Eralper's Blog on Software Development

Register Certification Beta Exam 71-652: TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring for free

2008-07-05T14:43:00Z

If you have hands-on experience on Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 virtualization environments, then you are probably the best person to take this certification beta exam "Exam 71-652: TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring" from Microsoft.

You can register for free for the beta certification exam 71-652: TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring by using the promotion code 652HV on the Prometric web site during the exam registration. Note that the beta period ends at June 23, 2008.

Since you are going to get the exam for fee by using the promo code, you will have the chance to see what type of questions are asked the 70-652 certification exam. Of course if you get a score enough for pass the beta exam, you will be granted the certification credits for Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Windows Server Virtualization, Configuration certification just as you pass the 70-652 released exam.

Here is a link from Microsoft Learning where you can find more information about the content and the preparation guide for exam 70-652 (or 71-652) TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring

Note that if you pass the 71-652 or the released version of this beta exam 70-652, you will complete the requirements for Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Windows Server Virtualization, Configuration certification.

As a candidate you will be asked questions about Windows Server Virtualization and Configuration on the following topics:

Skills measured by Exam 71-652 (or 70-652)
Installing Hyper-V (14%)
Configuring and Optimizing Hyper-V (20%)
Deployment of Virtual Machines (30%)
Management and Monitoring of Virtual Machines (36%)

ASP.NET pages load twice and passes the Page.IsPostBack control statement

2008-07-05T13:52:00Z

Hello,

I had a problem with loading an ASP.NET page twice recently. I knew from my previous experiences with such a problem that one of the main reasons that cause loading an ASP.NET page twice is the AutoEventWireup attribute of the page declaration in ASP.NET pages.

If AutoEventWireup attribute is set to True and if you are using an IDE like MS Visual Studio in your development environment, since Visual Studio automatically binds events to controls and because of AutoEventWireup attribute is True identifiying page events to be wired up automatically, each event triggered is processed twice on the server side.

But there is one reason causing events defined to be triggered twice on the server side. I think this happens when you copy and go editing on an existing asp.net web page on the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or VS2008 rapid development IDE environments.

Here is the reason I'm trying to mention above.

Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load, Me.Load

You see Page_Load event is defined twice for MyBase.Load and Me.Load (Page.Load) events. So it runs twice and even if you try to control the flow of the process using Page.IsPostBack property you will fail to prevent the execution of the Page_Load sub routine twice.

Removing the MyBase.Load will work successfully in this case.

Register 71-448: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance certification exam for free

2008-07-02T11:58:00Z

Hello all Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence (BI) developers,

You know with MS SQL Server 2005, BI or Business Intelligence has gained the position or the value it has and also a new track in the Microsoft Certification has been formed for business intelligence developers.

With the new version of MS SQL Server 2008, BI track is also being updated to reflect the new enhancements in the business intelligence approach of SQL Server 2008.

If you follow the SQL Server BI certifications you can also take the beta versions of the new exams: 71-448: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance. 70-448 or the beta exam 71-448 are the successors of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 BI exams 70-445 and 70-446.

You can register for free for the beta certification exam 71-448: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance by using the promotion code B6543 on the Prometric web site during the exam registration. Note that the beta period end at the end of July, 2008.

Since the exam fee will be paid by the Microsoft if you use the promo code, you will be able to see what kind of questions you will experience in the exam and if you pass the beta exam you will be granted the certification credits as you pass the final released exam.

Here is a link from Microsoft Learning where you can find more information about the content and the preparation guide for exam 70-448 (or 71-448) TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance

Note that if you pass the 71-448 or the released version of this beta exam 70-448, you will complete the requirements for Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance certification.

Register for 71-432 TS: MS SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance Certification Exam

2008-07-02T11:51:00Z

Hello all SQL Server professionals, administrators and developers,

If you aim gaining Microsoft SQL Server 2008 certifications, you can try and see your knowledge and experience for the new version of MS SQL Server by taking the beta certification exam 71-432 TS: MS SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance which has been extended till the end of July, 2008.

