Furuknap's SharePoint corner

application.master and SharePoint Application Page Branding

2009-11-05T03:59:00.001+01:00

After the excellent news that SharePoint 2010 lets application pages use the site master page rather than application.master, one may think that all problems are solved. Of course, this is only good news now if you ignore the fact that SharePoint 2010 isn’t here yet, and that even when it gets here, upgrading will take time, and branding efforts need to be redone.

So, what do you do about your current SharePoint 2007 application.master branding? And what about modifying the other application pages, even when SharePoint 2010 ships? I’ll tell you a bit about what I learned from a recent project and how you can make application pages customizations in a supportable manner without the hassle of copying and backing up a ton of [12] files.

The Story So Far

Before that, however, let’s review the common solutions. I’m assuming you are familiar with the problem. If not, it is likely that the remained of this article is completely pointless to you. However, realize that the solution I describe here will be just as applicable to SP2010. The problem will likely remain – there will still be application and system pages you are not allowed to change.

Microsoft Says…

First, there’s the supported methods of copying the LAYOUTS folder, as described in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944105. The major benefits is that this comes from Microsoft, so if you need help, they can’t really turn you down. The downside, however, are massive, for example the inability to deploy solutions that provision files to the LAYOUTS folder, the manual setup you need in IIS for every web application, and the fact that you need to manually apply any future (although unlikely) updates to the files in the LAYOUTS folder, etc.

To be honest, this solution is bad, except if you’re really desperate about doing things the way Microsoft tells you that you can do things.

HTTP Module

Then there’s the famous HTTP module solution, in which you register an HTTP module that intercepts a page request prior to the master page getting applied to a page. You can read about that solution here: http://vspug.com/dwise/2007/01/08/one-master-to-rule-them-all-two-actually/

The good news is that this is probably not voiding your warranty, and you get to set exactly the master page you want, including possibly your site master page. The bad news is that you’re still left with the need for manual updates for any patches and the fact that things can simply break. Besides, you still need IIS work, at least web.config modification, and you need to pay attention to any other HTTP modules running, for example in a publishing site.

I’ve seen this solution recommended by some Microsoft Consulting people, but frankly, I still don’t like it.

CSS branding

Regardless of which solution you choose, for simple layout and bells- and whistle stuff, you may get away with a skilled CSS person and a good theme. Sadly, the CSS options in SharePoint are rather limited out-of-the-box, and you need to jump some hoops to get custom themes for any SharePoint solution. I’ve described one such method in issue 6 of USPJ for a solution called SPThemes. SPThemes allows you to inject CSS after core.css and even change CSS on a user-by-user basis.

The bad news in any case is that CSS is extremely limited by nature; you cannot easily change the structure of a page using CSS alone, nor can you add new content or controls like you can with a completely custom application.master.

The One Solution to Bind Them All (Almost)

None of the solutions described so far are actually SharePoint solutions. They rely on mucking about with IIS, modifying the [12] files, or using client-side browser functionality. Surely, SharePoint, being such an incredibly powerful tool must be able to solve this issue?

Before I describe the solution, I want to describe the scenario in which this came up. Well, one of the scenarios; I’m sure this situation has been the bane of many a SharePoint branding project in the past.

In our case, however, the customer is a multi-national company with tens of thousands of employees around the globe from about as many cultures as there are on our small sphere in the universe.

One policy requirement is that no solution used in this company can use icons. The reason? Well, what may be a perfectly logical icon to you and me may be a nasty gross insult to someone in a different culture, and vice versa. Oh, and another requirement is that custom JavaScript must be avoided unless it’s out-of-the-box functionality. And you need to support IE6.

Did I mention that we need this to work on any out-of-the-box sites while supporting all default functionality such as adding the tree view navigation option?

This, of course, means that you need to hide any and all icons, and using a bit of Display: none; magic in CSS, you can get most of the icons to disappear. But what happens if you turn on the tree view navigation in an out-of-the-box team site? You get an SPTreeView control that shows the site, list and, library icons whether you like it or not.

In your normal master page, you can simply modify or replace the SPTreeView of a default master page with a regular ASP.NET TreeView control, and viola, Bob’s your uncle and has taken your icons away. And you’d think that, since application.master doesn’t even include the SPTreeView control, that you’d be home safe.

Sadly, some of the application pages in LAYOUTS, such as people.aspx, add the SPTreeView control to the PlaceHolderLeftNavBar content placeholder, and you’re back to square one, risking insulting someone because the red person in the SharePoint site icon is to the right and not the left. Or something.

Ah, but CSS can solve that. Except (and I’m trusting the designer who told me this) it’s not easy to set CSS styles for icons in an SPTreeView while maintaining the need to support IE6. Apparently, and I’m very much not a CSS guy, you can’t select elements based on attributes in IE6 or something like that.

One option is to use jQuery, which probably works very nice, except we can’t use custom JavaScript. So, you’re back to modifying [12] files, which is a horrible solution, even if you to the IIS _layouts redirect that Microsoft suggests.

What we need is to replace the SPTreeView control with an ASP.NET TreeView control without touching a page that forcibly adds the SPTreeView control.

And, just for the heck and beauty of it, I want to use SharePoint only techniques and not damage a single Microsoft-provided file. It wasn’t a requirement, but I do like the occasional challenge, of nothing else than to remind myself how incredibly cool SharePoint can be.

Sounds impossible? Not for SharePoint. This is a case for…

DelegateControls!

Yeah, OK, I’m not going to kid you here, this involves some .NET code. And, I’ll admit, some rather not-too-pretty .NET code, but look at the principles and not necessarily these examples.

A DelegateControl, as you likely know, works by allowing plug-in functionality to pages. You can write the plug-in in .NET so you can pretty much run whatever you like. The really cool thing is that both regular master pages and application.master has a DelegateControl called AdditionalPageHead.

Note: The default publishing master pages does not include AdditionalPageHead. You may consider adding this to your custom publishing master page if you want to use this method.

The plug-in you write will also have access to the regular ASP.NET control tree of the page in which it runs. This is one of those things I truly love about SharePoint; it’s ASP.NET in its essence so what works in ASP.NET usually works in SharePoint as well.

In our case, we needed to replace the SPTreeView of any page, not just application pages, but all other pages as well. The code we ended up running is in essence this:

Control SPTreeViewControl = Page.Master.FindControl("ctl00$PlaceHolderLeftNavBar$WebTreeView");

if (SPTreeViewControl != null)
{
    try
    {
        SPTreeView orgTreeView = (SPTreeView)SPTreeViewControl;

        TreeView newTreeView = new TreeView();
        newTreeView.CssClass = orgTreeView.CssClass;
        newTreeView.ExpandDepth = orgTreeView.ExpandDepth;
        newTreeView.DataSourceID = orgTreeView.DataSourceID;
        newTreeView.ShowExpandCollapse = orgTreeView.ShowExpandCollapse;
        newTreeView.NodeIndent = orgTreeView.NodeIndent;

        TreeNodeBinding tnBinding = new TreeNodeBinding();
        tnBinding.NavigateUrlField = "NavigateUrl";
        tnBinding.TextField = "Name";
        newTreeView.DataBindings.Add(tnBinding);

// TODO: Add other properties if needed.

SPTreeViewControl.Parent.Controls.Add(newTreeView);
SPTreeViewControl.Parent.Controls.Remove(SPTreeViewControl);

}
catch { }
}

Yes, I said it would be ugly, but if you look at the principles, namely using DelegateControl controls to manipulate the control tree of the page, you may perhaps see the benefit of this approach.

Here is the result, applied to a lab machine I have, all at the flick of a switch and without even touching any [12] files:

Of course, these aren’t application page menus, so take a look at this shot, taken from the User and Groups (people.aspx) page of the same site. I’ve removed the quick launch menu to save some space:

DelegateControl plug-ins are added as features so they can be activated an deactivated with the click of a button. Another cool thing is that DelegateControl features can have any scope, meaning you can apply your feature either at a web level or at any level up to the entire farm. Since you’re running code, you can even change the behavior based on any number of parameters, such as showing the default layout to site administrators while showing a modified layout to all other users.

Oh, and if it’s not clear by now; this is a completely supportable method for manipulating application pages. Put this code in a WSP solution, deploy, and never touch a single out-of-the-box file.

This Sounds Magical – Where’s the Catch?

I did say that this solution is ‘almost’ the one solution to bind them all.

Using this method, you can, in theory, rebuild, replace, modify, or add any control to the page or master page of the current request. In theory, you can rebuild the control tree to output valid HTML without tables and without breaking supportability.

Doing design in a .NET code way is extremely time consuming. This method works best for minor changes, such as replacing or modifying controls, adding a few DIV elements here and there or perhaps changing a piece of text. Since a lot of content is not .NET controls directly, and examples of this is the table based layouts, you end up with modifying literal text for more serious design changes.

In theory, this methods works for anything. In practice, don’t plan on completely rebuilding all the application pages.

I Love SharePoint – And Here’s Why - Introduction

2009-11-04T23:56:00.001+01:00

During a few turbulent weeks prior to SPC09, I ran a series on why I think SharePoint sucks. Feel free to read the series, including my blunder in part 3 when I publicly showed how little I know about MSIL when I wanted to give an example of bad code quality in SharePoint. (I’ll be back with a better example of bad code in SharePoint shortly.)

And of course, make sure you catch the thrilling conclusion in part 4.

Before we move on with this new series, however, I’d like to point out a few things.

First, I would like to thank the community for the terrific response to the series. Frankly, I’d expected a white knight, or even an army of white knights, to storm to SharePoint’s defense, but only a few people really did. Most comments, emails, tweets, and phone calls in the middle of the night using voice distortion technology actually agreed with my statements.

One of those white knights was Michael Gannotti, AKA the Social Media Samurai, who even made a movie about how incompetent and inexperienced I had to be to make such ridiculous claims about SharePoint. Granted, it was a short in-his-car video, but I still like to thank him for taking the time to put together an ‘I hate Bjørn’ video. I’ve embedded the video here so you can view it, or if you prefer, skip over to Mike’s site to see it there.

My Anti SharePoint FUD Rant from Michael Gannotti on Vimeo.

Oh, and Michael? My previous two projects were 100K+ user solutions, so I do have a bit of experience designing and developing enterprise solutions on SharePoint.

Second, many of the comments and emails I got was never posted. I treat email privacy as sacred, so I’d never post anything without explicit permission or begging from anyone, and as for comments, well, at least have the courtesy to write something other than ‘I agree’ or ‘Yeah’ if you want your comment on print.

