I think this might be to the volume of SharePointy posts I made earlier this year on the Microsoft technical fora.

Many thanks to those who made this happen! I’m not entirely sure how the process works or to whom I should say thanks, but thanks nonetheless. Much appreciated!

:)

Technorati Tags: Communities, Forums, Microsoft, SharePoint, Social, Training

My 11-year-old son has started programming. He gave it a go a little while back, using HTML, Logo and also Scratch from MIT. He wanted something more. I stumbled across Microsoft’s WebMatrix. He’s now building his first web applications.

WebMatrix is a great start for anyone looking to get into Microsoft Web application development.

WebMatrix is Microsoft’s latest free development platform. If you’re a hobbyist or a professional, the WebMatrix can be for you. It’s a platform that you can start creating database-connected web applications from day one. Intuitive and professional, it lets you hone your development skills in technologies that can be applied to enterprise development as well.

WebMatrix also installs Microsoft’s Web Platform Installer, which gives you a choice of additional platforms and tools including WordPress, Dot Net Nuke, Ubraco, Drupal and many others. If the open source packages require MySql and you don’t have this installed already, WebMatrix will download this for you.

Most noteworthy, you can also download express editions of their flagship development tools: Visual Studio 2010 Express and SQL 2008R2 Express and use them seamlessly with WebMatrix.

WebMatrix lets you create sites using its own toolset that sits on top of ASP.NET. It comes with a variety of templates to get you started quickly, all using their Razor (.chtml) templating syntax. Razor provides a much more streamlines syntax than traditional ASP.NET, which new developers will enjoy. The client-side scripts can be HTML, JavaScript, AJAX/jQuery and others.

Out of the box, you get SQL Server Compact – a completely file-based version of SQL Server. WebMatrix has its own database tools to help build your tables.

WebMatrix comes with IIS Developer Express edition. When it’s time to reveal your web application and make it available on the Internet, it will allow walk you through all the steps to publish your site on the web. If it works in IIS Developer Express edition, it will work with IIS on a server.

WebMatrix also has features to help fine tune your search engine ranking by spotting common errors, for instance missing H1 heading tags. Another cool feature is that (optionally!) WebMatrix will take some of the leg work out of shopping for the best hosting deal, by serving you with a choice of hosting providers.

Technorati Tags: Development, Getting Started, Training, Visual Studio 2010 Express, WebMatrix

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

The Microsoft SharePoint 2010 platform has really come of age. In my three recent video podcasts, I showed some of my favourite features in SharePoint 2010:

• SharePoint 2010 Enabling Business Agility using Workflow
• SharePoint 2010 Business Connectivity Services and Offline Synchronisation
• SharePoint 2010 Sandbox Solutions

But there’s so much more for the SharePoint Developer to enjoy!

• Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Projects and Project Items
• Client Object Model (for .NET, Sliverlight and JavaScript)
• LINQ to SharePoint
• Solution and Feature Lifecycle with the Versioning and Upgrade Framework
• SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visio 2010 Integration
• InfoPath 2010 Forms
• Claims Based Security
• SharePoint Powershell Integration
• Lists and Libraries Enhancements
• Branding Improvements
• Enterprise Content Management Improvements, Taxonomies
• Search Improvements
• Excel Services, PerformancePoint Services, PowerPivot for SharePoint
• Access Services
• Office Web Access
• …More! More! More!

To round off my week as the Firebrand Blog guest blogger, I’ve made a high level video overview of some of the new Business Intelligence features in SharePoint 2010. A quick look at the Business Intelligence Center site definition, a look at Excel Web Access and the Excel Web Access Web Part, and finally a peek at the REST API for Excel Services.

Don’t forget you can find all my videos as podcasts on iTunes! Just search for “joelblogs tv” and you’ll find them.

Technorati Tags: Business Intelligence, Charting, Excel Services, Excel Web Access, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Videos, Training, Videos

SharePoint Comes of Age

It strikes me that SharePoint is a product that’s taken a while to mature, but mature it certainly has. The several first iterations of the technology stack didn’t really have very much in the way of targeted Developer or IT Pro learning.

In fact, looking back at WSS 3.0 and SharePoint 2007, the only real, official Microsoft courses were for the IT Pro community (courses 5060 and 5061). I don’t think it’s a matter of Microsoft leaving things up to the community, but more the case that even with Microsoft’s man-power and financial might, SharePoint was a comparatively niche product and Microsoft simply couldn’t get the support and training to all the different groups who needed it, and remain cost effective.

