The Sanity Point - Making Sense of the SharePoint World

Changing Times

Woody Windischman — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 09:25:48 GMT

Going (Micro)Soft on You!

Just a quick note to let you know that you're going to notice a few changes to this blog over the coming weeks. The big news is...

I've officially joined Microsoft as a full-time employee!

That's going to bring with it a number of ramifications, the first of which is, I can no longer call myself an MVP. (The first rule of the MVP program is that you must be independent of Microsoft, so obviously I no longer qualify for that...) That doesn't mean that I won't still be providing tips and insights into SharePoint products and technologies, or helping out at conferences. In fact, it doesn't mean a lot for the content of this blog. I do, however, need to make sure people know I work for Microsoft now.

You might want to take a fresh peek at The Four disclaimers. They still hold true - especially the part about this blog NOT being the official word of any company, including Microsoft, unless otherwise specified.

I'm still settling into my new role with Microsoft Consulting Services, so I might be a bit quiet for a little while, but rest assured, (to quote the great Ahhnolld...) "I'll be Back!"

The Fractal Nature of SharePoint

Woody Windischman — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:19:00 GMT

The Closer You Look, the More Complex it Gets...

Over the years, there have been many analogies proposed to help people understand the sheer depth and breadth of SharePoint. Application, Platform, Pie wedges, Donuts, Layers like an onion, Shimmer ("Floor wax and a dessert topping!"). A few years ago, I used the parable of "The Blind Men and the Elephant", and that was looking at the much simpler (relatively speaking) SharePoint 2003!!

Today, SharePoint Server 2010 is orders of magnitude more comprehensive. At the most superficial level, you can look at the whole of SharePoint, and see organization and structure. The key areas are fairly easy to identify, but maybe a little fuzzy around the edges. Consider the image below, which represents the "complete" Mandelbrot Set - the classic fractal example.

Mapping this to SharePoint, you might see the large, two-lobed central area representing the Collaboration and Content Management features, the large ball to the left as social, and other balls representing Excel Services, Access Services, Search, etc...

But when you get closer, and start exploring some of the deeper capabilities, things don't get any simpler. Let's say you want to start exploring the integration of social tagging with content management, so you zoom in on the area just above the center of the image, between the two larger segments. Suddenly you open up a whole new world of options in API's, storage requirements, user interactions with news feeds and tag clouds, managed metadata and tagging external content - all in just that one small area of SharePoint functionality!

This same expansion of detail and complexity occurs virtually anywhere you look. And although every area you zoom into is clearly related to the whole, each has its own variations in the detail. This is why I am using fractals, rather than layers, to describe the depth of SharePoint. While each aspect has levels of functionality (from basic web UI to development APIs), each set of levels is slightly different. The social APIs look different from the search APIs, which are different from the publishing APIs.

That's why it is so hard to find anyone who knows "everything" about SharePoint - it can't be done. People tend to disappear into whatever rabbit hole they find most interesting. Now that doesn't mean that a single person can't know a lot about many different areas. But, you can pretty much guarantee that they don't know everything about everything. There is a very strong tendency to specialize, and even the specialists are (if they're worth their salt) constantly learning.

Oh, and just so you know, the detail image at the top of this article is about the same fraction of the image immediately above as that image is of the entire set!

Note: The fractal images in this article are derived from those in the Wikipedia article on Fractals, and used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. They were originally created by Wolfgang Beyer with the program Ultra Fractal 3.

Governing SharePoint Designer

Woody Windischman — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:58:00 GMT

A Book Excerpt from “Beginning SharePoint Designer 2010”

SharePoint Designer provides a great deal of customizing power to its users. In some environments, particularly in an enterprise, giving all users access to this level of power may not be appropriate. To address this, SharePoint allows system administrators and site owners to configure different levels of access for users of SharePoint Designer.

