[{"content":"This blog has been running on Blogger since 2005. That is not a typo. Twenty-one years of posts about BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts, Ubuntu upgrades, NAS backups, and eventually Business Central, all sitting on a platform Google has clearly stopped caring about. If you are reading this on blog.wingate365.com, you are reading it on a site that did not exist a few hours ago, built almost entirely by an AI agent while I sat next to it working on another project .\nThe problem with Blogger Blogger still works, but it has not evolved. No proper Markdown support, a clunky editor, dated theming, and a custom domain setup that always felt one DNS hiccup away from breaking. I wanted something Git-native: content as files, a proper build pipeline, full control over design, and free hosting that would not disappear. I also wanted to keep every existing URL working, because two decades of search engine indexing and old inbound links are not something you throw away for a redesign.\nHanding the plan to AI, not just the typing The interesting part of this project was not \u0026amp;ldquo;AI wrote some code for me.\u0026amp;rdquo; It was using an agent for the whole lifecycle: research the options, pick a stack, build a custom theme, write a migration script, classify two decades of content, fix its own bugs, and keep a running memory of decisions so it did not re-litigate the same argument three sessions later.\nThe stack it landed on: Hugo Extended, hosted on GitHub Pages, deployed via GitHub Actions, with a …","date":"18 Jul 2026","summary":"This blog has been running on Blogger since 2005. That is not a typo. Twenty-one years of posts about BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts, Ubuntu upgrades, NAS backups, and eventually Business Central, all sitting on a platform Google has clearly stopped caring about. If you are reading this on blog.wingate365.com, you are reading it on a site that did not exist a few hours ago, built almost entirely by an AI agent while I sat next to it working on another project .\n","tags":["ai","copilot","vibe coding","web"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"/images/heroes/blogger-to-github.svg\" alt=\"How AI Rebuilt This Blog: Blogger to Hugo in One Sitting\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"How AI Rebuilt This Blog: Blogger to Hugo in One Sitting","url":"/2026/07/how-ai-rebuilt-this-blog-blogger-to-hugo-in-one-sitting.html"},{"content":"\n\u0026amp;nbsp;\nPrevious post in this series: Fixing Email for Guest Users in D365 Business Central Back in April I wrote about a long-standing gap in Business Central: guest users can\u0026#39;t send email from their own home tenancy address. BC\u0026#39;s built-in connectors simply don\u0026#39;t work for Entra B2B guests. I built an open source extension to fix that, and Phase 3 is now complete - with some significant changes since that first post.\nIf you haven\u0026#39;t read the original post, the link above is worth a quick read for context. This post covers what\u0026#39;s changed and where it\u0026#39;s heading next.\nWhat\u0026#39;s Changed The original proof of concept used an OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code + PKCE delegated flow - meaning each user had to go through a consent step to connect their account. It worked, but it wasn\u0026#39;t ideal. The current app has rearchitected the approach significantly.\nThe extension now uses Client Credentials (app-only) authentication via AJ Kauffmann\u0026#39;s RestClientOAuth library. No browser popup, no per-user consent, no token storage per user. An admin registers one or more Entra app registrations - one per home domain - and that\u0026#39;s the entire setup. Every user then sends email automatically.\nThis is a fundamentally cleaner model for enterprise environments. There is nothing for end users to do.\nWhat Phase 3 Delivers ✅ Token security hardened - SecretText, [NonDebuggable], encrypted IsolatedStorage ✅ Full multi-tenancy support - one App Registration per home domain, matched automatically at send time ✅ …","date":"7 Jun 2026","summary":"\n \nPrevious post in this series: Fixing Email for Guest Users in D365 Business Central Back in April I wrote about a long-standing gap in Business Central: guest users can't send email from their own home tenancy address. BC's built-in connectors simply don't work for Entra B2B guests. I built an open source extension to fix that, and Phase 3 is now complete - with some significant changes since that first post.\n","tags":["d365bc","bcopensource","graph"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKooGzo3-E2Nq216oqWj1NkMaLbljv-vRYda3Kvn0EdZSjxPVyLLhj4HvsfIY-000zA2t2eqi30XRNvJRRPKP_i4InEFXk9wlna7Kz4Ck7blNpYEt9tEiLabiLFkJXX-SwCYkcm8QuJzwHVBM4yV2HAtph0U1ysQEB4JCFnALH-oIDAs-7v69y/w640-h316/2026-06-07_10h54_20.png\" alt=\"Graph API Email account types for D365 BC\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Graph API Email account types for D365 BC","url":"/2026/06/graph-api-email-account-types-for-d365.html"},{"content":"\u0026amp;nbsp; hashtagThis was fun -\u0026amp;nbsp;Mission Implementation - post go-live\u0026amp;nbsp;- be sure to check out the other videos from the series also..\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;Microsoft Dynamics 365 Community: Posts | LinkedIn\u0026amp;nbsp;\nIn this latest #MissionImplementation episode, Microsoft #MVP Andrew Wingate focuses on one of the most critical - and often underestimated - phases of any #ERP project: post go-live stabilization. While many projects are delivered on time and on scope, long-term success often breaks down in the months that follow, when ownership is unclear, adoption stalls, and confidence in the system begins to slip. Andy walks through practical strategies to help organizations move from go-live into a stable, sustainable business-as-usual state. From defining ownership and structuring hypercare to improving user adoption and maintaining governance, this session reframes #go-live not as the finish line, but as the true starting point for realizing value.\n","date":"29 Apr 2026","summary":"  hashtagThis was fun - Mission Implementation - post go-live - be sure to check out the other videos from the series also..  Microsoft Dynamics 365 Community: Posts | LinkedIn \nIn this latest #MissionImplementation episode, Microsoft #MVP Andrew Wingate focuses on one of the most critical - and often underestimated - phases of any #ERP project: post go-live stabilization. While many projects are delivered on time and on scope, long-term success often breaks down in the months that follow, when ownership is unclear, adoption stalls, and confidence in the system begins to slip. Andy walks through practical strategies to help organizations move from go-live into a stable, sustainable business-as-usual state. From defining ownership and structuring hypercare to improving user adoption and maintaining governance, this session reframes #go-live not as the finish line, but as the true starting point for realizing value.\n","tags":["d365","talks"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgkOMvTtaXbAV0QsYNRrkl8VrujtvjrDLxNfaOISBcya0iyfngakT9mosaE-K9y6cVg9ejItpWNJamlApk2-5-TKs8a6UUIB9IrYlH3Tp4EF7gisXr6Mc_klrqK2FYeuLhKgxYCEGLV2Cj0zCOOhoyVTnv0BXZn1LztEBK2iejQriZkvJ9faJE8=w640-h360\" alt=\"Mission Implementation - post go-live stabilisation\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Mission Implementation - post go-live stabilisation","url":"/2026/04/mission-implementation-post-go-live.html"},{"content":" If you manage any Dynamics 365 Business Central clients where users sign in as Entra B2B guests (aka M365 Guest Users) you\u0026#39;ve probably hit this issue:\u0026amp;nbsp;the built-in email connectors don\u0026#39;t work properly for guest users.\nThe use of guest accounts in BC is becoming more common due to organisations with a multi-tenancy strategy or where companies are looking for\u0026amp;nbsp;very clear separation of data access \u0026amp;amp; governance. The expectation is simply that users email will just work in BC guest or not!\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThe Problem Business Central (2026 wave 1) ships with three email connector options:\nCurrent User (built-in) - works great, but only for accounts native to the BC host tenant. If you\u0026#39;re a guest user with a cross-tenant identity, BC can\u0026#39;t send mail for you. M365 / Shared Mailbox - This is also dead-end for guest users, as they simply can\u0026#39;t use or access other users or shared mailboxes in the tenancy where they are a guest.SMTP - sends messages using good old SMTP - which is as old as the internet itself! This is one way to deal with guest users, but can\u0026#39;t meet a modern per-user approach.\u0026amp;nbsp; The result: the scope for guest users to send email is quite narrow, only SMTP. A key requirement of modern connected system is clarity of identity when communicating with colleagues, customers or vendors. Being able to send as yourself is an important capability!\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThe Solution - Current User Email API The extension implements the same \u0026#34;Current User\u0026#34; pattern that BC uses …","date":"26 Apr 2026","summary":" If you manage any Dynamics 365 Business Central clients where users sign in as Entra B2B guests (aka M365 Guest Users) you've probably hit this issue: the built-in email connectors don't work properly for guest users.\nThe use of guest accounts in BC is becoming more common due to organisations with a multi-tenancy strategy or where companies are looking for very clear separation of data access \u0026 governance. The expectation is simply that users email will just work in BC guest or not!  \n","tags":["d365bc","d365","m365","azure","ai","ssrs"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD_tgKvPVaoeOc1509VK7bJu5oc_hFYoI-QF8G2etdokdMZAq4_JCGqSWiRoSLcJAwIvnT2NvZWqkS2I6cQr-cV9Y1UunPX8XlPPOaNqFe2wvMjKhcbRRpIvBETsz63aLoFx0fouVnYMQ6DXFyh_ua54BEEz-dW8ddb8RtmBKyTTHnvSTrXnCD/w640-h344/2026-04-26_21h39_24.png\" alt=\"Fixing Email for Guest Users in D365 Business Central\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Fixing Email for Guest Users in D365 Business Central","url":"/2026/04/fixing-email-for-guest-users-in-d365.html"},{"content":"\nI\u0026#39;ve been using GitHub for a while https://github.com/andywingate but had never touched its agentic features. Working on the Nubimancy project gave me a good excuse. This is a practical breakdown of what I used, what it saved me, and where human judgement still mattered.\nFull context is in the\u0026amp;nbsp;Nubimancy project log - this post is about the tools and the approach.\nThe Task Validate ~75 CSV schema files against Business Central master data import requirements. Check field names, required fields, data types, and format compatibility. Important, methodical, time-consuming if done manually. There are a number of extensions in the mix also on top of the standard BC tables. I gave it to a GitHub Copilot agent. Here\u0026#39;s exactly what I did.\nCloud agent or local agent? All of the code and notes for the Nubimancy project are all in the GitHub organisation, a lot of which is in the Knowledge repo, where this issue was raised.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThe local option would be to clone the repo and carry out the work using the VS Code AI chat, for this task I used the web based GitHub Copilot agent, after chatting with Claude;\nI can see you\u0026#39;re looking at a GitHub issue in the Nubimancy/Knowledge repo, with the \u0026#34;Assign Copilot to issue\u0026#34; dialogue open. You\u0026#39;re being asked whether to work on the web interface or clone locally in VS Code. Let me walk you through the full picture.\nThe Two Approaches\nOption 1: Web Interface (GitHub Copilot in the browser)\nPros:\nZero setup — works immediately in the browser …","date":"19 Apr 2026","summary":"\nI've been using GitHub for a while https://github.com/andywingate but had never touched its agentic features. Working on the Nubimancy project gave me a good excuse. This is a practical breakdown of what I used, what it saved me, and where human judgement still mattered.\nFull context is in the Nubimancy project log - this post is about the tools and the approach.\nThe Task Validate ~75 CSV schema files against Business Central master data import requirements. Check field names, required fields, data types, and format compatibility. Important, methodical, time-consuming if done manually. There are a number of extensions in the mix also on top of the standard BC tables. I gave it to a GitHub Copilot agent. Here's exactly what I did.\n","tags":["d365bc","azure","ai","source control","simple dev"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiAvBXECUwSThy76HI6cnSmDj6stqPf0vDy-ErIeYnrnDIYL5sTCeLTdgBwAaJk1cSUC5WteUbQIYLqVCFLSIxnmD_R_vO6qiYB1PIJuurWp_3SNJu66rt4HPF9XkdvNEkXfezLcnIInA45X_TGAAFkDNxntuPyDkb75EmnFAM-UP9pjySkAQ14=w640-h378\" alt=\"Trying out GitHub Copilot Agent for a Functional Task?\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Trying out GitHub Copilot Agent for a Functional Task?","url":"/2026/04/trying-out-github-copilot-agent-for.html"},{"content":"\u0026amp;nbsp;\nWhat if your AI tool understood your business data, would you get a better output from it? In short yes - context is king when dealing with AI.\u0026amp;nbsp;AI Context is King - D365PPUG London, February 2026I had a great evening presenting at D365PPUG London last night - thanks to the organisers for having me, brilliant crowd as always.\nThe session was about Business Central\u0026#39;s built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, and why I think it\u0026#39;s one of the more exciting developments in the BC ecosystem right now.\nThe core problem: generic AI doesn\u0026#39;t know your business. Ask it about your customers, your open orders, your stock levels - it can\u0026#39;t help. MCP fixes that. It\u0026#39;s the standard that lets AI tools connect to external systems, and Microsoft have built an MCP server directly into Business Central. No custom development, no third-party tooling - it\u0026#39;s there today.\nThe demo gods were mostly kind 😅 and the audience questions were fantastic - lots of interest in security, licensing, and whether you can build custom MCP tools (yes, you can - that\u0026#39;s a whole other session).\nHere is a copy of the slides\u0026amp;nbsp;shared. ","date":"18 Feb 2026","summary":" \nWhat if your AI tool understood your business data, would you get a better output from it? In short yes - context is king when dealing with AI. AI Context is King - D365PPUG London, February 2026I had a great evening presenting at D365PPUG London last night - thanks to the organisers for having me, brilliant crowd as always.\nThe session was about Business Central's built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, and why I think it's one of the more exciting developments in the BC ecosystem right now.\nThe core problem: generic AI doesn't know your business. Ask it about your customers, your open orders, your stock levels - it can't help. MCP fixes that. It's the standard that lets AI tools connect to external systems, and Microsoft have built an MCP server directly into Business Central. No custom development, no third-party tooling - it's there today.\nThe demo gods were mostly kind 😅 and the audience questions were fantastic - lots of interest in security, licensing, and whether you can build custom MCP tools (yes, you can - that's a whole other session).\nHere is a copy of the slides shared.","tags":["d365bc","d365","azure","ai","security","talks"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgC7WP67_dR5pyn-R-H3SPSppEg9F38YFVwDr007TdF9giw_Fu1rrGoi-XI7l21jWKbkhEnD21vzUzoMFwHIkdCMDTqyjmPSJMK_Epob0lP19JZ8huYQm91GAqlL4O9t9QEn9d_lDsC5_rjMu9FVn9sc93lWhO-sbBf5g4NJno6xETg949Zgndu=w640-h348\" alt=\"AI context is king - BC MCP for MCS Agents - London D365PPUG - Feb 2026\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"AI context is king - BC MCP for MCS Agents - London D365PPUG - Feb 2026","url":"/2026/02/ai-context-is-king-bc-mcp-for-mcs.html"},{"content":"Non-BC Holiday Post...\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThis Christmas saw my families biannual trip to Bavaria to visit the German side of the family. One of the highlights of these visits is spending a day at the Schlicki Bauernhof in a small rural Dorf in the Bavarian countryside, where my brother-in-law Schlicki and his friends host their traditional winter Brautag.This year I was glad to join Schlicki, Michi, Zwergi, and Harri for the brewing day. Here is a rough summary of the events of the day.\nThe crew assembled: Schlicki, Andy, Zwergi, and Harri; Michi \u0026amp;amp; others joined a bit later throughout the day. Schlicki and Micki have been perfecting this together for many years, I first joined them for a brautag experience 10 years ago back in the winter of 2015/16!\nSchlicki, Andy, Zwergi, Harri\nMichi, co-founder of MichischlickibräuMashing\u0026amp;nbsp; The main vessel was filled with 80 L of water and brought up to 61°C. While we waited for the water to heat, the malt was ground. The grain bill for this batch was:\nMalt Bill:\u0026amp;nbsp;Pilsner: 5.22 kg, Wiener: 11.48 kg, Münchner: 7.83 kg, Caramel: 1.57 kg\nOnce the water reached 61°C the malt was added and the mash left to rest for 10 mins. The temperature was then raised to 63°C before resting again for 45 min. Followed by another period of heating, this time to 72°C and a further rest of 45 min.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nWhy is the Mashing Process multiple steps?The Basic Goal: Extract fermentable sugars from the grain, but the grain contains complex starches that need to be …","date":"30 Dec 2025","summary":"Non-BC Holiday Post... \nThis Christmas saw my families biannual trip to Bavaria to visit the German side of the family. One of the highlights of these visits is spending a day at the Schlicki Bauernhof in a small rural Dorf in the Bavarian countryside, where my brother-in-law Schlicki and his friends host their traditional winter Brautag.This year I was glad to join Schlicki, Michi, Zwergi, and Harri for the brewing day. Here is a rough summary of the events of the day.\n","tags":["brautag"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6R8tp1L7oNThXKV9zijRdoPCc0ii-OFp2JY5qJrPawjCV6CLepKK-lONPaCXMVdIssv5wAmqTklai_WMcGht01UX2LFCS4hw1bMUlVD5UFOFHghRCUky-doEe3GQZ6MSOc75h29hObSddL6Wk-ssOocI_CTeN0s9SL_DUEzIulj0liTpEpiO-=w640-h426\" alt=\"Brautag / Brew Day 2025/26 (Non-BC Holiday Post)\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Brautag / Brew Day 2025/26 (Non-BC Holiday Post)","url":"/2025/12/brautag-brew-day-202526-non-bc-holiday.html"},{"content":"What\u0026#39;s New in Dynamics 365 Licensing: December 2025 Update A comprehensive guide to the latest changes in Microsoft\u0026#39;s Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide, with special focus on Business Central\nMicrosoft has released the December 2025 update to the Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide, and it brings some significant changes—particularly for Business Central users.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nI\u0026#39;ve asked AI to do a detailed comparison with the July 2025 version to identify what\u0026#39;s changed, and the results are quite interesting. Let\u0026#39;s dive in.\nWant to continue the AI conversation yourself?\u0026amp;nbsp;Here is the link\u0026amp;nbsp;https://chatgpt.com/s/t_693eb2350b28819191b43194abcf6928\n(I had my conversation with Claude, but the share links on that platform don’t allow others to continue the chat)\nThe Big Picture: AI Agents Take Center Stage The most transformative change in this update is the introduction of Dynamics 365 Agents—prebuilt AI-powered automation services that integrate directly into your Dynamics 365 applications. Think of these as your digital workforce, handling routine tasks while your team focuses on higher-value activities.\nMicrosoft has introduced a new framework called Copilot Credits, which serves as the common currency for executing these AI agents across the platform. If you\u0026#39;re using Premium licenses (Sales Premium, Customer Service Premium, Finance Premium, or Supply Chain Management Premium), you\u0026#39;ll get 1,000 Copilot Credits per user per month included.\nBusiness Central: Two New Game-Changing Agents For …","date":"14 Dec 2025","summary":"What's New in Dynamics 365 Licensing: December 2025 Update A comprehensive guide to the latest changes in Microsoft's Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide, with special focus on Business Central\nMicrosoft has released the December 2025 update to the Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide, and it brings some significant changes—particularly for Business Central users. \nI've asked AI to do a detailed comparison with the July 2025 version to identify what's changed, and the results are quite interesting. Let's dive in.\n","tags":["d365bc","d365","power automate","power platform","m365","azure"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeR3k84-nJidlVO7p8OMSCo8Ad4ITmVR5Ld9vYPob7b_3QknaytzJQOoINqfAv9TipcABP3fynfm8eGaC7i71RdWTIWTqug0XGooyjjWH3XwyMrwlRLT4McgAdQCcXA7d0eZJ3vApIqI_jb-QDF3JYDOeKSjevwf3ioxzhcDyp-Dm-b-8XRUgq/w400-h309/IMG_9824.jpeg\" alt=\"Ask AI about Dynamics Licensing\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Ask AI about Dynamics Licensing","url":"/2025/12/ask-ai-about-dynamics-licensing.html"},{"content":" The Power of AI-Assisted Data Analysis How good is AI at helping with data analysis?\nLast year, I explored this question by analysing blog activity in our BC RSS WhatsApp Community -check out that post here.\nThis year, I\u0026#39;m diving in again with a full 12-month analysis—and the results show an incredibly active community!\nHere\u0026#39;s a look at what the Business Central community blogging accomplished from 01 December 2024 through 30 November 2025! 📈\nThe Numbers: Full Year at a Glance The BC RSS WhatsApp Community aggregated blog posts from over 81 different sources during this period. The results? A treasure trove of community-driven knowledge:\n1,476 community blog posts shared across the year 81 unique blog domains contributing content 4.0 posts per day on average 27.8 posts per week keeping the community informed 123 posts per month average Top Contributors: The BC Content Creation All-Stars 🏆 The BC community is powered by dedicated content creators who consistently share their expertise across blogs, videos, and podcasts. Here are the top contributors by total content published during this 12-month period:\nTop 20 Content Creators (Combined Output)* Rank Creator Blog Videos Total Website YouTube 1 Yun Zhu (Dynamics 365 Lab) 259 227 486 yzhums.com @yzhums 2 Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC 0 175 175 learn.microsoft.com @microsoftdynamics365bc 3 Erik Hougaard 50 73 123 hougaard.com @hougaard 4 Dynamics Corner (Brad / Kris) 33 61 94 dynamicscorner.com @dynamicscorner 5 Steve Endow 30 48 …","date":"7 Dec 2025","summary":" The Power of AI-Assisted Data Analysis How good is AI at helping with data analysis?\nLast year, I explored this question by analysing blog activity in our BC RSS WhatsApp Community -check out that post here.\n","tags":["d365bc","d365","power bi","power automate","azure","ai"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimh35zvAiwILyDOG9w8v3D1m06jcabwUUGPonsvGrntEr0GvzunBF_cRlz2U04M8uQFiVmLDa65k7b7l1S4uSF80O12IGLftugixL-H1khGlcglzvxc0mcnelHSlPPw6gXMYd6gUwyIjy_qdORV0_a5x5SRbVEVkS44D1QRyUSHSfMtvnQ3RWz/w640-h320/generated_image.png\" alt=\"BC Community 2025 Wrapped - Blogs, Videos, etc \" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"BC Community 2025 Wrapped - Blogs, Videos, etc ","url":"/2025/12/bc-community-2025-wrapped-blogs-videos.html"},{"content":"\nSome do matter more that others now with AI tools levelling the playing field - but what is the right balance for you (or your team?)\n.. Just dropping this placeholder here for now...\nSession Slides Link:\u0026amp;nbsp;Delivering BC in the Age of AI - Which Soft Skills Still Matter - Phil and Andy\n","date":"21 Nov 2025","summary":"\nSome do matter more that others now with AI tools levelling the playing field - but what is the right balance for you (or your team?)\n.. Just dropping this placeholder here for now...\nSession Slides Link: Delivering BC in the Age of AI - Which Soft Skills Still Matter - Phil and Andy\n","tags":["d365bc","ai","talks"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhsUTJwsYM8b2V5C5MfhF48ooQ0-sUhV2fkRmPX_CaSn26--RM_LGypYIPUEy_y6Op-vBK-NxNu_Ll3Buxioh8I3j85RXg_22McvqkKEMRE4hYtLuF1l-c4x5Nk7Zy5BOO6CO-gFwUDHbEAPJqgGJny_mczYrijBeyaKORat93RDzbCuyK6SxyV=w640-h346\" alt=\"Delivering BC in the Age of AI - Which Soft Skills Still Matter?\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Delivering BC in the Age of AI - Which Soft Skills Still Matter?","url":"/2025/11/delivering-bc-in-age-of-ai-which-soft.html"},{"content":"\nAt South Coast Summit 2025, José Miguel Azevedo and I had the opportunity to share something we\u0026#39;ve been working on since our last Page Scripting talk at Dynamics Minds. Using AI to transform how we work with page scripting in Dynamics 365 ERP.\nThe Core Idea Page scripting and task recording have been around for a while in Business Central and Finance \u0026amp;amp; Operations respectively. They\u0026#39;re powerful tools for capturing business processes, automating testing, and documenting workflows. But creating and maintaining these scripts? That\u0026#39;s always been the tedious part or cost prohibitive part if you really wanted to scale the volume of test scripts.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThe AI adoption approach - Stand, Walk, Run, Fly\u0026amp;nbsp;We structured our presentation around our recommended approach to AI adoption for any given task. This approach doesn\u0026#39;t guarantee that AI will be a great fit for a given task - but it does help you explore the tools and give you the best opportunity to discover where and how AI tooling can be applied.\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp; Stand Phase: Getting the Foundation Right The first step is all about creating a solid baseline. In page scripting this was around the creatin of a base script for our testing process \u0026#34;happy path\u0026#34;. We used the example of creating and posting a purchase order. The output file for a BC page script is a YAML file.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nWith this clean baseline script, next we applied the AI asking it to analyse the structure, understand the pattern, and document what the script does …","date":"18 Oct 2025","summary":"\nAt South Coast Summit 2025, José Miguel Azevedo and I had the opportunity to share something we've been working on since our last Page Scripting talk at Dynamics Minds. Using AI to transform how we work with page scripting in Dynamics 365 ERP.\nThe Core Idea Page scripting and task recording have been around for a while in Business Central and Finance \u0026 Operations respectively. They're powerful tools for capturing business processes, automating testing, and documenting workflows. But creating and maintaining these scripts? That's always been the tedious part or cost prohibitive part if you really wanted to scale the volume of test scripts. \n","tags":["talks","ai","vibe coding"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEidE3UBJFVGDBlaERpyLggItYtIcHu6FqS_d-U9G625JliHyUPeD_mlBN16LZ90H1W-hdyhCuzoB33E3w-9nDXO84GPfRh6IOolLx4nEoBirjky7oKKSmfgCOQFqba9kTUeiJHtcFSCHoJnvgKGo1isaupEp2ofbDVxwGbI9oGs3w-RAT8FeIV0=w640-h320\" alt=\"South Coast Summit 2025 - AI-Driven Page Scripting: Practical Use Cases for Dynamics 365\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"South Coast Summit 2025 - AI-Driven Page Scripting: Practical Use Cases for Dynamics 365","url":"/2025/10/south-coast-summit-2025-ai-driven-page.html"},{"content":"Did you ever wonder where all the BC MVP are? wonder no more when you check out this very cool Power BI map created/curated by AJ Ansari -\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;AJ Ansari | LinkedIn\nHere it is:\u0026amp;nbsp;https://bit.ly/d365bcmvp\n\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;\n","date":"9 Sep 2025","summary":"Did you ever wonder where all the BC MVP are? wonder no more when you check out this very cool Power BI map created/curated by AJ Ansari -  AJ Ansari | LinkedIn\nHere it is: https://bit.ly/d365bcmvp\n  \n","tags":["d365bc","power bi","mvp"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgiZyJIaqLC9Wh-2JQOccEfEFfLwXIZZyzqREPYdfDPeGEyn0EX0eGQQN9WrchqYRGtNSIVHcBOo1UAUNFFOuMSX2WdcwqgaJ1rdAnXX6ZC-94Fc-284NLO3WFEx4yCk8qTQynpEdOayvjzQQ3jwBlzIwgugrhxhQRcrRVPpCv_MGRI0JhvVSaa=w640-h354\" alt=\"Looking for a BC MVP?\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Looking for a BC MVP?","url":"/2025/09/looking-for-bc-mvp.html"},{"content":"\nBack in May I presented two collaborative talks at Dynamics Minds;\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThe 4 Pillars Of BC To PP Integration - together with Phil KermeenPage Scripting Tool for Acceptance Testing - together with Jose Miguel Azevedo\nAndy and Phil\nAndy and Jose\nBoth talks were on the last day - one in the 1st slot and one in the last slot of the day/conference! But someone has to do it :)\nDynamicsMinds is a standout event in the tech community’s calendar. Nothing short of extraordinary. A combination of a phenomenal organising team, a breath taking Adriatic‑sea setting, and an exceptional breadth of content spanning the full MS Business Applications stack from Power Apps, Business Central, Finance \u0026amp;amp; Operations, and beyond.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nHeld in Portorož, Slovenia, in a fairy-tale‑like convention centre overlooking the Adriatic Sea, DynamicsMinds 2025 brought over 1,000 attendees, more than 200 sessions, close to 200 speakers, and 80+ MVPs into one vibrant, community‑powered gathering.\nBeyond the sessions, the charm of Dynamics Minds lies in its atmosphere of warm hospitality and the openness of fellow participants giving a unique sense of camaraderie.Here is a short summary of my talksThe 4 Pillars Of BC To PP Integration - together with\u0026amp;nbsp;Phil KermeenIn this session we had a high level look through a number of integration techniques, starting with a simple lo-code approach and ranging up through Virtual Tables, BC Data Sync and onto Calling the API in code, giving you the …","date":"31 Aug 2025","summary":"\nBack in May I presented two collaborative talks at Dynamics Minds; \nThe 4 Pillars Of BC To PP Integration - together with Phil KermeenPage Scripting Tool for Acceptance Testing - together with Jose Miguel Azevedo\nAndy and Phil\nAndy and Jose\nBoth talks were on the last day - one in the 1st slot and one in the last slot of the day/conference! But someone has to do it :)\nDynamicsMinds is a standout event in the tech community’s calendar. Nothing short of extraordinary. A combination of a phenomenal organising team, a breath taking Adriatic‑sea setting, and an exceptional breadth of content spanning the full MS Business Applications stack from Power Apps, Business Central, Finance \u0026 Operations, and beyond. \nHeld in Portorož, Slovenia, in a fairy-tale‑like convention centre overlooking the Adriatic Sea, DynamicsMinds 2025 brought over 1,000 attendees, more than 200 sessions, close to 200 speakers, and 80+ MVPs into one vibrant, community‑powered gathering.\nBeyond the sessions, the charm of Dynamics Minds lies in its atmosphere of warm hospitality and the openness of fellow participants giving a unique sense of camaraderie.Here is a short summary of my talksThe 4 Pillars Of BC To PP Integration - together with Phil KermeenIn this session we had a high level look through a number of integration techniques, starting with a simple lo-code approach and ranging up through Virtual Tables, BC Data Sync and onto Calling the API in code, giving you the reasoning behind why you'd want to use the various techniques. What I learned This was the 3rd and final time giving this introductory level 101 session; as we were on the last day attendance was a bit thin on the ground - non-the less some good post talk chat was had!   Page Scripting Tool for Acceptance Testing - - together with Jose Miguel AzevedoIn this session we showed how the page scripting tool in the Business Central web client lets users record interactions with the user interface (UI), such as opening pages, selecting actions and filling in fields. We went on to look at how can then replay the recording to show the exact actions in the UI and as the recording is replayed, how you receive real-time status feedback for success or failure.\nWhat I learned\nThis was also on the last day, in the last session of the day! But none the less some great chat at the end of the talk that gave us the idea to use AI to create the page script YAML files - which we planned to present at the next conference. DownloadsYou can grab a copy of these presentations here.","tags":["talks","d365bc"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAMXLYoH7NDgXmb0OvuNcMul58jOpdKwFoMIaD55vBZXv6xVCA-8Za46wGH7Wtb6nziAC8ldYODin-qOeFq9cqv8eBIW4eevFHpPjwtyHDHnmkKLLqy5NgJqlI4C42vONFfOlKLr9FKaVYXMHHL4ajuC2ZRWzCqjR3Aap2E0epE3C_da1cHc-D/w640-h336/2025-08-31_17h47_30.png\" alt=\"DynamicsMinds 2025 - Portorož, Slovenia\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"DynamicsMinds 2025 - Portorož, Slovenia","url":"/2025/08/dynamicsminds-2025-portoroz-slovenia.html"},{"content":"This week I presented at Experts Live, big thanks to the team for having me along to this event.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThe session was mostly focused on a demo of the Sales Order Agent - which went as well as you can expect any live demo! But we did have fun with it!Let’s setup the Sales Order Agent in Business CentralIn this session we have a look at the new Copilot powered Sales Order Agent that’s part of the Dynamics 365 Business Central feature set for 2025 release wave 1.\nAs part of the session I will show the steps to setup the agent and we can try some live processing of orders through the agent! What could possibly go wrong?? 😅\nAt the end of the session you will know how to setup the agent and have a better understanding of the capabilities of this new tool.What I learnedAs always more prep time is better than less prep time! Demos can and do often go wrong - unless you do the screen shot demo you are never safe from the Demo Gods! Keep Calm and Carry On is the mantra 😅\u0026amp;nbsp;Session SurveyWhat is your current role?\nHow well do you know these D365 tools? ","date":"3 May 2025","summary":"This week I presented at Experts Live, big thanks to the team for having me along to this event. \nThe session was mostly focused on a demo of the Sales Order Agent - which went as well as you can expect any live demo! But we did have fun with it!Let’s setup the Sales Order Agent in Business CentralIn this session we have a look at the new Copilot powered Sales Order Agent that’s part of the Dynamics 365 Business Central feature set for 2025 release wave 1.\nAs part of the session I will show the steps to setup the agent and we can try some live processing of orders through the agent! What could possibly go wrong?? 😅\nAt the end of the session you will know how to setup the agent and have a better understanding of the capabilities of this new tool.What I learnedAs always more prep time is better than less prep time! Demos can and do often go wrong - unless you do the screen shot demo you are never safe from the Demo Gods! Keep Calm and Carry On is the mantra 😅 Session SurveyWhat is your current role?\nHow well do you know these D365 tools?","tags":["copilot","d365bc","talks","community"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWkrPyZXDTdw5QU1D6sOhyphenhyphenV20bSqXEOIOWK97ru6HItnxf4PT5kU2ot8XPISWviLvAqO9lMMfKAQHYjQaXLye1ZpnSyag4OPwhBPH1i9oDhRMHFY4VJR-0vdzI7RfBN5rriIgB3Qn_VACtHr9DOOfVH07B-jihaKntp4_QdXrYroSY0OK0oSl4/w640-h360/highres_526840680.png\" alt=\"Let’s setup the Sales Order Agent in Business Central - Experts Live UK User Group\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Let’s setup the Sales Order Agent in Business Central - Experts Live UK User Group","url":"/2025/05/lets-setup-sales-order-agent-in.html"},{"content":"\nWhat an amazing conference ColorCloud was https://colorcloud.rocks/\u0026amp;nbsp;\nI was thrilled to present a join session with\u0026amp;nbsp;Ulrikke Akerbæk\u0026amp;nbsp;https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulrikke/\u0026amp;nbsp;\nHere is a copy of the slides for download PDF or PPTX format.\nWith the introduction of Virtual Tables in Dataverse and the support for them in Power Pages, came a new opportunity to connect with an let an external audience interact with Business Central through Power Pages.\nAndy and Ulrikke set out to learn together with you what these two products can be used for. We will simply follow explorative logic, asking each other questions on the fly and answering them as they go.\nThese are some of the questions that we set out to find answers to:\nWhat is Business Central?What is Power Pages?Where are the use cases and the sweet spots?What do we need to get started?Where do we startWhat are the easy wins?What is hard?What about the software (we are talking licenses)\nYou will learn the basic use cases for Power Pages and Business Central, how they fit together, and when to walk away.\nWhat I learned\u0026amp;nbsp;I spent a lot of time in the slightly unfamiliar territory of the Power Platform admin center \u0026amp;amp; got as far as using pac\u0026amp;nbsp;Microsoft Power Platform CLI tool command group - Power Platform | Microsoft Learn.\nI also attended another fantastic talk on the same topic of BC + Power Pages from\u0026amp;nbsp;Raúl Medina https://www.linkedin.com/in/raulbogajomedina/\u0026amp;nbsp; who showed a very nice solution to …","date":"3 May 2025","summary":"\nWhat an amazing conference ColorCloud was https://colorcloud.rocks/ \nI was thrilled to present a join session with Ulrikke Akerbæk https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulrikke/ \nHere is a copy of the slides for download PDF or PPTX format.