Did you know that as of SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 you can give the worksheets a customized name when exporting your report to Excel?  If you didn’t, or you did but never took the time to find out how you’d implement that, I’ll show you here and now!

For this example I’ll be starting off from the report created in my earlier post on Cascading Calculated Fields.

The result can be downloaded from my Skydrive through this link.

A Developer’s Blog · Reporting Services

Ionic’s Isapi Rewrite Filter, aka IIRF, is a small, FREE, easy to use, URL rewriting ISAPI filter. It combines a good price (free!) with good features. It is fast and powerful. It works on IIS 6.0, and later. If you use IIS, you can download IIRF and get started right now.

http://iirf.codeplex.com/

I think I’m not alone missing the possibility in WSS 3.0 to include multiple columns from the target list when creating a lookup or user field in a list.

If you have read my former posts about custom fields and reordering of list fields you already know what you need to create such field types yourself.

Multiple column lookup field for SharePoint « Second Life of a Hungarian SharePoint Geek

Welcome to Print Overview where I will show you several ways to print cleaner pages or to print specific lists.  All of the examples use some form of JavaScript or JQuery to perform the solution.  The nice part is that you only have to add a Content Editor Web Part CEWP and put the code in to make it work. 

Each page will show you a sample list or page that can be printed as described below.  The code and other steps that just adding a CEWP will also be listed on the page.

Site – PrintOverview

Various editions of Microsoft Office 2007 include SharePoint support component, which is installed by default: Microsoft Office >> Office Tools >> Windows SharePoint Services Support. Specifically the “Edit in datasheet” feature is supported by the sub-component named “Microsoft Office Access Web Datasheet Component”. I went and checked out the components installed for my Office 2010 – and the analogous components were marked as installed:

Now that appears to be an issue. It would be interesting to know if anyone else ran into the same situation or was it just me. The workaround was easy – install back Windows SharePoint Services Support for Office 2007. Below is a screenshot – I only needed this specific part of the office and nothing else:

Ivan on Software: Cannot Edit SharePoint 2007 List in Datasheet after Office 2010 Beta is Installed

In my the first two articles of this series, Visual Indicators for the Masses and Embed KPIs as a List View, I discussed ways to create simple KPIs in WSS. This article will show how to make calculations on top of date-time fields.

KPIs for the Masses: A Dashboard based upon a date-time field | EndUserSharePoint.com

With most SharePoint development being done in VMs, it is useful to have a set of sysprepped base VMs that can be cloned at any time to create a new environment, whether it be for a new project, to test some tool or software, or whatever. Sysprep is a great tool for virtual domains because it will generate a new security ID (SID) for every server created from the sysprepped image to prevent conflicts between servers on the same domain.

Most of the software needed for development can be installed prior to running sysprep on the virtual machine,but SQL Server and SharePoint (at least the configuration of SharePoint) are generally exceptions. These apps typically must be installed post-sysprep in order for them to operate correctly, and this is an involved and tedious process. Fortunately with SQL Server 2008 R2, we now have SQL Server Sysprep, which will allow SQL Server to be installed and imaged, but not configured until a new VM is created from the base image. Woohoo!

So, the general steps are as follows:

1. Install a virtual machine with Windows Server 2008 R2, PowerShell 2.0 and all other desired client software (Visual Studio, Office, SharePoint Designer, etc…)
2. Install SQL Server 2008 R2 as a Prepared Image
3. Install SharePoint 2010 Prerequisites (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485(office.14).aspx) either manually or using the Prerequisites Installer tool
4. Install SharePoint 2010 bits, but DO NOT run configuration wizard
5. Run Sysprep.exe to prepare server
6. Clone server
7. Boot clone and execute PowerShell script to perform the following actions:
   • Complete configuration of sysprepped SQL Server 2008 R2 database server
   • Configure SharePoint 2010 farm

Creating a cloneable SharePoint 2010 Development Environment with PowerShell, Windows Sysprep, and SQL Server 2008 R2 Sysprep – Overview

Have you ever been looking at a management pack and wishing it was collecting just a little more information for you?  You’re not the only one, there are quite a few people who write MPs from scratch to support applications they are running, but there are more who are still a little leery of going down the path of MP Authoring.  In the next series of posts I’m going to walk through extending the base Hyper-V management pack so that it provides more information around how healthy the servers really are. 

Writing Management Packs for SCOM: A more robust Hyper-V MP – Xplat Xperts

This is the introductory release of the SystemCentered Reporting Management Pack (version 1.0). The purpose of these reports are to provide SCOM users and administrators easy access to performance information in the datawarehouse.

When making a report, I have a few key rules to ensure an effective report:

• Try to keep all vital information on a single page
• Simple and intuitive report parameters
• Run time should be minimized by utilizing efficient SQL (namely, properly using indexes)
• Reports should look the same on screen as it does printed

For feedback, requests, or other information, you can contact me at chad@chad.cc or see my blog at chad.cc where I provide more detailed information on the creation of these reports and other SCOM information.

SystemCentered Reporting Management Pack – SCOM 2007 R2 Performance Reports