Monday, October 24, 2011

SharePoint 2010 Major Fails

Here are some major "Oops!" moments from the MS SharePoint team:
(Note: They do a good job in general, but it's always good to provide some constructive feedback!)
  • Document IDs from the DocID service are not always unique (even within a site collection)
  • Search Center master page is missing breadcrumb and navigation support
    • It will not work with the v4 master page
    • Workaround
      • Requires Sandboxed Services
      • Activated at the site collection level
      • Must enable SharePoint Standard features to change Master Page after feature activated
  • No more Group By Content Type on List/Library views
  • Calendar Overlay Color codes are fixed, limited to 10, and have 2 ice blues with uneditable hex codes
  • Managed Metadata (Term Set) fields do not work within Datasheet Views, InfoPath Forms, or SharePoint Workspace
  • No regular expressions in Column Validation formulas
    • You must use Excel syntax formulas
  • Calculated Columns are still very limited.  No Lookups, Multi-Select, Multi-Line or other complex field type support.  Today and Now still do not work.
  • Audiences and security groups are still isolated
    • Why only allow Audience targeting on some items and group security on others?
      • Why can't security be applied to a navigation item or a web part?
  • Nested group support is lacking (Groups within groups, group permissions, and security)
    • Nested SharePoint groups are not supported
    • Workaround: Use AD security groups (if you can)
      • Nested AD groups work with audiences if profile import is configured correctly!
        • Only includes accounts within the profile import OU even if the security group is within the OU
  • Document versioning is disabled by default in document libraries
    • Since this is one of the huge benefits of a CMS, this should be enabled by default
    • Workaround: Use custom templates or programmatically enable on list/library creation
  • Copy To Other Location functionality does not copy metadata for lookup columns on non-office documents
  • Can't copy a document to another site via SharePoint Designer Workflow action
    • Cross-site workflows are still generally unsupported
      • Workaround: Use a third party workflow product
  • Public sites do not support mobile devices by default.
  • Projected Column (Lookup Column Related Fields) limitations
    • Can't project another lookup column
    • Can't project many other common column types
    • Projected fields are not displayed in view item or edit item forms
  • External Content Type / External Data Lookup control limitations
    • Does not allow multi-select lookup
    • External Data Lookup Picker limitations
      • 200 item max
      • Only 1 filter can be applied at a time (no ad-hoc "and"/"or"  filtering)
      • Can't filter or sort by column header

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Packaging SharePoint Branding Elements for Deployment #spc11 @cwheeler76 @kieferconsult

Presented By Christina Wheeler - MindSharp MVP
  • Uncustomized files
    • Uncustomized = not in database
    • Better performance
  • Customized
    • In Content Database
    • Won't get updates from solution upgrades
  • Use Sandboxed solutions
  • SharePoint sites
    • Use Master Page Gallery
    • Use Style Library
      • CSS and images
      • create subfolder
    • _layouts is an alternative
      • Deploy to each front end web
  • Design with SharePoint in Mind
    • Using SharePoint Designer
  • Transfer from Designer to VS2010
    • Empty SharePoint Project (.Net 3.5)
    • Add Module project item
      • Delete sample.txt file
      • Rename feature1
        • Feature
          • Change scope to site collection
          • add feature receiver to apply branding attributes
            • Feature Activated
              • Import MindSharp.HousekeepingExtensions
              • Delete existing/prior versions of branding files
      • Add branded assets to module and modify module elments.xml file
        • Images, master pages, and style sheets
        • Modify Elements.xml
          • Define path and url for each file element
          • For one module, Specify /Style Library/foldername
          • For the other module, Specify _catalogs/MasterPage
          • Set Content Type and Titles on MasterPage file elements
      • Set GhostableInLibrary and IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="true"
        • IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="false" does not work (MS BUG)
      • No end slashes on URLs
    • Add event receiver to brand child sites
    • Deploy and Test

Upgrading Custom Code from 2007 to 2010 #spc11 @kieferconsult

Presented by Rebecca Isserman
  • Copy the project before upgrading
  • WSPBuilder to WSPBuilder
    • Change SharePoint dll reference
    • .Net framework 3.5
  • VSEWSS
    • Import VSeWSS project type
    • Option to use Sandbox Solution
  • WSPBuilder Converter Tool
    • Web Part
    • Workflow
      • Add references
        • office.workflow.tasks
        • sharepoint.workflowactions
        • and more
        • need all correct references to get workflow designer to work
  • DB attach upgrade removes all code from the CEW unless using attached file
  • Silverlight object model web part demo
  • HTML5 client object model demo
  • Visual Studio power tools includes a Visual Web Part simulator adn sandboxed solution limitation

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Building Visually Compelling BI Experiences with PowerPivot #spc11 #sharepoint @kieferconsult

Presented by Peter Myers
  • PowerPivot Model Development
    • SQL server PowerPivot for SharePoint Add-in
    • PowerPivot Window
      • Select the view/table from the Table Import Wizard
    • Creating lookup relationships in Excel for imported tables
    • Pivot Table config
      • Hide columns from Pivot Tables
      • Rename columns in Pivot Tables
    • Enriching with DAX calculations
  • 1/10th the size of importing data into workbook
  • Free-form Reports
    • functions
      • CUBEMEMBER
      • CUBEVALUE
      • CUBESET
      • CUBESETCOUNT
      • CUBERANKEDMEMBER
    • native excel features
      • conditional formatting
      • sparklines
      • slicers
      • charts
    • Fixed row/column configurations
      • use top x functions (ex: top 5, last 5 years, etc.)
  • PowerPivot Field List
    • Search for tables and columns
    • Define slicers
    • etc.
  • PowerPivot plugin for SharePoint
    • PowerPivot Gallery is a library template
  • Powerpivot.com

Integrating Social Networking Sites with a #SharePoint Internet Site #spc11 @kieferconsult

Presented By Microsoft
Brian Rodriguez, Ryan Sockalosky
  • Facebook OpenGraph Protocol
    • Tag your page with meta tags to generate image, summary, etc.
  • Twitter
    • Javascript code
  • AddThis
    • Like box with most social networking plugins
  • Demo using the Facebook api in a Web Part
  • Use the additional page header content zone to add meta tags, pulling from the page properties
  • OAuth via secure store service
    • Demo of developing a workflow to publish a post to twitter via an oauth token

Performance Testing and Optimizing SharePoint Websites #spc11 @kieferconsult

Brian Rodriguez and Ryan Sockalosky
Microsoft Presentation
  • Plan for all consumers
    • Browsers
    • Office apps
    • Search and Services
  • 3 hardest server calls
    • SQL
    • Authentication
    • Blob
  • Agents
    • Use a 75/25% Read/Write ratio
    • CPU around 50%
  • Data-driven test within Visual Studio team test
    • Use a web test project
    • Data: Add users, sample docs, search terms, and configuration elements
    • Watch for timer jobs
    • Verify load balancing
    • sample rate: 5 sec for an hour, 15 seconds for 4 hours, 60 seconds for a 24 hour+
    • Use Performance Monitor
    • Run load test and make 1 change at a time while monitoring performance
  • Optimize
    • Blob cache
      • Blob cache fill ration should be < 90%
      • web.config configuration per WFE
    • SQL
      • Disk I/O wait time
      • asp.net wait time
      • latency
      • CPU
      • SQL IOPS
        • Fix with TempDBs storage device upgrades
      • See slide deck for other optimization techniques
    • Output Cache
      • Don't output cache search results
      • Configure at: Site Collection, Site, or Page Layout
    • Object Cache
      • Memory
      • Use for cross list queries
If you don't know how much it's going to cost, it'll cost a lot.
If you aren't testing it, your measurements are wrong. If you aren't measuring, you can't make it faster.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

What's new in SSRS Denali #spc11 @kieferconsult

Carolyn Chau
Presented by Microsoft
  • Recent upgrades to SSRS in 2008 SP2
    • Shared DataSets
    • Report Parts
    • Visualizations
    • Ajax Report viewer
    • Customer DCRs
    • Cuts
      • Adhoc reporting
      • Alerting
  • Updates to SQL Server
    • AlwaysOn
      • Easily configurable readable clustered mirrored environments
  • Denali Reporting and Alerting features
    • SSRS will be include a SharePoint Service for integrated mode
    • BIDS will be in Dev10
  • The new SharePoint integrated mode
    • One administration location: SharePoint Service config
    • WCF and Claims support
    • PowerShell Cmdlets
    • ULS logging
    • Scalable and load balanced
    • Alerting
      • SharePoint mode only
      • One report per alert and conditions on data sources within report
      • Only work against BIDS created (operational) reports
    • Crescent (ad-hoc reporting)
      • SharePoint mode only
      • No alerting
      • Silverlight 5 required
        • Supports Chinese characters
        • Supports Printing
      • Integrated with PowerPivot
      • RDLX files
        • includes an rdl file plus others
  • IT Experience
    • Install RS add-in on SP WFEs
    • Create and configure Central admin Service Application
    • PowerShell Enabled

Monday, October 3, 2011

SharePoint Administration Part 2 #spc11 @kieferconsult @ShaneYoung @

Session: Understanding SharePoint Administration Part 2
Shane Young and @ToddKlindt

Only partial notes since I moved from another session.
  • Quotas
  • Recycle bins
    • Site Collection Admin recycle bin has same retention setting as user recycle bins
    • SP1 sub-sites are included
      • PowerShell deletes not included
  • Adobe file type (browser permissive) setting
  • PowerShell
  • Developer Dashboard
    • Troubleshooting

Excel and PerformancePoint Services Administration #spc11 @kieferconsult

Session: Deep Dive: Excel Services and PerformancePoint Services Administration and Troubleshooting

Left session.  Same info as TechNet

Mobile: Office 2010 EndPoints #SPC11 @KieferConsult

Session: iPads, Android tablets, smart phones, and Windows devices? Managing Office 2010 Endpoints in an Interoperable and Multi-device world
Microsoft Presentation
Jeremy Chapman
Sr. Product Mgr
  • Need to secure remote access
    • Does mobile device have BitLocker?
    • Is PIN enabled?
    • Is there device encryption?
  • Feature/Managability Matrix
    • Low/Low - Windows Phone 7
    • High/Low - Mac Office 2011
    • High/High - Office Pro Plus 2010
    • Med/High - Remotely Hosted Office Pro Plus 2010
      • Mobile
    • Low/High - Office Web Apps
      • Mobile
  • Mentioned iPhone OneNote app
  • Main Workload: Exchange ActiveSync
  • Citrix
  • Hardening the Attack Surface
    • Exchange ActiveSync settings
    • Mobile Device Management Server for iOS
    • Office 2010 client configuration
      • MSP file
        • Install-time config
        • Use Microsoft Office Customization Tool
      • Config.xml
        • Overrides MSP
        • Install-time config
      • Group Policy
        • Dynamic
  • Reduce the Attack Surface
    • Mac Office 2011
      • IRM
      • Security preferences
      • Limited policy control
    • IRM in Exchange
    • UAG
      • Policies
        • MacOS
    • IIS Block rules
      • Ipad UserAgent string
  • Using Remote Desktop Services or Citrix on a mobile device
    • Windows Color and Appearance settings to make things larger
    • Ribbon configuration

MS Vision and Strategy for BI #SPC11

SharePoint Conference 2010
Presented by Microsoft
Steve Tullis - Principal Group Program Manager
Kamal Hathi - General Manager
  • Microsoft Business Intelligence Market Position
    • Most Recognized (Gartner)
    • Strongest Growth
    • Most Widely Deployed
  • MS BI
    • Familiar
    • Collaborative
    • Complete
    • On Your Terms
  • Mediterranean Shipping Company
    • 22 TB data
    • Mash-up with 33m rows internal data
  • Twitter Analytics for Excel
    • Via PowerPivot for Excel
    • Demonstrating real-time analytics
  •  PowerPivot Management Dashboard
  • SSRS (Reporting Services)
  • SQL Server (Danali) dynamic charting demos