Why Twitter is a Helpful Tool if You Are or Are Going to Be in IT

If you don't know what Twitter is, here is a link to the Wikipedia article on the service.

If you haven't been living in a cave for the past six months, you've probably noticed that Twitter (http://www.twitter.com) has become the newest Internet application star. Twitter is a way for people to send updates via the web, a mobile phone, or an application on a PC or Mac. I use Twitter, and I find it to be a very useful tool in my line of work. By streamlining how one uses twitter, it can be a useful tool for all IT professionals and aspiring IT professionals. Here's how:

• Twitter is a way to expand your technical knowledge.
  
  I follow a number of tweeple (people who use Twitter) who make informative posts about what's on in IT. Not only do I get instant technology news, but I also get posts containing: links to technology how-tos and tips; links to training and webinars; and career tips. It saves me a lot of time from sifting through websites and search engines to find information.
  


• Twitter is a way to get assistance with your IT issue.
  
  Most forums are good tools to use to post questions. Twitter is another tool that you can use to post questions. Based on my experience, I've posted questions to the Twitter community, and more often than not, I got an answer to my question relatively quickly.
  
  If you've already asked a question in a forum, and your question is not getting a response, you can use Twitter to post a link to the question. If the regular readers of the forum can't answer your questions, perhaps someone in the Twitter community can.
  


• Twitter is a way to get publicity for your professional work.
  
  If you're looking to expand your audience, Twitter is a good tool to use. I've recently started to use Twitter to publish links to my tutorial posts on this blog, and I've noticed a slight increase in my traffic. Other things that I've seen other tweeple post: links to custom applications and SharePoint web parts that they have written; links to web sites that they have designed; and podcasts and videos in which they were involved.
  


• Twitter is a way to expand your professional social network, as well as assist with your job search.
  
  There are a number of IT professionals who use Twitter, and a large number of those tweeple post IT-related content 95% of the time. You can build your network by re-tweeting informative posts, as well as answer questions that other tweeple have posted.
  
  I've also noticed that a number of small business owners and IT job recruiters use Twitter to post job openings. You can use Twitter to keep abreast of new opportunities.
  

Do you use Twitter? Do you like Twitter? Can you see a use for Twitter for your profession? Please feel free to post any comments or questions that you have.

P.S. If you use Twitter, and if you are interested, you can follow me on Twitter

SharePoint Development Tutorial: Programmatically Deleting All Items from a List

Microsoft Reference Documentation: Microsoft.SharePoint namespace

Sometimes you need a quick way to delete all items from a SharePoint list. You can manually delete each item from the list without writing code, but this can be time-consuming, especially if you have a high quantity of items on the list.


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.

You can write code to programmatically remote items from a SharePoint list using the classes in the Microsoft.SharePoint library (namespace). There are two ways that you can delete all the items from the SharePoint list programmatically:

• Using the DeleteItemById() function of the SPList class


• Recommended for performance:Building CAML and using the ProcessBatchData() function of the SPSite class

I will demonstrate both approaches. The skill sets required for these approaches are:

• C# knowledge


• A general knowledge of the classes in the Microsoft.SharePoint library/namespace


• A general knowledge of CAML (for approach #2)

Note: This code will only work on a machine on which SharePoint is installed.

Approach #1: Using the DeleteItemById() function of the SPList class

The function DeleteItemById() of the SPList class expects a numeric parameter ID, which is the ID of the item to delete. This code snippet, which is a slightly modified version of a function in Keith Richie's SPPurgeList (http://www.codeplex.com/sppurgelist), demonstrates how to delete all items by capturing the IDs in a hashtable, reading the hashtable, and calling the DeleteItemById() function. In this example, we will be running this on a site called http://mySharePoint/bogus on a list called BogusList. If you want to use this code, you would substitute the site and list names with your respective site and list names.

Sample: Using DeleteItemById() [Opens In Another Window]

The issue with Approach #1 is performance. While it is negligible on a list with a small amount of item, it becomes more noticeable on a list with hundreds of items. Each call to DeleteItemById() takes about 1 second. If you have hundreds of items, this could take a while to run.

