Using vb2js

This is one of the only tools I've found to automatically convert VBA files to .js files. YMMV.

- Download via svn. see https://code.google.com/p/vb2js/source/checkout

- Download Guava (currently guava-14.0.1.jar)  - https://code.google.com/p/guava-libraries/; place downloaded file in 'src' folder of vb2js download

- Open a text editor and insert this code

package com.google.vb2js;
import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;

public class MyVbaJsConverter {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws FileNotFoundException, IOException {
    if (args.length == 2) {
   String entireFileText = new Scanner(new File(args[0]))
  .useDelimiter("\\A").next();
   FileWriter fstream = new FileWriter(args[1]);
   BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(fstream);
   out.write(VbaJsConverter.convert(entireFileText));
   out.close();

    }
  }
}

- Save the file as "MyVbaJsConverter.java" in the same directory as the unpacked vb2js java files (e.g. in D:\temp\vb2js-read-only\src\com\google\vb2js) - Create a text file with the following content. Save it as ...\src\testInput.bas

Dim MyList As String
Dim MyNum As Integer

- Make sure JDK is installed and JDK bin folder is in path environment variable - Open a command prompt and change to src folder. - Execute the following commands:

d:\temp\vb2js-read-only\src>javac -cp guava-14.0.1.jar com\google\vb2js\*.java
D:\temp\vb2js-read-only\src>java -cp .;guava-14.0.1.jar com.google.vb2js.MyVbaJsConverter testInput.bas testOutput.js

- Open testOutput.js and verify that VBA was converted.

refs: http://abhinandanmk.blogspot.com/2012/05/java-how-to-read-complete-text-file.html
http://www.roseindia.net/java/beginners/java-write-to-file.shtml

Tomcat Hello World Servlet

Here's a no-IDE quick-start how-to. Create the following directories:

c:\users\John Smith\Documents\scratch\helloTomcat\src
c:\users\John Smith\Documents\scratch\helloTomcat\dist\WEB-INF

open NotePad++ and create the following two files.

c:\users\John Smith\Documents\scratch\helloTomcat\dist\WEB-INF\web.xml

<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC
  '-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN'
  'http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd'>
<web-app>
  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>mihello</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>HelloServlet</servlet-class>
  </servlet>

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>mihello</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/mihello</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

c:\users\John Smith\Documents\scratch\helloTomcat\src\HelloServlet.java

import java.io.*;

import javax.servlet.http.*;
import javax.servlet.*;

public class HelloServlet extends HttpServlet {
  public void doGet (HttpServletRequest req,
                                         HttpServletResponse res)
        throws ServletException, IOException
  {
        PrintWriter out = res.getWriter();
        out.println("Hello, You!");
        out.close();
  }
}

Open a command prompt

C:\Users\John Smith\Documents\scratch\helloTomcat\src>javac -cp "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 7.0\lib\servlet-api.jar" HelloServlet.java
C:\Users\John Smith\Documents\scratch\helloTomcat\src>mkdir ..\dist\WEB-INF\classes
C:\Users\John Smith\Documents\scratch\helloTomcat\src>copy *.class ..\dist\WEB-INF\classes
C:\Users\John Smith\Documents\scratch\helloTomcat\src>cd ..\dist
C:\Users\John Smith\Documents\scratch\helloTomcat\dist>jar cvf web-arc-test.war

Open a command prompt as Administrator

C:\Users\John Smith\Documents\scratch\helloTomcat\dist>copy web-arc-test.war "C
:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 7.0\webapps"

open browser and browse to http://localhost:8085/web-arc-test/mihello
Note: change port to whatever tomcat is running on.
Refs:
http://keyboardsamurais.de/2004/01/15/tomcat_tutorial_helloworld_for_complete_fools_-_english/
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7924687/compiling-a-simple-hello-world-servlet-into-a-war-for-tomcat
http://www.avajava.com/tutorials/lessons/how-do-i-create-a-war-file-using-the-jar-command.html

Get Property by an Attribute Property Value using LINQ

//look up the attribute matching the listid using Reflection and LINQ
                Type dtoType = typeof(AppInitParamsDTO);
                PropertyInfo pi = dtoType.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public)
                            .Where(
                            x => typeof(AppInitParamsSettingsListNameAttribute)
                                .GetProperty("ListName")
                                .GetValue(Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(
x, typeof(AppInitParamsSettingsListNameAttribute)), null).ToString()
                                == listId).First();

JSONSelect Usage

For the simple use case of verifying the existence of a "record" in a JavaScript object, you typically need to iterate through all items. There is a one-liner approach though, thankfully.

Say you want to verify that an ID exists in

 "Body": {
  "GetListCollectionResponse": {
   "GetListCollectionResult": {
    "Lists": {
     "List": [
      {
       "ID": "{B8B000CC-EB90-4B3D-9A44-79B8A9CFCAAC}",
       "RequireCheckout": "False",
       "EnableMinorVersion": "False",
...

Verify existence with the following function:

ListExists = function(listGuid) { //search spsvcListColXmlJson for match
  var arr = JSONSelect.match(":has(:root > .ID:val(\""+listGuid+"\"))", 
   spsvcListColXmlJson.Body.GetListCollectionResponse.GetListCollectionResult.Lists);
  var retval = arr.length>0;
  return retval; 
 };

Test:

test('List Guid found in Lists collection', function() {
 ok(ListExists("{B8B000CC-EB90-4B3D-9A44-79B8A9CFCAAC}"),"list should exist");
});

DB Access Account error when Adding WFE

If you get this error when attempting to add a WFE to a farm:

"SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard"
"The username entered must be the same as the database access account for the server farm you wish to join. Either choose NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE as the username or choose a different database name"

try changing the user account used for the Timer service and Central Admin app pool. Supposedly this is the account specified at installation AKA server farm account or AKA Database Access Account (as in the error message).

Confusing, I know.

This does the trick:

stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin -password

iisreset /noforce

 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288991(v=office.12).aspx

Note: you may also need to enable the SQL Server Browser service on the CA server.

Bind ViewModel Declaratively with Caliburn.Micro in Non-Caliburn.Micro App

I have an existing Silverlight App with Frame based navigation and the app is fairly stable. I wanted to look into logging interception of ViewModels and that is when I started testing Caliburn.Micro (per an answer to my question here). My aim is to gradually migrate pages over to the Caliburn.Micro framework, but not have CM take over the App at first (i.e. set the RootVisual). The closes discussion on the web I could find regarding this scenario was http://caliburnmicro.codeplex.com/discussions/260738. To do a proof-of-concept I simply combined the files from the Caliburn.Micro.ViewFirst sample project with a SL Nav template project:

- Create a new "Silverlight Navigation Application" project
-Add existing files from ViewFirst sample: IShell.cs, MefBootstrapper.cs, and ShellViewModel.cs (change namespaces if desired)
- Add necessary references to MEF and Caliburn.Micro
- In MefBootstrapper, remove the OnStartup override method, since we are not setting the rootvisual, but instead letting the App.xaml do that. Note I thought it was necessary to also override the constructor and set "base(false)" but it seems to work either way, so I left it out.
- Copy the StackPanel element and its content from ShellView.xaml into the ContentStackPanel of About.xaml
- For the declarative binding of VM, also add the following also to About.xaml:     cal:Bind.Model="Shell"  xmlns:cal="http://www.caliburnproject.org"
- At the top of the App constructor of App.xaml.cs add:             new MefBootstrapper();
- Press F5, click "About" and notice that you have a working Caliburn.Micro ViewModel View with Actions all wired up automatically!

IsolatedStorageException - "Initialization Failed"

I got this IsolatedStorageException - message: "Initialization Failed" - when using Enterprise Library. The line giving the error is in StorageAccessor.Silverlight.cs
            this.store = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication();
I've gotten this error before in other circumstances, and usually occur right after I delete the Isolated Storage for a particular URL and reopen the app.

Tried rebooting, recompiling, reinstalling Silverlight runtime. Finally what worked was deleting this folder: C:\Users\User.Name\AppData\LocalLow\Microsoft\Silverlight

Apparently there is some corrupted state left over in there. I also noted that around this time I was unable to delete other app stores.