AmosFiveSix.com

SharePoint Document Library Features

Wednesday, May 26 2010 11:36

SharePoint document libraries provide a number of advanced document management features. Here is an overview I put together for SharePoint 2007.

One thing to keep in mind is that some features, such as Check Out, Version History, Draft Versions and Content Approval, are turned on or off for the entire document library. For example, it is not possible to have only certain files or folders within the library use version history while others do not. You need to create separate document libraries if you need different features used with different documents. For example, you may want one library for your more important documents that requires check out, content approval and version history, while you have a second library for "every day" documents that do not require any of these features.

My Standard Web Design Practices

Tuesday, May 25 2010 10:29

During a phone interview recently I was asked what practices (layout, accessibility, etc.) I used during web design. So here's a quick write-up of what easily came to mind. It's not exhaustive nor in any particular order.

Tables are for tables. Don't use tables to format your content. Only use them if you actually need to display data in a tabular format.
Use appropriate header tags progressively at the appropriate levels. The title/text that describes what's on the current page should be in an H1 tag. Sections below that should use H2 for their titles, etc. Don't use an H4 tag if you don't have an H1, H2 and H3 above it.
Use appropriate tags for the content. Use header tags for headings, use P tags for paragraphs (not DIVs!), use OL and UL for lists, etc. Don't try to use DIVs or SPANs with goofy formatting for everything.
Make sure your content looks orderly and readable even if there's no CSS. Text only readers will ignore most if not all of your CSS.
Make sure links are visually obvious. Underlining is the standard cue for links. Don't take that away from your users.

SQL Server Management Studio Tricks

Thursday, January 07 2010 09:36

This post was inspired by Quick poll : what is your favorite Management Studio tip or trick? by Aaron Bertrand on SQLblog.com.

My favorite SMSS (2005 for me) tricks include:

CTRL-Tab for switching between windows.
CTRL-R for showing and hiding the results pane.
Include column headers when copying or saving the results options under Tools | Options | Query Results | SQL Server | Results to Grid.
Highlight any table or view name in T-SQL and hit Alt+F1 for sp_help and a list of its fields. (Suggested by dan from the above mentioned post.)

More tips here: DAT315 – Session Review for SSMS Tips & Tricks Session by Bill Ramos.

More SQL Server 64-Bit Issues

Thursday, December 31 2009 08:35

Here are some more issued we encountered when moving up to a 64-Bit SQL Server 2005.

64-Bit Product level is insufficient errors - This happened to us because we didn't have full SSIS installed on the server, just the development version.

64-Bit Offline Mode is True error - This just required a regsvr on a DLL.

64-Bit Linked Server Error - 64-bit SQL Server calls a stored procedure that doesn't exist on linked SQL 2000 servers. Creating a wrapper around a similar existing procedure fixed the problem for us.

64 Bit SQL Server SSIS Packages with Excel and Access Data

Wednesday, November 25 2009 12:33

If you've just switched to the 64-bit version of SQL Server and have SSIS packages that access Excel or Access, you may find that you packages stop working. That's because the JET driver that is used to access Excel and Access is 32-bit only. SSIS normally uses the 64-bit DTExec to run SSIS packages, it has not access to the 32-bit drivers. Here are some articles with all the details and work arounds