Here are few photographs I took today at around 1:30 PM using my cell phone.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=218281&id=683164282&l=64042e24f8

Location: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

It was an amazing experience of standing on the dock of the ferry while it was making its way to other shore by breaking ice. Some sort of Titanic

The reporting system comprises for following main components.

Report Server & Report Server Database

Report Server is an integrated web service which controls report generation and management. Report Server database is a SQL server database which is used as data dictionary about reports (catalogue, groups) and caching. SQL server agent is used for scheduling the reports.

Report Manager
An ASP.NET based Web interface for managing the reports, setting security and user permissions.

Report Designer is considered as a part of reporting services in Microsoft documentation but because RDL (Report definition language) is an XML based open standard, any vendor can implement it and therefore a single tool can’t be categorized as report designer. However, Microsoft provides a graphical report authoring tool with Visual Studio.NET 2003 or later for creating reports which automatically creates RDL markup at the backend.

Reporting services were designed with concept of disparate data sources in mind. A single report can retrieve data from multiple heterogeneous databases and render it to make it look like it’s from a single source. It provides built-in windows authentication security however one can write custom security wrapper to fit particular enterprise needs.

With SQL Server reporting services, multiple delivery methods and formats work like a charm. You design a generic report and reporting server takes care of exporting it into HTML, Excel, PDF, WAR(web archive), TIFF, CSV and XML format. As always, one can write his own custom format writer wrapper class for any custom format.

Reporting Services Delivery Formats

Reporting Services provide four distinct formats of report delivery also known as subscription in Reporting Services arena; Individual subscription, data driven subscription, SMTP delivery and file share directory (FTP) based subscriptions.

Reporting Services Architecture

Above diagram schematically explains Reporting services architecture

Beside the code segments which can be written within a report in VB.NET, these API provides makes it more programmable. The application program interface can be classified into following categories.

1. Data processing extension application programming interface (API)
2. Delivery extension API
3. Rendering extension API
4. Security extension API
5. Web service API
6. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) configuration API

Interactive interfaces are another salient feature of SQL Server Reporting Services. Reports designed in SQL server reporting services supports charts, document map, freeform, cross tab matrix, sub reports and tables. Reports can also be parameterized and event driven (supports actions). Management is one of the most important parts in any reporting system; SQL server reporting services has it all planned. It manages jobs from a user friendly console, provides personalization "my reports", tracks report history, manage shared data sources, provide search, subscription and snapshot features with shared subscription from one stop shop, the management console. Reporting Services supports report caching and stores reports execution data in execution logs,

Report Generation and Publishing

As defined in the diagram above, the process of report generation and publishing consists of the following main steps.

1. Reporting server engine (Report Processor) receives the request for a particular report. A request includes parameters and formatting instructions.
2. Report Processor retrieves the report definition on the basis of request.
3. For the corresponding RDL, the report processor then retrieves the report data for specified data sources.
4. Report Processor performs transformation on reporting data and sends the document data along with schema to rendering engine (rendering extension).
5. The extension publishes the final rendered report.
6. The following steps are basics of how reporting services work. The extensions (data processing extensions, rendering extensions etc) can be custom built and wrap around the existing set of API to provide extended functionality.

SSRS Integration with SharePoint 2007

Configuration:

• SQL Server 2005 SP2 is installed on report server in Native mode along with WSS Object Model (farm install)
• SSRS Configuration Tool creates a new Report Server database in “SharePoint Integration mode”
• SSRS Add-In is installed on WSS 2007
• WSS Central Admin web pages register SSRS web service and windows service with WSS farm

Database Integration Points

• WSS Content Database stores the master copy of SSRS items
• Schedules, caching, and subscriptions are stored in SSRS database only

I created a virtual machine with Windows 2003 OS and named it “myvpc” in a hypothetical workgroup viz. “WKGP” (I initially planned to use it in stand-alone mode). Then I installed all available updates to the Windows Server and .Net framework 3.5 with IIS followed by Stand-alone installation of Latest WSS 3.0. The default team site and central administration site were working smooth. I even created another application using central administration.

Later I changed my mind and thought that it would be better if I include this virtual machine into our company’s local intranet Domain. At this point of time I had to change the PC name from “myvpc” to “SUDEV-VPC” due to some or other reasons.

