Wayne Larimore - his Bloggin' Weighs

SharePoint 2010 Post Conference Takeaways

Wayne Larimore — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:16:28 GMT

I have had some time to ponder the ton-of-stuff at the 2009 SharePoint Conference. Overall, I really like what Microsoft has done with this version. They seem to have addressed the majority of pain points. Here are some of the highlights of what comes to mind...

Service Applications - Previously, we were forced to use the SSP service for all services (Search, BDC, Profile, Excel). Now, the Service Application approach is providing a Service Model. AC gave a level 400 session on this and built a cleverly simple load-balanced calculator that was indeed an independent service.

The Ribbon - consistency is always a good thing. The Ribbon provides a consistent place where the end-user knows where his / her actions can be acted upon.

Sandboxing / Visual Studio 2010 templates - Developing for SharePoint has always been a confusing effort. Once the developer became familiar with creating the solution structure and with the repetition of doing it lots of times, it was second nature. Deployment? eck! Now, with VS 2010, the necessary structure and files are generated via SharePoint project templates and even builds the wsp file for deployment. Sandboxing provides a way to deploy your solution with a subset object model and deployed to a special gallery, a more secure environment and allows admins to upload instead of IT/Ops. Visual Web Part templates now have a built-in Designer also.

Lists - Lists and libraries are pretty much the bread and butter to SharePoint. I use Custom Lists a lot in my day-to-day activities. New in SP 2010, they have introduced a way to prevent Duplicate Values, provided Column Validation (via Excel formulas) and More Robust Metadata defining.

LINQ Support - The need to write / build CAML seems to be nearly eliminated with the introduction of Microsoft.SharePoint.LINQ ; at least that is what we were told. It will now translate LINQ into CAML for us!

SharePoint Designer / InfoPath / No Code approach - I sat in on a session demonstrating a no code approach to an end-to-end business case. I was pretty impressed by it, but still leary of it in real life business situations. However, I am real eager to start working with SPD and InfoPath to see if no code solutions are really possible in SharePoint 2010. They have addressed some short falls that were in InfoPath 2007. Here are some of the new features I remember: Web Part creation, SP list/library form creation, ability now to do filtering in browser forms, and the rules manager. Lastly, workflow management has been improved significantly in both SharePoint Designer and InfoPath 2010.

Save $10 Without SnagIT Promotional Code

Wayne Larimore — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:51:58 GMT

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Telerik online VB C# Code Converter Translator

Wayne Larimore — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:21:30 GMT

It appears that Telerik has published a Visual Basic and C# code translation online. Nice.

http://converter.telerik.com/

Developing SharePoint Applications: Patterns & Practices Update

Wayne Larimore — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:17:33 GMT

[via AC]

An update has been published on Patterns & Practices as related to SharePoint Application Development. This is a great resource to follow as you are developing your custom SharePoint solutions.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd203468.aspx

Windows 7 and Virtualization - Sweet!

Wayne Larimore — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:30:36 GMT

Scott Hanselman documented it best on his blog recently Windows 7 has built-in virtualization and provides a way to boot from them. Check it out on Hanselman's posting...

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/LessVirtualMoreMachineWindows7AndTheMagicOfBootToVHD.aspx

SharePoint Stock Ticker via Timer Job in WSP

Wayne Larimore — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 03:26:42 GMT

[via Stefan Keir Gordan]

I found a Stock Ticker implementation over on StefanOnSharePoint's blog. He implements a timer job code originally published by AC. We have something similar at the company I work at; however, we pull the stock data directly from within the webpart. Stefan proposes updating a custom list with unlimited number of stock quotes and using a "simple data view" to display the results.

Here's the reference: http://www.keirgordon.com/post/SharePoint-Stock-Ticker.aspx

How To Upgrade Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM

Wayne Larimore — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:05:44 GMT

[via intowindows.com]

"If you have been running Windows 7 RC, then you might want to upgrade from Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM. Although Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM in-place upgrade is not supported officially, you can upgrade from Windows 7 RC to RTM with a simple trick."

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-upgrade-windows-7-rc-to-rtm

SharePoint 2010 - Sneak Peek Videos

Wayne Larimore — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:45:48 GMT

Check out some of the new features in SharePoint 2010 coming our way in Beta form (later this year) and RTM first quarter 2010.

