Microsoft Silverlight 4 and SharePoint 2010 Integration Book Review

This is a very well done little book. Is is short and concise so there is not a lot of filler nonsense I am finding in a lot of books these days. The author does great job of getting you up and running quickly, and then goes into deeper integration topics later in the book. The book covers deploying a Silverlight application to a document library as well as linking a SharePoint module to a Silverlight RIA to deploy your xap file. It really focuses on using SharePoint and Silverlight integrated with each other. They show how to create an external content type using the SharePoint Designer to access data in a SQL database and how to use the Business Connectivity Services (BCS). This is an approach I would not have considered before reading this book. I would have just created an external web service and hit that to access the data, but my approach isn’t really integration. They show how to integrate with SharePoint workflows, how to use CAML queries, how to use the developer dashboard, and how to debug. They do a complete job of showing how to do everything with both the SharePoint 2010 Silverlight Client Object Model and the SharePoint 2010 WCF Data Services. The downloadable code is very well organized and is very usable. They have the complete projects ready to deploy. All in all I think this is a great book. If you are interested in integrating Silverlight 4 and SharePoint 2010, then this book is a must have. It will get you through the learning curve quickly and have you up and running in no time.

Are you a .NET development shop, or a Microsoft development shop?

I am not sure if the market has clearly stated that there is a difference between being a Microsoft shop and a .NET shop. I watch a lot of places try to decide which way to go without realizing they are actually making the choice. Once you've gone far enough down one of the paths it becomes very dificult to turn back. I am not talking about allowing opensource through the door, I am talking about choosing products (open source or not) other than what Microsoft has available when their solution is within budget and meets the functional requirements of the need.

I see this happen for multiple reasons. The most obvious reason is because someone has sold the man (or woman) with the money on the idea that they should not put all there eggs in one basket. Just that analogy is stupid. Imagine carrying 12 baskets instead of one to get your eggs home. Then if you want to keep them cool not all the baskets are going to fit in one fridge. You may say that is good in case one of the fridges goes out. Well, you usually have eaten all the eggs or they have gone rotten by the time the fridge goes out.

Two examples of not wanting to put all the eggs in one basket-

-- I have seen this on a huge government project. They chose AquaLogic over SharePoint and then still forced development to be done in .Net. What a nightmare. That wasted millions of dollars on integration development, which still is not being done right years later.

-- I’ve watched Crystal Reports chosen over SQL Reporting Services (which they already owned with SQL Server) several times, strapping the projects into spending tons on Crystal support in the coming years.

Another reason for choosing tools other than Microsoft tools is lack of experience in enterprise level developers. Some come from smaller shops where open source is the way of life. It has to be in order to afford things. They come into the enterprise shop and all they know are the tools they learned in the smaller shops, so those are the ones they are allowed to continue to use. Others are just open source junkies. They want .NET, but Microsoft sucks, so at every opportunity they are reaching for any tool not coming out of Microsoft. It’s the cool thing to do. I see this a lot in the context of choosing between patterns and practices tools and their equivalent. If you are a Microsoft shop, you'll be using patterns and practices tools, unless they cannot meet the technical requirements you need. If you’re simply a .NET shop, any toolset will do.

I not only see this happen with open source tools, but I see toolsets being chosen that cost a bundle, upfront and down the road. I have seen teams convince management they must have the latest UI toolkit in order to implement the same functionality they could have implemented with the AJAX Toolkit or other out of the box controls. This adds tons of maintenance overhead to the project, time is needed to learn the tools, and licensing cost continues on forever. I can’t count how many times I have seen this, and the tools were not needed, not even close.

Again, let me be clear, if Microsoft does not have the tool available then you have no choice. Some examples are Rules Engines, UML tools, process authoring tools, and MDM solutions. Microsoft's rules engine is buried in BizTalk, their MDM solution has only matured to the point of being a decent reference table manager, Visio is good for pictures but not documentation like SPARX EA, and the Process Template Editor is still in bad shape when compared to EPF.

The advantages to having all your eggs in one basket and trying to stick with Microsoft tools are many. The top one is Modifiability (my favorite Quality Attribute) achieved through greater cohesiveness in your overall toolset. The different Microsoft teams have greater insight into the roadmaps of fellow team’s products, and that helps with integration plans. Choosing a partner product usually achieves the same results since Microsoft is committed to sharing with them.

In the end, when I am in a Microsoft shop, my rule of thumb is show me why we cannot use the Microsoft product, and then we will consider something else. Not all shops are Microsoft shops, and that is ok, but you should figure out what you are, and then move forward accordingly if you want to make life easier.