First and foremost in the governance of SharePoint Designer is the proper application of regular security roles to a SharePoint site. Quite simply, even if a user downloads and installs SharePoint Designer, he cannot use it to make any changes to a site he would not otherwise be permitted to make. For example, a typical user in the Member role cannot change themes or master pages, or modify the schema of a list or library. SharePoint Designer would not suddenly enable him to do so. A user would need to be in (for example) the Web Designer or Administrator role on the site in order to make such changes, regardless of any tool he has installed.

In SharePoint 2010, you also have the settings for directly managing the use of SharePoint Designer, irrespective of the regular security of a site. These settings allow or prevent access to certain features by users of SharePoint Designer.

The SharePoint Designer controls screen is shown below

This page is accessible at different levels within SharePoint, depending upon the scope over which control is to be exerted. You can set these options at the web application or site collection level. If SharePoint Designer or one of its features is blocked at the web application level, it cannot be overridden by a site collection owner. Nevertheless, a site collection owner can invoke tighter restrictions than are set at the web application.

Note: Restrictions implemented at the site collection level impact most users, but do not apply to the site collection administrators themselves.

Regardless of which method or methods you use to restrict SharePoint Designer, your choices will be reflected in the experience presented to the users. The user interface of SharePoint Designer is security trimmed. This means that users are only shown the functions that they have the right to see or control. This figure shows a Site Objects list with all the SharePoint Designer options enabled (the default state).

Compare to the figure below, which is the same site with the options disabled.

Observe that access to the Master Pages gallery and direct access to the site files are not visible in the restricted site. Other elements throughout the user interface, such as context menus, are similarly trimmed.

Calling All People

Woody Windischman — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:36:00 GMT

Which Way did They Go?

One of the big attractions (and honestly, biggest fears) of SharePoint for overworked Network Administrators is its ability to delegate permissions management to site collection owners. For purposes of this article, I'm going to gloss over the details of where users are coming from. Suffice to say that they can come from Active directory, or any number of other sources. I'm also not going to talk about breaking inheritance, or anything like that. Instead, I'm going to show you where to find a very useful tool.

Generally speaking, if you have groups available, you want to use them to apply permissions in SharePoint. For example, you might put a network (Active Directory) group into one of the default SharePoint groups. Although it isn't an ideal practice, on an Intranet, it is common to apply a base level of permissions to anyone who has logged into your network:

Once users log in and start doing things, they leave a trail of things they have touched, and thus show up as users in SharePoint. On SharePoint 2007, you had an easy to see option to list who had actually done things on your site. This was the "All Users" view. Unfortunately, in SharePoint 2010, there is no obvious way to access this same information. In fact, there are several types of users who you can't readily see:

Individuals who are members of Windows groups (such as Authenticated Users above).
Site Collection Administrators
People given permissions through Web Application policies

The good news is, the information is still there. To get to it, open any group in People and Groups:

Then, in the URL, change the "MembershipGroupId" to zero:

This will result in the classic "All People" view showing up, including every user who has made updates to your site!

A Word of Caution

Although this view is very useful, there are probably good reasons that it was suppressed in SharePoint 2010. The most likely has to do with a classic SharePoint foible - the so-called"2000 item limit". While that is not (and never was) truly a "limit", the fact is that when lists grow to many thousands of items, rendering views can get pretty slow.

SharePoint 2010 has made great strides in working around this issue compared to SharePoint 2007, but there are still some performance constraints when rendering large lists. Given the importance of the Users list, having it locked during a large read could be "a very bad thing." In a large environment, you could have tens (or hundreds) of thousands of people accessing a singe site collection, meaning tens (or hundreds) of thousands of items in the Users list. Attempting to render an unfiltered view of "All People" in such a case could be disastrous.

So, now that you know how to find the All People view, you need to treat it like a sharp knife or a power tool. Handle with Care!

A Piece of History Remembered

Woody Windischman — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 13:25:00 GMT

A Rolling Tribute to the 9-11 First Responders

The United States of America gets ready to celebrate the 235th anniversary of declaring our independence this weekend. However, as the 10th anniversary of another defining event approaches, this morning the people of Northern Indiana got a little reminder of our inter-dependence as well.

