Craig Bailey on Microsoft

This has got to be one of the most exciting new services this year: Readify has announced their new hosted TFS service: TFS Now. Mitch Denny has the lowdown.

Hosted Team Foundation Server for $995 per month for 5 users.

(Via Paul Stovell)

A few Fox people have asked me lately about SharePoint, and how to get started with it. This might seem strange given how much push it is getting from Microsoft, but perhaps this is another case of having tooooo much information to sift through. Sometimes it can be too overwhelming.

(Note: I am not a SharePoint expert - this is early days for me too)

Anyway, here's a few resources to get started:

Links

• TechRepublic overview article of SharePoint 2007 (excellent summary - outlines the developer tools you'll need to use)
• SharePoint Server 2007 Licensing costs (be warned, this is not a cheap product)
• SharePoint product licensing scenarios (warning - it can get complex)
• Microsoft white paper outlining their internal global rollout of SharePoint 2007 (excellent, honest, and helpful summary of the difficulties and major success MicrosoftIT had rolling it out)

Mindset

There's two things I've realised about SharePoint that developers need to understand:

1. We need to get our heads around configuration
2. We need to understand the significance of workflow

As developers we generally like to avoid all the setup stuff (eg take SQL Server), and instead concentrate on the programming (eg database design and writing stored procedures). With SharePoint we can't do this - we need to understand all the setup and configuration stuff as well as the programming. A large part of SharePoint solutions is in the initial config, and we can't just palm it off onto the IT Pros.

With regard to workflow, we need to grasp that the future of enterprise development revolves around workflow. This shouldn't be too much of a surprise (eg the .Net framework has a big focus on it) but it is easy to ignore (especially if you are from a database background).

Books

There's millions of books available of course, but here's two I'm reading:

• Workflow in the 2007 Microsoft Office System (a great overview, quick to read)
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion (massive book - more of a reference than a read)

VPC

This is excellent. It takes you step-by-step through how to build a Virtual PC of Windows 2003 Server with MOSS 2007 fully installed.

How to create a MOSS 2007 VPC

Note: this requires you to have access to licenses for Windows 2003 Server, SQL Server 2005, SharePoint Designer, and MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) 2007. For MSDN subscribers and MVPs this won't be a problem, but for others this could be tricky. You may need to use a range of trial software. There may even be fully configured trial VPCs available too (but that kinda defeats the purpose of going through all the config).

Personal note 1: It took me approx 2 weeks to complete, as I was installing a little bit each night and playing with a few things along the way (colleagues at work have set it up in a day though). Once complete, it is a full VPC (at roughly 10GB) that you can backup easily.

Personal note 2: In light of my recent notebook reinstalls, I have come to fully appreciate the beauty of VPCs!

Blogs

There's also millions of SharePoint blogs around. Here's two local guys that I read:

SharePoint Tips (Ishai Sagi)

Guru Web (Ivan Wilson)

Other

Sydney also has a SharePoint User Group, but I haven't attended it (but feel it worth mentioning since I know the company who organize it). The meeting coming up in August looks very good.

Darren Neimke's book (ASP.Net web parts in Action) always gets great reviews, and is sitting on one of our desks at work, but so far I haven't read it. The reason for mentioning it is because many ASP.Net developers don't realize they are 90% of the way to being SharePoint developers - much of the coding behind SharePoint sites is all ASP.Net. And yet, I hear many ASP.Net developers tell me they don't know the first thing about SharePoint. With the state of the SharePoint market at the moment (it's hot, hot, hot in Australia) there's plenty of opportunities for those quick enough to re-package themselves.

Andrew Coates points to the 2007 Microsoft Office Virtual Labs, some of which cover SharePoint.

Of interest

Microsoft is in the process of moving their entire US web site to be SharePoint 2007 based, but as of July 2007 my understanding is that this is not yet completed - please let me know if it has been completed.

I like reading MIS magazine every month as it keeps me informed on what is happening in the corporate technology sector of Australia.

They've just recently made it available online, and I was staggered to see that you can get all the content from the current version for free (past versions require a subscription).

This article may be of interest to people in the job market at present.

Just thought I'd give this a plug because I like the concept behind it.

Wayne Small, a SBS MVP, who runs the Sydney SBS UG (that's Small Business Server) is running a conference - SMB Focus - in late November (23 & 24) for small to medium business IT resellers.

Wayne, who I've been chatting with lately (he was kind enough to lend me his video camera so I could record a UG meeting) has been running his own business for a decade or so now and understands many of the pressures and stresses that are involved.

In particular this part of the conference caught my eye:

Another key area that many SMB IT resellers often overlook is the proper work/life balance. Many of us are working extended hours and don’t pay enough attention to the lifestyle, the fun and enjoyment of what we’re working so hard to achieve. We’ll be including a number of aspects of lifestyle training in this event to ensure we can get a good balance across the board.

I think this is a great initiative - how often do you hear developer/IT Pro/technology conferences discuss these aspects? But it is very important.

Early bird registration closes at the end of August.

I've used Windows Live Writer in the past, and it has been a little flaky. I'm happy to say that their latest beta (its been out for a few months now) is a lot better. Much faster, and is working well handling images (something I had trouble with in the past version).

• Windows Live Writer Download
• Windows Live Writer blog

Note: If installing on Vista you'll most likely have to Run as Administrator to install. By this I mean you need to right click on the Installer and click 'Run as Administrator'. This is a little weird because all my other applications have simply used a UAC popup to gain necessary permissions when installing.

If you don't Run as Administrator, the installer will run, prompt via UAC, ask you to agree to T&Cs, ask if you want MSN as your search page, start installing but then hang.

A great meeting with Fred Schebesta and Grant Paisley presenting up a storm last Wed 25 July 2007.

Fred powered through an excellent overview of internet marketing, search engine optimization and web site tracking. A big thank you to Fred for coming along, and big congratulations to him on his engagement a few days after the meeting - enjoy your holiday Fred.

Grant talked us though the new SharePoint BI tools, including PerformancePoint (slated for release this November). The power in these tools is amazing. Also shown were some of the plugins for Excel.

Check out these links for more details:

• SQL Server Data Mining
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Data Mining Add-ins for Microsoft Office 2007 (This one was amazing!)
• Grant's presentation on MOSS and BI