SharePoint 2010: BDC doesn't work with SQL 2000

I'm at a client site. They have data on a SQL 2000 DB. We want to expose this to SharePoint 2010. Sounds like a simple task of creating BDC connection. Great!

But no. Apparently there isn't support for SQL 2000 in SharePoint 2010 BDC.

Humph...

The discussion on the MSDN forum. (Look at the bottom).

Also worth a look at this article, specifically the comments: MSDN Article

Blog move

Hi everyone,
Just a quick note that I have moved my blog from http://soreeyesdotnet.blogspot.com/ to http://sharepointchan.blogspot.com/

All posts have been copied across and I will be keeping the old blog around in case anyone has links pointing to my posts.

Regards,
Chan

Colour coding text in Blog posts

I found this great site: http://www.hilite.me/

It will generate html for you so your code can be displayed in all it's colourful glory.

Loving it!

SharePoint 2010: Web Part Properties

Even though I've made SP2010 web parts before for some reason I couldn't find any good articles on how to add Custom Properties to a web part.

So here is my take on a Custom SharePoint 2010 Web Part Property:

private string _targetSite = "SomeSite";
[Personalizable(PersonalizationScope.Shared),
WebBrowsable(true),
WebDisplayName("Target Site"),
WebDescription("Specify a site."),
Category("Configuration")]
public string TargetSite
{
get { return _targetSite; }
set { _targetSite = value; }
}

Oh and make sure you have the permissions to change settings.

SharePoint 2010: EventID 8306

I was given a pair of servers to install SharePoint 2010 on. I had been told all the necessary patches and hotfixes needed for SharePoint 2010 were installed.

After installing I couldn't get the User Profile to work... So I did a hunt through the event log and the following stood out.

Symptoms:
I get this in the Event Viewer:
An exception occurred when trying to issue security token: Method not found: 'Void System.IdentityModel.Selectors.SecurityTokenRequirement.set_IsOptionalToken(Boolean)'..

EventID 8306

Fix
Install this: KB976394

Lesson
Double check yourself that all patches, hotfixes, band aids and bandages are in place before doing the SharePoint 2010 installation. Small investment at the start can save you a lot of time.

Good luck with your SP2010 installs.

SharePoint 2010: Top Navigation on Search pages

To add the standard top navigation menu to your search pages you will need to either modify the out of the box (OOB) minimal.master or to create your own master page with the menu in place.

If you are going to modify the OOB file then please make a copy of the original first. Incase something goes wrong.

To add the menu to the minimal.master open up the masterpage. Insert this in a line above <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleBreadcrumb" runat="server" />

<!--Navigation-->
<div class="s4-pr s4-notdlg" id="s4-topheader2">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTopNavBar" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderHorizontalNav" runat="server">
<SharePoint:AspMenu
ID="TopNavigationMenuV4"
Runat="server"
EnableViewState="false"
DataSourceID="topSiteMap"
AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,navigation_accesskey%>"
UseSimpleRendering="true"
UseSeparateCss="false"
Orientation="Horizontal"
StaticDisplayLevels="2"
MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels="1"
SkipLinkText=""
CssClass="s4-tn"/>
<SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="TopNavigationDataSource" Id="topNavigationDelegate">
<Template_Controls>
<asp:SiteMapDataSource
ShowStartingNode="False"
SiteMapProvider="SPNavigationProvider"
id="topSiteMap"
runat="server"
StartingNodeUrl="sid:1002"/>
</Template_Controls>
</SharePoint:DelegateControl>
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</div>
<!--End of Navigation--> 

Public holidays

Having public holidays in your calendar is a very common request of clients.

Microsoft does provide a way of adding public holidays to your Outlook calendar: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/outlook/archive/2008/01/18/adding-holidays-to-your-outlook-calendar.aspx

You can then export these calendar items and then import them into a SharePoint calendar. All great and good.

But it came to my attention that Microsoft haven't quite got it right. There are a number of inaccurate holidays and missed holidays.

Adam Vero has kindly provided a fix for these dates http://blog.meteorit.co.uk/2010/09/03/outlook-2010-has-incorrect-holidays-for-uk-and-many-other-countries/

Thanks Adam.