Reading Settings from the Web.Config file from an Event Handler

2009-10-05T15:48:00.003+01:00

The SharePoint web.config is in my opinion the best place to put in any configuration settings. To read the config settings from an Event Handler isn't so straight forward but the following code does it nicely:The SPItemEventProperties comes from the EventHandler.You need to put in an appSettings tag in your web.config file, and then as many key value pairs as you need:

Customising Refine Your Search

2009-04-22T08:51:00.001+01:00

The Refine Your Search is quite a nice feature of the People Search, through as always we'd love to be able to control the properties to Refine by.Here's how to do it:http://virtualservergallery.com/2008/07/31/how-to-add-modify-or-delete-properties-in-refine-your-search-functionality-for-people-search/

People Search Interesting Customizing Information

2009-03-30T10:43:00.004+01:00

The following blog lists some good information about SharePoint People Search, and some problems / limitations which you will probably encounter when extending the Out of the Box People Search functions:http://blog.mastykarz.nl/sharepoint-people-search-lessons-learned-covering-basics/Extending ... both programatically and nothttp://blog.mastykarz.nl/

Programatically customizing Site Navigation in SharePoint 2007

2009-03-13T09:28:00.002+01:00

http://www.toddbaginski.com/blog/archive/2007/12/26/how-to-programmatically-customize-site-navigation-in-wss-3.aspxNice detailed blog with lots of explanantion on how to customize programatically. Personally, we are looking at deleting all items in the Quick Launch, and possibly recreating them from scratch as necessary during the creation of a MySite as per Steve's blog here.

Adding Search Options in MOSS 2007 People Search

2009-02-26T15:54:00.002+01:00

Although the Out of the Box People Search is quite nice, most clients would want to extend the people search with their own custom search options.Fortunately, as with the adding of properties to the Advanced Search Box, this is fairly straightforward to achieve. The following article http://www.sharepointblogs.com/aaronrh/archive/2007/05/21/

Partial Name People Search in MOSS 2007

2009-02-26T15:28:00.003+01:00

One of the missing links which I personally find in SharePoint is the lack of a "partial" search, i.e. if I search for Tim, I found all those whose names starts with Tim i.e. Timothy, Timmy, etc instead of just Tim. This makes a lot of sense when working with employees of different nationalities who might or might find each others names difficult to remember.Ramon Scott has the following sweet

MCTS - Configuring MOSS 2007

2009-02-25T16:33:00.003+01:00

This morning I passed the MCTS - Configuring MOSS 70-630, and was mostly a walk in the park. In the meantime, while doing some ETLs I found the following article useful: SSIS: File System Task Move and rename files in one step

MCTS - Configuring WSS 3.0

2009-02-16T16:39:00.002+01:00

I've just passed MS 70-631 (972/1000). If you have good experience (1year+) with WSS 3.0 you should pass with flying colours. One suggestion, know your Network Load Balancing, especially the different between Unicast and Multicast, and how and when they should be used. Otherwise, not too many problems. Otherwise most of the questions should be quite easy if you've been working with WSS / MOSS...

SharePoint Certification Resources

2009-01-26T10:56:00.002+01:00

Sample questions:http://qmoss.blogspot.com/http://sharepointtests.blogspot.com/ For exam 70-630 (Configuring MOSS 2007) - http://drop.io/70630QsFor exam 70-631 (Configuring WSS v3) - http://drop.io/70631Qs http://www.sharepointforum.com/en-US/Blog/archive/2007/11/20/the-sharepoint-2007-exams-tips.aspx

Debugging SQL Server Integration Services Scripts

2009-01-19T09:53:00.004+01:00

Debugging SSIS scripts is not the easiest of all things. Below we propose a number of ways to debug which we've seen in a presentation by Alan Mitchell - SQL Server MVP.1. MsgBox messages - good during development, but not any good for production environments since once the MsgBox pops up it WILL wait for user input before the task proceeds.2. Fire Events - the Progress / Output windows can also

Some Quick AdHoc Reporting on SharePoint

2009-01-14T12:19:00.001+01:00

The following site lists a number of queries for quick performance / growth / usage reportshttp://blogs.technet.com/corybu/archive/2007/06/01/sharepoint-reporting-methods.aspx

Several Interesting articles on MSDN re SharePoint customizations

2009-01-13T12:15:00.002+01:00

Hadn't come across them yet, however found this wealth of information when trying to enable audting on WSS.http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/05/20/may-2007-content-on-msdn-for-wss-3-0-and-moss-2007.aspx

SharePoint - Reporting Services Integration

2008-12-01T12:00:00.006+01:00

I always have a problem setting up the Project Properties for Business Intelligence Development Studio when I need to deploy reports to a Report Services Integrated SharePoint, the problem is whether to use a full site url, whether to use slashes at the end or not etc.The following are the settings which work for me (MOSS 2007 / SQL Server 2005):TargetDataSourceFolder: http://servername/sites/

Active Directory Forms Based Authentication

2008-11-28T17:14:00.004+01:00

Recently we needed to use Forms Based Authentication with Active Directory from an Extranet. This is how we got it to work.1. Extend the Web ApplicationInstead of tweaking the internal web app, Extend the web application you want to expose to the Extranet, giving it the required host headers etc.2. Configure SharePoint Central Admin to use FBA for the "new" Web ApplicationsLogin to SharePoint

SharePoint List Filter - Making it work

2008-08-11T08:42:00.003+01:00

The SharePoint List Filter is a webpart which offers nice out of the box filtering benefits especially when linking lists to each other (using Lookups) or otherwise.Strangely, its not extremely straightforward to use and I had been getting the following error over and over again much to my disappointment:"An error occurred while retrieving the filter values. One or more columns used for the

MOSS 2007 Group By - Performance Issues

2008-07-22T14:43:00.001+01:00

Performance issues occur when Group By is used on large filters.http://www.dailycode.net/blog/post/MOSS-2007-list-performance-drop.aspx

Recover a deleted site collection from SQL Backup

2008-05-27T14:46:00.003+01:00

Solution from Mauro Cardarelli's blog: http://blogs.officezealot.com/mauro/archive/2007/12/12/20674.aspxIn this scenario, let's assume that you have NOT been doing site collection backups but you do have SQL backups. You notice that last night's content database backup is considerably smaller than the night before (yes, you have been saving multiple days of backups). Phew! Your data is all

File Not Found Error

2008-05-22T13:15:00.001+01:00

I have once again encountered the dreaded File Not Found error. The annoying thing about SharePoint is you don't get a clue where the problem is coming from.The error was thrown just after we had performed a restore, so my guess was that something had not been restored. Turns out that in the Master Page settings there was a reference to CSS file which was in a different Site Collection which

IIS / App Pool Performance Tuning for SharePoint

2008-05-20T08:20:00.002+01:00

Joel Oleson has a great blog about tuning IIS 6 settings for optimal SharePoint performance:http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/10/29/sharepoint-app-pool-settings.aspxVery good read.

Emulating Windows Mobile 6 for SharePoint Demo

2008-05-14T08:46:00.002+01:00

Setting up an Windows Mobile emulator has not been straight forward at all. Possibly because it is the first time I am doing this. After trying over and over to install Windows Mobile 5, I went to Windows Mobile 6, because 5 refuses to live without a VS2005. The following articles explains how to connect the emulator to Active Sync. http://www.lancelhoff.com/2008/03/20/

Extracting a DLL from the Global Assembly Cache

2008-04-25T13:41:00.004+01:00

Sometimes, you might need to access DLLs which for various reasons might exists only in the Windows\Assembly folder. This folder allows you to drop DLLs into it, but does not allow you to drag DLLs out.The following workaround allows you to get access to the DLLs in the GAC.Create a mapped drive to:\\servername\C$\Windows\assemblyWhen you click on the mapped drive you will find a number of GAC

Unknown Error - Revealing the true source of the error

2008-04-14T16:07:00.004+01:00

SharePoint has the production friendly, but definetely developer unfriendly page - Unknown error when an error is thrown. My usual way to finding the error was to look at the Logs found in the 12 hive, however it looks like there is an easier way to do this:The Sharepoint web.config is abstracting this message from the user. Find the web.config for the site you normally use as your development

Team-Based Development in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

2008-04-07T10:07:00.000+01:00

Good read:http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb428899.aspx

Migration Hassles - made easy(ier)

2008-04-03T14:36:00.002+01:00

I stumbled across the following while struggling with some migrations, haven't had time to try it out though it looks promising!Migrating implementations has been one of my greatest headaches since day 1, and anything which helps with this is always welcome.Introducing the SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard. The tool provides a wizard-like approach to deploying content between SharePoint sites.

