This time, I'm going to speak about Reporting Services (SSRS) and some new features.

Power View

With his new file format RDLX, Power view is a new interactive BI feature.



Based on Silverlight, end-users can visualize and interact directly with an SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services (SSAS) tabular model.

Power view is a good additional tool to display reports and to give to the end-user a solution to create self-report.

For more information, click here.
To have a set of sample to test it, click here.

SharePoint Mode

This new feature is based on a complete new architecture similar to SharePoint 2010 shared service. With this shared service, Reporting services can use a good range of SharePoint functionalities.
You have a lot of benefits like SharePoint cross-farm support for viewing reports or the SharePoint Central Administration which supports the Reporting Services SharePoint mode Configuration.

Data Alerts

A new feature for SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services called Data Alerts notifies a list of recipients about data's report changes.
Data alerts runs in the background and polls the reports for some changes.

To create and manage these new alerts, you have 3 tools:

1. Data Alert Designer

For users to create and edit data alert definitions.



For more information, click here.

2. Data Alert Manager for Users

Users can view information, delete or change their data alerts.

3. Data Alert Manager for alerting administrators

Administrators can view information, delete or change all data alerts created by all users.

For more information, click here.

Report Server Projects in SQL Server Data Tools for Visual Studio 2010

Add-in to Visual Studio 2010, SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is a development environment to modify BI Solutions.
With this tool, you can create, open and modify Report (rdl file) from version 2005, 2008 and 2008 R2.

Excel Renderer for Microsoft Excel 2003, 2007 & 2010

To enable this feature, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint must be installed.
This extension renders a report as an Excel document compatible with Excel version 2003, 2007 and 2010
You have some limits like maximum rows/worksheet with 1048576 or Maximum columns/worksheet with 16384 but normally you have a good marge

For more information, click here.

Word Renderer for Microsoft Word 2003, 2007 & 2010

Like Excel Renderer, to enable this feature, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint must be installed.
This extension renders a report as a Word document compatible with Word version 2003, 2007 and 2010

For more information, click here.

Conclusion

I hope this article gives you a good vision of all new features in SSRS and all new possibilities for your business and users.

You can find all information about the new Reporting Services here on the Microsoft TechNet.

My SQL Server 2012 series will be continued soon with SSAS... Want to try SSRS 2012 hosting? Please visit our site at http://www.hostforlife.eu.

A common question that is often asked is how to auto-magically redirect HTTP requests for your web sites to HTTPS. Simply put, if someone types “http://www.yoursite.com” how can you redirect that request to “https://www.yoursite.com”?

For a complete look at how URL Rewriting works, take a look at the following MSDN article on URL Rewrite. Then look at the following as an example of what to add to your web.config:

<rewrite>
  <rules>
    <rule name="Redirect to HTTPS" stopProcessing="true">
      <match url="(.*)" />
      <conditions>
        <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="^OFF$" />
      </conditions>
      <action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" />
    </rule>
  </rules>
</rewrite>

HostForLIFE.eu was established to cater to an under served market in the hosting industry; web hosting for customers who want excellent service. HostForLIFE.eu – a cheap, constant uptime, excellent customer service, quality, and also reliable hosting provider in advanced Windows and ASP.NET technology. We proudly announces the availability of the SQL 2012 hosting in our entire servers environment. HostForLife customer can choose SQL 2012 when creating a database from inside HostForLife hosting control panel.

The first new option is Windows SQL Server 2012, which is available to customers from today. With the public release just last week of Microsoft’s latest version of their premier database product, HostForLife has been quick to respond with updated their shared server configurations. SQL Server 2012 Web Edition is available for the same low monthly rental price as the previous SQL 2008, as well as Express Edition, which is a basic version of Microsoft’s SQL Database product, available for free.

“We’re proud to be at the cutting edge for new technologies. With these additions, customers have the option to explore these new products in the safe environment of their own shared server. Developers and IT Managers can research the potential impact of next-generation software without risking current infrastructure. With Microsoft’s announcement of the general availability of their new SQL server, we are proud to launch SQL 2012 hosting along with a suite of SQL 2012 management tools." Said John Curtis, VP Marketing and Business Development at HostForLIFE.eu.

John added, “It’s very important to our customers that we support their current deployments; we want to make sure that our customers have their good opportunity to test this new technology."

