AppDev Edge

Meta: Attributes in Page Layouts Provisioned by Features are Unghosted (Customized)

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:53:19 GMT

Body: One of my clients was having an issue where solution upgrade or redeployment didn't change certain page layouts. I checked the CustomizedPageStatus property of the affected layouts and it said they are customized. However, they had not actually been customized. I activated the problem feature in another environment. Much to my surprise, the particular layouts indicated that they were customized immediately based on the provisioning for the module! I didn't see any difference between...(read more)

Monkey Patching and SharePoint / Office 365

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:03:00 GMT

Body: This post is a prelude for the one to follow in which I will show an application of this technique that overrides the workspace sizing routine in SharePoint 2010. JavaScript is a wonderful language. It is easily accessible to anyone who understands C style syntax. This includes C# developers. However JavaScript is a dynamic language. In my experience most C# developers write poor JavaScript in a style that is appropriate to C#. However, getting the most out of SharePoint requires a good understanding...(read more)

Windows 8 and Metro Style apps

KenG — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:39:00 GMT

(Yes, there's not a hyphen in Metro Style apps. I don't get it, but I'm sure some day it will be made clear.)

Since attending the Build conference that Microsoft held in September, I've been the proud owner of a Samsung tablet device running the Developer Preview build of Windows 8, along with a preview version of Visual Studio 11 Express. Given these tools, the only kinds of apps I can build are native Windows 8 Metro style apps--you know, the ones that run full screen, are "fast and fluid", and look really BIG.

Like the new UI or not, one thing is sure: the whole concept of Metro style apps is based on the HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript stack. Sure, you can create apps using C#/VB/C++ and XAML, and that works fine if you're already comfortable with those technologies. But if you're starting on developing WIndows apps now, and want to create Metro style apps, I would certainly contemplate jumping right into the JavaScript world.

Coming from a VB/C#/XAML background, I didn't find the transition to JavaScript particularly easy--I'm still struggling a little. Since IntelliSense support in Visual Studio 11 for JavaScript is there, but not particularly specific, using IntelliSense to help guide you as you create code will generally be not much help. It may improve over time, but since JavaScript relies on being late bound, it's awfully hard for the tool to predict the data type of the assignment without some contextual information.

On the other hand, using HTML and CSS to create layout means that you're taking advantage of tools and technologies that also allow you to use your skills creating Web sites, and there's something to be said for that.

It remains to be seen how well the Microsoft Store will do with consumers, but I'd bet that this is a really good time to start creating useful, touch-aware Metro applications for sale in the Microsoft Store. Once the "doors open", we'll see a lot of applications become available. I'm waiting to see how business applications, such as word processors and spreadsheets, do in a finger-driven world. Using Excel on the Windows desktop, on the Samsung tablet, is a bit of a challenge without a keyboard and mouse. No consumer will put up with this, and business productivity will require finger-sensitive replacement applications. It works on the iPad, it can work in Windows 8 as well.

It's worth downloading the Developer Preview (or the upcoming beta) of Windows 8 to spend some time with it. It's going to be an interesting 2012, that's for sure!

Xamarin Announces Mono for Android 4.0

MartyS — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:09:00 GMT

.NET developers rejoice! Xamarin has just announced the long awaited release of their .NET/Android tool, Mono for Android 4.0. This release comes on the tails of their iOS product, MonoTouch 5. With these two products updated to the latest platforms from Google and Apple, C# developers can now develop applications for the top three mobile platforms and share code among them.

With the release of Xamarin's new Android tools, .NET developers can now leverage their existing skills and target many of the new devices including tablets like Motorola Xoom, Samsung GALAXY Tab, and Amazon's Kindle Fire. Mono for Android 4.0 is a big jump from the previous release (Mono for Android 1.0) to align its product with Google's premier Android 4.0 operating system, codename "Ice Cream Sandwich".

For more information, please check out the Wall Street Journal article that just released the announcement from Xamarin. To find out more regarding new features, check out this blog.

To download and try it, click here!

I am a SharePoint Server MVP!

