June 2008 - Posts
Open XML Format SDK – RTM , Version 1.0
Overview
The 2007 Microsoft® Office system introduces a new file format that is based on XML called Open XML Formats. Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel® 2007, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2007 all use these formats as the default file format.
Open XML formats are useful for developers because they are an open standard and are based on well-known technologies: ZIP and XML. Microsoft provides a library for accessing these files as part of the WinFX technologies in the System.IO.Packaging namespace.
The Open XML Format SDK is built on top of the System.IO.Packaging API and provides strongly typed part classes to manipulate Open XML documents.
Here are the links:
This is the final "go-live" Version 1, so you can deploy solutions that you build using this version.
Open XML Developer Resources
In addition to the links above, don't forget about all of the great Open XML content on MSDN. These resources can help you get up to speed quickly on Open XML development topics:
In addition Eric White's Blog has a post about Processing Open XML Documents Server-Side using PowerShell that contains a link to an eight minute screen-cast shows how easy it is to install and use PowerTools for Open XML: PowerTools for Open XML Introduction
BizTalk 2006 R2 - PPT's, HOLs, & Demos
Jeff Barnes was kind enougth to publish BizTalk 2006 R2 University - PPT's, HOLs, & Demos from the Free Tech*Ed ]inbetween[ event
Which Contains From His Sky Drive:
Thanks jeff :)
Take a look, we all know about the new logo of SQL Server 2008 , it’s nice solid and dynamic at the same time
( from the SQL Server 2008 Trial Download page )
And now take a look at this:
( Taken from the BizTalk Home website )
I’m guessing the BizTalk team didn’t just say
“ hey, ma’ I want a logo too !
Now now junior, here, you can use your sisters’ ”
( or something bizarre like that )
Not only that but here , take a look at this
it’s from here http://www.microsoft.com/sql/default.mspx
Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 Released
Ok, as usual let’s start with the download:
And now for the main course:
First we know from the Silverlight SDK blog at MSDN post What's new in Silverlight 2 Beta 2?
that full list of changes is as follows :
- Animation
- Support for animating custom data points
- Object Animation support (animating structs)
- DeepZoom
- New file format completely XML based. Also, there will be a new Deep Zoom Composer tool that will allow you to create these new file types.
- MultiScaleTileSource (implement a tile source to existing tile databases)
- Better notifications when sub-images enter the view
- Controls
- New TabControl
- DataGrid improvements: Autosize, Reorder, Sort, Performance increase, and more
- Calendar now supports multi-selection and blackout dates
- Improved Templating Model: Visual State Manager
- Control properties changes (Background, Tooltip, FontFamily, FontSize…)
- Including controls in the runtime instead of having them packaged in app package
- TextBox
- IME Level 3 input support on Windows and Level 1 on Mac
- Text wrapping and multiline selection highlighting in textbox
- Scrollbar Support
- Document Level Navigation keys
- Improvements in error handling, reporting
- Property System/Parser
- DependencyProperty.Register/RegisterAttached now supports PropertyMetadata
- DependencyObject.ClearValue
- Visual Tree Helper
- Data Binding
- Per-binding level validation
- Support for element syntax for binding markup extension
- Binding to Attached Properties
- ItemsControl Extensibility (OnItemsChanged method)
- Fallback in Value Conversion (Binding.UnsetValue)
- Input
- Limited keyboard support in FullScreen mode (arrow, tab, enter, home, end, pageup/pagedown, space)
- Managed APIs for Inking
- Networking and Data
- Cross Domain support in Sockets
- Cross Domain security enhancements
- BrowserHttpWebRequest and WebClient callable from BackGround Threads
- Upload support for WebClient
- UI for isolated storage (ability to change quota)
- Duplex communications (“push” from Server to Silverlight client)
- LINQ-to-JSON
- Configuration support for web service proxies
- Significantly improved SOAP interop
- “Add New Item” template in Visual Studio for “Silverlight-enabled WCF Service”
- ADO.NET Data Services support
- UIAutomation and Accessibility support in platform
- Media
- Platform support for Adaptive streaming
- Silverlight DRM, Powered by PlayReady
- Basic SSPL support
- Localization
- Changes in application model for multilingual apps (one xap per supported locale)
- Expanded localization languages of runtime and SDK
- Japanese SDK Installer and documentation (July 17)
- Several changes for WPF compatibility
- Remote Debugging for VB on Mac
- CLR
- Developer Runtime Package facilitate development (localized strings, debugging binaries, etc)
- Support the OS fallback logic for resources
- CurrentCulture and CurrentUICulture Isolation
- DLR
- Performance improvements
- Various new DLR and IronPython 2.0 Beta 2 language features
- Various new IronRuby Features
Further more , we know from the Post Updating a Silverlight 2 Application from Beta 1 to Beta 2 that Scott Guthrie’s the DiggSample (First Look at Silverlight 2 - ScottGu's Blog) NEEDS TO BE UPDATED DUE TO “MAJOR” CHANGES !! ( BTW there’s a hebrew version of the posts in Video here Silverlight 2.0 from my visual-how-tos blog)
Another post in the same matter is Breaking Changes for Silverlight 2 Beta 2 (corrections and additions) from Silverlight SDK blog at MSDN ( did you notice the MACROMEDIA is the crossdomain.xml file ? wow the fight is on =) )
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2008 Extensions, Version 1.2 - Released
The SharePoint Product Team just released the much awaited Visual Studio 2008
extensions for WSS 3.0 Version 1.2.
These extensions can be downloaded from
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2008 Extensions, Version 1.2 For those of use who still work with Visual Studio 2005, here's the previous version
K2 Announces Blackpoint™ Beta For Building Process-Driven Applications For Moss2007
K2 have announced a new variant of their workflow product suite called K2 blackpoint (which is specifically for SharePoint).
