Application Development Tips

From Aivisto.com:

User Interface Bug Tests Test your application for common bugs in the User Interface (GUI). This article shows 10 quick ways to find nasty bugs.

Optimize string handling in VB6 - Part II Get to know the performance of VB string functions. Learn the fast functions and the slow ones to avoid. Learn to call the Windows Unicode API functions and to build really, really huge strings without crashing your app.

InStr Function InStr is a powerful string function. It's the perfect way to search and test strings in robust applications. This article shows how to call InStr to perform advanced text processing tasks quickly.

VBA Tip: Use PrtDevMode to set Printer Settings in Access 2 to Access 2000

Office XP introduced the VBA Printer object, but it is not widely know that you can use the PrtDevMode property of a form or report object in VBA to set/return printer properties such as page size and orientation. Search for PrtDevMode in Access Help.

Administering SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

Download: Administer SQL Server 2005 Express Edition In this sample chapter from Mastering Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, learn how to: get up and running quickly, use the interface to administer data and services as well as to keep track of what's happening on your server, and more.

Custom SQL Server 2005 Notifications

Create custom notifications with SQL Server 2005 Build a small custom notification system with SQL Server that allows you to send a message to the correct people when a problem occurs.

March 2007 is SQL Server Month at MSDN TechNet Magazine

You can also download the magazine as an HTML Help file.

New Tools to Diagnose Index Health To get the best performance out of SQL Server, you need to oversee and maintain healthy indexes. New dynamic management views and functions give you a window into SQL Server to help you better understand how your indexes are functioning and discover potential performance issues.

Achieve High Availability for SQL Server SQL Server 2005 offers a number of options to improve database availability, from replication to clustering to log shipping. We’ll take a closer look at the various options for configuring SQL Server and help you find out which ones are right for your environment.

Simplify Database Maintenance with Table Partitions In the past, working with partitions and very large tables was a burdensome and tedious task, but with SQL Server 2005, table partitioning has gotten much simpler. Now you can easily create multiple partitions, move those partitions around, drop old partitions, and even change the way data is partitioned. Here’s how.

Top Tips for SQL Server Clustering A server cluster provides failover capabilities, ensuring more uptime for your critical operations. But for a cluster to be effective, it must be implemented properly. Here are some key tips that will help you get your cluster up faster and keep it functioning reliably.

Sample Data Models for Access Relational Databases

Databasedev.co.uk has a wide range of relational database data models for free download. The models are fully structured and normalised.

New Office Sharepoint Server 2007 Add-Ons

Business Data Catalog Business Data Catalog is a new business integration feature in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. It is a shared service and it enables Office SharePoint Server 2007 to surface business data from back-end server applications without any coding. Business Data Catalog bridges the gap between the portal site and your business applications and enables you to bring in key data from various business applications to Office SharePoint Server 2007 lists, Web Parts, search, user profiles, and custom applications. Business Data Catalog provides built-in support for displaying data from databases and Web services. That is, you can use Business Data Catalog to display data from your SAP, Siebel, or other line-of-business (LOB) application via Web services or databases. Read the article Knowledge Network Knowledge Network is a new add-on for Office SharePoint Server 2007 that many people don’t know about yet. It automates the discovery and sharing of undocumented knowledge and relationships, enabling you to quickly locate who knows whom and who knows what within your constantly changing organization. Read more...

Urgent Microsoft Patch for SQL Server 2005 SP2

SQL Server 2005 SP2 Update Download an update to the initial release of SQL Server 2005 SP2. This update resolves an issue with maintenance plan cleanup tasks intervals, whereby legacy data is inadvertantly deleted.

Updated Office 2003 XML Schema Reference

Updated Download: Office 2003: XML Schema Reference This download contains documentation on a number of XML schemas for Microsoft Office 2003 Editions.

Download SQL Server 2005 SP2

SQL Server 2005 SP2 Download Service Pack 2 for Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

Office Open XML Videos: Visual How To's

Office Open XML Formats: Retrieving Lists of PowerPoint 2007 Slides How to retrieve a list of PowerPoint 2007 slide titles.

Office Open XML Formats: Retrieving Excel 2007 Cell Values How to retrieve values from an Excel 2007 worksheet.

Office Open XML Formats: Setting Custom Word 2007 Document Properties How to set custom properties in Word 2007

Using Office Open XML File Formats to Retrieve a List of Excel 2007 Worksheets How to retrieve a list of worksheets in Excel 2007.

Office 2007 Developer References - Now Available!

Find conceptual overviews, programming tasks, samples, and references to guide you in developing solutions based on the Microsoft Office 2007 System:

Access 2007 Developer Reference

Excel 2007 Developer Reference

InfoPath 2007 Developer Reference

InfoPath 2007 XSF Schema Reference

Object Library Reference for the 2007 Microsoft Office System

Outlook 2007 Developer Reference

Project 2007 Developer Reference

SharePoint Designer 2007 Developer Reference

Word 2007 Developer Reference

Code Tip: Use Custom Cursors In MS Access

Using VBA in Access, apart from the Hand cursor for a Hyperlink control and using the Hourglass method of the DoCmd object, you can only use the MousePointer property of the Screen object to specify a mouse-pointer, with the cursor types limited to:

• Default Arrow
• Text Select (I-Beam)
• Vertical Resize (Size N, S)
• Horizontal Resize (Size E, W)
• Busy (Hourglass)
  

However, there are two API calls that allow you to use your own custom cursors or Windows system cursors in your Access applications. You can even use animated cursors.

Place the following code behind an Access form to see how the API calls work. A sample MDB is also available for download.

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

' Declarations for API Functions
Private Declare Function LoadCursorFromFile Lib "user32" _
Alias "LoadCursorFromFileA" (ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function SetClassLong Lib "user32" Alias_
"SetClassLongA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, _
ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function LoadCursor Lib "user32" Alias_
"LoadCursorA" (ByVal hInstance As Long, ByVal lpCursorName As Long) As Long

' Declare Windows API Constants for Windows System cursors
Const GCW_HCURSOR = (-12)
Const IDC_APPSTARTING As Long = 32650&
Const IDC_ARROW As Long = 32512&
Const IDC_HAND As Long = 32649
Const IDC_HELP As Long = 32651
Const IDC_IBEAM As Long = 32513&
Const IDC_ICON As Long = 32641&
Const IDC_WAIT As Long = 32514&
Const IDC_UPARROW As Long = 32516&
Const IDC_SIZEWE As Long = 32644&
Const IDC_SIZENWSE As Long = 32642&
Const IDC_SIZENS As Long = 32645&
Const IDC_SIZENESW As Long = 32643&
Const IDC_SIZEALL As Long = 32646&
Const IDC_SIZE As Long = 32640&
Const IDC_NO As Long = 32648&

' Declare handles for cursor
Private Const GCL_HCURSOR = (-12)
Private hOldCursor As Long
Private hNewCursor As Long

Private Sub Form_Load()
'Load cursor
'Comment out code not required:
'Load system cursor
hNewCursor = LoadCursor(ByVal 0&, IDC_HAND)
'Load cursor from file
hNewCursor = LoadCursorFromFile(CurrentProject.Path & "\cool.cur")
'Load animated cursor from file
hNewCursor = LoadCursorFromFile(CurrentProject.Path & "\APPSTART.ani")
hOldCursor = SetClassLong(Me.hwnd, GCL_HCURSOR, hNewCursor)
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
'Unload cursor
hOldCursor = SetClassLong(hwnd, GCL_HCURSOR, hOldCursor)
End Sub

How To Install Access Menu Add-Ins in Windows Vista

Thanks to Jeanette Noble and Tim Getsch at Microsoft for this update.

Under Vista you have to run an application as administrator to have the rights to set an HKLM registry key.

Workarounds to Install Menu Add-Ins on Vista:

• Run msaccess.exe as administrator and then use the Add-In manager. This workaround should work for previous versions of Access as well.


• Manually set the registry keys for the add-in. Access 2007 now supports Menu Add-In registrations under HKLM or HKCU.


• For Access 2007 only the best solution is to change the capitalization of “Menu Add-Ins” in the USysRegInfo table of the MDA or ACCDA. This is just like previous versions only you have to have Menu Add-Ins capitalized exactly as shown or the Add-In Manager will try to set the registry keys under HLKM and fail on Vista.
  
  

Setting up Database Mail in SQL Server 2005

Setting up Database Mail in SQL Server 2005 SQL Server 2005's Database Mail is completely
SMTP based, allowing you to send e-mails with attachments, format HTML e-mails, and more. Tim Chapman from TechRepublic.com fills you in on the advantages of Database Mail and explains how to set it up in your environment.