When You Click a Link to an Office Document on a Windows SharePoint Services Web Site, You Are Prompted for Authentication Many Times

I lost the link to the KB article on MSDN but I'm putting in this link for reference - When You Click a Link to an Office Document on a Windows SharePoint Services Web Site, You Are Prompted for Authentication Many Times
SharePoint

Free ASP.Net 2.0 hosting

I just found this Dutch hosting provider - which offers free ASP.Net 2.0 hosting for 3 months ...

Numbers in SharePoint Search and noise filtering

Whenever you try to search in SharePoint and you are trying to search for a number combination - e.g. you have a custom metadata field contain productid in format P123-980 - you will notice that the search will not return the results you are expecting. The reason why this happens is that SharePoint uses a couple of files containing noise words which are omitted from the search - this will remove things such as "the", "a", ... - numbers are also added in there. What you need to do:

Remove the numbers from noiseenu.txt which you will find at [Sharepoint Portal Server Install directory]/Applications/Guid/Config

Restart the SharePoint search service

Reset the indexes and perform a full build

For more info check out How to customize SharePoint Portal Server 2003 by using IFilters, noise words, and thesaurus files and also take a look at how SharePoint Search works in multilinguage scenarios
SharePoint

Want to know more about TechEd Europe 2006 - read Gerts blog

It seems that Gerd De Bruycker is blogging as well, he will be responsible for organizing TechEd Europe this year, so check it out...

Workflow Foundation Beta2 - a synopsis of the past 2 months

I did some work with the Workflow Beta1 and I definitely liked it - I'm trying to catch up with the things which have changed in Beta2 - so here comes my list of handy links. Also note that both WCF and WF Beta 2 come with a Go Live license.

Workflow Foundation Beta2 Installation instructions

WFPad application for WF beta 2 - Mark Schmidt has updated his WFPad application for beta 2, this app allows you to edit XAML in text view or with the workflow deisnger.

Workflow Foundation beta 2 download

Workflow foundation upgrade document

Using data driven workflow activities and repeated correlation

Long Running Activity example

Parameters into a workflow

Introduction to the Windows Workflow Foundation rules engine

Technical introduction to workflow foundation

Understanding the lifecycle of a workflow

Update: I noticed a new version of Workflow Foundation is available now, say welcome to Workflow Foundation 2.2

workflow

Microsoft Content Management Server - life after SP2

For people working with Microsoft Content Management Server - I can definitely recommended you to use ASP.Net 2.0 in combination with MCMS. ASP.Net 2.0 makes CMS development a lot easier. To enable your CMS sites to use ASP.Net 2.0 ( and also SQL 2005 for that matter) you will need to install MCMS SP2. To get things started also take a look at the upgraded Woodgrove ASP.Net 2.0 application.

After deploying MCMS SP2, you should also take a look at the blog postings about these post-SP2 hotfixes:

Site Deployment export does not work on databases created before SP2 and moved to SQL Server 2005 (KB 913401)

Clearing hyperlink does not work after installing SP2 (KB 913554)

Workaround for the "CMS" virtual directory problem with VS.NET 2005

Another hotfix for MCMS 2002 addressing two issues has been released today!

VS.Net 2003 no prerequisite for MCMS SP2

If you want to take a look at the (not so) distant future, you should also take a look at the posting from Mark Harrison about how concepts from MCMS map on the SharePoint Server 2007 platform since web content management will be made available on this platform. I will shortly post some more information about the future of Web Content Management on the Microsoft platform and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 role in this.
wcm

ASP.Net 2.0 learning resources

There are a lot of ASP.Net 2.0 learning resources available - I just stumbled on some new ones:

ASP.Net 2.0 multimedia resources on MSDN

ASP.Net Quickstart tutorials

Learn .Net from screencast videos

.NET Pet Shop 4: Migrating an ASP.NET 1.1 Application to 2.0

VS 2003->VS 2005 Web Application and VS 2005 Web Site->Web Application Migration Tutorials Live

ASP.Net 2.0 RSS Toolkit

Moving from ASP.Net 1.1 to 2.0 (Ppt)

aspnet20

WSRP - Web Services for Remote Portlets - do we really need it?

I already mentionned WSRP (Web Services for Remote Portlets) a couple of times on this blog - see SharePoint integration scenarios with SAP and WSRP.Net framework and SharePoint and recently Mike also wrote some interesting stuff about WSRP - Time To Discusss WSRP.... Some interesting points:

WSRP defines how to use SOAP to request and receive blocks of HTML (as opposed to making a method request and getting back XML data, which is what we usually request/receive using SOAP

WSRP is not magic. Its also not a shortcut to good application design

I had a discussion about the benefits of WSRP a couple of months ago with a colleague and the thing which actually sparked the discussion was this other posting about WSRP - WSRP vs RSS? Game over. - my own short synopsis:

SharePoint v3 will provide OOB a WSRP consumer webpart

WSRP will never make it because of a couple of reasons: the user experience is not very good, the spec is too complex and RSS already provides a much simpler syndication protocol (although it is not really fair to compare the two)

For some more comments about WSRP check out this post as well - WSRP is really hot and WSRP and JSR168 Are Two Completely Different Things...

Security - a process based holistic approach

I have to say that I'm no different from other developers - so the first thing I thought when seeing that a presentation was scheduled about security was "YUK...". Fortunately, the presentation was done by Rafal Lukawiecki, and it definitely was worthwile - you can also see the session on Process based holistic security on MSDN Showtime - or download the presentation

We took a look at 3 different frameworks:

Octave and OctaveS

Simplified security risk analysis

Formal threat analysis

One interesting statement was definitely the one about the cost of security - "Security is very expensive, it will typically cost between 20 and 60% of development effort". To justify this kind of cost, there actually are some measurements you can use, one of them is ROSI (Return On Security Investment). There also is a way you can quantify risk which is pretty straightforward and which will work very nicely when you are working with customers in the financial or investment sector. Security implies a certain risk so as with any other risk you should look at the cost for getting an assurance to protect against the event in which the risk might occur.

Alas, going back to Oracle

If you ever need to convert a database from SQL Server to Oracle - one thing you will notice is that Oracle does not seem to have a GUID datatype - you actually need to store it in a RAW(16) column - here is some other stuff you have to watch:

Watch out for Oracle sequential guids

Oracle data provider for .Net

Oracle.DataAccess issues - some cautionary tales

Mapping .NET Framework Data Provider Data Types to .NET Framework Data Types

Office 2007 - New user interface

It seems that the Office 2007 has changed again since the first available pictures from PDC - check out the latest screenshots at Picture this : A new look for OfficeOffice2007

YASQ - AD Assistant field not correctly imported into SharePoint User Profile database

In Active Directory, a users Assistant attribute requires a Distinguished Name (DN) format, similar to the Manager field. If you import the Assistant field into SharePoint it does not resolve this to the user name. With the Manager field this works without a problem... Yet Another SharePoint Quirk
SharePoint

Data Migrator 2006 for Lotus Domino and SharePoint templates

Data Migrator 2006 for Lotus Domino is slated to ship in the second quarter of this year. It will enable organizations to migrate data from Lotus Domino template-based applications to Windows SharePoint Services Application Templates. Microsoft already released 3 new application templates for customers using similar Lotus Notes and Domino templates. he new templates support Discussion Database, Team Work Site and Document Library applications. Microsoft released an initial 30 templates last August.

Microsoft Application Analyzer 2006 for Lotus Domino released

The Microsoft Application Analyzer 2006 for Lotus Domino is a tool that helps organizations to analyze their Lotus Notes/Domino application environment. It generates reports based on a number of application properties such as last accessed/modified dates, template types and the presence of workflow. Based upon the reports generated by this tool, customers can quickly identify applications that should not be migrated (such as administration applications or unused applications), applications that can easily be migrated to Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) templates and applications that require additional analysis.

Download Microsoft Application Analyzer 2006 for Lotus Domino
Microsoft Application Analyzer for Lotus Domino white paper

Configuring ASP.NET 2.0 Application Services to use SQL Server 2000

I was just trying out the code in Introducing ASP.NET Web Part Connections and I immediately stumbled upon an error stating "System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server." Fortunately I got to this great blogposting from Scott Guttrie - important things to know:

Most of the ASP.NET 2.0 application services are configured to use the built-in SQL Express provider. Since I didn't install it ;-(

If you want to use a different provider - you first need to create the SQL database scheam with the aspnet_regsql.exe utility

Point your web application to the new DB in your web.config - just replace the connectionstring value for the "LocalSqlServer in the web apps web.config
e.g.
<connectionStrings>
<remove name=”LocalSqlServer”/>
<add name="LocalSqlServer" connectionString="Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=appservicesdb;Integrated Security=True" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
</connectionStrings>

SharePoint Server 2007 Search

I recently came accross this posting from Arpan Shah - Office "12" Beta at Microsoft - especially the last paragraph was quite interesting:

There are a bunch of great WSS "v3" and Office "12" SharePoint Servers features that are my personal favorite that I've already blogged about... but the one feature that recently got exposed internally was the next version of SharePoint Search. Sure, the relevancy is significantly better for enterprise search, there are great User Experience enhancements (query hit highlighting, query correction, duplicate collapsing, et cetera)... but the one thing that absolutely takes it to another level is how the next generation SPS search technology allows you to search business data. Data trapped in LOB systems will be searchable in Office "12". We've deployed it internally to search our CRM database so I can find information on a customer very easily. :-) I've used this several times over the last couple weeks to find a specific account manager for a specific account. It's jaw dropping amazing.
sharepoint2007
P.S. This is the first posting tagged SharePoint2007 in Technorati ... I hope a lot more will follow in the coming months ;-)
Office2007

Office 2007 - launch date October 3th?

Edd Bott wrote a blog entry about when Office 2007 will be launched:

I don’t have any inside information, but that date sounds exactly right to me, based on what I see in current Office betas and a review of previous Office beta programs. Think you can guess the exact date? You’ll get your chance at the end of this post.

First, a little background:

Office 2007 Beta 1 has been in testers’ hands since November 16, 2005. I’ve lost count of the number of features that Microsoft developers have promised will be ready for Beta 2, along with hints that the ribbon and other interface elements are getting a pretty good overhaul in the name of usability. In addition, Beta 2 is going to be publicly available as part of a preview program that anyone can try. So the sheer number of changes is daunting, and the quality bar is very, very high, which means that Microsoft can’t afford to rush the testing process.

Microsoft has publicly committed to delivering a “Beta-1 Technical Refresh” in the March timeframe, with Windows Vista compatibility high on its list of changes. The actual release data for Beta 2 is being held close to the vest, but you can bet it’s not imminent (if it were close to being complete now, why bother with that interim release?).

So, if Beta 2 is ready in April, how long will the Office dev team need after that to get the code ready to ship?
Read more Office2007

Problem with Office2007 tag page on Technorati

I just noticed that you get a very strange error when trying to look for all blogs on Technorati with the tag Office2007 - just type in http://www.technorati.com/tag/office2007. I get an error stating

"Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http://www.technorati.com/tag/office2007. Operation aborted."

Afterwards the page simply closes. Anybody seeing the same problem, or is it just me .... ;-)
blog

2007 Office System - Synopsis and some remarks

Microsoft just released details on Packaging and Pricing for the new Office Suite:

Finally the speculation about which different Office Servers Microsoft would release is over. There will be no separate Excel Server, CMS has been integrated into SharePoint Server 2007 but we will see a separate Forms Server, an electronic forms solution which allow users to fill in InfoPath Forms through a common web browser.


Another surprise was the actual demise of FrontPage - this product has been rebranded to SharePoint Designer 2007 and will focus more on web development with SharePoint and less on general web design. General web design functionalities will be available in the new Expression Web Designer

In the product fact sheet we also see a new EPM product surfacing - Office Project Portfolio Server 2007. This will be a top-down portfolio management governance solution.It has been designed to help ensure that organizations gain visibility, insight and control over their project, program and application portfolios. Project Portfolio Servers analytical modules will help ensure that organizations can prioritize, optimize and select the investments that are best aligned with their strategic priorities, and proactively schedule the selected projects to maximize resource utilization across the planning horizon.

Q&A: Microsoft Unveils Next Generation of Web Authoring and Design Tools (Feb. 15, 2006)

Customers to Receive Better Solutions and More Product Options With 2007 Microsoft Office Release (Feb. 15, 2006)

2007 Microsoft Office System Packaging (.doc file, 344 KB, February 2006)

2007 Microsoft Office System Pricing (.doc file, 300 KB, February 2006)

Reaction from Richard Teper - SharePoint team blog

Microsoft to unleash host of Office suites

MS Unveils Office 2007, Multiple versions (Slashdot)

2007 Microsoft Office system (aka Office '12')

Why Office 2007 Pricing and Product Info Now?

It's official: 'Office 2007'

Office2007

Brrreeeport, brrreeeport

Interesting experiment from Scobble to try out some blog search engines ...brrreeeport