Bharath's Blog

SharePoint 2010 Service Accounts: Part 1

phbharath — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:15:12 +0000

The SharePoint 2010 provides multiple services which are managed by multiple service accounts. Which once you need before the installation of SharePoint depends on what services do you need. This post covers minimum necessary account for basic installation.

Since SharePoint shows close relationship with SQL Server and Active Directory(AD) , AD provides identity and authentication services for SharePoint. In brief , AD stores user accounts and passwords and validates account logons. SQL Server stores almost all the configuration information of SharePoint(SP) farm. So in order to support the administration and services of SQL Server and SP , identities needs to be created in AD and proper permissions must be granted. Here it is important to adhere to the security practices of least privilege. Following accounts need to be created as Domain accounts before the basic installation of SP:

SharePoint setup user and administration: SP_Admin
SharePoint farm account: SP_Farm
SQL Server Administration account: SQL_Admin
SQL Server service account: SQL_Service
Web Application pool account(s) : SP_WebApp

TODO during creation of above domain accounts in AD:

Store accounts in separate organizational unit(OU).
Try to follow a good naming convention for each account like starting with SP(for SharePoint) or SQL (for SQL Server).
Make sure to follow proper security for accounts like expiration. SP can detect security changes in AD from SharePoint central administration.
Provide least privileges to these accounts.

In my next post I will explain the importance of each account for proper function of SharePoint within a farm.

Binary App Solutions

phbharath — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:01:00 +0000

I recently started a sole Proprietorship company. Here is the link

http://www.binaryapp.net

C# Parameter Modifiers Part 2

phbharath — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:35:32 +0000

3. Using ref Modifier

C# ref parameters are useful when you want the method to change the values of various data points declared in callers scope.

So what’s the difference between ref and out modifiers ?
Output parameters need not be initialized before passing it to a method. The calling method initializes the value for the parameter. Where as , the reference parameters need to be initialized before sending. This is because, the called method need to get the reference to the parameter and no reference is created unless a variable is initialized.

Coding:

Lets create a static method which takes two strings and interchanges their values.

public static void RefParameterExample(ref string firstName, ref string LastName)      {

          string tempString = firstName;

          firstName = LastName;

          LastName = tempString;

      }

The above method interchanges the value assigned by calling method to first name and last name. Lets call the above method with following code.

public static void TestRefParameterModifier()        {

            Console.WriteLine("------ Using  ref Modifiers-------");

            string firstName, LastName;

            firstName = "Bill";

            LastName = "Gates";

            Console.WriteLine("Before Call");

            Console.WriteLine(" First Name is {0} and Last Name is {1}", firstName, LastName);

            // Lets call the RefParameterExample which interchanges the first name and last name

            CodeSample.RefParameterExample(ref firstName, ref LastName);

            Console.WriteLine("After Call");

            Console.WriteLine(" First Name is {0} and Last Name is {1}", firstName, LastName);

            Console.ReadKey();

        }

Output:

4. Using params Modifier

With the use of params keyword, you can make a method accept a variable number of parameters(of same type) as a single logical parameter. Also, the arguments marked with params keyboard can accept comma deliminated values or strongly types array.

Coding

Suppose you want to define a method which can find average of numbers that are passed though a calling method. Here is the sample code for the method using the params modifier.

public static double  paramsParamterExample(params double[] values)    {

        double total = 0;

        if (values.Length == 0)

            return total;

        for(int i =0; i < values.Length ; i++)

        {

            total += values[i];

        }

        return total / values.Length;

    }

The above method can be called with following code:

public static void TestParamsParamterModifier()       {

           Console.WriteLine("------ Using  params Modifiers-------");

           Console.WriteLine("------ Testing with comma deliminated values-------");

           // CodeSample.paramsParamterExample(2.3, 3.4, 55.6) would give error if the method was defined with params keywaord

           Console.WriteLine(" Average of 2.3,3.4,55.6 is {0}", CodeSample.paramsParamterExample(2.3, 3.4, 55.6));

           Console.WriteLine("------ Testing with strongly types array of double-------");

           double[] thisArray = { 3.4, 5.4, 1.2, 6.6 };

           Console.WriteLine("Average is {0}", CodeSample.paramsParamterExample(thisArray));

           Console.ReadKey();

       }

Here comes the output for above code:

Coding

This concludes the discussion on C# modifiers. Having the knowledge of C# modifiers greatly helps in using proper techniques while passing the data.

C# Parameter Modifiers Part 1

phbharath — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:04:25 +0000

Keywords are used to control how the parameters are passed to the method in C#. These can be categorized into “out”,”ref” and “params”. Parameters can also be skipped with modifiers. Following section will explain more about each of the modifier type used in C#.

1. Using no Modifiers

When a parameter is not marked with any modifiers, the called method receives the copy of the original data. This is also the default type of passing a parameter to methods.

Coding:

Lets create a static function which takes in 2 numbers and returns the multiplication of 2 numbers.

class CodeSample    {

      public  static int Multiply(int x, int y)        {

            int answer = x * y;

            // following changes will not be seen on main function

            x = 12;            y = 56;

            // end of comment

            return answer;

        }    }

Since the numerical data falls under value types, the caller of the method will be unaware if the values are changed within the called method. Lets call the above function from main method with following code.

public static void TestNoModifier()       {

           Console.WriteLine("------ Using No Modifiers-------");

           int x = 10;           int y = 34;

           Console.WriteLine(" Before call : X = {0}, Y= {1}", x, y);

           Console.WriteLine(" Multiplied Value = {0}", CodeSample.Multiply(x, y));

           Console.WriteLine(" After call : X = {0}, Y= {1}", x, y);

           Console.ReadKey();

       }

Output

As expected the values of X and Y remain the same before and after the call.

2. Using out Modifiers

Methods that receive the parameters with out keyword defined in the parameter are obligated to assign an appropriate value before exiting the method. Failure to do so will result in compiler error.

Coding:

Lets modify the Multiply method above to take parameters with out keyword.

public static void MultiplyForOutModifier(int x, int y, out int ans)

      {

          ans = x * y;

     }

Note that method does not have any return type. The result of multiplication is assigned to variable ans which is defined using out modifier. The local variables x and y need not be reassigned with value since they are not defined with out modifier.

Lets call the above method from main program.
In the below code the variable ans is sent by prefixing it with out modifier.

public static void TestOutModifier()           {

            Console.WriteLine("------ Using Out Modifiers-------");

            int x = 10;            int y = 45;

            int ans;

            CodeSample.MultiplyForOutModifier(x, y, out ans);

            Console.WriteLine(" 10 * 45 = {0}", ans);

            Console.ReadKey();

       }

Output

The C# out modifier also helps in returning multiple return values to the calling function. Here is the sample code for the same;

public static void ReturnMultipleValues(out int a, out string name, out bool val)     {

         a = 12;

         name = "Marsh";

         val = false;

     }

The above method can be called by following code.

public static void TestMultipleOutModifier()       {

           Console.WriteLine("------ Using  Out Modifiers-------");

           int b;

           string thisString;

           bool isStrue;

           CodeSample.ReturnMultipleValues(out b, out thisString, out isStrue);

           Console.WriteLine(" B value = {0}", b);

           Console.WriteLine(" thisStrin = {0}", thisString);

           Console.WriteLine(" isStrue = {0}", isStrue);

           Console.ReadKey();

       }

Output

Always remember that method that defines the output parameters must assign the parameter to a valid value. Following method will result in compiler error since variable a is unassigned.

public static void MethodWithError(out int a)      {

          Console.WriteLine(" This will result in Error");      }

In part 2 of C# modifier I will explain ref and params modifiers.

Stack Exchange API Photo stats using iPhone SDK

phbharath — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:45:36 +0000

The project I am working on required me to pull the statistical data from stack exchange API. I needed to pull the data for photography category of stack exchange website. Here comes a code to pull statistical data using iphone sdk.

In order for this code to work you need to have added the TouchJson frame work to your iphone project.

To learn more about the usage of photo API please visit api.photo.stachexchange.com/1.1/usage. The following code returns an NSMutableArray with required statistical data.

+(NSMutableArray *)getStatsData {

NSString *searchString = @”http://api.photo.stackexchange.com/1.1/stats”;

// Execute search by performing an HTTP GET to the REST web service which returns JSON

NSString *jsonString = [self jsonFromURLString:searchString];

NSData *jsonData = [jsonString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF32BigEndianStringEncoding];

// Parse JSON results with TouchJSON. It converts it into a dictionary.

