Using Excel Services - some random links

• Extending the Excel Services Programmability Framework
• Developing User Defined Functions for Excel 2007 and Excel Services
• Excel Services Slidedeck from Kristian Kalsing - Brisbane SharePoint User Group
• Excel Services Technical Overview on MSDN. This technical article includes a good introduction to exactly what Excel Services is.
• Creating Custom Solutions with Excel Services on MSDN. Here you can find links to information about the Excel Web Services and how to use them to develop custom applications.

 

tags: sharepoint, sharepoint+2007, moss, office, excel

Windows Live Writer update for Blogger Beta

I just upgraded to Blogger Beta and my Windows Live Writer stopped working - find the Windows Live Writer fix over here ... Worked like a charm for me

tags: blog, blogger, windows+live, live+writer

Forrester Research - ECM market 19% growth rate

Interesting quote - ECM growth outpaces the overall software market - too bad that these reports are always so expensive ;-) ... I guess that SharePoint Server 2007 will take a large cut out of this market.

The market for enterprise content management (ECM) license software will exceed $3.9 billion in 2008, outpacing the overall software market with a forecasted 19% compound annual growth rate. Fueling this growth is recognition by $1 billion-plus companies that ECM is requisite technology for addressing their compliance, governance, and process efficiency needs. As larger infrastructure vendors such as Oracle and Microsoft provide ECM capabilities, the expansion of the ECM market to currently underserved geographies and vertical markets will also drive growth.

tags: ECM, Microsoft

Belux Developer & IT Pro Days - Doing session about InfoPath, SharePoint and workflow

Yes, spring is almost upon us and so are the Dev&IT Pro Days. This year I will be delivering a session about "Working with browser-enabled InfoPath forms and workflows in MOSS 2007" - here's the session abstract

This session will start with highlighting how you can quickly design application user interface (UI) forms with InfoPath 2007 and embed them within a SharePoint application. Afterwards it will show how you can combine these browser-enabled InfoPath forms with the out of the box user-configurable workflow templates in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Finally it will focus on how you can extend the available functionality with SharePoint Designer and Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Workflow Foundation.

Don't miss it - this year there's also a pre-conference scheduled - for more info take a look at the blogs of Tom Mertens and David Bosschmans.

tags: devitprodays, belgium, microsoft, sharepoint, infopath, sharepoint+2007, moss

SharePoint Test Data Load Tool

I noticed a reference to the SharePoint Test Data Load Tool on TechNet in november but I couldn't find the tool itself. Just found this posting from Joel about the SharePoint Test Data Load Tool - apparently it has been released on Codeplex.

tags: Sharepoint, sharepoint+2007, moss, wss3

Office 14 beta 1 in 2008?

Interesting post on AreoXP about Office 14 -  which states that we can expect Beta1 to reach us in 2008.  Also see this quote from TechNet Radio with Eric Vigesaa:

Michael: So now that Office 2007 has RTMd you are taking a vacation?

Eric: I actually am taking a vacation for two weeks and then, it may sound strange but the next version of Office is already in the planning stages, we want to make sure that our IT perspective and apps are represented in the new product focus and offerings so we’re going to be very involved with that.

Michael: So that’s Office 13 in development huh?

Eric: Well, 13 is unlucky so we’re calling it Office 14.

tags: office14, office

InfoPath 2007 developer reference

I was actually looking for the InfoPath 2007 SDK but I could not find - but I did fin the InfoPath Developer Reference for Managed Code which provides some nice info as well.

tags: infopath, office, infopath+2007, sdk

SharePoint 2007 - The Definitive Guide

The past couple of weeks I have been working as a co-author on a book for O'Reilly - SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide . The book will only appear June 8, 2007 but you can already preorder it on Amazon.

tags: moss, sharepoint+2007, sharepoint, wss, office, book

SharePoint Application templates available

Lawrence already mentionned it about a week ago - 20 of the Fantastic 40 Application Templates have been released . Download them all here all . There are also a couple of role based templates for MOSS 2007 My Sites - 2 of them are already available as well:

• Sales Account Manager - The Sales Account Manager template helps managers streamline the process of analysis of sales and opportunity information for their overall decision making. The template assists in customer account tracking against a set of performance metrics, such as quarterly revenue, growth and opportunity. It also provides a graphical view of the geographical distribution of product sales and opportunities. The objective of this Role-Based My Site Template is to help the Sales Manager attain their goals of customer satisfaction and revenue augmentation. 
• Controller/Financial Analyst - The Controller / Financial Analyst template helps Controllers to automate the process of analyzing financial data and information, helping them in their overall decision making process. The template assists in tracking top performing products and opportunities at different geography levels. It also provides a graphical view of product sales and revenue. The objective design of this Role-Based My Site Template is to help the Controller achieve their goals of communicating overall corporate performance, budget and future growth projection to the management, investors and other stakeholders.

tags: sharepoint, moss, wss, mos, sharepoint+2007

MSDN Community Content - Runwithelevatedprivileges example

Did you know that you can now add your own community content to the MSDN pages? Well for an excellent example take a look at the page about Runwithelevated privileges where Daniel added his own content - Elevation of Privilege.

 

tags: sharepoint, sharepoint+2007, msdn, community

Moving from Notes to SharePoint/Exchange

Microsoft has recently released  a public beta of new utility suite which will assist in doing a move from Notes/Domino platform to SharePoint Server 2007/Exchange - Microsoft Transporter Suite for Domino - available on http://connect.microsoft.com - the next snippet is taken from the Connect site:

The Microsoft Transporter Suite for Lotus Domino is an integrated set of tools and resources for planning, coexistence and migration, including;

· Application Planning: Application Reports

· Directory Coexistence: *NEW: Directory Connector for Lotus Domino

· Messaging Coexistence: Native SMTP and iCal

· Free/Busy Coexistence: *UPDATED: Free/Busy Connector for Lotus Domino

· Directory Migration: *NEW: Domino account migration to Active Directory

· Mailbox Migration: *NEW: Mailbox migration to Exchange 2007

· Application Migration: *NEW: Application migration to SharePoint 2007

All this functionality is combined into a single management console making it easy to manage. In addition, everything is exposed through a set of PowerShell tasks and objects that will make it extremely easy to automate and script the migration process. This will be a huge benefit for anyone who must perform large migrations or repeat the migration many times.

Parts of the code of the Microsoft Transporter Suite for Notes has been developed by  Proposion,  a company which offers also other migration tools. One goal of this offering is to analyze existing Domino applications and assess how difficult they will be to move to Microsoft's stack, namely Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 foundation, Office SharePoint Server 2007 or Exchange Server 2007.

To get an overview of the available functionality taka a look at the video - Transporter Suite Video (290 MB)

tags: sharepoint+2007, migration, notes, exchange, domino, lotus, sharepoint, MOSS

Free SharePoint 2007 at WebCentral

It seems that you can try out the new SharePoint 2007 at WebCentral - click here to try it out untill march 2007.

tags: sharepoint, sharepoint+2007, sharepoint2007

BIWUG on Workflows in MOSS2007

I know, we haven't been very active the last couple of months but one of our New Years resolutions was more BIWUG sessions for Belgian Information workers. We are starting next thursday (februrary 8th) at 18:30 where we will cover the new workflow capabilities in SharePoint Server 2007.

 

WORKFLOW IN MOSS 2007
18:30 Welcome and Introduction
18:45 MOSS Commercial perspectives
19:15 AgilePoint
19:45 break
20:00 MOSS 2007 Workflow

Register on the  BIWUG web site - first register for general membership (it is free) and afterwards use the Register for next event link. The session will be hold in the Microsoft Belux offices in Diegem.

tags: office, office2007, sharepoint, sharepoint2007, moss, workflow, biwug, sharepoint+2007

TechNet Evening - Planning and deploying Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Next week wednesday february 7th /2007 I will be delivering a TechNet session for Microsoft Belux about Planning and deploying Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Topics:

• SharePoint Server 2007 architecture
• Administration features
• Deployment options

Register here.

tags: sharepoint+2007, sharepoint2007, moss, moss+2007, office, office2007

When to use SharePoint site collections?

