Mohammed Zayed

Switch to Microsoft Live Spaces

2007-12-03T18:31:00.000+03:00

YES I HAVE SWITCHED !!!

DUDE Find me at mohzd.spaces.live.com

:-)

Freedom of Speach, a creative draw

2007-11-25T01:07:00.001+03:00

Microsoft Ships Visual Studio 2008

2007-11-21T02:13:00.001+03:00

Microsoft has released to manufacturing its Visual Studio 2008 software development platform and the accompanying .Net Framework 3.5, meaning these technologies are available for download on MSDN to subscribers today, the company said Monday.

The products will be offered on disk within the next few weeks. Trial subscriptions also are available now. Visual Studio 2008 and .Net Framework 3.5 are accessible on MSDN here.

Among other things, Visual Studio 2008 is Microsoft's development platform geared to building Windows Vista applications. During a recent conference, difficulties with building Vista applications with the existing Visual Studio 2005 platform were cited by an attendee, who was assured that the solution is to upgrade to Visual Studio 2008.

Microsoft is touting Visual Studio 2008 as a platform for professional developers as well as hobbyists and teams.

"I am incredibly proud to be a part of the team that is truly advancing the state of developer tools," said S. "Soma" Somasegar, Microsoft corporate vice president for the company's developer division, in his blog on Monday.

"We hope that Visual Studio 2008 and .Net Framework 3.5 enables you as an individual or as a team to build great applications. Whether you are a professional developer or a software enthusiast, are building applications for the client, server, Web, or devices, we hope you have fun with these products as your software is our passion," Somasegar said.

Microsoft with Visual Studio 2008 is offering enhancements in every edition of the product, including Visual Studio Express for hobbyists and Visual Studio Team System for team-based development. With more than 250 new features, Visual Studio 2008 includes such improvements as visual designers to speed development with .Net Framework 3.5 and upgrades to Web development tools and language enhancements, the company said.

A highlight of particular interest is LINQ (Language Integrated Query), which the company said closes the gap between programming objects and data. Developers can focus on what they need the data to do rather than on how to access it, the company said. Microsoft is positioning LINQ as a technology for rapid application development.

"LINQ is the star," said Greg DeMichillie, lead analyst for application platforms at Directions on Microsoft. LINQ makes it easier to tie together C# or Visual Basic with SQL, he said.

"Everything else in Visual Studio 2008 is useful to some set of developers or another, but LINQ hits the entire spectrum of developers," he said.

Also included in Visual Studio 2008 are advanced development tools and debugging features, Microsoft said. Developers can target multiple versions of the .Net Framework, including versions 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5, and build AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) -enabled Web applications.

Tools are featured to speed development of connected applications on platforms, including the Web, Vista, Office 2007, the SQL Server 2008 database, and Windows Server 2008. Web developers can leverage ASP.Net and other technologies.

New ASP.Net controls allow for better page management and templates. Web development is boosted through new support for Web server communication techniques for AJAX/JSON-enabled Web sites.

.Net Framework 3.5 is intended to enable rapid construction of connected applications; it offers pre-fabricated software for solving common programming tasks. Web 2.0, SOA, and software-and-services applications are supported in version 3.5.

Included in.Net Framework 3.5 are enhancements to the base library, Windows Workflow Foundation; Windows Communication Foundation for Web services; Windows Presentation Foundation for presentation; and Windows CardSpace, for digital identities.

WCF supports native REST (Representational State Transfer) and RSS and backs multiple Web services specifications. These include

Web Services Atomic Transactions 1.1, WS-ReliableMessaging 1.1, WS-SecureConversation, and WS-Coordination 1.1.

Visual Studio Team System 2008, meanwhile, is an application lifecycle management system with tools, processes, and guidance. It supports management of application builds.

Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server (TFS) is a collaboration server for Visual Studio Team System. Featured in the 2008 edition of TFS are: Improved performance and security; support for such configurations as clusters, mirrors, and virtual machines; continuous integration; and scheduled builds. Also highlighted in TFS are version control features, query build improvements, and Web access to version control, work item tracking, and status reports.

Microsoft used TFS to manage this release of Visual Studio 2008. "TFS enables process enactment, collects a lot of data, and enables reporting on it. It provides visibility to everyone and it enables enforcement of certain things," Somasegar said.

But DiMichillie described improvements to TFS as minor. TFS lags behind the competition in areas like testing, he said.

Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition costs US$799 for new buyers and $549 to upgrade from the previous release. Team Foundation Server costs $2,799; upgrades cost $499.

Source Infoworld.com

Technorati Tags: Technorati Tags: VS.NET,.NET FRAMEWORK,TFS,RTM,Microsoft,LINQ

Officially am working at Microsoft Corporation

2007-11-21T00:33:00.001+03:00

After a long wait has a slogan of (Perusing Happiness) .. I just been informed for my Acceptance to work at Microsoft Corporation in Jordan as a Technical Solution Professional (SharePoint) under the rule of my charming man ever Mr. Zeid Shubilat ..

I was setting at Sharif Cafe close to Madinah Circle worried and almost lost thinking about what the result of mine, i got that email from Mr. Kays (Senior Microsoft HR Manager of MENA), and i was standing like i never did, scream of happiness with no pride and ask God forgiveness and thanks. Yes, am there going through a new Challenge proving my capability in building a SharePoint Market, a marvelous SharePoint. Guess who was close to me that moment, yeah he is Ghaith Al-Qurashi my best friend ever who hugged me with happiness going from a deep faithful heart. I just called my family and i heard my spirit and reason of living my mother crying for this success and God knows that she is the one after God who caused this success to happen.

For all my best friends, brothers and sisters who pushed me to the ultimate to be what i am now, THANKS .. THANKS AND A BILLION THANKS FROM THE HEART ... This success will never be mine, but for the whole community of Jordev .. for my best friends (Ayman Farouq, Mohammed Saleh, Muhannad Omar) who supported me and been always the sample of the effective people. For my best brothers and colleagues ever (Mohammed Helal, Odeh Mahmoud, Raafat Sumarin, Ihsan Anabtawi, Mohammed Najdawi, Khaireddin Bushnaq, , Tariq Sartawi, Ahmed Bsiso, Ahmed Khatib). For my all my friends who i forgot to mention many many many thanks.

I duno what to say for my charming Manager Mr. Zeid Shubailat for his kind consideration but this will be private for now :D ..

It's a moment to pray for God help, and then it's time for distributing sweeeeeets all over ... Join my celebration my best lovely people ever .........................

Top 30 websites that are still using Tables as main layout

2007-11-19T10:08:00.001+03:00

http://web2.0flow.com/top-30-popular-websites-that-still-are-using-tables-as-main-layout-structure/

Will SharePoint does use it as main structuring for layout … :S .. yeah yeah don't tell me Why avoiding tables (for layout) is important I already know it !!

Microsoft HR new Site !! What a Creative Design ..

2007-11-18T15:22:00.001+03:00

www.viewmyworld.com

Enable Anonymous in Microsoft SharePoint 2007

2007-11-18T15:16:00.001+03:00

Since more clients are asking me about the same issue, here is the answer below!

Even though Microsoft has done a great job on improving the user interface in SharePoint 2007, some things are still buried and require a little "black magic" to get done. In this entry I'll show you how to enable anonymous access on your site.

First, you need to enable anonymous on the IIS web site (called a Web Application in SharePoint land). This can be done by:

Launching Internet Information Services Manager from the Start -> Administration Tools menu
Select the web site, right click and select Properties
Click on the Directory Security tab
Click on Edit in the Authentication and access control section

Instead we'll do it SharePoint style using the Central Administration section:

First get to your portal. Then under "My Links" look for "Central Administration" and select it.
In the Central Administration site select "Application Management" either in the Quick Launch or across the top tabs
Select "Authentication Providers" in the "Application Security" section
Click on the "Default" zone (or whatever zone you want to enable anonymous access for)
Under "Anonymous Access" click the check box to enable it and click "Save"

NOTE: Make sure the "Web Application" in the menu at the top right is your portal/site and not the admin site.

You can confirm that anonymous access is enabled by going back into the IIS console and checking the Directory Security properties.

Now the second part is to enable anonymous access in the site.

Return to your sites home page and navigate to the site settings page. In MOSS, this is under Site Actions – Site Settings – Modify All Site Settings. In WSS it's under Site Actions – Site Settings.
Under the "Users and Permissions" section click on "Advanced permissions"
On the "Settings" drop down menu (on the toolbar) select "Anonymous Access"
Select the option you want anonymous users to have (full access or documents and lists only)

Now users without logging in will get whatever option you allowed them.

A couple of notes about anonymous access:

You will need to set up the 2nd part for all sites unless you have permission inheritance turned on
If you don't see the "Anonymous Access" menu option in the "Settings" menu, it might not be turned on in Central Admin/IIS. You can manually navigate to "_layouts/setanon.aspx" if you want, but the options will be grayed out if it hasn't been enabled in IIS
You must do both setups to enable anonymous access for users, one in IIS and the other in each site

Hope that helps!

Thanks for http://weblogs.asp.net/bsimser/ for his awesome useful post.

Windows Live Onecare 2.0 released

2007-11-16T18:56:00.001+03:00

Windows Live Onecare 2.0 released. Hurry up for 90 days trial version.

Download Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio 2008

2007-11-13T18:36:00.001+03:00

To download it, head on over to the Windows Live Dev Connect page on Microsoft Connect, go to the download page and download it.

Check out this awesome Article on Live Tools for VS 2008

http://www.liveside.net/blogs/developer/archive/2007/11/07/download-windows-live-tools-for-visual-studio-2008.aspx

Zune v2 print ads (gallery)

2007-11-13T18:33:00.001+03:00

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20071113/zune-v2-print-ad/

Microsoft Announced to Acquire Musiwave

2007-11-13T18:11:00.001+03:00

In a press release issued this morning, Microsoft announced its plans to acquire French mobile music company Musiwave. The company is a leading provider of mobile music entertainment services to operators and media companies. According to the press release:

The acquisition would bring Musiwave's relationships with music labels, device makers and mobile operators that deliver digital entertainment to consumers, together with Microsoft's Connected Entertainment technologies and services, including Windows Mobile, Zune, MSN and Windows Live. Should the transaction proceed, Musiwave would continue to operate out of its current headquarters in Paris.

