SharePoint Tutorial: Connecting SQL Reporting Services to a SharePoint List

Sometimes you may need to create reports on the SharePoint list data. For example, you may need to create a report for your manager on surveys entered by your users. You can use SQL Reporting Services to connect to a SharePoint list and develop a report from that data.

I've created a tutorial and a video on how to do this.

If you have any questions, please post a comment and I will try to answer to the best of my ability.

Instructions on Connecting SQL Reporting Services to a SharePoint List

Feliz navidad, amigos!

I want to wish all of you a joyous holiday!

Here are a few treats for you. I hope you like them.

The first show is Bolek and Lolek having a little winter fun. For those of you who aren't familiar, Bolek and Lolek is an adorable cartoon from Poland.


The second show is one of my favorite Christmas songs. It's special to me because I lived in Puerto Rico for a few years, and I've spent a few fun Christmases in the land of Los Boriquas. It brings back a lot of happy memories. This is a live performance of Feliz Navidad, from Jose Feliciano.


The third show is another of my favorite Christmas song arrangements. This duet from David Bowie and Bing Crosby, in my opinion, rocks the house! It's a great mix of the classic and the contemporary. This is one of Bing Crosby's final appearances.


Finally, this is for my mother. Her favorite Christmas song is Happy Christmas (War is Over), by John Lennon. Others have covered this song, but she only likes the version from John Lennon.

C# Tutorial: Using FtpWebRequest to Perform FTP Actions

Click the link to download the source code for this post

Licensing and Warranty

You may use the code as you wish - it may be used in commercial or other applications, and it may be redistributed and modified. The code is provided "as-is". No claim of suitability, guarantee, or any warranty whatsoever is provided. By downloading the code, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Author and the Publisher from and against any claims, suits, losses, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal or attorneys' fees) resulting from or relating to any use of the code by you.

Introduction

Before .NET 2.0, coding FTP functionality was somewhat cumbersome. You either had to purchase third-party classes and libraries or you had to spend hours coding in order for the functionality to work.

.NET 2.0 launched a number of tools to make development easier. A class called FtpWebRequest in the System.Net library makes coding FTP functionality much easier.

I have created a demonstration on how to use this class. In this demonstration, I will be creating a GUI application that will upload a file to an FTP server.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will answer your question to the best of my ability. :)

The Tutorial

You can download the source code for this tutorial from the link that appears at the top of this post.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Additional Reading

OpenFileDialog (MSDN)
FtpWebRequest (MSDN)
Simple FTP Demo Application Using C# .NET 2.0 by Mohammed Habeeb
Uploading File using FtpWebRequest by Faraz Shah Khan

C# and SharePoint 2007 Tutorial - Accessing the SharePoint Data Using Web Services (Part 3)

This is part 3 of the series. If you haven't read parts 1 and 2, please click on the following links to read:

• Part 1.


• Part 2.

I have published part 3 of the series. The tutorial can be accessed from the link at the end of this post.

If you have any questions, please post a comment and I will answer to the best of my ability. :)

Instructions on Accessing SharePoint Data using a Web Reference - Part 3

Enjoy!

C# and SharePoint 2007 Tutorial - Accessing the SharePoint Data Using Web Services (Part 2)

This is part 2 of the series. If you haven't read part 1, please read it here.

I have published part 2 of the series. The tutorial can be accessed from the link at the end of this post.

If you have any questions, please post a comment and I will answer to the best of my ability. :)

Instructions on Accessing SharePoint Data using a Web Reference - Part 2

Click to read Part 3 of the tutorial
Enjoy!

Workaround for Installing SharePoint Extensions for Visual Studio on Windows XP

Note: Part II of the SharePoint "Behind the Scenes" Tutorial will be posted tomorrow.

The SharePoint Extensions for Visual Studio (versions 2005 and 2008) make SharePoint development so much easier. However, it assumes that you are developing on a machine with Windows Server 2003, which has the SharePoint Server components already installed.

