It’s Microsoft Monday at Packt Publishing

Packt Publishing printed my book on Microsoft’s Azure (http://bit.ly/msazurebook), and to show their commitment to Microsoft technologies, today is Microsoft Monday, with two special offers:

To mark Microsoft Monday, Packt is highlighting five new Microsoft books:

And, of course:

Having multiple domains point to the same WordPress blog

We’re making some business changes to The Bloomery, and combining two different sites into a single WordPress blog.  The outcome we want is multiple domains all pointing to the main blog.  And we want to run it on Windows/IIS.  Out of the box, WordPress is designed for a single blog with a single domain, but there are a number of settings and plugins that we used to end up with what we wanted.

With WordPress 3.0, there is a new Multisite Network option, where multiple blogs can be created in the context of a single installation, and different domains can map to each of the child blogs.  There is the option of using subdomains (blog1.mysite.com, blog2.mysite.com) or subdirectories (mysite.com/blog1/, mysite.com/blog2/).  When you set up Multisite, you have to choose one or the other, and you can’t change once you’ve made your choice.  In either case, you have to make some edits to the .htaccess file for URL redirects/rewrites.  On IIS 7, there is no .htaccess file, but we can accomplish the same thing with the web.config and the URL Rewrite Module.

Make sure all your domains point to the correct hosting account, and install WordPress.  After installing WordPress, here’s what needs to be done:

1. Set up a Multisite Network using subdirectories; follow the steps at http://www.lauragentry.com/wordpress/?p=517.

2. Install the WordPress MU Domain Mapping plugin, from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/.  You need to do a manual installation, but it’s easy.  For some additional information on this plugin, see http://ottopress.com/2010/wordpress-3-0-multisite-domain-mapping-tutorial/.

3. The main site is assigned a site ID of 1.  From the main site’s control panel, under the Super Admin, you want to add all your domains with a site ID of 1.  They won’t show up in the mapping, so just try and visit each of your domains to see if they all point to the main site.

Salesforce Chatter’s Misleading Ad

The ad below has run on the front page of the Wall Street Journal on a number of occasions, and it’s one I find very misleading.  Salesforce compares itself to Lotus Notes and SharePoint, and  undercredits SharePoint’s features.  In my career, I’ve implemented SharePoint 2003 and 2007 from bare metal servers to fully functioning portals, and I’m and end user on our SP 2010 portal.  Here’s where I disagree:

Social Networking

In SharePoint 2007, Microsoft introduced a number of features that we take for granted in today’s social media, most notably friends, likes and alerts.  These features aren’t implemented exactly like Facebook or Twitter, but they have the same result—end users can self-build their social circles and easily stay in touch with the people around them.

Cloud Computing

This is patently false, and has been for several years.  See SharePoint Online at http://www.microsoft.com/online/sharepoint-online.aspx.  Add in the other BPOS offerings, and you have a cloud suite that has been adopted by an impressive customer list.

Mobile

This might be truth-by-degrees.  Notice they don’t list Windows Phone 7?  WP7 and SP 2010 are a pretty good match, and I’ve used my Droid with SP 2010—that could be better.

Development Tools

I doubt Salesforce has a richer development environment than SharePoint.  From building native web parts in Visual Studio, to a market of pre-built web parts, to InfoPath, there are many options to expand SharePoint, all of which leverage existing Microsoft development skills (which is a large pool of talent).

What did Saleforce skip?

When it comes to ads, oftentimes the silence is deafening.  Since it’s their ad, Salesforce doesn’t have an obligation to list areas where they are weak and SP is strong.  I’d include seamless network authentication (meaning users don’t have to remember additional passwords), workflow, and translation services as some big features SharePoint has that Salesforce left off.  And let’s not forget integration with Exchange and SQL Server Reporting Services.  In these features, I think we can assume at least parity between the two, perhaps SharePoint leading.

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Lotus Notes, you’re on your own here.  Other than Ray Ozzie being involved, I know very little about the platform.