\nWith the introduction of Virtual Tables in Dataverse and the support for them in Power Pages, came a new opportunity to connect with an let an external audience interact with Business Central through Power Pages.\nAndy and Ulrikke set out to learn together with you what these two products can be used for. We will simply follow explorative logic, asking each other questions on the fly and answering them as they go.\n","tags":["d365bc","talks","community"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLmgFBjR-Bdwn7g6uxJgrfwfCj2FpgcBla4S-1SO_6nID5FHTbCbF2JZlA_qiIAF7wuar7hlHsIf4oEF2l43DK044Sd8oBRHC2o9YdWMrzMiaA438ZcWjvVlcfucgsB-W0iLCqqXQr76HynvEcdFyrXlXv1a4XPgTngdqOKWdc5orcKoiWNqiv=w640-h360\" alt=\"Business Central \u0026#43; Power Pages = TRUE - ColorCloud 2025 \" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Business Central + Power Pages = TRUE - ColorCloud 2025 ","url":"/2025/05/business-central-power-pages-true.html"},{"content":"\nI was very pleased to speak at the Days of Knowledge UK conference in recently. Here is a copy of the session details and slides for download.Getting Started with Page Scripting - Andrew Wingate\u0026#39;s Speaker Profile @ Sessionize\nPage Scripting is a powerful recent feature in Dynamics 365 Business Central. It has the potential to enhance productivity for consultants and end users for data entry, testing and some automation capabilities.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThis session aims to shine a light on the Page Scripting tool and demonstrate some practical use cases that might inspire attendees to adopt it in their day-to-day work.\nWhat will be covered\nWhat Page Scripting is and how it works in Business CentralReal-world scenarios: when and why to use Page ScriptingDemo: Creating, managing, and running scriptsTips for using Page Scripting in testing, data entry, and troubleshootingHow to make scripting part of your Business Central toolkit\nWhat can the audience expect to leave with?Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how Page Scripting works, where it fits into the Business Central ecosystem, and how to confidently start using it to solve real business problems.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nWhether you\u0026#39;re a developer, consultant, or power user, you’ll gain practical knowledge you can apply right away.\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;\nHere are the slides as\u0026amp;nbsp;PDF\u0026amp;nbsp;or PPTX\u0026amp;nbsp;format.\nbc-replay Notes This PowerShell scrip runs all the BC page scrips saved in the \u0026#39;C:\\bc-replay\\rec\u0026#39; folder, against a local docker BC …","date":"15 Apr 2025","summary":"\nI was very pleased to speak at the Days of Knowledge UK conference in recently. Here is a copy of the session details and slides for download.Getting Started with Page Scripting - Andrew Wingate's Speaker Profile @ Sessionize\nPage Scripting is a powerful recent feature in Dynamics 365 Business Central. It has the potential to enhance productivity for consultants and end users for data entry, testing and some automation capabilities. \n","tags":["d365bc","talks","community"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvhDmCrHmTFcCjT1H3NB8kDw-ZXt_KKX5Zgni9uqTHf9iwxcymV5pObWEDDjNWJbrgatREXOzCgnLhNNn8P0JZHpkLUzm3J-HrkXJ1cSFhhKWnq5EJA8IzD6lOat9TocAt3L1wt6qcb_biyUkh3oz8xjLNBrV22OQw8a22pxEH09jDnUDuH8w/w640-h350/2025-04-15_21h02_10.png\" alt=\"Getting Started with Page Scripting - Days of Knowledge UK - 2025\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Getting Started with Page Scripting - Days of Knowledge UK - 2025","url":"/2025/04/getting-started-with-page-scripting.html"},{"content":"\nIf you are managing multiple companies in a single BC environment you can use master data management (MDM) to sync your, as the name suggests, master data like Customers and Vendors.\nNot every organisation needs to do that, but it\u0026#39;s still worth remembering you can use the MDM feature to sync any table or field that\u0026#39;s not posted data.\nIn the example below I show a simple setup to use MDM to sync key fields from the General Ledger Setup table - to manage the Allowed Posting Dates centrally.\nAs always lets check the docs\u0026amp;nbsp;Set up companies to synchronize master data - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\u0026amp;nbsp;here are the key steps from that page:\u0026amp;nbsp;\nQuick Recap: Setting Up Data Sync in Business CentralPull Model:\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;The BC master data management tool allows you to pull data from a source company. Bi-directional sync is not possible out-of-the-box.\nIntegration Table Mappings: These define how data flows between Business Central and Dataverse. Predefined mappings exist for common entities (like customers and contacts), and you can customise or create new ones.\nCoupling Records: Before synchronising, you need to couple (link) records so that the system knows they represent the same thing.\nJob Queues: Use job queues to automate synchronisation. You can define how often data is pushed or pulled.\nManual vs. Automatic Sync: Some syncs happen automatically (via job queues), while others can be triggered manually, especially during setup or troubleshooting.\nManaging Sync …","date":"23 Mar 2025","summary":"\nIf you are managing multiple companies in a single BC environment you can use master data management (MDM) to sync your, as the name suggests, master data like Customers and Vendors.\nNot every organisation needs to do that, but it's still worth remembering you can use the MDM feature to sync any table or field that's not posted data.\nIn the example below I show a simple setup to use MDM to sync key fields from the General Ledger Setup table - to manage the Allowed Posting Dates centrally.\n","tags":["d365bc"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3xLbdCmQ2Ox7VvCAdgJqsJojjS7okKHCR4xp0KcHhvLP6JXKkB2gq59CAh6Z9GsvSYOLWdqrPRuJqjjiOPixFNwjmbHsJ9azXU3ld-7IyrfBtvJtmL2RJFEDSop_ZVRxU1AkE8wAt71T0K6WumJDpOxgeL3yMoSi4B9GcSkZE432wkfuK9xaz=w640-h330\" alt=\"Master Data Management Dynamics 365 Business Central - Just a few Setup Fields only\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Master Data Management Dynamics 365 Business Central - Just a few Setup Fields only","url":"/2025/03/mdm-for-template-setup.html"},{"content":"\u0026amp;nbsp;\nHere is a video to show the step-by-step process to check and modify the notifications that are sent at different stages of an native BC approval workflow. Inspired by listening to Steve Endow’s latest podcast, his team are trying out both Power Automate Approvals and Native Approvals to meet various client requirements.\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;\nStep-by-Step: Setting Up General Journal Batch Approval in Business Central Approvals are a critical part of any financial process, and Business Central provides a robust General Journal Batch Approval workflow right out of the box. However, a common request from users is to notify the requestor once their batch has been approved—so I’ve added that as well!\nThis guide walks through:\n✅ Setting up the standard General Journal Batch Approval workflow\n✅ Tweaking the workflow to include an extra notification for the requestor\nThis idea came after listening to Steve Endow’s podcast on Friday, which inspired me to share this tip!\nStep 1: Enable the General Journal Batch Approval Workflow Go to Business Central and open the Workflows page. Search for General Journal Batch Approval Workflow—this is the out-of-the-box setup provided by Microsoft. Open the workflow and review its conditions: It triggers when a journal batch approval is requested. It checks if the batch is balanced before proceeding. It assigns the approval request to the designated approver. Once approved, it allows posting. Step 2: Test the Standard Workflow Create a …","date":"1 Mar 2025","summary":" \nHere is a video to show the step-by-step process to check and modify the notifications that are sent at different stages of an native BC approval workflow. Inspired by listening to Steve Endow’s latest podcast, his team are trying out both Power Automate Approvals and Native Approvals to meet various client requirements.  \nStep-by-Step: Setting Up General Journal Batch Approval in Business Central Approvals are a critical part of any financial process, and Business Central provides a robust General Journal Batch Approval workflow right out of the box. However, a common request from users is to notify the requestor once their batch has been approved—so I’ve added that as well!\n","tags":["d365bc","approvals"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrDU_TZUYg0FIuEFUVUCKPJcj47eQmCCoOE00R2lyWgeFHgH1VuMmdZWLutw8pwszqqc6p5GVbfsXZVP2oXqVvGvasZv8bzsqJMzWpNc8Z-JqqROrDNKVELPlLr4UXQUAqgcMtbvFJ4xg37LwR-Jqa_m5cojHNUWZDL92B41VluFxMbOx4HYxf/w640-h348/2025-03-01_15h39_39.png\" alt=\"Notifications for Approvals Made Easy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Notifications for Approvals Made Easy","url":"/2025/03/notifications-for-approvals-made-easy.html"},{"content":"\nThis short video is the 2nd in this Mastering Security for BC mini-series. Here I\u0026#39;m looking at the use of Entra Security Groups to manage license assignment. Not something restricted D365 BC licenses, but important to understand none the less!\nAssigning Licenses in Business Central Using Security GroupsManaging user licenses efficiently is crucial for maintaining a streamlined Business Central environment.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nIn this short video I look at how to use\u0026amp;nbsp;security groups for license assignment, ensuring a controlled and scalable approach to user access management.\nMy recommended Security Group approach for D365 BC\nUsing Security Groups for License AssignmentStep 1: Create a Security Group Navigate to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Select Groups \u0026amp;gt; Active Groups and click Create a Group. Choose Security Group, provide a relevant name, and complete the setup. Use consistent naming, in this example I follow the style set by the Device License security group\u0026amp;nbsp;Licensing in Business Central - Business Central | Microsoft LearnStep 2: Assign Licenses to the Security Group Go to Billing \u0026amp;gt; Licenses in the Admin Center. Select the license type you want to assign. Click on Assign to Group and select the previously created Security Group. Confirm the assignment, ensuring all users within the group receive the necessary licenses automatically. Step 3: Add Users to the Security Group (..not shown in the video) Navigate back to Groups \u0026amp;gt; Active Groups. Select the security …","date":"16 Feb 2025","summary":"\nThis short video is the 2nd in this Mastering Security for BC mini-series. Here I'm looking at the use of Entra Security Groups to manage license assignment. Not something restricted D365 BC licenses, but important to understand none the less!\nAssigning Licenses in Business Central Using Security GroupsManaging user licenses efficiently is crucial for maintaining a streamlined Business Central environment. \nIn this short video I look at how to use security groups for license assignment, ensuring a controlled and scalable approach to user access management.\n","tags":["d365bc","admin"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TQKQeP4cowsz_aD2d8aiJwqf_jXBvtZgs8krYPi1lSdbyVfgaSHcGDagEyIAiaA1sut6qcCeQyOS6HC56COwZgGfkQaEpqdmw98zaJGTklsCoxtu_mqWQwSuMgdgEeNZ-1gfVwweq1LM7oR0oevP5L77AWGnQNZu5My7sY0pfzeWsV-_AW_8/w640-h360/2025-02-08_11h25_26%20yt.png\" alt=\"Mastering Dynamics 365 BC Security - License Security Groups\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Mastering Dynamics 365 BC Security - License Security Groups","url":"/2025/02/mastering-dynamics-365-bc-security_16.html"},{"content":"\nThis short video covers two important security settings in the Business Central Admin Center. Learn how to configure these settings to enhance security and protect your system!\nEssential Security Settings in the Business Central Admin Center Securing a Business Central environment is crucial to protecting company data and ensuring only authorised users have access.\nThis guide outlines two key security settings in the Business Central Admin Center that help enhance system security.\n1. Manage Environment Level Access An important steps in securing a Business Central environment is properly configuring the environment level user access.\nTo do this:\nNavigate to the Business Central Admin Center. Go to Environments and select the target environment. Check the Security Group\u0026amp;nbsp;settings. Assign a suitable\u0026amp;nbsp;Security Group. Setting a security groups at the environment level allows administrators to control access efficiently and broadly across Production and Non-Production environments.\n2. Understanding the Partner Access Setting Another crucial security setting is Partner Access. If an external Microsoft partner manages Business Central, they may require access to your environment for support.\nTo review and configure this:\nOpen the\u0026amp;nbsp;Business Central Admin Center. Click to open an Environment and check the\u0026amp;nbsp;Partner Access\u0026amp;nbsp;setting. You can toggle access on and off - very handy to ensure total exclusion of any third partyYou can also review see and manage all the …","date":"8 Feb 2025","summary":"\nThis short video covers two important security settings in the Business Central Admin Center. Learn how to configure these settings to enhance security and protect your system!\nEssential Security Settings in the Business Central Admin Center Securing a Business Central environment is crucial to protecting company data and ensuring only authorised users have access.\nThis guide outlines two key security settings in the Business Central Admin Center that help enhance system security.\n","tags":["d365bc","video","security"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TQKQeP4cowsz_aD2d8aiJwqf_jXBvtZgs8krYPi1lSdbyVfgaSHcGDagEyIAiaA1sut6qcCeQyOS6HC56COwZgGfkQaEpqdmw98zaJGTklsCoxtu_mqWQwSuMgdgEeNZ-1gfVwweq1LM7oR0oevP5L77AWGnQNZu5My7sY0pfzeWsV-_AW_8/w640-h360/2025-02-08_11h25_26%20yt.png\" alt=\"Mastering Dynamics 365 BC Security - Admin Center\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Mastering Dynamics 365 BC Security - Admin Center","url":"/2025/02/mastering-dynamics-365-bc-security.html"},{"content":"In this short video I run through the steps for the basic setup for the new Power BI app for Dynamics 365 Business Central that were released last year, specifically looking the steps to install them multiple times - for multiple companies.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nIn this short follow-up video I complete the connection to 2 companies and check it\u0026#39;s really working by posting a couple of large invoices and refreshing the datasets in Power BI.\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;\nSetting Up and Configuring Power BI Reports in Business Central The Power BI apps provided my Microsoft for Business Central enhance reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to gain deeper insights into financial and operational data. This guide walks through the process of setting up Power BI reports, ensuring correct configurations, and troubleshooting common issues.\nStep 1: Accessing Business Central Reporting To begin, check out the docs, navigate to https://aka.ms/BCReporting, which provides documentation and details on available reports. Business Central includes pre-built Power BI reports covering key financial metrics, such as general ledger (GL) balances, receivables, and payables.\nStep 2: Understanding Data Categories and Account Mapping A common issue when setting up reports is missing or incorrect data due to GL account categories not being mapped properly. To ensure accurate reporting, verify that all relevant accounts are assigned correctly.\nConsider the following:\nAccounts receivable and accounts payable categories must be …","date":"1 Feb 2025","summary":"In this short video I run through the steps for the basic setup for the new Power BI app for Dynamics 365 Business Central that were released last year, specifically looking the steps to install them multiple times - for multiple companies. \nIn this short follow-up video I complete the connection to 2 companies and check it's really working by posting a couple of large invoices and refreshing the datasets in Power BI.  \n","tags":["power bi","video"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhioutFIaIctx7Y3oz5XSTBh3wTTLC_KV1185Wu5jkmpqwMnbx0eCHVt9tCE0FHmC3rx9oFOl7x5npd9tL9yp5BmFi2_g0fgtGhc7sw0cgfwRq3uMWihwoqVOvZCG_3it96ZCG21ewWDRsqZsCnmLRPMB_cvYt9LSu0AvRIe4N7YY3XUOSO76Mt/w640-h302/2025-02-01_11h56_57.png\" alt=\"Get the Power BI apps for Multiple Companies in Dynamics 365 Business Central\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Get the Power BI apps for Multiple Companies in Dynamics 365 Business Central","url":"/2025/02/get-power-bi-apps-for-multiple.html"},{"content":"This is another BC Admin API with Power Automate guide. Actually the first one I did but didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t blog about it. Here are all the steps!RequirementI would like to see the capacity of my D365 BC Environments as a chart over time that I can display on my intranet site.Solution ElementsDynamics 365 Business Central API - Business Central Administration Center API - Business Central | Microsoft LearnEntra ID App registration for API OAuth authentication - Dynamics 365 Business Central - OAuth 2.0 APIs with InsomniaPower Automate Flow - Microsoft Power AutomateSharePoint List - Introduction to lists - Microsoft SupportPower BI - Power BIHow toGet things readyThe D365 BC Admin API we will use for this, is this one Get used storage for all environments.\nThe end point is quite simple, nothing dynamic:\nhttps://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/admin/v2.21/environments/usedstorage\nTo access this API we need to have an Entra ID App Registration available to us, that has the AdminCenter.ReadWrite.All permission granted.\nAn App Registration showing the API Permissions\nWe will use this App Registration to get an OAuth token and then use that to call the GET /usedstorage API. The parts you need from the app registration are:OAuth 2.0 token endpoint\nApp Registration Client ID\nClient Secret ValueIf you didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t make a note of the Secret Value when you created it. Just create another secret and note down the Value.\nWe also need to make one more change to the D365 BC configuration, in …","date":"15 Dec 2024","summary":"This is another BC Admin API with Power Automate guide. Actually the first one I did but didn’t blog about it. Here are all the steps!RequirementI would like to see the capacity of my D365 BC Environments as a chart over time that I can display on my intranet site.Solution ElementsDynamics 365 Business Central API - Business Central Administration Center API - Business Central | Microsoft LearnEntra ID App registration for API OAuth authentication - Dynamics 365 Business Central - OAuth 2.0 APIs with InsomniaPower Automate Flow - Microsoft Power AutomateSharePoint List - Introduction to lists - Microsoft SupportPower BI - Power BIHow toGet things readyThe D365 BC Admin API we will use for this, is this one Get used storage for all environments.\nThe end point is quite simple, nothing dynamic:\nhttps://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/admin/v2.21/environments/usedstorage\nTo access this API we need to have an Entra ID App Registration available to us, that has the AdminCenter.ReadWrite.All permission granted.\nAn App Registration showing the API Permissions\nWe will use this App Registration to get an OAuth token and then use that to call the GET /usedstorage API. The parts you need from the app registration are:OAuth 2.0 token endpoint\nApp Registration Client ID\nClient Secret ValueIf you didn’t make a note of the Secret Value when you created it. Just create another secret and note down the Value.\nWe also need to make one more change to the D365 BC configuration, in the BC Admin Center visit the Microsoft Entra App section, click to Authorise an new Entra App and paste the App Reg Client ID value. In this example my App Reg above is already showing…\nSharePoint ListCreate a new list We just need 2 columns for this simple listName of the Environment [text]Usage size [decimal]SharePoint will save the date the row was created so we don’t need a separate column for that I used the ‘Title’ column to hold the Environment Name and added 1 extra column for the usage size data\nPower AutomateLets create the flow, here is the outline:\nRecurrence\nHow often will your flow run? Sets the flow to run once per day\nTry This is a scope that will work together with the Catch scope for error handling. There are no settings for this scope. HTTP (Gimme Token)\nURI = \u003cOAuth 2.0 Token endpoint from your App registration\u003eMethod = POSTHeadersContent-Type = application/x-www-form-urlencodedBodygrant_type=client_credentials\u0026client_id=\u003cyour app registration ID\u003e\u0026client_secret=\u003cyour API secret value\u003e\u0026scope=https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/.default\n[1] The OAuth 2.0 Token endpoint. [2] The App Reg Client ID and Secret Value.\nParse JSON (Token)\nUse the parse action to make the token that gets sent back available for use later in the flow as a separate selectable output from this step { “type”: “object”, “properties”: { “token_type”: { “type”: “string” }, “expires_in”: { “type”: “integer” }, “ext_expires_in”: { “type”: “integer” }, “access_token”: { “type”: “string” } }}\nHTTP (Gimme Data)\nSend the main request that will GET the used storage for all your environment.\nHeadersAuthorisation = \u003cthe token from the previous step - click the lightning and pick from the list\u003e Content-Type = applicaion/jsonPaste JSON (Data)\nParse the data so we can extract the rows \u0026 columns of data returned { “type”: “object”, “properties”: { “value”: { “type”: “array”, “items”: { “type”: “object”, “properties”: { “databaseStorageInKilobytes”: { “type”: “integer” }, “applicationFamily”: { “type”: “string” }, “environmentType”: { “type”: “string” }, “environmentName”: { “type”: “string” } }, “required”: [ “databaseStorageInKilobytes”, “applicationFamily”, “environmentType”, “environmentName” ] } } }}\nFor Each\nThe for each loop will then apply the action of ‘Create Item’ i.e. add a row to the SharePoint list we define Create item\nIn this action we define which list to use and which values go into which field.\nTest the flow to check some data is getting created, you can always clean down the SharePoint List Create a Power BI reportThe fastest way to get something cool is use the Integrate \u003e Power BI \u003e Visualise Acton in SharePoint:\nThis will give you a few different visuals that you can adapt. These reports are linked to the SharePoint list.\nYou can also pull the data into a desktop Power BI and create that way. Here is what I created in the end. This report I can publish to my Power BI portal workspace and from there surface in BC or SharePoint etc.\nBC Capacity mini-chart surfaced on a SharePoint page\nBC Capacity mini-chart surfaced in a BC role center.\n","tags":["power bi","admin api"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLKP03FyI2Utk5iXVultq9VAkvg5KnC00BR_F26ntHJlnq4RLYzpu61damMpES8VdN_4T8BKsX1Y4WJPdosAielioJjbhogGT9FUxZJWNHN7XQaLyTgR7Z0E05cse3zRqFRWxRQkKwWsYt9E1x3L4krI5l5chfxoMhHr-VY4Ej-pHdQVwWUz22/w640-h256/2024-12-15_20h39_46.png\" alt=\"Give me Dynamics 365 Business Central Capacity in a Power BI mini-chart \" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Give me Dynamics 365 Business Central Capacity in a Power BI mini-chart ","url":"/2024/12/give-me-dynamics-365-business-central.html"},{"content":"Me: \u0026#34;What features do you really not want to lose from your current system\u0026#34;\nThem: \u0026#34;We really like the copy of production that gets generated each night. We can test \u0026amp;amp; train in a system that\u0026#39;s up-to-date to the day before with everything\u0026#34;\nThis was part of a conversation with a company looking to migrate from NAV on-prem. Good old SQL Server Agent you could have that do so much! Thankfully, we have Power Automate to pickup these kind of things now.\nHere is a PA flow using BC admin APIs to meet the requirement of a creating a fresh Sandbox copy of Production each night.\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;\nPreviously I had played around with one of the BC admin API\u0026#39;s to get capacity stats\u0026amp;nbsp;BC database capacity Power BI Report. Shout out to AJ Zafar for the help he gave me on the initial OAuth getting the token and the Try/Catch scopes approach!\u0026amp;nbsp;\nHere I\u0026#39;m using the HTTP DELETE method to remove a sandbox, to free up space and then an HTTP POST copy method to trigger the fresh copy of production. In this example I\u0026#39;ve hard coded the name of the environment that will be replaced each night!\nHere are the details of the actions\n[1] the tenancy GUID. [2] Client ID of the OAuth App\nThe admin API is authenticated with an OAuth 2.0 token - check out this post if you want details on setting that part up\u0026amp;nbsp;Dynamics 365 Business Central - OAuth 2.0 APIs with Insomnia.\nParse to get the access token out of the OAuth token request response\nDown to business now, lets delete a sandbox to make space for a …","date":"7 Dec 2024","summary":"Me: \"What features do you really not want to lose from your current system\"\nThem: \"We really like the copy of production that gets generated each night. We can test \u0026 train in a system that's up-to-date to the day before with everything\"\nThis was part of a conversation with a company looking to migrate from NAV on-prem. Good old SQL Server Agent you could have that do so much! Thankfully, we have Power Automate to pickup these kind of things now.\n","tags":["admin api"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwak2sJSdCWwcBywyBJt93CcHCzXGAfkIYJL-LQvm-Yk3u7Syowd8t9MWo8gIxWq9qYQo1Cskxlw923uML00YVxtmAzBZM7lHhQn4BKQ2cjkGW258sBTAoDt4m6JT-WfQ2bq_WxL-XUgPp3sjRHi1Xx6e6K4MuXZZNKHp6N9ph-74T3OdAqvZa/w640-h296/2024-12-07_19h23_58.png\" alt=\"Give me a fresh sandbox copy of my D365 BC production environment each night \" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Give me a fresh sandbox copy of my D365 BC production environment each night ","url":"/2024/12/give-me-fresh-sandbox-copy-of-my-d365.html"},{"content":"Microsoft have an ongoing mission around security, check out the\u0026amp;nbsp;Secure Future Initiative | Microsoft\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;amp; the recent newsletter\u0026amp;nbsp;SFI_November_2024_update.pdf\nBut here I wanted to share a very simple tip around an effective just-in-time access control for clients to allow / prevent partners from accessing their BC environments.\nI see this coming into play post go-live. Better to leave the door locked and provide access only when required, so long as you (the client organisation) have suitable coverage with you internal IT resource/team to let the partners in when necessary.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nRecent evolution of partner access in generalToday we have GDAP access\u0026amp;nbsp;Granular delegated admin privileges (GDAP) introduction - Partner Center | Microsoft Learn\u0026amp;nbsp;which allows clients to grant partners access to their tenancy with only the necessary roles. For example on BC-related matters all you really need to be granting is\u0026amp;nbsp;Dynamics 365 Business Central Administrator. You might see partners also requesting Service Support Administrator\u0026amp;nbsp;as this allows the partner to manage service health and submit tickets on your behalf.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nBefore GDAP there was DAP, the main drawback of this was you had to grant Global Admin to the partner, which is pretty bad for security here is what ChatGPT has to say, I think mostly correct\u0026amp;nbsp;ChatGPT - DAP vs GDAP Comparison\u0026amp;nbsp;in short:DAP: Full Global Admin access.GDAP: Specific, role-based accessPartner access to D365 BCIn the most …","date":"19 Nov 2024","summary":"Microsoft have an ongoing mission around security, check out the Secure Future Initiative | Microsoft \u0026 the recent newsletter SFI_November_2024_update.pdf\nBut here I wanted to share a very simple tip around an effective just-in-time access control for clients to allow / prevent partners from accessing their BC environments.\nI see this coming into play post go-live. Better to leave the door locked and provide access only when required, so long as you (the client organisation) have suitable coverage with you internal IT resource/team to let the partners in when necessary. \n","tags":["d365bc","security"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKthwX_cPnPYKZI9zWrtAH0PgyMJFifmY5v4trPWiyCs4-4ed8yG6se-oh4yFQeJdDko5gdBgUgAAqFOM3oV2k-JvDJRUFsZFDRjpnlATCaLa_LFkY3yzA3h526WR4XfM2bvxkzqCakhyphenhyphenTditg-d4YiDCreUrUggzWAYbsZHLP4weP5Y5pKQgV/w400-h216/2024-11-19_19h35_22.png\" alt=\"Improve your Dynamics 365 Business Central security: Just-in-Time access for partners\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Improve your Dynamics 365 Business Central security: Just-in-Time access for partners","url":"/2024/11/improve-your-dynamics-365-business.html"},{"content":"\n\u0026amp;nbsp;This is something I\u0026#39;m asked on most projects when we get to the topic of approvals.\nClient: \u0026#34;WOW these BC approval workflows look good, and I expect the approval will be automatically delegated if the user has their outlook out-of-office on, right?\u0026#34;Me: \u0026#34;About that...\u0026#34;Contina does a good effort on managing out-of-office\u0026amp;nbsp;Setting up Approval Sharing, but it\u0026#39;s a config that\u0026#39;s inside BC, and it doesn\u0026#39;t cover all document types.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nMost users simply expect out-of-office to be something you setup once in outlook and it\u0026#39;s shared to all the other MS apps.\nI\u0026#39;ve confessed in the past that I rather use BC approvals over Power Automate approvals. Possibly that\u0026#39;s driven by me simply being able to setup and test anything from simple to big hairy approvals in BC a lot faster than in PA.\nYes, there is an automatic delegation in BC workflows. It works on a count down, it will auto delegate after x many days. But it is very rarely used, if ever. Why? Consider the real word situation. Someone asked you to approve something, but you can\u0026#39;t right away. Could be a number of reasons why; you need to look something up, check with someone who is away etc etc. Maybe you just need to sit on it for a bit. The last thing you want is the approval going to someone else in these situations!\nTo solve the problem above I wanted to take a blended approach; use BC for the approvals and PA for its low-code access to Exchange Online / Outlook for the out of office status of a user.SolutionCreate …","date":"10 Nov 2024","summary":"\n This is something I'm asked on most projects when we get to the topic of approvals.\nClient: \"WOW these BC approval workflows look good, and I expect the approval will be automatically delegated if the user has their outlook out-of-office on, right?\"Me: \"About that...\"Contina does a good effort on managing out-of-office Setting up Approval Sharing, but it's a config that's inside BC, and it doesn't cover all document types. \nMost users simply expect out-of-office to be something you setup once in outlook and it's shared to all the other MS apps.\nI've confessed in the past that I rather use BC approvals over Power Automate approvals. Possibly that's driven by me simply being able to setup and test anything from simple to big hairy approvals in BC a lot faster than in PA.\nYes, there is an automatic delegation in BC workflows. It works on a count down, it will auto delegate after x many days. But it is very rarely used, if ever. Why? Consider the real word situation. Someone asked you to approve something, but you can't right away. Could be a number of reasons why; you need to look something up, check with someone who is away etc etc. Maybe you just need to sit on it for a bit. The last thing you want is the approval going to someone else in these situations!\nTo solve the problem above I wanted to take a blended approach; use BC for the approvals and PA for its low-code access to Exchange Online / Outlook for the out of office status of a user.SolutionCreate Approval workflow of any kind in BC [Config]Set up approval workflows - Business Central | Microsoft LearnCreate API query for approval entries \u0026 users emails [AL code]Dynamics 365 Business Central: API query type (Develop a custom API using Query) | Dynamics 365 LabCreate API page for the 'delegate' action as an OData bound action [AL code] Dynamics 365 Business Central: How to use Standard/Custom API Bound Actions | Dynamics 365 LabCreate a PA flow that checks the Outlook Out-of-Office status of the approver of open approval entries and delegates these [Low-code]tldr-dynamics | Check user's out of office status using Power AutomateAnd this thank you FlowJoe! Easily Avoid Apply to Each Loops | Power AutomateThe key part here was to have PA fetch only the open approval entries and then loop though and only delegate those where the approval user was sending automatic replies / had set out-of-office.\nThis solution was put together with help from my good buddy Lee Noble who sorted the code for the OData bound action. Thank you Lee!BC ApprovalI've kept it simple in this example, but because the delegation simply works based on approval entries created it should work for any kind of approval you (or you customers) dream up!\nI've used the standard template for Purchase Order approval (because it takes only a few clicks to active)!\nVanilla PO Approval from the standard template\nBare bones approval user setup - just to highlight a few important points. As you may know only the Approval Admin can delegate 'anything' so be sure to create the PA flow that's going to be doing delegating in the name of that account. \nIt's possible that the OData bound / API calling of 'delegate' wont have the same restriction, but I've yet to test that.   \n","tags":["d365bc","approvals"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBV1IyZN5E1MnHGXGP0-ufB03KsobAq34KL21gL0EWqR2xDTMmbMO_FXA0ofa_PI_NNR-b3L3Hx6-d0L550tlM7DovpYabJ8qaY1TegKzOn6Qf0vo2A9GF8P6Dk3W59Zv5m63bVNAkBHYszwvsV735ampqcTZx8SGmIHrrYeuz88l5fx1piXiZ/w456-h640/ooo%20new%2099ydbp.jpg\" alt=\"Give me Dynamics 365 BC approvals with auto-delegation driven by Outlook Out-of-Office\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Give me Dynamics 365 BC approvals with auto-delegation driven by Outlook Out-of-Office","url":"/2024/11/give-me-dynamics-365-bc-approvals-with.html"},{"content":"Transitioning from an end user role to a consulting role in D365 Business Central is an exciting and challenging career move.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nAs a consultant you need to develop a well-rounded skill set that not only includes technical knowledge but also emphasises communication, project management, and strategic thinking.\nThis post will guide you through methods and tools to assess your current skills and identify areas for improvement, making your transition to consulting smoother and more impactful.\nUnderstanding Required Skills for D365 BC ConsultantsBefore assessing your skills, it\u0026#39;s essential to understand what skills are expected from a D365 BC consultant. Consulting roles typically require:\nTechnical Proficiency: In-depth knowledge of D365 Business Central functionalities, integrations, and configurations.Business Process Understanding: Ability to analyse and improve client workflows and processes.Consulting Soft Skills: Strong communication, problem-solving, and client management skills.Project Management: Familiarity with Agile or other project methodologies, especially important for managing expectations and timelines.Continuous Learning Mindset: Staying updated with the latest D365 and Microsoft stack features and updates.Map these skill areas to your current strengths and weaknesses. If you\u0026#39;re still in an end user role, think about which consulting-specific skills you\u0026#39;re likely to need more time developing.\nMethods for Self-AssessmentSelf-Reflection Survey: Use a survey to …","date":"3 Nov 2024","summary":"Transitioning from an end user role to a consulting role in D365 Business Central is an exciting and challenging career move. \nAs a consultant you need to develop a well-rounded skill set that not only includes technical knowledge but also emphasises communication, project management, and strategic thinking.\nThis post will guide you through methods and tools to assess your current skills and identify areas for improvement, making your transition to consulting smoother and more impactful.\n","tags":["end user to consultant"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqrsTeua9rbBNUMeUtJPCYt6P1n3dn_q753-M1TCJHy04vYmpJQR8v2Iv9WAXBuxpAR0ygF44FDHQME8fTHnhp_rzFIrqf_6t1Ues7AX5zYw119DzSe4bBPJ2ui07Ng0FwD2I1-xSguEcu8xWUa1Pi47sLMmnlYSjklTuRzTRy4zqxAYtouZzz/w640-h426/sea-6568951_1920.jpg\" alt=\"Identifying and Bridging your Skill Gaps for Dynamics 365 Business Central\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Identifying and Bridging your Skill Gaps for Dynamics 365 Business Central","url":"/2024/11/identifying-and-bridging-your-skill.html"},{"content":"Recently on the D365BC WhatsApp community BC chat there was a question about getting alerts for items if their inventory was below the safety stock quantity.\u0026amp;nbsp;Dynamics 365 Business Central collected RSS feeds - Blogs, YouTube, LinkedIn...\nNaturally, running the planning worksheet can pick this up\u0026amp;nbsp;About Planning Functionality - Business Central | Microsoft Learn, but maybe the users are not looking at this every day so an email reminder could be handy.