How "VSTO 3.0 for Office 2007 Programming" book born, a true stroy!

VSTO 3.0 for Office 2007 Programming [Buy Now]

I started my career in Microsoft technologies. I was very much keen on exploring technologies and designing applications. When I joined one of the world’s largest software services and consulting company in 2006, I was asked to explore on Microsoft’s upcoming technology SharePoint. I was just started the training material and practicing the same. And suddenly the client work has been allotted for a few which includes me in that team. After the work has been allotted for each individual in the team, I and my colleague (and a best friend) got to work on VSTO programming for InfoPath 2003 which is part of our client project. But my best friend she was not interested in VSTO work and she feels this is not the right technology for her career and raised a question for me, do you feel comfortable in VSTO? Is it good for your career growth? I said for me technology is secondary, for me I was keen on the quality of the work I do, whatever the technology may be. Few words to mention about my friend as a developer, she was an awesome developer, and any company in this world should be the luckiest company to have her as a resource.

And this is where the spark fired an idea for me to write a book on VSTO, to write book on VSTO and show everyone that technology doesn’t decide your growth it’s just your attitude plays the key role in your life. Writing a book which is fully authored by me is my long-time dream. I was thinking about this from my school days, one day in my life I will write a book. Now I got an idea for my dream, what I need is to start working on that. There is zero support and encouragement in my organization I worked, feel like stuck between office politics. Under performing guys are ruling the project to failure, even the failure doesn't reflect their originality instead they gets appreciation. So I decided to carry on my career in different organization where I can produce my excellence too. So I decided to leave the most liked and loved company in my life.

First I started writing for the publication with more energy and enthusiastic. My first delivery of chapter was on InfoPath. The chapter returned with huge amount of comments and feedback, which actually said to me better stop writing :). But my editor Jonathan Hassell and Tony Campbell was the greatest; who make me thinks get going... Later before a month of release of the book the press came up with one of the best worst news I have heard in my life, eight months of dedication, hard work and how many sleepless nights is washed away from that news. They said we have decided to withdraw from your book agreement. A few days I was upset and I bounce back with a new idea.

Added new ideas and enhanced the content and approached the Europe’s leading technical publisher PackT Publication and get a green signal precede the project. Again started the works get going and finally the book was on store for sale! Thanks to all crew members of PackT Publishing for their dedication and commitment toward the launch of this book.

When I send message to people and friends I got a great appreciation and response from different people. Those messages are refreshing and boosted my confidence to write another book immediately.

Writing a book is a great adventure ... Congratulation for your book ...... very nice cover :) - Ludovic LefortCongratulations! An awesome accomplishment that requires a great deal of focus and sacrifice to execute on. Great job! - Amanda Murphy
Congratulations Vivek. This is a great achievement. Looking forward to seeing your book - soon! - SS AhmedVery nice... i post this in my blog... Congrats!!! - Vladimir MedinaCongratulations Vivek, this is indeed a great achievement! - Cristina Nardini
Congrats Vivek. Way to go! - Suprotim Agarwal
Great Stuff. It's an area waiting to explored. Glad you did it. Looking forward to see more from you :). - Niraj G Bhatt
excellent work Congratulations. - Ajay Pathak
Great Stuff Vivek!! - Amit Bansal
Congratulations – this looks like a great book. - Geetesh Bajaj
Congratulations !! Your hardwork has reaped you this success:):) - Vijayraj vm
Congrats man. Nice selection of subject. - Praveen Nair
Congrats Vivek Wish you follow it up with many more - Shanmuga Sundara Raman

.... more and more... what to say countless...

Thanks to everyone :)

WEB 2.0 from Microsoft

KOBE – Web 2.0 Service Development Resource Kit Kobe is a “getting started” resource kit on planning, architecting, and implementing Web 2.0 applications and services using the Microsoft Platform.

The kit includes a variety of content (presentations, white papers, and a sample project with source code) that caters to these audiences. The implementation artifacts for the sample project included in the kit is targeted at solution architects and developers who are familiar with the Microsoft Platform, and who are looking for information on ways to apply related offerings in the context of architecting and implementing Web 2.0 applications & services.

>Learn more>

MVP Certification Hero Campaign

Get Microsoft Certified:

Help your community to take advantage of this offer to increase their credibility in the market! All they have to do is go to www.learnandcertify.com by March 31, 2009 to obtain a Microsoft Exam Voucher using your MVP Promotion Code.

This will get you more offers Your Unique Microsoft Certification Exam Voucher Code: GS00DRJ3UV

Use the above to get discount on your certification

Get the Host name and IP address from ASP.NET

To get the Host name and IP address from your ASP.NET application, we have option is .NET. Using the using System.Net; namespace you have access to the classes which can expose the Host name and IP address.

The sample code to explain the solution. Paste the same code in the page load event of the ASP.NET page.

using System.Net;
//Get the Host name
string strHostName = string.Empty;
strHostName = Dns.GetHostName();
// Then using host name, get the IP address list..
IPHostEntry ipEntry = Dns.GetHostByName(strHostName);
//Get the IP address
IPAddress [] addr = ipEntry.AddressList;
for (int i = 0; i < addr.Length; i++)
{
Response.Write("IP Address {0}: {1} " + i + addr[i].ToString() + ", HostName: " + strHostName);
}

Composite Application Guidance for WPF and Silverlight v2.0 (PRISM)

The Composite Client Application Guidance is designed to help you more easily build modular Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight client line of business applications.

These types of applications typically feature multiple screens, rich, flexible user interaction and data visualization, and role-determined behavior. They are built to last and built for change. This means that the application's expected lifetime is measured in years and that it will change in response to new, unforeseen requirements. This application may start small and over time evolve into a composite client—composite applications use loosely coupled, independently evolvable pieces that work together in the overall application.

Read More

Creating Custom Field Types in SharePoint using Visual Studio

Here we are planning to create a Custom field will auto populate with the logged in user information. First we need create project with SharePoint assembly as reference. For this create empty SharePoint Application project.
> Start Visual Studio.
> On the File menu, click New, and then click Project.
> In the Project Types pane of the New Project dialog box, select Visual C#, and then select the SharePoint category.
>In the Templates pane, click Empty. Specify a Name and Location for the project, and then click OK. Visual Studio creates a solution that contains an empty project.

Visual Studio Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides support
for creating SharePoint field types through the Field Control project item.

Now we need to add a Field Control to the Project we have created.

> In the Visual Studio Solution Explorer, right-click the empty project created in the previous procedure, click Add, and then click New Item.
> In the Categories pane of the Add New Item dialog box, expand the Visual C# Project Items node, and then select the SharePoint category.
> In the Templates pane, click Field Control. Specify LoginInfoID for the Name of the field control, and then click Add. Visual Studio adds the new field control to the project.

Visual Studio adds two Microsoft Visual C# code files to the project: LoginInfoID.FieldControl.cs and LoginInfoID.Field.cs. The LogoField.Field.cs file contains code that defines a class that by default is derived from the SPFieldText class and that overrides the FieldRenderingControl property.

Now write the custom logic inside the LoginInfoID.FieldControl.cs file. Refer the this full source attached in this blog for understand the remaining. Download Source Code

Now the field control xml file and deployment.

The XML file must be named in the format fldtypes*.xml (for example, fldtypes_customfield.xml) and placed in Local_Drive:\\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML
Upload all the .dll files into the Drive:\WINDOWS\assembly folder
At a command prompt, type iisreset to reset Internet Information Services (IIS).
In a view of the list to which you want to add the custom field type, click Settings, and then click Create Column.

Result as shown screenshot

Here the Training Course Directory in Microsoft

Here the Training Course Directory in Microsoft, some collection of training videos and events which will be very usefull.

Click here for more

CAML.NET IntelliSense for SharePoint

Excellent outcome by some of the Microsoft Technology community influencers.
CAML.NET IntelliSense for SharePoint
To build a SharePoint feature, you must write CAML, but the raw CAML schemas produce only minimal editing support in Visual Studio. This project extends the raw CAML schemas with fully annotated XSDs that enable IntelliSense to display full SDK documentation while editing SharePoint XML files. Most SharePoint developers know how to add the SharePoint schemas to Visual Studio so you get IntelliSense when editing CAML files. This is a good first step, but only provides the bare minimum of information needed to build solutions. The result is that you spend a good deal of time searching through the SDK documentation for the necessary details for using a particular CAML element or attribute, or to see the list of valid attribute values.

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Make sure the application for the file type (.aspx) is installed.

After I created new WebSite in VS 2005 I'm getting this error

---------------------------Microsoft Visual Studio---------------------------

There is no editor available for 'C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\WebSites\WebSiteUpload\Default.aspx'.
Make sure the application for the file type (.aspx) is installed.

---------------------------OK ---------------------------

Solution:

run from a Visual Studio Command Prompt, type "devenv.exe /setup" and then "devenv /resetskippkgs" (without the quotes)

It is an error to use a section registered as allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level.

Error

"It is an error to use a section registered as allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level. This error can be caused by a virtual directory not being configured as an application in IIS."

This is the error message caused when I developed the ASP.NET application my development server. After few analysis I found that web.config should be moved to root directory from the sub directory. If you all want to have a web.config in the sub-directory, then the only settings you can specify are authorization, appsettings etc., Another root cause for the problem may be you may have one duplicate web.config file in a subfolder.

Configuration Wizard An exception of type System.UnauthorizedAccessException was thrown.

Configuration Wizard An exception of type System.UnauthorizedAccessException was thrown. Additional exception information: Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

Facing this problem while running the Configuration wizard after installing the MOSS 2007. Do anyone have fine solution to over come this problem?

One of the solution is : The technique to reset passwords is exactly the same as resetting the accounts used. It gives you an understanding of what accounts affect each service.Also, in some cases resetting the password for domain accounts triggers Sharepoint to reset permissions which can fix odd issues like this.

Even this doesn't solve in another environment!

Microsoft® Enterprise Desktop Virtualization V1

Microsoft® Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V, formerly known as Kidaro) enhances deployment, management and user experience for Virtual PC images on a Windows® Desktop, independent of the local desktop configuration and operating system (OS). MED-V leverages Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to provide an enterprise solution for desktop virtualization streamlining OS upgrades, and increasing IT control and user flexibility in enterprise environments. MED-V solution for Application-to-OS incompatibility accelerates the upgrade path to Windows Vista®. Applications that cannot be installed on Windows Vista® or have not been fully tested on Windows Vista® may be installed by the administrator in a virtual machine that runs a previous version of the OS (e.g., Windows XP or Windows 2000) and operate in their native, supported environment. Learn more!

My 15th article in the Codeproject.com

My 15th article in the Codeproject.com

Title: Building SharePoint Web Service Dynamically and Accessing the Documents
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/sharepoint/Dynamic_SharePoint.aspx

Explore Azure Services

Windows Azure
Windows® Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft® data centers.

Cloud computing with…
Ability to run Microsoft ASP.NET Web applications or .NET code in the cloud
Service hosting environment that includes Internet Information Services 7.0 and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
Security supported by flexible Code Access Security policies
Small runtime API that supports logging and local scratch storage
Web portal that helps you deploy, scale, and upgrade your services quickly and easily

Learn more

Microsoft Certified Master

How to become a Microsoft Certified Master

Do you have what it takes to achieve the highest level of technical certification for Microsoft server products? Successful applicants are able to demonstrate their expertise through hands-on experience and prerequisite exams. Complete the following requirements to achieve your Microsoft Certified Master credential.