WSS - Search Indexer

2008-03-17T10:27:00.002+01:00

If you get the following error when trying to run a search on a WSS site:Your search cannot be completed because this site is not assigned to an indexer. Contact your administrator for more information.You'll need to set the indexer on the content database of the site collection. This is done by going to the Central Adminstration > Application Management > Content Databases.In the Search Server

Customizing Alert Emails

2008-03-14T12:41:00.003+01:00

You need to create a copy of AlertTemplates.xmlhttp://blogs.msdn.com/sharepointdeveloperdocs/archive/2007/12/07/customizing-alert-notifications-and-alert-templates-in-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0.aspx

Create a Custom Site Definition - Link Dump

2008-03-14T11:43:00.003+01:00

Intro: How to create your own custom site definition (Todd)http://www.sharepointblogs.com/tbaginski/archive/2007/08/16/creating-a-custom-site-definition-in-wss-v3-moss.aspxCreating a Site Definition from an Existing Site Definition (MSDN)http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms868598.aspxand more generically Customizing Templateshttp://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa151982.aspxCreating a

File not found error when creating Site from Template

2008-03-14T10:21:00.005+01:00

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2367212&SiteID=1

Filter Views based on Approval / Workflow Status

2008-03-05T14:17:00.002+01:00

You need to create the filter based on the integer representation of the status value you are looking for, like this:Not Started 0Failed on Start 1In Progress 2Error Occurred 3Canceled 4Completed 5Failed on Start (retrying) 6Error Occurred (retrying) 7Canceled 15Approved 16Rejected 17

More Branding stuff ...

2008-03-04T11:39:00.002+01:00

How to remove the SharePoint blue!Joel once again to the rescue. This is quite a nice solution...http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/04/12/master-page-and-themes-on-wss-sites-in-moss.aspx

SharePoint 2007: Defining your own Portal Template and Customising Look and Feel

2008-02-27T12:05:00.005+01:00

Whilst looking for a way to customize the "Custom" site templates name after create a Site Template, I came across the following this post which looks quite interesting. It shows you how to modify the Colloboration Portal to create your own Colloboration Portal Templatehttp://sharepointandstuff.blogspot.com/2007/07/customizing-out-of-box-collaboration.htmlIf you are looking for a way to fix the "

SharePoint 2007: Show the Quick Launch in Custom Web Part Pages

2008-02-27T11:23:00.002+01:00

Funnily, when you create a Web Part Page, the Quick Launch is not available. This has always annoyed me, because it changes the look and feel of the whole site. Looks like this can be easily fixed.One Off FixOpen the Page for editing in Sharepoint DesignerRemove the LeftNavBar Content Place holder from Master Page (ie. remove the content Place holder) Save the Page. You can now find the Quick

Google Account - Where is the My Account link?

2008-02-07T13:44:00.001+01:00

This morning, as soon as I accessed my iGoogle page, I found the My Account link had disappeared. Instead it has been replaced by a Web History and Preferences buttons which I rarely used and need. I rarely need to edit my Preferences, whilst I access My Account at the least every few hours.I loved the fact that My Account made all my various Google Services including, AdSense, Analytics and

SharePoint - Programming Security

2008-02-01T12:12:00.001+01:00

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/08/02/OfficeSpace/

Custom SharePoint Reports using CAML

2008-01-31T16:31:00.000+01:00

I've long wondered how the default SharePoint Site Collections reports are created, and finally I came across an article on how this is done. It seems the only thing required, is a CAML query.The following article from the MS ECM blog explains how to create your own reports with a number of examples using CAML queries. Check it out.http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm/archive/2006/11/15/report-rapport.aspxA

Setting up a SharePoint Development Environment

2008-01-28T17:40:00.000+01:00

Farm (?) ish environmenthttp://weblogs.asp.net/erobillard/archive/2007/02/23/build-a-sharepoint-development-machine.aspxSingle Machine Environmenthttp://blah.winsmarts.com/2007-10-A_Single_Developers_SharePoint_2007_Development_Environment.aspx

Integrating ASP.NET applications and SharePoint 2007

2008-01-24T16:10:00.001+01:00

Link DumpSharePoint 2007 - Built on ASP.NET 2.0MOSS 2007 - Creating an ASP.NET application in the _layouts directory using Visual Studio 2005Application Development on MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part Infrastructure and SharePoint 2007Write Custom WebParts for SharePoint 2007Using ASP.NET Web Part into MOSS 2007 Web Site

