September 2005 Entries
[via Heather Solomon]
Heather has updated her most excellent Sharepoint Resource Page. There's none other that even compares...
My Uber Big SharePoint Resources Page
I have made it a permanent fixture on my home blog page!
[via Darren Jefford]
For those of you familiar with BizTalk Server 2004, Windows Workflow Foundation is to the Orchestration Designer and Orchestration Runtime (XLANG) in BizTalk. It allows you express your “workflow” using a designer and then have this executed by a runtime.
Highlights of Darren's post:
Windows Workflow Foundation is light-weight and re-hostable allowing you to integrate workflow functionality into your application.
Shipped with WinFx and will be supported on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP
You can host Windows Workflow in any host (ASP.NET, WinForms, Console App….)
The debugging story is fantastic, you can step into workflows and debug through activities and...
[via Andrew Connell]
The following features and capabilities included in WSS SP2
Reverse Proxy and Alternate URL support
IP Bound virtual servers
SQL Server 2005
ASP.NET 2.0
Additional Links
MSFT WSS v2 SP2 Download
MSFT KB Q906336: list of all hotfixes included within SP2
MSFT KB Q894903: updating a WSS ASP.NET 1.0 virtual server -> ASP.NET 2.0
WSS Admin Guide updated for SP2: CHM | HTML
Update: I just happened across Bil Simser's posting on topic and found he had additional information. Thanks Heather!
Windows Sharepoint Services Service Pack 2 Released
[via Scott Hanselman]
Scott put together a cool Mame Gaming System. Check out his steps and save some time if you are planning on doing the same.
Creating my own Mame Arcade Cabinet, Mame for Media Center PC, and the X-Arcade Joystick
Summary:
MAME32 - $0 - Arcade Emulator
GameEx - $15 - MediaCenter Front End for MAME (and other emulators)
XArcade - $99.95 (limited time) - Arcade Joystick
[via Ted Pattison]
ASP.NET 2.0 themes are great. You just gotta love 'em. They provide a fast and effective way to skin all the pages of a Web site with very little effort. However, the set of CSS files from an ASP.NET 2.0 theme comes as an all or nothing proposition. In some cases, you might desire the flexibility to link additional CSS files to a page programmatically based on a users preferences in addition to the CSS files that are being linked by the current theme.
Here's a teaser one-liner from Ted's post...
this.Header.LinkedStyleSheets.Add("JungleLove.css");
Catch the full article...
» Linking to CSS files with code in ASP.NET...
Heather Solomon, a coworker (and a darn fine one at that), is blogging Hurricane Rita while electricity permits. She has a few pictures of the clouds rolling in as well as her branded horse. She will continue to post images as long as possible. So, check it out over the weekend!
http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/
I'm currently working on a project that is at the technical design stage. Initially, I was planning on coding it as a custom ASP.NET application due to the requirements. However, with the customer wanting to utilize Sharepoint and going over the functional documentation with some co-workers numerous times I may have changed my direction. Andrew Connell (AC) suggested we consider looking at InfoPath and integrating it into Sharepoint.
So, I'm up late tonight doing some research before we speak with the customer tomorrow afternoon. And I come across this article on Microsoft's site:
» Integrating Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies and Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003
It seems to...
[via Ted Pattison]
Ted has written an article on developing for role-based security within a Sharepoint Web Part. A must read and very well done by a favorite instructor of mine. Thanks Ted.
» Programming Role-based Security in Web Parts
[via Mei Ying]
Mei asks, “Have you registered for the Beta release of Office 12?”
[via AC]
Arpan Shah talks about 10 great things coming in Sharepoint / MCMS version 3...
Security/Auth "stuff" from supporting the ASP.NET 2.0 authentication provider model and security trimming to single item security. :-)
Built on top of Whidbey - support for ASP.NET 2.0 web parts, nav/auth provider models, master pages :-), and more
SPS/CMS integrated architecture from end-user to development and deployment
RSS, Wikki and Blogging support.. the RSS support is especially great w/ the new version of Outlook... or any RSS reader really
Content types - very cool and super useful.. define a content type that includes metadata and actions
Recycle bin - IT orgs will love that
Lists...
[via Heather (who's currently awaiting Hurricane Rita, but wishing she was sipping a marga-Rita)]
She points out that the new MCMS information seemed to be overshadowed by Sharepoint news at PDC 2005 this year. She also points out that they Both will be very much connected.
With all the SharePoint hoo-rah, the MCMS news was of little interest. Let's not forget that the future of these two will be very much connected...
» Check out her entire post Here with references to other experts in the know...
[via Mark Kruger]
Mark gives a How-To on displaying a list item's age. Below is a rendition of a screenshot and the link for the entire posting.
Post is x Days Old------------------- 0 years, 6 months, 2 days-------------------
HowTo: Create a SharePoint Calculated Column to Display a List Item as "X" Days Old
via [Heather Solomon]
Heather has updated her already informative Sharepoint Resource Page with V3 and Office 12 information.
This PAGE is a Must-Bookmark for any person venturing into the Sharepoint ether-world!