\nSo, this is a good opportunity for Power Automate; here are the steps:\nFirst I created an API page for Items and Stock Keeping Units, the items page in the standard API didn\u0026#39;t have Safety Stock Quantity and Stock Keeping Units was not present at all. You can grab the source code and compiled app here.\u0026amp;nbsp;GitHub - andywingate/Wingate356-API-pagesNow I used the Stock Keeping Units API in the following flow:\u0026amp;nbsp;\nHere are the details on each step, adjust these to suite you needs! To make things easy I\u0026#39;ve just pasted the code, so you can paste this code into a step of the same type and you should have the exact same setup as I had.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nRecurrenceSet how often you want the safety stock check to be run, in my example its once per day\u0026amp;nbsp;{\u0026amp;nbsp; \u0026#34;type\u0026#34;: \u0026#34;Recurrence\u0026#34;,\u0026amp;nbsp; \u0026#34;recurrence\u0026#34;: {\u0026amp;nbsp; \u0026amp;nbsp; \u0026#34;frequency\u0026#34;: \u0026#34;Day\u0026#34;,\u0026amp;nbsp; \u0026amp;nbsp; \u0026#34;interval\u0026#34;: \u0026#34;1\u0026#34;,\u0026amp;nbsp; \u0026amp;nbsp; \u0026#34;startTime\u0026#34;: \u0026#34;2024-10-21T09:00:00.000Z\u0026#34;\u0026amp;nbsp; }}Find recordsGet the records from the sku API page. Seems you can\u0026#39;t use an ODATA filter to compare two numbers …","date":"27 Oct 2024","summary":"Recently on the D365BC WhatsApp community BC chat there was a question about getting alerts for items if their inventory was below the safety stock quantity. Dynamics 365 Business Central collected RSS feeds - Blogs, YouTube, LinkedIn...\nNaturally, running the planning worksheet can pick this up About Planning Functionality - Business Central | Microsoft Learn, but maybe the users are not looking at this every day so an email reminder could be handy.\n","tags":["power automate","api"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrbxVaYeLpW5ztHoxjh0xrkcGabEAxUOm5g2-chs8RDRtZpfvjSITBGkQrWKseo8qcmV0aJGbPUOHF49xx6q9st5yI9UMfRGalz_whgYo8RpoA_Mqco1jlQtQyOt_BkTQkSOx-0cFNbTDOSaizfW55Rnc6vVJmxLv5tRDjxQ_zGdQwMAUo-Ztz/w640-h310/2024-10-27_14h41_03.png\" alt=\"Dynamics 365 Business Central - Safety Stock Report with Power Automate\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Dynamics 365 Business Central - Safety Stock Report with Power Automate","url":"/2024/10/dynamics-365-business-central-safety.html"},{"content":"Something that I am always keen to engage with on projects is the business language. It\u0026#39;s very important to understand the industry specific terms an organisation uses, one of the major benefits of having worked as an end-user in any given industry is familiarity with the terminology.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThis also works in reverse, it\u0026#39;s vital from an early point in any project to bring clarity on the terminology used for the D365 BC user interface. Getting new users of BC used to the terms used in BC is important for a number of reasons.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nUnderstanding what an action or item may do\u0026amp;nbsp;Finding pages within the appFinding help about said pagesUnderstanding dialogs, like error messagesFostering a common language with the delivery team present \u0026amp;amp; futureSo while it\u0026#39;s on the consultants to pick up all the industry-specific language for a client, I always strongly encourage everyone on a project to use the BC terminology when talking about BC to help avoid miscommunications and frustrations. You also spend a good deal of time on screen shares, so having a common set of terms for all the actions on the page is a real time-saver!\nHere is what\u0026amp;nbsp;ChatGPT\u0026amp;nbsp;had to say about \u0026#34;Why is common terminology and language important on an ERP delivery project?\u0026#34;\u0026amp;nbsp;\nIn an ERP delivery project, the importance of common terminology and language cannot be overstated. It serves as the backbone of effective communication, collaboration, and implementation. By establishing a shared linguistic …","date":"16 Oct 2024","summary":"Something that I am always keen to engage with on projects is the business language. It's very important to understand the industry specific terms an organisation uses, one of the major benefits of having worked as an end-user in any given industry is familiarity with the terminology. \nThis also works in reverse, it's vital from an early point in any project to bring clarity on the terminology used for the D365 BC user interface. Getting new users of BC used to the terms used in BC is important for a number of reasons. \n","tags":["d365bc","resources"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gDbe3avsHEwZ79g9zYjMb7FksAb0xrAm_7raON_Xj61_jGticB0ptgsFlEh6NLn-RFkCAeaAYpRJz5SgvylW7VfEbPF9L-f28e9TFcbt0mAlU98Sb9bp7_kNKFq-5xf6H9cV4Bl7-9T8_HwlgKeZgBJlusgbTUwxRYsxhxloegrTxuxJO3iY/w400-h193/2024-10-16_09h40_44.png\" alt=\"Dynamics 365 Business Central - Page Part Terms - Updated for 2024 Q4\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Dynamics 365 Business Central - Page Part Terms - Updated for 2024 Q4","url":"/2024/10/dynamics-365-business-central-page-part.html"},{"content":"\u0026amp;nbsp;\nIntroduction This post is part of my series on the journey from being an End-User to becoming a Microsoft Partner-Side consultant (see\u0026amp;nbsp;Tag: End User to Consultant).\nMoving from being a business applications end-user to joining a Microsoft partner organisation is an exciting and rewarding journey.\nContinuous learning is a vital part of being a consultant. When you are in the professional services game you are selling your time and expertise. You can\u0026#39;t put your time on the shelf and sell it tomorrow, you can only sell it right now! Additionally, to be able to provide the best service possible you need to be on top of the latest system features and benefits that will drive value for your clients. Therefore, you must dedicate time every week to learning, getting the knowledge that you, in turn, provide many times over when guiding and advising various clients.\nHow to drink from a fire hose? It has been said that to stay on top of all the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform news from Microsoft is like drinking from a fire hose. It’s important to consider the scope and depth that you want to maintain knowledge on. Some areas may require a deep understanding, while others might be fine with just a high-level view. Your plan can change, of course, but I recommend making a plan and categorising areas between detailed knowledge and high-level overviews. This will help you focus your learning plan \u0026amp;amp; prevent a feeling of helplessness if you were to try to learn it all!\nHere …","date":"5 Oct 2024","summary":" \nIntroduction This post is part of my series on the journey from being an End-User to becoming a Microsoft Partner-Side consultant (see Tag: End User to Consultant).\nMoving from being a business applications end-user to joining a Microsoft partner organisation is an exciting and rewarding journey.\nContinuous learning is a vital part of being a consultant. When you are in the professional services game you are selling your time and expertise. You can't put your time on the shelf and sell it tomorrow, you can only sell it right now! Additionally, to be able to provide the best service possible you need to be on top of the latest system features and benefits that will drive value for your clients. Therefore, you must dedicate time every week to learning, getting the knowledge that you, in turn, provide many times over when guiding and advising various clients.\n","tags":["end user to consultant"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNdyg94Ycb7Vb6FmDxTqNchCylzGcfwczxeNSmF-pxqIxFRbEwU-G4QR_qMpaZnwPhsXbpSYZwIoqEdLMW2Ocgga_t5-QMyhcQzlNl9ofgaHQo7mmkiI_98KlQs8iRr1LQ5h3ruvI3ezE3lP-b4r1BsEPZNkd-ASosOzrPTYdX3eZcJMscDhHU/w640-h458/classroom-2093744_1920.jpg\" alt=\"From End-User to Partner-Side Consultant: Continuous Learning  \" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"From End-User to Partner-Side Consultant: Continuous Learning  ","url":"/2024/10/from-end-user-to-partner-side.html"},{"content":"IntroductionThis post is part of my series on the journey from being an End-User to becoming a Microsoft Partner-Side consultant (see Tag: End User to Consultant).\nMoving from being a business applications end-user to joining a Microsoft partner organisation is an exciting and rewarding journey.\nHere, I’d simply like to highlight the incredible dedication that Microsoft themselves have applied to the task of getting more talent into the Partner community. Specifically for Business Central with the BC Talent program, which was launched back in December 2023 after feedback from partners regarding the struggle to hire staff.\nThe programme is a collaboration between Microsoft, Companial, Neural Impact and Revolent.\nHere is the explainer video from Microsoft.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nTell me moreIf you are interested in getting on board with this programme visit the main site, where you can sign up https://aka.ms/reskill.\nYou will need to fill in a relatively short form which will register you and start you on the process that, if you are successful, will see you placed at one of the participating Microsoft partner organisations where you will receive training and coaching over 6 months initially. Naturally, you will rub shoulders with seasoned Business Central consultants \u0026amp;amp; developers, get involved or shadow on real projects and potentially get involved in the wider Microsoft community - which I highly recommend you do! (See The Power of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Community).\nSuccesses so …","date":"22 Sep 2024","summary":"IntroductionThis post is part of my series on the journey from being an End-User to becoming a Microsoft Partner-Side consultant (see Tag: End User to Consultant).\nMoving from being a business applications end-user to joining a Microsoft partner organisation is an exciting and rewarding journey.\nHere, I’d simply like to highlight the incredible dedication that Microsoft themselves have applied to the task of getting more talent into the Partner community. Specifically for Business Central with the BC Talent program, which was launched back in December 2023 after feedback from partners regarding the struggle to hire staff.\n","tags":["end user to consultant"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEildxGSWXLgPIczYvx-aha5c2tWM5axJbN4XA4y7P8yZyOITlLx5txQ3vBL2SDtpvi4h6z0ciOVFniulPK1R8HHasNKThfkDyQEA7ehyphenhyphen_Aq0ECpgX80AvPKThvyOY4oOBtck_5acwFHUh8i-7jYXA9LIwNZ-KvL_ArGPmVGhf0vSn_LmIeu_yhd/w640-h278/image%20%281%29.png\" alt=\"Dynamics 365 Business Central - Reimagine your future with Reskill\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Dynamics 365 Business Central - Reimagine your future with Reskill","url":"/2024/09/dynamics-365-business-central-reimagine.html"},{"content":"Introduction This post is part of my series on the journey from being an End-User to becoming a Microsoft Partner-Side Consultant.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nMoving from being a business applications end-user to joining a Microsoft partner organisation can be an exciting and rewarding journey.\nThe practical skills you have gained as a business applications end-user are a huge asset in the partner ecosystem. It’s important to recognise these superpowers and put them to use.\nApplying soft and hard policy to business processes As a business applications end-user, you will have gained a deep understanding of real-world business processes and workflows. This knowledge is crucial when transitioning to the partner ecosystem, where you will be expected to design and implement solutions that optimise similar processes for client companies.\nFirst-hand experience of running real business processes through a business application like Dynamics 365 Business Central gives you important insight around the use of soft and hard processes.\nThere are always a number of ways to approach a process, knowing what works well, but most important what doesn\u0026#39;t work well is key here. Most end-to-end processes will have both on-system and off-system elements, hard processes; those fully encoded by the application(s), and soft processes; those where there is an element of off-system processing or where users need to be aware of the correct process to follow in-system.\nClients looking to implement a new system are often drawn …","date":"15 Sep 2024","summary":"Introduction This post is part of my series on the journey from being an End-User to becoming a Microsoft Partner-Side Consultant. \nMoving from being a business applications end-user to joining a Microsoft partner organisation can be an exciting and rewarding journey.\nThe practical skills you have gained as a business applications end-user are a huge asset in the partner ecosystem. It’s important to recognise these superpowers and put them to use.\n","tags":["end user to consultant"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhfTEbqwHyxQrLTe5OjjEEicpRFc07PgV5aldTRVgJ6nz8qSfyMhFu5xrBVDsV8ZO-FgFG2w_bo-GC1md1FTLO7os1tTpj5qZl0Q393S6jE5PH3klJZ5pLL7wJBXaiLjOFW7xFZa4AUtqgVCzjJru5ZvmIiVLfNcuYtzRoL1KKUaNVeEwwVzXI/w640-h426/girl-1561989_1920.jpg\" alt=\"From End-User to Partner-Side Consultant: What are Your End-User Superpowers?\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"From End-User to Partner-Side Consultant: What are Your End-User Superpowers?","url":"/2024/09/from-end-user-to-partner-side.html"},{"content":"\nDocker Containers Guide for BC ConsultantsThis post is a super simple step-by-step guide on how to run BC in a Docker contanier on your local machine.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nOne reason to do this is that it\u0026#39;s now very easy to access the \u0026#39;Insider\u0026#39; versions of BC, to check out new features. Warning - Insider versions may have features that are different or missing in the final released versions!\nHere is an older post on the topic\u0026amp;nbsp;Business Central Insider Releases Artifacts | Roberto Stefanetti Business Central Blog (robertostefanettinavblog.com)\nA few things have changed since the above post, namily you dont need an access key to get the insider versions!\nSeting up Docker for BC Running a container-based development environment - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nHere are the simplified steps\nInstall docker desktop Install Docker Desktop on Windows | Docker DocsYou will want the x86_64 version if you are using a normal PCWhen runing the installer - uncheck the \u0026#34;Use WSL\u0026#34; option, as we need to use Hyper-V\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;All being well you will see this\u0026amp;nbsp;Make sure you have Hyper-V enabeled on your machine, go to the \u0026#39;old\u0026#39; control pannel and search for \u0026#39;features\u0026#39;, make sure all the Hyper-V features are turned on.\u0026amp;nbsp;Start Docker Desktop, you may get an error, but you can ignore this and just switch to Windows containers, right click the notification area icon to see the switch action.With Docker running in Hyper-V mode you are ready for the next step of creating a new BC containter!Create …","date":"8 Sep 2024","summary":"\nDocker Containers Guide for BC ConsultantsThis post is a super simple step-by-step guide on how to run BC in a Docker contanier on your local machine. \nOne reason to do this is that it's now very easy to access the 'Insider' versions of BC, to check out new features. Warning - Insider versions may have features that are different or missing in the final released versions!\nHere is an older post on the topic Business Central Insider Releases Artifacts | Roberto Stefanetti Business Central Blog (robertostefanettinavblog.com)\n","tags":["d365bc"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxwCi8gmh4Yu6G9QR8ekFsZuPSR5CL9FQ0ZaxPIff2JW2fRbG14TzqPXRe4NrUd2dQ6nHtC-vukWDKfHjEqzp9p4k_CxbMT89gmos70wUyLLdptYxB70eY0S184WySfdIsuufbC2Y50khrshEJULGTSKlWcU8BMImfLjiXJagBuIKaXm47vEU2/w640-h426/BC%20containers%2092se4f.jpg\" alt=\"Simple Guide on Docker Containers for Dynamics 365 Business Central Consultants\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Simple Guide on Docker Containers for Dynamics 365 Business Central Consultants","url":"/2024/09/simple-guide-on-docker-containers-for.html"},{"content":"Introduction This post is part of my series on the journey from being an End-User to becoming Microsoft Partner-Side Consultant.\nHere I’m reflecting at the Microsoft D365 Community. I have a simple message, and I cannot stress this enough, join in with your local User Group and get along to some of the national all-day free events if you can!\nThe Power of Community Soon after landing my first job as a consultant I decided to pop along the local Cambridge D365 User Group meeting.\nI don\u0026#39;t recall the specific topics presented on the night, but I came away with a feeling of being warmly welcomed, a bunch of new contacts and a big list of resources to check out. I was encouraged by those who I had just met to come along to some of the all-day events.\nAnother interesting and somewhat unique aspect of this community is that people love sharing solutions to common problems. They not only explained their approach to the problems and the possible solutions in detail, but also often blogged about it, creating a super handy resource. This really resonated with me and highlighted how this community is full of people with an abundance mindset.\nA Welcoming Environment In my experience, the D365 community is super welcoming and friendly, no matter your experience or seniority - if you are a Junior Associate Consultant, Microsoft MVP or Senior Director of a large partner organisation - people at these community events are all there to learn, share and have fun.\nLearning Opportunities Many …","date":"7 Sep 2024","summary":"Introduction This post is part of my series on the journey from being an End-User to becoming Microsoft Partner-Side Consultant.\nHere I’m reflecting at the Microsoft D365 Community. I have a simple message, and I cannot stress this enough, join in with your local User Group and get along to some of the national all-day free events if you can!\nThe Power of Community Soon after landing my first job as a consultant I decided to pop along the local Cambridge D365 User Group meeting.\n","tags":["end user to consultant","community"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0C_q8yAYnGtkjnjZtZMslXRo86VrHwvcRlJJfbIJS4ijP__ZxiEolIqUCs0Bz9Dv9aLaloyCW1T8DQhbqmmdbgReafaC2KoKe0NDJFoyeAfRR89-E4FvLZUk1goaFHkHj6BjmmAnP6fEUrfoUdYX1VPqNPrJmrjVQpwfMlz0pLCQ3O2zcWtO/w640-h426/concert-3387324_1920%20%281%29.jpg\" alt=\"The Power of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Community\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"The Power of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Community","url":"/2024/09/the-power-of-microsoft-dynamics-365.html"},{"content":"Introduction This post is the next in my series on End User to Microsoft Partner-Side Consultant. I will look into the pivotal aspects of this career move, explore the challenges you may face, and hopefully provide some insight into successfully making a jump over the fence. If you want to make the move from end user to Microsoft partner side consultant, of if you recently joined a Partner and are looking for a bit of help on how to accelerate your consultancy career, then this series could be interesting for you. Check out the full series here End User to Consultant\nIn this post, I look at what really counts when you are a consultant and how to get ready for the challenge.\nWhat really counts as a consultant? People and communication Skills Budget awareness and time management Deep functional understanding of D365BC I’ve put these in the order of importance in my view. In short, people and communications skills are so fundamental to being a successful consultant that they trump all others!\nYes you also need to be aware of the budget and manage your time together with the project team and naturally I’ve assumed you know BC to a certain extent. But it is in those moments on client calls when you are faced with problems or are trying to avert a problem where those soft skills come into play like a super power!\nPeople and Communication Skills Client Expectation Management In consulting, managing client expectations is key. This means clearly communicating what D365 BC can and …","date":"1 Sep 2024","summary":"Introduction This post is the next in my series on End User to Microsoft Partner-Side Consultant. I will look into the pivotal aspects of this career move, explore the challenges you may face, and hopefully provide some insight into successfully making a jump over the fence. If you want to make the move from end user to Microsoft partner side consultant, of if you recently joined a Partner and are looking for a bit of help on how to accelerate your consultancy career, then this series could be interesting for you. Check out the full series here End User to Consultant\n","tags":["end user to consultant"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ3559UrcPSoMxsAbMQ9Yz5R5q-skDN3eB5DZUiA-LwUNzUZl9OZWnzhIgYUEvFPT9foluyBxqnRUrIQbksj-YTk0I7Pe4uZgq-35FmZWs7WMxH4lZMUvvyOGC_SRJXW9pAyFJqObRe1xqrOhwDslxp2plQUYCcBvO5i74N6BrxfGj8jP9GBZc/w640-h424/men-4701599_1920.jpg\" alt=\"What really counts when you are a Consultant?\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"What really counts when you are a Consultant?","url":"/2024/09/what-really-counts-when-you-are.html"},{"content":"Introduction Joining a Microsoft Partner as a Dynamics 365 Business Central Consultant can be a game-changer for your career. Microsoft provide partners with a wealth of resources and support that can help you advance your skills and enable you to deliver better solutions to your clients. In this blog post, I’ll explore three key ways you can get the most out of these partner resources.\nMicrosoft CertificationsOne of the primary benefits of joining a partner is (usually) free access to Microsoft certification exams. Many partners also reward staff directly for certification passes and certainly the success will be celebrated! Microsoft certifications not only validate your skills but also make you more attractive to potential clients and future employers. Always setup the link between your personal Microsoft account and your work account from the Enterprise Skills Initiative: Welcome (microsoft.com) page to secure your achievements for the long term. Once passed an exam be sure to add a reminder for any renewals for those that expire. The renewal exam is a lot less hassle than the full exam as it usually just focuses on what new and you don\u0026#39;t have the proctoring hassle factor!\nWhich cert will you pick next Browse Credentials | Microsoft Learn? For Business Central the main stay for Functional Consultants is the MB-800 Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultant Associate - Certifications | Microsoft Learn And the recently Microsoft added the …","date":"15 Aug 2024","summary":"Introduction Joining a Microsoft Partner as a Dynamics 365 Business Central Consultant can be a game-changer for your career. Microsoft provide partners with a wealth of resources and support that can help you advance your skills and enable you to deliver better solutions to your clients. In this blog post, I’ll explore three key ways you can get the most out of these partner resources.\nMicrosoft CertificationsOne of the primary benefits of joining a partner is (usually) free access to Microsoft certification exams. Many partners also reward staff directly for certification passes and certainly the success will be celebrated! Microsoft certifications not only validate your skills but also make you more attractive to potential clients and future employers. Always setup the link between your personal Microsoft account and your work account from the Enterprise Skills Initiative: Welcome (microsoft.com) page to secure your achievements for the long term. Once passed an exam be sure to add a reminder for any renewals for those that expire. The renewal exam is a lot less hassle than the full exam as it usually just focuses on what new and you don't have the proctoring hassle factor!\n","tags":["end user to consultant"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs29X-WISfDKiBtT_B2CqbTtzhEmXI0zxxgjpB16in8P1QrxSmQ_HB5zSANMTYG2I9TzD4oUkY6q1-ivWrcn1PaAUHf5xhxcB_mGE9fViYNTz_KfFuRzrWjIU_j32HDlLiVCWHNgPd5O9Z_zX0O5p3XPhZCd9W97LXs3F_ECAnwHQXcSRfTESd/w640-h480/veil-387608_1920.jpg\" alt=\"Make the most of joining a Microsoft Partner\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Make the most of joining a Microsoft Partner","url":"/2024/08/make-most-of-joining-microsoft-partner.html"},{"content":"Is it time to jump ship, change tack, or chart a new course? (Non-nautical analogies are also available...)\nIf you love continuous learning, the challenge of solving interesting business process problems and tackling change management then a career as a Microsoft Dynamics Consultant could be a great choice for you.\nThe journey from an end user to a Microsoft partner-side consultant is an amazing and exciting journey to make, and great for your career. The move not only broadens your professional horizon but also opens up a wealth of opportunities for growth and impact.\nThis post is an introduction to a series I’ll be running over the next few months. I will look deeper into the pivotal aspects of this career move, explore the challenges you may face, and hopefully provide some insight into successfully making a jump over the fence. Why? because that\u0026#39;s what I did, and it\u0026#39;s been so much fun and rewarding.\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;\nIf you are currently an end user and want to make the move to a Microsoft partner, or if you recently joined a partner firm and are looking for a bit of help on how to accelerate you consultancy career, then this series could be of interest to you.\nIntroduction As an end user, you are primarily focused on utilising applications to meet your business needs. However, stepping into the consultant\u0026#39;s shoes means you are now in a position to help other businesses leverage technology to their fullest potential.\nEveryone’s experience and expertise are different. As an …","date":"11 Aug 2024","summary":"Is it time to jump ship, change tack, or chart a new course? (Non-nautical analogies are also available...)\nIf you love continuous learning, the challenge of solving interesting business process problems and tackling change management then a career as a Microsoft Dynamics Consultant could be a great choice for you.\nThe journey from an end user to a Microsoft partner-side consultant is an amazing and exciting journey to make, and great for your career. The move not only broadens your professional horizon but also opens up a wealth of opportunities for growth and impact.\n","tags":["end user to consultant"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftKs4Qi63CTkZttLdXjy-9LTTRNd9Tz0ofSW28GpoH1YGSuS_pCE0J6j-r7kwioRM6PMOb1-l7vsISA7n8UdLG-E06lPKOLzYJiSdoe_yQUKDEO3WkFm5VXt9f7d1tdXoUdUQsUtz6PlRGxLzN2-dY7ISGd4NBeaUNrMgVKPj3anQjq82v0ce/w640-h426/map-950353_1920.jpg\" alt=\"From Dynamics End User to Partner-Side Consultant \" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"From Dynamics End User to Partner-Side Consultant ","url":"/2024/08/from-dynamics-end-user-to-partner-side.html"},{"content":"Postman has been a staple of API testing, but there are alternatives. Here is a very short basic guide on setting up Insomnia to use OAuth 2.0 for Business Central API testing.\nFirst check out the article from Yun Zhu and setup an app registration in Entra. Using OAuth to connect Business Central APIs and Web Service in Postman | Dynamics 365 Lab (yzhums.com)\nVisit\u0026amp;nbsp;The Collaborative API Development Platform - Insomnia, create a free account / login and download the desktop app.\nYou can create a new project with Local Vault for credentials or a Cloud Sync project if you want to collaborate and/or are trusting!\nTo test the BC APIs create a New Collection\u0026amp;nbsp;in the project you just created and enter the URL of the API you want to test out.\nHere is an example API endpoint to get the list of companies from your environment.\nhttps://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v2.0/\u0026amp;lt;your tenant ID\u0026amp;gt;/\u0026amp;lt;Environment\u0026amp;gt;/api/v2.0/companies\nHere is an example of a complete HTTP request URL for my sandbox:\nhttps://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v2.0/9a3b927f-095b-42b5-bf6e-58b99e2f3bbf/Sandbox/api/v2.0/companies\nThe tenant ID (1) and environment name (2) you can check in your BC web client URL\u0026amp;nbsp;\nCheck the docs for other fun APIs to test out!\u0026amp;nbsp;API (v2.0) for Dynamics 365 Business Central - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\u0026amp;nbsp;or publish your own API\u0026amp;nbsp;Power up D365BC Power Automate Flows with API Pages (wingate365.com).\nThis HTTP request URL goes into box as shown, then …","date":"11 Jul 2024","summary":"Postman has been a staple of API testing, but there are alternatives. Here is a very short basic guide on setting up Insomnia to use OAuth 2.0 for Business Central API testing.\nFirst check out the article from Yun Zhu and setup an app registration in Entra. Using OAuth to connect Business Central APIs and Web Service in Postman | Dynamics 365 Lab (yzhums.com)\nVisit The Collaborative API Development Platform - Insomnia, create a free account / login and download the desktop app.\n","tags":["d365bc"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS_DsJySEyCHzZzJSE6eJu2kBctaRjiuVXpBd0BTVs_3lEpQchv91_8hzZdJ-YUmeoiizAkTdGvMfV9RAkRsEB1iAv9KXps3h2B-BMKqUXM9XWhX_ykS3eb5y9EOqfDPDKl-sdED5PTibME0ztK_WvG69-t4VWeTMrMajlBORZhZfViZx9pLy_/w400-h143/2024-07-11_21h51_45.png\" alt=\"Dynamics 365 Business Central - OAuth 2.0 APIs with Insomnia\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Dynamics 365 Business Central - OAuth 2.0 APIs with Insomnia","url":"/2024/07/dynamics-365-business-central-oauth-20.html"},{"content":"Last week I posted about multi-approvals (i.e. how to send different types of approval from within\u0026amp;nbsp; one workflow entry\u0026amp;nbsp;Multi-Approvals inside 1 Workflow).\nThis post is looking at some other tips for workflows based on this recent requirement I dealt with.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThe history on this approval was a lesson in capturing the requirements. The team had spend a fair bit of time setting this up as a large Power Automate approval flow. But testing and debugging was a challenge. In the end we moved back to BC Approvals and the whole job was a lot easier and the system more stable.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nI do believe the future will be down the Power Automate route - but right now I personally find it easier to meet complex approval requirements using the built in approval workflows.\nBusiness RequirementsApproval flow specification\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThis business is an inventory re-seller and services company. The approvals are split into main sides: Inventory, where there are a lot of very high value purchases to replenish stock for re-sale, and Services, that has lower value operational expense (OpEx) for purchases of consumables used to carry out the service work and high value capital expense (CapEx) for machines used to do the service.\nFrom a business point of view - naturally the limits are much higher when buying stock to re-sell. On the services side most purchases were OpEx with some CapEx and again the requirement to treat stock and consumables differently.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nAs a decision point for routing …","date":"9 Jun 2024","summary":"Last week I posted about multi-approvals (i.e. how to send different types of approval from within  one workflow entry Multi-Approvals inside 1 Workflow).\nThis post is looking at some other tips for workflows based on this recent requirement I dealt with. \nThe history on this approval was a lesson in capturing the requirements. The team had spend a fair bit of time setting this up as a large Power Automate approval flow. But testing and debugging was a challenge. In the end we moved back to BC Approvals and the whole job was a lot easier and the system more stable. \n","tags":["d365bc","approvals"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUiozRSw8R0mChGYJPnDUsCAJ8OFuMQG7czoxYO7byo2Dzl_p-iE4m7rj1VZFnj-NEv9zYuA4duo748sW6EZpAjfS5vm4Et7cUZgo94e416dnUnKJ_ovQYAlQUGytCxC81OHtxnhLOQNJBoE599vqJg57RlzPTKHaumnyX12h5fuG7MWCZmIcF/w400-h228/2024-06-01_15h24_14%20bw.jpg\" alt=\"Mastering D365BC approval workflows, part 2\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Mastering D365BC approval workflows, part 2","url":"/2024/06/mastering-d365bc-approval-workflows.html"},{"content":"Approvals are a vital business control process, the most common area being around the approval for purchases and expenditure.\nDynamics 365 Business Central (D365BC) has a built-in approval workflow engine and can also tap into Power Automate Approvals.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nApprovals via Power Automate have a few really great positives, but this post is not about those. Here I\u0026#39;d like share some tips on using BC\u0026#39;s built-in approval engine for some complex scenarios.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nFor really complex approvals, Power Automate gets tricky quickly. While the build-in approval can scale stably in my experience.\nTo illustrate my view, here is a complex approval scenario that the BC engine handles fairly easily.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nMulti-Approval Example \u0026amp;amp; How-toBusiness RequirementsThe Purchaser Admin (PA) will create a draft PO, which in all cases must be approved by the Project Manager (PM). Following the PM approval further approval is value based as shown below.Level 1 - approval by PM up to £10kLevel 2 - further approval by a named Senior Manager up to £50kLevel 3 - further approval by a named Head of Team up to £100kLevel 4 - further approval by a named Director up to £250k\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;Level 5 - further approval by the CEO for over £250kThere are multiple departments, which is held on the document as a global dimension.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nQuotes and Orders over 250k, in addition to the above logic, also need to go to a named user in the procurement team, but this is not necessary for invoices.Workflow SolutionLevel 1 - …","date":"1 Jun 2024","summary":"Approvals are a vital business control process, the most common area being around the approval for purchases and expenditure.\nDynamics 365 Business Central (D365BC) has a built-in approval workflow engine and can also tap into Power Automate Approvals. \nApprovals via Power Automate have a few really great positives, but this post is not about those. Here I'd like share some tips on using BC's built-in approval engine for some complex scenarios. \n","tags":["d365bc","approvals"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd80rado3knExemN3fcgrW3wKbKtnuUDyH6qEb0a_W0-o8GeFAlp6QZWcldWS5EoF_7CLDj4XM6xa0u_RsWta_bat7eOyEmSmOrK4QNBsGGQPsP5l8KZqPKSbU0VhsbX9uEBniAXwnxiNugqXOfpEslZWklQDzqMo2C51HbwKrvaJ1XIen3Cyo/w400-h300/8sfts4.jpg\" alt=\"Multi-Approvals inside 1 Workflow - How to master Dynamics 365 Business Central Workflows\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Multi-Approvals inside 1 Workflow - How to master Dynamics 365 Business Central Workflows","url":"/2024/06/multi-approvals-inside-1-workflow-how.html"},{"content":"Calling all Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Copilot, AI and Microsoft tech community partners and end users.\nThe next Cambridge\u0026amp;nbsp;Home - UK Dynamics 365 \u0026amp;amp; Power Platform User Group (d365ppug.com)\u0026amp;nbsp;in person meetup is just around the corner!\u0026amp;nbsp;Cambridge D365 \u0026amp;amp; Power Platform User Group - 25th Jun 2024, Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 6:30 PM | Meetup\nWe have a request for you! We are looking for speakers for this and future events!\u0026amp;nbsp;\nWhy not come and visit the UKs most famous university city and maybe what inspired the likes of Sir Isaac Newton or Stephen Hawking will rub off on you too!\u0026amp;nbsp;\nPlease fill in our call for speakers form now and we’ll get in touch to invite you to an upcoming event\u0026amp;nbsp;\nInterested in speaking at a Dynamics 365 \u0026amp;amp; Power Platform user group meeting? (office.com)\n","date":"11 May 2024","summary":"Calling all Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Copilot, AI and Microsoft tech community partners and end users.\nThe next Cambridge Home - UK Dynamics 365 \u0026 Power Platform User Group (d365ppug.com) in person meetup is just around the corner! Cambridge D365 \u0026 Power Platform User Group - 25th Jun 2024, Tue, Jun 25, 2024, 6:30 PM | Meetup\nWe have a request for you! We are looking for speakers for this and future events! \n","tags":["d365","d365ppug","community"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6n1BJLPqeWhyHfGkyNGU0SlpOpJF4IY6GB0cT-1vTSRcEPJQVDLx1nGf-70lAK-e-MfYJir7opyNiLBjivYmQz21X4FbaMiP-rOtjlsKpRL6S0E2Gg8xFGRWQZ-_HSjxnqk9Ez31k0NSXwDVT7UmLyLYrVel9gmDZywlu6KyyuMNnzOdy5hOy/w640-h426/kirsten-drew-xWdwXtgw-Pg-unsplash-scaled.png\" alt=\"Call for speakers - Cambridge UK Dynamics 365 \u0026amp; Power Platform User Group\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Call for speakers - Cambridge UK Dynamics 365 \u0026 Power Platform User Group","url":"/2024/05/call-for-speakers-cambridge-uk-dynamics.html"},{"content":"This WhatsApp community collects D365 BC related RSS feeds and other news sources from across the web!\nWant to join the WhatsApp community or add your blog to the news feed?Please complete this very short form to get the join link for the community.You can also use the form to submit a blog to the feed\u0026amp;nbsp;https://forms.office.com/r/10M7HFWSc7\u0026amp;nbsp;Request form QR code:\nWhy a form? We were getting a bit too much spam!