Prism with Silverlight : Short Videos but covers topic really well

Creating a shell and modules

http://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/akmsft/creating-a-modular-application-using-prism-v2-part-1-of-4--creating-a-shell-and-modules

Visual Composition

http://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/akmsft/creating-a-modular-application-using-prism-v2-screencast-24--visual-composition

Implementing views and services

http://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/akmsft/creating-a-modular-application-using-prism-v2-screencast-34--implementing-views-and-services

Decoupled Communication

http://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/akmsft/creating-a-modular-application-using-prism-v2-screencast-44--decoupled-communication

Improving the Performance of Infopath 2007

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb380251(office.12).aspx

SharePoint 2010 as Application Development Framework

When i started working on SharePoint , i never thought it to be more than a document management system . Even today when i mention SharePoint i know what's in the end user mind( Document , Document , Document .......) .

SharePoint has changed so drastically within past decade. I was always excited about the fact that it's possible to develop custom application using SharePoint 2007 as base framework . We did multiple implementation and development time has reduced around 50 % . Reason is that we dont need to spend time doing too much data modelling obviously there is downside to it as complex data centric application is not real contender for such efforts and neither transaction based application . But what i have seen as per my experience is that in any organization there are very few key applications which are complex and they are mostly business drivers other are small custom applications just to automate business process and no surprise that these small applications sometimes makes more than 50% of the applications in an organizations and are good contender to be developed using SharePoint as framework .

Custom applications developed on top of SharePoint 2007 comes with drawbacks too , biggest evil is performance. Too much of data will drain the server resouces and might take ages to load pages. So i would say application development in SharePoint 2007 has proven to be more of POC and learning platform.

SharePoint 2010 seems to much more mature with its 64 bit architecture and promises to provide deliver better performance.

Story cut short , non business centric applications will be developed using SharePoint in future. So if you would like to equip yourself then refer the below URL :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=64b55569-2168-4545-8b7c-f185b2cf967d&displaylang=en

SharePoint 2010 Resources

If you are looking for one stop shop for SharePoint resources than this one is good place to start with :
http://blogs.technet.com/b/vedant/archive/2010/06/14/sharepoint-2010-resource-guide.aspx

and if you are the ones who prefer videos than here is the link :

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/Pages/Videos.aspx?VideoID=14

SharePoint 2010 Edition Comparison with Quick Details

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/Pages/Editions-Comparison.aspx

SharePoint 2010 Certifications

Some details on SharePoint 2010 certifications :
Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development

Designing and Developing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Applications

Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring

Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Administrator

Versions of SharePoint 2010

There are four versions of SharePoint Server 2010 as specified in following URL :

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee388573.aspx

SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Client Access License features

For organizations looking to expand their business collaboration platform to enable advanced scenarios. Use the Enterprise capabilities of SharePoint to fully interoperate with external line-of-business applications, Web services, and Microsoft Office client applications; make better decisions with rich data visualization, dashboards, and advanced analytics; and build robust forms and workflow-based solutions.

SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, Enterprise

For organizations looking to create customer-facing public internet sites and private extranets using the full enterprise capabilities of SharePoint. This provides full SharePoint Enterprise functionality and no other technical limits.

SharePoint Server 2010 Standard Client Access License features

For organizations looking to deploy a business collaboration platform across all types of content. Use the core capabilities of SharePoint to manage content and business processes, find and share information and expertise, and simplify how people work together across organizational boundaries.

SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, Standard

For small and mid-sized organizations looking to create public Internet sites or basic extranets using the Standard features of SharePoint Server 2010.

SharePoint 2010 Product key

Here goes product keys for SharePoint 2010 Release Version:

SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Client Access License Features: GGDG8-JCMXH-8KG8C-RJYYX-3Y33H
SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, Enterprise: 9FPGB-W6QTT-G68T4-TBX7M-R624H
SharePoint Server 2010 Standard Client Access License Features: KB443-F7CJV-J2RP4-QYQJ7-6PBB3
SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, Standard: H4P2T-CYKM7-9FKKD-DTQ7X-W69GG

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee391660.aspx


HAPPY SHAREPOINTING!!!!

Retrieve Solution file from SharePoint Farm

Situation :
Developer created .wsp file and installed in SharePoint farm . We need install these solution files to new farm and we have no clue where developer has saved these files.It's not in Visual Source safe too.

