My experiences with developer technologies

Working with Windows Intune

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 23:38:12 GMT

Recently I moved to Windows Intune group. Windows Intune meets several companies' needs, and provides them with the tools they need to help manage and secure PCs through the cloud. It's a powerful combination of cloud services for PC security and management...(read more)

Windows Azure SQL Reporting: using SOAP APIs

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 10:45:00 GMT

Device information settings in SSRS are used to pass parameters to a rendering extension. For more information regarding device information settings in reporting services, see Passing Device Information Settings to Rendering Extensions . For SQL Reporting...(read more)

Windows Azure SQL Reporting: ReportViewer-SOAP API usage sample is available on CodeGallery

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:23:45 GMT

SQL Reporting ReportViewer-SOAP API usage sample is available on CodeGallery. This sample demonstrate how to embed a Microsoft ReportViewer control that points to reports hosted on SQL Reporting report servers and how to use SQL Reporting SOAP APIs in...(read more)

SQL Reporting Admin Sample is available on CodeGallery

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:36:00 GMT

The SQLReportingAdmin sample for Windows Azure SQL Reporting demonstrates the usage of SQL Reporting APIs, and manages (add/update/delete) permissions of SQL Reporting users. You must install the Windows Azure Software Development Kit (SDK) 1.3 or later...(read more)

Windows Azure SQL Reporting is now available

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 04:06:00 GMT

Windows Azure SQL Reporting is now commercially available to the Windows Azure customers. Like other services on the Windows Azure Platform, SQL Reporting is designed to support elastic scale. Based on your usage and seasonal requirements, you can easily...(read more)

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 - System Configuration Check Report

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 07:47:00 GMT

I was installing SQL Server 2012 RTM on my Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 machine. I selected the following option on Setup Role: I selected all features that are available: I went ahead and choose the default values on all the screens, and here...(read more)

Wiki Topic : Configuring SQL Server 2012 on a Server Core Installation of Windows

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 07:32:23 GMT

SQL Server 2012 can now be installed on a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. My previous blog posts has those details about installing Windows in Server Core mode, and configurations needed on the operating system. I worked on a technet...(read more)

Step-by-step procedure for Installing SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core : PART 3

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:15:00 GMT

In Step-by-step procedure for Installing SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core : PART 2 , we covered details about Add the machine to a domain, Add an administrator and Rename the Server. You can achieve all these specified tasks in a...(read more)

Modal Popup Windows in ASP.NET Web Applications

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:44:00 GMT

We all know about the Popup windows being used in Windows based .NET applications, and its usability. In ASP.NET Web based applications we don’t have any control that can be used to accomplish this. There are some third party controls which can...(read more)

Step-by-step procedure for Installing SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core : PART 2

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:01:00 GMT

Configuring Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core Find the domain: To identify the domain of the computer you are connected to, run the following command from command prompt: systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"Domain" Add machine to the domain: At a command...(read more)

Step-by-step procedure for Installing SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core : PART 1

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:35:01 GMT

Starting SQL Server 2012, you can now install SQL Server on a Server Core operating system. For more information, see : Install SQL Server 2012 on Server Core What is Server Core Installation? The Server Core installation option for the Microsoft Windows...(read more)

SQL Server 2005 SP4, KBA 2463332, Installation Issues

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Mon, 30 May 2011 05:13:34 GMT

Problem Description: This is regarding the SQL Server 2005, SP4 Installation. This is in reference to: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2463332 There had been a lot of issues being reported on MSDN Forums, about the installation failures. About the patch...(read more)

BI Labs–It’s LIVE now

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:31:52 GMT

Check the new BI Labs site from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/BI There are some exciting new tools/samples being published on the BI Labs site. Check them over here: http://www.microsoft.com/bi/en-us/Community/BILabs/Pages/Home.aspx They are: PivotViewer...(read more)

Reporting Services LogViewer Tool

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:45:00 GMT

Reporting Services LogViewer Tool Sample is developed in Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation ( WPF ) in Visual C# using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. The sample demonstrates how to read and analyze the Reporting Services trace logs and the Report...(read more)

SQL Server Installation : Useful tools

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:03:27 GMT

Adding some of the useful tools, and reports for SQL Server Installation. SQL Server Setup Discovery Report: The SQL Discovery report can be used to verify the version of SQL Server and the features installed on the computer. To open the SQL Discover...(read more)

