August, 2011

Once you have a Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 build configured, you’re ready to create a build definition to automatically build your SharePoint codebase. This area is well-documented on MSDN (see the Define Your Build Process section within the Visual Studio Application Lifecycle Management area), but the aim of this post is to provide guidance on the specifics required for building SharePoint projects and to highlight key information for those starting out in this area. Here’s an overview of what we’ll discuss in this post: Configuring the build server to compile SharePoint assemblies Configuring the build to generate SharePoint solution (WSP) packages, not just assemblies Creating your first build definition – process overview Editing the build workflow Dealing with dependencies between projects Configuring the build server to compile SharePoint assemblies By default, a TFS 2010 Build Agent will not be able to compile SharePoint...

The Office Developer & Interop Documentation Group is currently defining the specifications for a project to provide 101 Code Samples for SharePoint. We are looking for your help with the types of code samples to include in the project. Please reply to this post with suggestions for code samples that would be helpful to you and other developers. Please provide enough detail to accurately describe each sample requested. The samples will be created in managed code (C# and VB.NET). The deadline for taking suggestions is 9\31. Thank you and we look forward to your valuable feedback. Technorati Tags: 101 Code Samples project

by Justin Joyce Overview: Our client has a main list of items that require workflow. Some of these items will have to move along further in the workflow than others depending on certain field values and other conditions. Certain other types of items will only have to take a few steps, and then will exit the flow never to return. Due to this requirement we decided to use two workflows on this list. The main workflow will always fire on item creation and will perform all the common actions required to initialize the new list items, including things like setting the unique proprietary item ID code, and collecting a few initial approvals on the item. The second workflow is to be called from the first workflow only when certain field values exist and the item is of a certain content type. This presented a few interesting questions as to how we would accomplish this. One of our main areas of concern was finding the correct workflow to start on the item. We couldn’t be sure the instance name would...

The following diagram details the development options available in SharePoint Online (Beta) : use the server object model available to sandboxes solutions, or employ the client object model and client-side code to access additional data that is available through the SharePoint web services, or data from external sources. In SharePoint Online, subscribers own and administer site collections, instead of entire farm installations; therefore, the development approach to SharePoint Online is necessarily scoped to the site collection. Because of this, sandboxed solutions and the client object models form the foundation of developing for SharePoint Online. A specialized type of the SharePoint solutions framework, sandboxed solutions provide a framework for developers to create, and for SharePoint Online administrators to upload and activate, custom code solutions to SharePoint Online. Sandboxed solutions run in an environment that has access to a core subset of the server object model. The sandboxed...

Another round of weekend reading is available for SharePoint developers. There is new content about using network monitor, as well as hands-on labs and videos in the Excel Services Resource Center. Technical Articles Using Network Monitor with the Microsoft Office and SharePoint Products Parsers Provided by: Sirkku Willie| Editor: Jeffrey Gilbert Developer Centers Updated SharePoint Developer Center content: Revised! SharePoint Developer Community Updated/revised all page content, including links to social media, interactive resources, conferences, and training partners. Editor: Kimberly Hope | Site manager: Verna Appel DeLuna Excel Services Resource Center | SharePoint 2010 Added links to 3 hands-on labs and 2 videos. Writer: Stephen Oliver| Site manager: Verna Appel DeLuna Beck Andros

Welcome to Part 2 of our series on Continuous Integration for SharePoint 2010.  This article will cover configuring your TFS environment. This series of posts introduces many new techniques for automating builds, deploying builds, and incorporating tests as part of the build process. To build a project, the dependent assemblies must be on that machine. This makes it difficult to use the same build server for both SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 extensibility projects. To address this, you can utilize a central Team Foundation Server (TFS) server with a build server that is specific to your project’s needs. If you want to test your application in a controlled environment, TFS enables you to provide your own test controller and test agent to perform tests. To illustrate these techniques, we'll configure a TFS environment with a central TFS server, a Test Controller and Agent, and a Team Build server. The Lab Environment The lab environment we are working with mimics environments...

Problem You want to roll up content from your site (and subsites), no problem, CQWP is there to help. But, hey! the tool part UI only offers support for three filters: What if you need more filters? A (simple) solution One way to allow for more than three filters is to override the QueryOverride property of the web part. This involves the following general steps: Export the web part to file system. Build the CAML required to filter the list. Update the QueryOverride property Import the web part to the web part page. Export the web part to the file system With the page in Edit Mode , expand the Content Query Web Part Menu and select Export… Save the web part to the local file system. Build the CAML required to filter the list If you’re not comfortable with CAML there are some tools and resources that could help: Stramit SharePoint CAML Viewer. U2U Caml Query Builder for SharePoint 2010. Collaborative Application Markup Language Schemas. In my site there is a custom list with the following...

Today’s post comes to us from Spencer Harbar, a SharePoint MVP , at http://www.harbar.net . He graciously offered to let us use his User Profiles graphic and accompanying text. You can find his guides on User Profiles at http://www.harbar.net/articles/sp2010ups.aspx and http://www.harbar.net/articles/sp2010ups2.aspx . Thank you, Spencer! This diagram shows the high level architecture and the various components that make up the User Profile subsystem in SharePoint Server 2010. The key components are briefly described below. User Profile Service Application (UPA) A logical component which encompasses: · An IIS Application which sits in the SharePoint Web Services IIS Web Site. The IIS Web Site is on every machine in the farm. When we start the User Profile Service machine instance later, the IIS Application will be created on that machine. It will be named with a GUID and hosts two of WCF services. This is known as a Service Application Endpoint. · Pages for managing the Service Application...

This is the initial post in a multi-part series that will cover implementing Continuous Integration for SharePoint 2010 using Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010. The series will cover in detail how to set up TFS, configure the build process, deploy the solution packages (.wsp), run tests as part of an automated build, and more. This series is a team effort - Chris O’Brien, Kirk Evans, Saaid Khan , and I will all be involved in bringing you a set of step-by-step, in-depth articles to help you make continuous integration a part of your SharePoint development strategy. The current plan for the series (which could change as the content is created) is as follows: Continuous Integration - Why do it? TFS 2010 Team Build installation and configuration Creating your first TFS Build Process for SharePoint projects Implementing assembly versioning Using PowerShell to deploy the WSP Running tests as part of a build Integrating additional tools...

A short delay in posting due some summer vacation, so here’s a belated July update about new and updated SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint Online developer content published on MSDN. Published on MSDN – July 1-31, 2011 Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Content Content SDK and Developer Guide Content   New online SDK topic: New APIs in SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Technical Articles   Creating a Custom Web Part Editor in SharePoint 2010 | Code Sample Provided by: Ravi Chinni and Vijay Bikka | Editor: Tonda Kiffin New landing page: SharePoint 2010 Development Basics Technical Articles Setting the Login Token Expiration Correctly for SharePoint 2010 SAML Claims Users Provided by: Steve Peschka | Reviewed by: Siew Moi Khor | Editor: Kimberly Hope New landing page: Workflow Technical Articles for SharePoint 2010 Visual How To Articles   Responding to User Mouse Clicks in Visio Services in SharePoint Server 2010 | Video Provided by: Eric Schmidt | Editor: Scot Devereaux Adding Overlays...