February 2008 - Posts
Well even though the full release of SQL Server 2008 has been pushed to late second half of the year, the latest CTP was delivered on time. This is the first feature complete CTP released. It includes increased functionality around data compression, policy-based management enhancements, and integrated full-text searching.
I'm looking forward trying some of the other more BI-focused functionality out.
- Improved memory management of reporting services - Reporting Services will no longer use IIS, one less bottleneck the better
- Tablix report component - a cross between a table and a matrix. I can't count how many times I had to stick a table and matrix right against each other to get this functionality
- Merge t-sql statement - a replacement for having to use existing statements before doing inserts or updates
- Reporting Services export to Word - why it wasn't in there from the beginning is a mystery
- Date / Time types - they were supposed to be in 2005
- Spatial Data types - a great addition especially for mapping visualizations
- Table Value Parameters - now we don't have use a delimited string along with a parsing function
I wish they added more SharePoint integration functions.
Here is a link to where you can download the CTP. Also, here is a link to the BOL. After I delve into the CTP, I'll post my impressions and findings.
As people who know can attest, I am an avid fan of tech posters and visualizations. This is a very cool one by Microsoft. If you haven't seen the map before, its a wpf application that shows visually and interactively the tools, services, and servers used in building OBAs. It allows you to drill into the items to get more details. I recommend taking a look at it. In the updated version they added Visual Studio 2008, Unified Communications, and PerformancePoint. They also made the visuals better with crisper graphics and scaling.
I noticed over the past few days every keynote and many of the breakout sessions at ODC have some session focus'ing on the BI play of Office ranging from PerformancePoint Scorecards to full BI solutions delivered through Excel. It seems that its not only a big push externally but also internally. At TechReady 6, MS's internal conference, the big push is Business Intelligence. It was even included in Steve Ballmer's keynote. Here's a quick blurb on it. I can't wait to hear more when information starts to trickle down....
Have you been using PerformancePoint since it came out? Have you been using it since beta? Well, Microsoft has released Exam 70-556: Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, Applications. Microsoft also released the prep guide so you can check to see if you have the skillset to take the test or what you need to bone up on for it. Along with the guide, Microsoft has made available web-seminars to help in training for PerformancePoint.
Certifications are great way to show knowledge in technical area, but another advantage of taking this test is its a requirement for achieving the Performance Management Specialization under the Information Worker Solutions Compentency for Partners. Not only do you get to use the the IWS logo but you also get a good amount of software licenses for free. These licenses are different than the MSDN licenses and can be used by internal employee training and to run your business.
While I am not a big fan of the SharePoint Extensions, especially the 1.0 version. It was announced that the 1.1 version, that has been in CTP for several months, is now released and available for download along with a guide. It looks like they fixed many of the issues with the 1.0 version such as being able to edit the solution manifest and the feature xml, fixed the wierd guid naming of folders in the layouts directory, and faster debugging. These changes are a step in the right direction.
The biggest change in my personal opinion is there is shown clear ownership from someone at Microsoft for the development of the extensions. When 1.0 was released, there seemed to be no clear group that owned them. Were they owned by the SharePoint group or the Visual Studio group? Now it seems they have settled these issues and Alex Malek has ownership.
There still seems to be some major items lacking from the extensions though, the biggest being Visual Studio 2008 support. Microsoft is looking to add support around June, but that certainly doesn't help since Visual Studio 2008 launch is in February.
So, will I use the extensions? Probably not. I will certainly download and go through them to see how they work and pick up any pointers from them. Also, so I can talk about them and see if they viable solution for some clients who may not be hardcore technical. Personally, though I like to be closer to the bones of the code. I like to understand how each item / file works and have full control over them. Plus, I think most developers who have been doing SharePoint development for awhile has their own ways to setup SharePoint projects. There are several other tools that have filled this void such as STSDEV (written by several MVPs).
Here's a link to read the full details on the VSeWSS 1.1 release so you can make your decision. Whichever way you chose though its always nice to have options. :)
Well day one of ODC is over and I figured I would do a quick post of the highlights and impressions of the Bill Gates.
The first half of the day, was filled with Keynote talks. To kick off the conference Bill Gates gave the opening keynote. Gates started by going over the current state of the Office product line. One of the main points Gates, but many of the speakers, mentioned was that adoption rate of SharePoint over the last year has taken Microsoft by surprise. He mentioned there are currently over 90 million users worldwide. Microsoft is playing catch up on better documentation and best practices for SharePoint development. This certainly is a godsend, since I've found trying find documentation on real application development on SharePoint lacking....try looking for a good source for CAML documentation.
Also, another point I noticed isn't really a new product, but more a naming convention. This is the first time I heard fluent UI. Gates and others referred to the Ribbon UI as the fluent UI, that is a new one to me.
Next, Gates had a few partners and clients demo some OBAs (Office Business Applications). The first up was Fed-Ex, Fed-Ex showed their new product QuickShip, launched at ODC. QuickShip includes several public web services that allow interaction from the Office products. Fed-Ex started by showing a VSTO Add-in for Outlook. It allows shipping and tracking of packages directly from Outlook. Also, since Fed-Ex owns Kinko's, they showed the ability to have a document printed and bound by Kinko's from Word. Not only printed, but also mailed to any address specified. I remember Kinko's already had a similar function in the past but it looks like they made it more integrated with even a print preview of the bound document within Word. FedEx has made all the Add-ins and the Web Services available for developers to use along with a new FedEx Developer Resource Center on how to use them. I found the web services interesting and the demo's seemed aimed more at small business. However, I can see some uses from a BI point of view. The the tracking information would be great to add to an operational dashboard showing statuses of package deliveries and also Time of Delivery from the start of the order to the day its delivered. This would be great information for setting targets and milestones for a business focused on shipping model.
Next up was Xobni, a company who created a search vsto add-in for Outlook. The add-in adds a new panel on the right, which includes searching and navigating email by individual. The functions certainly wasn't anything new, but the one area that I found interesting is that Xobni also had email analytics. They allowed a user to see graphically a ranking and statistics on how you and also your contacts use email. Months ago a friend of mine had a very similar idea where he wanted to see graphically his social network based on Outlook contacts. This seems like it might fit the bill, something I might download and see how it works. From a business slant though, unless this has an ability to gather statistics from a corporate perspective, I think this product will be regulated to individual or personal use.
The last product Gates demonstrated was PNMSoft: Sequence, a BPM workflow application generator. The product is a business user friendly workflow generator that also allows interaction with external LOB systems and databases. It looked interesting, of course no price point was mentioned or really any details on how it is implemented.
All and all, the products shown were interesting, but nothing really earth-shattering. The main focus was the ease of making the products and the integration with the Office product line.
After the demos, Gates talked about the future of the Office. He focused on the live version of the software. He mentioned they believed this would be the area they see a lot of growth. His focus was on Software + Service. He sees the future allowing companies to allow different options where the service is hosted. It could be on site, hosted by Microsoft, or even at a partner site. Microsoft believes this line will blur in the future and believes the industry is finely at a point to allow this with greater adoption of XML standards and other advances in the last few years. Gates also mentioned one of the first software / service recently available is Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM. Also, Gates announced that Office Live Small Business would be released Winter 2008. For developers, Gates mentioned that at dev.officelive.com developers can go get a free developer account to start and try out the new functions. Gates major push was that the future isn't where the data is but the pull together to display data from disparate sources. It looks like Microsoft has bought into the mashup concept wholeheartedly.
At the end of the keynote a Q&A session was held. The one major note I latched onto. Someone asked about how difficult it was to build traditional applications within SharePoint because of the storage of the data. Gates stated that one of the main goals for SharePoint 14 will be to allow developers to have the option to use real SQL Server tables as lists. He said that new features in Sql Server 2008 will help make this possible. This the best news all day. This certainly will allow better reporting and better application development for the future. Now we just have to wait for the next version.
Even though I didn't mention it specifically, throughout Gate's talk we kept referring to business intelligence as an area of focus for Microsoft. It looks like the future looks good if your a Microsoft Office Business Intelligence developer.
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