MusiWave provides the technology behind the new T Mobile Music Jukebox, and provides technology, marketing, and content for mobile operators and music companies.

MOHAMMAED ZAYED’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE SOON

2007-11-03T14:16:00.001+03:00

25 November 2007

SharePoint Backup and Restore Resources

2007-11-03T07:01:00.001+03:00

This downloadable white paper explains how administrators managing small to medium-size deployments can protect and recover data. This paper describes data recovery from the item level to the farm level.

Download this white paper as a Microsoft Office Word document (.doc) file.

Read this paper online at:

Data protection and recovery for Office SharePoint Server in small to medium deployments (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=102839&clcid=0x409)

Web Content Management Links and Resources from Andrew Connell

2007-11-02T20:03:00.001+03:00

http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/MossWcmResources.aspx

WSS 3.0 is not shipped with Box of Windows Server 2008

2007-11-02T19:57:00.001+03:00

I was reading recently some articles about this topic in Technet and Windows Server Blogs and I found this:

http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2007/10/29/windows-server-2008-and-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0-update.aspx

Windows Live Authentication in Your SharePoint Site.

2007-11-02T19:35:00.001+03:00

Check out this new release in the SharePoint Community Kit for SharePoint.

The CKS:WLA is a membership provider that extends the SharePoint user base to include some of the 350+ million users around the world with active Windows Live IDs. It enables an administrator to add Windows Live ID users to a SharePoint site and provides a new "Authenticated Live Users" group that can be added to a SharePoint site via the People and Groups admin page.
This initial version of the CKS:WLA provider has the following features:

Google gPhone Photos, Probably fake photos !!

2007-11-02T15:42:00.001+03:00

First Google gPhone photos, probably fake photos. ;)

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gphone/first-google-gphone-photos-probably-fake-definitely-beat-with-ugly-stick-317306.php

Eye-Fi Adds Wi-Fi to alomost any Digital Camera,

2007-10-31T13:56:00.001+03:00

The Eye-Fi. It's an SD memory card that adds Wi-Fi to any camera. Plus the free Eye-Fi service supports automatic uploads to 20 different web photo sites (like Flickr) as well as a computer on your home network.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/review/eye+fi-adds-wi+fi-to-almost-any-digital-camera-316537.php

SpineBreakers – What an Awesome SharePoint Site :o)

2007-10-30T12:16:00.001+03:00

More and More CREATIVE SharePoint sites: check this out

http://www.spinebreakers.co.u

Any Website Developer, Start Now developing your sites on WSS ;)

Wssdemo.com

2007-10-30T12:11:00.001+03:00

Ian Morrish, another SharePoint Guru, HE IS IN MY TOP FAVOR SharePoint Gurus. … His website http://www.wssdemo.com is the most favorite for Demos /Projects over WSS/MOSS. I will keep demonstrating his awesome through my WSS pre-sales movies.

Simply his website is AWESOME!!!! ..

Regards,

F# (Functional Programming on .NET Board)

2007-10-29T01:17:00.001+03:00

Soma had the news today. F# is an official .NET language now! Functional programming becomes a first citizen in .NET :-)

Soma wrote:

One of the really promising current projects from MSR is the F# programming language, spearheaded by Don Syme. F# stems from the functional programming tradition (hence the 'F') and has strong roots in the ML family of languages, though also draws from C#, LINQ and Haskell. F# is designed from the outset to be a first class citizen on .NET. This means that F# runs on the CLR, embraces object-oriented programming, and has features to ensure a smooth integration with the .NET Framework.

I am a big fan of technology transfer between a research organization and a product development organization so that we can "productize" the great research ideas and deliver to customers in a timely manner. This is one of the best things that has happened at Microsoft ever since we created Microsoft Research over 15 years ago. Here is another great example of technology transfer at work. We will be partnering with Don Syme and others in Microsoft Research to fully integrate the F# language into Visual Studio and continue innovating and evolving F#. In my mind, F# is another first-class programming language on the CLR.

This is really great news! Functional programming is very elegant and has a lot of benefits compared to other approaches. There are also some negative aspects: mostly people complain about the speed that functional languages offer. But the best thing about F# is that the team says that programs written in their language are as fast as programs written in C#.

You get functional and dynamic benefits with the same speed as if they would have been written in C#. Isn't it cool?

Channel 8

Mediaroom Personal Server, available Dec 29

2007-10-29T00:41:00.001+03:00

Microsoft might have just got the Mediaroom party started four months ago, but already dozens of providers around the world are drinking the kool-aid and having a good time. The much anticipated XBOX 360 integration is also crashing in any day now, but Microsoft's got one last party trick, called the "Mediaroom Personal Server".

On the generously detailed Microsoft Support Lifecycle's portal, where it lists the support availability dates for all previous, current and upcoming Microsoft products, features an entry for "Mediaroom Personal Server". The general availability date provided is "12/29/2007″.

Okay, I have to admit, I have no idea what the Mediaroom Personal Server is. But thanks to Microsoft's ingenious naming conventions, you can't be too far off with a guess either. It is definitely a consumer-orientated software or device bundle, much like Windows Home Server, which serves as an aggregator and hub for your Mediaroom devices.

Some of the scenarios I can think of with a 'personal media server' includes letting you rip and store your DVDs for instant access, let you subscribe to vidcasts which it will automatically download and archive, or even just manage all of your scheduled recordings including remote recordings from web access.

So far, there's not even one reference to this product anywhere on Google besides Microsoft's support page. It is definitely not something they've mentioned in passing. However since it'll be available in exactly two months, I'm pretty sure it's being worked on very hard.

Quoted from istartedsomething.com

SharePoint 2009!!!!! Unofficial Statement

2007-10-29T00:29:00.001+03:00

There are reports circulating that the next version of SharePoint dubbed as SharePoint 2009 and MOSS 2009 would have its early adopter and CTP by middle of next year. It is also said that knowledge network is included and seamlessly integrated in SharePoint 2009.

These are still unconfirmed reports, though we would keep tabs on SharePoint 2009 and MOSS 2009 developments.

Source: http://www.techticles.com/

Wine 0.9.48 Released

2007-10-29T00:06:00.001+03:00

http://www.winehq.org/?announce=0.9.48

This is release 0.9.48 of Wine, a free implementation of Windows on Unix.

What's new in this release?

- Still more fixes for regression test failures.

- Much more complete cryptnet implementation.

- WIDL is now able to generate the oleaut32 proxy code.

- Lots of bug fixes.

Military VR Simulator is the closest thing ever for HALO 3

2007-10-29T00:04:00.001+03:00

What an Awesome Virtual Reality

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/military-sim-almost-brings-halo-3-to-reality/military-vr-simulator-is-closest-thing-ever-to-real+life-halo-3-315435.phpm

Awesome Lego Creation

2007-10-28T23:53:00.001+03:00

http://srslycool.com/24.aspx

Running SharePoint Websites in Application Tips for Sys-Admins

2007-10-27T16:45:00.001+03:00

Since I receive a lot of issues with "How many Web Applications can be running in the Same Application Pool ?" .. Here is your answer ..

For who has no previous experience on this, Here are some tips for designing your SharePoint implementation:

Do not run more than 10 Web applications per application pool until you have some performance monitoring experience behind you and you can point to your own numbers, which tell you that your application pools can handle more virtual servers.
Do not plan to run more than 20 Web applications on a single physical server without adding a second Web server (or more) in your farm. The reason for this is because if you're running 20 virtual servers, you've got a growing, busy farm and chances are good that you should scale out before you scale up.
Always purchase servers with 4 GB of RAM to give yourself maximum flexibility in memory allocation for your application pools.
Make each application pool a Web garden with two or three worker processes associated with it. When stsadm.exe runs, it locks one of the threads for its own use. Having other threads available to service calls during backup/restore operations or other scripted operations using stsadm is necessary in most environments. In addition, if a thread becomes very busy, the other threads can pick up the slack.

Source: MS SharePoint Server 2007 Administration Companion Book

What an awesome MS Windows Mobile 6 Website !!!!!

2007-10-27T10:49:00.001+03:00

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/startdoingmore/default.aspx?WT.mc_id=sdmvan

Microsoft to push functional programming into the mainstream with F#

2007-10-27T10:37:00.001+03:00

Check this out:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071023-microsoft-to-push-functional-programming-into-the-mainstream-with-f.html

Even Microsoft doesn’t value Facebook at $15 billion

2007-10-27T09:40:00.001+03:00

I was tracking MS investment in Facebook and I found this awesome article around. The first thing I did when I saw the numbers, is the mouth thing :S

http://www.techsoapbox.com/even-microsoft-doesnt-value-facebook-at-15-billion-use-your-damn-brain/

Watch VE new release on Channel 10

2007-10-27T09:29:00.001+03:00

Watch the new Release of Virtual Earth on 10 ;) ---

http://on10.net/Blogs/laura/new-release-of-virtual-earth/

Btw for people who are interested on Integrating Virtual Earth with facebook don't miss Codeplex VE Maps community kit ;)

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/10/14/announcing-community-kit-for-sharepoint-virtual-earth-maps-on-sharepoint.aspx

Is Windows Live Search coming to Facebook ?

2007-10-27T09:24:00.001+03:00

Check this out: http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2007/10/25/is-live-search-coming-to-facebook.aspx

6 Microsoft® Office Business Applications for Office SharePoint® Server 2007

2007-10-23T21:37:00.001+03:00

The essential guide for implementing Microsoft Office as an application-development platform

Get the practical guide to implementing the Microsoft Office system as an application-development platform. This book highlights the breadth of approaches developers can take for extending line-of-business information to information workers in the familiar, usable format of the Microsoft Office interface. These approaches, Microsoft Office Business Application (OBA) patterns, are based on real-world implementations in many cases. In other cases, they are built on Microsoft Office features that have a generalized solution rooted in input from customers and partners. This reference delivers the seven key Microsoft Office Business Application patterns and provides professional developers with extensible examples and the architectural guidance needed for developing custom enterprise applications and extending business information to users.