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/default.aspx

Links for 2009-06-08 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Putting Green Info
How to construct and maintain a putting green

MOSS 2007 SP2 Bug Expiration Date Improperly activated

Wayne Larimore — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:51:59 GMT

[via Stefan Gossner]

We have recently discovered a bug with Service Pack 2 (SP2) that affects all customers that have deployed it for SharePoint Server 2007. During the installation of SP2, a product expiration date is improperly activated. This means SharePoint will expire as though it was a trial installation 180 days after SP2 is deployed. The activation of the expiration date will not affect the normal function of SharePoint up until the expiration date passes. Furthermore, product expiration 180 days after SP2 installation will not affect customer’s data, configuration or application code but will render SharePoint inaccessible for end-users. We are working to release a hotfix to automatically fix this issue. A manual work-around is currently available and involves customers re-entering their Product ID number (PID) on the Convert License Type page in Central Administration. For more information and detailed steps please read this KB article. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs) Read more on the official SharePoint Team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/21/attention-important-information-on-service-pack-2.aspx

MOSS 2007 SP2 preps for SharePoint Server 2010

Wayne Larimore — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:55:16 GMT

[via Bob Fox]

New additions in MOSS 2007 SP2

preupgradecheck - Bob shows how he ran this new stsadm switch on his test lab. It is available in SP2 to preview readiness in upgrading to SharePoint Server 2010. He provides helpful insight on what this information provides.

Backup, Set your databases to Read Only - "If you run this command on a working environment there will always be a chance for the job to fail if users are adding content to the sites. To prevent this we now have a new feature that allows us to lock the DB and make it read only."

GetSiteLock / SetSiteLock - Example, "A company has multiple organizations that it owns and for some reason one of those companies goes under. The information that was listed on that companies site is still something that other employees want to consume but we don't want any more data being posted to this or have any changes made. Couple fixes come to mind to solve this. We can change the sites security permissions giving everyone read access. This, depending on the complexity of the sites security, can take a great deal of time. We could also archive the data someplace else (perhaps on another portal thats being used for Archive or DR purposes)….both take time and are not alot of fun. OR we can run a simple command and in one sweep render the site in 3 different states using the new command line tool setsitelock."

Virtual PC VMWare Alternative = Virtual Box (VirtualBox)

Wayne Larimore — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:38:53 GMT

If you believe Microsoft's Virtual PC has been abandoned or VMWare is too pricey for your budget, give the free Open Source alternative a try. I have been reading some forums and blog posts from some happy folks using it. Also, as of this posting date, the community is really active in keeping it cutting edge.

Virtual Box - http://www.virtualbox.org/

"VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL)."

MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0 Service Pack 2 has been released

Wayne Larimore — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:51:24 GMT

[via Stefan]

Office 2007 Service Pack 2 including the service packs for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 has just been released. Be sure to read the KB articles below as they contain important information about SP2 including known issues with these service packs.

KB Article 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

Please check the above listed KB articles. They contain the download locations for the service packs and language service packs.

Installation Steps

Be sure to follow the instructions about how to install software update for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007.

Please also check SharePoint Team Blog and Updates Resource Center for SharePoint Products and Technologies when the articles go live.

Related Resources

About Service Pack 2 for SharePoint Product and Technologies

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148551

Service Pack 2 Overview

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148374

Updates Resource Center for SharePoint Products and Technologies
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb735839.aspx

The full list of changes in SP2 (Excel 2007 format)
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 Changes
MOSS 2007 SP2 Changes

You can also go to this KB article for a full list of downloads for Office System 2007 SP2 (client & server).
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968170

DIY renewable energy alternate power sources

Wayne Larimore — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:01:03 GMT

Dependence on foreign oil sources has got to stop here in the USA. It seems that we'll be waiting decades before the government helps in setting up the infrastructure and pushing municipal fleets to use Natural Gas.

How can we do our part? Do it yourself! Yes, it is possible. I came across a great resource for you DIY'ers who love gadgets and saving money at the same time.

Here's the skinny ==> http://tinyurl.com/d3vk9t <===