DotNetDeveloper

Planet X - TV Film and Game merchandise and memorabilia

Steve — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:12:00 GMT

Visit these guys for great merchandise and cool products

and these for cool bobble head

The best email regular expression i've ever found :)

Steve — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 07:48:00 GMT

ok so regular expressions arent really my thing. I do use them them for validation but usually end up using them for simple things like order number formats, invoice numbers etc.

Anyway i had occasion to validate email address's again and after a lot of searching came up with this bad boy regular expression and though i'd put it on here if nothing else for my information as i intend to use it again.

so enough said here it is :)

^(([\w-]+\.)+[\w-]+|([a-zA-Z]{1}|[\w-]{2,}))@((([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])\.([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])\.([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])\.([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])){1}|([a-zA-Z]+[\w-]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,4})$

now if you have a mind to find out what all this stuff is doing beyond the basics check out the original post which can be found here

Changing company data for sage.

Steve — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:45:00 GMT

Ok so you've set sage up with company data on your local machine and now you want to share data with others or amend the data.

To change the company data directory

open up explorer
goto C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sage\Accounts\<Version> 2009 etc etc
Open up Company file with Notepad
Amend the directory stored in there following the existing format

there we go now you have changed your company data.

WebDav creating draft email in Exchange

Steve — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:16:00 GMT

this bloody thing took me ages to work out and in the end i didnt :)

Google came to the rescue after loads of searching to provide me with a working sample which im now sharing.

private void SaveToDrafts()
{
try
   {
       // TODO: Replace with the name of the computer that is running Exchange 2000.
       string strServer = "ExchServe";
       // TODO: Replace with the sender's alias.
       string strSenderAlias = "sender";
       // TODO: Replace with the recipient's e-mail address.
       string strTo = "recipient@example.com";

       string strSubject = "Save to Drafts using HttpWebRequest";
       string strBody = "Hello World";

       string sUri;
       sUri = "http://" + strServer + "/Exchange/" + strSenderAlias;
       sUri = sUri + "/Drafts/Testxxxxxxxxx.eml";

       System.Uri myUri = new System.Uri(sUri);
       HttpWebRequest HttpWRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(myUri);

       string sQuery="";

       // Set the credentials.
       NetworkCredential myCred = new NetworkCredential(@"DomainName\User", "Password");
       CredentialCache MyCredentialCache = new CredentialCache();
       MyCredentialCache.Add(myUri, "Basic", myCred);

       HttpWRequest.Credentials = MyCredentialCache;

       // Set the headers.
       HttpWRequest.Headers.Add("Translate", "f");
       HttpWRequest.ContentType = "message/rfc822";
       HttpWRequest.ContentLength = sQuery.Length;

       //Set the request timeout to 5 minutes.
       HttpWRequest.Timeout = 300000;
       // Set the request method.
       HttpWRequest.Method = "PUT";

       // Store the data in a byte array.
       byte[] ByteQuery = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(sQuery);
       HttpWRequest.ContentLength = ByteQuery.Length;
       Stream QueryStream = HttpWRequest.GetRequestStream();

       // write the data to be posted to the Request Stream
       QueryStream.Write(ByteQuery, 0, ByteQuery.Length);
       QueryStream.Close();

       // Send the request and get the response.
       HttpWebResponse HttpWResponse = (HttpWebResponse)HttpWRequest.GetResponse();

       // Get the Status code.
       int iStatCode = (int)HttpWResponse.StatusCode;

       // Get the request headers.
       string sReqHeaders = HttpWRequest.Headers.ToString();

       // Read the response stream.
       Stream strm = HttpWResponse.GetResponseStream();
       StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(strm);
       string sText = sr.ReadToEnd();
       MessageBox.Show("Response:"+ sText);

       // Close the stream.
       strm.Close();

       // Clean up.
       myCred = null;
       MyCredentialCache = null;
       HttpWRequest = null;
       HttpWResponse = null;
       QueryStream = null;
       strm = null;
       sr = null;

       SetToSubjectBody(sUri);
   }
   catch (Exception ex)
   {
       MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
   }
}

private void SetToSubjectBody(string itemURL)
{
    HttpWebRequest request;
    HttpWebResponse response;
    byte[] bytes;

    string format = "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><g:propertyupdate xmlns:g=\"DAV:\" xmlns:m=\"urn:schemas:httpmail:\" xmlns:z=\"urn:schemas:mailheader:\">"
            + "<g:set>"
            + "<g:prop>"
            + "<z:to>a@a.com</z:to>"
            + "<m:subject>This is a test mail</m:subject>"
            + "<m:textdescription>This is a test mail</m:textdescription>"
            + "</g:prop>"
            + "</g:set>"
            + "<g:remove>"
            + "<g:prop><m:date/></g:prop>"
            + "</g:remove>"
            + "</g:propertyupdate>";

    request = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(itemURL);

    // Set the credentials.
    NetworkCredential myCred = new NetworkCredential(@"DomainName\User", "Password");
    CredentialCache MyCredentialCache = new CredentialCache();
    MyCredentialCache.Add(new System.Uri(itemURL), "Basic", myCred);

    request.Credentials = MyCredentialCache;

    // Set the headers.
    request.ContentType = "text/xml";
    request.Method = "PROPPATCH";

    // Store the data in a byte array.
    bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(format);
    request.ContentLength = bytes.Length;

    // Get the Request Stream
    using (Stream requestStream = request.GetRequestStream())
    {
        // write the data to be posted to the Request Stream
        requestStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
        requestStream.Close();
    }

    // Send the request and get the response.
    response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();

    // Get the Status code.
    int intStatus = (int)response.StatusCode;
    if (intStatus >= 200 && intStatus < 300)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Success!");
    }
    else
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Failure Code:" + intStatus.ToString());
    }

    response.Close();

    // Clean up.
    myCred = null;
    MyCredentialCache = null;
    response = null;
    request = null;
}

original post can be found here

http://blogs.msdn.com/akashb/archive/2008/10/06/8978425.aspx

which pretty much goes the route of creating a draft email then using a proppatch (edit) command to change the properties afterwards.

This sample works so thanks for that.

Recreating a Sage ODBC Connection / DSN

Steve — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:24:00 GMT

Not sure which versions this works for but definately for SageLine50 v15, if you need to recreate a ODBC connection on a server that doesnt have sage on or just recreate the dsn anyway you can find a setup program sage have installed for you at this location

C:\Program Files\Sage\Accounts\ODBC32

this will install the sage odbc drivers enablindg you to make a new odbc connection

I used this to create a dsn connection for a server which is connecting to a shared drive with sage installed but which didnt have sage installed on itself.

Hopefully this will help somebody out and stop them searching too much.

prevent saving changes that require the table to be re-created

Steve — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:33:00 GMT

Came across this annoying error message in Sql 2008 twice now.

both times i'd forgotten how to remedy it so this time i'm putting this on my site :)

To fix this in Management Studio, go to Tools -> Options then go to the Designer Page and uncheck "Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation".

Bobble Heads UK

Steve — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:39:00 GMT

In my spare time I have created and marketed (to a certain degree) a Bobble Head site, partly because I like them and find them fun and entertaining, partly fuelled by the fact I think there is a market for them in the uk which is mostly untapped.

You can find this site at @ Bobbleheads UK

I aim to sell all the latest Bobble heads mostly imported from america and hope to become a hub for the collectors of these great bobble head toys.

Oh whats occuring

Steve — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:34:00 GMT

So its been some time since I last posted about myself personally. A lot has happened and I thought it was about time I updated for the sake of it.

As the recession rumbles on I have found myself made redundant along with a further 100 people and half of the IT team. After a lengthy drawn out but ultimately legal period and I found myself out on my ear in early December.

Whilst this is perfect for enjoying christmas its not so great for earning looking for jobs.

The IT market around Manchester seems to be a bit strange at the moment, normally once you stick your CV around with the agencies you are bombarded with phone calls consistently until you throw your phone away (always buy a cheap one first lol). This time this was not the case and I had to work hard to find a new position with the wages I wanted.

If anybody has a position to offer me let me know :)

Sql Server - Outputting a table as an xml File

Steve — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:39:00 GMT

I had a need to do this recently and came across the following sql which you can run in analyser

select * from tablename for XML RAW, ROOT ('root'), ELEMENTS XSINIL

This will output your table and contents as XML within a single result and you just need to put this into an xml file.

Hopefully this will help somebody out.

thanks

Steve

cryptographic failure while signing assembly

Steve — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:13:00 GMT

The problem is that you cannot delete a key and you cannot add the key as you do not have access to the key to delete it and the .NET framework cannot add it because of constraints on the StrongName data store.

The solution is to give yourself access to C:\Documents and Settings\AllUsers\ApplicationData\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys\

Browse to c:\Documents and Settings\AllUsers\ApplicationData\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys

Grant rights to Adminstrators, or whatever group you are in

Take Ownership of this folder (click Advanced under Security, and then click the Ownership tab at the top)

This worked all fine for me see how you get along.

How to connect to MICROSOFT##SSEE

Steve — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:49:00 GMT

if your struggling with this connecting to Microsoft##SSEE I followed the steps below and hey presto all working.

