Setting up LDAP

1. Login to the Sitefinity dashboard.
   By default, the url for this is http://<YOUR SITE URL>/Sitefinity
2. Browse to the security settings
   Sitefinity provides GUI access to update the security settings (so no more editing providers in the web.config like 3.7).  The security settings are under Administration > Settings > Advanced > Security
3. Edit/Add a LDAP connection
   Security > LDAP Settings > LDAP Connections.  Select the default “DefaultLdapConnection” and fill in the fields with your domain details and save.  It should be noted that you can filter/limit the users (as well as groups, but more on that later) that are included on this screen using the distinguished name and LDAP filter options that are provided. 

   

4. Enable the LDAPUsers provider
   Like the default LdapConnection string, this should already be created for you but will be disabled by default.  To enable the AD users browse to Security > Membership Providers.  Select “LdapUsers” and check the “Enabled” checkbox and save your changes.
5. Restart the site — you can recycle the app pool or update your web.config.
6. Enable dashboard access for your users
   By default the AD users will not have access to log into the Sitefinity dashboard.  To enable dashboard access go to Administration > Users.  If everything is working you should have an option for “LdapUsers” — select this and you should see all of your AD user accounts.  Select the account you wish to grant dashboard access to and either add them to a role or check the “This user can access site backend” checkbox.  Save your changes.

Everything should be setup to use AD account authentication to access the Sitefinity dashboard.  The next time you visit your login page you should now have an “Authentication Provider” dropdown.  To login, select the LdapUsers option and log in using the AD credentials for user you granted dashboard access.

AD Groups as Sitefinity Roles

In addition to including your AD users, Sitefinity also allows you to use your Windows security groups as roles.  Enabling support for this is nearly identical to enabling the user provider from step 4.  To enable the role provider go to Security > Roles Providers, select the “LdapRoles” provider and check the “Enabled” check box and save your settings.

References/Additional Information

• Sitefinity 4.x Documentation – Configuring LDAP settings
• LDAP Query Basics

But, but, but, how are they?

To put it simply, they’re awesome. Now, I won’t lie, the “classic” Loony Tunes are the cat’s meow, but these… are terrific. They’ve been updated and were done using CG but they not only look great, they still manage to somehow capture the feel and charm of the original 2D shorts. Hopefully these get enough positive reaction that they’ll continue producing them.

Without further adeiu:

Road Runner – Fur Of Flying from Animation-HD on Vimeo.

Road Runner – Coyote Falls 2010 from Animation-HD on Vimeo.

In most languages, it would be pretty trivial to add this, such as the method below, which takes advantage of the modulo operation to accomplish the task.

for(i = 0; i < rows.Count(); i++) {
    i%2 == 0 ? "even row" : "odd row";
}

But how do we apply this in reporting services?

Reporting Services

This is actually pretty simple and there are a couple of ways to get this done.  The easiest method would be to use an expression for the BackgroundColor property for the row.

1. Select the row(s) you wish to apply the zebra striping.
2. In the properties window, select the dropdown next to BackgroundColor and choose “<Expression>“, this will open the expression editor.
3. Insert the following expression:

   =IIF(RowNumber(Nothing) Mod 2, "#E7E7E7", "#FFFFFF")

Note that the RowNumber function takes an argument for the scope, check the function reference for more details.

This should give you a result that resembles the following:

However, you may notice that this can go a little haywire when applied to a grouped dataset.  You may wind up with a situation like below where there are multiple rows of the same colors bunched instead of alternating as expected.

Grouping, Zebra Striping, SSRS and You

If you end up in a situation where the RowNumber isn’t working for you quite as expected, a small function can come to the rescue.

Private Alt As Boolean
Function Stripe(ByVal NewRow As Boolean, ByVal OddColor as String, ByVal EvenColor as String) As String
    If NewRow Then Alt = Not Alt ' Trip the switch denoting a new row
    If Alt Then
        Return OddColor
    Else
        Return EvenColor
    End If
End Function

To use this function, in the main menu choose Report > Report Properties and add it to the Code tab.  Now, instead of setting the background color for the entire row, we’ll make a call to this function on the first and the remaining columns.

