Introducing Microsoft's Search Server 2008

Microsoft recently released a new suit of enterprise search products called Microsoft Search Server 2008. The product is currently available in two forms: Microsoft Search Server 2008 and Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express.

All though these products are built on top of the same technology as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, it does not require an install of WSS or MOSS. The new products bring new features to the table that really make this product a must have for many businesses.

If you are familiar with search inside MOSS, then you should feel right at home with the user interface that is offered in Search Server. One of the best new features is the ability to add federated search to your environment.

So what exactly does that mean? The index engine inside MOSS can crawl any type of content. But what if you already have other search engines inside your infrastructure that already has this content index? Search Server is capable of communicating with other types of search engines and indexes. Search Server is able to do this with new concept of Federated Search Connectors.

Microsoft has made a couple of sample connectors available for download. You can check them out at http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/connectors/federated.aspx. We will discuss federated search in more detail in the near future.

Check out some of the product features that are available. See the full list from Microsoft @ http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/products.aspx#compare

All though there is no limit of the documents you can search and index with Search Server 2008 Express, there is a limit if you are using it with SQL Server Express Edition. The maximum size of a SQL Server Express Edition database is 4 GB. This in turn restricts Search Server 2008 to about 400,000 documents, depending on the size and type of your documents.

As with all of the Express products, Search Server 2008 Express is available for free. In my next posting we will look at adding Search Server 2008 Express on top of WSS 3.0.

You can learn more and download the Express product at http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch.

iPhone opens up enterprise SharePoint sites

Apparently, the Safari browser on the iPhone does a good job of accurately rendering SharePoint sites in full-fidelity – not just the mobile version of sites. According to this article it can do the job but IE Mobile Edition can’t:

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/29262?hpg1=bn

SharePoint Development Learning Plan

If there are any of you out there that would like to try your hand at the SharePoint development side, here is the learning plan that I suggest.

If you aren’t so much a reader, I would recommend the video series by Learn Visual Studio. They offer entry level videos on VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and all of the new 3.5 categories that would benefit someone wanting to get up to speed on .NET development. You can purchase a lifetime membership for a very low fee. I have been a member now for a few years.

http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/Members/Default.aspx

The Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) workshops in the ASP.NET development series is outstanding for SharePoint developers. It covers themes, masterpages, webparts, etc.

Workshop 2543: Core Web Application Technologies with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (Three days)
Workshop 2544: Advanced Web Application Technologies with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (Two days)

You can also get these available on E-learning. I would recommend the workshops over the e-learning, but the e-learning is much cheaper than instructor led courses.

Collections:
Collection 5160: Core development with the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Foundation (16-hour series)
Collection 5161: Advanced development with the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Foundation (14-hour series)


Here are the books for the self taught go getters.

Microsoft® Visual C#® 2005 Step by Step
by John Sharp (Author)

Microsoft Visual C#(TM) .NET Language Reference (Pro-Documentation) (Paperback)
by Microsoft Corporation (Author)

Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference (Paperback)
by Dino Esposito (Author) "ASP.NET is a Web development platform that provides services, a programming model, and software

Developer's Guide to the Windows SharePoint Services v3 Platform (Charles River Media Programming) (Paperback)
by Todd C. Bleeker (Author)

SharePoint Public Web Sites

I am often asked about who is actually using SharePoint as a public facing web site. I ran across this link that has over 200 links to sites that are using SharePoint externally.

http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/websites.aspx

Also avaiable are the 'Top 100' with actual previews.

http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/topwebsites.aspx

SharePoint Training in Denver, CO

Hey west coast, here is your opportunity to get up to speed on SharePoint. I will be presenting this 4 day class from July 22-25, 2008, in Denver, CO. I will also be giving out the 'Fast Track' SharePoint Certification videos to those who attend.

Class Information:

The goal of this 4 day, instructor-led training course is to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to begin planning and designing portals and collaboration sites using Microsoft SharePoint 2007.
The course will focus on the core features and functionality included in SharePoint 2007, how to use them, and how to plan and design for them.
This course is the first course in a two part series. This course covers the core features that are common to both Windows SharePoint Services v3 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. The second course in the series, Applying SharePoint 2007 - MOSS Advanced Features, covers the additional features that MOSS 2007 brings to SharePoint 2007 deployments.
Student learning will be facilitated through a combination of instructor presentations and hands-on lab exercises. A sample company will be used in the labs to teach students how to apply SharePoint 2007 from concept to implementation in a typical environment.

http://sharepointsolutions.com/sharepoint-training/applying-sharepoint-2007.html

SharePoint Development

I ran across this site the other day and wanted to share it with you.

It helps bring you up to speed on web parts, datalists, event handlers, workflows, silverlight, page navigation, page branding, web services, custom content types, and user management.

There is a ton of really good information here. Make sure you check it out!!!

http://www.microsoft.com/click/sharepointdeveloper/

Microsoft Certified Master Program : SharePoint

On Tuesday, June 10, Microsoft unveiled their new premiere certification at TechEd Orlando during ITPro week.

The new certification offers advanced technical training on Microsoft technologies. Starting in July, Microsoft plans to roll out the SQL Server 2008, Server 2008, and Exchange Server 2007. For more information check out http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/master/default.mspx.

So what about SharePoint? According to Per Farney, Microsoft hopes to roll out the SharePoint version of this program in December.

So what’s the new certification about??? The new certification will taught in Redmond. It will span 3 weeks. The current plan is to deliver 2 consecutive weeks followed by a single week. The weeks can be rolled together. There are three tests. One written after each of the first two weeks and one lab test at the end of the third.

The content will be intense.