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Validate DropdownList using jQuery

2013-11-13T11:25:00.000+05:30

"This post is all about how to validate DropdownList using jQuery".

DropdownList is one of the common fields we use in all kind of web forms in almost every web application. It is common to apply validations on certain fields in all web forms. Here in this post we are going to see how to validate DropdownList using jQuery.
Here in our case, I am using a simple Webform with a DropdownList and a button. The DropdownList has a collection of categories, if the user doesn’t select a category an alert event fires up saying the user to choose a category.

Also look in to these posts:
Bind a DropdownList with Database Values
How to Refresh a Webpage dynamically using jQuery
How to merge two tables into one table using jQuery

In order to do this the following code is to be followed.

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
  <title></title>
  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.2/jquery.min.js">
  </script>
  <script type="text/javascript">
        $(document).ready(function () {
            $('#btnCheck').click(function () {
                if ($("#ddlCategory").val() > 0) {
                    return true;
                }
                else {
                    alert('Please choose a category')
                    return false;
                }
            })
        });
 
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="myForm" runat="server">
        <div>
            <b>Selected Category:</b>
            <asp:DropDownList ID="ddlCategory" runat="server">
                <asp:ListItem Text="--Choose--" Value="0" />
                <asp:ListItem Text="Education" Value="1" />
                <asp:ListItem Text="Sports" Value="2" />
                <asp:ListItem Text="Entertainment" Value="3" />
                <asp:ListItem Text="Business" Value="4" />
                <asp:ListItem Text="Trading" Value="5" />
            </asp:DropDownList>
            <asp:Button ID="btnCheck" Text="Check" runat="server" />
        </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

This is how you validate a DropdowlList using jQuery.Hope this post helps you and feel free to post your suggestions and comments on it.
For more posts on jQuery click jquery tricks

Bind a DropdownList with Database Values

2013-11-12T18:33:00.000+05:30

"In this post I am going to explain you how to bind the drop-down list items with the values present in your database table".
Generally for static pages we add the drop-down list items manually. But what if the application is dynamic. We need to fetch the dropdown list items from the database accordingly.
So here i am going to explain how to bind the drop-down list with database values with a simple example
First create a table with name as Contacts in your database as below:

‘UserId’ should be the primary key and set its column property ‘Identity Specification’ to yes.
The following should be the code in your .aspx page:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
        <div>
            <b>Selected UserName:</b>
            <asp:DropDownList ID="ddlCountry" runat="server" />
        </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Also look in to these posts:
Populating GridView with Textbox values
Value Types and Reference Types in .Net
Boxing and UnBoxing in c# with Examples

And here is the code behind:

   protected void BindLocation()
    {
        
        using (SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection("Data Source=localhost;

              Integrated Security=true;Initial Catalog=Your Database Name"))
        {
           cn.Open();
           SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("Select UserId,Location FROM Contacts",cn);
           SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(cmd);
           DataSet ds = new DataSet();
           da.Fill(ds);
           ddlLocation.DataSource = ds;
           ddlLocation.DataTextField = "Location";
           ddlLocation.DataValueField = "UserId";
           ddlLocation.DataBind();
           ddlLocation.Items.Insert(0, new ListItem("—Select Location--", "0"));
           cn.Close();
        }
    }

That’s all. Your location from the database gets bound to the location dropdown list of your web page. This is how you bind a dropdown list with database values.
Hope it helps you and feel free to post and suggest me with your valuable comments.

How to redirect user to a new page using jquery

2013-11-12T10:24:00.000+05:30

This is one of very frequent functions we see in every web application. Here in this post we will see how to redirect the user from the current location to another webpage using simple jQuery. In order to redirect user to another webpage we use the ‘location’ object available in JavaScript.
Below is the method in jQuery on how to redirect user to another webpage.

var url = "http://jquerybyexample.blogspot.com";
$(location).attr('href', url);

Also look in to these posts:
How to Refresh a Webpage dynamically using jQuery
How to merge two tables into one table using jQuery

So whenever you like to redirect user to another webpage just use the location object as shown in the above code.
If you like to redirect user to a new webpage using JavaScript, follow the below lines of code.

window.location.replace("http://jquerybyexample.blogspot.com");

or

window.location.href = "http://jquerybyexample.blogspot.com";

Both the above methods redirect the user to a new webpage in the same way, but the only difference is when you use replace() the user gets redirected but the page will not be added in the browser history. So you cannot access the back button.
So it is recommended to use the second method to redirect user to a new webpage as it maintains the browser history too.
Hope you like this post and feel free to suggest and post your valuable comments.

How to Refresh or Reload a Webpage Automatically jQuery

2013-11-11T22:53:00.002+05:30

It is quite a common thing for all of us to refresh or reload our webpages in our daily life. But generally we do refresh or reload our pages manually. Sometimes it is required for the page to get refreshed or reloaded automatically by itself. In case you have some live updates to be projected on your page it is required for that page to get reloaded automatically. For example the cricket scores get refreshed for every 10-15 seconds even if there is no change in the scoreboard.
To achieve this we can simply implement this in two ways.

Using HTML
Using jQuery

Using HTML:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="10">

The attribute http-equiv=”refresh” despite being a normal standard meta tag sends an HTTP command, which helps the page to get refreshed.
The content attribute holds a value in seconds which means that the page will be refreshed for every 20 seconds.

Using jQuery:

The following jQuery code reloads or refreshes the webpage automatically.

function reloadPage() {
    location.reload();
};
$(document).ready(function() {
    setTimeout("reloadPage()", 20000); 
});

location.reload() here refreshes the page for every 20000 ms.The main advantage of using location.reload() is it works for all major browsers.

Refresh page on button click:

If required you can also place a button to refresh the page on clicking.

$(document).ready(function () {
    $('#btn_Reload').click(function () {
        location.reload();
    });
});

Hence these are some of the many ways on how to refresh or reload a webpage automatically.
Hope this post helps you and please feel free to suggest and post your valuable comments.

How To Apply Themes Dynamically To Master Page?

2013-11-11T17:03:00.002+05:30

We all use the concept of Master Pages which sets a defined style pattern to all the pages which included it. The question here is Can we dynamically change the css content in the master page? The answer is yes. You should have already known the concept of themes in which we define any number of custom styles. We actually set some default theme to our site. But what if the user likes to change the theme of the page dynamically ?
The solution is taking a dropdown list in your page and then populating them with the themes available in your application and rendering them into your master page in the Page_PreInit stage of the page life cycle.
Here is the step by step process:

Build as many themes you like under the App_Themes folder of your project
Place the corresponding css styles in your themes.
Add a dropdown list in your master page.
Bind the dropdown list items with the themes.
Select the theme you like.

. Now on changing the dropdown value the code behind should trigger like this.

 protected void Page_PreInit(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        string myTheme;
        myTheme = (string)Session["selectedTheme"];
        if (thm != null)
        {
            Page.Theme = myTheme;
            ddlThemes.Text = myTheme;
        }
        else
        {
            Session["selectedTheme"] = ddlThemes.Text;
            Page.Theme = "Blue";
        }
    protected void ddlThemes_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Session["selectedTheme"] = ddlThemes.Text;
        Server.Transfer(Request.FilePath);
    }

This is the way how you apply the themes dynamically to your master page.Hope it helps you and feel free to suggest and post your valuable comments.

