An article of Jeff Teper of Microsoft, Corporate Vice President, SharePoint Server, Describing SharePoint 2010 in 1 Sentence, 8 Categories and 40 Feature Areas, clearly describes the significant features of SharePoint 2010. In a sentence, according to him, SharePoint 2010 is “The Business Collaboration Platform for the Enterprise and the Web”. What does it mean? From the same article is it explicated, and I quote:

“We decided “Collaboration” was broad enough to cover the spectrum of publishing, sharing, finding, analyzing and managing information that SharePoint enables. We chose “Platform” not only because custom solutions are a major focus of the 2010 release but also "platform" conveyed a solid base for all the out-of-box usage that never requires a developer. Finally, we want to call out “the Web” to highlight both internet scenarios reaching customers and partners and the cloud-based delivery of SharePoint Online.”

The entire features of SharePoint 2010 could be categorized as Sites, Communities, Content, Search, Insights, or Composites. Other features are categorized as Administration and Development.

Below are the top investment areas/features highlighted by Microsoft for each category:

Additionally, there are significant investment areas under Administration and Development categories. For the detailed description of these features, it is recommended to visit http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/10/19/sharepoint-2010.aspx .

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Microsoft has provided us the hands-on lab manuals in C# and Visual Basic for us to get started learning SharePoint 2010 development.

We need to have Visual Studio 2010 Beta and SharePoint Server 2010 Beta. However, since SharePoint Server 2010 Beta is not yet available for download, we could start reviewing the manuals.

The manuals could be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=C010FC68-B47F-4DB6-B8A8-AD4BA33A35C5&displaylang=en#filelist .

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A day ago, I posted a blog on the new and enhanced features of SharePoint 2010 based on the pre-released copy - since the beta copy is not yet available publicly, we still don’t have a chance to explore it. Now I am posting on deploying and upgrading to SharePoint 2010 still based on the pre-released version, a rudimentary topic that every SharePoint fan must know.

Deployment

Deploying SharePoint 2010 includes scriptable or wizard driven options.

For SharePoint 2010, we can write deployment scripts entirely from PowerShell. Scriptable deployment significantly reduces the resources required to deploy multiple server computers without sacrificing deployment efficiency. Secondly, of course we are still in our comfort zone of using a setup wizard to access associated resources, to install the prerequisites, and to execute the setup program. Below are the facilities available in the installation wizard:

1. Plan

1.1. Hardware and Software Requirements

1.2. Installation Guide

1.3. Upgrade Guide

2. Install

2.1. Required Software

2.2. SharePoint 2010

2.3. Updates for SharePoint 2010

3. Other Information

3.1. Browse the Installer

3.2. Office Online

Upgrade

Upgrading to SharePoint 2010 includes to option to:

1. Preserve the look and feel of existing SharePoint sites, and allow end users to upgrade their sites’ user experience.

2. Change existing SharePoint sites to use the new user experience.

2.1. Preserve customized pages, but update template and application pages to use the new user experience.

2.2. All sites and pages use the new user experience.

The upgrade feature automatically fixes orphaned objects and common upgrade failures. An orphaned object maybe a document library without an associated document. While a common upgrade failure maybe an inaccuracy in a given upgrade sequence or action.

Finally, SharePoint 2010 is about to take off! Several new and enhanced features are expected. In this article, I will be focusing on the new and enhanced collaboration features of the pre-released copy.

1. Social/Expertise Tagging, Bookmarks, and Notes. Contents can now be tagged, bookmarked, and commented by an authorized user. That information can be used for content discovery.

2. People and Expertise Management. Authorized users are allowed to choose the subjects and author/people of their interest. That information can be used to easily find the information they need.

3. Authorization by Distribution List or Organization. Group authentication based on distribution list or organization is available using constructs in email distribution lists, line-of-business systems, and SharePoint.

4. Blogs. Several significant blog features are incorporated, including enhanced authoring features and multi-browser compatibility.

5. Wikis. With a new page model, content could now easily be managed. A new rich text editor, links insertion, and discussion integration are some of the features that are incorporated.

6. Calendar. In SharePoint 2010, a mashup feature is incorporated where the calendar from Microsoft Exchange Server can be blended with SharePoint calendar. With AJAX infrastructure, the user interface of SharePoint calendar is enhanced.

For information:

SharePoint 2010 Web Site

SharePoint 2010 Forum

SharePoint 2010 PressPass

SharePoint 2010 Developer Center

SharePoint 2010 TechNet

More information…

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“ What is the finest antivirus software for SharePoint? ” is an inquiry that we are bumped into several times. For my part, I would answer Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint.

A year back when I posted some articles on this technology, including Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint, Installing Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint, SharePoint Keyword Filtering in Forefront, SharePoint File Filtering in Forefront, and Keyword Filter Installer in Forefront for SharePoint. And other than the request of some colleagues, I am posting this demonstration video to provide an easy-to-follow implementation steps:

However, if we are using other file-level antivirus program, Microsoft Help and Support has provided us the list of folders we need to exclude from antivirus scanning to avoid unexpected behaviors:

1. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

a. Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Service Extensions

b. Drive:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files

c. Drive:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config

d. Drive:\Windows\Temp\WebTempDir

e. Drive\Documents and Settings\the account that the search service is running as\Local Settings\Temp\

f. Drive:\WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles

g. Drive:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\Temp

2. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

a. Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Data

b. Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Logs

c. Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Bin

In addition, it is recommended  that we deploy an antivirus solution based on the SharePoint Portal Server Virus Scanning Application Programming Interface. And to learn more on how Forefront Security for SharePoint can help protect Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, you can view its online product demonstration.

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Focusing on SharePoint programming these past few months, I was compelled to explore a debugger that would simplify debugging and enhancing of my codes. Thanks to the SharePoint experts and Microsoft team for making these tools available.

1. Debugger Feature for SharePoint

a. Details: https://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/04/10/debugger-feature-for-sharepoint.aspx

by. Resources: http://www.codeplex.com/features/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=2502

c. Demonstration:

2. SPLogViewer

a. Details: http://splogviewer.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=12840

b. Resources: http://www.codeplex.com/SPLogViewer

c. Demonstration:

3. SPTraceView

a. Details: http://sptraceview.codeplex.com/

b. Resources: http://sptraceview.codeplex.com/

c. Demonstration:

4. Other Tools

DebugView: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647.aspx

WSS / MOSS Log File Viewer: http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=wssmosslogfilereader

SPDisposeCheck Tool: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/11/12/announcing-spdisposecheck-tool-for-sharepoint-developers.aspx

Debugging Tools for Windows: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx

.NET Reflector: http://www.red-gate.com/products/reflector/

Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e59c3964-672d-4511-bb3e-2d5e1db91038&displaylang=en

Thanks!