After looking into multiple blogs, TechNet articles, and message boards for a few days, I finally realized the issue, and it is frustrating.  PSCONFIG will take a SQL Server name like this: “ServerName\InstanceName, Port#” for its first run without any issue.  SharePoint will create databases without any issue.  The issues come as SharePoint or PSCONFIG tries to update that database.  In the registry the Config DB connection string is there showing the name above but it will not connect.  There is a work around that doesn’t force you to start from scratch or recreate the farm, but you will need to revert back to the appropriate patch level and reinstall the patches you are trying to upgrade to again.  The issue is during the update statements in SharePoint and PSCONFIG it doesn’t properly send the request for “ServerName\InstanceName, Port#” and it requires just a “ServerName” type connection string.  Using the Native Client Configuration tool “cliconfg.exe”

When it opens select TCP/IP and click “Enable” moving TCP/IP to the right:

The next step is to navigate to the Alias Tab and click “Add…”:

Finally you need to configure a TCP/IP alias putting the ServerName, InstanceName and Port number in as shown below, don’t forget to disable Dynamic Ports:

Now run PSCONFIG to connect to your existing farm, enter just the ServerName and retrieve the available databases, if they do not appear you can troubleshoot your connection by opening notepad, and create a “UDL” file.  This will open in the native client and allow you to test your alias. 

I hope this helps, it was a pain for me!

The post Hey SharePoint, go PSCONFIG Yourself! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

The bottom line is that history is good to know as a learning tool, but shouldn’t be treated a scripture to live by.  With new personnel come new ideas and fresh looks on old problems.  This is valuable to the organization as a whole and shouldn’t be dismissed because of tenure on scene.  Take a look at what the new ideas as unbiased as possible, accept constructive criticism, and always strive to better yourself and your organization.

The post Managing History appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

• This is just a regular Authenticode certificate just like you would use to sign the executables (EXEs & DLLs) of a desktop app and they have been used since the 1990′s.  So nothing fancy is required and don’t let anyone confuse you.
• In the end you will need to create a PFX with the full certificate chaining back to the CA.
• $$$ Note that an Authenticode code signing certificate will set you back a few hundred bucks at least.  Ouch!  Welcome to the world of Enterprise App Development.

• After the build process in step #3 is complete it will show you a dialog with a hyperlink the path to the app packages that were created.  Go to this folder to find your APPX (app package) files for each architecture.  You only need the APPX files and not the rest of the files so copy them to another folder for distribution.  
• Also get any dependency app packages.  For our app we used the Visual C++ library so we also had to distribute this APPX for each platform.

Add-AppxPackage -Path "MyApp.appx"  -DependencyPath "Microsoft.VCLibs.x64.11.00.appx" -ForceApplicationShutdown

Add-AppxPackage -Path "MyApp.appx"  -ForceApplicationShutdown

Best Practices:

Notes:

• Note that by using the Manifest Designer to bind your code signing certificate to your app manifest it will assure that the “Publisher” attribute in the “Identity” element is set to the publisher used to create the certificate.  They mention this in documentation but it is no big deal since it is extracted and set automatically by the Manifest Designer.
• Note that your app should pass the tests run by the automated Windows App Certification Kit.  The documentation says that side-loaded apps must pass these certification tests so I would run them.

Myths and Misconceptions:

• You can just use the Windows Store APPX and its certificate.
  •  The certificate created by the Windows Store is not from a trusted CA
• You can create your own certificate
  • Nope, the certificate needs to come from a trusted CA or the app package will not install.
• You need the new “Extended Validation” code signing certificate
  • No, you just need the basic Authenticode certificate which is much cheaper also
• You need to sign the APPX manually
  • No, it is quite simple to just let Visual Studio do the work.
• You must remove the “certificate chain” from the PFX
  • NO!
  • Sure some posts say that you have to remove the “certificate chain” from the PFX but that would render it useless for code signing, so don’t do it.
  • The only reason they believe this is that they are trying to use it in the wrong place.  They are confused by thinking that they have to use the PFX in the project Properties’ Signature settings, but this wrong because this is for Strong Naming the assembly and not for code signing.
• Where you sign the package?
  • You do not need to sign the DLL, and EXE projects in your package, just let Visual Studio sign the APPX for you.

References:

1. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh856048.aspx
2. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh852635.aspx

The post How to create a Windows Store App side-loading install appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

Oh, and for those non-developers out there who are wondering what the Windows Store Portal is anyway, it is where a developer uploads and prepares his Windows Store apps.

The post Where is the Windows Store developer console? appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

To perform the test I wrote a small console app in .Net 4.5 which would enqueue 1,000,000 integers one thread while another thread dequeued the integers as fast as they could.  The results where somewhat surprising:

Queue<T> times (seconds):  0.72, 0.41, 3.23, 1.28, 2.11

ConcurrentQueue<T> times (seconds): 0.49, 0.81, 0.36, 0.39, 0.38

From these numbers you can see that not only was the ConcurrentQueue<T> faster but it also had a much more consistent performance than the Queue<T> with a lock on it.  I would guess that the reason for the high variation in times with the lock would be due to the contention for the lock causing the threads to block somewhat randomly leading to much more variation in the run times than the ConcurrentQueue<T> which doesn’t use locking/blocking code.

-Lee

The post .Net Queue vs ConcurrentQueue performance appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

I started looking for some alternatives and came across a project called ‘BPlusTree’ https://nuget.org/packages/CSharpTest.Net.BPlusTree  This is a fully managed disk backed B+ tree which supports the IDictionary interface.  When I loaded 1 million tuples into it the file it created was taking up ~1GB of space.  It also has pretty high performance, handling several thousand insertions per second.  So far it is looking pretty promising, I’ll keep this post updated if I find anything else of note.

The post Caching a large number of key/value pairs within C# appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

For this example the first thing you will need to do is create a Custom list named Notifications with the following fields:

• Title – Single line of text
• Status – Choice [Active, Closed]
• Priority – Choice [(1) Very Important, (2) Important, (3) Success, (4) Information]

Once you have the list setup go ahead and create a test item (ensuring that all fields are filled in and the status is set to Active), then follow these steps:

• Add a Content Editor Web Part to the homepage of the web where the list was added
• From within the Format Text tab, click the HTML button and select Edit HTML Source
• Paste the following JavaScript into the window and click OK

<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">

    ExecuteOrDelayUntilScriptLoaded(InitNotifications, "sp.js");

    var tid = setInterval(InitNotifications, 10000); // Reset notifications every 10 seconds

    /* Initialize Client Context */

    function InitNotifications() {

        var clientContext = new SP.ClientContext.get_current();

        var web = clientContext.get_web();

        var notificationsList = web.get_lists().getByTitle('Notifications');

        var camlQuery = new SP.CamlQuery();

        var q = "<View><Query>" +

                    "<Where>" +

                        "<Eq><FieldRef Name=Status /><Value Type=Choice>Active</Value></Eq>" +

                    "</Where>" +

                    "<OrderBy><FieldRef Name='Priority' Ascending='True' /></OrderBy>" +

                "</Query></View>";

        camlQuery.set_viewXml(q);

        this.notifications = notificationsList.getItems(camlQuery);

        clientContext.load(this.notifications);

        clientContext.executeQueryAsync(Function.createDelegate(this, this.onNotificationsLoadSuccess), Function.createDelegate(this, this.onQueryFailed));

    }

    /* Function which runs if the async query succeeds */

    function onNotificationsLoadSuccess(sender, args) {

        var itemCount = notifications.get_count();

        if (itemCount > 0) {

            $("#pageStatusBar").empty();

            var listEnumerator = notifications.getEnumerator();

            while (listEnumerator.moveNext()) {

                var item = listEnumerator.get_current();

                var itemID = item.get_id();

                var itemName = item.get_item("Title");

                var itemPriority = item.get_item("Priority");

                var itemStatus = item.get_item("Status");

                var statusColor = ""

                if (itemPriority == "(1) Very Important")

                    statusColor = "red";

                else if (itemPriority == "(2) Important")

                    statusColor = "yellow";

                else if (itemPriority == "(3) Success")

                    statusColor = "green";

                else if (itemPriority == "(4) Information")

                    statusColor = "blue";

                var strStatusID = SP.UI.Status.addStatus(itemPriority.substring(4) + ":", itemName, false);

                SP.UI.Status.setStatusPriColor(strStatusID, statusColor);

            }

        }

        else {

            SP.UI.Status.removeAllStatus(true);

        }

    }

    /* Function which runs if the async query fails */

    function onQueryFailed(sender, args) {

        alert('Request failed ' + args.get_message() + '\n' + args.get_stackTrace());

    }

</script>

If you did everything right you should see a status bar across the top colored based on the priority that you set.

The only things to really note are that I don’t particularly like loading the jQuery file directly from their site. I would suggest downloading it to a document library and referencing it from there instead. Other than that, you should be able to tweak this to fit your needs. Hope its helpful

Note: If you’re having issues copying and pasting this into your Source Editor, you can download the following text file, and copy and paste from there: DynamicStatusBar.txt

The post Creating a Dynamic Status Bar in SharePoint appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/03/15/creating-a-dynamic-status-bar-in-sharepoint/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/03/13/storing-connection-string-information-in-the-secure-store-service/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/03/13/storing-connection-string-information-in-the-secure-store-service/#comments Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:56:21 +0000 Johnny Bouder http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6558 As a SharePoint developer, i’ve been tasked a few times with pulling data from an external database into SharePoint. More often than not, that data is secured SQL data and needs to be accessed using a SQL account, which means I’m going to have to access that data using a connection string. Generally that’s a [...]

The post Storing Connection String Information in the Secure Store Service appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> As a SharePoint developer, i’ve been tasked a few times with pulling data from an external database into SharePoint. More often than not, that data is secured SQL data and needs to be accessed using a SQL account, which means I’m going to have to access that data using a connection string. Generally that’s a pretty straight forward task, however you must decide where to store the connection string credentials…

Within ASP.NET you generally have a few options:

• Store the credentials in your code (terrible idea!)
• Store the credentials in some web.config file
• Store the credentials in the registry

Honestly I’m not crazy about any of these methods. If I had to choose I would go with the web.config option, however you are still storing the information as plain text, which I don’t like. And I suppose you can encrypt the data somehow, but that just seems like more work than its worth to me.

So then what? Well if you’re using SharePoint 2010 and up, you can actually store your credentials in the Secure Store Service, then programatically access as needed using the SharePoint Object Model. Life changing, I know…so lets get started…

In this example we’ll create a simple Web Part which accesses the stored credentials and displays them within the Web Part. With this proof of concept you would just alter the code so that instead of displaying the credentials, you would put the string values in your connection string, and you’ll be good to go.

The first thing we need to do is create a new Secure Store Target Application. To that follow these steps:

• Log into SharePoint 2010 Central Administration
• Click Manage service applications
• Click Secure Store Service
• Click New
• Enter a Target Application ID (some unique identifier which generally contains the name of the target application)
• Enter a Display Name
• Enter a Contact Email
• Set Target Application Type to Group and click Next
• Change the Field Names so that the word Windows is replaced with SQL (not necessary, just me being nit picky)
• Change the first Field Type to User Name
• Change the second Field Type to Password and click Next
• Add yourself to both Administrators and Members and click OK

The second and final thing we need to do is a little coding. Follow these steps:

• Fire up Visual Studio and create a new Blank SharePoint Project that is scoped as a Farm level solution
• Add a reference to Microsoft.BusinessData.dll by browsing to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\ISAPI (Assuming a standard installation of SharePoint)
• Add a reference to Microsoft.Office.SecureStoreService.dll by browsing to C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Office.SecureStoreService\14.0.0.0__71e9bce111e9429c
• Right click the project, go to Add, and select New Item
• Select Web Part (not Visual Web Part), specify some name, and click Add
• Add the following Using statements to your Web Part file

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;

using Microsoft.BusinessData.Infrastructure.SecureStore;

using Microsoft.Office.SecureStoreService.Server;

using System.Security;

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

• Update your class with the following code:

private TextBox tbxAppID;

private Button btnGetCreds;

private Label lblUserID, lblPassword;

protected override void CreateChildControls()

{

    tbxAppID = new TextBox();

    btnGetCreds = new Button();

    btnGetCreds.Text = "Get Credentials";

    btnGetCreds.Click += new EventHandler(btnGetCreds_Click);

    lblUserID = new Label();

    lblPassword = new Label();

    this.Controls.Add(tbxAppID);

    this.Controls.Add(btnGetCreds);

    this.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl("<br />"));

    this.Controls.Add(lblUserID);

    this.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl("<br />"));

    this.Controls.Add(lblPassword);

}

private void btnGetCreds_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

    try

    {

        SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()

        {

            // Get the CA site URI

            SPAdministrationWebApplication adminWebApp = SPAdministrationWebApplication.Local;

            Uri adminSiteUri = adminWebApp.GetResponseUri(SPUrlZone.Default);

            /* Using statement to access the Central Administration site */

            using (SPSite site = adminWebApp.Sites[adminSiteUri.AbsoluteUri])

            {

                // Get the Secure Store Service Context

                ISecureStoreProvider provider = SecureStoreProviderFactory.Create();

                ISecureStoreServiceContext providerContext = provider as ISecureStoreServiceContext;

                providerContext.Context = SPServiceContext.GetContext(site);

                using (SecureStoreCredentialCollection credentials = provider.GetCredentials(tbxAppID.Text))

                {

                    /* Loop each credential in the current credential collection */

                    foreach (SecureStoreCredential credential in credentials)

                    {

                        if (credential.CredentialType == SecureStoreCredentialType.UserName)

                            lblUserID.Text = String.Format("User ID: {0}", GetStringFromSecureString(credential.Credential));

                        else if (credential.CredentialType == SecureStoreCredentialType.Password)

                            lblPassword.Text = String.Format("Password: {0}", GetStringFromSecureString(credential.Credential));

                    }

                }

            }

        });

    }

    catch (Exception ex)

    {

        lblUserID.Text = ex.ToString();

    }

}

private static string GetStringFromSecureString(SecureString secStr)

{

    if (secStr == null)

    {

        return null;

    }

    IntPtr pPlainText = IntPtr.Zero;

    try

    {

        pPlainText = Marshal.SecureStringToBSTR(secStr);

        return Marshal.PtrToStringBSTR(pPlainText);

    }

    finally

    {

        if (pPlainText != IntPtr.Zero)

        {

            Marshal.FreeBSTR(pPlainText);

        }

    }

}

• Then just build and deploy your solution

If you look at the code above we’re essentially accessing the Central Admin site, grabbing the Secure Store Context, accessing the SecureStoreCredentialCollection by the ID, looping each credential, decoding the credential, and finally outputting to the Web Part.

So to use the Web Part, just pull up the site you deployed it to, add the Web Part, type in the Target Application ID, and click Get Credentials.

And just like that, you’ll never have to store a connection string in the web.config again when using SharePoint.

References:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394459(v=office.14).aspx

Updates:

1. In this post I am running a chunk of my code with Elevated privileges in order to ensure that users accessing the site will have access to the Secure Store Service. This does assume that the service account associated with the Web Application does have access to manage the Secure Store Target Application that we created.
2. Also, I like the idea of using the Property Bag, so I expect to be posting about that soon. Thanks for the suggestions Mostafa!

The post Storing Connection String Information in the Secure Store Service appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/03/13/storing-connection-string-information-in-the-secure-store-service/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/22/race-conditions-within-image-onerror-and-onload/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/22/race-conditions-within-image-onerror-and-onload/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:20:30 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6548 Recently I tracked down a bug which had been popping up occasionally for a while but which I could never seem to replicate in order to fix.  The scenario was this:  Load an image onto a page dynamically via JS and wait for the image to load before fading it in (to make sure the image is loaded [...]

The post Race conditions within image onerror and onload appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Recently I tracked down a bug which had been popping up occasionally for a while but which I could never seem to replicate in order to fix.  The scenario was this:  Load an image onto a page dynamically via JS and wait for the image to load before fading it in (to make sure the image is loaded before trying to show it).  If the image fails to load show a generic placeholder and fade that in.

The way I had coded this was bassically as follows (using JQuery):

var img = $(‘<img src=”http://someURL.com/picture.jpg”  alt=”picture” />’);

img.load(function(){

$(this).fadeIn();

});

img.error(function(){

$(this).attr(‘src’, ‘/genericImage.png’);

});

 

This worked for the most part but every once in a while in webkit browsers (Chrome / Safari) the onload/onerror would not be called which would mean the image would never be displayed.

As it turns out there is a race condition within the above code.  The moment the HTML is passed into JQuery the browser attempts to download the image, before the load/error events have been bound.  Normally it takes a moment for the image to load (waiting on the remote server to respond which may take several milliseconds), which would give enough time for the onload/onerror events to be bound to the image.  However if the image has been cached sometimes the load/error events would be called before the handlers had been bound.

The fix for this is surprisingly simple.  Instead of using JQuery to bind the events use the onerror and onload attributes of the img tag.  Although it will likely make the code a bit messier since you won’t be able to make the callback within a closure it does fix the issue.

Next steps will be to see if there is a way to still make use of JQuery’s load/error event binding (minus the race condition) since they make the code a lot more readable.

The post Race conditions within image onerror and onload appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/22/race-conditions-within-image-onerror-and-onload/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/20/ajax-control-toolkit-onuploadedcomplete-running-client-side-js/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/20/ajax-control-toolkit-onuploadedcomplete-running-client-side-js/#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:31:01 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6546 If you’ve ever used the AJAX Controll Toolkit’s asyncFileUpload control you will undoubtedly have run into some screwiness dealing with how this event does not act like normal update panel async-postbacks. The thing to keep in mind with this control is that it is posting to a hidden iFrame on the page to get around [...]

The post AJAX Control Toolkit OnUploadedComplete – Running client side JS appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> If you’ve ever used the AJAX Controll Toolkit’s asyncFileUpload control you will undoubtedly have run into some screwiness dealing with how this event does not act like normal update panel async-postbacks. The thing to keep in mind with this control is that it is posting to a hidden iFrame on the page to get around the fact that files cannot be uploaded via the XHR object.
To run client side JS after this event (aside from using the OnClientUploadComplete which doesn’t have much functionality) you can use the Page.ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript method, however this has a huge gotcha. Remember how this event is posted to an iframe. To access the DOM of the actual page (not the iFrame) simply prefix your javascript calls with ‘window.parent’ (such as window.parent.$(‘body’).css(‘background-color’, ‘green’); ).

-Lee

The post AJAX Control Toolkit OnUploadedComplete – Running client side JS appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/20/ajax-control-toolkit-onuploadedcomplete-running-client-side-js/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/19/farm-sandbox-or-client-object-model/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/19/farm-sandbox-or-client-object-model/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:47:26 +0000 Johnny Bouder http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6534 When developing solutions for SharePoint 2010 there are 3 primary options for development. These options are as follows: Farm Sandbox Client Object Model (Managed, Silverlight, and Javascript) It’s great that we’ve been provided options, however with these options we’re also presented with a choice. And in my opinion you should choose wisely, because each option [...]

The post Farm, Sandbox, or Client Object Model? appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> When developing solutions for SharePoint 2010 there are 3 primary options for development. These options are as follows:
• Farm
• Sandbox
• Client Object Model (Managed, Silverlight, and Javascript)

It’s great that we’ve been provided options, however with these options we’re also presented with a choice. And in my opinion you should choose wisely, because each option provides some advances and disadvantages.

Because of these distinctions and my own growing pains, I thought I would share what I’ve learned.

Option #1: Farm Solutions:

A farm solution is a solution which gets deployed to the server environment. These solutions essentially provide you with access to anything in the environment. This was our only option prior to SharePoint 2010.

-Advantages:

• Unrestricted access to SharePoint resources
• Easiest to troubleshoot and debug
• Can be scoped and made available to Farm, Web Application, Site Collection, and Web

-Disadvantages:

• Must be deployed to server environment by Farm Administrator
• When deployed to the GAC, code runs unrestricted
• Some solutions require an IIS reset to take affect
• Cannot be used in SharePoint Online (Office 365)

-Recommended Use:

• Visual Web Parts
• State Machine and Sequential Workflows
• Timer Jobs
• Sending Custom Emails
• Custom Actions which utilize compiled code
• Custom solutions which access a database
• Custom solutions which access server information

Option #2: Sandbox Solutions:

A sandbox solution is a solution which is deployed to the Site Collection Solutions Gallery. These are a new addition to SharePoint 2010 which provide you access to resources within the current site collection. This option is very useful for individuals who are familiar with the SharePoint Object Model and are not allowed to deploy to the Farm.

-Advantages:

• Easy development of solutions using SharePoint Object Model
• Only need site collection administrator to deploy to site collection
• Runs within restricted worker process which ensures integrity of SharePoint environment

-Disadvantages:

• No access to data within other site collections
• No access to data from other external sources
• No access to Script Manager, which means no UpdatePanel
• Restricted subset of solution types
• Runs within separate worker process which can have issues (a lot of issues in my experience)

-Recommended Use:

• Simple Web Parts
• Deploying Branding to a site collection
• Custom Declarative Workflow Actions
• Custom solutions which utilize SDK’s which are not accessible through client technologies such as OpenXML

Option #3: Client Object Model:

A Client Object Model solution is a solution which utilizes client technologies to access SharePoint and External data. These types of solutions can be built using the Managed Client Object Model, the Silverlight Client Object Model, or the Javascript Object Model. Given that these use specialized client technologies, I will outline each of these below in their own sections.

Managed Client Object Model:

A Managed Client Object Model solution is a solution which uses the client object model framework and is accessed using a .NET solution. These kinds of solutions would be generally built into Console Apps or Windows Forms Apps. They essentially give you the ability to access SharePoint data from outside the browser.

-Advantages:

• Provides out of browser access to SharePoint data
• Can tie into windows applications

-Disadvantages:

• Requires using new Client object model syntax
• Accessing authenticated data may require credentials to be configured
• Cannot access in browser

-Recommended Use:

• If for some reason you need to access SharePoint data from out of the browser
• For those who are more familiar with client windows technologies

Silverlight Client Object Model:

A Silverlight Client Object Model solution is a solution which uses the client object model framework and is accessed using a Silverlight solution. This type of solution is best for someone who is looking to take advantage of the rich visual affects of Silverlight.

-Advantages:

• Rich Silverlight API
• Asynchronous loading
• Access to other site collections in SharePoint
• Access to external data through Web Services

-Disadvantages:

• Not recommended for internet sites because not everyone has the Silverlight Client installed
• Requires using new Client object model syntax
• Changes to the solution requires recompiling of XAP package
• Can be difficult to debug

-Recommended Use:

• Creating anything visual like Charts, Slideshows, Child Windows, etc
• Improving page load times by offloading to client side
• Displaying information from any site collection
• Displaying information from external sites

Javascript Object Model (My New Favorite):

A Javascript Object Model solution is a solution which uses the client object model framework and is accessed using Javascript. This solution type is great for web designers that are not experience with object oriented technologies like C#.

-Advantages:

• Javascript is an accepted standard used in all modern browsers
• Asynchronous loading
• No compiling necessary to write code
• jQuery integration!

-Disadvantages:

• Can only access the current site collection
• Requires using new Client object model syntax
• Very difficult to debug
• Very little documentation online (in my experience at least)

-Recommended Use:

• Creating solutions which can be easily modified by most web designers
• Improving page load times by offloading to client side

So those are essentially my thoughts on the primary options that are out there. Hopefully this has been helpful.

The post Farm, Sandbox, or Client Object Model? appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/19/farm-sandbox-or-client-object-model/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/19/open-xml-in-the-sandbox/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/19/open-xml-in-the-sandbox/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:38:12 +0000 Johnny Bouder http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6528 Sometime back I was given the task of taking information in an email and automating it into a specifically formatted word document (kind of a strange request I know). With me being a complete OpenXML noob, I have to admit it turned out to be much more difficult than I originally thought. Also, I had [...]

The post Open XML in the Sandbox appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Sometime back I was given the task of taking information in an email and automating it into a specifically formatted word document (kind of a strange request I know). With me being a complete OpenXML noob, I have to admit it turned out to be much more difficult than I originally thought. Also, I had to build the solution as a sandbox solution, which made this task even more difficult.

Now I don’t know if the task that I was working on was either not very practical or just plain difficult, but one thing I do know is there is not much online about using OpenXML in a sandbox solution. In fact, there are a few people saying it can’t be done…well, they’re Wrong! Also, there are a bunch of posts about creating a Console Application using the Managed Client Object Model, but that honestly was not what I was looking for. Needless to say, it took a few different iterations using different SharePoint Object Models to get this right…I originally tried to use the Silverlight Client Object Model, but unfortunately you can’t add the OpenXML assembly to a Silverlight project. Then I tried a console application just to verify it would work. Then finally I went with a Sandbox Web Part using the SharePoint Object Model.

With all that being said, this post will go through how to create a very simple Sandbox Web Part that will create a Word document from the items in a Task List and finally save the document to the Shared Documents library in SharePoint.

The first thing you need to do to get started is to download the OpenXML SDK. For this project you will only need the SDK, not the Productivity Tools, however you can download that too if you want to.

Once you have installed the SDK we are ready to get started. The first step is to create a SharePoint project with a Web Part.

1. Fire up Visual Studio 2010, create a new SharePoint 2010 Empty project, and name it something like ExportListToWord
2. When prompted, ensure Sandbox solution is selected
3. Next right click on the ExportListToWord project and select Add >> New Item
4. Click Web Part (not Visual Web Part) and name it something like ListToWordWebPart

Next we need to add a few assembly references to our project. We need to add the OpenXML assembly and the WindowsBase assembly (for some crazy reason that I care not to get into).

1. Within the solution explorer, right click on References and click Add Reference
2. Click the .NET tab, select WindowsBase, and click OK
3. Right click on References again and select Add Reference
4. Click the Browse tab, navigate to C:\Program Files\Open XML SDK\V2.0\lib (if default SDK install), select DocumentFormat.OpenXML.dll, and click OK

Next before we get to the code we need to make sure our OpenXML assembly is included in our SharePoint Solution Package (wsp) so that we don’t need to worry about installing the SDK to the SharePoint servers.

1. Within the solution explorer expand the Package folder
2. Double click Package.package
3. At the bottom of the window click the Advanced tab
4. Click the Add button and select Add Existing Assembly
5. Click the ellipsis, browse for the DocumentFormat.OpenXML assembly as before, and click OK

Finally we get to the code. Our code will simply iterate through all items in a Tasks list on the current site, add some of the list information to a Word document, and save the document to the Shared Documents library on the current site.

The first bit of code to add are a few using statements:

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml;

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging;

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;

using System.IO;

Next add the following control declarations to the class:

private Button btnExportToWord;

private Label lblMessages;

Next add the following code to the CreateChildControls method:

btnExportToWord = new Button();

btnExportToWord.Text = "Export to Word";

btnExportToWord.Click += new EventHandler(btnExportToWord_Click);

this.Controls.Add(btnExportToWord);

lblMessages = new Label();

this.Controls.Add(lblMessages);

Lastly, add the following method after the CreateChildControls method:

private void btnExportToWord_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

    /* Try to create the document and save to SharePoint */

    try

    {

        /* Memory stream used to build the file */

        using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream())

        {

            /* WordprocessingDocument used to build the Word Document */

            using (WordprocessingDocument doc = WordprocessingDocument.Create(memoryStream, WordprocessingDocumentType.Document))

            {

                // Setup main parts of the document

                MainDocumentPart mainPart = doc.AddMainDocumentPart();

                mainPart.Document = new Document();

                Body body = new Body();

                Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph();

                Run run = new Run();

                Text text;

                SPList list = SPContext.Current.Web.Lists["Tasks"];

                /* foreach item in the list add a new text child to the run */

                foreach (SPListItem item in list.Items)

                {

                    text = new Text(String.Format("Title: {0}", item["Title"].ToString()));

                    run.AppendChild(text);

                    run.AppendChild(new Break());

                    text = new Text(String.Format("Priority: {0}", item["Priority"].ToString()));

                    run.AppendChild(text);

                    run.AppendChild(new Break());

                    text = new Text(String.Format("Status: {0}", item["Status"].ToString()));

                    run.AppendChild(text);

                    run.AppendChild(new Break());

                    run.AppendChild(new Break());

                }

                // Append parts up the Document tree

                paragraph.Append(run);

                body.Append(paragraph);

                mainPart.Document.Append(body);

            }

            memoryStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin); // Set stream position to the beginning

            SPFolder folder = SPContext.Current.Web.Lists["Shared Documents"].RootFolder; // SharePoint library to store the file

            string fileName = "Tasks.docx";

            folder.Files.Add(fileName, memoryStream.ToArray(), true); // Add the file to the library and overwrite if necessary

            lblMessages.Text = "Document saved to: <a href='" + folder.ServerRelativeUrl + "/" + fileName + "'>" + folder.ServerRelativeUrl + "/" + fileName + "</a>";

            }

        }

        /* Catch any exceptions and output the error to the Messages Label */

        catch (Exception ex)

        {

            lblMessages.Text = "Error: " + ex.Message;

        }

    }

So if you look at the code block above you see the first thing we do is create a WordprocessingDocument within the MemoryStream. Next we setup the main parts of the document. Next we cycle all items in the Tasks list and create new Text Objects for each piece of the list item, separated with Breaks. Then we close out each part of the document by appending each child element to its parent. Next we take what is in the memory stream (our document) and add it to the Shared Documents library.

As you can see there really isn’t much to it. The hardest part I think is figuring out the OpenXML API, but hopefully the example above is pretty straight forward.

So there you have it! OpenXML in the Sandbox.

Note: It looks like OpenXML is not currently supported in SharePoint Online (Office 365). If you attempt to activate a solution which contains the DocumentFormat.OpenXML.dll you will receive the following error:

Error validating assembly ‘DocumentFormat.OpenXml.dll’.
This solution references prohibited type ‘System.Runtime.Remoting.ObjectHandle’ and cannot be used on this site collection.

The error implies that the OpenXML assembly uses System.Runtime.Remoting.ObjectHandle which makes no sense to me. Either way, this does still work in On Premise SharePoint 2010 Sandbox…still pretty weak though…

The post Open XML in the Sandbox appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/02/19/open-xml-in-the-sandbox/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/27/the-central-america-domestic-violence-hackathon-day-2/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/27/the-central-america-domestic-violence-hackathon-day-2/#comments Sun, 27 Jan 2013 22:15:12 +0000 Amir Zonozi http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6459 The amazing event continues, The Central America Domestic Violence Hackathon entered day 2 in all seven countries; Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Washington D.C. Bright, early, and ready to go in DC.., the entire MetroStar team made it back for a day full of hacking for a good cause. Team MetroStar: [...]

The post The Central America Domestic Violence Hackathon – Day 2 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

The amazing event continues, The Central America Domestic Violence Hackathon entered day 2 in all seven countries; Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Washington D.C.

Bright, early, and ready to go in DC.., the entire MetroStar team made it back for a day full of hacking for a good cause. Team MetroStar: Jorge, Lee, Hector, Ross, Theresa and I, hit the ground running and so did the social conversation, as you can see on the Zoomph social mash up. (If you tweeted with #DVHackathon, you might see your face on there!)

If you read our last blog post, on Day 1, you would remember we chose to create an application for the House of Ruth; finding a way to use technology to connect service providers with employers, in order to help victims of domestic abuse find gainful employment.

After a few additional hours of coding, the teams were invited on stage to present their apps, websites and strategies.

Guess who was asked to present first? Yup, we were. Theresa and Jorge took the stage and we presented, Independence Project, a web based application database, allowing employers and service providers to collaborate and build a job bank for survivors of domestic violence. This solution provides access solely for service providers and employers, and maintains anonymity and safety of domestic violence survivors as all service providers and employers in the system are vetted.

Service providers are given the ability to search for job opportunities posted from employers, bookmark them, categorize and search, as well as reach out directly to the employer to learn more. Employers can register, post job listings, and connect with service providers who will in turn reach out to the victims themselves.

After our team presented we sat in on all the other team presentations such as Fuerza’s with their web app to combat coercive stalking through mobile devices and a check list to address stalking, as well as Tabula Rasa, who tackled the same issue we were facing,‘Spoon in the Knickers’ addressing the challenge of teenagers being taken and WDG addressing improving information Service Providers database with a Domestic Violence Database, amongst others.

After all the presentations, SecondMuse and The World Bank announced the winners as selected by the panel of judges.

And now the winners:

1. Fuerza

2. World Bank App

3. Tabula Rasa tied with The DV Database

Overall we had an amazing time and experience at the Central America Domestic Violence Hackathon, working with talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, collaborating over innovation technologies and solving issues presented by our subject matter experts. This was the first hackathon for a major of our teammates, including myself, and I think I can speak for our team, and say this will not be our last. We were completely honored to be involved with, from sponsoring the social media with our Zoomph social media mash up, to having the MetroStar team compete with a such talented and passionate community. We would like to extend a huge thank you to Nesian and SecondMuse for hosting this event at The World Bank.

 

The post The Central America Domestic Violence Hackathon – Day 2 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/27/the-central-america-domestic-violence-hackathon-day-2/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/26/domestic-violence-hackathon-day-1/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/26/domestic-violence-hackathon-day-1/#comments Sat, 26 Jan 2013 22:45:32 +0000 Amir Zonozi http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6449 7 Countries – 1 amazing event. The Central American Domestic Violence Hackathon has begun (January 26th and 27th) in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Washington D.C We’re in Washington DC and here’s our recount of day 1. Goal: Address the challenge of domestic violence by building technology solutions to assist agencies [...]

The post Domestic Violence Hackathon – Day 1 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> 7 Countries – 1 amazing event. The Central American Domestic Violence Hackathon has begun (January 26th and 27th) in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Washington D.C

We’re in Washington DC and here’s our recount of day 1.

Goal: Address the challenge of domestic violence by building technology solutions to assist agencies that work to support victims and advance efforts to bring perpetrators to justice.

The Challenge:

We were presented several issues by subject matter experts that described their problem, and their projected solution. We were able to listen to each one and pick an expert and help them solve their issue.

The issue we picked: Independence Project presented by Nicole Kaib in affiliation with The House of Ruth attempts to assist survivors of domestic abusive relationships, to gain independence with a gainful employment.

Other issues presented were extremely interesting, from developing protocols to protect survivors from surveillance (presented by Andrew Lehmann from the Tor project) to influencing cultural norms (presented by Erin Scheick (ABA) & Mariam Miller (World Bank) by assisting young males and coach them to better learning behavior or learning about forced marriage prevention, (Heather Heiman of the Tahirih Justice Center).

Our Process.

We sat down with Nicole and listened to her story, her challenges and most importantly, her goals.

After collaborating with her, we agreed to build a web-based platform that will connect employers, service providers, and victims of domestic violence to gainful employment. We immediately got to work and brought out the post-it notes, creating user stories, features and permissions.

Once we established what we were working with, we broke out wireframes, content and started a database to help connect service providers with employers for victims.

Picture a table covered with laptops, many caffeinated drinks, post-its and sketches with crumpled paper and headphones.

Fast-forward a couple hours later, and some caffeinated drinks, we have a prototype functioning website, with public facing content, and user login and search capabilities.

We had an incredible productive day 1, and are super excited for day 2. Make sure to follow along the event digitally with the Zoomph social mashup

The post Domestic Violence Hackathon – Day 1 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/26/domestic-violence-hackathon-day-1/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/25/helping-domestic-violence-victims-through-technology/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/25/helping-domestic-violence-victims-through-technology/#comments Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:23:53 +0000 Theresa Kattula http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6432 The MetroStar Team is proud to announce its participation and sponsorship of the Central America Domestic Violence Hackathon, an event hosted by the World Bank. Alongside the World Bank and organizations throughout Central America and Washington, D.C. MetroStar will be competing in the Central America Domestic Violence Hackathon Saturday, January 26-27th. Through this hackathon, The [...]

The post Helping Domestic Violence Victims through Technology appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> The MetroStar Team is proud to announce its participation and sponsorship of the Central America Domestic Violence Hackathon, an event hosted by the World Bank.

Alongside the World Bank and organizations throughout Central America and Washington, D.C. MetroStar will be competing in the Central America Domestic Violence Hackathon Saturday, January 26-27th. Through this hackathon, The World Bank is seeking innovative technologies to assist victims of domestic violence and agencies that aid those victims.

The MetroStar Team will be comprised of computer programmers, web & mobile developers, software engineers, graphic designers, and UX and UI designers. The team is excited to bring its mobile, web and digital practices together to work for such a great initiative.

The team has been preparing strategies, researching existing tools out there and stocking up on their energy drinks for the 2-day event. While they have many ideas on what to create, they’ll hit the ground running on Saturday morning and code through the early hours to deliver a prototype solution.

We’ll keep you posted on the team’s progress through the MetroStar blog and Twitter, so be sure to check back and learn about the MetroStar Team’s hackathon prototype.

Good luck Aditya, Hector, Jorge, Ross, Lee, Dean, and Ajay!



MetroStar’s Hackathon Team!

Be sure to join the conversation on Twitter and Instagram with #DVHackathon and #VDHackathon. See highlights of the conversation through the Zoomph Hackathon Social Mashup.

The post Helping Domestic Violence Victims through Technology appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/25/helping-domestic-violence-victims-through-technology/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/04/upgrading-azure-sdk-from-1-7-to-1-8/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/04/upgrading-azure-sdk-from-1-7-to-1-8/#comments Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:59:45 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6403 I recently installed VS2012 which required that I upgrade an Azure Solution of mime from 1.7 to 1.8. The automatic solution upgrade worked pretty well except for one issue. The upgrade didn’t update the reference to the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime DLL from 1.7 to 1.8. This didn’t cause any problems when compiling but when trying to run [...]

The post Upgrading Azure SDK from 1.7 to 1.8 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> I recently installed VS2012 which required that I upgrade an Azure Solution of mime from 1.7 to 1.8. The automatic solution upgrade worked pretty well except for one issue. The upgrade didn’t update the reference to the Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime DLL from 1.7 to 1.8. This didn’t cause any problems when compiling but when trying to run the worker role it would never start successfully since the RoleEntryPoint class is defined in that DLL. I simply manually updated the the reference to the new version and everything worked as expected!

The post Upgrading Azure SDK from 1.7 to 1.8 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2013/01/04/upgrading-azure-sdk-from-1-7-to-1-8/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/12/17/jennys-sharepoint-tip-using-sharepoint-features-within-office-2010-applications/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/12/17/jennys-sharepoint-tip-using-sharepoint-features-within-office-2010-applications/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:58:36 +0000 Jennifer Hersko http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6361 Applies to SharePoint 2010 Users can work with SharePoint features from within Office applications without navigating to a SharePoint site. Save documents directly to SharePoint from an Office application Using Office applications, users can save files directly to SharePoint, without uploading documents to a library. Save a document to SharePoint Using the Office Save to [...]

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]]> Applies to SharePoint 2010

Users can work with SharePoint features from within Office applications without navigating to a SharePoint site.

Save documents directly to SharePoint from an Office application

Using Office applications, users can save files directly to SharePoint, without uploading documents to a library.

Save a document to SharePoint Using the Office Save to SharePoint Command

Users can save documents from Office applications to SharePoint sites they frequently access by using the Save to SharePoint Command. There are limitations with this direct save method, namely, that it only works for Office applications (PDF’s, text files, and other non-Office file types cannot be saved using this method. A network location must be created to save these file types directly to a SharePoint library.).

Create a new SharePoint Location

1. If the desired site is not listed in the Recent Locations section, in the Locations section, choose Browse for a location.


2. To browse for a SharePoint location, first copy the URL to a site, or a library. NOTE: Whether browsing to a site or library, delete all characters after the name of the site, or the name of the library. Example of cleaned up URLs:


Save to a recent location

1. From the File tab, choose Save & Send, and then Save to SharePoint. All recently accessed SharePoint sites populate in the Recent Locations section.


Use Check Out within an Office application

After opening a document in an Office application, users can Check Out documents from within the application.

File Tab, Info Section

1. From any Office application, click the File tab, in the Info section, click Manage Versions, then select Check Out.


2. When a user is done editing, Check In the file so other users may edit if necessary. From the File tab, in the Info section, select Check In.


Quick Access Tool Bar

Rather than navigating to the File tab to Check Out and Check In, users can add the Check Out and Check In commands to their Quick Access Tool Bar. Once added, the commands will remain there unless removed. NOTE: Users must perform this action in each Office application they wish the commands to be available.

1. From the Quick Access Tool Bar, select the down arrow.


2. Choose More Commands.


3. In the Choose commands from drop down, select All Commands.


4. Select Check In and choose Add. Next, select Check Out and Add. Click Ok to save and close.


5. The Check Out and Check In commands are now available from the Quick Access Tool Bar.


Version Control within an Office Application

After opening a document in an Office application, users can view the Version History for the document from within the Office application, and can also open and view the previous versions. NOTE: This example assumes Version Control is enabled and set to keep the 10 most recent versions.

Viewing Versions

View previous versions of the document.

1. Click the File tab, in the Info section, click Manage Versions, then select the version number that should be compared against the working file.


2. The old version will open in Read-Only mode. The version number and its read only status are visible in the title portion of the Office application. The Previous Version notice bar will display in yellow with the option to Restore.


Comparing Versions – Microsoft Word Only

In Microsoft Word, users are presented with two options in the Previous Version notice bar: 1) Compare and 2) Restore. If Compare is selected, another document will open that uses the Microsoft Word feature, Track Changes, to compare the old version and the working file. If Restore is selected the old version will replace the working file and become the new working file.


Restoring Versions

Restore a previous version as the working file.

1. From the Previous Version notice bar, if Restore is selected, the previous version will replace the working file and become the new working file.


Deleting Versions

If a version should not be able for View and/or Restore, then it can be deleted.

1. From the File tab, in the Info section, right-click the version to delete. From the drop down menu, select Delete This Version.



The post Jenny’s SharePoint Tip: Using SharePoint Features within Office 2010 Applications appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/12/17/jennys-sharepoint-tip-using-sharepoint-features-within-office-2010-applications/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/12/03/jennys-sharepoint-tip-sum-calculated-columns/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/12/03/jennys-sharepoint-tip-sum-calculated-columns/#comments Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:44:28 +0000 Jennifer Hersko http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6284 Applies to:  SharePoint 2010 About Summing Calculated Columns Calculated columns are great, but if you expect to be able to total calculated columns using the Totals feature in the View Settings, think again.  To sum calculated columns in a list you need SharePoint Designer 2010, a web part page, a data source, and a line [...]

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]]> Applies to:  SharePoint 2010

About Summing Calculated Columns

Calculated columns are great, but if you expect to be able to total calculated columns using the Totals feature in the View Settings, think again.  To sum calculated columns in a list you need SharePoint Designer 2010, a web part page, a data source, and a line of code.


Example Overview

This example will total the results of a calculated field in a custom list. The list will be inserted as a data source on a web part page.  The list and web part page have been previously created and the creation of these items is not documented in the demo.



On a web part page called Demo Calculated Columns.aspx, an empty data source will be added with four columns inserted from the calculatedcolums list as the data source:  Title, column1, columns2, and 1and2.



Creating a Totals Field for a Calculated Column

 1.       Create the list
This demo does not include screenshots or instructions for building the list used in this example.  To recreate this demo, create a new custom list and add the three columns outlined in the Example Overview section.

2.       Create a web part page
This demo does not include screenshots or instructions for creating the web part page used in this example.  To recreate this demo, create a web part page somewhere in your test site. 

3.       Add an empty data source and configure

4.       Add XSL Value of Select data

Add an Empty Data Source and Configure

 1.    Open the Demo Calculated Columns.aspx page in Advanced Mode in SharePoint Designer in Split mode.  In the design portion, click and place your cursor in the PlaceHolderMain section of the page.  From the Ribbon, on the Insert tab, select Data View, Empty Data View. 


2.       Select Click here to select a data source and choose calculatedcolumns.  The Data Source details pane will open on the right.  Insert the following fields into the new data source:  Title, column1, column2,and 1and2.


3.  The totals information should be included in a new row at the bottom of the list.  To insert a new row, in the last cell of the table, right-click and select Insert, Row Below.


4.        Your cursor will now be in the last cell on the bottom row of the table in the design pane.  In the code pane, the cursor will be placed in its current cell position. 


 Add “XSL Value of Select” Data

1.     Continuing from step 4 above, we want to delete the current code of the new cell.  For the active cell, copy the code snippet <td><xsl:text xmlns:ddwrt=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v2/DataView/runtime” ddwrt:nbsp-preserve=”yes” disable-output-escaping=”yes”>&amp;nbsp;</xsl:text> and delete it. 


2.       Input the following code (replace the highlighted text with your column name) and Save your page: 
Note – Designer is precise when it comes to code.  If you copy and paste the row of code below, after pasting into Designer, delete the “ in the code pane, then re-add them.   Otherwise, due to font differences, a XSLT style sheet error will display.
<td ><xsl:value-of select=“sum(/dsQueryResponse/Rows/Row/@_x0031_and2)“ /></td>

3.       The calculated column is now totaled. 
 

Additional Modifications

Add the Toolbar

So that users can interact with the data source by adding new items, setting alerts, and filtering and sorting on column headers, add the SharePoint Toolbar. 

1.     To add the Toolbar, from the Ribbon, on the Design tab, in the Toolbar section, click Options, then select SharePoint Toolbar.  Save the page in Designer.  Note:  Alternatively to only enable sorting and filtering on column headers, leave the Toolbar setting as is and in the Show/Hide section check Sort & Filter on Headers.


2.       The data source now displays with the Toolbar.


Add the Quick Launch to the page

So that users can navigate easily around the site, add the left hand naviation, the Quick Launch, to the web part page.

1.  Delete the following lines of code:
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId=”PlaceHolderNavSpacer” runat=”server”></asp:Content>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId=”PlaceHolderLeftNavBar” runat=”server”></asp:Content>
<style type=”text/css”>body #s4-leftpanel { display:none;}.s4-ca { margin-left:0px;}</style>




 2.       The Demo Calculated Columns page now displays with the Quick Launch.


The post Jenny’s SharePoint Tip: Sum Calculated Columns appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/12/03/jennys-sharepoint-tip-sum-calculated-columns/feed/ 4 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/12/01/jennys-sharepoint-tip-color-coded-calendars-out-of-the-box-solution/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/12/01/jennys-sharepoint-tip-color-coded-calendars-out-of-the-box-solution/#comments Sat, 01 Dec 2012 16:54:08 +0000 Jennifer Hersko http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6236 Applies to:  SharePoint 2010 Color Coded Calendar – How it Works With SharePoint 2010, Microsoft has provided out of the box functionality to color code SharePoint calendars.  This is achieved using the Calendar Overlay feature which utilizes list views and calendar overlay views called New Calendars.  Prior to SharePoint 2010, if a user wanted to [...]

The post Jenny’s SharePoint Tip: Color Coded Calendars – Out of the Box Solution appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Applies to:  SharePoint 2010

Color Coded Calendar – How it Works

With SharePoint 2010, Microsoft has provided out of the box functionality to color code SharePoint calendars.  This is achieved using the Calendar Overlay feature which utilizes list views and calendar overlay views called New Calendars.  Prior to SharePoint 2010, if a user wanted to color code a calendar in SharePoint, a 3^rd party tool would need to be purchased or code such as JQuery and/or JavaScript was required.

Limitations & Items to Note

Note the following limitations exist if using the Microsoft SharePoint out of the box color coded calendar:

• Only ten color codes can be used (the tenth being automatically assigned by SharePoint).
• The tenth color code must be associated with the calendarlist view where the calendar overlay views (New Calendars) are being applied. 
• Color options are limited and cannot be changed.  Some colors look very similar.
• Colors do not populate in Outlook if the list is connected to Outlook.

Color options:


Example Overview

Items in the calendar will be color coded based on their assigned category.  This example is using ten category choices in the Category column of a Calendar list:  category1, category2, category3, category4, category5, category6, category7, category7, category8, category9, category10.  Ten public list views will be created, with each view set to filter and display one of the ten category choices.  Finally the views will have all associating calendar overlay views (New Calendars) created to enabled color coding.

Create a Color Coded Calendar

To create a color coded calendar using the out of the box SharePoint Calendars Overlay feature, a Site Owner will need to:

     1.  Configure the default Calendar column, Category, with up to ten categories.
     2.  Create a view for each category entered (up to ten).
     3.  Create a New Calendar for each view created per category.

