We run primarily a JSP based application interfacing with MS SQL 2000, we are systematically rewriting it in ASP.NET, module by module. One of the modules uploads Excel files to the site to be imported into the database, easy stuff.

But,……. this process can take some time, due to all the validation being done, etc, so I brought in some good old AJAX Modal popups to give the user a more rich experience, but I kept on getting the following Javascript error:

Sys.WebForms.pageRequestManager TimeoutException : the server request timed out

After Googling the error, I came across an entry on the ASP.NET site about AJAX 1.0 and iFrames.

Due to the RTM edition  of AJAX 1.0 having certain restrictions in place, if one uses AJAX in frames where the page are across different domains (or Virtual directories, as in my case), then you cannot access the script resources from the AJAX Extensions (which I thought the problem was at first). I eventually found the workaround at Bertrand Le Roy’s blog . Follow the instructions to the letter, and everything will work 100%.

P.S. This issue has been fixed in the AJAX Version shipped with C# 3.5!

This experience has taught me one thing, Frames == Trouble!

HTH someone else out there.

Was browsing around http://www.mssharepointdeveloper.com today and found this out from the Sharepoint team’s blog:

“Today we are excited to share with you some news about SharePoint Designer 2007. Starting now (April 2, 2009), SharePoint Designer 2007 will be available as a free download!”

Apparently this was done for the following 2 reasons:

• Most of what can be done with Sharepoint Designer 2007 can already be done with Sharepoint by itself (Sharepoint Designer did not ship standard with Ms Office 2007)
• This was done to promote Sharepoint Designer 2007 as a development tool.

I think this is a great idea as it should be able to do what Microsoft wants to achieve, and it allows those of us who experiment with Sharepoint in our free time to make use of SPD 2007 without worrying about licencing issues or trial versions. Download Sharepoint Designer from here. Registration using your Windows Live ID will be required. Take note, no licence key is required for the installation as the trial edition did.

Hope this helps everyone out there learning Sharepoint!

After being in the dev world for over 2 years now, and having learnt A LOT of interesting tips and tricks, I decided it was time to start a blog.

I will be blogging primarily on things that would be of interest to others and things I find interesting, such as new techs, techniques I have learned, and anything else that even seems remotely interesting, or funny!!