Now, suddenly none of the SharePoint sites were accessible even from the “localhost“! I opened IIS console and noticed that “SharePoint Admin” site was stopped!!! I checked the systems log and found many errors stating “Cannot connect to SQL Server. MYVPC\Microsoft##SSEE not found“. I was surprised to see this, why SharePoint did not understand the change in name of computer.

I just thought lets run the “Configuration Wizard” again for the WSS. I did it but it failed too at the step-5 saying “Could not access search service configuration database“.

I uninstalled the WSS 3.0 completely and restarted the OS. I noticed that IIS don’t have the sites I created using WSS anymore.

I installed the WSS again, ran the configuration wizard but just to get a disappointment. The error continues to occur. This time I checked IIS and found that the sites I created with previous installation have been created again on the same port (sounds strange again, how new installation of SP came to know about it?)

The WSS 3.0 was using same database (Windows Internal Database aka SQL Server Embedded Edition). But at some location it was using previous computer name and at other it was using new name. (Surprised?)

So I thought lets re-install the Windows Internal Database itself. There is no direct way to uninstall it. So I uninstall the WSS 3.0 first. And then with help of MSDN link (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc708610.aspx) I uninstalled the Windows Internal Database as well. I removed the data files from “%windir%\SYSMSI\SSEE” as per their suggestion followed by a system restart.

Now I installed the WSS 3.0 in stand-alone mode, ran the configuration wizard and guess what? The configuration wizard ran successfully and I was able to access the default team site and admin site again.

It took quite some time to figure out this solution but it worked for me. In your case you may need to retain the backup of the content database and configuration database before un-install and install of WSS.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc948977.aspx

There’s a lot promised in the new release (expected to ship, duh, in 2010), from improved software testing tools to software engineering modeling capabilities to integrated development and database functions for the application lifecycle management (ALM).

Microsoft is putting its attention on improving Visual Studio for the benefit of every one of its users—from the CIO to the software architect to the enterprise developer to the software testing team.

A key goal in VSTS 2010, says Microsoft, is to help democratize ALM by bringing all members of a development organization into the application development lifecycle, and remove many of the existing barriers to integration.

One way that Visual Studio 2010 will do this is to break down the ALM roles, from the business decision maker (who needs a project overview but doesn’t want to be bogged down in details) to the lead developer or system architect (who enables the software infrastructure and draws the blueprint), to the developer who writes the code and the database administrator (DBA) who integrates it with the company database to the testers (who make sure the software is of high quality).

For the IT manager or CIO, says Mendlen, VSTS will give clarity and visibility into the state of the project throughout the lifecycle, using Team Foundation Server-enabled dashboards customized for her role. The dashboard can answer high level questions such as ongoing project cost or project status.

Agile Tools, Built-In

Visual Studio 2010 also will sport features to integrate Agile methodologies into the tech stack using Team Foundation Server. Skinner explains, “We’ll include in the [VSTS] box an Excel workbook for teams that are leveraging, say, the Scrum process so they can get burndown from their project.” These features, he says, will let Agile teams track daily progress, see projects broken down into iterations and use sprints.

Putting Quality Earlier in the Development Lifecycle

One sometimes-stressful interaction in the application development lifecycle is the tension between developers and testers. Developers have to do a better job of testing their code before they send it off to the software testers. Developers don’t always know which unit tests they have to run, and often they don’t have the time or inclination (your own cynicism-meter can determine which) to run the tests anyway.

Merging of Developer, DBA Roles

Most of these changes are a ways off, though you can expect to see some of this functionality demonstrated at the upcoming Microsoft Professional Developers’ Conference. One item, however, takes effect immediately.

As Microsoft sees it, the roles of the database-centric developer and “regular” developer are less distinct than they once were, so the company is merging its VSTS database and development products. As of October 1, those who belong to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and currently own Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition or Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition will receive for free the Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition, Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition, Visual Studio 2005 Team System for Software Developers and Visual Studio 2005 Team System for Database Professionals.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 can, working with other components of the Microsoft Office 2007 suite of applications, provide the functionality and benefits described previously. However, the amount of functionality derived from an MOSS installation depends on the features implemented and activated, as well as whether or not the MOSS environment is used to extend other building blocks, such as WSS and SQL Server. Figure 1 illustrates the structure of a complete MOSS environment. MOSS provides much of the functionality, but that functionality can be enhanced by the inclusion of other extended capability systems.

