Check Out the Latest Videos and Webcasts on Windows Azure

Take advantage of this resource that includes a full listing of the latest webcasts and how-to videos covering the technologies included in the Azure Services Platform: Windows Azure, .NET Services, SQL Data Services, and Live Services.

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Check Out the Latest Videos and Webcasts on Windows Azure

How We Did It: BDC Meta Man Web Edition

For today’s guest post, I’d like to introduce Nick Swan and Phill Duffy.  Nick founded Lightning Tools with Brett Lonsdale in 2006 and BDC Meta Man was a result of their efforts.  Fast forward to 2009 and Phill Duffy is part of the team (Nick Swan, Brett Londsdale, Dmitry Kaloshin, Michael Gamza, Hrayr Diloyan, Ashot Brahamyan, Karen Khumaryan & Hrachya Bekverdyan) that built and launched BDC Meta Man Web Edition.  This post gets into the decisions and components they used to build a custom SharePoint solution.  Enjoy! Introduction BDC Meta Man Web Edition was born from the success of BDC Meta Man and from listening to our users about how they wanted to interact with SharePoint and the Business Data Catalog. We certainly had our work cut out for us as BDC Meta Man is hugely successful and a hard act to follow. One of the surveys conducted by Lightning Tools a short while ago showed that users were asking the question as to why, when SharePoint can communicate with their Line-of-Business Systems, they need to use a desktop application to create the Application Definition File to do so.

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How We Did It: BDC Meta Man Web Edition

Service Pack 2 Update.

The public update for the Service Pack 2 expiration date issue is now available for download.  The update can be applied before or after Service Pack 2 installation.  If the update is applied prior to installing Service Pack 2 it will prevent the expiration date from being improperly activated during installation of Service Pack 2, if it is applied after Service Pack 2 it will remove the expiration date incorrectly set during installation of Service Pack 2. The update is applicable to all of the products that this issue affected (see the list in the KB linked below). Installation instructions and download links for x86 and x64 are available in this KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971620 The direct download link for x86 is: http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/F/5/2F51AB71-1325-49D2-9CB9-18DEC4780E99/office2007-kb971620-fullfile-x86-glb.exe And for x64: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/B/B/5BBD34A9-C528-42B0-8A5F-9A8997B25C32/office2007-kb971620-fullfile-x64-glb.exe We will be updating the existing Service Pack 2 download package with a new package that includes this fix within the next 4-6 weeks

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Service Pack 2 Update.

3. VSTO Bug Tracker : A UDF

Now that we have our web service, lets get started by writing a managed UDF that uses the web method “GetColumnValue”.  In fact, the UDF will mirror this web method and make it so we can use it in Excel formulas. First, add a new C# or VB class library project to your solution using File > Add > New Project. Name the project BugAddIn

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3. VSTO Bug Tracker : A UDF

SharePoint 2007 SP 2 Has Shipped

Some great news: SharePoint 2007 Service Pack 2 shipped today. Note that SP 2 should be considered part of your process for readying yourself for SharePoint Server 2010 because there is a new ‘preupgradecheck’ operation, which has been added to stsadmn

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SharePoint 2007 SP 2 Has Shipped

Xobni drops beta, organizes your Outlook info faster

Filed under: Windows , E-mail , Social Software Xobni is an Outlook plugin that adds social networking and search features to the email and contact organizer. We first looked at Xobni when the service launched in public beta last year. Today Xobni is dropping the beta tab with the release of Xobni 1.7.

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Xobni drops beta, organizes your Outlook info faster

Microsoft Office Live Small Business Developer Guide

The Developer Guide has just been updated. Changes include more details about working with Microsoft Silverlight in Office Live and the Contact Manager Web service, including links to the new Contact Manager Web Service Examples interactive training tool. Also included is more info about custom headers and custom footers.

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Microsoft Office Live Small Business Developer Guide