Microsoft has updated the sliverlight blueprints for sharepoint and you can get the updated release from codeplex

 

 

Quoted  from Sharepoint team blog

"
In this release, there are five blueprint samples:

1. Hello World
2. Media Player
3. Slider Control
4. Custom Navigation
5. Colleague Viewer

Also included in the release is documentation for each of the samples along with full source code (just click on the Releases tab in the CodePlex site). Within the next week or two, we’ll publish additional screencasts and other supporting documentation."

Microsoft announced the release of Faceted Search V2.5 with many enhanced features.

 

 

1. Caching – dramatically improves performance and decreases the load on the search engine

2. Synchronization with Core Search Results web part

3. Support for advanced search

4. Match of search counters

5. Introducing Parent-Child relationships

6. Extending search to logical “OR” queries

7. Simplified web part properties

 

You can read the full details of the above features at Microsoft Enterprise Search blog

Well if you are a sharepoint professional then don't wait and check the first independant non-profit association for sharepoint professionals.

"The International SharePoint Professionals Association (“ISPA”) is the first independent, community-run, not-for-profit organization designed specifically for SharePoint Professionals. ISPA is a professional association dedicated to the promotion and global adoption of Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies.  The Association provides support and guidance to the community  by establishing connections between SharePoint professionals and groups, resources, education and information."

Go check it at http://www.sharepointpros.org

 

Very nice site for sharepoint developers, you can find references for many Virtual machines, articles, samples ... etc.

 

url: www.microsoft.com/click/sharepointdeveloper

 

 

 

Via Sharepoint team blog

What's in VSeWSS?

Version 1.2 of the Visual Studio 2008 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services contains the following tools to aid developers in building SharePoint applications:

Visual Studio 2008 Project Templates

• Web Part
• Team Site Definition
• Blank Site Definition
• List Definition
• Empty SharePoint Project

Visual Studio 2008 Item Templates (items that can be added into an existing project)

• Web Part
• Custom Field
• List Definition (with optional Event Receiver)
• Content Type (with optional Event Receiver
• Module
• List Instance
• List Event Handler
• Template

SharePoint Solution Generator

This stand-alone program generates a Site Definition project from an existing SharePoint site. The program enables developers to use the browser and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer to customize the content of their sites before creating code by using Visual Studio.

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

• Q: Does VSeWSS 1.2 support Visual Studio 2008?
  A: Yes.

• Q: Does VSeWSS 1.2 support Visual Stuido 2005?
  A: No,  you must use Version 1.1 with Visual Studio 2005.

• Q: What additional features are in Version 1.2?
  A: For Version 1.2 we focussed on Visual Studio 2008 support only.

• Q: Does VSeWSS support Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
  A: Yes, VSeWSS supports both Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server.

• Q: Does VSeWSS support Windows XP or "remote debugging"?
  A: No, VSeWSS only works against local SharePoint installations.

Microsoft announced a new webcast series on Sharepoint, these webcasts are really usefull especially for anybody wants to start developing on sharepoint.

 

 

Date	Webcast Topic	Registration Link
May 20	Web Parts	Register today!
May 21	Data Lists	Register today!
May 27	Silverlight and SharePoint	Register today!
May 28	Using Event Handlers	Register today!
Jun 3	Page Branding	Register today!
Jun 4	Workflow	Register today!
Jun 10	Web Services	Register today!
Jun 11	Page Navigation	Register today!
Jun 17	User Management	Register today!
Jun 18	Custom Content Types	Register today!

Via Sharepoint team blog

It's with great excitement that I get to be the first to announce the initial release of the Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit! Since shipping SharePoint back in November of 2006 we've been listening to your feedback and requests for more tools to help you run our product. We've been listening and our team is deeply committed to supporting you and our in market products. One of our approaches to better support you is to provide a regular release of additional tools in the new SharePoint Administration Toolkit. This tool pack is oriented towards helping SharePoint administrators with complex or demanding tasks—and we will have updated releases several times each year.  Each release of this kit will include new or improved functionality to make managing SharePoint easier and less time consuming.  The tools on the top of our list are aimed at the issues that you, our customers, have brought up through Products Support—but this effort won't stop there!  If there's something you need to keep your SharePoint deployments running on a daily basis, I want to hear about it!  Use the comments below to give us ideas or any other feedback.

