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Setting Up the Development Environment for SharePoint Server

Gayan Peiris — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:34:00 GMT

When you create or customize SharePoint solutions, it is usually best to develop the solution on a local computer where Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 or Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 is installed. This article describes how to install a development environment with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. The development environment that you create by using these instructions will not support SharePoint farm installations, and you should not host active production sites with this configuration. These instructions will enable you to get started with an environment that is specifically suited to developing SharePoint custom solutions.

Step 1: Choose and Preconfigure the Operating System

The requirements for a development environment are less stringent and costly than the requirements for a production environment, and the guidelines in this topic will not support a production environment installation. You have several options for preconfiguring the operating system of a local computer on which you will install SharePoint 2010 for development purposes. The choice you make will be determined by factors specific to your organization and environment (such as budget, the size of your development team, and the operating systems that you and your organization are already using).

In any development environment, you should use a computer with an x64-capable CPU, and at least 2 gigabytes (GB) and preferably 4 GB of RAM for SharePoint Foundation, and 6 to 8 GB of RAM for SharePoint Server.

Following are the options:

Install SharePoint on Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 x64 (or Windows Server 2008 R2 x64).
Use Microsoft Hyper-V and install SharePoint on a virtual machine running a Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 x64 (or Windows Server 2008 R2 x64) guest operating system.
Install SharePoint on Windows 7 x64, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 x64, or Windows Vista Service Pack 2 x64.
Use Microsoft Hyper-V and install SharePoint on virtual machine running a Windows 7 x64, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 x64, or Windows Vista Service Pack 2 x64 guest operating system.

Windows 7 and Windows Vista cannot be used for production deployments of SharePoint 2010. If you use Windows 7 or Windows Vista for your development environment, you should have access to a test environment that has the same operating system installed as your production environment. Windows 7 and Windows Vista are recommended only for developer workstations and should only be used for stand-alone installations. You can use a separate Microsoft SQL Server instance, but you should not configure your installationas a SharePoint farm and you should not host active sites on this configuration.

SharePoint 2010 Beta SDK now available for public download

Gayan Peiris — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:17:00 GMT

The SharePoint 2010 (Beta) SDK is now available for public download: Get it here!

The Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Software Development Kit (SDK) includes documentation and code samples for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 and for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, which builds upon the SharePoint Foundation 2010 infrastructure. The SDK includes:

Detailed descriptions of the technologies that SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 provide for developers,
Reference documentation for the server and client object models,
Step-by-step procedures for using and programming with these technologies and object models, and
Code samples and solution starters for building projects with SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta releases

This SDK also includes best practices and setup guidance that will help you get started with your own custom applications that build and extend upon the SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 platforms.

For additional information, you can visit the SharePoint Developer Center on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN): http://msdn.microsoft.com/sharepoint. Visit frequently to learn about recently published content; to view essential getting started content; to view rich media content such as videos and screencasts; to get connected to instructor-led training and other learning resources; to learn more about product features and scenarios in our MSDN Resource Centers; and to find community resources such as MSDN forums, newsgroups, MVP blogs, and much more.

The SDK also includes many code samples that address common customization scenarios and solution building blocks. Future (quarterly) releases will contain additional samples, and you can also check MSDN Code Gallery for SharePoint solutions and code samples.

Installation Instructions

The Downloadable Setup Program will guide you through the installation. By default, you can install the complete SDK with both SharePoint Foundation 2010 as well as SharePoint Server 2010 documentation and samples. If you are working only with SharePoint Foundation 2010 APIs, you can install only the SharePoint Foundation 2010 SDK documentation: select SharePoint Server 2010 Help and Samples, and then click Entire feature will be unavailable in the setup program.

Once installed, you can access the SDK documentation and samples from the Start Menu. Look in All Programs > Microsoft SDKs.

Community Forums and Feedback

Also live today is the SharePoint Development Forum on MSDN: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010programming/threads.

Send us your feedback directly from any SDK topic. Use the Send Feedback e-mail links in all SDK topics to identify issues, request code samples, or request additional content about a supported customization scenario.

And don't forget to follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/sharepointdev

Related Downloads

Finally, for Enterprise Project Management development, be sure to download the Project 2010 (Beta) SDK and check out the Project 2010 Developer Center on MSDN!

SharePoint 2010 Public Beta is now available for download

Gayan Peiris — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:42:00 GMT

Today we are announcing the general availability of the public beta of Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010, Project 2010 and Office Web Apps for our customers and partners. Millions of people can download the beta at http://www.microsoft.com/2010.

Office Mobile 2010 has also reached the public beta milestone and is now available on the Windows Mobile Marketplace for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones.

Office and SharePoint Developer Training Courses available Now on Channel 9

Gayan Peiris — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:58:00 GMT

Today, Channel 9 launched two new training courses for SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 created by developers for developers. Channel 9 has always been about giving direct access to the engineers and future technologies from Microsoft, and now we’re extending this successful formula to bring you training that will allow developers to get started on learning about emerging technologies at their own pace. Today you’ll find extensive instructor recordings from top MVPs on how to develop against both SharePoint and office 2010. We’ll also be publishing more content at the beginning of December that will include hands-on labs, source code, and much more! All of this free for you to consume or download at your own pace.

SharePoint 2010 Developer Training

See how SharePoint 2010 has evolved into a first-class developer platform. Also, learn how SharePoint 2010 provides the business collaboration platform for developers to rapidly build solutions using familiar tools such as Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010 through this self-paced course.

Office 2010 Developer Training

Discover how Office 2010 Beta is a broadly extensible platform for building information worker productivity solutions and see how developing for Office with Visual Studio 2010 makes this easy. See online presentations with demos that will help you get started developing solutions from Add-ins to full featured Office Business Applications (OBAs) using Visual Studio 2010 with Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 as the core platform.

We hope you enjoy this initial set of training videos and will check back with Channel 9 in the near future as we build the learning center out to support SharePoint and Office 2010 development.

What's Coming in Search for SharePoint 2010?

Gayan Peiris — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:28:00 GMT

A great synopsis of where search is heading in the SharePoint 2010 timeframe from MS Search team blog!!!

There are two main enterprise search options coming with the SharePoint 2010 release:

1) SharePoint Server 2010 Search – the out-of-the-box SharePoint search for enterprise deployments.

2) FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint – a brand new add-on product based on the FAST search technology that combines the best of FAST’s high-end search capabilities with the best of SharePoint.

FAST Search for SharePoint 2010 adds a whole new level of search capabilities that are a superset of what comes in the out-of-the-box SharePoint 2010 Search option. Since there are now two search options in 2010, it’s useful to understand what is unique in FAST Search for SharePoint and when you might consider using it over the out-of-the-box SharePoint 2010 search. With that in mind, here are my 10 reasons to consider FAST Search for SharePoint 2010:

Evaluation guide for SharePoint Server 2010 (white paper)

Gayan Peiris — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:50:00 GMT

This evaluation guide is designed to help IT pros gain sufficient knowledge and understanding to evaluate Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. This guide describes some of the most compelling improvements and new additions to the SharePoint Server 2010 platform for IT pros. With this evaluation guide, the IT pro will be able to properly evaluate these new features and readily describe their capabilities to their colleagues, clients, and business partners.

The ultimate goal of this guide is to aid the reader in performing a thorough and effective evaluation of SharePoint Server 2010. It is also intended to be helpful for anyone who is interested in learning more about SharePoint Server 2010.

Download this guide as a Microsoft Word document (.docx).

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Evaluation Guide (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167123)

SharePoint 2010 Videos

Gayan Peiris — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:54:00 GMT

Following is a list of publically available SharePoint 2010 videos. They contain TDM/BDM focus information.

http://sharepoint2010.microsoft.com/Pages/videos.aspx

Following are ITPro videos

Getting started modules

Getting Started Home

What you should know about SharePoint 2010

Gayan Peiris — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:29:00 GMT

· The public beta will be available on November 2009. Please register at following location to access the software.

http://sharepoint2010.microsoft.com/try-it/Pages/Trial.aspx

· Watch the SharePoint Conference 2009 keynote video

http://www.mssharepointconference.com/pages/default.aspx

· Visit SharePoint Product site for the latest public content

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Pages/Default.aspx

· SharePoint 2010 overview @ product group blog

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/10/19/sharepoint-2010.aspx

· SharePoint 2010 (Beta) Developer Center

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ee514561.aspx

· TechNet information for ITPro (install, upgrade….)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ee263917.aspx

The public beta of SharePoint 2010 will be available in November.

Gayan Peiris — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:19:00 GMT

The “The Business Collaboration Platform for the Enterprise and the Web”. , SharePoint Server 2010 is here!!!!

- SharePoint 2010 Website - to view SharePoint 2010 in action and register for Beta

There are six category names in the way we describe the SharePoint platform. They include Sites, Communities, Content, Search, Insights and Composites. Read following blog post from the product group for more details

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/10/19/sharepoint-2010.aspx

The Productivity Hub is now live!

Gayan Peiris — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:11:00 GMT

What is the Productivity Hub?

The Productivity Hub is a SharePoint Server 2007 site collection. It comes packed with over 300* pieces of content, including videos, documents and PowerPoint slides. This gives you a great start at building a learning community behind your firewall.

Microsoft has developed the Productivity Hub to help you optimize your Microsoft end user training plans, and is provided at no cost.

The Hub centralizes Microsoft’s end user training content while providing a great use case for using SharePoint Server throughout your organization. It removes the need for you to have to find, centralize and publish Microsoft’s free end user training to an internal site; we have done the work for you. You can customize the Hub to fit your branding and needs. The flexibility and rich feature set of SharePoint Server 2007 allows you to add web parts, remove web parts, and add your own content to the Hub.

The Hub highlights the best features of SharePoint Server 2007, while providing you with end user training for the newest versions of Office, SharePoint, and Windows.

The Hub uses SharePoint Server’s social networking features to engage end users. It also offers training for “coaches” or power users internal to each customer. Coaches can help reduce the burden on training and helpdesk staff by adding another level of support.

The Productivity blog is another way to give your end users ongoing Tips and Tricks – and the blog is where you will find out about new content for the Hub. You can either keep the RSS feed on your Hub home page, or put it on a hidden page and reuse the blog content in your own internal SharePoint blog.

Benefits to you:

•Helps reduce costs: Streamlines training and helps reduce training overhead. Acts as a tool for training departments and IT.

•Multiple learning paths: Includes learning roadmaps, coaches, forums, searchable content and more.

•Helps increase productivity: Accelerates 2007 Office system use through a learning community.

•Drives adoption: Ongoing access to training enables deeper use and helps create new power users.

•Ignites collaboration: Encourages self-help through the coach program.

•Proof of concept: Provides a vision for collaborative learning – leading to collaborative work.

Quarterly Content Updates

We will provide quarterly content updates for your Hub beginning August 2009. You can learn about the updates on the Productivity blog. The following is an approximate delivery schedule (subject to change).

Update	Month
First quarterly update	August 2009
Second quarterly update	November 2009
Third quarterly update	February 2010
Fourth quarterly update	May 2010

2010 Office Content

We will provide content updates for 2010 Office when it becomes available. We are also planning an upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010 and will have a migration path for customers currently using the SharePoint Server 2007 Hub.

Hub Download link

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=277fefca-d62f-41bc-943d-79002254cfee

*Content updates are available for the Hub, adding over 200 documents. Follow the instructions in the customization guide to add new products to your Hub.

SharePoint Form Server Reference

Gayan Peiris — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:03:00 GMT

I get frequently asked for reference site for SharePoint Form Server solutions. Following are some I know about. Please send me a mail if you know any other reference

DP World - Ports Company Navigates Business Process Challenges with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and InfoPath 2007.
Bakers Delight – automates process for gathering assessment results to integrate with CRM system for analysis and performance reporting.

Here is some Form Services forms on public sites:

· http://www.enterpriseconnect.gov.au/formshost/DisplayForm.aspx?xsn=/formservertemplates/TAS.xsn

· http://www.enterpriseconnect.gov.au/formshost/DisplayForm.aspx?xsn=/formservertemplates/BusinessReview.xsn

· http://www.enterpriseconnect.gov.au/formshost/DisplayForm.aspx?xsn=/formservertemplates/groupmember.xsn

· http://www.pkf.com.au/Careers/Pages/Graduate_Application.aspx

· forum.e-graduate.ru /_layouts/FormServer.aspx?XsnLo...

· www.tekla.com/_layouts/formserver.aspx?XsnLocation...

· www.worldwideerc.org/_layouts/FormServer.aspx?XsnL...

· https://intranet.cargocenter.se/_layouts/formserve...

· https://forms.ucare.org/_layouts/FormServer.aspx?X...

· https://forms.deventer.nl/_layouts/FormServer.aspx...

