Books recommended for a beginner SharePoint architect [closed] - sharepoint

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Closed 10 years ago.
I am a recent graduate and got a job as a junior SharePoint developer few months ago. For the last few months, I have been working on SharePoint development, e.g. webparts, .Net Forms, K2, Lists, Features, for Moss and a little bit for SharePoint 2010 as well...
Now because I made a future plan to become a SharePoint architect, I am not sure what way I need to follow to become what I want to, As there are so many things to learn in SharePoint, I am looking for Book or a series of Book that will help me gain knowledge as a SharePoint Architect has.
I am a bit confused with SharePoint architecture as well, like If I want to develop a new SharePoint Solution, What hardware e.g. Servers, Do I need + Software, e.g. We use .Net Forms, but are they better then using Info-Path forms ?
Thanks (I know its not a Coding question but I think its somehow related to Programming so please dont close it.. Cheers)

There is a huge amount to learn in order to "become" an architect for SharePoint. Do not forget that you will need to learn how the SharePoint content database works, especially how documents are stored. You will also need to figure out the infrastructure part of the equation, especially how virtualised environments will affect server performance.
Essentially, there is not enough space to list all the books that could be useful.
You have set yourself a long term task, so go hard with the curiosity. Whenever you run across a subject that you do not know the details of, hit google and find out.
For example, the difference between .NET forms and Info path forms maybe available in a book, but you are going to learn more quickly and thoroughly by creating some Infopath forms and having a look at how both are implemented.
There is no real shortcut around the hard graft required to learn SharePoint (except perhaps finding someone who already is good at this and learning from them directly).

A free ebook downlodable from msdn :
Developing Applications for SharePoint 2010
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff770300.aspx
It's a good starting point.

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Is SharePoint ready for the average IT Department? [closed]

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Closed 9 years ago.
I think this one might get shut down, but hopefully I can get some meaningful responses if it does.
My employer is about to upgrade our WSS 3.0 Intranet site with SharePoint 2013 Standard. I have trawled Stack Overflow for SharePoint positives and negatives and I must admit that I saw a LOT of people negative towards it because it is needlessly complicated to work with and modify. Many of these were related to 2007 though, but I still saw them with 2010.
Are there many people who have used 2013 in a production environment and have feedback about how the product has grown over the past few iterations as far as front end usability and back end expandability goes? Is SharePoint's current version ready for the average business who do not have teams of developers to modify it?
First, decide if you really need all that sharepoint has to offer beyond the ability to store and retrieve documents on a central server.
If you need any of the following:
Create online applications, self-serve forms.
Use it as your company intranet.
Integration with anything that is not an Office product or .NET friendly.
Then you will need specialized support - or at least dedicate a person to train and develop on it. Also consider the cost implications of supporting it in the long term; check with your organization if they have an enterprise agreement which will help offset some of the costs.
The best option if you want to use sharepoint is to have Microsoft run it for you. This way you can do a fair evaluation before you decide to commit to it.
From a usability perspective - it is by far the most user friendly thanks to it built-in integration with Office. This is perhaps its best killer feature, and one that every sharepoint competitor tries to emulate.
The web interface was also greatly improved in 2013, however keep in mind that most of the features are Internet Explorer 8+ specific. This might run afoul of your corporate policies.

Will Vert.x pose a threat to Node.js's user base due to it's much better performance? [closed]

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Closed 10 years ago.
Benchmark
Hacker News Discussion
Hacker News Discussion 2
It's not like Node.js is even really dominant today (except in the Hacker News community of course), it hasn't even had a 1.0 release yet. Funny to be speculating on what might replace it already :)
Performance is nice (though micro-benchmarks are not the right way to judge that) but if that was the only thing that mattered we would all be writing custom web servers in C for every app. One of the other important things is the community support, which Node.js definitely has going for it at the moment. It has a very healthy open source (this being the key) community that has created a large library of tools.
I think Vert.x is interesting and has a different way of looking at things than Node.js which is great. If they are able to continue to make progress, get more people interested in it, and show that it is easier and faster to write web apps then who knows? Maybe in a few years we can have a discussion on what is going to threaten Vert.x's future.
There are some interesting things brought up by this micro-benchmark that may be worth addressing in Node, but it's very important to remember that nobody doing 100's of millions of hits per day (which these benchmarks show) does so on one machine. They do it on many machines.
There are certain levels where faster languages make a difference (see for example Twitter migrating their backend from Ruby to Java), but it's VERY rare to get to that position.
Most people need a language that is clean and easy to program in, and a good ecosystem.
Vert.x has no ecosystem to speak of. If you want a JVM based system you can get plenty of options there. If you want a Javascript based system the best option right now is Node.js. It's that simple.

What is the biggest new feature/improvement in SharePoint 2010? [closed]

