Archive for tips & tricks
Surface SDK and Windows 7
Posted by: | CommentsI 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/
Please wait while Setup finishes determining your disk space requirements
Posted by: | Comments.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.
Walkthrough: DVWP Tooltip
Posted by: | CommentsTooltips 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 Split or Code view
Create the Tooltip
- Locate the DVWP in which the tooltip functionality will be implemented
- 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.
- 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. - 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″.
- 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
- Locate the DVWP in which the tooltip has been created
- 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.
- Locate the HTML object that will trigger the display of tooltips in response to a specified user action.
- 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
It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time
Posted by: | Comments
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.
Microsoft My Phone
Posted by: | CommentsIf 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/
