Figuring out the SQL Server Version Number

I was about to install the SP2 from SQL Server when things started to give me woes with all sorts of issues. I wanted to uninstall and then tried to figure out the version and what SP did I have, when I realized, how difficult some little things could be. You can figure this out in two different ways:

#1 In SQL Server Management Studio Object Explorer when connected to the instance.

#2 By executing the query SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('ProductVersion') against a Database Engine instance.

The following table shows the version numbers that correspond to versions of SQL Server 2005:

Version Number   SQL Server Version

9.00.1399   SQL Server 2005 (initial version)

9.00.2047   SQL Server 2005 SP1

9.00.3042   SQL Server 2005 SP2

ISO mounting tools

If you need to mount the iso images (and several others from the list below), you may want to try this freely available tool from :

http://www.disc-tools.com

It has a DAEMON Tools that enables you to use your CD/DVD images as if they were already burned to CD/DVD.

DAEMON Tools Lite supports the following image types:
b5t (BlindWrite images)
b6t (BlindWrite images)
bwt (BlindRead images)
ccd (CloneCD images)
cdi (DiscJuggler images)
cue (Cue sheets)
iso (Standard ISO images)
mds (Media Descriptor Files)
nrg (Nero images)
pdi (Instant CD/DVD images)
isz (Compressed ISO images)

MCM and MCA certifications for MOSS

Do you already posses a MCTS for MOSS/WSS 3.0.
Getting to feel repetitive after the completion of the two successful years with MCTS.
Here's something new for you to try out.

Microsoft is introducing the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) and Certified Architect (MCA) for SharePoint.
Cool...so there is lot more to be explored yet and of course to keep you busy in the business.

So, interested !!!
Read the MSDN blog entry below:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/11/10/introducing-the-microsoft-certified-master-and-certified-architect-for-sharepoint.aspx

Funny SharePoint video

Huh uuuhhh, quite funny !!!
A song about SharePoint, just view to enjoy.

I found this one on YouTube.........Hope you are able to view this. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P9QlojtrWs&feature=related

Get ready for the MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0 Service Pack 2

I found this looking around the details of some InfoPath Form Server Patches. Thought of posting here to spread the information to a more larger MOSS user-groups.

http://blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2008/10/22/announcing-service-pack-2-sp2-for-the-2007-microsoft-office-system.aspx

Setting up the Favicon in a MOSS site

I had this requirement of displaying an icon in the address bar of the browser, whenever I try to visit the MOSS web site. I knew it was to be a simple solution hence started looking around if someone had already posted this, and I found this.
The posting at this web site: http://www.sharepointblogs.com/mossman/archive/2008/01/18/favicon-s-in-a-sharepoint-master-page.aspx
really talks about a simple solution of inserting a single line of code within your Master page in the head section and placing the .ico files in the appropriate folder.
I placed my Favicon.ico in the images sub-directory and inserted this code:
(rel="shortcut icon" href="/images/favicon.ico" ) within the opening and closing "link" tags, in the .master page just above the closing "head" tag, published and check-in the master page and there you go.

Here is one catch though.
- IE6 still wasn't displaying this icon, only if you add the site to your favourites it displays in the menu item. Not sure about this, does anyone has a resolution to this.
- IE7 and FireFox did that instantly, but of course, you need to close and open a new browser.

But anyways, that worked !!!
Thanks to Mossman.

Figuring out if a Port number is already used before creating a MOSS site.

I was having trouble creating my MOSS SSP for the MySites and Personal Sites. Every time I started with a New SSP and went ahead with the creation of a new web application, I received this error "Port already in use. Try creating at a different port.......".
I know this could be very simple for someone who has a limited number of site in IIS. You could very easily go to IIS, right click on each of the web sites and figure out if the port number in question has already been consumed. But for me, I had almost 35 sites and I really did not want to be going with this approach. So I figured this out. Hope this would be help to anyone getting this error.
There is a command line utility, which gives you the list of all the existing port in IIS which are actually geared for listening.
What that means is, they have already been used to setup a site on those ports.
That said, you must not use them again, unless you are trying to extend a site on the same port, of course.
So follow these steps, to verify which ports are listening :

#1 Open the Command Prompt window.
#2 At the command prompt, type netstat -n -a.
Here, the -n switch is used to numerically display the address and port number of active TCP connections. The -a switch is used to display the TCP ports on which the computer is listening.

