Author: Peter Birkholm-Buch (Page 15 of 17)

It seems like they have released a professional and developer version of the BDC metadata manager for MOSS 2007! Great work!

“BDC Meta Man makes generating Application Definitions easy due to the many features it offers.

• Easy to use Windows application
• Ability to connect to and browse multiple data sources
• No need to know how to write XML or SQL
• Integrated Shared Service Provider Administration Web Site
• Inspect your application definition and edit any part of it
• Saves enormous amounts of time and effort”

For a full overview of features per version, check out this document.

BDC Meta Manager Professional and Developer released
Mart Muller
Tue, 06 Feb 2007 12:16:28 GMT

Via Lars Fastrup, I ran into the SharePoint Solution Installer for SharePoint 2007.

The SharePoint Solution Installer includes the following features:

• Support for all relevant operations:
  • Add solution to the SharePoint solution store.
  • Deploy solution to one or more web applications.
  • Upgrade solution.
  • Retract and remove solution.
• Pre-install system check for the following conditions:
  • WSS V3 is installed.
  • MOSS 2007 is installed (This check can be disabled in config file),
  • User has permission to install solutions.
  • SharePoint database is online.
  • WSS Administration service is started.
  • WSS Timer service is started.
• Implements a work around for the following error conditions:
  • Another solution deployment job never finished and is now blocking for the creation of a new job. Work-around: Delete old job from the list of Timer job defnitions.
  • Timer service is not started: An attempt is made to start it (please note that timer services on other front ends will not be started).
  • Database is offline, which will yield an ugly NullreferenceException from SharePoint offering little clue to the root cause of the problem. Work around: Detect NullreferenceException and display nice error message.
• Display EULA. (Can be disabled in config file). 
• Web application list where user can select the web apps. to deploy the solution to.
• Rollback after installation errors.
• Configurable Product Title.
• Configurable banner image.
• Configurable logo image.

SharePoint Solution Installer
Mart Muller
Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:39:43 GMT

SharePoint Solutions Software has released ‘Extranet Collaboration Manager’ for SharePOint 2007, a product for administrating extranet users in SharePoint. They have two versions:

ExCM – Standard Edition provides you with a suite of tools to Simplify SharePoint 2007 extranet user access and management. See the ExCM product page for more details.

ExCM – Enterprise Edition allows your users to submit a request when he or she would like to have a new SharePoint 2007 site provisioned. You can easily associate custom workflows with the new site requests, asking for approval prior to site creation. Once a site request is approved, ExCM – EE will automatically provision the site for you using any SharePoint 2007 site definition you have specified.”

Extranet Collaboration Manager by SharePoint Solutions is a complete solution that will:

• Simplify the provisioning and maintenance of external resources for use with your business partners
• Enable you to automate site provisioning requests through workflows
• Delegate user management tasks to your business partners
• Provide you with the capability to audit the provisioning and user maintenance activities within your collaborative environment.

Extranet Collaboration Manager for SharePoint 2007
Mart Muller
Fri, 23 Feb 2007 07:31:23 GMT

Via Tom Short :

“To help with all the MOSS Architecture diagrams I do, I have put together this fancy  Visio stencil for MOSS architecture diagrams . The Visio stencil includes the following shapes.

Thanks to Colin B for his Graphics handy work and Matt Groves for making the files available online.”

MOSS Architecture Diagrams – Visio Server Stencils
Mart Muller
Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:33:41 GMT

Just found the Dubbelbock tool.

It implements a feature, that tools like Subversion offers today and we dind’t have. The possibility to do all source control action just right away out of the Windows Explorer. This means CheckOut, CheckIn, Version compare… is available from Windows Explorer Right Click menu. Excactly this features are now also available for TFS:

In the picture above you can see the whole functionality and it is really super easy to use. Commands like CheckIn use normal Dialogs with all TFS funcionality.