“HostForLIFE customers can now take advantage of SQL Server 2012’s advanced BI capabilities, We’re excited to see the benefits of this release add value to the energy management and manufacturing arena. Ensuring compatibility with Microsoft’s new SQL Server 2012 demonstrates how HostForLife and Microsoft remain committed together to providing leading edge technology for the benefit of our shared customers." Said CEO of HostForLIFE.eu, Anthony Johnson.

For more information about this new product, please visit http://www.hostforlife.eu/SQL-2012-European-Hosting.aspx.

About us:

We are European Windows Hosting Provider which FOCUS in Windows Platform ONLY. We support Microsoft technology, such as the latest ASP.NET 4, ASP.NET MVC 3, SQL 2008/2008 R2, and much more.

Our number one goal is constant uptime. Our data center uses cutting edge technology, processes, and equipment. We have one of the best up time reputations in the industry.

Our second goal is providing excellent customer service. Our technical management structure is headed by professionals who have been in the industry since it's inception. We have customers from around the globe, spread across every continent. We serve the hosting needs of the business and professional, government and nonprofit, entertainment and personal use market segments.

In this post, I will show you common error in Web Deploy and how to solve it. Here are the most common publishing errors and solutions for them:

Error: “The application pool that you are trying to use has the ‘managedRuntimeVersion’ property set to ‘v2.0′. This application requires ‘v4.0′.”

Solution : An application pool provides isolation for websites. Typically, web hosting providers create one application pool per website, and set default values for a number of attributes. One of these attributes is the version of the .NET framework. The user can often change this value between .NET 2.0 and .NET 4.0 through the web hosting provider’s control panel. You will see this error during publishing if you are publishing an ASP.NET Web Pages application, which requires .NET 4.0, to a hoster who has given you a website with a .NET 2.0 application pool. Similarly, you will see this error if you are publishing an application that requires .NET 2.0 to a website associated with an .NET 4.0 application pool. The solution is to set the .NET framework version in the web hosting provider’s control panel or, if there are no compatibility issues, change your application’s .NET framework version in WebMatrix’s Settings workspace.

Error: “Username or password incorrect” error when using Web Deploy

Solution : This is probably because the value in Site Name is incorrect. Site Name must contain the name of the IIS site on the remote server. Typically, it matches your domain name, but it doesn’t have to. For example, it can be “Default Web Site” (if you have a dedicated server) or “foo” or “foo.com”. Web Deploy must authenticate to the site before it can execute any providers.

Error: Web management service not started on destination

Solution: You may see this error if you are deploying to a server you have set up yourself. Web Deploy requires a service called Web Management Service (wmsvc) to be running on the remote server. You can get this error if the service is not started. This blog post is a good starting point to learn how to configure a remote server with Web Deploy and wmsvc.

Error: Failed to invoke provider “iisApp”

Solution: Under the covers, WebMatrix users Web Deploy’s iisApp provider to sync files and directories, and to mark folders as applications. You may see this error if delegation rules are not configured correctly on the remote server. Delegation rules allow the user to execute some actions that require administrative privileges, such as marking a folder as an application. This blog post and this one gives good information on how to configure delegation rules.

Error: Bad gateway: check proxy settings

Solution: This one is literally what it says – check proxy settings because Web Deploy traffic is being blocked. Try installing your corporation’s required firewall client, and disabling all settings in Internet Explorer > Tools > Options > Connections > LAN settings.

If you need Web Deploy hosting, please consider us as we support Web Deploy. Please visit our site at http://www.hostforlife.eu for more information.

In this post, I will show you common error in Web Deploy and how to solve it. Here are the most common publishing errors and solutions for them:

Error: “The application pool that you are trying to use has the ‘managedRuntimeVersion’ property set to ‘v2.0′. This application requires ‘v4.0′.”

Solution : An application pool provides isolation for websites. Typically, web hosting providers create one application pool per website, and set default values for a number of attributes. One of these attributes is the version of the .NET framework. The user can often change this value between .NET 2.0 and .NET 4.0 through the web hosting provider’s control panel. You will see this error during publishing if you are publishing an ASP.NET Web Pages application, which requires .NET 4.0, to a hoster who has given you a website with a .NET 2.0 application pool. Similarly, you will see this error if you are publishing an application that requires .NET 2.0 to a website associated with an .NET 4.0 application pool. The solution is to set the .NET framework version in the web hosting provider’s control panel or, if there are no compatibility issues, change your application’s .NET framework version in WebMatrix’s Settings workspace.

