Ramakrishna's blog : My Musings on Sharepoint 2010, MOSS 2007,PerformancePoint, InfoPath: 2009

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Sharepoint 2010 Beta Download

Sharepoint 2010 Beta is available for public download, Check this URL http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee390819.aspx.
You should also check the SharePoint Server 2010 system requirements http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485(office.14).aspx before you proceed on installation.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Sharepoint Forum - Q & A : how useful WSS 3.0 as a content management system?

Q) I Just want to understand how useful WSS 3.0 as a content management system? is it worth using wss 3.0 ?
A) There is an open source WCM available for WSS 3.0, more information here http://www.completesharepoint.net/ and http://www.codeplex.com/completesharepoint and A free Sharepoint Framework which can be used for publishing Layouts! details here http://www.spworks.co.uk/arf/default.aspx

This blog entry is kind of WSS VS MOSS and may be useful to you http://blogs.msdn.com/nijain/archive/2008/06/30/wss-as-platform-for-internet-web.aspx

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Sharepoint Forum - Q & A : what is custom content type?

Q) what is custom content type? and what for is it good?

A) Assume you know about the Content Type basically a content type is a reusable collection of settings that are applied to a certain category of content. Content types enable the management of the metadata and behaviors of a document or item type in a centralized, reusable way. Also used for content classification (Taxonomy).Above text taken from the following links and it also discuss about creating Custom Content Typehttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc161067.aspx
Check the below PDF for more information about the Custom Content Typeshttp://download.microsoft.com/documents/uk/technet/downloads/technetmagazine/may_08/26_36_Stnd%20D%20ContentTypes_des5.pdf
Creating and Using Content Types in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by ted pattsion http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5519358
This blog discussion about creating Content Type and association with a workflowContent Types: Part 2 - Creation and Association of Workflows and Document Templates (Republish)and a very good discussion about Content Type can be found herehttp://blogs.msdn.com/jamesway/archive/2008/01/22/content-types-the-little-engine-that-could.aspx

Sharepoint Forum - Q & A : Upload Document to Intranet site from a remote location in sharepoint

Q) I have a requirement to upload a document from the internet to intranet site.
how it is possible, how can i implement the uploading of any documents form the any where in the world.
A) If your intranet site is Hosted with AAM - Alternate Access Mapping (http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/06/what-every-sharepoint-administrator-needs-to-know-about-alternate-access-mappings-part-1.aspx), you can allow the user to upload the document to the internet site, which inturn will be your intranet site.Eventually your intranet site is the one which will be hosted in Internet also, so if your users upload any file to specific file in the internet actually the user is uploading to your intranet site. And even you can decide access restriction and about what content should be visible in the internet, this need bit of planning, also remember you need Internet connector license if you need to host your site in internet(check this forum http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointgeneral/thread/f5329aa7-4dce-4638-940f-42fe32bcb74a)your scenario would be creating Alternate access Mapping to your intranet site to internet site. Say http://yourmachine:33333/ (intranet) will be like http://www.yourcompany.com/, create like this using AAM, this should solve your problem. or you can use SSL VPN for connecting to your intranet through internet, this way its secure and you can also control who can access your intranet and upload files

Sharepoint Forum - Q & A : internet MOSS SIte

Sharepoint Forum - Q & A : How to design a sharepoint designer site?

Q) how to design a site with SharePoint designer that later on has to be converted to be a SharePoint site
A) Sharpoint sites uses Master pages, CSS and JS.You can develop your website by either using existing Master Pages from WSS / MOSS and start branding it, or start with minimal Master Pages to start with.Minimal master's gives you more freedom and you can start producing sites based on your design layout and theme.
Check these links
How to: Create a Minimal Master Page http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa660698.aspx
Building Simple Master Pages for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb684920.aspx
Modify the default master page http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA101009061033.aspx
Best place to start is heathersolomon's Blog Posts, She discuss indetail about sharepoint customization and check Minimal or Base Master Pages http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/articles/BaseMasterPages.aspx
Best practice for Style Sheets are not to modify Core.css and use your own CSS file and attached that to your site.
Apply a custom style sheet to a SharePoint site http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA101691741033.aspx
Customizing SharePoint Themes with SharePoint Designer 2007 and IE8 http://blogs.msdn.com/kaevans/archive/2009/03/08/customizing-sharepoint-themes-with-sharepoint-designer-2007-and-ie8.aspx
Demos: A six-part series on getting the most out of SharePoint Designer 2007 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA102199841033.aspx

You can use navigation menus available with WSS / MOSS or you can write your own Navigation menus for your site.

MOSS Navigation Deep Dive series http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm/archive/2007/02/10/moss-navigation-deep-dive-part-1.aspx
How to create custom navigation menu in SharePoint with XML data sourcehttp://blogs.msdn.com/matjazperpar/archive/2008/12/17/how-to-create-custom-navigation-menu-in-sharepoint-with-xml-data-source.aspxand importantly
How to Optimize a SharePoint Server 2007 Web Content Management Site for Performance http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727371.aspx
Also check MSDN SharePoint Team Blogs

Sharepoint Forum Q & A: Designs and flair and what to give on a intranet

Q) I have a requirement to design and give flair for a sharepoint site, Does anyone know of sites which give good examples and can give you master pages and good left hand navigations ?... on a intranet for a company what would you consider in designs and features for a company e.g social site, personal ads

A) How to: Customize the Display of Quick Launch http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms466994.aspxCustomizing the Quick Launch menu: Adding fly-out menus to SharePoint navigation http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/04/26/customizing-the-quick-launch-menu-adding-fly-out-menus-to-sharepoint-navigation.aspx
Customizing Quick Launch and the Top Link Bar Through the User Interface http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms427791.aspx
A blog which discuss about intranet site, and about the custom navigational menus both horizontal and left Navigational http://faraz-khan.blogspot.com/2007/11/branding-intranets-with-sharepoint-moss.html
Planning your SharePoint site http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/GetThePoint/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=5the following links are taken from the above link
Determine the information architecture of your site http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262873.aspx
Some points are discussed here are for MS Publisher but usefull http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/HP051380711033.aspx?pid=CH063575481033
Heather Solomon's Branding series - Branding SharePoint - Part 1: Designing your SharePoint Site http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/articles/brandsppart1.aspx

Normally these are the features which are considered most.
1. Intranet Branding, very good design layout and easy to use
2. Wiki's, Discussion Boards
3. Personalization
4. Calendars
5. Search
6. News, Polls
7. Employee Self Service Portal

Sharepoint Forum Q & A: MOSS 2007 Mixed Authentication (AD and Anonymous)

Q) Is it possible to create one web application with AD authentication and extend the same web application to another IIS website just with anonymous access?

A) Use Alternate Access Mappings for configuring multiple authenication providers for your site, Each Zone can have its own Authentication settings. For more details check this Article
Plan alternate access mappings (Office SharePoint Server) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261814.aspx and Authentication Resource Center for SharePoint Products and Technologies http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb735938.aspx, for Authentication planning & Deployment

Sharepoint Forum - Q & A : Permissions "approach" needed for multi-department sites.

Q) We are in a wss3 learnring mode. We want to setup a main page ("portal") of interest to several departments. At the top of that page would be a series of tabs, one for each department. Now, DepartmentA may need to access some items in DepartmentB's and DepartmentC's, etc. sites (subsite, web page?) but not all items. (Some of the items in DepartmentB, DepartmentC are sensitive to each department).There is no reason why someone in DepartmentA would know exactly where the information of interest to them resides in Department B's site. That means they would end up be "poking" around a lot in DepartmentB looking for it. So DepartmentB better be locked down really tight from a security perspective. But creating, testing, documenting, and upgrading such a security setup seems to quite involved. I needs some ideas how to implement such a setup or perhaps you have an entirely different idea how to accomplish the task.

A) Access permission for your site requires lots of planning, and You can create windows security groups and permission group in sharepoint and define permission levels for each department website and then add users to the group, this will ensure that your users access only their respective department site.
For more information check these linksPermission levels and permissions http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA101001491033.aspx
Managing security and permissions http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/CH101248581033.aspx
Understand groups and permissions on a SharePoint site http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA102371171033.aspx, This link will discuss about creating groupd and permission for your site.

About managing SharePoint groups and users http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA100215791033.aspx, this link will discuss about Assigning users and GroupsRoadmap for giving users access to SharePoint Server 2007 sites and site content http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA102486891033.aspx, this link discuss about how to Import users into Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configure permission inheritance,Add users to default SharePoint groups, Manage unique permissions for site content

Sharepoint Forum Q & A: how to support user authentication from SQL Server

Q) Currently I store all user names and passwords in a SQL Server table, not in Active Directory. My question is, does SharePoint support users from non-Active Directory to grant permission? If yes, how to implement (appreciate if there are some reference samples)?

