There are many benefits of using the Universal Thread Web Service for your user group Web site:

• Increase the exposure of your meetings to Universal Thread members
• Become part of the User Group Meeting Tracker entity
• No need to store the speaker's picture locally (dynamically updated once the speaker update it on UT)
• No need to store the speaker's bio locally (dynamically updated once the speaker update it on UT)
• Data entry is done on the Universal Thread only (the use of WS useful so you can have the data displayed on your Web site)
• Save some time by using a pre-defined display layout which can easily be adapted to fit your own needs

Here are the steps to use it:

1. Adding a reference to the Universal Thread Web Service

• Under Web References, select Add Web Reference.
• The URL is http://www.universalthread.com/WebService/UniversalThread.asmx.
• Right click on the Web Reference and rename it UserGroupMeetingTracker.

2. Adding the Label control

• In your ASP.NET aspx page, in the Design window, add a Label control.
• Place it where you want to display the list of meetings.
• Change its name to UpcomingMeeting.

In your ASP.NET aspx page, in the Code Behind file, add the following code in the Page_Load() event:

      'Instantiate Web service 
      Dim loUT As UserGroupMeetingTracker.UniversalThread = New UserGroupMeetingTracker.UniversalThread

      Dim llLogged As Boolean
      Dim lnCompteur As Integer
      Dim lcHtml As String
      Dim ldDate As DateTime
      Dim lcDay As String
      Dim lnSpeaker1 As Integer
      Dim lnSpeaker2 As Integer
      Dim lnSpeaker3 As Integer
      Dim lcUsername As String
      Dim lcPassword As String
      Dim lnDaysBack As Integer
      Dim lnDaysNext As Integer
      Dim lnUserGroupID As Integer

      ' Web Service authentication
      lcUsername = ""
      lcPassword = ""

      ' Number of days to go back to retrieve the user group meetings
      lnDaysBack = 150

      ' Number of days to go next to retrieve the user group meetings
      lnDaysNext = 300

      ' User group ID to retrieve the user group meetings
      lnUserGroupID = 12198

      ' Create the cookie container
      loUT.CookieContainer = New System.Net.CookieContainer

      ' Do the login
      llLogged = loUT.Login(lcUsername, lcPassword)
      If Not llLogged Then
         UpcomingMeeting.Text = "The Universal Thread authentication failed!"
         Return
      End If

      Dim loData As DataSet
      loData = New DataSet

      ' Read the user group meetings
      lnDaysBack = lnDaysBack * -1
      loData = loUT.GetUserGroupMeetingDataSet(DateAdd("d", lnDaysBack, Date.Today), _
       DateAdd("d", lnDaysNext, Date.Today), lnUserGroupID)

      ' Display the user group meetings
      lcHtml = ""
      For lnCompteur = 0 To loData.Tables("Temp").Rows.Count - 1 Step lnCompteur + 1
         ldDate = loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("MeetingDate")

         ' Calculate the day in Monday format such as M in uppercase
         ' and the rest in lowercase for the related day of the week.
         lcDay = ldDate.ToString("dddd")
         lcDay = lcDay.Substring(0, 1).ToUpper + lcDay.Substring(1)

         lcHtml = lcHtml + "<B><FONT COLOR=GREEN>" + lcDay + " " + _
          ldDate.ToString("dd MMMM, yyyy HH:mm") + "</FONT>"
         lcHtml = lcHtml + "<P>"
         lcHtml = lcHtml + loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("Title") + "</B>"
         lcHtml = lcHtml + "<P>"
         lcHtml = lcHtml + loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("Summary")

         ' Speaker(s)
         lnSpeaker1 = loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("SpeakerID1")
         lnSpeaker2 = loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("SpeakerID2")
         lnSpeaker3 = loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("SpeakerID3")
         If lnSpeaker1 > 0 Or lnSpeaker2 > 0 Or lnSpeaker3 > 0 Then
            lcHtml = lcHtml + "<P>"
            lcHtml = lcHtml + "<B>"
            If lnSpeaker1 > 0 And lnSpeaker2 = 0 Then
               lcHtml = lcHtml + "Speaker:"
            Else
               lcHtml = lcHtml + "Speakers:"
            End If
            lcHtml = lcHtml + "</B>"
            lcHtml = lcHtml + "<P>"

            ' Speaker 1
            lcHtml = lcHtml + AddSpeaker(lnSpeaker1, _
             loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("SpeakerPicture1"), _
             loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("Speaker1"), _
             loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("SpeakerBio1"))

            ' Speaker 2
            lcHtml = lcHtml + AddSpeaker(lnSpeaker2, _
             loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("SpeakerPicture2"), _
             loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("Speaker2"), _
             loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("SpeakerBio2"))

            ' Speaker 3
            lcHtml = lcHtml + AddSpeaker(lnSpeaker3, _
             loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("SpeakerPicture3"), _
             loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("Speaker3"), _
             loData.Tables("Temp").Rows(lnCompteur)("SpeakerBio3"))

         End If

         lcHtml = lcHtml + "<P>"
         lcHtml = lcHtml + "<HR>"
         lcHtml = lcHtml + "<P>"
      Next
      lcHtml = lcHtml + "</TABLE>"
      UpcomingMeeting.Text = lcHtml

This approach is an interesting one and probably the best if you want to minimize the risk of connection failure of the related page and if you wish to improve the speed access of the data. This approach limits the number of server ops so there would be less chance of connection failure across the net. As the data would come locally, the speed should also be faster.

The concept relates to use a Windows Service to poll the data at specific interval from the Universal Thread server. The polled data is then stored locally into an XML file. You can then update your existing ASP.NET which displays the list of meetings to grab the data from that file.