Peter's Blog

THE RELEASE OF YOUR FIRST INSTALLMENT PAYMENT OF $7, 600.00 USD (Payment Order #:WUMT-8880635/2011)

2011-09-27T15:31:00.001+02:00

WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER
MALAYSIAN PAY-OUT CENTER
Attention,
You are entitled to receive a total sum of $1,500,000 USD which has been
successfully deposited at the Western Union Payment Center, Malaysia by the
United Nations. This payment is in conjunction with the Social Responsibility
Cash Aid Programme of the United Nations in which e-mail addresses are
selected randomly by the Topaz Balloting System.
The Management of the Western Union Payment Center, Malaysia has designated
that the amount be remitted to you via our Daily Limit Payment of $7,600 USD.
Do send your Name, Address and Phone Number to Mrs. Franca Lee of the Western
Union Payment Center via email:(mrs.franca.lee01@gmail.com) or call +601.6487.
2136 for more information on how to receive your first installment of $7,600
USD
Yours Truly,
Mr. Norman Sadiq,
For: Western Union Payment Center, Malaysia.

Kom og mærk

2011-09-11T01:00:00.001+02:00

For sent
Mine grådige drømme
Flød som vældige strømme
Ind til helvedes port
Og mærk mine verdener der ramler
Mine hænder der famler
Kom og mærk

Og i mens at jorden drøner på min mælkevej
Kysser jeg dit navn
Kysser jeg dit navn

Og smag
Smag på mørket en tavs nat
Ligeså tro som en vild kat
Kom og smag
Og se
Alle stjernerne falder
Med min stemme der kalder
Her fra helvedes port

Og i mens at jorden drøner på min mælkevej
Kysser jeg dit navn
Kysser jeg dit navn

Og i mens at jorden drøner på min mælkevej
Kysser jeg dit navn
Kysser jeg dit navn
Kysser jeg dit navn

For sent
Mine grådige drømme
Flød som vældige strømme
Ind til helvedes port

Og i mens at jorden drøner på min mælkevej
Kysser jeg dit navn
Kysser jeg dit navn

Og i mens at jorden drøner på min mælkevej
Kysser jeg dit navn
Kysser jeg dit navn
Kysser jeg dit navn

Cure4you–din sundhedsportal!?

2011-09-06T14:17:00.001+02:00

Jeg har ikke været til min læge i 100 år. Sidst jeg skulle til lægen skulle man ringe og bestille tid hos en sekretær. Nu skal man bruge en formular online (jubii).

Når man endelig er logget ind bliver man mødt af en side der ligner noget fra østtyskland:

Her kan man så godt som intet andet end at klikke videre til Cure4you Sundhed.

Nu kan det godt være at det bare er mig, men Cure4you lyder mere som noget man får i spam sammen med 100% mere nydelse og størrelse.

Nå videre til Cure4you og så mødes af en portal der på nærmest umulig vis lykkedes med at undergå ovenstående i design:

Hvor har jeg f.eks. fået Per Stig Møller som læge? Sådan så han da ikke ud sidste gang…

Når man så vælger at bestille en ny tid bliver man smidt tilbage til Østtyskland…

Suk, velkommen til selvbetjening anno 2011.

Socialt valgeksperiment

2011-08-27T11:50:00.001+02:00

Så er der folketingsvalg 2011 og de sociale medier er allerede ved at flyde over med kommentarer af mere eller mindre lødig karakter.

For at gøre det nemmere at kende forskel på farven af tweets, indlæg og andre opkast vil jeg foreslå at alle skifter deres billede ud med et ikon der angiver det parti de vil stemme på.

Jeg har til formålet sakset lidt i DR’s hjemmeside og lavet nedenstående ikoner (i alfabetisk rækkefølge):

Alternativt kan man hente fra Skydrive: https://skydrive.live.com/#!/?cid=6af4c8ec7575374c&sc=documents&uc=9&id=6AF4C8EC7575374C%21846

Jeg har skiftet til (ugens) parti på twitter, facebook og G+.

God fornøjelse og godt valg.

SharePoint 2007 Content Query Web Part Resources

2011-08-07T22:56:00.001+02:00

Basic Usage

CQWP Step by Step

Styling

Custom Queries

Programmatic

Subclassing the Content Query Web Part: Adding Dynamic Filtering

Cool Examples That Tie It All Together

Enhanced CQWP’s

CQWP with Query Override – available on the Intranet
Lightning Tool Conductor Web Part – available on the Intranet

When to use a Database, Sharepoint, or Wiki

2011-08-07T22:50:00.001+02:00

Notice: I wrote this when I was still working for NNIT, but the principles still apply.

Eli Robillard wrote a post on "When to use a database, SharePoint, or wiki" with the following highlights:

A database stores structured data. The structure is typically designed and owned by an individual. Politically, it's a dictatorship. Line-of-business applications which gather and distribute raw data are typically associated with databases.

Sharepoint provides webs to store lists and documents. Think of this as loosely-structured data. Sharepoint lets you control this data with versioning, backup and recovery, workflow, security, policies and auditing. The structure might be seeded by an individual, but ownership is distributed. Sharepoint should be designed to unfold according to to will of the distributed owners. Politically, Sharepoint provides representative leadership like a parliamentary system though the leaders are typically appointed rather than elected. Sharepoint is used by "information workers" to create, manage, and publish information typically stored in lists and documents. Sharepoint is used as an interface to databases. Sharepoint is a social tool used to recognize and reinforce relationships among people. Through either Sharepoint's business intelligence capabilities or its integration with Reporting Services, Sharepoint can report on data from structured and loosely structured data stores. Sharepoint can index and provide search for structures, loosely structured, and unstructured data stores.

A Wiki provides webs to store text with embedded references to media. This is unstructured data. Wiki content can be seeded with the intention to unfold according to some master design, but politically, it's anarchy. A Wiki allow control through versioning and moderation. A Wiki is well-suited for collaborative documentation.

I the years to come eS will hopefully get the chance to convert a lot of Lotus Notes databases to Sharepoint. Each time you have to stop and figure out which one or all of the above mentioned data storage mechanisms you have to use in order to convert the functionality of the Lotus Notes database to Sharepoint.

Lotus Notes databases basically comes in two flavors:

Plain data (one or more tables) with views and no LotusScript code - basically it's a spreadsheet with alphanumerical data
Data with views, references and business logic in LotusScript code - basically it's an application

In the first case it's a no brainer to just convert the database into a WSS site with the data in custom lists combined with custom views and perhaps a few Web Part Pages thrown in with connected Web Parts that displays data. This is exactly what JPTL is doing right now with a Lotus Notes database from Novo Nordisk Stakeholder Relations.

In the second case it's much more difficult and each Lotus Notes database or more appropriately Lotus Notes Application has to be thoroughly analyzed. Once you have a good understanding of the business requirements and these was implemented in the Lotus Notes Application - stop and take a look at the slide below.

Your job now is to transform the business requirements from the square Lotus Notes approach to the round Sharepoint approach.

Can you fulfill the same surface area of business requirements with standard Sharepoint functionality? This is where creative use of lists (custom, tasks, wikis and so on), document libraries, views, Web Parts, workflows and Web Part Pages comes in.

Obviously there will be cases where it's just not possible to get the job done and you'll have to revert to a normal application design with ASP.NET (remember that Web Parts in WSS3.0 is a ASP.NET2.0 Web Part) and a backend database - but hopefully it will won't be very often. You could take the middle road and use a list for storage and you could even use SilverLight for the UX instead of ASP.NET.

Simplicity

2011-08-07T22:47:00.001+02:00

From: http://stuffthathappens.com/blog/2008/03/05/simplicity/

Hvad laver en CTO?

2011-08-07T22:44:00.001+02:00

Er jeg blevet interviewet af Daniel Frost fra Microsoft om:

http://danielfrost.dk/post/Froste28099s-podcast-Episode-1-e28093-Hvad-laver-en-CTO-.aspx

Calculated Time Left columns in SharePoint with jQuery

2011-08-07T22:43:00.001+02:00

Check this out: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bsimser/~3/tRLAwBhGWrc/calculated-time-left-columns-in-sharepoint-with-jquery.aspx

Transformation af forretningskrav med fast overfladeareal

2011-08-07T22:41:00.001+02:00

Jeg har gennem tiden skrevet et utal af tilbud baseret på udbudsmateriale, der var mere eller mindre gennemarbejdet.

Desværre har de fleste kravspecifikationer en stor fejl:

De funktionelle krav har været skrevet i hvordan-form i stedet for hvad-form

Når man skriver kravspecifikation for funktionelle krav, er det en kunstform kun at beskrive det som systemet skal kunne (altså selve forretningskravene) og ikke hvordan systemet forventes at løse disse krav.

Når funktionelle kravspecifikationer er skrevet i hvordan-form giver det store vanskeligheder at udnytte standardsystemer til at løfte krav der dybest set kan håndteres af standardfunktionalitet, fordi der i kravene er indlagt krav til proces og præsentation.

Det bedste i sådan en stituation er at indgå i tæt dialog med kunden og gennem workshops søge at forstå selve hvad-essencen i kravene. Herefter er det så muligt via prototyping at vise hvordan krav kan løftes f.eks. via standardfunktionalitet.

Jeg kalder processen for “Transformation af forretningskrav med fast overfladeareal”. Det handler i virkeligheden bare om at forstå de basale forretningskrav og vise hvordan de kan løftes nemmest via standardfunktionalitet. Jeg har gennemført workshops med dette formål med masser af kunder. Senest med Københavns Universitet, hvor vi fik reduceret omkostningerne til projektet med næsten 25% ved, at løse krav med standardfunktionalitet, i stedet for at kode en løsning der opfyldte de oprindelige krav 100% uden brug af standardfunktionalitet.

Processen kan bruges i alle situationer, hvor der er tale om en løsning, hvor det er muligt at bruge et standardsystem til at løse store dele af forretningskravene.

How to navigate an OData compliant service

2011-08-07T22:36:00.001+02:00

The Service:

It all starts with a Data Service hosted somewhere:

http://server/service.svc

Basic queries:

You access the Data Service entities through resource sets, like this:

http://server/service.svc/People

You request a specific entity using its key like this:

http://server/service.svc/People(16)

Or by using a reference relationship to something else you know:

http://server/service.svc/People(16)/Mother

This asks for person 16’s mother.

Once you have identified an entity you can refer to it’s properties directly:

http://server/service.svc/People(16)/Mother/Firstname

$value:

But the last query wraps the property value in XML, if you want just the raw property value you append $value to the url like this:

http://server/service.svc/People(16)/Mother/Firstname/$value

$filter:

You can filter resource sets using $filter:

http://server/service.svc/People?$filter=Firstname eq ‘Fred’

Notice that strings in the filter are single quoted.

Numbers need no quotes though:

http://server/service.svc/Posts?$filter=AuthorId eq 1

To filter by date you have identity the date in the filter, like this:

http://server/service.svc/Posts?$filter=CreatedDate eq DateTime'2009-10-31'

You can filter via reference relationships:

http://server/service.svc/People?$filter=Mother/Firstname eq 'Wendy'

The basic operators you can use in a filter are:

Operator	Description	C# equivalent
eq	equals	==
ne	not equal	!=
gt	greater than	>
ge	greater than or equal	>=
lt	less than	<
le	less than or equal	<=
and	and	&&
or	or	\|\|
()	grouping	()

There are also a series of functions that you can use in your filters if needed.

$expand:

If you want to include related items in the results you use $expand like this:

http://server/service.svc/Blogs?$expand=Posts

This returns the matching Blogs and each Blog’s posts.

$select:

Some Data Services allow you to limit the results to just the properties you require – aka projection – for example if you just want the Id and Title of matching Posts you would need something like this:

http://server/service.svc/Posts?$select=Id,Title

You can even project properties of related objects too, like this:

http://server/service.svc/Posts?$expand=Blog&$select=Id,Title,Blog/Name

This projects just the Id, Title and the Name of the Blog for each Post.

$count:

If you just want to know how many records would be returned, without retrieving them you need $count:

http://server/service.svc/Blogs/$count

Notice that $count becomes one of the segments of the URL – it is not part of the query string – so if you want to combine it with another operation like $filter you have to specify $count first, like this:

http://server/service.svc/Posts/$count?$filter=AuthorId eq 6

This query returns the number of posts authored by person 6.

$orderby:

If you need your results ordered you can use $orderby:

http://server/service.svc/Blogs?$orderby=Name

Which returns the results in ascending order, to do descending order you need:

http://server/service.svc/Blogs?$orderby=Name%20desc

To filter by first by one property and then by another you need:

http://server/service.svc/People?$orderby=Surname,Firstname

Which you can combine with desc if necessary.

$top:

If you want just the first 10 items you use $top like this:

http://server/service.svc/People?$top=10

$skip:

If you are only interested in certain page of date, you need $top and $skip together:

http://server/service.svc/People?$top=10&$skip=20

This tells the Data Service to skip the first 20 matches and return the next 10. Useful if you need to display the 3rd page of results when there are 10 items per page.

