Steve Sofian

With all the news on the Silverlight, especially surrounding MIX07, developers cant help to notice this cool technology and the eye popper applications that were shown in MIX07.  And the best thing of all, with Silverlight Beta 1.0, it doesnt seem difficult to build one. The main skills required are html and javascript, except for the XAML, which will require a graphics designer to work with Blend2 if you want some cool graphics and animations, else you can hand code the XAML yourself for simple quick test of Silverlight.

This idea of testing Silverlight in Lotus Domino came to mind, if Silverlight is based on the plugin in the browser, html and javascript; it should be able to work within a Lotus Domino web application as well.  So in order to do a quick test, I am just using one of the Clock sample that came with the Silverlight Beta 1.0 SDK.  I have slightly modified the sample to use inline XAML, for the sake testing it quickly.  Below is a screenshot of the Clock Silverlight application in the Lotus Domino web application. (It is a Lotus Domino web application as you can see from the URL of the application )

I am not sure how complex a Silverlight application can be done within Lotus Domino, but one of the biggest benefits is that since all the artefacts are within the Lotus Domino application itself, it can easily be replicated to the other Domino servers

cheers

This has been a big battle between Open XML and Open Document Format (ODF), which IBM is a strong proponent for the ODF standards and being used in its upcoming Lotus Notes 8.

Now you can open and save ODF documents in Word, at Word for now using the OpenXML Translator, this has just been released through SourceForge.net.  At least, you would not have to install openOffice Suite to exchange documents.

More information and the add-in download could be found here

cheers

Silverlight, what a cool name!  Way better than WPF/E.  Just wondering if Microsoft will come out something cool as for WCF and WF

Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross platform plug-in to your browser and enable to build rich interactive web application and delivery media content over the browser as well.

Just been watching the video recordings of MIX07, oohh, how I wish I am there to witness it.  So many way cool demos.  If you havent, I suggest that you do, view them at http://www.visitmix.com

And it has been announced that in Silverlight 1.1, we would be able to write managed code with Silverlight.  Just wondering if this is possible within MOSS

Here are some links for more information on Silverlight:

http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight

http://www.silverlight.net

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb188743.aspx (MSDN)

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showforum.aspx?forumid=38&tagid=209 (Channel 9 screen casts)

http://www.telerik.com/products/silverlight/overview.aspx (Telerik known for its controls, is already working controls for Silverlight)

cheers

Transporter Suite, a free migration tool from Microsoft, that allows to migrate users from Domino directory into Active Directory, migrate mails from Domino into Exchange, as well as applications from Domino into SharePoint.

While I was testing the migration of a notes database into SharePoint, I was not able to find the application in the list of Domino applications under "Applications" in the Transporter Suite, which should be listed in here for all the non out-of-the-box databases.  I thought I might have forgotten to place the database into the server directory, but it was there. 

Next, I went to see if the database is located in the Database Catalog, catalog.nsf, and Ah HA, it is not listed there.  Basically, there are 2 possibilities for this, one is that the catalog task has not run, since it runs at a user defined scheduled interval, or the "List in database catalog" checkbox is not selected under database properties.

So, the Transporter Suite actually depends on the database catalog in Domino, to display the list of Notes database.

Note:  To run the cataloging task immediately, issue the "Load Catalog" task under the server console in the Lotus Notes Administrator client.

Hope this helps

Do you want to search your business application from Outlook?  There is a tech pre-release available now at GotDotNet.  BDS provides search capabilites to search for information across Microsoft busines systems such as AX 4.0 CRM 3.0 and MOSS from Microsoft Outlook.

Till recently announced on CodePlex, the Community Kit for SharePoint 2.0, which will be based on the Solution Sharing Network (SSN), I have not heard of SSN program before.

Below is a quote from the Microsoft's SSN program website:

 "All around the world, public sector organizations are developing applications using Microsoft technology, writing technical documentation, and collaborating on creative technology solutions for meeting the challenges facing their organizations. Meanwhile, other organizations are pursuing the same or similar goals. The Microsoft Solution Sharing Network (SSN) program seeks to bring these organizations together – whether they operate within the same government or different countries – by helping them to build a community for sharing information technology (IT) content.

When public sector organizations share IT content effectively, everyone benefits. Government organizations save taxpayer's money when they find and reuse an application developed by another government organization instead of building their own application from scratch. IT staff members save time and resources when they find and reuse documentation that has already been developed for a similar project. Thought leaders discover new revelations and creative ideas when they share their thinking with others. Through all of this, the knowledge-base in an economy grows."

More information is available at: http://www.microsoft.com/Industry/government/solutionsharingnetwork.mspx

I am currently playing with SSN, and it is definitely worth while to look into this.  A lot of great webparts, like user registration, and change password, just to name a few.  But most important of all, if you are looking building a SharePoint solution, this is one that you wouldnt want to miss

The SSN is available here: http://www.codeplex.com/CKS/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=2606

It has been some time since I took the beta exam for MOSS 2007 application development, and a strenuous process indeed for a 4 hours exam.  When I am just wondering when is the result of my test on MOSS 2007 application development, and then received an email.  And I passed.

A great way to start the day….

The much awaited VS 2005 SP1 for Vista is available to download now. 

<Quote>

During the development of Windows Vista, several key investments were made to vastly improve overall quality, security, and reliability from previous versions of Windows. While we have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility, some of the system enhancements, such as User Account Control, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, make Windows Vista behave differently from previous versions of Windows. These investments impact Visual Studio 2005. The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista addresses areas of Visual Studio impacted by Vista enhancements.
Many of the Windows Vista enhancements are documented at the Windows Vista Development Center.

</Quote>

Microsoft has released the public beta for Microsoft Transporter Suite for Domino.  This tool is targetted for Exchange 2007, Office 2007 and SharePoint 2007.  The previous tool Lotus Transporter only supports Windows SharePoint Services version 2.0.

You can access the beta through http://connect.microsoft.com

Direct Copy from Microsoft Collaboration Platform blog:

The Transporter Suite is a huge step forward at making transitions easier.  We look at this release from several points: 

ú         2007 collaboration: We fully support Microsoft's 2007 product line.  All our tools are designed for Exchange 2007, Office 2007 and SharePoint 2007 – enabling customers to migrate to the latest and greatest collaboration software available.

ú         New features: We added a ton of new features (like a unified admin GUI, PowerShell foundation, ACL migrations, User migrations, scripting, multi-threading, and more) that ease the migrations for our customers migrating accounts, mailboxes, applications and doing analysis.

ú         Enabling future scenarios: We built the suite as a platform that we are now using to add additional scenarios for future releases.  Including the support for custom application migration, local archive migration, encrypted mail migrations, personal address books and more.   We are also working closely with partners to extend even further.

ú         Endless possibilities and customization: our new tools are setting a new coexistence & migration direction for our customers and partners to expedite their migrations.  Being built on PowerShell, there is nothing they can not do!!!

With recent announcement of IBM Lotus Quickr, will this be the SharePoint Server 2007 competition within the collaboration space?  Its features are comparable to SharePoint:

- Share Content Library vs Document Library (MOSS)

- Team Places vs Team Sites (MOSS)

- Integrates with MS Office, Windows Explorer and Lotus Notes

And other similar features like calendar, discussion forums, blogs and wikis.

You can read more at the following link

http://www-142.ibm.com/software/sw-lotus/products/product3.nsf/wdocs/quickr