Mohamed Zaki's Blog [Sharepoint MVP]

really neat  :)

 

From Microsoft sharepoint team blog

"

The vision was to plan, design, develop, test and publish a high quality SilverLight application that would improve the overall customer experience with the current downloadable Visio diagram for the Stsadm SharePoint command line admin tool. We have delivered; our application provides a fully browsable interface, in-depth information from the TechNet TOC and library, and links to specific topics for each Stsadm command line operation and property. By using separate XML data files, the SilverLight application is instantly updatable and localizable!

To view our Stsadm SilverLight application on TechNet:

• Stsadm Technical Reference for SharePoint Server 2007:
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/cc948709.aspx
• Stsadm Technical Reference for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0:
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/sharepoint/dd418924.aspx"

Microsoft announced that Groove will get a new name in the next release; the name is "Sharepoint Workspace 2010"

 

from Groove Development Team

 

"

The name makeover is in concert with the direction the product is going.  SharePoint Workspace will provide easy access to SharePoint content (or content from any server that implements the publicly documented protocols) in an effort to provide a seamless online/offline experience.

SharePoint Workspace 2010 will be easier to deploy and easier to manage, and it supports a new set of scenarios to help Office and SharePoint users be more productive.  It will also make it easier for IT folks to implement a consistent information strategy based on SharePoint technology throughout the organization.

There will be changes in the way the product is delivered, as well – e.g. SharePoint Workspace (and OneNote, for that matter) will be added to the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 release.  Keep an eye peeled for further announcements from Microsoft on new product plans for Office."

Microsoft announced thre release of Sharepoint (MOSS & WSS) service pack 2 on Sharepoint Official team blog

 

You can download them from here:

Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, x86 & x64
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=79BADA82-C13F-44C1-BDC1-D0447337051B&displaylang=en

Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007, x86 & x64
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B7816D90-5FC6-4347-89B0-A80DEB27A082&displaylang=en

From Sharepoint blog

"Customers can be benefited from the following enhancements with Service Pack 2.

• Performance and Availability Improvements

Service Pack 2 includes many fixes and enhancements designed to improve performance, availability, and stability in your server farms, including:

• New Timer job automatically rebuilds content database index to improve database performance.
• When a content database is marked as read-only, the user interface will be modified so users cannot perform tasks that require writing to the database.
• Performance enhancement across nearly all the components.
  
• Improved Interoperability

Service Pack 2 continues to improve SharePoint interoperability with other products and platforms.

• Broader support of browsers
  Internet Explorer 8 is added into Level 1 browser support.
  FireFox 2.0/3.0 is added into Level 2 browser support.
• Provide improved client integration user experience with Form Based Authentication. Now the client application can store user credentials instead of asking for them every time. For more technical details please refer to the updated articles on TechNet.
  Configure forms-based authentication (Office SharePoint Server
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262201.aspx
  Configure forms-based authentication (Windows SharePoint Services)
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288043.aspx
  
• Getting Ready for SharePoint Server 2010

A new preupgradecheck operation is added to stsadm tool. It can be used to scan your server farm to establish whether it is ready for upgrade to SharePoint Products and Technologies "14". It identifies issues that could present obstacles to the upgrade process. It checks for several SharePoint Products and Technologies "14" system requirements, including the presence of Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 and a 64-bit hardware, and provides feedback and best practice recommendations for your current environment, together with information on how to resolve any issues that the tool discovers. 

The full explanation of SP2 benefits can be downloaded here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148551"

 

 

Yesterday Microsoft has invited the Egyptian MVPs and MSPs (Microsoft Students Partners) to a meeting with Dina Lasheen Program Manager at Microsoft regarding our features wishlist for Visual Studio 2010 and the discussion was really fruitful,also we've discussed the Arabic problems developers face in Reporting Services ; if you have concerns or you faced any problem while designing arabic reports please leave me a comment here so we can gather all our problems and and send them to Dina

 

Thank you Mohamed Wahby for giving us this change.

 

 

 

As most of you heard Sharepoint Designer is now available for download for Free :)

 

From Microsoft

"We are implementing a number of changes to promote and facilitate even more customization efforts on top of the SharePoint platform including making SharePoint Designer 2007 available as a free download."