What if you develop on a Windows XP or Windows Vista machine, and you port the code to a SharePoint server? Unfortunately, you cannot install the SharePoint Extensions on a Windows XP or Windows Vista machine out of the box.

However, with a small registry hack, you will be able to install SharePoint Extensions for Visual Studio on a Windows XP or Windows Vista machine. I did the registry hack on my XP machine, and I was able to install the extensions.

Warning: Approach registry hacks with caution. Make sure you make an image of your machine or a backup of your registry before doing the hack in case something goes wrong.

If you would like to see how it's done, click here to see the video demonstration (WMV file)

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Source: Janne Matilla's Blog

C# and SharePoint 2007 Tutorial - Accessing the SharePoint Data Using Web Services (Part 1)

As I promised, SharePoint developers, I wrote a tutorial on using a web reference to access SharePoint data using a C# program. This is very useful if you don't want to run your program on the same server where SharePoint 2007 is installed. The tutorial can be accessed from the link at the bottom of this post.

If you have any questions, please post a comment and I will answer to the best of my ability. :)

Instructions on Accessing SharePoint Data using a Web Reference

Click to read Part 2 of the tutorial
Click to read Part 3 of the tutorial

Enjoy!

So how bad is Wikipedia really?

I was listening to the radio the other morning while I was getting ready for work, and the radio host had a professor from one of the local universities as his guest. I wasn't really paying attention to the interview until the professor haughtily stated that he "automatically fails papers that cite Wikipedia as a source." My first thought was, "Hmm - pretty draconian, don't you think?" However, it made me think - is Wikipedia really that bad?

Since 2001, Wikipedia's purpose was to become an encyclopedia that can be read and edited by anyone. Although it was intended to be a supplement to Nupedia (the on-line encyclopedia written by experts), it eventually replaced Nupedia, and it has become a phenomenon.

The openness of Wikipedia is a blessing and a curse.

The blessing is information can easily change virtually in real time, whereas with printed media, it would take time to rewrite or add an entry and republish the media. For example, if a major political figure passes away or if someone recently gets elected to office, the information is readily available on Wikipedia within seconds of the announcement, while one would have to wait for a new edition of the printed media. I also think the ability to openly share ideas and thoughts is a blessing as well. Sometimes the academic press overlook people who are extremely knowledgeable in a subject because they don't have an advanced degree.

The curse is any yahoo with a computer can write anything he or she pleases in the article. There are numerous incidents of pranksters gone wild on Wikipedia, including:

• In 2005, Brian Chase anonymously posted that John Seigenthaler, a well-known writer and journalist, had a hand in the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and John Kennedy. This article remained on the site for four months.


• In 2007, Turkish historian Taner Akcam was briefly detained in Montreal because of false information on his Wikipedia page about being a terrorist.


• Numerous reports on false information being added to celebrities' or well-known figures' Wikipedia pages, including most recently reports on false information on former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's and golfer Fuzzy Zoeller's Wikipedia pages.

Another problem that I see with Wikipedia is they are slow to monitor information posted on a page. To prove this, I did an experiment with Wikipedia. I anonymously posted false (but not libelous) information about a well-known figure on the Wikipedia page - I won't say which figure ;). It took them about 4 weeks to remove the false information on the page.

So, is Wikipedia really as bad as they say? Depends on what you are researching. Based on my experience, I found that the majority of the technology articles were accurate and I could safely cite a number of them as sources. I also found that a number of pages on tangible objects (like cats and chicken soup) were also accurate. However, I have found that posts on controversial figures or events were not always accurate and were frequently "victims" of Wikipedia vandals.

I also think that despite some of its problems, Wikipedia gets too much of a "bad rap" from academia. For example, in this story in the New York Times, a history department at Middlebury College banned citing Wikipedia as a source because there was an obscure error in a post on the Shimabara Rebellion. If this obscure error was printed in an academic history book, I don't think that it would have caused as much of a kerfuffle.

P.S. On a lighter note, here's some humor about Wikipedia (and the Terms and Conditions) from one of the funniest stand-up comedians ever - Eddie Izzard (WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE):