http://aspnetcoe.wordpress.com/2007/02/06/how-to-remove-recent-projects-from-visual-studio-start-page/

http://mvantzet.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/remove-recent-projects-from-visual-studio-2008/

When I removed some items from my version of VS 2008, I found that I also needed to rename the remaining registry keys so that there were no gaps in the order (ie, File1, File2, etc with no gaps)

Private Sub LinkLabel1_LinkClicked(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs) Handles LinkLabel1.LinkClicked
    Using player As New PlayAudioFile(“C:\Misc\WS400001.WMA”)
         player.PlaySnippet(5)
    End Using
End Sub

Public Class PlayAudioFile
    Implements IDisposable

    ‘Private data member – file path
    Private fileToPlay As String

    ‘Private function to send commands to the Windows OS MultiMedia API
    Private Declare Function mciSendString Lib “winmm.dll” Alias “mciSendStringA” _
    (ByVal lpstrCommand As String, ByVal lpstrReturnString As String, _
    ByVal uReturnLength As Integer, ByVal hwndCallback As Integer) As Integer

    ‘Private wrapper method for API function
    Private Sub SendCommand(ByVal command As String)
        mciSendString(String.Format(“{0} {1}”, command, fileToPlay), Nothing, 0, 0)
    End Sub

    ”’ <summary>
    ”’ Class Constructor – accepts an audio file (must be MP3, WAV or WMA file)
    ”’ </summary>
    ”’ <param name=”soundFile”>Full path of audio file to be played</param>
    Public Sub New(ByVal soundFile As String)
        Dim ext As String = IO.Path.GetExtension(soundFile)
        Select Case ext.ToLower
            Case “.mp3″, “.wav”, “.wma”
                fileToPlay = Chr(34) + soundFile + Chr(34)
            Case Else
                Throw New ArgumentException(“File must be an .MP3, .wav or .WMA file”)
        End Select
    End Sub

    ”’ <summary>
    ”’ Play audio file
    ”’ </summary>
    Public Sub Play()
        Me.SendCommand(“open”)
        Me.SendCommand(“play”)
    End Sub

    ”’ <summary>
    ”’ Stop audio file playback
    ”’ </summary>
    Public Sub StopPlay()
        Me.SendCommand(“stop”)
    End Sub

    ”’ <summary>
    ”’ Pause audio file playback
    ”’ </summary>
    Public Sub PausePlay()
        Me.SendCommand(“pause”)
    End Sub

    ”’ <summary>
    ”’ Resume playback of paused audio file
    ”’ </summary>
    Public Sub ResumePlay()
        Me.SendCommand(“resume”)
    End Sub

    ”’ <summary>
    ”’ Close audio file
    ”’ </summary>
    Public Sub CloseFile()
        Me.SendCommand(“close”)
    End Sub

    ”’ <summary>
    ”’ Play the first part of the sound file (default 15 seconds)
    ”’ </summary>
    Public Sub PlaySnippet()
        PlaySnippet(15)
    End Sub

    ”’ <summary>
    ”’ Play the first part of the sound file
    ”’ </summary>
    ”’ <param name=”snippetLength”>Length of snippet (in seconds)</param>
    Public Sub PlaySnippet(ByVal snippetLength As Integer)
        Me.Play()
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(snippetLength * 1000)
        Me.StopPlay()
    End Sub

#Region ” IDisposable Support ”

    Private disposedValue As Boolean = False        ‘ To detect redundant calls

    ‘ IDisposable
    Protected Overridable Sub Dispose(ByVal disposing As Boolean)
        If Not Me.disposedValue Then
            If disposing Then
                ‘ TODO: free unmanaged resources when explicitly called
                Me.CloseFile()
            End If

            ‘ TODO: free shared unmanaged resources
            Me.CloseFile()
        End If
        Me.disposedValue = True
    End Sub

    ‘ This code added by Visual Basic to correctly implement the disposable pattern.
    Public Sub Dispose() Implements IDisposable.Dispose
        ‘ Do not change this code.  Put cleanup code in Dispose(ByVal disposing As Boolean) above.
        Dispose(True)
        GC.SuppressFinalize(Me)
    End Sub
#End Region

End Class

There should probably be more error handling in the class (for example, to make sure that the file is opened before calling ResumePlay, that sort of thing), but I thought this was a good start.

The DataGridView itself has a DataSource property that determines what columns are in it. The DataGridViewComboBox column also has a DataSource property, but that isn’t the same as the DataSource of the DataGridView. It is the DataSource that is used to populate the ComboBox in each cell. The DataMember and ValueMember properties are the column names of the columns in the ComboBox’s DataSource that define what is displayed in the ComboBox, and the underlying value for that item. It is the DataPropertyName property of the DataGridViewComboBoxColumn that determines the column name in the DataGridView’s DataSource that the ataGridViewComboBoxColumn is associated with. The ValueMember determines the value that will be set for that column in the DataGridView’s DataSource.

Here’s the original link. Thanks, Kevin Spencer.

Basically, you need to make sure that the user has permissions on both the file in which the .csv file resides, and also the file in which the Jet Engine will create temporary files. It is this last piece that I didn’t know, and lead to days of heartache.

So I thought I’d post, in the hopes of minimizing the heartache for others…

For this example I create a role called MyAppAdmin. Only members of MyAppAdmin should be able to see the Administration menu. After creating the role and assigning appropriate permissions to the role, I want to check, within my .NET application, to see if the logged on user is a member of the MyAppAdmin role. Here’s how to do this:

Create a stored procedure:

CREATE procedure [dbo].[uspTestDatabaseRole]
– Returns 1 if user is a member of the specified role or if user is dbo
@RoleName varchar(30)
as
declare @Return integer
if USER_NAME() = ‘dbo’
select @Return = 1
else
select @Return = IS_MEMBER(@RoleName)
select @Return

In this procedure the variable @RoleName refers to the Database Role you are checking. You can also use it to check membership in a Windows group. You may notice if the person calling the stored procedure is dbo, I return 1 no matter what. You may not want the procedure to work this way so you should modify for your own purposes.