Step 1 – Add Category Selections

To assign color coding to calendar events by type, the default Category column requires modification.

A.  To modify the Category column, navigate to the Calendar to be modified.  Access its List Settings via the Ribbon, on the Calendar tab, select List Settings.


B.  In the Columns section, double-click the Category column to open and modify.
 

C.  In the Additional Column Settings section, input up to ten categories. 

Note:  More than ten categories can be entered, but only ten views can have colors assigned to them.


Step 2 – Create List Views

Create a Public view for each category type that was entered in Step 1 C.  Each view will have a filter applied to display only that specific category.

A.   Create the first new view.  Start from the existing Calendar view.


B.  Name the view for the first category type entered in Step 1 C and ensure it is a Public view.  Set the view’s filter to display only items that are assigned to the first category type, category1.  Select Ok to save and continue.


C.  Repeat Step 2 A – B as necessary for Category choices category2 -  category9 entered in Step 1 C.


D.  Lastly,create a view named calendaroverlay.  Set the calendaroverlay view as the list’s default view.  Set the view’s filter to display only items that are assigned to the Category type, category10.  Select Ok to save and continue.  Leave all other settings as they are.


Note:  As only nine color coding options are available using the calendar overlay views (New Calendar) feature, the tenth color code must be associated with the calendarlist view where the calendar overlay views (New Calendars) are being applied.  

Step 3 – Create the Calendars Overlay “New Calendars”

A.  Navigate back to the Calendar list.  Ensure the calendaroverlay view is displaying.  Access the Calendars Overly settings via the Ribbon, from the Calendar tab, select Calendars Overlay.
 

B.  In the Category Overlay settings, select New Calendar, to assign a color code to a category via the list views created in Step 2.  Note:  For each category type being assigned a color code, create a New Calendar and assign the appropriate category list view (up to nine).


C.  Name the New Calendar (In this example I am naming the Calendar Overlay New Calendars the same as their corresponding list views created in Step 2).  Next, select a color code, then input the web URL of the site the calendar is located on (i.e. http://sitename.com, or http://sitename.com/subsite, etc.) and hit Resolve.
Note:  After hitting Resolve all Calendar lists in the site will now be available to select in the List drop down, and all list views per the selected calendarwill populate in the List View drop down. 

Finally, associate the Calendar Overlay New Calendar with its corresponding view created in Step 2.


D.  Repeat Step 3 B – C for the remaining eight calendar overlay views (New Calendar).  When complete, the list of Additional Calendars will display as below.


E.   The views being used to display the color coding are listed in the Quick Launch under Calendars in View.


The post Jenny’s SharePoint Tip: Color Coded Calendars – Out of the Box Solution appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/12/01/jennys-sharepoint-tip-color-coded-calendars-out-of-the-box-solution/feed/ 10 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/11/30/jennys-sharepoint-tip-overview-of-library-and-lists-commands/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/11/30/jennys-sharepoint-tip-overview-of-library-and-lists-commands/#comments Fri, 30 Nov 2012 22:02:10 +0000 Jennifer Hersko http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5636 Applies to:  SharePoint 2010 Libraries and Lists Document libraries are a storage area for documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, web pages, etc.), and lists are custom tables for storing data. Examples of lists are Tasks, Announcements, Calendars and Links. The Ribbon and Edit Menu Users manipulate data in lists and libraries by accessing their Ribbons and [...]

The post Jenny’s SharePoint Tip: Overview of Library and List Commands appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Applies to:  SharePoint 2010

Libraries and Lists

Document libraries are a storage area for documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, web pages, etc.), and lists are custom tables for storing data. Examples of lists are Tasks, Announcements, Calendars and Links.

The Ribbon and Edit Menu

Users manipulate data in lists and libraries by accessing their Ribbons and Edit Menus. The available commands and features accessible from these resources depend on a user’s assigned permission level and if a particular command has been activated.



Ribbon Overview – Libraries

Documents Tab

The Ribbon is a new 2010 feature; a contextual menu that users utilize to manipulate data in libraries.  The Documents Tab allows users to perform commands on individual documents.  Options a user may not have permission to perform, commands that are not available, or features that have not been enabled, will be grayed out and inaccessible.


#	Command	Function
1	New Document	Open a new Document (by default a Word document), which by default saves back to the library
2	Upload Document	Users have two options when accessing the Upload Documentcommand.  A single document can be uploaded, or multiple documents can be uploaded to the library.  If multiple documents are uploaded, and custom metadata exists in the library, uploaded documents will have to be edited individually to supply the metadata information. If versioning is enabled, users will have the option of adding the file/s as a new version to existing files.  NOTE:  This is the same as saving a new version over an existing version.
3	New Folder	Create a new folder in the document library.  This option will be grayed out if the Folders feature has been disabled in the library.
4	Edit Document	If a document is selected in a document library and the Edit Document command  is selected, the document opens.  The same action can be achieved by double-clicking the file name to open the document.
5	Check Out	Check Out a document to lock it for editing.  When a file is checked out, it can only be edited by the user who has it checked it out.  This feature is similar to the shared drive message – The file you have opened is locked for editing by another user.
6	Check In	When a user is done editing, select the Check In option so other users may edit the document if necessary.
7	Discard Check Out	If a user is making changes to a file and decides to not save the changes, the user can discard any changes by Discarding Check Out.
8	View Properties	Displays the Name and other metadata associated with the document library.
9	Edit Properties	Users can rename a file and edit other metadata they view in View Properties here.
10	Version History	This option appears if version control is enabled in the library.
11	Document Permissions	Set access permissions for the document.  A user must be a Site Owner to edit permissions.
12	Delete Document	Moves the file to the Recycle Bin.  Files are kept in the Recycle Bin for 30 days before they are automatically deleted by the system.
13	Email a Link	Opens a new Outlook email with a link to the document.
14	Alert Me	Users can elect to receive an email notification to be alerted when a document changes (modified, or deleted).
15	Download a Copy	Opens the document so that the user can save the file outside of SharePoint (i.e. Shared Drive).
16	Send To	Users can send a copyof the file to another location in the SharePoint environment. Other Locations – The other location must be a URL to another SharePoint document library.  This opens the door for users not knowing which document should be updated. It is suggested that users not use this feature until they become better acquainted with the SharePoint Environment. Create Document Workspace – A site for intense collaboration on a document.  The workspace is populated with a document library, announcement list, a calendar, a links list, a task list, and a team discussion board.  Examples for intensive document collaboration include proposals, complex reports, etc.
17	Manage Copies	Allows users to manage all linked copies of the file.  This command also allows users to view the locations where the file has been sent to.
18	Go To Source	This option is available when a file that has been copied to another location is selected.  When the Go To Source button is clicked, the user will be taken to the source file.
19	Workflows	Users with appropriate permissions can assign an existing workflow to a document using this command.  The command can also be used to check the status of a running, or, completed workflow.
20	Publish	Publish a file to enable viewing by all users of the library.  This option is only available if major and minor Versioning is enabled in the library; if major only versioning is enabled, this option will remain grayed out.
21	Unpublish	If a user has the necessary permissions, files can be unpublished.  Depending on library settings, certain individuals may not be able to view unpublished documents.   This option is only available if major and minor Versioning is enabled in the library; if major only versioning is enabled, this option will remain grayed out.
22	Approve/Reject	If Content Approval is enabled in the library, Site Owners can approve or reject a new submitted document using this command.  Documents with a status of Approved are viewable to all users with access to the library.  Who can view documents with a status of Pending or Draft depends on settings configured in the Library Settings. A user must be a Site Owner to approve or reject a submitted document.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is either a) not a Site Owner, or b) Content Approval is not enabled in the library.
23	Cancel Approval	If Content Approval is enabled in the library, library members can opt to cancel approval of a submitted document.   This option is only available if Content Approval is enabled in the library; if Content Approval  is not enabled this option will remain grayed out.
24	I like It	Similar to social networking platforms, users can select I like It for any of the following:  libraries, documents, lists, list items.  Items that have been selected for I like it appear in the Tags and Notes tab of a user’s MyProfile.  Users can designate these items as public or private.
25	Tags & Notes	Similar to social networking platforms, users can tag  any of the following:  libraries, documents, lists, list items.  Items that have been tagged appear in the Tags and Notes tab of a user’s MyProfile.  Users can designate tagged items as public or private.

Library Tab

The Ribbon is a new 2010 feature; a contextual menu that users utilize to manipulate data in libraries.  The Library Tab allows users to perform commands on library contents.  Options a user may not have permission to perform, commands that are not available, or features that have not been enabled, will be grayed out and inaccessible.



#      Command		Function
1	Standard View	Displays the library contents in the standard view type.
2	Datasheet View	Allows users to view and bulk edit information in columns/metadata in an Excel type view. This option is useful if the library uses custom columns and multiple documents were uploaded;  to quickly complete or edit metadata information for multiple files, users should view in Datasheet. Certain column types will not allow users to edit in datasheet – i.e. Enhanced Rich Text Multiple Lines of Text.
3	New Row	This option cannot be used in document library and will remain grayed out.
4	Show Task Pane	The library must be in Datasheet View for this option to be available.   The Task Pane provides additional commands for working with library contents.  Users can cut, copy, paste and sort in a manner similar to Excel or Access.  Users also have the option of exporting the list to Access.
5	Show Totals	The list must be in Datasheet View for this option to be available.  Allows users to show totals for the columns in the list.  While most column types will only allow users to count the number of items in the list, the Show Totals command can be used to determine the following for a Number column type:  Average, Count, Maximum, Minimum, Sum, Standard Deviation, and Variance.
6	Refresh Data	The list must be in Datasheet View for this option to be available.  Reload the data to display changes made by other users.
7	Create View	Views are created using the information captured in a library’s metadata, and allow users to view items in a list by their column information.  Site Owners can create public views (available to all site users), and members create private views (available to the site member who created the private view only).
8	Modify View	Views can be modified to change the view settings.  A user must be a Site Owner to modify public views.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
9	Create Column	Allows a user to create a column at the library level without accessing the Library Settings.  A user must be a Site Owner to create columns.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
10	Navigate Up	If folders are used in the library, selecting this command will navigate the user up to the parent folder of the selected document.
11	Current View	Users can select which public and private views to use via the Current View drop down.
12	E-mail a Link	Opens a new Outlook email with a link to the document library.
13	Alert Me	Users can elect to receive an email notification to be alerted when library changes occur (documents added, modified, or deleted).
14	RSS Feed	Setting a feed allows a user to keep up-to-date with library contents.
15	Sync to SharePoint Workspace	This command is similar to Connet to Outlook as users can sync lists to SharePoint Workspace (formerly SharePoint Office Groove), allowing them to work with data offline.
16	Connect to Office	This command creates a link to the library Save As and Open dialogue boxes.  NOTE:  This option may only work as expected with Windows Vista.  If using Windows 7 Operating System, to save files directly to SharePoint, create network locations to frequently accessed libraries and sites.
17	Connect to Outlook	Allows users to integrate/connect SharePoint libraries to Outlook.
18	Export to Excel	This option opens Excel and copies the list into a spreadsheet.
19	Open with Explorer	A window opens that allows users to move files in the classic Explorer view.
20	Form Web Parts	Using this command, the New, Edit, and Display forms can be edited; images can be added and additional web parts.  A user must be a Site Owner to modify form web parts.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
21	Edit Library	Opens a library in SharePoint Designer to input XSLT, Conditional Formatting, Parameters, etc.  A user must be a Site Owner to edit the library in SharePoint Designer, and must have SharePoint Designer 2010 installed on their client machine.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
22	New Quick Step	Site Owners can add buttons to the Ribbon.  New buttons can do one of the following:  1) Navigate to a form in another library, 2) Initiate a workflow, and 3) Navigate to a URL.  A user must be a Site Owner to add a new Quick Step to the Ribbon, and must have SharePoint Designer 2010 installed on their client machine.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
23	Library Settings	Go to the Library Settings page to manage settings such as permissions, columns, and views.  A user must be a Site Owner to edit library settings.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
24	Library Permissions	Set access permissions for the document library.  A user must be a Site Owner to edit permissions.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
25	Workflows	Create a new workflow to be used in the library, or edit existing workflow settings.  Users assign the workflows to documents via the Documents tab or the Edit Menu.  A user must be a Site Owner to create workflows.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.

Edit Menu Overview – Libraries

Is a contextual menu that populates per document and item.  The Edit Menu includes: View Properties; Edit Properties; Manage Permissions; Edit in MS Application; Delete; Send To; Check Out; Workflows; Alert Me.



#     Command		Function
1	View Properties	Displays the Name and other metadata associated with the document.
2	Edit Properties	Users can rename a file and edit other metadata they view in View Properties here.
3	Edit in Microsoft Application	Opens the document in the Microsoft application it was created.  The same action can be achieved by double-clicking the file name to open the document.
4	Check Out	Check Out a document to lock it for editing.  When a file is checked out, it can only be edited by the user who has it checked it out.  This feature is similar to the shared drive message – The file you have opened is locked for editing by another user.
5	Version History	This option appears if version control is enabled in the library.
6	Compliance Details	Users can view what stage in a retention policy a document is by accessing this command.  This option displays even if no retention policy exists for the document type.
7	Alert Me	Users can elect to receive an email notification to be alerted when a document changes (modified, or deleted).
8	Send To	Users can send a copyof the file to another location in the SharePoint environment. Existing Copies– If a copy of the document was saved elsewhere in the SharePoint environment, users can send updates to existing copies by selecting this option.Other Location – The other location must be a URL to another SharePoint document library.  This opens the door for users not knowing which document should be updated. It is suggested that users not usethis feature until they become better acquainted with the SharePoint Environment.Email a link – Opens a new Outlook email with a link to the document. Create Document Workspace– A site for intense collaboration on a document.  The workspace is populated with a document library, announcement list, a calendar, a links list, a task list, and a team discussion board.  Examples for intensive document collaboration include proposals, complex reports, etc.Download a copy – Opens the document so that the user can save the file outside of SharePoint (i.e. Shared Drive).
9	Manage Permissions	Set access permissions for the document.  A user must be a Site Owner to edit permissions.  If the command does not display, then the user is not a Site Owner.
10	Delete	Moves the file to the Recycle Bin.  Files are kept in the Recycle Bin for 30 days before they are automatically deleted by the system.

Ribbon Overview – List

Items Tab

The Ribbon is a new 2010 feature; a contextual menu that users utilize to manipulate data in libraries.  The Items Tab allows users to perform commands on individual items.  Options a user may not have permission to perform, commands that are not available, or features that have not been enabled, will be grayed out and inaccessible.



#     Command		Function
1	New item	Open a new item.
2	New Folder	Create a new folder in the list.  This option will be grayed out if the Folders feature has been disabled in the list.
3	View Item	Displays the metadata for the existing item.
4	Edit Item	Users can edit list item metadata they view in View Item here.
5	Version History	This option appears if version control is enabled in the list.
6	Item Permissions	Set access permissions for the item.  Must be a Site Owner to edit permissions.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
7	Delete Item	Moves the item to the Recycle Bin.  Files are kept in the Recycle Bin for 30 days before they are automatically deleted by the system.
8	Attach File	Attach a file to an item.
9	Change Item Order	Changes the order that items display in a list.
10	Alert Me	Users can elect to receive an email notification to be alerted when an item changes (modified, or deleted).
11	Workflows	Users with appropriate permissions can assign an existing workflow to an item using this command.  The command can also be used to check the status of a running, or, completed workflow.
12	Approve/Reject	If Content Approval is enabled in the list, Site Owners can approve or reject a submitted item using this command.  Items with a status of Approved are viewable to all users with access to the list.  Who can view items with a status of Pending or Draft depends on settings configured in the List Settings. A user must be a Site Owner to approve or reject a submitted list.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is either a) not a Site Owner, or b) Content Approval is not enabled in the list.
13	I like It	Similar to social networking platforms, users can select I like It for any of the following:  libraries, documents, lists, list items.  Items that have been selected for I like it appear in the Tags and Notes tab of a user’s MyProfile.  Users can designate these items as public or private.
14	Tags & Notes	Similar to social networking platforms, users can tag  any of the following:  libraries, documents, lists, list items.  Items that have been tagged appear in the Tags and Notes tab of a user’s MyProfile.  Users can designate tagged items as public or private.

List Tab

The Ribbon is a new 2010 feature; a contextual menu that users utilize to manipulate data in libraries.  The List Tab allows users to perform commands on list contents.  Options a user may not have permission to perform, commands that are not available, or features that have not been enabled, will be grayed out and inaccessible.



#      Command		Function
1	Standard View	Displays the list contents in the standard view type.
2	Datasheet View	Allows users to view and bulk edit metadata in an Excel type view. To quickly complete or edit metadata information for multiple items, users should view in Datasheet.
3	New Row	The list must be in Datasheet View for this option to be available.  Adding a new row inserts a new item into the list.  Metadata can be completed in the Datasheet view rather than in the Edit Properties screen.
4	Show Task Pane	The list must be in Datasheet View for this option to be available.   The Task Pane provides additional commands for working with list contents.  Users can cut, copy, paste and sort in a manner similar to Excel or Access.  Users also have the option of exporting the list to Access.
5	Show Totals	The list must be in Datasheet View for this option to be available.  Allows users to show totals for the columns in the list.  While most column types will only allow users to count the number of items in the list, the Show Totals command can be used to determine the following for a Number column type:  Average, Count, Maximum, Minimum, Sum, Standard Deviation, and Variance.
6	Refresh Data	The list must be in Datasheet View for this option to be available.  Reload the data to display changes made by other users.
7	Create View	Views are created using the information captured in a list’s metadata, and allow users to view items in a list by their column information.  Site Owners can create public views (available to all site users), and members create private views (available to the site member who created the private view only).
8	Modify View	Views can be modified to change the view settings.  A user must be a Site Owner to modify public views.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
9	Create Column	Allows a user to create a column at the list level without accessing the List Settings.  A user must be a Site Owner to create columns.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
10	Navigate Up	If folders are used in the list, selecting this command will navigate the user up to the parent folder of the selected item.
11	Current View	Users can select which public and private views to use via the Current View drop down.
12	Email a Link	Opens a new Outlook email with a link to the list.
13	Alert Me	Users can elect to receive an email notification to be alerted when list changes occur (new items added, modified, or deleted).
14	RSS Feed	Setting a feed allows a user to keep up-to-date with list contents.
15	Sync to SharePoint Workspace	This command is similar to Connet to Outlook as users can sync lists to SharePoint Workspace (formerly SharePoint Office Groove), allowing them to work with data offline.
16	Connect to Outlook	Allows users to integrate/connect SharePoint lists to Outlook.  Note that 1) When connecting Tasks lists that flags and categories applied to connected tasks in Outlook do not appear in the SharePoint tasks list, and 2) SharePoint calendar events do not generate a change notification when modified (either in Outlook or SharePoint).
17	Export to Excel	This option opens Excel and copies the list into a spreadsheet.
18	Create Visio Diagram	This command is available for Tasks Lists and Issues Tracking Lists only.   Creates a graphical representation of list contents.  To use the Create Visio Diagram command a user must have Visio Professional 2010 or Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 installed on their client machine.
19	Open with Access	Export the list to Access and work with the data in the Access application.
20	Open Schedule	This command is available for Tasks Lists only.  Exports the tasks to Project 2010.  If edits are made to the tasks in Project 2010, use the Sync button in Project 2010 to sync edits back to the Tasks List.  To use the Open Schedule command a user must have either Project Standard 2010 or Project Professional 2010 installed on their client machine.
21	Customize Form	Opens the SharePoint list form in InfoPath and allows editing of the New, Edit, and Display Forms.  A user must be a Site Owner to customize forms, and must have InfoPath Designer 2010 installed on their client machine.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
22	Form Web Parts	New, Edit, and Display forms can be edited; images can be added and additional web parts.  A user must be a Site Owner to modify form web parts, and must have SharePoint Designer 2010 installed on their client machine.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
23	Edit List	Open a list in SharePoint Designer to input XSLT, Conditional Formatting, Parameters, etc.  A user must be a Site Owner to edit the list in SharePoint Designer, and must have SharePoint Designer 2010 installed on their client machine.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
24	New Quick Steps	Site Owners can add buttons to the Ribbon.  New buttons can do one of the following:  1) Navigate to a form in another list, 2) Initiate a workflow, and 3) Navigate to a URL.  A user must be a Site Owner to add a new Quick Step to the Ribbon, and must have SharePoint Designer 2010 installed on their client machine.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
25	List Settings	Go to the Library Settings page to manage settings such as permissions, columns, and views.  A user must be a Site Owner to edit list settings.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
26	List Permissions	Set access permissions for the list.  Must be a Site Owner to edit permissions.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.
27	Workflow Settings	Create a new workflow to be used in the list, or edit existing workflow settings.  Users assign the workflows to items via the Items tab or the Edit Menu.  A user must be a Site Owner to create workflows.  If the command is grayed out, then the user is not a Site Owner.

Edit Menu Overview – Lists

Is a contextual menu that populates per document and item.  The Edit Menu includes: View Properties; Edit Properties; Manage Permissions; Edit in MS Application; Delete; Send To; Check Out; Workflows; Alert Me.



#     Command		Function
1	View Item	Displays the metadata for the existing item.
2	Edit Item	Users can edit list item metadata they view in View Item here.
3	Version History	This option appears if version control is enabled in the list.
4	Compliance Details	Users can view what stage in a retention policy an item is by accessing this command.  This option displays even if no retention policy exists for the item type.
5	Alert Me	Users can elect to receive an email notification to be alerted when list changes occur (new items added, modified, or deleted).
6	Manage Permissions	Set access permissions for the item.  A user must be a Site Owner to edit permissions.  If the command does not display, then the user is not a Site Owner.
7	Delete Item	Moves the item to the Recycle Bin.  Files are kept in the Recycle Bin for 30 days before they are automatically deleted by the system.

The post Jenny’s SharePoint Tip: Overview of Library and List Commands appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/11/30/jennys-sharepoint-tip-overview-of-library-and-lists-commands/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/11/09/c-generator-best-practices/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/11/09/c-generator-best-practices/#comments Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:22:47 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6191 A while back C# introduced generators (through the use of yield return) which is a very handy/powerful construct if used properly.  However if your not careful there are a few gotchas which novice developers may not be aware of: Resource Cleanup If code inside of the generator is using any resources which need to be [...]

The post C# Generator best practices appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> A while back C# introduced generators (through the use of yield return) which is a very handy/powerful construct if used properly.  However if your not careful there are a few gotchas which novice developers may not be aware of:

Resource Cleanup

If code inside of the generator is using any resources which need to be cleaned up / disposed of make sure to use a using statement or try/finally.  If for instance you have a generator method yield returning rows from a database make sure the SqlConnection (or whatever other connection it may be) is wrapped in a using to ensure that the connection is disposed of.  The following code demonstrates the issue of not making use of using or a try/finally:

In the above code the the generator is designed to return integers 0 – 999, however the foreach loop it is running within is broken out of after 10 loops which means the generator’s code stops running before the for loop exits.  If the code after the loop was to perform some sort of cleanup it would never execute leading to leaked connections / memory etc…

 

Lazy Evaluation

Since generators are effectively a form of lazy evaluation where data is not computed/returned until it is asked for there use can cause some problems if your aren’t careful.  The following code demonstrates this problem:

In the above code the SqlConnection being used inside of the generator is the same one being used inside of the foreach inside of the Main function.  Since the generator is lazily returning data inside of the foreach loop sqlConn is in the middle of an ongoing command when ‘SELECT * FROM OtherTable’ is attempting to be run.  This will generate an exception since the SqlConnection can only be used by a single SqlCommand at any given moment.

If your code requires something similar to this your two best options are going to be either creating a separate SqlConnection inside of the generator (using a using of course) or ‘sealing’ the data coming back from the generator using the LINQ IEnumerable.ToArray (or something similar) which forces the evaluation of the generator leaving sqlConn available for use in the foreach loop.

 

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/11/09/c-generator-best-practices/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/11/04/microsoft-build-2012/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/11/04/microsoft-build-2012/#comments Sun, 04 Nov 2012 16:45:52 +0000 Jorge "El Che" Vasquez http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6185 Even thought we could not attend the Microsoft Build 2012 conference due to Hurricane Sandy, we can all still view ALL session online. http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2012 Here are a few sessions that I watched over the weekend: 1-001 Keynote 1 (Steve Ballmer). Steve is an entertaining speaker. Windows 8 is here for the long run and enterprises [...]

The post Microsoft BUILD 2012 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Even thought we could not attend the Microsoft Build 2012 conference due to Hurricane Sandy, we can all still view ALL session online.

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2012

Here are a few sessions that I watched over the weekend:

1-001 Keynote 1 (Steve Ballmer).
Steve is an entertaining speaker. Windows 8 is here for the long run and enterprises will love it.

2-116 The Microsoft design language(Will Tschumy).
Very insightfull presentation on the concepts behind windows 8 design. Mantra is “Content over Chrome”

2-004 Developing Continuous Services : Real world experiences of the Team Foundation Service engineering team (Buck Hodges).
Glad to see how Micrsoft is embracing Scrum and used it internally to mature TFS for on-premise and it’s version of TFS as a service (tfspreview.com). Reducing issues and increasing speed to market, has certainly help the TFS team to provide a better product.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/11/04/microsoft-build-2012/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/09/04/sqlserver-and-tautologies/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/09/04/sqlserver-and-tautologies/#comments Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:43:18 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6180 Recently I ran into a performance problem with a rather complicated stored procedure running within SQL Azure.  The stored procedure was designed to fetch records from a table with 40 million+ records in it given three main predicates: FeedId (int) This divides the table up into a few hundred ‘feeds’ which logically group the data [...]

The post SQLServer and Tautologies appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Recently I ran into a performance problem with a rather complicated stored procedure running within SQL Azure.  The stored procedure was designed to fetch records from a table with 40 million+ records in it given three main predicates:
• FeedId (int)
• This divides the table up into a few hundred ‘feeds’ which logically group the data
• Status (int)
• Each record in a feed has a status
• Generally only one status is requested but occasionally multiple statuses are requested which must be supported
• Created (datetime)
• Only the top 50 newest records need to be returned
To optimize this an index was created which went
FeedId, Status, Created DESC
    In theory this would make the select statement almost instantaneous since the index can pre-compute both predicates (feedId and Status) as well as the sort operation (created).  However when I ran the query the select would take nearly a minute to run.  After looking at the execution plan it became obvious that SQL Azure wasn’t using the index I had created.  Remember how earlier on I said that the stored procedure was normally used to search for a single status but needed to support searching for multiple statuses for certain edge cases?
    The way I implemented that was by by passing the statuses to look for into the stored procedure as a TVP (table valued parameter) and then using an ‘in’ clause against the status and the @statuses TVP:
WHERE … status in (SELECT status FROM @statuses)
When writing this I figured that the query planner would be smart enough to realize that when the @statuses TVP only contained a single record that it could treat the aforementioned ’in’ clause as the same as a ‘=’ which would use the index.  When this failed to work as expected I replaced the TVP with a set of bit parameters for each of the four possible statuses which produced where clauses that looked like:
WHERE …

(
 (@includePending = 1 and Status = 1) or
 (@includeApproved = 1 and Status = 2) or
 (@includeRejected = 1 and Status = 3) or
 (@includeQnA = 1 and Status = 4)
)

    Since generally only one of the four possible statuses would be asked for the other three expressions would become tautologies as far as searching the table is concerned (if @includePending is 0 then there is no need to check if the Status of the record is 1).
    Well, it turned out that the query planner isn’t that smart since it did the exact same thing as the previous method of using the TVP.  After looking around for a little while into using TSQL hints to force the query planner down the appropriate route I gave up on a the nice clean looking query and decided to try a very different approach.  Instead of trying to support multiple statuses within the single WHERE clause I switched to statuses predicate to only look for a specific status which worked perfectly for cases when only one status was requested but that still left an unsupported edge case in which multiple statuses were asked for.
    To solve this problem I created a cursor on the @statuses TVP and ran the select statement for each status in the TVP.  Since usually there would only be one status, thus one select statement it satisfies both the normal use case efficiently as well as the edge case with a slight performance hit.
VIOLA!  The stored procedure now runs in well under a second.

The post SQLServer and Tautologies appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/09/04/sqlserver-and-tautologies/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/08/21/connection-errors-with-application-pages/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/08/21/connection-errors-with-application-pages/#comments Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:40:09 +0000 Charles Stumpf http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6167 Periodically, I have overzealous users who refresh the page even when the load time is < 1 second. Within my application pages, I’d receive errors similar to “internal connection fatal error”. The problem wouldn’t end after the refresh, though. It would cause errors on all database connections, for all users, and it would last for [...]

The post Connection errors with application pages appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Periodically, I have overzealous users who refresh the page even when the load time is < 1 second. Within my application pages, I’d receive errors similar to “internal connection fatal error”. The problem wouldn’t end after the refresh, though. It would cause errors on all database connections, for all users, and it would last for twenty minutes or so.

Even if I caught the error and closed any datareaders and connections, the issue would still exist.

The fix: Clearing the connection pool. Clearing all connection pools would work, as well, though, I’d prefer to be specific as possible with this. I feel that this is a bit of an extreme fix that will impact other users, though I’ve yet to find a solution that will keep the issue contained, otherwise.

The post Connection errors with application pages appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/08/21/connection-errors-with-application-pages/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/08/06/comparing-date-values-using-xslt/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/08/06/comparing-date-values-using-xslt/#comments Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:30:37 +0000 Christopher Lincoln http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6153 SharePoint Data View Web Parts (DVWPs) can be greatly customized using XSL transformations (XSLT).  One of the great capabilities provided is the ability to render HTML conditionally using XPath expressions.  While XPath can be pretty intuitive, date comparisons might not behave as expected.  For example, performing a test to see if two date values equal [...]

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]]> SharePoint Data View Web Parts (DVWPs) can be greatly customized using XSL transformations (XSLT).  One of the great capabilities provided is the ability to render HTML conditionally using XPath expressions.  While XPath can be pretty intuitive, date comparisons might not behave as expected.  For example, performing a test to see if two date values equal each other may work perfectly while tests to see if one if greater than the other might not!
• @DueDate &gt; @DateCompleted
• @DueDate = @DateCompleted
• @DueDate &lt; @DateCompleted

This is because XPath supports text and numeric comparisons.  The equality comparison behaves properly because string values of the same date will be identical, where as string values of different dates are neither greater than nor less than each other.  Since the only available option is to perform a numeric comparison, it’s necessary to convert the date values into usable number values!

Microsoft’s ddwrt namespace contains some helpful Data View Web Part Extension Functions, particularly two: FormatDate and FormatDateTime.  Both functions receive string values, convert them, and return string values.  While FormatDate uses predefined formats (none of which are useful in this case), FormatDateTime allows for custom formats using the standard “MM dd yyyy” style of formatting string.  Thus, FormatDateTime can be used to convert a date value into a usable number value like so:

• ddwrt:FormatDateTime(@DueDate, 1033, ‘yyyyMMdd’) &gt; ddwrt:FormatDateTime(@DateCompleted, 1033, ‘yyyyMMdd’)
• ddwrt:FormatDateTime(@DueDate, 1033, ‘yyyyMMdd’) = ddwrt:FormatDateTime(@DateCompleted, 1033, ‘yyyyMMdd’)
• ddwrt:FormatDateTime(@DueDate, 1033, ‘yyyyMMdd’) &lt; ddwrt:FormatDateTime(@DateCompleted, 1033, ‘yyyyMMdd’) 

There’s no need to explicitly convert to a number since the comparision operaters automatically do so (if possible).  Note that is it important to use the “MM” and “dd” formats rather than the “M” and “d” formats to ensure proper mathematical comparison.

 

NOTE: This is a rewrite of an older post.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/08/06/comparing-date-values-using-xslt/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/23/using-fileref-in-sharepoint-2007-sharepoint-2010/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/23/using-fileref-in-sharepoint-2007-sharepoint-2010/#comments Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:30:38 +0000 Christopher Lincoln http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6144 When customizing Data View Web Parts (DVWPs) in SharePoint Designer, the field FileRef can be used to get the URL of an item.  While most list items would be displayed by sending the user to a page containing a List Form Web Part in “Display” mode (e.g. DispForm.aspx), it can sometimes be useful to send [...]

The post Using FileRef in SharePoint 2007 & SharePoint 2010 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> When customizing Data View Web Parts (DVWPs) in SharePoint Designer, the field FileRef can be used to get the URL of an item.  While most list items would be displayed by sending the user to a page containing a List Form Web Part in “Display” mode (e.g. DispForm.aspx), it can sometimes be useful to send the user directly to the item itself, especially in cases of Document Libraries.

In SharePoint 2007, the FileRef field value is provided as a server-relative url.  Therefore, a reliable link to the list item could be established by setting the href attribute of an anchor tag to the FileRef field value like so:

<a href=”{@FileRef}”>
<xsl:value-of select=”@Name”/>
</a>

In such an example, the href attribute value could be something like (note: FileRef field value underlined):

http://MySite/MySubSite/MyDocumentLibrary/MyDocument.docx

However, SharePoint 2010 provides this field value as a psuedo server-relative URL (for lack of a better term); it does not include the initial forward slash generally used to distinguish the server-relative nature of a URL, therefore providing a relative URL.  The href attribute could thus be something like (note: FileRef field value underlined):

http://MySite/MySubSite/MyDocumentLibrary/Forms/MySubSite/MyDocumentLibrary/MyDocument.docx

This subtle difference could break many a DVWP should the environment ever be upgraded from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010.  While such an issue is easy to resolve, manually updating each DVWP just before or after the upgrade process would be tedious and unreliable.  Instead, it would be much easier to preemptively include handling for both environments like so:

<a href=”{@FileRef}”>
<xsl:if test=”substring(@FileRef, 1, 1) != ‘/’”>
<xsl:attribute name=”href”>
<xsl:value-of select=”concat(‘/’, @FileRef)” />
</xsl:attribute>
</xsl:if>
<xsl:value-of select=”@Name” />
</a>

Alternatively, an xsl:choose element could be used to accomplish this resolution.

The post Using FileRef in SharePoint 2007 & SharePoint 2010 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/23/using-fileref-in-sharepoint-2007-sharepoint-2010/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/19/sharepoint-2010-performance-in-internet-explorer-7/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/19/sharepoint-2010-performance-in-internet-explorer-7/#comments Fri, 20 Jul 2012 00:00:45 +0000 Christopher Lincoln http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6118 SharePoint 2010 is stated to support any 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer 7 or newer.  However, significant performance degredation is inherent if using Internet Explorer 7 manifesting as high CPU-usage.  While this elevation of CPU usage affects overall performance it is most apparent in regards to the triggering and handling of mouse events by the [...]

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]]> SharePoint 2010 is stated to support any 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer 7 or newer.  However, significant performance degredation is inherent if using Internet Explorer 7 manifesting as high CPU-usage.  While this elevation of CPU usage affects overall performance it is most apparent in regards to the triggering and handling of mouse events by the browser.  For example, system reaction times to events such as onmouseover or onmouseout may be visibly delayed.

Such performance issues are due to how Internet Explorer 7 handles CSS, specifically the :hover pseudo-class.  It’s a well known issue that Internet Explorer 7 doesn’t support :hover on objects other than anchor tags unless a strict !DOCTYPE is defined.  Unfortunately, the corev4 stylesheet of SharePoint 2010 uses the :hover pseudo-class “improperly” (read: for Internet Explorer); in some instances, it doesn’t explicitly use the pseudo-class on an anchor tag and in other instances it even uses it explicitly on other tags!  Please see below for a couple of examples:

.ms-socialNotif:hover {}
tr.s4-itm-selected:hover {}

This performance degredation is most apparent when numerous list items are displayed on a page.  According to Microsoft, performance degredation can occur if displaying more than 200 list items in a Data View Web Part, however I have experienced the issue when displaying as few as 20.  The suggested resolution: “Use Internet Explorer 8.”

Note: this issue prevails in Internet Explorer 8, but to a much lesser degree.

UPDATE:
If upgrading to Internet Explorer 8 or newer isn’t a viable option, I recommend limiting the number of displayed list items to as few as possible.  The performance degredation increases with the number of list items display, so the only realistic solution is to manage the performance degredation rather than resolve it.  Alternatively, it is presumable that the masterpage could be updated to load customized versions of the default style sheets if Internet Explorer 7 is detected as the client agent.

The post SharePoint 2010 Performance in Internet Explorer 7 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/19/sharepoint-2010-performance-in-internet-explorer-7/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/17/applying-custom-css-to-sharepoint-2010/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/17/applying-custom-css-to-sharepoint-2010/#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:45:02 +0000 Christopher Lincoln http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6103 Site themes in SharePoint 2007 were incredibly powerful as they allowed extensive customization of site look-and-feel including the use of custom CSS and images.  Rather than simply changing colors by overriding default styles, site themes could really affect not just the aesthetics of a site but also functionality!  A site theme could transform SharePoint to [...]

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]]> Site themes in SharePoint 2007 were incredibly powerful as they allowed extensive customization of site look-and-feel including the use of custom CSS and images.  Rather than simply changing colors by overriding default styles, site themes could really affect not just the aesthetics of a site but also functionality!  A site theme could transform SharePoint to something more like Google Music:



In this relatively conservative theme (read: site themes are capable of even greater customization!), the general design was changed and some enhancements (that are not shown in the screenshot) were also implemented.  For example, various hyperlinks (e.g. Quick Launch headers and items) are displayed as a block element with 100% width, making them easier to use.  However site themes can’t accomplish such a look-and-feel in SharePoint 2010…

Site themes have changed significantly.  They are now Office themes and are not specific to SharePoint; therefore, they no longer support custom CSS or images!  Site themes are now limited to specifications of color.  So, the alternatives might be using a custom masterpage or adding Web Parts to to each page… however such solutions really aren’t too desirable and have significant limitations, especially when working with large sites/site-collections.  There is a much simpler (and better) approach if using a site with the SharePoint Server Publishing feature available.

Publishing sites in SharePoint 2010 (and SharePoint 2007, actually) provide the incredibly useful setting to specify a custom URL for alternate CSS.  The specified CSS will be loaded after the default SharePoint stylesheets, so it can effectively be used just like old site themes in SharePoint 2007. Additionally, it provides the option to reset all subsites to use the specified custom CSS URL.  Using this method, a custom look-and-feel can be applied to all pages with minimal customizations and maintenance overhead.

The following steps may be followed to apply custom CSS and images on a site/site-collection:

1. Add custom CSS and images to the site or site-collection
   (e.g. in the _layouts virtual directory or a document library on the top-level site)
2. Enable the SharePoint Server Publishing feature
   (Site Settings > Site Actions > Manage site features)
3. Specify the Alternate CSS URL setting
   (Site Settings > Look and Feel > Master page)
Optionally, the SharePoint Server Publishing feature can be deactivated and the “site theme” will persist.  A great way to amaze your colleagues as they attempt to figure out how you’ve applied custom CSS to the entire site without customizing the masterpage as there won’t be any hint of the setting through either the web interface or SharePoint Designer!
UPDATE:
It seems that application pages will not automatically load the alternate CSS.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/17/applying-custom-css-to-sharepoint-2010/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/16/how-to-get-the-sharepoint-version-number-using-javascript/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/16/how-to-get-the-sharepoint-version-number-using-javascript/#comments Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:45:15 +0000 Christopher Lincoln http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6081 If you’ve always wondered how to get SharePoint Version # by JavaScript,  the SharePoint 2010 Client Object Model introduces the SP namespace for JavaScript (i.e. ECMAScript).  Since it is used in SP.core.js, the namespace should exist if SharePoint is functioning properly.  Although SharePoint 2007 uses a similar JavaScript library core.js, it does not include the SP namespace. [...]

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]]> If you’ve always wondered how to get SharePoint Version # by JavaScript,  the SharePoint 2010 Client Object Model introduces the SP namespace for JavaScript (i.e. ECMAScript).  Since it is used in SP.core.js, the namespace should exist if SharePoint is functioning properly.  Although SharePoint 2007 uses a similar JavaScript library core.js, it does not include the SP namespace.  Therefore, it can be assumed that if the namespace exists, the environment is SharePoint 2010.

var _SPVersion = (typeof SP !== ‘undefined’) ? 14 : 12;

In anticipation of future SharePoint versions (assuming they support the Client Object Model in a compatible manner), the currentVersion field of the ClientSchemaVersions class can be used to get the actual version number (rather than assuming the environment is SharePoint 2010).  Although it’s currently unecessary, the above script could be enhanced like:

var _SPVersion = (typeof SP !== ‘undefined’) ? parseInt(SP.ClientSchemaVersions.currentVersion) : 12;

———-

Alternatively, the HTML Document Object Model could be searched for some element specific to either SharePoint 2007 or 2010.  However, this is inherently less reliable and lower performance than accessing a JavaScript object (like the SP namespace).

var _SPVersion = (typeof document.getElementById(‘s4-ribbonrow’) !== ‘undefined’) ? 14 : 12;

Also, the page’s HTTP header could be searched for the custom field MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices but would require the use of either the XMLHttpRequest or ActiveXObject objects.  This method is much more complex, less reliable, and lower performance than accessing the SP namespace and, as SharePoint MVP Mike Smith points out, the retrieved version number is inaccurate anyway.

The post Get the SharePoint Version Number Using JavaScript appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/16/how-to-get-the-sharepoint-version-number-using-javascript/feed/ 5 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/11/ears-wide-open/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/11/ears-wide-open/#comments Wed, 11 Jul 2012 20:18:07 +0000 Kathy Ohlhaber http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6047 I’ve been fortunate enough to explore all facets of new media work here at MetroStar Systems. One of my passions is video production – from storyboarding to keyframing wicked motion graphics. Another passion of mine is music.  Being part of the MetroStar Systems creative team, I get to meld the two together. Music plays a [...]

The post Ears Wide Open appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> I’ve been fortunate enough to explore all facets of new media work here at MetroStar Systems. One of my passions is video production – from storyboarding to keyframing wicked motion graphics. Another passion of mine is music.  Being part of the MetroStar Systems creative team, I get to meld the two together.

Music plays a vital role in professional creative fields. Take for example promo videos and commercials.  How many times have you seen a commercial on TV and liked it simply because it had a cool track? Often times,  I’ll remember commercials based on the music they used, not the product they sold. A perfect example is the latest IE8 commercial. The commercial itself isn’t mind-blowing, but the song “Too Close” by Alex Clare brings it to a whole new level – it makes an old internet search engine cool and sexy.

http://youtu.be/bJLMRW9XxFs

When you’re a creative professional, it’s important to always  analyze examples from the field. When it comes to music, this means assessing why a song was chosen for the project and what makes it work.  For example, the song used in the HPPrint “Happy Baby” commercial is perfect. The commercial has a very conceptualized storyline – what would it physically look like if the subject of a photo was shown being sent from the camera to the printer. Naturally, a baby is shown zipping across the Nation’s terrain in his rolling seat. The song “Brand New Key” by Melanie matches the oddity and carefree nature of the story concept and visuals. The song moves the viewer along with the baby, without the need for large sound effects.

http://youtu.be/I5s1QNfXGn4

What I’ve found is that alcohol, electronics, and car commercials usually have the best music. Take for example the amazing Greyhound spot by Absoult. The alcohol giant teamed up the popular DJ trio Swedish House Mafia to create a custom commercial where everything was integrated, from the story concept of high tech greyhounds to the title of the song itself, “Greyhound”. The song drives the entire concept of the commercial, magazine ads, and overall campaign. The song is not only in the background as an additional character of the storyline, it’s the star.

http://youtu.be/V3urgcBpFrc

Being in a creative field,  it’s important to keep your ears open and consistently discover new music. Try getting into the best practice of:

• Using the music identifying app Shazam
• Staying plugged into Pandora daily
• Following music video playlists on YouTube
• Connecting with Spotfiy
• Googling song information from commercials, movie trailers, and promo videos
• Asking restaurants and stores  “what’s that song?”

You never know when you’ll find the perfect tune for your next project.

Stay tuned for Part II of this blog where I go into detail about the music chosen for the MetroStar Systems SPtoGO  promo video! In the meantime, check out a few more of my favorite commercials that utilize music in an awesome way:

“Lover’s Carvings” – Bibio

http://youtu.be/uLg817U9URM

“Ho Hey” – The Lumineers

http://youtu.be/L-FwaCz4yZ0

“Civilization” – Justice

http://youtu.be/gYA3hoBYrIQ

“Squeeze Me” – Kraak & Smaak

 

 

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/11/ears-wide-open/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/10/the-evolution-of-an-ad/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/10/the-evolution-of-an-ad/#comments Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:07:16 +0000 Ava Kavyani http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=6027 This week, the Zoomph team is gearing up for its official launch at Wikimania 2012—the annual international conference of the Wikipedia community—on July 12. Zoomph, in partnership with MetroStar Systems, will be driving the event’s social media engagements by featuring tweets with the hashtag #Wikimania2012 on screens throughout the event and facilitating panel discussions with [...]

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]]> This week, the Zoomph team is gearing up for its official launch at Wikimania 2012—the annual international conference of the Wikipedia community—on July 12.

Zoomph, in partnership with MetroStar Systems, will be driving the event’s social media engagements by featuring tweets with the hashtag #Wikimania2012 on screens throughout the event and facilitating panel discussions with its question and answer feature.

Zoomph is also hosting Wikimania’s official Happy Hour on Thursday night, and boy do we know how to throw a party! There will be drink specials, a DJ, prizes, etc. Basically everything you would ever want in a happy hour. So the challenge was to create the right promotional flyer to capture the fun and excitement.

Here was a first draft:



Some questions we considered:

Do we want to use the Zoomph-styled font without the mark, or would that be compromising the logo?

Should we try a horizontal alignment?

The image gives the ad a 1950s feel, which is in keeping with the venue, but why keep the picture screened back like that? What would it look like bolder?

 

 

 

 Draft #2:

Let’s move the image up so you see people on the street. Right now it looks like buildings that aren’t connected to anything. But we’re still not completely sold on the image itself. Let’s do some research to find a photo that really pops.

 

 

 

Draft #3:

Now you’re talking.

I simplified the process quite a bit for you; this is only one side of the flyer and three versions out of at least 10, but this should give you an idea of how the Digital Team works with the Design Team to achieve perfection. There is a lot of emailing back and forth (and walking back and forth; our offices are on opposite sides of the building!) and a lot of little tweaks here and there. But the end result is something we can all be proud of. Anything less, and it’s back to the drawing board!

 

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/10/the-evolution-of-an-ad/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/09/social-media-101-listening-to-your-fans/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/09/social-media-101-listening-to-your-fans/#comments Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:39:34 +0000 Amir Zonozi http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5999 Social Media 101 Tips: Business isn’t as usual; consumers have become empowered, and stronger than ever. Customers are on multiple social media platforms, increasingly vocal and being heard. If you proactively listen to what is being said about your brand, you will stay ahead of the curve, increase revenue, and make important connections with your [...]

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]]>

Social Media 101 Tips:

Business isn’t as usual; consumers have become empowered, and stronger than ever. Customers are on multiple social media platforms, increasingly vocal and being heard. If you proactively listen to what is being said about your brand, you will stay ahead of the curve, increase revenue, and make important connections with your target audiences.

Sometimes listening to your consumers can even get you out of trouble. Remember the GAP fiasco? Last October, Gap tried to change their classic logo; the problem is they changed it suddenly without any forewarning to their fans which resulted in complaints from fans across Facebook, Twitter and tech blogs. Gap quickly learned from the feedback and changed back to their old logo.

We are seeing brands listening to their fans increasingly more, even letting fans help or fully make decisions, for example PepsiCo Inc.’s Doritos brand had challenged their fans to create and vote on Super Bowl commercials.

At MetroStar Digital we listen to what is being said about our customers’ brands with our social media display and moderation systems, Zoomph. The analytics provided from Zoomph allows our New Media Producers to actively listen to Twitter and Facebook for key terms and hashtags that might benefit our clients like Saint Germain Catering, ASPR or AAFMAA. By monitoring what conversations are being had around these brands, we are able to better create digital marketing campaigns that appeal to their target audiences.

An example of proactively listening is when The U.S. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) launched a challenge to the community to leverage open source data from Twitter to find trending diseases and illnesses in geographic areas. They asked us to assist them in promoting their Now Trending Challenge. We used Zoomph to listen to conversations regarding the challenge and find contestants and communities to target with customized messaging. We boosted engagement by contestants, answered questions from the community, and received promotional support from social media influencers in the medical field. Also, we targeted individuals with high Klout scores, with large amounts of followers, and asked them for assistance in promoting the challenge.

Simply put, if you don’t listen to your fans, it will come back to haunt you. Zoomph allows you to easily do this so you don’t end up with your own United Breaks Guitars YouTube video.

Thoughts, questions, or want to debate why paper should beat rock? Tweet me at @Zonozi

image credit: highersights via flickr

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/07/09/social-media-101-listening-to-your-fans/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/29/the-shark-tank/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/29/the-shark-tank/#comments Fri, 29 Jun 2012 20:38:42 +0000 Kathy Ohlhaber http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5983 The MetroStar Digital team recently switched habitats, moving from a space we called the Fishbowl to a new office. Being the control freak that I am, I was a little wigged out by the whole thing. Where would I sit? Would the vibe be the same? But I  started to settle into my new desk [...]

The post The Shark Tank appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> The MetroStar Digital team recently switched habitats, moving from a space we called the Fishbowl to a new office. Being the control freak that I am, I was a little wigged out by the whole thing. Where would I sit? Would the vibe be the same? But I  started to settle into my new desk once we made the big move. I figured as long as I had my ambient lamp lighting and Beats headphones, I was good to go.

Then something big happened.

I came to the office and there was a sign on the glass door that said “Shark Tank.”



I’m sorry, what?

Shark Tank?

No, no, no – too much change. This is the new Fishbowl! It has to be, we are the fishbowl!

And then I had one of those business world “aha” moments.

The office didn’t matter – the people in it did.

We could be in the basement and it  wouldn’t matter; our team is what it is  no matter where we’re working. The amazing work that comes from MetroStar’s Digital team is created through a synergy between very talented, creative, and passionate people.  We have a mind-blowing mix of the most fabulous professionals from game designers to marketing experts to social media gurus and graphic artists. That’s really hard to find, and it’s not something that is lost in a simple office move.

Anyways, Shark Tank is more fitting…we’ve become too big and amazing to be little fishies.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/29/the-shark-tank/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/29/metrostar-systems-is-hosting-restons-mashable-social-media-day/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/29/metrostar-systems-is-hosting-restons-mashable-social-media-day/#comments Fri, 29 Jun 2012 13:27:38 +0000 Jon Malley http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5964 MetroStar Systems is proud to be hosting Reston’s Mashable Social Media Day event tomorrow, Saturday June 30th. Come join us and those in social media, advertising and tech-related fields from around the area to talk about the advent of social media and what the future holds in store for this growing field. “This Saturday is [...]

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]]>

MetroStar Systems is proud to be hosting Reston’s Mashable Social Media Day event tomorrow, Saturday June 30^th. Come join us and those in social media, advertising and tech-related fields from around the area to talk about the advent of social media and what the future holds in store for this growing field.

“This Saturday is a great opportunity for everyone in Reston’s technology community. We are bringing all the creative professionals together to collaborate and share ideas about where social media is going,” said Jason Stoner, MetroStar Digital Creative Director. “We are putting Reston on the map as the next social media hot spot.”

 The event will be held from 1:00PM until 4:00PM at 1856 Old Reston Avenue, Reston, VA (MetroStar Systems HQ). It will be an open-invitation event, so feel free to invite anyone who has a general interest in social media integration or the future of this technology. Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks will be available, free of charge. Sandwiches and salads will also be catered as food for the event. It’s sure to be a great time and a wonderful opportunity to network with other like-minded individuals residing or working in the Reston area. Please reserve a spot at the sign-up link below:

http://www.meetup.com/Mashable/Reston-VA/714102/

In addition, the following guest speakers are slated to talk at our event:

Amanda Fischer, President, Grade A Marketing: Social Media and Your Bottom Line

Ali Manouchehri, CEO, MetroStar Systems: Social Media and Politics

Katie Shilton, Professor, University of Maryland – College Park: Location Based Social Media

Ava Kavyani and Amir Zonozi, Digital Team, Zoomph: The Blur Between Digital and the Real

Social Media Day has been recognized as an official holiday in many cities across the globe as well as the entire states of Arizona and Nevada. With a growing following every year, Reston is just one of 515 cities all over the world hosting their own events in celebration of the third incarnation of this holiday presented by Mashable. Be a part of this growing community of ideas and inspiration as we innovate new ways to apply these newfound technologies to our everyday lives.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/29/metrostar-systems-is-hosting-restons-mashable-social-media-day/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/28/why-do-some-products-fail/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/28/why-do-some-products-fail/#comments Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:59:48 +0000 Amir Zonozi http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5954 Remember the New Coke experiment or Qwikster from Netflix? They are just two of many products that entered the market with such buzz and hype, yet ultimately made a quick exit. The reality is it is inevitable that some products will fail; actually, the majority of new product launches will fail. Failure isn’t a bad [...]

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]]> Remember the New Coke experiment or Qwikster from Netflix?

They are just two of many products that entered the market with such buzz and hype, yet ultimately made a quick exit. The reality is it is inevitable that some products will fail; actually, the majority of new product launches will fail. Failure isn’t a bad thing, it’s often the precursor to success, but it isn’t that great either, so how do you dodge failure?

A great way you can dodge failure is by staying agile. A key characteristic to success is agility. Zoomph, our social media display and moderation product born out of MetroStar Systems’ Star labs was created out of demand from a product, originally named myStanly. Zoomph follows principles of agile product development. In this we stay agile to market factors by creating new features in small batch cycles, that way we avoid being cornered by market factors. Again, most of these situations will be out of your hands, so your best bet is adapting to goods and services met by the customers and produce in small batches; always be ready to pivot.

With many of projects at MetroStar Digital, we follow agile product development. Here are some factors to be aware of to help you shape the product. By monitoring these factors you can stay agile and improve your product through its life-cycle: market factors, product factors, and institutional factors.

Market factors of product fail:

• Actual market demand is lower
• Changes in environmental factors
• Changes in consumer taste
• Demand captured by competition
• Margins shrink with higher than anticipate costs

Product factors of product fail:

• Products not distinct enough to capture attention
• Features not attractive

Institutional factors of product fail:

• Poor Delivery (mismanagement, poor resources)
• No leadership (products can atrophy)

While you may have little control over market factors, you do have control over the way you respond to them. It is important to test, build and verify what you have learned by producing in small batches so your product and business is agile and ready to pivot if necessary. Zoomph illustrates values of agile product development. Zoomph continues to grow and succeed is our ability to push new features in small batches catered to demands of clients while having it out on the market.

Lastly, have a team you can rely on and a leader who knows how to manage a team under ever-changing factors and galvanize a team to react. Do not let product failure deter you from trying again. Business can be like a game of good chess, as long as you learn why you lost the game; you become a better player for your match. Good luck!

Thoughts, questions, or just want to talk about whatever happened to MC Hammer? Tweet me at @Zonozi

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/28/why-do-some-products-fail/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/26/let-it-simmer/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/26/let-it-simmer/#comments Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:18:08 +0000 Ava Kavyani http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5950 The Community Manager’s goal is to increase engagement, but what if that engagement takes a turn for the worse? Our clients have often turned to MetroStar Digital for advice when they receive unexpected feedback. If someone posts a negative comment on your Facebook page, for example, what is the best way to respond to it? [...]

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]]> The Community Manager’s goal is to increase engagement, but what if that engagement takes a turn for the worse? Our clients have often turned to MetroStar Digital for advice when they receive unexpected feedback. If someone posts a negative comment on your Facebook page, for example, what is the best way to respond to it?

Writing back is rarely a good option. You want to keep yourself above the fray no matter what. I know we’re always told to add personality and the best social media sites humanize their brands with authentic and original voice, but this is one instance where you want to hide your emotional side. Responding to a negative comment might make you seem defensive, combative, or bitter. Chances are the offender will respond again, and before you know it, you are knee-deep in a heated exchange for all your fans, followers, peers and colleagues to see. Spare yourself this experience, take the high ground, and don’t get involved.    

Instead, let the comment sit there, and see what happens. You may find that your followers do have something to say and would like to voice their opinions on the issue. A spirited debate on your Facebook page would attract more engagement and followers.

Of course, if the comment involves pornography, hate speech, threats, graphic violence, bullying, and/or spam, you should report this abuse to Facebook, which will investigate and terminate the user’s account depending on what it finds. Facebook also allows you to delete comments. Offenders won’t receive notification if you delete their comments, but if they visit the page again, they will see it’s not there.

But the next time you are itching to argue back or delete the comment, remember the points above and consider doing nothing at all. We take so much time and effort into crafting the perfect Facebook page or Twitter feed, but it is in the very nature of social media that it cannot be controlled. The best we can do is create an atmosphere where people feel comfortable interacting with your brand and expressing themselves. If they write something disagreeable, have the courage to let your community stand up for itself.

Have you ever received a negative post or comment? What was the outcome?

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/26/let-it-simmer/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/25/social-media-themes-for-2012/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/25/social-media-themes-for-2012/#comments Tue, 26 Jun 2012 02:19:57 +0000 Theresa Kattula http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5904 Each year MetroStar provides its employees opportunities to attend conferences and workshops to learn about new trends. It’s part of MetroStar’s Individual Career Development Program, which helps its employees nurture and grow their skills. This year I had to pleasure of attending the Corporate Social Media Summit (#CSMNY) held in NYC by Useful Social Media. [...]

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]]> Each year MetroStar provides its employees opportunities to attend conferences and workshops to learn about new trends. It’s part of MetroStar’s Individual Career Development Program, which helps its employees nurture and grow their skills. This year I had to pleasure of attending the Corporate Social Media Summit (#CSMNY) held in NYC by Useful Social Media. While every speaker had a unique story to share illustrating how their organization engages via social media, there were some common themes throughout the 2-day summit. Below are a few that stood out to me.



1.  Social media should not be siloed from other departments: The social media team should work with other departments to develop and post content. These departments include: marketing, corporate communications, public relations, customer service and legal/compliance. Work with all departments to see how to best utilize social media. Loop legal/compliance in when need be to ensure you dot all your i’s and cross your t’s.
2. Use social media to humanize your brand: Stop selling and start sharing. Use social media as an outlet to tell your organization’s story. Humanize your brand and earn the right to monetize social media outlets and introduce your product or services to your audience.
3. Fans drive content, not your social media team: While your team can help in facilitating a conversation, your fans should be driving the conversation. Cater to what their interests are and help keep the conversation going. Ask them for what they want to talk about, allow them to create content and to take part in a dialogue with your company and other fans.

Overall it was a great summit. I came back with some new perspectives and neat ideas to share with the Team. I look forward to implementing these ideas this year and seeing what’s next for social media.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/25/social-media-themes-for-2012/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/25/zoomph-rio20-a-conversation-with-the-world/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/25/zoomph-rio20-a-conversation-with-the-world/#comments Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:44:37 +0000 Ava Kavyani http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5894 The world has come a long way since the last Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Twenty years ago, there was no Facebook or Twitter or even texting or camera phones. It’s not a stretch to say the Summit existed in a vacuum. Important discussions took place, and in order to know what those discussions were, [...]

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]]> The world has come a long way since the last Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Twenty years ago, there was no Facebook or Twitter or even texting or camera phones. It’s not a stretch to say the Summit existed in a vacuum. Important discussions took place, and in order to know what those discussions were, the average person had to wait many hours to get the news report.

Now, much more than a discussion between world leaders, governments and businesses, this year’s United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or Rio+20 is a conversation—and not just between participants attending the conference, but between spectators from around the world, including myself! Though I couldn’t attend Rio+20 in person, I felt very much a part of the conservation and was grateful to have the chance to participate in an issue about which I feel very passionate.

This is made possible by technology, of course, and the many innovations in social media that allow people thousands of miles apart to partake in a single conversation. Thanks to Zoomph, we can analyze this feedback and get closer than we’ve ever been before.

Since the beginning of the month, 418,699 comments using hashtags related to Rio+20 were generated on Twitter, with the potential to be seen at least 1,918,473,612 times (i.e. impressions). Already that’s more coverage than any single news source can expect to achieve, although one did influence the Twitter conversation more than any others. CNN’s Breaking News Twitter feed @cnnbrk was responsible for at least 7,847,129 impressions. Brazilian TV presenter Luciano Huck was also a top influencer as was Brazilian celebrity Marcos Mion.

A glance at the substance of the tweets themselves reveals the urgency of the issues discussed. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s opening speech warning that time “is running out” was the top tweet with almost eight million impressions. The words “future we want” and “end fossil fuel subsidies” top the list of commonly used words and phrases among tweets.



Tweets from Around the World

When you look at the geographic breakdown of the tweets, you see a truly global conversation taking place. Portuguese, English, Spanish, German and Vietnamese were the top languages tweeting about the conference. What’s even more telling is that Hindi and Mandarin did not make the top 5 list of languages used on Twitter, despite India and China being such prominent players in any discussion on sustainable development.

UCLA Berkeley professor of integrative biology Anthony Barnosky told the Washington Post that policymakers don’t realize how interconnected their communities now are. “People tend to think on a very local scale, and that’s what we actually need to get away from, both scientifically and politically. We have to realize in some sense, there is no local scale anymore,” he said.

Luckily and not a moment too soon, social media is making it easier for the world’s decision makers to experience this interconnectivity.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/25/zoomph-rio20-a-conversation-with-the-world/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/21/content-creation-the-internal-dialogue/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/21/content-creation-the-internal-dialogue/#comments Thu, 21 Jun 2012 21:07:30 +0000 Kathy Ohlhaber http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5849 Working on the Digital Strategies Team at MetroStar has afforded me to work on projects from cool video production to amazing mobile apps. Recently, I was fortunate enough to be part of an amazing team that created a great website. The Army and Air Force Mutual Aid Association (AAFMAA) has been one of MetroStar’s largest [...]

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]]> Working on the Digital Strategies Team at MetroStar has afforded me to work on projects from cool video production to amazing mobile apps. Recently, I was fortunate enough to be part of an amazing team that created a great website.

The Army and Air Force Mutual Aid Association (AAFMAA) has been one of MetroStar’s largest clients for 12 years. In an effort to expand its reach and further support the Military community, AAFMAA tasked MetroStar with creating a website that would support, inform, and inspire 18-24 year old female Military Spouses. After much research, analysis, and creative ideation we created SpouseLink.org.

One of my roles in this project was Content Strategist. A key difference of SpouseLink.org is that it provides a mix of both pop culture and important Military information. As part of our solution, we aimed to launch the site with 300 individual pieces of content.

To do this, I had to use my strengths, take into account differing opinions, and question every single thought I had when creating and editing content.

This isn’t my site – this is our client’s site for young Military Spouses. I had to (and continue to) constantly keep this in mind. There is so much free range in what content can be posted because the site covers everything from all aspects of lifestyle pieces to all aspects of Military information. The Military information isn’t as hard to decipher than the lifestyle pieces – it has to stay nonpartisan, not be controversial, and support, inform, and inspire Military Spouses. However, pop culture is a whole other dance.

When you work in a creative field, you never know what type of project you’ll be working on. I lucked out with this one because I’m a 26-year-old female who falls into the age range of our target audience. I also have a tiny bit of insight into Military life because my dad is a Retired Col. from the Public Health Service. And when it comes to the pop culture end of things – I’m the right one for the job. My collection of music boasts over 600 CDs, I average about three movies a week, and I’m online about 11 hours a day. These were strengths I could pull from when creating content.

It was important for me to remember that just because I think something is cool doesn’t mean 19-year-old Military Spouses will. Not only do I have to be aware of the younger Spouses, the site is also geared towards Generation X (33-44 year olds) and Baby Boomers (46-64 year olds). I have to constantly put myself in the shoes of these different women and (using what I’ve learned from my insane amount of research) do my best to determine what content they would be interested in.

To do this, I used those strengths and maintained an ongoing dialogue in my head. Here’s an example of how that works:

 

Kathy: I love this song! I think this would be a really good post for SpouseLink.org

Professional Kathy: Why?

Kathy: The context of the song is inspiring.

Professional Kathy: You need to have better reasoning than that. Remember who your target audience is and the purpose of the site.

Kathy: The song is about love, support, loyalty, and what home means. Listen to the lyrics. I could totally see this being a Military Spouse theme song.

Professional Kathy: Are you sure it’s not too hippie-dippie?

Kathy: Yes. We’ve been posting a lot of popular music lately, it would be good to add in a different genre and this is more folky. I really think Military Spouses would appreciate this.

Professional Kathy: Why?

Kathy: OMG…you are so annoying. I can picture myself missing a loved one and playing this song to feel better. I can also see Spouses sharing this with friends and loved ones through our social media properties or directly from the website. This song supports and inspires Military Spouses. From my research I know they are proud and like to share content that shows their loyalty and love. I could even see this as music in a promo video for SpouseLink.org.

Professional Kathy: Ok, I agree – post it.

When fulfilling the role of a Content Strategist, you have to be the Editor who chooses the best content, but also the gatekeeper who keeps inappropriate content out.

Use your strengths, take into account differing opinions, and constantly remember the goal of your project.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/21/content-creation-the-internal-dialogue/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/20/code-compete-promoting-health-surveillance-via-social-media/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/20/code-compete-promoting-health-surveillance-via-social-media/#comments Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:46:48 +0000 Theresa Kattula http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5807 Can social media track outbreaks of illnesses? Tracking trends on Twitter may be the first step. MetroStar Digital had the pleasure of working with the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to launch an online competition challenging developers to create an application that would identify [...]

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]]> Can social media track outbreaks of illnesses? Tracking trends on Twitter may be the first step.

MetroStar Digital had the pleasure of working with the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to launch an online competition challenging developers to create an application that would identify trending illnesses on Twitter. The grand prize: $21,000.

“We hosted a forum last summer where state and local health practitioners discussed some of the benefits of monitoring social media. There was an overall consensus that many local health practitioners would like to be able to use social media to monitor health trends in their community but expressed a lack of time and resources,” said Diana Boss from  Health and Human Services. “The Now Trending Challenge is a result of that conversation. We wanted to address that need.”

Working with the ASPR team, we created the website http://www.nowtrendingchallenge.com/ where contestants could learn about the challenge, register their team, and submit entries.

Our team was especially excited to help launch this initiative. Not only was it an online challenge… but an online challenge based on the Twitter API. We totally geeked out!

Empowering developers nationwide to prototype an application, the site provided potential participants a Toolkit with a list of terminology to be tracked, resourceful links, and the app requirements. In the end ASPR was seeking an application accomplishing two goals: 1) to successfully leverage the Twitter API to identify trending words within geographic areas in a 24-hour period; and 2) to create a method to notify public officials of the trends. Developers were given the freedom to choose the rest: the platform and specific design details of the app.

 

“The data that local health departments will gain as a result of the winning app could be used in a variety of ways to improve public health situational awareness and communication. It could be used to build a baseline of trend data, engage the public on trending health topics, serve as an indicator of potential emerging health issues within communities, or for cross-referencing against other data sources,” said Boss. “Overall, this will allow local health departments to feel more connected to the pulse of their community and give them a greater understanding of health issues that concern the citizens they serve on a daily basis.”

The challenge judge (Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response RADM Nicole Lurie, M.D., M.S.P.H.) and technical advisors will be testing out the entries this summer and look forward to announcing the winner by September 10, 2012.

Good luck to all the contestants! Check for updates on http://www.nowtrendingchallenge.com/.

Missed out on this competition? Learn about more online challenges at http://www.challenge.gov/.

Interested in setting up an online challenge for your organization? Contact our team on Twitter @MetroStarSystem.

Read more about other great things being done for public health through social media here: http://mashable.com/2012/06/08/social-media-disease-tracking/.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/20/code-compete-promoting-health-surveillance-via-social-media/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/19/5-blunders-in-social-media-marketing-twitter-edition/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/19/5-blunders-in-social-media-marketing-twitter-edition/#comments Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:46:09 +0000 Jon Malley http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5783 The New Media team here at MetroStar Systems works on a wide spectrum of social media accounts. As we devised our plans of do’s and don’ts for our clients, we inevitably came across various examples that portrayed the “wrong” way of doing things. From out of touch, cringe worthy posts on Facebook brand pages, to [...]

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]]>

The New Media team here at MetroStar Systems works on a wide spectrum of social media accounts. As we devised our plans of do’s and don’ts for our clients, we inevitably came across various examples that portrayed the “wrong” way of doing things. From out of touch, cringe worthy posts on Facebook brand pages, to nonsensical dribble spouted on Twitter feeds, our team not only became purveyors of social media: We became knowledgeable critics of content within the field as well. As small businesses strive to make a presence on recently ascended social networks, many commit classic mistakes in their methods and hinder the potential of increasing their popularity without even knowing it.  Our team at MetroStar discussed a few of the major pet peeves that followers may come across and the ways that brands can rectify their errors. This week we’ll focus specifically on Twitter and how a mere 140 characters can alter the future prospects of your business, for better or for worse.  Learn how to avoid Social Media Mistakes:

1. Don’t Become a Chirping Echo Chamber

After creating an account and following all the feeds that seem relevant to your business, it’s easy to get caught up and re-tweet every single thing that you deem noteworthy. Many brand accounts provide these informative tweets to their followers with the hope that these useful tidbits will lead to an even greater following in the future. These brands should be wary though, as their followers are more likely to follow the account that has been re-tweeted rather than the brand that you’re running. Instead of re-tweeting, at the very least try coming up with your own original blurb about the content, even if you still provide a link to a page that is not of your own to give credit where credit is due. Better yet, attempt to come up with completely original content in the first place. The more original and relevant your content is, the more likely your account will garner re-tweets from followers. It takes practice, but it’s the safest and most efficient means of building your account with a sense of integrity. If you keep at it, while maintaining a strict standard for quality, people will start listening sooner or later.

2. Don’t Tweet as if You’re Marooned on an Island in the Ocean of the Internet

While Twitter is an effective medium to provide information to your followers, gaining your initial following should be supplanted with the help of other social networks and blogs. Whether it’s a blog on your company’s website, or simply a Facebook brand page, always try to build your presence across the internet from one network to the other. Don’t be afraid to make some posts and content exclusive to a struggling social network account, while linking to that account from another network that has a greater, more sustainable following. If you leave your Twitter account isolated from the rest of the online world, you’re abandoning a substantial amount of potential followers that could be attracted to your feed.

3. Don’t Avoid a Dialogue with your Followers; Encourage One

Once your brand has a decent number of followers on Twitter, you may encounter some of them asking you questions or making comments directed at your feed. This is always more likely to occur when you are creating original content that facilitates an avenue for interaction. Responding to questions and directed tweets is a key towards building a reputable account. When composing a response, remember to be genuine and direct with your answer. Sidestepping questions or providing a plastic acknowledgement of a follower’s tweet can be damaging in the long-run. It is imperative that your Twitter brand page avoids a robotic or smug tone. The last thing a follower in this world of social media wants to see or hear is a response in the tone of a long, drawn out customer service call to a major cellular phone company or satellite TV provider. They came to your feed to avoid that disservice and by giving them the same inappreciable response, they may end up avoiding your feed and entire brand in the future.

4. There’s Nothing Wrong with Following the Little Guy

When compiling the list of Twitter feeds that your brand follows, don’t be afraid to follow some of the smaller accounts that may be interested in the field relevant to your brand. If you catch a decent tweet from one of these accounts, seize the value of re-tweeting it. Providing everyday users with a megaphone for their voice not only gives respect to the ones tweeting, but it also shows your followers that relevant and genuine content is appreciated and will be noticed. If all of your re-tweets (which should still be minimal in number compared to the rest of your posts) come from major feeds, then you’re neglecting the true grassroots aspect that Twitter provides. Always make sure you check the feed of the casual user before re-tweeting, as you might as well assume the rest of your followers will do the same after seeing the post.

5. Don’t Fall Asleep at the Wheel

One of the most important tips for maintaining a Twitter account is to keep up on current events and monitor relevant feeds. I’m not saying that your brand account should be tweeting every 15 minutes with new information, but with the use of Twitter apps like HootSuite or TweetDeck, one can easily monitor trends in an organized fashion. If those apps don’t suit you, try typing their names into your favorite search engine with “alternatives” added at the end of the query to discover other similar apps. Falling behind on trends and topics can lead to irrelevant tweets about articles that were popular three days ago. While three days isn’t a long time in the real-world, it’s practically a lifetime in the relentlessly updated world of Twitter. If your brand takes advantage of the pre-scheduled tweets feature, these previous tips hold even more bearing towards maintaining your accounts reputation. In the past couple of weeks there have been two examples of automated tweets that received a hefty amount of criticism from their followers.  

First, the Starbucks Ireland page mistakenly asked its followers what makes them proud to be British. Many Irish followers responded with harsh comments, at times with blatant profanity and others laced with seething, dismissive sarcasm. The second mishap occurred on Saturday after a tragic stage collapse at a Radiohead show in Toronto that took the life of a drum technician and injured others. The promoter of the event, LiveNation, sent out a tweet notifying fans that the concert would be cancelled. Yet, only thirty minutes after this announcement an automatic tweet was sent out by the same account asking fans to share their Instagram photos to create an album commemorating the show. The error led to an immediate backlash of tweets directed at LiveNation for their insensitivity and cluelessness concerning the situation. For internationally known feeds such as Starbucks and LiveNation, these mistakes are ugly, though their brands will no doubt survive the ensuing PR storm. However, for smaller businesses that are attempting to build a following, gaffes such as these could cause catastrophic damage to a brand’s public image.

In short, as long as your brand is creating original content, connecting with your audience, utilizing other social media platforms and constantly keeping up to date on trends, you’ll be in a much brighter position than had you done otherwise.




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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/19/5-blunders-in-social-media-marketing-twitter-edition/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/18/breaking-down-creativity/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/18/breaking-down-creativity/#comments Mon, 18 Jun 2012 20:13:17 +0000 Amir Zonozi http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5753 Creativity is one of the strongest characteristics valued in our society (and especially at MetroStar); it also is one of the main ingredients in the recipe for success, and it tastes like pink Starbursts. Okay, maybe not the pink ones, but it’s definitely in the same category of awesome, you get my point. In this [...]

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]]> Creativity is one of the strongest characteristics valued in our society (and especially at MetroStar); it also is one of the main ingredients in the recipe for success, and it tastes like pink Starbursts. Okay, maybe not the pink ones, but it’s definitely in the same category of awesome, you get my point.

In this day and age of constant overload – you need to be creative in order to stand out.  That’s not going to be easy and let’s face it certain individuals are just more creative than others, but just like any characteristic, it is developed and cultured over time and practice.

What I’m trying to say is you can be more creative if you want to. If you are not tapping into your potential, there are ways to manipulate your thought process accordingly. The formula for understanding the creative process can break down into three components. It takes a balance of all three to excel in creativity. These components are: expertise, motivation, and creative-thinking skills.

Expertise:

This is the amount of knowledge and experience: technical, intellectual, or procedural, one has in a particular field. Do you ask a chef for car advice? No, (at least, I hope not) I mean why would you right? My point is just because an individual understands one domain does not mean that mastery can be easily translated into other domains.

You need to be aware of what you excel in and use it to your advantage to create a specific niche for yourself. The better your understanding of a topic is, the more likely you are able to manipulate an image in creative and innovative way. This might be common sense, but it is an important factor to consider.

Motivation:

Motivational drive fluctuates within individuals through external and internal variables. Motivation will never be equal amongst individuals; but that doesn’t mean you can’t manipulate it right? One can significantly increase chances of motivational passion and drive by offering intrinsically motivated rewards – give them ownership in their product, creative freedom and it will drive more engagement then any bling bling could. For example,  Zoomph, our social media display and analytics software, is a product born out of MetroStar labs and functions as an internal startup. This internal startup culture allows our team to report directly to our CEO, Ali Manouchehri, giving us the independence and ownership needed to ensure the success of the project. The secret of Zoomph’s continuous success is that while our team was assembled by talent, it is driven by motivation.

Lack of motivation, will equate to lack in production. Do not work with or associate with people that are not motivated, they are anchors, and will drag you down with them. Worst case scenario you find yourself stuck in a situation with an unmotivated individual – find a way to align their interest with yours.

Creative-Thinking Skills:

This one is the wildcard and has the heaviest impact on creative flow – are you able to think outside the box? I mean it sounds pretty obvious right? How can you be creative if you can’t think creatively; but what does that even mean?

To think creatively it requires an imagination and flexibility of one’s thought process while looking for as many possible answers, as opposed to just one. Not a creative thinker? It’s okay you can change that with a little elbow grease.

Here are some ways to help increase your creativity. For starters, let your brain wander, make mistakes, think of anything possible, even the most outrageous-crazy ideas that are impossible will be critical in helping you brain storm. Know yourself, and put yourself in the right mind state to succeed. Some people thrive off pressure, while others shut down. Just find your state of zen and work your magic.

Take Away Point:

Creativity can be influenced by your environment and conditions practiced in your workplace. If managed correctly, you can manipulate your expertise: through experience and learning, motivation: by seeking goals and rewards, and creative-thinking skill set: through discipline and practice.

For more creativity tips, thoughts, questions, or just saw Jurassic Park for the first time and you’re dying to share that with somebody? Tweet me at @Zonozi

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/18/breaking-down-creativity/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/15/analyzing-the-social-media-output-of-euro-2012-with-zoomph/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/15/analyzing-the-social-media-output-of-euro-2012-with-zoomph/#comments Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:17:16 +0000 Jon Malley http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5699 The Euro 2012 football (or “Soccer” to you Americans out there) tournament is well underway, with each participating country having played at least one match.  There have been a few surprises in the results during the early portions of the group stage. The Italians are on the outside looking in as they attempt to advance [...]

The post Analyzing the Social Media Output of Euro 2012 with Zoomph appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> The Euro 2012 football (or “Soccer” to you Americans out there) tournament is well underway, with each participating country having played at least one match.  There have been a few surprises in the results during the early portions of the group stage. The Italians are on the outside looking in as they attempt to advance out of Group C, while the Dutch are scraping against the realm of elimination in the aptly nicknamed “Group of Death” B. Still, even as most squads have played two of their three group stage matches, the Irish are the only nation that have been mathematically eliminated. Adding to the drama, the co-hosting Ukrainian team mounted a shocking comeback victory over Sweden with the help of two successive goals from longtime captain, Andriy Shevchenko.

Working in the digital marketing/advertising space, I was drawn to see the types of engagements happening online for Euro 2012. In particular, activity taking place within the social sphere. Fans from around the globe have united on Twitter to create a tapestry of tweets built from different cultures and languages.

Our Senior Web Architect created a feed on our Social Media display and analytics tool called Zoomph, (www.Zoomph.com) to pull in Tweets for #Euro2012. Within hours tweets were flooding our system and I began to view the prevailing trends of the data.

Below, we have featured a world map describing the tweeting frequency throughout the tournament of users who turned on geolocation settings. No surprises here that England had the most tweets (as illustrated by the red area):



Also captured in our system were the languages of the tweets. Nearly half of the incoming information was written in English, while Portuguese, Polish, Spanish and Italian rounded out the five most used languages. (See below):



It was interesting to see that during the Denmark/Portugal match on June 13^th, a visible spike in frequency occurred before and after the match, as well at times when each of the 5 total goals was scored:



“Portugal” was the most popular word associated with #Euro2012 during the match, with “Denmark” not too far behind. Other terms such as “groupofdeath” were used by fans to describe the competitively-stacked Group B, which also consists of fellow European juggernauts Germany and the Netherlands.



With a solid three weeks left until two teams will reach the final, I’m looking forward to the remaining upsets and triumphs the rest of the tournament may hold.  ¡Viva La Furia Roja!

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/06/15/analyzing-the-social-media-output-of-euro-2012-with-zoomph/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/05/25/wordpress-active-directory-integration-walkthrough/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/05/25/wordpress-active-directory-integration-walkthrough/#comments Fri, 25 May 2012 21:13:49 +0000 Luiz Felipe Palhano de Jesus http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5148 I’ve gone ahead and created this comprehensive walk-through to help anyone that needs to setup Active Directory Integration on their own WordPress blog.  This walkthrough covers enabling LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) through XAMPP (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html), downloading and setting up the “Active Directory Integration” plug-in for WordPress, and migrating current WordPress users to Active Directory authenticated [...]

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]]> I’ve gone ahead and created this comprehensive walk-through to help anyone that needs to setup Active Directory Integration on their own WordPress blog.  This walkthrough covers enabling LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) through XAMPP (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html), downloading and setting up the “Active Directory Integration” plug-in for WordPress, and migrating current WordPress users to Active Directory authenticated users.  This is advantageous because it enhances your blog’s security and unifies logins within your organization.  So without further ado, I give you the WordPress Active Directory Integration Walkthrough! (Very original name, I know)

(NOTE: Before you begin make sure that LDAP support is enabled in your server.  I used XMAPP for my MySQL and Apache implementations, which makes enabling LDAP quite simple. If you are also using XAMPP, simply go to C:\xampp\php, open the php.ini file with a text editor, search for “;extension=php_ldap.dll”, uncomment it (remove the ‘;’ symbol) and save the file with the changes.  Finally restart the Apache and MySQL services through the XMAPP control panel or windows services and LDAP should be enabled.)

1. First prepare your WordPress site for Active Directory integration by creating temporary users for all current users that will be authenticated using Active Directory (though we will be running through the whole process with a single test user first). (NOTE: this is only necessary for users whose current logins [usernames] are the same as their active directory username. For example if my WordPress username was fpalhano and my Active Directory username was ALSO fpalhano, then I would have to create a temporary username to store any posts created by fpalhano while migrating to Active Directory authentication.  If this doesn’t apply to you, skip to steps 3 and 4.)
2. To do this first make sure you are logged in as an admin, then navigate to the users tab on the left-hand side of the dashboard. (NOTE: if there is no “admin” user with no posts, I would suggest you create one now and login to that user until this process is complete)
3. From here create a new temporary user with the same role as the user you are trying to create a temp account for (I suggest [user]_temp, were [user] is the name of the current user account, but it is entirely up to you). (NOTE: it requires that you put an email for the temp account but it doesn’t really matter what you put)
4. Once you have created the temp user you will want to transfer all of the user’s posts to the temp user.  To transfer the posts all you have to do is hover your mouse cursor over the actual user and click delete (which should appear right under the username as you mouse over it).  This will bring up the “Delete Users” screen.  Now select the “Attribute all posts and links to” radio button and choose the corresponding temp user for the user you are deleting. Finally confirm the deletion.
5. Now install the “Active Directory Integration” plugin by Christoph Steindorff and ECW GmbH.  To do this first navigate to the “Plugins” tab on the left side of the dashboard and choose “add new”, again on the left side of the dashboard.  Now type “Active Directory Integration” into the search field and click “Search Plugins”.
6. This should bring you a results page. Select the correct plugin (Active Directory Integration) and click “Install Now”.
7. A prompt will come up asking if you are sure you want to install, click ok.
8. Now go back into the Plugins menu and activate the plugin.
9.  Then click on the “Settings” tab on the left side and select “Active directory Integration” underneath it.  Now fill all the fields in the “Server” tab with all relevant information and save the changes.(NOTE: you may put either the ip address or the actual name of your domain controller in the “Domain Controllers” field, but certain domain controller configurations may cause the plug-in to break if you don’t use an IP address for that field)
10.  While still in the Active Directory Integration settings, click on the User tab.  Add your domain suffix to the “Account Suffix” field. Save the changes.
11.  If you wish to test to see if the settings you applied are correct, navigate to the “Test Tool” tab in the Active Directory Integration settings.  From here you may type in any current Active Directory user and their associated password to see if you can connect to the Active Directory server.  A successful test should look something like this:(NOTE: the domain suffixes and ip address(s) were removed for security reasons.)
12.  Now that you have confirmed that the Active Directory Integration is working properly, DISABLE the plugin (VERY IMPORTANT) and repeat steps 3 and 4 for every user that is being migrated to Active Directory Authentication.  Remember the note at the beginning of this Walkthrough that this step is only necessary for users whose current WordPress username the SAME as their Active Directory username. (NOTE: you may run through this process [Steps 12 and 13] all at once or one user at a time.  However, do not forget that every time you create a temp user, the plugin must be DISABLED, and vice versa for Active Directory users.  For more information, see Final NOTE below.)
13.  From here REENABLE the Active Directory Integration plugin (again VERY IMPORTANT) and then simply repeat steps 3 and 4 again, but in reverse.  Create a user whose name corresponds to their Active Directory name and then delete the associated temp user (or old user, if creating a temp was unnecessary for said user), transferring all posts to the new user.  From now on whenever the new user logs in it will use the Active Directory server to authenticate the user with the corresponding password in Active Directory. 

(Final NOTE: If you ever need to create a NON-Active Directory user, i.e. a local user, you will have to disable the “Active Directory Integration” plugin BEFORE you create the user, otherwise it will try to authenticate said user with Active Directory and fail.  Furthermore you will NOT be able to login using any Active Directory users if the “Active Directory Integration” plugin is disabled, but you WILL be able to login to any previously created local users even if the “Active Directory Integration” plugin is enabled.  Because of this, I suggest keeping one local admin in the WordPress user pool even if you plan on only using Active Directory login.  This is so that you can still login to the admin console even if you accidently disable the “Active Directory Integration” plugin.)

And there you have it, I hope that this walkthrough has helped you implement Active Directory Integration on your own WordPress blog.  There are plenty of other options available in this extremely powerful plugin, but they are beyond the scope of this post.  However, if there is enough interest I may do a follow-up post that outlines these options.  Now go ahead and enjoy the extra security that comes from using a unified Active Directory login.  If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/05/25/wordpress-active-directory-integration-walkthrough/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/05/22/supernova-active-directory-upgrade/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/05/22/supernova-active-directory-upgrade/#comments Tue, 22 May 2012 20:08:57 +0000 Luiz Felipe Palhano de Jesus http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5136             I’m excited to announce that the MetroStar Systems blog, SUPERNOVA, has just received a major backend upgrade, an Active Directory login system.  This is a project that I have been working on for the last few weeks and was something that I really wanted to have implemented before I finished my Summer internship here at [...]

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]]>             I’m excited to announce that the MetroStar Systems blog, SUPERNOVA, has just received a major backend upgrade, an Active Directory login system.  This is a project that I have been working on for the last few weeks and was something that I really wanted to have implemented before I finished my Summer internship here at MetroStar. 

            The security advantages alone make this a worthwhile upgrade.  Before this upgrade users of the blog had a login that was separate from their main login.  This was an issue because it meant that two logins would have to be tracked for all employees.  On top of that each login had to be managed by separate departments, which left even more room for miscommunication and error.  Now, with the unified login system, every time a user logs in to Supernova he or she is authenticated through Active Directory, which is a major boon to network security.

            All of this was accomplished through the use of the “Active Directory Integration” plugin for WordPress (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/active-directory-integration/).  There were a few issues that had to be ironed out before the push to the production site but for the most part the plugin made it pretty painless.  The main issue that I ran into was that none of the Active Directory users would authenticate initially.  It actually turned out to be a problem with the domain controller in our development domain. This project actually helped pinpoint the issue and our IT team was able to seamlessly fix it.  How all this was implemented will actually be detailed in a second post that I am writing and will be completed shortly. 

-Felipe

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/05/22/supernova-active-directory-upgrade/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/05/18/tip-for-debugging-multi-threaded-code-in-visual-studio/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/05/18/tip-for-debugging-multi-threaded-code-in-visual-studio/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 15:37:18 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5673 Today I just discovered a handy little trick for debugging multi-threaded code in Visual Studio.  When the debugger pauses the execution of your code you can switch between the various threads in the debugger using the ‘Thread’ dropdown.  However figuring out which thread is which can be a little tricky when you have potentially dozens [...]

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]]> Today I just discovered a handy little trick for debugging multi-threaded code in Visual Studio.  When the debugger pauses the execution of your code you can switch between the various threads in the debugger using the ‘Thread’ dropdown.  However figuring out which thread is which can be a little tricky when you have potentially dozens of threads running.  By default the dropdown simply shows the thread’s ID and ‘<no name>’.  As it turns out you can name the threads using Thread.CurrentThread.Name which will show up in this dropdown.  One thing to bear in mind when doing this though is that when making using of the .Net ThreadPool unless you put the name back to some default after your code is finished with the thread you’ll end up with a lot of threads with a name you set when it was previously being used.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/05/18/tip-for-debugging-multi-threaded-code-in-visual-studio/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/04/26/is-your-website-committing-pinterest-suicide/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/04/26/is-your-website-committing-pinterest-suicide/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:31:17 +0000 Theresa Kattula http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5659 You may have heard about search engine optimization (SEO) but what about Pinterest optimization? Pinterest may be sky rocketing to the top of the social media world, but is your website optimized to keep up? If your website isn’t optimized for “pinning” then your content may get left behind. One “pin” from your website has [...]

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]]> You may have heard about search engine optimization (SEO) but what about Pinterest optimization?

Pinterest may be sky rocketing to the top of the social media world, but is your website optimized to keep up? If your website isn’t optimized for “pinning” then your content may get left behind. One “pin” from your website has the potential to go a long way. A quick “pin” from your website has the potential to be viewed by thousands of users. But how do you get your website visitors to help spread your website’s content in the world of Pinterest?



Quick tips to help your website be “Pinterest optimized”

• Review all your webpages and ensure that each page displays an image. Even content that is not truly graphical should have an accompanying photo in order to be eligible for “pinning”.
• Code your website’s imagery with proper image (<IMG>) tags to ensure they’re correctly picked up by Pinterest’s browser plug-in. As a general rule at least one image on your webpage should be using an IMG tag.
• Avoid uploading images that contain advertisement text as part of the image itself. Work with your web developer to place the HTML text atop of the image as a separate element. This will help your image appear as “re-pinnable” as possible to Pinterest users. People may not be as likely to “re-pin” graphics with a blatant advertisement as they may see the image as more of an advertisement rather than an inspirational graphic.
• Make your graphics stand out! Displayed alongside other pinned images would your graphic stand out? Choose your graphics carefully. A graphic that stands out on your website may not stack up on Pinterest.

 

A quick review of your website’s code can help you see where you can make a few simple updates to help your content spread like wildfire on Pinterest.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/04/26/is-your-website-committing-pinterest-suicide/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/02/13/readerwriterlock-vs-readerwriterlockslim-performance/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/02/13/readerwriterlock-vs-readerwriterlockslim-performance/#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:45:11 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5604 Here is handy comparison of the performance ReaderWriterLock and ReaderWriterLockSlim: ReaderWriterLock ReadLock -> Release Lock = 0.00014 ms WriteLock -> ReleaseLock = 0.00012 ms ReadLock -> UpgradeToWriteLock -> ReleaseLock = 0.00021 ms   ReaderWriterLockSlim ReadLock -> ExitReadLock = 0.00005 ms WriteLock -> ExitWriteLock= 0.00004 ms ReadLockUpgradeable -> WriteLock -> ExitWriteLock -> ExitReadLock  = 0.00009 ms   So [...]

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]]> Here is handy comparison of the performance ReaderWriterLock and ReaderWriterLockSlim:

ReaderWriterLock

ReadLock -> Release Lock = 0.00014 ms

WriteLock -> ReleaseLock = 0.00012 ms

ReadLock -> UpgradeToWriteLock -> ReleaseLock = 0.00021 ms

 

ReaderWriterLockSlim

ReadLock -> ExitReadLock = 0.00005 ms

WriteLock -> ExitWriteLock= 0.00004 ms

ReadLockUpgradeable -> WriteLock -> ExitWriteLock -> ExitReadLock  = 0.00009 ms

 

So it appears that the ReaderWriterLockSlim is approximately ~3 times faster in most cases.

Note: I came up with these number by writing a c# console App (.net 4.0) which aquired/released locks in a for loop 1,000,000 times with a StopWatch measuring the time taken.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/02/13/readerwriterlock-vs-readerwriterlockslim-performance/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/02/04/irequiressessionstate-and-long-running-asynchronous-http-handlers/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/02/04/irequiressessionstate-and-long-running-asynchronous-http-handlers/#comments Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:59:46 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5600 The other day I learned something interesting about the inner workings of ASP .Nets session state management.  One of the nice features it provides is automatically making usage of the session state thread safe between the various threads which may be handling requests from the same user (with the same sessionId). Apparently the way it [...]

The post IRequiresSessionState and long running Asynchronous HTTP Handlers appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> The other day I learned something interesting about the inner workings of ASP .Nets session state management.  One of the nice features it provides is automatically making usage of the session state thread safe between the various threads which may be handling requests from the same user (with the same sessionId).

Apparently the way it goes about doing this is by locking the session state object for a user for the lifetime of any handler that requires the session state (anything that implements IRequiresSessionState).  Normally this is a handy feature making it so that developers don’t have to worry about the thread safety issues that would normally come with sharing the same objects between threads.  However in some instances this can lead some some unexpected behavior if you’re not aware of this.

So the other day I was implementing an asynchronous HTTP handler in which I needed to access a user’s session state.  To do this you simply make the handler class inherit from IRequiresSessionState.  However in doing so the users session state becomes locked for the duration of the Async request (in this particular case it could be several minutes before the response was sent).  This caused any subsequent requests which required the session state to hang while they waited for the lock to be released.

So after all of this I can say I learned something interesting and have added a new best practice to my repertoire; don’t use the session state within long running handlers!

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/02/04/irequiressessionstate-and-long-running-asynchronous-http-handlers/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/01/24/setting-up-ssl-on-a-microsoft-azure-application/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/01/24/setting-up-ssl-on-a-microsoft-azure-application/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:58:41 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5583 Recently I as involved with adding SSL to a site which is hosted within Microsft’s Aure platform.  Overall the process went pretty smoothly having used the guide from MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ff795779.aspx   The one thing it forgets to mention is that along with server certificate you also need all of the certificates along the chain of trust back [...]

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]]> Recently I as involved with adding SSL to a site which is hosted within Microsft’s Aure platform.  Overall the process went pretty smoothly having used the guide from MSDN:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ff795779.aspx

 

The one thing it forgets to mention is that along with server certificate you also need all of the certificates along the chain of trust back to the root CA which people’s browser trust.  There are multiple ways to do this but the way I found simplest was to import the certificate into a local IIS instance and then use the certificates MMC to export the certificate per this guide:

https://support.comodo.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=1244

Note: Make sure to check the box for ‘Include all certificates in the certificate path’

You’ll also need to reference these certificates in the XML files mentioned in the MSDN article and then you’re all done!

P.S. If you get an error about the certificates’ thumbprint not matching make sure you’re copying the full thumbprint from Azure, the field is longer than what the screen shows, so there is some ‘scrolling’ when highlighting it.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/01/24/setting-up-ssl-on-a-microsoft-azure-application/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/01/06/updating-large-quantities-of-data-in-sql-azure/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/01/06/updating-large-quantities-of-data-in-sql-azure/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:53:36 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5570 Recently I ran into a scenario where I had a production database which contained a table with 1.4 million records in which I wanted to convert a varchar column containing numbers to a bigint column. I used a backup of the database to try out a few different methods; at first I tried simply running [...]

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]]> Recently I ran into a scenario where I had a production database which contained a table with 1.4 million records in which I wanted to convert a varchar column containing numbers to a bigint column. I used a backup of the database to try out a few different methods; at first I tried simply running an ALTER TABLE statement to change the columns data type (the parsing of the varchar to a bigint is automatic).  However with the large amount of data in the table this kept timing out and would never complete.

So after some researching I came up with a solution in which I would create a new column of type bigint and then in small batches of 1000 I would update the rows with the converted bigint (I wrote a small C# console app with ADO .NET).  After doing this to every row I deleted the old varchar column and renamed the new column to the old varchar column’s name.

VIOLA!

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2012/01/06/updating-large-quantities-of-data-in-sql-azure/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/11/04/handy-string-parsing-extension-methods/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/11/04/handy-string-parsing-extension-methods/#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:26:45 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5557 Since I’ve never particularly liked the feel of C#’s int.TryParse and bool.TryParse methods I decided to create some extension methods for strings which I feel like make the code using them much more readable:   Usage:  

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]]> Since I’ve never particularly liked the feel of C#’s int.TryParse and bool.TryParse methods I decided to create some extension methods for strings which I feel like make the code using them much more readable:
 


Usage:
 


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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/11/04/handy-string-parsing-extension-methods/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/11/02/metrostar-systems-supports-the-36th-marine-corps-marathon/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/11/02/metrostar-systems-supports-the-36th-marine-corps-marathon/#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:12:24 +0000 Monica Huie http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5510 It was 3:45a.m., Sunday October 30th…Theresa and I sat in my car with the heat on full blast gearing up to be outside for the next six hours (at least!). It was still dark as night, but not far in the distance you could see the buzz and commotion of people setting up for one [...]

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]]> It was 3:45a.m., Sunday October 30th…Theresa and I sat in my car with the heat on full blast gearing up to be outside for the next six hours (at least!). It was still dark as night, but not far in the distance you could see the buzz and commotion of people setting up for one of the biggest events of the year – the 36th Marine Corps Marathon (MCM). But first, let me tell you how we got there…

The Marine Corps Marathon Team went full force this year promoting social media engagements. For the very first time, runners were able to have their split times automatically post to their personal Facebook and/or Twitter pages, allowing family and friends to track a runner’s progress. Our MetroStar Systems Team was proud to help the MCM Team enhance social media engagements at the MCM events by displaying live tweets on large screens at the expo, dinners, pep rallies, and of course, at the race. Leveraging myStanly, our customizable moderated Twitter display solution, we were able to capture tweets with the hashtag #36thMCM and approve it for broadcast.

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we had myStanly Teams moderating and live tweeting from the Health & Fitness Expo. The displays sat at both t-shirt pick up stations and sandwiched the Brooks Running store. People had the chance to see their tweets on the display screens almost instantaneously, getting their few moments of myStanly fame! Exhibitors were able to broadcast their booth specials and giveaways, and we were able to help spread the word without the message getting lost.




On Friday, there were multiple events taking place so we gave people the chance to virtually be at all places at once through the Twittersphere.

The Runners Club mixer was an exclusive event for members of the MCM Runners Club. We were able to give those were were not available to attend an insider view of what was happening at the mixer by tweeting updates and pics, and those at the mixer, updates of what was going on elsewhere.

Later that evening, we attended the VIP Hall of Fame dinner at the Washington Post building, where special individuals were inducted into the MCM Hall of Fame. The United We Sing girls began the evening by singing the National Anthem and the honored inductees were recognized for the positive impact they have had on the Marine Corps Marathon. Messages of encouragement and support for runners were projected onto a large wall visible to all diners as they enjoyed a beautifully catered buffet dinner. Price is Right host, Drew Carey, was also in attendance as he prepped to run his first marathon.


    

Saturday, the day before the race, weather conditions were not looking good; temperatures were in the low 30s, heavy rain, high winds, and even some snow in October – not ideal running conditions! However, it didn’t stop all those who have been preparing for this race. Runners continued to flood #36thMCM with their tweets, sharing their pre-race jitters and excitement. We even had a small Twitter contest at the expo where three lucky runners tweeted to win a free myStanly t-shirt! Congratulations to our winners Anna, Ndegwa, and Joanne! Our MetroStar Systems Team headed home to prepare for the BIG event, Race Day!

Taking us to 3:45a.m., Sunday October 30th, sitting in the car, preparing to embrace the bitter cold…

As we prepared for race kickoff, bundled from head to toe, we departed the car and made our it down to the finish line where we first saw myStanly illuminating the dark sky with the Washington Monument standing proudly in the horizon.

 

The cold didn’t seem as bitter as the sun started to rise, droves of runners made their way to the start line, and friends, families, spectators filled the course. At race kickoff, 30 thousand runners charged DC, and tweets did not slow down. Even runners on the course continued to tweet! Our VIP badges allowed us direct access to the finish line and we were able to capture Reuben Mwei and Amanda Rice, the first finishers of the MCM10K for men and women, respectively, as they crossed the finish line and live tweet their victory pictures. A few hours later, marathon runner, Army Reserve 1st Lt. Charles Ware, rounded the corner towards the finish line becoming the 36th Marine Corps Marathon winner with the best MCM time since 1997 at 2 hours, 19 minutes, 16 seconds.

          

Rapidly, congratulations and cheers flooded Twitter and we were able to capture and display them on the jumbotron.
This was my first marathon experience and to say the least, it was both exhilarating and inspiring. To have the chance to take part in such an amazing event was an honor. Being able to moderate and share people’s messages of encouragement and excitement made the experience surreal. Congratulations to all the runners and the Marine Corps Marathon for all your hard work!

The post MetroStar Systems Supports the 36th Marine Corps Marathon appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/11/02/metrostar-systems-supports-the-36th-marine-corps-marathon/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/10/25/linq-to-sharepoint-vs-caml-vs-sql-performance/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/10/25/linq-to-sharepoint-vs-caml-vs-sql-performance/#comments Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:59:26 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5492 On a project I’ve just recently started I was tasked to create some SharePoint web services which would serve up data stored in lists.  Having learned recently about a new tool for SharePoint 2010 called Linq to SharePoint I decided I would give it a try rather than taking my normal approach of using CAML [...]

The post Linq to SharePoint vs. CAML vs. SQL Performance appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> On a project I’ve just recently started I was tasked to create some SharePoint web services which would serve up data stored in lists.  Having learned recently about a new tool for SharePoint 2010 called Linq to SharePoint I decided I would give it a try rather than taking my normal approach of using CAML inside of SPQuery objects.  Linq to SharePoint is supposed to speed up the development process by creating a DAL for you based on the structure of your SharePoint lists with type safety on all of the lists and the relationships within.  Also making use of Linq to write queries means there would no need for the fairly cumbersome CAML queries which all SharePoint developers have come to know and love.

After a day or so of development with this new tool the one thing that became immediately obvious to me was how limited the actual queries could be.  Perhaps it was because of the data model/relationships of the lists but the majority of the queries I needed to run could not be done with pure Linq since Linq to SharePoint can only run queries which span across no more than two lists which was a huge problem for me since many of my queries needed to span upwards of four lists. (I probably should have noticed that in the documentation).

Query limitations aside I was able to get my code working and decided to do some due diligence and fire up a load tester to see what kind of performance these web services would provide.  What I found was pretty shocking.



After reaching around six requests per second the CPU of the WFE (web front end) would become maxed out with page response times hitting nearly 2 seconds.  This seemed like a surprisingly low amount of performance since the server it was running on had four CPUs and four GB of ram (albeit it is a VM) so I decided to see where all of that CPU time was being spent so I hooked up the Visual Studio profiler and noticed that over 80% of the time was being spent in the inner workings of the Linq to SharePoint code.

At this point I decided to see what would happen if I replaced all of the Linq to SharePoint queries with plain old CAML queries running against the SPList.GetDataTable method.  The load tester was then run and came up with these numbers:



By using CAML queries the WFE was able to handle around 20 requests per second until its CPU maxed out, quite an improvement!

Then per my bosses request I created the same data model with a plain old relational database (SQL 2008r2) to see what the performance for the web service would be like with SQL as opposed to SharePoint.



As most people would suspect this preformed by far the best with the WFE being able to handle around 50 requests per second!

 

Although this may not have been the most scientific test in the world it definitely shows the overhead which Linq to SharePoint introduces as well as the overhead which SharePoint lists have over plain old SQL.  The lesson I’ve taken away from this is that Linq to SharePoint is okay for smaller/simpler projects where performance is not as important as getting the development done quickly however I will be staying away from it in the future.

The post Linq to SharePoint vs. CAML vs. SQL Performance appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/10/25/linq-to-sharepoint-vs-caml-vs-sql-performance/feed/ 3 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/10/13/fedtalks2011/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/10/13/fedtalks2011/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:33:11 +0000 Bryan Roberts http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5482 I had the pleasure of attending FedTalks2011 – an event held October 11, 2011 at the Warner Theater in Washington D.C. The event was hosted by FedScoop and brought together “the greatest minds in government and business technology to discuss how innovation can aid in the way government works.” I was introduced to top White [...]

The post FedTalks2011 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> I had the pleasure of attending FedTalks2011 – an event held October 11, 2011 at the Warner Theater in Washington D.C. The event was hosted by FedScoop and brought together “the greatest minds in government and business technology to discuss how innovation can aid in the way government works.”

I was introduced to top White House leaders, federal agencies, and the tech industry all in one sitting. The event was pioneered by founder and CEO of FedScoop, Goldy Kamali, who for the past three years has been providing attendees with exposure to great IT minds. Being relatively new to the world of IT, attending FedTalks2011 was a great way to meet and learn from some of the industry’s top commercial, and Government IT professionals. With speakers such as Aneesh Chopra, Assistant to the President & U.S. CTO, Executive Office of the President, Terry Kline, CIO and VP of IT at General Motors, Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist.com, Robert Stephens, Founder of Geek Squad & Chief Technology Officer of Best Buy, and a number of other industry influencers, it was difficult for me not to feel positively overwhelmed with valuable technology information.

Each speaker spoke to the audience about their work in IT with their organization on various topics such as Citizen Engagement, Cyber Security, and Lowering the Costs of Government with Technology to name off a short list of the abundance of topics that influenced my “think outside of the box,” mentality. I am told the event gets better every year which I can certainly believe after being moved by Robert Stephens of Best Buy’s delivery of how he started the popular in home computer fix-it company Geek Squad. Stephens delivered a brief overview of starting Geek Squad in college with $200 to his name. He joked about how it annoys him that people often think that Best Buy created Geek Squad as he laughed and said “I created Geek Squad and later acquired Best Buy.”

From Stephens, to Craig Newmark’s fireside chat with Dr. Peter Levin on Citizen Engagement, and Terry Kline’s convincing delivery of leveraging the consumerization of IT in an organization. I left FedTalks2011 eager to learn more about the IT and government fields of IT knowledge to carry with me until Fedtalks2012.

To learn more about FedTalks2011 visit http://fedscoop.com/fedtalks/fedtalks2011/

 

The post FedTalks2011 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/10/13/fedtalks2011/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/10/03/jennys-sharepoint-tip-rollup-items-across-a-site-collection-by-creating-a-cross-list-data-view-web-part/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/10/03/jennys-sharepoint-tip-rollup-items-across-a-site-collection-by-creating-a-cross-list-data-view-web-part/#comments Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:55:21 +0000 Jennifer Hersko http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5402 Applies to:  SharePoint 2007 While working on a client project I had a request to rollup all  calendar items across a single site collection on the home page of the root site.  After reviewing several blogs describing how to create a cross list data view web part (dvwp) I was able to successfully create a [...]

The post Jenny’s SharePoint Tip: Rollup items across a site collection by creating a cross list data view web part. appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Applies to:  SharePoint 2007

While working on a client project I had a request to rollup all  calendar items across a single site collection on the home page of the root site.  After reviewing several blogs describing how to create a cross list data view web part (dvwp) I was able to successfully create a solution per the client request.  This blog provides step-by-step instructions for creating your own cross list dvwp.  

The below example creates a cross list dvwp that displays all calendar items from across a site collection on a web page or site.  After the cross list dvwp is created, any new sub site with a calendar list will have its entries compiled in the cross list dvwp. 



Things to know prior to starting  

List Server Template 
You need to know the list server template number for the list type you will querying for this solution.  I.e. A calendar list’s server template number is 106.  Each list type in SharePoint has a number associated with it and this number is required to create a cross list query.   For a listing of list types and their corresponding numbers,  visit this MSDN page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd340479(v=prot.13).aspx

Static/Internal Name versus Display Name for Columns
Most often columns have two names; an internal name and a display name.  I.e. In a calendar list the Start Time column has an internal name of EventDate.  When creating a cross list query the internal names are required.  For more information on internal vs. display names, read this blog by Marc Anderson:  http://sympmarc.com/2009/12/11/staticname-versus-displayname-on-sharepoint-lists/ 

Keep in Mind

There are pros and cons associated with using a cross list dvwp rather than purchasing a more robust 3rd party tool. 

 Create a cross list query       

 1.  In the browser, add a list view web part to a web part page or a site page. 
 

 2.  Format the view – include all columns and in the order they should appear in the final product.


 3.  Open SharePoint Designer.  Navigate to the web page or site where the list web part was added and view in Split mode.


4.  Convert the list view web part to a data view web part.  Right-click on the list view web part and choose Convert to XSLT Data View.


 5.  The dvwp needs to know where to query.  From the tool bar, choose Edit, then Find.

a.    Search for <ParameterBindings> 

After the open <ParameterBindings> tag, add the following parameter binding to the list using your site/sub site information (NOTE:  your site information may be /site/, or /site/subsite/, or, /site/sub site/sub sub site/, etc.): 

<parameterbinding Name=”WebURL” Location=”None” DefaultValue=”/site/subsite/“/> 

b.  Search for <xsl:param 

Above the first entry, add the following using your site/sub site information: 

<xsl:param name=”WebURL”>/site/subsite/</xsl:param> 

  

6.   This section tells the query what columns to match and display.

a.  Search for <DataSources>

b.  In the code pane in Designer, between the open <DataSources> and closing </DataSources> tags, look for the id=”[id_name_here]“.  Copy the existing id name and save it somewhere.  You will need this information in step 6d.


c.  In the code pane, delete the following code:  open <DataSources> tag to the closing </DeleteParameters> tag and all code between. This should leave you with the open <SelectParameters> tag to the closing </DataSources> tag. 

d. Above the open <SelectParameters> tag copy and paste the below open <DataSources> tag and following code and modify the items highlighted in yellow to match your list needs.

<DataSources><SharePoint:SPDataSource runat=”server” DataSourceMode=”CrossList” SelectCommand=”<View><Webs Scope=’Recursive’></Webs><Lists ServerTemplate=’106‘></Lists><ViewFields><FieldRef Name=’FileDirRef‘/><FieldRef Name=’ID‘/><FieldRef Name=’Location‘/><FieldRef Name=’Title‘/><FieldRef Name=’EventDate‘/><FieldRef Name=’EndDate‘/><ProjectProperty Name=’Title‘/></ViewFields><Query></Query></View>” UseInternalName=”True” id=”datasource2“>

CODE OVERVIEW  

Highlighted text – readers of this blog should replace highlighted text with values that correspond to their solution.  
***I.e. If your cross list is NOT querying calendar lists, then the list server template of 106 should be replaced with the correct value.
***The <FieldRef Name> tags tell the data view what columns to display.  If a column should appear in the dvwp, be sorted on, or filtered on, the column name MUST have a <FieldRef Name> tag.  NOTE:  You can have as many or few <FieldRef Name> tags as necessary.  

Text in red should not be deleted. 
***The Cross added in the DataSourceMode is the key to searching across the site collection for items of the same list server type. 
***The FileDirRef reference identifies information about the file directory.  Do no delete this FieldRef.
***The ProjectProperty Name=”Title/” reference populates the site name the list item is popultating from.  Do not delete this reference if you want to note what site the item in your query is pulling from. 

Click anywhere in the design pane of Designer.  The dvwp should now contain  items from across the site collection that are saved to lists using the list server template you defined in step 6d.
   

7.  The Title field does not link to item display forms.  To enable this functionality, search for select=”@Title” and locate the reference inside of a <xsl:value-of  tag.

a.  The xsl:value-of tag that contains the @Title will reside inside of an <a> tag – delete the open <a> and closing </a> tags and all code inside of it. 

b.  Replace the text with the following: 

<a><xsl:attribute name=”href”>/<xsl:value-of select=”substring-after(@FileDirRef,’;#’)” />/Dispform.aspx?ID=<xsl:value-of select=”@ID” /></xsl:attribute><xsl:value-of select=”@Title” /></a>

8.  To add the site name where each item resides, Right-click the dvwp and choose Show Common Control Tasks, choose Edit Columns, then select ProjectProperty.Title and hit the Add button to display that column in the dvwp.  After the column is added, in the code pane, edit the column header to read as Site. 

 



 

 NOTE: My example does not contain any name columns, but if it did…  Columns that display names will contain extra characters (D’oh!).  To correct this, edit the xsl command containing the column name (thanks to Lee Kohnn for helping me with this one).  Columns that display names include but are not limited to: AssignedTo, Requestor, Author, Editor. 

Search for select=”@[Column Internal Name]” and locate the reference inside of a <xsl:value-of tag. 

a.  Replace the existing xsl with the following: 

<xsl:value-of select=”substring-after(@[Column Internal Name],’;#’)” /> 

The finished product

Voila, my cross list dvwp!  As new sub sites are added, any calendar list that contains items will automatically populate in my dvwp.  As items and/or sub sites are deleted, my dvwp will automatically update by removing those items.


Links

Here are some useful blogs I read to help unravel this solution for myself:

• http://platinumdogs.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/querying-document-libraries-or-pulling-teeth-with-caml/
• http://sympmarc.com/2009/04/21/displaying-columns-in-a-crosslist-dvwp/
• http://www.manliane.com/kb/157/

 

 

 

 

The post Jenny’s SharePoint Tip: Rollup items across a site collection by creating a cross list data view web part. appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/10/03/jennys-sharepoint-tip-rollup-items-across-a-site-collection-by-creating-a-cross-list-data-view-web-part/feed/ 5 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/09/30/display-this-month-birthdays-in-a-sharepoint-list/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/09/30/display-this-month-birthdays-in-a-sharepoint-list/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:16:27 +0000 Jennifer Hersko http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5309 Applies to:  SharePoint 2007 Anyone who has ever worked with SharePoint knows that creating filters on date values is not as straight forward as one would expect.  This example explains how to compile employee birthdays in a custom list that automatically displays only the current month’s birthdays.  With a few calculated columns, a data view, and minor XSLT [...]

The post Jenny’s SharePoint Tip: How to display “This Month” birthdays in a list using an XSLT filter appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Applies to:  SharePoint 2007

Anyone who has ever worked with SharePoint knows that creating filters on date values is not as straight forward as one would expect.  This example explains how to compile employee birthdays in a custom list that automatically displays only the current month’s birthdays.  With a few calculated columns, a data view, and minor XSLT this is easy to accomplish.

Figure 1 displays a screenshot my configured Birthdays list which displays only current month birthday entries on the home page of my site.  To create your own list that filters by current month follow the below steps. 


Getting Started – List Configuration (These steps are completed in the browser.)

1. Create a custom list and name it Birthdays.

2. Create the following columns:

Column 1)  Birthday (birthday)  /  Date and Time  /  Field is Optional

Column 2)  Birthday Month (birthdaymonth) / Calculated Column / Field is Hidden

=CHOOSE(MONTH(Birthday),”January”,”February”,”March”,”April”,”May”,”June”,”July”,”August”,”September”,
“October”,”November”,”December”)

Column 3)  Day (day) / Calculated Column / Field is Hidden

=”"&DAY(Birthday)

Column 4)  Employee (Title) / Single line of text / Field is Optional

Column 5)  Month (month) / Calculated Column / Field is Hidden

=CHOOSE(MONTH(Birthday),”01″,”02″,”03″,”04″,”05″,”06″,”07″,”08″,”09″,”10″,”11″,”12″)

Your column settings should display as in Figure 2 so that users do not see the hidden fields when a new birthday item is created.





3.  Create a view in the Birthdays list and name it currentbirthdays.  Columns to display are:
1- Birthday Month, 2- Day, and 3- Employee   /    Sort by:  Day (ascending) and Month (ascending).


Birthday list content and configuration 

Before proceeding to the Final Stretch section ensure your list contains the following:




Final Stretch – XSLT filtering in SharePoint Designer 2007

An XSLT filter is used to display only current month birthdays.  The XSLT expression uses the hidden Month column to compare the Birthday Month column to [Today’s] month.

NOTE:  In SharePoint 2010 create the Birthdays list then, in Designer, add an empty data source to a page.  Connect to the Birthdays list and add the columns (Birthday Month, Day, and Employee).  Access the filter settings and follow the below instructions.

4.  Open SharePoint Designer.  Navigate to the Birthdays list and double-click the currentbirthdays.aspx page to open it.



5.  Right-click and convert the list to an XSLT Data View.



6.  Right-click the data view web part and choose Show Common Control Tasks.



7.  Choose Filter.



8.  Check the Add the XSLT Filtering option and choose Edit.  The Advanced Condition dialogue box opens.



9.  In the Edit the XPath Expression field input the following XSLT and then click OK:
[@Month=number(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(ddwrt:Today()),1033,'MM'))]



10.  Select Ok to close the Advanced Condition dialogue box.

11.  Close Designer.  If prompted to Save or Check-in, do so.

NOTE:  After adding the list as a web part to a page or site, it may be necessary to repeat steps 4 – 11.

The post Jenny’s SharePoint Tip: How to display “This Month” birthdays in a list using an XSLT filter appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/09/30/display-this-month-birthdays-in-a-sharepoint-list/feed/ 3 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/09/20/using-powershell-to-update-content-editor-web-parts/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/09/20/using-powershell-to-update-content-editor-web-parts/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:29:54 +0000 Johnny Bouder http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5272 Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to programmatically update the content in Content Editor Web Part (CEWP)? Maybe you added some HTML that is breaking your page or maybe you’re moving your content to another domain and you have some hard coded links in your CEWP’s. Well it turns out that it isn’t really that hard. In my situation we were working with the latter scenario above and within our environment we have many administrators who have created hard coded links within CEWP’s and in order to streamline the upgrade process I thought I would create a PowerShell script...

The post Using PowerShell to Update Content Editor Web Parts appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to programmatically update the content in Content Editor Web Part (CEWP)? Maybe you added some HTML that is breaking your page or maybe you’re moving your content to another domain and you have some hard coded links in your CEWP’s.

Well it turns out that it isn’t really that hard. In my situation we were working with the latter scenario above and within our environment we have many administrators who have created hard coded links within CEWP’s and in order to streamline the upgrade process I thought I would create a PowerShell script.

In the below script, I am essentially referencing the page directly and replacing the domain in the URL’s. My original script actually iterates the entire site collection and also updated other Web Parts, but it turned out to be a lot of code and I wanted to keep this simple.

param([string]$url, [string]$oldUrl, [string]$newUrl, [switch]$checkOnly)

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c") | out-null

$site = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($url);

$web = $site.RootWeb;

$requiresUpdate = $false;

$webPartsToUpdate=@();

Write-Host("");

$webPartManager = $web.GetLimitedWebPartManager("default.aspx", [System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.PersonalizationScope]::Shared);

$webParts = $webPartManager.WebParts;

foreach($webPart in $webParts) 

{

    $tempCheckString = "*" + $oldUrl + "*";

    #Update Content Editor Web Part Content

    if ($webPart.GetType() -eq [Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ContentEditorWebPart] -and $webPart.Content.InnerText -like $tempCheckString) 

    {

        try 

        {   

            # Used as a check before committing updates

            if ($checkOnly) 

            {

                $o = new-object psobject;

                $o | Add-Member -MemberType noteproperty -Name Title -value $webPart.Title;

                $o | Add-Member -MemberType noteproperty -Name Content -value $webPart.Content.InnerText;

                $webPartsToUpdate += $o;

            }

            else 

            {

                Write-Host("Updating: " + $webPart.Title);                

                # Load Old Content

                $oldXmlElement = $webPart.Content;

                $oldXmlContent = $oldXmlElement.InnerText;

                # Create new XML Element and update text

                $xmlDoc = New-Object xml;

                $newXmlElement = $xmlDoc.CreateElement("NewContent");

                $newXmlElement.InnerText = $oldXmlContent.Replace($oldUrl, $newUrl);

                # Update content and save

                $webPart.Content = $newXmlElement;

                $webPartManager.SaveChanges($webPart);

                Write-Host("");    

            }

        } 

        catch 

        {

            "Error: $_";

        }

    }

}

if ($checkOnly) 

{

    Write-Host("Web Parts Requiring Update:");

    $webPartsToUpdate | format-list;

}

else 

{

    Write-Host("Updates Complete");

    Write-Host("");

}

$web.Dispose();

$site.Dispose();

So to use this, you basically just need to copy the above source (navigate your mouse to ‘Line 1′  at the top of the code script above to bring up the ‘copy’ and ‘print’ options for the code), paste it into a text file, save as Update-HardCodedLinks.ps1, and finally run it. An example initial run should look something like this:

./Update-HardCodedLinks -url http://www.newURL.com -oldUrl www.oldURL.com -newUrl www.newUrl.com -checkOnly

If that goes well, remove the checkOnly switch and your content should get updated.

Finally, note that this targets SharePoint 2010, but with a few changes this should also work for SharePoint 2007. Enjoy!

The post Using PowerShell to Update Content Editor Web Parts appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/09/20/using-powershell-to-update-content-editor-web-parts/feed/ 4 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/09/06/911-memorial-video/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/09/06/911-memorial-video/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:28:42 +0000 Kathy Ohlhaber http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5242 We quantify our lives through periods of time often marking the intervals between the present day and a memorable event or day in the past. 1 week…6 months…1 year...5 years… It is the 10-year mark, a full decade, that marks a special period. It is a noteworthy interval of time that curves around change and growth. This significant mark has now been imprinted onto the tragedy of September 11th, 2001. It has been 10 years, and we still remember. We remember the heroes. We remember the fallen. We remember and honor the sacrifices of those that have gone to fight for this country and those who continue to fight to protect us. When thinking about 9/11, I realized I wasn’t alone in my memories. I work in a company full of people who remember that day and want to show honor and respect to the heroes, the fallen, and the loved ones left behind. I sat down with some members of our team, including a Marine, a Purple Heart Soldier, and a mother of two, who shared their stories capturing a timeline of memories, sorrow, hope, and strength. The reflections my colleagues shared with me were truly moving, and I wanted to share them with you as we remember 9/11, 10 years later. We will never forget.

The post 9/11 Memorial Video appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> We quantify our lives through periods of time often marking the intervals between the present day and a memorable event or day in the past.

1 week…6 months…1 year…5 years…

It is the 10-year mark, a full decade, that marks a special period. It is a noteworthy interval of time that curves around change and growth. This significant mark has now been imprinted onto the tragedy of September 11th, 2001.

It has been 10 years, and we still remember.

We remember the heroes.
We remember the fallen.
We remember and honor the sacrifices of those that have gone to fight for this country and those who continue to fight to protect us.

When thinking about 9/11, I realized I wasn’t alone in my memories. I work in a company full of people who remember that day and want to show honor and respect to the heroes, the fallen, and the loved ones left behind.

I sat down with some members of our team, including a Marine, a Purple Heart recipient, and a mother of two, who shared their stories capturing a timeline of memories, sorrow, hope, and strength. The reflections my colleagues shared with me were truly moving, and I wanted to share them with you  as we remember 9/11, 10 years later.

We will never forget.

The post 9/11 Memorial Video appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/09/06/911-memorial-video/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/08/19/we-are-stars-too-the-gsa-8a-stars-ii-program/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/08/19/we-are-stars-too-the-gsa-8a-stars-ii-program/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:14:37 +0000 Monica Huie http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5224 MetroStar Systems is proud to announce it was recently awarded the new GSA 8(a) STARS II Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). The contract is a multiple award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle, with a five-year base period and one five-year extension option. This program is reserved exclusively for qualifying certified 8(a) small businesses as prime contractors per Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 19.8. The contract promotes small business utilization for IT services purchases. 8(a) STARS II Features:
• A multiple-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract vehicle
• A five-year base with one five-year option
• A $10 billion program ceiling
• Limited protestability
• Directed Order Authority: Directed task orders up to $4 million each are allowed for federal civilian and Department of Defense activities
8(a) STARS II Benefits:
• 8(a) socioeconomic credit transferable to the agency
• Pre-competed, easy to use contracts
• Access to proven 8(a) small business technology providers
• Shortened procurement lead time
• A low user access fee (0.75 percent) built into contractor's ceiling prices
In April 2011, MetroStar Systems successfully graduated from the SBA 8(a) program. As we are still classified as a Small Business, the GSA 8(a) STARS II award allows us to continue providing support in designing, developing, and implementing innovative technological tools across federal agencies. GSA has already evaluated and prequalified our technical capabilities, service offerings, and pricing through a competitive process for streamlined contracting and shortened procurement times. More information about the 8(a) STARS II GWAC program can be found here: http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/105243 In addition to this new GWAC, MetroStar Systems has a variety of contract vehicles that allow government agencies to easily procure our products and services including: GSA Schedule 541, GSA Schedule 70, GSA Schedule 874, the Army and Air National Guard IDIQ, and SeaPort-e.

The post We are STARS too! The GSA 8(a) STARS II program appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> MetroStar Systems is proud to announce it was recently awarded the new GSA 8(a) STARS II Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). The contract is a multiple award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle, with a five-year base period and one five-year extension option. This program is reserved exclusively for qualifying certified 8(a) small businesses as prime contractors per Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 19.8. The contract promotes small business utilization for IT services purchases.

8(a) STARS II Features:

• A multiple-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract vehicle
• A five-year base with one five-year option
• A $10 billion program ceiling
• Limited protestability
• Directed Order Authority: Directed task orders up to $4 million each are allowed for federal civilian and Department of Defense activities

8(a) STARS II Benefits:

• 8(a) socioeconomic credit transferable to the agency
• Pre-competed, easy to use contracts
• Access to proven 8(a) small business technology providers
• Shortened procurement lead time
• A low user access fee (0.75 percent) built into contractor’s ceiling prices

In April 2011, MetroStar Systems successfully graduated from the SBA 8(a) program. As we are still classified as a Small Business, the GSA 8(a) STARS II award allows us to continue providing support in designing, developing, and implementing innovative technological tools across federal agencies. GSA has already evaluated and prequalified our technical capabilities, service offerings, and pricing through a competitive process for streamlined contracting and shortened procurement times. More information about the 8(a) STARS II GWAC program can be found here: http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/105243

In addition to this new GWAC, MetroStar Systems has a variety of contract vehicles that allow government agencies to easily procure our products and services including: GSA Schedule 541, GSA Schedule 70, GSA Schedule 874, the Army and Air National Guard IDIQ, and SeaPort-e.

The post We are STARS too! The GSA 8(a) STARS II program appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/08/19/we-are-stars-too-the-gsa-8a-stars-ii-program/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/07/28/updated-gac-dlls-not-showing-updates-in-asp-net-applications/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/07/28/updated-gac-dlls-not-showing-updates-in-asp-net-applications/#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:22:22 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5119 I recently ran into an issue on one of my development ASP.Net servers where I would deploy an updated DLL (Dynamic-link library) to the GAC (global assembly cache) but the ASP.Net applications which referenced the DLL would throw compilation errors at run-time saying that newly added fields/methods were not present in the assembly. I tried uninstalling and re-installing the assembly, adding the new DLL to the bin, and referencing it from there and so on, but nothing seemed to work. As it turns out, ASP.Net keeps a cached version of the JIT compiled DLL in the C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files directory that was being used instead of the new DLL which was in the GAC. To fix it, I simply deleted the contents of this folder and everything was right as rain! -Lee

The post Updated GAC DLLs not showing updates in ASP.Net Applications appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> I recently ran into an issue on one of my development ASP.Net servers where I would deploy an updated DLL (Dynamic-link library) to the GAC (global assembly cache) but the ASP.Net applications which referenced the DLL would throw compilation errors at run-time saying that newly added fields/methods were not present in the assembly.  I tried uninstalling and re-installing the assembly, adding the new DLL to the bin, and referencing it from there and so on, but nothing seemed to work.

As it turns out, ASP.Net keeps a cached version of the JIT compiled DLL in the C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files directory that was being used instead of the new DLL which was in the GAC.  To fix it, I simply deleted the contents of this folder and everything was right as rain!

-Lee

The post Updated GAC DLLs not showing updates in ASP.Net Applications appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/07/28/updated-gac-dlls-not-showing-updates-in-asp-net-applications/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/07/05/computerworld-recognizes-the-metrostar-advantage/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/07/05/computerworld-recognizes-the-metrostar-advantage/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:01:23 +0000 Monica Huie http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=5065 ComputerWorld recently released its annual report recognizing the 100 Best Places to Work in IT for 2011. I am excited to announce that MetroStar Systems made the list with an impressive showing at #85 overall! We also finished in the Top 10 of the Small Business Category and #2 in the South Atlantic Region. In a region filled with many tech companies, it is also noteworthy to mention that MetroStar Systems is the only IT firm in Reston, Virginia ranked in the report. Our commitment to employee learning and development gave us a significant edge in the selection process. ComputerWorld created a special employer profile for each of the Top 100 companies and our Employer Profile highlights our innovative employee training, career development, and recognition strategies.



We are excited to see that our dedication to excellence is being recognized by the one of the "leading sources in technology news and information for IT influencers nationwide." This special recognition also comes on the heels of a fruitful 2010 where we were awarded accolades for significant growth. Job satisfaction, working in an enjoyable environment, employees benefits, and excellent employee morale add significant value to the quality of work we are able to provide to our clients, and acknowledgement for being a leader in this area only serves to strengthen our reputation. Special thanks to all of our team members who make MetroStar Systems one of the Best Places to Work in IT everyday!

The post COMPUTERWORLD Recognizes The MetroStar Advantage! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

ComputerWorld recently released its annual report recognizing the 100 Best Places to Work in IT for 2011.  I am excited to announce that MetroStar Systems made the list with an impressive showing at #85 overall!  We also finished in the Top 10 of the Small Business Category and #2 in the South Atlantic Region.  In a region filled with many tech companies, it is also noteworthy to mention that MetroStar Systems is the only IT firm in Reston, Virginia ranked in the report.

Our commitment to employee learning and development gave us a significant edge in the selection process.  ComputerWorld created a special employer profile for each of the Top 100 companies and our Employer Profile highlights our innovative employee training, career development, and recognition strategies.



We are excited to see that our dedication to excellence is being recognized by the one of the “leading sources in technology news and information for IT influencers nationwide.“  This special recognition also comes on the heels of a fruitful 2010 where we were awarded accolades for significant growth.  Job satisfaction, working in an enjoyable environment, employees benefits, and excellent employee morale add significant value to the quality of work we are able to provide to our clients, and acknowledgement for being a leader in this area only serves to strengthen our reputation. Special thanks to all of our team members who make MetroStar Systems one of the Best Places to Work in IT everyday!

The post COMPUTERWORLD Recognizes The MetroStar Advantage! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/07/05/computerworld-recognizes-the-metrostar-advantage/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/06/22/upgrading-sharepoint-2007-visual-studio-projects/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/06/22/upgrading-sharepoint-2007-visual-studio-projects/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:13:12 +0000 Johnny Bouder http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4988 This blog post will outline the steps required to upgrade a SharePoint 2007 Visual Studio Project to a SharePoint 2010 Visual Studio Project using the VSeWSS Import Tool for Visual Studio 2010 (http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/VSeWSSImport). The tool is kind of old at this point, but it is still very useful and I haven’t found a better tool. This post will be helpful to you if you have created custom SharePoint 2007 solutions using the VSeWSS Visual Studio extensions. The tool above can be used to easily upgrade these projects to SharePoint 2010 projects. This post should be especially useful if you are upgrading existing SharePoint 2007 sites to SharePoint 2010 that already have these Web Parts added and you would like the ability to add additional modifications to these projects. Installing the VSeWSS Import Tool The VSeWSS tool is actually provided as a Visual Studio Project, which needs to be compiled in order to build the executable to install the tool into Visual Studio. One other thing to note is that in order to open the solution in Visual Studio 2010, you need to install the Visual Studio 2010 SDK (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=47305cf4-2bea-43c0-91cd-1b853602dcc5&displaylang=en). Why this isn’t included in Visual Studio by default is beyond me. Or why it is not mentioned in the VSeWSS Import Tool installation instruction is also beyond me. So basically, install the SDK, and then follow the instructions to install the new project type. Importing Your Projects To get started you want to copy any old Visual Studio project directories over to computer where you will be writing your Visual Studio 2010 solutions. Once you have your old projects ready and have everything installed go ahead and fire up Visual Studio 2010. Click New Project and you will now have a new project template called Import VSeVSS Project (if the installation went well). See below:



The post Upgrading SharePoint 2007 Visual Studio Projects appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> This blog post will outline the steps required to upgrade a SharePoint 2007 Visual Studio Project to a SharePoint 2010 Visual Studio Project using the VSeWSS Import Tool for Visual Studio 2010 (http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/VSeWSSImport). The tool is kind of old at this point, but it is still very useful and I haven’t found a better tool.

This post will be helpful to you if you have created custom SharePoint 2007 solutions using the VSeWSS Visual Studio extensions. The tool above can be used to easily upgrade these projects to SharePoint 2010 projects. This post should be especially useful if you are upgrading existing SharePoint 2007 sites to SharePoint 2010 that already have these Web Parts added and you would like the ability to add additional modifications to these projects.

Installing the VSeWSS Import Tool

The VSeWSS tool is actually provided as a Visual Studio Project, which needs to be compiled in order to build the executable to install the tool into Visual Studio. One other thing to note is that in order to open the solution in Visual Studio 2010, you need to install the Visual Studio 2010 SDK (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=47305cf4-2bea-43c0-91cd-1b853602dcc5&displaylang=en). Why this isn’t included in Visual Studio by default is beyond me. Or why it is not mentioned in the VSeWSS Import Tool installation instructions is also beyond me.

So basically, install the SDK, and then follow the instructions to install the new project type.

Importing Your Projects

To get started you want to copy any old Visual Studio project directories over to computer where you will be writing your Visual Studio 2010 solutions.

Once you have your old projects ready and have everything installed go ahead and fire up Visual Studio 2010. Click New Project and you will now have a new project template called Import VSeVSS Project (if the installation went well). See below:



Next, name your new projects exactly like they are in the old solutions in order to ensure your solutions upgrade correctly. Once you have named the project click the “OK” button. You should see the import dialog like this:



In the dialog, set a debug URL if needed, and change the trust level to full-trust. Next, click the “Browse” button and browse to one of your old projects. Select the “Project configuration” file and click “Open“. Finally, click “Finish“.

The tool will then go through and upgrade the files to reflect the new layout of a SharePoint 2010 Visual Studio solution. Once the upgrade is complete, if there were no errors, you should see the new project laid out in the Solution Explorer. If you have not created any SharePoint 2010 solutions you will notice that the solutions are organized in a much more intuitive fashion (in my opinion at least). If you are upgrading something that deploys as a feature (like a Web Part) you will notice a Feature folder as well as the Package folder. Your solution explorer should look something like this:



So that officially upgrades your solution! Technically you should be able to just run the deployment inside Visual Studio and deploy your solution as is, however I have found this to not always be the case.

Final Updates and Fixes

Below you will find a list of items that I make it a habit of checking before I consider the project officially upgraded. You may or may not need to make these changes. Hopefully these will save you some time as I spent about a week figuring most of these out on my own.

1. Update Feature Title, Description, and Scope – for some reason when I upgraded some of my Web Parts the feature title and description did not get carried over. To update these expand the Features folder and double click on the item(s) within. Then just fill in the boxes. Also, my Scope was changed to Web for many of my features that were originally set to Site. Just change that in the drop down.
2. Update the Deployment Path (this one is just me being a little bit retentive) – By default the feature will be deployed to the Feature directory in the form of <NAMESPACE_FEATURE>. For me the feature part was unnecessary so to remove this, while updating the section above you will see a property called Deployment Path in the Properties window. In this property you will see something like $SharePoint.Project.FileNameWithoutExtension$_$SharePoint.Feature.FileNameWithoutExtension$. You want to remove $_$SharePoint.Feature.FileNameWithoutExtension$.
3. Add SafeControl entry to spdata file (if your project is a Web Part you may need to make this change) – The spdata file specifies the contents and behavior of a SharePoint project item. In order to see this file, click the “Show All Files” button at the top of the Solution Explorer. You should see the spdata file within your individual project directory. In the file paste the following below the Files element (replace the placeholders):
   

   <SafeControls>

   <SafeControl Name=”SafeControlEntry1” Assembly=”$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$” Namespace=”<NAMESPACE>”

   TypeName=”<TYPENAME>” IsSafe=”True” IsSafeAgainstScript=”False” />

   </SafeControls>

4. Update Elements.xml – My elements.xml (actually not named elements.xml in my case) file is actually the file which caused me the most grief. For things like Web Parts, this file is what is used to specify what happens when the feature is enabled. For some reason when I would try to add a Web Part after enabling the feature I would get the following error:



It turned out that the Web Part was actually being added to a folder within the Web Part catalog, which is why the error notes a directory. I’m not sure if this has something to do with differences in SharePoint 2007/SharePoint 2010 Web Parts or if it was an issue in the upgrade, but either way it needed to be fixed for every one of my Web Parts that are added as features.

To fix this issue, remove the directory part of the URL in the Url property of the Elements.xml file. More specifically within the File xml element you will see a Path and a Url. If within the Url you see something like <DIRECTORY\example.webpart>, remove “Directory\.” This one drove me crazy because when I enabled the feature a file was getting added to the Web Part Gallery, but it wasn’t an XML file. It actually came down to me writing a PowerShell script to determine what exactly the file was.

Two more things that are probably just for good measure are to add “Type=GhostableInLibrary” to the File element and to specify a value for a group. Here is what mine looked like after everything was updated:

<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”utf-8”?>

<Elements Id=”<ID>” xmlns=”http://schema.microsoft.com/sharepoint/”>

<Module Name=”Test” List=”113” Url=”_catalogs/wp”>

<File Path=”Test\Test.webpart” Url=”Test.webpart” Type=”GhostableInLibrary”>

<Property Name=”Group” Value=”Custom” />

</File>

< /Module>

</Elements>

I hope this post is informative and time saving for you and I hope it will allow people to deploy much cleaner solutions to their brand new SharePoint 2010 environment. As always, please leave a comment if you have any questions, additional tips on this topic, or if you have a better solution to share. Thanks!

The post Upgrading SharePoint 2007 Visual Studio Projects appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/06/22/upgrading-sharepoint-2007-visual-studio-projects/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/06/03/national-capital-area-tour-de-cure-2011/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/06/03/national-capital-area-tour-de-cure-2011/#comments Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:03:46 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4964



The National Capital Area Tour de Cure is taking place this Sunday, June 5th 2011 at the Reston Town Center in Reston, VA. The Tour de Cure is a series of fundraising events hosted by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). The Tour de Cure is a "premier cycling event held in 80 locations in 33 states" that last year featured over 49,000 participants who helped raise over $19 million to support the ADA's mission. The event is family friendly and features rides for all ages and cycling levels from the 10 mile ride to the big 100 mile ride. Registration is still open and you can also check-in on the morning of the event. For all the information you need to know and to register, visit the National Capital Area Tour de Cure website at www.diabetes.org/nationalcapitaltourdecure MetroStar Systems is proud to be a sponsor for this event and we will also be supporting the event with our MyStanly Twitter display tool. If you are participating in the event or if you are in the Reston area on Sunday, stop by our booth! You can follow the conversation on Twitter by searching the hashtag #TourdeCureDC, follow @TourdeCureDC, and keep track of MyStanly's #TourdeCureDC feed.

The post National Capital Area Tour de Cure 2011 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

The National Capital Area Tour de Cure is taking place this Sunday, June 5th 2011 at the Reston Town Center in Reston, VA.  The Tour de Cure is a series of fundraising events hosted by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).  The Tour de Cure is a “premier cycling event held in 80 locations in 33 states” that last year featured over 49,000 participants who helped raise over $19 million to support the ADA’s mission. The event is family friendly and features rides for all ages and cycling levels from the 10 mile ride to the big 100 mile ride.

Registration is still open and you can also check-in on the morning of the event. For all the information you need to know and to register, visit the National Capital Area Tour de Cure website at www.diabetes.org/nationalcapitaltourdecure

MetroStar Systems is proud to be a sponsor for this event and we will also be supporting the event with our MyStanly Twitter display tool. If you are participating in the event or if you are in the Reston area on Sunday, stop by our booth! You can follow the conversation on Twitter by searching the hashtag #TourdeCureDC, follow @TourdeCureDC, and keep track of MyStanly’s #TourdeCureDC feed.

The post National Capital Area Tour de Cure 2011 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/06/03/national-capital-area-tour-de-cure-2011/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/26/techstate-serious-games-conference/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/26/techstate-serious-games-conference/#comments Thu, 26 May 2011 13:05:33 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4927



The Department of State’s Tech@State team will be hosting the 5^th edition of Tech@State events at the Jack Morton Auditorium in the Media and Public Affairs building of George Washington University on Friday May 27 and Saturday May 28. Over 200 attendees will “explore the mechanics of games, business and sustainability, design, education, international aspects, games for social change and much more.” MetroStar Systems will be supporting the Tech@State team with our MyStanly twitter moderation/display application, and our CEO Ali Manouchehri is slated to speak on two separate panels on Day 1. He will first address the topic of “Games, Business and Sustainability” and then present with a panel about “Military and Government games”. The event features an impressive collection of government, academic, non-profit, and industry experts/tech innovators who will be sharing their experiences and exploring many aspects of serious games. The agenda and complete schedule is now available at the Tech@State blog. Here are some additional URL links that may be helpful if you are interested in attending or want more information:
• Tech@State website: http://tech.state.gov/
• Tech@State: Serious Games event registration: http://techatstate-srsgames.eventbrite.com/
• Event Agenda & Schedule: http://tech.state.gov/profiles/blogs/serious-games-content-and
• Bios of speakers & panelists: http://tech.state.gov/profiles/blogs/serious-games-speaker-bios
For those of you who cannot attend the event, you are in luck! This event will be live streamed on Tech@State’s UStream channel: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tech-state. You can also follow the conversation on twitter by searching the hashtag #TechAtState and following our live tweets @metrostarsystem.

The post Tech@State: Serious Games Conference appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

The Department of State’s Tech@State team will be hosting the 5^th edition of Tech@State events at the Jack Morton Auditorium in the Media and Public Affairs building of George Washington University on Friday May 27 and Saturday May 28. Over 200 attendees will “explore the mechanics of games, business and sustainability, design, education, international aspects, games for social change and much more.”

MetroStar Systems will be supporting the Tech@State team with our MyStanly twitter moderation/display application, and our CEO Ali Manouchehri is slated to speak on two separate panels on Day 1. He will first address the topic of “Games, Business and Sustainability” and then present with a panel about “Military and Government games”.  The event features an impressive collection of government, academic, non-profit, and industry experts/tech innovators who will be sharing their experiences and exploring many aspects of serious games. The agenda and complete schedule is now available at the Tech@State blog.

Here are some additional URL links that may be helpful if you are interested in attending or want more information:

• Tech@State website:  http://tech.state.gov/
• Tech@State: Serious Games event registration:  http://techatstate-srsgames.eventbrite.com/
• Event Agenda & Schedule:  http://tech.state.gov/profiles/blogs/serious-games-content-and
• Bios of speakers & panelists:  http://tech.state.gov/profiles/blogs/serious-games-speaker-bios

For those of you who cannot attend the event, you are in luck! This event will be live streamed on Tech@State’s UStream channel: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tech-state.  You can also follow the conversation on twitter by searching the hashtag #TechAtState and following our live tweets @metrostarsystem.

*** Updated 5/31/2011 ***

The event was a great success with excellent panels, great presentations, and great ideas shared. Here is a video of the “Military and Government Games” panel that Ali moderated at the end of Day 1:

Video streaming by Ustream

The post Tech@State: Serious Games Conference appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/26/techstate-serious-games-conference/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/11/persistent-sharepoint-2010-site-columns/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/11/persistent-sharepoint-2010-site-columns/#comments Wed, 11 May 2011 19:50:14 +0000 Christopher Lincoln http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4866 Site Columns and Site Content Types are a great feature of SharePoint.  They're easy to create/modify and provide granular configuration capabilities.  It's commonly known that the Title Site Column can't be removed from Site Content Types (or List Content Types, for that matter); it's attached to the Item Base Content Type, after all. But did you know that there are many Site Columns that can't be removed from Site or List Content Types?



But did you know that there are many Site Columns that can't be removed from Site or List Content Types?

The post Persistent SharePoint 2010 Site Columns appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Site Columns and Site Content Types are a great feature of SharePoint.  They’re easy to create/modify and provide granular configuration capabilities.  It’s commonly known that the Title Site Column can’t be removed from Site Content Types (or List Content Types, for that matter); it’s attached to the Item Base Content Type, after all.

But did you know that there are many Site Columns that can’t be removed from Site or List Content Types?



Below is a list of Site Columns confirmed to be persistent on Site & List Content Types in SharePoint 2010.

