greg hughes - dot net - SharePoint

Interview with the guy who killed Clippy – Nick Simons talks about Microsoft Office Web Apps

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:46:26 GMT

Richard and I recently interviewed Nick Simons, a program manager at Microsoft who works on the Office Web Apps. He’s been there quite a while, and can say (with pride) that he killed Clippy, that annoying little character that thought he knew what you were trying to do, but often got it wrong and ultimately got removed from the office suite.

In our interview on RunAs Radio this week, Nick discusses Microsoft’s Office Web Apps and how people can use Office 2010 and the Web Apps to share and collaborate, and how it all integrates with SharePoint 2010 and Windows Live Skydrive.

He also briefly describes how they killed Clippy back in the day, and why.

Nick Simons Puts Office on the Web
RunAs Radio Show #155 -- 4/7/2010 (36 minutes)

This week’s show page on RunAsRadio.com (with RSS feeds and various available file formats)

Direct link to the MP3

RSS feed to subscribe to the MP3 format

SharePoint discussion with Bil Simser

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:33:21 GMT

Richard and I spent about 30 minutes the other day chatting with Bil Simser, all-around good guy and MS SharePoint MVP since 2004. SharePoint is a set of technologies I have been involved with since before day one, if that's even possible. I remember vividly deploying SharePoint Portal Server 2001 as a secure extranet site (something it really wasn't intended to do) before it was even released. SharePoint's come a long, long way since then for sure!

It's common for IT professionals to have SharePoint shoved into their laps unsuspectingly by users or prospective users as a platform for business intelligence or document management or collaboration, so it's a good idea to be aware, try it out, see what you can do with it (and what you can't), and what it takes to properly design, build, deploy and manage in the environment.

Listen to the show for analogies, buzz words, licensing, planning, components and other important things to think about when you find yourself in the world of SharePoint.

Bil Simser On Managing Sharepoint (MP3 link)
from RunAs Radio podcast

Richard and Greg talk to Bil Simser about the challenges of managing Sharepoint 2007. Bil points us to the SharePoint Capacity Tool (www.shrinkster.com/uhw) and comparisons between Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (www.shrinkster.com/ui1). Check out Bil's blog at www.shrinkster.com/uhv.

When SMIGRATE for SharePoint WSS site backup fails, check for evil slashes...

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 07:31:58 GMT

A colleague from Australia IMed me tonight asking for help with a pesky error he was running into when trying to use SMIGRATE for Windows SharePoint Services 2003 to back up a SharePoint site.

The error was "ERROR: 6553609 You are not authorized to perform the current operation."

There's a KB article that addressed that error, but even after following the instructions in the KB article, the problem persisted. So we kept trying to figure it out. Permissions on the machine were fine, IE settings were fine, everything else checked out...

Greg Hughes says:
send me exactly what you typed on the command line pls> >
Greg Hughes says:
for your smigrate command?> >
< Jason /> says:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\BIN>smigrate -u domain\Administrator -pw **** -w http://siteserver/ >clients/> -f c:\backup.fwp>
< Jason /> says:
yea even with that tool still says im not authorised to do it>
Greg Hughes says:
just for grins try this...> >
Greg Hughes says:
smigrate -w http://siteserver/clients > -f c:\backup.fwp -u domain\Administrator -pw ****> >
< Jason /> says:
o ur good ur really good>
< Jason /> says:
lol its working>
Greg Hughes says:
yup> >
Greg Hughes says:
heh> >
Greg Hughes says:
two differences - not sure which mattered but I have a guess> >
Greg Hughes says:
so try it this way next:
>>
Greg Hughes says:
smigrate -w http://point/clients/ > -f c:\backup.fwp -u sydney\Administrator -pw *> >
< Jason /> says:
rofl yea that breaks it>
Greg Hughes says:
you see the difference?> >
< Jason /> says:
yea>
< Jason /> says:
the slash interesting>
Greg Hughes says:
non fault-tolerant tool> >
< Jason /> says:
lol yea>
Greg Hughes says:
yep it doesnt like that> >
So apparently it's important to remove the trailing slash from the site URL you specify with SMIGRATE on the command line if you want it to behave correctly. Also note that the error you get when running the tools is the same one covered under the KB article I mentioned above (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=828210) for a different problem that's also related to backing up or restoring a SharePoint web:

"ERROR: 6553609 You are not authorized to perform the current operation."

The same error occurs when the trailing slash is applied in the site URL, at least in our case. So if you do everything in the KB article and still get the same persistent error, look for evil slashes...

For reference...

The syntax for the SMIGRATE is:

smigrate -r -w <website URL> -f <backup file> [-e] [-y][-x]

-r is the restore (optional)

-w signifies the start of the Web site URL for a site (no trailing slashes!)

-f is the backup filename with an FWP extension

-e is an option to exclude subsites during backup

-y confirms that any existing backup files will be overwritten

-x is an option to exclude security during restore

-u specifies an administrator username

-pw specifies an administrator password
>

Also, when it's time to restore, it's important to know that you have to restore to an empty subsite that you create in the SharePoint admin web tool - no template, no nothing - just an empty SharePoint enabled subweb site.

