For those interested in unit testing, and particularly unit testing for Sharepoint Typemock have released their Isolator product for Sharepoint.  You might even be able to get a free license if you are quick...

Quote from Typemock:

Typemock are offering their new product for unit testing SharePoint called Isolator For SharePoint, for a special introduction price. it is the only tool that allows you to unit test SharePoint without a SharePoint server. To learn more click here.

The first 50 bloggers who blog this text in their blog and tell us about it, will get a Full Isolator license, Free. for rules and info click here.

This week saw the official launch of WESS (Windows Essential Server Solutions) from Microsoft this week.

WESS consists of two products:

Small Business Server 2008
Essential Business Server 2008

Small Business Server 2008 essentially costs of the same components as the previous 2003 version (with a couple of security additions).  These include:

Windows Server 2008
Exchange Server 2007
Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0
Windows Server Update Services
Forefront Security for Exchange Server
Windows Live One Care

There is also a premium version.  However this requires a second server to be installed & the additional licences will include a second copy of Windows Server 2008 and a copy of SQL Server 2008 Standard.

The Essential Business Server product is aimed at slightly larger organisations (typically in excess of 25 users) and would be configued on multiple servers.

Server 1 (Management Server)
Windows Server 2008
System Centre Essentials 2007
Windows Sharepoint Service 3.0

Server 2 (Messaging)
Windows Server 2008
Exchange Server 2007
Forefront Security for Exchange

Server 3 (Security)
Windows Server 2008
Exchange Server 2007
Forefront Threat Management Gateway

Server 4 - Premium Version Only (Database)
Windows Server 2008
SQL Server Standard 2008
 

Novotronix are pleased to be deploying Small Business Server 2008 to our clients & we will be releasing more information relating to a client in Birmingham shortly.

Despite what seemed like quite an arduous internal justification process it seems like BT are starting to embrace social media or Web2 technology.

The case study on Richard Dennison's blog highlights the lessons learned with the adoption which include:

• Focus on the value social media tools can bring rather than the risks
• Start small, and let the users dictate the direction & speed of adoption
• Engage policy makers as early as possible, and emphasise that the development is an evolution in web usage
• Set realistic achievements about what can be achieved

I like these fundamental basics - we often try to check our client's expectations.  Rather than trying to embark on the goliath of all projects look for quick wins and build iteratively (is that a word?).  That way users don't get overloaded with functionality (and therefore switch off) rather they embrace the benefits the system provides and then left asking for more!

Anyway its good to see a case study of how social media is being adopted.

Yes you heard it right - Microsoft are paying customers to adopt Sharepoint technology!  Well sort of...

Microsoft have now officially announced their SPDS programme.  See here for further details.

SDPS matches up SharePoint partners with customers who are eligible for deployment planning services as part of their Software Assurance benefits. Microsoft then provide a process for certified SDPS partners to conduct, and be compensated for, 1, 3, 5, 10 or 15-day programmatic planning sessions according to the level of their customers’ Software Assurance benefits.  This enables clients to become more aware of the benefits of Sharepoint in their organisation, the implications of adopting Sharepoint technology and even implement a pilot solution. 

This work is funded by Microsoft as part of the clients software assurance benefits.

Novotronix are pleased to announce that they are one of the initial partners who are qualified for delivering the SPDS service.  So if you would like to take advantage of this 'free' benefit then feel free to contact us (either via the contact form to the left or on 01902 424277).

For those using Sharepoint and perhaps more importantly creating e-Learning content you will be interested to learn that Microsoft have recently announced the release of their Learning Content Develiopment System (LCDS) ... more info on the Microsoft Learning Site.

With the LCDS, you can:

•	Develop and deliver content quickly, while it is timely and relevant.
•	Distribute your content via the Web or in a learning management system.
•	Deliver Web content that conforms to Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) 1.2, and which can be hosted in a learning management system.
•	Upload or attach your existing content. (LCDS supports multiple file formats.)
•	Choose from a wide variety of forms for authoring rich e-learning content.
•	Develop your course structure and easily rearrange it at any time.

Basically it is a simple to use SCORM based e-learning creation tool.  Well worth checking out.

One of the questions we are most frequently asked by our clients is whether they should be using Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) or Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS).

The normal tradeoff is between licensing cost & functionality required.  In some scenarios the client can achieve their desired requirements through a combination of WSS and some customisation to deliver the components which would have come with MOSS.  In other scenarious the additional functionality delivered by MOSS clearly outweighs any additional licensing costs.

For those that don't know the difference, WSS is the foundation for MOSS and delivers a lot of the core functionality in Sharepoint such as team sites, document management, collaboration capabilities, search and so on...MOSS then adds an extra layer on top of WSS and provides a significant level of additional functionality.

The main areas that we find usuall 'sell' MOSS are:

• Content Publishing
• My Site Functionality
• Extended Indexing and Search Capabilities
• Content Targetting through Audiences
• Ability to Integrate into Back End Applications
• Infopath Forms Services

There is a more detailed comparison here or if you contact us we can send you a more detailed spreadsheet with detailed functional differences.

 

Still haven't got round to summarising what was an excellent Sharepoint conference in Seattle last month.  Will hopefully post a bit more about that soon and how some of the sessions benefitted the Sharepoint & Infopath projects we are currently working on.

For now I'll just post some of the pictures from the trip.  Food & drink seem to feature heavily - it was hard work honest!  Oh and you might just be able to make out Bill Gates in the distance on his keynote presentation - unfortunately I was limited by my camera phone.

Cue gratuitous use of Silverlight picture gallery... 

For anybody involved in ASP.net based software development you may have noticed a suite of resources available on www.asp.net called starter kits.  I wonder though how many people have actually delved into these (I know many software companies who weren't aware of them)?

As the name suggests these starter kits are great starting point for a number of type of projects whether they are content managed websites, community websites, blogs, classified websites and so on.  We've used these as the basis for a number of developments - for example, a website that we recently developed for a property agency called Property Clever utilised the classifieds starter kit.  We did have to undertake quite a bit of customisation but I think we could reasonably estimate that the kit saved us in the region of a 3rd of the overall development timescale.  And I don't care to imagine how much time we've saved by utilising and customising the DotNetNuke CMS starter kit.

On other projects we have used components from these starter kits e.g. content manager web parts, e-commerce modules and so on.

Who says open source & Microsoft are mutually exclusive! 

For UK based charities there is an organisation called CT Exchange - see http://www.ctxchange.org who themselves are a charity. They provide hardware & software, including most of the Microsoft suite of products for a small admin fee - for example a copy of Microsoft Office Professional would cost £10+VAT. And if you are slightly larger then something like Microsoft Small Business Server for £35+VAT is an excellent product for running a network.

If you are after hardware then Cisco provide cheap (but top quality) kit for drastically reduced prices through the scheme.

We came across it as a charity wanted to purchase licenses for Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server and it was a very cost effective way of them getting the licenses.

There are some eligibility criteria (e.g. you have to be registered with the charity commission) and there are limitations on how many licenses you can order but it might be worth checking out. More info at http://www.ctxchange.org

The next Sharepoint User Group meeting will be in Manchester on 24th April.  Book here

1st Session : An introduction to the Silverlight blueprint for SharePoint - Andrew Woodward

During the first part of the event Andrew will Walk us through configuring SharePoint and the creation of your first Silverlight application followed by a Q&A session on what this means for you and some of the challenges you are likely to face introducing Silverlight into your SharePoint applications.

2nd Session : Kerberos and SharePoint: no ticket touting here. Does SharePoint add another head? - Spencer Harbar

In the second part of this event Spencer will run through an overview of Kerberos and the benefits it offers in a SharePoint 2007 deployment including: -
Discussion of whether your SharePoint deployment needs Kerberos.
Tour of the required pre-requisites and configuration settings.
Approaches to automating configuration in a SharePoint Farm.
Preview of the SharePoint Farm Kerberos Configuration Utility.
Q&A/Discussion.