In Summary;
K2 blackpoint is for SharePoint users that want the ability to build workflows and process-driven applications quickly - without code, without complexity. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can create powerful, flexible applications to increase the efficiency of your business. K2 blackpoint, a subset of K2 blackpearl features, provides unparalleled capabilities and affordability. And it offers an upgrade path so that organizations can grow their investment and add complexity over time, if needed.
Get started with K2 blackpoint for less than you think. K2 blackpoint will be priced on a per-server model - $5,000 (U.S.) for up to 200 users, $10,000 for up to 500 users and $15,000 for unlimited users.
More Information...
New LiveWriter - Technical Preview
First Donwload from here: Technical Preview: Now Available for Download
SDK Updates
This release is largely about updates to the Writer SDK, which now includes hooks for pre- and post-publish events. These updates are still experimental and these APIs are not stable--we may make changes based on your feedback that break plug-ins that use these new methods. However, we’re really excited about the new set of scenarios have been unlocked and look forward to hearing feedback from all of you Writer plug-in developers out there.
For more details about the SDK, please see the blog post on Windows Live Dev.
New Features
You’ll also get an early look at some improvements and new features we’ve been working on:
Video and Image Publishing Enhancements
- Upload videos to Soapbox
- Image cropping and tilting
- Additional border styles
- Support for LightBox and other image previewing effects (like Slimbox, Smoothbox, and others)
- Support for centering images
Editing Enhancements
- Auto Linking
- Smart quotes/typographic characters
- Word count
UI Improvements
- Revised main toolbar
- Tabs for view switching
- Improved category control with search/filtering
And now the pictures:
Is Visual Studio in Live Writer ?
Filtering in Adding Tags :)
| Before | After typing “S” |
 |  |
Less Top Buttons !!!
And Much Much more … I haven’t started yet , and I’m amazed of the new things =)
MSSharePointDeveloper.com launched! - "Do Less. Get More. Develop on SharePoint."
As the title says MSSharePointDeveloper.com was launched! - "Do Less. Get More. Develop on SharePoint."
To help drive adoption of SharePoint by Software Developers Microsoft have launched a campaign to .NET Developers at http://MSSharePointDeveloper.com. The new material is designed to help .NET Developers to learn the top ten artifacts in SharePoint that are interesting to them. A variety of materials with different learning styles to make getting started with these artifacts easy and it’s all based on the Visual Studio extensions for SharePoint – planned to release v1.2 for Visual Studio 2008 this week also (watch for their announce).
Take notice: The site is based on Silverlight.
The Top Ten SharePoint Artifacts of interest to .NET Developers being promoted are :
- WebParts
- Data Lists
- Event Handlers
- Workflows
- Silverlight WebParts
- Page Navigation
- Page Branding
- WebServices
- Content Types
- User Management
The meterial includes, among other:
- An Introductory Whitepaper
- Benefits of SharePoint for Developers
- A Small Public VPC
- Hosted MSDN Virtual Labs in C# and VB.NET
- Video Interview with SharePoint MVPs
- Screencasts
- Web Casts with SharePoint MVPs (incredible 1705 live attendees in just the first four WebCasts)
- Quickstarts
- Labcasts
- Presentation Download
- Hands on Labs Download
- Additional Resource Links
The site encourages developers who use the content to also take a next step and go on Instructor Led Training, Get Certified, and Download an evaluation copy of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.
http://MSSharePointDeveloper.com
Who haven't used in his life a Sysinternals tool ? who ? raise his hand - you ? go and download now ;)
Ok , we all have for some reason or another
My two favorites are:
- Process Explorer, a more fully-featured version of Task Manager that can report environment variables for running processes, show loaded DLLs and even display callstacks. It can also tell you which process is currently accessing a certain file or DLL, which is useful if you're trying to delete a file and getting a 'file is in use and cannot be deleted' error.
- Process Monitor, which can record all accesses to files, disks and the registry. Very useful for diagnosing complicated scenarios with multi-process development.
Well, it seems that you can download it "Live", or in other words, just browse and download from the Folder , this folder http://live.sysinternals.com/
To call them, either from Windows File Explorer, command-line, or the Run dialog, type in \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\<toolname> and Walla! there it is.
To look through the list of Sysinternal Live tools, you can view the directory from a browser by going to http://live.sysinternals.com or using Windows File Explorer using \\live.sysinternals.com\tools. Even though you run them from the Cloud, I still recommend you keep you them on a thumbdrive and/or CD, just in case you case you you lost Internet access (which of course never happens).
Managed Services Engine - June 2008 CTP
The Managed Services Engine is a solution that supports service virtualization through a meta data-driven service repository using .NET and Microsoft SQL Server.
Overview
The Managed Services Engine (MSE) is one approach to facilitating Enterprise SOA through service virtualization. Built upon the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and the Microsoft Server Platform, the MSE was developed by Microsoft Services as we helped customers address the challenges of SOA in the enterprise.
The MSE fully enables service virtualization through a Service Repository, which helps organizations deploy services faster, coordinate change management, and maximize the reuse of various service elements. In doing so, the MSE provides the ability to support versioning, abstraction, management, routing, and runtime policy enforcement for Services.
Status & Roadmap
The June 2008 CTP Release is the second release of the MSE in what will continue to be an evolving solution on CodePlex. The intent of this version is to solicit feedback on the architecture, the components, their application, and the documentation. We will make periodic announcements concerning updates and upcoming releases. We appreciate the many comments and suggestions we have received on the October 2007 release and look forward to continued feedback and input.