I got following question from Chris Polek who happen to stumble upon my blog. I tried to answer it best of my knowledge but I am sure there can be multiple ways to achieve this. If you find a better solution, do comment!

Question:
I would like to create a column in a custom list that will sequentially assign the number 1, 2 or 3 to an item created in the list. After assigning a ’3′, it will start over at ’1′. Optionally, this could be a name as well, but a number will work just fine.

Would you be able to help me with this request?

Answer:
Interesting! You can do this by using a calculated column or by using a workflow.

Calculated column method:
You can base your logic with the help of ID column.
For e.g. If the id of the list item is 3 or 6 or 9 or if the sum of the digits is 3/6/9 then put the column value as 3
For e.g. If id =12 then 1+2= 3 hence you will print 3
If all above is false then if the id is even number then print 2 else print 1

If above logic seems complicated then try this
Workflow method:
Create another list, create one list item where Title = 1
Now on your original list write a workflow which will read this value and print in your custom column. Once this is done the workflow will also increment the value into another list by one or reset it to one if it has reached to 3

This week I met Parag, and he has a really effective concept of learning technologies. He has a website called as “Do It Yourself Computer Science” where one can learn the technology with his own pace and then interact socially using twitter with others who are too learning the same course at that time. This happens by forming online study groups. This concept is called as Flipping the classroom which is a revolutionary concept that can replace the conventional classrooms. Watch this TED video about what flipping the classroom means.

<div style="position:absolute; z-index:1000;display:block;width:100%" id="divInProg" >

<table id="tblExPage" style="display:block" width="100%" >

<tr><td align="center">

<table width="75%" >

<tr>

<td align="center">

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<div id="s4-simple-card-content">

<h1>

<img id="gearsImage" alt="This animation indicates the operation is in progress." src="/_layouts/images/gears_anv4.gif" style="width:24px; height:24px; font-size:0px;" align="absmiddle" />

Processing…

</div>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</td>

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</table>

</div>

C# Solution:

If you need to do this using C# code then may be following link by Mano Mangaldas may help you.

Programmatically show processing screen ( Using SPLongOperation )

Removing all HTML tags from a string

<xsl:template name="removeHtmlTags">
<xsl:param name="html"/>
<xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="contains($html, ‘&lt;’)">
        <xsl:value-of select="substring-before($html, ‘&lt;’)"/>
        <!– Recurse through HTML –>
        <xsl:call-template name="removeHtmlTags">
        <xsl:with-param name="html" select="substring-after($html, ‘&gt;’)"/>
        </xsl:call-template>
    </xsl:when>
    <xsl:otherwise>
        <xsl:value-of select="$html"/>
    </xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>

Thanks.

<xsl:variable name="MyPrice">
    <xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="contains(@Price, ‘,’)">
        <xsl:value-of select="concat(substring-before(@Price, ‘,’), substring-after(@Price, ‘,’))" />
    </xsl:when>
    <xsl:otherwise>
        <xsl:value-of select="@Price" />
    </xsl:otherwise>
    </xsl:choose>
</xsl:variable>

There is always a better solution to what we do, so if you know anything better, do let me know.

I found a workaround which I generally use.

1. Create 2 variables from dates. I’m converting both dates to US format and then to a number with year, month and date sequence to ensure correctness.

<xsl:variable name="ExpiryDate1" select="number(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@ExpirationDate), 1033, ‘yyyyMMdd’))"/>

<xsl:variable name="OtherDate2" select="number(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@OtherDate), 1033, ‘yyyyMMdd’))"/>

2. Compare them to find out which one is greater

<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test=’ExpirationDate-OtherDate >= 0′>

   // Do Something
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise> 

  // Do Something

</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>

I don’t claim that this the best solution I have got, while it works very well. If you know anything better, please share!

Setting disable-output-escaping="no" doesn’t work in this case, because then it displays the HTML coding for the link (‘a’ tag).

The easiest solution to get rid of ‘A’ tag is to remove it completely using sub-string function.

For example if you are showing a column named “Category”, in this case you can replace

<xsl:value-of select="@Category" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>

with

<xsl:value-of select="substring-before(substring-after(@Category, ‘&gt;’), ‘&lt;’)" disable-output-escaping="yes"/>

Although SharePoint has an inbuilt “ID” field and Issue Tracker list can Issue ID. But they simply just provide running numbers like 1, 2, 3, 4.What if you need some prefix and also a choice from where the sequential numbers should start.

