Embed Facebook Posts in WordPress. But Why?

June 23, 2015Aalam RangiLeave a comment

Posts on a WordPress blog can be shared on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter etc. You can do the reverse too and share Facebook page posts in a WordPress blog post which will include the Facebook comments, likes and shares. The Facebook page timeline has to be public.

So you first post something on your blog. Then you share it on Facebook. Then you again share the Facebook post back to your blog! Why would someone do this kind of cross posting?! The answer is, to promote your Facebook page with your blog readers and vice-a-versa. Even if you are not promoting a page (because it is not YOUR page), Facebook posts from others’ pages can still be useful to your blog readers or relevant to what you already write about.

Now, why Facebook? A Facebook user is most likely just browsing, not actively looking for solutions to any technical issue. But they sure love to share and read interesting stuff. So by posting to a Facebook page, there is a higher chance of someone liking or sharing it with their friends and as a result catch the attention of another casual browser. Oh yes, there are social-sharing buttons on a WordPress post too. But those buttons will be used by a reader who is already on your blog. Also, in some situations the sharing buttons may not even work due to restrictions like work network, device issues etc. The point here is to engage a casual reader on Facebook who is not actively looking for content on a search engine or a forum.

On the other hand, most of blog readers are looking actively for a solution to an issue. There is a high chance that they have been directed to the blog via a search engine result or a technical forum thread about a specific issue. (Check your stats, duh!) Very few are here for general reading. As a blogger, I would like to capture the interest of this “accidental” reader and hope that they return. One way for me to stay connected with them is to have them subscribed to or follow my blog through (at least one or preferably) various channels like email, RSS, WordPress, Twitter, Facebook etc. Some people may be reluctant to share their email address but may be willing to Like the Facebook page. Sending a new reader to your Facebook page and getting them to Like your Facebook page is equivalent to getting a new subscriber. Of course the restrictions mentioned above will come into play here too but the opportunity can still be used to make the reader aware of a Facebook page. With its huge active user count, Facebook is a good medium for outreach and engagement. Major websites report that bulk of their views are driven by social media sites. Consider the Facebook cross-post as a banner ad for yourself!

To promote your blog, you can either use your personal Facebook profile page or create a new page for the blog. I would suggest the latter so that you don’t spam your non-tech friends with technical rants.

I plan to experiment with various blog promotion strategies, especially in the technical niche, and write in more detail about them. I have started a Facebook page for this blog and will share my adventures periodically. If you are interested in following my learning path, you can subscribe to this blog or like my Facebook page. (Notice what I did right there?!)

For now, here is an embedded Facebook post –

Suppress the Error Number, Severity Level and State Number in the Error output

September 2, 2014Aalam RangiLeave a comment

For any reason, if you don’t want to show the Error Number, Severity Level and the State Number along with the Error Message, use the Severity Level 0 (Zero) or 10. The Severity Number 10 is converted to Zero internally.

Demonstration:

A severity number except 0 or 10 displays the Error Number, Severity and State information.

A severity number 0 or 10 suppresses the Error Number, Severity and State information.

Further Reading:

Database Engine Error Severities
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms164086(v=sql.105).aspx

How to Embed a PDF Document in a SharePoint Wiki Page with a Page Viewer Webpart

October 16, 2012Aalam Rangi2 Comments

I had a PDF document that I wanted to embed in a SharePoint wiki page such that it was ready to view instead of just being a download link. My document was a single page diagram but you could have multi-page documents that you need to display like this on a wiki.

I’ve used the Page Viewer web part to implement this. The downside to this approach is that every time a Wiki page with an embedded PDF is opened or edited, the standard dialog box with the “Open, Save or Save As” option comes up. This dialog box can be canceled each time but I’m not yet aware of any way to disable it permanently. There is another way to embed a document using a Content Editor web part too (shared here and here) but I’ve not had a chance to try that out.

Steps:

1. Upload the PDF document to an appropriate SharePoint library and copy the URL in a Notepad. The URL is needed later.

2. Open the Wiki page where the document has to be embedded and click on the Edit icon at the top-left.

3. Click on the location or bring the cursor to the location in the Wiki page where you’d like to embed the PDF.

4. Click on the Editing Tools > Insert tab at the top of the page ().

5. Click on Web Part.

6. Select Media and Content in the Categories list box on the left of the page and select Page Viewer from the Web Parts list. Click on Add. This will insert the Page Viewer web part at the location of the cursor in the page.

7. Hover over the inserted Page Viewer web part. Click on the drop down button and click the Edit Web Part option.

8. Paste the URL, give a title and specify a height for the web part and click OK. You are done! The PDF will now appear as a document in a window and Adobe Reader’s normal features like zoom, pan, print etc. would be available to interact with the document.

Use a One-Time Schedule for Adhoc Job Executions

July 24, 2012Aalam RangiLeave a comment

If there is ever a need to run a SQL Server job on an adhoc basis outside of its normal schedule, don’t change its original schedule. Rather, create a new one-time only schedule for that job and leave it like that even after the the execution.