Now, shifting focus on to this version of the SharePoint Administration Toolkit—this first release contains two very useful tools which are both supported on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

The first tool, called "Batch Site Manager", adds new functionality through Central Administration.  From the new "Move, Lock, and Delete Site Collections" page on Applications Management you can schedule bulk operations against site collections in the farm—including moving site collections between content databases! This is my favorite feature as it is completely new functionality for SharePoint and definitely helps manage deployments simply from the UI rather than requiring administrators to write or use scripts.  The development of this feature was quite involved, and is a topic which I intend to blog about in full in the near future.  For now, here's a screenshot of the "Batch Site Manager" tool:
 
*Note: when using the Batch Site Manager, be sure to refresh the site collection list using the "click here" aggregation link before every scheduled operation!

The second tool is actually a new command in STSADM called "updatealert". This command will refresh all alert URLs in a specific site collection, which is extremely important should you change the URL of a web application or after an upgrade. Alerts in SharePoint store the URL which the users used to create them—which is needed so that users of different "zones" get the proper URL in their email—but if the URL changes you can now use "STSADM –o UpdateAlert" to let SharePoint fix these alerts (don't know what a "zone" is? Start here on MSDN). Due to the multiple zones that can exist in a web application, the UpdateAlert command needs to be provided with both the new URL of the site collection to be fixed and the old URL–this operation must be run once per zone, but will update all the subwebs in the given site collection automatically.

The full detailed whitepaper about this release of the SharePoint Administration Toolkit is available on MSDN. There are some restrictions regarding the Batch Site Manager tool, so be sure to read the whitepaper!

 

The download links for the SharePoint Administration Toolkit

x64: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F8EEA8F0-FA30-4C10-ABC9-217EEACEC9CE&displaylang=en

x86: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=263CD480-F6EB-4FA3-9F2E-2D47618505F2&displaylang=en

Hay guys, lately i was so busy preparing my session at EDC (Egypt Developers Conference 2008) , about what ? of course sharepoint :) ; the session this year titled "Sharepoint development quick tips" it's main goal is to highlight the best practices developers should follow to deliver a scalable a high performance solutions based on MOSS 2007 and actually not only developers but also for site administrators; in the session we covered the following topics:

 

 

 

1- Sharepoint Disposable Objects

2- Optimizing WCM performance

     a. Reducing Pages payload

     b. IIS Compression for Sharepoint Sites

     c. Sharepoint Caching

 

3- overview of Sharepoint Capacity planning tools

 

i'll upload the slides and samples soon today isa.

 

Thank you everybody attended and i was really pleased to see you there, hope you found the session interesting.

 

Via Eric Shupps

 

 

 

 

Today i've stumbled upon two new goodies at Jan Tielen's blog:

1- the first one is the auto complete text field :

 

Microsoft released a new updated SDK for WSS/MOSS includes the new updates for SP1 and some updates like "aspx collect feedback workflow" sample, "Document converter" sample and new XML Intellisense file.

 

Check the announcement on the sharepoint team blog

hay i stumbled across  this nice tip  from Jan:

 

Thank you Jan :)

 

 

"Did you ever had the need to navigate to a SharePoint list item or document, when you only got the ID's of the item, the item's container (list or document library) and the item's web? I sure did! For example when you query SharePoint data by making use of the SPSiteDataQuery class; the resulting data table includes all those ID's (and additional properties if you want), but it doesn't include a link back to the item. You could make use of the Object Model to build the link in code, but that is both resource intensive and pretty complex. In that case you have to check out the CopyUtil.aspx page, which is also used by the Content Query Web Part by the way. The CopyUtil.aspx page is an application page to which you can provide a bunch of ID's, as a result the page will redirect you to the corresponding item or document.

You just have to build a URL like this (replace the X's with the actual ID's of course):

http://yoursite/_layouts/CopyUtil.aspx?Use=id&Action=dispform&ItemId=X&ListId=X&WebId=X&SiteId=X

And the CopyUtil.aspx page will do the rest!"

Via Sharepoint team blog

 

The Office Developer Documentation group, the Developer Platform Evangelism group, the Office Business Applications group, and the MSDN Labs team are very pleased to announce the release of the Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map Version 2!

The Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map is a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application that helps developers visualize the different programs, servers, services, and tools that will help them build solutions. It allows them to drill down to each product and technology and learn about new features, objects, Web services, namespaces, and schemas required to extend Microsoft Office and build custom Office Business Applications (OBAs). This application also includes links and pointers to relevant online resources available on Office Online, MSDN, TechNet, Channel 9, Channel 10, and OBA Central.

get it from here

 

Microsoft released new content for Sharepoint on technet as below:

 

Title	Description	Streaming Video	White Paper
Overview: Office SharePoint Server server farm architecture	Describes how to plan server farms for reliability and scalability, and how to deploy Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on a server farm.	None	Download
Overview: Configuring server farms	Describes configuration steps needed for server farms after deployment.	Watch	Download
Securing server farms	Describes how to help control access to information and how to help protect deployments from malicious users.	Watch	Download
Configuring performance options	Describes how to set up caching, IIS compression, and other options to help maximize performance of an Office SharePoint Server server farm.	Watch	None
Backing up and restoring Office SharePoint Server server farms	Describes how to back up and recover Office SharePoint Server server farms.	Watch	Download
Operations and management	Provides information about common operations and management tasks.	Watch	Download
Capacity planning	Describes how to determine requirements to support your capacity requirements.	Watch	Download
Search architecture and configuration	Describes how to plan for and configure search for Office SharePoint Server.	Watch	Download

From codeplex 

"Return of SmartPart v1.3 allows developers to create SharePoint 2007 Web Parts by using Web User Controls (ASCX files, created by the Visual Studio Designer). This version of the SmartPart supports both normal ASP.NET Web User Controls and ASP.NET Web User Controls using the ASP.NET AJAX extensions.

Changes:

Microsoft has been DoD 5015.2 certified  in May 2007, and now released a resource kit supporting the Records management for its customers; here is the overview from Sharepoint team blog

 

"

The DoD 5015.2 Resource Kit is intended only for customers, who are required to run their records management system in a DoD 5015.2 Chapter 2 certified state. In case you're wondering, we currently have no plans to provide support for DoD 5015.2 Chapter 4 (classified records).

However, the Resource Kit is not intended for customers, who would like to enhance the records management functionality of MOSS 2007 with particular 5015.2 oriented features but are not required to run their system in a certified configuration. Alternatively, sample code and documentation will be available shortly via the MSDN Dev Center for MOSS 2007 for the most frequently requested features such as:

• Generating a Unique ID
• Display search results in Grid View
• Referencing and Linking - Using a secondary table to maintain the relationship
• Referencing and Linking - Using the asset picker
• Referencing and Linking - Using a custom field to display the relationship
• Create Document Library from a list item
• Put multiple items on Hold using SPQuery
• Custom expiration formula based on metadata (2 parts)
• Custom expiration formula based on metadata (cont.)
• Creating a custom router & extracting date received (2 parts)
• Creating a custom router & extracting date received (cont)
• Prevent record modification but allow metadata modification in event handler
• Prevent record modification but allow metadata modification by overriding upload page
• Programmatically defaulting/inheriting a field value
• Using ProcessBatchData to batch update list items
• Using Metadata tags to route documents into document libraries
• Create a record category programmatically (2 parts)
• Create a record category programmatically (cont)
• Routing content to a record category based on a metadata value

Officially, the DoD 5015.2 Resource Kit for SharePoint Server 2007 is now available to customers through our partner and Microsoft Consulting Service (MCS) channels. The reason for requiring partner/MCS involvement is that DoD implementations are not as simple as a "double-click installation." They require deep understanding of records management practices as well as business process and policy requirements. In order to successfully implement a DoD 5015.2 certified solution based on MOSS 2007, customers should work with their respective Microsoft account managers to engage a partner that has been trained on the DoD 5015.2 Resource Kit. Partners may download the Resource Kit's source code for free via MS Connect's DoD 5015.2 Resource Kit Source Code download site.

"

"

Planning a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) installation or a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) installation for a large enterprise can be a very complex undertaking. Determining the most cost-effective topology, hardware, and bandwidth requirements is not a trivial task and involves selecting from a variety of configuration options. In choosing the option that best fits your organization’s needs, you need to answer the following questions:

• What is the minimum hardware you need to deploy?
• Where and how should you deploy the hardware?
• How can you optimize your deployment to meet your organization’s requirements for availability and performance?
• How will growing capacity needs affect the topology?

The SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool, now available as a free download on the Microsoft Download Center, helps you effectively answer these questions, and helps you balance your organization’s needs for capacity and performance with its need to keep costs under control. This new tool extends Microsoft System Center Capacity Planner 2007 so that you can use Capacity Planner’s analysis and simulation features to plan your WSS or MOSS deployment.

The SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool is a general-purpose modeling tool that complements SharePoint’s deployment planning documentation. With this tool and the analysis it provides, you can get a head start on planning your SharePoint topology. After you provide the tool with basic information about your organization, the tool provides a first approximation of the topology your organization needs.

