Rod

evening drive home last night

2013-05-29T10:20:00.001-05:00

There was certainly a storm rolling in. Funny thing is. It never actually hit my side of Polk County. So we got all the views of a pretty sunset without any of the rain for once.

Snow waves landing on Saylorville last night

2013-05-03T08:20:00.001-05:00

Driving across the MileLong bridge was weird. The snow you could see in waves against the backdrop of the lake water below. Just kind of freaky.

SSRS Export to Excel works in IDE but not in Webpage. CSV others are fine.

2013-04-16T10:45:00.000-05:00

Weird error I encountered this week.

Been tearing out my hair for at least a week on this one.

I had this awesome report that looks at security changes inside of Microsoft Project Server for the Project sites that we have closed down and locked down. Basically we are making sure no one accidently gets added into a site where they shouldn't be. The report works awesome.

But you cannot auto export it to Excel. Couldn't export to Excel when inside SSRS Webpage. But it exports fine inside the IDE. What is up with that.

I hear people already saying. But the 255 character limit that has to be your issue. Umm no. It shouldn't be. I am showing the URL for the project sites. But I pasted those into Notepad and counted the columns. Nope 150 is my longest URL. Nothing there.

Otherwise I am showing the count of users and the title for the Project. Nothing major there. No really weird characters.

Oh for those of you who want to see the error.
Error: Thread was being aborted
Yep that is the error I get. Checking ULS logs and IIS logs doesn't give much more information. I am totally scratching my head at this point.

We have just began using a
-- set transaction isolation level read UNCOMMITTED

line at the top of all our SQL to make sure we didn't lock any records accidentally. Commented that out. Still no luck. Error keeps happening.

Googling around. Nothing really out there. Finally I come back to the first idea. 255 characters. No way that can be it. Recheck the URL lengths. Nope all of them are under 150. Each of them is a hyperlink to the actual site.
IDEABULB. yep, the URL itself plus the a href tag plus the URL again inside the href tag. Puts all of that data inside of one Cell in the report. Excel no likey that. So sorry end user doing the checking, the Hyperlink will not be clickable. Removed the HyperLink and

Fixed!

Conclusion. When in doubt go back thru your ideas again and again on what might be wrong. Something simple usually solves your issue.

Lamp post outside Opry

2013-03-18T19:59:00.001-05:00

Just a lamp post outside the Grand Olé Opry. It kind of looks like the one you might imagine in the Lion the witch and the wardrobe. Just my thought. Yours?

Racquetball

2013-02-11T07:35:00.002-06:00

So if you follow me at all on Twitter or Facebook you know that I kind of like racquetball. This weekend was the Iowa open and I got voluntold that I would be the Semi Official Photographer for the event. It was alot of fun and Davey was playing in the tournament. Anyhoo, here are a couple of setup pictures from the eVent. I might post more later. To Google Plus not to Facebook. Enjoy.

From Rball

Why would anyone want a smart phone

2013-02-06T12:37:00.001-06:00

ok, so the other day I was asked. Why the heck do you have a smart phone. A regular cell phone is fine. In fact isn't it soo much cheaper not to have a cell phone at all. In all honesty. Yes and a resounding NO. It all depends. Anyhoo I am biased. I don't like land lines and I like being mobile with all I have and with things I do. I like being able to look up any and I do mean any information I need while I am any where. But really the Smart Phone for me has actually replaced soo many other things I used to carry or want to have with me at all times. Now I don't carry them everywhere or take these things with me all the time. for example GPS. I have one. It is awesome. One of the best presents my wonderful wife ever bought me. I never carry it anywhere anymore.

Notebooks. Journals. I journal. Alot. I have kept a journal entry every day for the past 16 or so years. seriously. I love to journal. but the smart phone has opened up a door for me in actually being able to search those journals for something I might have written down months ago. or years ago. It just works wonderfully. And yes it has been a process getting here. As of this last year I just bought what I think will probably be my last paper journal.