The MOSS Common Framework

MOSS 2007 supports other server-based applications and services with a set of common administrative services, as shown in Figure 2. The primary elements in the common group of services are (as shown in Figure 2, left to right):

Collaboration

This service supports discussions and shared task lists on server-based portals and determines the status of each member of a collaborative team, which could be online, offline, away, in a meeting, on the phone, and so on.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

Using this service, users can create data validation and workflow procedures for Office 2007 documents through the Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF). MOSS includes a variety of predefined workflows, but users can create custom workflows using MOSS Designer 2007 or Visual Studio 2005.

Excel Services

This service provides the ability for users to display all or selected portions of server-based Excel workbooks using a web browser. An Excel web services application programming interface (API) is available to support server-based calculations and complex graphics renderings.

Portal

At the core of MOSS is the portal manager, which has been brought forward and upgraded from the previous version, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003. The portal services provide the user experience and content display functions used by all other SharePoint functions.

Web Content Management (WCM)

The capabilities enabled by the WCM service include support for Office SharePoint Designer 2007 for web template development, and web authoring using a template, site navigation services, security and access control, and site publishing.

MOSS Application Services

MOSS includes or supports a wide range of application- and activity-related services to facilitate information sharing, collaboration, and document management. As shown in Figure 3, these services include:

Document Libraries

A series of document libraries that allow a company to manage, organize, and categorize its information in a consistent form. There are three primary levels in the document libraries: the Managed Document Library, the Divisional Library, and the Translation Library.

Web Parts

MOSS contains a number of predefined ASP.NET web page segments that can be included in user- or information-based portal pages or used as standalone web pages. A few of the Web Parts available out-of-the-box are document roll-up Web Parts, Members and Colleagues Web Parts, and Social Networking Web Parts. Custom Web Parts can be created using Visual Studio 2005.

Workflows

MOSS includes a wide range of predefined workflows, which are in effect work unit scripts that define the step-by-step processes to be performed in order to accomplish a given work product. MOSS workflows are built on the Windows Workflow Foundation, which is a part of the .NET Framework.

Scorecards

MOSS 2007 supports the business information report units created under the Microsoft Business Scorecard Manager 2005, although this particular feature has been upgraded to the Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007. Scorecards are custom business performance tracking reports.

People Search

This feature allows users to search for people and information defining what or who they know. This feature supports indexing, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories, and Active Directory distribution lists.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

A KPI presents business intelligence information in a visual way to signal how a certain product, function, or any other business activity is doing. For example, a KPI might display a green light if customer returns are below a preset level, a yellow light if they approach the accepted level and a red light if they exceed it. MOSS includes a variety of KPIs out-of-the-box that work with Excel 2007 and WSS.

Dashboards

A dashboard is essentially a web page that contains a number of elements that can be automatically updated independently, as well as lists, links, and other commonly accessed elements. The analogy is to an automobile dashboard. MOSS supports the creation of custom dashboards that can include KPIs, Excel workbooks, and information from SQL Server Reporting Services.

Report Center

The Report Center hosts predefined and custom web pages and sites that display, manage, and maintain links to reports and spreadsheets.

My Site

Perhaps one of the user-friendlier features of MOSS, MySite allows a user to customize a personalized view (using the Personalization Sites feature) of existing portal web pages, such as MyFinanceWeb or MyBenefits, based on their user profile and access permissions information.

User Profiles

User profile information from Active Directory is used by the Notification Service to target alerts to appropriate users, Social Networking to define common interests, and the Memberships Web Part for group and distribution list memberships.

Business Data Applications

MOSS provides a number of services that support the cataloging, storage, and access to business information and links related to each defined line-of-business (LOB) area using the Business Data Catalog, Business Data SharePoint Lists and Web Parts, and Business Data Actions services.

Note that the services and applications in the preceding list are only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. MOSS includes a wide range of administrative services that can be employed to create a customized environment suited to any particular company.

MOSS Core Services

As shown in Figure 4, MOSS includes a number of core services that enable a company to get up and running quickly and provide users with ease of use and a variety of tools to help increase their productivity. The major services supported by MOSS out-of-the-box are:

Templates

Like the document templates included with each of the Office 2007 applications, MOSS includes templates for a variety of web pages (sites), lists, and documents that can be deployed to enable collaboration, reporting, and timed or triggered events.

Personalization

Users can be defined by their name, position, location, job, department, work responsibilities, and other characteristics. This information, along with other identification information entered in other Office 2007 applications, such as Outlook 2007, is used by additional MOSS services, like MySite, to create views and information feeds that meet the needs of the user.

Targeting

This feature, brought forward from Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, develops target audiences for certain documents, reports, and functions using a rule-based criteria, groups defined in WSS 3.0, and Outlook 2007 and Exchange distribution lists.

Single Sign-on

This service is one that most users really appreciate. MOSS provides a Single Sign-on (SSO) capability that stores and maps user credentials for use in signing into back-end applications and third-party systems that are included in the user’s portal. However, in cases where a company already has an SSO system in use, MOSS supports pluggable SSO that allows non-MOSS SSOs to be used.

Site Directory

This service is basically what its name suggests, a directory of web sites and network locations referenced by the system. It also includes a mechanism that can be used to scan for broken links, changed site Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), or missing sites.

Business Data Catalog

This service enables MOSS to merge data from external applications and back-end systems into its lists, Web Parts, and search results, as well as in custom applications developed under the .NET environment.

Navigation

This service manages the navigation links included on personal web pages and other web-browser supported displays provided through Office 2007 and MOSS.

Alerts

This feature enables users to identify and tag events and data elements that are then continuously monitored for changes that fall within the parameters set by users defining specific conditions. The Notification service then sends an alert to the user indicating the condition that has occurred.

Information Rights Management (IRM)

This feature is present throughout the Office 2007 applications suite to enable a company to protect its data from unauthorized access and use. IRM is integrated with the Rights Management Services (RMS) of Windows Server 2003, which allows system administrators to specify exactly who can access data, what they can do with the data, and how they can access the data.

Search

MOSS includes extensive data and document search capabilities that support search functions across an enterprise-level network, intranet, and even the Internet.

Excel Services

This general service includes three specific services:

Excel Calculation Services (ECS)

This is the core of the Excel Services. ECS performs real-time calculations on Excel workbooks in conjunction with Office Excel 2007, incorporates external data, and manages active sessions.

Excel Web Access (EWA)

A predefined Web Part that provides the display and interaction with an Excel 2007 workbook illustrated by a web browser using Dynamic Hierarchical Tag Markup Language (DHTML) and JavaScript as part of a dashboard or embedded into another Web Part page.

Excel Web Services (EWS)

This is an MOSS web service that provides an API to support the development of custom applications that incorporate an Excel 2007 workbook.

It is the combination and synergy of the MOSS services and functions that provide the wide range of capability, productivity, and collaborative environment through which a company can better manage, control, share, and report its business functions and information resources.

A need for better document management than the file system can offer—This includes document versioning, check-out and check-in features, adding metadata to documents, and better control of document access (by using groups and granular security). The high-level need is simply to make it easier for users to find the latest version of the document or documents they need to do their jobs, and ultimately to make them more efficient in those jobs.

Improved collaboration between users with a minimal learning curve— Although virtually everyone has a different definition of what comprises collaboration, a functional definition is a technology solution that allows users to interact efficiently with each other using software products to share documents and information in a user friendly environment. In regard to SharePoint, this typically refers to document and meeting workspaces, site collections, discussion lists, integration of instant messaging and presence information, and integration with the Office suite of applications. Integration with Office applications is a key component: Most organizations do not want to force users to learn a new set of tools to collaborate more effectively because users generally resist such requirements.

A better intranet—Although most companies have an intranet in place, the consensus is that it is too static, that it is not user friendly, and that every change has to go through IT or the “web guy.” This level of request generally comes from a departmental manager, team lead, or project manager frustrated with their inability to publish information to a select group of users and regularly update resources their team needs to do their jobs.

A centralized way to search for information—Rather than using the “word of mouth” search engine (that is, asking coworkers via email for a specific document), there should be an engine in place that allows the user to quickly and efficiently find particular documents. The user can search for documents that contain certain words; documents created or modified during a certain timeframe; documents authored by a specific person; or documents that meet other criteria, such as file type.

Creation of a portal—Many definitions exist for the term portal, but a general definition that a portal is a web-enabled environment that allows Internet and, potentially, external users to access company intellectual resources and software applications. A portal typically extends standard intranet functionality by providing features such as single sign-on, powerful search tools, and access to other core company applications such as help desk, human resources software, educational resources, and other corporate information and applications.