SharePoint databases file location

2008-01-22T14:25:00.000+01:00

Typically, for performance, backup and various other reasons, you'll want that the SharePoint databases are not stored in the default locations. Unfortunately, the Central Administration does not allow you to specify the actual file locations to use when it creates the databases.So to be able to specify different locations for the mdf / lsf files, you'll need to create the databases manually

SharePoint Performance Tuning

2008-01-22T10:27:00.000+01:00

When you are thinking in terms of large server farms, you'll need to spend some good time tuning your SharePoint setup for performance.Joel Oleson (who else?) has a great post on performance tuning of the application pool settings.Although some people beg to differ on some of these settings. As always, you should always test and tune and see what works best for you.

SharePoint Look and Feel for ASP.NET applications

2008-01-16T10:46:00.000+01:00

Ever wondered how to get an ASP.NET application to look like SharePoint? This blog shows you how to do this.Approach 1Approach 2I would recommend Approach 2 rather than approach 1

User Accounts and Rights required for a MOSS Installation

2008-01-11T16:01:00.000+01:00

Clayton has posted a great article about accounts required for MOSS installation:"Installing MOSS 2007 in a farm environment requires a few dedicated accounts and can be quite a confusing process. I came across a couple of great resources so I thought I would save you the heart ache and post them here. "http://claytonj.wordpress.com/2007/04/23/moss-2007-setup-accounts/Scroll down for table (

Uploading documents to SharePoint 2007 via a Webservice

2008-01-10T12:40:00.000+01:00

Web Service for uploading documents into SharePointhttp://blogs.ittoolbox.com/km/sharepoint/archives/custom-web-service-for-uploading-files-to-sharepoint-13217

Securing SharePoint 2007

2008-01-10T12:15:00.000+01:00

Very nice post on securing your SharePoint server, especially if it going to be exposed to the Internet. As taken from the Joel Oleson's blog.More than 25 Tips to Lockdown Your SharePoint EnvironmentThis is not fully comprehensive, but gets you started down the right track. Some of these may not apply.1. Configure Firewall Rules lock down to most restrictive w/ acceptable level of usability

BI and KPIs in Analysis Services 2005

2008-01-09T10:29:00.000+01:00

Nice introductory article to Business Intelligence and KPIs in Analysis Services 2005http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/10894_3604206_1

Creating a WebPart with Custom User Control

2007-12-19T17:32:00.000+01:00

The following is a very good article on how to create various options in your WebPart.http://bloggingabout.net/blogs/mglaser/archive/2007/04/19/building-my-own-usercontrol-webpart-part-vi.aspx

Creating Custom Field Control

2007-12-14T14:25:00.000+01:00

In this example we are creating a custom field type which concatenates two text fields (first and last name).Create a new usercontrol file (customfieldcontrol.ascx). In this usercontrol, add a SharePoint:RenderingTemplate control, and insert whatever you want for your control template.Secondly, create a new class file (customfieldcontrol.cs), which will take the

Creating Custom Field Controls

2007-12-14T13:43:00.001+01:00

Steps involved in creating a SharePoint Custom Field Control 1. Create your field definition in FLDTYPES_xxx.XML file, and add FieldEditorUserControl property to your custom field definition. Define fields for all custom properties of your custom field definition in PropertySchema section. Set Hidden attribute of all Field elements in PropertySchema section to True. Otherwise, fields will be

SharePoint 2007: Approval Workflow - using SharePoint Groups are Approvers

2007-12-12T17:38:00.000+01:00

Recently, I was setting up an Approval workflow. To make administration of the workflow easier, I created SharePoint Groups (e.g. Workflow Approvers), which I assigned as the Approvers of the workflow. This makes it easier for the Site Administrators to change the Approvers, because they just find the group and edit the members of the group, rather than having to edit the actual

SharePoint Solutions Blog: Deploying Web Parts with Solution Packages in WSS v3/MOSS 2007

2007-12-05T13:48:00.000+01:00

How to deploy a SharePoint 2007 Web Part as a feature:SharePoint Solutions Blog: Deploying Web Parts with Solution Packages in WSS v3/MOSS 2007

