I did a posting about DotnetU last year, a program where I taught at Teched SEA 2007. I just know that there is a new material under DotnetU umbrella: SharePoint Development. Thanks to Dougturn who spread this program around the world.
The SharePoint content is very suitable for somebody new in MOSS development. Covering the installation, new feature, and web part programming. But I think Doug should add one more hot topic in SharePoint: custom workflow with VS2005/2008. I’m willing to help him to write the lab manual, since I’ve been developing and teaching in this area almost one year.
Just received message from Doug that the cool DotnetU will come again to Teched SEA 2008 next August. Hopefully he’s right, lots of cool stuff in Silverlight and Ajax can be explored. It’s free, fun, with a nice certificate and T-Shirt 
. I’m the supporter the SharePoint related material for dotnetu. Hope he will bring it to KL. SharePoint has abig growth here in Singapore, and I think is the same in Malaysia. MOSS workflow is a very hot - hot topics now.
April 23rd, 2008
One of my student came with a popup question: how do we disable the export to PDF feature in reporting services? Well, I should say that export to PDF is awesome. But some company don’t allow their employee to do that, or maybe they want to disable export to XML as well.
There are several option to do that. On the report level, we can utilize the query string to inject the parameter, and disable the parameter and export bar on top. Another elegant method is jump to the configuration file of the Reporting Services installation, and comment ot the PDF rendering extension.
Open the rsreportserver.config xml file with any editor of your choice. This file is located under ReportServer folder of the SSRS installation. Here is the capture:
If you’re not sure where is the file located, go to the IIS console and read the home directory of the ReportServer virtual directory.
Continue Reading April 23rd, 2008
One of the FAQ that I received when teaching SharePoint Development class is: What’s the best book on SharePoint development? Well, It can be easy and difficult at once. SharePoint is a very huge product with tons of feature inside. Every book has their own approach, and some of them only cover specific topics in development. SharePoint can be used for content management, record management, BI dashboard, business process automation, workflow, and so on. Finally, there is no single book that able to cover all of those features.
I red some SharePoint development books, and here is the quick review on it. Take it as a consideration, not the recommendation. Here are the lists:
Continue Reading April 4th, 2008
When I was installing my machine with vista, I installed Windows Live Writer as well. I was quite surprise when started a blog post, and It asked me to update to release version. Yes, the live writer that I had is beta, and now this guy was released already. And the best of all, it’s still free and hopefully forever free .
Live writer makes my blogging even easier. I can attach and resize the picture, and do rich formatting directly without using additional plug in.
A few criticism for this release are:
-
The wizard only shows Sharepoint and Livespace blog as default blogging connection. If I use Wordpress than I have to choose “other” and proceed to Wordpress option after that. Even though the wizard is smart enough to find my setting, but put the mainstream Wordpress under “other” is sound too marketing instead of technical. But this writer is very smart to detect the Wordpress and Blogspot setting anyway.
-
There are a lot of mainstream .Net based blogging engine such as Community Server, BlogEngine.Net, and Dasblog. But all of them never mentioned in the wizard, even under “other” category. Of course I can do manual configuration as long as I know the xmlrpc address of each blogs. But leaving the main blogging player in .Net community is a tragic marketing decision
. Maybe
Rob Howard need to approach the Live product group to include Community Server under the wizard.
There are some additional small application that come together with this release. They are Live Mail, Live Photo Gallery, Live Messenger, and Live one care. The Live Mail is better comparing with Windows Mail or Outlook Express. But the Live Photo Gallery is a bit disappointed, I even couldn’t figure out how to create a photo tag in an easy manner. Picasa from google is still better.
February 13th, 2008
My lovely choirulamri.or.id was expired on last December 2007. I didn’t have a chance to renew this Indonesian second level domain, because I’m working at Singapore now. The domain management system is not fully automated like other international domain provider, so renewal process was a bit headache for me. The problem became worst because the IDNIC management was handed over by other body named PANDI. Maybe I was to lazy to dig their FAQ or migration guide, but I was screwed up in the end.
I decided to pick choirulamri.org as a quick replacement. Hopefully I will have a chance to renew my lovely or.id. I’m going to go to Jakarta next month for a company trip, and I hope I can renew it. I has been a long time I never wrote a blog post because of this problem. Now I’m starting again
for anybody who has made link to my RSS feed, please updated accordingly.
February 13th, 2008
One of the cool feature of SQL Server 2005 is out of the box data encryption capability. Not like SQL Server 2000 that requires 3rd party support or creating your own custom script, SQL05 comes with built in function to do that.
It supports both symmetric and asymmetric encryption, as well as hashing. I created a sample script to do symmetric encryption. A slide deck presentation also available for a quick review about encryption architecture.
Actually I created this material for one day SQL Server security workshop at Avantus. This one day workshop covers encryption, SQL injection, SQL Lock down, and security administration. I decide to release the encryption module here along with the sample script, but not include the detail manual. Some of the material comes from Lara Rubbelke’s presentation.
For some of you that still stick on SQL 2000, Michael Coles already created an encryption toolkit with no cost.
Download the presentation.
Download the sample script.
October 11th, 2007
I just received an email from Microsoft 3 days ago, stated that I’m awarded as an MVP again. This is my 3rd year renewal, thanks!
Dear Muhammad Amri,
Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2008 Microsoft® MVP Award! The MVP Award is our way of saying thank you for promoting the spirit of community and enhancing people’s lives and the industry’s success every day. Your extraordinary efforts in Visual Developer - ASP/ASP.NET technical communities during the past year are greatly appreciated.
There are several notes for this year renewal:
- I’m awarded as a Singapore MVP, and no longer Indonesian MVP. Since I moved to here for my job, my MVP lead transferred my award status to Singapore.
- Despite my award that belong to Singapore region, I’m still going to continue my activities for Indonesian communities such as IlmuKomputer.Com and SQL Server Indo. I’m still on my commitment to do writing and participating in online forum.
- I did several writings for SQLServerCentral last year, and I want to increase it next year. I will participate more on global online portal and Singapore communities.
Hopefully I can do better next year
October 5th, 2007
Filed under: TechEd
Hands On Lab is one of the most wanted facilities at
TechEd SEA. This is not instructor led lab, it’s a do it yourself lab completed with the step by step manual, PC with pre-loaded VPC images that contains the lab files.
Ed Quek full filled his promise to provide more computer in the HOL and ILL sessions. It was very good, since I saw the HOL room was always full. There are more lab materials than last year.
I tried a lab on SharePoint workflow, and stuck. it’s not because the lab was so difficult, but the VPC was running like a turtle. I checked the hardware configuration: good. It’s a premium hardware with 2 GB RAM. I checked the OS, and gotcha . The host PC was Windows Vista. It was a wrong decision since Vista will eat around 1 GB memory for its system itself. TechEd attendees are not end user who want to see WOW features of Vista. They are developers and IT Pros who want to know more about .NET, SQL 2008 and Longhorn. It doesn’t make sense to use Vista just to sit and relax as a host PC. Use Windows XP is better: less resource at the host.
I started irritating to see several attendees asked for help from the proctor because the machine was so slow. Nothing they can do, just wait. These were the case for the server product labs such as SharePoint, MOM, or Exchange. Any labs on Visual Studio would not be an issue.
Just my 2 cent for Ed, please use Windows XP for the host PC next year. Unless the hardware is a Quad Core machine with 4 GB RAM 
.
September 13th, 2007
One of the new features at TechEd SEA this year is Dotnet University that was held on Sept 11-14, 2007. As I mentioned at my 6 things I love about TechEd, this is an Instructor Led Lab (ILL) that focusing on .Net 3.0. It’s all about Windows Workflow, WPF, WCF, and Cardspace. The response from the attendees were overwhelming. They started to queue since 1 hour before every session. All available sessions are fully packed, even though the organizer managed to provide 5 sessions in a day.
