What is LightSwitch 2011 - Quickview of LightSwitch

It is a tool which built applications which are built on classic three-tier architecture, on top of existing .NET technologies.
It is a combination of GUI Layer + Business Logic Layer + DB Layer

GUI - Silver light, which workd for windows or web.
Business Logic Layer - ASP.net WCF service or OData
DB Layer - SQL Server, SQL Azure, Sharepoint

According to the Microsoft
"The LightSwitch presentation tier is a Silverlight application. It can run as a Windows desktop application or hosted in a browser. The LightSwitch logic tier exposes a set of WCF RIA DomainServices running in ASP.NET. The logic tier process can be hosted locally (on the user’s machine), on an IIS server, or in Windows Azure. A LightSwitch application’s primary application storage uses SQL Server or SQL Azure and can consume data from existing SharePoint 2010 lists, databases accessible via an Entity Framework provider, and custom build WCF RIA DomainServices.

With LightSwitch, your application can point to an existing data source—or databases that are automatically created—without the need to write code. For the user interface, LightSwitch provides screens that are based on predefined templates. They allow you to display data automatically by simply specifying which elements you want to show.

For the business logic, LightSwitch allows you to do simple validation such as required fields and minimum numeric values. But LightSwitch also gives developers the ability to write more complex business logic code for such scenarios as saving changes to a data source or performing authorization operations."

Codename for Sharepoint 2013 is released

Codename of Sharepoint 2013 is released on 1 Feb 2012. According to PJ Hough (CVP of Development, MS Office Division) - Codename of Sharepoint 2013 and Office 2013 is "Office 15".
PJ Hough is also said about this release: "First time ever, we will simultaneously update our cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients for Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project and Visio".
Here are some key features of "Office 2015": It is a true 64-bit version, a truly touch-enabled Office, "Ribbon" getting replaced by "Metro" style browsing , and It need to support ARM processors(ARM is the industry's leading provider of 32-bit embedded microprocessors).

Important links for more info on Sharepoint 2013/office 2015: http://aarohblah.blogspot.com/2012/02/sharepoint-vnext.html
http://www.sharepointblog.co.uk/2012/02/sharepoint-15-what-do-we-know-so-far.html
http://www.sharepointblog.co.uk/2012/01/office-15-technical-preview-begins.html
http://betanews.com/2012/01/30/microsoft-reinvents-office-for-the-post-pc-era/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed+-+bn+-+Betanews+Full+Content+Feed+-+BN&utm_content=Google+Reader

Components of CMDUI.xml or Definition of CMDUI.xml

Here is the list of main components of CMDUI.xml:

1. Tab

2. Group

3. Control

4. Contextual tab group

The next few sections briefly explain these components and their uses.
Tabs on the SharePoint 2010 Server Ribbon
Tabs: are the root of the Server ribbon. They contain one or more groups, and contain similar functions.

Groups on the SharePoint 2010 Server Ribbon
Every tab in the ribbon contains a series of one or more groups. Groups are used to associate controls with similar functionality. Each group is associated with a template that defines the layout of the group and how the group should appear based on the scale of the ribbon. The scale of the ribbon refers to situations where there are too many controls to show in the ribbon, for example, when the browser is not in a full-screen maximized state and is in a windowed state.
Group Templates on the SharePoint 2010 Server Ribbon

Group templates are used to define the different layout options for the controls within a group. Microsoft includes 29 group templates in the CMDUI.xml file (to locate them, search for the element at the end of this file).

Controls on the SharePoint 2010 Server Ribbon:
The ribbon would not be complete if users did not have anything to select or click. Controls are the items that live inside the ribbon that users can interact with. Controls reside within groups. These include things such as buttons, toggle buttons, check boxes, text boxes and many other controls. For a complete list of all the available controls, see Architecture of the Server Ribbon at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee537017.aspx

Contextual Tab Groups on the SharePoint 2010 Server Ribbon:
Contextual tab groups are used to provide functions that are not global to the current context, such as the page. They appear only when certain circumstances have been met and contain one or more tabs.

Contextual tab groups hide functionality and menu choices from the user when they are not available, and appear when applicable. Other examples of contextual tab groups include the Editing Tools contextual tab group that appears when editing a wiki page, or the Picture Tools contextual tab group that appears when a picture is selected in edit mode.

SELECT Top N from ACESS Database

Here is the Query to select the top N records from Access database's table:

SELECT Top N Table.*FROM Table where Column is not null;

A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server.

Problem: A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server.
Server OS: windows 2008
Client OS: Windows 7

Solution: Open outbound port on client machine, and open inbound port on server
1.On Server - Open outbound port by adding a new rule for port 1433 in firewall at server machine
2.On Client - Open inbound port by adding a new rule for port 1433 in firewall at client machine

See the sample "How to add rule for inbound/outbound port"

Alternate of IssApp command in windows 2008

This is a shortcut alternate for IssApp command in windows 2008:
Go to C:\Windows\system32 and type inetsrv\appcmd.exe list wp
Here is the output you will get for this command:
WP "7056" (applicationPool:1c931ee15fb748979d16454c705d8d07)
WP "11392" (applicationPool:SecurityTokenServiceApplicationPool
WP "3956" (applicationPool:SharePoint - 80)

How to change owner of Sharepoint site from administrator to NetworkService

Steps to "How to change owner of Sharepoint site from administrator to NetworkService":

A. Look application pools in IIS

1. Look the identity column in application pool List in IIS 6.0 and the select the application pool which is using administrator as Identity.


2. Change identity from Administrator to NetworkService(right click on a pool, click Advance setting, click on Identity and type NetworkService)

B. Open Database server where Sharepoint database is created for central admin as well as content dbs for webApps(Login to db server with Administrative or DomAdminitrator’s userId)

1. Go to security and select user NetworkService. Right click and select properties.


2. Allow access for this user as dbo by selecting User Mapping. User mapping will show you all the database for this userid.


3. Click on each database name and select db_owner under “database role membership”


4. If your content database was offline or under suspect condition, make it online now.

C. Restart IIS
Open Central admin or any sharepoint site now for testing