Contest for Sharepoint Journey

Sharepoint can be used for variety of reasons..  Be it for a workflow, collaboration,  DMS or now even for social media integration.  Microsoft team would like to know how you  or your organization got started with Sharepoint and how Sharepoint applications helps in driving business values.  In order to achieve this, Microsoft team has set up a contest to submit a video that talks about it. If you are intrested, click Here to know more about it.

Sharepoint 2010 installation hotfix on Win server 2008

If you happen to install Sharepoint 2010 on Window Server 2008(without SP2), you may encounter the below problem while accessing sharepoint sites."Request is not available in this context "

Problem

Server Error in '/' Application.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Request is not available in this context
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: Request is not available in this context

Solutions

This is been a known issue since while and Microsoft have acknowledge and rectified it in Windows Server 2008(SP2). if you are using SP1 of Windows Server 2008, I would suggest you to install SP2 or download the hotfix for this solution by clicking on here. Basically, .NET CLR does not understand the new optimization mechanisma and hence after installing this hotfix, one need to also set set the optimizeCompilations property of the tag in your web.config file to true. More information about it is also mentioned in Microsoft support site at here

Review Sharepoint Prep kits for UCertify

I have been asked to review Prep kits for 70-630 exam titled Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuring (70-630). Though I have not got a chance to review each questions but I did found that the concepts related to 70-630 are clearly outlined and thoroughly covered.

There are few small things that has been take care of in this prep kits. For e.g. Pause button which provide a reader to take a break while preparing for the exams.This is very nice and extremely useful. The other noticeable things that I like are adding Tags to each questions, providing review etc to name a few. Also like other prep kits, they did explain the reasons for correct as well as incorrect answers.Few things that I really liked in this Prepkits is its GUI and study notes section.



SharePoint 2010 is on the way. If you are a SharePoint geek, I would still reckoned to get through this exam titled “70-630 – TS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007” since still the basics are same. Being my blog reader, you are also entitled to a 10% discount for this prep kit. The discount code is "UCPREP".

MOSS Service Pack 2 Released

Microsoft have released Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) Service Pack 2. This can be download from here. This service pack include all the unreleased fixes, security updates etx. It is strongly recommend to go through the link Service Pack 2 Improvements to know about the improvements in SP2

Ramp up- a free, online, community-based program

Recently i have got a chance to got a visit a wonderful site called Ramp Up program (http://www.myrampup.com/) . Ramp Up is a free, online, community-based program that can help users save time in learning Microsoft technology. The easy-to-access content (provided by subject-matter gurus) is specifically tailored to the Ramp Up program, and offered in a variety of forms (whitepaper, v-lab, codecast and slidecast). There are lot of tracks in it SharePoint track, along with the other currently offered tracks (eg, Visual Studio 2008), teaches the important skills in a guided path, making the learning process easier and more efficient. Currently, there are no assessments in the program, so it's quicker than ever to graduate and receive the reward (25% off on certification and 50% off on e-Learning - only for graduates of Ramp Up).

Silverlight Blueprints for SharePoint Released to CodePlex

Today Microsoft released the source code for the Silverlight Blueprints for SharePoint—based on the Silverlight Beta 2 release. The Silverlight Blueprints for SharePoint provide a way for developers to better understand how to integrate Silverlight applications with SharePoint
In this release, you’ll find five blueprint samples:

1. Hello World
2. Media Player
3. Slider Control
4. Custom Navigation
5. Colleague Viewer

The links to get to the Silverlight Blueprints for SharePoint are:

1. http://www.ssblueprints.net/sharepoint/ --or direct at the CodePlex site
2. http://www.codeplex.com/SL4SP

SharePoint Certifications

When we Say SharePoint, we refer to two product of Microsoft (WSS and MOSS). On certifications front also, Microsoft has released 2 certifications each on SharePoint and WSS. One of the certification deals with the application development and others deal with the administration.
Below are the certification details

MOSS certification

1. SharePoint Server 2007 ― Application Development certificationhttp://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-542.mspx
2. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – Configuration credentialhttp://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-630.mspx

WSS certification
1. Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 – Application Development certificationhttp://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-541.mspx
2. MCTS: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 – Configuration certificationhttp://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-631.mspx

Sharepoint Web 2.0 Starter

Microsoft is coming up with great speaker on sharepoint on "Sharepoint web 2.0 starter". Though this event will happen on June 11th event at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond, WA. If you happen to be in Redmond, get registered by clicking here. The whole event is also getting simulcasted via Live Meeting. You can join online at this full-day event and learn more about customizing and building Web pages, Web Parts, Silverlight, and more from a SharePoint context. if you want to join via live meeting, register by clicking here.