You can register beta certification exam 71-432 TS: MS SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance for free by using the promotion code 943F6 on the Prometric Testing and Assessment web site.

Since using the above promo code will enable you to take the exam 71-432 for free, you will have the chance to experience the exam even if you fail in the exam. And if you pass the beta exam 71-432, you will be credited as you have passed the released version of this exam 70-432.

If you want more detail about the content of the exam and want to get guidance from Microsoft, you can review the Preparation Guide for Exam 70-432 TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance.

Note that if you pass the 71-432 or released version of this beta exam 70-432, you will complete the requirements for Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance certification.

Reference required to assembly 'System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' containing the base class 'System.Web.UI.ScriptManager'. Add one to your project

2008-06-09T12:31:00Z

Hello all,

Recently, I had created an .aspx page and added the ASP.NET Ajax Tab control from the Ajax Control Toolkit. But since I had forgotten to update the web.config of th eweb site project, I had the following error messages when I display the ajax enabled web page on the browser.

Reference required to assembly 'System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' containing the base class 'System.Web.UI.ScriptManager'. Add one to your project.

So in order to resolve this problem, I opened the web.config configuration file and paste the following code between the assemblies tags in the compilation tags of the aspx configuration file.

<add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>

And of course I had to go one more step and handle the httpHandlers section as described in the post 'Sys' is undefined. and 'Type' is undefined. Javascript error messages with ASP.NET AjaxControlToolkit

VSTS Custom Field lose its value when State changes on VS2008 Work Item GUI

2008-05-12T12:14:00Z

Hello,

I have been working on customizing Team Foundation Server (2008) Work Item (WI) Templates for a while.

I have realized something strange actually a behaviour conflict between the Work Item edit GUI in VS2008 and the WI edit web GUI, VSTS Web Access GUI so I want to share it with you in this blog.

The problem arises when a custom HTML field is added to the Fields tab in the Work Item Template opened by Process Editor.
I added this custom field also to the layout on the Layout tab.

During a bug is being edited using the updated work item template, when I enter some data into the recently added customer HTML field (this is the same type as the Microsoft.VSTS.CMMI.Symptom) and then change the State field from Proposed to Active, the contents of the new field is cleared.

But this problem does not occur on the Visual Studio Team System Web Access New Work Item (Bug) template which also inherits from the same WI (Work Item) template.

Web Access seems to be working better than the GUI used in the Visual Studio 2008.

Is there any thing am I doing wrong, I do not know.

Download .NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit for preparation 71-561 and 71-562 exams

2008-04-16T05:35:00Z

Hello all,

If you are studying for the Microsoft Certification exams 71-561 or 71-562, I can suggest you to download the .NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit from Microsoft Downloads and work on the hands-on-labs coming with the training kit.

You will find Introduction to ADO.NET Data Services and Introduction to ADO.NET Entity Framework labs about the Microsoft certification exam Exam 70-561 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ADO.NET Application Development.

Also about the Exam 71-562 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development exam there are the following hands-on-labs in the training kit.

Developing ASP.NET MVC Applications
Introduction to ASP.NET Dynamic Data
Introduction to ASP.NET AJAX History
Introduction to ASP.NET Silverlight Controls

The download has a total size about 35 MB. But requires Windows PowerShell 1.0, PowerPoint Viewer 2007 and ASP.NET Futures which can be downloaded and installed during the installation of the .NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit

Register for beta exam Exam 71-561 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ADO.NET Application Development

2008-04-09T10:59:00Z

Hello all,

Microsoft Learning is going to release the final version of certification exam Exam 70-561 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ADO.NET Application Development in June 2008.

But the beta version of the certification exam 70-561 is now available for MCP's who are invited to take the pre-release of this 70-561 exam, Exam 71-561 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ADO.NET Application Development.

You can take the beta exams for free if you are invited by Microsoft Learning. And if you are successfull in the beta exams, you are rewarded as you have taken the final release of this beta exam and got the same credits.

You can get more detailed information about the topics covered in the exam from Microsoft Learning site Preparation Guide for Exam 70-561 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ADO.NET Application Development

But if short information is required to give about the exam, you should have good information on Structured Query Language (SQL), Stored procedures and Data-bound controls.

You can register for the beta exam Exam 70-561 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ADO.NET Application Development using the Promotion Code 561B1 and take the exam in April till the first days of May 2008.

Register for beta exam Exam 71-562 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development

2008-04-09T10:47:00Z

Hello Beta testers,

Microsoft Training has working on beta version of Exam 70-562 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development which is Exam 71-562.

The beta version of the Microsoft Certification exam 71-562 can be evaluated by the invited MCP's which are selected candidates to test the current 71-562 exam and give feedback to related departments in Microsoft Training.

If you want to get the beta exam 71-562 which is a pre-release version of 70-562 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development exam, you can register from Prometric Test Center by using the promotion code 562B1.

You should take a look at the contents of the exam 70-562 from the Preparation Guide for Exam 70-562 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development

The final exam 70-562 is planned to be released in June 2008. And the last day for the 70-562 is the first days of May.

The preparation guide states that a candidate might have experienced in the following topics,

Database access by using Microsoft ADO.NET classes in the .NET Framework
Web services
State management
ASP.NET configuration
Monitoring Web applications
Debugging
Application and page life-cycle management
Security aspects such as Forms Authentication and membership and roles
ECMAScript (JavaScript, Microsoft JScript)
Internet Information Server (IIS)

Where is the "Open these the next time I use Internet Explorer" warning while closing down IE8?

2008-03-21T11:46:00Z

Hello Internet Explorer users,

If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Developers Edition like me, you should have noticed that just like IE7 is asking to the user "Do you want to close all tabs?" while the user is closing the browser, IE8 is also asking a similar question to the user "Do you want to close all tabs, or the current tab?"

This is not astonishing yet. The main point I want to take your attentions is that in IE7 there was an option for the user to select "Open these the next time I use Internet Explorer"

This option enables the IE 7 browser users to re-open the web sites currently running on their IE7 browser tabs. That is a great functionality and I love it so much. Because I generally have to clause my computer or the MS Internet Explorer although I have not completed my work on the related web sites and addresses. The easiest way to keep those web addresses and urls and not to forget them the next time I open the browser is checking the "Open these the next time I use Internet Explorer" option before I'm closing the browser.

I have not found this option in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Developers although I have looked for it alot. I want this function back. I need this option much in IE 8. I suggest the Microsoft Internet Explorer developers the IE Team to keep this option in the next beta releases and the RTM release of Internet Explorer 8.

Adding Google AdSense to the top of albums page and photos page in Community Server

2008-03-19T06:09:00Z

Hello all Community Server users and Google publishers,

This post is mostly related for Community Server developers and users since the tips about placing Google Adsense banners is about the file structure and the users controls used within the Community Server.

If you are a Google Adsense publisher and also if you have your site developed on Community Server then you can place or add Google AdSense to the top of albums pages and photos pages in Community Server Photos section if you wish.

This is actually a very simple task but if you are new to Community Server by Telligent Systems then it may be difficult to find which functionality is implemented in which user control or master page in the themes of the Community Server content management system (CMS) software.

For placing Google Adsense banners or advertisements in Photos section for albums and photos pages, go to the Themes then Galleries then select the theme you want to modify. Since I use the default theme sitewide and do not use others I select the default theme. Open the folder titled Skins and find the user control file Skin-GalleryTitleHeader.ascx . Open Skin-GalleryTitleHeader.ascx file for editing. Paste the Google adsense code at the end of the Skin-GalleryTitleHeader.ascx file contents. I have aligned the google adsense ads to the center to have a better view.

If you wish to see a sample photo albums page in the Community Server CMS live with Google Ads you can browse the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 CTP 6 Installation Screenshots photo gallery and photo or image details pages like Ready to Install SQL2008 CTP6 pages.

