Creating browser enabled InfoPath forms for SharePoint library

In this article I will explain how can we create and publish browser enabled InfoPath form in SharePoint site. 

Steps Involve

1. Step 1: Design info path form

2. Step 2: Publish InfoPath form

3. Step 3: Open form in SharePoint 

Step 1 (Design Info Path Form)

• Open InfoPath 2007 Start>>Programs>>Microsoft Office>>InfoPath 2007.
   
• Click On File menu and choose Design a Form Template
  
  
   
• In the design template window click on Form Template radio button and select blank. Click on "Enable browser-compatible futures only " to create browser based form 
  
  
   
• Now Design the form using design task window which will be appear in the right side.
  
  
   
• Click Layout link to design layout of the form.
  
  
   
• After design click on Controls on Design Task pane to add control in your form.
  
  
   
• Go to Tools menu and select Data Connections
  
  
   
• In data connection window click on Add button to create new data connection.
  
  
   
• Now Data Connection Wizard will be open to create data connection. Click on Create New Connection radio button and choose Submit Data, click on Next
  
  
   
• Select destination where you want to submit data(In this article I will submit data in share point document library). Select destination "To a document library on a SharePoint site" and click on next button.
  
  
   
• Specify the URL of SharePoint document library and file name. Click on next button 
  
  
  

Steps for Creating dynamic file name:

1. Write "CustInfo" in File name text box and Click on "fx" button.
2. A popup will be open to insert formula.
   
   
    
3. Click on "Insert Function" button and select Categories Text and function concat and click on Ok button .
   
   
    
4. Delete first text from concat function and Double Click on next "double click to insert field" text and select CustName Field. Delete next text also. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Click on "OK" button.
   
   
   

Dynamic form name created now click on next button.

• Specify the name of submit data connection. And click on Finish button.
  
  
   
• Now new submit data connection will be created. Click on Close button to close wizard.
  
  
   
• Now go to Form Options Tools>>Form Options. Uncheck show toolbar check boxes.
  
  
   
• Click on Ok button to save your changes.
   
• Right click on button control (which you have added in your form) and select button properties.
  
  
   
• Select Submit from the "Action" dropdown and Change the label of button and click on "Submit Option" button. Click on "Submit Option" button.
  
  
   
• From submit options popup, Click on "Allow users to submit this form " check box, select "Perform custom action using Rules" and click on "Rules" button.
  
  
   
• From rules popup click on "Add" button for adding rules.
  
  
   
• From rule window click on "Set Condition" button to add validation. 
  
  
   
• From condition window select custName and "is Not blank" from the dropdown list and click on "Ok" button. 
  
  
   
• Now click on "Add Action" button to define rule.
  
  
   
• From Add Action window select "Submit using a data connection" from Action dropdown and select name of submit data connection. Now click on "Ok" button.

Step 2 (Publishing Info Path Form)

• From the design task pane click on "Publish Form Template". From publishing wizard select ffirst option to publish form in share point and click on next button. 
  
  
   
• Enter the URL of SharePoint site and click on next button.
  
  
   
• From the next window select "Document Library" and click on next button. 
  
  
   
• From next window select "Create a new document library" option and click on next button.
  
  
   
• Enter the name and description for new Form Library and click on next button.
  
  
   
• Click on "Add" button to add column in library. 
  
  
   
• Select field and enter the column name in "Column name" text box and click on "Ok" to create column. (Do the same step to create columns for Age and Address)
  
  
  
  
  

Click on Next button.

• Click on Publish button to publish form.
  
  
   
• Now form is published on SharePoint library.
  
  
  

Step 3 (Open InfoPath form in SharePoint)

• Go to SharePoint site, open "CustDetail" library, click on Settings and select "Form Library Settings".
  
  
   
• Select "Advanced settings" from general settings group.
  
  
  
   
• From Advance Settings window select "Display as a web page" option from the "Browser Enabled Documents" section and click on Ok butom.
  
  
   
• Now go back to your document library click on "New" menu and select "New Document" to open InfoPath form.
  
  
  
   
• Now InfoPath form will be open in the browser. Fill data and click on Save Data button to submit data in library. 
  
