The company is trying to attract Web developers to Sharepoint 2010, while at the same time keeping the product integrated with a long list of other Microsoft products.

February 12, 2010

By Deborah Gage

Microsoft’s Sharepoint is a valuable tool to supplement Microsoft applications but it hasn’t been as strong on the Web apps side. Microsoft aims to change that with an upgrade to Sharepoint 2010. Devx has the details.

Microsoft is trying to attract Web developers to Sharepoint 2010, while at the same time keeping the product integrated with a long list of other Microsoft products and services.

Pleasing everybody is difficult, though. Despite the numerous changes Microsoft has made to Sharepoint to make it easier to use and manage for both developers and customers, it can still get gummed up.

One issue that’s not been addressed, said Microsoft senior director Tom Rizzo at the Sharepoint Technology Conference near San Francisco on Thursday, is the 256-character limit on naming documents, folders and subfolders, which users can accidentally exceed.
“We didn’t address it because we allow so many ways to get at Sharepoint –- Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, and so on,” said Rizzo in response to a question from a developer, who said her users struggle with the problem. “We try the best we can to tell you if you’re going to break it. We can do that in certain scenarios, but not in all access methods. When we get rid of WebDAV access in the future we can address it…it’s a pain point we hear about, and it’s high on our list (to fix).”