Dan Kohls' Weblog

Welcome to my Blog!

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 10:01:28 GMT

Welcome to my blog, where I can share what I learn from working with Microsoft technologies such as Visual Studio .Net, SharePoint, and other server tools.

And since this blog is hosted via a SharePoint template developed by Collutions, it gives me a chance to do more work with SharePoint.

Thanks for visiting!

Problem editing hyperlinks in an MCMS application

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 14:14:19 GMT

Today I was asked to do a simple enough task: Edit a hyperlink in an MCMS posting within a client's website to point to the root posting. As is often the case, what is simple isn't always so.

I edited the link as requested, but when I previewed the posting, the link had "/NR/exeres" appended to it, which broke the link.

I did some research, and found a posting that Stefan replied to: http://www.eggheadcafe.com/ng/microsoft.public.cmserver.general/Jul2005/post23249301.asp

To expedite the request, I tried editing the posting again. This time I used the link manager, and selected the root channel. This created a link that was only '/', but served the purpose.

Has anyone else had experience with this, or is this by design? The site is running on CMS2002 SP1a, with the Telerik r.a.d. Editor (http://www.mcmscontrols.com/)

AchieveForms training

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:22:54 GMT

I spent the past three days in partner training for the AchieveForms product from Business Web Software. This nifty tool allows users to easily create powerful web-based forms. The forms can be used off-line, via the web, or hosted in MCMS and SharePoint, and can be easily integrated with many different databases and webservices.

A free, 'lite' version is also available: AFLite

Since so many of the clients I work for require some kind of form functionality, it appears that I'll be working quite a bit with AchieveForms in the future!

SQL Performance Tuning

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:53:38 GMT

We've been having some minor performance problems with a client's MCMS website with a template that pulls content from a SQL database. The site would occasionally report SQL time-outs in the data-layer. I finally had a chance to do some more detailed testing today and have found what I believe to be the culprit, or at least a clue to the root cause.

To force a load on the website, I used the Microsoft Application Center Test. I watched the CPU utilization on the IIS and SQL servers, no problem there. Network traffic between the two was minimal.

Figuring that the bottleneck is ultimately somewhere in the SQL server, I started to play around with the Performance utility in the Administrative Tools. At first I monitored several SQL objects to no avail. Then I thought I'd look at the disk performance itself. After experimenting with a few, I found 'Physical Disk: Avg. Disk Queue Length ' was spiking and maxing out at 100 most of the time. Searching the web, I found http://www.sql-server-performance.com/sql_server_performance_audit2.asp which suggests that the meter should be down around two.

I've since called up the ISP that hosts our servers, and I'm waiting to hear back as to the cause of this excessive load.

Quick query for fetching code of a MS SQL Stored Procedure

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 11:17:09 GMT

Here's quick query I developed while working with a problematic database:

SELECT a.text
FROM syscomments a
INNER JOIN sysobjects b ON b.id=a.id
WHERE b.xtype='P' AND b.name='YourProcNameHere'

Free ASP.NET 2.0 webcast series

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 09:21:07 GMT

I just signed up for a free ASP.NET 2.0 webcast series. I've already seen 2.0 in action a dozen times, and played with it a little. But I figure this will be really useful this time since I'm a week or two away from implementing a new website using 2.0 for the first time. Plus there's some great swag for watching: Visual Studio 2005, a book, hosting and more.

MCMS: JavaScript error when clicking on 'Switch To Edit Site'

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 12:12:20 GMT

I recently had to debug a JavaScript error in the MCMS console that would occur when the user would switch to edit mode on the homepage template, and not any other template.

After some testing of the CMS JavaScripts I determined that the error was occuring in Console.js, UpdateSiblingFramesInUnpublishedMode().

A quick search of the web found: http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/2/5/4250f79a-c3a1-4003-9272-2404e92bb76a/MCMS+2002+-+Web+Author+FAQ.htm#A0F55902-5FC0-4A0E-A449-C8318564077F

As the item indicated, the site's only template contained an IFRAME, which was exposing the MCMS bug. I updated the code as indicated, and the problem was resolved.

Useful things to do with your USB Thumbdrive

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:52:24 GMT

Besides using your drive to hold in the lever when using a gas pump that won't lock while filling your car, you can creating a bootable install of XP for the extreme in portable computing: http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177102101

GetCallbackEventReference: ASP.NET Framework changed since PDC 03 release

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 15:37:05 GMT

While trying out ASP.NET 2.0 Client Callback functionality found iin sample code circa 5/2004, I could not find the GetCallbackEventReference method under the Page class. After some searching, I found the method is now under the ClientScript member of the Page class. So now instead of having this.GetCallbackEventReference, you will use this.ClientScript.GetCallbackEventReference.