\u0026amp;nbsp;What\u0026#39;s it for?The main Announcements Channel\u0026amp;nbsp;is where the BC Blogs Bot posts all the new blogs and news\u0026amp;nbsp;to help you keep on top of what is going on!\nBloggers, YouTube channels, MS learn page updates\u0026amp;nbsp;LinkedIn Newsletters\u0026amp;nbsp;GitHub Reposover 100 carefully selected sources !If you\u0026amp;nbsp;know a good source of BC news that doesn\u0026#39;t show in the feed or you are starting a new BC Blog, please give me a shout and I\u0026#39;ll add the source!\u0026amp;nbsp;Groups in the CommunityAnnouncements - The main channel where the collected BC blog / LinkedIn / YouTube feed is postedMS Learn Updates - Updates to Learn docs, there are often a lot! So this is split out for that reason\u0026amp;nbsp;Recent Commits - Shows recent changes to a curated list of BC related GitHub repos (shoutout to Brad Prendergast for this this idea and kindly sharing his curated list of Repos to watch!)PrivacyThe Announcements channel has privacy mode turned on (so your number is only shared with community admin).RSS FeedIf you rather access the RSS feed directly here is the …","date":"4 May 2024","summary":"This WhatsApp community collects D365 BC related RSS feeds and other news sources from across the web!\nWant to join the WhatsApp community or add your blog to the news feed?Please complete this very short form to get the join link for the community.You can also use the form to submit a blog to the feed https://forms.office.com/r/10M7HFWSc7 Request form QR code:\nWhy a form? We were getting a bit too much spam! What's it for?The main Announcements Channel is where the BC Blogs Bot posts all the new blogs and news to help you keep on top of what is going on!\n","tags":["d365bc","rss"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSmCgIHNjin_LdBe-vvztlkyH7k67d4rFqkFhcpdy3QtuZ07g-2H7BkoAQo8OTPqfDhjUTM9Bxxdmi7MNHJm-dQuKjNlkMq9isB-A126MHm5z2spVnVQsWIKvv7QXNo62S7bqBjiLPL1Y4d7mGSzEgtf5LYlIveulaBiOOazA3OJOcrWohXHrl/s320/2024-11-09_13h42_14.png\" alt=\"Dynamics 365 Business Central collected RSS feeds - Blogs, YouTube, LinkedIn, GitHub...\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Dynamics 365 Business Central collected RSS feeds - Blogs, YouTube, LinkedIn, GitHub...","url":"/2024/05/dynamics-365-bc-blog-feed.html"},{"content":"Microsoft’s low-code solutions, particularly in the realm of business applications and Dynamics 365 (D365), offer several compelling advantages:\nFaster Development: Low-code platforms, such as Power Apps, allow developers to create applications with minimal coding effort. This accelerates the development process, enabling businesses to meet demand more swiftly.\nCost-Effectiveness: By reducing the need for extensive custom code, low-code solutions lead to lower development costs. Organizations can achieve their goals without investing excessive time and resources.\nIncreased Technical Capacity: Microsoft Power Platform, working alongside Dynamics 365 or independently, empowers everyone—not just professional developers—to build custom solutions. This democratization of development multiplies technical capacity across organizations.\nIntegration and Efficiency: Low-code solutions seamlessly integrate with existing systems and data, driving innovation and efficiency. For instance, Power Apps and Power Automate allow rapid development of flexible line-of-business solutions.\nScalability and Extensibility: Azure services complement low-code development. You can scale and extend your apps using services like Azure API Management and Azure Functions, responding to changes quickly.\nIn there a middle ground?\nGetting the most of out of the Power Platform for Business Central does require a bit of AL coding also at times!\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThis is not really Low\u0026amp;nbsp;Code - but it is usually simple …","date":"20 Apr 2024","summary":"Microsoft’s low-code solutions, particularly in the realm of business applications and Dynamics 365 (D365), offer several compelling advantages:\nFaster Development: Low-code platforms, such as Power Apps, allow developers to create applications with minimal coding effort. This accelerates the development process, enabling businesses to meet demand more swiftly.\nCost-Effectiveness: By reducing the need for extensive custom code, low-code solutions lead to lower development costs. Organizations can achieve their goals without investing excessive time and resources.\n","tags":["d365bc","simple dev","al"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCDCfTuK5ClH_v4z41UmOuJ09HMYIqrSFWihIuUhdQSH4UqgUTgHkTxuLuSYIU_VkagbAlW4EJqjKBYAwWNOcmAD8xOiS2cuZf5VNuNkgOL_SzWjyS5FYRp8fFkOQBIqaZkWWb1l4pGOwlhBWUXuEBFTgOfOtPoU-Kb9jJYZmJyi-2m0etuzzJ/w640-h404/2024-04-20_12h32_27.png\" alt=\"Exploring the Middle Ground: Simple Dev for Dynamics 365 Business Central\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Exploring the Middle Ground: Simple Dev for Dynamics 365 Business Central","url":"/2024/04/dynamics-365-bc-al-for-coding.html"},{"content":"The opportunity to extend functionality in Dynamics 365 BC with Power Automate is huge. One of the most critical concepts for me is the general ability to trigger flows, based on certain events or simply on demand, perform a automated / semi- automated business process or approval and then write back the decision as a change to a record in BC.\nThe standard set of API\u0026amp;rsquo;s are pretty great to get started on this - check out the docs here API (v2.0) for Dynamics 365 Business Central - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nHowever, sometimes the field you want is not defined or the record type has been added to the set yet. This can be a bit of a blocker. Thankfully you can create your own API very easily. This post is aimed at BC consultants who want to do just this using API pages.\nHere is a similar exercise from MSFT for reference Developing a custom API - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nFor this example below will create and publish a small extension that contains an API page to interact with the vendor table through OData web services. We will use VS code Download Visual Studio Code - Mac, Linux, Windows and a few addons AL Language extension for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central - Visual Studio Marketplace \u0026amp;amp; AZ AL Dev Tools/AL Code Outline - Visual Studio MarketplaceGetting started Create a new AL in VS code project by tapping F1, use the AL:Go! from the command palletConnect your project to a BC trial sandbox / CDX / other instanceYou will need to have full …","date":"16 Mar 2024","summary":"The opportunity to extend functionality in Dynamics 365 BC with Power Automate is huge. One of the most critical concepts for me is the general ability to trigger flows, based on certain events or simply on demand, perform a automated / semi- automated business process or approval and then write back the decision as a change to a record in BC.\nThe standard set of API’s are pretty great to get started on this - check out the docs here API (v2.0) for Dynamics 365 Business Central - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nHowever, sometimes the field you want is not defined or the record type has been added to the set yet. This can be a bit of a blocker. Thankfully you can create your own API very easily. This post is aimed at BC consultants who want to do just this using API pages.\nHere is a similar exercise from MSFT for reference Developing a custom API - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nFor this example below will create and publish a small extension that contains an API page to interact with the vendor table through OData web services. We will use VS code Download Visual Studio Code - Mac, Linux, Windows and a few addons AL Language extension for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central - Visual Studio Marketplace \u0026 AZ AL Dev Tools/AL Code Outline - Visual Studio MarketplaceGetting started Create a new AL in VS code project by tapping F1, use the AL:Go! from the command palletConnect your project to a BC trial sandbox / CDX / other instanceYou will need to have full admin access and SUPER permission granted Add a tenant definition line to the launch.json to define your tenancy ID, update the sandbox name if neededF1 \u003e AL: Download Symbols This action gets the source code / lists of objects from the sandbox you defined above\nThe system will ask you to authenticate on the through the use of a one time code, paste the code into the web page it opens, and check the symbols downloaded ok back in VS code. You will need a login with SUPER permission set for this.Create an API pageNow we are ready to make some new objects and deploy them to the sandbox as a DEV extension. Use the AZ New AL file wizard, from the right click menu or command pallet, to start creating a new object of type PAGE\nObject Id: Leave the suggestion and if you get stuck read this Dynamics 365 Business Central: View the all object details (Type, ID, Name…) and find out what extension an object belong to without using VS Code | Dynamics 365 Lab (yzhums.com)Object Name: Use something sensible here, you can have spacesSource Table Name: Start typing to filter all the tables in BC, this is the single table that all the fields in you API will come from Page Type: Set to APIAPI Publisher: this best defines an organisational level term API Group: this best defines the type of APIAPI Version: Set a version numberEntity name: what is defined by 1 row of the table ?EntitySet Name: what is the collective term for many rows ?Just to give a sneak peek on what the impact of those last few choices - this is how the API Page shows up in Power Automate, take not of the API Publisher, API Group, API Version and EntitySet Name. This may help you name the API page for best effect. Back to the wizard - next we can pick which fields in include - or all them add. Naturally only add what you need! To test the performance I did add them all… The API page can be used to read and write data. Flow fields like ‘Balance’ etc can be read, but naturally cannot be written to. If in a later flow you try to write to a flow field the process will fail.If you do want things in a particular order, define it here, or tweak the code of the file that’s created\nYou can click finish as this point and review the new API page object that you have just created\nBut before your API is available (as above) in Power Automate we need to publish the app to the sandboxF1 \u003e AL Publish (ok ctrl+F5)Publish without debugging will simply install / update the app on the sandbox and open BC for you on page 22 (that’s what we asked it to do in launch.json)\nNow the app is published ok\nWe can check the extension on the Extension Management page in BC. The App is published as Dev. as we pushed it directly from VS Code. When we did the publish you will notice the .app file was also added to the folder. This .app file can be used to upload the ext to any environment. When you do this its published as type PTE. The main practical difference of PTE and Dev ext, is that PTE ext remain present when BC is updated. Dev ext are removed. Additionally, in a Power Automate flow that connects to a company in this envienment we will also now see our new API.Writing dataThe API pages can be used to read and update records - the usual validation applies - but I now have access to all the fields I added during the API page creation (which was all of them!)\nNaturally these parameters would be better set using variables from an earlier step in the flow, perhaps reading from a row in a sharepoint list, or from an ms form etc - in this simple example I’ve just hardcoded in some text. Save and test the flow\nOver in BC - a new vendor as defined by the params I supplied:\nShows as created by the flow owner, who naturally would need a BC license\nReading dataData out - this API can also now be found in PowerBI for pulling out all the vendor data\nFinally if you need the full end point URL of the API page - here is how to build it up - https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v2.0/\u0026lt;tenant Id\u003e/\u003cenvironment name\u003e/api/\u003cAPI publisher\u003e/\u003cAPI group\u003e/\u003cAPI version\u003e/companies(\u003ccompany id\u003e)/\u003cEntitySetName\u003e\nSo we have all of that, apart from the company name which you will need to look up in BC from the companies page - get the system Id guid\nHere is my API as a URL endpoint https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v2.0/b1c26eb6-ffc0-4887-b427-234b2db89ac4/sandbox/api/andywingate/pa/v1.0/companies(7368d553-0c5c-ee11-8df4-6045bdc89477)/vendors\nRead more about URL formatting here Developing a custom API - Business Central | Microsoft Learn \u0026 Endpoints for the APIs for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nTested using an OData feed in PowerBI\nSource code of the vendor table API page here GitHub - andywingate/d365bc-api4pa\nThat’s it, give it a try!\n","tags":["simple dev","d365bc","power platform","al","api"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpoOrUbAY_h81I3E5-j5CWPf-fSMxFIyzC318lhwiEIL_mdBstui4FZcnuETW_sxEWa_LVCKl5ZMDka-UsJ3VNtWAa84wz51XpI13K2XeFF-hQfIf9wGqgqHB83og53UQTqXJRUeprEKyK_bf_8YP-G30cvRR9nFOo27TRZx_0RhNzJBQJ2wUk/w640-h480/2024-03-16_10h55_31.png\" alt=\"Power up D365BC Power Automate Flows with API Pages\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Power up D365BC Power Automate Flows with API Pages","url":"/2024/03/power-up-d365bc-power-automate-flows.html"},{"content":"\u0026amp;nbsp;A simple request from a recent launch. \u0026#39;We want to add images of the items from the Lab, can we easily do this from the BC app on our phones?\u0026#39;\nYes you can! Here is how\u0026amp;nbsp;\nDownload and connect to BC on your phone\nDynamics 365 Business Central on the App\u0026amp;nbsp;Store (apple.com)Dynamics 365 Business Central - Apps on Google PlayVisit the items list - you can search for the pages now\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThese screen shorts are from the Android version of the BC mobile app running on an emulated Pixel 5\nThe Role Center on Mobile\nAccess the Items list via the menu or search function\nPick the item you wish to update\nTap the title area - to access the Fact Box features\nTap the Picture caption and then Take from the menu to activate your phones camera.\nThe system lets you review the image before you replace the current image. If you want to record more images, these can be added as attachments. The Picture image is the image that will display in the item list.\nThat\u0026#39;s it - very easy.\nIf you waned to do a bulk upload of images instead that\u0026#39;s also possible -\u0026amp;nbsp;Importing Many Item Pictures from a ZIP File - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\u0026amp;nbsp;\nFor other image related requirements check out the amazing \u0026#39;Dynamics 365 Lab\u0026#39; by Yun Zhu, as he has a number of different examples\u0026amp;nbsp;\nSearch Results for “picture” | Dynamics 365 Lab (yzhums.com)\n","date":"10 Mar 2024","summary":" A simple request from a recent launch. 'We want to add images of the items from the Lab, can we easily do this from the BC app on our phones?'\nYes you can! Here is how \nDownload and connect to BC on your phone\nDynamics 365 Business Central on the App Store (apple.com)Dynamics 365 Business Central - Apps on Google PlayVisit the items list - you can search for the pages now \nThese screen shorts are from the Android version of the BC mobile app running on an emulated Pixel 5\nThe Role Center on Mobile\nAccess the Items list via the menu or search function\nPick the item you wish to update\nTap the title area - to access the Fact Box features\nTap the Picture caption and then Take from the menu to activate your phones camera.\nThe system lets you review the image before you replace the current image. If you want to record more images, these can be added as attachments. The Picture image is the image that will display in the item list.\nThat's it - very easy.\nIf you waned to do a bulk upload of images instead that's also possible - Importing Many Item Pictures from a ZIP File - Business Central | Microsoft Learn \nFor other image related requirements check out the amazing 'Dynamics 365 Lab' by Yun Zhu, as he has a number of different examples \nSearch Results for “picture” | Dynamics 365 Lab (yzhums.com)\n","tags":["d365bc","mobile"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg7s4sFA9VlarixR2Rgqk7Jxq4pt6wQs6Fj5Upap5GRj-FNXgA5NTmGcvN5Atvka7p0O10Oy5p_PaCFVoVycpoMni6sZEb-pP29xB_6Xa-4aOl_NYwTmQcjN2cW_xaJsqcRImvSqzZkJhzsqYq85VAY-ugZEVfySAqiTJK_RHZZbFt4NQm5NNOJ=w448-h640\" alt=\"Dynamics 365 Business Central Mobile App - Add item pictures\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Dynamics 365 Business Central Mobile App - Add item pictures","url":"/2024/03/dynamics-365-business-central-mobile.html"},{"content":"Since 2018 we have seen 2 major updates for Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) each year\u0026amp;nbsp;History of Dynamics 365 Business Central/NAV | Dynamics 365 Lab (yzhums.com).\u0026amp;nbsp;\nBC falls under the Modern Lifecycle Policy from Microsoft that basically states that customers must stay up-to-date (and be licensed to use the product, and Microsoft must support the product).\u0026amp;nbsp;Modern Lifecycle Policy - Microsoft Lifecycle | Microsoft Learn\nThe good news is that upgrading SaaS BC is a simple as a few clicks! And may only take a few minutes to complete.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nHowever, the purpose of this article is to provide some guidance around how and when to do those few click that will upgrade your production system - to minimise the risk to your business operations!\nWhen can I upgradeMicrosoft detail the key dates and actions they recommend you take on this page\u0026amp;nbsp;https://aka.ms/BCUpdates\u0026amp;nbsp;- I would recommend reading that article before reading the rest of this blog post!\nUpgrade cadence for the annual release waves 1 and 2\nMake sure your service desk or other suitable monitored inbox is added to the notifications list on the BC admin portal\nYou should check and add a suitable inbox to get BC system admin notifications\u0026amp;nbsp;\n\u0026amp;nbsp;Prepare for UpdatesBe sure to keep track of the upcoming features due to be released as part of the next release wave. Microsoft releases individual features throughout the release period. It\u0026#39;s not uncommon for features to slip back into the next release. So …","date":"18 Feb 2024","summary":"Since 2018 we have seen 2 major updates for Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) each year History of Dynamics 365 Business Central/NAV | Dynamics 365 Lab (yzhums.com). \nBC falls under the Modern Lifecycle Policy from Microsoft that basically states that customers must stay up-to-date (and be licensed to use the product, and Microsoft must support the product). Modern Lifecycle Policy - Microsoft Lifecycle | Microsoft Learn\nThe good news is that upgrading SaaS BC is a simple as a few clicks! And may only take a few minutes to complete. \n","tags":["d365bc","alm","admin"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2QrOncj2UwNqh8Jn-4OncqM2T8rUpxg3SzygFSTQMeI8rBZKatACoFBGs_3U0Gma6TcNZNJ1tbYQJpnMcqGPIZ4GOTWhAj2451OnqSBLE6_Q6FBu1PpYcqC6LKrprUaw5KH2fXtC0fhCkRREl95pmQCfDSMfEY1aUNqN4ZCR91CzxbiAz0Mqv/w640-h194/update-rollout-timeline.png\" alt=\"Dynamics 365 BC - Reduce risk when applying the latest release wave update \" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Dynamics 365 BC - Reduce risk when applying the latest release wave update ","url":"/2024/02/dynamics-365-bc-reduce-risk-when.html"},{"content":"\u0026amp;nbsp;A new button on the top level BC admin portal menu is a rare event, on this post I run through the steps to test \u0026amp;amp; time the transfer process.\nTransfer an environment to another Microsoft Entra organization - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nStep 1: Initiate the transfer from source tenancy\u0026amp;nbsp;Initiation of environment transfer\nStep 2: Accept transfer on target tenancy\u0026amp;nbsp;Accept incoming transfer\nStep 3: Wait a momentThe source tenancy will show the queued operation log\nIn the time it too me to draft the above bit of this article the transfer had completed!\nThe target tenancy showing the creation of the transfer environment\u0026amp;nbsp;\nStep 4: Complete post transfer steps\nAll the old users remain visible but will have no access. In the past I have simply disabled these.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThe Admin accounts old tenancy (red) / new tenancy (green)I did need to create a brand new admin account and grant the Azure role \u0026#34;Dynamics 365 Admin\u0026#34; as the existing admin account on the tenancy didn\u0026#39;t get granted the SUPER permission for some reason.\u0026amp;nbsp;Then I was able to run the Update Users actionYou will need to check and add the security groups on the new tenancy, even if they are named the same, since BC tracked them by the GUID they will likely need to be removed and re-added from the BC Security Groups page. The page warns you with a notification bar.\nAdding the new Azure Security Groups on the new tenancy in BC\nIn summaryOverall 5 stars to the Microsoft team that implement this new …","date":"3 Feb 2024","summary":" A new button on the top level BC admin portal menu is a rare event, on this post I run through the steps to test \u0026 time the transfer process.\nTransfer an environment to another Microsoft Entra organization - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nStep 1: Initiate the transfer from source tenancy Initiation of environment transfer\nStep 2: Accept transfer on target tenancy Accept incoming transfer\nStep 3: Wait a momentThe source tenancy will show the queued operation log\nIn the time it too me to draft the above bit of this article the transfer had completed!\nThe target tenancy showing the creation of the transfer environment \nStep 4: Complete post transfer steps\nAll the old users remain visible but will have no access. In the past I have simply disabled these. \nThe Admin accounts old tenancy (red) / new tenancy (green)I did need to create a brand new admin account and grant the Azure role \"Dynamics 365 Admin\" as the existing admin account on the tenancy didn't get granted the SUPER permission for some reason. Then I was able to run the Update Users actionYou will need to check and add the security groups on the new tenancy, even if they are named the same, since BC tracked them by the GUID they will likely need to be removed and re-added from the BC Security Groups page. The page warns you with a notification bar.\nAdding the new Azure Security Groups on the new tenancy in BC\nIn summaryOverall 5 stars to the Microsoft team that implement this new feature - its very easy to use and FAST. \nIn the past needing partner DAP/GDAP Global Admin access on both tenancies to request the transfer was a major issue!\n","tags":["d365bc","admin"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkNGG63hyphenhyphenOuLeEWpjr6W4gUJnvXJIkge6CeTAyAa8m-PkLAKNvWA1yUZ_BEqR_Menj-VmmTTDeOwFUV6HeP7n29zpwTeq-L2QDixwCcbN-C5sAe20Q5BzBWC632hZULVa2DloatRyKhWhQbwBZMkad9XOtKOveImb2zYyuENZQlwUISnsubjKf/w640-h294/2024-02-03_11h59_06b.png\" alt=\"Dynamics 365 BC - Transfer Environment - Tested \u0026amp; Timed\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Dynamics 365 BC - Transfer Environment - Tested \u0026 Timed","url":"/2024/02/dynamics-365-bc-transfer-environment.html"},{"content":"I am often asked to about the architecture and compliance for Business Central SaaS. There is a huge amount of info to be found on this topic across multiple Microsoft docs pages.\nBelow I have collected together a few handy links and images from these pages.\nArchitecture\u0026amp;nbsp;Here is a simple diagram of the Business Central Architecture\u0026amp;nbsp;Component and System Topology - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\u0026amp;nbsp;\nFigure 1 - BC system architecture simplified overview\nWith BC SaaS direct access is not possible to any of the elements shown in the grey box as these are all managed by, and are the responsibility of, Microsoft.Web ServersApplication Servers\u0026amp;nbsp;SQL DatabasesData ProtectionOn the SaaS platform your data is treated in the following manner\u0026amp;nbsp;Security in Business Central - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nHere is a simplified view of the authentication layers to access the application\u0026amp;nbsp;Layered security model in Business Central - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nFigure 2 - BC uses a layered approach to application security\nAuthenticationBusiness Central uses Microsoft Entra ID (previously known as Azure Active Directory) as the authentication method, which is automatically set up and managed for you. You can apply further layers of control with Azure Conditional Access policies.\u0026amp;nbsp;What is Conditional Access in Microsoft Entra ID? - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft LearnData isolation and encryptionData belonging to a single tenant is stored in an isolated …","date":"9 Dec 2023","summary":"I am often asked to about the architecture and compliance for Business Central SaaS. There is a huge amount of info to be found on this topic across multiple Microsoft docs pages.\nBelow I have collected together a few handy links and images from these pages.\nArchitecture Here is a simple diagram of the Business Central Architecture Component and System Topology - Business Central | Microsoft Learn \nFigure 1 - BC system architecture simplified overview\nWith BC SaaS direct access is not possible to any of the elements shown in the grey box as these are all managed by, and are the responsibility of, Microsoft.Web ServersApplication Servers SQL DatabasesData ProtectionOn the SaaS platform your data is treated in the following manner Security in Business Central - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nHere is a simplified view of the authentication layers to access the application Layered security model in Business Central - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nFigure 2 - BC uses a layered approach to application security\nAuthenticationBusiness Central uses Microsoft Entra ID (previously known as Azure Active Directory) as the authentication method, which is automatically set up and managed for you. You can apply further layers of control with Azure Conditional Access policies. What is Conditional Access in Microsoft Entra ID? - Microsoft Entra ID | Microsoft LearnData isolation and encryptionData belonging to a single tenant is stored in an isolated database and is never mixed with data from other tenants. This ensures complete isolation of data in day-to-day use and in backup/restore scenarios. Furthermore, Business Central uses encryption to help protect tenant data in the following ways:Data at rest is encrypted by using Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) and backup encryption.Data backups are always encrypted.All network traffic inside the service is encrypted by using industry-standard encryption protocols.Software as a Service - Shared Responsibility ModelUsing business central as a Software as a Service (SaaS), brings the following changes to the responsibilities for these elements shown in Figure 1 vs a traditional on-prem deployment Shared responsibility in the cloud - Microsoft Azure | Microsoft Learn\nFigure 3 - The SaaS shared responsibility model\nCompliance and Regulatory Here is a link to some other relevant information regarding the BC SaaS application \u0026 service compliance :Security in Business Central https://aka.ms/BCSecurityBusiness Central - Application Compliance https://aka.ms/BCAppComplianceService Compliance and SLA - Business Central | Microsoft LearnExternal Compliance Listing, refer to Dynamics 365 Business Central column https://aka.ms/d365-compliance-listThreat and vulnerability management - Microsoft Service Assurance | Microsoft Learn","tags":["d365bc","compliance"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Dynamics 365 BC - Architecture and Compliance \" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-202312dynamics-365-bc-architecture-andhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#0B71C7\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-202312dynamics-365-bc-architecture-andhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eD\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Dynamics 365 BC - Architecture and Compliance ","url":"/2023/12/dynamics-365-bc-architecture-and.html"},{"content":"Here is a very nice feature that\u0026#39;s been in Preview for some time, but is now even more accessible. Of course I\u0026#39;m talking about the Search Company Data tool.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThis allows you to select a number of tables/field and do a full text search on those fields.\nVery handy when you have an odd looking document number or a contact email and you are just not sure what it could be related to and you just want to search it all to find an answer.\nSearch in data - previously hidden away as only an action on the Business Manager role center\nNow in 2023 release wave 2 - search company data can be more easily found at the bottom of the Tell Me search results\u0026amp;nbsp;\nSearch Company Data - now showing on the Tell Me results\nSo in this example I had a Mr Deberry leave a short message and to get back to him asap! But I\u0026#39;m new at the company maybe I don\u0026#39;t\u0026amp;nbsp; know who he is etc. No problem with the Search Company data action:\nThe search found the name from the Contacts table and referenced on a number of documents\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThe base setup includes a limited number of tables and fields, presumably to keep the performance up. But if you did want to include more its just a few clicks.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nSetup where to search by clicking the action!\nHere I have added the Purchase Invoices list and checked the Vendor Invoice number / Vendor order number to also be included - as this will really help the AP team when dealing with queries from vendors - as they can easily search with the Vendors reference across all …","date":"7 Dec 2023","summary":"Here is a very nice feature that's been in Preview for some time, but is now even more accessible. Of course I'm talking about the Search Company Data tool. \nThis allows you to select a number of tables/field and do a full text search on those fields.\nVery handy when you have an odd looking document number or a contact email and you are just not sure what it could be related to and you just want to search it all to find an answer.\n","tags":["d365bc","ux/ui"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjE-DJyE40Y5VFEC1EiaisMyixNlef79xWgxkxLS4Dq1SKEEmJTPj80T0H5DY6DIY_99TlaSQU35S3yti-czpg_n7X1zedlf_56eW1lCSIBDrp_deOsw588K9ugU0ueAfLIbwuF2OhC33xIoZ24-uuRSxTQ2WEcgoZfOd4vds-Mx8z9joHZwJ0R\" alt=\"Easily search your all of your company data in Dynamics 365 BC\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Easily search your all of your company data in Dynamics 365 BC","url":"/2023/12/easily-search-your-all-of-your-company.html"},{"content":"How Big is Big? The Challenge of Handling Over 5 Million Records\nWhen it comes to data migration, especially for large datasets, how big is too big? What if you\u0026#39;re dealing with over 5 million records? This post explores the challenges and possible solutions for this predicament. Data Migration: Excel vs RapidStart Configuration Packages accept two types of files for data migration:\nExcel: Created by exporting a template. It has a maximum row limitation of 1,048,576. RapidStart: Also created by exporting a package, but appears to be a type of archive file. So, if we need to import or export more than approximately 1 million records, what do we do?\nThe RapidStart Solution After some investigation, it turns out that RapidStart files are essentially gzipped XML files. This opens up the possibility of using these files as an alternative to Excel.\nLearning LINQ to XML To explore this further, I dabbled in LINQ to create XML files from CSV. I followed the tutorials on Microsoft Learn, specifically \u0026#34;Working with LINQ - C#\u0026#34; and \u0026#34;Overview - LINQ to XML - .NET\u0026#34;.\nWith some help from ChatGPT for coding, I developed two programs:\nThe first program converts a CSV lists of Fixed Assets records into a RapidStart package. The second program exports all table data from any RapidStart package into a series of CSV files. Both programs\u0026#39; source code can be found on GitHub:\nCreate-RapidStartPlunder-RapidStart A Guide for .NET C# Beginners If you\u0026#39;re new to .NET C# (as I am), here\u0026#39;s a very basic guide …","date":"22 Oct 2023","summary":"How Big is Big? The Challenge of Handling Over 5 Million Records\nWhen it comes to data migration, especially for large datasets, how big is too big? What if you're dealing with over 5 million records? This post explores the challenges and possible solutions for this predicament. Data Migration: Excel vs RapidStart Configuration Packages accept two types of files for data migration:\nExcel: Created by exporting a template. It has a maximum row limitation of 1,048,576. RapidStart: Also created by exporting a package, but appears to be a type of archive file. So, if we need to import or export more than approximately 1 million records, what do we do?\n","tags":["c#","d365bc","data",".net"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigvUd-3NFGus4s6QflLG3VRqJr7BELTr2GyD9bkrUsNrGa7r8HZ9ffcgqqzqbn6quo1bJGMT8SsVzBFheL0i6b6iNEN7fqUf4ZPZuOyd8CqYnXkRd3252oSqOKUO0skZkiEYFdvLN6LtKQm13AM34PVfegLI4RAqsDo1_2oNcIpzxnsvoQSnZd\" alt=\"Dynamics 365 Business Central and Large Data Sets\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Dynamics 365 Business Central and Large Data Sets","url":"/2023/10/dynamics-365-business-central-and-large.html"},{"content":"Do you want to keep on top of things in Business Central?\nIn this short post I\u0026#39;ll be looking at the Find Records (V3) action and using it to meet the following business requirement:\nTell me if any of purchases haven\u0026#39;t arrived in time.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nIn terms on the nitty gritty we do need to agreed on what this means in BC, so we will say if the following are all true - then we need to fire a notification.\nThe Purchase Order has a status of Released (Purchase header)Quantity Received is less than the quantity ordered (Purchase line)The Expected Receipt Date is in the past (Purchase line)\nFor this approach we will use a Scheduled flow - as we just want to check all the PO\u0026#39;s each day once\u0026amp;nbsp;Run flows on a schedule in Power Automate - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn.\nWe need to evaluate some logic from the header and then the lines. It just so happens the Find Records (V3) API for purchase lines also requires us to pass it one PO header at a time. This just means we have 2 Apply to Each loops to deal with, first the PO header, then the lines.\nHere is a look at each stepSet the recurrence - once a day at 9am please...\nFind all the Released PO\u0026#39;s. A very nice gotcha in Power Automate is the status string. You need to use \u0026#34;Draft\u0026#39; for \u0026#39;Open in BC\u0026#39; and \u0026#39;Open\u0026#39; for \u0026#39;Released in BC\u0026#39;. That\u0026#39;s why I have status eq \u0026#39;open\u0026#39; in the ODATA filter:\nNow for each returned record we find the PO lines. Passing the \u0026#34;id\u0026#34; from the prior step into the Apply to each action. The purchaseOrderLines API demands …","date":"24 Sep 2023","summary":"Do you want to keep on top of things in Business Central?\nIn this short post I'll be looking at the Find Records (V3) action and using it to meet the following business requirement:\nTell me if any of purchases haven't arrived in time. \nIn terms on the nitty gritty we do need to agreed on what this means in BC, so we will say if the following are all true - then we need to fire a notification.\n","tags":["d365bc","power automate"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDq8RqZc3QbHQLiIQrSzEGkCQgP6JMTvzuWuZeOcg4Mg3wonrsU5FFoYB3jumaBwog8wJYMvJ-doF3iGHY9JLv72LMWCk427sCxbNc7Hbp8viDpfsEGw0IpIxGb_apcJdTtLRPu8m5GHLqRUcyOTjJKr6UqBRDDBCXW0KAUOUXjmYl4zJYAQoc/s320/BC%20and%20Power%20automate%20image%20large%20.png\" alt=\"Exploring Power Automate and Business Central: Tell me if... \" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Exploring Power Automate and Business Central: Tell me if... ","url":"/2023/09/exploring-power-automate-and-business.html"},{"content":"Do you want to easily automate responses to common events in your ERP?\u0026amp;nbsp;\nWith Business Events \u0026amp;amp; Power Automate you can do just that in Business Central and other Dynamics 365 apps.\u0026amp;nbsp;Business events on Business Central (preview) - Business Central | Microsoft Learn.\nIn the most recent update Business Events can be used without any Dataverse setup making the toolset more accessible to all.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nSo what do we get at the moment you ask? Here is a list:\nCustomer blockedCustomer unblockedOpportunity activatedOpportunity closed as lostPurchase credit memo postedPurchase invoice postedPurchase order releasedPurchase payment postedPurchase receipt postedQuote created for opportunitySales credit limit exceededSales credit memo postedSales invoice postedSales order releasedSales payment postedSales shipment postedWinning quote converted into sales order\u0026amp;nbsp;Sales credit limit exceededLooking at the available list of events this one jumped out as its one of those events that happens usually between the sales team and finance. Sales stereotypically keen to get the sales on the system, finance with a more discerning eye on things like credit limits / credit insurance.Setup the flowCould not be easier just 2 elements\u0026amp;nbsp;When a business event occursUpdate recordThe Business Event trigger provides the CustomerID that can be fed into the Update record. As usual to find out the expected value to pass back I used Get Record to check what to send to set Blocked = All. In this case …","date":"8 Aug 2023","summary":"Do you want to easily automate responses to common events in your ERP? \nWith Business Events \u0026 Power Automate you can do just that in Business Central and other Dynamics 365 apps. Business events on Business Central (preview) - Business Central | Microsoft Learn.