By host on Saturday, March 25, 2006 5:27:42 PM

Today I released the final version of SQLGridSelectedView V3.4e.  This is the non-beta release for the module. 

It seems I can't leave it alone. I had planned to just release this version with the one or two little issues corrected, but instead I had to add a bit more. 

Although I had not mentioned it, the beta's had some improved SQL error handling.  Previous versions would just dump the ASP.NET stack dump with all the detail including the SQL command being exeuted.  My original rational was I want to see where I screwed up as most of the SQL error were based on the program's attempts to build the SQL command.  Now that I seem to have that under control, I really didn't need to display all that extra stuff.  Also, I really didn't think about it until I got a comment from a user asking that I curb the detail displayed.  So, I have been cleaning up the error handling in V3.4

Two last pieces were required. The first, was an option to display the SQL command whenever a SQL error occured.  This...

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By host on Saturday, March 18, 2006 10:41:47 PM

I got a feature request for SQLGridSelectedView to allow multi-answers so the user could use the T-SQL "In" feature.  Specifically, the user, Paul Bennett, wanted a way to allow a copy and paste from Excel to be handled.

He wanted to pass in a column of Excel data containing Computername so he could do a Select like:

Select * from Requests where Computername in ( [Search:Text] )

While this would work for a single entry, I agreed that this is a worthwhile feature, so I added a Multi-Answer option to the TextSearch filters to allow the end-user to enter multiple entries.  Each Entry must be on a separate line.  If the entry ends with a comma (",") I will remove it.  Blank lines will be ignored.

So the above example would expand to something like:

Select * from Requests where Computername in ( 'COMP1', 'COMP2' )

Each entry is enclosed in single quotes and separated by commas. 



I have also added a similar feature to the Filter selections.  When the Multi-Select...

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By host on Sunday, March 12, 2006 2:04:55 PM

Now that I have returned to Canada, I started work on completing the beta version of SQLGridSelectedView.  Today I released the latest beta version 3.4c. 

This version continues the work in two specific areas -  Localization and date selection.  I had many request for a calendar feature on the date selection so I finally honoured that request.  However, I use the time feature in several on my installations, but others found this to be overkill so I now allow the addition of the time to be a feature.

When I initially implemented custom column formating, the ability to sort these columns was lost.  I have added that feature so you can now sort the formated columns

Localization is a tricky issues, especially when you are working in single language all the time.  Living in Canada where there are two official languages, all application must be able to handle either French or English, so I am at least aware that there is a need.  I have chosen not to localize the Edit Settings for SQLGridSelectedView...

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By host on Monday, March 06, 2006 7:40:37 PM

In the spirit of Bob Vila .. I am almost "home again" ... I will be returning home later this week.

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By host on Saturday, February 18, 2006 9:23:36 PM

Over the next few weeks, I will be out of the country and supporting my site from a distance.  While I will be checking often, I doubt it will be as often as I currently check the site.  So please bare with me, but I hope to get back to all that have questions or feedback on the any of modules.

Enjoy!

By host on Thursday, February 16, 2006 10:37:08 PM

I recently became a benefactor of the DotNetNuke Project.  While I joined at the Bronze level, I believe this is worth while as I have been able to sustain the developement of this site based solely on the donations of others.  Therefore, it only makes sense that I "pass it forward" as the saying goes. 

The Core Team needs the support of the users and I believe that this means putting up some hard earned Cash... Well if you consider the base reason of why that money was donated, by which I mean the DotNetNuke framework itself, there is no way I could fail to become a benefactor.

I encourage anyone who has benefited from the use of the Framework to consider becoming a benefactor - even if just for one year.  

This is the best way to encourage the Core team to stay the course and ensure a healthy framework that continues to grow.

Thanks

By host on Monday, February 06, 2006 7:52:51 PM

I was reviewing my site traffic over the last week and noticed several hits from rather strange sources.  So, I looked into the DNN Sitelog to determine what pages were referenced.  My site traffic is low enuf that I can look at the top referrers to see where my site gets the biggest links without too much hassel.

As it turns out, both Kate Gregory and Rob Windsor have referenced my site relating to my efforts at the Toronto Code Camp.   Take a look... especially if you are considering speaking at an event.  

Many thanks Kate and Rob...

By host on Sunday, February 05, 2006 5:54:01 PM

This week I received several E-mails requesting better support for data handling in SQLGridSelectedView.  The main issue as the specific format need to satisify SQL Select processing.  It seems that users would error in entering the needed data and the results were not pleasant.  So, I started to investigate the addition of a Calendar Popup. 

My needs were a bit specific and thus I couldn't use the Calendar that exists in DNN as it is tied to the region settings and the format must be numeric to work.  Ugh!  Also, I needed to be able to input time.

So, I started with a Google search and looked at many Calendar Popups that would certainly do the job, but most were over 40K in size... I really wanted something a little smaller - under 20K. 

I finally found "DateTimePicker" by TengYong Ng (www.rainforestnet.com).  While this is small, it did work with alpha months in the Date string and allowed for Time values.  I modified the routine to include...

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By host on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 9:21 AM

I just updated my site with a new Logo. I would like to thank Bill Clone for his work. It was much appreciated.

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By host on Sunday, January 29, 2006 12:48 PM

I was advised by a user of SQLGridSelectedView (thanks Roy Dean) that column sorting did not function when using column formatting - the latest feature to be added to SQLGridSelectedView.

