Friday, July 09, 2010
Have you ever received this error message and scratched your head?
Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again
Since I run multiple virtual environments with the same logon credentials it used to happen to me all the time.
The solution is to use the IP Address or the full domain as demonstrated here:
Instead of \\SERVER1\Websites
Try this \\SERVER1.net\Websites OR \\192.168.30.1\Websites
Works like a charm.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Microsoft has posted a step-by-step instruction guide on how to create a SharePoint 2010 development environment on Windows 7, Windows Vista and/or Windows Server 2008. It's alot easier than SharePoint 2007.
Here's the link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869.aspx
Thursday, May 27, 2010
I was prepping a virtual environment within VMWare Workstation 6.5 (EZInstall approach) for Microsoft SharePoint 2010. I encountered the following challenge when booting from a Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 ISO:
"The unattend answer file contains an invalid product key..."
To get rid of this show-stopper I simply disabled the floppy drive connection it had created. It worked like a charm.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
I have been moving everything over to Windows 7 64 bit recently. As such I have been playing around with its new built-in Virtualization. I have used VM Workstation for several years now. Since Win 7 only works with VHD files, the question arises - "How do I convert them?" Googling for a solution didn't turn up anything promising - third party tools that cost or server solutions that I didn't want to invest the time in.
Enter SysInternals Disk2vhd
The thought occured to me - I could run this lightweight tool from inside the vmware workstation environment and have it write the vhd file to mapped hosted share area. Bingo, it worked!
I may add some screenshots of the process if you are interested. Leave comments and I may if there's enough interest.
[update 5/27/2010]
I believe I posted too soon on this. Although it seems to converted the VMWare Workstation 6.5 Windows XP Pro environment; when I boot it up it freezes during the middle of startup. I tried changing the network adapter settings to NAT and none - still freezes. Anyone experience this and have a recommendation?
Thursday, April 08, 2010
The Testimony of Jerry Wells, my pastor
My name is Jerry Wells. My parents were Wilbur and Opal Wells. I was born in December, 1954. I grew up in Oklahoma City. My Mom Opal died just before my 4th birthday. My Dad Wilbur was devastated by her death as was our whole family. He turned to alcohol to escape his pain. For the next 14 years of my life, I lived with an alcoholic.
Wilbur was a bad drunk. To his credit he maintained his job and only drank after work and on weekends. He attended clubs where he met various women and slept with them. I was five the first time I saw my Dad sleeping with another woman in our house.
Dad met a good woman at work and married her when I was six. But he did not stop drinking. His substance abuse eventually drove her away. One night he got mad at her, stripped her naked, and through her out in the front yard.
She made an excuse to leave. She said she was going to visit some relatives. She never came back. I never saw her again. Dad was served divorced papers by the courts and a restraining order. He had a nervous break down and checked into the mental ward of a local hospital. I was 8 years old.
By this time, my older brother Jim had been married for several years and my sister Sandy was a senior in high school ready to leave for college. By the fall of 1963, it was just Dad and me.
Dad rented a room from two ladies and we moved in with them. We lived there for about six months. We then moved into a one bedroom rent house that Dad owned in one of the poorest areas of Oklahoma City.
Dad met a woman at a club when I was 9 and married her. We moved into a nice home in Del City, Ok. But he did not stop drinking. She could not take the abuse. She and her teen age daughter moved out when I was 12.
My older sister and brother decided that I had been through enough. They took me from Dad. Dad begged them to change their minds. He told them I was his life. He promised to change. He did for two weeks. But one evening he started drinking. He locked me out of the house and made me set outside for hours. When he let me in he was in a drunken stupor. He told me that I was wrong for leaving him. He threatened me and told me to never leave him again.
Dad then started drinking even more. He would disappear on Friday nights and not come home until Sunday. He would normally call me from some girl friends house. To his credit he always made sure that I had money. He bought me a motor cycle when I was 15 so I would have my own transportation.