CJSONDeserializer *jsonDeserializer = [CJSONDeserializerdeserializer];

NSError *error = nil;

NSDictionary *resultsDictionary = [jsonDeserializer deserializeAsDictionary:jsonData error:&error];

[self handleError:error];

NSArray *tagArray = [resultsDictionary objectForKey:@"statistics"];

NSMutableArray *tagReturnArray = [[[NSMutableArray alloc] init] autorelease];

for (NSDictionary *tagDictionary in tagArray) {

[tagReturnArray addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[tagDictionary objectForKey:@"total_questions"] ]];

[tagReturnArray addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[tagDictionary objectForKey:@"total_unanswered"] ]];

[tagReturnArray addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[tagDictionary objectForKey:@"total_accepted"] ]];

[tagReturnArray addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[tagDictionary objectForKey:@"total_answers"] ]];

[tagReturnArray addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[tagDictionary objectForKey:@"total_comments"] ]];

[tagReturnArray addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[tagDictionary objectForKey:@"total_votes"] ]];

[tagReturnArray addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[tagDictionary objectForKey:@"total_users"] ]];

[tagReturnArray addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[tagDictionary objectForKey:@"questions_per_minute"]]];

[tagReturnArray addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[tagDictionary objectForKey:@"answers_per_minute"] ]];

[tagReturnArray addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[tagDictionary objectForKey:@"views_per_day"] ]];

}

return tagReturnArray ;

}

Demo on Mobile App at Microsoft Conference

phbharath — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:07:42 +0000

I recently got an opportunity to share my work on iPhone mobile application at Microsoft Conference at Redmond, WA. Here comes few pictures from my presentation.

Customize UITableView in iPhone

phbharath — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:14:32 +0000

UITableView row can be easily customized by modifying the delegate function of UITableDelegate. Listed below are some modification which can be done to get an impressive tableRow.

1. To add image to a UITableView.

-(void)tableView: (UITableView*)tableView willDisplayCell: (UITableViewCell*)cell

forRowAtIndexPath: (NSIndexPath*)indexPath {

UIImageView *myImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"tablecell.jpg"]];

[cell setBackgroundView:myImageView];

}

here “tablecell.jpg” is the image which gives the background image for table Row.

2. To Change the height of the Table Row

- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

return 100.0f;

}

3. To determine number of sections in the Table

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {

return count; // Count is the number of sections you want for the table.

}

4. Determine the number of rows for the Table.

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {

return [photoTitle count]; // Here photoTitle is NSArray.

}

5. Perform something when a row is selected. The below code is taken from one of my project. You can modify the code as per your requirement.

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

ViewSinglePhotoViewController *viewcontroller = [[ViewSinglePhotoViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@”ViewSinglePhotoViewController” bundle:nil];

NSString *passString = [LargImgUrl objectAtIndex:[indexPath row]];

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:passString];

viewcontroller.myURL = url;

viewcontroller.titleName = [photoTitle objectAtIndex:[indexPath row]];

[self.navigationController pushViewController:viewcontroller animated:YES];

[viewcontroller release];

}

6. Content for a row. Configuring the cell for each row.

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

static NSString *CellIdentifier = @”Cell”;

UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];

if (cell == nil) {

cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];

//configure cell here

}

return cell;

}

I explained above some of the important delegate function of UITableViewDelegate which are frequently used. For more information on other delegate function you can check Apple documentation.

LINQ To SQL ..Data Model…!!!

phbharath — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:43:53 +0000

LINQ , stands for Language Integrated Query. LINQ can be used with any data source. LINQ provides full type safety and compile time checking of query results.
LINQ to SQL is an object relation mapping implementation that ships in .Net framework which allows to model a relational database using a .Net class. We can then query the database using the LINQ as update/insert/delete data from it. LINQ to SQL fully supports transactions , views, and stored procedures.
VS 2010 ships with an LINQ to SQL designer that provides an easy way to model and visualize a database as a LINQ to SQL object model.

