For example, one of my clients, pd training, uses Joomla for its public web site (www.pdtraining.com.au) and an ASP.NET/MSSQL-based system for its booking and learning management systems (bookings.pdtraining.com.au). Integration between the two systems has been limited. We have used both the Table JX plugin and iframes to display class schedules from the MS SQL database.

With the ability of Joomla 2.5 to run off Microsoft SQL server, we can now have our class schedule data in the same MS SQL database as our joomla content, opening up more opportunities for integration between course descriptions and class schedules. While this of course was all possible in mySQL and php with MSSQL drivers, we can now work with a single db platform. This will  reduce overhead and duplication of effort.

Other opportunities include converting your Microsoft Access database to Microsoft SQL server and integrating that data with your Joomla web site.

Feel free to email or call us if you want more information.

By the way, here is a list of the other new features in Joomla 2.5: http://blog.templatemonster.com/2012/01/12/joomla-2-5-new-features/

One more thing. You will need windows hosting to run Joomla with Microsoft SQL Server. A great hosting company that does this is studiocoast.com.au (full disclosure: I am a reseller). I host my site and many of my client’s sites with studiocoast. Check out studiocoast’s services

The steps assume you have the Android SDK and monodroid installed succesfully. I am using Visual Studio 2010. To keep things simple this example returns a single column from a single record in a table.

1. In a new or existing monodroid application project, add a Reference to System.Data by right-clicking on References in Solution Explorer and clicking Add Reference.

2. Add using System.Data and using System.Data.SqlClient to Activity1.cs

3.  In Activity1.cs create a new method called RunQuery():

public string RunQuery()
{
string sMessage;
SqlConnection conn;
string connectionString = “Data Source=sqlservername;Initial Catalog=dbname;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=username;Password=password“;
conn = new SqlConnection(connectionString);
SqlCommand cmd;
cmd = new SqlCommand();
cmd.Connection = conn;
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
cmd.CommandText = “yoursqlstatement“;
conn.Open();
sMessage = cmd.ExecuteScalar().ToString();
conn.Close();
return sMessage;
}

4. Open Main.axml from Resources and create a new textview:

<TextView android:layout_width=”fill_parent” android:layout_height=”wrap_content” android:id=”@+id/message” android:layout_marginTop=”10px” android:layout_marginBottom=”10px” />

5. Back in Activity1.cs add the following code to the onCreate method:

TextView txt1 = FindViewById<TextView>(Resource.Id.message);
txt1.Text = “Welcome to PD Training mLearning. Our first course is ” + RunQuery();

6. Test the app by selecting Start without debugging from the Debug menu in Visual Studio. Select your device or emulator and click Start.

7. That’s it. Nothing fancy but a good way to test retrieving data from a microsoft sql server database.

components/com_virtuemart/themes/default/templates/browse/includes/browse_header_all.tpl.php
Change the format of the shop heading (e.g. from h3 to h1)

components/com_virtuemart/themes/default/templates/browse/browse_1.php (etc)
Change the layout of how product name, price, image, description, and add to cart sections are displayed on the browse pages. For example, move the image to the left-most column of the table layout (browse_1). Which file you need to update (browse_1.php, browse_2.php) depends on which layout style you selected for your browse pages (table, div, etc)

administrator/com_virtuemart/languages/shop/english.php
Change the name of your store (‘PHPSHOP_BROWSE_LBL’) and other labels used throughout Virtuemart

• Search Engine Optimisation
• Google Analytics
• Social Media Integration
• Google Maps Integration
• ASP.NET
• SQL Server
• Google Adwords

The map has already been mentioned by ABC 702 Sydney radio. Hopefully it will generate similar interest as the previous two maps, including an interview with Noni Hazelhurst on ABC morning radio in Melbourne.

The map is available at http://www.electionsausagesizzle.com.au. This link also allows schools and other polling venues to add their cake stall or sausage sizzle as a means of promoting their fundraising efforts.

Finally, its a bit of fun to seeing how much interest it attracts and it looks like I will be doing it for a Queensland state election soon.

To get started, the first tip is to ensure that you have links from popular sites back to your web site. News, education, and industry web sites (e.g. associations, forums) are great sites to target. To help get you started with your links, we are offering the opportunity to be part of the E-Nable small business directory. It is only open to businesses registered with the E-Nable program and will provide a business listing on the E-Nable site (open to the public) including a link back to your web site.

