.Net

devLink…Inexpensive Conference Worth your Dollar…

MOSSLover — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:40:15 GMT

Are you a developer? There are so many dev conferences out there, but I found out about this one a few months ago. I am speaking on SharePoint and Silverlight at devLink in Nashville. The conference lasts about 3 days from August 13th to the 15th in Nashville, TN (as Rob Foster says NashVegas). I am looking at the speakers from the .Net Community (and SharePoint) and some notable mentions would be Claudio Lassala, Jessica Moss, Steve Andrews, Clint Edmonson, Rob Foster, Eric Shupps, Jeremy Sublett, Dennis Bottjer, Kathleen Dollard, Shawn Wildermuth…The conference only costs $100…Why not go? Here is the registration link: http://www.devlink.net/. How often do you get to see all these people for this little of a cost?

Technorati Tags: Conferences,devLink,Inexpensive

Why Change Control Systems are Good...

MOSSLover — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:02:16 GMT

I did something stupid against all my beliefs and should have never done it. I tried to deploy something on Friday. It was the dumbest mistake. First off I had no idea what type of master pages were in the environment. I assumed there was only one master page in the entire environment and I used the most disgustingly wrong program for a developer, SharePoint Designer. I pasted in this fix for AJAX Update Panels with FireFox (<script type='text/javascript'>_spOriginalFormAction = document.forms[0].action; _spSuppressFormOnSubmitWrapper=true;</script>). The environment immediately crashed. For some weird reason the Safe Control no longer existed in the web .config files for the System.Web.Extensions assembly as some guys found out today. Overall a lot of weird things happened and the master page was never approved. I tried hard last week to roll it back. Needless to say that part was fixed and then they found a couple other weird issues that ended up getting fixed by the end of the day. I spoke with a few people they finally told me why everything failed. There were two WFE’s and 4 master pages. I had no idea that was the case. I never thought to ask. I had just looked in the site settings at the master page for the main site. It never really dawned on me there were multiple master pages. I felt like a complete imbecile when I found out this was the case. Honestly looking back on it there were just a ton of different follies between me and my co-workers. It just dawned on me how important it was that a change control system were in place…

I mean think about it you have a form that someone else checks over and approves. Someone who knows better and comments on what you might need to know before submitting these changes. At my old job I knew exactly what was going on at all times (well most of the time, aside for patches and the infrastructure guys). I was in control, but as a consultant I am not the SharePoint Guru (or whatever they called me). I am going into someone else’s environment and changing something. I need to know the what and the where before I start digging into the how part. I don’t know maybe when there are situations without a Change Control System in place I need to write down and outline what I need to know before poking into someone else’s environment. I know better or at least I knew better. You never go into a prod environment first off when it’s not off hours, without testing your fix, and without knowing what you are doing. Finally I went in today and fixed up both WFE’s and all the master pages with the proper fix. If I had asked the proper questions I could have avoided some issues (not all the issues, there was obviously something else cracked). Anyway, don’t be like me and just jump right in when you know it would be a mistake. I knew it felt wrong and yet I still did it. I hope that someone reads this post and thinks before they act on a production environment. Catch you all later.

Technorati Tags: MOSS,Change Control,SharePoint

SSWUG.org Online Conference

MOSSLover — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:41:30 GMT

I am really late in posting about this event with all the craziness. I am participating in an online conference hosted by the SQL Server World User Group. It is strictly an online conference. I will be speaking about Introduction to Feature Design, Visually Designing Webparts, and Dazzling SharePoint with Silverlight. Chris Regan, one of the managing partners at B&R, will be speaking at the same event. For further details (dates, other topics, etc...) you can click on this link: http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring09/sharepoint/.

Coders 4 Charity:Why do I want to give my time?

MOSSLover — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:01:40 GMT

Last year I had a great experience giving my time to charities for three days in Kansas City. If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that I attended last year's event. You know that my team created a WSS Site for the Boy Scouts in Blue Springs, Missouri. This year I am challenging you to come and try to beat us, because yes all of us will be back. We will be teaming up for the event again. We could use some competition.