CSR mentions the InfoPath/Office/MOSS integration with SAP in their case study: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000004133

Information Management in Government a Balancing Act

Gayan Peiris — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:41:00 GMT

Register to watch the video discussion between John Wise, independent consultant from Wise Technology Management, and Jon Barrett, Information Management Solutions Specialist from Microsoft Australia - and receive a complimentary USB key and whitepaper by John Wise.

http://www.microsoft.com/australia/government/Information_Management.aspx

SharePoint Sessions at TechEd Australia 2009

Gayan Peiris — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:29:00 GMT

It’s getting closer to the event and most of you are looking at building your session schedule. Following are some of the SharePoint related sessions if you are attending teched.

DYN330 SharePoint Strategies for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Presenter: Jian Sun

Wed 9/9 | 17:00-18:15 | Meeting Room 5

In this session, we will take the SharePoint "feature pie" apart, look hard at each one of them; Business Intelligence, Enterprise Search, Content Management, Portal and Collaboration etc. Explore how each of these can be leveraged to add values to organizations' Line of Business applications built on xRM. Technically, this will touch on all the existing integration points MSCRM has with SharePoint, like; Enterprise Search Accelerator for Enterprise Search, Document Library for content management and collaboration, CRM webparts and BDC List Webparts for Portal, Surfacing Analytics Accelerators' reports, dashboards, cube data through SharePoint for Business Intelligence.

MGT302 Protecting Applications with Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 with SP1

Presenter: Jason Buffington

Wed 9/9 | 15:30-16:45 | Meeting Room 5

This is the second of three sessions on System Center Data Protection Manager 2007. In this talk, we drill into how Data Protection Manager really uses VSS and transactional log backups -- as well as learn more specifically how data protection is achieved for each of the core workloads, including: SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, and Virtualization.

MGT307 Monitoring SharePoint applications with SCOM 2007 and the AVIcode SharePoint MP

Presenters: Chris Childers, Andrew McMurray

Fri 9/11 | 13:45-15:00 | Meeting Room 7

This session presents an overview, demonstration and strategy for effectively monitoring your SharePoint 2007 environment. Ensuring the SharePoint Server platform, and connected components, are behaving as expected, is critical. Problems occurring with components in custom SharePoint web parts, such as slow-running lists or searches, are typically not visible until an end-user complains. The AVIcode SharePoint 2007 Application Management Pack extends the native monitoring capabilities of Operations Manager 2007, enabling organizations to detect and diagnose problems related to their SharePoint Web applications.

OFC210 The Front End to Microsoft Business Intelligence

Presenters: Rainier Bryce, Nadav Rayman

Wed 9/9 | 15:30-16:45 | Meeting Room 6

Microsoft Business Intelligence is a set of capabilities that you probably already own. In this session, you will learn how to achieve Personal BI - delivered through Excel and Access, Team BI - delivered with SharePoint Excel Services, Business Data Catalogue, and SQL Server Reporting Services and finally, Organisational BI - delivered with SharePoint and PerformancePoint Services. This session includes demonstrations of these 3 solutions plus a discussion of how they interoperate and come together to deliver a holistic view that drives insight, alignment, accountability, and agility throughout your business.

OFC250 Collaboration in the Cloud and the datacentre - no code solutions to SharePoint customisation

Presenters: William Cornwill, Lee Hickin

Fri 9/11 | 9:45-11:00 | Meeting Room 7

Are you looking to implement SharePoint? Are you confused on where and how to deploy SharePoint? Join William Cornwill and Lee Hickin from Microsoft as they discuss provisioning options for Microsoft SharePoint including in-house, hosted and cloud. Understand the pros/cons and architectural differences for each model. William and Lee will also discuss the different customisation options available for each model and demonstrate the capabilities of SharePoint online.

OFC320 SharePoint Architecture, deployment and get ready for next release SharePoint 2010

Presenters: Gayan Peiris, Ivan Wilson

Fri 9/11 | 8:15-9:30 | Arena 1A

Are you looking at deploying or have already deployed SharePoint in your environment? In this session learn from the experts about infrastructure sizing considerations, architecting SharePoint farms for high availability and handling user authentication in diverse environments. You will discover the tools to make operations easier, such as the System Center Capacity Planning Tool, Community Built add-ons, , and using capabilities of SQL Server to improve uptime provide data protection and recovery. Finally, learn about key considerations for future versions of SharePOint and what you can do now to help simplify your next SharePoint migration.

