What is FxCop ?

FxCop is a code analysis tool that checks .NET managed code assemblies for conformance to the Microsoft .NET Framework Design Guidelines. It uses MSIL parsing, and callgraph analysis to inspect assemblies for more than 200 defects in the following areas:

Library design
Globalization
Naming conventions
Performance
Interoperability and portability
Security
Usage

FxCop includes both GUI and command line versions of the tool and supports analyzing .NET 1.x, .NET 2.0 and .NET 3.x components.

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/codeanalysis/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=553

FxCop is intended for class library developers. However, anyone creating applications that should comply with the .NET Framework best practices will benefit. FxCop is also useful as an educational tool for people who are new to the .NET Framework or who are unfamiliar with the .NET Framework Design Guidelines.

FxCop is designed to be fully integrated into the software development cycle and is distributed as both a fully featured application that has a graphical user interface (FxCop.exe) for interactive work, and a command-line tool (FxCopCmd.exe) suited for use as part of automated build processes or integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET as an external tool.

Download fxCop

What is CAT.NET ?

CAT.NET is command line tool that helps you identify security flaws within a managed code (C#, Visual Basic .NET, J#) application you are developing. It does so by scanning the binary and/or assembly of the application, and tracing the data flow among its statements, methods, and assemblies. This includes indirect data types such as property assignments and instance tainting operations. The engine works by reading the target assembly and all reference assemblies used in the application — module-by-module — and then analyzing all of the methods contained within each. It finally displays the issues its finds in a list that you can use to jump directly to the places in your application’s source code where those issues were found. The following rules are currently support by this version of the tool. – Cross Site Scripting – SQL Injection – Process Command Injection – File Canonicalization – Exception Information – LDAP Injection – XPATH Injection – Redirection to User Controlled Site.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=e0052bba-2d50-4214-b65b-37e5ef44f146&displaylang=en

What is .NET RIA Services?

Microsoft .NET RIA Services simplifies the traditional n-tier application pattern by bringing together the ASP.NET and Silverlight platforms. The RIA Services provides a pattern to write application logic that runs on the mid-tier and controls access to data for queries, changes and custom operations. It also provides end-to-end support for common tasks such as data validation, authentication and roles by integrating with Silverlight components on the client and ASP.NET on the mid-tier.

What is STSADM ?

STSADM is the command-line tool provided with SharePoint.This command-line tool allows you to interact with the SharePoint object model to complete common administrative tasks.Several STSADM commands are available via the command line but not in the Central Admin user interface.STSADM is beneficial to system administrators who want to create scripts to efficiently manage common tasks.STSADM is also extendible, allowing the creating of custom commands.

What is NHibernate ?

NHibernate is an Object-relational mapping (ORM) solution for the Microsoft .NET platform: it provides a framework for mapping an object-oriented domain model to a traditional relational database. Its purpose is to relieve the developer from a significant portion of relational data persistence-related programming tasks. 

NHibernate 3.0 will be the first version to use .Net 3.5.

NHibernate’s primary feature is mapping from .NET classes to database tables (and from CLR data types to SQL data types). NHibernate also provides data query and retrieval facilities. NHibernate generates the SQL commands and relieves the developer from manual data set handling and object conversion, keeping the application portable to most SQL databases, with database portability delivered at very little performance overhead.

What is Forefront Security ?

Microsoft Forefront™ Security for SharePoint (FSSP) is the solution for the SharePoint virus problem.

Forefront for SharePoint is designed to protect servers running Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2007 or Microsoft Windows® SharePoint Services 2007. Both versions run on either the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the SharePoint server and have identical functionality.

The configuration data for the Forefront for SharePoint Realtime Scan is stored in the SharePoint Portal Server or Windows SharePoint Services configuration database, and not in a separate Forefront for SharePoint database. This means that you can access the configuration data from either the Microsoft Forefront Server Security Administrator or from the SharePoint Administrator.

Forefront for SharePoint also supports the Microsoft Forefront Server Security Management Console (FSSMC). The FSSMC provides administrators with central installation and reporting functionality.

What is MySites ?

A My Site is a Windows SharePoint Services site collection that provides a centralized location for each user to store and share his or her information—such as photos and documents—with other users, set user alerts, and connect with and track other colleagues throughout the organization. My Sites are created when a user clicks on the My Site link on the main page of an SharePoint Server 2007 site.

Users will feel more in control with the new privacy controls introduced in SharePoint Server 2007 My Sites and will be able to more granularly target their personal information. Custom roll-up Web Parts enable users to easily review their sites and documents,and link directly to that content. The ability to easily connect with other colleagues throughout the organization using specialized My Site colleague Web Parts allows knowledge to be more readily exchanged, enabling users to connect to colleagues with similar interests.

Its like companies’ internal Facebook network, also MySites are only available to MOSS only

What is User Profile ?

A personal profile about each user includes properties such as a user’s title, e-mail, distri-bution list membership, and contact details. It is typically imported by SharePoint from a directory such as Active Directory, but it can also be manually created directly inside SharePoint. User profiles can be customized in SharePoint to include additional details, such as birthday and interests. Personal profile are used throughout SharePoint Server 2007 to disseminate or target information to users, help users locate colleagues with sim-ilar interests, and return search results on people.

Its available for MOSS only.

SharePoint Lists vs. SQL table

First there are some obvious similarities. Both structures:

·         Let you define a structured repository for your data.

·         Can be queried to retrieve all or part of the data based on specified criteria.

 

But the differences are overwhelming:

·         SharePoint Server automatically generates a powerful UI for SharePoint lists, both on the list administrator side and on the end user side. A dedicated UI would have to be created from scratch for SQL tables. Compelling example is the ability for end users to upload files to SharePoint document libraries. The web pages to provide the upload functionality are generated transparently.

·         Given the right permissions, business users can create and manage SharePoint lists relevant to their day-to-day work. Do not expect the same business users to create and manage SQL tables – they would not even have the tools to do it. This has a significant impact on IT workload as more tasks can be delegated to end users.

·         Complex workflows can be attached to data in SharePoint lists, to be triggered manually or whenever data is added or changed. Recreating the same functionality for SQL data would be a complex task involving IT.

·         By using SharePoint list views, business users can customize the presentation of data to fit their precise needs. In particular, they can filter, sort or group data in ways that make sense to them, without requiring IT intervention.

·         Content types can be specified to restrict what type of content can be included in a specific SharePoint list. This provides tremendous flexibility, while enforcing a comprehensive taxonomy.

·         SharePoint lists can hold records as well as documents, images, InfoPath forms as well as other files. This provides a very generic way to store content assets.

·         Document management features like versioning, check-in/check-out, folders or content expiration can be enabled on any SharePoint list in a single click.

 

Performance : SharePoint lists being generic has some performance limitation. Lists with more than 2000 items do not perform very good where-as SQL tables fly with large data.

 

Note:  Both SharePoint list and SQL table data can be made available in the search results of SharePoint Server. For list items, this inclusion is automatic. Records from SQL tables would be integrated by using the Business Data Catalog feature of MOSS 2007.

What is SSO ?

SSO stands for Single Sign On. Normally when we are implementing authentication in ASP.NET web application, you have to create a login page for each of your applications. Imagine that you have two or more web application which are related together. So you may want to use a mechanism which allows you to create just one login page for all your related applications. In this way, once you have logged in you can browse other application without any extra login required. Single sign-on (SSO) is a method of access control that enables a user to authenticate once and gain access to the resources of multiple software systems.

SSO allow you to accomplish the goal of Cross Application login. In other words, we just want to have one login page for whole web site, and once the users have been authenticated they can browse to other web sites, without the need to re-login.