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SharePoint Designer 2010 (BETA) Blog Series: Introduction to SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) User Interface (UI): Part 1

2009-12-20T10:56:00.001-05:00

SharePoint Designer 2010 (BETA) Blog Series: Introduction to SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) User Interface (UI): Part 1

Corro'll Driskell

December 20, 2009

Happy holidays to all, I am Corro’ll (Corel) Driskell, a SharePoint Architect on the SharePoint platforms. As many of you know I do many things around the SharePoint platforms and found it difficult to pick a starting place since my involvement on the TAP program.

So, I wanted to kick off my blogs, referencing the SharePoint 2010 platform and its tools, with SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta). I will post a number of blogs, as a part of this blog series, referencing the many features of SharePoint Designer 2010, such as, the new User Interface (UI), the ribbon, and a number of other features. Bottom line, this blog provides an overview focusing on the UI of SharePoint Designer 2010. This is not a deep dive into the capabilities of SharePoint Designer 2010 (BETA).

Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) allows Designers – non-programmers - and, encourages, Developers, and I mean encourage, to build web based applications on SharePoint’s latest platforms (SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010).

To start, you must locate SharePoint Designer 2010 in the Microsoft Office application group – its default location.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 1

One of the great things about the, new, SharePoint Designer 2010 experience is the initial start. Immediately, the user (Designers and Developers) is provided visual feedback upon the start of the application. It is my experience that the loading is rather quick versus the experience with the previous version, SharePoint Designer 2007.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 2

After SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) initially starts, you will notice that there are two primary focuses. The user has the option to Open a SharePoint Site or Create a New SharePoint Site. The new initial UI is a far step from the traditional experience of SharePoint Designer 2007. In fact, the user does not need to browse around the interface attempting to introduce them to the application. It is all there front and center.

In contrast, the fact that there is an option to use SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) on the My Site is discouraging. In another blog posting we will discuss the new features available on the, new, SharePoint 2010 platforms that afford the SharePoint administrators and Site Collection Administrator better control now is not the time to dive into those features, also, we will focus on the various options in more detail in a future blog as a part of this series.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 3

After, either, Opening the Site or Creating a New Site, the user is presented with the Site Setting information page. Of course, the most notable change, in the SharePoint Designer 2010 UI, is the presentation of the, new, Ribbon. Again, I will dive deeper in the various features afforded by the Ribbon in a later blog as a part of this series.

The Settings Page provides a significant amount of information , such as, the Site Information, Permissions, SubSites, also known as Webs, Settings and Customization. The fact that this Designer Dashboard, yes, I called it a dashboard, and no it isn’t Microsoft’s official terminology, is forthcoming with quite a bit of information. This information was, either, lacking or wasn’t as easy to obtain in SharePoint Designer 2007. Again, we will dive deeper into many of the features during this series in a future blog. Although the tab interface is not new to SharePoint Designer 2007, I find the tab interface in SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) a bit more inviting and user friendly.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 4

Lists and Libraries are nested in a simple view in SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta). It is more similar to a report versus a hierarchical structure, as leveraged in SharePoint Designer 2007. Also, I want to encourage you to focus on the changes in the context of the Ribbon’s interface as we navigate from the Site Settings page. Of course, we can witness a heavy use of the bread crumbs in the SharePoint Designer 2010’s interface. The bread crumb was presented as a simple navigation control in the SharePoint Designer 2007 interface. Again, there was an emphasis on the hierarchical structure.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 5

Workflows are also presented in a report form. The Workflows’ report provides summary information referencing workflows leveraged by the site or web. In the SharePoint Designer 2007 interface, Workflows were presented nested in a Workflow library or folder, depends on whom you ask. Again, there is an emphasis on the actual artifacts’ hosted on the SharePoint 2010 platform. Of course, there is a significant amount of new features for SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) and its capabilities to build flexible workflows. Again, we will dive deeper into those capabilities through-out this blog series.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 6

The Site Pages provides summary information about located in the Sites Pages Library. The Site Pages Library is used to create and store pages for a specific Site or Web.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 7

The Site Assets provides a reports view of files that are included on the pages of a Site or Web. In the SharePoint Designer 2007 UI, the storage locations for files included on the pages were stored in a number of locations, such as, the images folder.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 8

The Content Types page provided a summary report about the various collection of content types, leveraged by the Site or Web, to establish consistent management of content. Immediately, you will find information, such as, Group, Parent, Source and Description. Most importantly, the UI provides quick access to manage the various content types. SharePoint Designer 2007 did not afford users this type of reporting feature. We will explore this new feature further as a part of this blog series.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 9

The Site Columns UI provides a summary report referencing a collection of columns available to Lists, which includes, Column Name, Type, Group and Source. In the SharePoint Designer 2007 UI we did not have a central presentation of the linked columns for a Site or Web.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 10

The External Content Types summary reports provides information, such as, Display Name, Name, External System, Type and Namespace, about External Lists, also known as SharePoint Lists, that exposes data from various back-end repositories – databases, web services and other Line-of-Business applications. The beauty of it all is that this feature is provided in the SharePoint Designer 2010 UI.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 11

The Data Sources summary report provides information, Name, Type and Description, about the various data sources available to the Site or Web. The report is categorized based on type, for instance, Lists and Libraries. Again, this is a great presentation in the UI so that users are not required to leverage the hierarchical structure to obtain the information similar to the SharePoint Designer 2007 UI.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 12

The Master Pages summary report provides information, Name, Title, Content Type, Size, Modified Date, Modified By and Comments, about all of the artifacts, Master Pages, Page Layouts, images and xml files, found in the Master Page Gallery.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 13

The Site Groups summary report provides some information, Group Name and Description, about the various Groups with, some level, of access to the Site or Web. You have to ask yourself, where are the contributor settings. Again, we will dive deeper into the many changes in a later blog.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 14

The SubSites summary reports provide a list of the Sites or Webs within the hierarchical structure. The report provides information, such as, Site Name, URL and Modified Date.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 15

Finally, the All Files provides a summary report of all content for a Site or Web, which includes the SubSites. The information provided includes, Name, Title, Size, Type, Modified Date, Modified By and Comments. The significance here is users have a more efficient way to ascertain the information about the artifacts that make up SharePoint 2010 sites.

SharePoint Designer 2010 (Beta) UI 16

The overarching selling point is that SharePoint Designer 2010 encourages rapid building and deployment of, web-based, solutions that meet business needs, leveraging the various features – lists, content types, workflows and a number of other features – of an organization. Here is the catcher, there is no-coding. Included in this blog series, I will work to cover the various use cases and features.

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The SharePoint 2010 Beta bits are out!

2009-11-16T13:31:00.001-05:00

The Office SharePoint Foundation Server 2010 Beta (x64) and Office SharePoint Server 2010 Beta (x64) bits are now available on the Microsoft Technet site. If you are not leveraging Microsoft’s Hyper-V, I would recommend leveraging VMware Workstation. Microsoft Virtual PC – even on Windows 7 - does not support the 64 bit platform. In fact, I don’t know how soon.

Get your SharePoint 2010 Beta bits here!

SharePoint 2010: Let’s get started

2009-11-15T12:06:00.001-05:00

Now that the SharePoint Conference 2009 has came and went, it is time to get down to business. I have been on the Office 2010 TAP program since January 2009 and the recent Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview. I mention that fact, only to state that I have watched the offerings mature over the last few months. Again, I will participate in drinking of the SharePoint Kool-Aid. Great job!

When we think about the, expected, SharePoint Products 2010 ( SharePoint Foundation 2010 Beta and SharePoint Server 2010 Beta), it is important to take a look at the challenges faced by organizations. The fact that SharePoint 2010 Technologies is a rich platform that offers a rich number of features. I think the best approach is to speak to the targeted challenges.

While consulting for the last two years, I have found that many organizations are plagued with a number of consistent challenges. This fact holds true across a number of industries - Healthcare, Finance, Oil & Gas, …etc.

In evaluating many organizations you find that an ad-hoc approach is taken to pull together a fragmented approach to automation and increase in efficiency and productivity. I hope that last statement was clear. Information workers work in a number of applications (web sites, 3rd party and home grown applications). As a result, individuals, as well as, organizational productivity suffers.

Back to my original point, I will post a number of posting about the challenges to organizations, as identified by real world experience and industry research, and how SharePoint Products 2010 addresses those challenges. Again, I will speak from the "Trenches". I will offer you testimony from the actual work and not from the help file.

So Corro'll (Corel), "What do you have to offer?" Folks, I am one of those guys that put my hands into everything. I have a serious architectural (Directory Services, Messaging, SharePoint,DNS, …) background. Also, I have great knowledge - that includes hands on experience - in web design, building business processes and content, yes SharePoint Designer 2007/2010 and InfoPath 2007/2010. In addition, I have extensive SharePoint architectural ( Services, Deployment, Planning, …etc.). Stay tune folks. BTW, I offer the Avious Guide and Avious Camp series. That is another blog.

Although I do dive into a number of verticals leveraging SharePoint 2007/2010 as a platform, I will reference a number of Subject Matter Experts (SME) that add value to the planning, deployment and governance of the platform.

For starters, I will point people in the right direction for SharePoint Products 2010 posted by Microsoft. Keep your eyes on the bits and ear to the ground for content from me.

SharePoint Consultant’s Salaries

2009-11-01T11:22:00.001-05:00

As a Learning Consultant, I have assisted a number of System Integrators (SI) with tightly aligning training with their overall fiscal goals. Most importantly, we were able to measure the performance over time. Also, I have consulted and trained on the SharePoint platform. Over the several versions of SharePoint, I have found it to be amazing as to the salary ranges through-out the major cities. The fact that I live in the Atlanta surrounding areas, I place an emphasis on it.

On average, SharePoint consultants in the Atlanta area, yield about $100,000. When you take a look at the cost of living for Georgia – specifically Atlanta – you will find that is a great salary. In comparison to the standard of living as compared to other major cities, such as, Washington DC, Chicago, …etc.

The purpose of my blog is to encourage all to revaluate your training budgets and seek out training on the SharePoint platform. I assert that Microsoft’s commitment to SharePoint is well founded. Also, the next major version of SharePoint – SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 – is to beta this month. Again, it is time to ramp up on various features available. That is just my $19.11 worth.

SharePoint Consultant’s Salaries

2009-11-01T11:08:00.001-05:00

SharePoint: The Enterprise Content Management Platform, Part 1

2009-09-19T14:57:00.001-05:00

Over the last year, In evaluating many organization’s business needs and requirements, it was quite clear to me that SharePoint was not deployed as a content management platform. There were a number of reasons for this fact, but I will only focus on two. First, there was the lack of an organizational roadmap. The fact that many organizations failed to develop a formal roadmap, before deploying SharePoint, hindered user adoption and failed to align, the various features of, SharePoint with organizational business needs and requirements. Second and equally important, there was a lack of executive support and stakeholders involvement. To put it differently, IT was left holding the bag.

There are a number of questions as to where SharePoint sits in the enterprise as it compares to other content management (ECM, RM and DM) platforms. Naturally, many would expect for SharePoint to replace many of the existing ECM platforms. On the contrary, SharePoint – in many organizations – co-exist with a number of other content management platforms. Or, I have found that SharePoint is, either, competes or integrates with the existing content management platforms. This point is further supported by AIIM’s (http://www.aiim.org/research) research; “State of the ECM Industry”.

Figure 8: Which of the following would you use to best describe your current or planned use of SharePoint in
your organization with regard to your existing ECM, DM and RM suite? N=233 (SharePoint users)

The question for many SharePoint Architects and Administrators is, “How do we overcome the SharePoint constraints?” Architects, administrators and consultants must clearly demonstrate a clear return on investment (ROI). But as insightful as that may be, it does not bear on the key issue at hand. The key issue is that decision makers do not view SharePoint as an enterprise solution in the content management space. As a result, senior management doesn’t view SharePoint as an organizational priority. It is my position that SharePoint 2010’s ECM features and Microsoft’s partner channel will fill in a number of gaps that would change senior management’s behavior. Today, SharePoint 2007 is an excellent choice as an organization’s ECM platform. But, an organization mustbuild a formal roadmap for SharePoint.

In my next posting, I would like to take a closer look at SharePoint Governance and its value-add for building an ECM platform. Most importantly, leveraging a more structured approach to moving past a number of deployment road blocks.

Realistic Expectations for upgrading SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010

2009-09-17T20:02:00.001-05:00

For the last few months, I have been hesitating with blogging about SharePoint 2010 for fear of violating the NDA. Although Microsoft has released some information about SharePoint 2010, I have wanted to ensure that I display control and restrictions. Yea I know 007 mentalities. But, it works. Rick Taylor has posted an excellent demonstration referencing upgrading SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010. That is, my posting is only acting as a pointer until I am released from the NDA. I recommend reading the posting and acclimating yourselves to the future release. I am listing a number of references. Have at it.

A Triple Double Upgrade – PART 1

MOSS Pre-Installation Health Check

The Cult of the SharePoint (2007/2010) Platform. The SharePoint Customer Experience.

2009-09-02T23:29:00.001-05:00

I know that many are questioning the title of this blog. I want to focus on the title and answer the question, “Why use the term Cult in conjunction with SharePoint?”

First, my blog is inspired by a great speaker named, Shep Hyken. Shep has written a great book titled, The Cult of the Customer. I had the pleasure of attending one of Shep’s seminar about building a cult for your business. I am a bit light on his message. So, I invite you all to visit his site. Thanx Shep.

I want to begin with a quote from Shep.

“…. The Cult of the Customer is an organization’s culture that is so focused on taking care of their employees and customers that it creates amazement. In the world of business that means consistent, predictable and better-than-average experiences. These experiences can help create evangelists –employees and customers - who are loyal and go out of their way to be your advocates….”

Over the years, I have watched the many changes of SharePoint - even before it took on the name SharePoint. So, the use of the term cult –as it associates with SharePoint - is not a reference to a negative group of people or experiences. As defined by Shep, “A cult is a when a group of people that have a common interest.” In fact, a cult is actually a culture that evangelizes a solution, a platform, that adds value and provides a flexible infrastructure for additional value-add. That is, SharePoint has become a culture in itself. I know some may think that I have drunk the juice. The fact is…. We all have.