Approach #2: Building CAML and using the ProcessBatchData() function of the SPSite class

Passing CAML to the ProcessBatchData() function of the SPWeb class runs faster than caling the DeleteItemById(). The following code snippet demonstrates how to build the CAML (using the StringBuilder) and pass the CAML to the ProcessBatchData() function to delete the items. In this example, we will be running this on a site called http://mySharePoint/bogus on a list called BogusList. If you want to use this code, you would substitute the site and list names with your respective site and list names.

Sample: Using CAML and ProcessBatchData() [Opens In Another Window]

A Note About Using CAML to Delete Items from a Document Library

The code snippet above will work for the lists except for document libraries. If you try to run the code snippet on a document library, you will get an error about file names. The document libraries require an additional parameter called owsfileref. The following link to the code snippet demonstrates how to build the CAML for document libraries.
Sample: CAML for document libraries [Opens In Another Window]

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them, and I will answer the questions to the best of my ability.

Attention Hackers! Uncle Sam Wants You (to help)!

I apologize for the lack of updates lately. I will be resuming tutorials on Monday.

MSNBC reports that The United States government is looking to hire hackers to help protect cyber networks.

To read the artice: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30280436/

For Multimedia Students and Professionals: An Affordable 2-D Animation Program

Most of graphic design and animation is done using computers. If you are a Multimedia student or professional, you may have noticed that many applications used in your line of work, including the academic editions of the software, are very expensive. For those of you who are studying or working in Multimedia Technologies, famed animator Eddie Fitzgerald wrote a review on affordable 2-D animation programs that may be useful in your line of work.

At Last: An Affordable 2-D Animation Program

Spotlight on a Good Example of a Project for a Career Portfolio

Stephanie Jones's site, Best of Everything

http://www.joancrawfordbest.com


For people who are starting out in the IT industry, one of the things that I tout is creating a career portfolio. If you are a web designer or a web application developer, a comprehensive, professional web site is a great way to gain experience.

A fine example of a professional web site is The Best of Everything, run by Stephanie Jones. The Best of Everyting is a comprehensive, unbiased, well-researched site about classic film star Joan Crawford. What impresses me about this site is Ms. Jones is not a web developer by trade, but her site does not look "amateur".

Below are some points on what makes this a good site:

• The site is thorough, well-researched, easy to navigate, and has a good layout.
  
  While creating a social networking profile is a nice way to "get your name out there", you need more that that to illustrate that you can do the work. Unfortunately, a simple, few-page web site about your pet, your favorite possession, your favorite sport, or your favorite celebrity will not win over the hiring managers. You need a strong, active site to prove that you can do the work. This site fits the bill. It is not just a site with a list of Joan Crawford films and a few pictures; it is an all-inclusive site about Joan Crawford.
  
  
  A University of Michigan study showed that people receiving instructions in a plain font like Arial were able to follow the instructions and complete the task more quickly and accurately than people receiving instructions in a "fancy" font. (Source: Hyunjin Song, Norbert Schwarz (2008). If It's Hard to Read, It's Hard to Do: Processing Fluency Affects Effort Prediction and Motivation Psychological Science, 19 (10), 986-988)
  
  If you are going to create a web site, the trick is to make it look like a skilled, talented professional created it. The site shouldn't look like it was created by someone who uses FrontPage and animated GIFs and considers that "web development". You want to take the color pallete, the layout and the fonts into consideration. If you look at Ms. Jones' site, you will see that she uses about 4 colors total on the site. The site is also easy to read - the content is "center" to the page, and the font is a "rounded" font (ex: Arial), which is easier to read. She is also utilizing well-established third-party tools (like Google Search and Yahoo!Groups) to properly enhance her site.
  
  


• The site illustrates Ms. Jones's skills with writing and research.
  
  Ms. Jones is a copy editor by trade. The thorough research that has been done on this site illustrates her writing and research skills to potential employers and clients. She has had a job offer based on the work that she has done with her site, and she was able to expand her professional network because the site was a good conversation starter.
  
