Saturday, December 25, 2004
Merry Xmas !
Friday, December 24, 2004
A Random Act of Podcasting
A Random Act of Podcasting - Leon O'Brien & Angus Logan 's first crack at doing a podcast. Really superb job guys ... looking forward to the next show !
MCMS.Rapid - Beta 2
CMS / MSIB plus pack - source code available
For some time the MSIB +Pack and LAWS Accelerator have been available for zero cost by requesting a free permanent license key from peppi@cscape.com .
There has also been the promise that the source code would be released at some time in the future. Great news is that Ive now received the source code from IOKO and cScape and just loaded it up on to GotDotNet ... it should be available shortly.
Note you dont have to have MSIB ... most of the components are useful for CMS only installations.
It is NOT supported ... but consultancy is available from IOKO and cScape. Terms are: "This source code is provided on an 'as is' basis without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including without limitation warranties that the code is free of defect, fit for a particular purpose or non-infringing. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the code is with the end user."
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Paint.NET v2.0 is ready for download
Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows XP. Paint.NET is jointly developed at Washington State University with additional help from Microsoft, and is meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems. The programming language used to create Paint.NET is C#, with GDI+ extensions.
More
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AchieveForms Lite beta available
AFLite Beta 1 Released! You can now register to download and install free electronic forms for MCMS 2002. The final release will be available in January, and will include an integration with MCMS.Rapid.
AFLite lets users of Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 get up and running with electronic forms for free. AFLite is based on the market-leading electronic forms solution AchieveForms from Business Web Software. If you are running MCMS 2002 and would like to see how an integrated eForms solution can benefit your business, AFLite is the place to start.
First thing to do is to read about what AFLite is, and how it compares to AchieveForms. There are some limitations in the available functionality, but there is more than enough to offer a compelling solution. Next thing to do is to read about the AFLite hardware and software requirements to make sure that you have the right system to install on.
Once you are ready to get started, register to download the AFLite install set. After installing, you will need to generate a key to activate the software.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Windows EU Edition
After todays European Commission ruling, Microsoft is pressing ahead to release a European version of Windows without Windows Media functionality.
So how does that benefit consumers ?
So how does that benefit consumers ?
Where is the roadmap?
From Maurice Prather ... Where is the roadmap?
The Power of ZEN MICRO
You will never be without your favourite music with ZEN MICRO. Squeezed into its micro-sized casing is the capacity to store an astounding 2,500 songs on its 5GB hard drive, and it keeps your music going for up to 12 hours on a single battery charge with its removable, rechargeable Li-ion battery.
Not only does it play music, the ZEN MICRO helps you keep your life organized too. The mini-organizer consists of a calendar, an address book and a to-do-list. Keep track of all your business appointments or classes. Sync up your Microsoft Outlook email addresses, calendar notes in your home or office PCs with ZEN MICRO. The built-in microphone lets you to create and store voice memos with the built-in voice recorder.
Created in 10 attractive colors and with a mesmerizing blue backlight glow, FM tuner and FM recording with 32 preset stations, USB 2.0 for fast transfer of files and 8 preset EQ settings, the Creative ZEN MICRO packs so much into something so small.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
MCMS Rapid Launch Event - Save the Date
Artemis have confirmed that the EMEA launch event for MCMS.Rapid will be an evening event at Microsoft UK Campus (Reading) on the 15th Feb 2005.
Please save the date and full event booking details will be publicised early next year. The plan is to have a high level presentation for all audiences (sales, business, developer) and then have a developer breakout session to follow. Pizza and beer will be available
.
As it stands there are plans growing for other launch events in other regions but this will be interest-driven, so please contact Nick Mayhew if you would be interested in attending / hosting launch events outside EMEA. Nick starts in the new year as Rapid Launch Director.
Reminder that beta 2 releases on December 24th and includes the source code - a nice Xmas present!
Monday, December 20, 2004
Free .NET Web Services Management Software
Download free AmberPoint Express ... a cost-effective means for Web service developers to incrementally measure, debug and fine-tune the performance and functionality of their Web services and SOAP messaging.