Today, a small section of i-beam girder from the World Trade Center towers made its way across the state to its future permanent home in the town of Elkhart, Indiana. The beam left Angola, Indiana at 10:28am, in honor of the time the North Tower fell.

About an hour later, the girder passed Shipshewana...

The Shipshewana fire department sent a ladder truck in tribute...

The local townsfolk, Amish and English alike, stood in awe as the beam passed, followed by a motorcade of thousands of motorcycles. This continued for almost half an hour!

There are many things to remember this weekend. Not only the gift of our freedom, but the gifts of those whose lives were spent securing and defending it. May we never forget any of them.

SharePoint Day at Microsoft

Woody Windischman — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:25:00 GMT

Just a quick note to let you know that Office and SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1 is now available. See my previous article about SP1 for more details...

In other SharePoint news, Office 365, the 2010 based version of SharePoint Online (aka BPOS), has also been released.

Still Certifiable

Woody Windischman — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:29:00 GMT

On Making Productive Use of Down Time

One of the facts of life in consulting is that occasionally you will have gaps between engagements. I'm in one of those gaps right now. So, while I'm looking for that next contract, I decided I would also fill out my portfolio a bit. I've been certified on the IT Pro side of SharePoint for a long time, but never got around to taking the development certification exams. Those who know me know I'm not a "hard core" developer who lives in Visual Studio, so I don't have the whole API memorized. That doesn't mean I can't code when I have to (See my rewrite of the CodePlex SharePoint 2007 Org Chart web part). I just spend a lot more time in the Architecture and IT Pro space.

In any case, since the dev exams will be required should I ever decide to attempt the SharePoint MCM, I decided to get it over with. Last week, I walked in and took what is nominally the "second" development exam "70-576: PRO: Designing and Developing SharePoint 2010 Apps" cold (without any preparation). As I expected, I passed. This morning, after taking a little time last week to review the API subjects covered, I took and passed the TS exam "70-573: TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development". Again, I'm pleased to say that I passed the exam.

Once my transcript is finalized, I will be able to add to the certification logo at the bottom of my site: "MCPD: SharePoint Developer 2010".

That's one more notch in the belt, and one big step closer to MCM.

And now, back to the search for my next engagement...

Everything There is to Know About SharePoint 2010 SP1

Woody Windischman — Fri, 27 May 2011 18:15:00 GMT

Truly "Packed" for "Service!"

*** UPDATE: Service Pack 1 has now been released! ***

As mentioned in my previous post, Tech-Ed 2011 was somewhat subdued. We're pretty much "between launches", meaning that the emphasis was on real-world application of the existing technology stack, rather than The Next Big Thing. That said, there were some glimmers of things to come.

One of those glimmers was the announcement that Service Pack 1 for Office and SharePoint 2010 products was almost here. Although an exact date wasn't given, we were told that it would ship in "Late June 2011". That's about as specific as Microsoft ever gets for anything short of a major launch event.

It's In There...

Microsoft also released a few hints of what will be included in SP1. Before I go into detail, however, you may need a little background. The effective definition of the term "Service Pack" at Microsoft has always been something of a moving target. Although, officially a Service Pack is just supposed to contain "bug fixes and stability and compatibility enhancements", Service Packs in the past have ranged from just that, to conglomerations of new features that could have almost justified a full point release. (And let's not even get into actual point releases, "Feature Packs", and the infamous SharePoint 2007 "Infrastructure Update"!) SP1 for SharePoint 2010 falls somewhere in-between those extremes.

Note: This article describes only the features of SP1 that were officially disclosed at Tech-Ed. These may or may not be the only enhancements to come...

