You might be wondering how to place an MVC View easily on a pop-up window like the image above that’s why you are in this page now?

Well you a bit lucky as I will tell you how easy is this to execute, but first of all let me tell you that I am using the Window Control from Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC to make my life easy and not re-invent the wheel and if you don’t have problems with that then read ahead.

Now lets start.  Lets pretend we want an application to set up a new client Account and what we want is when a user clicks a link create account it will pop up a window for account creation.  So like any other MVC Application you need your Model which in this case we will call “AccountSetupViewModel” which is a model for setting up accounts, a View for the pop up which we can call “NewAccount.cshtml” and Controller which we can call “SetupController”.  We also need some JavaScript file to separate our JavaScript commands to others for a cleaner implementation.

Lets first make our ViewModel in AccountSetupViewModel.cs under Controllers -> ViewModels -> Setup folder, we will make it simple so it will only contain AccountCode and AccountName

public class AccountSetupViewModel
{
    [Required]
    public string AccountCode { get; set; }

    [Required]
    public string AccountName { get; set; }

}

Now lets create a query to execute with firstName and lastName as a parameter and name it as GetAccountViewModel which we will place in  AccountSetupQuery.cs under Controllers -> Queries -> Setup, you can also create an interface for it if you wish.  This method will combine the firstName and lastName and sets the AccountName viewModel.

public AccountSetupViewModel GetAccountViewModel(string firstName, string lastName)
{
    var viewModel = new AccountSetupViewModel();

    viewModel.AccountCode = "RSM";
    viewModel.AccountName = firstName + " " + lastName;

    return viewModel;
}

Now lets create our Controller called SetupController.cs just in the Controllers directory and create a method called “GetNewAccountViewHtml”, this will be the method that will output a JsonResult to render our view

[HttpPost]
public JsonResult GetNewAccountViewHtml(string firstName, string lastName)
{
    string viewHtml = string.Empty;
    var viewModel = accountSetupQuery.GetAccountViewModel(firstName, lastName);

    viewHtml = RenderRazorViewToString("NewAccount", viewModel);

    var hashtable = new Hashtable();
    hashtable["viewHtml"] = viewHtml;

    return Json(hashtable);
}

You notice we have a method called RenderRazorViewToString, like how it’s called its purpose is to Render the MVC Razor View to string.   We will be using the MVC engine to render the view model as HTML so we can easily place it on the pop-up window.  You can place it in the controller but best if there is a separate class for this as you will  definitely reuse this a lot.

private string RenderRazorViewToString(string viewName, object model)
{
    ViewData.Model = model;

    using (var stringWriter = new StringWriter())
    {
        var viewResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(ControllerContext, viewName);
        var viewContext = new ViewContext(ControllerContext, viewResult.View, ViewData, TempData, stringWriter);
        viewResult.View.Render(viewContext, stringWriter);
        viewResult.ViewEngine.ReleaseView(ControllerContext, viewResult.View);

        return stringWriter.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
    }
}

Next lets create a view and call it “NewAccount.cshtml” and place it in Views -> Setup, this is the view that we will be using on the pop-up window.

@model CI5.Web.Mvc.Controllers.ViewModels.Setup.AccountSetupViewModel
@using Telerik.Web.Mvc.UI;
@{
    Layout = null;
}

This is an MVC view in a pop up <br />
Account Code : @Model.AccountCode <br />
Account Name : @Model.AccountName

Now you have all of  the contents you need for that pop-up, now lets create a view to call the pop-up we can use “Default.cshtml” under View -> Setup Folder in this instance.  On your view it will be simple as registering JavaScript on an a link to pop up the window so put this on your view.

<li class="newclient"><a href="#newClient" title="" onclick="javascript:AccountSetupForm.displayPopUpWindow('Raymund', 'Macaalay');">New Client</a></li>

Then using a javascript file that initializes on load of the “_SiteLayout.cshtml“

<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/AccountSetup.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>

which we call “AccountSetup.js” located in Scripts folder we will create a function trigger the Telerik window pop up.

var AccountSetupForm = (function () {
    return {
        init: function () {
        },
        displayPopUpWindow: function (firstName, lastName) {

            var postData = {
                firstName: firstName,
                lastName: lastName
            };

            $.post("/Setup/GetNewAccountViewHtml", postData, function (data) {
                $.telerik.window.create({
                    title: "Sample Window",
                    html: unescape(data.viewHtml),
                    modal: true,
                    resizable: false,
                    visible: false,
                    width: 500,
                    height: 200
                })
            .data('tWindow').center().open();
            });
        }
    };

})();

$(document).ready(function () {
    AccountSetupForm.init();
});

So for a full view on how this is structured please refer to the image below.  I highlighted what was used on the codes above.

Logically you will put a drop down on the grid so when you edit or add an item then you will be presented with the contact type options.  Well with that old version it would not be straightforward as you have to make your own template to display that drop down.  For those who are interested well here is how made it.

First is to create your view model, for this sample lets call it AccountContactViewModel

public class AccountContactViewModel
{
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string LastName { get; set; }

    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    public string TelephoneNumber { get; set; }

    public string FaxNumber { get; set; }

    public string MobileNumber { get; set; }

    public string EmailAddress { get; set; }

    private NumericKeyValuePair contactTypes;

    [UIHint("AccountContactType"), Required]
    public NumericKeyValuePair ContactTypes
    {
        get
        {
            if (this.contactTypeViewModel == null)
            {
                NumericKeyValuePair o = new NumericKeyValuePair();
                o.Key = 0;
                o.Value = string.Empty;

                return o;
            }

            return this.contactTypeViewModel;
        }

        set
        {
            this.contactTypeViewModel = value;
        }
    }
}

If you noticed I used a NumericKeyValuePair which is just a class to define Key and value parings to be used for dropdowns

public class NumericKeyValuePair
{
    public int Key { get; set; }

    public string Value { get; set; }
}

Also you will notice the UIHint property, that’s the property to set the name of the field template to use to display the data field which is used for rendering data fields in a data model.  In simple words this is what you need to name your Editor Template to show your drop down so it automatically maps the data field in the model and render it in the control.

Next is you need an Editor template to show that drop down values and like I said above we will name it AccountContactType

The code behind is easy as it is just using a DropDownListFor and it is feeding data from a ContactType Model, you can also manually add items like such

@Html.DropDownList(ViewData.TemplateInfo.GetFullHtmlFieldName(string.Empty), new List<SelectListItem>
{
    new SelectListItem{ Value = "0", Text = string.Empty },
    new SelectListItem{ Value="1", Text = "Primary Debtor" }, 
    new SelectListItem{ Value="2", Text = "Other Debtor" },
    new SelectListItem{ Value="3", Text = "Primary Internal" },  
    new SelectListItem{ Value="4", Text = "Other Internal" }
})

Then on your View where your MVC Grid is, one column should be defined as a Client Template which calls the Client Template above and assigns the ContactTypeId to be linked to the ContactTypes, this is important for the grid to know which item to choose when the row is bound.

@(Html.Telerik().Grid<AccountContactViewModel>()
.Name("grdAccountContact")
.Columns(columns =>
{
    columns.Command(a =>
    {
        a.Delete().ButtonType(GridButtonType.Image);
    }).Width(80);
    columns.Bound(a => a.FirstName);
    columns.Bound(a => a.LastName);
    columns.Bound(a => a.TelephoneNumber);
    columns.Bound(a => a.MobileNumber);
    columns.Bound(a => a.FaxNumber);
    columns.Bound(a => a.EmailAddress);
    columns.Bound(a => a.ContactTypeViewModel).ClientTemplate("<#= ContactTypes.Value #>").Title("Contact Type");
    columns.Bound(a => a.Id).Hidden();
})
.ToolBar(commands => commands.Insert())
.DataBinding(d => d.Ajax()
    .OperationMode(GridOperationMode.Server)
    .Select("SelectAccountContacts", "Setup", new { accountId = Model.AccountId })
    .Update("UpdateAccountContacts", "Setup", new { accountId = Model.AccountId })
    .Delete("DeleteAccountContacts", "Setup", new { accountId = Model.AccountId })
.Editable(e => e.Mode(GridEditMode.InCell))
.DataKeys(k => k.Add(a => a.Id))
.ToolBar(b => b.SubmitChanges())
.ClientEvents(e => e
    .OnDataBound("GridHelper.onDataBound")
    .OnEdit("GridHelper.onEdit")
    .OnSave("GridHelper.onSave"))
)

Now for your Controller you will have something simple as this

[GridAction]
public ActionResult SelectAccountContacts(int? accountId)
{
    var viewModel = accountSetupQuery.GetAccountContacts(accountId.Value);

    return View(new GridModel<AccountContactViewModel>(viewModel));
}

which calls this query

public IList<AccountContactViewModel> GetAccountContacts(int accountId)
{
    var accountContacts = 
    (from a in Session.Query<AccountContact>()
    where a.Account.Id == accountId
    select new AccountContactViewModel
    {
        Id = a.Account.Id,
        LastName = a.LastName,
        FirstName = a.FirstName,
        TelephoneNumber = a.TelephoneNumber,
        FaxNumber = a.FaxNumber,
        MobileNumber = a.MobileNumber,
        EmailAddress = a.EmailAddress,
        ContactTypeViewModel = new NumericKeyValuePair() { Key = a.ContactType.Id, Value = a.ContactType.Name }
    }).ToList();

    return accountContacts;
}

Take note of that Session.Query<AccountContact> as I am using S#arp Architecture, my LINQ is executing its query to a nHibernateQuery Session of the Account Contact Entity defined in my domain, you can use any queryable collection here.

Now thanks to the new version you don’t have to use the Client Template and all you have to do is to define the column as a Foreign Key.  Here is how it should be done now for those interested.  (BTW the codes above can still be used as a reference for using Client Template)

First is we modify our view model and we remove all instances of the NumericKeyValuePair and replace it with the Foreign Key Id and we will name it ContactTypeId.

public class AccountContactViewModel
{
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string LastName { get; set; }

    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    public string TelephoneNumber { get; set; }

    public string FaxNumber { get; set; }

    public string MobileNumber { get; set; }

    public string EmailAddress { get; set; }

    public int ContactTypeId { get; set; }  
}

Next is we get rid of the client template then your Grid should be defined like this

@(Html.Telerik().Grid<AccountContactViewModel>()
.Name("grdAccountContact")
.Columns(columns =>
{
    columns.Command(a =>
    {
        a.Delete().ButtonType(GridButtonType.Image);
    }).Width(80);
    columns.Bound(a => a.FirstName);
    columns.Bound(a => a.LastName);
    columns.Bound(a => a.TelephoneNumber);
    columns.Bound(a => a.MobileNumber);
    columns.Bound(a => a.FaxNumber);
    columns.Bound(a => a.EmailAddress);
    columns.ForeignKey(a => a.ContactTypeId, Model.ContactTypes, "Id", "Name");
    columns.Bound(a => a.Id).Hidden();
})
.ToolBar(commands => commands.Insert())
.DataBinding(d => d.Ajax()
    .OperationMode(GridOperationMode.Server)
    .Select("SelectAccountContacts", "Setup", new { accountId = Model.AccountId })
    .Update("UpdateAccountContacts", "Setup", new { accountId = Model.AccountId }))
.Editable(e => e.Mode(GridEditMode.InCell))
.DataKeys(k => k.Add(a => a.Id))
.ToolBar(b => b.SubmitChanges())
.ClientEvents(e => e.OnDataBound("GridHelper.onDataBound")
    .OnEdit("GridHelper.onEdit")
    .OnSave("GridHelper.onSave"))
)

You notice that the old ClientTemplate is now replaced to ForeignKey and it is populated by from the Model.ContactTypes so make sure before the MVC Grid is populated the Model.ContactTypes already have a value.

Now you can still use the same controller but you will need to change your query to something like this

public IList<AccountContactViewModel> GetAccountContacts(int accountId)
{
    var accountContacts = (from a in Session.Query<AccountContact>()
    where a.Account.Id == accountId
    select new AccountContactViewModel
    {
        Id = a.Account.Id,
        LastName = a.LastName,
        FirstName = a.FirstName,
        TelephoneNumber = a.TelephoneNumber,
        FaxNumber = a.FaxNumber,
        MobileNumber = a.MobileNumber,
        EmailAddress = a.EmailAddress,
        ContactTypeId = a.ContactType.Id
    }).ToList();

    return accountContacts;
}

You will notice that you don’t have that NumericKeyValuePair and it was replaced with the Foreign Key Id in your AccountContactViewModel.

That’s it, its simpler than before, now you can put a of foreign keys on that table without creating lots of Client Template.

well that does not quite work well as the existing columns will not be changed and retain its current collation type, only the newly created objects will use this new collation type. So you are left to the option of changing the columns one at a time by going to the column property and restoring it to default or choosing the collation type you want.

Well that’s great if you need to change 10 columns or less but what if you want to change the whole database? What if it’s a primary key or a foreign key? Well isn’t that a nightmare? Well I will give you an easy solution and all you need to do is to run 6 easy steps. If you don’t want to recreate the database and pump data by using DTS or SSIS then this is the solution for you just make sure backup and restore everything before doing any changes.

Step 1: Prepare your DB and Change the collation to your desired one.

Like I had said backup your database as a part of the preparation, once that’s done change your collation to the desired type by going to the database properties by right clicking on the database and choosing properties, once your on the properties window choose options and you can see the collation from there, choose what you want then hit OK. This will ensure that new objects created will be using the new collation.

Step 2: Create you Change Collation Script.

Next is to create a script to change the collation of every object in your database. You need to use the information_schema to extract columns needed to be changed and from there we run a loop on all objects creating alter scripts on each item. Since it is a collation change we will only need fields that uses character types and text types. What you need is to have a lot of commands similar to this

ALTER TABLE TABLENAME ALTER COLUMN COLUMNNAME varchar(100) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS NULL

So here is the code to generate that

OPEN MyTableCursor

FETCH NEXT FROM MyTableCursor INTO @TableName
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
	BEGIN
		DECLARE MyColumnCursor Cursor
		FOR 
		SELECT COLUMN_NAME,DATA_TYPE, CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH,IS_NULLABLE from information_schema.columns
			WHERE table_name = @TableName AND  (Data_Type LIKE '%char%' OR Data_Type LIKE '%text%') AND COLLATION_NAME <> @CollationName
			ORDER BY ordinal_position 
		Open MyColumnCursor

		FETCH NEXT FROM MyColumnCursor INTO @ColumnName, @DataType, @CharacterMaxLen, @IsNullable
		WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
			BEGIN
			SET @SQLText = 'ALTER TABLE ' + @TableName + ' ALTER COLUMN [' + @ColumnName + '] ' + @DataType + '(' + CASE WHEN @CharacterMaxLen = -1 THEN 'MAX' ELSE @CharacterMaxLen END + ') COLLATE ' + @CollationName + ' ' + CASE WHEN @IsNullable = 'NO' THEN 'NOT NULL' ELSE 'NULL' END
			PRINT @SQLText 

		FETCH NEXT FROM MyColumnCursor INTO @ColumnName, @DataType, @CharacterMaxLen, @IsNullable
		END
		CLOSE MyColumnCursor
		DEALLOCATE MyColumnCursor

FETCH NEXT FROM MyTableCursor INTO @TableName
END
CLOSE MyTableCursor
DEALLOCATE MyTableCursor

Run it then save the script for later use. Lets call the script “ChangeCollation.sql”

If you don’t have relationships, primary keys and foreign keys then you don’t need to do the next step.

Step 3: Create a Stored Procedure to Script Indexes and Relationships

Well if you have relationships, primary keys and foreign keys then that’s a good practice but you need to script them as you need to drop those before changing the collation. Initially I thought I can do this with the wizard and choose to script indexes but it does not create on its own the table creation is always included so with a little help from Google I don’t have to write a single piece of code. I found this really good script to do it and I got it from here http://sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/archive/2010/04/04/rejuvinated-script-creates-and-drops-for-candidate-keys-and-referencing-foreign-keys.aspx
I only separated the Create Indexes and Drop Indexes as we need to run a process in the middle.

Here is the Create Index script courtesy of Adam Machanic

/*
Script Table Keys
(C) 2010 Adam Machanic - amachanic@gmail.com
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/archive/2010/04/04/rejuvinated-script-creates-and-drops-for-candidate-keys-and-referencing-foreign-keys.aspx
This script produces a script of all of the candidate keys (primary keys or unique 
constraints) as well as referencing foreign keys, for the target table. To use, put
SSMS into "results in text" mode and run the script. The output will be a formatted
script that you can cut and paste to use elsewhere.

Don't forget to configure the maximum text size before using. The default is 256
characters--not enough for many cases.

