Mark Kruger, 5x SharePoint MVP, iImagineIT, Inc. consultant specializing in Microsoft 365, Office 365, SharePoint, Knowledge Management, Software Development, Architecture Solutions, Delve, PowerApps, PowerAutomate, PowerBI, Teams, Stream, Yammer, Sway, etc.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
SharePoint Developers in Cincy?
Apologies for the lack of updates lately. I've been buried on a couple of different projects.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Shared Service Provider Access Denied
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Hello Twitterland!
@mark_kruger
Hope to hear from everyone soon!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Could it really be? WebTrends for SharePoint!
Check out the new whitepaper on WebTrends for SharePoint
Reports include:
- WebParts Viewed
- Breadcrumbs Report
- Document Actions
- Activity by User
- User Specific Document Action
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Demos: A six-part series on getting the most out of SharePoint Designer 2007
Powerful user interface and design tools
Customize SharePoint sites
Create and modify layout pages
Create and modify rules-based workflow applications
Build composite no-code SharePoint applications
Visual Studio integration
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Attention: Important Information on Service Pack 2
"During the installation of SP2, a product expiration date is improperly activated. This means SharePoint will expire as though it was a trial installation 180 days after SP2 is deployed. "
Which products are affected by this?
Applying Service Pack 2 to any of the following products will result in this issue: Office SharePoint Server 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet Sites, Project Server 2007, Form Server 2007, Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express.
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is not affected by this issue.
Check out the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog on what you can do to fix the Service Pack 2 issue.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Microsoft SharePoint Development Panel Discussion
Microsoft SharePoint Development Panel Discussion
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
For the SharePoint Designer Non-Believers...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvvVJamO3nQ
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Virto Ajax Web Part Calendar SharePoint
Adding Event with a one mouse click
Event Coloring according to List Type
Date Picker for quick and easy navigation
Event duration editing with a simple resizing action
Event date changing with a just drag and drop
Single aggregated view of all your events from different SharePoint Lists not only single SharePoint Site
Resizing for fitting your web page design
Printing of any calendar View
Download Free Virto Calendar Now!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
White paper: Working with large lists in Office SharePoint Server 2007
Microsoft performed performance testing against Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 to determine the performance characteristics of large SharePoint lists under different loads and modes of operation. This white paper presents their findings.
The test results in this white paper are intended to demonstrate the difference in the performance characteristics of SharePoint lists containing large numbers of items when different data access types are used to present list contents. Test results in this white paper show how to optimize list performance through limits on the number of items that appear in a list, and by choosing the most appropriate method of retrieving list contents.
Download this white paper as a Microsoft Word document (.doc).
White paper: Working with large lists in Office SharePoint Server 2007 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=95450&clcid=0x409)
Data access methods
- Browser
- SPList with For/Each
- SPList with SPQuery
- SPList with DataTable
- SPListItems with DataTable
- Lists Web service
- Search
- PortalSiteMapProvider
Analyzing the results
The test results in this white paper validate the fact that with proper testing in your own environment, it is quite possible that you can use more than 2,000 items in a container without an adverse impact on performance. The best results will be obtained if you write your own user interface to work with the data in the list, and make some carefully considered choices about what data access method works best for your requirements. The data access method you choose may very well impact other aspects of your site or list implementation.
For example, using data access methods that require the SPList class will greatly benefit from indexing columns used in a WHERE clause. However, the benefit of indexing these columns is marginal if the data is retrieved using the Search service, the Lists Web service or the PortalSiteMapProvider class. Conversely, if you are not using the SPList class for data retrieval, data access will likely be much faster if you are able to retrieve data based on the ID of items, rather than the value of a specific column in a list.
Additional Resources: Plan for performance and capacity (Office SharePoint Server)
Monday, April 6, 2009
SharePoint Drives Ferrari!
The site is pretty sleek loaded with images, video and flash animation! Check out this preview video about the Ferrari.com site.
Via Softpedia, Owen Allen, Steve Clayton and Chris Parkes!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
SharePoint List Association Manager - SLAM!
Enter SharePoint List Association Manager (SLAM). In short it allows you to define relationships (one to one, one to many, many to many) between SharePoint lists (or Content Types) and then leverage those relationships in webparts or custom field types using familiar and straight forward SQL queries.
Illustrated Guide to SLAM
SLAM Architecture
Check it out on codeplex!
http://slam.codeplex.com/
Thursday, April 2, 2009
MOSS Installation and Deployment Guides
Installation Guide for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Deployment for Office SharePoint Server 2007
Upgrading to Office SharePoint Server
Keep tabs on the latest document by checking out Newly published content for Office SharePoint Server 2007
Download SharePoint Designer Free!
