Test is Dead !!!!

A refreshing way to present a very important point :  Test is Dead

Some moments from the video :

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SharePoint 2013 RTM Bits available on MSDN

 

Yesterday I download the SharePoint 2013 RTM bits from MSDN and created a brand new VM with all the updated bits.
While configuring SharePoint in the Standalone mode I had the below issue:



This is a known issue since 2010 and is related to the Search Service. I was able to resolve this by sharing the correct folder under
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\Data\Office Server\Applications and assigning the required permissions as described here.

SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013 . . . .

 

Finally, Microsoft has announced the latest release of SharePoint 2013 (a.k.a SharePoint 15) along with Office 2013 (a.k.a Office 15).

There are some significant changes in the new App Model and would require a lot of unlearning and learning to get in pace. Personally, I like the overall direction in which MS is heading. I am a JavaScript fan and have been heavily using libraries like KnockoutJS and jQuery for a more end-to-end experience in SharePoint. So for me it feels like home .
I have been working on this new App Model since over a month now and below are some tips for all the SharePoint Dev’s out there:

• Embrace & Learn JavaScript  (As a real language)
• SharePoint is not hammer and Lists are not nails
• Separate the Concerns (Logic, Presentation, Persistence)
• Understand the Mechanics of how things are working  (Fundamentally, SharePoint is just an Abstraction on top of an ASP.net Web Application)
• Good Architecture is possible even with SharePoint involved

I will be sharing my experiences on this new journey as I move along…

Enjoy !!

Meet the New Windows Azure !!!

Links

• Keynote with Scott Guthrie : http://www.meetwindowsazure.com/Conversations#ScottGuthrieMeet

• Windows Azure Today and Tomorrow : http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2012/FDN05

• Window Azure June 2012 Release on Channel9 : http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Cloud+Cover/Episode-83-Windows-Azure-June-2012-Release

• Windows Azure 90-day free trial : https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/

Features

• Websites : https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/scenarios/web-sites/
  
  
• Virtual Machines : https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/scenarios/virtual-machines/
  
  
• Cloud Services : https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/scenarios/cloud-services/
  
  
  
• Big Data : https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/scenarios/big-data/

• Media : https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/scenarios/media/

New Management Portal

Visual Studio 2012 RC is here !!!

Links

Download:  (You can install this over the VS 2011 Beta without uninstalling)

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/11/en-us/downloads 

Changes from VS 2011 Beta:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/05/08/visual-studio-11-user-interface-updates-coming-in-rc.aspx
http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Visual-Studio-Toolbox/Visual-Studio-Toolbox-Visual-Studio-2012-Release-Candidate
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VisualStudio2012RCIsReleasedTheBigWebRollup.aspx

Creating Storyboards with PowerPoint

This is an excellent helper for creating wireframes with prebuilt templates

More Details on Jason’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jasonz/archive/2012/05/24/my-favorite-features-creating-storyboards-with-powerpoint.aspx

Choices for JavaScript frameworks..

 

I have been using jQuery since a long time now and looking for other frameworks which can help me take our SharePoint product to the next level.

Below are some of the interesting links that I came across :

• Glossary of Open Source JavaScript and Web Frameworks (Scott Hanselman)
  
• Top 10 JavaScript MVC Frameworks (Gorden Hempton)
  
• 20 JavaScript Frameworks Worth Checking Out
  
• Comparison of JavaScript Frameworks (wikipedia)

I am leaning towards knokoutjs and also looking at datajs for manipulating OData feeds on O365..

Implementing federated identity in SharePoint 2010

Recently, I started working on a scenario wherein we had to move an existing online portal to SharePoint 2010. The first interesting challenge was authentication. How do we support existing users as well allow users to use other identity providers like live, facebook, google, myopenid  to access the portal. So I started researching on that and below are my findings:
For implementing federated identity in SharePoint 2010, we need to use Claims Authentication and below are our 3 options:
· Windows Claims
· Forms based Claims
· SAML Claims
Since we want multiple identity providers like google, yahoo, facebook, myopenid etc., my recommendation would be to use SAML claims via a custom Claims Provider. Below are some examples on how to do this:
For Live Id we can generate SAML tokens directly using MSM but for other providers in general we have 2 options :

1. Setup Azure’s Access Control Service (aka. ACS) with multiple Identity Providers (google, yahoo, facebook, live id, etc.) and add ACS as Trusted Provider in SharePoint

Pros/Cons :
ACS is more scalable and it has built-in support for Live Id, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and WS-Federation.
We have to pay the Azure Access Control Service cost

2. Create custom Claims Provider, integrate it with all the identity providers using OAuth Server Side flow and add the custom provider as Trusted Provider in SharePoint.I also found this custom claims provider component, which meets the requirements

Pros/Cons :
Custom claims provider would require some hefty code for generating SAML tokens and managing multiple identity providers. Since this would be our custom component we do not have to pay for any other services.

Hope this helps.

Visual Studio 11 (Beta) and .Net 4.5 (RTM)

 

Visual Studio 11 (Beta) and .Net 4.5 (RTM) are now available for everyone : http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/11/en-us/downloads

Below are some of new enhancements that I like :

· New Metro UI

· Portal Class Libraries

· Searchable Solution Explorer

· Page Inspector

· CSS Editor

· Full Intellisense and enhanced editor support for JavaScript

Experiences with Binary and DNA abstractions

Since over a year now, I have been working on an Innovation product on SharePoint 2010 (read more…) and I would like to share some my experiences, architecting and developing it. Below I have tried to group my experiences into technical and non-technical headings and also shared some of the interesting resources that I went through.

• Business Context
• Understanding the business problem.  (Business Drives)
• Why SharePoint?
• Defining Common Goals.
• Understanding your Customer’s Customer.
• Architecture & Design
• SharePoint Artifacts  (SharePoint 2010 Architectures Overview)
• Storing data in Lists vs. SQL Tables (SharePoint Large List Performance: SPMetal vs. SPQuery)
• SharePoint Foundation vs. Standard vs. Enterprise specific Features
• Site Definitions/ Site Templates / Master Pages / Page Layouts …
• Adventures with Variations
• SharePoint 2010 Cache (read more…)
• Search
• Loose coupling  (Dependency Inversion Principle)
• Avoiding “Pattern Pathology”
• Performance
• Tips & Tricks while using Entity Framework (EF Deep Dive)
• Embracing JavaScript via jQuery (Douglas Crockford, John Resig, Paul Irish)
• Versioning and Upgrades
• Data Import
• Unit & Integration Tests (Unit Testing Best Practices, using MSDTC for Integration Tests)
• Team Lead
• Communication is the ‘key’
• Vertical vs. Horizontal slicing (Code Leaders and Beautiful Teams)
• It is hard to Unlearn
• Process
• Adopting Team Foundation Server
• Sprint Planning
• User Stories / Tasks / Bugs
• Daily Standups
• Daily Builds

In the next few posts I would try to expand some of these headings and talk about them in more details…

First hands on Roslyn . . .

 

 

 

 

Microsoft “Roslyn” CTP

Traditionally, compilers are black boxes – source code goes in one end and object files or assemblies come out the other end. The Roslyn project changes that model by opening up the Visual Basic and C# compilers as APIs. These APIs allow tools and end-users to share in the wealth of information the compilers have about code. The Roslyn CTP previews the next generation of language object models for code generation, analysis, and refactoring, and the upcoming support for scripting and interactive use of VB and C#.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/roslyn

HTML5 Diaries – Canvas & SVG

How to choose between Canvas and SVG ?

Fundamentally, Canvas is a pixel-based, immediate mode graphics system that works best with a smaller surface or a larger number of objects.
While, SVG is a shape-based, retained mode graphics system that works better with a larger surface or a smaller number of objects.

For more information, visit :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg589488(v=vs.85).aspx
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/svg-or-canvas-choosing-between-the-two/
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Canvas_tutorial
http://www.canvasdemos.com/

HTML5 Diaries - Semantic Markup

<div> is old fashioned now . . .