  
   
• Go back to "CustDetail" to view your data. 
  
  

Source:http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/vivekbritish/4630/Default.aspx 

Creating browser enabled InfoPath forms for SharePoint library

In this article I will explain how can we create and publish browser enabled InfoPath form in SharePoint site. 

Steps Involve

1. Step 1: Design info path form

2. Step 2: Publish InfoPath form

3. Step 3: Open form in SharePoint 

Step 1 (Design Info Path Form)

• Open InfoPath 2007 Start>>Programs>>Microsoft Office>>InfoPath 2007.
   
• Click On File menu and choose Design a Form Template
  
  
   
• In the design template window click on Form Template radio button and select blank. Click on "Enable browser-compatible futures only " to create browser based form 
  
  
   
• Now Design the form using design task window which will be appear in the right side.
  
  
   
• Click Layout link to design layout of the form.
  
  
   
• After design click on Controls on Design Task pane to add control in your form.
  
  
   
• Go to Tools menu and select Data Connections
  
  
   
• In data connection window click on Add button to create new data connection.
  
  
   
• Now Data Connection Wizard will be open to create data connection. Click on Create New Connection radio button and choose Submit Data, click on Next
  
  
   
• Select destination where you want to submit data(In this article I will submit data in share point document library). Select destination "To a document library on a SharePoint site" and click on next button.
  
  
   
• Specify the URL of SharePoint document library and file name. Click on next button 
  
  
  

Steps for Creating dynamic file name:

1. Write "CustInfo" in File name text box and Click on "fx" button.
2. A popup will be open to insert formula.
   
   
    
3. Click on "Insert Function" button and select Categories Text and function concat and click on Ok button .
   
   
    
4. Delete first text from concat function and Double Click on next "double click to insert field" text and select CustName Field. Delete next text also. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Click on "OK" button.
   
   
   

Dynamic form name created now click on next button.

• Specify the name of submit data connection. And click on Finish button.
  
  
   
• Now new submit data connection will be created. Click on Close button to close wizard.
  
  
   
• Now go to Form Options Tools>>Form Options. Uncheck show toolbar check boxes.
  
  
   
• Click on Ok button to save your changes.
   
• Right click on button control (which you have added in your form) and select button properties.
  
  
   
• Select Submit from the "Action" dropdown and Change the label of button and click on "Submit Option" button. Click on "Submit Option" button.
  
  
   
• From submit options popup, Click on "Allow users to submit this form " check box, select "Perform custom action using Rules" and click on "Rules" button.
  
  
   
• From rules popup click on "Add" button for adding rules.
  
  
   
• From rule window click on "Set Condition" button to add validation. 
  
  
   
• From condition window select custName and "is Not blank" from the dropdown list and click on "Ok" button. 
  
  
   
• Now click on "Add Action" button to define rule.
  
  
   
• From Add Action window select "Submit using a data connection" from Action dropdown and select name of submit data connection. Now click on "Ok" button.

Step 2 (Publishing Info Path Form)

• From the design task pane click on "Publish Form Template". From publishing wizard select ffirst option to publish form in share point and click on next button. 
  
  
   
• Enter the URL of SharePoint site and click on next button.
  
  
   
• From the next window select "Document Library" and click on next button. 
  
  
   
• From next window select "Create a new document library" option and click on next button.
  
  
   
• Enter the name and description for new Form Library and click on next button.
  
  
   
• Click on "Add" button to add column in library. 
  
  
   
• Select field and enter the column name in "Column name" text box and click on "Ok" to create column. (Do the same step to create columns for Age and Address)
  
  
  
  
  

Click on Next button.

• Click on Publish button to publish form.
  
  
   
• Now form is published on SharePoint library.
  
  
  

Step 3 (Open InfoPath form in SharePoint)

• Go to SharePoint site, open "CustDetail" library, click on Settings and select "Form Library Settings".
  
  
   
• Select "Advanced settings" from general settings group.
  
  
  
   
• From Advance Settings window select "Display as a web page" option from the "Browser Enabled Documents" section and click on Ok butom.
  
