SharePoint 2007/2010

Get relative path and name of the active Script in PowerShell

2011-02-23T02:16:00.000-08:00

# Get complete file path (eg: D:\RootFolder\ActiveScript.ps1)
$0 = $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition

# Get current Directory file path (eg: D:\FolderA)
$dp0 = [System.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName($0)

#To Get the root folder
$RootPath = $dp0 | split-path

# Get current Drive (eg: D:\)
$bits = Get-Item $dp0 | Split-Path -Parent

Check Running Timerjob Status using Powershell

2011-02-23T01:33:00.000-08:00

Check the status of timer jobs that have been run by using Windows PowerShell.

$Job = Get-SPTimerjob "TimerJob Name"
[Array] $JobHistoryList=$Job.HistoryEntries
Start-SPTimerJob $Job
Write-Host "Running Timer Job" -NoNewline
$count = $JobHistoryList.count
$countNext = $count+1

while ( $countNext -ne $count)
{
[Array] $JobHistoryList=$Job.HistoryEntries
$count = $JobHistoryList.count
Write-Host "." -NoNewline
sleep 2
}

if ($taxonomyjob[0].status –ne "Succeeded")
{
Write-Host -f yellow $JobHistoryList[0].status
Write-Host -f yellow $JobHistoryList[0].ErrorMessage
}
else
{
Write-Host $JobHistoryList[0].status

}

"The Selected file was not found” Error When Adding an Attachment to an InfoPath Form

2010-09-30T02:48:00.000-07:00

Adding the following bit of JavaScript to the WrkTaskIP.aspx page, which is responsible for hosting the InfoPath task form:

<script type="text/javascript">   
 aspnetForm.encoding = "multipart/form-data";
 </script>

Another approach documented here suggests modifying the application.master master page file to add the necessary enctype form tag:

<form runat="server" onsubmit="return _spFormOnSubmitWrapper();" 
 enctype="multipart/form-data">    ...  </form

Embedding InfoPath Form in SharePoint Page

2010-08-19T00:09:00.000-07:00

Add the following line in the <SafeControls> tag of the web.config file of your web application in all servers:

Open Portal. Under Site Actions, click Site Settings.

In the Site Settings page click Web Part Gallery link.

In the Web Part Gallery page, click New. We will be redirected to the Web Part Gallery : New Web Parts facility.

In the Web Part Gallery : New Web Parts part, check Microsoft.Office.InfoPath.Server.Controls.XmlFormView. Then, click Populate Gallery. We will be redirected again to the Web Part Gallery page where we can verify the inclusion of XmlFormView.webpart.

Now open the page where you want to add the infopath form

In the Site Actions, click Edit Page. the page will be set to Edit Mode.

Click the Add a Web Part link.

Check the XmlFormView, normally under miscellaneous section, then click OK. If we will be prompted by an error message of InfoPath, we have nothing to worry. Just click Close.

Now, we will modify XmlFormView web part. To do this, click Edit, then Modify Shared Web Part.

Editing Status : Editing

Xsn Location : Please refer to the notations below.

NOTE: The Xsn Location varies on the publishing approach we have employed.

Document library Published form
If we have published form template directly to a specific Form Library, similar with our case, we can check the location from Site Actions, then Site Settings, then Site Libraries and Lists, then Customize Form Library, then click the corresponding Form Content Type, then Advance Settings, and we will have the URL of our form template. It is http://Server/Form Library Name/forms/template.xsn.

Central Administration Approved form
If we have published, however, an administrator-approved form template through the Manage Form Template facility, we can check the location from Site Actions, then Site Settings, then Site Content Types, then the corresponding Form Template Name - it is normally under the Microsoft Office InfoPath section, then Advanced Settings, and we will have the URL of our form template.

It is http://Server /FormServerTemplates/Form Name.xsn.

WebPart Life Cycle

2009-06-25T02:54:00.000-07:00

1. OnInit: event used to create controls of web part
2. OnLoad:
3. CreateChildControls: event used to set properties and default values to controls collection

If the page is being rendered for the first time the method generally occurs after the OnLoad event.
If it is Postback, It is called before OnLoad event.
EnsureChildControls: It checks to see if the CreateChildControls method has yet been called, and if it has not, calls it.

4. LoadViewState: The view state of the web part is populated over here.
5. OnPreRender: event used to set up business logic related work and in this routine controls value kept by viewstate
6. Render: event creates the HTML that appears in the body of the Web Part.
7. OnUnload:
8. Dispose:

Creating Views in SharePoint Using the object model

2009-06-01T23:35:00.000-07:00

Using the object model we can create a SharePoint views programmatically. The query for
the view uses an SPQuery which uses CAML.

//Define an array to hold the columns required in the view
String[] colArray = new String[] { "FName", "LName", "Email” };
//Add the array to a string collection
StringCollection colCollection = new StringCollection();
colCollection.AddRange(colArray);
//Define the query for the view
String viewQry = “Your CAML Query Here’;
HTML clipboard//Define the new view & Add to the List (100 is the item limit, true is allow paging and false is to set as the default view)
SPView newView = YourList.Views.Add(“View Title”, colCollection, viewQry, 100,true, false);

How to modify the width and height of a Sharepoint Page Viewer web part dynamically

2009-03-11T00:33:00.000-07:00

You can use following JavaScript code to dynamically adjust width and height of the page viewer web part. Just put it in each asp.net page that you want to display in a page viewer, and the problem will be solved:

JavaScript code:
function resizeMe(that) {
window.resizeTo(document.body.scrollWidth, document.body.scrollHeight);
}
window.attachEvent("onload", function() {
window.setTimeout("resizeMe()", 100);
});

Alternatively, window.resizeTo(window.screen.availWidth, window.screen.availHeight); can also be used.

Adding Contact Selector Control to InfoPath form

2009-02-05T23:21:00.002-08:00

The Contact Selector control is an ActiveX control but it is a special cased control, in that it can also be used in InfoPath browser forms. To use this control there are specific steps that need to be taken – let’s take a look at those now.

Step 1: Steps to add Contact Selector control to your Controls Task Pane

1) From the Controls Task Pane click "Add or Remove Custom Controls" link
2) Click the Add button
3) Add Custom Control Wizard select "ActiveX control" and click Next
4) This will display a list of controls , select "Contact Selector" ,click Next
5) Select “Don’t include a .cab file” and click Next
6) For Binding Property select Value and click Next
7) From the Field or group type box choose Field or group (any data type) and click Finish
8) Click Close and then click OK

Step 2: Create the data structure for the Contact Selector Control

The Contact Selector control needs to have a specific data structure to work properly – this is documented on the “Items” tab of the Properties screen for the control; however, we’ll include that information here as well.

**IMPORTANT!** Spelling and capitalization must be exactly the same, starting with the “Person” group!

1) Add a non-Repeating Group named: gpContactSelector
2) Add a Repeating Group named: Person
3) Add the 3 text fields to the Person group: DisplayName, AccountId and AccountType

Step 3: Add and bind the Contact Selector control to the View

1) Drag the gpContactSelector Group to the View and select “Contact Selector” from the list of controls
2) You’re almost done…! :-)

Step 4: Add a secondary data source XML file which specifies the SharePoint server

The Contact Selector control needs to know the “context” of where the user validation should occur. These steps are not necessary if you are only displaying the form in a browser from SharePoint – in this case, it uses the context of the site from where it was provisioned; however, if you are in a mixed client/browser scenario you will need to include this XML file so forms
opened in the client can use this functionality.

1) Open Notepad
2) Copy and paste this one-line XML:
<Context siteUrl="http://<servername>"/>
Replace <servername> with the name of your server
3) Save this as: Context.xml (– naming and capitalization are important)
4) Add Context.xml as a “Receive” type Secondary Data Connection to your form
template and make sure the option “Include the data as a resource file” is
enabled

Diff between Site Pages Vs Application Pages

2009-02-04T01:11:00.000-08:00

Site Pages:

Pages that support user customization are known as site pages and stored
in the content database.
Ex. Site pages default.aspx, NewForm.aspx, and EditForm.aspx.

Site pages customization provides flexibility but can also impact
performance and scalability Each page would also have to be individually
parsed and loaded into memory..

Site pages do not support in-line code under the default security
policy enforced by WSS.

Application pages:

Application pages do not support customization, which gives them two
distinct advantages over site pages.
- First, each application page is always compiled into a single DLL so that it performs and scales better than a site page.
- Second, application pages are allowed to have in-line code.
Ex. Settings.aspx, uagedetails.aspx.
Application pages are deployed as physical files on file system of front end
web server on the server's file system.
An application page, such as settings.aspx, can be accessed by adding its
relative path within the _layouts directory to the end of a site’s URL.
Application pages support customization

Ghosted = Un-Customized, The asp.net parser renders the page.
Unghosted = Customized, Controlled by the SafeMode parser.
Reghosting = Changing from Customized to Un-Customized.

How to Add onLoad JavaScript event in SharePoint?

2009-01-20T23:32:00.000-08:00

SharePoint provides a JavaScript array “_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames”, any function to be executed onLoad needs to be added to this array e.g.

_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("ExecuteMyFunctionOnLoad");

Now, why does your JavaScript function doesn’t execute if you just register it
with ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript?

Actually, content pages can’t execute JavaScript function on body load, reason; content pages can’t directly add a function to the body’s OnLoad event if master page contains the <body> element (which is mostly true).

This array is basically a part of init.js located in “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\”. If you open the javascript file, you will notice the page onLoad event is handled by function _spBodyOnLoadWrapper, which further calls ProcessDefaultOnLoad, and this function executes all the function names added in array "_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames".

CREATING AND DEPLOYING FEATURE IN MOSS

2009-01-15T00:56:00.000-08:00

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 introduces an inherently portable and modular functionality known as feature, which provides a mechanism for defining site elements.

A feature is a package of Windows SharePoint Services elements that can be activated for a specific scope and that helps users accomplish a particular goal or task.

Features are added to a target site or site collection through a process known as feature activation. The element types that can be defined by a feature include menu commands, link commands, page templates, page instances, list definitions, list instances, event handlers, and workflows.

So let’s start writing a feature. The functionality of the feature which we are going to develop is that it adds a menu item “Hello World” in the “Site Actions” menu. Clicking on the menu item “Hello World” will transfer to Google. Our goal is shown in the figure below:

The first step is to understand the feature file structure. If you go to “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES” directory, you will see features already existed. Each feature has a file “feature.xml” and other file usually named as “elements.xml”.

Now we move to VS 2005 and create a new class library DLL project and name it “HelloWorldFea. Now, it will be intelligent to create the same structure of files as that of WSS 3.0 in the VS 2005.

Create a directory “TEMPLATE” in the solution. Inside the “TEMPLATE” directory, create another directory “FEATURE” and lastly, in the “FEATURE” directory, create directory with the same name as that of the project which happens to be “HelloWorldFea”.

Now, create a xml file and name it “feature.xml” inside the directory “HelloWorldFea”. In this xml file, we will write the details that will define the high level attributes of the features itself. Add the following XML to the “feature.xml” file.

We describe the attributes of the Feature tag as under:

Id: GUID which identifies the features uniquely. It can be created by clicking “Tools” menu of VS 2005 and then on “Create GUID”. “Create GUID” window will appear. Select “4 Registry Format (ie. (xxxx …))” option. Click on “Copy” button and paste the GUID against the Id attribute.
Title: Specifies the title of the feature.
Description: Specifies the description of the feature.
Scope: Scope defines the context in which feature is activated and deactivated. It can have four values namely Web, Site, WebApplication and Farm. Web specifies that the feature can be activated and deactivated within the context of site. Site specifies that the feature can be activated and deactivated within the context of the site collection. Same stands for WebApplication and Farm.
Hidden: Can be set to true or false. In case of true, feature is not visible in the list of available features. It can be activated or deactivated through command line, through custom code, or through an activation dependency with another feature.
ImageUrl: The image displayed next to the feature in the use interface. The last part is ElementManifests element. The element has inner element ElementManifest which specifies the reference of other XML file. This file defines other elements that make up the feature. In our case, we have one file “elements.xml”.

