Via Paul Ballard

Microsoft has released an SDK for its Volume Shadow Copy service, a feature of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 that facilitate communications between applications and storage systems. The most common use being to keep backups of changed and deleted files for later retrieval. This SDK allows developers to build on the VSS architecture with their own requestors and providers.

Via Scott Woodgate

Don't want to setup BizTalk to try it? Check this out: http://msdn.demoservers.com/login.aspx?group=biztalk

There are 14 labs to play with:

Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Creating Schemas

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Creating a Schema Map

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Enabling Message Routing

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Creating a Custom Encryption Pipeline

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Creating a Deployment Package

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Tracking and Debugging Messages

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Creating and Debugging an Orchestration

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Working with Orchestration Shapes

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Creating Transactions

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Consuming a Web Service

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Publishing a Web Service

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Integrating Business Rules

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Enabling Business Activity Services

•  Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 - Enabling Business Activity Monitoring

Thank Frank for the heads up.

- Charles (Chuck) Sterling, the Microsoft Developer Evangelist for Queensland has moved his blog over to blogs.msdn.com – check it out here. 

This is cool! – #1 MSCRM question “Where do I get the audit log?” – Sorry not provided OOTB

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/mbs/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnmbscrm1_2/html/mbs_crmauditing.asp

 

Study this sample solution to learn how you can implement auditing of changes to business data in the Microsoft CRM system.

I just got this from Vladimir Lichman – the author of the IT Hit Web Author Enhancement.

---

Thank you for your comments. We are developing a new version of WAE with many new features. Most bugs will be fixed in WAE 2.0 Beta 1 and it will support Telerik v2.0. Please read about it at http://mcms.ithit.com/next_gen_wae. It is most likely that it will be a commercial product. If you have any ideas about features you want to have in WAE or how to improve it please write to info@ithit.com. Your comments are very important for us.

Source: http://msmvps.com/anguslogan/archive/2004/12/23/27292.aspx#27847

---

This is very exciting – I would like to see what the pricing will be like for the Commercial product and I wonder if they are working with the Telerik team on the next version (or commercial version) of the radEditor for MCMS.

Via Mark Harrison

Beta 2 is now available for download.

Installing the Visual Studio .NET 2005 Community Technology Preview for December is on my things to do between Seafood & Turkey tomorrow 

From Aali’s Blog

Rob Caron has some links to updated installation advice for VSTS December CTP in his blog. I suggest you browse through them if you intend to install the recent CTP.

I'll leave reading them to a later date, because santa is visiting us any moment now... merry christmas for everyone!

This is a bit of a FYI incase anyone is having any issues with the Telerik radEditor 2.0.2 and the IT Hit Web Author Enhancement.

I ran into quite a few issues with the Internal Anchor enhancement.

I ended up having to go back to the ‘old’/out of the box Internal Anchor dialog that ships with MCMS Sp1a

From Mark Harrison

For some time the MSIB +Pack and LAWS Accelerator have been available for zero cost by requesting a free permanent license key from peppi@cscape.com .

There has also been the promise that the source code would be released at some time in the future. Great news is that Ive now received the source code from IOKO and cScape and just loaded it up on to GotDotNet ... it should be available shortly.

Note you dont have to have MSIB ... most of the components are useful for CMS only installations.

It is NOT supported ... but consultancy is available from IOKO and cScape. Terms are: "This source code is provided on an 'as is' basis without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including without limitation warranties that the code is free of defect, fit for a particular purpose or non-infringing. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the code is with the end user."

 

From  Mark Daunt

How many times have you seen the problem where somebody clicks on the Submit button a hundred times?  One technique to avoid multiple submissions is to use client side script to disable the button after it has been clicked.  Problem is you only want to disable the button if the form is valid and is actually going to PostBack.  To get around this call the client side function Page_ClientValidate() to see if the page is valid.  If it is you can set a caption on the button, like “Please Wait...“, disable it, and invoke its click event,  like in the following code sample:

System.Text.StringBuilder sbValid = new System.Text.StringBuilder();

sbValid.Append("if (typeof(Page_ClientValidate) == 'function') { ");

sbValid.Append("if (Page_ClientValidate() == false) { return false; }} ");

sbValid.Append("this.value = 'Please wait...';");

sbValid.Append("this.disabled = true;");

sbValid.Append("document.all.btnSubmit.disabled = true;");

//GetPostBackEventReference obtains a reference to a client-side script function that causes the server to post back to the page.

sbValid.Append(this.Page.GetPostBackEventReference(this.btnSubmit));

sbValid.Append(";");

this.btnSubmit.Attributes.Add("onclick", sbValid.ToString());

 

Via  Patrick:-

Scott finishes the year with some highlights on BizTalk Server Server:

• Our current plan of record is that BizTalk Server 2004 will not support SQL Server 2005 (BizTalk Server 2006 will of course)
• BizTalk Server 2006 will continue to support SQL Server 2000 as well.
• Solutions will easily move from BizTalk Server 2004 to BizTalk Server 2006
• BizTalk Server 2006 EAP/Beta programs rolling-out next year
• SP1 is done excepting an important external fix. Look for it last week of January
• Indigo is "coming out" at VS Live 2005

Remember I said I got ambushed by Cam & Mick from G’Day World … well its out.

