Thursday, August 04, 2005

Help required with Blogger software

Hey,

anyone who come across this post, I need a help.

We are planning to host Blogging software in our organization so that our colleagues would start posting their entries for intranet.

I am on lookout for a software that's suitable for corporate environment, but is open source.

After going through all the available Open source or GPL licensed software, am confused on which of the following is the best

1. Drupal
2. Wordpress
3. Textpatten
4. Pivot
5. b2Evolution

The numbering is not in the ranking of the prefrence, but, if someone can help me in the ranking, that would be a great help.

Thanks
Kiran

Monday, July 25, 2005

Developing Software in Visual Studio .NET with Non-Administrative Privileges

Developing Software in Visual Studio .NET with Non-Administrative Privileges

Security is important. No one argues with this and everyone spends a lot of time thinking about security issues, security bugs, and malicious users. However, very few people are willing make the effort to eradicate the largest single reason that e-mail viruses and cracks in general are so dangerous: everyone logs in as a user who is a member of the local Administrators group, and most services run as Administrators. The principle of "least privilege" states that running with the minimal set of rights needed to perform an action minimizes the damage done when something bad happens, whether it is a corrupt attachment in an e-mail received from Outlook, or a service that has a security risk. By running programs without Administrative privileges whenever possible, you ensure a more secure environment.

Currently available software often requires elevated privileges in order to run correctly. To end this situation, developers must take the first step and stop running as administrators. Then, if we all consistently log in, develop, and test applications as non-administrative users, the software we produce is more likely to be executable without artificial requirements of elevated privileges. Until developers fix the software they are writing and shipping, users will never be able to run in a secure environment, too!

Came across this while searching for some info and then it being a useful article, decided to blog it so that others who are facing problems with privilieges while working with Visual Studio.Net may find it useful

Thursday, July 14, 2005

How to write content on MSDN Blogs?

Hey,

I was trying to get an account for myself on MSDN blogs and atlast got an account. But, when I tried to see the way to post content, I couldnot find any.

Is there a way to post content there?


Please do let me know.

Friday, June 17, 2005

.NET Namespaces

.NET Namespaces (Logged in as: kiranmayee): "Why is it that namespaces in .Net are referenced with an http:// prefix? You can see this in Avalon and Indigo samples, where a namespace will be declared as follows:

namespace Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples{
...
}


Then, a namespace will be referenced as follows:

[ServiceContract(Namespace = 'http://Microsoft.ServiceModel.Samples')]
...


If you attempt to navigate to such an address, it won't resolve to anything. The same goes with the Avalon/XAML namespace. I just don't understand..."


Check the thread for answer....

Reboting Windows via a web page

Reboting Windows via a web page (Logged in as: kiranmayee): "Hi!
First off, please do not visit the web http://winboot.mine.nu/ because when you visit it, your PC will reboot. Trust me, I experienced it myself. I was very angry, my friend sent me the link. Firefox and IE are affected, Opera is said to be resistant.

I'd like to ask if Microsoft (or you) knows about this 'bug' or whatever it is.

The page tries to resize a pixel large image to 9999999999... pixels - it kills Windows (this is what I heard).

Thanks."

I came across this in Channel 9 Techoff and thought of blogging it immediately.

Please read the complete thread for more details.

Monday, May 30, 2005

Enterprise Library-download

Enterprise Library

MSDN .NET Framework Developer Center: Downloads

MSDN .NET Framework Developer Center: Downloads: "Downloads

Find code samples and downloads for the .NET Framework.

SDKs, Redistributables & Service Packs
Stay up-to-date with these downloadable service packs, updates, samples, and related components for the .NET Framework.

Tools & Utilities
Learn about the various utility applications available for use with the .NET Framework.

* CLR Profiler
* Fx Cop

Code Samples
Download these .NET samples to learn more about building Microsoft Windows-based applications, Web applications, and XML Web services. "

MSDN .NET Framework Developer Center: Tools & Utilities

MSDN .NET Framework Developer Center: Tools & Utilities: "Tools & Utilities

Learn about these downloadable utilities and related software components that can be used to enhance your development experience or your applications.
"

Threat Modeling Web Applications

Threat Modeling Web ApplicationsThis guidance presents the patterns & practices approach to creating threat models for Web applications. Threat modeling is an engineering technique you can use to help you identify threats, attacks, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures that could affect your application. You can use threat modeling to shape your application's design, meet your company's security objectives, and reduce risk.

Data Security: Stop SQL Injection Attacks Before They Stop You -- MSDN Magazine, September 2004

Data Security: Stop SQL Injection Attacks Before They Stop You -- MSDN Magazine, September 2004: "rmed with advanced server-side technologies like ASP.NET and powerful database servers such as Microsoft� SQL Server�, developers are able to create dynamic, data-driven Web sites with incredible ease. But the power of ASP.NET and SQL can easily be used against you by hackers mounting an all-too-common class of attack�the SQL injection attack.
The basic idea behind a SQL injection attack is this: you create a Web page that allows the user to enter text into a textbox that will be used to execute a query against a database. A hacker enters a malformed SQL statement into the textbox that changes the nature of the query so that it can be used to break into, alter, or damage the back-end database. How is this possible? Let me illustrate with an example."

.NET Framework Developer Center: Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 (Beta) Compatibility

.NET Framework Developer Center: Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 (Beta) Compatibility: "The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 builds on the success of the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 and 1.1 to provide the best runtime environment for Web and Microsoft Windows client applications. Microsoft's compatibility goal for .NET Framework 1.1 applications is that they should work smoothly on the .NET Framework 2.0 except for a set of documented changes. During the Beta 2 release, we have not yet achieved this goal and are seeking feedback on application issues that can be addressed before the release of the .NET Framework 2.0. This document discusses application compatibility scenarios and provides recommendations on best practices for different segments."

.NET Framework Developer Center: Compatibility Testing Scenarios

.NET Framework Developer Center: Compatibility Testing Scenarios: "This document outlines best practices for testing a managed application or component for compatibility with newer runtime versions. It covers different configurations you should test to ensure that the application continues to run properly. Full details on compatibility are available in Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 (Beta) Compatibility. If you have not already read that document, we recommend that you read that before proceeding.
Summary

Many applications using managed code require that a particular version of the .NET Framework be present on the machine. Some applications redistribute a particular release of the.NET Framework. In some cases, applications that were developed on a specific version of the .NET Framework may encounter issues when trying to execute on a newer version of the Framework. As explained in Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 (Beta) Compatibility, managed applications run by default on the version of the Framework they were built against. However, in certain situations where only a newer version of the Framework is available or a hosting application requires a particular version, an application may run against a newer version. To ensure the best customer experience, we recommend that you test your applications for compatibility according to the steps described below."

