FABEnterprises

We use Visual Studio 2008 but as mentioned earlier is Visual Web Developer from Microsoft a slimmed down version of VS but still very powerful. There are also a whole heap of training videos and resources accessible from www.asp.net.

A lot of businesses we deal with have only moved recently or are in the process of moving to 2007, schools should really be teaching Office 2007 to stay with current trends. Having said that if this recession is prolonged you may see more businesses moving to OpenOffice to reduce costs.

Thanks Ray that's pretty clear but does that mean Schools without a Schools Agreement can't benefit from the license reuse option. Lets say that the local council has got 50 MS Office licenses they no longer need can our School have them under this agreement?

Thanks that's much clearer. Pity you are doing this directly with SIMs as it limits your options as you could have created a UDF to replace your REPLACE section and put something like this: --Function with @Contact_ID param-- DECLARE @MyString varchar(max) SELECT @MyString = COALESCE(@MyString +';','') + unique_pupil_no FROM MyStudentBrowseContactQuery WHERE Contact_ID = @Contact_ID Return @MyString --end function-- Perhaps you could have a look at the PIVOT option in MSSQL not sure you can concatenate a pivoted column, worth a look.

Can you explain what data/result you are trying to get with the replace function? Also why are you using FOR XML statement? Could that be the problem? Mason

Do you think the MS Schools Agreement will be covered in this arrangement? Surely licenses can't be transfered to other public sector orgs as they are temporary maybe only covers perpetual licenses. Does anyone here use Buying Solutions for procurement?

I'm not familiar with Infopath but usually this is permission problem communicating with the database either your user credentials are not correct, you don't have right client software on the webserver or the webserver is not allowed/restricted from accessing the DB server, make sure all relevant ports are open on your servers. You might also want to look at this article, might be similar to what you are experiencing. Good Luck

Mandy, Shouldn't be that hard to find a costume. How about a native american indian princess or a cowgirl or even a 30's Ganster or a 50's/60's Rock n Roll girl There is a list here if you are interested Let me google that for you I quite like the Ganster idea. Mason

User3204, Text messaging is definately the best method of getting a message to parents quickly and directly in times of emergency/school closure as over 85% of adults in the UK own mobile phone and over 90% open/read an SMS when it's received. Local radio stations and the schools website should also be a high priority and VLE if the parents are using it. Also as mentioned a recorded info line although this could get overwhelmed if all parents attempt to call all at once. A variation on this could be a dedicated SMS text in number that generates an SMS autoresponse (this is something we offer). One of the other suppliers of text messaging solutions mentioned earlier has a facility to send recorded voice messages to landlines and SMS to landlines in addition to the mobile, which is a great feature and caters for the few parents that don't have a mobile phone, might be worth you taking a look at that. This is something we are looking to add in future versions of our service. One other method I've heard of but I don't know how popular or effective it is, is snowday if you just google snowday you should find their site. This is another SMS text alert system that will send out the alert for you but the onus is on the parent to keep their details upto date with this site, if they change their mobile number chances are they will forget to tell this site. I wouldn't rule out email totally as more are more people are able to access it on their phones so could get your message early in the morning but this shouldn't be your primary communication channel. Finally you could also try the Lollipop man, true story, local school to us used roped in the lollipop man to deal with parent enquires and answer the phones when it snowed hard earlier this year. Not sure that's in his job description but good sport and worked well nonetheless.

Hi, I'm the Chief Software Architect at FAB Enterprises a developer of SMS Text Messaging solutions for Small Businesses and Schools. Hopefully I will be passing on my knowledge of software development in the "coding and web development" forums. Also as a parent governor I'm hoping I can learn a thing or too myself and help advise my local school on ICT matters. Mason

Mossj, take a look at the business link website where you'll find lots of information about starting your own business, from the types of business ie sole trade, partnerships or a Limited company to advice on tax. Also take a look at and register with the various business forums, these can be an excellent source of information. Two of note are: UK Business Forums and A1BusinessForums Good luck in your new venture. Mason

Mine is Ghoulish Fungus I'm mostly on GOW2 but up for a bit of COD4 if anyone's interested.