I've moved

I moved to http://mirceacimpoi.spaces.live.com/
Please see my newer posts there. I wish you to enjoy the same content there.

SendTo -> Longhorn Server 2008 Beta 3

hy!

i somehow dislike my attitude in this period, i did something like: "i'm leaving you, but i still stay with you", as a romanian wisdom quote says. i said i'll move to live.com, but i am posting back here. :)

Back to the subject, i needed a little sugar thing, meaning i wanted to add an option to SendTo menu (from right click). In Windows2003 Server and XP; in documents and settings\\sendto;
well, well.... vista and longhorn server proved some originality in this, meaning, the folder Sendto, containing the shortcuts is better hidden :) ... you have to go to \users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo .... and add the shortcut you want

I hope this tip will be useful. if you encounter problems or you want to discuss on this topic,please post a comment. I am waiting other questions related to Vista & Longhorn Server, too. (from a user point of view :) for the moment, myself being a beginner).

Enjoy!

Errorr C2664: 'strlen' .... HM ....

well....

i have a solution, i'll come back with explanation. If you use VS 2005 to write Win32 app :) ... yeah.... it was specially designed for this kind of applications ... you may get the error with code C2664, caused by strlen :(

C2664: 'strlen' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'TCHAR [100]' to 'const char *'

Well... 1st the solution: replace strlen with wcslen(). Found the idea on msdn forums... i'll come back to explain. i'm a bit in a hurry for now.... i'll come back to this post

Specify Output parameters when using sp_executesql

Yet another instructive database laboratory ... for the third lab, i needed to create a customizable stored procedure, that had to export a table (for which the name was given as a parameter) in xml format.

It is a simple (and necessary) information that sp_executesql accepts output parameters. The problem is how to specify them?

Well... found the answer:

DECLARE @SQL nvarchar(300)
DECLARE @Params nvarchar (200)
DECLARE @DOC XML

SET @SQL = N'SET @DOCOUT = (SELECT * FROM ' + @TableName + ' FOR XML RAW (...))'
SET @Params = N'@DOCOUT XML OUTPUT'
EXEC sp_executesql @SQL, @Params, @DOCOUT = @DOC OUTPUT
SELECT @DOC -- or any query you may pass on @DOC

and TableName is a parameter of my stored procedure

Pretty simple and nice!

For more questions, please see the examples and more detailed explanation on: Microsoft Support page, or ask me.

Imagine Cup Software Design - local competition on Babes Bolyai University

Hy!

It has been a little long time since i had my last post, for which fact i apologise to my readers, and i will give an explanation: i was busy with the .NET training organised by ISDC Romania and the Siemens scholarship, and preparing for the imagine cup locals, and, of course, school :) ... which my colleagues can confirm :)...

Well, Friday (13 April) was a great day, when 6 teams from Babes Bolyai University, more exactly the Faculty of Math and Computer Science, (i participated in the team sm@rtDEV), came together and presented their work.

The presentation were much better than the last year, meaning the aspects: more original ideas, clearly presented, newer technologies. The number of teams was reduced comparatively to last year, but i think this is good, since the quality compensated.

About the presentations, i liked especially the one of team 921UBB, which obtained a meritorious first place. They were really really great!

My team situated on the 4th place, which i think is a good result, and a progress from last year, when we were on 9 (more exactly, i was on 9, since the team changed :) ). I am satisfied about the work and how we presented, and i want to thank again my team for the great collaboration :), and i hope next year we will do better.

I don't promise, but i hope i will come back with the powerpoint presentation as soon as possible.

I talked enough, and i must get back to my lab works for school :)