Phoenix Connected Systems User Group

April 10, 2009 13:50 by randy

Last night I attended my first Phoenix Connected Systems User Group, PCSUG.org. I must say, I am happy that I went!

The group is run by Rick Garibay and Todd Sussman– two absolute rock stars in the .NET world. The group meets the second Thursday of each month. It is more that worth the time to attend one of these meetings.

The topic for this month was Client Application Systems, more specifically, the use of ASP.NET membership and roles in a windows application. The demo also included methods for utilizing WCF and standard web services to achieve this functionality. Lastly, the talk provided an overview of maintaining user settings, and having those settings follow the user to different computers.

Hope to see you there next month!

Thanks for listening.

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Non-Stored Procedure SQL Scripts in a Database Project (VSTS 2008)

March 26, 2009 15:58 by randy

When storing SQL scripts in a database project, that are not stored procedures, VS will give you some grief.

Build Error:

Error 6 TSD7025: Unable to identify the schema type contained in the .sql file. A schema type of 'Procedure' was expected, based on the name of the .sql file.

To get around this, update the properties of the file in VS to “Not In Build”.

Thanks for listening.

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Maybe not so obvious

March 25, 2009 13:27 by randy

I know this might sound a bit on the obvious side, but …

When using an ASP text box, with the read only setting set to True, any value in the text property (with client side JavaScript perhaps) will be ignored on post back.

Example

The following code:

     <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true"  CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

    <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

    <head runat="server">

        <title>TextBox ReadOnly Demo</title>

        <script type="text/javascript">                 function replaceText() {                var tBox = document.getElementById('<%=Target.ClientID%>');                tBox.value = 'foo';            }        </script>

    </head>

    <body>

        <form id="form1" runat="server">

        <div>

            <asp:TextBox ID="Target" runat="server"  ReadOnly="true"/>

            <input id="htmlBtn" type="button" value="Populate TextBox" onclick="Javascript:replaceText();"  />        

            <asp:Button ID="Go" runat="server" Text="Go!" onclick="Go_Click" />

        </div>

        </form>

    </body>

    </html>

This will open a simple web page with two buttons and a textbox control.

The first button is an HTML input button. It fires a JavaScript function that populates the value of the ASP textbox with ‘foo’.
The second button performs a post back that calls a method the does a ‘Response.Write’ to display the value of the text property of the ASP textbox.

    protected void Go_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        Response.Write(string.Format("Returned Text: {0}", Target.Text));

    }

No tricks.

When this code is run:

Click “Populate TextBox”

Click “Go!”

Result

There you have it!

Thanks for listening.

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Long Time

March 17, 2009 12:59 by randy

I know … I’m not supposed to blog about not blogging. Deal with it.

I have spent the past several months getting used to a new team, in a new company. I have been lucky enough to land in an organization that is truly “Geekville”. My team members are among the best around. My tools are top notch. Running SCRUM. It is a great place to be.

I am also lucky enough to get to work on several different platforms: BizTalk, SharePoint, SQL Server 2008, VSTS 2008 … and the list goes on.

Now that I am settled in, as much as I can be at this point, I will start hitting the blog more.

Thanks for keeping me in mind these past months.

Thanks for listening.

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Check for Registry Keys on Remote Computers with VBScript

December 9, 2008 14:35 by randy

I guess this would be Part 2 on VBScripting – for today.

In the first post, Check Running Processes on Remote Computers with VBScript, I outlined a VBScript process to determine if a specific process was running on a remote computer on the same network.

In this post, I have a VBScript that will scan the registry of remote computers on the same network for a specific registry key. List the remote processes script, this process utilizes a file containing a list of all machines on the network. The registry key name is a local variable. It would not be too hard to take this script and put it into a function and pass the registry key name (and machine list file name for that matter) as a parameter.

This script also utilizes Scripting API for WMI to interrogate the remote machine.

Take a look.

' Set up some Constants

Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002

Const ForAppending = 8

Const ForReading = 1

' Build the date tag for the log file name

sDate = right("00" & cstr(month(date())),2) & right("00" & cstr(day(date())),2) & right("200" & cstr(year(date())),4) & right("00" & cstr(hour(time)),2) & right("00" & cstr(minute(time)),2) & right("00" & cstr(second(time)),2)

' Build the full log file name

sOutFileName = "C:\Temp\reg_scan_log_" & sDate & ".txt"

' set this to the registry key to search

sKeyPath = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services"

' Get the FSO moving

Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

' Open the file with containing all of the computers to scan (name or IP address)

Set objTextFile_List = oFSO.OpenTextFile ("C:\Temp\machineList.txt", ForReading)