You can do this with the STSADM.exe tool, leaving out the extra syntax for specifying templates, titles, etc - all the stuff that makes it not blank...

stsadm.exe -o createweb -url http://server_name/sites/site1/subsite1

or, if you're creating a top-level site on the server that you want to restore to, you create it like this:

stsadm.exe -o createsite -url http://server_name/sites/site1 -ownerlogin <DOMAIN\user> -owneremail someone@example.com -ownername <display name>

Also - remember that especially when it comes time to back up and restore sites, the patch levels and versions of the WSS servers you're dealing with might make or break your ability to get done what you want - so make sure the versions of your servers match if you keep running up against errors when you go to do your restore. Not a silver bullet, but it can be an elusive problem to troubleshoot.

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

The Beauty of Office + SharePoint 2007 - Amanda's blog

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 04:52:17 GMT

Amanda Murphy's got a whole slew of great blog posts and screen shots from Office 2007 and SharePoint 2007, which is looking more and more to be a great collaboration platform. Lots and lots of new features and significant improvements over the 2003 versions.

Check out the list of posts here. Keep on posting more, Amada!

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Use Microsoft CRM v3 data as a SharePoint List

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:13:45 GMT

Microsoft has released the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 List Web Part. If you've started using CRM v3 and you have a SharePoint Portal of Windows SharePoint Services setup, you can use this web part to bring data from CRM v3 into your SharePoint pages to build dashboards and information pages for quick, at-a-glance data.

You can downloaded it here. From the site and the documentation, here is a brief overview:

The List Web Part for Microsoft® Dynamics™ CRM allows users to view their Microsoft CRM data from a Microsoft Windows® SharePoint® Services 2.0 page. The records are displayed in a grid that behaves similarly to the grid within the Microsoft CRM application. Users who have the proper privileges will be able to perform actions such as create and edit. It allows users to view Microsoft CRM records as a list from a SharePoint dashboard, open records in Microsoft CRM 3.0 from the list, and connect Microsoft CRM Web Parts to filter different lists.

Microsoft CRM security is maintained at the grid and record level. If the user does not have access to a particular record, it will not be visible in the grid. Likewise, if the user does not have privileges to view the entity configured, an error will be displayed to the user. The Web Part uses adaptive UI. For example, if the user does not have permissions to edit accounts, the Edit button will not be visible to the user.

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Pricing and packaging for Office 2007 suites available

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 16:42:37 GMT

Microsoft has posted information regarding which apps will be included in each of the Office 2007 product suites, as well as pricing for the packages and individual apps/servers.

2007 Microsoft Office Suites

2007 Microsoft Office System Pricing Overview

In Word .doc format:

2007 Microsoft Office System Packaging (.doc file, 344 KB, February 2006)

2007 Microsoft Office System Pricing (.doc file, 300 KB, February 2006)

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Running Sharepoint without antivirus software? Shame! Download Sybari's package

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 08:41:07 GMT

From Mark Harrison's weblog:

All Windows SharePoint Services customers are entitled to an extended free trial of Antigen for SharePoint. This trial version will be active through June 30, 2006.

To download, simply go to www.sybari.com/wss and fill out the form.

Antigen for SharePoint allows Windows SharePoint Services users to collaborate without the risk of uploading or downloading infected documents or inappropriate content.

The simple and honest fact is that many people who have deployed WSS or SPS don't run any anti-virus software on their SharePoint implementations - and that's a huge mistake. Running plain-ol' AV on the server's file system is exactly the wrong thing to do, because all the SharePoint files are stored in the database where regular AV software can't touch them. And besides that, running real-time AV scans of a SQL database file (which is constantly changing) is a supreme resource and performance killer if there ever was one.

I've worked with Sybari's Antigen products on both SharePoint and Exchange for several years. In my book, it's the best thing in AV-Land since sliced bread. So check it out.

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

SharePoint (WSS and SPS) SP2 updates and documentation available for download

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 04:16:46 GMT
SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) 2003 Service Pack 2 is now available to be downloaded. It contains a significant number of important security fixes and enhancements as well as changes to improve performance and stability. Several previously released fixes and those from the previous service pack for SPS are included in this release.

Download the SPS SP2 files
Description of SPS Service Pack 2

List of issues fixed in the service pack (note than some fixes must be enabled after applying the service pack by changing a registry key)

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) Service Pack 2 was also recently released. It is also a roll-up of the previous service pack and previously released (post-SP1) fixes, plus it includes some new fixes.

Download the WSS SP2 files

Description of WSS SP2

List of issues fixed in WSS SP2

Finally, Version 1.7 of the WSS Administrator Guide has been updated to reflect changes in WSS SP2

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

SharePoint v3 Features List

Sat, 17 Sep 2005 14:45:09 GMT

Got SharePoint? Over at The Dean's Office, Dustin Miller lists a long - and exciting in a geeky way - list of what's coming up in the next version of SharePoint - which is due for release in late 2006 as part of the next version of the Office system.

HUGE improvements coming, and v2 to v3 will be an upgrade, not a migration. Phew! Check out the list.

A good Channel 9 video showing/discussing SharePoint v.next is here.

RSS on all SharePoint lists - and access to the feeds respect the SharePoint security model

RSS feeds are per-list and per-site (aggregated)

Support is for RSS 2.0

Out of the box blogs AND wikis! (and you get RSS feeds for those, too)

Lots of search improvements and enhancements

Outlook 12 will have an aggregator, IE7 also has one

WSS v.next runs on ASP.NET 2.0, so ASP.NET v2 web parts are SharePoint web parts

Version history in all SharePoint lists - with line-by-line diffs! Nice!

Take documents off-line and bring them back

Workflow built in - see a Channel 9 video about that here

Document management significantly built out

Email enabled discussion boards - send email to a SharePoint alias and it shows up in the discussion list! Nice - great internal option to things like Yahoo groups. You can also sync emails, tasks and other stuff to a SharePoint site from the Outlook UI.

It's going to be a big year for Microsoft's Office and Office Servers. Huge, really.

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

SharePoint Business Guru Job Opening in Beverly Hills

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 22:15:51 GMT

Ruth at RCM Technologies sent along an opening they have for a guru-level SharePoint business consultant in the Beverly Hills, California area. If you or someone you know if interested, give Ruth a call or send her an email (her contact info is at the bottom of this post):

RCM Technologies is a leading provider of comprehensive of Information Technology solutions for customers in the Financials Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Communications, Entertainment, and Pharmaceutical markets is looking for a Business Systems Consultant for a project in the Beverly Hills area.

This is initially an 8 week project. There is a high likelihood of extension after the initial phase is completed.

This project is slated to start ASAP.

Job Description

Responsible for providing business solutions to enterprise-wide technology initiatives. Candidate must be a self starter with excellent communication skills. Background in web testing and training on web based systems. Formal classroom experience is not mandatory.

Acts as a liaison between business/user and the technical developer

Plan and analyze business initiatives to be solved with business systems.

Provides technical expertise in identifying, evaluating, and developing effective procedures and systems requirements that meet business requirements.

Works with business user to provide assessment of developed system in respect to the user’s needs. Also provide training and resolve issues and questions. \

Participates in validating existing design features with specific system requirements and specifications.
Initiates systems testing.

Acts as internal consultant within technology and business groups by re-engineering technical processes for greater efficiencies with significant impact to the business.

Required Experience or Knowledge of the following technologies/functions

Microsoft SharePoint 2003 - Candidates must be expert level in SharePoint

.NET development

SharePoint implementation/migration experience

Please send your resume as a Word document. You may also reach me at the number below.

Thank you,
Ruth Lozano
RCM Technologies
Anaheim, CA
800-972-6269 x220
ruth.lozano(at)rcmt.com
www.rcmt.com

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Announcing The SharePoint Template Project

Sat, 13 Aug 2005 21:55:39 GMT

Bil Simser has taken the lead in creating a place for the community to create and share SharePoint templates. This is terrific - one of the more difficult things about getting people using SharePoint has always been the lack of templates and general resources available to get people started building the custom apps people dream of (but can't necessarily create themselves).

Link: The SharePoint Template Project on SourceForge

Now that we have the place to do this, all we need are participants. Microsoft recently released a set of 30 great site templates, and there are a few others out there as well, but this has the potential to be much bigger.

Bil's own words describe the SharePoint Template Project perfectly:

Not having custom solutions has been one of the larger gaps in SharePoint but demonstrates that you can accomplish a lot with just a little configuration and some creative thought. On numerous occasions I find myself in the newsgroups seeing people asking if they can build a Help Desk with SharePoint, or an Expense Tracking System, or a Call Board. The answer is of course yes. Always has been and always will. The problem however is that you don't get a lot of business solutions delivered without some work. Enter the SharePoint Template Project.

I created a new project site on SourceForge (yes, I'm not a big fan of GotDotNet and we haven't created my utopia of SharePointForge just yet) to accomodate this. The project provides an outlet for the SharePoint community to contribute and share list and site templates for the products under the Microsoft SharePoint technology banner (SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services).

These templates come in the form of binary .stp files or plain text xml schema files (along with any additional files like images, etc.). Users create the templates either using SharePoint itself (saving them in .stp format) or with whatever xml/text editor they prefer. The templates are uploaded to a SharePoint server and used as a boilerplate by SharePoint during site creation.

Templates in this project will be created by the community and packaged in a common installer format (MSI) so that end-users need only download the MSI and run it on their SharePoint server. A template MSI will be provided for contributors to the project which includes the template installer, full or custom selections for installation (users will be able to choose what templates they want to install), graphical preview for each template (if the developer includes them) and option to create sample sites based on the templates chosen.

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Wow - 30 new SharePoint Applications - free to download!

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 20:09:44 GMT

Fact is, unless you're developing from scratch, there hasn't been a whole lot of help out there in terms of building apps on top of Windows SharePoint Services in order to enhance business.

Until now, that is.

Last week, Microsoft released 30 new application templates that enhance WSS and let you use the platform to solve more problems and meet more needs common to business. And these are out-of-the-box applications, not just starting points, although knowledgeable people could certainly use them as a beginning for something bigger if they like.

This is exactly what we need more of - help extending the platform without having to do it all ourselves. This is the kind of thing that makes SharePoint viable for smaller businesses that can't or don't want to take the time to customize from the ground up.