For more information ,explore ASP.NET/C#

How to check date is greater or lesser than Current Date using javascript / jQuery

2013-11-11T10:48:00.000+05:30

"This post is all about to check whether the entered date is less than or greater than the current date using jquery/javascript"
This is one of the most common scenarios we come across in most of the applications in our daily life. Selecting a date is quite a common thing or most of the times a mandatory field in our applications. The date field is used in all utilities starting from a simple application form for a school child to transactions form of a bank. But sometimes we are asked to set some validations on the date field, say to check whether the entered date is greater or lesser than the current date.
So in this post we implement a very useful validation on date field. Generally we use a date-picker to help user to select a date.But in our case we just use a textbox and enter the date in a particular format. Sometimes we come across a requirement to check that the date entered by the user should not be greater than the current date or sometimes greater than the current date.
So let us move further on how to implement this using a bit of JavaScript or jQuery. Suppose we have a couple of fields with a submit button in our page.

        Name:<input type="text" id="txtName" />
        DOB:<input type="text" id="txtDateEntered" />
        <input type="submit" id="Text1" onclick="compareDate();"/>

Note:Date should be entered in this format [dd-mm-yyyy]. Now here goes the JavaScript code on how to check whether the entered date is greater or lesser than the current date. In my JavaScripr file:

function compareDate() {
    //In javascript
    var dateEntered = document.getElementById("txtDateEntered").value; 
    // In JQuery
    var dateEntered = $("#txtDateEntered").val();
 
    var date = dateEntered.substring(0, 2);
    var month = dateEntered.substring(3, 5);
    var year = dateEntered.substring(6, 10);
 
    var dateToCompare = new Date(year, month - 1, date);
    var currentDate = new Date();
 
    if (dateToCompare > currentDate) {
        alert("Date Entered is greater than Current Date ");
    }
    else {
        alert("Date Entered is lesser than Current Date");
    }
}

This is how you check whether the entered date is greater or lesser than the current date. That’s all the simple script above does the trick for you. So try to follow the code given above and implement wherever you require.
Hope it helps you and feel free to suggest or post comments.
For more knowledge on jQuery/JavaScript ,you can explore Tricks in jQuery/JavaScript.

Cookies in ASP.NET

2013-11-08T16:02:00.000+05:30

What is a Cookie?

Cookies in .Net are mainly used for state management. Cookies are simple files of plain text which are stored on the client’s hard disk or on browser memory. These files hold the information of the user and uses whenever required.
We all know that HTTP protocols are stateless, In order to achieve state management cookies are used to store small pieces of information on client's system which the webpage is able to read when the user visits that site.Let us see about cookies in detail.

How are Cookies originated?

When the client requests for a page to the server for the first time, the server serves the client along with a cookie. The server generates a session id and sends it to the client as a cookie.
The cookie with the session id is stored on client’s machine or in the browser memory.
Now whenever the same client requests the server, it uses the session id to recognize the client and serves it.
Only the browser and the server are involved in exchanging the cookies.
When you hit an URL to the server, it first checks across the cookies for any information related to it and if present, it is moved to the server with that information.

Simply to tell, Cookies are used to store the information on the client’s system. It contains the information which can be read by the webpage requested whenever the user visits the site.

Types of Cookies:

Cookies are classifies into two types. They are,

Persistent cookies.
Persistent cookies are also called permanent cookies. These are stored on the client’s hard disk. But it is mandatory to define an expiry date for persistent cookies. Sometimes they live till the user deletes them.
Non-Persistent cookies.
Non-Persistent cookies can be called as temporary cookies. These reside on the browser memory. No expiry date is defined for these type of cookies.

Creating a Cookie:

 //Create a cookie object
        HttpCookie userDetails_Cookie = new HttpCookie("User_Details");
        //Set values inside the cookie
        userDetails_Cookie["UserName"] = "Jimmy";
        userDetails_Cookie["Location"] = "Texas";
        //Add the cookie to the curent web response
        Response.Cookies.Add(userDetails_Cookie);

Reading values from a Cookie:

  //Retrieving cookies across the cookie name
        HttpCookie userDetails_Cookie = Request.Cookies["User_Details"];
        string username, location;
        //Checking whether the cookie existed or not
        if (userDetails_Cookie != null)
        {
            username = userDetails_Cookie["UserName"];
            location = userDetails_Cookie["Location"];
        }

Hence here we came to know what exactly a cookie is? And an idea on how do we a cookie is generated and how to write and read values from the cookie.
Hope it helps you and feel free to suggest and post comments if you have any doubts regarding.

Boxing and UnBoxing in c# with Examples

2013-11-01T12:14:00.000+05:30

In order to understand what Boxing and Un-Boxing are, initially one need to understand what are Value Types and Reference Types.. Boxing and Un-Boxing are just the technical terms to typecast either value types to reference types or reference types to value types.

Boxing

Converting value type to reference type is called as Boxing.
Example:

 int x = 100;
 Object obj = i;

Here ‘x’ is of type int which is a value type which is taken as reference by an object ‘o’ which is a reference type.

UnBoxing

Converting a Reference type to a value type is known as UnBoxing.
Example:

Object obj = 100;
int i = (int)obj

Here just the reverse happened, object type is type-casted to integer, so its UnBoxing.

Perfomance:

Value Types will be accessed faster compared to Reference Types as they have their value directly in their own memory allocation.
Reference Types will be accessed a bit slower compared to the Value Types because they it has to refer another memory location to get the value which costs one more transaction.
But it is always recommended not to use Boxing and UnBoxing everywhere except the situation demands. Because these operations cost some additional time to execute and may show impact on the overall performance of your program if used frequently.

Value Types and Reference Types in .Net

2013-10-31T22:37:00.000+05:30

What is a Data Type?

Data Types in the programming scenario are the categorized sections,which are based on the type of data stored in them.Generally different types of data are stored in different memory with different structures such as stack or heap memories.
Some data types holds its data within its own memory allocation and some store only the address of the data[Data is present at some other location].So Data Types are categorized based on the way how they store their values .

Categories of Data Types
Generally we come across many data types in our programming journey like int, char, float,object etc. But to be clear all the Data Types are classified into two sections , they are:

Value Type
Reference Type

Let us discuss them in detail:

Value Type:

The Data Types which store their values directly in their stack memory are known as Value Types.
Among the built-in Data Types ,except 'String' and 'Object' all other data types are considered value types
Among user defined data types 'structure' and 'enum' are taken as value types.
Examples: All numeric data types, char bool, date, structures and enum etc.

Reference Type

Reference Types are those which store their values in heap memory and the address of those values are stored in stack memory as variables.
Among the built-in data types 'string' and 'object' are taken as Reference Types.
Among user defined data types Arrays, Class, Interface, and Delegate etc are taken as reference types.
Examples:string, object, arrays, delegates, interface etc.

Hope it helps you, Please feel free to suggest and post your valuable comments.

How to merge or combine two tables into one?

