Search results matching tags 'Silverlight' and 'SharePoint'

Visualizing data with Microsoft Live Labs Pivots and SharePoint 2010

dhessing — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:43:00 GMT

Recently Microsoft launches there latest innovation from Live Labs named Pivots. Pivots is an application for visualizing rich amount of data by using the PivotViewer Silverlight control. The control allows you to categorize your data based on the metadata it retrieves. By using the Silverlight DeepZoom technology, image collections will become alive.

So how cool would it be if we could use SharePoint 2010 as a data provider and host for the PivotsViewer Silverlight Control?

The Pivots SDK ships with a CXML HttpHandler that loads all factory classes from the application bin folder. One of the provided factory classes is based on the OData protocol. The OData protocol is a REST based protocol which is increasing in popularity and is used in several Microsoft products like Azure and SharePoint 2010. The ListData.svc services in SharePoint 2010 can be used for retrieving collections (all the libraries) and the items of the collection (all the items of a library). When an item contains an image URL, it will automatically render a DeepZoom Collection. For items that not contain an image, it will render a box containing the title of the item.

Take a look at the video.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

The solution

The solution contains a proof of concept implementation of the Live Labs Pivot with SharePoint 2010. It includes 2 library projects and 2 SharePoint projects for deploying the solution to SharePoint.

The SharePointPivots solution contains the PivotSilverlightWebpart and the registration of the 5 HttpHandlers. The actual implementation of the handlers can be found in the PivotServerTool library project.

The SharePointPivots.Install solution is responsible for the registration of the HttpHandlers in the Web.config . The Web.Config modifications are done by the WebConfigModifications feature. The feature contains a FeatureReceiver which uses the SPWebConfigMoifications class to update the web.config.

The SharePoint project contains the Silverlight XAP file which will be deployed to the Layouts directory. I didn’t include the Silverlight file itself because it requires the Silverlight 4 Development tools. If you are interested in the Silverlight project, simple download the SDK from the Microsoft Live Labs Pivot SDK here. http://www.getpivot.com/developer-info/jit-tools.aspx.

The PivotServerTools project comes from the SDK example and contains helper classes for the HttpHandlers.

The CollectionFactories project comes from the SDK example as well. It contains so called CollectionFactory classes. These classes are responsible for retrieving the data and mapping the items to Facet classes. The SDK ships with CollectionFactory classes for Sql, FileSystem images, SQL Azure, Twitter and as previously mentioned OData.

Deploy

You can either deploy both WSP solutions by using STSADM or you can use Visual Studio 2010 to deploy the Solutions. The SharePointPivots.wsp will be deployed to the application bin folder. Because of that, it needs a CAS policy. I didn’t include the CAS policy because the deployment in Visual Studio 2010 will fail when you add a CAS policy to the manifest. This is a known issue as stated here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2022463.

To keep thing simple you can set the trust level of your webapplication to full. Update the web.config with: <trust level="Full" originUrl="" />

If you don’t like this (which is good!), update the manifest with a CAS policy and deploy the solutions by using STSADM or powershell.

Once deployed, go to Central Admin and deploy the SharePointPivots.Install solution to the webapplication you want. Let’s say http://intranet. This will add the HttpHandlers sections to the web.config of the webapplication.

Go to the website http://intranet and make sure the sitecollection feature SharePointPivots Webpart is activated. Now its time to add the SharePointPivots webpart to the page. Go to any page you want and add the webpart to the page. Configure the webpart by going to the Edit Webpart properties.

Go to the property “Select a Factory Provider”. Choose “OData.cxml?src=http://intranet” and click the Apply button.

Trouble shooting

If you don’t get any data returned by the listdata.svc service, check if the ADO.NET data services are installed correctly. To do so, simple run any url with /_vti_bin/listdata.svc. If it gives the exception “Could not load type ‘System.Data.Services.Providers.IDataServiceUpdateProvider” reinstall an update of the ADO.NET dataservices from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976127

Have fun but keep in mind it is still a proof of concept implemention!

Ramp Up learning program

hvdkamp — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:46:00 GMT

Ramp Up is a new learning program on the MSDN website.