Display Name	Internal Name
Active	RoutingEnabled
Aliases	RoutingAliases
Article Date	ArticleStartDate
Byline	ArticleByLine
Contact	PublishingContact
Contact E-Mail Address	PublishingContactEmail
Contact Name	PublishingContactName
Contact Picture	PublishingContactPicture
Custom Router	RoutingCustomRouter
Image Caption	PublishingImageCaption
Page Content	PublishingPageContent
Page Icon	PublishingPageIcon
Page Image	PublishingPageImage
Priority	RoutingPriority
Properties used in Conditions	RoutingConditionProperties
Property for Automatic Folder Creation	RoutingAutoFolderProp
Rollup Image	PublishingRollupImage
Route To External Location	RoutingRuleExternal
Rule Name	RoutingRuleName
Scheduling End Date	PublishingExpirationDate
Scheduling Start Date	PublishingStartDate
Submission Content Type	RoutingContentType
Summary Links	SummaryLinks
Summary Links 2	SummaryLinks2
Target Audiences	Audience
Target Folder	RoutingTargetFolder
Target Library	RoutingTargetLibrary
Target Path	RoutingTargetPath

Get-SPScripts provides some very helpful Powershell scripts to remove such columns if necessary.

---

UPDATE (11 MAY 2011)

It appears that Site Content Types that using or having used one or more “persistent Site Columns” cannot be deleted.  A custom Site Content Type (named “Service”) was used to test behavior of these persistent Site Columns.  It could not be deleted through the SharePoint web UI due to an error stating: “The content type is in use.”



To confirm Site Content Type usage, each List and Site Content Type was inspected; no objects were found to use the “Service” Site Content Type.  Using SharePoint Manager 2010, it was confirmed that the Site Content Type was not being used.



Unfortunately, the “Service” Site Content Type could not be deleted using SharePoint Manager 2010 due to an error stating: “Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.”  Under the suspicion that the persistent Site Columns were causing unanticipated behavior, they were removed from the “Service” Site Content Type using Get-SPScripts’ PowerShell scripts through the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.  Unfortunately, the “Service” Site Content Type still could not be deleted using the SharePoint web UI, SharePoint Manager 2010, or PowerShell scripts.

The post Persistent SharePoint 2010 Site Columns appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/11/persistent-sharepoint-2010-site-columns/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/09/sharepoint-2010-query-string-mayhem/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/09/sharepoint-2010-query-string-mayhem/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 14:30:08 +0000 Christopher Lincoln http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4819 Do you have a customized SharePoint page that uses the query string variable "ID" to identify a List Item by its ID value? Did SharePoint throw an error that "no item exists at" that location? Are you certain it exists?



If you answered "yes" to each of the above questions, switch your query string variable name from "ID" to something -anything- else. SharePoint 2010 apparently reserves "ID" for peculiar usage and therefore cannot be used as freely as with SharePoint 2007.

The post SharePoint 2010: Query String Mayhem appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Do you have a customized SharePoint page that uses the query string variable “ID” to identify a List Item by its ID value? Did SharePoint throw an error that “no item exists at” that location? Are you certain it exists?



If you answered “yes” to each of the above questions, switch your query string variable name from “ID” to something -anything- else.

SharePoint 2010 apparently reserves “ID” for peculiar usage and therefore cannot be used as freely as with SharePoint 2007.

The post SharePoint 2010: Query String Mayhem appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/09/sharepoint-2010-query-string-mayhem/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/05/clays-cross-county-journey-for-multiple-sclerosis/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/05/clays-cross-county-journey-for-multiple-sclerosis/#comments Thu, 05 May 2011 19:34:32 +0000 Monica Huie http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4834 On April 23rd, our team member, Clay Calvert, started his journey across the United States. From Mexico to Maine, with a stop in Canada, Clay will be traveling over 3,600 miles – all on his bicycle! Clay, an Information Security Officer & Technical Trainer at MetroStar Systems, will be riding his bicycle cross-country to help fight Multiple Sclerosis.



This is Clay’s fifth year participating in Bike MS as part of Team BRUCE (Bikers Ride Until a Cure Exists). You can read more about why Clay rides and follow him on his cross-country journey via his blog: http://claysride.com All of the MetroStar family are proud of you and wishing you all the best Clay!

The post Clay’s cross-country journey for Multiple Sclerosis appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> On April 23rd, our team member, Clay Calvert, started his journey across the United States. From Mexico to Maine, with a stop in Canada, Clay will be traveling over 3,600 miles – all on his bicycle! Clay, an Information Security Officer & Technical Trainer at MetroStar Systems, will be riding his bicycle cross-country to help fight Multiple Sclerosis.



This is Clay’s fifth year participating in Bike MS as part of Team BRUCE (Bikers Ride Until a Cure Exists). You can read more about why Clay rides and follow him on his cross-country journey via his blog: http://claysride.com

All of the MetroStar family are proud of you and wishing you all the best Clay!

The post Clay’s cross-country journey for Multiple Sclerosis appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/05/clays-cross-county-journey-for-multiple-sclerosis/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/03/sharepoint-2007-workflow-status-codes/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/03/sharepoint-2007-workflow-status-codes/#comments Tue, 03 May 2011 13:30:03 +0000 Christopher Lincoln http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4772 By default, SharePoint 2007 creates a new column within a List when an attached workflow is started for the first time. The displayed column value is a verbose workflow status (e.g. "In Progress", "Error Occurred", etc.). However, if List Items are retrieved from a List View containing such a "workflow column" using the Lists Web Service, the returned values of any workflow columns are not verbose. In fact, they're the opposite...

The post SharePoint 2007 Workflow Status Codes appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> By default, SharePoint 2007 creates a new column within a List when an attached workflow is started for the first time (more information).  The displayed column value is a verbose workflow status (e.g. “In Progress”, “Error Occurred”, etc.).  However, if List Items are retrieved from a List View containing such a “workflow column” using the Lists Web Service, the returned values of any workflow columns are not verbose. In fact, they’re the opposite; workflow status values are integers (e.g. “2″, “3″, etc.).  Therefore, response XML may contain something like: <z:row ows_ID=”1″ ows_WorkflowInternalName=”2″ … />.

What does this mean?? It means translation is necessary.

Here’s an incomplete Rosetta Stone:

Status Code	Status Description
0	Not Started
1	Failed on Start
2	In Progress
3	Error Occurred
4	Cancelled (i.e. Stopped by User)
5	Completed
6	Failed on Start (retrying)
7	Error Occurred (retrying)
8	(unknown)
9	(unknown)
10	(unknown)
11	(unknown)
12	(unknown)
13	(unknown)
14	(unknown)
15	Cancelled
16	Approved
17	Rejected

The post SharePoint 2007 Workflow Status Codes appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/05/03/sharepoint-2007-workflow-status-codes/feed/ 5 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/04/20/leveraging-sharepoint-2007-through-windows-powershell/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/04/20/leveraging-sharepoint-2007-through-windows-powershell/#comments Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:17:21 +0000 Johnny Bouder http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4711 For all of you out there that have not yet been allowed the opportunity to dig into the vastness that is SharePoint 2010 and have become bored with SharePoint 2007, I just might have something new for you to play with. That’s right…PowerShell! My new addiction… Note that before getting started, you should have a good working knowledge of the SharePoint Object Model. Step 1: Get started PowerShell by default comes with Windows Server 2008, however it doesn’t come with Windows Server 2003 and my guess is that if you’re still running SharePoint 2007 you’re probably still running Server 2003. If you are among this group, all you need to do is install the hotfix (KB926139) on one of your web servers. If you’re running Server 2008, you’re ready to go. Step 2: Get excited! So without getting too deeply into the nuts and bolts of PowerShell, what you need to know is that it gives you a command line interface, which provides the added ability of leveraging compiled code without actually compiling any of your own code. How could anyone not be excited about that? And given the richness of the SharePoint object model, you are basically given unlimited potential for managing your SharePoint applications...

The post Leveraging SharePoint 2007 through Windows PowerShell appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> For all of you out there that have not yet been allowed the opportunity to dig into the vastness that is SharePoint 2010 and have become bored with SharePoint 2007, I just might have something new for you to play with. That’s right…PowerShell! My new addiction…

Note that before getting started, you should have a good working knowledge of the SharePoint Object Model.

Step 1: Get started

PowerShell by default comes with Windows Server 2008, however it doesn’t come with Windows Server 2003 and my guess is that if you’re still running SharePoint 2007 you’re probably still running Server 2003. If you are among this group, all you need to do is install the hotfix (KB926139) on one of your web servers. If you’re running Server 2008, you’re ready to go.

Step 2: Get excited!

So without getting too deeply into the nuts and bolts of PowerShell, what you need to know is that it gives you a command line interface, which provides the added ability of leveraging compiled code without actually compiling any of your own code. How could anyone not be excited about that?

And given the richness of the SharePoint object model, you are basically given unlimited potential for managing your SharePoint applications.

Step 3: Get to Work

Go ahead and fire up PowerShell. Also start up your favorite text editor program because we will write a few simple scripts. In these scripts we will do a few things: specify command line arguments, load any required libraries, and write some code to run the program.

Within your text editor paste the following:

param([string] $url)

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load('Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, 

Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c') | Out-Null

$site = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($url)

$site

$site.Dispose()

Save this file as Get-SPSiteInfo.ps1 in the current PowerShell directory (or anywhere else if you have no problem navigating through directories in the command line).

If you look at the above code you will notice the 3 things I mentioned earlier. The param section which specifies that we will accept a parameter named “url” which is of type string. The next section specifies which assemblies should be loaded. We are loading in the “Microsoft.SharePoint” assembly, which is generally all you will need for these kinds of scripts. Also note in this section the “| Out-Null” command. This just basically suppresses PowerShell from outputting whether or not the assembly was successfully loaded. Finally, the last section is where we are running our code. We are just creating an SPSite object from the passed in URL, displaying the contents of the SPSite object, and finally disposing of it (never forget to dispose of objects when needed).

Now go back to your PowerShell window and type the following (replace <SITE URL> with the URL of your SharePoint site) and hit enter:

If the command runs correctly your output should look like the following screenshot (Click image to enlarge; if you receive an error stating something about an execution policy see this link http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176961.aspx):



What you are seeing are all of the properties, methods, objects, etc of the $site (SPSite) object. You can actually do this with any objects that you create in PowerShell. By just entering $site on its own line, you are telling PowerShell to output the contents of that object. This is usually where I start when I write scripts so that I can find all of the elements that I need.

So to recap, what we did was wrote a script that: 1) accepts a URL parameter; 2) loads the SharePoint library; 3) creates an SPSite object based on the passed in URL; 4) displays its contents; and finally 5) disposes of it. Very simple right?

Step 4: Get Something Useful

I don’t know about you, but on numerous occasions I’ve been asked to provide a list of all inactive sites in my environment. Now you can do things like set policies to delete sites that are inactive automatically, but sometimes that isn’t the best way to go about it. So if you’re in that boat, how do you get this information? You could always write a SQL script to query the databases, but why do that if you don’t need to? How about we make use of the SharePoint Usage data?

So for this example, our script will provide us with a list of all top-level sites in a specified web application that have not been accessed within the past month. Additionally this script will provide us with the ability to specify users to not count, as well as provide the ability to export to CSV. Open up a new text editor window and paste the following:

param($url, [string[]] $users, [switch]$exportToCSV)

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load('Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c') | Out-Null

# Lookup Web Application as specified in the command line parameter

$wa = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication]::Lookup($url) 

# Create an array to store a list of all inactive sites

$sites =@()

Write-Output("`nProcessing sites...`n")

# Loop through all site collections in the web application

foreach($site in $wa.Sites) 

{

    $siteCount = $wa.sites.Count    

    # Counter used to track number of active users

    $counter = 0

    # Create a DataTable, which contains the user usage data for the past month

    $usage = $site.RootWeb.GetUsageData([Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUsageReportType]::user, [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUsagePeriodType]::lastMonth)

    # Loop through all rows in the DataTable

    foreach ($row in $usage.Rows) 

    {

        # If the array of users to not count does not contain the current user, the user is unique, which means that the site is active, so increase the counter

        if ($users -notcontains $row.User) 

        {

            $counter++

        }            

    }

    # If the counter is equal to zero, then no unique users were found, and the site is considered inactive

    if ($counter -eq 0) 

    {

        # Create a generic object containing the site information and add it to the array

        $o = new-object psobject

        $o | Add-Member -MemberType noteproperty -Name Name -value $site.RootWeb.Title

        $o | Add-Member -MemberType noteproperty -Name Url -value $site.RootWeb.Url

        $sites += $o

        # Outputs any inactive sites that are found

        Write-Output("Site Processed: {0} (Inactive)" -f $site.RootWeb.Title)

    }

    else

    {

        # Outputs any active sites that are found

        Write-Output("Site Processed: {0} (Active)" -f $site.RootWeb.Title)

    }

    # Dispose of the SPSite object

    $site.Dispose()

}

# If the exportToCSV switch is entered, output the array of sites to CSV (without file type information)

if ($exportToCSV)

{

    $sites | export-csv "Inactive_Sites.csv" -noTypeInformation

}

# else output the array of sites to the screen in a formatted list

else

{

    $sites | format-list

}

#Output stats

Write-Output("`nTotal Sites Processed: {0}" -f $siteCount)

Write-Output("Total Inactive Sites: {0}" -f $sites.Count)

Write-Output("Processing complete`n")

Save this file as Get-InactiveSites.ps1

Now go back to your PowerShell window and type the following (replace <SITE URL> with the URL of your SharePoint site) and hit enter:

./Get-InactiveSites -url <SITE URL> -exportToCSV

If the command runs correctly your output should look like the following screenshot (Click image to enlarge):



Hopefully the comments explain everything that is going on here. And just be aware that this does cycle all site collections in your web application, so if you have a huge number of site collections, it may take a while to run. The only real thing to note is the –exportToCSV switch, which instead of outputting the results to the screen, they are outputted to a CSV. Awesome!

Let me know if you have any questions or comments below in the comments section.

The post Leveraging SharePoint 2007 through Windows PowerShell appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/04/20/leveraging-sharepoint-2007-through-windows-powershell/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/04/07/you-beta-believe-it-fcc-gov-reimagined-and-redesigned-for-open-government/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/04/07/you-beta-believe-it-fcc-gov-reimagined-and-redesigned-for-open-government/#comments Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:28:56 +0000 Derek Yale http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4688 On Tuesday, April 5th, MetroStar Systems announced our support in the successful development and redesign of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) FCC.gov website into a new digital platform: http://beta.fcc.gov!



The post You Beta Believe It: FCC.gov reimagined and redesigned for Open Government appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> On Tuesday, April 5th, MetroStar Systems announced our support in the successful development and redesign of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) FCC.gov website into a new digital platform: http://beta.fcc.gov!



The process began with engaging real citizens first. Last October, FCC Managing Director Steven VanRoekel let users look under the hood and directly provide feedback for the design. Soliciting feedback right from the start was part of the key for success. Usability issues and other sticking points that had persisted on the old FCC.gov site for years were finally brought to task.

In addition to improving the usability and functionality, many of the latest Web 2.0 principles and technologies have been integrated into the new site, assuring this new FCC site can “keep up with the pace of the Internet.”

Reading some of the blogoshpere’s first reactions to the overhaul, you’ll see nothing but smiles on our faces:

• “FCC.gov reboots as an open government platform” by Alex Howard (aka @digiphile)
• “Miraculous makeover: using the new FCC.gov” by Matthew Lasar
• “Having Sat Out the Aughts, FCC.gov Steps into the Modern Age” by Nancy Scola

Unlocking the power of the FCC through smart design and engagement is just the beginning. We’re excited to see how the public takes advantage of the simpler design, open data, and powerful FCC toolkit.

And of course, if you haven’t checked it out yet, please do so and feel free to leave us a comment with your thoughts: http://beta.fcc.gov/

You can also contribute your feedback directly to the FCC.  Your thoughts and ideas about additional features, improving the user experience, and/or improving the functionality of the website will be considered in future releases and updates: http://fccdotgov.uservoice.com/forums/105541-a-new-fcc-gov-feedback

@stevenvfcc

The post You Beta Believe It: FCC.gov reimagined and redesigned for Open Government appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/04/07/you-beta-believe-it-fcc-gov-reimagined-and-redesigned-for-open-government/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/04/01/april-fools-day/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/04/01/april-fools-day/#comments Fri, 01 Apr 2011 21:54:01 +0000 Theresa Kattula http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4654 Haven’t pulled any April Fools’ Day pranks yet? Here’s one for all you techy-nerds out there. This is fun prank you can play on your friend for April Fools’ Day, or any day: “Screen-shot-photos-baffler”  Step 1:  Take 20 screen shots of your home screen by pressing the power and home keys on your iPhone Step 2: [...]

The post A “Techy-Nerdy” April Fools’ Day Prank appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Haven’t pulled any April Fools’ Day pranks yet? Here’s one for all you techy-nerds out there. This is fun prank you can play on your friend for April Fools’ Day, or any day:

“Screen-shot-photos-baffler”

 Step 1:  Take 20 screen shots of your home screen by pressing the power and home keys on your iPhone


Step 2: Change the Auto-Lock settings to 5 minutes (so this prank works).



Step 3. Open your photo gallery to the 10^th screen shot of your home screen.



Step 4: Leave the bait (your iPhone) near a friend, luring them into the trap.

Step 5: Sit back and watch your friends try to “unlock” your iPhone by swiping the “slide to unlock”. Little do they know it’s a photo! 

 

 

The post A “Techy-Nerdy” April Fools’ Day Prank appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/04/01/april-fools-day/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/26/silverlight-caching-data-requests-2/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/26/silverlight-caching-data-requests-2/#comments Sat, 26 Mar 2011 14:57:46 +0000 Jorge "El Che" Vasquez http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/26/silverlight-caching-data-requests-2/ SilverLight is a great presentation display. However, when it works perfectly on ALL Browsers, with exception of Internet Explorer, it become very comical. Background We developed a SilverLight display which uses “WebClient” class to query an RSS feed asynchronously: WebClient proxy = new WebClient(); proxy.OpenReadCompleted += new OpenReadCompletedEventHandler(OnReadCompleted); Once the callback event is triggered by [...]

The post Silverlight Caching Data Requests appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> SilverLight is a great presentation display. However, when it works perfectly on ALL Browsers, with exception of Internet Explorer, it become very comical.


Background
We developed a SilverLight display which uses “WebClient” class to query an RSS feed asynchronously:


WebClient proxy = new
WebClient();
proxy.OpenReadCompleted += new OpenReadCompletedEventHandler(OnReadCompleted);


Once the callback event is triggered by a timer event, we have logic to iterate through the results.


Problem
The data returned by the proxy seemed to be cached, since we keep on getting the same data. I looked around trying to figure out why this would happen. The RSS Feed that we were querying was being updated properly. What could cause the caching? Is it the way I am quering? Is it SilverLight acting up?


Solution
As I started to Google (sad to say that I did not Binged), I coworker came to mind. He would reminding me about FireBug (Dev Tool within FireFox) and how awesome it is. Hence, I decided to use the Developer Tools on IE:


Why is the browser returning 304?




The first time we hit the server, it returns 200 (OK).

However, every other call to the server, it would returns 304.
Definition of 304
304: If the client has done a conditional GET and access is allowed, but the document has not been modified since the date and time specified in If-Modified-Since field, the server responds with a 304 status code and does not send the document body to the client.

Translation
The browser would ask the server if the cached data is fresh enough and use the cached data.

Resolution
Why is Internet Explorer acting up and not Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera?

Checked on Non-Microsoft Browsers and their respective Developer Tools and they all return 200 every time. What going on? Why is Internet Explorer being so difficult?

Hence, checked the configuration of Internet Settings and adjusted the following settings to make it all work:

1. Go the “Tools” -> “Internet Options”
2. Under the “Browser History” -> Select “Settings”
3. By default, the browser is set to “Automatically”.
   Adjust to “Every time I visit the webpage” and Click on “OK”.

 Conclusion

I was very annoyed by this behavior in Internet Explorer.

However, the lesson learned was to make sure that (1) you test your solutions on all major browsers, while (2) leveraging their respective developer tools.

The post Silverlight Caching Data Requests appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/26/silverlight-caching-data-requests-2/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/22/video-the-spirit-of-innovation/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/22/video-the-spirit-of-innovation/#comments Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:27:27 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4629 In a previous post, "Capturing the Spirit of Innovation", I shared info about our CEO, Ali Manouchehri, receiving the 2010 Spirit of Innovation Award from Washington Adventist Hospital. This is a video interview of him discussing some of his inspirations and innovation in health care. Video footage provided courtesy of Washington Adventist HealthCare.

The post Video: The Spirit of Innovation appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> In a previous post, “Capturing the Spirit of Innovation“, I shared info about our CEO, Ali Manouchehri, receiving the 2010 Spirit of Innovation Award from Washington Adventist Hospital.  This is a video interview of him discussing some of his inspirations and innovation in health care.


Video footage provided courtesy of Washington Adventist HealthCare.

The post Video: The Spirit of Innovation appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/22/video-the-spirit-of-innovation/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/16/paging-within-list-views-in-sharepoint-2010-using-splistitemcollectionposition/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/16/paging-within-list-views-in-sharepoint-2010-using-splistitemcollectionposition/#comments Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:51:51 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4616 If you ever have had the need to create your own pagination for SharePoint 2010 lists/views you will undoubtedly have run into a class called SPListItemCollectionPosition which is supposed to handle going forwards and backwards in the paging.  Unfortunately as of this post the documentation on this little gem is non-existent.  So after doing some googling and experimentation [...]

The post Paging within list views in SharePoint 2010 using SPListItemCollectionPosition appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> If you ever have had the need to create your own pagination for SharePoint 2010 lists/views you will undoubtedly have run into a class called SPListItemCollectionPosition which is supposed to handle going forwards and backwards in the paging.  Unfortunately as of this post the documentation on this little gem is non-existent.  So after doing some googling and experimentation here are some things I have learned which can hopefully save some of you some time trying to figure this stuff out.
• All of the data this class encapsulates is really stored in a string with various parameters encoded like a query string
• The parameters which you need to concerned with are:
  • Paged=True This parameter tells SharePoint that you’re trying to paginate the data
  • p_ID Is used in two different ways
    • When paging forward this should equal the ID of the last item on the current page
    • When paging backward this should equal the ID of the first item on the page
  • PagedPrev should be se to TRUE when paging backwards
    • Can be omitted when paging forwards
  • p_[ColumnName] When using sorting this functions in the same way the p_ID field works except the value should come from the column being sorted on, not the ID of the item.
    • [ColumnName] is replaced with the name of the column being sorted on
    • EX) If your sorting on the Title column the parameter should be called p_Title
      • If paging forward it should be set equal to the Title value of the last item on the page
      • If paging backward it should be set equal to the Title of the first item on the page
  • PageLastRow is used when paging backwards.  It should be set to the index of the last item on the current page
  • PageFirstRow is used when paging forwards.  It should be set to the ID the first item on the current page

If you’re looking for more information on how this works one good place to look is in the query string for the out of the box list views.  As you sort and page through the data you’ll see these parameters in the query string of the page which provides a nice place to do some experimentation.  Also please note a few gotchas which I encountered while working with this:

• If sorting is being done on a DateTime column then the value for the p_[ColumnName] attribute needs to be in UTC not local time
• The API only allows for going from the current page to the next or previous page.  You can’t jump arbitrarily between pages
• If filtering is being done on the view then there is no real ‘good’ way to determine if you are at the beginning or end of the pagination.  This is something you’ll have to figure out how to handle on your own

For more information take a look at the following links which helped me out a lot:

• http://charliedigital.com/2010/02/05/paging-with-splistitemcollectionposition/
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/colbyafrica/archive/2009/02/19/learning-sharepoint-part-vi-list-pagination.aspx

The post Paging within list views in SharePoint 2010 using SPListItemCollectionPosition appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/16/paging-within-list-views-in-sharepoint-2010-using-splistitemcollectionposition/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/04/starlabs/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/04/starlabs/#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 18:03:11 +0000 Monica Huie http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4581 When I started working here at MetroStar Systems, approximately 8 months ago, one of the very first things I remember being told was, “No Idea is a bad idea”…and I have learned that mantra definitely holds true. It’s great to be in an environment where no matter how off the wall your idea may be, it’s always taken into consideration, provided feedback and sometimes given the green light to make it happen. While most of the daily work hours are spent getting things done for clients, many of our developers and engineers spend their after-hours coming up with tools and solutions to help enhance and improve internal processes. As all these great ideas floated around, it was only a matter of time, something was created to house them…thus, StarLabs was born. StarLabs is where our engineers and artists collaborate and share innovative projects. It allows those unfamiliar with MetroStar Systems to learn more about the behind the scene things we do and the people who bring them to life.



One of the current projects we feature on StarLabs is Visualize It, which provides a rich user experience for navigating and exploring SharePoint Libraries. It is a powerful solution for not only finding data but also discovering data. An example of how Visualize It works can be found on this blog! See the top of the page, the little guy holding the “Visual Search” banner. Click on it and type in a keyword like “SharePoint” and watch Visualize It in action. Currently, Visualize It, is available for free download. System administrators can download it and implement it to their SharePoint Portals. If you test it out, please let us know your feedback! Learn more about StarLabs and the different projects we are working on by visiting http://labs.metrostarsystems.com

The post StarLabs appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> When I started working here at MetroStar Systems, approximately 8 months ago, one of the very first things I remember being told was, “No Idea is a bad idea”…and I have learned that mantra definitely holds true.  It’s great to be in an environment where no matter how off the wall your idea may be, it’s always taken into consideration, provided feedback and sometimes given the green light to make it happen.  While most of the daily work hours are spent getting things done for clients, many of our developers and engineers spend their after-hours coming up with tools and solutions to help enhance and improve internal processes. As all these great ideas floated around, it was only a matter of time, something was created to house them…thus, StarLabs was born.

StarLabs is where our engineers and artists collaborate and share innovative projects. It allows those unfamiliar with MetroStar Systems to learn more about the behind the scene things we do and the people who bring them to life.



One of the current projects we feature on StarLabs is Visualize It, which provides a rich user experience for navigating and exploring SharePoint Libraries. It is a powerful solution for not only finding data but also discovering data. An example of how Visualize It works can be found on this blog! See the top of the page, the little guy holding the “Visual Search” banner. Click on it and type in a keyword like “SharePoint” and watch Visualize It in action.

Currently, Visualize It, is available for free download. System administrators can download it and implement it to their SharePoint Portals. If you test it out, please let us know your feedback!

Learn more about StarLabs and the different projects we are working on by visiting http://labs.metrostarsystems.com

The post StarLabs appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/03/04/starlabs/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/24/sharepoint-2010-forms-based-authentication/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/24/sharepoint-2010-forms-based-authentication/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:59:46 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4577 For the past couple of days I’ve been tasked with testing out and learning about SharePoint’s FBA (Forms Based Authentication).  Traditionally SharePoint makes use of Windows Authentication for authenticating users which uses mechanisms built into browers and IIS but limits the UI/UX for logging in to whatever the browser prompts when it receives a 401 from the server. [...]

The post SharePoint 2010 Forms Based Authentication appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> For the past couple of days I’ve been tasked with testing out and learning about SharePoint’s FBA (Forms Based Authentication).  Traditionally SharePoint makes use of Windows Authentication for authenticating users which uses mechanisms built into browers and IIS but limits the UI/UX for logging in to whatever the browser prompts when it receives a 401 from the server.  If you have the need to display an actual login page with username and password text boxes you have to use FBA.

FBA within SharePoint is done using ASP.Net membership and role providers which can pull information from just about anywhere including a SQL databases and AD with the built in providers.  (Note that you can create your own providers http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f1kyba5e(v=VS.85).aspx).  Setting these up is a fairly straightforward process involving some Central Administration settings as well as modifying a few web.config files which is described in detail in the following links:

• http://blogs.technet.com/b/mahesm/archive/2010/04/07/configure-forms-based-authentication-fba-with-sharepoint-2010.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alimaz/archive/2009/10/30/configuring-fba-in-sharepoint-server-2010-beta-2.aspx
• http://www.sharepointchick.com/archive/2010/05/06/configuring-claims-and-forms-based-authentication-for-use-with-an.aspx

After setting up FBA for SharePoint you will probobly come across a few caveats in which SharePoint does not act as expected:

• The People Picker does not do partial searches anymore.
  • Using an LDAP memberhsip provider searching for users required knowing the beginning of their username.
    • Can’t search by display name
    • Searching for ‘doe’ would not yield ‘jdoe’ as a result, however searching for ‘jdo’ would
  • Using the SQL membership provider only exact matches to the username would work, defeating the purpose of the search
• The name of the users in the system (Created by fields etc…) only shows their username, not their display name

The problem seems to be that SharePoint handles authentication and user profiles in two different systems.  (IIS/ASP.Net  is used for authentication, whereas profiles and handled by SharePoint specific systems)  So getting the authentication to work is fairly simple but getting the other parts to work is a bit more complicated.  Knowing this now I’ll probably recommend sticking with Windows Authentication unless there is need to authenticate against something other than AD!

The post SharePoint 2010 Forms Based Authentication appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/24/sharepoint-2010-forms-based-authentication/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/22/running-out-of-hard-drive-space-on-a-sharepoint-dev-vm/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/22/running-out-of-hard-drive-space-on-a-sharepoint-dev-vm/#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:24:37 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4573 Recently I noticed that my SharePoint (2007) development VM was running low on hard drive space.  The VM has a 60+ GB C drive so I was little shocked to see that I only had a few hundred MB left.  After poking around in the file system looking for whatever was taking up all of [...]

The post Running out of hard drive space on a SharePoint Dev VM? appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Recently I noticed that my SharePoint (2007) development VM was running low on hard drive space.  The VM has a 60+ GB C drive so I was little shocked to see that I only had a few hundred MB left.  After poking around in the file system looking for whatever was taking up all of that space and coming up empty I installed a handy utility called WinDirStat which tells you where all of the space is being used.

Lo and behold the culprits where SharePoint’s log files which over time had grown to over 30 GB!  Since it was my development VM  I simply deleted the logs and freed up half the drive.  Problem solved!

The post Running out of hard drive space on a SharePoint Dev VM? appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/22/running-out-of-hard-drive-space-on-a-sharepoint-dev-vm/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/17/tips-to-name-brand-product-or-service/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/17/tips-to-name-brand-product-or-service/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:31:46 +0000 Kathy Ohlhaber http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4554 Last week our New Media team was brainstorming a name for a new application MetroStar Systems is creating, and we thought our tips for name creation might be worth sharing. In this video, Theresa Kattula, Monica Huie, Patricia Joo, and Kathy Ohlhaber give four quick tips for naming a product or service. Let us know if you have any questions or ideas!

The post Tips to name a brand, product or service! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

Last week our New Media team was brainstorming a name for a new application MetroStar Systems is creating, and we thought our tips for name creation might be worth sharing.

In this video, Theresa Kattula, Monica Huie, Patricia Joo, and Kathy Ohlhaber give four quick tips for naming a product or service.

1. Define: Define your or your client’s mission/goals for the product or service as well as define your target audience. For example, you don’t want to use inappropriate words for a Government targeted audience. Do a competitive analysis to see the names your competitors are using for similar products and see if the name you want already exists.

2. Abstract vs. Obvious: Based on the objectives and target audience that you define, consider whether you want to create an abstract or obvious name for your product or service. In other words, do you want a name that’s really unique and creative but needs some explanation? Or, do you prefer to use a more self-evident name that’s clearly reflective of what you’re offering? Whichever kind of name you choose, decide how you want it to relate to your product or service and build your brand around it.

3. Longevity/Memorable: You want to keep in mind that the Internet is going to be around for a long time (unless the Mayans were right and 2012 is the end). So make sure you’re coming up with a brand name that can retain its longevity. Look at what sites your brand can work with and choose the ones that have the potential to be around for a while (i.e., of course Facebook). You also want a memorable brand, so be creative with the marketing of your logo or mascot. You still remember what animal Geico’s mascot is, right?

4. Easy to pronounce?: Is it easy to pronounce? If you create your product name by combining two or more of the features of your product or service, you may come up with a name that is difficult for people to pronounce such as Type + Tweet + Display = “tytwdi”. This is really hard to pronounce with just one vowel! Keep it simple because if it’s hard to pronounce, it’s probably hard to spell and remember.

We hope these four quick tips have been helpful! Have fun coming up with a name for your product or service and don’t be afraid to get creative! Good luck, and be sure to post your comments on Supernova!

The post Tips to name a brand, product or service! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/17/tips-to-name-brand-product-or-service/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/11/customizing-sharepoint-2010-ribbon-ui-lessons-learned/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/11/customizing-sharepoint-2010-ribbon-ui-lessons-learned/#comments Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:02:59 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4543 One of the SharePoint 2010 solutions we at MetroStar have been developing has involved some customizations of the Ribbon UI.  After several days learning (and fighting) the Ribbon I’ve learned a few things which may be of some use to other SharePoint developers out there: Adding elements to the Ribbon involves a pretty straight forward [...]

The post Customizing SharePoint 2010 Ribbon UI: Lessons Learned appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> One of the SharePoint 2010 solutions we at MetroStar have been developing has involved some customizations of the Ribbon UI.  After several days learning (and fighting) the Ribbon I’ve learned a few things which may be of some use to other SharePoint developers out there:
• Adding elements to the Ribbon involves a pretty straight forward process  of writing some XML and putting it in a CustomAction
• Wiring up the commands which Ribbon controls use (such as buttons) can be done in one of two ways
  • The command handlers can be defined in the CustomAction‘s XML using a CommandUIHandler
    • These are the simplest to setup but offer the least flexibility
    • Certain commands do not work properly with commands defined this way (such as a ToggleButton‘s QueryCommand)
  • The more flexible/complicated approach is to use PageComponents which let you define JavaScript ‘classes’ to handle the various actions that a Ribbon control may need
• SharePoint’s built-in commands can be overridden by creating a handler for a command with the same name as the built-in command
• Finding out what a built-in command is doing behind the scenes can be very difficult to do
  • The JavaScript can be run through a debugger to see what is going on but the code is neither commented or documented
• When loading PageComponents the order of operations is very important
  • Make use of SharePoint’s scriptLink control to load JS after the UI has loaded
  • Use ExecuteOrDelayUntilScriptLoaded and NotifyScriptLoadedAndExecuteWaitingJobs to make sure dependencies are loaded before trying to use them
• The documentation (as of 2/11/2011) on MSDN is severely lacking so be prepared to do a lot Googling and Guess/Checking.

For those delving into the Ribbon here are some links which helped me out greatly:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff630938.aspx

http://www.wictorwilen.se/Post/Creating-a-SharePoint-2010-Ribbon-extension-part-1.aspx

http://www.sharepointnutsandbolts.com/2010/02/ribbon-customizations-dropdown-controls.html

http://blog.dennus.net/2010/07/20/ribbon-buttons-with-postback-in-sp2010/

To see the fruits of these labor’s be sure to check out our StarLabs site to see our latest a greatest (Free!) SharePoint solutions.

The post Customizing SharePoint 2010 Ribbon UI: Lessons Learned appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/02/11/customizing-sharepoint-2010-ribbon-ui-lessons-learned/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/01/31/fix-extra-linespace-between-tags-and-overlying-rows/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/01/31/fix-extra-linespace-between-tags-and-overlying-rows/#comments Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:57:17 +0000 Hector Portillo http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4422 The tag works perfectly in Internet Explorer (IE) 8 however it will create extra unwanted line spacing in IE 7 and IE6. The best way to fix this issue is stylizing the tags like this: sup { vertical-align: baseline; font-size: 0.8em; position: relative; top: -0.4em; } I’m passing this over to you guys because of [...]

The post CSS Tip: Fix extra linespace between <sup> tags and overlying rows appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> The ^{tag works perfectly in Internet Explorer (IE) 8 however it will create extra unwanted line spacing in IE 7 and IE6.}

^{The best way to fix this issue is stylizing the tags like this:}

^{sup {
vertical-align: baseline;
font-size: 0.8em;
position: relative;
top: -0.4em;
}}

^{I’m passing this over to you guys because of all the headache and frustration it caused me in IE7.}

The post CSS Tip: Fix extra linespace between <sup> tags and overlying rows appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/01/31/fix-extra-linespace-between-tags-and-overlying-rows/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/01/25/create-your-own-vip-super-bowl-xlv-experience/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/01/25/create-your-own-vip-super-bowl-xlv-experience/#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:00:01 +0000 Hector Portillo http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4397 You’ve invited all your favorite people to come watch the Big Game with you, and you want it to be the best party in town. So, make it official with my Super Bowl XLV VIP Pass Template! Download the publisher file, quickly add the names of your VIP Guests, print, assemble* and pass them out! [...]

The post Create your own VIP Super Bowl XLV Experience! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> You’ve invited all your favorite people to come watch the Big Game with you, and you want it to be the best party in town. So, make it official with my Super Bowl XLV VIP Pass Template! Download the publisher file, quickly add the names of your VIP Guests, print, assemble* and pass them out!
• Download the Super Bowl XLV VIP Pass Template (Microsoft  Word Document)
  
• Download the Super Bowl XLV VIP Pass Template (Microsoft  Publisher – 2mb)
• Dimensions: 4″x7.5″
• Editable regions: VIP Guest Name and Address

*  You can buy a plastic badge holders and lanyards from www.usalanyards.com to make it look more professional and fun.

If you use it, be sure to leave a comment and send pictures! Also, let me know if you need any other file formats or if you have any questions.

This pass will not get you into the stadium so you can try to sneak in at your own discretion.  Neither myself nor MetroStar Systems is affiliated with any official Super Bowl website, any Super Bowl box office or any Super Bowl fan clubs, partners, sponsors, etc…

Enjoy and have fun!




Super Bowl XLV VIP Pass Sample

The post Create your own VIP Super Bowl XLV Experience! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/01/25/create-your-own-vip-super-bowl-xlv-experience/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/01/05/asp-net-mvc-localization/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/01/05/asp-net-mvc-localization/#comments Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:51:20 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4386 Ever needed to localize/internationalize an MVC web application but didn’t know how to? Well it’s actually pretty simple with ASP .Net. The first step is to set the page’s UICulture to the language requested by the browser which can be accomplished by adding the following code to the controller. After the thread’s UICulture has been [...]

The post ASP .Net MVC Localization appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Ever needed to localize/internationalize an MVC web application but didn’t know how to? Well it’s actually pretty simple with ASP .Net. The first step is to set the page’s UICulture to the language requested by the browser which can be accomplished by adding the following code to the controller.

After the thread’s UICulture has been set you need to define resource files (.resx) which will contain the translated words. In the folder containing your view create an Asp.Net folder named App_LocalResources. In this folder create a resource file for languages you’ll be supporting in the following format.

Assuming the view is named index.aspx the resource files should be named:
index.aspx.resx This will be the language neutral resource file
index.aspx.en.resx The English resource file
index.aspx.es.resx The Spanish resource file

In these resource files define name/value pairs for each word which needs to be localized. Each file should contain the same names but the value should be translated for the language the resource file represents.

Then in the view use the following syntax to bind the resources to where they’re needed.

That’s it! When the browser sends a request to the server the following will happen:

1. ASP .Net will pickup the ‘Accept-Language’ HTTP header and set the Page’s thread to that language (the first snippet accomplishes this)
2. When the view is rendered it will run in the context of the appropriate resource file automatically
3. Any references to <%$ Resources:[blah] %>

will be set to that value in the resource file!

The post ASP .Net MVC Localization appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2011/01/05/asp-net-mvc-localization/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/12/29/adding-a-silverlight-control-to-an-existing-asp-net-website/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/12/29/adding-a-silverlight-control-to-an-existing-asp-net-website/#comments Wed, 29 Dec 2010 13:30:16 +0000 Johnny Bouder http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4351 I’ve only been working with Silverlight for a few months now and I’ve came to the conclusion that either my Google-fu is lacking or there isn’t a great deal of lower level information out there on how to get started. Personally I’m going with the latter because in my experience if you follow some of these posts online you’ll find yourself creating a sample Silverlight project, which is hosted within its own development application. But how do you actually add the control to your existing site? Hopefully this will shed some light on the subject.

The post Adding a Silverlight Control to an existing ASP.NET Website appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> I’ve only been working with Silverlight for a few months now and I’ve came to the conclusion that either my Google-fu is lacking or there isn’t a great deal of lower level information out there on how to get started. Personally I’m going with the latter because in my experience if you follow some of these posts online you’ll find yourself creating a sample Silverlight project, which is hosted within its own development application. But how do you actually add the control to your existing site?

Hopefully this will shed some light on the subject.

It turns out that this task is very simple and can be completed in a few steps. These steps include: creating the control (assuming this has been done already), adding the Silverlight application package (.xap) to your website, and adding the Silverlight Object element to a page.

Given that you have already created your Silverlight control (you did didn’t you?), we will move on to step 2: Adding the application package to some location on your site.

• Within your website add a directory and call it ClientBin (you actually can name this anything you like, but this is the standard).
• Navigate to your Silverlight project folder on your computer, open the Bin directory, open the Debug directory, and copy the .xap file.
• Now navigate to your website and paste this file into the ClientBin directory. You’re solution explorer in Visual Studio should look something like this:



And last but not least, we will place your new Silverlight control on your site. To do this, we need only a little HTML, so copy the code below:

<div id="silverlightControlHost" style="height:100%">

    <object width="100%" height="100%" type="application/x-silverlight-2" data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," >

        <param name="source" value="ClientBin/Silverlight.xap"/>

        <param name="background" value="white" />

        <param name="minRuntimeVersion" value="3.0.40624.0" />

        <param name="autoUpgrade" value="true" />

        <a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149156&v=3.0.40624.0" style="text-decoration: none;">

            <img src="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=161376" alt="Get Microsoft Silverlight" style="border-style: none"/>

        </a>

    </object>

    <iframe id="_sl_historyFrame" style='visibility:hidden;height:0px;width:0px;border:0px'></iframe>

</div>

Now open your website, find the location in the site where you want to place it, and paste the code in. Also, unless you named your Silverlight project Silverlight, rename the source parameter to match your filename.

And that’s it!

Before closing, I thought it might help to explain the different parts of the code, so here goes.

• The div is what contains your control. You don’t need the div, but it has become somewhat of a standard for me.
• The Object tag is what is used within the HTML to host the application. Alternatively you can use JavaScript to replace the object tag, but given that most browsers now recognize these tags, it generally is not necessary. Also, it is generally a good idea to set the Height and Width as specified in the above code to ensure that your control is completely displayed.
• source – the location of your application package (usually within a ClientBin directory)
• background – the color of the object background.
• minRuntimeVersion – the minimum version of Silverlight required to be on the persons computer who is accessing the site. For most applications the version above should be more than enough. You may also want to use a lower version if you know that people accessing your site mostly have a lower version. And a higher version may be required if your application requires it.
• autoUpgrade – if the user does not have the minimum required version, this parameter is used to specify if you want it to prompt the user to install the upgrade necessary.
• The HTML link and image tags are used to provide the user with information about installing Silverlight if necessary.
• The iframe is used for cross-browser compatibility. According to Microsoft, the iframe is used to ensure that the Safari browser does not cache the page. Safari caching prevents the Silverlight plug-in from reloading when the user navigates back to a previously-visited Silverlight page.

So again, that’s essentially it! And again, I am new to this, so if I misrepresented something, please feel free to point it out. I hope this has been helpful.

The post Adding a Silverlight Control to an existing ASP.NET Website appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/12/29/adding-a-silverlight-control-to-an-existing-asp-net-website/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/12/15/a-turkey-trot-farewell-to-fall/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/12/15/a-turkey-trot-farewell-to-fall/#comments Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:30:35 +0000 Theresa Kattula http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4296



MetroStar Systems has wrapped up its sponsorship of the Marine Corps Marathon Event this year, and while I’m sad to say goodbye to prime race season in the Washington Metro area, I am not sad to say bye to freezing cold mornings waiting at the starting line.

The post A Turkey Trot Farewell to Fall appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Fall is almost gone and winter is just around the corner, so you know what that means… the return of the mad dash from the car to the office, back to the car and home. I can’t speak for everyone, but that’s about the extent of my running outdoors this winter.

MetroStar Systems has wrapped up its sponsorship of the Marine Corps Marathon Event this year, and while I’m sad to say goodbye to prime race season in the Washington Metro area, I am not sad to say bye to freezing cold mornings waiting at the starting line.

Here are a few snapshots from the last race MetroStar Systems sponsored, the Marine Corps Marathon Turkey Trot.



Prabin, Monica, Sara, Daniel and I before the race as Daniel prepped the muffin and apple cider table and wished the MSS runners good luck!



Hopefully Mr. Turkey got pardoned!

So say hello to a season relegated to bundling up in warm fuzzy sweaters and sitting by the fireplace. See all you runners next year and be on the lookout for more events sponsored by MetroStar Systems next spring! If we’re lucky on February 2, when Punxsutawney Phil emerges he will leave his burrow, and welcome us to warmer weather sooner than expected.
Who knows, maybe you’ll see a few of us MetroStar runners in the Marine Corps Marathon next year…

Stay warm!

The post A Turkey Trot Farewell to Fall appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/12/15/a-turkey-trot-farewell-to-fall/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/23/you-asked-us-to-sweat-and-sweat-we-did/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/23/you-asked-us-to-sweat-and-sweat-we-did/#comments Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:09:03 +0000 Theresa Kattula http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4276



Last Saturday the MetroStar Systems team participated in Sweat for a Vet spin-a-thon at the Reston Sport & Health Club. It was great to participate in this fund-raising event that raised more than $64,000 to help provide equipment and resources enabling disabled Veteran’s to live active lives.

The post You Asked Us To Sweat And Sweat We Did! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Last Saturday the MetroStar Systems team participated in Sweat for a Vet spin-a-thon at the Reston Sport & Health Club. It was great to participate in this fund-raising event that raised more than $64,000 to help provide equipment and support for disabled Veteran’s to live active lives.

 



 

The event had a live web stream of another Sweat for a Vet spin-a-thon at another Sport & Health Club as well an intense spin class challenging the participants to climb over hills and sprint along flat straightaways.

 

In addition to supporting an excellent cause, it provided me a great chance to meet more of my co-workers and afterwards we hopped over to Silver Diner and enjoyed some brunch…my…pancakes and bacon.

 

All-in-all it was an excellent Saturday – supporting a great case, getting in a workout and hey, who doesn’t love bacon?

The post You Asked Us To Sweat And Sweat We Did! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/23/you-asked-us-to-sweat-and-sweat-we-did/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/10/spirit-of-innovation/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/10/spirit-of-innovation/#comments Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:30:02 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4159



Last weekend, our CEO, Ali Reza Manouchehri, was awarded the Spirit of Innovation Award at the Washington Adventist Hospital 2010 Black Tie Gala. This annual event celebrates the ongoing legacy of Washington Adventist Hospital and its vision for 21st Century Health Care.

The post Capturing the Spirit of Innovation appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

Last weekend, our CEO, Ali Reza Manouchehri, was awarded the Spirit of Innovation Award at the Washington Adventist Hospital 2010 Black Tie Gala. This annual event celebrates the ongoing legacy of Washington Adventist Hospital and its vision for 21st Century Health Care.

On behalf of MetroStar Systems, Ali was recognized for his thought leadership in technological innovation, designing solutions for Health Care and life sciences in the 21st Century, and providing Web 2.0 tools and Social Media strategy to improve communication and outreach.



Washington Adventist Hospital also recognized other distinguished leaders who embody the philosophy of their 21st Century Health Care vision. Following is a complete list of the awards:

Inaugural Award Presentations


Drs. Lauretta & James Kress Spirit of Mission Award

Bill Novelli

Founder & Former President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids




Spirit of Partnership Award

U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Russell J. Abbott, Deputy Commissioner

LabQuest

Betsy Bretz, Chairwoman

Spirit of Innovation Award

Ali Reza Manouchehri

Chief Executive Officer, MetroStar Systems




Distinguished Physician Legacy Award

Kenneth Cruze, MD

James Ronan, MD




William G. “Bill” Robertson Spirit of Service Award

William G. “Bill” Robertson

President & CEO, Adventist HealthCare

Many thanks to Jere Stocks (President) and the Washington Adventist Hospital team for hosting this great event.  To learn more about Washington Adventist Hospital and its vision, check out their new “Our Vision for the Future” video:

The post Capturing the Spirit of Innovation appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/10/spirit-of-innovation/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/08/metrostar-systems-sweats-for-veterans-2/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/08/metrostar-systems-sweats-for-veterans-2/#comments Mon, 08 Nov 2010 20:05:50 +0000 Theresa Kattula http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4133



I’m thrilled to announce that MetroStar Systems is sponsoring a team for Sweat for a Vet, an indoor cycling, Kranking® and rowing fundraising event. The benefits will go to help provide disabled Veterans equipment that will enable them to carry-out their physical therapy training and pursue an active lifestyle.

