How to add diagnostics/troubleshooting for your applications hosted on Cloud/Azure?

Guide to implement Azure diagnostics simple yet powerful: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg433052.aspx

-DJ

How to build Content management web sites quickly in days without spending much?

One of our client requested that they want to build an intranet CMS site in days without spending much? They were tighly constrained by budget and wanted someone to build them a quick CMS (Content Management Site) without spending much. The way to go was - Umbraco...we did it! :)

How? Watch a five minute introduction video -



Walkthrough detail tutorials and videos here -
http://umbraco.com/help-and-support/video-tutorials.aspx

Detailed free samples and code on codeplex -
http://umbraco.codeplex.com/

Cheers - DJ

How to generate Word/Office documents from server side in .net - Aspose?

How to generate Word or any Microsoft Office documents from server side in .net without installing Office on the server?

Aspose is definitely a choice if you want to generate word documents server side without installing Microsoft Office. Aspose.Words for .NET is a class library for generating, converting and rendering word processing documents. Aspose.Words supports DOC, OOXML, RTF, HTML, OpenDocument, PDF, XPS, EPUB and other file formats.

Codeplex project contains free sample source code that shows how to use Aspose.Words for .NET in your document processing applications.

However Aspose.Words itself for .NET is NOT free and not open source product and
need to be purchased if you intend to develop with them. You can seek evaluation/trial version from their site- http://www.aspose.com/ where they have included few demo projects as well.

Here is the free open source code on codeplex -
http://asposewords.codeplex.com/

-DJ

How to generate barcode from string in SSRS reports and PDF?

I stumbled upon this great article which I would like to point to you if you are looking for a solution on how to generate barcodes (Code 39 and 128) in SQL server reports with 2008 R2. There seems to be an existing issue with Code 128 testing in PDF (10v) but works fine in SSRS/reports.

There are free tools like Z Barcode reader (iphone) but can be used for testing the generated bar code.
Barcode reader free test Tool -

Here is the article in detail - http://www.ssrstips.com/free-reporting-services-barcodes

Also find John's blog useful here - http://www.jtbarton.com/Barcodes/Code39.aspx
You can also download the code demo here: Reporting Services Free Barcodes Demo

Here is the knowledge base article as well that explains how to install font files on your machine for the barcodes to read correctly - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314960

Sweet, I am going to find some time to get my thumbs down on this pretty soon :) will share more learnings as I discover! - DJ

Windows Azure Pricing and related videos

Windows Azure Pricing Calculator and TCO: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing-calculator/

Windows Azure Videos: http://channel9.msdn.com/Tags/azure

Lapping around SQL Azure - Migrating SQL server database to SQL Azure

Migrating SQL 2008 on premise/in network/local database to SQL Azure platform turns to be very straight forward and easy. Microsoft has done an excellent job in enabling developers to use SQL server management studio (SSMS) and Visual Studio 2010 tools for the migration effort.

Here are few helpful links that would help enable the SQL migration to Azure/cloud.

SQL Azure Videos: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlazure/videos.aspx SQL Azure
Tools and Labs: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlazure/tools-labs.aspx SQL Azure Migration
SQL server schema and data migration wizard (open source and free): http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/

Alternate options to migrate SQL schema and data is also - Writing SSIS packages

Different ranking functions in SQL Server 2005 and 2008 and strategy to remove duplicate records in ETL type apps

Quick glance of different ranking functions that we can use in SQL Server -

Ranking functions return a ranking value for each row in a partition. Depending on the function that is used, some rows might receive the same value as other rows. Ranking functions are nondeterministic.

SQL Server introduced four different ranking functions to rank the rows in partition or in general -
1 RANK
2 NTILE
3 DENSE_RANK
4 ROW_NUMBER

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189798.aspx

Example on different strategies to remove duplicate records in SQL server in a typical ETL OR OLTP type applications -

http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1952

http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1918

Thanks - D

Typical Sync up of tables scenario in ETL type projects

If you are faced by a scenario where you typically have to sync up 2 tables by comparing source, destination most of the times and writing Insert, Delete and Update statements to achieve that, SQL Server 2008 introduces MERGE feature which is very powerful and fairly easy to achieve such sync up issues quick.

