Facepalm Syndicate @ Coders 4 Charities Kansas City

Awesome! The word that encapsulates my first experience @ Coders 4 Charities 2009. The Facepalm Syndicate team (as we called ourselves) was a force at work, round the clock, for the Kansas Family Advisor Network (KFAN).

Check out the fruits of our effort...the site before we started

 KFAN Site

and the new site after we completed in 2 days. 

 

That's right! 2 days flat! A shout out at Bud, Trey, Joe and Vin! You guys rock...

A daily summary to follow..Till then check out the cool flickr photos!



Coders For Charities Geeks Giving Back

I am getting excited about C4C next weekend! It looks like its shaping up to be a great event. If you want to know what C4C is, check out http://coders4charities.org/

From the Coders 4 Charities website:

"Coders For Charities is a 3-day charity event that pairs charities and local software developers. Charities often do not have the funds to implement a new website or intranet or database solution. Software developers often do not volunteer for charities because their skills do not apply. This event is the perfect marriage of these two needs; software developers volunteering their time to help charities better serve their community though the latest technology" 

C4C

If you are in the neighbourhood, stop by and see us in action!



Javascript error Entering text in Content Editor Web Part in HTML Source Mode

On a demo that I am trying to work on, I kept coming across this javascript error while in HTML source mode on a CEWP instance.  It was annoying enough for me to go find a quick fix

The error itself was quite vague: " Object expected:  in /_layouts/RTE2PUEditor.aspx".

With the HTML editor being a modal, there was no easy way to figure out the offending source.

Googling the error description yielded some helpful links one of which mentioned a hacky fix that I promptly put in! Since this was a test box, I didn't really care about breaking the support model, but not a good idea on production boxes, period!

If you landed here looking for that fix, use the steps below to fix it quick:

1. Open up the HtmlEditor.js file underneath your layouts/1033 folder in the 12 hive C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033

2. Locate the entry for:

function RTE2_OnKeyDown(strBaseElementID, elem)

and change the following line:

RTE_ToggleEnableShortcuts(evtSource);

to:

//RTE_ToggleEnableShortcuts(evtSource);

try { RTE_ToggleEnableShortcuts(evtSource); } catch (e) {}

There you go! Do not forget to refresh (Control F5) your browser screen when you next test this as the Editor dialog may be cached. Screenshot for those looking for visuals.

Cheers!



:: Rant :: Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and SQL Server 2008

Why is it that service pack installs for Visual Studio 200X are ALMOST never, ever pain-free?

It's tempting to say it is a Microsoft Trademark that they make you go through a process that 15 minutes into an install, prompts you to CONFIRM that you REALLY, REALLY want to do this... As if you did not know what you were doing while going through the 15 steps on the install wizard before that prompt came up.

And when you say YES dammit, it then runs for another 20 minutes only to find out:

  1. that the space on the hard drive it needs to install is not enough OR..
  2. that there is a dependency check on an unrelated set of dll's, service packs or whatever that stops the installation and prompts you to go get that OR...
  3. that the current windows installer does not like the setup files that came from the media OR....
  4. anything else that drives you nuts waiting in front of the screen...

Sounds familiar? Well thats how my SQL Server 2008 install went last weekend...Yell

For those who are trying to do this, a word of advice: make sure you have VS 2008 SP1 installed FIRST, then make sure you have ALL the right framework patches installed BEFORE you get to SQL!



MOSS Sharepoint Terminology

While rummaging through some old documents, I came across a list of MOSS keywords I had created to explain MOSS terms in a way that would make sense to non or semi-technical folks. Some tidbits are below:

Key Terminology:

Branding – Refers to overall site layout and design; Covers Colors, Themes, Global Page Structure and Display

Master Pages, Images, Style Sheets

Master Pages: Consists of globally branded UI elements of the site design that do not vary across pages. It is usually composed of Images, Static HTML and Style sheet references along with place holders of page specific content that is dynamic nature.

Ownership: IT

Customization – Refers to page design that is common across a subset of pages; Covers Content elements design for a group of related artifacts

Page Layouts (Templates), Page Controls (Modules), and Re-usable controls (Components)

Page Layouts: Templates that define the static structure of images and HTML to be positioned on the page in conjunction with dynamic areas of the page that are content managed. Defined conceptually by designers and created in collaboration with IT; Page layouts are usually with a specific master page and cannot be linked to multiple master pages

Page Controls: Controls that are page specific and perform dynamic data processing to retrieve information from a database backend managed outside of MOSS; Page controls are outside the purview of content management and are tied specifically to a single page layout

Re-usable Controls:  Components that are shared across page layouts and/or master pages that allow for specific code functionality to be re-used across the site; Components are based off a code framework that is designed for sharing between page layouts and/or master pages and changes to a component affect all places where the component is being used

Ownership: IT

Content Management – Refers to instance pages that inherit from a page layout and are designed for content management within portions of the page

Page Editable Areas (HTML Editor), Drag and Drop Web Parts (HTML Editor Web Part)

Instance Page: Page that is created from the MOSS Site Content and Structure interface by end users and configured for content management

Ownership: Content Managers, Designers and End-Users

 



Tat Tvam Asi

Sanskrit: तत् त्वम् असि or तत्त्वमसि) translating variously to "Thou art that" "That thou art" or "That you are"

A Word a Day

Affiliations