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42
Home Page for SharePoint Designer 2007
Video of SharePoint Designer 2007 FAQ (6.2MB)
Video of SharePoint Designer 2007 FAQ (16.8MB)
Video of SharePoint Designer 2007 FAQ (82.9MB)
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Data View Customization: Calculating the Number of Days Between Two Dates in XSLT
The objective was to display the number of days between two dates such as Today and last Oct. You can't do this in out of the box SharePoint so you have to go to the XLST to perform data manipulations. Unfortunately, XSLT 1.0 doesnt have any date manipulation so we looked at DDWRT.
My colleague, Michael Bollhoefer and I searched all over Google for terms like Date Manipulation, dateDiff xslt, xsl date comparisons, datedif xslt, date difference xslt, etc. We came across a template but for some reason it wasn't returning the correct value. Eventually we came to the conclusion that the date format had to be the root of our error. We needed to convert from a gregorian dateTime format (CCYY-MM-DDT00:00:00Z) into a Juliantime format. Then you can easily subtract or add to the julian numbers to get your desired result. Subtracting the gregorian results with a sub-string function didnt provide accurate results because you have to account for the number of days in each month.
Our research finally led us to Toni Frankola's post on endusersharepoint.com which resulted in the new XSLT:
<xsl:template name="DateDiff">
<xsl:param name="StartDate"></xsl:param>
<xsl:param name="TodayDate"></xsl:param>
<xsl:variable name="JulianToday">
<xsl:call-template name="calculate-julian-day">
<xsl:with-param name="Year" select="substring(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string($TodayDate), 1033, 'yyyyMMdd'),0,5)"/>
<xsl:with-param name="Month" select="substring(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string($TodayDate), 1033, 'yyyyMMdd'),5,2)"/>
<xsl:with-param name="Day" select="substring(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string($TodayDate), 1033, 'yyyyMMdd'),7,2)"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="JulianStartDate">
<xsl:call-template name="calculate-julian-day">
<xsl:with-param name="Year" select="substring(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string($StartDate), 1033, 'yyyyMMdd'),0,5)"/>
<xsl:with-param name="Month" select="substring(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string($StartDate), 1033, 'yyyyMMdd'),5,2)"/>
<xsl:with-param name="Day" select="substring(ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string($StartDate), 1033, 'yyyyMMdd'),7,2)"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:value-of select="$JulianStartDate - $JulianToday"></xsl:value-of>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="calculate-julian-day">
<xsl:param name="Year"/>
<xsl:param name="Month"/>
<xsl:param name="Day"/>
<xsl:variable name="JulianDay" select="floor((14 - $Month) div 12)"/>
<xsl:variable name="JulianYear" select="$Year + 4800 - $JulianDay"/>
<xsl:variable name="JulianMonth" select="$Month + 12 * $JulianDay - 3"/>
<xsl:value-of select="$Day + floor((153 * $JulianMonth + 2) div 5) + $JulianYear * 365 + floor($JulianYear div 4) - floor($JulianYear div 100) + floor($JulianYear div 400) - 32045"/>
</xsl:template>
This is the template that DID NOT WORK
http://www.exslt.org/date/functions/difference/index.html
Friday, March 27, 2009
JQuery for Everyone: Preview Pane for Multiple Lists
Also, check out Toni Frankola's post: Deploy Custom JQuery Scripts to the SharePoint Site Collection and Chris Edwards post: Integrating jQuery for Use in Your WebParts and Application Layout Pages
Jan Tielens also has some great intros on integrating jQuery and SharePoint:
Integrating SharePoint 2007 and jQuery [Part One]
Integrating SharePoint 2007 and jQuery [Part Two]
Peter Serzo (via Joel Oleson's Blog) also gives the top 5 reasons to use jQuery.
Speaking of Jan Tielens, check out SmartTools for SharePoint
what is jQuery?
jQuery is a lightweight open source JavaScript library (only 15kb in size).
Office SharePoint Server 2007: Five Ways SharePoint Can Save You Money
Overview
In this paper, we look at how Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies can help you to reduce TCO and maximize ROI for your enterprise solutions. SharePoint Products and Technologies provide a comprehensive suite of features in all areas of information management, and can enable you to consolidate all your enterprise solutions into a single, manageable platform. Many of the world's leading companies, such as MTV and the Bank of America, are already realizing benefits from the adoption of these technologies. The paper focuses on five specific ways in which SharePoint Products and Technologies can save you money. When you adopt SharePoint Products and Technologies in your organization, you can: • Reduce IT costs and complexity • Reduce development costs • Simplify management and training • Improve employee productivity • Enhance the effectiveness of customer service and sales teams
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The Phantom Security Menace: Rogue SharePoint Sites
This doesn't surprise me in the slightest. This has been one of the big concerns I've had over SharePoint for some time. SharePoint requires organizations to work together... even to implement! Clear roles and responsibilities should be defined before any project gets started. The most common pitfall of any SharePoint project is the lack of agreement between the IT side and the business side within an organization.
Usually the experts are the folks in the middle. We're the mediators and the peace-keepers. SharePoint experts are able to communicate and understand business needs at the same time working under the umbrella of restrictions that IT holds. I've seen time and time again where IT holds the keys to the kingdom and all decisions are made under an oppressive IT thumb. (I'll save business justification for a later discussion or common pitfalls.) Last time I checked, IT works for the business... right?
I think it all comes down to a matter of trust and a solid governance plan. IT doesn't want to lose control and the business just wants their needs met. So it really doesn't surprise me that 3 out of every 10 instances go outside of IT, whom can stonewall any project.
The way I see it, there should always be an intermediate team that works with both the business and IT. I think the worlds are so different that there really has to be a translator. It doesn't make the process much easier and in fact, puts a lot of pressure on the experts stuck in the middle but it's for the greater good.
Now, as for me.... on to writing up 'tangible' MOSS benefits for the business and arguing with IT for SharePoint Designer rights in production. These are the chronicles of a SharePoint consultant! ;o)
Consuming SharePoint Lists via AJAX
Make sure you also check out Jan Tielens post that shows how to enable .NET 3.5 in SharePoint, the lazy way as well as Features for SharePoint, by Ted Pattison.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
InfoPath and MOSS - Web Enabled Feedback Form
Here's a nice step-by-step walk-through for creating an InfoPath Form Library with a custom InfoPath form which is connected back to the InfoPath Form Library in MOSS.
The article gives some nice explanation on how to have InfoPath Forms saved back to your MOSS Forms Library with a custom name. This name can include the date with a title of your choice. There are also some very useful InfoPath troubleshooting tips.
Once the Form is published, you can allow it to be filled out over the web via web browser using Content Types and a little configuration of the Document Library (“Allow management of content types?” to Yes. Since we want to have the form accessible via the web client, we need to select Display as a Web page under “Opening browser-enabled documents”.)
Nice write-up!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Packaging and Re-using SharePoint Designer Workflows
Emile also released a Beta SPD Workflow Export Utility which can be found on codeplex! Download Link
SharePoint Designer to Become a Free Product?
SharePoint Designer, Free as in Beer
SharePoint Designer will be a free download as of 1 April 2009
Get SharePoint Designer For Free
At least it gives us something to look forward to in addition to the April Fool's Jokes :)
SharePoint Silverlight Web Parts and Resources
Silverlight BluePrint for SharePoint
Another nice explanation of creating Silverlight applications for SharePoint in VS using the extensions can be seen on Andrew Whitechapel's blog.
Saurabhd Dasgupta works for Microsoft Consulting Services and posted these great articles:
An approach towards implementing information entry forms using Silverlight and SharePoint Part 1 and Part 2.
How to Create a Silverlight Web Part in ASP.NET for Use in SharePoint Server 2007
Silverlight webpart for SharePoint by Shantha Kumar
Simon's BinaryJam Silverlight Photoviewer Web Part
Kirk Evan's Hosting Silverlight in a SharePoint Webpart
Randy Williams: Tips For Writing Silverlight Web Parts in SharePoint: Part 2
Tips For Writing Silverlight Web Parts in SharePoint: Part 1
Silverlight Web Part in SharePoint
Monday, March 23, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Announcing The Microsoft Translator Web Page Widget
Groove – How to get it on and get access to SharePoint documents offline
Mark Gillis also has a great performance tip... Group those list views!
Friday, March 20, 2009
How to Use SharePoint Discussion Boards in Outlook 2007
Let's face it, we all live and work in Outlook so this is a great way to bring discussion activity to your inbox (outside of using alerts).
The walkthrough explains:
- How to view your discussion board in Outlook
- How to reply to discussions (posting back to SharePoint)
- How to start new discussions on your SharePoint discussion board
Microsoft Releases New Themes for MOSS
http://blog.drisgill.com/2009/03/microsoft-released-10-new-sharepoint.html
Microsoft Download Link
Automatically resizing Sharepoint Page Viewer Web Part to its content
Using Microsoft Excel with SharePoint 2007
I would like to point out one major error in the article: "You can't use Excel to edit the data that's stored in SharePoint. That's because the SharePoint data is linked to Excel through a Web query file. In this particular scenario, a Web query file facilitates only one-way operations."
This isn't true at all. The authors of the article fail to mention the List Toolbar which does offer the ability to Synchronize your SharePoint list within Excel. You have to have edit rights to the list in order to write back to the list.
In Excel 2007
You can add the 'Synchronize List' option to your Quick Access Toolbar by clicking the Office Button -> Excel Options (bottom right) ->Customize -> Change the first dropdown to Choose Commands from All Commands and locate the Synchronize List option. Click Add. Now the shortcut will appear at the top of Excel next to your save, undo, and redo changes.
Note you can also click the small arrow next to the Quick Access Toolbar and select More Commands.
In Excel 2003
Just enable the List Toolbar by View->Toolbars - List
One key point the article does make is the inability to apply formatting. In order to do that, you'll need to create separate sheets in your Excel workbook and use lookup formulas to the data.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
No MOSS Required: Free Web CMS Built on SharePoint Services
No MOSS Required: Free Web CMS Built on SharePoint Services
CompleteSharePoint.NET was built by Tommy Segoro, a Practice Lead working at L7 Solutions in Perth, Western Australia. It is currently a beta solution. Released on CodePlex in October of last year, CS.NET has been downloaded over 519 time to date.
CompleteSharePoint Functionality
It is said to have some, but not all, of the same functionality as MOSS — SharePoint Server 2007. Some of these features include:
- Custom base publishing content type (named CompleteSharepoint.NET Article Page)
- Custom site actions menu
- Custom administration pages located in _layouts
- Custom controls such as page editing toolbar
- Custom field controls (eg. publishing page content field using FreeTextBox)
- ASP.NET VirtualPage to treat page layout as if it's a compiled .NET page
Read more at the source...
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
SharePoint 14 Buzz!
More Articles:
SharePoint 14, SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2012. The next version is a long way off by any name
Wonder What's Coming in Next Version of SharePoint?
SharePoint vNext – Rumours, Speculation and Confirmed Features
SharePoint 14: Everything We Know
SharePoint Conference 2009
Arpan Shah's Interview and Answers regarding '14'
No SharePoint 14 for you this year
Joel Oleson is writing a SharePoint 14 Book
MSDN Magazine: 10 Best Practices For Building SharePoint Solutions
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd458798.aspx
This article discusses:
Taking advantage of built-in SharePoint capabilities
Deploying SharePoint solutions
Creating testable code
Branding SharePoint for scale and maintenance
Custom Auditing in SharePoint - Document Download and List Item Counts
MOSS Ratings Module
After a quick registration you can gain access to the .wsp and to the installation instructions.
NearPoint for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Continue at source...
Mainsoft links Microsoft SharePoint, IBM Jazz
Continue at source...
Microsoft SharePoint Developer Challenge
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointdevelopment/threads/
From March 1st, 2009 to May 31st, 2009 there will be three contests and 5 monthly prizes given. You can win an Xbox 360, a Zune 120GB , or a 7” digital frame!
For more information, including eligibility and entry requirements, see official rules at http://blogs.msdn.com/pandrew/pages/microsoft-sharepoint-developer-forum-challenge-official-rules.aspx.
Monday, March 16, 2009
How to use a URL parameter to filter a Data View Web part in FrontPage 2003
Insert a Data View
To add a Data View to your Web, page follow these steps:
1.Click the position on the page where you want your Data view to reside.
2.On the Data menu, click Insert Data View.
3.Click the data source that you want to use for your view.
4.Click Insert Data View.
Modify the parameter binding location
To modify the Data View to accept data from a URL, follow these steps:
1.Open the page in FrontPage 2003.
2.At the bottom of the edit window, click Code.
3.On the Edit menu, click Find.
4.In the Find What box, type ParameterBinding Name="filterParam", and then click Find Next.
5.Find the Location attribute in this line.
6.Replace the current Location attribute value with the following: "Postback;Connection;QueryString(Param)" Where Param is the parameter in the URL query string that you want to pass to the Data View filter (i.e. default.aspx?Param=MyValue).
7.At the bottom of the edit window, click Design.
8.Add a filter to the Data View. To do so, follow these steps
a. On the Data menu, click Filter.
b. Click Click here to add a new clause.
c. Select the Field Name that you want to filter on.
d. For the Value to compare against, click [Input Parameter].
9.Save the Web page.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
"Fantastic 40" SharePoint Application Templates
Completing the "Fantastic 40" – 20 remaining application templates now available, plus more!
Dont forget to check out the Updated Installation Guide for the 20 server admin Application Templates for WSS 3.0