Finally, and to spoil the big secret from issue 4, I do not hate SharePoint – I think it sucks in several areas, but I think it is absolutely magnificent in far more areas. After all, I spend most of my waking hours either working with, writing about, or thinking of SharePoint.

I absolutely love SharePoint, and throughout the next couple of weeks, or whatever time frame in which I actually manage to get this written, I will show you exactly why SharePoint is so hoggamn beautiful. As a matter of fact, I’m going to start with answering an anonymous comment I got on part 2 of the ‘sucks’ series, a comment that I haven’t posted yet. It’s about the horrors of the development experience for SharePoint.

Talk to you again soon.

PS!: Keep up-to-date with the new series here or via the RSS feed, on Twitter, or create a SharePoint solution that imports the RSS feed into a SharePoint list.

Issue 7 of USPJ Released: Learn SharePoint Visual Studio Workflows Without Code

2009-11-04T08:18:00.001+01:00

As some of you may know, I recently took on a permanent job as a SharePoint advisor at ErgoGroup in Norway. Of course, as for any SharePoint job these days, that has meant crazy busy days, and sadly, that has also meant I haven’t been able to write as much as I should.

I also said that the next issue of Understanding SharePoint Journal would be on low-code Visual Studio workflows for SharePoint. That proved to be more of a challenge than I anticipated. The point-and-click demonstrations you usually see are far from as point-and-click in the real world, and trying to come up with useful scenarios that required little or no code, using essentially a code generation tool, was no easy feat.

So, the issue was delayed, and I thank you all for your patience. Now the wait is over, and I’m happy to announce that issue 7 is now available to the public. Actually, the announcement was sort of made yesterday, and I’ve already begun getting feedback on the content. So far, it’s all good, but I love to hear your thoughts and opinions, even if you are not part of the ‘This is the best thing since sliced bread’ feedback crowd.

In any case, you can get the issue on the webpage at http://www.sharepointvisualstudioworkflows.com/. Feel free to let me know what you think about the new layout as well, it took me some time to get the illustration right :-)

application.master in SharePoint 2010 – Best New Ever!

2009-11-03T18:15:00.001+01:00

During the launch of… Sorry, strike that… During Steve Ballmer’s promise to launch the beta of SharePoint 2010, on November 18 if you believe the now removed statements from Microsoft in Germany, I made a serious error in code reading. I looked at the reflected code for the handling of master pages in SharePoint 2010 beta, and messed up the logic stating which application master should be used.

Now, the deal with application.master in pre-SharePoint 2010 is dreadful. In short, there is no supported way of customizing the application.master page, used in every page under the _layouts virtual folder. I’m not going to go into the details here, but designers have torn out massive amount of hair from their heads, trying to work around the issue, in a supportable manner.

Note: Yes, I know you have two supported options, but they are so lame that the disadvantages outweigh the benefits by an order of magnitude.

So, when I read the code I was first really happy, since it appeared that Microsoft had listened and made it possible to use a custom application.master. Then, and this is where I made my serious error, I saw that they only allowed you to select whether to use the V3 version or the V4 version of the default application.master.

I vented my frustration on Twitter, and lo and behold, an angel appeared, in the shape of Elisabeth Olson (@ElisOl) who informed me that I read wrong and that SharePoint 2010 does indeed use the site master page for the application pages as well.

Oh, boy, I have never been more happy to be wrong in my life. Finally, we can get rid of the default application.master while ensuring that we won’t be mocked if we ever need to call Microsoft for support.

SharePoint 2010 System Requirements: Out of This World

2009-11-01T20:00:00.001+01:00

Of course, you’re hanging around the TechNet and MSDN web sites as I do, so this may not come as a surprise, but the hardware and software requirements for SharePoint Server 2010 are now out.

The surprise, or rather not, is the massive amount of hardware required to run SharePoint Server 2010 in a production environment. You may recall that the minimum amount of RAM required to run MOSS, according to Microsoft, was 1 GB. After a couple of years, everyone knew that the comfortable limit for a production server was 4 GB of RAM, even though you might make do with less for smaller installations.

Listen to this: The minimum requirement for SharePoint Server 2010 is 8 GB of RAM. I’m not joking. That’s the minimum, according to Microsoft.

If you extrapolate those numbers, and remember that a comfortable amount of RAM for a server with MOSS is four times the minimum, that means SharePoint Server 2010 will require 32 gigabytes of RAM for a comfortable setup.

Go ahead and scale that up. You may want to run four front-end servers and an application server for a medium size farm setup. That means you need 160 GB of RAM. I don’t even have that large a hard drive on my laptop.

Oh, and you can make do with 80 GB of hard disk. And, for some perverted reason, you need a DVD drive.

The big question, however, is: Is it worth it?

To answer that, let me quote the infamous movie Carry on Again Doctor: Oh, yes, I know it is.

Of course, you may wonder if Microsoft has purchased a RAM manufacturer lately, or if they’re really that desperate to get people into the cloud. Anyway, to help prepare, I’ve set a new start page in my browser: http://bit.ly/2RtNgA

Here is the official TechNet documentation.

PS: I hope to come back to this page in ten years and think: 160 GB of ram? So what, I got that in my toilet paper holder. However, at this time of writing, 24 GB of ram, in a 3x8 GB kit, costs $2,306.86 at Amazon.

I’m Back!

2009-10-26T22:53:00.001+01:00

First, a note to all previously NDA-clad MVPs, TAP customers, and others who had SP2010 access, but couldn’t utter a word: You have my deepest and sincerest respect for your incredible self discipline. Staying mute for a week has given me a glimpse into what you have endured for several months. Congratulations.

Now, however, the leaf is coming off my mouth, at least, and while this post won’t be specifically on SharePoint 2010, I’m certainly going to post a lot of content on SP2010 from here on. Right now I just need to get a few things off my chest.

First of all, to the inevitable Microsoft employee reading this to figure out if I’m pissing someone off again: My email address is furuknap<[at]>gmail.com. Ask me, if you have something on your mind, don’t email someone else asking if I can change the content of my blog. Geez…

Second, Issue 7 of Understanding SharePoint Journal is just finished and will ship within a few days. The topic is Low-code Visual Studio workflows for SharePoint. More on that in a separate post.

Third, the SharePoint 2010 Beta series of USP Journal will be taken off the market today, Monday October 26 (in just a matter of hours, actually). If you are still lagging, get over there now. If the site is closed, you’re too late.

Fourth, start buying RAM if you’re planning on running SharePoint Foundation 2010. Drop by Amazon.com and start adding these to your shopping cart. I’ll tell you in a later post when to stop.

Speaking of which, I’ve registered the domain name www.SharePointFoundation2010.com, and I’ll make a formal announcement on the USP Journal mailing list within the next couple of days describing what will be there. (to that inevitable Microsoft employee again: Relax, it wont be midget porn). If you want the news first, sign up for the mailing list.

Yes, I Will Keep Quiet

2009-10-19T14:58:00.001+02:00

You may wonder why I’m not flooding the blogosphere with content about SharePoint 2010. I won’t. In fact, I’m going to keep my blog very quiet this week.

You see, for the past months, due to a slip from Microsoft, I’ve had legal and non-NDA access to SharePoint 2010. That’s why I’ve already posted a lot of content on what’s coming in the next version. I’ve tagged all the articles so you can find them in the SharePoint 2010 category somewhere in the menu. You’ll find the first public showing of the SharePoint 2010 Features, the first look at SharePoint Designer 2010 workflows, information on how to get and installing SharePoint 2010 Beta, the first build of a bone-fide SharePoint 2010 custom application (OK, I’ll admit, the application was rather pointless, but still…) as well as many other SharePoint 2010 articles.

In addition, I’ve kept the subscribers to the SharePoint 2010 Beta series of USP Journal up to speed with what’s been known publicly and partially ‘behind the scenes’.

Now, however, I will keep my mouth shut.

I see this as a giant sports event, where everyone will be shouting the same chants to root their teams on. I wont, even if I really, really want to. However, the noise from the crowd will overpower any individual comments on how the teams are really playing. To make this analogy even worse, consider the roar when a verbal diarrhea from hundreds of previously NDA-clad MVPs and others is suddenly unleashed. Trying to talk in such a setting wont help anyone except those who happen to listen to your lips.

However, I will make a couple of announcements before the game begins:

1. Understanding SharePoint Journal will, from Volume 2, focus solely on SharePoint 2010. For a few months, this means that there will be two volumes running at the same time, one covering SharePoint version 3 and one covering SharePoint version 4.

2. There will be a special issue of the SharePoint 2010 Beta series that sums up the first week of public beta information and from the SharePoint Conference. I’m hoping to get this issue done and released early next week.

3. Starting next Monday (that’s October 26 for those who find this post later) I will begin writing on the 2nd edition of the Building the SharePoint User Experience book. As such, I will be later than usual with replies to email or blog comments. And yes, I realize I’m already way behind, but I’m trying to answer as much as I can.

However, while I will shut my face up (I did it myself since you didn’t manage, Bil) in this blog, I will continue to keep you apprised of anything I learn via Twitter, so feel free to hook up there (@furuknap).

Regardless, good luck with the launch, and have a great week :-)

SharePoint Sucks – And Here’s Why I Still Love SharePoint (AKA Part 4)

2009-10-16T13:26:00.001+02:00

Have You Lost Your Mind?

OK, so by now, most readers, especially those who know me or are regular readers of this blog, probably wonders if I’ve gone complete over the edge. Why would I bash the product I spend so much time using? Are all my previous posts about how cool SharePoint can be just rubbish? Did I wake up an see the Linux light at the end of the very long Microsoft tunnel?

To answer those questions, I would like to quote an ancient Chinese saying, rumored to be one of the first responses ever to a proposal. Hell no!

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve said quite a lot of things about SharePoint that may lead you to think I hate SharePoint. I don’t. Quite the contrary, I love SharePoint. Yeah, it sucks, but so does my wife, and I’ve married her twice. Thankfully, she doesn’t read ancient Chinese.

So what’s going on here? Why the attitude? Well, it’s really very simple. SharePoint does suck. It does suck on the topics I’ve mentioned. Yes, if you don’t set up security properly, and that’s far from easy, SharePoint isn’t secure. I did ‘hack’ Microsoft’s own SharePoint security by clicking on a link posted in public and entering my LiveID. Yes, the workflow engine has the limitations I mentioned. Yes, blogging in SharePoint isn’t really a viable option if blogging is an important thing for you, and it sure as hell sucks if it’s the only thing you want out of your software package.