Microsoft Courseware Library

But what they did do for learning in the SharePoint community was to make use of the already growing Microsoft Courseware Library. The Microsoft Courseware Library programme allows 3rd party vendors of training courses of sufficient quality to get a Microsoft seal of approval, and achieve a semi-official status.

Through this channel there have been some great training courses (and some not so good). Some of the good ones covered:

SharePoint 2007 Advanced Development (e.g. from Architecting Connected Systems or MindSharp)
SharePoint 2007 Business Intelligence Training
SharePoint 2007 Branding and Content Management
and
SharePoint End Users and Information Workers (or "Functionals" as Patrick calls them.)

To teach these courses to a paying audience, you’d need to be a Microsoft Certified Trainer /* like me! :o) */ but there is also a thriving community of other training companies who make terrific SharePoint courses outside of the Courseware Library programme (e.g. Ted Patterson / Critical Path).

As always, Microsoft leaves gaps for Microsoft partners to fill. Big partners like Firebrand Training, and not-so-big partners like JFDI Phoenix. /* my company! :o) */

Who Wants SharePoint Certification?

But possibly there is a case for certification for Information Workers – maybe a SharePoint equivalent of the Office User certification.

However, I’m not convinced everyone who wants training also wants certification. I assert that the Venn diagram of Set A: "SharePoint Information Workers", Set B: "SharePoint Developers/Administrators/Architects" and Set C: "People Who Want SharePoint Certification" probably has those last two sets almost entirely overlapping, and only slightly intersecting the first.

The Changing Face of SharePoint Certification

The training landscape is definitely changing with SharePoint 2010:

• If you’re an Administrator or Developer, the certifications are aligned to the MCITP and MCPD tracks respectively – that’s got to be better than the ragtag collection of 4 MCTS certifications we had with SharePoint 2007!
• Microsoft are releasing Official Courses for Administrators and Developers alike! Look out for courses 10175 and 10232 for Developers, and 10174 and 10231 for IT Professionals.
• If you have the MCITP and MCPD certifications for SharePoint, you could consider going for the SharePoint Certified Master certification… but that takes three weeks of your life and earning ability and about $15,000 and you have to pass a CV screen and interview before gaining a place on a course that only runs in the States.
• And STOP THE PRESS! It seems that there may be Information Worker training in the near future!

The Microsoft ‘Get The Point’ Blog mentions an upcoming List training course.

Microsoft’s guide to End User training resources (OK, not classroom based)

Great free, third party End User SharePoint 2010 training videos.

Technorati Tags: Certification, Information Workers, Opinion, SharePoint 2010, Training

Hey folks!

Well, I’ve finally got round to it. I’m running a 5-day public SharePoint Developer course out of our offices at Brighton, UK. The dates are pretty soon – 27-31 July 2009.

We’ll be covering a bunch of topics for both WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 including:

• Deploying Windows SharePoint Services and custom components
• Creating Site and Feature provisioning components
• Creating Metadata and Workflow provisioning components
• Manipulating Site Content and Configuration by using the API
• Developing Windows SharePoint Services Components using the .NET Framework
• Managing Enterprise Content
• Creating Business Intelligence Solutions by using Office SharePoint Server 2007
• Accessing Office SharePoint Server Application Platform Services
• Searching Data by using the Search Service
• Targeting Content Based on Audience Membership
• Customising Functionality by using Profiles

Drop me a line if you’re interested, or you’re welcome to sign up online here: http://www.jfdiphoenix.co.uk/events/ctl/details/mid/864/itemid/1.aspx

Technorati Tags: Brighton, Microsoft, MOSS 2007, SharePoint, Training, WSS 3.0

Technorati Tags: MCT, Microsoft, Microsoft Certified Trainer, SharePoint, Training

The video was created with the excellent Animoto SaaS video authoring application. You can also see the video streaming from Animoto’s site.

Technorati Tags: SharePoint, Training, Videos

If you search for Microsoft Technical Due Diligence on Google, I’m there at link #5. Which is quite cool.

But if you search for SharePoint consultant or trainer, I’m nowhere as far as Google goes. So I’ve got to do something about that.

I’m always interested in SharePoint solution architecture, development and consulting roles. I can also offer on site, bespoke training for SME and corporate customers looking to cross-train their development teams to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – MOSS -  and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 – WSS.

If you’re interested in bespoke SharePoint training or consultancy coming to you, check out my details here: http://www.jfdiphoenix.co.uk/sharepoint+training.aspx

Technorati Tags: MOSS, SharePoint, Training, WSS