When I was 15, Dad married another woman that he met at a club and she moved in with us. It lasted six months. She divorced Dad and moved back to her home town. One night Dad got drunk and drove to see her. She called the police and they arrested him because he tried to break into her house. He called me with his one phone call from the local jail. I did not have a driver’s license but I drove a couple of hours and got him out of jail. I then drove him back to Del City. Dad had the shakes all the way home.
Then Dad’s driver’s license got suspended for drinking and driving. He was afraid to drive without a driver’s license so he made me drive even though I did not have a license.
By the time I was 15, I hated Dad. I had no respect for him as a man or as my father. I told him I was leaving one day when he was drunk. He tackled me in the living room and threatened me again.
Why didn’t I leave? I did not think I had anywhere to go. I didn’t think any of my friends parents knew about my Dad’s problem. My family did not talk with me about it anymore. Everyone has their own problems.
We went to church occasionally. Dad always wanted to be a member of a church and he always tithed as far as I know. But I was bitter at Wilbur and at God. I could not see any use for either one of them in my life. To express my anger at God, I would go to the cemetery where my Mom was buried and literally shake my fist at God.
Amazingly, I was good young man by the world’s standards. I was a very responsible student. I treated adults and peers with respect. I respected the law. I did not get in serious trouble. I did not drink. I was not promiscuous. I did not see a need for God in my life. I had the attitude that I did not need anyone and that I could succeed without God’s help or anyone else’s.
When I was 16, I met a young lady. We saw each other for more than a year. I cared a great deal for her and I also cared a great deal about her parents. But as time passed, I did not show her or her parents the respect they deserved. I was deceptive. I was not a good leader. I did not keep my word. I hurt her enough until she finally rejected me. She told me what an evil person I was. From that day forward, she would not have anything to do with me.
This hurt so much because I cared so much for her. I had hurt my Dad. But I had never hurt anyone that I really cared for. It was this experience that caused me to take an honest look at myself.
What I saw was not very pretty. Over time, I saw that I was selfish. I also saw I was proud. I saw I was deceitful. I saw how bitter I was at my Dad and at God. I saw that if I did not change I was going to hurt people just like Dad hurt me and so many others. I could see we both deserved to go to hell.
This scared me. I could see where I was headed and what kind of life I was going to experience if I did not change. I wanted to change but I did not know how. I also felt that I was powerless to change, especially my selfish motives.
This led me to start a spiritual journey. I started reading the bible. I started attending church more often and listening closer to sermons from the bible. It started making sense.
I was sinner. I was dead in my transgressions and sins. I was separated from God. I was powerless to change my heart, who I was, or who I would become.
God’s son Jesus was God. He loved me. He wanted to have an eternal relationship with me. He wanted to save me from my sin.
For that to occur, because God is just, Jesus had to suffer for my sin. He had to pay the debt I owed because of my sin and the sin of my forefathers. His death on the cross proved that He loved me and paid that debt in full. His resurrection was proof that He was God and that the debt was paid.
If I would accept that payment by faith in Jesus, I would be reconciled to God forever. He would change me. He would give me a genuine His love for others that was free from selfishness. He would live within me through His Spirit and give me power over sin.
It was a struggle to believe that God loved me. The circumstances of my life worked against this truth. By the time I graduated the sixth grade, we had moved six times and I had attended six different grades schools. I had witnessed things that my Dad did to me and others that no child should have to experience. How could God love me like the bible says and allow me to suffer so much? Why didn’t I have a good stable family with two parents that loved me? Why did God let my mother get sick and die when I was so young?
This struggle with faith lasted for six months, but God was faithful. Finally, on New Years Eve, 1971, just before midnight, I believed. The Lord spoke to my heart when I asked him why I had suffered so much. He said, “It was what I personally needed to see my need for Him.”
It was true. I was so proud of what I had achieved in spite of the circumstances in my family. I was self righteous.
My family suffered because of sin. But God let me be a part of it and then fail so that I would see my need for Him and His righteousness in my life.
