Archive 2006
December 22, 2006
Word 2007: Save as PDF or XPS
Microsoft provides an Office add-in that allows you to export and save Word documents to PDF or XPS formats.
December 8, 2006
Incorporating .NET 2.0 in SharePoint 2003
Since SharePoint Products and Technologies was introduced in 2003 the development landscape has changed considerably. For example by the release of the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. This post will tell you about the use of the Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT) that can be used to enhance developing web parts with Visual Studio.NET 2005.
November 27, 2006
Crazy about SharePoint 2003
With the passing of time, new and interesting topics related to SharePoint products and technologies have arisen, and the book Pro SharePoint 2003 Development Techniques will cover them. This book discusses the landscape of SharePoint 2003 development in 2006 and beyond, integrating all of the new technologies that have already become or will soon become mainstream.
August 5, 2006
Generating Database Test Data
Ever had trouble generating database test data? The DTM Data Generator tool is a really cool tool that can help out.
June 10, 2006
Hybrid web parts - why?
The last couple of days we received a couple of questions asking why you would want to create a hybrid web part. We're not sure how popular creating hybrid web parts will be, but people would want to create hybrid web parts for migration purposes. You could create a web part now in 2003 and combine base WSS capabilities with modern ASP.NET web part development techniques, making a hybrid web part operate like a normal ASP.NET 2.0 web part. Such a web part would be easy to migrate to 2007.
June 5, 2006
SharePoint 2007: Hybrid Web Parts
Classic WSS web parts inherit from the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart class. ASP.NET web parts inherit from the System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart class. Hybrid web parts, just like classic WSS web parts, inherit from Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart.
May 18, 2006
Fiddler and FrontPage RPC calls
In our previous post, we discussed Fiddler, a tool for monitoring HTTP traffic. Yesterday, Fiddler came in handy. We wanted to call a FrontPage RPC method on MOSS 2007. FrontPage RPC methods and arguments are passed to the server via the body of a HTTP POST request. As a part of a FrontPage RPC call you need to pass the method name and server extension version.
May 16, 2006
Fiddler
For some years now, we have been looking for a nice tool that helps us track HTTP traffic. We have tried various tools, which all had their disadvantages. Some were to expensive, others required the presence of the Java framework, etc. On the Atlas ASP.NET web site we found a reference to a tool called Fiddler which was written by Eric Lawrence from Microsoft.
May 4, 2006
SharePoint 2007: Slide Library
The slide library is a new list in SharePoint 2007 and is meant to store PowerPoint slides that you want to share.
April 29, 2006
SharePoint 2007: My Site
In SharePoint 2003 there already was a My Site for every user. My Site is a personal space to save your documents and share work with other users. In SharePoint 2007 you'll get an improved version of My Site.
April 29, 2006
SharePoint 2007: Folders in a list
They were already available in document libraries but with Windows SharePoint Services version 3.0, they are also available in lists: folders.
April 29, 2006
SharePoint 2007: RSSViewer Web Part
One of the new web parts Windows SharePoint Services version 3.0 is shipped with is the RSSViewer web part.
April 24, 2006
Caching in Microsoft Office Server 2007
SharePoint Products and Technologies (SPPT) 2003 brought us a new type of cache: the web part cache. Microsoft Office Server (MOS) 2007 will incorporate Web Content Management (WCM) and with it, we will be getting a couple of new types of cache, originally stemming from Content Management Server (CMS). This post provides a short overview of caching in MOS 2007. The types of cache discussed in this post are part of WCM (which is a part of MOS 2007). You will not find these types of caching in Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 2007.
April 20, 2006
SharePoint 2007: Page Life Cycle
At this point in time we haven’t seen any information about the SharePoint 2007 page life cycle. This post discusses the information about this topic as we understand it today and is kinda preliminary.
April 11, 2006
SharePoint 2007: Enforce Check Out
With SharePoint 2007 it is possible to require that a document is checked out before a user is allowed to edit the document.
April 11, 2006
SharePoint 2007: Enterprise Search
With the Enterprise Search feature you can customize the look and feel and the functionality of the Search Center pages and the Search Web Parts in the browser, by creating custom search pages or by creating custom web parts.
April 7, 2006
SharePoint 2007: Business Data Catalog
One of the new business integration features of SharePoint 2007 is the Business Data Catalog. The Business Data Catalog enables SharePoint Server 2007 to interact with business data and also to display business data on a SharePoint portal. So you could say that the Business Data Catalog is the bridge between your portal and your business data.
April 6, 2006
The Survey Web Part in SharePoint 2007
Everyone who worked with SharePoint 2003 probably knows the Survey Web Part. The web part is still available in SharePoint 2007 but with more functionality.
April 4, 2006
The Published Links Web service in SharePoint 2007
Office clients or custom applications can use the Published Links Web Service (publishedlinks.asmx) to get a list of sites to which a user belongs.
April 4, 2006
SharePoint 2007: Mobility Shortcut URL
It is now simple to provide a mobile device-accessible version of a SharePoint site.
April 3, 2006
SharePoint 2007: Multi-valued lookup columns
It's a small tip, but not an irrelevant one.. multi-valued lookup columns. For example, you might want to define multiple owners for an item or you might want to add more than one category to an item.
April 3, 2006
Recycle Bin functionality in SharePoint 2007
A big improvement in Windows SharePoint Services 2007 is the recycle bin functionality for easier content recovery and improved backup and restore possibilities.
