Tahiti….is now called ‘SharedView’. What a great piece of Software

Tahiti….is now called ‘SharedView’. What a great piece of Software

by | May 16, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

A magic piece of software that deserves a great rap!!! 🙂

There I was….on a client site ‘inbetween’ meetings (as best you get) and I got a
call from another client having a biztalk issue and needed some guidance. (sound familiar….family
members wanting remote phone support….)

So I was chatting to my beloved/dear client trying to sort out the issue. If
only I had a view of their screen….I thought smile_eyeroll

I then ran some thoughts through my head…..Netmeeting….I could try and
get that going, but what about firewalls…the whole I’ll call you, no you call me
thing – it works, doesnt work….time consuming to set up etc. (you get the picture)
– I’m thinking this is gonna be at least a 30min phone call.

Then I remembered (as a MVP) I get a few offers each month of ‘use our product’ type
deals….and I remembered this one from Microsoft called ‘Tahiti‘
– sharing/collaboration tool. (not to be confused with the Tahitian – “Save the cheerleader….save
the World!”)

Now get this – from digging up the past email, clicking on a link, 3MB download, installing
and setting up a session, inviting the person at the end of my support call (via email,
or I could use IM). And then they doing a corresponding setup etc. 15minutes!!!!
15 minutes only!!!

And within that time I was seeing their screen, control of their screen AND
we had invited another techie to the session to help resolve their area of the problem.

So 3 people, all behind respective firewalls – collaboratively sharing etc.

SENSATIONAL!!!!! It really is a top top top (3 tops – must be good 🙂 application.

Well you can grab the application (which is now called SharedView)
from Microsoft
Connect – Shared View

 

 

And now the finally……..in 15 minutes…the sharing window!

 

(AND it’s the sort of app that if you’ve got running….people are GOING to stop by
your screen and think it’s the next SilverLight application!!)

Resources for Learning WPF & Silverlight

by | May 15, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

There are some great resources out there for getting started with Silverlight and WPF since I get this question so often I thought I would post the details here.


1. Silverlight Resources (Well as I say why re-invent the wheel).


Tim’s list of Silverlight Screencasts & Expression Media Encoder.


Joe Stegman’s Video Search Sample [code and session]


2. Expression (WPF) Resources


Best training resources for Expression are here.


Also worth looking at the Expression Launch Page.


If you are coming from a Flash/ Flex Background


http://lynda.com, ContentPresenter and the WPFblog offers 3rd party web based training created by Flash legend Lee Brimelow.


Resources for .NET Developers


WPF Wiki – Sample Aps


FamilyShow – sample app built in WPF w/ video and code.


Watch Rob Relyea’s Windows Presentation Foundation for Developers presentation (references). This will provide an understanding of the overall vision for WPF and, more importantly, a sense of the possibilities of the platform by seeing some of the very best WPF demos.


http://windowsclient.net/


.NET Framework 3.0 Virtual Labs

Learning Plan to Begin Developing .NET Framework 3.0 Applications

A few agencies I know that are doing WPF & Silverlight projects

IdentityMine, thirteen23, Metaliq, Frog Design, Avenue A | Razorfish, Lightmaker, Cynergy

Trust me the hardest part with all of this stuff is choosing to start 😉

Sharepoint Conference Day 1

by | May 15, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

Wow! What a day – cant believe it all happened in 1 day!! (not groundhog day or so).

I presented the following 3 sessions:

  1. (Dev01)Essentials 1: Object Models, Web Services, Document I/O, Event, and Lists (co
    presented with Ryan Guguid) (download
    ppt)

  2. (Dev02)Essentials 2: ASP.NET Web Parts, Master Pages, and Data Rendering (download
    ppt) 

  3. (Dev04)Essentials 4: Templates, Definitions, and Solution Deployment (download
    ppt)

Given the conference was over 2 days – I thought it might be nice to break the sessions
up over a couple days……but then again…..it made the night that much more worthwhile
🙂

The sessions were great and here at the conference they captured all sorts of stats
being scanned off evaluation forms directly through (Canon Secure Scan – it talks
straight to a Sharepoint list) to sharepoint……then there’s a screen constantly
displaying all sorts of stats.

I was in the top 10 for a while…….which was great given there are 54 sessions
here.
During the night I found myself (attempting) to ride a unicycle……you do that once!
🙂

During my presentations I had LOTS of DEMOS – the demos are grouped into my sessions:

  • Dev01 – samples in here show (all based within a Win32 app):

    • connecting to Sharepoint – what you would do outside of a webpart.

    • getting details from Sharepoint sites, usage, changelogs, audit and running with elevated
      perms.

    • Using CAML to query a list, a site and a site collection (SPQuery and cross site queries)

    • Created an Offline Client using Lists.asmx and Copy.asmx webservices.

