Serge van den Oever [Macaw]

SharePoint 15: What is coming?

2012-02-01T20:25:01Z

Something everyone busy with SharePoint would like to know: what will be the new features of SharePoint? What has been changed in the existing functionality? A lot of information that will point us in the right direction is available now from the source…

See the Office 15 Technical Preview - Open Specification Update @ http://blogs.msdn.com/b/officeinteroperability/archive/2012/01/30/office-15-technical-preview-open-specification-update.aspx.

The material is sometimes hard to read, but there is a lot of information hidden in the documents.

PowerShell: script to show detailed information on a set of assemblies

2011-06-30T22:24:34Z

To get some insight in your assemblies you can use the script below. It gets all information out that I required, but you can extend it if you need for example all assemblies an assembly depends on.

One thing that was new for we was that I needed functions in a script that can be executed in a pipeline. You can define these functions in the begin {} block.

Save the following code as Get-AssemblyInformation.ps1. Call for example as follows:

get-childitem -path "D:\MyProject\tools" -filter '*.dll' -recurse | D:\bin\Get-AssemblyInformation.ps1

Or if all files are in a folder:

Get-AssemblyInformation.ps1 –Path "D:\MyProject\tools"

Get-AssemblyInformation.s1
 #requires -version 2.0 
 
[CmdletBinding(DefaultParameterSetName="Path")]
param(
   [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, 
              Position=0, 
              ParameterSetName="Path", 
              ValueFromPipeline=$true, 
              ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]
   [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
   [string[]]
   $Path,
   
   [Alias("PSPath")]
   [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, 
              Position=0, 
              ParameterSetName="LiteralPath", 
              ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]
   [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
   [string[]]
   $LiteralPath
)
 
Begin 
{
   Set-StrictMode -Version 2.0
    
    function Get-AssemblyCustomProperty
    {
        param
        (
            $assembly,
            $TypeNameLike,
            $Property = $null
        )
        
        $value = $null
        foreach ($attribute in $assembly.GetCustomAttributes($false))
        {
            if ($attribute.GetType().ToString() -like "*$TypeNameLike*")
            {
                if ($Property -ne $null)
                {
                    # Select-Object -ExpandProperty fails if property value is $null
                    try {
                        $value = $attribute | Select-Object -ExpandProperty $Property
                    }
                    catch {
                        $value = $null
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    $value = $attribute
                }
                break;
            }
        }
        
        $value
    }
 
    function Get-AssemblyInfoAsHashtable
    {
        param
        (
            [System.Reflection.Assembly]$assembly
        )
        $info = @{}
            
        $info.FullName = $assembly.FullName
        $info.Name = $assembly.ManifestModule.Name
        $info.Location = $assembly.Location
        $info.ImageRuntimeVersion = $assembly.ImageRuntimeVersion
        $info.GlobalAssemblyCache = $assembly.GlobalAssemblyCache
        $info.Title = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'Title' -Property 'Title'
        $info.Configuration = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'Configuration' -Property 'Configuration'
        $info.Description = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'Description' -Property 'Description'
        $info.Company = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'Company' -Property 'Company'
        $info.Product = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'Product' -Property 'Product'
        $info.Copyright = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'Copyright' -Property 'Copyright'
        $info.Trademark = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'Trademark' -Property 'Trademark'
        $info.DelaySign = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'DelaySign' -Property 'DelaySign'
        $info.KeyName = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'KeyName' -Property 'KeyName'
        $info.ClsCompliant = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'ClsCompliant' -Property 'IsCompliant'
        $info.ComVisible = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'ComVisible' -Property 'Value'
        $info.IsJITTrackingEnabled = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'System.Diagnostics.DebuggableAttribute' -Property 'IsJITTrackingEnabled'
        $info.IsJITOptimizerDisabled = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'System.Diagnostics.DebuggableAttribute' -Property 'IsJITOptimizerDisabled'
        $info.DebuggingFlags = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'System.Diagnostics.DebuggableAttribute' -Property 'DebuggingFlags'
        $info.CompilationRelaxations = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'CompilationRelaxations' -Property 'CompilationRelaxations'
        $info.WrapNonExceptionThrows = Get-AssemblyCustomProperty -Assembly $assembly -TypeNameLike 'System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeCompatibilityAttribute' -Property 'WrapNonExceptionThrows'
 
        $info
    }
 
    function Get-AssemblyInformation
    {
        param
        (
            $AssemblyFile
        )
 
        try
        {
            $assembly = [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile($AssemblyFile)
            $info = Get-AssemblyInfoAsHashtable -assembly $assembly
            $info.IsValidDotNetAssembly  = $true
        }
        catch { # it is not a valid dotnet assembly
            $info = @{
                FullName = $AssemblyFile;
                Name = Split-Path -Path $AssemblyFile -Leaf;
                IsValidDotNetAssembly = $false
            }
        }
        
        $info
    }
}
 
Process 
{
   if ($psCmdlet.ParameterSetName -eq "Path")
   {
       # In the non-literal case we may need to resolve a wildcarded path
        $resolvedPaths = @()
       foreach ($apath in $Path) 
       {
           $resolvedPaths += @(Resolve-Path $apath | Foreach { $_.Path })
       }
   }
   else 
   {
       $resolvedPaths = $LiteralPath
   }
   
           
   foreach ($rpath in $resolvedPaths) 
   {
       $PathIntrinsics = $ExecutionContext.SessionState.Path
       
       if ($PathIntrinsics.IsProviderQualified($rpath))
       {
           $rpath = $PathIntrinsics.GetUnresolvedProviderPathFromPSPath($rpath)
       }
       
        $assemblyInfo = Get-AssemblyInformation -AssemblyFile $rpath
        Write-Host "***************************************************************************************************"
        Write-Host "**************** $($assemblyInfo.Name)"
        Write-Host "***************************************************************************************************"
        $assemblyInfo
        Write-Host ""
    }
}
 

Thanks goes to Keith Hill for some of the more advances parameter stuff which is lent from http://rkeithhill.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/tail-content-%E2%80%93-better-performance-for-grabbing-last-lines-from-large-ascii-log-files/.

