Getting started with Silverlight

Excellent tutorial of the ABC's of silverlight ... http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/pages/silverlight-2-end-to-end-tutorial-building-a-digg-search-client.aspx

Silverlight WaterMarkedTextBox gone awol?

http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/0001/01/01/silverlight-watermark-text-box-control.aspx

VS Intelisense for referenced assemblies

For IntelliSense to be available for referenced binary assemblies, the XML documentation files for each of these assemblies must be placed in the same directory as the referenced assemblies.

Failed to generate a user instance of SQL Server due to a failure in starting the process for the user instance

User instance mode of SQL Express allows you to bundle a SQL Server database file with your (typically web) application and have it attached to the SQL Express service at runtime. This is useful for development as the entire database is a single file that can be packaged with the rest of the application source.

However, this didn't work for me with the following error:

Failed to generate a user instance of SQL Server due to a failure in starting the process for the user instance

Wow, that's not too helpful guys. The real problem: I had configured my SQL Express instance to logon as Network Service. User instance mode requires LocalSystem. This can be changed by in SQL Configuration Manager. (Double click on the offending instance and change the logon type to LocalSystem).

ADO.NET Entity Inheritance and Dynamic Data

The short story: it doesn't work! Maybe more detail later ...

Silverlight Project Type not Supported in VS 2008 SP1 after reinstalling tools

This comproblem had me stumped for a while. The solution (simple as ever): open a command prompt to your c:\program files\microsoft visual studio 9.0\Common7\IDE and simply run:

devenv /setup

It may tell you that the operation could not be completed properly but it does mysteriously fix the problem - if anyone knows why I'd love to hear about it!

thanks - http://andrewgunn.blogspot.com/2008/03/silverlight-project-type-is-not.html

MOSS: Change Web Application's Virtual Directory Location

http://njbblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/sharepoint-v3-move-web-applications.html

Troubleshooting SharePoint Custom Workflows

[This form cannot be opened. It is not workflow enabled]

Check in central admin: look for info path forms and find your form. If it is not installed and marked for workflow enabled it hasn't deployed completely or correctly. Check your deployment script and in particular make sure the forms were verified on the server.

http://spiderwool.blogspot.com/2006/07/this-form-cannot-be-opened-it-is-not.html

[The form has been closed]

Can be any number of problems usually relating to partial or incorrect deployment or configuration. E.g.,

1. if the XML schema of the infopath form does match the XML schema used by the workflow.


2. if one of the forms has not installed correctly or has not been verified (enabled for workflow - see above).
   

[There are no workflows currently available to start on this item]

This can be one of two things:1. A workflow has already started: If a new workflow version has been deployment, or in fact if anything even related to a workflow e.g., an infopath form, field name, anything, it is wise to terminate any existing workflows before attempting to start a new one. Re-configuring workflow is sometimes necessary after this. Reconfiguring can be done by clicking 'remove workflow' and if it is not set to 'allow', change it to 'allow.2. No workflow is configured or associated with the item in anyway (either its content type, document library, or list).
Workflow Troubleshooting Checklist1. Force install and activate this feature: OffWFCommon. This feature implements the content type required for workflow tasks.2. Before deploying, verify that none of your XSN forms exist on the server. If they do, uninstall whatever feature is using them.3. Deploy your workflow feature.4. Once deployed, verify the XSN forms show up and that you can view their properties. 5. Verify that all your forms are enabled for workflow.6. Verify that the workflow associating is enabled and set to 'active'. Sometimes after you redeploy a workflow it can get reset back to 'no new instances'.

Can't open workflow in designer?

http://www.capdes.com/2007/02/workflow_in_nonworkflow_visual.html

Custom Worflow + MOSS

Creating: http://weblog.vb-tech.com/nick/archive/2007/02/25/2207.aspx

Deploying: http://weblog.vb-tech.com/nick/archive/2007/03/05/2241.aspx

Debugging: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms455354.aspx

Review: uCertify Prep Engine

http://www.ucertify.com/

Having never used a prep engine, or even sat for a Microsoft exam, I really had no idea what to expect from a prep engine. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. On the whole, I found the uCertify engine to be a natural and rather fun learning tool. I will certainly use it again and thoroughly recommend it to developers looking to speed up their prep time for MS cert Exams.

