Launch Demo Code Posted

I have been on the Visual Studio Launch Tour visiting Chicago, Des Moines, Madison, Omaha, Kansas City and St. Louis over the last couple months. As part of that we've been showing new features of Visual Studio for web development.

I've uploaded the sample web site code from the Visual Studio Launch events onto http://www.benkoTips.com/code. This includes the examples showing style sheets, LINQ and Ajax. If you were able to join me at the launch you've seen the demos, but I'm also working on some screencasts of these which registered users can view by clicking in the link  below (note that you will need to have Silverlight installed to view the demos).

Enjoy!

Encrypting the Web.config in VB

I got a request for how to do the encryption of the web.config but this time in VB, so I thought I'd post it here on the blog as well. The logic is about the same, although I found that in VB I had to add a line to the configuration to save the new settings.  The code for this in vb.net (adding to the global.asax file in the "Session_Start" subroutine:

Sub Session_Start(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)

    ' Code that runs when a new session is started

    EncryptSection("appSettings")

End Sub

 

Private Sub EncryptSection(ByVal sSection As String)

    Dim config As Configuration = System.Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.OpenWebConfiguration(Context.Request.ApplicationPath)

 

    Dim configSection As ConfigurationSection = config.GetSection(sSection)

 

    If configSection.SectionInformation.IsProtected = False Then

        configSection.SectionInformation.ProtectSection("DataProtectionConfigurationProvider")

        config.Save()

    End If

 

End Sub

How to encrypt the Web.Config

In the security session we did I showed in one of the sample how you can encrypt the web.config file by adding code to the global.asax file. The cool part of this is that using this technique you can secure application specific settings like connection strings and other data in the unlikely event that someone is able to get a copy of the configuration file (like by copying it to a thumb drive from the host machine or something similar).

The basic logic is to create a variable that points to a configuration section, then checking that the section is protected (i.e. encrypted). If it isn't, then call the ProtectSection method to encrypt the contents.  The server uses the local DPAPI (Data Protection API) to encrypt the configuration section with a machine specific key, so only that machine can decrypt the contents. The code for this is:

public class Global : System.Web.HttpApplication     {         protected void Session_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)         {             EncryptSection("appSettings");         }              private void EncryptSection(string sSection)         {             Configuration config = System.Web.Configuration                                    .WebConfigurationManager                                    .OpenWebConfiguration                               (Context.Request.ApplicationPath);             ConfigurationSection configSection =                                config.GetSection(sSection);             if (!configSection.SectionInformation.IsProtected)             {                configSection.SectionInformation.ProtectSection                          ("DataProtectionConfigurationProvider");                 config.Save();             }         }

Happy Coding!

Silverprint a webcast on the SharePoint Silverlight Blueprint

Here's some links from today's webcast...

• Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint
• Silverlight 2 beta 1 - download
• Silverlight 2 SDK
• Silverlight 2 Tools for Visual Studio 2008
• Ian Morrish's blog post on Blueprint configuration
• Patrick Tisseghems blog post on Silverlight 2 and the Blueprint
• The Grumpy Wookie's post on same subject
• Code from the Webcast

Notes from what it takes to get the Blueprint working on a typical SharePoint installation

1. Install the Silverlight 2 add-in
2. On a server only installation add the Silverlight 2 SDK...
   - or - For a developer environment with Visual Studio 2008 install the Silverlight 2 tools
3. Run GacUtil to install the 'system.web.silverlight.dll' assembly into the global assembly cache
   
       c:\> cd \prog*\*sdk*\sil*\v*\li*\ser*
       c:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Silverlight\v2.0\Libraries\Server> gacutil /i system.web.silverlight.dll
   
4. Start the Windows SharePoint Administration Service (used by the installers for the BluePrint)
5. In WSS Central Admin create a site/application and site collection to test the web parts in
6. Download the package from the Blueprint you're interested in...in our webcast we looked at the code from HelloSilverlight1 and HelloSilverlight2
   - To run HelloSilverlight1 simply run the setup in the download
   - To run SilverLight2 demos we need to make some changes to the web.config of the target site

Configuration changes to build & run HelloSilverlight2

1. Open code solution
2. Edit Install.bat to fix gacutil locations & set correct target site
3. Modify site web.config to include settings from sample web.config on Patrick Tisseghems post

I'm still working out some of the bugs, but that's where I'm at.

Good luck & hope this helped!