As I speak with a number of SharePoint MVPs, SharePoint product team members and, my experience from the trenches, SharePoint experts, the message is consistently the same. As a rule, organizations must ensure a proper assessment that ties organizational goals to the various features of SharePoint to deliver the highest value. At the same time, IT must involve the users of the, current, business processes so that we can ensure that those requirements are met. This blog does not focus on specific features of SharePoint. It focuses on, “Why SharePoint?”

1. The Cult of Uncertainty

a. It is unfortunate that many organizations exist in this very culture. The fact remains is that many organizations deploy technologies without proper planning. In addition, many organizations fail to properly train their employees. I could go on and on. The end result is a cycle of uncertainty and distrust. That boils down to inconsistencies for an organizations employees. I speak to this fact based on my many engagements over the last 16 years and conversations with other experts in the space. I can relate to Shep’s point about employees and customers living in a parallel world. It is my position that this speaks volume when we reference the use of SharePoint as a platform. Bottom line, how can you expect for your customers to be happy with the use of SharePoint and your employees are not (Intranet versus Internet). To put it differently, an organization must deliver a consistent message and deliver a consistent SharePoint solution to eliminate or minimize inconsistency.

2. The Cult of Alignment

a. On many engagements, the employees were not clear about the purpose of SharePoint. This fact exists for a number of reasons. By and large, it boils down to lack of communications or poor communications. That is, the stakeholders and/or IT has not communicated the value of SharePoint.

b. In order to encourage employee buy-in, and ultimately, customer buy-in an organization need to create a communication plan. The organization, as a whole, must buy into the overall SharePoint strategy. That is, all employees must understand the vision and mission of an organization’s business. It is my position that an employee that understands its organizations business has a better chance of understanding an organization’s SharePoint strategy.

3. The Cult of Experience

a. The overall goal here is to ensure that all employees experience the SharePoint promise. Rather than falling short on your deliverable, an organization that properly plans their SharePoint strategy has a higher possibility of delivering a positive experience.

4. The Cult of Ownership

a. An employee that has a positive experience generally takes ownership of a solid solution. That is, the employees own the SharePoint experience. As a result, IT is a trusted body that supports the overall goals of the organization or business.

5. The Cult of Amazement

a. At this point, the stakeholders and IT has built a comfortable level of trust. In essence, the employees use of SharePoint is predictable. Namely, the expectations are consistent and appealing. It is better than other average technologies.

On the whole, SharePoint architects, administrators and evangelist must ensure that SharePoint’s deployment is consistent, aligned with business goals and predictable. Consequently, an organizations employees ultimately takes ownership and customers are amazed. It is my position that the previously mentioned points achievable leveraging methodologies and processes. That is just my $19.11 worth. I am encouraging all to apply these principles when planning upgrades to or new deployments of SharePoint 2010.

Windows 7 goes to the Manufacturer…

2009-07-27T19:46:00.001-05:00

All -

The next version of the Windows Operating System is now in the manufacturer’s hands. I have used the Windows 7 for the last several months. I have been very satisfied with the various features. Of course, I am more interested in the Library feature. I would like to understand how it would integrate with SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010. We will find that answer in the coming months.

…

Office 2010: Technical Preview .. Just an Install!

2009-07-26T15:41:00.001-05:00

The time has arrived for the new iterations of Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 technologies. Unfortunately, I am limited with my discussions about the various features of SharePoint 2010. The fact that Office 2010 has been released to a significant amount of the masses, we are able to share our thoughts and experiences with Office 2010. That is, I am currently not under NDA for the Office 2010. By the same token, I am under the NDA for SharePoint 2010.

During my initial install of Microsoft Office 2010, I wanted to test a number of scenarios. I am on a 64 bit Windows 7 OS, but I am running the Office 2007 32 bit application. In my first scenario, I attempted to run the upgrade of the Office 2007 32 bit application to the Office 2010 64 bit version.

1. Navigate to the Office 2010 installation program. Double click the O2010_ProfessionalVL_volume_ship_x64_en-us.exe program.

The process was every bit of short lived. Yes, Microsoft stated that there is no upgrade path from the Office 2007 32 bit version to the Office 2010 64 bit version.

2. The dialog was brutally honest after the extraction of the files. “You cannot install the 64-bit version of Office 2010 because you have 32-bit Office products installed. These 32-bit products are not supported with 64-bit installations: Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007 Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007If you want to install 64-bit Office 2010, you must uninstall all 32-bit Office products first, and then run setup.exe in the x64 folder. If you want to install 32-bit Office 2010, close this setup. Then navigate to the x86 folder at the root of your CD/DVD and run setup.exe.”

3. I only had one option. I Clicked the OK button.

The next phase in my test was to attempt to use the Office 2010 32 Bit installation file to upgrade my Office 2007 bit version. I had a more forgiving experience. Double Click the O2010_ProfessionalVL_volume_ship_x86_en-us.exe file to start the installation.

4. Select the I accept the terms of this agreement check box.

5. Click the Continue button.

6. Click the Customize button

7. In the group area there are a number of options, I selected the Remove all previous versions. radio button.

During the installation there is an option to Keep all previous versions. I didn’t take any time to explore the options. Maybe, I will take a look at this option in the near future. I do want you to pay close attention to the note at the bottom of the dialog box.

Also, there is an option to selectively remove the previous versions of Office 2007. Again, I have not explored these other options.

8. Click Installation Options page tab. This tab allows us to customize how the Office 2010 programs run.

9. Click File Location page tab. The File Location tab allows you to change the location of the install bits.

10. Click the User Information page tab. On the User Information tab you provide the Full Name, Initials and Organization information.

11. Click Upgrade button.

12. The Installation Progress dialog box is displayed.

13. You are prompted with, “In order to complete setup, a system reboot is necessary. Would you like to reboot now?” Reboot your computer.

I look forward to exploring the various features of the Microsoft Office 2010. The total integration of the Office 2010 applications with SharePoint 2010 is compelling. Details later….

Requirements for Building a Master Pages From the Bottom Up using SharePoint Designer 2007

2009-04-03T19:47:00.001-05:00

There has been a number of conversations over the last year referencing building master pages from the bottom up using SharePoint Designer ( 2007).

Although It is a best practice – using SPD 2007 - to build customized master pages using an existing master page, it does not replace the fact that in order to recognize the various components that make up the master page a designer must build a master page from the ground up.

There are a number of blogs that speak to this process. It is not my intent to duplicate any postings. It is my intent to discuss this process in my own words and to add value based on the feedback from a number of sessions. All designers, should download the base.master file from Microsoft and use it as a starting point.

There are a number of blogs that identify the required controls and placeholders for Master Pages:

Discover How to Build Various Master Pages

To start, I would recommend that designers open up a number of master pages in SharePoint Designer’s Code View. You will note the consistent tags between the <HEAD></HEAD> elements. Remember, you would need to ensure that all of the required controls and content place holders are included on the master page.

