Installing Windows Service Bus 1.1

Hi guys

By far the easiest way to get the job done is to use the Web Platform Installer (you would think); however I ran into a problem where the Service Bus (Windows Azure Pack: Service Bus 1.1) didn't want to install since it depended on Microsoft Windows Fabric V1 CU1 and this dependency didn't want to install properly.

Turns out that your problem might be a missing VS C++ Runtime Environment.

I installed it after downloading it here

After the installtion was successful, no more Service Bus pains!

Good luck!

Hermann

InfoPath: The security validation for this page is invalid.

Hi guys

The error message in the title can quite often be a real head scratcher, but the very good news is that it is quite easy to get rid of. It happens when your InfoPath browser form executes custom code that calls directly into the SharePoint object model and specifically when you try to update the underlying SQL databases (i.e. when writing to s SharePoint list).

In your custom code, please make sure that you set SPWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates to true before your code that updates the database. In addition, please set this value to false again afterwards to comply with best pratices.

Happy coding!

Hermann

Quick easy way to copy multiple files from a SharePoint list/library

Morning my dear readers

Here's a real quick easy way to copy multiple files from a SharePoint list/library. When you open a list or library, in the list/library tab, find the 'Open with Explorer' option in the ribbon. When you click on it, the list/library will (wait for it)....open with explorer! Be aware that it might take some time especially if it is a large list/library. From there on then you can go nuts and copy/paste as you normally would.

Hope this helps someone out at some point!

Happy days!

Hermann

PowerShell - Correctly setting TrustedHosts

Hi guys

PowerShell has become such a valuable tool for administrators, that I myself am getting way too lazy to even think about opening RDP sessions to my servers. An extremely important function (obviously) is to be able to execute commands on remote machines; however you might run into trouble (especially when specifying the remote machine by IP) with default authentication issues:

Enter-PSSession : Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WinRM client cannot process the request. Default authentication may be used with an IP address under the following conditions: the transport is HTTPS or the destination is in the TrustedHosts list, and explicit credentials are provided. Use winrm.cmd to configure TrustedHosts. Note that computers in the TrustedHosts list might not be authenticated. For more information on how to se
t TrustedHosts run the following command: winrm help config. For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic.

To quickly configure TrustedHosts on your client, simply run the following command on the client machine (through a console with elevated privileges):

Set-Item wsman:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts <yourservernameorip> -Concatenate -Force

Bob's your uncle!

Now go ahead and run your beloved 'Enter-PSSession' command again!

Be happy, life is good :)

Hermann

Control remote services with PowerShell

Dear Readers

Have you ever become so extremely lazy that you don't even want to use RDP to logon to your server so that you can start a service on it? It might just be me then, but either way PowerShell is just a great tool for remote admin.

In order to start a service on a remote machine:

get-service -displayname *<partofservicedisplayname>* -computername <machine> | set-service -status "Running"

Obviously you can stop a service similary by setting the status to "Stopped". Please note that you can also use parameters like -name (name of service).

Also please note that the "start-service" cmdlet will try to start the service on your local machine. The set-service cmdlet seemed to have done the trick for me.

Enjoy!

Hermann

Microsoft.SharePoint dll location (SharePoint 2013)

Hi folks

Just FYI, the location for the Microsoft.SharePoint dll (that you need for development purposes) is located at C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\15\ISAPI
on the server where SharePoint is installed.

Regards

Hermann

Use SharePoint PowerShell to find out your web's template

Good morning, readers!

By far the easiest way (in my experience) to do this is to use the following code:

This might return a template code that is not self-explanatory. In that case, please reference the excellent guide at: http://www.sharepointcolumn.com/sharepoint-2013-webtemplates/

Happy coding!

Hermann

Understanding SQL Server Page Sizes

Dear Readers

I'm not going to claim this article as my own since it isnt! :)

Nevertheless, for those of you that want to know the intricate details behind the Microsoft SQL Server page sizes, I have found an excellent article:

http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/inside-the-storage-engine-anatomy-of-a-page/

Happy coding and have a great day!

Hermann

The power of association

Dear readers

This post (unfortunately ;) ) has nothing to do with programming; however I thought it worth sharing since it can speak to many of us and deals with being successful (which I sincerely hope that many of my readers want to be!).

Here it is:

The Power of Association is too real: The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that don't help you climb will want you to crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that don't increase you will eventually decrease you.

Consider this: Never receive counsel from unproductive people. Never discuss your problems with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who never succeed themselves are always first to tell you how. Not everyone has a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person. Don't follow anyone who is not going anywhere and most importantly, don’t follow anyone who is running away from your life. With some people you spend an evening: with others you invest it. Be careful where you stop to inquire for directions along the road of life. Wise is the person who fortifies his life with the right friendships. If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl, but if you associate with eagles, you will learn how to soar to great heights.

"A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses." The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate - for the good and the bad. Note: Be not mistaken. This is applicable to family as well as friends. 

“When I compliment you, I compliment myself, because I am who I associate with.”

~ Jarod Kintz

Macro for batch converting in Excel

Hi folks

Today I needed to batch convert over a hundred Excel file from the old extension (.xls) to the new extension (.xlsx). By far the easiest way was to record a macro while doing one file and then adapting the code to run for all the files in the specific directory.

Here follows the code:

Happy coding!

Hermann

Microsoft File Transfer Manager not working

Morning everyone

I just want to mention a quick workaround for an issue with Microsoft File Transfer Manager not working in IE11 (please also note that it seems to not be working in any 64-bit browser from Microsoft).

For IE11, press F12 to bring up the developer console and then scroll down on the left to get to the Emulation console. From here choose the Document Mode 9 and the Internet Explorer 9 as the User agent string. Your Microsoft subscription page will then reload and once this has finished, try to download the file again. This time, FTM should pop up.

Good luck. Sorry for the short post without explaining the reasons behind the issues. No time today :)

Happy coding!

Hermann

Creating Date and Time dimensions for your data warehouse

Good morning fellow coders!

I won't write long, but I figured that it was worth mentioning that I found quite a nice article that will help you easily and quickly create Data and Time dimensions for your SQL data warehouse (or any other warehouse for that matter, but you would obviously have to modify the scripts slightly).

Enjoy the following link to its fullest:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Data+Warehouse/106149/

Happy warehousing!

SQL Server 2008 R2 "Out of Memory" exception

Dear Readers

I have been away from this blog for much too long, but I'm back and getting back into posting about some of my favorite technologies. I ran into an interesting problem today. It's definitely common, but it was the first time for me. I was running a stored procedure on SQL Server 2008 R2 and got an "Out of Memory" exception.

I googled around and came across a fix which is quite easy. Well, let me not call it a fix since obviously it might not work for everyone; however it is currently working for me (running as I'm typing) so I thought I'd share.

Apparently, what happens is that you receive a .NET Exception. This happens when the result set that your query returns (in my case, I am using a "SELECT" statement to extract values into a cursor) is very large and you exceed the limits of a 32-bit virtual address space (2GB). The workaround is to run the stored procedure using the "sqlcmd" utility (as obviously CLI tools require way less resources).

Simply type 'sqlcmd' -S <servername> into your command prompt and press enter. Then type 'Use <database>' name to change to the relevant database. Press Enter' Type 'exec dbo.<sp_name>' to execute the stored procedure. Quite simple. Please let me know if this doesn't work for you. It would be interesting to try to solve more complicated problems.

Happy coding!

Hermann

Microsoft Surface RT

Hi guys,

This is my review of the new Microsoft Surface RT. I got my tablet one day ago so in the future I might post a more informed review.

Let's discuss the hardware first. The tablet has a very solid construction. It is pretty obvious that quite a lot of thought and money have gone into this design, which is something that is not very surprising giving Microsoft's need to get into the mobile market. The tablet offers all the functionality that people have come to expect from tablets, except for a GPS. Microsoft stated (regarding the lack of 3G support for the tablet) that consumer research showed that tablets the size if the Surface don't leave areas where Wi-Fi is available very often. It seems fair to assume that this might be at least a partial reason not to include a GPS either.

In addition the surface has a USB port, Micros SD card slot, and an HDMI video out slot. Clearly Microsoft is trying to penetrate the business world with its first offering. The tablet is a little more professional-looking in my opinion and thus not as sexy as an iPad. However, once again I think this simply demonstrates where Microsoft if focusing some of its efforts as well.

The software has impressed me although I will admit that the Windows store is not yet up to par with either Google Play or the Apple Store. As far as the OS goes, Microsoft has done very well as far as I can tell and there is a lot of potential there. I would suggest to wait a little bit if you want to buy a Surface, since the price might drop a little bit and the Windows Store is just going to get bigger. I will mention that it was nice when I received an email last night with a PowerPoint attachment, which I could open directly on the tablet without even skipping a beat.

Right now the Surface is a very solid offering, but if you wait a little bit, it will only get better. Like I said, there are still some things that Microsoft can (and I think will) improve. In addition, as I run into more of the tablet's particulars, I will keep mentioning them.

For those of you who already bought one, enjoy.

Hermann

Update:

I have been very impressed by the content that is available in the media store for the Xbox. I am not sure how it stacks up against the offering from Amazon, but it definitely beats Google's heftily.

Android connection problems to Google servers

Hi guys,

One of my friends ran across an issue with her new Samsung Galaxy S and I wanted to jot it down, since it seems like she is not the only person to have come across this issue. The fix in her case was quite simple.

