Well now that SharePoint 2010 has successfully launched and everyone is scratching for every piece of best practices information they can get their hands on, I would like to invite anyone and everyone to come and take part in ShareSquared's next webinar.
The webinar will cover some key information such as:
- Pros and cons of the different approaches to installing and configuring SharePoint 2010
- Configuration Best Practices for SharePoint 2010 farms
- Services architecture; dependencies, licensing, and topologies
- Information Architecture guidance for sizing, multilingual support, multi-tenancy, and more.
- Using tools such as SharePoint Composer and SharePoint Maestro to configure and deploy SharePoint 2010
- And most of all, avoiding common pitfalls for installation and deployment.
What is better than all of that? Well, the even more exciting thing is that the presenters will be our very own SharePoint MVP's Gary Lapointe and Paul Stork. If you don't know who these guys are then you should definitely check out their blogs and their contributions to the SharePoint community.
To get more information and register click here:
REGISTER
Other great links to information in this post:
ShareSquared, Inc
Gary Lapointe's Blog
Paul Stork's Blog
SharePoint Composer
Check it out and get up to speed from some of the best in the industry.
Michael
The other evening an article on the Red Tap Chronicles caught my eye. The article written by Bob Sullivan titled "The Constitutional Issues of Cloud Computing" was very interesting in regards to the direction most of the technical world is going. We all have been inundated about utilizing cloud computing for reasons of price, availability, or even scalability; but what Bob brings up is a whole separate view of why a business might not want to move toward the cloud for services or applications.
The overall point to the article was pretty simple. It all boiled down to the summation that hosting "Things" in the cloud (Email, Documents, etc…) are interpreted differently under the law regarding constitutional search and seizure than say a document or item that is kept in physical form at a business or home. Where if you physically have it stored someone would have to get a warrant to search for it or seize it, but if it is stored off in the cloud and the ISV or provider is subpoenaed for the item then they will usually give access to the information. Obviously this is a big difference in interpretation of the law and the constitution due to technology.
So you might ask "Where does this fit in with SharePoint?
Well the overall push for this next version of SharePoint is one that gives a business ultimate flexibility to utilize the Cloud. In one example this upcoming version gracefully lends itself to Multi Tenancy so that online or "Cloud" hosting would be possible by Service Providers. Another aspect to the upcoming version is that it has updated its ability to store content outside of the database and in a cheaper commoditized storage facility. This is called Remote Blob Storage (or RBS) which is the next evolution of External Blob Storage (or EBS). With this new functionality that business might look forward to it is extremely important for them to understand that they might be opening themselves up to laws that do not need a warrant to search or seize their information that is stored in the cloud.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the next few months. Usually the laws change slowly in comparison to technology so it might be a while until we see if it is actually constitutional to treat someone's content on the cloud differently as it would be in their possession, however until there is some type of parity that happens or more concrete laws regarding the differences be very careful about what you put in the cloud.
Michael
So recently I have had to make the transition from the SharePoint 2007 codebase to SharePoint 2010 codebase. Needless to say there hasn't been much difficulty in the changeover.
However in a set of code that I was playing around with and transitioning I did find one change that might cause some pain to others out there that have been programming against the PublishingWeb object in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing namespace.
The 2007 snippet of code that work just fine in 2007 looks like:
using (SPSite site = new SPSite(url))
using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
{
PublishingWeb publishingWeb = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(web);
publishingWeb.ExcludeFromNavigation(true, itemID);
publishingWeb.Update();
}
The 2010 update to the code looks like:
using (SPSite site = new SPSite(url))
using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
{
PublishingWeb publishingWeb = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(web);
publishingWeb.Navigation.ExcludeFromNavigation(true, itemID); //--Had to reference the Navigation object.
publishingWeb.Update();
}
The purpose of the code is to keep a page from showing up on the global or current navigation when it is added to the pages library. However you see that the update to the 2010 codebase actually makes more "object" sense. It specifies that you are technically affecting the Navigation of the Publishing Web, instead of the Publishing Web itself.
