MOSS KA BOSS

Taking a break from SharePoint

2016-02-04T01:35:00.001+05:30

I have been living in the SP world since last 6 years and honestly I quite enjoyed it for most of the time.

I decided to take a break from SharePoint and accepted an assignment involving an internet startup service few months back.

Since Nov '2015 my life changed for better and I got into mobile app development in C# using Xamarin. Last few months were really challenging and, ... I'm finding it difficult to convey how exciting and fun it was.

Now that first phase of my project is successfully completed, I'm thinking about sharing my experiences of this amazing journey and hopefully help Xamarin newbies to avoid my mistakes and troubles. More on this soon.

If you have little information about Xamarin and are a .net developer, I strongly recommend a visit the http://xamarin.com. In the meantime I'll (hopefully ) put together my own primer/101 and share it with you.

A fresh look at SharePoint performance focussed devlopment

2015-08-26T02:47:00.001+05:30

As we all know, the cardinal rule of SharePoint development is to Never touch SharePoint Databases or query them directly in code and instead use the object model (OM) to perform any operation.

However SPRockstar Sahil Malik did exactly that to uncover insights about how SharePoint works under the hood. In this presentation he sums up his findings and in process debunks few well established patterns of SharePoint development.

Use these insights to optimize your code for maximum performance.

Hard learned SharePoint development tips from SharePoint and Project Conference Adriatics

JSFiddle Wow!

2015-07-30T11:01:00.000+05:30

We talk about apps with WOW user experience, I'd like to highlight on such app:

JSFiddle (http://jsfiddle.net/)

As you can probably guess, JSF is an online tool to fiddle with JavaScript/html/css and see it working in real time. Really handy for people following online tutorials on JavaScript frameworks like say Angular JS. Coding side by side really drills the concepts and since its online, u don't really need to have IDE to get cracking (boom goes the last excuse for not rolling up sleeves ) to code.

And yes, for the wow experience, give it a spin!!

Great presentation on SharePoint Server Farm architecture and performance

2015-07-02T23:59:00.001+05:30

SharePoint Server 2013 Farm Architecture and Performance by Ben Curry - SPTechCon from SPTechCon

Cool Tool of the day: SharePoint 2013 Search Query Tool

2015-02-08T00:57:00.000+05:30

I'd like to share a fantastic new tool I discovered on codeplex: SharePoint 2013 Search Query Tool

This tool allows to test out and debug search queries against SharePoint 2013 Search REST API.

Learn how to build an HTTP POST query, and how the different parameters should be formatted.
After running the query, you can view all types of result sets returned; Primary Results, Refinement Results, Query Rules Results, Query Suggestions, in addition to the actual raw response received from the Search service.
Can be used to query both SharePoint 2013 On-Premise, and SharePoint Online.

This is especially useful for development of Search Driven Content and Site design.

These deep dives will make you SharePoint 2013 Clientside Ninja

2014-10-27T10:31:00.001+05:30

SharePoint 2010 introduced client API to SharePoint with native support to Jquery and it was a good start. However it was only after release of SharePoint 2013, SharePoint client-side development truly came to its own with API expanded to a lot of areas such as:

Business Data
Search
User Profiles
Taxonomy

etc and added support for REST, OData etc. Moreover with App model being the encouraged model for solution deployment in SharePoint 2013, there is NO WAY a serious SP developer/architect can stay aloof and hope to continue working with SharePoint.

If you haven't noticed it, youtube has now become a first class resource for learning about SharePoint. There are now a lot of channels offering awesome content about SharePoint dev.

For one thing, watching videos Vis à Vis reading from say MSDN is great because it gives your eyes some rest from staring into computer screen. Lets say you return home after a long day at work and your eyes are all aching and tired but you still want to learn, say something you plan to use tomorrow.

No problem, just plug in headphone, play the video, close your eyes and just focus on the sound and KT continues....

Of course this is not like one shot downloading of knowledge like in Matrix, you have to really focus and dozing off to sleep is a very real danger.

I created a playlist of best deep dive videos pertaining to SP2013 client development. Finish these and you are assured to being SharePoint 2013 Clientside Ninja (at keast I believe so).

Without any further ado, let's jump straight to the videos:

Troubleshooting SharePoint issues

2014-10-10T01:44:00.000+05:30

Very informative, not to be missed!

SharePoint Troubleshooting Tools & Techniques from Manuel Longo

My professional journey as seen on slideshare

2014-10-10T00:05:00.000+05:30

Logging into slideshare today, I was greeted with create your professional journey slideshow which uses data from linked linkedin.com.
Methinks it looks great and a refreshing change from the plain old resumes. Check it out!

