CentrePoint for SharePoint: May 2005

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Yukon (SQL server 2005) webcasts

Sunday, May 15, 2005

MIT Open Courseware (OCW) - Mindblowing stuff

MIT Open Courseware Site

What an incredible concept... MIT, which can cost $40K annually, is giving away their content...

Check out the streaming video file of the CNN program on the MIT OCW Web site. These videos are in Real Player format at speeds of (220K) (80K) (56K).The videos are also highlighted on the MIT OCW homepage, and on the MIT OCW Media Coverage page.

Look at the sheer volume of courses and pages and mixed media types and binary files that are part of this site. It's not one of the largest content based sites onthe web, but it is a fun and creative one that is also extremely usable. And, it's powered by Microsoft Content Management Server 2002...

Thanks to Own Allen

Old but good Articles !!

Technology Decisions

Friday, May 13, 2005

Excellent tools for SharePoint !!

Check out these excellent New Tools for SharePoint..

SharePoint Skin

SharePoint Page ToolBar

SharePoint Status

ENJOY !!

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Calling Win32 API in .net

Win32 API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of dlls, basically, predefined Windows functions used to control the appearance and behavior of every Windows element. Most commonly used ones are User32.dll, Kernel32.dll, Gdi32.dll, Comdlg32.dll etc... In .NET world it is UnManaged Code.In .NET we can call Win 32 API using platform Interop (P-Invoke) Services, which resides at System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace

Windows API calls were an important part of any programming model. Whenever possible, you should use managed code from the .NET Framework to perform tasks instead of Windows API calls. Before going through the trouble of and exposing yourself to the risk of calling Win32 APIs directly, make sure that the functionality you require is not already available in .NET. Some system event, for examples, can be accessed through the Microsoft.Win32 Namespace. Other functions are now an integral part of the .NET object model. That said, if you really do need to call the Win32 API, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Windows dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) represent a special category of interoperability. As mentioned earlier, Windows APIs do not use managed code, do not have built-in type libraries, and use data types that are different than those used with Visual Studio .NET. Because of these differences, and because Windows APIs are not COM objects, interoperability with Windows APIs and the .NET Platform is performed using platform invoke, or PInvoke. Platform invoke is a service that enables managed code to call unmanaged functions implemented in DLLs.

You can use PInvoke by applying the DllImport attribute to an empty procedure.
In C#, For example

public class Win32
{
[DllImport("User32.dll")]
public static extern Int32 FindWindow(String lpClassName,String lpWindowName);
}

For using any external function in .NET you have to declare that function in your program. In above statement we are trying to use FindWindow function of User32.dll. While declaring such a function we prefix extern keyword with that, which indicate that the declared function is an external function.

Some Good Artciles
Consuming Unmanaged DLL Functions

.NET Interoperability: .NET ↔ Win32

Working with Win32 API in .NET

Microsoft Win32 to Microsoft .NET Framework API Map

.NET interop marshaling made easier

Calling Windows APIs

Platform Invocation Services in .NET Framework

PINVOKE.NET

A Win32 Library for .NET

Hope that was intresting

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Some intresting News !!

Adobe Buys Macromedia for $3.4 Billion

Longhorn to 'Sparkle' With New Developer Tool

Microsoft Goes After PDF with 'Metro'

Thanks to Patrick Tisseghem

Live Communications Server 2005 Service Pack 1 for Standard and Enterprise Editions

Live Communications Server 2005 Service Pack 1 for Standard and Enterprise Editions

Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1 further improves business efficiencies by enabling information workers to communicate and share presence information with contacts in real time, through a security enhanced, enterprise-grade, integrated environment.

Overview
Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 improves on the features of Live Communications Server 2005 by extending the federation model, enhancing functionality, increasing security, and improving performance and infrastructure support. These improvements include:
Tools to enable Public IM Connectivity; the ability to add contacts, send instant messages, and share presence information with users of the three main public IM service providers MSN, AOL and Yahoo!.
Enhanced federation, which uses DNS-SRV resolution to simplify connecting to federation partners.
New optional spim filters for better control of unsolicited instant messages.
Support Microsoft Office Communicator 2005.
Support for multiple tree Active Directory forests.
Improved server API performance. You can get specific information about this update in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article (897690): Description of Live Communications Server 2005 Service Pack 1. Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 is available in two editions: Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition.Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 for Standard EditionDownloadable file name: LCS2005_SE_SP1_Upgrade.exe. Consists of single, stand alone IM and presence server together on the same computer with an MSDE (Microsoft Desktop Engine) database for storing user data. It supports up to 15,000 concurrent users and is the appropriate choice in small deployments where enterprise-level capacity, availability and performance are not required.Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 for Enterprise EditionDownloadable file name: LCS2005_EE_SP1_Upgrade.exe.Consists of a pool of servers connected to a separate, shared SQL Server database that supports up to 100,000 users. This two-tier architecture, delivers substantial improvements in availability, scalability, and performance than the Standard Edition.

Note:
This upgrade is only for the English version of Live Communications Server 2005 Enterprise or Standard Editions.

This service pack will not support the upgrading of MSDN versions of Live Communications Server 2005 Enterprise or Standard Editions.
In order to update to Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1, you must update all servers within your Live Communications Server 2005 topology.
Public IM Connectivity requires a per-user; per-month subscription license that is in addition to the Live Communication Server Client Access License (CAL).
System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003

This service pack requires the following program: Fully licensed version of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 Enterprise or Standard Edition.
Client Software Requirements: While Windows Messenger 5.1 supports basic presence and IM scenarios, the recommended client for Live Communications Server 2005 and public IM connectivity is Microsoft Office Communicator 2005. For more information, visit http://www.microsoft.com/office/livecomm/prodinfo/default.mspx

Instructions

To help ensure that you have access to and can use the most updated product documentation while planning, deploying, and maintaining your Live Communications Server environment, this download does not contain copies of the product documentation. To download and use the most recent documentation, please visit the Live Communications Server deployment resources center at http://www.microsoft.com/office/livecomm and click the link to the specific product documentation that aligns with your deployment phase. To install this download: Prior to installing this download, you must install all Security Patches from the Microsoft Windows Update site.
Download the appropriate file(s) by clicking on the links below and saving the file(s) to your hard disk.
Read the release notes for SP1 to ensure a successful SP1 installation.
Double-click the program file on your hard disk to extract the Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Upgrade files.
From the directory where you extracted the files, go to \Setup\I386 and start the Setup program.
Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation. To remove this download: To remove the download file(s), delete the files LCS2005_SE_SP1_Upgrade.exe or LCS2005_EE_SP1_Upgrade.exe. To uninstall the software involves performing two steps on the Live Communications Server software: deactivate and uninstall. These steps are outlined in detail in the Live Communications Server Deployment Guide available at http://www.microsoft.com/office/livecomm.

Windows SharePoint Services SP2 in R2

Overview: Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 SP2 Beta in Windows Server 2003 R2

Overview
This document details the new features available in Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 SP2 beta, which is part of Windows Server 2003 R2. This version of Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 SP2 is available in Windows Server 2003 R2 Beta2, RC0, RC1 and RTM. The document describes how to configure and test the new features, as well as any workarounds which are required to enable them.

Intresting Updates
Support for IP-bound virtual servers
Support for advanced extranet configurations
Kerberos enabled by default
Windows SharePoint Services running on ASP.NET 2.0 (Whidbey)
Windows SharePoint Services support for Windows x64 editions

First look at IIS 7.0

check this out:
http://blog.coryisakson.com/CategoryView,category,IIS%207.0.aspx

Parag

CentrePoint for SharePoint