MCTS Online Training

Microsoft Technical Training Courses

Vendor certifications play an important part in the IT world, and Microsoft sets the industry standard. Training to gain proficiency in Microsoft products and technology allows professionals to get up to speed on the essential tools that hiring managers value today. Whether students come to technical training programs after completing a degree program or on their own, Microsoft technical courses offer a valuable service–so valuable, in fact, that the software giant claims its certification reduces downtime by 20 percent and makes teams 28 percent more productive.

Microsoft BizTalk Server Training Courses
Microsoft BizTalk Server training can help the pros connect with the skills necessary for an enterprise career. With BizTalk Server courses, IT personnel can explore the uses of this integration server for business tasks like multi-channel interactions, supply chain visibility and decision-support/reporting.

Microsoft Visual Studio Training Courses
Microsoft Visual Studio training prepares students for IT careers as professionals who build, test and debug software solutions. Developers can use this platform to launch or build an advanced career in enterprise applications analysis and systems management.

Microsoft Exchange Server Training Courses
Enterprise communications are of vital importance to today’s business world, and professionals with Microsoft Exchange Server training can provide employers with peace of mind about messaging and mail server administration.

Visual Basic .NET Training Courses
A core component of Microsoft Visual Studio, VB.NET returns to prominence as companies prepare to move custom applications to the cloud.

ASP.NET Training Courses

Once reserved for the likes of Fortune 500 companies, Microsoft’s ASP.NET platform has reached a wider group of employers who demand skilled Web developers.

Microsoft SQL Server Training Courses

With such diverse applications, Microsoft SQL Server training and certification can help IT pros prove their value to a variety of different enterprises.

Microsoft Dynamics Training Courses

From simple CRM to advanced ERP, it pays to make the most of Microsoft Dynamics. Learn about some of the training and certification options available for this software.

.NET Training Courses

Developers with .NET training are among the most in-demand pros in today’s competitive job market. Explore how .NET courses can make a difference in your IT career.

Who is best suited for Microsoft technical training?
Students come to technical training programs from a range of backgrounds. Many are adding on to existing training and degree experience, while others pair training with work experience. Some students come back to training to bring their knowledge up to date or explore new career paths. Students are often self-motivated and interested in advancing their current careers or taking their job futures in a new direction.

Which professions require Microsoft training?
Microsoft reports that 75 percent of managers in an IDC survey believe certifications are important to team performance. Because of this, workers trained in Microsoft products and technologies are found across a range of businesses. Take a look at the mean annual wages from 2009 for a few popular careers in the field, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Network and computer systems administrators: $70,930
Computer systems analysts: $80,430
Computer support specialists: $47,360
Computer programmers: $74,690

While no training or certification can guarantee a particular career or salary, hiring managers are often looking for educational experience and proof of high-level skills, and Microsoft training works to provide just that.

Popular technical certification exams
While it’s not usually required to log training hours, a little formal training can mean the difference between passing and failing a costly certification exam. Consider the following certification exams offered through Microsoft:

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Basic certification for individuals looking for proof of in-depth mastery in a particular technology, such as .NET Framework, BizTalk Server, and Small Business Server 2008. ($125)
Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA): Intermediate certification for those looking for proof of knowledge within network and systems environments. ($500)
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE): Advanced certification for individuals hoping to design and implement server infrastructure. Candidates must pass seven exams on networking systems, operating systems and core design. ($875)

Other certification exams include Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP), Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) and Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA). The Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA) is the highest level of certification, and requires 10 years of experience, 5 years of architectural experience and a $5,125 fee.

Some topics covered by Microsoft technical training
.NET: This framework allows developers to apply their work across many devices, including phone, browser, server, client and cloud
Microsoft SQL Server: A powerful database management system. Editions include Enterprise, Web, Workgroup and Fast Track
Microsoft Dynamics: Offering enterprise resource management and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions
Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET): An evolution of the standard Visual Basic programming language, including object-oriented programming
Microsoft Exchange Server: Business email and contacts across devices, including phone, browser and PC
Microsoft Windows: Family of operating systems, including Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP
Microsoft Windows Server: Manage IT needs, security, applications platforms and more
Microsoft BizTalk Server: Integrate systems between businesses and communicate flawlessly with a range of devices
Microsoft Visual Studio: Integrated development environment that ensures quality code through the application’s lifecycle
ASP.NET: Web application framework designed to help programmers build dynamic websites

With a host of certifications available for a host of products, Microsoft technical training can boost an existing or be the first step in a new career in IT.

