Paul Andrew

Sharing VSeWSS experiences

pandrew — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:06:00 GMT

Clyde Barretto has shared his experiences getting started with the Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint here. Maybe this will help someone else.

Super Short Summary of my SharePoint Conference Talk

pandrew — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:47:00 GMT

My talk at the SharePoint Conference 2009 was The Overview of the SharePoint 2010 Developer Platform. Here are the things that I talked about. I only had 75 minutes including demos but for each of these great new features for Developers we have drill down talks at the show this week.

Development on Windows 7
Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint tools
SharePoint Designer 2010
Developer Dashboard
Business Connectivity Services
SharePoint List Improvements
XSLT Views for Lists
Data API Options
LINQ to SharePoint
Client Object Model
REST APIs
SharePoint Event Enhancements
Workflow Improvements
SharePoint Service Applications
Ribbon and Dialog Framework
Silverlight
Sandboxed Solutions
SharePoint Online
Upgrade and Packaging
Team Foundation Server

SharePoint 2010 Developer Content Published

pandrew — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:26:00 GMT

Wow, we disclosed all the new features of SharePoint 2010 yesterday at the SharePoint Conference. I spent my day rehearsing my demos, then sitting in the front row of the keynote, then giving my talk, then standing at the SharePoint booth in the exhibit hall, then at a function for SharePoint MVPs. I didn’t go running in the morning like Steve Ballmer did.

Microsoft is making a significant investment for Developers in SharePoint 2010 and you will see it’s much more a focus than before. Here are some of the places you can read about developer information for SharePoint 2010.

Overview of SharePoint 2010 for Developers presented by me.
http://sharepoint2010.microsoft.com/product/Benefits/IT-Developers/Pages/Top-Features.aspx

The SharePoint 2010 Developer Evaluation Guide and six walkthroughs.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167784

A complete online eLearning Course for SharePoint Developer including Videos, Hands on Labs and Code Samples. Note: Since SharePoint 2010 is not yet available, you cannot do the hands on labs yet.
http://MSSharePointDeveloper.com

A whitepaper by David Chappell describing the SharePoint 2010 Developer Platform.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167783

A giant wall poster you can print showing the breadth of the SharePoint 2010 Developer Platform.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167786

A learning plan for Developers and IT Professionals on SharePoint 2010.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167787

The MSDN SDK online for SharePoint 2010.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd776256.aspx

Some brief overview videos from Microsoft Learning on SharePoint 2010.
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/_silverlight/learningsnacks/SP10/snack01/Default.html

MSDN Discussion Forum for SharePoint 2010.
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010general/threads/

An article on upgrading code from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662217(office.14).aspx

Details of how to install SharePoint 2010 for developers on Windows 7:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee554869(office.14).aspx

The Public Beta of SharePoint 2010 will be available in November 2009.

Write up on the Sneak Peek

pandrew — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:36:00 GMT

Craig Roth wrote a review of the Sneak Peek videos here:

http://knowledgeforward.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/a-first-look-at-sharepoint-2010/

SharePoint 2010 Sneak Peek

pandrew — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:34:00 GMT

Today we introduced a sneak peek of SharePoint 2010. We’re only announcing a few of the many new features right now, but there’s some exciting stuff in the list today to talk about.

We’re showing off six key new features for developers in SharePoint 2010.

1) Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint tools

2) Language Integrated Query to SharePoint

3) Developer Dashboard

4) Business Connectivity Services

5) Client Object Model

6) Silverlight Web Part

There are screenshots, video and descriptions of each feature. We also have important tips for getting ready for SharePoint 2010.

There’s not only developer content, but also an Overview Sneak Peek and an IT Professional Sneak Peek.

Check out all the details on the SharePoint 2010 web site here or take a direct link to the professional developers page here.

Automated Builds with VSeWSS 1.3

pandrew — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:42:00 GMT

I just came across this blog post from John W Powell detailing his experience creating automated builds with VSeWSS 1.3.

New Web Development Tutorial with VSeWSS 1.3

pandrew — Sat, 30 May 2009 07:05:00 GMT

Just came across this tutorial for doing web page development and deploying them using VSeWSS 1.3

http://geeksconnected.com/jamil/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=19

OFC204 - Sample Code and Demos I showed at TechEd Last Week

pandrew — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:17:00 GMT

At my TechEd talk last week I showed Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint 1.3 and I demo'd creating a simple web part that shows data from a SharePoint list in a grid. I also showed command line builds which is one of the features we added in VSeWSS 1.3 and I showed the SPDisposeCheck tool.

For the demos I used the WSS Developer VPC which is available here. I uninstalled the VSeWSS 1.2 that comes on that image and installed the VSeWSS 1.3 from here. I also installed SPDisposeCheck from here.

So that's my machine image to which I also created a sample Employees list and a Projects list in the default SharePoint site. Here's the code that I used in the first demo. Pretty simple stuff.

namespace WebPart1

{

[Guid("64a11214-36e3-4b1a-b8a7-fbb0ca9370c6")]

public class WebPart1 : System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart

{

public WebPart1()

{

}

protected override void CreateChildControls()

{

SPGridView customerGridView = new SPGridView();

SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;

SPList list = web.Lists["Employees"];

SPQuery query = new SPQuery(list.DefaultView);

query.Query = "<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='JobTitle' /><Value Type='Text'>SDE</Value></Eq></Where>";

SPListItemCollection items = list.GetItems(query);

AutoAddColumns(customerGridView, list);

customerGridView.DataSource = items.GetDataTable();

customerGridView.DataBind();

Controls.Add(customerGridView);

base.CreateChildControls();

}

private void AutoAddColumns(SPGridView gridView, SPList list)

{

gridView.AutoGenerateColumns = false;

foreach (string fieldname in list.DefaultView.ViewFields)

{

SPField field = list.Fields.GetFieldByInternalName(fieldname);

BoundField column = new BoundField();

column.DataField = field.StaticName;

column.HeaderText = field.Title;

gridView.Columns.Add(column);

}

TechEd in Los Angeles Next Week

pandrew — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:21:00 GMT

I'm presenting at TechEd in Los Angeles next week. If you're at the event I hope you'll come to my talk. It is "OFC204 Easy SharePoint Development with VSeWSS 1.3".

The talk is suitable for developers who currently don't work on SharePoint. I will demo the coding of building a simple SharePoint web parts that accesses SharePoint data lists. I will also talk about the types of applications people build on SharePoint, how you can integrate SharePoint development with application lifecycle management tools and about the first SharePoint development best practices you need to know and tools to help you with them.

Find my talk here: http://www.msteched.com/sessionlist/default.aspx

Or find it here: Mon 5/11 | 2:45 PM-4:00 PM | Room 153

Windows 7 RC Installed

pandrew — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:43:00 GMT

I updated my primary machine to Windows 7 RC yesterday. One thing I had to search for and update was Messenger settings so it would minimize to the tool tray instead of the task bar. Here's the tip.

Kirk Evans Presents Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint

pandrew — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:03:05 GMT

Kirk Evans has started recording a series of screen casts for Channel 9 on SharePoint Development. They are great for getting started with the tools and the development environment.

Kirk’s first screencast shows building a simple web part with the Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint (VSeWSS).

Kirk’s second screencast shows building a low level feature with VSeWSS. Cool how he fixes a bug in his code during the screencast.

For More Information:

VSeWSS v1.3 March 2008 CTP

Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint (VSeWSS) 1.3 addresses all common SharePoint Developer requests

pandrew — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:30:00 GMT

We have worked hard to listen and respond to the feedback from SharePoint Developers on VSeWSS. After VSeWSS 1.2 released in July 2008 we went out and talked to lots of SharePoint Developers about what they liked and didn't like about developing with VSeWSS. All of the new features in VSeWSS 1.3 are as a result of customer feedback, and there are lots of them. We just finished the VSeWSS 1.3 March 2009 CTP which released a couple of days ago. Read about the new features in the release notes and if there's anything we missed, please tell us.

If you want to see how easy it is to get going with SharePoint Development using VSeWSS, check out Kirk Evans short screecast showing building a Web Part, packaging and deploying it and some of the new features that make workarounds a thing of the past.

If you want to learn SharePoint Development using VSeWSS, check out the hands on labs and training videos at MSSharePointDeveloper.com.

Also released today is a set of 10 new theme projects for VSeWSS. These are individual Visual Studio 2008 projects which when deployed to SharePoint offer fresh new designed themes you can use in your projects.

VSeWSS will continue to be the recommended Microsoft tool for SharePoint Development until Visual Studio 2010 is released including a brand new set of SharePoint Tools. If you are a SharePoint Developer then your feedback about VSeWSS is important to us. You can give feedback on the tool at our Connect site here, or if you want to have a discussion about VSeWSS we recommend the MSDN SharePoint Development forum here. You can also give feedback as a comment on my blog and I will try to reply to anything posted here.

The Release To Web (RTW) of VSeWSS 1.3 is expected in July 2009 and we are not planning any further CTP releases.

If you want even more info about VSeWSS you can learn SharePoint Developer Best Practices direct from Microsoft Patterns and Practices published November 2008 here.

Easy Installation of Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint (VSeWSS) 1.3

pandrew — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:45:00 GMT

The new version of the Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint 1.3 include some changes to support install on x64 OS. Specifically it creates a WCF web service that is required to run in x64 and communication with x64 SharePoint. The x86 Visual Studio 2008 makes calls to this web service to do certain SharePoint operations.

The web service is secured so it can only be called by Visual Studio 2008 running on the same machine. We also do not automatically give the web service the required permissions to make calls into SharePoint. The installer notes this, but it's easy to overlook, that you have to add these permissions.

Steve Fox just wrote up a great screen shotted guide for how to do this for Windows Server 2008 here.

MyRampUp.com has new SharePoint Developer Training and Benefits

pandrew — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:34:00 GMT

Ramp Up (www.MyRampUp.com) is a free online learning program for developers. We’ve just launched a new track: SharePoint for Developers, Part 2. This track, along with the other currently offered ones (eg, Visual Studio 2008), teaches the important skills in a guided path, making the learning process easier and more efficient. The easy-to-access video, written and hands-on content (provided by subject-matter gurus) is specifically tailored for the Ramp Up program, and offered in a variety of forms (article, v-lab, codecast and slidecast). Check it out now at www.MyRampUp.com, and see how Ramp Up can help you become more employable by learning important and marketable skills.

Graduation benefits include discounts from Microsoft Learning.

Microsoft SharePoint Developer Forum Challenge - March, April and May 2009

pandrew — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:05:00 GMT

We want you to answer other peoples questions in the MSDN SharePoint Developer Forum. For the months of March, April and May during 2009 we are running a little challenge for people answering questions on the MSDN SharePoint Developer Forum. For each...(read more)