SPSFAQ

My HA/DR book is out the 29th November.

2011-11-17T11:07:00.001Z

My book is coming out the 29th of November. It's an odd feeling, I'm proud of it, but have no idea if it will sell or not. I know there's a demand for the topic, so let's see if people think this will meet their needs. It can be found easily enough, just google it! http://www.google.ie/search?aq=f&cx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=apress+sharepoint+2010+cummins

My SharePoint book quick sneak peak...

2011-06-20T16:59:00.000+01:00

Here's an exclusive sneak peak. I've only written the plan, and completed two chapters, will be out later this year! Order an advance copy now to keep me in ukuleles ( o )==::

http://www.apress.com/microsoft/sharepoint/9781430239512

Wrong blog! Meant for my ukulele one :-)

2011-06-13T14:10:00.000+01:00

Sorry about that, was meant for my ukulele blog! Someone I was teaching at the weekend asked me to post the chords to that song.

Actually, stop your SharePoint workin' for a few minutes, listen to this song imagine you're on the beach. No, I insist, you've earned a break :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhNnCkE_b3s

Governance and turkeys post on share1point.com folks!

2011-06-02T22:59:00.000+01:00

Just wrote a post on Governance, success/failure and turkeys. Take a look on http://share1point.com

Added a post on DR, SharePoint Online and Azure/S3 on http://share1point.com

2011-05-18T22:45:00.002+01:00

The title says it all! Added a post on DR, SharePoint Online and Azure/S3 on http://share1point.com

I'm posting like crazy on share1point.com

2011-05-11T12:34:00.001+01:00

I've written posts on DR, Cap planning and comparing features in SharePoint Online and On-premises, feel silly putting it over there, then posting about it here, but you guys could follow me on twitter @stephencummins you get updates faster there!

Microsoft bought Skype!

2011-05-10T13:22:00.002+01:00

Amazing news! Will make Windows Mobile so much better, blogged about it here: http://share1point.com/2011/05/skype-rosoft

Sony seems to be the hardest word...

2011-05-08T21:35:00.002+01:00

Plan to avoid disasters folks, it's more about DR than PR: http://j.mp/kANcB1

It ain't over...

2011-04-14T20:16:00.001+01:00

I'm back online, and over at share1point.com I'm now focusing on what I need to learn to qualify as a Microsoft Certified Master. I've 4 exams to pass first, then I've to come up with a lot of money! But the idea of the new site is using it as a diary of the process, mainly for myself, but for anyone else interested too.

This site got old, I'd been updating it faithfully for 9 years and wanted a change.

Retiring...

2011-01-25T14:23:00.000Z

As you see, this blog is very neglected, after 10 years of it I decided to seek something new in place of SharePoint Community and have switched to the ukulele instead. Yes, I'm as serious as you can be when talking about the ukulele. Anyway, SharePoint is still my day job, just not what I do in my spare time too, so this blog will just sit here, unless some day, I take this up again!

This blog has moved

2010-03-06T23:44:00.001Z

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SharePoint Server & Office 2010 RTM April, on shelves May 12th!

2010-03-06T12:54:00.000Z

Yes, SharePoint Server & Office 2010 RTM April, on shelves May 12th! Which is earlier than I expected, good job guys! Full details of launch event here: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/businessproductivity/proof/pages/2010-launch-events.aspx#fbid=K5ZL4HL0icI

Why is it such a pain to give someone access to the SSP?

2010-03-03T11:33:00.000Z

Thankfully, Shane's done a checklist of things to look for when granting access to the Shared Services Provider: http://msmvps.com/blogs/shane/archive/2007/08/06/give-a-user-access-to-the-ssp.aspx but, you know, I mean, sheesh!

SharePoint Evolution in London in April will be brilliant!

2010-02-18T13:37:00.000Z

Well, SharePoint Evolution in London in April will of course be brilliant, because I am speaking at it but just look at the speaker list, http://sharepointevolutionconference.com/Event_Speakers.html how else would you get to be the same room as all these people at once? An event like this is always a bit more free and open than a Microsoft run event, so you will hear and learn a lot, and not just about SharePoint 2010, I am presenting on migrating from 2003 to 2007 because lot of companies are doing that now in advance of moving to 2010 in the future. Not convinced yet? I'm bringing my ukulele...

MOSS 2007 from 2003 Upgrade.

2009-12-18T10:07:00.002Z

Maybe last one of those I do, but found a few interesting bits. I used the DB attach method, but 2 things went wrong, sites in the DB were not crawled, and one 10GB site was broken. The solution was to move the good Site Collections to another content DB, they were then crawled. Here are some links on the subject:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262923.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969242

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc508854.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189035.aspx

Thanks to Todd Klindt for his help on this.

Setting up SharePoint 2010 - Including what hardware to get.

2009-10-25T17:48:00.004Z

The public beta for SharePoint 2010 is out in 2-3 weeks, so if you don't have the hardware ready already, here's what I did. Although this is not what you'd do in production it is nice and simple.

I bought a Dell Precision 390 on eBay for about €300.

It had no monitor I connected my main monitor to it temporarily when installing everything, then remote desktoped to it after that.

I put 8GB of RAM in it. I bought that on www.memoryc.com (about another €120). Putting RAM in a machine is easy. Just get the right type, see how many slots are in the server, then put it in and reboot. Note if like me you had XP 32bit to start with, you'll not see the 8GB of RAM until you go to 64bit, which we'll do in two steps.

