Thursday, November 13, 2008
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Even before the ink was dry on my previous post on search resources, more search information has surfaced:
I really am getting excited about the amount of information now available about Search and SharePoint.
SharePoint Server 2007 was a powerful search engine when it RTM'd back in November 2006, since then Microsoft have purchased FAST; and Microsoft Search Server (MSS) 2008 and SharePoint Server 2008 Express (MSSX) have been released. The extra functionality avaliable in MSS can be introduced into SharePoint Server 2007, when you install the Infrastructure Update.
Many organizations leave the search functionality of SharePoint Server unexplored and do not make the most of it. If this sounds familiar then I do recommend that you use the following resources to get up to speed:
- Michael Gannotti's Video: Got Search? SharePoint Search And Beyond.
- Inside the Index and Search Engines: Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007: Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 by Patrick Tisseghem and Lars Fastrup. An excellent book, and although published prior to the integration of Search Server functionality into SharePoint Server, provides valuable inside on how to customize the Search Centre and some information on MSS.
- Bill English's five part blog posts on "Findability and SharePoint" (Well it's five posts to date - I think there will be more).
- Bob Mixon's, webcast series: "SharePoint Findability and your Intranet".
- PDC 2008 session recording: "BB36 FAST: Building Search-Driven Portals with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Silverlight" Stein Danielsen, Jan Helge Sageflåt - I attended this session, and although the inforamtion was not a new, (I believe a similar session was presented at TechEd, America), it was very interesting and some of the same techniques can be applied to a non-FAST implementation of SharePoint Server's Search centre, so even if you don't intend to use FAST, I would recomment you watch the video, down load the slides from the PDC2008 Web site and the code from codeplex. Alexander Meijers has a nice blog summary of the session.
- Professional Microsoft Search: SharePoint 2007 and Search Server 2008, by Tom Rizzo, Richard Riley, Shane Young. This is the next book on my pile to read!
If you want to hear someone talk about search, then here are some events coming soon, that you might like to attend:
- SUGUK meeting on the 25th November in London, where Ben Robb will be presenting session titled, "Customizing SharePoint Search ", signup here.
- Combined Knowledge's 4-day search course, on the 1st December in London presented by Bill English. (Steve Smith and Me will be there too, so it should be loads of fun).
- FASTforward'09, "The Largest Business and Technology Conference Dedicated to Search-Driven Innovation", February 9-11, 2009, The Mirage, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Friday, November 07, 2008
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Yesterday I listened to an excellent webcast organised by the Microsoft Project User Group (MPUG). Ludovic Hauduc, the General Manager of Microsoft Office Project, discussed hotfixes, service packs, the infrastructure update and Project 14. Much of what he said was also relevant to other Office products such as Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and SharePoint Server (MOSS), as SharePoint like Project is part of the Office 2007 suite of products, for which culumative updates, service packs and the improves as per the infrastructure update are all released at the same time. More information on this webcast can be found on the MPUG blogs, "Next Release of Project Could Appear in August 2009 Timeframe".
Ludovic explained how Microsoft were now releasing cumulative updates for the Office products every two months, following a similar practice that Exchange and SQL had followed for the last two years. The first cumulative update was in August 2008 and then October 2008. They are now working on the cumulative update for December 2008, then Service Pack 2 will be released early 2009, followed by culumative updates probably in March 2009 and then in May 2009. (I keep a list of SharePoint version numbers for each SharePoint update on my blog, which you can find here.)
The predictability of these updates, Ludovic says, will allow Microsoft's customers to optimise their own processes and proactively plan the inclusion of updates into their environments. Every cumulative update or service pack is accumulative, so customers can, for example, decide to skip an update, but yet know that when they do apply a more recent update, all fixes are rolled up in the update they decide to install. However customers MUST test these updates first in their own environments before applying them in production.
Ludovic stated that with the August update, they had introduced a new process of batching together fixes, and that he was proud of the results. He states that “Quality is a Journey”, and what he and his team have learnt in supporting Project 2007, they will be able to bring forward into Office 14 and beyond. Because Project 2007 was such a departure from Project 2003, they never had the opportunity of bringing forward improvements (fixes) from 2003 into 2007. 2003 and 2007 were close cousins, but 2003 was a dead end. However Project 14 is an incremental release of Project 2007. Project 14 will not depart drastically from Project 2007 and literally any hotfix or service pack for Project 2007 will make its way into Project 14. This just wasn't available in the previous versions.