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 19:58:00 GMT

Body: The last couple of months have been extremely busy for me; a demanding client, Cub Scout den leader activities, user group stuff, and life in general! The best proof of this? I was awarded the MVP award for SharePoint Server while on a Cub Scout camping trip at the beginning of October and I am just now blogging about it. Not a good way to start… ;) I am extremely grateful to be an MVP again! This is the second product for which I have been awarded; Access was the first waaay back in...(read more)

Slow March to Standardization

MartyS — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:40:00 GMT

Normally when I look into my crystal ball or read the tea leave to see what lies ahead for developers, the images I receive are relatively clear. Developer technologies, for the most part, have been following a fairly narrow path of incremental improvements. But that appears to be changing.

Historically, the big players in technology have been providing developer proprietary tools that operate on the systems they want them to operate. Over the past year or so, there have been battles between Google, Apple, Adobe, Oracle and Microsoft as to who owns the marketplace. For the developer, it has been a constant battle and to support the broadest audience, it means developing multiple applications; one for each platform.

As we roll into 2012, there are signs that things are changing. This change is occurring, in part, because of a growing dependency and acceptance of Web-based application. With the increase in popularity of cloud computing and cloud-based applications like Office365, Google Apps, Box.com, Dropbox.com, iCloud, SkyDrive, users are demanding portability and universal platform support.

Take myself as an example. A couple years ago, I was very satisfied with my Windows 7 laptop and a phone that basically gave me simple IMAP mail support. Today, my laptop sits on my desk and has moved only a couple times in past year. I now have an Android phone and tablet and carry them instead wherever I go. From my company's internal support, we have gone from supporting a handful of laptops to all types of mobile devices.

This push by consumers had translated into a push for standardization. It is becoming increasing clear that HTML5 will rise to meet that demand. Its power is already being seen with questions regarding the future of Flash (here and here) and Silverlight (here and here) and by the clear signs of all major players embracing the new standard; including Microsoft.

It is clear that Microsoft is committed to HTML5. As a developer, it is clear that HTML5 and JavaScript need to be a part of the developer’s tool belt. Building Windows 8 Metro-Style applications will be done in one of two ways: HTML5/JavaScript or XAML/C#. HTML5 is the clear winner when it comes to portability but at this time, XAML still wins in terms of stability and maturity. But as HTML5 matures, it should slowly emerge as the clear choice.

(More on this in future articles)

Using the People Picker Control in Sandbox Solutions / Office 365

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:09:00 GMT

Body: The SharePoint sandbox does not allow you to use the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls namespace in your code. This means you can't instantiate objects from classes in that namespace or automate existing object instances of classes in that namespace. Because of this restriction, the MSDN documentation for PeopleEditor you will see the following: Sandbox is a Server Thing As I wrote above, this restriction is enforced by the sandbox. Available in Sandboxed Solutions: No means you can't...(read more)

Windows 8 Developer Preview Launched!

MartyS — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:11:00 GMT

The week has finally come when we get to see the new Windows 8 operating system in all its glory instead of reading about speculation, leaks, and guesses. The unveiling happened at the Microsoft Windows Build conference in Anaheim, CA and I strongly encourage everyone to watch the keynotes: Day 1 and Day 2.

The striking thing about the Windows 8 launch is we now see Microsoft’s long term strategy for Windows. Just under a decade ago, Microsoft enjoyed a technology arena where it owned the operating system market. Apple OS and Linux were no real threat. Since then there has been an outright land-grab in the OS space with Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) taking a lion’s share--both redefining the concept of a desktop and redesigning it specifically around mobility. Microsoft had to regroup, reinvent, and come back strong.

Microsoft has since come back and it is clear it has placed all its eggs into a basket called Metro. As John Gruber quoted it, “Metro .. is Windows Reimagined.” It is obvious now that Microsoft has gone back to the drawing board and redesigned Windows for the future. Not only that, it has made it portable across devices—a common user interface over PC, phone, netbook, and tablet. This is a key aspect Microsoft is counting on to re-establish its dominance in the OS market.

