[Cross-posted from Randall Isenhour's blog] 

Hello SharePoint Developers! 

We are very proud to announce a major update to the MOSS and WSS Software Development Kit (SDK) downloads.  You can install them from the following locations:

·         MOSS 2007 SDK 1.2.  Includes Conceptual and Class Library Reference documentation, Web Services documentation, and Developer Tools and Samples for MOSS and WSS.  See below for a detailed breakdown what’s new in this release.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6D94E307-67D9-41AC-B2D6-0074D6286FA9&displaylang=en

·         WSS 3.0 SDK 1.2.  Includes Conceptual and Class Library Reference documentation, Web Services documentation, and Developer Tools and Samples for WSS technology only.  See below for a detailed breakdown what’s new in this release.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=05E0DD12-8394-402B-8936-A07FE8AFAFFD&displaylang=en

What’s New in this Release

We are constantly improving the SDK releases as a direct response to customer feedback.  Let us know your requests for future releases!  Here is a detailed breakdown of changes to the SDK and its contents.

Windows SharePoint Services SDK Documentation Enhancements

We have doubled our resources on the WSS SDK documentation, and we have been working around the clock to provide you with greatly expanded coverage on the SDK documentation.  A full breakdown of new and improved sections for the platform documentation can be found in the WSS SDK Welcome topic; here is the link to the online version: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms441339.aspx.

Start Menu Navigation

This release features a new Start Menu shortcut that gives you quick access to documentation (compiled HTML Help, or CHM for short) files and the Welcome Page (ReadMe.htm), which is a landing page with links out to all the tools and samples.

Installation Improvements

You now have a choice of installation location when you’re installing the SDK.  You can browse to your preferred folder during setup.  The default installation path for MOSS is C:\Program Files\2007 Office System Developer Resources\.  The default installation path for WSS is C:\Program Files\Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK\.

Offline Experience Improvements

We packaged up all of our Technical Articles, Visual How-to Articles, and Book Excerpts—plus the Excel Services and Excel 2007 Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 Job Submission Developer Guide into one searchable CHM file.  Now you can browse offline for content that has been published on MSDN out-of-band with the SDK.

Known Issue:  There are several links in the MOSSSDK_TechArticles.chm and the WSSSDK_TechArticles.chm that will not work in a strictly offline scenario.  Also, we did not package up the WMV file screencasts or the associated downloads that go with articles, so that we could keep the download size manageable.  The workaround for both issues is to browse to the content online; for ease-of-use, the TOC in the CHM file is the same as the TOC on MSDN.

New Tools Included with the MOSS SDK

We rounded out our tool set in this release to include developer tools and samples for the following areas of MOSS development.  New tools and samples are in bold.

·         Business Data Catalog Samples and Utilities

o   Microsoft Business Data Catalog Definition Editor

o   Sample Pluggable SSO Provider

o   WSHelloWorld Web Service

o   WSOrders Web Service

o   Excel Services User Defined Function Sample

o   WSOrders Custom Proxy Sample

o   Amazon Web Service Sample

o   AdventureWorks Metadata Samples

o   SAP Sample

·         Document Management and Content Processing Samples

o   Comment Scrub Document Converter

o   Term Replacement Document Inspector

·         Search Samples

o   Sample Protocol Handler

o   Custom Content Source

·         Records Management and Policy Samples

o   De-Duplication Router

o   Document Integrity Verifier

o   Records Center Web Service Console Application

o   Search, Collect, and Hold Tool

o   Sample Custom Barcode Generator

o   IRM Document Protector

·         Workflow Samples

o   Custom Workflow Report Query Generator

o   Custom Workflow Report XLSX Injector

o   Visual Studio Workflow Templates

o   Enterprise Content Management Workflow Activities

o   List Item Activities

o   Hello World Sequential Workflow

o   State Based Approval Workflow

o   Modification Workflow

o   Replication and Contact Selector Workflow

o   Intersystem Purchase Order

o   Confidential Approval Workflow

o   Group Approval Workflow

o   Approval Workflow Sample

o   Multi-Stage Workflow

o   Server-side Collect Signatures Workflow

Full details can be found in the Welcome Guide of the SDK, accessible through the Start Menu.

SDK Documentation Update Details

We now have close to 90% completion of all Type descriptions in the SDK Class Library Reference. Nearly all of the remaining blanks in the API reference are either Internal Namespaces and Classes or low priority APIs, and we are working to get those tagged appropriately for a future release.

Updates to the MOSS SDK conceptual topics include:

·         How to: Customize RSS for the Content Query Web Part (new)

·         How to: Create a Minimal Master Page (revised)

·         Provisioning Portal Sites (revised)

·         Portal Site Template File (revised)

·         Portal (Portal Site Template) (revised)

·         Webs (Portal Site Template) (revised)

·         Web (Portal Site Template) (revised)

·         How to Create a Web Service Connection by using the Business Data Catalog Definition Editor (new)

·         How to Create a Database Connection by using the Business Data Catalog Definition Editor (new)

Updates to the MOSS SDK Class Library and Web Service Reference include:

·         Microsoft.Office.Workflow.ISoapServerWorkflow

·         Microsoft.Office.Workflow.IWorkflow

·         Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Workflow

·         Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.PolicyFeatures.IBarCodeGenerator

·         Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.InformationPolicy.IPolicyFeatures

·         Workflow Web service

Viewing the SDK Documentation Online

We are currently in synch with our online and offline documentation, but you will always find Community Content on MSDN appended to core Microsoft documentation in the form of Wiki comments.

You can browse the SDK online through the following links:

·         Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK

·         Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK

Keep the feedback coming!

-Randall and the SharePoint SDK team