Search Server 2008

Microsoft recently released a product called "Search Server 2008". The list of features include:

Search Center
No Pre-Set Document Limits
Extensible Search Experience
Relevance Tuning
Continuous Propagation Indexing
Federated Search Connectors
Indexing Connectors
Security-Trimmed Results
Unified Administration Dashboard
Query and Results Reporting
Streamlined Installation
High Availability and Load Balancing

This list of features represents features included with the Enterprise Client Access License version of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Some features will shortly be released as part of an Enterprise Search feature pack. Essentially, Search Server 2008 uses the same search engine used in SharePoint 2007. However, with SharePoint 2007 you also get the following features:

People and Expertise Searching
Business Data Catalog
SharePoint Productivity Infrastructure

The Express version and a trial version of the Enterprise version are available as free downloads from http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/default.aspx

Microsoft Presence Sample for Smart Client Applications

Microsoft recently released an updated version of it's presence controls. It includes two managed code user controls to display presence status and provide real-time collaboration options in .NET applications.

One control presents an interactive presence icon next to a control on a form that contains a name. The second control is derived from a ListView control to display the presence status icon next to names in a list. Both controls provide tooltips, a context menu, and events for contact status changes.

To download samples of the presence controls, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=C812FD72-1E3A-4321-8503-C904921C291D&displaylang=en

November .Net Events

Listed below is a summary of the .Net events scheduled for this month. Attend a few and increase your .Net knowledge!

Nov 8th: SQL User Group Meeting
http://www.bennettadelson.com/technicalresources/sqlsig.aspx

Nov 13th: .Net User Group Meeting
http://www.bennettadelson.com/technicalresources/sig.aspx


Nov 27th: C#/VB.Net User Group Meeting - "Configuring MOSS 2007" http://www.clevelanddotnet.info/

Brulant Games & Brains Event

You're invited for our Brulant Game Night & Information Session, a chance for us to meet you (or get to know you better!), and for you to learn a little more about Brulant, all while enjoying the latest video games, free food and shooting hoops! Games will include:
- Playstation 3: "The Bigs"
- Nintendo Wii: WiiSports- Indoor Basketball Chess, Foose Ball, Cornhole and...
- Xbox 360: Halo 3, released just two days before the event!

Topics will include a variety of presenters from Brulant experts in Microsoft and Java. Food and Drinks will be provided, and all attendees will be entered to WIN AN XBOX360 and copy of HALO3!!

When: Thursday, September 27, 5:30-8:30PM

Where: Brulant HQ, 3700 Park East Drive, Suite 300, Beachwood, OH 44122

Cost: Free, just bring your "A" game! Look forward to seeing you there!

To sign-up, click REGISTER

Using VB Script to display part of an IP address

Q: How can I use VB Script to display the first 3 octets in a TCP/IP address?

A: Since IP addresses are not fixed length, you will have to count the number of separators before you can extract the octets. With that said, listed below is the sample VB Script code.

strIP = inputbox("Enter an IP Address for testing to extract the first 3 Octets:")

intLastDecimal = 1

For intCounter = 1 to 3
intLastDecimal = InStr(intLastDecimal, strIP, ".") + 1
Next

iNewLength = intLastDecimal-2
strNewIP = Left(strIP, iNewLength )
MsgBox "strNewIP=" & strNewIP

To run this code, simply copy and paste it into a flat file and name it with a .VBS extension.

For more resources on VB Scripting, please visit the following links:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3ca8tfek.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms974570.aspx
http://www.w3schools.com/vbscript/vbscript_ref_functions.asp

Silverlight 1.0 Released

Yesterday Microsoft announced the release of Silverlight 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in to help you deliver the next generation of .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. In addition, Microsoft will work with Novell Inc. to deliver Silverlight support for Linux, called Moonlight, and based on the project started on mono-project.com.

Silverlight essentially creates JavaScript that is stored on the server but executed entirely on the client. To help expedite this process, Microsoft Expressions can be used to create the graphics and animation. Although SilverLight version 1.0 does not include .Net APIs, version 1.1 is expected to have it.

To learn more about Silverlight, check out the following links:
Download: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/default_ns.aspx.
News: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/news-pr.aspx
Community: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/community.aspx
Resources: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/downloads.aspx

XML Schema Designer

Microsoft recently released XML Schema Designer Community Technology Preview (CTP). This is the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the XML Schema Designer. It is a graphical tool for working with XML Schemas. This CTP introduces XML Schema Explorer - a tool that helps you navigate, search and work with schema sets. XML Schema Explorer will automatically come up when you open or create an xsd file in Visual Studio. It is docked with the Solution Explorer tool.

To download v1(beta) of this new tool, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4DE12C98-1221-4A0E-B5AA-BFC7DAF02550&displaylang=en

SharePoint Server 2007 SDK Released

Recently Microsoft released the SharePoint Server 2007 SDK. The Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK contains conceptual overviews, “How Do I…?” programming tasks, developer tools, code samples, references, and an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) starter kit to guide you in developing solutions based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. To learn more about this, or to download the SDK, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6d94e307-67d9-41ac-b2d6-0074d6286fa9&displaylang=en

Description of the "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet"

If you ever accessed the help features in Word and came across the phrase "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" and wondered what it meant, you've come to the right place.

