Code that must not be put in data source active() method

Recently I got this error when trying to update spec quantity in salesEditLines form.

Cannot edit a record in Sales order - Update table (SalesParmTable).
The values displayed in the form are not current, so an update or deletion cannot be made. To view the current values, on the Command menu, click Restore or press CTRL+F5.

Call stack shows nothing but suddenly system goes to the write() method of the SalesParmTable. It is strange that I didn't change any field but it fires SalesParmTable.write() data source method.

Comparing the modification, I found that my fellow developer put a field assignment code within the SalesParmTable.active() method, so the code will always be run repeatedly (not sure how many time per minute, but it is very often). Since system get message that a field has been changed, write method is fired although the stack trace does not show any indication why write() method is fired. Again, it is hard since debugger doesn't tell what previous event causing this write() method.

So then I remove the field assignment code from the datasource active() method and the problem is gone.
The lesson from this is that we must never put an field assignment code within datasource active() method. It should only contains code for changing field behavior such as alowedit, enabled, visible, etc.

Sharepoint error after change domain

After we rebuild a new Active Directory, my windows sharepoint service could not start.
It showed this error message :
The file exists. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070050).
I am sure this is due to SID change of new domain. After googling around I found this website that helps me solve the problem.
The point is that userinfo table in Admin_content_xxxx database has to be updated with the new sid. I use getsid tool to reveal my new sid.
However it shows sid in s-n-n format while sharepoint store sid in hex format. So I created a vb program that convert decimal sid string to hexadecimal. The code is copied from this blog.

Property owner is not available for database

Recently I got this error message when tried to see database properties :

Cannot show requested dialog.

Additional information:

Cannot show requested dialog. (SqlMgmt)

Property Owner is not available for Database ’[ ]’. This property may not exist for this object, or may not be retrievable due to insufficient access rights.

(Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)

This happened after we established a new domain so I suspected that this is caused by orphaned SID since most of the time I created database with Windows credential. After googling I got sure answer that this is database owner problem, exactly due to sid being out of sych.

So based on idea from this blog, I run the following simple sql statement (SQL 2005):

exec sp_msforeachdb 'alter authorization on database::? to sa;'

This will reset database owner of all databases to sa. This statement is safe as the alter authorization statement is not applicable to system databases.

If you want to update a single database only just use this statement:

alter authorization on database::dbname to sa;

For SQL 2000, use this statement :

exec dbname..sp_changedbowner 'sa'

Search which database has specific column name

select *
from information_schema.columns

where column_name = 'searchcolumn'

Find database given physical file name

I was looking for ways to clean up my server disk space. One of them by shrinking sql server log file. I found a log file that was quite big. Unfortunately, there was no database name that has similar name with the physical file. I would not check physical name of each database one by one by issuing sp_helpdb command as my server hold tens databases. I would rather run script to find exactly what database hold this file.
Here is what I get:
SELECT
DB_NAME(database_id) database_name,
physical_name
FROM master.sys.master_files
where physical_name ='physicalfilename'

SQL Server Reporting Service database version error

I was learning SQL Server 2005 reporting service, when I got this error during database setup:
Couldn't generate the upgrade script. There is no upgrade script available for this database version.
It seems that the database server that host the report server database is not the same with the reporting services installation.
I checked my database is SQL Server 2005 SP2, but I don't know my Reporting Service version.
Then I searched through Microsoft MSDN and found this page which tells me various ways to check reporting service version.
By checking the log file as suggested, I found that my Reporting Services is SQL Server 2005 SP1.
So now I am going to upgrade my reporting service.

Axapta view of view may cause wrong results

When create view in Axapta, an existing view should not be used as data source because it may produce wrong result.
This happen when the originating view has more than one data source in it.
When view is created, Axapta uses the following technique :
- Use the first data source's dataareaid field as the view dataareaid field
- Use the second data source's dataareaid field as the view dataareaid#2 field
When used as a whole, this view will only show the first dataareaid as its dataareaid. Axapta kernel will filter based on dataareaid and dataareaid#2 with the correct company account. This case no problem.

Problem occurs when the view is used in another view, with additonal datasource attached to it.
Using the same rule as above, the new view's dataareaid#2 field will be replaced by the new datasource attached to it, so the original view second data source is no longer filtered by dataareaid. This may lead to a duplicate data when the same data of the original view's second data source exists in more than one company.