Friday, October 24, 2008

Infragistics 2006 vol 3 CLR 2 installation failed in Vista

I have successfully installed the Infragistics 2007 Vol 1 CLR 2 in Vista.But I wanted to install the previous version of Infragistcs.

First I removed the latest version and then started installing the previous version.Then I got the following error message "Error 1606. Could not access network location %SystemDrive%\inetpub\wwwroot\"

After searching the web, found the following entry from Infragistics.

http://devcenter.infragistics.com/Support/KnowledgeBaseArticle.aspx?ArticleID=9983

But I did only the registry entry change value of the key "PathWWWRoot" from "%SystemDrive%\inetpub\wwwroot" to "C:\inetpub\wwwroot".

Not needed to disable the UAC as suggested in the above article.

After installing I reverted the registry entry value back to the original value.

Monday, October 20, 2008

SharePoint development tips

Since I am working with SharePoint I thought of posting some development tips and tricks as I found so that I can easily recall them if I need it again for any reason.

  • How to retrieve a list from an existing site and iterate items in the list

SPSite _site = SPContext.Current.Site;
SPWeb _web = _site.OpenWeb();
SPList myList = _web.Lists["<List name>"];

foreach (SPListItem item in myList.Items)
{
String title = item["Title"];
// your implementation
}

  • Retrieve a list using SPQuery

Here the "Office" is a lookup field in the "Personnel" list.
So you need to use "FieldRef" and "Lookupid".

Check the implementation bellow.

SPQuery query = new SPQuery();
query.Query = "<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='Office' LookupId='TRUE' /><Value Type='Lookup'>1</Value></Eq></Where>";

foreach (SPListItem personnel in teams.GetItems(query))
{
// your implementation
}

  • How to use "AND" property in SPQuery

Here I need to select items where Office = 1 and Team = 2.
Query looks like this.And note that the reference fields are lookup type.

SPQuery query = new SPQuery();
query.Query = "<Where>
<And>
<Eq><FieldRef Name='Office' LookupId='TRUE' /><Value Type='Lookup'>1 </Value></Eq>
<Eq><FieldRef Name='Team' LookupId='TRUE' /><Value>Type='Lookup'>2</Value></Eq>
</And>
</Where>";

Blog it from Windows Live Writer (WLW)

Today when I was inspecting my tool bars in Windows Internet Explorer , I just found a drop down called "Blog It" in the windows tool bar.I curiously clicked on the "New Post" option in the list and got a set up wizard for creating a new blog or to connect to an existing blog.

Since I already have a blog, I selected the last option and provided the credentials of my blog.That is that and I am ready to post from WLW.

This is very easy since you don't have to log into you blog account every time you need to do a post or edit a post , etc.It's just a matter of selecting the option from the "Blog It" drop down in windows tool bar.

I haven't used any other posting tools so far.Any one who has done this using any other tool do not hesitate to comment about comparison with WLW.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Title winner for 2008 edition of Formula 1


The penultimate race , 2008 FORMULA 1 SINOPEC CHINESE GRAND PRIX will begin on this Sunday (19th Oct).And every F1 fans will keen to watch this race as McLaren's Lewis Hamilton can clinch the title on his second appearance after debut last year.He almost made history last year by being the first ever rookie driver to win the title, but he failed to do so.Will he be able to keep that away from his mind and do it on this Sunday.

With the current standings only 3 drivers have the chance to fight for the title, namely

1. Lewis Hamilton - 84 points -Team McLaren
2. Felipe Massa - 79 points -Team Ferrari
3. Robert Kubica - 72 points -Team BMW Sauber

Sadly for me, after my favourite Ferrari's driver Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen is out of the championship contenders with 63 points so far.

There are so many permutations for the title contender and all above mentioned drivers have a chance to become the champion.
But there is very little window of oppertunity for Robert Kubica to become the champion given the condition of the car (BMW Sauber) he has.

Lewis can do it on this sunday if he keeps his cool head.But should not by any means be under estimate the red Scarlet of Felipe.He will do every bit to become the champion.

It is interesting to read into the comments made by Renaults's Fernando Alonso who has a rivalry between Lewis Hamilton who was the teams mate last year in McLarens.