Although the phrase is nonsense, it does have a long history. The phrase has been used for several centuries by typographers to show the most distinctive features of their fonts. It is used because the letters involved and the letter spacing in those combinations reveal, at their best, the weight, design, and other important features of the typeface. A 1994 issue of "Before & After" magazine traces "Lorem ipsum ..." to a jumbled Latin version of a passage from de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, a treatise on the theory of ethics written by Cicero in 45 B.C. The passage "Lorem ipsum ..." is taken from text that reads, "Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit ...," which translates as, "There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."

To read more about this, go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/114222

Using Word 2007 Templates

Q: How do I use templates in Word 2007?


A: Using Templates in Office 2007 is one of the easiest tasks you will ever use. Basically a template document contains all the specifications for font, color, and the overall appearance of the document. To create and use a template, simply follow the procedure below.

Creating a Word Template
1. Open Microsoft Word 2007. By default, Word will open a blank document (.docx).
2. Modify the document so it contains all the cosmetic elements you want to appear in all future documents that will use this template.
3. Click the Office button (located in the upper left corner of the Window) and select “Save As”. After specifying the “File name”, change the “Save as type” to “Word Template (*.dotx)”.

Using a Word Template
1. When you need to create a document that reflects all the elements created in the template, simply open the template.
2. The next time you click “Save”, Word 2007 will automatically save the changes to a new document (.docx), leaving the template in place as-is.

Templates work the same way for all applications in the Office 2007 suite. Microsoft has hundreds of Office 2007 templates available for download, free of charge. To view these templates by category, go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101485751033.aspx

Setting Trusted Locations in MOSS 2007

Listed below are click-by-click instructions for creating a document library, making it a trusted location, and using it to display an Excel 2007 spreadsheet via Excel 2007 web part.

Create Document Library (with Excel as the default type)
1. Open the Home page to your site collection (i.e. http://moss101/Pages/Default.aspx)
2. Click “View All Site Content”
3. Click "Create"
4. Click "Document Library"
5. Specify all the settings for the library, using Excel 2003 as the default type. For the sake of this example, the document library will be called “Warehouse Documents”.
6. A document library called "Warehouse Documents" is now created, accessible at http://moss101/Warehouse%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx


Make it a trusted location
1. Click "Central Administration"
2. Click "Shared Services Administration"
3. Click the Shared Service (i.e. "SharedServices1(Default)" )
4. Click "open Shared Service Administration"
5. Click "Trusted File Locations", located under "Excel Services Settings"
6. Click "Add Trusted File Location"
7. Paste URL of document library (http://moss101/Warehouse%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx)

Upload sample spreadsheet
1. Maneuver to the Document Library (http://moss101/Warehouse%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx) and click upload
2. Upload an Excel document in .XLSX format. Note: Document must be in Excel 2007 format (.XSLX) to work with the EWS web parts. Otherwise the web part will produce an error message similar to the one below:

The workbook that you selected cannot be opened.


The workbook may be in an unsupported file format, or it may be corrupt.




Add Excel Web part
1. Open the Home page to your site collection (i.e. http://moss101/Pages/Default.aspx) .
2. Click “Site Actions” in the upper right hand corner of the page
3. Click “Edit Page”.
4. Click “Add a Web Part” in the desired zone.
5. From the pop-up box, select “Excel Web Access” web part and click “Add”. The web part will then appear in the selected web part zone as seen below:



6. Within the web part, click the link “Click here to open the tool pane” to configure the web part.
7. In the settings pane, use the ellipsis button (button with 3 dots) to maneuver to the document library created previously.
8. From the document library, select a spreadsheet in Excel 2007 format. Selecting any other format will result in the following error message:

SQL Server 2000 End-of-Life Support

For those with projects utilizing SQL Server 2000, Microsoft issued End of Life dates for support.

• Mainstream Support End of Life - April 8, 2008
• Extended Support End of Life - April 9, 2013
  End of "free" support
  Hot fixes (non-security related) will require an extended hot fix support agreement to be purchased
  Microsoft will not support warranty support, new features, or design changes
  Security updates will continue to be provided
  
  Microsoft Support Lifecycle: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/
  MS SQL 2000 Lifecycle: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&p1=2852&x=9&y=11
  
  
  With the retirement of SQL Server 2000 around the corner, this brings up an interesting question for MCAD/MCSD candidates: Will this impact certification Exam 70–229: Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition? When will the exam be retired?
  
  Given Microsoft is still promoting the MCDBA certification on their site, I'm guessing 70-229 is safe for the moment. The exam is not currently scheduled for retirement at this point (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcpexams/status/examstoretire.mspx) nor is it on the "Discontinued Microsoft Certification exams" list (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcpexams/status/examsretired.mspx).
  
  For more info, visit the following links:
  http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcpexams/status/retired.mspx
  http://blogs.msdn.com/trika/archive/2007/07/03/lifecycle-of-new-generation-certifications.aspx
  http://blogs.msdn.com/trika/archive/2007/06/14/windows-server-2008-certification-paths.aspx
  http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcdba/upgrade/default.mspx
  
  For specific questions, e-mail them to mcphelp@microsoft.com

Classic UI Tabs for Office 2007

Office 2007 presented users with a new easy to UI, utilizing the new ribbon interface. However, not all users are comfortable with the new UI. A new ribbon customizer tool is available for Office 2007 providing a similar look and feel as previous versions of Office. To preview the ribbon customizer, go to http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer/featuretourpart3.php. A trial download version is also available.