Note: It is often a good idea to combine $top & $skip with $orderby too, to guarantee the order results are retrieved from the underlying data source is consistent.

$inlinecount & $skiptoken:

Using $top and $skip allows the client to control paging.

But the server also needs a way to control paging – to minimize workload need to service both naive and malicious clients – the OData protocol supports this via Server Driven Paging.

With Server Driven Paging turned on the client might ask for every record, but they will only be given one page of results.

This as you can imagine can make life a little tricky for client application developers.

If the client needs to know how many results there really are, they can append the $inlinecount option to the query, like this:

http://server/service.svc/People?$inlinecount=allpages

The results will include a total count ‘inline’, and a url generated by the server to get the next page of results.
This generated url includes a $skiptoken, that is the equivalent of a cursor or bookmark, that instructs the server where to resume:

http://server/service.svc/People?$skiptoken=4

$links

Sometime you just need to get the urls for entities related to a particular entity, which is where $links comes in:

http://server/service.svc/Blogs(1)/$links/Posts

This tells the Data Service to return links – aka urls – for all the Posts related to Blog 1.

$metadata

If you need to know what model an OData compliant Data Service exposes, you can do this by going to the root of the service and appending $metadata like this:

http://server/service.svc/$metadata

This should return an EDMX file containing the conceptual model (aka EDM) exposed by the Data Service.

Getting started developing for SharePoint 2010

2011-08-07T22:35:00.001+02:00

Microsoft har udgivet 10 screencasts der kan bruges som udgangspunkt for at komme i gang med at udvikle løsninger på SharePoint 2010:

Module 1: Getting Started: Building Web Parts in SharePoint 2010

Module 2: What Developers Need to Know About SharePoint 2010

Module 3: Building Blocks for Web Part Development in SharePoint 2010

Module 4: Accessing SharePoint 2010 Data and Objects with Server-Side APIs

Module 5: Accessing SharePoint 2010 Data and Objects with Client-Side APIs

Module 6: Accessing External Data with Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010

Module 7: Developing Business Processes with SharePoint 2010 Workflows

Module 8: Creating Silverlight User Interfaces for SharePoint 2010 Solutions

Module 9: Sandboxed Solutions for Web Parts in SharePoint 2010

Module 10: Creating Dialog Boxes and Ribbon Controls for SharePoint 2010

Intranet vs. Internet

2011-08-07T22:33:00.001+02:00

Vi har lige netop afleveret materiale til prækvalifikation på et kommende udbud om ny hjemmeside. I materialet bedes leverandørerne beskrive referencer på Intranet og Internet.

På et møde hvor vi kort gik vores referencer igennem var der en person der mente at vi var lidt tynde på referencer på Internet – altså eksterne hjemmesider.

Så var det jeg anførte at de sidste 3 Intranet vi har leveret langt overgår de foregående 3 Internet i kompleksitet og samtidigt er baseret på samme teknologi.

Normalt skelner man mellem tre forskellige typer af web-løsninger:

Intranet
Extranet
Internet

1). Intranet dækker over en løsning der udelukkende kan tilgås af brugere på ”indersiden” af firewallen, dvs. typisk personer der har et ansættelsesforhold til en virksomhed eller organisation.

2). Extranet dækker over en løsning der både kan tilgås af Intranet-brugere samt brugere der kommer udefra som f.eks. samarbejdspartnere eller kunder. En forudsætning for at tilgå et Extranet er oprettelsen af dedikeret brugerkonti og kodeord.

3). Internet dækker over en løsning der kan tilgås af alle uanset forholdet til en virksomhed eller organisation. Et typisk eksempel på en Internet løsning er en hjemmeside for en virksomhed som f.eks. www.traen.com eller for en organisation som www.regionsjaelland.dk.

Traditionelt bruger man mange resourcer på at sikre at grafisk design og layout på en Internet løsning er i overensstemmelse med en virksomheds visuelle identitet. Det er naturligt da hjemmesider for mange virksomheder udgør den primære kommunikationskanal til kunder og brugere. Samtidigt har man traditionelt ikke lagt så meget vægt på grafisk design og layout på Intranet og Extranet løsninger, da det primære fokus var indholdet og funktionaliteten. Indhold skal være målrettet eller personaliseret til den enkelte bruger, så man ikke skal bruge unødig tid på at søge efter indhold.

Over de sidste par år har vi set en forandring, eller rettere en sammensmeltning, af kravene til Intranet, Extranet og Internet. Hvis en virksomhed har en vis størrelse så er det vigtigt at kunne kommunikere vision, mission osv. til medarbejderne mha. den visuelle identitet. Det kræver at man til Intranet nu også skal have fokus på grafisk design og layout – samtidigt med at indholdet skal være målrettet. For Internet er tendensen at indhold til målrettes til den aktuelle bruger, så brugeren ikke skal spilde tid på at finde indhold.

Et moderne Intranet, Extranet og/eller Internet skilles stort set kun af om brugerdatabasen indeholder ansatte eller ej.

Vi har netop leveret et nyt Intranet til et stort universitet i København. Det er en løsning med skarp fokus på visuel identitet og kommunikation (som et Internet), mulighed for adgang for eksterne registrerede brugere (som et ekstranet) samt personaliseret og målrettet indhold til alle baseret på automatiske og personlige indstillinger (som et Intranet).

Fra min stol er der ikke så stor forskel på Intranet og Internet projekter som der har været.

Map SkyDrive as network drive

2011-07-24T13:37:00.000+02:00

Type in Command prompt:

net use s: \\docs.live.net@SSL\{CID}\

Where {CID} is replaced by your CID on SkyDrive.

Internet fraud email #03

2011-06-23T08:59:00.002+02:00

And the hits just keep on coming. Now this from the honorable Mr. Shukri Mohammed Ghanem from Libya, the Oil Minister and owner of Zulaytini International Contracting Co:

Am wondering if Captain Lawrence Baber and Shukri Mohammed Ghanem are friends?

Vivek Kundra træder tilbage som CIO for USA

2011-06-21T15:54:00.000+02:00

I sidste uge kom det frem at den amerikanske føderale CIO Vivek Kundra træder tilbage.

Jeg kan kun begræde beslutningen og ønske alt mulig held og lykke fremover. Vivek kommer til at efterlade noget af et hul og det bliver nærmest umuligt at slå initiativer som:

Bare lige for at nævne et par stykker.

Jeg tror, at de fleste internationale og især globale virksomheder både kan spare penge og effektivisere ved at anlægge en Enterprise Strategi med udgangspunkt i "Federal Cloud Strategy".

Alene fakta som:

30% af udgifterne til nye IT-systemer går til etablering af driftcentre (inkl. hardware og software) og
Et driftcenter udnyttes i gennemsnit ikke mere end 30%

Må få det til at løbe koldt ned ad ryggen på enhver CFO. Det er et klasse-eksempel på hvordan strategisk Enterprise Arkitektur kan sikre bedre udnyttelse af IT og dermed være med til at skabe en bedre forretning.

Internet fraud email #02

2011-06-21T12:59:00.001+02:00

Clearly Captain Barber doesn't want to go away:

Hello Peter
I do understand how you feel about receiving such mails.Your reply has made me understand that you are an intelligent person and can be trusted to keep my share of the money safely.I can have the money sent to you where ever you want me to.Below are some of my personal information. I am United States Marine.. My full name is Capt. Lawrence Barber. I am from Hartford,CT.Age 38 now, serving in Al-Basrah, Iraq for the United States war against terrorism. I think with time you will know more about me. Let me share with you a BIG dream of mine that made me contacted you in this deal.. In the car site there is this provision for 'PRIVATE PERSONS', and for 'DEALERS', I went for private persons because I do not want a dealer in this issue because my mail might be read by a secretary and thus the secrecy might be no more. I told you that if I do not read from you in 3 days I will contact someone else. I have a dream to be a senator.Your friend can put a stop to that. In this world the only person that can destroy you is someone that knows all about you. I have a lot of good friends that I can trust, but what about the future. what does it hold for the relationship? I am a soldier but more of a politician. I cannot let this deal ruin my career and dream for me.. If you decide tomorrow to talk about this deal I think I can always deny it because the FBI can never get a link between the us. I have not known you from Adam and my share of the money will be paid to an account that cannot be traced. I know if I deal with someone I do not know, it is either he/she thinks it is a joke and then will not be interested or will believe me and then deal with me. There are no two ways about it. Nobody will ever find out about this deal except one of us lets the cat out of the bag and definitely will not be me. Will it be you? So let join our hands together like brothers and get this money so that our dreams can come true. If you are ready to work with me, I will give you all the details you need to carry out this transaction in my next mail. I need an urgent reply of this mail. Hope to hear from you soon. Attached is a pic of one of my junior officers on guard with the money.keep this pic as confidential as possible.

Best Regards.

Capt. Lawrence Barber

All right, what should we write back? I'm thinking about getting a deposit in my PayPal account.

Internet fraud email #01

2011-06-21T12:53:00.000+02:00

I then get this reply:

Hello Peter
Thanks for the detailed information about the car.I want to inform you that I will buy your car with cash but I have a business proposal for you. I am a captain with the United States troop in Iraq,on war against terrorism. Based on the United States legislative and executive decision for withdrawing troops from Iraq come this year,I have just been redeployed. Our mission is to help secure terrorist targeted states,for the United states and the European Union war against terrorism.I will need a car for myself and that is why I am contacting you.I want to inform you that I have 16.2million USD. which was recovered from one of our raids on terrorists here in Iraq because they keep most of their money at home for evil activities which they normally get through illegal deals on crude oil. Based on the suffering we undergo here some of us do meet such luck. It happened that I went for this raid with the men in my unit and I decided to take it as my share for my stress here in this evil land filled with suicide bombers. I deposited this money with a red cross agent informing him that we are making contact for the real owner of the money.It is under my power to decide who owns the money. I wish to use this money for charity purposes in Turkey,where we have about 3 million Iraqi refugees and Sudan where we have currently the highest numbers of refugees displaced as a result of war. You need to visit such places.I want to invest the money on stock fish from Norway to this refugees because based on my experience on battle ground in this places,they lack a lot of fish and meat to add to their meager and unpalatable meals which they get in little quantity just to keep them living until God knows when the problem ends. Instead of allowing this terrorists to get the money and spend it on purchasing arms illegally from Russia and North Korea it is better used in saving the world. I cannot move this money to the United states because I will be in Europe for about 3years,so I need someone I could deal with.If you accept,I will transfer the money to Europe where you will be the beneficiary because I am a military officer and cannot be parading such an amount so I need to present someone as the beneficiary. I am an American and an intelligence officer at that so I have a 100% authentic means of transferring the money through diplomatic courier service.I just need your acceptance and all is done.I will give you the complete details you need for us to carry out this transaction successfully.I decided to find someone that is real and not imaginary and that is why I went to a secured car site where I can be sure that the person is real. I believe I can trust you.We can only communicate through our military system,which is secured so that nobody can monitor our mails,then I will explain in details to you.I will only reach you through email,because our calls might be monitored,I just have to be sure whom I am dealing with. If you are interested please send me your personal mobile number so I can call you for further inquiries when I am out of our military network. I am using a fresh email account so if you are not interested do not reply to this email and please delete this message,if i don't get a reply from you after 3days I will look for someone else.I am doing this on trust,you should know that as a trained military expert I will always play safe in case you are the bad type,but I pray you are not.16.2million USD is a lot of money,my life depends on it. I will be looking forward to expecting a reply from you as soon as possible,so we can proceed with the deal.The money should be in your possession in 7days and I will come over.I will give you 20% share and 80% is for my dream. I hope I am been fair on this deal. Regards, Capt. Lawrence Barber

To which I reply:

Hi Captn,
This is the worst and most stupid attempt at phising and internetfraud I've ever experienced.
Please go away.
Best regards,Peter

I then mark the conversation as spam in Gmail and forget it ever happened.

Internet fraud email #00

2011-06-21T12:51:00.000+02:00

Just received this email after posting my car for sales on www.bilbasen.dk:

Navn : Lawrence Barber
telefon : 34741756
Email : captlawrencebarber@gmail.com
I want to buy your car.What is the last price,car history and location?

Being a non-suspecting citizen I replied with the following:

Hi Lawrence,
I've owned the car from new and have driven it daily to and from work.
The car is at:
Folemarksvej 49
2605 Brøndby
http://goo.gl/maps/b4K5
I have a buyer coming today at 5PM.
Best regards,
Peter

Et kongerige for en selvbetjeningsløsning eller to...

2011-06-08T18:19:00.001+02:00

Denne uge er ugen hvor mine unger både skal have billetter til det ellers udemærkede Sommersjov program i Brøndby kommune samt udfylde oplysningsblanketter til den klub hvor de skal gå fra den 1/7.

Løsning nummer 1: Tilmelding til Sommersjov

Sommersjov er en række forskellige aktiviteter for skolebørn i sommerferien. Man kan deltage på forskellige ture til Tivoli, Sommerland Sjælland, BonBon-land osv. Desuden er der en række lokale aktiviteter som tennis-, fodbold-, håndbold- og sejlerskole hos sportklubber i Brøndby. Helt overordnet et genialt koncept. Men træerne vokser som bekendt ikke ind i himlen...

For at deltage skal man købe en billet til en aktivitet. Aktiviteterne foregår på en eller flere datoer i løbet af sommeren og afhængig af aktiviteten er der begrænset pladser. Man kan købe billetter på 3 forskellige udsalgssteder. Udsalget foregår man-tir-ons i denne uge (med start 6/6-2011) og billetterne er fordelt med lige mange på de 3 udsalgssteder.

For at købe en billet skal man udfylde en oplysningsseddel med aktivitetsnavn, dato for aktiviteten, barnets navn, cprnr, adresse og telefon/mobil. Dette skal gøres for hver eneste billet man vil købe.

Og nu kommer det sjove...

ALLE børnene i Brøndby vil selvfølgelig med - for det er mega fede aktiviteter. Så for at undgå for megen kø ved udsalgsstederne kan man komme en time før åbningstid og få et kønummer. Udsalget varer fra 16-17.30 og dørene åbnes og lukkes kl. sharp som om det var adgangen til seddelpressen i den kongelige mønt. Kønumre kan man altså få fra kl. 15.00.

Jeg tropper op kl. 14.55 på Kilden i Brøndbyøster hvorfra billetter sælges om mandagen. Der er proppet af mennesker - både børn og voksne. Der er sat stole op hele vejen rundt langs med væggen og jeg sætter mig et tilfældigt sted. Kl. 15.00 begynder en person fra Sommersjov at dele kønumre ud ved at et tilsyneladende tilfældigt sted i stolerækken og fortsætter rundt indtil hun når mig. Jeg får kønummer 100. Jeg får at vide at de plejer at kunne klare ca. 30 kønumre pr. halve time, så jeg må nok regne med at det kan komme til at knibe med at nå af få billetter den dag!

Dvs. at jeg nu skal vente i en time før billetsalget går i gang og derefter forhåbentlig ikke længere end 1 time og 29 minutter før det bliver min tur! Dvs. Brøndby kommune pga. deres manuelle billetsalgsproces nu er i gang med at spilde tiden for minimum 100 personer fra kl. 15.00 til kl. 17.30 (dertil transporttid og ja OK køen bliver mindre undervejs så der er nogen der slipper med mindre ventetid).

Jeg sætter mig på græsset foran Kilden og tager min computer frem og tænker godt at jeg har trådløs forbindelse til nettet så jeg kan få arbejdet lidt videre (at så det var umuligt at få forbindelse er en anden historie).

Efter 2 timers ventetid kommer jeg til og får købt halvdelen af de billetter jeg var på jagt efter - resten var udsolgt fra Kilden, men jeg kunne jo bare prøve igen i morgen på det næste udsalgssted...

Hvis man nu lavede en løsning f.eks. baseret på Google Docs, Google Foms, Google Apps Script og Google Checkout så kunne man spare en masse tid for borgerne og for medarbejderne der i hånden kopierer teksten fra billetterne ind i et dokument på en computer fuldstændig gratis (ja, lidt tid til en udvikler skal der selvfølgelig til). Man kunne udlade at indsamle cprnr. hvilket jeg alligevel ikke forstå hvad de skal bruge til og på den måde undgå datatilsynet. Og man kunne sidde derhjemme i ro og mag og planlægge hvilke aktiviteter man vil købe billet til og måske ligefrem se med det samme om der er udsolgt eller ej.

Løsning nummer 2: Indberetning af oplysninger til klub (og alle andre institutioner min børn nogensinde har gået i)

Mine to drenge skal her i ferien skifte fra SFO til Klub, det er der ikke noget dramatisk over, men for administrationen er det tilsyneladende en større omgang. Mine drenge har nemlig fået tilsendt ikke færre end 3 sider med oplysninger som skal fyldes ud og sendes tilbage med posten. Det drejer sig om:

En side med basale kontaktoplysninger som navn og adresse på samtlige medlemmer af hustanden inklusive alle analoge og digitale kontaktmuligheder
En side med sygdomsoplysninger samt navn og adresse på samtlige medlemmer af hustanden inklusive alle analoge og digitale kontaktmuligheder
En side med forskellige komme og gå muligheder, deltagelse på udflugter osv. og så lige navn på barnet

Alle siderne er iøvrigt kopier af kopier af kopier, så det er tydeligt at den praksis har stået på længe.

Der er selvfølgelig tale om vigtige og nødvendige oplysninger men alle oplysningerne har jeg givet før flere gange end jeg kan huske.

Hvis man nu igen lavede en løsning f.eks. baseret på Google Docs og Google Foms og lod alle institutionerne i Brøndby dele løsningen så kan vil tro at der kunne spares 100-vis af timer i administrationen og mine børn ville undgå at få starvet deres navn forkært pga. tastefejl når oplysningerne fra blanketterne føres ind på computer. Igen kunne man udlade at indsamle cprnr. hvilket jeg alligevel ikke forstå hvad de skal bruge til og på den måde undgå datatilsynet.

Kom nu i gang med digitalisering af de lavthængende processer, der kan spares millioner (måske milliarder?) når det skaleres op til hele kommuner, regioner og Danmark.

Persondataloven skal skrottes - jo før jo bedre

2011-05-31T08:51:00.001+02:00

Det mener i hverfald formanden for Dansk IT Klaus Kvorning Hansen i en artikel i CW den 2011-05-30.

Og jeg er helt enig!

Det er indlysende at den nuværende lovgivning står i vejen for mulighederne for at gøre Danmark til et D-land og samtidigt totalt blokerer for udnyttelse af Cloud computing og dermed de enorme besparelser der følger med.

Det er paradoksalt at det nu ikke længere er teknologien der står i vejen for digitalisering men jura, holdninger og politikere.

Jeg har tidligere skrevet om barrierer for effektiv digitalisering og en omskrivning af persondataloven i dens nuværende form er et godt første skridt på en nedbrydning af barrierne.

EA is moving into the cloud and has left SOA behind

2011-05-30T09:55:00.001+02:00

10 years ago Enterprise Achitecture (EA) was (among other things) about connecting systems using the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) pattern.

Building and connecting systems using SOA was hard, most of the vendors has slightly different interpretations of SOA and thus different implementations hereof causing most systems you wanted to connect to require some middleware component that could translate between different dialects of SOA.

Technology itself was in the way, no matter how much EA and SOA you could throw at a problem integrating systems to get that illusive business advantage, you still had to tackle different endpoint implementations, type conversions and mapping between huge XML schemas from this standard to that standard.

ZapThink even published an explanation of the tenets of SOA using Lego bricks to make it easier to understand.

Fast forward 10 years and people are still talking SOA and most public RfPs still cite SOA as a requirement. The main difference is that SOA now just works.

The entire Web2.0 stack is based on SOA using communication between systems based on Web Services. The Cloud may be driving in huge datacenters that reduce the cost for computing, storage and delivery but the fuel is the ability to connect systems across technologies, vendors and data.

Now is the time to finally apply EA to business problems and gain real value.

Open Data Catalog–Powered by Dbstract

2011-04-25T22:37:00.001+02:00

Open Data Catalogs

2011-04-25T13:43:00.001+02:00

Just for my own reference here’s a list of Open Data Catalogs:

Denmark

http://data.digitaliser.dk/

http://publicdata.eu/

Norway

http://data.norge.no/

United Kingdom

http://data.co.uk

United States

http://data.gov

More non-contry specific:

Open Government Data Initiative: http://ogdisdk.cloudapp.net/

If you know more sites, please let me know.

Actually this is just screaming for an OData enabled list…

Byg nu den data.dk

2011-04-07T17:53:00.001+02:00

Har lige været på Digitaliser Danmark 2011 hvor jeg bl.a. deltog på et par sessioner hvor adgangen til offentlig data blev ivrigt diskuteret.

Udnyttelse af adgang til offentlig data har siden den amerikanske føderale regering åbnede for data.gov nærmest fået sit eget liv og driver utvivlsomt både innovation og ny forretning.

Ovenpå rapporten fra ITST af Zangenberg og Co er det nu også “bevist” at der er penge i data i Danmark. Problemet er bare at få adgang til data.

Mange offentlige myndigheder er begyndt at stille data til rådighed, men desværre udstilles data ikke på en uniform måde – og det gør det besværligt at bruge data og dermed drive innovation og forretning.

Fidusen med data.gov er at data overholder de 8 bud til offentlig data og dermed kan bruges direkte, uden at man skal bekymre sig om data er opdateret, gratis og programmatisk tilgængelig. I nogle tilfælde er data.gov selve datakilden i andre er det eksterne, men i alle tilfælde kan selve adressen til datakilden hentes fra data.gov.

Den eksisterende portal data.digitaliser.dk løser ikke problemet fordi den ikke indeholde direkte adresser på datakilder, men bare et katalog over datakilder hos diverse offentlige myndigheder.

Så derfor tror jeg ikke at vi får succes på samme niveau som USA (data.gov) og UK (data.go.uk) før vi får bygget en data.dk.

Barrierer for effektiv digitalisering #dkcloud

2011-02-14T23:48:00.002+01:00

På IT-Dagen var Pim Bilderbeek keynote taler. Pim talte bl.a. om barrierer mod effektiv digitalisering. Herunder mangel på:

Top level political sponsorship
Sustained professional leadership
Broad coverage
Collaboration across public bodies
A customer mindset
Unified access
Due care to data privacy and security
Discrete tangible visible gains

Jeg er især optaget af de 2 første.
Det er besynderligt så lavt IT ligger på den politiske dagsorden når man tænker på hvor meget tid der bliver brugt på at tale mangel på forbedringer på serviceområderne og behovet for effektivisering.
Den amerikanske føderale CIO Vivek Kundra skriver i sin strategi om Cloud Computing (frit oversat):

IT har revolutioneret hvordan den private sektor arbejder. Vi kan bestille varer online, holde øje med forsendelsen af varerne, hvad enten det er en pizza, et par sko eller noget andet. Vi kan bestille rejser, hotel, bestille bord på restaurant og samarbejde med vores kolleger, venner og familier både online og på vores telefon – 24 timer i døgnet. Men når vi skal i kontakt med det offentlige skal vi stadig tale i telefon, stå i kø eller indsende underskrevne formularer. Af mange årsager, hvad enten de er juridiske eller andre, så har den offentlige sektor ikke formået at løse problemer med samme effektivitet som den private sektor.

Men det aktuelle afslag fra Datatilsynet til Odense kommune om anvendelse af Google Docs kan man kun håbe at der er en række problemstillinger som kun kan løses via lovgivning – enten ny eller ved revision af eksisterende. Alt mulig anden lovgivning bliver løbende revideret for at være tidssvarende, hvorfor skulle det så ikke også være på tide med en revision af diverse lovgivning om personfølsomme data?
I forhold til “Sustained professional leadership” kan man ikke ligefrem klandre ITST for manglende indspark til diskussionerne om Cloud Computing. Der udgives en lind strøm af diskussionsoplæg med både interne og eksterne forfattere. Problemet er bare at alle oplæggene ikke angiver retning og styring.
Det er på en eller anden måde et typisk dansk fænomen omkring Enterprise Arkitektur – ingen tør tage ansvaret og sige “kom så, vi skal i den retning”.
Igen må man tage hatten af for Vivek Kundras strategi om Cloud Computing hvor princippet om “Cloud First” indføres. Princippet beskriver at man via en beslutningsproces (inklusive betragtninger om økonomi og eventuelle juridiske aspekter) altid skal søge at vælge en løsning der er baseret på skyen.
Tænk hvis man gjorde det samme i Danmark.

US Federal Cloud Computing Strategy #dkcloud

2011-02-14T23:35:00.001+01:00

Den 2011-02-08 udgav den amerikanske føderale CIO Vivek Kundra en strategi om cloud computing.

Strategien har 4 hovedområder:

Frigørelsen af fordelene ved skyen
En beslutningsmodel for migrering til skyen
Referencehistorier der illustrerer beslutningsmodellen
Katalysatorer for anvendelse af skyen

Det er en banebrydende strategi der kan sætte USA i den absolutte førertrøje ift. cloud computing.

Ligesom i Danmark er IT i den offentlige sektor i USA præget af lav udnyttelse af kapacitet, fragmenteret efterspørgsel af resourcer, rendundante systemer, systemer er svære og dyre at vedligeholde og lange og dyre indkøbsprocesser.

