Tech Talk PT is moving

With the objective of providing better and more organized information I have moved the Tech Talk PT blog to another provider!

All the content of this blog is already in the new address.



The new address is . . . TechTalkPT.

(http://techtalkpt.wordpress.com/)

Gadgets - Origami?

I found a reference to this new gadget on jkOnTheRun blog. It seems this is still to be presented but some photos and videos are already available. The Origami project is to be presented on the 3rd March 2006, so we just have to wait a little longer for it . . .

It seems like a small tablet device. With a lot of potential some of the people that watched the video describes it as:

"I saw silver, black and some kind of ugly yellow" "MP3, Video, Remote for Media Center" "BT, Wifi, GPS receiver, 3G, game platform and tablet." "Nokia 770 + OQO + Tablet PC + MCE 9 ( + BlueTooth + WiFi) = Origami."

Watch the video here. On the site just follow these instructions: DigitalKitchen (Enter -> Enter -> Work -> Bandtheatre -> Microsoft Bank Of The Future) and enjoy . . .

Build your own CSS files

What would you think if it was possible for you to build your own CSS files to apply in Sharepoint?

Thanks to James Milne we have on-line a Sharepoint Style Designer to build our own CSS files.

It s a very easy and helfull aid on design.

Sharepoint Tip - How to apply a Theme to SPS

In a Sharepoint Portal (SPS) we cannot apply a theme to change the "looks" of the Portal like we have in WSS, an option of administration. But it is still possible to apply a different theme to a SPS Portal, how can we do it?

1 - We need to get a Theme to apply.

In the Sharepoint Server:

You can find the available Themes for Sharepoint at "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\TEMPLATE\THEMES". You can also download themes from the internet.

Choose the Theme.CSS of the chosen Theme and place it in "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\2070"

In Sharepoint:

1 - Site definitions
2 - Change portal site properties and site creation definitions
3 - personalized CSS "_layouts\2070\theme.css"


That should do the trick!

Warning: the use of a theme might not reflect on all pages of the portal.

Sharepoint Tip - Recovering Documents directly from the database

I came across this tip a few months ago, but today I had to use it again for a client's assistance. It is not the common tip or you won't use it often, but it is good to know . . .

If you need to ever extract a file manually out of WSS/SPS, this is how you do it:

1) Find the right row. Everything is in the DOCS table (_SITE Database), and there is a DirName property that you can use to find it based on a relative path. Something like this will work.

SELECT *
FROM Docs
WHERE (DirName LIKE 'sites/sitename/Shared Documents%')

2) From there, grab the ID guid. Save the following to a local .vbs file, and replace the servername, database name, GUID and filename.

Set cn = WScript.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
cn.Open "Provider=SQLOLEDB;data Source=SERVERENAME;Initial Catalog=WSS or SPS SITE DB name;Trusted_Connection=yes"
Set rs = WScript.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
rs.Open "Select content from docs where id='{guid goes here}'", cn
Set mstream = WScript.CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
mstream.Type = 1
mstream.Open
mstream.Write rs.Fields("content").Value
mstream.SaveToFile "c:\filename goes here", 2
rs.Close
cn.Close

Hope it helps!!!!

Road Map to SharePoint Developers

Thanks to Gregory S. Macbeth's blog here is a Road Map to become a Sharepoint Developer.
You can find this Road Map here.

Sharepoint what's the future?

Sharepoint started to be a very useful tool to provide shared information and content as well as a collaborative platform. But with the evolution of the products (SPS and WSS) we reach the new 2007 Office Sharepoint Server that besides the natural evolution of the platform has a greater integration with other applications and platforms.

The integration of the new version of CMS in the WSS architecture is one of the issues that takes me think that the future of this product is very bright, imagine an integrated Intranet / Extranet / Internet solution all in one product . . . Ok! We still have to see how this will be managed Licenses wise, but from the technical point of view, the possibility to provide quicker, safest, broader and potential cheaper (we still have to see this one) solutions it is just great.

The 2007 Sharepoint Server show is just now starting, but the new features revealed already make a great impact on the development community specially on Portal development.

Microsoft has made a serious bet on the development of 2007 Office Sharepoint Server, we can only wait and hope to try it as soon as possible . . .

Why CMS is integrated in WSS?

