Blacksnow Web Design

Sharepoint Search Error

2011-01-17T14:21:00.002Z

Came across a problem today with Sharepoint on SBS2003. There were records in the log that content could not be searched. The answer was to create 2 new users specifically for these roles. Details can be found at msmvps.com

Media Player Library Details

2010-12-11T09:40:00.002Z

When starting media player for the first time if you have an existing library collection I would advise to uncheck the option where media player tries to update the music files information. Generally I have found it just makes a mess of things.

This can be found in WMP12 in Organise --> Options and then on the 'Library' tab. Uncheck 'Retrieve information from the internet'

If you forget to do this then you can delete the current library and start again.

Just delete all the files in the root of the following folder on Windows 7

C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player

media player will then rebuild them.

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Install Error

2010-11-25T06:49:00.003Z

If you get Error Code 84C40007 while trying to install Microsoft SQL Server Service Pack 2 then you will need to install the Mircosoft Dot Net Framework 4 first. Get it at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0a391abd-25c1-4fc0-919f-b21f31ab88b7

Hosting performance

2010-03-09T14:10:00.003Z

It seems difficult to find any accurate data on hosting. I am looking at another dedicated server at the moment for a client. There are forums and hosting comparison sites with peoples opinions, usually negative, as who actively goes on to publicise the great host they are with, so it is hard to find an true picture.
One site I did find useful and interesting was http://host-tracker.com which provides response times on your website.

Asp.Net Login control in IE8

2010-01-07T19:14:00.002Z

The asp.net login control in IE8 doesn't look great. The spacing between the username and password boxes is no existant. Two ways of sorting it:
1. Convert it to a template and insert your own css
2. Using the following in the code behind

Protected Sub Page_Init(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Init

CType(aspnet_login.FindControl("UserName"), TextBox).Attributes.Add("style", "margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 2px;")
CType(aspnet_login.FindControl("Password"), TextBox).Attributes.Add("style", "margin-left: 2px;")

End Sub

Alternatively Microsoft could update the .net framework?!?

'cannot create file' download error in safari on MAC

2010-01-06T14:45:00.004Z

When you download in safari on the MAC you can get an error message 'cannot create file'. Many posts mention permissions on the folder you are downloading to but the problem I had was that the harddrive didn't have enough space for the file being downloaded. When I made some space the error went away and the file downloaded. Good error message Apple!

Fix the web server port in Visual Studio

2009-06-12T16:08:00.001+01:00

You can fix the port the web server uses in VS 2008 by clicking F4 or From the menu 'View' --> 'Properties Window'. The change 'Use dynamic ports' to false and this will allow you to change the port number (which is disabled when you first come in to the window). I use port 50000 fyi.

Redirects with IIS

2009-04-08T11:49:00.004+01:00

Moving a website from one domain to another or from a sub domain to a new domain can be nervous at the best of times without the worry of your search engine ranking. The best way of overcoming this is to use 301 redirect (even google rcommends it under its Google-friendly sites). In IIS this is done on the 'Home directory' tab in the properties of the website. Check the 'A redirection to a URL' radiobutton and then complete the web address below and check 'A permanent redirection for this resource'. You will find that when you visit the old domain you will automatically we send to the new one you have just specified.
This is also useful if you have code based on a certain web address or licenses for components that work off a certain web address and you want people arriving at http://blacksnow.co.uk/ to go to http://www.blacksnow.co.uk/ instead.

2009-03-09T17:05:00.003Z

Quite often it is not very clear on how to install your new skin in Dotnetnuke. DNN needs you to login with the host account. Then in DNN 4.9 click 'skins' on the host menu and then 'upload skin' from the dropdown menu next to the skin header. You need to point the 'browse' button to the zip file that contains your skin. This is often inside a number of zip files if you have purchased the skin from a vendor, so you will have to extract them first.

SQL Inline statements

2009-03-02T16:21:00.002Z

Thought I'd post a quicky on SQL inline statements. Before I would create a variable and then assign a value depending on a CASE statement. But after a brief try I solved a problem with dates using an inline case statement. Converting the minute datepart to a string means that 5 past the hour becomes just 5 and doesn't look write in date strings. So i wanted any single numbers to be prefixed with zero. Here it is:

CONVERT(nVARCHAR,CreatedDate,103) + ' @ ' + CONVERT(nVARCHAR,DATEPART(Hh, CreatedDate)) + ':' + CASE WHEN LEN(CONVERT(nVARCHAR,DATEPART(Mi, CreatedDate))) = 1 THEN '0' + CONVERT(nVARCHAR,DATEPART(Mi, CreatedDate)) ELSE CONVERT(nVARCHAR,DATEPART(Mi, CreatedDate)) END AS CreatedDate

Silverlight, the beginnings

2009-02-27T16:48:00.002Z

I have been playing with silverlight this afternoon. Nice touches, learnt loads but some annoying things.
The error message 'AG_E_PARSER_BAD_PROPERTY_VALUE' means you have a referenced a method in your xaml code without it existing in your xaml.vb code, really helpful error message!
Also why does Microsoft feel the need to mess with certain properties? The listbox for example is now not .enabled but .isenabled. Maybe someone can shed some light on this?
So with the first application built and being beta tested we can now explore this technology a little more.

DNN menus in 4.9

2009-02-23T14:09:00.000Z

The dnn top menus in 4.9 are in my opinion a little large and only allows about 5 headings to be added before 'admin' and 'host' headers disappear behind the search bar when you login. The easiest way around this is to reduce the font size from the standard 13px to whatever you want (I think 11px works best, which is also the size of the submenu items). To do this go to Portals\_default\Skins\MinimalExtropy_SmallMenu\css and alter the font size of .main_dnnmenu_rootitem and .main_dnnmenu_rootitem_hover and .main_dnnmenu_rootitem_selected. To make the menu items closer together reduce the left and right padding elements to 7px on the same style classes.