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I am a 26 year old female SharePoint Enthusiast. I work for B&R Business Solutions from my home in Olathe, KS. I have been working with SharePoint since I attended the Portal University in 2005. I hold a BA in Computer Science from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. I love playing Rockband, organizing user group meetings, working with MOSS, attending Code Camps as a speaker, and having bizarre conversations about geek things with cool people. If you have any comments or questions fill out the contact form and I will try my best to help.

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March 2009 Entries

Silverlight 3.0 and Extended Databinding with SharePoint Controls


I don't really have a break until after SharePoint Saturday D.C.  Once the break occurs I am going to upgrade my VM with .Net 3.5 (finally get it to stick).  Then I am going to write a WCF webservice that will pull data from profile services and search.  Plus maybe some image library information for fun.  I want to build a ton of controls using Silverlight as the front end and SharePoint as the back end.  Check back here in about a month or so for some interesting experiments.  I will probably post these experiments on CodePlex.  At that time I am hoping to upgrade my entire VM to Silverlight 3.0, which is backwards compatible with Silverlight 2.0.  I spoke with Chris Koenig briefly at SharePoint Saturday Tulsa about some functionality in Silverlight 3.0 and it sounded really cool and interesting.  Some of the sketch interface additions sounds really cool.  Plus it looks like you can finally drag and drop some of the data controls that you could not in Silverlight 2.0 without referencing specific assemblies.  I was pretty impressed by the brief discussion I had with Chris.  Lee Brandt also touched a bit on the Sketch Flow stuff too earlier last week at the .Net User Group in Kansas City after the event.  He attended MIX 09 so he also knows about the goodies in store.  I know some of you are wondering why even bother with Silverlight why not use Flash.  To me Flash just seems like a lot more work, because I am already invested into .Net as a developer.  It's really just a preference.  I think that in time people will adopt Silverlight if Microsoft continues to add really cool practical features each version.  Anyway I have to go to bed and get up early in the morning.  I will catch you all later.

posted @ Monday, March 30, 2009 11:54 PM | Feedback (0) |


Upcoming Events


I will be speaking at SPS Saturday Tulsa on March 28th (http://www.schoolofdev.com) about Dazzling SharePoint with Silverlight.  I will also be speaking at the St. Louis MOSS Camp on April 18th (http://www.stlsug.org/MOSSCamp/default.aspx).  I have three sessions at the SSWUG.org SharePoint Virtual Conference on April 22, 23, and 24th (http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring09/sharepoint/).  If you want a special code to get a discount let me know I can knock $10 off I believe with my speaker code.
In between all these events I will be taking some time out to celebrate Passover in Fort Lauderdale on the 8th of April. I will probably be in St. Louis early on in April to visit with my grandfather. There is an award at Washington University that my great grandfather started. I've always wanted to see what it was about. So the month of April is pretty jam packed with family and work and community stuff. Coders 4 Charity is also around the end of April, so pretty much booked for April. The number one most important thing I am doing the first weekend of April is going shopping with my best friend. If I had to skip out on everything else I would not skip on that. I am pretty excited. Anyway, that's pretty much the plans...If I see any of you at an event say hi and come up and chat for a few minutes. Time to head out for a movie have a good weekend everyone.

posted @ Saturday, March 21, 2009 5:52 PM | Feedback (0) |


Speaking at KC .Net User Group


I will be speaking about Silverlight and SharePoint at the upcoming KC .Net User Group meeting this Tuesday, March 24th at 6 pm at Centriq (for more information go here: http://www.kcdotnet.com/).  This is pretty much the same talk I have been giving with a little bit at the end talking about some changes in Silverlight 3 addressed (like direct XML Databinding).  I am not going to show any Silverlight 3.0 demos until after my talk on April 18th in St. Louis.  I do not want to break any of my demos right now.  I am taking a few months off from speaking engagements and spending my weekends toying with new technologies, replenishing, and going back home to St. Louis.  If you guys don’t see me at any events in June or July that’s where I will be.  Off the radar and rollerblading probably (pending my toe’s full recovery).

