7 Techniques for Customizing SharePoint 2010
Another of my articles is currently being featured on SharePointBriefing.com. The article (titled "7 Techniques for Customzing SharePoint 2010") explains at a high level some of the more popular techniques for customizing SharePoint 2010.
Recap from devLINK 2010 in Nashville
devLINK 2010 ended today, and I've got to tell you that was one excellent conference. John Kellar and his leadership team obviously work really hard. This year the conference sold out with around 900 attendees. There were around 150 breakout sessions and opening/closing keynotes. Tim Huckaby pulled off an amazing keynote to kick the conference off. As fate would have it, he mentioned some of the cool things his company has done with WPF and SharePoint just minutes before I was to deliver the first SharePoint development session of the conference. So I was caught a little off guard when 120-130 filled the room -- me, on the third day of antibiotics and antihistamine battling a terrible sinus infection.
Thanks to the adrenaline rush from Tim's keynote (did I mention he was amazing?), I was able to pick up some steam. I only had 45 minutes to deliver a 75 minute presentation. Even after running over by five minutes, I was still not able to completely finish. I will post the code on my blog soon -- on a new page I added just for code. The reviews of the session were mostly good. Despite stating in the session description that my objective was to guide .NET developers when to develop on the SharePoint platform and introduce them to the SharePoint Object model, and my verbal disclaimer at the beginning that it wouldn't be a code-filled session, there were a handful of people who still expressed their desire to see more code. After all, this was devLINK -- where code rules and slide decks drool. So it was my first time there...give me a break! Call it a rookie mistake. Let me come back next year and I'll "code the far outta ya." Here is the slide deck for the "Intro to SharePoint Development" session.
The audience for the InfoPath session was a bit smaller as anticipated. We demonstrated how InfoPath can be used to replace paper forms and automate common business processes. We developed a simple workflow using a custom SharePoint list and a workflow developed in SharePoint Designer 2010. Then we demonstrated how to streamline that workflow using InfoPath. Using codeless rules and actions, we can show users only the views of a form that they should see and use buttons on the forms to move the workflow along with a minimal amount of clicks. The slide deck is below. A complete walk-thru will also be added to my labs page. The room came up with some great ideas for the InfoPath product team -- including the ability to share data connections and rules across forms, and the desire to inherit forms (instead of using lackluster form parts).
Test SMTP Server for SharePoint Outgoing Email Settings
I have been trying to find a good solution for a test SMTP server for SharePoint for some time. Like many others, I have unique requirements including: 1) I run a SharePoint development instance on my Windows 7 laptop, 2) I run SharePoint test instances on virtual machines, and 3) I do many SharePoint demos from my laptop -- sometimes without an internet connection. Since SharePoint requires you to use a SMTP server that allows anonymous access, that somewhat limits one from using an ISP account as well. It is frustrating to demo a workflow without the ability to send an email.
I recently discovered an open source solution for developers that captures SMTP traffic on the developer machine and doesn't actually send it. This works perfect for demos for me. The solution is called smtp4dev. Here is how it works.
Once you have downloaded and installed smtp4dev from codeplex.com, double-click the icon in the system tray and click the options button on the dialog that appears. Switch to the server tab and put your computer name in the Domain Name field. Note that the smtp4dev instructions suggest that you use localhost which in most cases would be fine. However, in the Outgoing Email Settings in SharePoint, I received an error saying the localhost smtp server could not found. I got around the error by naming the domain and smtp server the same as my workstation.
Once you have smtp4dev configured on your SharePoint server, open up SharePoint's Central Administration. Go to Manage web application --> highlight your web application --> General Settings --> Outgoing Email. Fill out the screen similar to below.
After that, you are good to go! I opened up a calendar on my SharePoint 2010 Team Site and added an alert. It really doesn't matter to whom the alert would be sent as this tool intercepts all outgoing emails from your test server. Then I added an event to my calendar. A few seconds later, the smtp4dev icon in the system tray notified me that it had intercepted an email. I double-clicked on it and I saw the following:
When I double-click on the email message in smtp4dev, Outlook opens on my workstation displaying the alert email.
It's that easy! I saw one report that smtp4dev would not work when you do not have a live internet account. However, I disabled the wireless interface on my laptop and it still worked for me just fine. From what I can tell, this is going to be perfect for doing SharePoint demos. I'm sure I'll use it for years to come. I want to think Robert Wood for contributing this excellent solution.
Links to Some SharePoint Resources at Microsoft.com
I have created some TinyURLs for some links that I refer to often when giving SharePoint presentations or answering questions in forums.
To see what features are available in which edition (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) of SharePoint, refer to the SharePoint edition comparisons page at:
http://tinyurl.com/sp2010editions
To download the SDK (Software Development Kit), including documentation and code samples for SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010, visit the Microsoft Download Site at:
To get started with SharePoint development, check out the presentations, videos, source code and hands on labs available in the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Developer Training Kit at:
http://tinyurl.com/sp2010devkit
To get help making the right development and architectural decisions, visit the SharePoint Guidance Patterns and Practices site at:
