Jenny Clayton (nee Everett)

Internet Search engine search vs. Enterprise Search

JennyE — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:40:00 GMT

So often I come across individuals who presume that the only thing they need to do to implement search on their Intranet is have a keywords box and a 'good' search engine behind this. Sure enough in many cases this works fine, however I believe...(read more)

Security lock down of a SharePoint farm before publishing an Extranet or Website

JennyE — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:36:00 GMT

Before exposing a SharePoint farm to the internet it is important that precautions are taken to ensure that security cannot be compromised. Taking all reasonable steps to secure the environment should minimise the risk of a security breach. I have found...(read more)

Domain admins have full access to the SharePoint portal

JennyE — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:21:00 GMT

Initially when you install SharePoint, the farm administrators group will contain the group BUILTIN\administrators, which is the local group on the server for administration. This in turn will usually include you domain admin group, effectively giving...(read more)

SharePoint: Taking SharePoint wikis offline with Outlook 2007

JennyE — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:49:00 GMT

Two (among quite a few) features that I love about SharePoint are Wikis and the ability to take items offline with Outlook - the "Connect to Outlook" option. So the other day I was working on an internal wiki and needed some of the information...(read more)

Hide a field on a form

JennyE — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:42:00 GMT

Quite often I come across a requirement when I have a field on the new/edit item form that I want to hide, usually this has already been populated by some development. In this example we have a link field (which in this case links to another sharepoint...(read more)

SharePoint: Navigation across site collections

JennyE — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:13:00 GMT

I always think that navigation does not go across site collections and it general it doesn't. However you can use the Portal site connection option in order to include a link in the breadcrumb. For example, you have an Intranet with team sites and...(read more)

SharePoint and IIS: the default domain

JennyE — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:25:00 GMT

Many times in an Extranet scenario I see that Clients are having to enter domain\username in the username box, although this isn't a particular problem if often causes a few user error issues which could be easily avoided. 1. Locate your externally...(read more)

SharePoint: You need 4 times that amount of disk space!

JennyE — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:49:00 GMT

Yes a common pitfall that people fall into is not allowing enough space on their SharePoint servers. Say you estimate your content database are going to get to 100Gb then you actually probably need 420Gb of space - how so... Content databases: 100Gb Search...(read more)

SharePoint 2007: Ever wondered if there is an easy way to stop users creating My Sites

JennyE — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:16:00 GMT

It is a fairly common scenario that people don't want anyone or some groups of people to create My Sites but it always suprises me how few people know the answer to. This can all be achieved through the SSP: Go to the relevant SSP Choose "Personalization...(read more)

Folders sort order changes when "Display New Folder" command on the new menu is set to No

JennyE — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:20:00 GMT

When sorting you in a SharePoint Document Library you would expect it to behave as per Windows Explorer and in most cases it does. If you sort by a column (e.g. Name A-Z, Modified date) the Folders appear at the top followed by the Files. After removing...(read more)

Some time later....

JennyE — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:10:00 GMT

It has been a long time since my last blog post and about time I started again... The last couple of months have been a tad busy - getting engaged, changing jobs and renovating our house! Anyway about time I started again.... So here goes......(read more)

Restore Site Collection to same server - SharePoint 2007

JennyE — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:30:00 GMT

When backing up a site collection and restoring it in the same SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) web application, I received the following error message: No content databases are available for this operation. Create a content database , and then try the operation...(read more)

Modified date of all documents within a folder is updated when the folder is renamed

JennyE — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:48:00 GMT

We had an issue with documents in a Folder within a Document library. We renamed the folder and the Modified date of all documents updated to be the date at which the folder was modified - which for us caused some strange results as the last user to modify...(read more)

Lookup with Allow multiple values can be filtered after all

JennyE — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:10:00 GMT

Today I attempted to setup a View filtering using the contains operator on a Lookup column which allows multiple values - not as straight forward as hoped: I had 2 lists: Products Categories Products has a lookup column to Categories, which allows multiple...(read more)

More on configuring search

JennyE — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:14:00 GMT

As promised this is a follow up to SharePoint Search is not Psychic , In this article I hope to briefly cover a few of the ways you can start to influence you search. I don't intend to discuss search scopes or managed properties in this article. Authoratative...(read more)

SharePoint search is not psychic!

JennyE — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:50:00 GMT

I was at the user group today (well actually it is yesterday now), Andrew Woodward gave a great presentation on Microsoft Search Server 2008. One of the questions he asked during the session was how many people reviewed and acted upon the statistics about...(read more)

Access 2007 and SharePoint 2007

JennyE — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:41:00 GMT

In lists there is an "Open with Access" option, I never thought much about this and continued using Excel. However we have a requirement to build an application with drag and drop functionality on a desktop application but to publish this to...(read more)

Blog Posts

JennyE — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 11:39:00 GMT

As many of you will already know a Blog template is just a series of linked lists (+ some fancy bits). There are a couple of interesting observations about the Posts list though: a) You don't have the option to save this list as a template (presumably...(read more)

Audit reports : Unknown Error

JennyE — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:40:00 GMT

We have a site with a couple of document libraries, one is very large (~16 Gb | 25000 Files | 2500 Folders). We have encountered a couple of problems, one of them is when you run Audit reports it returns "unknown error". It seems the bigger...(read more)

Site definitions vs. Site templates

JennyE — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:51:00 GMT

Site definitions are created by doing custom development, usually first copying an OOB template. Site templates are created by saving a site as a template in the GUI. There are advantages/limitations of each: Site definitions have to be updated by a developer...(read more)

SharePoint 2003 Service Pack 3

JennyE — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:26:00 GMT

There seems to be very little on the SharePoint blogs about this - everyone has moved on so quickly but in practice we haven't all completely done with SPS 2003 yet! http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=AB086D48-1148-48DE-B4EC...(read more)

Mapping a drive to a SharePoint document library

JennyE — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:19:00 GMT

There are two things that need to be setup: Webclient service needs to be started The web site needs to be on port 80, it can have a host header Otherwise you get an error usually, "The network path http://portal/site/doclib/ cannot be found"...(read more)

Save as template with Publishing feature turned on

JennyE — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:34:00 GMT

I came across this when trying to save as site as a template the other day - the option didn't exist. Beware - one of those nice quirks! http://blogs.technet.com/stefan_gossner/archive/2007/09/19/save-site-as-template-option-and-the-publishing-feature...(read more)

Farms, Web Apps, Site Collections, Sites - what is configured at what level?

JennyE — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:49:00 GMT

I have been a bit slow getting started with my blog but here it is my first post!

This post covers what features and other items are configurable at each level - I do not believe this list is complete. Therefore if you have more to add to this please comment on my blog and I will add it on.

