2008/03/18
SQL Server 2005 - Indexes Reorganization
When you create a Maintenace Plan for SQL Server 2005 with a "Reorganize Index Task" very often you'll get the following error:
Executing the query "ALTER INDEX [IX_myIndex] ON [dbo].[myTable] REORGANIZE WITH ( LOB_COMPACTION = ON )
" failed with the following error: "The index "IX_myIndex" (partition 1) on table "myTable" cannot be reorganized because page level locking is disabled.
This is due to the default behavoir when you create an index with the GUI in SQL Server Management Studio which is to disable page-level locking for the index. The behavoir is changed with SQL Server 2005 SP2 (obviously it must be applied to the clients).
When you try to reorganize a database you may find a lot of indexes with page level locking disabled.
To enable it, you can execute the following script on every impacted database (I've got this script from http://www.megasolutions.net/Sqlserver/Finding-all-the-indexes-on-a-server-with-AllowPageLocks-set-to-FALSE_-65676.aspx)
The script will output the sql to update the indexes, so copy the sql and execute it again.
set quoted_identifier off
go
SELECT "alter index [" + i.name + "] ON [" + s.name + "].[" + t.name + "]
SET (ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) "
-- s.name, t.name, i.name
FROM sys.schemas s
JOIN sys.tables t ON
t.schema_id = s.schema_id
JOIN sys.indexes i ON
i.object_id = t.object_id
WHERE
i.index_id > 0
AND INDEXPROPERTY(i.object_id, i.name, 'IsPageLockDisallowed') = 1
AND INDEXPROPERTY(t.object_id, i.name, 'IsStatistics') = 0
AND NOT EXISTS
(
SELECT *
FROM sys.objects keys
WHERE
keys.parent_object_id = i.object_id AND
keys.name = i.name AND
keys.type IN('PK', 'UQ')
)
2008/03/16
[Link]Sharepoint Explorer View Troubleshooting
Nice document. Now I understood that Explorer View is really complicated:
...And I still cannot understood why it's not working with https!
2008/03/11
[Link]Unicode Explained
Just for my memory: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html
Excellent introduction.
2008/03/07
Sharepoint Conference 2008 - Summary
At the end of the conference some new idea raise-up for running projects in Europe and probably I learned something new on MOSS best-practices.
But the greatest value of this conference is the italian people I've met (rigorously sorted by Last Name):
- Igor Macori - http://www.macori.it/
- Paolo Pialorsi - http://blogs.devleap.com/paolo/default.aspx
- Romeo Pruno - http://www.nonaka.eu/
From technical perspective they've very strong technical skills on MOSS, .Net and architectures as they're kindly and friendly guys from human behaviour.
It has been an honor having met them here.
2008/03/06
Hard to find skilled developers
This morning during a presentantion in Sharepoint Conference 2008 in Seattle about MOSS, Excel Services and Form Server as an integrated plafform for consultancy tracking and planning someone asked to the speaker "cool stuff, very interesting but it's hard to find skilled sharepoint developers!"
That's a real big truth, like watching a porn film and after thinking: "cool stuff, but it's difficult to find skilled girls doing these jobs"
Sharepoint Conference 2008 - Day 4
Attended to the following presentation:
Building Composite Office Business Applications
Nice and brilliiant presentation about OBA Reference Toolkit (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/cc196391.aspx).
It's very interesting to create an application framework which pivot across sharepoint to integrate the user experience with client side office applications (developed with VSTO).
Well, I'm very interesting in see real world application, at the moment they say that there a lot of opportunity for partners and that's not a good sign for real deployment...
It's not clear for me to understand how OBA is positioned comparing to Acropolis. I think that Acropolis will be the composer for Smart Client/SOA scenario while OBA is the composer for VSTO/IW applications.
Real world application for consultancy tracking (the same business of my company). The application uses Sharepoint lists as a storage for engagements and consultants leveraging Search apis to find information.
But the the best showed idea is leveraging of UDF for Excel Services to pull business information from the data-sources integrating them into spreadsheets used as Dashboard in a very easy way. The UDF functions could be configured with a .config file to specify where data will be fetched
Also in this case, the lesson learned is that Form Servers is very challenging and tricky (because it's impossible discriminate the form section behaviour according to user role).
Managing a SharePoint Workflow Environment That Includes Custome Activities and Actions
Nothing new. Some best-practices about exception management and logging.
That's all about the conf.
Sharepoint Conference 2008 - Day 3
Attended to the following sessions, after the Keynote with Greg Lemmond (his life is interesting, really great man).
Best of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 for SharePoint Deployments
New features from Windows Server 2008 (mainly leveraging PowerShell for MOSS deployment and IIS tracking).
Regarding SQL Server 2008 they said that you've database encryption (how?!) and fastest data backup. I expect somethink more from SQL....
SharePoint Tools for Style: Advanced Techniques for Branding SharePoint
Best practices on CSS and Master-Page management. For tips&tricks http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/ 
Rendering Data in SharePoint Using AJAX and LINQ
Great opportunity for me to see Linq in action.
I was very impressed by data abstraction which could be done with LINQ. I think that the best use could be to implemente feedback model where a lot of inputs are collected by etherogeneus datasources and loading them into an object model which could be queried using LINQ.
I'm thinking to fields tag in an industrial plant which using Linq could be joined with alarms stored in a relation database and it would be very easy and quicker to extract the information you need. The requirement to have performance in this scenario is having the objects in memory (well it's the default using Linq on objects). During the presentation this approach has been used to query MOSS but is's high risky because in the same way all the lists must be in memory and the processing could be very dangerous.
Regarding AJAX I've seen how to plumb it into MOSS. Default MOSS WebService aren't AJAX compliant (they are'not scriptable) so they were wrapped by another Web-Service. Fine but you can leverage ASTORIA in an easy way.
Creating Solutions with the MOSS Single Sign On Service
This was one the most crystalline speech that I ever attended Todd Baginsky is a great presenter (http://www.sharepointblogs.com/tbaginski/default.aspx).
The most intersting stuff was the integration of SSO with ASP.Net Form Authentication. In Todd's blog there is a sample.
2008/03/05
Sharepoint Conference 2008 - Day 2
Attended to the following sessions:
- Migrating a SharePoint Designer Workflow to Visual Studio .NET
- Integrating Business Applications into MOSS Using the BizTalk Adapter Pack
- MOSS 2007: Advanced Administrative Architecture, Deployment, and Operations
- Leverage the Power of the Business Data Catalog (BDC) to Integrate Content across the Enterprise
- Easy Jet: MOSS 2007 As an Information Platform for the Intranet and Beyond
Migrating a SharePoint Designer Workflow to Visual Studio .NET
In Italy we says "Tears and Blood".
It's feasible migrate a Sharepoint Designer Workflow to WinFX, but the question is... Why?!?!
It's too much hardly and Tricky and you need to know some undocuments features. Also hardly to support.
The only scenario is the leveraging of SP Designer for prototypinh and after that migrate, but I think it's cheaper to prototype directly in Visual Studio...
Integrating Business Applications into MOSS Using the BizTalk Adapter Pack
That's the contents: http://blogs.msdn.com/adapters/archive/2008/02/15/biztalk-adapter-pack-released.aspx
From my perspective it's another abstraction layer between the BDC and the LOB but I don't see any great value for them.
During the presentation the speaker had a lot of problem wasting time.
I don't see value using the adapter pack with Sharepoint (BDC is OK), but it could be useful for other stand-alone applications with bidirection interactions (BDC is read-only)
MOSS 2007: Advanced Administrative Architecture, Deployment, and Operations
Best Practices from MS IT for deploying and supporting large enterprises. Nothing new.
Leverage the Power of the Business Data Catalog (BDC) to Integrate Content across the Enterprise
What you can do with the business Data Catalog.
It was very interesting the approach to the presentation. A Sharepoint site with all the features of BDC has been used.
Every site was conceived like a PPT presentation but with the real feature that was showed by the speaker (...and I loosed the name of him)
Easy Jet: MOSS 2007 As an Information Platform for the Intranet and Beyond
I apreciated a lot the presentation from Andy Caddy (Easy Jet chief architect) and he's also the father of www.easyjet.com that I think it's the best flight booking site.
During the presentation he showed EasyJet intranet which is mainly used for collaboration.
The most interesting application I think it's the area of crew briefing which is used to collect technical information regarding the trip and the planned plane. This application help to reduce the wasted or unproductive time to prepare the briefing collecting the required informations.
Evening Party
At Seattle Museum of Flight (http://www.museumofflight.org/Portal.asp?Flash=True and look at the picture).
Free-Food and drinks! But it was better 2 years ago the Experience Music Project (http://www.seattleattractions.com/emp.html). Jumy Hedrix rules...
Sharepoint Conference 2008 - Day 1
I'm arrived sunday evening in Seattle to learn something interesting at the Sharepoint Conference (well...I hope so) after 4 days around the east coast.
I attended to the following sessions:
- Keynote (Bill Gates, Tom Rizzo, Kurt Del Bene)
- Build Interactive User Experiences with the Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint
- A Roll-Up of Fun & Lessons Learned Using the Content Query Web Part (CQWP)
- SharePoint As a BI Platform
Keynote (Bill Gates, Tom Rizzo, Kurt Del Bene)
- Announced the online services for Sharepoint ed Exchange (http://www.microsoft.com/online/learn.mspx).
- The Search products and features will be enriched by the acquisition of Fast (http://www.fast.no/)
- Blue Print for SilverLight: http://www.ssblueprints.net/sharepoint/
But the most exciting stuff was this video: http://www.truveo.com/Bill-Gates-Last-Day-at-Microsoft/id/253035224
Build Interactive User Experiences with the Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint
Nice session but there is already a lot a room to have Sharepoint and SilverLight integrated.
During a sessions differents approach to embedded SilverLight into a WebPart were showed.
I think that SilverLight could be evaluted to integrate mining model into DashBoard and some also as an interactive tool to render some kind of analytics (I mean a front-end for consolidated reporting).
One of the demo was built over the components of ComponentOne (http://labs.componentone.com/Sapphire/). Seems to be good stuff.
A Roll-Up of Fun & Lessons Learned Using the Content Query Web Part (CQWP)
A lot of different best practices, tips and lesson learned regarding the Content Query Web part.
The main trick is the leveraging of a custom column in every list which could be queried by the Content Query Web Part using predefined tags.
It was very satisfing for me to look that the session was exposed with the same approach of mine during the 2007 launch of O2007 in Italy.
I've seen for the first time PerformancePoint that is very well conceived but I think it's very hard to sell...
PerfomancePoint it's an excellent platform but it's enabling tool which could be leveraged by strategic consulting firm to implement the Balanced Scorecard Theory to companies.
To create real value it's mandatory to reorganize the company building it around the nodes which are focused by PerformancePoint.