- Performance Monitoring: View Web service performance in real time with easy-to-digest charts for response time, throughput and SOAP fault counts
- Analysis: Gain a quick understanding of performance bottlenecks and errors from drilling down into SOAP messages from performance graphs
- Diagnosis: Inspect SOAP messages for content, faults and errors in an easy-to-read fashion to understand and debug anomalous Web service behavior
- Testing: Resubmit messages from history or auto-generate new SOAP messages based on WSDL to fine-tune Web services
- Integrated with Visual Studio .NET for point-and-click management of Web services built on the Microsoft .NET Framework
- Available at no charge!
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Publishing to MCMS from Office Word
Sample chapter - Publishing with the Authoring Connector - from the book by recognized community experts Lim Mei Ying, Joel Ward, Stefan Gossner.
Building Websites with Microsoft Content Management Server is an end-to-end guide to creating a MCMS website. No prior knowledge of MCMS is required - this book takes you from the basics of MCMS, guiding you through everything you need to create a fully-featured, content-rich website.
Saturday, December 18, 2004
ArtRage
My kids love to paint ... and make a mess! Here's the solution -
ArtRage is a free painting package designed to provide a realistic and fun simulation of using paint on a canvas, along with pens, pencils, crayons, and other tools. You can run ArtRage on a normal Windows machine with a mouse, but it works particularly well if you have a graphics tablet. Even better, running ArtRage on a TabletPC takes advantage of the unique interaction of pen and screen to produce a realistic painting feel.
ArtRage is all about playing with paint without the mess, and having fun in the process. You can paint your own image from a blank canvas to completed work, or load in a picture to trace and have the tools pick their colours for you as you paint over it. Check out the ArtRage Gallery.
ArtRage was grand prize winner of the 'Microsoft Tablet PC Does Your Application Think in Ink?' competition and was selected as the overall winner from 260 submissions from Independent Software Venders from around the world.
ArtRage is a free painting package designed to provide a realistic and fun simulation of using paint on a canvas, along with pens, pencils, crayons, and other tools. You can run ArtRage on a normal Windows machine with a mouse, but it works particularly well if you have a graphics tablet. Even better, running ArtRage on a TabletPC takes advantage of the unique interaction of pen and screen to produce a realistic painting feel.
ArtRage is all about playing with paint without the mess, and having fun in the process. You can paint your own image from a blank canvas to completed work, or load in a picture to trace and have the tools pick their colours for you as you paint over it. Check out the ArtRage Gallery.
ArtRage was grand prize winner of the 'Microsoft Tablet PC Does Your Application Think in Ink?' competition and was selected as the overall winner from 260 submissions from Independent Software Venders from around the world.
Friday, December 17, 2004
Having Regular Expressions Problems?
From AJ ...
You suffering problems getting your Reg Expressions to work? Well don't worry
there is a tool that can save your neck! Take a look at Expresso.
More
Creating an Office 2003 Research Service Using the Amazon Web Service API
MSDN Article:
Creating an Office 2003 Research Service Using the Amazon Web Service API
Summary: Search for books at Amazon.com using the Amazon.com research service, then include the results returned in your sheet or document, without leaving your Office 2003 application. The sample solution shows you how to implement a custom research service.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
SPS 2003: Planning, Design and Implementation
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Planning, Design and Implementation provides an in-depth examination of the tasks involved in planning, designing and deploying the product in your enterprise.
The book examines the product from the user's perspective, the administrator's perspective, and the application developer's perspective and looks at how you can maximize your investment by integrating the SPS with other enterprise applications in your environment.
The authors are experienced consultants that have helped many large corporations deploy Microsoft technologies within their enterprise. This book is filled with practical experience and knowledge gained from working with customers in the field.
Microsoft Acquires Anti-spyware Leader Giant
Microsoft today announced its acquisition of Giant Company Software, Inc., a provider of top-rated anti-spyware and Internet security products. Microsoft will use the acquisition to provide its customers with new tools to help protect them from the threat of spyware and other deceptive software. In addition, key personnel from Giant will be joining Microsoft's security efforts. Microsoft plans to make available a beta version of a spyware protection, detection, and removal tool, based on the Giant Anti-Spyware product, within one month for Microsoft customers.