posted @ Saturday, March 21, 2009 5:32 PM | Feedback (0) |


RequiredFieldValidator and InputFormTextBox not Friends…


I was using the infamous InputFormTextbox, which is the SharePoint Rich Textbox.  I had full html turned on and rich text, so that users could get the full experience in my webpart.  I added a normal InputFormRequiredValidator and did some tests thinking yeah this is working fine.  The client comes back with an issue and tells me it’s not firing.  So I start stepping into the code and realize there is always a <DIV></DIV> tag.  I understand why it would add these tags for styling purposes, but why add the tags right off the bat?  Why not remove the tags after editing?  It gets even better after editing it adds a &nbsp; tag between the div tags after you erase all the text on editing.  So this obviously will not work with a RequiredFieldValidator of any type, because it has text in the background.  I tried creating CustomValidator fields just for the Rich Text items, but this is no good due to the fact that the boxes working with the RequireFieldValidator are client side and run before the new validation objects.  At this point I decided to just throw in CustomValidator objects for all validation, but that did not work fully due to the fact that CheckboxList does not work with normal validators (apparently InputFormCheckboxListValidator is the only one out there that I know about without writing a custom item).  So in the end I created a label and used the function for the server side custom validation.  I also realize that I had to use some regex and a string replace to dump all html the Rich Textbox was adding and all non-breaking spaces.  I threw in the new function with a check on the label being visible and the Page.IsValid option for server side validation checks.  Two days later it works 100% after a battery of tests.  So essentially  here is a summary:

  • Don’t use RequiredFieldValdator or InputFormRequiredFieldValidator with Rich Text Box options set on InputFormTextbox
  • Don’t mix CustomValidator with RequiredFieldValidator, even if you use the client side scripting it will not work at the same time as RequiredFieldValidator
  • You can’t use InputFormCheckboxList or CheckBoxList with any type of RequiredFieldValidator or CustomValidator, so you have to use your own custom functions or InputFormCheckboxListValidator.  Also, you can’t use InputFormCheckboxListValidator with CustomValidator, because it will not run at the same time as the CustomValidator
  • When running CustomValidator use Regex to remove any html tags and use a string replace to remove any non breaking spaces (since it’s adding extras in the background).

Hopefully someone out there finds this useful and saves them the time and hassle I had to deal with this week.  Have a good weekend guys.

posted @ Friday, March 20, 2009 1:36 PM | Feedback (0) |


How I Got Stuck in Jersey…


So some of you follow me on twitter and some of you my blog.  I’m sure some are wondering why I never came home last night.  What happened?  So I’m going to give you the very long version, because I love writing it out.  It helps me realize all the insanity and gives me a sense of catharsis in the end.  I started out with a great day in Boston going to Cheer’s, drinking a Sam Adam’s at the for reals Cheers (that’s right the on Beacon Street), and eating crab pie.  I ended up with lighter pockets and a bug robot, a lighthouse, shot glass, and Harvard mug all for various family members and significant others.  The day was going great and my feet hurt, so I headed to the airport with 4 hours of sleep and exhaustion.  The lighthouse replica did not make the X-ray Machine all that happy, so I got to have a nice chat with a TSA dude.  He was pretty cool and we chatted about the MIT Museum a bit (really awesome tiny little Museum on Front and Mass Ave in Boston).  When I was done with TSA I ended up heading to my gate and immediately fell asleep.  I woke up in a pile or drool and boarded my plane thinking all was good.  I sit down and yet again fell asleep immediately (see a pattern, kids don’t try what I did at home it’s insane and yet I continue to do it).  I woke up an hour later thinking we must have landed in Newark not realizing we were heading back to the same gate.  It turns out the fuel gage was broken and the plane had 0 gas left.  We had to refuel and we took of 1 1/2 hours late.  We landed 45 minutes later safely, but my connecting flight was 30 minutes after landing at another gate.  I ran for it in flip flops (due to insane Dr. Who Bathroom Incident one weekend ago).  I got to the check in for the shuttle and I hear the plane may have already left early.  The plane was not being held and there were three of us who were supposed to go home.  This other girl and I went to the other gate to check it out and the plane was gone at 9:08 pm, so we got there only 3 minutes late.  Southwest would have held the plane and Continental did not.  Everyone who I spoke with did not care at the airline (don’t worry calls will be made and they will understand that I am not happy).  We got vouchers for hotel and food and plane tickets for the next day, but I am still a little floored at there service.  Yes it’s great I am safe.  I am grateful, but if I had gone with another airline I would have been home yesterday.  I paid for a ticket to get home the other day.  I did not cause the issue.  They caused the issue.  They need to realize why Southwest is a far superior airline.  I hear people complain about Southwest, but they held the plane for me when my connecting flight was 30 minutes late in Denver.  I was one person and they held the plane.  Continental did not hold the plane for 3 people.  They took off early too.  Southwest also gives free baggage check in and free snacks.  For some reason the crew is usually humorous and tries to liven up the flight.  I got home the next day fine, but I just feel like some type of injustice has occurred.  I am going to call up the airline and let them know why I am disenchanted and may never use them again.  I will post exactly what they tell me after I call.  I will tell everyone I know what happened from now on.  If someone doesn’t do anything when they think an injustice has occurred they are no better than the person that created the situation in the first place.  You need to stand up for yourself and I don’t enough.  I need to make sure that others do not find themselves in a similar predicament.  Anyway, have a nice night.  Tomorrow should be interesting today was a haze of lots of sleeping.