\nIn the most recent update Business Events can be used without any Dataverse setup making the toolset more accessible to all. \nSo what do we get at the moment you ask? Here is a list:\n","tags":["d365bc","power automate"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhKyxIkAqbBDrb__4w1XWb1WvXVGtUl50305Lt4sBOEccRE4XIw4_QsQpv1sUxTuXOkVu1F-ztxtNcSMPUqDtWr1W19lJg8cqLV59wjzMEfh-es5rlCKG563SFfwXs7pL_rpPQOLNNiSUUHy4Tekl5vAp7zORWxXgQXnAV3EI8vZ8xR2R8o3JaU\" alt=\"Exploring Business Events for Business Central: Customer Credit Limit\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Exploring Business Events for Business Central: Customer Credit Limit","url":"/2023/08/exploring-business-events-for-business.html"},{"content":"Do you want to give view (read only) access to all colleagues for your ERP system without needing to buy additional licenses?\nWhen an organisation has both a Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365 subscription, administrators can configure environments to enable access with Microsoft 365 licences, and choose exactly which tables and other objects this category of user will have access to.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nWhen configured, employees that have a Microsoft 365 licence but no Business Central licence can view Business Central records that are shared with them in Microsoft Teams chat and channels.\nYou can read the full Learn article here\u0026amp;nbsp;Business Central Access with Microsoft 365 licences - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nIn this post I\u0026#39;ll run through the config needed to setup this M365 access to D365BC.\u0026amp;nbsp;Firstly you might be wondering what is considered an M365 license for the purposes of this Teams access to D365BC, here is the list:\nAny of these Microsoft 365 will work for the BC access in TeamsThe feature is managed on the BC admin portal where there is an on/off control:\nD365BC Admin portal, showing the M365 access feature controlBest to prepare a few things before you turn it on. I will create an Entra Group (aka Azure Security Group) that will manage the permissions granted to the M365 users. In this simple example I want to simply grant read access to anything mu BC users share to teams and I created a group named \u0026#34;BC Read All\u0026#34;\nMicrosoft Entra admin center …","date":"16 Jul 2023","summary":"Do you want to give view (read only) access to all colleagues for your ERP system without needing to buy additional licenses?\nWhen an organisation has both a Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365 subscription, administrators can configure environments to enable access with Microsoft 365 licences, and choose exactly which tables and other objects this category of user will have access to. \nWhen configured, employees that have a Microsoft 365 licence but no Business Central licence can view Business Central records that are shared with them in Microsoft Teams chat and channels.\n","tags":["licenses","d365bc","ms teams"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEge-btvh91C8UI0YqU04060KAeqtRePNUtkNNvM3XzmiSF34wR-IDwV7ztFfmo-cqn2BVbqPndsTDZ0hB2mhwwVgDgzQZiRxM-kTefcuQOov2lC6nnBxab-wu2UQwW692IlK3XtUo0r2WkBs2rNdhJEBjs1uuUkk1JprFSjUuNIVzeJdQvo11lV\" alt=\"Access Dynamics 365 Business Central in Teams with only an M365 License\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Access Dynamics 365 Business Central in Teams with only an M365 License","url":"/2023/07/access-dynamics-365-business-central-in.html"},{"content":"If you are involved with onboarding new users this post is for you.\nUntil recently, when provisioning a new user to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you needed to do all the usual steps in AAD and then also access the BC application itself to refresh the user list and assign the new user to one or more User Groups or User Permissions.\nThe good news is that, after a short setup, you no longer need to leave the comforting Light Blue of the Azure portal (assuming there is no DDoS going on) to onboard new BC users.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThis blog post runs through the steps to create Azure Security Groups and configure them in BC which will in turn grant users permissions and the entitlement to access BC.\nHere is the reference documentation page -\u0026amp;nbsp;Control Access Using Security Groups - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;amp; feature release page\u0026amp;nbsp;Manage user permissions using security groups | Microsoft Learn.\nStep-by-step\nCreate one or more Azure Security Groups.\u0026amp;nbsp;In this example I have created two groups just to line up with the license types \u0026#34;Essential\u0026#34; and \u0026#34;Team Member\u0026#34;.\u0026amp;nbsp;The Essential users are all members of the finance team who need full business access.\u0026amp;nbsp;The Team Member users are all procurement team people, so I\u0026#39;ll give them basic access plus purchase side access.Creating a new Security Group in Azure\nOnce the group is created you should assign any members and optionally assign the BC License you want these users to have.Configure the Security GroupSet the …","date":"11 Jun 2023","summary":"If you are involved with onboarding new users this post is for you.\nUntil recently, when provisioning a new user to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you needed to do all the usual steps in AAD and then also access the BC application itself to refresh the user list and assign the new user to one or more User Groups or User Permissions.\nThe good news is that, after a short setup, you no longer need to leave the comforting Light Blue of the Azure portal (assuming there is no DDoS going on) to onboard new BC users. \n","tags":["d365bc","user admin","azure"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh2cBzboItcf_gyf2UZekfTnguttEMDtPufaeeQVyTGeddyPzDkDAkaIAz7Q5PN1aApNzm0Nhh6X809uBi6ZH8lN6H-afXiPPgE1DUOGKve9lNyFj3N3ZfTmMxpa6OdHQY-79-V2Mgyipo-GVskymK6gk7-b96sDZTbwSzH4o1LrLV5Hn4qbQ\" alt=\"Simplify your user onboarding process with Dynamics 365 Business Central \u0026amp; Azure Security Groups\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Simplify your user onboarding process with Dynamics 365 Business Central \u0026 Azure Security Groups","url":"/2023/06/simplify-your-user-onboarding-process.html"},{"content":"Microsoft have released an updated Dynamics 365 License guide.\nMicrosoft Business Applications MVP Erik Hougaard\u0026amp;nbsp;posted a great video summarising the changes related to Business Central - I read the Business Central License Guide, so you don\u0026#39;t have to! - check it out on his YouTube channel. He regularly has great content, usually always as a video \u0026amp;amp; usual live coding something fun!\nI recently came across this handy web tool that will compare PDF files. So here is a side-by-side document comparison of the March and June license guides - https://draftable.com/compare/qrYAKYuokbfp\nI was pleased to see the extra detail around the additional environments which confirms for every additional production environment this comes along with entitlement for 3 additional sandboxes, however only 4gb of additional database capacity space seems a bit low, fingers crossed Microsoft can up that in the future!\n","date":"9 Jun 2023","summary":"Microsoft have released an updated Dynamics 365 License guide.\nMicrosoft Business Applications MVP Erik Hougaard posted a great video summarising the changes related to Business Central - I read the Business Central License Guide, so you don't have to! - check it out on his YouTube channel. He regularly has great content, usually always as a video \u0026 usual live coding something fun!\nI recently came across this handy web tool that will compare PDF files. So here is a side-by-side document comparison of the March and June license guides - https://draftable.com/compare/qrYAKYuokbfp\n","tags":["licenses","d365bc"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhc7AOvQm1hbW59o-CgnLblpDfS-9T3mwst7sf9MgoWULVZkSXjINNT3-z-xqE_noMqVS9upvIkY-7bHWkNfypETsyVtVCusmU24nug5SMD8jUtGAOe17Yq0-ZI7PsezxBMVhcCGt3ihJj2WttnqHWoCQ3Mc7tIdhVLmUPUS7u3fc2BaqBXuw\" alt=\"Business Central License Guide - Recent Changes Comparrison \" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Business Central License Guide - Recent Changes Comparrison ","url":"/2023/06/business-central-license-guide-recent.html"},{"content":"Reflect for a moment on just how fundamental email is for business. Safe to say in a world of Teams, Slack, WhatsApp etc email is still essential part of running a business. Also safe to say a lot of users struggle with email overload - although they might not all admit to that!\nThere is a reason we send the important stuff\u0026amp;nbsp;by email, and when it comes to dealing with your trading partners there are a lot of important things to send!\u0026amp;nbsp;\nA key benefit of Dynamics 365 Business Central when it comes to emails, is that it saves all the emails you send. This gives your team a central place where all outbound email communications are logged. Combine this with Exchange Online shared mailboxes for the replies and you have yourself a very robust setup.\nHere are a few of the basic steps to you get your email setup to help you get the most out of D365BC.\nNaturally there are also some great resources to help you on Microsoft Learn:\u0026amp;nbsp;Set up email in Business Central (contains video) - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nEmail Accounts - Current UserIf you are using D365BC its usually a safe bet that you are also using MS Exchange Online (aka Outlook) for email and that\u0026#39;s good news as these two work together really well.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThe setup for individuals to send emails from D365BC using their Exchange accounts can be done in a few clicks:\nVisit the Email Accounts page and click New\nPick Current user, click next and you\u0026#39;re done!\nAll emails sent from D365BC are saved and can be …","date":"4 Jun 2023","summary":"Reflect for a moment on just how fundamental email is for business. Safe to say in a world of Teams, Slack, WhatsApp etc email is still essential part of running a business. Also safe to say a lot of users struggle with email overload - although they might not all admit to that!\nThere is a reason we send the important stuff by email, and when it comes to dealing with your trading partners there are a lot of important things to send! \n","tags":["d365bc","m365","exchange"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0jZi2a2BLQq7AfpDvMiuNqqlvFUiHQ9FSv4pFjdc2zhasxrFDIIZyh44iCtvfFBTF43GLm5-AKFkPQMF3J4EeqU57M5MdQLSuXAjDNzAuzTZfSul7Dau4E-TYqzqfmUa3VkVeNShjJ8wWKfrnHLmzQFqv8jzlW6PqYjr5pMTROuMrDqPEjw\" alt=\"Emailing from Dynamics 365 Business Central - All Your Important Business Emails in One Place!\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Emailing from Dynamics 365 Business Central - All Your Important Business Emails in One Place!","url":"/2023/06/emailing-from-dynamics-365-business.html"},{"content":"Power BI and Dynamics 365 Business Central work great together. In a previous blog post, we looked at publishing a custom dataset from the wizard in BC. In this blog post, we will take things a step further by creating a custom query and publishing that for use in Power BI.\nThe requirement here is simple enough. Running the suggest vendor payment function can create a payment batch that has been summarised by vendor to pay all the purchases due.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nGreat, but now we want an review all the approvals as one last step before posting the Payment Journal.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThis can be done manually on a line-by-line basis:\nLets see the documents that have been applied\nPicking a single line we can click though to the document card\nFrom the document card we can open the Approval entries\u0026amp;nbsp;\nApproval entries\nBut even for small payment runs that\u0026#39;s a lot of clicking, we just want a simple overview!Get the data published as a web service\u0026amp;nbsp;The relationships that hold this info together are:\n[Gen. Journal Line].[Applied-to ID] = [Vendor Ledger Entry].[Applies-to ID]\nThat gets us from the payment journal to the line in the Vendor ledger entry; from there to link to the approvals its simply the document numbers:\n[Vendor Ledger Entry].[Document No] = [Posted Approval Entry].[Document No]\nUsing that general info you can create a query object and publish to your SaaS instance of BC\nIt was necessary to exclude rows with a blank Applies-to ID as this is not a primary key and if you don\u0026#39;t exclude …","date":"6 May 2023","summary":"Power BI and Dynamics 365 Business Central work great together. In a previous blog post, we looked at publishing a custom dataset from the wizard in BC. In this blog post, we will take things a step further by creating a custom query and publishing that for use in Power BI.\nThe requirement here is simple enough. Running the suggest vendor payment function can create a payment batch that has been summarised by vendor to pay all the purchases due. \nGreat, but now we want an review all the approvals as one last step before posting the Payment Journal. \nThis can be done manually on a line-by-line basis:\nLets see the documents that have been applied\nPicking a single line we can click though to the document card\nFrom the document card we can open the Approval entries \nApproval entries\nBut even for small payment runs that's a lot of clicking, we just want a simple overview!Get the data published as a web service The relationships that hold this info together are:\n[Gen. Journal Line].[Applied-to ID] = [Vendor Ledger Entry].[Applies-to ID]\nThat gets us from the payment journal to the line in the Vendor ledger entry; from there to link to the approvals its simply the document numbers:\n[Vendor Ledger Entry].[Document No] = [Posted Approval Entry].[Document No]\nUsing that general info you can create a query object and publish to your SaaS instance of BC\nIt was necessary to exclude rows with a blank Applies-to ID as this is not a primary key and if you don't exclude you can end up matching blank to blank and get a lot of unwanted data!  \nOnce pushed to BC this should be published from the Web Services page:\nGrab the data into Power BI, create a layout and publishWhich can then be grabbed in PowerBI using the built in data source for BC SaaS\nThe Power BI layout I've gone with a very simple slider to pick the Payment Journal batch and a matrix table to show the Payment Journal document lines, related vendor ledger entry document numbers and values and naturally the approval details - where an approval was completed.\nOnce published the Power BI report can be surfaced in Business Central or accessed via a custom action from the payment journal page perhaps - something to look at next time...\n","tags":["d365bc","m365","approvals"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3Eq-LT3ChoMM4t1RutQhqesUnrsc1NDho917q4GjS5nK8lvsH923AAw-gK-9J9cXDqvt9QpbXbg8LP1MqdBrd80XjvqpmGNrb1_XKfvfhvBZUkZXE-6M6gO8K9ys6ES9IwrQBmuyiqWF96Lh1Kt_mIg6uBiI0DkuRLe7NcCVXnmVLxC9oIg\" alt=\"Show Me the Money! or Check Who Approved the Document You Are About to Pay in Dynamics 365 Business Central\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Show Me the Money! or Check Who Approved the Document You Are About to Pay in Dynamics 365 Business Central","url":"/2023/05/show-me-money-or-check-who-approved.html"},{"content":"Embedding Power BI reports directly in Dynamics 365 Business Central is one of the many synergies of the Microsoft 365 platform. Giving users context relevant analysis right on the page where they need to see it helps make faster and better decisions. Previously I have looked at how to easily publish a new data set as a web service from BC and use this data in a Power BI report shown on the BC role center page. An interesting requirement that came up this week was the need to filter a BI report to only show data related to the current user. Initially row level security was considered; but this was not as easy to implement as using a basic visual filter and the \u0026#39;Measure of a Measure\u0026#39; approach. Credit goes to the Power BI community, the original solution was described\u0026amp;nbsp;here and here.\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp; This approach relies on your data model having the user emails on the rows you wish to filter to. Add 2 new measures to your data model to the table that shows the user emails.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nAdding a measure:\nMeasure 1:\nCurrentUser = USERPRINCIPALNAME()\u0026amp;nbsp; Measure 2:\nFilterByViewer = IF(SELECTEDVALUE(UserApprovalSetup[E_Mail])=[CurrentUser],1,0) In this example the current table was \u0026#39;UserApprovalSetup\u0026#39; and the column with user email in was \u0026#39;E_Mail\u0026#39;.\nThe second measure now returns a 1 on any row where the \u0026#39;E_mail\u0026#39; in the underlying table matches the current user. So we can do a simple visual filter:\u0026amp;nbsp;\nVisual filter on the 2nd measure \u0026#39;FilterByViewer\u0026#39;. Lock or hide if necessary.That\u0026#39;s …","date":"7 Apr 2023","summary":"Embedding Power BI reports directly in Dynamics 365 Business Central is one of the many synergies of the Microsoft 365 platform. Giving users context relevant analysis right on the page where they need to see it helps make faster and better decisions. Previously I have looked at how to easily publish a new data set as a web service from BC and use this data in a Power BI report shown on the BC role center page. An interesting requirement that came up this week was the need to filter a BI report to only show data related to the current user. Initially row level security was considered; but this was not as easy to implement as using a basic visual filter and the 'Measure of a Measure' approach. Credit goes to the Power BI community, the original solution was described here and here.   This approach relies on your data model having the user emails on the rows you wish to filter to. Add 2 new measures to your data model to the table that shows the user emails. \nAdding a measure:\nMeasure 1:\n","tags":["d365bc","power bi"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj82yZIa5BWQ4pQKoI44od-Eyy3TM5j-h_SbWmwRZxz-bw6EedT33xZ7toZiUZj6iw3JilOS9X27Ctvc3cREPvUeZXdne-QaFnyM9Umq4Kfs79KVZFm9Di6USaf3dGbwn4iEOU7cxA6rLTYAA2CPyhL8356KrTVYI-ya-vb1INfXSJPsbPZVA\" alt=\"How to filter the current user with measures in your Dynamics 365 Business Central embedded Power BI report.\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"How to filter the current user with measures in your Dynamics 365 Business Central embedded Power BI report.","url":"/2023/04/filter-for-current-user-with-measure-of.html"},{"content":" Check out the blog post I wrote with the amazing Incremental marketing team: Making the most out of your ERP system Incremental Group which I have re-produced below for posterity! Making the most out of … your ERP system Introduction This week we share the third blog in our series: \u0026#39;Making the most of the Microsoft technology stack\u0026#39;, showcasing the power of the Microsoft stack in delivering innovative, hybrid solutions to fit your organisation\u0026#39;s needs. Making the most out of Dynamics 365 Business Central - a focus on operations Every business needs to get value from its IT systems through better processing efficiency and improved data visibility, leading to better resource allocation and faster return on investment. For operations managers, this means staying on top of inventory, order fulfilment and customer service, whilst finding ways to streamline processes and enhance productivity. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a powerful cloud-based solution that offers a wide range of capabilities, from financial management and supply chain operations to project management and sales. With Dynamics 365 Business Central organisations can simplify and automate key business processes, gain insights into performance and make data-driven decisions. The real power of Dynamics 365 Business Central lies in its integration with the rest of the Microsoft technology stack. By combining Dynamics 365 Business Central with other Microsoft tools and technologies, such as Power BI, Power …","date":"29 Mar 2023","summary":" Check out the blog post I wrote with the amazing Incremental marketing team: Making the most out of your ERP system Incremental Group which I have re-produced below for posterity! Making the most out of … your ERP system Introduction This week we share the third blog in our series: 'Making the most of the Microsoft technology stack', showcasing the power of the Microsoft stack in delivering innovative, hybrid solutions to fit your organisation's needs. ","tags":["erp","d365bc","m365","power platform"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgkH7IrS8N3UVHH5p7k7ADXcAYchCbR4RLDuSvp7XF5i2ct4HesO0nTkISN0jzOVnNkL0GMag6TBenUTQZt41Dt25D1Qv9PggognLgsY_o3Yu5h8MH3_pDVUPkKztVuEcSEFnFesALuE2V-obZjYz5Y0Z8WCj6ExWTWOAINKmO0LYRuRyJ_xw\" alt=\"Making the most of your ERP - Business Central for Operations\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Making the most of your ERP - Business Central for Operations","url":"/2023/03/making-most-of-your-erp-business.html"},{"content":"To make the most of Dynamics 365 Business Central you should invest some time to understand how Power Automate works. In this example I\u0026#39;ll start off by simply connecting BC to teams with some flows.\nTeams is especially handy alongside BC as regular business users (with a standard Microsoft 365 / Office 365 license) can view BC records posted to teams. This is pretty huge, as it means you can provide visibility of records across the whole business without also needing to have everyone setup as a licensed BC user. Just turn on access for M365 users:\nWith Power Automate you can setup action buttons to post to teams on demand or create \u0026#34;when a record changes\u0026#34; triggers to post if particular thing happens - that you want to notify a team about.\nFor these flows I\u0026#39;m going to focus on the use of adaptive cards also; as these specifically allow any user of teams to open the BC record in teams and take advantage of the \u0026#34;Access with M365 license\u0026#34; feature.\u0026amp;nbsp;Business Central Access with Microsoft 365 licences - Business Central | Microsoft Learn\nLet\u0026#39;s look at the \u0026#34;push a button\u0026#34; flow and see a few things we could do with that.\nCreate a new flow, pick the Instant cloud flow;\u0026amp;nbsp;Microsoft Power Automate\nThe name of the flow is what will show in BC as the menu action - so name it with that in mind! Pick the \u0026#39;For selected record (V3)\u0026#39; trigger.\nOn the trigger, you can control which pages in BC the action will be available on. For this example I want my new \u0026#34;Post to teams\u0026#34; button to show …","date":"18 Mar 2023","summary":"To make the most of Dynamics 365 Business Central you should invest some time to understand how Power Automate works. In this example I'll start off by simply connecting BC to teams with some flows.\nTeams is especially handy alongside BC as regular business users (with a standard Microsoft 365 / Office 365 license) can view BC records posted to teams. This is pretty huge, as it means you can provide visibility of records across the whole business without also needing to have everyone setup as a licensed BC user. Just turn on access for M365 users:\n","tags":["d365bc","ms teams","m365"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjPiy61zoUU3QhdZVB7elWWOzEA_6zkP4IeeBtnAtLBgGoIXNlFf3emuxEJIjRMRIIl7tv3Keio0v2f288hO4iyHzZ5dzXjTcNcWGklFzd3eC1nxNwUZ3aLTUgilf3JRCjepOIBFfw7adxZ2YGaSNHzNTQGN-dDjYV47XFdMsfFU9uY0xnG3Q=w400-h160\" alt=\"Business Central \u0026amp; Power Automate - Post to teams / Post invoices\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Business Central \u0026 Power Automate - Post to teams / Post invoices","url":"/2023/03/business-central-power-automate-post-to.html"},{"content":"This is a short note on how to add further validation to the sales or purchase document lines in Dynamics 365 Business Central with a small AL code extension.\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThere are a number of validations operating in the background for sales and purchase lines. Sometimes you need to add to this, in this example I\u0026#39;ll build a small app to meet the following requirement.\nPrevent sales lines with zero valueThis is a great starting point for building apps https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/devenv-get-started\u0026amp;nbsp;\nTo meet this requirement I\u0026#39;ll use the OnAfterInsert trigger which will carry out the checks after the system already validated at the database level.\nhttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/triggers-auto/tableextension/devenv-onafterinsert-tableextension-trigger\u0026amp;nbsp;\nHere is the example code:\nLets see what ChatGPT has to say about this\nPretty handy!\nWhat if we want more? I asked to validate in a different way: \u0026#34;Please rewrite the code to also prevent the job and job task from being blank\u0026#34;\u0026amp;nbsp;\nLooks good, I liked the way it also updated the error message, very handy. Would need testing of course.\nThe original simple .app and code can be found here\u0026amp;nbsp;https://github.com/andywingate/d365bc-validatesalesline ","date":"5 Mar 2023","summary":"This is a short note on how to add further validation to the sales or purchase document lines in Dynamics 365 Business Central with a small AL code extension. \nThere are a number of validations operating in the background for sales and purchase lines. Sometimes you need to add to this, in this example I'll build a small app to meet the following requirement.\nPrevent sales lines with zero valueThis is a great starting point for building apps https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/devenv-get-started \nTo meet this requirement I'll use the OnAfterInsert trigger which will carry out the checks after the system already validated at the database level.\nhttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/triggers-auto/tableextension/devenv-onafterinsert-tableextension-trigger \nHere is the example code:\nLets see what ChatGPT has to say about this\nPretty handy!\nWhat if we want more? I asked to validate in a different way: \"Please rewrite the code to also prevent the job and job task from being blank\" \nLooks good, I liked the way it also updated the error message, very handy. Would need testing of course.\nThe original simple .app and code can be found here https://github.com/andywingate/d365bc-validatesalesline","tags":["d365bc","chatgpt","al"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEcVk7yhYIa6l_gHJOl-cOR_yz-P29bnyvFwgUU1_vb9S1gFHZYC_uSbNO7Rt_dQOhpJK2iNmIk26VPJXZLQ5D9oA7Cy1wkWZKIzOGNW8XNjnAHUj-Cjn0NmvRF0s3_RNB2SBC5bwPZ4Vb0lMCs481h4W5SLzCqseh_t1KNyyI8GenEPYq3g\" alt=\"To Validate or Not to Validate:  Line validation in Dynamics 365 Business Central Documents\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"To Validate or Not to Validate:  Line validation in Dynamics 365 Business Central Documents","url":"/2023/03/to-validate-or-not-to-validate-line.html"},{"content":"This is a short note of how to add PowerBI reports to the Role Center page on Business Central\nOn most of the BC role centers you have this page part:\nSo lets get started; clicking \u0026#34;Get started\u0026#34; takes you to a short wizard that checks your PowerBI license and then presents you with the updated view:\nHere you can select to see any reports already published to \u0026#34;Enable\u0026#34; them to show on your Role Center page\nMaybe you want something else; lets do a small chart to see who has open approvals\nOpen PowerBI desktop and get data\u0026amp;nbsp;\nThere are a number of API data sources for BC, but none that happen to work for this example\nTime for a new API! Thankfully this is SUPER easy for simple pages.\nHead to the Web Services page and use the \u0026#34;Create Data Set\u0026#34; button\nHere are my choices to get a feed of approval entries\u0026amp;nbsp;\nDone - the new AP shows up in the list in BC and in PowerBI after a quick refresh\nPrecious data!\u0026amp;nbsp;\nJust to spice things up, here is an extra requirement\u0026amp;nbsp;The records to be approved are Purchase Invoices, Purchase Orders and VendorVendors are not Documents in BC, so the Document Type column is blank for those approvals\u0026amp;nbsp;This will not do! Conditional column time :\u0026amp;nbsp;Its been way too long since I used PowerBI and I forgot how to do that kind of thing. Lets see if ChatGPT can help.\nSo the code for queries you can get to by clicking on \u0026#34;Transform Data\u0026#34; on the PowerBI desktop home ribbon. Then click this button:\nOur beautiful code for the query, lets feed this to …","date":"25 Feb 2023","summary":"This is a short note of how to add PowerBI reports to the Role Center page on Business Central\nOn most of the BC role centers you have this page part:\nSo lets get started; clicking \"Get started\" takes you to a short wizard that checks your PowerBI license and then presents you with the updated view:\n","tags":["d365bc","power bi","api"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixhYZkiRAzIzBfqdAUv_saEH9BxvoiEN2dAEUWA5CnetuDeQ5PrP6LBukhOfhEJHs0OLitzVmLE183m_1QRK6opJbPmco8h49zBUVBLcY1I4CaPT7Vt9ChsyoZjLn6Ysqmx_t-4xmIOnwTnUfKmNWAR4evf9P3LbjYXR3KpoPfqEbDpFq8qA\" alt=\"Yellow Excel or: How I Learned to stop worrying and Love PowerBI for Dynamics 365 BC with help from ChatGPT\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Yellow Excel or: How I Learned to stop worrying and Love PowerBI for Dynamics 365 BC with help from ChatGPT","url":"/2023/02/yellow-excel-or-how-i-learned-to-stop.html"},{"content":"\u0026amp;nbsp;This short guide shows how to host a Foundry instance on AWS for free (for 1 year).\nGet FoundryThis bit is not free, you need to own foundry to run your games in it. Head on over to https://foundryvtt.com/\u0026amp;nbsp;there are numerous YouTube videos explaining why it\u0026#39;s so great. I made the jump from Roll20 to Foundry VTT and have not looked back!\nSign up for AWSYou can get a free tier account, you will need to supply some credit card details to get setup. Head over to\u0026amp;nbsp;https://aws.amazon.com/free\nSetup Foundry on an AWS Free Tier EC2 InstanceLogin to your new AWS account and head over to the EC2 pageLaunch a windows server instance - pick the free tier!Create a key pair so you can loginOnce its up and running Connect to the instance with RDP\u0026amp;nbsp;You will need the key pair to get the admin passwordDownload and install FoundryDownload and use nssm\u0026amp;nbsp;https://nssm.cc/ to turn Foundry into a serviceThis page explains how to use nssm\u0026amp;nbsp;https://nssm.cc/usageThe \u0026#39;local files\u0026#39; are now located at: C:\\Windows\\System32\\config\\systemprofile\\AppData\\Local\\FoundryVTT\nBrowse to localhost:30000 from the server and set your\u0026amp;nbsp;Foundry admin password! Make it a strong one[Optional] change the default port\u0026amp;nbsp;Here I have done the basic setup and started to add Game SystemsOpen the Foundry port in the windows firewallOpen the Foundry port in the EC2 Security group, inbound rules\nRule 1 allows the traffic to the Foundry services that is on port 30000 by defaultThis you need to …","date":"14 Dec 2021","summary":" This short guide shows how to host a Foundry instance on AWS for free (for 1 year).\nGet FoundryThis bit is not free, you need to own foundry to run your games in it. Head on over to https://foundryvtt.com/ there are numerous YouTube videos explaining why it's so great. I made the jump from Roll20 to Foundry VTT and have not looked back!\nSign up for AWSYou can get a free tier account, you will need to supply some credit card details to get setup. Head over to https://aws.amazon.com/free\nSetup Foundry on an AWS Free Tier EC2 InstanceLogin to your new AWS account and head over to the EC2 pageLaunch a windows server instance - pick the free tier!Create a key pair so you can loginOnce its up and running Connect to the instance with RDP You will need the key pair to get the admin passwordDownload and install FoundryDownload and use nssm https://nssm.cc/ to turn Foundry into a serviceThis page explains how to use nssm https://nssm.cc/usageThe 'local files' are now located at: C:\\Windows\\System32\\config\\systemprofile\\AppData\\Local\\FoundryVTT\nBrowse to localhost:30000 from the server and set your Foundry admin password! Make it a strong one[Optional] change the default port Here I have done the basic setup and started to add Game SystemsOpen the Foundry port in the windows firewallOpen the Foundry port in the EC2 Security group, inbound rules\nRule 1 allows the traffic to the Foundry services that is on port 30000 by defaultThis you need to allow for any IP that will join - 0.0.0.0/0 means its fully openRule 2 if you want to share a folder to your local machine to copy content - I suggest you just allow for the IP range of your machine, which you can pick from the dropdownRule 3 is for RDP access - this rule is added automatically - if you are normal home internet, you will need to check the IP as your home IP will change from time to timeAssign an Elastic IP Address (a static IP) to your instance in AWS - this means the external link for your instance will stay the same always If you are really keen set up an A record on a domain you own to point to the now static IP of your AWS instance\nCheck if you can load Foundry from your local PC \u0026 let the games commence!\nAn especially handy Foundry module is bellows - lets you stream music from YouTube in foundry https://github.com/casualchameleon/Bellows\n","tags":["vtt","rpg","aws"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlGZKI0r2HrHcofCJNJPTMUWyFhp1x3TWierijsUsd6Ov5kX3tZ5hYz_HIJ-KUDoQbOlUbJ2HtlTIPrlVs0G84pPmor2IpWwKvloMTJb05cNJhe6NgVMm4J6Sqd8Fzyc4Cl-PYxKjQAUJyA0oJGn_Ot9NzajVPsCzVcWjPI5vmSaMm6h-WGw=w400-h139\" alt=\"Foundry Hosting on AWS Free Tier\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Foundry Hosting on AWS Free Tier","url":"/2021/12/foundry-hosting-on-aws-free-tier.html"},{"content":"CredSSP authentication is currently disabled on the local client. You must be running with administrator privileges in order to enable CredSSP\nOn Win2016 desktop CLIENT Powershell: PS C:\\Users\\Administrator\u0026amp;gt;start-service winrm PS C:\\Users\\Administrator\u0026amp;gt;Enable-WSManCredSSP -Role client -DelegateComputer * PS C:\\Users\\Administrator\u0026amp;gt;stop-service winrm GPEDIT (as administrator) Local Computer Policy \u0026amp;gt; Computer Configuration \u0026amp;gt; Administrative Templates \u0026amp;gt; System \u0026amp;gt; Credentials Delegation: Allow delegating fresh credentials with NTLM-only server authentication Set: \u0026#34;Enabled\u0026#34; and \u0026#34;Add servers to the list\u0026#34; Show: enter \u0026#34;WSMAN/*\u0026#34; as Value Fire up Hyper-V Manager and connect to server only with IP-address and enter as user \u0026#34;[IP Address]\\[username]” and set the password. Source ","date":"18 Feb 2018","summary":"CredSSP authentication is currently disabled on the local client. You must be running with administrator privileges in order to enable CredSSP\nOn Win2016 desktop CLIENT Powershell: PS C:\\Users\\Administrator\u003estart-service winrm PS C:\\Users\\Administrator\u003eEnable-WSManCredSSP -Role client -DelegateComputer * PS C:\\Users\\Administrator\u003estop-service winrm GPEDIT (as administrator) Local Computer Policy \u003e Computer Configuration \u003e Administrative Templates \u003e System \u003e Credentials Delegation: Allow delegating fresh credentials with NTLM-only server authentication Set: \"Enabled\" and \"Add servers to the list\" Show: enter \"WSMAN/*\" as Value Fire up Hyper-V Manager and connect to server only with IP-address and enter as user \"[IP Address]\\[username]” and set the password. Source","tags":["powershell","security","windows"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Connect to Windows 2016 HyperV Core with delegated credentials  / CredSSP\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201802connect-to-windows-2016-hyperv-corehtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201802connect-to-windows-2016-hyperv-corehtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eC\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Connect to Windows 2016 HyperV Core with delegated credentials  / CredSSP","url":"/2018/02/connect-to-windows-2016-hyperv-core.html"},{"content":" Old server backup existing database - mysql dump copy files folder frp, public_html New Server create new database, with same name/username restore into new database - mysql -u username -p new_database \u0026amp;lt; data-dump.sql source copy files to public_html edit LocalSettings.php:\u0026amp;nbsp;$wgServer\u0026amp;nbsp;- update to new URL ","date":"18 Feb 2018","summary":" Old server backup existing database - mysql dump copy files folder frp, public_html New Server create new database, with same name/username restore into new database - mysql -u username -p new_database \u003c data-dump.sql source copy files to public_html edit LocalSettings.php: $wgServer - update to new URL","tags":["simple dev","backup"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Migrate Mediawiki installation\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201802migrate-mediawiki-installationhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#6FB0D4\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201802migrate-mediawiki-installationhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eM\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Migrate Mediawiki installation","url":"/2018/02/migrate-mediawiki-installation.html"},{"content":" \u0026#34;Disk offline with error – the disk is offline because of a policy set by an administrator\u0026#34;\nAfter adding a new hard drive to an existing VM, it will show as offline, this can be corrected using the steps below in the\u0026amp;nbsp;diskpart\u0026amp;nbsp;cmd prompt\nsan policy=OnlineAll This will result in the following message: Diskpart successfully changed the SAN policy for the current operating system.