Adventures in Technology

I thought I would share this simple list of developer video titles and time durations. The videos I am referencing are found on the SharePoint 2010 (Beta) Learning Modules for Developers site. Hopefully this is useful for anyone looking to review a specific topic. Time durations are noted in minutes and seconds [mm:ss].

Module 1: Getting Started: Building Web Parts in SharePoint 2010

• Web Parts in SharePoint 2010 4:56
• Visual Web Parts 3:44
• Visual Web Parts In Action 4:38
• Standard Web Parts 2:49
• Standard Web Parts In Action 4:09

Module 2: What Developers Need to Know About SharePoint 2010

• SharePoint for Developers 1:50
• Types of SharePoint Applications 1:26
• SharePoint 2010 Technology Stack 2:47
• SharePoint 2010 File System [broken link]
• How to Build Project Items, Features and Solutions 2:17
• SharePoint Solutions in Visual Studio 2010 17:09
• SharePoint Solution Development in 2010 9:16
• SharePoint 2010 Object Hierarchy 2:18
• SharePoint Farms 2:11
• Web Applications Site Collections and Sites 4:02

Module 3: Building Blocks for Web Part Development in SharePoint 2010

• Building Blocks for Web Parts 3:34
• Built-in Web Parts 4:45
• Built-in SharePoint Controls 5:48
• Rendering Data With SharePoint Controls 2:35

Module 4: Accessing SharePoint 2010 Data and Objects with Server-Side APIs

• Accessing SharePoint Data 3:32
• Lists, List Data and CAML 5:05
• LINQ to SharePoint 10:00
• Document Libraries 5:39
• What are Content Types? 2:59
• Programming with Content Types 5:33

Module 5: Accessing SharePoint 2010 Data and Objects with Client-Side APIs

• Consuming SharePoint Data from Remote Applications 4:55
• Using the Client Object Model 8:47
• LData and the Client Object Model 5:38
• Accessing SharePoint Data from a .NET Application 5:26
• Silverlight Applications and the Client Object Model 11:15
• Silverlight Applications and CAML 6:39

Module 6: Accessing External Data with Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010

• Overview of Business Connectivity Services 1:58
• Business Connectivity Services Architecture 2:15
• External Content Types and Business Connectivity Services 1:34
• Developing for Business Connectivity Services 3:07

Module 7: Developing Business Processes with SharePoint 2010 Workflows

• SharePoint workflows: A Technology Backgrounder 2:50
• Creating Workflows in SharePoint Designer 8:15
• Creating workflows in Visual Studio 6:19
• Workflow Events 2:25
• Creating Workflow Forms 3:58

Module 8: Creating Silverlight User Interfaces for SharePoint 2010 Solutions

• Consuming SharePoint Objects and Data in Silverlight Applications 3:50
• Hosting Silverlight Applications in SharePoint 4:17
• Building Silverlight Web Parts 6:35
• Rendering SharePoint Data in Silverlight 6:12
• Rendering SharePoint Media Files in Silverlight 11:26

Module 9: Sandboxed Solutions for Web Parts in SharePoint 2010

• Sandboxed Solutions in SharePoint 4:18
• Site Collection Solution Galleries 4:01
• Web Parts in Sandboxed Solutions 4:50
• Sandboxed Operations 2:39
• Capabilities and Elements in Sandboxed Solutions 8:46

Module 10: Creating Dialog Boxes and Ribbon Controls for SharePoint 2010

• New User Interfaces in SharePoint 2010 4:48
• The Ribbon User Interface 2:37
• Developing Ribbon Controls 3:08
• The Dialog Platform 2:52
• Developing the Dialog Platform 4:16

For people looking to dive right into the code you can check out the Code Samples posted on Paul Andrew’s MSDN blog. Note that Paul points out the code “postings are provided ‘AS IS’ with no warranties, and confer no rights”, so no crying to Paul if something begins to act naughty.

A company in California wanted someone who “can design the interface based on human computer interface [should be interaction] and cognitive psychology philosophies and best practices.” They wanted the best of both worlds, such that he, or she, would have a good appreciation for the complexities of SharePoint [2007 and 2010]. Plus, “be adept at using Microsoft Expression to apply their design concepts in such a way that limited additional coding would have been necessary.” The company added they were on a time constraint of 4-5 weeks. Good luck with that order.

Looks like another case of duality. a special mix of user-interface designer and .NET developer with SharePoint skills. Besides the obvious problem of getting two-for-the-price-of-one, there remained the issue of what the company was asking for verses what the they thought they were asking for. The research with regard to the area of human-computer interaction (HCI) had its humble beginnings in the early 1980s. Although there are arguments that it started much earlier, but I’ll just stick with the time when the first personal computer was introduced. Nearly thirty years later, the area has grown to involve many disciplines.

Theories and models abound from Input-Stimulus Output-Response to GOMS models. Interactions can be as simple as visual, point-and-click applications to more complex, multi-modal systems. The process of taking interface requirements, defining and developing interpreted components, and translating the component descriptions into final code is a quite a feat. In the next posting, I hope to clarify this process of  HCI theory and practical application by walking through the steps HCI design towards the development of a graphical-user interface for an application, specifically used in SharePoint.

Eventually, I will finish this series resulting in the creation of a SharePoint web part usable for WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007 and SharePoint 2010.

Here’s some links concerning HCI to whet your appetite until the next post:

SIGCHI http://www.sigchi.org/

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-computer_interaction