Programming

Setting a Master Page Dynamically

Lance Robinson — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:04:10 GMT

To set an ASPNET master page dynamically, use the Page_PreInit function and set the Page.MasterPageFile property. For example:

protected void Page_PreInit(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.Page.MasterPageFile = "~/MasterPages/" + mymaster + ".Master";
}

In the above example, mymaster should be set by whatever your requirements dictate – read from DB/CMS/whatever. The page (aspx) itself shouldn’t have any other reference to the master page (ie, no “MasterPageFile attribute in the page directive), however it will still need the content placeholders, of course.

Technorati Tags: ASPNET

PowerShell TruncateAtWhitespace Function

Lance Robinson — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:30:13 GMT

Here’s a TruncateAtWhitespace function that takes an incoming parameter value and an incoming max length, and returns a substring broken at a whitespace position. This way if you have “Lance has a blog” and you need to truncate it to 8 characters or less, you get “Lance” instead of “Lance ha”.

function TruncateAtWhitespace{
    param(
        [string]$value,
        [int]$maxlength=200
    )
    $maxlength-=3; #allow for "..." suffix
    if ($value.Length -le $maxlength) {
      return ($value + "...");
    }
    $closestwhitespaceindex = [int]$value.Substring(0, $maxlength).LastIndexOf(" ");
    if ($closestwhitespaceindex -gt 0) {
      $value = $value.Substring(0, $closestwhitespaceindex) + "...";
    } else {
      $value = $value.Substring(0, $maxlength);
    }
    return $value;
}

Technorati Tags: PowerShell

CSharp TruncateAtWhitespace Function

Lance Robinson — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:28:56 GMT

    /// <summary>

    /// Truncate at the end of a word

    /// </summary>

    /// <param name="value">The original string</param>

    /// <param name="maxlength">The maximum length of string to return</param>

    /// <returns>A substring of the original, broken at the end of a word</returns>

    public static string TruncateAtWhitespace(string value, int maxlength)

    {

      maxlength = maxlength - 3; //allow for ending "..."

      if (value.Length <= maxlength) return value + "...";

      int closestwhitespaceindex = value.Substring(0, maxlength).LastIndexOf(" ");

      if (closestwhitespaceindex > 0)

      {

        value = value.Substring(0, closestwhitespaceindex) + "...";

      }

      else

      {

        value = value.Substring(0, maxlength);

      }

      return value;

    }

Technorati Tags: ASPNET,C#

Listing SPQuery FieldNameRefs

Lance Robinson — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:24:16 GMT

It took me a while to figure out how to get a list of all the available fields for a particular type of list in SharePoint (for performing custom queries in SPQuery). I was looking for a published list of these fields, which as far as I know does not exist. Instead, you just use the GetList method of the Lists SOAP service. Here’s an example SOAP request:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"> 
  <SOAP-ENV:Body> 
    <GetList xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/"> 
      <listName>Private Documents</listName> 
    </GetList> 
  </SOAP-ENV:Body> 
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Just specify the name of the list you want the fields for as the value for the listName input element.

One easy way to work with SharePoint services remotely is by using /n software’s SharePoint Integrator developer toolkit. Using its SPSite component in Visual Studio I can whip together a few lines of code to consume get the results from the aforementioned service:

spsite1.URL = "http://mysharepoint/mysite/";
spsite1.User = "DOMAIN\lancer";  
spsite1.Password = "password";  
spsite1.DescribeList("Private SharePoint Documents");;

/n software SharePoint Integrator highlights:

Read, Write, and Create SharePoint Lists Items, Documents, and Attachments.
Programmatic control of SharePoint Sites, capabilities, and configuration
128-bit strong SSL encryption keeps sensitive transaction information confidential.
Small and lightweight components with no dependencies on external libraries.
Native development components for all supported platforms and component technologies.
Unlimited free Email technical support backed by an experienced & professional staff.
Compatible with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS), and Windows SharePoint Services v3.0 + (WSS).

Technorati Tags: SPQuery,SharePoint

How to embed Excel in a .NET WinForms App

Lance Robinson — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:19:35 GMT

Download and install owc11.
Run AxImp on OWC11.dll, which will have been installed in the microsoft shared\web components directory (ie C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Components\11\). AxImp.exe can be found in the Windows SDK (ie, C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bin\AxImp.exe).
In Visual Studio project, drag OWC11.dll to a toolbox tab and drop the Excel component on form.

Voila. When it comes deployment time, you’ll need the AxInterop.OWC11.dll.

Some sample code:

Set a specific cell value:
Spreadsheet1.Cells.get_Item(row, col).set_Value(System.Reflection.Missing.Value, "BSXBW2183NN");

Get the string value of a specific cell:
Spreadsheet1.Cells.get_Item(row, col).get_Value(System.Reflection.Missing.Value).ToString()
or
Spreadsheet1.Cells.get_Item(i, 1).Text.ToString();

Set the background color of a row:
Object ob = "#66FF66";
Spreadsheet1.Rows.get_Item(row, System.Reflection.Missing.Value).Font.set_Color(ref ob);

Technorati Tags: Excel,.NET

Four New Developer Toolkit Releases from /n software

Lance Robinson — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:53:57 GMT

Last week /n software announced new versions of three different toolkits, and a brand new SharePoint Integrator product. From nsoftware.com:

NEW: /n software UPS Integrator V2 Released!

