SharePoint Dispose Checker Tool

More info/download it @ http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SPDisposeCheck
How to dispose site/webs/lists in sharepoint? Read it here:

• Best Practices: Using Disposable Windows SharePoint Services Objects
• SharePoint 2007 and WSS 3.0 Dispose Patterns by Example
  

A Bootable USB: Utility to Create Bootable USB Drive to Install Windows Vista, Server 2008 and 7

Nice and "handy" blogpost @ http://www.askvg.com/a-bootable-usb-utility-to-create-bootable-usb-drive-to-install-windows-vista-server-2008-and-7/
thx to gillcleeren

Sharepoint 2010 Upgrading & Customizing the new Sharepoint Ribbon

• Upgrading from Win2003 & Moss to Win 2008 & Sharepoint 2010 (blogwriter has got a sharepoint 2010 beta!) check it out at http://blogs.technet.com/ritaylor/archive/2009/07/17/a-triple-double-upgrade-part-1.aspx
• Slides about "Preparing for Upgrade to SharePoint 2010 Today" by Sharepoint Joel aka joeloleson, nice info about PreUpgradeCheck to run on old Sharepoint server to check for problems
• SharePoint Products and Technologies: 2010 (Technical Preview) Developer Documentation about Customizing the Ribbon in Windows® SharePoint® Services "14" download it here

Preparing for Sharepoint 2010: Importing your old sharepoint 2007 sites

A look info the future, don't be afraid, migrating your old 2007 sharepoint sites can be imported into the new Sharepoint 2010..... but what will happen when importing 2007 sharepoint export files (.cmp* files) into the new 2010?

When you upgrade Sharepoint 2007 to 2010, by default the layout will stay like it is in 2007, but this setting can be changed:
Go to Site Actions > Preview New Visuals, choose one of the 3 new options:

1. Keep the previous Sharepoint user experience (default)
2. Preview the new Sharepoint 2010 user experience, but let me return to the previous user experience
   => allows you to flip between the old and new experience and prevents you to do something that isn't compatible with the old version
3. Use the Sharepoint 2010 user experience and don't ask me again
   => you can do things that are incompatible with older versions

* = SharePoint Content Management Package
Source : http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/IT-Pro-Video.aspx

Things to remember from previous posts:

• Your servers (development, production, everything!) need to be 64bit!
  Sharepoint 2010 won't run on 32bits anymore (read more)

Get Ready for SharePoint 2010!

Get Ready for SharePoint 2010!
Learn about it at: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/Get_Ready.aspx

Stay tuned @ http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Pages/Default.aspx

Some more sharepoint 2010 News by Jopx

Jopx, a Sharepoint MVP for years and a former collega of mine, just posted some more info & links to sneak peek videos about Sharepoint 2010, check it out at SharePoint 2010 – Sneak preview videos – Overview Sneak peek video

Sharepoint 2010 News

Todd Haugen (Group Program Manager SharePoint Designer at Microsoft) added some info about SP2010 "Developer's experience" on the LinkedIn group Sharepoint 2010:

• Improvements both at the API level and inside VS2010
• Documentation is much improved
• Supporting LINQ so that developers will not have to access lists using the archane SharePoint API and rather use much more standard OO notation that is supported by intellisense.
• We also improve support for Silverlight.
• Plans with Azure are not clear

Where I can download the Sharepoint 2010 Beta?

• Microsoft SharePoint 2010 beta will be "invitation-only" :-(
• Maybe there will be a public beta "later in 2009" ...

How do I prepare my environments for Sharepoint 2010 ?

• Deploy Service Pack 2 and take a good look at the SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Checker that’s shipped as part of the update. The Upgrade Checker will scan your SharePoint Server 2007 deployment for many issues that could affect a future upgrade to SharePoint 2010.

Sharepoint 2010 Requirements:

• SharePoint Server 2010 will be 64-bit only. (We should also create 64 bit virtual environments?!)
• SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit Windows Server 2008 or 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2.
• SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit SQL Server 2008 or 64-bit SQL Server 2005.

