A really cool web part which makes it possible to create a Wikipedia-like application in SharePoint Portal Server or Windows SharePoint Services is made by Mart Muller. It is still in beta but very very promising. :)

http://blogs.tamtam.nl/mart/TamTamWikiSharePointBeta1ForWSSAndSPS.aspx

Packaging and deploying a web part is not that easy but it looks nice and cool when you send your customer a MSI (Microsoft Self Installer) file. This article describes in a few steps what you have to do to create a MSI file. For more information i refer to the link at the bottom of this post which explains more in detail...

This is a very simple example how to transform a Webform.aspx file to a wizard. It contains two buttons and works even when the back and next button of the browser are used...

If you want to use functionality like SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context).Lists and your trust level is set to WSS_Minimum the code will throw an System.Security.Exception telling you that:

Request for the permission of type Microsoft.SharePoint.Security.SharePointPermission, Microsoft.SharePoint.Security, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c failed

This means that the code is partial trusted. Normally if you install your assembly in the GAC it runs with "Full" trust. Microsoft recommends that you install your web part assemblies in the BIN directory for a more secure deployment. Therefor the code becomes partial trusted and some functionality is prohibited by the CAS (Code Access Security) and the trust level set in the web.config...

Sometimes you decide to move a created Web Part to another namespace in another assembly. Whenever you do that the Web Part from the first assembly will still show up in the "Virtual Server Gallery" even if it is not present anymore in that assembly.

Solution
Go to the folder "wpcatalog" under your SharePoint web folder and there you will find a list with all dwp files from the "Virtual Server Gallery". Remove the old dwp file and refresh your browser. The Web Part will not show up anymore.

Thanks to my colleague Mart Muller for this simple solution :)

Todd Bleeker wrote an article in SharePoint Advisor Magazine about "Secure SharePoint Code Using Credential-less impersonation". He Describes a very cool method using the App Pool identity to complete tasks where the authenticated user doesn't have permissions for...

Patrick Tisseghem wrote a nice article about handling postbacks in web parts. This is always a problem in SharePoint. By checking the IsPostBack in the Page_Load member will often result in inapproproiate behavior...

On the blog of Mart Muller we can read that Microsoft announced a new office product for manage and use scorecards and key performance indicators (KPI's), and perform deep analysis all within an intuitive, collaberative environment.

http://blogs.tamtam.nl/mart/MicrosoftOfficeMaestroNew
ServerbasedBusinessPerformanceManagementScorecardApplication.aspx

For more information see the article:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/office/factsheets/05-10MaestroFS.asp

I hope that this also will mean that the underlaying engine for development has gone through some changes. I have worked a lot with this engine and their are still some nasty issues there.

Lets hope and see :)

When you use properties you only have a few possibilities. Checkboxes are used for booleans, Text fields are used for doubles, int, strings, etc and a dropdownlist is used for enumerations.

So why not create your own ToolPart with default and/or your own controls? It is even not that difficult. :)

I'm working on a BirthdayWebPart which needs some functionality to select through a dropdown box the contact list. But only enumerations are shown using a dropdown list. So we have to write our own ToolPart...

I found a great article on SharePoint Thoughts posted by pBoy about adding a custom ASP.NET application into a site template. It describes in a few steps how to do this. Some knowlegde is needed because you will be modifying the ONET.XML. Follow the link below for the whole article:

http://www.bluedoglimited.com/SharePointThoughts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=167