WSS v3

What about WorkFlow in SharePoint 2007?

Patrick Tisseghem — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:26:00 GMT

Last week in Dubai I received multiple questions from companies regarding what the limitations are regarding workflow in WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007. As many people start to know, I am a big fan of the 'SharePoint as a developer platform' message. So I am advocating in my trainings that in the real-world, the custom workflows you get with WSS and MOSS are not going to be good enough. Sales people should not sell the message that creating custom workflows for the real world is an easy task. It is not. WSS 3.0 is giving you a good platform to work with, but a lot of work will come from you.

The SharePoint Designer can help, but the workflows created with the SPD are a one-shot thing and not meant to be a re-usable type of workflow. If you stick with the Microsoft products, you're only option is going to be to build custom workflows with Microsoft Visual Studio.NET 2005, enhanced with the workflow extensions for WF and the the additional layer for MOSS 2007 provided by installing the Office Server SDK. Be aware though that creating workflows this VS.NET way will involve a lot of studying and learning since WF is not an easy topic. You can find plenty of samples and tutorials on wf.netfx3.com but basically it is not your day-to-day programming and many of the mainstream .NET developers within companies are not up-to-speed on it yet. Therefore, products coming from partners like K2, Captaris, Skelta, Nintex, and many others are still a viable solution for many organizations because they offer a layer on top of the WF that make it more accessible for everybody. Each of them have an offering that you should have a look at closely since they differ in their approach. The SharePoint conference in Berlin is going to be extremily interesting since many of them will show their latest offering.

In an upcoming BIWUG meeting (BIWUG = Belgian Information Worker User Group), we plan to cover workflow from all angles. The meeting is at the 8th of February, starting at 18:30 in the Microsoft building @ Microsoft. The agenda has, in my opinion, very interesting topics. First, there will be a more sales oriented session discussing what I wrote down above. One of the partners, AgilePoint, is going to talk about their latest products and then there will be a more technical talk about how to get workflow done in MOSS 2007. BIWUG has entered a new year with a lot of good intentions. Hopefully you'll support us. The group is driven by a lot of people working daily with the latest Microsoft technologies in the real world (having all a very very busy agenda but trying their best to get a community up-and-running around IW in Belgium), so you should come and register for the meetings. They are free thanks to our sponsors and Microsoft and there is a lot to learn. I would like to be there as well, but, it should not surprise you, I am Cape Town that week. Back to the sun actually. Yesterday I was enjoying a Cyprus coffee at a terras in Limassol at 9 AM in full sun, enjoying every minute of it. Now, I am Zurich 25 degrees less than yesterday... life can be strange. Now, which one do I prefer best? Yeah right ..

But it is going to be good here in Zurich this week. Full house for the 5-day dev course and lots of snow. Actually, my oldest daughter is also here in Switserland with her school on a skiing trip. Maybe I should visit her :). Although, I am pretty sure she is not going to like her dad visiting her! I would have not liked it when I was young :)

TechEd US .. yes guys .. get ready for it!

Patrick Tisseghem — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 21:55:00 GMT

There is one guy I have a special connection with (no it is not you Fitz), a former COM+ geek somewhere in Orlando. He evolved into a more mature person by converting himself to a SharePoint geek. You have to give him credit guys! From COM+ to SharePoint.. it is a big step forward! Not only for mankind but also for Ted Pattison - the dude I am talking about.

Imagine? He and me together on stage? America and Europe? Is this really going to work out? Well, don't worry. We have proven over the past years (as in TechEd Europe last year) that we can have a good time on stage. And we are going to repeat it in Orlando (is equal to Mickey.. you know from Disney...hey.. European guy :) ).

Today, the first draft of the agenda for TechEd US is made available for the public and I am proud to say .. (shit.. really?) ... I am doing a SharePoint Dev pre-conf with buddy Ted. No, don't get me wrong! I am very happy that we can do this one together. I love him so much! Don't you?

SharePoint Conference Full Agenda

Patrick Tisseghem — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 20:07:00 GMT

The agenda is almost final .. still time to register!

https://live.sharepoint-conference.eu/EN/AGENDA/Pages/FullAgenda.aspx

And if you're looking for a hotel, Fitz and I are recommending this one: http://www.luise-berlin.com/

New blog baby born: SharePoint Designer

Patrick Tisseghem — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 15:42:00 GMT

Oh man, life is sometimes though when you are a trainer. This week I'm in Internet City (Dubai) again delivering training for Microsoft EMEA. It's always an experience (positive though) to deliver trainings in this region. People are so enthousiastic about technology and definitely about SharePoint. Yesterday, there was a day targetting the more business-oriented people. So many business cards to process :). What's my next destination? Qatar? Bahrein? Kuwait? I get the impression that here in the Middle East, most business folks are much more technology minded than anywhere else in the world asking many questions about the possibilities and the limitations of the products included in the 2007 Office System. Very interesting discussions by the way. One thing is for sure, there is a lot of opportunity to do training and consultancy here in the region.

Today started very chaotic with the technical training (I heard this is very normal). 28 attendees registered, about 40 showed up resulting in many discussions about the seats. You gotta keep your calm at that moment :). Fortunately, things got resolved and I finished the day without additional problems. Again, very enthousiastic students jumping from one question to the other. Key message today: 'WSS is a development platform'. I know many MS sales people don't like me saying this to partners :).