Another point that I have found interesting is that other methods or properties that essentially have been changed on the object (in this same manner) have been shown as Obsolete with a reference to the updated code expectations and will still complile, whereas this is not the case for this specific method. It isn't a huge deal, but it kind of sucks that this is a breaking change in the codeset where the other methods and properties don't seem to be.
I know that this isn't a difficult problem to fix, but I thought it would be something quick to help out the general public.
Michael
With SharePoint's next release on the horizon (May 12th) many of my clients and colleagues are starting to ramp up for the upcoming tidal wave of functionality. Microsoft has been doing a terrific job of getting as much information out in the public lime light as possible over the last few months and I think that will definitely pay off with regards to acceptance of the new version of SharePoint.
However, there are still some aspects of the new platform that are a little murky. Aspects such as:
- "Should we upgrade?"
- "Will my current installation upgrade without issues?"
- "What benefits will I see by upgrading?"
- "What are the best practices for upgrading or best practice in general relating to 2010?"
- "How should we plan to deploy SharePoint 2010 in our organization?"
There is a ton of information out there, but how do you go about getting some of these questions answered? Well, I am glad you asked. (J)
ShareSquared will be delivering a FREE SharePoint 2010 Readiness Webinar that will cover Preparation, Strategies, and Best Practices for the upcoming version of SharePoint. The webinar will be presented by 2 of ShareSquared's outstanding SharePoint MVP's; Gary Lapointe and Paul Stork.
As all those T.V. commercials say… "Space is limited, so sign up now!" Just kidding, well kind of but not really. I am sure that the signup will be huge and space is really limited so the sooner you sign up the better. I would hate for any of you to miss out.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to shoot me a e-mail through my blog or contact ShareSquared directly.
See you at the webinar!
Michael
A while back I decided to leave ProKarma, Inc. There were many reasons for my departure most of which I won't detail in this blog post.
However I am proud to announce that I am now part of the ShareSquared, Inc team. I am sure that most of you might not have ever heard of ShareSquared so that is the reason for the post. Not only to update everyone of where I have been, but also give you more information about ShareSquared.
ShareSquared is a Microsoft Gold Partner that has consultants spread across the United States. The consultants themselves are extremely deep in Microsoft technologies and in many cases are second to none. To describe this if you were to look at some of the consultants you would find a number of current and previous Microsoft MVP's, a SharePoint Certified Master, previous Microsoft product team employees, and more. Yep, if you haven't thought of the proper word for it I will help you out. We are "Stacked" with talent.
So what does this mean for me? I get to work with this top level talent and help provide even more bang for my client's buck. J
It might seem that with the company name and the talent pool that we only work on SharePoint and on a project basis, however nothing is farther from the truth. We span a wide range of Microsoft Technologies and will help with anything from Staff Augmentation to Mentoring and Training.
If you are kicking off an initiative and need some expert input or you have a problem child that needs some direction, give us a ring. We are always happy to set the path or get things back on path.
Check out ShareSquared, we would love to help.
Michael
Presenters:
Simon Skaria and Umesh Unnikrishnan
This was my second session during the week. It was one in which my hopes were that they would talk about the deployment differences that SharePoint 2010 would have over 2007. I was not disappointed.
So to sum it up a bit:
Over and above I think the thing that I am most impressed with is the Service Isolation part. You have the ability to setup services individually (not like the SSP where you had services blocked together) and you can then assign them to web applications. For example, you can set up a services farm that has 2 Metadata Management Services, Search, and etc. Web App 1 could use one metadata management service, while web app 2 utilizes the other one.
I know that it might sound confusing, but think of it like the ability to set up search, metadata services, BCS (business connectivity services), and other services without regard or dependency on other services.
That is enough for now.
Until the next session.
Michael
Reference Link:
Service Architecture Explained
Okay, I know that I haven't posted much on the sessions as of yet, however I thought I would do that after this post.
Overall the conference was outstanding. I was told that there were over 8000 people in attendance. It was really well run and the attendees were constantly doing something constructive and worthwhile. The evening events were spectacular and a lot of fun. The Microsoft folks sure know how to throw a party.
I was talking to some folks that have been networking with and they asked me what my thoughts were on what is being released. My response was "It is the equivalent to the difference between SharePoint 2003 and SharePoint 2007". For lack of a better adjective it is unbelievable. The changes and thought that Microsoft has put in to this next release will cause the same nearly insurmountable tidal wave of implementations and upgrades by companies globally. SharePoint 2010 is amazing.
If you are a SharePoint developer/administrator/architect then the best thing you can do is get a hold of the beta when it is released in November. If you thought 2007 was huge just wait until you get a look at this monster. J
I will now get on to blogging about some of the sessions I attended.
Michael
After the keynote sessions and lunch the first set of breakout sessions kicked off. Needless to say with the session line up it was difficult to choose only one to attend. However I thought it would be wise to at least see what is new and get an overview of the platform.
I got to the session a bit late, but I don't think that I missed much. Arpan Shah was the speaker and it was a packed house. One of the largest rooms I have seen so far. Easily over 300 people in attendance. Here is what I caught.
Tagging and Rating
You now have rating functionality built in to SharePoint. You have to turn it on in the settings, but now if you have content that your organization rates highly it will be able to be displayed as such. Also tagging is a new kind of keyword metadata capture. You have the ability to tag content in a multiple keyword fashion that will allow the content to be searched and even routed by the tags. This is some very cool functionality.
Multi-Select List Items
Now you have the ability to affect more than one item with an operation. What I mean by that is say you want to check out a few documents and take them with you on the road to edit them in transit. You now have the ability to select multiple items in all lists and use the Ribbon to perform actions such as checkout. Remember the ribbon is contextual so depending on the content you select it will modify the selections you have for the group.
AJAX EVERYWHERE!
Okay to be perfectly honest I think I am going to have to get out there and really learn AJAX. I have been avoiding it forever, but now you will find that SharePoint utilizes AJAX just about everywhere. The dialog messages, page refreshes, content updates, everything is smooth and flicker free.
MySites
Your MySite will have more relevant tabs. Not just the standard ones that were previously provisioned, but ones that really seem to fit the "Profile" model.
Tag Cloud. There is a new webpart that is a Tag Cloud that you have that will give you the same functionality as the ones you see on everyone's blogs. It is kind of neat.
You have the ability to see important content to you. Like documents that you authored, your current content, etc. (not much of a change from the old site, but some differences).
My Network gives you the ability to see your hierarchy in the organization, but now you also have the ability to more manually add people to your network. My guess (since I didn't see much of the feature) is that it would be similar to the "Facebook-ish" setup.
Better blogs!
RESTful Web API
This is probably one of the best features that are coming in the next version. I am a big fan of RESTful web services because of the simplicity of the interface that can be used. Now SharePoint allows access to its data via the RESTful web services. The demonstration that was done was where an excel spreadsheet was published with Excel services that contained a graph. The presenter created a blog and was adding some content to the blog post, then quickly added a image tag and referenced the chart through the RESTful API.
The point to this is that now you have the ability to get to your data not only by a link, but now you actually have the ability to reference the data through the API with ease.
Content Organizer
The Content Organizer is another very neat feature. Now to tell you the truth I haven't run in to any of my customers that needed this functionality, but that doesn't mean that it isn't useful. The CO is a routing table very similar to the record routing table you find in the Records Management site. However there is a difference. You have to turn the feature on for the site specifically. Then once it is on, it creates a "Drop off Library" that will follow rules that you create to route documents that are uploaded. The rules are easy to create. They are basically just list items (go figure) that you specify how to identify documents that need to be routed. Some of the attributes you have the ability to route on are Content Type, Managed Keywords, Document Type, etc.
Better Cross Browser Support
This is another really key feature for SharePoint. It now is starting to adhere to more common standards. Some of the standards that were thrown around today that it supports are WCAG, XHTML, JSON, and CMIS. Not that they all have to do with cross browser support, but to get better cross browser functionality they had to start supporting the current standards. So you should see a very good browser experience for most PC based browsers. They didn't make any promises for Mac based browsers.
Webparts in the Page Content Area
One thing that was interesting is that when Arpan was creating his above mentioned blog post he was able to put a streaming video webpart in the page content section of the blog publishing page. Now this I feel is significant. Mainly because I always get the question "Can we mix page layout content areas and web part zones", while the answer is yes in 2007 it isn't what the client is asking. They are asking if they can put web part zones in the content areas to give them the ability to place webparts in the content. I think content creators will like this. However it does kind of break the idea of having constant layouts.