posted @ Tuesday, March 17, 2009 1:10 AM | Feedback (1) |


The Eagle has Landed…


I finally am home.  I slept most of today, but I finally can say that my bed and I will be connecting.  That’s right my king size pillow top will have a nice conversation for 7 hours tonight.  A full 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep with Johnny at my side and Gambit laying right in the spot where I want to move my feet.  So anyway to recap I started in Kansas City worked my way to Phoenix had a layover in Vegas flew red eye to Boston and got stuck in Newark before I ended up coming home.  I saw Joel Oleson, Michael Lotter, Talbott Crowell, Dan Usher, Mark Miller, Bob Wicklund, David McWee, Tom Resing (in Women’s SPS Shirt), Geoff Varosky, John Stover, Sean Bordner, Chris Shaw, Rachel Appell, Craig Plinkerton, Inna Gordin, Rick (nology?), Erik Kraus…These are all the people I can remember.  I like to kind of write out a list, because it helps me remember more than anything.  I don’t want to be that jerk that gets approached at some conference, because I forgot someone.  I keep forgetting people constantly.  It’s really weird I think about not being in a clique, but technically I am in a clique.  For some reason I always end up in the back away from the popular people.  Some people throw themselves into the center with the popular ones.  I automatically don’t do that.  I automatically go to where there are a few people and I randomly start talking to someone new.  I never really noticed it until lately that I just do it nowadays.  About three years ago I would be the person hiding in the back away from everyone else not talking.  For example, I was at the airport and this guy gets into the tram at EWR and he just sits down minding his own business.  I just started talking to him trying to figure out who he was and why he was there.  In the end we start parting ways and I deliberately get his name and was like nice to meet you.  Seriously I never expected to be that person.  I was the person you avoided the weird kid.  The one who deliberately had the headphones on and read the book to avoid the rest of you.  This was me 9 years ago when I graduated high school.  I look back and I realize once I met my friend Leah everything went downhill from there.  She encouraged me to just go out and do crazy things.  I remember one time we were driving around somewhere in St. Louis trying to visit a friend and we get there.  She freaks me out and she says the maid or someone is watching.  So she’s like get out of here and I floor the gas pedal and almost hit someone.  We’re laughing.  I have no idea why I remember this every time I think of Leah.  Somehow ever since I met her I did all these crazy things.  The blonde hair and the Rockband singing and the public speaking.  She’s not the only encouraging factor in my life.  My dad is great.  But she was one of my first really great friends.  I really truly met some horrible people and there has been a beacon throughout all the horrible people.  My grandmother and my dad up until about high school.  Then Leah later on and Lee is a good example and Brian and Joyce and Johnny.  I am really grateful every day of my life to know these people.  Some of you I haven’t known long and some of you were there to help me out when I was crying.  If I haven’t told you all lately thank you so much.  I would not be who I am without the rest of you.  Every day I wake up and wonder how I got here.  I will continue to do so until the day I die.  I know this is ridiculous and sappy, but seriously there has to be someone in your life you haven’t told thank you too recently.  I can’t list everyone, but there are tons of you out there encouraging me and speaking good words.  I appreciate it.  Whoever you are thank you for the support.  If I somehow forget you remind me who you are.  Tell me your story.  This is my cue to go to sleep more fires to put out bug-wise.  I am developer and fixing bugs makes me feel good.  It’s like warm milk in the evening on a rainy day when you are 12 years old.   If you feel afraid to walk up to someone just remember we’re not superheroes…We’re all real people and none of us is perfect.  Have a nice night.

posted @ Tuesday, March 17, 2009 12:55 AM | Feedback (0) |


Silverlight Demos


Here is a link to the blog post with the databinding and other SIlverlight demos I have done and slide decks: http://mosslover.com/archive/2009/02/26/silverlight-demos-and-slides-most-updated-versions.aspx

posted @ Saturday, March 14, 2009 3:19 PM | Feedback (0) |


Revisiting the People Picker (PeopleEditor) Control


I was working with the People Editor Control and realized there are a couple weird things you need to do before you can read values into the control and save values into a list.  Here are a few samples related to saving multiple items into a list and reading multiple items from a list into the control.

Updating an Item from a PeopleEditor Control:

string[] UsersSeperated = peUserEditor.CommaSeparatedAccounts.Split(',');
                    SPFieldUserValueCollection UserCollection= new SPFieldUserValueCollection();
                    foreach (string UserSeperated in UserSeperated)
                    {
                        SPUser User = Web.SiteUsers[“UserField”];
                        SPFieldUserValue UserName = new SPFieldUserValue(Web, User.ID, User.LoginName);
                        UserCollection.Add(UserName);
                    }
Item["UserField"] = UserCollection

Notice that we have to separate the users, because it is comma delimited.  You have to split the string, then you cast the string in an SPUser, so that you can get the User Guid and User Login for and SPFieldUserValue and add it to the SPFieldUserValue Collection.  My field is a People and Groups field, so it requires an SPFieldUserValueCollection.