RELEASED IN -> 05 DEC 2007, STAY TUNED <= MS Press

Technology Outsourcing in Arab World …

2007-10-22T18:42:00.001+03:00

India is a well-known country in technology outsourcing not only for its inexpensiveness workers but as well the facilities that been provided by Indian Gov which include Infrastructure, Telecommunication, tax pardon and rich investment support escalated from the interest in this sector. I was excited when i heard that Egypt is now moving towards this one but still Taxes, Infrastructure, Investment Facilities, Insurance are key challenges for investors there. China, Philippine is a successful example of Tech. Outsourcing worldwide and Governments there has realized rapid revenue by empowering Technology outsourcing market which represents a high percentage of total incomes. Where is our Arab world from the outsourcing market??? .. i remember the moment when i was speaking about outsourcing in one of events and i targeted the question to Minister of ICT and i remember by heart his awesome answer which has nothing to do with the subject, "We have initiative to give a laptop for each student" he said.

IEE Forms Based Authentication Solution, THANKS A MILLION !!!!

2007-10-21T21:15:00.001+03:00

http://www.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ProjectName=CKS&ReleaseId=7675

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/10/13/announcing-the-community-kit-for-sharepoint-internet-extranet-edition-forms-based-authentication-solution.aspx

The CKS:Internet/Extranet Edition is pleased to announce the first pre-Beta release of its Forms Based Authentication solution. This solution contains the following features:

Automated Solution Deployment - Zac Smith
Membership request webpart (including CAPTCHA) - Paul Ballard
Membership request list - Paul Ballard
Login web part - Paul Ballard
Recover Password web part - Edin Kapic
Change Password web part - Edin Kapic
ULS Logging - Edin Kapic
User Management - Zac Smith
Role Management - Zac Smith
User Properties - Brendon Schwartz

Special Mentions: Stacy Draper for letting us hijack his code and for moral support
How To Use This Solution
1. Setup Forms Based Authentication
While we plan to add administrative features that will make setting up a SharePoint site for FBA much easier, for now you'll need to follow the instructions outlined in Dan Attis' Blog http://devcow.com/blogs/jdattis/archive/2007/02/23/Office_SharePoint_Server_2007_Forms_Based_Authentication_FBA_Walkthrough_Part_1.aspx.
2. Install The FBAManagement Solution File
Unzip FBAManagement.zip onto the file system of the SharePoint server and you will find three files. Deploy/Undeploy command files and the FBAManagement solution file. From the command line enter:
deploy [SharePoint Site URL]

This will install the solution and activate all of the features.
3. Add Webparts to pages
The self registration aspects of this solution include web parts for logging in users, registering new users, requesting a password reset, and allowing a user to change their password. These web parts can be added to any web part page in the site.

User Login
This web part is extremely customizable including changing prompts, error messages, and turning on/off links to registration pages or password change pages. When the user logs in successfully they will see a link under the "Welcome User" control at the top of the page called "My Settings". Click on this will let the user change their SharePoint user settings.

User Registration
This web part is also highly customizable. In addition to the standard CreateUserWizard controls, this registration control adds fields for the First and Last names as well as a CAPTCHA field to avoid programmatic registrations. When a user registers on the site an email will be sent letting them know that their account information has been received and that their membership is pending.

Change Password

This web part will allow the user to modify their password. All prompts and error messages are customizable.

Password Recovery
This web part allows a user to request a password reset by answering the questions they created when the account was registered. This web part also allows modification of all prompts and error messages.

4. Administering Users
New Membership Request
When a user fills out the registration information in the registration web part that information is stored in the Membership Request List. The administrator can then edit the user information by going to Site Settings and under Users and Permissions click on "FBA Membership Request Management". When their status goes from Pending to Approved an email will be sent that will notify the user that they have been approved and will also contain a temporary password for them to use to log into the site. If you deactivate the Membership Request List feature, then all registrants are automatically added to the site and the email goes out immediately.

Modifying a User's Information
The administrator can modify the user information from the Site Settings page by clicking on "FBA User Management". On this page you can add/modify/remove the users. If the roles feature is activated you can also add/delete roles (note: these are FBA roles, not SharePoint roles). When roles are activated the User Management will let you add/remove users from roles instead of groups. The roles feature is not activated by default.

Community Kit for SharePoint: Enhanced Blog Edition reaches feature complete Beta 2 status!

2007-10-21T20:55:00.001+03:00

When the Community Kit for SharePoint 2.0 pre-release was announced almost 4 months ago, the Enhanced Blog Edition stood out due to its innovative XSLT driven Modular Theme Framework (MTF), which enabled EBE themes to be easily packaged up and simply deployed to a folder within a Document Library on an EBE blog site. And the themes can provide a look and feel that is nothing like SharePoint's default!

With this Beta 2 release, the team has added the remaining key features that make the EBE complete in terms of enabling you to make your blog look as smart as you think you are. :-) These features are:

Support for trackbacks.
Category specific RSS feeds -- e.g. appending "?cat=SharePoint" without the quotes to the end of the Feed URL would filter the blog's RSS feed to show only the posts that have been associated with the SharePoint category.
Displaying the categories as a clickable tag cloud. Clicking on a tag would filter the blog's display to show only the posts that have been associated with a category that matches the tag.
Related posts control, which shows posts with the same categories as the one you are looking at.
Dynamic per-post links such as "Digg this".
Compliance with the MetaWeblog API.
Compliance with Feed Validator for the RSS feed.
Spam flagged by Akismet can be configured to be automatically deleted rather than stay in pending status.
Numerous code clean-ups/refactoring and some performance improvements.

The CKS:EBE Beta 2 release is available at https://www.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ProjectName=CKS&ReleaseId=4767. Please provide feedback prefixed with "EBE" via the CKS Issue Tracker (for reproducible bug reports) or the CKS Discussions list (for Q&A and discussions). The EBE team would really appreciate some aggressive testing, especially for usability and robustness, so they can address any showstopper issues prior to finalizing the release within the next month or two.

Source: <Lawrence />

Known issue: Office 2007 on Windows Vista prompts for user credentials when opening documents in a SharePoint 2007 site

2007-10-21T20:49:00.001+03:00

Finally I got an answer for this well known Issue. Thanks SharePoint Team J

We've received several reports of this issue through our Customer Support Services. Although it would be impractical for us to post every known issue or confirmed bug on this blog, I have a strong feeling that this particular problem is much more widespread than has been reported. If you have experienced this problem and can consistently reproduce it, please leave a comment. While we're still investigating a possible long term fix, here are several workarounds for you to try.

Problem Description

With Office 2007 running on Windows Vista, opening an Office document hosted on a SharePoint (i.e. WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007) site results in a prompt for login credentials even if the user is already logged on with an account that has access to the document. Canceling the credential prompt may still (but not always) allow the document to open in read-only mode.

Potential Workarounds

Go to IE7 -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings.

Behavior 1: Clearing all checkboxes on this dialog will cause the credential prompt.
Behavior 2: Automatically detect settings - enabling this option will prevent the prompt if it effectively enables a proxy server and enables bypassing the proxy for local addresses.
Behavior 3: Use a proxy server - enabling a proxy server in conjunction with enabling "Bypass proxy server for local addresses" will prevent the credential prompt.

When the user does not have a proxy in the environment, it's still possible to work around this issue by setting a "fake proxy" and "blanket bypass" as follows in IE7's LAN Settings dialog.

Click the Proxy Server checkbox. Set the address to "fake proxy" without the quotes and the port to 80.
Click the "Bypass proxy server for local addresses" checkbox.
Click Advanced and put an * in the Exceptions list to cause all addresses (including external ones) to be bypassed.

Source <Lawrence />

Microsoft Powers Up Web 2.0 With Innovative Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Partners

2007-10-21T20:41:00.001+03:00

Okay, the press release has just been posted, so please take a quick look at it first. Essentially, we've announced two very significant product releases from NewsGator and Atlassian as follows:

NewsGator Social Sites (on SharePoint)
Atlassian SharePoint Connector for Confluence

Several of us in the SharePoint product group have been busily working over the past few months with these two companies to ensure that their SharePoint integration features are useful, compelling, and straightforward to deploy for SharePoint customers. I hope that you will agree, but if not, please do let us know by leaving comments here. We look forward to doing much more with NewsGator and Atlassian as well as a handful of other partners in the next year to bring the best of Web 2.0 capabilities to the enterprise via a unified SharePoint user experience. The integrated functionality that NewsGator and Atlassian have been able to develop in a relatively short period of time provides further validation of the extensibility and interoperability of the SharePoint platform.

Source <Lawrence />

SECURITY PACK MS07-59 released for MOSS 2007

2007-10-16T11:39:00.001+03:00

Just thought you should know about this. It is an important update to improve the security of your SharePoint system: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS07-059.mspx

It fixes a vulnerability that would allow someone to gain elevated privileges within a SharePoint site. Note this will not affect the server or the user's PC, just the rights they have in the site they have access to. Still, security is always preventative not reactive, so you should get it.

Enhances CQWP on CODEPLEX

2007-10-12T17:57:00.001+03:00

The Content Query Web Part (or CQWP) in MOSS 2007 is one of the most often used components on SharePoint-based Internet facing content publishing web sites and intranet information portals. This introductory post on how to configure and customize the CQWP was one of the most widely read and commented entries on the ECM Team Blog. While the MSDN how-to article and several other people's blog entries provide more details on how to customize and override some of the CQWP's features, Ishai Sagi, a SharePoint MVP, has gone above and beyond all that by developing an enhanced version of the CQWP and posting it along with source code on CodePlex at http://www.codeplex.com/ECQWP. The enhanced version includes features such as context menus for the items, toolbar for lists, and much more that you can read about from the release log.

Ishai is ready to wrap up the development of the ECQWP and move on to something else, but he would like to get a few more testers to make sure that it's rock solid. So, if you're a frequent user of the CQWP, please try out Ishai's ECQWP and give him some feedback -- good or bad. Thanks!

Post Source >> <Lawrence />

Important Security Hotfix for WSS

2007-10-12T17:54:00.001+03:00

Please Install New Security Hotfix MS07-059

We will be releasing a security hotfix for Windows SharePoint Services MS07-059 on October 9th. Be sure to note that as Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is included with all editions of Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, and Performance Point Server as well as any others which include WSS 3.0 you need to apply this hotfix on those environments as well.

We recommend applying this hotfix during your next planned downtime, or change management window and scheduling this with priority. This hotfix contains previously released hotfixes including the DST (Daylight Savings Time) hotfix.

First, if you have deployed "host named site collections" previously known as "host header" sites you should wait to apply the hotfix if you have more than 50 host named site collections. We will be issuing a performance related fix related to the hotfix. This hotfix will include the same hotfixes as the October 9 public update in addition to the host named site collection update performance related hotfix. You need not wait if this does not apply.

The most important thing as the title suggests is this hotfix addresses a security vulnerability in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 that could allow cross-site scripting. This update resolves this vulnerability. Please read the entire contents of the KB article before applying the hotfix as there are a number of known issues which should be well understood.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942017

934525 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934525/) Description of the security update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: October 9, 2007
937832 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937832/) Description of the security update for SharePoint Server 2007: October 9, 2007

To view the complete security bulletin, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms07-059.mspx

How to deploy software updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

We recommend that you follow the process and procedures in the Deploy software updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 topic for most deployment scenarios, from stand-alone server deployments to very large server farms.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/WSS/en/library/91649a7e-6b5a-4e5a-9ee5-51951f4b857f1033.mspx

If you are running Office SharePoint Server you may find additional guidance in the article Deploy software updates for Office SharePoint Server 2007.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/f484f5f2-35bb-4d70-bf56-dd1c4c287c721033.mspx

Other relevant recent posts:

Hotfixes, Service packs, and password resets

Daylight Savings Time Hotfix post

MS to Acquire Parlano

2007-10-11T16:01:00.001+03:00

How Parlano (Now Microsoft) MindAlign Technology will empower Office Communications Server ?!!!

Stay Tuned ..

Transfer Visions into Realities..

2007-10-09T20:33:00.001+03:00

How many times we try hard to unleash our creativity in building our economic, environment and executing every tiny idea that supports THE CHANGE and break the boundaries between us. It's our vision, having our Arab world on the common worth port. Now it's the moment for change, wither we be or not, Now or NEVER.

Every one of us has own vision and indeed his own way in translating his/her thoughts into actions. Effective Plans and Project Management is a key success for any improvement. I believe in the quote "Every person is a King/Queen in his/her Job". I'm burning to death when i navigate the web and watch countries other than Arab is moving forward a thousand miles compared to our Arab progress. Well, WE ARE LEADERS of Tomorrow. No more whine. No more slow down the process. It's the moment to employ our superior efforts in building our Arab.

Visions will remain visions with no plans. There is no limit for creativity and we need to KICK OUT anything says "It's not possible" unless we didn't hit the wall. If you have a vision, protect it, pursuit in making it a real, and U will inshallah DO IT.

"Solidarity is not a matter of sentiment but a fact, cold and impassive as the granite foundations of a skyscraper. If the basic elements, identity of interest, clarity of vision, honesty of intent, and oneness of purpose, or any of these is lacking, all sentimental pleas for solidarity, and all other efforts to achieve it will be barren of results", Eugene V. Debs Said.

This is not enthusiasm; this is the heart of our OPERATIONS.

Regards,
Mohammed Zayed

MS HealthVault Beta Release: Health Information Platform for your Family

2007-10-06T04:14:00.001+03:00

Yesterday, Microsoft launched HealthVault, a health-information platform and service online. If you can get your head around the fact this is provided by the same company who makes a computer operating system and game console, read on.

Currently in beta, just like your GP, HealthVault offers three online services as part of the health-information management strategy: HealthVault Search, HealthVault Account and HealthVault Connection Center. HealthVault Search is an overhaul of the recently available Live Search Health tool. The latter two work together, unified by a Windows Live ID to form a platform to upload and store and interpret personal health data.

HealthVault Search is a search engine specifically tuned to return only health-related web results through a variety of trusted and credible sources, including notably Wikipedia articles where available.

LiveSide has already uncovered Live Search Health a few days ago and HealthVault Search is pretty much identical to that, except a minor cosmetic change - to a vibrant and reassuring green theme. The search interface and search results are presented in a neat three-column layout with articles in the left, websites in the middle and sponsored results on the right. Relevant topics are also suggested at the top of the results leading to deeper or broader understanding of the medical conditions.

HealthVault Account is an extension of your Windows Live ID account (required) to store and share personal health information. A HealthVault account will then allow you to store search results in a scrapbook, store personal information, upload or fax in health records, manage family records, collect data from devices on your PC, share health data with websites, applications and doctors, record prescriptions history, and store imaging or lab results.

With any health information comes the issue of privacy, and Microsoft isn't taking any chances. In fact when you first sign into HealthVault Account, it will likely ask you to change your Live ID password to a much stronger password before you can use the account.

The third part is a desktop client called HealthVault Connection Center, used to upload health data and view medical analysis from those data. Its interface has a strong resemblance to Live OneCare, the desktop security software, which I thought was an interesting connection.

You can download device drivers for your medical devices such as heart-rate monitors and blood analyzers so they can upload data directly into HealthVault, which then can be uploaded to your account from the same interface.

You can also download applications made by a variety of partners who can then (with your authorization) analyze your health data and present useful medical analysis back to you with all the pretty bar graphs and charts that either show you how healthy, or unhealthy you are.

MOSS Deployment Plan

2007-10-06T04:10:00.001+03:00

Ever wished you just had a sample project plan that you could then modify for your own use? I'm sure this comes up on occasion.

Announcing the Office SharePoint Server Deployment Plan sample (MOSS Deployment.mpp) build using Microsoft Project.

The more you become familiar with SharePoint Server, the more likely you'll notice that there are a mirad or a plethora of ways to deploy. This really is intended to be a sample that you modify and use as a starter. There are over 300 items in the project with the idea of sparking ideas and in an attempt to be inclusive. I welcome feedback and encourage people to use this and make it their own. Thanks Ascentium for allowing me to bounce this project plan off your deployment teams.

Quoted from Joel Oleson Blog

When my eyes drop a tear ...

2007-10-03T20:06:00.000+03:00

Quran Explorer based on AJAX and ASP.NET

2007-10-02T13:35:00.001+03:00

Try this pretty awesome Website http://www.quranexplorer.com/quran/

I like it … Simply it's magnificent.

FIKR 6 CONFERENCE

2007-10-02T13:34:00.001+03:00

My participation in FIKR 6 Conference has been confirmed (1-3 December 2007, Bahrain). I will fly to Beirut for Youth Brainstorming session in 20 Oct 2007 held at Le Royal Hotel. Through my participation I will present my Proposals at the following (Technology R&D (Technology), Outsourcing in ME (Economy), University that adopt HyperGeniuses (Responsibility and Education)).

Am really passionate to participate for this one and am pretty sure it's going to be one of a kind. Million Thanks for Arab Thought Foundation for their valuable efforts in making this possible.

For more info http://www.arabstrategies.org/En/

Schedule MOSS 2007 Backup and Restore Operations

2007-09-30T10:44:00.001+03:00

This is an awesome Article on how to schedule to your Daily MOSS Backups using task scheduler. Articles include snapshots, scripts and valuable tips for doing this job.

http://www.sharepointbeagle.com/2007-09/AdminCorner/MOSS_2007_Backup_And_Restore.aspx

The Pursuit of Happiness

2007-09-28T14:29:00.000+03:00

Hey, Don't ever let somebody tell you "you can't do somthing" not even me .. alright .. YOU got a DREAM you have to protect it .. people can do something them selves but they will tell you can't do it .. You wanna something go get it ...

MS PROJECT GOTHAM RACING 4

2007-09-27T02:13:00.001+03:00

See this awesome AD for this game ;)

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20070924/project-gotham-skid-art/

Gosh i like XBOX 360 ads :)

Deploy Software Updated for WSS/MOSS

2007-09-27T02:10:00.001+03:00

Installing update (hotfixes, public updates, service packs) for WSS and MOSS can be a challenging tasks. Especially as a rollback in case that a problem occurs can be very expensive as it requires the restore of a backup as uninstall of hotfixes or service packs is not possible.

To help administrators plan such a task Microsoft has now published specific documentation:

Sizing and Configurable Tool by HP

2007-09-27T02:05:00.001+03:00

Quoted from MS Sharepoint Products and Technologies TEAM Blog

The HP ProLiant Sizer for Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 is a downloadable tool (includes update notification) that assists the user in selecting the optimum HP ProLiant Server, HP BladeSystem and HP Storage configuration for collaboration and document management environments based on user requirements. The tool solicits data or uses built-in defaults to determine the optimum solution, based on the Office SharePoint Server 2007 best-practice configurations and supported growth paths.

The zip contains an executable. Run that and answer a few questions about where to install the tool. The install procedure will first install the SharePoint 2007 sizer, and then the (required) StorageWorks (SAN) sizer which allows the MOSS sizer to generate detailed storage solutions. Once installed, run the SharePoint sizer - that's it.

The sizer includes quick configuration and allows you to do "what if" scenarios. This release includes support for the DL, p-class, c-class, storage, and the latest dual and quad core servers!

Would love to hear your feedback on this tool. Thanks HP, especially Jimi Ibbett from the HP Engineering team for such a useful tool to help customers with their deployments!

You can download this free tool by going to the SharePoint Active Answers page on the right hand side under Sizers and clicking on "Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Sizing and Configuration Tool" and logging in. (You will need to create a free account if you haven't.)

http://www.hp.com/solutions/activeanswers/sharepoint

Don’t Try at Excel 850 * 77.1 since am still not sure of the result yet :S

2007-09-27T01:52:00.001+03:00

While I was reading my subscribed RSS feeds I found this discussion:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.excel/browse_thread/thread/2bcad1a1a4861879/2f8806d5400dfe22?hl=en

I will update you with Microsoft Answer soon I get it.

Containment Hierarchy for MOSS

2007-09-27T01:37:00.000+03:00

Hotfixes , Service Packs and Password Reset for MOSS

2007-09-27T01:25:00.001+03:00

Quoted from Joel Blog

Some great content has recently been pushed out to TechNet and in the KBs. While we haven't announced the timing for SP1, you may have heard some customers have been beta testing it and internal testing that's been going on. There was also a post on the team blog around the DST fix with updates to the time tables which impact most of the world.

TechNet Articles related to updates (hotfixes and service packs)

Deploy software updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Deploy software updates for Office SharePoint Server 2007

Check for Updates

Microsoft Update (also known as Windows Update) - This will check core Microsoft products including Windows, .NET Framework, etc...

Office Update - Check to see if you need any updates. Note this works with Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 servers to check for Office SharePoint Server and SharePoint Portal Server updates as well as Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Team Services Updates.

"The Office Update service is maintained to support previous versions of Microsoft Office and for compatibility with older operating systems. Microsoft Windows Vista users can now get all Office XP, Office 2003, and 2007 Office system updates via the Microsoft Update service. For Windows Vista users using Office 2000, you can manually download updates from Downloads on Office Online." Vista itself has a special page for updates. You will be redirected there automatically.

Latest Hotfix/Rollup

Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB941422) (includes latest hotfixes, including the DST (daylight savings time zones) The XML file will allow it to be much more easily managed and changed if necessary for future time zone changes.) Note: This applies to MOSS 2007 standard and enterprise editions as well.

KB 888253 How to configure time zone information in Windows SharePoint Services by modifying the Timezone.xml file

KB 941422 Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Hotfix package: August 24, 2007

This package includes the following:

Fix to address a problem with Timer Jobs failing to run in the US daylight saving time (DST) change window beginning October 28th, KB 938663.
Non-DST related fixes for volume shadow copy writer service, KB 935605.
A fix to address database creation failures after Internal Database Engine SP 2 is applied to Basic installations.
Other top support issue fixes including KB 937038 where configuring Inherit Permissions causes HTTP 500 - Internal server error.
A primary fix for 941422 expands the capabilities of SharePoint such that TZMOVE can address future Time Zone changes in SharePoint timezone.xml for US or international Time Zones, KB 939809.

Some may ask what happens if there is a critical hotfix for WSS? Since it is in Windows it would be available via Windows Update. If the server was set to auto update it would be auto applied. For this reason I would recommend being notified when an update was available in a smaller shop that isn't tracking these, but in no circumstances would I recommend auto applying the hotfixes. There are just too many chances that the box would want to reboot and when it came back up, all the services may not come back online, not as a result of the hotfix, but some environments require an F1 to initialize a disk array or various things like this. I have applied hotfixes and service packs in the past that installed some of the binaries but as a result of something being in use, it was not able to be fully applied until after the reboot which then didn't get a chance to apply changes to the database. Most hotfixes maybe even all won't make changes to the schema, and may simply be binary updates. Service packs and some hotfixes may need to increment the version in the config and content databases or other databases and having the database listed version different than the binary versions can cause problems.

One of the more common requests I've seen around downtime and trying to recover is related to passwords. Either someone who built out the farm and used their account left the company, or someone lost the password and everyone is afraid for the SharePoint environment... you get the picture. Password resets is much, much easier in this version. I think you'd be suprised how many times you find out that something went bad a while back and only resetting the services exposes it. Here's an excellent KB with usage on the commands with examples for resetting the service accounts, crawl accounts, db connection passwords, etc...

How to Change Service Accounts and Passwords in MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0 KB 934383 (September 21, 2007)

Note the above steps include changing it once in on one server via the command line and leveraging timer jobs to change it across the farm. Be sure to verify. Very cool. It also includes syntax for changing passwords on the SSP, and search/content access account.

Live Folder Share

2007-09-27T00:52:00.001+03:00

Windows Live FolderShare is a great, easy way to keep your files synced between multiple devices. With FolderShare, you create a private peer-to-peer network that syncs your files and lets you share them with colleges and friends. You no longer need to worry whether your files, photos, or videos are on your home PC, your laptop, or your work computer. FolderShare keeps them all in sync, letting you access them from any computer set up with FolderShare or any web browser - even the browser on your mobile device! Files can be up to 2 GB in size, there are no limits on the quantity or size of files transferred, and all file formats are supported.

The software's sharing feature is an easy way to send others large files - no more trying to zip files to get them through email, burning to CD/DVD, or uploading to a website. To use FolderShare, you must download and install the FolderShare Satellite - the software that is installed on the device(s) you want to sync or share files with. This software runs in the background and automatically updates your files on the other connected devices. The software, part of Windows Live Services, works on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or OSX and it's completely free! FolderShare can be downloaded here.

CERTEON, S-Series for MOSS 2007

2007-09-26T23:43:00.001+03:00

I was reading about CERTEON through Microsoft SharePoint Performance discussions until I found what S-Series Accelerator is doing in order to enhance MOSS performance and optimize data transaction process and speed.

Read this pdf http://www.certeon.com/marcom/click_counter.asp?Deliverable=5

Quoted from Sheet:

Certeon S-Series™ are network devices that

accelerate the document flow between centralized

Microsoft® Office™ System applications such as

Word®, Excel®, PowerPoint®, InfoPath®, and Publisher®

and SharePoint® server farms by minimizing network

traffic, decreasing packet turn around times, and

reducing application chattiness. The result is a

breakthrough in response time and scalability

performance levels.

Certeon's Application Acceleration Blueprints™

enable high acceleration through an understanding

of underlying protocols, data object differences,

and Microsoft® Office™ System features such as

the XML-based file formats for PowerPoint, Word,

and Excel. The Application Acceleration Blueprints™

deploy data object differencing through an Object

Differencing Engine (ODE), which accurately identifies

prior views of these data objects.The greater the

accuracy of identification, the more efficient the differencing,

and therefore the better the acceleration.

Furthermore, SharePoint® employs different techniques

to pass arguments and data objects between

the server and each Office® application. With its

application fluency, Certeon's S-Series™ understands

how these elements are used and thus can make a

more accurate identification of these data objects.

Customers will be able to utilize these new upgrades

to 2007 Microsoft® Office™ System and Microsoft®

SharePoint® Products and Technologies without

sacrificing application performance over a WAN.

2007 MICROSOFT® OFFICE™ SYSTEM

AND MOSS SUPPORT

Certeon's S-Series™ accelerates the full range of

protocols and file system formats employed by the

2007 Microsoft® Office™ System and Microsoft Office

SharePoint Server (MOSS). Certeon's Application

Acceleration Blueprints™ securely accelerate access

to the new Office™ Open XML documents (including

.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) and dynamically generated MOSS

Web pages.

In Jordan, Beat is one of Certeon's certified partners who provide a full range of deployment for MS Partners and Customers who uses SharePoint, K2.NET and other office system applications. I met Mr. Muhab (Beat CEO) who has emphasized the productivity and customer feedback satisfaction for this awesome accelerator for MOSS.

I'm reading Tolly Group Test case, upon results I will recommend S-Series for partners and customers who runs MOSS on different branches or different remote front-ends.

Microsoft Fires Volley At Google in Ad Battle

2007-09-26T23:26:00.001+03:00

This is a rich article to read, "Microsoft Seeks Facebook Stake"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119065193646437586.html

MOSS Technical Articles

2007-09-23T12:34:00.001+03:00

How to Create a SharePoint Server 2007 Custom Master Page and Page Layouts for a Web Content Management Site
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727372.aspx

How to Optimize a SharePoint Server 2007 Web Content Management Site for Performance
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727371.aspx

MOSS Workflow Issue

2007-09-23T12:08:00.001+03:00

Quoted from http://www.sharepointblogs.com/llowevad/archive/2007/09/21/huge-workflow-issue-what-is-microsoft-thinking.aspx

In every presentation with clients about MS Workflow , they asked me the same question, What is the time for Workflow to stay active on Docs or Lists ? .. The fact is I don't have no answer unless to avoid by it handles long running workflow states. I'm afraid to convince them with 60 day number since I believe myself 60 day is not enough. Below one of the argues about the same issue.

" There is a problem with the workflow in MOSS. For some reason Microsoft decided that they need to purge the workflow associations after they are 60 days old. This means that when you looks at the workflow history for an item you will not see workflow history older than 60 days. The information about the workflow is still in the tasks and workflow history lists, but the association between the workflow and the item has been purged from the database. I know of some people who have already contacted Microsoft about this problem and created support cases for it. The answer they keep getting is that it is by design for performance reasons. What about auditing reasons Microsoft, don't you think this will be a huge issue for enterprise clients?

My question is how many clients out there are using this for important business processes thinking their audits will be covered? If you are a Microsoft support customer and are using workflow for important business process that will be audited. PLEASE CALL THEM AND COMPLAIN!!! The only way it seems that Microsoft will move on this is if they get a large enough response from the community. Obviously a couple large enterprise companies (50,000+ employees) aren't enough to concern them.

Below are some details of the issue and some correspondence with Microsoft support...

Document losing their "approval workflow details" after 60 days.
Workflow details still on site, but no longer associated to respective documents.
Issue identified by Microsoft and not listed as a bug as originally told – this expiration of 60 days is something that was done purposely - "by-design".
MS provided code that will allow us to extend the document/workflow history relationship past 60 days. (code needs to run everyday to change new associations)
Testing has not been done by Microsoft for the provided solution.

Here is a list of findings and concerns on this situation:

FINDING - A table that contains associations between workflow details and documents contain this expiration date of 60 days.
FINDING - This field can be changed, on a site basis, to a maximum of 9999 days – 27 years or so… at least according to Microsoft (untested as of yet).
PROBLEM – If code works successfully, it will have to be ran constantly. This must be done as new workflows are completed on documents or risk losing the associations after 60 days.
PROBLEM – This impacts all sites in a content database as they will all use this association table. I foresee a problem with maintaining separate expiration times for different sites. This will now become the responsibility of the operations group to maintain, based the respective customer. If it doesn't retain this permanently or semi-permanently, then this should be a setting that is configurable at a site or library level, providing the customer the ability to set the expiration period.
CONCERN – From audit perspective, Sarbanes or other, this is totally unacceptable. NO WARNING to indicate that critical detailed information will be disassociated with its counterpart document after 60 days. Unwary users could be audited 12 months after a document went thru a workflow approval and be none the wiser that their document actually was approved and their workflow history was "cleaned" 10 months earlier…
CONCERN – One of the biggest selling points for MOSS was the ability to have enhanced workflow on your documents. Almost any company is going to be negatively impacted by this "feature". Not only financial or healthcare companies, but any financial department within a company is going to be impacted if they use this feature in MOSS. I can't question the DOD5015 compliance as I do not know if proof of approval history is a requirement. If it is, it certainly is not DOD5015 compliant. "

CAML.NET DOCUMENTATION IS NOW AVALIABLE

2007-09-23T11:50:00.001+03:00

The CAML.NET .NET framework documentation is now available online in the same format used for the MSDN docs at http://www.johnholliday.net/camldotnet . This documentation set describes all of the CAML.NET .NET static methods as well as the ICamlQuery Read More......(read more)

Microsoft Secure Content Downloader

2007-09-23T11:34:00.001+03:00

Recently, Microsoft released a new downloading technology that sounds very similar to bittorrent. The technology, called Microsoft Secure Content Downloader (MSCD), is touted as "a peer-assisted download manager" that's capable of securely downloading specific files. MSCD is intended for consumers who are downloading from a home PC or business users whose computers are not behind a corporate firewall. The main feature of the technology is its peer-assisted nature. Each client downloads content by exchanging parts of the file they're interested in with other clients, in addition to downloading parts from a content server. This makes MSCD sound like a hybrid of peer-to-peer and server-based downloading, which would allow for greater performance without having to worry whether or not enough people are currently sharing the file you need.

Another feature of this new technology is the secure content description, meaning that it ensures that the content you download is exactly what the publisher created. MSCD is currently a Community Technology Preview, and will only allow you to obtain Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2. A Community Technology Preview means that information related to MSCD's performance and network transactions, including your machine name and IP addresses, may be logged to help evaluate and improve MSCD performance.

Switcher

2007-09-23T11:32:00.001+03:00

Switcher is free utility for Windows Vista (running Aero) that lets you arrange the windows on your screen in different ways. The default view is the "tile view," which arranges the windows so that you can see all of them, even across multiple monitors. Another view, called the "dock view" magnifies one window and arranges the rest along the side. There is also a grid view, which is a good one to use if you are also going to use the number shortcuts for the windows (the first 9 windows can be activated by pressing the respective number on the keyboard).

Your desktop can be treated as a window, too. In this new version of Switcher, the windows now have a customizable background color, border, and a label which can display any of the following: the filename of the application, window icon, the number shortcut, the memory used in megabytes, the process name and the window title. Other new features include filters to help you narrow down the windows that appear, the ability to close windows during a session, smoother animations, and additional keyboard shortcuts. To learn more about Switcher, check out Bao's Blog. To download the program, visit the Switcher website here.

Foxit PDF IFilter

2007-09-23T11:28:00.001+03:00

The Foxit PDF IFilter is "designed to help users to index a large amount of PDF documents & then quickly find text within these documents." Whether files, email attachments or database records, Foxit PDF IFilter helps you find the text you are looking for. The tools supports the following Microsoft products: Windows Indexing Service, MSN Desktop Search, Internet Information Server, SharePoint Portal Server, Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), Site Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server and all other products based on Microsoft Search technology. If you download this to use with Vista's built-in search, you will need to rebuild the search index. To do this, open the Indexing Options dialog box from Control Panel, click the Advanced button, and then click "Rebuild." Thanks to Ed Bott's blog for this great tip!

10 HALO 3 LINKS

2007-09-23T11:27:00.001+03:00

The highly anticipated Halo 3 release happens Monday at midnight. Here are a few cool Halo 3 links to get you more excited (if that is even possible) until you can play the blockbuster game:

1. First of all, if you haven't checked out the Halo 3 site, stop what you are doing, and go see it. Right now! The site, using Silverlight technology, is so cool that you don't even have to be a rabid Halo fanboy to appreciate it. Here, you can take a 360 degree tour of the Halo 3 world, taking custom screenshots along the way. The screenshots can then be used as wallpaper, posted to your blog or website.
2. If you're an XBox Live Silver member, visit the Best Buy website, where they are offering 3 days of free online gameplay using XBox Live Gold. You also might win a Pontiac G6 GXP with a custom Halo 3 paint job.
Get some sweet Halo 3 action figures.
Visit the Windows Mobile website to pick up some free Halo ringtones and wallpapers for your phone.
Get a Halo 3 edition Zune. Besides having killer custom graphics & packaging, the Halo 3 Zune comes loaded with music, artwork, trailers, and videos from Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3 as well as an exclusive episode of Red vs. Blue.
Watch a live action short film based on the Halo franchise over on MSN.
Stock up on Halo 3 Dew to fuel those first few days and nights where you will be calling in...cough..."sick" to work.
XBox 360 Halo Edition. Yeah.
Grab a Halo Covenant replica weapon or laser tag rifle.
Pick up a Halo fan suit for the win (if you have a spare $20k.)

MS BIZTALK SERVER R2 RTM IS OUT !!!!

2007-09-23T11:26:00.001+03:00

You can find the download link on Technet

Cheers,

Service Pack 3 for Sharepoint 2003

2007-09-19T14:29:00.001+03:00

Here are the links to the downloads:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=AB086D48-1148-48DE-B4EC-A6298367E5F0&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2BBFC89B-EB59-49FF-B58F-684693CB25A7

Live 2.0 Snapshot !! More Tabs and More Simple

2007-09-16T02:59:00.000+03:00

Robert Scoble , Almost 5000 Friends – Community Maniac with no Doubt

2007-09-15T21:23:00.001+03:00

Hey this guy is amazing ……..

Have you heard of Robert Scoble's Friends .. He has more than 4987 .. I knew about his number of friends through <Lawrence /> . Gosh Amazing Number Scoble :S. Dude why I find you every where, you've been in Channel 9 , now at Podtech and i like your Scoble Show. You are the community guy Scoby.

Hey wanna know more about this Technology Maniac then check his awesome blog scobleizer.com

Watch him out http://www.facebook.com/friends.php?id=501319654

Will MS Become Facebook for the Enterprise ?

2007-09-14T17:24:00.001+03:00

Quoted: <Lawrence /> Blog

This article with the same title has been making its rounds during the past 24 hours within the SharePoint community and has generated quite a bit of excitement because it highlights the planned deployment of a MOSS 2007-based social networking service over the next several months to about 110,000 employees of Wachovia, the 4th largest bank in the U.S.

We will be posting a series of blog entries very soon about how SharePoint Server 2007 can provide a significant portion of the answer to the question above. We will describe in detail how Microsoft is already using MOSS 2007 to enable Facebook like social networking functionality within our intranet, and what non-technical issues such as privacy, security, multilanguage, and diverse cultures had to be resolved. We will also disclose at the appropriate time how SharePoint vNext will provide the bulk of the answer to the "Facebook for the enterprise" question plus so much more from the perspective of Social Computing for Business.

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about how Web 2.0 applications for the enterprise can be built with today's Microsoft products and technologies such as Silverlight, ASP.NET AJAX, SharePoint, and Windows Communication Foundation, you should sign up for Microsoft ArcREADY "Web 2.0 and Beyond" sessions being presented at multiple cities.

LINQ IN JAVA – This time for real

2007-09-14T16:52:00.001+03:00

"It's called Quaere (no idea what the name means), and it looks to be extremely similar in design to LINQ. However, it doesn't have the built in language syntactic sugar. What I find funny, is a response to this blog post suggests there's a "similar" library here: http://josql.sourceforge.net/. Yeah, that's similar all right. It parses strings, so doesn't have any of the type safety or intellisense support. So, once again, there are way too many developers out there who don't "get" LINQ."

Quoted: Channel 9

Online Banking with CardSpace

2007-09-14T16:50:00.001+03:00

This demo shows how Windows CardSpace can be used for online banking, providing a more secure and streamlined experience for users (no username and password, strong authentication and phishing repellent).

The Wachovia website is built using Corillian's Voyager platform which includes support for information cards. Cards are issued by the bank to its users and the user authenticates via the card and an Arcot Systems' software-based smart card.

The demo was originally shown at the RSA Conference 2007.

http://channel9.msdn.com/Screencasts/341692_InfoCardOnlineBanking.wmv

VS 2008 CTP is coming !!

2007-09-14T15:51:00.001+03:00

A new CTP of VS 2008 to be shipped this weekend, Stay tuned ?

The Ultimate Steal

2007-09-13T18:31:00.001+03:00

Start teaching Students how to have legal copies.

http://www.theultimatesteal.com/home.asp

SharePoint Events Manager

2007-09-12T16:22:00.001+03:00

Project Description
Events Manager is a Feature for SharePoint that allows administrators to manage events attached to their site's lists and document libraries directly using their browser.

More http://www.codeplex.com/speventsmanager

SharePoint Inspector

2007-09-12T16:21:00.001+03:00

http://www.codeplex.com/spi

SharePoint Inspector is a free tool to browse your SharePoint 2007 farm.

When I talk about SharePoint 2007, I mean Windows SharePoint Services v3 (WSS v3) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS).

Its main purpose is to help SharePoint developer
You can see objects composing its structure, get their properties by reflection, which can be very useful when you want to check if your code does what it should do.
You can use also some advanced features like activate/deactivate SharePoint features, add/remove event receivers, manage your recycle bin.

Requirements

Framework .NET 2.0
Windows SharePoint Services v3
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (optionnal)

Versions

Version 1.0.0.0

Displays SharePoint objects with reflection on their properties :

Farm
Servers
Services
Feature Definitions
Solutions
Databases
Web Applications
Site collections
Websites
Content Types
Site Columns
Features
Lists
Associated Workflows
Event Receivers
Recycle Bin
...

Actions :

Activate / Deactivate feature
Add / remove event receiver on list and content type
Manage Recycle bin

Accessibility Kit for SharePoint or AKS

2007-09-12T16:11:00.001+03:00

Background

About a month ago on July 31st, HiSoftware issued a press release, announcing an agreement with Microsoft to develop the Accessibility Kit for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. The kit will provide templates, master pages, controls and Web parts along with technical documentation to advance the accessibility of MOSS based web sites and applications for people with disabilities, especially those who are vision impaired. All of the source code will be provided via the Microsoft Permissive License and will be available on CodePlex and/or another (more accessible) web site later this year for customers and other Microsoft partners to download, reuse, and extend. This e-mail provides more details about the announcement.

Overview

Microsoft has hired HiSoftware as a vendor to develop the Accessibility Kit for MOSS 2007, also known as Accessibility Kit for SharePoint or AKS. The decision was made primary based on HiSoftware's in-depth expertise and broad industry experience in providing tools and services for improving accessibility to the point of compliance with various standards and beyond. The contractual Statement of Work calls for HiSoftware to deliver a kit that can significantly reduce the time, knowledge, and effort required to implement a SharePoint-based web site that conforms to the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints, which are collectively known as WCAG 1.0 AA. The AKS can also be used to address the exceptions that have been identified in the U.S. government's Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act's Voluntary Product Accessibility Template or VPAT documents for MOSS 2007. While most of our customers find the improvements in accessibility (more info at Office Online) over previous versions of SharePoint to be adequate for their needs, a growing number has asked us to provide even more.

Approach

The AKS is being developed as a set of building blocks rather than an end-to-end solution. We expect many SharePoint partners to take various pieces of the kit and integrate them into their respective product or service offerings while some customers will integrate particular components of the kit into their deployment processes. Furthermore, HiSoftware and Microsoft will jointly establish and nurture a community of SharePoint site designers and developers that's focused on accessibility advancement and standards compliance.

To ensure optimal prioritization and completeness of features and documentation, the AKS project team is planning to work with a small group of partners and customers in a private beta program that will kick off within the next couple of weeks. If you are very seriously interested, please contact Dana Simberkoff, VP of Business Development at HiSoftware, but be forewarned that the acceptance criteria will be quite stringent due to the aggressive timeline of the deliverables described below.

Deliverables

These deliverables were established based on customer and partner feedback that we've received thus far and are prioritized based on the scenarios that would impact the most end users of a MOSS-based web site down to the least.

Milestone 1: AKS 1.0 Private Beta – ETA September 17, 2007
This initial milestone will provide a testable version of the kit that focuses on the web content publishing and authoring scenarios for Internet facing web sites as well as intranet portals.
Milestone 2: AKS 1.0 Release to Web – ETA October 29, 2007
This milestone will provide a production ready version of the kit that can be used in the implementation of live MOSS based web sites or portals.
Milestone 3: AKS 1.5 Update – ETA December 17, 2007
This milestone will provide accessibility improvements for advanced web content authoring and team collaboration scenarios.

Conclusion

The Microsoft product teams for Windows SharePoint Services, Office SharePoint Server, and Office SharePoint Designer are committed to improving accessibility and enabling everyone to utilize the power of SharePoint. More details about the AKS will be forthcoming as the project progresses over the next few months. In the meantime, if you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns about accessibility, please post them in the SharePoint - Accessibility forum.

Quoted: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sharepointteamblog/~3/152684971/pre-announcing-the-accessibility-kit-for-sharepoint-aks.aspx

Playing around w/PopFly and Facebook

2007-09-11T17:13:00.001+03:00

http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2007/07/27/playing-around-w-popfly-and-facebook.aspx

New Web Development Features in Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2

2007-09-11T17:02:00.001+03:00

http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2007/07/30/orcas-beta2-what-s-new-in-web-tools-upgrading-from-beta1-gotchas.aspx

ASP.NET enhancements in VS2008 and .NET FX3.5

2007-09-11T16:57:00.001+03:00

Quoted http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/default.aspx

"Today, let me talk about enhancements to ASP.NET that you will see with Visual Studio 2008 and .NET FX 3.5.

Earlier this year, we
introduced the
ASP.NET AJAX Extensions which is available
as an add-on for Visual Studio 2005 and .NET Framework 2.0.

With the release of Visual Studio 2008, these AJAX extensions have become an integral part of the product.
While we have kept the runtime extremely compatible, we have also added customer requested features such as enabling many of the new controls to work inside an UpdatePanel (TreeView, Menu and WebParts) and enhanced support for client side Javascript localization. On the tooling side, we have made some major investments in JavaScript Intellisense, type inferencing, and new control extenders design time that you can
read here.

One of the most exciting new technologies in VS2008
is LINQ.
To complement this, ASP.NET ships a new control, LinqDataSource to support LINQ scenarios in web applications. Essentially, this LinqDataSource control allows a declarative way to use LINQ by using the data source control design pattern that was introduced in VS2005. With the added designer support, it is very easy for developers to databind against LINQ expressions.

Another interesting control is the ListView control. This new data bound control is designed to provide great formatting flexibility with CSS
to website designers. With improved support for CSS in VS2008, the control allows developers to write cleaner HTML by separating markup from styling. This flexibility also allows displaying data in interesting ways. For example, ListView supports a 'tiled' layout where each cell of the grid contains a row from the table. Support for such scenarios is valuable in a variety of scenarios, such as the online product catalogs.
From a data binding and events perspective, ListView should seem very familiar to ASP.NET developers.

A separate server control, the DataPager control, is the ideal companion to ListView and allows navigation through pagination. Thus the ListView and DataPager go hand in hand in providing complete customization of the layout.

ASP.NET builds on the investments made in the Application Services - Membership, Roles and Profiles - in.NET Framework 2.0. In VS 2008, we expose these APIs as web services with both JSON and SOAP endpoints. The JSON endpoint caters to the AJAX scenarios, where as the SOAP endpoint caters to any
SOAP 1.1 compliant clients such as WPF or WinForms applications, as well as applications written with any other framework. The feature allows clients to
leverage the ASP.NET Application services and share a common membership, utilize role management features, and manage user profiles across a number of presentation tiers. It also enables developers to conveniently maintain roaming user states.

In summary, ASP.NET is shipping new features with VS 2008 and .NET FX 3.5 that will enable building rich web applications faster."

Silverlight 1.0 is out

2007-09-11T14:07:00.001+03:00

Silverlight 1.0 officially released …. What you are waiting for … SILVERLIGHT IS Out ..

http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/install.aspx

MAC and Windows users can run Silverlight now. Linux users are in progress.

SilverLight is Rocks!

For Developers: Try Silverlight Extensions for VS.NET 2008 Beta ;) and still you can utilize Alpha Eddition for Expression Blend.

Regards,

Got 15 minutes? Give Ruby a shot right now!

2007-09-11T01:13:00.001+03:00

Ruby is a programming language from Japan (available at ruby-lang.org) which is revolutionizing the web. The beauty of Ruby is found in its balance between simplicity and power.

http://tryruby.hobix.com/

It basically running through Ajax and extensive JS manipulation. Its Interpreter is highly intelligent but at the end of the day it's a command line (Console) activated on web, no GUI to mention herein yet.

Hey Mr. Web Gamer , Gleemax is coming.

2007-09-11T00:45:00.001+03:00

Gleemax.com will be the home for gamers on the web – a combination of social networking, on-line gaming and game related content. This site will be for everyone. Whether you play RPGs, TCGs, board games, turn-based strategy games, miniature war games, or almost any type of tabletop/hobby game, you will find a home here.

The Gleemax site is not available yet. This is just an informational site and placeholder for the future Gleemax site. Gleemax team has already previewed what the public Alpha version will look like here.

Read the press release, media coverage, and Randy's blog for the most current information.

In the meantime, stay tuned to the site as we roll out this project. Gleemax.com team will keep you informed of all the new developments as fast as they can.

DonnyBrook: Real Massively Multi-Player shooter Gamer

2007-09-11T00:26:00.001+03:00

DonnyBrook is a project that Microsoft Research is working on to make games more epic. Imagine playing an FPS with hundreds of other players- not just 8 or 16. "How can that be possible?", you must be asking! "There would be so much LAG!", you must be saying! Well - Microsoft employs some pretty smart people who truly care about improving the gaming experience. Watch this clip and learn how they did it.

http://on10.net/Blogs/laura/donnybrook-real-massively-multi-player-shooter-gaming/

Windows Live Translator .. Beta

2007-09-11T00:12:00.000+03:00

beta for the Windows Live Translator is now available. On the surface, it may look a lot like Altavista's Babelfish, or Google Translate, but there are some interesting features born out of Microsoft Research that are new to online translation. Try out the Bilingual Viewer by putting in the URL www.expert.ru and choosing "Russian-English". You'll see an interesting side-by-side comparision between the original and the translated page and some controls to change views at the top. One of these controls will translate only the text you mouse over, or show the original text on mouse hover, which is very convenient for those who aren't completely fluent and just need a helping hand in the translation.

Sinitic languages, or ones that use ideographic writing systems can be incredibly hard to translate. As a test I compared the Chinese version of Wacom's Bamboo product page in Live's Translator to Google Translate, see for yourself:

Live: Bamboo has displayed the pen input function which well Windows the Vista operating system, Office 2007 and in Mac OS strengthen. It unified closely with these system's in pen input function, has provided digital ink tools and so on pen or glimmer light pen, easy on documents, electronic forms and demonstration slide prominent demonstration and increase digit annotation; Even may in the demonstration process for the slide increase annotation, cause the demonstration process to have interactive and the vitality; May also use the hand-written text, the signature, the schematic diagram and the doodle entrusts with the personalized characteristic for the email content.

Google: Bamboo good play Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Mac OS enhanced pen input function. With these systems in close connection with the pen input function, providing pens or ink Yingguangbi and other digital tools, easy in the document, spreadsheet and presentation slides and added that the figures highlight the Notes; Even in the course of the presentation slides add notes to demonstrate the process more interactive and lively and ; can also use handwritten text, signatures and graffiti for the draft e-mail content to the personalization features.

Microsoft products roadmap for FY08 and beyond

2007-09-11T00:02:00.000+03:00

Oh boy, a Microsoft roadmap, haven’t seen one of these in a while. This is extracted from Steve Ballmer’s Powerpoint presentation at Microsoft Show and Tell (Financial Analyst Meeting) 2007 yesterday. I’m surprised Mary Jo Foley or Todd Bishop haven’t picked this up earlier. I’ve noted some of my items of interest with a red asterisk.

This above information contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. If you make investments based on this information alone, you are an ass. Please remove yourself from the stock market immediately.

Billionaires List, Where am I?

2007-09-10T10:45:00.001+03:00

Today I was walking through the Billionaires List. I was navigating their achievements. I have seen Bell gates (MSFT) , Paul Allen (MSFT) , Steve Jobs (Apple) , Steve Ballmer (MSFT) , Michael Dell (Dell Inc.) , Lary Ellison (Oracle) , Segery Brin (Google) , Larry Page (Google) , Pierre Omidyar (Ebay) , Hasso Plattner (SAP) , Eric Schmidt (SUN , Novell , Google ) , Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com) , David Filo (Yahoo) , Jerry Yang (Yahoo).

The first question been in my mind is not "Why I'm not there" , But "What they did and still doing for being craved out there" .. I slept in their history profile for hours. I realized that somewhere there was a beginning. They made a change, a real huge change as a group or as individuals. Lookout for an example Omidyar , This guy is brilliant. I like his online services. I like his civil social and his path in unleashing passion for achievement, he made a change and he got results, a huge turnover results.

What about Me? …….. I'm spending tons of hours on technology but in the end of the day am executing my boss tasks, no shares nor appreciation. What about Me? …. It's time to act through reaching that list. It is not for being in luxury life, and it's not a necessity as much as A NATURE OF MINE.