Of course, the core of any service pack are those bug fixes I mentioned. While Microsoft didn't disclose any specific new bugs being fixed, they did say that everything in the previously released Cumulative Update packages (up to and including April 2011) will be included. The main difference between the fixes in a Cumulative Update (also called a "Hot Fix Rollup"), and those in a Service Pack, is that the Service Pack fixes have received more thorough regression testing, and are considered appropriate for deployment to all customers. CU's, though supported, are primarily meant for customers who know they're suffering from particular issues included in the package. This is also why, while Service Packs are distributed widely, CU's have to be specifically requested. Of course, all of these updates are much easier to come by than they used to be. Check out the Updates for SharePoint 2010 Products for the latest and greatest details.

Going Beyond the Bug(s)

So, what are the actual new features in SharePoint 2010 SP1?

Support for Internet Explorer 9 Native Mode and Google Chrome

SharePoint has always had great browser support, but this update officially will add Google Chrome to the "A" list of browsers, supporting the vast majority of SharePoint features - including Office Web Apps. Ditto to Internet Explorer 9 in "Native Mode" - whatever that means... :)

Site Recycle Bin

Here's a feature that people have been asking for almost as long as SharePoint has been around! As of SharePoint 2010 SP1, administrators will be able to recover deleted sites and site collections without having to first restore a SQL Server database! There have been third party tools, and open source projects, to accomplish this in the past, but now the functionality will be baked in.

Shallow Copy

Shallow Copy needs a little explanation. No, it doesn't mean a clone with the personality of a Barbie^(tm) doll. This feature is primarily of interest to folks using the Remote Blob Storage (RBS) feature of SLQ Server 2008 R2 to reduce the size of their databases. Essentially, when you move a site collection from one database with RBS enabled to another, Shallow Copy allows the file-system-based files to remain where they are, with just the pointers in the Content Database updated. Otherwise, the files would need to be read off the disk, then resaved as part of the copy operation.

StorMan.aspx

This one is less a "new" feature, than the return of an "oldie but goodie". When you had a quota assigned to a site collection, it could be very handy to have a report of where on your site you happen to be using up space. In SharePoint 2007, there was a utility page for this report called storman.aspx. For reasons I'm not sure of, this page was not included in SharePoint 2010. Service Pack 1 brings it back home.

SQL 11 Support

There was a lot of buzz at Tech-Ed about Denali (aka SQL 11 - who knows what the "real" name will be). SP1 brings official support for it to SharePoint. No official word on whether it will light up any new features, except maybe the Crescent real-time Reporting Services tool. I saw a Crescent demo at the show, and it was really cool. I might write more about that later. In the mean time, check out this SQL Reporting Services team blog post...

Fix, or Feature?

In the slide show I saw, several items were listed as "Fixes", though a lot of them sure sounded like new and/or improved functionality to me...

Office Web Apps

The Office Web Apps, or OWA, get a lot of love in SP1. I already mentioned the enhanced browser support (Chrome, IE9 "Native"). In addition, you get such goodies as:

Open Document Format (ODF) support for viewing and editing
Print Word documents in edit mode (not just preview mode)
Insert Charts with Excel Web App
Copy/Past values and formulas in Excel Web App by dragging the "fill" handle.
Print from PowerPoint Web App
Edit directly in more shapes in PowerPoint Web App
Insert Clip Art in PowerPoint Web App

All in all, very worthy improvements!

Indexing Connector for Documentum

Even though SharePoint offers all kinds of document management, there are still customers for whom Documentum is the product of choice. The Indexing Connector for Documentum allows SharePoint Search to crawl Documentum repositories and return appropriately ranked results within SharePoint. The specific updates for this connector include:

Improves overall crawl performance
Provides support for customized Documentum Foundation Services (DFS) URL
Provides support for Documentum Trusted Content Services (TCS) "Access Restriction" Access Control List (ACL) for security trimming
Provides support for custom security trimming solution for TCS enabled Documentum repository by extracting TCS ACLs into SharePoint crawled properties
Provides support for Documentum “superuser” permissions level

FAST Search Server 2010

FAST Search Server 2010 is Microsoft's high-end search product. It wasn't left out of the Service Pack 1 frenzy. Here's what you get:

Adds the possibility to add and remove indexer and search columns on a live system
Adds more flexible custom property extractors
Adds Greek spellchecking and stemming
Improves title extraction for Word and PowerPoint documents. Titles are now presented correctly and relevancy for Word and PowerPoint documents is improved.
Improves default schema which improves relevancy
Improves index backup/restore

Conclusion

And that's the whole thing, at least as far as the information that was released at Tech-Ed goes. Service Pack 1 has been over a year in the making, and it seems pretty clear that it will have been well worth the wait. Although we don't yet have the exact release date, you can always keep up to speed on what patches are current on the SharePoint Update pages.