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Closed 10 years ago.
This is really a question for the 7400 people (!) at the SharePoint Conference 2009. Of all the new features and improvements in SharePoint 2010, which one (or area or feature set) do you think will have the biggest impact on the world of SharePoint development?
I haven't had a chance to do anything with it yet, but the new BDC (Business Data Catalog), the BCS (Business Connectivity Services), looks really promising - and something that people may actually use as more than a last resort this time around.
Edit: Now that I have had the time to play with the BCS - I can tell you that it is a HUGE improvement over the BDC in terms of both flexibility and ease of use - it is going to be the center of a ton of big-business custom development work to come.
Development support on Win 7 / WS08R2
You no longer have to do your development on Windows Server. You can use Win 7, Vista, or WS08R2.
It may sound stupid, but I would say sound compatibility with Firefox is the comforting thing to know. It not because I am a big fan of Firefox, but it shows a big step of MS towards openness.
For me? The fact that I can now publish my access applications to the web. Here is a video of me playing with ms-access, and about half way through this short demo I switch over to running the application in a browser. I tested this in FireFox, and it also runs 100% perfect...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU4mH0jPntI
I liked the BDC but was disappointed at the lack of tools to quickly bring an existing SPList from another site or site collection in as a external list. It can be done, but it is a very manual tedious process. I would have liked to see a point and proxy sort of API.
Having lived through some SharePoint application upgrade disasters, I would say that I am very favorable to the new Feature Versioning and Feature Upgrade capabilities. The ability to define an upgrade path for content types and lists as well as move existing file URL's is great. With the new event and FeatureUpgrading method on the SPFeatureReceiver you can do just about anything in upgrade.
More on the Feature Upgrade...
I have been playing with Business Conectivity Services and i'm very impressed. this is the tool that will make sharepoint the bridge in a business.
Out of the box Global Navigation Components no longer use tables. I know it's really not way up there on the list of improvements, but I was super excited when I read this.
SharePoint 2010 Changes in Rendering
2 biggest improvements:
1 - Dev tools support - You can throw away WSPBuilder, SharePoint Manager, and all the other hodge-podge tools you used to develop SharePoint Solutions.
2 - Taxonomy/MetaData - You can add a metadata column to any content type and query that information accross farms. Leverages the new service application infrastructure which gets rid of SSP's

How some developers move from one platform to another? [closed]

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Closed 10 years ago.
I have noticed some developers picking up new skills and moving from one platform to the other? How do they do it? How do they justify for the lack of experience in the said platform they get the job?
Is it based on relevance to their previous experience? do they get certified in the target platform and work at a junior level accepting a pay cut? is it simpler if you are into contracting/consulting? Or is it simply a matter of projecting the resume correctly?
Actually, a lot of seemingly different platforms are really very similar, if you understand what goes on "under the hood," as it were. Though I've barely touched a Microsoft platform for well over a decade, for example, I have little difficulty developing things there because deep knowledge of computer systems in general is quite transferable.
For me, moving from LAMP to .Net was a work necessity. The consulting company I work for needed a PHP guy right away which is how I got in, but that project completed abruptly and they did not have an PHP work on the horizon.
In the closing weeks of the PHP project, I took an online O'Reilly course in C# and worked closely with a more experienced developer on a Windows application for the same client. Once the PHP gig completed I was able to start right away on a .Net project and I've had .Net clients ever since.
The key for me was flexibility. I let my employer know immediately that I was interested in different technologies and platforms and have taken the initiative by requesting access to courses and taking advantage of our yearly book allowance to explore different areas. When opportunities arise for investigating new directions like Mobility (PDAs, specialty devices and tablets) I jumped at the chance.
If your employer doesn't have policies which promote this type of self-directed expansion, then try to build a type of application you are familiar with in a new platform. Once you have you have a decent grasp of the tech, get involved with open source projects in your target platform and look for paid outside opportunities (i.e. Craigslist, elance, etc.) while you are still learning.
Most likely it is a result of circumstances. In these touch economic times being able to move outside your comfort zones is crucial
I really haven't seen a lot of reluctance on anybody's part to put developers on platforms that are new to them. Changes in computer language tend to be far more worrisome to managers than platform changes.

Good resources on security, hacking etc? [closed]

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I am interested in learning about how hackers find and exploit vulnerabilities. Specifically about windows hacking and web hacking i.e. I’m NOT interested in linux/unix stuff.
Are there any good websites with technical articles about specifically how to find, exploit and block vulnerabilities with code samples and tools used.
I can do a quick search and there are a load of sites but i'm looking for something with a little more quality geared towards an audience with a programming and web background.
Even a good book but only if it's windows/web specific
Thanks a lot
Smashing the Stack for Fun and Profit is the classic Phrack article on writing buffer overflow exploits.
A good starting point for a web developper would be the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). They have a lot of ressources on the subject of Web Application Security and on some on application security in general. You can get some of the wisdom of that side in book form.
Try Simpson Garfinkel's book on web security first.
I highly recommend:
Hacking: The Art of Exploitation
Gray Hat Hacking, Second Edition: The Ethical Hacker's Handbook
I liked the Web Security Testing Cookbook. Some non-Windows stuff in there. The focus is on testing and using tools to find problems.
Subscribe to Schneier on Security. It's a great security blog.
For web hacking I recommend reading the book The Web Application Hacker's Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting Security Flaws (very good book with lots of examples. It also shows you the tools which will get you started).
Also for web hacking I recommend completing and understanding all the challenges you can solve by downloading the WebGoat
See the top 100 network security tools list at http://sectools.org/.
Don't get me wrong but if you really want to understand security stuff, Linux is really the way to go. There, you'll really learn the fundamental, i.e. things that is important everywhere (encryption, ASM, programming, protocols, [etc]). However, on Linux, you'll be able to read real code and use/find real exploit (and of course, send bug fix). You'll also find a lot more documentation and a really nice community.
I know I'm biased toward Linux and you'll probably think I completely missed your question. However, I know friends of mine who asked me the same question and I told them what I've just told you.
Once you know the base, you can easily find the documentation you want (reading RFC, learning new languages, architectures, tools, source code, etc..) This is by far better then to know a procedure to execute an exploit without understanding why it exists.
One last thing, the best hacker does't find exploit by guessing.. they have a perfect understanding on the underlying structure and see something wrong. Then, some exploit it, other send a patch to fix it - this is not the right place to argue about it - however, they are both experts in this domain.
I think what you'll need would be to join some hackers community which would provide many missions where you'd have to find the exploits yourself....
understand that if you have learn hacking you'd have to hack something......
www.enigmagroup.org would be an useful one...
www.securitytube.net from here you can get videos on almost every security related issue...

Resources