  
   
• Now go back to your document library click on "New" menu and select "New Document" to open InfoPath form.
  
  
  
   
• Now InfoPath form will be open in the browser. Fill data and click on Save Data button to submit data in library. 
  
  
   
• Go back to "CustDetail" to view your data. 
  
  

Source:http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/vivekbritish/4630/Default.aspx 

Microsoft InfoPath 2010 With Custom SharePoint Integration

f you have a business which has an online presence or which you foresee to have an online presence in the recent future, learning about InfoPath might be of help while you design your collaborative web-platform. Building just portals is now passé which now seems like someone standing at a place and blowing the trumpet. It is more about information sharing and collaboration now. SharePoint 2010 is the answer to creation of such an enterprise 2.0. InfoPath empowers SharePoint usage experience.
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 is the defacto standard for choosing a forms designer. But the average SharePoint developer mostly reaches out to ASP.NET when he needs to create a form for SharePoint. It is surprising to note that at all those places you can employ InfoPath to even quicker form creation for enterprise management functions. Now, to take advantage of the same, clients normally want to embed InfoPath forms into a SharePoint 2007 site. There are 2 options for doing this – One, you could just create a forms library and link to the appropriate InfoPath forms. Two, you could try embedding the InfoPath 2007 form right inside SharePoint 2007. This can be done using web parts or can also be done programmatically. 
With InfoPath 2010, SharePoint’s list forms can be now fully customized. You can change the look of the form, switch from single column to multi-column layouts, break the unified form into sections, validate the user-information entered, pre-populate fields, and cause certain sections of the form to show and hide automatically. After customizing the form, publishing the form back to the SharePoint site would replace the default form.
Microsoft InfoPath was released as a part of Microsoft Office 2007 to develop XML-based data entry forms. The ability to write, edit and view XML documents with one to many links among different schema was developed by InfoPath 2007. Towards the later part of 2009, Microsoft released a beta version of InfoPath which was split into two separate functionalities – InfoPath Designer and InfoPath Filler. We would focus on InfoPath 2010, on the whole, in this document.

Benefits of InfoPath 2010

• Enables Quick and Efficient Form creation.
• Helps create sophisticated and rich forms without writing code in InfoPath with just one click.
• Gives participants the ability to fill out forms online or offline.
• Helps in building modular, scalable, and portable SharePoint apps. The InfoPath Form webpart is now available too which can be used to create mashups without any coding.
• Enables embedding of the forms in SharePoint Webparts.
• Helps in connecting forms with line-of-business information and other Web Services.
• Helps in more easily managing forms on the server.
We at Mindfire Solutions have been working with SharePoint 2007 and InfoPath 2007 integration since couple of years now. After the launch of SP2010 and InfoPath 2010, we also have executed projects for global customers which needed InfoPath integration services. Using web part connections and other tricks, we can eliminate the need for massive coding which might be needed for custom form creation as well as the integration.

InfoPath is a versatile data-collection tool designed to make the creation of forms within SharePoint extremely easy, efficient, and connected to out-of-the-box or custom workflows. And yet, for IT pros and even SharePoint developers, InfoPath remains a mysterious application. Because SharePoint adoption is steadily increasing, we would like to take the opportunity to assist you more in your custom SharePoint Development needs.

Source:http://office-2010-infopath.blogspot.com/2010/12/microsoft-infopath-2010-with-custom.html 

