Boston Area SharePoint Users Group Registration Now Open!

This is a repost of Geoff Varosky’s original post.

I am pleased to announce that we have opened up registration for the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group inaugural meeting, being held on May 12th, 2010 at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, MA.

Chris Bortlik, a SharePoint Technology Specialist with Microsoft, will be presenting a session to kick off the user group, as well as coinciding with the official launch of Office and SharePoint 2010, also taking place on May 12th, “Introducing SharePoint 2010”. Come and learn more about the new product, network with others, enjoy some free food, and participate in the free raffle!

Please sign up today by visiting http://www.bostonsharepointug.org and clicking on the Register Now link on the site, or, right here: http://baspug51210.eventbrite.com/?ref=ecount

Fore more information on this event, and the group itself, please head on over to http://www.bostonsharepointug.org.

Also, please help us spread the word! Follow us on twitter @BASPUG and by using the hash-tag #BASPUG. We also have a group on LinkedIn.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Technorati Tags: SharePoint,WSS,MOSS,Boston Area SharePoint Users Group,BASPUG,Boston,User Groups,Users Group,Community,SharePoint 2010,Microsoft,NERD Center,N.E.R.D.

Introducing the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group

This is a repost of Geoff Varosky’s original post.

The Boston Area SharePoint Users Group was founded by Geoff Varosky of Grace-Hunt, Ryan Tacy of AvePoint, Eugene Rosenfeld [me] of Black Blade Associates, and Talbott Crowell of ThirdM. We wanted to bring together like minds to network and share their experiences, triumphs, and tribulations around Microsoft SharePoint. To provide a community platform for Boston area SharePoint users, administrators, developers, architects, to share their knowledge with the community. We meet on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, MA.

Our official website just launched, so check it out. You can register for the user group meeting right from the site. Follow us @BASPUG on twitter, for more up to date information regarding the Users Group.

INAUGURAL MEETING
We will be holding our first meeting on May 12th, 2010, from 6pm – 8pm EST at the Microsoft New England Research & Development (NERD) Center. Our speaker will be Chris Bortlik of Microsoft, presenting “Introducing SharePoint 2010”. Our first meeting will also coincide with the official launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. Watch the live launch event during the day, and come and see SharePoint 2010 in action at night!

A little bit about Chris…
Chris Bortlik works at Microsoft as a SharePoint technology specialist. He works with Enterprise customers and partners in the Northeast in a pre-sales technical role. Chris speaks frequently at Microsoft events (including the SharePoint Conference) and is a contributing author of the upcoming "Essential SharePoint 2010" book. He also publishes a blog on TechNet at: http://blogs.technet.com/cbortlik/  Prior to joining Microsoft in 2008, Chris was a customer for 14 years working in technical IT architect, development and management roles – primarily leading .NET and SharePoint related projects.

SUSTENANCE
Food for our inaugural meeting, as well as the first few meetings, will be sponsored by AvePoint. The meetings will also not stop to a dead halt at 8pm, that is just when we need to be out of the facility. After the user group meetings, we will most likely announce and adjourn to a local watering hole, to continue on our discussions and networking, which may or may not be sponsored.

RAFFLE PRIZES

We will be handing out raffle tickets at the BASPUG meetings (when we have items to raffle that is!). Black Blade Associates will be raffling off a license, valued at $2000 for their SharePoint Zip product, at each and every meeting of the BASPUG!

We will also be working with some publishers as well to extend discounts, be able to raffle off free books, and more, to the members of the BASPUG.

FREQUENCY
The BASPUG will meet on the 2nd Wednesday of every month, from 6pm to 8pm EST, starting May 12th, 2010.

