Graphicalwonder - Shane Perran's SharePoint Customization Blog
April 04, 2006
A view from the road (Information Worker Deep Dives)
I usually have the best of intentions when it comes to blogging while on the road but unfortunately it usually seems to take the back seat.
When I attended TechED last year in Orlando I wanted to post the day-by-day events complete with photos but I just didn't get around to it. The same can be said for our recent Information Worker Deep Dive tour in Halifax and Ottawa. I did however take a lot of photos, I'm a photo-junkie!
While reading my dailys lately I noticed Bil Simser has been posting some photos from sunny Orlando and Dev Connections.
I really think that these little 'photo experiences' people offer add a lot to a blog. I know I personally love taking a look through a few photos that people snap while travelling the world to deliver or take in presentations so I have decided better late then never.
I am going to follow this up with a quick summary of events complete with photos of both the TechED Orlando event last year as well as the Deep Dive tour.
Hopefully future events will be posted a little faster but in the meantime I am dedicated to making sure I share the experience with as many as possible, even if it is only through a few emails, blog posts and photos.
April 01, 2006
SharePoint Designer 2007 Features
It should come as no suprise to anyone that I was never against using FrontPage 2003 as long as it was used properly, for example - data views were/are one of the best custmoization options available for content.
The problem with FrontPage was it had been misused alot and it really made itself a nasty little reputation, a reputation so bad that Microsoft decided to rework the application and then rebrand it to breathe new life into it.
The result is "SharePoint Designer 2007". Mike Fitz said awhile back "It's time to show some FrontPage love" and now I know why, they have really put a lot of great effort into this application to make it a viable SharePoint customization tool.
Now that it seems people are allowed to post screenshots I wanted to post a few screenshots of the great new features that I think the designer types will really love. To view the screenshot just click a link below. Big thanks to Amanda for helping me get these screenshots together!
10 Screenshots of the great new features in SharePoint Designer 2007
(X)HTML and CSS Color Coding & Intellisense - The code is now much easier to look at.
The Common Tasks Menu - Now when you add a data-view web part for example you have an untuative and useful common tasks panel presented to you. The same as in Visual Studio 2005
A great new Toolbox filled with things like ASP.NET controls
Much nicer CSS control and editing. It is a lot of the dreamweaver way of dealing with CSS.
The slow movement toward a mindset for more semantic markup and CSS versus tables for layout is becoming evident with the inclusion of CSS Layout Templates.
For those that followed my site template tutorials or those that have done much importing of FWP files there are now more features in the Import Menu.
To elaborate a little more on how much better they've made this tool for CSS customization, this new "Jump to Code" feature is great. Select a class name and go straight to the page and part of the code for editing.
Of course what would a "new wave" editor be without Master Pages support.
New - "New" Menu where you can now select to create SharePoint Content
In case my other examples didn't convince you, check out this super cool and useful CSS editing feature which allows you to display only styles used in the current page.
http://www.graphicalwonder.com/images/stylemanagement.jpg
March 31, 2006
CSS + Master Pages + Printing
The project I am currently working on has tossed me into the deep-end of Visual Studio 2005 and Master Pages.
Part of this journey is comprehending the "Theme" approach to CSS in the App_Themes Directory versus my much accustomed to way of embedding my stylesheets.
For example when I want to include a print stylesheet I normall embed this in the page:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" href="print.css" />
While creating my print stylesheet I realised there is no way for me to add the media=print to the web.config theme reference which looks like this:
<pages styleSheetTheme="Default" />
After a little quick digging with a team-member we quickly discovered (new to both of us) a standard for print which we had no idea existed. The ability to embed your print stylesheet at the END of your main stylesheet using @ media print { }
So bascially you simply copy/paste everything from your print CSS file and place it at the end of your main CSS file inside of:
@ media print { /* Insert your print stylsheet here */ }
It's true what they say, you learn something new every day. This seemed worth sharing as I had no idea you could do it until now and I consider myself fairly well versed when it comes to CSS.
