Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Application Architecture Guide 2.0 - Beta 1

Microsoft provides principles, patterns, and practices for designing application architectures on the .NET platform. It’s a principle-based approach. The overall guide to accomplish the following :

  • • To help you design more effective architectures on the .NET platform.
    • To help you choose the right technologies
    • To help you make more effective choices for key engineering decisions.
    • To help you map appropriate strategies and patterns.
    • To help you map relevant patterns & practices solution assets.

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This guide is useful to anyone that cares about application design and architecture. The primary audience for this guide is solution architects and development leads but any technologist who wants to understand good application design on the .NET platform can get value by reading it.

To download visit patterns & practices Application Architecture Guide 2.0 - Beta 1

How to use Calculated value column

This article focus on three SharePoint functionality.

  1. 1.) How to use Calculated value column.
  2. 2.) How to format text using LOWER() and PROPER () functions.
  3. 3.) How to Merge two column value.

Let's begin, We seen from our past experience that, Individual users use to enter data their own style or non-standard format. Since this is part of end users habit, its very difficult to train everyone in the organization.

Given below example shows how end user's entered SharePoint contact list information.

User Data Input

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SharePoint List View

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Above scree shots show that the data entered inconsistence way and display in same manner.

Since this known problem in the industry we need to manage these issue.

Let's see how can manage below requirements

  1. 1.) Display eMail Address to lower case,
  2. 2) Merge First and Last name and Display as Full Name.

SharePoint : Go to Contact List and Click Settings and then Click List Settings.

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Create new column called "FormatedeMailAddress" and click "Calculated" On Formula text box type following formula.

=LOWER (eMailAddress)

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Save and Go back to Contact List view you can see the email address display on Lower case format.

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Let us look how to merge two column value "First and Last" as "Full Name" and format text in to proper case.

SharePoint : Go to Contact List and Click Settings and then Click List Settings. Create new column called "Full Name" and click "Calculated" On Formula text box type following formula.

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=CONCATENATE(PROPER(First)," ",PROPER(Last)) 

Save and Go back to Contact List view you can see the email address display on Lower case format.

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CONCATENATE () - Joins several text strings into one text string.

PROPER() - Capitalizes the first letter in a text string and any other letters in text that follow any character other than a letter. Converts all other letters to lowercase letters.

LOWER() - Converts all uppercase letters in a text string to lowercase

Monday, October 27, 2008

ASP.NET 4.0 Preview

.NET get New Logo..... and more updates....

MVC: ASP.NET MVC enables you to build model-view-controller (MVC) applications by using ASP.NET.
AJAX: ASP.NET AJAX enables you to quickly create efficient and interactive Web applications that work across all popular browsers.
Dynamic Data: ASP.NET Dynamic Data enables you to quickly build a functional data-driven application, based on LINQ-to-SQL or ADO.NET Entity Framework data models.
Web Forms: The ASP.NET Web Forms framework enables rapid development of Web applications.
Dynamic Language Support: The ASP.NET Dynamic-Language Runtime (DLR) is a framework for using .NET Framework-based dynamic languages. The project includes samples for creating ASP.NET Web pages by using dynamic languages such as IronPython and IronRuby.
ASP.NET QA: Testing related releases and sample code from the ASP.NET Quality Assurance team.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

TechNet Forums

SharePoint - Collaboration

Discussion about team sites, project tracking, document collaboration, extranets, etc.

SharePoint - Community Advancement

Discussion about improving or expanding the worldwide SharePoint community through blogs, forums, social networking, conferences, user groups, code camps, etc.

SharePoint - General Question and Answers and Discussion

Discussion about presales oriented questions and discussions.

SharePoint - Search

Discussion about Search capabilities in SharePoint.

SharePoint - Setup, Upgrade, Administration and Operation

Discussionabout installation/setup and upgrade/migration as well as administration and operation.

