It worked fine until I got to terms with an ampersand (&) character in the name. The string comparison claimed that two seemingly identical strings were different but then complained when I tried to add the “different” term.

It turns out that SharePoint replaces the & character with it’s Unicode equivalent, a process it calls normalization, which means that I was trying to compare the ASCII & with the Unicode version hence the failed comparison.

Fortunately there’s a helper method, TaxonomyItem.NormalizeName, which will convert the comparison string to the correctly normalized variant. So:

var termSetQuery = termSet.Terms.Where(t => t.Name == vocabularyTerm.Name);

Becomes:

var termSetQuery = termSet.Terms.Where(t => t.Name == TermSet.NormalizeName(vocabularyTerm.Name));

Problem Solved!

The problem is that their products are generally very good and so a month after the iPhone, I bought the basic 16GB Wi-Fi model plus the overpriced folding case thing. I went with the base model because the price increase for more memory and the built in 3G adapter just made what is supposed to be an addition to your portable tech armoury way too expensive. The 3G adapter in particular is a real hidden cost as you also need a £10 a month data plan from one of the UK carriers on top of the £100 iPad premium. This would have bought my total cost of ownership for a year’s use to £529 (iPad) + 12*£10 (data) = £649, a £220 premium.

The problem with this plan of course is that data on the move is really useful! being chained to Wi-Fi spots is a pain and usually they’re really expensive and slow. That’s why I went for the Three Mifi product I mentioned unlocking in a previous post. This thing is one of the best purchases I ever made and really demands its own review but in summary, Three’s coverage and speed is much better than I expected, noticeably faster than the Vodafone 3G on my iPhone 4 and up to five devices can connect to it as it’s just a normal Wi-Fi router. No more rubbish software for usb dongles on netbooks etc! I got it on the 1GB 18 month contract at £9.50 a month which gives a total cost of ownership of £171. Still less than the £220 for the iPad only 3G access and I can use it for any other Wi-Fi enabled product!

Anyway, back to my thoughts on the iPad. Coupled with the mobile data access, I have to say that it’s rapidly become my most used bit of tech and has made me really think about the need of lugging around a full Windows 7 laptop on a daily basis. I’ve even started to question the need for a laptop full stop but that may be taking things a bit far!

The iPad’s genius lies in the form factor, the battery life and the fact that it’s instant on. Those three reasons outweigh any of the drawbacks it may have. The form factor is just so incredibly compelling. Ignoring the fact that it’s the usual attractive Apple design which is easy as it stays in its case the whole time, it’s simply a very high quality, portable screen. You know that second monitor you have for web pages and other reference material? Well with this, you have that second screen and it’s incredibly portable and you can do more with it!

The battery life is stellar, at least 10 hours and I’ve used it for more than that on occasion. After a full day’s use it’s usually on about 50% but that’s not using it full time. If I’ve used it in an all day meeting taking notes then again in the evening it’ll get to 15-20% but I’ve never had it run out on me. The only drawback here is that the big battery is really stretching the limits of charging via USB. It needs a USB port that can supply 10 Watts rather than the usual 5 and pretty much nothing does this. iPads’ll charge off some MacBooks but I haven’t found a PC yet that’ll charge them. If you plug one into a normal USB port it’ll say “Not Charging”. This isn’t strictly true as it is charging just very slowly, it’d take at least a day to fully charge this way. Bottom line is you’re stuck using Apple’s official iPad charge plug of course!

You realise just how slow your average Windows 7 laptop/netbook is to boot up or come out of sleep/hibernate when compared to the iPad and these are Windows 7 machines with SSDs, fresh installs and carefully maintained selection of just the essential software. There’s just no way a multi-purpose OS with full desktop apps on generic hardware can compete with a cut down embedded custom OS on dedicated portable hardware and the comparison is actually unfair. The iPad makes you realise Microsoft have got things wrong. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are fantastic OSs in their domain, namely business machines. There’s nothing that can touch a well configured Microsoft based corporate IT system for scalability, maintainability and ease of use but Microsoft’s big mistake was thinking they could take this model and force it into consumer level technology.

The bottom line is 95% of consumers want to go on the internet, play some music, look at some photos and write the odd document and they want to do all of this quickly on something reliable and cheap. That’s why netbooks worked but they were hampered by the OS choices. Windows is too much for these devices and users and Linux doesn’t have the support required in case things go wrong. What was needed was a cut down OS dedicated to those few tasks and apparently iOS is that OS at least for the time being.

With windows, at best you’re opening the lid and it’s woken up after which you might have to log in then move the mouse (with the rubbish trackpad) to the app you need. At worst you’re coming in cold and faced with a 30 sec+ boot up time. With the iPad you press the magic button, slide your finger on the unlock slide and you’re in! That knowledge sits in the back of your mind and makes you way more likely to pick up the iPad than the netbook.