2013-10-31T16:56:00.002+05:30

In this post I am going to explain how to merge two tables of your web page into a single table using jQuery. This may not be a frequent practice in our daily applications but let us make use of our programming skills to meet each and every requirement according to the situation.
What we need to do here is,

Create two tables in your Webform.
Output is shortened to a single table with the two tables merged.

Let the following be your HTML code:
merge.aspx:

<form id="Form1" onsubmit="return merge();" runat="server">
    <div>
        <table class="primaryTable" style="border: 1px solid grey;">
            <thead>
                <tr>
                    <td>Name</td>
                    <td>Age</td>
                </tr>
            </thead>
            <tr>
                <td>T1-ROW1-Name</td>
                <td>T1-ROW1-Age</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>T1-ROW2-Name </td>
                <td>T1-ROW2-Age </td>
            </tr>
        </table>
        <table class="secondaryTable">
            <tr>
                <td>T2-ROW1-Name</td>
                <td>T2-ROW1-Age</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>T2-ROW2-Name</td>
                <td>T2-ROW2-Age</td>
            </tr>
        </table>
    </div>
</form>

The above code just creates two tables with the first table having id=’primaryTable’. And the second table with id=’secondaryTable’.
Now we will use simple jQuery to merge these two tables in to one.The logic we implement here is we merge the first table’s last child of its parent element with the body of the second table.
Following is my JavaScript file.
merge.js

$(document).ready(function () {

    $(".primaryTable > tbody:last").append($(".secondaryTable > tbody").html());

$(".secondaryTable").remove();

});

That’s all ,the two tables will be merged to a single table with small piece of jQuery code. Hope it helps you. Feel free to suggest and post your valuable comments.

Populating GridView with Textbox values

2013-10-29T12:39:00.000+05:30

Many times in our applications we come across storing values, Names, and some other details and display them static or dynamically. We generally use a Gridview to populate them with our values entered in our form.
In this post I will explain you with a simple example on how to populate or store values in a grid view which displays the details statically in our webpage.
Let this be my HTML Code:

<html>
<head runat="server">
    <title>Populating Grid with Form Values</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="myForm" runat="server">
        <div>
            My Value 1:<asp:textbox id="txtVal1" runat="server"></asp:textbox>
            <br />
            My Value 2:<asp:textbox id="txtVal2" runat="server"></asp:textbox>
            <br />
            My Value 3:<asp:textbox id="txtVal3" runat="server"></asp:textbox>
            <asp:gridview id="myGrid" runat="server">
            </asp:gridview>
            <br />
            <asp:button id="btnSave" runat="server" onclick="btnSubmit_Click" text="submit" />
        </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

The above html generates a form with three textboxes and a submit button and a Gridview. When I enter some values in the textboxes and click the submit button the values get populated in the grid and displayed statically.
The logic behind generating a pattern for the grid and populating the details in it goes here:
Code Behind:

protected void btnSubmit_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            DataTable dt = new DataTable();
            if (myGrid.Rows.Count == 0)
            {
                dt = MakeTable();
 
            }
            else
            {
                dt = (DataTable)ViewState["dt"];
            }
            DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
            dr[0] = txtVal1.Text;
            dr[1] = txtVal2.Text;
            dr[2] = txtVal3.Text;
            dt.Rows.Add(dr);
            myGrid.DataSource = null;
            myGrid.DataSource = dt;
            myGrid.DataBind();
            ViewState.Add("dt", dt);
        }
        DataTable MakeTable()
        {
            DataTable Mydt = new DataTable();
            DataColumn column1 = new DataColumn("column1");
            column1.DataType = System.Type.GetType("System.String");
            Mydt.Columns.Add(column1);
 
            DataColumn column2 = new DataColumn("column2");
            column2.DataType = System.Type.GetType("System.String");
            Mydt.Columns.Add(column2);
 
 
            DataColumn column3 = new DataColumn("column3");
            column3.DataType = System.Type.GetType("System.String");
            Mydt.Columns.Add(column3);
            return Mydt;
        }

On running this code we can see that the details from the textboxes get populated in the gridview and displayed on our web page.
Hope it helps you and especially for those who are fresh developers.

$broadcast (), $emit() and $on() in Angular Js

2013-10-17T21:21:00.000+05:30

In order to understand how the events are propagated along the html DOM we use few functions that raise the events and others which behave as their listeners. Sometimes we require to enable only the parent scope elements get affected from the current scope and sometimes vice-versa.
In order to meet these two situations angular provides some event raisers and event listeners.

Event Raisers:

$broadcast(eventName, arguments) and
$emit(eventName, arguments)
//Both these functions can raise an event and can send arguments too.

Event Listener:

$on(eventName, listener)

This function gets executed whenever the respective ‘eventName’ is raised and the ‘listener’ is a function that gets executed whenever it listens to an event from the event raisers.
Now let us know about them in detail:
$broadcast(): It dispatches the event name to the registered listeners of scope downwards the current scope and their child scopes i.e. the event propagates or traverses from the scope where the event is raised to all the child scopes with valid listeners on it.

$emit(): It dispatches the event name to the registered listeners of the scope upwards from the current scope along the way to the root scope .The event traverses through all the listeners from the current scope to the parent scopes on its way to the root scope.
Let us check with an example:
Here is my html page:


Parent scope: {{count}}
        



                
                
                Middle scope:{{count}}
                

                        Leaf scope: {{count}}

Here is my javascript:

function myController($scope) {
    $scope.count = 0;
    $scope.$on('MyEvent', function () {
        $scope.count++;
    });
}

Just replicate the above code in your visual studio.Once you run it it looks like this:

Click on the Emit-Event button, it means that we are generating an event using $emit() in the middle scope i.e the current scope from where the event is originated.
Now the output looks like this:

Observation:The count in the current scope and the parent scope are incremented to 1.
As discussed earlier the $emit() dispatched the event name to the listeners in the scope upwards the current scope .So the parent scope is incremented.
Now click on the Broadcast-Event button, it means that we are raising an event using $broadcast() in the mid scope ie in the current scope.
Now the output looks like:

Observation: The current scope and the leaf scopes are incremented whereas the parent scope remains unchanged.
Here , $broadcast() dispatched an event which traverses to the listener downwards the current scope.

Hope this helps you to understand the very basic actions of $broadcast,$emit and $on.Please feel free to comment and your valuable suggestions are always welcome.

$watch in Angular Js

2013-10-16T14:32:00.000+05:30

Angular Js has a concept called digest cycle, which is nothing but a loop of code during which angular checks throughout the scope to determine any changes to the variables within the scope. So, if you have any variables or objects defined under the $scope, then they are subject to undergo digest cycle.

Example:
$scope.myVariable
$scope.myObject etc.

But what really keeps track on these variables inside the digest cycle?