Open SQL Server Configuration Manager
Click on protocols for Microsoft##SSEE > Properties
Set Hide Instance to "No"
Enable Named Pipes
Finally Reset the SQL Server 2005 Embedded Edition (Microsoft##SSEE) service

now all being well you will be able to access this server

Sharepoint Template ID's

Steve — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:08:00 GMT

hope these are useful for somebody.

Template ID = 0
Desc: This template is used for initializing a new site.
Title: Global template
Name: GLOBAL#0

Template ID = 1
Desc: A site for teams to quickly organize, author, and share information. It provides a document library, and lists for managing announcements, calendar items, tasks, and discussions.
Title: Team Site
Name: STS#0

Template ID = 1
Desc: A blank site for you to customize based on your requirements.
Title: Blank Site
Name: STS#1

Template ID = 1
Desc: A site for colleagues to work together on a document. It provides a document library for storing the primary document and supporting files, a tasks list for assigning to-do items, and a links list for resources related to the document.
Title: Document Workspace
Name: STS#2

Template ID = 2
Desc: A site to plan, organize, and capture the results of a meeting. It provides lists for managing the agenda, meeting attendees, and documents.
Title: Basic Meeting Workspace
Name: MPS#0

Template ID = 2
Desc: A blank meeting site for you to customize based on your requirements.
Title: Blank Meeting Workspace
Name: MPS#1

Template ID = 2
Desc: A site for meetings that track status or make decisions. It provides lists for creating tasks, storing documents, and recording decisions.
Title: Decision Meeting Workspace
Name: MPS#2

Template ID = 2
Desc: A site to plan social occasions. It provides lists for tracking attendees, providing directions, and storing pictures of the event.
Title: Social Meeting Workspace
Name: MPS#3

Template ID = 2
Desc: A site to plan, organize, and capture the results of a meeting. It provides lists for managing the agenda and meeting attendees in addition to two blank pages for you to customize based on your requirements.
Title: Multipage Meeting Workspace
Name: MPS#4

Template ID = 3
Desc: A site for central administration. It provides Web pages and links for application and operations management.
Title: Central Admin Site
Name: CENTRALADMIN#0

Template ID = 4
Desc: A site for a community to brainstorm and share ideas. It provides Web pages that can be quickly edited to record information and then linked together through keywords
Title: Wiki Site
Name: WIKI#0

Template ID = 9
Desc: A site for a person or team to post ideas, observations, and expertise that site visitors can comment on.
Title: Blog
Name: BLOG#0

Template ID = 7
Desc: A site to centrally manage documents in your enterprise.
Title: Document Center
Name: BDR#0

Template ID = 14483
Desc: This template creates a site designed for records management. Records managers can configure the routing table to direct incoming files to specific locations. The site prevents records from being modified after they are added to the repository.
Title: Records Center
Name: OFFILE#0

Template ID = 40
Desc: This template creates a site for administering shared services
Title: Shared Services Administration Site
Name: OSRV#0

Template ID = 20
Desc: This template is obsolete.
Title: SharePoint Portal Server Site
Name: SPS#0

Template ID = 21
Desc: This web template defines a Personal Space for an individual participating on a SharePoint Portal.
Title: SharePoint Portal Server Personal Space
Name: SPSPERS#0

Template ID = 22
Desc: A site for delivering personalized views, data, and navigation from this site collection into My Site. It includes personalization specific Web Parts and navigation that is optimized for My Site sites.
Title: Personalization Site
Name: SPSMSITE#0

Template ID = 30
Desc: This template is obsolete.
Title: Contents area Template
Name: SPSTOC#0

Template ID = 31
Desc: This template is obsolete.
Title: Topic area template
Name: SPSTOPIC#0

Template ID = 32
Desc: This template is obsolete.
Title: News Site
Name: SPSNEWS#0

Template ID = 39
Desc: A blank site for expanding your Web site and quickly publishing Web pages. Contributors can work on draft versions of pages and publish them to make them visible to readers. The site includes document and image libraries for storing Web publishing assets.
Title: Publishing Site
Name: CMSPUBLISHING#0

Template ID = 53
Desc: This template creates a site for publishing Web pages on a schedule, with workflow features enabled. By default, only Publishing subsites can be created under this site. A Document and Picture Library are included for storing Web publishing assets.
Title: Publishing Site
Name: BLANKINTERNET#0

Template ID = 53
Desc: This template creates the Press Releases subsite for an Internet-facing corporate presence website.
Title: Press Releases Site
Name: BLANKINTERNET#1

Template ID = 53
Desc: A site for publishing Web pages on a schedule by using approval workflows. It includes document and image libraries for storing Web publishing assets. By default, only sites with this template can be created under this site.
Title: Publishing Site with Workflow
Name: BLANKINTERNET#2

Template ID = 33
Desc: A site for publishing news articles and links to news articles. It includes a sample news page and an archive for storing older news items.
Title: News Site
Name: SPSNHOME#0

