The Week That Was - Sharing is Caring

21/12/2008

SharePoint Week That Was: 21 December, 2008

Here's the last Week That Was before Christmas... exciting!

Before we get into it though, a few questions: do you find this valuable? Would you like me to continue this after one-blog-per-day-until-Christmas (this is #48) ends? If so, how would you like it improved? In the absence of any comments or e-mails, I will assume... "no", "no", and "don't bother"!

SharePoint Infrastructure and Platform

As their version of a Xmas present, the SP team released the December Cumulative Update for MOSS and WSS. This includes all hotfixes since the latest service pack... making "get latest" a relatively simple process for new installs.
The WSRP Toolkit for SharePoint was also released, a set of sample code for getting industry-standard WSRP data out of SharePoint lists so that it can be consumed by other portal products such as WebSphere.
(Another) white paper on using scripts to automate MOSS installations was posted on MSDN.
Chan posted on support models for SharePoint deployments - who should do what?

SharePoint Development and Customisation Tips and Techniques

Paul showed how to port a SP designer from one List to another... anywhere, thereby getting around one of the bigger limitations of SP designer workflows.
Gary LP posted a useful three lines-of-code to create your own SPContext , which can be useful when code is executing outside of SharePoint and calling other code that relies on a context.
Waldek was busy with a bunch of useful posts: how to get internal property values to reuse internal widgets, showing random images via JQuery, then extending this with a slideshow, and how to improve your JQuery.

Architecture, Planning, Design, and other Fluffy Stuff

Adam posted on when best practices aren't really best practices. In short: best practices don't necessarily account for industry verticals, company culture, or teach the underlying process.
Provide a Feedback Loop so that users can tell you what they need from a site. This article describes using the Site Contact Web Part, but any loop will do.

3rd Party and Community Tools, Solutions and Web Parts

CodePlex was busy before Christmas, including a web part that hides other web parts from specific users, a mechanism for specifying timer job definitions via a list, and a full SharePoint backup via Powershell. But perhaps the coolest was this Workflow Tools framework for simplifying non-InfoPath Workflow forms development.
Bamboo didn't let up either with a new User Registration Accelarator, for IT account provisioning, and World Clock and Weather Web Part (free).
New versions of SharePoint Solution's Extranet Collaboration Manager, and Newsgator's Social Sites were also released.

Beyond SharePoint

FunnyOrDie posted the world premiere of the Flight Of The Conchords season pilot. And it was good.

:) Matt

Posted at 7:58 p.m. by Matt Smith | Category: SharePoint; The Week That Was | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (107)

14/12/2008

SharePoint Week That Was: 14 December, 2008

Day 41... must... finish... stupid... goal... at all... costs...

SharePoint Infrastructure and Platform

Microsoft released Oxite, an open source, standards compliant, highly extensible content management platform based on MVC. This isn't really a SharePoint Infrastructure and Platform topic, but the point is, it should be!

SharePoint Development and Customisation Tips and Techniques

JQuery roundup: HTML calculated columns, print any web part, and yet another deployment feature.
How to fake KPI lists in WSS.
Adam posts a typically indepth, useful view on Web Part versioning including a generic base class for enforcement.
Delegate controls are not just for out-of-the-box user controls like the search box; they can be useful in substituting out custom master page elements (like web parts), too.
Consider the performance implications before using lambda expressions to replace typical querying mechanisms. Great analysis from Waldek.

Architecture, Planning, Design, and other Fluffy Stuff

Liam posts on one of my favorite topics/rants: what SharePoint role are you?

3rd Party and Community Tools, Solutions and Web Parts

CodePlex action: use SPLanguageStore for multi-linguistic sites, WildCard search and document link handlers were added to the Search Community Toolkit, how about inline site settings via AJAX and JQuery, and, err, SPDAT.
LightningTools added tagging to their forums product.
Bamboo watch... pretty much everyone blogged about the year in review, including the CEO. No new products, though!

Beyond SharePoint

Want to know everything about a website? Then you need QuarkBase, where the tag line is... everything about a website!
Thumbtack from MS Live Labs sure looks like an interesting way to collect and share snippets from over the interweb. Will this see the light of day?

:) Matt

Posted at 11:12 p.m. by Matt Smith | Category: SharePoint; The Week That Was | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (90)

7/12/2008

SharePoint Week That Was: 7 December, 2008

Back in its regular slot, here is the SharePoint Week That Was (aka day 34 of one-blog-per-day-until-Christmas).

SharePoint Infrastructure and Platform

Chris posted the first in a series on DPM and SharePoint.

