Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Sharepoint WebControl Part II : Creating Custom OWS Control for Webpart

Introduction
The first part of this series discuss how to reuse OWS controls from Sharepoint.WebControls. Strictly speaking, there are few steps to employ them in webpart; first, create OWSForm as field containers; second, add OWS * Field controls to the form; next submit the form either using OWSSubmit control or your own control and finally collect the value from POST value collections.

In fact, that Sharepoint.WebControls only define 2 ows field; dateField and numberField – which is far from our expectation. However if you keen to browse OWS.JS (the default javascript’s include in Sharepoint), then you’ll find that there are many other OWS inputs around such as URLField, BooleanField, NoteField, RichTextField, TextField etc. (Figure-1). Obviously, those input are just common input type found in HtmlControls of ASPNET or HTML basic tag. The OWS provides uniform appearance and finer user interface – such as the one we found in date picking tools of DateField or formatting tab of RichTextField etc. So our discussion here is to create the first custom OWS control, using available objects in OWS.JS scripts. For sake of simplicity and cleared purpose, I will take a simple example the TextField – giving you the methodology to create your own OWS*Field control and leaving the other field for you to implement.


/Gill

Sharepoint WebControl Part I :Reusing OWS Controls in Custom Webpart

Introduction
I am very sure that most of us have been familiar with NewForm.aspx from Sharepoint. That kind of submission form by Sharepoint is a template, which is then populated - based on columns definition of that list. So we can have date field, number field etc., depends on columns definition. Surprisingly, that kind of form is made by some JavaScript object. (Figure-1).Typically creating text field is not a problem but not with date field. Usually we need to allocate special effort for date field – either by creating new custom control or create some JavaScript for the date chooser. However if we could re-use date field object from Sharepoint – then the job can be done faster. So let’s start to figure out how!

Sunday, September 25, 2005

PDC Vidoes from Channel 9

Here are a whole bunch of technical videos made at the PDC, some of these are very interesting.

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=14&TagID=12

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Paper from Microsoft on Connected Systems

Microsoft has a new paper on building connected systems that details the Microsoft Enterprise Application Development Platform products and technologies from the server OS to the .NET Framework. This guide is a high level overview of how the individual tools work together in the creation of connected systems.

Connected systems are applications that leverage the network to link the actors and systems that drive business processes. Connected systems pull together a constellation of services and devices, to more effectively meet modern day business challenges. Building connected systems requires a comprehensive enterprise software platform, but also a new service-oriented architectural approach to address the integration imperative. An enterprise software application platform suitable for building connected systems is much more than a traditional application server, and includes such elements as:
  • Client and server operating systems.
  • Application services such as transactions, messaging, web application support, and security infrastructure.
  • A development technology and application runtime.
  • Development tools.
  • Business process orchestration.
  • Pluggable backend servers providing packaged functionality such as database and portal services.
  • An applications management environment.
  • Enterprise design patterns and practices.

To read the entire paper, click here.

Source: TheServerSide.net / microsoft.com

The Web services empire strikes back

These are series of articles written by Christian Weyer for TheServerSide.Net website. This is how he introduced them

"In a series of weblog postings I will try to introduce some of the most interesting new features of ASMXv2. There actually already have been some very good articles about what ASMXv2 offers. I just want to drill down a bit. And there is still hope to see all this (and more, with sample code and screenshots) in an MSDN article quite soon :)
"

Here is the full list
Part 1: The Web services empire strikes back - Introductory thoughts
Part 2: The Web services empire strikes back - Inner Workings
Part 3: The Web services empire strikes back - Web Services in Visual Studio 2005
Part 4: The Web services empire strikes back - WS-I BP Conformance
Part 5: The Web services empire strikes back - Custom XML Serialization
Part 6: The Web services empire strikes back - Proxy Type Sharing
Part 7: The Web services empire strikes back - Contract-first with .NET 'IDL'
Part 8: The Web services empire strikes back - Schema Importer Extensions
Part 9: The Web services empire strikes back - Making asynchronous Web service calls easier
Part 10: The Web services empire strikes back - Support for Nullable and SqlTypes

Here is the 11th....The Web services empire strikes back - Support for Generics

Cheers and Thanks for Christian Weyer for this articles and TheServerSide.net to publishing them in their newsletters.

/Gill

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

SQL Server 2005 XQuery and XML-DML - Part 1, 2 and 3

XML is a big deal in SQL 2005. Hence we need to understand XML, the hierarchical data structures, XML data types, manipulation of stored XML data using XMLQuery. All the while as a DBA, you were dealing with relational data structures and T-SQL way of manipulating this stored data.

I found this good article to get your started, with XML, XQuery, SQL 2005 XML data type, and of course schemas.

http://www.15seconds.com/issue/050803.htm.

Remember to get the sample codes from http://www.daveandal.net/articles/sql2005-xquery/., the authors website.

/Gill

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

SmartClient Development with VS2005 Series

From: Microsoft WebCasts

Smart Clients that are developed with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 offer both a robust user experience, developer productivity, and the responsiveness of rich clients, along with the small footprint, ease of deployment, and ease of change management offered by Web applications.

Register for this series and learn how to transcend the problems of rich client and Web applications. You will discover how to leave behind the complications that plague large-footprint, tough to deploy, and DLL-laden rich clients, as well as how to avoid the burdens of network dependency, poor user experience, and difficult to develop traditional Web applications.

http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnsmartclient.mspx

/Gill

STL.NET: Combining Generics and Templates

STL.NET provides a bridge between the worlds of traditional C++ templates and .NET generics. By allowing C++ developers to leverage their STL skills without precluding interaction with developers using other .NET languages, STL.NET promises the best of both worlds.
http://www.developer.com/net/cplus/article.php/3524096

/Gill

Avalon and Indigo Get Official Names with Windows Vista Beta Release

With the announcement of the release today of beta 1 for Windows Vista (formally codenamed "Longhorn"), Microsoft also announced the official names for Avalon and Indigo.
Avalon was the code name for what is now officially called Windows Presentation Foundation. WPF is often referred to as the graphical subsystem of Windows Vista. More correctly stated, it is the way in which Windows Vista will create, display, and manipulate documents, media, and user interfaces. This system is expected to use vector graphics, allow for better transparency, and more.

Indigo was the code name for what is now officially called Windows Communication Foundation. WCF is the communications portion of Windows Vista that is built around Web services. This communications technology focuses on providing spanning transports, security, messaging patterns, encoding, networking and hosting, and more. Ultimately, this WCF will deliver a consistent experience — bringing together technologies ranging from Web Services to .NET Remoting to Windows Services — for building connected systems.

It is worth noting that Microsoft had originally announced the beta for August 3rd. This release of the Windows Vista beta a week early should be a welcome surprise to many of the developers and technical IT Pros. This beta is considered a technical beta aimed at developers and techies, primarily those in the MSDN and TechNet programs.

The Windows Vista beta is built on WinFX. The WinFX managed programming model builds on the .NET Framework by adding APIs that target eight core areas. The focus of these APIs is relatively obvious: security, reliability, connectivity, search, data, mobility, user experience, and deployment.

For more on Windows Vista, you can go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Ten Things To Think About When Developing Secure Code

Fail Safe - Your application must always fail safe. That is to say if it encounters a situation and it can no longer proceed, it must deny access to the resource. For example, if a firewall can not validate the action that is being requested by the requester, it should reject the operation; this is known as fail close or fail safe.

Secure the Weakest Link – The security of an application is that of its weakest link thus, it is important that all components in the application are secured and not just the operating system or database server. This also means that as a developer you must protect any resources your code owns or is responsible for.

Security Through Obscurity Does Not Work – Obscurity should not be used as the only or primary security mechanism.

Simplicity - Complexity increases the potential risk of problems. Application architecture and implementations should be as simple as is practical. This also makes it easy to do the right thing.
End to End security – Where data requires protection during transportation, it should be enforced from the sender to the recipient (end to end).

Compartmentalize - Applications should compartmentalize user access. Compartmentalization provides user access to data and functions that they require and restricts them from accessing data or functions they do not need.

Defense in Depth - Applications should use multiple layers of security. This ensures that if one security mechanism is vulnerable to an attack, an additional layer will still enforce an adequate security policy. Password files for example, should be restricted by access control lists and encryption. Similarly even if data is validated, the use of stored procedures or prepared SQL statements is strongly recommended since it adds an additional layer of defense.

Least Privilege – Applications should run with the minimum amount of system privileges that they need to function. Where elevated privileges are required they should be granted for the minimum period of time they are required. A similar principle is the “need to know” principle. Ensure that only the minimum number of people have administrative level access to production web, database and application servers.

Trust but Verify – Applications need to trust other applications or objects on the same host or on the network, however, they must always verify the source they are trusting. The same also applies to users and their actions. For instance, before performing any administrative action, it is important to check that the requesting user is indeed an administrator authorized to request such an action.

Think Strategically – There are no security silver bullets. Security requires constant monitoring and improvement and is not somebody else’s responsibility. Pay special attention to architecting the right solution so that it maybe reused frequently. The use of software design patterns like Model-View-Controller (MVC) and frameworks like JAVA Struts are therefore strongly encouraged.


Attribution
This content was provided by Foundstone and prepared by Nick Murison.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

SQL Server 2005 Hands-On Labs

Greetings,

Don't have a machine to spare for Beta testing. Don't want to go thru the messy install-test-wipe-install-test cycle? Try out the SQL Server 2005 hands-on labs.

SQL Server 2005 hands-on labs give you the opportunity to try out the new and improved features and technologies that the new version will make available to database developers.

/Gill

SQL Server is now at TechCenter

The SQL Server has it's own TechCenter at TechNet.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/default.mspx.

/Gill

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

VSTO (Visual Studio Tool for Office) revisited

Previously i posted some information on VSTO (Visual Studio Tool for Office). In recent days during TechEd 2005 USA, it was announced that the VSTO would also now include Ooutlook support.

So here are tons of resources for working with OUTLOOK using VSTO :)

Download the Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office – Outlook (Beta)
With the new managed Outlook add-in support, developers have a framework and tools to debug, secure, and deploy the Outlook add-ins they create using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office.

Introducing Outlook Add-in Support in Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office
Outlook add-in support simplifies interaction with the host application and provides a cleaner event framework for creating add-ins along with streamlined security.

Architecture of the Outlook Add-in Support in Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office
Developers now have a robust, supported way to build managed add-ins for Office that use AppDomain isolation, a type-safe code model, and a strict code access security model.

Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office - Developer Portal
Check here for the latest articles, code samples, snippets, trainings, and more for Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office. New content published often!


Also

Don't Miss...


Outlook Add-in Hands-on Labs (Beta)Six new labs designed to help you create and work with Outlook 2003 add-in projects.

Outlook Add-in Samples (Beta)Five sample projects illustrating features and scenarios for developing Outlook 2003 add-in projects.

Outlook Add-in Snippets (Beta)Microsoft IntelliSense code snippets designed to assist developers with frequently occurring Outlook development tasks.

Get Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2Get the new Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 release, which includes the latest tools for building Windows, Web, and mobile applications.

Resources:
Office Developer Center (http://msdn.microsoft.com/office)
TechEd 2005 USA
John R. Durant's WebLog (http://weblogs.asp.net/johnrdurant/rss.aspx)

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Reading and Writing XML in .NET Version 2.0 - Part I

Read this article about XML and .Net 2.0. If you have never used the XML handling classes in 1.x, now is the best time. The XML classes has never been easier to use and there so much less code to write. The article makes it so easy to understand this XML classes. Read on...

Cheers
Sarbjit Gill

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Technical Articles for BizTalk 2004

Greetings,

The following are some technical articles for BizTalk 2004. Some are relatively new and some updates. For example if you thinking on how to prioritize messages going into processing by an orchestration, then you should look at the BizTalk Server 2004 Convoy Deep Dive.

Anyway, here are the articles and the links

BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 Management Pack Guide. This document describes how to deploy and configure the sample HL7 Management Pack (MOM Pack). It also describes the integration of Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 (BTAHL7) 1.0 Windows Performance Counters and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) events with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM).

BizTalk Server 2004 Convoy Deep Dive. This paper discusses examples of business scenarios that require convoy message processing, explains convoy theory and messaging, and reviews each included sample.

BizTalk Server 2004 Deployment Guide for Security. This document provides guidelines to help you assess the potential threats to your BizTalk Server implementation, a sample architecture for small and medium-size companies, and a sample Point of Sale solution.

BizTalk Server 2004 Performance Characteristics. This document provides information about the performance characteristics of key BizTalk Server 2004 configurations and components, such as messaging, pipeline, and orchestration.

BizTalk Server 2004 Technical Guide for High Availability. This document contains information to help you understand, plan, and implement a highly available BizTalk Server 2004 environment.

Build Better Business Processes with Web Services in BizTalk Server 2004. This article focuses on one Web services specification that is critical, yet has been largely overlooked: the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS, or BPEL).

Connecting to the Elemica Network with BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet 3.0. This document describes how to enable Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet (BTARN) 3.0 to connect to the Elemica Exchange Server Provider (ESP).

Developing Integration Solutions with BizTalk Server 2004. This document provides developers with techniques for designing, developing, and deploying solutions within BizTalk Server 2004.

Risk Scoring with BizTalk Server 2004 and the Business Rules Framework. This document presents an example BizTalk solution in which an insurance company uses the Business Rules Framework to create a risk profile for qualifying applicants.

Understanding BizTalk Server 2004. BizTalk Server 2004, an integration server, lets you to develop, deploy, and manage integrated business processes and XML-based Web services. This version of BizTalk Server provides integration between messaging and orchestration, and enhanced security and support for industry standards.

Using XML Schemas in BizTalk Server 2004. This document covers the basic concepts needed to create XML schemas and explains how they are used in Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004.

/Sarbjit Gill

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Try the Office Dev Labs and Learn!

Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 provides a rich set of tools and technologies that enables developers to efficiently implement robust business solutions.

In these MSDN hosted virtual labs, you will use Word, Excel and InfoPath 2003 with industry standard XML, .NET Framework technologies and the Visual Studio Tools for Office.

Cheers
Sarbjit Gill

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Using SharePoint Portal Server to Index Your Custom Application

Greetings,

Although you can plumb the depths of SharePoint's search engine, creating custom protocol handlers and IFILTERs to handle your site's custom search needs, for most sites, you can follow a much simpler process to provide customized searches.

Read more: http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/27998

/Sarbjit Gill

Sunday, April 24, 2005

64-Bit .NET Framework

Greetings

MSDN:The 64-bit version of the .NET Framework 2.0 enables the .NET Framework platform, tools and applications to run on 64-bit workstations and servers which provide increased performance and scalability by addressing more memory (16 TB vs. 4G), processing more data (64 vs. 32 bits) per clock cycle and performing faster numeric calculations

Overview
Leverage Existing .NET Framework Code
Leverage Existing .NET Framework Development Experience
Leverage Existing Windows Investments
Getting Started
Development Articles
Development Tools
Code Samples
Visual Studio 2005 Remote Debugging

/Sarbjit Gill

Saturday, April 16, 2005

SQL Server 2005 White Papers

Greetings folks,

Weather you are an IT professional or a developer, Thank You for attending the workshop(s) for SQL Server 2005 Overview for DBAs and Developers at Avantus Training, Singapore.

For further expoloring the coolest functionalities of SQL 2005, you have access to the SQL Server 2005 White Papers . Get up to speed with the latest technical information on SQL Server 2005 by reading these white papers on TechNet and MSDN.

Cheers
Gill

Monday, February 07, 2005

Visual Studio Tools for Office, Version 2005

Applies to: Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System, Version 2005

Summary: Expert developers blog about their personal experience of designing, implementing, and deploying Visual Studio Tools for Office solutions for Word and Excel. Check out some of the best articles we found. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/odc_vsto2005_ta/html/OfficeVSTOBestOfBlogs2005.asp)