One of the leading mobile communication providers in Sri Lanka wanted to know how they can bring their processes in to SharePoint intranet using Microsoft technologies.

They have tried WF and they wanted to have a general awareness session to see the capabilities of WF and opportunities they have in the area of Business Process Management with WF and SharePoint.

I’ve been asked to conduct a session for 5 of Senior Software Engineers. I showcased them the capabilities of the Visual Studio 2008 and the WF and how we can use SharePoint as the platform for deploying WF solutions.

I saw Wela online and wanted to chat with him. He says, “talk to me later I'm in the hospital”.

Do you know the reason? He was telling me that he became a father today morning. His wife has given birth to a little, cute boy.

Congrats Wela..! Now you will feel how tough it is becoming a father. Be a good father..!

Microsoft announced Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 today. You can download and give it a try to see what Microsoft Developer Platform team has done during last few months.

I’m still downloading.

MOSS/ WSS Service Pack 2 includes all the fixes prior to SP2, and also several enhancements to improve server farm performance, availability and stability. And also it adds new stsadm operations to help customers prepare for the upgrade to the next version of SharePoint.

For more information including installation steps and the download link go to:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/04/28/announcing-service-pack-2-for-office-sharepoint-server-2007-and-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0.aspx

C# 4.0 which will be part of .NET Framework 4.0 specification is available for public now.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/E/6/7E6A548C-9C20-4C80-B3B8-860FAF20887A/CSharp 4.0 Specification.doc

It’s time to dive deep.

ITPro community in Sri Lanka has organized a DeepDive session and you can get more details from http://deepdive.itproforum.lk

When you install WSS 3.0, and if you select Advanced as the setup mode, you will be prompted with the SharePoint products and technologies configuration wizard at the end of setup process.

In the 4th step (in MOSS 5th step), which shows a summery of the configuration settings we selected, there is a button called Advanced Settings which allows us to setup Active Directory Account Creation Mode.

Active Directory Account Creation Mode allows SharePoint to create new AD accounts that are then sent by email to the users. This configuration option is available in WSS and MOSS.

It’s not generally used in Intranet environments and most organizations like to have the control over their AD account creation process. But in the case of commercial hosting services, this is an ideal option.

If you are planning to use this option, 1st you need to create an Organizational Unit (OU) and delegate control of that OU to the domain account used by SharePoint.

Check the option Enable Active Directory Account Creation Mode and enter the Domain Name and the OU you created.

You can’t turn this ON/ OFF after you install SharePoint.

We can install SharePoint in different configurations that range from very simple to very complex.

Following table shows different installation options available:

It’s always better to setup a staging environment before setting up a production environment directly.

I have recently installed Windows 7 Beta and didn’t have to wait for a long time RC came on board.

I downloaded x64 bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate and the best thing is there are some noticeable enhancements/ changes from Beta to RC.

I’m on Windows 7, why don’t you..?

Microsoft has released a service pack for Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains significant security improvements, stability improvements, and performance improvements.

Get the full list of issues fixed by this Service Pack from following KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937162

Here is where you can download SharePoint Designer 2007 Service Pack 1:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=B57C805D-2821-4625-A6F1-80725267F887&displaylang=en

Office SharePoint Designer 2007 provides the powerful tools you need to deliver compelling and attractive SharePoint sites and quickly build workflow-enabled applications and reporting tools on the SharePoint platform.

This amazing product wasn’t free and we had to spend money for getting this onboard. Now you can get all the features of SharePoint Designer 2007 with a FREE license.

Watch this video for more information about the roadmap of SPD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=40&p=1&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42&u=http%3a%2f%2fdownload.microsoft.com%2fdownload%2fA%2f8%2fD%2fA8D7704C-079D-418F-B0E8-FAF80F9C79CC%2fTom_Rizzo_Interview_300k.wmv

How many of you have tried this and complained Microsoft about why this feature is missing in Visual Studio 2008?

1. In Visual Studio 2005, when you create a Web Form and drag and drop an HTML control (without runat=”server”), when you double-click the control, it goes an add a <script> block in the HTML view and an appropriate java script function.
2. And then we can go and change the source of the control to have runat=”server” attribute and convert that pure HTML control to a HTML Server Control and double click the control to generate the .NET even handler in the code behind file.

But in Visual Studio 2008, step 2 will not function as we expect. We need to manually go and add the .NET event handler in the code behind file after converting HTML control to a server control. No double-click facility.

Why is this feature is missing?

I’m happy to announce that I got my MCT renewed for year 2009 today.

I’m planning to work more closely with CPLSs in the country but don’t know how I’m going to do that when they don’t consider the quality of the Microsoft Training and they just run after $$$$$$.

MCTs from India-Sub Continent, normally have to go through a huge pain every year when they want to renew their MCT.

They have to send email up and down to get this done and the payment will be done through bank drafts.

Now we have online renewal option, which we can fill all the details-no paper forms, and payment can be processed through credit Card. But still it’s not real-time Credit Card payment and it takes a week to process the payment.

But this is far better than earlier method. Hope we will get a real-time online payment option next year.

I though of sharing some information about the different editions available in SQL Server 2005 product. This idea came because, one of our client had a very big misunderstanding about the difference between Enterprise and Developer editions.

• Enterprise Edition
  • comprehensive functionality to support biggest organizations and complex implementations.
  • Available in  both 32-bit and 64-bit.
• Enterprise Evaluation
  • Expires after 180 days.
  • Can upgrade to commercial version in-place without interrupting the business.
  • Available in  both 32-bit and 64-bit.
• Developer Edition
  • 100% similar to Enterprise edition in terms of the features. But not expensive as Enterprise edition.
  • Licensed only for development, not for production.
  • Available in  both 32-bit and 64-bit.
• Standard Edition
  • Adequate for small and medium size organizations.
• Workgroup Edition
  • Available only in 32-bit.
  • Suitable for small organizations.
  • Contains features.
  • Can be easily upgraded to a higher version.
  • Limited tools available.
• Express Edition
  • Absolutely FREE.
  • Available only in 32-bit.
  • No tools available.
• Express with Advanced Services Edition
  • Absolutely FREE.
  • Available only in 32-bit.
  • Ships with Management Studio Express tool.
  • Supports Full-text catalog.
  • Ability to view reporting Services reports.
• Mobile Edition
  • Mobile data store that can be synchronized with primary data.

Feature by feature comparison is available here:

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/features/compare-features.mspx