Which brings me to the really important part, what do you actually use the thing for!? My biggest problem with the iPad initially was what would you use it for? The short answer is pretty much everything but the much longer answer is pretty much everything providing you also have a PC.  The web browser on it is perfectly capable and many sites have dealt with the lack of flash by converting to using HTML5 video tags and JavaScript solutions. Web browsing on it beats any netbook because of the increased screen real estate, better screen and instant on mentioned before. Browsing is also much better on the move than either a netbook or an iPhone because of the device’s size, my wife uses it in the car and we’ve used it on UK holidays to plan day trips where we never previously used the netbook. Bottom line is it’s now the most used browser in our house.

I also find it perfect for taking notes throughout the day and in meetings. Pages (the word processor) is actually pretty good and certainly sufficient for most of my needs. I also use Evernote for things I need syncing across multiple devices. The on screen keyboard takes a bit of getting used to but you can type remarkably quickly with it especially if you trust the spell check. It’s replaced the mess of paper notes I used to take with electronic notes that I can use in other documents and as a reference plus I don’t have to take a laptop and it’s power brick into meetings anymore! It’s very different tapping some quick notes into a low profile slate than hiding behind a 15″ laptop screen in meetings. You feel more connected to the discussion for one thing and you’re not surrounded by cables!

It’s revolutionized my RSS reading as before I almost never checked my feeds and missed important IT, developer and normal news as a result. Now I use the Reeder app (which syncs with Google Reader) coupled with Instapaper (for reading later) and I’ve found that I check the feeds several times a day and can process much more information as a result. It has a similar effect on social networking sites although I’ll never have much of an on-line presence on those as it’s just not my thing. All of this is primarily due to the form factor of the device and the fact that it’s instant on.

It’s convinced me on eBooks too. I now own three from Amazon’s Kindle store, a .NET 4.0 reference book and two novels and having read them, I now have no desire to ever own another paper book. Additionally, because it’s colour, it works great for comics using the Comic Zeal.

Probably my favourite app though is LogMeIn Ignition which has allowed me to leave my work laptop at work after nearly two years of taking it home every night. I can now log into all my work machines with the iPad to check e-mails and log into servers when problems occur. I can even do some light programming remotely if something really needs releasing. The iPad is a product that’s literally lightened the load on my back and very few products can do that!

Note that I haven’t even mentioned it’s use as a photo album which works better than any electronic album I’ve used cause the screen is so good and it’s very quick at displaying the images. It’s also a good enough media player let down only by Apples usual restriction on video formats. Video’s that do play look great again because of the screen but I’ve had to convert the vast majority of the ones I play.

But, and it’s a big but, all of this loveliness requires iTunes and as I’m a PC owner, that’s iTunes on a PC which is properly awful. It’s bloated, slow, tries to take control of all your media as well as attempting to install random Apple software on your machine and it requires almost weekly 100MB updates. Oh and you can only sync it with one PC unless you set up Roaming Profiles on Windows which is complex and completely overkill! I’ve put up with it for the time being but it’s a big price to pay to use Apple products. Fortunately you can do a lot from the device itself including installing apps and getting new podcasts but iTunes is the only way of getting things on and off the device.

But I need to get to some kind of a conclusion. The bottom line is that the iPad has proved the need for slates/tablets. The form factor they have created is useful and will probably replace netbooks and manufacturers certainly agree with that considering the amount of Android tablets scheduled for late this year and next year. It’s clearly a first generation product and has issues that go above Apples usual restrictions but none of them outweigh the considerable benefits I’ve found using the device. The only trouble is that Android, which I personally think is overkill for smart phones as I don’t believe you need that kind of freedom on one (most users want them to do a few key things well), is probably a perfect fit for tablets. That’s where you want the freedom Android provides and I fully expect that my next tablet will be Android based with the iPad itself a (well recieved) present to a family member.

I believe that you can actually ditch your netbook and laptop and stick with a well spec’d desktop PC plus an iPad/tablet. Every laptop I’ve had has annoyed me with it’s size, performance and battery life and I almost always use them chained to a desk. Have a desktop instead and use the iPad to remote into it when required.

So, Apple have created a big old iPhone and called it magical and revolutionary. It is just a big old non magical iPhone but that’s actually good enough.

I kept trying to find something that would convert the file to a proper mp3 and while I found commercial software that would do the job, the resulting files were bigger and low quality. What I really wanted was something that would extract the raw MP3 stream and put it into a standard MP3 container. I finally found that CDex does exactly what I wanted using the “Convert” -> “Strip the RIFF-WAV header(s) from MP2 or MP3 file(s)”

Problem solved!

The only tiny drawback to it is that it’s locked to Three’s network. I’m wasn’t particularly bothered by this until I went to Devon and found that Three’s coverage there is rubbish! I have a Vodafone contract and they did have coverage so I wanted to see if it was possible to unlock the device and use my voda simand it turns out you can!

Someone has created an unlocking tool which automates the unlocking process. He charges for it (an £8.50 “donation”!) but it works great. The comments contain the final missing step you need which is setting up the Vodafone access point settings but the unlocking tool and the APN setup worked first time and I can now swap between the Three and Vodafone sims whenever I like depending on coverage!

stsadm -o renameserver -newservername <newname> -oldservername <oldname>

stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin <domainuser> -password <password>
iisreset /noforce

System.ArgumentException: The version of SQL Server in use does not support datatype ‘datetime2′.

It turns out this is due to having generated the model from a 2008 database. The fix is simple and is detailed here but I wanted to post it to my blog as it’s just the kind of issue I’ll forget about until next time it shows up!

I discovered that users added explicitly to SharePoint groups automatically get a profile added to the All People list but members of an added AD group do not, not without some sort of automatic profile import set up at least. The assumption was that their profile would be created and imported when they first accessed the site however this is not the case. It actually happens when they perform an action that requires recording in a list e.g. adding or updating a list item. Because they are then the creator or modifier of that item, they need a profile so that other users can look them up.

In my case, the user in question had only looked round the site briefly and had never modified any lists. Hence, no entry in All People!

Build Errors:

TSD03006: User: [user] has an unresolved reference to Login [user]. – This occurs when you have users in your database scripts. Users reference Logins and Logins are server level objects and are not present in database projects. The fix for this is to create a new SQL Server 2005 Server Project and add a new Login object into Schema Objects -> Server Level Objects -> Security -> Logins specifying the missing user. After doing this, add a new database reference into your database project referencing the server project. Both projects should now build successfully.

Your project wont deploy without changing settings on the project properties “Deploy” tab. Change the Deploy action and the Target connection.

Deploy Errors:

TSD01268: Password validation failed. The password does not meet Windows policy requirements because it is too short. – Two ways of fixing this, either change the password(!) or add , CHECK_POLICY=OFF, CHECK_EXPIRATION=OFF after the create user statement.

TSD01268: Directory lookup for the file “N:\$(DatabaseName)\[database].mdf” failed with the operating system error 3(failed to retrieve text for this error. Reason: 15100). followed by TSD01268: CREATE DATABASE failed. Some file names listed could not be created. Check related errors. – This only happens if the database doesn’t yet exist and the source database file exists in a non standard location on the server. For some reason, the schema import tries to maintain the location of the source database files which is not the behaviour we want. You can see how the database files are being created by looking in the scripts in Schema Objects -> Database Level Objects -> Storage -> Files. The FILENAME should be $(DefaultDataPath)$(DatabaseName) but may show $(Path1)$(DatabaseName) or similar. You can change this value and also delete any extra keys in the Database.sqlcmdvars that may exist.

The first hurdle I had was the missing SQL Server 2008 Database Project type in Studio. I had a 2005 version but it didn’t match the screenshots I’d seen on the web. Turns out that I needed to install the Microsoft® Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR R2 setup which isn’t another version of Visual Studio as it sounds, it’s infact a collection of power tools, features and crucially, SQL Server 2008 support! With this installed, my experience matches that of other bloggers!

This video is also a great start and demos some of the power of the database projects.

Add new “Import VSeWSS Project”, specify the same URL you would have previously put in the Debug tab in VSeWSS projects as the local site. Set the trust level (Full Trust is the equivalent of GAC deployment) then select the source project. The project will now be created and imported.

The solution explorer in Visual Studio 2010 now contains the information you would see in the old WSP view showing Packages and Features. You will probably need to rename the packages and features but in the case of the features, the file name controls the directory name in 14\TEMPLATE\FEATURES, it becomes ProjectName_FeatureName. This can sometimes be too long to package successfully (it has to be less than 260 characters) so you might need to shorten either the project or solution name. The feature display name itself can be set in the graphical feature editor (Title). The project references will also probably need updating or recreating as the conversion process will change them.

If you try to deploy the project now you will almost certainly get feature activation errors along the lines of “Error occurred in deployment step ‘Activate Features’: Cannot complete this action.”. If you look in the latest log file in 14\LOGS, you will see the specific errors or which there are a few types:

Failed to find the list schema for FeatureId ’00bfea71-d1ce-42de-9c63-a44004ce0104′, list template ID 100. Cannot create list in web – This one occurs because the list instance xml created by VSeWSS does not specify the TemplateType attribute for the list and without it, SharePoint 2010 defaults to 100 which does not match up with the feature Id. The fix is to specify the correct TemplateType, in this case it’s an announcement list so the value should be 104 and in standard document libraries, FeatureId=”714fbee9-23ce-4d66-beb8-fc415c8cdb9b”, its 101.

Cannot open .aspx file – If you have added additional web part .aspx files into your feature, the module.xml File node’s URL attribute gets altered to include the name of the module in the path. This puts the file in sub directory in your web which may not be where you wanted it. Simply update the URL attribute accordingly.

No wiki pages specified in wiki page library – The conversion process appears to strip out all the File nodes in a module.xml file that specifies wiki pages and their content. If you copy them back in from the original, they should be deployed correctly.

Finally, any master pages and themes will need disabling or adjusting to be compatible with SharePoint 2010. I shall investigate this next.