PowerShell: PrimalForms and the TFS source control provider

2011-06-08T07:59:48Z

I’m using PrimalForms 2011 for designing PowerShell front-ends and editing some PowerShell. Code is under source control (TFS), and PrimalForms has a Source Control tab. Initially the “Providers” section was empty, after installing Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider 2010 and restarting PrimalForms I got my provider:

If you open a file under TFS source control you can now right-click on the file to do our source control operations:

Persisting custom properties on a Visual Studio project using object model

2011-05-16T23:28:03Z

It is possible to persist custom properties in your Visual Studio project. I will show how using some PowerShell code in the NuGet console.

Note that VariableValue() persist in session, the call to VariablePersists() writes to the project file for persistance over sessions.

The Global object has the following methods:

PM> (Get-Project).Globals | gm    TypeName: System.__ComObject#{e68a3e0e-b435-4dde-86b7-f5adefc19df2}
 
Name             MemberType            Definition                                  ----             ----------            ----------                                  VariableExists   ParameterizedProperty bool VariableExists (string) {get}          VariablePersists ParameterizedProperty bool VariablePersists (string) {get} {set}  VariableValue    ParameterizedProperty Variant VariableValue (string) {get} {set}  DTE              Property              DTE DTE () {get}                            Parent           Property              IDispatch Parent () {get}                   VariableNames    Property              Variant VariableNames () {get}

Some sample code:

PM> (Get-Project –name "MyProject").Globals.VariableValue("FirstProperty") = "Value1"
PM> (Get-Project –name "MyProject").Globals.VariableValue("SecondProperty") = "Value2"
PM> (Get-Project –name "MyProject").Globals.VariablePersists("FirstProperty") = $True   PM> (Get-Project –name "MyProject").Globals.VariablePersists("SecondProperty") = $True   PM> (Get-Project –name "MyProject").Globals.VariableValue("FirstProperty")
Value1
PM> (Get-Project –name "MyProject").Globals.VariablePersists("SecondProperty")
True

PM> (Get-Project –name "MyProject").Globals.VariableNames
FirstProperty
SecondProperty

PM> (Get-Project –name "MyProject").Globals.VariableExists("DoesNotExist")
False
PM> (Get-Project –name "MyProject").Globals.VariableExists("FirstProperty")
True

And if you look at your .csproj file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  :

  <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />   <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\SharePointTools\Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.targets" />   <ProjectExtensions>     <VisualStudio>       <UserProperties SecondProperty="Value2" FirstProperty="Value1" />
    </VisualStudio>   </ProjectExtensions>
</Project>

Set the properties on your Visual Studio project

2011-05-15T14:43:07Z

Reminder to self:

Settings properties on a Visual Studio project,like DefaultNamespace and AssemblyName.

In NuGet console window:

(Get-Project).Properties.Item("DefaultNamespace").Value = "HelloWorld"

Available properties on a simple class library project project:

PM> (Get-Project).Properties | Select-Object -Property Name,Value

Name                           Value
----                           -----TargetFrameworkMoniker         .NETFramework,Version=v4.0
ComVisible                     False
EnableSecurityDebugging        True
OptionCompare                  0
StartupObject
ManifestCertificateThumbprint
Trademark
Title                          FactoryExtensionsTemplate
AssemblyOriginatorKeyFileType 1
FileName                       FactoryExtensions3.csproj
WebServer
AssemblyOriginatorKeyMode      0
AssemblyKeyContainerName
ProjectType                    0
ReferencePath
PreBuildEvent
Copyright                      Copyright © Microsoft 2011
ApplicationIcon
ExcludedPermissions
RunPostBuildEvent              1
DefaultTargetSchema            1
RootNamespace                  HelloWorld
ManifestTimestampUrl
ManifestKeyFile
DebugSecurityZoneURL
Product                        FactoryExtensionsTemplate
PostBuildEvent
OptionStrict                   0
DefaultHTMLPageLayout          1
DelaySign                      False
OutputType                     2
NeutralResourcesLanguage
OptionExplicit                 1
OutputFileName                 FactoryExtensions.dll
ServerExtensionsVersion
AssemblyGuid                   919e5f68-ec7d-4508-aa24-ee3da14edd84
GenerateManifests              False
AssemblyVersion                1.0.0.0
Win32ResourceFile
Description
URL                            file:///d:\temp3\Acme.Portal\FactoryExtensions3\
DefaultClientScript            0
TargetFramework                262144
SignManifests                  False
OfflineURL
WebServerVersion
Publish                        System.__ComObject
AssemblyType                   0
FullPath                       d:\temp3\Acme.Portal\FactoryExtensions3\
WebAccessMethod
AssemblyKeyProviderName
TypeComplianceDiagnostics      False
Company                        Microsoft
ActiveFileSharePath
AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile
ApplicationManifest            DefaultManifest
AssemblyFileVersion            1.0.0.0
AspnetVersion
FileSharePath
AssemblyName                   FactoryExtensions
LocalPath                      d:\temp3\Acme.Portal\FactoryExtensions3\
DefaultNamespace               HelloWorld
LinkRepair                     False
TargetZone
SignAssembly                   False

Nuget 1.3: some observations

2011-05-11T23:04:42Z

I’m testing out a lot of features from NuGet for extending our software factory. In this testing I made the following observations:

Tools\Init.ps1 is only executed if the Content folder contains a file [See: http://nuget.codeplex.com/discussions/257282#post611456]

Tools\Install.ps1 is executed AFTER Tools\Init.ps1

If you have an empty solution without projects and install a package then the Tools\Init.ps1 is executed, but Tools\Install.ps1 is NOT executed

Tools\Install.ps1 is executed when a package is installed for a specific project

The $project parameter is always $null in Tools\Init.ps1

Don’t use the nuget.config file to configure your packages folder, it is an undocumented experimental feature which results in unexpected behaviour

Packages are installed at the solution level in a folder packages next to your solution file (.sln file)