Administration, Operations & Setup

• Share Point 2007 support
• Enable use of Sharepoint on any server and any port
• Support for MOSS 2007
• Enable support for Reporting Services on any server and any port (new) (RTM)
• Support for SQL Named Instances – This will allow customers to share a SQL server between multiple TFS instances, or with other applications.  This has been a commonly requested feature by enterprises.
• “Longhorn” server support – TFS will support the next version of the server (and corresponding new version of IIS) that is currently under development.
• Sync Large Groups – This is a set of work to improve the performance and robustness of TFS’s handling large groups of users (~30,000 or more) granted permission to a TFS instance.  Today this can result in a support call to recover from it.
• Non-default ports – We’ve gotten a bunch of feedback from enterprise customers about TFS’s limited support for alternate web sites and ports running afoul of data center policies.  We are going to be improving TFS’s configurability in this respect in Orcas.
• Simplify installation – In Orcas, we will be doing a variety of things to attempt to make installing TFS easier and quicker than it is now.  Improvements include eliminating the separate data-tier installation, simplifying the requirements around required domain accounts by supporting the built in machine accounts (like Network Service) where we can, etc.
• Official testing and support for more configurations – This includes clustering, mirroring, log shipping, Virtual machine deployment, and more.
• Support for client certificates
• Upgrade from TFS 2005
• Support for SQL 2008 (aka Katmai) (new) (RTM)
• TFSDeleteProject now permanently deletes (destroys) version control content (new) (RTM)
• New role for many operations activities (new) (RTM) – You don’t have to be server administrator to run many of the admin utilities any longer.
• Enhancements to tfsadminutil (new) (RTM) – New capability to configure accounts, connections, etc on both TFS and the TFS proxy.

Build (more detail)

• Support multi-threaded builds with the new MSBuild.
• Continuous Integration – There are many components to this, including build queuing and queue management, drop management (so that users can set policies for when builds should be automatically deleted), and build triggers that allows configuration of exactly how when CI builds should be triggered, for example – every checkin, rolling build (completion of one build starts the next), etc.
• Improved ability to specify what source, versions of source, and other build properties.
• Improved extensibility of the build targets – such as ability to easily execute targets before and after each solution/project is built.
• Improved ability to manage multiple build machines.
• Stop and delete builds from within VS.
• .NET Object model for programming against the build server.
• Simplified ability to specify what tests get run as part of a build.
• The ability to store build definitions anywhere in the version control hierarchy.
• Scheduled builds – You can schedule builds to happen at specified times.
• Improved build agent communication – We replaced .NET binary remoting with WCF web services, simplifying some configuration and security aspects.
• Ability to run GUI tests as part of a build – Automated builds used to run tests in such a way as to prevent access to a GUI desktop.
• New checkin policy for broken CI builds – Preventing checkin while the CI build is broken.
• Support for HTTPS communication to the TFS server (new)
• Continuous Integration build checkin policy (new)
• Support for incremental gets and builds (new)

Data Warehouse

• Add support for checkin policy overrides to the warehouse – an oversight from V1.

Migration

• Migration toolkit – A toolkit for building conversion and mirroring solutions between TFS and other systems.  In addition, we will release one or more new tools to integrate with popular alternative systems. 