Press release Spyware Guidance
Press release Spyware Guidance
Searching SPS using MSN Desktop Search
From Mark Bower ...
Let's say your SPS site exists at http://my-portal/. SharePoint Portal Server allows you to initiate a search via an HTTP GET request. The syntax for this is defined in the SharePoint Products and Technologies SDK. If I wanted to search for the term Office on the portal the search URL would be: http://my-portal/search.aspx?k=Office. To perform this search from the DeskBand create a shortcut to the portal search:
@sps,http://my-portal/search.aspx?k=$w
Hey Presto, you have some basic integration with SharePoint search! Now you can just type:
sps Office
in the Deskbar to kick off SPS search for the word Office.
More
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Improved Ink Recognition - Office 2003 Tablet PC Update
From Roberdan ...
With this update you will experience improved ink recogition when using Microsoft Office 2003 on your Tablet PC.
New look MSN preview
Checkout the new look MSN.com preview site.
Return on Investment - SharePoint and MCMS
From Roberdan ...
Nucleus has created a web site devoted to Microsoft ROI ... http://www.msftroi.com/Has tools and information for SharePoint and MCMS amongst others.
ChristmasTheme 2004
A christmas desktop theme with new wallpaper, animated cursors, new icons, new sounds and a 3D screensaver.
Choosing Colors for your Web Site
cBlog ... custom site definition to create a blog in SharePoint
Jim Duncan has created a GotDotNet workspace for cBlog to share his custom site definition for creating a blog using SharePoint.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
MCMS Custom Property Extensions
From Andrew Connell ...
Just finished updating the CustomPropertyDbEx replacement for MCMS custom properties as well as a few extra apps to help with the transitionand management. These tools include a migration console app to copy MCMS custom properties to the CustomPropertyDbEx environment as well as a web-based CustomPropertyDbEx Manager.Very impressive !
More
TechEd 2005 Call For Papers
The TechEd 2005 organizers invite you to submit proposals to speak at TechEd in our conference breakout sessions. TechEd is one of Microsoft's most important annual technical training events, and our speaker selection process is extremely rigorous to ensure that attendees experience outstanding quality technical training. Successful proposals will be technical presentations that target best practices and tips & tricks, delivered by experts with significant and highly-rated speaking experience.
Tech Ed 2005 is June 5-10, 2005. Orlando, FL.
Tech Ed 2005 is June 5-10, 2005. Orlando, FL.
Nintex SmartLibrary 2.0
Nintex have announce a new version of SmartLibrary. SmartLibrary 2.0 is a cost-effective solution that extends SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services to provide advanced document management features.
Monday, December 13, 2004
MSN Toolbar Suite Beta With Desktop Search
Microsoft today introduced a beta version of its new MSN Toolbar Suite, with breakthrough desktop search functionality that helps consumers quickly find virtually any type of document, media file or e-mail message on their Windows-based personal computer. Now consumers don't have to spend valuable time sifting through an enormous amount of information; instead, they can quickly find precisely what they need. The integrated suite of tools streamlines the process of finding and acting on information from PCs by combining the ease of a Web search with the richness and power of the PC environment.
The free suite of MSN search tools, available at http://beta.toolbar.msn.com/, is the latest development in a comprehensive MSN Search service that helps consumers more quickly find precisely what they are looking for and gives them more control over their search experience.
Display CMS Placeholder content in a Web Part
From Angus and Andrew ...
Stephen Huen is at it again! Check out his new article & code sample: Display content from a Content Management Server placeholder in a WSS site.
Stephen Huen is at it again! Check out his new article & code sample: Display content from a Content Management Server placeholder in a WSS site.
Microsoft Office Outlook Live
Check the demo of a new MSN Service thats on the horizon - Microsoft Office Outlook Live (MOOL) will synchronise data between MSN Hotmail and Microsoft Outlook. Users of MOOL should be able to sync mail / calendar/ contacts / notes / tasks with MSN Hotmail.
Document Library Browser web part
From Patrick and Angus ... Stramit has an Xmas present for us - the Document Library Browser webpart can render a document library in a treeview style.
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Client-side scripts available in SharePoint ... and behaviours
Via Patrick ...
Behaviour components can easily be hooked into a sites custom stylesheet, e.g.
.ms-main{ BEHAVIOR: url(/_layouts/markstyle/feedback.htc);}
Jim's recent posting discusses how your own custom javascript filesIve got one more method to add to Jims list: behaviours which are components that encapsulate specific functionality or behavior on a page.
can be part of the library of client-side script files for a SharePoint site
definition.
Behaviour components can easily be hooked into a sites custom stylesheet, e.g.
.ms-main{ BEHAVIOR: url(/_layouts/markstyle/feedback.htc);}
Talk to SharePoint through its web services
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New article - Talk to SharePoint through its web services. Windows SharePoint Services comes with sixteen different web services. This article is an introduction to the web servies and its capabilities and how to use them.
Update: Another article on SharePoint and Web Services.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Enhancing the Accessibility of SharePoint Web Sites
Spotted by Angus - new MSDN Article:
Tips for Enhancing the Accessibility of SharePoint Web Sites
Summary: Enhance the accessibility of SharePoint Web sites by making a few easy customizations of the site definition files in a deployment of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services.
ASP.NET 1.1 Membership / Roles / User Profiles
We have started to look at adding Membership, Roles and User Profiling functionality to MCMS.Rapid. For example, it would be cool to drive navigation and filter lists of postings based on the users preferences, and also to pre-fill certain fields in eForms.
One of the very useful things about the next version of ASP.NET (v2.0 Whidbey) is that it provides Membership, Roles and User Profiling ... so what do we use today ? Some great news is that my colleagues have today released this functionality for ASP.NET 1.1.
The Microsoft ASP.NET v1.1 Membership Management Component Prototype contains classes that allow a developer to more easily authenticate users, authorize users, and store per-user property data in a user profile. The authentication feature validates and stores user credentials which a developer can use to manage user authentication on a web site. The authorization feature lets you treat groups of users as a unit by assigning users to roles such as manager, sales, member, and so on. Combined with ASP.NET's built-in authorization functionality, Windows Shared Hosting developers have end-to-end support for maintaining user-to-role mappings and authorizing users based on this information. The profile feature enables you to provide users of your Web site with a custom experience. By defining and using profile properties, you can track any custom information your application requires, including user information and user preferences.
The functionality provided by this component is a preliminary version of the Membership, Roles, and Profile functionality coming in ASP.NET 2.0 and will change in the final release of ASP.NET 2.0. This means that any ASP.NET v1.1 applications you develop using this component will need to be updated when you migrate to the final release of ASP.NET 2.0. This is also a non Microsoft supported component.
One of the very useful things about the next version of ASP.NET (v2.0 Whidbey) is that it provides Membership, Roles and User Profiling ... so what do we use today ? Some great news is that my colleagues have today released this functionality for ASP.NET 1.1.
The Microsoft ASP.NET v1.1 Membership Management Component Prototype contains classes that allow a developer to more easily authenticate users, authorize users, and store per-user property data in a user profile. The authentication feature validates and stores user credentials which a developer can use to manage user authentication on a web site. The authorization feature lets you treat groups of users as a unit by assigning users to roles such as manager, sales, member, and so on. Combined with ASP.NET's built-in authorization functionality, Windows Shared Hosting developers have end-to-end support for maintaining user-to-role mappings and authorizing users based on this information. The profile feature enables you to provide users of your Web site with a custom experience. By defining and using profile properties, you can track any custom information your application requires, including user information and user preferences.
The functionality provided by this component is a preliminary version of the Membership, Roles, and Profile functionality coming in ASP.NET 2.0 and will change in the final release of ASP.NET 2.0. This means that any ASP.NET v1.1 applications you develop using this component will need to be updated when you migrate to the final release of ASP.NET 2.0. This is also a non Microsoft supported component.
Friday, December 10, 2004
AchieveForms Lite is coming
Back in October I blogged about AchieveForms which is a superb forms solution for MCMS. I also mentioned that a free Lite version would be created. Its availability is now on the immediate horizon and you can register your interest here.
SharePoint skinner / Branding a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site
New MSDN articles from Daniel McPherson and John Hooper:
- Branding SPS 2003 Part 1:
Understanding the Use of a Corporate Brand - Branding SPS 2003 Part 2:
How to Apply Your Own Corporate Brand
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
MCMS.Rapid Beta 1 Available
The development of MCMS.Rapid is close to completion and Artemis is now entering into a beta testing phase. Full release of MCMS.Rapid will be January 2005.
Artemis is looking for willing beta testers and welcomes approaches from partners, peers and potential adopters of the technology. To participate in the beta please complete the form for MCMS.Rapid Beta Programme Participation Request. The documentation is available here.
Please read the release notes before installing for a couple of extra installation instructions and known issues.
Source code will be made available later.
PDC - save the date
Announcing the 2005 Microsoft Professional Developers Conference
September 13 to 16, 2005
Pre-conferences September 11 and 12
Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
Sign up now to receive updates on PDC 2005.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
SmartPhone Bluetooth Remote Control for PowerPoint
From Mike Taulty ...
What I've done is written a little toy that allows you to take remote control of a PowerPoint slide show using your SmartPhone over Bluetooth.
More
What I've done is written a little toy that allows you to take remote control of a PowerPoint slide show using your SmartPhone over Bluetooth.
More
Free e-Ticketing Solution for Commerce Server 2002
The Royal Borough of Kingston obtained funding from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to lead on development of an e-ticketing solution for both council services and community groups as part of the e-Pay National Project.
CIBER UK implemented 'My Kingston', with Commerce Server 2002 using the .NET Framework. Community groups in Kingston can register as promoters to sell tickets, or register participants for their events, on 'My Kingston' and benefit from the full value of their tickets. RBK is experiencing more hits on its Web site, with residents becoming more aware of the transactional services available to them online from the council.
The e-ticketing solution will be made available free to every local authority in the U.K. saving them from spending any money on development costs. Until the download area is made available, for more information & the solution download, contact Charlie.James@uk.ciber.com
Update: eTicketing Toolkit Download area ... its free to anyone, public or commercial. Contact Charlie if you need CIBER to help configuring it.
Update2: Details on Ciber site
CIBER UK implemented 'My Kingston', with Commerce Server 2002 using the .NET Framework. Community groups in Kingston can register as promoters to sell tickets, or register participants for their events, on 'My Kingston' and benefit from the full value of their tickets. RBK is experiencing more hits on its Web site, with residents becoming more aware of the transactional services available to them online from the council.
The e-ticketing solution will be made available free to every local authority in the U.K. saving them from spending any money on development costs. Until the download area is made available, for more information & the solution download, contact Charlie.James@uk.ciber.com
Update: eTicketing Toolkit Download area ... its free to anyone, public or commercial. Contact Charlie if you need CIBER to help configuring it.
Update2: Details on Ciber site
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate is available here - designed to enhance server security and to better defend against hackers. Intended only for installation in a test environment.
Monday, December 06, 2004
MCMS.Rapid Support Forums
The community support forums for MCMS.RAPID have gone live ... this will be the central point for users and developers of the Rapid solution to come to for help, assistance and sharing of expertise.
MSDN Smart Client Developer Center: Rebooted
Saturday, December 04, 2004
MCMS Rapid Parts and Rapid Zones ... Site Definer
There was a discussion on the newsgroups about draggable placedholders and zones. The long term strategic direction should be to use .NET Framework 2.0 Web Parts.
Until then, MCMS.Rapid provides a tactical solution to this. With Rapid - the template is an XML file (plus a base template XML file) that defines the panels (i.e. zones) and the components (i.e. parts) within each panel.
You can create this with notepad but there is an alternative ... there will be an application called the "Definer" which can be invoked from the Web Author console. This will allow non techies to define templates i.e. specify the panels and the components on each panel.
The plan is the Definer will be used for page templates, metadata, form templates and database management tasks for categories and taxomony.
To whet the appetite ... here are some screenshots (zip password markharrison).
Reference Documentation for Microsoft SharePointPSSearch
Just available - preview of the Reference Documentation for Microsoft SharePointPSSearch, the SQL Syntax used for Microsoft SharePointPSSearch Full Text Search.
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server Search provides content crawling and search features that support full-text searching. The query language used by SharePointPSSearch extends the standard SQL-92 and SQL-99 database query syntax to enhance its usefulness with text-based searches.
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server Search provides content crawling and search features that support full-text searching. The query language used by SharePointPSSearch extends the standard SQL-92 and SQL-99 database query syntax to enhance its usefulness with text-based searches.
Creating custom pages in SharePoint
From Bil Simser ...
One of the really cool things about SharePoint is that you can create your own custom aspx pages like you would any ASP.NET application, but with a few tips you can leverage all the features of SharePoint like using web part zones and allowing customization and personalization.
When creating a custom page be sure to inherit from WebPartPage....Here is how you get the navigation on your WebPartPage.
More
One of the really cool things about SharePoint is that you can create your own custom aspx pages like you would any ASP.NET application, but with a few tips you can leverage all the features of SharePoint like using web part zones and allowing customization and personalization.
When creating a custom page be sure to inherit from WebPartPage....Here is how you get the navigation on your WebPartPage.
More
Friday, December 03, 2004
Welsh Language Pack for Windows XP and Office 2003
Microsoft has launched a Welsh Language Pack for Windows XP and Office 2003 that will translate Windows menus and Office applications seamlessly into Welsh.
MCMS.Rapid RSS feed
Here is the RSS feed for news on MCMS.Rapid site, obviously powered by Rapid. http://www.mcmsrapid.com/xml/news.rss
Winter Fun Pack 2004
Get the Winter Fun Pack 2004 and have more fun with Windows XP this winter season! Spice up your music, photos and more with amazing holiday visualizations, skins, powertoys and other fun add-ons. There’s something for the whole family! The Winter Fun Pack 2004 includes:
- Stunning Holiday visualizations, skins and PowerToys for Windows Media Player 10.
- Winter Fun Wallpaper Changer and Holiday Elf Dancer.
- Holiday music autoplaylists for Windows Media Player 10.
- A new PowerToy for Media Center 2005. And more!
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
MSN Messenger 7 beta download
Download the MSN Messenger 7.0 Beta ... this is a pre-release version of the MSN Messenger client that will be offered in the near future.
Try out the Winks - these are animations with sound to really get some attention.
Try out the Winks - these are animations with sound to really get some attention.
MCMS.Rapid update
Artemis made a call yesterday to delay the availability of MCMS.Rapid by 7 days.
The key issue is that it is felt that additional work needs to be done to the documentation to take it to the highest levels of quality. The main problem releasing it without complete and detailed documentation is that any evaluators will not get the optimum experience from the start and be unable to recognise / make full use of functionality that is available.
The MCMS.Rapid web site www.mcmsrapid.com has been switched on - this will be the place to go for downloads, latest news and support.
The key issue is that it is felt that additional work needs to be done to the documentation to take it to the highest levels of quality. The main problem releasing it without complete and detailed documentation is that any evaluators will not get the optimum experience from the start and be unable to recognise / make full use of functionality that is available.
The MCMS.Rapid web site www.mcmsrapid.com has been switched on - this will be the place to go for downloads, latest news and support.
Digi-Link Revelation
Digilink have announced the release of Digi-Link Revelation, an easy-to-use software program that lets mobile users synchronize off-line data with SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services.
Revelation allows users to store SharePoint Portal Server 2003 files on their laptops that can be updated off-line or on a server. Files are then flagged for automatic two-way synchronization when a user comes back online.
SharePoint+
Revelation allows users to store SharePoint Portal Server 2003 files on their laptops that can be updated off-line or on a server. Files are then flagged for automatic two-way synchronization when a user comes back online.
SharePoint+