Owner: Planet MOSS URL:http://planetmoss.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 08:57:21 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Planet MOSS is devoted to SharePoint 2007 tips, tricks, and news. Also covers K2 BlackPearl, CRM, InfoPath, and related technologies, as well as Internet trends. Site statistics:Click here
2007-08-22 07:23:00 Yesterday the August meeting of the Sydney SharePoint User Group was held. The speakers were Han Duong and Brad Saide, both from LivePoint.Han spoke about Themes in SharePoint. He gave a quick example of how to change a SharePoint site using the existing Themes in a MOSS installation, and suggested some tools, such as Heather Solomon's blog posting about all the SharePoint CSS classes, Firebug and web developer plugins for FireFox, and the IE Developer toolbar for Internet Explorer.He then showed how to customize Themes using SharePoint Designer. The first step is to copy an existing theme set from the Office 12 hive on the file system (<installation drive>Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions12TemplatesThemes) and rename it to the name of the new theme you want to create ([Theme Name]). Next, modify the name of the .info file contained within this new theme folder to be the [Theme Name].info. This is what SharePoint will look for when it tries to
LINQ To SQL ≠ N-Tier Architecture? 2007-08-28 04:14:00 Ok, LINQ seems pretty wonderful, and I can see the utility of it - and with regards to SharePoint we'll probably end up using it when Microsoft comes out with an official LINQ to SharePoint, or the community does. Heck, it may even replace (or at least abstract) the dreaded CAML code.... With LINQ, you get: Design-time type checking of data queries Code syntax that is consistent across objects, XML, and relational databases (and, really, anything else) Queries are integrated right into the .NET code frameworks Full IntelliSense support when coding what used to be a bunch of string values All good stuff. But what I don't understand is how it fits with traditional N-Tier architecture. Is this more of the same old "you can write 70% less code if you don't mind your web page directly accessing your database" trend, or can we actually use this in a properly architected application? I've been following along on Scott Guthrie's blog; he has a detailed series of posts abou Read more:SQL
, Architecture
News Bits 2007-08-26 03:42:00 Various bits of news and rumours: K2 blackpearl has gone RTM. You can download it from the K2 website after logging in with your user ID. Chris O'Connor is already blogging about the installation...check out his blog postings here and here. There is a SharePoint Asset Management Toolkit currently in beta at Microsoft. The intention behind it is to give an organization an overview of all the SharePoint assets floating around on the network: WSS sites, portals, etc. The idea being to get more of a handle on what's being built out there by enthusiastic 'Pointers. If you're keen on exploring LINQ, you'll probably be interested in the LINQ to SharePoint community project. Led by Bart De Smet, C# MVP, the project is currently in Alpha 0.2.3 (which is only four light years away), and the aim is to provide some of these following features (taken from Dimitri Clement): Custom query provider that translates LINQ queries to CAML, the Collaborative Application Markup Langua
Hotfix City 2007-08-30 05:37:00 I was cleaning up a portal today and ran into a wide variety of errors. Several of them turned out to have the same root cause. The symptoms were wildly varying event errors like this: Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.ApplicationServerAdministrationServiceJob threw an exception: "Message: Old format or invalid type library" Or Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.ApplicationServerAdministrationServiceJob threw an exception: "Message: Not Enough Storage" The resolution required not one but two hotfixes, both of which target the .NET 2.0 framework. I applied the first hotfix, KB 923028, after reading about it on Gayan Peiris' blog. After rebooting I started getting another error which read: Unable to open shim database version registry key - v2.0.50727.00000 Err....what? Speculating wildly here (something I'm good at), I'm guessing the "shim database" was holding some key in the windows registry that the Timer job wanted to know about but couldn't get at.
Attack Of The Blob! 2007-09-13 05:18:00 (Image taken from WikiPedia's entry on The Blob!) Yesterday I had a frustrating day trying to modify a CSS file for a SharePoint look and feel task. For some reason, no matter what I did, the CSS never refreshed in the browser. When viewed in SharePoint Designer it did show the updated version, but no amount of IIS resets, file deletion, or browser cache clearing prevented my web browsers (both Internet Explorer and Firefox) from rendering the old version. Eventually I happened to look on the file system and notice a folder on the root called "blobcache". Aha! I was using a new Virtual Machine and unbeknownst to me Blob Caching had been enabled to improve performance. Inside this blob cache folder I found my css file with a .cache file extension on the end of it. I tried to delete manually but it then started to show "File Not Found." errors. The solution was to flush the blob cache. The option is on the site collection's Site Settings. Select "Site Collection Object Cache" and the
Bottlenecks and Headaches 2007-09-08 06:14:00 A new article on Computer World suggests that IT is a "key barrier to corporate Web 2.0 adoption", according to speakers at the Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco. An example of how the IT team were slow to facilitate Web.20 projects: [The] head of digital media at the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) in London, noted that she first had to bypass IT to get Web 2.0 technologies to the group's end users. Once she started the effort, she said, "IT started to realize it was happening without them anyway. They weren't interested until they started to get multiple requests from around the business. Eventually, they came on board." The Pendulum Swings Information Technology trends swing along a pendulum from complete decentralization to centralization. With Web 2.0 the pendulum is currently swinging away from central IT control. In general I think this is a good trend, since the pool of "developers" will deepen if it starts to i
SharePoint Accessibility 2007-09-05 07:24:00 One of the most painstaking web programming tasks is achieving web accessibility. Although estimates vary, between 5 and 10% of web users have some sort of accessibility need. There are several standards, and determining which ones to support depends largely on your business needs and location. The US Government for instance has Section 508 compliance while the Canadian Government has Common Look And Feel 2.0 Accessibility
standards. Generally all of these standards build upon the specifications of the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, specifically the Priority 1 and 2 requirements. Some examples of WCAG requirements are that all web pages must have valid HTML and CSS code, images must have alternative descriptive text, and there must be alternative methods of viewing data or accessing page functionality. Accessible browsers such as JAWS cannot interpret client scripts or view images in the way that a regular browser
October Sydney SharePoint Usergroup and Office DevCon 2007-10-11 06:27:00 Next Tuesday will be this month's SharePoint Usergroup. The main presentation will be given by Microsoft's SilverLight Evangelist, Micheal Kordahi. He'll be demonstrating SilverLight and talk about how it can be incorporated in SharePoint portals. This should be really interesting as it can probably add a lot of pizzazz to any SharePoint site. Another presentation will discuss how to use WSS sites for public websites. On a related note, the SSUG now has its own dedicated website, at http://SharePointUsers.org.au/sydney. It is a SharePoint site that uses the slick-looking Community Kit. Finally, Microsoft will be hosting Office DevCon at their Ryde campus on Saturday November 3 and Sunday November 4. There will be many speakers and sessions covering all aspects of Office 2007 and the intended audience is developers and power users. The conference is free and you can register at http://www.block.net.au/devcon/index.htm.
Read more:October
, Sydney
2007-10-08 07:40:00 Bob Mixon, Drew Jones, and Bob Fox have joined forces to launch the SharePoint Beagle, a free community newsletter dedicated to SharePoint. As Bob describes it on his blog:Each monthly issue will be hosting a wealth of information on SharePointadministration, development and end user answersThey've already signed up thousands of users so there's clearly a keen interest. You can view the newsletter at http://www.sharepointbeagle.com/.
SharePoint + Services 2007-10-06 01:16:00 Microsoft has a new Software + Services
vision, so this can't be much of a surprise: they are now offering hosted SharePoint "in the cloud". Currently it's limited to organizations with "more than 5,000 employees" (so if you only have 4,950 you should top up) and includes hosted Exchange, Communications, and SharePoint all in a bundle called the "Business Productivity Infrastructure Online Services Offer". It's definitely a good idea. I've had some involvement trying to come up with a managed SharePoint offering and the complexities of SharePoint administration and development make it a hard thing to price and support. Microsoft looks to be avoiding that by making it largely self service, thereby placing their hosting effort on reducing the infrastructure and licensing burden which is I think a fair call and well within their control. I imagine they can also leverage their Fantastic 40 templates and the like to give customers some customization options. Although it
Public Facing WSS Sites + Silverlight 2007-10-17 08:06:00 Last night was another interesting Sydney SharePoint User Group. There were two presentations, one on using Windows SharePoint Services as a public facing CMS site given by Jon Matthes, and another by Michael Kordahi on Silverlight (+ SharePoint!). Jon gave a very interesting talk about using WSS to rewrite a legacy web application for The Scottish Banner, an online community newsletter for Scots abroad. His aim was to improve on the old PHP website, retain its general design, allow online feedback forms, and produce minimal impact on end users in a cost effective way. He also hoped it would be an opportunity to learn about WSS 3. The way he approached the site migration was to replicate as much of the existing structure as he could, with the only exception being the addition of the WSS administration area. He created anonymous access to a list to allow people to make submissions to the site while not logged in. An additional feature was the use of image libraries to serve as a simple Read more:Public
, Facing
, Sites
Microsoft Releases End User Training Kit For SharePoint 2007-10-15 03:44:00 Microsoft's SharePoint team is releasing a SharePoint End User Training
Kit. This will be a helpful offering to clients who may not have lined up full training plans, or for use in self-service scenarios. All of this content has been written by Microsoft's Office Online User Assistance team, evidently after some real-world experience responding to customers' questions. The SharePoint Learning Kit version of the Training Kit is SCORM 2004 compliant and allows an organization to brand and customize the content delivery experience. A follow-up standalone deployment version will be available for individual use. It's quite easy to convince end users of the power and convenience of SharePoint, but they may still feel overwhelmed by the options once they are sitting in front of the browser. Therefore user support and training is a key part of SharePoint governance and this training kit will be a welcome addition in the toolbox. The SCORM version of the kit can be downloaded from the new Read more:Microsoft
OneNote and SharePoint: Better Together! 2007-10-25 08:27:00 OneNote 2007 is great for note-taking. My colleagues and I have been using it for the last little while and we love it. There's always something new to learn about it.
