Export office system files to PDF

Hi all,

Office System 2007 save as PDF add-in now is available without 3rd party tools/add-ins.

Download link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4D951911-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en

This add-in work with all office 2007 applications such as: Word,Excel,PowerPoint,Access,Visio,InfoPath and OneNote.


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

24 Hour Virtual Event - TechEd 2009 Developers !!!

Hi folks,

Do you have a problem of different time zones for online trainings and workshops ? If Yes, here is a good news from microsoft :

Defy all challenges of different time zones, Now you can attend Virtual Tech Ed Event for Developers on 1st April 2009 after your registration. No matter which time zone you belongs to.

Event contains 5 tracks:
1) Windows Development.
2) Windows Mobile Development.
3) Office & Sharepoint development.
4) Developer tools , Languages and tools.
5) Web Development & User Experience.

Read more on below link:

https://www.msfttechdays.com/public/home.aspx

Happy .Netting !!!

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Content Deployment Best practices in SharePoint

Hi all,

Excellent post for content deployment in sharepoint best practices by Stefan Gobner - Escalation Engineer for SharePoint.

Article link:

http://blogs.technet.com/stefan_gossner/pages/content-deployment-best-practices.aspx

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Integrate SharePoint Data to non Microsoft Portal Products

Hi all,

Great News !!! Recently MS SharePoint product team has released Web Services Remote Portlets (WSRP) toolkit, This toolkit provides developers to expose easily sharepoint data to non microsoft portal products such as : AquaLogic Portal, IBM WebSphere Portal, SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal...etc.

Now if you have any portal in your organization and you want to expose sharepoint data in two different ways and MS also released the source code for both of them under MS Public License.

**Download Link :
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WSRPToolkit/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=1943

**Announcement - Sharepoint Product Team:
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/12/05/announcing-the-wsrp-toolkit-for-sharepoint.aspx

**Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STP5ArdFlMEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwetm92V89Q

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Export GridView to pdf

Hi all,

I got a question from one of the DotNet Boom Community on how to export GridView to pdf,read more on below post forum:
http://www.dotnetboom.net/portal/Support/Forums/tabid/63/forumid/5/threadid/97/scope/posts/Default.aspx


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

ASP.Net MVC RC1 is available now

Hi all,

Long time waiting for this new baby,ASP.Net MVC (Model View Controller) RC1 is available now to download,and the final release will be there soon,this is a big SHIFT for all web developers.

New Architecture design for our web application will be implemented using this new pattern,i suggest if you didn't know enough information about Model View Controller Pattern,see below link :

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/napanchal/MVCDesign12052005035152AM/MVCDesign.aspx

once you understand the purpose and the use of it for your enterprise project,here you can see the new features for RC1:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/01/27/asp-net-mvc-1-0-release-candidate-now-available.aspx

Happy times with .Net

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Update Lists in SharePoint using web services

Hi,

I got the following email from a developer,it says as follows:
"
Hello Moustafa. I don't want to bother you, but I've been searching for examples of MOSS 2007 Web Services development, and I have not found anything. I have this situation. There is a document library with some items on it. I need to edit some properties of a document (on that doc libr) from an Office application, using the MOSS web services. I need to change the Title and the Category of that document, but I don't know how to do that. Could you help me please, with an example that could guide to me how to do that? ( If you have some interesting links or something about MOSS 2007 development (using web services or api) I'm going to thank you so much ). Regards ...
------------------------------------------------ Ing. José Mauricio Molina Pérez

"

He wants to update Document Library which is a list using sharepoint web services, and he has a windows application which will invoke this web serivce to update document information,Here you go :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms440289.aspx

If you want a useful site for sharepoint developers :
http://www.microsoft.com/click/SharePointDeveloper/


Hope this helps.


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

New Edition of Patterns and Best Practices Application Architecture Guide

Hi Folks,

New Edition V2.0 has been released from patterns and best practices application architecture Team,This Guide is very important for Architect & senior Designer and Developer who are building and design Complex Enterprsie Projects and Application using .Net Technology.

The book is showing the following:
1) Different patterns for design your applications (Web,Mobile,RIA).
2) Layering and Tiers in .Net.
3) SharePoint LOB Applications.
4) How to build Services using different technologies in .Net.
5) Deployment scenarios in .net.

Download link:
http://www.codeplex.com/AppArchGuide/


I recomment every one to read it to follow the best practices and avoid common pitfalls in your design.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

3 Tier Architecture Using VS.Net 2008

Hi All,

I had delivered a session on How to build "3 Tier Architecture Applications Using .Net" and i have uploaded my presentation and my demo project on the following link:

1) Presentation:
http://cid-4bc94054914a6469.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Blog%20Code/3LayerArchitectureUsingdotNet011209.pptx

2) Demo Solution contains 3 Layer Asp.Net website and 3 Tier Asp.net Web Application:
http://cid-4bc94054914a6469.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Blog%20Code/EAADemos.zip

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Cookies in Asp.net - An Important Tip

Hi folks,

In this post i want to show how to create a cookie in asp.net page which contains a counter ,This counter will be increased every time you visit the page.

The tip which i want to highlight here-(I got this question from one of my firends),That when you try to update the cookie value in asp.net you have to update the expiry date of the httpcookie object,otherwise the asp.net will store the default value which is : 1/1/0001,which let your code to create a cookie every time instead of update the counter value in the cookie file.

The code to do this on page_load event in C# :


if (Request.Cookies["counter"] != null)
{
HttpCookie coo=Request.Cookies["counter"];
int x = int.Parse(coo.Value);
x += 1;
coo.Value = x.ToString();
coo.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(7);// if you omit this line,the cookie will be created each time.

Response.Cookies.Add(coo);
Response.Write(coo.Value);
}
else
{
HttpCookie coo = new HttpCookie("counter", "0");
coo.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(7);
Response.Cookies.Add(coo);
Response.Write(coo.Value);
}



The code for this post is uploaded here:
http://cid-4bc94054914a6469.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Blog%20Code/CookiePageTest.aspx.cs


Hope this helps.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Add-on on Visual studio 2008 for Silverlight 2

Hi All,

Start developing Silverlight 2 application in VS2008 SP1,download the add-on link below :


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c22d6a7b-546f-4407-8ef6-d60c8ee221ed&displaylang=en


Happy .Netting.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

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

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

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

Download SQL Server 2008 NOW

Hi All,

Now you can download MS SQL 2008 for 180 Days Evaluations period ,try it :

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx

Site contains other very useful demos and virtual labs :

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/demos.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/virtual-labs.aspx

enjoy :)



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

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

How to Synch SharePoint Documents Offline on Vista

Hi All,

Very good tool to Synch your sharepoint documents offline on Vista OS,read below post :

http://grounding.co.za/blogs/neil/archive/2008/08/02/using-synctoy-to-synchronize-offline-sharepoint-documents-on-vista.aspx


Regards,
Mostafa arafa

For SharePoint Developers: MOSS SDK 1.4 & WSS SDK 1.4

Hi Folks,

New SDK for MOSS & WSS 3.0 has been released,check it out:

http://blogs.msdn.com/randalli/archive/2008/08/28/just-published-wss-and-moss-sdk-1-4-download-and-online-msdn-library-8-29-2008.aspx



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

VS 2008 SP1 is now available

Hi All,

SP1 for VS 2008 is now available for download :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FBEE1648-7106-44A7-9649-6D9F6D58056E&displaylang=en

Also,SP1 for .Net Framework 3.5 is now availbale for download :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=AB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7&displaylang=en



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

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

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

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

Silverlight Beta 2 Tips by VWD Team

Hi Folks,

Great Tips from Visual Web Developer Team about Silverlight 2 beta 2,chech it out:

http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2008/07/01/silverlight-tips-of-the-day.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2008/07/17/silverlight-tips-of-the-day-week-2.aspx

localize silverlight application :
http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2008/06/10/localizing-a-silverlight-application.aspx

To get an overview about what's new in silverlight 2 beta 2 on VS 2008 :

http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2008/06/06/what-s-new-with-silverlight-tools-beta-2.aspx



Regards,
Mostafa arafa

Get Started with IIS 7.0

For All web developers, very useful post for getting started with Configuring asp.net applications on IIS 7.0 on vista and windows Srvr 2008 :

http://www.dotnetbips.com/articles/df885319-19cc-47b8-8808-6ed462db1de5.aspx

hope this helps.

Regards,
Mostafa arafa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Community Open Day 16 Feb 2008 - Kuwait

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

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

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

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

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

Deploying WebParts in SharePoint 2007

Hi Folks,
Any SharePoint Development requires you to develop your Web Part and deploy it to sharePoint,in this post i will describe the steps required to deploy your web part to sharepoint 2007 site:

1) after creating your web part,you have to sign it with strong name.
To Do that : simply open the project properties and on the signing tab select new and then save the properties ad build your web Library.

2) add to the GAC on your sharePoint Server.
you can do that by using VS.Net Command tools or use .Net 2.0 configuration Tool from the control panel.

NOTE: after you add your DLL to GAC you can find it on C:\Windows\Assembly Folder.

Take Note : you have to store the Publick Key token of the signed DLL by right click on your DLL -> Properties and save the public key token on a notepafe file because it will be used later.

























3) To add this webpart to a sharepoint site,you have to make it "Safe Control " to be loaded and configured on your site.


To Do that : open the web.config file of your site,it resides on C:\IntePub\WWroot\WSS\Virtual Directories


then open the folder of your site,it takes by default the port number of your site.

Paste this code on the web.config : (i removed <> letters of the key)

SafeControl Assembly=”ArafaWebPart,
Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=2e128026f9c7d6df”
Namespace=”ArafaWebPart” TypeName=”*”

Safe and close your web.config.

4) open your sharepoint site->site settings->web parts->click on new and select your webpart and then click on Populate Gallery.














5) then click on any page and add your web part.













Hope this helps.




Regards,
Moustafa arafa

How to pass DateTime Timestamp to Sharepoint 2007

Hi Folks,

if you developing sharepoint application,you will face that the DateTime timestamp parameter on sharepoint is different than what you are used to pass in your .Net Application.

In SharePoint 2007,the TimeStamp has to passed as a string and this is the format of the string:

"YYYYMMDDTHHMMDDZ"

Take these Notes:

1) Date Part is followed by T Symbol.
2) Time Part is followed by Z Symbol.

and the the rest of the string is easy to get it in your application by using:

C#:
DateTime.Now.Date.ToShortDateString()
DateTime.Now.Date.ToShortTimeString()

By using any string concatenation "+" or use String Builder Class to give better performance.


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


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Deploying Features without using stsadmin command line tool

Hi Folks,

i'm using a visual tool which build our command you want to write in the stsadmin command line tool without.

Tool Name : Feature Manager

Download Link :
http://www.sharepointblogs.com/files/folders/tbaginski/entry2449.aspx

One Tip : After install and activate the feature dont forget to reset your IIS.

Don't forget to configure the tool before start by clicking on configuration menu item and put the paths of your installation because its by default its on C:\ Drive.

Hope this helps........

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

0x0020 in MOSS object Model

Hi Folks,

This post to inform that when you develop on sharepoint 2007 object model,and if you are manipulating with lists in sharepoint you might face in the item names or field names you will find that the spaces in sharepoint is converted to this hexidecimal code "0x0020".

Example:
if you have a column name in a list with name "Customer Name",when reading this column in your code you will find the column name is : "Customer_0x0020_Name".

Happy .netting with sharepoint...........

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

How to enable Search on your MOSS 2007 Site

Hi Folks,

If you want to Enable Search facility on your sharepoint 2007 site,follow these steps:

Go to the Site Settings and under Site Administration Click on Seach Visibility Link.













Update the seetings as shown on the attached image.

even after you enable the search visibility on your site and if you start search for a keyword on your site pages it will not work until the Crawling process will be run.

What's the story of Search Crawling in MOSS 2007 ?

There is a Crawling Service running on all Sharepoint conent pages to index all content,if you start your search for a new added content before the crawling process start by including the new content on its schedule,you will not get your search results.

The Question is : How can i Configure My Crawling process on MOSS 2007 ?

Open your central administration site: click on Share Services link under Share Services Administration.

Click on Search Settings -> Content Sources and Crawl Schedules -> Edit the Content Source which is exist.















Update your crawling services as you want and as per your organization needs.

Hope this helps....


