SharePoint 2010 and the jQuery Library for SharePoint Web Services

I decided it was high time to take a look at how my jQuery Library for SharePoint Web Services might hold up in SharePoint 2010.  After all, it’s a whole new product, everything’s new and improved, etc.  Except it turns out that many things are exactly the same.

This is actually not bad news.  For instance, even though the forms to create, edit, and view list items (NewForm, EditForm, and DispForm) look quite a bit different in SharePoint 2010, they have almost exactly the same HTML structure. In SP2010 they generally pop up in modal windows, but the page structure is the same.

This isn’t just good news for my jQuery Library for SharePoint Web Services, it’s good for anyone who has done the work to create scripts that enforce business rules on their forms.  Based on my very quick pass today, I’m guessing that most form scripts will continue to work as they have or may need minor tweaking.

Too Soon for SharePoint 2010? – Part Deux

The other day, I tweeted “Am I the only one who thinks that spending a lot of time on #SP2010 right now is premature?” and subsequently wrote my Too Soon for SharePoint 2010? post. I certainly didn’t want to cause trouble with the question, but it’s garnered some interesting responses.

Bjørn Furuknap posted his thoughts on his blog today, and in the Foggy Mountain Breakdown / dueling banjos tradition, I wanted to reply to him.

I agree with Bjørn’s well-said thoughts on Developers and Administrators.  But what should “End Users” be doing while the Developers are developing and the Administrators are administrating?  I would posit that the last thing the Developers and Administrators ought to be doing is, as Bjørn says, letting “end users [be] the last to see these fancy new features”.

No, this is the time to get some of those End Users involved in the process. Without them you’re sitting on a two-legged stool at best; SharePoint shouldn’t even exist without End Users.  Get them involved by doing some pilots of SharePoint 2010 functionality.  Heck, form a SharePoint 2010 committee and use SharePoint 2010 to host a site, a wiki, a blog, whatever it takes to get the End User community up to speed.  Start planting the seeds of what might be.  Do demos, roadshows, create trial sites, get the executives to  see what SharePoint 2010 is all about, etc.  The only way that you’ll have anything to develop on or to administer is if those End Users (as I like to think of them: people) really want SharePoint 2010.  Otherwise, it’s IT just “doing it to them” again.

What ideas do you have to engage End Users now, at this point in the process?  Post ‘em!  I’ll bug Mark Miller over at EndUserSharePoint.com to get on board with this idea, too.  It’ll get the ecosystem revving up more, and more productively, for the long term.

Too Soon for SharePoint 2010?

I tweeted this last night: “Am I the only one who thinks that spending a lot of time on #SP2010 right now is premature?” and I’ve gotten quite a few interesting responses.  I figured I’d start a blog post on this and add in the replies as I get them (see the bottom of this post).  Feel free to comment here as well!

I’m not trying to be a provocateur with the question.  I follow some of the brightest bulbs in SharePoint-land and reading their tweets and blog posts, I hear a lot of furstration about things that don’t work in the SharePoint 2010 Beta.  It’s a beta, so that’s to be expected, and I’m not dissing Microsoft in any way.  I just wonder how much energy should go into SharePoint 2010 right now.

There’s an entire ecosystem around SharePoint, and that ecosystem needs to be well versed in SharePoint 2010 before RTM (Release to Manufacturing, for those not up on Microsoft acronyms).  By that ecosystem, I mean those of us who are consultants, system integrators, trainers, and the like. But should *everyone* be digging deeply into SharePoint 2010? Might we not learn bad habits when we’re forced to come up with workarounds for bugs or missing functionality? Might we not get a bad impression of perfectly good software that isn’t ready yet?

I’m as fascinated with some of the new concepts in SharePoint 2010 as just about anyone.  Some of the new taxonomy ideas are things I’ve been building (or trying to build) into solutions for a good 15 years. The new UI is far spiffier than the MOSS/WSS  3.0 UI (though I’m trying to do my small part to improve the MOSS/WSS 3.0 UI with jQuery Library for SharePoint Web Services). But is it really time?

@jthake: RT @sympmarc: Am I the only one who thinks that spending a lot of time on #SP2010 right now is premature? >> Premature SharePointCulation?

@pndrw: @sympmarc It’s not to early to start learning #SP2010 if you want to be ready go when we get to RTM. There’s lots to learn

@jeffbecraft: RT @sympmarc Am I only one thinks spending time on #SP2010 now is premature? – agree:users; disagree: hosters, consultants, product co’s

@andrewwalmsley: @sympmarc If own time or nothing to do fine, but suspect some are way to early.Maybe 2007 work is drying up,like it did with 2003/7 :-(

@andrewwalmsley: @sympmarc many peeps will be earning money from early ‘heads up’ type information on #sp2010 for their clients and conferences.

@brianroche: @sympmarc there is way too much in the feature set to not spend any time on it. If you want to bet hedge focus on new features only.

@CStahl: @sympmarc #SP2010 – I have to think and focus on my 2007 customers for a long time on, but how can I keep my fingers away from 2010?

SharePoint 2010 Sneak Peek

This is already all over the blogosphere, but I thought I’d RB (re-blog, like RT, right?) it.  The official public information about SharePoint 2010 is starting to trickle out over at the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 site.

The videos are worth a watch!

SharePoint 2010 System Requirements

In an article posted last week, the SharePoint team gave some more specifics on what we should expect for SharePoint 2010.  (Why do I keep accidentally typing 90210?)  According to the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog (and who would know better), SharePoint 2010 will require 64-bit Windows Server 2008 and 64-bit SQL Server.  Also, Internet Explorer 6 will not be a supported browser for SharePoint Server 2010.

So, what can you do today to get into the best shape for SharePoint Server 2010?

1. Start by ensuring new hardware is 64-bit.  Deploying 64-bit is our current best practice recommendation for SharePoint 2007.
2. Deploy Service Pack 2 and take a good look at the SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Checker that’s shipped as part of the update.  The Upgrade Checker will scan your SharePoint Server 2007 deployment for many issues that could affect a future upgrade to SharePoint 2010.
3. Get to know Windows Server 2008 with SharePoint 2007, this post is a great starting point.
4. Consider your desktop browser strategy if you have large population of Internet Explorer 6 users.
5. Continue to follow the Best Practices guidance for SharePoint Server 2007.
6. Keep an eye on this blog for updates and more details in the coming months.

Microsoft SharePoint “14” is now Microsoft SharePoint 2010

The official press release came out today and Tom Rizzo followed up on the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog.  The name itself doesn’t probably mean too much (except that the MOSS acronym will no longer work – MSP2kX anyone?).  The other important piece of information in the release is the general release timeline:

• Exchange 2010 will be the first product in this lineup, entering beta for customers to download today. Exchange 2010 will become available in the second half of 2009.
• Office 2010 — including Office Web applications, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 — will enter a technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and will release to manufacturing in the first half of 2010.