You can see them all in action, live and for real, at Bil Simser's public SharePoint site (found via Mark Harrison).

Also - for help installing them all, check out Raphael Londner's weblog post.

Here are the new apps, and they are no slouching solutions - these looks to be some solid business templates:

Scenarios Available for Download

Absence and Vacation Schedule

Board of Directors

Case Work Management

Change Management

Classroom Management

Competitive Intelligence

Employee Activities Site

Employee Timesheet and Scheduling

Employee Training

Event Coordination

Expense Reimbursement

Help Desk

HR Programs and Services

IT Developer Team Site

Legal Document Review Workflow

Loan Initiation Management

Marketing Campaigns

Meeting Management

New Product Development

Performance Review

Professional Svcs Contracts

Professional Svcs Site

Project Team Site

Public Official Activity

Public Relations Work Site

Publication Editorial Review

Recruiting Resource Center

Request for Proposal Management

Room and Equipment Reservation

Travel Request

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

SharePoint dev is the topic of tonight's PADNUG meeting

Wed, 25 May 2005 13:03:27 GMT

Last-minute on my part, but I have been so busy I did not realize that tonight (Wednesday) is the monthly meeting of the Portland Area Dot-Net User Group (PADNUG).

And speaking tonight is Jason Mauer, Developer Evangelist with Microsoft, on the topic of "The Ins and Outs of SharePoint Development."

Check out Rich's weblog entry with complete info if you're interested - SharePoint use is growing quickly - good stuff to know! And hey, you can't really beat the price.

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Shane's tutorial: Sharepoint-based custom web site step-by-step

Mon, 23 May 2005 14:08:34 GMT

Shane has started a weblog covering how to customize a SharePoint web site to create a site that provides some form of content management, etc. The first few posts are up, and it looks like it will be a detailed, step-by-step tutorial for people who want to learn something about SharePoint customization.

From his weblog:

"This entry will likely span into a 4-5 part tutorial on creating a SharePoint site that looks like a 'real' website.

"I'll try and take things step-by-step in creating a "real website" and then converting it into a SharePoint site. I will keep it as simple as possible so that it's relatively easy to follow.

"For anyone that just wants to follow along and get their feet wet I will include everything I've used for the site creation, HTML/Graphics/CSS etc.

"This will be a fairly long post(s) but hopefully if there are a few people out there experiencing the SharePoint (Learning Pains) this should help you.

"I'm going to be fairly in-depth about the entire process of the site creation, covering everything from; brainstorming, what make's sense/what doesn't, sketching, creating the graphics, creating the site, styling the site and finally converting everything to a fully content-managed and dynamically driven SharePoint Site."

Sounds great to me - I've implemented a large number of SharePoint sites, and have done some amount of customization, but I am interested in reading Shane's guide and learning some more. He's also posted a list of what to expect from the tutorial:

Overview:

Step-by-Step guide on creating a SharePoint website that looks like a "real website".

Things to Cover:

Why SharePoint? - Benefits of creating a site based on SharePoint
Brainstorming - What's the purpose of the site
Planning - Creating a site that works for both the end-user, and the owner
Sketches - Laying the groundwork
Graphical UI - Bring your sketches to life
Initial Site Creation - Setting the stage w/ SharePoint in mind
Creating a WSS "SharePoint Site" - The "basic" SharePoint site
Setting up the dynamic elements - Lists, Libraries and all that fun stuff!
SharePoint Conversion - Turning your site into a SharePoint Site
Programming (without a) a Programmer! - Let's bring in those dynamic elements and create some nifty data-views
Styling the site (CSS) - Styling the data-views and other elements to be visually appealing
Styling the admin pages using "themes" - Step-by-Step on theme setup and customization
Backing up your work - Using FrontPage 2003 to backup your work
The Final Result! - See, that wasn't so hard now was it!

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

SharePoint Webcasts for May and June

Mon, 02 May 2005 16:58:56 GMT

Lots and lots of SharePoint Portal Server related live webcasts coming up - here's a list of all the sessions (many are repeated):

Fri, 06 May 2005 TechNet Webcast: Getting Back to Normal: SharePoint Backup and Disaster Recovery (Level 300) Live Webcast

Thu, 12 May 2005 See how the Microsoft Office System can dramatically impact work productivity through collaboration Live Webcast

Mon, 16 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : SharePoint Services and Sites Architecture Live Webcast

Mon, 16 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Behind the Scenes – Site and List Definitions Live Webcast

Tue, 17 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Working With Web Parts Live Webcast

Tue, 17 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Programming with the SharePoint Object Model Live Webcast

Tue, 17 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : SharePoint Services and Sites Architecture Live Webcast

Wed, 18 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Behind the Scenes – Site and List Definitions Live Webcast

Wed, 18 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Working With Web Parts Live Webcast

Wed, 18 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Programming with the SharePoint Object Model Live Webcast

Thu, 19 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : SharePoint Services and Sites Architecture Live Webcast

Thu, 19 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Behind the Scenes – Site and List Definitions Live Webcast

Thu, 19 May 2005 Microsoft Business Solutions Webcast: SharePoint Portal Server 101 (Level 100) Live Webcast