Strategien gør op med den gammeldags tankegang om at alle skal have egne datacentre, applikationer og systemer i stedet for at udnytte eksisterende infrastrukturer, platforme og services i skyen. Det er estimeret at investeringer i IT til et samlet beløb på 20 milliarder dollars ud af et budget på 80 milliarder dollars kan målrettes til løsninger i skyen fremfor traditionelle løsninger.

For at tæmme kræfterne og værdien i skyen har USA dermed indført princippet om “sky-først” for alle IT investeringer og projekter. Før en investering tages eller et projekt gennemføres skal det vurderes om projektet kan løses via en løsningen i skyen. Alle ministerier, myndigheder og styrelser i den føderale administration skal følge dette princip.

Strategien anfører at skyen er et fundamentalt skift indenfor IT. Eftersom skyen giver IT systemer evnen til at være skalerbare og elastiske. Kunderne behøver ikke på forhånd at kunne beregne deres eksakte behøv, i stedet kan resourcer løbende tildeles efter behov. Med løsninger i skyen er det ikke længere et krav at have et datacenter for at lancere en løsning der har 10.000-vis af brugere.

Øget effektivitet vha. skyen vil skifte resourcer mod mere værdiskabende aktiviteter. I budgetåret 2010 brugte USA omkring 1/3 af alle penge på IT-projekter på etablering af infrastruktur – dvs. “ting” der ikke direkte kom borgerne til gode. Samtidigt var udnyttelsesgraden af eksisterende datacentre i gennemsnit højst 1/3 – den overskydende kapacitet var til for at kunne håndtere få og spredte situationer med høj belastning.

I februar 2010 blev “Federal Data Center Consolidation" Initiative" (FDCCI) lanceret. Formålet var at reducere antallet af datacentre og allerede nu er der identificeret mere en reduktion af eksisterende og kommende centere med 800.

IT har revolutioneret hvordan den private sektor arbejder. Vi kan bestille varer online, holde øje med forsendelsen af varerne, hvad enten det er en pizza, et par sko eller noget andet. Vi kan bestille rejser, hotel, bestille bord på restaurant og samarbejde med vores kolleger, venner og familier både online og på vores telefon – 24 timer i døgnet. Men når vi skal i kontakt med det offentlige skal vi stadig tale i telefon, stå i kø eller indsende underskrevne formularer. Af mange årsager, hvad enten de er juridiske eller andre, så har den offentlige sektor ikke formået at løse problemer med samme effektivitet som den private sektor.

Projekter der er baseret på sky-løsninger kan blive udtænkt, udviklet, testet og lanceret med langt færre resourcer end traditionelle IT-projekter. I stedet for at kæmpe med at opbygge infrastruktur der kan leve op til 99,5% oppetid og aflevering til Statens arkiver, så kan en sky-løsninger provisioneres i bidder og efter behøv.

Fremover er det nødvendigt at tænke på løsninger som services i stedet for aktiver.

Tankegangen skal ændres fra antal servere (metrikker) til antal brugere (SLA)
SLA’er skal overvåges proaktiv og leverandører skal holdes ansvarlige
Re-evaluering skal ske løbende for at kunne drage maksimal fordel af skyen

For at sikre og fremme anvendelse af skyen vil den amerikanske regering skabe et sikkert miljø mellem brugere og leverandører af tjenester i skyen. Første punkt i denne strategi er etableringen af “Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program” (FedRAMP). Det er FedRAMP’s opgave bl.a. beskrive hvordan sikkerhed, logning og rapportering i skyen skal foregå.

Man kan kun håbe at der i nærmeste fremtid bliver taget tilsvarende initiaitver i Danmark, i stedet for de spredte initiativer der indtil videre er strømmet ud af ITST på området.

Paris får åben data

2011-02-06T20:52:00.001+01:00

Paris er hoppet på åben data vognen og har lige som http://data.gov oprettet en portal hvor data om alt i Paris frit kan hentes og bruges: http://opendata.paris.fr

Bare nu Danmark ville komme med på vognen også.

Statens IT nedlægger arkitektur og kvalitet

2011-02-06T17:50:00.001+01:00

Som følge af en sparerunde nedlægger Statens IT (SIT) afdelingen for arkitektur og kvalitet. Argumentet, udover mindre budget, er at funktionen er dækket ind andre steder.

Hvor, spørger jeg bare?

Når man som leverandør til det offentlige igen og igen bliver udsat for diverse IT-strategier der enten ikke er opdateret siden 2005 og stadig bruger sætninger som “en serviceorienteret SOA arkitektur” så får man kuldegysninger, når SIT netop vælger at nedlægge den afdeling som kunne have fået stor positiv indflydelse på SIT fremadrettet.

Testing, testing–is this thing on?

2011-02-06T17:31:00.001+01:00

Using MindJet MinManager Pro to model P2 product breakdowns and displaying them in Sharepoint using SilverLight

2007-10-31T13:17:00.002+01:00

Doing Prince2 product breakdown diagrams in Visio drives me nuts - I prefer to use MindJet MindManager Pro.

MindManager automatically numbers the sections even from a specific starting number. In this case the top level product has number 321.
With this cool tool from Micheal Scherotter it's possible to export a MindManager Map to a SilverLight application. I've then embedded the application in a CEWP in WSS.

Pretty cool I think.

Getting Started with Expression Design - lynda.com Online Training Library®

2007-10-31T13:16:00.001+01:00

From basic vector-based drawings to professional three-dimensional graphics built with Live Effects, Ted LoCascio covers the full range of possibilities in Getting Started with Expression Design. He starts by explaining Expression Design's interface and how to work with documents, then moves on to cover working with objects and applying fills, strokes, and effects for best results. Exercise files accompany this training.

Getting Started with Expression Design - lynda.com Online Training Library®

Getting Started with Expression Blend - lynda.com Online Training Library®

2007-10-31T13:15:00.001+01:00

In Getting Started with Expression Blend , Lee Brimelow covers all the basics that every designer and developer of WPF and Silverlight content needs to know. He starts with an overview of how Expression Blend fits into WPF and Silverlight workflows, then guides viewers through the process of creating and manipulating objects, building timeline-based animations, and exporting compositions into XMAL for use in Visual Studio.

Getting Started with Expression Blend - lynda.com Online Training Library®

SharePoint 2007 Learning Guide

2007-10-03T13:01:00.002+02:00

From SearchVB comes a complete Sharepoint guide "SharePoint 2007 Learning Guide". It contains pages with a bunch of links to relevant articles and screencasts on the following topics:

Highly recommended.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

2007-09-26T12:44:00.001+02:00

To open and edit documents in the new Office 2007 OpenXML format in Office 2003 install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats which can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

Plan for building multilingual solutions by using SharePoint Products and Technologies

2007-09-26T12:41:00.001+02:00

This white paper provides information and guidelines for using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 in scenarios where content is managed across different languages. It details most of the functionality provided by Office SharePoint Server 2007 and suggests how to use it to manage multilingual scenarios. It also provides examples for creating custom Web Parts by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and how to configure and manage them by using Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, the next generation of Web designer tools specifically designed for SharePoint sites. Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 features and functionality, and how they add value to the end-user experience, are also described.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/87065c9d-d39d-479d-909b-02160ec6d7791033.mspx?mfr=true

Highly recommended!

Explaining SOA with Lego blocks...

2007-09-26T12:39:00.001+02:00

...this is just plain ingenious!

ZapThink (my favorite alternative to Gartner) just released a short explanation of the 4 tenets of SOA using a Lego building block analogy.

Read it - share it!

Howto use calculated fields in WSS lists even though it's not supported

2007-09-26T09:20:00.001+02:00

It turns out that [Today] and [Me] can't be used in calculated fields in WSS lists.

However, there's a bug (or feature) which allows us to use at least the [Today] any way.

In a list create a column with the name "Today". It doesn't matter but use the Date field type.

Now in a calculated field it's possible to add the Today column and use it in a calculation like the age of something in years: =DATEDIF([Born];[Today],"d")/365

Then delete the Today column - and now we're set. WSS then replaces [Today] with the current date and the Age calculated field is filled with the Age in years.

Weird but true.

Here's a some more reference information on calculated fields: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/HA101215881033.aspx

Angus Logan's Portals Blog : Free to download eBooks - Planning, Architecture & deployment (MOSS and Search) - 916 pages!

2007-09-25T22:13:00.001+02:00

Link to Angus Logan's Portals Blog : Free to download eBooks - Planning, Architecture & deployment (MOSS and Search) - 916 pages!

Go get it!

How to get a List of Web Parts on a Page

2007-09-25T21:53:00.001+02:00

Using the SharePoint object model this is pretty easy, especially if you want to retrieve that list with code running in a web part. The WebPartManager property of the WebPart base class, gives you access to a collection of all the WebPartZones available on the page. Once you've got the zones, you can get the web part instances by using the WebParts property. The following web part code will display a small list of all the web parts found on the page, including the name of the web part class and the web parts zone:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

namespace WebPartLister
{
public class WebPartLister : System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart
{
BulletedList list;

    protected override void CreateChildControls()
    {
      list = new BulletedList();
      WebPartZoneCollection zones = this.WebPartManager.Zones;
      foreach (WebPartZone zone in zones)
      {
        WebPartCollection webparts = zone.WebParts;
        foreach (WebPart webpart in webparts)
        {
          list.Items.Add(
          string.Format("{0} ({1}), {2}",
            webpart.Title, webpart.GetType().Name,
            zone.DisplayTitle));
        }
      }
      this.Controls.Add(list);
    }

    protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
    {
      EnsureChildControls();
      list.RenderControl(writer);
    }
}
}

XAML Markup that installs .NET3.0

2007-09-25T21:51:00.001+02:00

<Viewbox xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
Margin='8px'>
<TextBlock
Foreground='#17365D'
Background='White'
FontFamily='Cambria'><Bold>Windows Presentation Foundation</Bold> is installed!</TextBlock>
</Viewbox>

Fantastic collection of close-up wallpapers

2007-09-25T21:49:00.001+02:00

http://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/pages/wallpaper.aspx

Using PowerShell to control Sharepoint

2007-09-25T21:42:00.001+02:00

Here's a list of completely awesome tutorials on how to use PowerShell to control the Sharepoint API:

Announcing three CodePlex projects for community WCM code samples

2007-09-25T21:37:00.001+02:00

Cross posting from Andrew Connell for later reference:

Announcing three CodePlex projects for community WCM code samples

Cross posted on Spencer Harbar’s Blog.

We (Andrew Connell & Spencer Harbar) would like to announce three new CodePlex projects created to enable the community to share examples of useful Publishing site elements built using the Web Content Management features of Office SharePoint Server 2007. Initially these projects contain a number of commonly used MCMS 2002 Placeholder controls converted for use within MOSS Publishing sites which have been graciously donated by Microsoft. Over time these samples will be augmented and enhanced. Future plans include the consolidation and alignment of deployment mechanisms of all code samples in all projects.

All the CodePlex projects listed below are released under the most permissive Microsoft license (Ms-PL) which means that you can do virtually anything you want with these code samples.

Many of the code samples include a MS Word document explaining the process of developing the code sample as well as deployment instructions.

The projects (and the included code samples) are broken down as follows:

SharePoint 2007 WCM Field Controls
A collection of sample Field Controls for use within Publishing Sites built using Office SharePoint Server 2007's Web Content Management features.

MultimediaFieldControl: Custom field type and control allowing content authors to specify a URL, width and height of a media file (SWF, PDF, WMV, MPEG, AVI, MPG, MOV) and renders the display of the control with the appropriate ActiveX control markup.

SharePoint 2007 WCM Web Parts
A collection of sample Web Parts for use within Publishing Sites built using Office SharePoint Server 2007's Web Content Management features.

FAQWebPart: Web Part that allows business users to contribute to a frequently asked questions list which is rendered with DHTML allowing users to expand/collapse each FAQ item.
RandomFlashMovieWebPart: Web Part that allows a content author to select one or more Flash movies from a SharePoint library. The Web Part will then display one of the Flash movies, at random, in display mode.
ThumbnailWebPart: Content authors can specify a SharePoint library containing images that the Web Part will generate thumbnails for. It allows content authors to specify the size, sort order and the number of thumbnails to be displayed in one row.

SharePoint 2007 WCM Utilities
A collection of useful utilities for Publishing Sites built using Office SharePoint Server 2007's Web Content Management features.

METATagsGenerator: This ASP.NET 2.0 server control renders HTML <META> tags for each field in the current page’s content type.
PropertyBagFeature: Allows content authors to modify values within the property bag of pages… similar to the custom properties provided in MCMS 2002.
SharePointSSLHttpModule: Makes it easy for developers to SSL enable certain parts of a MOSS 2007 WCM Publishing site.

Live Tour de France Tracker Google Mashup!

2007-09-25T21:25:00.001+02:00

I love mashups and this one is defintely my current favorite!

They've equipped 5 of the riders in the race with a GPS tracker, heart monitor, bicycle computer and a radio that continuously transmits readings to the sportsdirector car which then relays the information to some server somewhere. The data is then overlayed a Google Map.

I absolutely love computers!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check it out: http://www.ubilabs.net/tourdefrance/

Announcing The First MOSS 2007 WCM Specific Developer Course!

2007-09-25T20:56:00.001+02:00

From Ted Pattison:

I'm thrilled to announce the first course that focuses specifically on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 Web Content Management (WCM). That's right... no general Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v3 development topics, minimal admin topics, no other MOSS 2007 topics (Excel Services, BDC, Search, etc)... just four days of 100% WCM for developers! Roll up your sleeves, open Visual Studio 2005 & SharePoint Designer 2007, and great ready to sling some Publishing sites out!
I'm delivering this four-day, hands-on, developer focused course through the Ted Pattison Group starting in early July 2007. The course includes twelve (12) modules and assumes that the student has some developer knowledge of WSS v3... but those new to SharePoint are also welcome. What will you get in four days? The course will cover roughly three modules per day:
Schedule of Lectures

WSS Development Primer
Web Content Management Architecture
Authentication & Authorization
Master Pages & Navigation
Creating Custom Page Layouts
Extending the Out-Of-The-Box Authoring Experience
Leveraging WCM Web Parts
Custom Field Types & Controls
Performance Tuning Publishing Sites
Creating Custom Workflow
Content Deployment
Variations

WSS Development Primer

Overview of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS)
WSS Capabilities
Working with Visual Studio 2005 and the WSS object model
Working with WSS features & the WSS solution package framework

Web Content Management Architecture

Overview of MOSS 2007: added value on top of WSS
Overview of Web Content Management (WCM) and Publishing sites
Creating Publishing sites
Working with the Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing namespace

Authentication & Authorization

Additional SharePoint groups and permission levels in MOSS Publishing sites
Managing permissions
Pluggable authentication
Alternative Access Mappings & Zones
Utilizing multiple authentication models

Master Pages & Navigation

Creating & editing master pages using Office SharePoint Designer 2007
Implications of customized & uncustomized master pages (unghosted & ghosted)
Managing & deploying Master Pages using the structured development approach
Navigation provider model and SharePoint’s site map data sources
Customizing the out-of-the-box navigation controls and site map data sources

Creating Custom Page Layouts

Creating & editing page layouts using Office SharePoint Designer 2007
Adding and editing field controls and Web Part zones on Page Layouts
Managing & deploying page layouts using the structured development approach
Incorporating 3rd party components (including your custom components)

Extending the Out-Of-The-Box Authoring Experience

Customizing and extending the SharePoint Rich HTML Editor
Incorporating the telerik r.a.d.editor for Office SharePoint 2007
Effectively using the edit mode panel
Customizing and extending the Page Editing Toolbar

Leveraging WCM Web Parts

Implementing the Table of Contents Web Part
Implementing the Summary Links Web Part
Implementing the Content Query Web Part
Customizing the rendered output of Publishing Web Parts
Creating and deploying custom Web Parts

Custom Field Types & Field Controls

Creating custom field types
Creating custom field controls
Incorporating custom field controls and types into page layouts
Deploying custom field types and field controls

Performance Tuning Publishing Sites

Overview of MOSS WCM performance enhancements
Implementing and customizing page output caching
Implementing and customizing disk-based object caching
Performance techniques when working with the object model

Creating Custom Workflows

Creating & editing workflows using Office SharePoint Designer 2007
Creating template sequential and state machine workflows using Visual Studio 2005
Integrating Office InfoPath 2007 forms into Visual Studio 2005 authored workflows
Deploying workflows created using Visual Studio 2005

Content Deployment

Overview of MOSS content deployment
Publishing content from one environment to another
Configuring Content Deployment via the browser-based user interface
Working with Content Deployment using the SharePoint object model

Variations

Overview of Web Content Management multilingual enhancements and capabilities
Implementing variations and labels
Using variations to implement multilingual and multidevice sites

This course is available in both as an open enrollment offering as well as private engagements. The first date the course will be offered is July 9-12 in Tampa, FL. For more information on scheduling, dates offered, and registration, please refer to the official course page & schedule page.

SharePoint 2007 Flash Animation Web Part - The Code Project - SharePoint Server

2007-09-25T20:46:00.001+02:00

SharePoint 2007 Flash Animation Web Part - The Code Project - SharePoint Server

A while ago JSJR did a cool demo of integrating Flash with lists in WSS3.0. Getting the SWF to load was a pain, so here's a Flash Web Part instead:

Easily print SharePoint lists using your own template

2007-09-25T19:53:00.001+02:00

Here's a description of howto create template for pretty printing contents from a list in Sharepoint. This is highly recommended reading:

Easily print SharePoint lists using your own template

And there's an online demonstration of the functionality.

Forms Based User Administration Feature Release Beta 1.0

2007-09-25T17:30:00.001+02:00

With the different authentication provider support for MOSS, there are more and more free applications that will provide user management tools integrated in the SharePoint environment.

One very good example is the Forms Based User Administration Feature, which can be downloaded from codeplex.

Featurelist:

The Feature includes an Administrator web part to view/edit/delete and add users to the data store by an administrator.
Self registration page for users to request access to the site.
New functionality for self registration
Password retrieval via email
CAPTCHA validation on self registration
UI Enhancements

Forms Based User Administration Feature Release Beta 1.0
Mart Muller
Tue, 06 Feb 2007 12:26:14 GMT

BDC Meta Manager Professional and Developer released

2007-09-25T17:22:00.001+02:00

It seems like they have released a professional and developer version of the BDC metadata manager for MOSS 2007! Great work!

"BDC Meta Man makes generating Application Definitions easy due to the many features it offers.

Easy to use Windows application
Ability to connect to and browse multiple data sources
No need to know how to write XML or SQL
Integrated Shared Service Provider Administration Web Site
Inspect your application definition and edit any part of it
Saves enormous amounts of time and effort"

For a full overview of features per version, check out this document.

BDC Meta Manager Professional and Developer released
Mart Muller
Tue, 06 Feb 2007 12:16:28 GMT

SharePoint Solution Installer

2007-09-25T17:21:00.001+02:00

Via Lars Fastrup, I ran into the SharePoint Solution Installer for SharePoint 2007.

The SharePoint Solution Installer includes the following features:

Support for all relevant operations:

Add solution to the SharePoint solution store.
Deploy solution to one or more web applications.
Upgrade solution.
Retract and remove solution.

Pre-install system check for the following conditions:

WSS V3 is installed.
MOSS 2007 is installed (This check can be disabled in config file),
User has permission to install solutions.
SharePoint database is online.
WSS Administration service is started.
WSS Timer service is started.

Implements a work around for the following error conditions:

Another solution deployment job never finished and is now blocking for the creation of a new job. Work-around: Delete old job from the list of Timer job defnitions.
Timer service is not started: An attempt is made to start it (please note that timer services on other front ends will not be started).
Database is offline, which will yield an ugly NullreferenceException from SharePoint offering little clue to the root cause of the problem. Work around: Detect NullreferenceException and display nice error message.

Display EULA. (Can be disabled in config file).
Web application list where user can select the web apps. to deploy the solution to.
Rollback after installation errors.
Configurable Product Title.
Configurable banner image.
Configurable logo image.

SharePoint Solution Installer
Mart Muller
Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:39:43 GMT

Extranet Collaboration Manager for SharePoint 2007

2007-09-25T17:18:00.001+02:00

SharePoint Solutions Software has released 'Extranet Collaboration Manager' for SharePOint 2007, a product for administrating extranet users in SharePoint. They have two versions:

ExCM - Standard Edition provides you with a suite of tools to Simplify SharePoint 2007 extranet user access and management. See the ExCM product page for more details.
ExCM - Enterprise Edition allows your users to submit a request when he or she would like to have a new SharePoint 2007 site provisioned. You can easily associate custom workflows with the new site requests, asking for approval prior to site creation. Once a site request is approved, ExCM - EE will automatically provision the site for you using any SharePoint 2007 site definition you have specified."

Extranet Collaboration Manager by SharePoint Solutions is a complete solution that will:

Simplify the provisioning and maintenance of external resources for use with your business partners
Enable you to automate site provisioning requests through workflows
Delegate user management tasks to your business partners
Provide you with the capability to audit the provisioning and user maintenance activities within your collaborative environment.

Extranet Collaboration Manager for SharePoint 2007
Mart Muller
Fri, 23 Feb 2007 07:31:23 GMT

MOSS Architecture Diagrams - Visio Server Stencils

2007-09-25T14:03:00.001+02:00

Via Tom Short :
"To help with all the MOSS Architecture diagrams I do, I have put together this fancy Visio stencil for MOSS architecture diagrams . The Visio stencil includes the following shapes.

Thanks to Colin B for his Graphics handy work and Matt Groves for making the files available online."

MOSS Architecture Diagrams - Visio Server Stencils
Mart Muller
Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:33:41 GMT

Using TFS from Windows Exporer

2007-09-25T14:01:00.001+02:00

Just found the Dubbelbock tool.

It implements a feature, that tools like Subversion offers today and we dind't have. The possibility to do all source control action just right away out of the Windows Explorer. This means CheckOut, CheckIn, Version compare... is available from Windows Explorer Right Click menu. Excactly this features are now also available for TFS:

In the picture above you can see the whole functionality and it is really super easy to use. Commands like CheckIn use normal Dialogs with all TFS funcionality.

Team Foundation Server 2008 Features

2007-09-25T13:59:00.001+02:00

Administration, Operations & Setup

Share Point 2007 support
Enable use of Sharepoint on any server and any port
Support for MOSS 2007
Enable support for Reporting Services on any server and any port (new) (RTM)
Support for SQL Named Instances – This will allow customers to share a SQL server between multiple TFS instances, or with other applications. This has been a commonly requested feature by enterprises.
“Longhorn” server support – TFS will support the next version of the server (and corresponding new version of IIS) that is currently under development.
Sync Large Groups – This is a set of work to improve the performance and robustness of TFS’s handling large groups of users (~30,000 or more) granted permission to a TFS instance. Today this can result in a support call to recover from it.
Non-default ports – We’ve gotten a bunch of feedback from enterprise customers about TFS’s limited support for alternate web sites and ports running afoul of data center policies. We are going to be improving TFS’s configurability in this respect in Orcas.
Simplify installation – In Orcas, we will be doing a variety of things to attempt to make installing TFS easier and quicker than it is now. Improvements include eliminating the separate data-tier installation, simplifying the requirements around required domain accounts by supporting the built in machine accounts (like Network Service) where we can, etc.
Official testing and support for more configurations - This includes clustering, mirroring, log shipping, Virtual machine deployment, and more.
Support for client certificates
Upgrade from TFS 2005
Support for SQL 2008 (aka Katmai) (new) (RTM)
TFSDeleteProject now permanently deletes (destroys) version control content (new) (RTM)
New role for many operations activities (new) (RTM) - You don't have to be server administrator to run many of the admin utilities any longer.
Enhancements to tfsadminutil (new) (RTM) - New capability to configure accounts, connections, etc on both TFS and the TFS proxy.

Build (more detail)

Support multi-threaded builds with the new MSBuild.
Continuous Integration – There are many components to this, including build queuing and queue management, drop management (so that users can set policies for when builds should be automatically deleted), and build triggers that allows configuration of exactly how when CI builds should be triggered, for example – every checkin, rolling build (completion of one build starts the next), etc.
Improved ability to specify what source, versions of source, and other build properties.
Improved extensibility of the build targets – such as ability to easily execute targets before and after each solution/project is built.
Improved ability to manage multiple build machines.
Stop and delete builds from within VS.
.NET Object model for programming against the build server.
Simplified ability to specify what tests get run as part of a build.
The ability to store build definitions anywhere in the version control hierarchy.
Scheduled builds - You can schedule builds to happen at specified times.
Improved build agent communication - We replaced .NET binary remoting with WCF web services, simplifying some configuration and security aspects.
Ability to run GUI tests as part of a build - Automated builds used to run tests in such a way as to prevent access to a GUI desktop.
New checkin policy for broken CI builds - Preventing checkin while the CI build is broken.
Support for HTTPS communication to the TFS server (new)
Continuous Integration build checkin policy (new)
Support for incremental gets and builds (new)

Data Warehouse

Add support for checkin policy overrides to the warehouse - an oversight from V1.

Migration

Migration toolkit – A toolkit for building conversion and mirroring solutions between TFS and other systems. In addition, we will release one or more new tools to integrate with popular alternative systems.