Here's that Update Page link again

And here's the equivalent for SharePoint 2007 technologies

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

TechEd North America 2011 Wrap Up

Woody Windischman — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:39:00 GMT

Georgia on My Mind

Another Tech-Ed is in the books. This year, Tech-Ed North America was hosted in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC).

Over the last few years, I've attended several Tech-Ed conferences, from the Boston "T" Party, to Barcelona Spain, and the two "LA's" (Los Angeles, and New Orleans, Louisiana) and each one seems to have its own personality. This year, I would say the theme was "Cloud Platform", and the mood "subdued".

By subdued, I don't mean "slow" or "poorly attended". This show was neither. With hundreds of sessions, and around 10,000 attendees, there was plenty of interest to go around. I simply mean that there wasn't as much "exuberance" as I have seen in past shows. Everyone was here "with a purpose", and extremely focused on the real-world application of the techniques and technologies on offer.

Cloudy, with a Choice of Platforms

Everywhere you looked, the focus was on using one tool or another as a platform to build on:

Windows Phone 7
Windows Client
SharePoint
Azure (Windows and SQL)
Hyper-V
Office

And, in almost every case, the emphasis was to host it "In the Cloud". But that didn't necessarily mean externally hosted. No, this year, "the Cloud" could just as easily apply to services hosted within your organization. Hand in hand with the internal cloud were virtualization and dynamic configuration - even moving systems and portions of systems between internal and externally hosted services.

Walk the Walk

The GWCC is huge, and Tech-Ed NA 2011 pretty much took up the whole thing. It could take almost the entire break time between sessions to get from one end to the other. As a member of the TLC booth staff, I spent much of my time at the conference on the Exposition floor. This was on exactly the opposite end of the center from the room set up as a dining area.

The dining area itself was huge. If you're going to feed 10,000 people in less than two hours, you need a lot of space!

SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1

Last, but not least, there was one major SharePoint related announcement at Tech-Ed: SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 Service Pack 1 will be available near the end of June. In addition to the usual array of fixes, SP1 will include a number of enhancements:

Support for Internet Explorer 9 Native Mode and Google Chrome
Site Recycle Bin
Shallow Copy
StorMan.aspx
SQL 11 Support

I'll talk more about these enhancements in my next post.

Don't forget to check out the Live MVP Chat tomorrow (Wednesday, May 25th) at 12:00 noon Eastern time!

The Sanity Point is Now On SharePoint 2010

Woody Windischman — Thu, 05 May 2011 10:31:00 GMT

It's About Time!

I'm pleased to announce that The Sanity Point is now at long last running on SharePoint 2010. Specifically, Search Server 2010 Express. I confess, this took a lot longer than I had planned.

Though the big stumbling blocks had to do with migrating my content, and getting the Community Kit for SharePoint - Enhanced Blog Edition (CKS:EBE) to work correctly, I can't totally blame the tools. My life has been pretty busy these last few months, so my troubleshooting time (along with writing time) was quite limited. Still, look for a post describing my new environment and the actual trials and tribulations of getting it set up in the near future, as there are definitely some "gotchas".

In the mean time, thanks for your patience, and I'll see y'all at Tech-Ed in Atlanta!

*UPDATE*

There is apparently yet another glitch with CKS:EBE. Sometimes, post links aren't working. It doesn't happen consistently (otherwise I would have caught it). Please bear with me as I try to work out this last kink. Thanks for your patience!

