BenkoBLOG

Download the Beta of SharePoint 2010 Today!

benko — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:36:58 GMT

Some exciting news was announced this morning at the Professional Developer's Conference in Los Angeles: You can get started exploring SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 by downloading the beta trials from www.microsoft.com/2010. SharePoint 2010—together with Office 2010 and other related products—ties together your PC, browser, and mobile device to offer the premier productivity experience.

In fact, I'm blogging to you right now from the SharePoint booth at PDC 2009, where I'm helping developers see what they can do with the new SharePoint tools. We’ve announced dramatic innovations that make it easy to build new solutions with SharePoint 2010; see them for yourself and participate in the beta by downloading the new versions of SharePoint 2010, Office 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010.

Some of the new features you’ll want to explore include the ability to design workflow in Visio 2010 and the interface for surfacing your application’s features with the new Ribbon. If you’re a developer working with SharePoint 2010, you can install the SharePoint Foundation Server 2010 on your Windows 7 machine and develop against it using new Visual Studio 2010 project templates. These templates make it much easier to create compelling new solutions and package them up for simpler deployment, such as the new visual web part.

We’re also giving you easy new ways to connect with your social network. The Outlook Social Connector lets you connect with people on Windows Live, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. There’s even an SDK for developers that makes it possible to extend and customize code and enable great new scenarios for building connected applications.

Combining Sharepoint and Office 2010 lets users communicate in real time through Outlook, not to mention share/edit Excel, Word and other Office documents simultaneously. And that's just one example of how combining these tools will drive greater efficiency. To dive deeper, visit www.microsoft.com/2010

Patterns anyone? Check out Rob’s new series!

benko — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:08:07 GMT

Rob Bagby has started a new series (blog posts and screencasts) on Patterns-Based Development with Silverlight. The series illustrates various design patterns while building a sample application (see screenshot below). The patterns covered include the Repository, the Pipeline, the Service Agent and Model View ViewModel.

Kansas City Code is posted

benko — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:52:00 GMT

I’ve posted the code from today’s launch onto http://www.benkotips.com/code – Includes the demo application we built from scratch showing how to work with jumplists, ribbon, Sensors and Multi-touch.

Posting code…a bit behind

benko — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:36:21 GMT

Thought I’d let you know that I’ve posted code from the MVC webcast with Jessy Houle as well as code from the Heartland Developer Conference in October. More code postings to come…

VB Source Code for Launch Demo available for download

benko — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:21:51 GMT

I just added the sample we wrote at the event coded in VB to the download on http://www.benkotips.com/code, click on the “Windows 7 For Developers Launch” link and you’ll find the solution has a VB version of the project added to it. I’ve also got a SQL script that creates the IMAGEDATABASE used by the XP2Win7 Application in case you need it. You can get the XP2Win7 reference application at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/xp2win7.

Windows 7 For Developers – Launch Links

benko — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:32:53 GMT

As I promised in the session in Minneapolis, all the links from the slide decks are available here. These include:

http://www.benkotips.com/
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/xp2win7
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/aa904987.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/aa905066.aspx
http://readyset7.com/workshops
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1c333f06-fadb-4d93-9c80-402621c600e7
http://msdn.microsoft.com/express
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsAPICodePack
http://codeplex.com/wpf
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Windows7Taskbar
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/ScenicRibbon
http://www.windowsteamblog.com/blogs/developers.aspx
http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/Windows+7
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd433113.aspx
http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/aa904987.aspx
http://www.readyset7.com/workshops
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9681321
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/XP2Win7
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/careeroffers

As per usual the demo code is available in a zip archive along with the slide decks for download on http://www.benkotips.com/code.

Enjoy!

"Who I Am and What I Do Around Here?"

benko — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:13:30 GMT

Ok…if you’ve been following my blog over the years you may have some idea of who I am and my current role/job at Microsoft. This post is to help shed some light on the topic and also is cross posted to another blog I’m just starting up that is focused on SharePoint for Developers. You should be able to find this post on http://blogs.technet.com/sharepointexperts as well as http://blogs.msdn.com/benko, which is syndicated on my site at http://www.benkotips.com.

One question I sometimes ask is what was your first computer? I can say that the first computer I worked with was an old Commodore CPM machine that a friend of mine had at his house over summer vacation. It was a school machine that his parents who were teachers were able to bring home and that we quickly appropriated to our own purposes. Starting with loading games from a cassette tape player to typing in code we found in magazines, we figured out how to customize and make the computer do things. The language was Basic, and to check and change memory you’d peek and poke specific locations.

