SAP converts the PDK from VS2003 to VS2005
Many businesses are using the portal development kit from SAP to write .NET code in NetWeaver portal (formerly Enterprise Portal). Did you know it can also be used to deploy to SharePoint? Recently the SAP team came to the Microsoft campus and was assisted by the Visual Studio team in converting the PDK which ran on VS2003 to the VS2005 environment. It was an astounding success! There are many differences; the most notable is the absence .NET connector used by many businesses. It is being deprecated in favor of the web services interfaces. The run time will continue to work, however, there will be no integration between the .NET connector and the design time as there was in VS2003.
To use the new version (we think the release will be in late April) you will need to have VS2005 loaded, and take two downloads from Microsoft. The first download will be a GDR which adds some features to the new product. The second download will be an add on which gives you the web application project similar to what was available under VS2003; but disappeared in the first release of VS2005. The target for this is also April.
During the integration phase the scobleizer dropped in and shot some candid video of the team. Here is the Channel 9 video:
https://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=172150
If you have questions regarding this, please contact me:
Ranger Due