The other big thing I wanted to blog about is we are trying to find charities. If you know any charities that are too poor in the area to afford developer help to create websites. Fill out the blog contact form and give me some information about the charity. It has to be a project that we can create in three days and most likely a web project. Also, if you want to sponsor the event I can send your information along.

The website for charities, developers, designer, and dbas to sign up at is http://coders4charities.org/. It was definitely worth my time and experience. I will continue to attend this event as long as I live in Kansas City. I met a lot of good people too. Lee Brandt, Tim Wright, Blake Theiss, and Joe Loux...I've hung out with Lee a lot this past year. He is a really great friend. Tim is really awesome too. He's going to help me with my Silverlight Search Control. Seriously would have never met them had I not attended the event. Anyway, that's all I have for you tonight, so sign up:)

Technorati Tags: Coders 4 Charity,Kansas City Events

Kansas City Day of Dot Net - Some Thoughts...

MOSSLover — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 07:15:56 GMT

As most of you know my blog posts are a little random and more towards free writing. I just think and write. So today the Kansas City Day of Dot Net took place at Centriq. I was freaking out a little bit, because I wanted it to succeed so bad. I was afraid that being our first event here in the past ten year that no one would show up. From what I understand Lee Brandt was thinking the same thing. This event was solely born from his idea that we needed to plan more events in Kansas City. He did a great job. Of the three of us, Myself, Doug Butscher, and Lee Brandt, this event was Lee's baby. Doug and I were there to make sure that things went off without a hitch. (I was sort of there to test the SharePoint waters in Kansas City too, which turned out to be pretty hot.) A month ago I was freaking out, because I told Lee I would get the SharePoint speakers. I was using Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, im, and whatever else I had available. Somehow I managed to get some great speakers, Michael Lotter, Todd Bleeker, and Steve Walker to come out to Kansas City from all over the place. We had an overwhelming number of people show up interested in SharePoint. I came home with a list of about 21-22 people. In about a week I'm going to start planning a SharePoint event for February. We gave out some surveys that I will go over later this week. I think we have a good base of people in Kansas City to host a whole slew of events. Honestly, I don't think I would even be at this point without Lee or Doug. I have to thank myself for walking up to Jeff Julian and John Alexander in May or June of 07 at the Kansas City .Net User Group. So I guess I have to thank Jeff, John, Doug, and Lee for helping me get to this point. Thanks guys. Thanks for making me realize Kansas City might not be as bad as I once thought it was. No you still cannot beat St. Louis by a long-shot, but hey it definitely beats some of the other places out there that could be far worse. It's really all about the community and the awesome people. This is kind of ridiculous, but any of you guys out there in the SharePoint Community or Geeks with Blogs Community...Don't hesitate to say hi to someone you don't know it may lead to something insane that you never expected. I am pretty beat from the event, so I will catch you guys later. No SharePoint insight for this week. It's more of a general cry out to get involved with your community, because it's probably made of awesomeness that you would never expect.

Technorati Tags: KCDODN

Kansas City Day of Dot Net

MOSSLover — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:27:30 GMT

We just got Centriq Officially on board for the Kansas City Day of Dot Net on Saturday, December 6th. If you are not registered please go here and register: http://kcdodn.eventbrite.com/. Right now we have 5 SharePoint Speakers committed to the event, including Todd Kitta, Michael Lotter, Todd Bleeker, Steve Walker, and myself. This event will be one of many in the upcoming future we're hoping. We already broke 100 on the sign up. We are probably going to cap it around 125, so sign up asap.
We are also looking for sponsors to donate books, software, and other items. If you are interested please use the contact form on my blog (which links directly to my e-mail address). Remember this is good free publicity for your company to get known.
Special thanks to Lee Brandt for making this event possible. Without him Kansas City would be a hole in the middle of nowhere. He decided he wanted to bring events here for those of us who don't go to PDC or TechEd. Go Lee for trying to put Kansas City on the map:)

Speaking at St. Louis .Net User Group Monday

MOSSLover — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:55:36 GMT

I will be speaking at the St. Louis .Net User Group About Silverlight on Monday, October 27th at 6 pm. Like the Kansas City .Net User Group they start at 5:30, but it looks like they go until 7:30. It looks like the group holds office at Three city Place Suite 1100 in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Here is my bio and abstract:

The Dazzling World of Silverlight using XAML and Expression Blend
Silverlight is the shiny new tool that both Developers and Designers can use in harmony. In Expression Studio Designers can create Silverlight layouts without affecting the code behind files. In Visual Studio 2008 Developers can access the layout files that designers created and add code events. In this session we will discuss the tools involved to develop Silverlight Applications. We will dive into some XAML Code and Expression Blend tutorials that will leaving you with a taste to create more rich applications for the web.