Streaming Videos in SharePoint
Yep, you read that right. SharePoint will have the ability to support streaming video. You will also have some really decent control over the look ahead and bit throttling features that it can require, but from what I saw today it was as simple as a webpart that referenced the video and it was rocking.
Another interesting part to this is that when Arpan was selecting his video SharePoint support for previewing the video before he selected it was great. He was able to start, watch, and confirm that it was the video he wanted before he had to confirm it for addition the page.
Better support for Digital Asset Management
SharePoint 2007 really doesn't do this very well. Not that you can't force it to be an Asset Management tool. It is just that the customers that I have worked with it never really seemed to fit as a good Digital Asset solution. This has been greatly improved.
This wasn't very granular in any of the newer features, but it should give you a good list of things to start looking for in the beta when it comes out. Now of course this really didn't mention any type of development-centric content, but that is still to come. There are a lot of sessions dedicated to the new development tools and synergies between SharePoint Designer and Visual Studio (never thought I would ever say that).
Hope this helps and I will be posting more as I have time.
Michael
So first impressions….. Hmmmmm…. This is BIG!
First off, the conference is sold out. There has been an increase of attendance of close to 100% since the last conference. There are people here from over 70 different countries.
The keynote was not what I had expected. Ballmer did a great job explaining the new vision for SharePoint and how they are starting to embrace more of what customers, developers, and IT pro's want. Some of the key areas that came up that were of importance were:
- Distributed deployments
- Integrated development tools and ease of use
- Differences in Licensing model
- Friendlier with other Browsers/Standards
- A newer level of maturity in the product.
Tom Rizzo also did a great job of showing a new level of ease of integration using the newly remodeled SharePoint Designer. The community generally will appreciate the changes that Microsoft has made to turn this tool in to a good translation between Business Analyst and Developer. The tools no longer seem to compete with each other but genuinely work together to for 2 tools to fit 2 different roles to deliver a single solution.
A lot of what Rizzo showed off was the new "No Code" facilities for LOB integration and also some very cool enhancements for WCM. Much of the new interface has the Ribbon that was first instilled in Word and Excel, but now it is making its SharePoint debut.
Overall, I would say that this is going to be a rocking conference and there is going to be so much information to absorb. I will try to do my best to blog about the things that I am seeing or doing but with over 240 sessions and open labs. I will not be able to hit them all.
Also, it came up in the keynote that the first public beta for SharePoint will launch in November. This is going to be a hayday for Microsoft I am sure. In the Q/A with Ballmer and Rizzo it someone asked if the new VS2010 would be able to share the new development enhancements (integrated development/client development) with developing against SharePoint 2007. To be short about it, the answer is NO. They seemed to play off the reasoning due to different API's and Runtime changes, but this "no matter what the reason" is unfortunate. I am sure I will blog on this more later, but right now I have to get back in to the mix.
Michael
Over three years ago I ran in to a Microsoft server product that I fell in love with. It is enormous, complex, and useful in so many ways. Enormous because it solves many common business problems out of the box there isn't many competitors that can top that. Complex because there isn't just one way to solve most of the business problems with this product. Any solution that you create with the product can be as unique as the client you are implementing it for. Useful because even with all of the out of box features it is extensible in so many ways that you can create elegant and solid solutions when you use it as a platform.
Yep, that's right. I am talking about SharePoint. When I started to get involved with WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 it was in the early beta stages. I was lucky enough to get paired up with a very good SharePoint architect early in my SharePoint career and learned a lot from him (Thank you Philip). So for the last three years I have been working heavily with SharePoint and have found that it always seems to amaze me. I am able to continue to learn new things and always be amazed what the SharePoint community comes up with to solve business problems that a constantly evolving.
Anyhow, the reason I am writing this is not to rehash old memories, but to kind of put in writing the evolution that SharePoint made just three short years ago. Now Microsoft is about to do it again. Coming up next week is the SharePoint 2009 Conference. Usually going to one of these types of conferences is pretty exciting, but what will make this conference different is that we are about to see the evolution of SharePoint again.
SharePoint 2010 is going to be unveiled at this conference. Now to be very clear, I haven't seen much of the new functionality outside of what has been published on the SharePoint 2010 site. However, I have talked to a few people that are part of the TAP program and from the reviews that they are giving the new platform it will be amazing. Even from what Microsoft is showing as teaser material is nothing short of extremely cool. Check it out.
With this said, I am lucky enough to be able to make the trip to this exciting event. I am looking forward to soaking in every last bit of information that will be presented. Also, while I am there I am also looking to blog about my findings and new functionality that is presented. Needless to say this won't be easy with over 250 sessions of content being presented, but I am up for the challenge. I am excited to see what new things Microsoft has to impress us with and how it is going to make solving our clients' problems easier.
So until all of this goes down be sure to check out the teaser stuff that is on the SharePoint 2010 site.
Michael
Sites Referenced:
Hello all,
Yes, it has been a very long time since I have posted but I have a good reason I swear. Since my last post, I have changed companies and joined ProKarma as their Microsoft Practice Director. My duties are different from being just a consultant so it is possible I will be expanding my blog posts to other things other than just SharePoint. J
However until I get more time and material I figured I would post a couple of issues that I recently ran in to with a client of mine while we were trying to open their SharePoint server up as an extranet.
Issue #1:
The first issue that I ran in to was that the web application that they wanted to open as an extranet with FBA would not resolve any names in the People Picker. As you know when you change the authentication of a Web Application you also need to assign a user as a Site Collection Administrator. The issue I encountered was that no matter what I tried my administrator user that I had created in the database would not resolve.
Solution:
So after some thought and research (since I hadn't actually implemented this instance of SharePoint) I found that the database was rejecting the Network Service user from accessing the database. Come to find out the person who installed SharePoint and created the initial web application that I extended was using the Network Service user as the Application Pool identity. He neglected to create the service users as would be done in best practices and this ultimately caused time to spent diagnosing an issue that should not have popped up normally. Either way the issue was resolved, but it just goes to point that best practices will save you unnecessary cycles in the end.
Issue #2:
After opening up the web application opened as an extranet up popped another issue. While I was VPN'd in to the clients network I was able to log in using FBA. However, when I was not on their network the same user could not log in. Nothing had changed with the user and access just that I was not logged on to the client's network.
Solution:
This time it was my issue. I had forgotten the old rule that when you setup FBA you need to reboot the server. For some reason the system caches and it will not update properly. Therefore, in this instance after the reboot, the issue was resolved and I was able to log in without issue.
Hopefully you will not run in to these issues and if you do this post will help.
Michael
Last night was quite a deep run through the things you can do with SharePoint's administration interface. The Colorado Springs SharePoint User Group was privileged to have local SharePoint MVP Gary Lapointe presenting on how he created his STSADM extensions (an add-on that you can find on CodePlex).
It was quite breathtaking to see the number of new extensions he has developed to extend the functionality of the out of the box STSADM utility that you and I use. To be exact he has added a whopping 131 new operations. Not all of them are ground breaking, but some of them add additional functionality to the already present operations. The reason for the extension of the already present operations was due to additional parameters or functionality that the other operation doesn't already do.
If that wasn't cool enough, he also took us on a step by step guide to how he decided to start building all of these extensions and how he goes about it. I guess I never realized how easy it really is to add additional operations to the STSADM.
If you haven't already done so and you think you have an idea for an addition to the operations list it is worth while checking out his blog and also his projects on CodePlex. Of the project he has going one is the previously mentioned add-on to your environment where you will be able to utilize the 131 additional operations that he has already developed to help you be more efficient, but he also has a template project that will help you along your way to creating your own operations. This contains the files and structure you need to get started on your own. So give it a try.
And being the extremely nice guy that he is Gary also gave away a MSDN subscription in a raffle that was valued at close to $10,000!!! A very lucky Ryan McIntyre was the participant that was chosen from the attendees. Congrats Ryan. I know that you will give that membership a good workout.
Related Links:
Good luck and Happy Coding.
Michael
If you haven't been keeping up with the latest news on the Colorado Springs SharePoint User Group site (www.cossug.net) then I thought I would drop a little bit of a blast on my blog.
We have decided to move the meeting nights from the first Tuesday to the second Wednesday of every month. This was mainly due to the fact that we were overlapping with another really established .NET User Group in the same area. We couldn't have that. We want everyone to be able to make it to all of the User Group meetings in the area without the hassle of trying to choose which to go to. So our next meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, and boy do we have a whopper!
Presenting for this meeting is the local SharePoint MVP Gary La Point. He will be taking us on a journey on how to extend your STSADM functionality to help make you development/administration of SharePoint even easier. He also has a really great surprise for one special person that is present. You will have to just show up to see, but believe me when I say it is a rockin' door prize.
Also, if you haven't been to the site in a while, Shannon has been making some serious changes to the functionality that is available at the site. You now have the ability to get some discount promo codes for Certification tests, and also the ability to drop us a note letting us know how we are doing or giving us some suggestions as to what you would like to see.
Hope to see you all there tomorrow night.
Michael
I recently have been working on a solution for a client that is converting their current external membership website to WSS 3.0. I am so happy with the way the solution is coming together. I have always been of the opinion that you use the right tool for the right job and WSS 3.0 is the right tool for this solution.
Going back to my perspective that it is easier to develop with SharePoint as a framework than to start a new web project from scratch, WSS was a natural fit for all of the functionality and security needs for the customer. Anyhow to get more to the point one of the requirements was the ability for their members to be able to sign in to the website to access specific sites they should be able to see. Since WSS is an ASP.NET 2.0 application this was a no brainer. Just use the SQL Membership Provider and set up roles and members.
The issue that struck me was that they needed a decent amount of functionality to manage the roles and users that would be in the database. The client didn't want to have to rely on IT resources to have to go through a lengthy process to add users to the database to allow them to access the site. Right now the process they have to allow a user access takes many hours just to give a new user access to the site. This was quickly becoming unacceptable since it was taking a valuable IT resource away from their regular duties to insert this new member into the database. So I decided to give a project on CodePlex a try. The project is one that I had heard good things about and had told many others attending my courses to take a look at, but never had an opportunity to use it in a solution.
In my opinion the project makes it easy to implement no hassle administration of users and roles from the site collection administration interface. There is no doubt that it will work well out of the box for most people, but in the solution that I was implementing I also needed to capture some extended profile properties. So I decided to grab the source code and extend the properties captured in the administration interfaces and extend the code to use the ASP.NET Profile database as well. The project Source was very clean and easy to extend.
If you need to use FBA and you would like to make it easy for your clients to add, activate/deactivate, remove, or edit users then definitely check out this project on CodePlex. It will give you a huge win with your customer and also make your job much easier.
Related Links:
Happy Coding…
Michael
So last Friday one of my clients called me up in a panic. He had just realized that he had crashed his SharePoint site. What was troubling is that he was making modifications to the SharePoint sites Master Page with SharePoint Designer.
Now generally as developers we know this can be a touchy situation in SharePoint using SPD, but as a business user he rightfully didn't understand the implications that using SPD had on SharePoint sites. Nevertheless here is what happened.
He logged in to the site with SPD and wanted to replicated a masterpage that was being used on another site (since this is WSS 3.0, each site has their own master page gallery). So innocently enough he used the SPD File -> Export -> File menu option to get a copy of the default.master on to his file system and then uploaded the copy in to the target SharePoint site. And that is all it took.
With the site down and a crazy error with a serious lack of good information on the page the client became very stressed out quick!
After doing some investigation and some searching I came across this article by my favorite SharePoint visual designer…
http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/archive/2008/07/23/Master-Page-Error-from-Exporting-file-from-SharePoint-Designer.aspx
Come to find out it was the source of the issue, and by just doing a simple copy/paste of another default.master in the affected site everything returned to normal.
I summary the issue boils down to additional junk SPD adds to pages that are exported that cannot be rendered by the ASP.NET compiler/runtime.
If you run in to this problem, then go see Heather's blog. It was very helpful and was able to help me get my client's site back up and running.
Michael