Jan Tielens' Bloggings

I've been using the VS.NET 2003 version of this fantastic tool and now there's a VS 2005 version available! Great work by thinktecture. Get it for free: http://www.thinktecture.com/wscf.

There has been a lot of buzz around contract-first Web Services design & development lately. A number of people thinks that it is a good thing and that we finally should reach a state where we all can live and breath it. But most people have been complaining about the lack of  tool support for the so called 'first step':

• Design your contract's data, messages and interface
• Generate code from the contract

This first step can be done either in code or can be done with XML and XSD. As it turns out a number of enterprise-related projects prefer to take the second option. Therefore a tool is needed to ease the pain that shows up with angle brackets.
thinktecture is proud to present the next version of the very successful and freely available WSCF tool.

WSCF offers a simple yet powerful WSDL Wizard that abstracts away all the nitty-gritty details of WSDL and therefore does not give room for making errors and wrong assumptions just by trying to use and applying everything that can be done stated by the original WSDL specification. Plus there are number of new items that primarily made it into the tool based on customer feedback.

If there are still some people who are looking for Windows Live Messenger invites, drop a comment at the bottom of this post. I've got 8 of them, so please don't ask for an invite if you are not one of the first 8 requestors (FIFO), better luck next time!

[Edit] Wow, a lot of people are still looking for Windows Live Messenger invites, they were gone in a couple of minutes. Please do not post any requests anymore, I'll let you know when there are new invites.

[Via David] It seems that the marketing firm gave away the suprise, since http://www.origamiproject.com isn't telling anything at this point. Bink has some more info. It seems that Origami is some sort of mobile device that can act as a:

• mini tablet pc
• mobile XBox
• mobile Media Center Extender
• MP3/video player

If the thing can do what the video is showing, I know I want to have one! :-)

Son of SmartPart version 1.0 has been out there for quite some time now, so it’s time for an update. Since the last release I got tons of questions, feedback and requests, unfortunately they I haven’t been able to answer them all (they keep me very, very busy at U2U). Before I’m going to release the next update, I’d love to get some feedback of the SmartPart community. Let me know if you like or dislike the proposed changes or maybe you’ve got another request?

Change 1: ICellProviderUserControl and ICellConsumerUserControl
In the current version of the SmartPart it’s only possible to exchange string values between connectable web parts/user controls. This is because the ICellProviderUserControl and ICellConsumerUserControl interfaces explicitly determine that the type of the exchanged data is a string. Changing the type of the exchanged data from string to object would allow connected web parts to communicate all kinds of data.

Change 2: UserControls folder
The default location for storing user controls (.ascx files) is in the \UserControls folder (on the same level as for example \bin and \wpresources). If the default location is changed to \wpresources\SmartPart\UserControls this would give you the opportunity to package your user controls in a .cab file and deploy them by using the STSADM tool, just like you deploy normal web parts. In the current version the only deployment option is copying the files manually, so I think it would a great advantage. Read Riwut Libinuko’s article “Building CAB Project with Internal Directories Within VS.net IDE” for more info about this technique.

Change 3: Son of SmartPart name
I have to agree on this one, an assembly named SonOfSmartPart.dll doesn’t look very professional. I didn’t want to name the assembly just SmartPart.dll because it could collide with the SmartPart.dll of version 1 (you don’t have this issue if you deploy to the GAC, but not all people do that). So, shall we keep the name SonOfSmartPart? Or shall I rename everything (including assembly name, namespace, dwp’s) to SmartPart2 or SmartPart2005?

I’m looking forward to your thoughts on this, how it’s going to affect the work that you’ve already done and if you can live with the consequences. Thanks a lot for helping to make the SmartPart even better!!