Each project that has packages installed writes these installed packages and the installed packages it depends on in a packages.config file that is located in the project folder next to the project file (for example .csproj file)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<packages>   <package id="EntityFramework" version="4.1.10331.0" />   <package id="T4Scaffolding" version="1.0.0" />   <package id="MacawSolutionsFactory-Core" version="1.0.0" />   <package id="MacawSolutionsFactory-Spf2010" version="1.0.0" />
</packages>

The packages folder contains a file repositories.config referencing the packages.config files of all projects in the solution that has packages installed

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<repositories>   <repository path="..\srcfactory\Core\packages.config" />   <repository path="..\srcfactory\Spf2010\packages.config" />
</repositories>

The repositories.config and packages.config files are used for “reference counting” packages. If uninstall-package is executed on a package, and there is no more packages.config file containing the package, the package folder is removed from the packages folder

The parameter $installPath points to the folder where the package is installed

The parameter $rootPath points to the Tools folder in the folder where the package is installed

The parameter $package is a package object describing information about the package. To see the values of the properties add the code $package | format-custom –depth 1 to your Init.ps1/Install.ps1/Uninstall.ps1.

The parameter $project is an EnvDTE Project object ($null in Tools\Init.ps1, this script is executed at the solution level)

Uninstall-package removes a package, but does not automatically cascade delete the packages that were installed because the package was depending on these packages. Use the parameter –RemoveDependencies to do this

Scaffolders (see T4Scaffolding package for more info) are only available in the project where the package containing the scaffolders in installed. To have access to the scaffolders in all projects, add the project at the solution level

A package can’t be installed at the solution level using the install-package command, use the command-line NuGet.exe tool to do this

A good place for more information on how to create packages, what the parameters mean, etc is http://nuget.codeplex.com/documentation?title=Creating%20a%20Package

NuGet is a very active open source project with a lot of great discussions on http://nuget.codeplex.com/discussions

You can execute the command Install-Package NuGetPSVariables to validate some of the above observations.

UPDATE 1:

Great NuGet documentation on http://docs.nuget.org (uses open source MarkDown based documentation system: http://nugetdocs.codeplex.com) [Thanks Cyriel!]
No files required in Content folder for Init.ps1 to run
If a project is removed from a solution (and not deleted from the filesystem) the packages.config file in the removed project is still referenced in the packages\repositories.config file. It is now not possible to remove a package at solution level that is also referenced by the removed project. Delete the removed project from the filesystem to solve this issue.
Add the packages.config files in your project folders to your Visual Studio project (Show hidden files on project, Include in project) and include in source control. Set the build action to none otherwise the file could be included in the project output [Thanks Marino!]
Add the packages folder to source control (or at least the packages\repositories.config file)

UPDATE 2:

When a solution is loaded the script Tools\Init.ps1 of all packages is executed. In execution of the Init.ps1 scripts the package dependencies are respected. So if package A depends on package B, the script B\Tools\Init.ps1 is executed before script A\Tools\Init.ps1.

UPDATE 3:

When a package is installed, the Tools folder is added to the PATH environment variable ($env:PATH) with process scope, so scripts and applications in the tools folder can be directly executed from the NuGet console. Note that if you uninstall the package, the Tools folder of the uninstalled package in NOT removed from the PATH. When the package is installed again, the Tools folder is added to the again, so it appears twice in the PATH.

NuGet: refreshing NuGet packages in packages folder during development

2011-05-04T00:48:44Z

I'm working on NuGet packages in a Visual Studio project. On build I publish a new version of my nuget package to a repository (a directory on my system).

I don't increment version numbers after each change, i only want to do that on published versions of my packages.

To test out changes to the package in my solution where I already reference the package I want to pull in a new version of the package that has the same version number.

install-package does not have a -force option to force uninstall/install of the package with an unchanged version number.

The script below solves this issue. Save as Update-NuGetPackages.ps1 and put next to NuGet.exe.

Test out first on a copy of your Packages folder (copy to PackagesTest), so you have all parameters right. The script deletes all existing packages.

UPDATE: Updated the code so if package is deleted and install fails, an empty folder with the package name is created so after fixing the error the script can be called again to retry the update.

Update-NuGetPackages.ps1
 <#
    .SYNOPSIS
        Update NuGet packages with same version of package.
 
    .DESCRIPTION
        During the development cycle version numbers of packages are often not changed,
        but the contents of the package itself is updates. Update-NuGetPackages.ps1
        refreshes all packages in a given packages directory.
        
        By default don't specify any sources, so NuGet.exe (version 1.3 and later) will use
        the NuGet.config which is stored in the AppData folder and shared between Visual Studio
        and NuGet.exe
 
    .PARAMETER  PackagesPath
        Path to folder containing the packages to refresh.
 
    .PARAMETER  PackagesSource
        Source where packages should be installed from. Post version 1.3 of NuGet.exe
        supports specifying multiple sources separated by ';'.
        Source paths may not contain PSDrives in its path, like product:\mypath.
        
    .PARAMETER  IncludeDefaultSource
        Switch parameter to specify that the default NuGet packages source
        https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=206669 should be included as a
        packages source. Don't specify this switch and dont use the PackagesSource 
        parameter to let NuGet.exe use the sources specified in the NuGet.config.
        This functionality is available after release version 1.3 of NuGet.exe.
        If used together with the PackagesSource parameter a version newer than 
        version 1.3 of NuGet.exe is required.
 
    .EXAMPLE
        PS C:\> Update-NuGetPackages.ps1 -PackagesSource c:\MyProduct\Packages
        Deleting package 'EntityFramework' version '4.1.10331.0'
        Deleting package 'MacawSolutionsFactory-Core' version '1.0.0'
        Deleting package 'MacawSolutionsFactory-Spf2010' version '1.0.0'
        Deleting package 'T4Scaffolding' version '1.0.0'
        Reinstalling package 'EntityFramework' version '4.1.10331.0'
        Successfully installed 'EntityFramework 4.1.10331.0'.
        Reinstalling package 'MacawSolutionsFactory-Core' version '1.0.0'
        'T4Scaffolding (= 1.0.0)' not installed. Attempting to retrieve dependency from source...
        Done.
        Dependency 'EntityFramework (= 4.1.10311.0)' already installed.
        Successfully installed 'T4Scaffolding 1.0.0'.
        Successfully installed 'MacawSolutionsFactory-Core 1.0.0'.
        Reinstalling package 'MacawSolutionsFactory-Spf2010' version '1.0.0'
        Dependency 'T4Scaffolding (= 1.0.0)' already installed.
        Dependency 'EntityFramework (= 4.1.10311.0)' already installed.
        Successfully installed 'MacawSolutionsFactory-Spf2010 1.0.0'.
        Reinstalling package 'T4Scaffolding' version '1.0.0'
        Dependency 'EntityFramework (= 4.1.10311.0)' already installed.
        'T4Scaffolding 1.0.0' already installed.
        Done.
 
    .EXAMPLE
        PS C:\> Update-NuGetPackages.ps1 -PackagesSource c:\MyProduct\Packages `
                -PackagesSource "c:\Dist\Feed1;c:\Dist\Feed2" -IncludeDefaultSource
        :
        
    .INPUTS
        System.String,System.String,System.Boolean
 
    .NOTES
        This script must be located next to NuGet.exe.
        
        This script requires a version later than the release version 1.3 of NuGet.exe 
        when specifying multiple sources on the commandline and/or using the IncludeDefaultSource
        parameter.
        
        Version: 1.0
        Author: Serge van den Oever (http://weblogs.asp.net/soever)
#>
[CmdletBinding()]
param
(
    [Parameter(Position=0, Mandatory=$true)][String]$PackagesPath,
    [Parameter(Position=1, Mandatory=$false)][String]$PackagesSource = '',
    [Parameter(Position=2, Mandatory=$false)][Switch]$IncludeDefaultSource = $false
)
 
$nugetDefaultSource= 'https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=206669'
 
function Get-ScriptDirectory
{
 $Invocation = (Get-Variable MyInvocation -Scope 1).Value
 Split-Path $Invocation.MyCommand.Path
}
 
$nugetExe = Join-Path -Path (Get-ScriptDirectory) -ChildPath 'nuget.exe'
if (-not (Test-Path -Path $nugetExe)) { throw ("Expected NuGet.exe at path '{0}'" -f $nugetExe) }
 
if (-not (Test-Path -Path $PackagesPath)) { throw ("Specified PackagesPath '{0}' does not exist" -f $PackagesPath) }
$PackagesPath = Convert-Path -Path $PackagesPath
 
# Collect packages
$packageFolders = Get-ChildItem -Path $PackagesPath | Where-Object {$_.psIsContainer -eq $true}
 
$packages = @()
if ($packageFolders -ne $null) {
    $packageFolders | ForEach-Object {
        $packageFolder = Convert-Path -Path $_.FullName # Handle case where PSDrive is specified
        $packageFolderName = Split-Path -Path $packageFolder -Leaf
        $parts = $packageFolderName.split('.')
        $packageName = $parts[0]
        $packageVersion = $parts[1..$($parts.length-1)] -join '.'
        $packages += @{
            Name = $packageName;
            Version = $packageVersion;
            Folder = $packageFolder;
        }
    }
}
 
# Delete all package folders
$packages | ForEach-Object {
    Write-Host ("Deleting package '{0}' version '{1}'" -f $_.Name, $_.Version)
    Remove-Item -Recurse -Force -Path $_.Folder -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    if (Test-Path -Path $_.Folder) { Write-Warning ("Can't remove folder '{0}'. Make sure it is not locked." -f $_.Folder) }
}
 
# Reinstall all packages
$packages | ForEach-Object {
    Write-Host ("Reinstalling package '{0}' version '{1}'" -f $_.Name, $_.Version)
    if ($IncludeDefaultSource) {
        $source = $nugetDefaultSource
    } else {
        $source = ''
    }
    if ($PackagesSource -ne '') {
        if ($source -ne '') { $source += ';' }
        $source += (Convert-Path -Path $PackagesSource)
    }
    
    if ($source -ne '') {
        & $nugetExe install $_.Name -Version $_.Version -Source $source -OutputDirectory $PackagesPath
    } else {
        & $nugetExe install $_.Name -Version $_.Version -OutputDirectory $PackagesPath
    }
 
    if (-not (Test-Path -Path $_.Folder)) { 
        New-Item -Path $_.Folder -Type Directory -Force
        Write-Warning ("Failed to reinstall package '{0}' version '{1}'. Created dummy directory '$($_.Folder). Fix error and try again." -f $_.Name, $_.Version) 
    }
}
 
# Call Init.ps1 on all packages
$packages | ForEach-Object {
    $initScript = Join-Path -Path $_.Folder -ChildPath 'Tools\Init.ps1'
    if (Test-Path -Path $initScript)
    {
        $rootPath = $_.Folder
        $toolsPath = Join-Path -Path $_.Folder -ChildPath 'Tools'
        $package = Get-Package -Filter $_.Name
        $project = $null
        
        & $initScript -rootPath $rootPath -toolsPath $toolsPath -package $package -project $project
    }
}
 
Write-Host 'Done.'
 

NuGet: should you check-in packages into source control?

2011-05-03T20:14:51Z

Interesting discussion at http://nuget.codeplex.com/discussions/230110 about checking in NuGet packages into source control.

NuGet packages can contain more than a simple libraries, it can contain tools that grow quite big as well. Good example in the NUnit package that contains the total NUnit toolset.

Do you want all your binaries into source control, it is already preserved in the NuGet feed. You can always reload the packages from the feed. The required packages in a project are available in the packages.config file that is part of your project and checked into source control.

But what if a package is removed from the feed by the author? That would be bad… on the other hand: in this case shouldn’t you remove a dependency on that package anyway?

What about a build server not connected to the internet and not being able to get packages from the NuGet feed?

After reading the discussion I think I would prefer to not check-in packages into source control…

Just found the following post: https://msmvps.com/blogs/theproblemsolver/archive/2011/04/12/nuget-and-projects-under-source-control.aspx taking the same approach. It describes how you can install all missing packages using the command-line version of nuget.exe with the following command: NuGet install MyProject\packages.config –OutputDirectory Packages

From the documentation:

usage: NuGet install packageId|pathToPackagesConfig [options]

Install a package from a given source. If no source is specified the default feed is used.