SharePoint - Social Computing
Discussion about MySites, blogs, wikis, tagging, social networking, knowledge search and brokering, communities, etc

SharePoint MSDN Forum

Given below SharePoint discussion forum for various SharePoint related topics this may help SharePoint professional to query or find answer to the issue they face.

SharePoint - Design and Customization

Discussion about site design (i.e. definitions, templates) and page customization (i.e. layouts) as well as SharePoint Designer and similar tools.

SharePoint - Development and Programming

Discussion  about development and programming (i.e. web parts, features, etc.), SDKs, and tools (i.e. Visual Studio).

SharePoint - Enterprise Content Management

Discussion  about document management, records management, and web content management capabilities in SharePoint products and technologies.

SharePoint - Excel Services

Discussion  about Excel Services capabilities in Office SharePoint Server.

SharePoint - InfoPath Forms Services

Discussion  about InfoPath Forms Services capabilities in Office SharePoint Server.

SharePoint - Workflow

Discussion about workflow capabilities in SharePoint products and technologies.

SharePoint - Accessibility

Discussion about improving accessibility and usability for the physically challenged.

SharePoint - Business Data Catalog

Discussion about the Business Data Catalog capabilities in Office SharePoint Server.

SharePoint - Business Intelligence

Discussion  about implementing SharePoint for business intelligence oriented solutions.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

SharePoint Server Setup

The following diagram shows the logical servers configurations as well as the proposed development environment the Intranet Portal

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Development Environment Architecture

The Development environment setup using virtualization technology that there will neither be load balanced or clustered at all; they are visualizing on a physical hardware using Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 or Hyper - V virtualization technologies  will be housed in a single physical server.

SharePoint Web Server running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 64bit edition in standalone sever.

SharePoint web server consists of MOSS 2007, WSS 3.0 and enables Index & Search services.

Setup new domain controller for development environment which help you separate from production and UAT environment. This domain mainly server as   authorization and authentication service provider for Office SharePoint users.

Database server

Database server running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 64bit with Installation SQL server 2005 standard edition in standalone sever.

Database store all office server applications, site collections, sites, libraries, lists, index and configuration data

All office server application run in a single database instance. Provide authorization and authentication service to Office SharePoint users.

Server Software requirements  

Install Windows Sever 2003 R2

  • Enable IIS 6.0 and WWW Services
  • Enable Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

Download and Install .net Framework 3.0
Download and Install WSS 3.0
Finally Install Office SharePoint Server 2007 Standard/Enterprise server

Database Server

Install Windows Sever 2003 R2

Install SQL Server 2005 / 2008 for simple deployments and development scenarios, you can also use SQL Express

Domain Controller

Install Windows Sever 2003 R2

Setup Active Directly and DCHP Services to act as domain controller.

Developer PC Software requirements

OS Windows XP or Vista

To customize SharePoint WebParts or Workflow you need to either Visual Studio 2005/2008 or SharePoint Designer 2007

Download and Install .net Framework 3.0
Download and Install WSS 3.0
Download and Install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions

If you are going use SharePoint with Sliverlight you need following software on your client PC

Microsoft Silverlight 2 SDK
Expression Blend 2 SP1
Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
Deep Zoom Composer

 

Thursday, October 16, 2008

K2 blackpearl 101 Course Singapore – 24 to 27 Nov, 2008

K2 [blackpearl] 101 Course Description (24th to 26th Nov)

The K2 blackpearl 101 program is an instructor-led, three-day course that is designed to provide participants with extensive hands-on product practice via lab exercises. K2 blackpearl 101 has 26 modules (listed below) that are intended to introduce the basic concepts, features and functions of K2 blackpearl to a business-knowledgeable technical audience. This fundamentals course is a prerequisite for all additional training.

K2101 Course Modules

K2 Fundamentals
K2 Building Blocks
SmartObjects
About the K2 Studio Designer
Using the K2 Studio Designer
K2 Workspace
K2 Workspace Management Console
K2 Worklist
K2 Workspace Reporting
K2 Workspace Notifications
K2 Web Designer
K2 Designer for Visio
Collaborative Process Design
InfoPath
About SharePoint Administration
SharePoint Administration – Sites and Workspaces
SharePoint Administration – Libraries and Lists
SharePoint Administration – User Management
SharePoint Content Management
SharePoint Content Management – Workflow Integration
SharePoint Content Management – Documents and List Items
SharePoint Content Management – Search Results in Processes
SharePoint Content Management – Records Management
SharePoint Content Management – Event Integration
SharePoint Content Management – Publishing
Delivering K2 Information in SharePoint (BDC)

This training FOC for K2 partners

Silverlight 2.0

Silverlight 2 is out. With our expected stuff like SDK, Expression, and Silverlight tools

Microsoft Silverlight 2 SDK
Expression Blend 2 SP1
Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1
Deep Zoom Composer

You can also code Silverlight with the free Visual Web Developer Express, which is absolutely free you don't need to pay for a working development environment to try out Silverlight.

If you like to Learn Silverlight 2

The best way to learn Silverlight 2 is to visit the www.silverlight.net web-site. You can find free online tutorials, videos and training available there.

The site also hosts an online forum system where MVPs and Microsoft Silverlight team members will be able to help answer technical questions. Also make sure to subscribe to the Silverlight Community RSS Feed, Jesse Liberty's Blog, and Tim Heuer's Blog for a daily dose of great Silverlight content.

To understand the basics click here you learn below topics

• Part 0: Introduction
• Part 1: Creating "Hello World" with Silverlight 2 and VS 2008
• Part 2: Using Layout Management
• Part 3: Using Networking to Retrieve Data and Populate a DataGrid
• Part 4: Using Style Elements to Better Encapsulate Look and Feel
• Part 5: Using the ListBox and DataBinding to Display List Data
• Part 6: Using User Controls to Implement Master/Details Scenarios
• Part 7: Using Templates to Customize Control Look and Feel
• Part 8: Creating a Digg Desktop Version of our Application using WPF

For more information you visit Scott Hanselman's and ScottGu's

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Customizing the ShraePoint user experience

Blogspot Tags: ,

Sharepointmagazine.net websites provide a list series article which provide nice overview of the default SharePoint interface from a technical point of view.

This article cover wide variety of customization options to learn better you should basically very familiar with ASP.Net, SharePoint and CAML.

Click here to access the article

Microsoft TechFEST 2008 in Singapore



I would strongly encourage registration for this TechFEST 2008 on 23rd and 24th Oct. 2008 (Technical sharing session). Pls forward this to any of your respective colleagues whom you think should go or would be interested to attend.

Those who is keen to understand and know more about Microsoft virtualisation technology, Visual Studio 2008, .NET 3.5, Silverlight 2, WPF, SharePoint, IE8, LINQ, PowerShell, should attend this session.

Virtual SharePoint Architecture

SharePoint Products and Technologies

Microsoft Office SharePoint Products and Technologies are a set of tools that provide for robust collaboration, document management, Web content management, and enterprise search. SharePoint tools allow organizations to easily share knowledge and valuable content on an extensible, scalable enterprise platform. The latest release of SharePoint Products and Technologies includes WSS 3.0, freely available with a license of Windows Server, and MOSS 2007, a full function Enterprise Content Management and Collaboration tool. Both WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 are installed on one or many Windows servers, depending on the scope and scale of the deployment. Virtualization of these servers may often be ideal, depending on the specific scenario.

Virtualization

Today Virtualization allows organizations to reduce overall physical SharePoint server count. According to article Virtualization Efficiencies by some estimates, up to 70 percent of processor and memory deployed on physical hardware goes unutilized. Virtualization allows for a much larger percentage of available resources to be more effectively utilized.
Given below the Virtualization of Microsoft® SharePoint® Products and Technologies article and the Sample Multi-Farm Physical and Virtual SharePoint Architecture



To Download PDF
To View Video