Free SharePoint tools from leading vendors - DOWNLOAD TODAY!

Download these free SharePoint tools / add-ons from the following leading vendors:

1. Bamboo Solutions "Mashpoint" - Access external data sources directly from SharePoint, visualize and interact with them via Web Parts or custom applications
2. Idera SharePoint Performance Montoring Tool - Free tool that enables easy monitoring of critical performance counters for SharePoint, IIS and Windows Operating Systems.
3. AvePoint FREE Tool for Item-level SharePoint Restores - delivering full fidelity, item-level restore capabilities directly from live SQL and DPM databases and backups.
4. Quest SharePoint Discovery Wizard - Find out how many Microsoft SharePoint servers, site collections or sites are on your network. Discovery Wizard for SharePoint freeware gathers critical data about your SharePoint inventory and displays the discovered results in two easy-to-read, HTML reports.

How to implement "Bing.com" Type Ahead Search in your MOSS portal?

1. Download the Sharepoint AJAX Toolkit here - http://www.codeplex.com/sharepointajax

2. Develop a web part (VS project) to implement Bing.com Suggest type functionality using AJAX, .NET 3.0 and SharePoint Web services (you probably need the real code here huh! Email me if you need more information :)

3. Use the AutoComplete Extender in the Toolkit above by copying all the code out of the AutoComplete folder and paste into your web part project (as created in Step 2).

4. Compile and through errors and warnings find and add missing references, add more code files from the Toolkit as needed. Many common files were needed. Note that you need to set any .JS files to EmbeddedResources.

5. Use the MOSS 2007 Search API to build a ASP.NET Web Service to return a list of results based on input string value (keyword). Note that you need to host this web service within the same website (same port) as the Sharepoint site itself. Also dont forget to grant CAS trust for the Web Service assembly.

6) Post a comment if you successfully created the Bing.com type ahead search in MOSS, using the above steps

Curtain Raises on SharePoint 2010 Features at MS WPC 2009

Finally some public words from Microsoft on its upcoming version of SharePoint 2010 at the 2009 WPC and the Microsoft SharePoint website (http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/default.aspx). Here are my list of features to get excited about:

1)Introducing VISIO Services
* Create rich LoB data integrated dynamic Visio diagrams that can be viewed and edited via the browser

2) UI
* Ribbon based one/two click UI (can be switched off by power user or admin). And wait your MOSS 2007 sites UI will still look the same with 2010 due to backward compatibility support
* OOB support for cross browsers like FireFox, Apple Safari and "others" :)
* Rich Theming and "Web Edit" feature (edit any web part on any page in place incl. an enhanced WYSIWYG user experience)

3) Media Integration
* Sliverlight WebPart - host videos
* Office 2010 Integrated Media WebParts

4) LoB Integration
* Introducing Business Connectivity Services (BCS) - enhanced BDC that supports Read-Write operations into Line of Business Applications.
* Use SharePoint as a connector to edit (offline edit support) LoB data through Office Apps (like Word, Excel). Watch out from SharePoint Workspace "Groove 2007 on Steroids"

5) Developer & Admin Life "Made easy"
* Intiutive and reorganized Central Admin with a feature boost. Stay tuned for more...
* "Developer Dashboard" exposes debugging information to developers on any page.
* "No Item Limit" Libraries or Lists (the days of 2000 items are so gone)
* A built in "Best Practices Analyzer" for a quick Admin health check
* LINQ Support

6) Need more information??? Visit the SharePoint Conference 2009 in person at Las Vegas - http://www.mssharepointconference.com/Pages/default.aspx