What is Microsoft .Net Micro Framework

The .NET Micro Framework is .NET for small and resource constrained devices. It offers a complete and innovative development and execution environment that brings the productivity of modern computing tools to this class of devices.

For current .NET developers, this means that they can now create applications that run on a range of devices from targeted devices like remote controls to PCs and Servers and on to the cloud – all with the same programming model and tools.

Check out a very nice Channel 9 Video here.

Recently I need to migrate my blog (http://weblogs.com.pk/aziz)  which was running on Community Server 2.1 to my new blog here which is running on BlogEngine.Net.  I did not have access to code or database as the blog was hosted on a free blogging site. I was unable to find any direct and easy way in the control panel of Community Server therefore I started looking for other options

Now you may or may not have access to code. Therefore I will discuss both options.

How to export if code is accessible:

Keyvan Nayyeri has developed a user control that you can upload, add it to the syndication page and generate BlogML xml of your blogs. Then you can use the import option in the settings of BlogEngine.Net to migrate the data. Check Step 3 below for details about import to BlogEngine.Net. You can find the details about the converter  here. You can also download the code from BlogML codeplex site here. This link also contains other Community Server version utilities, Wordpress export utility and a RSS to BlogML convertor which we will used if we do not have access to our blog codebase.

Here is a screen shot of how it looks like.

How to export if code is NOT accessible:

The technique is to use the Community Server RSS feed to generate BlogML xml using a tool called RSS2BlogML, then change BlogEngine.Net code to fix on bug and then finally use the import option of BlogEngine.Net to migrate data.

 Step 1: Generation of BlogML Xml from RSS feed

Rss2BlogML , courtesy of  Simone Chiaretta,  is a simple tool that downloads RSS feed, comment RSS (if provided), and then convert everything to BlogML format. You can download the exe as well as the source code from here (Check other available download sections). It was only tested to work with .Text and with the core blog module of DNN and was having few problems with Community Server 1.2 RSS dialects. Hence I added the functionality in the original code. You can download the latest code from here which supports Community Server 2.1.

Here is the screen shot of the updated version. Please read the original post to understand how to use the tool.

Step 2: Fix a minor bug in BlogEngine.Net code.

If any of the blog post has comments in the generated BlogML file and the email address is not there, then BlogEngine.Net code will throw exception. Unfortunately Community Server 2.1 may not always provide email associated with comments. If comments in your blog posts have email addresses then you can skip this step.

Open \BlogEngine\DotNetSlave.BusinessLogic\Providers\DbBlogProvider.cs and go to line:2496.  If you have not changed this file earlier, you will see the code below. Otherwise search for method “UpdateComments” and search the code below.

parms.Add(conn.CreateParameter(FormatParamName("email"), comment.Email ));

and change it to

parms.Add(conn.CreateParameter(FormatParamName("email"), (comment.Email == null ? string.Empty : comment.Email.ToString())));

Compile and upload the dll to your hosting.

Import to BlogEngine.Net

• Login to your BlogEngine.Net control panel.
• Click on settings and then on Import & Export.
• Click on the browse and select your BlogML file.
• Click on import and done.

References

• Community Server 2.1 BlogML Converter
• Rss2BlogML: export any RSS feed to a BlogML file
• BlogML .NET

Welcome to DotNetPanda.com, the place where I will post my everyday problems and solutions regarding Microsoft.Net technologies. I have also moved my old blog (http://weblogs.com.pk/aziz) and imported all the previous posts here.

See you around

I planned to spend my Eid vacations in Mecca/Madina this year. There were no hotels available in Mecca at that point of time so we booked the hotel in Jeddah (less than 1 hour drive to Mecca). We reached there 2 days ago. We left for Mecca in the night, performed Umra, prayed Qayam ul Lail and then went back.

Next day we went there again agfter Iftar. We prayed Khatam Taraweeh there. Mulana Sudais were there. We went for dinner , came back for Qayam ul Lail and then left for Jeddah.

This was the last day so we left at night, reached Mecca at 2 am We tried to find a place as near as possible to Ka'ba. We waited there for 2 hours for Fajar. We prayed there and keep sitting there for Eid prayer. We done this all becuase otherwise we will not be able to get a place if we come late.

