I recently attained the Microsoft Certified Master for SharePoint 2010 certification.  I have long wanted to write about the experience, but honestly didn’t know how to begin.  After quite a few conversations with friends and colleagues, I thought I would share some insight about the process...

I recently got a question from a customer about utilities to include on their development machines.  My view is that you should trust your developers and let them install the tools they need.  However, some devs don’t have managers who trust their developers to do the right thing and they need...

For the past 7 years, I worked in Developer Platform Evangelism to talk to customers about the latest and greatest technologies that Microsoft would soon be releasing, and worked to gain early adopters of the technologies.  This was a very fun job, but I desired a change.  This past July, I...

I posted my deck for “ Best Practices for Composite Applications in SharePoint 2010 ” from the Best Practices Conference.   Go grab the slides! This was a fun talk, I spent a lot of time talking about the value of workflow for composite applications, and how to use sandboxed solutions.  There...

Go check out the recently released WF State Machine Activity Pack CTP 1 and ADO.NET Activity Pack CTP 1 at http://wf.codeplex.com . As published on the site, “The Microsoft WF State Machine Activity Pack CTP 1 is the first community technology preview (CTP) release of a state machine implementation based...

Thanks to everyone who attended the SharePoint 2010 Developer Best Practices talk at the SharePointPro 2010 Summit and Expo conference.  As promised, the deck has been uploaded.  Get it here . http://cid-09d5ededfee6c24b.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Presentations/SPPro%20SharePoint%20Development...

I had the pleasure of speaking at the SharePoint TechFest 2010 event today in Dallas, Texas.  Over 650 people at this event, holy smokes it was a great time.  I had the first time slot of the day, and when I first started the talk the room wasn’t even 1/4 full (maybe about 30 people). ...

This post provides a list of resources for SharePoint, Windows Workflow Foundation, and using WF with SharePoint. I was lucky enough to present to the Wells Fargo developer group today on “SharePoint Workflows”.  If you read my blog, you might know that I recently posted a screencast on developing...

I’ve posted a new video to Channel9… SharePoint Visual Studio state machine workflows for escalations and timeouts . After I went through the learning process of creating a set of screencasts focused on SharePoint development, a few things became evident.  I don’t like the name of the series, and...

Part 6 of the SharePoint for Developers series is posted to Channel9, this one focusing on creating custom web services in SharePoint .  For reference, here are the links to the previous 5 screencasts in this series so far. Introducing Visual Studio Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services (VSeWSS...

Even more free training for SharePoint Developers.   Module 1 - Developing Solutions on the SharePoint Platform » learn now Module 2 - Web Parts » learn now Module 3 - Page Navigation » learn now Module 4 - Page Branding » learn now Module 5 - Data Lists » learn now Module 6 - Web Services...

This post will show how to create a simple console application that executes tracking queries in Windows Workflow Foundation 3.0. In my last post, I created a demo that shows how easy it is to use the persistence capabilities of WF .  Another incredibly valuable feature of WF 3.0 is the ability...

This post will show how to use the DelayActivity in Windows Workflow Foundation 3.0 to scale an application out to multiple processes. I will show how to enable persistence and how to create an application that can resume workflows whose timers have expired. I also show passing parameters to a workflow...

In this post, I will show how to use the Windows Workflow Foundation rules engine to provide business logic for a Dynamic Data Entites Web Application. We will show how to change business rules without modifying code, drive the application based on a logical entity model, and map the entity model to...

Somehow I was lucky enough to get 2 speaking slots in both TechEd New Zealand and TechEd Australia. Today's talk is "SOA401 - Enabling Long Running Conversations in Workflow Services". The demos I used are part of the Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Training Kit . The demos come complete with...

I am fortunate to be a speaker at TechEd New Zealand and TechEd Australia this week. One of the sessions I am presenting on is "Building Human Workflows with Windows Workflow Foundation State Machines". Admittedly, I am standing on the shoulders of giants as I borrowed the code and slides from Keith...

My friend Doug is having some problems with SharePoint workflows and using the OnTaskCreated activity . He says it doesn't work, but I haven't had problems with this. Hoping that this video helps him as well as shows some of my readers how to quickly create a workflow for SharePoint 2007 with Visual...

I just ran across one of those nuisance things with Visual Studio 2008 that I haven't seen before. Create a SharePoint workflow (Sequential or State, doesn't matter) for a WSS site (not MOSS). Build the project, you'll get an error similar to the following: Error 3 Feature '739f61bf-5616-427a-80d6-ed30fdc04b1f...

Kirk Evans talks with Shaun Leisegang and Sebastian Garrioch from K2 to learn more about K2 Blackpoint. Blackpoint is a tool built upon Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Presentation Foundation that targets SharePoint, allowing users to build workflows and process-driven applications quickly with...

I spoke at TechReady 7 in Seattle this week on Windows Workflow Foundation Patterns. I got so many requests for the deck and samples that I am posting them on my SkyDrive (modified to remove the confidential material we discussed in the session, of course). You can find the zipped content on my Windows...

It's time to submit our FY09 plans, and I am looking for your help. I've got a lot of really cool stuff to share with you around SharePoint this year (Enterprise Social Computing, integrating .NET 3.5 and Silverlight, creating solutions with SharePoint and Office 2007, integrating SharePoint and BI,...

My friend, Ali Mazaheri, has co-authored a paper on MSDN, " Developing Workflow Solutions with SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows Workflow Foundation ."  It's a great read, especially for those of you who know a bit about WF and are curious how to translate those skills to SharePoint development...

I had a great time visiting with a great team at Verizon this week. I was able to present on a number of technologies, including ADO.NET Sync Services, WCF, WF, and ClickOnce. I was going to send this in an email, then I realized that there are some great bits in here that would appeal to a broader audience...

Thanks to everyone that attended today's session on Workflow Services. The slide and demos I used are included as an attachment to this post. Remember that we will draw for a Zune on December 18th, 2007 based on attendance at either the .NDU or the .ARCH webcasts. Those who attended today are eligible...

You are invited to attend an Architecture Webcast Designing and Creating Workflow Services Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Eastern Time Please feel free to forward this invitation to anyone else in your organization . In this installment of the Architecture Webcast...