Monsters from the pasts: Use Cases vs User Stories

Long time ago, when I was younger and dinosaurs walked around, I started hearing about Use Cases at the University.

I grew older and I had to start using them, when writing functional documents.

Never understood why they were used, or why things could not be explained easier.

Or why I had to use such an strange language to explain something a three years old boy could understand otherwise.

I know that use cases are precise and contemplate all the possible scenarios when creating a web application (for example) but I don’t like talking (or writing) like I have some missing parts in my brain (that’s what I feel when writing in use cases mode).

So…, when circumstances allow it, I much prefer to use User Stories for several reasons. Three of them are:

• I can use normal language to describe all the processes and I don’t need to be concrete about anything, leaving the door open to a better communication and understanding with the client.

• I don’t have to add absolutely all the possible information about the web application’s: architecture, security, design, …., before I even started to develop it. What if I start developing and I find out a better way to customize a web part (for example)? Something I didn’t think about before? I don’t know about you, but I’m not god and I’m not right all the time.

• I like it when clients can get involved in the development and give their ideas about how things should be done; because they usually like much more the results, when the application is finished.

Read about user stories in this interesting post.

Embedding java script in a web part: part 1

If you have been using Sharepoint 2007 for a while, you should have realized by now that default web parts are not very beautiful (that can be improved) and they don’t have cool overlay windows coming from nowhere, when the user clicks or rolls over some place in the web part.

That can be changed by adding Java Script to the web part.

I didn’t try out this yet, but it looks very easy (big exclamation mark here).

You have todeclare the script,enunciate it, pre render it (checking if it’s registered or not) and registering it, if it’s not registered already.

private const string ByeByeIncludeScriptKey = “myByeByeIncludeScript”;
private const string EmbeddedScriptFormat =
“<script language=javascript>function ByeBye(){alert(‘Bye Bye’); }</script> “;

public WebPart_ClientScript()
{
this.PreRender += new EventHandler(WebPart_ClientScript_PreRender);
}

private void WebPart_ClientScript_PreRender(object sender , System.EventArgs e )
{

if(!Page.IsClientScriptBlockRegistered(ByeByeIncludeScriptKey))
Page.RegisterClientScriptBlock(ByeByeIncludeScriptKey,
EmbeddedScriptFormat);
}

After that you have to register the script and use it in the web part.

Piece of cake!

PS: piece of cake usually turns into burning hell in my experience, so let’s see what I say when I really finish creating a web part with Java script.

To be continued…

Microsoft Certification: 70-631

I just passed the exam required to get the certification:

70-631: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuring

I got it with 972 points over 1000.

I’m becoming a Sharepoint champion, whatever that means.

So…, now I have all the Sharepoint certifications you can get:

• 70-541: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 – Application Development
• 70-542: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – Application Development
• 70-630: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuring
• 70-631: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuring

And I’m waiting for the 2010 ones.

Since Office 2010 and Sharepoint 2010 will be released the 12th of May, 2010, I guess the exams will be out one month later (in June as they say), or at least the beta ones.

Visual Studio 2010 and Framework 4 Training Kit

A good friend of mine just sent me the link to the last version (February 2010 release) of the training kit.

Download it here.

Sharepoint 2010 HOL’s

These are very interesting 10 Hands On Labs (HOL’s) (in English) about developing on Sharepoint 2010 with C# and / or Visual Basic:

• HOL01 – Developing a Visual Web Part in Visual Studio 2010

• HOL02 – Developing a List Definition and Event Receiver in Visual Studio 2010

• HOL03 – Developing Advanced Web Parts for SharePoint 2010 with Visual Studio 2010

• HOL04 – Developing with LINQ to SharePoint in Visual Studio

• HOL05 – Developing for SharePoint 2010 with the Client OM and REST in Visual Studio 2010

• HOL06 – Developing a BCS External Content Type with Visual Studio 2010

• HOL07 – Developing a SharePoint 2010 Workflow with Initiation Form in Visual Studio 2010

• HOL08 – Developing SharePoint 2010 User Interface with Silverlight in Visual Studio 2010

• HOL09 – Developing SharePoint 2010 Sandboxed Solutions in Visual Studio 2010

• HOL10 – Developing SharePoint 2010 User Interface Ribbon and Dialog Customizations

You can download them here.

Commerce Server 2009 Webparts

There are more than 30 new Commerce Server 2009 web parts.

Here they go, organized by type:

Marketing

· Advertisement and Discounts – Displays advertisements and discounts that are relevant to both the current shopper and current site context. This Web Part works in conjunction with Marketing Manager and the various campaigns that are set up.

· Virtual Earth Store Locator – Integrates with Microsoft Live Virtual Earth so that the shopping site has detailed maps of store locations, enabling shoppers to find the store quickly.

· Reviews and Ratings (two Web Parts) – Displays the reviews and ratings for individual products. These Web Parts also let shoppers submit their own review and rating, with administrative workflow for management discretion.

Search

· Search Box – Displays a search box that can be configured to search both the e-commerce site and any static content.

· Search Results and Paging (two Web Parts) – Displays the results of the search in a two-column pane, allowing shoppers to easily see what’s on your site, and easily page through a large number of results.

Orders

· Add to Cart – Enables shoppers to add products to their cart.

· Shopping Cart – Displays all of the merchandise that the shoppers want to purchase.

· Mini-cart – Displays a summary, usually in the upper-right corner of the page, of the total items and amount in a shopper’s basket.

· Checkout – This Web Part manages the checkout process. It is responsible for the flow of checkout operations, providing a uniform navigation model. This checkout process may include address and credit card management actions.

· Order Details – Displays a read-only version of the shopping cart and checkout information.

· Order History – Displays previous completed orders, including order status.

· My Lists – Provides shoppers with a way to manage all of their lists.

· My List Details – Displays the details of a shopper’s list

Catalog

· Product Query – Displays the products and variants, usually based on a catalog, that a shopper is looking for.

· Product Detail Display – Displays the different products and product details on a product pages.

· Images Viewer – display different product, catalog, or other images.

· Site Map – Displays the map of your site.

Profiles

· Address List – Provides the interface to view and start address administrative tasks.

· Address Detail – Provides the management functionality, such as adding and editing addresses.

· Credit Card List – Provides the interface to view and start credit card administrative tasks.

· Credit Card Detail – Provides the management functionality, such as adding a credit card and credit card information.

· My Profile – Provides the management functionality for account profile information.

· Registration Wizard – Provides the functionality to let shoppers register on an e-commerce site.

· Change, Forgot Password (two Web Parts) – Provides functionality for shoppers to reset or change their account password.

· Live ID* – Provides functionality to associate shopper accounts with their Microsoft Live ID account, so that the shopper can associate their Live ID account to a particular shopping site.

Management

· Channel Configuration* – This feature provides the ability to assign a “channel name” to the site that has been created. A channel is any Web site that is targeted to a specific segment or device. The channel name is used throughout Commerce Server 2009 so that business and presentation logic can be tailored to address the specific needs of that channel.

· Property List Selection – This is a utility Web Part, meaning that users will use it indirectly as part of other Web Parts, and is used to enable the selection of various properties from the Commerce Server Core Systems.

· Product Provider – This is a utility Web Part, meaning that users will use it indirectly as part of other Web Parts, and is used by various other Web Parts to marshal data calls to Commerce Server and return product information.

· Inline Product Property Editor– This web part allows Merchandisers to edit product information right on the site pages. (Note: This web part will ship after CS2009 RTM.)

* These two items are technically not Web Parts, but they use SharePoint controls and are available in the Default site or can be integrated into other sites.

Note: I found this info in Mr. Woo’s post about that.

Bug in Commerce Server 2009

I know this is a Sharepoint blog and not a Commerce Server blog but I’ve been investigating Commerce Server 2009 webparts for the last weeks and I found an interesting bug with a known solution.

There goes the KB for the hotfix /solution:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971377

And bug is that the Product Provider Web Part does not include all product relationships, it includes none, until you use the hotfix.

Schedule pages publishing in MOSS 2007

The Publishing Features in MOSS 2007 allow you to create a page and schedule the publishing for the page to an specific date and time in the future.

You can also set an end date to the page publishing and make it to be unpublished automatically when end date and time comes.

To make this feature work you need to:

1. Make sure that Publishing Timer Job Definitions have been created on the farm.

You can check that in Central Administration > Operations > Timer Job Definitions

The timer Job Definitions that you should find there are:

Scheduled Approval  SharePoint
Scheduled Page Review  SharePoint
Scheduled Unpublish  SharePoint
Variations Propagate Page Job Definition  SharePoint
Variations Propagate Site Job Definition  SharePoint

If this Timer Jobs Definitions are not in you Timer Jobs Definitions list, you need to create them:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942989/en-us

You can do that creating a temporary “Publishing Portal” or “Collaboration Portal” Site Collection.

Now you check again the Timer Job Definitions list and you will see th0se new five Timer Job Definitions in the list.

You can delete now the temporary Site Collection and the publishing Timer Jobs will remain in the list.

2. Enable “Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure” Feature in the Site Collection that contains the site where you want to schedule your pages publishing: Site Actions > Site Settings > Modify all site Settings >Site collection features > Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure > Active

3. Enable “Office SharePoint Server Publishing” Feature in the site: Site Actions > Site Settings > Modify all site Settings > Site Administration > Site features > Office SharePoint Server Publishing > Active

4. In the page library that will contain the pages to be published you need to:

• Activate versioning setting: Page Library Setttings > General Settings > Versioning settings > Document Version History > OK
• Activate Manage Item Scheduling: Page Library Setttings > General Settings >Manage Item Scheduling > Enable scheduling of items in this list > OK

Now you can schedule the publishing of the pages in you Sharepoint Site for the date you choose.

To do that you create the page and publish it (or check-in it and approve it, if the page library has approval), setting the start date and time and end date and time to the ones you want.

Now the page is approved, but it’s approval status is set to “Scheduled”.

It will change to approved and be published in chosen start date and time.

I will also be unpublished automatically (because it’s approval status will change to “Draft”) when chosen end date and time comes.

…

That’s all!