As you know, Bamboo Labs exists largely as our incubator for future product offerings which are currently under active development. We offer these early beta versions of our products as free downloads to the SharePoint community, and we gratefully incorporate your feedback directly into later releases. Naturally, we'd love to sell you the "final" product* once it has graduates to our online store, but if the beta version eases your pain points, please consider it our gift to you for taking an early build out for a test drive and for sharing your feedback with us.
With the Thanksgiving holiday and the associated feast fast approaching here in America, it strikes me as fortuitous timing to announce the upcoming bounty of new Bamboo Labs offerings we've got in store for you between now and (if all goes according to plan) year's end. And so, without further ado, here's a sneak peek at what we've got cooking over the coming weeks at Bamboo Labs:
- Happy Birthday Reminder Web Part - Allows users to set up reminders not just for birthdays, but for any major event associated with a user profile in SharePoint/Active Directory. (Coming within a week - Now available)
- SharePoint Wiki Import/Export - Allows users to import content from Word directly into a SharePoint wiki. Styles and images are, of course, preserved during import. The export feature allows users to export multi-page wikis into a single PDF document. (Coming mid-December)
- SharePoint Analyzer client program with REST interface to server - Allows the user to run Bamboo SharePoint Analyzer on the desktop client and communicate with a remote SharePoint server via the MashPoint REST interface, removing the need to run Analyzer on the server. (Coming first week of December - Now available)
- SharePoint Analyzer for SharePoint 2010 - As above, but configured for SharePoint 2010. (Coming first week of December)
- MashPoint Composer - Allows users to easily build ADF that allows SharePoint to connect to external systems via the BDC. The 2010 version will allow the same with the capability to support the new model of BCS. (Both versions coming by the end of December)
- Silverlight Organization Chart Web Part - Generate an org chart in Silverlight based on a SharePoint User Profile in Active Directory. (Coming mid-late December)
- World Clock & Weather Web Part (annual holiday release) - Now with improved graphics and the added capability of extended forecasts. (Coming second week of December - Now available)
- Stock Quote Web Part - Joining World Clock & Weather and Hello Web Part, Stock Quote Web Part makes its debut as a perennial Bamboo Labs offering. (Coming mid-December)
Keep an eye on the Bamboo Team Blog for announcements as to the availability of these products over the coming weeks, and download them from Bamboo Labs at that time. We look forward to hearing what you think of them. (And don't forget the previously announced debut of Bamboo Conductor for SharePoint workflows, which is also now available in Bamboo Labs.)
* Note: Given the recursive product development model at Bamboo, there really is no such thing as a "final" version of any of our products, but I'm sure you take my meaning.
Posted
Nov 24 2009, 03:56 PM
by
John Anderson
Filed under: Bamboo Labs, Workflow, Conductor, World Clock & Weather Web Part, Happy Birthday Reminder Web Part, MashPoint Composer, SharePoint Analyzer for SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Wiki Import/Export, REST Interface, SharePoint Analyzer Client Program, Silverlight Organization Chart Web Part
John Anderson joined Bamboo Solutions as Manager of Content & Syndication in May 2008 after a 12-year career at AOL. New to SharePoint at the time of his hiring, John was tasked with creating a new blog for the just-launched Bamboo Nation community in which he would document his daily SharePoint learning process. Thus was born the end user-centric SharePoint Blank, for which John authored 200 posts within a year, and which he continues to write today. Today, John writes SharePoint Blank in addition to his responsibilities as Managing Editor at Bamboo and, while he learned much about SharePoint in his first two years, he gleefully celebrates the release of SharePoint 2010 and the reset button that the new platform represents for SharePoint Blank.