Tools->Options->Query Results->Results to Text->Maximum number of characters->8192
*/
CREATE PROC [dbo].[ScriptCreateTableKeys]
	@table_name SYSNAME
AS
BEGIN
	SET NOCOUNT ON

	--Note: Disabled keys and constraints are ignored
	--TODO: Drop and re-create referencing XML indexes, FTS catalogs

	DECLARE @crlf CHAR(2)
	SET @crlf = CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)
	DECLARE @version CHAR(4)
	SET @version = SUBSTRING(@@VERSION, LEN('Microsoft SQL Server') + 2, 4)
	DECLARE @object_id INT
	SET @object_id = OBJECT_ID(@table_name)
	DECLARE @sql NVARCHAR(MAX)

	IF @version NOT IN ('2005', '2008')
	BEGIN
		RAISERROR('This script only supports SQL Server 2005 and 2008', 16, 1)
		RETURN
	END

	SET @sql = '' +
		'SELECT ' +
			'CASE ' +
				'WHEN 1 IN (i.is_primary_key, i.is_unique_constraint) THEN ' +
					'''ALTER TABLE '' + ' +
						'QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(i.object_id)) + ''.'' + ' +
						'QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(i.object_id)) + @crlf + ' +
					'''ADD '' + ' +
						'CASE k.is_system_named ' +
							'WHEN 0 THEN ''CONSTRAINT '' + QUOTENAME(k.name) + @crlf ' +
							'ELSE '''' ' +
						'END + ' +
					'CASE k.type ' +
						'WHEN ''UQ'' THEN ''UNIQUE'' ' +
						'ELSE ''PRIMARY KEY'' ' +
					'END + '' '' + ' +
					'i.type_desc  + @crlf + ' +
					'kc.key_columns + @crlf ' +
				'ELSE ' +
					'''CREATE UNIQUE '' + i.type_desc + '' INDEX '' + ' +
						'QUOTENAME(i.name) + @crlf + ' +
					'''ON '' + ' +
						'QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(i.object_id)) + ''.'' + ' +
						'QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(i.object_id)) + @crlf + ' +
					'kc.key_columns + @crlf + ' +
					'COALESCE ' +
					'( ' +
						'''INCLUDE '' + @crlf + ' +
						'''( '' + @crlf + ' +
							'STUFF ' +
							'( ' +
								'( ' +
									'SELECT ' +
									'( ' +
										'SELECT ' +
											''','' + @crlf + '' '' + QUOTENAME(c.name) AS [text()] ' +
										'FROM sys.index_columns AS ic ' +
										'JOIN sys.columns AS c ON ' +
											'c.object_id = ic.object_id ' +
											'AND c.column_id = ic.column_id ' +
										'WHERE ' +
											'ic.object_id = i.object_id ' +
											'AND ic.index_id = i.index_id ' +
											'AND ic.is_included_column = 1 ' +
										'ORDER BY ' +
											'ic.key_ordinal ' +
										'FOR XML PATH(''''), TYPE ' +
									').value(''.'', ''VARCHAR(MAX)'') ' +
								'), ' +
								'1, ' +
								'3, ' +
								''''' ' +
							') + @crlf + ' +
						''')'' + @crlf, ' +
						''''' ' +
					') ' +
			'END + ' +
			'''WITH '' + @crlf + ' +
			'''('' + @crlf + ' +
				''' PAD_INDEX = '' + ' +
						'CASE CONVERT(VARCHAR, i.is_padded) ' +
							'WHEN 1 THEN ''ON'' ' +
							'ELSE ''OFF'' ' +
						'END + '','' + @crlf + ' +
				'CASE i.fill_factor ' +
					'WHEN 0 THEN '''' ' +
					'ELSE ' +
						''' FILLFACTOR = '' + ' +
								'CONVERT(VARCHAR, i.fill_factor) + '','' + @crlf ' +
				'END + ' +
				''' IGNORE_DUP_KEY = '' + ' +
						'CASE CONVERT(VARCHAR, i.ignore_dup_key) ' +
							'WHEN 1 THEN ''ON'' ' +
							'ELSE ''OFF'' ' +
						'END + '','' + @crlf + ' +
				''' ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = '' + ' +
						'CASE CONVERT(VARCHAR, i.allow_row_locks) ' +
							'WHEN 1 THEN ''ON'' ' +
							'ELSE ''OFF'' ' +
						'END + '','' + @crlf + ' +
				''' ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = '' + ' +
						'CASE CONVERT(VARCHAR, i.allow_page_locks) ' +
							'WHEN 1 THEN ''ON'' ' +
							'ELSE ''OFF'' ' +
						'END + ' +
				CASE @version
					WHEN '2005' THEN ''
					ELSE			 
						''','' + @crlf + ' +
						''' DATA_COMPRESSION = '' + ' +
							'( ' +
								'SELECT ' +
									'CASE ' +
										'WHEN MIN(p.data_compression_desc) = MAX(p.data_compression_desc) THEN MAX(p.data_compression_desc) ' +
										'ELSE ''[PARTITIONS USE MULTIPLE COMPRESSION TYPES]'' ' +
									'END ' +
								'FROM sys.partitions AS p ' +
								'WHERE ' +
									'p.object_id = i.object_id ' +
									'AND p.index_id = i.index_id ' +
							') '
				END + '+ @crlf + ' +
			''') '' + @crlf + ' +
			'''ON '' + ds.data_space + '';'' + ' +
				'@crlf + @crlf COLLATE database_default AS [-- Create Candidate Keys] ' +
		'FROM sys.indexes AS i ' +
		'LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.key_constraints AS k ON ' +
			'k.parent_object_id = i.object_id ' +
			'AND k.unique_index_id = i.index_id ' +
		'CROSS APPLY ' +
		'( ' +
			'SELECT ' +
				'''( '' + @crlf + ' +
					'STUFF ' +
					'( ' +
						'( ' +
							'SELECT ' +
							'( ' +
								'SELECT ' +
									''','' + @crlf + '' '' + QUOTENAME(c.name) AS [text()] ' +
								'FROM sys.index_columns AS ic ' +
								'JOIN sys.columns AS c ON ' +
									'c.object_id = ic.object_id ' +
									'AND c.column_id = ic.column_id ' +
								'WHERE ' +
									'ic.object_id = i.object_id ' +
									'AND ic.index_id = i.index_id ' +
									'AND ic.key_ordinal > 0 ' +
								'ORDER BY ' +
									'ic.key_ordinal ' +
								'FOR XML PATH(''''), TYPE ' +
							').value(''.'', ''VARCHAR(MAX)'') ' +
						'), ' +
						'1, ' +
						'3, ' +
						''''' ' +
					') + @crlf + ' +
				''')'' ' +
		') AS kc (key_columns) ' +
		'CROSS APPLY ' +
		'( ' +
			'SELECT ' +
				'QUOTENAME(d.name) + ' +
					'CASE d.type ' +
						'WHEN ''PS'' THEN ' +
							'+ ' +
							'''('' + ' +
								'( ' +
									'SELECT ' +
										'QUOTENAME(c.name) ' +
									'FROM sys.index_columns AS ic ' +
									'JOIN sys.columns AS c ON ' +
										'c.object_id = ic.object_id ' +
										'AND c.column_id = ic.column_id ' +
									'WHERE ' +
										'ic.object_id = i.object_id ' +
										'AND ic.index_id = i.index_id ' +
										'AND ic.partition_ordinal = 1 ' +
								') + ' +
							''')'' ' +
						'ELSE '''' ' +
					'END ' +
			'FROM sys.data_spaces AS d ' +
			'WHERE ' +
				'd.data_space_id = i.data_space_id ' +
		') AS ds (data_space) ' +
		'WHERE ' +
			'i.object_id = @object_id ' +
			'AND i.is_unique = 1 ' +
			--filtered and hypothetical indexes cannot be candidate keys
			CASE @version
				WHEN '2008' THEN 'AND i.has_filter = 0 '
				ELSE ''
			END +
			'AND i.is_hypothetical = 0 ' +
			'AND i.is_disabled = 0 ' +
		'ORDER BY ' +
			'i.index_id '

	EXEC sp_executesql
@sql,
		N'@object_id INT, @crlf CHAR(2)',
		@object_id, @crlf

	SELECT
		'ALTER TABLE ' + 
			QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(fk.parent_object_id)) + '.' + 
			QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(fk.parent_object_id)) + @crlf +
		CASE fk.is_not_trusted
			WHEN 0 THEN 'WITH CHECK '
			ELSE 'WITH NOCHECK '
		END + 
			'ADD ' +
				CASE fk.is_system_named
					WHEN 0 THEN 'CONSTRAINT ' + QUOTENAME(name) + @crlf
					ELSE ''
				END +
		'FOREIGN KEY ' + @crlf + 
		'( ' + @crlf + 
			STUFF
(
(
					SELECT
(
						SELECT 
							',' + @crlf + ' ' + QUOTENAME(c.name) AS [text()]
						FROM sys.foreign_key_columns AS fc
						JOIN sys.columns AS c ON
							c.object_id = fc.parent_object_id
							AND c.column_id = fc.parent_column_id
						WHERE 
							fc.constraint_object_id = fk.object_id
						ORDER BY
							fc.constraint_column_id
						FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
					).value('.', 'VARCHAR(MAX)')
				),
				1,
				3,
				''
			) + @crlf + 
		') ' +
		'REFERENCES ' + 
			QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(fk.referenced_object_id)) + '.' + 
			QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(fk.referenced_object_id)) + @crlf +
		'( ' + @crlf + 
			STUFF
(
(
					SELECT
(
						SELECT 
							',' + @crlf + ' ' + QUOTENAME(c.name) AS [text()]
						FROM sys.foreign_key_columns AS fc
						JOIN sys.columns AS c ON
							c.object_id = fc.referenced_object_id
							AND c.column_id = fc.referenced_column_id
						WHERE 
							fc.constraint_object_id = fk.object_id
						ORDER BY
							fc.constraint_column_id
						FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
					).value('.', 'VARCHAR(MAX)')
				),
				1,
				3,
				''
			) + @crlf + 
		');' + 
			@crlf + @crlf COLLATE database_default AS [-- Create Referencing FKs]
	FROM sys.foreign_keys AS fk
	WHERE
		referenced_object_id = @object_id
		AND is_disabled = 0
	ORDER BY
		key_index_id

END

Step 4: Create Stored Procedure to Script Drop Indexes and Relationships

Now you also need to create the drop scripts, these is the other half of Adam Machanic’s script

CREATE PROC [dbo].[ScriptDropTableKeys]
	@table_name SYSNAME
AS
BEGIN
	SET NOCOUNT ON

	--Note: Disabled keys and constraints are ignored
	--TODO: Drop and re-create referencing XML indexes, FTS catalogs

	DECLARE @crlf CHAR(2)
	SET @crlf = CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)
	DECLARE @version CHAR(4)
	SET @version = SUBSTRING(@@VERSION, LEN('Microsoft SQL Server') + 2, 4)
	DECLARE @object_id INT
	SET @object_id = OBJECT_ID(@table_name)
	DECLARE @sql NVARCHAR(MAX)

	IF @version NOT IN ('2005', '2008')
	BEGIN
		RAISERROR('This script only supports SQL Server 2005 and 2008', 16, 1)
		RETURN
	END

	SELECT
		'ALTER TABLE ' + 
			QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(parent_object_id)) + '.' + 
			QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(parent_object_id)) + @crlf +
		'DROP CONSTRAINT ' + QUOTENAME(name) + ';' + 
			@crlf + @crlf COLLATE database_default AS [-- Drop Referencing FKs]
	FROM sys.foreign_keys
	WHERE
		referenced_object_id = @object_id
		AND is_disabled = 0
	ORDER BY
		key_index_id DESC

	SET @sql = '' +
		'SELECT ' +
			'statement AS [-- Drop Candidate Keys] ' +
		'FROM ' +
		'( ' +
			'SELECT ' +
				'CASE ' +
					'WHEN 1 IN (i.is_unique_constraint, i.is_primary_key) THEN ' +
						'''ALTER TABLE '' + ' +
							'QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(i.object_id)) + ''.'' + ' +
							'QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(i.object_id)) + @crlf + ' +
						'''DROP CONSTRAINT '' + QUOTENAME(i.name) + '';'' + ' +
							'@crlf + @crlf COLLATE database_default ' +
					'ELSE ' +
						'''DROP INDEX '' + QUOTENAME(i.name) + @crlf + ' +
						'''ON '' + ' +
							'QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(object_id)) + ''.'' + ' +
							'QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(object_id)) + '';'' + ' +
								'@crlf + @crlf COLLATE database_default ' +
				'END AS statement, ' +
				'i.index_id ' +
			'FROM sys.indexes AS i ' +
			'WHERE ' +
				'i.object_id = @object_id ' +
				'AND i.is_unique = 1 ' +
				--filtered and hypothetical indexes cannot be candidate keys
				CASE @version
					WHEN '2008' THEN 'AND i.has_filter = 0 '
					ELSE ''
				END +
				'AND i.is_hypothetical = 0 ' +
				'AND i.is_disabled = 0 ' +
		') AS x ' +
		'ORDER BY ' +
			'index_id DESC '

	EXEC sp_executesql 
@sql,
		N'@object_id INT, @crlf CHAR(2)',
		@object_id, @crlf

END

Step 5: Bringing them all together

Now you have the two stored procedure all you have to do is to loop though all tables in you database and pass that as the parameter of the Stored Procedure. First we use the ScriptCreateTableKeys.

DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(255)
DECLARE MyTableCursor Cursor
FOR 
SELECT name FROM sys.tables WHERE [type] = 'U' and name <> 'sysdiagrams' ORDER BY name 
OPEN MyTableCursor

FETCH NEXT FROM MyTableCursor INTO @TableName
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
	BEGIN
	EXEC ScriptCreateTableKeys @TableName

	FETCH NEXT FROM MyTableCursor INTO @TableName
END
CLOSE MyTableCursor
DEALLOCATE MyTableCursor

Then lets use the ScriptDropTableKeys

DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(255)
DECLARE MyTableCursor Cursor
FOR 
SELECT name FROM sys.tables WHERE [type] = 'U' and name <> 'sysdiagrams' ORDER BY name 
OPEN MyTableCursor

FETCH NEXT FROM MyTableCursor INTO @TableName
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
	BEGIN
	 EXEC ScriptDropTableKeys @TableName

	FETCH NEXT FROM MyTableCursor INTO @TableName
END
CLOSE MyTableCursor
DEALLOCATE MyTableCursor

Just make sure when you execute them output the results as text so you can easily copy and paste the results.
Save the first results as “CreateKeysAndIndexes.sql” and the second as “DropKeysAndIndexes.sql”

Step 6: Run you saved scripts

In this order run your scripts and wait for the results, time wait might vary depending on your database size.

a. DropKeysAndIndexes.sql
b. ChangeCollation.sql
c. CreateKeysAndIndexes.sql

This device that I am talking about is a rebranded Huawei Echolife HG553 for a full information on the product here is a downloadable manual from Vodafone, it’s an amazing device and does DLNA very well now I stream media files from this device to my Smart TV, 3D Home Theatre, Android Devices, iPhones, PS3, PC’s and even an old XBOX with XBMC installed I don’t have to plug and unplug my USB hard drive to share media at home.  The sharing methods are through DLNA, FTP and/or a normal network file share; it also has a Print Server for those who have non-wireless printers at home.  Now let’s go to my problem, when I plugged the 2TB USB hard drive (take note it can take FAT or NTFS formatted drives) it immediately read the media files on it and it indexed it really fast, now I tried to browse the media files on my TV and I only see some of the media files on the USB drive.   I was worried there might be something wrong with the device so I browsed the hard drive though a PC and check whether files are in there, to my surprise it was there and was wondering why it was not indexed.  Knowing that it’s a Twonky software that works on the background, I immediately contacted their support, they replied quick but did not get anywhere as they don’t support OEM device, and here was their response which is fair enough.

Now I contacted Vodafone through their support forum, well I got a really bad answer which is totally unrelated to my question, a Vodafone forum administrator told me that I was posting it in a wrong location, so I moved it to the right one and got no answer after that, I did not mind to call their support as support in any Internet Service providers here in NZ sucks in my experience the average waiting time was 30 minutes and sometimes you don’t get the answer you are looking for specially if I am talking to a less technical person than me.  So anyway here was my post on the forum for those who are interested.

At this point I am on my own, so I tried everything by logging in to the router as support, Vodafone and advanced (all yield a different screen) and the only setting I find regarding DLNA is enabling and disabling it. I even went to the port http://192.168.1.1:9000 as that’s the advanced setup default for Twonky and get the red access denied screen.  Now I browsed through the files in the shared hard drive and found out that it has a twonkymedia.db folder.

So I went in and saw an .ini file, at last there is hope!

While reading the settings it looks like the most probable cause was an item called maxitemsmaxitems=10000#, now I counted how many media files I got on my hard drive and its more than 50K items most of it are images, that definitely is the reason why it’s not showing everything.  So I changed the settings to 100000, saved and rebooted the device. I browsed again once the device started using my TV and no luck, so I went back to the .ini file and found out it went back to its normal state, it looks like the device rewrites the ini file on reboot.  I also tried not rebooting, changed the maxitemsmaxitems=10000# to maxitemsmaxitems=100000# and wait for 60 minutes and that’s also a setting called minutesscantime=60# hoping that it will rescan and change the limit to 100000 but still no luck.  Finally I saw this setting ignoredirignoredir=AppleDouble,AppleDB,AppleDesktop,TemporaryUtems#, and if it’s true to its name it looks like it will ignore anything inside a directory.  So I created an AppleDB folder and placed everything there leaving only the files I want to stream on my PS3, Smart TV and 3D Home Theatre, videos are more logical as they are the ones you usually play on those device, I then rebooted and whoalla!

