SharePoint Content and Resources : WCM

@sharepointdev: My First Week on Twitter

randalli — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:29:00 GMT

I signed up for a twitter account last week under the alias @sharepointdev: http://twitter.com/sharepointdev.

The inspiration came from an NPR segment about companies using twitter to monitor tweets about their products or brands (e.g., Comcast). I thought about it a while and I came to the conclusion that this was an ideal way for me to monitor forum activity because I often don't have time to read and respond to MSDN Forum postings because of my busy schedule. But with only 140 characters, I can usually point people in the right direction and get them unstuck when they choose to write a post related to "SharePoint" or other keywords I search for and monitor. Having worked with the SharePoint product team for over 5 years, I am also in a unique position where I sometimes know just enough information about a wide variety of issues.

The Verdict
I was really happy with my first week on twitter and what I learned or helped people with. I picked up over 30 followers, and I even got looped into some conversations back and forth related to something that might have otherwise been a source of frustration (e.g., updates and patches) for some of the folks out there looking for help. I am thinking of twitter as an open forum where I can take the pulse of where SharePoint users are asking for guidance.

Here is an overview of where I pointed people over the course of the last week. I saw one issue come up twice (Excel Services), and overall I was able to answer several questions using existing resources on MSDN and TechNet:

@niphal: Here is an Office Online page with an introduction to SharePoint Designer and its features/capabilities: http://tinyurl.com/5k7qe5 about 17 hours ago from web in reply to niphal
@jmMcL: Have you tried creating a new view (do you have permissions to)? What are the current settings of your list? about 22 hours ago from web in reply to jmMcL
@top_book: You can also preview chapters 2 and 3 [of Inside Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by Ted Pattison] online on MSDN: http://tinyurl.com/5ml9nt 12:50 PM yesterday from web in reply to top_book
@JDWade: We appreciate the feedback and the suggestions; I passed these along to the TechNet site manager and will follow you from now on! 12:36 PM Oct 21st from web in reply to JDWade
@travelingdarren: SharePoint Performance and Capacity Planning Resource Center on TechNet: http://tinyurl.com/5zqc4t 12:10 PM Oct 21st from web in reply to travelingdarren
@JDWade: The Updates Resource Center on TechNet is intended to guide SharePoint IT Pros through updates: http://tinyurl.com/36hlpf 11:56 AM Oct 21st from web in reply to JDWade
@bfgreen: The Excel Services Resource Center on MSDN could give you a starting point: http://tinyurl.com/52mo6a 8:14 AM Oct 21st from web in reply to bfgreen
@pseale: Check out our MSDN article about Creating a Custom Timer Job in SharePoint (written by AC): http://tinyurl.com/3vbe2o 1:35 PM Oct 15th from web in reply to pseale
@TheRecruiterGuy: Here is a showcase of some of the best-implemented WCM sites for SharePoint out there right now: http://tinyurl.com/4dllwq 7:19 AM Oct 15th from web in reply to TheRecruiterGuy
@spleendini: Check out How To Create a Minimal Master Page in SharePoint + the Wiki comments on MSDN: http://tinyurl.com/5kzrou 7:16 AM Oct 15th from web in reply to spleenboy
just published on MSDN: Performing Incremental Crawling with the BDC in MOSS 2007: http://tinyurl.com/3u7em9 2:40 PM Oct 14th from web
@UMLGuy: Here is the 7 Dev projects PDF: http://tinyurl.com/ytvres. And here is a free MOSS VHD you can download: http://tinyurl.com/366tzc. 10:54 AM Oct 13th from web in reply to UMLGuy
@pseale: Here's a great article for working with large lists in SharePoint: http://tinyurl.com/yrv6xd 10:12 AM Oct 13th from web in reply to pseale
@UMLGuy: A good place to start is with the SharePoint Administrator's Companion from MS Press and Bill English: http://tinyurl.com/3luxrk 9:09 AM Oct 13th from web in reply to UMLGuy

All in all, I'm going to continue to monitor any tweets I come across that mention "sharepoint" or other keywords and tags (such as "bdc" or "authentication" or "web parts"), as well as the people I'm following. If you're a SharePoint developer, IT Pro, consultant, or solution provider, feel free to follow me and I'll do the same to keep tabs on what's going on out in the community. We've often got an answer or at least a direction we can point you toward. Also, check out my feed for what's recently been published! http://twitter.com/sharepointdev.

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 RELEASED: Post-RTM Update to MOSS and WSS SDK Documentation is Now Live on MSDN!

randalli — Wed, 02 May 2007 02:54:00 GMT

We have been working non-stop since RTM to update major sections of the MOSS and WSS SDK documentation on MSDN. You can browse the SDKs online here:

If you're working with Visual Studio a lot, you can follow the simple instructions in this blog post to get Help directly from MSDN in Visual Studio's Help viewer; it also works for F1 Help within your code. Browsing the online version of the SDKs also lets you see the MSDN Community Content that appears in Wiki-style content blocks at the end of each SDK topic.

Here is the fine print for those of you who wish to know what has been updated and added:

What's New in the Windows SharePoint Services SDK

New conceptual sections:

Content Migration
Change Log and Synchronizing Applications
Creating Declarative, No-Code Workflow Editors

Procedural topics:

How to: Create a Custom Field Type and Field Control
How To: Extend the STSADM Utility

Schema reference topics for the following schemas:

Content Migration XML Schema Reference: Contains over 180 element topics that detail the eight migration schemas
Workflow Configuration Schema

Greatly expanded Class Library Reference material for over 300 types in the following namespaces:

· Microsoft.SharePoint

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment

· Microsoft.SharePoint.EmailIntegration

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Navigation

· Microsoft.SharePoint.MobileControls

· Microsoft.SharePoint.StsAdmin

· Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages

· Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow

As well as expanded reference material for the following Web Services:

· Authentication Web Service

· Copy Web Service

This update also includes numerous updates and revisions to existing SDK content.

What's New in the Office SharePoint Server SDK

Class Library and Web Service Reference

Microsoft.Office.Workflow

· Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Utility.Contact

· Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Utility.Form

· Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Workflow

Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement

· Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.PolicyFeatures.Barcode

· Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.PolicyFeatures.BarcodeGenerator

· Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.PolicyFeatures.IBarcodeGenerator

· Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.InformationPolicy.IPolicyFeature

Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.ExchangeServiceBinding

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.OWACalendarPart

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.OWAInboxPart

New and updated content in over 40 classes in the Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles namespace

New and updated content for UserProfileService and Workflow Web services

Updates to numerous Search Web Part classes

New content and updates in nearly 60 types in Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.* namespaces:

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Administration

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls.EditingMenuActions

· Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebServices

General Reference

· Enterprise Search Protocol Handlers (multiple topics, new)

· How to: Customize XSL for the Content Query Web Part (new)

· Updates to 4 more Web Content Management topics

And much more!

"Continuous Publishing" and the SharePoint SDKs

We are continually updating the SDKs with more information as it becomes available and as we receive customer feedback with new content requests; we call this "continuous publishing" at Microsoft.

The downloadable SDK will be updated in the next few months, which will be a coordinated release in both U.S. English and Japanese.

MOSS Developer Portal on MSDN Updated

randalli — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:20:00 GMT

Hello folks.

We just published a major update to the MOSS Developer portal on MSDN, which you can access easily by typing msdn.microsoft.com/moss.

In addition to putting some useful links on the home page to highlight recently published or "Top" articles, we extended the scope of what we call Information Centers. Information Centers are pages full of resources and "Getting Started" information for folks who want to dig deeper into MOSS. Our goal is to create the most useful and reliable lists of resources for developers that can be referenced repeatedly and bookmarked for use in the future. Our current pages include:

We also updated the following pages to reflect newly published content:

We intend to add more Information Centers in the coming months; please let us know if you have any suggestions. The next two pages on our list of priorities are Enterprise Search and Workflow.

Let us know how we're doing, and keep checking back each month for updates to the MOSS Developer Portal.

Branding SharePoint Sites - MSDN Articles Published!

randalli — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 05:48:00 GMT

I'm pleased to announce that we have published all 3 parts of the following MSDN Technical Article series:

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

These articles were written by Patrick Tisseghem, an MVP and trainer at U2U in Belgium. He's also got a terrific blog here: http://blog.u2u.info/DottextWeb/patrick/.

Please post a comment about the papers if you have any feedback.

[Updated on 11/9 - we published Part 3 on MSDN this afternoon]

Web Content Management (WCM) New and Updated Content in the SharePoint SDK for Beta 2TR

randalli — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 03:44:00 GMT

Here are the Web Content Management (WCM) details, including the classes by namespace that we prioritized and documented in this SDK update, along with other new/updated details that I didn’t include in my original post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/randalli/archive/2006/09/15/756779.aspx.

What’s New

· Custom Caching Overview: 4 new topics dedicated to caching in MOSS. The “How to: Extend Caching by Using the VaryByCustom Event Handler” topic has also been revised and expanded.

· How to: Create a Minimal Master Page

· ~370 member topics in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.* namespaces. Here’s the breakdown:

Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing

· CbqQueryCache

· CrossListQueryCache

· IDocumentConverterControl

· IWebPartVariationUpdate

· PageLayout

· PublishingCachablePage

· PublishingPage

· PublishingPageCollection

· PublishingWeb

· PublishingWebCollection

· ScheduledItem

· SummaryLink

Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Administration

· ContentDeploymentJob

· ContentDeploymentPath

· ContentMigration

· MigrationProfile

Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Fields

· HtmlValidationContext

· ImageFieldValue

· LinkFieldValue

· SummaryLinkFieldValue

Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation

· PortalListItemSiteMapNode

· PortalListSiteMapNode

Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls

· ConsoleNode

· SPUrlExpressionBuilder

What’s Updated

· Field Controls and Control Templates

· How to: Customize Page Editing Toolbar Components—(almost a new topic, really)

· How to: Customize the HTML Editor Field Control

· How to: Customize the Asset Picker

· How to: Customize Styles

· How to: Display Custom Fields in a Content Query Web Part

· Page Publishing Using Document Converters (all topics in this node thoroughly edited)

· How to: Customize the Variation Root Landing Logic

· How to: Customize the Variations Label Control Logic

· Almost all other topics were edited and edits were incorporated. Let me know if you’d like the full list.

If you need additional information on the SDK update for Beta 2TR, please see my related post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/randalli/archive/2006/09/15/756779.aspx.

And don't forget the Upgrade and Migration Center for MOSS 2007, which is in the MOSS portal of the Office Developer Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/server/moss/2007/migration/.