Reading an SPFieldUserValueCollection into a PeopleEditor Control:

SPFieldUserValueCollection Users = new SPFieldUserValueCollection(Web, Item["UserField"].ToString());
                    string UsersCommaDelimited = "";
                    foreach (SPFieldUserValue User in Users)
                    {
                        if (UsersCommaDelimited == "")
                            UsersCommaDelimited = User.User.LoginName;
                        else
                            UsersCommaDelimited += "," + User.User.LoginName;
                    }
peUserEditor.CommaSeparatedAccounts = UsersCommaDelimited;

In this piece of code notice that we pull the value into an SPFieldUserValueCollection, then we loop through the login name and add them to a string using commas.  Then we can go ahead and save the string into the PeopleEditor’s CommaSeperatedAccounts Function for displaying on a form.

This control is incredibly simple to use, obviously you would not need to loop through and add the commas if you set the MultiSelect value to false.  It is a little different for multiple users, so I chose to write about that instead of adding a single user value.  If anyone has comments or questions let me know.  Later guys.

posted @ Thursday, March 12, 2009 3:28 PM | Feedback (1) |


Yep I did run into a door…


Some of you follow me on twitter and others do not so some of you know I ran into a door over the weekend.  I was not inebriated.  I was leaving the bathroom too quickly, so that I could see Dr. Who Series 4 Finale (Journey’s End).  I was really really excited.  I had been waiting to see this episode for ages.  My two end toes (the baby toe in particular) connected really hard with the door.  There was cursing and when I took my sock off lots of bleeding.  This was also Saturday night, so I had tickets to see Watchmen on the IMAX Screen down the street.  I had to suck in my gut take a few painkillers and go out.  The past few days I have mainly been sitting down or laying down.  I still can’t believe I ran into a door completely sober.  I run into tables all the time and bruise myself.  I am the epitome of clumsiness,  but seriously a door?  I have to keep repeating it to realize I finally did it.  I finally did something that I will be laughing at for years.  I’ve already started laughing, because really what can you do when you run into a door?  You get up you wipe off the blood, ice yourself down, you take a few pain killers, and you laugh.  If you see me in Boston and I am wearing open toed shoes in rain or snow or really cold weather just remember it’s because I ran into a door.  If you want you can look at me and realize I am the biggest nerd, because it was pretty much over Dr. Who:)

posted @ Tuesday, March 10, 2009 2:10 AM | Feedback (0) |


Why Change Control Systems are Good...


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.

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posted @ Tuesday, March 10, 2009 2:02 AM | Feedback (0) |


St. Louis or Bust


I haven't been home in over 2 months.  I know some of you wouldn't understand why I am so fixated with going home.  I have never lived further than 500 miles away from St. Louis.  Just enough space to keep my parents from visiting me every weekend, but just enough space to go home.  This past year has been a big whirlwind and last week was the culmination of my insanity.  I kept telling my friends I am coming home.  I will be home this weekend or that weekend in February or January.  I'm usually home for my dad's birthday at the beginning of February, but stuff just kept me away.  I was sick or exhausted or Johnny was sick or exhausted.  I know I don't get enough time with anyone in any place.  It just feels like bits and pieces of being here and there and hanging out with this person and that person.  I never though I would have to sacrifice my monthly visits to St. Louis until last year.  My dad was the big idea for my public speaking shenanigans.  I guess in part I see him less, because sometimes you have to make a choice.  You go this way you get to do this, but you go this way and you also can't do that.  Yeah he calls me every day or every other day, but it's not the same as seeing him every other week like I did before.  I miss my dad and my best friend, Leah.  I can't remember what I did last time with either of them.  I can barely remember the last time I saw Jaimie.  I have the privilege of working remotely, so I figured now is the perfect timing.  My dad has wifi and my old bedroom is unoccupied, so I'm going to go home from Sunday to Wednesday.  It's going to be pretty jam packed and it will feel like I just said hi when I have to leave as usual.  I don't even know when I can go back again.  It might not be until MOSS Camp St. Louis.  I'll be in Boston, Tucson, and Tulsa in most of the weekends this month.  I used to take for granted all the time I got with my family and friends back home.  Like it was always going to be there and no one could ever take it away.  So I guess it's about time to go to bed...I don't even know what to make out of this post.  I don't really feel that much different being 26 and 364 days old, but who knows maybe that will change tomorrow...Can't wait to wake up in my old room and eat cherry black forest cake.   Have a nice morning night or evening catch you all later.  I won't be tweeting or posting for a few days if things go as planned.  One more bug and lots of people to see in the evenings.

posted @ Sunday, March 01, 2009 4:55 AM | Feedback (0) |