In this blog post I will show you different steps to create a LINQ to SQL relational representation for the sample “NorthWind” database. The NorthWind database can be downloaded from this link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=06616212-0356-46a0-8da2-eebc53a68034&displaylang=en

Create an empty ASP.Net website. Add a LINQ to SQL Class by selecting “Add New Item ” option within VS 2010.

Name the “LINQ to SQL” class as per your requirement. This will launch the LINQ to SQL designer and allow you to model the classes that represent relational database.

LINQ to SQL helps in creating “Entity Classes” . The instance of Entity Classes are called as “Entities”. The entity classes map to the tables within a database. The properties of entity classes map to the table’s column. Each instance of an entity class then represent a row within the database table. All classes created using the LINQ to SQL are partial classes. So you can optionally add additional properties , methods and events to them.

To create a entity class from database , select the tables and views from server explorer and drag and drop it on LINQ to SQL designer surface.

Once I drag and drop the tables “Categories” , “Order Details” , “Orders” and “Products” from NorthWind database on the LINQ to SQL surface , entity classes will be created automatically.

In my next blog I will use the above LINQ to SQL relational diagram to run some queries.

Setting Client ID’s in ASP.NET 4.0.

phbharath — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:09:05 +0000

Client ID’s are very handy when you work on control manipulation using client side scripting. The usual algorithm for generating the ClientID concatenates the naming container(if any) with the ID of the control. In case of repeated controls it adds a prefix and a sequential number.

ASP.NET 4.0 introduces a new concept to solve issues with generating ClientID. The ClientIDMode associated with every controls can be manipulated to archive the desired result. The ClientIDMode can be set to any controls(including page). The available options for ClientIDMode are as follows.

ClientIDMode = ” “	Description
AutoID	Automatically creates the ID. Same as earlier version of ASP.Net did.
Static	The ClientID properties will be same as the ID assigned without concatenating the ID’s of parent control.
Predicatable	This option is uses in repeating controls , like data controls that use repeating templates. It concatenates the ID properties of naming container. This is achieved by setting the ClientIDRowSuffix property if naming container. The ClientIDRowSuffix property is set to the name of a data field. The value of that field is used as the suffix for the generated ClientID.
Inherit	Control’s ID generation is the same as its parent. This setting is the default behavior of the controls.

How to set the CleintIDMode as Page level ?

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Single.aspx.cs" Inherits="Single" ClientIDMode ="Predictable" %>

How to set the ClientIDMode at application level.


  "Predictable">

EXAMPLES:

   1: "ScriptManager1" runat="server">

2:

   3:     "UpdatePanel1" runat="server">

4:

   5:              "Panel1" runat="server">

   6:              "myTextBox" runat="server" ClientIDMode = "Static" >

7:

8:

9:

In the above code a textbox is declared inside the panel control as “myTextBox”. The page is a content page for a master page. Here is the generated ID for the TextBox with default ClientIDMode which is inherit. The ClientIDMode for the master page is set as “AutoID”.

"ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_Panel1">
"ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$myTextBox" type="text"
   id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_myTextBox" />

Now set the ClientIDMode for the MasterPage as “Static” and do not change the ClientIDMode for the TextBox control. Here is the client
side out put code for “Static” assignment.

“Panel1″> “ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$myTextBox” type=“text” id=“myTextBox” />

A can be seen above , the client ID assigned to TextBox control does not change.

Client Side AJAX Calling Part 2

phbharath — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:38:00 +0000

In continuation to my earlier post, I am showing here how to access the data from the server using simple JavaScript calls.

In this example the user will enter the customer id to retrieve the corresponding salary. For simplicity lets have following data model for this example. The data is stored in table named, tbAccounts.
I will be using Sql Server 2008 as database server.

In our application user will enter one among the above three customerID to test the application.

Enter the following data access code inside function RaiseCallbackEvent. This function will query the tbAccount able for the salary corresponding to the user entered customer ID.

The value retrieved from database is stored in private variable, ValueToSendClient.

As described in my earlier post, the value to be sent to the client is retuned using the function GetCallbackResult(), which is implemented as follows.

The value returned by above function is accessed by the client side function GetRequiredDataFromServer which then populates the salary textbox. This function is implemented as follows.

The above method is one among the many methods of accessing data from server using AJAX calls. In my subsequent post I will blogg about these methods.