Food for Enthusiasts:

http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html
http://www.html5rocks.com/en/
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/Build2011?sort=sequential&direction=desc&term=&t=html5%2Band%2Bjavascript

WebSockets + Long Polling + SignalR === Awesome;

Steps for creating a chat client using ASP.net 4.5 :

1) Install Visual Studio 2011 Developer Preview (download)
2) Install NuGet Package Manager (download)
3) File -> New -> Project

4) Right Click on References -> Manage NuGet Packages

1) Search “SignalR” and install the package

2) Add 2 files “Default.aspx” and “Chat.cs” and change the code as below:

(*Note : I am referring to my C# type and methods in Javascript )
3) Done.

You may think this is trivial but believe me, it isn’t ..

This is the most exciting piece of technology that I have seen so far from BUILD (offcourse after Windows Native Apps in HTML5 & Javascript) so I would encourage everyone to start playing with VS 2011.
And if you haven’t seen yet what happened in BUILD than I would strongly recommend you see it here.

Web development is taking a whole new perspective with HTML 5 and Javascript . . . .

Code Leaders and Beautiful Teams . . . . .

 

I came across this nice presentation done by Roy Osherove at NDC 2010 where he talks about team types and some very good fundamental aspects of directing the team as a technical leader.

Here is the torrent link for all the videos - NDC2010 Sessions Torrent . I especially liked his Song at the end of the presentation (below) 

Here are some really good excerpts from the original presentation :

Diving & Exploration

Some very good SharePoint links that I came across in last few weeks :

• SharePoint 2010 Architectures Overview on MSDN
  A pretty decent article covering the breath of SharePoint 2010. Although I don’t like when it says : “The Silverlight client object model in SharePoint is not supported on Windows Phone 7.”
  
• Application Lifecycle Management in Microsoft SharePoint 2010
  Good article to learn what things should be considered when setting up team development environments, establishing upgrade management processes, and creating a standard development model for SharePoint projects.
  
• SharePoint Server 2010 performance and capacity test results and recommendations
  A set of 9 white papers describing the performance and capacity impact of feature like BCS, Large Lists, My Sites, Search etc. included in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.
  
• SharePoint 2010 Social Networking
  Excellent series on understanding the details of Social Computing features in SharePoint 2010. I just love this Social Computing processes diagram explaining all the things that done behind the scenes.

Enjoy Learning !!

First touch to Windows Phone 7

 

Visual Studio 2010 Power Tools

Here are few features I liked from the VS 2010 Power Tools released last week :

Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power Tools

• Close button in tab as well
• Pinned Tabs
• Searchable Add Reference Dialog
• Triple Click to select a line
• Align Assignments (Ctrl + Alt + ] )

Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Power Tools

• Sandbox Visual Webpart

(Although there are few limitations which are mentioned in the tool description tab here)

Diving & Exploration

Here are some gems I found last month and half:

LINQ

• DevDays 2010 - Tips, Tricks and Optimizations by Scott Allen
• DevDays 2010 - Beyond Queries by Scott Allen

SharePoint 2010

• Hard Limits / Configurable Limits / Soft Limits of SharePoint 2010 by Sahil Malik
• Technical diagrams (SharePoint Server 2010)
• Setting Custom Error Page in SharePoint 2010
• Deployment Overview (SharePoint 2010)

Zion Rebuild . . . . . . . . Again !!!

Right from the RFP meetings to the daily scrums and the final PROD release calls/emails, it has been a tremendously exciting journey once again with this project. I am immensely happy to announce the launch of our new SharePoint site: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com

The entire team learnt & applied a ton of exciting stuff in SharePoint 2010 including :

• LIVE ID Integration with SharePoint 2010
• 2010 Media Player Integration
• Localization using Variations + lots of Hack
• [PageQueryString] in Content Query Webparts
• SharePoint Tools in Visual Studio 2010
• Caching API’s for accessing SharePoint List Data
• Bing Maps Geo-code service
• HTML Compliance / Accessibility standards
• jQuery

SharePoint 2010 is a huge successor of 2007 and since last 1 year I have been enjoying more and more working on this product . . . . . .