\nlist disk Check the number of any offline disks and select them\nselect disk 1 attributes disk clear readonly online disk The disk will now be available in Disk Management.\nSource ","date":"18 Feb 2018","summary":" \"Disk offline with error – the disk is offline because of a policy set by an administrator\"\nAfter adding a new hard drive to an existing VM, it will show as offline, this can be corrected using the steps below in the diskpart cmd prompt\nsan policy=OnlineAll This will result in the following message: Diskpart successfully changed the SAN policy for the current operating system.\nlist disk Check the number of any offline disks and select them\nselect disk 1 attributes disk clear readonly online disk The disk will now be available in Disk Management.\nSource","tags":["windows"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"New disk for existing VM\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201802new-disk-for-existing-vmhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201802new-disk-for-existing-vmhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eN\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"New disk for existing VM","url":"/2018/02/new-disk-for-existing-vm.html"},{"content":"Here is my setup to use VLC running on a laptop with a webcam as a simple CCTV system that can stream to your mobile.\nVLC was installed on a laptop running Ubuntu 14.4. The webcam input stream was found at v4l2:///dev/video0 and the audio input was found at alsa://hw:0,0 using the command line for VLC I started capturing these two devices, transcoding and streaming to http with the following script For some reason .asf was the only encapsulation that worked, the filename you set pics the encapsulation. You can do all of this via the VLC gui, but you will need to change the string on the last page if you want a username and pass as VLC does not set that by default, instead sets the dst only. Create the necessary port forward in the router if you wish to access via WAN, or leave locked down if using local only.\nOn the receiving device open VLC and open \u0026amp;lsquo;Network Stream\u0026amp;rsquo; as http://[username]:[password]@[wanip or localhost]:[port]/[file]. E.g. http://jsmith:mypass@1.2.3.4:8080/go.asf\nA bit more long winded but can also can be done via the VLC GUI :\nMedia \u0026amp;gt; Open Capture Device\u0026amp;nbsp; Choose your Webcam and Microphone\u0026amp;nbsp; Use the drop-down next to \u0026#39;Play\u0026#39; to instead choose \u0026#39;Stream\u0026#39; Source - it should fill the input source for you so just next Destination Setup - use the dropdown, select http and click add.\u0026amp;nbsp; Set the port and file name, e.g. 8080, /go.asf (the file name must match the transcoding profile encapsulation type)\u0026amp;nbsp; Pick the transcoding profile, the …","date":"3 Apr 2016","summary":"Here is my setup to use VLC running on a laptop with a webcam as a simple CCTV system that can stream to your mobile.\nVLC was installed on a laptop running Ubuntu 14.4. The webcam input stream was found at v4l2:///dev/video0 and the audio input was found at alsa://hw:0,0 using the command line for VLC I started capturing these two devices, transcoding and streaming to http with the following script For some reason .asf was the only encapsulation that worked, the filename you set pics the encapsulation. You can do all of this via the VLC gui, but you will need to change the string on the last page if you want a username and pass as VLC does not set that by default, instead sets the dst only. Create the necessary port forward in the router if you wish to access via WAN, or leave locked down if using local only.\nOn the receiving device open VLC and open ‘Network Stream’ as http://[username]:[password]@[wanip or localhost]:[port]/[file]. E.g. http://jsmith:mypass@1.2.3.4:8080/go.asf\nA bit more long winded but can also can be done via the VLC GUI :\n","tags":["ubuntu","networking"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"VLC Streaming\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201604vlc-streaminghtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0B71C7\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201604vlc-streaminghtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eV\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"VLC Streaming","url":"/2016/04/vlc-streaming.html"},{"content":"I was very glad to join Schlicki and Michi for some home brewing over the Christmas period, here is a rough summary of the process. Brew Day The batch was to be an IPA style beer, bottle finished. The main cooking pot is a 160 L stainless steel insulated\u0026amp;nbsp;vessel\u0026amp;nbsp;that has had the bottom insulation removed and a gas burner attachment added. Also to hand was another large 200 L stainless steel pot and two 100 L stainless steel\u0026amp;nbsp;fermentation vessels.\nHere are some of the materials and equipment. The main pot was filled with water and brought up to temp, around 70-80°C, to this hot water the malt was added and the whole lot cooked for a bit.\nWhile we waited there was time enough for a traditional Bayerisch breakfast of sausages and beer with the kids together...\nBut then it was back to serious work, time to separate out the liquid and solid fractions. This was achieved by pouring into on of the smaller 100 L fermenter pots with a flat sieve at the bottom, just over the tap. The liquid was drained into a bucket and pumped back into the main pot. Silicon tubing was used that has been boiled prior to use, the tube also has a filter on the intake end.\nThe solid fraction was then washed through with a fixed volume of hot water 78°C, which was also pumped into main pot adding to the main liquid fraction, which was now about 150 L in total. A separate sample was saved for yeast incubation. Main bulk of the liquid (the wort) was boiled for 90 min, hops were are added at …","date":"9 Jan 2016","summary":"I was very glad to join Schlicki and Michi for some home brewing over the Christmas period, here is a rough summary of the process. Brew Day The batch was to be an IPA style beer, bottle finished. The main cooking pot is a 160 L stainless steel insulated vessel that has had the bottom insulation removed and a gas burner attachment added. Also to hand was another large 200 L stainless steel pot and two 100 L stainless steel fermentation vessels.\nHere are some of the materials and equipment. The main pot was filled with water and brought up to temp, around 70-80°C, to this hot water the malt was added and the whole lot cooked for a bit.\nWhile we waited there was time enough for a traditional Bayerisch breakfast of sausages and beer with the kids together...\nBut then it was back to serious work, time to separate out the liquid and solid fractions. This was achieved by pouring into on of the smaller 100 L fermenter pots with a flat sieve at the bottom, just over the tap. The liquid was drained into a bucket and pumped back into the main pot. Silicon tubing was used that has been boiled prior to use, the tube also has a filter on the intake end.\nThe solid fraction was then washed through with a fixed volume of hot water 78°C, which was also pumped into main pot adding to the main liquid fraction, which was now about 150 L in total. A separate sample was saved for yeast incubation. Main bulk of the liquid (the wort) was boiled for 90 min, hops were are added at various stages. Some before the 'hot break' (where small flecks of protein were visible in the broth). Once the cooking was complete further hope were added for flavour. A lot of mixing was done when the hops were added.\nA small sample of the wort (~5 L) was heated in conical flask to 100°C to sterilise, cooled to 20°C and then had the yeast added. This was incubated at 22°C until the main wort was ready and waiting in the fermentation vessels. The utmost care was taken to keep conditions sterile as much as possible, 70% alcohol spray was used to clean surfaces and anything that could be was boiled before use.\nOnce the wort was cooked for long enough it was transferred into two 100 L fermentation vessels via a muslin filter to remove any particulates and then though a braised plate heat exchanger to bring the temp down from ~95°C to ~22°C. The yeast solution was then added and the mixed with a soup ladle to introduce oxygen to the broth. A polystyrene box was placed over the top to help keep the temperature stable. A 10 L sample of the wort was saved before the yeast was added. This sample is later used a week later on bottling day. Once the yeast have done their thing on the main bulk of wort and turned all the sugars into alcohol the yeast free sample is added back so that the final fermentation takes place in the bottle to provide carbonation.\nThe sugars content of the wort prior to yeast addition was estimated with a hydrometer, this was later used to calculate how much sugar had been utilised by the yeast to give an estimation on alcohol content. The first measurement OG (original gravity) was about 16.2 [possibly BRIX or °Plato], which the guys were very happy with. \nThe day was rounded off with some more sampling.\nAdding the starter and then the final incubator box setup with the fresh wort samples sitting on top.\nBottling day (Brew Day + 6 days) The main pot was scrubbed out and water was boiled inside for 10 mins to clean, the boiled water was used during the bottle cleaning. The some of the 10 L of wort that was saved from before was added to main pot and the one of the fermented wort was added on top. In this case about 5 L of 'frest' wort was added to appro.x 75 L fermented wort. The fermented wort has a hydometer reading of 3.2, which indicated approx. 7% alcohol! Bottles upended in hot water with oxy no rises sanitiser, they were cleaned with tap water on a bottle cleaner, the rim was wiped with 70% alcohol, and then they were filled and capped. The other half of the wort was to be cold hopped and bottled later.\n","tags":["brautag"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBZxuX98P7D4_I4gM3ONuHacwPG4iqI-mx__3oYwRqhKj3b6PBB28QjCY9QUMDrVFN6zXQpETxTvLZIr-oR9__kOzAwFfa4t9_wlXNAMXgCch-_y0VmJX6NU5R3MY28hij9u7ttubWJmBTCFGXiYQbLQhBDHWfHGOpT86tYQbOFIidXDfmlj0_/w480-h640/20151229_093635886_iOS.jpg\" alt=\"Brau Tag / Brewing Day / Drinking Day\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Brau Tag / Brewing Day / Drinking Day","url":"/2016/01/brau-tag-brewing-day-drinking-day.html"},{"content":"This was a real pain, in the end possibly solved by having no page breaks in the sub-reports. It would also appear to be best practice having each table in separate sub-report\n","date":"17 May 2015","summary":"This was a real pain, in the end possibly solved by having no page breaks in the sub-reports. It would also appear to be best practice having each table in separate sub-report\n","tags":["ssrs"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"SSRS Index was out of range!\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201505ssrs-index-was-out-of-rangehtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#0B71C7\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201505ssrs-index-was-out-of-rangehtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eS\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"SSRS Index was out of range!","url":"/2015/05/ssrs-index-was-out-of-range.html"},{"content":"TLS protection should be a standard security policy these days. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s common place for servers hosting web pages and web services.\nCertificates are inexpensive and relatively simple to setup and use. The basic outline is that you generate a private key on your server, pass this to the CA. They will use this to generate the Certificate and public key. They send you back the certificate and publish the public key on their servers. The certificate, private key and the CA\u0026amp;rsquo;s authority chain certificates are installed on your server and bound/configures to be utilised within the the webservice in question.\nA 3rd party browser pointed to your https URL will request the certificate, which it uses to lookup the host servers details with the CA and obtain the public key. The public key is then used by the browser to lock the session key that it generates. Only the specific private key can unlock and obtain the session key that was locked by the related public key. Which is what the host server does and then both machines have identical keys to use for all further communication in that session.\nHere are the main elements and terms you may come across when setting up SSL protection using a Certificate Authority (CA)\nMachines:\nHost Server - where your web page or servces are being run.\u0026amp;nbsp; Browsing Server - the party that wishes to communicate with your server in a secure way. Certificate Authority - the party the enables the secure communications by issuing certificates and …","date":"19 Apr 2015","summary":"TLS protection should be a standard security policy these days. It’s common place for servers hosting web pages and web services.\nCertificates are inexpensive and relatively simple to setup and use. The basic outline is that you generate a private key on your server, pass this to the CA. They will use this to generate the Certificate and public key. They send you back the certificate and publish the public key on their servers. The certificate, private key and the CA’s authority chain certificates are installed on your server and bound/configures to be utilised within the the webservice in question.\nA 3rd party browser pointed to your https URL will request the certificate, which it uses to lookup the host servers details with the CA and obtain the public key. The public key is then used by the browser to lock the session key that it generates. Only the specific private key can unlock and obtain the session key that was locked by the related public key. Which is what the host server does and then both machines have identical keys to use for all further communication in that session.\nHere are the main elements and terms you may come across when setting up SSL protection using a Certificate Authority (CA)\nMachines:\n","tags":["d365bc","exchange","security","simple dev","talks"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"TLS/SSL for Web Services\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201504ssl-for-web-serviceshtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#6FB0D4\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201504ssl-for-web-serviceshtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eT\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"TLS/SSL for Web Services","url":"/2015/04/ssl-for-web-services.html"},{"content":"This is the easiest way to mount ISO images in Windows, that is all.\nhttp://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/\n","date":"25 Jan 2015","summary":"This is the easiest way to mount ISO images in Windows, that is all.\nhttp://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/\n","tags":["windows"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Simple ISO mounting\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201501simple-iso-mountinghtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201501simple-iso-mountinghtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eS\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Simple ISO mounting","url":"/2015/01/simple-iso-mounting.html"},{"content":"myphpadmin says: \u0026amp;ldquo;The mcrypt extension is missing. Please check your PHP configuration\u0026amp;rdquo;\napt-get purge libapache2-mod-php5 php5 apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5 sudo apt-get install php5-mcrypt sudo php5enmod mcrypt sudo service apache2 restart ","date":"26 Jul 2014","summary":"myphpadmin says: “The mcrypt extension is missing. Please check your PHP configuration”\napt-get purge libapache2-mod-php5 php5 apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5 sudo apt-get install php5-mcrypt sudo php5enmod mcrypt sudo service apache2 restart ","tags":["ubuntu","simple dev"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"phpmyadmin mcrypt issue / Ubuntu Server 14.04 / Fixed\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201407phpmyadmin-mcrypt-issue-ubuntu-serverhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201407phpmyadmin-mcrypt-issue-ubuntu-serverhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eP\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"phpmyadmin mcrypt issue / Ubuntu Server 14.04 / Fixed","url":"/2014/07/phpmyadmin-mcrypt-issue-ubuntu-server.html"},{"content":"If you are using MySQL databases in SSRS you have to manually add the parameters.\nFor a date range\nManually add two parameters\n@start (date/time)\n@end (date/time)\nGo into dataset properties\nUpdated the query with appropriate where clause:\ne.g. WHERE table.date between @start and @end\nThe system gives an error warning about defining the parameters, ignore this.\nDefine parameters in dataset properties\nlink parameter name \u0026#34;@start\u0026#34; with Parameter Value \u0026#34;@start\u0026#34; and same for @end\n","date":"8 Apr 2014","summary":"If you are using MySQL databases in SSRS you have to manually add the parameters.\nFor a date range\nManually add two parameters\n@start (date/time)\n@end (date/time)\nGo into dataset properties\nUpdated the query with appropriate where clause:\ne.g. WHERE table.date between @start and @end\nThe system gives an error warning about defining the parameters, ignore this.\nDefine parameters in dataset properties\nlink parameter name \"@start\" with Parameter Value \"@start\" and same for @end\n","tags":["ssrs","simple dev"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"SSRS 2008 R2 Report parameters for MySQL datasources \" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201404ssrs-2008-r2-report-parameters-forhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201404ssrs-2008-r2-report-parameters-forhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eS\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"SSRS 2008 R2 Report parameters for MySQL datasources ","url":"/2014/04/ssrs-2008-r2-report-parameters-for.html"},{"content":"Setup RS-232 connection between a Rotronic temp sensor and a Rasberry Pi.\nNext step is to write an integration script to import the data into a MySQL database.. ","date":"3 Apr 2014","summary":"Setup RS-232 connection between a Rotronic temp sensor and a Rasberry Pi.\nNext step is to write an integration script to import the data into a MySQL database.. ","tags":["logging"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXNmiky_goh2aUvvm2WxLd6xIYdWnSto22u-UNervmA5KUSoxOOKNl1B4fElYzLVgu0U-8R3qbMT5HnSS3A-quIGuzwwIMGNklCcT1bYAf1rTTpxjpvkYe5iF3VI4nJ1MSjxY/s400/blogger-image-1839524593.jpg\" alt=\"RS-232 temp/rh logging\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"RS-232 temp/rh logging","url":"/2014/04/rs-232-temprh-logging.html"},{"content":"Just need to update a setting in vtigercrm/modules/Emails/class.phpmailer.php\nfrom function IsSMTP() { $this-\u0026amp;gt;Mailer = \u0026#34;smtp\u0026#34;; to\nfunction IsSMTP() { $this-\u0026amp;gt;Mailer = \u0026#34;sendmail\u0026#34;; Thanks Nathan79\n","date":"18 Mar 2014","summary":"Just need to update a setting in vtigercrm/modules/Emails/class.phpmailer.php\nfrom function IsSMTP() { $this-\u003eMailer = \"smtp\"; to\nfunction IsSMTP() { $this-\u003eMailer = \"sendmail\"; Thanks Nathan79\n","tags":["networking"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Fix vTiger \u0026#34;SMTP Connect() failed\u0026#34; Error\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201403fix-vtiger-smtp-connect-failed-errorhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201403fix-vtiger-smtp-connect-failed-errorhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eF\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Fix vTiger \"SMTP Connect() failed\" Error","url":"/2014/03/fix-vtiger-smtp-connect-failed-error.html"},{"content":"Install SQL\nSQL install on C:\u0026amp;lt;br /\u0026amp;gt; Data on E:\u0026amp;lt;br /\u0026amp;gt; Logs on F:\u0026amp;lt;br /\u0026amp;gt; Restore db, add logins\nIIS, export the metabase to other nodes, don\u0026amp;rsquo;t use shared config\nEnsure admin password is the same on all nodes\nEnsure ASP.NET v4 installed (not 4.5)\n","date":"15 Mar 2014","summary":"Install SQL\nSQL install on C:\u003cbr /\u003e Data on E:\u003cbr /\u003e Logs on F:\u003cbr /\u003e Restore db, add logins\nIIS, export the metabase to other nodes, don’t use shared config\nEnsure admin password is the same on all nodes\nEnsure ASP.NET v4 installed (not 4.5)\n","tags":["sql","simple dev","backup"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Life Keeper Install Notes\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201403life-keeperhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201403life-keeperhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eL\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Life Keeper Install Notes","url":"/2014/03/life-keeper.html"},{"content":"T-SQL is\nUse ReportServer select * from ExecutionLog3 order by TimeStart DESC Source here ","date":"15 Mar 2014","summary":"T-SQL is\nUse ReportServer select * from ExecutionLog3 order by TimeStart DESC Source here","tags":["sql","ssrs"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"SSRS Access Logs - Big Brother is Watching\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201403ssrs-access-logs-big-brother-is-watchinghtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201403ssrs-access-logs-big-brother-is-watchinghtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eS\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"SSRS Access Logs - Big Brother is Watching","url":"/2014/03/ssrs-access-logs-big-brother-is-watching.html"},{"content":"Fix with a simple HTML gadget on the layout using this code:\nThanks David J. Schmidt\n","date":"15 Mar 2014","summary":"Fix with a simple HTML gadget on the layout using this code:\nThanks David J. Schmidt\n","tags":["web"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Fix Blogger \u0026#39;Seatch this site\u0026#39; bug\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201403fix-blogger-seatch-this-site-bughtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201403fix-blogger-seatch-this-site-bughtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eF\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Fix Blogger 'Seatch this site' bug","url":"/2014/03/fix-blogger-seatch-this-site-bug.html"},{"content":"File/Disk Browsing\nLists summary size (-s) in Gb/Mb/Kb (-h) units for all sub-directories of the current path (./*) # du -sh ./* Show everything, human readable file sizes, in a list # ls -lah Pipes\nUse the | after the first command to pipe the output to the next command e.g. Show all processes with the string apache in the command\n#ps | grep apache Screen\nIs a pretty handy tool if you do much work via an SSH terminal\nLaunch app\n# screen Detach current screen\nCtrl-a d List screens running\n# screen -ls Reattach a single screen\n# screen -R TCP/IP\n# ifconfig # sudo iwlist wlan0 scan ","date":"1 Feb 2014","summary":"File/Disk Browsing\nLists summary size (-s) in Gb/Mb/Kb (-h) units for all sub-directories of the current path (./*) # du -sh ./* Show everything, human readable file sizes, in a list # ls -lah Pipes\nUse the | after the first command to pipe the output to the next command e.g. Show all processes with the string apache in the command\n#ps | grep apache Screen\nIs a pretty handy tool if you do much work via an SSH terminal\nLaunch app\n# screen Detach current screen\n","tags":["networking"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"SSH Handy Shortcuts\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201403ssh-handy-shortcutshtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0B71C7\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201403ssh-handy-shortcutshtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eS\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"SSH Handy Shortcuts","url":"/2014/03/ssh-handy-shortcuts.html"},{"content":"If after trying the in-built photo web service for a bit you give up on it. Which is inevitable as its terribly slow, using normal home broadband in any case. It can be a pain to then remove all the thumbs clogging up your photo archive. But this can be done simply via SSH just move all the contents of the .@__thumb folders created to a single folder, check your not deleting anything you dont want to then wax the lot.\n# ipkg install findutils The QNAP standard find command doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t support the \u0026amp;lsquo;-exec\u0026amp;rsquo; expression, which allows another function to be run on each file found. So you will need to run the above commant to install findutils\n# findutils-find /parent_directory/*/.@__thumb/ -type f -name \u0026#39;*\u0026#39; -exec mv {} /thumbs_bin/. \\; Using this will find all the files (-type f) that match * (-name \u0026amp;lsquo;*\u0026amp;rsquo;) in all the .@__thumb folders in the sub-folders of the parent_directory/ and move each one to the /thumbs_bin folder.\n# rmdir ./*/.@__thumb This will clean up the directory structure and remove all the .@__thumb folders.\nhttp://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6060\nhttp://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=35\u0026amp;amp;t=37341\nUpdate: Photo Station is now usable! It creates the thumbs much quicker and web access us totally usable. Sharing also works well. ","date":"10 Nov 2013","summary":"If after trying the in-built photo web service for a bit you give up on it. Which is inevitable as its terribly slow, using normal home broadband in any case. It can be a pain to then remove all the thumbs clogging up your photo archive. But this can be done simply via SSH just move all the contents of the .@__thumb folders created to a single folder, check your not deleting anything you dont want to then wax the lot.\n","tags":["qnap","simple dev"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Photo Station QNAP\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201311photo-station-qnaphtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201311photo-station-qnaphtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eP\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Photo Station QNAP","url":"/2013/11/photo-station-qnap.html"},{"content":"# mount.cifs //Server/Share /mnt/win7/test -o username=xxx,password=xxx\nThis command will mount the folder \u0026amp;lsquo;Share\u0026amp;rsquo; hosted on \u0026amp;lsquo;Server\u0026amp;rsquo; into the nix folder /mnt/win7/test\nNetwork locations are case sensitive!\nThanks father_mande\n","date":"9 Nov 2013","summary":"# mount.cifs //Server/Share /mnt/win7/test -o username=xxx,password=xxx\nThis command will mount the folder ‘Share’ hosted on ‘Server’ into the nix folder /mnt/win7/test\nNetwork locations are case sensitive!\nThanks father_mande\n","tags":["qnap","networking"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Mount SMB in QNAP\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201311mount-smb-in-qnaphtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201311mount-smb-in-qnaphtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eM\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Mount SMB in QNAP","url":"/2013/11/mount-smb-in-qnap.html"},{"content":"Just finished a few days training on 3CX systems, and a very interesting two days it was. The trainer William has a distinctive style and great dry sense of humour that kept everyone engaged.\n3CX is a windows base IP phone system. In the simplest terms for a small office you install 3CX on a desktop PC, sign up to a VoIP provider (e.g. VoIP Unlimited or Spitfire) plug in a few IP phones to your Ethernet, configure, provision and away you go. As it\u0026amp;rsquo;s all IP based you can get a phone number in any region of the UK or any country for that matter. So office based in Scotland, but clients all in London, or France - get a local number to your clients and you are only paying for \u0026amp;rsquo;local\u0026amp;rsquo; calls. 3CX can go all the way up to a multi-location offices / call centres with thousand of agents. If you want to get fancy there are APIs and custom programmable elements to build your own digital receptionist, the kind that ask for your account numbers, report information from your account after you authenticate etc etc.\nYou can also get an app on your iPhone/Android to be able to make calls over 3G data or wifi via your 3CX PBX. Although if you want total flexibility on remote mobile access you do face the difficult decision on how to deal with security threat of opening a port for SIP traffic on your firewall to the public internet which is not a great idea.\n","date":"31 Oct 2013","summary":"Just finished a few days training on 3CX systems, and a very interesting two days it was. The trainer William has a distinctive style and great dry sense of humour that kept everyone engaged.\n3CX is a windows base IP phone system. In the simplest terms for a small office you install 3CX on a desktop PC, sign up to a VoIP provider (e.g. VoIP Unlimited or Spitfire) plug in a few IP phones to your Ethernet, configure, provision and away you go. As it’s all IP based you can get a phone number in any region of the UK or any country for that matter. So office based in Scotland, but clients all in London, or France - get a local number to your clients and you are only paying for ’local’ calls. 3CX can go all the way up to a multi-location offices / call centres with thousand of agents. If you want to get fancy there are APIs and custom programmable elements to build your own digital receptionist, the kind that ask for your account numbers, report information from your account after you authenticate etc etc.\nYou can also get an app on your iPhone/Android to be able to make calls over 3G data or wifi via your 3CX PBX. Although if you want total flexibility on remote mobile access you do face the difficult decision on how to deal with security threat of opening a port for SIP traffic on your firewall to the public internet which is not a great idea.\n","tags":["networking","security","windows"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"IP PBX / 3CX / VoIP Phone System\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201310ip-pbx-3cx-voip-phone-systemhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201310ip-pbx-3cx-voip-phone-systemhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eI\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"IP PBX / 3CX / VoIP Phone System","url":"/2013/10/ip-pbx-3cx-voip-phone-system.html"},{"content":"Quick \u0026amp;lsquo;what I did\u0026amp;rsquo; to setup Subversion this week to deal with SSRS projects and reports.\nInstalled the standard edition of VisualSVN Server\nhttp://www.visualsvn.com/server/download/\nInstalled TortoiseSVN on users machines\nhttp://tortoisesvn.net/downloads.html\nThe setup on the server was very easy, added users via the management interface, set the port and made sure the firewall was going to allow the connections. Created a couple of repos for the various project files.\nOn local PC checked-out the repo folder to a local drive folder and added the project files, simply right click to commit the files to the repo - marking all the files to be added.\nLogging all the commits makes it very easy to roll back and check on what activity is going on. Clearly it makes sense to split out as best you can the different projects into . I did notice it\u0026amp;rsquo;s worth it to un-version the user file that each project creates by default.\nNext thing to try is the VisualSVN plugin for visual studio which requires TortoiseSVN to work. And read the rest of the manual as TortoiseSVN politely recommends\u0026amp;hellip;\nEdit: Now also added the Visual Studio plugin from VisualSVN, which is fantastic and very straight forward. Do all your commits, check the logs etc from within Visual Studio.\n","date":"19 Jul 2013","summary":"Quick ‘what I did’ to setup Subversion this week to deal with SSRS projects and reports.\nInstalled the standard edition of VisualSVN Server\nhttp://www.visualsvn.com/server/download/\nInstalled TortoiseSVN on users machines\nhttp://tortoisesvn.net/downloads.html\nThe setup on the server was very easy, added users via the management interface, set the port and made sure the firewall was going to allow the connections. Created a couple of repos for the various project files.\nOn local PC checked-out the repo folder to a local drive folder and added the project files, simply right click to commit the files to the repo - marking all the files to be added.\nLogging all the commits makes it very easy to roll back and check on what activity is going on. Clearly it makes sense to split out as best you can the different projects into . I did notice it’s worth it to un-version the user file that each project creates by default.\nNext thing to try is the VisualSVN plugin for visual studio which requires TortoiseSVN to work. And read the rest of the manual as TortoiseSVN politely recommends…\nEdit: Now also added the Visual Studio plugin from VisualSVN, which is fantastic and very straight forward. Do all your commits, check the logs etc from within Visual Studio.\n","tags":["ssrs","networking","source control","simple dev"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"SVN / Subversion / Source Control \" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201307snv-subversion-source-controlhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#0B71C7\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201307snv-subversion-source-controlhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eS\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"SVN / Subversion / Source Control ","url":"/2013/07/snv-subversion-source-control.html"},{"content":"Really annoying bug this one, fixed the same way as Ant describes at\u0026amp;hellip;\noriginal post at\u0026amp;nbsp;http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12157528/ssrs-my-subscriptions-is-empty The users were authenticating in Report Manager as\u0026amp;nbsp;SOMEDOMAIN\\MyUser, while the ReportServer database was storing the users without the domain. All I had to do was prepend the domain to the applicable users\u0026#39; names in\u0026amp;nbsp;[ReportServer].[dbo].Users. ","date":"22 Jun 2013","summary":"Really annoying bug this one, fixed the same way as Ant describes at…\noriginal post at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12157528/ssrs-my-subscriptions-is-empty The users were authenticating in Report Manager as SOMEDOMAIN\\MyUser, while the ReportServer database was storing the users without the domain. All I had to do was prepend the domain to the applicable users' names in [ReportServer].[dbo].Users.","tags":["ssrs"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"SSRS 2008 R2 \u0026#39;My Subscriptions\u0026#39; page blank - Fix\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201306ssrs-2008-r2-my-subscriptions-pagehtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201306ssrs-2008-r2-my-subscriptions-pagehtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eS\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"SSRS 2008 R2 'My Subscriptions' page blank - Fix","url":"/2013/06/ssrs-2008-r2-my-subscriptions-page.html"},{"content":"Need to test out access to a mail server?\nFrom GNU/linux is easiest, fire up the terminal\nYou will need your username and password as base64, to get these use perl\nperl -MMIME::Base64 -e \u0026amp;lsquo;print encode_base64(\u0026amp;ldquo;username\u0026amp;rdquo;);\u0026amp;rsquo;\nperl -MMIME::Base64 -e \u0026amp;lsquo;print encode_base64(\u0026amp;ldquo;password\u0026amp;rdquo;);\u0026amp;rsquo;\nSave this output to use later\ntelnet mail.yourserver.com 25\nEHLO mail.yourserver.com\nAUTH LOGIN\n[paste in your base64 username]\n[paste in your base64 password]\nNow you know if your server is working with those access details or not\u0026amp;hellip; Thanks NDCHost\nhttp://www.ndchost.com/wiki/mail/test-smtp-auth-telnet\n","date":"22 Jun 2013","summary":"Need to test out access to a mail server?\nFrom GNU/linux is easiest, fire up the terminal\nYou will need your username and password as base64, to get these use perl\nperl -MMIME::Base64 -e ‘print encode_base64(“username”);’\nperl -MMIME::Base64 -e ‘print encode_base64(“password”);’\nSave this output to use later\ntelnet mail.yourserver.com 25\nEHLO mail.yourserver.com\nAUTH LOGIN\n[paste in your base64 username]\n[paste in your base64 password]\nNow you know if your server is working with those access details or not… Thanks NDCHost\nhttp://www.ndchost.com/wiki/mail/test-smtp-auth-telnet\n","tags":["networking"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"SMTP test from telnet\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201306smtp-test-from-telnethtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201306smtp-test-from-telnethtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eS\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"SMTP test from telnet","url":"/2013/06/smtp-test-from-telnet.html"},{"content":"Been working on a project that uses WSDL / Web Service feeds. This is a handy tool to quickly test out feeds, check access and contents of the envelope.\nhttp://storm.codeplex.com/\n","date":"22 Jun 2013","summary":"Been working on a project that uses WSDL / Web Service feeds. This is a handy tool to quickly test out feeds, check access and contents of the envelope.