I’ve focused on the bad stuff in the previous three posts, and these are really bad things. And I also meant that there are a lot of other areas too, such as documentation, validation, compliance, artificial limitations, in addition to the areas I explicitly mentioned.

However, SharePoint excels in far more areas than the areas in which it completely sucks. How much is ‘far more’? To put this in a cosmic scope, let’s say that the suckage of SharePoint equals the size of the… I don’t know… Something huge… The Sun! As in the celestial body, not the newspaper. That’s pretty huge, right?

OK, let me quickly take 2 minutes and 39 seconds of your life, and show you one of the coolest videos I know.

SharePoint coolness is the size of the Pistol star. Yes, I know, it’s nothing compared to the biggest stars, but then again, the SharePoint team needs something for which to strive.

So, in the interest of cosmic balance, since we’re on that topic, I’m going to post a series on some of the true beauty of SharePoint. I’ll focus on the topics that I find to be most important to me, just like I focused the suckage series on the topics that most annoyed me. I’ll show you why I think that SharePoint as a platform is not only the best platform available, because that really isn’t saying much, but also why it is a good platform for future development, on which you can and should build your organizational information infrastructure.

To answer the question, once and for all, of whether I hate SharePoint, let me put it this way: SharePoint, will you marry me?

(answered with a roar of ancient Chinese, I’d guess)

SharePoint Sucks – And Here’s Why – Part 3

2009-10-13T22:18:00.001+02:00

As promised, here’s the third installment of my reasoning of why I think SharePoint sucks. I’ve written two posts already, and if you land on this post, you may want to check out the previous posts first.

In the first post of this series, I nagged about how Bill Simser marketed SharePoint as a mediocre solution to a whole range of problems, arguing that if you settle for a mediocre blogging platform, you’ll get a mediocre wiki solution free of charge.

In the previous post of this series, I mentioned a few reasons why I think SharePoint sucks. However, and as several people noticed, only one of the items were really technically about SharePoint. The remaining posts were about how SharePoint was marketed both by Microsoft and the SharePoint fauna.

I also wrote a meta post to answer some of the community comments. Since then, more blog comments have been posted, and likely some that I’ve not found as well.

So, in this article, I thought I’d mention more reasons why SharePoint sucks, why it’s a faulty product, and why Microsoft had better be darn impressive with their next version, SharePoint 2010, soon to be available as public beta.

Code Quality

If you’ve ever tried to reflect the SharePoint DLLs, you may have encountered rather curious constructs. Here’s an example from SPList and it’s HasExternalEmailHandler property:

internal bool HasExternalEmailHandler
{
    get
    {
        bool flag = false;
        using (IEnumerator enumerator = this.EventReceivers.GetEnumerator())
        {
        Label_002D:
            while (enumerator.MoveNext())
            {
                SPEventReceiverDefinition current = (SPEventReceiverDefinition) enumerator.Current;
                if (current.Type == SPEventReceiverType.EmailReceived)
                {
                    goto Label_0037;
                }
            }
            return flag;
        Label_0037:
            flag = true;
            goto Label_002D;
        }
    }
}

This is actually one of the easier examples to understand; you’ll find plenty of goto constructs and variable naming that will leave you crying for mercy if you try to figure out what’s going on. The fact that it all works is probably a bigger mystery than Loch Ness.

Security

How can, by the deities, any product be recommended as a front end for public web pages when anyone able to append _layouts/importpolicy.aspx to a URL can take down the entire installation? SharePoint security and permission handling is a nightmare, and as I’ve previously written, anyone looking to use SharePoint as a web front end had better

get their heads examined
hire some seriously skilled security people
prepare for some serious stability and security issues

or, more often than anything else
fire their advisors who put them up with SharePoint as a web content management solution in the first place

Even Microsoft aren’t able to secure their own SharePoint sites, as I wrote in the web front end article, with presumably the best people in the world of SharePoint working for them. They use a custom solution to prevent anonymous users from seeing their innermost secrets. However, if you have a Live ID you can still see the SharePoint interface of their site.

A solution, by the way, is dead simple, so there really isn’t any reason why it’s not included in the default SharePoint installation. Instead, hundreds of public facing SharePoint sites are open and inviting to anyone with a large enough document management policy.

The permissions model is also a chapter of its own. By use of a very intricate model, SharePoint renders practical use of item level permissions almost impossible, again requiring users and customers to either limit their requirements or suffer performance and manageability issues.

CAML

I’m sure someone, somewhere, knows what went wrong the day that CAML was invented. Was the gods unhappy? Did the person who came up with the idea want to get back at their employer for something?

I want to add a single column to a single view. Just do display something as simple as a single line of text. Let’s see what it takes in, for example, the most basic of lists, the Custom List. In the screenshot below, I have closed the two views that are responsible for displaying the Title column, and only the Title column, of a custom list:

Notice the line numbers? The default view, the one that a List View Web Part uses to display a list, is 1016 lines long. The All Items view, used to list the single Title column in the AllItems.aspx view, is 1130 lines.

No wonder people fear writing custom views more than they fear death, cancer, or Marilyn Manson.

Are You Done Yet?

Hell no! I’ve got more coming. I could go on like this for volumes. I could talk about documentation. Development tools. HTML Compliance, or the possibility of making SharePoint compliant. Or a number of other topics. Not because I know secrets that are not known, but because SharePoint truly sucks.

However, in the next part I’m going to share with you some secrets that may explain why I’m still so fascinated by SharePoint, and why I’m still spending most of my waking hours thinking, writing, or talking about SharePoint.

And it’s partly your fault…

Why I Prefer SPTechCon over SPC

2009-10-12T20:01:00.001+02:00

With all the buzz about the Microsoft SharePoint Conference this year, especially with the launch of SharePoint 2010, you may think that this would be a prime arena for someone like me to attend. It’s the premier event for SP2010, it’s the launch of a new era, everyone will be there, etc.

I’m not going. I could have gone if I wanted, but I explicitly told my boss that I’d resign if he sent me.

Let’s kill one myth right way: You just have to be there.

No, I don’t. The online coverage of the event is brilliant, with the EndUserSharePoint.com team doing live blogging, live broadcasts, live tweeting, and pretty much anything else you can put after live. When you’re stuck in a session in Vegas, I’ll be monitoring all the sessions at once, switching back and forth by the flick of an ALT+Tab. I’ll be able to view pretty much everything, regardless of my physical location. In fact, being there is likely going to be less informative than having decent filters on Twitter.

Do I get any earlier access to inside material if I’m there? No, I don’t. Well, perhaps a few hours, but then again, those aren’t the hours that will make or break my next year of SharePoint work. It may make sense for someone who wants to blog about the newest and coolest features, but frankly, I’m going to stay off blogging the first few days after SPC. Anything posted would be drowning in the mouth-diarrhea that the MVPs will suffer when they’re finally allowed to say SP2010 without clearing it with Dave Pae.

I’ve written pretty much everything I want about SharePoint 2010 already, since I’ve had non-NDA access to the bits for several weeks, so I’m in no rush to get anything out. right now, I’m content with exploring SharePoint Designer 2010 workflows for an upcoming USPJ issue, and dive into all the cool tricks that the old dog has learned.

So no cool information either, and no early-bird blog posting.

So what about the social aspect? Actually, that’s exactly why I wont be going. Everyone will be there. I’m scared to learn that over 7,000 people are attending. Well, I’m not scared of 7,000 people, I’m scared of wasting three days, plus travel across the globe, to be in a group about as personal as walking down a random street in a large city.

There are, perhaps, 10 people I’d travel around the world to meet, and chances are, you are also going to want to meet those 10 people. Can you imagine 7,000 people wanting to shake hands with Joel Oleson? He wouldn’t have time to spell his name, let alone talk to you in any meaningful manner. It’s just too much at once.

So, I prefer smaller and more personal conferences. I had the great privilege of speaking at SPTechCon in San Francisco earlier this year and I must say, I absolutely loved it. I met a lot of nice people, and everyone seemed to have time. True, they were rushing between the sessions, but the breaks were calmer, the reception was… I wouldn’t say intimate, but at least it wasn’t 7,000 people rushing over to Nintex to get their SWAG.

Here’s my advice, in the odd chance that you’re anything like me. Stay away from huge, monumental events like SPC, and stick with the less crowded conferences. Chances are, you’ll not only have time to talk to the speakers, but they’ll have time to talk to you too, and that kind of social event is a lot more valuable than being an ant in the anthill of SharePoint.

I haven’t had the chance to go to any SharePoint Saturdays yet. However, from what I’ve heard from the people who attend, there is a distinct difference from juggernaut conferences like SPC. No, it’s not in the amount of SWAG, nor in the people attending (you’ll often meet the same gurus at SharePoint Saturday as you would on SPC). The difference is in the feeling everyone has of being part of an event, not just being there.

Oh, yeah, and I’m definitely going to SPTechCon in February. Hope to see you there, and I will have time to talk to you :-)

SharePoint Sucks – And Here’s Why – Community Responses

2009-10-11T22:45:00.001+02:00

I’m somewhat surprised at the responses to the SharePoint Sucks series that I’ve been running. My first surprise was that this didn’t spark a flame war. Although that was not my intention, I had expected people to fire up and call me names my mother shouldn’t hear.

My second surprise was that most of the comments I got agreed, more or less, with the statements I made. Most of the comments, emails, tweets, and offline discussions I’ve had have so far said that this makes perfect sense, even if many people don’t want to use the word suck.

However, keep your comments flowing. If you hate me, fine, let me know. If you agree, well, let me know that as well. And if you don’t care, just skip on over to some other topic that interests you.

I’ve gotten a couple of community responses that I think deserves a better response, so in this meta-post, I’m going to respond to those comments before I post the third part of this series.

Freedom?

Robin Meuré asked in a comment to the previous post what would be the alternative to letting users have the freedom to create their own solutions.

I don't think there are general recommendations that can be applied to just any situation. Would you allow users to express their creativity with the company web site? How about the accounting system? Just add a few workflows to skip the payouts to managers is creative enough that you'd be thrown in the brig for years.

In a wiki site, of course users should express their creativity in adding and updating content. Does that mean they should express their creativity in modifying master pages so that your solution no longer follows company guidelines?

Even from a technical point of view, users can kill a SharePoint server very easily, for example through custom workflows in SharePoint Designer. So, you're back to having to teach your users to design these in a safe manner, and suddenly it's not that easy or cheap after all.

My point is that users are not competent enough to be given the freedom that SharePoint can provide. They need to learn a lot about application architecture, functional logic, be updated on company policy, learn about usability standards, and a lot of other topics.

Again, I want to point out, as I did in the previous post, that creating business solutions is not for the faint of heart, and the requirements for understanding both the business and the technical logic haven’t decreased even if the entry point is far lower than it used to be. If you want to empower your users to create their own business logic, you’d better tell them that it will take a whole lot of precautions, architecting, and development if they plan on maintaining a useable environment.

SharePoint gives the users freedom to cause even more havoc than they already can. Either bolt everything down or let go; it’s up to you, but it’s probably a more difficult choice than most people are aware.

Show Me Something Better!

Several comments, and I’m not going to single out any individual here, argues that SharePoint is the best there is, and that if I am to say that SharePoint sucks, I also need to give a better alternative.

Sure! Minesweeper is a better alternative. To be more precise, Minesweeper is better than SharePoint if your requirements are to have a good time for 5 minutes. Now, you’ll probably say that I’m talking rubbish, since it’s a stupid comparison, and you’d be correct. I may not be able to tell you which alternative is better without knowing the requirements.

However, the fact that perhaps no other alternative is better at exactly what SharePoint does means nothing. A serious sunburn is preferable to losing a limb or a heart attack, but it’s still not good.

So no, I’m not going to give you an alternative that’s better than SharePoint at what SharePoint does, because the question is constructed so that SharePoint would always be the best alternative.

Am I Lying?

Dave McMahon, one of the newly appointed MVPs, and congratulations and good luck with that, wrote a response in his blog that he doesn’t think SharePoint sucks and why he thinks I don’t think SharePoint sucks. If he were correct, however, it would make me a liar. I do think SharePoint sucks.

Dave points out that, compared to starting an ASP.NET application from scratch, SharePoint will save you tons of time, because it already has a lot of features for content management, collaboration, publishing, Office and workflow integration, etc.

However, why compare to starting an ASP.NET application from scratch? Of course it’s better than starting from scratch. Heck, if you need a word processor, SharePoint will save you tons of time compared starting with a blank class library and building your own. That doesn’t make SharePoint a good word processor.

Compare apples to apples, and SharePoint to competing products. Comparing SharePoint to junk and saying SharePoint’s better doesn’t do anyone any good.

SharePoint 2010 Download in the Wild!

2009-10-10T14:22:00.000+02:00

Update: This information refers to Beta 1, in other words, not the version that Microsoft makes available in November, according to Steve Ballmer at #SPC09.

I have been surprised at how long Microsoft has been able to keep the SharePoint 2010 beta download out of reach of the general public. I mean, the Office 2010 technical previews were available long before Microsoft made them available to the public, so why hasn’t the pirates gotten hold of SP 2010?

So, I can’t say I was surprised to learn that SharePoint Server 2010 Beta is now out in public and available in the wild. I thought I had my Google alerts set up properly, but apparently I did miss some search terms. I’ve also been way too busy to actually keep an eye out on the pirate sites of late.

In any case, several sites now list the SharePoint Server 2010 Beta build 4006, and since these site obviously are pirate sites, I’m not going to link to them. You’ll have to Google something to the tune of “Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Beta Build 4006 x64 WinBeta” to find a site that gives you the bits.

And, of course, you shouldn’t. Because Microsoft doesn’t want you to. And you should listen to Microsoft.

If you do decide, after this stern warning, not to listen to everything Microsoft says, feel free to check out my recent post on Installing SharePoint 2010.

Enjoy!

SharePoint 2010 Features List

2009-10-10T14:19:00.000+02:00

With all the fuzz about new features in SharePoint, I thought it would be interesting to see what the feature list really looks like.

The list below was sent to me some time ago, and represents a list of the features in the 14-hive with the name and description as it appears for English users.

Keep in mind that this list may change at any time. Enjoy!

PublishingStapling
Staple Publishing features

BasicWebParts
Makes the following Web Parts available in the site collection Web Part catalog: Page Viewer, Content Editor, Image, Form, XML and Site Users list.

XmlFormLibrary
Provides support for XML form libraries for a site.

LinksList
Provides support for links lists for a site.

workflowProcessList
This feature provides the ability to create a list to support running custom form actions.

GridList
Provides support for editing custom lists in a grid for a site.

WorkflowHistoryList
Provides support for workflow history lists for a site.

TeamCollab
Provides team collaboration capabilities for a site by making standard lists, such as document libraries and issues, available.

GanttTasksList
Provides support for Gantt-chart tasks lists for a site.

PictureLibrary
Provides support for picture libraries for a site.

IssuesList
Provides support for issues lists for a site.

DiscussionsList
Provides support for discussion boards for a site.

ContactsList
Provides support for contacts lists for a site.

TasksList
Provides support for tasks lists for a site.

WebPageLibrary
Create a Wiki page library when you want to have an interconnected collection of Wiki pages. Wiki page libraries support pictures, tables, hyperlinks, and wiki linking.

AnnouncementsList
Provides support for announcements lists for a site.

WikiPageHomePage
This site feature will create a wiki page and set it as your site home page.

DataConnectionLibrary

CustomList
Provides support for custom lists for a site.

DocumentLibrary
Provides support for document libraries for a site.

SurveysList
Provides support for surveys lists for a site.

EventsList
Provides support for events lists for a site.

DataSourceLibrary
Provides support for data source libraries for a site.

NoCodeWorkflowLibrary
Provides support for no-code workflow libraries for a site.

FeaturePushdown
Link to display the feature pushdown page

ReviewWorkflows
Workflows that send a document for feedback or approval.

MySiteQuickLaunch
My Site feature that uploads all the layouts to the master page gallery

LocationBasedPolicy
Allows list administrators to override content type retention schedules and set schedules on libraries and folders.

BizAppsListTemplates
SharePoint Portal Server Status Indicator List template

EnhancedTheming
Enable enhanced .thmx theming.

OsrvLinks
Links to the Shared Services administration pages

HelpLibrary
Use this feature to create help libraries.

PremiumWeb
Features such as the business data catalog, forms services, and Excel Services, included in the Office SharePoint Server Enterprise License.

FCGroupsList
This feature provides support for Manage Resources list types.

TenantAdminBDC
Links to subpages and Ribbon for Tenant Business Data Catalog Administration

SlideLibrary
Create a slide library when you want to share slides from Microsoft Office PowerPoint, or a compatible application. Slide libraries also provide special features for finding, managing, and reusing slides.

DocumentRoutingResources
Provision resources required for routing documents in sites within this site collection.

PremiumWebApplication
Features such as the business data catalog, forms services, and Excel Services, included in the Office SharePoint Server Enterprise License.

ContentLightup
Provides several standard user interface components and links.

ObaFields
Provides the Fields necessary for designing Office Business Data solutions.

MySiteCleanup
Installs and uninstalls Farm-level job for My Site Cleanup.

OssNavigation
Shared Services Navigation

SpsSsoLinks
SSO Links

WACentralAdminMaster
This feature comprises Web Analytics reports and customizing reports (for Enterprise SKU) for the Central Admin.

PageConverters
Contains the converters used to convert documents to publishing pages.

LocalSiteDirectoryControl
SharePoint Portal Server Local Site Directory Capture Control

IPFSTenantFormsConfig
Enables tenant administration of InfoPath Forms Services

AccSrvUserTemplate
Enables the creation of new sites from uploaded Access template files.

IMEDicList
Create Microsoft IME dictionary list when you want to use data in the list as Microsoft IME dictionary. You can convert "Reading" field items to "Display" using Microsoft IME and view the content in "Comment" in the IME comment window. The data can be linked to a specific URL.

AccSrvApplication
Adds farm-level Access Services Features to the Windows SharePoint Services framework

SearchAndProcess
Provisions the Search and Process timer jobs.

DMContentTypeSettings
DLC Document Management content type setting links.

PublishingTimerJobs
Create Publishing timer jobs in the web application to support scheduling and variations.

AdminReportFeatureStapling
This feature activates the Administrative Reporting Infrastructure feature in all site templates.

Publishing
Enable Publishing in a web.

CallTrackList
This feature provides support for Phone Call Memo list types.

ReportListTemplate
SharePoint Portal Server Report Library

AccSrvUSysAppLog
Access Services User Application Log

TransMgmtLib
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.

AccSrvMSysAso
Access Services System Objects

SPSearchFeature
Windows SharePoint Services Search feature

WAReports
This feature is advanced Web Analytics Reports for the site collection

WebPartAdderGroups
Adds additional default groups the QuickAddGroups column in webpart gallery

UpgradeOnlyFile
Portal feature that uploads upgrade only files.

V2VPublishingLayouts
Add new masterpages and CSS styles

RedirectPageContentTypeBinding
SharePoint Portal Server Redirect Page Content Type Binding Feature

GlobalWebParts
Installs additional web parts common to all types of sites.

TenantProfileAdmin
Links to subpages for Tenant User Profile Application Management

ContentTypeSyndication
Content type syndication.

SSSvcAdmin
Secure Store Service Admin Ribbon

ReportServer
Enables rich reporting using Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services.

AccSrvSysTables
Access Services System Tables

ObaDesign
Document libraries, lists, content types and pages required to build an Office Business Application solution.

MpsWebParts
Extends the Web Part adder to display Meetings Workspaces list templates.

ObaListTemplates
Provides the set of list temolates necessary for designing Office Business Data solutions.

DocumentManagement
Provides the infrastructure to synchronize metadata for Document Sets.

DocumentSet
Provides the content types required for creating and using document sets. Create a document set when you want to manage multiple documents as a single work product.

IPFSTenantWebProxyConfig
Enables tenant administration of InfoPath Web service proxy settings

ExcelServerSite
Adds site-level Excel Services Features to the Windows SharePoint Services framework

WACentralAdminCustomReports
This feature adds the farm-level customize reports functionality for Web Analytics.

GBWWebParts

TenantProfileAdminStapling
Staple Tenant User Profile Application Feature to TenantAdmin Template

BDR
Provides tree view navigation for a site.

TaxonomyFeatureStapler
Staples the Field Added feature to all sites created

BizAppsSiteTemplates
SharePoint Portal site templates and web parts

FastFarmAdministration
Farm-wide FAST Search Dashboard

BizAppsCTypes
SharePoint Portal Server Business Appication content type definitions

OSearchEnhancedFeature
$Resources:EnhancedSearch_Feature_Description

TaxonomyTimerJobs
Creates the taxonomy timer jobs on all web apps being created

MySiteHost
Installs features related to hosting My Sites.

AssetLibrary
Enable Asset Library Creation for site collection.

BaseWebApplication
Features such as user profiles and search, included in the Office SharePoint Server Standard License.

NavigationProperties
Set per-site navigation properties.