Books. I read alot. If I had to carry around all the books I am reading I would have to add an extra 15lbs to my backpack. I always carry the following (note I am a geek)Boy Scout handbook, Bible, Health book and a couple of reading books.

Other stuff I used to carry or have near me in the car etc. Compass, Camera, Video Camera, Maps, Paper Calendar, Pens, Radio, Flashlight, Watch(with Alarm) various Magazines., etc.....

Anyhoo. If you add up all the cost of all the things I used to carry, Vs the cost of a very high end Smart Phone. Smart Phone wins easily. Smart Phone Galaxy Note 2 is 800 retail. Cost of all the stuff I used to carry around with me all the time. about 1500. Weight of the smartphone about a pound give or take. Weight of all that junk I "needed" to carry around. 372lbs. Give or take. PS I did not pay anywhere near 800 for my phone. More like 50.

And wait there is more. The SmartPhone opens up doors for things I can do with it that I never would have taken with me before or even could have been able to. Remote Control of my TV. Budgeting on the fly, kitchen timers, A Level, Safety utility for driving if I am in a crash(yes it exists) Dog Whistle, Guitar Tuner for my daughter, Scanner for receipts, Gaming Device(I don't game much but it does pass the time) Encyclopedia, and just soo much more.

Anyway here is a spreadsheet of how I worked this out. The numbers are completely faked by me. Argue with them if you will. Actually please argue with them.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnoLq_4SNYfXdFotUjczRHpZR1ljZExMdWc4c3ZVSXc#gid=0

Enjoy.

Thanks

Just a wonderful day for a drive

2012-12-17T21:14:00.001-06:00

This last weekend. We had the chance to basically drive all of southwest Iowa. If you ever get the chance to drive down to Sidney or there abouts sometime. Do yourself a favor and don't take the interstate. In particular Highway 2 in southern iowa is a great way to view some awesome gorgeous rolling hills. And if the weather is slightly damp. Well the views are just spectacular. highly recommend it. It is a great way to spend a Saturday. Anyone else up for a Road Trip?

2012-11-29T15:44:00.001-06:00

take a minute and relax and just watch the waves roll in.

Gulf of Mexico waves in slow motion.

gulfofMex from Rod Bergren on Vimeo.

Davey by the Gulf of Mexico

2012-11-28T12:52:00.001-06:00

It was a dark and foggy morning. Perfect for walking along the beach in the morning and just being alone there. There easily could have been thousands of people on the beach but it was quite and you could not see very far at all.

From blog

SSRS : C. Finding if a parameter value selection is in the multi valued field in SharePoint

2012-10-27T09:56:00.001-05:00

I have had on occasion the need to do a lookup many to many to see if something is in a multi valued field in a SharePoint list. This gets really icky especially considering that you cannot us the “IN” value for this lookup.

The code looks like this

'''

''' Function for finding if a value actually exists in the selection criteria for the group

'''

''' the drop list containing the values selected

''' the field populated with the items

''' 1 if any of the drop list items are found in the field otherwise 0 zero

Public Function InTheGroup(ByVal droplist1 As Object(), ByVal strList As String) As Integer

For i As Integer = 0 To UBound(droplist1)

If InStr(strList, droplist1(i).ToString) Then

Return 1

Exit For

Exit Function

End If

Return 0

End Function

What we are doing here is looping thru all the values in the droplist and checking to see if they are in the selection list from the SharePoint multiple select field. It isn’t hard. It is just the reverse of what you normally think as using your parameters for. In this case the parameters are being checked against. In your check in the filter on the dataset you just set if it is equal to 1. Pretty straight forward.

driving the mile long bridge at midnight.

2012-10-21T07:18:00.003-05:00

it can be scary especially when your 14 year old is the one driving and the only control you have over your 3 ton truck is the voice you are using to help her drive. With the drought this year it is about a half mile drop over the side. (ok ok, it looks that way).

Anyway she does great and I am even relaxed enough to shoot a picture while she is driving. Turns out the sunset was pretty darn spectacular. Enjoy

warp speed Daphne

2012-10-19T17:51:00.000-05:00

Yep Daphne was driving. And Daddy was having fun shooting pictures. I like how it turned out.

Iowa always has great sunrises

2012-10-12T15:28:00.001-05:00

This is from about a month ago. Woke up and look at this gorgeous sky. Just WOW

Davey and a Train

2012-10-12T13:29:00.001-05:00

Football pictures were being taken but the kids including Davey were much more interested in the train that was passing by. It was LOUD and cold. just after harvest saturday morning.

Indianola Balloon Festival. Or Thingy if you watch facebook

2012-08-05T16:19:00.001-05:00

It was a good night hanging out with the whole fam damily. anyhoo. The balloons didn't go up. but we had a good time watching fireworks and just being with friends and family. Ended up running into a whole lot of people we know. If you get the chance you should come up to watch this sometime. It is world famous. Literally.

SSRS Doing an either or Selection from a SharePoint list for a selection criteria

2012-07-23T16:19:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately most of the time in SSRS when you are selecting criteria. You cannot use a selection like. Hey give me all the students who have a passing grade or who have recently recently enrolled in the course. You can only do the And. Unless you use some code on the page.

Basically what you do is build two datasets selecting from the same list. The first one selects all the students who have a D or better grade. Data1

The Second dataset selects all the students whose registration date is >= now(-10) Data2

Now you build a hidden parameter for each of these datasets. Parameter1 uses Data1 for it’s default values and available values. And Parameter2 uses Data2 for it’s default values and available values.

Then you put this code into your SSRS report

'''

''' Will combine two droplist boxes together into one list and return that list

''' call example

''' =Split(Code.PutTogether(JOIN(Parameters!ReportParameter1.Value,";"),JOIN(Parameters!ReportParameter2.Value,";")), ";")

'''

''' a string of an array with the records to pull out

'''

Public Function PutTogether(ByVal I1 As String, ByVal I2 As String) As String

Dim noDups As New System.Collections.ArrayList()

Dim S1, S2

S1 = Split(I1, ";")

S2 = Split(I2, ";")

For i As Integer = 0 To UBound(S1)

If Not noDups.Contains(S1(i).Trim()) Then

noDups.Add(S1(i).Trim())

End If

For i As Integer = 0 To UBound(S2)

If Not noDups.Contains(S2(i).Trim()) Then

noDups.Add(S2(i).Trim())

End If

Dim uniqueItems As String() = New String(noDups.Count - 1) {}

noDups.CopyTo(uniqueItems)

Return String.Join(";", uniqueItems)

End Function

Create your 3^rd parameter with this for default and available values.

=Split(Code.PutTogether(JOIN(Parameters!ReportParameter1.Value,";"),JOIN(Parameters!ReportParameter2.Value,";")), ";")

And set your filter values for your main dataset1 to be the 3^rd parameter and you should be good to go.

Davey playing with some sparklers on the 4th of July

2012-07-08T09:04:00.001-05:00

The sparklers were fun. Davey had a blast. He didn't understand why I needed him to stand still and only move his hand though. Getting an eleven year old boy to stand still is nearly impossible.

SSRS Tooltip wrapping.

2012-06-26T11:00:00.000-05:00

Apparently the tool tips in SSRS reports don't wrap very well. I had not encountered this problem myself in my endeavors. However others have. You can include some carriage returns in the text but not when you enter it.

Pam came up with a fairly good work around that is not code based and would work most excellently if you don't want to deal with the code.function call issues and putting code into your SSRS reports. I cannot blame you for not wanting to do this. Read about that here

However, if you do not want to have a bunch of new sql fields in your table or like me you do not have alot of access to the SQL server design. I put together this little code block that should do the trick as well.

'''

''' Should insert carriage returns in a string in order to make it wrap correctly inside a tool tip
'''

''' the text that will need to wrap
''' the wrapping length. probably 100
''' a wrapped string
'''
Public Function ReturnWrappedText(theText As String, lenWrap As Integer) As String

Dim tLen As Integer, i As Integer, astr As String, iSpace As Integer
tLen = theText.Length
astr = ""
i = 1

If tLen < lenWrap Then
Return theText
End If

Do Until astr.Length >= tLen
iSpace = InStrRev(theText, " ", i + lenWrap - 1)
astr &= Mid(theText, i, iSpace - i - lenWrap + 1) & Chr(10)
i = iSpace + 1
Loop

Return astr

End Function

Thanks all and have a great week

And another picture slightly later than the other one.

2012-06-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

The clouds and the colors were changing incredibly quickly. This picture was litterally taken 2 minutes after the last one. It was awesome to watch. By 6am the show was completely over.

Sunrise under the clouds

2012-06-08T10:49:00.002-05:00

yep, 5:45 in the morning on the drive to Men's group. And there was the sun popping over the horizon underneath the rain clouds. It was gorgeous.

From blog

So you need to sort that Parameter list in SSRS from a SharePoint List

2012-06-05T12:47:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately the SharePoint Listing RSS feed will not allow you to actually sort the list.
So you end up with a parameter list populated with an XML call like this.

rssharepointlist xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
listname>MyProjects
viewfields>
fieldref name="Project_Name">
fieldref name="ID">

So as you can see from the Microsoft specification if you go look for it. You cannot sort this at all. You can read about that here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee633650.aspx

the really annoying part is the start of the second paragraph in the applied filters section. "You cannot change the sort order "
can we all just say *UGH* seriously MS why can't I apply a sort to a SharePoint List in SSRS? Oh I know the whole thing about you apply it to the default view. But I have notice that getting lost. I have an actual example of it getting lost but I cannot show it here. Confidential names yadda yadda. Just trust me it gets lost from development on my machine to the deployed state on the server.

So all that being said. What you have in each item in the SharePoint Drop parameters list is an Array of Objects. But you might have one array for the Values and another array for the User readable titles. Case in point the List above. I have the "ID" Field and I also have the " Project_Name" field. The users can read the Title Field but the server can only really read the ID field. So we need a way to make this all work.

Well without futher ado. here is your code for doing just that.

Public Shared Function sortObject(ByVal spstr As Object(), ByVal lblStr As Object(), ByVal iCol As Integer) As Object()

Dim tempLbl(UBound(lblStr)) As Object
Dim tempVal(UBound(spstr)) As Object

tempLbl = lblStr
Array.Sort(lblStr)
For i As Integer = 0 To UBound(lblStr)
For j As Integer = 0 To UBound(tempLbl)
If lblStr(i) = tempLbl(j) Then
tempVal(i) = spstr(j)
Exit For
End If
Next
Next

If iCol = 1 Then
Return tempVal
Else
Return lblStr
End If

End Function

The Call to make this work is something along the line of
=Code.sortObject(Parameters!ProjectNum.Value, Parameters!ProjectNum.Label, 1)
This would entered in the Value area for the parameter. The Label would be
=Code.sortObject(Parameters!ProjectNum.Value, Parameters!ProjectNum.Label, 2)

Where ProjectNum is populated with the dataset from the RSSharePointList dataset above.

Then you just build your new parameter based upon this one with the Code.sortobject calls above.
Hide this parameter and you are good to go.

Soccer and rain

2012-05-31T15:18:00.001-05:00

yep there they are. Playing soccer with it about to rain.

Clouds this morning on the drive to work

2012-04-17T15:03:00.004-05:00

camera phone again. Seriously I love Iowa. the weather here this time of year is awesome

This mornings sunrise from the camera phone

2012-04-05T15:26:00.001-05:00

Possible Cross winds on bridge? you think so?

2012-03-28T11:49:00.003-05:00

This is my view each evening on my way home from work. Always always look at the windsock to make sure my SUV won't be blown off the bridge.