SharePoint: Paging your results in SPGridView

2007-11-30T10:04:00.000+01:00

To get SharePoint to handle paging in your webparts which are using GridView (SPGridView) you need to do a few tweaks to your code:Just above your grid.DataBind() you need to insert the following code:// Turn on paging and add event handlergrid.PageSize = 10;grid.AllowPaging = true;grid.PageIndexChanging +=new GridViewPageEventHandler(grid_PageIndexChanging);then add the event handler:void

SharePoint - Search Customizations

2007-11-28T14:11:00.000+01:00

Warning: we have drifted slightly from our initial aim of using only OOB functionality. We are actually writing code which uses the SharePoint object model. The Object model is too sweet to resist ;) and with small changes you can deliver fabulous results. The following is a post about using the KeyWord Query class to customize sharepoint searchKeywordQuery class:This class offers quite an

SharePoint 2007: Creating a custom advanced search webpart - Part 2

2007-11-15T16:42:00.000+01:00

In the first part of this series of posts, we explained how to create a custom advanced search box by default which limits searches to a particular search scope.In this part we will explain how to create a advanced search customization which uses a dropdown to limit results to a particular set of meta data / categories only.Typical search requirements would be that users can limit their search

Sharepoint 2007: Creating a custom advanced search webpart - Part 1

2007-11-15T12:42:00.000+01:00

Following the post about the Creating a custom advanced search box in moss 2007 article, I did a few customisations of my own.So let's give a few examples of what can be done with this new toy:Remember that you need to create a web part page, and add a Content Editor Web Part and a Search Core Results web part (as defined by the linked article).1. Creating a search box limited to a single scope (

Finding the SharePoint assembly: Microsoft.SharePoint.dll

2007-11-12T13:29:00.000+01:00

When you are developing and you ned to add a Microsoft.SharePoint reference, you need to make sure that you know where the Microsoft.SharePoint.dll is. This and other dlls are found in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\ISAPI

Creating your own Advanced Search webpart in sharepoint 2007

2007-11-08T16:04:00.000+01:00

Tom Clarkson is da man!In the linked post, he gives a great example on how you can create your own custom advanced search box. The great thing about this is that not only can you add your own custom properties as shown in the post prior to this, but you can solve the question we asked in that same post, i.e. the question of actually having dropdowns to narrow down the search options to the

Adding properties to the Advanced search webpart in SharePoint 2007

2007-11-08T15:38:00.000+01:00

Jonathon's Blog: Searching Custom Column Values in MOSS 2007Very detailed steps on creating custom properties in the advanced search. Lots of people here asking whether it would be possible to have a dropdown list with the choices available, such that the search options of the users are limited.This is something I am highly interested in, so I'd be interested if someone posts a solution to this.

Official Google Blog: It's not about the spam

2007-11-07T10:38:00.000+01:00

Official Google Blog: It's not about the spamEver wondered how Gmail catches nearly all its Spam?

SharePoint WorkFlow Link Dump

2007-11-01T13:51:00.000+01:00

Workflow and ASPX formshttp://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/12/19/what-about-workflow-and-aspx-forms.aspxSharePoint 2007 Workflows - understanding what you can do with the various workflow types available in SharePointhttp://blogs.interknowlogy.com/rodneyguzman/archive/2007/03/20/12405.aspx

First steps to authoring Visual Studio Workflows for SharePoint

2007-10-31T15:53:00.000+01:00

The following 4 posts from Sahil Malik I believe give you a few good sessions on authoring workflow with Visual Studio.1. Setting up your environment for writing VS2005 workflows.2. Writing an ultra basic workflow, deploying it, and slicing dicing how it worked.3. Making that workflow more complex, adding if/else, and a bunch of activities that sort of make it more interesting.4. Adding user

Adding Workflow Activities to the Visual Studio ToolBox

2007-10-31T15:48:00.000+01:00

So you've thought you've setup all the environment to develop SharePoint Workflows using Visual Studio. However, when you create a SharePoint Sequential Workflow Library, the toolbox for SharePoint is empty whilst you know there should be something there.To add those activities to your workflow project. In the workflow designer page, right click on the Toolbox pane and Choose Add Tab and create

Using a Workflow to copy list items from one website to another

2007-10-31T10:12:00.000+01:00

We currently have a requirement to implement staged environment. On a particular web application we want to be able to submit certain documents /forms semi-anonymously (thus exposing thus being able to expose this site to the Internet, although it won't be completely anonymous), with items from this webapp then being copied into an "internal" web application, which is used to allow internal users