Thu, 19 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Working With Web Parts Live Webcast

Fri, 20 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Programming with the SharePoint Object Model Live Webcast

Mon, 23 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : SharePoint Services and Sites Architecture Live Webcast

Mon, 23 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Behind the Scenes – Site and List Definitions Live Webcast

Tue, 24 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Working With Web Parts Live Webcast

Tue, 24 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Behind the Scenes – Site and List Definitions Live Webcast

Tue, 24 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Programming with the SharePoint Object Model Live Webcast

Tue, 24 May 2005 TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Does SharePoint Portal Server Hosting (Level 300) Live Webcast

Tue, 24 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : SharePoint Services and Sites Architecture Live Webcast

Wed, 25 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Working With Web Parts Live Webcast

Wed, 25 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Programming with the SharePoint Object Model Live Webcast

Wed, 25 May 2005 TechNet Webcast: SharePoint Performance and Capacity Planning Best Practices and Lessons Learned (Level 300) Live Webcast

Thu, 26 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : SharePoint Services and Sites Architecture Live Webcast

Thu, 26 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Behind the Scenes – Site and List Definitions Live Webcast

Thu, 26 May 2005 See how the Microsoft Office System can dramatically impact work productivity through collaboration Live Webcast

Thu, 26 May 2005 Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Portals in an Adaptive Enterprise Live Webcast

Thu, 26 May 2005 SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site Development and Customization Workshop : Working With Web Parts Live Webcast

Fri, 27 May 2005 TechNet Webcast: SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Best Practices for an Implementation (Level 300) Live Webcast

Tue, 31 May 2005 Microsoft Business Solutions Webcast: Boosting Corporate Productivity Through Portals and Collaboration (Level 100) Live Webcast

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 Improving Case Management Live Webcast

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: SharePoint Deployment from Test to Production Live Webcast

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Three Free SharePoint Dev and Admin Posters - Get Yours from Mindsharp

Sun, 17 Apr 2005 20:33:48 GMT

If you're a SharePoint 2003 developer or system administrator, you know how lost one can get in the guts of the systems. For the longest time, SharePoint documentation was almost non-existent, but now you can get decent information from Microsoft, as well as from other parties. The SDK, however, can be a bit difficult to wade through. A visual representation of some of the underlying SharePoint core functionality would be a great thing to have.

Enter Mindsharp - they offer documentation, courseware and training for SharePoint professionals, and one of their offerings is three free posters, which they will ship to you. You'll have to sign up on the web site, and they'll ship to the address and info you provide. One set of posters is available at no cost to residents of the US, UK, and Canada. Additional sets can be purchased for $20 (Mindsharp's cost to produce, package, process, and post). Electronic versions of the posters are also available for $45/each (the entire set must be purchased).

The three posters include:

Windows SharePoint Services Object Model

Windows SharePoint Services Administration Roadmap

SharePoint Portal Server Administration Roadmap

Mindsharp also sponsors a mailing list for SharePoint admins and developers. Send email to subscribe-sharepointdiscussions@yahoogroups.com to join.

Other SharePoint information from MindSharp that you can get from their web site:

White Papers

Best Practices for Designing and Deploying a SharePoint Portal

How to Move Your Portal Farm from One Server to Another

Webinars

Reader Course

My Site Course

Live Meetings

Moving a Server Farm

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

The real skinny on compatibility: SharePoint v2, v3, Whidbey, .NET 2.0, webparts, etc.

Tue, 05 Apr 2005 07:41:11 GMT

Thank goodness for blogging and for people like Mike Fitzmaurice of Microsoft (Developer Evangelist for SharePoint technologies), who posts some official information regarding the pending release of .NET v2 and Whidbey, which is expected this year.

It's a bit confusing right now for SharePoint developers, as they look at the coolness of the next version of the .NET framework and Visual Studio and try to decipher what they can/should develop, on which platforms, and when.

SharePoint v3 won't ship until well after Whidbey (Visual Studio 2005) and .NET v2.0 hit the street. So, Mike's blog entry is a welcome and useful explanation of what platforms and versions of software will interoperate and produce workable results in SharePoint land.

If you're a SharePoint developer, this is for you:

http://blogs.msdn.com/mikefitz/archive/2005/03/17/397775.aspx

and this article is also a great resource for understanding what's coming and how things relate:

http://www.theserverside.net/articles/showarticle.tss?id=WebParts1

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Virtual Lab for learning and experiencing SharePoint Portal Server

Tue, 05 Apr 2005 07:25:39 GMT

If you're looking to learn about SharePoint Portal Server 2003 for the first time, or if you'd like to get some hands-on experience with a system that you can break and not have to worry about as you ramp up on the technology, check out the TechNet Virtual Labs offer for SPS 2003.

It's a good resource for people who want to learn in detail from the comfort of their own desk chair.

TechNet Virtual Lab: Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003

Get first-hand deployment experience through the Virtual Lab series. The Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 hands-on labs will teach you how to set up the portal, organize content on the portal, manage user permissions, create Web Parts for custom tasks, and much more.

It's simple — no complex setup or installation is required to try SharePoint Portal Server running in the full-featured TechNet Virtual Lab. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module. You can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks anytime.