Specify the id and optionally the version of the package to install. If a path to a
packages.config file is used instead of an id, all the packages it contains are installed.

options:

Source                     The location to look for packages.
OutputDirectory            Specifies the directory in which packages will be installed
Version                    The version of the package to install.
ExcludeVersion       (x)   If set, the destination folder will contain only the package name, not the version number
Help                 (?)   help

NuGet: test if a package is installed

2011-05-03T19:52:00Z

With Get-Package you can get the list of currently installed packages. How can you test if a package is installed?

Get-Package returns list of packages as follows:

Id                             Version              Description                                                                                                        --                             -------              -----------                                                                                                        EntityFramework                4.1.10331.0          DbContext API and Code First workflow for ADO.NET Entity Framework.                                                MacawSolutionsFactory-Core     1.0.0                Macaw Solutions Factory Base package                                                                               MacawSolutionsFactory-Spf2010  1.0.0                Macaw Solutions Factory core package for Spf2010                                                                   T4Scaffolding                  1.0.0                A fast and customizable way to build parts of your .NET application via templates

To test if a package is installed do the following:

(get-package | Select-Object -ExpandProperty ID) -contains 'EntityFramework'

This will return $true or $false.

DualLayout for SharePoint 2010 WCM Quick Start

2011-03-08T13:34:56Z

DualLayout for SharePoint 2010 WCM is a solution to provide you with complete HTML freedom in your SharePoint Server 2010 publishing pages. In this post I provide a quick start guide to get you up and running quickly so you can try it out for yourself. This quick start creates a simple HTML5 site with a page to show-case the basics and the power of DualLayout. We will create the site in its own web application. Normally there are many things you have to do to create a clean start point for your SharePoint 2010 WCM site. All those steps will be provided in later posts. For now we want to give you the minimal set of steps to take to get DualLayout working on your machine.

Create an authenticated web application with hostheader cms.html5demo.local on port 80 for the cms side of the site.
Click the Create Site Collection link on the Application Created dialog box and create a Site Collection based on the Publishing Portal site template.
Before we can click the site link in the Top-Level Site Successfully Created dialog we need to add the new host header cms.html5demo.local to the hosts file.

Add the following line to the hosts file:
127.0.0.1 cms.html5demo.local
Navigate to the site at http://cms.html5demo.local to see the out-of-the-box example Adventure Works publishing site.
Download and add the DualLayout solution package designfactory.duallayout.sps2010.trial.1.2.0.0.wsp to the farm’s solution store:

On the Start menu, click All Programs.
Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.
Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.
At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:Add-SPSolution -LiteralPath designfactory.duallayout.sps2010.trial.1.2.0.0.wsp

In SharePoint 2010 Central Administration deploy the solution to the web application http://cms.html5demo.local.
Navigate to the site at http://cms.html5demo.local, and in the Site Settings screen select Site Collection Administration > Site collection features and activate the following feature:

Open the site http://cms.html5demo.local in SharePoint Designer 2010.
Create a view-mode masterpage html5simple.master with the following code:
html5simple.master
1. <%@ Master language="C#" %>
2. <%@ Register Tagprefix="SharePointWebControls" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
3. <%@ Register TagPrefix="sdl" Namespace="DesignFactory.DualLayout" Assembly="DesignFactory.DualLayout, Version=1.2.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=077f92bbf864a536" %>
5. <!DOCTYPE html>
6. <html class="no-js">
8. <head>
9. <meta charset="utf-8" />
10. <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge" />
11. <title><SharePointWebControls:FieldValue FieldName="Title" runat="server"/></title>
13. <script type="text/javascript">
14. document.createElement('header');
15. document.createElement('nav');
16. document.createElement('article');
17. document.createElement('hgroup');
18. document.createElement('aside');
19. document.createElement('section');
20. document.createElement('footer');
21. document.createElement('figure');
22. document.createElement('time');
23. </script>
25. <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead" runat="server"/>
26. </head>
28. <body>
30. <header>
31. <div class="logo">Logo</div>
32. <h1>SiteTitle</h1>
33. <nav>
34. <a href="#">SiteMenu 1</a>
35. <a href="#">SiteMenu 2</a>
36. <a href="#">SiteMenu 3</a>
37. <a href="#">SiteMenu 4</a>
38. <a href="#">SiteMenu 5</a>
39. <sdl:SwitchToWcmModeLinkButton runat="server" Text="…"/>
40. </nav>
41. <div class="tagline">Tagline</div>
42. <form>
43. <label>Zoek</label>
44. <input type="text" placeholder="Voer een zoekterm in...">
45. <button>Zoek</button>
46. </form>
48. </header>
50. <div class="content">
51. <div class="pageContent">
52. <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server" />
53. </div>
54. </div>
56. <footer>
57. <nav>
58. <ul>
59. <li><a href="#">FooterMenu 1</a></li>
60. <li><a href="#">FooterMenu 2</a></li>
61. <li><a href="#">FooterMenu 3</a></li>
62. <li><a href="#">FooterMenu 4</a></li>
63. <li><a href="#">FooterMenu 5</a></li>
64. </ul>
65. </nav>
66. <small>Copyright © 2011 Macaw</small>
67. </footer>
68. </body>
69. </html>
Note that if no specific WCM-mode master page is specified (html5simple-wcm.master), the default v4.master master page will be used in WCM-mode.
Create a WCM-mode page layout html5simplePage-wcm.aspx with the following code:
html5simplePage-wcm.aspx
1. <%@ Page language="C#" Inherits="DesignFactory.DualLayout.WcmModeLayoutPage, DesignFactory.DualLayout, Version=1.2.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=077f92bbf864a536" %>
2. <%@ Register Tagprefix="SharePointWebControls" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
3. <%@ Register Tagprefix="WebPartPages" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
4. <%@ Register Tagprefix="PublishingWebControls" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
5. <%@ Register Tagprefix="PublishingNavigation" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Navigation" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
7. <asp:Content ContentPlaceholderID="PlaceHolderPageTitle" runat="server">
8. <SharePointWebControls:FieldValue FieldName="Title" runat="server"/>
9. </asp:Content>
10. <asp:Content ContentPlaceholderID="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server">
11. Title: <SharePointWebControls:TextField FieldName="Title" runat="server"/>
12. </asp:Content>
Notice the Inherits at line one. Instead of inheriting from Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PublishingLayoutPage we need to inherit from DesignFactory.DualLayout.WcmModeLayoutPage.
Create a view-mode page layout html5simplePage.aspx with the following code:
html5simplePage.aspx
1. <%@ Page language="C#" Inherits="DesignFactory.DualLayout.ViewModeLayoutPage, DesignFactory.DualLayout, Version=1.2.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=077f92bbf864a536" %>
2. <%@ Register Tagprefix="SharePointWebControls" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
4. <asp:Content ContentPlaceholderID="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead" runat="server" />
5. <asp:Content ContentPlaceholderID="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server">
6. The title of the page is: <SharePointWebControls:FieldValue FieldName="Title" runat="server"/>
7. </asp:Content>
Notice the Inherits at line one. Instead of inheriting from Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PublishingLayoutPage we need to inherit from DesignFactory.DualLayout.ViewModeLayoutPage.
Set the html5simple.master master page as the Site Master Page:
Set the allowed page layouts to the Html5 Simple Page page layout and set the New Page Default Settings also to Html5 Simple Page so new created pages are also of this page layout.