Example - Products dimension table has information about the products; you need to sync-up this table with the latest information about the products from the source table. You would need to write separate INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE statements to refresh the target table with an updated product list or do lookups. Though it seems to be straight forward at first glance, but it becomes cumbersome when you have do it very often or on multiple tables, even the performance degrades significantly with this approach. In the article below the author walks you through how to use the MERGE statement and do this in one pass. :)

USE - The MERGE statement basically merges data from a source result set to a target table based on a condition that you specify and if the data from the source already exists in the target or not. The new SQL command combines the sequence of conditional INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE commands in a single atomic statement, depending on the existence of a record. The new MERGE SQL command looks like as below:


SYNTAX - MERGE [AS TARGET]
USING [AS SOURCE]
ON
[WHEN MATCHED
THEN ]
[WHEN NOT MATCHED [BY TARGET]
THEN ]
[WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE
THEN ];


Nice and easy article for quick reference on MERGE - http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1704

Thanks - D

Use of "Coalesce" in SQL Server 2008

Use of "Coalesce" in SQL Server - efficent way to script and avoid mutiple Case statements and ISNULL.

COALESCE - Returns the first nonnull expression among its arguments.

Syntax
COALESCE ( expression [ ,...n ] )

Arguments
expression - Is an expression of any type.

n - Is a placeholder indicating that multiple expressions can be specified. All expressions must be of the same type or must be implicitly convertible to the same type.

Return Types - Returns the same value as expression.

Remarks - If all arguments are NULL, COALESCE returns NULL.

COALESCE(expression1,...n) is equivalent to this CASE function:

CASE
WHEN (expression1 IS NOT NULL) THEN expression1
...
WHEN (expressionN IS NOT NULL) THEN expressionN
ELSE NULL

Simple real life example from MSDN - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa258244(SQL.80).aspx

Other many uses as well - http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1521

(Fav one from this article = was to KILL all transactions forecfully that are locked and needed to be released before restoring the database -

------------------------------------------
DECLARE @SQL VARCHAR(8000)

SELECT @SQL=COALESCE(@SQL,'')+'Kill '+CAST(spid AS VARCHAR(10))+ '; '
FROM sys.sysprocesses
WHERE DBID=DB_ID('AdventureWorks')

PRINT @SQL --EXEC(@SQL)

Replace the print statement with exec to execute will give you a result set such as the following.
-----------------------------------------------

Thanks - D

"Google lecture" learning videos

Here are some interesting learning videos from "Google lectures" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjPBkvYh-ss

Talks include topics like - Cluster Computing and MapReduce...

Cheers - D

Fix for ASP.net security gap - this TU

Glad that Microsoft had such a quick fix :) - http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/09/27/asp-net-security-update-shipping-tuesday-sept-28th.aspx

-D

CAPTCHA Server Control for ASP.NET - protecting from spam

Looking to protect your public facing web sites from automated submission/spam - leverage CAPTCHA Server Controls readily availbale for ASP.NET -

ASP.NET captcha implementation - http://www.codeproject.com/KB/custom-controls/CaptchaControl.aspx

Telerik Captcha - www.telerik.com/products/aspnet-ajax/captcha.aspx

Google's ReCaptcha - https://www.google.com/recaptcha

-Dipesh

Security workaround for Sharepoint Server and Services 3.0

Microsoft recently released a Security Advisory for a vulnerability affecting ASP.NET. This post documents recommended workarounds for the following SharePoint products:

•SharePoint 2010
•SharePoint Foundation 2010
•Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
•Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
•Windows SharePoint Services 2.0

Does impact - SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Check for latest updates on MSDN blog here -

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sharepoint/archive/2010/09/21/security-advisory-2416728-vulnerability-in-asp-net-and-sharepoint.aspx

-D

Security gap in ASP.net

Waiting for the patch to be released to plug the security gaps in ASP.net, Sharepoint sites or Dotnetnukes that allows client user to download UR most sensitive web.config file or decrypt UR Viewstate...

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/09/18/important-asp-net-security-vulnerability.aspx

- D

URL Rewrite Module 2.0 reloaded

Check the powerful features with URL Rewrite Module 2.0 reloaded. you can download the extension from Micorsoft site here -
http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/install.aspx?appid=urlrewrite2

Check the video and more articles here -
http://www.iis.net/download/URLRewrite

Download samples (with source code) on examples on how to -
Store the rewrite or redirect mappings in a SQL database;
Store the rewrite or redirect mappings in a text file;
Store the lookup substrings in a text file.

Source Code

Cheers - D

SQL Server Parameter Sniffing issue - resolved

If you have a performance issue while calling the stored proc from ASP.net apps or SSRS reports then try this tip suggested by Chris on SQL parameter siffing fix.

Create PROC SP_NAME @param1 nvarchar(20)
AS
BEGIN
Select * from Customers where CustomerID = @param1
END

*** Declaring a local variable within stored proc and passing it to SQL just improves the performance of the execution of the stored proc while calling from .net applications.

