Stop, Collaborate and Listen:
SharePoint’s Back with a Brand New Invention.

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Drop me a line if you’re interested!

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One such region of confusion surrounds the Initiation Form – the form displayed whenever a user launches your workflow, that you can use to prompt for more information required to run your workflow. Similar uncertainty surrounds the Association Form – one that is displayed whenever a list administrator attaches your workflow to their list.

Thanks to the tooling in Visual Studio, it’s now easy to add either of these forms. Right-clicking your Workflow item in Solution Explorer and choosing “Add-> New Item” will give you:

Selecting either Initiation Form or Association Form will add the appropriate artefacts to your code and also configures the Element manifest of the Workflow accordingly:

Let’s say we wanted to ask the user a series of extra questions when they launch our workflow, such as their manager’s First Name, Last Name and Email Address, such that we can have access to that data within our running workflow later on.

We can now edit our new Initiation Form as an aspx page in Visual Studio. Let’s add some text boxes to capture the extra information:

The next question is often “how do we get this information to the workflow?” Inside the workflow itself is a SPWorkflowActivationProperties object which exposes two strings: InitiationData and AssociationData, which is respectively the data captured from the user during launch and association phases of the workflow.

The code behind for the Initiation Form has a string method called GetInitiationData(). Whatever string you return here is then available from inside your workflow using workflowProperties.InitiationData. It’s the same principle with Association Forms, GetAssociationData and AssociationData properties.

Clearly, we could go low-rent here and return a semi-colon delimited string or something naff of that ilk.

Alternatively you could store your properties temporarily in a class and then serialise that class to a string and return that. Then later in your workflow you could deserialise that back to an instance of your object.

You could put a lot of effort into this to get it really efficient, but the general principle is why not create a utility class to hold Serialise and Deserialise methods?

I’ve implemented the following candidate code using Generics to show how powerful the technique is:

public static string Serialise<T>(T item)
{
    XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(item.GetType());
    TextWriter sw = new StringWriter();
    ser.Serialize(sw, item);
    return sw.ToString();
}

public static T Deserialise<T>(string xml) where T : new()
{
    T returnObject = new T();
    XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(returnObject.GetType());
    XmlTextReader xtr = new XmlTextReader(new StringReader(xml));
    return (T)ser.Deserialize(xtr);
}

So, given a class, for example, to hold contact information:

public class Contact
{
    public string FirstName;
    public string LastName;
    public string Email;
}

You could put the following in your code behind for the Initiation Form:

// This method is called when the user clicks the button to start the workflow.
private string GetInitiationData()
{
    contact.FirstName = firstName.Text;
    contact.LastName = lastName.Text;
    contact.Email = email.Text;
    return Serialise<Contact>(contact);
}

Then in the code beside for your workflow you can get at the data again like this:

private void codeActivity1_ExecuteCode(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Contact contact = Deserialise<Contact>(workflowProperties.InitiationData);
    historyDescription = string.Format("Received Contact information: {0} {1} {2}",
        contact.FirstName, contact.LastName, contact.Email);
}

Hopefully this code will save you some searching and typing.

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It’s a little bit cryptic, but we can tell IntelliSense to include any JavaScript libraries you have on your development machine.

Simply place the following two lines at the top of your source code (watch out for line breaks!):

/// <reference path="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\Web Server Extensions\\14\\TEMPLATE\\LAYOUTS\\MicrosoftAjax.js" />
/// <reference path="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\Web Server Extensions\\14\\TEMPLATE\\LAYOUTS\\SP.debug.js" />
/// <reference path="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\Web Server Extensions\\14\\TEMPLATE\\LAYOUTS\\SP.Core.debug.js" />

Then, you can get IntelliSense when you need it the most!

Full article on MSDN available here.

Enjoy!

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Base Types

These Base Types come from the SPBaseType enumeration.

List Definitions

These List Definitions come from the SPListTemplateType enumeration.

Content Types

These content types come from the Content Type ID list.

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These questions are all original – and a lot of hard work! Please, please do not distribute them in any format.

You can access them online, for free, here: Practice Exam 70-573 SharePoint 2010 Application Development

Although, all donations gratefully received!

Technorati Tags: Development, Exams, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2010 Training, SharePoint Developer, SharePoint Training

I’ve built an exam of 40 questions in a similar style to those from Microsoft 70-573 “TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development”.

These are brand new questions. Not pirated. Not copied. Not stolen.

Ethical.

And you can access them for free!

See the SharePoint Practice Exams page for more details and links to PayPal.

Technorati Tags: Certification, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2010 Training, SharePoint Developer

Certification Pack	Savings	Second Shot
5-exam pack	20%	Included with each exam
4-exam pack	20%	Included with each exam
3-exam pack	15%	Included with each exam
2-exam pack	15%	Included with each exam
1-exam	Regular Price	Add 15% to exam price

There are some gotcha’s though. You need to visit Prometric’s Exam Retake page to reclaim your free retake if you do not pass first time. Watch out though, as it can take up to 72 hours for them to send you the email with your free voucher.