Microsoft has released the Ribbon for WPF

Microsoft has released the Ribbon for WPF.  The download includes the code and samples.  Below is a screenshot of the samples:


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Overview  (From MSDN Site)
This release is a managed implementation of the Ribbon for WPF. The Ribbon is a command bar that organizes the features of an application into a series of tabs at the top of the application window, is designed to help you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task. The Ribbon user interface (UI) increases discoverability of features and functions, enables quicker learning of the application, and helps users feel more in control of their experience with the application. The Ribbon replaces the traditional menu bar and toolbars.

Additional Information  (From MSDN Site)
Note: There are a large number of design revisions in this release since the CTP version. This is mainly to facilitate MVVM-centric applications. r />
Design-time: The MSI will install design-time support for Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend 4. This includes a project template for a ‘WPF Ribbon Application’, an item template for a ‘Ribbon Window’, and Ribbon controls in the toolbox such as, RibbonButton, RibbonToggleButton, RibbonMenuButton, etc.

Sources: Ribbon source code is available for reference purposes only. Please see EULA for more information.

Samples: A few samples are also included to provide an overall view of all the available Ribbon features integrated within a WPF application. These samples include:

RibbonWindow Wordpad Sample
This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a RibbonWindow that emulates the Wordpad appearance. To run this scenario:
--Set RibbonWindowSample as the start project
--Set StartupUri=”RibbonWindowWord.xaml” in RibbonWindowSample\App.xaml

RibbonWindow MVVM Sample
This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a RibbonWindow that is completely populated from a view-model collection. To run this scenario:
--Set RibbonWindowSample as the start project
--Set StartupUri=”RibbonWindowMVVM.xaml” in RibbonWindowSample\App.xaml

RibbonBrowser Wordpad sample
This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a browser window that emulates the Wordpad appearance. To run this scenario:
--Set RibbonBrowserSample as the start project
--Set StartupUri=”PageWord.xaml” in RibbonBrowserSample\App.xaml

RibbonBrowser MVVM sample
This sample illustrates a Ribbon control hosted within a browser window that is completely populated from a view model collection. To run this scenario:
Set RibbonBrowserSample as the start project
Set StartupUri=”PageMVVM.xaml” in RibbonBrowserSample\App.xaml

Get it here

Mine is bigger than yours- Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q890 Laptop Review

I recently had to buy a new laptop. I'd love to buy a MacBook Pro, but can't come to terms with the amount of cash you have to lay down.

I needed something fast since mine completely died, so I decided to try to get something prebuilt. I ended up finding this power house on Amazon. I did a comparison of price for the same options on Dell and IBM and the cost was nearly twice the price.



I used to be an HP fan. I could always count on getting good stuff cheap from them, but after two computers completely died on me in the past year I have left HP behind. Both had hard drives go bad and cost me a ton of time getting back on track. Below is the short list of what I had to install and configure.

Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft Project 2010
Microsoft Visio 2010
Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 Developer
Visual studio 2010
Expression Studio
Sparx EA
MDG Sparx EA add-ons - Zachman Framework, TOGAF, DoDAF-MODAF, and SysML.
VirtualBox
VMware Player
Windows Virtual PC
Paint.net
iTunes / sync phone

Data wise I am usually pretty good at backing up, so I didn't lose much there. This new laptop is a monster. I had no idea it would be so big. It will not be traveling to the islands with me. Like I said above I purchased it pre-built so I could get it faster, and actually just ordered it off Amazon. Below are some of the specs and picture of the laptop compared to my old one.



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The Intel Core i7-740QM processor rocks.






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I also needed a new bag since this behemoth would only fit in one of my back packs.



That is huge too. Below are some pictures of the bag.


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The laptop has a solid state drive as the primary. It is smoking fast. I installed Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition in 23 minutes. A two hour chore on most systems. One thing to note is that Toshiba uses 10GB of the primary to create restore disks. After you create them you can claim the space. Below is the hard drive configuration out of the box.


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The power cord is also crazy large...



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Some of my favorite features are:
-- The speakers kick butt.
-- Has a Blu-ray player
-- Runs quiet and cool
-- I can run 2 Virtual PCs at the same time
-- The keyboard lights up. At first I thought that was corny, but now I love it. My wife comes into my office late at night to read and hates having the over head light on so she uses a reading lamp and I use a desk lamp. I am not the best typer, especially on a new keyboard, so the lighting up keyboard rocks.
-- The big clear screen. It is great for design diagrams and coding.

The only downside is that this behemoth won't be going on vacation with me. It will be fine for occasional business travel, but we lug so much other equipment on vacation, another 15 pounds won't cut it.

All in all if you want a power house for a great price this is a great option.