For the developer, this is the next frontier. This is where Microsoft development clearly is heading and over the next five years it will require developers to retool or remain stuck in the past. Current predictions put the Windows 8 launch in 2^nd Quarter 2012 along with the new Visual Studio 11. There is a preview of Windows 8 available for download here. There is also a preview of Visual Studio 11 available for MSDN subscribers.

Truly an exciting time for Microsoft.

More to come…

jQuery Plugin to Display SharePoint 2010 List Views

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:39:00 GMT

Body: I'm working on a new line of products for SharePoint Online / Office 365. A few of the pages need to display list views whose locations are unknown at design time – the lists are created on the fly and can have any title and a single page displays a view based on what the user chooses. This means that I can't use a data view Web Part because it is tied to a specific list and view. RenderAsHtml My first attempt involved the use of the RenderAsHtml method of SPList and SPView. The...(read more)

Tip: Debugging Feature Event Receivers in SharePoint Sandbox Solutions

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:39:00 GMT

Body: I accidently discovered this yesterday and thought I'd share. If only this same technique worked with farm solutions… If you've done any sandbox development you have probably had many moments when you pressed F5 to start debugging or done Build|Deploy only to see a failure because one of your feature receivers threw an error. To debug these problems in farm mode, you attach the debugger and then try to activate the feature via the site, PowerShell, or stsadm. It's kind of...(read more)

Hiding a SharePoint Ribbon Button with CSS

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:17:35 GMT

Body: I spent far too long this morning trying to hide a single ribbon button on a single page. The page is part of a sandbox solution so I couldn't do the work server side, and because the page was a one-off in a library I didn't want to use a HideCustomAction. My first attempt was CSS, but that didn't work. I assumed (incorrectly) that the reason my style didn't stick was because the ribbon's JavaScript was toggling the display. The problem turned out to be that I didn't...(read more)

Office 365/SharePoint Sandbox Service Pages in Action – Autocomplete Text Boxes

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:38:00 GMT

Body: A couple weeks ago I wrote about an Unorthodox Architecture for Services in SharePoint Sandbox Solutions and Office 365 . This post is about an application of this architecture to create an autocomplete text box using jQuery UI. An autocomplete field looks like this: It is a great alternative to the stock lookup field UI when the source list of the lookup field has a large amount of data. With hundreds of items the standard dropdown list just isn't a good experience. The jQuery Autocomplete...(read more)

How Office 365 Made Me Hate My Windows 7 Phone

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 17:44:20 GMT

Body: I had a hard time deciding on a title for this post. The experience I am going through is just ridiculous on so many levels and there is a lot of hate to go around. SharePoint Online in Office 365 uses claims based authentication which is cool, and it supports federated authentication and trust to let you use your corporate credentials which is even cooler. Microsoft has been a leader in this space for a long time and everyone I know has a Live ID. However, for reasons that are unexplained...(read more)

Unorthodox Architecture for Services in SharePoint Sandbox Solutions and Office 365

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:12:00 GMT

Body: These days we are spending a lot of time on a series of sandbox applications that will run on Office 365. If you are a follower of this blog you know I was more than a bit disappointed in the restrictions the SharePoint 2010 sandbox implementation imposes. However, if you want to play in the sandbox, you can either just say no to requirements that aren't directly supported, or you can earn your money and get creative! I've been getting creative. These applications are going to be great...(read more)

Ready for Windows 8?

MartyS — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:15:00 GMT

Slowly but surely Microsoft is leaking information about the new, up and coming release of its flagship operating system. Rumors as to what and when are all over the net. Mary-Jo Foley has likely the best summary of what are the latest rumors here. Speaking more "on the record", Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky, president of Windows and Windows Live Division, spoke with columnist Walt Mossberg of WSJ about Windows 8 at the D9 Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes. A video of that discussion can be found here.

This video also includes a demo of the tablet version of Windows 8. Another good video demoing Windows 8 and produced by Microsoft can be found here. From this presentation, it is obvious that Microsoft is making yet another major leap in the evolution of Windows; one that will certainly have an impact on how developers building future applications.

Aside from the obvious user-interface changes that developers need to wrap their heads around, another key concern of developer at this pointin time is regarding their tool belt. What is Microsoft's direction in developer tools for the future? Many bloggers are concerned about Microsoft's apparent push for HTML5 and JavaScript (e.g. here and here) and whether that is a change in direction from the WPF/Silverlight focus of the past. Many believe Microsoft is simply keeping Silverlight "under wraps" so as to save Silverlight for presentations later in the year. Others speculate HTML5 and Javascript are targeting a new category of application; ones that are lighter and intended more for tablets and phone use.

Well I'm sure Microsoft is going address many of these questions in the next big developer's conference coming September 13th in Anaheim, CA called Build/Windows. Many are also keeping an eye on the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference for new information that may come out.

Either way, should be a fun ride.

Screen Scraped Authentication to Office 365 and SharePoint Online

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:25:37 GMT

Body: Way back in April, Microsoft published a very good article by Robert Bogue entitled Remote Authentication in SharePoint Online Using Claims-Based Authentication . This article describes one way to get the FedAuth cookie required to talk to SharePoint online via any of its many interfaces. While the article is very informative and the associated code works, I didn't like the implementation as it involved the web browser control and PInvoke (The former has a lot of overhead, the latter requires...(read more)

SharePoint Security and the Object Model – Part 3

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:52:33 GMT

Body: Authorization and Access Control – Evaluating Permissions This is the third part of a three part post on security object model basics in SharePoint. The other posts are: SharePoint Security and the Object Model – Part 1 and SharePoint Security and the Object Model – Part 2 . The first post covers users and groups, the second post covers the mechanics of defining and applying permissions. This post is about using and applying user, groups, and permissions to control the user's access and...(read more)

10 Years Later

KenG — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:31:00 GMT

Yes, it's been 10 years since .NET first got rolling, and I certainly feel (and look) ten years older! Technology, like biology, doesn't stand still, and things are, as always, changing.

You'd have to be very optimistic (or naive) to convince yourself that you can stop learning new stuff and continue to be employed, and I feel a major shift heading our way again. .NET is great, I love C# and VIsual Basic, but there's a new wave headed our way: HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript.

This link arrived in my inbox this morning: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/a15c3ce9-f58f-42b7-8668-53f6cdc2cd83. The "Web Standards Update for Visual Studio 2010 SP1" adds support for HTML5 and CSS3, and you'd better believe that if you're not working with these platforms now, some day you probably will be.

If you have some spare cycles, I suggest you take some time and start investigating how HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript will play out. I'm digging in...

Breaking Down Mobile Development

MartyS — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 02:45:00 GMT

Getting into mobile development seemed on the surface to be an easy task. Phones are just small computers, right? Not so fast.

Mobile development is like computers were three decades ago and the Computer Shopper magazine was three inches thick (and yes, I, too, used to love peruse every single page for hours on end). So let's say you want to create a mobile application for your customers. First, there is the phone's OS. There are many available including, of course, the iOS (Apple), Android (Google), Mobile Phone 7 (Microsoft), WebOS (Palm, err, HP), BlackBerry (RIM), and Symbian (Nokia). After that there is the phone itself along with a host of attributes: keyboard or touchscreen?, large screen or small?, Bluetooth or Wifi or GPS or on and on? Clearly this can turn into a daunting task, to say the least.

So let's say you grab the big three: iOS, Android, and WP7. Each has their own development platform: Xcode and Objective-C for the Apple, Eclipse and Java for the Android, and Visual Studio and C# for WP7. I suppose one option is to go commando and because a master in all three. Sounds challenging but who has the time.

Currently I am a C# developer and leveraging what I already know certainly has its advantages. Is it possible to keep my current skill set and still target all these platforms? Thanks to Miguel de Icaza, there is hope. I say "hope", in part, because things in his world have been a bit of a roller coaster of late.

But I digress, let me back up. This story starts in 1999. Miguel was a founding member of Ximian; a company that development many free business tools for Linux including the porting the .NET platform to Linux. Ximian got purchased by Novell in 2003 and shortly after Miguel released Mono 1.0 in the spring of 2004. Miguel continued his quest beyond linux and targeted the iOS. In the fall of 2009, MonoTouch 1.0 was released allowing .NET developers to build application that ran on the iPhone. By the fall of 2010, MonoTouch 3.0 was released supporting iPhone 4 and iPad.