Disaster Recovery :
Pull the .wsp from the existing farm using code below :

SPSolutionCollection solutions = SPFarm.Local.Solutions;

foreach (SPSolution solution in solutions)
{
SPPersistedFile wspFile = solution.SolutionFile;
wspFile.SaveAs("c:\\Temp\\Solutions\\" + solution.Name);
}

Make sure directory exists .

Enjoy!

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlError: Exclusive access could not be obtained because the database is in use. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Express.Smo)

I got this error while i was trying to restore SSP SQL Backp from source farm to new target farm SSP DB. Obviously DB by used by different processes which caused this error.

I did following steps to get it working( Make sure you can afford SQL DB outage during the restore )

1) Run the following SQL Query on SSP DB

USE master
GO

ALTER DATABASE   YOUR_SSP_DB_NAME
SET OFFLINE WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE

2) Perform SQL Restore from Backup

3)
ALTER DATABASE    YOUR_SSP_DB_NAME
SET ONLINE


Thats It .

This process is much simpler than the Central Administration Restore process. For some weird reasons i kept on getting errors while trying with Central Administration console .

Downloadable content for Sharepoint

Handy articles :

SharePoint 2010

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262788(office.14).aspx

SharePoint 2007

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262788.aspx

Working with List Items MOSS 2007

Very good tool if you want to work with list items without using the web UI .

http://splistitemeditor.codeplex.com/

Content Query Web Part : Master of all OOB webpart

If you are looking for formatting sharepoint content as far as your imagination goes , you have to explore master of all OOB webpart "Content Query Web Part"

Customization Sample :
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb447557.aspx

This is one of the most powerful webpart but still SharePointers avoid it's usage due to its complex looking .xsl language . Fact is that once you understand XSL then this webpart will become common in your websites.

The site collection could not be restored. Please make sure the content databases are available and have sufficient free space

"The site collection could not be restored. Please make sure the content databases are available and have sufficient free space "
Follow this article in case you bump on to above error :
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926061

Exception Error 0x80020009 when trying to Activate "Office Sharepoint Server Publishing Infrastructure"

If you face issue activating the Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature , try following these steps mentioned by Chris Winebarger

Following are the steps :

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename publishing\feature.xml -url http://URL -force

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename publishingresources\feature.xml -url http://URL -force

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename publishingSite\feature.xml -url http://URL -force

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename publishingweb\feature.xml -url http://URL -force

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename publishinglayouts\feature.xml -url http://URL -force

stsadm -o activatefeature -filename navigation\feature.xml -url http://URL -force

Worked for me ...

Cloud Computing Azure

Pretty interesting webcast on cloud computing :

Webcast

Customize application pages in the Layouts folder

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944105

Error in PortalCrawl Web Service.

People search was not working even after crawl and i saw this error message in error log.
To get it working i had to create a dummy root site collection at http://servername

Request for the permission of type 'System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission failed

Request for the permission of type 'System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' failed

In case you receive security issue when executing the managed code infopath form , solution is to make the infopath form Full Trust.

To make form full trust , in Office Infopath design mode, go to Tools -> Form Options -> Security and Trust -> Full Trust (Change Security level to full trust ).

Publish theform .

Auditing SharePoint 2007 List/ Library

Auditing documents/ list items in SharePoint 2007 is a 3 step process :


1) Create Site Collection Policy
- Go to Site Actions ->Modify all Site Settings - >Site Collection Policies
- Create new policy -> Provide Name and Enable Auditing
- Select Events you would like to audit -> Click OK


2) Set up the Document Library / List which requires auditing
- Go to List Settings of Document Library you would like to audit
- Click on Information Management Policy Settings
- Under use site collection policy , select the policy you had defined in first step
- Click Ok

At this point you library / list is set for auditing and any action will be logged .

3) Viewing the results
- Go to Site Actions ->Modify all Site Settings - >Audit log Reports
- Under Custom Reports click on "Run a custom report "
- Select checkbox "Restrict this Report to " and select corresponding web application and list name
- You can select various filters (start date , end date , users ), though these are optional but its better to use them as they improve the report performance
- Select the events you would like to see the report for and click ok
- Voila ! you have the details reports with worksheet displaying the activity and usernames ,you have to use the filter to zero down to required data. UserNames can be accessed worksheet named"Report Data". Event column will display the action performed on a particular item

Enjoy !

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

Happy New Year !! to all . This year is going to bring more interesting technology challenges.

Bring it on !!!!