Check out this great site that is designed to help .NET Developers to learn to build solutions with SharePoint: http://MSSharePointDeveloper.com
Things like:
· Web Parts
· Data Lists
· Event Handlers
· Workflows
· Silverlight Web Parts
· Page Navigation
· Page Branding
· Web Services
· Content Types
· User Management
The site includes some great info, such as:
· An Introductory Whitepaper
· Benefits of SharePoint for Developers
· A SharePoint VPC
· Hosted MSDN Virtual Labs in C# and VB.NET
· Video Interview with SharePoint MVPs
· Screencasts
· Web Casts with SharePoint MVPs
· Quickstarts
· Labcasts
· Presentation Download
· Hands on Labs Download
· Additional Resource Links
Check it out! http://MSSharePointDeveloper.com
Ever wish you could get some help on SharePoint but don't know where to turn? If so, be sure to check out the MSDN SharePoint Community Forums: http://mssharepointforums.com.
I will be monitoring the forums along with MVPs, SharePoint product team members, and the community at large.
I've gotten a lot of questions from customers who are moving to Office 2007. Most of the questions are around items like the value of the new Office UI, ease of deployment, and integration with MOSS 2007. The best place to get information on these topics is the Forrester report: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/itanalyst/docs/07-17forrester2007office.aspx. The report does a good job at providing an independent voice on Office 2007 and its benefits and limitations.
The word I'm hearing from customers who've moved to Office 2007 (and MOSS 2007) is that it's well worth it.
I've had several customers upgrade from SPS 2003 to MOSS 2007. A popular question is "Where did the Listings functionality go?"
In short, Portal Listings are gone in MOSS. Since listings were just an SPS-centric way of creating a link to something, it didn't make sense to have a non-standard way of doing this. In an upgrade, they are converted into a List and Content Type called "Listing". The Portal Listings Web Part is replaced with a Content Query Web Part, which is much more flexible. So no functionality is lost; it's actually more functionality than SPS.
Likewise, Areas are also gone...everything is simply a site. They have been replaced by various publishing templates.
These two items (listings and areas) were SPS-centric and didn't make sense to carry forward.
I get a lot of questions about how Office 2003 will integrate with SharePoint 2007. Your best source for this kind of information is the Microsoft Office Programs and SharePoint Products and Technologies Integration – Fair, Good, Better, Best whitepaper. You can get it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E0D05A69-F67B-4D37-961E-2DB3C4065CB9&displaylang=en
Office 2007 is by far the best client to use with SharePoint 2007. I plan to blog with some additional information that isn't in the whitepaper. Stay tuned.
I've gotten a number of questions recently about adding tag clouds to SharePoint. Tag clouds are handy for visualizing content tags in sites, wikis, and blogs.
The Community Kit for SharePoint contains a great Tag Cloud web part...available here: http://www.codeplex.com/CKS/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4820
Check out the entire Community Kit for SharePoint here: http://www.codeplex.com/CKS/. It's a set of best practices, templates, Web Parts, tools, and source code that enables the creation of a community website based on SharePoint technology.
If you are at TechEd this week, be sure to stop by the bookstore between 11:30 and noon. Immediately after my session, I will be signing copies of my book Essential SharePoint 2007: Delivering High-Impact Collaboration at the conference bookstore.
If you're not at TechEd, you can get a great deal on the book here: http://www.bookpool.com/sm/0321421744
If you're in Orlando for TechEd, be sure to attend my session entitled Composite Application Architectures: Using the 2007 Microsoft Office System.
We'll discuss how the 2007 Office System isn't just a great set of products; it's an application platform that supports industry standards and provides key application and integration services via composite application architectures. I'll show some features in Office Enterprise 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 that enable great solutions as part of an overall composite application architecture. This session covers common architectural patterns and the core services provided by Office and SharePoint with two fun examples.
It's all happening tomorrow (6/7) at 9:45AM in Room N310 A.
One of the most-requested features of SharePoint for the current release was the addition of the recycle bin. This is great for users who accidentally delete a file. But what if the user deletes a site? SharePoint still does not have a native recycle bin for sites.
One option is the Microsoft IT Site Delete Capture 1.0 tool available at codeplex.com, which captures sites that are deleted by end users and backs them up to disk using the event model. The restore would take place by an administrator.
I sometimes get asked if it's possible to customzie the MySite templates in MOSS 2007. The answer is yes! In fact, there are now nine MySite templates available for free from Microsoft here:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA102147321033.aspx
The Role-Based Templates for SharePoint My Sites are custom templates designed for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the My Site functionality. They are tailored to address the unique needs and requirements of specific roles within an organization. Here's an example of the "marketing manager" template: 
I recently got a question regarding the ability to filter out folders from search results (but to still search inside those folders for documents) in MOSS 2007.
It's pretty simple. You'll need to create a scope with two exclusion rules, assuming you're crawling both file shares and SharePoint sites (one for file share folders and one for document library folders):
1) Go into Search Settings -> Metadata Property Mappings
a. Scroll to the “IsDocument” property and select “Edit/Map Property” from the drop-down menu; check “Allow this property to be used in scopes”
b. Do the same with the "ContentType" property
2) Create a new scope (called “NoFolders” or whatever) and add three rules:
a. Content Source = All Content
b. IsDocument=0 (make that one an exclusion rule) - this is for file share folders
c. ContentType=Folder (also an exclusion rule) - this is for sharepoint document library folders
3) Run a scope update to refresh the scope contents
4) Do a search on a term that returns a folder (Say, “office”); then try another, specifying the scope like this – “office scope:nofolders” (this search should not return folders)
5) If you want that new scope to be the default (so users don’t have to specify the scope), you can set the scope property of the search results web part on the results.aspx page to use that new scope (or you can create a new tab on the search center page)
Thanks to everyone who attended my sessions on Monday at the SharePoint Connections conference in Orlando. I got some fantastic questions on the new search capabilities of MOSS 2007. We covered content sources, search scopes, custom tabs, duplicate collapsing, custom search web parts, and a number of other features. We also reviewed how to influence relevance and how SharePoint search has really come a long way!
As promised, I've posted my slides. You can download them here: click to download slides. I will follow this post with the custom search web part code and the Excel services code in the next day or two.
In case you need a good book on MOSS 2007 with your favorite Irish beer...here's one that I personally recommend! 
Essential SharePoint® 2007 focuses relentlessly on utilizing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to improve collaboration and decision-making, streamline processes, and solve real-world business problems. Three leading SharePoint consultants systematically address the crucial success factors, intangibles, and "gotchas" in SharePoint deployment, helping you maximize value and reduce risk.The authors walk you through planning and architecting successful SharePoint solutions around your business, hands-on. Next, they address the operational support and end-user functionality needed to make SharePoint 2007 work — with special attention to make-or-break organizational and political issues. Coverage includes: Defining collaboration strategies; building attractive, usable applications; architecting infrastructure; leveraging SharePoint content management and business intelligence; migrating from SharePoint 2003, and much more. Essential SharePoint® 2007 was written for everyone involved in SharePoint 2007 projects: IT and line managers, consultants, analysts, project leaders, and developers
www.awprofessional.com/titles/0321421744
Need to ramp up on Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS)? Interested in IT Pro and Developer topics for SharePoint?
Come to Microsoft's Waltham office this Saturday, February 24th, from 8:30 to 6:00 PM. A great set of community speakers will be presenting on WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007. The goal is that folks will leave with what is possible with SharePoint, get started on a new implementation of a SharePoint solution, or extend an existing one.
Check out: http://www.sharepointguy.com/SharePointCodeCamp07/default.aspx.
Thanks to everyone who attended the Windows Vista and Office SharePoint Server 2007 Search session at the Boston Launch event on Wednesday.
Enterprise Search and Desktop Search are important topics these days; make sure you have all of the information you need to make an informed decision. Things like privacy policies, out-of-box support for security trimming, and your ability to control the search technologies using policies are important aspects of search that are not to be overlooked.
If your organization is in the New England area and is thinking about enterprise search, feel free to give me a shout to discuss your options.
If you're at all interested in the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Windows Vista, or Exchange Server 2007, be sure to check out the launch events being held all over the country.
Attendees will receive a free copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007 and Microsoft Office Groove 2007.
There will be a number of breakout sessions (I will be speaking at two of these -- search and records management). You can also test drive the products and evaluate their functionality, network with peers, and meet local technology partners.
Sign up here: http://www.microsoft.com/business/launch2007/signup/default.mspx
When you publish an InfoPath form to MOSS 2007 (or forms server) through administrative mode, you can point to the form via a URL so that users can fill out the form from virtually anywhere. You can also do things like set a redirect page so that when the user is done filling out the form, the browser redirects the user to a workflow initiation screen or some other useful location.
Here are the query string parameters that control behavior in InfoPath Web Forms:
XsnLocation - What form to open and from where
XmlLocation - What initial data to use
OpenIn - Open in browser / client / either
SaveLocation - Save Location for data
Source - Navigate URL when form is closed
Example: http://MOSS2007/_layouts/formserver.aspx?xsnlocation=/formservertemplates/loanapplication.xsn&openin=browser&source=http://redirectpage
I get a lot of questions regarding the specific capabilities of SharePoint depending on what flavor is chosen. | |