October 2009 Entries

Now shipping wiht VS 2010 Beta 2, and with SharePoint 2010 you will have support for Linq to SharePoint.  Not the codeplex project, but true linq support from MS(Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq).  What it does in the background is to create the CAML queries for you, to keep up the speed, looks like MS realized that CAML is no ones friend, but they have to support it for backwards compatability.

Another neat feature of Linq 2 SP is that it will support filtering of items by lookups, meaning if a list say Regions, and a list for Office Locations, where Region is a lookup field, in the Linq query you can specify that you want all items from Office locations where Region = whaterver etc.  So this starts to look more like a rational database again :)

To enable the features, there is a tool called SPMetal, which creates the proxy classes for an entire site, allowing for IDE support.  Running this tool creates a .cs or .vb class file with the types used by the Linq Queries.  Good thing is that this is only run once for a site, unless ANYTHING changes... so it is not such a good thing, just make sure when you start to work with it that you generate the class again if things do change, since this is all going to be tested at runtime instead of the standard compile time, like most developers are used to.  Just another thing that is runtime for SharePoint developers I guess.

Either way, even with some of the drawbacks of the proxy classes, we have support to make complicated Linq queries in code and they execute very quickly.

 

So I just got back to Atlanta yesterday night from Vegas, and I am really tired, but also extremely excited about what I see coming.  From Visual Studio 2010 built-in features, Windows 7 development, sandboxing, to Silverlight everywhere it all looks like a good step forward.  I tried to focus mostly on technology gaps that I happen to see, or where things were still cumbersome, and I have found a couple places, that I would like to see improved, so I guess that is where I will start when Beta 2 is publically released sometime in November 2009.

Being a SharePoint consultant makes it difficult to use technology that does not provide the functionality of at least WSS, but I have installed Subtext, and want to give it a shot. I am going to give it two weeks, and see if I can stay with it or not.

Subtext Pros:

• Simple enough to install
• Easy to brand
• Easily publish from MS Word or Windows Live writer
• Skin extensions make it easy to develop with

Subtext Cons:

• Something different to learn
• No true masterpage, instead inside of the skin there is a file like a materpage
• Another username and password to remember (not my hosted AD account)
• Configuration is a bit cumbersome (not as familiar to me as WSS)
• Limited search

WSS Blogging Pros:

• Use/Eat my dog food
  • I am always trying to find ways to use SharePoint more, instead of just customizing or writing code for a client. I think it is very important to work with the product more, to feel some of the pains in the product to better connect with clients/colleagues.
• Use the same AD account to login to my site
• Supports Live writer/MS Word Publishing
• Easily have one site for content root with a Blog sub site
  • I could store documents, photos, etc. on the Root site
• Richer search
• Easy for me to develop on

WSS Cons:

• More difficult to brand
• Limited feature set (for blog sites)
• Not trying anything new (sometimes it is good to write some code without using Microsft.SharePoint)
• No community growing customizations (there is the CKS, but very few updates, etc.)
• Harder to export your posts if you plan to move elsewhere

After writing this, and looking through the options, I realize that I am primarily avoiding WSS so that I do not have to brand another WSS site… how ridiculous is that! Oh well, I will give it a couple weeks, and see how I like things.

Well it looks like the first time I will get a day off in a while will be to go to Vegas for the SharePoint Conference in Vegas. New version drops the same week October 19^th, and I think the NDA is lifted for those folks who have seen things early. I am very excited to see more of the new product at the conference, and also excited to go to Vegas. I am already cooking up ideas on topics to cover and things to do when I get my hands on a VM and/or installation media.

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