Getting back in the Saddle

I have recently got back in to Cycling and have been replacing sitting in traffic for 45mins with sitting on a saddle for 60mins.  The way I look at it I should save some cash, loose some weight and it certainly puts me in a better mood for the day.

Some great resources for planning routes are at : http://www.betterbybike.info/cycle-maps.  Firstly, order or print the maps as they are fantastic and free! secondly, the cycle trip planner is a great way to get bike friendly routes planned quickly!

Have fun and ride safe!!

PL/SQL generate PDFs

Something I have been meaning to play about for quite a while is the use of a number of free PL/SQL libaries for creating PDF documents on the fly in PL/SQL code.  Some the libraries out there are :

http://reseau.erasme.org/PL-FPDF,1337
http://technology.amis.nl/blog/8650/as_pdf-generating-a-pdf-document-with-some-plsql

For completeness, there is a paid libary http://plpdf.com/ but as it costs I'm not going to play with it for the moment.

I'm going to have a bit of a play with the end result of storing the resulting PDF as a BLOB in a table for use in a document library.

Update to follow!

Sharepoint URL Multi Filter example

After a little playing about to create drop down selects to filter a sharepoint list (There are many examples on the net) I hacked together my way to acheve a multi select.  Partly to stop myself from fogetting and to share with the community, below is a little javascript code + HTML extract to be used in Content Editor Web Part in Sharepoint 2007 for a multiple drop down select:

<script type="text/javascript">
    function docLib() {

        var docLibUrl = "/sharepoint/testpage.aspx";

        var combo1 = document.getElementById("Select1");
        var select_val1 = combo1.options[combo1.selectedIndex].value;

        var combo2 = document.getElementById("Select2");
        var select_val2 = combo2.options[combo2.selectedIndex].value;

        var combo3 = document.getElementById("Select3");
        var select_val3 = combo3.options[combo3.selectedIndex].value;

        var filtercount = 1;

        var txt = document.getElementById("Text1");
        var filterstring = "";
        var filterField = "DocIcon";

        var Url_String;

        //Need to add filter count based on the number of filters selected

        if (select_val1 != "") {
            filterstring = "FilterField" + filtercount + "=Business&FilterValue" + filtercount + "=" + select_val1 + "&";
            filtercount += 1;
        }


        if (select_val3 != "") {
            filterstring = filterstring + "FilterField" + filtercount + "=Business%5Fx0020%5FOwner&FilterValue" + filtercount + "=" + select_val3 + "&";
            filtercount += 1;
        }

        if (select_val2 != "") {
            filterstring = filterstring + "FilterField" + filtercount + "=Status&FilterValue" + filtercount + "=" + select_val2;
            filtercount += 1;
        }


        Url_String = docLibUrl + "?" + filterstring;

        document.location = Url_String;
        txt.value = Url_String;
    }

</script>
<table>
<tr><td>Business:</td>
<td>
<select style="margin:10px; 0px;" id="Select1">
<option value="">--Select--</option>
<option value="FilterVal1.1">FilterVal1.1</option>
<option value="FilterVal1.2">FilterVal1.2</option>
<option value="FilterVal1.3">FilterVal1.3</option>
</select></td>

<td>Status:</td>
<td>
<select style="margin:10px; 0px;" id="Select2">
<option value="">--Select--</option>
<option value="FilterVal2.1">FilterVal2.1</option>
<option value="FilterVal2.2">FilterVal2.2</option>
<option value="FilterVal2.3">FilterVal2.3</option>
</select></td>


<td>Business Owner:</td>
<td>
<select style="margin:10px; 0px;" id="Select3">
<option value="">--Select--</option>
<option value="FilterVal3.1">FilterVal3.1</option>
<option value="FilterVal3.2">FilterVal3.2</option>
<option value="FilterVal3.3">FilterVa31.3</option>
</select></td>
<td>
<input id="Button1" type="button" value="Filter" onClick="docLib();"/></td>
</tr>
</table>

Create VHD during install of Win 7/2008

Create VHD using Windows 7/2008 install process

1. Boot your machine with a blank hard drive using the Windows 7 DVD.
2. Click next on the language screen if English is appropriate.
3. SHIFT+F10 to launch a WinPE command console. Although the commands below are in upper case, the commands are not case sensitive. I am only using upper case for readability here.
4. Enter DISKPART to run the utility.
5. LIST DISK to see the available disks in your system. I am assuming a single raw disk.
6. SEL DISK 0
7. CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
8. FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
9. LIST VOL
10. ASSIGN
11. LIST VOL
12. CREATE VDISK FILE=c:\windows7rc.vhd MAXIMUM=200000 TYPE=EXPANDABLE
13. SELECT VDISK FILE=c:\windows7rc.vhd
14. ATTACH VDISK
15. CRE PART PRI
16. FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
17. ASSIGN LETTER=V:
18. LIST VOL
19. LIST VDISK
20. exit DISPART
21. exit WinPE command console
22. Install to the newly created 200GB (fuzzy math) virtual hard disk which looks just like a partition to Windows Setup
23. Repeat steps 11-18 for the Windows Server 2008 R2 VHD but with the obvious changes for the vdisk filename, size, etc.

Thanks http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/


Alternative is (If windows 7 already installed):
1. Create VHD
2. Mount VHD Drive
3. Copy install ISO 7/2008R2 into VHD mounted drive
4. Retart machine and F8 into windows 7 repair
5. From CMD use DISK part to mount VHD Drive
6. CD to mounted VHD drive and run setup
7. Select VHD drive during setup to install to the VHD drive

Finialy the tool to manage vhd images such as size : http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/vhdtool