Cornwill family history

After posting an article about my family history research and the new version of Family.Show, I was contacted by Graeme Agius from Data#3 in Brisbane.  It turns out that Graeme has been researching his mothers tree, which just happens to be Cornwill also.  After getting some more information from him, we found out that we are 2nd Cousins 1 generation removed.  What a small world we live in.

This got me excited and I spent most of last night updating and researching further.  I have also just created a new blog (http://cornwillhistory.wordpress.com/).  On this new site I plan to detail stories from the information I have found out about my ancestors and will also provide a GEDCOM file for download, which I will periodically update.

If you belong to the Cornwill family by any means I would love to hear from you, to try and find you on my tree or add you in the right spot or even get updated information. You can contact me at william.cornwill@hotmail.com.

A quick way to obtain a Hotfix

Thanks to Andrew Buttigieg for providing me with the following link.

This site allows you to request a Hotfix from Microsoft without having to go through support https://support.microsoft.com/contactus2/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1410&WS=hotfix.  All you need to do is specify the country you reside, enter the KB Article number, choose the platform/language and supply a valid email address.  The Hotfix will be emailed as per normal.

Guy Sebastian @ The Palms, Crown

I was able to get front row tickets (Table 6 Sect A) again for the upcoming acoustic Guy Sebastian concert at The Palms in the Crown Complex Melbourne on Sat 27th October. Nicole and I absolutely loved the last concert at Hamer Hall and can not wait until this one in October. I think that Guy is really underated, he is a fantastic entertainer and everytime that we have seen him, he always spends some time talking to my kids (Ethan and Jayde).

Family.Show version 2.0 released

I have been tracing my family tree for nearly ten years and have managed to track back to a William Cornwall born 1771, who lived in Dorking, Surrey, England – he was a carpenter.  It is great finding out where your ancestors come from, when they immigrated to Australia – 1841, 1842, 1844 and 1954 (and yes as free settlers and not convicts – although that would have been pretty cool) and where the name Cornwill is derived.

Up until now I have been using a very old version of Family Tree Maker that I got on a magazine Cover-CD some 2 or so years ago. I recently downloaded a Silverlight demonstration program called Family.Show which I think is a pretty cool example of how powerful Silverlight is. The initial version was a little rough and lacked some serious features but Vertigo have now released version 2.0 which has some great enhancements. I am now switching my entire genealogy tree (some 1400 people) over to the new Family.Show v2.0.

Vertigo have also posted a brief list of WPF and Expression Blend tips based on what they have learnt while building this product.

My son has a new blog

My son Ethan has been posting using Blogger since Feb 2006, but now he wanted to have a website that looked just like mine (but “…without the ugly photo of you dad…” – his words). So tonight I helped him move over to WordPress, import his posts and style up his blog just like mine (oh, and I got rid of my photo and put one of his cool photos – taken for his book fair at school where he dressed up as Doctor Who – David Tennant style). So check out the newest addition to the nerd arena Code Padawan.

SharePoint Web Service Example – Grabbing Wiki Content

Arpan Shah has just posted an excellent post about a session he presented at the internal Microsoft Tech Ready conference yesterday.  The article show how easy it is to use the SharePoint Web Service to consume content from SharePoint for use elsewhere.

ANZ MOSS sites in the Wild

Steve Iatropoulos has started compiling a list of Australian/New Zealand websites that are being delivered by MOSS 2007.  Please help make this list grow by emailing steve with the Urls of websites that you know are being delivered by MOSS 2007.

RadControls for Silverlight Beta Revealed – Download Now

Telerik have released its RadControls for Silverlight Beta product.

Telerik components suite for Silverlight received another boost with the official release of RadControls for Silverlight Beta. RadControls for Silverlight Beta includes five components, namely 5 fundamental building blocks (Button, Image, Media, Label, CustomElement) and 3 composite controls (MediaPlayer, StripLayoutPanel and Cube).

Developers can use Telerik Silverlight controls in their own projects and get acquainted with the notion of control-based development originally missing in the Silverlight 1.0 framework. All RadControls are fully customizable through themes. We ship several predefined themes for each control and provide the option to further customize them with Microsoft Expression Blend. RadControls for Silverlight require no JavaScript and XAML coding.

Silverlight Beta is distributed with free developer license to all community members who have a valid Telerik Client.net account.

Download Beta and let us know of your feedback!

Integrating RadControls into SharePoint 2007

Latest information from Telerik regarding its RadContols suite and integration into SharePoint 2007 and WSSv3.

The market leading RadControls for ASP.NET bring unparalleled richness, responsiveness and interactivity to your SharePoint 2007 projects. Now you can easily incorporate all Telerik ASP.NET UI products into Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v3 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. The integration is a straight-forward process and we supply several resources to help you along the way. The whitepaper is specially created by Andrew Connell, MVP Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, visit Andrew Connell’s website

Whitepaper
Screencast

Although these resources refer to RadMenu, other controls in the Telerik RadControls suite follow the same deployment model and requirements. While the demonstration site used in the resources is a MOSS 2007 Publishing site, these same steps apply to all WSS v3 based sites, including sites created using the Team Site or Blank Site site template.

More information is available at www.telerik.com/sharepoint

MOSSIG Meeting – July 2007

This month I will be presenting (although briefly) at MOSSIG on Web Content Management, so please come along and check it out.  Also Brett Coster will be discussing how to get governance right in SharePoint and Ben Walters will be showing us how to deploy InfoPath forms using Outlook 2007.

To register for this meeting please email register@mossig.net by COB Tuesday 24^th July 2007.

 

Show and Tell Session

Web Content Management (William Cornwill)

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

William Cornwill is a Senior Solution Specialist with Strategic Data Management (SDM).  William is also a board member of MOSSIG.  William has extensive experience with Web Content Management using Microsoft products and this month will discuss how to manage your web content using the SharePoint platform.

 

Business Session

Getting governance right in SharePoint (Brett Coster)

• Windows SharePoint Services • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Brett Coster, is a Senior Business Analyst with Unique World, and this month will present a business-oriented talk about how to Get Governance Right for SharePoint.

Governance is the process of setting controlling policies around a system, process or application, to ensure that it meets business goals and to mitigate risks. For the purposes of the SharePoint 2007 collaborative sites, these governance guidelines apply to the creation, management and lifecycle of SharePoint collaborative sites.

Effective governance of a system requires:

• A strategic, business-minded body to craft rules and procedures for the use of the system and to monitor compliance
• A tactical, technically-competent team to manage the routine operational tasks that keep the system running
• Clear guidelines for users of the system.

Brett will outline the process involved in developing and establishing good governance to maximise the effectiveness of your SharePoint implementation.

 

Technical Session

Deploying InfoPath forms using Outlook 2007 (Ben Walters)

• Microsoft Office InfoPath • Microsoft Office Outlook

Ben Walters is a Solution Specialist with Strategic Data Management (SDM). Ben is an InfoPath MVP and specialises in custom developed solutions.  He is also a board member of MOSSIG.  He has presented at numerous technical events including MOSSIG, TechEd and APAC SharePoint Conference and this month Ben will be showing us how to deploy InfoPath 2007 forms using Outlook 2007.

SDM has a new website (in MOSS)

Today SDM launched its new look website. The new site has been developed using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007.

CodeJedi meets the Simpsons

The guys at work have been getting creative with the Simpson Movie website, by creating their very own Avatars.  I also saw Frank Arrigo get into the act and create a funky looking Simpson like version of himself.  So I decided that CodeJedi also needed to become a Simpson’s character.

Using Virtual Earth in SharePoint (Part 1 of 2)

Over the past few weeks Daniel Colarossi and I have been working together on developing a series of Web Parts using Virtual Earth.  This article describes two ways in which you can use Virtual Earth from within SharePoint.  I will shortly be adding to these with a couple of additional ways we have used Virtual Earth.

Content Editor Web Part

The simplest way to insert a Virtual Earth map into your SharePoint page is to use the out of the box Content Editor Web Part.  All you need to do is simply add a Content Editor Web Part and past the following code into the Source Editor.  The code below will display a map centered on Melbourne Australia and also places a push pin (with my photo) on top of the Melbourne Town Hall (-37.81585174911994 Latitude and 144.965714083252 Longitude).

