ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[GenerateObfuscatedText]
	-- Add the parameters for the stored procedure here
	@inputText nvarchar(max) = '',
	@outputText nvarchar(max) output
AS
BEGIN
	-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
	-- interfering with SELECT statements.
	SET NOCOUNT ON;

	declare @intcounter int;
	declare @intstringlength int;
	declare @mynewstring nvarchar(max);

	select @intstringlength = len(@inputText);

	set @outputText = '';
	set @intcounter = 0;

	while @intcounter <= @intstringlength
	begin
		if ascii(substring(@inputText, @intcounter, 1)) between 65 and 90
			set @outputText = @outputText + nchar((cast(rand()*1000 as
int)%26)+65); -- A-Z
		else if ascii(substring(@inputText, @intcounter, 1)) between 97 and 122
			set @outputText = @outputText + nchar((cast(rand()*1000 as
int)%26)+97); -- a-z
		else
			set @outputText = @outputText + substring(@inputText, @intcounter, 1);

		set @intcounter = @intcounter + 1;
	end

	select @outputText;
END

BACKUP LOG AdventureWorks WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY

This is the result:

'TRUNCATE_ONLY' IS not a recognized BACKUP OPTION.

To circumvent this error in a DEVELOPMENT environment (not Production), use the following commands:

USE AdventureWorks
GO
ALTER DATABASE AdventureWorks SET RECOVERY SIMPLE
DBCC SHRINKFILE(N'AdventureWorks_log', 1)
ALTER DATABASE AdventureWorks SET RECOVERY FULL
GO

One should never execute the above commands in a Production environment unless you wish to lose all of your prior transaction log backups and the ability to restore to a given point in time based on those backups.

Reference

• DBCC SHRINKFILE (Technet)

Today when I attempted to completely retract my form (inlcuding manually deleting the content type associated with the form), I was presented with the always helpful error “The content type is in use“.  This is by far one of the more helpful errors you will ever see from SharePoint.  Unfortunately it isn’t clear how to discover where the content type is actually in use.  A quick trip to the content database for the site collection you are working in can show us:

DECLARE @ContentTypeName nvarchar(128)

SET @ContentTypeName='Content Type Name Here'

SELECT w.Title AS [Web Site], w.FullUrl AS [Web Url], al.tp_Title AS [List Title],
	ct2.*
FROM ContentTypes ct1
	JOIN ContentTypes ct2 ON LEFT(ct2.ContentTypeId, Len(ct1.ContentTypeId))=ct1.ContentTypeId
	LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.ContentTypeUsage ctu ON LEFT(ctu.ContentTypeId, Len(ct2.ContentTypeId)) = ct2.ContentTypeId
	LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.AllLists al ON ctu.ListId = al.tp_Id AND ctu.WebId=al.tp_WebId
	LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.Webs w ON al.tp_WebId = w.Id WHERE ct1.ResourceDir=@ContentTypeName

[Credit to Curtis Ruppe]

Once we know where the content type is in use, deleting it through the GUI is a trivial matter.

Note: I should also mention that the database was migrating from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005.

After resetting the SharePoint servers, browsing to the site in question brought the following error:

Server error: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=96177

At this point, we detached the content database in question (Central Administration » Application Management » Content databases). Once the database was successfully detached from the farm, it was reattached using the following STSADM command:

stsadm -o addcontentdb -url ‹URL› -databasename ‹DBNAME›

Reattaching the content database with the above command completely successfully, and as an added benefit performed an inplace upgrade, bringing the database schema up to SP1.  This might prove to be a helping hand when it comes to migrating to MOSS 2007 SP1 if your wish is to start with a new farm, but retain your original content.

“The Web Platform Installer (Web PI) is a simple tool that installs Microsoft’s entire Web Platform, including IIS7, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and the .NET Framework. Using the Web Platform Installer’s user interface, you can choose to install either specific products or the entire Microsoft Web Platform onto your computer. The Web PI also helps keep your products up to date by always offering the latest additions to the Web Platform.”

The Web PI certainly looks promising as a quick ramp-up when setting up a development environment (or even a one-off server environment).

sp_defaultdb 'SQLSERVER\dbuser', <DEFAULT DB>

Replacing with the new default database name.