You've probably heard by now that the next version of SharePoint will drop the "Office" moniker in favor of the more direct and easily understandable "Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010"  (read the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog Post).  I agree with my colleague Bil Simser that it sounds like something from a science fiction novel (2010 The Year We Make Contact).  On the other hand, I see the logic.  It's just like all the other software titles from Microsoft that continually evolve to meet the changing needs of users.  Office 2003.  Exchange Server 2007.  SharePoint Server 2010.  Join the club, eh?

Sure there's the implied shift away from the whole "Office Business Applications" (OBA) theme, where the line between client and server components was blurred in favor of the more holistic "Office System" approach.  I can live with that.  I'm not sure it's taking hold anyway - at least not for the developers I've talked to.  Most of the SharePoint developers I know who come from an ASP.NET background seem to have trouble thinking of themselves as Office developers.

And sure, there's the potential confusion between Windows SharePoint Services (now "Microsoft SharePoint 2010") and the new server version of the product.  But maybe that's a good thing.  According to Tom Rizzo, we should just refer to it as "SharePoint" and stop stressing over the licensing model anyway.

And what about the "12 Hive"?  Will there be a "2010" folder to contend with now?  Will it change to "14" maybe?  And how about the namespaces, like "Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.InformationPolicy"?  Will they change?  I doubt it.  Something to think about, though, as you plan your next SharePoint project.

I dunno.  I'm with Rizzo.  I don't think the name really matters that much.  After all, we are in the middle of a content explosion.  The paradigm IS continually shifting.  Maybe we need a more generic name so we can focus more on the solutions we build and less on the particular features of a particular product version.

Oh, wait!  "Feature".  My bad.  We were talking about SharePoint features, not SharePoint Features.

This is soooo much fun!

In case you haven't heard, Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is now available as a FREE download.  This is an exciting development, because it means that a lot more developers will now be able to customize their SharePoint deployments to include all the functionality they need.

Fellow SharePoint MVP Asif Rehmani has written a thorough analysis of this change in direction by Microsoft and it's impact on the SharePoint community, particularly for design professionals.  Check it out.

Eric White -> Transforming Open XML Documents to Flat OPC Format

If you're doing anything with Office Open XML, then you need to read this article by Eric White.  In it, Eric describes a very nice approach that lets you gain full leverage out of XSLT when dealing with Office Open XML documents.  Basically, he starts by converting a .DOCX file (or .PPTX or .XSLX) to an intermediate format (Flat OPC) that retains the same structure as a standard package file, but in a single XML document.  Then you simply apply your favorite XSLT transform and convert it back into a package.  Voila! Instant transformation without all that messy system.io.packaging code.  Included with the article are the two conversion routines you need and lots of sample code to play with.  Great stuff!

Microsoft announced today that a future version of Office 2007 (due out in early 2009) will include direct support for popular document formats including PDF.  The list of supported formats will include ODF (the standardized Open Document Format), XPS (XML Paper Specification), and PDF (Portable Document Format).  It doesn't look like we'll be able to open and edit PDF files - only save them.  The big news is the native support for ODF, which will greatly extend the interoperability between Office documents and many other productivity suites, including Google Docs, IBM Lotus Symphony and Corel WordPerfect Office X4.

Read the full announcement here: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/may08/05-21ExpandedFormatsPR.mspx

Well, we're just a couple weeks away from TechEd 2008.  This year, I'm giving four presentations - three breakout sessions and one TLC session, so it should be a lot of fun.  Here are the dates and times:

• OFC10 - TLC 6/3/2008 3:00PM - 4:15PM
  Building Custom Routers for Records Management in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

  This talk discusses developer aspects of records management in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Custom routers are an important extensibility point for records management and this talk details the requirements for these components. It provides a demo of building a custom router, including deploying it to a SharePoint Server environment.
  

• OFC318 6/4/2008 8:30AM - 9:45AM
  XOML, XOML, Everywhere: Building Custom Workflow Editors for SharePoint
  

  XOML is the markup language behind Windows Workflow Foundation and is the same language used by Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to attach declarative, no-code workflows to SharePoint lists and document libraries. This session takes a deep dive into Workflow Markup and explores how you can use it to generate custom workflows from any client application, including Office clients like Word and Excel. The session also shows how to attach custom workflow markup to SharePoint lists using the websvcWebPartPages Web service provided by Windows SharePoint Services.
  

• OFC309 6/4/2008 4:30PM - 5:45PM
  Building Document Management Solutions Using SharePoint Content Types
  

  Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 introduces a new concept called "Content Types" that will dramatically alter the Enterprise Content Management landscape. On the surface, Content Types make it easier to encapsulate field definitions into a nice neat package, but there is a lot more going on under the covers. In this session, we take a deep dive into the world of content types and see how to declare them using XML and how to create them programmatically. Then we use content types to create a real-world document management solution with custom policies that we can use to control every stage of the document lifecycle. At the end of this session, you will have a thorough understanding of what content types are, with a deeper appreciation of the value they bring to document management solution development.
  

• OFC404 6/5/2008 10:15AM - 11:30AM
  Turning SharePoint Data into Microsoft Office Documents: A Deep Dive into SharePoint Document Assembly Using Open XML
  

  Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 introduces a new concept called "Content Types" that will dramatically alter the Enterprise Content Management landscape. On the surface, Content Types make it easier to encapsulate field definitions into a nice neat package, but there is a lot more going on under the covers. In this session, we take a deep dive into the world of content types and see how to declare them using XML and how to create them programmatically. Then we use content types to create a real-world document management solution with custom policies that we can use to control every stage of the document lifecycle. At the end of this session, you will have a thorough understanding of what content types are, with a deeper appreciation of the value they bring to document management solution development.

See you in Orlando!

Folks, ODC is almost upon us, and this time we have an architecture track that focuses on the Office System and OBAs (Office Business Apps) as a platform for building real world business solutions. I'll be delivering a session entitled "Building Collaborative BPM Solutions – Feb 13th, 10:30 – 11:45am". You can view the final list of track sessions at the following URL:

https://microsoft.crgevents.com/ODC2008/Content/default.aspx?p=7VE4KC.

See you in San Jose!

In case you missed it, my most recent authoring adventure, 6 Microsoft Office Business Applications for Office SharePoint Server 2007 is now available from Microsoft Learning, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Quantum Books. This was a collaborative effort with Rob Barker, Joanna Bichsel, Adam Buenz, Steve Fox, Bhushan Nene and Karthik Ravindran. If you're building OBAs or just want to get a practical perspective on what it takes to build Office Business Apps, then be sure to check it out!

 UPDATE:  You can download the code from my chapter (5) from the following link:

http://johnholliday.net/downloads/6OBAs-Holliday.zip

Technorati: OBA, Workflow

As the new year approaches... Wait! Is it 2008 yet? So much is happening - so fast! Do you ever get that feeling that you'll never catch up? I sure do. Time flies...

For the past few weeks, I've been busy writing chapters for a new book (more on that later), developing and experimenting with new toys and project ideas (lots to talk about) and getting ready for my ODC2008 sessions.

I'll be delivering three sessions this year. One in Karthik Ravindran's architecture track, one in Steve Fox's client track and one in Jerome Thiebaud's server track.

• ARC303 - Building Collaborative BPM Solutions

This session will cover best practices for leveraging the Microsoft BPM platform offerings (Windows Workflow Foundation, BizTalk, SharePoint Workflow, and Windows Communications Foundation) to integrate comprehensive Business Process Management (BPM) capabilities into Business Solutions built on the Microsoft Office Platform/System. This session will help the audience gain a broad perspective of the BPM scenarios targeted by each component and will offer prescriptive guidance on choosing the right option(s) to address common solution requirements. This session will also show how the various components can interplay and add value to Office Business Applications.

• CLI307 - Generating Enterprise Content using InfoPath 2007, SharePoint and the Microsoft SDK for Office Open XML Formats

This session will introduce the Microsoft SDK for Open XML formats and show how developers can use the SDK and InfoPath 2007 to generate Microsoft Office documents on the server from data stored in SharePoint form libraries.

• SER401 - Building Document Management Solutions using Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Content Types

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 introduces a new concept call "Content Types" that will dramatically alter the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) landscape. On the surface, Content Types make it easier to encapsulate metadata, but there is a lot more going on under the covers. In this session, we'll take a deep dive into the world of content types and see how to declare them using XML and how to create them programmatically. Then we'll use content types to create a real-world document management solution with custom policies that we'll use to control every stage of the document lifecycle. At the end of this session, you will have a thorough understanding of what content types are with a deeper appreciation of the vale they bring to document management solution development.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to present these sessions (thanks to Karthik, Steve and Jerome), and it looks like this is shaping up to be a great Conference. I'll be arriving early with my friend Andrew Connell if you want to just hang out. Otherwise, I'll look forward to seeing you at the Conference!

After much anticipation, Service Pack 1 for the Office System is now available.  The service pack is split into several components, which you can download from the following links:

The MOSS SP1 applies to:

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
• Microsoft Office Project Server 2007
• Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007
• Microsoft Office Groove Server 2007, 64-Bit Edition

Here are links to the Office 2007 Client service packs:

If you're going to be in the Jacksonville area next weekend, the Jacksonville Developers User Group (JAXDUG) is hosting the Jacksonville Code Camp 2007 - a *free* full day of sessions (more than 50) from Microsoft Employees, Microsoft MVPs, National, Regional and Local speakers on a variety of topics, including:

• Visual Studio 2008
• Microsoft Silverlight
• WPF, WCF, WWF, LINQ
• SQL Server, SSIS, SSRS, SSAS
• WSS, MOSS, OBA

There will be 3 types of sessions:

• Presentation/Code Focused
• Chalk Talks
• Developing the Developer (Business/Soft Skills)

There will be a SharePoint developer track with presentations by myself, Andrew Connell, John Ross, and a bunch of other folks, so come join the fun! 

To register, go to https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=119680.

Hope to see you there!