After going through the sneak preview of Share Point Server 2007, now you are somewhat familiar with Excel Services. It is likely that you have accessed web-based spreadsheets available on google or MS live sites. But have you ever thought of writing your own applications integrated with Share Point and allowing users to use these cool web-based spreadsheets? I am sure that you have thought about this at some point of time. Anyways, let’s not get into that now. :)
Excel Services are built on top of ASP.NET and SharePoint 3.0. To understand it, let us consider that there are going to be two servers: front end web serves and backend application server. The components of Excel Services are placed on these two servers. And yes, you can install all these components on one box as well.
So, what are the components installed on the front-end web server?
Excel Web Access and Excel Web Services.
Excel Web Access:
This is a simple web part, which renders Windows live spreadsheets on the requesting client’s machine. Users of this application can interact with the workbooks using this component. This web part is customizable and one can customize it based on requirements.
Excel Web Services:
Basically, you can use server-side workbook logic in your application. The programmatic approach of it, allows you to consume the web service, and do various operations. It also allows you to maintain workbook values in the session.
The application server hosts two components as: Excel Calculation Services and User Defined Functions.
Excel Calculation Services:
Its primary job is to load workbooks, do various calculations involved and execute user defined functions defined earlier. It can also cache the workbooks, the external data query results.
User Defined Functions:
I think that only one sentence given below, is sufficient to know the importance of User Defined Functions.
User Defined Functions give you the ability to use formulas in cells to call custom functions written in managed code and deployed to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. You can basically use these function to extend and customize various built-in functions or features.
Cheers,
Amol.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Integrating Reports (using Reporting Services) with your application
By this time, I assume that you have tried your hands with reporting services in SQL Server 2005. Good to know that you are also aware of local mode and server mode. Now, next question is how do you integrate your application with these reporting services?
Integrating Windows application with Reports
All you have to do is to use ReportViewer control provided by Microsoft and you can also redistribute it. Just drag and drop the control on your Winform and start looking for the properties. Rest of the things you can easily figure out. And if the report is remotely hosted then you can also provide the report server URL.
Integrating Web Applications with Reports
Again, you can use the same ReportViwer control in your web application. You just have to drag-n-drop the control on your Web form.
Integrating with SharePoint
This is the most interesting part. If you have hosted the Sharepoint site for your organization and it is likely that you want to publish some reports on it. Integration of Reporting Services with Sharepoint allows you to do the same. For this kind of integration, you have web components like: ReportManager and ReportViewer. Additionaly, you also have access to Reporting SOAP Services API.
You have all the capabilities to do what you want with the Reporting Services. But hey do not forget to keep your design simple. ;)
Cheers,
Amol
Integrating Windows application with Reports
All you have to do is to use ReportViewer control provided by Microsoft and you can also redistribute it. Just drag and drop the control on your Winform and start looking for the properties. Rest of the things you can easily figure out. And if the report is remotely hosted then you can also provide the report server URL.
Integrating Web Applications with Reports
Again, you can use the same ReportViwer control in your web application. You just have to drag-n-drop the control on your Web form.
Integrating with SharePoint
This is the most interesting part. If you have hosted the Sharepoint site for your organization and it is likely that you want to publish some reports on it. Integration of Reporting Services with Sharepoint allows you to do the same. For this kind of integration, you have web components like: ReportManager and ReportViewer. Additionaly, you also have access to Reporting SOAP Services API.
You have all the capabilities to do what you want with the Reporting Services. But hey do not forget to keep your design simple. ;)
Cheers,
Amol
Monday, October 09, 2006
SVG and VML
I think these are the two buzzwords, which did not click as expected. I do believe that there is lot of potential available with these two words. In this blog, I would like describe about these two words in brief.
What do you mean by SVG?
Well, as the name suggests it is the short form of Scalable Vector Graphics.
SVG is a language for describing two-dimensional graphics and graphical applications in XML. SVG allows for three types of graphic objects – Vector Graphic shapes, images and text. SVG mobile profiles- SVG Basic and SVG Tiny are targeted to resource limited devices. It enables us to create dynamically generated high quality graphics from the real-time data with structural and visual control. SVG is compatible with DOM.
