SharePoint 2010 training material for developers

If you are a SharePoint developer and you are planning to start with SharePoint 2010 – definitely take a look at these links:

• Download the SharePoint 2010 SDK
• Sharepoint 2010 Developer Training Kit
• SharePoint Server 2010: Advanced Developer Training Presentations
• Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 (32-bit) – yes, even you as a developer should definitely take a look at SharePoint Designer. This a must have tool in your development toolkit.
• SharePoint 2010: Getting Started with Development on SharePoint 2010 Hands-on Labs in C# and Visual Basic
• SharePoint 2010: Professional Developer Evaluation Guide and Walkthroughs 
• Certification exams (availability 9/2010):
  • Exam 70-668 Pro:Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Administrator
  • Exam 70-667 TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring
  • Exam 70-576 Pro: Designing and developing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 applications
  • Exam 70-573 TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development

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Access Services in SharePoint Server 2010

In Access 2007 you were able to publish data to SharePoint 2007, Access 2010 – in combination with SharePoint Server 2010 extends this functionality by allowing you to publish full Access applications to SharePoint including forms, reports, queries, etc … This can be done without involvement of developers or server administrators. Once published, your Access application can be worked with from within the SharePoint native web interface.

• The Access Show – Publish a Access 2007 database to SharePoint with Access 2010 and the related article – Build an Access database to share on the Web
• The Microsoft Access Team Blog
• The Access Show (video channel on Channel 9)
• Utter Access (Access Discussion Forums)
• Access 2010 – Performance improvements against SharePoint lists
• Access 2010 on Channel 9  - Building solutions with Access 2010 lab
• Tips to migrate legacy databases to SharePoint and the web
• Develop advanced Access 2010 web databases and publish to SharePoint 2010 
• The Access show – How the Microsoft Legal Department uses Access 2010 web databases

PS Access Services is part of SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise edition – check out SharePoint 2010 edition comparison for more details

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,access+services,sharepoint+2010,sps2010,microsoft

Access Services: solving this report failed to load because session state is not turned on.

I noticed the following error recently in one of the Access web databases driven by Access Services in SharePoint Server 2010.

“This report failed to load because session state is not turned on. Contact your SharePoint farm administrator. Troubleshoot issues with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation. Correlation ID: 6968e6db-d139-4b88-bf5a-7c39c2e4a6be  Date and Time: 6/16/2010 7:37:01 AM”

The strange thing was that the State Service was in running state (within SharePoint Central Admin > Manage Service Applications). Underlying Access Services seems to use a ReportViewer Control so this article – Using Access Services with SQL Reporting Services provided the solution:

Enable the Session State for the farm by opening the SharePoint Management Shell. Enter the command [Enable-SPSessionStateService –DatabaseName “foobar”] — The DatabaseName value is the database that will be created on the computer that is running SQL Server. Perform an IIS reset.

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,access+services,sharepoint+2010,sharepoint+server+2010,microsoft

Selling ECM,WCMS, BPM ….

Funny video  -  a fictional discussion between a business software salesperson and an IT Manager. …

Technorati Tags: fun,ECM,BPM,Acronyms

Dear CEO , why you should really consider moving to Windows 7 from Windows XP

Dear CEO, yes it is time to move away from Windows XP – here are some reasons why:

• Mainstream support for Windows XP has already ended last year and extended support is available until 2014 – so you probably won’t be able to wait until Windows 8. You can only hold off for so long …
• You might want to take a look at Windows 7 Business Value Analysis – depending on the type of organization you will have a different ROI and cost structure. “I haven’t heard about possible advantages” seems like a lame excuse for just sticking with what you know.
• There are some great improvements – maybe you will not notice a lot of difference but believe me – when your workforce will adopt it Windows 7 in their home environment – they will notice these differences and might be disappointed for the lack of these features in their work environment. Yuo can even guide them using the new Enterprise Learning Framework My favorite improvements:
• Performance improvements – yes even with older hardware I see that it just boots faster and that the settings screens load faster as well.
• Support for 64 bit – I’m a SharePoint dev so …
• Search desktop and programs (my personal favorite)
• Better wireless support – I haven’t had any issues since I moved to Windows 7 – both Windows XP and Vista gave me severe headaches when using it in combination with my wireless network.
• Productivity enhancement due to the new UI
• DirectAccess – accessing networks without the need to VPN – I can’t wait for this one.
• Boot from VHD option (yep probably not a typical end user operation)
• Use the Windows 7 refresh to assess your desktop environments and try to rationalize the application portfolio you currently need to support. A migration is not only a technical operation – if you approach it intelligently you might create extra value while migrating.
• Although the standalone user operating system becomes less relevant in a corporate environment – I do think that IT consultancy and services firms should typically lead the pack in migrations. Consider an account manager (or consultant for that matter) trying to sell the value of Windows 7 when giving a presentation with Office 2003 and Windows XP – must be a hard sell in my opinion.

If you agree or disagree … just leave a comment

Technorati Tags: windows7,upgrade,microsoft

SharePoint Saturday Belgium Presentations and code samples

I finally collected all the presentations and code samples from the different sessions about SharePoint 2010 at our first SharePoint Saturday here in Belgium. Enjoy

• Demos and slide decks of Stephane’s sessions about REST and WCF in SharePoint 2010
• Serge Luca did a presentation about SPLinq – download the SPLinq at SharePoint Saturday pptx.
• Steven explained about Sandboxed solutions – more about it here – BIWUG SPSaturday – wrap up
• Karine’s intro about SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010
• My presentation about Metadata in SharePoint 2010

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,wcf,sharepoint+2010,biwug,community,sharepoint+saturday,vs2010,metadata+folders,rest,splinq