Using FrontPage Search and Replace to Modify Infopath Data

One of the SIG attendees emailed me the following link for using FrontPage to modify an InfoPath form (http://msd2d.com/newsletter_tip.aspx?section=sharepoint&id=5f5abbad-b256-4377-b422-ea5ff87d2a7b)

Thanks to Mark H. for sending the link.

InfoPath Date Display

Q: While working on an InfoPath form the other day, I created a text box for the sole purpose of displaying date/time. When I set the text of the field to Now(), the date appeared as "2005-10-21T13:48:51".

A: To get rid of the "T" in the middle and make the date more readable, I changed the data field type of the text box from Text to Date/Time. The date then appeared as "10/21/2005 1:48:51 PM".

.Net Framework 2.0 RTM (Release To Market)

The .Net framework 2.0 was released to market yesterday (10/27/2005) and is available for download from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&DisplayLang=en)

How to Ask a Question?

Ever post a question to an online forum but got an answer that didn't quite hit the spot? I found an article on MSDN that discusses how to avoid such problems http://support.microsoft.com/?id=555375)

Combining C# and VB.Net projects in VS2005

Q: Can a C# project be combined with a VB.Net project in VS 2005?

A: You can compile each project separately then combine them together into a single assembly file using the assembly linker (AL.exe). This is a Microsoft utility that installs in the .Net framework folder (C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322).

Another option is to compile one project into a DLL or EXE then reference it from the other project.

MSN Virtual Earth (using ATLAS)

For those who attended PDC 2005, there was a discussion of ATLAS and how powerful of a tool it is. To further demonstrate its capabilities, Microsoft created virtualearth.msn.com, a very cool map site. To further explain how the site was put together, check out http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/09/14/425131.aspx. The ATLAS add-on toolkit will be available for Visual Studio.Net 2005 sometime in 2006.

Career Eye for the IT Guy (or Gal)

The Greater Cleveland PC Users' Group will be hosting a roundtable meeting about IT careers in Cleveland, featuring local industry leaders and developers. Some of the topics discussed include the future of IT in Cleveland, the value of certification, and many more.

Last year over 100 people attended our discussion about the state of IT careers in Northeast Ohio. This year the GCPCUG is pulling out all the stops. On Saturday, October 8th, we’re having four roundtable discussions to talk about what technologies and skills are in the greatest demand. And what you can do to get those skills.

As always, our meetings are free and open to the public. For more info, visit http://www.gcpcug.org/genmeeting.php

Is there a benign virus I can use to test the AV scanner?

Q: Is there a benign virus I can use to test the AV scanner?

A: Eicar.org offers a benignvirus used for testing purposes. Although they don't offer support for any specific Anti-virus scanning tool, they can provide a simple virus that would help test your AV application. For more information and to download the virus, visit http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm.

Thanks to Andrew H. for providing an answer to this question.

How to search multiple columns, in 1 or more tables, for a single string?

Q: How can I search all varchar columns in a given table for a specific string, without building the where clause for every field?

A: select * from table1 where val1 + val2 like '%xyz%'
/* where val1 and val2 are varchar columns */

Also, if you have full text indexes defined on the columns of a table you can use the contains clause to examine each column that is indexed. If all of the varchar columns in mytable are are included in the fulltext index, then following will return any row that has the string abc :

select * from mytable where contains(*, '"*abc*" )

Thanks to Pete F. for helping with this question.

IE Tab browsing

For those who enjoy using FireFox because of its ability to browse within tabs, IE is now offering a similar solution. With the help of the MSN toolbar, IE6 is now capable of tab browsing. To download the MSN toolbar, go to http://toolbar.msn.com/. This is toolbar is a production release, and is free of charge. In addition, several other tools are available on the same page (i.e. Windows Desktop Search, Internet Search tools, etc).

IE Developer Toolbar

In keeping up with FireFox and it's development toolbar, Microsoft released a similar developer toolbar for Internet Explorer. For more information and to download the toolbar, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e59c3964-672d-4511-bb3e-2d5e1db91038&displaylang=en

Please note that this IE toolbar is still a Beta!

Why is "Save" grayed out on MS-Word 2003?

Q: I'm able to open a document in MS-Word 2003, but not able to make changes or save it. Why is "Save" grayed out on MS-Word 2003?

A: After some digging, it appeared that a virus had infected the user's system and de-activated Office 2003. After retrieving the registration number and re-activating MS-Office, everything should work fine as expected.

Invalid path for child request

Q: I call another web page from the application and pass it an argument (see sample below), but I receive the error "Invalid path for child request".

Dim strPath As String = "Error.aspx?Msg=" & strMsg
Server.Transfer(strPath, True)

A: Since the argument passed is not URL encoded, it causes the path of the web page being called to be incorrect. To correct the problem simply URL encode the argument being passed to the new page.

Dim strPath As String = "Error.aspx?Msg=" & Server.UrlEncode(strMsg)
Server.Transfer(strPath, True)