harbar.net component based software & platform hygiene
March 2007 Blog Posts

Downloadable books for Office SharePoint Server 2007

These downloadable books are the reference for the infrastructure design of your SharePoint environment, and have not been getting anywhere near enough pimping. I guess the sheer weight of this material doesn't provide rapid enough assimilation in this world of instant knowledge, but that's exactly why they are essential for administrators and architects. Key topology designs, configuration specifics along with comprehensive check lists mean this is the PAG for SharePoint 2007. Also included is essential information architecture approaches which should be required reading for those implementing in large organizations. So go get them, print them and read them (downloadable CHMs would have been nicer):...

Vista tweaks and utilities

Ahh, Windows Vista, isn't it nice - as I've mentioned previously finally a computing experience which fulfills the promise. Trouble is, for a front-end and platform hygiene kinda guy, there's a few annoyances that need fixed. So here are my favorite shell tweaks I use on my Vista boxes. Some are old, and some are new. Hopefully you'll see some you like. IE icon fixIn this release, the Internet Explorer link has vanished from the Desktop, and you can't get it back via the Desktop Icons applet. You could just add a normal shortcut, but you get the horrible...

"Test Driven" SharePoint Development

Last month I posted an argument for a Developer Edition of Office SharePoint Server. By no means was this a wholly original or new idea, but some of the benefits of such a product were being poorly articulated and it needed some wider exposure. Anyways, the original post generated some good discussion both here and elsewhere and the general consensus is that people want it. Over the last few days the post has been re-invigorated, and Andrew Woodward commented about an associated topic, the lack of SDL approaches to SharePoint development in general. Andrew's point on testing and continuous integration actually...

MCMS Migration Resources

William Cornwill has published an article on how to modify my MCMSfaq.com MCMS AdRotator control to work with MOSS 2007. Via Stefan. Vivid Group White Paper: MCMS to MOSS upgrade - an excellent white paper. Via Angus. There much more stuff like this coming soon...

SharePoint Visio Server Stencils

Tom has put together some decent SharePoint stencils... Link to Stop, Collaborate and Listen - Tom's SharePoint Blog : MOSS Architecture Diagrams - Visio Server Stencils

XBOX 360

It's now been about six months or so since I got me an XBOX 360, and I'm liking it. The games are awesome, I've particularly enjoyed the little time I've spent in Madden, and recently to coincide with the Cricket World Cup, Brain Lara's Cricket game came out, which has made me very happy! The Vista based Media Center Experience is also pretty sweet, really the only issues here are a bunch of settings which should be available via the GUI and no support for DVD library and streaming of video formats Microsoft doesn't like (which can be 'solved' with MyMovies and...

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2

It's here!!! Get it at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=95ac1610-c232-4644-b828-c55eec605d55&DisplayLang=en  

What every SharePoint administrator needs to know about Alternate Access Mappings (Part 1 of 3)

Troy Starr has started his series on Alternate Access Mappings. This is a must read, so go check it out. Hi folks, this is Troy Starr again from the Windows SharePoint Services Test team. Today I'd like to talk about one of the most powerful, but often one of the least understood, features in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. That feature is called Alternate Access Mappings. Around here, we just call it "AAM" for short. Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/06/what-every-sharepoint-administrator-needs-to-know-about-alternate-access-mappings-part-1.aspx

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista

It's finally done and available at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=90e2942d-3ad1-4873-a2ee-4acc0aace5b6&displaylang=en&tm

SharePoint 2007 as an enterprise application platform

Subscribers to this blog will by now know that in my view the greatest facet of SharePoint 2007 is that it offers a compelling development platform for enterprise applications by providing a rich set of infrastructure plumbing, provisioning capabilities and an application framework which embraces and extends ASP.NET. However that's all very nice coming from me, a certifiable SharePoint Kinda Guy. It's much better when those with a lot less exposure to the technology "get it". Jose Barreto, a Systems Architect, has seen the light and posted a great argument for SharePoint as an application platform. I have been spending some time...

MOSS 2007 and Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 White Paper Released

Via Max Akbar. This download provides setup and configuration information for solutions that are based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Commerce Server 2007. This download includes step-by-step configuration tasks and sample code. This document in this download does not provide prescriptive guidance or a recommended enterprise architecture for building solutions that are based on these technologies. It is assumed that the reader has basic knowledge about Office SharePoint Server 2007. Configuring and Integrating Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Commerce Server 2007