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Patterns & Practices SharePoint GuidanceFor those of you that have not seen it yet, there is some "Pre-Alpha" SharePoint guidance that has been released by the Patterns & Practices team @ Microsoft. While this is not even the Alpha release, I think it's worth a read for someone embarking on the SharePoint development path in an enterprise environment.
Happy SharePointing ! SharePoint Architecture - Coming SoonAll too often I am frustrated by the exmples of how to do things in SharePoint that do not adhere to best practices. Ways to manually modify files, xcopy files to locations on the file system, stsadm scripts to activate features that are not part of any solution deployment package, the list goes on. While these methods may be perfectly viable options for single server development, they fail horribly in an enterprise environment.
To really leverage the power of SharePoint is to reduce the operational complexity of your deployment of code through your environments. We all know how frustrating it can be to manage a multitude of applications in various environments and various states of upgrade. This can be compounded by having tedious processes that must be gone through for each and every code deployment for each and every application.
Many developers have never had to worry about these things, and many developers have gotten by just fine with a "Code and Load" mentality. For those of us that have had to work in demanding enterprise environments, Publicly traded companies, government entities, financial institutions. These must all adhere to strict guidlines for deploying code through production systems. SharePoint has infrastructure that when used CORRECTLY can facilitate reduced overhead for this process. When used INCORRECTLY it has the potential to exaccerbate these issues and ADD to the complexity of these environments.
The success of your SharePoint implementation depends greatly on the architecture of your solutions, yes, but I would argue that correctly utilizing the typical Application Development Lifecycle methodologies that we as an industry have developed along with the Solution Deployment Infrastructure within SharePoint can enhance your environment and speed your adoption of technology to solve your business needs.
In the next series of blog posts that will follow. I plan on documenting the development of the SharePointArchitecture.com We site using the tenets that I have learned and developed for SharePoint Development. I hope that others find them useful. While I will be focusing on application development on the SharePoint Platform, I will also have a focus on managing the application code through the multiple environments that the application will be deployed to.
I will keep the code for the solution on codeplex so if you would like to follow along, feel free. Once this series of Articles is through, I will open the project to others to contribute to the ongoing development of any application code that is useful.
Until Next Time,
Happy SharePointing ! Microsoft Search ServerIt's Interesting to see Microsoft's approach to utilizing the Platform they have developed for MOSS 2007 / WSS and offering creative solutions. Case in point: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/nov07/11-06SearchServer08ExpressPR.mspx Microsoft's new Search Server. There's a free version of it that is pretty much the real deal from what I can tell. WSS and this could be a pretty compelling low cost intranet / extranet solution for a considerable number of businesses Microsoft Download Beta – Interesting Look at things to comeFor those that have not seen it, Microsoft is showing off the new Beta Version of Microsoft Download and there's a dependency on Silverlight (for those of you that were wondering how they were going to get the installbase up for silverlight.. now you know ;-) ) Take a peek. I really thought it was interesting (although as with any site you design with such a heavy client footprint, initial launch times are slow.. good to know I am not the only one having those problems ;-) Don't Miss the Show - The Perseid'sWe are planning on catching the perseid Meteors tonight. It should be one of the best shows in years since there is no moon and we are supposed to be running through the densest part of the debris field this year. I look forward to letting my son see his first good shower (we went once before but there was too much light pollution) THis time we are going to go out of town to my in-laws' farm on the other side of Claremore. We'll still have a bit of pollution from TUlsa but it should be to the west of us and the Meteors are supposed to come in from teh northeast.
I know it'll be a late night since the show doesn't begin in earnest until around midnight... it peaks at 1 AM CST and tapers off until 2. There are of course showers before this and after but that should be the biggest metoer counts over that two hours (Or that's what I am betting anyways)
I'll post back an update... this would be a good use of a High Def DIgital Camcorder. I wonder if anyone will post video on You Tube ? Been FacebookingSince my current project has such a social networking aspect to it, I have tried to become immersed in the Social Networking World for a while and glean what I can from that and also from the convergence between that and the wonderful new integration points we are seeing in other software and devices. I truly feel like convergence is not only here, it is finally happening.. and we've ballywhoo'd about it so long, now that it is here we are yawning L Ok, but really. My take on the social networks is as follows:
Testing the Word Publishing FeatureI know that this may be a bit late in the game but since I am investigating the "Ease Of Publishing" aspect of this feature of the new Microsoft Office, I thought I would try this out. Sounds like I would be able to use this feature in my current project as an added "Bonus" to the client J I REALLY like the publishing features in Live.com.. did you know you can email pictures to your blog ? email blog posts to your blog ? pretty darned cool if you ask me J SharePoint Conference Slide DecksThis is a bit late but there's some good slide decks located here: http://sharepointmvps.officeisp.net/spc2006/default.aspx
These are the sessions that were given at the SharePoint Conference in May so some of it may have changed but there's a lot of good information in there !
Enjoy SharePointWSS3.0 and MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) have been released.
per the SharePoint Team Blog:
Links to download the RTW versions:
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 x86 English Evaluation Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
SharePoint Server Standard Trial: XJMKW-8T7PR-76XT6-RTC8G-VVWCQ Installation Instructions For WSS 3.0 refer to the Windows SharePoint Services in Windows Server 2003 site for installation and deployment details. Installation guidance on Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 refer to the following More info found at the blog entry.. get the bits and get as excited as I am :-) Oklahoma Centennial CelebrationMy Family attended the Oklahoma Centennial Event that was held over the weekend in Tulsa. I have to say Kudos to the organizers of the event ! It was wonderful. The fireworks, lightshow and projected movies were spectacular and well thought out and exeecuted !
