Microsoft.Net Technology Blog - Vikas Goyal

* Generating Microsoft Office Documents with the Open XML SDK

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:45:00 +0000

Check out my latest article published on devx.com.

It’s about how to us Open XML sdk to generate Microsoft Office documents without VSTO or automation. Article is accompanied by code.

http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/42221

* OCS 2007 R2 Trial : Urgent Fix

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:11:00 +0000

Microsoft has just released the following Knowledge Base articles (KB972041, KB972042) to address the incorrect calculations of license expiration dates for Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 and Office Communicator (OC) 2007 R2 Evaluation Edition. The current expiration dates were calculated based on build time, causing the OCS 2007 R2 and OC 2007 R2 Evaluation Edition to expire after June 13, 2009. By applying this fix, the expiration date will be correctly based on installation date of the server.
Office Communications Server 2007 R2
Office Communications 2007 R2

What’s new in XNA Game Studio 3.1

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:08:00 +0000

XNA Game Studio 3.1 has been released and is available for download.

Its an incremental release on top of release 3.0. If you have version 3.0 already installed, you need to uninstall it.

XNA is a gaming runtime for Windows, XBOX and Zune platforms. XNA Game studio is a free Visual Studio extension to create games for XNA runtime using managed .net libraries and C#.

New features in XNA Game Studio 3.1 :

Avatars : three-dimensional animated characters which can be used on XBOX dashboard.
Xbox Live Party : Allows gamers to communicate with each other using voice chat even when they are not playing the same game or even if they are doing different things on their Xbox.
Play Videos : ability to play back video that can be used for such purposes as opening splash and logo scenes, cut scenes, or in-game video displays.
Audio and content pipeline enhancements
Studio enhancements : v3.1 supports both v3.0 and v3.1 projects. tool to migrate v3.0 projects to v3.1. Support for XACT3.
Get more details on : What’s new in XNA Game Studio 3.1

* bing : reviews out

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:54:00 +0000

Microsoft Bing: Much better than expected

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10251432-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Hands On With Microsoft’s New Search Engine: Bing, But No Boom

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/microsofts-bing-hides-its-best-features

* bing it !

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:42:00 +0000

Microsoft has released the information about its new search engine or decision engine as Microsoft calls it.

It will be available worldwide by June 3 @ www.bing.com

Official Press Release : http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/may09/05-28NewSearchPR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

Live Search Blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2009/05/28/the-sound-of-found-bing.aspx

Virtual Earth Blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/archive/2009/05/28/rebranding-microsoft-virtual-earth-to.aspx

* Catch all the buzz at Tech.Ed India Live!

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:01:00 +0000

For those attending and for those who couldn't make it in person, the biggest technology event is HERE! The excitement of TechEd India is in the air. To add some heat, we are putting things live as it happens from TechEd India 2009. You can watch all the action from the twitterverse. Here's how:

Official TechEd India 2009 Twitter:
http://twitter.com/techedindia2009

The twitter chatter from community:
http://twitter.com/#search?q=techedin
[Hint: If you want your tweet featured, include the hastag #techedin inyour tweet]

Pictures from TechEd India 2009:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/techedin/

Some community mashups created by attendees:
MVP Blogs from TechEd India:
http://teched.indiamvp.net

TechEd MashUp:
http://baxiabhishek.info/teched/

* See you at tech.ed

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:57:00 +0000

* MSDN Code Search Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:52:00 +0000

MSDN team has launched the preview of Code Search.

The target sites are MSDN Library, MSDN Code Gallery, and CodePlex.

Some of the search attributes :

Search by language. Looking for ASP.NET examples? Coding in C++? Filter your search using the “Language” drop-down list.

Search using qualifiers. Filter your search by function calls, definitions, and more.

Search by technology area, called “project” in Code Search. Projects include:

o   Design Tools
o   Development Tools and Languages
o   Mobile and Embedded Development
o   .NET Development
o   Office Development
o   Server and Enterprise Development
o   Web Development
o   Win 32 and COM Development

MSDN Code Search Preview

* MSDN for Low Bandwidth Internet connections

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:50:00 +0000

MSDN team has added low bandwidth version also to various view options available for MSDN library pages.

