Todd Bleeker

SharePoint 2010 Evaluation VHD with Visual Studio 2010 and Office 2010

Todd Bleeker — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:05:02 GMT

This rocks! Microsoft has released a SharePoint 2010 Beta 2 evaluation VHD complete with everything including Visual Studio 2010 and Office 2010 installed and ready to go. Download this excellent developer resource here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0c51819b-3d40-435c-a103-a5481fe0a0d2

However, the post says that you'll need 50GB to install the two Hyper-V VMs. 50GB, Yikes! That said, my developer VM running Windows 7, SPF 2010 only, non-domain, non-standalone on top of a full SQL Server 2008 install is nearly 30GB.

Thank God for large external 2.5" drives.

Community Kit for SharePoint: Development Tools Edition – CKS:DEV

Todd Bleeker — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:53:36 GMT

Announcing CKS:DEV at http://cksdev.CodePlex.com

As you may know, Visual Studio 2010 has enhanced our ability to extend its functionality. Several SharePoint developer productivity extension projects have been merged into a single uber SharePoint Development Tools Edition of the Community Kit for SharePoint.

This excellent work is the collective effort of the following brilliant guys:


Matt Smith	Waldek Mastykarz	Wesley Hackett	Wouter van Vugt

While we have more ideas in the works, this initial release is already huge. It includes the following productivity aids (and more) categorized as follows...

Environment

SharePoint References - Adds a SharePoint tab to the Add Reference dialog.
Copy Assembly Name - Copies the assembly name of a SharePoint project onto the clipboard.
Sandbox Compile - Compiles the project against the SharePoint subset object model to ensure the code only uses subset OM features.

Exploration

View Feature Dependencies - Adds subnodes to the Feature node to drill down into feature dependencies.
View Feature Elements - Adds subnodes to the Feature node to drill down into feature element definitions. Also allows to open the XML definition of each element.
Activate / Deactivate Feature - Adds a content menu item to each feature node to enable and disable the feature on the current site, site collection, web application or farm.
List Site Columns - Browse site columns and view their properties.
List Themes - Browse themes and view their properties.
View Master Page and Page Layout Gallery - Adds the Master Page Gallery node which allows you to browse through Master Pages and Page Layouts. Additionally it allows you to view and edit the contents of the files from the Master Page Gallery.
List Web Parts - Browse Web Parts and view their properties.
Copy ID - Adds context menu items to various nodes to quick copy the unique ID value, for instance for features or content types.
Copy Web Part - Copies the .webpart definition to the clipboard to quickly paste a Web Part into a <AllUsersWebPart> node.
View List Event Receivers - Adds a subnode to the List node to drill down into Event Receivers associated with the List.
View Style Library - Adds the Style Library node which allows you to browse through the contents of the Style Library. Additionally it allows you to view and edit the contents of the files from the Style Library.
Get SPMetal Definition - Adds a menu item to lists and sites that allows you to generate the SPMetal definition for the given object.
Create Page Layout from Content Type - Adds a menu to content types that allows you to generate the contents of a Page Layout for the given Content Type.

Content

Sandboxed Visual Web Part - A visual Web Part that can be deployed as part of a sandboxed solution.
SP Metal Definition - Adds an SPMetal parameter XML file to the project and auto-generates the code based on that configuration using a Visual Studio Custom Tool (like resx files).
Custom Action Group - Simple XML based custom action group project item SPI.
Custom Action - Simple XML based custom action project item SPI.
Hide Custom Action - Simple XML based hide custom action project item SPI.
Delegate Control - Simple XML based delegate control project item SPI.
Console Application - A SharePoint Console Application template to easily create scratch applications.

Deployment

Quick Deploy Commands - Adds a submenu to the context menu of SharePoint projects that allow you to quickly deploy using any deployment configuration.
Auto Quick Deploy - If project-level properties are set, automatically copies deployed files into the SharePoint installation folder whenever a file is saved, or automatically copies deployed assemblies if the project is built.
Copy Assemblies - Copies all deployed assemblies to the relevant BIN folders and the Global Assembly Cache, for use as part of an X-Copy quick deploy.
Copy Files - Copies all deployed files into the SharePoint installation folder, for use as part of an X-Copy quick deploy.
Install Features - Installs the feature into the SharePoint feature storage, for use as part of an X-Copy quick deploy.
Upgrade Solution - Performs a solution upgrade instead of a retract / deploy combination.
Recreate Site - Deletes the site collection and recreates it with the same name, type and settings. Used to quickly create a new greenfield for testing.
Reset IIS - Resets the Internet Information Server which can be useful during testing of site definitions.
Reset Timer Service - Resets the SharePoint timer service.
Warm-up Site - Executes a HTTP request to the root of the current deployment site to warm it up after a IIS recycle.
Install Web Application Content - Copies Web Application specific content from the SharePoint installation folder into the IIS web application folders.
Run PowerShell Script - Executes PowerShell script(s)

Of course, we'd love to hear what you'd like to see us include in the next release.

PS: This is so big, I thought it was worthy of an inaugural tweet!

Pew Research News Quiz

Todd Bleeker — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:02:06 GMT

Take the quiz yourself: http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/

Sadly, only 2% answered these simple questions about what is happening around them accurately…

Exploring the SharePoint 2010 JavaScript ClientOM

Todd Bleeker — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:21:21 GMT

Here are the steps I’m using to explore the Properties and Methods of the SP.* Namespaces:

Navigate to a SharePoint 2010 Blank Site
Click on the Page tab (to load Fluent UI JavaScript files)
Press F12 to launch the IE Dev Toolbar
Click on the Script tab
Press the Start Debugging button (do this before you set the breakpoint)
Select the ScriptResource.axd file that includes MicrosoftAjax.debug.js in its header
Search for: _onReadyStateChange
Set a breakpoint on the first statement in this function (line 4708 in my build)
Refresh the Page in the browser to run code to the breakpoint (be patient while it spins up)
Click the Watch tab
Click the Click to add... textbox
Type SP and press <Enter>
Explore...

Way easier than dinking around in the debug.js files!

Initial SharePoint 2010 Guidance from Patterns and Practices

Todd Bleeker — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:14:42 GMT

Check out: http://spg.codeplex.com

Download/Viewing Options:

MSDN (online)
CHM
PDF
ZIP

This initial drop includes the following (each with its related documentation):

DropLocation\Docs\Setup.txt

Information about how to run the Visual Studio 2010 Solutions

DropLocation\IntegrationTest\SPGLib\Readme

Documentation on how to build and run the Integration Tests

DropLocation\IntegrationTest\SPGLib\Microsoft.Practices.SharePoint.Common.Test.sln

Integration tests (both xUnit and Web tests)

DropLocation\Source\SharePoint 2010\Microsoft.Practices.SharePoint.sln

SharePoint Configuration Manager and Service Locator (ported from 2007)
Refactored SharePoint Logger (now supports areas/categories)

DropLocation\Source\SharePoint 2010\Microsoft.Practices.SharePoint(With Tests).sln

Unit tests developed with the PEX/Moles framework

Pex is an Automated White Box Testing Framework for .NET from Microsoft Research. Read about Pex, Stubs, Moles, QuickGraph, MbUnit, and Reflector Addins. I’m not "mocking" it, but it really isn’t my thing.

Several videos can also be found on Channel9.

Abbreviating SharePoint Products and Technologies 2010

Todd Bleeker — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:09:41 GMT

SharePoint Foundation 2010 is not a part of Windows anymore.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 is not labeled a Service anymore.

Both the "W" and the "S" in WSS are gone. So, using WSS will no longer work.

Windows SharePoint Services is now called SharePoint Foundation 2010.
It coincides with the other foundation products in the .NET framework.
Hence the new abbreviation SPF 2010.

Can't you see the synergy; the power of predictability?

SP 2010 = SharePoint 2010

SPS 2010 = SharePoint Server 2010

SPF 2010 = SharePoint Foundation 2010

SPD 2010 = SharePoint Designer 2010

SPW 2010 = SharePoint Workspace 2010

SPC 2009 = SharePoint Conference 2009 was about SPS2010

etc.

There are no outliers with this pattern. No races to offend, no overlapping products to get confused with, etc.

The only complaint of any consequence is that SharePoint Portal Server 2001 and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 were also commonly abbreviated SPS. Since SharePoint Server 2010 is the successor of those older versions, I actually think that using SPS 2010 is even more compelling. MOSS will be the only outlier in that sequence. But SharePoint Server 2010 is not part of Office anymore.

So, the server product that was sold on top of the platform had the following history of abbreviations:

SPS 2001 > SPS 2003 > MOSS 2007 > SPS 2010

The platform had a more sorted set of names: Office Web Components morphed into SharePoint Team Services (first actual install called SharePoint). Windows SharePoint Services (no version was typically associated with this release but it was generally accepted as 2.0) was released in 2003 followed by Windows SharePoint Services version 3.0 (to differentiate between the 2003 and 2007 releases) and now SharePoint Foundation 2010.

So, the platform itself had the following history of abbreviations:

OWC > STS > WSS > WSS v3 > SPF 2010

While I agree that this last sequence is bad and I get why some want to use WSS v4 (or some other odd derivation: SS, WSF, MSF, etc.), see the top of this message. Both the "W" and the "S" are gone so WSS won't work anymore!

HTH,

Some SharePoint 2010 User Interface Terms

Todd Bleeker — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:51:00 GMT

What follows is my first attempt at identifying various areas of the SharePoint 2010 user interface:

Use SharePoint 2010 ClientOM to Show a Generated GUID as Toast in the Notification Area

Todd Bleeker — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:58:17 GMT

Drop the following script into a Content Editor Web Part:

<script>
ExecuteOrDelayUntilScriptLoaded(ShowGuid, "SP.js");
function ShowGuid(){
SP.UI.Notify.addNotification(SP.Guid.newGuid().toString());
}
</script>

Note To Self: Reading and Writing Plain Text Email Messages in Outlook 2007

Paul Schaeflein — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:31:25 GMT

For years now I've been reading and writing messages in Outlook using plain text email. I know it is old school and there is a lot of FUD surrounding it but I still think it is a best practice. At worst it is my personal preference. However, whenever I build out a new laptop I have to once again remember where those pesky settings are to force Outlook 2007 to use plain text. Hence, this post:

Reading email in plain text:
Select Tools > Trust Center from the Outlook 2007 menu and click on the E-mail Security node. In the Read as Plain Text section, select both checkboxes. Click the OK button to save the changes and exit the dialog.

Writing email in plain text:
Select Tools > Options from the Outlook 2007 menu and click on the Mail Format tab. In the Message Format section, choose Plain Text from the dropdown list. Consolas Regular 10.5 is the default font which is currently my favorite (except for single quotes and commas it is clearly cleaner looking than the old Courier New) but if you click on the Stationary and Fonts... button you can choose whatever font you prefer. Click the OK button twice to save the changes and exit the dialogs.

That's all there is to it. Why these two options are so far apart is beyond me.

The unconverted masses will continue to send you HTML email, so you will occasionally need to see non-text content. Outlook 2007 makes that easy, in the message you are reading as plain text, simply click on the orange bar near the top of the message and select Display as HTML from the context menu:

God forbid, you may even find that you need to send an HTML message. Outlook 2007 also makes that easy, in the message you are writing as plain text, choose Options > HTML from the Format Group:

PS: Why does Microsoft insist on including a dash in the word email?

My Hyper-V VM Cursor Displays as Just a Dot

Todd Bleeker — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:42:41 GMT

Ever had the cursor in your Hyper-V Virtual Machine (VM) not render as an Arrow or an I-beam but simply as a dot?

The fix is not at all intuitive. No amount of fiddling with the mouse settings seemed to have any good affect. But if you Save the VM’s state then immediately (or in your own good time if you prefer) Start and Connect to the VM again. The cursor display is restored to conform to the settings.

That’s all that is required. Not sure why the cursor display gets messed up in the first place. So, if you have the ounce of prevention, please leave a comment…