By now you’ve probably been hearing some of the big news coming out of the SharePoint Developer Conference being held this week in Las Vegas. Doubtlessly, there’ll be tons more great information coming out of the Conference over the next four days concerning what’s new and notable in SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010. But if you weren’t lucky enough to make it to Vegas this year, or are there but can’t wait for the session on your favorite area of SharePoint development, then have we got something you’ll want to take a close look at:

Introducing the SharePoint 2010 (Beta) Developer Center

That’s right, this morning we launched the SharePoint 2010 (Beta) Developer Center on MSDN. We’re using this new, combined Developer Center to give you your first detailed, public technical information and instruction around both SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server 2010. This new sub-site of the revamped SharePoint Developer Center highlights some early videos, documentation, and hands-on lab walkthroughs to introduce you to the exciting developer features on both SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010.

But that‘s not all: we’ve also published a Beta release of the combined SharePoint 2010 SDK!

You’ll definitely want to spend some time on the site, getting ramped up for when the SharePoint 2010 Betas are released in November.

Learn SharePoint from the Ground Up

Of particular interest to developers new to SharePoint will be the Get Started Developing on SharePoint 2010. We’ve put together a series of 10 modules to help you get your feet wet on some of the main areas of SharePoint development, including:

·         Building Web Parts

·         What Developers Need to Know About SharePoint 2010

·         Building Blocks for Web Part Development

·         Accessing Data and Objects with Server-Side APIs

·         Accessing Data and Objects with Client-Side APIs

·         Accessing External Data with Business Connectivity Services

·         Developing Business Processes with Workflows 

·         Creating Silverlight User Interfaces

·         Sandboxed Solutions for Web Parts

·         Creating Dialog Boxes and Ribbon Controls

Each module includes multiple video lessons, as well as code samples and hands-on lab walkthroughs, to give you a firm grounding in the topics covered.

Even experienced SharePoint developers will want to take a look at the modules that cover brand new development areas, like the client-side APIs, Silverlight user interfaces, sandboxed solutions, and the new ribbon user interface.

Get Your First Look at What’s New for Developers in SharePoint 2010

For an even deeper look at what’s new and notable in SharePoint Foundation and Server 2010, we’ve posted a Beta version of the combined SharePoint 2010 SDK. It’s packed with conceptual, procedural and reference material covering the major developmental areas of both Foundation and Server. All in all, it’s almost half a million words detailing how to develop SharePoint solutions.

For example, take a look here for what’s new in SharePoint Foundation 2010, including:

·         Alerts Enhancements

·         Business Connectivity Services

·         Client Object Model

·         Events Improvements

·         Microsoft Synch Framework

·         Mobile Device Development Enhancements

·         Query Enhancements

·         Ribbon

·         Sandboxed Solutions

·         Service Application Framework 

·         Silverlight Integration and the Fluid Application Model

·         UI Improvements

·         Windows PowerShell for SharePoint

·         Workflow Improvements

And take a look here for what’s new in SharePoint Server 2010, including:

·         User Profiles and Social Data

·         Business Connectivity Services (BCS)

·         Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

·         SharePoint Enterprise Search

·         PerformancePoint Services

·         Excel Services

Some other places you might want to start:

·         If you’re newer to SharePoint development, you might want to spend some time in the Getting Started and Building Blocks sections of the SDK, getting a firm grounding in the basics.

·         If you’re coming to SharePoint from an ASP.NET development background, but sure and check out the Glide Path for ASP.NET Developers section, which is specifically aimed at developers transitioning from ASP.NET development to development on the SharePoint Foundation platform.

Let Us Know What You Want

Now, this SDK is a Beta release, so you’ll likely see some rough edges. But we’ve combined this SDK to cover both SharePoint Foundation and Server, and restructured it to present the continuum of SharePoint development in as logical and intuitive a way as we could. We then packed it with new and updated conceptual, procedural, and reference material.