1. You can copy the head elements of an existing master page. That is a great way to avoid making mistakes.

/***
<SharePoint:RobotsMetaTag runat="server"/>

/*** Displays the set title for the site in the tile bar ***/
<Title ID=onetidTitle><asp:ContentPlaceHolder id=PlaceHolderPageTitle runat="server"/></Title>

/*** The CssLink control calls the core.css cascading style sheets from the WFE server’s 12 Hive ***/
<SharePoint:CssLink runat="server"/>

/*** The Theme control calls the cascading style sheet for the associated theme ***/
<SharePoint:Theme runat="server"/>

/*** The ScriptLink control runs the core.js javascript file. It contains the basic SharePoint functions. ***/
<SharePoint:ScriptLink language="javascript" name="core.js" Defer="true" runat="server"/>

/*** Calls on any custom javascript files. ***/
<SharePoint:CustomJSUrl runat="server"/>

/*** Identifies the site’s disco file that defines the web services. ***/
<SharePoint:SoapDiscoveryLink runat="server"/>

/*** Content Place Holder that allows additional information to be added to the Page head. ***/
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead" runat="server"/>

/*** SharePoint uses the DelegateControl to add additional content between the head elements. ***/
<SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="AdditionalPageHead" AllowMultipleControls="true"/>
</HEAD>

2. Copy the opening body and form tags from an existing master page and overwrite open body and form tags.

3. In the event that you created a Master Page using the .masterpage template, delete the ContentPlaceHolder1 ContentPlaceholder & Save the master page.

<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>

There are a number of Designers that would like to utilize absolute positioning to control the placement of objects on the master pages versus using tables. To be exact, Designers would like to get rid of the “SharePointy Look”. No,…. the SharePointy term is not yet recognized by Wikipedia. I could not resist adding a bit of humor to this post.

In order to leverage absolute positioning a Designer is required to do the following:

1. Wrap the PlaceHolders with DIV and SPAN elements.

2. Use a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) to position the PlaceHolder on the page.

In the event that a Designer would like to leverage tables, there are a number of SharePoint Designer features that are available.

3. Click on the Table menu.

4. On the Master Page the Designer must identify the location of the Web Part toolpane. By default, the Web Part toolpane is located in a table cell. The MSO_ContentDiv is a placeholder control. It’s purpose is to allow SharePoint to add the web part toolpane.

Note: A Designer can use a table for formatting inside of the MSO_ContentDiv PlaceHolder. The default.master file provides a great example.

Note: The primary PlaceHolder used out of the box is the PlaceHolderMain. Within the PlaceHolderMain elements a Designer can use a table to layout the content in that area.

5. For all placeholders that are not used by the Designer, it is recommended that the Designer use the Panel control to hide the un-used placeholders. A Designer’s other option would be to set the visible property to false for each placeholder.

<asp:panel visible="false" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderBodyLeftBorder" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderBodyRightMargin" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderCalendarNavigator" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderFormDigest" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderHorizontalNav" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderLeftActions" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderLeftNavBarDataSource" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderLeftNavBarTop" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderMiniConsole" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderNavSpacer" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderPageImage" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSiteName" runat ="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleAreaClass" runat ="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderTitleAreaSeparator" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderTitleBreadcrumb" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderTitleInTitleArea" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderPageTitleInTitleArea" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderTitleLeftBorder" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderTitleRightMargin" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderTopNavBar" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderUtilityContent" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="SPNavigation" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="WSSDesignConsole" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="OSSConsole" runat="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderBodyAreaClass" runat ="server" />
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderPageDescription" runat="server"/>
</asp:panel>

This is just a start. I encourage you all to look out for Enrique Lima’s posting over the next few days. I will update this blog with a reference to his detailed steps for, “Building a Master Page from the ground up”.

Summary of Resources the SharePoint Designers

2009-02-19T16:35:00.001-05:00

During a number of facilitated sessions, I mention a number of resources that all SharePoint designers must reference. I have included a reference to those resources in this blog. I will update this blog post with additional information on a consistent basis. Please continue to add value by posting additional references in you comments.

Disclaimer: I am not personally responsible for the content of the listed resources.

In order to properly customize a SharePoint platform. It is my position that all designers must have a basic knowledge of SharePoint. I have included some links to introduce you to the SharePoint platform and its offerings.

An Introduction to Office SharePoint 2007

Microsoft Test-drive – (You need to sign up for this.)

Virtual Lab: SharePoint Products and Technologies

Although the use of SharePoint Designer 2007 doesn’t require knowledge of code, I strongly believe that all designers should learn about XML, HTML and CSS. There is a significant value in reviewing the following links:

XML, HTML, and CSS resources:

W3C MarkUp Guide

Introduction to CSS2

XML Schema Part 0: Primer Second Edition

CSS Classes in SharePoint’s core.css

CSS Zen Garden – some great examples of what can be done with CSS

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendations for XPath (version 2.0)

Surfacing CSS Classes in SharePoint Pages

In order to ensure that an organization follow organizational and government policies, SharePoint designers must ensure that they are knowledgeable about accessibility and how SharePoint Designer adds value. It has become more important for organizations today to include accessibility in their project plans.

Accessibility of SharePoint Sites:

Tips for Enhancing the Accessibility of SharePoint Web Sites

Section 508 VPATs for Microsoft products

Additional Workflow tools:

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Starter Kit: Workflow Developer Starter Kit for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Note: The Workflow Developer Starter Kit for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSSWorkflowStarterKitB2.msi) templates are now part of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Software Development Kit (WssSdk.exe).

Software Development Kits:

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Software Development Kit

SharePoint Server 2007 SDK: Software Developer Kit

Design Policies and Templates:

Office SharePoint Server 2007 Customization Policy
by Sean Livingston

WSS 3.0 Master Pages and Content PlaceHolder’s: A Desktop Reference Companion

MOSS Navigation Deep Dive – Part 1

Other Resources:

Adding the Edit Button to the IE7 Toolbar:
by Kathy Hughes

How to configure form results and have them sent to multiple email addresses?

Customizing the menu control for MOSS

Overview of Field Controls

Stramit SharePoint 2007 Master Picker

Search Resources

Google Code Search

Discover SharePoint

Technorati Tags: SharePoint Designer,Office SharePoint Server 2007,Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Audiences by design…. Or, Not.

2009-02-19T04:43:00.000-05:00

Thanx to Bill Seagle, CMS Illinois

In the grand scheme of things, the audience has always been a welcomed feature. The fact that audiences are used throughout the MOSS 2007 solutions has been very attractive.
Equally important, providing our customers/users with the option to leverage the audiences has brought tears to my eyes. In simpler terms, I must admit that I have been pushed into a reality to accept the fact, that all is not perfect.

Indeed enabling audiences on a library allows the user to target content to a specific group of people, on the other hand, we have found is that when configuring audiences on a document library with multiple content types, it only activates audiences for the first content type in the list.

In order to duplicate this, perceived, challenge. You must configure a document library with; at least, two content types (see Content Types 1).

Content Types 1

In addition, you would need to have two items in your library. The next step is to configure each item with a separate content type (see Content Types 2 and Content Types 3).

Content Types 2
Content Types 3

Next, you would navigate to the document library’s Audience settings. Select the “Enable Audience Targeting” option and click on the OK button.