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Variations Tip in MOSS 07

Hi All,

Locatiozation on MOSS 2007 is a piece of cake to start creating your site multi-lingual site.

to start creating multi-language site on sharepoint 2007,you have to use one of the new features on MOSS 2007 called Variations.

when you create variations on your site you might face this problem which mentioned below.

if you got this error message when you try to create heirarchies on your site in sharepoint 2007 :

"No Variation Root Web has been set - hierarchies cannot be created until a Variation Root is set."

simply this because you didn't specify the variation root of your site.

click on variations link and set / on the location to create the variation on your root or base on your select.

hope this helps.

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Which Master Page Shall I Use in Built-In Master Pages in MOSS 07 ?

Hi All,

In MOSS 2007,there's 9 Master Pages built-In on any create site in Sharepoint 2007.

The Question is : Which Master Pages shall I use for my Site ?

Case #1: Blue Vertical / Black Vertical
This is the best choice in case you are building an internet sites with good representations of the WCM related columns,No Top Navugation only Left Navigation which is most required on internet sites.

Case #2: Blue Tabs
Is the best alternative for default master page .The difference is the tabbed representations of the top navigation.


Case #3: Blue Band / balck Band / Blue Glass Band
Same as Default master page with both Top and Left navigation,the best selection for starting to customize the default master page.

Orange Sigle Level & Black Single Level : same as blue band master pages with different on Color Combinations.

Or you can still use the default master page with full control on the top and left navigation and customize it but it will take much work on your customizations.

The Good starter from my point for your customization is Blue Band Master page coz it contains the minimal that u want to put on your master page with site actions and navigation.


Hope this Tip help.


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Create your first Content Page in MOSS 2007

Hi Folks,

MOSS 2007 is amazing product from MS,it contains Sharepoint as well as CMS features on one product,Sharepoint 2007 built on top of WSS 3.0 which has alot of features to built collaboration solution with great integraion with asp.net applications.

one of important features on MOSS 2007,the Content management which was separate product before the release MOSS 2007 and had name (CMS 2002 with SP2 latest release).

Now,CMS 2002 is incorporated on MOSS 2007,and the product team for content management on MOSS 2007 has name "ECM" Team : Enterprise Content management which is different than the sharepoint product team.

To start use and implement your first CMS Site on MOSS 2007,its different than CMS 2002,alot of terminologies and key features have been changed.

one of the most required question,HOW TO ? create my CMS or built my Content Site on MOSS with little bit customization.

The Guide URL below,is oyur start,believe me....start forward and showing you step by step how to create your first content page for editors in MOSS 2007.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa830818.aspx

Part 1 is enough for this topic,and to dig more on ECM on MOSS 07,MUST READ 3 PARTS of this Article.

Life is easier with WCM in MOSS 2007.....Thanks Microsoft.

Hope this helps.



Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Forms Authentication on MOSS 07 Sites

Great Article shows with screen shots How To ? implement Forms authentication on your MOSS Site.

Excellent Article:

http://weblog.vb-tech.com/nick/archive/2006/06/14/1617.aspx


Another useful one :

http://www.developer.com/net/asp/article.php/10917_3622481_2


Hope this helps.

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

MOSS 2007 Problem : Cannot connect to the configuration database.

Hi Folks,

During my work with MOSS 2007,i had some performance issues regarding the SQL Server instance services which is running the configuration and Data for MOSS sites.

I had closed this service bymistake and when i'm trying to open the central administration site or any site i got this message in the IR:

"Cannot connect to the configuration database."

To resolve this : go to your services and start this service:
"SQL Server (OFFICESERVERS)"

This Tip is enough to continue your work with your MOSS sites.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Recover your DB from Log Files in MS SQL DBMS

Hi Folks:

I got a call from one of my friends "Fady" regarding one of the guys dropped his tables without taking a backup of his DB.

This is my Support and answer to him.

"
Dear My Firend Fady,

Regarding your question yesterday, for that person who Dropped his tables, anyways this email has good news for him, as I told you he can recover the DB from its log file, simply pass these Urls to him, to recover your DB from Log File.

Urls:

http://sqlserver2000.databases.aspfaq.com/how-do-i-recover-data-from-sql-server-s-log-files.html

http://www.apexsql.com/sql_tools_log.asp

"

Hope this help you guys.......


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

November Rosario CTP now available

7 days after Visual Studio 2008 RTM’d, we have a preview of the next version of VSTS available. Get it while it’s hot.


http://blogs.msdn.com/jeffbe/archive/2007/11/28/november-rosario-ctp-now-available.aspx

I'm happy to announce that the next Community Technology Preview of Rosario (officially known as Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System code name “Rosario” November 2007 CTP) is now available. Customers can immediately begin downloading the VPC images from our download page.

For this release we worked on a number of key scenarios that we'd like you to try out. To help facilitate your evaluation, we've included samples and walkthroughs within the VPC to demonstrate these new features. Here's a list of walkthroughs broken out by product:

Architecture Edition
• Visualizing Interaction Sequences between Service-Oriented applications
• Using the Distributed System Designers and the Web Service Software Factory to build WCF applications
• Designing and Visualizing Interactions between classes
Development Edition
• Simplify Code Analysis rule selection with Rule Sets
• Find and fix a bug using the historical debugger
• Identify the test impact of code changes
• Find a bug on a separate machine using the standalone debugger
Test Edition
• Planning a testing effort
• Executing manual test cases
Team Foundation Server
• Managing user stories with the Agile Process
• Managing features with the CMMI Process


Read more on Jeff Blog :

http://blogs.msdn.com/jeffbe/archive/2007/11/28/november-rosario-ctp-now-available.aspx


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Part 2 : when ? where ? i have to use NotBot Ajax control

Hi Folks,

I got some questions regarding the using the NotBot Ajax control : Where we can use it ? when ? and some visitors requires the code to use this control.

The answer of when ? You have to plug NotBot Control on your business applications,if it uses Forms authentication then you can put it on Login Page,OW you can put it on your master page incase your site for anonymous users.

The answer of where ? You can drop it on your login page or your master page instead of putting it on each page of your applications or websites.

The code you have to put : (in C#)

protected void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
if (!NoBot1.IsValid())
{//trying to automate requests to the page....
// to do..............

}

Hope this helps.....

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Part 2 : when ? where ? i have to use NotBot Ajax control

Hi Folks,

I got some questions regarding the using the NotBot Ajax control : Where we can use it ? when ? and some visitors requires the code to use this control.

The answer of when ? You have to plug NotBot Control on your business applications,if it uses Forms authentication then you can put it on Login Page,OW you can put it on your master page incase your site for anonymous users.

The answer of where ? You can drop it on your login page or your master page instead of putting it on each page of your applications or websites.

The code you have to put : (in C#)

protected void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
if (!NoBot1.IsValid())
{//trying to automate requests to the page....
// to do..............

}

Hope this helps.....

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Secure your Website by using NoBot Control on asp.Net Ajax

Hi All,

Today i have used one of the important controls on ajax framework which secure my website/Application from automated attacks on your websites in away to hack your application without any human interaction.

NoBot is a control that attempts to provide CAPTCHA-like bot/spam prevention without requiring any user interaction. This approach is easier to bypass than an implementation that requires actual human intervention, but NoBot has the benefit of being completely invisible. NoBot is probably most relevant for low-traffic sites where blog/comment spam is a problem and 100% effectiveness is not required.


NoBot employs a few different anti-bot techniques:

1)Forcing the client's browser to perform a configurable JavaScript calculation and verifying the result as part of the postback.
2)Enforcing a configurable delay between when a form is requested and when it can be posted back.

NoBot can be tested by violating any of the above techniques: posting back quickly, posting back many times, or disabling JavaScript in the browser.


add it on your application and secure it by checking on NotBot status and add your custom behavior for catching website spams.

Read More :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha

http://asp.net/learn/ajax-videos/video-141.aspx



Regards,
Moustafa arafa

CDO Error when creating Person Object

Dear All,

If you are using CDO DLL for Integration with Exchange server in your application,you might face problems when you are trying to initiate an object from CDO.dll Class Library.

i used to create contacts in exchange server,and my application was working fine with cdo.dll after migrating to vs 2005,the cdo stop working,after alot of investigation,i found that the dll wasn't registered on .net framework 2.0 and register on .net framework 1.1,this is one of my bad luck...and to see the related posts,kindly visit below links :

http://forums.asp.net/p/1002362/1996021.aspx#1996021

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=310987



ex.Message "Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {CD000107-8B95-11D1-82DB-00C04FB1625D} failed due to the following error: 80040154." String

to fix it,register the cdoex.dll on .net framework 2.0 :

regsvr32 cdoex.dll

This will fix the problem..........


Happy .Netting.



Regards,
Moustafa arafa

ASP.Net 2.0 Tip : CSS is not applied on my aspx page

Hi Folks,

You might face this problem on asp.net 2.0,if you create an aspx page and you reference the css file on the header of this page,you will face that the css classess are not applied on that page even if the css reference is right.

And css link is working on other pages but is not working on the new created page.

The workaround of this issues is to remove the below line of the html code :



!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"


this will instantly apply the css classes on your page.

Happy .Netting..... :)


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Release of VS 2008 & .Net 3.5 by the end of november

Hi All,

For those who didn't go to TechEd 07 this year which is running nowadays,MS Announced the release date for VS 2008 and .Net 3.5 by the end of november this year.

It is amazing specially the release of .Net 3.5 which has alot of enhancement and new features which doesn't exist on .Net 3.0.

Read more on MS Press :

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/nov07/11-05TechEdDevelopersPR.mspx


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Next Event : TechNet & MSDN Road Show @ Gulf

Hi Folks,

Execlusive to my blog readers,the agenda of Gulf TechNet & MSDN Roadshow.

Next Event will be held on Gulf during november-Dec based on your location.

Register now :

https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/wizard.aspx?wizid=e1dcb941-a365-4d4b-8e0f-1c3a8946ecb1&lcid=1033

For Kuwait : its on 14th of November 07 - Movenpick
Read more on the event site .


Dates

City Venue Date
Kuwait Movenpick Hotel Wednesday Nov 14th
Oman Shangri la Hotel Saturday Nov 17th
Bahrain Sheraton Hotel Monday Nov 19th
Dubai Habtoor Grand Hotel Tue/Wed Dec 4 & 5
Qatar Intercon Hotel Sunday Dec 9th

Agenda


TechNet Track Speakers MSDN Track Speakers
Session 1 - UC
Session 2 - WS08 First Look at Visual Studio 2008 - Part I

First Look at Visual Studio 2008 - Part II


Lunch
Session 3 - System Center Configuration Manager
Exploring the Building of Software + Services Applications
Session 4 - Data Protection Manager Best Practices for Team-Based Software Development
Break
Session 5 - Virtual Machine Manager IIS7, Orcas & Team System
Session 6 - SQL Server Building Silverlight Applications Using .NET
Closing and Raffle Closing & Raffle




Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Astoria

Hi Folks,

New tool has been shipped to expose your data on your applicaitons as Data Services,These data services can be used by Ajax web enabled applications.
This tool provdes the facility to expose your data over HTTP which is an added value for your application to easily consume the edata exposed by Astoria SDK.



Download Sept CTP :
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0FA1413C-CB55-4577-960E-0F3491847F58&displaylang=en

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

VSTS Mind Map

Hi Folks,

You can check VSTS Mind Map which contains alot of resources,Guide,Blogs...etc and all related to VSTS.

Check it :

http://www.cshost.members.winisp.net/blog/vstsresources.html

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Ajax Activity Loading Controls

Hi Folks,

if you want to get nice gif files you want to use in the progressBar control,simply check the below checks :

http://mentalized.net/activity-indicators/
http://www.ajaxload.info
http://www.napyfab.com/ajax-indicators/

Enjoy to use them all....its free.




Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Free Blog Engine

Hi Folks,

I have found new and open source Blog Engine built on .Net with source code.

Download url:

http://www.codeplex.com/blogengine/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4459


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Groove vs. Sharepoint

Hi All,

Big confusion between 2 MS Products : MS Groove Server and MS Sharepoint Server.

There is a big difference between the 2 products,and since there are similarity on as a collaboration solution but still the projects size which are handled by both products are really different.


Read More about the difference:
http://www.microsoft.com/midsizebusiness/businessvalue/groove.mspx



Regards,
Moustafa arafa

MSDN Gulf newsletter Issue 2

Hi Folks,

MSDN Gulf newsletter issue 2 has been released......subscribe.

http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/msdn/newsletter/Aug2007.htm


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

WCF Developers,What's new on .Net 3.5 March CTP

Hi Folks,

One of the most important questions for all .net developers,since most of the developers are new on .net 3.0 and its technologies,and meanwhile they heard on .Net 3.5 Beta releases and CTP (now March CTP is availble),to know main changes and difference/fixes and new features on .Net 3.5,i will advice all of you to read Thom Robbins Blog Post for the details of the changes on .Net 3.5 :

http://blogs.msdn.com/trobbins/archive/2007/02/28/microsoft-pre-release-software-visual-studio-code-name-orcas-march-2007-community-technology-preview-ctp.aspx

Hope this helps... :)

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Problem when installing SQL 2000 Reporting services with .Net 2.0

HI Folks,

if you have .net 2.0 on your server and you want to install SQL 2000 Reporting services, the installation will show that ASP.NET 1.1 is not registered on your web server even if you run aspnet_regiis command for asp.net 1.1 on yor web server.

To resolve this problem :

1) Un Install asp.net 2.0 from your web server by running the command :
aspnet_regiis -u

2) Register asp.net 1.1 :
aspnet_regiis -i

3) Install your SQL 2000 Reporting Services.


4) install your asp.net 2.0 on your web server.
aspnet_regiis -i



Hope this helps.

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Loading Controls Dynamically problem on ASP.Net 2.0

Hi Folks,

If you load your controls dynamically on asp.net 2.0 web site,you will face a problem that all handlers of server side controls doesn't work and not fire on the server side.

Even you try to put a break point on your server side handler,it will not fire,this is not because of a problem on any of your user controls or your code has something wrong.

the problem is : if you try to write the same line of code on asp.net 1.1 web application this problem will not happen at all,and if you tru to load the same controls on asp.net 2.0 web site the problem will happen.

The solution and Tip for this problem,is to just give an ID for your user control which will be loaded dyamiccly,and the problem will not happen.

This the code which run on asp.net 1.1 perfectly and doesnt run on asp.net website :

C#:
PlaceHolderID.Controls.Clear();
Control c = Page.LoadControl(”UCPath”);
PlaceHolderID.Controls.Add(c);

The Solution :
C#
PlaceHolderID.Controls.Clear();
Control c = Page.LoadControl(”UCPat”);
c.ID = “IDForYourControl“;
PlaceHolderID.Controls.Add(c);

Hope this helps.

Read more on the problem and the solution on Scott Blog :
http://scottonwriting.net/sowblog/posts/3962.aspx







Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Mount your ISO Images on Vista

Hi All,

I tried to mount ISO images and image files on windows vista,and i try all tools i used to mount images and it didnt work on vista.

i looked for a new tool,i found a free new tool to mount your images and ISO files on vista,easy to use...download it now :

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/mount-an-iso-image-in-windows-vista/


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

WCF Security Limitations

Hi Folks,

i discovered some points which you have to take it in your consideration if you are working to deisgn a WCF solution,specially the security issues with WCF :

1) You can't apply Message Level security with WCF Streaming which is used to pass Large binary data between the service and WCF Clients.

2) In Case you want to apply WCF Streaming on your WCf Host,you have to change your security level from message to transport level.

3) Maximum received message size to a WCF service is 64 KB;if the message exceeds this limit size the WCF runtime will throw an exception.

Note : if you want to increase the Max. Message Size,on the Bindings properties you can change/increase the message size as per your request.


Hope this Tips helps WCF Architect and Developrs :)

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

ASP.Net 2.0 Data controls Tutrials

Hi all,

New Data Tutorials for asp.net 2.0 and VS 2005 has been published for free......Must Read them all...............

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/08/08/great-new-asp-net-2-0-data-tutorials-published.aspx

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Implementing a WCF Service with High Performance

Hi Folks,

WCF gives the developer the tools to provide high performance for your WCF Service,once of the key features to provide high performance WCF Service caled "Service Throttling";this concept simply provide you the values you want to set to manage the following:

1) Maximum Concurrent sessions.
2) Maximum Concurrent Calls.
3) Maximum Concurrent Instances.

These values should be set on the host app of the service,and the admin has to monitor the server which host WCF Services to monitor the perfomance of the running WCF services.

To Implement Service throttling on your service,you have to write this code before open the serviceHost Object :

// Required for the ServiceThrottlingBehavior class
using System.ServiceModel.Description;
…
ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(…);
ServiceThrottlingBehavior throttleBehavior = new ServiceThrottlingBehavior();
throttleBehavior.MaxConcurrentCalls = 40;
throttleBehavior.MaxConcurrentInstances = 20;
throttleBehavior.MaxConcurrentSessions = 20;
host.Description.Behaviors.Add(throttleBehavior);
host.Open();

Note : that we set these values before open the servicehost object.