Now it’s showing all the videos I wanted and not the massive amounts of photos from 1999 to 2011 which kept my videos not showing due to the file count limit imposed.  I don’t care about the photos as we usually view them on Laptops and Android Devices which a normal share and mapped drive to the router will be suitable and no need for DLNA.

The attempted operation is prohibited because it exceeds the list view threshold enforced by the administrator.<nativehr>0×80070024</nativehr><nativestack></nativestack>

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: The attempted operation is prohibited because it exceeds the list view threshold enforced by the administrator.0×80070024</nativehr><nativestack></nativestack>

Source Error:

Before I give you the solution, lets see why does it happen on the first place so you can better understand what you are fixing.  The error basically about the size of the database operation that you are executing in one go, which means it can be viewing a list, loading a page or other database related operations.  That error simply says that the number of operations that exceed the limit set on the server this is now treated as an Expensive Query Exception.  Now you might notice that your user’s experience this error but not yourself this is because if you are an Administrator then you have higher thresholds.

Now how do you adjust this thresholds.  All you have to do is go to Central Administration -> Application Management -> Manage Web Applications then highlight the Name of the site you are adjusting the threshold

Then choose General Settings on the ribbon, then Resource Throttling.

Now you can change your setting on the List View Threshold, by default it is 5000 so you can increase it to something like 10000 to double the operation count.  Now you can also see the setting List View Threshold for Auditors and Administrators, that’s the reason why you don’t see the error as it is defaulted to 20000, but if you are an administrator and you have the same issue you can increase both settings.

This should fix your issue now, so go back what you were doing before it happened and it will not throw any exceptions anymore.

Firefox Screenshot – No issues here

Chrome Screenshot – No issues here

Internet Explorer Screenshot – Well I guess the issue is visible columns dont line up and headers dont line up as well

Now the real issue is that you have a hidden field and there is where Internet Explorer f@<#$!! up.  Originally your code might look like this

@(Html.Telerik().Grid<InvoiceViewModel>()
    .Name("grdTransactions" + Model.GridViewType)
    .DataKeys(d => d.Add(a => a.Id))
    .ToolBar(t => t.SubmitChanges())
    .Columns(c =>
    {
        c.Add(a => a.Id).Hidden();
        c.Add(a => a.BookingID).Width(90);
        c.Add(a => a.TransactionNumber).Width(90).Title("Tran No");
        c.Add(a => a.Description);
        c.Add(a => a.TicketNumber).Width(120);
        c.Add(a => a.Passengers).Width(200);
        c.Add(a => a.InvoiceNett).Width(90).Format("{0:c}").HtmlAttributes(new { align = "right" });
        c.Add(a => a.InvoiceGST).Width(90).Format("{0:c}").HtmlAttributes(new { align = "right" });
        c.Add(a => a.InvoiceGross).Width(90).Format("{0:c}").HtmlAttributes(new { align = "right" });
    })
    .DataBinding(d => d.Ajax()
        .OperationMode(GridOperationMode.Client)
        .Select("SelectTransactions", "Invoicing", new { accountId = Model.AccountId, invoiceId = Model.InvoiceId })
        .Update("UpdateTransactions", "Invoicing", new { accountId = Model.AccountId, invoiceId = Model.InvoiceId }))
    .Pageable(p => p.PageSize(50))
    .Editable(e => e.Mode(GridEditMode.InCell))
    .Sortable()
    .Scrollable()
    .Groupable()
    .Filterable()
    .ClientEvents(c => c.OnLoad("onLoad")
        .OnDataBound("onDataBound")
        .OnSubmitChanges("onSubmitChanges"))              
    )

All you need to do is move that hidden column to the end so Internet Explorer will not get confused, so your new column structure should look like such

.Columns(c =>
{
    c.Add(a => a.BookingID).Width(90);
    c.Add(a => a.TransactionNumber).Width(90).Title("Tran No");
    c.Add(a => a.Description);
    c.Add(a => a.TicketNumber).Width(120);
    c.Add(a => a.Passengers).Width(200);
    c.Add(a => a.InvoiceNett).Width(90).Format("{0:c}").HtmlAttributes(new { align = "right" });
    c.Add(a => a.InvoiceGST).Width(90).Format("{0:c}").HtmlAttributes(new { align = "right" });
    c.Add(a => a.InvoiceGross).Width(90).Format("{0:c}").HtmlAttributes(new { align = "right" });
    c.Add(a => a.Id).Hidden();
})

Happy Coding!

My best guess is you have tried solutions to update the web.config to contain sections something similar to below.

<configuration> 
   <system.web.extensions>
       <scripting>
           <webServices>
               <jsonSerialization maxJsonLength="2147483644"/>
           </webServices>
       </scripting>
   </system.web.extensions>
</configuration>

Well that wont work because the value of the MaxJsonLength only applies to the internal JavaScriptSerializer that is used by the asynchronous communication layer to invoke Web services methods. The solution is simple we just need to return a Large Json Result for the MVC Grid.

So lets say you Initially have a method called SelectSomethingAjax, you usually return it as ActionResult

[GridAction]
public ActionResult SelectInvoiceAjax()
{
    var model = GetRecords();

    return View(new GridModel<YourViewModel>
    {
        Data = model.YourViewModel
    });
}

Instead of doing that you should implement your own ActionResult that will output a JSON result where you can modify the properties of the JavaScriptSerializer. So with the help of this post (http://brianreiter.org/2011/01/03/custom-jsonresult-class-for-asp-net-mvc-to-avoid-maxjsonlength-exceeded-exception/) which I found here (http://www.java2s.com/Open-Source/ASP.NET/AJAX/ajaxmapdataconnector/DataConDemoWebRole/Business/LargeJsonResult.cs.htm) we have an implementation of the LargeJsonResult.
(Below is copied on his blog site)

using System;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

public class LargeJsonResult : JsonResult
{
    const string JsonRequest_GetNotAllowed = "This request has been blocked because sensitive information could be disclosed to third party web sites when this is used in a GET request. To allow GET requests, set JsonRequestBehavior to AllowGet.";
    public LargeJsonResult()
    {
        MaxJsonLength = 1024000;
        RecursionLimit = 100;
    }

    public int MaxJsonLength { get; set; }
    public int RecursionLimit { get; set; }

    public override void ExecuteResult( ControllerContext context )
    {
        if( context == null )
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException( "context" );
        }
        if( JsonRequestBehavior == JsonRequestBehavior.DenyGet &&
            String.Equals( context.HttpContext.Request.HttpMethod, "GET", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase ) )
        {
            throw new InvalidOperationException( JsonRequest_GetNotAllowed );
        }

        HttpResponseBase response = context.HttpContext.Response;

        if( !String.IsNullOrEmpty( ContentType ) )
        {
            response.ContentType = ContentType;
        }
        else
        {
            response.ContentType = "application/json";
        }
        if( ContentEncoding != null )
        {
            response.ContentEncoding = ContentEncoding;
        }
        if( Data != null )
        {
            JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer() { MaxJsonLength = MaxJsonLength, RecursionLimit = RecursionLimit };
            response.Write( serializer.Serialize( Data ) );
        }
    }
}

So here is how we return it now on your SelectSomethingAjax

public LargeJsonResult SelectSomthingAjax()
{
    var model = GetRecords();

    return new LargeJsonResult
    {
        MaxJsonLength = int.MaxValue,
        JsonRequestBehavior = System.Web.Mvc.JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet,
        Data = new GridModel<YourViewModel>
        {
            Data = model.YourViewModel
        }
    };
}

If you notice we omitted the [GridAction] attribute as it returns the ActionResult as a JsonResult and since we are already returning it we don’t need that attribute.   Now with that solution I can output more records without that error.

Lets start! Lets say you have the following structure below.

You need to have models for each of them

Now you need a controller to perform all of the operations, Lets call it CascadingDropDown.cs, we need 3 Actions Results one for the Index which will Load the page and populate the Category DropDown, Select Category to populate Sub Category Drop Down and Select Sub Category to populate Products Drop Down.  If you notice the name might be confusing that is because it is named after an Action Result not action to perform, which means what Action was invoked for this to happen.  Below is a sample code.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace MvcApplication1.Controllers
{
    using Models;

    public class CascadingDropDownController : Controller
    {
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            ProductCatalog productCatalog = new ProductCatalog();
            productCatalog.Categories = ProductCatalog.GetCategories();

            return View(productCatalog);
        }

        [HttpPost]
        public ActionResult SelectCategory(int? selectedCategoryId)
        {
            ProductCatalog productCatalog = new ProductCatalog();
            productCatalog.SubCategories = new List<SubCategory>();

            if (selectedCategoryId.HasValue)
            {
                productCatalog.SubCategories = (from s in ProductCatalog.GetSubCategories()
                                                where s.CategoryId == selectedCategoryId
                                                orderby s.Name
                                                select s).ToList();
            }

            return PartialView("SubCategoriesUserControl", productCatalog);

        }

        [HttpPost]
        public ActionResult SelectSubCategory(int? selectedSubCategoryId)
        {
            ProductCatalog productCatalog = new ProductCatalog();
            productCatalog.Products = new List<Product>();

            if (selectedSubCategoryId.HasValue)
            {
                productCatalog.Products = (from s in ProductCatalog.GetProducts()
                                           where s.SubCategoryId == selectedSubCategoryId
                                           orderby s.Name
                                           select s).ToList();
            }

            return PartialView("ProductsUserControl", productCatalog);

        }
    }
}

Take note we use partial view on the SelectCategory and SelectSubCategory as we will send a partial view to the response.  While on the Index we need the full rendering to the response.  Now you have your controller we need to create those views.  We need 1 view for Index and 3 partial views for the 3 dropdowns.

Now lets create the Index view, all you have to do is to right-click on the Index method on your controller then you can start coding.  This view will display all of the dropdowns.

Index.cshtml

@model MvcApplication1.Models.ProductCatalog
@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Index";
    Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
}
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="4" border="0">
    <tr>
        <td>Category&nbsp;</td>
        <td>&nbsp;:</td>
        <td>@Html.Partial("CategoriesUserControl", Model)</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Sub - Category&nbsp;</td>
        <td>&nbsp;:</td>
        <td><div id="SubCategories">@Html.Partial("SubCategoriesUserControl", Model)</div></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Products&nbsp;</td>
        <td>&nbsp;:</td>
        <td><div id="Products">@Html.Partial("ProductsUserControl", Model)</div></td>
    </tr>
</table>

Now lets create partial views and for those who does not know how just right-click on the parent folder where your Index view is and Select Add -> View then tick the “create as a partial view”.

Now for the codes:

CategoriesUserControl.cshtml

@model MvcApplication1.Models.ProductCatalog
@using (Ajax.BeginForm("SelectCategory", "CascadingDropDown", new AjaxOptions { UpdateTargetId = "SubCategories" }))
{ 
    @Html.DropDownListFor(
            m => m.SelectedCategoryId,
            new SelectList(Model.Categories, "Id", "Name"),
           string.Empty
        )
}
<script type="text/javascript">
    $('#SelectedCategoryId').change(function () {
        $(this).parents('form').submit();
    });
</script>

SubCategoriesUserControl.cshtml

@model MvcApplication1.Models.ProductCatalog
@if (Model.SubCategories != null && Model.SubCategories.Count() > 0)
{
    using (Ajax.BeginForm("SelectSubCategory", "CascadingDropDown", new AjaxOptions { UpdateTargetId = "Products" }))
    { 
    @Html.HiddenFor(m => m.SelectedCategoryId)
    @Html.DropDownListFor(
            m => m.SelectedSubCategoryId,
            new SelectList(Model.SubCategories, "Id", "Name"),
            string.Empty
            )
    }
}
<script type="text/javascript">
    $('#SelectedSubCategoryId').change(function () {
        $(this).parents('form').submit();
    });   
</script>

ProductsUserControl.cshtml

@model MvcApplication1.Models.ProductCatalog
@if (Model.Products != null && Model.Products.Count() > 0)
{
    @Html.DropDownList(
        "Products",
            new SelectList(Model.Products, "Id", "Name"),
            string.Empty
            )
}

If you notice instead of Html.BeginForm we use Ajax.BeginForm using the parameters below.

• actionName will be name of your method in your controller
• controllerName will be theame of your controller
• AjaxOptions as the name says AjaxOptions, at this point we only need the UpdateTargetId which we defined as <div> in the index.cshtml file.

If you notice there are jQuery scripts below CategoriesUserControl.cshtml and SubCategoriesUserControl.cshtml, they will handle the auto postback on the partially rendered HTML.

Also on your _Layout.cshtml add this on the header if you haven’t done it yet

<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery-1.5.1.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.unobtrusive-ajax.min.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>

Note : If you are using ASP.Net MVC3 then by default it uses unobtrusive jquery so you need to remove all MicrosoftAjax scripts and use only those two above otherwise the onchange event will open a new page instead of partially rendering it.

Note : If you are using Telerik MVC Controls then you only need the unobtrusive ajax the other script is already referenced by default if you are using Telerik.

Make sure also on your web.config you have the following lines.

<add key="ClientValidationEnabled" value="true"/>
<add key="UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled" value="true"/>

At this point you have done everything you need and your ready to roll.

If you need the full source code you can download it here (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/Blogs/258172/CascadingDropDownMVC.zip).

The following principles of this architecture are Domain Driven Design Focus, Loosely coupled, Preconfigured Infrastructure and Open Ended Presentation that means having those principles in mind the developer can concentrate more on Domain and User Experince part of the application that is being developed.

Having said that we used this open-source architecture to leverage on its principles and now we are on the first phase of the project where we are building the Domain layer where we define all the entities needed.  If you have a big database this will be a tedious task mapping tables and columns to a classes so I created a TSQL script to generate those entities so that I’ll just copy and paste the output to a cs file and were ready to go.

DECLARE @TableName varchar(200)
DECLARE @ProjectName varchar(200) = '<<<YourApplicationName>>>.Domain'
DECLARE @DataType varchar(200)
DECLARE @ColumnName varchar(200)
DECLARE @IsNullable varchar(200)
DECLARE @AppDataType varchar(200) = 'String'
DECLARE @ConstraintType varchar(200) 
DECLARE @ReferringTable varchar(200) 

DECLARE ClassGenerator CURSOR

--Get all Tables
FOR SELECT TABLE_NAME from <<<YourDatabaseName>>>.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES where TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE' ORDER BY TABLE_NAME
OPEN ClassGenerator
FETCH NEXT FROM ClassGenerator
INTO @TableName

PRINT 'namespace ' + @ProjectName
PRINT '{'
PRINT ' using System;'
PRINT ' using SharpArch.Domain.DomainModel;'

WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN 

		PRINT ' public class ' + dbo.Singularize(@TableName) + ' : Entity'
		PRINT ' {'

		DECLARE EntityGenerator CURSOR
		FOR 

		--Get all columns and their key types from all the tables
		SELECT 
		COL.COLUMN_NAME, 
		COL.IS_NULLABLE, 
		COL.DATA_TYPE, 
		CST.CONSTRAINT_TYPE,
		KCU.TABLE_NAME AS REFERENTIAL_TABLE_SOURCE
		FROM 
		INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE KCU
		INNER JOIN 
		INFORMATION_SCHEMA.REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS RCN
		ON KCU.CONSTRAINT_NAME = RCN.UNIQUE_CONSTRAINT_NAME 
		RIGHT OUTER JOIN 
		INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE KCU2
		INNER JOIN 
		INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS CST
		ON KCU2.CONSTRAINT_NAME = CST.CONSTRAINT_NAME 
		AND KCU2.TABLE_NAME = CST.TABLE_NAME 
		ON RCN.CONSTRAINT_NAME = KCU2.CONSTRAINT_NAME 
		RIGHT OUTER JOIN 
		INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS COL
		ON KCU2.TABLE_NAME = COL.TABLE_NAME 
		AND KCU2.COLUMN_NAME = COL.COLUMN_NAME
		WHERE 
		COL.TABLE_NAME = @TableName
		ORDER BY 
		COL.TABLE_NAME

		OPEN EntityGenerator
		FETCH NEXT FROM EntityGenerator
		INTO @ColumnName, @IsNullable, @DataType, @ConstraintType, @ReferringTable

		WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
		BEGIN 

			IF @ConstraintType <> 'PRIMARY KEY' OR @ConstraintType IS NULL
			BEGIN
				IF @ConstraintType = 'FOREIGN KEY'
				BEGIN
					PRINT ' public virtual ' + dbo.Singularize(@ReferringTable) + ' '  + dbo.Singularize(@ReferringTable) + ' { get; set; }' 
				END
				ELSE
				BEGIN

					--SQL to .NET Data Type Mapping
					IF @DataType = 'bigint' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Int64' END
					IF @DataType = 'binary' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Byte[]' END
					IF @DataType = 'bit' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Boolean' END
					IF @DataType = 'char' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'String' END
					IF @DataType = 'date' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'DateTime' END
					IF @DataType = 'datetime' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'DateTime' END
					IF @DataType = 'datetimeoffset' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'DateTimeOffset' END
					IF @DataType = 'decimal' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'decimal' END
					IF @DataType = 'float' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Double' END
					IF @DataType = 'image' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Byte[]' END
					IF @DataType = 'int' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Int32' END
					IF @DataType = 'money' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Decimal' END
					IF @DataType = 'nchar' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'String' END
					IF @DataType = 'ntext' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'String' END
					IF @DataType = 'numeric' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Decimal' END
					IF @DataType = 'nvarchar' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'String' END
					IF @DataType = 'real' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Single' END
					IF @DataType = 'rowversion' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Byte[]' END
					IF @DataType = 'smalldatetime' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'DateTime' END
					IF @DataType = 'smallint' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Int16' END
					IF @DataType = 'smallmoney' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Decimal' END
					IF @DataType = 'sql_variant' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Object' END
					IF @DataType = 'text' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'String' END
					IF @DataType = 'time' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'TimeSpan' END
					IF @DataType = 'timestamp' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Byte[]' END
					IF @DataType = 'tinyint' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Byte' END
					IF @DataType = 'uniqueidentifier' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Guid' END
					IF @DataType = 'varbinary' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Byte[]' END
					IF @DataType = 'varchar' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'String' END
					IF @DataType = 'xml' BEGIN SET @AppDataType = 'Xml' END

					IF @IsNullable = 'YES' AND @AppDataType <> 'Byte[]' AND @AppDataType <> 'String'
					BEGIN 
						PRINT ' public virtual ' + @AppDataType + '? ' + @ColumnName + ' { get; set; }'
					END
					ELSE
					BEGIN
						PRINT ' public virtual ' + @AppDataType + ' ' + @ColumnName + ' { get; set; }'
					END
				END
			END
			FETCH NEXT FROM EntityGenerator
			INTO @ColumnName, @IsNullable, @DataType, @ConstraintType, @ReferringTable

		END
		CLOSE EntityGenerator
		DEALLOCATE EntityGenerator

	PRINT ' }'

	FETCH NEXT FROM ClassGenerator

INTO @TableName
END
PRINT '}'
CLOSE ClassGenerator
DEALLOCATE ClassGenerator

Now I noticed wouldn’t it be cleaner to create each entity in different class files? So I created a console application to do that which separates each entity to a file.  And here is the code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string sConnString = "Data Source=<<<YourDatabaseServer>>>;Initial Catalog=<<<YourDatabase>>;Integrated Security=SSPI";
        SqlConnection oSQLConn1 = new SqlConnection(sConnString);
        SqlDataReader oReader = null;
        string sProjectName = "<<<YourProjectName>>>.Domain";
        string sGeneratedCodeLocation = @"C:\<<<YourProjectFolder>>>";

        oSQLConn1.Open();

        SqlCommand oCommand = new SqlCommand("SELECT TABLE_NAME, dbo.Singularize(TABLE_NAME) as SINGULARIZED_TABLE from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE' ORDER BY TABLE_NAME", oSQLConn1);

        oReader = oCommand.ExecuteReader();

        while (oReader.Read())
        {
            string sTableName = oReader[0].ToString();
            string sSingularizedTableName = oReader[1].ToString();
            SqlConnection oSQLConn2 = new SqlConnection(sConnString);
            SqlDataReader oItemReader = null;

            oSQLConn2.Open();

            SqlCommand oItemCommand =
            new SqlCommand(@"SELECT 
     COL.COLUMN_NAME, 
     COL.IS_NULLABLE, 
     COL.DATA_TYPE, 
     CST.CONSTRAINT_TYPE,
     dbo.Singularize(KCU.TABLE_NAME) AS REFERENTIAL_TABLE_SOURCE
     FROM 
     INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE KCU
     INNER JOIN 
     INFORMATION_SCHEMA.REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS RCN
     ON KCU.CONSTRAINT_NAME = RCN.UNIQUE_CONSTRAINT_NAME 
     RIGHT OUTER JOIN 
     INFORMATION_SCHEMA.KEY_COLUMN_USAGE KCU2
     INNER JOIN 
     INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS CST
     ON KCU2.CONSTRAINT_NAME = CST.CONSTRAINT_NAME 
     AND KCU2.TABLE_NAME = CST.TABLE_NAME 
     ON RCN.CONSTRAINT_NAME = KCU2.CONSTRAINT_NAME 
     RIGHT OUTER JOIN 
     INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS COL
     ON KCU2.TABLE_NAME = COL.TABLE_NAME 
     AND KCU2.COLUMN_NAME = COL.COLUMN_NAME
     WHERE 
     COL.TABLE_NAME = '" + sTableName +
            @"' ORDER BY 
     COL.TABLE_NAME", oSQLConn2);

            oItemReader = oItemCommand.ExecuteReader();
            TextWriter oCSFile = new StreamWriter(sGeneratedCodeLocation + sSingularizedTableName + ".cs");

            oCSFile.WriteLine("namespace " + sProjectName);
            oCSFile.WriteLine("{");
            oCSFile.WriteLine("\tusing System;");
            oCSFile.WriteLine("\tusing SharpArch.Domain.DomainModel;");

            oCSFile.WriteLine("\tpublic class " + sSingularizedTableName + " : Entity");
            oCSFile.WriteLine("\t{");

            while (oItemReader.Read())
            {
                string sAppDataType = "String";

                string sColumnName = oItemReader[0].ToString();
                string sIsNullable = oItemReader[1].ToString();
                string sDataType = oItemReader[2].ToString();
                string sConstraintType = oItemReader[3].ToString();
                string sReferringTable = oItemReader[4].ToString();

                if (sConstraintType != "PRIMARY KEY" || sConstraintType == null)
                {
                    if (sConstraintType == "FOREIGN KEY")
                    {
                        oCSFile.WriteLine("\t\tpublic virtual " + sReferringTable + " " + sReferringTable + " { get; set; }");
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        //SQL to .NET Data Type Mapping
                        if (sDataType == "bigint") sAppDataType = "Int64";
                        if (sDataType == "binary") sAppDataType = "Byte[]";
                        if (sDataType == "bit") sAppDataType = "Boolean";
                        if (sDataType == "char") sAppDataType = "String";
                        if (sDataType == "date") sAppDataType = "DateTime";
                        if (sDataType == "datetime") sAppDataType = "DateTime";
                        if (sDataType == "datetimeoffset") sAppDataType = "DateTimeOffset";
                        if (sDataType == "decimal") sAppDataType = "decimal";
                        if (sDataType == "float") sAppDataType = "Double";
                        if (sDataType == "image") sAppDataType = "Byte[]";
                        if (sDataType == "int") sAppDataType = "Int32";
                        if (sDataType == "money") sAppDataType = "Decimal";
                        if (sDataType == "nchar") sAppDataType = "String";
                        if (sDataType == "ntext") sAppDataType = "String";
                        if (sDataType == "numeric") sAppDataType = "Decimal";
                        if (sDataType == "nvarchar") sAppDataType = "String";
                        if (sDataType == "real") sAppDataType = "Single";
                        if (sDataType == "rowversion") sAppDataType = "Byte[]";
                        if (sDataType == "smalldatetime") sAppDataType = "DateTime";
                        if (sDataType == "smallint") sAppDataType = "Int16";
                        if (sDataType == "smallmoney") sAppDataType = "Decimal";
                        if (sDataType == "sql_variant") sAppDataType = "Object";
                        if (sDataType == "text") sAppDataType = "String";
                        if (sDataType == "time") sAppDataType = "TimeSpan";
                        if (sDataType == "timestamp") sAppDataType = "Byte[]";
                        if (sDataType == "tinyint") sAppDataType = "Byte";
                        if (sDataType == "uniqueidentifier") sAppDataType = "Guid";
                        if (sDataType == "varbinary") sAppDataType = "Byte[]";
                        if (sDataType == "varchar") sAppDataType = "String";
                        if (sDataType == "xml") sAppDataType = "Xml";

                        if (sIsNullable == "YES" && sAppDataType != "Byte[]" && sAppDataType != "String")
                        {
                            oCSFile.WriteLine("\t\tpublic virtual " + sAppDataType + "? " + sColumnName + " { get; set; }");
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            oCSFile.WriteLine("\t\tpublic virtual " + sAppDataType + " " + sColumnName + " { get; set; }");
                        }
                    }

                }
            }
            oCSFile.WriteLine("\t}");
            if (oItemReader != null) oItemReader.Close();
            if (oSQLConn2 != null) oSQLConn2.Close();

            oCSFile.WriteLine("}");
            oCSFile.Close();
        }
        Console.ReadLine();

        if (oReader != null) oReader.Close();
        if (oSQLConn1 != null) oSQLConn1.Close();
    }
}

Now lets dissect the codes, if you noticed I used a Singularize Function to Singularize Table Names I have posted a code for that which you can find here

http://anyrest.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/singularize-function-in-tsql/.

Now let’s go to the queries, you will notice that there is a complex join in how we get our data regarding our data structure which can be easily extracted from the Information Schema, if you are interested on what other items can be extracted from it have a read here

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186778.aspx

Once we have the data we need, we start to process it and it’s not that straightforward but its easy all you need to do is to gather information whether a column or field is nullable so that we can declare it as nullabe in the codes.  We also need a mapping to SQL DataTypes to .Net Data Types hence the big if conditions.

Also since we are using the S#arp Architecture there is a convention for PrimaryKeys so we don’t need to declare it as it is handled by the PrimaryKeyConvention class under NHibernateMaps\Convention, so if you named your PK right prefixing them with Id then this will be easy but you can always override it if you wanted to.  Below is the code that handles it

namespace CI5.Infrastructure.NHibernateMaps.Conventions
{
    #region Using Directives

    using FluentNHibernate.Conventions;

    #endregion

    public class PrimaryKeyConvention : IIdConvention
    {
        public void Apply(FluentNHibernate.Conventions.Instances.IIdentityInstance instance)
        {
            instance.Column(instance.EntityType.Name + "Id");
        }
    }
}

Finally we need to take note of Foreign Keys and what table is it related to as we don’t declare Id’s in the Entities but the class it is related to, hence we have this line.

if (sConstraintType == "FOREIGN KEY")
{
    oCSFile.WriteLine("\t\tpublic virtual " + sReferringTable + " " + sReferringTable + " { get; set; }");
}

Other than that everything should be straightforward.

The above code is made to generate only basic stuff so if you have added validation and other lines in your entities do not use it, otherwise I hope this would make someones life easier.

To my surprise it was not that hard (unless I missed something) specially with the ever trusted Wikipedia I searched for what are the different plural formats out there and that is where I based my codes on.  So if you need them please feel free to use the code below and even improve it if you wanted to just share back any improvements you have made.

CREATE FUNCTION Singularize
(
	@FieldName varchar(max)
)
RETURNS varchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
	DECLARE @Output varchar(max)

	IF @FieldName NOT LIKE '%s'
	-- already singular
	BEGIN
		SET @Output = @FieldName
	END

	ELSE IF @FieldName LIKE '%ss'
	-- already singular ie. mass, chess
	BEGIN
		SET @Output = @FieldName
	END

	ELSE IF @FieldName LIKE '%ies' 
	-- ie. cherries, ladies
	BEGIN
		SET @Output = SUBSTRING(@FieldName, 1, LEN(@FieldName)-3) + 'y'
	END

	ELSE IF @FieldName LIKE '%oes' 
	-- ie. heroes, potatoes
	BEGIN
		SET @Output = SUBSTRING(@FieldName, 1, LEN(@FieldName) -2)
	END

	ELSE IF @FieldName LIKE '%es' and SUBSTRING(@FieldName, LEN(@FieldName)-2, 1) in ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u')
	-- ie. massages, phases
	BEGIN
		SET @Output = SUBSTRING(@FieldName, 1, LEN(@FieldName) -1)
	END

	ELSE IF @FieldName LIKE '%es' and SUBSTRING(@FieldName, LEN(@FieldName) -2, 1) in ('h')
	-- ie. witches, dishes
	BEGIN
		SET @Output = SUBSTRING(@FieldName, 1, LEN(@FieldName) - 2)
	END

	ELSE IF @FieldName LIKE '%es' and SUBSTRING(@FieldName, LEN(@FieldName) -2, 1) in ('b','c','d','f','g','j','k','l','m','n','p','q','r','s','t','v','w','x','y','z')
	-- ie. kisses, judges
	BEGIN
		SET @Output = SUBSTRING(@FieldName, 1, LEN(@FieldName) - 1)
	END

	ELSE IF @FieldName LIKE '%s'
	-- ie. laps, clocks, boys
	BEGIN
		SET @Output = SUBSTRING(@FieldName, 1, LEN(@FieldName) -1)
	END

	RETURN @Output
END
GO 

So how would you use jQuery in Sharepoint? You can follow this easy steps and you will be ready to go in minutes

1. Download jQuery

Download latest verion of jQuery here  http://docs.jquery.com/Downloading_jQuery

2. Save it in an accessible location in Sharepoint

Using Sharepoint Designer I added a Folder called “Scripts” inside the “Style Library” of the root level of the site. I then added the latest jQuery File into that folder.

3. Place a reference on that jQuery from your code

The best place for this will be your master page so that it can be used anywhere in your site, so open the master page (by default SharePoint 2010 uses v4.master) you are using in Advanced mode then add your javascript reference like such.

<script src="/Style%20Library/Scripts/jquery-1.6.2.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

you place that inside the <head> tag

Save that master page and you are ready to go

4. Test if its working

If you are using FireFox open up firebug or if you are using IE you can press F12.  Go to the script tab to check whether your javascript reference is there, then on the console window try wether that reference works by typing something like this.

$("#MSO_ContentTable").text("Welcome to Sharepoint jQuery")

you should get a result something like this

Well if you develop items in Sharepoint then most probably you had seen that not just once but a lot of times unless you are a really good developer that does not commit any mistakes.

Now you are presented with a GUID without any other information so you might be wondering what the hell that means, so you Googled your problem and saw some solutions on how to determine what does that Correlation ID means by going to the server and in this folder location

    C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS

and whoalla! you see a ton of logs that Sharepoint had generated over time.

You then opened the log specific to time when your issue happened and to your surprise that GUID is non existent.  To your dismay you searched other logs that are near to the time your issue happened but still there’s not luck.  Well there are other easier means in searching for what you want and that is through the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit v2.0.

That toolkit have some of the tools you need for diagnosing issues like such plus more, it has Load Testing Toolkit, User Profile Replication, Content Management Interoperability Services and much more.  Viewing logs is never
been easier as the results are presented in a much meaningful way.  So how do I use the tool to check what that correlation ID means? Well here are the steps:

1. Install the tool in your server or even in your local machine that can connect to that server, installation file can be downloaded here for free.  Once downloaded installation is straightforward.

2. Once installed, its time to create your project.  First find the application on your start menu then go to SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit -> SharePoint Diagnostic Studio.  Open that then click new project, you will then be presented with a screen similar to below, put your server name on the text box then hit “Create Project”.  Be patient it will take sometime to process that.

3. Once finished you will be presented with this screen, with some information.  In other slower servers you might see it a bit later and it will show “building report please wait…” but don’t worry its processing at  the background also please take now if there’s no data it retains that message.

4. Now you can start searching for your issue by clicking the search button on top.

5. Populate the needed text boxes and hit OK

6. Now you will be presented with what you are looking for.

I have been twisting my head around in finding a solution for this simple task and I guess its worth while to share this information to everyone as I cannot search anything on Google or even in Developer Force any solution related to my problem. Eventually it ended up in calling their premier support for assistance, then after a week of emails sent back and forth the answer was:

“you cannot get the default record type for user without logging to salesforce.com”

what that means is that you cannot get the default record type for a user if you are using a privileged account, you must use the users login credentials when performing the query, which defeats the purpose of having a super user account creating events for you programatically.

