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If you have an account on Exchange via Office 365, install the Office suite on all your devices, configure Outlook to access the Office 365 account. All your mail, contacts, tasks, notes, & calendar are kept on Exchange. You get a copy on each machine. Each Outlook installation will access the same data for the same account.

I understand how Exchange works and the cost of the Office 365 package but if you look at my original post my issue is with the high cost of migrating my existing Exchange service over to the hosting at MS. I honestly don’t know how technical the process is but having conversation with one of MS’s “certified partners”, they are quoting around $1,000 to do this. That’s quite a hit for a SOHO business like mine. Do you know if this is something I can DIY and leave the outside contractor out of it? That’s why I was originally asking if I can ditch Exchange all together and go with some other cloud based service of some sorts.

If you are committed to using the Office suite check out Office 365 Small Business Premium. It is relatively inexpensive and one license covers 5 phones, 5 tablets, and 5 PCs or Macs per user. Get it through Microsoft and pay for the annual plan as it is the cheapest. You can search for deals and still get it through Microsoft instead of a partner.

How does this help me keep everything in sync across all my devices?

You could try this –> http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/apps_windows_10-winapps/unable-to-install-vs2015-on-windows-10/c7184b9b-9370-4945-8f45-7db5c53ec621

This may be one of those deals where you have to hide the image column and programmatically add a text column next to it and based upon the evaluation of the cell value of the image, insert whatever text you want in the new column. Does this make any sense?

I’m not sure how you’re querying for the data but you could possibly do a Case Select to get whatever you need for that column.

Example: SELECT CASE [ColumnName] WHEN NULL THEN ‘Empty’ ELSE ‘Available’ END AS SomeName FROM YourTable

This assumes the column value is Nullable.

That’s something that you’re going to have to experiment with. Start with a low number, say 5 seconds for example, and see if it hooks up under normal conditions (with the database accessible). If you get a bunch of nuisance timeouts then you’re going to have to increase the value until you feel that it’s stable.

Take a look at web scraping to see if that fits your needs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping

http://www.codediesel.com/php/web-scraping-in-php-tutorial/

I believe the standard connection timeout is 30 seconds. You can change that to keep the hang-up to whatever minimum that works for you.

In VB.NET I typically use a DataView to set filtering on a data table derived from a dataset. Set the DataGridView datasource to the DataView for the filtered results. I’m assuming that you already have a populated dataset or at least can get that. I believe you can do this also in ASP. In my example I’m building my criteria from an enumerator value. You would probably use a string instead.

Imports System.Data

Private dt As New DataTable
Private AllFiltersSelected As Boolean

‘Assumes you have a filled dataset (ds)
dt = ds.Tables(0)

‘Examine each check box to see what has been selected and build the criteria string
Private Sub FilterData()

Dim dv As DataView
Dim RowFilter As String = “”
Dim Criteria As String = “”
Dim Filter As Boolean = False

Try

If AllFiltersSelected Then

dgvEvents.DataSource = dt
dgvEvents.Columns(0).Visible = False

Else

If chkAPLAlarm.Checked = True Then

Criteria = “EventTypeId = ” & CStr(AppDB.EventType.APLAlarm)
RowFilter = Criteria
Filter = True
End If

If chkAppConfig.Checked = True Then

Criteria = “EventTypeId = ” & CStr(AppDB.EventType.AppConfig)

If Filter = True Then RowFilter &= ” OR ” & Criteria Else RowFilter = Criteria
Filter = True

End If

If chkAppError.Checked = True Then

Criteria = “EventTypeId = ” & CStr(AppDB.EventType.AppError)

If Filter = True Then RowFilter &= ” OR ” & Criteria Else RowFilter = Criteria
Filter = True

End If

If chkAppEvent.Checked = True Then

Criteria = “EventTypeId = ” & CStr(AppDB.EventType.AppEvent)

If Filter = True Then RowFilter &= ” OR ” & Criteria Else RowFilter = Criteria
Filter = True

End If

If chkDatabaseError.Checked = True Then

Criteria = “EventTypeId = ” & CStr(AppDB.EventType.DatabaseError)

If Filter = True Then RowFilter &= ” OR ” & Criteria Else RowFilter = Criteria
Filter = True

End If

If chkFIFO.Checked = True Then

Criteria = “EventTypeId = ” & CStr(AppDB.EventType.FIFOEvent)

If Filter = True Then RowFilter &= ” OR ” & Criteria Else RowFilter = Criteria
Filter = True

End If

If chkPLCAlarm.Checked = True Then

Criteria = “EventTypeId = ” & CStr(AppDB.EventType.PLCAlarm)

If Filter = True Then RowFilter &= ” OR ” & Criteria Else RowFilter = Criteria
Filter = True

End If

If chkSystemStatus.Checked = True Then

Criteria = “EventTypeId = ” & CStr(AppDB.EventType.SystemStatusEvent)

If Filter = True Then RowFilter &= ” OR ” & Criteria Else RowFilter = Criteria
Filter = True

End If

If chkUnknown.Checked = True Then

Criteria = “EventTypeId = ” & CStr(AppDB.EventType.Unknown)

If Filter = True Then RowFilter &= ” OR ” & Criteria Else RowFilter = Criteria
Filter = True

End If

If chkUserEvent.Checked = True Then

Criteria = “EventTypeId = ” & CStr(AppDB.EventType.UserEvent)

If Filter = True Then RowFilter &= ” OR ” & Criteria Else RowFilter = Criteria
Filter = True

End If

If Filter = True Then

dv = New DataView(dt, RowFilter, “DateTimeStamp DESC”, DataViewRowState.CurrentRows)
dgvEvents.DataSource = dv
dgvEvents.Columns(0).Visible = False

Else

dgvEvents.DataSource = Nothing

End If

End If

Catch ex As Exception

End Try

End Sub

It is strange that after looking at something for a long time you stop seeing the obvious.

Been there / done that. I feel your pain brother.

The sample in the help files shows the command object being prepared before opening and executing it against the connection. For grins and giggles try this to see if it changes anything for you.

Public Sub CreateReader(ByVal connectionString As String, ByVal queryString As String)

Using connection As New OleDb.OleDbConnection(connectionString)

Dim command As New OleDb.OleDbCommand(queryString, connection)

connection.Open()

Dim reader As OleDb.OleDbDataReader = command.ExecuteReader()

While reader.Read()
Console.WriteLine(reader(0).ToString())
End While

reader.Close()

End Using

End Sub

Another option is go to hosting for something like $20 a year (don’t know if I can mention an example, not connected to them except as a user hostignition.com)
Register a domain like nhw.com for $10 or so and host it at a host for $20 or so and use a mail list. I use that for a few clubs, One has an exec list, a members list, a social list along with a simple web site for no more than $30 a year. Unlimited emails, storage of many GB etc. Members can be moderated(emails approval required) or not.

Thanks. Perhaps in the future we could consider something like that. For now, and I’ve already said this a couple of times, we don’t have any money to work with. The other concern that I have with going too deep down the commitment trail with a domain and web site, is who will take it over when I move aside? We don’t have any other techies on the block, at least at this time. And who will assume financial responsibility? I’m thinking lightweight and free is good at least for a small volunteer organization like we have. The document and picture storage would be a nice feature but it’s not absolutely necessary. When I do something like that I’m getting back to where everybody has to sign up for the service to login and so forth. We got to take baby steps and maybe over time we will be able to technically improve our organization.

Not to take offense, but some people value their privacy more than having any need to put their life on the internet. That is based on reality. It’s not “a mentality” any different from your mentality which is to call people who value their privacy “stubborn”. I think it’s a total joke for people to be tracked by Google and Yahoo and Microsoft trying to force universal log-ins so they track everything you do. I use DuckDuckGo as my browser, too. It’s easier to remain private than try to regain lost privacy.

Hit a sore spot did I? Maybe you haven’t had the opportunity to work with some elderly people who are technically challenged. Let’s see you get 40 households organized and all on the same page. It’s kind of like herding cats. I will stand by my comment of the “mentality” of what I have to work with. It’s not derogatory, nor meant to be. I am clearly expressing the mind state of certain individuals. You do have a mind state don’t you? Well there ya’ go.. we all have a mentality.

Now that you’ve cherry picked some of my comments and turned them into a social commentary, would you like to contribute to what the rest of us are talking about?

Thanks NinerSevenTango. I’m keeping notes here on all these good ideas. I’m sure that in the future we will want to expand. I’ll take a look at Meetup to see what features they offer but for now I’m not going to upset the apple cart + we’re running a no-budget operation here. Hopefully that will change. Thanks again for your response.

I believe it’s as easy as right clicking the cell, Select “Format Cells” from the pop-up menu, select the “Protection” tab in the dialog, then check whether you want the cell locked and/or hidden. After all that you will need to protect the sheet. You can do that by selecting the Review menu item then clicking the “Protect Sheet” item. Just fill in the desired properties in the subsequent dialog.

To get Google Groups to list members by name, when you do the Direct Add, enter the address like this: “last name, first name” Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way to edit the member name once it’s there. So, I’ve had to delete the existing member, then re-add them.

Thanks for the info. I’ve researched on how to edit existing names but it sounds/looks like there’s no way to do it. I don’t think I want to reset each individual account having just got them established. Maybe I’ll let the dust settle and approach it at a later time.