SharePoint Conference 2009 Take-Aways

Hive, Hive, Hive, <slap>, ... ok fine. 14 Root

For quite a while now, SharePoint developers have been referring to the 12 directory located on WebFronts as the "12 hive". Well, Microsoft no likey. It's now, at least by some, referred to as the "14 root".

RIP WSS, MOSS

In a great move, "Windows" and "Office" have both been removed from the nomenclature of SharePoint. To me, it made little sense to have this product straddling the line between these two brands, and with SharePoint 2010, there is enough backing behind it to have it stand on its own. Now referred to as SharePoint Foundation, the replacement for Windows SharePoint Services can still be installed as a free product. As your use of SharePoint expands, it can be upgraded to keep up and eventually become SharePoint Server (the successor to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server).

Client Object Model and REST

This is, by far, one of the things I am most excited about. Supporting WinForms/WPF, Silverlight, and JavaScript, this is going to be huge.

A Customizable Ribbon

The ribbon is beautiful and hugely customizable. Everyone that writes applications on SharePoint should use it, extend it, and embrace it. Unfortunately, one of SharePoint's best hand-holding features will make relying on it nearly impossible. SP2010, by default, installs in SP2007 UI mode... no ribbon. This is the right thing to do, but it certainly makes using the ribbon that much harder.

Solution Upgrade Path?

Yes, finally. It's finally there. Finally.

LARGE LIST THROTTLING

If you have a SharePoint solution that accesses list items in SharePoint 2007, I GUARANTEE it will NOT work in SP2010 unless you address this key change. In most development situations, it will not be immediately apparent either. Large lists are now supported in VS2010, but they are heavily throttled. Non-administrative users have limits defaulted at 5,000 items per request while admins can view up to 20,000. While CAML queries allow you to request specific limits, it is still likely that those requests will fail under these circumstances because SharePoint doesn't know for certain that it will be able to avoid looking at all items in the list anyway.

Expect more to come with a few in depth posts on the Client Object Model, REST, the Solution upgrade path, and Large List Throttling.