Error: “Username or password incorrect” error when using Web Deploy

Solution : This is probably because the value in Site Name is incorrect. Site Name must contain the name of the IIS site on the remote server. Typically, it matches your domain name, but it doesn’t have to. For example, it can be “Default Web Site” (if you have a dedicated server) or “foo” or “foo.com”. Web Deploy must authenticate to the site before it can execute any providers.

Error: Web management service not started on destination

Solution: You may see this error if you are deploying to a server you have set up yourself. Web Deploy requires a service called Web Management Service (wmsvc) to be running on the remote server. You can get this error if the service is not started. This blog post is a good starting point to learn how to configure a remote server with Web Deploy and wmsvc.

Error: Failed to invoke provider “iisApp”

Solution: Under the covers, WebMatrix users Web Deploy’s iisApp provider to sync files and directories, and to mark folders as applications. You may see this error if delegation rules are not configured correctly on the remote server. Delegation rules allow the user to execute some actions that require administrative privileges, such as marking a folder as an application. This blog post and this one gives good information on how to configure delegation rules.

Error: Bad gateway: check proxy settings

Solution: This one is literally what it says – check proxy settings because Web Deploy traffic is being blocked. Try installing your corporation’s required firewall client, and disabling all settings in Internet Explorer > Tools > Options > Connections > LAN settings.

If you need Web Deploy hosting, please consider us as we support Web Deploy. Please visit our site at http://www.hostforlife.eu for more information.

HostForLIFE.eu was established to cater to an under served market in the hosting industry; web hosting for customers who want excellent service. HostForLIFE.eu – a cheap, constant uptime, excellent customer service, quality, and also reliable hosting provider in advanced Windows and ASP.NET technology. We proudly announces new FREE ASP.NET 4.5 beta hosting in our entire servers environment.

You can start hosting your ASP.NET 4.5 beta site on our environment for FREE. For more information about our new product, please visit our site at http://www.hostforlife.eu/ASPNET-45-Beta-European-Hosting.aspx

"This is limited program offered as an open beta for developers on a first come first serve basis. Our .NET 4.5 beta hosting account comes with 50 MB disk space and 50 MB SQL 2008 database space. With this .NET 4.5 beta release, we prove our existence in this hosting world and also we want the developers to give it try with the newest .net 4.5 in our hosting environment." said John Curtis, VP Marketing and Business Development at HostForLIFE.eu

So, why wait longer? Please visit http://www.hostforlife.eu/ASPNET-45-Beta-European-Hosting.aspx to register new account.

About us

We are European Windows Hosting Provider which FOCUS in Windows Platform ONLY. We support Microsoft technology, such as the latest ASP.NET 4, ASP.NET MVC 3, SQL 2008/2008 R2, and much more.

Our number one goal is constant uptime. Our data center uses cutting edge technology, processes, and equipment. We have one of the best up time reputations in the industry.

Our second goal is providing excellent customer service. Our technical management structure is headed by professionals who have been in the industry since it's inception. We have customers from around the globe, spread across every continent. We serve the hosting needs of the business and professional, government and nonprofit, entertainment and personal use market segments.

As you probably know, Visual Studio LightSwitch is a tool provided by Microsoft to build business applications. In this article you will see how to communicate screens in a LightSwitch application.

You can say a screen is a template in which you display data. There are five types of data screens in the LightSwitch Application i.e. New Data Screen, Search Data Screen, Details Screen, Editable Grid Screen, List and Details Screen. If you want to communicate across screens in a LightSwitch application then you can do that.

When we establish a relationship among screens then the process is called communication among screens.

Step 1 : First of all open Visual Studio LightSwitch->Click on new project->Select LightSwitch->Select LightSwitch application->Write name (CommunicatioScreens)->Ok.



Step 2 : Click on create new table.



Step 3 : Create tables such as customer and order.



Step 4 : Now we will establish a relationship between these tables. To establish the relationship then click on relationship.



Step 5 : Now we establish a one to many relationship from the customer to the order as in the following image.



Step 6 : Now we will add a screen. Right click on screens->Add screen



Step 7 : Select new data screen->Select screen data (customer)->Ok.

In the same manner we we will add a new data screen for the order table.



Step 8 : In the same manner we will add a list and details screen for customer and order tables.



Step 9 : Click add data item->Select query->Select customer->Write name (CustomerChoice)->Ok.



Step 10 : Go to the properties of the customer in CreateNewOrder screen->Select choice (CustomerChoice).



Step 11 : Run the application (Press F5). Click on create new customer for adding a customer then save.



Step 12 : Click on create new order for adding an order.