--

            See it here.

“Number four...and the podcasts just keep on rolling. Listen in as we ambush Angus Logan (MCMS and SharePoint developer extraordanaire) and he does a world first...he puts us on pause...hmmm...”

Man they are pumping out the Service Packs for SQL RS… anyway.

Via Patrick's Blog

Monday, January 10, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Geoff Snowman, MSDN DEVELOPER COMM CHAMPION, Microsoft Corp.

Service Pack 2 for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services contains two improved features: client-side printing and Microsoft SharePoint integration, in addition to the usual rollup of any outstanding hot fixes. In this webcast, we'll investigate these two features, demonstrating both the print dialog box and the new Report Viewer and Report Explorer Web parts.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032266509&Culture=en-US

Via Serge van den Oever [Macaw] 

I use SharePoint a lot... as a developer. Ok, our intranet runs on SharePoint, and I know my way around as a user (I did build a large part of it) but most of the time I REALLYwork with SharePoint I'm diving in the object model, programming against it. A few days ago I was scoring use-cases together with collegue developers for a huge SharePoint implementation for a customer. In those use-cases there was a description of some sorting functionality in a list that we thought would take a long time to implement. We called in the analist who wrote the use-case to blame him for writing way to difficult use-cases, and he looked at us as if we were really stupid. And he was right.

As a developer you sometimes forget to look at the functionality that is available just out of the box. One of those things is the standard functionality that is available in the SharePoint lists. Most people knowledgable of SharePoint will think: what is your point? Didn't you know this? Why do you bother me with this: read the f*cking manual. For those other people who forgot to read the manual, I would like to enumerate some things about lists that are "out of the ordinary".

Did you know that:

• Lists based on the "Links" list have a "Change Order" option in the menu bar of it's views that allow you to reorder the list items
• Lists based on "Tasks" and "Issues" have an "Assign to:" field that is a lookup to users in the UserInfo list for the web the list is on. This list contains all users that ever visited the list. What does this mean:

• • Users who did not visit the web yet are not in the list
  • Users who ever visited the web site, but whom's account is now removed is still in the list (Should be like this: task/issue can be assigned to user that is now gone, if you edit the task/issue to change something, the user shouls still be in the list, otherwise it must always be reassigned on edit.)
  • System accounts that crawl the list are in the list (we filter those out using the MacawSharePointSkinner)

• Lists based on "Issues" have an option to sent the "Assigned To" person a notification e-mail (General Settintgs ->Email Notification) on changed item or when ownership is assigned.
• Lists based on "Issues" have a "View reports" action with reports to track issue trends
• Lists based on "Contacts" have "Export Contact" functionality in the menu of an entry that created a vcard file
• Lists based on "Contacts" can "link to Outlook", this creates a read-only contacts list in outlook, with in each item a link to update the contact. This list in outlook stays up to date automatically
• Lists based on "Contacts" can import contacts from the address book
• Lists based on "Events" can "link to Outlook", this creates a read-only calendar in outlook, with in each item a link to update the event. This list in outlook stays up to date automatically
• Lists based on "Discussion" support threading on items, and that this list sucks for discussions (in my opinion). We rewrote the new/edit/view pages to se things like the thread you are replying on, the complete thread of a single discussion item, see the newest discussion thread first. This makes it usable.
• List items can have multiple files attached
• There are no events available on lists, only on libraries. When I asked Mike Fitzmaurice about this on the PDC 2003 he answered that it was due to lack of time. There was a big launching customer who needed events on libraries, so this was implemented.

All this functionality is somewhere available in the list definitions, so if you define your own template you can combine all this functionality!!

Maybe I will write some more on the libraries (Forms/Documents/Pictures) in the future. Who knows...

Are there any other hidden gems out there that is good to know about... let me know in a response on this post.

I’m getting myself a MCE 2k5 PC + a Plasma Tv for Christmas J

Via Chris Lanier's Blog 

Looking to build a Media Center machine for yourself?  Have questions about good hardware to use?  ExtremeTech might just be able to help you out with their “Build Your Own Windows Media Center PC” guide!

Build Your Own Windows Media Center PC
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1741030,00.asp