Important   The SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool can be considered for planning physical topologies with the understanding that it is both limited by the input it considers and possible lack of key architectural considerations unique to any deployment. No capacity planning exercise is complete without the involvement of experienced architects, systems integrators, and/or engineers for deployments greater than one server or 2000 users.

In particular, this tool does not consider extranet topologies, authentication methods other than NTLM and Anonymous, Forms, Excel Services, BDC, and other system dependencies outside the core infrastructure. The tool does not model high-end scenarios such as multi-terabyte Web applications or multiple Web applications. You should consult with knowledgeable architects and engineers about information architecture, database sizing, number of databases, site collection sizing and structuring, and other logical structures.

Business Scenarios

You can use the SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool to help you with business scenarios such as these:

• I need to determine whether I need 10 servers or 1 server to meet the needs of my large law firm of 1000 users.
• Should I buy 10 server CALs or 5? I’m not sure where to start.
• I’m confused by the capacity planning documentation; I want a tool where I could enter a few inputs to get me started.
• I don’t want to have to hire a consultant to tell me I can handle my small 200-person deployment with a single server, but I can’t determine that from the available product documentation.
• I’ve used the Hewlett-Packard capacity planning tool and I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do, but I would like a more platform-agnostic view.
• My deployment is blocked until I can determine what kind of topology would provide my organization with basic high availability.

Using the SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool

The SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool walks you through the following sequence of steps in the planning process:

1. Use the Model Wizard to assess your organization’s needs and create your initial topology.
2. Use the Model Editor and the Hardware Editor to review and edit your topology.
3. Run simulations, and use the detailed simulation results to review the behavior of your topology.
4. Return to the Model Editor and the Hardware Editor to optimize your topology, and then re-run the simulation to check your results.
5. Finalize your topology and generate reports to guide the deployment process.

The following figure illustrates the general process, and a more detailed description follows.

1. Assess Your Organization’s Needs and Create Your Initial Topology

Use the Model Wizard to set up your initial topology. Configure your primary topology (the SharePoint (WSS) or SharePoint (MOSS) farm), any branch topologies (Branch Offices), and any network or hardware stipulations. Also configure user profiles and expected application requirements, including requirements for availability and storage capacity.

This topology is your starting point. When you finish the Model Wizard, the SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool evaluates the information you have provided and builds a detailed model of your topology.

2. Review and Edit Your Topology

Use the Model Editor and the Hardware Editor to check that the initial topology meets your expectations, and refine the model if appropriate. You can then run a simulation to see how the topology behaves.

3. Use Simulations to Verify Your Topology’s Behavior

The simulator function of the SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool evaluates how your topology performs under the loads and traffic you anticipate (as specified by your user profiles and application requirements). Use the results of the simulation to identify areas where your topology needs to be adjusted (for example, to identify bottlenecks or servers that are under- or over-utilized).

The simulator’s predictions and analysis are based on laboratory testing at Microsoft. For more information about this testing and the resulting data, see the documentation for the tool.

4. Optimize Your Topology

When you have identified issues with your topology, return to the Model Editor and the Hardware Editor to make changes. Then re-run the simulation to verify the impact of your changes. Using this process, you can improve your topology’s performance and efficiency before you deploy any actual hardware.

5. Finalize the Topology

When you are satisfied that the model topology meets your organization’s needs, export the details of the topology to use as guides during deployment. You can export a Visio diagram of the topology and Excel spreadsheets of the topology information, including a detailed spreadsheet that you can use as a bill of materials.

Download Details

The SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool is a software extension of the System Center Capacity Planner 2007. Installing the SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool adds application models for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007.

To access the System Center Capacity Planner 2007 download, click here.

To access the SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool download package, including a reference document that discloses detailed information about the construction of the models, click here.

"

" MOSS Faceted Search is a set of web parts that provide intuitive way to refine search results by category (facet). The facets are implemented using SharePoint API and stored within native SharePoint METADATA store. The solution demonstrates following key features: Grouping search results by facet Displaying a total number of hits per facet value Refining search results by facet value Update of the facet menu based on refined search criteria Displaying of the search criteria in a Bread Crumbs Ability to exclude the chosen facet from the search criteria Flexibility of the Faceted search configuration and its consistency with MOSS administration The beauty of the chosen approach is that it doesn't matter how facets are crawled into the METADATA store. Any core MOSS functionality will work the same: indexing through BDC, external web sites via HTTP protocols, or local sharepoint sites, libraries, lists. As soon as the content is indexed and META tag assigned, it is available for facets. "   Download it from here