All you have to do is read the pdf booklet and complete the learning check on search engine optmization. It’s topic 3 in the eMarketing category – simply click Yes if you haven’t enrolled in the eMarketing category before. Once you complete the learning check, simply email grantc@bsgroup.com.au that you want to be part of the directory.

More about the E-Nable Small Business Online Program (SBO)

Minister Nick Sherry and Grant Castner from Castner IT at BSG's E-Nable launch

The Small Business Online Program is an initiative of AusIndustry.  Business Success Group (BSG) is a Queensland provider for the Small Business Online Program. BSG has called their version of the SBO program E-Nable.  Castner IT was contracted by Business Success Group to create the online content, present the workshops, and provide 1-on-1 advice to small businesses. The E-Nable program already has over 250 registered small businesses, conducted workshops for over 50 small businesses, and run more than 20 1-on-1 consultation sessions.

The objective of the E-Nable program is to assist small businesses to significantly enhance their web presence and improve their eBusiness capabilities. E-Nable is an integrated program that combines online content with face-to-face delivery. It is available free to all Queensland small businesses with less than 20 employees. We cater to a wide range of businesses from those starting out online up to businesses looking to enhance their web presence through search engine optimisation and social media.

E-Nable has three components:

• Online resources - A series of information booklets, video tutorials, and online forums covering 16 topics from web site development, to cloud computing to search engine optimisation. An overview of these modules can be found below.
• Information Sessions - 2-hour hands-on sessions covering some of the key topics from the online resources. Limited to groups of ten participants
• 1-on-1 consultations: Customised sessions dedicated to addressing the online requirements of your business.

• Choose from over 20 data columns to show/hide in a gridview
• Filter data by date ranges
• Search over multiple columns
• Total amount columns based on the search and filter criteria

Show/Hide Columns in GridView

Declan Bright’s post on codeproject – http://www.codeproject.com/KB/webforms/ShowHideGridviewColumns.aspx – was an excellent starting point. My clients wanted to be able to show or hide columns from a single checkboxlist rather than a combination of controls in the gridview header and a dropdownlist.

Below is the code for the GridView’s RowCreated event. The first part creates the listitems for the checkboxlist from the gridview header columns. It also selects the default columns to show when the page is first opened. All other columns are hidden. The 2nd part iterates through the checkboxlist and determines which gridview columns to display.

protected void GridView1_RowCreated(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
// Set the default hidden columns
if (!IsPostBack)
{
if (e.Row.Cells.Count != null)
{
if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.Header)
{
// Loop through each cell of the header row
for (int columnIndex = 0; columnIndex < e.Row.Cells.Count; columnIndex++)
{
ListItem gvColumn = new ListItem();
gvColumn.Text = GridView1.Columns[columnIndex].HeaderText;
gvColumn.Value = columnIndex.ToString();
if (gvColumn.Text == “HeaderText1″ || gvColumn.Text == “HeaderText2″ || gvColumn.Text == “HeaderText3″ || gvColumn.Text == “HeaderText4″ || gvColumn.Text == “HeaderText5″)
{
gvColumn.Selected = true;
}
CheckBoxList1.Items.Add(gvColumn);
}
}
}
}

// Hide the columns selected from the CheckBoxList
try
{
foreach (ListItem li in CheckBoxList1.Items)
{
if (li.Selected == true)
{
e.Row.Cells[Convert.ToInt32(li.Value)].Visible = true;
}
else
{
e.Row.Cells[Convert.ToInt32(li.Value)].Visible = false;
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Add error handling code
}
}

Totals

The next step is to use the GridView RowDataBound event to total 1 or more amounts columns (only 1 column totalled in this example):

// Total Amount Column
protected void GridView1_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)
{
Label vL2 = e.Row.FindControl(“lqcAmount”) as Label;
vTotal2 += Convert.ToDouble(vL2.Text);
}

if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.Footer)
{
Label vL2 = e.Row.FindControl(“lqcAmountTotal”) as Label;
vL2.Text = String.Format(“{0:#,###.00}”, vTotal2);
}
}

Searching and Filtering GridView

For search and filtering, a queryextender was attached to the LinqDataSource to search through string columns and filter by a number of date ranges and a status field:

<asp:QueryExtender TargetControlID=”GridDataSource” ID=”GridQueryExtender” runat=”server”>
<asp:SearchExpression SearchType=”Contains” DataFields=”field1,field2,field3,field4″>
<asp:ControlParameter ControlID=”SearchTextBox” />
</asp:SearchExpression>
<asp:RangeExpression DataField=”Date1″ MaxType=”Inclusive” MinType=”Inclusive”>
<asp:ControlParameter ControlID=”tStartDate” />
<asp:ControlParameter ControlID=”tEndDate” />
</asp:RangeExpression>
<asp:RangeExpression DataField=”Date2″ MaxType=”Inclusive” MinType=”Inclusive”>
<asp:ControlParameter ControlID=”tStartDate2″ />
<asp:ControlParameter ControlID=”tEndDate2″ />
</asp:RangeExpression>
<asp:PropertyExpression>
<asp:ControlParameter ControlID=”ddlStatus” PropertyName=”SelectedValue” Name=”StatusName” />
</asp:PropertyExpression>
</asp:QueryExtender>

Here is the markup for the search textboxes and dropdownlist:

<table>
<tr>
<td>Invoice Date Range:</td>
<td><asp:TextBox ID=”tStartDate” runat=”server” /> – <asp:TextBox ID=”tEndDate” runat=”server” /></td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Followup Date Range:</td>
<td><asp:TextBox ID=”tStartDate2″ runat=”server” /> – <asp:TextBox ID=”tEndDate2″ runat=”server” /></td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Search:</td>
<td><asp:TextBox ID=”SearchTextBox” runat=”server” /></td>
<td>
<asp:Button ID=”Button4″ runat=”server” OnClick=”Button1_Click” Text=”Display” />
</td>
</tr>
</table>

Here are some highlights of Windows Phone 7 that I really like:

• Ability to take photos in seconds even when the phone is originally off
• Office 2010 including the ability to use PowerPoint 2010 for giving presentations from the phone
• Tell Me service for voice recognition for search
• Xbox Live including a game, Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst, that allows you to defend your own neighbourhood against mutant freaks
• HTC Surround Phone has two Dolby surround sound speakers
• Great Facebook and other social media integration with contacts
• Integration with WindowsPhone7.com to sync content between phone and cloud

Here is the full press release from Microsoft:

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 11, 2010 — Microsoft Corp. today joined its partners in revealing nine new Windows Phone 7 handsets that will be available this holiday season from leading mobile operators in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. With more than 60 mobile operators in over 30 countries worldwide committed to bringing Windows Phones to market, the millions of people around the world looking for a phone that plays as hard as it works will have a variety of phones from leading device-makers to choose from.

“We have a beautiful lineup in this first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Microsoft and its partners are delivering a different kind of mobile phone and experience — one that makes everyday tasks faster by getting more done in fewer steps and providing timely information in a ‘glance and go’ format.”

Global Portfolio

Microsoft and its partners have worked together closely to create a different kind of phone with new experiences that bring together what people care about most. Windows Phone 7 will be available in a variety of sleek form factors from device-makers such as Dell, HTC Corp., LG and Samsung, and from mobile operators including América Móvil, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, Telstra, TELUS, T-Mobile USA and Vodafone. All Windows Phone 7 phones will include the high-performance Snapdragon™ processor from Qualcomm. A broad selection of phones will begin shipping in holiday 2010 with more arriving in 2011, including phones from Sprint and Verizon Wireless. In addition, select models will be available at Microsoft Store locations and from Amazon.

Windows Phone 7, Glance and Go

In today’s busy world we are spending more time heads-down on our phones than interacting with the people we’re sitting next to and missing out on important life moments. Windows Phone 7 was designed to deliver a mobile experience that has the phone working better for people, bringing together the things they care about most and helping them to get things done faster.

Windows Phone 7 breaks the current smartphone convention to help people quickly and easily find and consume data, information and services from the Web and applications. The new phones are distinguished by unique design and integrated experiences built from Microsoft’s deep portfolio such as Xbox LIVE, Microsoft Office Mobile, Zune, Windows Live, Bing and more.

For example, the customizable Start screen with Live Tiles is a personal experience, showing people their own content. The Live Tiles come to life with real-time updates from the Web such as news, appointments or the status of friends. New Live Tiles can be easily created from whatever content a consumer wants, such as applications, websites and music.

