an image and the PopUpControlID of the extender and the control will disappear. By setting the text boxes to Enabled=false the user only has the option of using the image to get the calendar to show. I suppose you could use the TextChanged event but this would not stop user error.

Halo 3 Weekend

2007-10-01T09:13:00.000-04:00

Had a few hours on Sunday to get through some more of Halo - only 2 levels to go then I can concentrate on the Skulls and other achievements.

Haven't had much chance to play the MultiPlayer but it's looking a bit tough to get the experience points needed when you have to finish 1st or 2nd in a 4 player game. Some people, on the Bungie.net forums, are asking if it would be possible to have more than 4 in a FFA (Free For All).

Halo 3 skulls

2007-09-27T08:24:00.001-04:00

I found this if anyone is interested in Halo 3 skull collection. I haven't tried these so I can't say if they are accurate but judging by the detail ... I'm giving it a go.

Halo 3 Skull Locations

Halo 3

2007-09-27T05:13:00.000-04:00

Had the opportunity to play last night - though not for long as there was a double episode of Heroes on.

First impressions are that it is good. Played through part of the first campaign and then a bit of on-line action (finished last with the least number of kills - which is not surprising as I haven't played Halo in ages)

The Beta of COD4:MW ends on Sunday at 12:00am PST.

So looking forward to tonight and some more fun - hopefully I get some better scores.

50/50

2007-09-26T03:28:00.001-04:00

Well it's a 50/50 split - got Halo3 this morning and will be looking forward to getting a look at it later. That's the good news now the bad... some b*****d nicked my bike yesterday. I'd only had it a month and it was double locked to some railings. I was getting used to cycling in as it saved so much time.

Hopefully they'll get there just rewards for such a thing.

XBox Live

2007-09-25T03:43:00.000-04:00

Just realised that I hadn't posted in a long while. Work commitments and game play have taken up such a lot of time. Been having fun with the Beta release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, improving on GRAW2 and getting into Rainbow6: Vegas.

Firstly on GRAW2 well got some more ranking points and have improved. On the COD4:MW the ranking is OK but there are times when the lag means that despite having gotten a 'kill' two shots from them and you're gone, on the killcam you just look to be standing there and they are on full auto. Well that said it is an awesome game and should provide hours of funs when it arrives in November.

The big on this week is the release of Halo3 - got the preorder in and can't wait to get on it.

XBox Live

2007-08-22T03:26:00.000-04:00

I don't how I got along with gaming before I started on Live. Having finished the course and settled into the new job I decided to get back into gaming. With the 360 having sat around unloved for quite a while I bought Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 and an XBox Live subscription (to take advantage of the wireless broadband I have in the house). After getting to grips with the gameplay I decided to jump into the online play.

The first couple of games were pretty bad finishing last in the solo elimination round but as I played more, and gave up on sleep as there don't appear to be as many games hosted until the US gets online, the better I got and now it is becoming a small obsession to getting ranking points and achievements.

Sharepoint 2007

2007-08-21T08:58:00.000-04:00

It's looking like the SharePoint 2007 project is on hold for a while as the budget might not be forthcoming. Oh well such is life. Fun whilst it lasted and who knows the budget could be found again.

Well onto other things - guess you've all had a play with the wizard control. By combining that with AJAX controls it is relatively easy to get prototypes up and running and just plug in the code.

SharePoint 2007

2007-08-03T19:34:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note - I'm starting a new project at work dealing with SharePoint 2007 and Excel Services.

Mid July

2007-07-19T15:17:00.000-04:00

All settled back in the UK. Started the new job in the first week of July, time seems to have flown since I got back and it was nearly three weeks since I got back.

Different things to get used to in the job. Some of the code is VB.Net 1.1 and other C# 2.0 and a whole new infrastructure to get used to. Also used are Microsoft Application Blocks which I've got to read up on.

I've got some emails to catch up on so I'll finish later.

Day 15

2007-06-30T22:10:00.000-04:00

Well the last day is over and the last exam taken and passed. This is the last evening here and I'm returning to the UK tomorrow evening. This afternoon a few of us went into Atlanta to see the Georgia Aquarium and The World of Coke. The aquarium was big and interesting. The World of Coke was more a case of pay $15 and see our advertising, though you do get to taste some of the more interesting flavors that Coke produce around the world.

The last exam, 70-549, put some of the previous ideas into practice and introduced new ones. On the whole it wasn't so bad. Most people have left already and the last of them are leaving in the morning on internal flights, so by the afternoon I'll be the last to leave as I'm on an international and with all the stuff going on should make for an interesting 12-14 hours travel if the plane leaves on time.

It has been a good time and I've met some interesting people and had a good few laughs. Hopefully we'll keep in touch for a while via an online group and exchange ideas about how we can put all into practice what we've learnt over the past two weeks and add it to the experience we already have.

As I'm off home tomorrow this will be the last entry from here and I expect the next post will be in the middle of the week as I'm starting a new job on Tuesday.