SiteHelp
Create Help content for this site collection.

FacilityList
This feature provides support for Resources list types.

MobileEwaFarm
$Resources:xlsrv,FeatureFarmMobileEwa-Description

BizAppsFields
OOB field definitions for Biz Apps

RecordResources
Provision resources required for creating records or holds in sites within this site collection.

ObaLists
Provides the set of list temolates necessary for designing Office Business Data solutions.

SearchExtensions
Search extensions

MySiteHostPictureLibrary
Use this Picture Library to store logos for Organizations.

PortalLayouts
Portal feature that uploads all the layouts to the master page gallery.

VisioServer
View Visio Drawing in Web Browser

WADataDrivenWorkflow
Specify the types of data changes that will generate e-mail notifications. You can can also specify recipients for these notifications.

SpellChecking
Enable Spell Checking in WSS list-item edit forms.

TenantAdminSecureStoreStapling
Stapling Secure Store Service Tenant Admin to tenant admin template.

ScheduleList
This feature provides support for Schedule and Reservations list types.

SlideLibraryActivation

ObaProfilePages
Enables UI for creating or upgrading BDC profile pages.

MySiteLayouts
My Site feature that uploads all the layouts to the master page gallery.

CTypes
Provides standard content type definitions for a site collection.

MySite
Installs features related to My Site and User Profiles.

MySiteNavigation
Installs navigation providers for My Site.

SignaturesWorkflow
Gathers signatures needed to complete a Microsoft Office document.

RecordsManagement
Adds records management and information management policy capabilities to Windows SharePoint Services.

LegacyDocumentLibrary
Provides support for document libraries for a site.

GBWProvision
This feature provisions GroupBoard's web.

ObaEntityCenter
Creates the infrastructure necessary to enable users to create entity collaboration instance sites.

Reporting
Creates reports about information in Windows SharePoint Services.

SPSDisco
Portal feature that sets the DiscoPage property of the default web service to spsdisco.aspx.

MetaDataNav
Provides each list in the site with a settings pages for configuring that list to use metadata tree view hierarchies and filter controls to improve navigation and filtering of the contained items.

TaxonomyFieldAdded
Registers the field added event on all SPSites being created

AccSrvSolutionGallery
Enables uploading Access template files to the solution gallery.

IPFSAdminWeb
InfoPath Forms Services admin links.

SocialRibbonControl
Adds entry points for social tagging and note board commenting to the ribbon user interface.

EnterpriseWiki
Create a large-scale wiki site.

WACentralAdminReports
This feature adds the farm-level links to the Web Analytics Reports

OSSSearchSearchCenterUrlSiteFeature
adds the url of search center in the property bag of root web.

OSSSearchSearchCenterUrlFeature
$Resources:SearchCenterUrl_Feature_Description

DocumentRouting
Create metadata based rules that move content submitted to this site to the correct library or folder.

ViewFormPagesLockDown
Prevents members of the Limited Access role from viewing forms pages and accessing APIs remotely.

TaxonomyTenantAdmin
Enables taxonomy tenant administration.

VisioProcessRepository
Description of the Visio Process Repository feature

ReportCenterCreation
Creates the Report Center on Premium sites.

EnhancedHtmlEditing
Enhanced Html Editing for the Content Editor Web Part

TransMgmtFunc
Add a library template to manage the document translation process.

PremiumSite
Features such as the business data catalog, forms services, and Excel Services, included in the Office SharePoint Server Enterprise License.

MySiteBlog
Installs My Site Blog features.

MossChart

Navigation
Enable portal navigation bars.

MasterSiteDirectoryControl
SharePoint Portal Server Master Site Directory Capture Control.

WikiWelcome
This feature allows you to turn the front page of your Wiki Site into a Wiki Page.

MySiteRibbon
Use this feature to add the "Edit My Site" tab

WAWhatsPopularWebPart
The feature is a web part to display popular content, search queries and search results.

LocalSiteDirectoryMetaData
Feature that sets location to local site directory for site metadata capture

ObaProfilePagesTenantStapling
Staples Profile Pages feature to sites using tenant admin template.

Ratings
Use this feature to enable users to rate content.

SkuUpgradeLinks
Link to display the portal to office server sku upgrade page

PeopleClaimProvider
Installs claim provider for People and Organizations.

GroupsClaimProvider
Installs claim provider for Groups.

PublishingWeb
Create a Web page library as well as supporting libraries to create and publish pages based on page layouts.

BaseSiteStapling
Staple Base features

TenantAdminLinks
Links to Tenant Administration subpages which reside on the main Tenant Administration page.

TenantAdminDeploymentLinks
Allows Tenant Administrators to configure Content Deployment for their sites.

BaseWeb
Features such as user profiles and search, included in the Office SharePoint Server Standard License.

ContentTypeHub
Provisions a site to be Enterprise Metadata hub site.

HolidaysList
This feature provides support for Holidays list types.

GroupWork
Provides Calendar lists with added functionality for team and resource scheduling.

WhereaboutsList
$Resources:core,GbwFeatureWhereaboutsDescription

WAFeatureStapler
This feature activates the WAMaster feature in all site templates.

Hold
This feature is used to track external actions like litigations, investigations, or audits that require you to suspend the disposition of documents.

VisioWebAccess
View Visio Drawing in Web Browser

IPFSWebFeatures
InfoPath Forms Services lists and related pages to enable server side rendering of Forms.

ipfsAdminLinks
InfoPath Forms Services admin links.

SitesList
Feature that creates sites list and registers event recievers

PublishingPrerequisites
Enable Publishing prerequisites for site collection.

CirculationList
This feature provides support for Circulation list types.

PremiumSiteStapling
Staple Premium features

SecureStoreTimerJob
The timer job that syncs applications on different application servers.

EnterpriseWikiLayouts
Create a large-scale wiki with categories and page layouts.

PublishingResources
Enable Publishing for site collection.

BulkWorkflow
Adds the process all tasks button to complete workflows in bulk

WACustomReports
This feature adds site-collection-level customize reports functionality for Web Analytics.

ProfileSynch
Installs job for user profile and membership synchronization with team sites.

BaseSite
Features such as user profiles and search, included in the Office SharePoint Server Standard License.

MyProfileRibbon
Use this feature to add the "Edit My Profile" tab

TenantAdmin
The Tenant Administration site is used by hosters to allow tenants self-serve access to common administrative operations.

DocId
Assigns IDs to documents in the Site Collection, which can be used to retrieve items independent of their current location.

ReviewWorkflowsSPD
Workflows that send a document for feedback or approval. These workflows can be edited in SharePoint Designer.

TenantAdminBDCStapling
Staple Tenant Business Data Catalog Administration Feature to TenantAdmin Template

TenantAdminSecureStore
$Resources:obacore,tenantadminbdcFeatureDesc

AdminReportCore
Library and Content Types for administrative reporting.

OSearchBasicFeature
$Resources:BasicSearch_Feature_Description

AccSrvShell
Adds Access Services Site Actions Menu Items.

WAMaster
This feature comprises advanced Web Analytics reports, data-driven workflows, workflow for scheduling reports, the What's Popular Web Part and customize reports functionality(for Enterprise SKU) at the site collection level.

SRPProfileAdmin
Installs links related to administering the User Profile service.

SignaturesWorkflowSPD
Gathers signatures needed to complete a Microsoft Office document. This workflow can be edited in SharePoint Designer.

ManageUserProfileServiceApplication
Manage Profile Service Application.

ReportCenterSampleData
Creates a sample dashboard in the ReportsLibrary of the parent Report Center

TranslationWorkflow
Manages document translation by creating copies of the document to be translated and assigning translation tasks to translators.

SearchAdminWebParts
$Resources:SearchAdminWebParts_Feature_Description

ExpirationWorkflow
Manages document expiration and retention by allowing participants to decide whether to retain or delete expired documents.

IPFSSiteFeatures
InfoPath Forms Services lists and related pages to enable server side rendering of Forms.

OSearchCentralAdminLinks
$Resources:SearchCentralAdmin_Feature_Desc

OffWFCommon
This feature provides support for Microsoft Office Server workflows.

DeploymentLinks
OOB Content Deployment Feature.

Fields
Provides standard column definitions for a site collection.

BDCAdminUI
BDC Service Admin Ribbon

DataConnectionLibraryStapling
Adds Data Connection Library feature

ObaSimpleSolution
Take a virtual list offline into Outlook or Groove.

AddDashboard
Installs the "Add Dashboard" Link in Site Actions menu.

FastFarmFeatureActivation
Provisions Enterprise Server Search Master Job

PublishingLayouts
Publishing Layouts

EMailRouting
This enables a site's document router to accept and route email messages. This feature should be used only in a highly managed store, like a Records Center.

TimeCardList
This feature provides support for Time Card list types.

AccSrvSolutionGalleryStapler
Enables the Access Services Solution Gallery feature in each site collection that is created.

WhatsNewList
This feature provides support for What's New list types.

BulkWorkflowTimerJob
The timer job that processes workflow tasks in bulk

InPlaceRecords
Enable the definition and declaration of records in place.

ContentTypePublish
Content type publishing.

ObaEntityCollaboration
Creates the infrastructure necessary to enable users to create entity collaboration sites.

ObaContentTypes
Provides the Fields necessary for designing Office Business Data solutions.

SearchServerWizardFeature
$Resources:SearchServerWizard_Feature_Desc

RecordsCenter
Configures a site as a Records Center.

ExcelServerWebApplication

ExcelServer
Adds farm-level Excel Services Features to the Windows SharePoint Services framework

OSearchHealthReports
$Resources:HealthReportsFeatureDesc

RelatedLinksScopeSettingsLink
Related Links scope settings page

LocalSiteDirectorySettingsLink
Site Settings Link to Local Site Directory Settings page.

MobileExcelWebAccess
Adds site-level Excel Mobile Viewer Feature to the Windows SharePoint Services framework

SearchWebParts
This feature uploads all web parts required for Search Center.

OSearchPortalAdminLinks
OOB Search Portal admin Links

StapledWorkflows
Workflows activated automatically upon site collection creation

WAScheduledReportsWorkflow
Schedule selected reports to be e-mailed to reviewers. You can specify reviewers, the frequency of the reports, and additional information.

UserMigrator
Installs features related to migrating user data when a user's account information changes.

SharedServices
Shared Services Infrastructure

MobilityRedirect
Provides a shortcut URL (/m) to a mobile device-accessible version of the list.

V2VPublishedLinks
Add Published Links fields and content type

MySitePersonalSite
Configures a user's personal site.

PublishingSite
Provides centralized libraries, content types, master pages and page layouts and enables page scheduling and other publishing functionality for a site collection.

ObaStaple
Take a virtual list offline into Outlook or Groove.

ListTargeting
Installs a button on the List Settings page to enable content targeting using audiences.

IssueTrackingWorkflow
Use this workflow to track items in a list.

SiteSettings
Provides standard Site Settings links for a site.

ContentTypeSettings
Provides standard links for the Content Type Settings page.

AdminLinks
Links for the Operations and Application Management pages in the Central Administration site.

TemplateDiscovery
Adds doclib to My Links.

Web Edit in SharePoint 2010 – Or Is It?

2009-10-09T12:46:00.001+02:00

We’ve all seen the new page edits on the team site in SharePoint 2010 and been pretty impressed, haven’t we?

Well, I’m not sure about you, but I would like to know a bit more about what’s going on behind the scenes. And when I found out, I was a bit disappointed.

It turns out, the fancy new front page of the team site is just a wiki page. It’s actually a feature that creates a new wiki page for you and sets that page as the front page of the team site, or whatever site in which you activate the feature.

You can see this in the sneak peek videos in that the front page of the team site that Tom Rizzo is demonstrating has a URL of /SitePages/home.aspx.

Here’s the feature and it’s description:

Wiki Page Home Page

This site feature will create a wiki page and set it as your site home page.

This text came from a comment that was posted to my blog a couple of weeks ago with all the features and their descriptions listed. I haven’t posted that comment yet, but perhaps I will shortly…

The feature itself contains a feature activated handler that ensures that the wiki page library exists, as well as an attachments list for the wiki page library. It then provisions the new wiki home page to the wiki library.

The code also stores the old home page so that you can dectivate the feature and return to your old page. Finally, the code sets the WelcomePage property of the root folder in the SPWeb in order to send users to the new wiki page.

The ‘old’ default.aspx is still the same, familiar, and somewhat boring Announcements, Calendar, Logo, and Links. Deactivate the Wiki Page Home Page feature, and you’re back to WSS3, more or less :-)

True, inline editing is still cool, but no revolution as at least I believed when I saw the video the first time. The features you see demonstrated can easily be implemented in WSS3 as well.

SharePoint Sucks – And Here’s Why – Part 2

2009-10-05T00:31:00.001+02:00

OK, so the first post in this series seems to have caused a bit of a stir, and a lot of comments and emails suggest that I’m out to sabotage or that I’m just trying to get attention by trolling as the SharePoint-hater.

Nothing is further from the truth. I really, truly believe that SharePoint sucks.

Before we go any further, however, I’d like to just clarify what I mean by ‘sucks’ as opposed to, well, ‘not sucks’. I’m not looking to ‘define’ my way out of anything, I simply want to clarify the properties I think sucks about SharePoint.

In my mind, a good product is a product that is both effective and efficient. As such, the age-old statement about “you’re using it wrong” does have a lot of merit. If you expect SharePoint to cure cancer and give you a date with Denise Richards then you will be disappointed.

Unless, of course, Denise Richards has a thing for people who are proficient at SharePoint. I certainly haven’t received a date request, but then again, I may not be proficient enough.

This does not mean SharePoint sucks. If your expectations are wrong then you need to alter your expectations, not blame the product. If I wanted a collaboration solution and installed Minesweeper, of course it wouldn’t fulfill any of my requirements, but that doesn’t mean Minesweeper sucks.

However, a product should perform the tasks it is delegated, within its feature set, to the best of its abilities. SharePoint doesn’t.

1. SharePoint sucks because SharePoint is sold as a product.

Damn people to hell for showing customers a team site or a collaboration portal. I spend days telling people that a team site is _not_ their requirements specification.

Don’t look at a solution and say that it is what you want. Say what you want and then look for the solution. SharePoint may be the answer if SharePoint meets or exceeds the requirements, but in too many cases people say ‘SharePoint’ first and then ask someone to tell them what they can get. That’s putting the cart before the horse.

2. SharePoint sucks even worse for showing people how incredibly easy they can customize and configure their sites, list, libraries, pages, workflows, and features.

Giving people that much power without the barrier of needing a working brain is disastrous to any organization. Power without a plan is just lightning.

When, in the mid-90s, people learned how easy it was to create a web site using HTML, designers and web developers had a hard time convincing organizations that having a web strategy is a complex matter. I mean, all you had to do was put some stuff in between BODY tags, so why all the fuzz about user experience development, interaction, standards, and all the other cost-increasing stuff that doesn’t seem important?

3. SharePoint sucks because of all the people who show of fancy-schmancy features and promise the world, just to sell a license or a consulting gig.

Customers are easily impressed and sold when a salesperson, whether that person is a consultant or a bone-fide seller, demonstrate how easy it is to hack together a working proof-of-concept. When a real architect or developer enters the project, customers are shocked to learn that developing a SharePoint solution is nothing different from any other software development project and is a lot more expensive than the impression left by the sales process.

When shit hits the fan, blame is easily placed, but the customer is still left without what they want. So, the customer is asked, again, to adjust their requirements to meet the solution.

4. SharePoint sucks for not utilizing its incredible potential any better than it does.

I mean, SharePoint could have been the real business productivity killer app that everyone really wants, but instead, it is cumbersome and riddled with either faulty or awkward development methods that are alien to most people without years of SharePoint experience.

This is the point about performing to the best of one’s abilities, and I’m going to give a couple of examples here.

SharePoint is an ASP.NET application. Except it’s not. SharePoint has far too many exceptions to that rule, making experienced ASP.NET developer cringe and new developers scared. You need to learn SharePoint development; being a master of ASP.NET will only get you part of the way. For new developers, that means you have to learn both ASP.NET and SharePoint development before you can get anywhere.

Note that this isn’t unique to SharePoint; many so-called ASP.NET applications suffer the same problem.

SharePoint is a front-end to custom data and can be used to model organizational data and processes. Except it’s not. The database-mimicking features of SharePoint leave so much to be desired that MySQL seems like a very feasible option.

The workflows used to ensure business process management are either extremely limited (SharePoint Designer) or extremely complex (Visual Studio). This means that customers again need to either limit their requirements or pay through the nose for someone who can design and develop workflows properly.

I could go on for quite some time, but I’ll end part 2 of this rant now and pick up in part 3 later. In the meantime, however, I do love to get your feedback and thoughts, so keep comments coming, either here or by email to furuknap<[at]>gmail.com. You can also hook up on twitter (@furuknap) and let me know how you feel there.

SharePoint Sucks – And Here’s Why – Part 1

2009-10-02T20:29:00.000+02:00

My good friend Bill Simser recently wrote about why he thinks SharePoint is great. Actually, he didn’t say SharePoint is great, he’s trying to explain why SharePoint does so much more than whatever people compare it to and why apples and gasoline should not be compared.

I’ll say what really on his mind: SharePoint sucks. SharePoint sucks at blogging, compared to blogging tools. SharePoint sucks at document management, compared to dedicated document management tools. SharePoint sucks at web content management compared to pure web content management tools. You’re basically getting mediocrity in everything.

Oh, and before you wonder, this is not another of those 8 Reasons Why SharePoint is Bad for Your Business, sarcastic posts. Really, I think SharePoint sucks.

Bill argues that, while SharePoint may not stand up to any dedicated tool, you get all the other features in the same bundle. For some reason, it makes perfect sense to Bill that if you’re looking for a blogging platform, you should consider whether you want a wiki solution at the same time, or even later. Or some of the other features that SharePoint provides.

My problem with this is simple: If I want a good blogging solution, why would I want a mediocre wiki site, a mediocre document management solution, and a mediocre web content management solution, bundled with a mediocre blogging solution? This won’t give me anything I need, compared to getting a good blogging solution and a good wiki solution as separate products.

Ah, but as we all know, SharePoint isn’t a product; it’s a platform. You shouldn’t take what’s given out-of-the-box and use as your production solution, with a few exceptions, such as Billy’s example of small and simple collaboration needs. Rather, you should take what you get as a starting point and then customize or develop the functionality you need beyond that.

Now again, I ask: if I’m going to customize a blogging solution in any case, why would I choose a mediocre starting point for my customization? I could start with WordPress and hire some off-shore developer to customize whatever I need. You’ll save tons of time and money and you’ll get, in the case of WordPress, a flora of free addons and plugins that make the SharePoint addon community look like a fart in a hurricane.

Let’s put this in perspective, since Bill likes the apples and gasoline comparison. If you want to buy an apple, you’ll get half an apple with SharePoint. Or, more precisely, you’ll get a bad apple that either doesn’t taste good, look good or doesn’t have the nutritional value you seek.

However, you’ll also get a three-piece suit made of low-quality fabric that doesn’t stand up to rain. And, to make the offer even better, you’ll get a screwdriver made of rubber, useful for screws and bolts that are not really fastened. You’ll also get a paper bag to put all your stuff in; of course, it’s one of those fold-it-yourself bags and the instructions are not really telling you enough to put it together. As for the gasoline? You’ll get diesel. Very useful if your car runs on diesel – not so much if it’s not.

Still, all you really needed was a good apple.

So, yes, I think SharePoint sucks, and if you are considering going for a new platform for your collaboration or your publishing or your wiki or your blogging needs, choose differently.

Read the second part of this series to learn some of the specific things I hate about SharePoint.

Building Your First SharePoint 2010 Application

2009-10-02T11:20:00.001+02:00

If you are a member of the Office 2010 Technical Preview program, you have all you need to write your first SharePoint 2010 application.

How? Well, the Office 2010 integration with SharePoint 2010 means that you’ll get a few interesting DLL files added to your Office installation folder, especially when installing SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visio 2010.

BTW, this information was first published in issue 2 of the SharePoint 2010 Beta series of Understanding SharePoint Journal.

These files are proxy DLLs and wont actually interact with SharePoint, but they are still extremely interesting from a developer’s point of view as they are effectively a complete listing of the new Microsoft.SharePoint.Client namespace.

This will be an extremely simple demo, and you’ll need to have the SharePoint Designer 2010 Technical Previews installed. Well, actually, you’ll need a DLL that installs as part of that application, Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Local.dll.

Start a new Visual Studio project; any version of Visual Studio will do. The project type should be Console Application, and you can name it pretty much anything you like.

Next, add a reference to the Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Local.dll file, usually located in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14 folder (or the equivalent in an x64 OS).

Inside the Program.cs file, add a using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client; statement at the top, and then paste the following code in the Main function:

foreach (int s in Enum.GetValues(typeof(ListTemplateType)))
{
    Console.WriteLine(
        string.Format("{0}\t{1}",
          Enum.GetName(typeof(ListTemplateType), s), s
        )
    );
}
Console.ReadLine();

Build, run, and enjoy the output, which should resemble the result below.

Here’s the list in text format, with the new list times highlighted:

NoListTemplate	0
GenericList	100
DocumentLibrary	101
Survey	102
Links	103
Announcements	104
Contacts	105
Events	106
Tasks	107
DiscussionBoard	108
PictureLibrary	109
DataSources	110
WebTemplateCatalog	111
UserInformation	112
WebPartCatalog	113
ListTemplateCatalog	114
XMLForm	115
MasterPageCatalog	116
NoCodeWorkflows	117
WorkflowProcess	118
WebPageLibrary	119
CustomGrid	120
SolutionCatalog	121
NoCodePublic	122
ThemeCatalog	123
DataConnectionLibrary	130
WorkflowHistory	140
GanttTasks	150
Meetings	200
Agenda	201
MeetingUser	202
Decision	204
MeetingObjective	207
TextBox	210
ThingsToBring	211
HomePageLibrary	212
Posts	301
Comments	302
Categories	303
Facility	402
Whereabouts	403
CallTrack	404
Circulation	405
Timecard	420
Holidays	421
IMEDic	499
AssetLibrary	851
IssueTracking	1100
AdminTasks	1200
HealthRules	1220
HealthReports	1221
InvalidType	-1

Using .NET Reflector you can open any of these DLLs to start exploring the SharePoint 2010 object model right now.

Installing SharePoint 2010 Beta 1

2009-09-28T13:31:00.000+02:00

Update: As you may know, SharePoint 2010 Beta 1 was leaked in mid-September. You really shouldn’t download that, since Microsoft will think you are a bad girl or boy if you do. In any case, now you know…

I’ve been talking to a lot of the beta testers of SharePoint 2010 and one thing seems to be common; getting SharePoint 2010 beta 1 installed is damn hard.

A couple of weeks ago, someone posted a quick overview of the prerequisites up until the installation was running, but apparently, that didn’t fall well with the NDA people at Microsoft so the post was removed. Of course, that means that those who need help and Google for that help wont find anything.

Anyway, I thought I’d post it here now, so that in case you do need help with installing the SharePoint 2010 beta you can at least get some help.

Prerequisites

You will need Windows 2008 and you will need it in the 64 bit flavor. I’m doing my current work on a trial Windows 2008 R2 virtual machine.

You can also save yourself some time and download the beta 1 of the Geneva framework. The Geneva framework is a new framework for authenticating users using claims-based authentication, and it's required for SharePoint 2010, both WSS4 and SS2010.

Note that you must have beta 1. Beta 2 will not work. Repeat: Get Geneva beta 1. Sadly, Microsoft seems to have removed beta 1 from their web pages, so you’ll need to Google or get your copy from somewhere else.

If you install Geneva beta 2, your installation may start, but your configuration wizard will crash at step 3 since it is trying to get the wrong version of Geneva. You’ll get one of those nice ‘Everything crashed’ messages that takes forever to debug. However, walk through the setup log and you’ll get some pointers that the version of Geneva is wrong.

You’ll also need to install a 64 bit SQL Server, but either 2005 or 2008 will do. You might as well start installing that right away; you’ll want it prior to starting the installation of SharePoint 2010 and you _must_ have it prior to running the configuration wizard.

Roles and Features

SharePoint 2010 requires some roles and features enabled. Specifically. you must add the Web Server (IIS) role, and you might as well do this first. You’ll want to add the ASP.NET role service, which will force a few other services as well. In addition, you’ll want to have the IIS 6.0 manageability services enabled and also the Windows Authentication service.

If you do not enable the Windows Authentication service, your web sites will not work and only show up blank.

Below is my web server role services prior to hitting Install. Click the image to get, well, the big picture…

You will also want to enable the .NET 3.5.1 feature, and the Geneva installation will remind you of this.

Installation

The easiest way, by the way, to figure out which components you need to install and configure, is to hit the Install Office SharePoint Server option on the Start screen of the installation.

In SharePoint 2010 you get the more user-friendly option of having an ‘Install software prerequisites’ just like you have in Search Server 2008, however, this option has never worked for me, and I never get the setup I need. So, start the installation by hitting Install Office SharePoint Server instead, and if you haven’t set up everything, setup will fail and tell you exactly what you need to install or enable first.

Once you have everything set up correctly, the installation runs as smooth as anything.

Finally, once installation completes, you can run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard as you would, and set up your farm. This runs pretty much as it did in SharePoint 2007 with the noted addition of the farm password, of course.

After the 11 steps are completed, hit Finish and you’ll see the pretty face of Central Administration and the new Initial Farm Configuration Wizard.

I’ll talk more about that wizard later :-)

Document Sets in SharePoint 2010 – A Creative Use of Content Types

2009-09-25T08:19:00.001+02:00

Another new feature of SharePoint 2010 is the introduction of document sets. I know a lot of people have been looking forward to this functionality.

Basically, a document set is a container for multiple documents (doh!) to which you can assign certain metadata and treat as a single entity in many ways. For example, you can utilize the new SharePoint 2010 Document ID feature to keep track of where a document resides in a site collection, you can use the new managed tagging solution to assign keywords to the document set, and you can move or copy the entire set rather than the individual files.

So, how is this piece of magic accomplished? Well, ladies and gentlemen, give a big round of applause for the genius at Microsoft who came up with the idea of content types.

Content Types?

Document sets is just another content type. In fact, its a folder content type, meaning it inherits from the 0x0120 content type, meaning that other items can attach to the document set, meaning, well, it’s a really creative use of content types.

Oh, you didn’t know folders were just content types? Well, now you know. Nothing magic, no container functionality really, just an item to which other items can attach.

Back to the document set content type. As you will see, or have seen if you check this out after the SPC2009 conference, document sets have a pretty neat user interface called the Document Set homepage. When you click on a document set in a library you get to see (no, I’m not going to post screenshots) an overview of the set in question and have the option of uploading new documents, edit existing documents, set properties for the document set, etc. This is done by setting a custom form for the content type, a form that displays the content of the document set as well as the neat overview page.

However, this is just the literal surface of the document set feature, and there is so much more you need to know.

Custom Document Set

This all makes sense when you create a custom document set, however, and of course, since the document set is a content type, you can in fact add your own custom document set types.

First, document sets sport an entirely dedicated page for setting up the behavior of the set, available from the content type setup page through the link. You can select which content types are allowed in a document set. This allows you to create a set of financial documents, applications, or multimedia files and disallow adding other content than what you intend.

You can also share metadata columns for items in the set. If you add a new column to the document set itself, that column becomes available for sharing with the contained documents. For example, you may want to add a Customer column on the document set to store documents related to a customer, and any documents inside the document set can then get the Customer column inherited from the set.

You can also define which columns are displayed on the document set homepage. You can even edit the homepage layout, design, and contents.

Finally, you can perform actions on the entire set. For example, Microsoft has included a ‘Download set’ feature which compresses all the files in a set into a single zip file for download.

Once the public beta hits the shelves, I’ll post images and more detailed walkthroughs…

New Book in the Horizon: Building the SharePoint 2010 User Experience

2009-09-24T15:50:00.001+02:00

Well, the proverbial cat is again out of the bag. I’m writing a new book. If you count the journal as books, and I mean, at 100-150 at least they are short books, this will be the 11th announced SharePoint book I’m writing.

Building the SharePoint 2010 User Experience is now available for pre-order on Amazon. I wont disclose too much detail yet, but I guess you can sort of deduce that this will be a second edition of the previous book, targeted at SharePoint 2010.

So, I guess that means I’ll be writing a lot this winter. Thankfully, I don’t really have anything else to do, besides my 160% position at Ergo, writing at least four journal issues until then, and learning all I can about SharePoint 2010.

To my wife Lena: I hope to see you again sometime in late March… If we have any kids in the meantime, please find appropriate names and tell them I love them.

SharePoint 2010 New Feature: Managed Accounts

2009-09-23T08:06:00.000+02:00

The following is an excerpt from the third issue of the SharePoint 2010 Beta series of USP Journal:

Another new feature of SharePoint 2010 is managed accounts. Consider having an application pool account, for example called DOMAIN\sp_user. You use that account for a large amount of web applications. Imagine the pain when changing the password for that account; you would need to go into each and every web application and reset the password after the change, not to mention that the applications you haven’t changed yet will stop working.

SharePoint 2010 introduces the managed account. In short, rather than specifying the user name and password on every occasion, you create a managed account and set the password there. Then, when you need to enter a user account you simply select which managed account to use and you don’t need to know the password.

This also allows farm administrators to set up the service accounts so that others do not need to know the password for the account.

Oh, but there’s more. Service accounts are usually left out of the password expiry policy for the very reasons stated above. However, this is a bad security practice, because the password for such service accounts is often weak or known by multiple people. Keeping a password unchanged for years also means that an attacker would have more time to break the password encryption.

So, SharePoint 2010 also introduces automatic password change. Simply set the managed account to change the password a number of days before the password expires, and SharePoint will keep and maintain the password for the service account without you having to do anything.

You can also set up alerts so that you are notified before the password expires, and what’s even better, SharePoint will automatically detect password expiration policies that are defined for you.

Neat? Methinks so…

Property Bags as Features in SharePoint 2010

2009-09-22T09:43:00.000+02:00

Property bags are incredibly useful creatures. Basically, property bags allow you to set custom properties on elements that do not otherwise support custom metadata, such as lists and web sites.

The problem, however, is that there is no way through the web interface to set such properties and you need to write custom code to add such custom properties in SharePoint today. Even though some object types support setting properties when you deploy them, there's no way outside of custom code to set properties after an object has been created.

In SharePoint 2010, that's changing, with a new feature element called, descriptive enough, property. You can now deploy custom properties to object using feature element code such as this:

I haven't been able to test whether you can update existing properties in this manner, or if and how you can delete custom properties if set.

SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflow Second Look

2009-09-21T13:19:00.000+02:00

So, after last weeks first look at SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow, I think it’s time to take another look and see what our future brings. At least if you are a SharePoint Designer :-)

In the previous post I introduced you to the designer experience, showing you the new authoring surface and some of the dialogs. In this post I’m going to show you some new features and also how to export and import workflows from Visio 2010.

Exporting SharePoint Designer workflows to Visio

First, let’s start by creating a very simple workflow to notify the site owners of new items. In the image below, I have added a single Send an email action.

The Email action will be familiar to most SharePoint Designer workflow developers but some new features are very cool. Check out the new sources in the workflow lookup. The sources you see in the image below are in addition to the current item and workflow data sources.

Note also that you can build the subject inline now, rather than having to rely on an added Build dynamic string action.

Let’s see what happens when we export this workflow to a Visio 2010 workflow format. hitting the Export to Visio button in the Ribbon and saving the file results in a Visio Workflow Interchange (vwi) file. When you go into Visio, you can choose to import that file in order to make changes to the flow. In our case, this isn’t much, but it does yield a more traditional view of the workflow process.

The thing you need to know, however, is that you cannot really make and configuration changes to the workflow in Visio. Granted, you can add new actions and rearrange the flow, but you cannot set the properties for any of the actions.

For this, you need to export the workflow from Visio again into the same VWI format used for sending workflows back and forth between SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visio.

Even if Visio cannot change the properties, any properties you set in SharePoint Designer survives the import and export routine. Thus, when importing the Notify Administrator workflow that was exported from SharePoint Designer back into SPD again, al the properties remain in place. This is very useful, since a SharePoint Designer workflow author can set up all the various actions of a workflow and allow Visio users to rearrange the workflow without fear of losing the configuration.

Let’s up the ante a bit to see what we can get out of the Visio authoring experience.

Using Approval Process

Let’s add an approval process to our workflow. Using the SharePoint Designer workflow authoring surface, I make sure the workflow cursor is below the first step and type step to add a new step to the workflow. I then place the cursor inside the step and type ‘appro’ and hit enter to get a list of the available approval actions, as seen below.

The first action is the one I want, so I’ll add that, resulting in the action as seen below.

Now, up until this point, at least after setting the ‘these users’ parameter, you have a pretty common approval workflow, more or less just like it was in SharePoint Designer 2007. However, and this is going to blow your mind, take a look at what happens when I click the Approval Process link.

You may not immediately see the immense power that resides in this page. Notice, for instance, that you can add more Task Outcomes than the basic Approved and Rejected results. Each outcome will result in a button added to the workflow completion form, giving you more options for completing the approval (Yes, No, Ask again in a week, Keep dreaming, Hahahaha, When pigs fly, etc.)

Notice also the Settings, where you can select whether to allow assignees to reassign the task or request changes.

However, and this is the bit that will completely blow your mind, look at the Customization section. The bottom three links lead to some rather awesome options for controlling what goes on in your workflow. For example, let’s click the Change the behavior of the overall task process link, and take a look:

Oh, yes, those are events that you can design or modify any way you wish. The other three links in the Configuration section leads to other events.

I’ll talk more about the options here in issue 3 of the SharePoint 2010 Beta series, but let me just tell you that you have some pretty amazing options for controlling the approval workflow here, far beyond anything that comes out-of-the-box on SharePoint 2007.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next couple of days, as I will post more information from Visio and SharePoint Designer 2010. Feel free to post comments or questions as well, either here or to furuknap<[at]>gmail.com, and I’ll try to answer as much as I can :-)

Want to Use SharePoint as Your Public Web Site? Make Sure You Know What You Are Doing!

2009-09-16T17:11:00.001+02:00

I keep getting asked about whether I recommend using SharePoint to serve public-facing web sites. Or rather, the questions seem to be something like, ‘We want to use SharePoint as a public web site, what should concern us?’

I’ll answer this briefly, and then elaborate: Sure, go ahead, but make sure you take the necessary precautions.

Before I elaborate, let me answer another question: Where did I get the high-res pictures from the SharePoint 2010 Sneak Peek videos that I included in the previous SharePoint 2010 Beta series issue?

The answer is: I got it from Microsoft. Basically, I went to sharepoint.microsoft.com, logged in with my Live ID when prompted, and then had full access to the entire site. No, I don’t mean the regular pages that most people see, I mean the full SharePoint site, lists, libraries, workflows, user lists, everything… Click for larger versions.

That includes the very secretive SharePoint 2010 Sneak Peek site as well.

You should think that the creators of SharePoint knew how to set it up, but alas, even basic security isn’t implemented.

By the way, I wonder what would happen if I uploaded something here:

Perhaps a policy stating that the SharePoint 2010 NDA is no longer in effect and all information should be published on a want-to-know basis. That page doesn’t even implement proper security, so most public facing SharePoint sites expose that page, no login required.

Oh, and I told Microsoft about this on July 29, 2009, and they had changed their login and permissions within a few hours. I spent that day browsing very interesting stuff, including the high-res screenshots from the SharePoint 2010 demo. I did snap about 50 other screenshots, by the way.

However, in the spirit of full disclosure, I think you should know.

Where am I getting with this? Well, putting a SharePoint server as the front line against the war of the world takes care and skill, and you’ll be exposing potential secret stuff if you don’t heed this warning.

This isn’t isolated to Microsoft, however. The WSSDemo site that Ian Morrish hosts has a long list of public facing web sites running on SharePoint. Stop by any one of them and substitute the Pages/default.aspx or Pages/[whatever] with _layouts/viewlsts.aspx and you’ll usually get the All Site Content of that server. That in itself may expose a lot of information. Add to the fact that you can use this to find pages that may not be properly secured, like the Import Policy page (_layouts/importpolicy.aspx) and an attacker can gain valuable insights into how to attack you, or even just download information you thought was not there.

Just try googling _layouts/importpolicy.aspx and you’ll find several sites that list the contents of the LAYOUTS folder, including custom application pages who may or may not be properly secured. I know, for example, of a certain employee of a large financial corporation who just recently applied for a job at a competing company, not knowing that his ‘secret’ job application is now public knowledge to anyone who can ‘guess’ the All Site Content URL of a certain site.

So, what’s my advice?

First, don’t listen to anyone who says that ‘SharePoint is secure out-of-the-box’. They are lying. Securing a SharePoint server requires great insight, regardless of whether it is public or internal.

Second, beat your developers over the head if they cannot answer the question: How are you securing your custom code? In fact, beat them repeatedly.

Third, if you’re using SharePoint as a front end, be very, very careful about what you put on that server. Having a contact form that stores entries in a list means your list may be exposed with a simple URL replacement hack.

Yes, there are some measures you can take to reduce the attack surface. A good architect or security person will know about these measures. Ask whoever is responsible for your shiny new public facing SharePoint site about what they are doing to secure the site, and don’t accept any ‘We are putting this stuff behind a firewall’ kind of explanation.

SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflows – First Look

2009-09-11T00:21:00.001+02:00

It’s time to start preparing for the third issue of the SharePoint 2010 Beta series of Understanding SharePoint Journal. This time, I’m going to post some rather unique info, namely a walkthrough of creating your first SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow.

Long story short, here’s a first look at SharePoint Designer 2010 workflow authoring. Keep in mind, as always, that anything SharePoint 2010 related is highly speculative at this point, and the entire software package may turn out to be a new version of Notepad.

Ribbon Interface

First, begin getting used to working with the ribbon in SharePoint Designer as well. No more menus, at least not the drop-down thing we know from the 2007 version.

Note some missing icons and the two different types of workflow buttons available. As I mentioned in my previous post on SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflow features, you can now create both list or library bound workflows and reusable workflows that work on generic data. Once you have chosen either, as for other Office apps, the ribbon changes to show you the context menu for your current task, in this case, what you can do with workflows.

Do you see the Association Columns button? This is one of those things that can make SharePoint Designer workflow authoring a lot more powerful. Basically, Association Columns are columns, or fields if you like, that SharePoint will add to the list or library when you associate a workflow with a list. So, for example, if you need a new column to store workflow related data such as a custom status column, you can use this feature to accomplish that.

Workflow Designer Window

I’m sure you’re all aching to see this as well, to see what the new workflow authoring experience is really like. Well, here it is.

Neat? Gone is the popup workflow designer wizard and the horrible add-on feeling. Now, authoring workflows is an integrated part of the rest of the application rather than an external window.

Well, I know you don’t really see all the goodness from just this window, but let me show you a few cool things.

First, notice the orange line under the first step. That’s actually a cursor that you can control with your keyboard. You can now control a lot more of the workflow authoring without using the mouse.

Notice also that in the first step it says Start typing or use the Insert group in the Ribbon. The location of the workflow cursor decides what you get when you start typing. If the cursor is between steps, you can type Step (or S) and hit Enter to get a list of available insert options for steps:

When the cursor is inside any step, you get a list of all the available actions when you type something and hit enter, or if you have typed a specific enough phrase, the action itself:

This feature is somewhat similar to what Visual Studio users know as IntelliSense, but it’s not quite the same. For example, you still need to hit Enter to get a list of results, whereas Visual Studio will give you the drop-down of available options while you type.

Configuring Actions

I absolutely love the new way of configuring actions; much easier than those dreadful wizards. Now, everything is in a neat little box, like the properties window from Visual Studio:

The Edit property button will still launch the familiar dialog boxes to configure each property, however, and if you do prefer the SharePoint Designer 2007 way of configuring the actions, you can still click the underlines links in the actions, just like before.

One particularly nice thing is that the email action now allows you to build dynamic subjects so you don’t need a separate Build Dynamic String action to create a subject:

Speaking of actions and strings, there are now some nice, new utility actions that will make it easier to create more complex strings, substrings, or other variables as well:

SharePoint Designer Workflow Settings

The final thing I want to show you before leaving you hanging and wanting to buy the series subscription is the workflow settings page.

Note that the content type association is not editable. Once you hook a workflow, reusable or not, to a content type or list, the workflow is stuck with that content type or list. This does make perfect sense, since you are using content type or list specific columns.

Also note the twist in start options. Rather than saying when or how you want to launch the workflow, you now have to say when or how you do not want to start the workflow.

The last tidbit is the easy access to the forms used in the workflow. However, I’m going to leave the screenshots of that out, as there apparently still are some issues with this beta.

My Thoughts So Far

I’m going to sum this up as such: Wow.

You’ll get the full story and a lot more detail in the next SharePoint 2010 Beta issue, so grab a series subscription today. ‘Nuff commercial stuff, either you want to be in the loop or you don’t.

It is very apparent that Microsoft has listened to its users and made improvements that will be massively useful for workflow authors. The whole feel of the authoring experience is much smoother and more efficient. The use of keyboard navigation inside the workflow designer is excellent.

I’m not going to cover any negative impressions I have gotten so far. Many of the issues I have found are likely related to the beta status of SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010. As such,

Oh yeah, and I’m still working under the assumption that Microsoft meant what it said about openly discussing the clients of the Office 2010 beta program, of which I am a participant. Oh, and yes, I do have legal and non-NDA SharePoint 2010 access.