OFC350 Designing for Enterprise Grade Document Management Systems

Presenters: Jon Barrett, John Wise

Thu 9/10 | 17:00-18:15 | Central A

There are many challenges to implementing Enterprise-grade,large scale Document Management solutions, both cultural and technical. In this session learn how MOSS 2007 and ISV Partner solutions address thekey challenges including enforcement of consistent metadata and content types across multiple farms, geo-replication of content, archival, records management, storage of very-large documents, migration of data from legacy file stores, end-user change management, and governance. The solutions you will see are based on real-world implementations and case studies. You'll walk away confident that MOSS is a mature platform for enterprise-grade Document Management.

SOA313 BizTalk 2009 & MOSS 2007 as your Integration Solution

Presenters: Bill Chesnut, Eddy Richard

Thu 9/10 | 11:30-12:45 | Meeting Room 7

Traditionally and for most business users, integration solutions have been hidden in the back office: a case of out of mind, out of sight. Let us show you that is not the case. By leveraging the front office features of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the back office integration features of BizTalk 2009, you can expose your integration solution to the whole business. This will give you greater visibility and control of your integration solutions. As a platform for storing, managing and organising large numbers of documents, SharePoint delivers departmental applications with rich functionality in addition to the ASP.Net Web Part framework. SharePoint provides authentication, role based security trimming and personalisation. This is combined with the powerful search capabilities it offers. Many end users are already familiar with how SharePoint looks and feels as they have experienced it as their Intranet platform. BizTalk can be partnered with SharePoint in several ways. We will focus on two areas: solutions to enhance the visibility of your BizTalk integration solution; and, extend your SharePoint based solution to leverage the line of business adapters, EDI/AS2 and BizTalk accelerators. This approach will allow you to reach deeper into your infrastructure or interact closer with your customers. We will demonstrate surfacing your auditing, logging and exception management from BizTalk in SharePoint. We will also show how and when to use BizTalk to extend your SharePoint solutions.

DEV340 Building Solutions with Sharepoint and Visual Tools for Office

Presenters: Andrew Coates, Jeremy Thake

Wed 9/9 | 15:30-16:45 | Central A

"The Microsoft Office system evolved from a suite of personal productivity products into a comprehensive, multifaceted, and integrated system. Building on a solid foundation of familiar tools, the Microsoft Office system today includes applications, servers, services, and technologies designed to work together to solve a wide array of business problems. Jeremy Thake and Andrew Coates will present the SharePoint server and Office client tools available. This session will walk you through the journey of discovery on how to best leverage the client/server platform to build your solutions. Discussions around the new client side VSTO tools and the server side VSeWSS tools will focus on the creation of solutions from initial development to deployment. Come along to this demo-filled session to learn how to take advantage of the millions of programming hours that have gone into the Office platform and the .NET Framework and truly Stand on the Shoulders of Giants!"

http://www.msteched.com/australia/Public/SessionList.aspx

Announcing SharePoint 2010 Technical Preview

Gayan Peiris — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:07:00 GMT

We are very happy to announce that http://sharepoint.microsoft.com is now live with our exciting news and Sneak Peek of SharePoint 2010. Below are the pages with the announced features and videos.

· 2010 Sneak Peek Home: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/default.aspx

· 2010 Sneak Peek Overview Video: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/Overview-Video.aspx

· 2010 Sneak Peek IT Pro Video: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/IT-Pro-video.aspx

· 2010 Sneak Peek Developer Video: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/Developer-video.aspx

· 2010 Sneak Peek Get Ready: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/Get_Ready.aspx

· 2010 Sneak Peek FAQ: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/FAQ.aspx

Also see the announcement on the SharePoint Team Blog

Engineering Services Firm Saves Three Days a Week with Simplified Web Site Management - WorleyParsons

Gayan Peiris — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:33:00 GMT

WorleyParsons, a provider of professional services to the energy, resource, and complex process industries, has grown substantially through a series of mergers and acquisitions. To best reflect its international presence, and to be able to publish information in a timely manner, the company had to replace its outdated Web site. WorleyParsons used Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 as the foundation for its new Web site. In less than three months, the company launched a new global corporate site, with tools that allow users to seamlessly publish content to WorleyParsons.com—with minimal involvement from IT. The publishing process is so much simpler that the company saves three days of time each week among IT and marketing personnel responsible for the publishing process.