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11/12/2011

Free Online Service to convert SharePoint CAML Queries to c#

Powered by their Codeplex project - Camlex.NET (http://camlex.codeplex.com), Alexey Sadomov and Vladimir Timashkov have released a free online service to convert your CAML Query Strings into c# code. All you have to do is type in your CAML query and it will spit out the corresponding c# lambda expression you can use in your code.

Example by typing in this CAML Query:

<Query>
  <Where>
    <And>
        <Eq>
            <FieldRef Name="ID" />
            <Value Type="Integer">1</Value>
        </Eq>
        <Eq>
            <FieldRef Name="Title" />
            <Value Type="Text">Hello world</Value>
        </Eq>
    </And>
  </Where>
</Query>

You get this code:

Camlex.Query().Where(x => (int)x["ID"] == 1 && (string)x["Title"] == "Hello world")

The link to the free service is: http://camlex-online.org/

My favorite tool to generate the CAML query itself is still CAML Query Builder by U2U which can be used in both SharePoint 2007 and 2010: http://www.u2u.net/Tools/wincamlquerybuilder/CamlQueryBuilder.aspx

Technorati Tags: CAML,Query,SharePoint 2010

Created By: Noorez Khamis | Posted at 2:03 PM by Noorez Khamis | Permalink | E-mail this Post | Comments (0)

11/2/2011

Use the Microsoft Virtual Academy for FREE training on SharePoint Online and Office365

The Microsoft Virtual Academy is a great resource and will help you improve your IT Skill set and help advance in your career with a free, easy to access training portal. You can learn at your own pace, focusing on Microsoft technologies, gain points and get recognition. The MVA is a free program delivering structured learning paths for IT Professionals on various Microsoft products and solutions.

If you are not yet registered on Microsoft Virtual Academy, it takes only a second to do so, please register here.

Also, go to the new TechNet Cloud Hub where you can get the ultimate resources on how Office 365 and collaboration work in the Cloud: Office 365 takes collaboration to the cloud with tools your users are already familiar with: Office, Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync videoconferencing.

Other great resources include the Evaluation Download Center where you can get free access to evaluations on practically any MS Software.

8/31/2011

SharePoint 2010 Standard vs Enterprise vs Foundation Edition Feature Comparison Matrix

Clients are constantly asking me on the differences between the various versions of SharePoint 2010 (foundation vs standard vs enterprise). I keep on referring them to this link by Microsoft [1]. It is nicely formatted and pretty but it still doesn’t give a nicely formatted single view where you can see the feature differences for each version and feature descriptions on one page. Hence, I decided to do this myself as I did with my previous SharePoint 2007 vs SharePoint 2010 feature comparison matrix post.

Enjoy!

