Sahil Malik, SharePoint MVP, fellow author, speaker, and a ton of other things, will be the technical reviewer for “Building the SharePoint User Experience”. I asked him about a week ago and he jumped right on, agreeing within two hours of receiving the first sample chapter.

Sahil has vast experience with both writing and reviewing IT books, being author of no less than 4 books:

• Smart BI Solutions with MS SQL Server 2008 
• Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2005 
• Pro ADO.NET 2.0 
• Pro ADO.NET with VB .NET 1.1 

In addition, Sahil has authored countless technical articles and is considered a Guru, with a capital G, in more than the SharePoint community. Check out his website, at http://blah.winsmarts.com/.

I am exceptionally happy that Sahil has agreed to be the technical reviewer for this book. He will make sure that what I write is not completely off the hook.

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Posted under Updates

To thank the members of the “Building the SharePoint User Experience” mailing list I will publish an exclusive excerpt from the upcoming book. Everyone gets to have their say in which excerpt will be published, and to help make an informed decision, here is a short description of the alternatives.

1. Working with web parts in a site definition (from chapter 4)

This 3-page excerpt explains how you would add web parts to your site definition using the AllUsersWebPart element. In addition you will be shown how you get the actual web part code from an existing web part so that you can pre-configure settings to be included in the site definition web part.

2. A deep dive into Email-enabled lists (from chapter 7)

If you ever wanted to have an email enabled custom list you should understand how email works with lists. Then you would need to write a single line of code. This excerpt will explain and show you how email enabling works.

3. DelegateControls (from chapter 5)

Modifying appearance and behavior of existing pages can be accomplished using DelegateControls. These controls allow you to put new controls and content into a pre-defined area of a page, such as the search box, various links, or, if you have created your own pages, anywhere you put a DelegateControl control. Learn how in this excerpt.

Now, this is important. I will allow anyone to vote, even people who are not members of the list. However, in order to get the actual excerpt you must be on the list. This is because the password to the page on which the excerpt will be published will only be sent to the list.

So, first, vote on what you want to read. Vote in the left menu. Second, subscribe to the mailing list.  You can do that in the menu to your right.

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Posted under Uncategorized

The Book is now available for pre-order from Amazon. At the time of this writing there isn’t that much information on the Amazon site, and I actually just found out they had put it up for pre-order at all.

Anyway, I am a bit disappointed at the price. Here I am, pouring my soul out for the world to see, and the show is only $40 a ticket.

Oh, but they do have that cool book banner ad thingy. Here’s how it looks:

Nice, except they got my name wrong.

So, what are you still hanging around for? Get over there and buy the damn thing! I’m not getting rich by you sitting here!

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Posted under Updates

SharePoint Magazine has just published the second article in my SharePoint User Experience series. The article is loosely based on a chapter from the upcoming book.

I recommend you take a look at the article; you will find some of the information and much of the writing style from the book. If you like the article you will certainly love the book.

“Customizing the default SharePoint user experience”

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Posted under Uncategorized

In the “Other SharePoint books you might want…” I have put several books that I think should be in very developer’s book shelf. I own most of the books, and will be posting reviews of them in my blog as I find time. Some books are highly recommended to me by people I trust, but sadly I do not own them myself.

In any case, if you want to check out my recommendations and perhaps augment your book collection while you are waiting for my book, hop on over to “Other SharePoint books you might want…”

If you have other suggestions for books you thing should be in the shelf, let me know, I might have missed some.

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Posted under Updates

I have been lacking seriously in online activity lately, largely because of the massive amount of work writing the book entails. At times I sit 15 hours a day researching, digging, and writing, all so you will get the best darn SharePoint developer book there is

In any case, I was thinking of petting two dogs with one hand (I hate the ‘killing birds’ proverb’), and since I spend hours with my nose inside other SharePoint books these days I thought I would post some reviews of those books to my blog.

You can check out the first review of Developer’s Guide to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 in my blog.

The next book up for review is Ted Pattison and Daniel Larson’s Inside Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Should be posted within a week, so sign up for my feed to get a notification when the review is posted.

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Posted under Uncategorized

The winner of the launch competition has been decided. I just thought I would share a few notes first. Since the competition was only launched on the list, web readers do not know the details.

The competition was simply to tell me what would make you buy the book. I wanted to discover what potential readers wanted, so I asked. Most readers sent their suggestions early on, and quite a few statements were fairly on cue with what I am trying to do.

I would like to thank everyone who participated, it is extremely important to me to write a book that people will enjoy.

One late entry caught my attention for being spot on what I envision. The winner, residing in Kansas, USA, said:

‘I would buy your book because you have a way with words that makes learning the SharePoint in’s and out’s fun and not so intimidating as some other authors. Thank you for this!’

That statement really touched me because it is a summary of what I try to accomplish in the book as well as in my online writing.

I would also like to mention one other entry, just because of the text the person wanted for their book:

‘I hereby sign over all my earthly possessions to XXXXX. Bjørn Furuknap’

Congratulations, The Book will be inscribed, signed, and delivered as soon as it hits the shelves.

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Posted under Competition

Great, the competition is underway, and there are even a few entries already. The rules are really simple and require no prior knowledge of SharePoint, me, or anything, really.

What are the rules? If you are on the mailing list you will know. And if you are not, GET YOUR BEHIND MOVING and sign up, because the final chance to win expires on Monday October 20th.

Sign up to the Building the SharePoint User Experience mailing list here.

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Posted under Competition

A little while back I announced that I wanted to hear from you what you would like to have as the prize for the first launch competition on understandingsharepoint.com/userexperience.

The vote was run until today, Monday, October 12, and to my pleasant surprise, half of those voting wanted my book as the prize.

So, I will post the competition to the mailing list tonight and the lucky winner will be among the first to get my book, and have it signed by me with an inscription of choice.

Details on the competition will be announced later, but ONLY PEOPLE ON THE LIST will be eligible for participation. I will reveal, however, that the competition will be related to this web site and will not require special SharePoint knowledge.

If you are not on the list you can sign up to the Building the SharePoint User Experience mailing list here.

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Posted under Competition

Ok, so after some initial troubles getting used to all the technical aspects of writing a book, I have now completed the first chapter in the book. The chapter is actually Chapter 4, so I’m not starting with the beginning, and I’ll be sure to explain why in a later post.

In any case, I got some feedback from my editor. And no, I will still not disclose who the publisher is, so the editor will remain anonymous for now. Here’s what editor said:

“The text is highly readable, and is “laugh out loud funny” (arguably), which is extremely rare for a tech book. Certainly, people will wade through the dsicussions with much more interest, and you have done an excellent job of balancing tech with humor.”

That’s right out of his mail to me. Seems that at least he enjoys the rather unique approach to getting content across.

Oh, and this information was posted to the mailinglist last night. You would have heard it sooner if you had signed up.

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