As part of the TechNet Virtual Lab, you will have full access to SharePoint Portal Server's features and tools through ten modules:

• An Introduction to Microsoft Office SharePoint Products and Technologies

• Creating a Custom Site Definition for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services

• Creating a Web Part for Microsoft Office SharePoint Products and Technologies

• Creating Connectible Web Parts for SharePoint Products and Technologies

• Managing SharePoint Portal Server Content and Navigation

• SharePoint Portal Server People and Personalization

• SharePoint Products and Technologies Permissions Management

• Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 to Customize Windows SharePoint Services

• Using Windows SharePoint Services with Microsoft Office Professional 2003 Applications

• Using the Windows SharePoint Services Object Model

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

SharePoint Podcast - but only in German (aber nur auf Deutsch)

Tue, 05 Apr 2005 05:01:30 GMT

Oh, how I wish this SharePoint podcast series was available in English! But, it's only in German. I know some German (took three years classes in school), and I have been listening to it and trying really hard to pick up the content of the podcast, with little success. I'm just too out-of-date to be able to catch it all.

http://www.sharepointpodcast.de/ - with Michael Greth

The only thing I can tell for sure is that there's plenty of info in there that I'd like to be able to understand better, so I am relying on the links on the weblog to help me understand more. I'm also looking at this as a way to help refresh my German (maybe, it's tech lingo so that can be difficult) before my trip to Germany this fall.

Anyone know of any SharePoint podcasts in English? Hmmmm, maybe I should think about podcasting after all... Anyone out there want to co-host a SharePoint podcast?

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

SharePoint Portal Server - Deployment resources list at Microsoft

Sun, 03 Apr 2005 22:42:26 GMT

Microsoft's Office Online has a useful one-page conglomeration of deployment resources for SharePoint Portal Server. It's a great resource for those who need the info and appreciate the one-stop-authoritative-shop approach to organizing information. Of course, you'd think if people were looking to deploy SPS, they'd be exactly the types to appreciate that approach.

The only thing it seems they could so better would be to run it on, oh say... SharePoint Portal Server? ;)

Other good SharePoint Portal Server resources at Office Online:

SharePoint Portal Server Technical Library
Office Online Home Page for SharePoint Portal Server

Lots more links branch off of that last item, too. It's nice to see the Microsoft-provided content continuing to grow, as documentation in this area has historically been scattered and incomplete.

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Improved SharePoint Discussion Lists

Sun, 06 Mar 2005 17:39:56 GMT

Ok, let's face it - the native discussion list capabilities in SharePoint 2003 are - well - they're just "okay." They do work, but are just a little too frustrating in their implementation to use in the real world.

But Serge van den Oever has posted an announcement and a link to the SourceForge site where they have put together a release of the "Macaw Discussion Board," a list template that builds on top of the SharePoint native discussion lists and improves on the native functionality big-time.

It is great that SharePoint supports discussion lists, its a pity that their implementation is "suboptimal".

The two biggest problems that I have with the discussion lists are:

When you reply on a discussion item, you don’t see the text you are replying on
Discussion items are displayed in the wrong order: oldest items first!

Changing this behavior is not as easy as providing a new view. Some more work is required.

We worked around these limitations more than a year ago, but I never found the time to make these modifications available to the community. Until now…

They have also provided a discussion thread view in their list template.

So, before you run off to find a third party forum/discussion program to adapt to SharePoint because the default capabilities are too frustrating, you might want to see what you can do with Macaw's Discussion Board. You can check our Serge's announcement and documentation post and download the list template.

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

SQL Reporting Services SP2 announcement - will include SharePoint web parts

Fri, 04 Mar 2005 14:25:38 GMT

From Microsoft, news announcing SQL Reporting Services SP2, which will include two web parts for SharePoint 2003 that can be used for displaying reports in the SharePoint portal or site:

Along with security and product enhancements, SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services SP2 will include two SharePoint® Web Parts, which enable users to explore and view reports located on a report server through Windows® SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server. The Web Parts will make it easy for customers to build business intelligence (BI) portals with SharePoint that include Reporting Services reports. This, in turn, will give their end users access to their enterprise information from one seamless interface. SP2 also will support a rich client-side report printing experience directly from Microsoft Internet Explorer, so customers can quickly print their reports by clicking on a single button.

Good move. One of SharePoint's strongest points is that it can act as a "one-stop-shop" for finding, aggregating, viewing and using information across a company or organization, usable by both individuals and groups. The more web parts are made available to do this kind of thing out of the box, the better. It should be a requirement for any Microsoft business product, I think, and other companies should follow suit.a

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

RSS Feeds for SharePoint - another better option

Sun, 20 Feb 2005 20:30:13 GMT

Jan Tielens posted the other day about their newly released "U2U RSS Feeds for SharePoint 2003," which is another tool for creating RSS feeds from SharePoint lists, but with some improvements:

Aggregation of items stored in multiple lists on multiple sites
You can create an RSS feed that contains information coming from more than one lists (or document libraries), that are potentially on different sites.
Customizable layout of RSS items
For each list that you aggregate in an RSS Feed you can specify how the items in the RSS feed should look like. You can do that by using some sort of formulas, referring to fields coming from the SharePoint lists.
Non-intrusive installation
The installation of the RSS Feeds tool doesn’t change a thing about your SharePoint installation, the IT-Pro guys will be happy! The tool is completely separated from the SharePoint sites and doesn’t require you to add metadata or web parts to SharePoint.
SharePoint Authorization
Are you afraid of exposing sensitive data? Well you don’t have to, our tool uses the SharePoint security model, so if a user doesn’t have access to the SharePoint list he or she can’t retrieve information from the RSS feed. Anonymous access to RSS feeds is also supported (if your SharePoint site is available for anonymous users of course).
GUI Administration
The administration of the tool (creating feeds, item layouts, …) is completely done by using a nice graphical user interface.