Professional Journey - Vickey Bird from Vickey Bird

My resume tag cloud

2014-01-22T02:38:00.000+05:30

I love tag clouds. I used to have a cool one for this blog displayed as a gadget. Few months back I changed the blog template, opting in for a clean, minimal, clutter free experience. Though i like it i miss the gadgets and ads. Maybe I'll add a few, just enough to continue with clean feel one of these days.

Just for fun i created a tag cloud of my recent resume to see what it looks like. I used http://tagcrowd.com/. Here is it.

Best of Slideshare.net : Sharepoint 2013 Architecture

2014-01-12T16:37:00.000+05:30

I went through various presentations on SharePoint 2013 architectures at www.slideshare.net to pick up top 4 presentations. Enjoy!

Design a share point 2013 architecture – the basics from Alexander Meijers

SharePoint Saturday (Belgium): Designing complex SharePoint architectures from Jussi Roine

Deep Dive into SharePoint Topologies and Server Architecture for SharePoint 2013 from Mohamed Faizal

MCT Summit 2012: Top 10 challenges for SharePoint Architects [Jussi Roine, MCM, MCT] from Jussi Roine

Recommended formula for database sizing for SharePoint 2013 systems

2014-01-04T00:48:00.000+05:30

In estimating content database storage, it is recommended to use a formula based on:

The expected number of documents (D)
The average size of documents (S).
The number of list items (L), and
The approximate average number of noncurrent versions of all documents (V).
Additionally, a 10 KB value is to be used, which is a rough estimate of the amount of metadata required by the SharePoint platform. If metadata is significant in your environment, you may want to increase this value in your calculation.

The formula is represented by
Content database size = ((D × V) × S) + (10 KB × (L + (V × D)))

Tech Ed video: Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure in Microsoft SharePoint 2013

2013-12-29T01:01:00.000+05:30

Of late I had been digging for fundas on OAuth and its support in SharePoint. It is especially relavent in case of app development and granting of permissions by user to Apps.

I came across this excellent video from TechEd on Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure in Microsoft SharePoint 2013 which I'd like to share.:

If you don't have taste for long video session, here is the related presentation from the same session:

Angular.js brings easy MVC to Client-side development

2013-12-25T17:20:00.001+05:30

AngularJS is an open-source JavaScript framework, maintained by Google, that assists with running single-page applications. Its goal is to augment browser-based applications with model–view–controller (MVC) capability, in an effort to make both development and testing easier.

In SharePoint 2013, especially with respect to SharePoint APP development which relies heavily on client based JavaScript the idea of using MVC client applications based on angular makes a lot of sense. Add the new 2013 enhanced Client Side Object Model (CSOM) and REST api to the mix and we have a really potent arsenal to deliver awesome and responsive apps.

I dug out two great slideshows from slideshare to quickly get cracking. Viola!

AngularJS Framework from CloudVis Technology

AngularJS 101 - Everything you need to know to get started from Stéphane Bégaudeau

Now a Pluralsight member!

2013-10-20T00:24:00.003+05:30

I'm quite thrilled about it, I just joined Pluralsight.com training courses to give my learning a boost. To start with, I've joined the basic monthly subscription. I'll probably upgrade it next month if I'm able to make good use of the resources available to me.
I'm continue to share my learnings through this blog, so keep a look out!
PS. My Pluralsight profile can be accessed at http://pluralsight.com/training/users/vivek-sisodiya

Power resources for Super PowerShell Ninjas

2013-08-13T18:39:00.000+05:30

The writing's on the wall, learning PowerShell is the only way to go if you want to do anything with the SharePoint administration.
I would like to share few great resources to get you on PowerShell nirvana in a jiffy:

Scripting with Windows PowerShell

The place to go to learn about PowerShell. On this page you will find training videos, guides, Wiki articles, and more that will help you learn Windows PowerShell.

The Windows PowerShell Toolbox

Essential tools and resources for working with Windows PowerShell

Windows PowerShell Owner's Manual

This is your guide to getting started with Windows PowerShell. Read through these pages to get familiar with Windows PowerShell, and soon you’ll be driving around like a pro.

Scripting Games Study Guide

A great resource that points to important sources for learning Windows PowerShell

2012 Scripting Games Study Guide

2011 Scripting Games Study Guide

2010 Scripting Games Study Guide

Tuning SQL Server 2012 for SharePoint 2013: Best Practices for SQL Server Database Settings

2013-08-06T16:40:00.000+05:30

Sharepoint 2013 infrastructure best practices

2013-07-29T17:22:00.001+05:30

Ultimate SharePoint 2013 Infrastructure Best Practices Session - SPKSLO 2012 from Michael Noel

SharePoint 2013 Social Features

2013-06-28T18:03:00.000+05:30

A glance at share point 2013 social features from Thuan Nguyen

Visual Studio Ultimate 2012: Developing, testing, and production debugging for SharePoint

2013-01-29T12:12:00.000+05:30

Working with Sharepoint 2013 and VS2012, this is for you.

