AuthSub token has wrong scope

Posted on April 16, 2008 by djuang1

I was playing around with the Google Data API last night and I kept running into this error. The app I’m creating allows me to pull down a list of Google Calendars and then insert a new entry into the calendar that I select. Pulling the list was the easy part, adding a new entry was the tough part.

My problem was that I was declaring a ‘scope’ that was too limiting for any additional calls to the API. Instead of declaring the scope for ‘allcalendars’, I reduced the scope to the largest URI possible which is ‘http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds’

Be sure to read this this doc about using AuthSub with JavaScript before diving into the Google Data API http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/authsub-js.html

Google and Enterprise CRM

Posted on April 13, 2008 by djuang1

The post on Mashable and TechCrunch about the latest venture between Google and Salesforce does create a rather unique situation in the realm of CRM. Does this bring an even bigger player into the CRM space? One can argue that the CRM space that Salesforce resides in, software as a service (SaaS) differs greatly from the space that on-premise CRM solutions such as Oracle/Siebel, Consona CRM, Microsoft CRM. But observing the way that software in general is moving toward these days, SaaS and Cloud Computing are starting to slowly make a big impact. It’s hard to say right now if Google will acquire Salesforce in order to extend their reach into the enterprise space, but if they do, it’ll definitely make my work more interesting.

Why?

Posted on April 12, 2008 by djuang1

I couldn’t help myself. I’m so drawn to technology and the Internet that I just had to create my own blog with my own domain name. No more Blogspot, or MySpace, or MSN Spaces. I’m in control of the code now and I can post what ever I want. Photos, code snippets, musings on the CRM space. So check back occasionally or subscribe to my RSS feed. I’ll post about Technology, Work, Sports, and life as a Dad.

SSRS Switch Statement

Posted on April 10, 2008 by djuang1

=Switch(Fields!Orders.Value < 100,"Red", Fields!Orders.Value > 100, "Green")

The above statement is an example on how to use the ‘Switch’ statement in SQL Server Reporting Services. This example checks the ‘Orders’ value in a row and if the value is less than 100, displays “Red”. If the value is greater than 100, then display “Green”

Google App Engine

Posted on April 8, 2008 by djuang1

I see Google’s new App Engine as a way for Google to employ thousands of new developers. Also instead of paying them, the developers pay Google to use their servers and manage their scalability. Unlike Amazon’s Web Services which breaks it into separate components with EC2 and S3, you are kinda restricted to using Google’s GFS and BigTable. Currently Python is the only available scripting tool but when they start offering PHP and Java, I think development will really take off. Once a company creates an amazing application with this new tool, Google can simply acquire that company and not have to worry about retooling the new application to work in their environment.

EveryBlock Chicago

Posted on April 7, 2008 by djuang1

Content aggregation is pretty popular these days. Just look at the last post that I had regarding FriendFeed. While FriendFeed is for social media, EveryBlock is for news for a particular city. Right now it only gathers news for Chicago, New York, and San Francisco so the audience isn’t too large (large in the sense that it covers the entire world considering Chicago, San Francisco, and New York are in the top 10 largest cities in the US). The site was created by a local Chicagoan that created the Chicago crime Google Mashup awhile back. He took that tool and rolled it into the site and now includes content like photos, street closures, missed connections, etc… Anyways, check it out to see how your neighborhood stacks up against the rest of the city.

FriendFeed

Posted on April 4, 2008 by djuang1

I’ve been getting into FriendFeed lately as has most of the Web 2.0 industry. Most are either really excited about it (e.g. Robert Scoble) or just see it as another social aggregator to add to the mix. I’m unsure at this point what camp I’m in. Similar to the blogging world where there are dozens of tools like Vox, Blogger, MSN Spaces, etc… it’s hard to decide what to use as well as which has a broader audience.

Re-seeding the Identity Value

Posted on April 1, 2008 by djuang1

dbcc checkident ([table to re-seed], reseed, [value to set identity value at])

If you set the value to 0, the next inserted value will be 1

Importing Excel Into SQL Server Using SSIS

Posted on March 27, 2008 by djuang1

I ran into an issue the other day while importing data from an Excel file into SQL Server 2005. I had columns that contained fields that have more than 255 characters. When running the import, SSIS failed because it kept truncating the fields which caused the task to fail. It fails because the Microsoft Excel ODBC driver will, by default, scan the first 8 rows of your data to determine the type of data in each column. To fix this, you need to go into the registry and modify the ‘TypeGuessRows’ to scan more than 8 rows. The key can be found in the following:

Excel 97
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Jet\3.5\Engines\Excel
Excel 2000 and later versions
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Excel

Enable Remote Desktop Remotely

Posted on March 10, 2008 by djuang1

regedit.exe

This is a great tip to enable remote desktop:

1. Open the registry editor: Start –> Run –> regedit –> OK
2. Select the Connect Network Registry option under the File menu and find the machine you want to connect to.
3. Goto this key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server
4. Under the Terminal Server key, you’ll find a REG_DWORD value named fDenyTSConnection. Change this value to 1
5. Reboot the server through the command prompt: shutdown -m \\[server name] -r