XHTML Validating Module for ASP.NET 2.0
Thanks to Scott Hanselman for pointing to this beauty:
Go directly to the download website and get the XHTML validator module for ASP.NET 2.0
Overview:
Josh Twist over at JoyOfCode has a "Validator Module" that sits at the very end of the HttpRequest and validates the page you just rendered as XHTML or not, then displays the detailed results. If you've ever found it a hassle to run XHTML validation on your site at runtime you should take a look at this clever idea. With tools like this ValidatorModule plus validation within Visual Studio.NET always improving as well as tools inside of FireFox to validate, there's fewer and fewer excuses to not render XHTML.
Try the asp.net2.0 XHTML validator out on Josh's site, pound on his demo, and leave him some feedback. You can add it to your .NET 2.0 applications without recompiling. He's also expressed that he could backport it to .NET 1.1 if there's demand.
March 24, 2006
SharePoint 2007 and Internet Explorer 7
Obviously anticipating the PNG Alpha Transparency support in Internet Explorer 7 it seems the SharePoint team has already been busy implementing some PNG's.
A sign of good things to come!
March 21, 2006
Internet Explorer 7 - Beta 2 Preview
At MIX 06 the IE Team mentioned there is now available for download a preview of Beta 2. This version of IE7 is "Rendering Behaviour" complete. This basically means that the additions will be more on fixes/security but in regard to how your pages will render in Internet Explorer 7 you are now free to test your CSS sites and find out. Eric Meyer had some words on IE 7 and Expression on his website.
Get Internet Explorer 7 (Beta 2 Preview)
February 27, 2006
ASP.NET 2.0 Tutorial Videos Online
Big thanks to Scott Guthrie for pointing to this videos.
Included in the ASP.NET 2.0 Tutorial Videos is a session on Master Pages.
This goes great with with another set of tutorials on ASP.NET 2.0 and AD Roles/Groups
as well as the MSDN ASP.NET 2.0 how to articles
February 15, 2006
ASP.NET 2.0: Site Navigation in ASP.NET 2.0
I noticed this link on Scott Guthrie's website,
A great set of tutorials on ASP.NET 2.0 site navigation.
February 03, 2006
ASP.NET and VS2005: 15 Instructional Videos
Another great link by Scott Guthrie
http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/reference/multimedia/
ASP.NET: Debugging ASP.NET Applications
Scott Guthrie dubs this as an "Outstanding Blog" translation: bookmark and pay attention.
Tess is a PSS escalation engineer for Microsoft and she has a really priceless set of blog posts on using some of the more advanced debugging tools that ship with .NET to better understand what is happening when things go wrong on the server (memory leaks, deadlocks, crashes, etc), identify root causes of issues in apps, and how to fix things.
Here are a few of the great posts she has done recently (all available via her Blog):
.NET Memory: My Object is not rooted, what wasn't it garbage collected
ASP.NET Memory Leak Case Study: Sessions, Sessions, Sessions
ASP.NET Memory: How much are you caching?
.NET Memory Leak Case Study: The Event Handlers that Made the Memory Balloon
Back to Basics: How do I get a memory dump in the first place? And what is sos.dll?
A Hang Scenarios, Locks and Critical Sections
Things to Ignore when debugging an ASP.NET hang
Why do I get weird symbols on my stack? (a discussion on symbols)
Associate windbg with .dmp files
Are you aware that you have thrown over 40,000 exceptions in the last hour?
What on earth caused by process to crash?
!dumpheap -stat explained (debugging .net leaks)
I have a memory leak!!! What do I do? (defining the "where")
Who is this OutofMemory guy and why does he make my process crash when I have plenty of memory left?
Why I love the debugger
Enjoy Debugging ASP.NET applications
December 19, 2005
ASP.NET 2.0: Free ASP.NET 2.0 Training from Microsoft
Brad from the Microsoft Learning team just pointed me at a cool offer. Basically it allows you to take a 3-hour ASP.NET 2.0 Training course for free if you register for it before January 4th (note: you then have up to 90 days after you register to take it).
Register for the free ASP.NET 2.0 Training
November 29, 2005
ASP.NET 2.0 Security FAQS (Channel 9 Wiki)
Overview
Welcome to the ASP.NET 2.0 Security FAQ page. This page provides an index to common questions and answers. The questions act as another index into the security guidance.
View the ASP.NET 2.0 Security FAQ's here
November 23, 2005
Building ASP.NET 2.0 Web Sites Using Web Standards
Great article on MSDN on creating ASP.NET 2.0 websites using web standards. This is a lengthy article (almost 80 printed pages). It walks you through explanations of XHTML, taking advantage of some great new features in Visual Studio 2005 and even provides as step-by-step at the end.
View the "Building ASP.NET 2.0 Web Sites using Web Standards" paper here.
Another tidbit I just noticed over on Scott Guthries site as well. Validating HTML using Visual Studio 2005.
November 15, 2005
Security Best Practices in ASP.NET 2.0
Whitepaper released for ASP.NET 2.0 security best practices. Most of the articles were rated a perfect 9 out of 9 from people who have read them – always a good sign of great content.
A definate read for all you developers.
Overview of topics
What's New in 2.0
Index of Practices
Auditing and Logging
Authentication
Authorization
Code Access Security
Configuration
Data Access
Exception Management
Impersonation and Delegation
Input and Data Validation
Secure Communication
Sensitive Data
Companion Guidance
Additional Resources
Thanks to Scott Guthrie for pointing people in the right direction.
November 14, 2005
Master Pages in ASP.NET 2.0
I have not seen nearly enough posts on master pages yet, it's definately something we are all going to need to come up to speed with.
Scott Guthrie has a nice post on using Master Pages over on his blog.
Overview:
One of the cool advanced features of the new Master Pages feature in ASP.NET 2.0 is the ability to nest them. For example, you could define a top-level master-page called “MainMaster.master” that defines a common logo header and footer, and defines a content-placeholder for the page called “content”.
You could then define two sub-masters beneath it – one that provides a two-column layout model for the content (“TwoColumnMaster.master”), and one that provides a three-column layout model (“ThreeColumnMaster.master”).
These two nested-master pages could then use the MainMaster.master file as the root master, and only adjust the layout within its content section (each would fill in the "content" placeholder and in turn add their own content-placeholders for sub-pages within it).
The benefit of this approach is that if a designer ever changed the logo or top-level design of the site, they only have to update one file (MainMaster.master) and then have every page on the site automatically pick it up regardless of what master file they were based on.
Read Scott Guthries post on Master Pages in ASP.NET 2.0 here
November 08, 2005
Steve Ballmer introduces Microsoft's next application platform.
You can catch Steve Ballmers keynote kickoff for Visual Studio 2005, SQL 2005 and Biztalk 2006 here.
The year 2005 brings the release of Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, and Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006. With these three new products, Microsoft takes another step forward in delivering the Microsoft application platform and enabling customers and partners to realize their potential.
New products offer greater opportunities to enrich the lives of consumers and drive greater value for businesses.
Watch the webcast of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer highlighting customers and partners who have found success using the newest capabilities in the Microsoft application platform brought forth by SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and BizTalk Server 2006.
November 06, 2005
Visual Studio Team System Hands-On Training
Robert Burke is hosting some Team System training out of Dublin Ireland: You can read more about Team System training on Roberts website.
General Event Information
Hands-On Lab: Deep Dive into the Software Development Lifecycle with Visual Studio Team System (Dublin)
14 November 2005 09:30 - 16:00 (GMT)
15 November 2005 09:30 - 16:00 (GMT)
Microsoft Ireland, Da Vinci Training Room
Atrium Building, Block B
Carmanhall Road Sandyford Industrial Estate Dublin 18
Ireland
Recommended Audience: Architect, Developer and Technology Decision Maker.