A Site in Transition and a Conference Announcement

Woody Windischman — Sun, 01 May 2011 17:20:00 GMT

See Me at Tech Ed

Happy May!

I'll be changing over to my new server soon. Just to keep things simple, I'm turning off CKS:EBE during the transition.

In the mean time, I'll be working the TLC booth at Microsoft Tech Ed 2011 in Atlanta this month. I hope to see you there!

April Fools?

Woody Windischman — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 08:23:52 GMT

Yes, but...

Hi Everyone! I hope you enjoyed my little April Fools weekend change-up. In case there is any doubt, course I'm not giving up SharePoint. SharePoint has been a large part of my life for many years, and I expect it to be so for a long time to come.

That doesn't mean that I don't love nature photography. I do. All of the pictures in the previous post are my own. If you're logged into Facebook, you can see even more of my photography.

So, that's it for this quasi-holiday weekend. I'll be back soon with more great SharePoint content!

A New Way to Achieve Sanity

Woody Windischman — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:23:48 GMT

Who Needs SharePoint?

Springtime is now here
All of life begins anew
Changes under way...

- A Haiku to celebrate this special day -

I've decided to give up SharePoint. For most of my life, people have been telling me I'm wasting my time with all of this computer nonsense, and that I should dedicate myself to my true calling - photography!

I mean, I've already written books about SharePoint Designer 2007 and SharePoint Designer 2010. They're even available on the Kindle! (Of course, they look best on the "big" Kindle DX...)

Nevertheless, I've been feeling the call of nature for many years now, and this seemed to be the right day to make the change.

As a first step, for your enjoyment, I'm providing a small gallery of some of my older pictures. Please feel free to comment as you see fit.

Random Images

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

DOWNLOAD ALL

Of course, given the day, you never know. I could just change my mind tomorrow or Monday...

Still here...

Woody Windischman — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:22:00 GMT

Hi guys - I'm still around, but fighting a few more "CKS:EBE on SharePoint 2010" issues than I expected (in what little spare time I have). In particular the rich RSS feed (a critical bit, don't you think) doesn't appear to be working correctly.

Don't worry, though, you haven't been forgotten, and I've got a couple cool post subjects already on tap.

Pardon Our Dust!

Woody Windischman — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 09:36:00 GMT

Migration in Progress!

Soon, The Sanity Point will be hosted on an all-new server. Watch for my year-end review once the transition is complete!

SharePoint Server October Updates are Back

Woody Windischman — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:45:00 GMT

Everything Old is New Again!

It is December, so as an early Christmas gift (or a late Halloween Treat, following the "Now you see it - now you don't" Trick), Microsoft has just re-released the October Cumulative Updates for SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010. You can get the full details from the SharePoint Team Blog.

In other news, I'm finally going to be moving this blog into the 2010 realm from a hosting standpoint. The Community Kit for SharePoint: Enhanced Blog Edition, which I use to skin this site, block spam, and so on, is finally to the point where I can use it on Search Server Express 2010. I'm still working out some content migration kinks, but once they're done, look for a fresher appearance, and maybe a little more function to go along with the form!

Some Updates

Woody Windischman — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 11:55:42 GMT

Patchwork and Light Reading

I'm back from my haunted honeymoon cruise, and settling back into a "normal" routine.

The SharePoint team at Microsoft have provided some supplemental information on their blog regarding the issues with the October Cumulative Update and have a workaround available if you installed it prior to the problems becoming known.

As for my new book, Beginning SharePoint Designer 2010, it did start shipping while I was at sea. According to Amazon, it is proving to be quite popular. We even have our first review already - Five Stars! On behalf of Asif, Bryan, Marcy, and myself to those of you who have purchased already, Thank You! To everyone else - What are you waiting for!

Alert - October SharePoint 2010 Patch Withdrawn

Woody Windischman — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:29:06 GMT

Microsoft, through the SharePoint Blog, has just announced that the October 2010 Cumulative Update for SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010 has been withdrawn pending resolution of a critical issue. If you have not yet installed the October 2010 CU, don't. If you have, please contact Microsoft Product Support for further instructions. Microsoft will be releasing further details as they become available.

