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Microsoft readies SharePoint 2.0 collaboration platform
By Paul Krill
September 6, 2002 1:48 pm PT
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SEATTLE -- MICROSOFT'S upcoming release of its SharePoint Web collaboration platform Version 2.0 will focus on customization and be part of the
Windows .Net Server 2003 operating system, according to Microsoft officials.
To be built on top of the Microsoft .Net Framework programming model and shipping in mid-2003, SharePoint Team Services 2.0 will first be released as a separate add-on and then be included with the
operating system itself, company officials said at the Microsoft DevCon conference here on Friday. A technical beta release is due this fall while a broader marketing beta is planned for next winter.
Key to the product is customization. One critical element, Web parts, allows developers to insert components on Web pages for functions such as showing or listing enterprise data, said Michael Morton,
Microsoft lead program manager for SharePoint.
SharePoint 2.0 relies on Microsoft's ASP .Net for page extensions. ASP .Net is a set of technologies for building Web applications and XML Web Services, according to Microsoft. With ASP .Net, pages
execute on the server and
generate markup such as XML or HTML that is sent to a desktop or mobile browser.
A SharePoint user applauded both the use of ASP .Net and the upcoming version of SharePoint in general.
"We've been using SharePoint Version 1 ever since it came out," said Stephen Hose, senior systems analyst for the U.S. Navy Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind. "The switch to ASP .Net is huge."
Hose said he has been using CAML (common application markup language) with SharePoint, but did not like it.
"With where they're going with ASP .Net, it makes the product wide open," Hose said. Version 2.0 boosts customization, enabling functions such as adding informational lists for groups or departments, he
said.
Version 2.0 "just dramatically changes the landscape," Hose said.
Other highlights of Version 2.0 include an object model for accessing SharePoint information and an XML SOAP layer.
Another SharePoint product, SharePoint Portal Server, will remain separate from the operating system.
Paul Krill
is an InfoWorld editor at large.
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Microsoft is making EII waves on two fronts: the next version of SQL Server database, code-named Yukon and due out in late 2003; and with its SharePoint Portal Server, according to officials at the Redmond,
Wash.-based company.
"We are interested in the idea of transparency of data, so that no matter where it lives, we find it," said Tom Rizzo, group product manager of SQL Server at Microsoft, adding that tight coupling of the database with
SharePoint Portal will play a key role in their data integration strategy.
This week, Microsoft announced SQL Server Notification Services, a platform that lets customers subscribe to enterprise application and other events and receive notifications via e-mail, instant messenger, cell phone, or Microsoft's
.Net Alert System. Data can come from a variety of sources inside and outside the enterprise, including non-Microsoft applications, Rizzo said.
Meanwhile, Oracle's 9i application server translates data into a common view, supported by XML, via its transformation engine or via prebuilt adapters for common applications like popular ERP solutions, said Marie Goodell, Oracle's 9i
application server director of marketing. Oracle leverages its portal as the visualization mechanism that links and displays data from disparate sources, Goodell added.
"We have the ability to create new data views on the portal and supply content from any data source in a whole variety of predefined formats," Goodell said. "With the data view, you simply identify the data source and the way you want
the style to look."
"Maybe you have an order entry solution getting some information from partners in XML with other partners sending information in spreadsheets or via RosettaNet documents. You can now take the results ... and display all that content in
the portal using these data views," Goodell noted.
Matt Berger of the IDG News Service, an InfoWorld affiliate, contributed to this report.
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