Bytes and Bites of Internet
Archive for January, 2011
Hartford SharePoint Saturday …. after shock !!
Jan 30th
Well, finally event is over and as I expected … I had got chance to attend few pretty interesting sessions, and some were really boring (not because of presenter but merely because of my lack of understanding of subject 
) …
They had six tracks of there were few really hard choices for me to select. Sessions where I went were kind of combination of Developer, End User and Administrator combination. Some were basic and few were pretty advance (atleast for me 
) … but over all I really enjoyed. Only thing that I missed was lack of more BI sessions. There was just ONE BI session and it was kind of introductory. But I think the main reason is BI is kind of new feature of SharePoint and still it doesn’t do much magic by itself except putting different BI stuffs together (compared to other masters in the BI arena like SSRS/SSAS, Cognos or Hyperion ) and also it was just first SharePoint event that was held such a large. But I am sure that in next events I will get chance to see more BI stuffs 
.
During event I met really great people, who were sort of senior then me in both experience and age. While talking with them, I realize that there is a lot of scope for networking during this sort of events all you need to do is just try to approach people. Which I am not good at but somehow I was able to make few new contacts and learn few useful tips as well.
The location of the event was New Horizon Learning Center where I had been before during Code Camp previous year. They are really great guys and the facility was well equipped too (do I sound like marketing person ?? ). In the end there was raffle and they (event sponsors) gave away loads of prices (I was eyeing for XBOX with Kinect but I guess it was not my lucky day 
).
Overall, I must say that it was really great experience for me (hey, I got book in one of the session from speaker too … for asking him loads of questions 
) … and I am looking forward for future events.
I know that this more sounds like marketing stuffs. But I personally believe that people who really worked hard and sponsored this events should be appreciated, because after all it was them who made it possible, right ???
That’s it for now.
It’s Just A Thought …
SharePoint Saturday @ Connecticut …
Jan 23rd
I am lucky to be resident of a state which has one of the most active Microsoft user groups … and these great guys frequently arrange super great seminars, presentations, camps and other events. I happen to participate in many of those events whenever possible. I think it is always a great idea to take part in those events as they give you first hand experience of MSFT technologies, and more importantly you learn from the people who are the best at what they do like MVPs and other tech Experts. And most of all, its like one day training of different topics from industry experts for FREE !!! 
By 29th of this month (this Saturday), CTDOTNET (the most active .NET user group of CT) is gonna arrange an event called SharePoint Saturday. I guess, it will be first of its kind event. It will be a whole day event where people from different industries working on SharePoint will present on different topics, which are generally classified as Developer, Administrator and End Users.
They still have some seats left… if you want to attend this great event then you might still have chance. As RSVP is required, you can register at this site.
Just checked their site, as of today they are HOUSE FULL !! I am sure it’s going to be exciting (1/27).
See you there… 
Sorting in GridView
Jan 15th
Sorting is kind of very useful information if we want to quickly analyze bunch of data based on columns. And being one of most used control to display data in ASP.NET, GridView can implement easily with few more line of codes (who doesn’t love to write more … right ?? 
)… And in today’s post I am showing how to add functionality to SORT data in GridView. Actually there are many ways to do it and use is kind of personal choice (I am not that deep into efficiency part, so not sure about it YET). Actually this method is kind of consolidation of different posts that I found on web world… so I don’t claim that it is an original invention… consider it as a bit amalgamation of different methods.
This is how it works (I have included the Code file in the end, also just to note I have used Visual Studio 2010 and AdventureWorks sample database which are free to use )…
<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" AllowSorting="true" onsorting="GridView1_Sorting"> <Columns> <asp:BoundField DataField="Name" HeaderText="Name" ReadOnly="True" SortExpression="Name" /> <asp:BoundField DataField="City" HeaderText="City" SortExpression="City" /> <asp:BoundField DataField="BirthDate" HeaderText="BirthDate" SortExpression="BirthDate" DataFormatString="{0:d}" /> </Columns> </asp:GridView>
Here, I have set AutoGenerateColumns=”False” … which will allow me to write my own setting of Columns which is kind of more flexible for example, I can set the way DATE column to only include date .. not the time, Or header of columns ! Also I have set AllowSorting=”true”, which will enable sorting. Now even though I have enabled sorting it will not sort data automatically !! we need to add some kind of event handler which will deal will SORT event which is ONSORTING.
Custom error pages in ASP.NET …
Jan 9th
If you have designed even a single application, then you know that it is very difficult if not impossible to code an application that will not generate any sort of exceptions. No matter how hard a developer can try to cover all holes, users will always find way to crash your application and ASP.NET is not an exception to this (I guess that is why testing is crucial component of SDLC.)
In ASP.NET if you get any kind of error you will get really weird message displayed in your web browser. Something like in the screenshot below (Yesss .. I know its IE 9 
). And with just once glance at it you can imagine how great security risk this type of message can be. If you have some kind of database connection string (for which hopefully I assume that password is not hardcoded 
), users might be able to see what’s behind door no. 2. Or at least it wont look “good” either.
And as until your application thoroughly tested by real user, you might never find any weird errors in you app. So, I think it is always good idea to have some kind of mechanism to catch all error that might have missed by your try – catch block !!. In ASP.NET, actually you can design your own error pages called “CUSTOM ERROR PAGES” which kind of provides protection against general errors as well as specific errors (e.g. 400, 401, 403, 500 few to name ). This feature can be really handy if you have really giant application and it may possible that you might have missed some specific scenarios…
Preventing Browsers from getting my Location !!
Jan 6th
This quick post is about: How can we prevent browser (or here, search engines) from tracking our location.
Some people find it very useful to be able to do local search without any hassle. But I personally find it more intrusive that Google or MSN or any search engine knows my exact location and show me search result based on that location (I know there is nothing like free lunch 
) … but honestly, if I want to search for plumber in my city then I would like to do it by adding more search parameters in my search on Google. I find it more easy and feel less intrusive. I know that there are many other ways these search engines / ad. agencies can track you, your location, your usage but still I would like to think that I can make it atleast difficult for them.
Recently I was reading somewhere (probably Life Hacker or Gizmodo, not sure ‘coz I read a LOT) and I found that there is cool extension exists for browser which actually can prevent these search engines to track you. It is called “Disconnect” , and it is developed by formal Google employee (what an irony 
) … It can basically give you ability to “disconnect” yourself from Google, Facebook, Twitter,Digg and Yahoo!. I took couple of screenshots for MSN and Google .. it was really interesting that they were not able to get my location !!! (see the proof below …)
Interactive Sorting in Reports — SSRS
Jan 3rd
If have been working with SQL Server then you might already be familiar with a reporting service packaged with SQL Server, called SQL Server Reporting Service. Which basically allows user to create and host reports. Actually when you install SQL Server 2008, you are present with an option to install additional component called Business Intelligence Development Studio (a.k.a. BIDS). BIDS is actually sort of collection of tools which can be used to design BI solutions namely, Data Warehouses, Data Marts, Cubes (or Multi Dimensional Databases) and Reports.
Actually you can developer reports using two specific tools, one is called Report Builder and another is BIDS (which is kind of component of Visual Studio 2008 till now … Denali has support for VS 2010 though). My preferred method to design report is use BIDS, because it gives me flexibility to work on more granule things like support for .NET assemblies and ability to use data from Cubes (SSAS).
Anyways, this post is How to for using Interactive Sorting in Reports. From my first report in Crystal Reports till today, I always find client in need to have ability to sort report data just by clicking report columns. I think the crave for that ability lies in our root from days of Excel as only available reporting tool 
(I may be wrong … it’s just speculation by me.) So this simple demo is about how to make it happen in reports for SSRS.