Actually the lab materials were not so deep. It gave an overview about 4 components in .NET 3.0, at level 200 from 500 scale. The public curiosity about this new framework is very high, that’s why the response was terrific. I hope the difficulties level will be improved at the next year since the adoption of .Net 3.0 going to be better.
I delivered the Workflow Foundation session at last class of the 3rd day (17.30 - 19.30). It was also fully packed, so my guess that the attendees prefer to go home was wrong. I did some demo with IF-ELSE branching and Code Activity, using Workflow designer for authoring workflow. Mark Dunn helped me a lot to handle the discussions at the QA session.
Continue Reading September 13th, 2007
Filed under: TechEd
Yes, It’s approaching again. TechEd SEA 2007 will be held at Kuala Lumpur on September 10-13, 2007. Same with the previous year, I’ll be there again. Since my work schedules are so tight, I will miss the first day and attend from 11th onwards.
Attending TechEd is something I always waiting for every year. As a prominent and the largest Microsoft technical conferences in South East Asia, it provides a lot of break out sessions, hands on lab, instructor lab, good food, networking, and insights. What do I love about this event? Here are the summarize of my personal preferences:
First, is about the TechEd US 2007 DVD set. Conference attendees are eligible to purchase the DVD set at RM 108 only. It’s less than $25, far cheaper than the usual retail price at $195! This is a collection of all technical sessions (hundreds, yes I mention hundreds!), including the recorded video, powerpoint slide, and demo. Tons of hands on lab manual are inside, keep me updated for the latest hot technologies in the market. I guest it’s around 20 GB in size totally .
Continue Reading September 2nd, 2007
I did SQL Server 2005 migration discussion last April with several engineers of Freeport Indonesia. I used white board, chalk talk style at that time. I did the presentation again yesterday but in more formalized format. It was an SQL Server 2005 Technical Upgrade Workshop held by Microsoft Singapore. There were 3 sessions in that half day workshop:
- Transparent Benefits of Upgrading to SQL Server 2005
- How to Upgrade to SQL Server 2005
- Get The Most of SQL 2005 BI Tools, Benefits, and Upgrading
Continue Reading July 25th, 2007
After several years absence of doing sport exercises, I started again. I do wall climbing now, and hopefully become a certified climber someday . In the past, I was practicing Silat, and still dreaming become a Pencak Silat master until now. But I couldn’t make it. Like a software developer, Silat requires a lot of passions, commitment, and time. I’m happy searching my soul in the developer path now. Let’s climb!
July 24th, 2007
I wrote that I failed NCLP 10 exam at the first try several days back. I took again yesterday to revenge, and passed. I really admit this exam because it’s a real lab exam with 2 Suse Linux machines sat on top of VMware. It’s not as difficult as RHCE, but at least comparable to RHCT. This testing measures candidate skill accurately instead of written exam.
I scored 764/800, it means around 95% was answered correctly. Here are some tips and guidance to prepare and take this exam:
Look the exam objectives. Novell published the exam objectives here, and make sure you can do basic configuration on every objectives. To summarize the objectives, at least you should able to do the following tasks:
Continue Reading July 11th, 2007
I received Friend of Red Gate gift several weeks ago. It’s a very good package, contained of T-Shirt, mug, USB drive, and pen handler. Red Gate treated community building seriously. As a one of the major player of SQL Server and .Net toolkit, the importance of community building is make sense. Community leader spread a good word about the product and helps increase revenue in the long term
Another advantage of becoming Friend of Red Gate is get the free copy of all Red Gate tools. Of course only for non commercial purpose. I really love SQL Compare, save me a lot of time when doing deployment and testing between development machine and production server. It compares all of the database structures and schema, and I can choose to merge or override between those databases. Also, SQL Data Compare is able to compare the database content, examine the differences, and decide to merge or override. It’s really eliminate my headache during development and maintenance.
Continue Reading July 10th, 2007
I sat NCLP exam last week, and failed 
. This exam was definitely hard, specially for seasoned Linux hobbyist like me. Anybody who’s lives and breath with Linux admin everyday should be able to passed with a good mark. In term of question difficulties, I think most of them (70%) are considered as intermediate. It means if I can do the practicum for intermediate level, I should passed.
I failed in shell/bash scripting practicum. I know C#, VB, and .Net by hart, but not the bash scripting. I need more exercise and reading material on this topic. Another labs such as user administration, secure remote access config, and apache was cleared in a good mark.
Continue Reading July 8th, 2007
I’ve been very busy since yesterday. Windows Vista Ultimate is installed now, and finally I can see Aero in action in maximum performance
J. It’s a machine with 12″ monitor, Intel Core 2 Duo T5500, 2 GB RAM, and 160 GB Hard disk. I often work with many virtual machines in parallel so the 2 GB memory seems reasonable. Actually I want to touch down on 4 GB RAM, but It was beyond my pocket. I’m still dreaming to make it to 4 GB RAM someday.
Many friends were laughing at me because I choose the small LCD instead of 15.4″. The reasons are clear. I tend to bring the notebook wherever I go, and I’m a big fan of hang out with laptop at coffee shop or library. That’s why the machine with less than 2 Kg in weight is a must . I love this machine: small, portable, good performance.
Here is the screen shoot when 2 instances of Windows Server 2003 VPC are running:
June 30th, 2007
Finally I made it. After struggling with many different things during past 2 months, scattered from developing custom courseware for SharePoint 2007 developer, custom adapter for Biztalk Server 2006, or even custom ribbon for Office 2007 .
All of those things are quite interesting and blow up my adrenaline. But to be frankly, it made my ASP.NET skills a little obsolete. I need to catch up again with alot of new things on the future web area: Silverlight, Orcas, Popfly. They are waiting to be explored.
Back to my writing, this is the 4th tutorial I made for ASP.NET 2.0. I wrote those labs manual based on several existing materials as the referrence. I went to MSDN website, digging my Teched 2006 DVD, and sometimes build my own sample code. This installment is about playing with web site navigation and do security trimming on it. It is a continuation of my previous writings about security control in ASP.NET.
Continue Reading June 24th, 2007
Windows Live Writer WLW) just headed it’s Beta 2 phase. It supports most of the existing blogging engines. Just choose “other blogging service” in the wizard and it will automatically detect all of our cross posting protocol that is installed in our blog.
It’s a pretty easy configuration for end user, not like w.bloggar that need a little knowledge about absolute URL and XML-RPC location before doing a blog post. Here is the automatic configuration in action:
I’m doing this post from WLW, and seems works fine. Say good bye to Word 2007 blog post feature. This tool is better than the one in MS Word 2007. It seems MS try to put WLW as a rich blog editing platform. Best of all, it’s free. And hopefully will forever free . Grab it from Windows Live Writer Beta download page.
June 8th, 2007
Ketika menerima kabar akan mendapat teaching assigment 1 minggu di Sri Lanka, kata Tamil Tiger langsung terlintas di benak saya. Ada rasa khawatir terhadap kondisi keamanan di negara pulau ini, apalagi seminggu sebelumnya kelompok Tamil Tiger kembali menyerang Colombo airport menggunakan single engine airplane. Tapi penasaran juga rasanya, seperti apa rasanya mengunjungi negara yang sedang rawan konflik? Apalagi selama di Jakarta sudah terbiasa dengan isu bom, pencopet di bus kota, dan preman Senen, jadi saya pikir akan aman nyaman saja di Colombo .
Penerbangan 3.5 jam Singapore - Colombo terasa cepat, maklum pakai SQ. Biasanya langganan airasia atau jetstar, atau paling mentok Garuda kalau dibayari kantor. Film di pesawat Letter of Iwo Jima (Ken Watanabe), plus ngantri pipis ke kamar mandi, plus baca 10 halaman buku “The Art of Intrusion” (Kevin Mitnick), tak terasa sampai di Colombo.
Continue Reading May 17th, 2007
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