SharePoint Development and Customisation Tips and Techniques

Here's an excellent in-depth post on disposing SPWeb and SPSite objects – you'll never not do it again.
Want a second global navigation in your site? Robert has the guts.
SharePointDevWiki.comwent live – check it out and contribute!
Data View Web Part, oh how I love thee – the SPD team are back with a cool post on creating RESTful mashups. I hope to give a similar demo at my upcoming C-SPUG talk.
No assemblies required - ideas for customising applications for SharePoint online and other hosted scenarios.

Architecture, Planning, Design, and other Fluffy Stuff

Here's a nice SP Mag post on Critical Success Factors when building a Knowledge Management system. The Mag also provided some insight into the myth of successful SharePoint projects.
Joel uses ice cream to explain how you can save money while restructuring your information architecture!

3^rd Party Community Tools, Solutions and Web Parts

CodePlex saw a new version of the Powershell event receivers and a PowerGUI launcher to improve the editing experience, some snippets to use SPList and SPListItems as object dependencies for HttpContext, and a pot-pouri extension kit with an amusing acronym, SHUIE, that allows injection of Javascript, CSS, and JQuery based on various contexts - very very cool.
Bamboo released Task Master – a project scheduling and control tool, as well as a new version of the Custom Column Pack including secure fields! They also put out a free on-page content editor; though not WYSIWYG, it still avoids opening the stinky tool pane.
Zevenseas put out a link redirector utility aptly called the Link Conductor.
Jan was busy with both a JQuery-based docking navigation control, and his own take on using Visifire to show charts of SharePoint lists.

Beyond SharePoint

John Frusciante's new concept album The Empyrean is out January 20 – lock it in your diaries. This has nothing to do with SharePoint, software development, or even IT, but has everything to do with awesomeness.

:) Matt

Posted at 10:31 p.m. by Matt Smith | Category: SharePoint; The Week That Was | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (62)

30/11/2008

SharePoint Week That Was: 30 November, 2008

Post 27 of one-blog-per-day-until-Christmas... it's time for the Week That Was!

SharePoint Infrastructure and Platform

Microsoft published a white paper on automating SharePoint installs – a fabulous idea if you want reliable and consistent installs, and/or are looking for some continuous integration in your development work (we've been doing this a lot lately). Ian chimed in with some of his tips, Spence had some wise words, and an interesting PowerShell variant was also posted to CodePlex.
Yet another good SharePoint License chart, with US pricing.
Stephen posted a comprehensive summary of options on locking down SharePoint Designer.

SharePoint Development and Customisation Tips and Techniques

Ian's second feature of the week was an interesting end-user article on "My Links" with a knowledge management tinge.
Continuing his excellent series of JQuery-related posts, Gary talks about an innovative use of JQuery in a SharePoint custom field (and also links to a great resource on dealing with pesky property updates, hope it didn't take you the two days it took me to find that one Gary! Grr!).

Architecture, Planning, Design, and other Fluffy Stuff

Who needs Snow White when you have this fairy tale in SharePoint Land!
Where do you draw the line between SharePoint customisation and development? I'm keen to post my thoughts on this soon... but in short it's important to remember that SharePoint isn't SharePoint if the users aren't allowed to customise anything. It's a case of choosing the bits that need to be managed/governed, and those that are "free-for-all".

3rd Party Community Tools, Solutions and Web Parts

New CodePlex action included a SharePoint ActiveX Override (SPAXO! – worth a download for the name alone), a BulkDelete command line tool, and an interesting SharePoint Site Configurator Feature that follows the best practice "blank site definition with stapler" pattern but adds its own provisioning XML and logic that actually looks pretty comprehensive.
Here's a summary of options, including 3^rd party solutions, for printing list and documents with SharePoint.
By now you've probably seen all the posts (mine included) on TypeMock Isolator for unit testing SharePoint. Here's a different entry point – a post from Andrew that also links to a white paper.
Quest released a new version of their not-free Site Administrator tool.

Beyond SharePoint

The Gu posted about the new ASP.Net charting control. I didn't bother to read the history and take-over details, but this looks an awful lot like Dundas! ChartPart is a cool example of using this control in SharePoint in a generic, list-connectable way.

:) Matt

Posted at 10:02 p.m. by Matt Smith | Category: SharePoint; The Week That Was | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (42)

23/11/2008

SharePoint Week That Was: 23 November, 2008

Wow, what a crazy weekend, but never fear, your Week That Was is here (along with post 20 of one blog-per-day-until-Christmas).

SharePoint Infrastructure and Platform

Microsoft SharePoint Online went live, part of Microsoft Online Services. A huge deal if you're a small deal - though US only at this point.
A new "one stop" SharePoint Administration book was published - should be a good one.

SharePoint Development and Customisation Tips and Techniques

More JQuery goodness: AJAX example from Gary, intro series from Jan Tielens, cool "Search on this Page" from Walkdek, and Intellisense in 2008 from ScottGu.
Marwan posts a nice wee graphic on SPWeb.AllUsers vs SPWeb.Users.
Nice start to an 8-part BDC article on SharePoint Magazine.

Architecture, Planning, Design, and other Fluffy Stuff

Do you have good shettiquette in your organisation!?
Libraries, Folders and Content Types - what are your goals? I particularly like Bob's comment that item-level-security can cause issues - KISS!
Paul has some pretty hard-core thought leading posts on "Root Causes of Communication Fragmentation: Learning styles and behavioural styles". Yes, it's SharePoint related!

3rd Party Community Tools, Solutions and Web Parts

SharePointReviews.com was launched - supposedly an "independent" web part and solution review site, like engadget for SharePoint. Great idea, lets hope it stays up to date.
SharePointSolutions released "Workflow Essentials" - a set of SharePoint Designer activities.
Bamboo released "SharePoint Navigators" that allow you to "create custom menus, tabs, and tree-based navigation to help you bring direction to your SharePoint sites in a simple, user-friendly way".
CodePlex action included a new beta release of ChartPart, a relative-URL anchor extender, an interesting ORM-like access layer generator,
A previously not-free tagged link social bookmarking solution was made free from Zevenseas. Nice!

Beyond SharePoint

The next best IT answer to "have you turned it off and on?" is perhaps this website: Let Me Google That For You!

:) Matt

Posted at 11:55 p.m. by Matt Smith | Category: SharePoint; The Week That Was | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (42)

16/11/2008

SharePoint Week That Was: 16 November, 2008

It's day 13 of one-blog-per-day-until-Christmas... and we're back to our regularly scheduled programming. Here's the kiwi-tinged SharePoint Week That Was. (If you missed it, last week's post explains the premise!).

SharePoint Infrastructure and Platform

Word of the new extensions for SharePoint development in Visual Studio 2010 is starting to trickle out of Microsoft. Daniel has a good summary too. Starting to be STSDEV worthy, and in-built support for user controls in web parts (something I frequently speak about) is a great move.
Microsoft announced (but didn't yet release) a previously secret squirrel SPDisposeCheck tool for checking SharePoint objects are being disposed correctly. Their announcement includes some good tips/links on disposal best practices.
The MS Certified Master and Architect programs were announced - designed as a "top-tier technical certification". Fun debate ensued.

SharePoint Development and Customisation Tips and Techniques

Here's a good round-up post on e-mail enabled lists from Ashley over at the Intergen blog.
Gary posted a cool example of using JQuery to bling your quick launch. I referenced Gary's idea in my earlier customisation trick post on the Content Editor Web Part, great that there's an example up now. And here's another one on paging large content using JQuery.
Robin posted a good tutorial (with code) on creating a QuickTask WebPart that has some useful examples of using bound SharePoint fields in a custom grid view.
Andrew Woodward posted a white paper (as part of series) on unit testing SharePoint, including coverage of mocking. Just because it's SharePoint... doesn't mean you can't do this stuff.

Architecture, Planning, Design, and other Fluffy Stuff

Michael Sampson, a local Christchurch SPUGger, had his book "Seamless Teamwork: Using Microsoft® SharePoint® Technologies to Collaborate, Innovate, and Drive Business in New Ways" published and available at Amazon. Congrats Michael! My copy is on the way...
Emile has a succinct list of "common reasons why corporate Intranet implementations fail". Reads as a general IT failure list - more fodder for my critical success factor postings to come.
Penny linked to a bunch of good resources on SharePoint search and findability, including Bill's series of posts of which the latest was posted during the week.

3rd Party Community Tools, Solutions and Web Parts

Some sample code and a solution for creating field-level security in SharePoint was posted on MSDN Code Gallery - looks interesting.
Notable CodePlex free stuff updated includes a Change Password web part, SharePoint Search Bench v2.0 for executing and managing searches, Colour Calendar for colour-coding items in SharePoint calendars, a SharePoint Harvester code framework for site-wide changes, and my absolute favourite, PowerEventReceivers for running PowerShell scripts as event receivers (dangerous, but awesome - SharePoint is missing a scripting language).
Concept Searching updated their (not free) products for doing funky stuff like automatic metadata generation and taxonomy classification with full SharePoint integration.

Beyond SharePoint

Does "Getting Real" work in this economy? You bet! If you're into product development and haven't read Getting Real, I highly recommend it.
Kirk posted two pretty useful Visual Studio tricks - regedit your tab ordering, and add a column guide. Very nice.

:) Matt

Posted at 10:58 p.m. by Matt Smith | Category: SharePoint; The Week That Was | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (54)