Brian Madsen pinged me today, at almost the same time as my automatic notification arrived. This month the Linked .Net Users Group has two great Live Meetings as pare of their ongoing program (recordings of previous sessions are archived here).

Session 1 – register here

April 8th 03:00 Sydney time - Greg Low - iFTS on SQL Server 2008

Our April Speaker is going to be Greg Low. He’s a Microsoft MVP from down under.

Here is some information: Developers like queries that are very constrained. Users don’t. In this session, Greg will show how iFTS in SQL Server 2008 allows developers to build systems that answer the queries the users really want to ask. This session got great reviews when Greg delivered it at TechEd Developers in Barcelona recently.

About Greg Low: Greg is an internationally recognized consultant, developer and trainer. He has been working in development since 1978 and holds a PhD in Computer Science. Greg is the country lead for Solid Quality (www.solidq.com.au), a SQL Server MVP and a Microsoft Regional Director.

He is currently one of only two people in the world to hold the new Microsoft Masters certification for SQL Server 2008 and teaches internal SQL Server classes for Microsoft on their Redmond campus

LiveMeeting address: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=G2K4BH&role=attend&pw=PN6.%3CQ%5Drb

How-to: Join a LiveMeeting http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/livemeeting/HA102308521033.aspx

Register for this event: http://events.linkedin.com/LIDNUG-Greg-Low-iFTS-SQL-Server-2008/pub/53480
Prizes:
1 ReSharper license per 25 attendees - Courtesy of JetBrains
1 Nevron Developer License - Courtesy of Nevron

Session 2 – register here

April 30th 09:30 Sydney Time - Brian Harry - Visual Studio Team System 2010

We’re delighted to announce further details of an upcoming event this month:

Brian Harry - Visual Studio Team System 2010 - 30 April 2009 @ 19:30 GMT

Brian Harry is a Microsoft Technical Fellow who is the Product Unit Manager for TFS, and has been working on TFS since its inception in 2002. He has plenty of experience in working with source control systems - prior to working on TFS he formed One Tree Software back in 1992 and developed SourceSafe, which ended up becoming part of the Microsoft product set in 1994. Brian also worked as Developer Manager of the CLR from the initial creation of the .NET framework through v1.1.

The content of this event will be covering the new features of TFS 2010 (codename Rosario) and what benefits it will bring to software development and project management.

You can read more about Brian on his blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/.

LiveMeeting address: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=G2K4BH&role=attend&pw=PN6.%3CQ%5Drb

How-to: Join a LiveMeeting http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/livemeeting/HA102308521033.aspx
Register for this event: http://events.linkedin.com/LIDNUG-Brian-Harry-Visual-Studio-Team/pub/54208
Prizes:
1 ReSharper license per 25 attendees - Courtesy of JetBrains
1 Nevron Developer License - Courtesy of Nevron
1 year full subscription to InnerWorkings catalog - Courtesy of InnerWorkings (valued at approx. $2500)

PS, next month’s speaker is pretty good too (perhaps even more exciting than Brian)

The JAOO conference in Sydney May (5)7-8 and Brisbane May (9)11-14 looks great.

The speaker list reads like a who’s-who with Greg Willis, Nick Hodge, Joel Pobar and a whole lot more.

We’ve managed to find a comp ticket to each of these events to give away. Drop me a note telling me why you should have one (and which city you’d like to go to).

Even if you don’t get one from me, you can still get a 10% discount just by entering the code jaoo2009_MSDN when you register.

As part of the Metro program, we’re running a 3-day Windows 7 Developer Training course in the Sydney CBD April 28-30th. There are a few places left for this course and they’re available on a first-come, first-served basis. The agenda looks pretty compelling:

So if you’re interested in getting in on some great training and getting your apps ready for Windows 7, then email Shuk Chan to confirm that there’s still a place for you.

There was a question on one of the internal lists today: "Looking for a no-brainer way to demo just adding a simple button to Office that goes to a URL."

It’s going to work a little differently in Word & Excel than it does in Outlook.

Word/Excel/Etc (apps with Ribbon)

For a Word/Excel addin, add a ribbon control and then add a button to that control.

For example, create a new Word 2007 Addin

Add a ribbon control

3

Change the caption of the Ribbon Group, drag a Button onto the group, change it’s image and caption etc

In the button click event use

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(http://blogs.msdn.com/acoat);

Press F5 and look in the Addins tab in Word when it launches.

Click the button and the site launches in the system default browser.

Outlook

For Outlook of course, there’s no ribbon in the main app, so you need to add this code to the ThisAddIn_Startup event like Kirk Evans does it here to add the button:

public partial class ThisAddIn
{
    
    Microsoft.Office.Core.CommandBar bar;

    Microsoft.Office.Core.CommandBarButton button;


    private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
    {
        AddCommandBar();
        AddCommandButton();
    }

    private void ThisAddIn_Shutdown(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
    {
    }

    #region VSTO generated code

    /// <summary>
    /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
    /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
    /// </summary>
    private void InternalStartup()
    {
        this.Startup += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Startup);
        this.Shutdown += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Shutdown);
    }
    
    #endregion

    private void AddCommandBar()
    {
        //Add the command bar
        bar = Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.Add(
            "Launch Site",
            Office.MsoBarPosition.msoBarTop,
            false,
            true);
        bar.Protection = Office.MsoBarProtection.msoBarNoCustomize;
        bar.Visible = true;
    }

    private void AddCommandButton()
    {
        //Add a command button to the bar
        button = bar.Controls.Add(
            Office.MsoControlType.msoControlButton,
            Type.Missing,
            Type.Missing,
            Type.Missing,
            true) as Office.CommandBarButton;

        button.Caption = "Launch the Site";
        button.Click += new Office._CommandBarButtonEvents_ClickEventHandler(button_Click);
    }

    void button_Click(Office.CommandBarButton Ctrl, ref bool CancelDefault)
    {
        System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://blogs.msdn.com/acoat");
    }
}

Pressing F5 here will launch Outlook and add a new CommandBar and a new button to that CommandBar.

Clicking the button will launch the web site in the system default browser.