Quick to following MonoTouch's success was Mono for Android. This provided libraries for the Android mobile OS allowing .NET developers to move their applications to Android phones as well. Their first release was April of this year along with an update of MonoTouch to 4.0. Shortly after the launch, Attachmate completed its acquisition of Novell and announced they laid off most of the Mono development team.

That brings us to the present and the future of Mono is still somewhat uncertain. What we do know is Miguel has started another company, Xamarin. This company appears to be picking right where it left off in trying to provide the best tools for .NET developers. The corporate site itself seems to update weekly with new information and the Mono community is on the edge of their seat with anticipation of what's coming next.

As a training company who bring the best training materials to .NET developers, it has been a wild ride for us as well. And as for the .NET developer looking to get into mobile development, the word on the street is that Mono, in some way or another, is likely to pull through all this. As the smoke is clear in the second half of 2011, you can be assured we are going to get a new learning series available on these Mono tools... or will it be on Xamarim Studio... Stay tuned.

Serialization in Sandbox Solutions

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:06:38 GMT

Body: If you have the pleasure of writing sandbox solutions, perhaps for Office365, you know that doing so involves a wide variety of creative workarounds. Serialization is one area where this creativity comes into play. The problem with the XMLSerializer is that it creates and loads a serialization assembly on the fly. This doesn't work in the sandbox. A good discussion and one solution to this problem is discussed here: Using the Application Setting Manager in Sandboxed Solutions . An alternative...(read more)

Creating List Indexes with the SharePoint Object Model

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:18:55 GMT

Body: Many scenarios in SharePoint 2010 require you to create indexes on lists – e.g. enforcing unique values, CAML joins, and referential integrity. I was writing some code yesterday that needed an index and I wasn't able to find a sample – so I figured I'd put up a quick post. Before you get started, understand that you can only index certain field types and that compound indexes are even more restricted. See this page for the types of indexable fields: Metadata Navigation and Filtering...(read more)

Atlanta Code Camp 2011–June 25

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:32:08 GMT

Body: At long last, we're happy to announce the 2011 edition of the Atlanta Code Camp which will be held at the Southern Polytechnic State University . Event Details Call for Speakers: click here Registration: click here Date: Saturday, June 25 th Registration Time: 7:45AM to 8:30AM Time: 8:30AM to 5:30PM Location: Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, GA Address: 1100 South Marietta Parkway, Marietta, GA 30060 ( directions ) Cost: This event is free to everyone that wishes to attend...(read more)

SharePoint Security and the Object Model – Part 2

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Fri, 27 May 2011 15:57:46 GMT

Body: Permissions This is the second part of a two part post on security object model basics in SharePoint. The first post is here: SharePoint Security and the Object Model – Part 1 Defining and Applying Permissions Authorization in SharePoint is done based on a user's permission level for a given context. You can view and manage permission levels by clicking the Permission Levels ribbon button on the People and Groups page. In the object model the SPRoleDefinition class represents a permission...(read more)

SharePoint Security and the Object Model – Part 1

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Fri, 27 May 2011 15:44:45 GMT

Body: Users and Groups In the spirit of my post the other day on claims and sign out, I decided to post a complete how-to that also goes along with a talk I do that you may have seen at a user group or SharePoint Saturday. This post is about creating groups and users. The last bit is about how to create a user from a claim. Creating a Group The SPGroupCollection class is a collection of SPGroup objects. An SPGroup represents a group in a SharePoint site. Properties of SPGroup include: LoginName Name...(read more)

Fixing SharePoint, Claims Authentication, and Sign Out

Elumenotion Blog: Posts — Thu, 19 May 2011 20:41:00 GMT

Body: One of my clients has a project that includes claims based authentication with a custom identity provider (IP-STS). This part of the project has been helped by the fact that the documentation gets better each month – sometimes it seems as if the question we have was documented a few days before we needed to ask it! There is a lot of documentation in the Windows Identity Foundation SDK and in the Identity Developer Training Kit . But in my opinion, the best reference material to date is...(read more)