Friday, February 28, 2014

Windows Phone 8 Introduction resources

I have been handed a new project.  Customer needs a website migrated to a windows app.
This should be fun and have found these resources very helpful as I try to get up to speed.

How to use the photo chooser task for Windows Phone
How to create a base camera app for Windows Phone
How to common tasks for Windows Phone

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Back on the MS certification mill

I was trying to find the prometric certification 5 pack.  I used this last time around.  I could not find it until I stumbled onto what they are doing now.  The 5 pack was available for any exam from Microsoft.  What they are doing now is selling the certs based on the certification paths that offered by MS.

1.)MCSD cert packs are offered for Windows Store Apps Using HTML5 Certification, Windows Store Apps Using C# Certification,Web Apps Certification, Application Lifecycle Management
http://bsf01.com/microsoft_vouchers/mcsd.aspx


Source:http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/certification-exam-packs.aspx

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Testing for windows phone development

A challenge for some IT devs is older systems still in use.
I was given an older laptop and told develop some windows phone
apps.  This requires testing for compatibility and located this
site which has a tool which will show if a system is capable.

https://www.grc.com/securable.htm

Windows Phone Emulator not running on my systems.

Started a new project today which requires upgrading a work laptop to support windows phone dev work. 

Here is what you need:

1.) 64 bit OS - Windows 8.1  (Minimum of Windows 8.1 Pro)
2.) Windows Phone SDK - https://dev.windowsphone.com/en-us/downloadsdk
Note: This will install Visual Studio Express if you do not have a copy of VS already installed.
This means you can run it without paying for VS, the express version is free.
3.) Enable HyperV support on your BIOS.  This is different for each manufacturer.
Intel has a nice tool (http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/sb/CS-014921.htm)
which will tell you if HyperV is available for your system.  AMD's tool is a bit hard to find
this link is still good but from the 2008 timeframe.
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/AMD-V_Hyper-V_Compatibility_Check_Utility.zip

That should do it.  The only real issue is do not forget to enable your BIOS the factory settings
most default to disabled.


Source:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/ff626524(v=vs.105).aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/mkorp/archive/2008/06/02/hyper-v-kompatibilit-t-bei-amd-systemen.aspx

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Chart Web Part Series Hyperlink series properties

I was trying to use the settings on the Chart web part and went looking for a how to from Microsoft.  Problem is that this was part of the Dundas library originally.   Found this article http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/873fe5fc-91f0-429c-89d2-2c1fb7bff1ba/chart-web-part-series-hyperlink-links-incorrectly?forum=sharepointgeneralprevious
Which talked about how to build a drill down capability based on a guide from Dundas
 (http://support2.dundas.com/Default.aspx?article=1205)

Built-In Keywords for Series Properties


Dundas Chart comes with built-in keywords that you can use in any combination for data point tooltips, labels, hyperlinks and legend text. This lets you easily display all kinds of information about your points in different ways.
Here is a list of all available keywords:
KeywordReplaced ByData Comes From
#VALXX value of the data point.Data point
#VAL, #VALY, #VALY2, #VALY3, …Y values of the data point.Data point
#SERIESNAMESeries name.Series
#LABELData point label.Data point
#AXISLABELAxis data point label.Data point
#INDEXData point index.Data point
#PERCENTPercentage of the data point Y value.Data point
#TOTALTotal of all Y values in the series.Series
#AVGAverage of all Y values in the series.Series
#MINMinimum data point of all Y values in the series.Series
#MAXMaximum data point of all Y values in the series.Series
#FIRSTFirst data point of all Y values in the series.Series
#LASTLast data point of all Y values in the series.Series
You are free to use these keywords in any of the following series properties, available both from our wizards and our Advanced Properties:
  • Label
  • LegendText
  • Href ("Hyperlink"), LabelHref ("Label Hyperlink"), and LegendHref ("Legend Hyperlink")
  • ToolTip, LabelToolTip, and LegendToolTip
  • MapAreaAttributes, LabelMapAreaAttributes, and LegendMapAreaAttributes
For example, here is how you can set a tooltip to display the X-value, Y-value, series name and percentage of the total series values:
X: #VALX  Y: #VALY  Series: #SERIESNAME  %: #PERCENT
To add the average and total to the series name in the Chart's legend, set the Series' LegendText property to:
#SERIESNAME - Total: #TOTAL - Avg: #AVG
You can format numeric and date/time values, too, by adding a Microsoft format string to the keyword. For example: "#VALY{N2}" formats the Y-value to have two numbers after the decimal place. For help formatting series properties, see this support site article. For more information on format strings, see "Numeric Format Strings" or "Date and Time Format Strings".


Source:
http://support2.dundas.com/Default.aspx?article=1132

Friday, February 7, 2014

Cascading dropdowns in newform.aspx

I decided to go ahead and do something that is pretty standard in most web forms.
That is to make dropdowns scope the number of options in the select clause.  This
is fairly straightforward in a custom web app.  When we want to do it inside the
Sharepoint model it is a bit more challenging.

First, thing I tried was to edit the newform.aspx in Sharepoint 2010.  I noticed
that the webpart where the item adding happens is not configurable. It just displays a
sample of what you'll get rendered in the page.

The reason for this is the default webpart used here is from the type ListFormWebPart, whose behavior is to automatically render the fields and controls needed according to the list definition. No customization here.
First step I needed to do was add a CEWP to the newform.aspx.  Modifying the form is challenge

1.)Add the CEWP using the UI.  Doing it in Designer 2010 is a real challenge.
Open a browser and navigate to the location of the list.  Append the name/value
 pairing (toolpaneview=2#)
 http://<yourserver>/Lists/MyCustomList/newform.aspx?toolpaneview=2

Source:
http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/20395/how-to-add-a-webpart-using-sharepoint-designer-2010

2.) Site Actions > Edit Page

newform.aspx?PageView=Shared&InitialTabId=Ribbon.WebPartPage&VisibilityContext=WSSWebPartPage#

3.) Add Web Part > Categories | Media and Content |  Content Editor

4.) Your web part will say “ Edit this web part to add content to your page”  Click on Content Editor Menu and go to Edit Web Part

5.) Now you can click on HTML under Format Text and click on Edit HTML Source

6.) In HTML Source Editor you can input your HTML source.  This is how you edit Content Editor Web Part to add html source in SharePoint 2010

7.) Force page reload to get the page to update

Source:
http://aryannava.com/2011/05/14/how-to-edit-source-in-content-editor-web-part-in-sharepoint-2010/

8.) Next I followed this example to create a working cascading dropdown.

http://www.sharepointboris.net/js/spcd/

http://blogs.interfacett.com/sharepoint-designer-2010-creating-a-custom-list-form-with-sharepoint-2010

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Creating a Custom List Form with SharePoint Designer 2010

I am stuck doing this with SharePoint Designer 2010.  I wanted to customize the new item form for a list.  I found several sources which gave the directions for using InfoPath.  I did not need this.  Finally found this article which describes how to create the new item form.

1.)Open-SharePoint-Designer
2.)SITE ACTIONS > EDIT IN SHAREPOINT DESIGNER TO OPEN SHAREPOINT DESIGNER 2010.
3.)I SELECT LISTS AND LIBRARIES FROM THE NAVIGATION PANE AND THEN SELECT your list FROM THE DETAILS PANE.
4.)Choose-New-Form
5.)Fill-Out-Form-Wizard

Now you can edit the form in SP Designer to your needs.

Source:
http://blogs.interfacett.com/sharepoint-designer-2010-creating-a-custom-list-form-with-sharepoint-2010