Microsoft InfoPath 2010 With Custom SharePoint Integration

f you have a business which has an online presence or which you foresee to have an online presence in the recent future, learning about InfoPath might be of help while you design your collaborative web-platform. Building just portals is now passé which now seems like someone standing at a place and blowing the trumpet. It is more about information sharing and collaboration now. SharePoint 2010 is the answer to creation of such an enterprise 2.0. InfoPath empowers SharePoint usage experience.
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 is the defacto standard for choosing a forms designer. But the average SharePoint developer mostly reaches out to ASP.NET when he needs to create a form for SharePoint. It is surprising to note that at all those places you can employ InfoPath to even quicker form creation for enterprise management functions. Now, to take advantage of the same, clients normally want to embed InfoPath forms into a SharePoint 2007 site. There are 2 options for doing this – One, you could just create a forms library and link to the appropriate InfoPath forms. Two, you could try embedding the InfoPath 2007 form right inside SharePoint 2007. This can be done using web parts or can also be done programmatically. 
With InfoPath 2010, SharePoint’s list forms can be now fully customized. You can change the look of the form, switch from single column to multi-column layouts, break the unified form into sections, validate the user-information entered, pre-populate fields, and cause certain sections of the form to show and hide automatically. After customizing the form, publishing the form back to the SharePoint site would replace the default form.
Microsoft InfoPath was released as a part of Microsoft Office 2007 to develop XML-based data entry forms. The ability to write, edit and view XML documents with one to many links among different schema was developed by InfoPath 2007. Towards the later part of 2009, Microsoft released a beta version of InfoPath which was split into two separate functionalities – InfoPath Designer and InfoPath Filler. We would focus on InfoPath 2010, on the whole, in this document.

Benefits of InfoPath 2010

• Enables Quick and Efficient Form creation.
• Helps create sophisticated and rich forms without writing code in InfoPath with just one click.
• Gives participants the ability to fill out forms online or offline.
• Helps in building modular, scalable, and portable SharePoint apps. The InfoPath Form webpart is now available too which can be used to create mashups without any coding.
• Enables embedding of the forms in SharePoint Webparts.
• Helps in connecting forms with line-of-business information and other Web Services.
• Helps in more easily managing forms on the server.
We at Mindfire Solutions have been working with SharePoint 2007 and InfoPath 2007 integration since couple of years now. After the launch of SP2010 and InfoPath 2010, we also have executed projects for global customers which needed InfoPath integration services. Using web part connections and other tricks, we can eliminate the need for massive coding which might be needed for custom form creation as well as the integration.

InfoPath is a versatile data-collection tool designed to make the creation of forms within SharePoint extremely easy, efficient, and connected to out-of-the-box or custom workflows. And yet, for IT pros and even SharePoint developers, InfoPath remains a mysterious application. Because SharePoint adoption is steadily increasing, we would like to take the opportunity to assist you more in your custom SharePoint Development needs.

Source:http://office-2010-infopath.blogspot.com/2010/12/microsoft-infopath-2010-with-custom.html 

Restoring Two-Way Synchronization on SharePoint Lists Using Excel

Introduction

In Microsoft Office Excel 2003, you can connect to (read from) and update (write to) lists that reside on SharePoint sites. This allows you to keep the information in your Excel 2003 tables synchronized with the information that appears on the SharePoint site.

In Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and Microsoft Office Excel 2010, the ability to update the information in SharePoint lists from Excel is deprecated. Instead, Microsoft Office Access is the recommended platform for writing data to SharePoint lists and for using lists offline.

However, the SharePoint List Synchronizer for Excel 2007 and 2010, presented here, addresses this issue and allows Excel users to open SharePoint Lists in two-way sync.

Overview

In Office Excel 2007 and 2010, the ability to update SharePoint lists changed in the following ways:

• Opening a list from SharePoint with Excel 2007 or 2010 disables the "Synchronize with SharePoint" feature.
• Existing .XLS files from Office Excel 2003 still load and continue to support update functionality when opened in Excel 2007 or 2010. 
• Lists that link to a SharePoint site are converted to read-only tables when you save existing files to the new Open XML Excel 2007 or 2010 file formats. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft published an add-in which allows users to publish new read-write lists in SharePoint (Excel 2007 Add-in: Synchronizing Tables with SharePoint Lists). While this add-in works great to publish new Excel tables to SharePoint, it doesn’t address the issue of lists exported from SharePoint. For example, every time you export your SharePoint list to Excel 2007 and 2010; all changes applied in Excel cannot be synchronized back with the original list anymore, instead you need to apply those changes manually or use Microsoft Office Access. The "Synchronize with SharePoint" menu has disappeared:

Well, thanks to the SharePoint List Synchronizer for Excel 2007 and 2010, this scenario is now possible in Excel again: you can export your list to Excel 2007 and 2010, and synchronize back to SharePoint without any extra-effort!