About Ramp Up:

Introduction
Take the Next Step on Your Career Path
Ramp Up is a free, online, community-based learning program, with a number of different tracks that will help you build your portfolio of professional development skills. Ramp Up has a solid foundation of premium technical content from subject-matter gurus, and provides easy-to-access content in a variety of forms that guide you in learning the important skills. Join Ramp Up (it's free!) and help advance your career - click on a track now to start!

Benefits
Take the Next Step on Your Career Path
Ramp Up is a free, online, community-based learning program, with a number of different tracks that will help you build your portfolio of professional development skills. Ramp Up has a solid foundation of premium technical content from subject-matter gurus, and provides easy-to-access content in a variety of forms that guide you in learning the important skills. Join Ramp Up (it's free!) and help advance your career - click on a track now to start!

At the moment you can focus on the tracks: SharePoint for developers (part 1), Visual Studio 2008, Aspiring Developer, Java Developer, Visual Sudio 6.0 Developer, Visual Studio 2002/2003 Developer.

Good to see a SharePoint track already. Part 1 of the SharePoint developers track is focused on:

As a developer, would you like to learn more about Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)? MOSS is based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, which gives developers the opportunity to get more problems solved with less effort. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 takes full advantage of Microsoft ASP.NET and the Microsoft .NET runtime. The new features and added programmability support in MOSS provide a wealth of development opportunities. This course will immerse you in many of the developer-centric capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.

Level 1: Web Parts
Did you know that in SharePoint you can build pages as easy as in ASP.NET – and allow end users to create dashboards? Web parts allow for creating components of Web user interface that can be reused on multiple Web pages. These are introduced in ASP.NET and built on in SharePoint where they can be added to pages by end users and managed by IT Professionals. In this topic you will learn about building simple Web parts for SharePoint and how to connect them back to SharePoint site data.

Level 2: Data Lists
Did you know that SharePoint developers can work with data from lists that users get access to too? Data lists provide data storage for end users in SharePoint. End users can create lists with schema all through the SharePoint user interface and they can create, edit, and view the data. All of this data can be programmatically accessed by developers and this topic is all about that.

Level 3: Event Handlers
Did you know that SharePoint developers can automatically process data that your users upload via a spreadsheet? Event handlers (or event receivers) are custom code that runs on the SharePoint server in response to something that happens on the server. Event handlers can be useful for running business logic in response to data being added to the site. This topic shows how to create simple event handlers and investigates ways that event handlers can be used in SharePoint.

Level 4: Workflow
Did you know that you can write WF workflows in SharePoint without having to worry about storage, persistence, or how to interact with the user? Workflow in SharePoint allows for implementation of processes that require interaction such as email approvals or form completion by people in your organization. This topic shows you how to create simple workflows in SharePoint using Visual Studio that involve approvals from people by email and for meeting room resource bookings with an administrator.

Level 5: Silverlight Web Parts
Did you know that you can build rich Internet applications with SharePoint? Silverlight is a new Web user interface technology from Microsoft that allows for each implementation of animations and videos. This topic shows how a SharePoint user interface can be enhanced by using Silverlight in Web parts as part of a SharePoint site.

Silverlight designer for Microsoft Sharepoint

Mark Willems — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:10:00 GMT

The Beta 2 release of K2 Blackpoint will contain a silverlight designer. Tomorrow and on the 10th of October an event will be hosted by K2 to demonstrate the functionality.

The 1st of October: https://www.clicktoattend.com/global/EventDescription.aspx?eventid=13065

10 October: https://www.clicktoattend.com/global/EventDescription.aspx?eventid=13066

Microsoft DevDays 2008 PowerPoint Presentations

hvdkamp — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:21:00 GMT

This year I visited the Dutch Microsoft DevDays 2008 event. It's an event for Microsoft developers which targets several developer related subjects. I focused on SharePoint, Silverlight and Visual Studio Team System, and have seen interesting presentations on these subjects.

If you haven't been to the Developer Days before, make sure you don´t miss it next time.

The presentations are available on the Microsoft DevDays Presentations website. General information about the DevDays can be found at Devdays.nl.