Marketing Charts posts the top 10 converting ecommerce sites. If you follow the updates, you’ll see usual suspects like Schwans, Proflowers, 1800flowers, Office Depot and QVC popping up month after month. Sure, a lot of these retailers enjoy high conversion rates for no-brainer, repeat purchases but that kind of loyalty is earned — and requires a smooth checkout process to make it happen.

Strong SEO - to capture the long-tail searches of late-stage customers who are ready to buy

Free Shipping

Checkout without registration

Powerful in-site search and navigation - proven to increase conversion rate by ensuring shoppers find what they're looking for

Product reviews and ratings - proven to increase conversion by making shoppers more comfortable with their choices

Gift certificates - easy for shoppers and desired by recipients, gift certificate use has grown steadily for years

Back-orders - enables sales if the product is out of stock

Pre-orders - capture sales of exciting not-yet-available products

Multiple payment options - proven to increase conversion

Flexible promotions - can be time-limited to trigger purchase

Cart & Checkout - designed to combat common causes of cart abandonment

Please checkout www.aiveacommerceserver.com

We have heard several people stating that it's impossible to convert an Hyper-V VHD based image to Virtual PC format, We found a way to do it, basically you need to remove integration services (Hyper-V Guest components) before copy vhd, then replace hal.dll. STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS 1) Before you copy VHD file, REMOVE Hyper-V Integration Services (Hyper-V Guest Components) 2) Stop the Virtual Machine and copy the VHD file (let's call VirtualMachine1.vhd) 3) Start another virtual machine inside Virtual PC with same OS and use as a Secondary Disk the previous copied file (VirtualMachine1.vhd) - You need to mount the drive after the OS is booted up 4) Using Windows Explorer from the previous started virtual machine open the Secondary Disk (let's suppose it's recognized as E:) 5) Replace hal.dll from the secondary disk (E:\WINDOWS\system32\HAL.DLL) using the file present into C: Partition - C:\WINDOWS\system32\HAL.DLL 6) Don't install ACPI drivers More details about HAL.DLL file on: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309283

1. SharePoint Server 2010 will be 64-bit only.
2. SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit Windows Server 2008 or 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2.
3. SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit SQL Server 2008 or 64-bit SQL Server 2005.

More information at http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/11/announcing-sharepoint-server-2010-preliminary-system-requirements.aspx

Namaste!

From Soma's Blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2009/05/18/visual-studio-2010-and-net-fx-4-beta-1-ships.aspx

SharePoint Server 2010 team has started testing with the Beta 1 bits.

Aivea Commerce Server team will soon start testing our product with .NET 4.0 Beta 1 as well.

 

WOW!3 Days, 06/1 - 06/03 (June 1st - 3rd), the Fun City will be converted into the SharePoint City for Administrators, Architects, Analysts and Developers! SharePoint Experts from Aivea is going to be at the Las Vegas Stratosphere Hotel for the Aivea SharePoint 2007 Architecture, Administration and Best Practices Boot Camp Training Check out Boot camp registration, and join us in Vegas! You can always attend the class from Your Desk connecting directly the class in Las Vegas!!! Please visit http://www.sharepointrangers.com/schedule/schedule.htm to register

Event Type:    Warning
Event Source:    Windows SharePoint Services 3 Search
Event Category:    Gatherer
Event ID:    2436
Date:        2/25/2009
Time:        12:35:04 PM
User:        N/A
Computer:    YOURMOSSSERVER
Description:
The start address </contentdbid={f683c2eb-afc7-4154-90ce-9d75a93c6a9f}> cannot be crawled.

Context: Application 'Search index file on the search server', Catalog 'Search'

Details:
    Access is denied. Check that the Default Content Access Account has access to this content, or add a crawl rule to crawl this content.   (0x80041205)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Resolution:

Follow these steps to Disable the loopback check which is causing the error:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa

3. Right-click Lsa, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4. Type DisableLoopbackCheck, and then press ENTER.
5. Right-click DisableLoopbackCheck, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

See the following knowledge base article from Microsoft for full details on the error and another possible resolution: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861

Recently I’ve been doing some clean up of old files and other assorted junk on one of our servers at work. Between figuring out what needs to stay online, what needs to be archived, and what can be trashed, I noticed that several folders were much larger in filesize than they needed to be. Also, it was taking forever to delete folders because they had hundreds of unnecessary files in them. The files in question? Subversion .svn folders.

Subversion (SVN) is a beautiful thing. I love it, and use it daily to manage my projects, both at work and at home. However, to assist in saving your life at times, SVN uses a system of storing information about the files it’s managing in folders labeled “.svn”. Normally, these are hidden files, so most people don’t even notice that they’re there. However, they are there, and if you attempt to copy a folder that’s under SVN version control, you’ll be copying the associated .svn files with it. Not necessarily a bad thing, unless you want to copy that folder to a webserver, or zip it and email some files off to a client.

Those .svn files can sometimes add up to a significant amount of diskspace, and you don’t need to include them. This is where svn export comes in.

Many SVN users are aware of this command, however, judging by the amount of folders I’ve deleted from our servers today that contained .svn info, and zip files I’ve received in the past from clients and other developers I’ve worked with, there are still plenty of SVN users who apparently have never heard of it.

Name
svn export — Export a clean directory tree.

As the description above states, the command svn export exports a clean directory tree from a repository or the local working copy. What this means is that the files you need are exported to a new directory to be uploaded or copied to disk, without including the extra .svn files. Saving you diskspace, and clients calling you back asking “What’s this .svn stuff? Do I need this too?”

It’s not a hard command to learn, or to use. I can’t vouch for Windows users, but if you’re using svnX on a Mac, there’s a button in the Repository window to take care of the export for you. I’m sure that the Windows SVN tools allow you to use it as well. Either way, both platforms can use the command line, and that can be even faster at times.

So, to sum up: svn export - Learn it. Use it. Love it.

The Subversion source control client maintains your local state in hidden folders named .svn inside your project, which can be a problem if you want to copy or share the project directory.  This REG file adds "Delete SVN Folders" to the context menu for folders. When you select it, it removes all folders named .svn inside the folder and it's children (it does nothing if the project's not under Subversion source control.

I'm not going to bother explaining reg file installation here - I figure if you're using SVN, you're good with reg files.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\DeleteSVN]
@="Delete SVN Folders"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\DeleteSVN\command]
@="cmd.exe /c \"TITLE Removing SVN Folders in %1 && COLOR 9A && FOR /r \"%1\" %%f IN (.svn) DO RD /s /q \"%%f\" \""

I got the idea from Wyatt Preul's post comparing Powershell and Command Prompt commands to delete SVN directories, so if you'd like to do this manually take a look at his scripts. 

Create Backups Directory
Create a backup directory for storing the scheduled SharePoint backups (e.g. c:\backupsharepoint)

Create Bat File Directory
Create a directory for storing the backup script file (e.g. c:\scriptssharepoint)

Create Bat File
Create a bat file using the code below, modified for your environment. Use UNC paths when using in a server farm environment.

@echo off
echo ====================================================
echo Backup Script For Office SharePoint Server 2007
echo ====================================================
cd \program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin
@echo off
stsadm.exe -o backup -url http://servername -filename c:\backupssharepoint\backupsharepoint.dat -overwrite
@echo off
echo completed

Schedule bat file
Schedule the backup to run frequently, during off peak hours.

Open Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks
Add a Scheduled Task
Scheduled Task Welcome Screen, Click Next
Click the program you want Windows to run, Click Browse
Select the backupsharepoint.bat file you created (e.g. c:\scriptssharepoint\backupsharepoint.bat)
Name the task, Schedule it (e.g. Daily)
Start Time, Frequency, Start Date
Username and Password (use a domain user account that has proper permissions and non expiring password )
Finish

Verify Backups
Keep the backup directory secure. Monitor the job to ensure the job is running properly. Perform test restores from the backup files.

SharePoint Technology Conference
January 27–29, 2009: Burlingame, CA
For three exciting days in January, you'll be eating, drinking, sleeping, talking and living Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Windows SharePoint Services. The first day at SPTechCon is filled with intense full and half-day workshops, half in the morning, half in the afternoon. The next two days are filled with more than 50 break-out classes to choose from. Build your own custom program! This conference is hosted by BZ Media LLC. 

SharePoint Best Practices Conference
February 2–4, 2009: San Diego, CA
The SharePoint Best Practices Conference eliminates design, deploy, organization and administration confusion, replacing disorder with Clarity, Direction and Confidence. 

Microsoft FASTforward '09
February 9–11, 2009: Las Vegas, NV
3 days of compelling discussion on the evolving business environment and how search is enabling companies to succeed.  This conference is hosted by Microsoft.

Microsoft MIX09
March 18-20, 2009: Las Vegas, NV
Now in its fourth year, MIX is a unique technology conference that connects web professionals with industry thought leaders to explore the future of the Web together.  This conference is hosted by Microsoft.

Microsoft Tech Ed North America 2009
May 11-15, 2009: Los Angeles, CA
This will be the 17th year for Microsoft's premier technical education and networking conference.  Sessions and events are presented by Microsoft product team members and industry experts.  This conference is hosted by Microsoft.

 

The Visual Studio extensions for SharePoint (VSeWSS) provide project templates for developers using Visual Studio 2008 to create, debug, package and deploy SharePoint projects including Web Parts, Data Lists, Content Types, Event Receivers, Templates, Modules and other SharePoint artifacts. The v1.3 release is an incremental release of the VSeWSS including top feature requests

Please find more details and download info at http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/01/12/announcing-community-technology-preview-of-visual-studio-2008-extensions-for-sharepoint-v1-3.aspx