Feature Name / Area	Description	SharePoint 2010 Foundation	SharePoint 2010 Server Standard	SharePoint 2010 Server Enterprise
Sites
Accessibility	Use SharePoint more effectively with improved accessibility, including built-in support for keyboard navigation and support for industry-wide accessibility standards.	Included	Included	Included
Claims-Based Authentication	Use claims-based authentication to connect to corporate identity systems--including Active Directory, LDAPv3-based directories, and application-specific databases--and user-centric identity models--like LiveID, OpenID, and InfoCard systems.	Included	Included	Included
Configuration Wizards	Easily configure SharePoint 2010 using new wizards that guide you through each step.	Included	Included	Included
Connections to Microsoft Office Clients	Save time and effort by using the Connect to Office function in SharePoint 2010. The Connect to Office function lets Microsoft Office applications know which SharePoint libraries you frequently use. When you connect a library to Office, the library is available in the Office Back Stage for opening and saving files. When you want to create a new Office document, you can view the list of templates in connected libraries as well as local and online templates.	Included	Included	Included
Cross-Browser Support	Access SharePoint through Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.	Included	Included	Included
High-Availability Architecture	Simplify high-availability planning and solutions. From improved support for database mirroring to the new Service Application Architecture, new IT continuity management features help you meet your independent service-level agreements.	Included	Included	Included
Improved Backup and Restore	Enhance IT continuity management with improved backup and restore capabilities. These new capabilities include configuration-only backups and improved scale, performance, and resiliency.	Included	Included	Included
Improved Setup and Configuration	Easily prepare servers and server farms for install with the new Products Preparation Tool. Simplify the deployment process with new wizards and use Windows PowerShell to deploy and configure SharePoint 2010.	Included	Included	Included
Large List Scalability and Management	Control the impact of lists and libraries on server performance. Resource throttling helps users efficiently manage lists and libraries that can contain millions of items.	Included	Included	Included
Managed Accounts	Reduce administrative expenses by allowing SharePoint 2010 to take control of your accounts. SharePoint 2010 can automatically reset passwords based on domain policies and notify administrators when passwords are expiring. By storing account information in SharePoint 2010, you can keep your information secure and reduce the overhead required to manage it yourself.	Included	Included	Included
Mobile Connectivity	Access sites and content from mobile devices using a modern micro-browser and an access gateway.	Included	Included	Included
Multilingual User Interface	Take advantage of out-of-the-box support for multilingual experiences in SharePoint 2010. Give your people language options in site navigation, menus, the SharePoint Ribbon, and customized list fields.	Included	Included	Included
Multi-Tenancy	Delegate administration tasks and partition data across customers or business units by using new controls and capabilities.	Included	Included	Included
Out-of-the-Box Web Parts	Use more than 40 out-of-the-box Web Parts to add functionality anywhere in a site with point-and-click simplicity.	Included	Included	Included
Patch Management	Minimize downtime and predictably apply updates and service packs with patch management features, including backward compatibility, Central Administration reporting, and Windows PowerShell integration.	Included	Included	Included
Permissions Management	Create custom permission levels or use the six default permission levels, which are also customizable (except for the Limited Access and Full Control permission levels).	Included	Included	Included
Quota Templates	Control the amount of storage used by site collections and the resources consumed by user code solutions with improved Quota Templates.	Included	Included	Included
Read-Only Database Support	Minimize downtime during patching and upgrade operations and support a larger array of high-availability solutions with improved read-only database support. SharePoint 2010 adapts to a read-only state by limiting the write-based actions of the user in a clean and effective presentation.	Included	Included	Included
Remote Blob Storage (SQL Feature)	Move storage of large binary data (BLOBs) from SQL Server to external storage solutions or commodity hardware.	Included	Included	Included
SharePoint Health Analyzer	Quickly find and fix potential problems across all of the servers in your farm. The SharePoint Health Analyzer monitors farm health and can automatically fix many common configuration and performance problems.	Included	Included	Included
SharePoint Lists	Manage documents and data with SharePoint lists, a simple but powerful table made up of rows and columns. Edit list entries with customizable forms, and access list data with customizable views.	Included	Included	Included
SharePoint Ribbon	Quickly and easily find and use relevant features with the new contextual SharePoint Ribbon.	Included	Included	Included