A quick description of the issue:

When you try to sync your Google account with your phone, after inputting your username and password, the following message appears:

Your phone has to connect with Google servers to set up your account. This may take up to five minutes.

The after a while it shows the following message:

Can't establish a reliable data connection to the server.

And the fix in this case:

Go to Menu -> Settings -> Accounts & Sync -> Background Settings (Tick this)

And then Settings -> Accounts & Sync -> Add Account -> Google -> (create your account or log in)

Hope this helps some of you.

Enjoy your Android devices :)

Hermann

Report Viewer webpart location

Hi guys,

This is just a short post that I am actually posting for myself in order to remember the location of the installed Sharepoint RS webparts. I hope someone else can find this useful as well since I had quite a hard time finding an answer to this (maybe I didn't use the right search strings on Google :) )

The default location for these are:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Reporting Services\SharePoint\RSWebParts.cab


Thanks,


Hermann

MySQL reconfigure root password

Hi guys,

I ran into an interesting situation today and thought that I'd just mention a real quick painless solution. To make a long story short I did a MySQL dump on my windows machine in order to restore the DB on my Linux box. In the process, you also have to copy the mysql database since the grant tables are stored in that database. Somewhere along in the process though I messed something up and lost my root user account. I then got an access denied for any attempt to log in as root and I couldn't change the password for root either since the user didn't even exist in the mysql.user table.

One would be able to manually insert a user into the table; however I don't recommend that approach. It is just not a clean way of dealing with your most important account as far as MySQL goes.

I am not exactly sure what the problem was yet, but a quick painless solution is to reconfigure the MySQL server:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure mysql-server-5.1

Replace the version number with your version, which you could check by running mysql --version.

Hope this helps someone out!

Happy coding :)

Hermann

SharePoint remote management through Windows Powershell

Hi guys,

Just a quick note on managing SharePoint remotely through the use of Windows Powershell. I just wanted to blog this for my own use, but thought that someone else might find it handy. The following blog is a very nice description of how to setup and use remote management through Windows Powershell.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/opal/archive/2010/03/07/sharepoint-2010-with-windows-powershell-remoting-step-by-step.aspx

Thanks,

Hermann

SSRS Parameters Greyed Out, SSRS 'Back Button' Issue

Hi guys,

I have been doing quite a bit of development on SSRS lately and I ran into quite an annoying bug which I still haven't been able to fix (although I have found a workaround). The bug that I am talking about is one that many people have come across when using the ReportViewer web part in SharePoint in order to display a SSRS Report in a SharePoint page.

Let me give a quick description:

When I am viewing Report A and this report has a link that links to Report B, I click on the link and then, as expected I am taken to Report B. Now if I want to go back the parent report, I can use the 'Back to Parent Report' button which is provided at the top of the ReportViewer web part. However, this button does not work correctly. When the button is clicked, the parameter list is not refreshed and so you get taken back to the parent report while your parameters are still those of the child report. I have also found that once I'm back on the parent report, with the wrong parameters displaying, links to other reports cease to work.

I don't have a lot of time now, so I will just cut right to the chase and say that here I will not provide a solution to the problem but simply a workaround.

What I did was to implement my own back button. I simply passed the parent report's parameters down to the child report. I obviously specified these parameters to be hidden on the child report. I then created a text box on the child report and implemented an action on the textbox. This action then takes me back to the parent report and passes the parent's parameters back to it in order for it to have the correct parameters now. Then in the ReportViewer web part, I simply hid the back button.

Too dirty for my liking, but it gets the job done. (I tried many other workarounds as well; I also installed SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1, which according to MS, should have worked, but didn't).

The other thing that I want to mention real quick is the issue of parameters acting kind of strange sometimes. In this particular case, parameters were greyed out for no reason. The parameters before it had values chosen.

Please make sure that the data set that you are getting the values from for the parameter, does not contain any NULL values as this will cause a greyed-out parameter if you use the data set to set the default values as well.

Thanks,

Happy coding!

Hermann

SSRS Report Parameters in Url

Hi guys,

I have seen that many people have had questions regarding passing report parameters in urls. I decided that I would document my specific case here as I did not find much information on it. I am working with SSRS 2008 R2 and in Sharepoint Integrated Mode.

I will just get right down to it. To correctly pass parameters to a report, use a url that follows the following pattern (assume that we have a "ssrs reports" folder in our SharePoint subsite, where we store our reports):

http://<<spsite>>/<<spsubsite>>/_layouts/ReportServer/RSViewerPage.aspx?rv:RelativeReportUrl=/<<subsite>>/ssrs%20reports/<<report_name>>.rdl&rp:<<param1>>=<<param_value1>>&rp:<<param2>>=<<param_value2>>

The important thing to note is that for every parameter it is necessary to include the "rp" prefix.

I hope this helps some of you.

Please ask if I can be of more assistance.

Happy coding! :)

Hermann