When school started back up and the computer was no longer available I was able to convince my parents to invest in a Commodore Vic 20…this was an 8 color machine (6 more than the CPM) and simply plugged into a TV for a monitor. I used this machine until we upgraded to the C64 (http://www.c64.com) which again gave us another magnitude of memory and graphics capabilities. Woot!

Well to keep a long story short I won’t go thru all the gyrations and twisted path that led me thru school and my early professional life, except to say that I eventually found myself as a partner in a computer consulting company with my brother. As a business owner you do a lot of things, but what I enjoyed the most was when I could get into building code. The challenge of figuring out how to write supportable, deployable scalable applications and infrastructure was not only fun, it keeps you learning as the tools change and new technologies become available.

In 2004 I saw an opportunity to be a “Technical Presenter” for events that Microsoft puts on in the developer community. This role allowed me to dive into new tools and share with other developers around the US how to best leverage their capabilities. I started with this on the MSDN team of Microsoft Across America which was focused on delivering these seminars. I remember my first event in San Jose, where I lost my voice but was saved by a patient audience who gave me their time & attention as we talked about hackers and application security exploits.

Since then I’ve been one of the faces of MSDN Events and Webcasts, and have a webcast show on Wednesdays called “BenkoTIPS Live & On Demand” that brings the MSDN content to developers when and where they want to catch it. We cover the full gambit of technologies drawing from the MSDN Events that we are also delivering live to audiences around the US. One of the series of webcast that I worked on with Lynn Langit was on SharePoint for Developers and started right after we released Microsoft Office 2007 SharePoint Server (MOSS). This series has grown to about 17 webcasts and is due for a refresh when the next release of MOSS becomes available.

In the meantime, I’ll be on the road and online to help provide the developer community with info on how to take advantage of the new tools and and technologies to simplify their jobs. From XAML to WCF, from SharePoint to Win7 to IE8, from Visual Studio to Expression Suite, you can join me to explore the possible both live and online!

Community Jam - 2009

benko — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:42:17 GMT

Announcing Community Jam! Are you passionate about community? Always wanted to start a User Group, schedule a developer event or just curious about what is a TechMasters chapter? You're invited to the first annual Community Jam being held at the Upstream Brewing Company in Omaha on Wednesday Oct 14 from 2:00 to 6:30 before the Heartland Developer Conference kicks off.

The goal of this summit is to bring together the developer community enthusiasts to share goals and best practices for building great things for our fellow technologist. We will take an open spaces format to make sure you get value for your time.

Proposed Agenda:

2:00 - 2:30 : Welcome – meet & greet

2:30 - 3:30 : Open Session 1 (3 groups...topics to be determined)

3:45 - 4:45 : Open Session 2

5:00 - 6:00 : Open Session 3

6:00 - 6:15 : Closing thoughts

This is meant to be open to any and all members of the technical community, both Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies. Ideas for topics for the open sessions might include how to start a user group, presentation tips 101, how to create a killer demo, event logistics for the beginner, social media 101, TechMasters 101, etc. It will be a great chance to network with technical professionals that are as enthused about the community as you are

Please let me know (mike.benkovich@microsoft.com) if you’re interested in attending! We’ve got a site to register at http://tinyurl.com/comjam.

Visual Studio 2008 – Customizing your IDE Webcast

benko — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:21:35 GMT

In today’s webcast we looked at how to customize Visual Studio to meet your working style. To make it easier to find things I compiled a list of links and locations we talked about.

Install Locations:

Install dir = C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0
User stuff = ..\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008
Templates = ..\Common7\IDE
- C#, VB, C++, Test, etc depending on what’s installed
Visualizers = ..\Common7\Packages\Debugger\Visualizers
User install = ..\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Visualizers

Here’s some links:

This week’s webcast…Customizing the Visual Studio IDE

benko — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:10:27 GMT

Over the years that I’ve been delivering MSDN Events there are little things you discover that make it easier to write code and demonstrate features with Visual Studio. In the webcast for this week’s BenkoTIPS Live & On Demand series we’ll be taking a look at some the things you can do to make it easier to get Visual Studio to work the way you do as well as tips and trix for leveraging the power of the tool. Not only that, but we’ll also cover the in’s and out’s of settings, tabs, toolbars, snippets and more.

Join me on Wednesday…same time as usual. See you there!