Create “elements.xml” file in the “HelloWorlFea” directory. The XML for the file is as under:

Id has the name of the menu in which we want to add our menu item. Title and description specifies the text that will appear as title and description. UrlAction states the url of the site where user is redirected when clicked. In our case, it is http://www.google.com/.
The next step is to deploy the feature unto the “FEATURE” directory. For this purpose we create a batch file and name it “deploy.bat”. The contents of the file are:

@SET TEMPLATEDIR=”C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE”
@SET STSADM=”C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN\stsadm”
Echo Copying filesxcopy /e /y TEMPLATE\* %TEMPLATEDIR%
Echo Installing feature%STSADM% -o InstallFeature -filename HELLOWorldFea\feature.xml -force
Echo Reatart IIS Worker Process
IISRESET
In the end, go to the properties of the project and then to “Build Events” tab. Write the following lines in the “post build event command line window:”
cd $(ProjectDir)
install.bat
The first line is required to change the current directory to that of the project directory. The second line runs the batch file to copy the feature files to the correct location and install the feature with the InstallFeature operation of the command-line STSADM.EXE utility. Now go to the “Site Features” page by moving from “Site Actions” to “Site Settings” and clicking on “Site Features” of your site. Here, “Hello World Feature” will be available. Activate it and you will be able to see a menu item added in the “Site Actions” menu. If you fail to find the feature, check the following steps:

“HelloWorldFea” directory is added in the FEATURES directory at the path “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES”
Run the file “feature.xml” and “element.xml” to check that XML is error free.
If still unable to find the feature, try to deploy manually and see what happen.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms439657.aspx

MOSS 2007: Site Usage Report Error

2009-01-09T00:07:00.000-08:00

Scenario:

When click on “Site Usage Reports” under “Site Administration” in “Site Settings” page, the following message displayed:

Both Windows SharePoint Services Usage logging and Office SharePoint Usage Processing must be enabled to view usage reports. Please contact your administrator to ensure that these services are enabled.

Resolution:

You have to enable two options. Open “Central Administration” -> “Operation” and click on “Usage analysis processing” under “Logging and Reporting” and check “Enable Logging”. Then, move to “Shared Service Provider”, Click on “Usage reporting” under “Office SharePoint Usage Reporting” and check both options.

Deleting Webparts When error occured

2009-01-09T00:04:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is difficult to delete or edit a web part. When clicked on “Modify Shared web part” link, error page appeared

“An unexpected error has occurred.”

One way to delete the web part is to go to web part maintenance page and delete it. This can be done by adding “?contents=1” to default.aspx page.

How to programmatically Create SPListItem in a SPFolder

2008-11-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

Sample Code to Create SPListItem in a SPFolder

SPSite mySite = new SPSite("http://[ServerName/sitename]");
SPWeb web = mySite.OpenWeb();
SPList list = web.Lists["ListName"];
SPFolder f = web.GetFolder("http://[ServerName/sitename]/Lists/ListName/FolderName" );
if(f.Exists)
{
SPListItemCollection itemColl = list.Items;
SPListItem item = itemColl.Add(f.ServerRelativeUrl , SPFileSystemObjectType.File, null);
item["Title"] = "Added from Code";
item.Update();
}

Create MySite Programmatically:

2008-11-27T22:06:00.001-08:00

SharePoint provides APIs to create MySite programmtically. UserProfile object provides a method to create personal site.

Following console application creates MySite for a given account:

using Microsoft.Office.Server;

using Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration;

using Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles;

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

using System.Web;

namespace UserProfileCreate

{

class Program

{

static void Main (string[] args)

{

using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://servername"))

{

ServerContext context = ServerContext.GetContext(site);

UserProfileManager profileManager = new UserProfileManager(context);

string accountName = "domainname\\username";

UserProfile userProfile;

if (profileManager.UserExists(accountName))

{

userProfile = profileManager.GetUserProfile(accountName);

userProfile.CreatePersonalSite();

}

Diff B/w SPSite & SPWeb

2008-11-27T21:40:00.000-08:00

SPSite class:

SPSite Represents a collection of sites on a virtual server, including a top-level site and all its subsites.
Each SPSite object, or site collection, is represented within an SPSiteCollection object that consists of the collection of all site collections on the virtual server.
SPSite.OpenWeb Method: Returns the site that is located
at the specified server-relative or site-relative URL.

SPWeb class :
SPWeb Simply represents Windows SharePoint Services Web site.

Code sample to create a site:

SPSite mySite = new SPSite("http://servername/");
SPWeb myWeb = mySite.AllWebs["Site_Name"];
SPWeb myRootWeb = mySite.RootWeb;

Note:

SPSite and SPWeb inherit directly from System.Object
Calling Dispose ensures all resources used by those objects are immediately released.

URL's to access SharePoint Pages

2008-11-26T01:14:00.000-08:00

Here are some URL's to access pages in SharePoint. These URL are helpful to save time and hassles of clicking many times to reach a speicfied page:
The URL's are grouped based on the major functioanlity area:
Users and Permissions:

People and Groups: _layouts/people.aspx
Site Collection Admins: _layouts/mngsiteadmin.aspx
Advanced Permissions: _layouts/user.aspx
Master Pages: _Layouts/ChangeSiteMasterPage.aspx

Look and Feel:

Title, Desc, and Icon: _layouts/prjsetng.aspx
Navigation: _layouts/AreaNavigationSettings.aspx
Page Layout and Ste Templates: _Layouts/AreaTemplateSettings.aspx
Welcome Page: _Layouts/AreaWelcomePage.aspx
Tree View: _layouts/navoptions.aspx
Top Nav Bar: _layouts/topnav.aspx
Site Theme: _layouts/themeweb.aspx
Reset to Site Definition: _layouts/reghost.aspx
Searchable Columns: _Layouts/NoCrawlSettings.aspx
Site Content Types: _layouts/mngctype.aspx

Galleries

Site Columns: _layouts/mngfield.aspx
Site Templates: _catalogs/wt/Forms/Common.aspx
List Templates: _catalogs/lt/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Web Parts: _catalogs/wp/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Workflows: _layouts/wrkmng.aspx
Master Pages and Page Layouts: _catalogs/masterpage/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Regoinal Settings: _layouts/regionalsetng.aspx

Site Administration

Site Libraries and Lists: _layouts/mcontent.aspx
Site Usage Report: _layouts/usageDetails.aspx
User Alerts: _layouts/sitesubs.aspx
RSS: _layouts/siterss.aspx
Search Visibility: _layouts/srchvis.aspx
Sites and Workspaces: _layouts/mngsubwebs.aspx
Site Features: _layouts/ManageFeatures.aspx
Delete This Site: _layouts/deleteweb.aspx
Site Output Cache: _Layouts/areacachesettings.aspx
Content and Structure: _Layouts/sitemanager.aspx
Content and Structure Logs: _Layouts/SiteManager.aspx?lro=all
Search Settings: _layouts/enhancedSearch.aspx

Site Collection Administration:

Search Scopes: _layouts/viewscopes.aspx?mode=site
Search Keywords: _layouts/listkeywords.aspx
Recycle Bin: _layouts/AdminRecycleBin.aspx
Site Collection Features: _layouts/ManageFeatures.aspx?Scope=Site
Site Hierachy: _layouts/vsubwebs.aspx
Portal Site Connection: _layouts/portal.aspx
Site Collection Audit Settings: _layouts/AuditSettings.aspx
Site Collection Policies: _layouts/Policylist.aspx
Site Collection Cache Profiles: Cache%20Profiles/AllItems.aspx
Site Collection Output Cache: _Layouts/sitecachesettings.aspx
Site Collection Object Cache: _Layouts/objectcachesettings.aspx
Variations: _Layouts/VariationSettings.aspx
Variation Labels: _Layouts/VariationLabels.aspx
Translatable Columns: _Layouts/TranslatableSettings.aspx
Variation Logs: _Layouts/VariationLogs.aspx
Site Settings: _layouts/settings.aspx

SharePoint Search Mystery

2008-11-20T00:02:00.000-08:00

SharePoint, like a conductor in an orchestra, really just orchestrates a search request. As a conductor doesn't play an instrument, SharePoint doesn't actually do the mechanics of a search, it just makes the request. It's really all about IFilters and the search capabilities they provide. The SharePoint search pages, object model and web services are just facades to access the real workers.

This conversation came up because, out of the box, SharePoint only searches the following content types: .txt, .htm, .doc, .xls, and .ppt. And this search is not SharePoint but rather SQL Servers full-text search engine. After all, a binary file type (like PDF) can't really be searched unless the searcher knows how to read the format. SQL Server knows how to read the base types and with the addition of new iFilters, you can extend that. You can get additional IFilters for PDF, RTF, MSG, ZIP and other formats from various sources (Microsoft has a few free ones like for RTF). A good source of commercial IFilters is the IFilterShop.

So next time you try searching for content check to make sure your SQL Server (all content for SharePoint is stored in SQL) has an IFilter that recognizes the format you're looking for. Also a catch is when you do need to add a new search type, make sure you install the IFilter on the SQL Server and not the SharePoint one as it's the mechanic that's actually performing the search and just providing results to SharePoint to present to the user.

How to create a Shared Services Provider (SSP)

2008-11-18T05:09:00.000-08:00

Creating a Shared Services Provider

If the SharePoint Central Administration website isn’t already open, select Start > Administrative Tools > SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration, click the Application Management tab:

On the Manage this Farm’s Shared Services page, click the New SSP toolbar button:

On the New Shared Services Provider page, in the SSP Name section, click the Create a new Web application link:

On the Create New Web Application page, enter the following information, then click the OK button:

IIS Website:

Port: 1111

Security Configuration:

Authentication provider: NTLM

Allow Anonymous: No

Use SSL: No

Load Balanced URL: http://SERVERNAME:1111 (http://vpc02:1111, in this case)

Application Pool:

Create a new application pool

Application pool name: SharePoint – 1111

Select a security account for this application pool: Configurable

User name: SERVERNAME\Administrator (VPC02\Administrator, in this case)

Password: enter the administrator password

Reset Internet Information Services: Restart IIS Manually

Database Name and Authentication:

Database server: SERVERNAME (VPC02, in this case)

Database name: WSS_Content

Database authentication: Windows authentication

After the Shared Services web application has been created, the New Shared Services Provider page should be displayed:

Go down to the My Site Location section, then click the Create a new Web application link:

On the Create New Web Application page, enter the following information, then click the OK button:

IIS Website:

Port: 2222

Security Configuration:

Authentication provider: NTLM

Allow Anonymous: No

Use SSL: No

Load Balanced URL: http://SERVERNAME:2222 (http://vpc02:2222, in this case)

Application Pool:

Create a new application pool

Application pool name: SharePoint – 2222

Select a security account for this application pool: Configurable

User name: SERVERNAME\Administrator (VPC02\Administrator, in this case)

Password: enter the administrator password

Reset Internet Information Services: Restart IIS Manually

Database Name and Authentication:

Database server: SERVERNAME (VPC02, in this case)

Database name: automatically generated (WSS_Content_75bf75064cd5456e94f41cd8737a8573, in this case)

Database authentication: Windows authentication

After the My Sites web application has been created, the New Shared Services Provider page should be displayed:

Enter the following information on the remainder of the New Shared Services Provider page, then click the OK button:

My Site Location

Relative URL: /

SSP Service Credentials

Username: SERVERNAME\Administrator (VPC02\Administrator, in this case)

Password: enter the administrator password

SSP Database

Database server: SERVERNAME (VPC02, in this case)

Database name: SharedServices1_DB

Database authentication: Windows authentication

Search Database

Database server: SERVERNAME (VPC02, in this case)

Database name: SharedServices1_Search_DB

Database authentication: Windows authentication

Use SSL: No

After the SSP is created, the Success page is displayed; click the OK button:

Change the Flyout Menu Arrow Hover Color in SharePoint

2008-11-14T02:52:00.000-08:00

This is small, but gets me all of the time. When you are working with the Global Navigation (a.k.a. Top Nav Bar) in SharePoint and you are using 2 levels of flyout menus, the arrow that appears for the second level of items may show the wrong background color when you hover over the item or arrow.