Version Control

Annotate – This is based on the TFS Annotate Power Tool but includes numerous improvements.
Folder Diff – Also based on the TFS Tree Diff Power Tool with numerous improvements.
Destroy – The ability to permanently delete version control files/folders from TFS. It can also be used to destroy the file contents while preserving the change set history.
Get Latest On Checkout – There have been many requests for this feature (which was a change in behavior from SourceSafe). There is now an option that allows you to specify that you want TFS to download the latest version of files when you check them out.
Workspace improvements – Workspaces will now support mapping a folder or file under a cloaked folder and wildcard mappings so that you can map all files in a folder without mapping sub folders. Based on experience with large projects, this will simplify workspace definitions for many people.
Performance improvements – A variety of Version Control performance enhancements that will improve virtually all aspects of version control performance. The gains for smaller servers/projects (< 10,000 files) will be modest. The gains for larger projects (particularly where the file count approaches 100,000’s) will be substantial.
Scale improvements – Fixed out of memory problems on the server when operating on more than a few hundred thousand files at a time.
Offline improvements - We've signficantly improved the experience going offline and integrated the tfpt online capability into the IDE for going back online.
Extranet support for the TFS Proxy - allowing you to access a local TFS proxy with a different set of credentials than the TFS server.
Command line help - You can now type "tf command /help" and get a console dump of the usage of that command. This is much more convenient than always being launched into the richer GUI hypertext help when you just want to remember what the options for a command are. You can still launch the GUI help by running "tf msdn". You can get a console dump of available commands by just typing "tf help".
Source Control Explorer refresh improvements - This includes less redrawing and reloading but even more important it enables updates based on changes made in other instances of TeamExploror or the command line. That's right, if you checkout a file from the command line, any instances of TeamExplorer you have running on the same machine will automatically refresh.
Async loading of the Source Control Explorer (new)
The SCE local path can now be selected and copied (new)
Merge improvements (new) - Improved the logic that detects merge conflicts to generate fewer false positives and handle more scenarios.

Work Item Tracking

Performance & Scale improvements – A variety of improvements that will make both the work item server and client faster and able to handle larger servers.
Query builder usability improvements - Drop down filtering based on current project, better MRU lists, column drag & drop, shift-click mouse based multi-column sorting, etc.
Attachments improvements - Save button, drag & drop for adding an attachment, multi-select for attaching files.
Tooltips on field names contain the field name used for querying
Server side support for deleting work items & work item types - We didn't have time to do client UI support for it but we plan to release a Power Tool that will take advantage of the new server side feature.
Support for security on the iteration hierarchy (new)

Web Access

Adding Web Access UI to TFS - As you've seen many places, we acquired devBiz and their TeamPlain Web Access product. We are releasing it as a Power Tool in the next few months and plan to release it as an official product in the Orcas timeframe. We have not figured out how the release date will line up with the Orcas date but it will be in the same general timeframe.

Bug fixes

In addition to all of the feature work, we’ve spent months testing the product and fixing any bugs we’ve found. We expect Orcas will have even better stability and robustness than TFS 2005.

Compatibility (no change since last time)

As Orcas is an adoption focused release, we have put a lot of emphasis on compatibility with VS2005. We are striving for near 100% compatibility. The Orcas client will be able to work with a VS2005 server and a VS2005 client will be able to work with an Orcas server. There are only a few compatibility issues.

Client side VS add-ins will need to be recompiled (or have policy changed) because the TFS OM assembly versions will change and add-ins will need to bind to the new assemblies. The APIs themselves are generally not changing, so we don’t expect much in the way of code changes – just recompilation.
Build is the only area where we plan to have some compatibility disconnects. In general, most build operations - listing build definitions, starting and stopping builds, examining build reports, etc. will work both with 2005 client -> Orcas server and Orcas client -> 2005 server. However, here are a few caveats:

An Orcas TFS server will only work with an Orcas build server - so you'll need to upgrade your build server when you upgrade your TFS server.
For an VS2005 client to start a build on an Orcas server, the build definition needs to be stored at $/<TeamProject>/TeamBuildTypes/<name>. In Orcas, you have more flexibility as to where to put them.
Changes made to properties in the .proj file that are in the database in Orcas will not be updated in the database and will no longer be in sync.
VS2005 will be able to start a build, but it can’t queue a build, see the list of builds in the queue, see the list of build agents, etc.
An Orcas client will not be able to create a new build definition on a TFS2005 server.
When starting a build, an Orcas client will not be able to change any parameters in the dialog for a TFS2005 Server.

Team Foundation Server 2008 Links

2007-09-25T13:58:00.001+02:00

Team Development with TFS Guide:

http://www.codeplex.com/TFSGuide

Project Server 2007 VSTS Connector:

http://www.codeplex.com/pstfsconnector

Team Build integration med FinalBuilder:

http://www.finalbuilder.com/articles.aspx?mid=370&ctl=ArticleView&articleId=20

Teamprise cross platform support (bla. Eclipse integration):

http://www.teamprise.com

TFS Migration and Synchronization Toolkit:

http://www.codeplex.com/MigrationSyncToolkit

inkl. WSS – TFS sync samples:

http://www.codeplex.com/MigrationSyncToolkit/Wiki/View.aspx?title=WSS%20to%20TFS%20Tools&referringTitle=Home

Windows 2008 Install; Step By Step

2007-09-25T13:53:00.001+02:00

Just for reference:

Body:
As an early adopter for windows 2008 (a.k.a Longhorn Server) I decided to setup my new VPC with it on. I downloaded the June CTP from my MSDN account. The file I have is called:
en_windows_server_2008_ids3_enterprise_datacenter_standard_x86.iso
To begin the install I created a blank VM and allocated it 1GB Ram and 130GB of disk space. I attached the ISO to the VM and let it start. Firstly you will notice that it looks like a Vista Install.

As I am in the UK I selected the settings above.

Now for the easy bit simply press "install now".

As you can see we now have two versions of the server, one is the standard server that you and I are used to with the GUI; the other is called "Server Core" which is a command line version of the server. For this install I will select the standard server.

As you can see the install is now intelligent enough to realise that I don't have another version of windows installed so only offers me the "Custom" install option.

I will partition the drives as shown below.

Now we leave it for a while to complete. Actually on my VM running on my Toshiba Tecra M7 it took about 15 minutes for the first part of the install and then a little longer to complete the rest. Not bad I thought.

Once it has installed you get prompted to set your password.

Once you have reset your password and windows server tells you it has updated it should then start to load your user profile and ultimately the desktop.

I am going to set my server as a domain controller so firstly I need to set my server with a static IP address. This can be done by selecting the "configure networking" option.

This link just simply opens the standard IP Address settings for the server. Now I have mine set I can start the domain controller install. However before I do I am going to install a few things.

This is the new "skinned" server manager for windows 2008. If you notice there is a "roles summary" option. If we expand this option we can click the "Add Roles" button shown below:

We will now follow the wizard as shown below:

From the list I have selected the "Web Server (IIS)" role, notice that when you select it, it will prompt you to activate the relevant features. This is now built in to each role that you select.

Now the role will be activated.

Once the role is activated we still need to configure it. There is a wizard that will launch as shown below:

We now need to select the relevant role services for IIS; in our case I am selecting the "Application Development" items. Notice that you will be prompted for the relevant feature activations.

Once you have selected the items you want the wizard will then install and activate the role. In the roles summary the new "Web Server (IIS)" role should be listed.

Now we will repeat the same process but for making it a domain controller. I won't screen shot it all as it is fairly similar. Once the role is activated the wizard should look as below:

I won't run through the process as most of you should at some point done this. If not let me know and I will post about it. After the initial reboot of the server upon completing the "Active Directory Domain Services" the initial configuration tasks windows should now look as below:

Now we have a server built we can start looking at some of the new features and also whether we can get MOSS2007 installed on the server. Bob Fox has posted a great article about installing WSS v3 and MOSS2007 on Windows 2008. Check it out here:
http://bobfox.net/spblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=58
Category: Longhorn
Published: 01/08/2007 11:16
BlogTitleForUrl: windows-2008-install-–-step-by-step
Categories: Longhorn;General

Windows 2008 Install – Step By Step
Liam Cleary
Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:16:24 GMT

The Super Hero Quiz

2007-09-25T13:42:00.001+02:00

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman		70%
Green Lantern		70%
Iron Man		70%
The Flash		60%
Batman		45%
Supergirl		45%
Spider-Man		40%
Robin		40%
Wonder Woman		30%
Hulk		30%
Catwoman		30%

You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

MOSS2007 Web Parts

2007-09-25T13:39:00.001+02:00

Web Parts in common with WSSv3

Content Editor Web Part - Use for formatted text, tables, and images.
Form Web Part - Use to connect simple form controls to other Web Parts.
Image Web Part - Use to display pictures and photos.
Members - Use the Members Web Part to see a list of the site members and their online status.
Page Viewer Web Part - Use to display linked content, such as files, folders, or Web pages. The linked content is isolated from other content on the Web Part Page.
Relevant Documents - Use this webpart to display documents that are relevant to the current user.
User Tasks - Use this webpart to display tasks that are assigned to the current user.
XML Web Part - Use for XML, and XSL Transformation of the XML.
List View Web Part
Data View Web Part

Web Parts specific to MOSS2007

Business Data

Business Data Actions - Display a list of actions from the Business Data Catalog.
Business Data Item - Display one item from a data source in the Business Data Catalog.
Business Data Item Builder - Creates a Business Data item from parameters in the query string and provides it to other web parts. This web part is only used on Business Data profile pages.
Business Data List - Display a list of items from a data source in the Business Data Catalog.
Business Data Related List - Display a list of items related to one or more parent items from a data source in the Business Data Catalog.

Content Rollup

Colleague Tracker - Displays your list of colleagues and any recent changes they made have had.
Memberships - Displays your site and distribution list memberships.
My Links - Use to display your links
My SharePoint Sites - Use to display documents authored by you on sites where you are a member and sites of your choice.
My Workspaces - Displays sites created under your My Site.
Site Aggregator - Use to display sites of your choice.

Dashboard

Key Performance Indicators - Shows a list of status indicators. Status indicators display important measures for your organization, and show how your organization is performing with respect to your goals.
KPI Details - Displays the details of a single status indicator. Status indicators display an important measure for an organization and may be obtained from other data sources including SharePoint lists, Excel workbooks, and SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services KPIs.

Other

Excel Web Access - Use the Excel Web Access to interact with an Excel 2007 workbook as a Web page.
I need to… - Displays tasks and tools from a list
IView Web Part - Displays iViews from SAP portal servers.
RSS Viewer - Renders RSS Feed
This Week in Pictures - Use to display the images library in the News web
WSRP Consumer Web Part - Displays portlets from web sites using WSRP 1.1.

Filters

Authored List Filter - Filter the contents of web parts using a list of values entered by the page author.
Business Data Catalog Filter - Filter the contents of web parts using a list of values from the Business Data Catalog.
Current User Filter - Filter the contents of web parts by using properties of the current page.
Date Filter - Filter the contents of web parts by allowing users to enter or pick a date.
Filter Actions - Filter Actions
Page Field Filter - Filter the contents of web parts using information about the current page.
Query String (URL) Filter - Filter the contents of web parts using values passed via the query string.
SharePoint List Filter - Filter the contents of web parts by using a list of values from a Office SharePoint Server list.
SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Filter - Filter the contents of web parts using a list of values from SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services cubes.
Text Filter - Filter the contents of web parts by allowing users to enter a text value.

Misc

Contact Details - Use to display details about a contact for this page or site

Outlook Web Access

My Calendar - Use to display your calendar. This part works with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and above.
My Contacts - Displays your contacts using Outlook Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
My Inbox - Displays your inbox using Outlook Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or later.
My Mail Folder - Displays your calendar using Outlook Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 or later.
My Tasks - Displays your tasks using Outlook Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or later.

Search

Advanced Search Box - Entry point for advanced search
People Search Box - Entry point for people search
People Search Core Results - Web part to display the people search results.
Search Box - Entry point for search.
Search Core Results - Web part to display the search results.
Search High Confidence Results - Web part to display the special term and high confidence results.
Search Paging - Displays search paging.
Search Statistics - Displays search statistics.
Search Summary - Displays search summary.

Site Directory

Categories - Displays categories from the Site Directory
Sites in Category - Displays sites in the Site Directory
Top Sites - Display the top sites from Site Directory

May 2007 content on MSDN for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007

2007-09-25T10:53:00.001+02:00

For reference:

[Cross-posting of RandallI's blog entry.]
Here is the rundown of Technical Articles, Visual How-to Screencasts, and their accompanying downloads published over the last couple of weeks on MSDN.
Technical Articles

Team-Based Development in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Learn to properly conduct team-environment development of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 sites and assemblies (Web Parts, site templates, custom list templates), as well as develop Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer artifacts (master pages, workflows, CSS sheets). (13 printed pages)
Upgrading an MCMS 2002 Application to SharePoint Server 2007 (Part 1 of 2)
Learn how to upgrade a Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) 2002 application to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 by using this step-by-step guide and the WoodGroveNet MCMS 2002 sample application. This article is part 1 of 2. (25 printed pages)
Upgrading an MCMS 2002 Application to SharePoint Server 2007 (Part 2 of 2)
Learn how to upgrade a Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) 2002 application to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 by using this step-by-step guide and the WoodGroveNet MCMS 2002 sample application. This article is part 2 of 2. (35 printed pages)

Visual How-to Screencasts

Enabling Users to Act on LOB Data with Business Data Catalog Actions
Learn how to enable your users to act on line-of-business data by using Business Data Catalog Actions.
Activating Auditing Programmatically for a Single Document Library in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes a powerful new infrastructure for auditing user access to pages, and document and list items. You can enable auditing for an entire site collection, but it can be more efficient to enable auditing with more granularity. For example, you might want to enable auditing for one specific list or document library. You can go even further and just enable auditing for one specific list item or one specific document.
Activating Auditing Programmatically for a Site Collection in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes a powerful new infrastructure for auditing user access to list items, and documents and pages. In Windows SharePoint Services, auditing is configured on a site collection-by-site collection basis. It just takes a few lines of code to fully enable the auditing for an entire site collection. When you do this, Windows SharePoint Services writes an audit entry to its audit log each time a user views or modifies a list item, document, or site page.
Configuring IntelliSense with CAML files when developing for SharePoint 2007
When developing for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS), you are often required to create and modify XML files that contain Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML). It is recommended that you configure Visual Studio on your development workstation to reference a XML schema file named WSS.XSD so that IntelliSense works properly when working with CAML-based files.
Create a Custom HttpHandler in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
ASP.NET programming supports the creation of custom HttpHandler components, which provide a flexible and efficient way to process requests that don't return standard HTML-based pages. For example, HttpHandler components are great for situations in which you want to return simple text, XML, or binary data to the user.
Although development techniques involving HttpHandler components are useful when creating standard ASP.NET applications, you should also see them as a valuable building block for building business solutions for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Creating a Feature for an Entry Control Block Item in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
You can add a custom menu item for an entry control block to a list item or a document in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by creating a Feature with a CustomAction element. In this way, you can add custom commands to the default SharePoint user interface. These menu commands allow users to perform custom operations on items and documents. For example, you can create a custom menu item for an entry control block for a list item or document that redirects the user to a custom application page. Use this as a starting point to create business solutions that provide an intuitive user interface to automate domain-specific tasks on list items and documents.
Creating a Feature for the Site Actions Menu in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
You can add a custom menu item to the default Site Actions menu in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services by creating a Feature with a CustomAction element. In this way, you can add custom commands to the default SharePoint user interface. These commands are available to users as they move between pages on a SharePoint site. When you create a Site Actions menu item, you can configure it to redirect the user to any URL. For example, you can redirect the user to another Web site. You can also redirect users to a custom application page that allows them either to see a custom display of data, or to perform custom operations on the content within the current site.
Creating a Solution Package in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 introduces a deployment mechanism named "solution packages." A solution package is a CAB file with a .wsp file-name extension that contains all the files that must be deployed on the front-end Web server and a set of XML-based installation instructions. Windows SharePoint Services provides a rich infrastructure that simplifies deployment of solution packages in a Web farm environment.
Creating a Visual Studio Project for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Development for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 often involves deploying custom source files into the WSS \TEMPLATE directory. It is helpful to create a Microsoft Visual Studio project with a directory structure that parallels the \TEMPLATE directory so you can automate copying your source files into the location required for deployment and testing.
Creating an Application Page in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
You can create custom application pages to add user interface components to a custom solution based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Unlike site pages (for example, default.aspx), a custom application page is deployed once per Web server and cannot be customized on a site-by-site basis. Application pages are based in the virtual _layouts directory. In addition, they are compiled into a single assembly DLL. They are also used across all sites within a server farm. For these reasons, they perform better than site pages. With application pages, you can also add inline code. With site pages, you cannot add inline code.
Displaying Data by Using the SPGridView Control in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
When you create ASP.NET applications, you often need to display data in the format of rows and columns. Although you could create an HTML table by using code, you become much more productive by using server-side controls such as the GridView control introduced with Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0. The Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services platform provides a grid control named SPGridView that inherits from the ASP.NET GridView control. The SPGridView control provides a great alternative for displaying tabular data in SharePoint-based solutions.
Reading Entries from the Audit Log in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 introduces a powerful new infrastructure for auditing user access to list items, documents, and pages. However, you must write custom code to take advantage of this auditing infrastructure because no default features utilize it. Some of the other Visual How-To topics show you how to enable auditing. Here you can learn how to retrieve information from the audit log so that you can display and report on user activity within a custom solution based on Windows SharePoint Services.
Reading ListId and ItemId from an Application Page in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
In Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, you can create a menu item for an entry control block that redirects users to a custom application page. For example, the MSDN article Item-Level Auditing with SharePoint Server 2007 demonstrates how to provide each document within a document library with its own menu item in the entry control block. This menu item redirects the user to a custom application page that displays the audit history for that particular document.
When a user clicks a menu item in the entry control block, it runs an application page. The code behind the application page typically must program against the list item or document that supplied the menu item. To do this, the application page must be able to identify the list item or document. Windows SharePoint Services does this by passing the information that identifies the list item or document to the application page in a query string. The page uses this information within the page-initialization code to create an SPListItem object and its containing SPList object.

Running Commands with Elevated Privileges in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services uses impersonation so that code running within a Web Part or behind a custom application page executes with the identity and permissions of the current user. In the vast majority of cases, this behavior is exactly what you want because it prevents standard users from being able to execute commands or see information that is intended only for privileged users such as a site administrator. However, occasionally your code must call restricted methods within the Windows SharePoint Services object model even though the request is initiated by a nonprivileged user. In such cases you must be able to elevate the privilege of your code as it executes on the Web server.
Writing Custom Entries to the Audit Log in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services provides an auditing facility that allows you to see the actions users take within the context of a site collection. Examples of user actions that you can audit automatically include viewing, updating, and deleting list items and documents, as well as viewing site pages. One important limitation of the built-in auditing facility is that it cannot audit access to application pages that are deployed within the \LAYOUTS directory.
If you want to audit the actions of users as they view your custom application pages, you must add code that writes custom audit entries into the Windows SharePoint Services audit log. You can write custom audit entries within the context of any auditable object, such as those of type SPSite, SPWeb, SPList, and SPListItem.

May 2007 content on MSDN for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007
sptblog
Mon, 21 May 2007 03:39:18 GMT

Introducing the Team Foundation Server / Project Server 2007 Connector

2007-09-25T10:37:00.001+02:00

In this interview we asked Lenny Fenster of Microsoft Consulting Services to show us the recently released “Connector” for Team Foundation Server 2005 and Project Server 2007. This connector makes it easier for organizations to manage their development projects by providing a synchronization and workflow between Team Foundation Server and Project Server.

Introducing the Team Foundation Server / Project Server 2007 Connector

MOSS2007; Content Query Web Part step by step

2007-09-25T10:34:00.001+02:00

Body:
UPDATED (12/07/2007): Issue arises in last block of code when calling $bodyContent, should be $formattedBodyContent. Also fixed the case issue as noted by Matthew. :-)
Well I am currently working on a project that has a great need to use the Content Query Web Part for exposing different content onto a central page. The solution will be made up of a top level publishing portal with various different types of private and public sites and site collections that will exist underneath. In this post I wanted to take you through a step-by-step look at exposing the content into a CQWP and customising it slightly to display the correct fields. There are various people who have already posted about elements of this such as:
Steven Van de Craen
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/msdn/nl/community/columns/stevenvandecraen/contentquerywebpart.mspx
http://www.sharepointblogs.com/vandest/archive/2006/10/30/15487.aspx
Microsoft
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa981241.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms497457.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm/archive/2006/11/06/building-tylerbutler-com-part-2-building-content-types-and-page-layouts.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm/archive/2006/11/16/building-tylerbutler-com-part-3-customizing-content-query-styles.aspx
To begin with we will need to look at creating some custom content types that will be used within the portal solution. Just for information the basic structure of the sites will be as below:

Now that we have the basic structure let's look at the various content that we need. Firstly we will create a content type called "Demo News" and create various columns to it. This will then be added to a list that we will create on the department public site.
To create the content type, open up the portal and select the following:

Once the page loads you need to select the "Site Content Types" from the "Galleries" section.

Press the "Create" button and complete as below:

Now we need to add some site columns to the content type, this is done by pressing the "Add from new site column" link shown below.

In this example we will add two extra columns as per the table below:
Column Name
Column Type
Column Required
Column Values
Begins
Date & Time
Yes
N/A
News Category
Choice
Yes
Local
Internal
External
Global
When the above have been created the list should then look as below:

No we need to access department public site and create a new list based on the announcement template. Once this has been created we need to add the new custom list content type to it. To create the list open up the public site and select the "View All Content" link from the "Site Actions" menu. The select the "Create" button and select the link shown below.

The list has been configured as below.

Once this has been created we then need to firstly allow management of content types and then associate the "Demo News" content type with this list. This is done by accessing the properties of the list and selecting the "Advanced Settings" option. Then we can enable the following option.

Now we can select the content type from the list of existing ones as below.

When we look at the content types that are associated with the list now, we should see the standard one plus the "Demo News" one.

So now we have the plumbing let's add some sample news, be sure to select the menu next to the "New" button and select "Demo News" as the content type.

I have added the following items and ensured that I selected a different new category as we will use these later.

So now we have some news items and the main structure we need to add a Content Query Web Part to the main parent portal and then attach this to the correct data.
To do this open up the main portal page and select the "Edit Page" option from the "Site Actions" menu.

Then when the page has loaded navigate to the web part zone you wish to use and select the "Add a Web Part" link.

From the popup windows select the "Content Query Web Part" from the "All Web Parts" section.

Once this is done it will be loaded onto the main page and automatically populated with some content from the site. In order to display our custom data we need to modify the configuration for the web part. To do this press the "Edit" button on the web part and then the "Modify Shared Web Part" menu item.

The configuration for the web part should then load. The configuration that needs modifying is contained within the "Query" section. The default configuration is shown below.

We will now change the configuration to the following:

After you apply the above, the content query web part should then display the following:

Even though is a good view it does not show the rest of detail, also I would like the content to be grouped by the "News Category". To group the content modify the web part and select the presentation section. Within the Group dropdown menus you will see the "New Category" field.

Select the "New Category" and apply. The web part should then render as below.

To make it look a little more exciting than the plain standard style we can use some of the built in styles. To change the styles modify the web part and select the "Presentation" section again but this time scroll down to the styles section.

As a test to show you what the base ones look like simply select the "Title with Background" option and apply this to the web part. This should then be displayed as below.

As you can see they are quite basic and probably not what you would want to use. So let's look at changing it slightly but using XSL to display extra fields and change the layout. Firstly you need export the web part to our machine. To do this, select the export menu item from the edit menu of the web part.

You will then be prompted to save the file as below.

Now open up the file in any text editor, I will use Visual Studio but notepad will work just as well. Now in the file there is a property called "CommonViewFields". This needs to be changes as below.
Before
<property name="CommonViewFields" type="string" />
After
<property name="CommonViewFields" type="string">Body, Text</< span>property>
Now we need to upload the newly edited web part into the page and remove the current one. This is done by editing the page again clicking the "X" icon to close the current one then clicking the "Add a web part" button again. This time instead of picking a web part from the windows press the "Advanced Web Part gallery and options" link as below.

This will now load the gallery of web parts into the right hand side of the window. At the top of the new window click the arrow on the right side of the browse button and select the "Import" menu item.

Now navigate to your edited web part and press ok to import. This should then appear in the list below and can be dragged onto the page just like any other web part.

The web part will now load as before but still not show the extra field we added in. To add this field in we need to make some changes to the XSLT for the content query web part. All of the styles that we looked at earlier for the content query web part are stored within two XSL files. These files are stored in a style library stored within the site. The easiest way to make the changes is to simply take a copy of the "ItemStyle.xsl" and open it in Visual Studio. Once this is opened you can change the relevant template section as below. For this example we will use the "Image on Left" style. Within the template is a section as below:
This needs to be changed as below, so it will now show the "@Body" field instead of the description one listed by default. The new code is listed as below:
If you now save the file and upload this file into the "Style Library" and select the overwrite with a version checkbox. Once this is done, simply refresh the main page and the web part should now list as below:

Notice that the CQWP is showing the HTML code, obviously we do not want this for our live solution. To fix this we can create a function within the XSLT to fix this. A great example of all of the work I am doing here and a specific function can be found here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm/archive/2006/10/25/configuring-and-customizing-the-content-query-web-part.aspx
The function that we will use is as below.
This needs to be added to the "ItemStyle.xsl" file. The code block is shown below.
version="1.0"
exclude-result-prefixes="x d xsl msxsl cmswrt"
xmlns:x="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp"
xmlns:cmswrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v3/Publishing/runtime"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt">
The display code we changed earlier now needs to be changed as below.
No we have done this and saved the file back, when we refresh the page the web part should now display as below.

Now what we would also like to see is a [more] button instead of showing the full details as above. This can be added by simply using the "substring" function to split the body up and then add some extra fields to the XSLT to turn the [more] into a hyperlink. The code would look as below.
...[
more]
The CQWP should then display as below.

So as you can see with a little modification you can create highly customized CQWP to display your content. Just want to say, a great big thanks to George Perantatos who posted some of the content I have used here. J
Hopefully you will find this useful, I had great fun in working out all the steps that needed to be taken to achieve this.
Category: SharePoint
Published: 15/01/2007 20:21
BlogTitleForUrl: moss2007-–-content-query-web-part-step-by-step
Categories: Development;SharePoint;Office System 2007

MOSS2007 – Content Query Web Part step by step
Liam Cleary
Tue, 03 Jul 2007 18:58:35 GMT

Overview of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008

2007-09-25T10:31:00.001+02:00

Microsoft has just relased a whitepaper which gives a great overview of VS2008. VS2008 is centeret around three pillars:

Improve Developer Productivity

In Visual Studio 2008, developer productivity doesn’t end with the code editor and wizards. By extending this concept to application architectures and the underlying platform, Visual Studio 2008 delivers not only a productive development tool, but also enables developers to tackle new business problems while decreasing the total cost of solution construction. In Visual Studio 2008 developers, designers, and database professionals will see new tools and frameworks become available to simplify their tasks.

Manage the Application Life Cycle

Visual Studio 2008 enhances the end-to-end value of Visual Studio Team System by increasing its role-based coverage and delivering enhanced traceability throughout the software development life cycle. With deep integration across roles in the software life cycle and the Team Foundation Server, Team System enables customers to amplify the impact of their teams and improve software quality.

Employ the Latest Technologies

As users look for new ways to comprehend and retain information, developers must still grapple with basic desktop and application security. Visual Studio, Windows Vista, and the 2007 Office system, enable developers to deliver a safe, robust and compelling user experience in any type of application. These fundamental advances enable customers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality, rich user experiences regardless of project complexity or organization size.

Highly recommeded reading:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/f/d/bfdb8b1b-323a-435e-b328-cadc8b67bbee/An%20Overview%20of%20Visual%20Studio%202008.xps

Creating WPF applications with VS2008 and Blend

2007-09-25T10:29:00.001+02:00

"Cider" is the codename for the WPF designer in Visual Studio 2008. These screencasts covers some of the new features in Cider and walks you through building a small application to apply the features.

Part 1 shows you how to create a WPF application using VS2008.

Part 2 shows you how to use Blend to style a WPF application created with VS2008; see how you can seamlessly go back and forth between the two tools to get the best out of a developer (intellisense, code wiring, etc.) and designer ( styling, templating) tools for creating WPF applications.

Parental Control...

2007-09-25T10:12:00.001+02:00

This is a completely personal post about children surfing the web.

My kids are 6½ and the surf the web on their own computers. Until now there's been no need to guard against unwanted sites and content, but now they're starting to write things like "spiderman" and "ben10" in the search field in IE7 and then browse the different sites in the search results list. Now, I'm at a point where I need to be able to control which sites my kids may or may not stumble upon.

There's already built-in parental control in Windows Vista; here's a great post on that - and I was going to upgrade their computers to Vista, but not quite yet.

So I needed a Windows XP solution, and after a bit of surfing I found

They offer a completely free filter for Windows XP (and Vista) which based on a central repository of rating and categorization of sites. If your kid accidentally tries to open site which has been classified as inapropriate - the filter blocks access and displays a block page with an error message.

Since the software is of US origin I find the filter a bit too restrictive, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Pre-Announcing the "Accessibility Kit for SharePoint" (AKS)

2007-09-25T10:11:00.001+02:00

Cross posting from: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/09/05/pre-announcing-the-accessibility-kit-for-sharepoint-aks.aspx

Background

About a month ago on July 31st, HiSoftware issued a press release, announcing an agreement with Microsoft to develop the Accessibility Kit for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. The kit will provide templates, master pages, controls and Web parts along with technical documentation to advance the accessibility of MOSS based web sites and applications for people with disabilities, especially those who are vision impaired. All of the source code will be provided via the Microsoft Permissive License and will be available on CodePlex and/or another (more accessible) web site later this year for customers and other Microsoft partners to download, reuse, and extend. This e-mail provides more details about the announcement.
Overview

Microsoft has hired HiSoftware as a vendor to develop the Accessibility Kit for MOSS 2007, also known as Accessibility Kit for SharePoint or AKS. The decision was made primary based on HiSoftware’s in-depth expertise and broad industry experience in providing tools and services for improving accessibility to the point of compliance with various standards and beyond. The contractual Statement of Work calls for HiSoftware to deliver a kit that can significantly reduce the time, knowledge, and effort required to implement a SharePoint-based web site that conforms to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints, which are collectively known as WCAG 1.0 AA. The AKS can also be used to address the exceptions that have been identified in the U.S. government’s Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Template or VPAT documents for MOSS 2007. While most of our customers find the improvements in accessibility (more info at Office Online) over previous versions of SharePoint to be adequate for their needs, a growing number has asked us to provide even more.
Approach

The AKS is being developed as a set of building blocks rather than an end-to-end solution. We expect many SharePoint partners to take various pieces of the kit and integrate them into their respective product or service offerings while some customers will integrate particular components of the kit into their deployment processes. Furthermore, HiSoftware and Microsoft will jointly establish and nurture a community of SharePoint site designers and developers that's focused on accessibility advancement and standards compliance.
To ensure optimal prioritization and completeness of features and documentation, the AKS project team is planning to work with a small group of partners and customers in a private beta program that will kick off within the next couple of weeks. If you are very seriously interested, please contact Dana Simberkoff, VP of Business Development at HiSoftware, but be forewarned that the acceptance criteria will be quite stringent due to the aggressive timeline of the deliverables described below.
Deliverables

These deliverables were established based on customer and partner feedback that we’ve received thus far and are prioritized based on the scenarios that would impact the most end users of a MOSS-based web site down to the least.

Milestone 1: AKS 1.0 Private Beta – ETA September 17, 2007
This initial milestone will provide a testable version of the kit that focuses on the web content publishing and authoring scenarios for Internet facing web sites as well as intranet portals.
Milestone 2: AKS 1.0 Release to Web – ETA October 29, 2007
This milestone will provide a production ready version of the kit that can be used in the implementation of live MOSS based web sites or portals.
Milestone 3: AKS 1.5 Update – ETA December 17, 2007
This milestone will provide accessibility improvements for advanced web content authoring and team collaboration scenarios.

Conclusion

The Microsoft product teams for Windows SharePoint Services, Office SharePoint Server, and Office SharePoint Designer are committed to improving accessibility and enabling everyone to utilize the power of SharePoint. More details about the AKS will be forthcoming as the project progresses over the next few months. In the meantime, if you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns about accessibility, please post them in the SharePoint - Accessibility forum.

<Lawrence />

Pre-Announcing the "Accessibility Kit for SharePoint" (AKS)

WSS3.0 and MOSS2007 Webcasts

2007-09-25T10:09:00.001+02:00

To quickly get an introduction Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 go and view these excellent webcasts:

TechNet Webcast: Windows SharePoint Services: Overview and What's New (Level 200)

This webcast covers the technical fundamentals of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, the next generation of Web workspace technology from Microsoft. Find out what is new with Windows SharePoint Services, what has changed, how it works, and why you should use it to develop and deploy information sharing solutions. We recommend that you view this session before viewing the "Office SharePoint Server 2007: Overview and What's New" webcast.

Presenter: Mike Fitzmaurice, Senior Product Manager - Portals, Microsoft Corporation

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: Overview and What's New (Level 200)

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is much more than an upgrade from Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft Content Management Server 2002. This webcast provides an overview of the features in SharePoint Server 2007, and covers technical fundamentals, new sets of server functionality, and other factors developers and IT professionals must consider. Since Office SharePoint Server 2007 is built on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, it is recommended that you attend the "Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 - Overview and What's New" webcast first.

Presenter: Mike Fitzmaurice, Senior Product Manager - Portals, Microsoft Corporation

Speed Up Windows Vista Startup with a Processor Tweak

2007-09-24T10:06:00.001+02:00

Click on Start>Run

type msconfig and click OK.

Once that box opens, click on the bootup tab.

Under the Boot tab, click on Advanced

Click the box next to the number of Cores, and choose the proper number from the dropdown box.

Apply and save the changes. Your computer may require a reboot. If it does, go ahead and do so, and notice the difference!

What’s up with all these Shootings!? ~ Chris Pirillo

2007-04-16T22:10:00.001+02:00

Just in from the web is the unfortunate shooting at Virginia Tech -- my feelings go out to the families left behind.

On a more serious note - when will the US realize that the only way to stop this is absolute gun control? The historic right to bear arms and protect yourself against the government expired 198 years ago...

Link to What’s up with all these Shootings!? ~ Chris Pirillo

Silent Computer Power Supply - Part 2

2007-01-11T17:04:00.001+01:00

I bought a Nova 500 Watt external PSU from www.nesteq.de and it came today.

Here's what it looks like:

The installation went very smooth and I replaced the old noisy internal PSU with the external one in about 15 minutes.

Now I can enjoy my Vista MCE in silence :-)

Windows Home Server - what you always needed at home, but can't install on an existing computer

2007-01-08T20:37:00.001+01:00

Although Windows Vista was just launched it's not everyday that Microsoft reveals new operating systems. So I was really exited to hear about Windows Home Server (WHS). Here's the lowdown from Engadget:

Units are headless and embedded only -- you cannot buy WHS and put it on an old PC -- yikes :-(
There is no common web interface. Interaction is entirely client software based, or done over SMB -- make sure to turn off the "there's no external monitor error beep in the bios".
It cannot directly stream media to Media Center Extenders, but it can stream media directly to Windows Media Connect-enabled devices -- Why?!
It does not use RAID, but instead uses a RAID-like drive pooling system with built-in redundancy. Expanding capacity is as simple as adding additional drives internally or externally via USB -- Hmm, will have to wait and see..
The client software, which is installable only on Windows PCs (duh) monitors PC health, manages backups, and supports full disk images and versions. If your computer crashes hard you can pop in an restore CD and it'll pull the disk image over the network - OK, great.
Your WHS device gets registered with your Windows Live account and is made easily-findable by authorized parties (i.e. you and anyone you designate) while on the go. You can even connect to it via Live and pipe a Remote Desktop connection to a PC on your home network through this Home-finding Live feature -- cool and not so cool. Although I'm sure that Microsoft will go to every extent to make sure that this is secure and "hacker proof" this sounds like a prime target for hacking.

Needled to say, I'm going to try and install one as soon as I can get my hands on the software.

Silent Computer Power Supply

2007-01-08T16:21:00.000+01:00

Has anyone tried the Magnum 600 EX external power supply?

Have built my own Media Center PC, but it's way too noisy for my living room (or so my wife thinks..).
So I'm looking for a way to make it more quiet.

The great divide...

2007-01-04T21:32:00.001+01:00

From a IT point of view I think there are basically two categories of companies in the world:

Those who think that IT is a cost and it should be kept as low as possible.
Those who think that IT can be used to drive the business.

Let me explain a bit more. In my work as a consultant I've consulted with many different types of companies both private and public and in all the different sectors; Life Science, Manufactoring, Financial and so on. It seems to me that all of these companies organize their IT deparment in one of two ways; either their CIO reports to the CFO or their CIO reports to the CEO. In the first case the company is a category (1) and in the latter case the company is a category (2).

Category (1) companies are typically from the Life Science and Manufactoring sectors. Category (2) companies are typically from the Financial and Manufactoring sectors. So there's a continuum here probably with Life Science going to Manufactoring going to Financial.

So how does this apply to IT?

Category (1) companies are clueless about Enterprise Architecture and Category (2) companies are leaders in Enterprise Architecture.

I've worked for some of the largest Life Science companies in Denmark, and they all have fierce measurement programs in place for all their IT projects. Nothing gets started without a business plan that details costs and tangible benefits. All IT projects are benchmarked against eachother and progress, costs, time registrations and so on are compared and analyzed. Enterprise Architecture in these companies have a really hard time, as even Gartner have yet to quantify the tangible benefits of Enterprise Architecture.

I've also worked for some large Manufactoring and Financial companies in Denmark - and these companies use IT as a business driver. Can you imagine a bank without IT? IT is the business - and any intiative that can make IT more effective and cost efficient is exploited. So in these companies Enterprise Architecture is very effective and after a while most companies find tangible benefits that they didn't expect to find (or even was looking for...).

So if you're looking for a job, consulting with a company or even in the very company you work for - if the CIO reports to the CFO then from a Enterprise Architecture perspective you're probably screwed.

Windows Live Writer and MOSS2007

2007-01-03T21:24:00.001+01:00

Is there no way of getting Windows Live Writer to work with MOSS2007?

2nd testing

2007-01-03T21:03:00.001+01:00

This time from WLW...

Testing...

2005-03-20T20:52:00.000+01:00

Tap Tap-is this thing on?