Sunday, November 18, 2007

Integrate Search Into Your Site With ASP.NET

Windows Live™ Search crawls content on the Internet and also exposes search functionality to developers through a Web service that allows the search to be scoped down to just your site. You can then render the results however you see fit.

Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 is another good choice. It's a complete site-building and management solution that also provides robust search functionality. Figure 1 shows the results of a SharePoint Search integrated into a custom ASP.NET page.

If you're only interested in enterprise search, you may opt for the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 for Search edition (rather than the Standard or Enterprise versions of MOSS). The main differences are the maximum number of documents they can index and the ability to index advanced content such as external databases. However, even with the Standard version of the Search edition you can index file shares, Exchange public folders, Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) sites, and external Web sites.

Microsoft joins the OpenAjax Alliance

Microsoft is joining the OpenAJAX Alliance to collaborate with other industry leaders to help evolve AJAX-style development by ensuring a high degree of interoperability,” said Keith Smith, group product manager of the Core Web Platform & Tools to UX Web/Client Platform & Tools team at Microsoft Corp. “By joining OpenAJAX, Microsoft is continuing its commitment to empower Web developers with technology that works cross-browser and cross-platform.”
The newest OpenAjax Alliance members include: 24SevenOffice, ActiveGrid, ActiveState, Appeon, Aptana, Arimaan Global Consulting, Custom Credit Systems (Thinwire), ESRI, Getahead (DWR), Global Computer Enterprises, GoETC, Helmi Technologies, HR-XML, iPolipo, Isomorphic Software, JSSL, Lightstreamer, Microsoft, MobileAware, NetScript Technologies, OpenSpot, OpenSymphony (OpenQA), OpSource, OS3.IT, Redmonk, Tealeaf Technology, Teleca Mobile, Transmend, Visible Measures, Visual WebGui and Volantis Systems.
The Alliance is also announcing that the following members have all been awarded OpenAjax Interoperability certificates: Apache XAP, Dojo Foundation, ICEsoft, ILOG, Isomorphic, IT Mill, Lightstreamer, Open Link, Open Spot, Nexaweb, Software AG and TIBCO. The interoperability certificates represent progress by both OpenAjax Alliance and its members towards defining and achieving industry support for OpenAjax Conformance.
** Reference:ajaxian.com

Monday, November 12, 2007

ASP.NET Site Navigation

To create a consistent, easily managed navigation solution for the site, one can use ASP.NET site navigation. ASP.NET site navigation offers the following features:

  • Site maps You can use a site map to describe the logical structure of your site. You can then manage page navigation by modifying the site map as pages are added or removed, instead of modifying hyperlinks in all of your Web pages.

  • ASP.NET controls You can use ASP.NET controls to display navigation menus on your Web pages. The navigation menus are based on the site map.

  • Programmatic control You can work with ASP.NET site navigation in code to create custom navigation controls or to modify the location of information that is displayed in a navigation menu.

  • Access rules You can configure access rules that display or hide a link in your navigation menu.

  • Custom site-map providers You can create custom site-map providers that allow you to work with your own site-map back end (for example, a database where you store link information) and plug your provider into the ASP.NET site-navigation system.

Relationships Between Site-Navigation Components

The following illustration shows the relationships between the ASP.NET site-navigation components:
Figure: Relationships between the ASP.NET site-navigation components(From msdn)

Method 'StartWorkflowOnListItem' in type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowServices.FabricWorkflowInstanceProvider'

Exception: Method 'StartWorkflowOnListItem' in type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowServices.FabricWorkflowInstanceProvider'...