Sources & helpfull links:

• Announcing SharePoint Server 2010 Preliminary System Requirements
• http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/
• http://www.jeremytaylor.net/2009/06/12/microsoft-sharepoint-2010-beta-download/

excel file which contains a list of the built-in MOSS features

This is an interesting excel file which contains a list of the built-in MOSS features including GUID, Title, Scope...
Download it here :
http://blogs.msdn.com/jjameson/attachment/8370432.ashx

Using UDF in excel file used in Sharepoint Excel Services

Known problems:

Using 32bit udf functions in a 64bit Excel Service environment:

http://blogs.msdn.com/cumgranosalis/archive/2007/09/10/udfs-in-the-world-of-64bit-excel-services-installations.aspx

Problems accessing sharepoint server on the server (when using with hostheader)

This problem can be solved by adding the hostname to a registry value, all the needed information, you will find in the links below
Links:

• http://blogs.bluethreadinc.com/thellebuyck/archive/2008/10/30/401.1-error-when-accessing-sharepoint-from-server.aspx
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926642 & http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861
• Diagnose IIS Errors: http://blogs.msdn.com/david.wang/archive/2005/07/14/HOWTO_Diagnose_IIS_401_Access_Denied.aspx
• Problems crawling (access denied) this hostname: DisableLoopback, more info @ http://dotnet.org.za/zlatan/archive/2008/11/19/access-is-denied-check-that-the-default-content-access-account-has-access-to-this-content-or-add-a-crawl-rule-to-crawl-this-content.aspx
  
  

Service Pack 2 for WSS and MOSS 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/04/28/announcing-service-pack-2-for-office-sharepoint-server-2007-and-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0.aspx

jQuery opensource tool: Glimmer

It's been a very long time (al most a year!) since a blogged the last time...
Just noticed a tweet:
We are excited to announce Glimmer:
a jQuery Interactive Design Tool. => get it @ http://visitmix.com/lab/glimmer

Using the Contact Selector in Infopath 2007

• How To: Add the Contact Selector to InfoPath 2007
• How to: Configure a Contact Selector Control on Your InfoPath Workflow Form
• Using the Contact Selector Control

Sharepoint 2007 limits overview

When setting up Sharepoint 2007 or creating custom stuff for Sharepoint, please take a look at this:

• Detailed Sharepoint limits overview
• Plan for software boundaries (detail overview of limitations, performance tips, ....)
  Also notice that there are also limitations for security principles:
  "Security principal: max 2,000 per Web site. The size of the access control list is limited to a few thousand security principals (users and groups in the Web site)."

Seen on TechDays2008

Last week I went to TechDays 2008 at the ICC in Ghent. You can find an overview of the program/presentations over here .

I will give a quick overview of the most intresting topics. I will try to add some more info when there are new video's/presentations available.

LINQ

• Building your own LINQ-TO Provider (level 350) by Bart De Smet
• LINQ to Active Directory (formerly known as LINQ to LDAP)

WCF/WF

• Integrating WCF + WF :  by Ingo Rammer
• The ABC of building services with WCF by Peter Himschoot
  => download presentations here
• Intro blogspost about ABC of WCF  by Dennis van der Stelt

WPF

• Great WPF application, Zurich Airport Overview Map
  => blog post  
  => View Live demo
  
  

ASP.NET/WSS/MOSS

• Building Ria's for WSS 3.0 / MOSS 2007 by Patrick Tisseghem
  => How to configure your SharePoint extended IIS Web App for working with Silverlight 2 application
  => Silverlight BluePrint for SharePoint back alive!
• MVC ASP.NET by Matt Gibbs
  => View Video
  => ASP.NET MVC Framework (Part 1) by ScottGu
• Building internet web sites using MOSS 2007 by
Joris Poelmans

Other

• Advanced Debugging with Visual Studio by Ingo Rammer
  => Download presentation and code here
• Dude were's my business logic by Chad Hower
  => View video presentation here
• Fun in .NET by Chad Hower
  => Rocket launcher controlled by .NET
  => Control Xbox with WiiMote  
• Unit Testing & Deep Reflection by Roy Osherove (man with guitar)
  => The evolution of Unit Testing Syntax and Semantics
• Power of data mining by rafal lukawiecki
  

