Monday, December 29, 2008

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) in Visual Studio 2008

Hi All,

A wonderful series of webcasts for managing application lifecycle in VS 2008, this series contains 4 webcasts each cover one role in SDLC activities.

If you are familiar with VS team system 2005, this series covers a little bit new features which shipped with VS 2008.

If you are not familiar with VS2005 or VS 2008 Team suite capabilities, then these webcasts are really a MUST good start to you.

The best is to watch all of them, but if you are playing a specific role in the application lifecycle, you can jump to the specific role which you play in your company as I will describe below.

Web cast 1: covers Business analyst and project manager roles
Including: Tasks, Different Reports, Code churn Report, bugs report, Qos(Quality of Service) document and Requirements, Persona, MSF and CMMI methodologies.
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/detail/webcastdetails.aspx?seriesid=127&webcastid=5404

Webcast 2: covers Architect role
Including: Application designer, system designer, logical data center designer & Top-Down Design
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/detail/webcastdetails.aspx?seriesid=127&webcastid=5405

Webcast 3: covers Developer role
Including: code analysis, code analysis configuration and code matrix.
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/detail/webcastdetails.aspx?seriesid=127&webcastid=5406

Webcast 4: covers Tester role
Including: Load, Unit, Manual, Web, Generic and Orders tests in VS 2008http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/detail/webcastdetails.aspx?seriesid=127&webcastid=5407


Happy New Year for all and Happy New Hijri Year for all muslims.

See you all next year since this is the last post for this year 2008 :)




Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Thursday, December 25, 2008

super & base keywords in Java and C#

Hi folks,

Nowadays i'm doing some programming in java,and since all of you know each of these languages are close to each other, I was implementing a class diagram i have done it on class designer in VS 2008.

I had the following inheritance case : a parent class called Publication and a dervied class called Book from publication.

I want in this post to highlight the difference to call the parent class from the derived class in java vs. C#,this is very useful for C# developers if they are reading any java code or vice versa.

If you try to implement the following: the derived class constructor is calling the parent class constructor the code in java and C# will be as follows:

// Java Code :

public class Publication
{
public Publication(String title)
{
this.title=title;
}
}
public class Book extends Publication
{
public Book(String title,String ISBN)
{
//super means the constructor of book will pass title to the publication constructor (Parent).
super(title);
this.ISBN=ISBN;
}
}


// C# Code :

public class Book
{
public Book(string title, string issueNo) : base(title)
{ // base means the title parameter will be passed to the parent class constructor.
this.issueNo = issueNo;
}
}

base and super keywords in c# and java are doing the same functionality by calling the parent class constructor in this case.

base and super used to refer to the parent class in general.


Hope this tip be useful.



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Monday, December 22, 2008

Get Started with SharePoint Development...

Hi All,

For .Net Experienced developers a good resource to start SharePoint Development,here is the link :

http://www.microsoft.com/click/SharePointDeveloper/

Also, ebook for free "Getting Started with Sharepoint" ,Download link:

http://windowsitpro.com/eBooks/index.cfm?ebid=eeac7d33-c9bb-4059-a0ad-480799e93512&fuseaction=ebook


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Saturday, December 06, 2008

New useful tool to prepare your web server or development machine

Hi All,

We used when we want to install any software for our web servers or any of our development machine is to read alot of KBs article how to install .Net Framewort 3.5,SQL 2005 express edition...etc. and it was a long process you have to have your DVDs or download it from your partnet account website,then start your software installtion process.

Microsoft has released a new wonderful tool,to prepare all required software for installations on your machine,it shows you all available SW based on your machine OS and architecture (32 or 64bit ) and make it available on a list.

The new tool called "Web platform installer",and you can download it from the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebPlatformInstaller.aspx

This tool should be used by .net web developers who prepare their web server or system admins.

The tool has alot of sensitive tools and updates,the person who use it should be aware about the tools and the conflict that might happen.

I have used it and it's pretty easy and fast :).



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Write arabic even if you don't have arabic keyboard !!

Hi All,

I had a problem few days ago,I was working on a laptop with English Only characters and i can't write arabic character because i can't memorize the location of arabic keys.

One of my friends sent me a very good site which you can write your word in english and it will be converted to Arabic word representation,then you can (copy) take this word and search on Live.come with it for example.