I then put it on my network here at home. To do that, I just stuck the network cable in the back. Make sure you have internet access, you will need it for updates and prereqs.

Installed Win2008 64bit. To do that, I downloaded the ISO, burned on to a DVD, then put the DVD in the new server, restarted and pressed F8 to boot from DVD. I then installed any updates.

Then I did the SharePoint 2010 basic install, it installed the prereqs for me too.

All was done in an hour or two, very quick and easy, much simpler than MOSS 2007 was.

So even if you don't have the beta yet, get your server ready!

Live from SPC09

2009-10-19T22:09:00.001+01:00

I will be posting updates from the SharePoint Conference via my twitter page, go have a look!:

http://twitter.com/stephencummins

Capacity Planning.

2009-09-23T15:04:00.002+01:00

Definitive article on MOSS 2007 capacity planning, well worth another look since it has been updated: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787.aspx

SharePoint so simple your mum could understand it.

2009-08-28T14:40:00.001+01:00

SharePoint is frustratingly hard to simplify into one sentence. "It is a collaboration tool" sounds too basic, but this little movie explains it neatly in just over three minutes: http://www.youtube.com/v/s12Jb5Z2xaE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1

I've got the beta of SharePoint 2010 and I love it!

2009-07-24T14:26:00.003+01:00

Can't give away anything at all, since this is a very closed beta, but this is one very nice slick UI and blasts SharePoint into the future. Woo hoo! I'll be going to the SharePoint conference in Vegas in October: http://www.mssharepointconference.com/Pages/default.aspx not because I plan on having any fun as well, oh no :-) but just to learn what I can and be involved in the launch. Very glad I got out of website design in 2001, this is way more interesting!

Requirements for SharePoint 2010

2009-05-13T11:16:00.002+01:00

Better to know the requirements for sharePoint 2010 now guys!

SharePoint Server 2010 will be 64-bit only.
SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit Windows Server 2008 or 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2.
SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit SQL Server 2008 or 64-bit SQL Server 2005.

Browsers:

Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.x. running on Windows Operating Systems.
In addition we’re planning on an increased level of compatibility with Firefox 3.x and Safari 3.x on non-Windows Operating Systems.
Due to this focus Internet Explorer 6 will not be a supported browser for SharePoint Server 2010.

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/07/announcing-sharepoint-server-2010-preliminary-system-requirements.aspx

The question is, how will people build their dev/test environments? These are high specs for those!

Office SP2 including SharePoint Service Pack out 28th April

2009-04-23T16:10:00.004+01:00

Details of the Office Service Pack 2 are here:

http://blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2009/04/16/service-pack-2-for-the-2007-microsoft-office-system-due-to-ship-april-28th.aspx

Download links:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=b7816d90-5fc6-4347-89b0-a80deb27a082

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=79bada82-c13f-44c1-bdc1-d0447337051b

Here's the SharePoint related bits:

"Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server SP2 include fixes and enhancements designed to improve performance, availability, and stability in your server farms. SP2 provides the groundwork for future major releases of SharePoint Products and Technologies.

An STSADM command line that scans your server farm to establish whether it is ready for upgrade to the next version of SharePoint and provides feedback and best practice recommendations on your current environment.
SP2 offers support for a broader range of Web browsers."

More here:

http://gcn.com/articles/2009/04/21/service-pack-office-2007.aspx

Note the mention of the next version of SharePoint 2010, a scan to see if you will be compatable with the next version. Not long now folks, 2009 is going fast!

Welcome Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

2009-04-15T18:47:00.003+01:00

The new name for the next version of SharePoint is oficially Microsoft SharePoint 2010, details here http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/Apr09/04-15Office2010.mspx

SharePoint Designer 2007 now Free!

2009-04-02T08:14:00.002+01:00

SharePoint Designer 2007 is now free, here is the download link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42

On one hand this is great, since is shows MS wants to invest more in giving users more power on the SharePoint platform. But this putting more power in the hands of users takes it away from us specialists and developers. But that is something we will have to accept.

SharePoint is a success because it gives users so much more freedom to share and create their own structures and content via the web, now they will have the freedom to extend and develop their sites. If they mess things up, there is still the wonderful "reset to site definition" button :-) And you still need admin rights to install it, so not everyone in your organisation will be able to download it and start hacking away at your lovely "Out of the Box" SharePoint Farm.

10 New SharePoint Themes.

2009-03-21T02:08:00.003Z

You can get the ten new SharePoint themes here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0a87658f-20b8-4dcc-ad7a-09ad22641f3a

Keep your SharePoint up to date!

2009-03-10T17:49:00.001Z

There are a ton of new updates here for SharePoint:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/03/09/uber-packages-of-february-cumulative-update-are-ready.aspx

I am a Twit(erer)

2009-03-04T14:16:00.001Z

I resisted as long as I could, but now I see the charm of Twitter, so quick and easy! http://twitter.com/stephencummins The only thing I worry about is I am already tracking so many people (about 50) that I barely get to read about 10 a day. But this may kill off my blogging after 8 years. Time will tell I guess.

SharePoint Online and jQuery

2009-02-24T07:39:00.002Z

SharePoint going online is, I think a great idea. There are cost savings of course, and it makes capacity planning easier, and working out licencing, but there is also the fact that more companies need to access their SharePoint from all over the world, and distributed architectures can be complex and costly. Latency can mess up the user experience and make updating the search index slow. But with a web-based model, those issues shrink because everything is on the internet.

The problem with SharePoint Online is what do you do if you want more than the plain vanilla SharePoint? If someone else owns the hardware and software, they do not want to give you permission to install your own code on their machines. So what is the middle ground? I think the potential of client-side scripting is the answer. jQuery is a javascript platform that allows for a range of cool things to be done that are easy to add, update, version control, test and deploy. Here is some more detail: http://www.sharepointjoel.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=178

So in the future, SharePoint will be out-of-the-box, but companies will be able to change the look and functionality completely without ever making a change on the server, and this will make a world where all our software is "in the cloud" one step closer.

You can have it all!

2009-02-04T12:59:00.002Z

OK, you can't really have it all, but you can have SharePoint as your front end and 3rd party repositores as the back end like Documentum and Interwoven, in other words, the content in the other systems, but all the benefits of SharePoint too like workflows, task lists, and extensible metadata.

The details are here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd440954.aspx

There is also a Code Gallery project on how to do it: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/spextcontent

Adjusting the maximum file upload size in MOSS

2009-02-02T09:36:00.006Z

The default maximum file upload size for MOSS is 50MB, with 2GB being the limit imposed by SQL Server. In some cases, like with AutoCAD because of the fact that files are associated with each other, or with large graphic files, I would say stick to a file share, it will be faster and cheaper, but if you do need to store everything in MOSS, here are the settings you need to change:
Changing the maximum file upload size seem simply a matter of changing the following setting in central admin: Central Administration > Application Management > Web Application General Settings

However, this only applied to files uploaded to Libraries, not to attachments to List items, this has to be edited in the web.config

Details of why here:
http://www.synergyonline.com/blog/blog-moss/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=8
Via STSADM, you can also change the value:
stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname max-file-post-size -propertyvalue 2000 -url http://your_moss_server/
Finally, there is the issue for search crawling larger files, this is adjusted via Central Admin and the registry, (I assume) on the indexing server:
http://admincompanion.mindsharp.com/SharePoint%20Server%202007%20Administrators%20Companion%20Wi/Crawling%20Details.aspx

Then, IIS may need adjustment:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;925083

In the end, I would say test and test again, but this information should help.

A great free tool for modeling your SharePoint environment.

2009-01-30T15:34:00.004Z

This free tool from Microsoft is for modeling your SharePoint hardware architecture, it is really useful as it gives you some ideas as what to look for when designing this, I'm even running it on Vista, so there is no need to have SharePoint installed somewhere to use it:

http://www.chandima.net/Blog/archive/2008/02/12/capacity-planning-tool-for-sharepoint-and-platform-hygiene.aspx

Central Admin on mre than one server in your farm.

2009-01-14T09:12:00.003Z

There is a great post on Spence Harbar's blog on how to deal with the problem that the SharePoint Central Administration Site only exists on one server, so if that server goes down, you have no way to administer your MOSS farm. The solution is to have it on more than one, and this post explains how, thanks Spence! http://www.harbar.net/articles/spca.aspx

64bit ifilter for PDFs from Adobe released.

2008-12-11T19:34:00.002Z

Here is the link to the 64bit ifilter for PDFs from Adobe. I've heard of others who have tested it and it works, and it is free so many will choose it over the foxit option even if Adobe's is slower.

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025

Keeping up with the SharePoint world

2008-11-26T10:20:00.002Z

There is so much new information out there, it is hard to keep up and keep focused on what is important, but podcasts offer a new way to get information when you're driving, on the bus or whatever. So take a look at http://sharepointpodshow.com/ They are on itunes too, so you can subscribe that way if you so choose.

SharePoint: Know the limits.

2008-10-13T10:40:00.005+01:00

Here are a few limits you should know about when planning your SharePoint deployment:

The 2,000 rule: because stored procedure calls to SQL Server slow down as you reach 2,000 items, have less than that in a view on a List. Less than 200 ideally to have optimum performance.

Have less than 2000 AD users or groups in a SharePoint Group for the same reason. An AD group in a SharePoint group counts as one item, but the first time a user edits content in a site collection, they are added to the user list for that site collection. The best way to avoid this problem is to have lots of site collections so the users and groups are more spread out.

Indexing an item with about 1,000 entries on it's ACL (access control list) will fail. The limit is 64k for the ACL of any item being crawled, on the file system or in SharePoint. Avoid this by assigning access via AD groups rather than directly.

Any user can only be in 1024 AD groups. To avoid this, you could put the users in SharePoint groups if you think this limit might be reached.

The bottom line is you can have as many readers as you like on SharePoint site collections as you like, but if you get to between 1,500 and 2,000 contributors (to reach that 64k limit) you will get errors. Note these are Windows limits that SharePoint is dependent on since it is built on Windows. SQL adds the performance limits for views on lists.

These points are examined in more detail here as well as linking to details of the issues in MS KB articles: http://weblogs.asp.net/erobillard/archive/2008/09/11/sharepoint-security-hard-limits-and-recommended-practices.aspx thanks Eli!

Goodbye Patrick

2008-10-06T13:19:00.002+01:00

Patrick Tessighem, a fellow SharePoint MVP, died at the beginning of September. It has been hardest for his family, but the SharePoint community is small and his loss has affected us all. Goodbye Patrick, rest in peace.

Desiging a SharePoint Information Architecture

2008-10-06T13:15:00.002+01:00

Here's a good post on the SharePoint team blog that helps give a template and set of principles for designing a SharePoint taxonomy: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/04/09/investing-in-logical-architecture-design-samples.aspx

Want a quick try of MOSS?

2008-10-06T10:53:00.002+01:00

You can download a VPC here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=67f93dcb-ada8-4db5-a47b-df17e14b2c74&displaylang=en&tm

It'll work for 30 days, needs 10Gb of space, 1Gb of RAM and Virtual server 2005 R2 to run.

Things just got better for apps like SharePoint

2008-09-03T10:53:00.004+01:00

Lots of companies have announced new browsers this week, Mozilla (info on Ubiquity), Google (link to the comic about Chrome) and Microsoft (info on accellerators and web slices).

They all reflect the fact that the browser needs to move with the times, the internet is not the same as it was 10 years ago, better browsers will mean all kinds of new alternatives for users of the SharePoint platform in the future. Better integration of data, better sharing of credentials, better search and navigation.

I've added a few more FAQs, and updated the install of a MOSS farm one:

SPSFAQ0303176 - How can I do realtime monitoring of diagnostic logging?
SPSFAQ020321 - How do I install a MOSS 2007 server farm?
SPSFAQ010359 - what Browsers is SharePoint compatable with and what features will work?

What's between Sex and Shopping? SharePoint!

2008-08-19T15:42:00.003+01:00

Yes, between Sex and Shopping is SharePoint.

Have a look if you don't believe me: http://alltop.com/

Another sign how how mainstream SharePoint has become. But what is interesting is it is now more than a technology, or platform, or application. It is a topic of interest, a pursuit, some thing that belongs in a list between Sex and Shopping. That's it, SharePoint has officially Made It.

Update to SharePoint

2008-07-16T09:34:00.003+01:00

The new update MS has posted here: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/07/15/announcing-availability-of-infrastructure-updates.aspx is designed to fix the may problems with Content Deployment, as well as adding the federated search functionality, and a few other bug fixes. It is recommended everyone install it, so go to it!

Actually, there's a new blog now that I suppose replaces what Joel used to do:http://blogs.technet.com/tothesharepoint/

Supporting SharePoint in your Org.

2008-06-11T16:28:00.002+01:00

Support in your organisation should have the following training or knowledge, I've divided support into three levels:

Level 1 Support
1. Understand the main content management concepts in SharePoint.
These are check in/out, version control (even though it is not enabled), approval/feedback workflows and how to recover deleted items from the recycle bin.
2. Understand the main structural terminology in SharePoint
These are Document Libraries, Lists, Columns and Views

There are relevant free online courses here like “SharePoint Document Libraries 1: Introduction to Sharing Files”

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR102146081033.aspx?stt=1

Level 2 Support
Understand the concepts of access management in SharePoint
These are SharePoint Groups and Roles, inheritance, item level permissions and the principle of least privilege.
Understand the broader structural concepts in SharePoint
These include Site Collections, Quotas, Subsites, the Site collection Recyle bin.

Training is available here, not free, but a good course: https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=74137

Level 3 Support
This level requires knowledge of the SharePoint platform as a whole:

Manage SharePoint operations in MOSS 2007 by configuring farm topology and services, global configuration options, and SSO.
Describe the global settings available for a Web application, considerations for managing the session state for SSPs, and the best practices for managing site collections.
Describe user profiles, user profile properties, profile policies, and global settings and solutions offered by a My Sites site in MOSS 2007.
Configure audiences to target content in MOSS 2007.
Configure search and indexing in MOSS 2007 by defining the search service settings and managing the search experience for end users.

The primary function will be installing patches and service packs, management of the database back end will be performed by the SQL Server Admin.

Third party companies should manage the code they developed and ensure it stays compatible with SharePoint as Microsoft adds patches.

There is some advanced training here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc299032.aspx

Free online training is available here for reference. This would have to be installed on a SharePoint server and requires SQL Server 2005, but it does provide a training portal in SharePoint for reference via SharePoint itself.: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=673DC932-626A-4E59-9DCA-16D685600A51&displaylang=en

Adding Podcasting functionality to SharePoint.

2008-06-11T13:54:00.004+01:00

Regarding adding podcasting functionality to SharePoint, I think this will happen more as people see the advantages. You can record meetings for people to play back in the car or the gym. I mean just audio here of course! It would also be useful to video meetings or presentations and then allow people to sync them via a device with podcasting functionality like my Zune.

http://blogs.tamtam.nl/mart/PodcastingKitForSharePointPKS.aspx

Quick updates, but useful.

2008-06-05T15:23:00.002+01:00

Here are two useful links I think for the start of a SharePoint implementation

SPSFAQ010358 - Where can I see some other sites using MOSS?

This gives you ideas about what kinds of designs are possible and what people are using MOSS for.

And how to install MOSS in a farm:

SPSFAQ020321 - How do I install a MOSS 2007 server farm?

Never mind SharePoint, this is Social Networking!

2008-06-02T20:58:00.002+01:00

You have to see this!

Hard not the think of the Jedi council when watching this, but in the end, seeing and hearing the person you are communicating is the essence of social networking. Metcalfe's Law was one I had not heard of, but very true of any network.

http://www.musion.co.uk/Cisco_TelePresence.html

SharePoint Projects

2008-05-28T11:58:00.003+01:00

This is a good article on the MS SharePoint blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/05/27/how-we-did-it-australia-national-native-title-tribunal-website-advanced-web-content-management.aspx

Because it higlights some very important concepts you need to understand when doing a SharePoint implementation. The first this the importance of content types and columns. I have said before they are the DNA of your information architecture. They also used features to manage and deploy them, and a SharePoint list to plan them, a good idea.

This project was public-web enabled, so there are some specific good tips there about removing core.js since users are just reading and not using a lot of the document management features. It also required a custom site definition.

There is also a good description of the content migration process. It is a process of repetition and checking the content migrated properly. I will write my own case study here of that process to show what is involved.

More on the support of Public Folders.

2008-04-15T10:58:00.003+01:00

Another important point from that post is Microsoft has clarified their position on supporting Public Folders. They will support them for 10 years from the release of the next version of Exchange 2007. Let's assume the next release is in 2011. I am assuming this because the previous release to 2007 was in 2003. That means support for public folders will continue until 2011 + 10 = 2021. So will be thirteen more years of Public Folders support.

This is from the SharePoint blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/04/01/updated-exchange-public-folder-vs-sharepoint-guidance.aspx

They say it is difficult to migrate complex environments from Exchange to SharePoint, and there are differences in functionality. For example, SharePoint calendars do not have the sophisticated tools for inviting attendees to events like in Outlook/Exchange. Of course, I would merge SharePoint and Exchange if I could, Mail and Calendars belong in SharePoint in my opinion.

I still think consolidating your information management in SharePoint is a better long term strategy, but there is not the short term urgency there once appeared to be. A gradual migratio is the best bet.

And here's a useful link, it explains what SharePoint means by a Property, Column, Field, Content Type etc.

http://blogs.msdn.com/andrew_may/archive/2006/06/14/SharePointTermsColumnsFieldsProperties.aspx

Exchange Public folders.

2008-04-01T14:23:00.002+01:00

Microsoft recently published some new guidelines on whether companies should be implementing Exchange Public folders or adopting SharePoint instead. (http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/04/01/updated-exchange-public-folder-vs-sharepoint-guidance.aspx) What interests me most about this is the idea that certain overlaps between products could be removed in this way and give Microsoft a more coherent software platform. For the idea of software as a service, the the functionality in different applications should compliment each other not clash or overlap, and be available via one interface. I see that as being SharePoint. So, if we way goodbye to public folders, which overlap with SharePoint Document Libraries and Calendars, what's next?

I'd like to see the overlaps with project server removed. MS Project is good for managers leading a process, assigning resources, tracking progress. SharePoint is a tool for the people they track mainly. There is some syncing between the two, but I think there should be only one source and interface for the information, no more need for syncing.

My least favourite Office app is Outlook, it's slow, has a horrible warren of tabs and menus if you are trying to change something, and it should seamlessly work with SharePoint. If I had my way I would scrap Outlook and users would simply pick up their email via a SharePoint list that others can share, workflow on etc.

SharePoint is the Office platform, or should be in time.

Adoption of SharePoint and my dreams of the future.

2008-03-18T13:43:00.003Z

The most common question asked by users once SharePoint is deployed is "What do I use it for?" If specific business tasks have not been mapped to SharePoint, it is in danger of not being adopted to the extent it could be. Microsoft helps generate buzz around SharePoint in general, (http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/gearup/Pages/General/BuzzKit.aspx) but if the organisation has not spelled out to people what they specifically should use it for in realtion to their actual day to day work, it is expecting to much I think for people to make the creative link to to what they could use it for.

Rollout or adoption is a plan where you review what users do every day then work out how they could do this better with SharePoint. This not only makes sure SharePoint is adopted, it means you can track how well it has been adopted. You can track how much users have moved over to the new methods more accurately.

Microsoft and Google are both creeping closer to the world of distributed applications that the internet promises. But both fall short. Office Live Workspaces and Google Sites are too much "in the cloud" and do not integrate into businesses enough. I want to log in anywhere in the world and be online to all my business data, and that experience to be the same as sitting at my desk in work. This requires a few things:

Integrated authentication. I want to log in once only.
A distributed storage platform, that is secure and managed.
Once integrated application to write and share information.

Imagine one application that allowed me to write emails or documents or tasks or calendar events or contacts and associate them with a project space that others could also access and search.
It could have reports, auditing, retention policies, search and workflow if needed.
I could access it via the internet from anywhere and my internet browser and a username and password would be all I needed to use it.
I could track all the people involved easily and know what other things they are working on. These people could be anyone, not just people who work for my company.
My profile stays with me and contains everything I need including my work history (a dynamic CV constantly growing) to my social life, relationships, medical and legal documents, banking, insurance, bills I have to pay, everything.
I could pull in data from any other location I wanted, either my company or the public domain.
I could access it from my mobile device or a desktop device, it wouldn't matter, and there would be no need to sync changes between devices since all changes were made directly.
There would be no need to upgrade, update, patch whatever because the application would be constantly evolving.

Imagine that!

In my ideal world, there would be only one application to do all this, not 10 or 20 like there is now. Who would own and run it? The people of course. this would be too much power for one company. Look what happened with Enron. Like with transport, communications, medicine and the law, these things have to be a mixture of government regulated but privately subcontracted. Ultimately the people would "own" the system and their own content. So SharePoint has the potential to be much bigger and more pervasive in our society than it is now. Time will tell.

Free SharePoint Training

2008-02-26T12:44:00.001Z

Here are some links to user-led training Microsoft provides free:

http://blogs.technet.com/daven/archive/2008/02/21/more-free-training-for-sharepoint-2007.aspx

SharePoint and FAST.

2008-01-29T20:17:00.000Z

Why does SharePoint need FAST?

The answer, according to Russ Houberg is the relevancy, and what happens to the quality of your search's results as you scale up the size of your index. At the moment, 50 million documents is SharePoint's ceiling, and it needs to be higher because the amount of content we are generating is growing all the time. Back in the 90's Altavista was a good search engine, but as the Internet grew, the relevancy of the results it came back went down. With Search Server 2008, SharePoint will have federated search, so soon the amount of content SharePoint can handle will be much more than 50 million, but to keep the quality of the results good, something like FAST is needed.

As a recent press release said "Together, FAST and Microsoft are dedicated to delivering truly relevant, scalable and security-enhanced enterprise search solutions that drive business value for customers." Note the first two there: relevancy and scale. They go hand in hand.

Moving MOSS from 32bit to 64bit.

2008-01-15T22:56:00.001Z

I've very happy to see that Steve Smith and Penny Coventry have published about a whitepaper on moving a 32bit windows 2003 server/32bit SharePoint 2007 farm to 64bit Windows Server 2008 RC1/64bit SharePoint 2007 farm.

This helped take a lot of mystery out of the process for me, thanks guys!

You can find it here http://www.combined-knowledge.com/Downloads 2007.htm

Direct Link http://www.combined-knowledge.com/Downloads/How to move MOSS2007 from W2003_32bit to W2008_64bit.pdf

No more SharePoint 32bit

2007-12-19T09:02:00.000Z

Did you notice in the last post on Joel's blog, he mentions MOSS 2007 is the last 32bit version of SharePoint? It will be 64bit only the next version. So what's the advantage of 64bit for SharePoint? It means you can have more than 4GB of addressable memory (RAM) on your Web front-end servers, or in fact any server in your farm. And SQL server 2005 is faster at indexing content on 64bit. More on MOSS 2007 and 64bit here.

Another important point is that if you are setting up MOSS 2007 now, and you choose 64bit, you might find your upgrade path to the next version will be less complex, I don't know any details yet, but for example, an in-place upgrade would not be an option if you were on 32bit. So, learn your way around 64bit now, you'll be glad you did!

Xmas todo list, and details of SP1

2007-12-18T16:59:00.000Z

The inestimably erudite Mike Walsh has provided a detailed breakdown of the fixes in the MOSS 2007 Service Pack here: http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1298

And, after you have spent time with your loved ones and enjoyed some festive cheer, read Joel's "12 days of SharePoint Christmas" here: http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/12/17/12-things-to-do-over-the-holidays.aspx

They could be made into a song to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas :-)

"On the 12th day of Christmas, Joel Oleson blogged to me,
Recover your content,
Download training vids,
Update quota templates,
Review management tools,
Subscribe to RSS,
Tweak Content DBs,
Attend a conference,
Reseeeearch 64 biiiittt,
Read up on MOM,
Plan perf mon,
then some cap plan,
And prepare for Service Pack 1"!

Merry Christmas!

SharePoint Training on your Desktop.

2007-12-08T16:20:00.000Z

The final versions of the MS Office SharePoint training is out now. It's free and comes in two editions, one to add to your SharEPoint site if you are an admin, and another you can just install on your desktop:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA102488011033.aspx

More on accessability.

2007-11-29T10:04:00.000Z

The AKS (Accessability Kit for SharePoint) is now available in version 1.0 here. This is a set of tools for developers to create accessable sites, rather than a template anyone could use out of the box. There are different standards in different parts of the world, so this is just help towards achieving what is needed for your target audience. Some idea of what an accessable SharePoint site could look like is here if you follow the link in this post. And some clues about how you write something like this is here.

Minding my own Business...

2007-11-12T10:37:00.001Z

Hi all, I'm an independent consultant as you know, and if I want to expand my business, the normal path would be to take on more people. But I am against that because I don't want to become a people manager, with dependent employees. And I don't want to become someone else employee.

The problem is I can only sell my time by the hour, and there are only 160 hours or so in a month. So, my solution is to use the "Software as a Service" model and sell "Stephen as a Service". I'm calling it my SharePoint Mentoring Service.

This way I'm selling myself online, hire me by the month, it's cheaper than hiring me full time, but you've got me to call on for questions, solutions, and anything else I can do for you online. I'll also give each client a SharePoint site for tracking our relationship. This way I can take on more clients and still be my own boss and do the work myself. Think it's a good idea?

Now there are four Search options.

2007-11-08T20:55:00.000Z

Interesting moves from MS in the area of Search. Before with SharePoint you had 2 options: MOSS Search and WSS Search. MOSS search was not free and included cool stuff like People search and searching in other databases via the Business Data Catalog. WSS search was free, but could only search one WSS site. Now there are two more options. Search Server Express and Search Server. Search Server Express is now release candidate, so you can have a look, it is a free way to search across all your WSS sites. The downside is no People search and BDC, and it is only for Single Server farms. Search Server will connect to MOSS, some time early in 2008, and will allow for federated search, in other words, you can search other indexes from MOSS.

Here's a comparison of the features:

http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/serverproducts/default.aspx#compare

The bottom line is the more you pay the more you get, but Search Server Express is a great deal because it has great features and it is free.

Here's the announcement on the Enterprise Search Blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/enterprisesearch/archive/2007/11/06/announcing-microsoft-search-server-2008-express.aspx

And some details form the MS site:
http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/serverproducts/searchserverexpress/features.aspx http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb931107.aspx

Download Search Server Express 2008 (Release Candidate) here:
http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/downloads/default.aspx

Free SharePoint site in 25 mins.

2007-11-08T13:52:00.000Z

I have decided to set up a SharePoint User Group in Ireland, the first thing I did was create a free site based on SharePoint to share details. First meeting will be in the new year in Dublin, just waiting for my broken arm to heal. More about that in 2008.

OK, how to set up a free (or $6 if you want a custom URL) in 25 mins. Just go to this address and register:

http://enroll.freesharepoint.com/uddi/freesharepoint/

The URL www.freesharepoint.com works too.

And here's a tip, in Site Actions, click Site Settings and under Look and Feel click "reset to site definition" to get a clean site with no extra branding.

Also, set the regional settings here, and the site theme. Then do your lists, web parts, pages navigation etc.

If you want to make the site allow anonymous access, like I would need for memebers of my user group, in Site Settings go to Advanced permissions, settings, anonymous settings. Set this to entire website.

Then from http://www.godaddy.com I bought a domain name for about $6 and redirected it to my free site.

I created a free group in facebook to give me a forum and track members of SUGIE.

Thus, I created www.sugie.org in about 2o minutes. I did the logo in 5 mins in Photoshop. Easy when you know how.

Note, if you use a redirect URL, be careful when logging in, because the real URL has to be in the address bar, not the masked one, in other words, http://2375.freesharepoint2007.com not http://www.sugie.org

Security Bulletin for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007

2007-10-10T21:20:00.000+01:00

Just thought you should know about this. It is an important update to improve the security of your SharePoint system: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS07-059.mspx

It fixes a vulnerability that would allow someone to gain elevated privileges within a SharePoint site. Note this will not effect the server or the user's PC, just the rights they have in the site they have access to. Still, security is always preventitive not reactive, so you should get it.

Useful additions, and qualifications.

2007-10-04T11:29:00.000+01:00

It has been a nice few weeks for my ego! I am now a Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist (MCTS), specifically in configuring MOSS 2007. I decided that getting the MVP award was not guaranteed, so I needed a real qualification and passed the exam a few weeks ago. Details on these exams are here:

SPSFAQ010356 - What exams can I do to be certified in SharePoint?

Then, ironically, Microsoft gave me the MVP award for MOSS for 2008! This is an amazing honour and my sixth year receiving it, so I am very pleased.

I have also been selected to speak at TechEd IT Forum Barcelona in November, my session is:

OFF304 Become a SharePoint Guru: Best Practices for SharePoint Administrators.

This will be a breakout session on the Office System track, on Wednesday the 14th at 1545-1700. Hope to see you there.

I have also added the following FAQs:

941955 A Web Part that contains an ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 UpdatePanel control that uses the _doPostBack() function does not work when the URL of the hosting SharePoint Web site contains international characters

SPSFAQ0603137 - How can I avoid my databases having GUIDs in the name in SQL Server?
SPSFAQ0303174 - How can I customise the MOSS page title?
SPSFAQ010357 - Can I try out MOSS for free?
SPSFAQ010355 - Would I give up using File Shares and move to SharePoint?

Wow, I now have 1,500 FAQs on three versions of SharePoint!

[Update] I also added a link to Brad Saide's blog to my blogs page, I learned a lot about Kerberos and NLB with MOSS there!

Service Pack 3 out for SPS 2003 and WSS 2.0

2007-09-19T10:48:00.000+01:00

Here are the links to the downloads for SP3 for SPS 2003 and WSS 2.0:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=AB086D48-1148-48DE-B4EC-A6298367E5F0&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2BBFC89B-EB59-49FF-B58F-684693CB25A7

SharePoint for the disabled.

2007-09-06T09:45:00.000+01:00

Some great news on the SharePoint team blog, on foot of making SharePoint DoD compliant, Some background here, SharePoint will now be more accessable for people with disabilites, specifically the visually impaired. I have a physical disability myself, I walk with crutches, and so take a personal interest in this. And there are a lot more like me out there. Very welcome news.

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/09/05/pre-announcing-the-accessibility-kit-for-sharepoint-aks.aspx

Here is some more background on how complant MOSS is and about accessability mode:

http://www.21apps.com/2007/03/sharepoint-accessibility-is-moss-2007_4974.html

TechEd 2007 presentations and a CRM Web Part for MOSS 2007.