    • EventHandlers – two of them. A simple one that changes the title of a list item; the
      other one will grab a property from the User’s profile and update the corresponding
      field in the list. e.g. Region field – the user is assigned to a Region and when they
      create a document, the Region field with the document also is populated.
  • Dev02 – Some cool demos here….

    • Master Pages – I started with the Minimal.Master and added a DHTML clock to it, and
      also an IE 7 Search provider (the drop down in the top RH corner that lets you select
      your search provider). So where ever the users are, they can always just search the
      intranet simply.

    • WebParts – wouldnt be a demo with out webparts…..I’ve got WebParts that go and explore
      the Zone they belong to (minimise all the others and maximise themselves); custom
      webpart menus; use the SPGrid and SPDataSource object; created a dropdown action menu
      off one of the columns; connections between parts; and…and….using AJAX
      within WebParts       (I presented a text box to type into and it will query all
      the document libraries within the current site, as you type and hit enter a SPGrid
      dynamical re-renders with the results…pretty cool…and I’m no AJAX expert)
  • Dev04 – I based my current site (with all the demos) – Conference Demos and spoke
    about the value of solutions etc. I ran the Sharepoint Solution Generator over my
    site and produced the results here.

    Here are the demos!!!!!

Conf_Demos.zip
(3.43 MB)

Are you going to create new schema (.xsd file) from existing one? Here is the quick tip for BizTalk beginners.

by | May 15, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

Step #1: Within Visual Studio copy the schema (.xsd file) and Paste it. Rename the file to appropriate name.

Step #2: Click on the <Schema> node and change the “Target Namespace” property in the properties window as shown below. (NOTE: This step is required only if you want to change the target namespace, else you can ignore and go to Step #3)

Step #3: Click on the Root node and change “Node Name” property in the properties window as shown below. Changing the “Node Name” property will automatically change “RootNode TypeName”. Make sure they are the same.

Step #4: Click on the .xsd file in the solution explorer and click F4 (or make sure the properties window is visible, when you select the .xsd file). Set Appropriate name (usually the root node of your schema) to the “Type Name” as shown in the below figure. This is crucial, since all the schemas contained inside the project will be compiled into typed objects, derived from corresponding BizTalk artifact classes. (Example: If you look at the compiled “dll” of this sample project,  using Reflector, the class definition will be public sealed class PO_Target : SchemaBase).

That’s all, your new schema is ready to be used now. Apart from all the properties windows we have seen there is one more property window for the schemas (can be seen by right clicking on the .xsd file and selecting “Properties” from the context menu) as shown in the below figure

You configure things like “Output Instance filename” which will be used when you generate a sample file from schema, “Input Instance file” which will be used when you want to validate a message against a schema etc.

Nandri!

Saravana 

Now, I’m a "MCPD – Enterprise Application Developer for .NET 2.0"

by | May 15, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

I recently obtained my MCPD (Enterprise Applications Developer) credentials. I’ll admit probably this is one thing which stayed in my TODO list for more than a year. Microsoft re-organised their certification program after the release of Visual Studio 2005, .NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005. Not everyone is aware of this new certification model and its requires some explanation here.

According to new certification model, the two main categories of certification for people on Software development falls under either

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS), and eventually upgrading to Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD)

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)

MCTS are targeted to specific technology so that you can demonstrate your expertise in that area. You can get your MCTS credentials in one of the following areas.

MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications
MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Applications
MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications

In addition to the above credentials, which applies to all the .NET 2.0 developers based on their choosen field (Windows, Web and Distributed), developers can also obtain MCTS credential for some of the server products example:

MCTS: SQL Server 2005

MCTS: BizTalk Server 2006

Microsoft Certified Professional Developer: Enterprise Applications Developer (MCPD):

MCPD demonstrates comprehensive skills that are required to perform the job successfully, and must remain current in best practices and technologies. It also demonstrates that you have the comprehensive skills required to build n-tier solutions targeting both Web and rich-client user experiences. In order to obtain MCPD: Enterprise Applications Developer candidates must first meet the requirements for the following three Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) credentials for the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.

MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications
MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Applications
MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications

In addition the candiate also required to pass a design paper “PRO: Designing and Developing Enterprise Applications by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework“

–Saravana

Free Exam for First Timers

by | May 15, 2007 | BizTalk Community Blogs via Syndication

If you’ve never taken a Microsoft Certification exam, here is your chance! Hurry,

this offer is only valid through June 30, 2007. Call 1-800-TEST-REG (800-837-8734)

to schedule your exam right now. Visit Pearson

Vuefor more details! (via David

Walker)

Update : This is only available to Students and Faculty

at High Schools and Accredited Colleges.