SharePoint Workspace	Take lists, libraries, line-of-business data, and entire sites offline with SharePoint Workspace 2010. Work locally and SharePoint Workspace 2010 will synchronize any offline changes with the server when connected.	Included	Included	Included
Streamlined Central Administration	Manage SharePoint 2010 more efficiently with a streamlined administration experience. Use the SharePoint Ribbon to configure and manage your server farm.	Included	Included	Included
Support for Office Web Apps	View, share, edit, and create Microsoft Office documents in SharePoint using Microsoft Office Web Applications.	Included	Included	Included
Unattached Content Database Recovery	Temporarily mount an unattached content database and browse content, back up a site collection, or export sites and lists without a recovery farm.	Included	Included	Included
Usage Reporting and Logging	Improve your insight into server usage and performance with the new unified logging database in SharePoint 2010. Log the usage and health data for your SharePoint farm. Write your own reports or use the provided reports, and log events and tracing data through a new logging Object Model in the database.	Included	Included	Included
Visual Upgrade	Upgrade to SharePoint 2010 but keep the SharePoint 2007 look-and-feel until you are ready to switch. View a site with the SharePoint 2010 user interface before committing to it.	Included	Included	Included
Web Parts	Use Web Parts to add new functionality to SharePoint sites. Add a Web Part to any page, and a the new functionality will appear when the page is displayed.	Included	Included	Included
Windows PowerShell Support	Achieve greater control and productivity with Windows PowerShell, a command line shell and scripting language. SharePoint 2010 offers a snap-in so you can take advantage of PowerShell for your SharePoint deployments and manage your server farm and automate tasks with out-of-the-box cmdlets.	Included	Included	Included
Audience Targeting	Target groups and inspaniduals with specific pages, Web Parts, and content.	N/A	Included	Included
Improved Governance	Manage SharePoint deployments with new and improved governance features, including metadata creation and management, shared service applications, taxonomy management, multi-tenancy, Sandbox Solutions, content syndication, and policies.	N/A	Included	Included
Secure Store Service	Store account names and passwords in the secure database of the new Secure Store Service. The SharePoint 2010 Secure Store Service replaces the single sign-on (SSO) feature in SharePoint 2007.	N/A	Included	Included
Web Analytics	Better serve your audience by identifying the trends on your sites using Web Analytics. Improve the performance of server farms by planning server resources.	N/A	Included	Included
Communities
Blogs	Use the new SharePoint Ribbon to format blog text and easily upload images.	Included	Included	Included
Connections to Office Communication Server and Exchange	Easily connect SharePoint to Office Communication Server and Exchange. Synchronize user profile information across Exchange, Office Communication Server, SharePoint, and Active Directory.	Included	Included	Included
Discussions	Create and respond to discussion topics, easily following the structure of the discussion threads as if reading the transcript of a conversation. Discussion lists have an improved rich text editor and use the SharePoint Ribbon for easier editing and rich formatting options.	Included	Included	Included
Photos and Presence	Help people recognize each other with photos. Use presence to email, IM, or call someone with the click of a button.	Included	Included	Included
Wikis	Create pages that combine the ease of wikis with the functionality of Web Parts.	Included	Included	Included
Ask Me About	List your areas of expertise and invite colleagues to ask questions on the "Ask Me About" section of your profile.	N/A	Included	Included
Colleague Suggestions	Keep your colleague network current with an automated service that suggests colleagues based on your reporting structure, communities membership, e-mail distribution lists, Office Communicator contact lists, and analysis of most common Office Outlook e-mail recipients.	N/A	Included	Included
Colleagues Network	Create an extensive network of colleagues across your company and keep up-to-date on their activities. Easily add people to your company^s social network through the Add Colleagues feature.	N/A	Included	Included
Enterprise Wikis	Consolidate company-wide information into a centralized, easy-to-manage repository with an Enterprise Wiki. Embed dynamic content—including rich media—and use the Managed Metadata service to categorize pages. Manage wiki pages as records to support company compliance and document retention policies.	N/A	Included	Included
Keyword Suggestions	Add keywords to the "Ask Me About" and "Interests" section of your User Profile by using keyword suggestions. SharePoint 2010 will periodically suggest keywords or repeated topics based on e-mail communication patterns from Microsoft Outlook 2010.	N/A	Included	Included
Memberships	Centrally manage your community memberships and email distribution lists from your SharePoint profile.	N/A	Included	Included
My Content	Centrally store and manage your documents, favorite links, personal blog, and wiki pages on the My Content section of your My Site. Customize your pages and set access and permission levels for any content in the section.	N/A	Included	Included
My Newsfeed	View real-time updates from people you follow and the interests you track. My Newsfeed is fully customizable - select what types of activities you want to display, and extend to display third-party activity feeds.	N/A	Included	Included
My Profile	Learn more about your colleagues with Profile pages. The My Profile page contains information about employees, including biographies, job titles, location, contact information, interests and skills, and previous projects.	N/A	Included	Included
Note Board	Easily connect with others, reduce e-mail overload, and start discussions with the Note Board. Post comments, ask questions, and engage the community.	N/A	Included	Included
Organization Browser	Navigate your organizational structure to see managers, peers, and direct reports.	N/A	Included	Included
Ratings	Rate SharePoint pages, lists, libraries, and inspanidual documents with a five-star rating system.	N/A	Included	Included
Recent Activities	Let people know what you^re up to with the Recent Activities feed on your profile page.	N/A	Included	Included
Status Updates	Let your colleagues know what you^re up to by sharing Status Updates. People receive your Status Updates through their network news feeds.	N/A	Included	Included
Tag Clouds	Navigate the tag taxonomy with the visual Tag Cloud Web Part.	N/A	Included	Included
Tag Profiles	Find information and discussions on specific keywords or topics using Tag Profile pages. View a list of items that have been tagged with a term as well as a list of the community members following the topic.	N/A	Included	Included
Tags	Classify and organize large amounts of information in your company by applying tags. Use standardized taxonomy tags defined by the organization and informal social tags defined by employees.	N/A	Included	Included
Tags and Notes Tool	Manage and share your favorite internal and external Web sites with the Tags and Notes tool. Increase resource sharing across your company by tagging a page with an "I like it" social bookmark.	N/A	Included	Included
Content
Compliance Everywhere	Manage versions, apply retention schedules, declare records, and place legal holds, whether you^re dealing with traditional content, Web content, or social content.	N/A	Included	Included
Content Organizer	Classify content more accurately by using the Content Organizer to automatically route content to appropriate document libraries.	N/A	Included	Included
Document Sets	Create a Document Set to manage related content as a single entity, speeding up common processes like RFP responses.	N/A	Included	Included
Managed Metadata Service	Centrally define and manage metadata, making it available for use across farms and site collections.	N/A	Included	Included
Metadata-driven Navigation	Use metadata-driven navigation to easily find information in large document libraries. Browse and discover content using tags and attributes.	N/A	Included	Included
Multistage Disposition	Build sophisticated policies for managing the entire content life cycle with multistage disposition.	N/A	Included	Included
Rich Media Management	Easily store, manage, find, and use digital content.	N/A	Included	Included
Shared Content Types	Centrally define and manage content types, making them available for use across farms and site collections.	N/A	Included	Included
Unique Document IDs	Find content, even if it has been moved from its original location, with a unique, human-readable Document ID assigned by SharePoint 2010.	N/A	Included	Included
Word Automation Services	Save, export, and print Word documents with Word Automation Services, which also helps you create, manipulate, and render documents.	N/A	Included	Included
Search
Site Search	Find information in your current site or list.	Included	Included	Included
Basic Sorting	Sort results based on modified date or the default view.	N/A	Included	Included
Best Bets	Provide the best results for a keyword using the Best Bets feature.	N/A	Included	Included
Click Through Relevancy	Find results that others liked. Each time people click on a search result, its ranking for related queries increases.	N/A	Included	Included
Duplicate Detection	Reduce clutter from multiple versions of the same document in search results with the Duplicate Detection feature.	N/A	Included	Included
Enterprise Scale Search	Search up to 100 million documents to meet the needs of your entire company or the specialized needs of inspanidual departments.	N/A	Included	Included
Federated Search	Use federated sources in core results, in a small preview of results, or in an instant answer format. Federated Results incorporate information from other sources, Related Searches, and People Results in the search experience.	N/A	Included	Included
Metadata-driven Refinement	Use the new refinement panel in SharePoint 2010 to narrow the results of your search and find the right content faster.	N/A	Included	Included
Mobile Search Experience	Search documents, people, and sites from almost anywhere.	N/A	Included	Included
People and Expertise Search	Search for people by name or by associated terms.	N/A	Included	Included
Phonetic and Nickname Search	Search for a person^s name as it sounds, without knowing the exact spelling.	N/A	Included	Included
Query Suggestions, "Did You Mean?", and Related Queries	Quickly find the right answer with type-as-you-go query suggestions. Use the "Did You Mean?" feature to get spelling corrections. View related queries as a part of your search results.	N/A	Included	Included
Recently Authored Content	Identify the right people and expertise faster with recently authored content.	N/A	Included	Included
Relevancy Tuning	Create customized relevance models to meet specific business needs.	N/A	Included	Included
Search Scopes	Search against a specific subset of the index using criteria like URLs or property values.	N/A	Included	Included
SharePoint 2010 Search Connector Framework	Crawl content outside of SharePoint easily and securely. The Search Connector Framework is built on Business Connectivity Services and allows you to easily create your own connectors.	N/A	Included	Included
Windows 7 Search	Search SharePoint from the Windows 7 desktop.	N/A	Included	Included
Advanced Content Processing	Extract and create metadata from documents to improve search results, sorting capabilities, and refinement.	N/A	N/A	Included
Advanced Sorting	Sort results based on Managed Properties or Rank Profiles	N/A	N/A	Included
Contextual Search	Tailor different results and refinement options based on the profile of the user or audience.	N/A	N/A	Included
Deep Refinement	See the exact number of documents that match each refinement option in a result set.	N/A	N/A	Included
Extensible Search Platform	Meet your company^s complex search needs with an extensible search platform. Build search-driven applications, including 360° Customer Insight applications, Research and Development portals, and Product Support dashboards.	N/A	N/A	Included
Extreme Scale Search	Search billions of documents while maintaining sub-second query times.	N/A	N/A	Included
Rich Web Indexing	Index dynamic Web content and JavaScript with a highly customizable indexing connector.	N/A	N/A	Included
Similar Results	Find results that are similar to your search query.	N/A	N/A	Included
Thumbnails and Previews	Recognize the right content quickly with thumbnail and preview images in your search results.	N/A	N/A	Included
Tunable Relevance with Multiple Rank Profiles	Build rank profiles to define customized ranking algorithms. Blend multiple rank ingredients--including content freshness, authority, and quality--to return the right results.	N/A	N/A	Included
Visual Best Bets	Return rich, editorialized results for specific search keywords using Visual Best Bets. Target content to specific groups of users by associating Visual Best Bets with User Context.	N/A	N/A	Included
Insights
Business Intelligence Center	Use the examples in this dedicated SharePoint site template to help you get started with your Business Intelligence projects.	N/A	N/A	Included
Calculated KPIs	Create powerful key performance indicators (KPIs) derived from multiple data sources. Sample templates enable the creation of KPIs quickly and easily using a powerful new expression editor.	N/A	N/A	Included
Chart Web Parts	Choose from a wide range of chart types to create advanced visualizations using the data in SharePoint, including SharePoint Lists, Business Connectivity Services, or Excel Services. A simple wizard guides you through the creation of charts empowering you to create your own dashboards quickly and easily.	N/A	N/A	Included
Dashboards	Create rich dashboards that convey the right information the first time, aggregating content from multiple sources and displaying it in a Web browser in an understandable and collaborate environment. Rich interactivity lets you to analyze up-to-the-minute information and work with the data quickly and easily to identify key opportunities and trends.	N/A	N/A	Included
Data Connection Library	Easily share, manage, and discover data connections by centralizing Office Data Connections (ODCs) in Data Connection Libraries. Access data you need while IT centrally manages the connections and underlying data sources.	N/A	N/A	Included
Decomposition Tree	Perform root cause analyses using powerful analytics to examine core data. View only the most pertinent information using the new Decomposition Tree.	N/A	N/A	Included
Excel Services	Publish Excel workbooks as interactive reports or dashboards. Create rich business experiences with the new JavaScript Object Model, and use the new REST API to easily embed workbooks in other applications. Reuse content in SharePoint dashboards with the new features of Excel 2010 (including Sparklines and Visual Slicers).	N/A	N/A	Included
Excel Services and PowerPivot for SharePoint	Publish Excel workbooks with PowerPivot as interactive reports and dashboards within SharePoint. Schedule and refresh your PowerPivot-enabled Excel workbooks and use a rich management dashboard to monitor and manage the workbooks across your SharePoint farm.	N/A	N/A	Included
PerformancePoint Services	Access the information you need when you need it with interactive dashboards and scorecards. Easily analyze root causes and make effective decisions by using new features like the Decomposition Tree, visualizations, and improved filtering.	N/A	N/A	Included
Visio Services	Publish Visio 2010 diagrams to SharePoint 2010 to let your people view and refresh diagrams in a browser without opening Visio. Integrate diagrams into other SharePoint applications and develop rich mash-ups.	N/A	N/A	Included
Composites
Browser-based Customizations	Customize pages and Web Parts to create Web sites that meet your specific business needs.	Included	Included	Included
Business Connectivity Services	Work with external data, whether online or offline, in SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010 applications using Business Connectivity Services (BCS, formerly named the Business Data Catalog).	Included	Included	Included
Business Data Connectivity Service	Declaratively model external systems to expose external data in SharePoint 2010. The BDC provides connectivity to various types of external systems, and it has built-in support for connecting to databases, WCF and Web services, Microsoft .NET Framework assemblies, and custom data sources.	Included	Included	Included
Client Object Model (OM)	Use the Client Object Model (OM) to access SharePoint application programming interface (APIs) from remote machines, Silverlight, ECMAScript, and .NET applications.	Included	Included	Included
Developer Dashboard	Monitor and debug SharePoint solutions with the Developer Dashboard. The Developer Dashboard provides diagnostic information, including page request details, memory used, authenticated user, and the number of SPRequest objects.	Included	Included	Included
Event Receivers	Add functionality to actions—including Web and list creation events and site-scoped events—using Events Project Templates in Visual Studio 2010.	Included	Included	Included
External Data Column	Access data from external data sources in existing SharePoint Lists.	Included	Included	Included
External Lists	Read and write data from external systems just as you would SharePoint list data.	Included	Included	Included
Language Integrated Query (LINQ) for SharePoint	Use Language Integrated Query directly in C# or VB.NET code. Language Integrated Query (LINQ) is a new, popular, and strongly-typed data query syntax that provides compile time validation to the SharePoint list schema and a simpler alternative to CAML queries.	Included	Included	Included
REST and ATOM Data Feeds	Easily work with list and Excel data in SharePoint 2010 using ADO.NET Data Services to access REST/ATOM data in a Visual Studio 2010 application.	Included	Included	Included
Ribbon and Dialog Framework	Customize the SharePoint Ribbon with additional context-sensitive ribbons, groups, and items. Create custom dialogs to open on top of Web pages, keeping user context and giving the look of a pop-up window in a non-Web application.	Included	Included	Included
Sandboxed Solutions	Maintain security and manage system performance with Sandbox Solutions. Sandbox Solutions separate code from other processes, improving the security and helping you control resources and prevent performance problems.	Included	Included	Included
SharePoint Designer	Deliver no-code customizations with the new tools in SharePoint Designer, including List and Content Type editors, reusable workflows, XSLT templates, and external content types.	Included	Included	Included
SharePoint Service Architecture	Provision and manage SharePoint services with the new SharePoint Service Architecture, an upgrade from the Shared Service Provider Architecture in SharePoint 2007.	Included	Included	Included
SharePoint Timer Jobs	Run SharePoint timer jobs on a farm and manage and monitor jobs through the farm administration interface.	Included	Included	Included
Silverlight Web Part	Upload Silverlight XAP applications to a document library and use them immediately with the built-in Silverlight Web Part.	Included	Included	Included
Solution Packages	Deploy solutions and features on a SharePoint farm with a WSS Solution Package (WSP).	Included	Included	Included
Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Developer Tools	Create, package, and debug SharePoint solutions with new tools in Visual Studio 2010. Build Web parts, Business Connectivity Services Entities (formerly BDC Entities), and SharePoint solutions with new designers in Visual Studio 2010. Take advantage of integrated support for Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, including source code control and team build capabilities.	Included	Included	Included
Windows 7 Support	Install SharePoint 2010 on Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008 and make SharePoint development more convenient.	Included	Included	Included
Workflow	Automate collaborative processes using tasks and forms. Take advantage of improved workflow runtime features in SharePoint 2010, including management, site workflows, custom local services, event receivers, and reliability.	Included	Included	Included
Workflow Models	Create workflow models in SharePoint Designer 2010 or Visual Studio 2010 and deploy them to SharePoint 2010. Associate workflow models with an item in a SharePoint list, a document in a document library, or directly on a SharePoint site. Workflow actions execute in response to user events, and workflow instances can run long.	Included	Included	Included
Business Connectivity Services Profile Page	View detailed information about an external data item on a Business Connectivity Services Profile Page. This page appears when users drill down into external data in search results, External Lists, and External Data Web Parts.	N/A	Included	Included
Workflow Templates	Use out-of-the-box workflow templates for common tasks like approvals and reviews.	N/A	Included	Included
Access Services	Publish Access databases in SharePoint.	N/A	N/A	Included
Business Data Integration with the Office Client	Interact with external business data directly within the familiar user environment of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft SharePoint Workspace.	N/A	N/A	Included
Business Data Web Parts	Create unique business applications and display information from line-of-business systems using Business Data Web Parts.	N/A	N/A	Included
InfoPath Forms Services	Create rich electronic forms to quickly gather information. Use Microsoft InfoPath to build form-based SharePoint applications and advanced forms that connect to line-of-business systems.	N/A	N/A	Included

If you would like an Excel version of this to do your own filtering and reporting, download from here.

Technorati Tags: SharePoint 2010,Version,Foundation,Server,Comparison,Standard,Enterprise

[1]

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/Pages/Editions-Comparison.aspx

7/31/2011

Canadian SharePoint 2010 Journey Contest

If you are a resident of Canada or represent an organization doing business in Canada, you’re invited to share your unique story on SharePoint 2010 to win the chance of being professionally filmed and showcased on the Canadian site for Microsoft SharePoint.

Winners also get a complimentary conference pass to attend the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2011 in Anaheim, California from October 3-6 2011 (a $1,199 value.)

1^{st prize}	Your story professional filmed, plus a pass to the Microsoft SharePoint conference 2011
2^{nd prize}	One pass to the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2011

Contest Categories

Your story must demonstrate how SharePoint 2010 was used in one of the following 3 categories:

1. Increase productivity: how SharePoint 2010 helped your people to collaborate more effectively.

2. Reduce costs: how the unified infrastructure and integrated features of SharePoint 2010 helped reduce costs for your organization

3. Rapidly respond to business needs: how SharePoint 2010 tools and capabilities helped your organization rapidly meet an important business need with a dynamic and quickly deployed solution

Please note that you can submit to multiple categories, provided each submission is a unique and different SharePoint 2010 solution (i.e., one solution per category).

All submissions must be received by August 22nd, 2011.

7/5/2011

First time Microsoft MVP 2011 Awardee!

I’m happy to announce that I have been designated a Microsoft “Most Valuable Professional" (MVP) for 2011 by Microsoft in the SharePoint category. I’m honored to join the experts in the MVP community and I look forward to continue on with my contributions to the SharePoint community around the world.

You can find my MVP profile here on the MVP web site: https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=4A2E0CE2-808B-44C2-81D4-6B0B6558892B

What is the Microsoft MVP award?

“The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award is an annual award given to outstanding members of Microsoft's technical communities based on contributions made during the previous 12 months to offline and online Microsoft-related technical communities. “

Find more information on the Microsoft MVP program here.

Technorati Tags: SharePoint,MVP

3/30/2011

SharePoint 2010 Records Management Webinar on April 8th

For those of you have missed some of my in-person speaking engagements on Records Management in SharePoint 2010, the organizers of SharePoint Saturday Toronto have been kind enough to put together a series of live webinars, one of which I will be presenting at on April 8th, 2011 at noon EST

In this webinar, we will be reviewing strategies to maximize new SharePoint 2010 technologies to achieve records excellence in your organization. Many new out-of-the-box features have been released that can help enterprise organizations manage their information and compliance.

The new records management functionality available in SharePoint 2010 improves usability, automates records declaration and extends meta management and policy administration. This session will involve live demos on how to configure SharePoint 2010 to solve common Records and Information Management scenarios we run into in corporate world.

For more information on my session, go to the SharePoint Saturday web site to register:

http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/toronto/default.aspx

The sessions that are being presented are listed here:

Session Title	Speaker	Webinar Date
Understanding Metadata	Ruven Gotz	March 25, 2011
The 7 Most Important SharePoint Success Factors	Richard Harbridge	Friday, April 1, 2011
Practical Records Management in SharePoint 2010	Noorez Khamis	Friday, April 8, 2011
SharePoint 2010 as an Extrant Platform	Peter Carson	Friday, April 15, 2011
Building Business Applications using SharePoint 2010	Amit Vasu	Friday, April 22, 2011
Best Practices of Implementing SharePoint Training	Scott Lavoie	Friday, April 29, 2011
Content Aggregation in SharePoint 2010	Christina Wheeler	Friday, May 6, 2011
All About the SharePoint 2010 Ribbon	Shai Petel	Friday, May 13, 2011
Administrator Introduction to Service Applications	Ed Musters	Friday, May 20, 2011

You can also register at the Eventbrite website here:

http://spstoweb-2011.eventbrite.com/?ref=etckt

Technorati Tags: SharePoint 2010,Records Management,Webinar

2/18/2011

SharePoint 2010 Central Administration Resource Links Generator

Ok, so although I love almost everything about SharePoint 2010 relative to SharePoint 2007, one of the things that I don’t really like is the Central Administration home page. I just can never find the links that I constantly use quickly and I don’t find the navigation very user friendly in terms of logically finding what you need. This is probably due to the fact that I am so used to SharePoint 2007 Central Administration.

I know Microsoft has provided a Resources links web part which you can use to manually add the links you constantly use but it’s too bad this wasn’t automatically pre-populated with the Central Administration links you most constantly use or with the most commonly used links throughout the Central Administration.

The links that I constantly use are all of the Service Applications along with a few others like “Manage web applications”, “Manage services on server”, among some others.

So what I have done is created a feature called the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration Resource Links Generator that I think will be useful for all SharePoint 2010 Administrators and consultants who are constantly going through SharePoint installs and those that constantly use Central Administration. It auto generates quick links on your Central Administration home page.