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

XML Developer Center: XML Columns: Fun with IXMLHttpRequest and RSS

XML Developer Center: XML Columns: Fun with IXMLHttpRequest and RSS: "Introduction

Recently there's been a lot of buzz about using Javascript and IXMLHttpRequest in Web applications, generated in large part by the recent article Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications by Jesse James Garrett, which coined the term Asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX). The renaissance of the technique formerly known as remote scripting is primarily due to a number of high profile uses of this technique by Google Web sites, such as Gmail, Google Suggest, and Google Maps. Given the renewed interest in using XML in the browser, I decided to try my hand at building a Web page that utilized AJAX.

Around the same time I decided to try my hand at building an AJAX application, I came across an article by Daniel Steinberg entitled Bosworth's Web of Data. This article described a recent keynote by Adam Bosworth at the MySQL Users Conference 2005 where he predicted that RSS 2.0 and Atom would become the lingua franca for information interchange on the Web. RSS first gained popularity as a way to syndicate blog posts and news sites, but has turned out to be a lot more versatile than that. Sites like Feedster and Amazon's OpenSearch technology show that you can use RSS as a mechanism for providing search results and integrating search engines respectively. Podcasting shows that you can use RSS to syndicate digital media content instead of just plain old text or HTML. With Amazon's syndicated feeds you can keep abreast of when new CDs, books, and more are released. The list of innovative uses of RSS goes on."

Visual Basic

Visual BasicIntroduction

The introduction of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 brings a host of improvements and new features that make the integrated development environment (IDE) even more impressive. The changes cover a variety of areas, ranging from how you create Microsoft ASP.NET website projects to new text formatting features. This article will introduce you to some of the changes made to features that exist in prior Visual Studio versions, hopefully allowing you to transition to Visual Studio 2005 faster and easier. Then it will introduce and look at some of the new features added to the Visual Studio 2005 IDE......

Friday, May 13, 2005

Say What? Make Sense of Your Web Feedback using SQL Server 2005 -- MSDN Magazine, June 2005

Say What? Make Sense of Your Web Feedback using SQL Server 2005 -- MSDN Magazine, June 2005: "he interactive nature of the Web has made it a great medium for data collection. As Web sites have evolved beyond click and buy, the solicitation of feedback has held the promise of greater insight into the customer and her needs, necessary product improvements, and future directions. But collecting reams of text-based data is not the same as gleaning useful information from it. In a typical customer feedback Web page, users enter comments about your product (see Figure 1). Some fields present preset answers users can choose from. Other fields let users type in any comments they like. This sort of free-form comment is especially difficult to put to good use because it must be divided into classifications if it is to be analyzed, quantified, and used for decision making."

Make It Snappy: Juice Up Your App with the Power of Hyper-Threading -- MSDN Magazine, June 2005

Make It Snappy: Juice Up Your App with the Power of Hyper-Threading -- MSDN Magazine, June 2005: "yper-threading technology improves CPU efficiency by allowing the processor to execute two instruction streams concurrently. This feature, found on newer Intel Pentium 4 processors, can typically improve the performance of apps by 20 to 30 percent, boosting some apps by up to 40 percent.
Unfortunately, other applications see no performance benefit, and a few can experience significant performance degradation (I've seen application degradation of as much as 20 percent), especially when violating recommended performance best practices such as the ones discussed in this article. Moreover, given the concurrency this feature introduces to single-processor computers, some multithreading bugs that may only manifest themselves on multiprocessor machines are likely to show themselves on a hyper-threaded single-CPU machine, as well.
In this article, I'll explore the hyper-threading technology and demonstrate how adding parallelism to your code can improve performance on hyper-threaded machines. I'll cover advanced optimizations for hyper-threading and will show you a few useful patterns. My code samples are in C#, but the same principles apply to both managed and unmanaged applications."

How to create offline L2TP/IPSec Certificates

How to create offline L2TP/IPSec Certificates: "How to create offline L2TP/IPSec Certificates
View products that this article applies to.
Author: Jesper Hanno MVP
Community Solutions Content Disclaimer
Article ID : 555281
Last Review : March 30, 2005
Revision : 1.0
On this page
SYMPTOMS SYMPTOMS
CAUSE CAUSE
RESOLUTION RESOLUTION
MORE INFORMATION MORE INFORMATION
APPLIES TO APPLIES TO
SYMPTOMS
When non domain member clients wants to establish a VPN connection to ISA Server 2004 using L2TP/IPSec you need to request an IPSec certificate on behalf on the client. This article describes how to install, configure an enterprise certificate service and how to create a certificate request to non domain members. Please note that you need a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise edition to create the L2TP/IPSec template."

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Visual Basic 6.0 Resource Center: Using SQL Express from Visual Basic 6

Visual Basic 6.0 Resource Center: Using SQL Express from Visual Basic 6: "Visual Basic developers have long used Access databases as a solution for local storage of application data. Access made it very simple to ship a database with your application, and connecting to the database was no more complicated than putting the path to the database in the connection string. For more complex scenarios, developers could scale up to the Microsoft Desktop Storage Engine (MSDE). This provided developers with SQL Server functionality and reliability, but at the expense of ease of use. With MSDE, you had to attach databases before they could be connected to. When the application shut down, the database file was still in use by the MSDE engine, making uninstall and reinstall more complicated. MSDE also did not provide any administrative interface, so any administration of the database had to be done through command line tools. In addition, MSDE was difficult to deploy with an application.

As part of the effort to develop Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005, Microsoft is addressing all these limitations of MDSE, replacing it with a new product called SQL Server 2005 Express.

While information about SQL Express has so far been targeted at .NET framework developers, this article will show how SQL Express is a boon for VB6 development as well. SQL Express will provide the developer power of SQL Server, but also the ease of use of access by letting you connect directly to a database file on disk. Best of all, it’s completely free, and can be redistributed with your application."

Monday, May 02, 2005

Sorting It All Out : Some more Windows acronyms explained

Sorting It All Out : Some more Windows acronyms explained: "Some more Windows acronyms explained

One of the good reasons to keep MSDN Blogs on the list of Blogs I Read is that a lot of stuff goes past my eyes via a FeedDemon radar. :-)

Though I have to admit that Feed Demon seemed to have some kind of memory leak problem when I ran it on Server 2003 SP1, one that no longer seems to repro now that I run it on XP SP2. I am now back to avoiding reboots when not installing software. I probably should have reported it but it did not occur to me that it was the only new program I had installed before requiring reboots every few days until it was too late."

The Code Project - How to get CPU usage of processes and threads - C# Programming

The Code Project - How to get CPU usage of processes and threads - C# Programming: "Introduction

The CPU usage is often recognized from Windows Task Manager. I will explain in this article the most efficient way I could find to calculate it for both processes and threads.
Background

My journey began when I wanted to write a Task Manager look alike that also had some netstat features. I searched the web for methods of getting the CPU usage but the best I could find was only advices for using PerformanceCounter('Processor','% Process Time',ProcessName) for monitoring the usage value. I tried it and it's a good method as long as you use only few (1-3) PerformanceCounters because it consumes a lot of CPU itself which got me to a usage of 6% - 18% for my own task manager for just the refresh operation every 2 seconds."

SQL Server Developer Center: Processing XML Showplans Using SQLCLR in SQL Server 2005

SQL Server Developer Center: Processing XML Showplans Using SQLCLR in SQL Server 2005: "Introduction
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 makes its query execution plans (also known as showplans) available in XML format. XML showplans can be processed using any XML technology�for example, XPath, XQuery, or XSLT. This paper describes an application that extracts the estimated execution cost of a query from its XML showplan. The extracted cost is available for use in a Transact-SQL window. Using this technique, a user can submit to a server running SQL Server only those queries that cost less than a predetermined threshold. This ensures that the server does not get overloaded with costly, long-running queries."

Saturday, April 30, 2005

SQL Server Developer Center: Managed Data Access Inside SQL Server with ADO.NET and SQLCLR

SQL Server Developer Center: Managed Data Access Inside SQL Server with ADO.NET and SQLCLR: "Introduction

This white paper discusses how managed code can use ADO.NET when running inside SQL Server 2005 using the new SQLCLR feature.

In Part I, I describe the basic scenarios in which in-process data access might be required, and the difference between local and remote connections. Most of the different SQLCLR constructs are covered, such as stored procedures and functions, as well as interesting aspects of the interaction between the data access infrastructure and those constructs.

Part II further details in-process connections and restrictions that apply to ADO.NET when running inside SQLCLR. Finally, there is a detailed discussion on the transactions semantics of data access code inside SQLCLR, and how can it interact implicitly and explicitly with the transactions API."

Friday, April 29, 2005

Dim Blog As New ThoughtStream(me) : VS.NET and VSS: Adding a solution to VSS

Dim Blog As New ThoughtStream(me) : VS.NET and VSS: Adding a solution to VSS: "VS.NET and VSS: Adding a solution to VSS

In my previous post, I talked about how to make a copy of a VS.NET solution. However, I left off the details of the final step - adding the new solution back into VSS. This is probably the most basic process in working with VSS, but the details surrounding what happens behind the scenes can often leave a developer frustrated when they find that VSS did not organize the solution and projects in proper manner. In this post, I'll be discussing my experience with adding a solution to VSS in a manner that allows complete control over the finall VSS folder organization.

In my experience, I prefer to have my solution and project files organized in a single folder structure. I create a root level solution folder to contain my solution file, and each project would receive it's own subfolder in that root level solution folder. For example:

C:\...\MySolution
MySolution.sln
\MyProject1 MyProject1.vbproj
MyClass1.vb
etc.

Creating a folder structure like this, in VSS, is not a straightforward process, despite the quick and simple menu items that VS.NET provides, for integration with VSS.


Assumptions

This entry assumes that you are using Visual Studio.NET 2003, and Visual SourceSafe 6.0d; and are familiar with Visual Studio.NET's basic functionality, menu system, and Visual SourceSafe's UI and 'Working Folder' functionality."

Dim Blog As New ThoughtStream(me) : VS.NET and VSS: Copy solution to new solution

Dim Blog As New ThoughtStream(me) : VS.NET and VSS: Copy solution to new solution: "VS.NET and VSS: Copy solution to new solution

In this entry, I'll be outlining the process that I use to make a copy of a Visual Studio.NET project or solution with then end result of two projects copies on my development machine, each of which points to it's own location in Visual SourceSafe.
Assumptions

This entry assumes that you are using Visual Studio.NET 2003, and Visual SourceSafe 6.0d; and are familiar with Visual Studio.NET's basic functionality, menu system, and Visual SourceSafe's UI and 'Working Folder' functionality. It is also assumed that you are familiar with creating a 'Web Application' in IIS, on an existing folder."

Spice Up Your UI

Spice Up Your UI: "Spice Up Your UI

DirectX Transitions and Filters Can Make Your Web Pages More Compelling



By Andrew Flick and Devin Rader



As we enter the dawn of a new era, two new up-and-coming UI superheroes are here to make their debut. Who are we, you may ask? We are Flick and Rader: Partners in UI; but we are more commonly known to the outside world as Andrew Flick and Devin Rader, Technology Evangelists for Infragistics.



Whether we have superhuman powers is questionable — but you won’t be seeing us scale any tall buildings in a city near you. And as the superheroes for a new generation, we are leaving the fight between good and evil to our predecessors, so that we may be able to focus on the daunting task of “saving the world” one tip and trick at a time!



In the coming months, we’ll introduce you to a range of tips and tricks, from transitions and filters and going 508 Compliant to how a server-side developer should interact with a UI developer. All of our tips will enable you to create awesome user-interfaces in look, style, and performance.



Introduction

Internet Explorer contains many little-known and hidden features that, given the right circumstances, you can use to your advantage when developing Web sites. Because many of these features are specific to Internet Explorer, and are not available on any other browser, you should probably only consider using them when you are developing in an environment like a corporate intranet or some other controlled environment where you can guarantee that everyone who uses the site will be using Internet Explorer. Given that caveat, there is really no reason why you cannot take advantage of these powerful features.



In this installment of “UI Tips” we are looking at transitions and filters. Transitions and filters are UI capabilities that have been present in IE since version 4, but were greatly enhanced with version 5.5 and now include a variety of visual effects, which we’ll review and demonstrate here"

Check out the site mentioned regularly for some tips and tricks in web designing...

ASPAlliance.com : ASP and ASP.NET Tutorials : WebMail Using the IP*Works! ADO.NET Data Provider

ASPAlliance.com : ASP and ASP.NET Tutorials : WebMail Using the IP*Works! ADO.NET Data Provider: "Building a Robust Web Based Email Client (WebMail) Using the IP*Works! ADO.NET Data Provider

To get all of the mail from your Inbox, you can SELECT * from INBOX. To read the latest RSS feed you can SELECT * from feed. To send an email, just insert a new row into the OUTBOX table.
In this article, I will talk about the features and use of the Provider, and along the way I'll create an IMAP and POP capable Webmail interface with a minimal amount of code. You can also download the full sample project here.

Overview Of The Provider

In the beginning, the protocols available are IMAP, POP, SMTP, NNTP, and RSS. Others will be added, like WebDAV (aka HTTPMail), LDAP, and more. IP*Works! ADO.Net Data Provider makes integration of Internet capabilities into applications quick and easy - without the need to become familiar with the inner-workings of the protocols themselves.

You are familiar with the DbConnection, DbDataAdapter, and DbCommand objects. Now let me introduce the IPWorksConnection, IPWorksDataAdapter, and IPWorksCommand objects. They work in the same familiar way, except with something a little bit different happening on the inside - updating from a server instead of a database. Here is a brief description of the different objects in the Provider. Later in this article I'll get into more specifics and show how to use each one.
IPWorksConnection

The IPWorksConnection object manages a connection to some server, whether it be an IMAP, POP, HTTP, SMTP, or NNTP server. The IPWorksConnection can be opened and closed explicitly, or the connection can be managed automatically (opened only when necessary) by the IPWorksDataAdapter."


atlast, my area of intrest....