» SharePoint V3.0 and Office 12 Resources
Add it to your Favorites Today!
[via Dave Green]
I became familiar with Dave Green by way of Don Box's spoutlet. Who is Dave Green you may ask? Well, he is the Architect behind Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF).
Dave Green is new to blogging. This could be because he was quite busy the last two years and as he states from PDC 2005 ...
The release from the pressure of my contractual code of silence has made this PDC just a total blast.
What is he blogging about?
What do I want to talk about? Well, I'm the architect of Windows Workflow Foundation, so I want to tell you all about what we...
via [Arpan Shah]
I heard from several people that while the information for SharePoint development was great at PDC, that it was not obvious what was WSS vs. the other investments on top of WSS. That's b/c we haven't made any final packaging and licensing decisions. So if you are a -little- confused, that's why! Somethings are very clearly platform while others may not be super clear in how it will be packaged... at this very moment, we're discussing our investments more "functionally" - i.e. web content management :services", for example. At this point, if you're a developer, don't worry about...
Casey Picker, a coworker, is becoming a new daddy. After all the times of me prodding him of “When”, he finally got busy and helped make it happen. Congrats Casey! You and Mary Beth will make fine parents.
Check out the ultrasound here
[via Arpan Shah]
There were several large announcements made at PDC that are very relevant to SharePoint and CMS customers. I'm personally super excited about this and to be part of this. Microsoft revealed Office "12" - client and servers and talked about our investment in ECM. This is great news for CMS and SharePoint customers that there is one integrated architecture for end-to-end document and content lifecyle.
Other introductions and references worth noting from Apan's post:
Introduction of Windows Workflow Foundation - WinFX
Better prepare for the next version of CMS and Sharepoint
Current Sharepoint customers, follow these guidelines
Read Apan's entire posting here
[via Heather Solomon]
Heather finds three cool developer / designer tools worth checking out:
CSS Optimizer
Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Beta
GIMPShop
See the entire detailed posting here
via [Bil Simser]
Bil does a fine job of disclosing to us non-attendees of PDC 2005 what's coming with Sharepoint V3 and other informative news.
So in a nutshell, if you're building for tommorow today, do it with the ASP.NET Web Part model and make calls to SharePoint specific classes to retrieve information, update lists, etc.
» Here's the Full Post from Bil - a plethora of details
What is the LINQ Project?
[via MSDN]
“The LINQ Project is a codename for a set of extensions to the .NET Framework that encompass language-integrated query, set, and transform operations. It extends C# and Visual Basic with native language syntax for queries and provides class libraries to take advantage of these capabilities. ”
Here are some links to get started:
LINQ on Channel9
C# LINQ Tech Preview
Visual Basic LINQ Tech Preview
LINQ Project Overview document
101 Samples using LINQ
A few weeks back I posted an entry on Yahoo's purchase of Konfabulator, the desktop Gadget platform. Microsoft is doing its own thing and taking it a bit further with Start.com (with Ajax as the glue). This is some very cool stuff that I wish I had time to play with more. This post related to searching Feedster caught my eye.
[via Scott Isaacs]
“Did you know that Gadgets for Start.com let's you build also custom experiences that can also consume any RSS feed? In this demo, I created a Feedster Gadget for searching for blogs via Feedster within Start.com. The results...
If you would like to try out the preview of Microsoft's “AJAX” framework, check out this link:
http://atlas.asp.net
It's currently beta, but still exciting stuff. Here's the blurb from the site:
ASP.NET “Atlas” is a package of new Web development technologies that integrates an extensive set of client script libraries with the rich, server-based development platform of ASP.NET 2.0. “Atlas” enables you to develop Web applications that can update data on a Web page by making direct calls to a Web server — without needing to round trip the page. With “Atlas”, you can take advantage of the best of ASP.NET and server-side...
[via AC]
Dustin Miller gives the Sharepoint fans a great summary of version 3 features...
Sharepoint “V3.0“ Features
UI / UX
Built-in breadcrumb trails, Quicklaunch on every page, Tree-view navigation of sites built-in
Pages will derive from “master pages“, meaning that you could re-skin an entire SharePoint site by modifying just one template file
More professional out of the box themes
FrontPage can directly edit each site's CSS file(s)
Workflow built-in all over SharePoint, with tight integration with Outlook 12 tasks, FrontPage-based workflow creation, some browser-based workflow creation
Individual documents can have document-specific workflows
Item-level security on lists and libraries
FrontPage has evolved further...
[via Stefan]
» First official Info on Microsoft Content Management Offering in Office 12
“Enterprise Content Management (ECM) has become a strategic imperative for most organizations. Businesses have seen a huge explosion of structured and unstructured information over the last several years that includes documents, e-mail messages, voice mail, and video. A recent study by Accenture shows that more content will be created in the next two years than in the entire previous history of humankind. It will be critical for organizations to have a strategy to manage unstructured content through its entire lifecycle—creation, management, storage, and disposal.“
Read more on Office Preview...
via [Mike Fitzmaurice]
The Kimono Is Open, The Veil Is Lifted, The Gags Are Removed.....