Fueling New Experiences

Windows Phone 7 marks a new era in mobile gaming as the first phone1 to put the power of Xbox LIVE into the palm of people’s hands with a blockbuster lineup of game titles from award-winning publishers. In addition to the titles already announced earlier this year, Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) today announced the first wave of EA games coming to Windows Phone 7 this fall. As part of Microsoft’s managed portfolio of Xbox LIVE titles, all EA games for Windows Phone 7 will be Xbox LIVE-enabled. EA will deliver a portfolio of titles that offers something for every mobile gamer, from casual to core, including “Need for Speed™ Undercover,” “Tetris®” and “The Sims™ 3.”

Windows Phone 7 is also the first to offer the Zune music experience on a phone: People can play their music collection, synced wirelessly from their PC, or stream or download new tunes from Windows Marketplace. An optional Zune Pass subscription is available.

Search is made easier with a dedicated button to help people find what they need, whether in contacts, in Marketplace, in e-mail or on the Web. From the Start screen, the Search button delivers Bing for mobile, delivering Web results, local information, maps, directions and more.

The Windows Live solution helps people manage pictures, Windows Live calendar, Office OneNote Mobile and more. The free Find My Phone service new on Windows Live can remotely ring, lock, erase and show the location of your phone on a map. Complete information about Windows Phone 7 features and capabilities can be found at http://www.windowsphone.com.

New Windows Phones

The following devices will come to North America, Europe and Asia Pacific in the holiday 2010 timeframe.

In North America:

AT&T

HTC Surround, United States

Samsung Focus, United States

LG Quantum, United States

T-Mobile USA

HTC HD7, United States

Dell Venue Pro, United States

TELUS

HTC 7 Surround, Canada

LG Optimus 7, Canada

América Móvil

LG Optimus 7, Mexico

In Europe:

O2

HTC HD7, United Kingdom, Germany

Orange

HTC 7 Mozart, including France, United Kingdom

Samsung OMNIA 7, including France, United Kingdom

SFR

HTC 7 Trophy, France

Samsung OMNIA 7, France

Movistar

LG Optimus 7, Spain

HTC HD7, Spain

Samsung OMNIA 7, Spain

Deutsche Telekom AG

HTC 7 Mozart, Germany

Samsung OMNIA 7, Germany

Vodafone

HTC 7 Trophy, including Germany, Spain, United Kingdom

LG Optimus 7, including Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom

In Asia Pacific:

SingTel

HTC HD 7, Singapore

LG Optimus 7, Singapore

Telstra

HTC 7 Mozart, Australia

LG Optimus 7Q, Australia

Vodafone

HTC 7 Trophy, including Australia

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Windows Phone 7 features turn-based gaming with Xbox LIVE users on the phone and PC.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

• Services are sold on demand, typically by time (e.g. $10 per user per month)
• Services are elastic and scalable – a user or small business can access as little or as much as they want at any given time.
• Services are fully managed by the provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access).
• Significant innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, as well as improved access to high-speed Internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing.

Clouds may be public or private. Public clouds sell services to anyone on the internet, while private clouds may be created with a group of services that are accessible only to a limited number of people.

Access to a cloud computing platform is usually coupled with a service level agreement, i.e., a guarantee that access is available. For example, if access falls below 99% availability for a given month, your access charges for the period (and or user) may be waived.

By using a cloud computing service on an on-demand basis (in essence renting or leasing software services), you can avoid the large upfront costs of purchasing hardware and software licenses. This alone gives you more flexibility with your cash flow, and adds the ability to add to your access plan as your workforce grows. Data storage is also available. Amazon S3 (Figure 3) provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, through a web interface.

Figure 3: Amazon S3 – Simple Storage Service

Some office functions also lend themselves well to cloud computing solutions. For example, remote or mobile workforces sharing data, job logging, job allocation and timesheet records can all be managed real time using cloud computing log-ins over the internet.

Business case

• Reduced IT purchase and maintenance costs
• Service level agreements
• Expert support
• Industry best practice

The business case for cloud computing centres around outsourcing standard IT functions (e.g. email) to expert third party providers to reduce in-house IT maintenance and purchasing costs. The pricing of cloud computing primarily depends on the level of services you wish to subscribe for and the number of users.