Template ID = 34
Desc: A site for listing and categorizing important sites in your organization. It includes different views for categorized sites, top sites, and a site map.
Title: Site Directory
Name: SPSSITES#0

Template ID = 36
Desc: This template is obsolete.
Title: Community area template
Name: SPSCOMMU#0

Template ID = 38
Desc: A site for creating, managing, and delivering Web pages, dashboards, and key performance indicators that communicate metrics, goals, and business intelligence information.
Title: Report Center
Name: SPSREPORTCENTER#0

Template ID = 47
Desc: A starter site hierarchy for an intranet divisional portal. It includes a home page, a News site, a Site Directory, a Document Center, and a Search Center with Tabs. Typically, this site has nearly as many contributors as readers and is used to host team sites.
Title: Collaboration Portal
Name: SPSPORTAL#0

Template ID = 50
Desc: A site for delivering the search experience. The welcome page includes a search box with two tabs: one for general searches, and another for searches for information about people. You can add and customize tabs to focus on other search scopes or result types.
Title: Search Center with Tabs
Name: SRCHCEN#0

Template ID = 51
Desc: This template creates a profile site that includes page layout with zones
Title: Profiles
Name: PROFILES#0

Template ID = 52
Desc: A starter site hierarchy for an Internet-facing site or a large intranet portal. This site can be customized easily with distinctive branding. It includes a home page, a sample press releases subsite, a Search Center, and a login page. Typically, this site has many more readers than contributors, and it is used to publish Web pages with approval workflows.
Title: Publishing Portal
Name: BLANKINTERNETCONTAINER#0

Template ID = 54
Desc: A site used for hosting personal sites (My Sites) and the public People Profile page. This template needs to be provisioned only once per Shared Service Provider, please consult the documentation for details.
Title: My Site Host
Name: SPSMSITEHOST#0

Template ID = 90
Desc: A site for delivering the search experience. The site includes pages for search results and advanced searches.
Title: Search Center
Name: SRCHCENTERLITE#0

Template ID = 90
Desc: The Search Center template creates pages dedicated to search. The main welcome page features a simple search box in the center of the page. The template includes a search results and an advanced search page. This Search Center will not appear in navigation.
Title: Search Center
Name: SRCHCENTERLITE#1

Visual Studio 2008 Design mode crashes

Steve — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:28:00 GMT

Just noticed today that my visual studio crashes when I try and go into design mode.

I'm not honestly sure what causes this problem as I dont use this VM very often however i think its linked to either Office 2007 or Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

as a fix I manually removed the Visual Studio 2008 Web Authoring Component and then re-added from my Visual Studio CD

you can find the exe file within then WCU\WebDesignerCore\ folder

This fixed the problem for me hopefully it will for you also.

Adding case resolution types to case resolution form

Steve — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:03:00 GMT

not having done this before on our installation this took me a few minutes to figure out.

obviously as its a drop down field its a picklist which needs editing but it's not in the Case/Incident resolution entity.

The picklist can actually be found within the Case entity.

If you select the Status Code entity and change the state dropdown from the right of the screen from Active to Resolved you will see the text list will change to show the Case Resolution picklist.

Workflows and Working Days

Steve — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:48:00 GMT

Hi on a few posts on the MS CRM dynamics forum I commented on a solution for working out due dates taking into account weekends and holidays etc.

This is the solution I came up with which has been working for the last x months without any issues (as far as i'm aware). This is based on the task entity creation event and basically picks up the Creation Date and the Due date and calculates the difference between them and then changes the due date (assuming a user inputs the number of days till the task should be completed which will generate a due date automatically - could be tweaked I know) to be a working date taking into account any company / official holidays (if rules have been entered into the Business Closures entity Settings > Business Closures). The code should be transferable between many implementations but is used very specifically at the moment as above.

As far as I am aware it has been tested quite thouroughly with exception to the Business Closures which our company don't use at the moment.

These belong in my case within a workflow assembly (maybe called WorkflowAssembly.DLL like mine) and are used within the workflow manager.