You can achieve this through different approaches, like using an event handler etc., but I think the following is the simplest of all.

Here is the step by step instructions on how to get this done.

There are two parts for this solution.

Part 1: Getting the desired sequential number

1. First of all we need to create a list which will help us in generating the numbers, let us call this list as “Unique Numbers”

2. Add one number field, “LastNumber” and one calculated field “NextNumber” to this list. The formula to be used for NextNumber is “[LastNumber]+1″(Note: The data type returned from this formula should be number)

3. Let us add a new Item to this list with the following information

Title : ORDERNO

LastNumber : 99

4. Now we need to create the second list I will call it “Orders”

5. Add a number field “OrderNo” to this new list, now we are ready to build the workflow to generate unique sequential numbers

6. Open your web site in SharePoint Designer (SPD) .Create a new workflow. In the File menu, select New->Workflow…

7. In the dialog that appears, give the workflow a name, e.g. “Assign Order Number”. In the drop-down list below, choose to connect the workflow to the list you want to assign auto sequential numbers to (In this case, this would be a list called Orders). Then check the middle option of the three check boxes below, “Start this workflow automatically when a new item is created”.

8. On the same dialog, there is a button at the bottom called “Variables”. Click it. Choose “Add”, name it “mNumber” and make it of type “Number”. Click OK, and OK again. Now, click “Next” in the dialog.

9. You can leave the step name as is (“Step 1″). Leave the “Condition” empty, and click the “Actions” button. In the menu that appears, select “Set workflow variable”. This will add an action to the list to the right of the Actions button. Now you need to set up this action. Click the link “Workflow variable”, this will open a small dropdown list. Select “Variable: mNumber”. Then click the next link, “value”. This will display a textbox and a small button in place of the link. Click the button (“Show databindings”). This will bring up a new dialog, where you will select the value to assign to the “mNumber” variable. In the “Data Source” drop down, select “Unique Numbers”. In the drop down just below (“Field:”) select “NextNumber”. Now, the dialog will be expanded with a “Find list object” section. In the drop down “Field”, select “Unique Numbers:Title”, and in the value box below, type ORDERNO. Click OK. SPD will now give a warning that the look up might return more than one value, just select “Yes” to continue here.

10. Now you add one more action. Click the “Actions” button and select “Set field in current object”. Click the “field” link in the new action, and in the list that appears, select the field in your list that is the target of the autonumber (e.g. “OrderNo”). Then click the “value” link, and once again click the little button that appears (“Show databindings”). This time, in the “Data Source” drop down, select “Workflow data”, and then in the next drop down, select the variable “mNumber”. Click OK.

11. Add yet another action, this time choose the “Update list item” action. Click the link in the new action, “update list object in this list”. This brings up another dialog, in the “List” drop down, select “Unique Numbers”. Click the “Add” button just below to the right, and in the new dialog’s first drop down (“Set this field:”), select “LastNumber” and to the right of the “To this value:” text box, click the formula button. Again, a new dialog appears, in the “Data Source” dropdown, select “Workflow data” and then in the “Field” drop down, select “Variable: mNumber”. Click OK twice to get back to the “Update list item” dialog. Now, once again in the “Find list object” section, select “Unique Numbers:Title”, and type in the value ORDERNO. SPD will give a warning again, click “Yes”.

12. That’s it. Click the “Finish” button, and if all is well, the workflow will be created.

13. Now when you create a new item in the Customers list you will see that a unique sequential “OrderNo” is generated

Now we have achieved our first goal of generating a desired sequential number. Now on to Part 2

Part 2: Adding a prefix to the sequential number, in this case current date in YYYYMMDD format

1. Create a field “Today’s Date” this should be of “Date and Time” type and default value should be today’s date.

2. Create another field “OrderID” of calculated type and use this formula

=TEXT(Today’s Date,”yyyymmdd”)&OrderNo

Now when you create a new item on Orders list you will see that a new OrderID is generated .

Note: The field names mentioned here for example purpose, you can use any name with the same logic to make it work.

Along with some games, opera mobile browser, gmail, nimbuzz (or skype) what I always need is a good mobile wallet application which will store my banking details, credit card details, ATM pins, some secret notes, etc.

Previously I use to store all this information into password protected notes, but recently when my friend from South Africa become victim of some spyware and lost his PayPal balance, I got more serious about the security of my data in my PC and in my mobile. I realized that I need some tool which will store my sensitive information in an encrypted format which is not easy to break.

So I started my journey to search a tool which will keep my data secure in my mobile. After trying around 5-6 products, I came across a wallet application which promised all. I said “promised” because many tools promise a lot and perform much lesser. The promises were high, so I decided if this tool is able to keep it words then I’ll surely recommend it to my readers.

Now when I’m using this tool on my mobile and PC (yes PC too) from last 6 months and I’m completely satisfied with it, its time I should introduce it to you guys.

The tool is SPB Wallet from SPB Software

Using SPB Wallet, I can not only store my banking/credit card details, i can store them in a categorized fashion. All the information is encrypted using Strong 256-bit AES encryption.  All the data is password protected and they have their own click keyboard which keeps key Loggers (viruses which steal your data by logging your keys) guessing what you are typing. So this satisfied my purpose of having a tool which will keep my data extremely secure. More over if you forget to close the application, it locks up automatically. Man, this is amaaaazing…

The best part is it also has a desktop tool which comes in the same package, which installs on your desktop and you can synchronize the data between your mobile and desktop. It also integrates with browser and then you can choose to store your email/website passwords into the wallet so that when next time you forget them, you can check them into the wallet.

Another security feature I love the most is, it doesn’t show the pins/passwords directly on the screen instead it shows **** and when you click on the stars, it reveals your password to you.

Icing on the cake:
Above all, it has a very nice UI which gives a very rich experience. See some screen shots below

Things I didn’t like about SPB Wallet:

1. While using the desktop application, and when you have connected your mobile using Bluetooth, you need to click on the Sync button twice or thrice. But being a programmer I can understand that this must be a phone-PC connectivity issue so we cannot blame the coders of this application
2. ‘Search’ is the feature which is used less, so instead of giving ‘search’ button, if they would have had ‘Exit’ then it would have saved time. Now you always need to choose ‘Exit’ from the menu. But this may be my personal view.

Bad news: This is not for those who believe that best things in life are free. It has some moderate price. But I think it is worth than becoming a victim of viruses and loosing your bank balance and getting huge credit card bills. My purpose of buying SPB Wallet was – being a user of online banking, I wanted to protect my financial information.

You may find more information about the feature here
http://www.spb.com/symbian-software/wallet/

But think again, does taking surveys really waste our time? I do not agree. They pay us back. They pay us back so well than we ever realize. Imagine a service oriented company providing service but not listening to customer feedback! What will happen to their business? It will go lost and customers will go running to competitors. But what if all of them go deaf and no one is actually listening to the customer? Obviously we customers suffer! Same thing happens when we refuse to take surveys.

Why does it matter?

Few of us do take the surveys but most of us don’t.  Those few people who are answering the surveys actually decide how the future products or services will look and function. If more and more people come forward and take surveys, the companies will be in a better position to know what to deliver. This will save their time and ours too.

Economical cause: When companies will be in a better position to deliver better products in fewer time frames, it will save their money and will reduce the product price too. Now it is only us who will benefit if the cost reduces. Imagine next morning you are able to buy iPhone 3G in a price of other less featured mobile phone models.

power of taking surveys

Take one better example. After releasing Windows-XP, few years later the software giant came to know that people have a relatively higher priority to the battery life of the laptop. So with their next product Windows Vista, they come up with software changes which now enables laptops to long 30% more with the same battery. Intel too supported this and came up with energy efficient processors. Now if we would have been successful to give this feedback in the year 2002 itself, all the world’s laptops that run Windows-XP would have consumed 30% less power for more than 5 years! Imagine the kind of electricity saved. Every day we cut down 214000 acres (yes, 214,000 acres) of rainforest land most of which goes for generating electricity.

A survey is a 2 way sword. The lesser people answer it, the more deep cuts it will give. There are many social, economical benefits of taking surveys.

Now days some companies even pay you for answering surveys. Answering a survey is a kind of self help. Please do a favor to yourself and spend at least 1 hour per month answering surveys. I think we can do this much for our and upcoming generation’s better future.

There is much to write about surveys and how they can be better and efficient. How to build a survey which takes lesser time and yields maximum information and how they should be analyzed correctly. But before writing more, I would like to hear from you. Feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks!