MatchPoint 3.0 - Sneak Preview

In the following weeks we will cover some of the major highlights of MatchPoint 3.0 that is planned for May 2011. Today we will start with an overview of what is coming up with MatchPoint 3.0.

Taxonomy Support

Term Support. SharePoint Term Store Terms are fully integrated in MatchPoint 3.0 and can be used everywhere. You can use Terms in columns of the Data Grid Web Part, filter and sort them, use terms in Search Definition Web Part, the Refinement Web Part or in MatchPoint Expressions.

Term Icons. Our unique icon mapping functionality improves the visual orientation for users by illustrating each term with a graphical icon wherever the Term appears.

Term Condition. With this new condition that comes with our Taxonomy support you can filter your data based on SharePoint Term Store Terms in all Data Providers that return SharePoint list items.

Term Importer. With our new Term Importer it is possible to synchronize terms from any external system into a SharePoint Term Store. We use external keys to ensure that already existing terms are updated instead of reimported. Even synonyms and multilingual terms can be imported. Term Importer comes with SQL database, LDAP and SharePoint list support and can be extended by any custom data source.

New Data Providers

Business Connectivity Provider. MatchPoint 3.0 comes with full BCS support. Render your external data in the Data Grid and Composite Web Part, aggregate it in Charts and edit it in the improved and even more flexible Form Web Part.

Entity Model Provider. If you want to fully integrate your external database application into SharePoint and BCS isn't powerful enough and too complicated, the Entity Model Provider might just be your life-saver. Define your model centrally and benefit from various concepts in MatchPoint: use Expression Variables to access your data. Render your data in Data Grid and Composite Web Parts and edit your data with the Form Web Part.

FAST Search Provider. Use the powerful FAST search technology with MatchPoint 3.0 to build highly scalable SharePoint solutions. The FAST Search Provider supports complex query conditions that can be used in combination with the MatchPoint Connection Framework and the results can be used in any data-consuming MatchPoint Web Part.

Data Adapters

New Data Adapter Concept. The new Data Adapters in MatchPoint 3.0 allow you to edit any data in the improved Form Web Part. Use one of the many Data Adapters that comes with MatchPoint 3.0, such as the List, BCS, Model and Workspace Data Adapter. You can even define your own.

List Data Adapter. With this OOB Data Adapter you can define flexible and powerful forms for SharePoint list items. Just place our Form Web Part on the list item's edit page, use the new List Data Adapter and benefit from the conditional views, user friendly input controls and powerful layout possibilities.

Performance Improvements

Paging Support for Data Providers. Reduced data load to the backend and dramatically optimized first load times in Data Grid Web Parts and Composite Web Parts.

Optimized HTTP Traffic. Script files are collected on the server and only one file is transmitted. Even your custom solution including your custom script files benefits from this optimization. First page load is reduced thanks to fewer authorization hand-shakes and fewer connection establishments.

Full SharePoint 2010 Support

ULS Logging Support. All logging is done via SharePoint ULS logging, replacing nlog. Logging level per module is easy to configure using the Central Administration user interface at any time.

Tagging Service Application. The powerful MatchPoint Tagging feature is now available as Service Application. This ensures scalability and even better integration into SharePoint. The MatchPoint Tagging database is now a Service Application database which is directly supported by SharePoint.

SharePoint Foundation Support. Deploy MatchPoint to SharePoint Foundation Servers and Search Server Express as well as full blown SharePoint Server farms. Most features are supported on SharePoint Foundation servers which makes it possible to build powerful applications at very low costs.

Power Shell Commands. All MatchPoint administration tasks are now available as Power Shell Cmdlets.

Other Improvements

Provisioning Import / Export. Export and import of complete web structures including documents is provided. This is very useful to build up new portals or to migrate existing structures from one server to another.

Multiple Item Tagging. Quickly tag multiple items in a MatchPoint-enabled SharePoint list.

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