Microsoft Certified Master program application and registration
Click here to become master :)

Visual Studio 2008 in Tamil language interface!

CLIP (Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam) for Visual Studio 2008
The Captions Language Interface Pack is a tool that uses a tooltip caption and/or a small discrete dialog to display translations for user interface items in Visual Studio 2008. The user hovers with the mouse on top of the UI elements to see an instant translation. For version 1.0, the CLIP offers partial localization, i.e. covers only most of the core IDE of the product.

I am very happy that, I have done my small contribution by testing the localization for Tamil Language before this release.

For Tamil http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4e5258d2-52f4-46b8-8b74-da2dbec7c2f7&displaylang=ta

Manual steps to re-create the Show Desktop icon

Manual steps to re-create the Show Desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar
The Show Desktop icon is not an ordinary program shortcut. If the icon is deleted, the procedure for re-creating the icon is not obvious.

To manually re-create the Show Desktop icon, follow these steps:

1. Click Start , click Run, type notepad, and then click OK.

2. In Notepad, type the following text on individual lines:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

3. On the File menu, click Save As, and then save the file to your desktop as Show Desktop.scf.

Note Notepad might automatically append a .txt extension to the file name. Remove this extension if present. The file name should be Show Desktop.scf.

The file must now be moved to the correct folder in the user profile to appear in the Quick Launch toolbar. To manually do this, use one of the following methods.

Ref: MSDN

Read SharePoint documents using SQL Server query

Retrieve documents form the SharePoint website and display the same in your Windows forms application. No need to use SharePoint webservices or SharePoint Object model. Just run through the query to fetch the documents from the SharePoint using SQL query.

Sample Code:
private void btnload_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string RootSite = txtsharepointsite.Text.ToString(); // "http://w2czbmlg01:12345/";
// Opening SQL connection for Microsoft SQL Server 2005
SqlConnection MySQLConnection = new SqlConnection(@"Data Source=W2CZBMLG01;Initial Catalog=WSS_Content_12345;Integrated Security=True");
// Passing SQL command text
string strSQLcmd = "SELECT CONVERT(nvarchar(36), Id) AS ID, '" + RootSite + "'+ DirName + '/' + LeafName AS Name, LeafName FROM dbo.Docs WHERE (LeafName NOT LIKE 'template%') AND LeafName LIKE '%.doc' ORDER BY DirName, LeafName";
SqlCommand MySQLCommand = new SqlCommand (strSQLcmd, MySQLConnection);
MySQLConnection.Open();
MySQLCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();
// Dats set
DataSet Docds = new DataSet("Docs");
SqlDataAdapter MySQLAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter();
MySQLAdapter.SelectCommand = MySQLCommand;
MySQLAdapter.Fill(Docds, "Docs");
for (int i = 0; i < Docds.Tables["Docs"].Rows.Count; i++)
{
// list populates
lstdocuments.Items.Add(Docds.Tables["Docs"].Rows[i].ItemArray[2].ToString());
//lstdocuments.DisplayMember = Docds.Tables["Docs"].Rows[i].ItemArray[2].ToString();
//lstdocuments.ValueMember = Docds.Tables["Docs"].Rows[i].ItemArray[1].ToString();
}
}
}

Just create a Windows Form application and add this code in the form load or button click to get the result.

Image Composite Editor from Microsoft Research

Image Composite Editor from Microsoft Research

Microsoft Image Composite Editor is an advanced panoramic image stitcher. You shoot a set of overlapping photographs of a scene from a single location, and Image Composite Editor creates a high-resolution panorama incorporating all your images at full resolution.

read more download

Visual Studio 2008 Express is available

Visual Studio 2008 Express is now available


Get started creating cool fun projects with one of these Express Edition products.
explore more on .NET 3.5 and more on Microsoft Technologies

Download Now