After many months of using it...
Application Virtualization In The Cloud 2007-10-22 07:46:00 Right now there are a couple of big industry trends I'd like to talk about: virtualization, and services "in the Cloud
".
Virtualization is basically a shell in which to run applications: the...
Read more:Application
Don't Panic! The MOSS Market Opportunity 2007-10-29 02:42:00 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 was released nearly a year ago now, and over the last few months I've started to hear people in the industry say things like "there is a 6-month window of...
Read more:Panic
, Market
, Opportunity
SharePoint As a Development Platform Debate 2007-10-31 05:00:00 There's a very heartfelt debate raging at CodeBetter.com over whether SharePoint is a good development platform. The breakdown seems to be between "developers" and "SPs" or "SharePoint People"....
Read more:Development
, Platform
, Debate
SharePoint Migration With MetaLogix 2007-11-12 03:29:00 I recently had the chance to evaluate a number of SharePoint content and site migration tools. Past migrations I've done have been performed using the out-of-the-box content migration using...
Read more:Migration
SharePointPedia Is Live 2007-11-18 06:01:00 The Microsoft SharePoint group has launched SharePointPedia, which is intended to be a community site for sharing knowledge around SharePoint. Although the name might imply a Wikipedia style wiki...
Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 Release 2007-11-23 01:17:00 This week Microsoft released Visual
Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5.
Over the past month I've been running the Beta 2 in the Virtual PC Microsoft provided. This was an excellent way to evaluate...
Read more:Release
, Visual Studio
SharePoint Kits 2007-12-01 04:12:00 There's some cool pre-Christmas SharePoint gifts here or almost here:
First off, SharePoint Service Pack 1 is on the way. There are some new stsadm commands, a rollup of the various hotfixes that...
Quick and Dirty Web Parts 2007-12-11 04:43:00 SharePoint is a joy for Rapid Application Development and prototyping. It's great fun to sit with clients and run up site hierarchy or document taxonomy on the fly, in response to their direct...
Read more:Parts
, Quick
Multilingual MOSS 2007-12-18 04:55:00 I investigated MOSS variants briefly in the Beta days but the language packs weren't out so I never had a chance to really play with them, until today.
I'm still learning about the feature set but...
Read more:Multilingual
"Our World" - Free Environmental Site Templates 2007-12-16 03:21:00 I thought it might be fun to create an environmental initiatives site template for MOSS 2007. The goal is to help organizations track the impact their policies have on the environment, in the hope of...
Read more:World
, Templates
MOSS: Microsoft Online SharePoint Server 2008-03-10 04:34:10 Awhile ago I blogged about the experiment Microsoft
was making providing SharePoint managed services to some of its biggest clients, what I called "SharePoint + Services". I guess the...
Data In, Data Out 2008-03-01 23:18:43 An important emerging web development initiative concerns "data portability", or how openly and transparently a website or application consumes and provides data. In a world of mashups, web...
Starlight Day SharePoint Site 2008-02-17 00:41:04 Starlight Day is an annual event when volunteers from across Australia donate their time and money to give sick children a wish. This year Dimension Data Australia worked with Starlight Children's...
Read more:Starlight
Microsoft Developer Roadmap Documentation 2008-01-29 03:04:03 On Saturday Microsoft
released documentation outlining step-by-step roadmaps for some common SharePoint tasks. So far these include the following activities: Setting up SharePoint servers ...
Read more:Developer
, Documentation
Recommend Site To A Friend
