A Christmas Gift via Video Therapy

So for X-mas I thought I would play therapist and give you a little help mentally to get through the holidays.

This one is intended to help you appreciate your job.

This one will make glad you decided to spend your vacation with your relatives instead of running off on a cruise.

This one is to show your relatives, that like to stay over, what you have planned for tomorrow to get them out of your house.

Merry X-mas and Happy New Year!!!!

Visual Studio 2008 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 v1.3 Released

I cannot believe the Visual Studio 2008 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 v1.3 have finally been released. They have been in CTP since the days of the dinosaurs.

Overview (from MSDN)
These are the SharePoint developer tools for Visual Studio 2008. These tools are suitable for use with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. They include project and item templates for common SharePoint artifacts, build, packaging and deployment for SharePoint solutions, and the SharePoint Solution Generator, which creates a new Visual Studio 2008 project from a SharePoint site.

The tools provide item templates for List Definition, List Definition from Content Type, Content Type, Field Control, Web Part, Module, Root File, Template, Event Receiver, and List Instance. They provide project templates for Team Site Definition, Blank Site Definition, List Definition, Web Part, and Empty. They work with Visual Basic .NET and C# languages, and a comprehensive user guide is included. They do not include the SharePoint Workflow templates, as they are built in with Visual Studio 2008.

New features in version 1.3 include:
•Can be installed on x64 Server OS machines running SharePoint x64. Previously, only x86 Server OS could be used.
•Separate build commands for package, deploy and retract are added as Visual Studio menu items.
•WSP View improvements for consistency of deleting feature elements, merging features, and adding event receivers to features.
•Command line build, package and retract commands are included, enabling continuous integration and build servers. Previously, command line build of SharePoint projects was very difficult.
•Refactoring support for renaming of Web Parts. Previously, renaming a web part required changes in several files in the project.
•Solution Generator can now generate solutions from publishing sites. Previously, only regular sites could be generated.
•Allowing partial trust BIN deployments of web parts.
•New project item template for SharePoint RootFiles items.
•Deployment will now optionally remove conflicting existing features on the development server prior to redeployment. Previously, any feature name conflicts would result in an error.
•Ancillary assemblies, such as for business logic, can now be added to the SharePoint Solution WSP.
•Hidden features related to Site Definition projects are now shown in WSP View. They are no longer hidden.
•For advanced users, a fast deploy is included to update only the compiled assembly on the SharePoint development installation.
•Deployment step logging is included.
•The List Definition from Content Type template now allows for the creation of a List Definition Event Receiver.
•The User Guide is now installed with the extensions instead of being a separate download.

Get them here.

SharePoint 2010 Development with Visual Studio 2010 Book Review

This is definitely the book to have for SharePoint 2010 development with Visual Studio 2010. The book is laid out in a great format that makes for an easy read as well as a great reference. The book starts out with a 103 page introduction to three ways to view and work with SharePoint 2010. Using the Web site, using the Central Administration, and using Visual Studio. It is a great introduction for both seasoned SharePoint developers as well as beginners. The book continues with a detailed overview of SharePoint development in Visual Studio 2010. It covers the project types, project items, deployment, and much more. Next is a detailed overview of the SharePoint Object Model. The tips in this section on which objects need disposing of is great. Then there is a chapter on SharePoint Lists, Event Receivers, Business Data, Content Types, Workflow, Web Parts, Pages, and Packaging and Deployment. This book does a great job of covering the configuration of the Business Connectivity Services. The only ding is the downloadable code. It is all available in the form of text files, but I would have preferred projects/solutions. I won’t ding the book for this since this may just be my preference and not everyone’s. My favorite part of the book is the diagrams and tables. The diagrams do a great job of putting everything in context and the tables do a great job of providing a detailed summary on the topics being covered. All in all this is a great book for developing SharePoint 2010 solutions with Visual Studio 2010. It is a must have for both Architects and Developers working in the SharePoint 2010 environment.

Tool Update for Reverse Engineering SharePoint 2007 and 2010 into HTML, Text, and DGML Sitemaps

There is now an update for this tool here.

I have upgrade this tool and posted the new version. You now have to copy the appropriate folder instead of just the file because the tool is dependent on the WPF Toolkit.

You can now have the option to list the users on the sites, and flag sites that have not been updated for a while to show in RED. The user's emails are listed as well as their administration status.

The DGML tool that creates diagrams for Visual Studio 2010 now ties all the site collects to the web application at the top level. Sites older than the day selected will be shown in RED. All the site nodes in the DGML are clickable.

ORIGINAL POST (with new screenshots):
I recently needed to reverse engineer a SharePoint 2007 Farm to prepare for an upgrade to 2010.

I initially used the stsadm tool and PowerShell commands, but they were arduous to use. I looked around for an open source options but could not find one. So I built this one. The SharePoint Diagram Tool which reverse engineers SharePoint 2007 and 2010 SharePoint sites into HTML, text, and DGML for displaying in a diagram.

Just copy the appropriate file to the server and run it.

You need admin rights on the box and to the content databases. If you generate files, they will be in the same folder as the exe. You also have the option of just copying the results out of the results textbox.

Note- These are not ASP.NET Site Maps. These are for analysis not navigation.

Below are some screen shots:


Click here for a larger image.


Click here for a larger image.


Click here for a larger image.


Click here for a larger image.

I have uploaded the tools here.

New Tool for SharePoint 2007 and 2010 Create Sitemaps in HTML, Text, and DGML

*** An updated version can be found here.

I recently needed to reverse engineer a SharePoint 2007 Farm to prepare for an upgrade to 2010.

I initially used the stsadm tool and PowerShell commands, but they were arduous to use. I looked around for an open source options but could not find one. So I built this one. The SharePoint Diagram Tool which reverse engineers SharePoint 2007 and 2010 SharePoint sites into HTML, text, and DGML for displaying in a diagram.

Just copy the appropriate file to the server and run it.

You need admin rights on the box and to the content databases. If you generate files, they will be in the same folder as the exe. You also have the option of just copying the results out of the results textbox.

Note- These are not ASP.NET Site Maps. These are for analysis not navigation.

Below are some screen shots:


Click here for a larger image.


Click here for a larger image.


Click here for a larger image.


Click here for a larger image.

I have uploaded the tools here.

Professional ASP.NET Design Patterns Book Review

This is a pretty sharp book. I bought it for 3 reasons. The first was I liked the author's other book Professional Enterprise .NET (Wrox Programmer to Programmer). The second was I wanted to read something about ASP.NET MVC since I don't use it at work. Third, I like to read all new pattern books because it is the only way I can keep them fresh in my mind. This book is written extremely well. It starts with an introduction to the S.O.L.I.D. design principles and an introduction to design patterns. It then covers every layer of a common enterprise level ASP.NET application and shows the use of patterns in each layer (Business, Service, Data Access, Presentation, and User Experience). The book covers a ton of patterns including both GOF design patterns and Fowler's Enterprise Application Design patterns. Design patterns covered include Factory, Decorator, Command, Chain of Responsibility, Template, State, Strategy, Composite, and Facade. Messaging patterns such as Document Message, Request-Response, Reservation, and the Idempotent pattern are covered. Enterprise patterns include Lazy Loading, Identity Map, Unit of Work, and the Query Object. User interface patterns include Model-View-Controller, PageController, Model-View-Presenter, and Front Controller. The third part of the book includes a case study that builds out an E-Commerce store from soup to nuts.  They start with requirements and end with a final product you can download from Codeplex. The downloadable code is very well organized and usable. As mentioned above the authors have also posted a separate download called ASP.NET MVC 2 Case Study Starter Kit on Codeplex which includes the case study sample project covered in the third part of the book. One of the things I really like about the book is that it includes the use of tools like AutoMapper, NHibernate, StructureMap, Entity Framework, and Castle MonoRail. It also includes patterns using JQuery and Json. All in all this book accomplished what I had hoped it would. It is a great book on patterns that every programmer should read. It is a must have for any serious developer.

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administrator's Companion Book Review

I am currently in the middle of a very large SharePoint 2007 to 2010 upgrade. I have purchased several books to help me get the job done, and this one is the only one that has really helped. This book really covers everything on the administration side of SharePoint 2010 in great detail. You can tell the team that wrote it knows the guts of SharePoint 2010. It really is all inclusive. I have not gone to this book looking for answer that I could not find yet. The CD that comes with the book has the ebook version of the book. They included an XPS version, but it will not open. It says it is corrupt. The XPS version being corrupt doesn’t really matter, the PDF version works for finding all the references to a topic quickly. The CD also includes a 526 page MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT FOUNDATION 2010 CMDLET REFERENCE that really helps find out the details of all the PowerShell commands you can now use with SharePoint. If you are an Admin for a SharePoint 2010 farm you MUST, I mean MUST, have this book by your side.

Pro Silverlight 4 in C# Book Review

This book is by far the best resource for Silverlight 4.0. In this version the author added a whopping 273 pages to the last edition. He added chapters on File Access and Out-of-Browser Applications. There is also a new section on commands.. I have bought 3 other books on Silverlight 4, and put together they only contain about 1/8 of the value of this book (you can see which ones they are by Googling ".NET Architecture and Development Book Recommendations 2010 End of Year" and checking out the Shiny Turds Books that do not Cut the Mustard section of the post). One other Silverlight 4 book that is worth getting is Silverlight 4 in Action It starts out with an introduction that covers the Visual Studio Silverlight environment. He then gives a short introduction to XAML. The introductions really help those who have no experience get rolling right away. The author covers every out of the box element in detail (including the DataGrid control and a little on the DataForm control), and includes a nice reference for where the element can be found in the book. He also covers styles and templates, brushes and transforms, shapes and geometries, animation, and layout containers. The book covers out-of-browser applications, assembly caching, networking, multithreading, isolated storage, browser integration, media and deep zoom, wcf services, the application model, file access, commands, and dependency properties and routed events. One of the things I like best about the book is it includes a lot of references and material on the Silverlight Toolkit. The book is very readable for those that like to read cover to cover, but it also makes a great reference. The downloadable code is very usable and very complete. This is a must have book for any developer working with Silverlight 4.0.

Silverlight 5.0 Announced

New features in Silverlight 5 are be covered live right now...  here.