This is one of the coolest things I have seen ever! (and very timely).

Teun has a really great article here.

Abstract

As part of Microsoft's work to become a major player in the Business Intelligence marketplace, it introduced Microsoft Reporting Services in 2004.. This reporting engine is freely available for owners of a SQL Server 2000 license. It allows organisations to create WYSIWYG reports combining several sources like OLEDB databases and OLAP cubes. Reporting Services offers a broad range of target formats (such as HTML, PDF and MS Excel) and several delivery methods (like a web interface or scheduled e-mails). Designing and testing of reports is done within Visual Studio. All this allows the typical Microsoft developer to use Reporting Services to quickly create impressive reports in a well-known and comfortable environment.

Of course, most organisation possess more information than that stored in relational databases. For example: many organisations use SharePoint lists to keep track of critical business processes. Think of project teams administering status and priority of all tasks and subtasks within the project in a Tasks list. One would like to include that data into reports as well to allow the management to get an overview of the progress presented in a graph. Luckily, the architecture of Microsoft Reporting Services has several extension points, so we can create a solution for this requirement by building a Reporting Services Extension. How to do that is the subject of this article. 

Check it out

Christopher is only new to this whole bl*g (I’ve decided it’s a swear word now) thing but he’s writing some quality stuff on InfoPath/SharePoint/BizTalk.

---

Via Christopher Walker 

Business Activity Monitoring in BizTalk Server 2004

Basically BAM lets you expose orchestration events and message data for analysis by “information workers” - regular users. A business analyst uses their understanding of the business process to determine data they are interested in (in a spreadsheet). It is probably mostly useful where the orchestration is reasonably complex and/or has long running transactions (ie. a reasonable amount of time between significant business events or “milestones”, such as Received, Approved, Dispatched etc). The developer then “maps” the BA’s data/event items to actual steps in the orchestration and elements in messages. The output of the BA’s work and the developers work is deployed – one part to the Tracking Engine and the other to Analysis Services. You then fire up your system, put some messages through and open up a specially generated Excel spreadsheet (_LiveData.xls) and view the data exposed by the orchestrations & messages. Very cool. I'd encoruage anyone working with BizTalk to take a look at BAM.

A side note - initially I ran into an issue where the BM tool was not generating the <filename>_LiveData.xls file.

When you use a locale setting other than English (United States) while installing the English version of BizTalk Server, your deployment of the Bam.xls file generates an "fnGetString" or "Old format or invalid type library" error.

Solution
Change the computer locale to English (United States) and re-run the bm deploy command at the command prompt.

To change your computer locale to English (United States)
Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Regional and Language Options.
In the Regional and Language Options dialog, on the Regional Options tab, choose the English (United States) locale from the drop down box, and click OK.

I got an email from Telerik this morning.

---

Dear Angus,

telerik is pleased to announce the release of r.a.d.controls MCMS Edition Q2 2005 - the special bundle of ASP.NET components tailored for tight integration with Microsoft Content Management Server 2002. The new volume introduces three major updates, which aim to significantly enhance the UI richness of MCMS-based application. In Q2 professionals will find the long-awaited r.a.d.editor MCMS Premium Edition v5.0 (based on its newest ASP.NET counterpart) as well as r.a.d.menu MCMS Edition v3.2 and r.a.d.tabstrip MCMS Edition v2.0.

The new major release of the leading WYSIWYG editor, telerik r.a.d.editor, presents a rich set of features, which bring browser-based content authoring almost to the level of convenience and familiarity of desktop word processors, like Microsoft Word®. Among the novelties are: multilevel Undo/Redo with action trails, dockable and floating toolbars, multiple editors with a single toolbar, custom context menus, system modules, new features for pasting from Word, client-side API, and much more.

r.a.d.menu has been greatly improved as well to deliver full keyboard support – an important accessibility requirement. End-users can now utilize shortcuts, access-keys, and arrow-key navigation. Also new is the design-time support, screen-boundaries detection, client-side API, etc.

Equally interesting are the improvements in the new version 2.0 of the r.a.d.tabstrip component. The tab content area is now logically separated from the labels and can be placed anywhere on the page. Developers can now easily build hierarchical tab structures and take advantage of the other enhancements like expand effects, full keyboard support, multi-language support, etc.

For full product descriptions and feature lists, please visit www.mcmscontrols.com or try the on-line examples at http://www.mcmscontrols.com/demo1. To request a fully functional free trial, please logon your www.mcmscontrols.com account and go to "Trial."

r.a.d.controls MCMS is available with 4 different licenses:
- Server (unlimited CPUs, unlimited developers)
- Server Subscription (same as above plus free version updates for 1 year)
- Enterprise Subscription (unlimited servers, free version updates for 1 year)
- Enterprise Subscription and Source Code (same as above plus full source code)
For detailed licensing information, please visit http://www.mcmscontrols.com/purchase

The free Lite version of r.a.d.editor MCMS can be downloaded at www.mcmscontrols.com.

Regards,
the telerik team

---

Via Leon O’Brien (a solution architect I work with @ Data#3) 

As Data#3 is a partner for CMS.RAPID, I was privileged to see some of the functionality to be included in the forthcoming CMS.RAPID v1.1 release.

Now if you've done lots of MCMS projects you'll automatically know the benefits that CMS.RAPID delivers, so I'm not even going to touch on that. What impresses me is that Artemis has invested time and money into the development of a substantial solution that will provide no direct financial benefit (CMS.RAPID is free). Sure they probably get something from MS for such a release, but I would be sure that the indirect benefits of Market exposure, international recognition, and the establishment of a market distribution network would far exceed any funds from MS.

Via Mart Muller's Sharepoint Weblog 

I've been playing with ASP.Net 2.0 and WebPart development and it's cool to see the whole web part concept running in a standerd asp.net website. A problem with asp.net 2.0 was that Sharepoint wouldn't run. A problem with SharePoint was that it wouldn't run on asp.net 2.0. With Windows Server 2003 R2, including WSS SP2, this issue should be fixed. Time for me to test it!

First I had to install of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with SP1. After completing this installation, the R2 update can be added, which is finished real quickly. Great to the the WSS 2.0 component is now standard in the W2k3 installation.

Asp.Net 2.0 is installed and can be assinged to the Sharepoint web in the IIS Manager to anable asp.net 2.0 on the sharepoint site.

Using the STSADM.exe tool the SharePoint sites can be upgraded: stsadm.exe -o -upgrade -forceupgrade

Changes are made to the web.config file of Sharepoint to manage the System.Web.UI.WebControlWebParts namespace that is used with asp.net 2.0 webparts.

Great to see that the SharePoint site is running on asp.net 2.0 now. When creating new virtual servers, one of the options that is added is to choose between NLTM and kerebos authentication.

Right now, I'm experimenting with asp.net 2.0 webparts, so more screenshots and code about that on a while.

Via Michael Kleef 

Great news. The registration for TechEd 2005 is now live with special prices for certified partners, trainers (MCTs) and corporates.

Register now before the early bird pricing closes! http://www.microsoft.com/australia/events/teched2005/default.aspx

 

Via Matthew Cosier

Via AJ's Blog 

Jawad Khan has produced some articles on his experiences using MCMS :

Creating Custom XML Placeholder Control ......

MCMS 101 - Getting Content out of Placeholder ....

MCMS 101 - How to point your Local Site Manager to another Environment ....

How to maintain a Microsoft Content Management Server database

MCMS 101 ... How to get List of Child Channels Name and Url for Navigation control ...

MCMS 101 - Quick Tutorial ...

 

I’ve just had a play with the Telerik’s new radEditor Premium Edition pre-release which is sold as a part of the MCMS Controls suite.

It’s very very nice – seems lots faster than the v2 lite edition and has a couple of new killer features.

If you are doing some MCMS Development you should definitely check out the telerik products.

Dave is really letting fly in these two posts!

 http://archive.scripting.com/2005/05/14#When:8:02:28AM

I winced a half-dozen times reading this interview with Adam Curry. He didn't invent podcasting, he didn't figure out that RSS would be a good transport. And he didn't write the first iPodder. Here's what Adam actually did do. He figured out the last yard was important and worked tirelessly to get people to listen to him. I was the only one who did, and I turned that idea into RSS with enclosures, and wrote the first iPodder, in 2001, three years before Adam claims to have done all this stuff. I never denied him credit for his role in this work, quite the opposite, I praised him every way I could for his insight. I also did regular podcasts for a couple of months before he started. He was listening to them, calling me all the time, ecstatic at how I was reinventing radio. There are a couple of ideas in Daily Source Code that didn't come from me, and for that Adam deserves full credit and our thanks. But these lies have gone on and on, he just doesn't stop.

http://archive.scripting.com/2005/05/14#When:8:48:17AM

Thing is -- Adam's star is fading, again. At some point he's going to need some friends, and then I'm going to kick him in the ass, and then look him in the eye and say "Shouldn't have lied so much, dickhead."

And Adam’s website is down… wonder if Dave hacked it :)

Via CMS Watch

http://www.cmswatch.com/News/Article/?443 - RedDot is proud that Forrester now recognizes them. We could well attribute this to better analyst relations. A more meaningful marker of the company's maturity is RedDot's first customer summit, slated for June in the USA and Germany. This is a significant milestone, because it implies a critical mass of entrenched customers as well as sufficient resources at the vendor to pull it off (and RedDot has not always been the most, well, organized company). In any case, chalk up one more thriving mid-market CMS vendor that Microsoft never squashed...... 

http://www.cmswatch.com/News/Article/?442 - Interwoven has announced plans for tighter integration between it's Worksite DM and collaboration tool and the Microsoft stack, including MS Office and SharePoint. This makes good sense, and in fact, all the department-oriented DM players have been beating a door to Redmond. Microsoft, too, wants to argue that it is addressing records management and compliance, via partners. Just remember that partnership press releases doth not solid connector modules make. And don't assume that Interwoven's other major product -- Teamsite CMS, with it's own version of perl -- will suddenly start running better on Windows servers... ...

Via Mike Hall 

If you missed MEDC and didn't sign up to the MEDC 2005 Podcast Feed then here's what you missed - we recorded over 80 video segments on site at MEDC 2005 - here's the first batch, more to come next week when we finish editing and transcoding the content - start voting for your favorite video !

  Welcome to MEDC 2005 - This is a placeholder video for the MEDC 2005 Podcast Feed - More content coming soon...
  Bill Gates at MEDC 2005. 
  Backstage prior to Bill Gates Keynote address.
  MEDC 2005 from Las Vegas.
  Larry Morris the Pirate at MEDC 2005 
  This is THE MEDC podcast video to watch... 
  Here's Sean Liming, MVP for Windows XP Embedded. 
  Here's Doug Boling, MVP for Mobile and Embedded Devices. 
  Here's Paul Yao, MVP for Mobile and Embedded Devices. 
  Here's Sean Liming, MVP for Mobile and Embedded Devices. 
  Here's Doug Boling, MVP for Mobile and Embedded Devices. 
  Here's Larry Morris, GM for Mobile and Embedded Devices. 
  Here's Mike Hall... 
  Here's Larry Morris, GM for Mobile and Embedded Devices. 
  Here's Larry Morris, on donuts. 
  Here's John Eldridge. 
  Here's Anil Dhawan. 
  Here's Paul Yao 
  Interview with Chee Chew, General Manager in Mobile Devices. 
  Here's Chee Chew, General Manager. 
  Here is James Pratt, Product Manager. 
  Mike Hall interviewing Suzan DelBene for MEDC 2005. 
  Here is Suzan DelBene, VP Marketing. 
  Here is Suzan DelBene, VP of Marketing - Question time. 
  Here is an interview with Ya-Quin Zhang, Corporate Vice President of Mobile Devices. 
  Here is Ya-Quin Zhang, Corporate Vice President of Mobile Devices. 
  Mike Hall interviews Bruce Eitman at MEDC 2005, May 9th. 
  The POD Squad attacks a presenter. 
  POD Squad attacks presenter Jim. 
  The POD Squad attacks Sean Liming during his presentation. 
  POD Squad attacks Doug Boling during session.
  POD Squad attacks an attendee in hallway. 
  Mike Hall interviews Richard Cleese. 
  Mike Hall discussing Code Room 
  Sean Liming on Code Room. 
  Doug Boling on the Code Room. 
  Paul Yao on the Code Room. 
  Jim Wilson on the Code Room. 
  Mike and Anil discuss MEDC and podcasting. 
  Anil's interview for MEDC 2005. 
  Paul Yao on MEDC 2005. 
  Here is Larry Gregory from ISV Show. 
  Larry Gregory promo from MEDC. 
  Here is Larry Morris. 
  Here is Adam Wieczorek, Senior Software Engineer with Motorola, at MEDC 2005. 
  Here is Anne Eto with Motorola at MEDC 2005. 
  Here is Art Claus with Spansion at AMD booth during MEDC 2005. 
  Interview during opening reception. 
  Esther and Carlos give a review of the Embedded OS in the exercise bike during the opening reception at MEDC 2005. 
  Here is Fred Salloum, Director of Marketing with Applied Data at opening reception MEDC 2005. 
  Here is Isabel Cortes from Intel at opening reception MEDC 2005. 
  Here is Janet Anderson at MEDC 2005 with ISV Show. 
  Here is John Sturgeon, Software Engineer with HP, at MEDC 2005 opening reception. 
  Here is Kevin demoing Milo at MEDC 2005 opening reception. 
  Here is Lynda Allen with Windows Embedded at MEDC 2005 opening reception. 
  POD Squad interview. 
  Here is Rich Ferrel at MEDC 2005 opening reception. 
  Here is Rick Duncan discussing the Tablet at MEDC 2005 opening reception. 
  Here is Dwayne Lamb from MEDC 2005. 
  Here is Steve Worcester with AVNET at MEDC 2005 opening reception. 
  Here is Ted Erter from NSTL at MEDC 2005 opening reception. 
  Here is Winston Chai of PSION Teklogix at MEDC 2005 opening reception. 
   
- Mike

I just got this email – go Microsoft!

---

We have an important announcement: The MessageCast LiveMessage service has been acquired by Microsoft Corporation. Click here to learn more about the acquisition.

Your action required:

As part of the transition of the MessageCast LiveMessage service from MessageCast, Inc. to Microsoft Corporation, your MessageCast LiveMessage account has been disabled. In order to transition and re-activate your alerts service with MSN, you must review and accept the new MSN Alerts Publisher terms of use 

In Internet Explorer I couldn’t view source on some specific types of pages (ASPXs but local HTMs worked)… very strange. I’d select “View Source” and nothing would happen.

So I installed FireFox on my computer just so I could load up the pages and view the source (very poor use of a browser) :)

Anyway – the fix to getting view source to work on IE found from here was to reduce my Temporary Internet Files allocation to < 80mb (I had it @ ~ 500mb).

I’m not a complete hippy basher - I do actually have a nice thing to say about FireFox – The “Find” in View Source mode rocks. As you type it highlights the text in the source code – very nice.

It the entire list gets refreshed when he adds one because of the way MSN Spaces work.

Via AJ's Blog 

Tools List

• telerik r.a.d.editor MCMS 2002: High-end WYSIWYG content editor that enables non-technical usersof MCMS
• MSIB Plus Pack: Is a suite of 17 components, designed to be used with Microsoft’s MSIB technology set and Microsoft Visual Studio.NET
• MCMS.RAPID: Provides a framework that enables extensibility to MCMS 2002
• K2.net 2003: Workflow Management and Publishing
• Mondosearch: Crawler and Search Engine with .NET API support
• CMS-Wizard: A wizard to build you a MCMS site...
• Metalogix: Content migration tools
• AdServer 2002 for CMS: Deploy and manage powerful advertising campaigns
• GotDotNet User Samples: Various controls submitted from developers
• SPARK Connector: MCMS and Sharepoint Connector
• AFLite -AchieveForms: e-Forms for MCMS 2002
• MCMS IT Hit WAE: Web Author Enhancements
• Zinc v2: Flash Application tool
• Authentic® 2005 Browser Edition Placeholder: Users can easily create and edit XML and database content with an easy-to-use user interface
• IXIASOFT Integration Kit for MCMS: IXIASOFT has developed the IXIASOFT Integration Kit, to provideXML-based search and management functionality to MCMS 2002.
• Skelta Workflow.NET: Workflow Management software
• MCMS Controls - Telerik: Various controls by Telerik to support MCMS
• MCMS.Search: Search implementation by SnowValley
• MCMS 2002 Deployment Resources: Use this page to find white papers, tools, training, and other content to help you deploy MCMS
• Coveo Enterprise Search 3.6: Search and Indexing Engine