Day 14

2007-06-29T16:27:00.000-04:00

A slightly shorter day today getting ready for the final exam tomorrow morning (8am if anyone is interested).

The experience has been great and the time and money invested worthwhile. Though on a cautious note I would suggest that anyone thinking of doing this would need a fair bit of real world experience and some in-depth knowledge, possibly outside there current work environment. What I mean by that is that if you just program UI then you'll need to have an understanding of both the business and data layers. You'll need to be prepared to work hard and absorb lots of information in a short space of time.

Having seen some of the course on SQL2005 I would recommend it and especially as our instructor, Chester Flake who no doubt will become a legend at CED, is taking it, it will cover the subject matter and more with all the enthusiasm that he has shown over the past two weeks.

Well after the storm that blew through last night today has been warm and sunny, up to the mid 90's.

Day 13

2007-06-28T20:01:00.000-04:00

Well almost there. Today was the test on 70-549, which I passed though I didn't feel that comfortable about it as I found some of the security a bit difficult to get my head round.

There is a big storm passing through here at the moment but the rest of the day has been good with the temperature up in the 90's.

Going to visit the Atlanta Aqurarium before I leave as I figure whilst I am here I might as well do it and the flight back doesn't leave til gone 9pm on Sunday. Oh the joys of the overnight flight back to the UK :(

Day 12

2007-06-27T21:30:00.000-04:00

Sorry about that but I had the days totally mixed up and yesterday was day 11. Today was a lot of practical to do with WSE 3.0. Some of the practicals in the book required some additional parts to make them work plus some figuring out as to what they were trying to acheive.

In the problem areas Flake stepped up to the mark and resolved our issues and answered our questions.

Tomorrow is another day :)

Day 6 - 12

2007-06-26T21:28:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the lack of postings. Been rather busy :)

It is the final stages of the bootcamp and it has all gone rather quickly. I would recommend CED and if you get a chance check out the instructor before you get here. The one we have is Chester Flake and he keeps the classes light, fast and informative. I know he does other classes (SQL etc).

If you are prepared for the time you need to put in then it is great and I think it was good for me to get away from everything and concentrate on the camp. Some here have work related issues to deal with in the evenings and get calls from work they have to deal with.

As for the progress it's three down two to go! Passed 70-536, 70-528 and 70-526. There is another exam on Thursday the 70-529 followed a few days afterwards with 70-549. Looks like some more late nights and early mornings.

More study tonight.

Day 4 and 5

2007-06-20T21:05:00.000-04:00

I meant to post last night but we had just started a new module and there was a lot to get through and as always some reading and labs in the afternoon.

Today wasn't to bad though the Serialization takes a bit of time to get your head round if you never used it before.

Day 2 and 3

2007-06-18T22:08:00.000-04:00

That's Sunday and Monday over with :) So far it has been fast paced and very informative.

There is the first exam tomorrow morning so some last minute cramming tonight. Hopefully it will go well be who knows with these things until you actually sit there in front of the test.

Last night was a late finish at 11:30pm and a 7:15am start this morning, I'm going to get off earlier tonight as there is no point in getting too tired and not remembering anything. After the test it is straight back to class to start on the next section which is 70-536 Application Development Foundation. Oh what an exciting life :)

Day 1

2007-06-17T09:15:00.000-04:00

Day 1 over and it is now Sunday morning. Up late last night reading, taking practice tests and labs. Though to be fair the labs took last place.

Enjoyable day - lots of information to take in. So now onto Day 2 and some more of 70-526.

As it is Sunday it is a late start and early finish from class - still lots to do back in the room for the rest of the day (see above).

The schedule for Moday thru Friday looks pretty brutal to be honest, 8am starts and 6pm finishes with reading and practice in the evenings so I'm guessing on a 14-15 hour day for the next two weeks.

Sleep who needs it - well I think you do as there is little point in getting chronic fatigue and not concentrating in class.

Well more reading and tests to do before class starts this morning.

Arrived in Atlanta

2007-06-15T19:54:00.000-04:00

Well, the time is finally here. I arrived in Atlanta this afternoon and the orientation is tomorrow morning at 8am and the class starts at 9am.

The first module is 70-526 Window Development. Looking forward to it but need to get some sleep as there is a -5 hour time difference from the UK to the US and with all the hassles of security at both airports.

May need to get some revision in tonight but first a shower after all the travelling.

Web-Based Client Development 70-528

2007-06-06T05:00:00.000-04:00

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930739/en-us

I've just started on the Training Kit for 70-528, above is a link to the errata for the book.

Not long to go now till the start of the bootcamp and I finish work on Friday and have a week off before the camp. Lots of study to get through.

My Birthday

2007-05-24T09:23:00.000-04:00

It's my birthday today!!

Enough of the celebrations already. Plowing through 70-529 last night and this morning and 'enjoying' the symantics of the SOAP header, envelope etc.