HTH.
Thanks.

Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 post-SP1 hotfix package: January 31, 2008

For those who are interested in finding out the details of the SP1 hotfix:

http://kbalertz.com/941653/Description-SharePoint-Server-hotfix-January.aspx

Extending the disk size of a VPC

I was running low on my disk space when I was trying to upgrade my VPC with VS 2005 SP1.
It seemed to require more than 2 GB of memory as I could see it getting consumed while the SP1 update and finally fail due to memory shortage.
So I decided to increase my disk size.
Here are the steps required to follow to have this done easily:

#1. First download the "VHD Resizer" utility from vmToolkit to expand the total size of the VHD from this url: http://vmtoolkit.com/files/folders/converters/entry87.aspx

#2. Next, follow the instructions at Xtralogic to extend the File System Partition using Microsoft DiskPart. http://www.xtralogic.com/extend_fs_part.shtml

You may also take a look for DiskPart details at the url: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325590

Microsoft 2008 Product Launch

The great time is here again!
The previous launch had different looks with the Windows 2003 SBS launch and the Visual Studio / SQL 2005 launch. But this is just a single release event for all three. WOW !!!
Almost all cities open for registration, and the other cities are listed and will be available soon. Below is the url and the list of cities where these great shows are happening:
http://www.microsoft.com/heroeshappenhere/register/default.mspx
May 13 Albany, NY
April 15 Albuquerque, NM
April 8 Anaheim, CA
April 16 Anchorage, AK
April 29 Atlanta, GA
May 1 Baltimore, MD
April 29 Baton Rouge, LA
April 22 Birmingham, AL
April 28 Boise, ID
March 18 Boston, MA
April 8 Charlotte, NC
March 11 Chicago, IL
March 13 Cleveland, OH
March 20 Columbus, OH
April 8 Dallas, TX
March 20 Denver, CO
April 24 Des Moines, IA
March 18 Detroit, MI
March 13 Edison, NJ
May 6 Fort Lauderdale, FL
April 24 Fresno, CA
May 13 Grand Rapids, MI
March 6 Harrisburg, PA
April 17 Hartford, CT
April 30 Honolulu, HI
March 20 Houston, TX
April 3 Indianapolis, IN
April 24 Jacksonville, FL
March 25 Kansas City, MO
April 3 Las Vegas, NV
April 29 Long Island, NY
February 27 Los Angeles, CA
May 22 Louisville, KY
April 17 Madison, WI
March 11 Manchester, NH
May 8 Milwaukee, WI
April 1 Minneapolis, MN
May 1 Nashville, TN
March 4 New York, NY
April 22 Omaha, NE
April 3 Philadelphia, PA
April 1 Phoenix, AZ
April 14 Pittsburgh, PA
May 6 Portland, OR
April 10 Raleigh, NC
May 22 Reno, NV
May 22 Reston, VA
May 20 Richmond, VA
May 15 Rochester, NY
April 22 Sacramento, CA
May 20 Salt Lake City, UT
March 4 San Antonio, TX
May 13 San Diego, CA
March 13 San Francisco, CA
March 25 Santa Clara, CA
April 1 Seattle, WA
March 27 Spokane, WA
May 6 St. Louis, MO
May 8 Tampa, FL
March 27 Tulsa, OK
March 25 Washington, DC
Act immediately...

Latest IFilters released from Microsoft

Its happening yet again...
William Bear has the below report posted on his blog:
"The Microsoft Filter Pack for search has been released enabling critical search scenarios across a variety of Microsoft Search products including SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Search Server 2008, Search Server 2008 Express Edition, Exchange Server 2005, SQL Server 2005/2008, and Windows Desktop Search 3.1/4.0.
The Microsoft Filter Pack provides iFilters for the following file type extensions:
.docx (Microsoft Office 2007 Word Document)
.docm (Microsoft Office Word Macro-Enabled Document)
.pptx (Microsoft Office 2007 PowerPoint Presentation)
.xlsx (Microsoft Office 2007 Excel Worksheet)
.xlsm (Microsoft Office Excel Macro-Enabled Worksheet)
.xlsb (Microsoft Office Excel Binary Worksheet)
.zip (WinZip File)
.one (Microsoft Office OneNote Section)
.vdx (Microsoft Office Visio Drawing)
.vsd (Microsoft Office Visio Drawing)
.vss (Microsoft Office Visio Stencil)
.vst (Microsoft Office Visio Template)
.vsx (Microsoft Office Visio Stencil)
.vtx (Microsoft Office Visio Template)
NOTE The current release is not localized and available at this time in English only supporting both x86 and x64 architectures. To download the Microsoft Filter Pack or to learn more visit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=60C92A37-719C-4077-B5C6-CAC34F4227CC&displaylang=en."

Problem with the Cascading Dropdown Lists

I was hitting my head hard when I tried to link two dropdowns linked to each other.
The selection on the first Dropdown filtered the contents of the second Dropdown.
Then I need to select an item from the second Dropdown.
All worked good, except that after the process completes, the second Dropdown is left with just the selected item. All the filtered items are gone . This sucks!!!
After much googling, I found this blog which refers it to be a bug in the InfoPath Form Services and has a workaround for it.
Great !!! however things work, you are good to go.
Here is the link to the blog:
http://www.mcse.ms/archive/index.php/t-2304207.html

Hope it saves your time !

Android mobile phone

Few links to get to know about the Android...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FJHYqE0RDg&eurl
A first hand look at building an Android application
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6ObTqIiYfE&feature=user
Androidology - Part 1 of 3 - Architecture Overview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBGfUs9mQYY&feature=user
Androidology - Part 2 of 3 - Application Lifecycle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL6gSd4ugSI&feature=user
Androidology - Part 3 of 3 - APIs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPukbH6D-lY&feature=related
Skypop on Android
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyxWnIalDcY&feature=user
Android Emulator Screencast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb2N0QzX1NI&feature=related
Android Demo - Get money to buy it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1j-TiOh448&feature=related
Android SDK Preview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8EV1o5MsKk&feature=related

InfoPath 2007 features availability in Forms Services

InfoPath forms can be previewed in the InfoPath Client as well as the Browsers. The InfoPath Client must be installed with a client license on a client machine, limiting it to an intranet based application platform. On the other hand, using a browser based InfoPath form helps in designing applications accessible even from Internet. This is really cool but the trade-off is its cost. You need to have the Enterprise License for the MOSS which includes the Form Services.
But still, not all the InfoPath 2007 controls are available to the browser based forms.
Below is a list of what is available or not in InfoPath client and browser based forms:

The best practice would be to use the Design Checker feature from the Task pane or from Tools > "Design Checker" to validate whether the form is a valid browser based form.
The Design Checker correctly identifies the controls which are not supported to be part of a browser based form.

URL Encoder - Decoder

I was working with some list data submission and needed to make use of the GUID of the custom list that I had created. The GUID generally reads like this:
%7B79674320%2DADEA%2D4AE6%2DAAD2%2D29D33BE5EA7C%7D

To have this in a format acceptable to SharePoint, I found a nice little utility that encodes and decodes this beautifully.
After decoding it looks like this:
{79674320-ADEA-4AE6-AAD2-29D33BE5EA7C}

Thanks to Eric, I assume he is the author, for this tweaky thing !!
Below is the URL to this utility:
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder/

Feel free to use and make your life much simpler.

Happy New Year 2008 !!!

Just wanted to wish you all a very happy, prosperous and bright new year 2008 !!!
May all your wishes come true through the twist and turns of this year.
:-)
Keep smiling...
Always !!!