Example

• With the tool installed, go to your favorite SharePoint site and go to a SharePoint List.

• Click on "Export to Excel".

• Click on "Open", and Excel will open the list however this time with the "Synchronize with SharePoint"option activated!

Note: In order to retain the functionality for this table across saves, you need to save the workbook in the Excel 2003 .XLS file format.

Basic Authentication over Non-SSL HTTP Connections

By default, Microsoft Excel 2010 doesn’t prompt for user name and password when accessing basic authentication over non-SSL (HTTP instead of HTTPS) protected sites.

Therefore, when trying to access a list on one of those access protected sites results in the "You do not have adequate permissions to modify this list. Changes to your data cannot be saved."Error as shown in the screenshot below:

The SharePoint List Synchronizer for Excel supports such scenario thanks to its "Basic authentication over non-SSL connections"feature.

By activating this feature through our tool, Excel will now prompt users for their credentials and pass them to the site. This way, Excel 2010 users will be able to open SharePoint Lists from access protected sites in two-way sync over again.

Source:http://www.codeproject.com/KB/solution-center/two-way-sync.aspx 

Restoring Two-Way Synchronization on SharePoint Lists Using Excel

Introduction

In Microsoft Office Excel 2003, you can connect to (read from) and update (write to) lists that reside on SharePoint sites. This allows you to keep the information in your Excel 2003 tables synchronized with the information that appears on the SharePoint site.

In Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and Microsoft Office Excel 2010, the ability to update the information in SharePoint lists from Excel is deprecated. Instead, Microsoft Office Access is the recommended platform for writing data to SharePoint lists and for using lists offline.

However, the SharePoint List Synchronizer for Excel 2007 and 2010, presented here, addresses this issue and allows Excel users to open SharePoint Lists in two-way sync.

Overview

In Office Excel 2007 and 2010, the ability to update SharePoint lists changed in the following ways:

• Opening a list from SharePoint with Excel 2007 or 2010 disables the "Synchronize with SharePoint" feature.
• Existing .XLS files from Office Excel 2003 still load and continue to support update functionality when opened in Excel 2007 or 2010. 
• Lists that link to a SharePoint site are converted to read-only tables when you save existing files to the new Open XML Excel 2007 or 2010 file formats. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft published an add-in which allows users to publish new read-write lists in SharePoint (Excel 2007 Add-in: Synchronizing Tables with SharePoint Lists). While this add-in works great to publish new Excel tables to SharePoint, it doesn’t address the issue of lists exported from SharePoint. For example, every time you export your SharePoint list to Excel 2007 and 2010; all changes applied in Excel cannot be synchronized back with the original list anymore, instead you need to apply those changes manually or use Microsoft Office Access. The "Synchronize with SharePoint" menu has disappeared:

Well, thanks to the SharePoint List Synchronizer for Excel 2007 and 2010, this scenario is now possible in Excel again: you can export your list to Excel 2007 and 2010, and synchronize back to SharePoint without any extra-effort!

Example

• With the tool installed, go to your favorite SharePoint site and go to a SharePoint List.

• Click on "Export to Excel".

• Click on "Open", and Excel will open the list however this time with the "Synchronize with SharePoint"option activated!

Note: In order to retain the functionality for this table across saves, you need to save the workbook in the Excel 2003 .XLS file format.

Basic Authentication over Non-SSL HTTP Connections

By default, Microsoft Excel 2010 doesn’t prompt for user name and password when accessing basic authentication over non-SSL (HTTP instead of HTTPS) protected sites.

Therefore, when trying to access a list on one of those access protected sites results in the "You do not have adequate permissions to modify this list. Changes to your data cannot be saved."Error as shown in the screenshot below:

The SharePoint List Synchronizer for Excel supports such scenario thanks to its "Basic authentication over non-SSL connections"feature.

By activating this feature through our tool, Excel will now prompt users for their credentials and pass them to the site. This way, Excel 2010 users will be able to open SharePoint Lists from access protected sites in two-way sync over again.

