Moving Access Views in SharePoint

Each year our company creates a new site within Sharepoint which acts as a depository for all of the current years data. Blank custom lists also moved from the previous year site to the current year site. One issue we run into when re-creating these blank custom lists is it breaks the links in the Access Views we have created for the list.

Here is the procedure for re-linking the Access Views so they display accurate information. (This procdeure assumes you are using Microsoft Access 2007)

• The Access View points to an Access Document in a Document Library on your SharePoint site. Find the specific Access document and move it to the appropriate Document Library.
• Open the newly moved Access document in Edit mode.
• Once Access it open, Right Click on one of the List Tables listed under the All Tables. Select Sharepoint List Options.
• In Sharepoint List Options, select Relink Lists. (NOTE: Relink Lists can also be found by clicking the External Data Tab)
• Type in the name of the New Sharepoint site where you new Lists are located. Click Get lists.
• It may take 30 seconds or more for the new site lists to show. Be patient!
• Once your new lists are displayed, match the Original site link tables to the new list. Do this on for all of your lists. Click OK. (Again, this may take a minute or more for everything to take effect)
• You will now need to clean up the Table (Lists) titles under the All Tables. Save and rename any table that ends in "1". These are the lists that were just linked.
• Right click any list that you don't need and select Remove. This only removes the link, not the table data.
• Don't forget to go into the report and adjust any Report Titles etc.
• Click "Publish to SharePoint Site" to save your changes to the server.
• Select where you want to save the report and it's name.
• You will be prompted with a pop up that states "Do you want to be able to add shortcuts to each list's View Menu?" Select Yes if you want the report to show up in your List Views.
• You may receive an additional pop up that states "You have selected "Tables and Related Views" as the way to group objects in the database. Access needs to update information on the object dependencies to create the groups. This will take some time for larger databases". Select OK to Continue.

Windows 7 Upgrade

I have been running Windows 7rc for a couple of months now with pretty good success. Now that Windows 7 is officially released I figured I would go ahead and upgrade. I also figured this would be a great time to install a larger hard drive.

I purchased a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade version. I installed Windows 7 without a hitch until I got to the section where you enter the license key. It would not accept my licence key. It did allow me to skip past the screen. After the install I went through the procedure to Activate the license. I received an error message stating that the version of Windows 7 I purchased could not be used to install it on a Blank disk. (Even though it let me).

I searched Microsoft support and the only information I found was that I would have to first install my version of Vista on my computer and then perform the Windows 7 upgrade from Vista. What!? What is the purpose of a clean install if I have to install an old version first?

After doing some additional research on other forums I found out that I could simply install Windows 7 on top of Windows 7 and then it would allow me to activate the product. I tried this and it worked. I was able to successfully activate the product.

I fully understand the importance of Microsoft needing to verify proof of an existing/qualifying product to upgrade to but in my opinion the requirement to have the older version actually install ed on the hardware is flawed. I have the Vista DVD and license key. Why not giving us the ability to use one or both of those.

The other frustrating part of this is, the software allowed me to install it on a blank disk. I didn't get a pop up or warning stating the upgrade product could only be installed on top of an existing install. It also doesn't state this in any of the paperwork that came with the DVD. I had to hunt to find out why it wouldn't accept my license key.

Running VMware vSphere Client on Windows 7

If you are upgrading to Windows 7 and plan on running VMware's vSphere client, you may experience the following error when you try to run the app:

“Error parsing the server “

After you click OK, you may see the following message:

“The type initializer for ‘VirtualInfrastructure.Utils.HttpWebRequestProxy’ threw an exception.”

With the assistance of other blogs and forums, I was able to resolved the issue. Here is a summary of what was needed to make vSphere Client work properly on Windows 32bit.

• Download the following file:
• http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/1266347-23412/v4on7.zip
• Create a folder named Lib in Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrasturcture Client\Launcher\
• Copy System.dll to c:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\Lib\
• Rename VpxClient.exe.config in c:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\ to whatever you choose.
• Copy downloaded VpxClient.exe.config to c:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\
• Using Notepad, create a file named VpxCleint.cmd. This file should contain the following information:

SET DEVPATH=%ProgramFiles%\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\Lib "%ProgramFiles%\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\VpxClient.exe"

• Save the newly created file to c:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\
• Use this file to open the vSphere app instead of the one created by the vSphere client install.

Moving Reports from one SQL server to another.

Here are the steps I used to move SQL Reporting Services reports from one server to another:

Create New Data Source:

• Go to the folder where your current report exists.
• Click Show Details located in the menu bar on the right.
• Open the Data Source on the old server by clicking the Edit icon next to the Data Source
• Open a Second Internet Browser window and go to your new SQL server with Reporting Services.
• Create a Folder structure that mirrors the Folder structure on the older SQL server.
• On the new SQL server, drill down to the same folder as the one you have open on the old server.
• Click New Data Source on the menu bar.
• Copy and Paste the information fields from the old server Data Source page to the new server. Click OK when you are done.

Copy the Reports:

• Go to the folder where your current report exists.
• Click Show Details located in the menu bar on the right.
• Click on the Edit icon next to the report you wish to copy.
• Under Report Definition Click Edit.
• A File Download screen will appear. Save the file to a temporary folder.
• On the new SQL server, drill down to the same folder as the one you have open on the old server.
• Click Upload in the menu bar.
• Click Browse and go to the file you saved in the previous step.
• Click OK to upload the report file.
• The report should now show up in your list.

Re-linking Report to Data Source on New SQL Server

• Before the report will work, it must be re-linked to the new data source on the new SQL server.
• Click the Edit icon next to the new report.
• Click Data Sources on the menu on the left of the screen.
• Click the Browse button and browse to the Data Source you created earlier. If you are uncertain as to which Data Source to use, go back to the old SQL server and look at the old reports settings.
• Click OK, test by opening the report.

Embedding Video on a SharePoint Page

In an effort to provide additional training resources for our staff we have begun creating short videos demonstrating how to use a particular software application. Our company uses SharePoint as our Intranet. We wanted the ablility to embed these videos directly into a webpart on a page within SharePoint. This page also contains webparts for links to corisponding documents and a survey.

To embed the videos I performed the following steps:

• Create a Webpart page with a general layout.
• Add a Content Editor Webpart.
• Select Source Editor in the Content Editor
• Input the following script in the Source Editor:

p align="center">

OBJECT id=playera height=575 width=650
CLASSID="clsid:6BF52A52-394A-11D3-B153-00C04F79FAA6"
ID="WMP">

PARAM NAME="URL" VALUE="mms://192.168.0.92/outlook2007.wmv">

PARAM NAME="AutoStart" VALUE="false">
/OBJECT>

• In my example above you will need to add a <>
• Change the "URL" VALUE= to point to your own video. Ours points to a media streaming server on our network.