SharePoint is a set of products and technologies with informative and collaborative web-based capabilities that help people create, organize, distribute, and maintain stored knowledge. SharePoint web sites and pages are commonly used to build intranet and extranet portals and team sites, as well as public-facing Internet sites.

SharePoint is a great platform upon which to build applications and provides many key services in the greater story of the Microsoft Application Platform. SharePoint shows great maturity in terms of its user interface, database design, and workflow and communication features. It provides a standard interface with standard navigation, enabling users to focus on tools and information, not on learning how to navigate new menu controls.

SharePoint helps resolve database and business logic issues by providing a powerful complement to structured data – that is, a managed environment to store unstructured data that gets the information and business rules onto the network and out of local Excel files. SharePoint takes advantage of the first workflow platform built into an operating system and makes it easy for developers and power users to use Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) to automate business processes.

This beautiful cosmic cloud is a popular stop on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius. Afer all I’m also Saggy only and equally handsome .

Eighteenth century cosmic toyurist Charles Messier cataloged the bright nebula as M8, while modern day astronomers recognize the Lagoon Nebula as an active stellar nursery about 5,000 light-years distant, in direction of the center of our Milky Way.

Courtesy : http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

Few days ago Google changed their favicon, from “Big G” to “small g“. It was a surprise! Why would google change the “Big G” which is recognised all over the world!

Lots of questions filled my head…
• Why would google change the “Big G” which is recognised all over the world and create a dip in its brand recognition.
• Is this one of the google’s marketing trick to create buzz(as if they need one!)
• Is it trying to re-brand? (why would they do! everything is working more than fine for them)

No need to ponder more… I just “googled” it and found the answer on their own blog.

read more | digg story

read more | digg story

Laying chips vertically, instead of side by side, reduces the distance data has to travel by 1,000 times, making the chips faster and more efficient.

Big blue has said that it will start producing the compact silicon sandwiches in 2008.

Chip manufacturer Intel has previously announced that it is also developing similar vertical chip technology.

• No installation needed.
• No database driver necessary.
• Even incomplete SQL statements or SQL statements with syntax errors are formatted
• Run it out of your browser
• It is secure. No SQL statement is transferred from the applet over the internet
• Written for Java and .NET environment

http://www.goosh.org/

read more | digg story

Addressing this issue, Microsoft has added something called timer jobs to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. Microsoft uses timer jobs to do things like dead web cleanup (purging unused sites from site collections) among others. To see what other timer jobs are out there, from Central Administration, click Operations and then Timer Job Definitions. Not only does Microsoft use timer jobs in MOSS, but you can create your own custom timer jobs to do your own scheduled tasks. What’s nice about this is once your timer job has been installed (something you can easily do with a solution & a feature), you can view it’s status through Central Administration and even disable/enable it… all without console access to your production servers! Another cool thing is that when your job runs, MOSS passes it the GUID of the content database for the site the job is registered with. You can use this GUID to obtain a reference to a content database, then a site collection, and finally a site within the collection (SPWeb).

How do you build one? Well, unfortunately the documentation is lacking here… there isn’t a single article in the SDK talking about creating custom timer jobs and the necessary objects aren’t well documented either.

MVP Andrew Connel has described the Custom Timer Jobs on SharePoint well in depth on his blog http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/CreatingCustomSharePointTimerJobs.aspx. Awsome functionality. Thanks Andrew.

read more | digg story

read more | digg story

read more | digg story

DECLARE @commaSeparatedVal AS VARCHAR(MAX);
SELECT @commaSeparatedVal = ISNULL(@commaSeparatedVal +',','') + CONVERT(VARCHAR,[SKU]) 
FROM PRODUCT;
PRINT @commaSeparatedVal;

 

http://www.google.com/talk/labsedition/.

browse discussion on http://groups.google.com/group/google-talk-labs-edition-discussion-group/

CSS it tries to create a balance of power between author and user style sheets. By default, rules in an author’s style sheet override those in a user’s style sheet. But in CSS1, this is in other way round – Author “!important” rules took precedence over User “!important” rules.

    1: <style> 

    2:   p{font-size: 2em !important;} 

    3:   p{font-style: italic;} 

    4: </style>

    1: <style> 

    2:   p{font-size: 3em;} 

    3:   p{font-style: normal;} 

    4: </style>