Previously on my blog i posted how to get the most out of working with the branding aspects of SharePoint in 2007. Now with SharePoint 2010 the story has vastly improved and you CSS and web designer types has really nothing to complain about. Furthermore my good buddy AC (Andrew Connell) has done a great job by working with the good folks at Microsoft to create this awesome MSDN article with guidelines on how to “skin” the heck out of SharePoint. So next time before you complain about how hard it is (it’s really not that hard) to brand SharePoint suggest you go over to “Real World Branding with SharePoint 2010 Publishing Sites” and get yourself familiar with how SharePoint masterpages and page layouts are constructed and how you can abstract your design implementation. Let’s face it gone are the days of hand crafting web sites and cre ...[Read More]

Well the product has been on the market for a few years.. and I see so many people struggle with getting some of the basics of SharePoint right. If you are looking at starting SharePoint development or have been developing sites on SharePoint here is one cool sample site you should look at. Microsoft has made available a great sample site built to showcase the WCM capabilities of SharePoint. Head over to http://www.mssharepointdeveloper.com/ and get hold of the Adventureworks demo site and the sample MSDN guided modules and demos. The new SharePoint On The Web modules cover the following topics: Getting Started with SharePoint Development on the Web Site Structure and Branding Custom Field Types and Mode FBA Authentication Web Interoperability SharePoint Search Content Deployment Minimal Publishing Site Definition ...[Read More]

Via Ryan Duguid and the MSFT SharePoint Blog. The Accessibility Kit for SharePoint (AKS) v2.0 is now available for download. This new version provides some key new features as listed below. Key Features in the AKS v2.0 The AKS v2.0 introduces the following: Smart Control adapters which greatly reduce the amount of custom configuration previously required for AKS control adapters. The Web Part Zone Control Adapter, a special Smart Adapter that modifies the output of SharePoint so that it does not use tables for layout of the Web parts. HiSoftware’s Compliant Code Engine (HCCE) to assist organizations in creating code that is compliant to standards-based HTML or XHTML. Additional requirements under Canadian Common Look and Feel 2.0 (CLF 2.0) guidelines. Examples of remediation to comply with WCAG 2.0 Level AA. Fren ...[Read More]

One of the important aspects when a SharePoint project has been initiated and completed (successfully or otherwise) is who supports what in terms of the deployment and various SharePoint related components. Previously I posted about what you would need to do in terms of starting a SharePoint project and what you need to know from a project managers point of view. This post is about what happens or should 'ideally' happen after your core SharePoint deployment has been carried out. Again these are only some example important technical aspects that I am highlighting. Each deployment will be unique so it's up to your project team and business to identify the approach for your post deployment support and maintenance of SharePoint as well as the supporting core infrastructure. For example if we take some of my points about core infrastruc ...[Read More]

Thanks to everyone who came to my session at the Christchurch SharePoint User Group and Matt (Btw Matt is doing 1 post a day about SharePoint related development until Xmas!), and Gary for organising the event. This post is aimed at covering off some key points which I  wanted to clarify. I introduced a planning framework and wanted to clarify that I use this depending on various factors and the engagement that I am doing. Initiation or Pre-deployment should answer questions related to your existing infrastructure and how you manage these. This is the stage where you will spend some time analysing your current processes and also how you may need to establish some ownership and guidelines to what you want to achieve in the longer term with your SharePoint deployment. Governance and Capacity planning can be a lengthy exercise if no ...[Read More]

Big Kudos to Matt Smith for organising the upcoming SharePoint developer tour in New Zealand by SharePoint developer whiz kid Gavin Barron ! Tour dates and venues Auckland: Wednesday, 23 July 2008 Time: Drinks + Snacks from 5:15PM, Talk from 5:30PM to 6:30PM Location: Level 7 Fronde House, 131 Queen Street Join and RSVP: http://www.sharepointusergroup.net.nz/Auckland/ Tauranga: Thursday, 24 July 2008 Time: Drinks + Snacks from 5:30PM, Talk from 6:00PM to 7:00PM Location: EnvisionIT, Level 5 Westpac Building, 2 Devonport Road, Tauranga Join and RSVP:  http://www.sharepointusergroup.net.nz/BayOfPlenty/ Christchurch: Monday, 28 July 2008 Time: Drinks + Snacks from 5:30PM, Talk from 6:00PM to 7:00PM Location: Canterbury Innovation Incubator (CII), 200 Armagh Street (opposite Centennial Leisure Centre) Join and RSVP:  http://www.sharep ...[Read More]

When using SharePoint for creating and maintaining content rich web sites the content deployment API provides a way of moving content from a source server to a destination server. For example if you have a team developing a content heavy Internet site or an Intranet site you are able to setup content deployment between servers. (Assuming you are using multiple servers in Dev > Stg > Prd). See my previous post about  Multiple development servers and managing code. First you need to understand that in a SharePoint deployment "content" can be hard to define. Say for example you are creating a dynamic rotating image gallery feature with an image and a description about the image and an URL link. In this scenario there are multiple roles involved in the design and build phases of this piece. These roled are developers, design ...[Read More]

Paul Andrew is a Senior Technical Product Manager for the SharePoint Developer Platform from Microsoft, Redmond and he will be in Wellington, New Zealand and we are happy to be able to get Paul speak to the local developer community as part of a combined .Net and SharePoint User Group event. This event will be held at the Xero offices. Details of the event follows. Title: Introducing SharePoint for .NET Developers in Visual Studio Speaker: Paul Andrew, Senior Technical Product Manager, SharePoint Developer Platform, Microsoft, Redmond, USA Date: Friday 27 June 2008 @ 5pm Venue: Xero Ltd, Level 1, 98 Customhouse Quay Paul has been helping the international community by evangelising how .NET developers can leverage the SharePoint platform from within Visual Studio. In this talk he will show and answer all your development related ques ...[Read More]