Microsoft in 2008: ZDNET Predictions

I was very excited to read some of the anticipated technology releases from Microsoft.
 From FIJI (the next version of Windows Media Centre) to Office 14 Beta to OOXML getting the ISO nod, it sure sounds like we have a G-R-E-A-T year ahead.
For the full article http://content.zdnet.com/2346-12558_22-180846-1.html

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SharePoint Solution: Pre-Analysis Considerations

The below should typically be covered during costed initial consultations with the client to focus all stakeholders on the difference with Functional and Non-Functional requirements and shape the solution with respect to compliance. 

Investigate the business vision and produce a resulting Vision Document

Investigate ROI to highlight the solution’s value proposition to the client. From experience I have noticed [...]

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Visual Studio: Clearing the ‘Recent Project’ List

There is no GUI functionality in the Visual Studio Start Page to configure the list of recent projects but you could add/remove project items at the following registry path – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\ProjectMRUList.
Quite handy if you want to clean up old projects from the list and only retain client projects that you are currently working on. 

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ASP.NET: Disabling ViewState from a DataGrid

For performance reasons, I prefer to disable ViewState in all ASP.NET controls unless I explicitly need to. This arises from my desire to keep web page HTML payload to 15KB for sub-second response times (a personal UI design goal).

 
/// <summary>
/// Class member used to disable ViewState at the DataGridItem level. This method must be
/// [...]

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Improving speed and efficiency using T-SQL to concatenate data

I personally prefer to avoid cursor-based looping in T-SQL or PL/SQL because of the obvious performance gains. This blog post is for a friend who needed a quick way of looping through and building a string in T-SQL without using cursors.

– Function to concatenate records in a single variable using set-based processing
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF [...]

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SharePoint Analysis: Grouping and Segmenting Information Workers

This information was summarised based on the Apress Publication, The Expert’s Voice in SharePoint

Segmenting Information Workers
Comment w.r.t. SharePoint

Transactors
Use LOB systems to enter business data. Eg; CSR’s
User interface design for easy data input

Professionals
Write emails, merge data from various systems into spreadsheets. Called “Human Middleware”
SharePoint integration across LOB systems

Executives
Monitor KPI data, use BI tools to make [...]

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SharePoint Technologies: Comparing Features

I found that the best place to get a comparison of WSS 3.0 versus MOSS 2007 features is at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/FX101758691033.aspx

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C# Schema Validator

Can be wrapped into a reusable function for easy reuse

//The C# validator
//———————                   
System.Xml.XmlDocument objWorkingXML = new XmlDocument();
System.Xml.XmlValidatingReader objValidateXML;
System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaCollection objSchemasColl = new XmlSchemaCollection();

System.Xml.XmlTextReader xmlTxtReader = new System.Xml.XmlTextReader(@”..\..\rss.xsd”);

objSchemasColl.Add(“urn:simeon.com/xmlschemas/dosvis/dosvisgrouppayauthority/”, xmlTxtReader);
//This loads XML string in.. but you can also load files similarly
objValidateXML = new System.Xml.XmlValidatingReader(new XmlTextReader(@”..\..\rss.xml”));

//This is how you CATCH the errors (with a handler function)
//AddHandler objValidateXML.ValidationEventHandler, AddressOf [...]

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.NET Security: Class for Symmetric Encryption

Reusable class that seamlessly abstracts Symmetric Encryption

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;

namespace Simeon.Lobo.Security
{
    public class SymmetricEncryption
    {
        public SymmetricEncryption()
        {
            this.Algorithm = SymmetricAlgorithm.Create();
            for (int num1 = 0; num1 < this.Algorithm.LegalKeySizes.Length; num1++)
            {
                this.KeySize = this.Algorithm.LegalKeySizes[num1].MinSize;
                if (this.Algorithm.ValidKeySize(this.KeySize))
                {
                    break;
                }
            }
            this.Algorithm.Mode = CipherMode.ECB;
        }

        public SymmetricEncryption(SymmetricAlgorithm Algorithm)
        {
            this.Algorithm = Algorithm;
            for (int num1 [...]

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C# .NET Optional logging with StackTrace

In the event that simple application logging is required the below code could be used,

 
<!– application specific settings –>
<appSettings>
  <!– Use a value of either “OVERWRITE” or “APPEND” –>
  <add key=“loggingType“ value=“OVERWRITE“ />
</appSettings>

<!– Implementation –>

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Reflection;

    public class Log
    {
        private string _loggingType = String.Empty;
        private string _logFilePhyPath = String.Empty;

        [...]

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