The digest cycle internally calls $watch() function which actually takes care on the changes that occur on the variables under the $scope.
Now if you like your custom code to be run every time a change is occurred on your variables under $scope, you can call $watch() on the variable.
Let us see a small example.
Let my variables under the scope be,

$scope.myName=”Steve”;
//defining watch on my variable
$scope.$watch(“myName”,function(){ 
Alert(“My name is changed”);
//you can add the custom functionality as per your requirement
//I gave just an alert for you to understand at the moment
}

Now when an event is triggered in your page in which your variable (“myName”) is changed,
Consider a button click event,

$scope.btnclick=function(){
$scope.myName=”Albert”; // this change will trigger $scope.$watch() into action
}

Whenever the value of the variable "myName" under the scope changes the alert defined in the $watch() function gets called.
Like this you can define your custom code as per your requirement that should be triggered onchange of your desired variable.

In this way you can set $watch() on any variable you want and define the custom functionality whenever there is a change on any variable on which $watch is called on.
Hope this helps.

Using common directive across multiple modules in Angular Js

2013-10-10T22:44:00.000+05:30

Angular Js has many inbuilt directives which we very often use in our html pages. Even though we are facilitated will a wide kind of directives some times we come across situations where we should design our own directives.While creating our own directive keep in mind that it should be reusable across all modules of your project.

Sharing directive among modules:

That's cool,now many fresh devolopers may find it hard to know how to make the custom directive file shared across multiple modules they build in their project.
Let us make it declarative using a simple example ,so that you would get a better figure.

First we shall create a couple of modules belonging to your project.

var myApp = angular.module('module-one',[])

var myApp = angular.module('module-two',[])

Now let us append a directive to one of the modules


var myFirstApp = angular.module('module-one',[]).

directive('myCustomDirective',function(){

// implement your custom behaviour

}

Now you need the same directive to be used in your module-two.What will you do?will you create a new directive for it.
No !you should'nt ,you have to make the directive defined in module-one reusable in the current module.
It can be done very easily, see the following piece of code below,,

var myApp = angular.module('module-two',[module-one])

That's all ,i just added module -one to the dependancies array of module-two.Now module-one's total belongings could be exposed in module-two.It can use the directive of module-one,thus avoided duplication achieved reusability.
In this way you can just add as dependancies to any number of modules and use the common functionality across multiple modules.

Sharing common directive between applications:

In the same way if two different files are present for directives in two different applications ,but belonging to the same project,you can use the same intellegence what we have done across multiple modules. Let the two different directive files be

// application 1
var myApp1=angular.module('myModue',[directive.one])

//directive1.js

myApp1.directives=angular.module('directiveRepositoryOne',[]).

directive('myDirective',function(){

//custom behaviour

}

//application 2

var myApp2=angular.module('myModule',[directive.two])

//directive2.js

myApp2.directives=angular.module('directiveRepositoryTwo',[]).

directive('myDirective',function(){

//custom behaviour

}

Note: While dealing with different applications don't forget to render the script files of the application in to your native application.

Like this we can make simple use of the dependancy array in our angular js application module and minimize redundancy and make our application less complicated.

ng-blur in Angular JS

2013-10-09T09:43:00.000+05:30

ng-blur

ng-blur is one of the directives provided by the angular framework which can trigger custom behaviour on blur. you can use it as an attribute in various html elements.
For example,


Hello world!

Let us see a simple example

Let this be my design page

Name:

User Name generated :

If yoy observe the above example ,The user simply enters his or her name.On leaving the textbox ie on blur the user should get his username generated automatically in the next textbox.
ng-blur="myName()" is the attribute we have used in whch we raised an event which gets triggered on blur.

Now i handle the event in my javascript file, and the code here is,

$scope.myName=function()
{
if($scope.username===null || $scope.username==="")
$scope.model.username=$scope.model.name + "someId";
//here "someId" can be a sequence of numbers
}

So when the user types his Name and moves to the next field his username is automatically generated,his name attached with some id.

ng-blur not working

This is one of the major problems complained by many fresh devolopers ,that my ng-blur not working.Yes this happens,especially because of the version which you are currently using.So check out in angularjs.org official website to know perfectly which vers ions support ng-blur and then proceed.

Solution:

Evevthough we have support for ng-blur in latest versions,but if you got already started with older versions ,still you could manually get the functionality by adding the directive code manually to your application.>/br> Attach the following like this to your application:

app.directive('ngBlur', ['$parse', function($parse) {
  return function(scope, element, attr) {
    var fn = $parse(attr['ngBlur']);
    element.bind('blur', function(event) {
      scope.$apply(function() {
        fn(scope, {$event:event});
      });
    });
  }
}]);

Now your application supports ng-blur directive and you can start using this as attribute like what we have done in the example explained above.

Hope this helps you and please feel free to suggest an comment.

dynamic keyword in c# ,How and where to use?

2013-10-07T19:45:00.000+05:30

Dynamic type in c#:

The 'dynamic' type in c# is quite handy in situation like where the user code doesn't know the final type of data it is going to return the client. The data type for the variables,properties or metnods which are declared as dynamic are not checked at the compile time, but will try to detect only at the runtime. Thus the dynamic type ,bypasses the compile time check to the runtime.This saves you a lot of effort which involves conversion of types explicitly or implicitly at different levels of your code execution.

For example,i want to return an object as an acknowledgement to a function on its success, from clientside , say from a javascript file. But my method on server side raises another function in it which inturn returns an integer.
Now two points you have to consider:
The actual method on the server should have the type int [since the method inside it returns an integer] But the actual method should return an object to the client. In order to overcome these conflicts, generally we have to typecast the returned variables implicitly or explicitly at every level of your functionality for making the final returned value valid. Let us take an example to get better clarity: Suppose i have the following code in my javascript file.

 $scope.saveLocation = function () {       
 var orgLocationResource = $resource("api/locations");

 orgLocationResource.save($scope.model, function (data) {

 $scope.locationId=data;

 }, function (error) {

 //To display error 

        });

The above code is a method in my controller which is intended to save the location details of my company.[this function get called when i click on save button in my locations form in the ui]
I used $resource to point the data direction to my methods present in my web api controller.
The save method has two callback functions,one of them to collect success status and the other to display error on failure.
In this scenario i want my web api method to return the location id on successfully saving a location.
Since location id is ony of my object properties i want the web api to return the location id as an object.

Now the following is my web api methods in my api controller:

public class LocationsController : ApiController
    {
        public LocationService LocService { get; private set; }

        public LocationsController (LocationService LocService )
        {
            this.LocService  = LocService ;
        }

 [ActionName("location")]//for time being im not returning anything from here
        public void PostLocation([FromBody]Location details)
        {
            this.LocService.saveLocation(details);
        }

In my web api controller i had a service in which i have the method to save the location details into the database.
In my case i am usind petapoco as my database.Petapoco , on saving a record returns the id of the table which is an integer.
The PostLocation method calls for savelocation method present in the service [here in my code LocationService is what the service i used]

Save Location method in my service:

 public int saveLocation(Core.Model.Org org)
        {
         
            return Convert.ToInt32(this.DB.Insert(org.MapTo()));
        }
>

Now observe carefully, the above method in my servce returns int,so the return type for my method 'PostLocation' should be int.But this method is actually intended to return an object. Generally we should do like this,

 public int PostLocation([FromBody]Location details)
        {
           return this.LocService.saveLocation(details);  
//this need to be converted explicitly to type object[if dynamic return type is not used for our method]
        }

Now if you dont like to do the conversions you should declare your method as dynamic like this

 public dynamic PostLocation([FromBody]Location details)
        {
            return new { locationId=this.LocService.saveLocation(details)};
        }

Now its simple you can return it as an object. Eventhough the method from the service returned an int the dynamic type holds it which inturn return it as an object. Summary

dynamic behaves as a placeholder for a type which is unknown until the runtime
A variable,parameter or field declared as dynamic can hold any type.They cange their type during runtime.
dynamic is more simple than types var or object as they both need implicit conversions to the return type.

Hope this post helps you in understanding the main theme of using 'dynamic' keyword.If you have any queries regarding this you can leave me a comment and your suggestions are always welcome.

angular.copy() in AngularJs.

2013-10-05T15:11:00.001+05:30

How to use angular.copy()

We are all familiar that AngularJs is a model driven technology.Two way binding is one of the powerful techniques implemented in it.Changes done to the model are instantly reflected to its related properties on the Ui and vice-versa.Nice functionality.But it may be annoying in some exceptional scenarios.So let us see one of the scenarios in our common web applications.

Scenario:

We have a section on our page showing a list of employees with minimum details provided with select functionality.
On selecting a particular employee a new section shows up displaying the total details of the corresponding employee.
The new show up also contain buttons to edit and update the details.
The normal requirement will be ,when the details of a particular employee are edited the actual list should not get updated instantly but should be done only after clicking the update button.
But in this case instant changes will take place in the actual list on editing the full detail section.This happens due to two way binding concept in angularJs.But in this case it is not needed.

Inorder to overcome such problems angular js is provided with an excellent method called "angular.copy()".

Let us discuss in detail with some sample code for better clarity: You can solve this issue by using angular.copy. Instead of binding to a value directly , we can make a deep copy of that object and use it for editing.

Example:

consider the following html code

 
 

    Angular copy example
    
        
            
            
        
        
            
                
                    Name
                    Email
                    Mobile
                    Address
                
            
            
                
                    {{emp.Name}}
                    {{emp.email}}

Name	Email	Mobile	Address
{{emp.Name}}	{{emp.email}}

And your javascript will be

var app = angular.module("app", []);  
app.controller("AppCtrl", function ($scope) {  
  $scope.employees = [  
          {"Name": "Sekhar", "mobile": "48635263469", "email": "sekhar@gmail.com"},  
          {"Name": "Abhi", "mobile": "455624512", "email": "abhi@gmail.com"},  
          {"Name": "Rani", "mobile": "6568568", "email": "rani@yahoo.com.com"},   
    ];  
  $scope.selectEmp = function (emp) {  
  $scope.selectedEmp = emp; // this is the model we use in Edit Form  
      }  
      this.saveEmp = function (empToUpdate) {  
          $scope.selectedEmp.Name =   empToUpdate.Name   
      }  
  });

When you implement the above code you will find that, whenever you try to edit the employee details you notice that the changes are reflected instaltly in the main list too.Inorde to overcome this we bring angula.copy() into picture.

Now using angular.copy() to the rescue:

Change your html and scripts to:
Design Page:

javascript file:

$scope.selectEmp = function (employee) {  
  $scope.selectedEmp = employee;  
          $scope.empCopy = angular.copy(employee);  
      }  
      this.saveEmp = function (empCopy) {  
  
        $scope.selectedEmp.Name = empCopy.Name;  
      }

Now you can find that we are taking a deep copy of the selected employee and using it as the secondary model to edit the contact without disturbing the our actual model.The edited model will be assigned to the actual model only when we press the update button.
In this way angular.copy() is quite handy in such situations.Hope this post helps you.

Content Query Web Part ,Adding more than three filters:

2013-07-18T11:51:00.001+05:30

Even though people use CQWP to roll up content from their sites or subsites, they feel little awkward noticeing that the UI part of the tool support only three filters.
So i am here in this post with a simple solution.
One of the frequent ways to to allow filters more than three is to override the QueryOverride property of the webpart. Inorder to achieve this follow the following four simple steps:

Firstly,Webpart should be exported to the File system.

Secondly,build the CAML required to filter the list.
Now update the QueryOverride property.

 <property name="QueryOverride" type="string">
          <![CDATA[
           <Where>
              <And>
                 <And>
                    <BeginsWith>
                       <FieldRef Name='NewColumn1' />
                       <Value Type='Text'>NewColumn1 Item1</Value>
                    </BeginsWith>
                    <BeginsWith>
                       <FieldRef Name='NewColumn2' />
                       <Value Type='Text'>NewColumn2 Item1</Value>
                    </BeginsWith>
                 </And>
                 <And>
                    <BeginsWith>
                       <FieldRef Name='NewColumn3' />
                       <Value Type='Text'>NewColumn3 Item1</Value>
                    </BeginsWith>
                    <BeginsWith>
                       <FieldRef Name='NewColumn4' />
                       <Value Type='Text'>NewColumn4 Item10</Value>
                    </BeginsWith>
                 </And>
              </And>
           </Where>
          ]]>
        </property>

Finally ,Import the webpart to the webpart page.

Note:

Sharepoint 2103 Software and Hardware prerequisites

2013-07-12T13:01:00.000+05:30

This article speaks about the software and hardware requirements for various kinds of installation scenarios supported by sharepoint 2013.Sharepoint 2013 provides the following installation scenarios.

Different Installation scenarios:

Single server with built-in database
Single-server Farm and
Multiple server Farm installations

Software Requirements:

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (KB 2759112)
Windows Server 2012 (KB 2765317)
Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.5
Either 64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 or 64-bit edition of SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1

Hardware Requirements:
PROCESSOR:

64-bit, 4 cores for small deployments (fewer than 1,000 users)
64-bit, 8 cores for medium deployments (between 1,000 to 10,000 users)

RAM:

8 GB for small deployments (fewer than 1,000 users)
16 GB for medium deployments (between 1,000 to 10,000 users)

Hard Disk:

80 GB for System Drive and it also depends upon the amount of content you have in your deployment

Sharepoint2013 vs Sharepoint2010 Features

2013-07-10T13:40:00.000+05:30

Hi everybody,it has been so long i have posted due to some unforeseen reasons.Anyway i have come back with a fresh information regarding sharepoint. Sharepoint 2013, the latest version , and the moment it was released there are lot of queries outbursting regarding all the features compared to the former edition ie sharepoint2010.Many users upgrading to the 2013 edition from 2010 had raised many questions in which most of thhem pointed to the feature comparison.So i wolud like to make you aware of some of the features which are enhanced ,upgraded or which made ease in sharepoint 2013 compared to thaose of sharepoint 2010 edition.

Making you very clear ,The structures of both the versions are same.So metadata architecture for documents in sharepoint2010 could definitely upgrade to the nwewr version sharepoint2013.
There are two utilities which made significant upgrades in document management which boosted the user experience
1. Sharepoint 2013 included a drop and drag option to upload documents.
2. It also made able to edit managed metadata in a datasheet view.
Lot of improvement has been done in 'search' option.
One of the major differences you could notice are in the 'Social Experiences'.The discussion boards feature in sharepoint 2013 is enabeled with Community features.This featues creates an engaging facebook like activity flow which made it feel more user-friendly when ccompared with the same feature present in sharepoint2010.
Generally sharepoint 2010 hosted a bit effort and planning for the networks while using the option "who you know" option ,which was made easy by the feature discussion boards employed in sharepoint 2013.

ADLDS-Forms Based Authentication in SharePoint 2010

2011-03-16T14:45:00.001+05:30

This AD-LDS is new and comes in Windows Server 2008. This is formerly known as ADAM. In SharePoint 2010 while creating a web application we have an option to choose the application authentication mode Claims Based and Classic Mode.

Creating a web application which uses Claims Based Authentication:

This is pretty much straight forward,

· Open Central Administration

· From Application Management - > Manage Web Applications

· From the top ribbon bar, select New

· From the create web application page, chose the authentication mode to “Claims Based Authentication”

· Give the name of web application, chose port number, path of web application.

· Chose security configuration

· From Claims Authentication Types, enable both WA and FBA.

· In FBA section we have to give ASP.NET Membership provider name. In my case I have used “ADLDSProvider” and I am not using any roles so I left it blank.

· Enter Sign in page url [default one], public url and other information and click OK.

· Once web application is created, then create a site collection.

· Now go to Manage Web application and from the list of web applications chose the option “Authentication Providers” from the ribbon.

· From the dialog box you will see the Default zone set to the Claims authentication mode. Click the Default zone link where you can see the settings.

· OK, application is ready and browse the application, you will see the below screen which gives you the option to choose either Windows Authentication or Forms authentication.

· The remaining part is linking our application and AD-LDS.

Give specific permissions to the service accounts:

· The service account or application pool user account of our FBA application,

· application pool account [service account] of central administration and

· security token service application pool user account

should have access to the ADLDS to go and get information of the users and roles. Almost in all environments the system administrators creates the service accounts we have to use in our applications. If you are not following those base rules in using service accounts then you may use different service accounts for all the three applications. In that case you have to go through all the three application we have mentioned above and give them access to ADLDS. If you are following the rules of using service accounts then may be only one service account used for all the three applications and give the service account access to ADLDS.

Modify web.config files of applications to communicate with ADLDS using providers

1. To get the users from ADLDS to central administration site we have to change web.config of Central Administration site.

2. To get the users from ADLDS to web application which we created to work FBA, we have to change its web.config.

3. To login to the site using claims based authentication, it uses security token service application. So, we have to change its configuration file.

So, the site we created for FBA to work using forms authentication we have to change 3 web.config files totally.

Note: Before you are making any changes to the web.config file of any application please take the backup of it.

The main changes include connection string and providers.

i. Modify web.config of web application we created:

Adding providers for membership and role [if needed]

Before you add any providers find are there any membership or rolemanager tags in the web.config file. And add the providers [<rolemanager> and <membership>] to the <System.Web> tag. Make sure that you are not doing any changes to the existing providers. By default there are providers with name “C” and “I”. So, do not touch them and add only the providers which we are adding like “SQLRoleManager” and “SqlMembershipProvider”. Finally the <rolemanager> section and <membership> section as shown below. Highlighted in red tags are I added to web.config.

<add name="ADLDSProvider"

type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Security.LDAPMembershipProvider, Microsoft.Office.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,

PublicKeyToken=71E9BCE111E9429C" server="SP2010-ADLDS"

port="389" useSSL="false"

userDNAttribute="distinguishedName"

userNameAttribute="userPrincipalName"

userContainer="CN=Users,CN=Customers,DC=Northwind,DC=Extranet"

userObjectClass="user" userFilter="(ObjectClass=user)"

scope="Subtree" otherRequiredUserAttributes="cn" />

</providers>

</membership>

</providers>

</roleManager>

Save all your changes and we are done with configuration changes for FBA site.

ii. Modify web.config of Central Administration site

Adding providers for membership and role [if needed]

</providers>

</roleManager>

<add name="ADLDSProvider"

type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Security.LDAPMembershipProvider, Microsoft.Office.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,

PublicKeyToken=71E9BCE111E9429C" server="SP2010-ADLDS"

port="389" useSSL="false"

userDNAttribute="distinguishedName"

userNameAttribute="userPrincipalName"

userContainer="CN=Users,CN=Customers,DC=Nothwind,DC=Extranet"

userObjectClass="user" userFilter="(ObjectClass=user)"

scope="Subtree" otherRequiredUserAttributes="cn" />

</providers>

</membership>Save the web.config file and we are done with configuration changes for CA.

iii. Modify web.config of Security Token Service Application

Open inetmgr from run command and open IIS. From the list of sites available expand “SharePoint Web Services” and find SecurityTokenServiceApplication.

Right click on the application and explore, which will opens the file system file location of the application. By default it will be in “%programfiles%\common files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\WebServices\SecurityToken”. Find the web.config of the application and modify it.

Adding providers for membership and role [if needed]

</providers>

</roleManager>

<add name="ADLDSProvider"

type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Security.LDAPMembershipProvider, Microsoft.Office.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,

PublicKeyToken=71E9BCE111E9429C" server="SP2010-ADLDS"

port="389" useSSL="false"

userDNAttribute="distinguishedName"

userNameAttribute="userPrincipalName"

userContainer="CN=Users,CN=Customers,DC=Northwind,DC=Extranet"

userObjectClass="user" userFilter="(ObjectClass=user)"

scope="Subtree" otherRequiredUserAttributes="cn" />

</providers>

</membership>

If everything goes well, then in central administration site and your FBA application people picker able to find the users in the ADLDS. And you will successfully logged-in to the site without any issues.

ADAM-Forms Based Authentication in SharePoint 2010

2011-03-16T14:38:00.001+05:30

Basically Forms Based Authentication is a part of ASP.NET. So, it supports in all versions of SharePoint which are released after ASP.NET 2.0. In SharePoint 2010 it is the same process as what we did in earlier versions like WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 except one thing. In SharePoint 2010 while creating a web application we have an option to choose the application authentication mode Claims Based and Classic Mode.

Creating a web application which uses Claims Based Authentication:

This is pretty much straight forward,

· Open Central Administration

· From Application Management - > Manage Web Applications

· From the top ribbon bar, select New

· From the create web application page, chose the authentication mode to “Claims Based Authentication”

· Give the name of web application, chose port number, path of web application.

· Chose security configuration

· From Claims Authentication Types, enable both WA and FBA.

· In FBA section we have to give ASP.NET Membership provider name. In my case I have used “ADAMProvider” and I am not using any roles so I left it blank.

· Enter Sign in page url [default one], public url and other information and click OK.

· Once web application is created, then create a site collection.

· Now go to Manage Web application and from the list of web applications chose the option “Authentication Providers” from the ribbon.

· From the dialog box you will see the Default zone set to the Claims authentication mode. Click the Default zone link where you can see the settings.

· OK, application is ready and browse the application, you will see the below screen which gives you the option to choose either Windows Authentication or Forms authentication.

· The remaining part is linking our application and ADAM.

Give specific permissions to the service accounts:

· The service account or application pool user account of our FBA application,

· application pool account [service account] of central administration and

· security token service application pool user account

should have access to the ADAM to go and get information of the users and roles. Almost in all environments the system administrators creates the service accounts we have to use in our applications. If you are not following those base rules in using service accounts then you may use different service accounts for all the three applications. In that case you have to go through all the three application we have mentioned above and give them access to ADAM. If you are following the rules of using service accounts then may be only one service account used for all the three applications and give the service account access to ADAM.

Modify web.config files of applications to communicate with ADAM using providers

1. To get the users from ADAM to central administration site we have to change web.config of Central Administration site.

2. To get the users from ADAM to web application which we created to work FBA, we have to change its web.config.

3. To login to the site using claims based authentication, it uses security token service application. So, we have to change its configuration file.

So, the site we created for FBA to work using forms authentication we have to change 3 web.config files totally.

Note: Before you are making any changes to the web.config file of any application please take the backup of it.

The main changes include connection string and providers.

i. Modify web.config of web application we created:

Adding providers for membership and role [if needed]

<add name="ADAMProvider"

type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Security.LDAPMembershipProvider, Microsoft.Office.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,

PublicKeyToken=71E9BCE111E9429C" server="SP2010-ADAM"

port="50389" useSSL="false"

userDNAttribute="distinguishedName"

userNameAttribute="userPrincipalName"

userContainer="DC=Northwind,DC=extranet"

userObjectClass="user" userFilter="(ObjectClass=user)"

scope="Subtree" otherRequiredUserAttributes="cn" />

</providers>

</membership>

</providers>

</roleManager>

Save all your changes and we are done with configuration changes for FBA site.

ii. Modify web.config of Central Administration site

Adding providers for membership and role [if needed]

</providers>

</roleManager>

<add name="ADAMProvider"

type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Security.LDAPMembershipProvider, Microsoft.Office.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,

PublicKeyToken=71E9BCE111E9429C" server="SP2010-ADAM"

port="50389" useSSL="false"

userDNAttribute="distinguishedName"

userNameAttribute="userPrincipalName"

userContainer="DC=Northwind,DC=extranet"

userObjectClass="user" userFilter="(ObjectClass=user)"

scope="Subtree" otherRequiredUserAttributes="cn" />

</providers>

</membership>

Save the web.config file and we are done with configuration changes for CA.

iii. Modify web.config of Security Token Service Application

Open inetmgr from run command and open IIS. From the list of sites available expand “SharePoint Web Services” and find SecurityTokenServiceApplication.

Adding providers for membership and role [if needed]

</providers>

</roleManager>

<add name="ADAMProvider"

type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Security.LDAPMembershipProvider, Microsoft.Office.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,

PublicKeyToken=71E9BCE111E9429C" server="SDP2010-ADAM"

port="50389" useSSL="false"

userDNAttribute="distinguishedName"

userNameAttribute="userPrincipalName"

userContainer="DC=Northwind,DC=extranet"

userObjectClass="user" userFilter="(ObjectClass=user)"

scope="Subtree" otherRequiredUserAttributes="cn" />

</providers>

</membership>

If everything goes well, then in central administration site and your FBA application people picker able to find the users in the ADAM. And you will successfully logged-in to the site without any issues.

Forms Based Authentication in SharePoint 2010 using Sql Memebership Providers

2011-03-16T08:06:00.001+05:30

Creating a web application which uses Claims Based Authentication:

This is pretty much straight forward,

Open Central Administration
From Application Management - > Manage Web Applications
From the top ribbon bar, select New
From the create web application page, chose the authentication mode to “Claims Based Authentication”
Give the name of web application, chose port number, path of web application.
Chose security configuration
From Claims Authentication Types, enable both WA and FBA.
In FBA section we have to give ASP.NET Membership provider name. In my case I have used “SQLMembershipProvider” and I am not using any roles so I left it blank.
Enter Sign in page url [default one], public url and other information and click OK.
Once web application is created, then create a site collection.
Now go to Manage Web application and from the list of web applications chose the option “Authentication Providers” from the ribbon.
From the dialog box you will see the Default zone set to the Claims authentication mode. Click the Default zone link where you can see the settings.

OK, application is ready and browse the application, you will see the below screen which gives you the option to choose either Windows Authentication or Forms authentication.

The remaining part is linking our application and the Sql Server database.

Create ASPNETDB to configure membership and Role providers

This process should be done on the database server. The result of the process is a database where we can save all the user and role information.

Login to the server where SQL Server is installed.
Open command prompt and navigate to location “%Sysroot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727”.
Run the “aspnet_regsql.exe“. Which will open the ASP.NET SQL Server setup wizard?
Click “Next” and chose the option “Configure Sql server for application services”

Click “Next” and give the SQL Server name and authentication information and in database by default it shows <default> means the name will be ASPNETDB, but you can change the name here if you want.

Click “Next” and Finish the wizard. It will create a database for you with the entire schema required to save users and roles.
Now, we have to enter some data to the database. For this we have some tools available from Codeplex.
Go to this site and download “Membershipseeder.zip”
Extract it and run it and create n number of users and roles [if you want]. Note that if you have given some name to the database other than the default name aspnetdb then in membershipseeder config file please change connection string.
Now, we are ready with database with all some test data in it.

Give specific permissions to the service accounts:

We have created the database successfully. Before we proceed,

The service account or application pool user account of our FBA application,
Application pool account [service account] of central administration and
Security token service application pool user accounts

should have access to the database to go and get information of the users and roles. Almost in all environments the system administrators creates the service accounts we have to use in our applications. If you are not following those base rules in using service accounts then you may use different service accounts for all the three applications. In that case you have to go through all the three application we have mentioned above and give them access to database. If you are following the riles of using service accounts then may be only one service account used for all the three applications and give the service account access to database.

Modify web.config files of applications to communicate with database using providers

1. To get the users from sql server database to central administration site we have to change web.config of Central Administration site.

2. To get the users from Sql server database to web application which we created to work FBA, we have to change its web.config.

3. To login to the site using claims based authentication, it uses security token service application. So, we have to change its configuration file.

So, the site we created for FBA to work using forms authentication we have to change 3 web.config files totally.

Note: Before you are making any changes to the web.config file of any application please take the backup of it.

The main changes include connection string and providers.

i. Modify web.config of web application we created:

Adding ConnectionString

Add Connectionstring just above <System.Web> starts or just below </Sharepoint> ends.

</connectionStrings>

Adding providers for membership and role [if needed]

</providers>

</roleManager>

</providers>

</membership>

Save all your changes and we are done with configuration changes for FBA site.

ii. Modify web.config of Central Administration site

Add Connectionstring

Add Connectionstring just above <System.Web> starts or just below </Sharepoint> ends.

</connectionStrings>

Adding providers for membership and role [if needed]

</providers>

</roleManager>

</providers>

</membership>

Save the web.config file and we are done with configuration changes for CA.

iii. Modify web.config of Security Token Service Application

Open inetmgr from run command and open IIS. From the list of sites available expand “SharePoint Web Services” and find SecurityTokenServiceApplication.

Add connectionstring

Just above <System.Web> starts add the connection strings tag.