An excellent entry point into cloud computing for small businesses is Google Apps Premier (Figure 6, www.google.com/a). It includes online services for email, calendars, and document preparation (spreadsheets, documents, presentations) to name a few. This suite begins at US $50 per user per year, and there is a 30 day free trial. Some of its features include:

• Familiar Google interface (e.g. Gmail)
• Syncing of email, calendars, and contacts with Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, iPhone and other smart phones
• Use your company domain name for email and web applications (e.g. email.yourcompany.com)

Figure 6: Google Apps Premier Email Application

Google also provide a simple online calculator to demonstrate the potential savings of using Google Apps relative to the cost of deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/messaging_value.html. The figure below is a cost estimate for a business with 10 employees with IT support costs of $75 per hour.

Figure 1: Google Apps cost calculator

Risks and Issues

• Security of data
  
• Network reliability
  

You must carefully assess the security and reliability aspects of a cloud computing platform before committing to a contract. Your need to ensure that data storage and transmission is secure and that your data is not accessible to other clients of the cloud computing provider. Check with service providers for the security measures that they employ and seek out independent reviews.

Cloud computing is highly reliant on the Internet so you will require a fast, reliable Internet connection. If your Internet connection is down, you will not be able to access your data unless you have local as well as cloud solutions.

One of the leading international cloud computing providers, Salesforce.com, employs a large array of measures to protect both the electronic point of access, and also the physical location of their data centres. A comprehensive list of their security measures can be viewed at: https://trust.salesforce.com/trust/security/. A screenshot of the Salesforce.com website appears below in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Salesforce.com

For more information on cloud computing and for other content, such as search engine optimization, sign up to the E-Nable Small Business Online Program, a free service of Business Success Group and an initiative of AusIndustry. The E-Nable program aims to improve the online capabilities of Qld small businesses. The only requirements are an Australian Business Number and a business with less than 20 employees.

Below I discuss some thoughts for small business considering using twitter and other social media on why and how to effectively use these social media tools.

Social media for small business – why?

1. Find like-minded people

Twitter allows you to discover people with similar business ideas and passions. Find businesses and people in which you are interested and see who they are following.

2. To follow news that impacts my business

Twitter and LinkedIn are not simply about following people, they are about following ideas and themes and topics. Use Twitter hashtags (topics) and Lists and LinkedIn Groups (more below) to find relevant news to your small business.

3. Share information about my business

Twitter can be an effective method of promoting your business. Remember to follow good twitter etiquette and don’t simply use Twitter for advertising. Mix promotion with sharing information and ideas.

4. Monitor your brand and reputation

Facebook and Twitter are immediate feedback mechanisms for customers to share their positive and negative experiences about your products and services. Monitoring social media for this feedback allows you to quickly assess the perception of your business in the marketplace. You can reinforce and promote the positive feedback and at the same time hopefully mitigate any negative perceptions about your business.

5. Improve your search engine optimization

Social media is one of the many tools available to improve your ranking on search engines. It is a useful method for generating links back to your site, especially if your posts are picked up and retweeted by others.

Social Media for Small Business – How?

1. Decide on a time commitment

You don’t have to read every post on Twitter or FaceBook. Decide on how much time you want to spend on social media and stick to it. One suggestion is to trial posting to Twitter once a day for a month and see what interest and leads you generate.

2. Use Search

Especially on twitter, search is a very useful tool to cut out the noise. Find hashtags (e.g. #ozsmallbiz) in which you are interested and save those searched. Twitter hashtags are a very effective tool to finding relevant information on a topic and also for getting your message out. You may not initially have many people following you on Twitter, but there may already be a substantial number of people following a hashtag. Adding an appropriate twitter-hashtag can extend the reach of your posts. More ideas on hashtags

3. Use tools such as TweetDeck and HootSuite to manage your social media

These tools allow you to post to different social media platforms simultaneously as well as automating some functions. Tweetdeck is an application available for the iPhone, iPad, Windows, Mac, and Linux that allows you to aggregate your social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) in the one place. Hootsuite is a web application that offers similar services with the addition of integration with Google Analytics to track the effectiveness of your social media efforts.

Let me know if you have other thoughts or suggestions

http://www.prlog.org/

From the prlog web site:

Press Release Distribution

• Distribution to Google News.
• Distribution to numerous search engines.
• Numerous javascript, html & RSS feeds.
• Customizable realtime/daily/weekly alerts.
• Powerful advanced search.
• Your own Press Room