Am expecting "Enshallah" to find in the next three years a valuable friend of mine his name is "Saad Samarah" on that list. This amazing Business guy is going with an innovative e-commerce idea that will explode with huge number of online trading services. I wished if I could be in his technology team, he gave me everything I asked for but unfortunately I couldn't change my track of technology for certain reasons related to my stay at Jordan.

Now I would switch my time in blogging to extensive time for writing business plan and my idea software design... For me, my legend has begun. For the world, a New Era of Technology Investment is coming. Stay Tuned.

The new 7 Wonders Panaorama

2007-09-09T20:25:00.001+03:00

Watch out this awesome link -> http://www.panoramas.dk/7-wonders/

Amazing J … After this link don't tell me ever you haven't been there :P

Tamim Barghothy – Another Prince of Poets

2007-09-09T20:08:00.001+03:00

من أجمل ما قال ومن أعذب ما كتب ... تميم البرغوثي طيب الله ثرى البطن اللي حملك ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAA5xjvXDC4&mode=related&search

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GGP89OhAaU

http://elshare3-seyasa.blogspot.com/2006/07/blog-post.html

http://semsemafavoritepoems.blogspot.com/2005/08/blog-post_25.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dvzk97tcOY&mode=related&search

Zain (Fastlink) Website is MOSS 2007 Version

2007-09-09T18:19:00.000+03:00

Know What ?????

ZAIN.COM (Formely known as Fastlink) IS BASED ON MS SHAREPOINT 2007

Just check out their new Web Features (Blogs, Articels, Document Management, Search, .. ) --> It's MOSS 2007.

MS Dynamics GP Overview

2007-09-09T17:52:00.001+03:00

Interesting to know more about new MS Dynamics GP Workflow Feature.

Here you go ..
http://cid-6d367e7630e177ec.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Shared%20Files/Workflow-GP10.zip

File provides a comprehensive overview about MS Workflow Foundation in MS Dynamics GP 10.0

Enjoy !

CRM and Sharepoint

2007-09-01T12:48:00.001+03:00

Quoted from SPSFaq

"CRM and SharePoint will be converging more and more, they have a great deal in common in that they track information in real time around people and business processes. CRM is about tracking people more, and SharePoint information, but I think they could eventually become the same think, with CRM built on the SharePoint platform. CRM 4.0, codenamed Titan is being built now, and it will be available in the 1st quarter of 2008. MS will also be making it available via SaaS, in other words software as a service.

This means you will pay per user and MS will host it. This will lead to better profit margins for MS, once the setup costs of the huge server farms is covered. For the companies it will mean faster setup, deployment and cheaper ongoing costs. And they will have all the failover, backup and capacity they could want. It will alsomean no more incomprehensible licencing. If you want CRM it will just be 100 employees = $50 per month. This is the future of software my friends, soon most software will be sold this way. Don't say I didn't warn you :-)

Here are some useful links:

Integration of CRM and SharePoint announced:
http://rehmangul.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/ms-crm-and-sharepoint-2007-integration/

How to configure a CRM Web Part in MOSS 2007:
http://blog.sonomapartners.com/2007/08/microsoft-crm-w.html

Here is a useful blog on the subject full of useful information:
http://sharepointsix.blogspot.com/

Note also that the next version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM will be offered via the web, or SaaS as MS is calling it: Software as a Service.
http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid11_gci1198320,00.html

And here are those TechEd presentations, look at the Dustin Miller one it is good fun!
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/teched07.aspx?tab=overview

Enjoy!"

Extend Sharepoint Features

2007-09-01T12:46:00.001+03:00

See This Link:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/08/28/more-useful-and-free-sharepoint-features-available-at-http-www-codeplex-com-features.aspx

Regards,

Mohammed Zayed

Building Workflow in Sharepoint

2007-09-01T12:20:00.001+03:00

I made a "Building Workflows in Sharepoint" Community night in Jordev.net. It was awesome attended by 52 persons.

To find the "Workflow in Sharepoint " presentation Visit this Link:

http://cid-6d367e7630e177ec.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Jordev%20CN%20-%20Building%20Workflows%20in%20MOSS/

It's my pleasure to contribute in empowering my community relationship at all the .NET Clubs User Groups in the Area.

Workflow in MSS with Mohammed Zayed

2007-08-28T11:55:00.000+03:00

MS Expression "Think Expression"

2007-08-28T03:37:00.001+03:00

For MS Expression interests,

Now be part of "Think Expression" Community.

http://thinkexpression.com/

The website includes resources and articles that support Microsoft Expression Suite. It's one of a kind designed by Abdul Rahman Zaza supported with Samer Chidiac , I like expression for its powerful deign, media engine. Expression has empowered WPF through MS Expression Blend and many were asking if Blend will replace Cider the codename for WPF Visual Tools in VS 2008 but the answer were Expression was build to separate the development Environment from Design Environment which means that Layout is fully separated from Event-Handling and Backend code.

With Silverlight Alpha Release, expression web is playing a main rule in building this Rich User experience web applications. I still believe that Expression needs more enhancements and testing yet.

Microsoft launches Tafiti - Search and Silverlight experiment

2007-08-28T03:07:00.001+03:00

Tafiti, an experimental demonstration site that combines Live Search with Silverlight has just been launched. It's described as follows:

Tafiti, which means "do research" in Swahili, is an experimental search front-end from Microsoft, designed to help people use the Web for research projects that span multiple search queries and sessions by helping visualize, store, and share research results. Tafiti uses both Microsoft Silverlight and Live Search to explore the intersection of richer experiences on the Web and the increasing specialization of search.

Search results are presented in the central column, with the right hand "shelf" available to save result you are interested in via drag and drop. The carousel on the left hand side allows you to cycle through the search results you wish to view (Web, Images, RSS etc) and these too can be saved if you wish. The results you have favourited can then be shared via Windows Live Spaces.

http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2007/08/21/microsoft-launches-tafiti-search-and-silverlight-experiment.aspx

SharePoint Server 2007 SDK: Software Development Kit

2007-08-28T02:42:00.001+03:00

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6d94e307-67d9-41ac-b2d6-0074d6286fa9&displaylang=en

AUGUST 22, 2007

Overview

The Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 SDK is designed for solution providers, independent software vendors, value-added resellers, and other developers to learn about the new Office SharePoint Server 2007 enterprise application and platform. It features conceptual and "How to" articles, sample code, and programming references.

What's New in this Release for the MOSS SDK

Installation enhancements: You now have a choice of installation location when you're installing the SDK. Browse to your preferred folder during setup. The default installation path for MOSS is C:\Program Files\2007 Office System Developer Resources\.
Start menu navigation: This release features a new Start menu shortcut for quick access to documentation (compiled HTML Help, or CHM for short) files and the Welcome Guide (ReadMe.htm), which is a landing page with links to all the tools and samples. In Windows Server 2003, click Start, Programs, 2007 Microsoft Office System Developer Resources, Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK to open: MOSS 2007 Technical Articles and Visual How-Tos, Office Forms Server SDK Documentation, Office SharePoint Server SDK Documentation, Welcome Guide, Windows SharePoint Services SDK Documentation. In Windows Vista, click the Windows Vista Start button, All Programs, 2007 Microsoft Office System Developer Resources, Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK to open: MOSS 2007 Technical Articles and Visual How-Tos, Office Forms Server SDK Documentation, Office SharePoint Server SDK Documentation, Welcome Guide, Windows SharePoint Services SDK Documentation.
Offline experience improvements: All of the technical articles, visual how-to articles, and book excerpts are now packaged—plus the Excel Services and Excel 2007 Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 Job Submission Developer Guide—into one searchable CHM file. Browse offline for content published on MSDN out-of-band with the SDK. (Known issue: Several links in the MOSSSDK_TechArticles.chm and WSSSDK_TechArticles.chm do not work in a strictly offline scenario. Also, WMV file screencasts or downloads associated with articles are not packaged in the CHM, to keep the download size manageable. Workaround: Browse to the content on MSDN online; for ease-of-use, the CHM file TOC is the same as the MSDN Library TOC.
New tools and samples included with the MOSS SDK: Developer tools and samples for the following areas of MOSS development (new items in bold):

Full details can be found in the Welcome Guide of the SDK, accessible through the Start menu or button.

The download file OfficeServerSDK.exe provided for the SharePoint Server 2007 SDK contains the following:

Compiled HTML Help files (updated with new content since RTM), OSSSDK2007.chm and WSS3sdk.chm, which contain conceptual topics, Class Library and Web Service References for SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
Updates to the MOSS SDK conceptual topics include:
Updates to the MOSS SDK Class Library and Web Service Reference include:
Code samples that relate to topics in the SDK: Business Data Catalog metadata samples, Custom Single Sign-On Provider, SampleWebService, and Custom Filter Web Parts. The sample projects use Microsoft Visual C# and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
Updates to the MOSS SDK code samples include:
- Microsoft Business Data Catalog Definition Editor tool
- Protocol Handler Sample
Enterprise Content Management Starter Kit.

Also included in the SharePoint Server 2007 SDK, the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Starter Kit
Designed for solution providers, independent software vendors, value-added resellers, and other developers to learn about how to extend the new ECM features and platform in Office SharePoint Server 2007. It contains the following:

White Papers

2007 Office System Digital Signatures Developers Guide
2007 Office System Encryption Developers Guide
Information Rights Management - Pluggable Rights Management, Technical Overview
Importing Custom Actions into SharePoint Designer
Workflow Security Topics

Code Samples

Content Processing
- Term Replacement Document Inspector Module
- Document Converters (server-side custom property remover, docm-to-docx converter)
Records Management and Policy
Workflow
Note: The following workflow samples are meant to demonstrate concepts and provide a starting point for extension. They are not the same workflows that are included with Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Visual Studio Project Templates for SharePoint Server 2007 workflow

SharePoint Server Sequential Workflow Library
SharePoint Server State Machine Workflow Library

MOSS HAS Achieved US$800 million mark for revenue

2007-08-28T02:34:00.001+03:00

Wow! What a fantastic year for SharePoint products and technologies! For those of you who haven't seen the news yet, we just announced that SharePoint Server passed the US$800 million mark for revenue for Microsoft's previous fiscal year (FY07) that ended on June 30th. In fact, SharePoint Server is the fastest growing server products in Microsoft's history.

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/07/30/thank-you-for-a-banner-year-for-sharepoint.aspx