BenkoTIPS - Sudoku

benko — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:03:06 GMT

Difficulty - Hard

			P	S	K	O	I
								B
		O		T	N		P
		E				N		K
			T		E
P		B				T
	O		E	N		I
E
	N	K	I	P	T

Substitute the letters from BENKOTIPS for the 9 numbers and see if you can solve the puzzle:

B - 1
E - 2
N - 3
K - 4
O - 5
T - 6
I - 7
P - 8
S - 9

Using SQL Management Studio 2008 with SQL Data Services (SQL in the Cloud)

benko — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:58:09 GMT

I’ve been playing around with the new SQL Data Services this week and came across a common issue with how do you work with the databases you’ve created. For those of you who, like me, are not fond of SQLCMD (a command line query tool) you can use SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) query window capabilities, even if the object explorer doesn’t work. The trick is to accept that you don’t have to be connected to the object explorer to open a query window.

You can use SSMS 2008 if you don’t use the object explorer…simply cancel on the connect to server when you start SSMS, then open a new query window. It will prompt you to enter your credentials, which should include the server name, your user account (with the @servername as part of the user name) and password. On the connection options tab select the target database and click connect. You’ll get a message that ANSI_NULLS aren’t recognized, but then it opens the query window and you should be good to go.

1. Cancel connect to server for the Object Explorer window (which opens by default when you open SSMS)

2. Click the “New Query” button to open a new query window

3. Enter your server name & credentials…make sure you use the server name you got when you registered your token…also make sure to use the username@server format for your user name

4. To connect and work with a database you’ve created in SDS enter the database name in the “Connection Properties” window…you can get to advanced properties by clicking the “Options >>” button.

5. Clicking connect will then open the query window, but you may get prompted with an error message that ANSI_NULLS are not recognized…you’ll find that you can ignore this message and begin to work with SDS within a query window in SSMS 2008.

And you should be good to go with all the goodness of a great SQL Development environment where you can leverage tools & utilities like the Template explorer to help with writing great Transact SQL.

Enjoy!

What do you have in your toolbox?

benko — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:04:52 GMT

I worked thru college doing some light construction at an outdoor sporting goods store called Midwest Mountaineering (and Thrifty Outfitters – used but great stuff). One of the things I learned while working there was how to leverage what’s possible with a table saw. While the basics of cutting a straight line are expected, I was amazed at what was possible in the hands of an expert. Using the table saw, we refurbished the interior of an older Minneapolis building (circa 1900’s) creating our own moldings, doors, trim and more from raw lumber. The great thing about this experience is that I’ve been able to use what I learned on cabinetry projects I’ve done since.

Being good with a tool opens a lot of doors. But being good with one tool doesn’t necessarily transfer to another without recognizing you need to invest the same due-diligence to understand what’s possible and how to. This brings me to this week’s webcast on Expression Blend. In my career as a developer I’ve been working with developer tools like Visual Studio and PowerBuilder, where you spend a lot of time creating pathways and functions based on user actions and events with code. This abstraction of processes into procedural or object oriented code has been mostly non-visual in nature. However I’ve always found the visual tools to be easier to get started with, but limited in what’s possible. What I’ve found is that Blend has tremendous capabilities that are pretty easy to use, including visual design and integration with the data schemas that define a business domain.

Like a lathe is another tool very different from the table saw, it is invaluable for creating some types of work. Come and see what’s possible with Expression Blend by joining me for another episode of “BenkoTIPS Live & On Demand”. See you on Wednesday!

Bound for Greatness – Binding in XAML

benko — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:48:44 GMT

Today’s webcast we covered the fundamentals of how to leverage the binding capabilities of XAML…here are some links that might be of interest:

BenkoTIPS Webcast: Win7 For Developers Part 1

BenkoTIPS Webcast: Win7 For Developers Part 2

MSDN: WPF Data Binding Part 1

Blog: String Formatting in XAML

MSDN: Formatting Types

MSDN: Standard Numeric Formatting

Upcoming Webcast Schedule

7/12 - BenkoTIPS Webcast: XAML Bound for Greatness

7/19 - BenkoTIPS Webcast: Intro to Expression Blend 3 & Sketchflow

9/2 - BenkoTIPS Webcast: Visual Studio Tips & Tricks for Developer Productivity

9/16 - BenkoTIPS Webcast: SharePoint and Silverlight updated

Win7 For Developers Part 2 – Webcast Resources

benko — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:29:52 GMT

BenkoTIPS Live & On Demand: An intro to Win7 for Developers Part 1
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032417601&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

WPF Futures Download
www.codeplex.com/wpf

Windows 7 API Integration Libraries
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsAPICodePack

Windows 7 Engineering Blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7

Windows 7 for Developers Blog
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/developers/default.aspx

MSDN Windows Developer Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/windows

Channel 9
http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/Windows+7

Windows 7 Taskbar: Developer Resources
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Windows7Taskbar

Windows Ribbon Framework: Developer Resources
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/ScenicRibbon