InfoPath and Forms Server Resources

2007-10-24T10:26:00.000+01:00

While researching a particular project we are working on concerning deployment of a number of InfoPath developed forms on Forms Server I came across a Technet WebCast which uses the XmlFormView control in ASP.NET to host InfoPath forms.This is something which is extremely cool, because you can have a simple aspx page which presents a minimal view just of your form (rendered via Forms Server),

Free SharePoint 2007 eBook

2007-10-23T13:06:00.000+01:00

The following ebook is a very good resource for any new sharepoint developers, both as a good introduction and to explain new features in 2007 / WSS 3.0http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/2/f/02f0f661-88e1-43c2-b523-88d2e9e6802f/7%20Development%20Projects%20with%20the%202007%20Microsoft%20Office%20System%20and%20Windows%20SharePoint%20Services%202007.pdf

Breadcrumb links not working?

2007-10-11T14:19:00.000+01:00

Personally I find the breadcrumb a very useful navigation tool, and it usually makes it quite clear to an end point user where the user is currently in terms of navigation (especially when you just want to go one level up).Seems like some of the default master pages which come with SharePoint have the bread crumb links off by default (e.g. BlueBand.master). There is a very simple solution for

Alerts and other emails taking too long to arrive?

2007-10-11T12:29:00.000+01:00

On a SharePoint development environment or for demo purposes you don't want to wait 5 minutes (or whatever the default is) to receive alerts and other SharePoint emails. To make sure that these arrive every minute, you need to update the property of the immediate jobs alert timer.This is done by running the following command:stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname job-immediate-alerts -url http://

Customizing the My Site template / master page

2007-10-10T09:13:00.000+01:00

Came across the following article from Steve Peschka about customizing my sites:http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/22/customizing-moss-2007-my-sites-within-the-enterprise.aspxNot sure if this will allow you to apply master pages from the portal e.g. BlueBand.master or other master pages to the My Site.If anyone knows how to do this, please do drop me a line.In the meantime, I have

Presence Information / Online Status won't show unless ...

2007-10-05T12:06:00.001+01:00

...you have MSN Messenger installed on the machine where you are accessing SharePoint.Other settings which you might need to look at:1. You have setup Person Name Smart Tag and Presence Settings in Web Application General Settings in Central Administration2. Site being accessed is in Trusted Site list

Changing Service Accounts in MOSS / WSS

2007-10-04T11:26:00.000+01:00

The following articles is quick overview of service accounts available, what they are used for, and how to change each of them to have a best practices configuration.http://weblogs.asp.net/erobillard/archive/2007/07/06/how-to-change-service-accounts-and-their-passwords-in-moss-and-wss-3-0.aspx

SharePoint 2007: Just in case you were contemplating any Sharepoint 2007 item limitations

2007-09-11T16:49:00.000+01:00

We were investigating recently massive document libraries and their performance and it seems like limitations do exist, though if you plan correctly you should never reach these limits.http://bobmixon.com/BLOG/articles/MOSS_2007_limitations.aspxAlso a very good planning MS document with recommendations for planning enterprise content storage:http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/

Fantastic 40 - Application Template install problems

2007-09-05T13:41:00.000+01:00

I've been trying to get the Fantastic 40 templates to install for a few demos, and have encoutnered the following error:Feature '' is not installed in this farm, and can not be added to this scope.In my over excitement to get things working straight away, I ignored the most basic of needs of installing Site Admin templates in the Fantastic 40, i.e. I did not install the Application Core Teamplate

Infopath 2007 Web enabled forms - Limitations

2007-08-31T10:28:00.000+01:00

If you've used Infopath, you know that the greatest limitation that there was with Infopath 2003 was that you HAD to have Infopath installed.With Sharepoint 2007 this is history. Web-enabled forms are doable (though you need to have SharePoint Enterprise).Obvisouly a zero footprint client can never have the thick client functionality. This is like comparing OWA to Outlook. Both are relevant in

Out of the office? Take SharePoint with you!

2007-08-24T20:29:00.000+01:00

We have recently been investigating a great tool for SharePoint. This is the Colligo Contributor for SharePoint. It is a client side install, which allows any user to download whole SharePoint (or parts of ) sites locally, having a (thick client) interface which is virtually identical to the Sharepoint UI.This will enable users to take any SharePoint sites / libraries they are currently working

Google within the office? The end of SharePoint Search?