' Create and open the file for logging

Set objTextFile = oFSO.OpenTextFile(sOutFileName, ForAppending, True)

' Loop through the file containing machine names/IP addresses

Do Until objTextFile_List.AtEndOfStream

    sMachine = objTextFile_List.Readline

    Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

    bPing = Not CBool(WshShell.run("ping -n 1 " & sMachine, 0, True))      

    If bPing = True Then         

        Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & sMachine & "\root\default:StdRegProv")

        ' Create an enum of the key values

        oReg.EnumValues HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, sKeyPath, arrValueNames, arrValueTypes

        ' duh 

        ON ERROR RESUME NEXT

        ' check the array count

        If UBound(arrValueNames) > 0 Then

            objTextFile.WriteLine(sMachine & ": " & cstr(UBound(arrValueNames)))

        End If

        ' write the error message

        If err.number > 0 Then

            objTextFile.WriteLine(sMachine & ": " & err.Description)

        End If

    Else

        ' Set the appropriate response

        objTextFile.WriteLine(sMachine & ": Not on network")

    End If

loop

Thanks for listening

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Check Running Processes on Remote Computers with VBScript

December 9, 2008 14:09 by randy

When things get muddy in a small IT shop, it is time for everyone to help out!

That is how a developer gets pulled into helping the network and Help Desk folks.

That said, I created this quick (kinda) and dirty (definitely) VBScript to check for a specific process running on each of the machines on the network. The process utilizes a file containing a list of all machines on the network. The process name is a local variable. It would not be too hard to take this script and put it into a function and pass the process name (and machine list file name for that matter) as a parameter.

This script utilizes Scripting API for WMI to interrogate the remote machines.

Take a look.

' Set up some constants

Const ForReading = 1

Const ForAppending = 8

' get the FSO open

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

' Process you are looking for

sProcess = "csrsc.exe"

' Build the date tag for the log file name

sDate = right("00" & cstr(month(date())),2) & right("00" & cstr(day(date())),2) & right("200" & cstr(year(date())),4) & right("00" & cstr(hour(time)),2) & right("00" & cstr(minute(time)),2) & right("00" & cstr(second(time)),2)

' Build the full log file name

sOutFileName = "C:\Temp\scan_log_" & sDate & ".txt"

' Open the file with containing all of the computers to scan (name or IP address)

Set objTextFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile ("C:\Temp\machineList.txt", ForReading)

' Create and open the file for logging

Set objTextFile_Write = objFSO.OpenTextFile(sOutFileName, ForAppending, True)

' Loop through the file containing machine names/IP addresses

Do Until objTextFile.AtEndOfStream

    ' get the machine name from the current row of the file

    sMachine = objTextFile.Readline

    ' duh

    Dim Process, sResponse, sWriteMe

    ' Default the test response

    sResponse = "No"

    ' duh

    ON ERROR RESUME NEXT

    '   Ping the machine to make sure it is on the network

    Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

    bPing = Not CBool(WshShell.run("ping -n 1 " & sMachine, 0, True))      

    ' only check for the process if the machine is on the network

    If bPing = True Then

        Set objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:" & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

        Set cProcList = objWMI.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_Process Where Name = '" & sProcess & "'")

        ' if there are items in the collection ....

        If cProcList.Count > 0 Then

            ' Found it!

            sResponse = "Yes"

        End If

    Else

        ' Set the appropriate response

        sResponse = "Not on network"

    End If

    ' If there was an error ... Log it!    

    If err.number > 0 Then

        sResponse = err.Description

    End If

    sWriteMe = sMachine & ": " & "Running " & sProcess & " - " & sResponse

    objTextFile_Write.WriteLine(sWriteMe)

  Loop

Thanks for listening

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Dynamic Column Names in SQL Server Reporting Services 2005

December 4, 2008 11:57 by randy

I have been working on a SSRS report that produces financial data for a rolling 20 month period. The SQL behind the report is pretty straight forward. The challenge was dynamically setting each of the column names on the report to accurately reflect the month/year data presented by the SQL.

This task is made a little simpler since the column names are derived from dates, making it possible to calculate the values of the column names.

The other challenge with this process is that the report can be run for any specific date. The obvious solution, and the one I used, is to pass a date parameter to a SQL stored procedure (You could have used straight SQL in SSRS and used the parameter as part of the WHERE clause – I just prefer to use stored procedures). The fun part of this getting SQL Server and SSRS to play nice together (I know this sounds obvious and should be straight forward.)