\nhttp://storm.codeplex.com/\n","tags":["simple dev"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Storm: Great free app to test SOAP/REST WSDL feeds\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201306storm-great-free-app-to-test-soapresthtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#6FB0D4\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201306storm-great-free-app-to-test-soapresthtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eS\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Storm: Great free app to test SOAP/REST WSDL feeds","url":"/2013/06/storm-great-free-app-to-test-soaprest.html"},{"content":"Pretty decent mobile access to SSRS reports on iOS devices. Handy to produce dash board type info. Be sure to set the correct localisation if you want to use date parameters.\nhttp://mobiweave.com/#!/bi\n","date":"22 Jun 2013","summary":"Pretty decent mobile access to SSRS reports on iOS devices. Handy to produce dash board type info. Be sure to set the correct localisation if you want to use date parameters.\nhttp://mobiweave.com/#!/bi\n","tags":["ssrs"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Mobi SSRS\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201306mobi-ssrshtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201306mobi-ssrshtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eM\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Mobi SSRS","url":"/2013/06/mobi-ssrs.html"},{"content":"Recently added two new physical drives into a QNAP NAS (TS-419P II) and performed online migration of the existing single drive to a 3 drive RAID 5 setup, here is how I got on.\nI shut down the NAS, although I later read this is unnecessary and the drives can be hot swapped, selected the previous drive from the list in RAID management in the admin pages. Clicked the MIGRATE button, selected the two new drives and chose RAID 5. Full documentation here.\nThe system warns that all services will be shut down and shows a % progress for the migration. This took about 12 hrs to get to 49% where it got stuck and without intervention aborted the migration and reverted back to the single drive setup.\nSecond try, after googling my problem, this time I manually disabled all of the QPKG applications through the admin pages. Again took about 12 hrs to get to 49% where it stuck for a few hrs. Further reading on the forums mentions mySQL and JAVA as being two particular packages that might need a manual kill (SSH in and use the kill -9 command). After Java was stopped the progress updated to 50% and the screen displayed the 3 drives as a RAID 5 array, the remainder of the migration took another 12 hrs to complete. Here is the item in the RAID management table.\n","date":"7 Apr 2013","summary":"Recently added two new physical drives into a QNAP NAS (TS-419P II) and performed online migration of the existing single drive to a 3 drive RAID 5 setup, here is how I got on.\nI shut down the NAS, although I later read this is unnecessary and the drives can be hot swapped, selected the previous drive from the list in RAID management in the admin pages. Clicked the MIGRATE button, selected the two new drives and chose RAID 5. Full documentation here.\nThe system warns that all services will be shut down and shows a % progress for the migration. This took about 12 hrs to get to 49% where it got stuck and without intervention aborted the migration and reverted back to the single drive setup.\nSecond try, after googling my problem, this time I manually disabled all of the QPKG applications through the admin pages. Again took about 12 hrs to get to 49% where it stuck for a few hrs. Further reading on the forums mentions mySQL and JAVA as being two particular packages that might need a manual kill (SSH in and use the kill -9 command). After Java was stopped the progress updated to 50% and the screen displayed the 3 drives as a RAID 5 array, the remainder of the migration took another 12 hrs to complete. Here is the item in the RAID management table.\n","tags":["qnap","simple dev"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKs9nt9hkTNKQtBJuahGuqOWOW54_bgDZl6BPNplXfQhx7eEHlnE9lh2BpgneiCbYNgDl6Lg5dx53ubbdMDpvE7nYN6m7nJk0eU1JPq5e1t_sJwBuivRRn0KzuAXO1xOjU5yae/s1600/Capture1.JPG\" alt=\"QNAP Online RAID 5 Migration\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"QNAP Online RAID 5 Migration","url":"/2013/04/qnap-online-raid-5-migration.html"},{"content":"After finding Symform a bit too slow for my needs I decided to move to Amazon S3 to give them a go and also to try out some more simple scripting.\nQNAP does have a web interface for backing up to S3, but it is a bit buggy and did not work for me. Looking in the forums people complain of issues with files that are too big or trying to copy too many files. Anyhow this is where s3cmd comes in.\u0026amp;nbsp; Written in python s3cmd is a command line tool that can be used to upload / sync files to S3. Installing this tool on a QNAP is covered by\nhttp://bit.ly/Zuuhou summarised by natebeaty, http://bit.ly/Z2Lzch 1. Install Python from the QNAP admin QPKG Center 2. Download latest s3cmd and transfer to a QNAP share directory 3. SSH in to your QNAP box 4. python s3cmd --configure 5. write shell scripts, add to crontab, etc\nThe original guide mentions that the config file is deleted on reboot, so need to check that out\nscrip file; with your backup its important to know the system is working and your files are being backed up. So a log file is essential, and why not have this\u0026amp;nbsp;notified\u0026amp;nbsp;by email as well. all this can be\u0026amp;nbsp;achieved\u0026amp;nbsp;with\u0026amp;nbsp;scripts.\n","date":"28 Mar 2013","summary":"After finding Symform a bit too slow for my needs I decided to move to Amazon S3 to give them a go and also to try out some more simple scripting.\nQNAP does have a web interface for backing up to S3, but it is a bit buggy and did not work for me. Looking in the forums people complain of issues with files that are too big or trying to copy too many files. Anyhow this is where s3cmd comes in.  Written in python s3cmd is a command line tool that can be used to upload / sync files to S3. Installing this tool on a QNAP is covered by\nhttp://bit.ly/Zuuhou summarised by natebeaty, http://bit.ly/Z2Lzch 1. Install Python from the QNAP admin QPKG Center 2. Download latest s3cmd and transfer to a QNAP share directory 3. SSH in to your QNAP box 4. python s3cmd --configure 5. write shell scripts, add to crontab, etc\nThe original guide mentions that the config file is deleted on reboot, so need to check that out\nscrip file; with your backup its important to know the system is working and your files are being backed up. So a log file is essential, and why not have this notified by email as well. all this can be achieved with scripts.\n","tags":["qnap","backup"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Cloud Backup on QNAP NAS\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201303cloud-backup-on-qnap-nashtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201303cloud-backup-on-qnap-nashtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eC\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Cloud Backup on QNAP NAS","url":"/2013/03/cloud-backup-on-qnap-nas.html"},{"content":"As the name suggests this is a fantastic resource for Linux info, guides and howto\u0026amp;rsquo;s. http://www.tldp.org/\nThe \u0026amp;lsquo;Single File HTML\u0026amp;rsquo; is probably the simplest \u0026amp;amp; fastest format for a kindle reader (as delivered by email to the device), with the one exception that the images wont load, but there are not many of these in the books.\n","date":"7 Mar 2013","summary":"As the name suggests this is a fantastic resource for Linux info, guides and howto’s. http://www.tldp.org/\nThe ‘Single File HTML’ is probably the simplest \u0026 fastest format for a kindle reader (as delivered by email to the device), with the one exception that the images wont load, but there are not many of these in the books.\n","tags":["ubuntu"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"TLDP - The Linux Documentation Project\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201303tldp-linux-documentation-projecthtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#6FB0D4\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201303tldp-linux-documentation-projecthtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eT\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"TLDP - The Linux Documentation Project","url":"/2013/03/tldp-linux-documentation-project.html"},{"content":"With the recent death of an HHD in my space PC I decided it was time to sort out my home storage of irreplaceable data (photos and documents) and my home media setup. Old Setup Storage: An old Windows box, 2x200GB HHD, Cloud Backup via Mozy, wired to ethernet\nMedia Player: XBMC running on an XBOX, wired to ethernet, SCART to old TV\nMusic Player: Old windows netbook, sitting on top of the amp; WiFi to ethernet, wired to amp\nThe older of the two disks gave out on the\u0026amp;nbsp;windows\u0026amp;nbsp;box and I lost a pile of downloaded media plus many old digital photos. The photos at least were recoverable from Mozy, best ~£50 quid I spent that year.\nNew Setup Storage: QNAP TS-419P, 1x3TB HHD, Cloud Backup via Symform\nMedia Player: Twonky Media Server. Wired to ethernet. New TV (Samsung SMART) also wired to the ethernet via a gigabit switch.\nMusic Player: Same as before\nQNAP is a network attached storage device (NAS) it\u0026#39;s basically a box with space for 4 HHDs and a linux\u0026amp;nbsp;operating\u0026amp;nbsp;system to run everything. I will add 3 more drives in due course, when I need the space, also by staggering the purchase/installation disks they wont all fall out of warranty at the same time.\nI no longer needed the old XBOX/XMBC as the video (and photos) now streams directly from the NAS over the ethernet to the TV via the DLNA service Twonky Media Server. While this was not pre-loaded on the QNAP it was a simple click of a button to install it from the QNAP web admin pages. The XBMC file browser is …","date":"9 Dec 2012","summary":"With the recent death of an HHD in my space PC I decided it was time to sort out my home storage of irreplaceable data (photos and documents) and my home media setup. Old Setup Storage: An old Windows box, 2x200GB HHD, Cloud Backup via Mozy, wired to ethernet\nMedia Player: XBMC running on an XBOX, wired to ethernet, SCART to old TV\nMusic Player: Old windows netbook, sitting on top of the amp; WiFi to ethernet, wired to amp\nThe older of the two disks gave out on the windows box and I lost a pile of downloaded media plus many old digital photos. The photos at least were recoverable from Mozy, best ~£50 quid I spent that year.\nNew Setup Storage: QNAP TS-419P, 1x3TB HHD, Cloud Backup via Symform\nMedia Player: Twonky Media Server. Wired to ethernet. New TV (Samsung SMART) also wired to the ethernet via a gigabit switch.\nMusic Player: Same as before\nQNAP is a network attached storage device (NAS) it's basically a box with space for 4 HHDs and a linux operating system to run everything. I will add 3 more drives in due course, when I need the space, also by staggering the purchase/installation disks they wont all fall out of warranty at the same time.\nI no longer needed the old XBOX/XMBC as the video (and photos) now streams directly from the NAS over the ethernet to the TV via the DLNA service Twonky Media Server. While this was not pre-loaded on the QNAP it was a simple click of a button to install it from the QNAP web admin pages. The XBMC file browser is more flexible than Samsung's interface on the TV and with Twonky you lose the ability to 'mark' a file watched or resume from where you stopped, but its small price to pay.\nLocal Storage Redundancy  I plan to use the following RAID set-up as I fill up the NAS box\n1x3TB: RAID 0, Available Storage 3TB, Fault Tolerance: None [current setup]\n2x3TB: RAID 1, Available Storage 3TB, Fault Tolerance: 1 disk\n3x3TB: RAID 5, Available Storage 6TB, Fault Tolerance: 1 disk\n4x3TB: RAID 5, Available Storage 9TB, Fault Tolerance: 1 disk\nI am (and plan to continue) using WD RED drives designed for NAS devices.\nOnce I get the second drive installed (in a ~years time) I will also have local redundancy on all the data which means I will only have to reply on the cloud backup if there is a biblical level disaster (fire/ flood/ locusts/ angel of death etc) and all the disks in the NAS die at once.\nCloud Backup I decided to move away from Mozy, mainly because it's not supported by QNAP! these were my alternatives; Amazon S3, ElephantDrive and Symform.\nOf these I chose Symform; they offers unlimited free cloud storage if you contribute spare empty space from your system (at a ratio of 'your data : contributed space' = 1:2). On the flip side its only a simple data mirror, no versioning or backup sets; but for my needs this is just fine.\nThe upload over my ADSL connection is a bit on the slow side, but it's getting there and soon my ~100Gb of photos and docs will be safely mirrored. To get the 100Gb for free I had to 'give up' 200Gb of space ~ 7% of my 3TB drive, not a bad trade.\nQPKG (QNAP apps) As QNAP is running on an Open Source OS there is a wide range of free applications that it can run/host; transmission, wordpress, FTP, SSH, webserver, VPN, LDAP, syslog, iTunes server, mySQL to name but a few. It comes pre-loaded with all the basics and though the web admin interface you can install more. Even more than that if you are prepared to SSH in and use an 'apt-get' type application named ipkg (currently 1329 packages listed).\nOther Handy Apps There are a variety of handy iOS apps that I use to control the media at home.\nTwonky Beam; this allows me to browse my NAS folders and choose what file to play on the TV, it also allows browsing on the web for any videos (eg youtube etc) and 'beams' them onto the telly. Very neat.  Wmote: remote control for Winamp; which is running on the netbook  Remoteless: remote control for Spotify; also running on the netbook, for those times when mine own music collection is lacking (I think I stopped acquiring mp3's when I left university)  Airfoil; cross platform app that allows the audio output on an iOS device to be broadcast to another device (windows/mac), in this case to the netbook running Airfoil speakers; this lets me for example listed to BBC radio from the iPlayer app on the iPad and have the sound coming out of the main speakers.  On top of these I also use :\nTeamviewer for remote desktop connection to the PCs in the house  FileExplore which as the name suggests allows simle file browsing and moving etc from the iPhone/iPadAnd last but not least  iSSH which is an iOS SSH terminal, which I use for basic system admin on the QNAP. ","tags":["qnap","cloud-backup"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Home and Cloud Storage\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201212home-and-cloud-storagehtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201212home-and-cloud-storagehtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eH\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Home and Cloud Storage","url":"/2012/12/home-and-cloud-storage.html"},{"content":"There is no quick answer to this from Google for Windows, but in Ubuntu it\u0026amp;rsquo;s dead easy\n$ sudo apt-get install get-iplayer With the package is installed run\n$ get-iplayer \u0026amp;ndash;get \u0026amp;ndash;url=\nGet all the info and documentation here ","date":"22 Apr 2012","summary":"There is no quick answer to this from Google for Windows, but in Ubuntu it’s dead easy\n$ sudo apt-get install get-iplayer With the package is installed run\n$ get-iplayer –get –url=\nGet all the info and documentation here ","tags":["ubuntu","windows"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Download Video from the BBC iPlayer\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201204download-video-from-bbc-iplayerhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#0B71C7\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201204download-video-from-bbc-iplayerhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eD\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Download Video from the BBC iPlayer","url":"/2012/04/download-video-from-bbc-iplayer.html"},{"content":"=iif(logical expression, true, false)\nUsing the if function to colour text the same as background for quick fix on divide by 0 errors in the middle of a report.\n","date":"13 Mar 2012","summary":"=iif(logical expression, true, false)\nUsing the if function to colour text the same as background for quick fix on divide by 0 errors in the middle of a report.\n","tags":["ssrs"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Simple expression to Hide things in SSRS\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201203simple-expression-to-hide-things-in-ssrshtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201203simple-expression-to-hide-things-in-ssrshtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eS\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Simple expression to Hide things in SSRS","url":"/2012/03/simple-expression-to-hide-things-in-ssrs.html"},{"content":"So here is how to subtotal a column that is itself a sum function. SSRS 2005 wont allow you to aggregate an aggregate function. For example, the total of a column showing a Running Total, useful in daily stock balance calculations.\nAdd the following code to the report Report \u0026amp;gt; Properties\nDim public totalBalance As Decimal Public Function AddTotal(ByVal balance As Decimal) AS Decimal totalBalance = totalBalance + balance return balance End Function Public Function GetTotal() return totalBalance End Function\nThis code adds two variables: totalbalance and cnt as decimal numbers. And two functions AddTotal and GetTotal.\nAddTotal allows items in rows to be added up, use as follows in a value cell, where you had;\n=RunningTotal(Fields!ColumnName.Value,sum,nothing) with\n=Code.AddTotal(RunningTotal(Fields!ColumnName.Value,sum,nothing))\nin the total cell, where it you were unable to simply use\n=sum(RunningTotal(Fields!ColumnName.Value,sum,nothing))\nuse instead\n=Code.GetTotal()\nSimply add more variables and public functions if you need to sum the sum of more that one field.\nInspired by this post on averages of averages link\n","date":"12 Nov 2011","summary":"So here is how to subtotal a column that is itself a sum function. SSRS 2005 wont allow you to aggregate an aggregate function. For example, the total of a column showing a Running Total, useful in daily stock balance calculations.\nAdd the following code to the report Report \u003e Properties\nDim public totalBalance As Decimal Public Function AddTotal(ByVal balance As Decimal) AS Decimal totalBalance = totalBalance + balance return balance End Function Public Function GetTotal() return totalBalance End Function\nThis code adds two variables: totalbalance and cnt as decimal numbers. And two functions AddTotal and GetTotal.\nAddTotal allows items in rows to be added up, use as follows in a value cell, where you had;\n=RunningTotal(Fields!ColumnName.Value,sum,nothing) with\n=Code.AddTotal(RunningTotal(Fields!ColumnName.Value,sum,nothing))\nin the total cell, where it you were unable to simply use\n=sum(RunningTotal(Fields!ColumnName.Value,sum,nothing))\nuse instead\n=Code.GetTotal()\nSimply add more variables and public functions if you need to sum the sum of more that one field.\nInspired by this post on averages of averages link\n","tags":["ssrs"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKWSlXMwkKiGwOWdFFne_iZewTxgSBr4g50nefEgizUyrt4oYZvQuhJwHUJ6t1Jy5Q41bsbUWrMo-SP4oC6Zqnba6GmMK6L3kLkEhgMVpsllld3F3UrDCPBOvhttcMTDahtreG/s200/ssrs\u0026#43;aggregate.PNG\" alt=\"SSRS - Aggregate of an Aggregate\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"SSRS - Aggregate of an Aggregate","url":"/2011/09/ssrs-aggregate-of-aggregate.html"},{"content":"Using Thunderbird on more than one machine can lead to messages missing from the index and reducing the usefulness of the global search.\nTwo easy options to re-index your IMAP folders and fix the problem\nRight click and open properties for the folder you want to fix, and click repair folder. This will also download the mail again from the server.\n2.\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp;Find and delete all of the files with the .msf file extension in your profile folder, as described here ","date":"7 Sep 2011","summary":"Using Thunderbird on more than one machine can lead to messages missing from the index and reducing the usefulness of the global search.\nTwo easy options to re-index your IMAP folders and fix the problem\nRight click and open properties for the folder you want to fix, and click repair folder. This will also download the mail again from the server.\n2.  Find and delete all of the files with the .msf file extension in your profile folder, as described here","tags":["exchange"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU-k4PSfEgC_ejqldHrMeHQgqxDGyJEPWVIWYsT-Peq1PJh3lZD5GWNlkfE6AUOqjnkiPPBWvQVBq5UzhfY6wtDR82IPSHfh1hiazlcXTqGcn9hB68pahr3umyKl7Quy1vmU2Y/s1600/tb\u0026#43;properties.jpg\" alt=\"Thunderbird Re-Index to fix Global Search\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Thunderbird Re-Index to fix Global Search","url":"/2011/09/thunderbird-re-index-to-fix-global.html"},{"content":"Data Connectors are a very handy way to give office staff access to the data they need from an MS-SQL database without any knowledge of SQL.\nWhere central data is held in MS-SQL databases but the application level is unable to provide all the various summary and analysis functions that fast moving businesses need.\nEither create views and link the connectors to these or simply link the connectors to SQL statements with a read-only access to the database. Once you have your new data connector saved it\u0026amp;rsquo;s easy to directly edit the .odc files to change the initial catalog, the view that is being accessed and user names etc.\nThe .odc file can also be changed between accessing tables or views or SQL statements. Via \u0026#39;Connection Properties\u0026#39; dialog found in the Data tab\nThe main advantage of data-connector driven excel models is that the data is refreshed from the primary source either automatically or at the press of a button.\nProvides\u0026amp;nbsp;as-good-as online access\u0026amp;nbsp;for business\u0026amp;nbsp;analysis or performance\u0026amp;nbsp;monitoring\u0026amp;nbsp;projects with virtually nil\u0026amp;nbsp;development\u0026amp;nbsp;overhead. ","date":"7 Sep 2011","summary":"Data Connectors are a very handy way to give office staff access to the data they need from an MS-SQL database without any knowledge of SQL.\nWhere central data is held in MS-SQL databases but the application level is unable to provide all the various summary and analysis functions that fast moving businesses need.\nEither create views and link the connectors to these or simply link the connectors to SQL statements with a read-only access to the database. Once you have your new data connector saved it’s easy to directly edit the .odc files to change the initial catalog, the view that is being accessed and user names etc.\n","tags":["excel","db","sql"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioSWg7s1zlR2MEsodu68IxSPuL5_XQeGGC_eR8Gkhq5sF9-gr0_hZB_r2ZpgV0iXDE-ojlCpjjykMvDec23SI-iREjYxpkpQcxCy8cWZ8cy6rUreOcZ8uY_MHl-0BR88uX9IDQ/s320/datacon1.JPG\" alt=\"MS-SQL / Excel Data Connectors\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"MS-SQL / Excel Data Connectors","url":"/2011/09/ms-sql-excel-data-connectors.html"},{"content":"Beats trying to find the right file to edit..\nsudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer\nsudo apt-get update\nsudo apt-get install grub-customizer\nDead easy to use also\n","date":"8 May 2011","summary":"Beats trying to find the right file to edit..\nsudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer\nsudo apt-get update\nsudo apt-get install grub-customizer\nDead easy to use also\n","tags":["ubuntu"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Grub customiser / Ubuntu\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201105grub-customiser-ubuntuhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201105grub-customiser-ubuntuhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eG\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Grub customiser / Ubuntu","url":"/2011/05/grub-customiser-ubuntu.html"},{"content":"A very handy bit of free software from MS for connecting SQL servers and executing SQL commands. For those just learning SQL it has a built in graphical SQL query builder that helps you get started. Also a very easy to use db diagram section which is always handy for reference when dealing with a new database.\nLink\n","date":"4 Feb 2011","summary":"A very handy bit of free software from MS for connecting SQL servers and executing SQL commands. For those just learning SQL it has a built in graphical SQL query builder that helps you get started. Also a very easy to use db diagram section which is always handy for reference when dealing with a new database.\nLink\n","tags":["sql"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Management Studio Express\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201102microsoft-sql-server-2008-managementhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201102microsoft-sql-server-2008-managementhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eM\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Management Studio Express","url":"/2011/02/microsoft-sql-server-2008-management.html"},{"content":"Have just spend way too long trying to work out why xbmc could no longer connect to a win7 smb share. The solution after much head scratching, simply uninstall Windows Live Login Assistant. Why this application should block shares from xbmc is beyond me. I have no idea what I was thinking about when I recently installed the Windows Live software anyway, most of it easily replaced by better programs. The guys at xbmc.org made a nice post on their forum about win7 smb shares, the windows live bug is mentioned there quite a bit. ","date":"21 Sep 2010","summary":"Have just spend way too long trying to work out why xbmc could no longer connect to a win7 smb share. The solution after much head scratching, simply uninstall Windows Live Login Assistant. Why this application should block shares from xbmc is beyond me. I have no idea what I was thinking about when I recently installed the Windows Live software anyway, most of it easily replaced by better programs. The guys at xbmc.org made a nice post on their forum about win7 smb shares, the windows live bug is mentioned there quite a bit.","tags":["networking","windows"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Windows Live ate my SMB share...\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201009windows-live-ate-my-smb-sharehtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201009windows-live-ate-my-smb-sharehtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eW\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Windows Live ate my SMB share...","url":"/2010/09/windows-live-ate-my-smb-share.html"},{"content":"Remote desktop has never been easier, useful for IT support for family members.\nwww.teamviewer.com\nThe most recent versions also include a chat function which is handy, although skype is still probably the best go to voice chat application.\nEven faster is the ultra easy to use web version from logmein with an even easier to remember URL\njoin.me\n","date":"6 Sep 2010","summary":"Remote desktop has never been easier, useful for IT support for family members.\nwww.teamviewer.com\nThe most recent versions also include a chat function which is handy, although skype is still probably the best go to voice chat application.\nEven faster is the ultra easy to use web version from logmein with an even easier to remember URL\njoin.me\n","tags":["windows"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Share that screen...\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201009share-that-screenhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201009share-that-screenhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eS\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Share that screen...","url":"/2010/09/share-that-screen.html"},{"content":"Out in beta now, Trillian for blackberry brings all your IM networks into one tidy and slick application. My home screen is now much less cluttered with only one IM app icon. While chats are not yet integrated into the \u0026#39;Messages\u0026#39; list the app is fully integrated with the profile manager and notification zone. The bubble style chat looks great and the app shows the current time and network coverage at the very top, not something I thought an IM app really needs, but its actually very handy if you are trying to chat in an area with patchy coverage... Check it out for free from http://www.trillian.im/get/blackberry/ ","date":"17 Aug 2010","summary":"Out in beta now, Trillian for blackberry brings all your IM networks into one tidy and slick application. My home screen is now much less cluttered with only one IM app icon. While chats are not yet integrated into the 'Messages' list the app is fully integrated with the profile manager and notification zone. The bubble style chat looks great and the app shows the current time and network coverage at the very top, not something I thought an IM app really needs, but its actually very handy if you are trying to chat in an area with patchy coverage... Check it out for free from http://www.trillian.im/get/blackberry/","tags":["blackberry"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgNarhlM8PdkiUgW1265pEj0bvYp1M_kRjS43VxMdvXtzZ5HEzeaE4LhHxpHM9l-73l6cQJYSDBZu83TubRVIgpDBOUoPMU8cWNR_erX1RFPqpo2o74laKhtunV8cZdjEcSSNl/s320/=%3Futf-8%3FB%3FdHJpbGxpYW4uanBn%3F=-777084\" alt=\"Trillian for Blackberry\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Trillian for Blackberry","url":"/2010/08/trillian-for-blackberry.html"},{"content":"I wanted to replace Win7 RC with a full version, the RC was set to expire on 01 March 2010 and it had started to nag me to update.\nLooking on the web it appeared it was possible to do an \u0026amp;lsquo;in place\u0026amp;rsquo; upgrade (i.e. maintain all installed programs and files etc) with some tweaking of the settings, however this was also only possible if I installed Win7 Ultimate, which is kinda overkill for what I need.\nIn the end I went with Win7 Professional \u0026amp;lsquo;Upgrade Edition\u0026amp;rsquo;. I assumed it would not let me upgrade from Win7 RC but I still had the original Visa Disks that came with the box when it was new, so planned to install that 1st and then upgrade to Win7.\nAs fate would have it no Vista install was required (thank god!). After booting to Win7 RC I put the new Win7 Professional Upgrade disk in and was able to do a custom install on the partition where Win7 RC was currently running from. The partition was not formatted, files and documents were moved to a backup folder (c:\\windows.old). All that remained for me to do was to reinstall a few apps.\nThe whole process took less than 30 mins to get the new Win7 up and running.\nWhen replacing Win7 RC the \u0026amp;lsquo;Upgrade\u0026amp;rsquo; editions work just fine for a custom install. ","date":"27 Feb 2010","summary":"I wanted to replace Win7 RC with a full version, the RC was set to expire on 01 March 2010 and it had started to nag me to update.\nLooking on the web it appeared it was possible to do an ‘in place’ upgrade (i.e. maintain all installed programs and files etc) with some tweaking of the settings, however this was also only possible if I installed Win7 Ultimate, which is kinda overkill for what I need.\nIn the end I went with Win7 Professional ‘Upgrade Edition’. I assumed it would not let me upgrade from Win7 RC but I still had the original Visa Disks that came with the box when it was new, so planned to install that 1st and then upgrade to Win7.\nAs fate would have it no Vista install was required (thank god!). After booting to Win7 RC I put the new Win7 Professional Upgrade disk in and was able to do a custom install on the partition where Win7 RC was currently running from. The partition was not formatted, files and documents were moved to a backup folder (c:\\windows.old). All that remained for me to do was to reinstall a few apps.\nThe whole process took less than 30 mins to get the new Win7 up and running.\nWhen replacing Win7 RC the ‘Upgrade’ editions work just fine for a custom install. ","tags":["windows"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"How to: Replace Win7 RC with Win7 \u0026#39;Upgrade\u0026#39;\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-201002how-to-replace-win7-rc-with-win7-fullhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-201002how-to-replace-win7-rc-with-win7-fullhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eH\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"How to: Replace Win7 RC with Win7 'Upgrade'","url":"/2010/02/how-to-replace-win7-rc-with-win7-full.html"},{"content":"Add this code just above the \u0026amp;lsquo;/* Variable definitions\u0026amp;rsquo; to the page HTML to remove the Blogger Navbar..\n*/ #navbar-iframe { display: none !important; } ","date":"24 Dec 2009","summary":"Add this code just above the ‘/* Variable definitions’ to the page HTML to remove the Blogger Navbar..\n*/ #navbar-iframe { display: none !important; } ","tags":["web"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Remove Blogger Navbar\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200912remove-blogger-navbarhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200912remove-blogger-navbarhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eR\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Remove Blogger Navbar","url":"/2009/12/remove-blogger-navbar.html"},{"content":"\nFinally a decent and free IM chat client for the BlackBerry that supports messaging for MSN (Windows Live), Skype (Chat only), Gmail (Google Talk), Yahoo! Chat and Facebook chat (and a ton of others).\nBlackBerry users have been waiting for ages for a decent Skype IM client and NimBuzz is it. Nimbuzz is well integrated into BB OS: you can set a tone in your profiles for \u0026#39;New Message\u0026#39;, a notification icon shows up with the mail, SMS etc and the app icon also shows the red asterisk if you have an unread message. No other IM client that I know of is this well integrated for Skype chats. It also works fine for MSN, Facebook Chat and Google Talk as mentioned earlier. This has allowed me to remove all the individual chat apps for MSN, Yahoo and Gmail and just use NimBuzz and a single app for all my IM chats..\nThanks NimBuzz. This app can be installed via BlackBerry App World\nRead more about it here on the official NimBuzz blog ","date":"23 Dec 2009","summary":"\nFinally a decent and free IM chat client for the BlackBerry that supports messaging for MSN (Windows Live), Skype (Chat only), Gmail (Google Talk), Yahoo! Chat and Facebook chat (and a ton of others).\nBlackBerry users have been waiting for ages for a decent Skype IM client and NimBuzz is it. Nimbuzz is well integrated into BB OS: you can set a tone in your profiles for 'New Message', a notification icon shows up with the mail, SMS etc and the app icon also shows the red asterisk if you have an unread message. No other IM client that I know of is this well integrated for Skype chats. It also works fine for MSN, Facebook Chat and Google Talk as mentioned earlier. This has allowed me to remove all the individual chat apps for MSN, Yahoo and Gmail and just use NimBuzz and a single app for all my IM chats..\nThanks NimBuzz. This app can be installed via BlackBerry App World\nRead more about it here on the official NimBuzz blog","tags":["blackberry"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6YUQHD5-wcEB7clUXnBwymVP_st42jFejVWo8V-JhBw0Vvly2D-hJlRQxNKlPhNF7gWlLtku5XE_SqUGRj8tIRfNtfJJsJwPMiRaRJI7aNBYtY2PBHvJZrk7FPE885zryKU6c/s320/nb1.jpeg\" alt=\"NimBuzz for Blackberry\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"NimBuzz for Blackberry","url":"/2009/12/nimbuzz-for-blackberry.html"},{"content":"Here is the macro code swap \u0026amp;ldquo;Final\u0026amp;rdquo; and \u0026amp;ldquo;Final Showing Markup\u0026amp;rdquo; view. Once saved as a macro it\u0026amp;rsquo;s a simple task to assign this to a keyboard short-cut.. Sub finalview() With ActiveWindow.View .ShowInsertionsAndDeletions = Not .ShowInsertionsAndDeletions End With End Sub\u0026amp;nbsp;\u0026amp;nbsp; I also wanted to make a custom \u0026amp;lsquo;Smart Tag List\u0026amp;rsquo; the easiest way to do this was to simply download this \u0026amp;lsquo;Cities Smart Tag List\u0026amp;rsquo; and edit the entries. This post on the MS web page was pretty hand. I simply replaced the terms after: \u0026amp;lt;FL:termlist\u0026amp;gt;with my own CSV data. In this case a list of UniProt terms to easily identify the controlled vocabulary in the text of reports. I did also start to play around with the naming and URL parts of the XML, however after several promising edits the whole smart tag list disappeared from the options pane in Word. So I gave up and reverted to a version where I had only changed the main name and the term list as all I really wanted was the in text underlining of the terms. ","date":"23 Dec 2009","summary":"Here is the macro code swap “Final” and “Final Showing Markup” view. Once saved as a macro it’s a simple task to assign this to a keyboard short-cut.. Sub finalview() With ActiveWindow.View .ShowInsertionsAndDeletions = Not .ShowInsertionsAndDeletions End With End Sub   I also wanted to make a custom ‘Smart Tag List’ the easiest way to do this was to simply download this ‘Cities Smart Tag List’ and edit the entries. This post on the MS web page was pretty hand. I simply replaced the terms after: ","tags":["word"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Custom Keyboard Shortcuts and Smart Tag Lists for Word 2007\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200912handy-word-stuffhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200912handy-word-stuffhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eC\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Custom Keyboard Shortcuts and Smart Tag Lists for Word 2007","url":"/2009/12/handy-word-stuff.html"},{"content":"PubMed updated their main page the otherday, which is nice.\nHowever there was a bug or problem with my Firefox keyword searches as they no longer worked. After a bit of digging I found a few handy to know URLs for use with pubmed/NCBI, such as:\nPMID links\nhttp://pubmed.com/19621437\nwhich will open the page for the article \u0026amp;ldquo;Generation of a conditional CREB Ser133Ala knockin mouse\u0026amp;rdquo; PMID:19621437\nSearch URL\nhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=nur77+dundee\nwill search PubMed with the following term \u0026amp;ldquo;nur77 dundee\u0026amp;rdquo;\nIn any case, here is how I used the above URL to fix my Firefox keyword search bookmarks. This might be useful for other sites where right-clicking and creating a keyword bookmark doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t work, as long as you know the correct search URL for the site in question. You can edit the bookmark HTML by exporting your bookmarks, making changes to the file, then deleting all the bookmarks in firefox (except the toolbar ones) and re-importing the file. No doubt there is a way to directly edit the live copy of the file but I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know where that is saved\u0026amp;hellip;\nFind the entry for your PubMed keyword and remove the post_data\u0026amp;quot;..\u0026amp;quot; part. Also update the URL to the following http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%s\nthe end result will look something like this, if your keyword is set as \u0026amp;ldquo;pub\u0026amp;rdquo;\n\u0026amp;lt;DT\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt;a href=\u0026amp;quot; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%s\u0026amp;quot; SHORTCUTURL=\u0026amp;ldquo;pub\u0026amp;rdquo; …","date":"30 Oct 2009","summary":"PubMed updated their main page the otherday, which is nice.\nHowever there was a bug or problem with my Firefox keyword searches as they no longer worked. After a bit of digging I found a few handy to know URLs for use with pubmed/NCBI, such as:\nPMID links\nhttp://pubmed.com/19621437\nwhich will open the page for the article “Generation of a conditional CREB Ser133Ala knockin mouse” PMID:19621437\nSearch URL\nhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=nur77+dundee\nwill search PubMed with the following term “nur77 dundee”\nIn any case, here is how I used the above URL to fix my Firefox keyword search bookmarks. This might be useful for other sites where right-clicking and creating a keyword bookmark doesn’t work, as long as you know the correct search URL for the site in question. You can edit the bookmark HTML by exporting your bookmarks, making changes to the file, then deleting all the bookmarks in firefox (except the toolbar ones) and re-importing the file. No doubt there is a way to directly edit the live copy of the file but I don’t know where that is saved…\nFind the entry for your PubMed keyword and remove the post_data\"..\" part. Also update the URL to the following http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%s\nthe end result will look something like this, if your keyword is set as “pub”\n\u003cDT\u003e\u003ca href=\" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%s\" SHORTCUTURL=“pub” LAST_CHARSET=“UTF-8”\u003ePubMed\u003c/a\u003e\n","tags":["web"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4JpLTJAZN1J8tFhpUFTe9GsZe2z89YtoBRnPWCPkegFpcF0tsk4y9BBu0FxSUmh0n3TS5hLarzIgUpzya6ySkM0cxo8ftzPh6sforjuBFq6CBL9wr4o5LxCncVylZQ5ZXUEaY/s320/new\u0026#43;pubmed.jpg\" alt=\"Fix Firefox Keyword Search for New PubMed\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Fix Firefox Keyword Search for New PubMed","url":"/2009/10/new-pubmed-search-ulr-firefox-keyword.html"},{"content":"So here is a wave about Guild Wars 2.. Although still no details about game play\u0026amp;hellip; Anyway I though I would have a go at embedding it.. From what I hear you have to be logged into wave to see it\u0026amp;hellip;\n\u0026amp;lt;div id=\u0026amp;ldquo;wave\u0026amp;rdquo; style=\u0026amp;ldquo;width: 560px; height: 420px\u0026amp;rdquo;\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt;/div\u0026amp;gt;\n\u0026amp;lt;script\ntype=\u0026amp;ldquo;text/javascript\u0026amp;rdquo;\nsrc=\u0026amp;ldquo;http://wave-api.appspot.com/public/embed.js\u0026amp;quot;\u0026amp;gt;\n\u0026amp;lt;/script\u0026amp;gt;\n\u0026amp;lt;script type=\u0026amp;ldquo;text/javascript\u0026amp;rdquo;\u0026amp;gt;\nvar wave =\nnew WavePanel(\u0026amp;lsquo;https://wave.google.com/wave/\u0026#39;);\nwave.setUIConfig(\u0026amp;lsquo;white\u0026amp;rsquo;, \u0026amp;lsquo;black\u0026amp;rsquo;, \u0026amp;lsquo;Arial\u0026amp;rsquo;, \u0026amp;lsquo;13px\u0026amp;rsquo;);\nwave.loadWave(\u0026amp;lsquo;googlewave.com!w+0baDzHlkA\u0026amp;rsquo;);\nwave.init(document.getElementById(\u0026amp;lsquo;wave\u0026amp;rsquo;));\n\u0026amp;lt;/script\u0026amp;gt;\nUm it wont work, possibly because i need to add that lower set of code to the overall page html not in this post, oh well.. But here are some fish instead\u0026amp;hellip;\n","date":"21 Oct 2009","summary":"So here is a wave about Guild Wars 2.. Although still no details about game play… Anyway I though I would have a go at embedding it.. From what I hear you have to be logged into wave to see it…\n\u003cdiv id=“wave” style=“width: 560px; height: 420px”\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cscript\ntype=“text/javascript”\nsrc=“http://wave-api.appspot.com/public/embed.js\"\u003e\n\u003c/script\u003e\n\u003cscript type=“text/javascript”\u003e\nvar wave =\nnew WavePanel(‘https://wave.google.com/wave/');\nwave.setUIConfig(‘white’, ‘black’, ‘Arial’, ‘13px’);\nwave.loadWave(‘googlewave.com!w+0baDzHlkA’);\nwave.init(document.getElementById(‘wave’));\n\u003c/script\u003e\nUm it wont work, possibly because i need to add that lower set of code to the overall page html not in this post, oh well.. But here are some fish instead…\n","tags":["web"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"More Google WAVE\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200910more-google-wavehtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0B71C7\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200910more-google-wavehtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eM\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"More Google WAVE","url":"/2009/10/more-google-wave.html"},{"content":"Just checking out the features of Google Wave, its in its early days. But plenty of things to try out.\nSome neat display options for the folders/contacts list etc. However, at the moment there appears to be a huge burden on the user as to the \u0026amp;lsquo;correct way\u0026amp;rsquo; to use a wave so that its not confusing for the other users. You can ping people (to add them into a wave at a certain point), reply in private, reply at any stage of a wave, edit someone else text in a wave! I though they wanted to get anyway from confusing monster email\u0026amp;rsquo;s.. Even with the playback, playing back a 60 reply message is not so quick..\nJust this moment had a live wave with Owen which was a bit like using an IM, although you can go back and edit the other persons replied. Not sure about that. Also no sign of the \u0026amp;lsquo;coloured by user\u0026amp;rsquo; text feature that I saw in the feature length preview video. However, it will take some time to see how it all works and will have to give the \u0026amp;lsquo;known bugs\u0026amp;rsquo; \u0026amp;amp; \u0026amp;rsquo;not yet implemented features\u0026amp;rsquo; lists a quick read\nThanks to Owen for getting me the invite! Check out the his web comic.\n","date":"12 Oct 2009","summary":"Just checking out the features of Google Wave, its in its early days. But plenty of things to try out.\nSome neat display options for the folders/contacts list etc. However, at the moment there appears to be a huge burden on the user as to the ‘correct way’ to use a wave so that its not confusing for the other users. You can ping people (to add them into a wave at a certain point), reply in private, reply at any stage of a wave, edit someone else text in a wave! I though they wanted to get anyway from confusing monster email’s.. Even with the playback, playing back a 60 reply message is not so quick..\nJust this moment had a live wave with Owen which was a bit like using an IM, although you can go back and edit the other persons replied. Not sure about that. Also no sign of the ‘coloured by user’ text feature that I saw in the feature length preview video. However, it will take some time to see how it all works and will have to give the ‘known bugs’ \u0026 ’not yet implemented features’ lists a quick read\nThanks to Owen for getting me the invite! Check out the his web comic.\n","tags":["web"],"thumb":"\u003cimg class=\"thumb-img\" src=\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy87pudfrPsNFyh7pOyMqsIjnZFSDXublJ-aDCS5_ZZMj3xiNyO5uo8qdw6AHH7BqKhfiTfyv1gbpwl5zh49zvT4JVxI12NmSy8DBWF-OZT8iiBqNFvTVZwhO64tijyKRsegJI/s320/wave.jpg\" alt=\"Google WAVE\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\u003e","title":"Google WAVE","url":"/2009/10/google-wave.html"},{"content":"Helping friends and family with IT support just got a whole lot easer with the use of Skype\u0026amp;rsquo;s share screen feature..\n","date":"2 Oct 2009","summary":"Helping friends and family with IT support just got a whole lot easer with the use of Skype’s share screen feature..\n","tags":["web"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Help Desk...\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200910help-deskhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200910help-deskhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eH\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Help Desk...","url":"/2009/10/help-desk.html"},{"content":"Using windows partitions in Ubuntu is no problem, however if you need to rely on a stable mount point you will want to add ntfs-config.\n$ sudo apt-get install ntft-config \u0026amp;amp;\u0026amp;amp; sudo ntfs-config\nIf while playing around with this you lose the partitions and then can\u0026amp;rsquo;t see them listed any more in the \u0026amp;ldquo;New Partirions Found\u0026amp;rdquo; popup when you load ntfs-tools you will need to clean your /etc/fstab file.\n$ sudo gedit /etc/fstab\nBe careful to only remove the windows mounts, these will have \u0026amp;ldquo;ntfs-3g\u0026amp;rdquo; written in the line.\n","date":"1 Aug 2009","summary":"Using windows partitions in Ubuntu is no problem, however if you need to rely on a stable mount point you will want to add ntfs-config.\n$ sudo apt-get install ntft-config \u0026\u0026 sudo ntfs-config\nIf while playing around with this you lose the partitions and then can’t see them listed any more in the “New Partirions Found” popup when you load ntfs-tools you will need to clean your /etc/fstab file.\n$ sudo gedit /etc/fstab\nBe careful to only remove the windows mounts, these will have “ntfs-3g” written in the line.\n","tags":["ubuntu"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"NTFS partitions and ntfs-config\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200908ntfs-partitions-and-ntfs-confightml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#6FB0D4\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200908ntfs-partitions-and-ntfs-confightml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eN\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"NTFS partitions and ntfs-config","url":"/2009/08/ntfs-partitions-and-ntfs-config.html"},{"content":"Problem: Mount an ISO image file\nGood old terminal\nTo make a mount point \u0026amp;ldquo;iso\u0026amp;rdquo; and mount the CD image \u0026amp;ldquo;image.iso\u0026amp;rdquo;\n$ sudo mkdir /media/iso \u0026amp;amp;\u0026amp;amp; sudo mount -o loop image.isoTo unmount the ISO and clean up the /media directory\n$ sudo umount /media/iso \u0026amp;amp;\u0026amp;amp; sudo rmdir /media/isoAlways good to know the terminal commands, thanks nixCraft.\nAdd a script to nautilus$ cd ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts \u0026amp;amp;\u0026amp;amp; sudo gedit mountAdd this text to make the \u0026amp;lsquo;mount\u0026amp;rsquo; script\n#!/bin/bash\n#\n# nautilus-mount-iso\ngksudo -u root -k /bin/echo \u0026amp;ldquo;got r00t?\u0026amp;quot;\nsudo mkdir /media/\u0026amp;quot;$\u0026amp;quot;\nif sudo mount -o loop -t iso9660 \u0026amp;ldquo;$\u0026amp;rdquo; /media/\u0026amp;quot;$\u0026amp;quot;\nthen\nif zenity \u0026amp;ndash;question \u0026amp;ndash;title \u0026amp;ldquo;ISO Mounter\u0026amp;rdquo; \u0026amp;ndash;text \u0026amp;ldquo;$ Successfully Mounted.\nOpen Volume?\u0026amp;quot;\nthen\nnautilus /media/\u0026amp;quot;$\u0026amp;rdquo; \u0026amp;ndash;no-desktop\nfi\nexit 0\nelse\nsudo rmdir /media/\u0026amp;quot;$\u0026amp;quot;\nzenity \u0026amp;ndash;error \u0026amp;ndash;title \u0026amp;ldquo;ISO Mounter\u0026amp;rdquo; \u0026amp;ndash;text \u0026amp;ldquo;Cannot mount $!\u0026amp;quot;\nexit 1\nfiNow make the umount script\n$ sudo gedit umountand here is the code\n#!/bin/bash\n#\nfor I in \u0026amp;ldquo;$\u0026amp;quot;\ndo\nfoo=gksudo -u root -k -m \u0026amp;quot;enter your password for root terminal\u0026amp;lt;br /\u0026amp;gt;access\u0026amp;quot; /bin/echo \u0026amp;quot;got r00t?\u0026amp;quot;\nsudo umount \u0026amp;ldquo;$I\u0026amp;rdquo; \u0026amp;amp;\u0026amp;amp; zenity \u0026amp;ndash;info \u0026amp;ndash;text \u0026amp;ldquo;Successfully unmounted /media/$I/\u0026amp;rdquo; \u0026amp;amp;\u0026amp;amp; sudo rmdir \u0026amp;ldquo;/media/$I/\u0026amp;quot;\ndone\ndone\nexit0Set the files as executable\n$ chmod 755 mount …","date":"4 May 2009","summary":"Problem: Mount an ISO image file\nGood old terminal\nTo make a mount point “iso” and mount the CD image “image.iso”\n$ sudo mkdir /media/iso \u0026\u0026 sudo mount -o loop image.isoTo unmount the ISO and clean up the /media directory\n$ sudo umount /media/iso \u0026\u0026 sudo rmdir /media/isoAlways good to know the terminal commands, thanks nixCraft.\nAdd a script to nautilus$ cd ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts \u0026\u0026 sudo gedit mountAdd this text to make the ‘mount’ script\n#!/bin/bash\n#\n# nautilus-mount-iso\ngksudo -u root -k /bin/echo “got r00t?\"\nsudo mkdir /media/\"$\"\nif sudo mount -o loop -t iso9660 “$” /media/\"$\"\nthen\nif zenity –question –title “ISO Mounter” –text “$ Successfully Mounted.\nOpen Volume?\"\nthen\nnautilus /media/\"$” –no-desktop\nfi\nexit 0\nelse\nsudo rmdir /media/\"$\"\nzenity –error –title “ISO Mounter” –text “Cannot mount $!\"\nexit 1\nfiNow make the umount script\n$ sudo gedit umountand here is the code\n#!/bin/bash\n#\nfor I in “$\"\ndo\nfoo=gksudo -u root -k -m \"enter your password for root terminal\u003cbr /\u003eaccess\" /bin/echo \"got r00t?\"\nsudo umount “$I” \u0026\u0026 zenity –info –text “Successfully unmounted /media/$I/” \u0026\u0026 sudo rmdir “/media/$I/\"\ndone\ndone\nexit0Set the files as executable\n$ chmod 755 mount umount\nThis should have added the two new scripts to the context menu. Thanks to animacide @ ubuntu forums.\nInstall gMount$ sudo apt-get install gmountisoWhile it’s good to know the other methods this one is by far the easiest to use. Thanks gMount\n","tags":["ubuntu"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Mounting ISO images and creating shell scrips\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200905mounting-iso-images-and-creating-shellhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200905mounting-iso-images-and-creating-shellhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eM\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Mounting ISO images and creating shell scrips","url":"/2009/05/mounting-iso-images-and-creating-shell.html"},{"content":"handy to know if you ever use \u0026amp;lt;pre\u0026amp;gt; formatting\nDashboard \u0026amp;gt; Layout \u0026amp;gt; Edit HTML\nFind /* Postsand paste this in on the next line down\n.post pre {\nwhite-space: pre-wrap;\nwhite-space: -moz-pre-wrap;\nwhite-space: o-pre-wrap;\n}Thanks go to Mike Tremell @ TL\u0026amp;amp;UM\n","date":"4 May 2009","summary":"handy to know if you ever use \u003cpre\u003e formatting\nDashboard \u003e Layout \u003e Edit HTML\nFind /* Postsand paste this in on the next line down\n.post pre {\nwhite-space: pre-wrap;\nwhite-space: -moz-pre-wrap;\nwhite-space: o-pre-wrap;\n}Thanks go to Mike Tremell @ TL\u0026UM\n","tags":["ubuntu"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Wrap \u0026amp;lt;pre\u0026amp;gt; text on blogger\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200905wrap-text-on-bloggerhtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200905wrap-text-on-bloggerhtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eW\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Wrap \u0026lt;pre\u0026gt; text on blogger","url":"/2009/05/wrap-text-on-blogger.html"},{"content":"This is the distilled version of Lifehacker\u0026amp;rsquo;s recent Top 10 Ubuntu apps.\nYakuake yakuake.kde.orgA handy console app, just hit F12 (or what ever key you configure the shortcut to) and a console drops down from the screen top aka Quake style.\nsudo apt-get install yakuakeGnome DO do.davebsd.com\nGreat keystroke launcher, has loads of plugins (such as google contacts, google docs etc) and can index a small (\u0026amp;lt;3000)\u0026amp;gt;$ sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.listpaste this text to the end of the file and save\ndeb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main\ndeb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main\nadd the keys$ gpg \u0026amp;ndash;no-default-keyring \u0026amp;ndash;keyring /tmp/gnome-do.keyring \u0026amp;ndash;keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com \u0026amp;ndash;recv A5D19FDCAA6ABB440CD3464628A8205077558DD0\n$ gpg \u0026amp;ndash;no-default-keyring \u0026amp;ndash;keyring /tmp/gnome-do.keyring \u0026amp;ndash;export \u0026amp;ndash;armor A5D19FDCAA6ABB440CD3464628A8205077558DD0 | sudo apt-key add -\n$ rm /tmp/gnome-do.keyringthen install it$ sudo apt-get update \u0026amp;amp;\u0026amp;amp; sudo apt-get install gnome-do\nUbuntu Tweak ubuntu-tweak.comHandy GUI with loads of settings that you would have otherwise never known about.\n$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweakThat\u0026amp;rsquo;s it for now, they are all very handy.. whats next?\nStill waiting for S-Video out support for my ATI graphics card.. fglrx is not an option at the momentTesting out open office to be sure I know how to use all the features I used to use in MS office before making the big …","date":"4 May 2009","summary":"This is the distilled version of Lifehacker’s recent Top 10 Ubuntu apps.\nYakuake yakuake.kde.orgA handy console app, just hit F12 (or what ever key you configure the shortcut to) and a console drops down from the screen top aka Quake style.\nsudo apt-get install yakuakeGnome DO do.davebsd.com\nGreat keystroke launcher, has loads of plugins (such as google contacts, google docs etc) and can index a small (\u003c3000)\u003e$ sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.listpaste this text to the end of the file and save\ndeb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main\ndeb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main\nadd the keys$ gpg –no-default-keyring –keyring /tmp/gnome-do.keyring –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv A5D19FDCAA6ABB440CD3464628A8205077558DD0\n$ gpg –no-default-keyring –keyring /tmp/gnome-do.keyring –export –armor A5D19FDCAA6ABB440CD3464628A8205077558DD0 | sudo apt-key add -\n$ rm /tmp/gnome-do.keyringthen install it$ sudo apt-get update \u0026\u0026 sudo apt-get install gnome-do\nUbuntu Tweak ubuntu-tweak.comHandy GUI with loads of settings that you would have otherwise never known about.\n$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweakThat’s it for now, they are all very handy.. whats next?\nStill waiting for S-Video out support for my ATI graphics card.. fglrx is not an option at the momentTesting out open office to be sure I know how to use all the features I used to use in MS office before making the big switch.. TOCs in text citations etcMight have to test out a windows emulator just incase.. looking at Wine winehq.org or VirtualBox virtualbox.org\n","tags":["ubuntu"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Essential Ubuntu  Apps\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200905essential-ubunto-appshtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#6FB0D4\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200905essential-ubunto-appshtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eE\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Essential Ubuntu  Apps","url":"/2009/05/essential-ubunto-apps.html"},{"content":"Had some visitors this bank holiday weekend and got an introduction into Geocaching. This is a great combination of computer geekary and getting outside for fresh air and seeing some nice sights. The most surprising thing is to discover so many interesting places in and around your home that you never saw before. In summary Geocahcing is \u0026amp;ldquo;a sport/hobby where you use multi-billion dollar satellite technology to find plastic boxes hidden in the woods\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nManaged to find the tools to play this kinda odd but rewarding GPS game using a blackberry.\nBlackstar Navigation blackstarnavigation.com This is a nice waypoint application, add co-ords by hand or download the free LOC file from geocaching.com/ and import it as a new waypoint. (BlackStar App \u0026gt; Menu: New Waypoint \u0026gt; Menu: Import GPX/LOC File).\n","date":"3 May 2009","summary":"Had some visitors this bank holiday weekend and got an introduction into Geocaching. This is a great combination of computer geekary and getting outside for fresh air and seeing some nice sights. The most surprising thing is to discover so many interesting places in and around your home that you never saw before. In summary Geocahcing is “a sport/hobby where you use multi-billion dollar satellite technology to find plastic boxes hidden in the woods”.\nManaged to find the tools to play this kinda odd but rewarding GPS game using a blackberry.\n","tags":["outdoors","blackberry"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Geocaching on a Blackberry 8900\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200905geocaching-on-blackberry-8900html\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#095CA3\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200905geocaching-on-blackberry-8900html)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eG\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Geocaching on a Blackberry 8900","url":"/2009/05/geocaching-on-blackberry-8900.html"},{"content":"\nUsed the \u0026amp;lsquo;Update Manager\u0026amp;rsquo; to get the new distro, 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope (Must be a relative of the Wolpertinger)\nInitial thoughts\nXserver crashed on re-boot, fixed this by completely removing fglrx and reinstalling some xserver packages packagessudo apt-get remove \u0026amp;ndash;purge xorg-driver-fglrx\nsudo apt-get install \u0026amp;ndash;reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri\ndpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorgFound this info at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/FglrxInteferesWithRadeonDriver thanks go to Nesta Campbell\nUbuntu logo is much smaller! which looks kinda cool on my small laptop screenXserver running slowApplications showing loads of lagClosing windows often gives \u0026amp;ldquo;Not responding.. Force Quit | Wait\u0026amp;rdquo;What\u0026amp;rsquo;s next\nGet a working fglrx installed so my S-Video out works agian (although I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t test this function yet in 9.04, but S-Vid didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t work under 8.10 without the proprietary ATI driver)See if I can finally get the \u0026amp;lsquo;xinerama\u0026amp;rsquo; option to work for my two screens (Laptop Screen and TV) or at the very least run them as two \u0026amp;lsquo;independent screens\u0026amp;rsquo; as opposed to clone screens, which was the only working option (after hours and hours of fruitless xorg fiddling) under Ubuntu 8.10\n","date":"24 Apr 2009","summary":"\nUsed the ‘Update Manager’ to get the new distro, 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope (Must be a relative of the Wolpertinger)\nInitial thoughts\nXserver crashed on re-boot, fixed this by completely removing fglrx and reinstalling some xserver packages packagessudo apt-get remove –purge xorg-driver-fglrx\nsudo apt-get install –reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri\ndpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorgFound this info at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/FglrxInteferesWithRadeonDriver thanks go to Nesta Campbell\nUbuntu logo is much smaller! which looks kinda cool on my small laptop screenXserver running slowApplications showing loads of lagClosing windows often gives “Not responding.. Force Quit | Wait”What’s next\nGet a working fglrx installed so my S-Video out works agian (although I didn’t test this function yet in 9.04, but S-Vid didn’t work under 8.10 without the proprietary ATI driver)See if I can finally get the ‘xinerama’ option to work for my two screens (Laptop Screen and TV) or at the very least run them as two ‘independent screens’ as opposed to clone screens, which was the only working option (after hours and hours of fruitless xorg fiddling) under Ubuntu 8.10\n","tags":["ubuntu"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04... Initial issues\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200904upgraded-to-ubuntu-904-initial-issueshtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0B71C7\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200904upgraded-to-ubuntu-904-initial-issueshtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eU\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04... Initial issues","url":"/2009/04/upgraded-to-ubuntu-904-initial-issues.html"},{"content":"Keyboard shortcuts are always good to know. Here is a list of the handy ones for a Blackberry 8900.\nGeneral functions\nAny text fields\nShift+roll ball: highlight text\nShift+Del: cut\nAlt+click ball: copy\nShift+click ball: paste\nIn lists and web pages\nSpace: page down\nShift+Space: page up\nHome screen\nTying: will start a search of your contacts, except the number keys that will also enter that number\nGreen handset: recent calls. also when on a call after you went to the menus this takes you back to the phonecall screen.\nQ: hold down to turn on Vibrate only profile.\nMessages\nE: next message with an error.\nR: starts a reply to the selected message, using the same address it was sent to.\nT: goto the top of the list.\nU: next unread message.\nP: previous day\nS: starts a search\nF: froward selected message\nJ: next message with same subject\nK: prev message with same subject\nL: reply-to-all for selected message\nDel: deletes message\nC: compose new message\nV: see saved messages\nB: goto the bottom of the list\nN: goto next day\nAlt+I: show incoming messages\nAlt+O: show outgoing messages and calls\nAlt+P: show all phone calls, incoming and outgoing\nAlt+S: show SMS messages\nAlt+V: show voicemail messages\nAlt+M: show MMS messages\nAlt+Enter: another way to compose a message\nCalendar\nW: week view\nA: agenda view\nM: month view\nD: day view (keyboard shortcuts don\u0026amp;rsquo;t work on Day view if you have \u0026amp;lsquo;Enable Quick Entry=On\u0026amp;rsquo;. I turned mine off as its so fast to create a new appointment by …","date":"16 Jan 2009","summary":"Keyboard shortcuts are always good to know. Here is a list of the handy ones for a Blackberry 8900.\nGeneral functions\nAny text fields\nShift+roll ball: highlight text\nShift+Del: cut\nAlt+click ball: copy\nShift+click ball: paste\nIn lists and web pages\nSpace: page down\nShift+Space: page up\nHome screen\nTying: will start a search of your contacts, except the number keys that will also enter that number\nGreen handset: recent calls. also when on a call after you went to the menus this takes you back to the phonecall screen.\nQ: hold down to turn on Vibrate only profile.\nMessages\nE: next message with an error.\nR: starts a reply to the selected message, using the same address it was sent to.\nT: goto the top of the list.\nU: next unread message.\nP: previous day\nS: starts a search\nF: froward selected message\nJ: next message with same subject\nK: prev message with same subject\nL: reply-to-all for selected message\nDel: deletes message\nC: compose new message\nV: see saved messages\nB: goto the bottom of the list\nN: goto next day\nAlt+I: show incoming messages\nAlt+O: show outgoing messages and calls\nAlt+P: show all phone calls, incoming and outgoing\nAlt+S: show SMS messages\nAlt+V: show voicemail messages\nAlt+M: show MMS messages\nAlt+Enter: another way to compose a message\nCalendar\nW: week view\nA: agenda view\nM: month view\nD: day view (keyboard shortcuts don’t work on Day view if you have ‘Enable Quick Entry=On’. I turned mine off as its so fast to create a new appointment by pressing enter)\nG: goto date\nT: goto today\nC: compose new appointment\nEnter: compose new appointment\nN: next day/month\nP: previous day/month\nBrowser\nR: reload\nY: history\nU: hide/show top status bar\nI: zoom in\nO: zoom out\nP: page info, possible to copy or email the URL\nA: add bookmark\nS: settings\nD: close browser\nF: find on page\nG: goto ULR, also shows web search, bookmarks and recent history\nH: goto home page\nJ: refresh page wirh java enabled\nK: show bookmarks\nC: connecton info\nV: search for on page/find next on page\nT: top\nB: bottom\nN: forward\n","tags":["blackberry"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Blackberry keyboard shortcuts\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200901blackberry-keyboard-shortcutshtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#3D6B8F\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#6FB0D4\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200901blackberry-keyboard-shortcutshtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eB\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Blackberry keyboard shortcuts","url":"/2009/01/blackberry-keyboard-shortcuts.html"},{"content":"There are plenty of berry apps out there, some good some bad. After installing a pile on a brand new 8900 curve (and bricking the handset in the process - App Error 200 - there was no O2 validated OS available at the time for a complete wipe and reload). I thought I would share what I have learned in the process.\nSo far on my new device, I am mainly sticking to free RIM published apps, the app that causes the big error was a Skype program either IM+ or iSkoot dont know which but I was in the process of installing and removing those when it happened.\nCurrently Installed and working well\nGoogle Apps a really nice package of all the google apps for blackberry use this link on your phone m.google.com or visit www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/. Google Search sure you can search google from the browser; but this tiny app provides a nice formatted search list, has \u0026#39;google suggest\u0026#39; enabled and also shows links to the other google apps at the top of the page. Google Sync this is what its really all about, this simple app syncs all your contacts and calendar information between the device and google, its completely seamless and automatically updates the data as and when required. Google Maps amazing, works with the phones built in GPS, works much better than blackberry maps, loads pages quicker, search is great, even has access to street view. Google Reader access to all your RSS feeds on google reader. Interface could do with some work, the first view you get is your reading list. …","date":"14 Jan 2009","summary":"There are plenty of berry apps out there, some good some bad. After installing a pile on a brand new 8900 curve (and bricking the handset in the process - App Error 200 - there was no O2 validated OS available at the time for a complete wipe and reload). I thought I would share what I have learned in the process.\nSo far on my new device, I am mainly sticking to free RIM published apps, the app that causes the big error was a Skype program either IM+ or iSkoot dont know which but I was in the process of installing and removing those when it happened.\nCurrently Installed and working well\n","tags":["blackberry"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"What are the best Blackberry apps?\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200901what-are-best-blackberry-appshtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0B71C7\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#37BEF3\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200901what-are-best-blackberry-appshtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eW\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"What are the best Blackberry apps?","url":"/2009/01/what-are-best-blackberry-apps.html"},{"content":"It is a dark day, after trying long and hard to fix my flatmates laptop I have to admit defeat. Trying to install an OS on a computer with no working floppy drive or CD drive is not easy. I was encouraged by the Boot to LAN - with PXE option the 3Com LAN card gave on start up. But after many hrs of trying to set my PC up as a DHCP/TFTP linux server to remote install the OS, I realised; Budapest is a cool placeI know nothing about programming, I should have never bothered messing around with Linux, I was only guessing that the hard disk wasnt completely fried and it is probably time for a new laptop anyway. I realise that all this open source stuff must be a great idea but the amount of time and effort required, for someone who has only ever used MS-DOS and Windows, is kinda inhibitory. I was bored last week and printed off this great article that I have slowly been reading, its entertaining stuff.. \u0026amp;ldquo;In The Beginning There Was The Command Line\u0026amp;rdquo; read it here\noriginally written by Neal Stephenson but more recently updated by a code-monkey named garrett who gives its a bit of a fresh perspective..\n","date":"7 Feb 2005","summary":"It is a dark day, after trying long and hard to fix my flatmates laptop I have to admit defeat. Trying to install an OS on a computer with no working floppy drive or CD drive is not easy. I was encouraged by the Boot to LAN - with PXE option the 3Com LAN card gave on start up. But after many hrs of trying to set my PC up as a DHCP/TFTP linux server to remote install the OS, I realised; Budapest is a cool placeI know nothing about programming, I should have never bothered messing around with Linux, I was only guessing that the hard disk wasnt completely fried and it is probably time for a new laptop anyway. I realise that all this open source stuff must be a great idea but the amount of time and effort required, for someone who has only ever used MS-DOS and Windows, is kinda inhibitory. I was bored last week and printed off this great article that I have slowly been reading, its entertaining stuff.. “In The Beginning There Was The Command Line” read it here\noriginally written by Neal Stephenson but more recently updated by a code-monkey named garrett who gives its a bit of a fresh perspective..\n","tags":["ubuntu","windows"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Just forget about Doom2\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200502just-forget-about-doom2html\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#0B71C7\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200502just-forget-about-doom2html)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eJ\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"Just forget about Doom2","url":"/2005/02/just-forget-about-doom2.html"},{"content":"\na dusty evening view of cars and trees\nThank f*ck its Friday tomorrow and then onto the weekend. Check out this amazing review of Firefox at Computerworld best of all are the comments to the piece - scathing doesn\u0026#39;t even cover it. I like using firefox and think that everyone should download it. Notes for next week: think about valentines stuff... Buy new digital camera: toss up between Canon or Pentax to replace my less that satisfactory Fuji Film brutto gigante. ","date":"3 Feb 2005","summary":"\na dusty evening view of cars and trees\nThank f*ck its Friday tomorrow and then onto the weekend. Check out this amazing review of Firefox at Computerworld best of all are the comments to the piece - scathing doesn't even cover it. I like using firefox and think that everyone should download it. Notes for next week: think about valentines stuff... Buy new digital camera: toss up between Canon or Pentax to replace my less that satisfactory Fuji Film brutto gigante.","tags":["web"],"thumb":"\u003csvg class=\"thumb-ph\" viewBox=\"0 0 240 150\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid slice\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"T.F.I.F.T.\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"\u003e\n    \u003cdefs\u003e\n      \u003clinearGradient id=\"g-200502tfifthtml\" x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\"\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"0\" stop-color=\"#0F1E2A\"/\u003e\n        \u003cstop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#0B71C7\"/\u003e\n      \u003c/linearGradient\u003e\n    \u003c/defs\u003e\n    \u003crect width=\"240\" height=\"150\" fill=\"url(#g-200502tfifthtml)\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"205\" cy=\"20\" r=\"70\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ccircle cx=\"30\" cy=\"140\" r=\"55\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.05\"/\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"20\" y=\"112\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"96\" font-weight=\"800\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.22\"\u003eT\u003c/text\u003e\n    \u003ctext x=\"222\" y=\"136\" text-anchor=\"end\" font-family=\"-apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif\" font-size=\"11\" font-weight=\"700\" letter-spacing=\"0.5\" fill=\"#ffffff\" opacity=\"0.55\"\u003eWINGATE365\u003c/text\u003e\n  \u003c/svg\u003e","title":"T.F.I.F.T.","url":"/2005/02/tfift.html"}]