TAT in the news again!

Per from TAT is interviewed regarding Android:
http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.135610

Excel - converting text to numbers

Many times I have wondered how to convert texts displayed as numbers to a true number in Excel, check this tip for a cool solution.

Passed certification 70-630

Alot of Excel Web Services, Site directory and Search.

Multilanguage whitepaper for MOSS

Building Multilingual Solutions by Using SharePoint Products and Technologies

* Learn how to create web parts to use the variation feature
* Get more info how the index and search web parts can be configured to support multilanguage sites
* Understand the variation feature with constraints and rules to remember

Passed certification 70-631

Passed the test today, easier than I thought :) Make sure you know your NLB and IRM configurations.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-631.mspx

// Henrik

Stsadm command of the day

Before moving MOSS content databases you should use "preparetomove". For the complete list
of commands and don´t forget the (developer) extensions from Andrew Connell.

Back from CMF2007 in Århus

Just back from CMF2007 and two good days. The first day I attended two great tutorials, one with James Hubart talking about advanced UI portal strategies and Designing innovative intranets with James Robertson (link to cards used in tutorial). I really liked the time frame that the speakes got, four hours for diving into the subject instead of a rushed 50 minutes "product showcase".

The second day I attended the MOSS 2007 track with showcases of http://www.nhs.uk/ and LM Glasfiber intranet, not too many news for an old Sharepointer, but nice to see the concept and listening to the project setup and goverence structure.

The conference goes on with a third day, but I´m back in Sweden for other workshops during the week.

Warm Up script for SharePoint

http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2006/08/13/697044.aspx

Another variant, thanks for the link to Andrew Kennel

5 shattering mistakes for MOSS 2007 newbies

http://www.techticles.com/5-shattering-mistakes-for-moss-2007-newbie-developers-and-team-leads.page

SharePoint Comparison Sheet

An Excel sheet comparing features (new and old) regarding older and new SharePoint version.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/d/c/1dc632e8-71e1-466f-8a2f-c940f1438e0a/SharePointProductsComparison.xls

Seminar wih Fredrik Wackå

Today I have attended a short seminar about Enterprise 2.0 with Fredrik Wackå. If you have the chance to listen to him, don´t miss the opportunity.

During the presentation he talked about how the intranet has evolved according to different publishing models, low hanging fruits (tagging!) to get started, trust in an enterprise (how can we ISO certificate a Wiki or blog posts?), crowd knowledge (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_of_crowds), cross functional information sharing, relevance and resources, strategy for Enterprise 2.0 and the importance of measuring the behaviour (referring to IBM, which claims that it can´t be measured. Are we up to the challenge?)

Sites mentioned:
www.flickr.com
www.facebook.com
www.linkedin.com
www.digg.com
www.twitter.com
del.icio.us
www.jaiku.com

More info here:
http://www.wpr.se/

End to End Performance - Digging into your SharePoint Server and WSS Network Perf Issues

http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2006/08/17/703198.aspx

Managing enterprise metadata with content types and search.

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/10/12/managing-enterprise-metadata-with-content-types-and-search.aspx

Sizing of dbs, sites, list and more objects in Sharepoint

File Name, Length, Size and Invalid Character Restrictions and Recommendations
http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/06/27/file-name-length-size-and-invalid-character-restrictions-and-recommendations.aspx

Plan for software boundaries
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/6a13cd9f-4b44-40d6-85aa-c70a8e5c34fe1033.mspx

Plan enterprise content storage
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/9994b57f-fef8-44e7-9bf9-ca620ce207341033.mspx

Dataview and unghosted pages

The XSLT DataView can be used for many things when you want to customize the layout of web parts in your site. The problem when using the Data view on pages are that the pages gets unghosted. Follow this instruction to maintain your pages ghosted and even get a decent test and dev page.

1. Create a web part page
2. Add the list web part to the web part page
3. Open the page in FP 2003
4. Convert the web part to a XSLT Data View
5. Do your changes (the web part is actually converted to a XSLT document, check the Code window in FP 2003)
6. Save the page
7. Open the web part page in your browser and export the web part
8. Open the page you want to display the web part on (i.e Home)
9. Import the web part to the page (check the web part properties, the XSLT is available for direct editing)
10. Delete the web part page if you don´t need it anymore

Done

Querystrings for web part pages

http://blogs.msdn.com/danielmcpherson/archive/2004/10/11/240863.aspx

Differences between WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007

Which SharePoint technology is right for you?

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/FX101758691033.aspx

Read list September

http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_effectiveim/index.html

Adding functionality without server installation

While I'm enjoying my paternity leave I will write a few blog posts about extending Sharepoint sites without requiring developing and installing server side web parts. These posts will demonstrate a simple but effective approach for content aggregation and manipulating input forms on sites.

What you need to follow my examples are:

1. Two Invaluable Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) Shortcuts
2. Knowledge about JavaScript, DOM and XMLHTTP objects
3. A clear understanding of the security settings of your sites
4. The downsides to use this approach (will be discussed while moving along)

In the next blog post I will set up the infrastructure code.

Crawled properties for HTML documents

We are currently running an intresting project including the index engine in cooperation with Tamino XML server. One action in the project is to index HTML documents from the Tamino XML server and use the MOSS Query Web Service to present search results.

The HTML contains the classic meta tag ">meta name="Keywords" content=""<" which still provides information to some crawlers. Here we encounter a problem. After the content source had been setup and the HTML documents had been crawled the "Keywords" properties didn´t show up in the crawled properties view, but other "meta" tags was, i.e ">meta name="Region" content="Sweden"<". For some reason the "Keywords" meta tag is skipped.

The solution to this case was to add another meta tag, "KeywordsCust" and add the same information as in "Keywords" from the source. After a full crawl the meta tag apperad in crawled properties, then just map it to "Keywords" in managed properties and you are ready to go.

Two test tools for the Query Web Service in MOSS / SPPS
http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=89b3cda7-aad9-4919-8faf-34ef9b28c57b
http://www.mosssearch.com/searchwebservice.html

Heads up: Lookup column and multiple values

There is a new setting when using a lookup column, "Allow multiple values". This means that you can choose several values from the lookup column. Great! But you can use the column in views for sorting or grouping, but it can be used for filter. A drawback ofcourse. Uncheck "Allow mulitple values" and it can be used for sorting and grouping again. The same behaviour goes for column "Choice" when using "Checkboxes"

Introduction to 'SharePoint Enterprise Search'

A good introduction to the index engine, ifilters and the query interface. I have always considered the search engine the one component that is really worth the license cost of SPPS 2003 and with the improvments made in MOSS (change log crawling, continouse propagation) it will enable more accurate search results and better administration.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/01/Search/

If you are using Windows Desktop Search, then check out this tip to enable integration to the Search Center: http://markharrison.co.uk/blog/2006/10/sharepoint-search-directly-from.htm

Troubleshooting Explorer View

When a user can not use the "Explorer View" (Cannot find 'file://\\server\site\doclib. Make sure the path or Internet address is correct.) in a document library in Sharepoint the first thing to check is the "WebClient" service. It needs to be started to be able to use the "Explorer View".

Microsoft has also released a whitepaper for troublehooting the Explorer View

Debug Feature in WSS

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/04/10/debugger-feature-for-sharepoint.aspx

SharePoint Screen Casts and Demos

http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/04/10/sharepoint-screen-casts-and-demos.aspx

Read list:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/04/09/investing-in-logical-architecture-design-samples.aspx

Job security - the powerpoint way

Dilbert

Recommended Reading for March and April, 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/25/recommended-reading-for-march-and-april-2007.aspx

SharePoint Solution Installer from MondoSoft

http://blog.mondosoft.com/ontolica/archive/2007/03/14/Generic-SharePoint-2007-Solution-Installer.aspx

Best Practices Analyzer for MOSS and SPS V3

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=cb944b27-9d6b-4a1f-b3e1-778efda07df8&displaylang=en

Extended search interface for MOSS

Currently I´m evaluating the beta version of Ontolica search solution for MOSS. The web parts enables us to have quick search shortcuts and do additional filtering based on file extensions and content type. Currently in beta, but scheduled to be released in June.

Other search UI extended web parts will also be reviewed in this process. Watch this blog for more info.

Read list:

Find It All with SharePoint Enterprise Search
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/01/Search/

Heads up for RSS web parts in MOSS

I noticed a design change in MOSS 2007 from the beta releases. The RSS web part can only consume feeds from anonymous lists or when using Kerberos (instead of NTLM).

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/e8493b73-ad1a-4642-8141-05405f0026781033.mspx?mfr=true. Search for "RSS Web Part"

I suppose this opens for third party RSS web parts (again)

// Henrik

How to add a User Information lookup field with code

One of our developers asked me a question about adding a lookup field to the "User information" list with code. The "Add" method of SPFieldCollection wants a Guid for the destination list, but the "User information" list is not a SharePoint list. The solution is to use the "AddFieldAsXML" and submit a field XML instead.

SPWeb web = GetContextWeb(Current) 'Or whatever method used to acquire this object

SPList list = web.Lists[<listname>];

list.Fields.AddFieldAsXml("<Field Type="User" List="UserInfo" ShowField="Title" DisplayName="<FIELDNAME>" Name="<FIELDNAME>" />");


Verified for: WSS v2, SPPS 2003

Welcome!

My first post! Well, this blog will be my daily scrapbook and an adventure into 2.0 (finally). This blog will mostly contain job related postings, so no more mass-mail to my colleagues ;).

For a more personal touch go to my familys blog.
// Henrik