A) You can very well do that in Sharepoint using FBA and SQL Server as your Membership provider. You can store all your users and Roles in your ASP.NET Membership database and use them in SharepointCheck this link for step by step instruction ,
Forms Authentication in SharePoint Products and Technologies (Part 1): Introduction http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb975136.aspx , this Article discuss all the details you are looking for.
Companion tool for Form Based Authentication http://www.codeplex.com/CKS/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=7450
Configuring Multiple Authentication Providers for SharePoint 2007http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/08/16/702010.aspx

Forms Authentication in SharePoint Products and Technologies (Part 2): Membership and Role Provider Sampleshttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb975135.aspx

Forms Authentication in SharePoint Products and Technologies (Part 3): Forms Authentication vs. Windows Authenticationhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb977430.aspx , Discusses about the Difference between Forms and Windows Authentication

Sharepoint Forum Q & A: Move discussion topics from one discussion board in MOSS to another in WSS 3,0

Q) am running MOSS 2007 on one server and WSS 3.0 on another one. Is there a way for me to move discussion topics (contained in a discussion board) on a site within MOSS to a discussion board on site within WSS ?

A) You can save your Discussion board as template and restore the list tempate to your site. While creating the discussion board you can use the new saved Discussion Board template, which should show with the content.Goto Discussion board settings under Permission and Management-> Save Discussion board as template , check Include Content, this should save your discussion board with data.Then upload the template to your wss list templates and create the discussion board from this template.

Sharepoint Forum Q & A: Duplicate entire site

Q) Assuming there is a site that has several nodes(jobs, pages, ...).
Is there a way to duplicate entire site into new site in the same server? (Not backup/restore)

Someone built a site, and it works fine. What I need to do is to duplicate that site to several different names. That's all.
Using template, I can duplicate one node, but not entire site.

A) You can use Web Package feature of Sharepoint Designer, Only Caveat in this approach is, you cannot save list data, subsites and permissions. Check this link "Export or import a Web package" - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA100819231033.aspx

or by using Content Deployment and migration API - http://blogs.technet.com/stefan_gossner/archive/2007/08/30/deep-dive-into-the-sharepoint-content-deployment-and-migration-api-part-2.aspx

BTW, Try this SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard http://www.codeplex.com/SPDeploymentWizard , Check the source code for Reference Implementation

Sharepoint Forum Q & A: Sharepoint Network shares - how do they work?

Q) I notice that as well as accessing documents stored in SP document libraries via the web site we can also access documents via an explorer network share - ie \\sharepointsite\site\.... My question is are these documents real and being maintained in addition to the data already to be found in the db or is it some clever virtualisation trick? Does any one have any insight that they can share with me? The reason I need to know is that our SP server is beginning to run out of disk space (not the DB server) and I want to check that it's not down to SP files being stored locally.

A) In SharePoint, Documents (Document Library) are actually Stored in your SQL Server. And We need to know how WEBDAV UNC's work in sharepoint, Check this Whitepaper -
Understanding and Troubleshooting the SharePoint Explorer View http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=C523AC7A-5724-48BE-B973-641E805588F4&displaylang=en. This WhitePaper discuss in detail about windows WEBDAV and FPRPC protocol , windows WEBDAV Client and Explorer View, should be good starting point to understand WEBDAV and Explorer View

Sharepoint Forum Q & A: MOSS 2007 implementation - what should I be careful about?

Q: My company wants us to implement sharepoint 2007 MOSS server, What should be Careful about?
A: Plan your Sharepoint Performance, Check this Link & check all the links in that page http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261834.aspx.

Check these Sharepoint Implementation reference Articles -
"This article describes a practical implementation of logical architecture components to achieve a workable design"
Logical architecture model: Corporate deployment http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261995.aspx

Example Solution Architecture: Twynham School Learning Gateway http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262582.aspx

"This article describes a practical implementation of logical architecture components to achieve a workable design"
Logical architecture sample design: collaboration sites http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc835621.aspx

Sharepoint Forum - Q & A

I am reproducing some of my Answers which I have answered in the Microsoft Sharepoint Forum.

These Blogs are in the Q & A Format and I have edited some of the Questions and Answers for the sake of clarity. However, I Acknowledge & give Due credit to the Respective Questions Posters and Answerer.

Q) we have many site with 3-4 Document Libraries Is it possible to create a view that show contents from all these Document Libraries?

A) You can use Dataview Webpart in case you have only WSS 3.0 but not MOSS & Content Query web-part (is available only in MOSS).
How To CQWP -http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA101741341033.aspx
DVWP http://blogs.msdn.com/arpans/archive/2007/07/27/sharepoint-data-view-part-magic-and-search.aspx

Monday, July 13, 2009

Sharepoint 2010 Sneak peek

Paul Andrew announced Sharepoint 2010 Sneak Peek , and check the sharepoint 2010 Sneak Peek Website here : http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/sneak_peek/pages/default.aspx

Saturday, April 04, 2009

SharePoint Designer 2007, is Free Now!!!

Yes, Belive it or Not!! Sharepoint Designer 2007 is now available as a free download. Surprising isnt, check this link Download SharePoint Designer 2007 for free