Technorati Tags: Certification, MCP, Training

Here’s a rundown of my best practice tips when sitting the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Exams. Hopefully there’s something here for everyone, whether you’re a SharePoint Administrator (70-667, 70-668), or a SharePoint Developer (70-573 and 70-576) – or just preparing for Microsoft Exams in general.

Before we start our list of practical exam tips, I’m going to give you an extra tip for free:

Practice, practice, practice! The exam syllabus states as pre-requisites around 3 months of product experience for the MCTS exams, and up to 2 years for the MCITP and MCPD exams. See here about booking Joel as a trainer with the online form.

Multiple Guess?

Next, a note on exam style: both SharePoint Developer exams and also the MCTS Administrator exam are based on multiple choice questions, usually around 50-60 questions per test. Each question will typically start with a paragraph or two of scenario, followed by some part-completed technical steps or code.

You will then be asked one of the following:

• Select one best answer, where each choice represents a whole possible answer.
  • e.g. One from a choice of A, B, C, D or E.
• Select the two best answers, where each choice represents a whole possible answer.
  • e.g. Two from a choice of A, B, C, D or E.
• Select the two best answers, where each choice represents a part of a possible answer.
  • e.g. Two from a choice of A, B, C, D or E.
• Select the best appropriate N steps, where each choice represents a part of a possible answer.
  • e.g. Three from a choice of A, B, C, D, E or F.
• Select the best appropriate N steps in the correct order, where each choice represents a part of a possible answer.
  • e.g. Three from a choice of A, B, C, D, E or F, where the order of the steps is marked too.

Case Study Questions

There are differences with the 70-668 MCITP SharePoint Administration exam. You may only be asked 10-15 of the above style of question. There are an additional 40 similar questions where instead of each one being a discrete scenario, there are a smaller set of stories, each of which is longer in length, to which may apply to 3 or 4 questions in a row. These are the so-called “case study” style questions. In total, this adds up to 50-60 questions for 70-668 as well.

Typically, the choices you will get (A – E or A – F etc.) will, in addition to the correct answers, include obviously incorrect choices, and also more devious “detractor” answers.

The Top Ten

Now we’ve covered the basics, on with the exam tips:

1. Pace yourself. You have a limited amount of time and a lot of questions to answer. Give yourself a time limit per question that you won’t go over, and watch the time remaining (displayed on screen). If you make good speed, feel free to re-jig your personal time limit per question.
2. Read the question. I know this sounds obvious, but the devil is in the detail. Read the question thoroughly. For the longer case studies you may need to make notes on the provided laminated cardboard sheets we get at Prometric testing centres. It’s easy to get carried away with notes though; don’t use all your exam time making notes!
3. Do you know the answer? If you know the answer, and you’ve checked the whole question, and you know what you’re doing, then obviously select the answer you know and move on. Hopefully most of the questions will follow this format. :)
4. Leave no question unanswered! There is no “negative” marking in Microsoft exams. In other words, you only accumulate points for correct answers; no additional marks are deducted for incorrect choices. Select your best guess (go with your gut, or use the tips below) and mark it for later review. Any time during the exam, you can review the ones you have marked, and change your mind.
5. Don’t change your mind! If you choose to review your choices at the end (and this is generally a good idea) do not be tempted to change your answer unless: you are absolutely convinced you got it wrong. You will kick yourself later if you failed because you changed an answer away from a correct one.
6. Look out for clues in later questions! Your exam can be a truly enlightening experience. I tend to sit exams early in their lifecycle, frequently before any courseware is actually available. Over the years I have learned quite a lot about .NET and the Microsoft platform from sitting the exams. Don’t know the answer the question 26? Then mark it for review, and maybe 29 and 37 will give you different clues in their question scenario that can help you logically work out the correct answer. It can be like a logic puzzle. In the past I’ve had 3 questions spread over the course of an exam that, when read together, can only have one logical combination of answers.
7. Eliminate the stupid choices. The quality of Microsoft exams has improved much over the last 5 years. In previous years, the detractor answers could include choices that are logically impossible or even utter nonsense. These days, all choices you will be presented with must at least be viable areas of SharePoint’s object model or platform. However, they still usually put in 1 or 2 daft choices that you can usually eliminate easily.
8. Look out for trick questions. Sometimes they put in choices that are more applicable to a previous version of a product or technology, but which would not work on the new platform. I’ve seen this tactic in both Administration and Developer exams before.
9. Think “What Would Bill Do?” Don’t go the trouble of tattooing WWBD onto your knuckles, but try and remember that products are meant to be easy to administer, and object models are meant to be expressive and easy to use. If you find yourself genuinely stumped, try and reverse the situation and ask yourself “using best practices, if I had to design an API or command line interface, how should I do it?” Often the most cumbersome-looking choices are incorrect. Beware though. Sometimes things are just difficult to do. In other words: it’s usually the simplest answer… except when it’s not!
10. Don’t forget everything you already know about IT! You walk in to the exam room with potentially many years’ experience as a developer or IT Professional. Principals of software development and IT infrastructure knowledge should not be knocked out of your head simply because we’re now building with SharePoint.

So, whatever your chosen methods for preparing for SharePoint exams, whether it’s Accelerated IT Learning or experience from the field, I hope you’ll find these exam tips useful.

Technorati Tags: 70-563, 70-576, 70-667, 70-668, Exams, MCP, SharePoint 2010, Tips, Training

In my first post on creating Auto Summary Slides for PowerPoint 2010, I gave you a VBA macro and PowerPoint template showing how to create summary slides based upon the titles of those selected with one mouse click.

By popular demand, I’ve added an extra feature to the Macro. You now have two choices: either have the original behaviour of a text-only summary page, or use the new extended version that makes every summary item a hyperlink to the original slide.

Once again, I’m making this free under the Creative Commons Public Domain license.

   1: '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

   2: ''' InsertSummary()

   3: ''' by Joel Jeffery (http://joelblogs.co.uk) August 2010

   4: ''' Creates a Summary Slide for PowerPoint 2010

   5: ''' (and probably 2007 too!)

   6: ''' Depends: Requires QSortInPlace by Chip Pearson

   7: ''' Usage: Select Slides (e.g. in Slide Sorter) and run

   8: ''' this macro.

   9: ''' License: Creative Commons Public Domain 2010

  10: '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

  11: Sub InsertSummary(Optional CreateHyperlinks As Boolean)

  12:     Dim i As Integer

  13:     Dim strSel As String, strTitle As String

  14:     Dim summary As Slide

  15:     

  16:     'Only run if we've got something selected

  17:     If ActiveWindow.Selection.SlideRange.Count > 0 Then

  18:         'Array to hold the order of the slides...

  19:         'We do this or we build the ToC in the order

  20:         'in which the slides were selected :)

  21:         Dim slideOrder() As Integer

  22:         

  23:         'Size this to the number of slides selected

  24:         ReDim slideOrder(1 To ActiveWindow.Selection.SlideRange.Count)

  25:         

  26:         'Collect all the IDs of the selected slides

  27:         For i = 1 To ActiveWindow.Selection.SlideRange.Count

  28:             slideOrder(i) = ActiveWindow.Selection.SlideRange(i).SlideIndex

  29:         Next

  30:         

  31:         'Sort them with the QSort Algorithm

  32:         'By Chip Pearson, www.cpearson.com, chip@cpearson.com

  33:         QSortInPlace slideOrder

  34:                 

  35:         'Iterate over the slides in Index order

  36:         For o = 1 To UBound(slideOrder)

  37:             If ActivePresentation.Slides(slideOrder(o)).Shapes.HasTitle Then

  38:                 'Build up the ToC Text

  39:                 strTitle = ActivePresentation.Slides(slideOrder(o)).Shapes.Title.TextFrame.TextRange.Text

  40:                 strSel = strSel & strTitle & vbCrLf

  41:             End If

  42:         Next

  43:         

  44:         'Create the summary slide before the first slide in the selection

  45:         Set summary = ActivePresentation.Slides.Add(slideOrder(1), ppLayoutText)

  46:         'Add the title

  47:         summary.Shapes(1).TextFrame.TextRange = "Module Summary"

  48:         'Add the ToC text

  49:         summary.Shapes(2).TextFrame.TextRange = strSel

  50:         

  51:         ' By popular demand...! ;)

  52:         If CreateHyperlinks Then

  53:             'Add Hyperlinks :)

  54:             For o = 1 To UBound(slideOrder)

  55:                 If ActivePresentation.Slides(slideOrder(o) + 1).Shapes.HasTitle Then

  56:                     'Build up the ToC Text

  57:                     strTitle = ActivePresentation.Slides(slideOrder(o) + 1).Shapes.Title.TextFrame.TextRange.Text

  58:                     With summary.Shapes(2).TextFrame.TextRange.Paragraphs(o).ActionSettings(ppMouseClick)

  59:                         .Action = ppActionHyperlink

  60:                         .Hyperlink.Address = ""

  61:                         .Hyperlink.SubAddress = ActivePresentation.Slides(slideOrder(o) + 1).SlideID & "," & ActivePresentation.Slides(slideOrder(o) + 1).SlideIndex & "," + strTitle

  62:                     End With

  63:                 End If

  64:             Next

  65:         End If

  66:     End If

  67: End Sub

  68:  

  69: '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

  70: ''' InsertSummaryWithHyperlinks()

  71: ''' by Joel Jeffery (http://joelblogs.co.uk) August 2010

  72: ''' Creates a Summary Slide for PowerPoint 2010

  73: ''' (and probably 2007 too!) with Hyperlinks

  74: ''' Usage: Select Slides (e.g. in Slide Sorter) and run

  75: ''' this macro.

  76: ''' License: Creative Commons Public Domain 2010

  77: '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

  78: Sub InsertSummaryWithHyperlinks()

  79:     InsertSummary CreateHyperlinks:=True

  80: End Sub

To the extent possible under law, Joel Jeffery has waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to InsertSummary() and InsertSummaryWithHyperlinks() Macros for PowerPoint 2010. This work is published from United Kingdom. Why am I bothering to licensed this under Creative Commons? Because some folks are selling similar functionality as a PowerPoint Add-In and I think it should be free. Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Macro, PowerPoint 2010, VBA