Thursday, March 27, 2014

What do you need to author a Power View Report?

This is the first question that you ask yourselves.

As Power View report is based on data it finds on a tabular data model, you need SQL Server Analysis Services(SSAS) server, which can host a tabular model. This means that you must have
configured the SQL Server Analysis Server to support tabular model. You create
the tabular model using SSDT, which installs when you install SQL Server 2012.

However with SQL Server 2014 which went RTM recently you can create Power View Reports as well as DAX queries using the Multi- dimensional models.

Installing SSAS to support tabular model was covered in Chapter 1, Overview and
Installation – SQL Server Reporting Services 2012 of my book Learning SQL Server Reporting Services 2012.


Also, as the PowerView is launched from SharePoint Server 2010, you want
the SQL Server Reporting Services 2012 configured to operate in integrated mode
with SharePoint Services. Installing Reporting Services 2012 in SharePoint Integrated mode was
described in Chapter 1 , Overview and Installation – SQL Server Reporting Services 2012 of my book..
The Power View reports in the above chapter are based on these premises. Power Views
are only possible for enterprise-grade servers for both SharePoint Server 2010 and
SQL Server 2012.
The environment for developing Power View described in this book is based on
the following:
•  Possibility of installingSharePoint 2010 Server on Windows 7 (x64) computer
•  Installing SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated mode
•  Configuring SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services to support tabular
data model
•  Availability of a Silverlight-enabled browser

Friday, March 21, 2014

How to code an audio file to run in HTML5 using data URI scheme?


When you need to fashion a web page to include in-line data, you would use the data URI (URL)
scheme.
Here is the IETF reference for the Data URL scheme,
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2397

As described in the above it is,
"A new URL scheme, "data", is defined. It allows inclusion of small
   data items as "immediate" data, as if it had been included
   externally
"
You can embed different kinds of data in a web page using the source pointing to this URL scheme.
For example you can embed the image of a red dot with the following scheme,
Red dot
The above is from WIKIPEDIA.

Read the advantages and disadvantages of using URL scheme in web pages in the above link.
As to using audio files, you would normally code as follows:


If the browser does not support the .ogg file it would play the MP3 file and if it cannot it will
display a message as indicated.

In IE11 you get to see the audio controls but you get an error message.


When you accept to allow running scripts it changes to a different error but does not play the audio.


Firefox 26.0 does not play the file although the controls are displyed briefly to fade quickly.
Safari 5.1.7 clearly does not support the audio element.



Now how do you use the data URL Scheme to play audio?

The HTML5 code to use this scheme is as shown:

   <!--
src="data:audio/wav;base64,UklGRpDVAgBXQVZFZm10IBAAAAABAAEAIlYAAESsAAACABAAZGF0YWzVAgAB////Af8AAA
D//wAB
AgD9/wEAAAD//wQB/P/4AAcACQD7Afb/AgAJAf8B+v8C/wUA+gD+AQL//wAAAP4A+gABAQT//P/5
AAEABwD+AvkABgD///YAAQACAf8A/v8FAf7/+AEFAAAAAAD+AAUB/QH4/woAAgH+//wB+v8MAQX/
AgH8/wj/BwDzAAYBBP8GAQEA/gAHAAAACwAEAP7/BAAGAfn/CQATAf4AAgD3APwAC/4OAAMA/AD3
AQEAAAAB/wwC9P/+AAwB/AAAAP4A+AAHAPsAAgAS/+cABQEEAOkAAQH7/wEB+AAC//gA+wIE//kA
Af/wAQwAB//o/wMCFP/vAP8BBQHt/wIACgD0//8ABQEQAPMA9wIJ/wcB/ADxAQj/AP/6Afr/7AEK
..truncated data/>

The Base64 content is too big and therefore  truncated.

IE11 does display the controls but the error in display  is 'Invalid source'.



Safari 5.1.7 does not run the audio content.



However  Mozilla Firefox 26.0 does play the audio file.


How do you create Base64 content. You can take your *.wav file and run it thorough a program that
converts it to Base64 format and use it in the web page.

Here is an article that creates a web service to encode/decode Base64.
http://www.aspfree.com/c/a/vb-net/encodingdecoding-web-service-web-service-provider/

You can directly do it on-line by going to,
http://www.base64decode.org/




http://www.base64decode.org/
 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Can an external USB drive connected to Windows XP be accessed from a Windows 7 computer on the network?

Yes. It is possible.
Using the following elements I was able to access a USB drive connected to Windows XP x32bit.

  • Windows XP x32 bit Toshiba Satellite [Toshiba-Michiko]
  • Windows 7 Ultimate x64 bit Toshiba Satellite P775 [HodentekWin7]
  • Linksys Router
The Windows 7 is on Wi-Fi off the same router. Windows XP has the Lan Connection
These are the steps taken to access:
1. You need to share the hard drive and the connected drive (in my case it is a FreeAgent GoFlex drive) of the XP. Allow sharing files/folders on both C: and connected drive



2. You should allow incoming connections to XP (Firewall settings)


3. Verify connectivity by pinging each computer from the other.

4. Now you can access the files on the connected drive

 
Also review this link:

Mahalo

Sunday, March 2, 2014

What is FileZilla and how do you use it to trasnfer files from a site to your computer?

 In the last post I described moving an ASP.NET website contents from one hosting provider to another. However the described process copied content on a site from one provider to a site on another provider.

What if you don't have a new provider? Let us say, you want all the content from an existing site to your hard drive.  In this case FileZilla comes in very handy.

FileZilla is a free FTP solution which provides both an FTP Client (allowing downloading your site content) and FTP server (you can upload files to a site) and is supported by a forum and its users.
You can download FileZilla from here:


https://filezilla-project.org/

You need to download the file from this site shown here:


Wait, do not click on the big green button. It will also allow you to download FileZilla, but it will bring in extra bundled stuff you may not need. When you scroll down you will see more options and there choose to download the one shown here:



If you want both client and server, you can get them by clicking both the buttons, one at a time. I got only the client program as I want to download from my website. Once you start the FileZilla_3.7.4.1_win32-setup program it is pretty much wizard driven. Follow the steps including this one here:

Once the installation is complete you will be seeing this:

Lots of stuff to do in the above screen using links. I just clicked OK after briefly looking over it.

Now you can start your transfer from site to hard disk. Double click the FileZilla short cut on your desktop to display the user interface as shown.
You need to fill in the details of the website you are downloading from and of course you need the authentication details. The Port can be blank or 21 be default. Click on the QucikConnect button.
The program establishes  connection to the website and brings in the root folder of the site to the right hand pane as shown. The left hand pane shows the computer drives and folders as shown.

As soon as the connection is established you can see all the files/folders on your site populating the right hand site as shown (only the root is shown and it can be expanded).


All that is needed is to create a folder on the computer (In C:\drive in this case) and right click the root folder and click Download from the list as shown.

The files from righthad side gets trasnferred to the left side and you will be seeing the activities in the pane above. The downloaded files are shown progrssively transferred as shown the bottom pane. It also shows the files that missed for some reason, you can go over later adn get those files as well if necessary. It will show all the files downloaded.

That's all there is to it.

Mahalo