We’d love to hear what you think of what we’ve done. As always, as you read through the SDK, if you spot issues, don’t see the information you need, or have suggestions, please drop us a line and let us know how we can improve our developer documentation. It’s easy; just do one of the following:

·         Enter a comment in the MSDN ratings box

·         Email us directly at docthis (at) Microsoft.com

·         Email us through this blog

Be sure and check the SharePoint Developer Documentation Team blog often (or even better, subscribe to its RSS feed), as we plan on using the blog to preview draft versions of additional SDK content as it gets written.

For the last several weeks, I’ve been experimenting with using mind maps, both as a way of brainstorming about developer content, and as a possible way of presenting content in a less-structured way than a typical (linear) table of contents. In regards to that last goal, I really liked how mind maps let you graphically lay out a content area, and draw non-linear relationships between various nodes. I could see how this could be a much more intuitive, discoverable way of presenting content, especially for a technology as complex and interrelated as Windows SharePoint Services. I was using an application called MindManager (from Mindjet) to create my mind maps, and was generally pretty happy with the results.

There was just one problem: in order to share a fully-functioning map with anyone else, they needed to have the same software (or at least a downloadable viewer) installed. Sure, Mind Manager let me save a given mind map as a image map or static PDF, but each of those formats ruled out one of the main selling points on the mind maps themselves: the ability to collapse/expand various nodes on the map, and thereby control the level of information you were looking at. Without that interactive ability, it really seemed like the value of using mind maps as content/resource maps was fairly restricted.

Perhaps MindJet thought the same thing, because the new version of MindManager now lets you save your mind maps as interactive PDF files. Now anyone who can view PDFs can also interact with your maps, and customize the view by collapsing/expanding the nodes of their choice.

So I’ve created an interactive mind map as another way of presenting some of the information we currently have on MSDN, and I’ve love to know what people think of it. Basically, I’ve taken some of the content links present on the Workflow Resource Center and restructured them as a mind map. Rather than present the content based on content type or source, as the Resource Center does, I’ve tried to present the content grouped to present a workflow development overview, as well as by developer tool. Icons next to each link display what type of content I’m linking to (SDK topic, blog, multimedia, etc.); the text color denotes whether the link applies just to Windows SharePoint Services (green text) or Office SharePoint Server as well (blue text).

I’m hoping you’ll take a few minutes and download the map, play with it, and let me know what you think, even if you don’t have any interest in workflow development. More than just does this specific map meet your needs, I’ve love to hear whether you think using such maps in general is a useful/worthwhile way to present developer documentation. Leave a comment after the post or ping me directly through the blog; I’d love to hear from you.

(One minor drawback I can see is how much saving as an interactive PDF bloats the size of the file: this download, of a fairly small map, is 1.5M. Now if we could just get them to add a ‘Save as Silverlight’ feature…)

SharePointWorkflowDevelopment.pdf

By now you’ve no doubt heard that SP1 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Office SharePoint Server 2007, and Office SharePoint Designer are now available. (And if you haven’t heard, go here to get all the important details before you download and install the Service Packs.)

For a complete listing of the documentation available for SharePoint SP1, check out the What’s New in SharePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 1 page on MSDN, which includes information resources for both WSS and MOSS SP1.

I’m happy to announce that as part of the SP1 push, we’ve again updated the WSS and MOSS SDKs on MSDN:

·         Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK (December 2007 Refresh)

·         Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK (December 2007 Refresh)

Here’s a quick run-down of additions and updates we’ve made to the WSS SDK:

New and Updated Material in the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 SDK

New conceptual sections and topics that detail new features in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 include:

·      ASP.NET AJAX in Windows SharePoint Services

This section provides overview information, installation instructions, and programming examples that introduce you to how Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX interacts with Web Parts. Topics include:

·         Overview: ASP.NET AJAX and Web Parts in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

·         Installing ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0 in Windows SharePoint Services Version 3.0

·         Walkthrough: Creating a Basic ASP.NET AJAX-enabled Web Part

Other new conceptual sections and topics include:

·      Workflow Actions Schema Overview

The section discusses how to use the Workflow Actions schema to create and deploy custom workflow actions. The section includes reference topics for each of the 14 elements in the schema, as well as an example .ACTIONS file:

·         .ACTIONS File Example (WorkflowActions)

·      Alerts in Windows SharePoint Services

This section provides 8 new topics of overview information and programming tasks to help you work with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Alerts.

Significantly revised sections and topics include:

·      Custom Field Types

This section has been expanded with nine new topics, including the following new walkthrough:

·         Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Field Type

In addition, reference material for all base field-rendering control types, and most derived types, in Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls has been expanded.

·      Mobile Development

This section has been expanded with 6 new conceptual topics, including the following new procedural and walkthrough topics:

·         How to: Customize Mobile Home Pages

·         How to: Customize Mobile List View and Form Pages

·         How to: Customize Field Rendering on Mobile Pages

·         Walkthrough: Customizing Item Titles on a Mobile Display Form

·         Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Field Rendering Control for Mobile Pages

In addition, reference material for all types in the Microsoft.SharePoint.MobileControls namespace has been added or expanded. The types in this namespace are now fully documented.

·      Working with Site Templates and Definitions

Several topics have been expanded.

·      All types in the Microsoft.SharePoint namespace that connected to auditing are now fully documented.

·      More than 80 code samples rewritten to adhere to the best coding practices as described in the following articles:

·         Best Practices: Common Coding Issues When Using the SharePoint Object Model

·         Best Practices: Using Disposable Windows SharePoint Services Objects

·      Greatly expanded reference material for 39 types in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities namespace.

This update also includes numerous other updates and revisions to existing SDK content.

And as for the SharePoint Server 2007 SDK, we’ve added and revised quite a bit of material there as well:

New and Updated Material in the SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 SDK

New and Improved Features in Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1

·         Support for Custom HTTP and SOAP Headers

New Conceptual Topics and How Tos

·         SharePoint Products and Technologies Customization Best Practices

·         Modeling Web Service Systems

·         Modeling Database Systems

·         Document Converter Framework Sample

·         Working with Menus and Navigation Objects

·         Modifying Navigation Settings Through the UI

·         Customizing Navigation Controls and Providers

New Web Services and Class Library Reference Topics

·         Microsoft.SharePoint.UserProfiles (56 classes) 

·         User Profile Web Service (14 classes) 

·         User Profile Change Web Service (2 classes) 

·         Exception classes (multiple classes in various namespaces)

·         Internal only classes (multiple classes in various namespaces)

New Tools/Samples

·         WCM Document Converters Code sample

·         Workflow Collect Feedback ASPX sample

Check it out, and as always, let us know what you think—either through rating our content, entering a comment on the topic online, or pinging us with an email through our blog.

·         Present “draft” versions of SDK content before it’s available in the SDKs themselves. These drafts are tech-reviewed content that will end up in the SDKS; this is just our way of getting the information out to you as quick as we can.

·         Promote content that we publish on MSDN. This includes giving you the latest news on new technical articles, SDK updates, code samples or tools downloads, and anything else new and noteworthy we think you’ll want to take a look at.

·         Blog about the developer documentation we produce, and why. Ever wonder why we document what we do, in the way we do? In future posts we’ll explore the decisions we make when planning SharePoint developer documentation, and the data we base those decisions on.

·         Engage with users, and find out just how developers are using (or would like to use) the documentation we produce.

·         Experiment with presenting developer documentation in new and different formats.

Already, in the few weeks it’s been live, we’ve posted extensive information on extending workflow actions in SharePoint Designer, as well as the basics of content deployment. And in the coming weeks, we’ll be adding even more draft versions of developer documentation as soon as they’re ready.

So go check it out. Subscribe to our RSS feed. Even better, drop us a line and tell us what you’d like to see on the blog, or in our developer documentation.

What’s new in the April update of the WSS 3.0 Online SDK:

New conceptual sections:

Content Migration

Change Log and Synchronizing Applications

Creating Declarative, No-Code Workflow Editors

Procedural topics:

How to: Create a Custom Field Type and Field Control

How To: Extend the STSADM Utility

Schema reference topics for the following schemas:

Content Migration XML Schema Reference: Contains over 180 element topics that detail the eight migration schemas

Workflow Configuration Schema

Greatly expanded reference material for over 300 types in the following namespaces:

·         Microsoft.SharePoint

·         Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration

·         Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment

·         Microsoft.SharePoint.EmailIntegration

·         Microsoft.SharePoint.Navigation

·         Microsoft.SharePoint.MobileControls

·         Microsoft.SharePoint.StsAdmin

·         Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages

·         Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls

·         Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow

As well as expanded reference material for the following Web Services:

·         Authentication Web Service

·         Copy Web Service

This update also includes numerous updates and revisions to existing SDK content.

Note: The WSS 3.0 SDK download will be updated with the next online update, currently scheduled for the end of June.

I want to thank everyone who contributed their time and effort to making this update possible. We’ve added an immense amount of  detailed technical content, with more to come. Check it out!

Shortly before the holidays, someone asked me if I had any guidance for customers who wanted to set up workflow tasks to be bulk editable. To which I promptly replied:

You can do what?

I swear, there's so much functionality crammed in this product that sometimes I think it's going to take me the next two product cycles just to cover it all properly. I had no idea you even could edit workflow tasks as a group.

So, without further ado, here's the scoop:

In Office SharePoint Server 2007, you can define workflow tasks as bulk editable, and provide a custom InfoPath form view to enable users to edit workflow tasks as a group.

Bulk editable tasks are workflow tasks that can be edited as a group. All the tasks must be of the same task type, and from the same workflow association. For example, a user might want to mark all tasks of a certain type as 'complete' for a given workflow association.

In addition, by using an InfoPath form as the workflow task edit form, you can include logic in the InfoPath form to switch form views depending on whether the user is editing an individual task or bulk editing tasks.

Editing Workflow Tasks

Workflow tasks are displayed in task lists, just as any other tasks. When the user navigates to the task list, the tasks are displayed based on the View selected, and the access control list rights (ACLs) of the user. A workflow may have several different types of tasks, but all the tasks from a given workflow association are contained on the same task list. However, a given task list can contain the tasks for multiple workflow template and associations.

Developers can include elements in the workflow template definition that define task types as bulk editable.

For workflow tasks, users can select to process workflow tasks in bulk. Office SharePoint Server then displays a list of the workflow tasks types on that list that are bulk editable, sorted by workflow template. When the user selects a task type from a given workflow template, Office SharePoint Server displays the task edit form for that type. Developers can include logic in their InfoPath task edit forms that changes the form view based on whether the user is editing tasks individually, or in bulk.

The user can then edit the tasks as a group. The workflow task edit form need not contain any special logic to bulk edit the tasks; this is completely handled by Office SharePoint Server. When the user submits the task edit form, Office SharePoint Server writes the submitted data to each task of that task type for that workflow template for all associations of that template, as a timer job.

For information on specifying InfoPath workflow task forms, see Specifying InfoPath 2007 Forms for Workflows.

So, here's how it looks in the user interface, from the user's perspective:

1.      Navigate to the task list that contains the workflow tasks you want to bulk edit.

The workflow tasks are displayed based on the View selected, and the your ACLs.

2.      From the Actions menu, select Process all tasks.

Office SharePoint Server displays the Bulk Task Selection page. This page lists each task type on the list that is bulk editable. Task types are sorted by workflow template. Workflow associations are listed in parenthesis after the task type name.

3.      Select the task type for the workflow template you want to bulk edit, and click OK.

Office SharePoint Server displays the task edit form. If you've included the proper logic in your form, MOSS displays the bulk edit view of the task edit form.

4.      Enter your edits, and click Submit.

Office SharePoint Server writes the submitted data to each task of that task type for that workflow template, as a timer job.

Note   Because the timer job updates each task, any custom code you have included in an OnTaskChanged event for that task type while run on each task as well.

Defining a Workflow Task as Bulk Editable

To define a task type in a given workflow as bulk editable, you add two elements to the workflow template definition.

How to Define a Workflow Task Type as Bulk Editable

Add the following two elements to the MetaData element in the workflow template definition, where N represents the task type number:

·         TaskN_IsBulkActionable   Optional Boolean. TRUE to define the task type as a task type that can be edited in bulk.

This element is optional. Office SharePoint Server treats task types that are not explicitly defined as bulk actionable as not bulk actionable.

This element defines the task type as bulk editable for this specific workflow template only. Therefore, can use the same task type in multiple workflows, and decide on a per workflow basis whether the task type is bulk editable.

All tasks of a given type are either bulk actionable or not, within a given workflow template.

·         TaskN_BulkActionableFormName   Optional Text. The task name to display for this task type in the Office SharePoint Server 2007 user interface. Users click this name to display the workflow bulk edit form.

For more information on workflow template definitions, see Workflow Definition Schema.

The following example has been edited for clarity.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<!-- Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. -->

<Elements xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

  <Workflow

    Name="Expiration"

    …

    TaskListContentTypeId="0x01080100C9C9515DE4E24001905074F980F93160"

  >

    <Categories/>

    <MetaData>

      <Task0_FormURN>urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:infopath:workflow:Expiration-Complete</Task0_FormURN>

      <Task0_IsBulkActionable>true</Task0_IsBulkActionable>

      <Task0_BulkActionableFormName>Expiration</Task0_BulkActionableFormName>

    </MetaData>

  </Workflow>

</Elements>

Displaying a Custom Bulk Edit Task Form View

Using InfoPath forms, you can provide a custom form view to enable users to edit workflow tasks as a group. When the user selects the task type they want to bulk edit, Office SharePoint Server displays the task edit form for that workflow task type, passing context data to the form. This context data includes an attribute, isBulkMode, which designates whether the task form is being called for bulk edit operations. Developers can include logic in their forms to specify different views based on whether the isBulkMode attribute is set to TRUE or FALSE.

We recommend that the task edit form for each workflow task type you define as bulk editable contain two views:

·         One for individual task editing.

·         One for bulk editing of tasks.

The bulk edit view should not load data from any particular task upon load, since Office SharePoint Server applies the data the user submits to every task of that type for the selected workflow association.

How to Display a Custom Bulk Edit View of the Workflow Task Form

·         Include logic in the form that parses the context data passed to the form on load. This logic should include having the form display the bulk edit view if the isBulkMode attribute of the context data is set to TRUE.

Note   To add the workflow context data to the form, you must first create an XML file that represents the context schema, and then import that file into the form as a secondary data source. For more information, see the Adding Workflow Context Data as a Secondary Data Source section of How to: Configure a Contact Selector Control on Your InfoPath Workflow Form.

For more information on using InfoPath forms with Office SharePoint Server workflows in general, see InfoPath Forms for Workflows.

Well, now you can. Say hello to the MSDN Wiki.

This new functionality lets members of the community append selected topics on MSDN with their own comments, corrections, and code samples. Now you can share your hard-earned tips, tricks, best practices and gotchas with other developers, and learn from their experience as well. All this without leaving the MSDN library, or even the topic you’re in.

And the best part of it is: the MSDN Wiki is now part of every topic in the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDKs.

Here’s how it works:

Every topic in the WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 SDKs now has a Community Content section append to the end of the topic. Anyone with a Windows Live account can log in and add content to this section. Got a great tip for a topic? Add it. Want to share a particularly cool piece of code? Add it to the relevant topic. You’ll retain ownership of your content; we only ask for a non-exclusive license so we can share your content with others.

As you can probably tell, I’m pretty jazzed about this. I think this is a great way to harness the power of the SharePoint developer community to help people create the solutions they want. It’s going to be fascinating to see how this evolves.

Just as important to me, personally, is that it gives us SDK writers an avenue to get our content out to the community that much faster. Now, instead of making a correction/addition to an SDK topic and then waiting months until the next SDK republish, I can add my additions directly to the Community Content section and get that information directly in front of our users nearly instantaneously. This is one of the things I had been using my blog for in the past, but this is even better, in that the new information will be presented directly within the relevant topic itself.