SQL Server Connectivity Issues–Troubleshooting Tips

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:30:15 GMT

1. Test the connectivity using UDL file: To create a Universal Data Link (.udl) file Open Windows Explorer . Select the folder in which you want to store the .udl file. Create a new Text Document under this folder. A new file named New Text Document.txt...(read more)

Forms Authentication Sample and Windows 2008

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:29:00 GMT

The forms authentication sample: http://msftrsprodsamples.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=SS2008%21Security%20Extension%20Sample&referringTitle=Home , is strictly for educational purpose only. They are not intended to be used in a production environment...(read more)

How to save a copy of the Report being rendered in ReportViewer Control

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:30:00 GMT

I had worked with a few customers in the past who had the following requirement. Using web ReportViewer control. Rendering a Server Report Providing an option to create a Copy of the existing report with some specified set...(read more)

Reporting Services Permissions Sample

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:51:44 GMT

The functionality of managing permissions via SQL Server Management Studio had been removed in Reporting Services 2008. A new sample, RSPermissions which demonstrates how to write an application which manages Reporting Services permissions via the Reporting...(read more)

How to run 32-bit UDL file on a 64-bit Operating System

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:24:00 GMT

Once we create an UDL File and run it on 64 Bit OS, it will list down all the 64 bit OLE DB providers installed on the machine.

The reason behind for this is simple. When you double click on a UDL file on a 64 bit machine, it’ll enumerate only the 64 bit OLE DB Providers and if we have the 32 bit Ole DB providers installed, we will not be able to find that in the enumerated list.

Create a udl file with the name test.udl under the path, C:\.

When we have created a UDL file on a 64 bit machine and try to open it, the following

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Ole DB\oledb32.dll",OpenDSLFile C:\test.udl

Command will be called through C:\windows\system32\rundll32.exe.

Here both Oledb32.dll and rundll32.exe are 64 bit and will not enumerate the 32bit Dlls.

Then how to run the UDL which lists down the 32bit Dlls?

We can find the 32bit version of Oledb32.dll under the path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\System\Ole DB

and 32 bit version of rundll32.exe under the path: C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64.

We’ll need to execute the command below from a command line or Start/Run :

C:\Windows\syswow64\rundll32.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\System\Ole DB\oledb32.dll",OpenDSLFile C:\test.udl

Check the paths of rundll32.exe and oledb32.dll while running this command!

Here you have your 32 bit OLE DB Providers.

Filtering Data Dynamically on a ReportViewer Control

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:52:00 GMT

Question:
How to display Dynamic Data in the ReportViewer Control.

Scenario:
Imagine having a ReportViewer Control on either Winforms or Webform.
We use a SQL Query to fetch the data and have a dataset returned as a result of executing the SQL Query on the Database.

We have this Dataset assinged to the ReportViewer Control. We have some filter criteria mentioned on the form and based on the filter criteria the data on the ReportViewer Control needs to be refreshed.

Solution:
Imagine having a button that generates the report. Assuming that all the datasets are previously populated with information, here is how I apply my filter and reassign my binding source.

Its not needed for us to touch the reportviewer control (other than to tell it to render) as it should already pointing to the binding source for its data.

Me.DataSet.DataTable.DefaultView.RowFilter = "" // Mention the filter condition you would like to use to filter the Data
Me.DataTableReportBindingSource.DataSource = Me.DataSet.DataTable.DefaultView
Me.ReportViewer1.RefreshReport()

Useful Links:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms252125(VS.80).aspx [How to: Filter Data in a ReportViewer Report]

Conditional PageBreak With Rectangles in a Report

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 07:28:00 GMT

If we are trying to insert a page break after a Rectangle based on a Conditional Expression, that does not work.

Work around:

You need to next two rectangles inside one another.

Apply the conditional (apply the conditional expression) formatting to the outside rectangle. Then apply the page break to the inner rectangle.
You have now separated the conditional formatting from the page break.

Since the inside rectangle is only visible when the conditional statement is true, it only applies the page break when it is visible.

This might be a single scenario, but we can apply it to many others reports where we wanted to Force a page break.

Japanese Characters are displayed as "?" when we export report to either PDF or TIFF format

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:23:00 GMT

Problem Description:

=======================================================================

- We had a report that displays the Japanese characters. When we try to export the report to either PDF or TIFF format we don’t see these Japanese characters, instead they are replaced by the character “?”

Cause & Resolution:

=======================================================================

- The Arial Unicode MS font allows the display of characters in most languages. This font contains glyphs for all code points within the Unicode Standard, version 2.1.

- We will not have this font installed by default and would generally come with Microsoft Office. Else we will need to have it installed explicitly using an Office setup CD.