Anyway here is what I initially done to get the default record type, At first they suggested this solution in Java

Schema.DescribeSObjectResult oSObjectResult = Event.SObjectType.getDescribe();
ListRecordTypeInfo> oRecTypeInfos = oSObjectResult.getRecordTypeInfos();

Schema.RecordTypeInfo has a method isDefaultRecordTypeMapping()

So I used that information to grab what I want in C#.Net, so I created a method to extract that information

public SforceService Authenticate()
{
    try
    {
        SforceService oSalesForceService = new SforceService();
        oSalesForceService.Timeout = 60000;

        // Set Proxy Details if you are using one
        WebProxy oWebProxy = new WebProxy(WebRequest.DefaultWebProxy.GetProxy(new Uri(oSalesForceService.Url.ToString())));
        oWebProxy.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
        oWebProxy.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
        oSalesForceService.Proxy = oWebProxy;

        //Initialize SalesForce Service
        LoginResult oLoginResult = oSalesForceService.login(sUserName, string.Concat(sPassword, sToken));

        oSalesForceService.Url = oLoginResult.serverUrl;
        oSalesForceService.SessionHeaderValue = new SessionHeader();
        oSalesForceService.SessionHeaderValue.sessionId = oLoginResult.sessionId;
        GetUserInfoResult oUserInfo = oLoginResult.userInfo;

        return oSalesForceService;
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        return null;
    }
}

public string GetRecordType()
{
    SforceService oSalesForceService = Authenticate();

    string sRecordTypeId = "";

    DescribeSObjectResult oObjectResult = oSalesForceService.describeSObject("Event");
    List<RecordTypeInfo> oRecTypeInfos = oObjectResult.recordTypeInfos.ToList();
    foreach (RecordTypeInfo oRecTypeInfo in oRecTypeInfos)
    {
        if (oRecTypeInfo.defaultRecordTypeMapping == true)
        {
            sRecordTypeId = oRecTypeInfo.recordTypeId;
        }
    }
    return sRecordTypeId;
}

Using that will be an issue as it is not showing options on filtering it by Owner ID like what SalesForce have in other tables, so the result shown after I executed the method is the default record type of the privileged Account.  So I thought I can go directly to the related tables perform SOQL queries like such

oQueryResult = oSalesForceService.query("Select Id, Name from RecordType where SobjectType = 'Event' and IsActive = True and OwnerID = '" + sOwnerID +"'");

and might have some hope in there but after checking the RecordType and RecordTypeInfo there is not field for Owner ID

and in User class there are no fields for Default record type.

So the only real solution for this as of this post date is to keep a local copy of the default record type per user or as a Global setting if you wish.   So when I create event I assign the RecordTypeId by getting it by the “Record Type Name” defaulted to a user which is stored locally.

oEvent.RecordTypeId = GetRecordTypeId(sUserDefaultRecordType);

public string GetRecordTypeId(string sRecordTypeName)
{
    SforceService oSalesForceService = Authenticate();

    QueryResult oQueryResult = null;

    oSalesForceService.QueryOptionsValue = new QueryOptions();
    oQueryResult = oSalesForceService.query("Select Id from RecordType where SobjectType = 'Event' and IsActive = True and Name = '" + sRecordTypeName + "'");

    if (oQueryResult.size != 0)
    {
        RecordType oRecordType = (RecordType)oQueryResult.records[0];
        return oRecordType.Id;
    }
    return null;
}

I hoped I helped someone out there with a similar situation as I have

For this article I will be presenting you a working code one way group membership synchronization that you can start with.  I hope this post will show you the concepts needed to achieve our end result which is synchronizing members in Active Directory and Google Groups. Before you get started I am assuming that you have Google Apps for your domain already setup and running for your organization otherwise you need to have it first before proceeding.

Now let’s get started, first you need to download the Google Apps .Net Client Library which you can find here.  Once downloaded set it up then were ready to roll.

Fire up your Visual Studio and add the following dll’s (Google.GData.Apps.dll and Google.GData.Client.dll) from the installed Google API folder, you will also need System.DirectoryServices and System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement which can be found in the Assemblies repository.

First we need to declare some reusable variables which are

private string sDomain = "yourcompanydomain.com";
private string sGoogleServiceUrl = "https://apps-apis.google.com/a/feeds/group/2.0/";
private string sEmailRegEx = @"\w+([-+.']\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*";

We also need a method to Initialize Google Service, take note I had also included methods for using proxy servers.

///// <summary>
/// Initializes Google Service 
/// </summary>
/// <returns>Autheticated Session to Google Service</returns>
private GroupsService GoogleServiceAuthenticate()
{
    //Initialize Calendar Service
    Google.GData.Apps.Groups.GroupsService oGService = new GroupsService(sDomain, "your_application");
    oGService.setUserCredentials("username", "password");

    //If you are using proxy servers
    GDataRequestFactory oRequestFactory = (GDataRequestFactory)oGService.RequestFactory;

    WebProxy oWebProxy = new WebProxy(WebRequest.DefaultWebProxy.GetProxy(new Uri(sGoogleServiceUrl + sDomain)));
    oWebProxy.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
    oWebProxy.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
    oRequestFactory.Proxy = oWebProxy;

    return oGService;
}

Here are some Active Directory Methods that we will use, these are all derived from my AD Methods Library which can be found here.

/// <summary>
/// Returns Groups with Email Addresses
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sOU">The Organizational Unit To Search</param>
/// <returns>All Groups with Email Addresses on the Specified OU</returns>
private List<Principal> GetGroupsWithEmail(string sOU)
{
    PrincipalContext oPrincipalContext;
    oPrincipalContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, sDomain, sOU, ContextOptions.Negotiate, "youractivedirectoryuser", "password");

    var oListGroups = new List<Principal>();

    PrincipalSearcher oPrincipalSearcher = new PrincipalSearcher();
    GroupPrincipalExtended oGroupPrincipal = new GroupPrincipalExtended(oPrincipalContext);

    //Get Anything with @ that indicates an email, I'm just lazy you can filter it better
    oGroupPrincipal.EmailAddress = "*@*";

    oPrincipalSearcher.QueryFilter = oGroupPrincipal;
    oListGroups = oPrincipalSearcher.FindAll().ToList<Principal>();

    return oListGroups;
}

/// <summary>
/// Gets the Property of a Directory Entry
/// </summary>
/// oPrincipal">Prinicipal Object</param>
/// sPropertyName">The Name of the Property to get</param>
/// <returns>Value of the Propery Object</returns>
public string GetProperty(Principal oPrincipal, string sPropertyName)
{
    DirectoryEntry oDE = (oPrincipal.GetUnderlyingObject() as DirectoryEntry);

    if (oDE.Properties.Contains(sPropertyName))
    {
        return oDE.Properties[sPropertyName][0].ToString();
    }
    else
    {
        return string.Empty;
    }
}

You also need to extend the GroupPrincipal Class to expose the Email address field so that we can easily refer to it.   By default Email Addresses are not exposed in the GroupPrincipal and here is the full article explaining how to extend the GroupPrincipal Class to expose values not represented in the GroupPrincipal.

[DirectoryObjectClass("group")]
[DirectoryRdnPrefix("CN")]

public class GroupPrincipalExtended : GroupPrincipal
{
    public GroupPrincipalExtended(PrincipalContext context) : base(context) { }

    public GroupPrincipalExtended(PrincipalContext context, string samAccountName)
        : base(context, samAccountName)
    {
    }

    [DirectoryProperty("mail")]
    public string EmailAddress
    {
        get
        {
            if (ExtensionGet("mail").Length != 1)
                return null;

            return (string)ExtensionGet("mail")[0];

        }
        set { this.ExtensionSet("mail", value); }
    }
}

Now we got everything we need let’s do the actual syncing

private void Synchronize()
{
    //Get all Active Directory Groups with Email
    List<Principal> oGroupsWithEmail = GetGroupsWithEmail("OU=Your Groups OU,DC=yourcompanydomain,DC=com");

    foreach (GroupPrincipalExtended oGroup in oGroupsWithEmail)
    {
        List<string> oMembersInGoogle = new List<string>();
        List<string> oMembersInAD = new List<string>();

        try
        {
            //Instansiate Google Service
            GroupsService oGService = GoogleServiceAuthenticate();

            //Set User URI
            Uri oGroupMemberUri = new Uri(sGoogleServiceUrl + sDomain + "/" + oGroup.EmailAddress + "/member/");

            //Get Google Group Members
            AppsExtendedFeed oGoogleGroupMembers = oGService.RetrieveAllMembers(oGroup.EmailAddress, true);
            foreach (AtomEntry oUserFeedItem in oGoogleGroupMembers.Entries)
            {
                string sMemberEmail = oUserFeedItem.SelfUri.ToString().Replace("%40", "@").Replace(oGroupMemberUri.ToString(), "");
                //Add in Google Members List for Later Comparison
                oMembersInGoogle.Add(sMemberEmail.ToLower());
            }

            //Get AD Group Members
            PrincipalSearchResult<Principal> oPrincipals = oGroup.GetMembers();
            foreach (Principal oPrincipal in oPrincipals)
            {
                //If Principal Type is User
                if (oPrincipal.StructuralObjectClass == "user")
                {
                    UserPrincipal oUserPrincipal = (UserPrincipal)oPrincipal;
                    if (bool.Parse(oUserPrincipal.Enabled.ToString()) &&
                        (oUserPrincipal.EmailAddress != "" && oUserPrincipal.EmailAddress != null) &&
                        System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(oUserPrincipal.EmailAddress, sEmailRegEx))
                    {
                        //Add in Active Directory Email List for Later Comparison
                        oMembersInAD.Add(oUserPrincipal.EmailAddress.ToLower());
                    }
                }
                //If Principal Type is Group
                if (oPrincipal.StructuralObjectClass == "group")
                {
                    GroupPrincipal oGroupPrincipal = (GroupPrincipal)oPrincipal;
                    string sGroupPrincipalEmail = GetProperty(oGroupPrincipal, "mail");
                    if ((sGroupPrincipalEmail != "" &&
                        sGroupPrincipalEmail != null) &&
                        System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(sGroupPrincipalEmail, sEmailRegEx))
                    {
                        //Add in Active Directory Email List for Later Comparison
                        oMembersInAD.Add(sGroupPrincipalEmail.ToLower());
                    }
                }
            }

            //Add Members in Google
            foreach (string sMemberInAD in oMembersInAD)
            {
                //Check if Email is in Active Directory Email List but not in Google Members List
                if (!oMembersInGoogle.Contains(sMemberInAD.ToLower()))
                {
                    oGService.AddMemberToGroup(sMemberInAD, oGroup.EmailAddress);
                }
            }

            //Remove Members in Google
            foreach (string sMemberInGoogle in oMembersInGoogle)
            {
                if (!oMembersInAD.Contains(sMemberInGoogle.ToLower()))
                {
                    //Check if Email is in Google Members List but not in Active Directory Email List
                    oGService.RemoveMemberFromGroup(sMemberInGoogle, oGroup.EmailAddress);
                }
            }
        }
        catch (Google.GData.Apps.AppsException gEx)
        {
            if (gEx.ErrorCode == "1301")
            {
                //Entity Not found whihc means, Google Groups is not existing
                //Do your create group method here
                CreateGoogleGroup(oGroup.EmailAddress, oGroup.DisplayName, oGroup.Description, sEmailPermission, oMembersInAD);
            }
            else
            {
                //Other Google Error Codes to Catch
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex) 
        {
            //Exception
        }
    }
}

Now the code above shows you how to synchronize Active Directory Group Members to Google Groups which includes adding and removing users.  It is performing a one way sync which treats Active Directory as the master record repository.  Also if you had noticed that there is a catch for the Google.GData.Apps.AppsException this will catch any error that might be encountered on running the sync like 1301 which means Group with that Email Address was not found.  For a full list of Error code refer to the list
below (which I got here)

1000 – Unknown Error
1100 – User Deleted Recently
1101 – User Suspended
1200 – Domain User Limit Exceeded
1201 – Domain Alias Limit Exceeded
1202 – Domain Suspended
1203 – Domain Feature Unavailable
1300 – Entity Exists
1301 – Entity Does Not Exist
1302 – Entity Name Is Reserved
1303 – Entity Name Not Valid
1400 – Invalid Given Name
1401 – Invalid Family Name
1402 – Invalid Password
1403 – Invalid Username
1404 – Invalid Hash Function Name
1405 – Invalid Hash Digest Length
1406 – Invalid Email Address
1407 – Invalid Query Parameter Value
1500 – Too Many Recipients On Email List

On the Next Article I will be expanding further on that CreateGoogleGroup function.  Happy Coding!

Lets start with a scenario to be clear, say we have a product list where someone in your company approves every product listing based on thresholds, that threshold measure can be a price range on a certain product type. Now that person usually declines desk product types when the price indicated by the contributor is below $200 and above $500, at this point the approver will do it manually by looking whether the product have violated the known threshold, this is an easy task for 10 items but imagine managing 300 of them. That is why we will be automating that based on definitions that we will set on a separate list. That list that will be creating will define threshold for different product type so if it hits any of the barriers I will decline the list item and the ones that does not will be auto approved. Sound simple? read further.

You might be already thinking that we can achieve that by using the Column Validation of a List. Well not quite as there are some limitations and one important one is the support for boolean operator. So a formula like this would work

=[Product Price] < 500

but this will not

=[Product Price] < 500 AND [Product Price] > 500

Now well you might think again that we can achieve that on the Sharpoint Designer. Well not quite as well as the Sharepoint Designer will only give you 1 search condition for a list lookup. So for example you need to lookup for a price threshold which meets the condition in multiple columns like for example a product type and maximum date of validity then it will be impossible.

So our last resort is using Visual Studio! So in this post I will explain to you how this will be achieved in the simplest manner. All you need is to follow this steps and I can assue you can make more complex scenarios after this one.

1. Create Lists for Product and Product Type

Product Type List

Product List

Take note that the column Product Type Column in Product List is a lookup on Product Type List

2. Enable Versioning in Product

As you can see we need to require content approval, we need to create a version each time (this ensures that you can roll back) and choose “only users who can approve items” this makes sure only the authorized can approve the items manually

3. Create a Task List

This is a library type in Sharepoint and the default one would do.

4. Create a Sequential Workflow Project

Choose Sequential Workflow under Sharepoint -> 2010

Follow the wizard

Choose the List you will invoke the workflow from and the associated Task List and History List

Trigger it on create and update

Now you will be presented with a Workflow Diagram

You can create more complex stuff by choosing items on the toolbar

but for this instance we will be making this straightforward and do everything on the onWorkflowActivated section. Now double click that and you will be presented with a code behind. Now copy the code below.

private void onWorkflowActivated1_Invoked(object sender, ExternalDataEventArgs e)
{

    SPLinqDataContext dc = new SPLinqDataContext(workflowProperties.SiteUrl);

    EntityList<ProductTypeItem> ProductType = dc.GetList<ProductTypeItem>("Product Type");

    string sProductType = GetLinkedListItemString(workflowProperties.Item["Product Type"].ToString());
    double dPrice = double.Parse(workflowProperties.Item["Product Price"].ToString());

    var Result = (from p in ProductType
                    where p.Title == sProductType && p.MaxDateValidity >= DateTime.Now
                    select p).SingleOrDefault();

    if (Result.MinPrice > dPrice)
    {
        workflowProperties.Item.ModerationInformation.Status = SPModerationStatusType.Denied;
        workflowProperties.Item.ModerationInformation.Comment = "Price Below Threshold - Saved on Approval Comment";
        workflowProperties.Item["Notes"] = "Price Below Threshold - Saved on Notes Field";
        workflowProperties.Item.Update();
    }
    else if (Result.MaxPrice < dPrice)
    {
        workflowProperties.Item.ModerationInformation.Status = SPModerationStatusType.Denied;
        workflowProperties.Item.ModerationInformation.Comment = "Price Above Threshold - Saved on Approval Comment";
        workflowProperties.Item["Notes"] = "Price Above Threshold - Saved on Notes Field";
        workflowProperties.Item.Update();
    }
    else
    {
        workflowProperties.Item.ModerationInformation.Status = SPModerationStatusType.Approved;
        workflowProperties.Item.Update();
    }

}

private string GetLinkedListItemString(string sItem)
{
    if (sItem.Contains("#"))
    {
        return sItem.Substring(sItem.LastIndexOf("#") + 1);
    }
    else
    {
        return sItem;
    }
}

If you notice I am uisng here LINQ to Sharepoint which you can refer to this post for a full tutorial, this makes my life easier in querying Sharepoint Lists

Now to explain some points on the code above:

• To get and set item values on the current list item that is being processed use workflowProperties.Item["Column Name"]
• To set Approval Status use workflowProperties.Item.ModerationInformation.Status
• Since we are querying LINQ style, the search conditions can be as complex as you want and you are just limited by your imagination
• You can also see that we use the Approval Comment field and the Notes Custom Field we created, I just wnat to demonstrate to you how to save comments on Approval fields as well as a field in your list.
• If you use a column that is coming from a linked list it will show in this format ID;#Value (i.e. “1;#Test”)

Now other than that I guess the code above is straightforward as the only thing it does is when price is above or below threshold levels then it will decline the list entry and leave a note.

Run you project then put in your data.

5. Run your code

First Add items in Product Type to define thresholds

Add a new product that will violate your threshold

Now you can see the progress once its submitted

Then once its finished, you will see the note and the final approval status

private DataSet LINQToDataSet({Your LINQ Data Context} myDB, IQueryable item)
{
    SqlCommand cmd = myDB.GetCommand(item) as SqlCommand;

    DataTable oDataTable = new DataTable();
    SqlDataAdapter oDataAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter(cmd);
    oDataAdapter.Fill(oDataTable);

    DataSet oDataSet = new DataSet();
    oDataSet.Tables.Add(oDataTable);
    return oDataSet;
}

Usage:

var oTableResult = (from p in myDB.SampleTable
                where p.SampleColumn == "Test Value"
                select p);

LINQToDataSet(myDB, oTableResult);

First you need to download that API and add it in your .Net Project. You need to install the Google_Data_API_Setup_{CurrentVerion}.msi and to refer to it, you need to browse to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google Data API SDK\Redist” on 64 bit machines and “C:\Program Files\Google\Google Data API SDK\Redist” on 32 bit machines by default

You need to reference 4 main items for this scenario and it is the following

Now include that reference in your codes

using Google.GData.Client;
using Google.GData.Calendar;
using Google.GData.Extensions;

Then like what we had done with the SalesForce article we need a method for login and here is the code snippet. Again I provided a proxy setting in case you need

private CalendarService GAuthenticate()
{
    string sGoogleUserName = "username";
    string sGooglePassword = "password";
    Uri oCalendarUri = new Uri("http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/" + sGoogleUserName + "/private/full");

    //Initialize Calendar Service
    CalendarService oCalendarService = new CalendarService("CalendarSampleApp");
    oCalendarService.setUserCredentials(sGoogleUserName, sGooglePassword);

    //Use Proxy 
    GDataRequestFactory oRequestFactory = (GDataRequestFactory)oCalendarService.RequestFactory;
    WebProxy oWebProxy = new WebProxy(WebRequest.DefaultWebProxy.GetProxy(oCalendarUri));
    oWebProxy.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
    oWebProxy.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
    oRequestFactory.Proxy = oWebProxy;

    return oCalendarService;
}

Now lets go to the methods you need, on all of the methods discussed below you will need the GAuthenticate to execute your methods

1. Creating Calendar Entries in Google programatically

Now if you notice we used 4 different object types unlike in SalesForce where we used only 1 object which is the SalesForceService.Event. Here we have to define an Event, Where, When and ExtendedProperty if you need one. ExtendedProperty is a way of adding properties to the objects programatically , so in this case we created a property called SynchronizationID which will hold our Guid that you can use with other apps.
Hint: I use this for my sync application.

//Set Event Entry 
EventEntry oEventEntry = new EventEntry();
oEventEntry.Title.Text = "Test Calendar Entry From .Net";
oEventEntry.Content.Content = "Hurrah!!! I posted my first Google calendar event through .Net";

//Set Event Location 
Where oEventLocation = new Where();
oEventLocation.ValueString = "New Zealand";
oEventEntry.Locations.Add(oEventLocation);

//Set Event Time
When oEventTime = new When(new DateTime(2011, 5, 31, 9, 0, 0), new DateTime(2011, 5, 31, 9, 0, 0).AddHours(1));
oEventEntry.Times.Add(oEventTime);

//Set Additional Properties
ExtendedProperty oExtendedProperty = new ExtendedProperty();
oExtendedProperty.Name = "SynchronizationID";
oExtendedProperty.Value = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
oEventEntry.ExtensionElements.Add(oExtendedProperty);

CalendarService oCalendarService = GAuthenticate();

//Prevents This Error
//{"The remote server returned an error: (417) Expectation failed."}
System.Net.ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = false;

//Save Event
oCalendarService.Insert(oCalendarUri, oEventEntry);

You might also notice this line “System.Net.ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = false”, that takes care of the HTTP 417 Error which is explained here.

2. Searching Calendar Entries in Google programatically

Searching is also straightforward, just use the EventQuery properties to pass to the CalendarService.Query method. Set the EventQuery.Query to the same query you use when you search for the calendar in Google.

You can also fliter by date start and end by using the StartDate and EndDate properties

CalendarService oCalendarService = GAuthenticate();

//Search for Event
EventQuery oEventQuery = new EventQuery(oCalendarUri.ToString());
oEventQuery.Query = "Query String";
oEventQuery.StartDate = new DateTime(2011, 6, 5);
oEventQuery.EndDate = new DateTime(2012, 6, 5);

Google.GData.Calendar.EventFeed oEventFeed = oCalendarService.Query(oEventQuery);

//Delete Related Events
foreach (EventEntry oEventEntry in oEventFeed.Entries)
{
    //Do your stuff here
    string sEventTitle = oEventEntry.Title.ToString();
}

But if you want to search for the ExtendedProperty like the “SynchronizationID” we created on the event creation on step 1 then you need to use the ExtraParameters property and use the extq=[YourCutomProperty:TheValue] to get what you need.

CalendarService oCalendarService = GAuthenticate();

//Search for Event
EventQuery oEventQuery = new EventQuery(oCalendarUri.ToString());
oEventQuery.ExtraParameters = "extq=[SynchronizationID:Your GUID Here]";

Google.GData.Calendar.EventFeed oEventFeed = oCalendarService.Query(oEventQuery);

//Delete Related Events
foreach (EventEntry oEventEntry in oEventFeed.Entries)
{
    //Do your stuff here
    string sEventTitle = oEventEntry.Title.ToString();
}

3. Updating Calendar Entries in Google programatically

Updating is straight forward, just search for the item then use the CalendarService.Update method

CalendarService oCalendarService = GAuthenticate();

//Search for Event
EventQuery oEventQuery = new EventQuery(oCalendarUri.ToString());
oEventQuery.ExtraParameters = "extq=[SynchronizationID:{Your GUID Here}]";

Google.GData.Calendar.EventFeed oEventFeed = oCalendarService.Query(oEventQuery);

//Delete Related Events
foreach (EventEntry oEventEntry in oEventFeed.Entries)
{
    //Update Event
    oEventEntry.Title.Text = "Updated Entry";

    oCalendarService.Update(oEventEntry);
    break;
}

4. Deleting Calendar Entries in Google programatically

Deleting is straight forward, as well, just search for the item then use the CalendarService.Delete method

CalendarService oCalendarService = GAuthenticate();

//Search for Event
EventQuery oEventQuery = new EventQuery(oCalendarUri.ToString());
oEventQuery.ExtraParameters = "extq=[SynchronizationID:{Your GUID Here}]";

Google.GData.Calendar.EventFeed oEventFeed = oCalendarService.Query(oEventQuery);

//Delete Related Events
foreach (EventEntry oEventEntry in oEventFeed.Entries)
{
    oEventEntry.Delete();
    break;
}

Now if you know the implications of changing it like slowing down the performance of your Active Directory Operations then here is how to increse it.

All you need is to use Ntdsutil.exe which you can type on the run command but if you are using Windows 2008 make sure run the command prompt as an administrator

Once you typed it it will show you the command prompt and follow these steps to increase the limit.

1. At the Ntdsutil.exe command prompt, type “LDAP policies”, and then hit ENTER.
2. Now type “Set MaxPageSize to 5000″. -> Change 5000 to the Max results you want
3. To view the changes, type “Show Values”
4. To commit the changes, type “Commit Changes”
5. type “q” to quit

In this post will discuss some points on how to save Sales Force Events using C#.Net and suprisingly it is simple specially with the use of a well documented API for SalesForce which you can find here. Now lets get started.

First you need a developer account at SalesForce and you can do that by signing up at SalesForce, dont worry it is free and easy. Take note that you should sign up as a developer otherwise some items will not be visible to you such as API references. Once you have done that can generate your Enterprise WSDL by going to Name (in my case its “Test Account”) -> Setup -> App Setup -> Develop -> API.

Please take note that you have to do this everytime you change or update the structure of your SalesForce instance like Custom Fields. Once thats Generated, save it in a handly location as a “wsdl” file.

Next on the list is you need to generate a Security Token, you need this for connecting to SalesForce in your application. Now go to Name (in my case its “Test Account”) -> Setup -> My Personal Information -> Reset Security Question

Fire up Visual Studio and create a solution of your choice, add the WSDL to your project then add that WSDL as a Web Reference by right clicking the References folder and add a Service Reference.

You need a web reference so you need to hit Advanced

Then Add Web reference

Now point to your file the hit Add reference. At this point you have created your Web Reference. I named my instance “SalesForceService”. Now at this point you got everything you need to rock and roll.

To be able to access your SalesForce instance you need to authenticate by using this code. This is where you use your token that you generated earlier. You can also see that there is a proxy authentication included in case you needed it.

private SforceService SFAuthenticate()
{
    SforceService oSalesForceService = new SforceService();
    oSalesForceService.Timeout = 60000;

    // Set Proxy Details if you are using one
    WebProxy oWebProxy = new WebProxy(WebRequest.DefaultWebProxy.GetProxy(new Uri(oSalesForceService.Url.ToString())));
    oWebProxy.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
    oWebProxy.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
    oSalesForceService.Proxy = oWebProxy;

    //Initialize SalesForce Service
    string username = "you@company.com";
    string password = string.Concat("password", "token");

    LoginResult oLoginResult = oSalesForceService.login(username, password);

    oSalesForceService.Url = oLoginResult.serverUrl;
    oSalesForceService.SessionHeaderValue = new SessionHeader();
    oSalesForceService.SessionHeaderValue.sessionId = oLoginResult.sessionId;
    GetUserInfoResult oUserInfo = oLoginResult.userInfo;

    return oSalesForceService;
}

Now lets go to the methods you need, on all of the methods discussed below you will need the SFAuthenticate to execute your methods

1. Creating Events to SalesForce programatically

This is a stratight-forward approch as each Event properties are exposed though the Event Class, also one of the custom fields I created called UniquKey was also exposed by the generated WSDL file. Once the event is created just pass it as a parameter on the SforceService.create method, also if you notice it accepts an array of events so you can pass multiple events in one call.

Hint: this is what I used for synchronizing events on different calendar providers.

SforceService oSalesForceService = SFAuthenticate();
SalesForceService.Event oCalendarEvent = new SalesForceService.Event();

oCalendarEvent.Subject = "Test SF Calendar Entry From .Net";
oCalendarEvent.Description = "Hurrah! I posted my first sales force calendar event through .Net";
oCalendarEvent.Location = "New Zealand";
oCalendarEvent.StartDateTimeSpecified = true;
oCalendarEvent.StartDateTime = new DateTime(2011, 5, 31, 9, 0, 0);
oCalendarEvent.EndDateTimeSpecified = true;
oCalendarEvent.EndDateTime = new DateTime(2011, 5, 31, 9, 0, 0).AddHours(1);

oCalendarEvent.UniqueKey__c = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();

SaveResult[] oResults = oSalesForceService.create(new Event[] { oCalendarEvent });

oSalesForceService.logout();

2. Searching Events in SaleForce programatically

Searching is also easy all you need is to create a SOQL Query (its not mispelled, its really SOQL and it is the Salesforce Object Query Language similar to SQL) to get the fields you need. Take note as well that you cannot use * (select all fields), this makes sure that your codes are always optimized for what you only need. The result of that query is then outputted as a QueryResult and you can parse it as an Event. Only the fields you selected are the only fields that are populated on the Event object. To get the list of what are the available fields for the Event Object, check the Event properties.

SforceService oSalesForceService = SFAuthenticate();

QueryResult oQueryResult = null;
oSalesForceService.QueryOptionsValue = new QueryOptions();

oQueryResult = oSalesForceService.query("SELECT Id, Subject, Description, Location, StartDateTime, EndDateTime FROM Event WHERE UniqueKey__c = '{Your GUID Here}'");
for (int i = 0; i < oQueryResult.size; i++)
{
    Event oCalendarEvent = oQueryResult.records[i] as Event;
}

oSalesForceService.logout();

3. Updating Events in SalesForce programatically

For updating you just Set the Event properties to the values you want and pass it as a parameter on the SforceService.update method

SforceService oSalesForceService = SFAuthenticate();

QueryResult oQueryResult = null;
oSalesForceService.QueryOptionsValue = new QueryOptions();

oQueryResult = oSalesForceService.query("SELECT Id FROM Event WHERE UniqueKey__c = '{Your GUID Here}'");
for (int i = 0; i < oQueryResult.size; i++)
{
    Event oCalendarEvent = oQueryResult.records[i] as Event;
    oCalendarEvent.Description = "Updated Sales Force Event from .Net";
    SaveResult[] oSaveResults = oSalesForceService.update(new Event[] { oCalendarEvent });
}

oSalesForceService.logout();

4. Deleting events in SalesForce programatically

For deleting you pass the Event as the parameter on the SforceService.delete method

SforceService oSalesForceService = SFAuthenticate();

QueryResult oQueryResult = null;
oSalesForceService.QueryOptionsValue = new QueryOptions();

oQueryResult = oSalesForceService.query("select Id from Event where UniqueKey__c = '{Your GUID Here}'");
for (int i = 0; i < oQueryResult.size; i++)
{
    Event oCalendarEvent = oQueryResult.records[i] as Event;

    DeleteResult[] oSaveResults = oSalesForceService.delete(new string[] { oCalendarEvent.Id.ToString() });
}

oSalesForceService.logout();

but if not please read this post regarding Developing Web Parts first to avoid confusion.  But if you already know what to do then continue on.

First on your Web Part Class (yellow highlight) and not the User Control Class (green highlight) define your properties

For this example I will show you how to define a text, boolean, integer, date time and enummeration property

[ToolboxItemAttribute(false)]
public class Sample_Web_Part : WebPart
{
    // Visual Studio might automatically update this path when you change the Visual Web Part project item.
    private const string _ascxPath = @"~/_CONTROLTEMPLATES/Sample_Project/Sample Web Part/Sample Web PartUserControl.ascx";

    protected override void CreateChildControls()
    {
        Control control = Page.LoadControl(_ascxPath);
        Controls.Add(control);
    }

    public static Boolean SampleBoolean;
    [Category("Extended Settings"),
    Personalizable(PersonalizationScope.Shared),
    WebBrowsable(true),
    WebDisplayName("Sample Boolean"),
    WebDescription("Please Choose a Sample Boolean")]
    public Boolean _SampleBoolean
    {
        get { return SampleBoolean; }
        set { SampleBoolean = value; }
    }

    public static string SampleText;
    [Category("Extended Settings"),
    Personalizable(PersonalizationScope.Shared),
    WebBrowsable(true),
    WebDisplayName("Sample Text"),
    WebDescription("Please Enter a Sample Text")]
    public string _SampleText
    {
        get { return SampleText; }
        set
        {
            // Sample Validation
            Regex oRegEx = new Regex("[a-zA-Z]+");
            if (!oRegEx.IsMatch(value))
                throw new Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPartPageUserException("Please enter alphabeth characters only");
            SampleText = value;
        }
    }

    public static int SampleNumber;
    [Category("Extended Settings"),
    Personalizable(PersonalizationScope.Shared),
    WebBrowsable(true),
    WebDisplayName("Sample Number"),
    WebDescription("Please Enter a Sample Number")]
    public int _SampleNumber
    {
        get { return SampleNumber; }
        set { SampleNumber = value; }
    }

    public static DateTime SampleDate;
    [Category("Extended Settings"),
    Personalizable(PersonalizationScope.Shared),
    WebBrowsable(true),
    WebDisplayName("Sample Date"),
    WebDescription("Please Enter a Sample Date")]
    public DateTime _SampleDate
    {
        get { return SampleDate; }
        set { SampleDate = value; }
    }

    public enum CityEnum { Manila, Berlin, Auckland, Zurich };
    public static CityEnum SampleDropDown;
    [Category("Extended Settings"),
    Personalizable(PersonalizationScope.Shared),
    WebBrowsable(true),
    WebDisplayName("Sample Drop Down"),
    WebDescription("Please Choose a Sample DropDown")]
    public CityEnum _SampleDropDown
    {
        get { return SampleDropDown; }
        set { SampleDropDown = value; }
    }
}

If you noticed each property you created have attributes and here is what it means

• Category – This will group your property according to category, If not declared “Miscellaneous” will be used as a default.
• Personalizable – How the web part is configured which can be per-user (PersonalizationScope.User) basis or for all everyone (PersonalizationScope.Shared). For this example, we have chosen all users.
• WebBrowsable – This will hide or show the property on the tool pane.
• WebDisplayName – Label for the property.
• WebDescription – Description for the property.

You might also notice that we have validation on the codes.  You can add your own like the one on the SampleText property where we implemented a Regular Expression or even in SampleNumber it is by default validated by its type so you cannot save once it has an illegal values

So the final step is conusming that property in your WebPart, you can do it easily by doing like such.

There are a lot of options before I started like Message Queuing, Remoting and others but I ended up with two methods of delivering my message.  This post will show you  the basics on how to do it in those two methods.

Socket Programming

First we go to Socket Programming, with this method you will be requiring a lot of work and testing as this is the most Raw as you can get.  Having said that this will be a lot faster as you develop things that you only need, so using this method you will have to create your own protocol, serialization (if you need), security features, etc.

Now for our sample we need only 2 component the Receiver and Sender, we will be developing it using Windows forms and here is how it goes.

Receiver Form -  This will be responsible for receiving messages from the sender, so this should always run on the background an listens in full-time so any messages sent are received instantaneously

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
namespace Receiver
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public AsyncCallback oWorkerCallBack;
        public Socket oSocketListener;
        public Socket oSocketWorker;
        public int ListeningPort = 8000;

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Listen();
        }
        private void Listen()
        {
            try
            {
                //Declare Socket Listener
                oSocketListener = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
                IPEndPoint oLocalIP = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, ListeningPort);

                //Local IP Address Binding
                oSocketListener.Bind(oLocalIP);

                //Start Listening
                oSocketListener.Listen(10);

                //Create Callback for Client Connections
                oSocketListener.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(OnConnect), null);
                lblApplicationMessage.Text = "Listening on Port : " + ListeningPort;
            }
            catch (SocketException ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }
        }
        public void OnConnect(IAsyncResult oAsyncResult)
        {
            try
            {
                oSocketWorker = oSocketListener.EndAccept(oAsyncResult);
                WaitForData(oSocketWorker);
            }
            catch (ObjectDisposedException)
            {
                System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Log(0, "1", "\n OnConnect: Socket has been closed\n");
            }
            catch (SocketException ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }
        }
        public void WaitForData(System.Net.Sockets.Socket oSocket)
        {
            try
            {
                if (oWorkerCallBack == null)
                    oWorkerCallBack = new AsyncCallback(OnReceive);

                SocketPacket oSocketPacket = new SocketPacket();
                oSocketPacket.oSocket = oSocket;

                // Start Listening for any Data
                oSocket.BeginReceive(oSocketPacket.bDataBuffer, 0, oSocketPacket.bDataBuffer.Length, SocketFlags.None, oWorkerCallBack, oSocketPacket);
            }
            catch (SocketException ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }
        }
        public void OnReceive(IAsyncResult oAsyncResult)
        {
            try
            {
                SocketPacket oSocketID = (SocketPacket)oAsyncResult.AsyncState;

                //Stop Recieve
                int iRecieve = 0;
                iRecieve = oSocketID.oSocket.EndReceive(oAsyncResult);

                //Build the message
                char[] chars = new char[iRecieve + 1];
                System.Text.Decoder d = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetDecoder();
                int iCharLen = d.GetChars(oSocketID.bDataBuffer, 0, iRecieve, chars, 0);
                string sData = new string(chars);
                txtMessageRecieved.Text = txtMessageRecieved.Text + sData;

                //Wait again
                WaitForData(oSocketWorker);
            }
            catch (ObjectDisposedException)
            {
                System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Log(0, "1", "\n OnReceive: Socket has been closed\n");
            }
            catch (SocketException ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }
        }
        public class SocketPacket
        {
            public System.Net.Sockets.Socket oSocket;
            public byte[] bDataBuffer = new byte[1];
        }
    }
}

Sender Form – This will be the one sending the messages to the receiver to this is only used when needed.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Net.Sockets;

namespace Sender
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        Socket oSocket = null;
        public string sRecieverIP = "10.10.10.10";
        public int iRecieverPort = 8000;
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Connect();
        }
        private void btnSend_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                Object oData = txtMessage.Text;
                byte[] bData = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(oData.ToString());
                oSocket.Send(bData);
            }
            catch (SocketException se)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(se.Message);
            }
        }
        private Socket Connect()
        {
            try
            {
                //Creating a Client Socket
                oSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);

                System.Net.IPAddress oIPAddress = System.Net.IPAddress.Parse(sRecieverIP);
                System.Net.IPEndPoint oEndPoint = new System.Net.IPEndPoint(oIPAddress, iRecieverPort);
                oSocket.Connect(oEndPoint);

                return oSocket;
            }
            catch (SocketException se)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(se.Message);
                return null;
            }
        }
        private void Disconnect(Socket oSocket)
        {
            //Close socket on both sender and receiver
            oSocket.Shutdown(SocketShutdown.Both);
            oSocket.Close();
        }
    }
}

WCF or Windows Communication Foundation

Now let’s go to WCF or Windows Communication Foundation, it is an application programming interface in the .NET Framework for building connected, service-oriented applications like the one we want to achieve.  We also need to know that the base of WCF is also Socket programming that’s why if you use this approach most of the work is done for you and you will see how easy it is to implement from the codes below.  With WCF you get plumbing, serialization, protocols, security features, etc and all you need is to choose
the features you need and configure.  Now with that overhead this will be slower than the first method.

We will be creating the same 2 forms in this method but we need an additional one to implement a service and we also need an Application configuration to define the endpoint configuration.

WCF Main Receiver Form – This is used for service implementation, I used windows form for ease of use in debugging but you can implement it as a service, console or any way you want the invoke the receiver form.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceProcess;
namespace WCFReceiver
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public ServiceHost oServiceHost = null;

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (oServiceHost != null)
            {
                oServiceHost.Close();
            }
            // Create a ServiceHost for the Service type and provide the base address.
            oServiceHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(NotificationService));

            // Open the ServiceHostBase to create listeners and start listening for messages.
            oServiceHost.Open();
        }

    }

    // Define a Service Contract.
    [ServiceContract(Namespace = "http://WCFReceiver")]
    public interface INotifyClient
    {
        [OperationContract]
        bool SetPopUp(string sMessage);
    }

    // Implement the Service Contract in a Service Class.
    public class NotificationService : INotifyClient
    {
        public bool SetPopUp(string sMessage)
        {
            try
            {
                FormMsgReciever oPopup = new FormMsgReciever(sMessage);
                oPopup.Show();
                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
        }
    }
}

Pop Up Form - This is the receiver form to show the messages coming from the sender.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WCFReceiver
{
    public partial class FormMsgReciever : Form
    {
        private string sRecievedMessage;
        public FormMsgReciever(string sMessage)
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            sRecievedMessage = sMessage;
        }

        private void FormMsgReciever_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            txtMessageRecieved.Text = sRecievedMessage;
        }
    }
}

Application Config -  This is the configuration file to define endpoints

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <system.serviceModel>
    <services>
      <!-- This section is optional with the new configuration model introduced in .NET Framework 4. -->
      <service name="WCFReceiver.NotificationService" behaviorConfiguration="NotificationServiceBehavior">
        <host>
          <baseAddresses>
            <add baseAddress="http://localhost:8005/Notifier/service"/>
          </baseAddresses>
        </host>
        <endpoint address="" binding="wsHttpBinding" contract="WCFReceiver.INotifyClient" />
        <endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
      </service>
    </services>
    <behaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior name="NotificationServiceBehavior">
          <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true"/>
          <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="False"/>
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
  </system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

Once you have all of the 3 items above ready, build it then execute it so you can set a reference for the service reference your sender application.

Make sure you run it as an administrator

Otherwise you will encounter this message “HTTP could not register URL  http://+:portnumber/Directory/.  Your process does not have access rights to this namespace“

Once all OK add it as a reference to your Sender project

WCF Sender – This will be the form used in sending the messages

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WCFSender
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public string sRecieverIP = "10.10.10.10";
        public int iRecieverPort = 8000;
        public string sEndpointConfigName = "WSHttpBinding_INotifyClient";

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
        private void btnSend_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            string sServiceAddress = "http://" + sRecieverIP + ":" + 8000 + "/Notifier/service";

            ServiceReference1.NotifyClientClient oNotify = new ServiceReference1.NotifyClientClient(sEndpointConfigName, sServiceAddress);

            bool bSuccess = oNotify.SetPopUp(txtMessage.Text);
            if (!bSuccess)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Error in sending message");
            }
            Application.Exit();
        }
    }
}

Now for my choice of method, it’s all up to you what suits best as I had given the pros and cons of each method, you just have to weigh which best works in your situation.

So for example we have a Customer Table where we want to filter it by Customer ID, First Name, Last Name, Customer Type, and Active.

Now below is a piece of code that will generate the dynamic LINQ queries

public static List<Customer> GetFilteredData(int? CustomerID, string FirstName, string LastName, string CustomerType, bool Active)
{
    DataClasses1DataContext oDB = new DataClasses1DataContext();
    IQueryable<Customer> oDataQuery = oDB.Customers;

    //Filter by Integer
    if (CustomerID != null)
    {
        oDataQuery = oDataQuery.Where(a => a.CustomerID == CustomerID);
    }

    //Filter by containing words
    if (FirstName.Trim().Length > 0)
    {
        oDataQuery = oDataQuery.Where(a => a.FirstName.Contains(FirstName));
    }

    //Filter by containing words
    if (LastName.Trim().Length > 0)
    {
        oDataQuery = oDataQuery.Where(a => a.LastName.Contains(LastName));
    }

    //Filter by a Foreign Key Relationship
    if (CustomerType.Trim().Length > 0)
    {
        oDataQuery = oDataQuery.Where(a => a.CustomerTypeID == (from b in oDB.CustomerTypes where b.CustomerType1 == CustomerType select b.CustomerTypeID).FirstOrDefault());
    }

    //Filter by boolean
    oDataQuery = oDataQuery.Where(a => a.Active == Active);

    return oDataQuery.ToList();
}

Now let’s dissect what just happened:

1. First you had created your LINQ to SQL Data Context; in our sample we just simply call it oDB.

2. Next we declared an IQueryable interface called oDataQuery and initialized it with your table properties in the Database; in this case we had named it Customers.  At this point nothing had happened yet and no data is being queried, you are just initializing the object type.

3. Now let’s create the where clause dynamically by filtering every step of the way starting from Customer ID to Active Columns.  At this point nothing has been queried on the database and you are just creating a dynamic query on the background. This is the big difference between the two interfaces “IQueryable” and “IEnumerable”.
In “IEnumerable” it gets all of the records first in the associated table then it is the application side that filters it out.

To get a better understanding here are the queries that are generated on the background every step of the way.

At this line

oDataQuery = oDataQuery.Where(a => a.CustomerID == CustomerID);

This query gets generated

SELECT [t0].[CustomerID], [t0].[LastName], [t0].[FirstName], [t0].[CustomerTypeID], [t0].[Active], [t0].[Birthdate]
FROM [dbo].[Customers] AS [t0]
WHERE ([t0].[CustomerID]) = @p0

Then at this line

oDataQuery = oDataQuery.Where(a => a.FirstName.Contains(FirstName));

This query gets generated

SELECT [t0].[CustomerID], [t0].[LastName], [t0].[FirstName], [t0].[CustomerTypeID], [t0].[Active], [t0].[Birthdate]
FROM [dbo].[Customers] AS [t0]
WHERE ([t0].[FirstName] LIKE @p0) AND (([t0].[CustomerID]) = @p1)

So you see how the next condition is appenededon the where clause.  This goes on until you had finalized the whole query and in our sample it will look like this

SELECT [t0].[CustomerID], [t0].[LastName], [t0].[FirstName], [t0].[CustomerTypeID], [t0].[Active], [t0].[Birthdate]
FROM [dbo].[Customers] AS [t0]
WHERE ([t0].[Active] = 1) AND ([t0].[CustomerTypeID] = ((
    SELECT TOP (1) [t1].[CustomerTypeID]
    FROM [dbo].[CustomerTypes] AS [t1]
    WHERE [t1].[CustomerType] = @p0
    ))) AND ([t0].[LastName] LIKE @p1) AND ([t0].[FirstName] LIKE @p2) AND (([t0].[CustomerID]) = @p3

It is your [if] statement that controls whether a new where clause will be added

4. Finally you have to output it as something like a list so we will use the .ToList() method to get your desired query results.

Still not convinced, I had run a profiler at the background to see what queries are performed and it only shows the final query that was generated by LINQ

Now a part of what I am doing is developing custom web parts for Sharepoint and sometimes you need to access data to present that information to your users and it would be good if LINQ can be used to query what you want to make life easier.  Well that is possible and can be implemented really easily all you have to do is reference LINQ library from your project and generate entity classes, which provide an object oriented interface to the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation content databases which can be done by using spmetal.

Now I will give you a step by step example on how to achieve this.

First definitely you need to have your list to play with, so in this example I will have Employees, Department and Position.  I guess it’s logical how you would relate this lists together.

For the Employees list we have the following columns shown in the image below, take note that the Last Name column is the Title column which was renamed.  Position is a lookup in the Positions list.

For Position, same thing we renamed title to Position Title and Department is a Lookup in Department list.

For Department, again same thing we renamed title to Department Name.

Now you have the list we need, and all we need to do next is to generate the Entity reference code using SPMetal.  You can find it in the installation of your Sharepoint in the folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN.  Now to generate the Entities you need you can run this command spmetal.exe /web:http://YourSharepointURL/YourTeamSite /namespace:YourProjectNamespace /code:FileNameYouWant.cs.

Once it’s finished you will see the file generated in the bin folder of Sharepoint.  And now you can add that to your project.

Now you also need to add a reference to Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq.dll which is in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\ISAPI folder.

Now you are ready to code.  For this sample we will use a GridView to show the data you need so here is a sample.

<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False"
    EnableModelValidation="True">
    <Columns>
        <asp:BoundField DataField="Title" HeaderText="Last Name"/>
        <asp:BoundField DataField="FirstName" HeaderText="First Name"/>
        <asp:BoundField DataField="Position" HeaderText="Position" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="PositionDescription"
            HeaderText="Position Description" />
        <asp:BoundField DataField="Department" HeaderText="Department" />
    </Columns>
</asp:GridView>

And for the code behind we use this.

using System;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Linq;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq;

namespace Demo.VisualWebPart1
{
    public partial class VisualWebPart1UserControl : UserControl
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (!IsPostBack)
            {
                BindGrid();
            }
        }

        private void BindGrid()
        {
            SPLinqDataContext dc = new SPLinqDataContext(SPContext.Current.Web.Url);
            EntityList<EmployeesItem> Employees = dc.GetList<EmployeesItem>("Employees");

            var EmployeeQuery = from e in Employees.ToList()
                                select new
                                {
                                    e.Title,
                                    e.FirstName,
                                    Position = e.Position.Title,
                                    PositionDescription = e.Position.Description,
                                    Department = e.Position.Department.Title
                                };
            GridView1.DataSource = EmployeeQuery;
            GridView1.DataBind();
        }
    }
}

If you notice we use .Title a lot, this is because when we reused and renamed the Title column that SharePoint defaulted to, Sharepoint still retains the name internally it is still referred to as Title instead of the renamed column name.  And if you notice becuase of LINQ its easy to drill down to the sub lists that the primary list is related to, so rather than creating a join to the other list we just use this for example

e.Position.Description

also you notice there is a lot of Title Colums, its easy to create an alias for it by doing this

Department = e.Position.Department.Title

and finally if you have been using LINQ for some time you might ask why we used

Employees.ToList()

rather than just using

Employees

Then here is a really good explanation about it -> http://blog.sharepointsite.co.uk/2010/06/inefficient-queries-spmetal-join-issue.html

Happy coding!

Based on that image, I had created the following in Chronological Order, but I want to sort it out alphabetically which makes more sense to the users.  But how would I do that? First the quick and dirty way.

All you have to do is change the creation date of that View in SQL.  So get the List ID first by going to the list settings and you will see it either in the Address bar or on the Mobile section of the list properties.  Take note of that.

Now you have the list ID, all you have to do is to go to the database server for your Sharepoint instance and go to WSS_Content database and choose AllWebParts table.  You can select using this query

SELECT *
FROM [WSS_Content].[dbo].[AllWebParts] 
WHERE tp_ListId = 'Your List ID'
AND tp_Deleted = 0
ORDER BY tp_CreationTime

Now this will show you all the views on that list.  And you will notice it has the same order in that drop down.  From here you can edit the dates to your liking to show the Alphabetical sorting that you need.  This is a bit of hack and a dirty version of solving the problem, it may also not be supported by Microsoft.  But if you want the proper solution then move on.

Now since you moved on, I guess  you are interested in getting the right solution which is by using Sharepoint Powershell.  So we will be doing the same thing above but in a proper manner as we wont go editing dates one by one but we will be cloning each View, sort them, then delete the old items and recreate according to sort order.  So in the database it’s still sorted by Date Created but since we are creating it in an alphabetical fashion then it will show as such.  Now I guess you will be using this a lot so we have to make this like an executable file so you can reuse on any site / team sites and lists that you may have.  So lets start by creating out powershell script, copy and paste that code below and save it as Sort.ps1.

#Make the Script will Stop on errors
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"

#Get the variables needed by the following prompts
$TeamSitePrompt = Read-Host "What is the Team Site URL (i.e. http://test.com/teamsite)"
$ListNamePrompt = Read-Host "What is the List Name you want to sort" 

#Create a Sorted List to store the Views you want to Sort
$SortedList = New-Object System.Collections.SortedList

$Web = Get-SPWeb $TeamSitePrompt
$List = $Web.Lists[$ListNamePrompt]
$Views = $List.Views

#Loop through the Views on the List and Save then on the Sorted List 
#This will be automatically sorted as the Object is System.Collections.SortedList
Write-Host "Saving the List " $ListNamePrompt " to a Sorted Collection"
foreach ($CurrentViewItem in $List.Views)
{
 $SortedList.Add($CurrentViewItem.Title, $CurrentViewItem.Title)
}
Write-Host "---------------------------------------"

#Now the List is Sorted we Delete the View Item and Create it Again
#This makes it look like the Views are listed alphabetically but they are still listed by Creation Date
#Were just recreating them in alphabetical manner
foreach ($CurrentKeyItem in $SortedList.Keys)
{
 Write-Host "Processing Current View " $ViewToDelete.Title
 $ViewToDelete = $List.Views[$CurrentKeyItem]

 #Dulpicate the Current View
 Write-Host "Duplicating Please wait ..."
 $NewVew = $ViewToDelete.Clone($ViewToDelete.Title, $ViewToDelete.RowLimit, $ViewToDelete.Paged, $ViewToDelete.DefaultView)

 #Delete the Old View, the New View will have a New ID so we use ID to Delete
 Write-Host "Deleting the old View"
 $List.Views.Delete($ViewToDelete.ID)

 Write-Host "---------------------------------------"
 }

#Set $ErrorActionPreference back to "Continue"
$ErrorActionPreference = "Continue"
Write-Host "------- F I N I S H E D --------"

Now you created the script copy it over to you Sharepoint server and run the powershell script by going to Sharepoint 2010 Management Shell.  Follow the prompts.

Once that’s done then all your views are sorted, to double-check run again your SQL Query above and see whats recorded on the database.

You can also see you views are sorted alphabetically

But wait, you might see the “Webpage cannot be found” page, don’t worry your list was not corrupted, this happens when you have a lot of views configured and Sharepoint is still processing this at the background, wait for it or have a cup of coffee and when you  go back hopefully it shows

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\{FrameworkVersion}\InstallUtil.exe C:\MyDemoService.exe

Also the Setup project wizard in Visual Studio is not that straightforward, so if you are looking for a step by step walk-through on how to achieve this task then look no further as i will explain everything from development to set up of project in the least amount of steps possible.

Now lets start by creating a Windows Service Project

Once it created, you can now do the coding by switching to code view

Now for our sample we will write items on event log every 5 seconds, this makes sure that we know that the service is running as expected.  So copy the code below to your project.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.ServiceProcess;
using System.Text;
using System.Timers;

namespace Demo_Windows_Service
{
    public partial class Service1 : ServiceBase
    {
        Timer myTimer = new Timer();
        public Service1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
        {
            //Starting 

            //Handle Elapsed Event
            myTimer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(OnElapsedTime);

            //Set Interval to 1 Second 
            myTimer.Interval = 5000;

            //Enable the Timer
            myTimer.Enabled = true;
        }

        protected override void OnStop()
        {
        }
        private void OnElapsedTime(object source, ElapsedEventArgs e)
        {
            myTimer.Enabled = false;

            //Perform Processing Here
            DoSomething();

            myTimer.Enabled = true;
        }

        private void DoSomething()
        {
            string sSource;
            string sLog;
            string sEvent;

            sSource = "Demo Windows Service";
            sLog = "Log Something : " + DateTime.Now.ToString();
            sEvent = "Event Fired";

            if (!EventLog.SourceExists(sSource))  EventLog.CreateEventSource(sSource, sLog);

            EventLog.WriteEntry(sSource, sEvent);
            EventLog.WriteEntry(sSource, sEvent, EventLogEntryType.Information, 100);

        }
    }
}

Once finished add an installer in your service, this piece of configuration will be invoked by the setup project.  So go to the Service1.cs [Design] and right-click on the open area, then choose “Add Installer”

Once done you will hae two objects to configure, which are serviceProcessInstaller1 and serviceInstaller1

Now lets configure serviceProcessInstaller1, this defines how the service will run under as.  These are the things you see in the Logon tab of the service property.  Now you can choose whether you want it to be User, LocalSystem, NetworkService or LocalService.

If you don’t know the difference between each of them then here is a description of all:

• User - This can be a Domain User or a Local user Account, these are non built-in accounts that are given rights by an administrator, so access rights might vary so check with your administrator.
• Local System or “NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM” – This is a built-in account with a very high-privilege on the local system and it acts as the computer on the network.
• Local Service or “NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE” – This is a built-in account that has the same privileges like the members of the Users group, which means it has limited access.  This account accesses the network resources as a null session without credentials.
• Network Service or “NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE” - This is a built-in account that has more privileges than the members of the Users group.  This account accesses the network resources by using the credentials of the computer account

Now lets configure serviceInstaller1, this section defines how the service will behave and it will also contain the description and name of the service you are setting up.  These are the things you see in the General tab of the service property.

Now you are done with your installer, Next thing to do now is your Setup Project, do that by adding a new project in your solution

Choose a” setup project” under “other project types”

Once chosen, you will be directed to file system editor, if it does not happen you can always right-click the project then choose “View” -> “File System”.  Once in the File System Properties choose Application Folder and right-click on it to add a “Project Output” this is where you define what is the output of your project which can be an Executable File, Class Library or even third-party Dll’s, In our case it the class library.

Just choose the Service Project the Primary Output, click OK

Now it will display all outputs plus dependencies if you have any on your Windows Service Project

Now choose custom actions, this defines what is copied on Install, Commit, Rollback and Uninstall.

Choose the items you had defined on the File System Properties by going to “Application Folder”

Then choose the Primary Output of your Service

Now it will show you that they are now configured on Install, Commit, Rollback and Uninstall

Now you are left with the properties, you can place you Installer description, author, manufacturer, installer behaviour etc.  This is the one shown on the add remove programs.

Now build your solution, then build your setup project.  Once done go to the Setup project folder and copy your setup to where you want to install your Windows service.

Now run the setup and just follow the wizard

Once finished you are all good to go, type services.msc on the run command to see if your service have successfully installed.

You can also see programs and features, you can uninstall it from here.

1. Create an Empty Sharepoint Project

You need Visual Studio 2010 to start with as well as well as the SDK for Sharepoint 2010, for a guide on how to install Sharepoint 2010 in a non server environment such as your development workstation please refer here. Once you have it properly installed go and create an empty Sharepoint Project.

2. Updating the Solution Feature

Now You will see all proper files are created for you to get started

We are interested on the Features section so double-click Feature1 and update the properties, make sure you change the scope to “WebApplication“

3. Create an Element

Now you need to create an element to attach to your feature, to do that right-click on the project and add a new item, then choose “Empty Element“. Dont forget to give it a Name.

Once added verify by going to the Feature design or Manifest whether it had attached to the feature. If all is OK, edit your element to reflect what you needed (The additional menu item on the drop down menu), here is a sample code to create a “My Information” link which goes to a page in Sharepoint called “/SitePages/My%20Information.aspx”

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <CustomAction
        Id ="CustomMenu_MyInformation"
        GroupId="PersonalActions"
        Location="Microsoft.SharePoint.StandardMenu"
        Sequence="1000"
        Title="My Information"
        Description="View and Update my Information" 
        ImageUrl="_layouts/images/icon_contactlist.gif">
    <UrlAction Url="/SitePages/My%20Information.aspx"/>
  </CustomAction>
</Elements>

Now for a bit of explanation how did we get that code and what’s in there. In case you have been tinkering on how to edit the welcome drop-down menu item then you might have encountered posts in the net like from Ms Sharepoint Blog which talks about the file in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES\Welcome.ascx, that is the file that controls how that drop down is rendered. If you open that file you might had noticed that there is a SharePoint:FeatureMenuTemplate Control under , and thats the control for the drop-down menu. You can directly add items to it but there’s no point as you cannot manually add a Navigate URL Element Directly, or even if you can once you upgraded Sharepoint then your customization will not be remembered.

Now in that SharePoint:FeatureMenuTemplate control there is a GroupId which is “PersonalActions“, that’s the GroupId that we need to override and create custom action hence the code above is pointed to the same GroupId, we also gave it the same Location as the SharePoint:FeatureMenuTemplate, and for the others I guess its self-explanatory.

4. Package your Sharepoint Solution

Once all satisfied on your custom menu all you need to do now is to package it. Right click on the Project or on the Menu bar Choose Build->Package.

Take note where the package is created on your Output window

Now copy that and place it on your Sharepoint Servers file system, I placed mine in C:\Package\

5. Add and Install your Solution to Sharepoint

First go to SharePoint 2010 Management Shell and type

Add-SPSolution C:\YourFolder\YourPackageName.wsp

Then verify whether it is uploaded correctly by going to “SharePoint 2010 Central Administration”.   Navigate to System Settings -> Manage Farm Solutions

If your Package is there then it uploaded correctly, now click your package

Then Deploy Solution

It will warn you like such, just hit OK.
Another option is through Powershell you can type this command (doing this eliminates the last 3 steps)

Install-SPSolution -identity YourPackageName.wsp -WebApplication http://yoursharepointurl -GACDeployment

6. Now your menu item is ready, check it out

But before you start you should have installed Sharepoint 2010 on your Development Workstation and if you are having some difficulties on how to achieve that here is a quick guide on how to install Sharepoint in a non server environment.

Now lets start!

1. Open Visual Studio 2010 as an Administrator then create a new Visual Web Part project, give it a name. In this sample we call it SampleWebPart.

If you did not run as an Administrator then it will prompt you to restart using a different credential

2. Specify the local Sharepoint Server, and note that you cannot use a Sharepoint instance outside your workstation.

3. All the necessary files have been created you can now start developing

You will be using VisualWebPart1UserControl.ascx.cs and VisualWebPart1UserControl.ascx, these are the controls that will be rendered on your Sharepoint instance.

4. Now start developing, if you are familiar with web development in Visual Studio it will be similar, you can drag and drop controls and add events to it.

For this sample we will put 2 controls, 1 button and 1 label. Then put an event on the button to change the text on Label1 to “Hello World!”

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Label1.Text = "Hello World!";
}

5. Now build and run your project.

Now if you notice in the output screen you will also see that a package was created on your bin folder, this is what you will be using later to deploy on your server. You can also package your solution anytime by right clicking the project and choose package.

6. When the project is running your default browser will run opening your local Sharepoint instance, your control cannot be seen yet at this point and you have to add it you your page as a web part to do that, go to a page that you can edit and add your Sample Web Part, once added you can now test if the events are firing.

7. Once you stopped the project, it will deactivate, retract and delete the solution that was imported to the local Sharepoint instance so don’t try to find it on your local Sharepoint installation afterwards as you will not find it.

8. Now if all is working fine you are ready to deploy. Go to your bin folder and copy the package to your servers file system.

9. Once copied you can run powershell scripts to install your package to your Sharepoint Server. To do that go to SharePoint 2010 Management Shell

To Add the Solution in Sharepoint

Add-SPSolution C:\YourFolder\SampleWebPart.wsp

To Install the Solution to your Sharepoint

Install-SPSolution -identity SampleWebPart.wsp -WebApplication http://yoursharepointserver -GACDeployment

To Update your Solution in Sharepoint
you will need this if you want to update the Webpart that is already installed

Update-SPSolution –Identity SampleWebPart.wsp –LiteralPath C:\YourFolder\SampleWebPart.wsp –GACDeployment

Now if something went horribly wrong or you just want to uninstall it you have to run this two commands

To Uninstall a Solution in Sharepoint

Uninstall-SPSolution –Identity SampleWebPart.wsp –WebApplication http://yoursharepointserver

then

Remove a solution from Sharepoint

Remove-SPSolution –Identity SampleWebPart.wsp

10. At this point your webparts in now available for usage, all you have to do is to Import it into your Sharepoint Server gallery.

Go to Site settings (of the topmost site) then under Galleries you will see “Webparts” click on it.

Then import your new Web Part to the Gallery, click New Document

Then you will be presented with Web Parts available for import

Choose the webpart you just installed the click populate gallery, at this point your web part now is available on the Sharepoint Ribbon’s Editing Tool.

To enable that you have to follow the steps below

1. Once you download the SharepointFoundation.exe you can extract the installation files by running this on the command prompt

c:\YourDownloadFolder\SharepointFoundation /extract:c:\SharepointFoundationFiles

Note do not use other extractor such as 7-Zip beacause you will get this error

“The language of this installation package is not supported by your system”

This happens as the folder structure will not be extracted correctly.

2. Now edit the config.xml in  c:\SharepointFoundationFiles\files\Setup\config.xml and add this line

<Setting Id="AllowWindowsClientInstall" Value="True"/>

inside the

<Configuration> 

tag:

So the who file will now look like

<Configuration>
  <Package Id="sts">
    <Setting Id="SETUPTYPE" Value="CLEAN_INSTALL"/>
  </Package>
  <DATADIR Value="%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\Data"/>
  <Logging Type="verbose" Path="%temp%" Template="Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Setup *.log"/>
  <Setting Id="UsingUIInstallMode" Value="1"/>
  <Setting Id="SETUP_REBOOT" Value="Never" />
  <Setting Id="AllowWindowsClientInstall" Value="True"/>
</Configuration>

3. Save the configuration file and your good to go.  All you need to do is install the prerequisites if you havent and run the c:\SharepointFoundationFiles\Setup.exe

So what is an Initiation form?  It simply a page that is presented when you start a workflow manually, the page where you see two buttons for “Start” and “Cancel”.  By default you have those buttons but you can extend this page by adding form fields and use the value on those as variables that you can consume for your workflow process.

So lets start with a sample, lets say you have the requirement to have an Office Supply list where your team can place an order on a specific item and that invokes a workflow on the backed, making a task list grabbing important details like Name of requester, quantity and the Item requested.  Here are the steps to achieve it.

1. Create an “Office Supplies” List

2. Now using Sharepoint Designer, go to your list and create a workflow.

3. Name your workflow, I called it “Supply Request Workflow”

4. Now Save and Publish your workflow and make sure it created a Task List and History List

5. Double check if you have the Task List by going to your Sharepoint instance

6. Now update that task list to cater for the following new fields. Item Requested, Quantity and Requested By.

7. Back to Sharepoint Designer and edit again your workflow

8. Now create an Initiation Form by clicking the Initiation Form Parameters

9. Now add the field, this is the fields that will populate your Task List as well on step 6, so create the same fields and its format you have on the said step.

10. Once done, time for you to set up an Action on Step 1, and we need to create a “Create List Item” action

11. Now choose the property “this list”.

12. Now choose the “Association: Task List”

13. Modify the Value sent to those fields

14. For example in the Title Field (“of the Task List”) you want to use the Current Item which is the “Office Supply List” Name.

15. You can add more strings of your choice if you want, so since this is a new request we make the title “New Item Requested : Your Item”.

16. Now for other fields like Quantity you can grab it from the initiation form you created in Step 8.  To do that just choose “Workflow Variables and Parameters” in Data Source and you will see the fields you created of on the “Field from source”.

17. Once all values are properly assigned click OK.

18. Now Save and Publish again.

19. Now usually manual initiation workflow starts by hitting the Workflows Button then choosing the appropriate workflow to run.  To make it a bit user-friendly I guess we will have to create a button on the Display Form Ribbon of an item.  Do that by clicking Custom Action and choose “Display Form Ribbon”.

20. Now name you button, I called it Request now.  And set it to initiate your “Supply Request Workflow”.

21. Add your icons.  Then your done.

22. Open now a list item on “Office Supplies” list, then you will see your “Request Now” button.  Click that.

23. Now you see your “Supply Request Workflow” with the input forms you had defined.

24. Click start to initiate the request, and you will see it on the “Task List”

25. With the fields populated as configured.

1. Creating SQL Alerts in SQL Server Agent

Go to your SQL Server Agent and on the Alert section, right-click on it and choose New Alert.

Now you are presented with the alert properties and just fill it up with the proper information
Name :  Choose a name for this Alert
Type :  There are 3 different types and since were interested in Database Mirroring State Change we need to query WMI so choose WMI event alert
Namespace : The namespace it auto populated to the namespace you needed so don’t change it
Query : Now write your WMI Query.  We are looking for the DATABASE_MIRRORING_STATE_CHANGE class so your query goes like this.

SELECT * FROM DATABASE_MIRRORING_STATE_CHANGE

Now there 19 Properties for that class and you are mainly interested on DatabaseName or DatabaseID and State.  DatabaseName or DatabaseID will be the database you are monitoring and State would be Mirroring State of the Database and here are the different values.

• 0 = Null Notification
• 1 = Synchronized Principal with Witness
• 2 = Synchronized Principal without Witness
• 3 = Synchronized Mirror with Witness
• 4 = Synchronized Mirror without Witness
• 5 = Connection with Principal Lost
• 6 = Connection with Mirror Lost
• 7 = Manual Failover
• 8 = Automatic Failover
• 9 = Mirroring Suspended
• 10 = No Quorum
• 11 = Synchronizing Mirror
• 12 = Principal Running Exposed

Having that in mind you can now filter out alerts by those two properties, so for example I want to have an alert for “SAMPLE” Database where the mirroring Failed Over my query would look like this

SELECT * FROM DATABASE_MIRRORING_STATE_CHANGE WHERE DatabaseName = 'SAMPLE' AND State = 8

Now you have an alert you need now to define notifications for operators, you can do that by going to the Response tab and choose who do you want to notify and what notifications they want to receive.

Now you define additional options such as message you want to send to those operator

At this stage you have a working alert.  But it might not work as by default the SQL Server Agent Alert System Mail Profile is disabled

2. Activating SQL Server Agent Alert System Mail Profile.

Go to SQL Server Agents properties

Then go to Alert System Tab then tick Enable mail profile and choose the Mail system installed on your server as well as its profile

Now your done, all you have to do is test, You will get a message similar to this once it’s activated.