How to set default values based on a query string & make those fields uneditable.

Read here

Minnesota Road Test Guidelines.

After passing the written test (it’s to test your English skill, the questions are easy, just use your common sense), call online and take an appointment for the road test. Else go directly to the center and check availability. Normally lot of free slots will be available.

During road test the officer will ask you the following, while seated in your car:
1. Adjustment of seat
2. Belt
3. Brake - emergency break
4. Lights - high and low beam
5. Deforesters - front and back
6. Fan control

once you are done, they will give you information about the road you will be driving.

Prior to your departure you will be parked in front of a one way road, there are slot 1,2,3 and 4. You will be told at the registration window which space you will be parking. Park carefully so that during your eventual departure you will have a good start to move and join the road.

The officer will ask you to take right or left. If you turn right just go right into the corner closest to the curb. If they tell you to turn left, then don't make the same mistake. Remember ,there will be no signs or markings! Once you see yellow lines treat it as a two way road.

Sometimes they will try to confuse the driver by asking to go opposite direction on a one way road. Politely say no. Even though the road is empty, pretend that there are lot of traffic to do more head checks and be alert on the singnal and one way.

Be alert on the No Turn On Red signal.

Lane change - make sure you look left, right and your back - just do lots of exaggerated observations and I mean exaggerated. don't forget to use your signals.

Parallel parking -  remember the first cut is the deepest. Don’t try to over adjust. They consider that your car is parked when in between, not too close to front or back poles and keep close to the curb. Sometimes the officer opens the doors and checks the distance. Remember to use signals, head check when you join the road after parallel parking.

90' parking - it's easy though, they will ask to move all the way until the front of the car is inline with the poles.

Up-Hill park - close to the curb and turn your wheels away from the curb, and make sure you put the gear to parking point- i.e at the P - position and pull your emergency brakes, don't forget though to push back your emergency brakes before you move. signal and then move on, while looking to the sides, SMOG in and SMOG out. Signal, Mirror, Over the shoulder and Go. The officer will open the door and see the distance between your car and curb.

Turnings - don't turn your wheel to left or right when making turns unless you wish to. You are committed according to them once you look all around you, left, right and back and then turn the wheel to the corner you are going into.

Generally be calm, I know it’s not allowed to drive and practice in that area, but I think it’s a good idea to have a walk in the driving place and see around.
STEERING: Steer smoothly whether you are driving straight ahead, turning or backing up.

ACCELERATION: Accelerate smoothly and moderately. Don't race the engine.

BRAKING: Bring the vehicle to a stop gently. Start braking well before your stopping position to avoid "jerky" stops. Make sure you stop your vehicle in the proper position of the lane.

I suggest a car wash before road test

For reservations and what documents to carry etc
http://www.mndriveinfo.org/

I was blessed to get the license in the first attempt at Arden Hills, MN. The lady officer was cool and strictly watching my actions. My Indian driving license gave me the boost. The officer was asking how many years I drove in India and when it expires etc.
I never felt any discrimination as somebody wrote in a blog.The officer was so cool & friendly.
My friend Michael Powell took a photograph too!.
What a memorable day on the snow roads !
All the best!!!

ASP.NET – JSON – Serialization and Deserialization

What is JSON?

JSON is another format of expressing data, just like XML. But, JSON is very simpler than XML, and tiny than XML. So, it is becoming popular in the web world to choose the JSON notation over XML since JSON notation are usually shorter, and less data to be transmitted if at all they were to be.