Note that the Html5 Simple Page page layout is initially not selectable for New Page Default Settings. Save this configuration page first after selecting the allowed page layouts, then open again and select the default new page.
Under Site Actions select the New Page action. Create a page Home.aspx of the default page layout type Html5 Simple Page.
Set the new created Home.aspx page as Welcome Page.
Navigate to the site http://cms.html5demo.local and see the home page in the WCM display and edit mode.
Select Switch to View Mode under Site Actions to see the resulting page in view-mode. Select the three dots (…) at the right side of the menu to switch back to WCM-mode.
Have a look at the source view of the resulting web page and admire the clean HTML. No SharePoint specific markup or CSS files!
Clean HTML in page
3. <!DOCTYPE html>
4. <html class="no-js">
6. <head>
7. <meta charset="utf-8" />
8. <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge" />
9. <title>Home</title>
11. <script type="text/javascript">
12. document.createElement('header');
13. document.createElement('nav');
14. document.createElement('article');
15. document.createElement('hgroup');
16. document.createElement('aside');
17. document.createElement('section');
18. document.createElement('footer');
19. document.createElement('figure');
20. document.createElement('time');
21. </script>
24. </head>
26. <body>
28. <header>
29. <div class="logo">Logo</div>
30. <h1>SiteTitle</h1>
31. <nav>
32. <a href="#">SiteMenu 1</a>
33. <a href="#">SiteMenu 2</a>
34. <a href="#">SiteMenu 3</a>
35. <a href="#">SiteMenu 4</a>
36. <a href="#">SiteMenu 5</a>
37. <a href="/Pages/Home.aspx?DualLayout_ShowInWcmMode=true">…</a>
38. </nav>
39. <div class="tagline">Tagline</div>
40. <form>
41. <label>Zoek</label>
42. <input type="text" placeholder="Voer een zoekterm in...">
43. <button>Zoek</button>
44. </form>
46. </header>
48. <div class="content">
49. <div class="pageContent">
51. The title of the page is: Home
53. </div>
54. </div>
56. <footer>
57. <nav>
58. <ul>
59. <li><a href="#">FooterMenu 1</a></li>
60. <li><a href="#">FooterMenu 2</a></li>
61. <li><a href="#">FooterMenu 3</a></li>
62. <li><a href="#">FooterMenu 4</a></li>
63. <li><a href="#">FooterMenu 5</a></li>
64. </ul>
65. </nav>
66. <small>Copyright © 2011 Macaw</small>
67. </footer>
68. </body>
69. </html>
71. 
Note the link at line 37, this link will only be rendered for authenticated users and is our way to switch back to WCM-mode.

This concludes our quick start to get DualLayout up an running in a matter of minutes. And what is the result:

You can have the full SharePoint 2010 WCM publishing page editing experience to manage the content in your pages.
You don’t have to delve into large SharePoint specific master pages and page layouts with a lot of knowledge of the does and don'ts with respect to SharePoint controls, scripts and stylesheets.
The end-user gets a clean and light HTML page.

Get your fully functional, non-timebombed trial copy of DualLayout and start creating!

DualLayout OpenSourceFood demo site installation instructions

2011-02-26T01:58:57Z

We released DualLayout which enables advanced web design with the power of SharePoint. DualLayout and a demo site which shows off the feature of DualLayout can be downloaded from the DualLayout product page.

This blogpost contains detailed instructions on installing this demo site.

The DualLayout demo site is based on the site http://opensourcefood.com. The demo site requires internet access because for some menu items it still links to pages and resources of the real site.

Execute the following steps to install the OpenSourceFoodDemo demo site on your SharePoint Server 2010:

Downloaded the OpenSourceFoodDemo.zip file from the DualLayout product page
Copy the OpenSourceFoodDemo.zip file to your development computer running SharePoint Server 2010
Make sure that the zip file in “unblocked”, otherwise files are marked as “unsecure” because they are downloaded from another computer, and the installation script will not run (right-click on zip file, press “Unblock” button if available, if not available the file is already unblocked)
Unzip the OpenSourceFoodDemo.zip file to a folder of your choice (c:\OpenSourceFoodDemo)
Open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell (Start->Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products->SharePoint 2010 Management Shell)
Change directory to the unzip folder (cd c:\OpenSourceFoodDemo)
Start the PowerShell installation script: .\InstallDemoSite.ps1
Answer the questions, default values are in most cases ok. A little guidance:
- Question: Give credentials for the account that will be used for the application pool
  Answer: use for example same account as used for the application pool of your SharePoint site (lookup in IIS Manager)
- Question: Give credentials for the account that will be used for the application pool
  Answer: Use same account you are currently logged in with

The DualLayout demo site is made available through a SharePoint backup and restore created using stsadm. The SharePoint Server 2010 installation must be patched to a level equal or higher to the update level on the SharePoint Server that we used to create the backup.