Version Control

• Annotate – This is based on the TFS Annotate Power Tool but includes numerous improvements.
• Folder Diff – Also based on the TFS Tree Diff Power Tool with numerous improvements.
• Destroy – The ability to permanently delete version control files/folders from TFS.  It can also be used to destroy the file contents while preserving the change set history.
• Get Latest On Checkout – There have been many requests for this feature (which was a change in behavior from SourceSafe).  There is now an option that allows you to specify that you want TFS to download the latest version of files when you check them out.
• Workspace improvements – Workspaces will now support mapping a folder or file under a cloaked folder and wildcard mappings so that you can map all files in a folder without mapping sub folders.  Based on experience with large projects, this will simplify workspace definitions for many people.
• Performance improvements – A variety of Version Control performance enhancements that will improve virtually all aspects of version control performance.  The gains for smaller servers/projects (< 10,000 files) will be modest.  The gains for larger projects (particularly where the file count approaches 100,000’s) will be substantial.
• Scale improvements – Fixed out of memory problems on the server when operating on more than a few hundred thousand files at a time.
• Offline improvements – We’ve signficantly improved the experience going offline and integrated the tfpt online capability into the IDE for going back online.
• Extranet support for the TFS Proxy – allowing you to access a local TFS proxy with a different set of credentials than the TFS server.
• Command line help – You can now type “tf command /help” and get a console dump of the usage of that command.  This is much more convenient than always being launched into the richer GUI hypertext help when you just want to remember what the options for a command are.  You can still launch the GUI help by running “tf msdn”.  You can get a console dump of available commands by just typing “tf help”.
• Source Control Explorer refresh improvements – This includes less redrawing and reloading but even more important it enables updates based on changes made in other instances of TeamExploror or the command line.  That’s right, if you checkout a file from the command line, any instances of TeamExplorer you have running on the same machine will automatically refresh.
• Async loading of the Source Control Explorer (new)
• The SCE local path can now be selected and copied (new)
• Merge improvements (new) – Improved the logic that detects merge conflicts to generate fewer false positives and handle more scenarios.

Work Item Tracking

• Performance & Scale improvements – A variety of improvements that will make both the work item server and client faster and able to handle larger servers.
• Query builder usability improvements – Drop down filtering based on current project, better MRU lists, column drag & drop, shift-click mouse based multi-column sorting, etc.
• Attachments improvements – Save button, drag & drop for adding an attachment, multi-select for attaching files.
• Tooltips on field names contain the field name used for querying
• Server side support for deleting work items & work item types – We didn’t have time to do client UI support for it but we plan to release a Power Tool that will take advantage of the new server side feature.
• Support for security on the iteration hierarchy (new)

Web Access

• Adding Web Access UI to TFS – As you’ve seen many places, we acquired devBiz and their TeamPlain Web Access product.  We are releasing it as a Power Tool in the next few months and plan to release it as an official product in the Orcas timeframe.  We have not figured out how the release date will line up with the Orcas date but it will be in the same general timeframe.

Bug fixes

• In addition to all of the feature work, we’ve spent months testing the product and fixing any bugs we’ve found.  We expect Orcas will have even better stability and robustness than TFS 2005.

Compatibility (no change since last time)

As Orcas is an adoption focused release, we have put a lot of emphasis on compatibility with VS2005.  We are striving for near 100% compatibility.  The Orcas client will be able to work with a VS2005 server and a VS2005 client will be able to work with an Orcas server.  There are only a few compatibility issues.

• Client side VS add-ins will need to be recompiled (or have policy changed) because the TFS OM assembly versions will change and add-ins will need to bind to the new assemblies.  The APIs themselves are generally not changing, so we don’t expect much in the way of code changes – just recompilation.
• Build is the only area where we plan to have some compatibility disconnects.  In general, most build operations – listing build definitions, starting and stopping builds, examining build reports, etc. will work both with 2005 client -> Orcas server and Orcas client -> 2005 server.  However, here are a few caveats:

1. An Orcas TFS server will only work with an Orcas build server – so you’ll need to upgrade your build server when you upgrade your TFS server.
2. For an VS2005 client to start a build on an Orcas server, the build definition needs to be stored at $/<TeamProject>/TeamBuildTypes/<name>.  In Orcas, you have more flexibility as to where to put them.
3. Changes made to properties in the .proj file that are in the database in Orcas will not be updated in the database and will no longer be in sync.
4. VS2005 will be able to start a build, but it can’t queue a build, see the list of builds in the queue, see the list of build agents, etc.
5. An Orcas client will not be able to create a new build definition on a TFS2005 server.
6. When starting a build, an Orcas client will not be able to change any parameters in the dialog for a TFS2005 Server.

