Migrate WSS to MOSS 2007

1) Backup current site using stsadm command [Site to be migrated]

stsadm.exe -o backup -url OLDSITEURL -filename c:\backup.dat -overwrite

2) Restore into to MOSS

stsadm.exe -o restore -url NEWSITEURL -filename c:\backup.dat –overwrite


Notes:


1. Hosted on different servers

2. URL is different (old and new server)

3. If you require some of the sub-sites to be deleted, do it at destination

4. Some customizations may be lost

5. Make sure to start the required services (Excel, Query)

6. Do not install SPD on production environment

Sharepoint 2010 upgrade

5 Important Points to consider for upgrade (from WSS or Sharepoint 2007):

(http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/103112/top-5-things-you-can-do-to-prepare-for-sharepoint-2010.html)

Summary:
Step 1: Plan for 64bit Architecture
Step 2: Upgrade Clients
Step 3: Upgrade to SharePoint 2007 SP2
Step 4: Run the PreUpgradeCheck Tool and Mitigate Issues
Step 5: Take the Opportunity to Rearchitect

Key differentiators from earlier version (2007 Vs 2010):
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/sharepoint/SharePoint_2010.aspx

Tips for Searching Jobs in India...

Well, its been a torrid year as far as professional career is concerned. From being a high of being in Microsoft to being job less for close to 2 months. Call it destiny, bad timing, economy or any other word that you want to add.

Well, left US due to Visa complications and had to move back to India. Was under a false pretext that having MS in resume will make it easier to get into companies in India.. well.. that wasnt to be. I think the mistake I was making was thinking from US perspective and not about how things work in India.

Lets me share some points based on my experience (well, they are my experiences and I am sure others may have their own experiences and will be different from mine).

1. Having your friends refer you directly into their companies (especially big ones.. .the Acce..., the IB..., etc etc) does not work unfortunately.. no matter how close your friend is.. what depends is how close your friend is to the Hiring Manager :)

2. Be ready to explain why you have come back from US (read - Big Company).. everyone sees you with shady eyes.. was he thrown out, did he not perform, etc etc.

3. Be Patient.. especially for Middle to Senior Mgmt. It takes time for the company to get back..

4. Network, Network, Network... meet with recruiters, socialize with big wigs (if possible), go for events.

5. Post your resume on naukri, monster, timesjobs and make sure you have the right keywords reflected in your resume.

6. Re-visit your resume, make sure it has all the keywords (some of them might sound too basic for eg. OOPs concepts, OLTP, etc).

7. Be sure of what you want to do and go for it. Be honest to yourself and company which is looking to hire you. You will almost never have a 100% fit but your confidence and your approach will make necessary difference.

8. Remember, they need you as much as you do.. at times you have to take tactical decisions but its in the interest of both the parties that you take up something you really enjoy doing.

9. Be truthful. It will go a long way...

Conduct Effective Meeting

1. Send out meeting invites ahead of time wherever possible

2. Include right information with the invite (Conference Call Information, Live Meeting or other such tools)

3. Include right participants

4. Make sure to include people as Optional if you think they may be interested

5. Be respectful of others time, start on time and try to end early, if possible.

6. Be sure to include clear Agenda and stick to it

7. Make sure you have one person driving the meeting

8. Be courteous even if things are not going as per your expectation

9. Provide time to each of the participant to voice their opinions

10. Capture minutes and circulate as soon as it is completed so that its fresh in memory of the participants

11. Make sure to highlight who all were present during the meeting

12. Try to use a tool to manage minutes (for eg: OneNote).

Taking a dig at Android :)

Today, finally started to write something for mobile platform, should have done this long time back.. buts its never too late right ???

Since heard a lot about Android platform, I decided to go for it.

The good thing is that the SDK is available for Windows platform (unlike for IPhone). I already had a small app in mind which helped me in making sure I learn something, if at all.

Did some research and found that Eclipse IDE is the recommended one with ADT plugin. The great thing was.. it was all free :)

Downloaded the latest 1.5 toolkit from Android and started reading the online help. Is it only me who thinks that Android help layout very closely resembles MSDN? Well, I hate that the help has little to no screenshots which I felt would be very useful especially to explain role of TextAttributes.

Having a past experience with Java, Applets, Layout managers, C#.. it wasnt too difficult to understand the structure of code.. and with the famous copy and paste.. I was off to a good start.

I currently have an app where it emits information stored in the resource file.. I have to build upon it to accept that information from the user, persist data in form of dictionary (in resource file) and fetch data from there.

System.Data.Linq.ChangeConflictException: Row not found or changed

Issues with Data Update in Linq

System.Data.Linq.ChangeConflictException: Row not found or changed

This exception shows up if:

1. The row you are trying to update does not exist
2. If you are trying to use Attach statement without the use of TimeStamp field (this is used to keep track of current version of the record. Auto Concurrency implementation). The error message does not make at all sense in this scenario.
3. You made some minor change to the db and didnt feel like re-creating the SQL to LINQ class (DataContext) - even change in a fields attribute from Not Null to Null or vice versa. The error message does not make at all sense in this scenario.

Some good links:
http://sebastienlachance.com/2008/07/08/systemdatalinqchangeconflictexception-row-not-found-or-changed/

Good Practices for Updating in LINQ
http://borrell.parivedasolutions.com/2008/02/linq-to-sql-updating-in-aspnet-right.html

Binding Dropdownlist (User Id and User Name) using LINQ

The below query will pull all active users from a specific role ("administrator" in my example). The query is written on top of Membership and Authentication schema provided by ASP.NET.

My enviornment: VS2008 Beta 2.

LinqClasses.ServiceProviderDataContext context = new LNMT.LinqClasses.ServiceProviderDataContext();
var list = from s in context.aspnet_Users
join userMem in context.aspnet_Memberships on s.UserId equals userMem.UserId
join userRole in context.aspnet_UsersInRoles on s.UserId equals userRole.UserId
join roleMas in context.aspnet_Roles on userRole.RoleId equals roleMas.RoleId
where userMem.IsLockedOut == false && userMem.IsApproved == true && roleMas.LoweredRoleName == "administrator"
orderby s.UserName
select new { s.UserId, s.UserName };

//Binding to Dropdown list

DropDownList1.DataSource = list;
DropDownList1.DataValueField = "UserId";
DropDownList1.DataTextField = "UserName";
DropDownList1.DataBind();
DropDownList1.Items.Insert(0, "All"); // will insert All at the top of the list.
DropDownList1.AutoPostBack = true; // this is if you need to reload the page on change.

This is based on join statement on standard tables provided by ASP.NET Role and Membership. Hope will be useful for some.

Thanks,
Chintu