  What does that have to do with technology, you may ask? As I mentioned in numerous articles about getting a job in the economy, you need to be more than a "digithead" in order to get the job. You need secondary skills that will support your role in the company. Written communication and research are two secondary skills to have. For example: let's say that you want to develop a encyclopedic web site dedicated to vintage machines. If you develop a site featuring pictures and scant information about the machine, it may be nice - not thrilling, but nice. However, if you also contain thorough information about the machine ( who invented it, when was it used, what kind of "under the hood" technology was used, what was it's claim to fame, what replaced it), you'll demonstrate your ability to research and understand your topic as well as your web development abilities.
  


• The site is professional.
  
  
  You'd be quite surprised about how many websites are out there that "borrow" content from someone's site without properly crediting the source. That's plagiarism. If you're working in the academic world, that's grounds for dismissal. In other arenas, that's grounds for a copyright-infringement lawsuit.
  
  
  Creating a site about a celebrity can easily drift into the "unprofessional" category. Ms. Jones does a wonderful job with keeping the content professional (although the message board can get a little "colorful"...you, as a student developing a site for a career portfolio, may need to monitor your forums). If she makes a personal opinion, she chooses her words carefully. Most importantly, if she receives information from outside sources, she properly credits those sources.
  

If you want to build a celebrity tribute web site for your career portfolio, look at The Best of Everything as an example of a site that would look wonderful in a portfolio. In my opinion, this site is so well done that it could easily pass for an "official" site.


See Also:
Getting a Job in a Tough Economy

Add a SlideShow to the SharePoint Site using HTML, JavaScript and the CEWP

While the SharePoint OOTB web parts for displaying images are nice, the functionality of the web parts are very limited. Particularly, the OOTB web parts do not have a true "slide show" capabiilties that many end users are looking for. You can write your own custom web part to display images like a slide
show. However, this solution will not only take time and effort to do, but if you are just a “power user” for your SharePoint site, you may not have the right tools and permissions to make your own web parts. If you are familiar with JavaScript and HTML, you can add your own slide show on your site.

For a step-by-step guide that you can download: Add a Slideshow on a SharePoint Site using Javascript, HTML, and the Content Editor Web Part

Here is a video demonstrating how to add the slideshow:


UPDATE: If you are having trouble with getting this to work, see the blog post from 10/26/2009 for troubleshooting tips.

VB.NET Tutorial: Renaming a Directory using VB.NET Code

There may be a time where you need to programmatically rename a directory. For example, you may be creating a Setup and Deployment project where you have to have a project that "backs up" a directory before installing a directory. .NET has a class that allows you to programmatically rename a directory.

The following video demonstrates how to programmatically rename a directory with the Move function in the Directory class using VB.NET:


A more detailed document is available here: Rename a Directory Using VB.net

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask, and I will try to answer to the best of my ability.

P.S. - I just noticed - this is my 100th post!!

SharePoint Tutorial: Playing a WMV File in a SharePoint Site

Sometimes you may need to play a WMV file on a page in a SharePoint site. For example, you may have to play a video of your CEO speaking, or you may have to play a training video. By using the Content Editor web part, you can easily play a WMV file on a page in a SharePoint site.

You can download the step-by-step documentation from the following location: Playing a WMV File in a SharePoint Site

Below is the step-by-step demonstration:


If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask!

SharePoint Tutorial: Play a Flash Video on your SharePoint Site

Sometimes you may have to play a Flash video on your SharePoint site. For example, you may have to play a message from your CEO, or you may have to incorporate a quiz on the site. This tutorial demonstrates how to play a Flash video on your SharePoint site.

You can download the written tutorial here: Playing a Flash Video on a SharePoint Site

If you are a more visual person, here is a demonstration:


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

Basic Training: Working With .NET

Since I am in the process of developing a Basic Training tutorial on C#, I thought that I would create a post on the tools that programmers can use when developing in .NET.

The obvious tool

Microsoft created an IDE called Visual Studio that will allow you to develop and compile your code in one interface. This IDE also allows you to create distribution builds as well as publish web (ASP.NET) projects to a web site.

