Mart Muller's Weblog

After my last post I got some positive comments on the LinkedIn custom field type I wrote. One of the issues with LinkedIn is the way they expose their data for mashups. The only thing you can use directly is the script widget for embedding company information (see previous post).

This weekend, I expanded the custom field types with a LinkedIn userprofile page:

Which generates a LinkedIn icon with a link to the profile of the user:

and

I got a tip from my old colleague Jasper about someone who built an application that grabs the LinkedIn information from profile pages. Dirty way, but it works for now and it gives a nice XML file with all the profile data.

A nice opportunity to build some more functionality: a LinkedIn Webpart!

Now it only shows some user data, but it can easily be extended with blog postings, job history, groups etc, etc.

Like I promised, I will post the WSP later on :)

Ah unit testing.. every developer says it should be done, but it hardly ever happens, well, in SharePoint development.. :)

Andrew Woodward published an article about basic unit testing in SharePoint. A good starting point for a higher quality solution.

Some other interesting related articles about unit testing and SharePoint:

• http://www.pseale.com/blog/SharePointNotUnitTesting.aspx
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_testing
• http://blogs.msdn.com/francischeung/archive/2008/08/22/unit-testing-sharepoint-2007-applications.aspx
• http://blog.chapmanconsulting.ca/2006/02/14/Creating+An+N...

Just like two years ago, Tam Tam has again released the (almost) famous European Championship Soccer web parts!

This release, for both SharePoint 2003 and 2007, is again free of charge! Of course, you have to register to create your pool and keep track of the results and scores.

The game consists of two web parts which are easy to install and to configure. The web parts collect the match and result information from a web service hosted by Tam Tam. A short overview of the game:

• Two web parts which are easy to install and to configure.
• Overview of the next 10 matches.
• Overview of all the Euro 2008 matches.
• A leader board of all users. A top 15 of users with the highest points and of course the points of the current user.
• Watch the details of a participating country with all the matches.
• The web parts can be displayed in English and Dutch (and other languages).
• The end results of matches are hosted and administered by Tam Tam. You do not have to do anything to update scores.

Check out the download site (also available in English).

After some warming comments on my blog posting last Friday, I've asked Peter to put the Virtual Earth web parts on CodePlex and share them with the community!

Enjoy!

Yet again a 'cool wall' nomination! My colleague Peter came with a nice solution to demonstrate Virtual Earth integration with SharePoint lists.

When searching an address with the control web part, the map web part will zoom into the address location, surrounded with other locations (pins) that are stored in a SharePoint list.

The address location coordinates are automatically filled in the list when entering a new location address in the list using an event handler.

It is also possible to use satellite views in the web parts. With a few modifications, it would also be possible to integrate Google earth.

Nice work!

UPDATE: After some warming comments, I've asked Peter to put the Virtual Earth web parts on CodePlex and share them with the community!