<script src="http://dev.virtualearth.net/mapcontrol/mapcontrol.ashx?v=5"></script> <script type="text/javascript">
  var map = null;   function GetMap()
  {
    map = new VEMap('myMap');
    map.LoadMap(new VELatLong(-37.81585274911994, 144.9657154083252), 10,'r' ,false);
    AddPin(-37.81585274911994, 144.9657154083252, 'CodeJedi.NET', '<strong>Name:</strong> William Cornwill.<br><strong>Blog:</strong> <a target ="_new" href="http://www.codejedi.net">http://www.codejedi.net/</a><br><br><a target ="_new" href="http://www.codejedi.net"><img src="http://members.optusnet.com.au/cornwill73/siteimages/William.jpg" /></a>');
  }   function AddPin(lat, lon, iconurl, title, desc)
  {
    var shape = new VEShape(VEShapeType.Pushpin,new VELatLong(lat,lon));
    shape.SetTitle(title);
    shape.SetDescription(desc);
    map.AddShape(shape);
  }   function addLoadEvent(func)
  {
    if(typeof window.onload != 'function')
    {
      window.onload = func;
    }
    else
    {
      window.onload = function()
        {
          func();
        }
    }
  }   addLoadEvent(GetMap);
</script>
<div id='myMap' style="position:relative; width:640px; height:480px;"></div>

Basic Virtual Earth Web Part

As you might agree providing a user with some JavaScript and telling them to paste it into a Content Editor Web Part isn’t really that user friendly.  So Daniel and I have wrapped this basic functionality into a WebPart.  The Basic Virtual Earth Web Part allows a user to provide Latitude and Longitude coordinates or enter an address, a zoom level, a pin title and pin description.  The result is a user friendly and easily adjusted Virtual Earth map in a SharePoint page.

You can download the code for the Basic Virtual Earth Web Part from the samples section of this blog.

Next time

In the next article I will be posting another two ways in which we have used Virtual Earth in SharePoint, including obtaining pin points from a SharePoint list of Lat/Longs (with an additional surprise) and also a Web Part that shows a map with pin points for all your contacts in Outlook.

These are just a couple of ways in which you could use mapping within SharePoint, there are countless other ways and I hope that this has gotten you as excited as I am about using Virtual Earth in SharePoint.

If you haven’t heard

This afternoon there were a few comic’s flying around the office and I thought that this one was pretty relevant to CodeJedi.

Anyhow, Grumpy Wookie decided to alter one of the comics and I thought it was definitely worth blogging about.

Another content deployment issue

A customer of mine is still having issues with content deployment and has provided me with this interesting story;

Ah! Sharepoint 2007 continues to be a living and learning experience.

I’m sure there is a built in timer service that automatically creates one problem in perfect synchronicity with another one just to create maximum confusion. After a recent database server reboot, I started a standard deploy to copy the latest content from the staging environment to Internet environment. It crashed with a ‘can’t write’ package error, which could have been either of the two servers OR SQL servers, and I first suspected some permission changes post the reboot.

But no. It was a simple ‘out of space’ on the destination Sharepoint Web server. For future info: Sharepoint writes the deployment package to the directory windows/temp/content deployment/[guid] and *leaves* it there forever. The directory was full of deployments dating back to the original content creation. I can see no good reason to retain these so I simply deleted most of them – problem fixed..

This appears to be a bug. (shock! Horror!) because the admin gui clearly states:.

Temporary Files.

Specify where you want to store temporary files for content deployment jobs. These files are automatically deleted when the deployment job is finished.
This folder must have enough available disk space to store all the content that is deployed at one time..

Maybe a scheduled job to clean these up monthly would be a good idea?

CodeCampSA

A friend of mine Jey Srikantha from K2.NET has just let me know about CodeCampSA.

This free event sponsored by UniSA, ADNUG and Australian Computer Society is the Adelaide version of the very popular CodeCampOz http://www.codecampoz.com held in Wagga Wagga in April. For those who find the journey to Wagga Wagga difficult, the CodeCamp is coming to SA. There will be continuous presentations (apart from breaks for BBQ lunch and coffee)

There will be heaps of great presenters like Dave Glover, Mitch Denny, Greg Low and of course Jey will be giving two presentations (“Blessings of the blackpearl– K2[blackpearl] and .NET” and “MOSS’ing around with blackpearl – k2[blackpearl] and MOSS”). The complete agenda and speaker list is on the event page of the ADNUG website.

I think I will find it difficult to get over to SA to attend as I am extremely busy, but I will try. Although the event is free you still need to register to attend each day.

WHERE: UniSA, Theatre HH4-08 Hans Heysen Building, North Terrace, ADELAIDE SA

WHEN: 8.30 for an 8.45 start 7th-8th July

To register (both Saturday and Sunday).

http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=event&temID=eventdetails&eveID=2093

http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=event&temID=eventdetails&eveID=2094

**Note – if you are going to attend both Saturday and Sunday, please book for both days.**