IDE - Integrated Development Environment


The latest version of Visual Studio is Visual Studio 2008. There are four versions of Visual Studio 2008:

• Express Edition - A free but very limited version of Visual Studio. Each of the languages (Visual Basic, C#, C++, Web Developer (including ASP.NET)) are in separate software versions. This version is ideal if you are just starting out in one of the .NET languages, but it doesn't grow with you when you are ready for more involved programming. You can download the Express Edition from Microsoft.


• Professional Edition - A full-featured version of Visual Studio 2008. This version contains additional features that the Express Edition doesn't contain, such as the ability to deploy packages. This version is ideal for an individual user or a small "shop". The product information can be found at Microsoft


• Development Edition - Works like the Professional Edition, but this edition contains more features aimed at development teams, such as: code analyzers to improve code quality and security; unit testing features; code analyzers to analyze code performance; and metrics to identify error-prone code. This version is ideal if you are developing your own commercial or freeware applications. The product information can be found at Microsoft.


• Team Suite - This is the mother of all versions of Visual Studio. This version contains a boatload of features aimed at larger software development shops. This version also includes a subscription to MSDN. The product information can be found at Microsoft.

What If You are Broke but You Don't Want the Express Edition?

If you are a student or an instructor, Microsoft has a program called DreamSpark. The purpose of DreamSpark is to give students and instructors professional editions of their software free of charge. Once you sign up for DreamSpark, you can download the software for free. Your school or institution may not be participating in the DreamSpark program, but you can still sign up for it as long as you have an e-mail address from a school or institution.

Note: If you are going to use SharpDevelop and you have some money to spare - even $5.00 - please take a moment and make a donation to the people who developed it.

If you are not a student or instructor, there is a free, open-source IDE called SharpDevelop that's based on the .NET Framework. The look and feel, as well as the functionality, is very similar to Visual Studio (there are a few slight differences). I have used SharpDevelop and I like it. The latest version of SharpDevelop works with the latest .NET Framework (3.5).

What If You are Broke but You're "Hardcore"?

Guess what? You don't need an IDE to develop in .NET! All you need is the latest version of the .NET Framework SDK, and you can write code with the editor of your choice and compile .NET programs from the command line (csc for C# programs, vbc for VB.NET programs). The latest .NET Framework SDK includes components for Windows Server 2008 as well as the SDK for .NET Framework version 3.5. You can review the release notes and download the SDK from Microsoft.

Those are a few tools that should get you started with .NET development. For those of you that are experienced with .NET development, please post a comment on any additional IDEs that you use for your .NET development that aren't mentioned in this post.

A Great Tutorial on LINQ

I'll be posting more tutorials in the near future - I have a cold so I don't have much of a voice right now :(.

I found a tutorial on YouTube from rafaybinali on LINQ. Since the launch of .NET 3.5, Microsoft has been heavily promoting LINQ. This video series gets you started on LINQ pretty quickly.

Part 1



Part 2


Part 3


Enjoy!

Congratulations SIX-burgh

Congratulations Pittsburgh Steelers - 6 time Super Bowl Champions!

Another One of My Documents Made the Scribd Hot List

My document on Mail Servers made the Scribd hot list.

Mail Servers

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Internet & Technolog Research Technology-Internet mail servers

Thoughts about the SharePoint Convention

I got back from the SharePoint Convention (SPTechCon) in San Fran late last night, so I thought that I would give some highlights about the conference.

• Overall, I was really impressed with the information at the conference. Granted, there were some sessions that left me cold. The "live examples" didn't work or took too long to do, and the presenter spent more time trying to get the demo to work rather than discuss the topic at hand. However, the majority of the presentations were really informative and productive, and I came out of the conference with more knowledge than I originally had.


• It was also a great networking opportunity. I was able to meet a number of professionals from all walks of life in IT (managers, administrators, developers) and all levels of SharePoint knowledge. I was able to learn about how these people were using SharePoint, and I learned about the trials and tribulations of using SharePoint in their respective environments.


• It was great to place names with faces. A number of presenters were authors of SharePoint blogs and/or books about SharePoint that I've read. One of the presenters (Errin O'Connor) co-authored one of the SharePoint books in my personal library.

If you are working in a SharePoint environment, I would suggest going to their next convention, which is being held in Boston in June. It's actually quite reasonable, especially if you register for the extreme early bird. In my case, the cost of the convention, flight from Pittsburgh to San Francisco, and hotel stay was $1000 less than a SharePoint Designer class that I took locally. Visit the SPTechCon site for further details on the next conference.

P.S. - I'll start publishing tutorials again on Monday!

Off to San Francisco for a SharePoint Convention (and note about this site)

San Francisco SharePoint Convention

Next week I'll be at the SPTechCon (SharePoint Technology Conference) in San Francisco. I'm pretty excited to go. The workshops look interesting. Since I'm arriving in the city around lunchtime on Monday (PST), and the conference starts on Tuesday, hopefully I get a chance to go to Chinatown.

If you're going to the SharePoint convention at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport on January 27-29, I hope to see you there!

Note About This Site

From what I can tell from the access logs and the comments left on various posts, it looks like my tutorials seem to be very popular. While I'll still feature essays and commentary geared toward IT students, I will probably start putting more focus on publishing tutorials in my posts.

What kind of tutorials would interest you? Do you like documents, videos, or both? Please let me know my leaving a comment or by contacting me. My contact information is on my profile - click on my profile for my contact information.

Getting a Job in an EVEN TOUGHER Economy

Since the time that I wrote my original article on getting a job in a tough economy, the economy has gotten worse around the world. Unemployment rates are rising around the world, and businesses of all sizes are closing. We are in a global recession, and some economists are opining that we may be in the beginning of a depression.

On the plus side, the Information Technology market (in general) has not been affected by the recession as other markets such as manufacturing have been affected. On the minus side, most companies are looking to slash costs. Unfortunately, one of the places where companies will slash costs is Information Technology. Translation: spending on projects, new technologies, and human resources will be cut or suspending, and outsourcing to countries who pay workers less than their American counterparts will be an option again.

In a bad economy, it's an employers' market. Employers are choosier in selecting candidates for positions. Some employers will go so far as to pass over a job candidate if they don't meet the exact requirements for the job. The reason why employers are choosier because companies are watching their spending in the rough economy, and the employers want to make sure that they get a maximum return on investment on their human resource.

What do you need to do to get a job in a tough economy?

• Re-read my original article on getting a job in a tough economy. All of those tips will help you with distinguishing yourself from the other job seekers.



• You can no longer rely on being a pure "digithead" anymore. You need to be business-savvy as well. Unfortunately, a number of IT workers focus only on being an expert in their chosen technology, which leaves them lacking in the following skill set that companies also want in their IT workers:
  
  
  
  • They don't understand general business operations
  
  
  • They don't know how to devise solutions under time and budget constraints.
  
  
  • They don't understand how to devise solutions that increases worker productivity or improves a worker's day-to-day job
  
  
  
  You need to know general information about your company's industry and how IT impacts the company's "bottom line". Do you know how to implement IT solutions that will increase productivity, reduce errors, reduce costs, make the company an industry leader, make compliance with government regulations easier, and increase profits without spending a lot of money? Do you know the restrictions that you have to follow because the company's industry has strict government regulations?
  


The New York Times wrote an article about US Cities in recession and US cities that are actually growing or not affected by the recession.
New York Times: For Most Cities, Recession Has Arrived

• You have to resign yourself to the fact that you may have to relocate. This is tricky, and I understand that it may be a difficult decision because of financial or familial reasons. However, it's an option that many workers are taking because they need to pay the bills. It may be an option that you have to consider.



• Network, network, network! Remember the "six degrees of separation" principle - there are up to six degrees of separation between you and the person who can help you find the job. The people in your immediate network may not be able to directly find you work, but there may be people in their own immediate network that may be able to help you. Here's a perfect example of the "six degrees of separation" principle: a friend of my mother's recently was laid off from her marketing job at a retirement community. My mother couldn't find her anything, but she told me about her friend's plight. I knew that the school where I teach was looking for a community relations representative. I told my mother, who then told her friend, about the position.

VB.NET Tutorial: Integrating Flash In Your Application

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.

Overview

You may have a situation where you want to or need to integrate a Flash film (swf) in your application for a variety of reasons. You can easily do this in Visual Basic .NET using the Shockwave Flash Object. I have created an illustration of integrating Flash and VB.NET by creating a very simple flash player written in VB.Net

You can download the sample code from the link that appears at the top of this post. Note that you may have to modify the code to your environment. If you want to see a demonstration of this application, view the video below:

Another End of an Era?

Yesterday, news outlets reported that Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs is taking a medical leave of absence from his job. This is the biggest news in IT business since Bill Gates announced his retirement from Microsoft.

Unfortunately for Apple, this wasn't good news for the short term.

After the announcement of Jobs's leave of absence was made, Apple's stock dropped 7% in after-market trading, and RBC Capital Markets cut the stock rating to "underperform". From what I've seen on the business news channels, the business analysts are speculating that stockholders are losing confidence in Mr. Jobs because they think that he is not being forthright with the severity of his illness.

Personally, I think that the stock fell because of a combination of the recession and the fear of the unknown. Tim Cook will be assuming Steve Jobs's responsibilities while he is on medical leave. Although Mr. Cook assumed the CEO responsibilities in 2004 when Mr. Jobs was recovering from cancer, he is still a relative unknown. The charismatic Mr. Jobs was the "face" of Apple for so many years. People saw the enthusiasm and energy when he unveiled a new product. It was obvious that Apple enjoyed being the technology innovator. Many in IT watched Apple grow exponentially in other markets other than the personal computer market. After all, the term podcasting wouldn't be in our lexicon today if Apple didn't invent the iPod. With Steve Jobs, the public knew where Apple stood. Without Steve Jobs, questions arise: What direction does Mr. Cook plan on taking with Apple? Will Mr. Cook demonstrate the same enthusiam over inventions and innovations in IT, or will he be just "the substitute teacher" until Mr. Jobs returns or until they hire a new "Steve Jobs"? What is the real chance that Steve Jobs is coming back? Those are the questions that would make an investor think about whether the stock will give them a high return on investment or a low return on investment.

This is the time to watch what Apple will do next. I also hope that Mr. Jobs's illness isn't serious and he makes a speedy recovery.

THREE of my whitepapers made the Scribd Hot List

This weekend, three of my whitepapers made the Scribd Hot List.  Those papers are:

 
• TCP/IP
 
• Accessing SharePoint Data Using C# Without Running Code On the SharePoint Server (Part 1)
 
• Linux Console Commands

If you are interested, you may read them here or visit Scribd to view all of my whitepapers.TCP/IP

    Publish at Scribd or explore others:            Internet              Technology                  TCP/IP              Networking      

Accessing SharePoint Data Using C# Without Running Code On the SharePoint Server (Part 1)

    Publish at Scribd or explore others:            Internet              Technology                  SharePoint              C#      

Linux Console Commands

    Publish at Scribd or explore others:            UNIX              Technology                  linux              unix      

SharePoint Tutorial: Creating a Custom List Form for a SharePoint List

SharePoint has built-in forms for various actions on a list.

• There is a form for displaying a selected item


• There is a form for adding a new item


• There is a form for editing an item

While the built-in forms are sufficient for the tasks at hand, you may run into a situation where the built-in forms do not satisfy your needs. For example: I had to recently create a list on a site collection. My business user wanted the other users to be able to enter their information in the form when adding it to the list. However, when they modify the record, the user should not be allowed to modify certain fields after they entered the information.

With SharePoint Designer 2007, you can create a custom form for any of the actions (display, add, edit) and attach it to the list.

I've created a document which illustrates how to create a custom list for a SharePoint list and attach the custom list to a list action.

I've also created a video illustrating how to customize the edit action.

If you have any questions, please post a comment or send me an e-mail, and I will answer your question to the best of my ability. You can get my e-mail address by viewing my Blogger profile.