Software: http://www.u2u.net/software.aspx

Quick video tutorial: http://www.u2u.be/downloads/tools/U2URSSFeeds.wmv

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

IFilterShop releases CHM IFilter 1.0

Wed, 19 Jan 2005 22:31:50 GMT

Finally!!! I have been struggling with the fact that there has never been an IFilter available for CHM (Microsoft compiled help) files. But now there is!

UPDATED INFO: Apparently there is another relatively new freeware CHM IFilter avalable in addition to the commercial one mentioned below. I have not had a chance to check it out, and documentation is pretty much non-existant on the web site, but check out Citeknet. They have a CHM IFilter, a tool called IFilter Explorer that you can use to examine your system's IFilters, and a bunch of other IFilters (CAB, CHM, HLP, MHT, ZIP) on their web site. Thanks to Sean for the comment and the pointer - I stand corrected. I think IFilters in general deserve another post here (click to read the followup), especially with the genesis of these new desktop search applications and new activity/interest in IFilters in general.

If you use a system that can leverage IFilters to index or discover the content inside of proprietary files (systems like SharePoint or Windows built-in search, for example), this is for you. There are IFilters for all kinds of binary formats, such as PDF, TIFF files with optical character recognition (OCR), etc... And now, CHM!

In fact, IFilterShop has a whole slew of filters for sale:

CHM IFilter

MindManager IFilter

Inventor IFilter

WMV/WMA IFilter

SHTML IFilter

WF IFilter

Msg IFilter

PDF+ IFilter

Zip IFilter

XMP IFilter

StarOffice IFilter

OpenOffice IFilter

vCard IFilter

There are also a whole bunch of free IFilters available on the Internet.

Here is the official announcement:

IFilterShop releases CHM IFilter 1.0

IFilterShop is pleased to announce the release of new product CHM IFilter.

CHM IFilter extends Microsoft Indexing Service to extract content from Compiled HTML Help (CHM) documents. Microsoft HTML Help is Microsoft's online Help authoring system. It is designed for use by authors or developers who create Help for software programs, multimedia titles, intranets, extranets, or the Internet. CHM IFilter makes Microsoft HTML Help files instantly searchable in all products built on Microsoft Search technology.

For more information, please visit our website at:

http://www.ifiltershop.com/chm-ifilter.html >>
(ED: removed direct reference to .exe file)
>

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Search SharePoint via MSN Desktop Search

Sat, 18 Dec 2004 08:28:55 GMT

For someone like me, who uses SharePoint Portal Server and is starting to appreciate the usefulness of the MSN Desktop Search, this was an awesome find:

Mark Bower: Searching SPS using MSN Desktop Search

Mark explains how to add a shortcut to the MSN Desktop Search “deskband.” In less than a minute, you’ll have quick search shortcuts set up that allow you to enter a shortcut keyword and your search term (for example, type “sps documentation” into desktop search and a window will be opened with the search results on the portal server).

UPDATE: A site all about shortcuts for the deskbar (http://www.deskbarshortcuts.com/) has popped up – very cool! (via Scobleizer)

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Blogging on SharePoint - Collutions cBlog

Thu, 16 Dec 2004 05:14:22 GMT

Over on it’s GotDotNet workspace, you can download the Collutions cBlog package, a custom site definition for SharePoint released under a Shared Source license. The cBlog package creates a blogging environment on the Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) platform. WSS ships as a free web server add-on/enhancement to Windows Server 2003.

This is interesting stuff. Jim Duncan’s sample blog is viewable online, and is a real, working blog that appears to be dedicated to the development and discussion of the cBlog custom site definition itself, at least so far.

Looks like Jim has already created an RSS 2.0 Feed for the WSS cBlog, too. Subscribed!

Going to have to look into this one further…

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

SharePoint Full-Text Search SQL Syntax

Sun, 12 Dec 2004 18:37:33 GMT

Nice to see the docs rolling out the door on the black-box stuff in SharePoint Portal Server. Here’s another, covering the syntax used in SharePoint Portal Server’s full-text search – Apparently it’s a preview of the what is to come in the next SDK release…

This download includes a preview of the reference documentation for Microsoft SharePointPSSearch, the SQL Syntax used for Microsoft SharePointPSSearch Full Text Search with Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003. Look for updates to this documentation in the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK).

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Branding Sharepoint Portal Server

Sun, 12 Dec 2004 18:31:26 GMT

If you’ve worked on rebranding (to any significant extent) SharePoint Portal Server 2003, you know how difficult it can be to feel confident in what you’re actually doing, due mostly to the lack of documentation on the subject.