Becky Isserman has been a SharePoint Developer, since 2005 when she went through the Portal University with Levi, Ray, and Shoup in Springfield, IL. She is an Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD). She has been a web designer/developer since she was fifteen hand coding HTML 3.0 websites in NotePad. She enjoys working with SharePoint 2007, because she can perform the roles of administrator, developer, designer, and architect. She has presented at five code camps, two conferences, and three user groups in 2008. She currently lives in Olathe, Kansas for B&R Solutions. She lives with her two cats, Gambit and Rogue, plus her boyfriend, Johnny. If you would like to contact her you can e-mail her at rebecca.isserman@gmail.com or fill out the contact form at her blog http://www.mosslover.com.

If anyone in St. Louis wants to get together and play some Rockband or meet up I think I'm going to try and work from my friend Leah's house through Thursday. However, if anyone wants to hang out for dinner she has claimed me for most dinners, especially Wednesday which is her 25th birthday.

Day of Dot Net Needs the SharePoint Lovens

MOSSLover — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:43:47 GMT

So finally Kansas City gets a Code Camp and we get an entire SharePoint Track (so I hope) on Saturday, December 6th. I am hoping that we can get together at least 5 sessions. So far Todd Kitta (the MOSS Gone Wild Guy) has offered up his services and he will be bringing his family (including the new baby I hope). So what I ask from you guys is that if you want to speak and you are local or not even local drop me an e-mail. Kansas City needs love too. We have Barbecue, the Nelson Atkins Art Museum, John Alexander (the coolest guy around), and oodles of Midwestern hospitality. So what are you guys waiting for? Seriously...Contact Form...Now...

Technorati Tags: MOSS,Kansas City Day of Dot Net,Code Camp

Vista and VPC 2007: Bug or No Bug?

MOSSLover — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:02:18 GMT

I was using VPC 2007 on Windows Vista Ultimate 32 bit for the first time last week. I was creating some user documentation for my new job. I noticed that even with sharing turned on for my C Drive I could not save any files from the VPC to my C Drive. I heard there was really no Vista and VPC 2007 support, so I decided to start experimenting as per usual (don't try this at home I have broken more VPC's than anyone within the SharePoint Community I bet). So I found this Public area on the C Drive under the Users. I saved the file in that directory and it actually worked. I am assuming that there is some kind of security issue with Vista and Virtual PC 2007. I know the security is a little wacky. I hope this helps someone out there. I will try to post little snippets from my trials a bit more in the next few weeks.

Technorati Tags: VPC 2007,Vista Ultimate,Vista 32 Bit

KC .Net User Group Meeting Tonight

MOSSLover — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:22:35 GMT

One of my fellow Coders 4 Charity Groupmates, Lee Brandt, will be speaking about Test Driven Development using C# tonight. If you are in town you must come. If you are not in town and you want to come. Well hop on a flight? Anyway, here is the official information *commenses brainwashing tactics*:

Topic: TDD Using C#

Test-Driven development is a methodology that can help developers write solid, well-designed code. Very few developers practice it because very few understand how it works and how to make it work for them. We will discuss what TDD is, why developers would want to use it, and the basics of how to actually do it using Visual Studio 2008, MS Test and C# 3.0. Come find out what Red, Green, Refactor is all about and why you should care.

Presented by: Lee Brandt
Lee is a .NET Solutions Architect for Examinetics, Inc. int Overland Park, Kansas. Lee has been programming professionally for over 10 years and developing solutions in .NET and C# since the early beta releases in 2000. He is an advocate for test-driven development, design patterns and agile methodologies. Lee spends most of his free time reading about programming, discussing programming and actually writing code. Any time leftover is spent with his wife Stacey and their dog Frieda.

So you want to come now right? Can't say I didn't try...See you there:)