ASPAlliance.com : ASP and ASP.NET Tutorials : Integrate Verified By Visa & Mastercard SecureCode Into Your Online Payment System

ASPAlliance.com : ASP and ASP.NET Tutorials : Integrate Verified By Visa & Mastercard SecureCode Into Your Online Payment System: "The purpose of this article is to explain how to build a merchant order page using Verified By Visa and Vital together. To that end, we'll use two components from /n software; IBiz VitalPS Integrator and IP*Works! 3-D Secure MPI. This particular example uses the ASP edition, though the same functionality can be performed using the .NET Edition in an ASP.NET web application, or using the C Edition to create a CGI application running on a web server. In addition to these two components, we are going to need to set up an account with Visa's PIT test server, and then download and install several certificates."

back to e-commerce, electronic shopping,etc etc.

Common for all sites these days, hence a must read for many

DotNetBips.com :: The .NET Knowledge Base

DotNetBips.com :: The .NET Knowledge Base: "Introduction

Well...this is not a topic of long article as such but a commonly asked question.

'How can I prevent caching of my web form pages by the browser so that when user clicks on the Back button of the browser he gets the latest output from the server and not the cached one.'"

Sometime back, one of my colleagues was asking me if I had any idea on how to prevent the broswer from caching the data. We searched the net for details and couldnot find any viable solution.

Today, I found link to this article at Asp.net website and immediately thought of mentioning it here. Someone in search like us might find it useful

Mastering IIS FTP - Managing multiple users with one IP Address (IIS) - Developer Fusion, the UK developer community - VB, ASP, C#, .NET, PHP and XML

Mastering IIS FTP - Managing multiple users with one IP Address (IIS) - Developer Fusion, the UK developer community - VB, ASP, C#, .NET, PHP and XML tutorials & source code: "In choosing which software to use for managing the server-side of FTP, often time people don't use Microsoft's FTP program because they think that it's too simple or they think that it doesn't do what they want. I'm going to attempt to reveal some of the hidden but powerful features that exist with Microsoft's FTP program. Understanding just a couple basic concepts and putting those concepts to good use will open up a new world of possibility.

I'm not trying to convert the many people that are using another FTP program or try to say that Microsoft's is better. I don't work for Microsoft and I'm not being paid to endorse their product. But for those that aren't happy with their current solution, want to utilize Microsoft FTP better or are diving into this fresh, read on.

I'm assuming that you are somewhat familiar with using Microsoft IIS / FTP. The 10 second description for those coming in brand new is: For those running a version of Windows that includes IIS (Internet Information Services), you already have Microsoft FTP available to you. This is included in Windows NT/2000/2003/XP. Except for Windows NT, use the IIS snap-in found in Start -> Administrative Tools -> Internet Information Services. If you don't have that installed, it can be installed from Add/Remove Programs in the control panel. For some people using Windows XP you won't see Administrative Tools off your Start Menu. You can still find them in your control panel. For those wondering what FTP means, you've probably stumbled across the wrong article."

Not one for those intrested in development alone, but more useful for those who learn to things along with network administrators

ASPAlliance.com : ASP and ASP.NET Tutorials : Create a Threaded NNTP News Reader

ASPAlliance.com : ASP and ASP.NET Tutorials : Create a Threaded NNTP News Reader: "Threading

Newsgroup articles are stored on the news server in order of arrival, not in order of message thread or subject. When displaying these articles for reading, I definitely do not want to display them in the order of arrival, but instead in a way that makes more sense to everyone: in a threaded layout. A threaded layout means that replies will fall under their parent message in that nice threaded tree view that everyone is used to. To do this, I'll download a large number of message headers and sort them into the correct order. This can be done byusing the XMLDocument Object in VS.Net to store a tree of related messageid's."

Visiting ASP.NET website after Quite a long time, I found this article which lead me to aspalliance.com. Must read of those intrested in experimenting

Escape DLL Hell: Simplify App Deployment with ClickOnce and Registration-Free COM -- MSDN Magazine, April 2005

Escape DLL Hell: Simplify App Deployment with ClickOnce and Registration-Free COM -- MSDN Magazine, April 2005: "ClickOnce is a new deployment technology for Windows Forms apps that is being introduced in the .NET Framework 2.0. It is a simplified application deployment model that works over the Web, from network shares, or from distributable media such as CDs. It also provides auto-updating capabilities, safe and isolated application management, and configurable application security. In a nutshell, it makes deploying and updating a Windows Forms application as easy and safe as a Web application."

For those intrested in COM Development, this is an article that explains the Click-Once and Reg-Free COM Development

Wrappers: Use Our ManWrap Library to Get the Best of .NET in Native C Code -- MSDN Magazine, April 2005

Wrappers: Use Our ManWrap Library to Get the Best of .NET in Native C Code -- MSDN Magazine, April 2005: "Managed Extensions for C make it possible to mix native and managed code freely, even in the same module. Wow, life is good! Compiling with /clr, however, has consequences you may not want. It forces multithreading and dispenses with some useful runtime checks. It interferes with MFC's DEBUG_NEW, and some .NET Framework classes may conflict with your namespace. And what if you have a legacy application that uses an older version of the compiler that doesn't support /clr? Isn't there some way to reach into the Framework without the Managed Extensions? Yes!

In this article, I'll show you how to wrap Framework classes in a native way so you can use them in any C /MFC app without /clr. As my test case, I'll wrap the regex classes from the .NET Framework in a DLL and implement three MFC programs using it. You can use RegexWrap.dll to add regular expressions to your own C /MFC applications, or use my ManWrap tools to wrap your own favorite Framework classes."

Good Article from MSDN Magazine

Office Developer Center: Querying and Updating a Database Using Web Services in InfoPath and ASP.NET

Office Developer Center: Querying and Updating a Database Using Web Services in InfoPath and ASP.NET: "Introduction

This proof-of-concept article demonstrates how some functionality of a Microsoft Office InfoPath solution, based on a Web service, can also be offered as a Microsoft ASP.NET Web application. This is useful when InfoPath is not available on the client computer to fill out a form. Commonly referred to as a 'reach' experience, this kind of browser-based Web application allows a user to edit the same information in the InfoPath form, but without the features of InfoPath, such as rich-text formatting, the ability to check spelling, and the ability to edit the data if a network connection is not available.

The Web service uses the GetCustomers method to return a Microsoft .NET DataSet, which contains records from the Customers table of the Northwind SQL database. The Web service uses the UpdateCustomers method to accept changes to the records. Both methods are used in the InfoPath form template and the ASP.NET Web application, giving each solution the ability to edit the database records.

This article also includes architectural considerations for Web services and information about design limitations of InfoPath. These sections outline problems that can arise when designing and deploying Web services in the enterprise environment, and examine the limitations of InfoPath forms based on Web services."

I was using InfoPath to keep track of many things related to project, and ASP.Net programming is one that intrests me.

The moment I saw this article, I wanted to take a look at this and then as an after thought, blogged it here. To preserve the url for ever

Thursday, February 24, 2005

MSDN .NET Framework Developer Center:Designing .NET Class Libraries: Setting The Stage

MSDN .NET Framework Developer Center:Designing .NET Class Libraries: Setting The Stage

Setting The Stage provides an introduction to the practice of API design and also covers terminology, first principles, and why API design is a crucial thing to get right (the first time!).

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

XML Web Services Overview (.NET Framework Developer's Guide)

XML Web Services Overview (.NET Framework Developer's Guide): "One of the core characteristics of an XML Web service is the high
degree of abstraction that exists between the implementation and the
consumption of a service. By using XML-based messaging as the mechanism
by which the service is created and accessed, both the XML Web service
client and the XML Web service provider are freed from needing any
knowledge of each other beyond inputs, outputs, and location."

Writing 70-310

For many days, I was planning to get MCAD, and the preparation went on and on till now, for almost an year.

Now, I am getting confident that I will be able to clear the exams 310, 305 and 306. Yep, I am planning for VB.NET certfication and am preparing accordingly.

Once I am done with VB.NET series, I wanna take up C# exams as well as MCSD exams. This is a long way, and the first step is clearing 310.

I tried to find an online testing centre, but couldnot. Pearsonvue and Prometric are not offering online registration in India. No other option but to visit a center in person and register. Well, I am planning to take the first exam on 20th and from then, every month, one exam.

Let me see how well I can work it out. Everytime I write an exam, I will be posting entries here related to that exam. Now, its XML webservices

.NET Rocks! hosted by MSDN

.NET Rocks! hosted by MSDN: "An Internet Audio Talk Show for .NET Developers

Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell interview .NET experts and other industry movers and shakers, and answer your .NET questions on the air, all for the purpose of bringing you insights into .NET technology, the marketplace, and the state of software development in general.

For more information or to submit questions for the next show, please check out the official .NET Rocks! home page."

Visual Tools and Languages Chat Transcripts Archive

Visual Tools and Languages Chat Transcripts: "If you are looking for a particular chat transcript for .NET, ADO.NET, ASP.NET, or Windows Forms, you can now find them on the .NET Development Chat Transcripts page.
Visual Basic .NET

* Debugging VB.NET Applications (February 15, 2005)
* Programming Essentials in Visual Basic (February 1, 2005)
* Visual Basic Editor and IDE Features Chat (December 1, 2004)
* Visual Basic Language Design (November 2, 2004)
* Visual Basic 2005 Data Enhancements (October 14, 2004)
* Moving from VB6.0 to VB.NET (September 28, 2004)
* Essentials for Programming in VB.NET (September 21, 2004)
* Deploying VB.NET Applications (September 7, 2004)
* My in Visual Basic 2005 (August 26, 2004)
* Threading with Visual Basic .NET (August 24, 2004)
* Debugging Visual Basic .NET Applications (August 17, 2004)
* Visual Basic 2005 Language Enhancements (August 12, 2004)
* Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition (July 29, 2004)"

: Visual Studio 2005 IDE Extensibility (January 19, 2005)

: Visual Studio 2005 IDE Extensibility (January 19, 2005)
Visual Studio 2005 IDE Extensibility (January 19, 2005)

Posted February 11, 2005

Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity

Introduction

Andy Q (Moderator):
Welcome to today’s chat. Our topic is Visual Studio 2005 IDE Extensibility Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome.

Andy Q (Moderator):
We are pleased to welcome our Experts for today’s chat. I will have them introduce themselves now.

Dr eX [MSFT] (Expert):
Dr. Ex was born gifted and he wrote his first addin when he was only 3. Then he decided to pursue a career in sports and after the college he was drafted as a wide receiver for one of the top teams in NFL. Name of which will not be disclosed. After he won 3 superbowls in a row in his fourth season he dropped a pass from his quarter back and that was it. He retired and decided to join Microsoft to help customers with Extensibility customer questions. Since that day he has not dropped a single question coming from the customers. And now here he is to answer your questions...

(Ignore the NFL piece. He is just another fellow VS extender with noble intentions to help.)

Craig Skibo [MSFT] (Expert):
Hello, my name is Craig Skibo. I am the developer and co-designer of the Automation object model, the Community Content Installer, Template Wizard, and the Template Export Wizard. I have been at Microsoft for nearly 9 years, working on VC 4 through the current version of Visual Studio. I am co-author of the MSPress book Inside Visual Studio 2003, and I given talks at the last 5 PDC conferences, and the past 3 TechEds discussing topics such as the Automation Model and the VSIP SDK.

Doug Hodges [MSFT] (Expert):
Douglas Hodges is the Architect for the Visual Studio .NET IDE. Douglas has worked at Microsoft for almost 14 years and has spent most of that time in the Developer Tools Division. Originally he was one of the lead developers on the OLE2 project and is an expert on OLE and COM. Douglas has been one of the architects for Visual Interdev 1.0, Visual Interdev 6.0 and Visual J++ 6.0, Visual Studio .NET 2002 and Visual Studio .NET 2003. Throughout his career at Microsoft he has concentrated on the design of extensible, component-based software.
These efforts have lead to the creation of the extensible Visual Studio .NET development environment and the open, 3rd party Visual Studio Integration Program. Prior to Microsoft, Douglas worked on CAD/CAM software and as a consultant specializing in Object-Oriented Analysis and Design. Douglas has a ME from Carnegie Mellon and a BSE from University of Pennsylvania.

jledgard_ms (Moderator):
Hi, I'm Josh Ledgard. I work on the "Devdiv Customer Connection Team". I run the Powertoys blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/powertoys and "moderate" several GDN worskpaces for VS Addins.

Dennis Minium [MSFT] (Expert):
I'm Dennis Minium, lead PM on Visual Studio Team System. This chat is really about IDE extensibility, not Team System extensibility, but I'm hanging out just in case.

Chetan C [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi, I'm Chetan Chudasama and am a Tester for VS Extensibility.......

: Visual Studios 2005 Community Features (February 2, 2005)

: Visual Studios 2005 Community Features (February 2, 2005)
Visual Studios 2005 Community Features (February 2, 2005)

Posted: February 16, 2005

Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity

Introduction

jledgard_ms (Moderator):
Welcome to our chat today about the VS 2005 community features that include Community Content Exchange, the Feedback Centers, "Ask a Question" functionality, and Codezone community integration.

jledgard_ms (Moderator):
Ok, lets get this started by introducing the experts for today’s chat on VS 2005 community features.

jledgard_ms (Moderator):
I’m josh ledgard. I’ll be playing the role of expert as well as moderator today. I work on the Developer Division customer connection team and am one of the PM’s responsible for the “Ask a Question” experience.

Marie Hagman (Expert):
I'm Marie Hagman, I work on the Developer Division Customer Connection team with Josh and am responsible for community content exchange and Codezone partner integration in Whidbey.

jledgard_ms (Moderator):
Welcome to our chat today about the VS 2005 community features that include Community Content Exchange, the Feedback Centers, "Ask a Question" functionality, and Codezone community integration. Ask Away!

jledgard_ms (Moderator):
Craig Skibo and Doug Seven will also be joining us.

Start of Chat

jledgard_ms (Moderator):
Q: I've seen a chat for VB debug - is there one for C++ debug??
A: That sounds like a fine chat topic suggestion. I'll pass it along to the C++ team. Currently each team is responsible for their own chat schedule.......

: Debugging VB.NET Applications (February 15, 2005)

: Debugging VB.NET Applications (February 15, 2005)

ebugging VB.NET Applications (February 15, 2005)

Posted: February 16, 2005

Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity

Introduction

Andy Q (Moderator):
Welcome to today’s chat. Our topic is Debugging VB.NET Applications Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome.

Andy Q (Moderator):
We are pleased to welcome our Experts for today’s chat. I will have them introduce themselves now.

LisaFeig (Expert):
Hi. My name is Lisa Feigenbaum. I'm a Program Manager on the VB Team. I work on the editor, debugger, VB profile, and starter kits. I look forward to chatting with you.

DVerma_MS (Expert):
Hi! I am Deeptanshu Verma (just call me Deep), and I am a QA in the Visual Studio debugger team.

ScottNo (Moderator):
Hi, I'm Scott Nonnenberg. I'm a Program Manager on the Visual Studio debugger. You can find my blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/ scottno. Have you tried out debugger visualizers yet?

Start of Chats

DVerma_MS (Expert):
Q: VB.NET What options do I have to select or references to add to debugger? This stuff works fine when executed with no Breakpoints. Trying to Debug, however, i = Form.ActiveForm.Height gives me the “System.NullReferenceException – Object
A: Hi! This is a strange error and I cannot repro this. Could you please tell me more about the app? I used a VB Winforms app, added a button, put this code in there, set a bp on and after it and could hit them successfully. Is the difference in the repro scenarios only setting of the debugger or is it possible you are running different versions of the exe in the debug/nodebug cases?

ScottNo (Moderator):........

: Programming Essentials in Visual Basic (February 1, 2005)

: Programming Essentials in Visual Basic (February 1, 2005)
Programming Essentials in Visual Basic (February 1, 2005)

Posted: February 16, 2005

Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity

Introduction

Ed_H_MS (Moderator):
Hi folks - we will be having the Programming Essentials in Visual Basic chat in about half an hour

Ed_H_MS (Moderator):
Welcome to today’s chat on Programming Essentials in Visual Basic. We have members of the Visual Basic team here to answer your questions today. I will ask the hosts to introduce themselves.

manishjMSFT (Expert):
Hi I am Manish Jayaswal. I am the test lead in VB compiler team.

Robin_MS (Expert):
I'm Robin Reynolds-Haertle, a programmer/writer for Visual Basic.

Todd_MS (Expert):
My name is Todd Apley and I've been involved with the Visual Basic team since 1993 testing product features since VB3.

Vladimir_MS (Expert):
Hi!, My name is Vladimir and I work in the Visual Basic Compiler test team.

WHorst_MS (Expert):
Hi! My name is Bill Horst and I test the VB Debugger.....

SQL Server 2005 Database Mirroring - sponsored by PASS, October 27, 2004

SQL Server 2005 Database Mirroring - sponsored by PASS, October 27, 2004

TechNet Chat: SQL Server SP4 (February 15, 2005)

TechNet Chat: SQL Server SP4 (February 15, 2005): "SQL Server SP4 (February 15, 2005)

Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity

Introduction

Moderator (Moderator):
Welcome to today's SQL Server chat. I am very excited to be here. Your SQL Server moderator Stephen Dybing is out today, so you are stuck with me. My name is Jana Carter. I am a Product Manager on the Microsoft.com Communities Team. I manage the chat and blog program. It is good to be here.

Moderator (Moderator):
OK, let's meet our crazy group of experts. I am lucky enough to be sitting in a conference room with most of them on Microsoft's main campus in Redmond, WA.

Michael Rys (Expert):
Thanks for attending the chat. My name (as it says ;) ) is Michael Rys. I am a Program Manager in the SQL Server Engine team responsible for the engine XML functionality (OpenXML, FOR XML etc.). I also represent Microsoft in the SQL and XQuery standardization efforts. My Weblog is at http://sqljunkies.com/weblog/mrys"

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

MSDN India Chat on Visual Source Cafe

For all those who missed the chat today, here is chat transcript. Incase there are some doubts, please message me so that I can help you out
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): Hello All
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): Welcome to the community chat.
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): My name is Gaurav Khanna and am filling in for Subhashini as the moderator
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): as she is stuck in traffic
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): Welcome to the chat on VSS - our expert for the day is Vipul Patel
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): Before I start
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): few ground rules - to post a question, select the Question radio button and then submit ur question
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): any questions submitted without following this procedure will not be entertained
GKhanna_MS (Moderator):
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): That said.. lets get started
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): Welcome Vipul
GKhanna_MS (Moderator):
Vipul (Expert): Hello All...I am Vipul Patel and today we shall be discussing about Configuration Management using Visual SourceSafe
Vipul (Expert): i shall begin by the basics...
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): Very well - so how would u want to start off? Best Practices?
Vipul (Expert): We shall start with learning about VSS with Microsoft developer environments, like Visual Studio and Visual Studio.NET, following with best practises with VSS.
Vipul (Expert): Most of us IDEs like Visual Studio and VS2003 for our projects...Vipul (Expert): Now, these IDEs coming from the sameflagship company (Microosoft) are tightly integrated with VSS. so you can perform your source control from with the IDE itself.
Vipul (Expert): IN VS2003 , you have the option File > Source COntrol... You can bind your porject to a project in VSS and then seemlessly checkin -checkout from the IDE itself.
Vipul (Expert): You may need to enabke source control provider to VSS . That option will be under Tool > Options > Source control.
Vipul (Expert): Now, that we use VSS on a regular basis. here are a few tips..
Vipul (Expert): Make sure that you do now flood your project with overwhlming size. the performance of VSS decreases rapidly when Database size increases beyond 3 GB.
Vipul (Expert): TIP: If you think your project will expand beyong 3 GB, break it into smaller projects.
Vipul (Expert): Ganeshk: i am beginning with best practices.
Vipul (Expert): wnderdot: smaller projects does not mean more and one VSS> It means more projects.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: can you brief on what all VSS can do and what it does not do in a bird view
A: VSS is a configuration managemenet tool. like Rational ClearCase and CVS>. It is used to track file historyies, create baselines when you have a software delivery, etc...
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Would like to know on how to do versioning management using VSS
A: You need to add the file to source control and then you can check in and check out the file. Right click the file and you will get the options.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Is Smaller projects means more than one VSS
A: No, it means that you have more than one VSS database. You can create multiple database fromVSS admin .. Go to Tools> Create Database..
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Do .net2003 has its own VSS or we have to use the one with Visual studio 6.0
A: VS2003 uses the same VSS from VS 6.0, only it has been tweaked to perform better
Vipul (Expert): Tip 2: CM Admins: Use Analyze tool frequently.
Vipul (Expert): Analyze tool checks the integrety of the VSS database. Over time, the file system of your VSS database may get dis-oriented. Anaylze tools checks for this and you will be aware of this very early on. You should run the Analyle tool on a weekly basis.
Vipul (Expert): Tip3: Location: VSS performs best under NTFS file system on Windows NT and higher.... If you have many VSS users, a performance boost will be well worth it.
Vipul (Expert): Tip4: Free disk space: Whenever you run the Analyze tool, make sure you have ample free space, equal to you VSS database folder size. You do not want to run out of Hard disk space when the analyze tool is running else, it will corrpt the database.
Vipul (Expert): Tip5: Check on restored version and then run Analyze on main database: TO prevent loss in information, always perform Analyze on restored version on not on the live database.. If the analyze on the restored is cussessful, then you can proceed to the live version.
Vipul (Expert): Tip6: Make sure you do not have any active users when running backup-restore-anaylze-anaylze and fix utility. This is because any changes made by the user after the activity is started will not be reflected in the current version and you may have orphaned version of some file. Make sure that all users logout before you do any suck utility runs.
Vipul (Expert): Tip 7: Server rights: Assign rights to the VSS database wisely, Start with Readonly and give a "try" project with write-access to all for new users to play with. OOnce they get comfortable, then provide them rights on the necessary folders. You dont want to loose any information, just because some one did not know how to use VSS.
Vipul (Expert): Tip8: Synchronize the dates and system clocks for all Visual SourceSafe client computers with the Visual SourceSafe server. This prevents check-in and check-out operations from appearing to happen out of sequence and affects any labels that are applied. Synchronizing dates and system clocks is particularly important when users from different time zones access the same database
Vipul (Expert): Tip 9: Moving VSS: Dont use XCOPY simply because it does not copy some zero-byte files and VSS file system has plenty of these... Instead use Windows Explorer to copy your database to create a backup...
Vipul (Expert): How to run analyze:Step 1: Analyze –V4 The first pass should always locate problems before trying to fix them.Step 2: Analyze -F –V4 If errors are reported in the first pass, run Analyze again in fix mode to correct them.Step3: Analyze -F -C –V4 (If you have a "Found a DIFF" and "Found a COMMENT" error that you want removed
Vipul (Expert): Tip10: Make your backup and daily as well as weekly jobs.... Liek your code folder should be backup up daily whereas the project management and archive folders can be archived weekly.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: I would like to know more about merging in case of simultaneous check out of a single document
A: When a single document is checked out multiply, when the second user checks in(he gets to know what changes were made by the first user) and then he can make sure that he does not override the first user's code
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Vipul, can you please exlain about Multiple Checkouts, Versioning, Merging
A: Multipe checkouts: A file can be checked out by more than one person at a timeVersioning: The system of keeping a file history of a document with history numbers like, 1st version(Created initial draft), 2nd version (Reviewed by Manager)Merging: The process followwed by the second user of multiple checkout to make sure that the file which he checks in does not override the first user's work
Vipul (Expert):
Q: is multiple check out supported? if yes then how?
A: Multiple checkout is support, but not recommended. To enable multipl checkouts, GO to VSS Admin application. TOols Options. In the General Tab, chekc "Allow multiple checkouts"
Vipul (Expert):
Q: When does second user get updated copy of the first user when there are multiple check-outs ?
A: When he tried to check in his file.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: is backup and recovery safe in VSS
A: If the Analyze results say the database is clean. then you can safely go ahead and perform backup and recovery. Else, you need to fix the database.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: The whole file got messed up...had to resolve compilation errors..any tips on how to merge sucessfly?
A: I would recommend to not use multiple checkout with VSS 6.0. It is not a good tool for multiple checkouts.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Can we have simultanous checkouts for the same file by multiple users
A: yes, you need to enable multiple checkouts. please check the a few questions back I have answered the same.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: will analyze tool help fix the problem if any or will it just detect the problem?
A: Analyze when used with the proper swicthes will fix... Some options fill just identify, some options will fix... please check the previous questions.. I have answered that
Vipul (Expert):
Q: i want to know how to do labeling and create build out it
A: When you want to label a project, Select the project. File -> Label and give the name of the label...
Vipul (Expert):
Q: can we write the comment in the header of file when we checked in File
A: you can write the comment in the comment space given by the VSS. IN that way the comment will be in the VSS database and not in the file. You can also write the comment in the file, for future, like you migrate to another source control.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: I came to know about one of diadvantages of VSS :- Database size cannot exceed 3 GB..Why is it so ??
A: Because VSS uses a windows based file system...All the data is in form of files. when there are thousands of files, you will surely get a performance hit.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: If we enable VSS through IDE, and then decide follow the concept of smaller projects for fotnet projects, how can we implement the same?
A: Technically, your code for a project will never reach 3 GB so this will not be a concern. But in case you need to do the same, make sure you make the proper settings when archiving... You can clean up your database that way
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Ashsih could you please give some breif idea that how multiple check-outs take place
A: Already answered
Vipul (Expert):
Q: SIMPLE Question : how can I set a particular folder as working folder once for all...currently I have to set every time I start a VSS session
A: Right click the pojetc for which you need to set the working folder and then Set Working folder. Make sure the Save as default for project is checked. IF it faisl even after this, then please advise your VSS admin to check the file permission for you on the VSS database. I is possible that you have read access to your file in folder in the VSS database where user preferences are stored