If you get version errors with respect to the restore check http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff800847.aspx for downloading the latest cumulative update. Don’t forget to make a snapshot before installing the cumulative update if you are using a virtual development environment. I updated one of my development machines to the december cummulative update and never got it working again:-(

Macaw DualLayout for SharePoint 2010 WCM released!

2011-02-26T01:36:14Z

A few months ago I wrote a blog post about the DualLayout component we developed for SharePoint Server 2010 WCM. DualLayout enables advanced web design on SharePoint WCM sites. See the blog post DualLayout - Complete HTML freedom in SharePoint Publishing sites! for background information.

DualLayout if now available for download. Check out DualLayout for SharePoint 2010 WCM and download your fully functional trial copy!

Enjoy the freedom!

PowerShell: dot source scripts into your module

2010-10-22T11:03:54Z

You can create wrapper modules around existing library script files you “dot source” ‘d into your PowerShell 1.0 code by dot sourcing them into your module.

Problem is that from a module your current location is the location of the script that first imported your module.

You can get the location of your module using the PowerShell variable $PSScriptRoot.

So in your module file Xml.mps1 you can do something like:

Write-Host "Module Location: $PSScriptRoot"
. $PSScriptRoot\..\..\..\DotNet2\MastDeploy\MastPowerShellLib\MastDeploy-Logging.ps1
. $PSScriptRoot\..\..\..\DotNet2\MastDeploy\MastPowerShellLib\MastDeploy-DebugTooling.ps1
. $PSScriptRoot\..\..\..\DotNet2\MastDeploy\MastPowerShellLib\MastDeploy-Util-Xml.ps1

Export-ModuleMember -function Xml*

Using this approach you can keep using the “dot source” approach in your PowerShell 1.0 code until you have time to refactor it, and start using modules in your PowerShell 2.0 code which prevents reloading code when the code is already available.

DualLayout - Complete HTML freedom in SharePoint Publishing sites!

2010-10-19T15:32:37Z

Main complaint about SharePoint Publishing is HTML output size and quality. DualLayout to the rescue: complete HTML freedom in all your publishing pages!

In this post I will introduce our approach, in later posts I will go into details on my personal vision on how you could build Internet facing sites on the SharePoint platform, and how DualLayout can help you with that.

How SharePoint Publishing works

But first a little introduction into SharePoint Publishing. SharePoint Publishing has the concept of templates that are used for authoring and displaying information. There are two types of templates:

master pages
page layouts

The master page template contains the information that is displayed across multiple page layouts like headers, footers, logo’s and navigation. The master page is used to provide a consistent look and feel to your site.

The page layout template is associated with a content type that determines the set of fields that contain the (meta)data that can be stored, authored and displayed on a page based on the page layout. Within the page layout you can use field controls that are bound to the fields to provide editing and display capabilities for a field.

A page is an instance of a page layout. The master page used by the page is configured by the CustomMasterUrl property of the site a page is part of.

Some images to help describe the concepts:

Image 1: Relationship between page instance, master page and page layout (source)

Image 2: Usage of fields in a page layout (source)

The problem

A SharePoint Publishing page can be in edit or display mode. The same SharePoint master page and page layout are used in both the edit mode and display mode. This gives you WYSIWYG editing.

Image 3: A SharePoint Publishing page in WCM edit mode

Image 4: A SharePoint Publishing page in WCM display mode

To be able to use a Publishing page in both editing and display mode there are a few requirements:

The Publishing master page and page layouts need a minimal set of controls to make it possible to use a page in both edit and display mode. See for example http://startermasterpages.codeplex.com for a minimal Publishing master page which has a size of 25 kb to get you started
Create a master page that works in both the edit and display mode
The style sheets (CSS) and JavaScript used in publishing pages must not interfere with the standard styles and master pages used by SharePoint to provide the editing experience. This means that designers of the publishing site need to know how to let their style sheets work together with the SharePoint style sheets like core.css
The page must use the ASP.NET Single Web Form Postback architecture, otherwise editing stops working

All these requirements are not easy to fulfill if you have to migrate an existing internet site to the SharePoint 2010 Publishing platform, or when you get a new design for your Internet site from a design agency. The people who created the design and site interaction in most cases didn’t design with SharePoint in mind, or they don’t have knowledge of the SharePoint platform.

When you want to make your design work together with the SharePoint styles heet you need a lot of knowledge of SharePoint. Especially with MOSS 2007 people like Heather Salomon became famous for dissecting and documenting the SharePoint CSS files to prevent designers from branding nightmare.

One of the design agencies we work with describe SharePoint as the “hostile environment” where their CSS and JavaScript must live in. If you don’t play exactly by the rules of SharePoint you will see things like:

Image 5: SharePoint 2007 usability trouble when the padding and margins of tables are changed

Things got a lot better in SharePoint 2010 with the introduction of the context sensitive Ribbon at the top of the page, instead of editor bars injected into the design. But still many of the same issues remain.

Image 6: The SharePoint 2010 Ribbon

So in my opinion SharePoint Publishing has a few “problems”:

A lot of SharePoint knowledge is required by visual designers and interaction designers
Time consuming and complex construction of master pages and page layouts
Master pages and page layouts get complex in order to keep them working in both edit and display mode
Issues with upgrades of master pages / page layouts when going to new version of SharePoint
Large set of required server control that are only used in edit mode, but still “execute” in display mode
SharePoint pages are large
SharePoint pages are difficult to get passing W3C validation
You are stuck with the ASP.NET Single Web Form Postback architecture

Enough about the problems, lets get to the solution!

The Solution

About a year ago we got completely stuck on a huge project. A design agency delivered a great design completely worked out with perfect html, CSS and JavaScript, using progressive enhancement principles. They created everything without knowledge of SharePoint, and without taking SharePoint into account. We did everything we could to get it working on SharePoint: we wrote compensating CSS, custom controls, did tricks to fix id’s as created by ASP.NET, rewrote multiple form tags back to the single ASP.NET form post, but we could not get it working the way they wanted.