Article 1

Article 2  - using the DataContractJsonSerializer

Few New Features in SharePoint 2010

1. Enhanced SharePoint Designer— Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 sports a new UI, improved workflow, and improved integration between designers. Also has a tabbed interface and provides breadcrumb navigation.
2. New browser support—SharePoint 2010 supports an extended set of browsers. It's designed to support XHTML 1.0–compliant browsers and will support Internet Explorer (IE) 8.0 and IE 7.0, Firefox, and Safari. Notably, IE 6.0 isn't supported. So far, there's been no official mention of Google Chrome or Opera.
3. Enhanced collaboration features -calendars from Microsoft Exchange Server can be merged with SharePoint calendars.There's a new group authentication feature that's based on distribution list or organization and a new rich text editor for creating wikis.
4.Visio Services -share and collaborate on Visio diagrams.(Users no need to have Visio installed)
5.Usage reporting and logging - It has a new database to support usage reporting & logging.
6.FAST Search -enhanced capabilities like content-processing pipeline, metadata extraction, visual search, and advanced linguistics.
7.SharePoint Best Practices Analyzer -Microsoft's guidance for SharePoint implementation and troubleshooting.
8.New hardware requirements— SharePoint 2010 will ship only as a 64-bit product.
9. New software requirements—In addition to new hardware requirements, SharePoint 2010 will require an x64 edition of either Windows Server 2008
or Server 2008 R2. It also requires a 64-bit version of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005.
10.New SharePoint editions -In an effort to better unify the SharePoint lineup, Microsoft will make some big changes to the SharePoint editions with the 2010 release. Windows SharePoint Server (WSS) is gone, and so is Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS). The free WSS has been replaced by the new SharePoint Foundation 2010. MOSS is replaced by SharePoint Server 2010, which will be available in either the Standard or Enterprise edition as well as in editions for strictly internal sites and for Internet or extranet sites.

ASP.NET -AJAX-JQUERY Video

Here

prototype.js / jQuery.js conflict and resolution

Read here

Amazing JQuery Examples

http://www.noupe.com/jquery/50-amazing-jquery-examples-part1.html

To get a ID(GUID) of a SharePoint List

•Delete everying before and including “List=”.
•Change “%7B” to “{”
•Change all “%2D” to “-“
•Chnage “%7D” to “}”

Print friendly SharePoint Content Page

lt;link rel="stylesheet" href="rajprint.css" type="text/css" media="print" /gt;

rajprint.css
/* print styles*/

A:link, A:visited {background: white; color: black; text-decoration:none;
font-weight:normal;}
/* to hide the print button*/
#noprintSpan{
display:none
}
/* to remove the blue border*/
.ms-bodyareaframe {
border:none 0px;

}
/* CORE.CSS override */
.ms-leftareacell,.ms-globallinks,.ms-siteaction,.ms-areaseparatorleft,
.ms-rightareacell,.ms-areaseparatorright, .ms-areaseparatorcorner,
.ms-titlearealeft,.ms-titlearearight,.ms-searchform,.ms-banner,
.ms-buttonheightwidth,.ms-buttonheightwidth2
{
display:block;
visibility:visible;
}

/* hide header * quick navigation*/
.ms-globalbreadcrumb { display:none; visibility: hidden; }
.ms-globalTitleArea { display:none; visibility: hidden; }
/* #nav-wrapper { display:none; visibility: hidden; } */
.ms-titlearealeft { display:none; visibility: hidden; }
.ms-navframe { display:none; visibility: hidden; }
.ms-nav { display:none; visibility: hidden; }
.ms-banner{ display:none; visibility: hidden; }
.ms-titlearea{ display:none; visibility: hidden; }



/* move content to the left */
.ms-bodyareacell, #above-main { margin: 0 0 0 0 }

/* fonts normalization
.ms-formbody { font-size: xx-small} */

/* remove the actions buttons */
.ms-toolbar { display:none; visibility: hidden; }
.ms-siteaction{ display:none; visibility: hidden; }

/* expanding edit form controls on the width of the screen */

#onetIDListForm { width: 100%; }
.ms-formlabel { width:20% }
.ms-formbody { width: 80%; }
.ms-long { width: 100%; }
.ms-rtelong { width: 100%; height: 400px; }
.ms-rtetoolbarmenu { width: 100%; text-align: left; }
TEXTAREA.ms-long { width: 100%; }
.ms-formbody SPAN SPAN DIV { width: 100%; }

CSS Reference Chart for SharePoint 2007

http://www.heathersolomon.com/content/sp07cssreference.htm

SharePoint Development in Visual Studio

Visual Studio 2010 provides an alternative to creating SharePoint applications through SharePoint Designer. Visual Studio promotes rapid SharePoint development by providing such features as advanced debugging tools, IntelliSense, statement completion, and project templates. Visual Studio also takes advantage of advanced .NET Framework-based tools and languages. SharePoint projects can be developed by using either Visual Basic or Visual C#.