2007-07-06T07:46:00.000+01:00

Official Google Blog: 9,000 and countingWhat implications would this have on SharePoint Search? One of the strong selling features of SharePoint IMHO is the indexing of all data within the company. We call it the "internal google". Having the actual Google indexing and search technology available within the company is surely a challenge to any search and indexing enterprise software.What would

SharePoint 2007: Programmatically add an item/event to a SharePoint 2007 calendar using .NET code

2007-07-04T13:04:00.000+01:00

Useful when adding calendar or other events to SharePoint lists via the Lists web service.http://enterprise-solutions.swits.net/infopath2007/article.php?t=programmatically-add-item-sharepoint-calendar-infopath&c=infopath2007Things of note:Lists Web ServiceYou can update items programatically using the Lists webservice: http://Server_Name/Site_Name/_vti_bin/Lists.asmxBatch XML

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions

2007-07-02T15:13:00.000+01:00

Ok, maybe this blog was about using SharePoint Designer and avoiding coding, but in some cases you have to code. In that case as a developer you should try to make your life as simple as possible.Back when I was developing webparts in 2003, deploying a webpart was a long(ish) procedure of signing assemblies and copying to the GAC and a lot of of other steps.Fast forward to SPS 2007 and I've come

Camping

2007-06-12T23:20:00.001+01:00

Took a few days off, packed up the land rover with bare necessities (some tins of food, half a sack of potatoes, a few bottles of water, the dogs, and the girlfriend - not necessarily in that order :) ), and went off to Selmun. This is a small picturesque bay which is not very accessible unless you have a 4*4, and is usually quite quiet. Especially during weekdays, or when there are no long

SharePoint 2007: Blank Master Page

2007-06-12T23:15:00.000+01:00

<%-- Identifies this page as a .master page written in C# and registers tag prefixes, namespaces, assemblies, and controls. --%><%@ Master language="C#" %><%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %><%@ Register Tagprefix="SPSWC" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls" Assembly="

SharePoint 2007 - Tweaking the Data View with XSL

2007-06-08T15:56:00.001+01:00

Following the Data View Basic Printing Page a small tip to show the use XSL in a Data View. What we will di is change status items e.g. High / Medium / Low into images in a Data View. These is nice to beautify your DataViewsFind the xsl:value for the column containing your status field. < xsl:value-of select="@Status"/> and change it to an xsl:choose<

SharePoint 2007 - Basic Printing page - listing of master / detail lists

2007-06-06T16:47:00.001+01:00

Data Views are something which is quite standard in terms of SharePoint Designer, however, it gives you lots of flexibility, and I thought I'd bring this to the attention of those who still have not used it.DataViews can satisfy a request which we get often is the ability to print information in SharePoint. The normal pages usually contain too many non-content items that simply make a printout of

SharePoint 2007: Useful Customization Links

2007-05-18T14:13:00.000+01:00

Enabling Drop-Down Menus in Team Siteshttp://sharingpoint.blogspot.com/2007/02/wss-v3-drop-down-menus-in-team-sites.htmlLink to access the master pages library (to upload your customized master page)http://yoursite/subsite/_catalogs/masterpage/Forms/AllItems.aspxCalling SharePoint Web Services from JavaScripthttp://blog.glenc.net/2007/04/20/calling-sharepoint-web-services-from-javascript/

SharePoint 2007: Solving the List GUID Export Problem

2007-05-17T16:02:00.000+01:00

In a previous post I blogged about the fact that when creating a custom DataSource using SharePoint Designer, the SelectParameters by default reference the ListId and then specifically the GUID. This creates a problem when exporting your customised page, since the ListId you reference will be lost and thus your DataSource will be practically useless.Its seems that other people have been

SharePoint 2007: Advanced Search Customisations (Link Dump)

2007-05-17T10:32:00.000+01:00

These articles all say more or less the same thing, however some may be missing some steps, or may offer more details than others.Note that although most of articles mention MOSS, I've found that this works with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 too.Ishai from SPSTips: How to Add Properties to advanced search in MOSS 2007http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2006/07/

SharePoint 2007: Calendar Web Part Limitations (and their workarounds)

2007-05-17T08:04:00.000+01:00

Although the Calendar Web Part has improved since the previous version, there are still quite a few limitations in its implementation. After a few days of playing around mostly with Calendar webparts I have found the following problems. Thanks to comments in this post, we now also have workarounds for these problems.Limitation 1 If you create a List View of the information in the calendar (e.g.