What's all this to do with the title of this post? Nothing of course, only that I got a question 'Where can I learn more about the SharePoint Designer?'. Interesting question because there is almost zero documentation, and I have not seen any real books ready for publishing on the subject. Luckily the SharePoint Designer product team decided to start blogging. I am expecting a lot from you guys and girls! Spread the message about your great product!

SharePoint Conference (Berlin) Sessions

Patrick Tisseghem — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 07:51:00 GMT

This week I am in Zagreb (Croatia) delivering a MOSS dev course for MS internals from various countries. It's going to be an interesting week again. I noticed this weekend that the first version of the agenda for the SharePoint conference in Berlin is published and I am happy to see that my two sessions are all on day 1. So, I'll be able to attend some sessions day 2 and day 3. Here are the ones I will be giving. On demand, no MOSS sessions, but hardcore WSS dev session together with Mike Ammerlaan.

Title:	NET Development on Microsoft SharePoint Technology, Part 1: Object Models, Web Services, Document I/O, Event Receivers, and CAML List Queries
Description:	The first of four sessions on what .NET developers need to know to take advantage of SharePoint Products and Technologies to their fullest. This session covers key object models and related Web services, and focuses on how to add your own Web services, event handlers, and other custom code modules to SharePoint sites. Querying SharePoint list data using CAML XML queries are covered, as is how to adapt your own custom document editor to read from/write to SharePoint document libraries.

Title:	.NET Development on Microsoft SharePoint Technology, Part 3: Templates, Definitions, and Solution Deployment
Description:	The third of four sessions on what .NET developers need to know to take advantage of SharePoint Products and Technologies to their fullest. One of the biggest strengths of SharePoint site development is being able to create types of sites that users can provision on demand, sites that come ready to use with all the tools necessary for specific kinds of business needs. This session starts with how to create and customize site definitions, then moves on to the new Windows SharePoint Services (version 3.0) feature definitions, capabilities (usually comprised of lists, Web Parts, event handlers, content types, etc.) that can be added to any site as needed. It ends with coverage of how to deploy components, features, and site definitions onto Web farms and how to handle maintenance updates to them.

There is still room for more participants so go to the site and register yourself!

Ordered First SharePoint 2007 Book

Patrick Tisseghem — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 07:16:00 GMT

Yesterday, I decided to spend some money on Amazon ordering a number of books and audio CD's, including of course some SharePoint 2007 books. Todd Bleeker's Developer's Guide to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is the first one that is already available. Congrats Todd. I am looking forward to reading that one. Others that I pre-ordered are Ted Patisson's book titled Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Version 3, Bill English's famous Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion (definitely a must) and Goran Husman's Beginning SharePoint 2007 Administration: Windows SharePoint Services 3 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. I know there are more but hey... I also ordered about 6 CD's. Next time on Amazon, I'll shop for more :)

For the book I am writing, Inside Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, you'll have to wait a couple of weeks for pre-ordering it. MS Press promised me that it will be published before TechEd US (that's first week of June). I am starting my final 3 chapters tomorrow.

UPDATE: Thanks Peter for pointing me to this URL where the book is advertised. Not a lot of info yet, but it is a starter :) And, the book will probably be about 700 pages, not 448.

Arrived in Dubai Internet City

Patrick Tisseghem — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:03:00 GMT

Yesterday I arrived in Dubai for my last international SharePoint 2007workshop this year - an excellent place to end an exciting year in which I have seen many many places and met a lot a lot of people. Apart from a painful contused rib I managed to end myself up with last week while falling from the stairs at home (nope, my wife did not push me as a punishment for all of the travelling!), it is going to be fun to go through all of the SharePoint development stuff again. Next week I have one more of these workshops, in good old Belgium itself, and then it is family and Xmas time.

It is my first time in Dubai and I heard a lot of great stories from my colleagues at U2U who have visited it already. I am staying at the Radisson in the Internet City area close to the Microsoft office where the training takes place. So, if the rib allows me, I am definitely planning to visit some of the exciting places here. Anyway, in more than a month I will be here again, so I can catch up if I fail in playing the tourist this week.

I'll keep you updated on my week here (which by the way starts today - so no weeked for me).

Return of the SmartPart

Patrick Tisseghem — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:35:00 GMT

There is still a big need for the SmartPart in the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Therefore, Jan has been working hard on the next release of the SmartPart, referred to as the Return of the SmartPart. Read all about it on his blog.

He also has a screencast about the deployment steps.

CAML Builder 2.1.0.0

Patrick Tisseghem — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 15:35:00 GMT

I promised the CAML girl to tell you about a new update of the CAML builder she has finished, fixing a number of bugs collected over the last couple of months. You can download version 2.1.0.0 from our resource center.

Upgrade Toolkit for Windows SharePoint Services Sites and Templates

Patrick Tisseghem — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 07:28:00 GMT

Need some help while upgrading your WSS v2 sites?

This solution accelerator provides guidance and tools to enable IT Professionals to successfully upgrade their Windows SharePoint Services v2 custom sites and templates. The result: A set of custom sites and templates that will operate in a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 environment. The solution accelerator also includes a set of upgraded Windows SharePoint Services v3 application templates.