Thought I'd put a note about this as I spent ages rewriting an entire system.  The HTTP_REFERER environment variable can be changed by the user anyway but I was using it as an additional validation check.

The only solution is to not use it for verification purposes as it will only work in every other browser except Internet Explorer (more specifically versions 6 and 7...???)

 

For more details: http://www.webmaster-talk.com/php-forum/19149-_server-http_referer-fails-under-internet-explorer.html

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So this is for Microsoft Office Infopath 2007 (SharePoint 2007).

The situation is that I started creating a SharePoint List (datasheet) and when I made my form dropdown read from the list, it just put elements in the order that I entered them in the datasheet.

Googling this led me to browse MSDN for an hour before I realised all those experts were using programming solutions that seemed a bit over the top for something that should be so simple.

Hey presto, I found a cheat/workaround:

1. Click on the list to see your datasheet (has a MS Access icon in the top left to remind you what you're getting yourself into)
2. Go to Settings
3. Select Create View
4. Select Datasheet View (you could probably use a "Standard View", I just used the Datasheet one)
5. Give the view a name, select what columns you want the form to have (I included the IDs for functional purposes)
6. Further down the "Create View" page, there should be a Sort section, specify the column to sort by.
7. Save the view by clicking the OK button.

You'll be returned to your datasheet and it's possible it isn't in any different order. I re-checked out my InfoPath form, looked at the dropdown that was already configured to read off the sharepoint list, and it had re-ordered to what I set in the view!!! I don't really understand how it works only that it does. I think this could get complicated if you had two dropdowns reading off the same list but needed to list elements in different orders.

What?
A quick article on an alternative to multiple lookups in SSIS. For any SSIS developer trying to create packages that need to decode a number of values into their full name/description (eg. "M" to "Male", "Prof" to "Professor").

Why?
Our extract phase in the SSIS package takes data from a source database and puts it in staging in the exact form it came through. Our transform package will convert the data and output it to the target system. For our package to decode what "M" means, it needs to look this up in a table on the original server. We had around 12 lookups to do, so you could do this:
But we didn't want to do this.

How?

What?
This is an article to demonstrate a quick step-by-step on having an SSIS package loop through a directory/folder of files in order to populate a database table. We could add each file as a separate connection manager but this is inefficient and not versatile enough to accommodate files that get added later.

Why?
I am creating an extract SSIS package intended to take a text file as its source and to populate a database table with this data. Note that this only works if all the text files to be used as source data have the same number of columns and where the column widths match.

How?
I've adapted my real working product with an example. As my work was for a Personnel/HR project, and data confidentiality is somewhat important, some of the images will be censored or data changed in the example below.

What?
I started getting this error:

The task with the name "Data Flow Task" and the creation name "DTS.Pipeline.2" is not registered for use on this computer

Why?
We use a combination of MS Visual Studio 2008, 2010 and 2012. VS2008 for our old SSIS packages and VS2010 for database solutions running against SQL Server 2008 R2. We can use VS2012 for both but this requires upgrading all the packages and then making them suitable for our new SQL Server 2012 instances.

How?
This applies to a workstation (hopefully you're not doing development directly on the server). I re-installed sql server setup, re-ran the repair to no avail. A clue came from the MS site for an older version of the pipeline in that you access the SQL Server Configuration Manager. This may not be the fix for you but it was for me:

1. Open Start > All Programs > SQL Server 2012 (or your latest)
2. Expand "Configuration Tools" and open "Sql Server Configuration Mnaager".
3. Right-click on "SQL Server Integration Services 10.0" and select "STOP".
4. Right-click on "SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS)" and select "STOP".

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What?
This article is so that I don't spend so long in googling what the TxScript referenced assembly is when creating an SSIS custom component.

How?
This is simply the "Script Component" under "Extensions". No MSDN website said this... obvious to Microsoft staff so why should their documentation include it?

Applies to:

• Microsoft Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) Visual Studio 2008
• Microsoft Windows 7
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
• Microsoft Visual C# 2008

What?
So like lots of people on the net, I've been given a datasource with names and addresses all in UPPERCASE. Initially, no one seemed bothered but now the request came through asking if this could be restored to a normal case, a mixture of mostly lowercase and some UPPERCASE.

Why?
I'm writing this article because other solutions on the net were either incomplete, did not work for me or simply did not match the requirements (do they ever?).

1. The script must be able to be copied into other SSIS packages.
2. Need the option to merely tick input column names rather than hardcode these.
3. "It " should be an acronym for IT, so "IT Department" and "Director of IT".
4. "O'REILLY" should become "O'Reilly" and not "O'reilly".
5. "MCDONALDS" should become "McDonalds" but do not apply for "MacDonalds" because of names like "MACK" and "MACHURA".
6. " and ", "la", "le", " van ", " de ", " of " and similar should remain lowercase.

How?

What?
Some methods of removing trailing spaces, tabs, carriage returns and line feeds (new lines).

How?
First in Transact-SQL: