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SharePoint Search Bench v2.0 Released

mike — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:19:03 GMT

I'm pleased to announce the release of SharePoint Search Bench 2.0!

http://www.codeplex.com/SPSearchBench

Version 2.0 contains a major API change that eliminates a dependency on Microsoft.Office DLL's for web service calls. For a web service call, you shouldn't need to depend on the underlying provider of the data you are accessing remotely. The API now executes web service calls successfully if the Microsoft DLL's are not found on the local machine. Version 2.0 causes a breaking change if you are using the SP Search Bench API because a Microsoft enum is now "wrapped" by a custom SP Search Bench enum.

A new, minor release (v2.1) is planned for the near future, which will contain a JavaScript implementation of the SP Search Bench C# API and will execute exclusively against the SharePoint Search web service. I've already begun development on this feature and have overcome all of the technology barriers I was expecting to face so far. Now it is just a matter of tidying up the JavaScript API interface and testing.... and overcoming any unforeseen barriers!

Further down the road, I'd like to completely overhaul the SP Search Bench WPF user interface. Right now, the UI doesn't use screen real-estate very wisely. My initial attempts at a new layout haven't worked out so well due to difficulties with getting the results grid to scroll and re-size properly. That'll be another challenge for a new day.

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,search,code,codeplex

Home for 16 Hours after DevConnections

mike — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:34:36 GMT

I'm back from Dev Connections in Las Vegas. The conference was a good time and some interesting tidbits were learned - such as the fact that .NET WinForms is now officially a legacy technology. At least that is how I interpreted it... WinForms will not be advanced past .NET 2.0. WPF is the new big kid on the block.

And speaking of WPF, the DevCon WPF presentations were... lacking. I think the WPF presentations were geared toward audiences who had no WPF experience whatsoever - or had never even seen the technology. The "ooohs" and "aaahs" from the audiences at some of WPF's basic 3D capabilities were surprising.

Coming away from the conference, I got inspired to get creative with WPF and SharePoint data visualization. We'll see what I come up with in the next year.

At the suggestion of Neil, I also began some work on a JavaScript implementation of SharePoint Search Bench. I proved out the core functionality and now it is just a matter of making it useful. This tool would be used to execute SharePoint searches easily in an Ajax setting.

I woke up today at 4:45 AM Pacific time to catch my flight, and got home at about 1:00 PM Central. I'll be getting up around 5:00 AM tomorrow to catch a flight to Florida for a week-long vacation. Then after we get back we'll be driving 3 hrs north to visit family for Thanksgiving. I just won't be home much in November!

Technorati Tags: .NET,DevConnections,sharepoint

DevCon Fall 2008

mike — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:11:23 GMT

I'll be flying out to Las Vegas on Monday to attend the Fall 2008 Dev Connections conference. I'm really hoping that there will be some material from PDC that creeps in to the presentations, but I really doubt it since the presenters have had their material approved for presenting months ago - and PDC was only a few weeks ago. Who knows though - there's always the keynote and that could have a few surprises.

Technorati Tags: conference,devconnections