/// <summary>
/// Change Due Date used by workflow required by task.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="caller">string</param>
/// <param name="creationDate">DateTime</param>
/// <param name="dueDate">DateTime</param>
/// <returns>DateTime</returns>
public DateTime ChangeDueDate(string caller, DateTime creationDate, DateTime dueDate)
{
        XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument();
        xDoc.LoadXml(caller);
        XmlNodeList nodes = xDoc.SelectNodes("caller/userid");

        if (nodes.Count > 0)
        {
           // setup service
           using (CrmService service = CrmSdkProxy.InstantiateService(new Guid(nodes[0].InnerXml.ToString())))
           {
                // get difference between duedate and creation date
                TimeSpan ts = dueDate - creationDate;

                return ReturnWorkingDate(creationDate, ts.Days, service);
           }
        }

// if theres any problems return standard due date.
return dueDate;
}

/// <summary>
/// Accepts a date,number of days to skip and a crmservice instance
/// </summary>
/// <param name="date">DateTime</param>
/// <param name="numberOfWorkingDays">Integer</param>
/// <param name="service">CRMService</param>
/// <returns>DateTime</returns>
public DateTime ReturnWorkingDate(DateTime date, int numberOfWorkingDays, CrmService service)
{
    while (numberOfWorkingDays > 0)
    {
        date = date.AddDays(1);
        // if today is not a day included in the business closure calendar or else move on a day
        if (IsBusinessWorkingDay(date, service))
        {
            // if today is not saturday or sunday else move on a day
            if (!IsWeekend(date))
            {
                // this is a working day
                numberOfWorkingDays--;
            }
        }
    }

// returns the date advanced by x number of working days
return date;

}

private static bool IsBusinessWorkingDay(DateTime dueDate, CrmService service)
{
    // setup working variables
    bool workingDay = true;
    string guidString = string.Empty;

    // create fetchxml
    StringBuilder fetchXML = new StringBuilder();
    fetchXML.Append("<fetch mapping='logical'>");
    fetchXML.Append("<entity name='calendar'>");
    fetchXML.Append("<attribute name='calendarid'/>");
    fetchXML.Append("<filter type='and'>");
    fetchXML.Append(" <condition attribute='isshared' operator='eq' value='1'/>");
    fetchXML.Append("</filter>");
    fetchXML.Append("<filter type='and'>");
    fetchXML.Append(" <condition attribute='name' operator='eq' value='Business Closure Calendar'/>");
    fetchXML.Append("</filter>");
    fetchXML.Append("</entity>");
    fetchXML.Append("</fetch>");

// perform fetch
string returnXML = service.Fetch(fetchXML.ToString());

    // setup xml document for return xml
    XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument();
    xDoc.LoadXml(returnXML);
    XmlNodeList nodes = xDoc.SelectNodes("resultset/result/calendarid");

    // if theres a calendar returned from the fetch then handle it
    if (nodes.Count > 0)
    {
        // get Business closures calendar Guid
        guidString = nodes[0].InnerXml.ToString();

// create calendar Guid
Guid calGuid = new Guid(guidString);

// return all calendar columns for this calendar (just need calendarrules)
calendar cal = (calendar)service.Retrieve(EntityName.calendar.ToString(), calGuid, new AllColumns());

        // for each rule within the calendarrules collection
        foreach (calendarrule cl in cal.calendarrules)
        {
            // Convert start and end date to DateTime
            DateTime holStartDate = Convert.ToDateTime(cl.effectiveintervalstart.Value.ToString());
            DateTime holEndDate = Convert.ToDateTime(cl.effectiveintervalend.Value.ToString());

            // check if the date passed in is within the startdate / enddate of holidays via rules
            if (DateTime.Compare(dueDate, holStartDate) > 0 && DateTime.Compare(dueDate, holEndDate) < 0)
            {
                workingDay = false;
            }
        }
    }

return workingDay;
}

private static bool IsBusinessWorkingDay(DateTime dueDate, CrmService service)
{
    // setup working variables
    bool workingDay = true;
    string guidString = string.Empty;

// perform fetch
string returnXML = service.Fetch(fetchXML.ToString());

    // setup xml document for return xml
    XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument();
    xDoc.LoadXml(returnXML);
    XmlNodeList nodes = xDoc.SelectNodes("resultset/result/calendarid");

    // if theres a calendar returned from the fetch then handle it
    if (nodes.Count > 0)
    {
        // get Business closures calendar Guid
        guidString = nodes[0].InnerXml.ToString();

// create calendar Guid
Guid calGuid = new Guid(guidString);

// return all calendar columns for this calendar (just need calendarrules)
calendar cal = (calendar)service.Retrieve(EntityName.calendar.ToString(), calGuid, new AllColumns());

return workingDay;
}

now that the above code has been compiled into a your workflow assembly to utilise the assembly you also need to add the function to the workflow config file which is located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM\Server\bin\assembly

Open up the file and and paste the above into it. Basically its just a function definition which shows which class/methods within the dll are used and what parameters are expected.

Once you've copied over the DLL to C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM\Server\bin\assembly and edited the workflow.config file within the same location reset IIS and the MSCRM Workflow Service.

Now if all is going well when you go into Workflow Manager and select the workflow you wish to use this functionality in. ( I used this in a task workflow which when the task was created automatically would change the due date to a working day x days in the future).