RSS. Everything about sites, lists, libraries, etc., can be syndicated via RSS automatically.
Blogs and Wikis. Templates and features in the box.
Content Types. These aren’t just like SPS 2001’s document profiles. They define sets of metadata, but they also contain view information. And associated workflows. And events bound to them (synchronous or asynchronous). And you can have more than one in the same list/library.
Workflow. Windows Workflow Foundation is embedded in WSS. It’s used everywhere.
Recycle Bin. We did it. It’s scoped to a site and...
[via AC]
» PJ Hough and others - First look at next version of Sharepoint
Have you heard this term lately? Sounds like Camel with some zing to it. "Extensible Application Markup Language" ("XAML"), is a Declarative Language. It is a programming model for the upcoming “Avalon” development platform.
Per the ''XAML'' Overview reference on Microsoft's site:
“It is also the primary way to create a UI in the WinFX programming model because it provides a way to seperate UI definition from logic and enables you to integrate code within or behind markup. The ability to mix code with markup is important because XML does not really support flow control”
Here's a simple Hello World application:
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?><Window> <Button>Hello World</Button></Window>
Note the Window tag? It's actually...
[via AC]
This could be the biggest announcement related to Sharepoint vNext this week during PDC 2005.
Microsoft is planning to unveil a new workflow subsystem for its client and server operating systems that will become a foundation service available on the Windows platform. The tool will be demonstrated at its Professional Developers Conference this week.
The company will take the wraps off Windows Workflow Foundation, which will pull together a number of current workflow technologies spread throughout Windows products, including Windows Workflow Services (WWS, formerly called Windows Orchestration Engine).
The single technology will provide a common service for building workflow to support...
[via AC]
Check out the new UI of the Office 12 Core Applications. I watched the PDC 2005 keynote and saw some Word, Excel and Powerpoint looks. They really have simplified them but the tons-o-functionality is still available.
Here's AC's posting
Screenshots can be found here
MSFT PressPass: Q&A: Microsoft Showcases New User Interface for Office “12” Core Applications
via [MSN Health]
Here's an interesting article on sleepwalking. I personally had an extreme problem with sleepwalking between the age of 10 and 12. I once sleptwalked out of the house in the snow and all the way the next block over in the neighborhood. That wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't been naked (except for a Farah Fawcette t-shirt). Yeah, it really happened.
Here's the article: Sleepwalking Into Trouble
I've always wondered if my good friends from KlipSpringer named one of their albums over that incident: Sleepwalking and the Married Virgin (they actually didn't).
UPDATE: To clarify this post, I'll add a reference to the original source from Mike Fitz.
It can be found here » Web Part Interoperability -- Good News and Bad News
via [Andrew Connell]
AC discloses the bad news we didn't want to hear. We will not be able to build ASP.NET 2.0 Web Parts for use within Sharepoint (SPS), but only in WSS (with exceptions), once SP2 for SPS is released after November 7th's RTM of .NET 2.0.
» ASP.NET 2.0 Web Parts in SharePoint... only WSS sites for now...
via [Andrew Connell]
I know there's been talk about a possible Release Candidate 2 of Visual Studio 2005. A release candidate (the 1st) has been placed on MSDN downloads today. Is it possible they could sneak a RC2 in before November? I say yes, but I guess it comes down to how many shortcomings are found within the next 30 days.
Also, as Andrew points out, SQL Server 2005 September CTP are also available. It's all coming together - I can hardly wait for the November rollout - we haven't seen a major rollout like these for a while.
Can you developer's feel it?
»...
via Heather Solomon
Here's a cool CSS-based dropdown menu solution that has great browser compatibility and no CSS hacks. Chris Lasley, a co-worker, did something similar with a previous project.
Check out the spoof here: Son of Suckerfish Dropdowns
Tomorrow, September 13th, 2005, Oprah will have a show on Total Money Makeovers. Dave Ramsey will be appearing. I hope he gets his message across; you never know with Oprah... it could turn into something outside of Dave. If so, it'd be a shame. Dave has good charisma and a more important message for all of us.
Check out the show if you can and find out more about Dave here
I'm back from my week hiatus from the Norfork Lake Resort area. We stayed in a camp site just at the base of the Norfork dam. To sum it up, I survived the trip, enjoyed my time with the children, and dug sleeping under the stars and hearing the sounds of nature.
Some of the guys were really into trout fishing. It was pretty cool to see the annual trout run at Dry Run Creek. We caught the beginning season when they swim upstream in order to spawn near the hatchery they were raised in. Children under the age of 16 are...
via Wayne Larimore
I will be silent the next week. Me and the family will be camping in the northwest part of Arkansas. We are not camping folks. However, a couple of other families invited us and promised us it would be fun. So, here we go. Amongst the three families we will be corraling 15 children. We plan on fishing (at least us boys), smoring and just roughing it for a week.
No Laptop
No Football
No comfy bed
hey, who talked me into this?.....