MSDN blogging

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:31:43 GMT

FWIW, I'm listed here as a MSDN Webcast blogger: http://msdneventsbloggers.net/Bloggers/Attendees.category

Easy Control State for ASP.NET 1.0 & 1.1

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 09:05:58 GMT

When building your own control ASP.NET, it is often useful to store some of the control's properties in ViewState. However, ViewState is not guantanteed to always be available; it can be turned off at the Page or Application level, thereby crippling your control. Microsoft recognized this with version 2.0 or ASP.NET and introduced the concept of ControlState.

For those of us not fortunate enough to be able to use ASP.NET 2.0 all the time, I came of with the following solution:

Build your code behind properties using the following example:

public class WeekNavigator : System.Web.UI.UserControl
{
protected System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlInputHidden ControlState;

...

  public DateTime SelectedWeek
  {
   get
   {
    if( ControlState.Value.Length==0 )
     return DateRangeStart( DateTime.Now );
    else
    {
     byte[] utfBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(ControlState.Value);
     string uncodedState = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(utfBytes);
     return DateRangeStart( DateTime.Parse(uncodedState) );
    }
   }
   set
   {
    byte[] utfBytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(value.ToString());
    string base64 = Convert.ToBase64String(utfBytes);
    ControlState.Value = base64;
   }
  }
...

}

In the .ASCX file, add the following control:

Accessing embedded resources in an ASP.NET application

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 09:09:05 GMT

Here's a pretty good article on MSDN describing how to access an embedded resource (i.e., image, .JS file) in ASP.NET 2.0: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/webresource.asp

It wouldn't take too much effort to create a similar, simpler implementation for 1.0 & 1.1.

Debugging JavaScript in ASP.NET Applications

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 10:53:40 GMT

Sometimes the simplest tools can be the most difficult to deal with. Case in point: JavaScript. While you probably already know that the Visual Studio debugger works for C#, C++, VB, and J#, did you know that it works with JavaScript too?

Here's a quick way to get started:

1) Add the keyword 'debugger' to your JavaScript to debug. (i.e., debugger; )

2) In Internet Explorer, select 'Tools |Internet Options' from the menu, click on the 'Advanced' tab, and make sure 'Disable Script Debugging (Internet Explorer)' is not checked. Click 'OK' to save your change.

3) Start your ASP.NET application with Debugging.

Once the point of execution reaches the 'debugger;' statement, the code will appear within the Visual Studio debugger, where you can use the source code debugger commands that you already know and love!

For more information, take a look at: http://devcenter.infragistics.com/Articles/ArticleTemplate.Aspx?ArticleID=2183

Problem with Intellisense and XML documentation in class library

Tue, 02 May 2006 13:40:47 GMT

Originally posted at: http://www.anotherurl.com/library/intellisense.htm

Intellisense
The Intellisense feature in the Microsoft Development Environment need some cajoling to display parameter comments from class libraries.

The problem
You diligently create summary comments, but they are not displayed by Intellisense when you're editing code in other projects.

IntelliSense works correctly if you're working within the same project, but not other projects within the same solution.

The solution
The class library project must generate an XML Documentation File.

Go to the assembly project (DLL Library) properties within the solution
Change Configuration Properties. Set Configuration to "All Configurations". Go to Build | XML Documentation File.
Set this field to exactly the same name as the assembly, adding the extent “.xml”. The name must match the DLL name or IntelliSense will not find it!
Perform a “Rebuild Solution”. The environment will create an XML Documentation File, and copy it to the start up project bin directory, along with the associated assembly dll.
Close the Microsoft Development Environment. Yes, close it.
Run the Microsoft Development Environment...…and all should be fine. IntelliSense will now correctly display all summary comments

Customize the Windows Logon and Security Dialog Title

Wed, 03 May 2006 22:35:23 GMT

A tip to easily identify which PC you're logging onto via a KVM, or for embedding login information for a Virtual PC image.

This setting allows you to add additional text to the title of the standard Windows Logon and Windows Security dialog boxes.

Open your registry and find or create the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Create a new String value, or modify the existing value, called "Welcome" and containing the text you wish to display.
Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.

To change the Message Shown on the Logon Box:

Open your registry and find or create the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Create a new String value, or modify the existing value, called "LogonPrompt" and containing the text you wish to display.
Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.

"Microsoft Visual Studio is busy" message

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 09:57:59 GMT

For the first time ever, a new warning message appeared in my system tray this morning indicating that Visual Studio was waiting for an internal process and that I should contact Microsoft of this problem appeared regularly. After a little research, I found that running IISRESET from the command prompt cleared up the problem. However, it this problem persists, I might try the 'Repair' option under 'Add/Remove Programs'.

Deploying ASP.NET 2.0 Applications

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:56:33 GMT

This looks very promising, more to follow:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/web_deployment_projects.asp

ASP.NET Web Application Projects

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:36:15 GMT

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/WAP.asp#wapp_topic20