Finally we prayed Eid ul Fitar salah. We went to Roof Top, took some pictures and then left for Jeddah. You can see some snapshots of Ka'ba in my photo section.

This was supposed to be my last trip to the Holy Places during these two years of service. Allah knows better when I will be there again.

Finally I resigned from my current company in Riyadh, Saudia. I was in much tension regarding the acceptance of my resignation. Guys living here in Saudia will understand what I mean. Here you cannot quit your job until your employer agrees.

My last day here will be on 14 dec 2006. I came here exactly two years back on 14 dec 2004. I will go back , get happily married :). You all are invited for the valime on 7th January 2007.

Currently I have no job/offer in hand. I will start applying after one month. I have heard that the job market in Karachi is quite good nowadays. I am planning to continue my masters which I left becuase of coming to Saudia. HHmmmm Masters after newly married... seems difficult but i will try.

I am thinking about giving SharePoint certifications here as I came to know that all Microsoft certifications are banned in Pakistan nowadays.

Soooo... Beware... I am coming back.
CU all soon.

As soon as you start the implementation of SharePoint Portal Server, you will get confused regarding the usage of SharePoint Area and Topics. The similarity makes a newbie puzzled. After looking on the internet, this is best explanation I found, http://kjellsj.blogspot.com/2005/05/sharepoint-areas-and-topics-for.html

If you have installed SharePoint Portal Server on Windows 2003 Server after installing Service Pack 1, you may face problems in configuring the Single Sign On Service. You will get error like

"Failed to connect to the database server. Verify connectivity and rights for the configuration account and try again."

Thinking that problem is from my side, I spent a lot of time configuring the rights of the account but all in vain. Finally google came to the resuce and here is the link that solved my problem. Solution is a little bit weird but haaaay.. it worked.

Find the ImagePath registry entry at the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ssosrv
Remove the quotation strings from around the the ImagePath value ... and away you go.

Reference :Chris Johnson Blog :SharePoint SSO error and Window Server 2003 SP1

Have you ever tried to insert arabic data using ntext data type in SQL Server2000? I am sure you had. Did you face any strange problems? I had. It was a dotnet based desktop application. The strange problem was: If I insert english data, it comes back fine but if I insert arabic data, it gets corrupted. Strange, we were doing this in our web based news portal site and it is working fine there.

Then I dig into the problem. I came to know that if the data is smaller in size, it goes back and forth properly. But if it is a little bit bigger it gets corrupted. That was just heuristically tested. I figured that data bigger than 4000 char is making the problem. I checked the documentation but there is nothing there.

I consulted the guys responsible for news portal website. I asked them whether they are doing something special. Why they are not having this problem. Finally they reported that they encrypt the article contents before putting it in the database for security reasons and decrypting before displaying on the website.

They forwarded me the Encrypt/Decrypt class. I used the same technique and WALLAAAAA.... it worked. Now I can insert records bigger than 6000 and it is coming back just fine.

Cannot figure out the problem, unable to figure the solution as well. Just used CP technology (Copy Paste Technology) to solve the problem. I will dig into it more when I get some time. If you ever encountered such problem, please comment.

Few days back, I have informed about my article, SumColumn published on codeproject. Now It has been updated incorporating the users comments. You can visit it here. Your comments are welcomed.

Microsoft is arranging Gulf Developers Conference 2006 on 18th-21st 2006 - Riyadh @ Four Seasons Hotel - Saudi Arabia. Fees is 300 for normal professionals and 200 for microsoft partner's employees.

Last time company made the registration for all the developers but this time it seems that we are staying home. Let us see, hope for the best.

To attend Pre-conference/ GDC you have to register online, click here to register

FYI...
GDC 2006 is an event that provides a comprehensive technical overview as well as more insight on the latest (both recently released and upcoming) Microsoft development and platform technologies. During the GDC 2006 event, there will be many sessions that would demonstrate the latest advanced features that were introduced in Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, BizTalk Server 2006, Windows Vista and how all these technologies can be used to build reliable, secure, high performance applications that can connect people, information, processes and systems together. More than 1700 technology professionals from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region are expected to join this event and get the opportunity to meet and interact with top technology experts in the industry and Microsoft team for the duration of the event.