Sharepoint and CMS were up to now two separated products eventhough they could be linked and complemented by each other. In the new version of Sharepoint the CMS as we know it will be integrated in the WSS architecture, the reasons for this integration are explained in this article by Gerhard Schobbe (Group Program Manager - CMS Team) in the Sharepoint Team Blog.

What's in WSS 3.0?

On Raul Ribeiro's Blog we have a wonderful compilation of what we will find in WSS 3.0. Raul not only describes the features but also provides us with who is the source, the category and link to the information.
This is one must read information, well done Raul.

You can find this information here.

Note: WSS stands for Windows Sharepoint Services

Sharepoint - SQL Server 2000 Vs 2005 (Performance tests)

Currently with two versions of SQL Server (2000 and 2005) it is logic to question which one is better to use with Sharepoint? Microsoft provided us with a few performance tests to help us choose at the Microsoft Office Assistance.
These tests help us understand, performance wise, the rates on different cenarios.

Check test here.

Page Anatomy by Sharepoint Team Blog

In the Sharepoint Team Blog I found an article about Page Anatomy in the new Office Sharepoint Server 2007. Basically it describes the new features and uses we can have to build intranet, extranet or internet portals.

Yes! The Sharepoint and CMS as we know them are integrated in this new version.

C# 3.0 and LINQ

Thanks to Patrick Tisseghem's blog I came across an article by Peter Himschoot ( U2U - Brussels) about the new version of C# and LINQ (.NET Language Integrated Query).

"Anders Hejlsberg, chief designer of C#, unveiled C#’s newest version at PDC2005. Some of the most notable innovations are extension methods, lambda expressions, anonymous types, type inference, and LINQ (.NET Language Integrated Query). In this article we are going to look at these new features of C#, focusing on LINQ."

Microsoft Unveils Next Generation of Web Authoring and Design Tools

Thanks to Jan Tielens blog i came across a very important Q&A from Microsoft: "Microsoft unveils next generation of web authoring and design tools". In this Q&A we are introduced to the new tools for web authoring (Sharepoint Designer 2007) and design (Expression Web Designer).

"REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 15, 2006 – As the Internet becomes an increasingly valuable environment for individuals and organizations to share information, collaborate and carry out tasks, the people tasked with building Web sites to support these activities need increasingly powerful and versatile tools to accomplish their goals.

Having adopted technologies such as Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to help create, manage and build collaborative Web sites, many organizations are discovering that their current Web-authoring tools lack support for the latest standards and capabilities that SharePoint products and technologies makes possible – such as ready access to data coming from multiple outside sources and the capacity to build no-code, powerful applications and automated workflows. Professional Web site designers also are feeling the pressure to deliver more dynamic and interactive user experiences, and to create sites more rapidly and cost-efficiently.

In response to these diverse demands, Microsoft is introducing a new tool, Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, for building SharePoint applications and designing SharePoint sites. This new product – part of the full 2007 Microsoft Office lineup announced today – will join Microsoft Expression Web Designer, the next-generation tool for designing dynamic, standard-based Web sites, to deliver a complete set of tools for Web design and development. Both products are currently in initial beta testing. Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer is scheduled for release in the second half of this year at a suggested retail price of US$299 through retail and Microsoft Volume Licensing channels. Pricing and availability details for Microsoft Expression Web Designer will be announced in the near future."

About Sharepoint Designer 2007:

"SharePoint Designer 2007 is specifically designed to help people create and customize Web sites and workflows built with SharePoint Products and Technologies, such as Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. It provides all the tools that IT professionals and solution creators need to develop SharePoint-based applications and workflow solutions that enhance organizational agility and business process automation. Coupled with the other SharePoint-enabled applications in the 2007 release of the Microsoft Office System, SharePoint Designer 2007 will help make it easier than ever for individuals and teams to collaborate effectively.

With SharePoint Designer 2007, users can design SharePoint workflows and applications without having to use traditional procedural coding languages or techniques. Instead, SharePoint Designer 2007 provides easy-to-use tools that can enable Web design professionals to build conditional views and forms with validation as well as the capability to read, write and present data from a variety of data sources – such as eXxtensible Markup Language (XML) files, SQL databases such as Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and Web services. SharePoint Designer 2007 also enables them to compile data from multiple sources to create flexible, customized views and reports, and build Web part pages and connect Web parts to create sophisticated business applications.

In addition, SharePoint Designer 2007 makes it easy to create and modify rules-based workflow applications using drop-down lists and checkboxes. The software also provides an intuitive environment for quickly creating and customizing SharePoint sites and applications using the power of ASP.NET, the eXxtensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML), and industry-standard cascading style sheets (CSS). Plus, Microsoft IntelliSense technologies help eliminate errors when working with CSS, ASP.NET and XHTML tags.

Lastly, it allows site administrators and IT managers to control exactly how information workers interact with the SharePoint site and applications, ensuring that they do so in a way that complies with IT policies and procedures. This includes defining what kinds of content they can add, change, or delete; where they can make such changes; whether they can make changes to master pages and CSS; whether they can access the code view; and more."

About Expression Web Designer:

"Microsoft Expression Web Designer provides a professional tool for producing high-quality, standard-based Web sites in precisely the ways that designers today want to work. It enables the user to dynamically design, develop, and maintain exceptional standards-based Web sites.

The software features a flexible workspace that provides easy access to professional Web designers’ most heavily used task panes, toolbars and controls. Expression Web Designer is designed to give users precise control over style editing and design commands, such as direct manipulation of positioning, sizing and padding within CSS page layouts. Designers can readily incorporate standard XML data to make their Web pages more usable and expressive. They gain full support for ASP.NET 2.0, no-code data binding, Master Pages, and an array of server and user controls in a single tool for integrating dynamic applications into their Web sites. Built-in compatibility and accessibility checkers also help ensure that a site created in Expression Web Designer will render properly in any browser.

With the product’s deep support for ASP.NET, which is Microsoft’s platform for building Web applications, site designers can create highly sophisticated and interactive sites that typically have required the server coding expertise of a Web developer. In addition, this ASP.NET support makes it much easier for developers and design professionals to work side by side on these types of projects, where the developer is working in Visual Studio and the designer is working in Expression Web Designer."

Getting Started with Office Open XML and WinFX

Kevin Boske has a blog about Office Development and has posted an article about "Getting Started with Office Open XML and WinFX".
In this article he instruct us about what we need to begin developing with Open XML and WinFX.

Best Practices for Ensuring Application Reusability and Upgrade in Windows SharePoint Services

This article from Keith Bankston and Les W. Smith (Microsoft) allow us to revisit key information about some of the best practices for writing code taht can be reusable when there is an software update, upgrades, or security updates are applied.

Using Visual Studio .NET to Create Web Parts and Applications for Sharepoint

This is the link to an article by Microsoft (Bill English, MCSE, Microsoft Certified Trainer), and it explains how to use Visual Studio .NET to Create Web Parts:Link

Another article shows how to build Applications for Sharepoint:Link

Pandora, music on-line . . . rules!

Do you like music?
Do you like to listen to your favorite artist?
And how about if one site provided all this and more . . .

Pandora is an on-line music site that enables you to choose an artist and then creates a radio station on-line for you, with the artist of your choise and more artists in the same music type.
You can also set from the selection the platform makes for you , the ones you like or not and even have the indication of where you can buy the music your listening to.

Try it, I think you will like it!

Project of the Volcanology Center of the Azores University in the news

One of the projets I am involved is an Internet and Intranet Portal for the Volcanology Center of the Azores University (Centro de Vulcanologia da Universidade dos Açores), the Internet Portal will be available within a month time and it will provide information about natural hazards. Microsoft considers this project to be a reference "case study" due to the use of the new technologies by the researchers of the Azores University in the area of Civil Protection. The Internet Portal was developed using CMS, and the Intranet Portal using Sharepoint.

An article was publish in a Portuguese newspaper, Publico, about this Portal. Sorry, but this article is in Portuguese.

Set the number of days of the !new tag near a new item.

When you add a new item to lists or libraries on a Microsoft SharePoint Team Services and Windows SharePoint Services Web site, the new item is shown with a !new tag. This tag has a default property that can be changed to set the number of days to be shown or even to stop the !New tag from appearing when you create a new entry.

Windows SharePoint Services Web site

To set the number of days the !New tag appears next to new entries on a Windows SharePoint Services Web site, use the Stsadm.exe tool to change the "Days to Show New Icon" property. Set this property to zero not to be displayed or to the number of days.

1. Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> Command Prompt or Start -->Run --> cmd.
2. Use the stsadm command to set:
• stsadm.exe -o setproperty -pn days-to-show-new-icon -pv number_of_days -url [Your Virtual Server's URL]

SharePoint Team Services Web site

For the SharePoint Team Services Web site you need to use the Owsadm.exe to change the "New Item Display Cutoff" property. Set this property to zero not to be displayed or to the number of days

1. Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> Command Prompt or Start -->Run --> cmd.
2. Use the owsadm command to set:
3. owsadm.exe -o setproperty -pn NewItemDisplayCutoff -pv number_of_days -p [Your Virtual Server's Port]
   

What Exactly is XAML?

I found this article in the blog of the XAML Chick, it explains what does XAML mean and gives us an overview about it.

"The correct spelling is XAML, which stands for eXtensible Application Markup Language (pronounced "Zammel"). One of Longhorn's most interesting technologies for developers is this new XML-based markup language. XAML is a declarative XML-based language designed originally for Avalon (i.e.Windows Presentation Foundation WPF)."

More about XAML Chick's article

More about XAML

Sharepoint - Clients Training sessions

Since 2004 I have been involved with Sharepoint projects at work, from the proposals, to the analysis, development, administration and training.

This time I want to focus on the training part at the end of an Sharepoint project. Some clients want to have some kind of training at the end of the project, so that all their staff (or at least a part of it) becomes familiarized with the solution. I have been involved with some of these actions and from my experience (and I don't have any training in teaching), the best way is to divide the sessions in 3 user groups: Reader/Contributor, Web Designer/Content Manager, Administrator.

Usually the 3 sessions are cumulative, it means that an Administrator would have to atend all 3 sessions, an Content Manager would have to attend the first 2 and the readers would just have to attend the first.

It is important that everyone that is going to use the new solution, knows how to work with it, because even though the Sharepoint environment is very intuitive, there are a lot of concepts the are new or at least less known.

The documentation in my opinion should present a preview of the new Intranet, and a overview of the organization structure, to enable the new user to know where he has the contents he wants.

The Help from Sharepoint is an important reference to the user, to teach how to use the Help option, or even to include some of it's content in the documentation can provide valuable and easy to follow instructions to perform the desired tasks.

Sharepoint - Restore problem with different versions of SPS or WSS

Error Message: "The backup is a different version of Windows SharePoint Services impossible to restore in a server with current version"

One of the problems we found when deploying a Sharepoint Portal on a client's environment that was not setup by us is a difference of versions either on SPS or WSS. The first step is to ensure the both environments (development and production) have the same versions and/or the same Service Packs.

We can check the products versions in two different ways:

1. Control Panel --> Add or Remove programs

• select the item and click on the "Click here for support information"

Or

1. Start --> Search --> files and folders --> file name of the aplication as listed below, and click Search

• Resulting list, right-click the file, and click Properties. On the Version tab, check the version.

The versions of WSS and SPS:

Windows SharePoint Services - Stsadm.exe
Release version 11.0.5510.0
SP1 11.0.6361.0

Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 - Spsbackup.exe
Release version 11.0.5704.0
SP1 11.0.6715.0
SP2 11.0.8126.0


For reference we can also check other Programs:

Microsoft Office Project Professional/Standard 2003 - WinProj.exe
Release version 11.0.2003.816
SP1 11.1.2004.1707
SP2 11.2.2005.1801

Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 - Pjintl.dll
Release version 11.0.2003.816
SP1 11.1.2004.1707
SP2 11.2.2005.1801

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 - Sqlservr.exe
Release version 2000.80.194.0
SP1 2000.80.384.0
SP2 2000.80.534.0
SP3 2000.80.760.0
SP3a 2000.80.760.0
SP4 2000.80.2039.0

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services - msmdsrv.exe
Release version 8.0.1.94
SP1 8.0.384.0
SP2 8.0.534.0
SP3 & SP3a 8.0.760.0
SP4 8.0.2039.0

And a new tech blog is born . . .

After a few years checking out other people’s tech blogs I finaly decidid to set up my own. My objective is to provide to others what I have been learning over the years, on my own or from technical specific sources (courses, technical blogs, web groups and communities, etc.).

Nowadays I am involved in web Portals development as a Specialist Consultant at Link Consulting using Sharepoint and more recently CMS.

Another objective of this blog is to provide info from a Portuguese point of view, there are just a few Portuguese personal tech blogs or sites (that I know off!) and therefore i would like to contribute to increase that status.

So why don't I post in Portuguese? Because I choose to post in English :)

A version of this blog in both languages will be developed in the future, as well as my own domain :D