Reza Alirezaei’s Blog

Summary: Explore different options you have to work with structured data in a high volume while you need to perform complex queries and actions against such data ranging from authoring, approval and landing information on Web Part pages, all the way down to the physical storage. This blog post is part 1 of a blog post series that I am planning to write on this topic. (13 printed pages)Applies to: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007See Also:

• Part 2 : Exposing LOB Data
• Part 3 : Browser enabled InfoPath Forms
• Part 4 : SharePoint Designer

Download this post in PDF version here.Content:

• Introduction
• Creating the Northwind Database
• Creating the Suppliers List
• Configuring SSO
• Additional Resources

Introduction: Data presentation is such a common requirement that it affects just about every layer of a platform on which you build your solution. Structured data must be stored somewhere (right?), so deciding where to physically store your data is just as important as the techniques you leverage to interact with it. Typically, when it comes to working with structured data in SharePoint, you have three options:

1) Keep all your data in a backend system and query it real time. In case this is the first thing that comes to you mind, then you are certainly among those who believe that SharePoint is not meant to be used as a database management system.

2) Keep all your data in SharePoint. In another word, you use SharePoint as your main data repository which means no dependency on any other extra data sources. Less deployment headaches, less configuration and easier maintenance.

3) Use a hybrid approach. It is all about keeping the balance between great features lists and document libraries offer in SharePoint and what database engines can bring to the table. This approach may or may not require some extra work to keep both data structures in sync.

Read more…

 In case you didn’t hear it in mix09 keynote, IE 8.0 was RTMed today (Download). According to the benchmarks ,IE 8.0 is without any doubt, the best IE ever and we all know that there is no better browser to view SharePoint sites in than IE! 

First off, a big “Thank You” to the IE team for their fabulous efforts to improve IE 8.0 with regards to standards based compliance. That’s the first obvious thing that comes to my mind. Work with it a little bit and you know what I am talking about!

As the IE8 team claims, the IE 8.0 performance is now much better comparing to its predecessors (i.e IE 7.0), and my feeling after a few HOURS of trying it tells me the exact  same thing.

>>IE 8.0 really loads my SharePoint pages noticeably faster:

In order to test both browser’s speed response, I put them through a number of tests. I used just one computer to ensure that the tests compare just the browsers, and not the hardware or software they run on. The calculated average response time  was recorded before and after I upgraded my IE 7.0 instance to IE 8.0. Almost in all cases , I got my testing sharepoint pages loaded faster!

For example for the OOTB default.aspx page (in a publishing context) the average request and response delta was 7-8 ms faster in IE 8.0.

In IE 7.0:

In IE 8.0 :

Yeah , I know that 7 ms is trivial , but remember, this was for a plain vanilla OOTB page! In some of the pages I got to 2-3 seconds faster load time.

>>UI Elements are rendered in IE 7.0 mode by default:

>>Navigation is just plain broken in IE8 Standards Mode:

Albeit they’ve fixed many  of the UI inconsistencies since Beta 1 , so far the out of the box MOSS UI experience in IE 8.0 standards mode looks messy. Blueband master page in publishing sites is an exception as it works in both IE 7.0 and IE 8.0 modes.

OOTB  default.master page and System master page simply do NOT work in IE 8.0 mode unless Document Mode is set to Quirk.

ECB menu (and flyouts menu) don’t render properly as well:

All right people, that was a quick observation of IE 8.0 and SharePoint. I am off to bed!

Update March 20/2009: You wanna dig deeper? See Randy’s post here. While you are at it, check out this KB article too.

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen.

If you didn’t get a chance to see me presenting this topic across Canada , I will be presenting it again as a webcast at Microsoft Virtual Techdays Developers 2009. This virtual event is a 24-hour day of online technology learning with 95 LIVE sessions delivered via Live Meeting.

here are the details –>

Language  : English.
Products   : Office SharePoint Server 2007,SQL Server Reporting Services 2008
Duration   : 60 Minutes
Start Date : Wednsday April 01, 2009 2:30PM-3:30PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Start Date : Wednsday April 01, 2009 7:30PM-8:30PM UTC/GMT Time (Greenwich Mean Time)

Essentially we will be talking about the topics that I have already documented on my blog.

If you wish to attend virtually, the registration URL is at –

http://www.msfttechdays.com/Modules/Registration/Submit.aspx

Make sure once you register , you also look at the sessions and chose the ones you’re planning to attend:

http://www.msfttechdays.com/public/sessionlist.aspx
Also as a FYI, keep a look out for the next issue of the TechNet Magazine. There will be an article on this topic written by yours truly 🙂

Update for Attendees – March/24/2009

Here’s what attendees get for attending:

Get a second chance to pass your Microsoft Certification exam In the real world, you might need more than one chance at certification. With Second Shot, if you do not pass any IT professional, developer, or project manager certification exam on your first try, you can retake the exam without an additional cost. Along with enjoying the benefits of Second Shot, you can access a collection of Microsoft E-Learning courses, which provide 8 to 20 hours of on-line instructional content to help you master a product and prepare for a certification. Normally priced up to US$350, these e-learning collections are just US$35 when you register for Second Shot. Limit one per customer.  Register Now!

50% off Microsoft Certification exam – exclusive offer for TechDays attendees! As a special benefit for attending the sessions live on April 1st, all TechDay attendees will be given a special URL and discount code to register for a Microsoft certification. You must take your exam by May 31, 2009. This offer is available worldwide and is not combinable with any other offers.

MSDN Premium Subscriptions  Attendees who complete one or more session evaluations during the day of the event will be entered to win one of several MSDN Premium Subscriptions that includes Visual Studio Professional edition, Expression Web and Blend, Operating Systems, SQL Server, Servers, Office, Dynamics, MSDN Library, Managed Newsgroups, Online Concierge, 4 technical support incidents, and more.

 Next month, on Saturday, April 25, the fourth annual Toronto Code Camp will be held in downtown Toronto. I’ve had the privilege to present at this event again.

Like any other Code Camps , there is absolutely no fluff or marketing stuff in Toronto’s biggest code camp whatsoever. Find out more about the agenda and speakers at http://www.torontocodecamp.net. BTW, Toronto Code Camp now has a Facebook group setup at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=55545432454. RSVP please if you are planning to attend.

I’ll be presenting the following session:

Turning Chaos into Order: Best Practices for Developing SharePoint Applications

Truthfully there is much more to development with the SharePoint platform than the raw aspects of the technology. While I have been building enterprise-level applications on the top of this great platform for years, I have discovered that there are some common challenges that SharePoint architects and developers often face when building such applications.

 In this session we will explore some of the toughest architectural decisions you may face during the development life cycle of a SharePoint project, how to deal with common real-life hurdles and how to utilize existing best practices, patterns and practices, tools and ideas to ensure that your SharePoint applications successfully transition from development to release.

Update 4/26/2009: Session Follow-up is available here.

I was informed via Ishai’s blog that he has been able to find and implement the solution here to get his Bluetooth to work on Windows 2008 with hyper-V installed. Since I only use x64 Windows Server operating systems on my laptops (for the same reasons he does), I have been desprately looking to find a fix to enable Bluetooth feature on my lovely ThinkPad T61P as well.

I read through the fix and looks like there is a catch for x64 users!

Getting your Bluetooth device using WIDCOMM 5.1 drivers and patcher requires you to select “Disable Driver Signing Enforcement” EVERY time you boot (from F8 Menu) right after your BIOS post; otherwise Windows marks the driver improper and stops it from being loaded.

Windows with the hypervisor enabled doesn’t allow you to sleep or hibernate the laptop, so pressing F8 every time your computer boots up is a MAJOR bummer, then again at least this way you have an option! Better than nothing, eh?

Update March/01/09: Fellow MVP, Ben Curry pointed me to this installer (Ready Driver Plus) which takes care of the manual step. It works for me! Install, reboot, and enjoy No more driver enforcement 🙂 . I’m all for increased security (Disable Driver Signing Enforcement is NOT a good security practice ), but I guess , for now, I am going to live without it until I find a better solution. As always , please try this at your own risk!