Take care of the following Tips :
1) Default Concurrent Instances is Int32.Max = 21474836467
2) Default Concurrent Calls is 16
3) Default Concurrent Calls is 10


Hope this helps for WCF developers :)




Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Why Choose Team System ?

Hi All,

Alot of customer in the market still need to know the value of using Team System in your environment;Implementing TeamSystem in your organization is not just a developer tools,it manage the SDLC andincrease the productivity of your teams.

please read more on this,by reading the use cases of Team System on 1 central Place :

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/bb676820.aspx

Note : First CTP of Rosario (August CTP)- Next version of Team System is available here :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8450EFF5-24AD-44C3-AB91-1ED88EF2F4F0&displaylang=en


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Reliable Sessions on WCF

Hi folks,

WCF give a greate feature called Reliable Session,when you enable the reliable sessions on your service and your clients,you give your clients a very great advantage which is the client app can sends messages to the Service without waiting for the service reply.

One will ask ? what's the harm for the client app to wait for Service reply ? if the service is busy,and client will wait and blocked until getting the response fro mthe service.and if you put a timeout for your bindings,then excpetion will be thrown against your client.

another point,in cases like client wants to invoke the serivce and doesnt want to wait,you will use the OneWay operation attribute on your service but this will lead to the blocking of your client until getting the response.to avoid this just enable the reliable sessions property on your bindings on the service and the client.

Note : mark your serivce as ConcurrencyMode.Multiple attribute will not avoid the client blocking,but it will change the way of the serivce how it deals with the incoming messages since the default mode for all services is single threaded.


Hope this tips helps........... :)



Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Reliable Sessions on WCF

Hi folks,

WCF give a greate feature called Reliable Session,when you enable the reliable sessions on your service and your clients,you give your clients a very great advantage which is the client app can sends messages to the Service without waiting for the service reply.

One will ask ? what's the harm for the client app to wait for Service reply ? if the service is busy,and client will wait and blocked until getting the response fro mthe service.and if you put a timeout for your bindings,then excpetion will be thrown against your client.

another point,in cases like client wants to invoke the serivce and doesnt want to wait,you will use the OneWay operation attribute on your service but this will lead to the blocking of your client until getting the response.to avoid this just enable the reliable sessions property on your bindings on the service and the client.

Note : mark your serivce as ConcurrencyMode.Multiple attribute will not avoid the client blocking,but it will change the way of the serivce how it deals with the incoming messages since the default mode for all services is single threaded.


Hope this tips helps........... :)



Regards,
Moustafa arafa

OneWay Operation in WCF

Hi Folks,

This post is showing one of the key important features available on WCF as a unified Communication platform,as a .net developer you can read this post and understand the changes and theu pdates that have been done on the WCF.

Simply,WCF is to create WCF Services,these services can be consumed or used by client app.

if you are familiar with Web services,you can understand the idea of this post wich is the OneWay Operation in WCF.

simply Operation is your service or function in your service;since your service can have more than operation .

What does "OneWay operation WCF " ? it means when the client try to consuem oyur service,it doesnt need to wait to get the respornse of the service.

this is cool,this means that it gives the same behavior of the asynchronous call on Web Services;but since we have more than 1 way to implement Asynch Call in the WCF;this one of the options.

How to mark your operation as a OneWay Service

[OperationContract(IsOneWay = true)]
void MyOperation(string id);

Cons :

The OneWay Operation has to be Void and you cant return any value or even valyes by ref or out parameters.


Tip : in case you choose your operation as a oneway operation,dont forget to put the Receive and Ope Time out properties on the Binding Information of the WCF service.




Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Get Started with Team FoundationServer

HI,

if you are beginer or welling to learn all Ins/Out of TFS,simply download this guide from TFS Product team andread it.

This guide is enough without going to buy another resource as a start.

http://www.codeplex.com/TFSGuide


Regards,
Moustafa arafa

Great News : TS Web Access is available

Hi Folks,

MS has released Team System Web Access,now its available to download :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2105C9EE-565E-47B9-A5AC-9A8FF8A07862&displaylang=en

Great Tool.............I will not use Team Explorer / Team Plain Any More :)



Regards,
Moustafa arafa