Using .Net and SVG together, we can write awesome charting applications, image maps etc. There are various SVG viewers available in the market; some of them are also applicable for mobile browsers. Following is the list of some popularly used SVG viewers:
· Adobe SVG Viewer.
· Apache Squiggle SVG Viewer
· Corel SVG Viewer
· CSIRO SVG Viewer
· IBM SVG Viewer
So, how will the basic SVG file look like?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<svg width="100%" height="100%" xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2000/svg>
<text x="20" y="20"> Welcome to SVG </text>
<rect width='100' height='100' x='50' y='50' fill='green'/>
</svg>
What do you mean by VML?
Virtual Markup Language (VML) is nothing but the application of XML 1.0, which defines a format for encoding the vector information with markup to describe how that information may be displayed and edited. It is basically text-based interchange and delivery formats for vector graphics.
VML describes objects such as shapes and groups (collection of shapes). VML allows editing of these objects. It can be also used to create menus and navigational elements using XSL.It supports the DOM. IT uses CSS2 just like HTML for determining layout of Vector Graphics.
So, how will be the basic VML?
<v:shape style='width:1in;height:1in;' strokecolor="red"
strokeweight="2pt" coordsize="21600,21600" adj="17520"
path="m10800,0qx0,10800,10800,21600,21600,10800,10800,0xe
m7340,6445qx6215,7570,7340,8695,8465,7570,7340,6445xnfe
m14260,6445qx13135,7570,14260,8695,15385,7570,14260,6445xnfe
m4960@0c8853@3,12747@3,16640@0nfe">
<v:formulas>
<:f eqn="sum 33030 0 #0"/>
<:f eqn="prod #0 4 3"/>
<:f eqn="prod @0 1 3"/>
<:f eqn="sum @1 0 @2"/>
</v:formulas>
</v:shape>
It can be used with the ASP.NET applications. You can create your own web controls for the same. If you google up, then you would find some examples on the code project as well.
Well, having understood SVG and VML, next question is what are the differences between them?
VML is supported by most of the browsers or rather I would say at least IE 5.0 and above support it. To use SVG, you still need to use add-in viewer controls. SVG is really neat and clean language. It is really easy to understand as well. And above all, VML was designed before the release of SVG specification. I believe that latest versions of browsers will have built-in support for SVG as well. As a matter of fact, there seem to be little confusion on where our applications are heading with respect to these two buzzwords. But in any case, it is always a good idea to know what it is.....:)
Cheers,
Amol.
What do you mean by SVG?
Well, as the name suggests it is the short form of Scalable Vector Graphics.
SVG is a language for describing two-dimensional graphics and graphical applications in XML. SVG allows for three types of graphic objects – Vector Graphic shapes, images and text. SVG mobile profiles- SVG Basic and SVG Tiny are targeted to resource limited devices. It enables us to create dynamically generated high quality graphics from the real-time data with structural and visual control. SVG is compatible with DOM.
Using .Net and SVG together, we can write awesome charting applications, image maps etc. There are various SVG viewers available in the market; some of them are also applicable for mobile browsers. Following is the list of some popularly used SVG viewers:
· Adobe SVG Viewer.
· Apache Squiggle SVG Viewer
· Corel SVG Viewer
· CSIRO SVG Viewer
· IBM SVG Viewer
So, how will the basic SVG file look like?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<svg width="100%" height="100%" xmlns=http://www.w3.org/2000/svg>
<text x="20" y="20"> Welcome to SVG </text>
<rect width='100' height='100' x='50' y='50' fill='green'/>
</svg>
What do you mean by VML?
Virtual Markup Language (VML) is nothing but the application of XML 1.0, which defines a format for encoding the vector information with markup to describe how that information may be displayed and edited. It is basically text-based interchange and delivery formats for vector graphics.
VML describes objects such as shapes and groups (collection of shapes). VML allows editing of these objects. It can be also used to create menus and navigational elements using XSL.It supports the DOM. IT uses CSS2 just like HTML for determining layout of Vector Graphics.
So, how will be the basic VML?
<v:shape style='width:1in;height:1in;' strokecolor="red"
strokeweight="2pt" coordsize="21600,21600" adj="17520"
path="m10800,0qx0,10800,10800,21600,21600,10800,10800,0xe
m7340,6445qx6215,7570,7340,8695,8465,7570,7340,6445xnfe
m14260,6445qx13135,7570,14260,8695,15385,7570,14260,6445xnfe
m4960@0c8853@3,12747@3,16640@0nfe">
<v:formulas>
<:f eqn="sum 33030 0 #0"/>
<:f eqn="prod #0 4 3"/>
<:f eqn="prod @0 1 3"/>
<:f eqn="sum @1 0 @2"/>
</v:formulas>
</v:shape>
It can be used with the ASP.NET applications. You can create your own web controls for the same. If you google up, then you would find some examples on the code project as well.
Well, having understood SVG and VML, next question is what are the differences between them?
VML is supported by most of the browsers or rather I would say at least IE 5.0 and above support it. To use SVG, you still need to use add-in viewer controls. SVG is really neat and clean language. It is really easy to understand as well. And above all, VML was designed before the release of SVG specification. I believe that latest versions of browsers will have built-in support for SVG as well. As a matter of fact, there seem to be little confusion on where our applications are heading with respect to these two buzzwords. But in any case, it is always a good idea to know what it is.....:)
Cheers,
Amol.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Orcas..... VS2005 Successor
So, now you are comfortable with Visual Studio 2005, right? But hey don’t worry it is not the end of this world! If you are ready for the next jump, then you can try out ‘Orcas’. Yes, you guessed it right. This is the forthcoming version of Visual Studio. Microsoft has released its September CTP and it is available for download here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=82243606-d16d-445c-8949-9ee8c10cda2e&DisplayLang=en
This CTP is available only as a virtual PC image. So, go ahead and try it without crashing your current installation of VS2005. ;)
As expected, it is compatible with Vista and Office 2007. And it will probably get shipped in late 2007 or early 2008. So, don’t worry, you have lot of time to play around with it.
On a high level note, this CTP includes partial support for C# 3.0 and VB.NET 9.0 with improvements to .NET Framework. It seems to be tightly integrated with Team system and allows you to debug vista applications. You can expect to do lot of wonders with it because it is also compatible with Office 2007. I will try to play around more with it so that all of us will be ready to welcome its next CTP. :)
Cheers,
Amol
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=82243606-d16d-445c-8949-9ee8c10cda2e&DisplayLang=en
This CTP is available only as a virtual PC image. So, go ahead and try it without crashing your current installation of VS2005. ;)
As expected, it is compatible with Vista and Office 2007. And it will probably get shipped in late 2007 or early 2008. So, don’t worry, you have lot of time to play around with it.
On a high level note, this CTP includes partial support for C# 3.0 and VB.NET 9.0 with improvements to .NET Framework. It seems to be tightly integrated with Team system and allows you to debug vista applications. You can expect to do lot of wonders with it because it is also compatible with Office 2007. I will try to play around more with it so that all of us will be ready to welcome its next CTP. :)
Cheers,
Amol
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
A sneak preview of SharePoint 2007 Server
Earlier, I tried my hands playing little bit with SharePoint 2001. Not really satisfied with it, I finally settled with SharePoint 2003 server. After creating lot of portals, customizing these portals with SharePoint SDK; I realized that there are some missing features in it. With these features in my mind, I tried to evaluate SharePoint 2007 server. And I was not at all surprised when I found that all these features are present in SharePoint 2007. In addition to this, it adds so many promising features in it which we have not dreamt still. Yeah, I mean it. :)
So, let’s look at some of the promising key features offered by SharePoint 2007.
It is called as Office SharePoint Portal 2007 Server. It is essentially a suite of server applications. It actually gives you a single integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet and internet applications of your organization.
1.Portals:
It includes lot of new project templates and drag-n-drop kind of tool to manage sites. It is called as Site Manager. It has introduced lot of new web parts like Social Networking for instance. It helps social networking within the organization and it can be also integrated with Active Directory. Some other web parts are: membership web parts, document roll-up web part, privacy control web part etc.
Liberal use of Smart Tags for real-time communication indicates which users are online and available with which communication modes. In addition to enhancements in user profiles and notification services, it also provides LDAP pluggable provider.
2.Mobile Device Support
By default, all the SharePoint portal sites can be also rendered on both International and North American mobile devices
3.Content Management:
With the new components for Document Management, you can now easily define and enforce document workflow. It can be easily integrated with Office 2007. This component provides various built-in templates for document management.
SP 2007 introduces new features and capabilities to maintain records in your organization. Audit and Policy features allows you to interact with record repository and do lot of other stuff which still needs to be explored. :(
4.Workflows:
It allows you to streamline form based business processes. It uses InfoPath 2006. The new server called as Office Forms Server 2007, allows you to design web-enabled forms in Office InfoPath and distribute it. There are lot of other features with respect to forms in it.
5.Search:
The search component available with SP2007 seems to be revamped completely in altogether a new form. You can now search for people or their expertise. It is possible to search data in LOP applications. And yes as always, you can also extend the search capabilities by adding your own cent to it. ;)
6.Business Intelligence:
Just like Reporting Services, you can access the Excel workbooks on the web. One can have these workbooks interactive with the usage of macros if you want. What is more interesting is that Excel services provide model based on web service. There are tones of new features added in to this section. Other features include: Report Center sites, Excel Service management, dashboards etc.
Charged up? Good. Now, if you want to install it on your machine then check out the OS. Bad luck for W2K users as it is not supported on W2K. But if you want you can try installing Virtual Servers if you want. It requires XP with SP2 or Windows.NET Server..oops I mean Widnows 2003 server.
So, with latest version of ASP.NET, liberal use of AJAX and support for cool features (some of them are mentioned above), be prepared to experiece the cold breeze of air in the hot summer. ;)
Cheers,
Amol.
So, let’s look at some of the promising key features offered by SharePoint 2007.
It is called as Office SharePoint Portal 2007 Server. It is essentially a suite of server applications. It actually gives you a single integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet and internet applications of your organization.
1.Portals:
It includes lot of new project templates and drag-n-drop kind of tool to manage sites. It is called as Site Manager. It has introduced lot of new web parts like Social Networking for instance. It helps social networking within the organization and it can be also integrated with Active Directory. Some other web parts are: membership web parts, document roll-up web part, privacy control web part etc.
Liberal use of Smart Tags for real-time communication indicates which users are online and available with which communication modes. In addition to enhancements in user profiles and notification services, it also provides LDAP pluggable provider.
2.Mobile Device Support
By default, all the SharePoint portal sites can be also rendered on both International and North American mobile devices
3.Content Management:
With the new components for Document Management, you can now easily define and enforce document workflow. It can be easily integrated with Office 2007. This component provides various built-in templates for document management.
SP 2007 introduces new features and capabilities to maintain records in your organization. Audit and Policy features allows you to interact with record repository and do lot of other stuff which still needs to be explored. :(
4.Workflows:
It allows you to streamline form based business processes. It uses InfoPath 2006. The new server called as Office Forms Server 2007, allows you to design web-enabled forms in Office InfoPath and distribute it. There are lot of other features with respect to forms in it.
5.Search:
The search component available with SP2007 seems to be revamped completely in altogether a new form. You can now search for people or their expertise. It is possible to search data in LOP applications. And yes as always, you can also extend the search capabilities by adding your own cent to it. ;)
6.Business Intelligence:
Just like Reporting Services, you can access the Excel workbooks on the web. One can have these workbooks interactive with the usage of macros if you want. What is more interesting is that Excel services provide model based on web service. There are tones of new features added in to this section. Other features include: Report Center sites, Excel Service management, dashboards etc.
Charged up? Good. Now, if you want to install it on your machine then check out the OS. Bad luck for W2K users as it is not supported on W2K. But if you want you can try installing Virtual Servers if you want. It requires XP with SP2 or Windows.NET Server..oops I mean Widnows 2003 server.
So, with latest version of ASP.NET, liberal use of AJAX and support for cool features (some of them are mentioned above), be prepared to experiece the cold breeze of air in the hot summer. ;)
Cheers,
Amol.
