Andrew Connell [MVP MOSS]

What is SharePint - by SharePointReviews.com

Andrew Connell — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:21:54 GMT

I expect many are aware of SharePoint by Day, SharePint by Night, but I’m equally sure many others are not. For those who aren’t familiar with it, I recently talked with SharePointReviews.com who wanted to do a little history & write up. So if you aren’t familiar with it, check out the article!

» SharePint - A Happy Hour For SharePoint Pros

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,sharepint

I’ll be presenting at the SharePoint Users Group of Indiana in Indianapolis, IN (August 26, 2009)

Andrew Connell — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:46:37 GMT

Suddenly all these speaking engagements have come through or been publicized at the last minute… hence the flurry of blog posts. This should be it for a while…

I’ll be speaking at the SharePoint Users Group of Indiana (SPIN) in Indianapolis, IN on August 26, 2009 @ 6p. Rob Bogue, my friend and colleague on a few projects including www.mssharepointdeveloper.com, got me to finally commit to coming up after I had to reschedule a few times on him. This time, no rescheduling! Looking forward to it and thanks for having me Rob!

Here’s the session I’ll be presenting:

Building & Configuring Solutions on SharePoint Server 2007 for High Performance
Performance should be one of the top areas of focus on everyone's mind when embarking on a Internet facing Microsoft Office Server 2007 site. In this session we'll look at the built-in caching capabilities in the SharePoint platform, including disk-based and page output caching. In addition we'll take a look at various hot-button issues developers should be aware of when developing components for a public site built on MOSS 2007. Topics include object model techniques, how to properly manage memory in order to avoid the dreaded OutOfMemory exception, key sizing numbers to keep in mind when architecting your implementation and minimizing the page payload to speed up those page load times. After this session, you'll be armed with the power to create high performance and scalable solutions in MOSS 2007!

» SPIN August Meeting Registration Link
» Rob's meeting announcement

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,wss,moss,spc,sharepoint 2010

I’ll be presenting at the Jacksonville Code Camp in Jacksonville, FL (August 29th, 2009)

Andrew Connell — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:50:20 GMT

I mentioned there was an open call for speakers the other day… looks like my session was picked! Hope to see you there!

High Performance Solutions on SharePoint Server 2007
Performance should be one of the top areas of focus on everyone's mind when embarking on a Internet facing SharePoint Server 2007 site. In this session we'll look at the built-in caching capabilities. Topics include object model techniques, how to properly manage memory in order to avoid the dreaded OutOfMemory exception, key sizing numbers to keep in mind when architecting your implementation and minimizing the page payload to speed up those page load times.

» Jacksonville Code Camp

Technorati Tags: jacksonville,code camp

I’ll be presenting at the Microsoft Project Conference 2009 in Phoenix, AZ (9/14-17/2009)

Andrew Connell — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:13:48 GMT

What’s a SharePoint person doing at the Microsoft Project Conference 2009? As you may know, the two products, Office Project Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 have plenty of integration points and overlap between the two. Now, developers heading to the Project Conference 2009 in sunny Phoenix, Arizona September 14-17, 2009 can now get a SharePoint development primer as I’m presenting the only SharePoint development session there:

Introduction to SharePoint for Developers
Project Server's integration with SharePoint facilitates collaborating on projects within an organization and members of a team. With this integration, developers can extend both platforms to satisfy specific and custom requirements to facilitate unique business processes and add new functionality to improve productivity and efficiency. In this session you will learn what is involved in developing custom solutions for SharePoint.

Hope to see you there!

» Microsoft Project Conference 2009

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,wss,moss,project server

Introducing the Content Monster Web Part by Todd Baginski & Andrew Connell

Andrew Connell — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:14:52 GMT

At TechEd 2009 in LA a few weeks back, Todd Baginski and I co-presented a session OFC405 – Extending the Content Query Web Part to Aggregate Data Across Site Collections and External Sources where we introduced a solution that addresses a common challenge in today’s SharePoint sites: aggregating content ACROSS site collections. It took some time, but we finally got the code cleaned up and posted for you to download and kick the tires too.

Now some will see this as a replacement to the Content Query Web Part (CQWP)… but it isn’t. That is still the ideal way to aggregate content within an existing site collection as it contains a robust caching and is tweaked for peak performance of highly trafficked sites.

What we set out to do was to work on a solution that would do the following:

Aggregate content across site collections
Aggregate content from external sources

So after considerable planning; here’s what we came up with… a detailed UML diagram complete with loads of test cases:

click image for higher resolution (that you can actually read)

OK… joking aside, here’s what we did as our architecture is actually quite simple:

Create a provider-like implementation where…
The Content Monster Web Part (CMWP) acts as a provider selector (sort of like how the SmartPart works selecting a user control) for installed providers
The CMWP calls the selected provider, passing in properties. The provider does it’s work and hands back results in XML format.
the CMWP takes the XML formatted results and runs them through the specified XSLT file to generate the HTML markup used in rendering.

It is really that simple! The current code is a working proof of concept… Todd and I have a lot of work to do to take it where we want it to go. But so far you’ll find the working Web Part, a sample provider and two real world providers that rollup content from Azure and using the SharePoint search API (for cross-site collection aggregation). You’ll see more coming as we get through the summer and into the fall.

You can download the current working code from the MSDN Code Gallery project we setup. Note there are a few releases so make sure you get what you’re looking for!

» MSDN Code Gallery: TBAC Content Monster Web Part for SharePoint
» TechEd OFC405 Presentation (slide deck)

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,wss,moss,cqwp,teched

5th Annual Jacksonville Code Camp – Saturday, August 29th (open call for speakers)

Andrew Connell — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:40:15 GMT

The 5th annual Jacksonville Code Camp is coming up… just under two months away! This year’s event will be held at University of North Florida and like all others, is free to all who want to register! Make sure you register early… it’s sure to “sell out” with an average attendance of 300+ in previous years.