As you start to alter the various colors and styles in the menu code, the background color behind the arrow does not reflect your changes or seem to pick up any styles from parent elements. Here is an example of this happening.

By default, the SharePoint menu code in the master page manually specifies a color for this hover effect:

You don't have to replace the color or specify a style, just delete the property and your colors will shine through.

This does require edits to the master page, there is no CSS class specified, so you can't change this with CSS only.

How to add to Sub-Sub Menu in SharePoint

2008-11-14T01:41:00.000-08:00

MOSS 2007 sites can display drop down menus in the tabbed navigation across the top. Unfortunately there is not an easy check box to activate this functionality; instead things just have to be set up the right way. If you want your MOSS site to show drop down menus, make sure the following is true or walk through the following steps:

1. From the root of the parent site (Home) choose to create a new site (Site 1). Once that site is created, you will be in that new site. From here choose to create a new page.

2. Once that is created,choose to create another new site (SubSite 1). Then create a new page in SubSite1

3. Your site structure should resemble like this (Pic Shown below)

4. For each site in the Navigation settings, both Show Subsites and Show Pages should be checked.

a. Select Site Actions - Site Settings - Modify Navigation.

b. Check Show subsites and Show pages in the first row.

5. The end result would be a tab in the horizontal bar for Site 1, with a vertical drop showing Sub Site 1.

The navigation shows sub sites under the parent and published pages at the parent. Pages for one site are stored flat in a single library. If you want the navigation to show 2nd level sub site pages or 3rd level sub sites under the 2nd level, you need to make a very minor tweak to the master page that the site is using.

1. Using SharePoint Designer (SPD), open the master page being used by the site. Warning! Making edits to this file will customize the file, a.k.a. unghost it. Don't worry you can always undo this action.

a. In SPD, navigate to _catalogs/masterpage/*.master

b. How do you know which master the site is using? In the site, go to Site Actions - Site Settings - Modify All Settings, then choose Master page under the Look and Feel column. Check which master page is selected in each drop down.

2. In the master page file, search for SharePoint:AspMenu.

a. You will more than likely have more than one instance of a menu control. Look at the IDs to find the right navigation control for what you want to edit. They are intelligently named, you will be able to sort out which one you need. For default.master, look for ID="TopNavigationMenu".

3. In the properties for the tag, find MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels="1". Change the number from 1-2.

4. Save the file and publish the master page (do this from SPD, Manage Content and Structure, or the Master Page Gallery).

5. Refresh your browser. Now when you mouse over Site 1 - Sub Site 1, you should see another level of navigation pop up. See sample.

Please don't abuse this dynamic display level. As tempting as it is to provide instant access to something 5 levels deep in your site, drop down menus notoriously aggravate end users. I highly recommend using no more than 2 levels (what we set in this walk through).

Add your own icons to SharePoint lists (such as pdf, mp3, etc.).

2008-11-11T22:52:00.000-08:00

Upload image in below Path:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES

After uploading image Edit this XML file:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML\DOCICON.XML

Map the file type to an icon:

How to Backup & Restore SharePoint Sites

2008-11-11T21:58:00.000-08:00

To Backup a single site with stsadm when the SharePoint backup/restore process fails, use
( It will create several files. ).

stsadm -o export -url "http://localhost/site/subsite" -filename "c:\subsite_files\"

To Restore

stsadm -o import -url "http:///site/subsite_b" -filename "c:\subsite_files\site.cmp"

Replace, if necessary, to your domain or machine and port name.

How to Hide Quick Launch Bar in MOSS 2007

2008-11-04T04:46:00.000-08:00

Add the following code in Content Editor webpart and hide this webpart.

Some Important DataBase Tables in MOSS 2007

2008-10-29T02:14:00.000-07:00

The list of some important tables in SharePoint Content Database are :
• Sites: This Table holds information about all the site collections for this content database.
• Webs: This Table holds information about all the specific sites (webs) in each site collection.
• UserInfo: This Table holds information about all the users for each site collection.
• Groups: This Table holds information about all the SharePoint groups in each site collection.
• Roles: This Table holds information about all the SharePoint roles (permission levels) for each site.
• AllLists: This Table holds information about lists for each site.
• GroupMembership: This Table holds information about all the SharePoint group members.
• AllUserData: This Table holds information about all the list items for each list.
• AllDocs: This Table holds information about all the documents (and all list items) for each document library and list.
• AllUserData: This table has all the metadata which user provides in a document library.
• RoleAssignment: This Table holds information about all the users or SharePoint groups that are assigned to roles.
• SchedSubscriptions: This Table holds information about all the scheduled subscriptions (alerts) for each user.
• ImmedSubscriptions: This Table holds information about all the immediate subscriptions (alerts) for each user.
Some queries with these tables:
-- Query to get all the top level site collections
SELECT SiteId AS Siteid, Id AS Webid, FullUrl AS FURL, Title, Author, TimeCreated FROM dbo.Webs WHERE (ParentWebId IS NULL)
-- Query to get all the child sites in a site collection
SELECT SiteId AS Siteid, Id AS Webid, FullUrl AS FURl, Title, Author, TimeCreated FROM dbo.Webs WHERE (NOT (ParentWebId IS NULL))
-- Query to get all the SharePoint groups in a site collection
SELECT dbo.Webs.SiteId, dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Groups.ID AS Expr1, dbo.Groups.Title AS Expr2, dbo.Groups.Description FROM dbo.Groups INNER JOIN dbo.Webs ON dbo.Groups.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId
-- Query to get all the users in a site collection
SELECT dbo.Webs.SiteId, dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID, dbo.UserInfo.tp_DomainGroup, dbo.UserInfo.tp_SiteAdmin, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Email FROM dbo.UserInfo INNER JOIN dbo.Webs ON dbo.UserInfo.tp_SiteID = dbo.Webs.SiteId
-- Query to get all the members of the SharePoint Groups
SELECT dbo.Groups.ID, dbo.Groups.Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Login FROM dbo.GroupMembership INNER JOIN dbo.Groups ON dbo.GroupMembership.SiteId = dbo.Groups.SiteId INNER JOINdbo.UserInfo ON dbo.GroupMembership.MemberId = dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID
-- Query to get all the sites where a specific feature is activated
SELECT dbo.Webs.Id AS WebGuid, dbo.Webs.Title AS WebTitle, dbo.Webs.FullUrl AS WebUrl, dbo.Features.FeatureId, dbo.Features.TimeActivatedFROM dbo.Features INNER JOIN dbo.Webs ON dbo.Features.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Features.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id WHERE (dbo.Features.FeatureId = '00AFDA71-D2CE-42fg-9C63-A44004CE0104')
-- Query to get all the users assigned to roles
SELECT dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Roles.RoleId, dbo.Roles.Title AS RoleTitle, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Login FROM dbo.RoleAssignment INNER JOIN dbo.Roles ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Roles.SiteId AND dbo.RoleAssignment.RoleId = dbo.Roles.RoleId INNER JOIN dbo.Webs ON dbo.Roles.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Roles.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id INNER JOIN dbo.UserInfo ON dbo.RoleAssignment.PrincipalId = dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID
-- Query to get all the SharePoint groups assigned to roles
SELECT dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Roles.RoleId, dbo.Roles.Title AS RoleTitle, dbo.Groups.Title AS GroupName FROM dbo.RoleAssignment INNER JOINdbo.Roles ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Roles.SiteId AND dbo.RoleAssignment.RoleId = dbo.Roles.RoleId INNER JOIN dbo.Webs ON dbo.Roles.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Roles.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id INNER JOIN dbo.Groups ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Groups.SiteId AND dbo.RoleAssignment.PrincipalId = dbo.Groups.ID

SharePoint: Site Templates, Site Definitions and Themes Explained

2008-07-05T03:01:00.000-07:00

SharePoint uses site definitions, site templates and themes for customization. While there are similarities in each, they are all very different and very powerful in their own right. Understanding each of these is key to customizing SharePoint.

SharePoint Themes

Difficult Level: Easy/Moderate

SharePoint themes are a collection of stylesheets and images which basically skin a site. While they do not control the layout they can be edited to customize the look and feel of a sites fonts, background colours, borders, links etc.

For example: If you wanted to change the border around a web part, or the title bar of a web part you would customize it via the theme.

By default there are several global stylesheets applied to all sites. This is true for both SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services. (Example: OWS.CSS, MENU.CSS and in Portal Server’s case SPS.CSS).

The global stylesheets are stored on the server in the following location
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\STYLES

The rule of thumb is stay away from these files because if you change them every site created from there on out will have that customization.

Best practices would suggest that If you want to skin your site you should create your own theme which can then modify and apply.

Themes are stored on the server in the following location:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\THEMES

The master list of all themes available (SPTHEMES.XML) is located on the server in the following location:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033

The readers digest version of Theme creation and setup;
1) Duplicate an existing theme,
2) Add the theme to the SPTHEMES.XML file
3) Customize the classes in your new theme as desired
4) Apply the theme (via site settings - http://YOUR-SERVER/_layouts/1033/themeweb.aspx)

When customizing themes it is not always easy to know what class/id is applied to what element. Fortunately there are several javascripts available to help you; Todd Bleeker has a nice one freely available, you can download Todd Bleekers Style Finder here.

SharePoint Site Templates
Difficulty Level: Moderate

Site templates are an easy way to archive your entire site into a single file. This includes all pages, lists, libraries and contents.

A site template can have one of two possible extensions depending on how you created it, these two types are also very unique.

If you created your template from the browser it will have an STP extension and if you created it via FrontPage 2003’s backup it will have a .FWP extension.

Site templates created via the browser (.STP) are useful for users that make modifications to a site by creating custom content elements (doc libs and lists) and want to use that as a benchmark for all future sites. When used this way they are not unghosted.

Site template created via FrontPage 2003 (.FWP) however are extreme customizations and are meant to be unique and independent of the portal. FrontPage 2003 site templates are not controlled by a master definition which is the default for all SharePoint sites. If you create this type site template, the site is from there on out on it’s own.

This is commonly referred to as “unghosted”. This has been a major issue for people wishing to customize their SharePoint sites via FrontPage 2003. This issue is being addressed in the next version of SharePoint.

A site template by default is not available globally on the server the way a site definition is so if you have a template you do not want applied by anyone else this may be a good alternative. You can however make it available globally by placing it in the site template gallery.

Once you have created a SharePoint site you can wrap it up into a site template which is still ghosted from your browser by visiting:
http://YOUR-SERVER/_layouts/1033/webadmin.aspx

Alternatively you can do extreme customizations via FrontPage 2003 and then create an unghosted site template by using the Tools -> Server -> Backup WebSite

If you are intereseted in learning more about creating SharePoint sites with extreme customizations and wrapping them into site templates you can view my on-going WSS site creation tutorial.

Another great reference to help you better understand these is the MSDN article, an Introduction to Site Templates and definitions.

SharePoint Site Definitions

Difficulty Level: Advanced

Site Definitions are the master templates behind SharePoint sites. Site definitions are used to optimize performance within SharePoint. The way it optimizes performance is it uses a single set of files to create every site based on that definition. This minimizes the need to duplicate files and is commonly referred to as “Ghosted”.

By default when you create a site you are asked to pick a template, this template is actually the site definition for that type of site. There are several types of definitions (Blank Site, Team Site, Meeting Workspace etc).

Site definitions are a very powerful way of creating a fully customized (site definition) which can be applied to any new sites from there on out. While it is a template, it is not an unghosted template.

For Example:If you created 1000 sites based on a single customized site definition and the logo you added changes, you just update a single .aspx file with the new logo and all sites will reflect the changes. The opposite would be said for site templates. If you have 1000 site templates, they would all have to be updated individually.