March 31, 2006
Streamline Business Processes with Windows SharePoint Services, BizTalk Server, and InfoPath
We've written an article for SharePoint Advisor which will be published in the April issue of SharePoint Advisor magazine.
The article discusses how to apply workflow and business process capabilities to your SharePoint environment using Microsoft BizTalk Server and InfoPath.
March 17, 2006
Publication of impersonation article in Dutch MS .NET magazine
We've written an article for the Dutch Microsoft .NET Magazine called(in Dutch): 3 manieren van code-impersonatie (3 different ways for impersonation). You can subscribe (for free) to this magazine via MS .NET magazine. The article will show you three different approaches to impersonation.
March 10, 2006
Out of Office -> Office Developer Conference 2006
We (Nikander & Margriet Bruggeman) will be attending the Microsoft Office System Developers Conference 2006 in Redmond! We're looking forward to see all the interesting sessions, learn a lot about Office 2007 and to catch up with everyone we know.
We will be staying a couple of days extra in Seattle so we can finally watch the Seattle SuperSonics and stay a night at the Hotel Monaco which offers a complimentary goldfish as a companion for guests on the road without their pets.
We hope to meet you all there!
March 7, 2006
For everyone who wants to know more about Business Intelligence technologies and SQL Server 2005
If you want to learn more about SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services, Integration Services or Reporting Services, you might want to check out these (temporary!!!) free eLearning courses:
March 6, 2006
Running .NET 1.1 and .NET 2,0 together...
We've got a couple of links about .NET 1.1 and NET 2.0 running together on one machine, you might want to check it out:
March 3, 2006
Creating enterprise services queued components in C#
At the moment we're building some queued components in Enterprise Services and we’re quite enthousiastic about that. In this article we describe how to create queued components, maybe you'll get enthousiastic too.
February 16, 2006
Microsoft Developer Security Resource Kit
If you want to know more about security, you should definitely take a look at the Microsoft Developer Security Resource Kit. This kit contains best practices, training, developer tools, technical articles and additional resources.
You can read more and order the Microsoft Developer Security Resource Kit, we've already ordered ours!
February 16, 2006
ASP.NET Development Helper
The ASP.NET Developement Helper is an interesting tool which is created by Nikhil Kothari from the ASP.NET team. The ASP.NET Development Helper improves the debugging experience for ASP.NET developers by allowing the browser to participate in the debugging proces.
Take a look at ASP.NET Development Helper.
February 16, 2006
Visual Studio 2003 E-Learning
When you want to learn various aspects of Visual Studio 2005 you could use these courses which are free for a limited time. With hands-on virtual labs you can learn about: Visual Studio Team System, building data components and building web applications. These are just examples of the available topics.
February 4, 2006
What is your score?
Microsoft has created something just for fun, a Windows SharePoint Services Quiz. This quiz will test your Windows SharePoint Services knowledge about customizing a SharePoint site and using other Office products in combination with SharePoint. For the trainers out there... It might be a good idea to finish a training about Windows SharePoint Services with this little quiz about the material. Just a quick checkup to see if you're any good as a teacher :-)!
You can find the quiz here.
There are also other Office quizzes like InfoPath and FrontPage.
January 27, 2006
System.Web.Mail
You might have found yourself in a situation when you used System.Web.Mail and you wanted to know more about it. What do you know, there's an entire web site dedicated to this! Check it out at http://www.systemwebmail.com/.
January 27, 2006
XML Visualizer
Debugging DataSets can be hard without the right set of tools. In VS.nET 2005 you won't need it anymore (read all about it at http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/08/NETMatters), but in VS.NET 2003 we've found XML visualizer to be a great tool to help debug DataSets and other XML structures. If you didn't know the tool go check it out at http://www.gotdotnet.com/workspaces/workspace.aspx?id=01f2f983-298f-4167-b52a-d11b76f3ea62!
January 24, 2006
Should we model?
The people at Tam Tam created a Visio template for designing SharePoint sites which can be downloaded for free. That’s a nice gesture which prompted us to ask ourselves the question if we would design our SharePoint sites that way.
January 17, 2006
Microsoft Virtual Labs
Always wanted to try out various Microsoft technologies without installing it? The Microsoft Virtual Labs section on the MSDN website gives you the chance. The Visual Studio Hosted Experience allows you to explore applications through guided, hands-on tours that highlight new features, without the hassle of downloads or complicated installations.
Go to the Microsoft virtual labs
January 17, 2006
Patterns & Practices Web Services Security
If anyone is interested in Patterns and Practices, Microsoft has published a new batch of Web Service Security Scenarios, Patterns, and Implementation Guidance to assist customers in applying their own criteria for using Web Services Enhancements 3.0
Resources:
January 16, 2006
Windows Vista metadata
The way Windows Vista enriches information has already received lots of criticism. Is it really that bad?
January 11, 2006
Using one form library to support multiple InfoPath templates
A SharePoint form library is an excellent place to store InfoPath forms. Out of the box SharePoint form libraries are somewhat limited, form libraries will not allow you to publish more than one template per form library. This article shows you how to do that.
January 6, 2006
Disappearing performance counter category
This article shows you how to check the current CPU usage programmatically and shows you what to do when your machine misses performace counter categories.
January 5, 2006
How to convert a string to dataset and back again
It's a little bit tricky to convert a string to a dataset, or a dataset to a string (if you want to influence this process). This article shows you how to do it.
SharePoint