- Once we have this installed on the Report Server machine, then we need to make sure we install files for East Asian Languages. We do this as per the following steps:

o Go to Control Panel. Select “Regional and Language Options”

o Go to Languages Tab, check “Install files for East Asian Languages”. Once installation is done we have to reboot the machine.

o We have to use Arial Unicode MS instead of Arial

- Sometimes even if we had followed the above steps, we may run into the issue mentioned in the problem description. Then follow the below stated steps:

o Go to the IIS Manager and select Reports Virtual directory.

o Go to the properties of the Report Manager, and Virtual Directory tab, Configuration button. Under Application extensions look for .axd, select and hit on edit.

o In the .axd extension if we have “Verify if File Exists” is checked, then we have to remove it.

o Once done, we can do an IIS Reset and check the behavior.

- Also refer the following articles for reference:

o http://support.microsoft.com/?id=287247 [Description of the Arial Unicode MS font in Word 2002]

o http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159713.aspx [Designing for PDF Output]

o http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2wawkw1c.aspx [Web Site File Types]

Report Manager is slow after an IISReset or AppPool restart

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:14:00 GMT

Report Manager and Report server may take time for the first time after we do an
IIS Reset or a recycle of the application pool.

For the first time Report Manager might take a few seconds, and that is expected. But if it takes either 2 or 3 minutes then it might be abnormal.

Even if the SSL is not enabled, Reporting services is looking for the "Certificate
Revocation List Information" for the first time after an IIS Reset or Recycle of
the Application Pool.

CRL are published on a timer. For example the default CRL publish period for a MS
CA is once a week.

When a client makes a secured connection to a server it will check the servers
certificate by downloading the CRL from the CA that issued the cert and checking to
see if that certificate has been revoked. The client will use the cached version
till the cached version expires. It will download the CRL again the next time it
needs to verify a certificate.

If you download the CRL and place it on the client it will only be good for as long
as the publish period for the CRL so it would not be a permanent fix. I checked the
CRL and seems that right now we are publishing the CRL one every 6 months. So I
guess that is not exactly horrible...

Ideally the machine running the application will have access to the Internet and be
allowed to access crl.microsoft.com/*.

Steps to manually install the CRL:

1. From any machine that has access to the internet browse to
<http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/CodeSignPCA.crl>

2. Save the CRL file and copy it to the machine that will launch the SQL reports

3. On the machine that will launch the SQL reports application run this command

certutil -addstore CA CodeSignPCA.crl

The customer needs to be aware that once every six months they will need to update
the CRL. The CRL publishing period may change in the future.

Report Builder not Visible

Chaitanya Medikonduri — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:10:00 GMT

There are scenarios where we do not see the Report Builder visible while trying to
browse the Report Manager.

This can be on the same domain or from a different domain.
If we are accessing from a different domain, (Both the domains are trusted among
each other), everything looks good but only Report Builder is not visible.

Or some times Report Builder is only visible to the Administrators but not to others.

RESOLUTION:
=========================

FOR A SPECIFIC USER--
-------------------------------------
- Logged onto the SQL Reporting Services machine as Admin and browsed to the
Reports Manager page
- Selected the properties tab and added the domain user that needed the access
- We gave the user Report Builder rights
- We then select Site Settings from the top and then selected "System level role
definitions"
- We then created a new Role and assigned the task "Execute Report Definitions" (As

this is the only task required to display the Report Builder button for the
users)
- After creating the rule we then went back to the site settings page and selected

"Configure site-wide security"
- We then added the domain user account that need access and assigned the group we

created in the last step.

FOR A GROUP OF USERS--
------------------------------------------
1. Add the non-Administrative users to the "System Users" group by following these

steps:
a. Open Report Manager as a user that is in the Local Administrators group on
the Reporting Services server.
b. You can open Report Manager
c. Click "Site Settings" in the upper right hand corner.
d. Click "Site Wide Security Settings" near the bottom of the page.
e. Click "New Role Assignment"
f. Type in "Users" in the "Group or User name" field if you would like to add
the local "Users" group.
This group includes "Authenticated Users" which means anyone authenticated on
the domain/local machine will be in this group.

Or if we are facing issues with users from other domain. You may specify any group
you would like for step f. This was just an
example.

h. Check the box next to "System User"
i. Click "Ok"

ARTICLES TO BE REFERRED:
=========================
-- http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159667.aspx [Role Assignments for
Report Builder Access]
-- http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms403427.aspx [Updating Role-Based
Security for Report Builder Access]