Feature	Description	Level
Data Connection Library	Adds Data Connection Library feature	Farm
Excel Services Farm feature	Adds farm-level Excel Services Features to the Windows SharePoint Services framework	Farm
Global Web Parts	Installs additional web parts common to all types of sites.	Farm
Spell Checking	Enable Spell Checking in WSS list-item edit forms.	Farm
Worker Process isolation	Faulty code could bring down applications by web app, this is less likely at any other level. Also security breaches would be per web app.	Web App/App pool
Office Server Enterprise Search	Uses the Office Server Search Service for search over broad enterprise content. In addition to list and site scopes, provides search over people profiles, business data, remote and custom content sources. Uses multiple tabs to display results in the Search Center.	Web App
Office Server Site Search	Uses the Office Server Search Service for site and list scoped searches.	Web App
OSS Enterprise web application features	Features such as the business data catalog, forms services, and Excel Services, included in the Office SharePoint Server Enterprise License	Web App
OSS Standard web application features	Features such as user profiles and search, included in the Office SharePoint Server Standard License	Web App
<Specific workflows>	Specific workflows are made available at a site collection level. For custom and OOB workflows.	Site Collection
OSS Enterprise Site collection features	Features such as the business data catalog, forms services, and Excel Services, included in the Office SharePoint Server Enterprise License	Site Collection
OSS Publishing Infrastructure	Provides centralized libraries, content types, master pages and page layouts and enables page scheduling and other publishing functionality for a site collection.	Site Collection
OSS Search web parts	This feature uploads all web parts required for Search Center	Site Collection
OSS Standard site collection features	Features such as user profiles and search, included in the Office SharePoint Server Standard License	Site Collection
Reporting	Creates reports about information in Windows SharePoint Services.	Site Collection
Quota	Quotas for the amount of space allocated.	Site Collection
Navigation	OOB navigation is per site collection	Site collection
Site directory	List of links to sites. A site can be added to site directory at point of creation. There is a site definition for Site directory.	Site collection
Use Custom search scopes	Can manage custom search scopes available	Site collection
Search keywords and best bets	Add keywords (synonyms) and best bets.	Site collection
Second level recycle bin	Also known as Site collection recycle bin, where files go when they are deleted from Site (end user) recycle bin.	Site collection
Site collection usage reports	Usage report across the site collection. Nice graphs and tables summarising data.	Site collection
Audit settings	Change settings for what events are audited E.g. View, Edit, Delete etc.	Site collection
Audit log reports	Run reports on auditable events.	Site collection
Site collection policies for retention	Create and manage retention policies available.	Site collection
Site templates gallery	Gallery of sites saved as a template.	Site collection
List templates gallery	Gallery of lists/libraries saved as a template.	Site collection
Workflows	Which workflows are available for use	Site collection
Web Parts gallery	Gallery of web parts available for use	Site Collection
Permissions	Ability to control access to specific content	Site Collection
Permissions	Ability to control access to specific content	Site
OSS Standard site features	Features such as user profiles and search, included in the Office SharePoint Server Standard License	Site
Team collaboration lists	Provides team collaboration capabilities for a site by making standard lists, such as document libraries and issues, available.	Site
Translation management library	Create a translation management library when you want to create documents in multiple languages and manage translation tasks. Translation management libraries include a workflow to manage the translation process and provide sub-folders, file versioning, and check-in/check-out.	Site
Regional settings	Time zone, work days, time format, calendar format, etc.	Site
Usage reports	Similar to usage reports for site collection but at a lower level.	Site
Appear in search results	ASPX pages, whole site	Site
Search scope for related links	Allows site administrators to control the content of the related links search scope.	Site
View user alerts	Allows the site administrator to view who has alerts setup on the site and for what.	Site
Content and structure view	This allows users with permission to access this tree style view and move documents around (including versions) and other tasks.	Site
Content and structure logs	Audit trail of events occurring in the content and structure view.	Site
RSS feeds	Control use of RSS feeds from this site, edit copyright details etc.	Site
Audiences	Enable ability to target content at specific groups of people	Site
OSS Enterprise features	Features such as the business data catalog, forms services, and Excel Services, included in the Office SharePoint Server Enterprise License	Site
OSS Publishing	Create a Web page library as well as supporting libraries to create and publish pages based on page layouts.	Site

SharePoint Products: WSS, MOSS Standard, MOSS Enterprise, MOSS for Internet sites?

JennyE — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 08:39:00 GMT

Which SharePoint Product?

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 - Included as part of Windows Server 2003 licence
Microsoft Office SharePoint server 2007 for Search
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 Standard - Offers a more functionality than WSS 3
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 Enterprise - Offers all the features of Standard plus more
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 for Internet sites - Used for anonymous access websites or extranets with a large number of external users

The below link offers a feature comparison from Microsoft of the differences between these products.

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

SharePoint Pricing

I would always recommend you check with your MS vendor (LAR or Partner) rather than budgeting on these figures but they are indicative.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepointserver/FX102176831033.aspx

How has this changed from 2003?

Previously in 2003 version there were 2 versions of SharePoint - SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 2. WSS was included with Windows Server 2003 and SPS was a separately licensable product. There was also an external connector licence for creating SPS 2003 Extranets. There was no separately licensable search version.