LINQ in upgraded VB.NET project

If you want to use LINQ in VB.NET and if the project was upgraded from .NET 2.0 to a newer version please make sure to set "Option infer" on under compile options. Otherwise you might no be able to use the methods of System.Linq.Enumerable methods like count, average etc.

You might also need the following namespaces depending on your current task:

Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Data.Linq
Imports System.Xml.Linq

The rest of the configuration tasks can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/bb546156.aspx

Load DataSet Error: Cannot add a DataRelation or Constraint

If you work in an international team there may occur problems with the Locale property of datasets.

The error may also occur when running the application: "Cannot add a DataRelation or constraint that has different Locale..."

Often you can not fix this within visual studio but there is a simple way to fix it with notepad:

Search and replace the string "msdata:Locale="de-CH" (example for German-Switzerland) with an empty string using notepad. Simply open the xsd file with notepad.

Make sure to create a backup before. If you have a versioning tool this should be no problem anyway.

Strong Name an existing assembly (dll)

Today I needed to strong name an existing third party assembly in order to use it for SharePoint (GAC). I found a great solution from "DoubleJ" at http://sadeveloper.net/forums/p/1195/5115.aspx

I copied it here in order to make sure I does not get lost:

"From a VS.NET command prompt, enter the following:

1. Generate a KeyFile
sn -k keyPair.snk

2. Obtain the MSIL for the provided assembly
ildasm providedAssembly.dll /out:providedAssembly.il

3. Rename/move the original assembly
ren providedAssembly.dll providedAssembly.dll.orig

4. Create a new assembly from the MSIL output and your assembly KeyFile
ilasm providedAssembly.il /dll /key= keyPair.snk

Viola! You now have a strong named assembly."

WebPart button event fires only once

In order to make sure a button in a WebPart (for example to export data to excel) can be clicked more than once add the following to the OnClientClick event:

buttonExportToExcel.OnClientClick = "_spFormOnSubmitCalled = false;_spSuppressFormOnSubmitWrapper=true;";

Virtual PC: Performance Issues on Notebook, Mini-PC etc.

Power management may slow down virtual PC. I found a solution that works perfectly on my Notebook:
http://svengillis.blogspot.com/2008/01/performance-issues-with-virtual-pc-on.html

Essentialy I had to change the enable_idle_thread setting in the options file located at
C:\Users\[My User Name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC in my windows machine.

The secrets of SQL Syntax Queries for Relevant Results in MOSS 2007 Enterprise Search

I just found a very helpful post from Lars Fastrup containing a nice overview and samples for SQL syntax queries in MOSS 2007 Enterprise Search:
http://blog.sharepointproducts.com/archive/2009/03/31/repost-the-secrets-of-sql-syntax-queries-for-relevant-results-in-moss-2007-enterprise-search.aspx

Wildcards in the CONTAINS Predicate in Windows SharePoint Services Search SQL Syntax - no results

If you get no results with CONTAINS and wildcard search in MOSS make sure you don't forget the " in the query. The MSDN documentation does not include them.

wrong: select title, author, rank from scope() where CONTAINS (defaultproperties, 'sharep*') order by rank desc

correct: select title, author, rank from scope() where CONTAINS (defaultproperties, '"sharep*"') order by rank desc

I recommend http://www.codeplex.com/SPSearchBench for testing.