Goto insert action --> Call Assembly --> Date Time Functions --> Change Due Date and select the function

Figure 1

Click on the newly created function within the workspace and a new screen will popup (as per Figure 2). Double click the parameter called Creation Date and populate (as shown in figure 3), repeat for due date.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Well its my longest post yet and may well not be very clear (rushed it out in work) so if you have any questions or need anything clarifying give me a shout. Hopefully it will help somebody.

Hiding fields when not in edit mode

Steve — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:52:00 GMT

I had a need to hide several fields when I wasn't in edit mode on a page and spent an awfully long amount of time trying various methods. In the end its easy but only because i bumped into another one of Andrew Connells ancient posts.

basically i added some fields which i would enter an image url to be used as a dynamic background image within a page instance.

This can be achieved by using the EditModePanel control which can be found within SPD under SharePoint Controls / Server Controls

simply drop the control on the page and put any fields you want to hide within the control.

This only works on publishing pages.

Andrews original post can be found here

The Underlying connection was closed: Unable to connect to the remote server

Steve — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:32:00 GMT

Had this tip sent to me earlier not sure what the original source is but it works so im passing it on.

The Underlying connection was closed: Unable to connect to the remote server this error is a problem due to running out of TCP ports. You can minimize or eliminate this problem by setting the following registry keys on the Microsoft CRM Server(s). This is typically seen in scenarios with Microsoft CRM when the server is under high user load or more typically when it is under high load from a Bulk import or a Microsoft CRM SDK application that is importing thousands of records into the application. Note that these are both REGDWORD Keys and the values should be set as decimal values.

HKLM\Software\CurrentControlSet\Services\TCPIP\Parameters

Create a new REGDWORD value named MaxUserPort with a value of 65534.

Also create a new REGDWORD value named TcpTimedWaitDelay with a value of 30. What this means is that we now have a total of 65534 TCP ports available and that they will recycle for use again after 30 seconds. This compares to the default of 5000 ports and a TcpTimedWaitDelay default of 240 (4 min).

Sharepoint Development - Tools of the trade

Steve — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:49:00 GMT

I thought it might be useful to some for me to list the tools i use regularly within my SharePoint development environment and exactly what I use them for.

In time maybe the list will shrink / expand and is no particular order.

STSDEV - is an application which creates SharePoint solutions and projects to help with deployment and development.

SharePoint Manager 2007 - I have tended to use this to snoop around the inner working of a site (You can view practically every property within SharePoint) . You can amend settings but in all honesty it's not recommended. A colleague insists he melted his entire site with it </me shrugs>. Use carefully :)

MOSS Feature Generator - I like this application so much. It doesn't do anything big or clever but its simple and does what it says on a tin. I use this to export any created Content Types / Columns / Fields (created within the SharePoint UI) and export them out to be included in my STSDEV projects. It looks like it also does lists and their templates also but I haven't used it for this.

U2U CAML Query Builder - Great little visual CAML query tool for building CAML querys to be included in your views etc.

Imtech List Generator - Might be useful to some. Generates list instance XML for inclusion within your projects. Useful if you can't be bothered to generate GUID's and are not so sure about list templated ID's etc.

Hopefully this small list will be useful to some.

Opening list links in a new window

Steve — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:47:00 GMT

There is a few posts about this on the internet.

seems as usual with SharePoint there is a few ways to do this. This is one way which they can be done, The others are by editing a listview within SharePoint Designer right clicking on the list and select dataform XSLT or similar and editing the xsl and saving and this method by Todd Bleeker.

have a read and see what you think.

Editing List Schema

This is a fairly simple process once you know how this is a quick guide on how to do it.

Add a new boolean column to your list something along the lines of "Open In New Window".

open up your "schema XML".

down at the bottom of your schema file there is a <Fields> node open this up and copy paste the code below

edit the following area's

URLToOpen - the name of the URL field you want to use to generate the new link

OpenInNewWindow - The name of the field you created as a the boolean value to decide if to open in a new window or not

ok with that done now you can just use that computed column within your schema xml as a valid field.

just add that field in the <ViewFields> part of your view ie :
<FieldRef Name="NewUrlLink" />

This is a simplified rundown of the process based on my experiences with this. check out Andrew Connells blog if you need more information Andrews Connell's post can be found here and has more detail then mine.

Deploying Custom Lists with STSDEV

Steve — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:06:00 GMT

This is only a quick and dirty post as I'm really busy atm. This is obviously the most basic tutorial explaining how to quickly and easily take your lists from within sharepoint and make them deployable (I'm using STSDEV).

Firstly create your list within the Sharepoint as normal.

Open Sharepoint Solution Generator

Enter your site details,select the list you want to deploy and save into a folder on your desktop.

This generates a stand alone project for deploying this list if this is what you want.