Mike

SharePoint and AJAX Style Web Parts

In yesterday's webcast I had the pleasure of having an expert on SharePoint and AJAX talk about bringing these two compelling technologies together. Todd Bleeker (from MindSharp, a SharePoint consulting firm based in Minneapolis) when thru the various steps required to create AJAX web parts in SharePoint. We looked at the basics of how to build web parts, as well as deployment steps to make sure it works. This included:

1. Compile the code into an assembly
2. Make sure the assembly is signed (using sn.exe as needed to create keys)
3. Mark the assembly as Safe in the web config of the app
4. Make sure it's Trusted
5. Deploy the assembly to the site

There were some great questions around how to work with Code Access Security with these and Todd suggests looking at a white paper by Brett Lonsdale.

I just posted the code Todd created on www.BenkoTIPS.com/code, so go ahead and check it out.

Enjoy!

SharePoint for Developers Webcast Series

Because building it just got easier!

What's the deal with Windows SharePoint Server (WSS 3.0) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Services?Lynn Langit and I are doing a webcast series on Windows SharePoint 3.0 as a platform for developers and looking at the tools and technologies available for customizing portals and sites.

In April we are on Mondays, but it looks like May we will be switching to a Friday format. As always I will post the links and code as they become available. Here is our schedule so far:

New Stuff!

• 3/6/2008 - Part 13 - Customizing SharePoint: Ever wondered how you can use SharePoint but have your own custom look and feel? In this webcast we will look at the site customization techniques of creating custom MasterPages, Themes and Layouts to give your web site your own look and feel.
• 3/13/2008 - Part 14 - SharePoint and Authentication: In this  session we cover the basics and how to use the Authentication and Membership Providers. We look at creating a custom provider and CardSpace can be used to login to your SharePoint site. This session will look at the advanced tools available in IIS 7.0 for configuring and deploying SharePoint.
• 3/20/2008 - Part 15 - SharePoint and AJAX: Explore the world of modern web development techniques by looking at how Microsoft’s AJAX library and SharePoint can be used together to deliver compelling user experience. In this webcast we show the various approaches to integrating AJAX in WSS 3.0 and then cover what’s improved in sp1.
• 3/27/2008 - Part 16 - SharePoint and SilverLight: Rich User Experience is getting easier to create with the release of Silverlight. In this session we show how Silverlight takes advantage of XAML and provides an easy way to build compelling user interfaces. We will demonstrate using the 1.0 version of Silverlight as well as what’s new in 2.0 that allows the developer and designer to collaborate to build exciting new applications.

Links to the original 12 webcasts:

• Part 1 – SharePoint for Developers 4/13/2007 1 pm PST: Join the first webcast of this four-part series to find out what you need to know about Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 as a developer. We cover the basics of SharePoint Server 2007, and we show how you can use this new product to simplify collaboration, development, and management of your software projects. Learn what it takes to set up SharePoint Server 2007, customize the master pages, and how you can use other tools to develop custom applications. Attend this session to discover compelling reasons for choosing the new 2007 Microsoft Office system and SharePoint Server 2007 for your solution development needs.
• Part 2 – SharePoint Designer 2007 4/16/2006 1 pm PST: There are many tools to choose from for developing Web sites; in this second installment of our series, we look at Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, a new product for creating standards-based Web sites. See how you can build powerful applications on the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies platform to enhance your productivity and deliver rich-looking sites. Join this session to learn how you can use SharePoint Designer 2007 to take advantage of Microsoft ASP.NET version 2.0, Web Parts, and integration with SharePoint Products and Technologies.
• Part 3 – Migrating to SharePoint 4/23/2006 1 pm PST: Do you have a portal site that you would like to host in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services? In this third installment of our series on Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies for developers, see what is involved in the process of moving a portal site to Windows SharePoint Services. Topics we cover include: using Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to customize the master page, creating new content types, and working with workflow.
• Part 4 – SharePoint and Access 2007 4/30/2007 1 pm PST: So far in this webcast series, we covered how Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies serve as powerful collaboration tools. In this final session, we take a look at how Microsoft Office Access 2007 integrates with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. Join this session to learn how Access 2007, the popular data management application, and Windows SharePoint Services enable you to centralize and simplify data management, and share data across your organization.
• Part 5 – SharePoint and Workflow 5/11/2007 1 pm PST: In this webcast, we discuss the ability to use, update, and create custom workflows that you can employ in your Windows SharePoint Services site. We show the built-in workflow capabilities in Windows SharePoint Services, and we also demonstrate what customizations are available. In addition, we describe how to use Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to open, view, and modify included workflows. We conclude the presentation with a detailed demonstration of the capabilities of the Workflow Designer in SharePoint Designer 2007.
• Part 6 – SharePoint and Content Types 5/18/2007 1 pm PST:  Join this webcast as we review the concept of content types as they relate to Windows SharePoint Services sites. We explain the default (included) content types first. We then discuss why you may want to update the built-in content types or create your own. We also demonstrate how to create custom content types and provide several business examples of why and where you might wish to do this. We conclude this session by showing some of the newly created content types in action on a Windows SharePoint Services site.
• Part 7 – SharePoint and Forms Services 5/25/2007 1 pm PST:  In this webcast, we explore Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 as a form tool and describe how you can host forms centrally via the InfoPath Forms Services feature of Windows SharePoint Services version 3.0. We provide an overview of InfoPath 2007, demonstrating both how to customize an included template form and how to create a custom form that connects to Microsoft SQL Server. Next, we illustrate how to configure the Windows SharePoint Services administrative Web site, which is required to set up appropriate permissions (and other settings) to use InfoPath Forms Services.
• Part 8 – SharePoint and the Business Data Catalog 6/1/2007 10 am PST: Join this webcast as we explain the concepts surrounding the Business Data Catalog (BDC), a new business integration feature in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. We demonstrate the use of an application definition file (ADF) to create the connection between your Windows SharePoint Services site and a custom data source, and we show you how to use an ADF creation tool. Learn to use BDC-derived data with included Web parts, such as the filtering Web part. We conclude this webcast with a discussion of the various ways we have worked with the BDC in production.
• Part 9 – Web Parts and Work Flows 6/8/2007 10 am PST: In this webcast, we discuss and demonstrate the creation of Web parts and workflows for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. We use Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services and the Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.0 workflow extensions to customize and create both Web parts and workflows. Join us to learn about the concept of features as they relate to SharePoint Server 2007 Web Parts.
• Part 10 – Sites and Templates 6/15/2007 10 am PST: In this webcast, we dive into how the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services can enable you to take Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 even further. We start with an overview of project types and show how you can add event handlers, site definitions, and more into your tool belt. We look at creating site templates and master pages for SharePoint Server 2007, and we provide an example of how to customize and replace templates
• Part 11 – SharePoint and Business Intelligence 6/22/2007 10 am PST: In this webcast, we discuss business intelligence (BI) (advanced reporting) integration with your Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Web site. We demonstrate configuration of Excel Services in SharePoint Server 2007, key performance indicators (KPIs), and more. We use the Report Center template and show you how you can easily integrate line-of-business (LOB) data into your site
• Part 12 – Developing SharePoint Workflows 7/6/2007 10 am PST: Windows SharePoint Services provides excellent facilities for working with business processes. In this "webcast by request," we review the workflow development processes associated with Windows SharePoint Services. We look at the included workflows, modifying workflows in Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, and creating and modifying workflows in the Microsoft Visual Studio development system

SharePoint and AJAX Style Web Parts - A Webcast

For tomorrow's webcast as part of the series SharePoint for Developers (http://www.BenkoTIPS.com/wss) I will have a special guest joining me. Todd Bleeker is a SharePoint MVP who does a good amount of training around SharePoint and will be sharing what he's learned around web parts and working with AJAX in SharePoint. This session will be packed with lots of demos and concepts, so join us by clicking the link below:

• 3/20/2008 - Part 15 - SharePoint and AJAX: Explore the world of modern web development techniques by looking at how Microsoft’s AJAX library and SharePoint can be used together to deliver compelling user experience. In this webcast we show the various approaches to integrating AJAX in WSS 3.0 and then cover what’s improved in sp1.

Look to see you there!

Didn't make it to MIX?

Not a problem...you can watch the sessions online by going to VisitMIX and selecting the track you're interested in. Some great technical sessions are available for download, and there's even a cool Silverlight control for picking which ones.

Very cool site:  http://sessions.visitmix.com

SharePoint and Membership ... a Webcast

Today's webcast will deal with membership and SharePoint, how users are able to connect and use your SharePoint site. I'm adding a post that will provide links and additional information about this, but it's not quite ready yet. I'll update this post when I'm done.

MSDN: Implementing a Membership Provider

Customizing SharePoint - a webcast

Today in the latest addition to the SharePoint for Developers webcast series I'm going to be covering what's involved in customizing a portal to fit our needs. Our project will be to build out portions of the new www.BenkoTIPS.com to provide the ability to search for webcasts by series and by presenter. This will take advantage of the Data View Web Part that we will access in SharePoint Designer, and I'll show how to link together multiple lists.  We'll also cover master pages briefly and show how we can use either the built in master pages or create our own.

Some terminology that is useful in understanding customization in SharePoint is having a grounding on the differences between sites, pages, lists and document libaries. The following is the definitions we'll work from in today's webcast (courtesy of my good friend Phillip Wheat)

• List – the basis of all things SharePoint.  Consider this a database table that you can dynamically add tables to, and you won’t be far off conceptually.  Benefits to using SharePoint Lists – CRUD UI is already created for you (but you can customize what’s been created), mobile and RSS enablement (in 2007), audit, item level permissions, content types, and workflow are all available out of the box.
• Document Library – A customized type of List that is focused on storing single files with metadata.  This is using the same storage as regular lists, but the UI is tweaked to focus more on the file system type experience.  One key factor – general list types can have more than one file associated with each item, Document Libraries are limited to a single file per list item.  Templates can be associated with each content type in a Document Library to enable starting documents from a known state.
• Page – Basically an ASPX page contained inside of SharePoint.  This is a UI element and can contain static or dynamic content.  The most common type of page found on most SharePoint implementations are Web Part Pages which allow the user to manage shared or personalized content on the page and expose data that is stored in that site or site collection.  Most pages consist of a standard Master page assigned by the SharePoint infrastructure, and a content area in which the users can interact with their data.
• Site – This is the container that everything resides in.  It’s a logical storage location – which sits under another storage called a Site Collection.  Users often confuse sites with pages, but a site can contain multiple pages and have the ability to store additional data and functionality which may not be visible to the end user (things like reusable content galleries, web part galleries, the master page and style sheet galleries, etc.)  Sites are generally of interest to end users only for two reasons – scope for content (it’s more difficult to pass information between site collections than between just sites) and that the base URL for the pages comes from the site.
• Page Layout – This is new to SharePoint 2007, it came in with the web content management functionality.  Think of this as a way to custom format information stored in a special type of list.  This list can contain text content, images, reusable content, in general anything you can put in a standard list template.  But instead of having to customize how that information is formatted for one usage, you can select (or create) different Page Layout templates which identify where each of your columns should appear on that rendered page.  This provides the ability to put dynamic content in a fairly static rendering model so that formatting can change with very little effort, and where multiple templates can be used for different periods or usages of that data.  The same thing can be done with customized AllItems.aspx pages, but this is much easier and maintainable.

Some links that may be useful to todays webcast include:

• MSDN: Customizing and Branding SharePoint Sites
• SharePoint Designer Team Blog
• SharePoint Site Templates

Next week we look at Membership & Authentication and how to set up Forms Based Authentication for our SharePoint site. We'll also see how to create a custom membership provider and have some fun with that.

Hope you can join us!

XNA on Zune? It's not just for breakfast anymore...

If you haven't heard about it yet, we just announced some great stuff for developers working with XNA. This is the technology that you can use to develop game software on Windows and the XBox. Well, take a look at http://creators.xna.com/whatsnew.aspx if you want to see how we're taking that to new platforms!  Very cool stuff, I'll be downloading and playing with it myself very soon.

By the way, if you're in Minneapolis and are interested, we've got a very active User Group that can get you launched in the right direction. They're meeting tomorrow night, but you can get all the info about their group at:  www.twincitiesxnausergroup.com 

ENJOY!

Mike

More SharePoint Webcast Goodness Coming Soon!

This week as a part of the followup from an internal Microsoft Conference (TechReady 6) I have scheduled some more webcasts on SharePoint to run every Thursday morning in March. This will include 4 sessions that will dive deeper info topics like Ajax. Cardspace and Silvelight. These will include:

· 3/6 - Customizing SharePoint: Ever wondered how you can use SharePoint but have your own custom look and feel? In this webcast we will look at the site customization techniques of creating custom MasterPages, Themes and Layouts to give your web site your own look and feel.

· 3/13 - SharePoint and Authentication: In this  session we cover the basics and how to use the Authentication and Membership Providers. We look at creating a custom provider and CardSpace can be used to login to your SharePoint site. This session will look at the advanced tools available in IIS 7.0 for configuring and deploying SharePoint.

· 3/20 - SharePoint and AJAX: Explore the world of modern web development techniques by looking at how Microsoft’s AJAX library and SharePoint can be used together to deliver compelling user experience. In this webcast we show the various approaches to integrating AJAX in WSS 3.0 and then cover what’s improved in sp1.

· 3/27- SharePoint and SilverLight: Rich User Experience is getting easier to create with the release of Silverlight. In this session we show how Silverlight takes advantage of XAML and provides an easy way to build compelling user interfaces. We will demonstrate using the 1.0 version of Silverlight as well as what’s new in 2.0 that allows the developer and designer to collaborate to build exciting new applications.

I will be updating the links as soon as they go live.

Enjoy!

Mike

MSDN Security Session Links

MSDN Events is back! It's a new year and this week I'm back on the road delivering MSDN events again. The topics we're covering include ASP.NET Membership, IIS 7.0 and Hacker Tricks...we show how the exploits work and what you can do to prevent them. In the presentation we've got a number of links to more information and to make it easier I'm including those links here for easy access.

These links include the following:

IIS 7.0 - What's new for developers

iis.net - Introduction to IIS 7 Architecture

iis.net - IIS7 Configuration Reference

MSDN - Hosting in Windows Process Activation Service

iis.net - Your Web Platform Security

iis.net - Configuring the IIS7 Runtime

Mike Volodarsky Blog -  Developing IIS7 web server features with the .NET framework

ASP.NET Provider Model

MSDN - Provider Model Design Pattern and Specification, Part 1

MSDN - Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Providers: Introduction

MSDN - ASP.NET Login Controls Overview

MSDN - Web Site Administration Tool Overview

MSDN Mag - Client-Side Web Service Calls with AJAX Extensions

MSDN - Client Application Services

AdventureWorksLT Sample Database

MySQL Connector - NET 5.1

Security Hacks

Anti-XSS Library v1.5 Download

www.Fiddler2.com

www.HelloSecureWorld.com

Open Source Web Application Project - Top 10 Exploits 2007

Exploit: SQL Injection - www.ri.gov

Exploit: Cross Site Scripting - FTD

Exploit: Insecure Direct Object Reference - Cahoots

Exploit: Integer Overflow - Apple

Video Puzzle Code

When I demo what's possible with Silverlight I like to show a demo of a video puzzle. This is a fun one to do, where the puzzle pieces are animated by a video file while they can be scrambled around the screen. A lot of people have been looking for the code to this, so I've posted it to the downloads section of BenkoTIPS. Feel free to download and explore the code. It is written using Silverlight 1.0 which uses the JavaScript API.

Enjoy!

Enter the Mpls & Des Moines Demo Contest to Win COOL Prizes!

ANNOUNCING Visual Studio 2008 Install-Fest Demo Contest!

Want to show off your VS2008 or .NET 3.5 skills?  If you answered, yes, this is your opportunity to strut your stuff!

During the Visual Studio 2008 Install Fest & Holiday Party on December 12, 2007 at the DMACC West Campus, and on December 13, 2007 at the Microsoft office in Bloomington MN, we'll be having a demo contest in the auditorium.  Here's the scoop ...

What do I need to do?

Anything, actually! If you've done something cool with VS2008 or like/dislike some of new features or having been messing around with .NET 3.5 (LINQ, XLINQ, WCF, WF, WPF, etc).  We'll take it!!! Silverlight? Astoria? If you can code it and you can show it, enter to win. What's the rules?

1. 5 to 10 minute time limit for demo
2. You must show code (pre-written code ok if you explain it during the demo)
3. The code must be your own
4. It must run

Top Prizes go to best demos by vote of those in attendance

What do you get out of it?

Well, first, the recognition from your peers as an expert with VS2008/.NET 3.5. Second, speakers will be entered into a special drawing for two prizes donated by MS! Top prizes include XBox-360's and/or Zune. All Pre-registered demo contestants will also receive a full licensed copy of Visual Studio 2008 Pro.

How do you sign up to demo?

Great question! To register and sign up, please send me an email at Mike.Benkovich@microsoft.com with your topic! Limited to 10 entrants per contest.

Anything more?

That's it! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

We hope you will join us!