I want to get this word written in arabic : Shahr,write it on this site it will be converted to : شهر



Wonderful site url :
http://www.yamli.com/editor/ar/




Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Friday, November 21, 2008

Test the performance of you web pages

Hi All,

For all web developers to measure the performance of your web pages,now MS has released new tool to visualize analyze the performance of your roundtrip in your webpages called VRTA.

download link :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=119F3477-DCED-41E3-A0E7-D8B5CAE893A3&displaylang=en


This is not a substitute for the tests that you can do it with VS team system testing tools such as : load test.

hope this helps.


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

What's behind XBAP web pages ?

Hi Folks,

If you visit one of the sites and you find an interactive website pages with xbap extensions ( such as : home.xbap) those files are .net pages with WPF browser template project available in .Net 3.5.

Don't think its a silverlight pages or any other technology has been used,it's pure WPF browser project in .net 3.5,and all created pages take xbap extension,those files have the power of .net framework in your browser,it's tested on IE and FireFox,I have test it also on the last version of Firefox 3.0.4,it works fine.

If you would like to see a sample of simple interactive page using WPF browser application,here it is :

http://www.hanselman.com/clickonce/takethree/WpfBrowserApplication1.xbap

If you are familiar with ClickOnce Deployment in Windows Applications in .Net,it's the same but on your browser :).

It's really a great step in the web development by using the full power of .Net functionality and deployment mechanism on your favorite web browser.


If you want the sample code for the posted sample,it is here :

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/FirefoxWPFAndXBAP.aspx

Happy .Netting...



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Different Languages Interface for VS 2008

Hi All,

MS has released a new tool since that all developers all over the globe can see the translation of VS Interface in different languages other than english Interface (CLIP).

This is one announcement,the other one which is interesting,that i have participated in this product 1 year ago and i'm very happy to see it in place and all MVPs efforts are presented in one of the most favourable products for all .Net developers.

One Question will come which language did I support in the VS Dictionary : Sure It's Arabic Translations for VS.


Tool download link :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4E5258D2-52F4-46B8-8B74-DA2DBEC7C2F7&displaylang=en


Happy time with VS IDE.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Friday, November 07, 2008

jQuery ? New easy life for web developers

Hi All,

For all web developers,new library which ease your life to write javascript code and it is also integrated with VS.Net IDE. if you have your asp.net application or Ajax enables asp.net application you can now download an integrate jQuery with your existing web application or website.

jQuery gives you a great advantage of manipulating your html elements by providing an API selector with the intellisense in VS.Net.

Read more and the download link of jQuery Library :
http://jquery.com/

How to integrate jQuery in your asp.net application:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/jQuerytoshipwithASPNETMVCandVisualStudio.aspx

Scott Gu announcing the jQuery integration with VS.Net :
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/09/28/jquery-and-microsoft.aspx

Happy .Net programming :)







Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Download SharePoint 2007 VPC Now

Hi All,

If you are looking to work or evaluate SharePoint 2007 for training or development purposes,here's the full download for SharePoint 2007 VPC Files:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=67f93dcb-ada8-4db5-a47b-df17e14b2c74&DisplayLang=en

Thanks Microsoft :)

If you are one of who like to create their VPC manually, here's a great post for this :

http://www.pptspaces.com/sharepointreporterblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=28


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

PDC 2008 Videos

Hi All,

Best link to view a categorized videos of PDC 2008 Event :

http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Integrate your SQL Reporting Services Reports in MOSS 2007

Hi Folks,

Out of the box add-on for MOSS 2007 which you can deploy your Sql Reporting Services Reports in MOSS 2007 Sites,Download the Add-on now and you can add Report Viewer webpart and integrate your created reports inside SharePoint Sites ,Download Link :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1e53f882-0c16-4847-b331-132274ae8c84&displaylang=en

Note: This build working only with SQL 2005 SP2

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Friday, October 31, 2008

Friday, October 24, 2008

WOW... Get Started with SQL 2008

Hi Folks,


New Site has been published for New MS Product SQL 2008, if you are developer,IT Professional or want to know about the product for fun,Get started with this site :

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/experience/html/Default.aspx?loc=en



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Next MS Event @ Gulf - Register Now !

Hi All,

"IT Evolution 08" Event is the new MS Event will be around on November 2008 at all Gulf Cities, Register Now and Book your seat in any city in Gulf.

Registration site :

http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/gulf/ITEvolution/IT_Times/default.htm



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Friday, October 17, 2008

Silverlight 2.0 SDK is now available

Hi Folks,

Silverlight SDK is a very useful resource for developers to get started with Silverlight Development.


Silverlight 2.0 SDK is now available for download,get it from here :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8d933343-038f-499c-986c-c3c7e87a60b3&displaylang=en

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Thursday, September 25, 2008

New Book : How To Program C#

Hi All,

New Book has been released "Visual C# 2008 How To Program " Book,This book is an excellent book for beginners and students to get to know all technologies out of the box shipped with VS .Net 2008 including asp.net 3.5,LINQ,WCF,PF,WF and more.

You Can purchase this book from Amazon.com and InformIT.com Sites.



















Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Today Tip : Difference between Asynchronous & Asynchronous Postback in AJAX

Hi Folks,

Today i want to share with you some important tips for asp.net AJAX development,if you are developing an ajax website,sure you are using Synch. and Asynch postbacks in your page,what i want to share with you are the following tips:

1) Asp.Net AJAX executes only 1 Asynchronous postback at a time,which means if you have 2 buttons doing asynch. postback the ajax will execute one action at a time.
2) The difference between Synch and Asynch postback is major,in Synch postback the ajax is renedering the whole page for any postback which is not required usally if you have multiple update panel in your page.
3) In Asych postback the Ajax only render the panel which cause the postback,for example,if you have 3 update panels,and one of them cause postback ,the only update panel which contains the button will be rendered.
4) you can manage Synch or Asynch Postback in your page using an AJAX Class called PageRequestManager,sample code :

Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance().abortPostBack();



Hope this tips are helpful in your ajax programming.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Customer Guidance for Implementing SharePoint Solutions

Hi Folks,

New Project hs been created on CodePlex Site to Guide Customer How to implement Solutions on Top of SharePoint 2007,This Guide is very good step for SW Architects and Leads how to design SharePoint Solutions....Hope will be useful.

It's not even in Alpha,it's on Draft Version,Check it out :
http://www.codeplex.com/spg

Be in touch with this project on CodePlex Web Site.


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Sunday, August 03, 2008

In Deep MOSS Crawling Articles

Hi All,

SharePoint Product Group has launched set of useful articles about crawling in MOSS 2007,detials mentioned below :

1) Creating an Enterprise Search Crawl Log Viewer for SharePoint Server 2007 :
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/crawllogviewersample

2) Using Enterprsie Filters in MOSS 2007 :
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc751808.aspx

3) Creating an Enterprise Search Crawl Log Viewer for SharePoint Server 2007:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc751807.aspx

Happy Times with MOSS :)

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Open Browser in Outlook in VS Add-Ins

Hi ,

I got a question from one of my friends,he's creating an Outlook Add-In and he wants to open a specific website inside outlook.

To do so,simply create a new project Outlook 2007 Add-In,and paste below couple of lines of code,this will open a url inside your outlook.

C# Code :

Office.CommandBarComboBox webControl1 =
(Office.CommandBarComboBox)this.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.FindControl(26, 1740, missing, missing);webControl1.Text = "http://moustafa-arafa.blogspot.com";


This code will be used on your Button Click event or any other event handler as per your requirements.

Hope this Tip helps.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Podcasting Kit for SharePoint

Hi Folks,

Today SharePoint product team has released Podcasting Kit for SharePoint 2007 (PKS),Now you can upload and show your podcast on your sharepoint sites.

the kit is also available with rating features and support Silverlight controls.

download on CodePlex :
http://www.codeplex.com/pks

Screen shot for Podcasting Site :
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/06/10/announcing-open-source-podcasting-kit-for-sharepoint-the-power-of-social-media-for-the-enterprise.aspx


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Hands On Labs on WSS 3.0

Hi Folks,

Microsoft released new HOL for WSS 3.0 Development,it contains 10 Labs on different important topics on WSS 3.0 development C# & VB.Net :

- No SharePoint Development Experience is required,Only .Net Development Experience.


The HOLs included are:
1. Web Parts
2. Data Lists
3. Event Handlers
4. Workflow
5. Silverlight
6. Page Navigation
7. Page Branding
8. Web Services
9. Content Types
10. User Authentication

Start your practice now, Download link :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b885dce8-c93f-48aa-b798-4422febcc200&DisplayLang=en


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Friday, June 06, 2008

For .Net Developers....How to Move to SharePoint Development

Hi,

Microsoft has launched a campaign to .Net Developers to move to SharePoint Development

To help drive productivity and knowledge of SharePoint by Software Developers :http://MSSharePointDeveloper.com.

The new material is designed to help .NET Developers to learn the top ten artifacts in SharePoint that are interesting to them.
MS created a variety of materials with different learning styles to make getting started with these artifacts easy and it’s all based on the Visual Studio extensions for SharePoint.

The Top Ten SharePoint Artifacts of interest to .NET Developers being promoted
· Web Parts
· Data Lists
· Event Handlers
· Workflows
· Silverlight Web Parts
· Page Navigation
· Page Branding
· Web Services
· Content Types
· User Management

At the site (which is hosted on microsoft.com) we have:
· An Introductory Whitepaper
· Benefits of SharePoint for Developers
· A Small Public VPC
· Hosted MSDN Virtual Labs in C# and VB.NET
· Video Interview with SharePoint MVPs
· Screencasts
· Web Casts with SharePoint MVPs (incredible 1705 live attendees in just the first four WebCasts)
· Quickstarts
· Labcasts
· Presentation Download
· Hands on Labs Download
· Additional Resource Links

The site encourages developers who use the content to also take a next step and go on Instructor Led Training, Get Certified, and Download an evaluation copy of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.

http://MSSharePointDeveloper.com


Happy times with MOSS 2007

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Non Delivery Report Problem for Migrated users from old to new Exchange

Dear All,

I have found a solution for a “Hassle” problem of NDR (Non Delivery Report) on Exchange 2007 for migrated users from legacy Exchange 2003, The problem raised after migrating to new exchange 2007,if you tried to reply to any old emails, the exchange couldn’t recognize cached old contact information, see the attached email.

Kindly read the below KB show/explain the problem deeply, so that and I’m creating a .Net tool to do Bulk update by adding X500 custom attribute to all migrated users and copy it from LegacyExchangeDN in the source AD to ProxyAddresses Attribute to the remote AD.

I have tried it on 19,000 User accounts in our AD and it works perfect J.

Problem as follows:

I’m facing a problem after I have migrated my mail box from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007,the problem is as follows:
1) Before I got my new email box on Exchange 2003,I have archived all my email to a .pst file.
2) I have restored my .pst archived emails file with my new account on exchange 2007.
3) The problem is when I try to open any of my old emails in the archived email,and try to open the contact profile by double clicking on the email address,I couldn’t get the full details of this account although this account already created in the new domain/Exchange 2007,below screen show shows the problem :















Thanks for C#, Directory Services & LDAP….

Problem Resolution References:
1) MS KB:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313324
2) PST Problem Resolution:
http://kbalertz.com/275134/Cannot-Reply-Messages-Account-Moved-Different.aspx










Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Monday, May 26, 2008

Support >> Create Custom Group in your WebPart

Support Email :

Hi Abed,

Sorry for replying late,for any future questions please post it on our DotNetBoom forums.

The Answer : To group your properties in WebPart Development,tag your property with this attribute :

[Category("Custom Properties")]

when you deloy your webpart you will find a Group "Custom Properties" and you will find your properties under it.

By Default,This property if doesn't set,your property will be shown under "Miscellaneous" group.

Hope This helps.
Feel free to contact me any time.

Regards,
Moustafa Arafa El-Zoughby
DotNet Boom Supportive Development Manager
Website: http://www.dotnetboom.net
Blog: http://moustafa-arafa.blogspot.com
-------- Original Message --------Subject: Question about EditorPart GroupingFrom: "Abdolreza Zanganeh" <zanganeh@gmail.com>Date: Tue, May 20, 2008 1:37 pmTo: moustafa@dotnetboom.netCc: "Paul Beck" <paul.beck@radimaging.co.uk>
Hi Moustafa,
I have a question on development of our webpart. I am developing new webpart and we are using EditorPart. When the user is in "Edit mode", on right hand side he see the editpart and application configuration. I want to group the webpart properties that shown as textbox grouped with our editorpart not like now separately. I want to know how can I don this.
Thanks for your attention,Rez Zanganeh-- RADIMAGING Technical LeaderAbdolreza Zangeneh

Saturday, May 17, 2008

VS.Net WSS 3.0 Extensions V1.1

Hi,

Great News,New version of VS.Net 2005 Extensions for WSS 3.0 V1.1 has been released,New templates and tools has been added and updated from the last version V1.0.

Download it now :
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3E1DCCCD-1CCA-433A-BB4D-97B96BF7AB63&displaylang=en

User Guide,to get started with VS.Net 2005 Extensions for WSS 3.0:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=A8A4E775-074D-4451-BE39-459921F79787&displaylang=en

The only hope i wish from Microsoft ,i want to see those extensions on Orcas ?!.




Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Thursday, May 08, 2008

SharePoint Developers' Tips for better machine performance

Hi Folks,

As a SharePoint developer or any developer who have SharePoint on your development machine, after a while of developing SharePoint sites you will find that your machine is getting slower and slower and your don’t know plus the space is eating without a clear reason.

The fast action I did, I Deleted all created sites which I don’t use or I don’t want to work on them later, I have deleted all sites with their DBs.
This a good action and bring back my machine to the regular performance J.

This is not enough, for any future work you have to take care of the following:

1) SharePoint is creating a lot of Logs in the following path :
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\LOGS
Delete the old file to gain more space.
2) Backup SharePoint DBs to cut down the log files of SharePoint databases or shrink log file size.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873235


Hope this helps……

Deploy your Windows App using ClickOnce on Vista Machines

Dear Folks,

If you tried to deploy you are windows application using ClickOnce in Visual Studio 2005/2008 on Vista Machine, you will find that your published installation package will not work for clients have Vista machine, Why ? The reason is simple because you as Developer didn’t include Windows Installer 3.1 on your package which is required to run your application on Vista Machine.

The same installation will work for other clients who doesn’t have Vista Machine.

Tip : Windows Installer 3.1 is included on ClickOnce Deployment Package by default if you are running Orcas on Vista Machine J.

Happy .Netting..............

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Friday, May 02, 2008

Workflow Settings Link is not showing ??!!

Hi Folks,

I got a request from a friend,that when he tried to configre a list in a sharepoint site,the workflow settings link is not appearing/showing at all although the sharepoint site is a collabotation site, i went and checked the site and i discovered the following :

I went to the site administration -> Site Collection Features -> "Office SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection features" feature and it is disabled :) , simply enable it and you will find the workflow setting link will be there on your list settings.

Hope this help.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Information Workers Program

Hi All,

I will deliver Information Worker Program in MIC (Microsoft Innovation Center) from 27th April to 1st May 2008 : - Details :


Program Name Information Workers & Increase work productivity
Date 27th April – 1st May 2008 (6pm-9pm)
Speaker Mostafa Arafa – http://moustafa-arafa.blogspot.com
Level 200 - 300
Target Audience Architects, Technical Decision Managers, Content Managers.
Description:
This 5-day course teaches information workers and content managers how to get started with
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS).
The course will be taught from the business side of the software, teaching you how to leverage
WSS and MOSS to solve business issues you are currently seeing. The course will be hands on
walking you through all of the basic features of WSS and MOSS, so that after the course ends
you can go back into your environment and implement a solution.
Prerequisites:
Attendees should have experience with the Internet Explorer and Office Products such as Word,
Excel and Outlook. No prior WSS or MOSS experience is needed.
Day 1:
Information Workers overview, Program Topics, Overview about MS Solutions for IW,
Why SharePoint 2007, Win Executive Sponsorship, Build a business case.
Day 2:
SharePoint 2007 Collaboration features.
Day 3:
Working with InfoPath forms and get ready with paperless work environment.
Building workflows in SharePoint 2007 and automate your business processes.
Day 4:
Working with excel services in SharePoint 2007, Business Intelligence, KPIs.
Day 5:
SharePoint 101, Tips and tricks, Q&A.

To Register :
Contact: Mrs. Nibal Ali Shukry
nibal@mickuwait.net.kw
Tel: 4956091 / 4956096
Mob: 6545100


MIC In Kuwait -WebSite Url:
http://www.mickuwait.net.kw/

Program Details and Agenda :
http://www.mickuwait.net.kw/pdf/MIC-IW%20Workshop%20Program.pdf


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

problem when creating shared services in sharepoint 2007

Hi Folks,

I was trying to create a SSP in one of the web servers,and i got this error:

"Failure! Shared Services Provider creation failedReason: Timed out waiting for Shared Services Provider 'SharedServices1' provisioning timer job to startCheck the event log for details. "

I have checked the event log,and i found that the problem was from service account failure.

i found that the account which is running the sharepoint services is a user domain account and the user has changed the password of the service user account.

to change the service accounts of MOSS 2007,read below KB :

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934838


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

How to change SharePoint 2007 & WSS 3.0 Service accounts

Hi Folks,

After you installed SharePoint 2007 or WSS 3.0, you might face some problems regarding the installation account,specially if you change the username/password of the installation account.

as per MS best practices,its recommended to specify a new account for the sharePoint installation perior to install SharePoint 2007 and don't use your domain account in the installation.

this post is to show you,incase you install MOSS with your account or with any other domain account and you want to change it,simply read the below KB how to do it ?

its really a helpful article and to the point,specially if you create the batch file which is metioned in the article to do all of that in one step :).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934838

Happy MOSS times :).

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Monday, April 07, 2008

send email in sharepoint 2007

Hi Folks,

if you are developing a webpart or any sharepoint customized feature,and you would like to send an email through your webpart or custom code,you can achieve this by 2 ways:

1) use normal .net classes to send email (System.Net.Mail namespace).
2) use below code:

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;

SPUtility.SendEmail(SPContext.Current.Web, false, false,
"to-address@mail.com", "E-mail title",
"E-mail body");

this code will use the configuration of your sharepoint installation (SMTP server configuraiton),in the central administraiton tool.

the benefit of the second choice,you don't need to store any other configuration for your SMTP server on your code,this code will directly use the sharepoint configuration and free your mind of SMTP configurations, if the sharepoint is configured propely and send email notification (throught workflows for example),then you code will work as well :).


hope this trick will help.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Microsoft Technology Day

Register NOW

http://www.msexperts.net/




















I will deliver 4 SharePoint 2007 Sessions:
*Building Sharepoint WebParts
*Building Multi-Lang. MOSS Sites
*Enable Forms Auth. in MOSS Sites
*SharePoint Web Parts Deployment

My Presentations with Demos/Code,available to download:

http://cid-4bc94054914a6469.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/MS%20Technology%20Day

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Community Kit for Sharepoint

Hi All,
Sharepoint Community Kit is a project which contains alot of added value features for sharepoint 2007.
"The Community Kit for SharePoint is a set of best practices, templates, Web Parts, tools, and source code that enables practically anyone to create a community website based on SharePoint technology for practically any group of people with a common interest.
"
New added features...really cool features:

Enhanced Blog Edition
Enhanced Wiki Edition
Corporate Intranet Edition
Internet/Extranet Edition
User Group Edition (1.0)
School Edition
Home Owners Association Edition
Wedding Edition
External Collaboration Toolkit for SharePoint (Community Edition)

read more & download it now :
http://www.codeplex.com/CKS

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Get Started with Silverlight 2.0

Hi All,

Get to know about the Silverlight 2.0 beta release which will be shipped soon,with the extra features than first version 1.0 which was released on Sept 07.

very useful post,with attached toturials to get started.

Silverlight 2.0 toturials :
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/02/22/first-look-at-silverlight-2.aspx

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Monday, March 03, 2008

File Not Found problem in MOSS 2007 Sites

Hi All,

if you configured your SharePont Site to use Forms Authentication,you might go through a very strange problem,when you open any page inside your sharepoint site,you will a white page showing "File Not Found" message,and this is a stopper problem,you can't configure your site or work with it at all.

I tried to find the solution and it's really tricky problem,if you updated the web.cofig try to open it now,you will find this attribute in web.config:

configuration xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/.NetConfiguration/v2.0"

what you have to do:

1) Remove xmlns attribute in web.config
2) reset the IIS.

navigate to your sharepoint site,it's working fine.

happy times with MOSS :).

Hope this helps.

Ref. Read More :

http://www.infusionblogs.com/kguenther/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=dd601508%2D904a%2D460a%2Db24f%2D9271325cefda&ID=1829


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

How can you set your ConnectionString on your Web part

Hi Folks,

This is a tricky post,alot of question i found on the web regarding how can i put the connection string for my web part once i finished my development and i want to be work with my sharepoint site. simply add your connection string on the web.config of your web site .

web.config of your site path :
D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\Port#\

simply add the connection string section after the sharepoint key and before system.web key as follows :


{sharepoint}
..........
{/sharepoint}

{connectionstrings}
{add providername="System.Data.SqlClient" connectionstring="Data Source=server;Initial Catalog=mydb;User ID=DotNetBoom;Password=DotNetBoom" name="MyConnect"}
{/connectionstrings}

{system.web}........

please replace {} with <> .