1. Select the first column of the row you wish to apply the striping to.
2. In the properties window, select “<Expression>” for the BackgroundColor dropdown.
3. In the expression editor use the following expression:

   =Code.Stripe(True, "#E7E7E7", "White")

4. Select the remaining columns on the row, select “<Expression>” for the BackgroupColor property.
5. In the expression editor use the following expression:

   =Code.Stripe(False, "#E7E7E7", "White")

You’ll notice the expressions are nearly identical except for the first argument, the boolean value for “NewRow”. Since the NewRow argument is the only thing that changes, your striped row should now be calling the Code.Stripe function with the following values:

What this does is tell the stripe function that we’re starting a new row and to swap the color. All the other columns in the row are set NewRow to false since they belong to the same row and we don’t want the color to change. This small bit of code works for both grouped and un-grouped content. This means you can use this instead of the RowNumber method above, but keep in mind you’ll need to update 2 locations instead of just one. So it’s probably better to use the RowNumber method to stripe a basic table and use the custom function when needed.

And there you have it, striped rows made easy.

One thing that always seemed to be mentioned in reviews for the CS2 was that it was enormous. This thing means business, when opening the box I was in shock from it’s sheer size.  It’s specs have it listed at 21.5″ w, 8″ tall and 11″ deep, which is nearly four times as large as the speaker it is replacing, but that didn’t truly set in until I had it out and could compare the two.  The size of the speaker made finding a location to place it a problem as well.  My old speaker was small enough to sit in front of the television unobtrusively, while this one covers the IR port and about 2″ of picture for the entire length of the speaker.  On my set, this made the ESPN news ticker about 6″ long, or about 2 or 3 words at a time.  None of the shelves in my console are wide enough to accommodate it  and to further complicate matters, I rent an small 1920′s era house with plaster and brick walls  This ruled out attaching a big enough shelf or mounting the set on the wall.  I searched for stands that the TV could sit on so I could place the speaker underneath, but there was always some glaring issue that would make me pass, such as cost, not being sturdy enough for the weight of the TV, or not wide enough to accommodate the speaker.

The fix

Finally, right as I was making plans to build a custom shelf myself, I came across this post where an ingenious user had attached a shelf directly to the television.  He mounted (2) 12×10″ L-brackets directly to his set using the built in wall mounting holes used to bolt the TV to the wall mount. EUREKA!

Since my speaker looked to be slightly larger than his and I was concerned about the weight on the set, I decided to tweak his idea a tad.  Instead of using the L-brackets, I decided to go with rails used for custom shelving systems.  It was slightly more expensive then the brackets, but I felt more comfortable since it would spread the load across both sets of bolts along the back of the set.

What you’ll need

I have a 54″ TC-P54V10 and these are the parts I used.  Of course, adjust the parts based on the size you require for your set.

• (2) 12″ Shelving brackets (link)
• (2) 30″ Shelving rails (link)
• (4) 8mm x 40mm bolts, please note the size of the bolt depends on your set, so please consult your owners manual for the size of the mounting bolt.
• (4) 8mm washers
• (1) wood plank or shelf

Tools: ratchet, drill and bit large enough to drill another hole for the second mounting bolt (if needed).

Instructions

I attached a shelf bracket to one of the rails and lined up where the shelf would lie with the top of the set, luckily, the top pre-drilled hole on the rail lined up nearly perfectly with the top mounting hole on the set.  Since I would have to drill the second hole for the lower mounting location, I employed a trick to line up the two bolt holes on the rail.  I got a piece of wax paper and placed it over the back of the set.  I was then able to use it like tracing paper and marked where the mounting holes were.  Laying the wax paper on the rail I lined up the top hole with the marked dot on the paper, and drilled the second according to the other mark. Viola!  Perfectly aligned holes

Once both rails are completed all that is needed is to attach the rails to the rear of the TV using the mounting bolts.  I ratcheted the bolts down to semi-hand tight and added the brackets and the shelf.  Here are my finished results:

Another year nearly gone, another season finished. No, I’m not talking football this time, but rather kickball. That’s right, organized frickin’ adult kickball! One of every one’s favorite school yard pastimes, but for drinking professionals. In fact, the real only difference between what you remember is you get to enjoy the game with a Bubba Keg full of the frosty cold beverage of your choice instead of juice boxes and community water fountains. Intrigued yet? Well, it gets better. If you manage to string together enough wins and take the regional cup (yeah, there’s a cup trophy!), you get to make a trip out to Vegas to represent your region in the finals. In addition to the awesome kickballin, you also get the chance to participate in several social events though out the course of the season such as pub crawls and bar gatherings.

If you’re looking for a fun sports league to play in that isn’t the same boring volleyball or softball leagues give kickball a shot if you have what it takes. If you want more information, make sure to check out the Waka Kickball site. Solo players and groups are welcome!

Without further adieu, check out the Los Locos highlight video of this season:

This past Saturday marks the official* start of the 2008 college football season. Those of you who weren’t watching the 56-3 lashing of Fort Valley St by Valdosta St. in the highly touted Division II match up, that means your season probably officially begins for you on Thursday around 6pm EST. Cable service provides quite the buffet of games for your enjoyment, and for most, the creme of the crop 7:30pm EST showdown between North Carolina State and South Carolina on ESPN.

The only problem was the game I needed to see was only being shown on ESPN360, ESPN‘s online video streaming site. This presented quite a problem since ESPN360 isn’t your typical subscription based website where a user can simply sign up. Instead, it is more akin to a premium cable channel where your provider must first agree to pay to carry the service before it is ever offered to the customer.

Unfortunately for me, Bright House Networks, our local cable and internet provider here in Orlando doesn’t have an agreement in place to offer ESPN360. This leaves me stuck without being able to watch my beloved Hurricanes take on Charleston Southern in their season opener on Thursday night.

Getting Access to ESPN360

Not one to back down until the fat lady sings, I started scouring Google for a solution. Interestingly enough, I came across this tidbit on the ESPN360 Wikipedia article:

Beginning in 2008, ESPN360.com is also offered free to all high-speed college (.edu) and U.S. military (.mil) IP addresses.

Yahtzee! Having attended the University of Central Florida, I remember that students and employees used to be able to access the schools VPN. A small form and a couple of emails later, I was up and running with VPN access which I was able to connect to and obtain the coveted .edu IP address. As a test, I fired up Firefox and pointed it over to ESPN360.com and was able to access the system and watch a little bit of the Little League World Series they were currently showing!

If that wasn’t enough, the Wikipedia also mentioned this about the ESPN360 and the Gameplan package:

…ESPN has rolled over its online ESPN GamePlan package to ESPN360.com as of September 1, 2007. On-line viewers that do not have an ESPN360.com affiliated ISP will be unable to receive the Gameplan content online. However, individuals who do have an ESPN360.com affiliated ISP will get the ESPN GamePlan or ESPN Full Court content online for free.

Checking the upcoming weeks’ football listing, I am happy to confirm that you do indeed get their Gameplan lineup. Finally, college is starting to pay off!

Of course, your mileage may vary. I’m not the least bit knowledgeable of the VPN policies for other universities so I’m not sure if this will work for everyone. If all else fails you can always go hang out in the school’s library or a buddies military dorm. In either case, here is a list of some of the local Universities’ VPN pages that I could find online if you wished to try the same setup.

• University of Central Florida: http://www.noc.ucf.edu/VPN/
• University of Florida: http://net-services.ufl.edu/provided_services/vpn/
• Florida State University: http://us.fsu.edu/index_vpn.html
• University of South Florida: http://www.net.usf.edu/vpn/

Update 8/27/2008:

I’ve added a Greasemonkey script I wrote to the projects page that will allow you to open more than one instance of the 360 media player a little easier.

Update 6/14/2010:

They re-branded their ESPN360 service as ESPN3.