To embed in a larger project

Copy the 4 ASPX files and the Schema.XML files into your project and place them in a listfolder (eg: "My List")

Edit the "Elements.XML" and copy the contents from the "ListDefinition.XML" file into it.

Open up the "Feature.XML" and add the following

finally within your "Elements.XML" add the following making sure to change the feature ID and generate a new Guid for the List Instance ID

<ListInstance

Id="874CE39B-0E8A-40c6-B284-36679BD5CC33"

FeatureId="314CAAC1-7E0D-4FAE-921C-30EEC7D7302A"

TemplateType="100"

Title="Press Releases"

Description="Press Releases"

Url="Lists/Press Releases" />

Take note of the Template Type, this should match between the template and the instance. There are a fair few different template types however Solution Generator should export the correct type for you.

for other types have a look here if you need too. Other Template Types

Now you should have your deployable list

hopefully this will be useful as a starting point for somebody.

Microsoft CRM 5.0 Features

Steve — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:34:00 GMT

If you're interested to know what will be the key features of the future Microsoft Dynamics CRM 5.0, originally pulled from Simon Hutson's post and now removed.

finally found this listed on Stefano Demiliani's Site

Remember that the next Microsoft CRM version is actually planned for release late 2009/early 2010 (there's not a codename now), so this is a really first preview.

This is the Simon's feature list (cross posted here):

New Features For End Users

Enhanced Navigation - I guess it was inevitable, but CRM5 uses the same "Fluent UI" (aka the Ribbon) as Office 2007. This new "command bar" replaces the CRM 4.0 "tool bars" at the top of each page, and is context sensitive. In addition, the "command bar" is fully customizable and you can add your own buttons much like you can with ISV.Config file today.

Incidentally, something that isn't discussed but appears on the ribbon is the "Add to Queue" command, from which I can only surmise that you will be add any entity (including custom entities) to a Queue.
Single Page Forms - The form model in CRM 4.0 made use of tabs to divide a form into multiple pages. In CRM5 tabs are displayed in the same way as section, with each form just having a single, scrolling page. As you can see from the navigation page of an Account entity, tabs are now displayed as a series of "quick access" navigation shortcuts under the "Information" link.
Data Filtering - One often requested feature is the ability to filter data in grids, much like Excel. Now you can navigate to the "DataView", click the "Filter" command, and you can perform your own in-line filtering.

Again, although not explicitly stated, it looks as though you can quickly save your filters as a View, as well as setting your own Default View.
In-line Visualizations - Although not Business Intelligence in the true sense of the phrase, CRM5 allows you to visualize numeric data using in-line charts. This is not SQL Server Reporting Services, but looks very much like the .NET charting solution from Dundas.

The charts themselves are drill-through enabled and you can select a number of different chart formats such as Bar, Column, Funnel, Line, Pie & Scatter.
Team Ownership - Entities in CRM 4.0 were either User Owned or Organisation Owned. Now Team Owned entities are added in CRM5, and integrated into the role-based security model.
Native SharePoint Integration - Integration with Windows SharePoint Services for document management, which includes site and document library provisioning, document metadata, item security, and check-in/check-out capabilities.
Unstructured Relationships - The next generation of "set regarding" and "relationship roles" functionality, allowing you to define ad-hoc relationships between any two entities.

New Features For Administrators

Flexible Form Layout - We now have much more flexibility in how forms are laid out, for example, we can position sections side-by-side, as well as field labels on top, left or right of each field. Best of all, we can now configure "In-Line Sub-Grids" for child records, so a combination of IFrames & JScript is no longer required to make this work.
Filtered Lookups - One of the most requested features has finally made it into the product. Whilst customizing the form, you can choose a pre-defined view or better still you can filter by a related lookup on the same form.
Form Headers & Footers - Now that all tabs, sections and fields appear on a single, scrolling form, it is quite possible the form will get become quite long and you will end up scrolling up and down more often to find the information you require. In order to make the most commonly required visible at all times, you can now place these fields in a header or footer so that they will always be displayed regardless of the scrolling.
Solution Management - With CRM 4.0, you had to implement a manual process when customizing your solution, to make sure that you didn't overwrite previous customizations, or disrupt any 3rd party ISV solutions. In CRM5 we had now added the concept of solutions.

A solution is a defined set of entity customizations, workflows, e-mail templates, security roles, plug-ins etc. that can be managed as a single unit. Each solution is version controlled so presumably your can have multiple versions of the same solution installed, and roll-back to a previous version if necessary.
You can also define solution dependencies where one solution can only be installed if another solution is also installed. For example, you might have a base solution for your whole organisation, with a departmental specific solution built on top of it.

Namespace collision is avoided by defining publishers, with each publisher having a unique namespace. This avoids the common issue where the default namespace "new_" is used for all customizations, leading to potential namespace conflicts.
One final plus point is that you can now specify which attributes will be exported as part of a solution, rather than having no choice but to export the whole entity.
Multiple Option Sets - Otherwise known as "Global Picklists", you can define these at the solution level, and re-use them across multiple entities.
Drag & Drop Form Editor - One of the most time consuming customization tasks in CRM 4.0 is the form design. Every time you want to add, remove or re-position tabs, sections and attributes, you have to go through a multi-click process. With CRM5, you can now drag and drop all elements of a form, speeding up the process considerably
Audit - Although not explicitly mentioned during the sessions, I spotted an "auditing" setting on the attribute designer form, allowing you to turn auditing on or off.

New Features For Developers

Custom Code Sandbox - There is a new server role for running custom plug-in code and custom workflow activities without requiring full trust. This means that it will be possible to run custom code in the CRM Online environment and achieve true parity between On-Premise, Partner-Hosted and Microsoft-Hosted deployments.
Plug-In Transaction Support - In CRM 4.0 you could register a plug-in to run either before (pre-event) or after (post-event) the CRM platform operation. However, you were not able to run as part of the transaction itself, so you had to right your own compensation logic in the event the CRM platform operation failed. CRM5 addresses this limitation, and you can now choose to register you plug-in as part of the platform operation. The CRM5 plug-in registration tool has been modified to support this.
Automatic Plug-In Profiling - CRM5 will keep track of how a plug-in is executing, what resources it consumes, if it is causing unexpected exceptions and whether or not it is violating security constraints. If a particular plug-in fails a number of times it is automatically disabled from executing, helping to maintain system integrity.

I want to add here only that also the CRM Workflow side will be improved a lot and the WF usage will be extended.

Do you remember how many times we've asked the Team to have filtered lookups? So natural request I think... In CRM 5.0 we'll have this feature!!

I have also a personal request: I hope on improvements regarding data import and data migration. CRM 4.0 helps a lot on data migration but it's not always so easy to migrate large amount of data from a custom system to CRM (due to the import processes that sometimes are "freezing").

Enabling the GAC File structure through explorer

Steve — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:51:00 GMT

Open RegEdit
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion
Right click in the viewer and add a new Binary Value
Name your new Binary value DisableCacheViewer
Double click your new entry and given it a value of 1 with Base Hexadecimal
Click OK
Navigate to C:\WINDOWS\assembly
You should see the contents of the folder as sub folders, not the standard GAC Viewer

I haven't tried but I read this solution also

Run the following command at the command line or in your login script:

subst l: c:\windows\assembly

Now if you go to c:\windows\assembly you get the good old functionality, but if you go to l: you get the directory structure.

Symbols cannot be loaded sharepoint issues

Steve — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:43:00 GMT

Seems there is a billion posts on this but not one of them helped me enough to fix this problem in the end i think it came down to blind luck and finding out the relevance of STSDev not building a pdb file unless you build your project with the debug build solution configuration selected.

Anyhow this is how i finally managed to get my debugger working within sharepoint with STSDev.

Select Debug build solution configuration
build solution
Reset IIS
copy dll and pdb file into the gac (assembly\gac_msil\<assembly-name>\<version>\<assembly-name>)
deploy the feature

** for information i have used this gac registry tweak to enable me to see the full gac structure

This finally worked for me and i am now able to debug.

The "Microsoft.Build.Tasks.Delete" task could not be loaded from the assembly

Steve — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:31:00 GMT

The "Microsoft.Build.Tasks.Delete" task could not be loaded from the assembly C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Build.Tasks.dll. Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Build.Tasks.dll' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. Confirm that the <UsingTask> declaration is correct, and that the assembly and all its dependencies are available.

just a quick post in response to this error message.

Edit the following files....\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\Windows Workflow Foundation\v3.5\Workflow.Targets...\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\Windows Workflow Foundation\v3\Workflow.Targets and remove the following line if it is in there<UsingTask TaskName="Microsoft.Build.Tasks.Delete" AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.Build.Tasks.dll" />

Code blocks are not allowed in this file

Steve — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:06:00 GMT

Parser Error Message: Code blocks are not allowed in this file.

Recieved this error when trying to add some code blocks into my sharepoint site, obviously Asp.NET pages can use code blocks so it had to be SharePoint blocking somehow.

Turns out SharePoint disables the ability to create server-side script by default, you have to turn it on. You do that in the web.config file, in the configuration/SharePoint/PageParserPaths configuration section add the following code making sure to amend the virtual paths as you see fit.

As you can see below I allow access to my masterpage directory to allow page layouts to use code blocks and the pages directory.

That should now enable the code blocks within your aspx page.