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Showing posts from 2014

Use InfoPath 2010 to Query an Oracle Database via a Custom Web Service in SharePoint 2010

Wow that's a long heading...  Let me explain how this is done, and why this path was chosen out of all the options. THE OPTIONS Still to come... SETTING UP There's quite a few large steps to get this done, so I'll split it into the following sections, ensuring we test along the way to make sure we haven't missed a step: Install & Configure Oracle Client on Web Server Create custom Web Service in Visual Studio Deploy Web Service to IIS Build InfoPath Form Configure InfoPath Services Deploy InfoPath Form to SharePoint Environment Install & Configure Oracle Client on Web Server Ask your Oracle DBA what version of Oracle the database is running on. Navigate here and download the corresponding Client (for this excercise get the 32-bit version if its an option):  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html Copy to the IIS Server (Web Front End) Extract and install, here's the settings I used for the i

Create Appointment in Nintex Workflow - Finding the right certificate

Error: "The root of the certificate chain is not a trusted root authority" this blog has a very good explanation of why you are receiving the issue: http://blogs.perficient.com/microsoft/2011/03/how-to-create-an-outlook-appointment-using-nintex-workflow-2010/ However, the solution for adding the correct Root Certificate was a bit sloppy in my opinion.  As the script below adds ALL the certificates (which in my case was about 100 of them, very messy!): foreach ($cert in (Get-ChildItem cert:LocalMachineRoot)) { if (!$cert.HasPrivateKey) {New-SPTrustedRootAuthority -Name $cert.Thumbprint -Certificate $cert } } When you only need to add one.  The one it's referencing.  It should be referencing your Outlook Web Access URL (Webmail).  You know, the URL you input in the Appointment Configuration Settings. If that's the case, here's how to download the right certificate and keep a nice clean Certificate List in SharePoint: navigate to your Webmail address cl

Mini-ITX Build

I was going to build this bad boy, but I decided to buy a road bicycle instead :S You can't have everything!  But I thought I'd throw this list up as a reference of price changes and if anyone else is looking for a build that I've double (triple) checked will definitely fit in the box provided. This kit will fit 1 x 3.5" HDD and 1 x 2.5" HDD very comfortably.  You can fit 2 of each, the problem being that you have to start suffocating the box from air-intake, increasing heat considerably from all reports. $49 - Cooler Master Elite 110 $171 - EVGA 02G-P4-3753-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 750 Ti Superclocked 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card $129 - Corsair RM 450 $104 - 8G Kit (4Gx2) DDR3 G.skill 2133 $164 - Gigabyte Z97N-WiFi $100-$130 - CPU Cooling $267 -  i5-4690K ------------------- TOTAL: $984-$1014 Prices based off msy.com.au and cpl.com.au on 15/08/2014

How Do I Create a New User in a SQL Azure Database?

Had to look at a few different KB articles for this one so thought I'd throw all the steps together in one quick blog. First you need to create a login, to do this, connect to the master database and run the following query: CREATE LOGIN login1 WITH password='SuperSecretPassword'; Then connect to the Database you wish to give access to, you need to create the user, then supply the access.  Run the following scripts: CREATE USER login1User FROM LOGIN login1; EXEC sp_addrolemember 'db_owner', 'login1User';

Push & Pull data to SQL via SharePoint Online and BCS

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PURPOSE Ever wondered what sort of SQL data connections are possible in SharePoint Online? Ever wondered of the limitations when trying this type of setup? If so, read on...  This tutorial will go over all the steps to setup everything from scratch.  Every step is important, you miss one, it won't work. WHAT YOU NEED SharePoint Online Plan 2 (you cannot achieve this with the basic version of SharePoint online as you require access to the Admin panel to setup Secure Store access permissions and BCS permissions. A windows azure account (which you can get a free 30 day trial as long as you're willing to provide your credit card. SharePoint Designer 2013 installed locally (required to create the final connection to the azure DB. Please note, you'll make this a hell of a lot easier if all these accounts are setup using the same office logon.  Otherwise you'll be logging in and out like a madman. IMPLEMENTATION Step 1 - Create SQL Database:   Lo

SharePoint Online - List View Threshold Workaround

Ever had this issue on SharePoint Online? "This view cannot be displayed because it exceeds the list view threshold (5000 items) enforced by the administrator."  "To view items, try selecting another view or creating a new view. If you do not have sufficient permissions to create views for this list, ask your administrator to modify the view so that it conforms to the list view threshold." Well I have, and it sucks. My particular issue was that someone had uploaded 120,000 files to a document library, which they then wanted to add metadata to, however, being a bulk upload, they weren't adding it as they were going, so in turn, any sorting/filtering of such a large bank of files let to the famous error above. Of course you can't bypass the LVT (list view threshold), but as we all (should!) know, is that once you have added metadata, you can do things to avoid it. My solution to this issue is not quick, but it worked.  I created a view showing only

The Perfect Responsive FREE eCommerce Solution - Revisited

This is a follow up to my previous post on the perfect responsive ecommerce solution, which you can find here:  http://thebaretta.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/the-perfect-responsive-free-ecommerce.html You can add the Code below to fix up any slight issues that I've found in the Responsive Solution from the previous post. Fixes include: Shopping Cart goes off the screen on Mobile Add padding around Website Logo Products span full width of site instead of being limited by the standard code. ------------------------------------------------ /* CUSTOM CODE */ mark { background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold;} /* START Make the cart table responsive */ /* http://css-tricks.com/responsive-data-tables/ */ @media only screen and (max-width: 480px) { /* Force table to not be like tables anymore */ .woocommerce-page table.shop_table, .woocommerce-page table.shop_table thead, .woocommerce-page table.shop_table tbody, .woocommerce-page table.shop_table th, .woo

The Perfect Responsive FREE eCommerce Solution

So you're building a website for someone, and you've bought the domain name and found a nice reliable company to host it.  Nice work.  Now what? There is a plethora of options out there, so to save you a little bit of time, here's the solution I went with that is pretty ace. Firstly, there were a few prerequisites that I needed to tick off.  The site had to: Be Responsive (look sexy on all devices) Be Free (client was a low budget business and it wasn't worth paying for templates, etc) Have a shopping cart system Sit on a CMS (Content Management System - so the client could update content themselves) Be easy to navigate and manage Here's the setup I decided upon which works a treat: CMS: WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin: WooCommerce Shopping Cart Add-in: Weight-Based Shipping (For basing shipping cost on weight of bundled items) WooCommerce Theme: Travelify Installing each of these is an absolute breeze, and within 10 minutes the site w

Freenas - Setting up the Transmission Plugin on Freenas with Guest Permissions

Follow the guide here by Supa, there's not much to it: http://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/newbie-guide-to-freenas-plex-couchpotato-sickbeard-and-transmission.19043/ For the linux noobs like myself, these are the two steps you need to complete in order to set up Transmission so that any files it downloads are read/writeable by all users. Go to your jails tab again and enter into the Transmission Command-Line Shell: Type: edit /usr/pbi/transmission-amd64/etc/transmission/home/settings.json and just change the field unmask to "unmask = 0". Once finished, hit esc, leave, and save the changes. If your settings.json file is not located there you will need to go back to Freenas and click on Plugins > Transmission on the sidebar and review the location of configuration directory.  Then you can input that into the Command Line. On newer versions of Transmission the setting Unmask has been renamed to Umask.

InfoPath XMLWriter - Adding Rows in a Repeating Table That Contain a Boolean Field

Came across an issue today with an InfoPath form I am working on. In the form there is a Repeating Table that contains within it both String and Boolean Fields. In order to make the form prettier we have created custom buttons to add a row to the Repeating Table.  These button use an XMLWriter to add a new row. For any new fields (String or Boolean) the writer does the following to create a blank Field: writer.WriteElementString("fieldname", myNamespace, ""); The problem I had was that if you created Boolean fields like the line above, and then tried to Submit the form to SharePoint, you receive a validation error "Some rules were not applied.  InfoPath cannot submit the form" Turns out the Boolean Fields were failing to validate with the empty string value.   This was solved by putting in a value that isn't used in the form for the Boolean Field: writer.WriteElementString("fieldname", myNamespace, " 0 &q

SharePoint 2010 - Export to Spreadsheet Action Missing on Survey Overview Page

Most people can't find the 'Export to Spreadsheet' option from the Action drop-down menu due to not being on the Overview.aspx page. But if you've modified the Overview page via SharePoint Designer, then you've probably lost the Overview menu completely The solution is to create a New List View via SharePoint Designer and set it as Default (crucial!). Done. If you don't set the new view as the default page, then the Export option will still be missing.

Photoshop - How To Make Lovely Rounded Corners

Select a square using Marquee tool Select > Modify > Smooth Choose radius on the corners I've always been frustrated with the damn Feather option (right click your selected square > Feather) not making a hard corner. Thank you - http://www.mediacollege.com/adobe/photoshop/shapes/rounded-corners.html 

SharePoint - Field type [FieldName] is not installed properly. Go to the list settings page to delete this field.

Sorry, something went wrong Field type [FieldName]  is not installed properly. Go to the list settings page to delete this field.   This is caused when a FieldType has been created usually via a custom solution (WSP), and has been used somewhere, then uninstalled while still being used somewhere on the Site Collection.  This error message is similar on all versions of SharePoint 2007/2010/2013. Usually you will have one or more Site Columns that are using the FieldType, and possibly one or more Content Types that are using that Site Column, and then most likely one or more Lists/Librarires using the Site Columns or Site Content Types. If you want to remove the Field Type Completely, steps to resolve are as follows: Try to delete the Site Column or Content Type from every list it is being used on.  If you can't delete the Content Type from the list, you will have to delete the list. Delete the Content Types using the Site Column (Site Actions > Site Settings

SharePoint 2010 - Access List / Library Data Across Web Applications

We can do this using jQuery.js and SPServices.js Only issue is that you will most likely be forced to receive a notification every time the page loads: "this page is accessing information that is not under its control" I found that although it's possible the solution was not ideal, but have not yet found an alternative.  However I thought I would provide it in case anyone else has a need for it. The code below will retrieve the list item information from the Page library at http://intranet.  CAML query retrieves the most recent 4 articles from the Page library and the last line appends the HTML statement to the page. The HTML statement that is created grabs the value of the FileRef Field and places it inside a div. ---------------------------------------------- $(document).ready(function() {   $().SPServices({     operation: "GetListItems",     async: false,     webURL: "http://intranet",     listName: "Pages",     CAMLVie

SharePoint 2013 - Cannot open excel or word documents

Have you recently upgraded to SharePoint 2013 but can't seem to open excel or word docs inside a Document Library? Are you getting a URL that starts something like this? ms-word:nft|u|  ms-excel:ofv|u| Chances are it's because you have both Office 2010 installed on your computer as well as either the full Office 2013 suite or any single Office 2013 product (Here's looking at you SharePoint Designer 2013!!!). The reason for this is related to the new Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Support feature that gets updated when you install an Office 2013 product, in turn updating a few pointers to look at the Office15 Hive folder. Others have solved this issue before me, but to save you having to read lots of comments, the solution is to install Office 2010 SP2 . Here's some links to a few blogs that helped me realise the cause and find the solution. http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/04/04/sharepoint-2013-problems-opening-documents-with-of