That's all for adding the Google Adsense ads to the photo galleries.

First impressions on Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

2008-03-10T22:38:00Z

Hello all,

If you are planning to install Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Developers, I have a few unimportant notes to share with you. If you have already installed the IE 8 Beta 1, you can also comment on my blog post here on Kodyaz on the topics I'll be writing about now.

First of all, Internet Explorer 8 still crashes. But as I note on an other post on this blog, IE8 has some features to return back to its stable state. So this is a very nice feature. Also if you have to close the IE 8 Beta 1 web browser from an unusual way, such as using the task manager, etc on a problem when you re-open this new web browser, IE 8 Beta 1 asks you if you wish to recover the web requests that was on the browser instance during that time. This feature is also a very good enhancement.

Again to note on new enhancements of Internet Explorer 8, crash recovery features is very useful for a web browser. That is the pros of IE8.

I have finished reading the Technology Overview documentation of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Developers, and I get pleased with the "Connection Events" of IE 8 web browser. Now you can define what a browser is expected to do when it returns from online to offline or from offline to online. And you can handle it with just a few lines of code as an attribute on the body tag of the web page html source code.

"Data URI Support" is also something I liked to see in the new web browser IE8 Beta 1. This feature, Data URIs will enable web developers like me :) to embed files or resources like images, CSS files, javascript files, etc on a web page. This will make a web page request response as a single download to the client.

Working with the cookies will be easier now with Internet Explorer 8. Instead of a 50 key/value pair store limitation in cookies now with the enhancements in IE8 a domain has the ability to store 10MBs of data.

Domain highlighting is a a simple but yet good feature in order to inform the users about where or which site they are surfing on. This will be a warning for web users to be more carefull while navigating on the internet.

One more topic as todays pros list is the Activities in the Internet Explorer. Actually Activities are web service applications that posts or sends the highlighted text area on the web page content and processes that data like places the address on a map, or translates a word into an other language, etc. By the way, for whom interested to create an activity in the Internet Explorer 8 web browser, there is a guide for developers describing how to create activities using an XML based configuration.

Below you can see two pictures of activities, one is menu activated and displayed with default activity list.

One point which I can not find the reason yet is that sometimes the green Activity selector arrow is not displayed. I do not know if there is a bug within IE8, or property on the page prohobits the selector to be displayed successfully.

There are more points to deal with as positive changes in the Internet Explorer with the new beta version Beta 1.

I want to say a few points I would like they were also handled with previous success. One of the points is using the Ctrl+F to make search on the web site content. In previous versions, IE7 warns the user if there is not any text or string that is being looked for in the page files content. In the new beta IE 8 Beta 1, if the browser fails to find an instance of the search string, there is no warning or an extra message to the users. This behaviour causes me as a web user to think that did I fail to see the highlighted string on the page. Perhaps this change in the informing the user that no match is found on the page is configured to display a not found message. But I could not find such a settings in the Advanced Settings tab, or somewhere else.

Second simple point is that I have a long list of favorites links on my Favorites - Links folder. When I display them on the toolbar, and have a long list of web addresses in the folder, I can not navigate up or down in the folder contents using the up and down arrows. I had to use the mouse. Below is a screenshot illustrating the point.

I want my mobility on this long list of favorites folder on the toolbar using the up and down keys.

I will be working on the Developer Tools enhancements on the IE8 soon and planning to post a blog on this subject soon. By then may the force be with you :)

Crash Recovery enhancements in Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

2008-03-07T16:20:10Z

Hi all web developers and Internet Explorer users :)

As a Windows user I guess most of us are using Windows Internet Explorer during browsing the web. At least I am using Internet Explorer web browsers more than any others. I’m now both using the IE7 and IE8 Beta 1.

As Internet Explorer users I know you have at least once meet the following error message from your web browser.

Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close.

That is not a surprise for me when I meet this error. But each time I got this warning I know I will lose some of my work or at least I had to search again the web page I had found difficult. Some times I keep a valuable site or web page for me on the browser open, but again lose it just because in an other tab something caused an error and lose all the web pages in all the internet explorer instances on the computer. I hate this.

Yesterday I was reading the Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Developers: Technology Overview documentation for the first beta release of IE8.

I remember I was glad to read notes about Crash Recovery. In the overview documentation it is stated that a crash in one browser does not cause the entire browser to crash. This is nice since this protects you to lose all the pages on that browser at the moment of the error has occured. Also the notes about the crash recovery continues with the following lines : “the user is automatically returned to the page they were browsing before the crash.” This is also the second good news about the Intenet Explorer enhancements with Windows Internet Explorer Beta 1.

Actually, I’m sharing this information with you since just a few minutes ago, the IE8 has crashed with the hated error message “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close” but the Internet Explorer browser did not close itself when I click the button on the error message. Also only the tabs in the active browser which has thrown the exception reloaded or refreshed its contents. Even the tab that caused the error did not close and I did not lose the page that I’m working on.

This good experience made me more motivated to share the Internet Explorer 8 news and other info with developers and web users just like me and you.

By the way you can download the technical overview about the IE8 by downloading it from Microsoft Downloads Center

Acid2 Browser Test and Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 compared with other web browsers

2008-03-07T15:41:15Z

Hello,

As a .NET programmer and a SQL Server developer I’m using frequently the Microsoft development tools for developing software and IT solutions.

As I had the chance to download and install the new beta from Microsoft, Windows Explorer 8 Beta 1 web browser in its first released day, I could try it on my daily works.

I can say I liked it. But if you asked me about Internet Explorer 7, it was also very exciting for me in its early days. In short I like the betas :)

What I want to share with you is the results of Acid 2 Browser test on Microsoft Windows Explorer 8 (IE8) Beta 1.

Yes, I know it was announced that IE 8 has tested the Acid2 test before. But with the release of the first beta of IE8, I see it my self on the Acid 2 browser test page. I can say that IE8 is very successfull with Acid 2 test.

I will be adding screenshots of Acid 2 test page on web browsers IE7 and the latest FireFox version here. They are far away from the excellent results of IE8 has achieved.

Internet Explorer 7 IE7 Acid2 Test Result

Firefox 2.0.0.12 Acid2 Test Result

Internet Explorer 8 IE8 Acid2 Test Result

I guess the success of IE8 on Acid2 test is a very good news especially for the web developers and for the web designers.

If you want to learn more about Acid 2 and see the results of your web browser with the Acid2 Browser Test that the Web Standards Project has offered you can visit the The Second Acid Test web page.
Goodluck!

I’ll be glad if you share your results here with me and the readers of this blog post. Send your browsers results here

MS SQL Server 2008 SSMS - Registered Server Import

2008-03-07T15:05:11Z

Hi all,

I had a good news about the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 February CTP which may delight some of the sql developers and database administrators like me.

I had many times re-registered the SQL Servers in my network that I connect and work on because I installed newer versions of MS Enterprise Manager or SSMS.

I believe, you have experienced the problem that annoys sql server developers or sql server administrators that has SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008) or its previous version or name SQL Server Enterprise Manager (for Microsoft SQL Server 2000) installed on their computer to connect to database servers from remote and work using the query editors and the database management tools coming with the default user interface.

When I first run the SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) that I have installed as the client tools with SQL Server 2008 CTP6 or February CTP, I had been promted whether I want to register the servers that are registered in the previous SSMS application.

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
There are SQL Server 2005 Management Studio registered servers on this system. Do you want to add them into Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio? Adding the server registration information has no effect on the servers themselves.

Of course I accepted happily this wonderful suggestion.

By the way, for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SQL Server Management Studio, the list of registered servers are kept in %UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\RegSrvr.xml RegSrvr XML file.
The SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) for MS SQL Server 2005 stores the registered servers list information in folder %UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Shell\RegSrvr.xml Regsrvr.xml XML file