The post MetroStar Systems Sweats for Veterans appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> I’m thrilled to announce that MetroStar Systems is sponsoring a team for Sweat for a Vet, an indoor cycling, Kranking® and rowing fundraising event. The benefits will go to help provide disabled Veterans equipment that will enable them to carry out their physical therapy training and pursue an active lifestyle.

 


As an avid runner and all around sports enthusiast (from Skeeball to marathon running) I could not imagine my life without sports. When my co-workers and I first heard out about Sweat for A Vet we knew we wanted to help disabled Veterans live an active life and MetroStar was more than eager to support us in doing so. Before we knew it we were able to rally support from other co-workers and create a MetroStar team for the event!

 


The MetroStar team will be participating in Sweat for a Vet at the Reston Sport&Health Club on Saturday November 13, from 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. Feel free to join us, or participate at one of the other 22 Sport&Health Clubs.

 


So far Sport&Health Clubs and Project VisAbility have raised more than $50,000 in support of wounded warriors through Sweat for a Vet.

 


Celebrate Veteran’s Day by making a pledge for the MetroStar team or creating a team of your own!

 



 

The post MetroStar Systems Sweats for Veterans appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/08/metrostar-systems-sweats-for-veterans-2/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/02/statement-arts/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/02/statement-arts/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:33:11 +0000 Derek Yale http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4044



Statement Arts, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing the creative visual & performing arts to underserved and/or low-income individuals, recently launched an online contest powered by Votridea, our Social Engagement Platform. The contest, titled "A Single Drop Of Water," celebrates our most important natural resource -- water!

The post Statement Arts Promotes Education In The Arts With Votridea Contest appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Statement Arts, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing the creative visual & performing arts to underserved and/or low-income individuals, recently launched an online contest powered by Votridea, our Social Engagement Platform. The contest, titled “A Single Drop Of Water,” celebrates our most important natural resource — water!

 



 

“A Single Drop of Water is an environmental awareness project that uses the arts, specifically photography, to document the journey of water. Our goal is to raise awareness about this importance resource, it’s scarcity in some communities, and water pollution. The project will provide photographers with a platform for sharing their images and stories. Winning entries shall be exhibited in New York City, and will be used in future Statement Arts education materials to teach students about water and inspire them to produce their own artistic work.”

 

The Photo Contest Sponsor, Statement Arts, chose the Votridea Contest Platform to run and effectively manage their online contest, including file uploads, voting, content moderation, analytics reports, and more. Contestants pay a small entry fee to submit their photo; the proceeds going towards the Statement Arts programs and the contest prizes.

 

Contestants who enter become eligible to win a $1500 Grand Prize and their photo exhibited in New York City as part of the World Water Day celebrations! Submissions are already underway, so the time to act is now!

 

To learn more about A Single Drop Of Water visit: http://www.asingledropofwater.org/

 

The post Statement Arts Promotes Education In The Arts With Votridea Contest appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/02/statement-arts/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/01/getting-sharepoint-version-at-runtime/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/01/getting-sharepoint-version-at-runtime/#comments Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:23:46 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4092 Ever needed to know what version of SharePoint your solution is currently running within at runtime? Here is a little function which makes use of reflection to grab the version number from Microsoft.SharePoint.dll 12 == SharePoint 2007 14 == SharePoint 2010

The post Getting SharePoint version at runtime appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Ever needed to know what version of SharePoint your solution is currently running within at runtime? Here is a little function which makes use of reflection to grab the version number from Microsoft.SharePoint.dll




12 == SharePoint 2007


14 == SharePoint 2010

The post Getting SharePoint version at runtime appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/11/01/getting-sharepoint-version-at-runtime/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/10/29/metrostar-systems-awarded-accolades-for-significant-growth/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/10/29/metrostar-systems-awarded-accolades-for-significant-growth/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:34:49 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4021



Washington Business Journal recognizes MetroStar Systems as the 10^th Fastest Growing Companies in the Washington region in 2010.



Honored as Number 45 on Washington Technology’s "Fast 50" awards list



Ranked Number 139 in the Government Services section of the 2010 Inc. 5000

The post MetroStar Systems Awarded Accolades for Significant Growth appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> We are excited to announce that MetroStar Systems has been recognized and awarded for our significant growth in 2010.  These awards are a reflection of our team’s strength and growth over the last few years, as well as a testament to our hard work, dedication, and commitment to building a relationship of collaboration and trust with our partners and clients.

Our President, Robert Santos, sums it up best when he notes, “The talented and diverse individuals that make up our company continually provide innovative approaches to our customers’ challenges, allowing the company to grow and succeed.“

Here is a list of the awards and recognitions that we have recently won:



Washington Business Journal recognizes MetroStar Systems as the 10^th Fastest Growing Companies in the Washington region in 2010.



Honored as Number 45 on Washington Technology’s “Fast 50″ awards list



Ranked Number 139 in the Government Services section of the 2010 Inc. 5000

*You can read more about these awards in our latest press release.

This recognition is a direct reflection of all your hard work and a testament to MetroStar Systems’ strength and growth over the last few years.

The post MetroStar Systems Awarded Accolades for Significant Growth appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/10/29/metrostar-systems-awarded-accolades-for-significant-growth/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/10/08/javascript-tip-of-the-day/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/10/08/javascript-tip-of-the-day/#comments Fri, 08 Oct 2010 20:10:50 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4015 Today I learned a neat trick for keeping the global namespace on a page clean.  Lets say you have the following code: This code will introduce 3 new global items which can be messy and undesirable.  The alternative to this which will keep the global namespace free of junk is to encapsulate the above code [...]

The post JavaScript Tip of the Day appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Today I learned a neat trick for keeping the global namespace on a page clean.  Lets say you have the following code:

This code will introduce 3 new global items which can be messy and undesirable.  The alternative to this which will keep the global namespace free of junk is to encapsulate the above code into an anonymous function like so:

The post JavaScript Tip of the Day appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/10/08/javascript-tip-of-the-day/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/10/01/sunnyconf-2010/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/10/01/sunnyconf-2010/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:40:30 +0000 Derek Yale http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=4004



On September 25th, 2010 David Keener, a Solutions Architect for MetroStar System's New Media Group, spoke at SunnyConf in Phoenix, Arizona. SunnyConf is Arizona's first Ruby conference.

The post SunnyConf 2010 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>  



 

On September 25th, David Keener, a Solutions Architect for MetroStar System’s New Media Group, spoke at SunnyConf in Phoenix, Arizona. SunnyConf is Arizona’s first Ruby conference.

 

According to David Keener, “I’m pleased to be one of the inaugural speakers for what is shaping up to be a great annual technical conference for Arizona. It may be the first year of the conference, but they’ve assembled a great group of speakers. I’m excited to have been invited to be one of them.”

 

Taking advantage of his extensive social media experience at MetroStar, Dave presented “Leveraging Rails to Build Facebook Applications.” His talk builds on his experience with real-life clients, both commercial and government, who are increasingly clamoring for social features to be “baked into” business applications in order to communicate more effectively with customers.

 



 

Speakers at SunnyConf: Back Row: Blake Mizerany, creator of the Sinatra web framework; Jeremy Ashkenas, creator of the CoffeeScript language and lead developer for DocumentCloud; Les Hill, Hashrocket consultant, open source contributor and occasional host of the Ruby5 podcast; Charles Nutter, co-lead for the JRuby initiative; David Keener, Senior Solutions Architect for MetroStar Systems and co-found of the RubyNation conference; and Front Row: Brian Sam-Bodden, creator of the Trellis component framework; Jim Remsik, Haskrocket consultant and well-known open source contributor; Luigi Montanez. developer for Sunlight Labs.

 



Find out more about the conference at:
http://www.sunnyconf.com/

The post SunnyConf 2010 appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/10/01/sunnyconf-2010/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/09/29/complex-vs-simple-design/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/09/29/complex-vs-simple-design/#comments Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:53:31 +0000 Aaditya Shah http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3894

Different design dictates to different people.

Some design calls to our inner child, other design calls to the grown up in us, and still other design calls to our inner passions. These forms of design are reflected throughout our everyday lives in things we constantly use, and yet we don't even realize it most of the time. Things like our mice and keyboards, the desks we sit at, the remote control to our television sets, our cars, and even our cell phones.

The post Complex vs Simple Design appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Different design dictates to different people.





Some design calls to our inner child, other design calls to the grown up in us, and still other design calls to our inner passions. These forms of design are reflected throughout our everyday lives in things we constantly use, and yet we don’t even realize it most of the time. Things like our mice and keyboards, the desks we sit at, the remote control to our television sets, our cars, and even our cell phones.

Apple is known for its simplistic minimalistic design. Their design calls to our inner kids with clean easy-to-use interaction, while the sleek sexy look of the physical components draw to our mature sides. In contrast, there are other companies which have a lot more complex designs, intended for specific audiences. Take the gaming industry for example; there are specific types of input devices geared towards these users, like keyboards, mice and other input tools. For instance, the Optimus Maximus Keyboard, or the Kinesis Contoured Advantage Keyboard, both of which are some of the top keyboards in the gaming market. These keyboards have added functionality which allows its user to customize the interactions the device can create between the program and the user.



It makes it so that the user can have an advantage over other players in games, or in other applications where more keyboard shortcuts can lead to more efficient and more productive users.


Another prime example of complex versus simple design is Apple’s Mighty Mouse and the OpenOffice Mouse. This mouse has 18 programmable buttons, joystick, while the Magic Mouse has 2 buttons. Both of these mice have users that swear by each, and different users like different things. Personally, I use a Wacom tablet as well as a Logitech Trackball mouse.

I love the Wacom tablet for use in Photoshop and other applications like that, but I use the trackball for different applications, like surfing the web and programming.



I have co-workers that swear on tablets, others that swear on regular mice, and still others that don’t care at all. Other people need specific types of keyboards and mice due to health conditions. There are keyboards that look incredibly ridiculous, however they serve medical purposes. Some keyboards like the “SafeType Ergonomics” look like they belong on spaceships with little green men with multiple arms operating them.



Other keyboards look like “uber nerds” are the only people that can ever operate them. Such as the “Twiddler 2″, which fits in the palm of one hand, or the “Frogpad” which only has 20 full keys, but still operates as a full keyboard.




Still other keyboards look wonderful, but they are extremely confusing in how they are to be used. An instance of this is the “OrbiTouch Keyless Keyboard” which is exactly what it says; it has no buttons, just two large round orbs.





In the end, simple design looks elegant, however they are not always the best for the end user. It depends on the user.

The post Complex vs Simple Design appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/09/29/complex-vs-simple-design/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/09/01/new-visual-search/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/09/01/new-visual-search/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:13:56 +0000 Derek Yale http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3871



MetroStar Systems has implemented Microsoft's Pivot technology to create a new way to search Supernova: Visually! If you haven't checked it out yet, give it a try by clicking here and see what catches your eye!

The post New Visual Search! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

MetroStar Systems has implemented Microsoft’s Pivot technology to create a new way to search Supernova: Visually! If you haven’t checked it out yet, give it a try by clicking here and see what catches your eye!

What is Pivot? Put simply, it’s an interactive navigation system built by Microsoft (on top of Silverlight) to organize vast quantities of data in a way that’s both fun and easy. To learn more about the product, check out the Pivot website: http://getpivot.com/

What excites us most about this technology is the variety of ways our posts can be visualized: By Author, Category, Post Date, or even by Tag! This is the kind of navigation that you simply do not get with a traditional archive.

For those of you who are more technically oriented, you can check out Lee Kohn’s earlier blog post to see what code we implemented to get our new visual search up and running.

What are you waiting for? Scroll up and click on the friendly alien to give it a shot!

The post New Visual Search! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/09/01/new-visual-search/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/27/new-supernova/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/27/new-supernova/#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:00:25 +0000 Derek Yale http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3418



Nearly a year and a half (524 days to be precise) has passed since we released Supernova to the world, shedding light on the inner workings of MetroStar Systems. In that time we’ve experienced continuous expansion, enjoyed a wide spectrum of client projects, and made a positive impact in our local and global community.

The post New Supernova bursts onto the scene! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

Nearly a year and a half (524 days to be precise) has passed since we released Supernova to the world, shedding light on the inner workings of MetroStar Systems. In that time we’ve experienced continuous expansion, enjoyed a wide spectrum of client projects, and made a positive impact in our local and global community.

But as things continue to heat up our blog has been getting denser and denser. Rather than let it collapse on itself, we took the initiative; choosing to put in the energy so Supernova could shine once again.

So what’s changed? Here are just a few of the major changes we’ve implemented:

1. A much, much simpler interface. In both the theme/layout and in the organization of the blog, we took every step to ensure that we ended up with a much cleaner, easier-to-navigate blog. We literally cut our categories down from 57 to 5! All of the widgets in the sidereel were re-organized into a better configuration. Search is now prominently featured at the top.

2. A whole bunch of behind-the-scenes: Not all of the work that was done is immediately visible on the front page. We went through a kind of “spring cleaning” phase: deleting old and unused media, evaluating and updating plugins, consolidating tags, that sort of thing.

3. A shift to WordPress 3 “Thelonious” of course! This is a powerful platform that gives us the flexibility we need to make a blog like Supernova. A huge thanks to the entire WordPress team for putting together this awesome package! We found the upgrade to be simple, and easy.

4. Visual Search functionality! Using Silverlight + Pivot we are now able to visually navigate Supernova posts and pages. If you haven’t seen it in action yet, check it out!

None of this would have been possible without a stellar team of marketers and designers to build it. Special thanks to Ali Manouchehri, Daniel Nguyen, Hector Portillo, AJ Shah, Monica Huie, and Patricia Joo!!

For your consideration: click here to see a screenshot of the old theme. We’d LOVE to hear your feedback on the new look and feel!

And finally, I’d like to thank Fritz Zwicky for coining the term “Supernova.”

To infinity and beyond!

-D

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/27/new-supernova/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/27/injecting-and-running-javascript-in-a-windows-forms-webbrowser-control-2/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/27/injecting-and-running-javascript-in-a-windows-forms-webbrowser-control-2/#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:01:01 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3771 Have you ever needed to inject some JavaScript into a web-page contained in a WebBrowser control and then run said code?  If you have then you’re in luck; here is some sample code which accomplishes exactly that in a console application (the same code works for a WinForms application with a few tweaks): To see [...]

The post Injecting and Running Javascript in a Windows.Forms.WebBrowser control appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Have you ever needed to inject some JavaScript into a web-page contained in a WebBrowser control and then run said code?  If you have then you’re in luck; here is some sample code which accomplishes exactly that in a console application (the same code works for a WinForms application with a few tweaks):

To see this code in action check out our new visual search here!

-Lee

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/27/injecting-and-running-javascript-in-a-windows-forms-webbrowser-control-2/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/19/cms-decision-tree-joomla-vs-drupal-vs-sharepoint/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/19/cms-decision-tree-joomla-vs-drupal-vs-sharepoint/#comments Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:23:20 +0000 Gerald Irish http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3417 About to embark on an enterprise content management project and haven’t yet chosen which product to use?  You are in luck because I have compiled a handy decision tree to help you decide.  This is version 1.0, hopefully domain-experts in Drupal and Joomla can help me flesh this out a little more.  I’ll also probably [...]

The post CMS Decision Tree (Joomla vs. Drupal vs. Sharepoint) appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> About to embark on an enterprise content management project and haven’t yet chosen which product to use?  You are in luck because I have compiled a handy decision tree to help you decide.  This is version 1.0, hopefully domain-experts in Drupal and Joomla can help me flesh this out a little more.  I’ll also probably make a version based on the feature set of Sharepoint 2010 at some point.



The post CMS Decision Tree (Joomla vs. Drupal vs. Sharepoint) appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/19/cms-decision-tree-joomla-vs-drupal-vs-sharepoint/feed/ 6 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/12/adobe-captivate-4-error-with-windows-7-64-bit/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/12/adobe-captivate-4-error-with-windows-7-64-bit/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:15:27 +0000 John Foley http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3245 I just installed Adobe Captivate 4 on my Windows 7, 64 bit machine.  The install went smoothly, meaning the progress glided towards the right without changing pace. The first error arose when I attempted to create a software simulation with Captivate.   After I completed the recording, I received the error message “Failure to copy audio [...]

The post Adobe Captivate™ 4 Error with Windows 7™, 64 bit appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> I just installed Adobe Captivate 4 on my Windows 7, 64 bit machine.  The install went smoothly, meaning the progress glided towards the right without changing pace.

The first error arose when I attempted to create a software simulation with Captivate.   After I completed the recording, I received the error message “Failure to copy audio stream.”  The second error occurred after I tried to publish a learning module to directly Adobe Connect™ from Captivate 4. The message was “error 42001”.

After some research I found that Adobe applications and a 64 bit operating systems do not play well together and need some coaxing to get along.  As I continued to read more about these errors I learned that Windows’ 64 bit machines do have a command line process to fix many of these types of issues.   Below are the methods that I used to overcome the errors I discovered with Adobe Captivate 4.

Error “Failure To Import Audio Stream”

To resolve this error complete the following:

1. Open the command prompt application
   1. I do this by typing cmd in the “Run…” text box
   2. Navigate to the directory where Adobe Captivate 4 is installed
      1. For me it is located here, [C:\Program Files (X84)\Adobe\Adobe Captivate 4]
      2. Once  you’re in the directory type “regsvr32 NSaudio.dll” and press Enter

I also noticed that this .dll file exists in some of my other Adobe application folders.

Error 42001

This error was not as easy as the Audio Stream Error but follows along the same issue of a 32 bit application running a 64 bit operating system.

To resolve this error I competed the following:

1. Open the command prompt application
2. Navigate to the [c:\windows\sysWOW64 directory]
3. Once you’re in the directory type “regsvr32 c:\…\Adobe Captivate 4\PpsUplo.dll” and press enter

Other blogs and forums had state that uninstalling Presenter 7 and then re-installing it may also correct this issue. I did this but it did not initially resolve the issue.  Using the command prompt is less intrusive on your system than uninstalling and re-installing an application.

The post Adobe Captivate™ 4 Error with Windows 7™, 64 bit appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/12/adobe-captivate-4-error-with-windows-7-64-bit/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/06/week-9-at-metrostar-systems/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/06/week-9-at-metrostar-systems/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:50:17 +0000 Jon Malley http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3234 As my two month internship here in Reston draws to a close, I have taken the time to reflect back on the time spent at MetroStar Systems.  The experience has given me a window of perspective into life at one of the most personable, friendly and team-oriented companies I’ve ever had the pleasure to have [...]

The post Week 9 @ Metrostar Systems appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

Day One

As my two month internship here in Reston draws to a close, I have taken the time to reflect back on the time spent at MetroStar Systems.  The experience has given me a window of perspective into life at one of the most personable, friendly and team-oriented companies I’ve ever had the pleasure to have known. The past nine weeks have provided me with so many minuscule tidbits of information and pieces of knowledge that will surely stay with me throughout my professional career. Some of the things, such as managing social media accounts via HootSuite and social bookmarking, were simple yet useful workplace tools that were unbeknownst to me until my arrival at MetroStar. Other tasks provided me with skills and the preparation for life in the real world of business. Sitting through and watching a business model presentation come together from scratch and watching it progress until just hours before it was to be presented was one of the most useful learning experiences I’ve ever had.

I have yet to take a class that could come close to emphasizing the value of implementing BMG and applying it to all aspects of a project/business/anything in life.

The month of July went by faster than I could have ever expected it to. The World Cup came to a close after a month of random outbursts of cheers, streaming games in minimized boxes in the corner of the screen, and a first WC win for La Furia Roja. Soon after the Cup ended, the marketing squad gained two new members: Monica Huie and Patricia Joo. After the new additions, the team moved forward at a previously unseen pace of speed and multitasking. New projects seemed to come in from all directions and it quickly became clear that this new formidable block would be more than capable of handling its workload.

As I near the end of my last task here at Metrostar Systems (this blog post), I can’t help but to smile when I try to think of any negative aspects of my experience. There was one thing that will always stand out and bug me about this place. Over the course of all of the FIFA 10 soccer matches played by the company B-Team, not ONE of the games ended in our favor. Oh well, I couldn’t have asked for a better duo to pair up with than Daniel and Ethan and I’m sure that one of these days (maybe years from now) we’ll  pull it together and beat a football side a prominent as the KC Wizards or the Colorado Rapids

-Jon Malley

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/08/06/week-9-at-metrostar-systems/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/27/mostafa-elzoghbi-mvp-2010/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/27/mostafa-elzoghbi-mvp-2010/#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:30:09 +0000 Jon Malley http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3193 Another year has passed here at MetroStar Systems and yet another Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Visual C# award has been bestowed upon our own Mostafa Elzoghbi. In what has seemingly become an annual occurrence, Elzoghbi secured a Visual C# MVP award for the fifth consecutive year. This exclusive award is given to those who [...]

The post Mostafa Extends His Microsoft MVP Streak to Five Years in a Row appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Another year has passed here at MetroStar Systems and yet another Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Visual C# award has been bestowed upon our own Mostafa Elzoghbi. In what has seemingly become an annual occurrence, Elzoghbi secured a Visual C# MVP award for the fifth consecutive year. This exclusive award is given to those who survive the extensive review process that encompasses around 100 million technical community participants worldwide. Not only is this an outstanding personal achievement, but it helps everyone on the MetroStar Systems team by improving the overall reputation of the company as a Microsoft Gold Partner.



Ever since he had the innovative idea of establishing the first .NET community in Kuwait (known as DotNet Boom), the MVP status has been a yearly staple for Mostafa. Though, it’s hardly surprising when an accomplished professional such as himself has stated his intentions of winning the award each year as long as it’s being offered. Over the past year, Mostafa has traveled across the globe to speak at various SharePoint Saturday events, including New York City and the Arabian summit. Some of the projects he has worked on include War Gaming BPM for the Air Force and SharePoint ELearning for the USMC. He also has a resourceful blog where he advises on various .NET issues and problems.



Congratulations Mostafa!

The post Mostafa Extends His Microsoft MVP Streak to Five Years in a Row appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/27/mostafa-elzoghbi-mvp-2010/feed/ 3 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/22/sharepoint-saturday-ny/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/22/sharepoint-saturday-ny/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:03:09 +0000 Derek Yale http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3176 SharePoint Saturday New York City is being held July 31st this year at the Microsoft Manhattan Office. The event is well-known for its lively atmosphere, invaluable presentations, and for its high attendance of SharePoint professionals and MVPs. A full day of networking, knowledge sharing, and everything SharePoint all at no cost to its attendees? At [...]

The post SharePoint Saturday New York City appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> SharePoint Saturday New York City is being held July 31st this year at the Microsoft Manhattan Office. The event is well-known for its lively atmosphere, invaluable presentations, and for its high attendance of SharePoint professionals and MVPs. A full day of networking, knowledge sharing, and everything SharePoint all at no cost to its attendees? At the time of this writing, the event has more than 70 people on the waitlist…

And MetroStar Systems will see you there!

Janis Hall, Ricardo Palhano, and Mostafa Elzhogbi will all be flying up to the Big Apple this year to talk SharePoint and, as speakers, cover a SharePoint-specific topic. Mostafa, a Microsoft C# MVP since 2006, will be giving a tech-oriented talk on SharePoint Sandbox solutions and demoing its applications and limitations. Janis Hall and Ricardo Palhano, on the other hand, will be holding a higher level session on SharePoint Governance.

“I’m very excited to meet up with the other speakers, many of us only see each other at these types of events. I’m also looking forward to dialogue and interactions with others attending the event. Being in the presence of other enthusiasts is exhilarating and I always leave these events with new inspiration and ideas. I must say that I’m also really looking forward to a visit we’re planning to the nearby cupcake shop. From the online pictures, it looks like chocolate for days…” said Janis Hall, Lead SharePoint Instructor.

You can also attend the event virtually via Twitter using the hashtag: #SPSNY or simply by following Janis and Mostafa. Janis Hall and Ricardo Palhano will also be giving their SharePoint Governance presentation in DC on August 12th with the SharePoint User Group of Washington, DC.

This is shaping up to be an amazing event and we hope you’ll join us! Break a leg, Janis, Ricardo, and Mostafa!



Click to find out more about this event

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/22/sharepoint-saturday-ny/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/08/hottest-dc-area-companies-award/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/08/hottest-dc-area-companies-award/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:19:38 +0000 Jon Malley http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3172 The summer of 2010 has been a hot one in the DC metro area with temperatures averaging in the 90′s for most of July.  So it’s no surprise that MetroStar Systems was recently recognized as one of the “Hottest DC Area” Companies.  Temperature was not really one of the requirements, it is really because of [...]

The post Hottest DC Area Companies Award appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> The summer of 2010 has been a hot one in the DC metro area with temperatures averaging in the 90′s for most of July.  So it’s no surprise that MetroStar Systems was recently recognized as one of the “Hottest DC Area” Companies.  Temperature was not really one of the requirements, it is really because of our growth over the past 3 years.

Lead411 started with a list of over 1,650 companies and narrowed it down to the top 81.  This recognition required that the companies must be in either the Software, Wireless, Internet, or Media industry; be a privately held organization; and be within the districts/states of Maryland, District of Columbia, Delaware, and Virginia.  Additionally, companies had to meet certain revenue, funding, or website traffic requirements.

You can visit http://www.lead411.com/dc-de-md-va-companies.html for more details about this award and to see the complete list of “Hottest DC Area Companies”.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/08/hottest-dc-area-companies-award/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/02/week-4-5-metrostar-systems/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/02/week-4-5-metrostar-systems/#comments Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:09:32 +0000 Jon Malley http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3165 Oh, how the time flies. My first month at MetroStar Systems is nearing its end and I feel as though I was touring the premises for the first time only yesterday. To me, June has been a month of getting acclimated, making new acquaintances and easing in to the enriching experience of life in the [...]

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]]> Oh, how the time flies. My first month at MetroStar Systems is nearing its end and I feel as though I was touring the premises for the first time only yesterday. To me, June has been a month of getting acclimated, making new acquaintances and easing in to the enriching experience of life in the corporate world. The marketing team saw its esteemed leader and colleague, Jenni Hubacher, depart from the MetroStar family. Her last couple of weeks was filled with what seemed to be an endless amount of interviews and the calculated preparation of designating her duties to other members on the team.

As the month went on, my tasks became increasingly relevant to the work being done by Daniel and Derek. One of the projects I worked on throughout June was related to a Google AdWords campaign for the Training and Education team. At first, I was inexperienced and knew nothing about the various strategies of search engine optimization. Over the course of a few weeks, I did a substantial amount of research and implemented different adjustments based on what I found. Needless to say, I feel no one should have to scour through the number of websites and tutorial videos pertaining to AdWords as I did. Therefore, I compiled a guide and uploaded it to the company portal if anyone has any desire to know more about the tedious, yet efficient advertising service from Google.

I feel as though I’m learning new skills everyday as I work alongside the marketing team. One day I’ll be working with Derek on WordPress, helping him update the blog. Another day would be spent using our SMART Service with Daniel in an effort to provide valuable research to various clients. Each week provides new opportunities and experiences with a value that will last me much longer than my stay here at the Reston office.

With June behind us, I can only imagine what kind of new projects and assignments July will have in store.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/07/02/week-4-5-metrostar-systems/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/21/customizing-the-sharepoint-2010-ribbon-ui/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/21/customizing-the-sharepoint-2010-ribbon-ui/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:53:28 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3112 Here are some handy links if you are interested in customizing SharePoint 2010′s ribbon UI: http://sharepointegg.blogspot.com/2010/02/remove-button-from-ribbon-in-sharepoint.html http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff407290.aspx Also if you need to find the IDs/Locations etc… of existing elements in the ribbon you can find them in this file: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\GLOBAL\XML\CMDUI.xml -Lee

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]]> Here are some handy links if you are interested in customizing SharePoint 2010′s ribbon UI:

http://sharepointegg.blogspot.com/2010/02/remove-button-from-ribbon-in-sharepoint.html

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff407290.aspx

Also if you need to find the IDs/Locations etc… of existing elements in the ribbon you can find them in this file:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\GLOBAL\XML\CMDUI.xml

-Lee

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/21/customizing-the-sharepoint-2010-ribbon-ui/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/21/migrating-sharepoint-solutions-from-2007-to-2010/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/21/migrating-sharepoint-solutions-from-2007-to-2010/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:25:01 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=3109 Today I had the pleasure of taking a SharePoint solution which had been built against 2007 and migrating it to 2010.  The whole process went much smoother than I had originally thought although I did learn a couple of things: Anything stored in the session state must be marked as serializable This was simply an oversight in [...]

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]]> Today I had the pleasure of taking a SharePoint solution which had been built against 2007 and migrating it to 2010.  The whole process went much smoother than I had originally thought although I did learn a couple of things:

Anything stored in the session state must be marked as serializable

This was simply an oversight in the 2007 version which didn’t complain about my structs not being marked serializable, however SharePoint 2010 will error out.

The InputFormTextBox control now requires a stylesheet from SharePoint

In SharePoint 2007 you could embed InputFormTextBox controls into your custom ASPX pages and the only dependency the control had where the core.js and init.js files (located in _layouts).  In SharePoint 2010 you now need to include the /_layouts/1033/styles/themable/forms.css file in order for the control to appear correctly.

The Microsoft.SharePoint DLL has moved

Since SharePoint is now on version 14 the Microsoft.SharePoint DLL is now located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\ISAPI.  This is just a minor change to the reference but may cause some annoyance to developers who are targeting both versions of SharePoint. (Note that once the solution is built it can be used for both versions of SharePoint, the difference in location won’t matter)

-Lee

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/21/migrating-sharepoint-solutions-from-2007-to-2010/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/10/sharepoint-saturday-dc/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/10/sharepoint-saturday-dc/#comments Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:20:46 +0000 Derek Yale http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2968 Sharepoint Saturday, Washington DC was held on May 15th this year. The event, at no charge to registrants, offers a full day of knowledge sharing, networking and seminars. MetroStar Systems was delighted to attend and support SPSDC. Our very own SharePoint experts, Janis Hall and Ricardo Palhano, presented on SharePoint Governance, specifically covering details on [...]

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]]> Sharepoint Saturday, Washington DC was held on May 15th this year. The event, at no charge to registrants, offers a full day of knowledge sharing, networking and seminars.

MetroStar Systems was delighted to attend and support SPSDC. Our very own SharePoint experts, Janis Hall and Ricardo Palhano, presented on SharePoint Governance, specifically covering details on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and SharePoint 2010.

Mark Miller, Bill English, Dux Raymond, Dan Usher, Dan Lewis, Joy Earles, Fabian Williams, Deff Deverter, and Marcy Kellar were among the prominent SharePoint leaders in attendance, as well as a number of MVPs. With such a stellar cast of SharePoint experts, we took the opportunity to ask some of the speakers their thoughts on where women stood in the tech-industry. The responses were intriguing, but you’ll have to check out the video below to hear them…

The next SharePoint Saturday will be held July 31st in New York City.  Mostafa Elzoghbi, Ricardo Palhano and Janis Hall will be attending and representing MetroStar System’s skills and offerings. We hope you’ll join us!



Click to find out more about this event

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/10/sharepoint-saturday-dc/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/04/week-1-metrostar-systems/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/04/week-1-metrostar-systems/#comments Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:24:19 +0000 Jon Malley http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2954 My first week at MetroStar has been full of new and exciting experiences. Though I have no idea what I’ll be doing by this time next week, it’s been a great start so far. I started my internship here the Tuesday after the Memorial Day weekend. The morning on my first day consisted of a [...]

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My first week at MetroStar has been full of new and exciting experiences. Though I have no idea what I’ll be doing by this time next week, it’s been a great start so far. I started my internship here the Tuesday after the Memorial Day weekend. The morning on my first day consisted of a lengthy, though standard, orientation session led by Mo Hessabi and Greg Citizen. Unlike my previous internship last summer in DC, I was immediately welcomed with the cool refreshing breeze of an adequate air conditioning system.   The office itself is also much larger than the cramped, two-room space that was rented out on K Street.  I received a brief tour of the premises and completed the necessary paperwork alongside the other new employees, Lynna Hall and Andrew Cisternino.

A quick lunch with Lynna and Greg was followed by a briefing by Mona Lutnes over our newly issued security cards (lanyard included). I then met Jenni Hubacher, the first of the three people that would be supervising me during my stay at MetroStar. The remaining hours of the workday were spent getting acclimated and setting up the desktop computer that I had been assigned.

Wednesday was my first true day of work and I soon met the second member of the Marketing team, Daniel Nguyen.  Jenni introduced me to Google’s AdWords service and we began working on a campaign advertising 8570.1 certification training sessions at the Stafford office.  Next, we moved on to Google Analytics to chart data pertaining to the MetroStar Systems (new and improved) website. My first real task was to complete a report on the data which included multiple graphs and analysis. On Thursday, I worked with Daniel and researched information about social media to get me up to speed with some of the current projects that are being put together. With the most unfortunate timing, I had to leave work early due to a terrible viral infection in my throat (at least that’s what I hope it is- No Mono please!) that left me unable to complete the full work day.

Nearing the end of my first week, Friday morning consisted of writing up my first MetroStar Systems blog entry on the future of social media. After lunch, I ran an inventory of all of the Marketing and HR collateral. The whole experience so far has been as enjoyable as I could have ever imagined. Everyone I’ve encountered has been friendly and helpful.   With that in mind, I’m elated to have the opportunity to spend the rest of my summer here at MetroStar Systems.

P.S. If anyone wants to play a game of FIFA sometime, just shoot me an e-mail.

-Jon Malley

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/04/week-1-metrostar-systems/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/04/team-teaching-for-the-marine-corps/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/04/team-teaching-for-the-marine-corps/#comments Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:30:17 +0000 John Gianopoulos http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2733 My group recently performed our first training class for the Marine Corps. Luckily we weren't just a group; we were a team, in all sense of the word.

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Shai Segal and Clay Calvert (MetroStar Systems Instructors)

My group (MetroStar Systems’ Education and Training Division) recently performed our first training class for the Marine Corps. Luckily we weren’t just a group; we were a team, in all sense of the word. For the past 18 months we’ve been researching, learning, and compiling training material on a huge amount of topics; and we boiled it down to 3 weeks of intense training. This course taught the Marines how to setup, configure, manage, and repair a portable, virtualized, SharePoint network unit. This unit is called a Tactical Collaborative Work Suite, or TCWS.  Our course topics included:

• The Marines’ custom TCWS hardware
• Use and manage Storage Area Networks
• Administer VMware
• Install and manage Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
• Keep SQL Server 2005 running
• Configure Jabber XCP Server
• Use and manage Adobe Connect sessions
• Administer CommVault backups
• Manage Infonic replication
• and many more…

Thankfully I did not have to research or teach all this by myself. Our team worked together and gathered information according to our specialties, and brought it all together in a single cohesive three week package. Over the duration our objectives changed many times; software was upgraded, features were added, and lesson topics were changed. I always knew my teammates had my back and were there to assist in any way I needed, as I was for them.

We worked, supported, and assisted each other through the entire process. Our short term goals and team members changed often over time, but our mission never did; compose the best course for customer’s consumption. And boy did they feast!

My future posts will describe some of our challenges, and how we adapted and overcame them.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/06/04/team-teaching-for-the-marine-corps/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/27/why-i-ride/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/27/why-i-ride/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 18:15:23 +0000 Clay Calvert http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2877 This was my 4th year participating in the MS Bike Ride from Richmond to Williamsburg. I ride to support a former colleague’s husband, Bruce, as a part of Team BRUCE (Bikers Ride Until a Cure Exists). In addition, my sister-in-law, Susan, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2006.  I ride to support her as well.  [...]

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Clay and Bruce

This was my 4th year participating in the MS Bike Ride from Richmond to Williamsburg.

I ride to support a former colleague’s husband, Bruce, as a part of Team BRUCE (Bikers Ride Until a Cure Exists). In addition, my sister-in-law, Susan, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 2006.  I ride to support her as well.  My friend, Sonia, has had MS for years as well, but her spirit is still strong.  She joked about painting flames on her walker.  I ride to support her too.

Multiple sclerosis (or MS) is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS), which is made up of the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Symptoms may be mild, such as numbness in the limbs, or severe, such as paralysis or loss of vision. The progress, severity, and specific symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary from one person to another. Today, new treatments and advances in research are giving new hope to people affected by the disease.  I ride…in hopes that there will be a cure.

This year, I decided to go all out! I went for two days and biked more than 150 miles.  You think that sounds bad? Well it is, but it is nothing compared to what someone with MS endures on a regular basis.  Bruce, after whom the team is named, can no longer pedal a bicycle so for the past few years we have taken turns helping him towards his goal of starting and finishing every race.  He has a ‘chariot’ and others of us have the honor of helping move his chariot toward his goal.  We may not finish the fastest, but it is still a great joy just to cross the finish line each year.  In the video below, you will see Bruce and I together starting at 3:05:



http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/MS_Society.jpg

Not only was the physical ride completed successfully, but our support helped the National MS Society raise over $320,000!

Visit the National MS Society website to learn more about Multiple Sclerosis.

-Clay Calvert

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/27/why-i-ride/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/21/can-your-investment-adviser-crunch-the-numbers-correctly/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/21/can-your-investment-adviser-crunch-the-numbers-correctly/#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 13:05:21 +0000 Mark Katzenberger http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1708 From beginning to end, the investment advice industry is a chain of number crunchers making choices for shareholders and clients. Armies of professionals distill earnings, book values, prices, average annualized returns and piles of other arcane data-points into profit opportunities for investors and clients. This number crunching is absolutely essential to investors at all points [...]

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Can Your Investment Adviser Crunch the Numbers Correctly?

From beginning to end, the investment advice industry is a chain of number crunchers making choices for shareholders and clients. Armies of professionals distill earnings, book values, prices, average annualized returns and piles of other arcane data-points into profit opportunities for investors and clients. This number crunching is absolutely essential to investors at all points along the chain, but it’s tedious work. Guided by clear industry standards and voluminous federal statutes, number crunchers at the beginning of the advice chain endure (or enjoy) the tedium to produce generally high quality work. But number crunchers at the end of the chain, where individual investors get their advice, don’t have clear standards to follow and often produce work that could use quite a bit of “quality assurance.”

Publicly traded companies like General Electric, Exxon Mobil, and Microsoft hire armies of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and other professionals to calculate their profits and report them to the public. These number crunchers are guided by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), other industry standards, and voluminous federal law.

These published numbers are then scrutinized by mutual fund managers and other Wall Street analysts. Mutual fund managers buy the shares of certain companies, hoping to earn a profit for their shareholders. The mutual fund managers then hire armies of professionals, including Chartered Financial Analysts (CFAs), to crunch their own profit numbers and report them to the public. These number crunchers are guided by the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) and other industry standards.

The chain of number crunching continues as investment advisers pore over the numbers reported by companies and by mutual funds. These advisers buy shares of certain companies and certain mutual funds that they hope will make money for their clients. Some investment advisers cater to large institutions like retirement plans, college endowment funds, or very wealthy individuals while other advisers cater to individual investors.

Advisers who cater to institutional clients usually follow the GIPS when they report investment performance to their clients. Competitive pressures at the institutional level of the advice market makes this standardized work a necessary cost of doing business. To follow GIPS and report accurate investment returns to their clients, advisers have to buy special software, store numbers in a dedicated database, maintain consistent, firm-wide policies, and pay outside auditors to check the final numbers. This is all costly but most institutional clients won’t hire an adviser who hasn’t done this work and incurred these costs.

But advisers who serve smaller, individual investors rarely do as much work or incur as many costs as those before them in the advice chain when reporting their own investment performance to clients. There isn’t the same competitive pressure at the individual level of the advice market. Investment advisers aren’t required by any law to tell clients how much money they’ve made or lost on their behalf. Buying investment advice isn’t like buying packaged food, where every product has to reveal its percentage of calories from fat.

Most investment advisers that cater to individual investors were never even trained to crunch the numbers correctly. The “CFP” initials you often see after an adviser’s name are supposed to indicate skill and professionalism in the investment industry. But they’re no indication that your adviser has the skills to crunch investment returns correctly. The “Certified Financial Planner” exam may ask one or two very general questions about investment performance, but that’s it. The only name-following initials that indicate investment performance number crunching skills are CFA or “CIPM” (Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement). But these initials are very rare among advisers to individual clients.

As the investment advice industry evolves I expect smaller investors will eventually receive the same accurate performance reports that institutional investors receive today. For this healthy evolution to occur advisers will have to recognize their duty to report performance to clients even though they aren’t legally required to do so. They’ll have to formulate standards for performance reporting and stick to them. The GIPS offer a good starting point for standards but would have to be adapted for use with individual investors. Advisers will also have to incur the additional costs associated with accurate reporting. Technological improvements can bring these costs down considerably.  Some advisers have already taken these steps ahead of their industry. Their efforts will hopefully give them an advantage over their sloppier competitors.

What should you do when your adviser hands you a performance report that says your account went up 8%, or down 20%? It’s easy to crunch the numbers yourself if you haven’t made any additions or withdrawals in the account. But if you’re regularly making deposits and withdrawals, or if your adviser is regularly buying or selling, the math gets very complex very quickly.

So how do you know the numbers are right? You can get a sense of your adviser’s number crunching skills (and apply a little competitive pressure) by asking a few tough questions:

1. Are these numbers “net of fees” or “gross of fees”? You probably pay your adviser commissions or a certain percentage of your account value as a fee. Does the report clearly show the dollar amount of commissions or fees you’ve paid? If you’re investments went up, say, 10% over the past 12 months and you paid your adviser 1%, then your gross of fees return is 10% but your net of fees return is only 9%. If your adviser can’t calculate net of fees and gross of fees performance, you might want to fire him.
2. Are these numbers “annualized”? If you’ve been with the adviser for many years he should be able to condense the returns from all of those years into your “average annualized return”, both net of fees and gross of fees.
3. Are these numbers “dollar-weighted” or “time-weighted”? These are the two different methods for calculating investment performance. The two methods can yield very different results when applied to the same account. Time weighted numbers are appropriate when your adviser compares your percentage returns to a market index, like the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500 Index. If your adviser crunched your numbers using the dollar-weighted method and then compared them to an index, you have a big problem. This is another “You’re fired” offense.

Eventually, the chain of accurate number crunching will extend from public companies to mutual fund managers to investment advisers and finally to individual investors. Until then, if you suspect your adviser can’t crunch the numbers correctly, ask these tough questions. If you don’t like the answers, shop around for an adviser who can.

*Photo Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/junctions/ / CC BY 2.0

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/21/can-your-investment-adviser-crunch-the-numbers-correctly/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/14/sharepoint-best-practices-people-editor-acting-buggy-in-ie8/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/14/sharepoint-best-practices-people-editor-acting-buggy-in-ie8/#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 14:58:17 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2833 Yesterday I was testing an ASP .Net page within SharePoint which contained a SharePoint People Editor control which was acting rather ‘strange’.  It would render in an odd kind of way and removing a person from the control would cause the entire text box to be removed from the DOM! I was convinced that there [...]

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Yesterday I was testing an ASP .Net page within SharePoint which contained a SharePoint People Editor control which was acting rather ‘strange’.  It would render in an odd kind of way and removing a person from the control would cause the entire text box to be removed from the DOM!

I was convinced that there was something on the page that was interfering with the People Editor such as some JavaScript or something with a duplicate id.  Even after removing everything from the page minus the CSS link it would still not work correctly.  Exasperated I decided to click the IE 8 ‘compatibility mode’ button which forces IE8 to use IE7′s rules for rendering, which caused the People Editor to start working.

So if you ever run into an issue like this try embedding a meta tag in the head of you page to tell IE8 to use its compatibility mode:

<meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”IE=EmulateIE7″ />

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks.

-Lee Kohn

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/14/sharepoint-best-practices-people-editor-acting-buggy-in-ie8/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/10/training-stands-alone-together/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/10/training-stands-alone-together/#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 16:58:32 +0000 John Gianopoulos http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2730 We instructors do stand alone, but we are not by ourselves... we often forget the instructor is not alone.

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When an instructor faces a room of students, we seem to stand alone. When all goes well we’re the Rock Star!. But when all goes wrong ours is the only face people see. Many instructors get the blame when events beyond our control happen: technicians setup a room wrong, the systems crashed, books never arrived, course ware contained several major errors, etc…

These events cause many instructors to receive complaints they couldn’t effect at one time or another. Here are a few:

• Instructor didn’t know what he was doing…
• Systems kept crashing and teacher couldn’t fix it
• Nothing worked, instructor was [no good]
• Presenter couldn’t control the room
• Class was too fast (and in the same class, “Class was too slow”)

But we often forget the instructor is not alone. Many people helped us earn that place in front of the room; the technicians who set up and maintain the equipment, the administrator who orders and delivers our course ware, the manager who gives us the required time to study and prep for courses and certifications, our coworkers and peers who help with difficult concepts and share great analogies, the sales people who sell our services and keeps our paychecks coming in, and so on.

We instructors do stand alone, but we are not by ourselves. It would be nice if customers acknowledge those others who control events beyond the instructors’ control, but it would also be good for us instructors to remember all the people who helped make a class possible when things go great, as well as when things go wrong. Pay back does happen; I’d rather receive a dividend than a loss!

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/05/10/training-stands-alone-together/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/29/imagine-cup-usa-2010/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/29/imagine-cup-usa-2010/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:54:54 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2770 The Newseum in Washington, DC (Image Courtesy of http://www.newseum.org/) The Imagine Cup U.S. Finals event was held on Monday, April 26, 2010 in Washington, DC at the Newseum.  The Imagine Cup is the world’s premiere student technology competition sponsored by Microsoft.  The annual competition, now in its 8th year, encourages and empowers students to use [...]

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The Newseum in Washington, DC (Image Courtesy of http://www.newseum.org/)

The Imagine Cup U.S. Finals event was held on Monday, April 26, 2010 in Washington, DC at the Newseum.  The Imagine Cup is the world’s premiere student technology competition sponsored by Microsoft.  The annual competition, now in its 8th year, encourages and empowers students to use technology, innovation, and their creativity to change the world by addressing social and environmental issues.  Compared to the 2009 competition that had only 2,000 applicants, participation in this year’s U.S. competition skyrocketed and attracted over 22,000 applicants! Of these, a distinguished group of only 80 students were selected to compete in the finals over the weekend.

As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, MetroStar Systems was invited to participate and attend.  Our CEO Ali Manouchehri was a featured representative on the Industry Partner Panel that reviewed the student entries and gave the students a chance to ask questions and get advice about technology, industry trends, and their future careers. I got the chance to attend the U.S. Finals event that featured the student Finalist Presentations, Keynote Addresses, and Award Presentations.



The student finalists got to showcase and demo their applications and games in presentations before the judges and a community showcase open to the attendees.  The finalists projects were quite diverse, innovative, and inspiring.  They included:

In the Software Design Finalist Presentations…

• Team Extraplaid: A pollution monitoring system accessible by mobile headsets
• Team MangoBunnies: A mobile & web message alert system to inform users of unsafe areas for women
• Team Mobilife: A mobile tool to diagnose vascular diseases
• Team Blob: A multi-touch designer to help teachers create interactive presentations

In the Game Design Finalist Presentations…

• Team Coffee Powered Altruism: A strategy game to tackle development issues of a country or region.
• Team Level 13: A video game that combats pollution through cultivating plants around the world.
• Team To Be Announced: An educational game that involves a series of quest challenges.
• Team Ifrit Salsa: A game that promotes a cleaner environment by collecting, sorting and recycling different items.