If you modify the original schedule then you’d have to remember to revert it back. This can be easily missed out and then the job would be running at the modified schedule after that! Oh, so you say you have a water-tight reminder mechanism and you’ll never forget to revert it?! Please read the next line.

If there was a requirement to run the job out-of-schedule once, then it could happen again too. The one-time schedule would be handy at that time and can be reused.

How To Have a Colorful Status Bar in SSMS. And Why is that Useful!

April 27, 2012Aalam Rangi1 Comment

Would it be helpful if the status bar of SSMS query windows for PROD environment were red, QA were green and DEV were blue? Yes. The query windows will be distinguished and reduce the chances of oops moments. If you frequently open simultaneous query windows for multiple environments/servers in SSMS, then you must learn about this SSMS feature. Don’t miss reading a word of caution at the end!

The following is the default status bar for a query window in SSMS.

The status bar can be made Green (or any other color) like the example below.

All you need to do is to expand the Options on the connection dialog …

… and pick a color of your liking as shown below.

These color choices will persist even when you close and reopen the SSMS.

Although, setting up a different color for all individual servers is possible but having too many colors could be confusing! You might find it useful to set one specific color per environment. For example, Red for PROD servers, Green for QA servers and Yellow for TEST servers.

How to Reset it Back to Default Color:

Open the Connect to Database Engine dialog box and remove the check for the Use Custom Color checkbox. Click on Connect. All new query windows for the server you are trying to connect will revert back to the default color. Any open query windows for that server or others will not be affected. I’m not aware of any option to reset this for all connections at once.

A Word of Caution:

A new color selection is applied to the query window immediately but the effect of removing a color is visible only with new query windows, not the ones currently open. Whenever you change the connection of any open query window, always verify that the expected color is showing on the status bar.

Recover unsaved queries after SSMS crash or PC restart

October 25, 2011June 19, 2016Aalam Rangi5 Comments

You are using the query editor in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). You have spent an hour writing and tweaking a query. Then probably another 15 minutes to format it to your liking. But you haven’t saved it yet. If the SSMS crashes now before you could save your work, is all of your effort wasted? Maybe not. The in-built auto-recover features make it possible to recover unsaved queries after SSMS crash. I discuss all the manual or tool based recovery options in this article.

Auto-Recovery in SSMS

The SSMS developer team anticipated this situation so they have built in some auto recovery options in the tool. Usually, the next time you start SSMS after a crash, it tries to recover your unsaved queries. The recovered files show up in a dialog box as shown below. The dialog box has a list of files that SSMS was able to recover. You can select the files that you wish to salvage.

The file names are cryptic with no indication about their content. This kind of naming is ok if you were working with only one query window and know which query is being salvaged. But if you had multiple query windows open at the time of crash, the cryptic file names will be of no help. So you might want to recover all the files in this list and review them later. Next, make a note of the folder locations where the files will be recovered so that you can take a look at them. Now you can click the Recover Selected Files button.

The auto recovery dialog will help recover unsaved queries after SSMS crash — SSMS Query Recover Dialog

What If Auto-Recovery Does Not Work

Sometimes SSMS may not present the recovery dialog box. It might seem that all the work is lost. Well, most of the queries (if not all) can still be recovered because the recovery dialog shows where are the backup files located.

Windows XP

On Windows XP, SSMS saves auto recover copies of queries as you work, in the folder –

C:/Documents and Settings/<user name>/My Documents/SQL Server Management Studio/Backup Files/Solution1

Windows 7

On Windows 7, the queries can be recovered from –

C:/Users/<user name>/Documents/SQL Server Management Studio/Backup Files/Solution1

Recovery Folder Content

The names of the auto saved files are cryptic. So you will need to open all the files to find the one you are interested in.

Recover unsaved queries after SSMS crash in this folder — SSMS Query Auto Recover Location in Windows XP

Other Options

If auto recover does not work help for any reason, then here are a few more options.

SQL Server Query Cache

You can try recovering TSQL statement text using some of the DMVs and DMFs. The sys.dm_exec_requests along with sys.dm_exec_sql_text can show the statement text. But this is helpful only if you executed the query and the query is still in SQL Server’s memory. If the query text was just sitting in the editor and you never executed it before the SSMS crash then this method cannot help.


USE [your_database_name]
GO
SELECT
s.last_execution_time AS [ExecutionTime], 
t.text AS [Statement] 
FROM
sys.dm_exec_query_stats AS s
CROSS APPLY
sys.dm_exec_sql_text(s.sql_handle) AS t
ORDER BY
s.last_execution_time DESC

Third Party Tools

Some third party tools like SSMS Boost (free), Red Gate SQL Prompt (paid after trial), SSMS Tools Pack (paid after trial) etc. can help in a situation like this, but only if you had them installed and running at the time of the crash. They cannot help otherwise.

While talking about tools, you can even up vote this Connect item to add an undo closed tab option in SSMS.

Conclusion and Best Practices

Save your work frequently. CTRL+S is your friend. This advice is good not just for web designers but software developers too!
Use a version control system like Git, SVN etc.

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