Client found response content type of '', but expected 'text/xml'. The request failed with an empty response.

I received the above error on the SQL Server 2008 R2 Reports Server alonhg with CRM 4.0, after going through many web sites and blogs could not find a proper reason. Ultimately found that the disk which SSRS is installed has ran out of disk space. This is just a lazy blog post to make sure someone else will find the answer straight next time.

Check your Disk space buddies!!!

Bad Disk Failure Message in Visio

Recently while trying to save a draft visio diagram I created in my newly built PC, it gave me an annoying error exactly like what you can see in the below screenshot. After a few minutes I came across the solution, which is to install an update to the Web Folders Component of the OS provided by Microsoft.


Software Update for Web Folders (KB907306)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=17C36612-632E-4C04-9382-987622ED1D64&displaylang=en

We're really lucky to have a helping hand from the community and I beleive we have to give and take. This is the first post I made since 2007???

Microsoft CRM 3.0 Customizing Integration Using ISV.Config Part 1

haMicrosoft CRM 3.0 allows the customization of navigation by the use of three tools.

1. ISV.Config
2. sitemap.xml
3. Entity Display Areas

In this post I will be looking in to the ways of using the ISV.config file to customize MSCRM3.0 navigation.

ISV.config file is an XML file, therefore we must keep in mind basic XML related concepts such as case sensitivity etc.

ISV.config file could be found in the _Resources folder inside the web installation path of a particular CRM server installation. It's C:\Program Files\Microsoft CRM\CRMWeb\_Resources in my CRM server.

You can download the ISV.config file to be edited by navigating to Settings => Customization and thereafter selecting the ISV.config from the list shown in the grid. Please see figure below.

The CRM system will popup a warning message as given below

It is a best practice to give a meaningful name most probably "ISV Config.xml" as the file name when you download it to your local machine. The default file name is customizations.xml. See below figures.

Once you have saved a local copy of the ISV config please remember to keep a back up of the original file. It might be helpful if anything goes wrong during the operation.

Use your favourite XML editor to edit the ISV.config file. Mine is Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

The main application menu bar is located right after the root node of the xml file.

Adding a Menu to the CRM Application

You can add a menu to the main menu by pasting the following lines of code between the MenuBar Tags.

save the changes you made and you're now ready to import the customization that you did in to the CRM. CRM provides an import tool to apply your customization to the CRM system.

You can find it if you navigate to Settings => Customizations => Import Customizations.

In the import tool you will find a browse button which allows you to browse and select the modified ISV.Config file in your local machine. And also you will find an Upload button to upload the selected file to the CRM server. Once the file is successfully uploaded you will get a screen similar to the one below, having the ISV Config listed in the grid. Make sure you have selected the ISV Config Entry in the grid and click on the "Import All Customizations" button from the Grid Toolbar.

If the import is successful the popup message shown below will appear.

Otherwise you will be shown a message like the following. Check the formatting of the ISV config file, sometimes you might have forgotten to close an opened tag.

Now it's time to see the result of the customization. If everything goes as expected the Application Menu similar to the following must appear.

Code Snippets?

What are Code Snippets?
Code snippets are a solution to implement reusable blocks of code which developers use very often during their day to day programming activities. Such as for...loops, if...else.., try..catch..., and many other similar code blocks.
Code snippets are a new feature which comes with VS2005, and it drastically reduces coding time. You can even write your own code snippets to suite your situation.

Share the code snippets that you write and get code snippets that other developers has developed, it’s all free from http://www.gotcodesnippets.net/

Learn more about code snippets from the following links.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165392.aspx
http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showID=131
http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/showpost.aspx?postid=61654&siteid=1
http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=121821

Be more careful when handling dynamically generated SQL queries

Last Friday I encountered an issue in a system which we provide support. It was caused by a dynamic SQL query.
A dynamic sql query is a query which is generated in the run time, stored usually in a variable, and executed usually using
sp_executesql to return the results.

I found comments placed by the developer who has developed it inside the sql query string it self, which was executed after building it dynamically.
But that query string is appended more dynamic parameters before execution (ORDER BY Field and ASC/DESC). After executing the query the sproc returned data but the sorting field and the ascending descending parameters did not seem to be working.
The reason was a comment started right after the last statement has made all other appended code as part of the comment.

I give below an example query (@sortedByField and @sortType are passed in to the sproc as parameters)

DECLARE @SqlStatement nvarchar(1000)

SET @SqlStatement = 'SELECT * FROM SomeTable
WHERE SomeField = 6 --POD => Proff Of Delivery'

(Please notice the comments given by the developer inside the string are in bold)

SET @SqlStatement = @SqlStatement + ' ORDER BY [' + @sortedBy + '] ' + @sortType

(Appending code after the comment line, results appended code to be treated as comments)

'SELECT * FROM SomeTable WHERE SomeField = 6 --POD => Proff Of Delivery ORDER BY Field1 DESC'
('SELECT * FROM SomeTable WHERE SomeField = 6' is the only effective part of the dynamically generated query)

So we better be more careful when we are working with dynamically generated sql in the future. And if possible reduce the use of the as much as possible.

SysAdmins becomes a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner

I just got the news from Nick (our managing director) that SysAdmins (the company I work for) has been awarded the Microsoft Gold Certified Partnership. It's a wonderful news to hear at the beginning of the year. If I'm correct we are the second company in Sri Lanka to achieve the Gold Certified Partnership. Great effort team! Let's keep it up.

Sigiriya will remain as the 8th wonder of the world forever

While browsing google news I came across an important link http://www.new7wonders.com, There is a process going on to choose the new 7 wonders of the world. And the best thing is we can call up and vote to choose the new 7 wonders of the world. And the bad thing is that since ages we were calling "Sigiriya" as the 8th wonder of the world, and we can call it the 8th wonder of the world rest of our lives, because huge cement structures are also amongst the 21 finalists. For people who don't know what sigiriya is you can get a brief idea from this link http://www.sritravel.8m.net/sigiriya.htm