Steps

1. Create the stored procedure allowing for an input parameter to accept the date.

USE someDB

GO

IF OBJECT_ID('someDB.dbo.uspSampleProc') IS NOT NULL

    DROP PROCEDURE uspSampleProc

GO

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[uspSampleProc]

    ( @BaseDate        DATETIME

    )

AS

...

2. Create the report template in SSRS

3. Create the report parameter and associate with the SQL parameter.

To get there:

Go to the Data page for the report
Click the ellipse (“…”) next to the Dataset Drop down
Then select the Parameters tab in the Dataset dialog box

5. Edit the expression in the column heading text box(es) to reflect the rolling month/year indicated by the report data.

=RIGHT("0" & CSTR(Month(DateAdd("M", 1,Parameters!BaseDate.Value))),2) & "-" & YEAR(DateAdd("M", 1, Parameters!BaseDate.Value))

 

What’s going on here?

The above example would be used in the second column header label on the report.

Using the report date parameter as the base, it is possible to calculate the text value for the column headers.

The column name will show the month and the year that the column represents. EX: 01-2008

To ensure that the month and year displayed are in synch with the rolling monthly data, two separate string functions are combined to form the final text.

The “Month” part

The first string function determines the month indicator. For this report, the month indicator needs to show with two characters. As the “Month” function in SSRS does not do this for us, it is necessary to add a leading “0” to the numeric identifier for months January through September.

To do this:

Append a “0” to the left side of the numeric value that represents the month.
Use the “Right” string function to pull the two right most characters from the string.

The second part of this string function determines the appropriate month to report. This is done using the “DateAdd” function. This function allows you to add or subtract from a date value to get anther date (more info on the DateAdd function here: MSDN SSRS DateAdd Function). The example shows that the BaseDate report parameter will be incremented by one month.

The “Year” Part

This string function determines the year that corresponds to the rolling month value. It utilizes the same “DateAdd” functionality as the “Month” string function. The only difference is that the year is extracted from the new date value using the “Year” function.

HEY! This expression will need to be applied to each column. Each implementation of this expression will need to be updated to correlate to the appropriate rolling month. Meaning: The units parameter of the DateAdd function will need to be updated to reflect the correct value. For Example, The third column header on the report, you would enter “3” for the units parameter of the DateAdd.

Done!

Thanks for listening.

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Citrix in MOSS 2007 Without WISP 2007

November 18, 2008 10:09 by randy

I have been working on a solution for my current client that would allow the uses to access the Citrix web interface through their SharePoint home page.

There are a few ways to do this:

Add a link to the SP home page that opens up the Citrix Web Portal
Add a Page Viewer web part to the SP page, opening the Citrix Web Portal
Install Citrix Web Interface for SharePoint 2007 (WISP 2007), and utilize the supplies Citrix specific web parts

Each of these solutions has it’s pros and cons.

Adding a link to the home page is quick and easy, but not the most elegant way of doing things.
Adding the Page Viewer web part to the front page offers a more intuitive solution. This provides the users with an obvious place to login to the Citrix server and will also present their available applications in a familiar environment.
The most robust solution is to install WISP 2007. This solution provides an integrated solution to presenting the user with their Citrix application options. This tool integrates Single Sign On, SharePoint and core Citrix functionality very nicely.

My client opted for solution #2: Add a Page Viewer web part to the home page.

To do this:

1. Add a Page Viewer web part to the page

2. Edit the web part properties to add the URL for the Citrix Web Portal

HEY! In order for the Citrix Web Portal to function properly, the full domain will need to be added as a trusted domain on the client.

3. After the domain is trusted by the client, the users will be presented with the familiar login interface of the Citrix Web Portal

Thanks for listening.

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A Great Link for ALL Programmers!

October 16, 2008 08:07 by oodnar

I know ... Two posts in a row with links. Lame. I know. BUT -- This is a great article.

If you are or are planning to be a programmer - you MUST read this article by over at Coding The Wheel.

The Programming Aphorisms of Strunk and White

Enjoy!

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Cheat Sheets on PacketLife

October 15, 2008 13:57 by oodnar

HEY!

I just came across this link on Delicious:

http://packetlife.net/cheatsheets/

This is a great reference for network (and some non-network) geeks!

Enjoy.

Thanks for listening.

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Phoenix Connected Systems User Group

Non-Stored Procedure SQL Scripts in a Database Project (VSTS 2008)

Maybe not so obvious

Long Time

Check for Registry Keys on Remote Computers with VBScript

Check Running Processes on Remote Computers with VBScript

Dynamic Column Names in SQL Server Reporting Services 2005

Steps

What’s going on here?

Done!

Citrix in MOSS 2007 Without WISP 2007

A Great Link for ALL Programmers!

Cheat Sheets on PacketLife