Sure enough - the initial page would display, but clicking on a column to sort would result in an empty display.  Simply put, the OnSortCommand was not firing. In the case of column formatting, SQLGridSelectedView turns off the AutoGenerateColumns property and must create the column structure manually. A quick check of the forums confirmed my oversite of not providing the SortExpression on the columns.   Simple. 20 miuntes -  Added one line of code and done -- Not so fast - still didn't work ???

So, back to the forums and a lot of reading and testing... still no luck.  Then a post indicated that the Column definition must be defined prior to the Page_Load event - so I must define the column definitions in the Page_Init event.  What?  Why?

I was getting the initial display by defining the columns in the Page_Load...

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By host on Tuesday, January 24, 2006 10:08:00 PM

Seems a letter I wrote to the hosts was actually read  and made it to the show -- Number #163 ... you can hear the entire show at www.dotnetrocks.com or just the letter at the link below.

As I wrote in my previous blog entries, I presented a talk on DotNetNuke Module development at the Toronto Code Camp.  As rank beginner in this field - public presentations - I was rather green. 

The reason I applied to speak, was a growing belief that I could do it and that a .Net community event would be the best venue to start (or end) my speaking career.  About the time that the annoucement of the Code Camp, the "boys" from DotNetRocks (Richard Campbell and Carl Franklin) were doing a road trip stoping at various .Net meetings throughout the U.S. as they headed to Vegas for the Launch of VS 2005.  Well as they spoke to each group, they recorded comments from the various .Net Community members.  It seemed to be an engaging group that, perhaps, I...

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By host on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 10:55:00 PM

I had the pleasure of being a speaker at the Toronto Code Camp on this past Saturday - January 14th - and it was a real success.  I spoke on "Module Development in the DotNetNuke Framework V3/V4".  My session was well attended as were all the sessions.  The camp had close to 200 attendees - see www.TorontoCodeCamp.com for details and pictures..  but here is one me.

Many thanks to organizers ...  especially Chris Defour.

 

By host on Thursday, January 12, 2006 7:42 PM

I have added another example to the SQLGridSelectedView Examples page.  This example is one of the most asked question I get... how to create a hyperlink in the Grid.  

This is a simple example pulled from the Link Table of the DNN database.  I just use the URL and Title columns from 'http' links to build the hyperlink in the SQL Select Statement.  Rather simple... but it is not obvious.  Give it a try...

By host on Monday, January 09, 2006 7:13:00 PM

Today I started to create a rather simple stored procedure that I thought would take a few minutes... Well it fell into the "20 minute" rule... if you estimate about "20 minutes" it won't be...

Anyway, this procedure needed to build SQL Select based on parameters passed in.  So, I needed to user SQL EXECUTE statement.  I create @SQL as the varchar that I contained the select statement and passed the command to the EXECUTE.. When procedure ran, I got the MSG 203  error message, but it was truncated due to the length of the SQL statement..  No problem, off to Books Online to determine what the MSG 203 message -- not there... Google?

OK .. 20 minutes later I finally discovered that any statement I passed into the EXECUTE statement did not work.  Hmmmm.  So back to the EXECUTE statement documentation.  Seems that I had missed a little detail.  If you are using a variable -- eg. @SQL in my case -- you must surround the EXECUTE parameter statement in brackets.  

So...(using the NorthWind database...

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By host on Sunday, January 08, 2006 9:14 AM

At the beginning of the year I released the initial version of SQLGridSelectedView with several changes that I thought would be useful.  Also I need to "re-brand" the module from my old site to Tresslworks. 

The initial release, V3.3a, had a rather major issue in the release kit. I appearently released the aspx file referring to my previous "companyname" namespace, but shipped the Tressleworks version of the DLL.  Needless to say, it would not load upon upload to any system -- except mine.

I corrected that version and released V3.3b.  Now that people could see it, a minor issue appeared related to the export function. Entered date ranges were ignored,  only the displayed default date ranges would be exported to data file. 

Version V3.3c has corrected this issue and I added the ability to set the DropDown Label text for "ALL" and "Not Applicable".  I have been asked for this several times and I forgot to put this feature on my change list.

I also moved the location of the header message...

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By host on Saturday, January 07, 2006 11:28 PM

The title graphic is base on a picture of a bridge that was shown on the Trains webiste as part of there photo contest between to amateur photographers.

The original photo was taken by  Mike Yuhas and is located here http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/006/206skgap.asp

Many thanks Mike!

 

By host on Saturday, January 07, 2006 10:56:00 PM

This is my initial blog entry.  At this point I feel as if I am writing this in an empty room, but I believe this will change over time. 

So I am getting close to completing my new site.  So why TressleWorks?  It is rather simple, I am Model Railroading fan and was looking for a name that sort of reflect that aspect.  A tressle or trestle - take your pick - is a beam used to build a table.  In the case of railway tressles, the wood beams collectively are call a tressle.  Most tressle bridges now are metal, but there are stil some wooden ones around.

I have just released my latest version of SQLGridSelectedView. I made several tweaks to the code to correct some minor errors - specially I broke the data export with respect to user entered date ranges - version 3.3a and 3.3b both ignored the user input and only displayed the default date range in the exported data file.  This has been corrected.  

I also moved the location of the header message to appear above the data selections - it seems...

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