Ludovic also had time to discuss Project 14 - to hear all the information, MPUG members can listen to the webcast on the MPUG site. He mentioned that his team and many teams within Microsoft, plus a number of the Technical Adoption Partners (TAP) are using the M1 build of Project 14. In fact, the project team are using the M2 build (one month old) to plan the work of Project 14. The use of the test builds within Microsoft is known eating their own dog food, and he stated that they had more dog fooding on Project 14 than on any other release combined.
This webcast was recorded and can be listed by members of MPUG. A basic membership of MPUG is free, but doesn't allow you to login to the MPUG site, but will allow you to listen to some of the WebNLearn webcasts and receive the newsletter.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
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Well I'm soo.. excited. I attended PDC back in 2005 and the information I learnt there was a great basis for the next three years, so I have great expectation on this year's event - PDC 2008 in LA.
I'm usually so busy leading up to conferences, that I don't get to choose my sessions until the day before, but I have some time next week to really enjoy the event before I arrive and ponder over the 188 sessions available. You should too. Go to the PDC Session page, sign-in and click on My Sessions. Although SharePoint/Office is not the main focus this time round, there will be 5 SharePoint sessions - see Paul Andrew's blog "SharePoint at the Microsoft PDC 2008 ". Make sure you sign up for them, they all look very interesting. I'll also be attending one of the Pre-conference sessions, Creating Rich Internet Applications with Silverlight, and then there is the Hands-on Labs (HOLs) - as usual too much to do in 5 days. Also all attendees are to receive a PDC2008-branded, 160GB external hard drive loaded with software!!! Can it better - well yes ->
Andrew Connell is co-ordinating the SharePoint by Day, SharePint by Night event at PDC, sign-up if you are going to attend by leaving a comment on Andrew's blog. I've heard about these evenings, but never attended - another session to look forward too.
The other UK SharePoint MVP that will be attending besides myself (Penny Coventry) are Spence Harbar, Benn Robb and Andrew Woodward. See you there.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
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I am presenting four sessions at the Swedish SharePoint & Exchange Forum. The four sessions are:
Day 1: 8th September 2008
09:30-10:30 "Creating business application using Access 2007 and SharePoint" - Power Track; Room Russin:
This session looks are how to use Office Access 2007 to build applications with Windows SharePoint Services. The integration of these two products allows for better manageability of the data and ownership of the solution by the business.
12:45-13:45 "Business Data Catalog (BDC) Crash Course for IT Professionals" - Nerd Track 1; Room Stockholm Salen:
The Business Data Catalog (BDC) is arguably the most powerful feature in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Many organizations have contemplated using the BDC to bridge the gap between MOSS 2007 and external business applications such as CRM and ERP as no code needs to be developed. This session looks at the BDC from the IT Professional perspective, the BDC architecture and security model are discussed and it's affect on network traffic. The session then demonstrates how to manage and configure the BDC, including BDC integration into Search and User Profiles. This session also includes a brief demonstration of the out-of-the box BDC Web Parts.
15:20-16:20 "Use SharePoint Designer to produce business solutions" - Nerd Track 1; Room Stockholm Salen:
In this Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 session, you will learn how easy it is to create views of your data using the Data View Web Part (DVWP), also known as the Data Form Web Part (DFWP) - the Swiss Army knife of Web Parts. Then watch as a Data Form Web Part is combined with ASP.NET controls to validate user input, thereby maintaining data integrity. The session produces the solution without writing any code.
Day 2: 9th September 2008
13:30-14:30 "Branding SharePoint Sites: Using the browser and SharePoint Designer"- Power Track; Room Russin:
If you are new to branding SharePoint Sites then this session is for you. The session covers the basics of branding SharePoint Sites and how the browser and SharePoint Designer can help you in this task. The session will cover such topics as content pages, page layouts, master pages and themes.
I will be posting site templates at my SharePoint Designer Step By Step site, which will include files and step by step instructions on how to complete the demonstration I'll include in my sessions. If you are attending come and talk to me.
Friday, April 18, 2008
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I'm a bit late with this blog as this new whitepaper was on the Combined Knowledge Web site earlier this month, but I've been at the 2008 MVP Global Summit in Seattle, and may I say it was awe inspiring. It was my first MVP summit and the other SharePoint MVPs and Lawrence Lui made it an event, that I will not forget for sometime. Thank you all! Look at: "SharePoint MVPs know how to have fun .. and give constructive product feedback", for more on what it was all about.
Well back to the subject of this blog. Back in January, Steve Smith, of Combined Knowledge and myself got together and wrote the white paper, "How to move a SharePoint Server 2007 32-bit environment to a 64-bit environment on Windows Server 2008 ". Well we've got back together again to document, How To Configure a Stress Test Project, you can find the whitepaper here -> http://www.combined-knowledge.com/Downloads%202007.htm.
Now of course, stress testing SharePoint is not new. I remember James Edelen demonstrating stress testing SharePoint Portal Server 2003 using Application Centre Test (ACT) at Mindsharp Summits, which he documented here -> http://www.mindsharpblogs.com/james/archive/2005/03/25/429.aspx. And of course Steve has been demonstrating stress testing for some time in both his courses and user group meetings. What is new about this whitepaper is that it documents the process using Visual Studio Team Suite 2008, which he recently demonstrated at the User Group Community event.
Other resources you will find useful include:
Monday, March 31, 2008
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The annual User Group Community event is to be held on April the 8th and 9th at Microsoft Campus, Reading. There are four sessions each day, three of which are product specific break out sessions. There are nearly thirty of these breakout sessions for you to choose from: http://www.ukusergroups.co.uk/SessionTable.html. Details of each session can be found at: http://www.ukusergroups.co.uk/SessionDeatils.html.This includes six sessions by the UK SharePoint User Group: http://www.suguk.org:
Day 1: Session 1: SharePoint Capacity Planning - Steve Smith
Session 2: SharePoint Protection with Forefront - Steve Smith
Session 3: SharePoint Designer: Data Views and ASP.NET Controls - Penny Coventry (me)
Day 2: Session 1: Scaling Out SharePoint from Small to Medium farm - Live Demo - Steve Smith
Session 2: Building and Deploying solutions with SharePoint - Steve Smith and Nick Swan
Session 3: SharePoint and Power Shell - Colin Byrne
It's FREE!! So go to http://www.ukusergroups.co.uk to sign up and register.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
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My new book, Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Step by Step is now released. ISBN-10: 0735625336 ISBN-13: 978-0735625334
The book is aimed at the experienced Information Worker, someone who has been using the browser to work with Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 or SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007). The book will also be useful to developers and administrators who are new to SharePoint Designer. If you are new to SharePoint then I suggest you read Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Step by Step, by Olga Londer, Todd Bleeker, Bill English and Penelope Coventry (me).
As you would expect from a Step by Step book, there are many exercises for you to complete. For many of the chapters, I provide on the CD, a site template for you to create a test site, within which you should complete the exercises. Instructions on how to use these site templates are provided in the Using the .stp Site Templates, section p xxi. Section, What's on the CD, p xv lists the .stp file by chapter and you will be instructed at the start of a chapter whether you need to create a site based from one of the site templates. All other chapters you should create a team site to complete the exercises, except for Chapter 11, "Managing Web Content in a SharePoint Server Environment", when you will need a publishing site. Never learn how to use SharePoint Designer on a live site.
Most of the time in the book, I spend in the Design view (the What You See Is What You Get - WYSIWYG - editor). I do not expect you to write code. You will be using the User Interface and mouse for much of the exercises.
If you have only Windows SharePoint Services installed then you will be able to complete all exercises in all but Chapter 11.
A brief overview of the chapters is given below:
- The book's first chapter, "Introducting SharePoint Designer", gives an overview of SharePoint Designer, the common tasks you would complete using SharePoint Designer and the relationship between WSS and SharePoint Server. Basic SharePoint concepts such as, Site Definitions, Site Collections, Lists, Libraries, Web Parts and the Recycle bin are also covered. You open a SharePont site, with SharePoint Designer and using the Folder List task pane explorer the site.
- In Chapter 2, "Working with SharePoint Designer", you start to use SharePoint Designer, you learn to use the toolbars and task panes. You also learn to create sites and subsites, and how to delete sites.
- Then in Chapter 3, "Customizing a Web Page", you learn how to insert static content, such as: text, screentips, hyperlinks, Web components, images, client-side interactivity (behaviors), and tables. You will modify and save the default page for a Web site (customize the page, which in the previous version of SharePoint was known as unghosting a page) and then you reset the page back to the site defintion.
- Chapter 4, " Creating and Modifying Web Pages", includes creating and deleting Web pages and SharePoint related modification. You will insert Web Part zones, Web Parts and modify the Web Part Properties. It is in this chapter you will first be introduced to Master Pages. Master pages provide a consistent layout for pages in your site and are used on all Web pages for a newly created SharePoint site.
- Chapter 5, "Working with Lists and Libraries", builds on Chapter 4 and enables you to add dynamic content to your Web pages, such as, the content from lists and libraries. You will create a list, List View Web Parts (LVWPs), modify a built-in List View page, create a List View page and modify a built-in List Form page.
- Chapter 6, "Working with Data Views", describes how to use, what is commonly referred to the Swiss Army Knife of Web Parts, also know as Data View Web Part (DVWP) or Data Form Web Part (DFWP). This is an awsume Web Part and if you haven't used it before then you will love this chapter.
- Chapter 7, "Working with Data Sources", allows you to connect to data not stored within your SharePont Web sites and then use Data Views to expose that data on Web pages.
- In Chapter 8, "Using Controls in Web Pages", you will add an AdRotator ASP.NET control to a Web page, and you will use the ASP.NET Validation controls to update the advertisement file that the AdRotator uses to decide which imges it should display on a page. Then you will use the SharePoint Data View control to update the advertisement file to allow users to pick image files from a SharePoint library.
- Chapter 9, "Working with Master Pages" explains what a Master page is and how to customize it in SharePoint Designer.
- Chapter 10, "Changing the Look and Feel of Pages by Using Cascading Style Sheets", introduces you to CSS and color-coding options and how you can identify styles that SharePoint uses from it's own cascading style sheets. Much of this chapter you can use as an introduction of manipulating CSS with Visual Studio 2008 as it also uses the same toolbars and task panes as SharePoint Designer.
- Chapter 11, "Managing Web Content in a SharePoint Server Environment", introduces you to Web Content Management (WCM) enhancements in SharePoint Server 2007 and the concept of page layouts. You will learn to create, modify and restore earlier versions of page layouts. This is the only chapter where you need SharePoint Server, exercise in the other chapters can be completed on both WSS and SharePoint Server.
- In Chapter 12, "Understanding Workflows", I introduce you to working with workflows, mentioning those workflow available in Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Server, before moving on to using workflows in SharePont Designer.
- Chapter 13, "Building a Windows SharePoint Services Application" introduces you to site templates. You first create a WSS site, customize it by adding a Data View, converting a field into a form text box and adding a SharePoint Action button associated with a workflow, then you create a site template, which you then create further sites from and test your solution.
- In Chapter 14, "Managing SharePoint Sites", you learn the areas of SharePoint Designer that help you manage your sites, such as, using Contributor Settings, creating reports, backuping and restoring sites, exporting and importing sites, as well as coping list, libraries and documents between sites.
- Although Chapter 15, "Undestanding Usability and Accessibility", is the last chapter of the book do not consider its exercises and other information as the tasks you should tackle at the end of your work with SharePoint Designer. You should include the methods I discuss in this chapter thoughout the lifetime of any customizations or modifications you make to you site, whether using the browser, SharePoint Designer or Visual Studio.
Throughout the book, I include sidebars to introduce you to technology that you may be new to you, such as, Content Types and Site Columns, an XML Primer, a CSS Primer, Site Defintions, Features and Solution Files Primer and Introducing the Accessibility Kit for SharePoint. I hope you enjoy this book. I have created a Web site, http://www.sharepointdesignerstepbystep.com where I will post errata and other information. Please visit that Web site and let me know what you think.
I will also be presenting a session, "SharePoint Designer for All", at the SharePoint User Group, UK meeting, at Newcastle Upon Tyne on 23rd January, where I will be giving a couple of books out free. So sign up here if you would like to attend. Steve Smith of Combined Knowledge will also be doing a session on the 23rd, "Forefront Security for SharePoint".
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
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Steve Smith of Combined Knowledge and I have produced a new white paper "How to move a SharePoint Server 2007 32-bit environment to a 64-bit environment on Windows Server 2008 (RC1)" that you can find here: http://www.combined-knowledge.com/Downloads%202007.htm. We provide step by step instructions on how to:
- Install SharePoint Server 2007 on Windows Server 2008, using the 64-bit version of both products.
- Join an existing farm and creating the new Web front end and application servers.
- Moving the Search and Excel Calculation Services from the old Windows Server 2003 (32-bit) SharePoint Server application server to the newly installed Windows Server 2008 (64-bit) SharePoint Server application server.
- Extending the Central Administratiion Web site and SSP Web sites on the newly created Windows 2008 server MOSS 2007 application server.
- Removing the old Windows Server 2003 (32-bit) SharePoint Server Web front-end and application servers from the farm
Microsoft will soon be releasing a whitepaper outlining the improvements and benefits of SharePoint on Windows Server 2008 in a lot more detail - make sure you watch Joel's blog http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/ for information of this.
Thanks to: