Fun with Sql Server, windows xp, and outlook web components?

Today turned out to be a fun day installing sql server 2005 dev edition today.  The machine already had Sql express 2k5 installed from the Dell factory (or would have anyhow after the VS 2005 install i did). The problem occured when I tried to install anything greater than express (namely, sql server 2005 dev or standard edition(s)).  I intially had to back everything out of the machine to get it to stop complaining about the need to upgrade, and then once those were gone, the OWC11 portion kept failing (apparently Office Web components).  Those things looked installed, via a glance in add/remove programs (plus reflecting on the zillions of other machines with various installations with which never had this problem).  Googling, I found articles about temp file locks and such, so I cleaned up files, directories, and rebooted and such.

This blog entry turned out to be the simple solution. 

Nice way to filter Report Viewers export formats

Thanks to this guy’s article, which shows a decent way to hide reporting service’s export formats from the report viewer, without making global changes to the entire server and such.  If you look at the code, his sample requires a reference to the ReportingServices2005 stuff, so here’s a slight modification of one of his routines which removes that dependency (additionally, we subclassed the ReportViewer itself, but the decorator pattern used in the article is equally compelling): private void ReflectivelySetVisibilityFalse(RenderingExtension extension)
{
FieldInfo info = extension.GetType().GetField(“m_serverExtension”,
BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
if (info != null)
{
object actualExtension = info.GetValue(extension);
if (actualExtension != null)
{
PropertyInfo propInfo = actualExtension.GetType().GetProperty(“Visible”);
if (propInfo != null && propInfo.CanWrite)
{
propInfo.SetValue(actualExtension,
false, null);
}
}
}
}

Ajax

I’m reading this book right now and enjoying it big-time.  It also makes me realize how much i’ve been missing out by not pushing javascript much harder.  The book takes you through the lower-level details of Ajax, such that when you use something higher level , then you can appreciate/understand a bit more of the magic behind the scenes.  Anyhow, a good read and a relevant skill for any current web developer to have.