Jagadish Pulakhandam's

 

Intermittently, your external harddisk may turn to readonly mode.  I am talking about the harddisks which do not have any exclusive read-only switch/locks.  Even if you restart or plug-in to another computer, the readonly mode may not change.

 

To make it functioning in write mode as well, just do the following steps:

 

1.  Go to command prompt

2.  Type "DISKPART" and hit enter.  You will get "DISKPART>" prompt.

3.  type "SELECT VOLUME Z" at the "DISKPART" prompt ("Z" being the drive letter of the readonly external hard disk.  You need to provide your own drive letter here).  The command has to return with "Volumn 4 is the selected volume" (your volume number could be different) followed by DISKPART prompt.

4.  type "ATTRIBUTES VOLUME CLEAR READONLY" at the "DISKPART" prompt.  This would clear the "READONLY" attribute of the hard disk.  It has to return with the message "Volume attributes cleared succesfully".

5.  type "EXIT" at the "DISKPART" prompt to get back to normal prompt.

 

I managed to get the above working (twice) with 1.5TB Western Digital External Disk on Windows Server 2008.

 

thanks

Jag

 

 

Hai,

 

My next article on Silverlight 2.0 focusing on "Binding ComboBox and DataGrid controls" got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/BrainDump/Introduction-to-Binding-ComboBox-and-DataGrid-Controls-in-Silverlight-20/

 

Enjoy..

 

thanks

Jag

 

Hai Everyone,

 

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to receive first version of "Windows 7 Beta" installed successfully on my machine.  Definitely, it is the most exciting "Windows" release ever.  It is almost impossible to cover all of its great features in one single post.  Let us see how it looks with default color scheme for the first time:

 

 

Let us see the first set of cool things which are eye catching:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More on next post.

 

thanks

Jag

 

Hai,

 

My new article on "Designing WCF Data Contract Classes using "LINQ to SQL" Designer" got published here.

 

thanks

Jag

 

Hai,

 

My next article focusing on development using Silverlight 2.0, WCF and LINQ to SQL got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/Windows-Scripting/Database-operations-using-Silverlight-20-WCF-and-LINQ-to-SQL/

 

Enjoy......

Jag

 

Hai,

 

My new article on "LINQ to XML programming using Visual Basic 2008" got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/VB.NET/LINQ-to-XML-Programming-Using-Visual-BasicNET-2008/.

 

Another article on on "XML DOM programming using Visual Basic 2005" got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/Windows-Scripting/Visual-Basic-2005-XML-Programming-Using-XML-DOM/

 

thanks

Jag

 

Hai,

 

My new article on "Two way Binding with Silverlight 2.0 controls to WCF" got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/Windows-Scripting/Introducing-Two-Way-Data-Binding-using-Silverlight-20-WCF-and-LINQ-to-SQL/

 

Thanks,

Jag

 

Hai,

 

My new article on "Silverlight 2.0 application development with 'LINQ to SQL' and WCF Service" got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/Windows-Scripting/Silverlight-20-Application-Development-with-LINQ-to-SQL-and-a-WCF-Service/

 

thanks

Jag

 

Hai,

 

My new article on "Silverlight 2.0 accessing WCF Service using Visual Studio 2008" got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/Windows-Scripting/Creating-a-Silverlight-20-Application-that-Consumes-a-WCF-Service/

 

thanks

Jag

 

Hai,

 

My new article on "Beginning Silverlight 2.0 development using Visual Studio 2008" got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/BrainDump/Beginning-Silverlight-20-Development-using-Visual-Studio-2008/

 

thanks

Jag

 

All,

 

My new article on "Delegates using Visual Basic 2005" got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/VB.NET/Understanding-Delegates-using-Visual-BasicNET-2005/

 

It explains delegates in a simplest fashion.  If you are new to eventing in Visual Basic, make sure that you complete this http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/VB.NET/Understanding-Custom-Events-using-Visual-Basic-NET-2005/ before you go to delegates.

 

thanks

Jag

 

Everyone,

 

My new article on "Sharepoint Web Part development using Visual Studio 2008" got published here:

 

 

This will be a great introduction to beginners who would like to learn developing web parts using WSS 3.0 (Windows Sharepoint Services) together with Visual Studio 2008.

 

It covers the following:

 

-> creating a new WSS test web site

-> creating a new WSS web part page

-> developing a simple web part using WSS 3.0 and Visual Studio 2008

-> Deploying and viewing the web part

-> Debugging the web part.

 

Hope you will enjoy reading it.

 

thanks

Jag

 

My new article got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/.NET/Grouping-and-Aggregating-When-Querying-LINQ-to-SQL/

 

thanks

Jag

 

iCalender is something like an open format text file to add items to the calendar (like Outlook calendar).  It is simply a text file which contains fields and information about the particular event of a calendar.  Once you double click on the iCalendar file, the respective event gets registered in Outlook calendar (of course, with your approval for the event!).

 

Following is the ASP.NET code, which generates iCalendar file dynamically (on the fly) and pushes the same to user.  The user can either directly open it into Outlook or simply save the iCalendar file.

 

Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

        Dim sb As New StringBuilder(215)

        sb.AppendFormat("BEGIN:VCALENDAR{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("CALSCALE:GREGORIAN{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("VERSION:1.0{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("BEGIN:VEVENT{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("DTSTART:20080703T093000{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("DTEND:20080703T113000{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("LOCATION:testing some location{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("SUMMARY:Testing Some subject{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("CLASS:PUBLIC{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("END:VEVENT{0}", Environment.NewLine)

        sb.AppendFormat("END:VCALENDAR{0}", Environment.NewLine)

 

        Dim enc As New UTF8Encoding

        Dim arrBytData() As Byte = enc.GetBytes(sb.ToString)

 

        Response.Clear()

        Response.ContentType = "text/plain"

        Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=vCalendar.ics")

        Response.AppendHeader("Content-Length", arrBytData.Length.ToString())

        Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream"

        Response.BinaryWrite(arrBytData)

        Response.Flush()

        Response.End()

    End Sub

End Class

 

thanks

Jag

In depth guide to programming Windows Security using .NET is covered in ".NET Developer's guide to Windows Security".  Best of all, it is available FREE to read it on-line. 

 

It is available here http://www.pluralsight.com/wiki/default.aspx/Keith.GuideBook.HomePage

 

Thanks Keith, for helping .NET developer communities with such a good resource.

Jag

Hai,

 

My first article on "Querying LINQ to SQL" got published here

 

It covers the following (in both VB.NET and C#):

 

-> fetching rows from a table using LINQ

-> Column aliasing and columns of expressions using LINQ

-> DISTINCT values using LINQ

-> ORDER BY using LINQ

-> Filtering rows

-> dealing with IN, LIKE and IS NULL operators using LINQ

 

More to be published soon....

 

thanks

Jag

Hello,

 

My new article on "LINQ to SQL Designer" got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/.NET/Introducing-LINQ-to-SQL-Designer-using-Visual-Studio-2008/

 

It is very similar to my previous article except that this one focuses on "LINQ to SQL Designer".

 

thanks

Jag.

Hai,

 

My new article on "LINQ to SQL" got published here http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/.NET/Beginning-LINQ-to-SQL-Using-Visual-Studio-2008/

 

It covers all the following topics:

 

-> Developing a simple "LINQ to SQL" application without using "LINQ to SQL" designer

-> Retrieve and update information using "LINQ to SQL"

-> using DataContext object in LINQ development.

-> Source Code in both Visual Basic and C#

 

Hope it helps.

 

thanks

Jag

 

 

Even though LINQ uses the familar syntax as of SQL, it is not the same SQL generated at run-time.  To view the SQL generated from LINQ, we can use "Log" property of "DataContext" in the following manner:

 

              Dim obj As New SampleDAL.SampleDataContext
        Dim s As New StringWriter
        obj.Log = s
        Me.GridView1.DataSource = From p In obj.emps _
                                  Where p.deptno = 10 _
                                  Select p
        Me.GridView1.DataBind()
        Me.Label1.Text = s.ToString

 

You can also make use of VS integrated debugger as shown here

 

Hope this helps...

 

thanks,

Jag

Imagine, I am working on a Visual Studio 2005/2008 solution with class library project (DAL) and Web Application Project (ASP.NET).  Say, the DAL is being developed using Dataset Designer with different Strongly Typed DataSets/DataTables together with TableAdapters.  Then I would certainly run into a problem.

 

The DAL (by default) maintains its own connection string in application configuration settings (app.config) and the ASP.NET application maintains its own connection string in Web.config file.  Any project, by principle, should not contain connection strings at more than one location.

 

To make DAL pickup Connection String automatically from web.config by itself (without writing any code) during run-time,  simply make sure that the names of connection strings (not the values) are identical in both app.config and web.config.

 

To make DAL pickup Connection String dynamically from web.config during run-time (at least).  It can be easily accomplished by adding the following code to the "MySettings" class in "Setting.Designer.vb" file.

 

 

To make the above work, you may also need to refer to "System.Configuration" in your class library project.

 

 

Hope the above solves the problem...

 

thanks

Jag

 

The following is the source code which demonstrates the opening of a popup (from gridview), adding/editing a record in popup and finally refresh the parent window upon closing the popup using ASP.NET:

 

 

 

thanks

Jag

Sending multiple values in the form of array to a SQL Server stored procedure is very common among database developers.  We can send the values in either of the two methods as following:

 

·          Comma separated values (in a single string)

·          XML document (in a single string)

 

This post focuses on comma separated values.

 

The following converts a parameter containing a string (array) of values (separated by commas) to a table:

 

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.ParmsToList (@Parameters varchar(500))

returns @result TABLE (Value varchar(30))

AS  

begin

     DECLARE @TempList table

          (

          Value varchar(30)

          )

 

     DECLARE @Value varchar(30), @Pos int

 

     SET @Parameters = LTRIM(RTRIM(@Parameters))+ ','

     SET @Pos = CHARINDEX(',', @Parameters, 1)

 

     IF REPLACE(@Parameters, ',', '') <> ''

     BEGIN

          WHILE @Pos > 0

          BEGIN

               SET @Value = LTRIM(RTRIM(LEFT(@Parameters, @Pos - 1)))

               IF @Value <> ''

               BEGIN

                    INSERT INTO @TempList (Value) VALUES (@Value)

               END

               SET @Parameters = RIGHT(@Parameters, LEN(@Parameters) - @Pos)

               SET @Pos = CHARINDEX(',', @Parameters, 1)

 

          END

     END    

     INSERT @result

     SELECT value

        FROM @TempList

     RETURN

END   

The above function can be tested with the following statement:

 

select * from dbo.ParmsToList ('1001,2323,jagadish,pulakhandam,3232')

 

We can utilize the above function and scale out to more functions according to our requirements.  For example, I would like to have an “IN” parameter list to be returned for a given string of comma separated values.  I can implement a new function (which in-turn invokes the above function) as following:

 

create function dbo.ParmsToINValues (@Parameters varchar(500))

      returns varchar(1000)

AS  

begin

      DECLARE @item_table TABLE (primary_key INT IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL, --THE IDENTITY STATEMENT IS IMPORTANT!

                               item varchar(200)

                              )

 

      insert into @item_table select * from dbo.ParmsToList (@Parameters)

 

      DECLARE @item varchar(200)   

      DECLARE @item_counter INT

    DECLARE @loop_counter INT

      DECLARE @result varchar(1000)

    SELECT @loop_counter = COUNT(*) FROM @item_table

    SET @item_counter = 1

      SET @result = ''

 

            WHILE @loop_counter > 0 AND @item_counter <= @loop_counter

    BEGIN

            SELECT @item = item

        FROM @item_table

        WHERE primary_key = @item_counter

            SET @result = @result + '''' + @item + ''','               

        SET @item_counter = @item_counter + 1

    END

      SET @result = LEFT(@result,LEN(@result)-1) -- trim last comma

      return @result

END

 

To test the above function, we can use the following script:

 

declare @result varchar(1000)

set @result = dbo.ParmsToINValues('1001,2323,jag,chat,3232')

print 'select * from emp where empid in (' + @result + ')'

 

The resulting output would be as follows:

 

select * from emp where empid in ('1001','2323','jag','chat','3232')

 

Hope the post is useful….

 

Thanks

Jag