IE 8 Download

The Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 is now available download IE 8 from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/default.aspx

OneNote Web Exporter - Display OneNote on SharePoint

This free add-on to OneNote gives the user the ability to export a web page view of a OneNote document. You can even export it to SharePoint and use a page view web part to host the webview.html page within a SharePoint site.

http://www.codeplex.com/ONWebber

This add-on sure beats my Word2OneNote.

Even better idea, create a Shared Notebook that is stored on SharePoint, export this Notebook to the same SharePoint library. Now multiple users can open and edit the Notebook and export it back to update the web page.

Hmmm.... wonder how concurrent updates are dealt with?

Sitecore 5.3 Archive Item

Here is the documentation on how to archive a Sitecore 5.3 Item.

http://sdn5.sitecore.net/SDN5/End%20User/Site%20Administration/Item%20Management/Archiving%20Items.aspx

Sitecore Restore Archive Item

Once again Sitecore lets me down as there is no way to easily restore an archived item from the Archive database within Sitecore 5.3. Note that there is no Archive database in Sitecore 6. But for those of us that are still on Sitecore 5.3 until they release some sort of migration tool we still have the Archive database.

Anyway, this guy has a nice post on how to add the missing Restore option for Archived items. http://usoniandream.blogspot.com/2007/07/tutorial-restore-from-archive.html

One thing to note about Archiving items, just because you archive them doesn't mean they still aren't published. To truly archive an item, you should first make it as not publishable, then publish it (this will ensure the page is removed from the web database, then Archive the page, then save it. If you refresh the parent node of that page you'll notice that the page is now gone and now exists within the Archive database.

Job Justifications, Systems you manage... my experience is not good

At my previous employer my manager came to me one day asking me to detail what I work on i.e. what systems do I manage and to provide a weekly percentage of this work in an Excel spreadsheet. I thought ok, he just wants to know what I do everyday. Not quite, 2 months later the company announces they are being acquired by another. People get cut, my manager did, somehow I remained.

What I learned: When a manager asks for this type of information it might indicate the company is about to be acquired.

Current Day: My manager asks all of us to provide information about the systems we support and what we work on weekly. This scares me a little as it sounds a lot like my previous employer.

My list is going to be 10 pages long this time.

Anyway, for those of you out there that encounter this type of situation, either come up with a huge list or pack your bags. In my case, I was young and had a lot of potential, I think that's why I was kept, plus I was making dirt for pay.

SQL 2008 Open Table is gone

Another change that wasn't obvious at first is that the Open Table option is gone when a table is right clicked. I'm sure that was probably ambiguous so MS had to take it out.

The Open Table command has now been replaced with Edit Top 200 Rows.

Well what if there is a row at 201 that I want to edit. Is there no easy way to right click and just open all the rows.

SQL 2008 Saving changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created.

I've just started using SQL 2008 and have encountered a very annoying problem. Whenever I change a table I get an error:

Saving changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created. You have either made changes to a table that can't be re-created or enabled the option Prevent saving changes that require the table to be re-created.

WTF? I was able to change tables whenever I wanted to in SQL 2000 and 2005 and now I'm not allowed to in SQL 2008. Oh wait, I need to disable some stupid option that shouldn't have been enabled in the first place. To do this follow these instructions:

Within SQL Management Studio click on the Tools menu. Then Options, then the Designer node and uncheck the box that says: Prevent saving changes that require the table to be re-created.

Now we can actually work with tables like we were able to do in SQL 2005. Nice extra step MS, next time make it more difficult to do what we need to do.

Vista SP1 Prompts When Opening Documents From SharePoint

You are prompted to enter your credentials when opening a document stored in SharePoint when using Vista. SharePoint and Vista don't play well together by default unless you install Vista SP1 and then hack that registry.


http://support.microsoft.com/?id=943280


Oh and don't forget to restart the WebClient service as well as IE after you hack that registry. SharePoint documents will prompt for credentials when running Vista if you don't configure Vista correctly.

TechEd 2008 DVD Set Arrives

Today I received the completed DVD set of the sessions, keynotes and presentations given at this year's (2008) TechEd down in Orlando, FL.

Again I'll have to reiterate that I wasn't blown away by TechEd. It seemed a little elementary and I was expecting more deep dives into the technologies. Maybe that's what the PDC is for. Either way, I won't be going to next years in L.A., maybe the year after when it's in New Orleans.