Well, Microsoft has released two papers on the Office Developer Center to help:

Branding a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site:

Part 1, Understanding the Use of a Corporate Brand
Learn what it means to "brand" a SharePoint Portal Server site, and about the different types of branding you can apply to a portal site to reflect an organization's identity.

Part 2, How to Apply Your Own Corporate Brand
Through step-by-step examples of the typical tasks involved in branding a Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server site, learn to change the standard banner, introduce a custom style sheet, and enhance the user experience of your portal site through interface, navigation, and page layout changes.

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

SharePoint Tools Galore List

Sat, 04 Dec 2004 19:05:05 GMT

Tariq’s new SharePoint Tools Galore list is a great resource for people who work with WSS and SharePoint Portal Server. He lists a ton of third party and other tools for use with SharePoint. Check it out:

http://geekswithblogs.net/tariq/archive/2004/12/02/16655.aspx

Also – Joris Poelmans updates the list:

http://jopx.blogspot.com/2004/12/sharepoint-tools-galore.html

Not sure if or where this will actually “live,” but it’s a great start.

For my part – I can tell you that TeamPlate for .NET is very powerful and interesting when plugged into SharePoint and elsewhere, and they have a new version about to come out.

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

SharePoint v1.0 Tools Link Dump

Sat, 04 Dec 2004 18:54:44 GMT

I have neglected posting SharePoint links and info recently. Bad me. Good thing there’s other people out there keeping us up to date. For example, Amanda Murphy recently linked to a few interesting nuggets of SharePoint gold, and I thought I would consolidate a couple of the ones that I find most interesting here, as well. Thanks, Amanda!

Nigel Bridport’s SharePoint User Manager v1.0
http://weblogs.asp.net/nigelbridport/archive/2004/11/30/272173.aspx

“Not sure about other people, but I find it quite time consuming when trying to manage users inside of Windows SharePoint Services sites, especially when the sites in the hierarchy have their security inheritance broken. A number of customers end up breaking security inheritance at every opportunity and then hit this problem.

“So, I am in the process of writing a SharePoint User Manager Windows Application in order to help out in this area!”

Stramit’s Granular Backup Manager for WSS v1.0
http://blog.spsclerics.com/articles/434.aspx

“Granular Backup Manageris a tool which allows you to create back up file and/or .bat file to make this file for a global hierarchy of WSS site. Its internal is based on the sMigrate.exe of the SharePoint system. the back up file are just Web Package. Each sub site of a WSS collection can have its own web package directly with this tool

I made this tool to make easy the back up operation in the case in large WSS collection with document library. Using granular back up file allow you to restore just little site for recover a document instead of the all collection (less time, less space, just the site).”

Jan Tielens’ Smart Part for SharePoint v1.0.0.0
http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2004/11/23/268644.aspx

Finally I’ve managed to finish a new release for the SmartPart for SharePoint; version 1.0.0.0. This release has some really cool new features, but I'm really excited about the first one: connectable web parts with ASP.NET user controls!

Create connectable web parts
In SharePoint you can connect web parts, so they can exchange data. For example you could create a web part that displays a list of invoices, and another web part that displays the details of the selected invoice (master/detail view). Normally you’d have to create your Invoice and InvoiceDetails web parts by hand, implementing the ICellProvider and ICellConsumer interfaces (see Patrick’s excellent article about this topic). With the new version of the SmartPart you can do the same, but instead of coding everything by hand, you can create ASP.NET user controls! Just implement the ICellProviderUserControl or ICellConsumerUserControl on your user control, and you’re done.

CAS Optimization
Maxim Karpov did a great job on fine-tuning the Code Access Security for the SmartPart. For running the previous versions of the SmartPart, you’d had to increase the trust level in the web.config to WSS_Medium. In this version this is not required anymore. Of course if your user controls require a higher trust level, you can raise the trust level as usual.

Hiding the user control selection
Once you’re finished building your user controls, maybe you’d want to ship the finished web parts/user controls to a customer for example. In that case you don’t want the user to select the user controls from the dropdown listbox of the SmartPart, or filling out the user control name by hand. With the new version of the SmartPart you can create a DWP file which contains all the settings for an instance of the SmartPart showing a specific user control. The nice part is that you can hide the dropdown listbox or textbox for selecting the user control by adding the following node in the DWP after you’ve exported an instance of the SmarPart:
<ShowUserControlList xmlns="SmartPart">false</ShowUserControlList>.

greghughes.net weblog - copyright 2009 - licensed under a Creative Commons License.

•	An Introduction to Microsoft Office SharePoint Products and Technologies
•	Creating a Custom Site Definition for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
•	Creating a Web Part for Microsoft Office SharePoint Products and Technologies
•	Creating Connectible Web Parts for SharePoint Products and Technologies
•	Managing SharePoint Portal Server Content and Navigation
•	SharePoint Portal Server People and Personalization
•	SharePoint Products and Technologies Permissions Management
•	Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 to Customize Windows SharePoint Services
•	Using Windows SharePoint Services with Microsoft Office Professional 2003 Applications
•	Using the Windows SharePoint Services Object Model