The course dates that seemed some time away are approaching rapidly and I'm realizing that even though I thought I would be well prepared, having used .Net since it's original Beta 1 public release there is so much to the Framework that I haven't even looked at. Oh well more long nights of study ahead.

Getting Forgetful

2007-05-23T05:45:00.000-04:00

It happened this week, something that I had said I would try and avoid at all costs - I forgot someones birthday!! With the study and work I thought I had plenty of time to sort out some arrangement for their birthday but suddenly it was that day and I had done nothing.

So sorry to you (you know who you are) :( and hopefully see you in Atlanta in a couple of weeks :)

The study is going well - though I did find the use of UML and ORM a bit daunting at first as I hadn't had to think about those kind of things for a number of years.

svchost.exe going mad CPU maxed

2007-05-09T18:36:00.000-04:00

I have an issue with the following file, svchost.exe, going mad and using 100% CPU. It looks as though it occurred after a recent Windows update. I have turned off automatic updates and installed the hotfix mentioned below and the 'error' seems to have cleared itself, though not on the first restart.

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B932494&x=11&y=10

Errata

2007-05-04T03:33:00.000-04:00

I have just found the errata pages for the MCTS 70-536 self paced training kit it runs to two!! pages so you might want to check out which edition you have.

Here is the link http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-536.mspx

Just a short update this morning I'll post more later on. Looking forward to the weekend as we have a holiday here on Monday so should be able to get two days of study in.

70-536

2007-05-03T17:49:00.000-04:00

I have started the study, lots to take in. As there aren't that many days till the course it looks as it will be a busy time as there is a lot to read up on and examples to run. Still have to fit in work and life.

Books

2007-05-01T17:19:00.000-04:00

I had signed up for a bootcamp with CED Solutions in Atlanta GA and the books arrived today. The exams are Exam 70–526, Exam 70–536, Exam 70–528, Exam 70-529 and Exam 70–549

Should be fun :) now have to work out my study schedule.

End of April

2007-04-30T09:40:00.000-04:00

I have signed up for a MCPD bootcamp in Atlanta GA for the end of June. Having worked with .Net since it was released as a public beta, I decided it was time to take the plunge and go for some certification.

You're most probably wondering why as I am in London did I go for the Atlanta course - well, two fold really, the strength of the pound to the US$ and also as I am away from home there will be no distractions.

MOSS 2007, Testing and Musing

Introducing StyleCop to Legacy Code

stsadm -o createsiteinnewdb

Drop into GAC on Windows Server 2008

Upgrade error installing SharePoint 2007 on Windows Server 2008 (x64)

MOSS Deployment

Intro to Pex and TDD

Pex Explorations

Pex

First pass at Pex

Stubs

Stubs and Pex

Pex 0.13 Released

MOSS 2007 SP2 Expiration Issue

401.1 Unauthorized access

401.1 Unauthorized access

Host Headed Site Collections

MOSS 2007 & WSS 3.0 SP2

StyleCop Update

Adding Metadata to a MOSS 2007 Publishing Portal pt2

Silverlight Unit Testing, RhinoMocks, Unity and Resharper

Adding Metadata to a MOSS 2007 Publishing Portal

Create custom 404 in MOSS 2007

Entity Framework

Entity Framework Tests

Entity Framework

IE8 RC1 Released

Content Deployment Manifest Reader

Remote debugging

Ted Patterson Free Webcast

Announcing: Community Technology Preview of Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint v1.3

Removing Webparts

Call of Duty: World at War

Pex Automated Testing

MSDN: Prescriptive Guidance for MOSS 2007 WCM Sites

TDD and Style Cop

Still around

Code Metrics don't run with a reference to Microsoft.SharePoint.dll

UDC Creator

Cannot compare two elements within an array

Deployment of Reusable Content pt2

Deployment of Reusable Content

Visual Studio extensions for Visual Studio 2008

Announcing the VSeWSS version 1.2!

Publication End Date displayed

Site Definition Viewer

More Deployment Issues

Create a Custom Site Definition

More Content Deployment Errors

User security information cannot be properly imported without setting UserInfoDateTime option to ImportAll.

Updating web.config with SafeControl entries

Windows Live Writer

Cross Farm Deployment pt 3

Cross Farm Deployment pt 2

Cross Farm Deployment pt 1

MOSS 2007 Internet Development

U2U CAML Query Builder

Trace and Event Log Categories

Event Throttling Categories

MOSS 2007 Webpart Control Events not Firing

Basic MOSS 2007 Installation

Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare

Web Part bin vs _app_bin vs GAC

MOSS 2007 WebPart

MOSS 2007 Webparts

MOSS2007 and Virtual Earth

Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare

Weekend

Finished the Fight

Ajax Calendar Extender and Master Pages

Halo 3 Weekend

Halo 3 skulls

Halo 3

50/50

XBox Live

XBox Live

Sharepoint 2007

SharePoint 2007

Mid July

Day 15