LOCATION
We will be meeting at the Microsoft New England Research & Development (NERD) Center, located in Cambridge, MA. For more information on the facility, as well as directions, please visit here: http://microsoftcambridge.com/About/Directions/tabid/89/Default.aspx

LINKED IN
Join our group on LinkedIn today to connect with the rest of the BASPUG members, and spread the word! http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2878468

TWITTER
Follow news about the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group on twitter by following us @BASPUG, and by using the hashtag #BASPUG

INTERESTED IN SPEAKING OR SPONSORING?
Contact us at info@bostonsharepointug.org today!

Technorati Tags: SharePoint,WSS,MOSS,Boston Area SharePoint Users Group,BASPUG,Boston,User Groups,Users Group,Community

Advanced Web Part development in SharePoint 2010

Since I initially posted that I would be speaking at the SharePoint 2010 Evolution Conference in London this April, I’ve picked up an additional session. Not only am I delivering my, “Things that Should be Easy in SharePoint Development” session, but also am delivering the new development deep dive session, “Advanced Web Part development in SharePoint 2010.”

This is a 400-level development session targeted at mid-level to senior-level developers. Custom Web Parts development has been a staple of SharePoint application development since 2001. This session focuses on Visual Studio 2010 enhancements for SharePoint 2010 Web Part developers, such as Visual Web Parts, the Web Part Page Services, AJAX Web Parts, and web part connections. Advanced topics such as sandbox Web Parts, connections to Service Applications, and writing web parts that work on SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server 2010 will be discussed as well.

Here’s the session outline:

• Visual Web Parts
  Just about every developer’s first effort at SharePoint code is in the form of a Web Part. But Web Part development and deployment in SharePoint 2003 and 2007 was very involved with lots of code. We’ll look at the welcomed web part designer in Visual Studio 2010 for SharePoint 2010 and see how we can adapt the technique for creating visual web parts that work with SharePoint 2007.
   
• AJAX Web Parts
  SharePoint 2010 has full support ASP.Net AJAX turn on by default. Learn how your web parts can take advantage.
   
  • ASP.Net AJAX
  • Web Part Page Service
     
• Sandbox Web Parts
  Microsoft has made a big push in their 2010 product line to make the platforms more “cloud-friendly”. For SharePoint 2010, that means allowing owners of individual site collections more freedom in deploying web parts without impacting the stability and performance of the entire farm. We will look at how to create, package, and deploy Sandbox Web Parts, and learn what restrictions the sandbox solution model places on these web parts’ behavior.
   
• Connections to Service Applications
  MOSS 2007’s Shared Service Provider model has been completely revamped as the Service Application model and integrated into the SharePoint Foundation. Learn how to build web parts that communicate with Service Applications to initiate long-running operations that do not tie up the UI process or impace web server performance.
   
  • Intro to Services Applications
  • Service Application Architecture
     
• Web Part Connections
   
  • Connections Model Overview
  • Connecting to out of the box SharePoint web parts
  • AJAX Web Part Connections
     
• Multi-platform Web Parts
  There are 6 major SharePoint platform versions. Write code that will dynamically detect the SharePoint platform type and version, whether the code is running on the SharePoint farm or remotely.
   
  Once you can detect on which of the 6 major SharePoint platform versions your web part is running, how do you make sure your web part will run without error, and without settling for “lowest common denominator” feature set? Of course we’ll want to do it all with a single code base. 
   
  • Platform Detection Mechanisms
    • Object Model
    • Registry
    • File System
    • HTTP Code
  • Multi-platform Code
    • Object Model
    • HTTP Code

Join me for in London, UK April 19-21, 2010. This is going to be a great conference. If you can’t make it, don’t worry; I’ll write up blog posts on the more popular topics from my sessions. Leave a comment on which topic you’d like to see a post.

Technorati Tags: SharePoint,WSS,MOSS 2007,SharePoint Foundation,SharePoint 2010

Visual Studio 2010 Released to MSDN!

The wait is over: Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 are now available to MSDN subscribers. If you don’t have an MSDN subscription, now is a great time to get one, especially with the scheduled May 12 release of SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Visual Studio