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Vipul, if the first user is working on a file and has not checked how will VSS merge when the second user checks in same file
A: Then the first user will be intimated of the changes by the second user.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Can you brief on Advantage of VSS over Rational ClearCase and CVS
A: Basic Advantage: Tight integration with Visual Studio IDE
Vipul (Expert):
Q: I would like to know how merging is done
A: Already Answered
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Can I link the users from my active directory to VSS users list?
A: I shall revert later on this.. Please email me at vipul_d_patel@hotmail.com.. This is a very specific case. We can take this offline. You can also check with the chat transacript.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: But if there is an existing project which has crossed 3gb what should we do
A: Try to move the archive information (for which you dont need version history) to a new database. Else, get a better server configuration if you have a performance hit.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Whats Team Development all about.. is that the next generation VSS management tool?
A: Team Development is about development taks -based. When you check in a file in VS2005 (to be released soon), you will have to check it out against an activity. So you will always know for a particular activity which files you modified.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: No I mean Project Versioning management!. Save all weekly versions may be would like to save versions every 3 days.
A: Can you rephrase your question? I did not get the jist of it
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Had a query related to Database Objects being versioned from VSS directly. Is that feature there in VSS 6? I guess there is some sort of compatibility od DB objects with VSS.Net? Please elaborate on this.
A: can we take it offline.. mail me at vipul_d_patel@hotmail.com.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: is Archive facility provided in VSS
A: Yes,... You need to go to the VSS admin applicatrion Archive > Archive projects...
Vipul (Expert):
Q: what do you mean by cleaning the database if the file system is dis - oriented? what will be the result after fixing the database?
A: You will have a faster database. And you will be able to restore that database on any other computer.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Once labeled How do we retreve thea particular labled build
A: Right click that file/folder, and see history... and then browse to that .. The version containing the label text which you specified can be retrived by doing a Get..
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Hi vipul, can we connect to VSS server remotely, i mean if our server os not in LAN if is in other states (through internet)
A: Yes, there is a separate tool fr that from Source Gear
Vipul (Expert):
Q: hi Vipul, can I set any folder to be the working folder permanently...currently I have set working folder in each session of VSS
A: Already answered
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Hi Vipul, Is it possible to search files as we do in windows evironment ?
A: Yes, Tools > Find in Files...
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Hi vipul,in order to solve the 3gb space problem is it possible to have 2 databases on 2 different machines and merge them or can share certain common files to save space
A: you can havethe database on the same machine, that is not a issue. you need gto have two different VSS databases... Go to VSS Admin, Tools> Create Database..... Hope this helps
Vipul (Expert):
Q: How to make network id as VSS login
A: Ask you VSSadmin to ue the VSS Admin console > Tools> Options > Check :"Use network name for automatic user login"
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Hi Vipul, How to find out deleted files in the VSS.
A: There is no mechanisn to finding deleted files. I would reocmmend that you dont deleted any files permanently.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Vipul, Is Visual Source Offsite in the same line as SourceSafe that supports remote login
A: Can we take this offine. I need to investiaget (vipul_d_patel@hotmail.com)
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): Any more questions ?
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Find in files option can works only for text files..?
A: yes
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): We are at the end of the chat - hopefully the chat was of much use to you
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): Thank you Vipul - for joining in.
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): Thank you all for joining in.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Hi vipul is there any major diff between VSS 6 and VSS whidbey
A: Yes, there will be huge difference.. VSS2005 (WHidbey version) will be a lot better that the current VSS . You can check out
http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/transcripts/vstudio/vstudio_080504.aspx
GKhanna_MS (Moderator): Looking forwar to seeing you all for the next chat
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Vipul, Is Visual Source Offsite in the same line as SourceSafe that supports remote login
A: Can we take this offiline,I need to investigate this...
Vipul (Expert):
Q: How to find out delete files from VSS
A: not possible
Vipul (Expert):
Q: How to find out deleted file from VSS ?
A: not possible in VSS 6.0
Vipul (Expert):
Q: hi Vipul, can I set any folder to be the working folder permanently...currently I have set working folder in each session of VSS
A: Yes, already answered earlier
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Vipul, Is Visual Source Offsite in the same line as SourceSafe that supports remote login
A: Already answered
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Is it possible to archive files rather than project?
A: No.. You can only archive projects. But you can share a file to another project and then archive it...
Vipul (Expert): All: Please note that I will answer most of unasnwered question on my blog:
http://spaces.msn.com/members/vipul in a few days from now.. Be sure to check them out...............
Vipul (Expert):
Q: how do search in non-text files?
A: not possible.....
Vipul (Expert):
Q: In coming version, we are able to find out deleted files ?
A: no idea as of yet.. i shall try to find out and answer, please check my blog.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Is there any automatic merge tool available when you do multiple-checkouts?
A: not from microsoft...
Vipul (Expert):
Q: is there any option to find a particular file in the vss
A: yes. View > Search > Wildcard search
Vipul (Expert):
Q: When is the next version releasing?
A: soon. thats the best i can say right now. It shall be in this year.. Chekc out microsoft.com/ssafe for more detaisl
Vipul (Expert):
Q: VSS user rights database often gets corrupted . While changing rights of certain users, an error saying 'File or project not found' shows up, where it is quite possible to change rights of a other users. How can i prevent this
A: To make sure you dont have recurreing problems. Lock all users out and then check out the users folder in VSS> and make sure everyone in your user is present and the files are not ready only..
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Is it possible to get VSS History and comments/ labels printed in the source safe file( For Text Files)
A: Yes. Right click the file > Properties > Report > PReview. I did not understand what do you mean by "printed in the source safe file"...?
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Is there any option to retrieve files based on Label name in VSS client tool? It is available in Command tool.
A: Yes. you can retrieve files based on label... Right click folder.select version history. On the required label, go a Get.... I think it is available on command line interface. Please email me at vipul_d_patel@hotmail.com
Vipul (Expert):
Q: VSS user rights database often gets corrupted . While changing rights of certain users, an error saying 'File or project not found' shows up, where it is quite possible to change rights of a other users. How can i prevent this
A: already answered
Vipul (Expert):
Q: I mean that it is printed inside the file as a header
A: It was possible,,,, but can you get back to me at vipul_d_patel@hotmail.com. I shall investigate....
Vipul (Expert):
Q: One Q : Can i create user in VSS admin for remote access, i mean can i connect VSS thru internet, and can i create local copy through remote user
A: already answered Please email me at vipul_d_patel@hotmail.com and I shall investigate
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Vipul, they are concepts, but we are intrested in knowing the steps to perform the same actions. Many times, I encountered errors while merging or trying to make build out of the labeled version
A: Can you elaborate the erros.
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Hi Vipul can you please brief on the concept of 'build'
A: a build is a process in which you create a project executable
Vipul (Expert):
Q: In case of multiple checkouts can VSS make sure that the code modified by user 1 cannot be modified by user 2 until user1 checks in
A: i dont want to guess. I shall investigate this. please email me at vipul_d_patel@hotmail.com
Vipul (Expert):
Q: But, Vipul, managing small projects would become a problem
A: Not as much as a corrupt database
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Vipul, is multiple checkout enabled for all kinds of roles ?
A: What do you mean by roles?
Vipul (Expert):
Q: Even the same thing is available with java ide's like websphere application developerll
A: Yes...... If you are using Microsoft projects, it would be slightly better than non-MS products
Vipul (Expert):
Q: when i select 2 files and do a show differences , it shows difference b/w those 2 selected files. but what i wanted is to show differneces from the working folder for those 2 selected files. Is it possible?
A: can you rephrase your question, i did not get the jist
Vipul (Expert): OK then. thanks to all for joining the chat. You should having a chat transcript on the Community website very soon....
Vipul (Expert): You can always mail your questions to me at vipul_d_patel@hotmail.com or vipul.patel@patni.com

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Time to resume and learn new things

It has been a break for me for almost three months and I lost pretty good time in learning new things. Change of Job, relocation, hectic work schedules, travel and then sudden happenings like Tsunami haskept me busy for all the while and now its time to resume my activities.

I will be starting on giving new entries to blog in different technologies shortly and also update my knowledge accordingly.