Webpart life cycle

2012-12-19T01:56:00.002+05:30

Whenever I'm asked to describe the life cycle of SharePoint webpart,I always get mixed up with the sequence of events. Every time this happens I google and read about it, only the fumble again next time.

Time has come to settle this once and for all time, I looked around and found two nice graphics on this.

source: http://sharepointwalkers.blogspot.in/2012/04/sharepoint-2010-web-part-lifecycle.html

SharePoint Web Part - Event Flow chart

source: http://www.wictorwilen.se/Post/SharePoint-Web-Part-Event-Flow-in-detail.aspx

Implementation of MVP (Model View Presenter) design pattern in SharePoint webpart

2012-12-16T05:24:00.004+05:30

MVP design pattern

The Model-View-Presenter pattern is an interactive application architecture pattern used to separate the concerns of an application’s data, presentation, and user input into specialized components.

The Model is an interface defining the data to be displayed or otherwise acted upon in the user interface.
The View is a passive interface that displays data (the model) and routes user commands (events) to the presenter to act upon that data.
The Presenter acts upon the model and the view. It retrieves data from repositories (the model), and formats it for display in the view.

Advantages

Clean separation on concerns make it easier to understand and maintain code.
MVP allows targeting different GUI platforms (Windows, Web, Silverlight, etc.) Thus the same application can be used with quite different presentation layers - one for Windows, the other for Silverlight or Web environment, etc.
It makes it possible share code between pages that require the same behavior.
It maximizes the code that can be tested with automation. (Views are hard to test.)

MVP in detail (references)

MVP implementation for a SharePoint Webpart

SharePoint Guidance by Microsoft Patterns and practices demonstrates implementation of MVP in context of SharePoint webparts. It is included in Reference Implementation: The Sandbox Execution Model.

Solution scenario

As shown in the above figure, we want to create a webpart, AggregateView Web Part which queries lists in various subsites of a site collection and displays the aggregated data in an ASP.Net GridView control at the Root site of a site collection.

AggregateView Web Part implementation

Component Classes

The AggregateViewPresenter class represents the Presenter component in the MVP pattern. This class

performs the following tasks:

It retrieves a DataTable from the model represented by the IEstimatesService.
It sets the DataTable as the data source in the view represented by IAggregateView.

The AggregateView class represents the View component in the MVP pattern. This class is the actual Web Part.This class performs the following tasks:

It instantiates the Presenter object represented by the AggregateViewPresenter. To do this, it creates an instance of the Model represented by EstimatesService, and then it constructs the AggregrateViewPresenter, passing in itself as the View and the EstimatesService as the Model.
It renders the data supplied by the presenter to the UI.

Finally, the EstimatesService class represents the Model component in the MVP pattern. This class performs the following tasks:

It executes a query to retrieve data from various lists on each subsite.
It returns the data to the caller in a DataTable.

The following figure describes the flow of execution described above:

Building Dashboards with Sharepoint

2012-12-05T11:58:00.000+05:30

Susan Lennon: Building SharePoint Dashboards from SharePoint Saturday NY

Creating Business Intelligence solutions with Sharepoint 2010

2012-12-05T11:46:00.000+05:30

SharePoint Connections Coast to Coast Business Intelligence Solutions with SharePoint 2010 from Ivan Sanders

Execution models in Sharepoint 2010

2012-12-02T15:47:00.001+05:30

When you plan how you want your code to execute, the factors driving your decisions fall into two broad areas:

Execution environment. This is the security and processing boundary that contains your running code. If you have worked with earlier versions of SharePoint, you are familiar with the full trust execution model and the bin/code access security (commonly known as bin/CAS) execution model. SharePoint 2010 provides new options in this area with the introduction of the restricted, site collection-scoped sandbox execution model.
Execution logic. This is the means by which your code actually gets invoked. For example, execution logic defines whether your code runs synchronously or asynchronously, whether it is invoked by a timer job or a workflow or a Web page, and whether it impersonates the current user or runs using the identity of the process account.

The following illustration shows some of the options available to you in each of these areas.

Sharepoint 2010 development training - 3

2012-05-13T00:46:00.000+05:30

This is part of ongoing series on SharePoint 2010 Development Training. This consists of training presentations covering all aspects of SharePoint 2010 development.
In previous post Sharepoint 2010 development training - 2 we covered the following topics:

Module 5 Creating Event Receivers and Application Settings
Module 6 Developing Solutions by Using Business Connectivity Services.
Module 7 Developing SharePoint 2010 Workflows

Module 8 Working with Client-Based APIs for SharePoint 2010 Module 9 Developing Interactive User Interfaces Module 10 Developing Silverlight Applications for SharePoint