Do you know the difference between VSTO and VSTA? Did you already hear about MAF? Check out Andrew's latest post! Synopsis:

• VSTO was originally designed to support the building of managed extensions to Office applications.
• Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA) was branched from VSTO with the aim of providing the same kind of support for all applications, managed or unmanaged.
• Or to put it another way, VSTO is an Office-specific subset of VSTA.
• At the heart of VSTA is the Managed Add-in Framework (MAF). MAF is an architectural framework, with basic implementation in WinFx.
• MAF can be seen as the .NET equivalent of COM.

This week one of my students asked how he could remove the VSTO extensions of a specific Word document. I never thought about it, but if you give it a little thought, it's quite useful. Just imagine that you have a VSTO Word template solution that allows you to create a document very easily (for example with some custom task panes). Once you're done building the document you may want to save it, and give users that don't have VSTO runtime installed (or don't have access to the extenions) the possibility to open the document (without any warnings). It turns out that's not that difficult, it's even documented on the MSDN site:

How to: Remove Managed Code Extensions from Documents  

You can remove references to code from your documents by clearing the embedded application manifest, or by removing the Runtime Storage Control from the document completely, including the application manifest and any cached data. The Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System runtime includes an object model that enables you to programmatically perform these actions.

If you want to remove the assembly references from the document but keep the cached data (possibly because this data will be read later by an ASP.NET page or server application), then clear the application manifest. If you no longer need the managed code extensions or the cached data, then remove the Runtime Storage Control. full article

Last week Patrick already pointed to a nice web part: Site Collection Search for Son of SmartPart. Basically this web part allows you to search through all the sites of a site collection in SharePoint. Typically this feature is only available in SharePoint Portal Server search. 

There are a couple of things that make this a *fantastic* demo/sample web part:

• It's using the SmartPart to show an ASP.NET 2.0 Web User Control in a web part. Advantage: great developer experience.
• It's using the connectable framework to connect two different web parts. Advantage: high flexibility for end users, customizable layout.
• It's using the WSS Object Model from inside a web part to search in all the sites of the site collection.
• It's using Visual Studio 2005 Web Deployment Projects to compile. (more on this below)

So what are the Visual Studio 2005 Web Deployment Projects? Visual Studio 2005 Web Deployment Projects provide additional functionality for building and deploying Web site applications that you create in ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005. This add-in includes a new tool to merge the assemblies created during ASP.NET 2.0 precompilation, and provides a comprehensive UI within Visual Studio 2005 for managing build configurations, merging, and using pre-build and post-build tasks with MSBuild. Think of ASP.NET 1.x compilation style for VS 2005. If you need more info, Scott Guthrie has written an excellent overview.

Almost two years ago (wow, time flies when you're having fun!) I wrote a small article about how you could reproduce contents from a SharePoint list or document library on a site, when the actual list is stored on another site. The trick that I explained was to use FrontPage to handle all the dirty work, but of course the consequence is that you end up with an unghosted page. Now Robert te Kaat, has written a nice web part that can do the same thing: FlexListViewer-webpart is able to display any type of list and can be easily configured, just by configuring the address of a view of the list.

Features:

• Easy configuration
• Fast
• Customizable

Get it on Robert's site.

Web parts are everywhere today! You can use them today on diverse platforms and you can create them with various tools. The goal of this post is to give a clear overview of the different platforms and development techniques that are available.

• Platforms
• Windows SharePoint Services v2 and SharePoint Portal Server 2003
  There platforms are running on ASP.NET 1.1 and use the web part infrastructure provided by the core WSS functionality. Additionally you can install the SmartPart so this platform can also use ASP.NET 1.1 user controls.
• Windows SharePoint Services v2 with Service Pack 2
  Since September last year, Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services is available. This service pack allows you to host WSSv2 on a site that is running ASP.NET 2.0. There is a SP2 for SPS 2003 as well, but unfortunately this SP does not allow you to run SPS 2003 on top of ASP.NET 2.0. At this point it’s still unclear if there will be a SP for SPS 2003 that will allow this. Additionally you can install the SmartPart to this platform so ASP.NET 1.1 and ASP.NET 2.0 user controls can be used.
• ASP.NET 2.0 Web Sites
  These sites are created by using the ASP.NET 2.0 web part infrastructure.
• Windows SharePoint Services v3
  This version will ship with the 2007 Microsoft Office System, including the SharePoint servers. Additionally you can install the SmarPart so ASP.NET 2.0 user controls can be used on this platform.
• Development Techniques
• Visual Studio.NET 2003, Traditional
  By using the (optionally) Web Part Templates, you can create a class that inherits from the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart base class (defined in the assembly Microsoft.SharePoint.dll). The assembly containing the class is compiled against .NET 1.1.
• Visual Studio.NET 2003, User Controls
  Creating user controls in VS.NET 2003 enhances the developer experience for developers, since they can utilize the VS designer to design the UI of the control.
• Visual Studio 2005, SharePoint Web Parts
  Very similar to the “Visual Studio.NET 2003, Traditional” technique, you can build classes in VS 2005 that inherit from the Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart base class. The assembly containing the class is compiled against .NET 2.0.
• Visual Studio 2005, ASP.NET 2.0 Web Parts
  A web part created for the web part infrastructure of ASP.NET 2.0, is a class inheriting from System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart class (defined in the System.Web assembly). The assembly containing the class is compiled against .NET 2.0.
• Visual Studio 2005, User Controls
  Similar to the “Visual Studio.NET 2003, User Control” technique you can leverage the VS 2005 designer to increase the developer experience.
• Visual Web Developer 2005, User Controls
  Visual Web Developer 2005 provides can be compared with the “Visual Studio 2005, User Controls” technique.

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 15, 2006 – As the Internet becomes an increasingly valuable environment for individuals and organizations to share information, collaborate and carry out tasks, the people tasked with building Web sites to support these activities need increasingly powerful and versatile tools to accomplish their goals.

Having adopted technologies such as Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to help create, manage and build collaborative Web sites, many organizations are discovering that their current Web-authoring tools lack support for the latest standards and capabilities that SharePoint products and technologies makes possible – such as ready access to data coming from multiple outside sources and the capacity to build no-code, powerful applications and automated workflows. Professional Web site designers also are feeling the pressure to deliver more dynamic and interactive user experiences, and to create sites more rapidly and cost-efficiently.

In response to these diverse demands, Microsoft is introducing a new tool, Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, for building SharePoint applications and designing SharePoint sites. This new product – part of the full 2007 Microsoft Office lineup announced today – will join Microsoft Expression Web Designer, the next-generation tool for designing dynamic, standard-based Web sites, to deliver a complete set of tools for Web design and development. Both products are currently in initial beta testing. Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer is scheduled for release in the second half of this year at a suggested retail price of US$299 through retail and Microsoft Volume Licensing channels. Pricing and availability details for Microsoft Expression Web Designer will be announced in the near future.

PressPass recently asked John Richards, director of Windows SharePoint Services at Microsoft, to describe how these new products fit into the company’s overall approach to Web authoring technologies. Full story here

So what is happening with FrontPage?? Here's the answer:

PressPass: What is happening to the current FrontPage product, and how is Microsoft communicating with FrontPage users to alleviate concerns about migration, ongoing technical support and the like?

Richards: After we fully release SharePoint Designer 2007 and Expression Web Designer, FrontPage will be discontinued gradually. This process will bring our customers and partners a broader choice of tools that go far beyond the capabilities within the current FrontPage product to meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s Web authors, designers and developers.

In the meantime, Microsoft will continue to provide current FrontPage customers with full product support through June 2008, as well as clear guidance on how they can smoothly migrate to SharePoint Designer 2007 or Expression Web Designer, depending on their roles and needs. In the near future, all registered Microsoft Office FrontPage customers will receive e-mail from Microsoft outlining our overall strategy and roadmap for these next-generation Web authoring tools. We also will provide continual updates on the Microsoft Office product Web site. In addition, current FrontPage customers in both the retail and enterprise channels will be able to take advantage of special upgrade offers starting in the second half of 2006.