SharePoint Designer 2013: Business Data Connectivity Metadata Store is Currently Unavailable

When using SharePoint Designer 2013 to create External Content Types, you may find yourself getting a message similiar to the following:

The Business Data Connectivity Metadata Store is currently unavailable.


First make sure that you have the Business Data Connectivity Service Application created in Central Admin:

Though the business data connectivity service application has been created and you are getting same kind of issue.

Here is the Solution

Create a new business Data Connectivity service application and provide the permissions required, then you are good to go

Return to Sharepoint Designer 2013 and the External Content Types displayed

 Clicking on New External Content Type no longer will give you an error.

Add-SPSolution : Cannot access the local farm. Verify that the local farm is properly configured, currently available, and that you have the appropriate permi ssions to access the database before trying again.

Perform the following script in the SharePoint Management Shell, as a farm administrator and it will remove the error.

Get-SPDatabase | Add-SPShellAdmin SomeDomain\SomeUserName

Windows 8 tiles system

Check this out..

Windows 8 tiles system

http://droptiles.com/#flickr
http://www.drewgreenwell.com/projects/metrojs#fiddleAround

Responsive Carousel variations

Check below links to see different carousel effects

• Default, no transitions
• Default, no revolving content
• Fade transitions
• Fade with autoplay
• Slide transition with touch
• Slide transition with touch and arrow keys
• Autoplay slide transition with touch and arrow keys
• Ajax-included extra slides (w/ slide transition)
• Flip transition with touch
• Flip transition with touch & autoplay
• Default with pagination links
• Dynamic responsive containers
• Default with Styled Arrows
• Default with Peeking next/prev

Event Receivers vs Workflows

Differences between event receivers and workflows

Event Receivers	Workflows
Can execute either before or after the operation	Always executes after the operation
Can cancel the operation	Cannot cancel the operation as the item will have already been created
Cannot be launched manually by the user	Can be started manually by the user
Not designed for user interaction	Specifically designed for user interaction
Can execute in response to many different actions, including deletes	Can only execute in response to one of four events – Manual, an item being created, an item being edited, and an item being submitted for approval
Must be created in Visual Studio	Can be created with Visual Studio, Visio or SharePoint Designer

do check the below link to get more information about workflows, event receivers and Timer jobs

http://www.dotnetplace.com/post/Difference-between-SharePoint-WorkFlow-Event-Receivers-and-Timer-Job.aspx

one of the main points which i have observed is Workflows are more robust than event receivers. They can survive system reboot and while in few cases Event receivers cant.

One of the nice post i have ever seen on the search refinement panel display template is
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/murads/archive/2013/03/01/using-jquery-and-jqplot-in-your-display-template-to-show-a-piechart-refiner.aspx

Try the mentioned steps, even if you search for more help you will not get more than what has been explained here.

Check below link if you ever get a requirement to have some link action to be performed on every hover panel..

http://www.sharepointnutsandbolts.com/2014/01/extending-SP2013-Office-365-search-hover-panel.html

All the best..

InfoPath forms advantages & disadvantages

Info path advantages

InfoPath is a better XML standard, but the true benefits depend on the situation. I'll try to list some pros for InfoPath + SharePoint:
1) You can connect to many back-end data sources to get data, whether it be SharePoint itself, SQL DBs, Access, or any web service that interfaces with a non-MS DB.
2) The forms can be directly integrated with SharePoint through form libraries, which allows your people to stay within the primary collaboration interface (SharePoint) when doing all your work, including filling out electronic forms.
3) When the form is submitted to the form library, the data is then discoverable in the search index across all of SharePoint (depending on how your enterprise search is configured)
4) If using MOSS 2007 Enterprise, then you have the option of browser-enabled forms where people can interact with the forms from different non-MS platforms and non-MS browsers without the users needing the InfoPath client.
5) Submitting forms to SharePoint allows you to then trigger workflows that can do just about anything you want for routing, notification, updating data in other lists/libraries, etc.
6) InfoPath is part of the Office Suite and has already been improved greatly in 2010. It is built to interface and integrate with other Office products, including Word and Outlook.

InfoPath offers the following advantages as a form technology for
AgilePoint-based, process-driven applications:

• Created using a GUI. No code is required.
• Easy to use and business user friendly.
• Rapid form creation.
• Close integration with SharePoint.
• Dynamic lookups from most any external data source, including SharePoint.
• Simple integration with SharePoint, web services, and databases.
• Multiple views for single form.
• Repeating tables.
• Dynamic validation.
• Conditional formatting.
• Multiple attachments.
• Multi-lingual form capabilities.
• Custom branding.
• Web-based or client-based data entry mode.

Info Path Disadvatages

InfoPath includes the following disadvantages as a form technology for AgilePoint-based, process-driven applications:

• Difficult to integrate with process-driven applications outside of SharePoint
• Difficult to secure sensitive data.
• Both web-based and client-based forms require the InfoPath client license.
• InfoPath Forms Server license is required for web-based forms.
• Limited standard controls.
• No support for custom controls.
• No support for AJAX.
• No multilingual support.
• Performance reduction on large or complex forms. Post back to form is slow, and performance is not good.
• Custom, managed code is difficult to maintain.