The beauty of this method is that the site definition controls “all” sites using it. Think of it the way CSS works only at a larger scale. You can control 1000 sites all from a single set of files.

Site definitions are created much the same way themes are, you duplicate an existing one, add a reference to a master list and then modify it accordinly. Site definitions require an IIS reset to show up in your list.

Site Definitions are stored on the server in the following location:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\1033

The master list of site definitions is called the WEBTEMP.XML file. Unlike theme setup however you do not edit this master reference file, instead you make a copy of it, it later gets appended to the main WEBTEMP file.

For example: If you duplicated a site definition and renamed it to TEST, you would also duplicate the WEBTEMP.XML file and call it WEBTEMPTEST.XML

Inside the WEBTEMP file you would modify the settings you want to reflect the name of your site definition. You can also remove any extra references that are un-needed.

The WEBTEMP file is located on the server in the following location:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\1033\XML

Each site definition contains an XML directory. Inside this directory there is an ONET.XML file. This file is of extreme importance as it controls the configuration of your definition. The ONET tells the definition what lists should be available, what columns/fields should be in the list, and things of that nature. You should be very careful when editing this file.

Ways of moving Site Structure/ Content from one site to another

2008-06-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

Web Package (.fwp file): This feature is used when we want to share or reuse Web pages or a site, list, or library structure. With Web packages, we can either package an entire site or choose just the specific pages, lists, or libraries that we want. Web packages are a great way to duplicate site structure, but they cannot include list data, subsites, or security and permissions settings. Also, a Web package can include custom link bars. After we create a package, we can import and deploy the file into as many Web sites as we want. This can be done with the help of Share Point Designer.

Backup and Restore (.cmp file): We use this feature when we want to make a backup copy of an entire site or subsite, or when we want to move an entire site or subsite to another server or location. Unlike Web packages, content migration packages include list data, and we cannot choose to include only specific site elements. some customizations or settings can be lost in the process. For example, the backup file does not include workflows, alerts, and properties stored at the site collection level. The backup file also does not include the Recycle Bin state or objects inside it. To use Backup and Restore, we must have administrator permissions to that site.

Site Template (.stp file): Use this feature when we want to create multiple Web sites that start with the same base content or site structure. For example, we may want all of the subsites created on a site to have a similar site structure, look and feel, and even content. We can do this by saving a site as a site template and adding it to the Site Template Gallery so that anyone can use the site as a template. Unlike Web packages, site templates can include list data if we want. We must have both administrator permissions to the Web site where we want to create the site template and write access to Site Template Gallery.

Introduction to Content Type in MOSS

2008-06-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

Content Type Definition: A content type is a reusable collection of settings we want to apply to a certain category of content. Content types enable us to manage the metadata and behaviors of a document or item type in a centralized, reusable way.

Problem that can be solved with Content Type: Suppose we want to store two entirely different kind of documents such as software specifications and legal contracts in the same document library. The metadata we would want to gather and store about each of these document types is also very different. In addition, we want to assign very different workflows to the two types of documents.

Solution with the content Type: Content types enable us to store multiple different types of content in the same document library or list. In the preceding problem statement, we could define two content types, named Specification and Contract. Each content type would include different columns for gathering and storing item metadata, as well as different workflows assigned to them. Yet items of both content types could be stored in the same document library.

Content Type Settings:
We can further extend content type functionality by using them to assign additional settings, such as workflows, or even custom attributes, to items.
A content type can include the following information:
· The metadata, or properties, you want to assign to this type. These are represented by columns added to the list or document library when you add the content type. Only site columns can be added to a content Type.
· Custom New, Edit, and Display forms to use with this content type.
· Workflows available for items of this content type. These can be defined to start automatically based on a selected event or condition, or through user selection.
· For document content types, the document template on which to base documents of this type.
· Any information necessary for custom solutions associated with this content type. We can store this information in the content type as one or more XML documents.

Content Type Creation:
We can create column and content types in three ways:
· Using the Windows SharePoint Services user interface
· Using the Windows SharePoint Services object model
· Deploying a Feature that installs the content type based on an XML definition file.

SharePoint Terminology

2008-06-26T21:42:00.001-07:00

Here are some important terms pertinent to SharePoint Technology:

Application page: Allows the use of inline custom code. Application pages or "_layout" pages are stored on the SharePoint Web server and made available via a Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) virtual directory. Though application pages behave much like other ASPX pages and allow the use of inline custom code, they differ from content pages in that they cannot be used to host SharePoint features such as dynamic Web Parts and Web Part zones.

Content type: A reusable collection of settings to apply to a certain category of content such as documents and folders. Content types are designed to help users organize their SharePoint content in a more meaningful way.

Custom action: Represents a link, toolbar button, menu item, or any control that can be added to a toolbar or menu that appears in the UI. We define custom actions by using a custom action element within a feature definition file. We can bind custom actions to a list type, content type, file type, or programmatic identifier (ProgID).

Event receiver: Evaluator of an event and definer of the behavior of an application. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 allows us to define event handlers within libraries, lists, and sites. Event receivers can be defined by using a receiver element within a feature definition file.

Feature: A package of Windows SharePoint Services elements that can be activated for a specific scope and that helps users accomplish a particular goal or task. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 introduces this inherently portable and modular functionality, which simplifies modification of sites through site definitions.
Master page: Pages that provide a consistent layout and appearance (look and feel) for SharePoint sites. They allow us to factor out layout, structure, and interface elements such as headers, footers, navigation bars, and content placeholders. Master pages in ASP.NET 2.0 and master pages in Windows SharePoint Services work in the same way.

Module: A file or collection of file instances that define the location where the files are installed during site creation. Modules are frequently used to implement a Web Part Page in the site. We can define modules by using a module element within a feature definition file.

SharePoint site: A Web site hosted in a virtual URL. A SharePoint site is a place for collaboration, communication, or content storage. Depending on your business needs, we can create sites such as team sites, blog sites, wiki sites, and others. We can customize a site's appearance, users, user permissions, galleries, and site administration by using the Site Settings administration pages.

SharePoint site collection: A collection of SharePoint sites that share common administration pages and site settings. Site collections allow you to share content types, site columns, templates, and Web Parts within a group of SharePoint sites.

SharePoint Web farm: A group of Office SharePoint 2007 servers that share the same configuration database. All site content and all configuration data is shared for all front-end Web servers in a server farm.
Site definition: A set of files that includes a master XML configuration file that is stored on all front-end Web servers. A site definition provides the basic blueprint for how sites look, what lists they include, their default navigational structures, and so on.

Site template: A package containing a set of differences and changes from a base site definition that is created through the UI or through implementation of the object model. The site template package is stored as a .cab-based file that can be downloaded or uploaded to site collections by users with the appropriate rights. Site templates offer a measure of portability to SharePoint applications.

Solution: A file that is a bundling of all the components for extending Windows SharePoint Services in a particular way. A solution file has a .cab-based format with a .wsp extension. A solution is a deployable, reusable package that can contain a set of Features, site definitions, and assemblies that apply to sites, and that you can enable or disable individually. We can use the solution file to deploy the contents of a Web Part package, including assemblies, class resources, and other package components.

Theme: A group of files (CSS, images) that allow you to define the appearance (look and feel) of Web pages. Themes in ASP.NET 2.0 and themes in SharePoint Products and Technologies work in the same way. Themes are used to help organizations to brand their portals and team sites. Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes a set of predefined themes. However, as a developer, we can create custom themes for our company.

Some Important Tables with SharePoint 2007

2008-06-26T21:41:00.002-07:00

Here is the list of some important tables in SharePoint Content DB:
Sites: This Table holds information about all the site collections for this content database.
Webs: This Table holds information about all the specific sites (webs) in each site collection.
UserInfo: This Table holds information about all the users for each site collection.
Groups: This Table holds information about all the SharePoint groups in each site collection.
Roles: This Table holds information about all the SharePoint roles (permission levels) for each site.
AllLists: This Table holds information about lists for each site.
GroupMembership: This Table holds information about all the SharePoint group members.
AllUserData: This Table holds information about all the list items for each list.
AllDocs: This Table holds information about all the documents (and all list items) for each document library and list.
AllUserData: This table has all the metadata which user provides in a document library.
RoleAssignment: This Table holds information about all the users or SharePoint groups that are assigned to roles.
SchedSubscriptions: This Table holds information about all the scheduled subscriptions (alerts) for each user.
ImmedSubscriptions: This Table holds information about all the immediate subscriptions (alerts) for each user.

Some queries with these tables:

-- Query to get all the top level site collections

SELECT SiteId AS Siteid, Id AS Webid, FullUrl AS FURL, Title, Author, TimeCreated FROM dbo.Webs WHERE (ParentWebId IS NULL)

-- Query to get all the child sites in a site collection

SELECT SiteId AS Siteid, Id AS Webid, FullUrl AS FURl, Title, Author, TimeCreated FROM dbo.Webs WHERE (NOT (ParentWebId IS NULL))

-- Query to get all the SharePoint groups in a site collection

SELECT dbo.Webs.SiteId, dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Groups.ID AS Expr1, dbo.Groups.Title AS Expr2, dbo.Groups.Description FROM dbo.Groups INNER JOIN dbo.Webs ON dbo.Groups.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId

-- Query to get all the users in a site collection

SELECT dbo.Webs.SiteId, dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID, dbo.UserInfo.tp_DomainGroup, dbo.UserInfo.tp_SiteAdmin, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Email FROM dbo.UserInfo INNER JOIN dbo.Webs ON dbo.UserInfo.tp_SiteID = dbo.Webs.SiteId

-- Query to get all the members of the SharePoint Groups

SELECT dbo.Groups.ID, dbo.Groups.Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Login FROM dbo.GroupMembership INNER JOIN dbo.Groups ON dbo.GroupMembership.SiteId = dbo.Groups.SiteId INNER JOINdbo.UserInfo ON dbo.GroupMembership.MemberId = dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID

-- Query to get all the sites where a specific feature is activated

SELECT dbo.Webs.Id AS WebGuid, dbo.Webs.Title AS WebTitle, dbo.Webs.FullUrl AS WebUrl, dbo.Features.FeatureId, dbo.Features.TimeActivatedFROM dbo.Features INNER JOIN dbo.Webs ON dbo.Features.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Features.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id WHERE (dbo.Features.FeatureId = '00AFDA71-D2CE-42fg-9C63-A44004CE0104')

-- Query to get all the users assigned to roles

SELECT dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Roles.RoleId, dbo.Roles.Title AS RoleTitle, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Login FROM dbo.RoleAssignment INNER JOIN dbo.Roles ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Roles.SiteId AND dbo.RoleAssignment.RoleId = dbo.Roles.RoleId INNER JOIN dbo.Webs ON dbo.Roles.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Roles.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id INNER JOIN dbo.UserInfo ON dbo.RoleAssignment.PrincipalId = dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID

-- Query to get all the SharePoint groups assigned to roles

SELECT dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Roles.RoleId, dbo.Roles.Title AS RoleTitle, dbo.Groups.Title AS GroupName FROM dbo.RoleAssignment INNER JOINdbo.Roles ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Roles.SiteId AND dbo.RoleAssignment.RoleId = dbo.Roles.RoleId INNER JOIN dbo.Webs ON dbo.Roles.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Roles.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id INNER JOIN dbo.Groups ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Groups.SiteId AND dbo.RoleAssignment.PrincipalId = dbo.Groups.ID

Introduction to Social Networking Web Parts in SharePoint 2007

2008-06-26T21:41:00.001-07:00

Colleagues Web Part: This web part helps users to present their colleagues to visitors. The colleagues list is a presentation of other organization members that the specified user works closely with in terms of organizational structure, interaction (that is, e-mail and instant messaging conversations) and memberships. Users can also manually add and remove colleagues.

Colleague Tracker Web Part: This web part enables organization members to privately view their list of compiled colleagues and to modify their views and inclusion in their colleagues list. The colleague tracker Web Part enables the presentation of recommended colleagues and enables the user to modify colleague tracking by profile information. For example, users can modify the colleague tracker to present updated colleagues when anniversaries, profile properties, authored documents, and blogs change. Additionally, scoping the presentation can occur when users choose to view colleagues specifically for the user’s workgroup or organization-wide.

SharePoint Sites, Links, and Membership Web Parts: Provide the ability for users to view their own Office SharePoint Server site, group and mail list memberships and links as well as those that they have in common with others. Additionally, visitors can view a user’s memberships, Office SharePoint Server Sites and distribution group memberships.

In Common With Web Part: Provides a summary view of information relating to the memberships, organizational managers and colleagues that a visitor has in common with the owner of a My Site.

Presence Information: When coupled with Office Communications Server and Exchange Server, presence information that indicates online instant messaging status, Out of Office messages and contact information is displayed whenever user information is presented (that is, colleagues and colleague tracker Web Parts, etc.).

Playing Audio / Video files within SharePoint

2008-06-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

To play the Audio/Video files in SharePoint follow these steps:

1. Upload the file into a document library.
2. Add a content Editor Web Part to your site.
3. Add the code in the HTML:

Notes:
1. CLASSID="CLSID:6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6" is the class id for Windows Media player.
2. URL will point to the location of the file. Upload this file to document library and put the URL for that file.
3. autoStart specifies value indicating whether the current media item begins playing automatically.
4. uiMode specifies which controls are shown in the user interface.
Possible values: invisible, none, mini, full.
5. PlayCount specifies the number of times a media item will play. Minimum value of one.

10 Tips To Prevent Credit Card Fraud

2008-06-04T02:06:00.000-07:00

Imagine opening your credit card statement one morning and
discovering to your horror that you suddenly owe thousands
of dollars - on purchases that you never made.
Impossible?

Credit card fraud on the rise, so you need to treat your
card and its information with extreme care.

Here are 10 tips to help insure you're not the victim of
thieves and fraudsters:

1. Sign new and replacement cards immediately.

2. Destroy the old cards by cutting them into pieces and
shred all old receipts and bills.

3. Don't fax your credit-card number, if possible. Remember,
the faxed document could remain in sight at the other end
for long periods of time.

4. Don't give your card number over the phone unless you
have initiated the call.

5. Destroy any carbon paper if it's used as part of the
credit card transaction. Somebody can grab it and forge
your signature.

6. Don't respond to any "scam" e-mails requesting your
credit card number.

7. Never send your credit card number in an e-mail to
anyone!

8. A good option for discouraging theft is to choose a
credit card that includes your photo and signature on the
card.

9. If you have questions about mistakes or unauthorized
items on your statement, you have the right to challenge
them.

10. If your card is lost, stolen, or you suspect fraudulent
use, call your company's 24-hour hotline immediately to
prevent your card from being used as little as possible. The
company will block its use, and you won't be responsible for
any charges made by thieves.

You'll never deter fraudsters completely. But you can
certainly make life as difficult as possible for them.

PROTECT YOUR E-MAIL

2008-06-04T02:05:00.001-07:00

Is your boss or even some co-worker secretly reading your email ? Are the Federal agencies snooping your email messages ? Following are two simple techniques that can help you confirm your suspicion - it detects snoopers and can track the address of the computer that is watching your email.

Remember that for steps 3 & 4, you can create a free account on geocities.com, create a dummy HTML file that contains Statcounter or Google Analytics tracking script.

1. Set up a Hotmail account in US and and a second email account with a non-U.S. provider. (eg. Rediff.com or IndiaTimes.com)
2. Send messages between the two email accounts which might be interesting to the email snooper or NSA who may be monitoring your email.
3. In each message, include a unique URL to a Web server (link to the dummy file on geocities.com containing the tracking code) that you have access to its server logs. This URL should only be known by you and not linked to from any other Web page. The text of the message should encourage an NSA monitor or email snooper to visit the URL.
4. If the server log file ever shows this URL being accessed, then you know that you are being snooped on. The IP address of the access can also provide clues about who is doing the snooping.

The other technique uses Google Analytics for tracking the email impressions.

1. Create an email email message such that Urchin with the following HTML code to embed the __utm.gif image anywhere in your email message.

The email impressions would be credited to the source "news1" and the medium "email". As soon as someone ones your email, the impression will be registered on Google Analytics server as the gif file is downloaded on the spying computer.

2. If the email recipient has disabled automatic downloading of internet images, you can create a campaign link to track the email referrals. Tag these links using the utm_ campaign variables.

Continuing with the example above of an email message which you track using the source "news1" and the medium "email," your tagged link might look like this:

< a href="www.mywebsite.com/?utm_source=news1&utm_medium=email"

Update: According to NYT, the volume of information gathered from telephone and Internet communications by the National Security Agency without court-approved warrants was much larger than the White House has acknowledged.

Americans come to the program's attention only if they have received a call or e-mail message from a person overseas who is already suspected to be a member of certain terrorist groups or linked somehow to a member of such groups. And the agency still gets a warrant to intercept their calls or e-mail messages to other people in the United States.

PLAY WITH regedit

2008-06-03T22:57:00.001-07:00

Well, the total thing is going very long, lets do it in short. Open registry and navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/Policies\explorer". Under this create a DWORD-Value and name it from the list below to impose restriction. The value of which will be 1 to restrict and 0 to remove restriction. Lets look at the following list:

NoDeletePrinter: Disables Deletion of already installed Printers
NoAddPrinter: Disables Addition of new Printers
NoRun : Disables or hides the Run Command
NoSetFolders: Removes Folders from the Settings option on Start Menu (Control Panel, Printers, Taskbar)
NoSetTaskbar: Removes Taskbar system folder from the Settings option on Start Menu
NoFind: Removes the Find Tool (Start >Find)
NoDrives: Hides and does not display any Drives in My Computer
NoNetHood: Hides or removes the Network Neighborhood icon from the desktop
NoDesktop: Hides all items including, file, folders and system folders from the Desktop
NoClose: Disables Shutdown and prevents the user from normally shutting down Windows.
NoSaveSettings: Means to say, 'Don't save settings on exit'
DisableRegistryTools: Disable Registry Editing Tools (If you disable this option, the Windows Registry Editor(regedit.exe) too will not work.). So be very careful.
NoRecentDocsHistory: Removes Recent Document system folder from the Start Menu (IE 4 and above)
NoFileMenu _ Hides the Files Menu in Explorer
NoActiveDesktop - No Active Desktop
NoActiveDesktopChanges- No changes allowed
NoInternetIcon - No Internet Explorer Icon on the Desktop
NoFavoritesMenu - Hides the Favorites menu
NoChangeStartMenu _ Disables changes to the Start Menu
NoFolderOptions _ Hides the Folder Options in the Explorer
NoLogoff - Hides the Log Off .... in the Start Menu
NoViewOnDrive – Restrict a drive to open
NoTrayContextMenu - No context menu in tray.
NoStartMenuSubFolders
NoWindowsUpdate
NoViewContextMenu
EnforceShellExtensionSecurity
LinkResolveIgnoreLinkInfo
NoDriveTypeAutoRun
NoStartBanner
NoSetActiveDesktop
NoNetConnectDisconnect
ClearRecentDocsOnExit: Clears the Recent Documents system folder on Exit.
RestrictRun - Disables all exe programs except those listed in the RestrictRun subkey
Under the same key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/Policies" you can create new subkeys other than the already existing Explorer key. Now create a new key and name it System. Under this new key, system we can create the following new DWORD values(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular
option):
· NODispCPL: Hides Control Panel
· NoDispBackgroundPage: Hides Background page.
· NoDispScrsavPage: Hides Screen Saver Page
· NoDispAppearancePage: Hides Appearance Page
· NoDispSettingsPage: Hides Settings Page
· NoSecCPL: Disables Password Control Panel
· NoPwdPage: Hides Password Change Page
· NoAdminPaqe: Hides Remote Administration Page
· NoProfilePage: Hides User Profiles Page
· NoDevMgrPage: Hides Device Manager Page
· NoConfigPage: Hides Hardware Profiles Page
· NoFileSysPage: Hides File System Button
· NoVirtMemPage: Hides Virtual Memory Button
Similarly, if we create a new subkey named WinOldApp, we can add the following
DWORD values under it(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the
particular option):
Disabled: Disable MS-DOS Prompt
NoRealMode: Disable Single-Mode MS-DOS

Shutdown your system by just one click

2008-06-03T22:54:00.001-07:00

1. Create a shortcut by right clicking on your desktop->New->shortcut...
2. give the value as follows without the square brackets ..
[shutdown -s -t 05 -c "please wait"]
3.Just Enjoy after that...

Hiding Disk Drives!!!

2008-06-03T22:53:00.001-07:00

Follow these steps to hide disk drives...

1.Open Registry and navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer".

2.Create a new entry by clicking on edit-> new->"Dword value". Name the value as 3fffffff.Now each drive letter has a number.

3.The value of the key will be the sum of the drive letter numbers. Some of the numbers are :
A:=1, B:=2,C:\4,D:=8,e:=16,f:=32,g:=64,H:=128,I:=256,j:=512,k:=1024,L:=2048 and so on. .....

4.Now if you want to hide "C:" and "D:" , you just have to enter value as '12'(4+8). Enter as decimal value in the dword key and restart windows.

5.To get back your drives just delete the key called "3fffffff".

A simple test for you......

2008-06-03T22:51:00.001-07:00

A test for you.If you answer atleast 5 out of them you are good.

1. What programming language is GOOGLE developed in?
2. What is the expansion of YAHOO?
3. What is the expansion of ADIDAS?
4. Expansion of Star as in Star TV Network?
5. What is expansion of "ICICI?"
6. What does "baker's dozen" signify?
7. The 1984-85 season. 2nd ODI between India and Pakistan at Sialkot - India 210/3 with
Vengsarkar 94*. Match abandoned. Why?
8. Who is the only man to have written the National Anthems for two different countries?
9. From what four word expression does the word `goodbye` derive?
10. How was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu better known?
11. Name the only other country to have got independence on Aug 15th other than India?
12. Why was James Bond Associated with the Number 007?
13. Who faced the first ball in the first ever One day match in cricket?
14. Which cricketer played for South Africa before it was banned from international
cricket and later represented Zimbabwe ?
15. The faces of which four Presidents are carved at Mt.Rushmore?
16. Which is the only country that is surrounded from all sides by only one country
(other than Vatican )?
17. Which is the only sport which is not allowed to play left handed?

Wanna check the answers????
HERE ARE THE ANSWERS ........

1. Google is written in Asynchronous java-script and XML, or its acronym Ajax ..
2. Yet Another Hierarchy of Officious Oracle
3. ADIDAS- All Day I Dream About Sports
4. Satellite Television Asian Region
5. Industrial credit and Investments Corporation of India
6. A baker's dozen consists of 13 items - 1 more than the items in a normal dozen
7. That match was abandoned after people heard the news of Indira Gandhi being killed.
8. Rabindranath Tagore who wrote national anthem for two different countries one is Indian
's National anthem and another one is for Bangladesh- (Amar Sonar* *Bangla)
9. Goodbye comes from the ex-pression: 'god be with you'.
10. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu is none other Mother Teresa.
11. South Korea ..
12. Because 007 is the ISD code for Russia (or the USSR , as it was known during the cold war)
13. Geoffrey Boycott
14. John Traicos
15. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln
16. Lesotho surrounded from all sides by South Africa ..
17. Polo.

Comparing SharePoint Server with ASP.NET

2008-05-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some of Advantages/Disadvantages of SharePoint apps over ASP.Net apps:

Advantages:
1. Many built-in features are available with MOSS which can be used to easily develop complex solutions.
2. Rich Security features which come built in.
3. Integrated with Content Management.
4. Very less efforts required to create basic sites with lot of features.
5. It is quite scalable.
6. OOB Integration with Office products.
7. Rich backup techniques
8. Business process can be integrated with Workflows.
9. Multiple sites can be created with the help of templates.

Disadvantages:
1. It is difficult to add custom code in SharePoint. Features and WSP files take time.
2. Diffcult to solve the problems in development.
3. Creating ASP.net pages is easy then creating web parts.
4. Cost is very high.
5. Performance for ASP.NET apps is much better.
6. Very few experts are there.

Advantages/Disadvantages of ASP.Net apps over SharePoint apps:

Advantages:
1. Here we have lot of control on application in terms of DB, UI.
2. Less cost to build.
3. Easy to develop and deploy.
4. Plenty of resources.

Disadvantages:
1. Takes lot more time to get same functionality as of SharePoint.
2. There is nothing built in. So every solution needs to start from zero.
3. Good DB knowledge is also required to create sites having data.
4. Security needs to build.

Dynamic left navigation width for SharePoint

2008-05-06T01:30:00.000-07:00

To add this functionality to your SharePoint site you need to update default.master. Simply copy and paste the following code into a script tag in your default.master. Save it and the left navigation should become expandable.

http://blog.thekid.me.uk/Media/navwidth_thekid.ieuser.js

13 Quick Tips To Search Google Like An Expert

2008-04-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

1. Explicit Phrase: Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing. Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase. To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.

Example: “internet marketing”

2. Exclude Words: Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising. To do this, simply use the “-“ sign in front of the word you want to exclude.

Example Search: internet marketing -advertising

3. Site Specific Search: Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase. Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the “site:somesite.com” modifier.

Example: “internet marketing” site:www.smallbusinesshub.com

4. Similar Words and Synonyms: Let’s say you are want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms. To do this, use the “~” in front of the word.

Example: “internet marketing” ~professional

5. Specific Document Types: If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier “filetype:”. For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.

Example: “internet marketing” filetype:ppt

6. This OR That: By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search. If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator. (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).

Example: internet marketing OR advertising

7. Phone Listing: Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know how it is. If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.

Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note: the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).

8. Area Code Lookup: If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.

Example: 617

9. Numeric Ranges: This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip. Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers. You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods. This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.

Example: president 1940..1950

10. Stock (Ticker Symbol): Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.

Example: GOOG

11. Calculator: The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.

Example: 48512 * 1.02

12. Word Definitions: If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the “define:” command.

Example: define:plethora

Hope this proves useful in your future Google searches. If there are any of your favorite Google power tips that I’ve missed, please feel free to share them in the comments.

Actually,13 tips to use google like an expert Grin

13. Searching for URLs containing certain words. Use the "inurl:word" modifier.

Example site:forumw.org inurl:discuss

Hack the Rapidshare

2008-03-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

I found this very useful post in the system hacks blog.It is my second post from that blog.Though I am against plagiarism,I couldn't help it.This post is very useful for download freaks like me.Rapidshare which is as good as torrent,restricts your downloads.So here I have mentioned some methods to overcome it.

Method 1

1.open your rapid share link
2.then click on free.
3.As soon as timer start type this in address bar and click enter
javascript:alert(c=0)
4.a pop up message will come click ok your counter is zero and just download .

Method 2

1.Delete the cookies in your browser internet explorer or Firefox or opera or whatever u use).
2.Press start->run,type cmd.
3.In the command prompt,type ipconfig/flushdns press enter.Then type ipconfig/release,then ipconfig/renew .Now type exit.
4.Now try downloading, for many people this may work if their ISP provides a dynamic ip.

Hope you found this post useful!

Windows XP Shortcuts

2008-03-29T11:06:00.001-07:00

--------------------------------------------------------------
ALT+- (ALT+hyphen) Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window's System menu
ALT+ENTER View properties for the selected item
ALT+ESC Cycle through items in the order they were opened
ALT+F4 Close the active item, or quit the active program
ALT+SPACEBAR Display the System menu for the active window
ALT+TAB Switch between open items
ALT+Underlined letter Display the corresponding menu
BACKSPACE View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer
CTRL+A Select all
CTRL+B Bold
CTRL+C Copy
CTRL+I Italics
CTRL+O Open an item
CTRL+U Underline
CTRL+V Paste
CTRL+X Cut
CTRL+Z Undo
CTRL+F4 Close the active document
CTRL while dragging Copy selected item
CTRL+SHIFT while dragging Create shortcut to selected iteM
CTRL+RIGHT ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word
CTRL+LEFT ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word
CTRL+DOWN ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph
CTRL+UP ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph
SHIFT+DELETE Delete selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin
ESC Cancel the current task
F1 Displays Help
F2 Rename selected item
F3 Search for a file or folder
F4 Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer
F5 Refresh the active window
F6 Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop
F10 Activate the menu bar in the active program
SHIFT+F10 Display the shortcut menu for the selected item
CTRL+ESC Display the Start menu
SHIFT+CTRL+ESC Launches Task Manager
SHIFT when you insert a CD Prevent the CD from automatically playing
WIN Display or hide the Start menu
WIN+BREAK Display the System Properties dialog box
WIN+D Minimizes all Windows and shows the Desktop
WIN+E Open Windows Explorer
WIN+F Search for a file or folder
WIN+F+CTRL Search for computers
WIN+L Locks the desktop
WIN+M Minimize or restore all windows
WIN+R Open the Run dialog box
WIN+TAB Switch between open items
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Explorer Shortcuts
-------------------------------------------------------------
ALT+SPACEBAR - Display the current window’s system menu
SHIFT+F10 - Display the item's context menu
CTRL+ESC - Display the Start menu
ALT+TAB - Switch to the window you last used
ALT+F4 - Close the current window or quit
CTRL+A - Select all items
CTRL+X - Cut selected item(s)
CTRL+C - Copy selected item(s)
CTRL+V - Paste item(s)
CTRL+Z - Undo last action
CTRL+(+) - Automatically resize the columns in the right hand pane
TAB - Move forward through options
ALT+RIGHT ARROW - Move forward to a previous view
ALT+LEFT ARROW - Move backward to a previous view
SHIFT+DELETE - Delete an item immediately
BACKSPACE - View the folder one level up
ALT+ENTER - View an item’s properties
F10 - Activate the menu bar in programs
F6 - Switch between left and right panes
F5 - Refresh window contents
F3 - Display Find application
F2 - Rename selected item
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet Explorer Shortcuts
--------------------------------------------------------------
CTRL+A - Select all items on the current page
CTRL+D - Add the current page to your Favorites
CTRL+E - Open the Search bar
CTRL+F - Find on this page
CTRL+H - Open the History bar
CTRL+I - Open the Favorites bar
CTRL+N - Open a new window
CTRL+O - Go to a new location
CTRL+P - Print the current page or active frame
CTRL+S - Save the current page
CTRL+W - Close current browser window
CTRL+ENTER - Adds the http://www. (url) .com
SHIFT+CLICK - Open link in new window
BACKSPACE - Go to the previous page
ALT+HOME - Go to your Home page
HOME - Move to the beginning of a document
TAB - Move forward through items on a page
END - Move to the end of a document
ESC - Stop downloading a page
F11 - Toggle full-screen view
F5 - Refresh the current page
F4 - Display list of typed addresses
F6 - Change Address bar and page focus
ALT+RIGHT ARROW - Go to the next page
SHIFT+CTRL+TAB - Move back between frames
SHIFT+F10 - Display a shortcut menu for a link
SHIFT+TAB - Move back through the items on a page
CTRL+TAB - Move forward between frames
CTRL+C - Copy selected items to the clipboard
CTRL+V - Insert contents of the clipboard
ENTER - Activate a selected link
HOME - Move to the beginning of a document
END - Move to the end of a document
F1 - Display Internet Explorer Help

How To Change Thumbnail Size And Quality

2008-03-29T10:50:00.002-07:00

If any of you out there like to use the thumbnail view, especially for browsing through photos and images, it can become a bit of a drain on your system. It is possible to lower the thumbnail size and quality by editing the following registry keys.

Open the registry and navigate to :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft \ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer

Create a new DWORD value called ThumbnailSize, and set the value between 32 and 256.

And/or create another DWORD value called ThumbnailQuality, and set the value between 50 and 100.

Key Details :

USER Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft \ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer]
Value Name: ThumbnailSize
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Data Value: 32 - 256

USER Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft \ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer]
Value Name: ThumbnailQuality
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Data Value: 50 - 100

A Few Questions......And the logical answers......

2008-03-29T10:50:00.001-07:00

Q- In Kashmir 48 temples were destroyed (as disclosed in the parliament) prior to the Babri Masjid episode, Why was there no Hue and Cry???
A- We are Secular.

Q-In Bangladesh, Nearly 900 Temples were bulldozed - Why was there no protest?
A-We are Secular.

Q-In Pakistan, Even the talk of conversion warrants death penalty.Why in India conversion is within the constitution?
A-We are Secular

Q-In Bangladesh when Taslima Nasreen wrote a book Lajja on how the Hindu Minority is treated, The book was banned and the Author was threatened to death by Jamat-e-Islami.But in our country large sums are received from foreign countries for reducing the majority into minority.Why is this so?
A-We are Secular

Q-The Attack on Muslims in Gujrat is really unfortunate.It has been decried by most of the countries worldwide.BUT WHY they were silent and are still silent when THREE AND A HALF LAKH Kashmiri Pandits were thrown out lock stock and Barrel by the Muslim Majority in their OWN BIRTHPLACE?
A-We are Secular

Q-When members of the Hindu Minority were killed,Their women raped ,Houses Looted and Burnt,WHY were the secular leaders in our own country remained quiet?
A-They are Super-Secular

Q-M.F Hussain painted Goddess Saraswati in Nude.The attack on him was condemned by these Super-Seculars. When Sir Salman Rushdie wrote Satanic Verses,Iran declared death sentence for him and India was the first country to ban the book .THEN WHY DID OUR COUNTRY HESITATE TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST M.F HUSSAIN?
A-We are Secular

Q-Pakistan Is an Islamic Republic and Shariat laws have been introduced.Bangladesh is an Islamic Republic but in our country Saraswati Vandana and Vande Mataram are objected to in Schools. Why So???
A-We are Secular

Q-After Partition the Hindu Population in Pakistan was reduced to 0.4% against 5% but in out country Minority population has increased from 7% to 11%.In addition to that we have One Crore Bangladeshis to look after.Why?
A-We are Secular

Q-In srinagar, Some years back(in the late 70s),In a Cricket match between India and West Indies, The Kashmiris,STONED THE INDIAN PLAYERS and shouted "INDIAN DOGS GO BACK.". It was not Decried by any Political Party or by any of the so-called self-imposed leaders.
Congress was then in Power. In Pakistan, this incident was highlighted in the press then WHY was there such a hue and cry about shiv sena and the Feroz-Shah Kotla Ground Episode?Why cannot we Deal with the Anti-Indian Agents?
A-We are Secular

BLOCK OR UNBLOCK WEBSITES WITHOUT SOFTWARES:

2008-03-29T10:49:00.001-07:00

Many times in schools, colleges & offices surfing some sites like orkut,etc are banned !
To overcome this you can unblock these or block some other websites and play pranks !

Do The Following :
For eg you want to block www.xyz.com !

* Open the folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
* There you will find a file named HOSTS
* Click on the file and press SHIFT and now right click on it .
* From the right click menu select Open with .
* Now, select Notepad to open the file from the list !
* Now, in the file under the line 127.0.0.1 localhost add another line as 127.0.0.2 www.xyz.com.
* Now, File>>Save !

Now, open your web browser and try openning www.xyz.com , it will not load !

To unblock sites just do the opposite !

MAKE XP GENUINE WITHOUT ANY SOFTWARES:

2008-03-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

MAKE XP GENUINE WITHOUT ANY SOFTWARES:

To make your Windows XP genuine so that you can avail the updates from microsoft , Do the Following :

1. Start > Run > "regedit" (without the quotes of course)

2. Go To The Key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents\OOBETimer

...and doubleclick on it and edit the replace first 2 digits with 67.