Standard View

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlnode.aspx

Low Bandwidth View

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlnode(loband).aspx

PDA

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlnode(pda).aspx

Robots

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlnode(robot).aspx

Printer-friendly

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlnode(printer).aspx

MSDN Inside the (IDE)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlnode(ide).aspx

MSDN for Visual Studio 2010

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlnode(dev10ide).aspx

Complete details can be read @ following post http://www.hanselman.com/blog/LowBandwidthViewAndOtherHiddenAndFutureFeaturesOfMSDN.aspx

* BizTalk Server 2009 now available – New features

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:58:00 +0000

SharePoint : SP2 of WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 is released

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:00:00 +0000

SP2 of Office 2007 is now available for download.

It includes all the fixes prior to SP2, and also several enhancements to improve server farm performance, availability and stability. Plus, a new stsadm operation has been added to help customers prepare for the upgrade to the next version of SharePoint.

Here are few important links :

Description of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack SP2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953338
Description of 2007 Microsoft Office servers Service Pack 2 (SP2) and of 2007 Microsoft Office servers Language Pack Service Pack 2 (SP2)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953334

Download Links

Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, x64
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148404

Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, x86
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148403

Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007, x64
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148351

Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007, x86
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148352

Benefits

Performance and Availability Improvements
- New Timer job automatically rebuilds content database index to improve database performance.
- When a content database is marked as read-only, the user interface will be modified so users cannot perform tasks that require writing to the database.
Improved Interoperability
- Broader support of browsers
  Internet Explorer 8 is added into Level 1 browser support.
  FireFox 2.0/3.0 is added into Level 2 browser support.
- Provide improved client integration user experience with Form Based Authentication. Now the client application can store user credentials instead of asking for them every time.
Getting Ready for SharePoint Server 2010
- A new preupgradecheck operation is added to stsadm tool. It can be used to scan your server farm to establish whether it is ready for upgrade to SharePoint Products and Technologies "14".

The full explanation of SP2 benefits can be downloaded here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148551

* Office System 2007 SP2 releasing on April 28, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:31:00 +0000

Server Pack 2 for both Office Client and Server Products is getting released on 29th April, 2009.

Here are few important enhancements:

Ability to work on OpenDocument format 1.1 for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Built-in Save As PDF or XPS functionality in Office clients
MOSS : support for broader range of web browsers.

Get more details here :

http://blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2009/04/16/service-pack-2-for-the-2007-microsoft-office-system-due-to-ship-april-28th.aspx

* 2010 : The next launch wave

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:07:00 +0000

2010 is going to see the next launch wave of Microsoft Products. ‘Office 14’ has been named as Office 2010 based on its launch schedule. Exchange 2010 is expected to launch in late 2009 while rest of the Office products in 2010. Remember there was no ‘Office 13’. After ‘Office 12’ its directly ‘Office 14’.

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 are also expected to be launch in 2010. So get ready…..

* OBA, Office Development and VSTO – Getting started

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:01:00 +0000

OBAs (Office Business Applications) are new types of application/solutions which are built on Office System 2007 as a platform and so deployed on top of Office System 2007 apps. The development stream to develop OBAs is called Office Development and the tools used to develop OBAs are called VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office).

A typical Information worker in any industry today uses various tools and communication channels to complete an atomic business process. The list may comprise of following:

· Line of Business Solution for Transactions etc.

· Content Management solution or Knowledge Portal for reference knowledge.

· Mails to communicate & share documents with peers

· Telephone calls for knowledge gathering/sharing

While middleware technologies have considerably improved the automation and workflow enablement of system based business processes, the business process which involve humans are still quite disjointed. There is a lot of opportunity to improve productivity and efficiency in human based workflows.

OBAs are newer kind of application which try to fill the gaps in human workflow by providing a simplified and yet powerful platform to collaborate and execute business processes. OBAs can be exposed to users via a popular and familiar Office client interface or web based interface.

OBAs leverages the following Office System capabilities:

· SharePoint workflow and Windows Workflow foundation.

· Extensible User Interface of Office Clients

· ECMA Office Open XML File formats

· Business Data Catalog for connecting to LOB applications.

· Search portal

· Business Intelligence and Reporting Services.

Pls find below the first three articles in this series.

OBA, Office Development, VSTO - An Overview

Visual Studio Tools for Office - Getting Started

VSTO - Application Level AddIn Architecture

VSTO - Document Level Customization Architecture

* Open XML SDK Version 2 April 2009 CTP Released

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Open XML sdk is a huge productivity boost for development teams working on programming Office Documents.

April 2009 CTP of version 2 has been released while final release is expected to come with ‘Office 14’ release.