With Team System, Visual Studio has evolved from being just about the developer to being about the whole development process.
In this hands-on training focused Visual Studio Team System, you’ll get to explore and experiment with some of the key features of Team System, and particularly its server component, the Team Foundation Server, which allows software teams to collaborate, be more productive, employ methodologies of their choice, and ultimately make better decisions. We'll start with Team Architect, building high-level Application Diagrams, mapping out our Logical Datacenter, and then visually deploying our architecture onto the datacenter. Then, as developers, we'll look at new language and framework features, visual class designers, and unit testing integration. Finally, as testers, we'll examine code coverage, web testing, and load testing. All the while, we'll see how Team Foundation Server helps manage a team's workflow and keep the various participants communicating and collaborating.
Whether you're an architect, developer, tester, or project manager, this day will give a hands-on view of how integrating Team System into the development process reduces the complexity of delivering high-quality applications.
October 28, 2005
If you have installed a previous (beta) version of VS 2005
If you have installed a previous copy of Visual Studio 2005 I highly recommend reading Dan Fernandez's blog on the automatic uninstall tool.
It's highly recommended that you install the RTM version of Visual Studio 2005 on a clean machine.
But...but...we realize a lot of people have installed some pre-release version of Visual Studio 2005, and to that end, the setup team has created our "best effort" for uninstalling the product, which is the (also unsupported) Automatic uninstall tool.
A couple of notes on the uninstaller
Do not use this tool if you have installed SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition or higher (SQL Server 2005 Express is okay). Why? Because we don't do ref counting on who is using the Framework and you can get into a situation where the uninstall tool will remove a pre-RTM version of the .NET Framework 2.0, but SQL Server 2005 Workgroup+ will still be installed on the machine. Because Workgroup edition uses managed code, you've now "hosed" your SQL 2005 Workgroup edition uninstall. Check the product readme for step-by-step instructions
Do not click "Cancel" when the Automatic uninstall tool is running. Depending on when you click Cancel, it can "hose" your machine uninstall.
Get the automatic uninstall tool here.
October 21, 2005
Getting Started Videos ASP.NET 2.0
Via Scott Guthrie
MSDN has posted some good getting-started video material on ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Web Developer. Highlighted today is a course on using the new data access features (including the new ObjectDatasource, GridView, and FormView controls).
Available for both VB and C#, view the getting started with ASP.NET 2.0 videos here.
October 18, 2005
Lots of new MSDN ASP.NET 2.0 Content
Scott Guthrie was given the ok to make some of the new content links that are live available, lots of new stuff coming today.
You can check out some of the new content via Scotts site here.
October 12, 2005
Async Pages in ASP.NET 2.0
Scott Guthrie points us to an interesting MSDN article written by Jeff Prosise on using new advanced features in ASP.NET 2.0 that have support for pages that execute otherwise blocking operations asynchronously.
This allows ASP.NET to re-use the worker thread while waiting for a completion (for example: calling a remote web-service and waiting for the response) and allows the server to execute much more efficiently.
October 10, 2005
Take your ASP.NET 2.0 App Offline Using App_Offline.htm
Scott Guthrie and Eric Porter both have posts on using app_offline.htm.
Basically, if you place a file with this name in the root of a web application directory, ASP.NET 2.0 will shut-down the application, unload the application domain from the server, and stop processing any new incoming requests for that application. ASP.NET will also then respond to all requests for dynamic pages in the application by sending back the content of the app_offline.htm file for example: you might want to have a site under construction or down for maintenance message.
This provides a convenient way to take down your application while you are making big changes or copying in lots of new page functionality (and you want to avoid the annoying problem of people hitting and activating your site in the middle of a content update). It can also be a useful way to immediately unlock and unload a SQL Express or Access database whose .mdf or .mdb data files are residing in the /app_data directory.
Once you remove the app_offline.htm file, the next request into the application will cause ASP.NET to load the application and app-domain again, and life will continue along as normal.