3. Start > Run > "%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a" (again, dont type the quotes)

4. The activation screen will come up, click on register over telephone, then click on CHANGE PRODUCT KEY, enter in this key: JG28K-H9Q7X-BH6W4-3PDCQ-6XBFJ.

5. No need to Enter confirmation code, now just click remind me later and ITS DONE !

LOCK UR FOLDER WITHOUT ANY SOFTWARE:

2008-03-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

LOCK UR FOLDER WITHOUT ANY SOFTWARE:

You can lock and unlock your folder with this simple trick !

Procedure :
1. Make a folder on the desktop and name it as "folder"
2. Now, open notepad and write ren folder folder.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} and now (Notepad Menu) File>save as.
3. In the 'save as' name it as lock.bat and click save ! (Save it on Desktop)
4. Now, again open notepad again and write ren folder.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} folder and now (Notepad Menu) File>save as.
5. In the 'save as' name it as key.bat and click save ! (Save it on Desktop)
6. Now, double click lock.bat to lock the folder and now if you open your folder, control panel will open up !
7. Now, double click key.bat to open the folder and now if you open your folder, you can access your data inside the folder again !
8. Lock your folder and hide the key.bat somewhere else on your hard disk !
9. Whenever you want to open your folder just paste the key.bat on desktop and open your folder using it !

Simple !

GOOGLE SEARCH TIPS:

2008-03-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

GOOGLE SEARCH TIPS:
You can make your search more efficient by learning some search basics !

Try these tips :
1. Use Of '+' sign :
This ensures that the results returned to you will definatly consist of the word following the '+' sign. For Eg :
Search: reviews of +iPhone and iPod
This will show results containing the word reviews or iPod but the results will definatly consist of iPhone !

2. Use Of '-' sign :
Using '-' sign before any word will ensure that the particular word will not be included in the results !

3. Use Of '~' sign :
Using '~' before any word will return the results also containing the synonyms of the word !

4. Search a particular site :
To search a particular website you can use the following syntax in the google search :
Search: site:www.xyz.com abc
For Eg :
Search: site:http://pcremix.blogspot.com/ Google Search Tips

5. Define a word :
To get the definition of a word just use :
Search: define:abc
For Eg : Search: define:Computer
This will return you results which define 'Computer'.

6. Find Pages similar to a page :
To find a page similar i.e. consisting of same type of content, use the following syntax :
Search: related:http://www.xyz.com/

7. Search for exact phrase :
To search a set of words exactly together i.e.
For Eg :
Search: "contact us"
This will return the results containing both contact and us together !

8. Using the wild card '*' :
The * sign can be used in places where the whole word is not known.
For Eg:
Search: friend*
This will return the results containing friend , friends , friendship.

9. Using the '?' sign :
This is used when the full spelling of the word is not known.
For Eg:
Search: fri??d
This will result that in the results in which any alphabet can take the place of '?' sign.

10. Use of boolean operators :
The boolean operators like AND,OR,NOT can be used in search box to connect the words !
The search engine understands them as what they mean but the must be in capital letters !
For Eg:
Search: swim OR float
This will return the results containing either swim or float !

Top 20 replies by programmers when their programs don't work:

2008-03-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Top 20 replies by programmers when their programs don't work:

20. "That's weird..."
19. "It's never done that before."
18. "It worked yesterday."
17. "How is that possible?"
16. "It must be a hardware problem."
15. "What did you type in wrong to get it to crash?"
14. "There is something funky in your data."
13. "I haven't touched that module in weeks!"
12. "You must have the wrong version."
11. "It's just some unlucky coincidence."
10. "I can't test everything!"
9. "THIS can't be the source of THAT."
8. "It works, but it hasn't been tested."
7. "Somebody must have changed my code."
6. "Did you check for a virus on your system?"
5. "Even though it doesn't work, how does it feel?
4. "You can't use that version on your system."
3. "Why do you want to do it that way?"
2. "Where were you when the program blew up?"
1. And the Number One Reply by Programmers when their programs don't work: "I thought I fixed that."

Using ADO.NET with SQL Server

2008-02-26T21:51:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Using ADO.NET with SQL Server and Access

As a developer, I find that an incredible amount of my time is spent dealing with databases in some form or another - be it displaying, manipulating or analyzing data; creating client or server applications. The advent of the .NET Framework has brought with it some major changes, and database access is certainly no exception. Although ADO has been around since 1996, with the arrival of ASP, its latest incarnation present in the .NET Framework - ADO.NET - really does represent its coming-of-age. This new architecture is so extensive, that I can only hope to give you a brief introduction. Although the article is using the SQL server data access components, much applies equally as well to using Microsoft Access. We'll be covering connecting to a SQL Server database, executing queries, calling stored procedures, filtering data, and reflecting changes in a database - and point you in the direction of further resources for more in-depth discussions on particular topics. I've provided code in both VB and C# if there are any major syntatical differences, and the rest in C#.

If you've got any comments, or if I've made any stupid mistakes, then feel free to drop me a line!
Connecting to the database

In order to use ADO.NET, we'll need to import two namespaces:

[VB]
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Data.SqlClient

[C#]
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

In order to establish a connection with SQL Server, we use the SqlConnection object. There are also generic OleDbConnection and OdbcConnection objects present in the System.Data.OleDb and System.Data.Odbc namespaces for use with other data sources such as Access (NB: support for ODBC was added in .NET 1.1). This would work in exactly the same way as illustrated here, but as Microsoft were kind enough to provide a data access class specifically optimized for SQL server, we might as well take advantage of it! If you're using Access, then you can literally replace every occurence of SqlSomething with OleDbSomething.

Opening a connection is very simple:

[VB]
' create a new SqlConnection object with the appropriate connection string
Dim sqlConn As New SqlConnection(connectionString) 'OleDbConnection i
' open the connection
sqlConn.Open()
// do some operations here...
// close the connection
sqlConn.Close()

[C#]

// create a new SqlConnection object with the appropriate connection string
SqlConnection sqlConn = new SqlConnection(connectionString)
// open the connection
sqlConn.Open();
// do some operations ...
// close the connection
sqlConn.Close();

with the connection string usually taking this form:
server=serverAddress;uid=username;pwd=password;database=database;

It is probably worth noting at this stage something about connection pooling. The idea behind connection pooling is simple - instead of incurring a large amount of overhead each time a connection to database server is established and closed, once a connection has been opened, it remains open for the lifetime of the process, available to be used again if needed. Pooling database connections can significantly enhance the performance and scalability of your application. The .NET data providers automatically pool connections for you. However, to take maximum advantage of these, you should take note of the following:
Connections are only pooled if they have the same connection string; so ensure this is always constant.
When finished with a SqlConnection object, call Dispose() or Close() to release the connection back to the pool.
In order to keep the maximum number of connections available, you should keep connections open for a short as period as possible - remembering that thanks to connection pooling, re-opening a database connection will incur little overhead.

For more information on connection pooling, take a look at this MSDN page.

Once open, you can't do much with a SqlConnection object on its own - other than close the connection again, and query its connection status using the ConnectionState property, so we'll move on to how we go about querying the database.

Executing a SQL query and SqlDataReader

In order to execute a SQL query, or a stored procedure (covered later) on the server, we use the SqlCommand object. The constructor that we'll use here accepts the query to execute, and the connection that it should use:

[VB]
' create the command object
Dim sqlComm As New SqlCommand("SELECT userid,username FROM users ORDER BY username", sqlConn)

[C#]
// create the command object
SqlCommand sqlComm = new SqlCommand("SELECT userid,username FROM users ORDER BY username", sqlConn);

From here, we have a number of methods to choose from in order to execute the query.

      Item                                                                           Description
ExecuteReader            ---->     Executes the query, and returns a SqlDataReader object.
ExecuteNonQuery      ---->     Executes the query, and does not collect any results.
                                                      Generally used for queries such as UPDATE and DELETE.
ExecuteScalar              ---->     Executes the query, and returns a single value
                                                     (from the first column of the first row).

If we're not interested in the result of a query (other than whether it executed successfully or not), then use ExecuteNonQuery(). For example,

[C#]
// create the command object
SqlCommand sqlComm = new SqlCommand("DELETE FROM users WHERE userid=1", sqlConn);
sqlComm.ExecuteNonQuery();

If you're performing a query, and are only interested in the first column of the first row returned, then use ExecuteScalar(), and cast the result to the appropriate data type. For example,

[C#]
// create the command object
SqlCommand sqlComm = new SqlCommand("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users", sqlConn);
int userCount = (int)sqlComm.ExecuteScalar();
Using the DataReader

The most common case, however, is going to be when we're retrieving multiple rows and columns of data. In this case, we use the ExecuteReader method, which returns an instance of a SqlDataReader object. Like its cousin OleDbDataReader, this provides read-only forward access to rows returned by the SqlCommand object.

So, now we've got this SqlDataReader object, what can we do with it? If you're interested in whether the query returned any results at all, or how many rows were affected by the query (usually due to DELETE or UPDATE statements) then check the HasRows and RecordsAffected properties.

First, call the Read() method, which advances the reader to the first row (and then to the next row on subsequent calls), and returns a boolean value indicating whether there was actually a row to read. Now we're free to access any columns that we see fit - we've got three different ways to do this - and then remember to call Close() on the DataReader (and the database connection, if need be).

If you want to access them by name - probably the most common and readable option - you can use the reader's indexer:

[VB]
Dim sqlComm As New SqlCommand("SELECT userid,username FROM users ORDER BY username", sqlConn)
Dim r As SqlDataReader = sqlComm.ExecuteReader()
While r.Read()
Dim username As String = CStr(r("username"))
Dim userID As Integer = CInt(r("userid"))
Debug.WriteLine((username + "(" + userID + ")"))
End While
r.Close()

[C#]
SqlCommand sqlComm = new SqlCommand("SELECT userid,username FROM users ORDER BY username", sqlConn);
SqlDataReader r = sqlComm.ExecuteReader();
while ( r.Read() ) {
string username = (string)r["username"];
int userID = (int)r["userid"];
Debug.WriteLine(username + "(" + userID + ")");
}
r.Close();

Note that, as with the ExecuteScalar method, we have to cast the value to the type we need - and if the column username wasn't a string in the code above, we'd get an InvalidCastException. For strings, we could equally well have used
r["username"].ToString()
instead of the formal cast. If you're trying to squeeze every ounce of performance from your application, then its certainly worth noting that the DataReader performs a case-sensitive search for the column name before resorting to a case-insensitive one - so it does help to be consistent in the way you case the field names.

A more efficient method (note: we're still talking small efficiency gains here!) is to use the column's index (rather than its name) - but this requires you to be very careful when writing your SQL statements (and in later modifications) that you don't change this:

int integerColumnValue = (int)r[i];

And finally, you could use one of the many Get methods that the SqlDataReader offers:

int integerColumnValue = r.GetInt(i);

These include GetInt, GetString, GetDouble etc, all of which accept an integer parameter for the column index.

One thing to bear in mind. If your query has the possibility of returning columns that are NULL, then you'll need to be careful before casting or calling the Get methods - the indexers will not return null, but DBNull.Value, and the Get methods will throw an exception, so for those you will need to check using sqlDataReader.IsDbNull(columnIndex) first.
Data Binding

Alternatively, if you simply want to bind a control like the DataGrid or DataRepeater objects to the rows, you can use the SqlDataReader as a DataSource:

[VB]
Dim sqlComm As New SqlCommand("SELECT userId,username FROM users ORDER BY username", sqlConn)
Dim r As SqlDataReader = sqlComm.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection)
myDataGrid.DataSource = r
' Call to DataBind needed in ASP.NET
'myDataGrid.DataBind()
r.Close()

[C#]
SqlCommand sqlComm = new SqlCommand("SELECT userId,username FROM users ORDER BY username", sqlConn);
SqlDataReader r = sqlComm.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection);
myDataGrid.DataSource = r;
// Call to DataBind needed in ASP.NET
//myDataGrid.DataBind();
r.Close();

Note that in the above code we provide the ExecuteReader command with a parameter
CommandBehavior.CloseConnection
- this tells the data reader to call close on the database connection when we call its own Close method. If we hadn't used this, then we would need to call sqlConn.Close() at some point in our code!