This feature can be configured to:

Automatically populate the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration “Resource” list with all of the links to the service applications on your farm
Automatically populate the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration “Resource” list with links that you configure in the feature yourself

In my Resources list, by default, it adds links to the following (in alphabetical order):

Access Services
Business Data Connectivity Service
Create site collections
Enterprise Search Service Application
Excel Services Application
Manage services on server
Manage web applications
Metadata Service Application
PerformancePoint Service Application
Secure Store Service
User Profile Service Application
Visio Graphics Service
Word Automation Services
WSS Usage Application

If you don’t want to have the feature automatically add all the service application links or you want to customize it to have your own links, you can also do that via configuration.

Summary

The latest release and solution installer files can be downloaded in the downloads section here:

http://sp2010resourcelinks.codeplex.com/releases/view/61240#DownloadId=209357

The source code and deployment files have been uploaded to Codeplex and can be found here: http://sp2010resourcelinks.codeplex.com/.

Please log any issues on Codeplex and please provide feedback there as well. I welcome any feedback for improvements. Also, if you would like to contribute to this Codeplex project, let me know.

Please note that you should use this at your own risk, as it does modify the Central Administration web site collection and as always note my “works on my machine” disclaimer.

Note that the feature is installed as a hidden, site collection level, global feature, so you won’t be able to browse to the site actions –> site settings –> site collection features and activate/deactivate it there, instead you will have to run the Solution Installer tool that I have included in the release or activate/deactivate it using powershell on the Central Administration site collection:

Enable-SPFeature SP2010CAResourceLinkGenerator_ResourceLinks -Url http://server:port

Also note that I have written a deactivation mechanism so that it will remove all the links on feature deactivation or package uninstall if you would like to clean up the resource list of these links that this feature has added.

The installation and configuration instructions are below:

SharePoint 2010 Central Administration Automatic Resources Link Generator

Installation Instructions

1. Download the latest SP2010CAResourceLinkGenerator solution installer zip file from http://sp2010resourcelinks.codeplex.com. Note that I have chosen to use a version of the SharePoint Solution Installer (http://sharepointinstaller.codeplex.com) to make it easier for SharePoint Administrators to deploy

2. Extract the files to your main SharePoint 2010 web application server

3. Run Setup.exe

4. Ignore the one yellow error in the below screen (I have found an unsupported converted version of the Solution Installer to work with SP 2010 and it has some bugs)

5. Choose your Central Administration Site Collection (expand the drop down). Note: if you try to install it to another Site Collection, it will fail.

6. Wait for the job to complete as it will:

a) Add the solution file to your SharePoint farm as a hidden, global feature,

b) Deploy it to your Central Administration Site Collection (deployed as a site level feature because that is all the Solution Installer will support),

c) Automatically activate the site level feature on your Central Administration site

7. To uninstall the feature and solution, just run setup again and go through the wizard.

Note: If you get an the following error during wsp package uninstall, don’t worry:

“This feature can only be installed on the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration web site
System.Exception: This feature can only be installed on the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration web site”

This is because I have a check to ensure that the feature is only activated on the Central Admin site collection. Don’t know why by this solution installer tries to deactivate the feature on all site collections under the web application and the Central Admin help site collection is under the Central Admin main site:

Configuration Instructions

If you don’t want to have the feature automatically add all the service application links or you want to customize it to have your own links, you can also do that in the feature xml.

To disable automatically including all the service application links in the resources list, just set the “Include Service Application Links” flag to false.

For new Central Administration or other links, you just add a new property with the key being the name of the resource link and the value being the actual link:

Now, in order to do this, you probably should download the source code, open it up in Visual Studio.NET 2010, change the file called ResourceLinks.Template.xml and rebuild the wsp solution file

but…..

if this is too much work for you and you don’t have access to Visual Studio or a tool to regenerate the wsp solution file, than I found this nice work around (http://sharepointroot.com/2010/07/07/editing-contents-of-a-wsp-sharepoint/) to edit the ResourceLinks.Template.xml file directly (and create the property resource links you want) and re-create the wsp/cab file by using a tool called IZARC:

The steps involved to update the WSP are as follows:

Rename the WSP to CAB
Extract all contents to a folder – using Windows Explorer, or WinZip, WinRAR, or whatever
Change the items you want, ie. ResourceLinks.Template.xml (in ourcase)
Create a new CAB file with the updated contents, using IZARC
Rename the newly created CAB to WSP
Add to the setup directory and install to SharePoint

Technorati Tags: SharePoint 2010,Central Administration,Feature,Resources List,Quick Links

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I'm a Microsoft MVP and SharePoint Architect who enjoys working with the cutting-edge Microsoft technologies and have been in the industry for more than 13 years.

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