We saw two approaches to solve our issues:

Use SharePoint for web content management and build an ASP.NET MVC site against the SharePoint services to read the data for the site
Make the SharePoint Publishing beast dance to our tunes

It became a kind of competition within our company which approach would be best, and we managed to do both.

Using ASP.NET MVC works great, but then it isn’t SharePoint. Its just like a custom application that uses data from an external database. Something that is difficult to sell to a company who just decided for very good reasons to go for a unified platform for intranet, extranet and internet. (See also my post Why use SharePoint Publishing for public internet sites?)

But we also managed to do the second which we named DualLayout. We created an approach where we can introduced an additional mode to SharePoint Publishing pages. Besides the SharePoint Publishing WCM mode with it’s edit and display modes, we introduced a view mode. The view mode is a mode that gives you a view-only version of the page where you don’t have to bother about the page going into edit mode, and also don’t need the plumbing to enable your page to go into edit mode.

So now a SharePoint Publishing page can have the following modes:

SharePoint Publishing WCM Display Mode
The standard SharePoint display mode using the master page and page layout with all the required controls and the field controls rendered in display mode.
SharePoint Publishing WCM Edit Mode
The standard SharePoint edit mode using the master page and page layout with all the required controls and the field controls rendered in edit mode.
SharePoint Publishing View Mode
The additional view, with complete freedom in HTML, no requirements for controls or ASP.NET single web form.

And how is this accomplished? We made it possible to have a master page and page layout for WCM mode (edit, display) and a master page and page layout for view mode (display only). Depending on the mode we display the page with the correct master page and page layout. This gives us complete freedom in designing an end user view separate from a content author / approver view.

The WCM master page and page layout are the domain of the SharePoint specialist. She can go for completely WYSIWYG editing, or use the out of the box v4.master master page to stay as close as possible with the SharePoint look and feel so the content authors recognize the UI from the SharePoint text books.

The View Mode master page and page layout are completely the domain of the web site designer. Any HTML can be used, there is no dependency on core.css of SharePoint JavaScripts. If required the ASP.NET single web form model can be used, for example around a web part zone, but it does not have to be around the complete page, or it can be left out completely.

Below some screenshots of an example I made with DualLayout based on the web site http://opensourcefood.com. In a next post I will go into detail on how I created the example using DualLayout. In this example I use the out of the box v4.master master page for the WCM mode (edit/display) where I give a schematic preview of the content in WCM display mode, and provide guidance for the content author in WCM edit mode. In the view mode I generate the exact HTML as is used in the actual site http://opensourcefood.com, without any compromise.

Image 7: OpenSourceFood sample, SharePoint Publishing WCM Edit Mode

Image 8: OpenSourceFood sample, SharePoint Publishing WCM Display Mode

Image 9: OpenSourceFood sample, SharePoint Publishing View Mode

If you are in the SharePoint Publishing View Mode, and you have the rights to author the page, there is a link that the designer can put in any location on the page to switch to WCM mode. In the zoom below you can see that we created it as a simple link at the top of the page. This link is not visible for the end user of your site.

Image 10: Link in View mode back to WCM Display mode

If you are in WCM Edit mode and want to see a preview of your page in View mode, you can go to the Page tab on the ribbon and select the Preview action:

Image 11: See a preview of page you are currently editing in View mode

If you are in WCM Display mode, you can switch to the View mode using an action in the Site Actions menu:

Image 12: Switch to View mode

Conclusion

DualLayout gives you all the freedom you need to build Internet facing web sites on the SharePoint Publishing platform,the way you want, without any restrictions. In the next post I will explain how I created the OpenSourceFood sample. DualLayout works on both MOSS 2007 and SharePoint 2010. I will make a full-featured download available soon so you can try it out yourself. Let me know if you are interested.

Why use SharePoint Publishing for public internet sites?

2010-10-17T22:53:35Z

Is SharePoint the best Web Content Management System you can get? Is it the best platform for your internet sites? Maybe not. There are specialized WCM platforms like Tridion, SiteCore and EPIServer that might be better. But there are many reasons why you would use SharePoint over the many alternatives.

Strategic platform for many organizations – SharePoint is a platform that works great for intranets and extranets. It is often selected as the strategic web platform within an organization. There is a SharePoint unless policy. So why not do the public facing web sites on SharePoint as well?

Unified web platform – In these organizations SharePoint is used as the unified web platform that is used for team, divisional, intranet, extranet, and internet sites. This unified platform promises to reduce cost and increase agility.

With respect to the Internet this vision is also promoted by Microsoft as Microsoft’s Internet Business Vision with focus on IT Control (existing infrastructure, low TCO) and web agility; one platform to rule them all:

Reuse of knowledge and people - Unified Development, Unified Infrastructure; the same skills can be reused for development and maintenance.

Existing relationships – the Communication department (focusing on Intranet/Extranet) and the Marketing department (focusing on Internet) are either the same group of people, or working close together.

Support from the community – SharePoint is one of the Microsoft server products with the best community support in blogs, support sites and open source projects. For example on http://codeplex.com you can find 1300 open source projects related to SharePoint, versus for example 27 projects for EPIServer.

SharePoint is a development platform – SharePoint isn’t just an out of the box product, it is a development platform that you can extend at will, like an infinite number of companies already did to provide you with tools for all the (many) gaps that exist in the out of the box SharePoint offering.

---

But if you look at the Internet sites that are built with SharePoint Publishing, some people are a bit disappointed. Microsoft’s classic showcases like http://ferrari.com and http://www.hawaiianair.com deliver pages with 1000+ lines, and 100+ validation errors when you run the W3C validator. But there are also a lot of great sites that use the SharePoint Publishing platform. Have a look at http://www.wssdemo.com/livepivot/ for a nice overview of those sites. In a future post I will describe our approach to delivering quality HTML on the SharePoint Publishing platform. We call this approach DualLayout.