Team Development with TFS Guide:

http://www.codeplex.com/TFSGuide

Project Server 2007 VSTS Connector:

http://www.codeplex.com/pstfsconnector

Team Build integration med FinalBuilder:

http://www.finalbuilder.com/articles.aspx?mid=370&ctl=ArticleView&articleId=20

Teamprise cross platform support (bla. Eclipse integration):

http://www.teamprise.com

TFS Migration and Synchronization Toolkit:

http://www.codeplex.com/MigrationSyncToolkit

inkl. WSS – TFS sync samples:

http://www.codeplex.com/MigrationSyncToolkit/Wiki/View.aspx?title=WSS%20to%20TFS%20Tools&referringTitle=Home

Just for reference:

Body:

As an early adopter for windows 2008 (a.k.a Longhorn Server) I decided to setup my new VPC with it on. I downloaded the June CTP from my MSDN account. The file I have is called:

en_windows_server_2008_ids3_enterprise_datacenter_standard_x86.iso

To begin the install I created a blank VM and allocated it 1GB Ram and 130GB of disk space. I attached the ISO to the VM and let it start. Firstly you will notice that it looks like a Vista Install.

As I am in the UK I selected the settings above.

Now for the easy bit simply press “install now”.

As you can see we now have two versions of the server, one is the standard server that you and I are used to with the GUI; the other is called “Server Core” which is a command line version of the server. For this install I will select the standard server.

As you can see the install is now intelligent enough to realise that I don’t have another version of windows installed so only offers me the “Custom” install option.

I will partition the drives as shown below.

Now we leave it for a while to complete. Actually on my VM running on my Toshiba Tecra M7 it took about 15 minutes for the first part of the install and then a little longer to complete the rest. Not bad I thought.

Once it has installed you get prompted to set your password.

Once you have reset your password and windows server tells you it has updated it should then start to load your user profile and ultimately the desktop.

I am going to set my server as a domain controller so firstly I need to set my server with a static IP address. This can be done by selecting the “configure networking” option.

This link just simply opens the standard IP Address settings for the server. Now I have mine set I can start the domain controller install. However before I do I am going to install a few things.

This is the new “skinned” server manager for windows 2008. If you notice there is a “roles summary” option. If we expand this option we can click the “Add Roles” button shown below:

We will now follow the wizard as shown below:

From the list I have selected the “Web Server (IIS)” role, notice that when you select it, it will prompt you to activate the relevant features. This is now built in to each role that you select.

Now the role will be activated.

Once the role is activated we still need to configure it. There is a wizard that will launch as shown below:

We now need to select the relevant role services for IIS; in our case I am selecting the “Application Development” items. Notice that you will be prompted for the relevant feature activations.

Once you have selected the items you want the wizard will then install and activate the role. In the roles summary the new “Web Server (IIS)” role should be listed.

Now we will repeat the same process but for making it a domain controller. I won’t screen shot it all as it is fairly similar. Once the role is activated the wizard should look as below:

I won’t run through the process as most of you should at some point done this. If not let me know and I will post about it. After the initial reboot of the server upon completing the “Active Directory Domain Services” the initial configuration tasks windows should now look as below:

Now we have a server built we can start looking at some of the new features and also whether we can get MOSS2007 installed on the server. Bob Fox has posted a great article about installing WSS v3 and MOSS2007 on Windows 2008. Check it out here:

http://bobfox.net/spblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=58

Category: Longhorn

Published: 01/08/2007 11:16

BlogTitleForUrl: windows-2008-install-–-step-by-step

Categories: Longhorn;General

Windows 2008 Install – Step By Step
Liam Cleary
Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:16:24 GMT

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 70% Green Lantern 70% Iron Man 70% The Flash 60% Batman 45% Supergirl 45% Spider-Man 40% Robin 40% Wonder Woman 30% Hulk 30% Catwoman 30%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the “Which Superhero am I?” quiz…