Academy Award Winning Filmmaker James Cameron speaking at Imagine Cup USA 2010

The keynote addresses were a highlight at this event and featured Academy Award Winning Master Filmmaker James Cameron to the surprise and delight of the attendees.  James Cameron spoke about his relationship and work with Microsoft that began years ago in development of his recent film Avatar that is now the highest-grossing film ever.  He worked with Microsoft on the innovative 3D initiatives and pioneering technology for the 3D stereoscopic cameras that is predicted to change the face of cinema forever.  Cameron spoke about the importance of technology, education, building strong future leaders, and how the Imagine Cup event is a wonderful “collision of social issues and technology” (much like his film Avatar).

Also giving great keynote speeches were Craig Mundie (Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft), Karen Cantor (Director of the Office of Education Technology, U.S. Department of Education), and Anthony Salcito (Vice President Worldwide Education, Microsoft).  You can view video of the keynote speeches and event highlights, check the image gallery for photos in Microsoft’s News Center, or visit the Imagine Cup website to learn more about world finals in Poland later this summer and to get more info on next year’s competition.  Congratulations to all of the students who participated this year and special congrats to the Imagine Cup U.S. 2010 Winning teams!



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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/29/imagine-cup-usa-2010/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/20/to-be-a-computer-instructor/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/20/to-be-a-computer-instructor/#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:58:06 +0000 John Gianopoulos http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2727 I’ve been a Computer Instructor in the DC are for over 15 years. We are a strange breed. Each day we instructors stand in front of a room of strangers and display our personal histories, experiences, and mistakes to everyone so they can better understand a topic. You might think, “So what. What’s the big deal?” This post answers that question.

The post To Be a Computer Instructor appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> I’ve been a Computer Instructor in the DC are for over 15 years. We are a strange breed. Each day we instructors stand in front of a room of strangers and display our personal histories, experiences, and mistakes to everyone so they can better understand a topic. You might think, “So what. What’s the big deal?” A survey asked the question “What’s your number one fear?” Most people replied, “Speaking in front of strangers.” The second most popular answer was “Death.” People would rather die than face what we do each working day. If that doesn’t tell you we’re weird, nothing will.

Many instructors have different teaching styles. Most use some humor to alleviate participant’s tension while other instructors have a drier, more serious style. Humor can be a powerful but dangerous instruction tool. Participants are nervous and stressed entering a class for several reasons:

1. They are admitting they don’t know something.
2. They are admitting someone knows more than they do.
3. Their job is on the line.

And the big one…

1. They may have to speak in front of others in the class!

I use more humor than some, so I try to pick safe targets; namely myself. I dislike others laughing at me as much as anyone else, but I revel when others laugh with me. This tells me they’re relaxed and comfortable in my presence and that I can do my job. I am not a serious person and my students learn that early in my introduction: “I’m originally from New York City, so I apologize if at all necessary.” I usually get chuckles from the participants. Occasionally someone asks, “Why do you need to apologize?”, and I reply with a smile, “New Yorkers have the reputation of being rude, arrogant, and obnoxious. In my case two out of three’s not bad, so you all can take your pick.” I do recall one instance a fellow New Yorker shouted out “You’ve got nuttin to apologize for! They don’t like it, tough!” Sometimes the humor finds you.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/20/to-be-a-computer-instructor/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/08/sharepoint-best-practices-form-digest-in-asp-net-pages-within-sharepoint/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/08/sharepoint-best-practices-form-digest-in-asp-net-pages-within-sharepoint/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:00:51 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2723 If you ever find yourself modifying data within SharePoint using custom ASP .Net pages, you will undoubtedly have run into errors regarding the pages security validation being invalid.  Rather than disabling security validation, which can leave your pages open to XSS attacks, follow the recommendations in the following blog post regarding using the FormDigest tag [...]

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]]>

If you ever find yourself modifying data within SharePoint using custom ASP .Net pages, you will undoubtedly have run into errors regarding the pages security validation being invalid.  Rather than disabling security validation, which can leave your pages open to XSS attacks, follow the recommendations in the following blog post regarding using the FormDigest tag to safely validate post backs.

http://epham.wordpress.com/2007/01/22/how-to-fix-security-validation-errors-in-sharepoint-aspnet-page/

-Lee

The post SharePoint Best Practices: Form Digest in ASP .Net Pages within SharePoint appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/08/sharepoint-best-practices-form-digest-in-asp-net-pages-within-sharepoint/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/02/in-depth-interview-on-federal-news-radio/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/02/in-depth-interview-on-federal-news-radio/#comments Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:43:49 +0000 Jenni Hubacher http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2708 Our CEO, Ali Manouchehri, was recently interviewed on Federal News Radio (1500 AM).  He was featured on Francis Rose‘s “In Depth“ show that airs Monday-Friday from 1pm-3pm.  The interview was part of Mr. Rose’s “Industry Chatter” series and they discussed President Obama’s memo on Transparency and Open Government (pdf), the Open Government directive that followed, [...]

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]]>

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/

Our CEO, Ali Manouchehri, was recently interviewed on Federal News Radio (1500 AM).  He was featured on Francis Rose‘s “In Depth“ show that airs Monday-Friday from 1pm-3pm.  The interview was part of Mr. Rose’s “Industry Chatter” series and they discussed President Obama’s memo on Transparency and Open Government (pdf), the Open Government directive that followed, as well as issues dealing with collaboration, participation and security.

You can listen to or download the interview here: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=17&sid=1925310.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/04/02/in-depth-interview-on-federal-news-radio/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/25/metrostar-systems-launches-votridea-contest-platform-to-meet-open-government-directive/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/25/metrostar-systems-launches-votridea-contest-platform-to-meet-open-government-directive/#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:45:41 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2681 Press Release: Government Ready Contest Solution Enables Social Media Community Growth and Engagement RESTON, VA, March 24 /PRNewswire/ – MetroStar Systems, a leader in full-service information technology (IT) and strategies for new media and social networks, today announced the launch of its new contest platform, Votridea, which is optimized for government use. Votridea fosters innovation [...]

The post MetroStar Systems Launches Votridea Contest Platform to Meet Open Government Directive appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Press Release: Government Ready Contest Solution Enables Social Media Community Growth and Engagement

RESTON, VA, March 24 /PRNewswire/ – MetroStar Systems, a leader in full-service information technology (IT) and strategies for new media and social networks, today announced the launch of its new contest platform, Votridea, which is optimized for government use. Votridea fosters innovation by engaging and managing large communities in social networks. The contest platform is designed to foster challenges and capture ideas with proven community management tools.

On March 8, 2010, Federal Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients released a memorandum outlining, “Guidance on the Use of Challenges and Prizes to Promote Open Government“.  This memorandum was in direct support of the Obama Administration’s commitment to open government, and how it can help drive innovation and other national priorities. The memorandum states, “The Administration believes that prizes and challenges have a number of potential benefits…they may allow the government to…highlight excellence in a particular domain of human endeavor to motivate, inspire and guide others…[to] further a federal agency’s mission by attracting more interest and attention to a defined program, activity or issue of concern…” Votridea fully complies within these guidelines and the newly released DOD Social Media Policy, allowing agencies to engage and expand their communities.

“MetroStar has proven performance in creating and managing contests to help drive government innovation and grow cultural awareness,” said Ali Reza Manouchehri, Founder and CEO of MetroStar Systems. “We’ve just completed the Department of State’s second ExchangesConnect Video Contest. Participants responded to the theme, ‘Change Your Climate, Change Our World.’ Votridea allows us to utilize our experience and lessons learned to help government drive innovation and public participation, creating the best possible platform and support for our customer.”

The Votridea Contest Platform seamlessly integrates with popular Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Ning to catalyze rapid and scalable participant growth. The platform is scalable supporting agency communities, allowing agencies to target focus their contest within a small group or extend to a global reach. Votridea offers a Community Management Dashboard that allows even computer novices to manage the quality and quantity of participant contributions. Votridea supports text, photos and video to encourage participation in the selected medium of agency or contestant choice. For additional product information, please contact Johnny Nguyen (jnguyen@metrostarsystems.com) or @metrostarsystem on Twitter.

To learn more about Votridea, please visit http://www.metrostarsystems.com/socialtoolbox/

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/25/metrostar-systems-launches-votridea-contest-platform-to-meet-open-government-directive/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/24/rubyists-return-to-rubynation-in-reston/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/24/rubyists-return-to-rubynation-in-reston/#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:45:19 +0000 Derek Yale http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2659 This year’s RubyNation conference will take place on Friday April 9th and Saturday April 10th at the Sheraton Reston Hotel in Reston, Virginia.  In its 3rd year, RubyNation is a two-day conference presented by the Washington, DC area Ruby community that “features debate and discussions of the latest trends, techniques, and tools in Ruby development, [...]

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]]>

This year’s RubyNation conference will take place on Friday April 9th and Saturday April 10th at the Sheraton Reston Hotel in Reston, Virginia.  In its 3rd year, RubyNation is a two-day conference presented by the Washington, DC area Ruby community that “features debate and discussions of the latest trends, techniques, and tools in Ruby development, design, deployment, business and marketing.”  This year’s speakers include Dave Thomas (Co-Author of Agile Manifesto and Author of The Pragmatic Programmer, Agile Web Development with Rails and Programming Ruby), Jeff Barr (Amazon Web Services), and MetroStar Systems‘ very own Dave McVicar and David Keener (shameless plug). Click on the list of speakers and agenda for complete details and info.


MetroStar Sytems is proud to be a diamond sponsor for this event and happy to support the Washington DC area Ruby Community.  Members of our team will be attending, volunteering, filming, and presenting at RubyNation, so please leave us a comment below if you plan to come.  We will also be hosting the “Ruby-B-Q” at our headquarters on Friday evening (after RubyNation Day 1) featuring food and drinks.  Registration for the conference is still open, but get your tickets soon before the event sells out: http://rubynation.org/registration

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/24/rubyists-return-to-rubynation-in-reston/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/18/announcing-our-social-innovation-toolbox/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/18/announcing-our-social-innovation-toolbox/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:15:27 +0000 Jenni Hubacher http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2645 MetroStar Systems is excited to launch our ‘Social Innovation Toolbox‘ that features three brand new products and services.  The Social Innovation Toolbox features tools that offer creative and effective means to engage with and leverage your communities.  Your community could be your fellow employees in your company, all of the Facebook fans on your fanpage, [...]

The post Announcing our Social Innovation Toolbox appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>



MetroStar Systems is excited to launch our ‘Social Innovation Toolbox‘ that features three brand new products and services.  The Social Innovation Toolbox features tools that offer creative and effective means to engage with and leverage your communities.  Your community could be your fellow employees in your company, all of the Facebook fans on your fanpage, or all of the citizens in your city.  No matter how small or large your community is, our Social Innovation tools can help you.  Here are some details about the tools:

• SMART Service (Social Media Aggregation and Research Technology) – SMART Service let’s you target, collect, filter, analyze and channel content from any social media platform.
• VOTRIDEA (Social Contest Platform) – The Votridea contest platform gives you the power to engage and grow your community through contests and promotions.
• SPIGIT (Idea Management) – Our partnership with Spigit offers you their idea management solution where you can accelerate your organization’s innovation by capturing ideas from your employers, customers, and partners.

For more information about the tools in our Social Innovation Toolbox, please visit our website http://www.metrostarsystems.com/socialtoolbox/default.aspx

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/18/announcing-our-social-innovation-toolbox/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/11/metrostar-is-sponsoring-the-marine-corps-marathons-run-to-register-10k-2010-event/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/11/metrostar-is-sponsoring-the-marine-corps-marathons-run-to-register-10k-2010-event/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:19:50 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2617 As a part of our sponsorship of the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) Event Series, we are pleased to announce our sponsorship of the MCM Run2Register 10K event that is taking place on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA.  Here are some important details about the event: Participants can [...]

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]]>


MCM Event Series 2010

As a part of our sponsorship of the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) Event Series, we are pleased to announce our sponsorship of the MCM Run2Register 10K event that is taking place on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA.  Here are some important details about the event:



• Participants can secure a slot in the 35th Marine Corps Marathon Main event which will be held later this year on Saturday, October 31st, 2010 in Washington, DC.  All finishers of the Run2Register 10K ages 14 and older will receive a guaranteed, non-complimentary entry into the MCM, days before online registration is available to the general public.
• Date: Saturday, March 27th, 2010
• Time: 8:00 AM
• Location: Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA
• Complete Info: MCM Run2Register 10K website

Members of the MetroStar Systems team will be participating in the race and others will supporting the Marine Marathon event team and cheering on the runners.  Immediately following the MCM Run2Register 10 K event will be the 28th Irish Sprint One-Miler that is still open to the public for registration.  We are proud to be supporting this event and are looking forward to it.  Let us know if you are participating or plan to be there!

The post MetroStar is sponsoring the Marine Corps Marathon’s Run To Register 10K 2010 event appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/11/metrostar-is-sponsoring-the-marine-corps-marathons-run-to-register-10k-2010-event/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/10/bug-in-sharepoint-2007-workflow-copy-list-item/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/10/bug-in-sharepoint-2007-workflow-copy-list-item/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:02:29 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2628 Today I ran into a rather obnoxious bug in SharePoint 2007 workflow actions. When using the ‘Copy List Item‘ action in a workflow targeting a document library, I noticed that sometimes not all of the fields would get copied to the new list.  At first it seemed random in its appearance but after playing with [...]

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]]>

Today I ran into a rather obnoxious bug in SharePoint 2007 workflow actions.

When using the ‘Copy List Item‘ action in a workflow targeting a document library, I noticed that sometimes not all of the fields would get copied to the new list.  At first it seemed random in its appearance but after playing with it for a few minutes I noticed the factor which determined whether all of the fields got copied was the number of characters in the file extension of the file being moved from one document library to another.  Files with three letter extensions (such as sample.txt or sample.doc) worked fine whereas files with four letter extensions (such as sample.docx or sample.xlsx) would not!

So far I have not been able to find any workaround to this problem other than writing my own custom action in .Net! If you have run into this bug and found a solution, please leave a comment below.

Stay tuned for any updates…

-Lee

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/10/bug-in-sharepoint-2007-workflow-copy-list-item/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/02/notes-from-the-2010-microsoft-mvp-global-summit/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/02/notes-from-the-2010-microsoft-mvp-global-summit/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:21:48 +0000 Mostafa Elzoghbi http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2599 Hello Everyone, I’d like to share some of the experiences I had at the 2010 Microsoft MVP Global Summit which was held from 16-19 Feb 2010 in Seattle, WA. This year’s summit was exciting for MVPs as some big announcements for new products at Microsoft such as Windows 7, Visual Studio 2010, SharePoint 2010, Mobile [...]

The post Notes from the 2010 Microsoft MVP Global Summit appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Hello Everyone,

I’d like to share some of the experiences I had at the 2010 Microsoft MVP Global Summit which was held from 16-19 Feb 2010 in Seattle, WA. This year’s summit was exciting for MVPs as some big announcements for new products at Microsoft such as Windows 7, Visual Studio 2010, SharePoint 2010, Mobile 7 and new web technologies trends such as ASP.NET 4.0, MVC, Entity Framework, Silverlight 4, etc.

Being a C# MVP, I have been asked to present a MVP2MVP side session on Friday 19th from Charlie Calvert (C# Community Manager). My session topic was titled “LINQ in SharePoint 2010” and you can find my presentation here.

I met a good number of geeks within the summit : Hammad Rajjoub (Connected Systems MVP), Mohamed AbdelHaleem (OCS MVP), Waleed Omar-Exchange (Exchange Server MVP), Amit Bansal (SQL Server MVP), Martin Kulov (ASP.NET MVP), Gael Duhamel (Commerce Server MVP), Serge Luca (SharePoint MVP), Jonathan Noble (Power Shell MVP), Razi Bin Rais (SharePoint  MVP), and many other MVPs and friends working at Microsoft.

I had a great discussion and made future plans with Ruari Plint (MEA MVP Lead) for future community events and work to be planned.

I’d like to thank our creative designer Hector Portillo for the design of my presentation.

Some pictures for the event and presentation are below:

[nggallery id=8]

You can follow the conversation around the 2010 MVP Global Summit by searching the #MVP10 hashtag and by following @MVPAwardProgram on Twitter or by visiting these links and resources:

• MVP Global Summit 2010 Blog
• MVP Award Program on Facebook
• The Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog
• Microsoft MVP Worldwide website

Feel free to leave any questions or comments in the comment’s section below.

Thanks,

Mostafa

The post Notes from the 2010 Microsoft MVP Global Summit appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/02/notes-from-the-2010-microsoft-mvp-global-summit/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/26/adding-microsoft-office-communications-server-2007-r2-to-a-pool-on-a-subdomain/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/26/adding-microsoft-office-communications-server-2007-r2-to-a-pool-on-a-subdomain/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:10:31 +0000 Lee Kohn http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2573 Let’s say you want to install Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 onto a subdomain (i.e. installing OCS onto a domain such as lab.domain.net instead of domain.net).  If you are logged in as a domain administrator on the subdomain, you will get access denied errors when the installer attempts to write information into the top-level [...]

The post Adding Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to a Pool on a Subdomain appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Let’s say you want to install Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 onto a subdomain (i.e. installing OCS onto a domain such as lab.domain.net instead of domain.net).  If you are logged in as a domain administrator on the subdomain, you will get access denied errors when the installer attempts to write information into the top-level domain.

A simple solution to this is to temporarily give the sub-domain’s administrator write access to the objects in active directory (AD) which it needs to write to, which is usually:

CN=RTC Service,CN=Microsoft,CN=System,DC=[TOP LEVEL DOMAIN IN THE FOREST]

NOTE: The OCS installer error log will tell you exactly which objects it needs access to.

This can be accomplished using a tool called ADSI edit which is designed for editing objects inside of AD.  Screen shots can be seen below:



ADSI Edit (Click on image for larger view)



CN=RTC service (Click on image for larger view)

If you have any questions or comments, please post them in the comments section below.

Thanks,

Lee



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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/26/adding-microsoft-office-communications-server-2007-r2-to-a-pool-on-a-subdomain/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/24/office-communicator-2007-r2-missing-registry-key/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/24/office-communicator-2007-r2-missing-registry-key/#comments Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:43:17 +0000 Jorge "El Che" Vasquez http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2552 I love technology, however, when someone forgets to add very simple comments, it drive me crazy. Today, I needed to figure out how to add a Custom Tab onto Microsoft’s Office Communicator 2007 R2. According to the documentation provided by Microsoft, it is a very simple process Configuring Context-Sensitive Custom Tabs http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb963929.aspx Step 1: Define [...]

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]]> I love technology, however, when someone forgets to add very simple comments, it drive me crazy.

Today, I needed to figure out how to add a Custom Tab onto Microsoft’s Office Communicator 2007 R2.

According to the documentation provided by Microsoft, it is a very simple process

Configuring Context-Sensitive Custom Tabs
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb963929.aspx

Step 1: Define the Registry Setting – Adjusting the registry
Step 2: Creating the Custom Tab Definition Files – Creating an XML file

Now, Step 2 was the easiest, since they have a good example on the format of the XML file.

However, Step 1 was the most troublesome, since the instructions tell you to navigate (using regedit.exe) to the following locations within your computer registry in order to create an entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator

Very straight forward instructions, however, what they forget to tell you

NOTE: the above path might not exist.

At first, I blamed my Windows 7, but then I contacted a coworker that has Windows Vista and he said the path did not exist for him either.

Hence, the only thing that came to mind was to create the entries manually. At first I was very hesitant to manually create a new key, since I did not want to crash my computer. However, what is the worst that could happen? (OS rebuild)

So, I navigated to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

1. Created a new “Key” and named it “Communicator”
2. Created a new “String Value”  and named it “TabURL” with the location of the XML file (Step 2) which I hosted on IIS. (See Image OC1 below)
3. Exited Office Communicator
4. Launched and Signed In ont Office Communicator
5. Done (See Image OC2 below)


If Microsoft reads this post, please make sure to adjust your documentation, since this omission causes a lot of unnecessary research and frustration when trying to customize Office Communicator 2007 R2.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/24/office-communicator-2007-r2-missing-registry-key/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/17/mostafa-elzohgbi-presenting-at-microsofts-2010-mvp-summit/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/17/mostafa-elzohgbi-presenting-at-microsofts-2010-mvp-summit/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:47:49 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2532 MetroStar Systems is pleased and proud to announce that our team member, Mostafa Elzohgbi, will be presenting at Microsoft’s exclusive 2010 MVP Global Summit which takes place February 16-19, 2010 at Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Mostafa’s presentation will cover both C# and Sharepoint with his session titled “LINQ in Sharepoint 2010 Development.” He will [...]

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]]> MetroStar Systems is pleased and proud to announce that our team member, Mostafa Elzohgbi, will be presenting at Microsoft’s exclusive 2010 MVP Global Summit which takes place February 16-19, 2010 at Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Mostafa’s presentation will cover both C# and Sharepoint with his session titled “LINQ in Sharepoint 2010 Development.”

He will be joined by over 1,300 of the world’s top leaders from Microsoft’s MVP technical community who represent 96 countries, 37 languages, and span 94 Microsoft Technology areas.  Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Program, in it’s 17th year, recognizes and awards individuals for their exceptional commitment in helping improve Microsoft’s products and in helping people around the world make the most of their Microsoft technology.  You can read more about Mostafa’s MVP recognition here: http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/07/02/metrostar-systems-employee-receives-exclusive-microsoft-award/

You can follow the conversation around the 2010 MVP Global Summit by searching the #MVP10 hashtag and by following @MVPAwardProgram on Twitter.

For more information, you can also visit these links and resources:

• Connect with Mostafa Elzoghbi on Twitter
• Read Mostafa’s Blog
• 2010 Global Summit Website
• MVP Global Summit 2010 Blog
• MVP Award Program on Facebook
• The Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog
• Microsoft MVP Worldwide website

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/17/mostafa-elzohgbi-presenting-at-microsofts-2010-mvp-summit/feed/ 3 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/17/windows-phone-7-series/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/17/windows-phone-7-series/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:17:12 +0000 Jorge "El Che" Vasquez http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2516 Earlier this week, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft unveiled “Windows Phone 7 Series“.  This new phone, which Microsoft is targeting to unleash by the 2010 holiday season, will take a stab at the iPhone and its market by providing a completely new user experience (a Zune HD like experience) extensive integration with [...]

The post Windows Phone 7 Series appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Earlier this week, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft unveiled “Windows Phone 7 Series“.  This new phone, which Microsoft is targeting to unleash by the 2010 holiday season, will take a stab at the iPhone and its market by providing
• a completely new user experience (a Zune HD like experience)
• extensive integration with social networks, such as facebook
• video, music and photo aggregation/mashup like abilities
• office productivity tools
• integration with zune (videos & music) and xbox live (games)
• GPS, maps, search
• and many more features ……

Windows Phone 7 Series Demo

Behind the Desgin



We are only 2 months into 2010 and it seems that this year, Microsoft is going all outs in the Mobile and Gaming Markets, both of which will get hit by critical products during 2010 holiday season:

• Mobile: Windows Phone 7 Series
• Gaming: Project Natal

As a End User:  Make sure not be naughty this year. And if you are reading this blog post Santa, I promise to be a good developer (commenting my code)  and a good individual (helping others).

As a Developer: Make sure to stay connected to the latest and try to attend MIX10 Conference where they will release further details on not only ”Windows Phone 7 Series”, but also Microsoft’s broad web platform and tools that help bring together the clients, servers and cloud services needed for creating great rich web applications.

A very exciting year for both Users and Developers.

2010, the year of creating exceptional user experiences across all devices.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/17/windows-phone-7-series/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/08/surface-sdk-and-windows-7/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/08/surface-sdk-and-windows-7/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:01:56 +0000 Jorge "El Che" Vasquez http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2501 I recently upgraded my computer from Windows Vista to Windows 7.  And while setting up my computer, I discovered that the Microsoft Surface SDK only works on Windows Vista. I am not going to lie, but I was very disappointed and could not see why the SDK could not work on Windows 7. Hence, I went ahead and searched [...]

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]]> I recently upgraded my computer from Windows Vista to Windows 7.  And while setting up my computer, I discovered that the Microsoft Surface SDK only works on Windows Vista.

I am not going to lie, but I was very disappointed and could not see why the SDK could not work on Windows 7. Hence, I went ahead and searched the web for individuals with the same issue. Hence, I discovered this post which helps you with adjusting the Surface SDK msi file, along with samples to work on Windows 7.

Great Post !!!

http://www.grumpydev.com/2009/05/17/surface-sdk-sp1-on-vista-and-win7-x64/

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/08/surface-sdk-and-windows-7/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/02/please-wait-while-setup-finishes-determining-your-disk-space-requirements/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/02/please-wait-while-setup-finishes-determining-your-disk-space-requirements/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:21:23 +0000 Jorge "El Che" Vasquez http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2495 .MSI files can act strangely at times. Causing us to explode in anger as to why it decided that it must check your disk for space requirements. Is this a sign that I must take a break and get a cup of coffee? Hence, I clicked on “Return” on the above message and took a [...]

The post Please wait while Setup finishes determining your disk space requirements appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> .MSI files can act strangely at times. Causing us to explode in anger as to why it decided that it must check your disk for space requirements.



Is this a sign that I must take a break and get a cup of coffee?

Hence, I clicked on “Return” on the above message and took a break.

To my surprise, nothing had happened. Moreover, when I clicked on “Next”, I received the haunting message again

“Please wait while Setup finishes determining your disk space requirements”

Haven’t I waited enough?
Isn’t this suposed to be easier?
Is this a sign that I should go home earlier?
Am I on Celebrity Ghost Stories?

And then Command Line came to mind.

A black screen (Night) with white letter (Ghost) .

Try this command (Spell)

“msiexec /package [sample.msi] /qr”

and it should install the .MSI without any unwanted messages.

The post Please wait while Setup finishes determining your disk space requirements appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/02/please-wait-while-setup-finishes-determining-your-disk-space-requirements/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/02/corporate-culture-and-collaboration-in-community/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/02/corporate-culture-and-collaboration-in-community/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:52:03 +0000 Tanya Hilleary http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2464 It is amazing how much one can learn in a month after being immersed in an environment. I’ve learned  that while our SVP of Business Development can salsa, it’s the Bhangra music and rhythms that get my new colleagues on the dance floor at a company party. I’ve learned that, true to its name, if [...]

The post Corporate Culture and Collaboration in Community appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

It is amazing how much one can learn in a month after being immersed in an environment. I’ve learned  that while our SVP of Business Development can salsa, it’s the Bhangra music and rhythms that get my new colleagues on the dance floor at a company party. I’ve learned that, true to its name, if I drink the Midnight Magic coffee after lunch I can’t fall asleep before 1:00 a.m.  I’ve learned that when you get smart people and good technology in a room together, you can play a part to help a poor island nation racked by catastrophe.

My role here at MetroStar Systems is, ultimately, to tell our story. While there is a certain “drinking from a firehose” aspect to the transition of a new executive into a fast growing company – average of 272% in the last three years and 420% growth in the last year – in true MetroStar fashion, I’ve tried to do a lot of listening and observing since arriving earlier this month.

So here’s what I’ve observed:
We are Skywalker Ranch meets the United Nations. Our modern offices are situated on a beautiful pre-Civil War era campus in the heart of what is now bustling, modern, high tech Reston, Virginia. But this exquisite facility is only the shell – the real beauty lies within. At the time of this writing, we have nearly 100 employees with more than 30 different nationalities represented. Walking around the office and meeting my new colleagues has been the absolute highlight of my transition so far. The cultural diversity is a huge strength for a company immersed in using technology in new and innovative ways.  We come from different places with different backgrounds and different ideas. When a customer presents a problem, we can offer several unique perspectives and share among our team to create the ideal solution. Innovative collaboration is at the very heart of MetroStar Systems.

We are a company that uses technology to bridge collaboration between people. Sometimes those people are Marines sharing data around the globe; other times we’re leveraging the best social media technology on a global scale in the interest of the State Department’s public diplomacy campaigns. By doing what we do, we effect change in the world.

MetroStar Systems offers a unique ability to collaborate.  Indeed, we are true to our tagline – we “Advance Technology Daily“. But we also…

Avance la tecnología cada día
每天先进技术
Zaawansowanej technologii na co dzień
پیشرفت تکنولوژی روزانه
передовой технологии с каждым днем
Avançando a tecnologia diariamente
تقدم التكنولوجيا اليومية
अग्रिम प्रौद्योगिकी हर दिन
Progresser les technologies de tous les jours
предварително технология всеки ден
Kuendeleza teknolojia ya kila siku
הטכנולוגיה מראש כל יום
công nghệ tiên tiến mỗi ngày
사전 기술 매일
teknologi maju setiap hari
Teknoloji avanse chak jou

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noticelj/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/02/02/corporate-culture-and-collaboration-in-community/feed/ 3 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/25/science-behindproject-natal/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/25/science-behindproject-natal/#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:27:06 +0000 Jorge "El Che" Vasquez http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2432 New year, new tools, new games, NO CONTROLLERS? Microsoft is really cranking on getting Project Natal this year with hopes of getting this onto the market by the end of 2010. Check out the following article, which talks about the science behind Project Natal and how other competitors are reacting: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=microsoft-project-natal Will Natal have the same effect that the Wii had [...]

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]]> New year, new tools, new games, NO CONTROLLERS?

Microsoft is really cranking on getting Project Natal this year with hopes of getting this onto the market by the end of 2010. Check out the following article, which talks about the science behind Project Natal and how other competitors are reacting:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=microsoft-project-natal

Will Natal have the same effect that the Wii had on us, for the past few years?�
The Wii Remotes slipped out of people hands onto their expensive flat screen TVs before, will my hand hit the TV this time? Will I be in shape to play any of their games?

So many questions, yet, I can’t wait to play. Which reminds me that I need to buy an Xbox 360!

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/25/science-behindproject-natal/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/15/how-web-2-0-tools-help-victims-of-hatian-quake/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/15/how-web-2-0-tools-help-victims-of-hatian-quake/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:53:12 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2346 Ali Manouchehri (CEO, MetroStar Systems) and Sean McDonald (Director of New Media Business Development) were recently interviewed by Chris Dorobek and Amy Morrison of Federal News Radio’s “The Daily Debrief” (airs Monday – Friday 3-7pm).  They were talking about MetroStar Systems’ current effort to support to our clients who have an operational presence in Haiti [...]

The post “How Web 2.0 tools help victims of Hatian quake” appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Ali Manouchehri (CEO, MetroStar Systems) and Sean McDonald (Director of New Media Business Development) were recently interviewed by Chris Dorobek and Amy Morrison of Federal News Radio’s “The Daily Debrief” (airs Monday – Friday 3-7pm).  They were talking about MetroStar Systems’ current effort to support to our clients who have an operational presence in Haiti helping and providing aid after the recent earthquake that has caused a major humanitarian emergency.  MetroStar Systems is offering pro bono services by monitoring, sorting and filtering information and communications coming in via social media networks and tools (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, blogs) about the Haiti earthquake and the people who need aid in order to provide useful and actionable information to the proper authorities.


Source: www.FederalNewsRadio.com

You can read the web article “How Web 2.0 tools help victims of Hatian quake” and listen to an MP3 of the interview to learn more about these efforts.

How can you help?  A great benefit of technology and social media tools is that it makes it easier for us to help those in need. Here are some resources, links and information on how you can assist earthquake victims:

The following organizations are accepting SMS donations (U.S. only):

• SMS text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts
• SMS text “YELE” to 501501 to Donate $5 to Yele Haiti’s Earthquake Relief efforts
• SMS text “GIVE10″ to 20222 to donate $10 to Direct Relief

For more information and ways to donate, you can visit the websites of these organizations that are providing support and aid to the earthquake victims and international relief efforts:

• American Red Cross
• UNICEF USA
• Yele Haiti
• Doctors Without Borders
• Direct Relief International
• Ushahidi

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti and all of those who are helping with this humanitarian emergency.

The post “How Web 2.0 tools help victims of Hatian quake” appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/15/how-web-2-0-tools-help-victims-of-hatian-quake/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/14/exchangesconnect-video-contest-community-voting-and-judging-periods/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/14/exchangesconnect-video-contest-community-voting-and-judging-periods/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:14:12 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2329 The submission period for the 2nd Annual ExchangesConnect Video Contest is now over. The contest features over 160 videos from contestants from all around the world sharing ideas about making their community a better place, and in the process contributing to a healthier, safer, cleaner, and more peaceful world for all of us.  Seeing all [...]

The post ExchangesConnect Video Contest: Community Voting and Judging Periods appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

The submission period for the 2nd Annual ExchangesConnect Video Contest is now over. The contest features over 160 videos from contestants from all around the world sharing ideas about making their community a better place, and in the process contributing to a healthier, safer, cleaner, and more peaceful world for all of us.  Seeing all of the time, hard work, passion, and great ideas that the contestants put into their videos really makes the team here at MetroStar Systems proud to contribute to the success of this contest.

The contest now moves into the ‘Community Voting’ and ‘Judging Periods’.  Here are some important dates of the contest:

• Community Voting Begins       January 12, 2010 11:59PM EST
• Community Voting Ends          January 26, 2010 11:59PM EST
• Judging Begins                         January 27, 2010 12:00AM EST
• Judging Ends                            February 9, 2010 11:59PM EST
• Winners Announced                March 2, 2010 12:00PM EST

We invite and encourage you to view all of the videos and vote for the ones that you like the best to help the ExchangesConnect team and the judges decide the winners.  You can visit the video contest page to view the videos and vote for your favorites.  Thanks for your support!



The post ExchangesConnect Video Contest: Community Voting and Judging Periods appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/14/exchangesconnect-video-contest-community-voting-and-judging-periods/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/08/the-2nd-annual-exchangesconnect-video-contest/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/08/the-2nd-annual-exchangesconnect-video-contest/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:05:11 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2121 Change Your Climate, Change Our World. What do you do to make your community a better place? Enter the U.S. Department of State’s 2nd Annual ExchangesCONNECT Video Contest! Enter for a chance to win an international exchange program! Small changes in your local community can make a big difference in our world. Your “climate” is [...]

The post The 2nd Annual ExchangesCONNECT Video Contest appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

Change Your Climate,

Change Our World.

What do you do to make your community a better place?

Enter the U.S. Department of State’s 2nd Annual
ExchangesCONNECT Video Contest!

Enter for a chance to win an international exchange program!

Small changes in your local community can make a big difference in our world.

Your “climate” is more than the air you breathe–it’s the people, places, & relationships that affect your daily life.

Describe in a video (no longer than 2 minutes) what you or somebody you know is doing to make your community a better place, and in the process contributing to a healthier, safer, cleaner, and more peaceful world for all of us. Enter for a chance to win an all-expense-paid international exchange program!

Check out Secretary Hillary Clinton’s video inviting you to participate in the contest:

The deadline for video submissions is Tuesday, January 12, 2010. For more information about this contest, please visit: http://connectcontest.state.gov/contests/change-your-climate-change-our-world

The post The 2nd Annual ExchangesCONNECT Video Contest appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/01/08/the-2nd-annual-exchangesconnect-video-contest/feed/ 4 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/12/16/sponsorship-helps-child-in-need/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/12/16/sponsorship-helps-child-in-need/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:20:36 +0000 Jenni Hubacher http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2306 In August of 2009, we donated $1500 in the 2009 Child Rescue Centre Golf Tournament held by Helping Children Worldwide organization. I received a letter today sharing the story of a child named Mustapha Kamara we helped. I wanted to share how he became a member of Child Rescue Centre (CRC). In October 2005, Mustapha [...]

The post Sponsorship Helps Child in Need appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> In August of 2009, we donated $1500 in the 2009 Child Rescue Centre Golf Tournament held by Helping Children Worldwide organization. I received a letter today sharing the story of a child named Mustapha Kamara we helped. I wanted to share how he became a member of Child Rescue Centre (CRC).



In October 2005, Mustapha Kamara did not go by his given name; instead he was nicknamed “Fatambla.” Loosely translated in the local language that nickname means “you can flog him – beat him.” He was much smaller than a typical 6 or 7 year old in Sierra Leone, Africa. His extended bell showed signs of significant malnourishment, and his displayed a glimpse of sadness no child should ever experience.

Volunteers of CRC happened to meet Mustapha because of often found his way to the CRC, knowing that when it was meal he would be offered a plate of rice and sauce.  After seeing this desperate little boy, CRC team member began asking about his situation. How old was he? Where did he live? Why wasn’t he in school? Slowly his story cane out, and it motivated the CRC Director to approach Mustapha’s guardian who quickly and willingly have him up.

All of the CRC residential children- forty kids at the time, and the staff, opened their collective arms and welcomed Mustapha into the loving CRC family. One of the volunteers working with Mustapha explain, “We saw Mustapha smile – really smile – for the very first time. He didn’t speak any English, but I think he was aware of this huge change in his young life.”



Showing how resilient children are when you feed them, love them, and surround them with other children, Mustapha  immediately began thriving physically and emotionally. Mustapha’s life has been changed from one of horror and  desperation, to one of promise and hope. Instead of just trying to survive, Mustapha has been able to live the life of a  child.

Thank you again for all you have made possible for children in need, and may you and your loved ones be blessed this  holiday season like you have blessed others.

Reading this letter helps to show a child’s life changing before you and it is a reminder that we should be grateful for our lives and everything that we have.  I’m excited to be a part of the next sponsorship. Visit http://helpingchildrenworldwide.org/ and check the latest postings.



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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/12/16/sponsorship-helps-child-in-need/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/12/04/dvwp-tooltip/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/12/04/dvwp-tooltip/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:54:08 +0000 Christopher Lincoln http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2240 Tooltips may be implemented to greatly improve user experience in many scenarios.  This walkthrough will provide a method with which tooltip functionality may be implemented on SharePoint Data View Web Parts (DVWPs) using XSL and JavaScript. Preparation Open the SharePoint site in SharePoint Designer 2007 Open the page on which the tooltip functionality will be implemented Enable either [...]

The post Walkthrough: DVWP Tooltip appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Tooltips may be implemented to greatly improve user experience in many scenarios.  This walkthrough will provide a method with which tooltip functionality may be implemented on SharePoint Data View Web Parts (DVWPs) using XSL and JavaScript.

Preparation

1. Open the SharePoint site in SharePoint Designer 2007
2. Open the page on which the tooltip functionality will be implemented
3. Enable either Split or Code view

Create the Tooltip

1. Locate the DVWP in which the tooltip functionality will be implemented
2. Locate the XSL template “dvt_1.rowview” within the DVWP
   

   	Example
   <xsl:template name=”dvt_1.rowview”>

   This XSL template specifies what is rendered for each List Item displayed in the DVWP.  A tooltip will be rendered for eash List Item and therefore should be added to this template.

3. Locate where the tooltip should appear
   No consideration for spacing of the tooltip should be taken into account.  The tooltip will utilize the position style value “absolute” to display over other page content.
4. Insert the blank tooltip
   

   	Example
   <div style=”position:absolute;display:none;margin-top:14px;white-space: »nowrap;overflow:visible;border:silver 1px solid;background-color: »white” class=”ms-listdescription”> <xsl:attribute name=”id”>tooltip_<xsl:value-of select=”@ID”/> »</xsl:attribute> <xsl:attribute name=”onmouseenter”>javascript:this.style.display= »’none’;</xsl:attribute> </div>
   » – unintended line break

   The tooltip may be any HTML object and is not limited to the DIV object.  The tooltip HTML object must have the id attribute set as shown in the provided example.  The position and display style attributes should be set as shown in the provided example.  Setting the position style attribute to “absolute” allows the tooltip to display over other page content.  The onmouseenter attribute (as shown in the provided example) hides the tooltip if the user moves the cursor onto the tooltip.

   If multiple DVWPs on the same page will use the tooltip functionality, the id attribute of tooltips must be made distinct in each DVWP.  For example, tooltips in a DVWP on the List “Transactions” could use the id attribute convention: tooltip_transactions_[List Item ID].  Thus, tooltip id attributes that may have been “tooltip_14″ and “tooltip_14″ may now be “tooltip_transactions_14″ and “tooltip_reports_14″.

5. Set the tooltip text
   

   	Example
   <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test=”string-length(string(@Tooltip))=0″> <xsl:text>No tooltip.</xsl:text> </xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise> <xsl:value-of select=”@Tooltip” disable-output-escaping=”yes”/> </xsl:otherwise> </xsl:choose>

   If the tooltip references a List Item column that is not required (i.e. may be empty), it is suggested that empty values be handled as shown in the provided example. List columns must be referenced by their internal name. Setting the disable-output-escaping attribute to “yes” will display special (i.e. escaped) characters properly (i.e. unescaped). Please note that the provided example references a custom (i.e. non-standard) column called “Tooltip”.

The tooltip should be located like:



As a result of setting the position style attribute to “absolute”, the tooltip renders like:



Create the Tooltip Triggers

1. Locate the DVWP in which the tooltip has been created
2. Locate the XSL template “dvt_1.rowview” within the DVWP
   

   	Example
   <xsl:template name=”dvt_1.rowview”>

   This XSL template specifies what is rendered for each List Item displayed in the DVWP. Each tooltip trigger (i.e. system response to a user action) will show /hide the tooltip in the same row (i.e. TR object) as itself.  Therefore, the tooltip trigger should be located within this template.

3. Locate the HTML object that will trigger the display of tooltips in response to a specified user action.
4. Insert the tooltip triggers
   

   	Example
   <td> <xsl:attribute name=”onmouseenter”>javascript:var tooltipObj=document. »getElementById(‘tooltip_<xsl:value-of select=”@ID”/>’);tooltipObj. »style.left=event.clientX;tooltipObj.style.top=clientY;tooltipObj. »style.display=”;</xsl:attribute> <xsl:attribute name=”onmouseleave”>javascript:document.getElementById( »’tooltip_<xsl:value-of select=”@ID”/>’).style.display=’none’; »</xsl:attribute> <xsl:value-of select=”@Title”/> </td>
   » – unintended line break

   Tooltip triggers are inline JavaScript that find and display the tooltip appropriately. The tooltip is shown by setting its display style attribute to null and hidden by setting its display style attribute to “none”. The provided example shows the tooltip when the user moves the cursor onto the Title column’s parent TD and hides the tooltip when the user moves the cursor off the title column’s parent TD. Please note that the tooltip triggers are applied to the column’s parent TD to provide an optimal user experience.  The provided example displays the tooltip at the point where the user moved the cursor onto the parent TD (rather than always below the parent TD content).

Example



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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/12/04/dvwp-tooltip/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/30/its-peanut-butter-jelly-time/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/30/its-peanut-butter-jelly-time/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:22:09 +0000 Gitendra Malla http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2197 On an early Thursday morning last August, I walked into the office with a hole in my stomach. Following my regular routine, I went to the kitchen area and tossed two loaves of bread into the great belly of the toaster oven, which boasts a 12 inch pizza capacity. As usual, I waited for the [...]

The post It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

Toaster Oven VS Toaster

On an early Thursday morning last August, I walked into the office with a hole in my stomach. Following my regular routine, I went to the kitchen area and tossed two loaves of bread into the great belly of the toaster oven, which boasts a 12 inch pizza capacity. As usual, I waited for the oven to heat up while I planned my day alongside.

Mo, the HR Director of the company, entered the kitchen and proceeded to caution me. Ali, the company CEO, is not in a good mood … so, I should hurry up with my daily ritual. I decided to give the toaster oven one more minute with my breakfast. The next minute, I am meticulously spreading some peanut butter over my toast.

“How long does it take you to make your breakfast every day?”

Lo and behold, it is Ali at the kitchen door. Now, I know that it is a rhetorical question. So, I patiently wait for the follow-up:

“Add up all the time you spend every morning in this kitchen making your breakfast. And when you get the answer, go tell our closest competition how much you have helped them!”

So, I did. (The first part of what he said at least.)

I finished making my breakfast and took it to my desk, where I looked at the following conservative figures:

• Number of work weeks in a year: (N) = 48  [10 days of personal leave; 10 days of holidays]
• Average number of days/week I make my breakfast:     (d) = 4
• Average number of minutes I spend/breakfast session:     (m) = 15
• Total number of minutes that I spend/year on breakfast:     (T) = N*d*m
• (T) = 48*4*15
• (T) = 2880
• Total = 48 hours

Before I made these calculations, I was taken aback by a CEO’s interference in an issue as “minor” as making a simple breakfast. But after these calculations I realize that six working days of a year is a lot of time to lose for a small business!

So, what next? Blame the toaster oven, of course! It dawned on me: A man is only as good as the tool he owns. Every morning I would sit in the kitchen, submissive to the status quo of the slow burning toaster oven. I was using the wrong tool all along – wasting both time and energy. That afternoon, I went to a Target store nearby and bought a real toaster – you know, the one with two slots for the bread. The following morning my new ‘tool’ would help me cut the length of my breakfast ritual about 75%! The following figures would emerge:

• Average number of minutes I spend/breakfast session (m’) = 4
• Total number of minutes that I spend/year on breakfast (T) = N*d*m
• (T) = 48*4*4
• (T) = 768
• Total = 12.8 hours

It is always convincing when numbers tell you a story. To tell a story, however, needs a visionary intervention. At MetroStar Systems, we are a team of visionaries. As such, we keep our eyes on the bigger picture but we don’t let the “minor” details slide. We don’t cry over spilled milk, but make the best of the situation. We think both inside and outside the box, and if the box is not right, we change it. We are an agile team of active learners and proactive workers – we are professionals.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/30/its-peanut-butter-jelly-time/feed/ 4 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/18/vision-21care-featured-on-battlefield-healthcare-website/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/18/vision-21care-featured-on-battlefield-healthcare-website/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:08:22 +0000 Jenni Hubacher http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2155 MetroStar Systems employee, Sergeant Ross Beurmann, who served in Iraq, was interviewed by MyFoxDC about our program, Vision 21CARE. This video has now been posted on the Battlefield Healthcare website relating to this very topic. IDGA’s 11th Battlefield Healthcare Summit will detail best practices and the next generation in combat medicine and rehabilitative care as [...]

The post Vision 21CARE featured on Battlefield Healthcare website appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> MetroStar Systems employee, Sergeant Ross Beurmann, who served in Iraq, was interviewed by MyFoxDC about our program, Vision 21CARE. This video has now been posted on the Battlefield Healthcare website relating to this very topic. IDGA’s 11th Battlefield Healthcare Summit will detail best practices and the next generation in combat medicine and rehabilitative care as well as facilitate a forum where treatment initiatives and advanced research can be discussed, debated, and developed. MetroStar will be hosting a master class on Vision 21CARE at this summit.



December 7-9th: 11th Battlefield Healthcare - www.battlefieldhealthcare.com
MetroStar Systems will be speaking at this event
Where: San Antonio, Texas
OUR TOPIC
Title: Vision 21CARE: Protecting Warriors by Connecting Warriors
Description of Topic:
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have put enormous strains on the men and women of the U.S. military, and we must do more to ease their burden and heal their wounds. Learn how SOCIAL MEDIA can help address these challenges.
Session Leader:
Ali Reza Manouchehri, Chief Executive Officer, MetroStar Systems and Former National Guard Resiliency Program Manager

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/18/vision-21care-featured-on-battlefield-healthcare-website/feed/ 3 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/13/performing-datetime-calculation-in-dvwp-using-xslt/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/13/performing-datetime-calculation-in-dvwp-using-xslt/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:51:12 +0000 Christopher Lincoln http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2084 SharePoint Data View Web Parts (DVWP) may be leveraged to use complex conditional logic using XSL.  Such an example would be to highlight List Items in the DVWP that meet certain date/time criteria.  The following example will show how XSL may be leverage as a simple and robust solution. Case: New tasks (i.e. List Items created within [...]

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]]> SharePoint Data View Web Parts (DVWP) may be leveraged to use complex conditional logic using XSL.  Such an example would be to highlight List Items in the DVWP that meet certain date/time criteria.  The following example will show how XSL may be leverage as a simple and robust solution.

Case:

New tasks (i.e. List Items created within the last 30 minutes) in a User’s “My Tasks” DVWP are highlighted to bring attention to these high priority items.

Undesirable Solution:

Use a declarative workflow to check if the task is no longer new and reset a new ”flag”.  XSL will check the “flag” when the DVWP renders and display tasks appropriately.

The workflow would follow the logic:

1. Start on Item creation
2. Pause for 30 minutes
3. Set hidden boolean field value (isNew) to false

The DVWP then uses XSL to check the value of isNew to set the CSS class of a TR, TD, or some other HTML DOM element:

<xsl:if test=”@isNew = 1″><xsl:attribute name=”class”>newTask</xsl:attribute></xsl:if>

This solution is not optimal as a long-term workflow runs on every List Item.  As a result, numerous workflows may be running on the server causing decreased server performance.