First Impressions

Very sleek: I didn’t have to waste any time figuring out how the thing works, and what to do. All the main functions are available and clearly visible from the applications start page.

It offers a prescribed learning path which steers you through a number of steps that first identify your weaknesses and then offer a number of different improvement techniques.

All your progress is tracked and may be reviewed at any time.

Getting Started

The first prescribed step is the diagnostic test: I think of it as a reality check. It lets you know exactly where you stand across the subject matter. I was surprised to find I had a couple of holes in my knowledge on subject matter I generally thought I knew very well!

Of course you may take your own path through the engine, you may use any feature at any time from the start page.

Learn

Once you’ve identified the areas you need to brush up on, its time to dive in and this is where I thought the uCertify engine really shone: there are a rich set of options to suit many different learning styles:

Exam Objectives: an orderly overview of all the exams objectives – I found this quite useful as a starting point in identifying the areas I needed to focus on.

1. Interactive Quiz: take this when you think you’re ready. It’s like the practice tests but each question is timed and you can’t go back. This means the result is going to be quite realistic.
   
2. Flash Cards: it asks a question, you type your answer; you compare your answer with the correct one. Not multiple choice format so you must type something. Each time you revisit a card, you have both your own typed answer and the provided answer. I used this to record your own notes! Hundreds of these cards are provided (there were 303 for M70-536).
   
3. Study Notes: hundreds of notes; each targeting a specific exam objective. Yes, you can also add your own notes at the bottom of every page.
   
4. Articles: a collection of relevant articles that provided more in depth understanding of specific areas.
   
5. Study Tips: a collection of tips from various sources. Certainly worth browsing.
   
6. How-to’s: if you’re going to do some real world practice then this list is worth a scan. It may well contain just what you’re looking for!

Practice Tests

Once you’ve done enough learning (or if you’re keen to get right into it) take a practice test. The M70-536 came with 4 predefined practice tests, a final test, an adaptive test, and you can also create your own custom test at any time to cover any one or more specific sections of your choice.

I did struggle a bit with the wording of some of the questions: the English grammar wasn’t always correct and a few were really ambiguous. It wasn’t until I’d seen the answer that I realised what the question meant. Perhaps this is what the actual exams are like? I couldn’t help wondering if the questions were written by a native English speaker or not.

Practice tests can be taken in learn mode or test mode. Learn mode allows you to get instant feedback for each question (as well as detailed explanations of the correct and incorrect answers). There are a variety of different question formats modelled on the vender exam question format (M70-536 in my case). Most are multiple choice but some are different e.g., some require you to arrange a list of actions into the correct sequence in order to achieve a specific outcome, or e.g., associate each method with its correct type.

The adaptive test changes its difficulty based on how well / badly you’re doing. For me, this kind of material was invaluable because it not only showed me the areas I needed to work on, but honed in on my weak points and forced me to improve them.

Summary

If you need to prep for an exam but don’t have heaps of time, this engine will certainly help. The only negative I found was that some of the questions in the practices tests were a bit ambiguous, and some of the wording sounded like it was written by someone who wasn’t a native English speaker. These were the exception though, most were fine. On the whole: a real power pack of intense exam prep tools and material. I will definitely use it again and can highly recommend it to would be cert exam takers.

Hosting ActiveX Controls in MFC

In building a win32 host for the flash player I had found this article: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa752046.aspx

The article is somewhat out of date as it applies to Visual Studio 6.0 but the steps are still the same. The old class wizard works differently now and the default project doesn't automatically make the connection between the dialog template and the subclass. I have to add a new class from the dialog editor before it made the connection.

Once you have a connection to a subclass you can add a variable for your Active-X control and everything just works after that.

Flash - dotnet interop

using COM event FSCommand: http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/21033/0/page/3

using COM event FlashCall: http://www.codeproject.com/cs/media/flashexternalapi.asp

The project file ' ' has been renamed or is no longer in the solution

Had this problem today with Visual Studio 2005. When you try and build, all you get is the following error message:



Luckily, I found this which solved the problem for me. Thanks Michiel!

Specifically, the error was caused by running NetTiers and specifying not to generate the web library. It still seems to generate the website project which recerences the non-existent web library.