Web Parts in common with WSSv3

• Content Editor Web Part – Use for formatted text, tables, and images.
• Form Web Part – Use to connect simple form controls to other Web Parts.
• Image Web Part – Use to display pictures and photos.
• Members – Use the Members Web Part to see a list of the site members and their online status.
• Page Viewer Web Part – Use to display linked content, such as files, folders, or Web pages. The linked content is isolated from other content on the Web Part Page.
• Relevant Documents – Use this webpart to display documents that are relevant to the current user.
• User Tasks – Use this webpart to display tasks that are assigned to the current user.
• XML Web Part – Use for XML, and XSL Transformation of the XML.
• List View Web Part 
• Data View Web Part

Web Parts specific to MOSS2007

Business Data

• Business Data Actions – Display a list of actions from the Business Data Catalog.
• Business Data Item – Display one item from a data source in the Business Data Catalog.
• Business Data Item Builder – Creates a Business Data item from parameters in the query string and provides it to other web parts. This web part is only used on Business Data profile pages.
• Business Data List – Display a list of items from a data source in the Business Data Catalog.
• Business Data Related List – Display a list of items related to one or more parent items from a data source in the Business Data Catalog.

Content Rollup

• Colleague Tracker – Displays your list of colleagues and any recent changes they made have had.
• Memberships – Displays your site and distribution list memberships.
• My Links – Use to display your links
• My SharePoint Sites – Use to display documents authored by you on sites where you are a member and sites of your choice.
• My Workspaces – Displays sites created under your My Site.
• Site Aggregator – Use to display sites of your choice.  

Dashboard

• Key Performance Indicators – Shows a list of status indicators. Status indicators display important measures for your organization, and show how your organization is performing with respect to your goals.
• KPI Details – Displays the details of a single status indicator. Status indicators display an important measure for an organization and may be obtained from other data sources including SharePoint lists, Excel workbooks, and SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services KPIs.

Other

• Excel Web Access – Use the Excel Web Access to interact with an Excel 2007 workbook as a Web page.
• I need to… – Displays tasks and tools from a list
• IView Web Part – Displays iViews from SAP portal servers.
• RSS Viewer – Renders RSS Feed
• This Week in Pictures – Use to display the images library in the News web
• WSRP Consumer Web Part – Displays portlets from web sites using WSRP 1.1.

Filters

• Authored List Filter – Filter the contents of web parts using a list of values entered by the page author.
• Business Data Catalog Filter – Filter the contents of web parts using a list of values from the Business Data Catalog.
• Current User Filter – Filter the contents of web parts by using properties of the current page.
• Date Filter – Filter the contents of web parts by allowing users to enter or pick a date.
• Filter Actions – Filter Actions
• Page Field Filter – Filter the contents of web parts using information about the current page.
• Query String (URL) Filter – Filter the contents of web parts using values passed via the query string.
• SharePoint List Filter – Filter the contents of web parts by using a list of values from a Office SharePoint Server list.
• SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Filter – Filter the contents of web parts using a list of values from SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services cubes.
• Text Filter – Filter the contents of web parts by allowing users to enter a text value.

Misc

• Contact Details – Use to display details about a contact for this page or site

Outlook Web Access

• My Calendar – Use to display your calendar. This part works with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and above.
• My Contacts – Displays your contacts using Outlook Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
• My Inbox – Displays your inbox using Outlook Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or later.
• My Mail Folder – Displays your calendar using Outlook Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 or later.
• My Tasks – Displays your tasks using Outlook Web Access  for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or later.

Search

• Advanced Search Box – Entry point for advanced search
• People Search Box – Entry point for people search
• People Search Core Results – Web part to display the people search results.
• Search Box – Entry point for search.
• Search Core Results – Web part to display the search results.
• Search High Confidence Results – Web part to display the special term and high confidence results.
• Search Paging – Displays search paging.
• Search Statistics – Displays search statistics.
• Search Summary – Displays search summary.

Site Directory

• Categories – Displays categories from the Site Directory
• Sites in Category – Displays sites in the Site Directory
• Top Sites – Display the top sites from Site Directory