Now all you need to do is call this procedure from your .NET code and it will return 1 if the person is a member of the database role you are checking or if the person is dbo. Otherwise, it will return 0.

<configuration>
 <system.web>
  <trace enabled=”true” pageOutput=”true” />
 </system.web>
</configuration>

The problem with this is that changes to the web.config file cause the app domain to recycle, which can cause users currently in the application to lose data.  So I have to schedule a time when all users have to get out, or I have to work after hours, which is a drag.

It’s easy enough to turn on tracing programmatically – Page.Trace.IsEnabled = true.  Then you could write code in the page’s Load event, turning tracing on if the page detects a particular querystring.  The problem here is that you’d have to add the code to every page that you might someday want to trace.

So I decided to create an HttpModule that would turn on tracing via the querystring.  HttpModules allow you to tap in to the HttpRequest pipeline, so your code will run at a designated point in every ASP.NET request.  You can hook up your module to run at various points in the page life cycle, such as BeginRequest, AuthenticateRequest, Error, etc.  (HttpModules are also excellent for application-level error handling). 

In order to create an HttpModule, you have to create a class that implements the IHttpModule interface.  Do this by creating your class, and then typing “Implements IHttpModule” directly under the ”Public Class Whatever” line.  Once you hit enter, the two methods that your class must invoke, Init and Dispose, are automatically created for you.

Here’s what my HttpModule class looks like (be sure to import the System.Web namespace):

Option Strict On

Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic
Imports System.Web

Public Class TraceModule
    Implements IHttpModule

    Dim WithEvents app As HttpApplication = Nothing

    Public Sub Init(ByVal context As HttpApplication) Implements IHttpModule.Init
        app = context
    End Sub

    Public Sub context_BeginRequest(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) _
    Handles app.BeginRequest

        Dim c As HttpContext = HttpContext.Current
        Dim strTrace As String = c.Request.QueryString(“trace”)

        If strTrace = “on” Then
            c.Trace.IsEnabled = True
        End If

    End Sub

    Public Sub Dispose() Implements IHttpModule.Dispose
        app = Nothing
    End Sub

End Class

After you’ve created your module, you just need to add a setting in the web.config file telling ASP.NET to use your module, as shown below.  If the class is in an assembly in the bin folder, you just need to provide the class name.  If it’s in the App_Code folder, then you need to add that to the setting.

<configuration>
 <system.web>
  <httpModules>
   <!– Module class in assembly called TKS.dll in bin folder –>
   <add name=”WebTraceModule” type=”TKS.TraceModule”/>
   <!– Module class in App_Code folder –>
   <add name=”WebTraceModule” type=”TraceModule, App_Code” />
  </httpModules>
 </system.web>
</configuration>

Now if you want to see the trace for any page in your application, just add the querystring “?trace=on” at the end of the URL, and the trace will display in the page without making any other changes.  If you want to add some security to this, so that not just anybody can run the trace, you can require additional querystrings, or only turn tracing on for certain users or groups, or just about anything else that you can do in code.

I took this code from Chip Pearson’s web site. His posting was about ordinal numbers in Excel. I converted the code to a T-SQL function, and I can now use it in any other T-SQL queries I write. Here it is:

create Function dbo.OrdinalNumber
/* used to return an ordinal number */
(@Number integer)
returns varchar(6)
as begin

declare @N int
declare @Suffix char(18)
declare @Result varchar(6)

select @N = @Number%100
select @Suffix = ’stndrdthththththth’

If ((Abs(@N) >= 10) And (Abs(@N) <= 19))
Or ((Abs(@N) % 10) = 0)
begin
select @Result= cast(@Number as varchar) + ‘th’
end
else
begin
select @Result = cast(@Number as varchar) + substring(@Suffix,
((Abs(@N) % 10) * 2) – 1, 2)
end
return @Result
end

To use it just feed it the number you want to convert.

select dbo.ordinalnumber(1)
will return “1st”

Another way I really like to use “Execute As” is to test the permissions on my stored procedures. You may have had a time or two where a stored procedure ran great when you ran it, but when your user tried it… not so great.

Here’s how to test as that user from either Query Analyzer or SQL Server Management Studio. First, run this line of code, substituting SOMEDOMAIN and Someuser with the appropriate information.

execute as login = ‘SOMEDOMAIN\Someuser’

Now run this line of code. It should return the login you just entered.

SELECT SUSER_NAME(), USER_NAME();

Now run your stored procedure.

When you are done testing, make sure you run this line (word, actually) of code:

Revert

This will set the login back to your login.

I thought I’d probably be able to use a table variable with an identity column – hoped I wouldn’t have to use a cursor.  I did a quick Google search, to see how other people handled similar things and hopefully get some examples.

I saw the table variable solutions I expected, but then came across a post containing this really nifty bit of code that did the trick in four lines – very slick.  Here’s the example as it appeared in the post:

declare @variable int
set @variable = 0
update <tablename>
SET @variable = <columnname> = @variable + 1 

and here’s how I implemented it, along with a WHERE statement so that I only renumber the Report Numbers associated with a particular Job (@ReportNum is the new starting number, and is a parameter fed in to the stored procedure):

declare @counter int
set @counter = @ReportNum – 1
update tblReport
set @counter = ReportNumber = @counter + 1
where JobID = @JobID

Works like a charm.  I repeat – very, very slick:)