A Few Notes Before I Cruise

Woody Windischman — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 21:10:00 GMT

Making Book on a Quick (but Cumulative) SharePoint Update

I'm sitting here in an airport today, waiting for the flight that will reunite me with my lovely new wife Brenda and "our" two kids. From there, we're going to be heading for our Haunted Honeymoon Cruise. So, I figured I would highlight a few new things in SharePoint Land.

First, The October Cumulative Updates for SharePoint have been released. Thanks to Stefan Goßner of Microsoft for breaking the news. Just follow the link to his blog for details.

Second, my new book, Beginning SharePoint Designer 2010, from Wrox, should be available any day now. Amazon still lists it as November 9th, but my editors tell me that is probably a conservative date. (I'm letting you know now, just in case it comes available before I get back to shore.) This was written in conjunction with my cohorts from Professional SharePoint Designer 2007 (also from Wrox): Asif Rehmani and Bryan Phillips, along with newcomer to writing - but not to the SharePoint Community - Marcy Kellar. Remember, SharePoint Designer 2010 does not support older versions of SharePoint (or legacy non-SharePoint sites), and SharePoint Designer 2007 doesn't work with 2010, so if you operate in a mixed environment, you still need both products (and both books)!

Finally, in case you haven't heard yet, I am pleased and honored to announce that Microsoft has seen fit to renew my MVP (Most Valuable Professional) status for another year. I hope to keep living up to those high standards.

Until my return...

Bon Voyage, and Smooth Sailing!

Simulating Explorer View in SharePoint 2010

Woody Windischman — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:38:00 GMT

Getting back what was taken…

SharePoint 2010 is leaps and bounds better than any previous version in many ways. However, there are areas where some folks feel a little bit was lost in the translation. One of these areas was the ability to create a view of a document library that actually used Windows Explorer “behind the scenes” to let you perform drag and drop style file manipulation. For SharePoint 2010, the Explorer View was replaced with an icon in the Library toolbar to “Open with Explorer”. This opens your library in a separate window, using the full Windows Explorer.

Note: Depending on your window size, the labels for Outlook, Excel, and Explorer may not be displayed.

While there are a lot of reasons the Explorer View option for Web Parts was taken out, the desire for that feature is still going strong. Although it isn’t exactly the same, the following workaround will get you pretty close to the old Explorer View. This is accomplished through a venerable web part that has been a part of SharePoint since the very beginning – the Page Viewer. A page viewer, in essence, is an HTML IFrame that you control through the SharePoint interface. It is capable of displaying almost any content that you can point a browser at.

To add a page viewer, start by editing a SharePoint page. Either in a Wiki Content zone or a Web Part zone (depending on your page type), select Insert, and click the Web Part tool in the ribbon, as shown below:

Select the Page Viewer part from the Media and Content category, and click the Add button. In the web part’s context menu, select “Edit Web Part”. Change the view type to Folder, and enter the UNC path to the document library you want to view (e.g. \\shareppointserver\site\library), as shown here:

Click OK or Apply, and voila! You will now have an explorer window on your page, that points to your document library. You can Edit the properties to give it a more reasonable title, or to make it an appropriate size for the page at hand.

There are a couple of caveats when doing this, however. The biggest one being that you don’t want to use this function on an Internet Facing web site, or on a population with browsers other than Internet Explorer. The other thing is, like the original Explorer view, you can’t control the window settings your users may have. Thus each person may get a slightly different experience.

Still, if you miss the Explorer View of a document library for embedding in a page, this is the only way I have found to make it happen.

Critical ASP.NET Issue Updated

Woody Windischman — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:04:00 GMT

Defuse the Ticking Bomb in your SharePoint Sites

Update: An out-of-band patch for this issue has now been released. Please see the SharePoint Team Blog for details.

By now, you have probably heard about the ASP.NET security flaw that was discovered over the weekend. SharePoint has been an ASP.NET based application for the last several versions, so it stands to reason that it would be affected by any problems discovered in the core platform. However, there has been some conflicting information with regard to just how (and how much) this affects SharePoint - in particular whether all versions are affected, or just SharePoint 2010.

The latest word is that you need to apply workarounds if you are using either SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2007. This also applies to SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, as well as SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services 2.0. (Updated to include confirmation of the older product impact.)

While it is good practice to harden any SharePoint environment, it is particularly critical to apply updates and security measures to public-facing sites. If you have not already done so, please immediately go to the official SharePoint Team Blog site and read their update for information about how to configure SharePoint to mitigate this critical ASP.NET issue. The article regarding this issue is regularly updated, and directly linked below:

Security Advisory 2416728 (Vulnerability in ASP.NET) and SharePoint.

This issue affects virtually all ASP.NET Versions

Please remember, this is not "just" a SharePoint issue - it affects all ASP.NET applications, from all vendors. Even if you don't use SharePoint, you should check with your software supplier to determine what steps should be taken to mitigate any risks in your environments.

Speaking at SPIN Business Sept 15th High Noon

Woody Windischman — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:10:00 GMT

SharePoint Indiana Business User's Group September 15th

Just a quick note to let folks know that I'll be speaking at the SharePoint Indiana Business User's Group (SPIN Business) on Wednesday, September 15th at 12 Noon. Note that this is a mid-day meeting, not evening. I'll be talking about SharePoint Designer and Governance. I look forward to seeing you there!

SharePoint Saturday Columbus Wrap-up

Woody Windischman — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:32:00 GMT

Another Successful SharePoint Saturday in the Books

I'm back and settled after SharePoint Saturday, Columbus. There was plenty of SharePoint knowledge to be had, with 6 tracks and over 20 speakers.

My session was "Who's Afraid of SharePoint Designer". There were only a few slides - which you can download here, if you like. Most of the session was taken up demonstrating some of the governance features of SharePoint Designer 2007 and 2010.

I would like to give a warm thank you to the organizers, sponsors, and (of course) the attendees for making the day as great as it was!

Speaking at SharePoint Saturday: Columbus, Ohio

Woody Windischman — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:48:00 GMT

Back to My Old Stomping Grounds...

When I was a "wet behind the ears" high school graduate, I ended up attending Ohio Institute of Technology (OIT) to study Electronics Engineering Technology. While I was there, OIT became DeVry Institute of Technology, Columbus. Today it is known as DeVry University, Columbus and offers a whole lot more than electronics. I ultimately ended up living and working in Columbus for many years, and it holds a special place in my heart.

Today, I'm pleased to announce that I've been selected to present at the SharePoint Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. This takes place on August 14th, 2010 at The Conference Center at OCLC. Click on the link or logo above for all the details, including registration, a list of the other presenters, as well as the Twitter feed of #SPSColumbus commentary.

A SharePoint Saturday is a free to attend event that serves as a mini SharePoint conference. SPS Columbus will be an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-oriented topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!

So, if you're in Central Ohio, and interested in SharePoint - whether you need the latest information on SharePoint 2010 or are still trying to make the best use of SharePoint 2007, this is the place to be! I hope to see you there...

I Passed the SharePoint 2010 Config and Admin Exams

Woody Windischman — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:39:00 GMT

Yes, It's True - I'm Officially Certifiable!

Much like designing software, Microsoft goes through a pretty significant effort to develop certification examinations. The most public stage of that process is the Beta phase. Members of the public are invited to take a special version of the exam. After these folks take the test, the questions are evaluated for how accurately they predict whether someone actually knows what they're talking about.

Last month, I took the configuration (667) and administration (668) beta exams for SharePoint Server 2010. Over the last two days, the results for these have been released. I'm happy to say that, based on my answers to the questions that survived validation, I have passed both exams. That gives me the right to use the following logo:

So, for those of you who were always telling me I was certifiable, we now have proof that you were right!