</connectionStrings>

Adding providers for membership and role [if needed]

</providers>

</roleManager>

</providers>

</membership>

If everything goes well, then in central administration site and your FBA application people picker able to find the users in the sql server aspnetdb database. And you will successfully logged-in to the site without any issues.

Classic Mode Vs Claims Based Authentication in SharePoint 2010

2011-03-16T08:01:00.001+05:30

Classic Mode: This is nothing but Windows Authentication. If any web application is created with Classic Mode Authentication then it cannot applicable to configure forms based authentication. But, to configure this application to use Forms Based Authentication then you can convert from Classic Mode to Claims Based. But, there is no UI exist for doing this conversion. The only way around is through PowerShell.

$app = get-spwebapplication "URL"

$app.useclaimsauthentication = "True"

$app.Update()

But, if an application is created using Claims based and if you want to convert from Claims based to Classic Mode then it is not possible either through UI or through PowerShell. So, remember this.

Claims Based: In SharePoint 2010 for a web application we can enable both windows, forms authentication. In earlier implementation to do this, we have to create two web applications which has different zones and different authentication. But, with the new claims based authentication a single application can have the capability to configure both windows and forms under single URL. All this is possible because of the authentication framework is built on Microsoft Identify Foundation. And it uses “Geneva” framework to handle this authentication.

Installing the Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services [AD-LDS]

2011-03-16T07:57:00.001+05:30

This is the replacement of ADAM in previous versions.

Windows Server 2008 or later servers:

If you are using Windows Server 2008 or later versions of the servers then this service included in the Server Roles in Server Manager. To install this service then please follow steps below.

1. Open Server Manager.

2. Click on Roles from the left navigation tree view.

3. On the main panel window you see all the roles installed. And on the right side, you have option to add/remove roles.

4. Click on Add Roles link.

5. A wizard opens up and in the window you will see all roles available on the server. If any role installed then it will be disabled as we have clicked on “Add Roles” option.

6. From the list of roles, select “Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services”.

7. Click “Next” button and then install.

8. It will take around a minute and completes the installation.

Note: It will be good if you restart your server but, not mandatory.

Windows 7:

Windows 7 is not a server and you cannot find “Server Manager” option. So, we have to download add-in from Microsoft which installs AD-LDS components.

· Download the installer from “AD-LDS for Windows 7”.

· Run the download and wait till installation complete.

Configuring the AD-LDS

I am assuming you are successfully installed the AD-LDS on the system you are using either WS 2008/R2 or Windows 7. If successfully installed then you will find an option named “Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services Setup Wizard” under control panel -> administrative tools.

As we discussed earlier, it allows multiple instances in the same server. So, you can create n number of AD-LDS instances on the server. But, when you create an instance what are actually created and what services it enables etc. in later sections. The physical location of this setup wizard is at “%SystemRoot%\ADAM\adaminstall.exe”. OK, now we have to create an instance of the AD-LDS.

· Double click on the “Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services Setup Wizard”.

· It brings up a wizard where we can create a new instance or create a copy of existing instance.

· Chose option “A unique instance” as we are going to create a new AD-LDS instance and click “Next”.

· Give a good name in the “instance name” and type some description. The name should be good because this name will be used in some other places. So, keep giving good names everywhere.

· Click “Next” and from this screen, we have to choose the port numbers. By default it will take 389 for LDAP and for SSL 636. You can change it.

· Click “Next” and select the option “Yes, create an application directory partition” and enter the partition name. I have used “CN=Customers,DC=Northwind,DC=Extranet”.

· Click “Next” and from this screen, we have to give the file locations of where the files will be saved. I left to the default path, but you can give any safe location other than “C:\”

· Click “Next” and chose the service account you want to use. [Under which account the AD-LDS should run.] For testing purpose chose N/S otherwise go for your domain service accounts.

· Click “Next” and select the AD-LDS administrators. If you logged into the server who is an administrator then leave as is, otherwise chose an account.

· Click “Next” and here is the interesting part. What LDIF [Lightweight Directory Interchange Format] files you want to import into this AD-LDS. The physical location of all these LDF files is at “%SystemRoot%\ADAM”. [You can see *.ldf files from Command Prompt]. Select all 4 I selected. It is not mandatory to select all. But, MS-User.LDF is mandatory. All other for adding external properties to user or related classes.

· Click “Next” and this screen gives the complete summary of what we have selected “Ready to install”.

· Click “Next” to install.

· Click Finish. We are completed with installation process.

Validate AD-LDS:

· If everything configured correct then you will see the service running under Administrative Tools -> Services.

· Go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> you will see the AD-LDS instance installed.

Connect to the AD-LDS

OK, we successfully created and validated everything is successful. Now, we have to see the created instances and do some stuff with it. For this we need some sort of tool to connect to the instance and browse through. The familiar tool what we use regularly is “ADSI Edit”. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools and open ADSI Edit.

· Now connect to the AD-LDS instance from the option Actions -> Connect to. Give some name to the connection. And from the Connection point, we will check the schema first. So, select Schema. And from the Computer setting, give your server name. And click OK.

· Now, you will see the complete schema of the available objects. See the schema for user etc...

· Now, we actually need to see data other than schema of the AD-LDS instance. For this we have to connect to the partition of what we have created.

o From Actions -> Connect To. Give some name to the connection and from Connection Point, chose the distinguished name and give the name we have given while creating the instance. And enter the server name and click OK.

o By default only 4 objects. We have to create an object[Container] named Users to place all the users in it. For that right click on the surface and from the menu, chose new and then object.

o Select “Container” from the list of options.

o Enter “Users” in value box.

o Click Finish. Now you see “Users” container.

o Now, expand the “Users” container from left navigation tree and you will see it is empty.

o Create a user in that “Users” container by right clicking on the surface, from Menu, select New -> Object.

o From the “create new object” window select “User”.

o In next screen, give the name of the user.

o Click Finish. User is created in the “Users” container.

o Before use this user we have to set some properties.

§ Right click on user and select “Reset Password”.

§ After than right click on the user and select “Properties”.

§ From the list of properties available to the user, set the property “msDS- UserAccountDisabled” to false.

Giving permissions to the service account:

This is again what we have to consider and never forget. Against any data source whether it could be database, Active Directory, AD-LDS or any, the application in which we tried to connect to these data sources we should allow the service account to grant read access to the data source. So, here also the same thing, we should grant read permissions to the service account of our application where we are using these AD-LDS. For grating permissions,

· From the partition, expand find Roles, and then Readers.

· From properties, you will find a property named “member”.

· Click on “Member” and select “Edit”.

· Add users from this window. If user is windows account user then select the option “Add Windows Account” and choose user and save your changes.

OK. We have completed successfully installing, configuring and creating users in the AD-LDS instance. Now, we can use this AD-LDS in our applications to access user information or authentication. It is very to manage, create or replicate the instances in AD-LDS as like ADAM.

Note: For the AD-LDS the path we have to use in our applications to connect to a specific instance is, LDAP://server-name/partition-name

In our example, if we assume the server name is SP2010-AD then it will be

LDAP://SP2010-AD/CN=Customers,DC=Northwind,DC=Extranet