Solution:

Use XSL to check if a Task is new and set the CSS class appropriately when the DVWP renders.

Logic

For simplicity of the XPath expression, a task may be considered new if both of these conditions are true:

1. The date of creation is the current day (i.e. today)
2. The time of creation occurs less than 30 minutes before the current time (i.e. now)

(This logic will not handle Tasks assigned from 23:41 to 23:59 as new after 00:00 of the next day.  Such Tasks may be handled with a seperate XPath expression to properly determine their new condition.)

Comparing the Date

Checking that the date of creation is today requires a comparison of equality between two dates.  Therefore, it is possible to use the out-of-the-box (OOTB) ”equal to” operator; unlike the “equal to” and “not equal” to operators, other operators (e.g. “numerical addition”, ”less than”, etc.) require numerical arguments.  Created must be formatted properly as it is stored in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ISO8601 format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ) and therefore contains data other than the date.  The method FormatDateTime() (see MSDN SharePoint Developer Center) requires the date as a textual argument and thus Created must be converted to a string using the method string().  For accuracy, the method FormatDateTime() is used as it allows for the explicit definition of date/time formatting.  In this example, the format “MM/dd/yyyy” is used.  For accuracy, today’s date (i.e. ddwrt:Today()) must undergo the same formatting procedure.

The XPath expression to compare the dates is:

ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”MM/dd/yyyy”) = ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(ddwrt:Today()),1033,”MM/dd/yyyy”)

Comparing the Time

The time of creation from Created may be retrieved by formatting the ISO8601 value using the method FormatDateTime() and a date/time format of “hhmmss”.  The format “hhmmss” is used so that each component of time (i.e. hour, minute, second) may be easily retrieved individually.  Each component may be retrieved using these XPath expressions:

hour: substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),2,2)
minute: substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),4,2)
second: substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),6)

Each component of time will be converted to the basic time unit.  In this example, the basic time unit is minutes (as the duration of the new condition is “30 minutes”).  Each component converted to minutes may be retrieved with these XPath expressions:

hour: substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),2,2) * 60
minute: substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),4,2)
second: substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),6) div 60

Adding each component converted to minutes will provide the time as minutes since 00:00 of that day.  This “minute-time” new may be calculated using the XPath expression:

(substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),2,2) * 60) + substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),4,2) + (substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),6) div 60)

As tasks are new if created within the past 30 minutes (i.e. the difference between the time of creation and current time is less that 30 minutes), a task may be determined to be new using the XPath expression:

((substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(ddwrt:TodayIso()),1033,”hhmmss”)),2,2) * 60) + substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(ddwrt:TodayIso()),1033,”hhmmss”)),4,2) + (substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(ddwrt:TodayIso()),1033,”hhmmss”)),6) div 60)) - ((substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),2,2) * 60) + substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),4,2) + (substring(string(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”hhmmss”)),6) div 60)) < 30

The XPath expression may be abstracted as: (the current time in minutes) – (the created time in minutes) < 30 minutes.

Durations Greater than 24 hours

If a duration to check surpasses 24 hours, calculation must be performed on the date values.  As no OOTB date/time comparison operators exist, the dates must be converted to numbers.  Dates may be converted to numbers using the format “yyyyMMdd”; this format is acceptable for numeric comparison as dates inherently have hiearchical components; years are superior to months which are superior to days (e.g. any date in 2009 is newer than any date in 2008 and any day in December is newer than any day in November of the same year).  The difference between two dates (in days) may be calculated with the XPath expression:

number(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(ddwrt:TodayIso()),1033,”yyyyMMdd”)) – number(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created),1033,”yyyyMMdd”))

Conclusion

Generally, XSL enables powerful conditional rendering of DVWP that may greatly enhance the basic functionality found with OOTB DVWP.  The provided example illustrates how XSL and XPath expressions may be used to perform logical calculations and comparisons using basic numerical operators.  This capability may be used to benefit server performance and reduce SharePoint “clutter” by avoiding unecessary columns.  The use of XSL should be considered but is not appropriate for all scenarios (e.g. some data is best stored in a column rather than dynamically calculated).

UPDATED: 17 NOV 2009

The method TodayIso() (see MSDN SharePoint Developer Center) is incorrectly specified to return the current date and time in ISO8601 (see World Wide Web Consortium and Wikipedia).  The returned format is not ISO8601 as the value is terminated by the character “Z” (i.e. Zulu) incorrectly denoting the time is in UTC.  The returned time is in the server’s local time zone.  Therefore, a server hosted in the Eastern Time Zone (i.e. UTC-5) may return the value “2010-01-01T00:00:00Z” rather than the appropriate value ”2010-01-01T05:00:00Z”.  Therefore, this example assumes that any servers are set to UTC.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/13/performing-datetime-calculation-in-dvwp-using-xslt/feed/ 11 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/10/happy-234th-birthday-marine-corps/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/10/happy-234th-birthday-marine-corps/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:07:54 +0000 Jenni Hubacher http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2073 “This 10 November I’ll fill my canteen cup to say a toast with you. The finest bunch of men, and women a man could ever hope to know. Many years ago I huddled with my men in the sleet and rain. A grand event I’m at this year, Medals and Dress Blues. It doesn’t matter [...]

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]]> “This 10 November I’ll fill my canteen cup to say a toast with you.
The finest bunch of men, and women a man could ever hope to know.
Many years ago I huddled with my men in the sleet and rain.
A grand event I’m at this year, Medals and Dress Blues.

It doesn’t matter where you are, as long you celebrate and remember.
Remember the Marines who paved the way, the ones who paid the price.
Remember the Marines who covered your six, you never thought to look.
Remember the Marines at the Tip of the Spear, they’ve got our back this night.

I raise my cup and take a drink in honor of my fellow Marines this night.
Our Corps is in great health because of Marines like you!”

- General James T. Conway,
Commandant of the Marine Corps

Resources:
History of the Marine Corps Birthday: http://www.usmcpress.com/heritage/marine_corps_birthday.htm
Marine Corps Quotes: http://oldcorps.org/USMC/quotes.html

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/11/10/happy-234th-birthday-marine-corps/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/30/marine-corps-marathon-2009/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/30/marine-corps-marathon-2009/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:49:45 +0000 Jenni Hubacher http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1994 The 34th Annual Marine Corps Marathon took place on Sunday, October 25 2009 in Arlington, Virginia and Washington, DC.  As a sponsor of the 2010 MCM Event Series, MetroStar Systems got the opportunity to attend the event, support the MCM, and cheer on the runners.  It was amazing to be part of the experience with [...]

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]]> The 34th Annual Marine Corps Marathon took place on Sunday, October 25 2009 in Arlington, Virginia and Washington, DC.  As a sponsor of the 2010 MCM Event Series, MetroStar Systems got the opportunity to attend the event, support the MCM, and cheer on the runners.  It was amazing to be part of the experience with everyone supporting and cheering on the over 21,000 race participants who crossed the finish line.  Supporting the United States Marines and all of the participants who took on this incredible mental, physical and emotional challenge was truly inspiring.  MetroStar Systems would like to congratulate all of the participants and thank the MCM for this wonderful event.


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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/30/marine-corps-marathon-2009/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/28/congresscamp-unconference-notes-thoughts/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/28/congresscamp-unconference-notes-thoughts/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:10:48 +0000 Gerald Irish http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1630 I attended a couple of sessions at the Congress Camp ‘unconference’ a few weeks ago at George Washington University. I had never attended an unconference before so part of my reason was to get a feel for what they’re all about.  My weekend itinerary was jam-packed so I was only able to attend 2 sessions [...]

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]]>

I attended a couple of sessions at the Congress Camp ‘unconference’ a few weeks ago at George Washington University.

I had never attended an unconference before so part of my reason was to get a feel for what they’re all about.  My weekend itinerary was jam-packed so I was only able to attend 2 sessions and lunch but even so it was definitely worth my time to come out.

Engaging Citizens in Subcommittees

The first session I participated in was focused on the question of how to get citizens engaged in Congressional Subcommittees when legislation is getting drafted.  The major issue was that drafts of legislation are usually written under tight deadlines and as a result Congressional staffers often have difficulty performing the requisite research for the bills.  The result is that staffers often rely on lobbyists and small groups of experts to provide input for drafting policy.  Citizens rarely gain any influence into the process.

But now with advent of Web 2.0 tools Congressmen have the opportunity to solicit and incorporate citizen input into the subcommittee legislation creation process.

• How does one determine the location and identity of participants?
• How to verify the expertise or quality of user submitted opinions, data, content?
• How to incorporate citizen input in a timely manner?
• How to moderate comments and user forums?

The consensus from the participants was that the technology exists to answer all of the major questions.  The major challenge then is to craft technical solutions to mitigate the human challenges to citizen participation.

My take on things was that crowdsourced input could be filtered by a rating/moderation system.  Some of the participants brought up concerns about the quality of citizen content but the answer to that is that no system is going to be 100% clean and tidy, and at the very least there’s a chance of finding outstanding citizen ideas and solutions if they are engaged (as opposed to now where there is little to no chance of this).

A good idea that came from the session was that one need not to use an approach the relies totally on random citizen input nor totally on expert opinions.  A hybrid approach of sorts could possibly get the best of both worlds.

Advocacy Software

The advocacy software session was focused on issues that the current crop of advocacy software creates for the Congressional offices that deal with the output of said software.

One of the overarching issues that came up was that of authenticity.  How does one go about ensuring that communication from constituents is real?  How do you make sure the 10,000 emails your office received on an issue actually corresponds to 10,000 people who feel the same way? When advocacy software is generating this mountain of email it’s hard to tell.

There was one Congressional staffer in this session who shared some of the problems his office encountered.  One is that advocacy groups often send emails on issues on the behalf of constituents who opt into their mailing list.  But when the Congressman’s office tries to contact some of these citizens who sent these emails sometimes the citizen either didn’t agree with the position written in the email or had no idea an email was sent on their behalf.

One attendee posed a provocative question about whether or not email as a marketing tool or advocacy tool is still relevant or effective.  The email campaigns generated by some of the advocacy software solutions are so rife with useless email that many times Congressional offices simply ignore them.  With each passing day email-based marketing becomes less and less effective.

To me, this is a piece of a very large problem on the internet, which is, ‘How do we filter content so that we can find the valuable stuff and ignore the worthless stuff?’ Some combination of filtering, authentication, and new forms of communication will probably be the answer. In other words, it doesn’t seem like there is a silver bullet as of yet.

The session closed up with a discussion of some political advocacy software that is available commercially. There was also discussion of an open source solution called CiviCRM that can plug into the Drupal content management system. Ultimately I didn’t get much out of that discussion since I had never used that sort of software.

Conclusion(s)

A lot of the issues that were discussed boiled down to the question of how best to incorporate Web 2.0 principles into the Congressional law-making process. A major part of the challenge is to convince Congressmen and their staff of the value of interacting with their constituents using technology.

A significant opportunity exists for companies who develop solutions that solicit and organize constituent input to help Congressmen craft better legislation. Any solutions developed to that end will have applications to other parts of government as well, or even the private sector.

Lessons Learned

*I opted not to haul my laptop out for this event.  Big mistake, always bring your laptop so you can try out websites that come up or blog or tweet about the events.

*Some folks spiced up their ‘Hello My Name Is’ tags with some pieces of flair as well as their twitter accounts.  Must do the same next time.

*Live blogging next time might be useful.

*If one intends to lead a session at an unconference, it pays to do a few things right:

• Have an interesting and informative title for your session
• Have a rough plan on your topics of discussion
• Graphics or metrics would be useful, but ditch the boring powerpoint slides
• Personal anecdotes and authenticity go a long way when getting your point across

You can visit http://congresscamp.org/ for complete event info, photos, case studies, tools and other useful resources.

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/28/congresscamp-unconference-notes-thoughts/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/23/finally-liveblogging-the-final-blogpotomac/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/23/finally-liveblogging-the-final-blogpotomac/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:02:30 +0000 Mahdi Gharavi http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1890 Well folks, here it is. We are in the lovely State Theatre in Falls Church, VA, and BlogPotomac has officially started. Keep up with what’s going on here, and search the hashtag #blogpotomac on Twitter. Our event emcees are Shonali Burke, Principal of Shonali Burke Consulting, and DC Hughes, Photojournalist/Multimedia Producer for Lemur News Images [...]

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]]> Well folks, here it is. We are in the lovely State Theatre in Falls Church, VA, and BlogPotomac has officially started. Keep up with what’s going on here, and search the hashtag #blogpotomac on Twitter.



Our event emcees are Shonali Burke, Principal of Shonali Burke Consulting, and DC Hughes, Photojournalist/Multimedia Producer for Lemur News Images and Lemur News Audio.



Shonali Burke & DC Hughes

Beth Kanter

Our first speaker is Beth Kanter, Scholar in Residence, The Packard Foundation. Beth’s first foray into social media included her own blog, and the Cambodia4Kids.Org blog.



Throughout her time in the field, Beth noted four themes in Social media:

• Working in a networked way
• Art of Network Weaving
• Transparency
• Creating a social culture in the organization (behind the firewall)

My favorite of those is network weaving! What is Network-weaving? It is working through a network in a way that makes every node within that network stronger by way of each other node. A sort of Rhizomatic growth, that is, growth where every bud within the organism receives nourishment from the other buds.

Key takeaways from her talk:

• We need to work within our network so it can spread and grow.
• We need to learn and play within transparency.
• We need to work with our clients and our organizations as change agents within the firewall.
• Management should become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Shel Israel



Next, it’s our keynote speaker: <a href=”http://globalneighbourhoods.net/” target=”_blank”>Shel Israel</a> (<a href=”http://twitter.com/shelIsrael” target=”_blank”>@shelIsrael</a>). Shel worked for years as a journalist at the Daily Reporter. When he ran into tougher times, he worked into Social Media and blogging. It was his way of doing what he loved, and to do it independently. He wrote Naked Conversations.
It was finally the James Buck incident (of getting himself out of Egyptian jail using Twitter) that drew Shel to write his next book, Twitterville.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/25/twitter.buck/

Next, it’s our keynote speaker: Shel Israel (@shelIsrael). Shel worked for years as a journalist at the Daily Reporter. When he ran into tougher times, he worked into Social Media and blogging. It was his way of doing what he loved, and to do it independently. When he decided to write a book, he was offered just $2,000 for 6 months. It wasn’t until he teamed up with Robert Scoble that he was able to finish Naked Conversations.

He reluctantly joined, then a new social network, Twitter. He was taken by its rapidness and effectiveness in connecting with people. It was finally the James Buck incident (of getting himself out of Egyptian jail using Twitter) that drew Shel to write his next book, Twitterville.

He’s pleased to see the growth of Twitter. Politicians are finally realizing that it is a two-way street. School systems are using it to alert students of closings and events.

“What Social Media allows any institution to do is listen and respond in ways that they could not previously do. And this hits the nerve that we all have. We don’t hate large institutions because they’re large institutions. We hate them because they’d rather spend 50 years [broadcasting and] reducing us to eyeballs…Twitter allows us to see that there are real people in government, in Microsoft…and they start listening and try to do better.”

“Social Media is just a bunch of tools. You could use a tool to build a house or to kill your spouse. It’s really up to you; but the guy who invented the hammer doesn’t have a say.”

“The newspaper industry was not clueless. They saw ‘this’ coming before we did.”




Shel on the future:

• We are entering the normalization phase of Social Media
• We are looking at a slower but steadier growth
• They said about the telephone that businesses would be crazy to let such a device in. But the truth is, “Whoever starts the stuff doesn’t have a lot of say on how the stuff is used.”

Natalia Luckyanova




Next up: Natalia Luckyanova (@nattylux), co-founder of Imangi Studios. Imangi Studios is a two-person operation that builds Mobile games (mainly for the iPhone). They use social media extensively to promote their brand, listen to their gamers, and interact with them.

Beyond just their own marketing, they get plenty of attention from other businesses who wish to create mobile apps for their brands. Being such a saturated market, it is imperative for mobile app developers (especially those associated with the iPhone and AppStore) to generate adequate buzz and excitement pre-launch, and early on. Mobile apps have very short shelf-lives.

Another change in the mobile app world is in the realm of mobile gaming: the realization (finally!) on behalf of game developers and their organizations that they should be marketing  more to women and girls. There are more women in the gaming audience as well as on the development side. One thing Natalia’s team has done is include a very large pool of women in their focus groups.

A great question posed was regarding mobile apps geared toward nonprofits. Beth Kanter pointed out a great resource on this subject: http://gamesforchange.org

Andy Carvin



A very welcome late edition to the speaker list is Andy Carvin (@acarvin), social media strategist at NPR.

Andy worked across the street of the FBI building in Oklahoma City when it was infamous bombing incident took place. He recalled asking the question: “What can the internet do?” And at the time, the answer was simply “Nothing.” There simply wasn’t enough traction, nor sufficient architecture in place. Several years later, in September of 2001, Andy was working in DC. The proximity, the incident, the desire to do something all culminated in Andy building a Yahoo group. This only grew from there. After Hurricane Katrina, Andy built Katrina Aftermath, which describes itself as “A public gallery of thoughts, images and sounds in response to Hurricane Katrina.”

As tools grew, Andy stepped up his efforts to grow and keep active with providing different communities the support they needed, whatever it may have been. His next endeavor came during the election: http://blog.twittervotereport.com/

When the terrorist attacks in Mumbai took place, Andy learned a valuable lesson. Twitter, as a tool for getting news out, was effective only for the first few minutes/hours. From then, the information reached saturation, and most of what was coming out was unreliable or downright wrong. His methods for combating the false information was to track down the only person he knew in Mumbai, and to see whom she was listening to and whom she was re-tweeting.

A similar issue happened in the aftermath of the recent election in Iran. Many people throughout the world changed their Twitter locations to Tehran, Iran, in a very “I’m Spartacus!” moment (his words) to protect the people in Iran posting news no Twitter from being tracked down. But that also threw off the geo-mapping information and accuracy.

“We’ve now reached what you may call in some ways a hashtag crisis.”

So, the key question here becomes: How do you triage trust?

Though he stopped short of answering this question in full, he offered this valuable tidbit. A new project called TrustMap, where people could go and list the names of those that they trust.

–Now, in the Q&A, a great conversation that has come about is the question of ethics in Citizen journalism. Is it ethical for us to broadcast events that are intimate to other people? Legally, what happens in public space can be considered public, but what ethical ramifications are we dealing with when we post information that becomes the means by which relatives may hear about a disaster? Do we want to be the ones breaking that news? Do we want to be the people photographing parents of a deceased child?

–Yet another discussion: How effective are we when we seek to help? Where do we draw the line between meaningful change and slacktivism? Does it make a real impact when we turn our avatar green and change our location setting? Beth Kanter mentioned a guest post she has on her blog the issue of slacktivism.

* * *

Here at BlogPotomac, we just got back from lunch. A quick note: Debbie Weil came on to offer BlogPotomac cofounder, Geoff Livingston some well-deserved recognition. As she pointed out, Geoff has shown an undying dedication to promoting women in the social media and tech space. In all the BlogPotomacs, much care and attention was payed to making sure women were well represented among the speakers lists. Geoff, kudos!!

* * *

Jane Quigley



We are now listening to Jane Quigley, (@jquig99), Vice President of Client Relations at Crayon. As Jane puts it, she’s “the only capitalist here.” She is talking to us about making money on the web.

And the main trend that has been taking over in this regard is the localization of the web. Sites like Group On and CitySource are making a big splash by focusing in on a localized, specific geographic niche.

She also discussed the future of localization, particularly as it relates to Google Wave. Her point was that right now, it’s so easy to get lost in the many “waves,” but what’s effective in this system is when smaller groups break out into collaborative spaces.

Another point of growth for businesses on the web is the creation of APIs. This is another twist on the principle of localization, not so much in a geographical sense in this case, but a topical sense.

Sean Gorman



Our next speaker is Sean Gorman, CEO of FortiusOne. His discussion is on location-based technologies and mapping on the web. Sean is a trained geographer and cartographer. Around 2005, with the simultaneous growth of Web 2.0 and web mapping (and applications such as Google Earth), Sean joined the action and became heavily involved with these emerging technologies.

FortiusOne has been aggregating geographic databases from all around the world. This includes information from where Tweeters are talking about a certain product, to best windsurfing spots, to visual displays of economic growth areas.

A very effective implementation of mapping that Sean was involved with recently was the recent Afghan election, where data coming in about votes were geo-tagged. So as they realized inconsistencies, such as votes being made in one area but the overall numbers that those votes would reflect decreasing, they could spot voter fraud in real time.

–From the Q&A:

Among of the issues location-based services are facing are security and privacy issues. One way some services are standing out and gaining favor is allowing users to customize the granularity of the information they wish to be shown (i.e. location down to city-level, neighborhood-level, or exact location).

Peter Slutsky

And, finally, our final speaker of the final BlogPotomac (I’ll stop redunding now) is Peter Slutsky, Director of Strategic Partnerships of Ning and Co-Founder and CEO of Double Speak Media.

Ning not only provides a platform for niche social communities, but also a way to monetize the platform, whether from ad revenue, or from custom gifts.

He makes a strong case for niche communities: “There’s a less than 50% overlap between people you know and your interests and passions.”

Note: Ning Apps (API) has been launched. They will be holding the Ning Appathon on November 5th, in Palo Alto, CA.

* * *

Well, the event is now officially over. I’m going to mingle and say my goodbyes, but do check back here later for my recap of the event!

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/23/finally-liveblogging-the-final-blogpotomac/feed/ 5 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/22/metrostar-systems-is-an-official-sponsor-of-the-marine-corps-marathon-event-series-2010/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/22/metrostar-systems-is-an-official-sponsor-of-the-marine-corps-marathon-event-series-2010/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:05:49 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1800 MetroStar Systems is proud to announce our sponsorship of the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) Event Series in 2010. Since 2008, MetroStar has been supporting the United States Marine Corps (USMC) with Microsoft consulting services focused on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 platform. Many of our employees have affiliations with the Marine Corps including a [...]

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]]>

MCM Event Series 2010

MetroStar Systems is proud to announce our sponsorship of the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) Event Series in 2010. Since 2008, MetroStar has been supporting the United States Marine Corps (USMC) with Microsoft consulting services focused on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 platform. Many of our employees have affiliations with the Marine Corps including a Purple Heart Marine, so we are thrilled to be involved with the MCM Event Series as a sponsor and as volunteers.

The Marine Corps Marathon Mission is “To promote physical fitness and generate community goodwill.” It was first hosted back in 1976 with just 1,175 runners. This year marks the 34th Annual MCM and will host 30,000 registered runners on Sunday, October 25.  “Voted ‘Best Marathon for Families‘, the Marine Corps Marathon continues a combined tradition of dedication, sportsmanship and patriotism. The race is open to all who wish to participate, and does not have a prize purse for the winners. The athletes partake in this event for the pure pleasure of running in what has been called ‘The People’s Marathon.’”

Following is a list of the dates and events of the 2010 MCM Event Series:



Sat. March 27, 2010

Run To Register 10K



Sunday May 16, 2010

Marines Corps Historic Half



Sat. June 12, 2010

Crossroads 17.75K



Sat. August 14, 2010

Run Amuck 2010



Sat. November 20, 2010

Turkey Trot 2010

Online registration for the MCM Event Series 2010 will open on November 18, 2009.  MetroStar Systems looks forward to attending, volunteering and participating is all of these events.  For complete information please visit http://www.marinemarathon.com/Marine_Corps_Marathon.htm or email us if you are interested in participating or volunteering.

(No Federal or Marine Corps endorsement implied.)

The post MetroStar Systems is an official sponsor of the Marine Corps Marathon Event Series 2010! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/22/metrostar-systems-is-an-official-sponsor-of-the-marine-corps-marathon-event-series-2010/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/22/celebrating-10-years-of-success/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/22/celebrating-10-years-of-success/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:45:44 +0000 Jenni Hubacher http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1845 On Friday October 16, 2009, MetroStar Systems hosted a 10 Year Anniversary and Open House event celebrating 10 Years of Dedication and Innovation, and the move into our new world headquarters. On behalf of MetroStar Systems, I would like to thank everyone for attending and celebrating with us. It was great to see our partners, [...]

The post Celebrating 10 Years of Success appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> On Friday October 16, 2009, MetroStar Systems hosted a 10 Year Anniversary and Open House event celebrating 10 Years of Dedication and Innovation, and the move into our new world headquarters.

On behalf of MetroStar Systems, I would like to thank everyone for attending and celebrating with us. It was great to see our partners, customers, clients, coworkers, contractors, friends, and families at this special event. MetroStar Systems would not be who we are today without the help and support we have received from you!

Sincerely,

Jenni Hubacher


Video courtesy of Derek Yale.

[nggallery id=4]

Photos courtesy of Clayton Harrison.


The post Celebrating 10 Years of Success appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/22/celebrating-10-years-of-success/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/21/metrostar-to-liveblog-final-blogpotomac/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/21/metrostar-to-liveblog-final-blogpotomac/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:17:42 +0000 Mahdi Gharavi http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1804 These three things I know to be true: Death is inevitable, the tax man will come, and MetroStar will eventually succumb to the liveblogging bug. Can you blame us? The call is from the very last BlogPotomac (ever!). Who are we not to pick up? Yes, folks, this Friday, October 23rd marks the end of [...]

The post MetroStar to Liveblog Final BlogPotomac appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> These three things I know to be true: Death is inevitable, the tax man will come, and MetroStar will eventually succumb to the liveblogging bug. Can you blame us? The call is from the very last BlogPotomac (ever!). Who are we not to pick up?



Yes, folks, this Friday, October 23rd marks the end of BlogPotomac. For those of you who may not have heard about the unconference, it is a staple of the DC Social Media scene. Organized by Geoff Livingston (@GeoffLiving) of CRT/tanaka and Livingston Communications, it is a gathering of social media rock stars to discuss and share their ideas on best practices and future outlook.

I had the benefit of being at the last BlogPotomac, and I still notice myself shaking my head in amazement every time I reflect on the experience. As my first real foray into liveblogging (see the post here), it was quite well received, convincing me of two things: (1) that I would definitely be attending the final one, and (2) I’ll have the laptop and air-card fired up and ready to liveblog again.

So, if you’re reading this close to when I’m publishing it, hurry, as there are still a handful of tickets left. If not, fear not! Just be sure to redirect your web browsers right here to SuperNova on the morning of Friday, October 23rd, the year two thousand and nine, (show starts at 8:45 AM) and keep on refreshing, as I will be giving you the up-to-the-(handful of)-minute(s) skinny on what’s being said, and who’s saying it.

In the meantime, check out http://www.blogpotomac.com/, follow @blogpotomac on Twitter, and set your Twitter searches to #blogpotomac. And meet me right back here on Friday.

The post MetroStar to Liveblog Final BlogPotomac appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/21/metrostar-to-liveblog-final-blogpotomac/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/20/metrostar-is-attending-byol-elearning-this-week/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/20/metrostar-is-attending-byol-elearning-this-week/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:38:50 +0000 Mahdi Gharavi http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1798 This week, I have the wonderful pleasure of attending my second eLearning conference in Salt Lake City, Utah: BYOLTM eLearning. If you recall, in June of this year, I represented MetroStar Systems at Salt Lake City, and liveblogged eLearningDevCon 2009 (you can find those posts here, here, and here). eLearningDevCon was hosted by Rapid Intake, [...]

The post MetroStar is Attending “BYOL eLearning” This Week appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> This week, I have the wonderful pleasure of attending my second eLearning conference in Salt Lake City, Utah: BYOL^TM eLearning.



If you recall, in June of this year, I represented MetroStar Systems at Salt Lake City, and liveblogged eLearningDevCon 2009 (you can find those posts here, here, and here). eLearningDevCon was hosted by Rapid Intake, makers of the eLearning development tools ProForm and Unison. Several sessions offered in that conference were labeled “BYOL,” standing for “Bring Your Own Laptop.” These were hands-on sessions where the instructor would guide attendees through a project, whether it was to produce something, or to learn a tool, or both. These sessions were a huge success, and the folks at Rapid Intake Conferences announced the first instance of their new conference, BYOL eLearning.

It is a one-of-a-kind eLearning conference that is 100% hands-on. One can’t help but appreciate a conference that strives to be so tangible and effective, nor can one help but crack a smile upon hearing the conference tagline (and noticing what it’s implying):

BYOL. Actually learn something.

Of course, all joking aside, the very fact that I’m here stands as testament to how much I learned at eLearningDevCon. I’m sure this conference will be no different. As all the sessions are hands-on, I won’t be liveblogging this event, but I will be recapping my experience at this conference in the near future.

So tune in later to catch my post on the conference. But in the meantime, keep up with what’s happening here on Twitter by following the hashtag: #byol.

The post MetroStar is Attending “BYOL eLearning” This Week appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/20/metrostar-is-attending-byol-elearning-this-week/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/14/microsoft-my-phone/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/14/microsoft-my-phone/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:09:42 +0000 Jorge "El Che" Vasquez http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1766 If you ever lost a phone, you know how it feels to know that all the data that you had saved on your phone is gone. All those pictures, music and contacts are gone with the phone. It happened to me and it was a royal pain to recover a small portion of what I [...]

The post Microsoft My Phone appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> If you ever lost a phone, you know how it feels to know that all the data that you had saved on your phone is gone. All those pictures, music and contacts are gone with the phone. It happened to me and it was a royal pain to recover a small portion of what I had lost.

The experience was a reminder of how much we rely on our mobile devices nowadays; hence, I am extremely glad that Microsoft introduced the “My Phone” service. Microsoft My Phone mainly concentrates on

• Over-the-air back up of your windows mobile phone
• Share photos with your favorite social networking sites
• Manage your contacts, text messages and more online for free
• Find your lost phone

If I had this service on my phone last year, I would have been able to

• Restore all the data onto my new windows mobile phone
• Find the last known and current location of my phone on a map
• Remotely lock my phone and display a custom message
• Remotely perform a hard reset (erasing all data)
• Set the phone to ring, even if it’s set to vibrate or silent.

Find out more: http://myphone.microsoft.com/

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/14/microsoft-my-phone/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/09/sharepoint-101102-slide-decks/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/09/sharepoint-101102-slide-decks/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:12:03 +0000 Janis Hall http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1759 Per request, here are pdfs of the slide decks used in the SharePoint 101 and 102 classes. Thanks! Janis Introduction to SharePoint “Introduction to a SharePoint Collaborative Envirionment” by Janis Hall View more documents from MetroStar Systems. Working With Libraries “Use and Benefits of a SharePoint Library” by Janis Hall View more documents from MetroStar [...]

The post SharePoint 101/102 Slide Decks appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Per request, here are pdfs of the slide decks used in the SharePoint 101 and 102 classes.

Thanks!
Janis

Introduction to SharePoint

“Introduction to a SharePoint Collaborative Envirionment” by Janis Hall
View more documents from MetroStar Systems.

Working With Libraries

“Use and Benefits of a SharePoint Library” by Janis Hall
View more documents from MetroStar Systems.

The post SharePoint 101/102 Slide Decks appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/09/sharepoint-101102-slide-decks/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/05/metrostar-systems-marks-10th-anniversary-with-expansion-to-new-headquarters-in-historic-reston-va-location/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/05/metrostar-systems-marks-10th-anniversary-with-expansion-to-new-headquarters-in-historic-reston-va-location/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:17:32 +0000 Jenni Hubacher http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1744 RESTON, Va., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ — MetroStar Systems (MetroStar), a leader in full-service IT and strategies for new media and social networks, has expanded to its new world headquarters to five acres of historical land, including the turn-of-the-century historic manor located at 1856 Old Reston Avenue, known as the Smith Bowman House, in the heart [...]

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]]> RESTON, Va., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ — MetroStar Systems (MetroStar), a leader in full-service IT and strategies for new media and social networks, has expanded to its new world headquarters to five acres of historical land, including the turn-of-the-century historic manor located at 1856 Old Reston Avenue, known as the Smith Bowman House, in the heart of Reston, Virginia. The transition takes place as the company marks its 10th anniversary.


Armed Forces Campus / MetroStar Systems World Headquarters

“We reached a point where expansion was necessary to continue our consistent pace of growth,” said Ali Reza Manouchehri, CEO of MetroStar Systems. “‘Due to our on-going expansion and increased revenue and market share, we believe this landmark campus will suit our business needs and afford us the opportunity for continued growth in the region.”

The new headquarters on Old Reston Avenue has a rich history beginning as an area granted to English Noblemen late in the 17th century. It has Civil War links to General E. Lee and his army, and ties to American commerce that spiked throughout the area, known as Sunset Hills, in the 1920s that continues today.

“At MetroStar we believe that our projects have the ability to shape world history by connecting global audiences in ways never before imaginable by harnessing the power of emerging technologies,” said Robert J. Santos, President of MetroStar Systems. “This historic campus is the perfect setting for MetroStar employees — who are among the best in the nation in their respective fields — to embrace history while planning for the future.”

Over the last decade, MetroStar Systems has been at the forefront of the evolution of new media technology and social media and has grown by an average rate of 250 percent over the past three years. It was recently ranked by Inc. Magazine as No. 562 on its third annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. MetroStar was also ranked No. 70 in IT Services and No. 52 in the Washington/Arlington/Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV market.

“Reston straddles the Dulles Technology Corridor at the epicenter of technology and government,” said Jenni Hubacher, Marketing Manager of MetroStar Systems. “As the Obama administration furthers its commitment to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government through public-private partnerships, MetroStar’s new and social media programs are rapidly becoming a powerful incentive to effect this kind of change by engaging large amounts of people around the globe.”



In celebration of its new headquarters and anniversary, MetroStar will host a private function on Friday, October 16 for employees, clients, and members of the community. MetroStar continues its mission of serving the community and participating in the culture of giving that has helped build a strong, sustainable community in Reston, by partnering with the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, on behalf of which donations are encouraged from all attending parties.

You can read the full press release here:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/metrostar-systems-marks-10th-anniversary-with-expansion-to-new-headquarters-in-historic-reston-va-location-63518707.html

The post MetroStar Systems Marks 10th Anniversary With Expansion to New Headquarters in Historic Reston, VA Location appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/05/metrostar-systems-marks-10th-anniversary-with-expansion-to-new-headquarters-in-historic-reston-va-location/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/28/x-life-games-surpasses-2000-registered-gamers/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/28/x-life-games-surpasses-2000-registered-gamers/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:57:29 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1725 . . . MetroStar Systems is pleased to announce that our X-Life Games project has now surpassed 2,000 registered gamers from all around the world!  Our registered gamers represent 99 different countries and many more different cultures. Here’s a list of the Top 5 countries and gamers representing X-Life Games: Egypt               438 Indonesia        323 [...]

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]]>

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MetroStar Systems is pleased to announce that our X-Life Games project has now surpassed 2,000 registered gamers from all around the world!  Our registered gamers represent 99 different countries and many more different cultures.

Here’s a list of the Top 5 countries and gamers representing X-Life Games:

1. Egypt               438
2. Indonesia        323
3. USA                 214
4. Lebanon          131
5. Jordan             110

We are thrilled about the support from all of our fans from around the world after just 6 months. X-Life Games launched in March 2009 as a pilot project for the U.S. Department of State.  It is a free mobile phone game designed and developed by MetroStar Systems’ New Media Technology team and X-Life Games LLC.  The game features role-playing, trivia challenges, and adventures around the world.  Our mission is to encourage understanding between different cultures in a fun and engaging way.  Visit http://www.xlifegames.com for more info and to download the free mobile games.

You can also keep in touch with the X-Life Games community through our Facebook Fanpage (http://www.facebook.com/xlifegames.community) and follow us on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/xlifegames).

The post X-Life Games surpasses 2,000 registered gamers! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/28/x-life-games-surpasses-2000-registered-gamers/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/23/bing-visual-search/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/23/bing-visual-search/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:28:05 +0000 Jorge "El Che" Vasquez http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1712 As an avid Google user, I keep on asking myself, why would I ever use Bing. Google has been good to me, since I can easily find information in regards to work. However, when it comes to home searches, which usually deal with shopping for tools, electronics, trips, etc… I have noticed that I have [...]

The post Bing Visual Search appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> As an avid Google user, I keep on asking myself, why would I ever use Bing. Google has been good to me, since I can easily find information in regards to work. However, when it comes to home searches, which usually deal with shopping for tools, electronics, trips, etc… I have noticed that I have been leaning towards Bing, rather than Google.

I guess that the marketing campaign, which brands Bing as a “Decision Engine”, is starting to hit home. Moreover, recently Bing released a “Visual Search” capability, which I find to be really useful. We are more likely to remember by pictures than names.

http://www.bing.com/visualsearch

Searching for cell phones was a breeze.

http://www.bing.com/visualsearch?q=Cell+phones&g=cell_phones



The post Bing Visual Search appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/23/bing-visual-search/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/21/metrostar-ceo-interviewed-by-federal-computer-week/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/21/metrostar-ceo-interviewed-by-federal-computer-week/#comments Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:35:35 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1685 MetroStar Systems‘ CEO Ali Manouchehri was recently interviewed by Doug Beizer of Federal Computer Week in an article titled “5 Reasons Why DOD Should Embrace Social Media (and 5 reasons why not)” The article lists 5 reasons why the Department of Defense (DOD) should embrace social media… Web 2.0 technology improves collaboration. It streamlines internal [...]

The post MetroStar CEO interviewed by Federal Computer Week appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> MetroStar Systems‘ CEO Ali Manouchehri was recently interviewed by Doug Beizer of Federal Computer Week in an article titled “5 Reasons Why DOD Should Embrace Social Media (and 5 reasons why not)”


Source: http://www.fcw.com/Articles/2009/09/07/DOD-and-Web-2.aspx

The article lists 5 reasons why the Department of Defense (DOD) should embrace social media…

1. Web 2.0 technology improves collaboration.
2. It streamlines internal and external communications.
3. It costs little or nothing to use.
4. It has the potential to attract young recruits to DOD.
5. It’s highly portable.

and 5 reasons why the DOD should not embrace social media…

1. Sensitive information is on the public Internet.
2. The tools can make it difficult to comply with federal regulations.
3. The technology lacks standards.
4. Sharing personal information can put employees at risk.
5. The tools demand a lot of bandwidth.

Expanding on reason #4 of why the DOD should not embrace social media, Ali Manouchehri “suggests allowing employees to post to public sites such as Twitter and Facebook without some kind of parameters is dangerous. For example, a DOD employee could put himself and others at risk by tweeting about his day. ‘Adversaries with poor intent can target federal workers by knowing their routine through following them through a social-media outlet,’ Manouchehri said. ‘Protecting your privacy is certainly an aspect to take into account, and the risk can be detected, mitigated and deterred by following mission-oriented rules of engagement.’ ”

In the article, reporters Doug Beizer and Amber Corrin interview a broad range of government, university and industry experts to present both sides of the argument of why or why not the DOD should embrace social media.  The article provides a great starting point for discussion since both sides of the argument have valid points.  You can read the full article by visiting this link: http://www.fcw.com/Articles/2009/09/07/DOD-and-Web-2.aspx

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]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/21/metrostar-ceo-interviewed-by-federal-computer-week/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/18/thank-you-nrh-for-the-superh-event/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/18/thank-you-nrh-for-the-superh-event/#comments Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:43:29 +0000 Jenni Hubacher http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1645 MetroStar Systems would like to thank everyone for their participation in the SuperH 5k Run Walk & Wheel event!  A special thank you to the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) for organizing this great event that was for a great cause.  This was their 6th Run and over the last 5 years they were able to [...]

The post Thank You NRH for the SuperH event! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> MetroStar Systems would like to thank everyone for their participation in the SuperH 5k Run Walk & Wheel event!  A special thank you to the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) for organizing this great event that was for a great cause.  This was their 6th Run and over the last 5 years they were able to raise over $200,000 for the National Rehabilitation Hospital.

Click  here for the ’2009 SuperH 5K Run Walk & Wheel Race Results.’

We are privileged and proud to have participated and help sponsor the event, and we look forward to next year!

[nggallery id=3]

The post Thank You NRH for the SuperH event! appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/18/thank-you-nrh-for-the-superh-event/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/14/x-life-games-presents-the-who-am-i-poetry-contest/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/14/x-life-games-presents-the-who-am-i-poetry-contest/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:30:56 +0000 Derek Yale http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1604 Today, X-Life Games launches the “Who Am I?” Poetry Contest.  The contest encourages you to use poetry to describe yourself on a global level while sharing ideas of tolerance and respect for other cultures, societies, and environments around the world. “X-Life Games has been such a fun and educational experience thus far for everybody involved, [...]

The post X-Life Games presents the “Who Am I?” Poetry Contest appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]>

Today, X-Life Games launches the “Who Am I?” Poetry Contest.  The contest encourages you to use poetry to describe yourself on a global level while sharing ideas of tolerance and respect for other cultures, societies, and environments around the world.

“X-Life Games has been such a fun and educational experience thus far for everybody involved, and we wanted to figure out a way to celebrate this success,” said Daniel Nguyen, Community Manager of X-Life Games. “By coordinating the Poetry Contest, we reward our fans with a challenge that yields fun and exciting prizes, as well as continues promoting cultural unification and understanding through the X-Life Games modules.”

Submissions for the contest will be accepted until midnight on Sunday October 4th.  The VIP Judging panel, featuring MetroStar Systems executives and two professors from Georgetown University, will select finalists.  Then there will be a public voting period beginning Tuesday, October 13 that will ultimately decide the winners.



Prizes:

• 1^st Prize:          Apple iTouch for 1^st place winner & $1,000.00 USD donated on behalf of the winner to a charity of the winner’s choice*
• 2^nd Prize:          Apple iPod Nano for 2^nd place winner & $500.00 USD donated on behalf of the winner to a charity of the winner’s choice*
• 3^rd Prize:          Apple iPod Shuffle for 3^rd place winner & $250.00 USD donated on behalf of the winner to a charity of the winner’s choice*

*MetroStar Systems will provide a list of acceptable charities that the winners can select from to have the respective prize donation donated on the winner’s behalf

The contest will use Wildfire App‘s Promotions application and will be hosted on the X-Life Games fanpage on Facebook.  Please visit http://www.facebook.com/xlifegames.community for complete details, rules, and to enter the contest.

The post X-Life Games presents the “Who Am I?” Poetry Contest appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/14/x-life-games-presents-the-who-am-i-poetry-contest/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/09/metrostar-systems-is-a-proud-sponsor-of-the-2009-child-rescue-centre-benefit-golf-tournament/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/09/metrostar-systems-is-a-proud-sponsor-of-the-2009-child-rescue-centre-benefit-golf-tournament/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:23:57 +0000 Jenni Hubacher http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1591 MetroStar Systems is proud to be a sponsor of the Child Rescue Centre Benefit Golf Tournament. We look forward to participating in this charity event for a worthy cause. The golf tournament presented by Helping Children Worldwide, a non-profit organization located in Herndon, Virginia, is committed to raising money for impoverished children with clothing, food, [...]

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]]>



MetroStar Systems is proud to be a sponsor of the Child Rescue Centre Benefit Golf Tournament. We look forward to participating in this charity event for a worthy cause.


The golf tournament presented by Helping Children Worldwide, a non-profit organization located in Herndon, Virginia, is committed to raising money for impoverished children with clothing, food, medical care, education, and meeting their emotional and spiritual needs.

The benefit event is scheduled to take place Monday, September 14 at 10 a.m. at the Hidden Creek Country Club in Reston, VA.

For more information, please visit: http://helpingchildrenworldwide.org/events/golf-tournament/

When:

Monday, September 14th, 2009

• 10:00 AM   Registration & Practice
• 11:45 AM    Load Carts & Instructions
• 12:00 PM   Shotgun Start
• 5:00 PM     Reception
• 5:30 PM     Banquet / Awards Ceremony / Auction

Where:

Hidden Creek Country Club
1711 Clubhouse Road
Reston, VA 20190 (Map/Directions)
Phone: (703) 437-5222

Event Details:

• Golf Tournament details
• Hidden Creek Country Club website
• Helping Children Worldwide website

The post MetroStar Systems is a proud sponsor of the 2009 Child Rescue Centre Benefit Golf Tournament appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/09/metrostar-systems-is-a-proud-sponsor-of-the-2009-child-rescue-centre-benefit-golf-tournament/feed/ 2 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/08/metrostar-systems-is-sponsoring-the-superh-5k-run-walk-wheel-event/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/08/metrostar-systems-is-sponsoring-the-superh-5k-run-walk-wheel-event/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:44:16 +0000 Daniel Nguyen http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1489 MetroStar Systems is a proud sponsor of this year’s SuperH 5k Run Walk & Wheel event. The SuperH 5k Walk Run & Wheel event, instituted by the National Rehabilitation Hospital, is designed to raise money and awareness for individuals of all ages who have been injured in accidents. Costs that are covered include those for [...]

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]]>

MetroStar Systems is a proud sponsor of this year’s SuperH 5k Run Walk & Wheel event.

The SuperH 5k Walk Run & Wheel event, instituted by the National Rehabilitation Hospital, is designed to raise money and awareness for individuals of all ages who have been injured in accidents. Costs that are covered include those for personal care, rehabilitation equipment, travel, tournament entry fees, etc.  This event continues to raise substantial funds for the NRH/DC Chapter of BlazeSports America, a national, community based sports program for children and adults with physical disabilities.  Proceeds will enable NRH BlazeSports teams to host regular clinics that open the world of sports to individuals with disabilities.

The employees here at MetroStar Systems feel privileged to have the opportunity to participate, donate, and help sponsor this event that represents a great cause.  We encourage you to join us, donate, and help spread the word!  If you have any questions, please contact Jenni Hubacher (jhubacher@metrostarsystems.com)

When:

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

• Registration begins at 7 AM
• Race starts at 8 AM
• Race Party starts at 9 AM

Where:

Tysons Sport & Health Club

8250 Greensboro Drive

McLean, VA 22102 (Map / Directions)

Event Details:

• Event Course Map
• Registration:   $25.00
• Click here for Online Registration information
  
• The after-race party awards ceremony will feature Chicken Out Rotisserie cuisine, entertainment, and prizes.
• If you cannot attend but are still interested in donating in order to help increase sports programs for children with disabilities, please click here.




The post MetroStar Systems is sponsoring the SuperH 5k Run Walk & Wheel Event appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/08/metrostar-systems-is-sponsoring-the-superh-5k-run-walk-wheel-event/feed/ 1 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/02/metrostar-systems-accepted-as-silver-solution-partner-with-adobe-systems-inc/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/09/02/metrostar-systems-accepted-as-silver-solution-partner-with-adobe-systems-inc/#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:31:49 +0000 Jenni Hubacher http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=1470 Today, MetroStar Systems is pleased to announce that we have been accepted for Silver Solution Partner status with Adobe Systems Incorporated’s worldwide partner program. “This partnership with Adobe is an important step towards ensuring that MetroStar™ continues to further enhance its capabilities and provide the most robust and best-of-breed solutions for our clients’ current and [...]

The post MetroStar Systems Accepted as Silver Solution Partner with Adobe Systems Inc appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.

]]> Today, MetroStar Systems is pleased to announce that we have been accepted for Silver Solution Partner status with Adobe Systems Incorporated’s worldwide partner program.



“This partnership with Adobe is an important step towards ensuring that MetroStar™ continues to further enhance its capabilities and provide the most robust and best-of-breed solutions for our clients’ current and future needs,” said Ali Reza Manouchehri, Chief Executive Officer of MetroStar Systems.

The Solution Partner Program is designed for companies that provide solution-based sales, system integration, services, or extended products based on Adobe technology. Three levels of membership – Bronze, Silver, or Gold provide access to valuable technical, sales, and enablement resources, including software, communications, marketing and support. Partners must apply and meet requirement criteria before being accepted into the program.

Adobe® Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE) offers business, creative and mobile software solutions that revolutionize how the world engages with ideas and information. Adobe® customers include enterprises, knowledge workers, creative professionals and designers, OEM partners, and developers worldwide. For additional information, please visit http://www.adobe.com

To read the full press release, click here.

The post MetroStar Systems Accepted as Silver Solution Partner with Adobe Systems Inc appeared first on MetroStar Systems Blog.