I have spent two existing days in Oslo, Norway. On the first day I attended the much appreciated Techforum at Chateau Neuf.  EPiServer CMS 5 was described from several angels; new features, migration from version 4 and performance issues. On the second day we had a Round Table Meeting with some selected Partners in Norway discussing the past expericense, the current market need and future needs.

Day one

The Techforum was this time taking place at the place of youth, at the center of the Norwegian Student Society at Chateau Neuf. The team behind the Techforum are really a serious bunch of people - or what do you think when you see them?

A lot of interesting things where said during the afternoon. One useful feature, that was new for me, was the possibility to hide properties based on Access rights. Just override DisplayEditUI in the Property class and you are able to just let a predefined group, access the property.

Example:

public class MyFineProperty : EPiServer.Core.PropertyString
{

    public override bool DisplayEditUI
    {
        get
        {
            return EPiServer.Security.PrincipalInfo.Current.RoleList.Contains("Administrators");
        }
        set
        {
            base.DisplayEditUI = value;
        }
    }

}

If you want to get hold of all the code samples, visit http://www.episerver.com/no/EPiServer/NyheterEvents/EPiServer_Events/kommende_events_2007/TechForum-13-november-2007/

I was also holding two presentations myself; Strategy and Roadmap + SharePoint Connector. The message in the first session was that we will have a lot of releases the coming year but the focus of the work will be to release EPiServer CMS 5 R2 - a release focusing on the Editor / Author. The second seesion showed the new SharePoint Connector live.

During most of the Techforum's I have attended, the audience is often in a very good mood. This time though, the whole audience broke into peals of laughter at one part of the Techforum. It was when Göran and Stein-Viggo upgraded themselves to be Candy boys.

The most disused upcoming technology during the day were probably LINQ, or perhaps the new MS Search Engine. The most criticized part of EPiServer where FindPagesWithCriteria.

The highest rated "new feature" outside EPiServer AB was the Multi-Page Property, from https://www.coderesort.com/p/epicode/wiki/MultiPageProperty initially created by Nick Urry and Jeremy Normans.

Day two

On day two, we had a meeting with people from EPiServer in Norway (BV Networks AS) and some selected partners. We discussed things that where working good and things that could be improved. Most of the issues we discussed, such as Access Rights on individual Page Languages Versions, Custom Property Settings and Improved Search, are already on the Product Backlog. It is though great to get confirmation that we prioritize the right things. It was also great to get good picture of the day-to-day challenges that people have working with EPiServer as developers.

We also discussed some strategic questions like the future of the Editor, Oracle support and the SharePoint Connector.

It was two great days in Oslo and I already look forward to go to Norway again.