Missing WebTrends Hit and Visit Filters after 8.5 upgrade

After upgrading to WebTrends 8.5 I noticed that all my hit and visit filters disappeared. I didn't bother to write down all the configuration of these filters before the upgrade because really who would. I called support and they were easily able to get my filters back with a minimal amount of work.

First stop a couple of WebTrends services. First stop the User Interface and then the Scheduler Agent.

Next browse to your WebTrends directory most likely C:\Program Files\WebTrends\storage\config\wtm_wtx\datfiles\filters. You should see a bunch of .bak files. Take the most recent .bak file it may be named something similar to hits_webtrendsdatetime.bak. Make a backup copy of hits.ini and call it hits.ini.old. Now take the hits_webtrendsdatetime.bak file and rename it to hits.ini.

Now start up the WebTrends service in the opposite order, so start the Scheduler Agent and then the User Interface. Log into the WebTrends console and you should now see your hit filters back. This same process will work for visit filters as well just use the visits.ini file and the visits_webtrendsdatetime.bak files instead.

Also notice that when you stop the WebTrends User Interface service that the WebTrends Tomcat service stops as well, and when you start the User Interface service the Tomcat service will start.

Hope this helps someone.

Sitecore and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Service Pack 1

Do not install .NET 3.5 SP1 on your Sitecore server, doing so may result in long hours and a broken site. Here is the information directly from Sitecore that I recently received in an email.


Dear Sitecore Enthusiast,

You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to the Sitecore Product Issues and Patches mailing list.

On Monday, August 4th, Microsoft released the following service packs: Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and .NET 3.5 SP1.

Sitecore has discovered that these service packs introduce a bug in the LosFormatter class (System.Web.UI.LosFormatter in System.Web.dll, used to serialize and deserialize an ASP.NET ViewState). This bug causes stability issues in Sitecore products. Sitecore has raised this as an urgent priority issue with Microsoft (case number : SRQ080813600454) and is working to help resolve this issue.

In the meantime, PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL .NET 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 on any server running a Sitecore product (including Sitecore WCMS, Intranet Portal, and Foundry) until further notice!

Symptoms associated with installing either of these service packs:

• Memory consumption increases dramatically and single core CPU usage goes up to 100% when opening the Access Viewer or Media Library applications.
  
• OutOfMemoryExceptions thrown in the Desktop and Content Editor.
  
• The browser becomes unresponsive when accessing Sitecore.

Please be aware that Microsoft may include this Service Pack as part of the monthly ‘Patch Tuesday’. Please take steps to avoid the automatic installation of these service packs.

Please be aware that the final version of SQL Server 2008 will require .NET 3.5 SP1.
If you have any questions about this issue, please contact Sitecore support.

Best Regards, Sitecore Support Team.

Blogger favicon.ico

Wondering how I got the cool favicon by the url within your web browser. I followed the instructions found http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/2007/02/adding-favicon-icon-to-blogger-url.html to add it.



I think Blogger should make it easier to put a favicon within the url but since they don't you can just follow the instructions in the link above to add the favicon to Blogger.

SharePoint Limited Access permissions

What exactly does Limited Access mean when you see it applied to an individual or a group within SharePoint? What access do they have and why do they have it? It's not obvious to tell within the SharePoint user interface what Limited Access means. Now we have a tool to tell us what SharePoint Limited Access really means. Check out http://www.codeplex.com/SPLimitedAccessDisco

It has 47 downloads since it's release in late July 2008. I think if more people knew about this Limited Access tool that there would be more. Hopefully people will see this post and download it.

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Download

Here is the download link. It installs Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Service Pack 1) and .NET Framework 3.1 SP1.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FBEE1648-7106-44A7-9649-6D9F6D58056E&displaylang=en

DateTime.ToString Formats

I always use the following reference page to find a DateTime ToString format. It's a very good reference page for Date Time String Formats. I suggest you bookmark it yourself.

http://authors.aspalliance.com/aspxtreme/sys/demos/datetimeformats.aspx

Creating a custom Visual Studio Theme

Forget trying to create a Visual Studio theme by yourself, by using the frickin sweet tool below, you can create a Visual Studio theme within seconds and import it into Visual Studio and start using it.

http://frickinsweet.com/tools/Theme.mvc.aspx

Visual Studio themes are frickin sweet man!!

Adding a SharePoint Site Picker to a SharePoint layouts page

Very nice article detailing how to add a SharePoint site picker to a custom page within the layouts directory.

http://chrissyblanco.blogspot.com/2008/07/adding-sharepoint-site-picker-to_03.html

Upgrading WebTrends from 8.1 to 8.5

The upgrade from WebTrends version 8.1 to 8.5 did not go smoothly. The big difference between the 8.1 versions and 8.5 is that instead of using mysql databases 8.5 now uses SQL databases specifically running on SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. During the upgrade 8.5 installed SQL 2005 Express and converted the mysql databases to SQL databases. This all seemed to go fine except when the WebTrends site came up it still pointed to the old mysql databases even though the SQL databases were created and converted successfully.

Support had me first uninstall 8.5 and then reinstall 8.5, after this we tried restoring the converted databases over the empty 8.5 databases. This did not succeed as when the site was browsed a SQL error was displayed. So support had me uninstall 8.5 and reinstall 8.1 specifically 8.1.0.5164. After we had a blank 8.1 installation running I stopped the WebTrends services and made copies of the storage, wt_sched and wtmaster folders that exist within the WebTrends folder within Program Files. I then copied in my backup folders of these (I made backups of these before doing any upgrade, apparently all the data is stored in these folders). I then restarted the WebTrends services and browsed to the WebTrends site. Success, the site came up, I was able to login and all my analysis data was there.

After we verified some of the data in the 8.1 version, we upgraded to 8.1a which I believe is 8.1.0.2048. After the upgrade we again logged into the WebTrends site and verified the data. Just a note here, one of the many technicians I spoke to told me that the upgrade would only be successful from 8.1a to 8.5. This explains why my 8.1 to 8.5 upgrade didn’t go well. The data was correct so we then upgraded to 8.5, we logged into the WebTrends site again and finally the data was all there.

You can verify version and database platform by logging into the WebTrends site, going into the Administration area and then into Install Components. On that page is a link to About WebTrends which displays the version number and database platform.

Lessons learned: Upgrade to 8.1a before attempting to upgrade to 8.5.

Grand Rapids has been Google Street View

Check out Google Street View of Grand Rapids, MI.

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/

I didn't see the car go by but it must have been pretty recent because it has the construction in downtown filmed.

West Michigan SharePoint User Group September 2 Meeting

New Horizons
5315 28th St Ct. SE Suite B
Grand Rapids, MI 49546

September 2, 2008
6:00pm-8:00pm

On September 2nd, David Tappan of C/D/H and Clay Osborn of Blue Sphere Solutions will do a deep dive on using data view/data form web parts to surface and present content from multiple sources. They will show how the data view web part is the “swiss army knife” of web parts. The presentation will include tips and tricks on setting up data connections and little known settings in SharePoint Designer, as well as how to do some amazing customizations of both functionality and look and feel using XSLT.

John von Rosen, a Software Consultant for Blue Sphere Solutions, will be giving a presentation on using the Business Data Catalog in SharePoint to provide insight into corporate data in an enterprise dashboard.

The presentation will provide information for business users by demonstrating the potential for access to business data in a dashboard. We will also cover the technical aspects, such as understanding the BDC metadata definition file.
Please join us and share your ideas and best practices while networking with your peers. Food and drink will be served.

IE 8 Beta Program

Speaking of beta programs, I have been invited to participate in the Windows Internet Explorer 8 beta tester program.

I look forward to getting prereleases of the software and providing direct feedback to MS about any bugs I find.

If you would like to apply see this post View article...

Office 14 Estimated Release Date

Office 14 appears to be scheduled to be released in Q4 of 2009 or Q1 of 2010. Given that timeline the Office 14 beta program will probaby not start until late this year or early next year. I remember participating in the Office 2007 beta program and I believe that started the same year that that Office system was released.

I also saw a rumor that Windows 7 could be released around that same timeframe, wonder if MS will do another Office - Windows launch.

"This document outlines the future direction of Microsoft Dynamics CRM through to the next major release, Microsoft Dynamics CRM “V.Next”, which will be aligned with the Office 14 wave of product releases due in late 2009/early 2010." from http://blogs.msdn.com/dynamicscrmonline/archive/2008/07/23/microsoft-dynamics-crm-statement-of-direction.aspx

Of course non of this is confirmed except for the information provided in the post by MS above about the estimated Office 14 release date.