Jan Tielens' Bloggings

There is a rumour that next week (@ DevDays) U2U will announce a tool to generate RSS feeds for SharePoint. Nothing new you might think, there are several other solutions. That's right, but you haven't seen the screenshots, nor the feature list. I did! :-) In fact I "found" some screenshots on my desktop today... (don't know how they got there)

Some cool features are:

• Aggregation of different lists into one RSS feed. The lists don't need to be on the same site, or on the same server.
• Customizable contents of the RSS feed items: for each list you can specify how the contents should look like by using a formula-like notation.
• Uses SharePoint list views to select items from a list. This might sound not spectacular, but you can use views to give each user personalized content (e.g. My Tasks).
• ...

As always, Patrick is very good at spoiling surprises. :-) Next week, at the Belgian Dev-Days, the SharePoint team at U2U will release some really cool stuff, so keep tuned. If you want to read the scoop, go an read Patrick's post about our upcoming CAML tool, SharePoint/Outlook synchronize tool and SharePoint RSS feed generator!

If you plan to visit our session at the Dev-Days next week (which will be awesome of course), please make some noise if we make the releases official! By the way, did I mention the SmartPart Developer Center already? Oeps! You didn't read that on my blog, right? :-)

[Via Christof] BizTalk Service Pack 1 is released! Get it here, more info on Scott's blog.

• The generation of wrappers for BizTalk 2002 Application Integration Components (AICs) so that they can be used as BizTalk 2004 adapters and pipeline components;
• The wrapper for BizTalk 2002 custom preprocessors so that they can be used as BizTalk 2004 pipeline components; and
• Implementation of BizTalk 2002 IInterchange to facilitate migration of BizTalk 2002 applications that submitted messages bypassing specific transports directly into BizTalk.
  Please, read readme file for more details.

Since last week you can sign up for testing the beta's of two SQL Server related service packs: SQL Server 2000 SP4 and Reporting Services SP2. I signed up for testing the Reporting Services SP2 beta mainly because it contains web parts which can be used inside SharePoint, nice! The goal of these web parts is showing the contents of report inside a SharePoint site. So these new web parts are some serious competition for Bryant Like's RS Web Parts which actually do just the same.

A few days ago I was accepted as a beta tester and downloaded the SP immediately, eagerly wanting to check out the new web parts. After you've installed the SP (which worked like charm), you need to deploy the web parts to your SharePoint site(s) in which you want to use them. You do this by installing the RSWebParts.CAB which can be found in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Reporting Services\SharePoint (use the STSAdm tool with the -o addwppack parameters: stsadm.exe -o addwppack -filename RSWebParts.cab). Once done, you can find two new web parts in the Virtual Server Gallery of your SharePoint site.

The Report Explorer web part will display a comparable view like the Report Server website itself: you can find all the reports and folders which are available for the currently logged on user. In fact the view is very similar to the Report Server site & but wait & it *is* the Report Server site! Yes indeed, this web part uses an IFrame to display a part of the Report Server site.

The Report Viewer web part will display the contents of the report which was selected in the Report Explorer. The communication between the two web parts is done by using the connectable framework of SharePoint, so you have to make a connection between them as shown in the screen shot. The Report Viewer is also using an IFrame to display the report, but I can live with that. It's also possible to display a fixed report so you don't need the Report Explorer, the only other setting is the ability to hide/show the report toolbar.

I must admit that I'm a little bit disappointed in the Reporting Services Web Parts. The integration is accomplished by using IFrames, why not use the Reporting Services web service? IMHO the web service is build for this kind of stuff, in fact some time ago I showed some web parts during a TechNet session that just did this. You know what would be great? No? Well I do; if the Reporting Services team would give us an ASP.NET control that could render a report. That would rock! This control could effortlessly be consumed in a SmartPart, showing it in SharePoint would be a breeze. Sigh & if only one day would count 36 hours. :-)

It has been out some time (since January 6th), but I know some of my clients are waiting for it. :-)

SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Document: Deploying on an Extranet by Using ISA Server 2000 and ISA Server 2004

Overview

Last week I was in Porto (Portugal) for delivering a BizTalk course. It was great, in many ways: Porto is a very nice city, working with the group was a pleasure, everyone was so kind, ... On Thursday I had the honor of attending the first geek dinner at Porto! Thanks guys, it was great meeting all of you and I'd love to come back! :-) Check my MSN Space for more pictures of last week.

Woehoe, the date for the 3rd Belgian Geek Dinner is set: 21st of January. This time it's in Brussels, 8PM at La Maison d'Attila. Check Roy's blog for more details and registration. See you all there!

What a coincidence: today I was discussing with Peter the current version(s) of the installation guide of BizTalk Server 2004. It seems that there quite some people complaining that it’s not complete. Let’s hope today's version solves this, get it here.

Speaking of Peter: keep an eye on his blog if you're interested in the new Team System. I heard a rumour that he will be spending quite some time on this topic in the near future! :-)

Maurice asks: "What was your favorite WebPart for 2004". So if you like the SmartPart web part, go and tell it Maurice here! :-)

But of course there are some other web parts that I like myself:

• ADVIS Site Navigator
  Site Navigator shows an explorer like navigation tree of your sites and subsites. There's a free trial version which displays a small copyright notice only, so you can try it for free. But the price is right, only 45 euros.
• Tom's TreeView Web Part (using the Smart Part)
  
  Free with complete source.