Step 13 : If you want to see the details of a customer or order then you can. To do that you will click on customer list details and order list details. In this section you can change the customer for order like in the following image.

In VS 10 we use MSDeploy behind the scenes to deploy your entire web application along with all of its dependencies like IIS Settings, DB, web content etc to any destination server.

MSDeploy is a new technology specially designed to serve the purpose of deploying web applications seamlessly across IIS Servers. My hope is to give you a CONCEPTUAL high level overview to understand how web deployment with VS10 & MSDeploy really works.

In case of web deployment or replication across server farms what you really require is to take the web and its dependencies from one box to another. To further over simplify there is a source (your dev box) and there is a destination (your web server), the source needs to be replicated on to the destination and that is what we are trying to achieve (with of course a lot more details behind the scene :-)

MSDeploy uses this simple concept of taking the source and applying it on to the destination. Let us try to understand what all are possible sources:

Source:

- If you want to deploy the site you are developing on your dev box then now the site you are developing on the dev box becomes the source.
- If you have your web content stored in the source control and you have a build server which is set up for automatic deployment then the build server becomes the source.
- If you have a MSDeploy web package given to you by someone and you are trying to install it on your dev box then the web package becomes the source.

Destination:

- If you are deploying a web to a test server then the test server is the destination.
- If you are creating a web package out of your web site using MSDeploy then the web package becomes the destination.
- If you are deploying to your own dev box for testing purposes then in this case your dev box itself becomes the destination.

Well the concepts of source and destination are pretty simple but the reason why they are so interesting is because when you set up your deployment settings in Visual Studio then VS creates something that we call as Source Manifest and feeds to MSDeploy. Check out the figure below which gives you an idea of how VS 10 will produce your web package:



Source Manifest is a simple XML which instructs MSDeploy on what all Providers to invoke on the source machine. So what is a MSDeploy Provider?

A MSDeploy provider is a simple object which MSDeploy engine invokes to do two major CONCEPTUAL tasks:

1. On Source Machine to GET the right content from its place

e.g. if you had Database attached to your web then at source DB Provider will be called to pull out your data and schema and convert it into SQL Scripts which will then go into the web package.

2. On Destination Machine to PUT the right content in its place

e.g. if there were SQL scripts in your web package then at destination DB Provider will be called to run the SQL command and the SQL scripts to create and set up the database

MSDeploy comes with a lot of pre-built providers like:

- IIS Settings providers for IIS 5.1 (for XP), IIS 6.0 (for Win2K3) & IIS 7.0(for Vista & Win2K8)
- DB Provider for MS SQL Server
- GAC
- COM
- Registry
- etc etc

Based on your project settings Visual Studio creates a source manifest which is fed to MSDeploy to create package or deploy your web application. So on the source box below is how MSDeploy works:



Along with creating the source manifest, Visual Studio also creates destination manifest for you. Check the below diagram:



When you are ready to deploy then on the destination you can feed the web package and the destination manifest to MSDeploy to deploy your web site. In the destination manifest you can change the values like “IIS Application Name”, “DB connection strings” etc.



This is how you can use web packages on any machine with MSDeploy and by configuring your deployment options in the destination manifest you can go and and easily recreate your webs.

It is not possible for someone to come up with every possible provider that everyone needs so there will be an extensibility model by which you can write your own providers and register it with MSDeploy engine.

Visual Studio is also made extensible to allow you to hook into the packaging and publishing process to call your custom MSDeploy providers in the source manifest.

The most interesting pieces is that with IIS Manager and Visual Studio 2010 UI, you will not really need to know all these details, things will just work but I thought it is often interesting to know how things work behind the scenes.

I hope this conceptual overview helps you get the perspective on how web deployment with VS 2010 and MSDeploy will work!!

This is an error message that sometimes you might see when you published your site with WebDeploy. Yeah, we know WebDeploy sometimes is hard and not so easy as you think, but if you have problem with your current provider, you can consider our hosting plan. We support WebDeploy and we are Microsoft certified partner. Ok, let’s go to the problem:

“Error: An unsupported response was received. The response header ‘MSDeploy.Response’ was ” but ‘v1′ was expected.
Error: The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized.”

This means that you do not have access. So, you need to create ticket to us and then we will set a username and password for your both your web deploy and remote IIS user.

Maybe you find another problem like this:

Error: The remote server returned an error: (503) Server Unavailable. Web Deploy may not be setup or running on that server. Please contact us in order to resolve the issue.

An error occurred when the request was processed on the remote computer.
The server experienced an issue processing the request. Contact the server administrator for more information.

This is the most common error we see and, unfortunately, it does not tell you much. What this means is that, usually, you have successfully connected to the server, however for some reason your deployment failed. Usually, this means that you are attempting to do something that you do not have access to do (such as deploying to the root directory – which you need full control permissions in order to do and this must be granted by us). Please check your settings and ensure that everything is correct. Also, if you do contact us, providing a screenshot of your deployment settings (Service URL, Site/Application and Username/Password) will assist us in troubleshooting your issue.

Lastly, I want to talk about the SetAcl deployment handler. Once you decide to publish to your root directory you can do some damage by removing the permissions from your files/folders if you aren’t careful. In order to fix this each file/folder must be reclaimed and the permissions reset, which is quite a bit of work and very time consuming for us.

SetAcl can be found in your WAP project file.

What is SetAcl? It’s a provider that lets you set permissions on file system objects. Typically, this involves setting permissions on a sub-folder of your application, such as App_Data.

Let’s say you run this command:

msdeploy.exe -verb:sync -source:setacl -dest:setacl="Default Web Site",setacluser=ApplicationPoolIdentity,setaclaccess=Read

This command will give the ApplicationPoolIdentity Read access to the App_Data folder. Before it does that, however, it will clear existing permissions on the folder for the identity. This makes sense, since setAcl has to set the correct permissions and the only way to do that is to clear existing permissions for the identity. For example, if the ApplicationPoolIdentity had Read,Execute permissions before, now it will just have Read permissions.

In order to disable it, you edit the .csproj file and set:

1. <IncludeSetAclProviderOnDestination>False</IncludeSetAclProviderOnDestination>

or do this from the command line:

2. msbuild.exe myproject.csproj /p:IncludeSetAclProviderOnDestination=False

Following the above instructions will allow you to safely deploy to the root directory.

Hope this article will help you if you find problem like above.

Xdebug is a very popular PHP extension that helps with debugging and profiling of PHP scripts by providing a lot of valuable debug information. Microsoft WebMatrix is a development tool for building web applications. When WebMatrix is used to build or modify a PHP-based web application the debugging tasks can be greatly simplified if Xdebug extension is used. This post explains how to install and use Xdebug extension with WebMatrix.

Step 1: Enable PHP in WebMatrix from the site “Settings” page:



Note that if you installed any of the PHP applications from the Application Gallery then PHP will be automatically enabled.

Step 2: Download the appropriate build of Xdebug extension from downloads page. If your site uses PHP 5.2 then download “5.2 VC6 Non-thread safe (32 bit)”. If your site uses PHP 5.3 then download “5.3 VC9 Non-thread safe (32 bit)”. Use 32 bit build even if your Windows OS is 64 bit.

Step 3: Install the extension by copying the downloaded file to the following locations:

-          For PHP 5.2 on Windows 64 bit:
C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express\PHP\v5.2\ext\

-          For PHP 5.2 on Windows 32 bit:
C:\Program Files\IIS Express\PHP\v5.2\ext\

-          For PHP 5.3 on Windows 64 bit:
C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express\PHP\v5.3\ext\

-          For PHP 5.3 on Windows 32 bit:
C:\Program Files\IIS Express\PHP\v5.3\ext\

Step 4: Open the php.ini file located in the PHP installation folder, e.g.
C:\Program Files\IIS Express\PHP\v5.2\php.ini and append the following at the end (make sure that the absolute path is correct for your version of PHP and Windows.):

[xdebug] 
zend_extension = C:\Program Files\iis express\PHP\v5.2\ext\php_xdebug-2.1.0-5.2-vc6-nts.dll

Step 5: Configure PHP to display errors by changing these PHP settings in php.ini file:

display_errors = On  
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE 

Step 6: Test that extension is enabled and works by either calling a phpinfo() function from a script or by running a buggy script:



The Xdebug extension provides a lot of useful features that help with debugging of PHP applications. You can learn more about them from the Xdebug documentation. For example you can use it to profile a PHP application. Just change the php.ini file as shown below and then make a request to a PHP script:

[xdebug] 
zend_extension = C:\Program Files\iis express\PHP\v5.2\ext\php_xdebug-2.1.0-5.2-vc6-nts.dll  
xdebug.profiler_enable = On  
xdebug.profiler_output_dir = C:\Windows\temp 

The profile log will be saved into the specified directory and will have a name cachegrind.out.* Use WinCacheGrind to open and analyze it: