Darren Neimke... Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework... This weeks .Net User Group Meetings

Darren Neimke is coming to New Zealand to talk at the .Net User group Meetings this week (Tuesday in Auckland, Lunchtime Wednesday in Christchurch and Wednesday evening in Wellington) on Information Bridge Framework. I haven't met Darren but from what I have read he has heaps of street cred.

I have had a few .Net developers ask me... Why it is important for me to know about "Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework"? ... with these sessions coming up this week I though it was a great time to offer you all a reply.

Programming for Microsoft Office has had a long and painful history... anyone who has needed to create an Excel spreadsheets or word documents on the fly using .Net will understand the pain of programming against a sparsely documented com interrupt API. Things became a bit easier with the introduction of "Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System" but the whole process has been anything but seamless.

The Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework on the other hand offers enterprise-level developers a very robust platform for exposing line-of-business data inside of Microsoft Office.

What do I mean by this?

I mean that IBF is powerful, extensible and draws upon a widely differing skill set than traditional VBA styled office development. So if you're interested in implementing a complete Information Bridge Framework solution yourself, be prepared to write Web Services, craft XML-based metadata, produce XSL Transformations, design .NET-based Microsoft Windows Forms, wrangle with Smart Tags in Office, and attach XSD schemas to Office documents.

Don't be overwhelmed by this; although complicated IBF development can be very rewarding... start off small when you get the little things working the big things come easier.

I still don't get it... what does IBF do?

Come along to the user group meeting to learn more from an expert on the technology ;)

In a nutshell IBF targets the information worker and allows them to access (and change) data from a variety of sources directly from within their Office applications. IBF is an evolutionary step in truly integrating .NET into the enterprise. IBF expands the common vision of stand-alone applications to embedded .NET connected solutions using the familiar tools and environment of the Office System.

Why is this important moving forward?

Last week on the heels of the New World of Work vision laid out by Bill Gates at the CEO Summit two weeks ago, came The Microsoft Office Open XML Format. Darren Neimke comments on this new technology here. To summarise... Open XML file formats in Office 12 extends the vision of IBF by unlocking the possibilities for many new solution types and scenarios that developers can build to create end-to-end collaborative solution for the enterprise. An investment now in IBF will ensure alignment with Microsoft's next generation of Office System.

Still need more convincing to come along? There will be free Pizza and Beer!

And if you have time watch the flash demo on IBF to get the ball rolling :)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.