SharePoint 2007: Understanding Master Pages and PlaceHolders (Link dump)

2007-05-15T13:10:00.001+01:00

Office Online - Basic Site Customizations (a quick introduction to customizing pages)http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA101741431033.aspxSharePoint Pages - Page Anatomy1. Master Page2. Page Layout3. Page4. Web Part Zones5. General Purpose Web Partshttp://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/02/16/533461.aspxMaster Pages (Look and Feel)http://www.sharepointblogs.com/

SharePoint 2007: Using a Favicon.ico for your sites

2007-05-14T09:36:00.000+01:00

A great post on creating favourite links for your SharePoint sites.http://mindsharpblogs.com/kathy/archive/2006/11/27/1384.aspx

SharePoint 2007: Customizing and Branding SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services (Link Dump)

2007-05-14T08:26:00.000+01:00

A few links of branding and customizing your SharePointMS WebCast:http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032269755&CountryCode=USCustom Chrome / Brandinghttp://geekswithblogs.net/mhamilton/archive/2006/07/15/85312.aspxCore Components vs Templateshttp://geekswithblogs.net/mhamilton/archive/2006/07/22/85958.aspxHow to rebrand the WSS 3.0 / MOSS Navigation

SharePoint 2007: Creating a link to the Portal Home

2007-05-10T10:53:00.000+01:00

When you have different site collections, you normally need to create a link to the Portal. To do this you just need to click on the Site Settings of the Current Site Collection and find Portal Site Connection under the Site Collection Administration. Here you enter the name to give to the link and the url of the portal.For My Sites, you should go to your _layouts/settings.aspx page located at

Google Analytics Becomes Even Better!

2007-05-10T07:22:00.000+01:00

Google Analytics Blog: New Version of Google Analytics!I've already blogged about the Google Tools I love. This has now become even better than it was. With all the information you need available at immediately on a number of dashboards.Once drawback with the old interface is that you had to dig a bit deeply to arrive to the required information. Now all the information is available at a

SharePoint 2007: Keep all your templates in a common Document Library

2007-05-09T12:51:00.000+01:00

Document based Content Types are a nice way of creating document templates in Document Libraries.Creating TemplatesSite Actions > Site Settings > Site Content TypesCreate a new Document based Content TypeGo to the Advanced SettingsHere there are two ways in which you can upload a document template: Upload a new document template - this has a disadvantage that when if you would want to change the

SharePoint 2007: DataViews - the best most flexible SharePoint toy (and how to solve rich text field HTML problems)

2007-05-07T08:42:00.000+01:00

I have recently discovered the wonder that is a Data View web part. This web part is an invaluable tool in creating different views of data in your sites (or from external sources).One of the things I have used it for is to display data from two list linked via a lookup. There are tons of pages on Data Views.One of the weird things I found with the Data View was that when I tried to display data

SharePoint 2007: Becoming Administrator of Entire Web Application

2007-05-04T10:32:00.000+01:00

Becoming Administrator of Entire Web Application http://msmvps.com/blogs/shane/archive/2007/01/21/become-administrator-of-the-entire-web-application.aspxYou can choose to set a number of policies for each web application including setting the administrators (group) as having Full Access, thus becoming administrator of the entire web applications. Go to SharePoint Central Administration >

SharePoint 2007: Link dump

2007-05-04T10:27:00.001+01:00

Unhiding and hiding content typeshttp://blogs.vertigo.com/personal/willa/Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=8SharePoint Lists from Reporting Serviceshttp://www.teuntostring.net/blog/2006/04/using-sharepoint-lists-extension-on.htmlCustomizing the Content Query Web Parthttp://www.sharepointblogs.com/vandest/archive/2006/06/20/8495.aspx http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms497457.aspxData View Tips

SharePoint 2007: Changing the required Title field in SharePoint Lists

2007-05-04T08:58:00.000+01:00

Have you ever been flustered and frustrated about the fact that you have to always use the Title in a SharePoint List item?!Looks like this can be changed from the Item Site Content Type (Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Content > Site Content Types > (List Content Types) > Item > Title and then change to Optional / Hidden or what you require. I honestly don't know the consequnces of changing

Sharepoint 2007 Customization Blog

Debugging SmartPart User Controls