Visual Studio Powertoys
As a project manager, would like to know how many times your team members have opened VS 2005 or how many times they have compiled the project source code or how many times they have debugged the application and so on…
I know…you would. :)
No, no..I am not talking about any spy applications here. I am talking about Powertoys. The usage scenarios which I mentioned earlier are my brilliant ideas. ;) But yes as a matter of fact, you can do that. So, what are the Powertoys?
I know…you would. :)
No, no..I am not talking about any spy applications here. I am talking about Powertoys. The usage scenarios which I mentioned earlier are my brilliant ideas. ;) But yes as a matter of fact, you can do that. So, what are the Powertoys?
Powertoys are series of add-ins to Visual Studio 2005 to do small small things for you with Visual Studio. You can bundle all these small things and come up with a major usage scenario if you want. Now you will ask me how I met with these Powertoys first of all. To answer this, I would say “It’s a long story. :);)”. To begin with, I installed VS2005 SDK on my machines. After some days, I found one strange system tray icon. It was labeled as ‘Event Toaster’. After double clicking it, nothing happened. I tried to find out the trace or starting point for that Event Toaster in vain. After little bit of playing around, I was able to trace it back to Visual Studio 2005.
Currently, we have two types of Powertoys available as Indexed find and Event Toaster. I played little bit more with these Powertoys to realize its power. As I was more interested the Event Toaster (for the obvious reasons :)), I was wondering what can be done with it. Following are some of the events/built-in toasts supported by Event Toaster Powertoy:
1.Build (Build Done and Code Analysis Done)
2.Debug ( Entering Break Mode and Execution Session Completed)
3.Document (Document Opened and Document Saved)
In synchronization with above-mentioned built-in toasts, you can do following tasks:
1.Play sound (You can start the MP3 for example: ))
2.Run Command
3.Run Macro (You can write your own macro and do whatever you want in the background)
4.Taskbar Notification.
Microsoft will launch more such Powertoys in coming days. And we can make most out of it.
So, next time you hear this word “Powertoys”, you better be prepared to know its built-in toasts. ;)
Cheers,
Amol
Microsoft Office Live Beta
Microsoft Office Live provides you lot of web based services. It gives you lot of services, most of which are desired by your small sized companies. So, if you own a small company and you want to manager your information and resources efficiently; then I would recommend you to take a look at this Office Live. Currently, it is in beta version and only offered in United States. But at the end of 2006, it will be available across the globe.
Well, don’t start thinking that this is altogether a new invention. Or it is another technology buzzword. It just offers you bundled services together (unleashing the power of web), which you always strive for.
Following is the list of some of the features:
Ø Free domain name, web site, email (up to 50) accounts.
Ø Web site traffic reports
Ø Business Management applications like customer or document management applications.
Ø Security-enhanced websites managed and maintained by Microsoft itself.
Ø Online workspace for sharing information with your employees, customers etc.
Ø In short it offers all the necessary services in order to run your company online.
These Services are divided in three different groups as given below:
Ø Microsoft Live Basics
Ø Microsoft Live Collaboration
Ø Microsoft Live Essentials
Currently, all these services are offered free in United States. In future collaboration and essential services will be paid services and Live basics is going to be free.
So, if you want to start and run your organization online then just get internet connectivity and go Office live. And believe me, creating a web site for your organization was never so easier before Office Live.
Cheers,
Amol.
Well, don’t start thinking that this is altogether a new invention. Or it is another technology buzzword. It just offers you bundled services together (unleashing the power of web), which you always strive for.
Following is the list of some of the features:
Ø Free domain name, web site, email (up to 50) accounts.
Ø Web site traffic reports
Ø Business Management applications like customer or document management applications.
Ø Security-enhanced websites managed and maintained by Microsoft itself.
Ø Online workspace for sharing information with your employees, customers etc.
Ø In short it offers all the necessary services in order to run your company online.
These Services are divided in three different groups as given below:
Ø Microsoft Live Basics
Ø Microsoft Live Collaboration
Ø Microsoft Live Essentials
Currently, all these services are offered free in United States. In future collaboration and essential services will be paid services and Live basics is going to be free.
So, if you want to start and run your organization online then just get internet connectivity and go Office live. And believe me, creating a web site for your organization was never so easier before Office Live.
Cheers,
Amol.
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