Includes easy access to the most popular UPS mail capabilities including shipping, tracking, address verification, rate calculation, and much more.

NEW: /n software SharePoint Integrator Released!

Enables developers to build applications that integrate with Microsoft SharePoint Server, including components for working with popular constructs like Sites, Lists, and Documents.

NEW: PayPal Integrator V3 Released!

Now with support for PayPal Recurring Payments. Connect your application to PayPal merchant services without the use of client side certificates.

NEW: Vital/TSYS Integrator V6 Released!

Now certified for FSA / Healthcare, Retail, Grocery, Restaurant, Hotel, Auto Rental, Direct Marketing, E-Commerce, Debit, EBT, GiftCard, Level II, Level III transactions, and PABP Compliance.

Technorati Tags: UPS, SharePoint, PayPal, Credit Cards, E-Commerce

Troubleshooting FTP connections with PowerShell

Lance Robinson — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:22:52 GMT

I find that helping people troubleshoot FTP connectivity issues is much easier if they have PowerShell installed. I can just have them run the NetCmdlets ftp cmdlets with the –debug switch, which displays a trail of information about the communication over the wire. In this way you can see every command send to the server and every response coming back from the server, including what ports a server is attempting to use for ftp data connections. Very often ftp transfer connectivity errors are the result of firewall/ftp server configuration error, and being able to see this raw communication without a network sniffer is quite handy.

PS C:\> get-ftp -server $myserver -user myusername –password ******* -debug                                                    
DEBUG: VerbsCommon.Get-FTP started processing.                                                                          
                                                                                                                        
Confirm                                                                                                                 
Continue with this operation?                                                                                           
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [H] Halt Command  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): a                                    
DEBUG: Info: Connecting to FTP server.                                                                                  
DEBUG: Server: 220 (vsFTPd 2.0.4)                                                                                       
DEBUG: Client: USER myusername                                                                                                
DEBUG: Server: 331 Please specify the password.                                                                         
DEBUG: Client: PASS *******                                                                                             
DEBUG: Server: 230 Login successful.                                                                                    
DEBUG: Client: PASV                                                                                                     
DEBUG: Server: 227 Entering Passive Mode (10,0,1,1,225,79)                                                              
DEBUG: Client: LIST                                                                                                     
DEBUG: Server: 425 Can’t open data connection.
DEBUG:    at nsoftware.NetCmdlets.Commands.Core.cs.a(Int32 A_0)
   at nsoftware.NetCmdlets.Commands.GetFTP.DoSSL()                                                                    
Send-FTP : FTP protocol error: 425 Can’t open data connection.

In the example above, you can see that the get-ftp cmdlet sends the PASV command in order to transfer some data (a directory listing). The server response to the PASV command shows the ip and port that the client should connect to (10.0.1.1 is the ip address, and (225*256) + 79 is the port). That IP address (10.0.1.1) is obviously wrong since I am attempting to FTP to a server outside of my local network. This is one example of a misconfigured FTP server.

Right away, with one PowerShell command, I know the cause of the problem and where to go to fix it.

Technorati Tags: PowerShell, FTP, Troubleshooting

PowerShell function to determine if running on 64 bit machine

Lance Robinson — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:21:14 GMT

Easy a pie:

function is64bit() {
    if ([IntPtr].Size -eq 4) { return $false }
    else { return $true }
}

Explanation: the size of an IntPtr will be 4 bytes on a 32 bit machine and 8 bytes on a 64 bit machine.

I came across the tip somewhere (blog, usenet??) but I couldn't find it again - so I thought I'd share it here for anybody else who is looking for it.

Technorati Tags: PowerShell

Amazon SimpleDB Developer Tools

Lance Robinson — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:46:27 GMT

According to a recent Amazon survey, “Developer Tools” were the most requested improvement for SimpleDB. /n software’s Amazon Integrator fits the bill for developers building in .NET, ASP.NET, .NETCF, Java, JSP, C++, C++ Builder, Delphi, VB6 (ActiveX), and even classic ASP. You can download a free trial version, which includes demos and API documentation for the SimpleDB component as well as the included AWS, EC2, S3, and SQS components.

Technorati Tags: Amazon, AWS, SimpleDB

Pass by Reference Parameters in PowerShell

Lance Robinson — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:06:38 GMT

A long time ago Jeffrey Snover briefly mentioned the PowerShell [REF] parameter attribute, but otherwise there isn’t much mention around about how to use it. It seems simple enough, but I kept getting this error from PowerShell:

“Reference type is expected in argument.”

This post by MOW cleared things up for me – I needed to wrap my [REF] parameters in parens in the function call, like so:

Find-NewMessages $valvar1 ([REF]$refvar1) ([REF]$refvar2)

For those looking to see how pass by reference params are used in the first place, its pretty simple. Use the [REF] attribute on your function parameters and in your function call, ie:

function Find-NewMessages($valvar1, [REF]$refvar1, [REF]$refvar2) {
//some stuff
$refvar1.Value = “hi”
$refvar2.Value = “bye”
}

$refvar1 = “1”
$refvar2 “2”
Find-NewMessages $valvar1 ([REF]$refvar1) ([REF]$refvar2)
//now $refvar1 = “hi” and $refvar2 = “bye”

Technorati Tags: PowerShell, Pass By Reference Parameters