During this week end it is interesting to watch the start of the race and the turn 1 of the cercuit.We might see the safty car deployed very early stage of the race.

I am really looking forward to watch this race on this Sunday on Star Sports.

I would love to see Lewis pull it off this time even though I am a Ferrari fan.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Windows media player 11 cannot play the movie - codec missing ??

Couple of weeks back I got the movie "Death Race" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452608/ ) from one of my co employees( Savindu ).

Since I was busy with the project work I thought of watching it after the release.
Just after the release I got my new laptop with Windows Vista installed and was working with setting up my development environment in it.So further delays of watching the movie.

After that I wanted to watch that movie and I opened it with the Windows Media Player in my new laptop.

To my amazement I could only hear the sounds but no visuals. I was scratching my hair and thinking what could be the reason for it.

Then I realized that one of the codec is missing and needed to install the codec.Then I start Googling and search for codecs for Media player in Vista.Non found which relates to Windows Vista in Microsfot sites.

Then I forget about searching for codecs and installed Real Audio player 10 Gold and tried to play the movie(.avi) file.

Bad to worst, got the same error and luckily it mentioned about the component that could be missing in order to play this file which is "ICM.XVID".

Then I Googled with that name and found the following link http://www.divxmovies.com/software/

Then I downloaded the XviD codec v1.1.3 and installed it.
Official site : http://www.divx.com/

Bingo here we go , at last I can see visuals and sooner than later I am going to watch the movie.

But my worry is why Microsoft cannot ship Windows Vista with all the codecs OR at least make avilable those codecs in their support sites.

This is rediculous.......

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Microsoft Visio 2007 Trouble shoots

I had a problem with Microsoft Visio 2007 installed in Vista.

When I was closing the Visio application a message popup saying that the "Visio is not responding" and having a problem with COM add-in.

After doing some googling, find out that the problem could be on of the add-ins you have installed in Visio.

Then I opened the add-in manager in Visio and disabled the only add-in I had which is the "Sent to Bluetooth".I hadn't install this adding but it is coming with the default installation.

I have already disabled the blue tooth in my box, so that could be the reason to this issue.

But I havent tried out the other way round which is enabling the blue tooth and then closing the visio before disabling the add-in.

Setting up dev environment in Vista

Things I have done in Windows Vista while creating my development environment.

1. Installed the SP1.
2. Disabled the Business Contact Manager in Outlook with Business Contact Manager.
Reference : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903094

Thanks goes to my co-developer Chatura for providing me the link.

3. Installing VS 2005 and VS 2008 side by side

First install VS2005 and then VS2008

Step 1 : Installed VS 2005 ( Team server architect )
Step 2 : Installed VS2005 SP1
Step 3 : Installed VS2005 Vista SP
Step 4 : Installed VS2008

4. Installing SQL Server 2005 developer edition

Step 1 : Run the owc11.exe

This will install the MS Office web components 2003

Step 2 : Make sure to remove the express edition ( MS Sql Server Mobile )

I did install without removing it and finally intallation failed. :(

Once again thanks goes to Chatura for helping me to trouble shoot the issue.

Step 3 : Install SQL Server 2005 dev edition

5. Installing Nant

Step 1 : Extract the nant bundle into a folder
Step 2 : Add the Nant.exe path into the environment variables (path).

6. Adding the Nant Addin into VS2005

Step 1 : Extract the zip contents into [User Name]\Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Addins
Step 2 : Start VisualStudio
Step 3 : In Tools>Addin Manager check NAntAddin and Startup columns
Step 4 : Now activate the Add-in in Tools>NAntAddin
Step 5 : The Add-in should now be visible (you can dock it and resize as desired)

So far so good, I need to see how the box going to perform when I start developing again in full throttle.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

New Operating System - Windows Vista

I got my new laptop with windows Vista installed.My first reaction to that is not that good simple because the bad user stories I have heard from my co-workers as well as others.

But I decided to take that challenge and start working with it.Then only you can figure it out all the speculations are correct or not.

Time will let me know about my decision.

The very first thing I did with it was installing the SP1. Thanks for my co-worker Chatura for the tip.

Many more to follow since I have to create the same development environment I had with the Windows XP which used for a long time.

I will post all the steps which I had to follow to create my development environment in my next post.