Version 1 allowed working on Open XML files at package level.

Version 2 earlier CTP allowed working @ parts level.

This CTP introduces Schema Level Validation functions.

Generate Office 2007 documents using OpenXML SDK

Download OpenXML sdk version 2 April 2009 CTP

* Technology Learning Snacks delivered using Silverlight

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:56:00 +0000

Microsoft Learning has released another set of free content called ‘Learning Snacks’.

“Learning Snacks are short, interactive presentations about popular topics created by Microsoft Learning experts. Each Snack is delivered by using innovative Microsoft Silverlight technology and includes various media, such as animations and recorded demos. At the end of each free presentation, you can view more Snacks, learn more about the topic, or visit a related Web site.”

Videos for following categories are available as of now:

Core Infrastructure Optimization

Microsoft Silverlight

Virtualization

Web 2.0 Development

Windows 7

Windows Server 2008

Windows Vista

Highly Recommended.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/snacks/default.mspx

* SharePoint Designer 2007 Free : Even good things come free sometime

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:46:00 +0000

Starting April 1, 2009, Microsoft has decided to provide SharePoint Designer 2007 as a free download. A Developer tool to create customizations on top of MOSS 2007 is free to download now.

Anyone who has purchased it will get free upgrades to Expression Web which is a comprehensive tool to do web development.

With future versions of MOSS also designer will come as free download.

Q&A on SharePoint Designer 2007 Licensing Changes

Download SharePoint Designer 2007 FREE !

* TechEd India 2009 announced : May 13 - 15

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:50:00 +0000

* MOSS Tip : Enabling Advanced Navigation

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:34:00 +0000

To enable advanced Navigation settings following features need to be enabled for site collection:

Site Collection Administration –> Site Collection Features –> Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure

Site Administration –> Site Features –> Office SharePoint Server Publishing

* Silverlight 3 : The next generation Client Apps are here

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:49:00 +0000

We have developed Windows Apps & Web Apps, Thick Clients & Thin Clients.

How about developing just ‘Apps’ or ‘Clients’ ?

Today Microsoft released the first preview of Silverlight 3 which allows to create clients which can run within or outside browser depending on end user’s choice.

The new out of browser experience in Silverlight 3 enables users to place their favorite Silverlight applications directly onto their PC and Mac, with links on the desktop and start menu—all without the need to download an additional runtime or browser plug-in. Further, the new experience enables Silverlight applications to work whether the computer is connected to the Internet or not—a radical improvement to the traditional Web experience.

catch all of it on http://www.silverlight.net

* REST in WCF and REST Starter kit

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:48:00 +0000

With the .NET Framework 3.5 release, WCF added support for building REST style services. REST support within WCF was enhanced with the release of .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 to add make REST development easier and to support the ADO.NET Entity Framework entities in WCF contracts.

REST Starter kit released independently of .NET framework improves development productivity by providing additional classes and Visual Studio templates for creating and consuming REST style WCF services.

Recently the preview 2 of REST starter kit was released on codeplex.

Here are important links for further reading:

Overview of REST in WCF and REST starter kit

Download REST starter kit Preview 2

* Enabling classic ASP on IIS 7.0 Vista

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:47:00 +0000

Classic ASP by default is not installed on IIS 7.0. When you try accessing an asp page hosted on IIS 7.0, the following error will come:

HTTP Error 404.3 - Not Found

The page you are requesting cannot be served because of the extension configuration. If the page is a script, add a handler. If the file should be downloaded, add a MIME map.

To enable/install classic ASP runtime do the following :

Control Panel –> Programs and features –> Turn Windows features on or off –>

Check the box for ASP. Done.

* Page cannot be found issue in Expression Blend

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:24:00 +0000

A recent update ‘Windows Defender and Microsoft Forefront Client Security signature file (1.53.256.0)’ removed localhost entry from hosts file which causes this error.

To resolve this issue, open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts and add an entry for localhost:

127.0.0.1 localhost

* Tech Ed comes back to India

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:01:00 +0000

Tech Ed India 2009 is scheduled to happen during May 13 – 15. Its a great news. Follow the other related news @ http://twitter.com/techedindia2009.

Original announcement made @ DPE India blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/msdnindia/archive/2009/02/25/tech-ed-india-2009.aspx

* Virtual TechDays is back

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Goyal) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:29:00 +0000

http://www.virtualtechdays.com/

Agenda is published @ http://www.virtualtechdays.com/agenda.aspx