SharePoint Content and Resources : VS.NET

Tons of New SharePoint Content Now Live on MSDN - July 12, 2007

randalli — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:36:00 GMT

Hello folks.

It has been several weeks since I posted an update on new MSDN content. We have been extremely busy publishing content, and here is the list of content published in the month of June and the first week of July:

Visual How-to Screencasts

· Creating Search Queries Programmatically by using the Search Web Service in SharePoint Server 2007
By Patrick Tisseghem

· Creating Search Queries Programmatically by using the Search Object Model in SharePoint Server 2007
By Patrick Tisseghem

· Exposing Enterprise Search in SharePoint Server 2007 by using Internet Explorer 7 and the Office Research Pane
By Patrick Tisseghem

Technical Articles

· Development Tools and Techniques for Working with Code in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
By Patrick Tisseghem

o Part 1: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530302.aspx

o Part 2: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530301.aspx

· Using the Business Data Catalog and Smart Tags with the 2007 Office System
by Scot Hilier and Bhushan Nene (Microsoft Corp.)

o Accompanying Download for the Business Data Catalog and Smart Tags article

· Evaluating and Customizing Search Relevance in SharePoint Server 2007
by Dmitriy Meyerzon, Avi Schmueli, and Jo-Anne West (Microsoft Corp.)

· Using Forms Solutions in Groove 2007
by Josh Mahoney

· Upgrading an MCMS 2002 Application to SharePoint Server 2007
by Microsoft Corp.

o Part 1: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb466172.aspx

o Part 2: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb466171.aspx

Developer Guides

· Excel Services and Excel 2007 Windows Compute Cluster Server Job Submission Sample Developer Guide

· Excel Services and Excel 2007 Windows Compute Cluster Server Job Submission Sample (Download)

Book Excerpts

o Chapter 3: Customizing and Extending the Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 Search (Part 1 of 2)
By Patrick Tisseghem

o Chapter 3: Customizing and Extending the Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 Search (Part 2 of 2)
By Patrick Tisseghem

o Chapter 6: Integrating Spreadsheets into the Enterprise

Downloadable White Papers

· Windows white paper: Software Update for Web Folders (Download)

Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map

Check this out if you haven’t already seen it! It’s a Windows Presentation Foundation-based, interactive developer map like the ones we have available for download. It also has dynamic content via RSS feeds, so you can always get the most up-to-date information. So cool!

· http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb497969.aspx

Keep the feedback coming! We want to hear from you.

Just Published on MSDN (5/17/2007)

randalli — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:57:00 GMT

Here is the rundown of Technical Articles, Visual How-to Screencasts, and their accompanying downloads published over the last couple of weeks on MSDN.

Technical Articles

Team-Based Development in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Learn to properly conduct team-environment development of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 sites and assemblies (Web Parts, site templates, custom list templates), as well as develop Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer artifacts (master pages, workflows, CSS sheets). (13 printed pages)
Upgrading an MCMS 2002 Application to SharePoint Server 2007 (Part 1 of 2)
Learn how to upgrade a Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) 2002 application to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 by using this step-by-step guide and the WoodGroveNet MCMS 2002 sample application. This article is part 1 of 2. (25 printed pages)
Upgrading an MCMS 2002 Application to SharePoint Server 2007 (Part 2 of 2)
Learn how to upgrade a Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) 2002 application to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 by using this step-by-step guide and the WoodGroveNet MCMS 2002 sample application. This article is part 2 of 2. (35 printed pages)

Visual How-to Screencasts

Enabling Users to Act on LOB Data with Business Data Catalog Actions
Learn how to enable your users to act on line-of-business data by using Business Data Catalog Actions.
Activating Auditing Programmatically for a Single Document Library in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes a powerful new infrastructure for auditing user access to pages, and document and list items. You can enable auditing for an entire site collection, but it can be more efficient to enable auditing with more granularity. For example, you might want to enable auditing for one specific list or document library. You can go even further and just enable auditing for one specific list item or one specific document.
Activating Auditing Programmatically for a Site Collection in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes a powerful new infrastructure for auditing user access to list items, and documents and pages. In Windows SharePoint Services, auditing is configured on a site collection-by-site collection basis. It just takes a few lines of code to fully enable the auditing for an entire site collection. When you do this, Windows SharePoint Services writes an audit entry to its audit log each time a user views or modifies a list item, document, or site page.
Configuring IntelliSense with CAML files when developing for SharePoint 2007
When developing for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS), you are often required to create and modify XML files that contain Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML). It is recommended that you configure Visual Studio on your development workstation to reference a XML schema file named WSS.XSD so that IntelliSense works properly when working with CAML-based files.
Create a Custom HttpHandler in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
ASP.NET programming supports the creation of custom HttpHandler components, which provide a flexible and efficient way to process requests that don't return standard HTML-based pages. For example, HttpHandler components are great for situations in which you want to return simple text, XML, or binary data to the user.
Although development techniques involving HttpHandler components are useful when creating standard ASP.NET applications, you should also see them as a valuable building block for building business solutions for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Creating a Feature for an Entry Control Block Item in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
You can add a custom menu item for an entry control block to a list item or a document in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by creating a Feature with a CustomAction element. In this way, you can add custom commands to the default SharePoint user interface. These menu commands allow users to perform custom operations on items and documents. For example, you can create a custom menu item for an entry control block for a list item or document that redirects the user to a custom application page. Use this as a starting point to create business solutions that provide an intuitive user interface to automate domain-specific tasks on list items and documents.
Creating a Feature for the Site Actions Menu in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
You can add a custom menu item to the default Site Actions menu in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services by creating a Feature with a CustomAction element. In this way, you can add custom commands to the default SharePoint user interface. These commands are available to users as they move between pages on a SharePoint site. When you create a Site Actions menu item, you can configure it to redirect the user to any URL. For example, you can redirect the user to another Web site. You can also redirect users to a custom application page that allows them either to see a custom display of data, or to perform custom operations on the content within the current site.
Creating a Solution Package in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 introduces a deployment mechanism named "solution packages." A solution package is a CAB file with a .wsp file-name extension that contains all the files that must be deployed on the front-end Web server and a set of XML-based installation instructions. Windows SharePoint Services provides a rich infrastructure that simplifies deployment of solution packages in a Web farm environment.
Creating a Visual Studio Project for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Development for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 often involves deploying custom source files into the WSS \TEMPLATE directory. It is helpful to create a Microsoft Visual Studio project with a directory structure that parallels the \TEMPLATE directory so you can automate copying your source files into the location required for deployment and testing.
Creating an Application Page in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
You can create custom application pages to add user interface components to a custom solution based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Unlike site pages (for example, default.aspx), a custom application page is deployed once per Web server and cannot be customized on a site-by-site basis. Application pages are based in the virtual _layouts directory. In addition, they are compiled into a single assembly DLL. They are also used across all sites within a server farm. For these reasons, they perform better than site pages. With application pages, you can also add inline code. With site pages, you cannot add inline code.
Displaying Data by Using the SPGridView Control in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
When you create ASP.NET applications, you often need to display data in the format of rows and columns. Although you could create an HTML table by using code, you become much more productive by using server-side controls such as the GridView control introduced with Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0. The Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services platform provides a grid control named SPGridView that inherits from the ASP.NET GridView control. The SPGridView control provides a great alternative for displaying tabular data in SharePoint-based solutions.
Reading Entries from the Audit Log in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 introduces a powerful new infrastructure for auditing user access to list items, documents, and pages. However, you must write custom code to take advantage of this auditing infrastructure because no default features utilize it. Some of the other Visual How-To topics show you how to enable auditing. Here you can learn how to retrieve information from the audit log so that you can display and report on user activity within a custom solution based on Windows SharePoint Services.
Reading ListId and ItemId from an Application Page in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
In Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, you can create a menu item for an entry control block that redirects users to a custom application page. For example, the MSDN article Item-Level Auditing with SharePoint Server 2007 demonstrates how to provide each document within a document library with its own menu item in the entry control block. This menu item redirects the user to a custom application page that displays the audit history for that particular document.
When a user clicks a menu item in the entry control block, it runs an application page. The code behind the application page typically must program against the list item or document that supplied the menu item. To do this, the application page must be able to identify the list item or document. Windows SharePoint Services does this by passing the information that identifies the list item or document to the application page in a query string. The page uses this information within the page-initialization code to create an SPListItem object and its containing SPList object.
Running Commands with Elevated Privileges in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services uses impersonation so that code running within a Web Part or behind a custom application page executes with the identity and permissions of the current user. In the vast majority of cases, this behavior is exactly what you want because it prevents standard users from being able to execute commands or see information that is intended only for privileged users such as a site administrator. However, occasionally your code must call restricted methods within the Windows SharePoint Services object model even though the request is initiated by a nonprivileged user. In such cases you must be able to elevate the privilege of your code as it executes on the Web server.
Writing Custom Entries to the Audit Log in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services provides an auditing facility that allows you to see the actions users take within the context of a site collection. Examples of user actions that you can audit automatically include viewing, updating, and deleting list items and documents, as well as viewing site pages. One important limitation of the built-in auditing facility is that it cannot audit access to application pages that are deployed within the \LAYOUTS directory.
If you want to audit the actions of users as they view your custom application pages, you must add code that writes custom audit entries into the Windows SharePoint Services audit log. You can write custom audit entries within the context of any auditable object, such as those of type SPSite, SPWeb, SPList, and SPListItem.

Downloads

Visual Studio Extensions for SharePoint Services 1.0 has been released! Download it today to get started building SharePoint solutions with Visual Studio: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=19f21e5e-b715-4f0c-b959-8c6dcbdc1057&displaylang=en

MSDN Information Centers

We have three new Information Centers on the MSDN SharePoint portal. An Information Center is a starting page for learning about a particular feature or task, with links to SDK content, articles, blog postings, downloads, and more. From the links on these pages, you can dive deep into any subject in the SDK in the MSDN Library, or you can find great resources that help you learn or troubleshoot a task or an issue.

SharePoint Server 2007 Information Center

We added seven new headlines and six new downloads to this "Getting Started" page; check it out! http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905504.aspx

Enterprise Search Information Center

Check out the Enterprise Search Deep Dives. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb335345.aspx

Videos and Webcasts

There are more videos, webcasts, and Office Visual How To articles and videos coming next month. Check this page for what is available now: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa940989.aspx

If you haven't seen them already, be sure to check out the Business Data Catalog, Migration and Upgrade Information, Excel Services, and Web Content Management Information Centers as well. We are constantly updating the portal to ensure you have the latest information about SharePoint development.

Coming Soon

April is going to be a huge month for us, so keep your bookmarks updated at http://msdn.microsoft.com/moss! On its way next month we plan to have:

MSDN Library SDK refresh
Office Visual How To articles and Screencasts
New Articles and White Papers
Book Excerpts
Workflow and ECM Information Centers
And more!

10 Essential Resources for SharePoint Developers

randalli — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:04:00 GMT

10 Essential Resources for SharePoint Developers

Last month we took an inventory of all the things Microsoft has been producing for SharePoint developers, and we thought it was a great list to share broadly. Even though I wanted this to be a “Top 10” list, I ended up with 14 items!

1. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) SDK and ECM Starter Kit
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6D94E307-67D9-41AC-B2D6-0074D6286FA9&displaylang=en

2. Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) SDK and Workflow Starter Kit http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=05e0dd12-8394-402b-8936-a07fe8afaffd&DisplayLang=en
Note The MOSS SDK includes the WSS SDK documentation and a more robust starter kit

3. Visual Studio Extensions for SharePoint Services (November CTP)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=19F21E5E-B715-4F0C-B959-8C6DCBDC1057&displaylang=en

4. Customizing and Branding Web Content Management-Enabled SharePoint Sites

· Customizing and Branding Web Content Management-Enabled SharePoint Sites
(Part 1 of 3): Understanding Web Content Management and the Default Features

· Customizing and Branding Web Content Management-Enabled SharePoint Sites
(Part 2 of 3): Extending WCM

· Customizing and Branding Web Content Management-Enabled SharePoint Sites
(Part 3 of 3): Creating and Configuring WCM-Enabled Sites

5. MOSS for Content Management Server Developers (Beta)
Three papers + an analysis tool:

· SharePoint Server 2007 for MCMS 2002 Developers
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406043.aspx

· Assessing and Analyzing Your MCMS 2002 Application for Migration http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnmscms02/html/CMSAssessAnalyzing2002Application.asp

· Mapping MCMS 2002 APIs to SharePoint Server 2007
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/server/moss/2007/migration/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnmscms02/html/CMSVersionAPIDiffs.asp

· CMS Assessment Tool
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=360D0E83-FA70-4C24-BCD6-426CAFBCC627&displaylang=en

· Planning MCMS 2002 Application Migration to SharePoint Server 2007
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/server/moss/2007/migration/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnmscms02/html/CMS2002PlanningForMigration.asp

6. Office Developer Screencasts (applies to all of Office)
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/aa905382.aspx

7. SharePoint Developer Map (also includes InfoPath and 2007 Office System posters)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=771aeb45-9d27-4d1f-acd1-9b950637d64e&displaylang=en

8. MOSS and WSS Online Clinics
Online clinics covering SharePoint technology are free for a limited time!!! Check 'em out:

· WSS Development: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/5045.asp

· WSS Infrastructure: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/3369.asp

· MOSS Development: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/5046.asp

· MOSS Infrastructure: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/3370.asp

9. MOSS portal on the Office Developer Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/moss

· Includes the Upgrade and Migration Center for SharePoint Developers
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905505.aspx

10. SharePoint Developer Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/sharepoint

11. 7 Development Projects for SharePoint – online book
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/f/02f0f661-88e1-43c2-b523-88d2e9e6802f/7%20development%20projects%20with%20the%202007%20microsoft%20office%20system%20and%20windows%20sharepoint%20services%202007.pdf

12. MSDN Community Content
MSDN Community Content is a way of providing Wiki-style annotations to core Microsoft documentation. For example, you can add code samples, remarks or “gotchas,” translations, or other comments that enhance or supplement the core MSDN documentation.

· WSS – http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms441339.aspx

· MOSS – http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms550992.aspx

13. F1 Help from Visual Studio Document Explorer
Follow the steps in this blog post to receive F1 Help directly from your code in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
http://blogs.msdn.com/randalli/archive/2006/07/28/sharepoint-development-tip-getting-context-sensitive-f1-help-directly-from-the-msdn-library.aspx

14. Project SDK Download
I see a lot of questions about SharePoint integration with Project Server, and the Project SDK is also produced by my team.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2672f6f9-7028-4b30-99a2-18cb1eed1abe&DisplayLang=en

We’re Not Done Yet

We are by no means finished producing content for the 2007 Office System and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. We are already in the throes of updating the SDKs for a post-RTM release—in addition to writing articles, tools, and other rich media that will be released in the calendar year of 2007.

If you haven’t already seen Erika Ehrli’s blog post about the 2007 Office System Developer resources, check that out, too: http://blogs.msdn.com/erikaehrli/archive/2006/12/01/TopTenOfficeDeveloperResources.aspx

More from our SharePoint MVPs and Partners

Our SharePoint MVPs are also producing great lists of resources for SharePoint; here are two examples if you haven’t already seen them.

· Andrew Connell – http://andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/MossWcmResources.aspx

· Mark Kruger – http://www.sharepointblogs.com/mkruger/archive/2006/05/25/7570.aspx

And finally, Todd Bleeker’s book, Developer's Guide to the Windows SharePoint Services v3 Platform, is now available for purchase. The ISBN numbers are ISBN-10: 1584505001 and ISBN-13: 978-1584505006; the book is published through Charles River Media and is available from online book retailers. Check out Patrick Tisseghem’s blog for more information about this and more upcoming books for SharePoint.

SharePoint Development Tip: Getting Context-sensitive F1 Help Directly from the MSDN Library

randalli — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 22:53:00 GMT

If you're a developer working in Visual Studio 2005, you can use F1 context-sensitive Help to jump directly to an SDK topic when you highlight a Method, Class, or Property in the code window.

Now that our SharePoint SDKs are live on MSDN, F1 Help functionality works with the Help viewer in Visual Studio 2005 without installing the entire SDK. This is great for a situation where you have Internet access but you don't have the SDK installed on your development machine.

Here's how:

In Visual Studio, press F1.
In Microsoft Document Explorer (Visual Studio’s Help viewer), on the Tools menu, click Options.
Click Online.
Select Try online first, then local.
Click OK.

Now when you type code and press F1 on selected members, you get results directly from MSDN (even if you haven’t installed the SDK).

If you don’t get the right context-sensitive results on the first try, use the F1 Options drop-down at the top of the window to select the correct member:

When no exact match is found, Document Explorer opens the Index tab and navigates to the place in the index where the closest match exists. Click the member for which you want to display Help to open the Help topic.

For More Information

Browse the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) (Beta) SDK online on MSDN
Browse the latest version of the Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) (Beta) SDK online on MSDN
WSS Developer Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/sharepoint
MOSS Developer Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/moss

SharePoint Content and Resources : VS.NET

Tons of New SharePoint Content Now Live on MSDN - July 12, 2007

Visual How-to Screencasts

Technical Articles

Developer Guides

Book Excerpts

Downloadable White Papers

Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map

Just Published on MSDN (5/17/2007)

More New MOSS and WSS Content on MSDN! (March 19, 2007)

Downloads

MSDN Information Centers

SharePoint Server 2007 Information Center

Enterprise Search Information Center

Videos and Webcasts

Coming Soon

10 Essential Resources for SharePoint Developers

10 Essential Resources for SharePoint Developers

We’re Not Done Yet

More from our SharePoint MVPs and Partners

SharePoint Development Tip: Getting Context-sensitive F1 Help Directly from the MSDN Library