Hope this helps.............


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Ready Tool for managing Asp.Net 2.0 Membership Data

Hi Folks,


Very useful tool i found it on CodePlex community site,this tools give you easily manage the membership tables,manage user roles,Roles,Reset passwords.

The tools is available with source code also.... :)

Download URL :
http://www.codeplex.com/CKS/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=7450

This tool is a very useful tool for web developers and you can download it and use it without writing a line of code or using VS2005 asp.net security configuration tool.

Happy .Netting.



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Monday, January 21, 2008

MOSS Design concepts "Content Types vs. Page Layout" with Master Pages

Hi Folks,

Very useful post for understanding MOSS Design Concepts including :

1) Master Pages Design for Sites and Sub Sites.
2) Content Types.
3) Page Layout.
4) Relation between the content types and page layouts.


http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/articles/MOSS07DesignComponents.aspx

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Thursday, January 10, 2008

This product requires at least Windows workflow foundation version 3.0.4203.2 which is part of Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0

Hi All,

If you are trying to install MOSS 2007,or installing .Net Framework 3.0 redistributable package perior of MOSS installation, you might face an error :

"Set up is unable to proceed due to the following errors: This product requires at least Windows workflow foundation version 3.0.4203.2 which is part of Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0"

I tried all possible scenarios to fix this error and i set almost 4 hours to get a solution for this error,and after long period of searching over the internet and trying all posibble solutions,the only solution which works with me,is the following: when installing the .net framework redistributable package is not enough to fix this problem because its not the Full Package of .Net Framework 3.0,which is not available over any MS internet web site and i get it though on of the .net product team.

The Full .Net Framework 3.0 installer package download URL :

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=70848

No more Nightmares with MOSS installation...........Thanks God :)

Different error messages for the same problem posted on below blog :
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/10/30/net-framework-3-0-setup-log-files.aspx



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Problem when creating new sharepoint shared services (SSP)

Hi All,

When you try to create new sharepoint shared services or (SSP),if you faced that the created site is not coming on the web application list,you have to know that this means that your application is running under Network Service or local service account.

The Solution : change the serivce account which run your web application.

To Do that : open SharePoint Central Administration -> click on Operation Tab -> Services Account.

Select your web application and change the account which running your site.



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Change SharePoint Site port

Hi Folks,

This post is a tricky post,i faced this problem,i had a sharepoint 2007 site,and i want to change its port,to change it do the following :

1) from IIS Manager,right click on the site,and change the port from the old to the new one.

2) From Sharepoint Central Administration,click on operation tab,and click on alternate access mapping (AAM) to map the new url to the created web application url.

For example : you changed the created site from port 9999 to 90 :

http://MyServer:90/ Map To http://myserver:9999/

This tells that if the sharepoint get a request on the port 90 from the iis,map it to the created url web application.


Another Tip :

If you want to change the port which is used from the sharepoint site to connect via SQL Server 2000/2005,simply by using SQL Configuration manager,follow this article:

http://kbalertz.com/889647/change-SharePoint-Portal-Server-connect-Server.aspx


Hope this helps ...............


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Friday, January 04, 2008

Difference between SharePoint Web Services and API

Hi all,

One of the most tricky tasks to select the type of development task you will work to integrate your custom application with sharePoint portal as all know that you can work with sharepoint 2007 data either through SharePoint Services or SharePoint APIs.

You can use SharePoint Web Serivces in case your code is not resides on sharepoint server,and you would like to manipulate sharepoint data in oyur application.

In case your code resides on sharepoint server,you can use directly the sharepoint APIs to manipulate sharepoint data in an easy way.


Big enhancements have been done on Sharepoint services,you can manipulate all sharepoint compoenets by consumping sharepoint services such as : users,groups,permissions,meetings,BDC,Workflows,webparts pages,documents,lists...etc.


I recommend using Shapoint API in case your code resides on the sharepoint server than using the sharepoint web services because its OOP Object model and gives you little bit more features in some sharepoint classes than provided on the web services.

and the last decision is to you.....

Hope this helps.




Regards,
Moustafa arafa