November 2008 - Posts

Another thing to collect when capturing a Site Request
21 November 08 11:34 AM | Blogging about SharePoint: Posts
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Assuming you require your users to fill out a form to request a new site or site collection, one more thing that you may want to ask them for is one or more distinctive keywords that describe the site content.  You could then take these and turn them into Best Bets for Search.
 
I'm thinking of this because I am putting together a search page for a customer that has a lot of team sites beneath one site, and menu navigation is not very usable because you get one menu with all subsites, and it's just too long.  So I am creating a search page that lets the user search for the subsite instead.
 
Category: SharePoint – WSS and MOSS
Published: 11/21/2008 8:29 AM
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Best Practices for SharePoint Development from Microsoft
18 November 08 07:17 PM | Blogging about SharePoint: Posts
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Microsoft's Patterns and Practices group recently released a whole bunch of guidance on SharePoint development. 

  1. www.microsoft.com/spg
  2. www.codeplex.com/spg
  3. In addition to requiring Windows Server 2003/8, .NET Framework 3.5, WSS 3.0 or MOSS, VS2008, and VSeWSS 1.2, it also requires Typemock Isolator v5.

There's a heck of a lot of stuff there to digest.

Additionally, there is a tool to make sure you are calling Dispose on your SharePoint objects - http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/11/12/announcing-spdisposecheck-tool-for-sharepoint-developers.aspx

For those of you that work with SharePoint via PowerShell, Neil Iversen (http://www.justaddcode.com/) has a nice way of keeping track of all disposable objects created in a powershell session. http://www.justaddcode.com/blog/2008/11/12/devconnections-2008-automating-common-tasks-with-powershell/ 

Also, here is a peek at what is coming in VS2010 for SharePoint Developers http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/11/10/visual-studio-2010-tools-for-sharepoint-announced-at-teched-emea-developers-2008.aspx

 

--Michael

Published: 11/18/2008 4:18 PM
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SharePoint Connections Day 1
18 November 08 06:25 PM | Blogging about SharePoint: Posts
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Added breadcrumbs to one of my presentations on the flight over.  These help me keep the flow of the presentation.

Keynotes this evening:

Got into the first keynote late, sat in the back, and the audio was completely unintelligible.  On the screen, which was not that easy to read, someone was doing something in Visual Studio. 

The second Keynote however, was by Steve Riley, and was very interesting. 

I would write more, but my priority now however is to practice my presentations. 

Category: SharePoint Events
Published: 11/10/2008 7:30 PM
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SharePoint Connections: Slides from Site Provisioning Solutions
16 November 08 12:14 AM | Blogging about SharePoint: Posts
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My slides are here (6.51MB PDF).  The image on slide 29 got its resolution drastically reduced during conversion to PDF, but it is just a Visio diagram of a workflow.

Links referenced in my presentation are:

  1. This site, http://Blumenthalit.net
  2. Magenic, www.Magenic.com
    1. Find the office near you at http://www.magenic.com/Default.aspx?tabid=411
    2. We are in the SharePoint Deployment Planning Services program.  To find out more about this Software Assurance benefit, look  here:http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa/benefits/sdps.mspx
  3. Governance - www.codeplex.com/governance
  4. Site Provisioning Provider - in Chapter 9 of Inside Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and also mentioned at  http://blogs.threewill.com/implementingsharepoint/archive/2008/04/21/sharepoint-site-provisioning-providers.aspx.

  5. http://software.sharepointsolutions.com/products/Pages/SiteProvisioningAssistantforSharePoint2007.aspx

    6. This is not an endorsement of this product. It’s just the only packaged product on the first page of search results from http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=sharepoint+site+provisioning+solution+2007&go=&form=QBRE

    The Microsoft whitepaper is at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5B6C8FB0-9B67-47DB-8A09-BCA76BC9A5D1&displaylang=en.

    Plus there is also http://blogs.msdn.com/edhild/pages/using-oob-workflows-to-provision-sites.aspx

    And there are other 3rd party solutions or solution components.

  6. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/administration.admin.createsite.aspx - The MSDN documentation on the Site Creation method of the Admin web service.
  7. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms473439.aspx - MSDN documentation of the SPWeb ( a "site" ) creation API.
  8. My list of Template IDs - http://blumenthalit.net/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=45 .
Published: 11/15/2008 9:13 PM
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SharePoint Connections: Slides from Introduction to MOSS Administration
15 November 08 11:10 PM | Blogging about SharePoint: Posts
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My slides are here (8.21MB PDF).

Links referenced in my presentation are:

  1. This site, http://Blumenthalit.net
  2. Magenic, www.Magenic.com
    1. Find the office near you at http://www.magenic.com/Default.aspx?tabid=411
    2. We are in the SharePoint Deployment Planning Services program.  To find out more about this Software Assurance benefit, look  here:http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa/benefits/sdps.mspx
  3. CodePlex: PowerShell Building Blocks for SharePoint and My Stock Quote Web Part
  4. Books on SharePoint Administration (links to Amazon)
    1. Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 Administrator's Companion
      1. I have this book and it has been invaluable to me.
    2. Inside SharePoint Administration
      1. I met Shane Young (one of the three authors and a MOSS MVP) and his wife Nicola at the conference, which is where I learned that this book had just come out.
  5. The TechNet TechCenter for MOSS: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/default.aspx
  6. There is good guidance in the documentation for SP1 for MOSS: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=105621&clcid=0x409
  7. There is an MVP who has written over 100 add-ons for STSADM: http://stsadm.blogspot.com/
  8. SharePoint Community Portal http://sharepoint.Microsoft.com/sharepoint
  9. Best Practices Analyzer http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=CB944B27-9D6B-4A1F-B3E1-778EFDA07DF8&displaylang=en
  10. Capacity Planner http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=dbee0227-d4f7-48f8-85f0-e71493b2fd87&DisplayLang=en
  11. Management Pack for Operations Manager  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=247c06ba-c599-4b22-b2d3-7bf88c4d7811&DisplayLang=en 
  12. www.SharePointJoel.com - The guru of SharePoint governance.  Met him at the conference!
  13. A paper on scalability and performance. http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/06/17/belated-announcement-sharepoint-server-2007-scalability-and-performance-whitepaper-now-available.aspx
  14. 3rd Party Products (not an endorsement, no warranties expressed or implied, etc).  These are simply companies I was aware of when I wrote the presentation. I met some other companies in the Expo Hall.  The SharePoint "partner ecosystem" is large and diverse!
    1. http://www.syntergy.com/sharepoint/products/replication/standard/index.html
    2. http://www.certeon.com/solutions/sharePoint_application_delivery_solutions.asp
      1. Magenic is a Certeon partner.
    3. www.AvePoint.com
    4. www.CommVaut.com
    5. www.Quest.com
    6. www.Nintex.com
Published: 11/15/2008 8:09 PM
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SharePoint Connections: Slides from Information Architecture for a MOSS Intranet
15 November 08 11:32 AM | Blogging about SharePoint: Posts
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My slides are here (7.51MB PDF).  The image on slide 16 and 34 didn't convert right, but it's nearly the same image as on slide 17.

Links referenced in my presentation are:

  1. This site, http://Blumenthalit.net
  2. Magenic, www.Magenic.com
    1. Find the office near you at http://www.magenic.com/Default.aspx?tabid=411
    2. We are in the SharePoint Deployment Planning Services program.  To find out more about this Software Assurance benefit, look  here:http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa/benefits/sdps.mspx
  3. CodePlex: PowerShell Building Blocks for SharePoint and My Stock Quote Web Part
  4. This presentation was based on a project I did with my coworker Carrie Lee, who led the card sorting exercises I described.  http://www.carrielee.net/index.shtml
  5. MSDN Arcticle: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb625970.aspx, "Exposing Enterprise Search in SharePoint Server 2007 by Using Internet Explorer 7 and the Office Research Pane"
  6. Nielsen Norman Group's reports on Intranet design, http://www.nngroup.com/reports/intranet/design/
  7. You can do a search for Information Architecture at http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/sharepoint/default.aspx.
  8. Information Architecture is the “structural design of shared information".  This quote is from: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/sharepoint/worldwide/ca/ottawa/Documents/ECM%20Day%20-%20Presentation/eCollaboration%20for%20Knowledge%20Workers%20-%20CGI.pdf
Published: 11/15/2008 8:32 AM
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SharePoint Job Opportunity: SharePoint Architect and Team Lead - Chicago - West Suburban
07 November 08 12:35 PM | Blogging about SharePoint: Posts
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Jeff Messacar from On Target IT asked me to post this job listing.  He is trying to fill a full time position  - no contractors - for a client of his in the western suburbs of Chicagoland.

He writes:

"I have this great client who is looking for a full-time, Senior Lead role that encompasses Development, Strategy, and Team Management.  They are looking for someone who has been through the trenches and can be technically hands-on when necessary.  These technical areas are of importance: Portals, Document Management, Integration, Custom .NET development, and Source Code Management Tools.  The position is in the western suburbs of Chicago and is one level away from the CIO position.  This position will pay in excess of $110k.  Attached is a detailed job description.

I work alone and have a very tight knit client base.  I can secure an interview and decision in rapid time."

The job description is at http://blumenthalit.net/Files/SharePointJobs/JeffMessacar-OnTargetIT/SharePoint%20Lead%20Job%20Desc%20NC.doc and is a 50kb Word doc.  If Word prompts you for authentication, just hit cancel. 

His email address is jeff at OnTargetIT dot com  and he can be reached by phone at (630) 853-1537.  Let him know that you heard about this through my blog, BlumenthalIT.net.

--Michael

Published: 11/7/2008 9:36 AM
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