I believed that night just before midnight and shortly thereafter I was baptized as a testimony to my faith in Jesus Christ.
Looking back, there have been so many blessings that are too numerous too recount. My life changed. My Dad died of lung cancer in the fall of 1977 when I was 22. He was 66. But before he died, we were reconciled. Jesus changed my heart toward my Dad so that I loved him and forgave him and did not hate him anymore. The last five years of his life we were able to talk openly about things for the first time.
Just six months before my Dad died, on August 12, 1977, I married a wonderful Godly Christian woman named Debbie Mills. We have six sons and two daughters. Jesus gave us His heart of love for one another. My relationship to Debbie and our ministry together gave me happiness that I did not know two people could share on this side of heaven.
But after more than 29 years of marriage Debbie died. She was 53. She was diagnosed with cancer in September of 2006. On May 3, 2007, Debbie left us for heaven.
Following Debbie’s death, I understood for the first time what my Dad felt when my Mom died. I struggled all over again with having faith in God’s love for me. But Jesus kept one of His promises. He says, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” After Debbie’s death, Jesus kept assuring me of His love for me and my children. He hung on to me when I had no strength or little faith to hang on to Him.
My faith has grown deeper as a result of our loss. When I think that I cannot depend upon Jesus more, I discover a whole new dimension of trust that always changes me and sets me free.
I am not an alcoholic. Through the same circumstance in my life and my Dad’s life, Jesus has proved what a difference He can make if you know Him and trust Him.
My life verse is Psalms 40:1-3. It says…
I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
KJV
Jesus can and will do for you what He has done for me. You will not be able to avoid all the horrible pits in your future. Life is so hard. But with each new trial your faith in Jesus Christ can grow as you learn to depend upon Him more. If you can find your way to the Rock, He will give you a new song. He will then use you to cause others to trust in Him.
To receive Jesus Christ as your savior from sin like I did, the scripture says…
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You need to understand that you are a sinner separated from God and you are powerless to change your nature.
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You need to understand that God’s penalty for sin is death and separation from God in a place of eternal torment the bible calls hell.
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You need to understand that Jesus is God and that He died for your sins on a cross to pay your sin debt.
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You need to understand that Jesus rose from the dead and that He is Lord of heaven and earth.
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You need to put your faith in Jesus Christ to save you from sin and be willing to give testimony to your faith by following the Lord’s command to be baptized in water.
(Jerry Wells is currently the Pastor at Western Hills Church in Oklahoma City. Western Hills Church is located at 401 S.W. 44th in Oklahoma City. You can reach the church and Pastor Jerry by phone by calling 405-634-1454. Pastor Jerry is now married to Saundra Wells. They married in November of 2008. Saundra’s husband John Cobbs died in January of 2007. Pastor Jerry and Saundra have twelve children from their previous marriages to Debbie and John.)
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
If you want to retrieve a value produced by an Eval within an TemplateField within an ItemTemplate, this is how...
Here's the code:
string _id = ((DataBoundLiteralControl)GridView1.Cells[0].Controls[0]).Text;
Here's the Design View:
<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" DataSourceID="sdsDataSource" DataKeyNames="ID">
<Columns>
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="ID">
<ItemTemplate> <%#Eval("ID") %></ItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateField>
</Columns>
</asp:GridView>
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
We have two events happening in March that you should be aware of if you are in the Oklahoma City metro area. It will be great time to share what you are doing with SharePoint and struggles you are having. Perhaps there will be someone in attendance that can provide an answer to your problem.
When: March 11th, 2010 11:30am - 1:00pm (please rsvp, see below)
Where:
Dell Oklahoma City office
3501 SW 15th
Bldg A, Hudson Hall on 1st Floor
Oklahoma City, OK 73108
Who:
Eric Shupps, The SharePoint Cowboy will be our guest speaker for this first meeting of the Oklahoma City SharePoint User Group.
Subject:
Overview of SharePoint 2010 and talk further about features in SharePoint 2010 of interest to the IT Pro and the developer.
Please RSVP to: balcock [at] ou.edu or call (405) 325-7307
When: March 29, 2010 6pm - 8pm
Where: http://okccoco.com/
Who:
Corey Roth is a consultant at Stonebridge specializing in SharePoint solutions in the Oil & Gas Industry. He has ten plus years of experience delivering solutions in the energy, travel, advertising and consumer electronics verticals. Corey has always focused on rapid adoption of new Microsoft technologies including Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4.0, LINQ, and SilverLight. He also contributed greatly to the beta phases of Visual Studio 2005. For his contributions, he was awarded the Microsoft Award for Customer Excellence (ACE). Corey is a graduate of Oklahoma State University. Corey is a member of the .NET Mafia (www.dotnetmafia).
Subject:
Introduction to SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Search
This intro level talk will teach you the basics of Enterprise Search in SharePoint. Here you will learn about the basic building blocks such as content sources, crawled properties, managed properties, and scopes. We will also cover what types of data can be indexed. We’ll use demo search using SharePoint 2010, but all of the topics apply to MOSS 2007 as well.
Hope to see you there :o)
Monday, March 08, 2010
The Microsoft SharePoint Team blog has officially posted the release dates for SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010.
RTM (Release to Manufacturing) will be this April 2010
May 12th, 2010, is the launch date for SharePoint 2010 & Office 2010
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Matt Passannante has recently posted an excellent article on SharePoint's new Service Application Architecture. He reviews the history of where we've been and provides the look into the future of "Componentization" - the approach Microsoft has taken with the Service Application Architecture. Microsoft has numerous built-in services ready for use as well. I highly recommend reading this great article. It will clarify alot of questions you may have concerning this huge complex powerful new platform within SharePoint...
http://vspug.com/matt/2010/02/23/planning-for-the-new-service-application-architecture-in-sharepoint-2010/
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Wendy Schopf has initiated the startup of our very own SharePoint Users Group here in Oklahoma City. Here's her announcment of the first meeting:
We are thrilled to announce the formation of the Oklahoma City SharePoint Users Group (OKCSUG). OKCSUG is an open and independent forum that has set its sights on building community.
OKCSUG’s vision is to bring Oklahoma City and surrounding SharePoint communities together through knowledge sharing and networking. Now moving the group full speed ahead, OKCSUG founder Wendy Schopf will speak to new members at the first meeting at 6pm on Monday the 22nd of February at the OkcCoCo. There will be networking, discussions, and planning to blaze the OKCSUG trail for 2010! Snacks and drinks will be provided.
Accelebrate has jumped onboard to show their support through sponsorship and will offer give-aways throughout the year. We are currently seeking additional sponsors, speakers, and topics. Come to the OKCSUG meetings or contact OKCSUG to find out more about sponsorship or speaking opportunities or to participate in steering the group through 2010.
Register on OKCSUG Website to receive email updates of all our future meetings and events. If you know of other people that might be interested in this group please feel free to forward this email.
When: February 22nd, 2010 6:00pm-8:00pm
Where: OKCCoCo
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
I recently attempted to move a subsite from one location to another on our SharePoint 2007 platform. I received an error upon restoring. The backup seemed to successfully complete, but the restore kept failing with Could not find the file C:\Windows\Temp\[someguid]\Exportsettings.xml.
I found out this happens when the content size exceeds 25MB and it fails to include the mentioned file - Exportsettings.xml. I found a workaround solution at this particular blog.
Here's the jest of what needs to happen:
- Recover leftover files from the original backup site location (via Recycle Bin)
- Select all recovered files (locate at the root of the site now) within SharePoint Designer and Publish them to a local location via File System.
- Change the extension name of all files from *.cmp to *.cab
- Unzip the *.cab files into a temporary subfolder
- Use the Microsoft Cabinet Software Development Kit's cabarc executable to create one file with all files into a seperate subfolder.
- e.g. cabarc n test-restore.cab C:\testdir\*.*
- Rename the new files extension from .cab to .cmp
- Use this file to restore the site
[addendum] - I was getting the message “Web site restore did not complete successfully”. My file was around 380MB in size. To get around this issue, I increased the maximum file upload size in the Central Administration. It's located in the following location: Central Administration --> Application Management --> Web Application General Settings --> Maximum Upload Size. It was set to 50MB and I increased it to 400MB temporarily to accomplish this backup / restore request.
Monday, December 28, 2009
That's right. There's no need to even use a Promotional Code for SnagIT now. I know of at least two alternatives that most folks don't even know about! It's so off-the-radar I would consider them secretive. You probably have read my previous postings concerning promotional codes and discounts here, here and here.
Do you really want to know what I found out?
Click here then ==> Tell me about the Free alternatives and the $19.95 one!!!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
I found a free tool that will convert Hyper-V (VHD) files to VMWare (VMDK) and vice-versa.
Here's the link: V2V Converter - Free
Monday, November 16, 2009
This past weekend I upgraded this blog. I run my blog on subText, a fork of the old .TEXT blogging platform. I went from version 1.9.3 to 2.1.2 and it wasn't a smooth migration path, let me tell you.
At the same time, I moved all of my websites (including this blog) from webhost4life to the fairly new WinHost.com. These guys are doing it all right. It fits exactly what I was needing and has cut my hosting cost in half. They bill on a monthly basis and have top quality support. The control panel is very simple but yet powerful. I went with the basic plan. However, they do provide an advanced plan as well. Some of the issues I ran across with my subText upgrade dealt with going from an IIS 6 platform to an IIS 7 platform. If anyone else is looking to do the same leave a comment and I'll fill you in on what I had to do to make it happen.
Anyways, I'm a happy camper now. Glad to have the migration behind me.
Friday, October 30, 2009
I have had some time to ponder the ton-of-stuff at the 2009 SharePoint Conference. Overall, I really like what Microsoft has done with this version. They seem to have addressed the majority of pain points. Here are some of the highlights of what comes to mind...
Service Applications - Previously, we were forced to use the SSP service for all services (Search, BDC, Profile, Excel). Now, the Service Application approach is providing a Service Model. AC gave a level 400 session on this and built a cleverly simple load-balanced calculator that was indeed an independent service.
The Ribbon - consistency is always a good thing. The Ribbon provides a consistent place where the end-user knows where his / her actions can be acted upon.
Sandboxing / Visual Studio 2010 templates - Developing for SharePoint has always been a confusing effort. Once the developer became familiar with creating the solution structure and with the repetition of doing it lots of times, it was second nature. Deployment? eck! Now, with VS 2010, the necessary structure and files are generated via SharePoint project templates and even builds the wsp file for deployment. Sandboxing provides a way to deploy your solution with a subset object model and deployed to a special gallery, a more secure environment and allows admins to upload instead of IT/Ops. Visual Web Part templates now have a built-in Designer also.
Lists - Lists and libraries are pretty much the bread and butter to SharePoint. I use Custom Lists a lot in my day-to-day activities. New in SP 2010, they have introduced a way to prevent Duplicate Values, provided Column Validation (via Excel formulas) and More Robust Metadata defining.
LINQ Support - The need to write / build CAML seems to be nearly eliminated with the introduction of Microsoft.SharePoint.LINQ ; at least that is what we were told. It will now translate LINQ into CAML for us!
SharePoint Designer / InfoPath / No Code approach - I sat in on a session demonstrating a no code approach to an end-to-end business case. I was pretty impressed by it, but still leary of it in real life business situations. However, I am real eager to start working with SPD and InfoPath to see if no code solutions are really possible in SharePoint 2010. They have addressed some short falls that were in InfoPath 2007. Here are some of the new features I remember: Web Part creation, SP list/library form creation, ability now to do filtering in browser forms, and the rules manager. Lastly, workflow management has been improved significantly in both SharePoint Designer and InfoPath 2010.