So look for us—we’ll be identified by the MSFT designation by our names.

This time around I’ve focused on the Information Rights Management framework in WSS. In WSS 3.0, administrators can now apply IRM to document libraries and item attachments. IRM lets you create a persistent set of access controls that live with the content, helping you control access to files even after a user downloads them. And if you’ve got custom file types, you can create IRM protectors: custom assemblies that plug into the IRM framework and control the conversion of those file types to and from their encrypted, rights-managed formats.

WSS gives you the choice of creating two types of custom protectors:

·         Integrated protectors, which use Windows SharePoint Services to access the Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) platform in order to generate protected versions of files, and to remove protection from rights-managed files.

·         Autonomous protectors, on the other hand, configure and execute the entire rights-management process by themselves.

The poster illustrates how the two types of protectors fit into the IRM framework in WSS 3.0, and how WSS uses each to rights manage documents during file upload and download process.

To download the poster, just click on the attachment at the end of this post.

You can read all about the IRM framework in WSS starting here.

IRMinWSSConceptual.pdf

The first thing you'll notice is that MSDN's standard 9 point ratings scale has been replaced by a five star scale. The rating scale now appears on the article menu bar, right underneath the MSDN menu bar:

If an article hasn't yet been rated, all the stars are white, as in the screenshot above. (And I, for one, will not miss the 'Be the first to rate this page!' message on unrated articles. As a technical writer, nothing was more lonely than checking on your article weeks after it had been published and seeing this auto-generated plea for someone, anyone, to rate your article. But I digress.)

Once an article's been rated, colored stars represent the article or topic's current rating. The article pictured below, for example, has a current rating of four out of five:

So, how do you actually rate the article and enter feedback using the new system? Simply mouse hover over the stars themselves. You can then click on the star that represents the rating you'd like to give the article. The stars then turn red to reflect the rating you're chosen (and they stay that way until you submit your rating). However, you can change your rating up until you submit it.

In addition, the Optional Feedback form opens, enabling you to send us detailed comments on the article.

When you're done, just click the Send button to submit your rating and comments.

As under the old system, you only get to rate an article once. If you hover over the rating on an article you've already rated, you'll get a tooltip to that effect.

One thing I do wish MSDN had retained from the old system was the graph at the end of each article that told you how many people had rated the article, and showed their raw rating scores. As an MSDN user, I found this information very helpful in deciding whether or not to invest my time in reading longer articles.

After all, this:

Tells a much different story than this:

Even though they both result in an article rating of 4.5 (under the old scale). The first tells me that only two people rated the article, one of whom was very pleased with it (and one who might just be a troll rating everything a 1.) The second tells me that a statistically significant number of people found the article of limited utility. This could be good information for a reader to have before reading a 20 page article.

In any case, another cool new feature is the improved 'breadcrumb' functionality. (The term 'breadcrumb' refers to the hierarchical list of pages/nodes you've had to traverse to get to your current location in the MSDN library.) Now, if you hover over an entry in the breadcrumb, you'll get a hot-linked list of the topics/nodes at that same level in the MSDN library table of contents. I think this is going to make our SDK content a lot more discoverable/navigable in the future.

 I'd be interested in what you all think of the new system.

Visual Studio 2005 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 

The extensions (as they're known to their friends) were designed specifically to jumpstart developers creating SharePoint solutions in Visual Studio. They include project and item templates for essential SharePoint building blocks like Web parts; team sites, blank sites, and list definitions; custom fields, content types, and modules. Each template includes functionality that makes coding, testing, and deploying these items easier than ever before. If you intent to develop in the SharePoint environment using Visual Studio, this download is for you.

And, if you're planning on using the Web part project template, check out the accompanying article, which provides a quick rundown on how it's done:

Creating a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web Part Using Visual Studio 2005 Extensions 

And, as always, if you read the article, please take a minute and rate it. Thanks.