Source:http://www.codeproject.com/KB/solution-center/two-way-sync.aspx 

Check out the LINQ feature of SharePoint 2010!

Definitely, LINQ within SharePoint Server 2010 is the acronym of Language Integrated Query, and precisely what LINQ really does is put in a native querying syntax reminiscent of SQL with .NET Framework coding languages.

LINQ to SharePoint is available in a number of types. Next to a normal installation software (MSI-package) the project’s resource program code is as well available for download. The actual cause of producing the code available is to benefit others in employing custom made LINQ query providers. In order to use LINQ to SharePoint, you require the .NET Framework 3.5. If you want to benefit from the Visual Studio 2008 integration, you should have Visual Studio 2008 Professional or higher. (see http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7175502 to download Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2)

The installer and source for the latest release can both be found in the “Releases”-tab on http://www.codeplex.com/LINQtoSharePoint. The latest sources can be found via the “Source Code”-tab on the same web site.

To run the LINQ to SharePoint libraries, operate the installer and this may routinely set up the libraries and set up Visual Studio 2008. To make use of the library just put a new LINQ to SharePoint file. This can be done by right-clicking the project, Include, Brand-new Item, picking the LINQ to SharePoint record as well as clicking on Create. This will likely instantly add a mention of the the library to your job.

Features of LINQ to SharePoint include the following:

o Custom query provider that transposes LINQ queries to CAML, the Collaborative Application Markup Language utilized by SharePoint for querying

Assistance for LINQ in C# 3.0 and Visual Basic 9.0.

o Entity development instrument SpMetal in order to move SharePoint checklist explanations to entity classes employed for querying

o Visual Studio 2008 integration for entity development (a.k.a. SPML)

Can connect with a SharePoint website either while using SharePoint object model or via the SharePoint web providers

Planned assistance intended for upgrading through entity kinds

microsoft office sharepoint server http://www.apps4rent.com/microsoft-office-sharepoint-server-moss-2007-hosting/moss-2007-sharepoint.html

Source:http://www.funnycolour.com/check-out-the-linq-feature-of-sharepoint-2010.html 

Microsoft details Silverlight upgrade plans

Microsoft's Silverlight rich internet application platform, which has been the subject of speculation lately about its future, will get a refresh next year when the company releases Silverlight 5.

The upgrade will feature such capabilities as 64-bit support and improvements in areas like high-definition video and digital rights management. Business application usage is a key focus for Silverlight 5. Overall, Silverlight 5 boasts more than 40 new features, according to Microsoft.

Recently, though, there has been confusion as to how much of a proirity Silverlight is for Microsoft. The company appeared to emphasize HTML5 while relegating Silverlight 5 to being primarily a platform for Windows Phone 7 application development. On the other hand, Microsoft has been stressing its commitment to the platform; Wednesday's announcement continues in that vein. 
"The main importance [of the announcement] is that [Silverlight 5 is] on the road map, it's coming, and Microsoft continues to show its ability to iterate with regard to Silverlight based on four major releases in three years," said analyst Ray Valdes of Gartner. He speculated Microsoft was offering Silverlight 5 details a bit early to quash any mixed messages about the company's commitment to the platform.

Silverlight is Microsoft's technology for "premium" application experiences, said Brian Goldfarb, Microsoft director of developer platforms. "It will deliver the best experience as possible," he said. The company will, however, also support HTML5 in its Internet Explorer 9 browser, enabling developers to leverage standards-based application capabilities. Silverlight is being positioned for use in desktop and Web applications, as well as Windows Phone applications.
Silverlight 5 is set for a beta release in the second quarter of 2011, with general availability set for the second half of next year. Microsoft is detailing five sets of improvements as being focused on business applications. Among these is a 64-bit support, which will improve performance and memory usage. Native 64-bit Silverlight plug-ins will be enabled for use on 64-bit hardware and 64-bit browsers, Goldfarb said.

Silverlight 5 also will feature a runtime and tools for better animation and layouts for user interfaces, he said. Developers can continue to use Microsoft's Visual Studio and Expression toolsets for building Silverlight applications. Improved graphics support, meanwhile, enables use of 3D capabilities for advanced business data visualization.