* Tools

• ZOOMIT: nice tool for zooming during presentations: download here

Release of WSS 3.0 SP1 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1

All the needed info can be found here: TECHNET

• Service pack fixes of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 1
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936988
• Service pack fixes of 2007 Microsoft Office servers Service Pack 1
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936984

Great blogpost: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/12/11/announcing-the-release-of-wss-3-0-sp1-and-office-sharepoint-server-2007-sp1.aspx

Redirecting after using InfoPath Form (web-enabled) in Sharepoint 2007

1. Use the Source query string: so the page will know where to navigate to after the form is closed or submitted (Watch Out: The URL must be in the same site collection or an error will be returned.)
2. Add the OnClose event to the XmlFormView, add code to redirect after closing:
   Response.Redirect(http://www.dolmen.be);
   In the Infopath Form, you must add the Action: "Close this form: No Prompt" in the rules of the InfoPath Button, otherwise the OnClose event won't fire.

Source blogposts:

• Redirection from the XmlFormView Control
• Hosting the InfoPath 2007 Form Editing Environment in a Custom Web Form
• InfoPath Forms Services - What happens after a form is closed
• How to: Use Query Parameters to Invoke Browser-Enabled InfoPath Forms

MCTS for .NET 2.0 Web applications (Exam 070-528)

Just like my colleague MaBal did, I passed the Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 - Web-based Client Development (Exam 070-528) exam!

Now I can call myself: Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist for .NET framework 2.0 Web applications.

Query DataConnection in Infopath Web-enabled Form when selecting value of dropdownlost (with Managed Code)

You don't always need to load your dataconnection before the form is loaded (performance reasons), sometimes you want to load a different dataconnection when a certain value is selected. I use the example of a dropdownlist, and every value of the dropdownlist will load an other dataconnection into another dropdownlist.



Add the 2 dropdownlists, the second dropdownlist must have a connection with a datasource (I use an embedded Xml file dc.xml). When creating this dataconnection, please deselect the setting "Automatically retrieve dat when form is opened".




What you will need after you created the controls in infopath, open VSTA (alt+shift+F12). Add following code fragment into the InternalStartup method:

this.EventManager.XmlEvents["/my:myFields/my:Type"].Changed += new XmlChangedEventHandler(TypeChanged);

You also need to add the TypeChanged methods:

void TypeChanged(object sender,XmlEventArgs e)
{
  string type = e.NewValue; //the selected value of the type dropdownlist
  
  //I just added one dataconnection called dc (value when you select POST)
  //You need to put here code (switch) for all the values in the type ddl    
  DataSource ds = this.DataSources[type];
  DataConnection dc = ds.QueryConnection;

  dc.Execute();
}

When you use the Execute method of a dataconnection, you must change following setting (it is like the ASP.NET AutoPostBack setting), otherwise your dataconnection will not be loaded!! (when you just changed a value of another field, you don't need to change this setting).




Change the standard option (postback settings): "Only when necessary for correct rendering of the form (recommended)" to "Always"


Remarks:
When you use Mananged Code in web-enabled form, uou must publish it as an administrator approved template (check out blogpost http://spsfactory.blogspot.com/2007/01/walkthrough-publishing-administrator.html )

Adding AppSettings to a Sharepoint Web Application Web.Config

I use this code to add key/values to the web.config during installation of features

(using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;)

string siteName = "http://moss";
SPSite site = .....;
SPWebApplication webApp = site.WebApplication;
System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection allModifications= webApp.WebConfigModifications;           

AddNewAppSetting(allModifications,"testkey1","testvalue1");
AddNewAppSetting(allModifications,"testkey2","testvalue2");

SPFarm.Local.Services.GetValue().ApplyWebConfigModifications();

------

private void AddNewAppSetting(System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection allModifications,string name, string value)
{
  SPWebConfigModification modification = new SPWebConfigModification(string.Format
  ("add[@key='{0}']", name), "/configuration/appSettings");
          
  modification.Type =
  SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode;
  modification.Value =  string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,string.Format
  ("",name,value) );
           
  if (allModifications.Contains(modification))
  {
    allModifications.Remove(modification);                    
  }
            
  allModifications.Add(modification);
           
}

Sources:

• MSDN
• SkunkWorks