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

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Introduction
In the first part of my three-part series on increasing productivity when using SharePoint and SQL Server, we will focus on searching product data from the Adventure Works database, including the use of meta-data and managed properties. The second part will show how to link the search results to a page highlighting some of the Business Intelligence (BI) features of SharePoint based on product data. The third will focus on maintaining expertise in MySites in a managed fashion.

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training
at certkingdom.com
Searching Product Data from the Adventure Works Database
One of the great benefits of using SharePoint is that it provides search, business intelligence, collaboration and portals on a unified platform. This provides a huge benefit in terms of cost-savings and productivity. To take advantage of the search functionality and provide the capability to search products in an intranet or public-facing website, it can be done by defining the taxonomy, putting that taxonomy into SharePoint and tying it to a crawl of the products database.

The products in the Adventure Works database are broken down into categories and sub-categories. Go into your Managed Metadata Service and define an Adventure Works Group.

Then, create a term set for both the categories and sub-categories. Now, add the items from the database. These can also be imported using the term store import functionality.

The next step is to create a view in the database that joins the products, sub-categories and categories to be indexed.

In order to connect to the data, go into your secure store application and create a target application to connect to the database. Name the target application “Adventure Works”. Use a Target Application Type of Group. Set the user name and password for Windows. Then, map the Members group to an AD Group that should have access to connect to those credentials.

Now open SharePoint Designer 2010 and connect to your site to create an External Content Type.

Click on External Content Types and choose the option to create a new one.

Enter the name of the content type. In this case, we will name it Adventure Works Products.

Choose Generic List as the Office Item List Type.

Hit the link named “Click Here to Discover External Data Sources and Define Operations” and choose SQL Server.

Enter the database server and database name and choose Connect with Impersonated Custom Identity. Enter the name of the desired secure store application used to connect to the AdventureWorks database.

Create “Read Item” and “Read List” operations for the view we created to expose the products, sub-categories and categories for searching by right-clicking the view name and choosing the new option for each. Accept all defaults on both.

Choose “Create Lists and Form” and name the list “Adventure Works Products”. Now, browse the list to ensure it pulls the products from the database.

Next, go into the Search Service Application to create a crawl of the external content type.

In central administration, open the search service application you wish to use.

Click on Content Sources, then choose New Content Source.

Once the full crawl completes, the next step is to map the Metadata Properties. Click the link to Metadata Properties under Queries and Results in the Search Service Application. Also, ensure the service account used to crawl the products has access to the Adventure Works BCS service application.

Click “Categories”, then “Business Data”.

At this point, there will be a list of properties from the products view.

Click the ProductCategory property and map it to the ProductCategory Managed property. Do the same for ProductSubCategory.

Run the full crawl again on the Adventure Works content source in the search service application.

Next, setup the action to view the product once it is returned by the search. Go to your business data connectivity service for Adventure Works Products, open it, and click the “View Profile” action and set it as follows:

Now we are set on the search of the products. Go to a search center or create one in your SharePoint environment. Add refinement filters to include the product and product subcategories.

Edit the search web page and modify the Refinement Panel web part.

Expand the Refinement grouping in the web part and de-select the Use Default Configuration option.

Add two <Category> tags to the XML in the Filter Category Definition property:

<Category Title=”Product Category” Description=”Use this filter to restrict results authored by a specific category” Type=”Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.WebControls.ManagedPropertyFilterGenerator” MetadataThreshold=”1″ NumberOfFiltersToDisplay=”4″ MaxNumberOfFilters=”20″ SortBy=”Frequency” SortByForMoreFilters=”Name” SortDirection=”Descending” SortDirectionForMoreFilters=”Ascending” ShowMoreLink=”True” MappedProperty=”ProductCategory” MoreLinkText=”show more” LessLinkText=”show fewer” />

<Category Title=”Product Subcategory” Description=”Use this filter to restrict results authored by a specific sub-category” Type=”Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.WebControls.ManagedPropertyFilterGenerator” MetadataThreshold=”1″ NumberOfFiltersToDisplay=”4″ MaxNumberOfFilters=”20″ SortBy=”Frequency” SortByForMoreFilters=”Name” SortDirection=”Descending” SortDirectionForMoreFilters=”Ascending” ShowMoreLink=”True” MappedProperty=”ProductSubCategory” MoreLinkText=”show more” LessLinkText=”show fewer” />

Search for Accessories and view the results. You can now search for products by product information, category and sub-category. Hover over the link to the product results and view the URL.

In the second part of the article series, we will create a product page with some BI features. .

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training
at certkingdom.com

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