Communications and networking improvements include real-time capabilities to accommodate low-latency applications, such as a stock updating application. The fifth area geared to business applications is to enable developers to build a new class of trusted applications in which users can access their files and launch other desktop programs, such as Microsoft Word, from within Silverlight. This capability allows developers to build more traditional applications instead of just typical Web browser applications, Goldfarb explained.

Also for business application development, Model View ViewModel and data binding capabilities let more work be done more easily via XAML. Digital rights management improvements enable seamless switching between DRM media sources. Another capability on the docket for Silverlight 5 is the ability to host HTML content inside of a Silverlight application in a browser. "It gives developers more flexibility and choice," Goldfarb said.

Silverlight 5 will include capabilities for 1080D high-definition video on lower-end devices such as netbooks. Hardware decoding functionality capability will enable video playbacks via graphics processing units as opposed to CPUs. A capability called TrickPlay will allow video to be played at different speeds while supporting fast -forward and rewind, with audio pitch correction. 

Silverlight has had to vie with the more-established Adobe Flash rich Internet application platform and now, HTML5. But Goldfarb stressed the vitality of the technology, citing its use at prominent companies like NetFlix, eBay, SAP, and National Instruments.

Source:http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/development
/microsoft-details-silverlight-upgrade-plans 

Learn how you can concatenate a date and a time, and use date/time conversions to and from UTC to be able to set the time portion of a date/time field in a SharePoint list column through a SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow.

In Construct a date from strings in a SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow you saw how to create a date by concatenating two strings in a SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow.

In the SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow in this article, you will set the time portion of a date and time field in a SharePoint list by concatenating a date and a time taken from two fields in the SharePoint list.

For this solution, you must create a SharePoint list that has 3 columns:

1. A column with the name myDate, type Date and Time, and which has its settings to only display the date, so that no time can be entered.
2. A column with the name myTime and type Single line of text. In this field you will enter a time that has the format hh:mm.
3. A column with the name myDateAndTime, type Date and Time, and which has its settings to display both the date and time. In this field you will store the result of the workflow.

To create a SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow that sets the time portion of a date/time field in a SharePoint list:

1. In SharePoint Designer 2010, create a new List Workflow.
2. Add the following Local Variables to the SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow:
   • myDateAndTime (Date/Time)
   • dateString (String)
   • timeString (String)
   • isoDateTimeString (String)
3. Add a Set Workflow Variable action to the workflow to set the myDateAndTime workflow variable to the myDate field of the Current Item in the SharePoint list.
4. Add a second Set Workflow Variable action to the workflow to set the dateString workflow variable to the myDateAndTime workflow variable and return the field as ISO Formatted. Here you are converting the date and time variable to an ISO date and time string.
5. Add an Extract Substring from Start of String action to the workflow that copies 10 characters from the dateString workflow variable, and outputs it to the same dateString workflow variable.
6. Add a third Set Workflow Variable action to the workflow to set the timeString workflow variable to the myTime field of the Current Item in the SharePoint list.
7. Add a fourth Set Workflow Variable action to the workflow to set the isoDateTimeStringworkflow variable to the following string: [%Variable: dateString%]T[%Variable: timeString%]:00Z using the String Builder dialog box.
8. Add a fifth Set Workflow Variable action to the workflow to set the myDateAndTime workflow variable to the isoDateTimeString workflow variable and return the field as Date/Time. Here you are converting the ISO date and time string back to a date and time variable.
9. Add an Add Time to Date action to the workflow to add an appropriate amount of hours for the time zone you live in to the myDateAndTime workflow variable, and output it to the samemyDateAndTime workflow variable. This time zone correction is necessary, because when you retrieved the date from the SharePoint list column you converted it to an ISO date and time string, which represents dates and times in UTC. So before you write the date and time back to the SharePoint list, you must convert the date and time from UTC back to your own time zone. You must also subtract an hour for daylight savings time if daylight savings is currently in effect for your time zone.
10. Add a Set Field in Current Item action to the workflow that sets the myDateAndTime column of the SharePoint list to the value of the myDateAndTime workflow variable.