Read more

Reusable SharePoint JavaScript

Reusable SharePoint JavaScript
JSRequest
version: WSS 3.0 /source file: init.js (ln 1621)
purpose: provides method to parse query string, filename, and pathname from URL
example:
JSRequest.EnsureSetup();var qs = JSRequest.QueryString[value];var fn = JSRequest.FileName;var pt = JSRequest.PathName;
PreSaveAction()
version: WSS 3.0 source file: n/a (ref: form.js ln 5909)
purpose: provides hook for creating custom function interrupting submit action
example:
function PreSaveAction(){ var input = getTagFromIdentifierAndTitle("textarea","","Test"); if(input && input.value == "") { alert("You must complete Test"); return false; // Cancel the item save process } return true; // OK to proceed with the save item}
_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames
version: WSS 3.0 source file: n/a
purpose: Allows you to register additional JavaScript methods that should run in the PageLoad event
example:
_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.Push('MyCustomFunctionName');
GetFirstChildElement(e)
version: WSS 3.0 source file: core.js
purpose: get the first "real" child of a DOM element. This function is useful for Firefox, which interprets a line break as a child element.
GetLastChildElement(e)
version: WSS 3.0 source file: core.js
purpose: get the last "real" child of a DOM element. This function is useful for Firefox, which interprets a line break as a child element.
GetCBSelectedValues(frm)
version: WSS 3.0 source file: core.js (ln 972)
purpose: Accepts a form object, loops through all check box elements and returns the values of the checked boxes or false if none are checked.
example:
html
lt; input id="spUserSelCb_1131" title="Raj" onclick="UserSelectionOnClick(this,'1');" type="checkbox" value="131" name="spUserSelectionCheckBox_1" gt;
JavaScript
var elm = document.getElementsByTagName("form")[0];GetCBSelectedValues(elm)
Object returned: strList = "131,144,143,7,254,22..."
GetSelectedValue (frmElem)
version: WSS 3.0 source file: init.js (ln 1516)
purpose: takes a form element with a selectedIndex and returns the selected value or an empty string.
GetSelectedText(frmElem)
version: WSS 3.0 source file: init.js (ln 1523)
purpose: takes a form element with a selectedIndex and returns the selected text or an empty string.
escapeProperly(str)
version: WSS 3.0 source file: init.js (ln 168)
purpose: takes any string and returns a URL-encoded string.
example:
escapeProperly("this is a test")
"this%20is%20a%20test"
unescapeProperly(str)
version: WSS 3.0 source file: init.js (ln 855)
purpose: takes any URL-encoded string and returns a string.
example:
unescapeProperly("this%20is%20a%20test")
"this is a test"
createNewDocumentWithProgID(strTemplate, strSaveLocation, strProgID, bXMLForm)
version: WSS 3.0 source file: Core.js (ln 1123)
purpose: Generates a new document in a document library using the supplyed document template
example:
createNewDocumentWithProgID('http:\u002f\u002fwssdev\u002fDocument Library\u002fForms\u002ftemplate.dotx', 'http:\u002f\u002fwssdev\u002fDocument Library', 'SharePoint.OpenDocuments', false)
This will open Word with a new document using the template located at http:\\fwssdev\Document Library\Forms\template.dotx and word will save to the Document Library located at http:\\fwssdev\Document Library

SharePoint 2010 Web part Development

Introduction to SharePoint 2010 Web part Development: Build and Deploy

1. Open VS.NET 2010 and create new project select SharePoint 2010

2.Start by using the Empty SharePoint Project template. Create an empty project[FW 3.5 or 4]. On the next dialogue, pick farm solution or sandboxed solutions. Provide the URL of the location to deploy. Ex:http://servername/sites/sitecollectionname
This will give a SharePoint project example : RajWebPart
3.Right click on the project and add new item and select Web part template type and enter project name as WebPart2010.

4.Add a new label and text.

5.Compile and deploy. The brilliant IDE will take of creating .webpart files and adding safe controls entry to the web.config file.



You can note a Feature files is automatically created and this web part is added as a Feature item. Set the Feature scope as Site. A package file is also given out of the box.


 
 
 
 
6.Checking the web part gallery, you can see WebPart2010.webpart file just created also preview it. Let’s add it to a page and see how it looks.
To Debug set a breakpoint and choose debug from the build menu like we add to any other type of project.
Enjoy!

Auto Refresh Web Parts in SharePoint 2010

Automatic page refreshes were a big pain point in SharePoint 2007. If you had a page or list that you wished to refresh at regular intervals, so it the event that another user entered items, the screen would update, there was no easy/direct way of doing this. You could of could add meta content="50/" equi="refresh" using the Content Editor Web Part but this refreshes entire the entire page.
To overcome this, SharePoint 2010 introduces a new Ajax option has been added to many webparts to enable auto refresh of webpart without refreshing the entire web page. This feature is available out of the box in SharePoint 2010 and no additional development is required.
More

PowerShell for SharePoint

Windows PowerShell is a task-based command-line shell and scripting language designed especially for system administration. Built on the .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell™ helps IT professionals and power users control and automate the administration of the Windows operating system and applications that run on Windows.
Built-in Windows PowerShell commands, called cmdlets, let you manage the computers in your enterprise from the command line. Windows PowerShell™ providers let you access data stores, such as the registry and certificate store, as easily as you access the file system. In addition, Windows PowerShell™ has a rich expression parser and a fully developed scripting language.

With SharePoint 2010 developers and administrators will have full access to the SharePoint API from the PowerShell Command line. Stsadm will continue to be supported and users will be able to continue using it however it will be depreciated over time. PowerShell is a lot more flexible and powerful.
More Details

How to Pass Querystring data into an InfoPath Form

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/infopath/archive/2010/06/03/how-to-pass-querystring-data-into-an-infopath-form.aspx

Global - Page inheritance in ASP.NET 2.0

The web.config file in ASP.NET 2.0 allows all pages to inherit from a specific base page class (instead of just using the default System.Web.UI.Page class in all pages).

To import the same set of namespaces on every page, just add them to an Imports sections under the pages element.
I hope this was not possible in 1.1 V.

“Client-only Framework subset” in Visual Studio 2008

The .NET Framework Client Profile setup contains just those assemblies and files in the .NET Framework that are typically used for client application scenarios. For example: it includes Windows Forms, WPF, and WCF. It does not include ASP.NET and those libraries and components used primarily for server scenarios. Approx. 26MB in size, and it can be downloaded and installed much quicker than the full .NET Framework setup package. For more info Click here

SilverLight WebPart

To Develop Silverlight WebPart
1.Create a Silverlight Application first, compile it to get the .XAP file.
2.Create a WebPart project add the Silverlight .XAP file like this
Example

protected override void CreateChildControls()
{
//base.CreateChildControls();
System.Web.UI.SilverlightControls.Silverlight myMediaCtrl = new System.Web.UI.SilverlightControls.Silverlight();
myMediaCtrl.ID = "RajMediaPlayer";
myMediaCtrl.Source = "http://rajwss.com/rajss1/monkDocumentLib/RajMediaPlayer.xap";// media files can be uploaded to this same Document Library.
myMediaCtrl.Width = new System.Web.UI.WebControls.Unit(900);
myMediaCtrl.Height = new System.Web.UI.WebControls.Unit(650);

this.Controls.Add(myMediaCtrl);

}
3.Compile it and deploy to the server.
Server Side changes

1.Install Silverlight SDK on the Sharepoint Server.
The Silverlight SDK can be downloaded from : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8D933343-038F-499C-986C-C3C7E87A60B3&displaylang=en
After the SDK has been installed make sure the System.Web.Silverlight.dll assembly has been registered in the GAC.
i also installed Silverlight.exe(V 3.0) in the server(not required though)
2. Make the following changes to the SharePoint Site web.config file
Add the following to the configuration (copy to NotePad Replace lt; to < & gt; to > )

Add the following to the lt;configurationgt;lt;configSectionsgt; xml:

lt;sectionGroup name="system.web.extensions" type="System.Web.Configuration.SystemWebExtensionsSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"gt;
lt;sectionGroup name="scripting" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"gt;
lt;section name="scriptResourceHandler" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingScriptResourceHandlerSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" /gt;
lt;sectionGroup name="webServices" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingWebServicesSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"gt;
lt;section name="jsonSerialization" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingJsonSerializationSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="Everywhere" /gt;
lt;section name="profileService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingProfileServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" /gt;
lt;section name="authenticationService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingAuthenticationServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" /gt;
lt;section name="roleService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingRoleServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" /gt;
lt;/sectionGroupgt;
lt;/sectionGroupgt;
lt;/sectionGroupgt;

Add the following to the lt;configurationgt;lt;Sharepointgt;lt;SafeControlsgt; xml:

lt;SafeControl Assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" Namespace="System.Web.UI" TypeName="*" Safe="True" /gt;
lt;SafeControl Assembly="System.Web.Silverlight, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" Namespace="System.Web.UI.SilverlightControls" TypeName="*" Safe="True" /gt;

Add the following to the lt;configurationgt;lt;system.webgt;lt;httpHandlersgt; xml:

lt;remove verb="*" path="*.asmx" /gt;
lt;add verb="*" path="*.asmx" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" /gt;
lt;add verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" /gt;
lt;add verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" validate="false" /gt;

Add the following to the lt;configurationgt;lt;system.webgt;lt;compilationgt;lt;assembliesgt; xml:

lt;add assembly="System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089" /gt;
lt;add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" /gt;
lt;add assembly="System.Data.DataSetExtensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089" /gt;
lt;add assembly="System.Xml.Linq, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089" /gt;
lt;add assembly="System.Web.Silverlight, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" /gt;

Add the following to the lt;configurationgt;lt;system.webgt;lt;pagesgt; xml:

lt;controlsgt;
lt;add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" /gt;
lt;add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" /gt;
lt;/controlsgt;

Add the following to the lt;configurationgt;lt;runtimegt;lt;assemblyBindinggt; xml:

lt;dependentAssemblygt;
lt;assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" /gt;
lt;bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0" /gt;
lt;/dependentAssemblygt;
lt;dependentAssemblygt;
lt;assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions.Design" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" /gt;
lt;bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0" /gt;
lt;/dependentAssemblygt;

Add the following to the lt;configurationgt; xml:

lt;system.webServergt;
lt;validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" /gt;
lt;modulesgt;
lt;remove name="ScriptModule" /gt;
lt;add name="ScriptModule" preCondition="managedHandler" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" /gt;
lt;/modulesgt;
lt;handlersgt;
lt;remove name="WebServiceHandlerFactory-Integrated" /gt;
lt;remove name="ScriptHandlerFactory" /gt;
lt;remove name="ScriptHandlerFactoryAppServices" /gt;
lt;remove name="ScriptResource" /gt;
lt;add name="ScriptHandlerFactory" verb="*" path="*.asmx" preCondition="integratedMode" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" /gt;
lt;add name="ScriptHandlerFactoryAppServices" verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" preCondition="integratedMode" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" /gt;
lt;add name="ScriptResource" preCondition="integratedMode" verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" /gt;
lt;/handlersgt;
lt;securitygt;
lt;authorizationgt;
lt;add accessType="Allow" users="" /gt;
lt;add accessType="Allow" users="?" /gt;
lt;/authorizationgt;
lt;/securitygt;
lt;/system.webServergt;

3.To add the Silverlight XAP to the IIS MIME-Type complete the following steps:
Open IIS
Open up the properties for the IIS Web Server
Click MIME Types...
Click New...
Enter ".xap" for the Extension
Enter "application/x-silverlight-app" for the MIME type
Click Ok, Ok, Apply
4. Restart IIS.

5.Add the deployed WebPart to the page.

For the complete code check
http://www.vbforums.com/archive/index.php/t-557072.html

SMS Alerts in SharePoint 2010 over Office Mobile Service Protocol (OMS)

SMS Alerts in SharePoint 2010

XSL,XSLT,XSL-FO

The eXtensible Stylesheet Language(XSL) is divided into two sub-languages: eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) and eXtensible Stylesheet Language - Formatting Objects (XSL-FO).

XSLT documents are well-formed XML documents that describe how another XML document should be transformed. For XSLT to work, it needs an XML document to transform and an engine to make the transformation take place. In addition, parameters can be passed in to XSLTs providing further instructions on how to do the transformation.

1. XSLT - XSL Transformation
2. XPath - for selecting precise nodes
3. XSL-FO - XSL Formatting Objects

XSL-FO is more powerful. Normally for XML to XML or XML to HTML etc using templates XML or HTML format results are omitted. XSL-FO is used for generating WORD Documents, RTF Documents, PDF, txt, etc.

Commonly

AJAX WCF Services with JSON and XML

Sample given here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb472488.aspx

Ajax WCF Service using GET /POST Method

The WebGetAttribute attribute is applied to the Add operation to ensure that the service responds to HTTP GET requests. The code uses GET for simplicity (you can construct an HTTP GET request from any Web browser). You can also use GET to enable caching. We can also add the WebInvokeAttribute attribute to explicitly specify HTTP POST, or not specify an attribute, which defaults to HTTP POST.
[ServiceContract(Namespace = "MyAjaxService")]
public interface ICal
{ [OperationContract]
[WebGet]
double Add(double x1, double x2); }
You can create an AJAX endpoint on the service by using the webHTTPBinding standard binding and the enableWebScript behavior in the service configuration file.
The enableWebScript behavior sets the default data format for the service to JSON instead of XML as shown below.
to change the Serializer
[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(ResponseFormat=WebMessageFormat.Xml)] //WebMessageFormat.JSon for Json Serializer
Public string HelloWCF()
{ Return “Hello WCF” }
For client follow any one of the technic
Add an ASP.NET AJAX Endpoint with out using Configuration
or
Use configuration to add an AJX Endpoint.

WSS Featues & it's Scope

A feature is like a site definition: a directory containing CAML-based XML files and page templates. The Feature is a container of various defined extensions for SharePoint.
Features provide the following capabilities:

• Pluggable behavior for installing or uninstalling Features within a deployment.
• Pluggable behavior for activating or deactivating Features at a given scope.

Features can be activated on an existing site. For example, we can create a feature that defines a custom list type, an instance of that list type, and an event handler or workflow on that list instance. Once the feature has been installed, it can be activated in any site within a farm and you can activate it through the WSS user interface, from the command line, or through custom code written against the WSS object model. Once the feature has been activated, the site will include the new custom list and any behavior we want to attach to it.
Location:
Local_Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES

Scope & Accessibility

• Site Scope
Only available for the root site of a site collection and is not displayed in the sub sites, Available only on the Site Collection Features page, accessible from the Site Actions menu.
• Web Scope
Available on every web site including the root of the site collection
• Web Application Scope
Available to all sites in all site collections of the web application and they can be activated and deactivated from Central Administration > Application Management > Manage Web Application Features.
• Farm Scope
Available to all web application in the Farm level. Accessible from Central Administration > Operations > Managers Farm Features.

Approved H1B Employers

The list may be little bit old, but good to know about your employer.

http://f1toh1.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/check-how-many-approved-h1bs-your-employer-got/

Understanding and Creating Customized and Uncustomized Files

Good article on MSDN to refresh basics of SharePoint site and application pages and what happens behind the scenes.