Stored Procedures and other queries with parameter

Writing code that generates correct SQL code for calling stored procedures, or with UPDATE and INSERT statements can often be a real pain - especially when worrying about escaping strings, or getting date formats correct. Using the SqlCommand/OleDbCommand object allows us to provide a SQL statement with variables waiting to be filled - and we can then set the value of these variables seperately in our code, and let ADO.NET worry about sending it to the database correctly! First, we create the SqlCommand object as usual. If we are calling a stored procedure, then we just need to provide its name. If we are using a normal SQL statement, then we'll prefix the parameter names with @ (as they are in Stored Procedures).

[C#]
// stored procedure
SqlCommand com = new SqlCommand("UpdateUser",sqlConn);
// tell the command that this is a stored procedure!
com.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
/*

we'll assume the Stored Procedure takes the following form at the server:

ALTER PROCEDURE UpdateUser(@id AS INTEGER, @username AS VARCHAR(30)) AS
UPDATE users SET username=@username WHERE userId=@id

*/

or

// normal SQL statement
OleDbCommand com = new OleDbCommand("UPDATE users SET username=@username WHERE userId=@id",sqlConn);

We specify the parameters by adding SqlParameter/OleDbParameter objects to the Command object's Parameters property. The constructor we'll use here accepts a string for the parameters name, and an OleDbType or SqlDbType for the data type. We then add this new Parameter object to the collection, and set its Value property:

[VB]
' add a parameter @username to the command, and set its value to the string "James"
com.Parameters.Add(New SqlParameter("@username", OleDbType.VarChar)).Value = "James"
' add a parameter @id to the command, and set its value to 1
com.Parameters.Add(New SqlParameter("@id", OleDbType.Integer)).Value = 1
' we can now execute the command...
com.ExecuteNonQuery()

[C#]
// add a parameter @username to the command, and set its value to the string "James"
com.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@username",OleDbType.VarChar)).Value = "James";
// add a parameter @id to the command, and set its value to 1
com.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@id",OleDbType.Integer)).Value = 1;
// we can now execute the command...
com.ExecuteNonQuery();

Stored Procedure Return Values

If your stored procedure uses the RETURN statement, or has parameters marked as out , then you can also use the Parameters collection to retrieve these values after a query has been executed.

To get the value of a RETURN statement, you need to do the following:

[C#]
// add a new parameter, with any name we want - its for our own use only
SqlParameter sqlParam = com.Parameters.Add("@ReturnValue", SqlDbType.Int);
// set the direction flag so that it will be filled with the return value
myParm.Direction = ParameterDirection.ReturnValue;

Then, after the stored procedure has been executed,

int returnValue = (int)com.Parameters["@ReturnValue"].Value

will retrieve the value that was set.

Now suppose you had a stored procedure that has an output parameter - maybe something like the following:

CREATE PROCEDURE AddUser @UserName VarChar(30), @Identity int OUT AS ...

then again, we can use

[C#]
// add a new parameter, we need to get the name right this time!
SqlParameter sqlParam = com.Parameters.Add("@Identity", SqlDbType.Int);
// set the direction flag so that it will be filled with the return value
myParm.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;

and after the execution of the query, com.Parameters["@Identity"].Value will contain the value that was set in the stored procedure. If you need any further info, see Input and Output Parameters, and Return Values on MSDN.

Using the DataSet

Although the DataReader is very fast and simple, in many situations, we're going to need more than just forward-only access to the results of our queries - this is where the DataSet and SqlDataAdapter classes come in. The DataSet is essentially an in-memory database, complete with multiple tables, constraints, running queries and sorting, plus the ability to persist its state to an XML file. You can use SqlDataAdapter (and its cousins OleDbDataAdapter and OdbcDataAdapter) to populate the DataSet with rows from a SQL server query. Once populated, you can make changes to the DataSet, add rows, perform sorting etc, and then use the SqlDataAdapter again to reflect these changes in the original database using appropriate UPDATE and DELETE sql statements. Depending on the available resources on your database server and the web server, relocating these operations to a disconnected model can be greatly beneficial.

Lets first take a look at how we can fill a dataset:

[C#]
// create the data adapter
SqlDataAdapter dataAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter ("SELECT userId,username FROM users ORDER BY username", sqlConn);
// create the DataSet
DataSet dataSet = new DataSet();
// fill the DataSet using our DataAdapter
dataAdapter.Fill (dataSet);

Here the SQL query is actually executed when we call the Fill method of the SqlDataAdapter - and as soon as the query is completed, the connection for the database query is closed (so the DataSet acts as "disconnected" data store). Now that we've populated the DataSet, its Tables property will be populated with DataTable objects for each table in our query. So, the following code would have the same result as our small DataReader example earlier - except we're no longer reading the results straight from the database, and can enumerate the table rows as often as we like, in any order we like.

[C#]
foreach(DataRow dataRow in dataSet.Tables["users"].Rows) {
Debug.WriteLine(dataRow["username"] + "(" + dataRow["userid"] + ")");
}

Sorting and Filtering

How about if we want to filter or sort the data further once we've retrieved it from the database? The simplest way (if we're not looking to DataBind to a control), is to use the Select method of the DataTable, which accepts two parameters - a filter expression and a sort expression - and returns an array of DataRow objects.

[C#]
DataRow[] matchingRows = dataSet.Tables["users"].Select("username like 'Bob%'","dateJoined DESC");

Another method is to use the DataView object, which is specifically designed for sorting and filtering rows, and can be used as a DataSource in its own right - so we could bind a DataGrid control to this customised "view". We can get an instance of a DataView object from the DefaultView property of our DataTable. Then, we can sets its Sort and RowFilter properties:

[C#]

DataView dataView = dataSet.Tables["users"].DefaultView;
dataView.RowFilter = "username like 'Bob%'";
dataView.Sort = "dateJoined DESC";

myDataGrid.DataSource = dataView;
//Call to DataBind needed in ASP.NET
//myDataGrid.DataBind();

Adding, Deleting & Updating Rows

Making modifications to the DataSet, and then updating the database to reflect this changes is simple, especially if we're just performing queries on one table. For the moment, lets assume that we're using a DataGrid to display our data - which means it will automatically add new rows to the DataSet for us, and allow rows to be edited or deleted without having to write any code whatsoever. All we'll need to do is "sync" the database with the modifications that take place, using the SqlDataAdapter/OleDbDataAdapter.

For this purpose, the data adapter exposes four properties - SelectCommand (which we have already set indirectly when we construct the SqlDataAdapter object), UpdateCommand, DeleteCommand and InsertCommand, and a method called Update. All we need to do is provide SqlCommand/OleDbCommand objects for these properties, and call Update - then the DataAdapter will use the appropriate commands to update the database with the changes made in the DataSet. In fact, our lives are made even easier by the existence of the SqlCommandBuilder class - which will mean we only have to write the one SELECT statement, and it will do the rest. Here's a demonstration:

[C#]
// create the data adapter
SqlDataAdapter dataAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter ("SELECT userId,username FROM users ORDER BY username", sqlConn);
// create an SqlCommandBuilder - this will automatically generate the
// commands, and set the appropriate properties in the dataAdapter
SqlCommandBuilder commandBuilder = new SqlCommandBuilder(dataAdapter);
// create the DataSet
DataSet dataSet = new DataSet();
// fill the DataSet using our DataAdapter into a table called users
dataAdapter.Fill (dataSet,"users");
// set the DataGrid source to the one table in our dataset
myDataGrid.DataSource = dataSet.Tables[0];

Then, when we've finished making our changes to the DataSet via the DataGrid, we call

dataAdapter.Update(dataSet);

and the database will now contain the changes we have made.

Doing without CommandBuilder & Wrapping Up

Although the CommandBuilder does a great job on simple tables, when we start using more complex SELECT statements - or simply want more control over what's going on - then its time to specify our own commands for each of the Command properties in the DataAdapter. First, we can specify the SelectCommand as usual, perhaps adding parameters for a Stored Procedure or WHERE clause.

[C#]
// create the data adapter - we'll specify the connection through our SqlCommand object
SqlDataAdapter dataAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter();
SqlCommand sqlSelectCommand = new SqlCommand("SELECT userid,username FROM users",sqlConn);
// assign to the SelectCommand property
dataAdapter.SelectCommand = sqlSelectCommand;

Now, for the INSERT, DELETE and UPDATE statements we write a generalized query with parameters - and then take advantage of another constructor for the SqlParameter object that lets us effectively bind a parameter to a column name (as obviously we won't actually know its value ourselves);

public SqlParameter (System.String parameterName, System.Data.SqlDbType dbType, System.Int32 size, System.String sourceColumn )

So, we can do the following:

[C#]
// create a new Command for our UPDATE statement
SqlCommand sqlUpdateCommand = new SqlCommand("UPDATE users SET username=@username WHERE userid=@id",sqlConn);
// add parameter to this command for @username, and bind it to the column "username"
sqlUpdateCommand.Parameters.Add("@username",SqlDbType.VarChar, 30, "username");
// create another parameter
SqlParameter sqlParam = new SqlParameter("@id",SqlDbType.Integer, 8, "userid");
sqlParam.SourceVersion = DataRowVersion.Original;
// add parameter
sqlUpdateCommand.Parameters.Add(sqlParam);
// assign to UpdateCommand
dataAdapter.UpdateCommand = sqlUpdateCommand;

Now, when the DataAdapter needs to perform an update, it will run the above command - setting @username to the value of the new username in the row that was modified. @userid, however, will be set to the original version of its value, as we set the SourceVersion property of this parameter to DataRowVersion.Original. This is generally a good idea - otherwise if we had for some reason modified the user id then we'd lose our "handle" on the row assuming userid was a primary key, and not update the correct row. If we wanted to access the new version, we would set SourceVersion to DataRowVersion.Current (its default value).

The DeleteCommand and InsertCommand properties of the DataAdapter can be set in a similar manner. Weaning Developers from the CommandBuilder on MSDN provides a good insight into further alternatives to the CommandBuilder.
Adding, Updating & Deleting Rows in a DataSet/DataTable

When we started examining the DataSet object, we skipped over the issue of actually modifying the data in our DataTable object - instead allowing the DataGrid to do the work for us. For sake of completeness, I shall give a brief summary as to how to do it "manually" here.

To add a new row to a DataTable, use the NewRow() method:

[C#]
// get a new row
DataRow newRow = myDataSet.Tables["users"].NewRow();
// set the appropriate fields here... for example
newRow["username"] = "myNewUsername";
// add to the DataTable:
myDataSet.Tables["users"].Rows.Add(newRow);

To update a row in the DataTable, you can simply modify a columns value:

myDataSet.Tables["users"].Rows[rowIndex]["realName"] = "James Crowley";

And finally, to delete one, use the Remove or RemoveAt method:
myDataSet.Tables["users"].Rows.RemoveAt(rowIndex)

or
myDataSet.Tables["users"].Rows.Remove(dataRowObject)

For more information on these, I suggest you take a look at the MSDN article Manipulating Data in a Data Table.
Conclusion

Well, that's pretty much it folks, so I'll just give a very quick overview!
Establishing a Connection - Use the SqlConnection and OleDbConnection objects
Running queries - Use the SqlCommand and OleDbCommand objects - using theirExecuteNonQuery, ExecuteScalar and ExecuteReader methods
Stored procedures - Just the same as above, but add appropriate SqlParameter objects to its Parameters collection
Fast forward-only data access - Use SqlDataReader and OleDbDataReader
Disconnected data access - Use a DataAdapter's Fill method to populate a DataSets/DataTable object, and to then reflect changes in the database by calling Update