TraceyNolte
SharePoint, Web, Photo, Video
SharePoint
SharePoint Value Overview
Jul 29th
Many companies are starting to embrace SharePoint because it offers a way to share documents, lists, links, and other information quickly and easily. Once installed, users can start using it with little help from IT because it has an easy out of the box interface. Most end users can figure out quickly that it’s like a file share, but really it’s much more than that. Users can share not only documents on the internet or intranet without relying on IT, but they can create customized databases, approval workflows photo libraries, surveys, and web pages with NO CODING, NO EXPERIENCE and NO WAITING ON IT to configure the page. In fact, once the SharePoint server and site collection are set up, the site collection administrator simply needs to create a site for the business unit and give them access, which takes only 5 minutes. Companies are realizing productivity increases and exponentially helping reduce the IT burden and bottleneck.
SharePoint is an easy win of flexibility, document sharing, and productivity enhancement. Most users can get free training online to learn the extended uses of the tool to help their companies save money and reduce wasted time with old processes of saving documents to a file share, emailing to share information and manually executing tasks (SharePoint has some customizable task automation called “workflows”).
If you want to see more of what SharePoint can do for your company, check out this video overview of SharePoint:
Reporting rich information is like the ‘Jewel of the Nile’
Jan 19th
Quite often I find people asking for reports and generating reports without a clear purpose for the report. They just have an idea about something they want to find and ask someone else to generate the data. Then it gets generated over and over without a reason why and with no ability to interpret the information, they just do what they have always done whether it’s right, wrong or even what the requestor needed. What can happen is chaos. If you don’t have a clear vision of the reason you are reporting something, you could end up with garbage data, wasted time and a frustrated reporting team. The team should first ask the question… ‘why, what are you trying to find out?’ With a clear understanding of the purpose and vision, they can navigate the data like a tour guide through dark forest and find the “jewel of information” that the ‘data visitor’ is looking for. In addition, the report creator can interpret any ’strange markings’ within the data to help the requester understand what they are looking at. This is essential for helping drive business improvements and help the requestor understand the impact of the information. The main ingredient for success is having the report generator KNOW THE FOREST… er business. Otherwise, they can arrive at the wrong destination with the information and mislead the person requesting the information. Doing this often can destroy the credibility of the report generator. If you took a tour of a forest and wanted to see the a waterfall filled with diamonds, but the driver got lost often and freqently took you to the wrong place… you’d lose confidence. Same concept. Double check the goal/destination, double check the route, double check the findings to understand it’s impact to the passenger and then ensure they have what they need to be successful. When you deliver diamonds, you gain credibility and increase business value for your peers.
SharePoint Site Launched!
Dec 10th
The AT&T staffing project PHASE I is finally done and launched to over 500+ users! It was a fun challenge to craft a custom master page, custom web parts, custom CSS, integrate Flash videos, blogs, wikis, self help features and much more.
SharePoint 2010 BETA
Nov 18th
So the SharePoint Beta was just released today. I just downloaded the Sharepoint 2010 Beta and am about to install it on our new test server. I am so thrilled. I am such a nerd! http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/ See the details below: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/11/18/sharepoint-2010-public-beta-is-now-available-for-download.aspx
As part of the beta, we are unveiling several new capabilities, including:
- The Outlook Social Connector, a new feature which brings communications history, business and social networking feeds into the Outlook experience.
- At beta, the Outlook Social Connector will support SharePoint social networking and support Windows Live at launch.
- We are also announcing that LinkedIn will be the first social networking site to provide a connector for the Outlook Social Connector.
- We are also releasing the Outlook Social Connector SDK for developers to build connectors to third party social networks.
- Technology and design advancements including deeper integration between Office 2010 and Office Web Apps, improved navigation, visual design and icon updates, a new Office logo and increased performance and stability.
We’re also announcing our plan to deliver Duet Enterprise for Microsoft SharePoint and SAP which will expand the long standing Duet partnership. The joint solution from SAP and Microsoft will enable interoperability between SAP applications and SharePoint 2010 and provide complete flexibility and extensibility to compose solutions that blend the worlds of process and collaboration. Duet Enterprise is built on top of the new Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010. The solution is planned to be released in the second half of calendar year 2010.
SharePoint Public Beta Resources
- General information about SharePoint 2010: http://sharepoint2010.microsoft.com/Pages/default.aspx
- Resources for Developers on MSDN: http://www.mssharepointdeveloper.com
- Resources for IT Pros on TechNet: http://www.mssharepointitpro.com
- Have a SharePoint 2010 question? Ask it in the SharePoint 2010 forums
Where can I download SharePoint 2010 public beta?
You can download SharePoint and Office 2010 public beta from http://www.microsoft.com/2010Is the SharePoint public beta supported?
The SharePoint public beta is not supported. However, we recommend looking at our resources listed above and asking questions in the SharePoint 2010 forums.When is the final release of SharePoint and Office 2010?
We are planning to release SharePoint and Office 2010 in the first half of calendar year 2010.Will there be a migration path from SharePoint public beta to final release?
We do not plan to support a SharePoint 2010 public beta to release bits migration path. The SharePoint 2010 public beta should be used for evaluation and feedback purposes only.If I’m on SharePoint 2007, how do I get ready for SharePoint 2010?
Take a look here for getting ready guidance.Is there a downloadable SharePoint 2010 VHD?
We plan to make a VHD available for download sometime in the future. We will announce its availability on our team blog.How do I get trained on SharePoint 2010?
Please review the Getting Started page, the IT Professional learning guide , the Developer learning guide , and the End User resources to ramp up on SharePoint 2010.Published Wednesday, November 18, 2009 10:33 AM by sptblog
Fusion Charts and SharePoint
Nov 10th
I’m trying to make a flash/xml driven dashboard using the Fusion Charts free app, but having little success from this blog: www.pathtosharepoint.com/FusionCharts/default.aspx Thank GOODNESS, I found additional articles to try it out. If I do figure this out, I will make a video and post it, it will be a great tool if I can figure out how to make it work from a linked SQL file that’s exposed in SharePoint as a list.
HERE is an EXAMPLE of what it looks like:
http://www.fusioncharts.com/Demos/Blueprint/
Articles: Using FusionCharts with SharePoint
These articles illustrate how to use FusionCharts and FusionCharts Free with SharePoint.
Convert SharePoint list to XML … in 10 seconds or less
Nov 10th
To quickly convert any Sharepoint list to XML, follow these quick steps:
- FIND THE LIST GUID (a GUID is the unique key for an item)
- Open the list, then click settings, then list settings
- copy the URL while in the list settings mode
- Click this link: http://www.albionresearch.com/misc/urlencode.php (it’s a decoder)
- Paste the URL in the field named “Encoded” and press the URLdecode button.
- Copy the PLAIN URL at top into notepad and strip out every thing except what’s between the {145678} brackets…. that’s your GUID for the list.
- Yet, another way to obtain the GUID via utility: Lists.zip
2. GET LIST URL & CONCATENATE THE STRING
- Go back to the original list and copy the URL on to your opened notepad
- Then combine the GUID with your URL and a string like this:
http://MyServer/[site]/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=Display&List={listGuid}&XMLDATA=TRUE
** This will only return the fields that are defined on the default view of the list. If you need specific fields then you need to create a view with those fields and pass the View ID as well, like this:
http://…/owssvr.dll?Cmd=Display&List={listGuid}&view={viewGuid}&XMLDATA=TRUE
(to get he ListGUID: go to the list settings for your list.. right click on the view at the bottom of the page and look at the links properties )
SharePoint vs. Google Wave
Nov 9th
SharePoint has been the growing business standard for online collaboration for the past few years and continues to grow it’s presence and use. However, “GOOGLE WAVE” is being touted as a SharePoint rival. Google wave works like instant messaging inside of email, but with more juice than email because you can launch apps and collaborate in real time inside the wave. In addition, there will soon be an “APP STORE” just like the iPhone where any developer can release any plug in for Google wave including document sharing, video collaboration, and just about anything you can think of. In addition, there will be a moble edition where you can WAVE (online email chat) using your mobile device. In addition, the APIs available will allow you to tweet from your waves… you can also post videos, interactive maps, share documents and so much more. Click here for the basic “What is Google Wave” video (1hour).
An article from Bamboo states that Google Wave doesn’t even compete with SharePoint. Here is why… “There is no sign of document management, content management, workflow, data integration, dashboarding etc. etc. Maybe if they fully integrated Wave, Google Sites, Google Apps, Google Gears, Google Calendar in a comprehensive platform… then you might have something. But Microsoft has a big head start in lashing together all of these disparate capabilities and a huge installed base of customers to drive innovation based on real world feedback.” When the Google Wave app store is opened for business, then we will unveil if any of these capabilities compete with the SharePoint platform… keeping in mind it must have some semblance of security trim. I still think it’s a bit early to really determine if it will have any true impact to the SharePoint community. But on my initial impression, I speculate that it will just compete with Exchange, Yahoo Mail, IMs and be replaced by GMAIL.
Locking down SharePoint DESIGNER
Oct 14th
I recently (and accidentally) found out that you can lock someone out of SharePoint designer for your site with a permissions setting. Yes, it’s possible. Someone else created subsites for a site collection and I was the the site collection manager. They asked me to apply a custom theme to the new subsites. So I gingerly opened SharePoint designer and bam! No import abilities and a new title at the top said (Designer Mode). I quickly found this article: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA101174751033.aspx So, I went into each of the subsites and was able to view the ‘permissions of this site’ and found myself absent. When I added myself with “full control” then opened designer back up, I was able to make the template changes as needed. Just a nice to know, in case anybody has the same problem or runs against this as well.
SharePoint Design
Oct 14th
I’m no Heather Solomon, but I can whip up a mean masterpage and CSS combo to make any company feel like home (see the one I did for top 10 homebuilder intranet). One trick I found particularly useful is to ensure you have not only all the requirements covered up front, but to have a design mockup and keep it should you need to make changes quickly. I normally use Photoshop for my mock ups, but for my latest AT&T project I used Fireworks, which in a pinch did the job fine. Once the mockup was approved, I sliced it up, converted it into html and ported a big portion into the SharePoint Master page. Of course, moving standard elements to the bottom with a hide tag. Then a dash of javascript for some mild additional function and some CSS customization for color and look/feel. Would I have had Flash for this project, it would have knocked it up another notch. But all in all, the final project is turning up great and I am pleased with the results. Phase 1 (Design) is coming to a close and Phase 2 (Data Migration) seems a little daunting. However, I look forward to the fix taxonomy AT&T has chosen and even more the governance that they are develop will help size restrtictions in the future.
Sigh… a great SharePoint day!