    The SharePoint Designer workflow should now resemble the following figure:

    
    Figure 1. SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow to set the time portion of a date/time column in a SharePoint list.

11. Publish the workflow to SharePoint.

If you go to the SharePoint list to which you associated the workflow, add an item to the SharePoint list, enter a date in the myDate column, enter a time in the myTime column, save the SharePoint list item, and then start the workflow on the item, the myDateAndTime column of the SharePoint list should be updated and display the correct date and time, which is a concatenation of the date and time you entered in the two other columns.

Learn how you can concatenate a date and a time, and use date/time conversions to and from UTC to be able to set the time portion of a date/time field in a SharePoint list column through a SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow.

In Construct a date from strings in a SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow you saw how to create a date by concatenating two strings in a SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow.

In the SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow in this article, you will set the time portion of a date and time field in a SharePoint list by concatenating a date and a time taken from two fields in the SharePoint list.

For this solution, you must create a SharePoint list that has 3 columns:

1. A column with the name myDate, type Date and Time, and which has its settings to only display the date, so that no time can be entered.
2. A column with the name myTime and type Single line of text. In this field you will enter a time that has the format hh:mm.
3. A column with the name myDateAndTime, type Date and Time, and which has its settings to display both the date and time. In this field you will store the result of the workflow.

To create a SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow that sets the time portion of a date/time field in a SharePoint list:

1. In SharePoint Designer 2010, create a new List Workflow.
2. Add the following Local Variables to the SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow:
   • myDateAndTime (Date/Time)
   • dateString (String)
   • timeString (String)
   • isoDateTimeString (String)
3. Add a Set Workflow Variable action to the workflow to set the myDateAndTime workflow variable to the myDate field of the Current Item in the SharePoint list.
4. Add a second Set Workflow Variable action to the workflow to set the dateString workflow variable to the myDateAndTime workflow variable and return the field as ISO Formatted. Here you are converting the date and time variable to an ISO date and time string.
5. Add an Extract Substring from Start of String action to the workflow that copies 10 characters from the dateString workflow variable, and outputs it to the same dateString workflow variable.
6. Add a third Set Workflow Variable action to the workflow to set the timeString workflow variable to the myTime field of the Current Item in the SharePoint list.
7. Add a fourth Set Workflow Variable action to the workflow to set the isoDateTimeStringworkflow variable to the following string: [%Variable: dateString%]T[%Variable: timeString%]:00Z using the String Builder dialog box.
8. Add a fifth Set Workflow Variable action to the workflow to set the myDateAndTime workflow variable to the isoDateTimeString workflow variable and return the field as Date/Time. Here you are converting the ISO date and time string back to a date and time variable.
9. Add an Add Time to Date action to the workflow to add an appropriate amount of hours for the time zone you live in to the myDateAndTime workflow variable, and output it to the samemyDateAndTime workflow variable. This time zone correction is necessary, because when you retrieved the date from the SharePoint list column you converted it to an ISO date and time string, which represents dates and times in UTC. So before you write the date and time back to the SharePoint list, you must convert the date and time from UTC back to your own time zone. You must also subtract an hour for daylight savings time if daylight savings is currently in effect for your time zone.
10. Add a Set Field in Current Item action to the workflow that sets the myDateAndTime column of the SharePoint list to the value of the myDateAndTime workflow variable.

    The SharePoint Designer workflow should now resemble the following figure:

    
    Figure 1. SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow to set the time portion of a date/time column in a SharePoint list.

11. Publish the workflow to SharePoint.

If you go to the SharePoint list to which you associated the workflow, add an item to the SharePoint list, enter a date in the myDate column, enter a time in the myTime column, save the SharePoint list item, and then start the workflow on the item, the myDateAndTime column of the SharePoint list should be updated and display the correct date and time, which is a concatenation of the date and time you entered in the two other columns.

Source:http://www.documentmanagementworkflowinfo.com/sample-sharepoint-workflows/sharepoint-designer-
2010-workflow-set-time-portion-datetime-field.htm