I hope that this is the first of many community events held downtown ! this will start to bring folks down to our wonderful city center so they can see how great it would be if we all got behind an initiative to revitalize our downtown.
Can't wait until it's feasible for me to move my family down here. I love the urban lifestyle afforded by many of the cities I have visited and want so badly to be able to live like that in the city I love to call home !!
Enjoy the pictures of the fireworks in my blog photos. SharePoint Services - How Cool Is ThatI have spent the last few days working hard and heavy on mocking up a potential application built on WSS 3.0. We aren't loking at MOSS for this project since it is mainly an internet facing application. I still have to get the proof of concept to use the forms authentication in the extranet zone but the rest of it is coming together nicely.
I thought I would brain dump some of the interesting things (good and bad) that I have encountered while setting up this project.
1) Master Pages and Themes are AWESOME !!! Those of you that know me know that I have been averse to using frontpage (or the new SharePoint Designer) for anything :-) I have been able to do some really cool things using masterpages and themes without ever using anything but the browser and my trusty VS 2005 :-)
2) Features are the Bomb :-) Remember the Web part Packages in WSS 2 ? Now image them being able to add entire capabilites to your application including new web parts, new lists, new document types, columns, etc... that's the power of the new Solution Framework in SharePoint. If you haven't checked it out.. do so.. you will be imprlessed with the level of control that the developer can have in implementing the capabilites for a particular web application.
3) Missing Functionality - I have noticed quite a few things that I saw at the SharePoint conference that I was excited about that are not included int he WSS3.0 framework. Something as simple as choosing the masterpage you want to use from the gallery.. I had to resort to creating a feature with some code to accomplish this :-(
4) The entire site is generated ASP.NET style.. if you can develop asp.net, you'll be able to modify them.. and learn quite a lot about the controls that comprise this version of SharePoint... SiteNav, breadcrumbs... I haven't slept since I got to start working on this :-) Microsoft Knowledge NetworkThose of you that know me have heard over and over how Microsoft is making a brilliant move in the integration of Office and SharePoint Portal Server. The combination of local applications and server services to augment them is VERY powerful. Here's an example of what can be accomplished:
Microsoft's Knowledge Network - It is a "Social Networking" Extension to both the server and client Office Environment. Provides pretty cool functionality in connecting people, places and infomration within your enterprise. Check it out, I am thinking it's an exciting product and I hope they move these features "down the stack" and include them int he products instaed of as an addon :-) i know, I know, the whole "Monopolistic Nature" of this is disconcerting, but let's face it.. we lost that fight long ago :-)
Steve .NET Framework 3.0 Goes LiveFor those that haven't heard, the 3.0 version of the .NET Framework is ready for primetime.
Go Get it.. Happy Coding !!! TulsaTechFest on DotNetRocksCarl Franklin and Richard Campbell interviewed quite a few folks while they were at Tulsa tech Fest this last month. They finally released the show on the site:
Markus Egger, Carl Franklin, Richard Campbell, Ron Jacobs, Shaun Walker, and many more were interviewed including "The 4 Walkers".. Steve Walker, David Walker, Randy Walker and Shaun Walker... those guys are a HOOT and I was glad they took the time to come to our "little" tech festival !! Multiple Authentication providers for WSS3 / MOSS 2007Here's a Great Article on configuring your SharePoint Environment to support Multiple Authentication Providers.
Looks like there's a few gotchas by reading through the comments, etc... but for the most part, it worked nicely in my environment ! Security: Hardening your WSS3/MOSS2007 InstallationHere's a great set of links to resources for securing your WSS / MOSS installation.
I am totally stoked about how WSS3.0 handles itself for Intranet / Extranet Collaboration. If you are going to expose your data internally and externally, make sure you secure your farm appropriately ! Microsoft WSS 3.0 TR2 - Worth the Setup HassleI have spent some time over the last couple of days getting the TR2 of WSS 3.0 installed and set up in a VPC Environment.
It includes a VERY cool tool for exporting WSS Sites as Visual Studio Projects but from what I can tell, It's busted. It generates part of the site and then gives me an error " Cannot Write to Export Directory" and fails miserably :-(
The documentation that ships with WSS SDK is incomplete and the XML definition of the Solution Deployment packages is flat out wrong in some cases. It states that you can still use the DWPFiles node and the ClassResources Node as you could in WSS 2.0 but it bombs out when you try to install the Web Part Package into the SharePoint Environment. I am struggling with this one and can't seem to find anyone who is sharing the magic schema :-(
The next thing i ned to tackle for the POC demo i am building is hokking in our custom authentication provider instead of the Windows Auth Provider leveraged out of the box by WSS.. This should be Interesting :-)
Happy SharePointing ! Added Lots of PhotosI have been blogging over at SharePointForums.com for a bit but now I am going to create a personal blog that I can use to document "that other side" of my life. It's hard to tell sometimes what is personal and what is professional and I expect a great deal of overlap between the two but I will try to keep this blog for the "Non-Technical" aspect of the existance I call Steve :-)
I uploaded photos from my mostest memorablist trips that I have taken with the family. Check em out and comment away :-)
Enjoy !! Tulsa Channels ProjectWe have a project that has been proposed by a world renowned architect and city planner for the revitalization of our downtown by building a 40 acre island in the middle of the river. I have a feew issues with this. I agree with the architect's points in regards to the challenges that Tulsa faces and how we will have to overcome them, i don't think that building these islands are the answer though. I'll post back more as the thoughts congeal into a more cohesive argument. |
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