I’m helping them arrange a SharePoint track of sessions if we get enough speakers. Interested? Submit a session or two at the official site:

» www.JaxCodeCamp.com

Technorati Tags: jacksonville,code camp

PSA: My social networking / contact method TOS

Andrew Connell — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:57:14 GMT

Man that blog title sounds so darn official! A public service announcement (PSA) for my terms of service (TOS)? That’s not how I mean it to sound, but it will at least catch someone’s eye. The purpose of this post is to have something to point folks back to in the future and hope some people take note of it going forward.

Like many other people, I’m on Twitter (@andrewconnell), Facebook and LinkedIn. Each of those services have ways to send private messages to other users… and for the most part I can’t stand that service (although I’m an occasional user of Twitter’s direct messages). Each has email notifications when you receive a message but I’ve disabled those. Why? Because without fail there is no way to reply to them from within a email client.. you have to go to their site to respond. That is a really annoying interruption when trying to triage a full inbox. So, you’re going send me an email telling me that someone left me a message and while I appreciate you may include the email, I have to go back to your site and respond through your site? No thanks… I don’t get those email notifications.

That’s crap IMHO. There’s a really effective way to send someone a message. I discovered it back in 1995 and have been using it since… in fact, I use it every day. It’s called email and it works great! You should try it! Don’t have my email? Oh… that’s why I created this handy little contact form on my blog! Oh… and if you’re asking a technical question… I’ll read it and will get back to you, but i can’t promise when. Like you, I’ve got a job with customers demanding my time. I’d recommend you post to the MSDN forums where you’ll have a much bigger audience looking at your question… including me! I jump in the forums and answer questions when I have some time.

I do not check my Facebook or LinkedIn inbox / messages… MAYBE every few months, but not regularly. As for Twitter… I check the direct messages when I open my client. That may be a few times a day, that may be while I’m stopped at a railroad crossing, it may be in two weeks. If you’re trying to reach me please use email… that way I’m sure to see it.

At first I thought this would come across a bit high-brow until a few weeks ago I ranted in my Facebook status that I hated these email/messaging like services. I was quite taken back with how many people jumped on the band wagon with me! So I figure this would help some folks down the road…

BTW, I don’t have, and don’t have interest or plan to setup, a FriendFeed or TripIt account.

SharePint @ the SDN Event this week in Houten, NL

Andrew Connell — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:58:03 GMT

Going/attending the SDN Event in Houton, NL this week? Waldek let me know that there will be a SharePoint by Day, SharePint by Night on Friday, June 26, 2009 @ 6p- whenever. Join other SharePoint professionals for a good drink at the Hotel Houten (Hoofdveste 25, 3992 DH Houten)!

Oh… drinks are free until 8p!

You can also start following SharePint events on Twitter at @sharepint as well as our new group on FaceBook!

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,wss,moss,sharepint,sdn

Sample MOSS 2007 WCM site now available – Adventure Works Travel

Andrew Connell — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:38:59 GMT

Recently you’ve seen a few people use a sample MOSS 2007 WCM site that Microsoft had a partner develop them. The site, Adventure Works Travel, is one that I’ve used in demos at TechEd EMEA in November 2008, the SharePoint Best Practice conference in London in April 2009 and TechEd US in May 2009 in addition to a few MSDN articles I’ve published (like this one). Finally you can download it too!

The sample, used for the SharePoint On the Web training series, is now available on ~~CodePlex~~ MSDN Code Gallery! Best part, this is available as a download so you can install it on any SharePoint virtual machine you’ve setup.

I like using this site for my demos as it is a real world Publishing site. There are custom Web Parts, custom styles for the Content Query Web Part, custom navigation, a custom Silverlight application that asynchronously calls back to a custom WCF service hosted in the SharePoint Web application, leverages FBA… you name it. It’s a great site to poke around!

Scroll to the bottom of the ~~CodePlex~~ MSDN Code Gallery project’s download page to get the installer:

» MSDN Code Gallery: SharePoint on the Web – Downloads

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,wss,moss,publishing site,wcm

I’ll be presenting at SharePoint Connections Fall 2009 in Las Vegas

Andrew Connell — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 03:41:03 GMT

I missed it last year, but looking forward to it this year! The annual SharePoint Connections Fall 2009 show will be in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay November 9-12, 2009. I love Vegas… I’ll be at the SharePoint Conference a few weeks prior (same city & venue), but you just can’t ever get enough Vegas… right? Maybe going there twice in a matter of a few weeks makes up for almost 2yrs away from the city? Hmmm… I can’t do that again! Come on… it *is* where I started this cool event we call SharePint!

For this show I’ve got three breakout sessions along with one post-conference workshop I’m co-presenting with Scot Hillier… all on SharePoint Server 2010!

HDV301: Enterprise Content Management in SharePoint Server 2010
HDV302: SharePoint 2010 and Services
HDV303: SharePoint 2010 Developer Overview
Post-conf Workshop (with Scot Hillier) - HPS301: Developers Deep Dive to SharePoint Server 2010

Unfortunately the titles of the sessions & their abstracts are pretty vague as Microsoft has yet to release any details about features, capabilities or much anything else around SharePoint Server 2010. I’ll provide more detail on these sessions in the coming months (please don’t drop a comment asking for SP2010 details… I’m not of liberty to say anything more that’s in this post at this time… watch the SharePoint Team Blog for SP2010 news).

Hope to see you there… check the conference site for more information on speakers & sessions.

» SharePoint Connections Fall 2009 - Las Vegas, NV

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,wss,moss,sharepoint server 2010,sp2010,ecm,sharepoint connections