Office 365 Registration "Partner Information"

Scenario

• You are signing up for an Office 365 account and would like to register me as your partner for solution architecture, custom development, integration, and support.  :)
• This is now known as "Delegated Administration"

Resolution

• Click on the following link to register VoteMatrix as your delegated administrator
• Office 365 Delegated Administration Configuration
• Once signed up, you can contact me directly via phone or email.  This information will be available under Delegated Administration from the Support page on the Office 365 Admin Portal
• More information on the service here: Office 365 Administration

Office 365 Microsoft Partner ID:
3831100

Web.Lists, GetLists, and TryGetLists Performance

Scenario

• Getting a list or library from a spweb with a large number of lists and libraries. In my test case each spweb had about 90,000 document libraries on sp2010 sp1.
• You cannot cache the spweb.Lists object across calls. 
• Ex:  Dynamically looking up a library for each document uploaded via a custom web service or event receiver.

Issue

• Each call to spWeb.Lists.TryGetList(libName) took 13 seconds to process since any access to the Lists collection returns the metadata for all lists in the spweb.

Resolution

• Had to recode the solution to access the libraries using the URL rather than the list name, resulting in sub-second processing. spWeb.GetList(listURL)

List Template Event Receiver Bug

Scenario

• You have an event receiver enabled on a specific list via the Receivers ListUrl attribute.

Issue

• If you make a List Template of a list that has been mapped to an event receiver, new lists created from that list template will have the event receiver attached to it regardless of the new URL.

Resolution

• Use SharePoint Manager to fix this or disable the event receiver before making the template.

Database to SharePoint List Synchronization Tools

MS: Out of the box

• BCS (Business Connectivity Services) External Content Types
• This is less synchronization than it is a SharePoint interface to the Database
• There are limitations on using External Data columns within SharePoint and with Office and third party integration

Third Party COTS Synchronization

• Layer 2: Business Data Connector
• BoostSolutions: SharePoint Data Connector
• Simego: Data Synchronization Studio

BCS BDC external data lookup field migration

Scenario

• You want to programmatically set an External Data lookup field
• Ex: Migrating data into a SharePoint list or library

Issue

• In this case, we used Idera / Metalogix Migration Manager, which does not support External Data fields, nor do they plan on supporting it in the near future
• This is likely due to the fact that they offer a client only (non-server deployed solution) and haven't figured out how to do this using the remote content deployment APIs
• The result was that the external data field only displayed correctly in the View Item form and did not populate in the Edit item form or any of the related/projected fields in the view.

Resolution

• Luckily I did have access to deploy a server solution, so I developed the following web part to handle the migration
• If you are using Office 365 or don't have this access then you will need to develop your own solution or need to use a data synchronization solution instead (several vendors make these)
• In order for this solution to work, you need to add a temporary column to the list that will store the IDs of the field you wish to migrate.  Note that this is not necessarily the display name.
• In our case we migrated the ID column to a list column named SourceId, ran the tool, then deleted the SourceId column.
• I utilized code from StackExchange and Jaspers' Weblog along with some forum posts, converting all to VB.Net for aesthetics
  
• Download the code
• The wsp solution file is located in the \SetExternalDataWebPart\bin\Release folder
• You must enable the feature at the site collection level and add the web part to a page in the subsite that contains the list. 
• In my test environment this tool updated 25 records every 10 seconds.
• Notes
• I found that in addition to setting the display name you also need to set the RelatedField to the BDCIdentity to get the correct value to display in the edit form and to be updateable via the refresh icon.

// Set the BCS field itself (Display Value)
listItem[dataField.Id] = dtBDCData.Rows[0][dataField.BdcFieldName].ToString();
// Set the related field to the BDC Identity
listItem[dataField.RelatedField] = dtBDCData.Rows[0]["BdcIdentity"].ToString();

• Some other tips:
• I had to use the RevertToSelf (BDC Identity) connection to get the refresh to function
• I did not need to run with elevated or allowunsafeupdates except when debugging permissions.
• Updated release info:
• 6/27/2013
• Added list ID range support to split copies into smaller chunks
• Uses an SPQuery on ID field.
• Added refresh interval for regular mid-copy status updates
• These are actually just auto post backs using an asp.net timer control
• 7/5/2013
• Fixed refresh bug

Every SharePoint Team Site should have a OneNote notebook

Update:  Office 365 and SharePoint now include a OneNote notebook in every Team Site.  Thank you Microsoft for listening!

In my experience, any "Team Site" should have a document library containing a OneNote team notebook.  My premise is that since a team site is typically created for collaboration, a team notebook is likely the best tool for those needs.  Team sites gutted and used as the base for a custom solution would no longer count towards this premise.  I would also consider Evernote or similar notebook tools as decent alternatives, albeit not as fully featured or integrated.

Windows 8/10 Tip 
Make the desktop version of OneNote the default (Not the Metro version) to get the most features

OneNote 2016 and Office 365 new features

• YouTube video embedding
• Microsoft Edge browser note taking integration
• Me@OneNote.Com universal send to address - Office 365, OneDrive, OneNote Online
• Office Lens mobile app integration
• Scanner and Image Fixer for Documents / Business Cards / Presentations
• Evernote migration
• Web Clipper (For other browsers: Non-Edge)

OneNote Notebook features

• Continuous Save. No Save Button
• Automatic track changes / version history
• Group policy or registry settings are available to modify versioning rate
• Automatic synchronization and offline editing
• Sync Now (Shift+F9) is an option to refresh quicker when collaborating
• Simultaneous editing (changes highlighted)
• Windows-Shift-N desktop shortcut or right click via the control panel
• Also the Windows-N new side note and Windows-S screen clipping shortcuts
• Other than Copy/Paste, these should be your most commonly used keyboard shortcuts
• 1-4 click left/top/right navigation (can go deeper at the section level)
• Notebooks / Sections / Pages
• Sections can be grouped
• Pages can have subpages
• Keyboard shortcuts for navigation
• Recent notebooks are easily accessible via the Notebook Pane
• Notebooks are available on the Notebooks Pane on the left nav every time you open OneNote until you remove (Close) the notebook
• Notebooks can be renamed uniquely to that machine and user
• Notebook contents however are synchronized across machines and users
• OneDrive/OneNote.Com/SharePoint/O365 will also maintain a separate list of your recently used notebooks across machines
• Audio (and video) recording with note taking time stamps
• Notes taken at any time during the recording can replay the recording at the appropriate time
• Mobile device support
• Embedded documents
• Screen clip tool (Windows-S or Insert screen clip from note page)
• Embedded links (Linked Web Notes)
• If researching using a browser, notes taken in OneNote will automatically embed the related URL
• Copying, pasting, and screenshots will also include the current address from the browser
• Also works when viewing other OneNote notebooks, PowerPoint, or Word documents
• Drawing/tablet support (Ink to Text, Ink to Math)
• Math (Trig/Calculus support )
• A Mathematics Add-In was available in Office 2010/2013 and is now discontinued
• A new Math Assistant is only available on OneNote for Windows 10
• Linked meeting notes from Outlook invitation for quickly accessing meeting notes for scheduled meetings
• Free form layouts, markups, and drawings
• Text, drawings, images, etc. can be inserted anywhere on the note page
• Use to markup a screenshot or document print
• Dock to desktop and full screen features
• Docks to side of screen displacing the desktop so that you can take notes while demoing or working
• Full screen mode removes the notebook navigation and menu items
• Save to SharePoint or OneNote Online (OneDrive)
• Notebook sections and pages are saved as folders and files within the document library, so don't be surprised if you see this in explorer view
• Print to OneNote
• Quickly markup or take notes on any document source
• OneNote installs a virtual printer driver on your machine
• Web based versions of OneNote
• Included with OneDrive (OneNote Online), Office 365, or with on-premises Office Online Server (Office Web Apps Server)
• Share pages and notebooks via Email or Hyperlink (to facilitate notebook adoption)
• OneNote Online
• MindMapping Source (Not really specific to OneNote but a nice use)
• MindMaps are just graphical bulleted lists.  Make the bulleted list in OneNote and then copy the list to your favorite MindMapping tool.  This way you can collaborate with others who don't know or own the MM tool and you can look cool demoing the info.  Note that my whole blog could be converted into a giant mind map. :)

Additional Features with OneTastic

• Macros
• Macroland: prebuilt macros
• OneCalendar
• See your notes by date in a calendar
• Image utilities
• Crop/rotate images and select OCR'd text
• Custom styles
• Like MS Word styles
• Favorites and pin desktop shortcuts

When not to use OneNote

• Final published or printable document
• Blogging
• Use Windows Live Writer instead (send to blog is supported but not as good)
• Drafts in OneNote are ok
• Heavily formatted content or page oriented layout
• This is better done in Publisher or Word
• When copy/pasting or sending to MS Word, bullets may need to be reset and other formatting corrected
• Highlight the bulleted list and then double click the bullet icon to fix the lists in MS Word
• Diagramming or presentations
• Use Visio or PowerPoint
• Quick hand drawings or draft object drawings are ok
• Spreadsheets
• Use SharePoint lists or Excel and embed a link in OneNote
• Dynamic/sortable/filterable lists, data, or documents
• Use SharePoint

Projected Field in View Item Form

Scenario

• You are using Projected Fields (a.k.a. additional columns) from a lookup column in a list or library. 
• This may be a standard lookup column or a BCS External Data column.
• You would like these fields to show up on the list/library display (View Item) form.

Issue

• Normally you will only see projected fields in list views configured to display these columns.  For some reason, MS did not include them by default on the display form.

Resolution

• Add these fields below the standard item form.
• The form will continue to be dynamic since the standard Data Form Web Part is still used for all other fields
• Example: A new column added to the list will automatically show up on this customized display form.

Steps

• Create a New Form in SharePoint Designer on the appropriate list/library.
  
• Set the File Name to "DispFormWithAdditionalFields", Type to Display item form, and set as default
  
• Temporarily Insert a Display Item Form in the div Below the existing content
• This will populate the Data Source Details window. Open this window if not already visible. Data view Tools (ribbon) / Options / Data Source Details (Data section)
  
• Right click on the Projected Field you wish to display, right click it, then select Copy Item XPath
  
• Now delete the temporary Display Item Form. This was just used to populate the Data Source Details window.
• Insert a SharePoint ListItemProperty control (Insert / Controls / SharePoint) at the same location
  
• Right click the control and edit properties.
• In the Tag Properties window Set the Property property. :)
  • Paste the XPATH copied earlier and delete everything up to the @ sign
    • /dsQueryResponse/Rows/Row/@Exam_x0020_Number_x003a__x0020_Company_Name
    • Change to: Exam_x0020_Number_x003a__x0020_Company_Name
• Add a column header above or to the left of the new field.
• Save and Preview in Browser
  
  (names removed in image)
• Enjoy!

SharePoint RBS (Remote Blob Storage) Options

Built-In:

• Filestream

Third Party:

• AvePoint
• MetaLogix

SharePoint Migration Tools (Incomplete Article)

Feature List

1. Term Stores / Enterprise Keywords
2. Site Content Types and Site Columns (Taxonomy)
3. Site Comparison (Differences)
4. Version History
5. Maintain modified/created metadata
6. Metadata bulk editor
7. Utilize Web Services (No server installs)
8. Lists and Libraries
9. Permissions
10. Users and Groups
11. SharePoint Designer List and Library workflows
12. SharePoint Designer Reusable and Site workflows
13. Flatten folder hierarchy
14. Office properties to SharePoint properties

Data and file transfer to SharePoint from the following systems:

SharePoint: Prior Version, Online (Office 365), or Farm to Farm

• Idera: SharePoint Migration Suite
• 2003 - present, SharePoint Online
• Features: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5?, 6, 7, 8, 9?, 10?, 11?, 12?, 13?, 14?
• Metalogix
• AvePoint
• ShareGate: Migration & Classification
• Features:  1, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14
• *1 Features: 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
• Pricing (11/2012) - Unlimited data - Migration user license
• $695 for 1 user, $1,295 for *1 Features
• $4k for 25 users, $4,995 for *1 Features

OpenText Hummingbird DM or EDOCs DM (part of Enterprise)

• Tzunami: Deployer
• Knowledge Capture: Bulk Extractor
• ZSL
• SeeUnity

EMC Documentum

• AvePoint
• Metalogix
• Tzunami
• SeeUnity

File System

• ShareGate: Migration & Classification
• Features:  1, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14
• Pricing (11/2012) - Unlimited data - Migration user license
• $695 for 1 user
• $4k for 25 users
• Idera: SharePoint Migration Suite
• SeeUnity
• Metalogix
• AvePoint
• DavCopy
• Axceler
• Tzunami
• Quest
• PCVita
• CodePlex
• PowerShell Script Migrator

Pandora on Xbox 360

Scenario

• You want to stream Pandora internet radio from your Xbox 360

Issue

• Pandora has not yet released an Xbox 360 app

Resolution

• Download the internet explorer app and browse to Pandora.com
• I highly recommend using Xbox glass to navigate and fill out your Pandora account information

Microsoft Surface / Window RT missing Bluetooth DUN support

• No Bluetooth DUN (Dial Up Networking)
• BthModem is not supported by the Microsoft Bluetooth Stack
• This means standard Bluetooth Dial Up Networking is not available
• If you have a mobile phone, you must use a USB or WiFi tether unless PDAnet, FoxFI, Tether.com, or similar partner develops a custom driver specifically for these devices

Cloud Hosted Dev, Test, Training, and Demo environments

This article is in progress.  The purpose is to identify and compare preconfigured cloud hosted virtualized development, testing, training, and demonstration hosting providers.

Features

1. Preconfigured Servers (ex: Preloaded SharePoint Server)
1. Licenses Included
2. BYOL (Bring your own licenses)
2. Automatic suspend and resume
3. Clone VMs
4. Snapshots
5. VM Sharing (transfer your VM to a team member's account)
6. Export VM (for use locally)
7. Public IP or URL
8. VPN Tunnel
9. Scalability

Pricing Considerations

1. Simultaneous users
2. Processing or Usage time
3. CPUs
4. Bandwidth
5. Per VM
6. Disk usage
7. RAM
8. Public IP or URL

Hosting Providers

• CloudShare
• ProPlus (8GB RAM, 300GB Disk for $60/month)
• Features: 1.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6?, 7*
• 6?: More difficult to request this since the licenses are included
• 7*: Public URL redirector.  Unreliable in my experience.  May not work if the machine was auto-suspended.
• Performance: Lackluster.  Takes 5 to 10 seconds to load some standard pages.  Can be time consuming to wait for servers to resume from suspend (3-4 times per day).  Limited CPU allocation.
• Skytap
• Features: 1.2*, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• 1.2*: These templates are not provisioned as well as CloudShare.  Recommend bringing your own VM as well as licenses.
• Performance: Untested.

Other Articles:

• http://sharepointwookiee.com/?p=245

SharePoint Folders and Document Set Best Practices

The general consensus is to move away from folders and instead convert the taxonomy to metadata fields or convert to sites and libraries.  This is typically hardest to do when migrating from a file system into SharePoint.  If you do decide to do this, make sure to disable folder creation at the library level.  This won't stop explorer view from creating folders, but does remove it in-browser.

Users typically want to use folders for navigation.  This is usually due to a lack of proper site structure, navigation, views, search, and metadata.  Grouping within a view can be used to simulate folder based navigation and help with user adoption.

There are plenty of articles on how folders are bad, so I'll just list the main justifications for using them and possible workarounds.  If you must use folders, consider using document sets instead (see document set features below)

If you do want to use folders it should be for one of the following concrete reasons:

• Different security but the files should appear in the same views
• If they don't need to be viewed together, move them to new libraries
• Even if they do, consider a third party library rollup / library collection web part instead
• This would allow you to view multiple libraries in one view
• Explorer view usage (if explorer view is the primary mechanism for working with files)
• This is not recommended except in bulk document management scenarios
• Note that explorer view works with doc sets and separate libraries as well and these should be preferred over folders
• Document Set feature usage 
• Doc sets are library root level folders with advanced features
• They cannot be nested - This is a good thing
• Features:
• Custom page for viewing/managing the grouped documents
• Versioning multiple files in a group
• Configure metadata for a group of documents simultaneously
• Running a workflow against a group of documents
• Preload several documents as a single group
• Email enabled libraries
• This is your only option for grouping the email and attachments into a single unit
• I recommend converting the email folders to document sets as they come in
• Refer to my SharePoint 2010 folder to document set conversion fix
• Too many groupings to manage
• Consider a keyword taxonomy field, lookup, choice with add item enabled, or single line of text metadata field instead

Windows 8 - Android Bluetooth Tether

Scenario

• You are tethering an Android phone using the free FoxFi or PDANet Bluetooth dial up modem
• You have already installed the software on your computer and on your phone.

Issue

• The simple Bluetooth connect button is not available from the Bluetooth device screen as it was in Windows 7

Resolution

• You must connect as a Dial up connection and specify "*99#" as the phone number
• First start the FoxFi or PDANet Bluetooth app from your phone
• Go to your Networks settings (Mouse: Bottom right corner+up/settings/internet access/dial-up-connection)
• Enter in *99# in the phone number, ensure your phone is selected as the device, and select connect

(Idea From: http://unlock4modem.blogspot.com/2012/08/access-internet-via-mobile-bluetooth-on_19.html)

MS SharePoint Conference 2012

Entry Sponsored by:

Everest Solutions Group
Business Strategy, Application Development, Mobile, and Portal/Web Design!


I'll be attending the SharePoint Conference 2012.  Sunday the 11th through Thursday the 15th.  If you plan to be there and would like to meet up, please reply here, on Facebook, or on LinkedIn.  I'll be staying at the Vdara (City Center) Sunday night and the rest at the Aria (City Center). 
Note: I used Priceline Express deal for Strip Vicinity: South.  Buy Sunday separately since the other nights are much cheaper.

Itinerary (Updated with session notes)

• Sunday Night
  • 3:20 - Arrive
  • 6:00 - Registration
• Monday
  • 8:00 - Breakfast
  • 8:30 – Keynote (SharePoint 2013 New Features)
    • Social Features
      • @ and # tagging
      • inline video
    • ECM Features
      • Drag/Drop in browser
      • Preview pane
      • Integrated social conversations
    • Yammer
      • Button integrated into list/library Ribbon
      • Enterprise graph (Open Graph)
        • Conversations about the item
      • Mobile Device
      • Included with Office 365
      • Free version and a discounted paid version available
      • Nationwide case study (Spot)
      • ??? Not sure how this deviates from the standard SharePoint 2013 social
    • Search, Web Publishing, Web Content Management - Richard Riley
      • Search
        • Fast Included
        • Previous results intellisense in search box
        • Results block
          • ??? – Is this different than Keywords/Synonyms???
      • Web Publishing
        • Dreamweaver (other editor) support
          • Snippit editor in browser
          • Copy the webpart code as a snippit directly into the HTML
        • Content search webpart (Amazon product like display using a SharePoint Query)
      • eDiscovery
        • In-Place holds
          • Includes query features
      • Outlook integration
        • SharePoint Inbox, Documents, People, and Events folders in Outlook
    • Infrastructure/Foundation
      • Cloud (MS geo-redundant Datacenters are the Best)
      • 40% more efficient bandwith
      • 4x image compression
      • 50% reduction in server-side latency
      • Version history only stores changes now (used to store copies)
      • Upgrade path
        • Backward compatible UI mode (Visual Upgrade for 2013)
        • Health check (Upgrade validation)
    • Development
      • oAuth security to Office 365
      • Deployment into the cloud
        • Seamless deployment to Azure and Office 365
      • Cloud app model – reseller opportunities
  • 11:00 – What’s new for developers in Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 (Keenan Newton, Cyrielle Simeone)
    • Office HTML and JavaScript apps utilizing web services can be embedded in Excel (and other Office apps)
      • 1 app for Word, Excel, Access, etc.
    • Mail apps
      • Outlook/Exchange
      • Deployed via exchange rules
      • ??? - Does this work with Office 365 Exchange
    • MS Access 2013 apps in SharePoint
      • Can now use SQL server back-end within SharePoint
    • Office and SharePoint Store
    • “Napa” Office 365 Development Tools
      • Javascript and Asp.Net  web based (Azure) coding interface
      • Option to open in Visual Studio
    • Visual Studio 2012
      • Remote SharePoint debugging and coding on Windows 7/8
  • 12:15 – Lunch
  • 2:00 – What’s new with Enterprise Content Management in SharePoint 2013 (Tejas Mehta, Jim Masson)
    • Hash tags – integrated with managed metadata
    • Profile – docs I’m following, suggested docs
    • Missing notes here
  • 3:45 – Enterprise Social 101 (Jared Spataro, Adam Pisoni, Pavan Tapadia, James Patterson, Jessica Halper, Lauren Antonoff)
    • Yammer is going away.  There will be 1 product (SharePoint).  This explains why they demoed the 2013 social features, but only pieces of the Yammer offering during the keynote.
    • Use Yammer for 2010 now and there will be an upgrade path to 2013
    • My take: MS basically bought Yammer for the staff and customer base
  • 6:00 – LoungeSPC  - House of Blues
  • 7:00 - Dinner
• Tuesday
  • 8:30 – Breakfast
  • 9:00 – Overview of ECM for teams with Site Mailboxes (Adam Harmetz, Alfons Staerk)
    • Can drop personal emails into this mailbox for team
    • Site Mailbox Document Library folders
      • Can forward a link of the document from the team mailbox
        • Doesn’t use Document ID feature.  Uses a static link
      • Inbound email only.
      • Doesn’t display columns within Outlook
      • Same functionality as WebDav, browser drag/drop
      • Uses the default content type
      • OWA interface will not include (you must go to the SharePoint site)
      • SharePoint search will not include the emails, Outlook search will not include the documents
      • Exchange stores site mailbox content – no duplicate data storage
      • SharePoint manages lifecycle policy for the site mailbox
    • eDiscovery support
    • Site Closure and Deletion
      • Policies to close and delete sites automatically based on site created date
    • Add the mailbox via a SharePoint App
    • Exchange 2013 must be configured to support SharePoint 2013
      • If upgrading, you will need to migrate user mailboxes to Exchange 2013
      • Users would need Outlook 2013 to view the site mailboxes in the client
      • No hybrid Exchange support
  • 10:30 – Developing apps for SharePoint 2013 with Visual Studio 2012 (Mike Morton, Sean Laberee)
    • New Options
      • Full Page
      • App Parts (hosted web parts)
      • UI command extensions (UI custom actions)
    • Remote Development
    • Build a dev site using the dev site template or else use http://dev.office.com
    • Office enabled app for SharePoint
      • Office app embedded in a SharePoint document library default template
    • “Appetize” an existing web app
      • Demoed taking a standard MVC 4 web application,
    • oAuth via ACS (STS)
    • High-Trust apps (In-house hosted apps)
      • Use OAuth via Certificates
      • Each web app has to have a certificate
      • Internal use apps (no app store integration)
      • Open SOAP endpoints for app event and remote event receiver via your firewall
        • Utilize service bus (white-paper coming)
      • Remote event receivers with real-time debugging within Visual Studio
      • Intelli-trace (step back during debugging)
  • 11:45 – Lunch
  • 1:45 – People Search and Extensibility in SharePoint 2013 (Mikael Svenson, Sana Khan)
    • User Profiles
      • Now can relate an external source (via BCS) to a user’s profile to import related propertie
      • External Content Types now configured in Visual Studio instead of SharePoint designer
    • User context for customizing enterprise search
      • Prioritized by
        • Organizational structure distance
        • Who y0u follow
        • Sites you follow
      • Search Content Enrichment
  • 3:15 - Claims Based Authentication – Migrating to the new SharePoint 2013 Identity Model (Israel Vega, Nathan Miller)
    • Pushing claims (Classic is depreciated but supported)
    • Flow
      • Migrate web applications
        • Update to use Claims
        • Update web application policy
    • Classic to Classic (Depreciated)
      • Use PowerShell
      • Warning in health rule
      • No Office Web Apps (preview) in classic mode
    • Classic to Windows Claims (OOTB Content and user migration)
      • Clean up: "Last Modified By” is not populated by default
      • Custom code utilizing “WindowsPrinciple” in code will no longer work when switching to claims.  Change to “UserPrinciple”
      • See slides for PowerShell code to migrate users
      • Create the Portal SuperUser and SuperReader accounts (PowerShell code provided in slide deck)
      • Impersonation and other information on IWF and C2WTS
    • Custom Claims migration
    • Windows Claims to SAML (Federated)
    • SAML to SAML (Federated)
      • Inventory the claims the encodings
      • Sync the claims encodings
      • Migrate the trusted provider
      • Migrate/update the provider realms if needed
      • Migrate content DB’s
      • Add web policies
      • Test, test, test
  • 7:00 - Attendee Party –(Bon Jovi)
• Wednesday
  • 8:30 – Breakfast
  • 9:00 – SharePoint 2013 Upgrade Deep Dive (Sean Livingston)
    • Upgrade site collections via PowerShell commands or individually per site collection (with or without an evaluation site)
      • Can queue up multiple site collections for synchronous processing
    • Self-service site collection upgrade option
    • Evaluation site collections
      • Size quota option
      • Expiration: Default is 30 days
        • No expiration extensions in the UI, requires PowerShell
      • Entered in the Site Map
      • Linked to from original site
        • Only 1 eval site per original
      • Eval site creation is scheduled as a timer job
    • Solutions
      • Install-SpSolution CompatibilityLevel
        • blank – Will install based on codebase tags (likely 14 only)
        • 14, 15 – Both as same codebase
        • 14 – 2010 only
        • 15 – 2013 only
      • Does not support partially trusted code solutions
        • Bin directory requires full trust install
    • Claims
      • Existing 2010 claims providers should work fine
        • Make sure provider names match
      • Claims Auth is now recommended
    • Farm Services
      • 2010 content farm can consume 2013 farm services
  • 10:30 - Advanded Dashboard Creation using Excel, Excel Services, PerformancPoint and Apps for Office (Kevin Donovan)
    • Stack
      • SQl Server – SSRS, SSAS
      • Excel – PowerView, PowerPivot, Excel Services
      • SharePoint – PerformancePoint
    • Office 365
      • No PerformancePoint services
      • No data refresh
      • MS is working on implementing
    • Excel
      • Pivot Table
      • Recommended Charts
        • Data slicing (timeline)
      • Apps for Office
    • Excel Services
      • Field List/ Field Well
      • EffectiveUsername
        • Allows delegated credentials via a username property Analysis Services queries using this user instead of process identity
        • Less need to use Unattended Service Account
      • Automatic Target App Creation
      • BI Server
        • Excel services must be configured to use SSAS server(s) for processing
      • NOV2
      • Named object view
    • SQL
      • Import to SSAS from PowerPivot using SSDT (SQL Server Data Tools / New BIDS)
    • PerformancePoint
      • Themes
      • BICenter (Dashboard Designer in the ribbon)
      • Filter Enhancements
      • Filter Search
      • EffectiveUsername
      • CustomTargetApplications
        • Share target applications between Excel Services and PerformancePoint
      • Server-side Migration
      • Dashboard Designer Authentication
  • 11:45 - Lunch
  • 1:45 - Client Side Rendering in SharePoint Server 2013 (Kirk Evans)
    • No notes
  • 3:15 – Security Trimming for Search in SharePoint 2013 (Morgan Larsson – Senior PM, Sveinar Rasmussen – Principal SDE)
    • No notes
  • 7:00 - Cirque: Ka at MGM Grand (Category D)
• Thursday
  • 8:30 – Breakfast
  • 10:30 – Deep Dive on Managing Enterprise Content Types At Scale (Chris Bortlik, Scott Jamison)
    • General Content Type overview
    • General Column overview
    • Column Usage Report (2010 and 2013)
      • Will distribute after the conference
    • Content Type Syndication Hub
      • Pros
        • OOB
        • End User management
        • Single source for content types
      • Cons
        • Lack of change mgmt
        • Coordination via dedicated site collection
        • Does not work for hybrids
    • Left at this point since nothing new was covered
  • 12:00 – Surfacing LOB Data in SharePoint 2013 using BCS and Search (Shannon Bray)
    • Same as 2010
  • 1:30 - Lunch
  • 3:25 – Flight Homehttp://www.esgnetwork.com

Willingness to get dirty must be genetic.

My kids:



MS Access SharePoint Read Only Linked Library

Scenario

• You are getting external data from a SharePoint library with Microsoft Access and wish to edit, insert, update, or delete the records
• The library requires approval of submitted documents

Issue

• You receive any of the following errors due to the list/library being read-only
• "Cannot update. Database or object is read-only."
• "This Recordset is not updateable."
• etc.
• You may also receive the "The setting you entered isn't valid for this property." 
• You can ignore this one as it is irrelevant to this issue and will not prevent updating the list/library.

Resolution

• Disable the approval requirement in the document library versioning settings. Re-enable when done.
• This seems to auto-approve any that are in progress. 
• In addition, the Approval Status column may disappear from configured views.
• Side note: For records with a populated person/group column, MS Access may hang during an update (via query or linked list manual update).  Removing and re-adding the users cleared this up for me.  And yes, this was strange.
• The following scenario also does not affect the read-only status:
• The list or library you are accessing included a managed metadata field at some point in time
  
  You can verify this by viewing the linked library in Design View in MSAccess and looking for a column named "Taxonomy Catch All Column". If it exists, then this list had a Term Store (Managed Metadata) column associated with it. Ex: Enterprise Keywords
  

SSRS Regex Expression for SharePoint Lookup Column

Scenario

• You have a multi-select (multivalue) lookup field in your SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 report

Issue

• The field also displays the Field IDs and you want to format it correctly
• Ex: Value1;#5;#Value5;#6;#Value6

Resolution

• Use the following expression
• =System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(Fields!MyLookupColumn.Value, ";#\d+;#", ", ")

SharePoint Integrated SSRS: BIDS Deployment: Multiple Login Prompts

Scenario

• You are using SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio to deploy a report project to a  SQL Server Reporting Server in SharePoint Integrated Mode
• You are attempting to use the SharePoint Server address with "/reportserver/" or the Report Library address. 
• Note: BIDS asks for this format which may not work: "http://<servername>/reportserver"

Issue

• You repeatedly receive "Reporting Services Login" authentication prompts when attempting to deploy and eventually fail to deploy

Resolution

• Use "http://servername/" or "/_layouts/ReportServer" in the TargetServerURL path in the project properties
• Ex: "http://intranet.company.com/" or "http://intranet.company.com/_layouts/ReportServer"
• If you use the server name, make sure to include the trailing forward slash
• Use the Report Library/Folder location in the Target*****Folder settings
• Note: You can use folder paths if your library contains folders. 
• Ex: ".../Reports/Folder1/Folder2"
• Here's an example of the settings (Right Click the project and select properties)

Active Directory Password Expiration Notification Email

Scenario

• Users log into your site using an AD user store
• Password expiry is enabled via Active Directory Group Policy

Issue

• User's passwords may expire without their knowledge, especially if they don't have regular access to a domain attached PC

Resolution

• Implement the following script to email users before their passwords expire
• http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Email-Active-Directory-452a5640

AAM Default Zone Configuration Issues

Scenario

• You have configured Alternate Access Mappings (AAMs) for a SharePoint web application
• You may be using ISA or UAG to terminate a FQDN and redirect to an internal URL

Issue

• SharePoint Designer Workflow email alerts with document or item links may display the internal URL or other URL from the AAMs, rather than the public URL
• Search results will not display any results (no results) on the search page when searching using a site scope
• Ex: From a subsite, you enter a search criteria which is scoped to "This site" and receive no results even though the content has been indexed.  "All Sites" scope works correctly regardless

Resolution

• When  configuring AAMs, the Default Zone public URL will be used in workflow Open Item alert links (Current Item URL)
• http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010customization/thread/2bb44216-a930-4786-ad0a-3505f0f7f1d4
• Most non-workflow generated alert links will use whatever URL was accessed when creating the alert, rather than the Default Zone public URL

• When configuring AAMs, the Default Zone public URL must match the URLs specified in the SharePoint Search Administration index content source used to crawl the content
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2000365
• http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-ZA/sharepointsearch/thread/906045d8-8782-4c39-be1b-7632f7239019

Office 365 for educators just released!

For all teachers, educators, and school or district IT administrators.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/education/school-services.aspx

MS just released Office 365 for educators. I would highly recommend this to any school. These are cloud services with extremely reduced costs (or FREE), saving your district money to put more of it into the classrooms. Class/staff web sites, public web site, online file storage, email (outlook), MS Office (w/ web apps), Instant Messaging, phones/voicemail (VOIP), calendaring, task mgmt, web search (of all curriculum/documents you have access to), and real-time collaboration (x people work on 1 document at once).  This includes SharePoint, which is the platform of choice for collaboration and content management solutions.  I would recommend engaging a competent solution integrator to migrate and deploy to Office 365.

InfoWise handy SharePoint plug-ins

• Enterprise Capacity Solution - Multiple site collection navigation management
• Smart List Pro - Tab based forms with field hiding - For lists/libraries with lots of metadata
• Not true permissions since datasheet view and web services gets around it
• User group or other field based default values and hide rules
• Regex column validation
• Smart Print Pro - Print list views

Solution Architecture - To SharePoint or Not to SharePoint

You are architecting a web based software solution and are considering custom development (Asp.Net and SQL) or SharePoint list and library based architecture.  You can decide based on the following list of SharePoint pros and cons.  If you can pick 3 or 4 items (or 1 very important item) from the Pro list and are aware of the items in the cons list, it is likely beneficial to use SharePoint.

• Pros
• Authentication, authorization, and membership - Claims, forms, AD, LDAP, and custom
• Security trimming throughout the product - Very important
• Document and content management
• If you plan to upload files, plan to use SharePoint - Very important
• Item Data
• Site, library, and list columns
• Managed metadata
• Customizable ad-hoc list and library views
• Search and Indexing
• Security trimmed - Very important
• Publishing, approval, versioning, and check outs
• Versioning - Very important
• Remember to turn these on where appropriate
• Navigation
• Security trimmed
• Dynamically populated
• Web content management - Sites, pages, wikis, blogs, and web parts.
• Recycle Bin - The big undo
• Email Alerts, RSS
• Integrated workflow and task engine - Pre-built Approval and Review workflows
• Retention policies, legal holds, and record management
• Email enabled libraries
• Unified user interface (Master pages, layouts, themes, and styles)
• Reporting integration
• Excel services
• Better with PowerPivot (SQL Enterprise or BI)
• SSRS
• MS Access
• PerformancePoint services
• External lists and external chart web part
• Using business connectivity services
• MySites (personal web sites) and user profiles
• MS Office integration
• Including Office Web Apps (with MS Office volume license)
• SharePoint Workspace for offline caching and synchronization
• Plethora of third party products and solutions
• Standardized skill-sets - by SharePoint focus
• Ex: Architect, developer, analyst, admin, designer, end-user, bi analyst, librarian, etc.
• Web Part Framework integration
• This is also available in ASP.Net, but does not have audience integration and requires some master page work and is not as flexible for reuse and customization by end-users.
• APIs: web services, client object model, sever object model, and PowerShell
• MS Support
• Load balanced, scalable architecture
• COTS - little to no coding required for many solutions
• Cons
• Relational support limited
• SharePoint supports lookups with referential integrity and reflected columns but does not support hierarchical/tree view and complex entity relationships without custom development
• SSRS does not allow you to query with a join or union
• System integration complexity
• Integrating and maintaining SharePoint and related applications in your environment can be complex and requires a professional to do correctly.  This can be mitigated by using a hosted SharePoint provider.  This admin level complexity is greatly outweighed by SharePoint's inherent functionality.
• Performance
• You can't optimize the performance as well as with a SQL database.  If your system is highly transactional, consider moving these pieces to SQL and front-ending in SharePoint
• New skill set to utilize fully
• SharePoint is still in the early stages of user adoption and training.  Many users will need to be trained to understand how best to use SharePoint.
• Storage hungry
• SharePoint solutions with document libraries can eat up disk space faster than a file share.  Make sure to plan SQL capacity and possibly Remote Blob Storage
• Wildfire effect
• If proper governance plans, quotas, IT professionals, and permissions aren't in-place, SharePoint training and support needs may surpass the IT department's ability to provide
• Initial cost
• Initial costs (server licenses and CALs) should be surpassed by reduced development costs and increased productivity. 
• Search Server 2010 Express (SharePoint Foundation 2010 w/ advanced search)  is available for low cost solutions.  This will not have all the features listed above.
• Not easy to synchronize functionality and content across distributed farms, sites, and lists
• If you plan to utilize site or list templates, you must have a plan to integrate new features into sites after they have been created.  Data migrations, schema changes, and feature additions must be addressed in a solution package or powershell script.
• Troubleshooting bugs and limitations
• The more you use SharePoint, the more you will run into its limitations and bugs.  Troubleshooting issues is usually not straightforward and requires SharePoint knowledgable IT staff and/or many hours on the support line.  Fortunately, limitations are very often overcome by community and third party products and are a google search away.  See the rest of my blog for many of these bugs, limitations, and workarounds.
• Easy to poorly architect a solution
• With great ease of implementation, comes incredibly horrible solutions
• Generally, do not:
• Use folders
• unless they are doc sets, email enabled folders, or OneNote sections
• folder level security and explorer view needs are a possible exception
• Copy/move documents unless you have a good reason
• Utilize in-place publishing, versioning, security, and filtered views whenever possible
• Overwrite the standard list/library CRUD forms
• you can add to the pages, just don't remove the dynamically generated form web part
• Try to use custom fields, third party products, or views to implement custom functionality within a column
• Use too many site collections
• Site collections isolate functionality.  Only split if you are sure there will be little crossover in SharePoint functionality.  Search will work across site collections.
• Use too many sites
• Sites should map to your main navigation, you don't want too many at each level
• The exception would be for dynamically generated templated sites, but you would need to implement code for instantiation, navigation, and disposal.
• Ex: Project sites and my sites.
• Use too many lists/libraries
• Items with similar metadata and security should be in the same library and separated by content type or metadata values.
• Develop a custom solution that can be addressed using native SharePoint functionality
• Generally, do:
• Have a seasoned SharePoint specialist gather requirements and architect a  solution
• This person should know all the dos and don'ts
• Use site content types and site columns
• Define site columns and content types at the lowest level site needed to encompass all sub-sites where they will be used
• When custom development is needed
• Use javascript, ajax, and jquery
• but not for security
• Use PowerShell for administrative functions
• Build SharePoint Designer workflows
• Build Visual Studio workflow actions
• Build Visual Web Parts
• Build EventHandlers
• Package and deploy visual studio solutions as a .wsp
• Be careful with performance on the above
• Dispose items properly
• Cache any collection references, don't use the index
• Ex: Don't use splist.items[x], instead use getitembyid or equivalent
• Perform user testing
• Use lookup lists and columns
• Performance testing
• Disaster recovery testing
• Backup plans are useless without successfully tested recovery plans

SharePoint Report Builder disconnected bug

Scenario

• You have configured SQL Reporting Services 2008 R2 (SSRS) in integrated mode against SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Foundation 2010
• The SharePoint site collection containing your report library has anonymous access enabled for the authentication zone you are using.
• Ex: You are building a report for a public website hosted on SharePoint and accessing it via the default zone where both Windows Auth and Anonymous are enabled
• You try to add a new report to the library (after correctly configuring the report content types) or open an existing report using Report Builder 3.0

Issue

• The report does not correctly connect to the integrated report server.
• New document / report builder report symptoms:
• "No current report server.  Connect"  appears at bottom left
• Saving the report prompts for a location on your computer
• Opening an existing report in report builder will open a blank report instead

Resolution

• This occurs because Report Builder does not use your existing windows authentication token from Internet Explorer and instead tries to initiate new credentials.  By default, anonymous access is provided, which does not have permissions to create or edit a report on the server.  You can workaround this by performing one of the following actions:
• Disable anonymous access on the zone you are using to build reports

OR

• Create another zone where anonymous access is disabled and use that url/ip/port when designing reports

OR

• Build reports locally and manually upload/download them to/from the report document library

The zones are configured via central admin / manage web applications / authentication providers You may need to set alternate access mappings and/or extend a web application to configure additional zones