To verify the activation of “Audience Targeting”, you would need to ensure that you have navigated to the “Document Library Settings”, “Columns” section. Verify that the “Target Audiences” column is added. Also, note that the column only applies to the first content type added to the library (see Content Types 4).

Note: The Document content type is added to the document library during the time of creation.

Content Types 4

At the same time, you can verify the configuration of the audiences by viewing the properties of the two items in the document library (see Content Types 5 and Content Types 6).

Note: The two items must be associated with one of the content types associated with the document library.
Content Types 5
Content Types 6

UDiscover SharePoint

2009-02-01T08:03:00.001-05:00

Welcome to UDS

UDiscover SharePoint User Group

2009-01-30T01:02:00.001-05:00

Become a member of 'potentially, the largest SharePoint user group.

Rolling up Calendars using SharePoint Designer

2008-12-11T19:26:00.002-05:00

There are a number of requests in regards to rolling up calendar events from various sites to a site hosting a master calendar. The most economical choice is to use SharePoint Designer 2007.

"This post, only, focuses on creating linked calendars."
1. You will need to open up the site that will host the master calendar. After selecting the URL for the hosting site, Click on the Open button.

2. After the web site is opened in SharePoint Designer you will see all related folders and files displayed in the Folder List.

3. Click on the Task Pane menu and Select the Data Source Library. The Data Source Library is displayed.

4. From the Data Source Library task pane, select Connect to another library... the Manage Library dialog box appears. Click on the Add button.

5. The Collection Properties dialog box is displayed. In the Display Name text box, type the name of the site. In the Location text box, type in the URL for the source site. Click on the OK button to close the Collection Properties and Click the OK button to close the Manage Library dialog box.

Note: The new Collection - IT Services - is available from in the Data Source Library.

6. In the Data Source Library task pane, navigate to the Current Site Collection . Click the plus symbol next to Current Site. Next, Click the plus symbol next to the Linked sources and Click Create a new linked source… button. Next, Click on the Configure Linked Source... Button.

7. The Link Data Sources Wizard dialog is displayed. In the Available Data Sources list box, ensure that the Current Site Collection data sources are displayed. Next, Click on the SharePoint Lists and select the Calendar list. Next, Click on the Add button.

8. In the Available Data Sources list box, Click on the IT Services Collection's data sources are displayed in the Available Data Sources. Next, Click on the SharePoint Lists and select the Calendar list. Next, Click the Add button. Finally, Click on the Next button.

9. In the 'Select the link type that best represents the relationship between the selected sources' section, Select the option, 'Merge the contents of the data sources. Choose this option if you'd like to sort, group, and filter the sources as one long list.' Click the Finish button.

10. The Data Source Properties are displaying the added Calendars in the Component source properties section. Click on the OK button.

Note: After the Linked Data Source is saved, it is named New Data Source in the Linked sources section.

11. Using SharePoint Designer, Create a new ASPX page in the current site. Click in the Form control to position your cursor.

12. Click on the Data View menu. Next, Click on Insert Data View.. option. The DataFormWebPart is added in the Form control.

13. Navigate to the Data Source Library task pane. Drag and drop the merged calendars - New Data Source - onto the DataFormWebPart on the new page.

14. Click on the 'On Object User Interface' (OOUI), It will open the 'Common Data View Tasks'. Click on the Edit Columns.. option.

15. Remove both Modified By and Modified from Displayed Columns list box and add Location field from the Available fields list box. Next, Click on the OK button.

16. Navigate back to the Common Data View Tasks properties. Click on the Filter option. Use the table below to configure the filters. After configuration, Click the OK button.

Field Name	Comparison	Value	And/Or
Start Time	Greater Than or Equal To	[Current Date]	Or
End Time	Greater Than or Equal To	[Current Date]	And

17. Save the page and preview in the browser. You can add events to all calendars included in linked sources and it is reflected in the rendered page.
Note: You can attach the page to the master page for the site to ensure that it is branded like all other pages.

Technorati Tags: SharePoint Designer 2007,MOSS,Office SharePoint Server,Windows SharePoint Services

Configuration of the BDC in the TrainsByDave environment

2008-11-06T07:36:00.000-05:00

1. Login to the Student 12B image with the Administrator Account.

2. Click on the Start button and navigate to the Administrative Tools and click on Services.

3. In the Services dialog box. Locate the Microsoft Single Sign-on Service and double click it.

4. Click on the Log on tab. Select the ‘This account’ option and configure it with a domain account. After configuration, click on the OK button.

Note: I used the Administrator account to simplify the configuration process. Any other time, you would use a service account here. When configuring the Single Sign-On settings in the Central Administration site you would need to logon with the service account.

5. Right click on the Microsoft Single Sign-on services and click on the Start option. After start, close the Services window.

Note: After clicking on the Start Option is clicked. The Service Control dialog box displays the status

6. Navigate to the Central Administration web site and select the Operations Tab.

7. Go to the Security Configurations section and click on the Manage settings for single sign-on link. It will take you to the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for MOSS01 page.

Note: You will notice that the Manage Server settings is your only available option. If you fail to configure the Microsoft Single Sign-On service with a service account - in our scenario the administrator account – no option would be available. They would all be grayed out.

8. In the Server settings section, click on the Manage server settings .

Note: You are taken to the Manage Server Settings for Single Sign-On page.

9. On the Manage Server Settings for Single Sign-On page in the Single Sign-On Administrator Account text box type the name of the group - we are using an individual account in our scenario - or user account – TrainsByDave\administrator - that can set up and manage the single sign-on service. This account must be a member of the same domain to which the single sign-on service account belongs.

10. Next, on the Manage Server Settings for Single Sign-On page in the Enterprise Application Definition Administrator Account text box type the name of the group - we are using an individual account in our scenario - or user account – trainsbydave\administrator - that can set up and manage enterprise application definitions. This account must be a member of the same domain to which the single sign-on service account belongs.

11. Do not change any other setting on the Manage Server Settings for Single Sign-On page. Click on the OK button.

12. After you are returned to the Manage Settings for Single Sign-On for MOSS01, you will notice that you can configure other settings for the Single Sign-On service. Click on the Manage settings for enterprise application definitions link in the Enterprise Application Definition Settings section.

13. On the Manage Enterprise Application Definitions page, click on the New Item link.

14. On the Create Enterprise Application Definition, you will create an Application Definition file used by the Business Data Catalog (BDC) to connect to the AdventureWorksDW database.

15. Also, on the Create Enterprise Application Definition, you will configure the account type. In our scenario, we will use the Individual account type.

Note: In the event that you decide to use the Group – trainsbydave\domain users setting, the SQL database administrator must ensure the group account has permissions on the various databases.

16. Also, on the Create Enterprise Application Definition, you will configure the authentication type. In our scenario, we are using the Windows Authentication type.

17. Also on the Create Enterprise Application Definition, you will configure the Logon Account Information. In our scenario, we are accepting the default values. Click on the OK button.

18. On the Manage Enterprise Application Definitions, you will see the AdventureWorksDW SSO definition file.

19. Open the Windows Explorer application and navigate to the 2007 AdventureWorks Samples folder (C:\Program Files\2007 Office System Developer Resources\Samples\Business Data Catalog\AdventureWorks Samples)

20. Make a copy of the AdventureWorks2005DW.xml and AdventureWorks2000_SSO.xml files.

21. Open the AdventureWorks2005DW.xml file using SharePoint Designer 2007 or Visual Studio 2005. Once the AdventureWorks2005DW.xml is open, locate the RdbConnection Data Source property and set the property to MOSS01.

22. Next, open the AdventureWorks2000_SSO.xml file with SharePoint Designer 2007 or Visual Studio 2005.

23. Copy the Property elements for both, SSOApplicationID and SSOProviderImplementation from the AdventureWorks2000_SSO.xm. to AdventureWorks2005DW.xml after the RdbConnection Integrated Security property. Verify that the Property elements are well formed and save the AdventureWorksDW.xml file. Close SharePoint Designer or Visual Studio 2005.

24. Navigate to the Central Administration site. On the Quick Launch Bar navigate to the Shared Services Service: SSP01 page.

25. Navigate to the Business Data Catalog section of the Shared Services Service: SSP01 page. Click on the Import Application Definition link. It will take you to the Import Application Definition page.

26. On the Import Application Definition page, click on the Browse button in the Application Definition section and browse to the location you saved the AdventureWorks2005DW.xml (:\Program Files\2007 Office System Developer Resources\Samples\Business Data Catalog\AdventureWorks Samples) file. Click on the Open button and verify the path.

27. Accept the default values for all other sections on the Import Application Definition page. Click on the Import button at the bottom of the page. A verification process status bar appears. Click on the OK button.

28. Next, you are taken to the View Application: AdventureWorksDW page. Click on the Manage Permissions link. It will take you to the Manage Permissions: AdventureWorksDW page. Click on the Add User/Groups link.

29. On the Add User/Groups page in the Choose Users section, add the trainsbydave\domain users group.

30. On the Add User/Groups page in the Choose permissions section, select all, four, permissions. Click on the Save button. You are taken back to the Manage Permissions: AdventureWorksDW page.

31. Select all users and groups on the Manage Permissions: AdventureWorksDW page. Click on Copy all permissions to descendants link. Click the OK button for the dialog box displayed.

Note: This option ensures that the permissions for the listed users and groups are on all Access Control Lists (ACLs) for each entity identified in the Application Definition file.

Note: Additional documentation will follow for demonstrations for, both, SharePoint Designer and Excel Services. If you are familiar with the existing Excel Services and Business Data Catalog (BDC) Web Parts, you can start using the BDC.

Understanding Change, Power, and Conflict in your SharePoint Server 2007 Deployment - Mark R. Schneider

2008-09-15T11:22:00.000-05:00

Mark Schneider's focus is on on how to guide your organization through reasonable change.
Mark spoke to change in an organization as a skill. Mark stated that, "Share point is an agent of change." The point is that governance makes change more managable. Overall, an organization need to be forthcoming and open. It is the empowerment of people." With that in mind, we have to provide guidance for that change.

You need. 5 things to properly manage change.

1. Support of A champion

2. Grassroot support

3. Approved and funded budget

4. Clear objective and goals

5. Control over the project

Most importantly, Mark expressed that an organization should ensure that people are trained. Mark encourages an organization to communicate leveraging the SharePoint technologies -Blogs - and provide an example by leveraging a Team Site template. That is, project managers should lead by example.

Best practices in a nutshell is to work to ensure that people don't result to using their imaginations to fill communication gaps. The psychological effect of ,an unmanaged, SharePoint implementation in an organization prompts negative responses at time. That is, you need to balance your approach for changing both technologies and processes. Overall , you want to avoid a chaotic impact. The fact that people naturally respond negatively to unplanned change encourages governance.

Submitted from the Blackberry....
-------------------------------------------------------
Corro'll Driskell

Tom Rizzo Keynote

2008-09-15T08:48:00.002-05:00

At the Keynote, we listen to Thomas Rizzo. Tom Rizzo is the Director for SharePoint at Microsoft. Tom solidified the fact that Sharepoint is, currently, the fastest selling product. In fact, Microsoft has doubled their support size. Tom has also stated that Microsoft is committed to investing additional monies in the SharePoint technologies. That encourages organizations to purchase the platform because of that fact.

Tom also spoke about the Microsoft's sharpoint strategy. It boils down to empowerment of the user community. Sharepoint is visioned as a single business productivity platform totally leveraged by the user communities, designers, and development.

Tom spoke about SharePoint's recent support in virtualization. SharePoint is supported on Hyper V. Also, Microsoft is working on support on the VMWare platform. "

Most importantly, Tom spoke about SharePoint place in the infrastructure? Its place is as a part of the core infrastructure. But, SharePoint is built for the end users. But, it offers flexibility for control for the SharePoint administrators.

Hosted services was also a headliner for Tom's keynote. SharePoint online is the latest interest. Tom spoke about Microsoft's future investment in support of hosted services.

Tom spoke to the best practices about some of the Microsoft customers' implementation of SharePoint. He discuss companies, such as, Viacom, General Mills, Krogers, Starbucks, Assenture and Ford, implementation of Sharepoint. Tom totally focused on the features primarily leveraged by the various customers.

Tom discussed the fact that Microsoft, continues, to eat their own dog food. Tom was proud of Microsoft's implementation of SharePoint across the globe. Tom does expect some changes in their use of Search in the future, but he was limited to discussing the specifics of SharePoint. Microsoft utilizes the total empowerment model but does verify. For more, you will have to get your hands on the podcast.

I did not stick around for the questions and answers.

From the Blackberry....

SharePoint Best Practices Conference in 3 Days

2008-09-11T21:54:00.000-05:00

Phil Wicklund recent post titled, Consolidating Master Pages Customized By SharePoint Designer, encourages a great introduction to posting our first weblog here on the SharePoint Best Practices blog. You can take a look at my response to Phil's blog titled, SharePoint Designer Blues..... NOT!

There are a number of topics scheduled for the SharePoint Best Practices Agenda. I am specifically focused on Content Development and Deployment using Publishing and SharePoint Designer 2007. Personally, I think that is a rather hot topic.

Overall, the SharePoint Best Practices Parallel sessions are defined to provide well defined, real-world, Best Practices for all. I plan to capture as many presentations as I can. Also, I hope to solicit feedback from many of the presenters and attendees. I look forward to seeing you all there. Whoooo Hoooo.

BTW - Check back here daily....

SharePoint Designer Blues..... NOT!

2008-09-11T19:15:00.000-05:00

Earlier, I was reading Phil blog titled, "Consolidating Master Pages Customized By SP Designer". The main point of Phil's blog was to promote his opinion referencing the use of SharePoint Designer 2007. His point..... "Designer means inconsistency and costliness in the long run". Phil provides guidance on building a more centralized solution for the overall branding of an enterprise SharePoint solution. Overall, Phil's posting provides excellent guidance. For all whom have had the pleasure of attending any of my SharePoint Designer presentation, understand and know how passionate I am in using SharePoint Designer 2007 as a branding tool. Yes. I said it. I am proud to use SharePoint Designer as a branding tool. What drives that passion, Corro'll? That is a great question. I am honestly driven by the business requirements of an organization. Many organizations are mandated to provide a SharePoint based solution with a minimal amount of planning. Let us all face it, obtaining the skills to build site definations requires time and training. That my folks doesn't exist in many cases. I would have to agree with Phil that SharePoint Designer is more of a decentralize tool that is scoped on a site by site basis. SharePoint Designer, somewhat, overcome the scoped limitations when the publishing infrastructure and publishing features are activated. All in all, the decentralized use of SharePoint Designer is not as attractive as the centralized deployment of solutions build and packaged by Visual Studio. But, it serves its purpose as long as the business requirements demands it. I would recommend that all read SharePoint Products and Technologies 2007 Customization Policy, by Sean Livingston. All in all, Seans whitepaper provides guidance for managing custimizaton in the enterprise. I wouldn't want anyone to share Phil's thought. Thanks Phil for encouraging me to post.

Getting on the SharePoint Roll

2008-08-21T18:17:00.000-05:00

Over the last few months, I have been tasked with working on a number of SharePoint related engagements. What I find amazing is how can any one person can find the time to blog, speak, consult and manage to spend time with family. First, I have to be thankful for having a family that understands and support ME. It is obvious that I have worked with some great people over the last year. BTW - that includes some international travel.

Although I have a schedule filled throughout the year, I am speaking at the SharePoint Best Practices Conference. I want to discuss my presentation and how important it is to the actual deployment and branding of business application deployed on the SharePoint platform. First, the title of my presentation is, "Content Development and Deployment using Publishing and SharePoint Designer 2007". The purpose of the presentation is to solidify best practices in which multiple content developers can use SharePoint Designer and the publishing features of a single mirrored environment to simplify the development of content (masterpages, custom pages, pagelayouts, content and styles) and its migration into a production environment. Here is the catch...., both the mirrored and production environment are hosted on the same physical farm.

At the same time, I have been co-authoring a book with Enrique Lima. The title of the book is, "Developer's Guide to InfoPath Form Services". Openly, I admit that it has taken quite a bit of time out of my day and night. In fact, I have had quite a time over the last few months managing my time. But, I am enjoying every bit of the sacrifice. I will keep you all posted with the timelines.

Finally, I am working to promote the SharePoint Designer Discussion Group. I encourage all to visit and consider joining the group. The purpose of the group is to share SharePoint Designer 2007 experiences with others. It has grown over the months. In fact, I have taken more of a hands-off approach. I love the energy.

BTW - I am open to speaking at user groups. Yes, that is right. I am open to speaking at user groups.

Signing Off - Whoooo Hooooo

Corro'll Driskell

SharePoint Best Practices (SOLD OUT)

2008-08-21T17:25:00.000-05:00

Finally, the registrations for the SharePoint Best Practices are sold out. Who am I to express the excitement...??????? I am one of the many whom has counted down the days before September 15th, 2008.

For all whom made the cut, I will see you there. Please do bring your pens and paper... Wait... we are in a digital age. Bring your Tablets....

SharePoint Best Practices Conference

2008-07-28T08:48:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I submitted a great a great topic for next month's SharePoint Best Practices Conference. Although I am able to support a number of features & tools provided by the SharePoint Technologies - Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Office SharePoint Server 2007 & SharePoint Designer 2007, I wanted to focus on the use of a specific tool and team content development. Drum role please........

The title of my presentation is , "Team Content Development & Deployment using SharePoint Designer 2007 and SharePoint Publishing Features". Of course, the title can change between it acceptance and the actual conference.

I hope to see you all there. Btw, get a head start on reading the SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices book.

SQL Server is invalid or is an Unsupported Version

2008-06-02T00:22:00.000-05:00

There are a number of customers working to properly secure their SharePoint implementations. The Security Hardening documentation from Microsoft titled, "Plan and Design for Security (Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server combined".

In fact, the Security Hardening guide recommends restricting access to the SQL ports: TCP port 1433 and UDP port 1434. Also, there are a number of SharePoint Technology - Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 - related recommendations; for example, Block UDP port 1434, Configure SQL Server named instances to listen on a non-standard port; block TCP port 1433 and re-assign the port; Configure SQL client aliases on all Web Front End and Application layer servers - ES, Index, Query and others in the farm.

This approach provides a great degree of protection for your SQL Server communications. It also ensures that all servers in the SharePoint Farm follows a more restricted communication model.

Let's say that after properly configuring your security strategy your organization decides to use the Microsoft Single Sign On (SSO) technologies. You navigate to the SharePoint Central Administration v3 web site. You locate the configuration link for the SSO. You configure all of the settings and click on OK button.

Your browser refreshes. You notice that there is an error message. The error message encourages you to verify your SQL Server name and other configuration on the page.

You begin to bang your head against the monitor gently. As you take a look at the event logs - on the WFE server and the SQL Servers - and troubleshoot the TCP/IP stack. You notice that there is not indication of of a notable error.

What we found that was encouraging the return of the SQL Server error message was the organization's security hardening policies. If your organization plans to use the SSO, the 1434 port must remain open. Of course, it would have been great to receive an error message that would provide more - specific - information would have saved quite a few man hours.

In order to get rid of this error message, you would need to unblock port 1434 on your SQL Servers.

That is just my $19.11 worth.

Pages of the past creates sceptics of the present..

2008-05-22T07:31:00.000-05:00

I have worked with many organizations building web based applications on the SharePoint Technologies platform. We have used tools such as Visual Studio, Front Page and, now, SharePoint Designer. Equally important, I present at a number of SharePoint summits across North America. The presentations delivered range from Designing and Implementation – of the various SharePoint related solutions – to branding – using SharePoint Designer. So, it is safe to say that I have quite a bit of experience in working with customers that are resistant to using SharePoint Designer as a customization (some would say branding) tool.

Many of those customers and attendees moved from the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 platform to the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 platform. Not only did they migrate the content, but also the skepticism associated with customizing the pages in a SharePoint environment. Or, they have heard about the nightmares associated with rendering customized - back then called unghosting - pages.Therefore, I decided to blog about the new features provided by the ASP.NET 2.0 framework and how it eliminates the problems experienced in the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 environment. That is, Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 – due to the limitations of ASP.NET 1.1 – had a difficult time parsing pages from the database. As a result, all user requests - for SharePoint sites - were routed to the SQL Server database. All together, that means that Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 had a difficult time parsing and caching pages on the Web Front End servers.

For all that, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 integration with ASP.NET 2.0 has been completely redesigned. First, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is built on ASP.NET 2.0, which provides significant enhancements over ASP.NET 1.1. Furthermore, the routing infrastructure was improved by removing the ISAPI filter and by adding an HttpModule and an HttpHandler that are registered with ASP.NET using entries in the web.config file.

When a SharePoint Administrator creates a Web Application, the SharePoint Administrator is extending an IIS web site to function as a Web application. Also, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 adds a wildcard application map to the IIS Metabase file.

That is, all incoming HTTP requests are always processed by the ASP.NET runtime environment and are fully initialized with the ASP.NET context before the HTTP Requests are forwarded to the code that processes all Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 related requests. For the most part, the map routes are due to the wildcard application maps in the IIS Metabase. As a result, all incoming HTTP requests to the ASP.NET runtime- regardless of file types .pdf, .doc, … etc

Overall, the ASP.NET 2.0 framework addressed a number of gaps from the previous – Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 - version of SharePoint Technologies. The most notable gap addressed by the newASP.NET architecture addressed the gap related to how .aspx pages are parsed and compiled. The problem in SharePoint Technologies was that it could not leverage the .aspx page parser used by ASP.NET 1.1. The fact that Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 stored .aspx pages in the SQL Server database presented a problem. ASP.NET 1.1 worked only with pages that reside on the local file system of Web Front End servers. As a result, Windows SharePoint Services could not take advantage of the ASP.NET 1.1 page parser.

Virtual Path Providers were introduced in the ASP.NET 2.0 framework. The new framework allowed developers to write their own custom virtual providers. The value add allowed the SharePoint Product team to write a customized virtual provider – SPVirtualPathProvider - that retrieves .aspx pages from the SQL Server Database. Also, the PageParserFilter affords the SPVirtualPathProvider the capability to control how pages are parsed and compiled.

Once the SPVirtualPathProvider retrieves a .aspx page from the SQL Server database it leverages the ASP.NET 2.0’s .aspx parser. So then, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 does not fall victim to the performance reduction, with respect to the limited page parsing, experienced by the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 environment.

Figure 1 Page Rendering Using the SPVirtualPathProvider

In simplier terms, the perceived problems with customizing pages in a SharePoint environment has been addressed from page rendering view point. Despite the negative perception of the ASP.NET 1.1 limitations and how it affected the page rendering in the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 environment, I think that it is time for the masses to accept the fact that ASP.NET 2.0 addressed those limitations. Whether pages are rendered from the Web Front End file system or from the SQL Server Database, ASP.NET 2.0 ensures that all pages are properly parsed.

That is just my $19.11 worth....

Technorati Tags: SharePoint Designer,FrontPate,SharePoint Technologies,Windows SharePoint Services 2.0,Windows SharePoint Services 3.0,WSS 2.0,WSS 3.0

Contributor Settings... Site by Site

2008-05-21T06:28:00.000-05:00

There are a number of blogs that focus on configuring ( Create a Contributor group) the the Contributor Settings in SharePoint Designer 2007. It is not my intentions to provide the step by step to create and configure contributor settings.

Also, I can site a number of sites that clearly define the intentions of Contributor Settings (Introduction to Contributor Settings). In summary, the intent of the Contributor Settings is to control the use of SharePoint Designer on a site by site basis.

I am posting this blog to discuss the limitations of the Contributor Setting configurations and proposed work arounds. The fact that contributor settings are configurable on a site by site basis is not a great option in a number of site deployments. The fact that new sites are created within site collections at an alarming rate, is a compelling reason to ask for more of a centralized capability to set the contributor settings at the site collection level and to push it down throughout its namespace. In fact, it would be great to ensure that all sites across all web applications - scoped at individual sites - are dynamically configured with the required contributor settings.

The fact remains that Contributor Settings can only be set by using SharePoint Designer as the Site Manager. After the [contributorsetting].htm - generally named using the GUID of the site - is created, the [contributorsetting].htm can be added to a site template using the File element in the ONET.XML file.

But, in the event that Designers do not have access to the Web Front End (WFE) servers, adding the [contributorsetting].htm as a file element to the ONET.XML file, is not a viable option.

What we have found that adds some value for our SharePoint Designers - using SharePoint Designer 2007 - is that you can create a site - using the Browser or SharePoint Designer 2007 as a tool. After creating and customizing - it is titled Branding in some eyes - the site.

Once the site is customized, the Site Manager can create Contributor Groups and Region Types. After configuring the Contributor Settings, the Site Manager, Site Owner or Site Collection Owner - that all depends on the level of the site and the tools - Browser or SharePoint Designer - can save the site as a template.

To ensure that the save template(s) are used, the Site Collection Administrator or Site Owner can limit the template choices to the template(s) configured with the Contributor Settings.

The option presented is not the most centralized way to ensure the use of a consistent contributor settings across a number of sites within a site collection. But, it presents an option to ensure the authorized use of SharePoint Designer 2007 on each sub-site.

I hope that this helps.....

Technorati Tags: SharePoint Designer 2007',SharePoint Technologies,MOSS 2007,WSS 3.0,Mindsharp

Speaking @ Hampton Roads SQL Server User Group

2008-05-11T11:27:00.000-05:00

All,

I am on my way to the Norfolk - Hampton Virginia area. I will speak at the Hampton Roads SQL Server User Group on Thursday, May 15th, 6:30 PM at INFOTEC. I am speaking about SharePoint Designer and InfoPath Form Services support for a number of connection scenarios. It is going to be a great presentation.

Location: (Click her for the directions)

INFOTEC

5501 Greenwich Rd

Virginia Beach, VA 23462-6540

SharePoint 2007 User's Guide by Bates and Smith

2008-04-06T22:47:00.000-05:00

This book offered a significant amount of value in its introduction by identifying the value-add and answering... What is SharePoint 2007? Specifically, discussing organizational challenges addressed by SharePoint 2007's Document Management solution.

Most of the book, focuses on the configuration of Office SharePoint Server 2007. I find that to be a typical scope of many SharePoint 2007 ITPro books.

By Seth Bates, Tony
Smith

Published 2007
Apress

407 pages

ISBN:1590598296

http://books.google.com/books?id=Lq_xG4z3cYwC

Office SharePoint Server 2007 by Bill English

2008-04-06T22:33:00.000-05:00

During many summits, I am asked to refer many individuals to references for support of SharePoint technologies (WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007) based solutions. As a result, I have started submitting feedback on many of the books I have read.

I have read many books by Bill English over the life of the SharePoint Technologies. I find this book to be a great asset to my number of SharePoint resources. I would recommend reading this book from front to back. Reading this book encouraged me to learn more about the entire feature set of the SharePoint Technologies.

Bill provides a significant amount of information for all to configure and support the various solutions based on the WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 platform. It doesn't provide a deep dive into all solutions, but this title encourages all to look further into each and every solution based on their organization's priorities.

By Bill English
, Microsoft SharePoint
Community Experts Staff
, Microsoft SharePoint
Community Experts
, Microsoft SharePoint
Community Experts

Published 2007
Microsoft Press

ISBN:0735622825

http://books.google.com/books?id=RMXUAAAACAAJ

Configuration of the BDC in a testing environment..

2008-04-06T05:03:00.000-05:00

There are many instances that prompt a SharePoint farm administrator to setup a testing environment for an organization. In many scenarios, from establishing Business Intelligence dashboards to establishing Data Sources using SharePoint Designer 2007, you must ensure that users are properly authenticated and authorized.

In order to access any database in an Office SharePoint Services implementation, you must configure Single Sign-On (SSO) in all deployment scenarios.

Note: SSO is not required in a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 implementation.

The purpose of this posting is to assist all with building the test environment to properly test the BDC for accessing data outside of SharePoint Technologies.

In the next few weeks, I will post information for establishing data sources using SharePoint Designer 2007 and building BI dashboards for Excel Services.

Happy... Testing....