SharePoint Saturday Perth - Building SharePoint solutions with TypeScript: how and why.

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I'll be presenting a new topic for SharePoint Saturday Perth this year, on SharePoint and TypeScript.

While I had begin planning to work with TypeScript since the beginning of the year, I really owe it to Charlie Holland's blog post that really got me started.

Anyway, if you see the good parts in my demo, that'd be to his credit.  And if you see the lousy parts?  I'll claim those.

 

Building SharePoint Solutions with TypeScript

TypeScript is a new language designed as a superset of JavaScript. Released by Microsoft and designed by the father of C# Anders Hejlsberg. It is designed to ease building large scale applications using JavaScript, and addresses JavaScript shortfalls such as lacking a module system as well as type and compile-time type checking for better error detection and tooling.

SharePoint itself has become increasingly open over the recent versions with numerous new APIs available to client-side scripting, thus allowing more and more complex JavaScript applications. The time seems right that TypeScript will be a great addition to help us envision and attempt even more complex SharePoint solutions.

In this session, we want to tackle the two problems at hand: how do we set up our environment and get started with writing TypeScript with our solutions. And perhaps more importantly, what benefits do we get for choosing to go down this route with TypeScript.

 

A sneak preview

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We'll build this Sandbox Webpart with TypeScript.  I'll see (some) of you this Saturday at Perth.

Ticket for SPSPER are very low, you'll need to register right away.

:-)

How to create your Windows 8 Start Button with PowerShell

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Before I go on, I have to say I find the Start Menu unnecessary.  There are already many ways to get to your Start Screen:

  • Throw mouse to lower-left corner (with the mouse)
  • Press the Windows key (on your keyboard)
  • Swipe in from the left edge (touch screen)
  • Press the Start button (any device with a hardware start button)

 

That said, Windows is still about choice.  And here's how you can add your own "Start Menu Button"

  1. Create a shortcut.
  2. Type in this:
    powershell.exe -Command "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms; [Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait('^({ESC})')"

    (all in one line)
    This sends the Windows key (CTRL-ESC) via Powershell.
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  3. Configure the shortcut to run minimized
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  4. Change the Icon, I select this icon from the bootux.dll file %SystemRoot%\System32\bootux.dll) 
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    (All the icons are white, select them to see what they look like) 
  5. Drag the shortcut and pin it to the task bar, on the far left.
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  6. Now you have that familiar Start menu button back.  Click it and you'll get the Start Screen to pop up. 
    image

 

Notes

  • Does not appear to work in Windows RT, but if you have a Surface just hit that start hardware button

Windows 8

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Windows 8 is coming, and I wanted to say something to set people's expectations right.  I think it'll help people align their views and appreciate this new version, if they choose to upgrade.

Don't expect Windows 8 to be Windows 7 plus more shiny new stuff.  Windows 8 was never designed in the same sense that Windows 7 was actually just Windows Vista plus more polish.  If you install Windows 8 thinking to get a minor update, you will be shocked.

Windows 8 is actually a completely different beast.  Designed with different goals altogether.  It just happens to run Windows (Windows 7) applications.

But at its core, Windows 8 is a different thing.

 

Historically, there was a suitable analogy, Microsoft build Windows NT to be the better kernel going forward, and combined the two systems streams (95, 98, ME) and (NT, 2000) finally into the same stream from XP.  Windows 2000 was vastly different beast from Windows 95, because it was fundamentally a different system, it just happened to run the old Windows 95 apps.

SharePoint Saturday Brisbane update

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Thank you for attending my session on Building Custom REST services and consuming them with jQuery AJAX. 

I hope you enjoyed the session and survived (or even find it interesting) my 1hr rant.

But more importantly, I hope I've given you plenty of ideas on how you can integrate the set of techniques presented in your SharePoint development.

 

A summary link of all my related talks on REST, services and JavaScript technologies like jQuery and Knockout are on /rest/

 

A direct link to the solution that I used for the demo is at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5527bff2e4b0b430660b0d10/5527c30de4b030eeeef09715/5527c30fe4b030eeeef0a010/1316868647487/SPGSvcWp.zip

The PowerPoint presentation is at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5527bff2e4b0b430660b0d10/5527c30de4b030eeeef09715/5527c30fe4b030eeeef0a011/1335084544036/SharePoint+REST+and+jQuery5.pptx

 

Drop me a question if you want to ask me anything specific related to these topics and I'm more than willing to geek out!  Hope to see you guys again soon.

SharePoint Saturday Brisbane 02-June-2012

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In little more than 3 more days, we'll be meeting up again in SharePoint Saturday Brisbane! 

I'll be presenting again on the Developer track on how to build custom webservices within SharePoint, and consuming them using JavaScript AJAX. 

On the side, I've been having a lot of fun with KnockoutJS, Client Object Model, REST and even building a Single Page Application for SharePoint on codeplex. 

There's a bunch of InfoPath people and solutions that I'd love to meet and see again.

Overall, I'm looking forward to meeting all the SharePoint people up in Brisvegas and geeking out for a whole day!

There are some talks of having a dedicated time where we can answer lots of questions from the attendees - so if you have any curly problems within your SharePoint, bring your question along and we'll try to help out.

One final reminder:

02 June 2012.  Register http://sharepointsaturday.org/brisbane/default.aspx