SharePoint 2010 Sneak Peek

Microsoft have just released a "sneak peek" into the new features coming with SharePoint 2010 at  http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/Overview-Video.aspx .

We couldn't see any new security-related information on the site. We expect that SharePoint will retain its current existing Role-based-access controls model, using SharePoint groups.  We anticipate improvements to forms based authentication (FBA) but have not seen any public information about this. Claims-based authentication as provided by "geneva" is likely to be included, but in a manner that simply inserts users into standard sharepoint groups based on claims. Fine-grained or rules-based authorization is not addressed and is unlikely to change.

Anyway, the feature highlights include:

• New user interface including the new Ribbon - MS are moving the SharePoint user interface to the standard Ribbon-based interface as delivered with Office 2007. Microsoft is clearly not turning away from this.
• Web edit - an "in place editing" feature, as is common with a number of open source and other content management systems. Experience from other systems has shown that this style of user interaction fosters more input from users, but can get confusing when workflow and approval processes are introduced.
• Silverlight web part - for easily adding Silverlight solutions in to SharePoint.
• Rich theming - provides a number of "office-like" themes, just like in Word.
• Multiple Browser support - including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. No word on Opera compatibility nor whether Silverlight is mandatory.
• Visio Services - used for rendering Visio diagrams, just like excel services renders Excel spreadsheets. MS mentions that the diagrams may be "data linked", which we take to mean that they may serve to present SharePoint data and processes.
• SharePoint Designer - provides a new UI and improved designer/developer workflows. No word on whether it will be able to author more advanced workflows than provided for in 2007.
• SharePoint workspace - Groove has been renamed. Will continue to incorporate offline-online synchronisation and other capability. No word on changes to the security model.
• Streamlined central administration - better arranged and organised central administration site. The 2007 Central administration site is quite unweildly and difficult to navigate due to the large number of links. 
• Best practices analyzer - no surprises here as Microsoft provide this for a range of products. This one includes a "problem and solutions" page in central administration.
• Usage reporting and Logging - provides consolidated logs, which will aid audit, management and other tasks. SharePoint 2007 has strong logging and usage reporting capabilities, but they are not very well consolidated, resulting in a high management overhead.
• Last list resource throttling - allows performance management of "large lists" of thousands to millions of items. It's not clear - but might be the case - whether this utilises normal SQL tables for lists, rather than the "one size fits all" table structure used by 2007.
• Unattached content database recovery - allows temporary use of content databases, which will be useful for restore and recovery purposes.
• Visual upgrade -  allows migration from 2007 to 2010 while retaining the 2007 theme and UI. This is likely to ease the impact of upgrade, especially in regard to training and change management overhead.

For developers

• Visual studio 2010 SharePoint tools - including a new web part designer, a new designer for the "Business connectivity services" , which replaces the Business Data Catalog (BDC) in 2007.
• LINQ for SharePoint - provides strongly typed access to SharePoint lists, which will reduce deveolper time and effort It indicates that SharePoint lists will move towards a more SQL-like table structure, even if only in querying not persistance.
• Developer dashboard - provdes centralised usage and debugging information. In 2007 debugging often requires manually attaching to the w3wp.exe process, resulting in an inefficient, manual process.
• Business Connectivity Services - replaces the Business Data Catalog and provides read and write access to line of business applications. MS also hint at offline capability.
• Client Object Model - appears to be used to implement client-side applications (i.e. Rich Internet Applications) , which will provide a better offline or disconnected user experience, and also more a interactive UI.

Other things of note:

• Video editing capability in Powerpoint 2010.
• Visio adapted to web.