Update 31/01: I got some interesting feedback about this posting so, I'm incorporating it

There are some changes in the way that site collections behave in Office SharePoint Server 2007 - one of the most important ones is that when you create a site underneath the site directory - it will belong to the portal site collection (If you keep the default settings that is). So if you want to create a new site collection you will have to do it from within SharePoint Central Administration. Open SharePoint Central Administration within your browser, navigate to the Applications Tab. Underneath the SharePoint Site Management category, you will be able to create a new site collection.  It is however also possible to allow creating site collections from the site directory as well - as shown in this posting - SharePoint 2007: Site Collections or sites ... that is the question.

 

Enable the creation of Site Collections in Sites Directory

1. From the portal, use the Site Actions menu, select Modify All Site Settings. If you are not on top level site you will need to go to Top Level Site Settings.
2. Under site collection administration, select Site Directory Settings.
3. Select the checkbox to create new site collections from sites directory.

 

If you keep the standard settings, you will quickly see when a site belongs to the portal site collection - if the URL contains something like http://[yourportal]s/sitedirectory/demosite/ or when it belongs to a separate site collection - http://[yourportal]/sites/demo (Notice the sites term in the URL). 

 

So what are the pro's and cons of working with multiple site definitions in a SharePoint Server 2007 setup? (The next list is not exhaustive - if you have some other ideas - you are welcome to add them to the comments of this postings):

Reasons why to use a site collection with multiple divisions/departments within an organisation:

• Ability to create sub portals using the Collaboration Portal template (or Publishing Portal template) for top level sites.
• Navigation menus can be different accross all divisions
• Styles can be defined separately for each division, each root master page can inherit dwn through out individual site collections
• Security groups – Groups are shared at the site collection level so you will have one specific group of owners,members and readers for each division. When you use multiple site collections it will be easier to delegate security settings to the site collection administrator. 
• Search scopes – Each site collection can specify relevant search scopes to appear in the search menu
• Themes – Each site collection can have unique themes to choose from that can inherit from their patch colors
• Features – Each site collection can deploy unique features
• Lists – Each site collection can have different list templates (such as stamping and reusing lists that are relevant)
• Lookup fields – Each site collection can use individual lookup field types into other lists for unique bindings
• Workflow – Each site collection can have individual batch deployed workflows (those through Visual Studio)
• Content types – Each site collection can have individual content types (an object that is stored within MOSS that defines several elements of a piece of content,such as a document library that will specify multiple types during newcreation)
  

There are however also a couple of downsides to creating lots of site collections:

• More administration necessary, site groups, site quota's, content types (and also site columns) are all defined at site collection level.
• The Content By Query web part does not work accross site collections.
• Site aggregator and Table of Contents web part don't work accross site collections
• When you don't create sites underneath the site directory, you will need to add them manually to a central site directory if you want to get a global overview accross all site collections. Update: Apparently MOSS 2007 also supports the notion of a master site directory - you can activate this from within SharePoint Central Admin. Go to the Operations tab and take a look at Master Site Directory settings.

 tags: sharepoint, wss3, wss, sharepoint+2007, moss, moss+2007, moss2007, office, office2007

Architect Journal on Workflow

I noticed that the April 2006 issue of Microsoft Architect Journal has some interesting articles about workflow - here's an overview:

 

Building Applications on a Workflow Platform
A workflow is important for resolving business problems. Examine a range of applications that demonstrate the decisions and reasoning architects face when building a workflow platform.

The Amazing Race Metaphor
Today's enterprises realize the potential of automating their business processes. Find out about managing high-level business processes through an analogy to a reality-based television game show.

Exploring Human Workflow Architectures
There are two components of human workflow systems and representative patterns of human-to-business processes interactions. Discover how to apply these components to implement these processes.

Workflow in Application Integration
The integration of applications is one of the greatest challenges architects face today. Take a look at a framework for application integration through the use of tools such as workflow technologies.

Simplifying Design of Complex Workflows
Solid workflow design requires many skills that make workflow a challenge to even experienced architects. Learn an approach for simplifying the design process of complex systems using a new kind of diagram.

Enabling the Service-Oriented Enterprise
Though building lots of Web services can be difficult, managing them can be really difficult. Explore using a model that can assist you with planning capabilities for a service-enabled enterprise.

Service-Oriented Modeling for Connected Systems: Part 1
Architects want to identify artifacts correctly and at the right abstraction level. Check out an approach to model connected, service-oriented systems that promotes close alignment between IT solutions and business needs in Part 1 of a two-part series.

Enabling Aspects to Enhance Service-Oriented Architecture
One of the biggest hurdles to achieving true service orientation is separating the needs of the service from the needs of the application. While services should only be concerned with the business functionality that they are exposing, it is not unusual for application specific features to "leak" into the service layer. We can now overcome the difficulties that have prevented widespread adoption of aspects in practical implementations and enable architects to factor out cross-cutting concerns from the services they are designing.

tags: architecture, workflow, microsoft, soa, service-oriented

ECM Starter Kit and Workflow Development Starter Kit for WSS 3.0 RTM

The ECM Starter Kit and the Workflow Development starter kit are now available in the same download as the WSS 3.0 SDK and the MOSS SDK. You can get them here:

• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK (RTM Version) including the Workflow Development starter kit
• SharePoint Server 2007 SDK (RTM Version) including the ECM Starter Kit

tags: wss, sdk, sharepoint2007, sharepoint+2007, moss, moss2007

Five things you didn't know about me ...

I was already tagged last week - by Robert Bogue and Renaud Comte so here I finally go:

1. I do not have a Computer Science degree - I actually did a Master in Economics and picked up Information Management as an option. I learned how to program in Java  on my own since they only taught us Pascal and Cobol at university. I needed to learn Java since I wrote a Java based expert system using Jess (a rule engine and scripting system) for derivatives trading. When I started working at Dolmen, I switched to Microsoft development.
2. One of my hobbies is painting and drawing ... I did art in  evening school but dropped out in my final year since I did not have enough time. I also put some pictures and paintings online at another blog - http://jopxpaints.blogspot.com/ . I had them first on MSN Spaces but they send an advice that I had to remove them since they contained inappropriate content ....
3. I'm still working for my current employer - Dolmen where I started 7 years ago - starting as a software engineer, afterwards technical project manager and currently as application group manager. BTW, did I mention that we are looking for Microsoft developers - do not hesitate to ping me ...
4. I moved 5 times in the last 7 years ...
5. This is my second year as SharePoint MVP - at the time that I got the award, I had to explain my boss what it exactly was but I'm still very proud about it ...

I'm tagging:

• Kristof De Causemaeker
• Jeroen Ceuppens
• Maarten Balliauw
• Nick Swan
• Bob Fox

20% time rule

Interesting idea from another blogdiscussion:

Google's "20% time" or "distracted time" got me thinking. Every startup I have ever worked for has consumed 100% of my waking hours with total focus on making the business succeed. There was no way to carve out 20% of my time to focus on "optional" things. My response to Lloyd's question was that companies should set aside 20% of their resources and people to focus 100% of their time on disruptive innovative ideas.

 

tags: ideas, innovation, business

First of the Fabulous 40 - GroupBoard Workspace 2007

Soon you can expect a series of new application templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 - commonly referred to as the Fabulous 40. It seems that you can already one of them, so download GroupBoard Workspace 2007.

Description:

The GroupBoard Workspace template creates a space for a group or team to connect and share information in a collaborative environment to improve team efficiency and productivity. The template helps track team member whereabouts and status, and includes a built-in timecard list and organization chart. Meetings can be scheduled with attendees, and meeting rooms and other resources can be reserved. It also enables members to share phone messages and circulate memos.

tags: wss3, sharepoint, sharepoint2007, microsoft