Create PROC SP_NAME @param1 nvarchar(20)
AS

BEGIN
Declare @localvariable nvarchar(20)
SET @localvariable = @param1
Select * from Customers where CustomerID = @localvariable
END

http://elegantcode.com/2009/06/24/repost-watch-out-for-sql-server-parameter-sniffing/

Optimize your web applications to have faster response times by preloading your apps

IIS Application Warm-Up for IIS 7.5 enables IT Professionals to improve the responsiveness of their Web sites by loading the Web applications before the first request arrives. By proactively loading and initializing all the dependencies such as database connections, compilation of ASP.NET code, and loading of modules, IT Professionals can ensure their Web sites are responsive at all times even if their Web sites use a custom request pipeline or if the Application Pool is recycled.

The best feature which I think is the ability to customize which web pages you want to be loaded faster and for which users as well by customizing the pre-loading of applications.

IIS Application Warm-Up can be configured to initialize Web applications by using specific Web pages and user identities. This makes it possible to create specific initialization processes that can be executed synchronously or asynchronously depending on the initialization logic. In addition, these procedures can use specific identities in order to ensure a proper initialization.

You can download the extension here -
http://www.iis.net/download/applicationwarmup

Thanks - D

IE 9 test drive

Most of you may be aware... but Microsoft is making the IE9 platform preview available online here:
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

Some of the demos seem exciting but seem fairly limited at this moment. It seems to provide the capability to test your existing web applications on IE9 build version. :) However, it needs Vista or 7 image. Cheers – Dipesh

Building Large-Scale Applications with Microsoft Silverlight and developing using the Model-View-ViewModel pattern

Build Large-Scale Applications with Microsoft Silverlight @ MS PDC -

Learning video on Silverlight from John @ PDC - about Silverlight application development patterns such as composite applications with Prism, developing using the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern, and methods of implementing large, modular, multi-page applications within your team. Hear about frameworks created to help assist in rapid development using these patterns without sacrificing good application development patterns.


HD video - http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/CL22
WMV viode (lighter version) - http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/CL22?type=wmv

Thanks - Dipesh

Enterprise Library 5 released...

Enterprise Library 5.0 released.... http://entlib.codeplex.com/Wikipage

Watch the video from the PnP site here - http://www.pnpguidance.net/post/EnterpriseLibrary5VideoPnPSummit.aspx

Thanks - D

Accenture Plc and Adchemy Teams to Create Enterprise-Ready Digital Marketing Platform...

Accenture Plc and Adchemy Teams to Create Enterprise-Ready Digital Marketing Platform

Accenture Plc and Adchemy, a company in audience relationship management (ARM), announced that they have formed a global alliance to help large companies and their agency partners build more effective digital experiences with their customers. The alliance will give clients a new way to identify, engage and acquire customers. As part of the alliance agreement, Accenture has taken a minority equity stake in Adchemy and Tim Breene, Accenture`s senior managing director of Strategic Initiatives, has joined Adchemy`s Board of Directors.

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/keyDevelopments?symbol=ACN

-D

MS Application Architecture Guide...

Looking for an "Application Architecture Guide" that is intended to help solution architects/designers design and build effective, high quality applications?

Microsoft has released 2nd edition of Microsoft Application Architecture guide @
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=ce40e4e1-9838-4c89-a197-a373b2a60df2

This guide helps you to:
1 Understand the underlying architecture and design principles and patterns for developing successful solutions on the Microsoft platform and the .NET Framework.
2 Identify appropriate strategies and design patterns that will help you design your solution's layers, components, and services.
3 Identify and address the key engineering decision points for your solution.
4 Identify and address the key quality attributes and crosscutting concerns for your solution.
5 Create a candidate baseline architecture for your solution.
6 Choose the right technologies for your solution.
7 Identify patterns & practices solution assets and further guidance that will help you to implement your solution.

- D

Visual Studio 2010 Professional download and .NET Framework 4 Training kit...

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 Ready to Download...

VS 2010 Professional version-
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a80dfb5d-51c6-4778-8656-a9ff29d3a132&displaylang=en

There's a training available for Preview as well here on MSDN site -
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=752CB725-969B-4732-A383-ED5740F02E93&displaylang=en

-D

Accenture LLP receives P&G Supplier Excellence Award...

Accenture LLP receives a "Supplier excellence award" from P&G for FY 2009 yesterday night for consistently performing against expectations for service delivery, innovation and being a great business partner. One of the 55 suppliers that received an award among P&G’s 80,000 suppliers and the only one in our IT field besides HP beating our competitors who are not listed anywhere :)

http://www.pg.com/news/supplier_awards_release_final.shtml

Cheers - time to celebrate :) - DJ

ROI from MS

Here's a nice link for ROI from MS - http://nucleusresearch.com/microsoft-roi-support-center/