2007-08-18T19:20:00.000+01:00

CRM and SharePoint will be converging more and more, they have a great deal in common in that they track information in real time around people and business processes. CRM is about tracking people more, and SharePoint information, but I think they could eventually become the same think, with CRM built on the SharePoint platform. CRM 4.0, codenamed Titan is being built now, and it will be available in the 1st quarter of 2008. MS will also be making it available via SaaS, in other words software as a service.

This means you will pay per user and MS will host it. This will lead to better profit margins for MS, once the setup costs of the huge server farms is covered. For the companies it will mean faster setup, deployment and cheaper ongoing costs. And they will have all the failover, backup and capacity they could want. It will alsomean no more incomprehensible licencing. If you want CRM it will just be 100 employees = $50 per month. This is the future of software my friends, soon most software will be sold this way. Don't say I didn't warn you :-)

Here are some useful links:

Integration of CRM and SharePoint announced:
http://rehmangul.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/ms-crm-and-sharepoint-2007-integration/

How to configure a CRM Web Part in MOSS 2007:
http://blog.sonomapartners.com/2007/08/microsoft-crm-w.html

Here is a useful blog on the subject full of useful information:
http://sharepointsix.blogspot.com/

Note also that the next version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM will be offered via the web, or SaaS as MS is calling it: Software as a Service.
http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid11_gci1198320,00.html

And here are those TechEd presentations, look at the Dustin Miller one it is good fun!
http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/teched07.aspx?tab=overview

Enjoy!

Update: Here is an interesting post on SharePoint and CRM integration. Thanks for sending me the link Gustaf!

More Updates

2007-08-13T23:30:00.000+01:00

Firstly, I have resigned from echoTechnology. I wish them the best of luck in the future.

Last month, I spoke at the UK SharePoint User Group meeting in London with my fellow MVPs Steve Smith and Penny Coventry. It was held in Microsoft's new offices in Victoria Street, and it was a great experience, with a crowd of over 120. Here are some details, photos and slide decks. Steve spoke on Capacity Planning, Penny on SharePoint Designer and me Managing SharePoint. Steve and Penny taught me a lot, they are each seriously knowledgeable about their respecitive areas, I cannot recommend them highly enough.

And I would like to link to a frequently asked question that has been answered well by my fellow MVP Gary: "Why is there no link back from My Site, and how do I add one?" He gives a reasonable answer here and three ways to provide the link! Thanks Gary.

Here is a useful article on how to rename a MOSS server.

And a whole pile of useful Podcasts and Virtual Labs for anyone looking to get started with SharePoint.http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetoffice.aspx?tab=podcasts and http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetoffice.aspx?tab=virtuallabs

A few useful bits.

2007-07-27T15:10:00.000+01:00

SPSFAQ010351 - What solution providers are there for MOSS? Thanks to Mart Muller for this, is shows that just about everyone producing any kind of content platform is taking SharePoint seriously.

Also, SharePoint has now made MS $800m in 2007. To put this in perspective, that is actually a large chunk of all of their profits for this year!

As ever Joel Oleson's blog has some great stuff, especially on Capacity Planning, a subject dear to my own heart: http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/tags/Capacity+Planning/default.aspx

Yes, there's more!

2007-06-25T09:20:00.000+01:00

I also added some hotfixes and KB articles to the Knowledge Base articles page. Some interesing ones there on manually collocating ProClarity Analytics Server 6.3, on prescan.exe and content deployment.

Sync with Excel 2007, antivirus and the DoD

2007-06-24T22:36:00.000+01:00

Forgot these!

SPSFAQ010350 - Can Excel 2007 syncronize with SharePoint Lists?
SPSFAQ010349 - Is MOSS DoD certified?
SPSFAQ050325 - What is the best Antivirus tool for SharePoint 2007?

Two handy new links...

2007-06-24T13:20:00.000+01:00

One is to a VPC Microsoft has made available to allow you to try out MOSS 2007, it works for 30 days and is a big download, but a very convenient way to try it out!

http://www.spsfaq.com/links.asp?postid=1474

Also if you are getting to grips with the Business Data Catalog in MOSS, my fellow MVP Nick has created an app that will save you a great deal of time and energy in creating the applicaiton definitions. More details here:

http://www.spsfaq.com/links.asp?postid=1473

And I was sent a funny photo that shows how popular echo is in Canada if you care to look!

http://itproblogs.echotechnology.com/StephenCummins/default.aspx

Books and Blogs

2007-06-15T15:50:00.000+01:00

It took a while but I have finally updated my blogs and feeds page, it was a bit out of date and I think represents our ever-changing community a bit better now.

I must also give an extra big plug to my fellow MVPs who have their own SharePoint book due out in August, get it here!

Also, added this SPSFAQ:

SPSFAQ0603134 - Can MOSS 2007 crawl Lotus Notes?

Home at last!

2007-06-11T13:17:00.000+01:00

I am back home in Ireland to rain, an update on my daughter's wobbly tooth, and a jungle where a garden once was.

But I am taking the time to update my blog, here are a few useful things I have found recently.

General
SPSFAQ010349 - Is MOSS DoD certified?
SPSFAQ010348 - How do I get started with Workflows for MOSS and WSS 3.0?

Customising SharePoint
SPSFAQ0303173 - Can I re-skin SharePoint?
SPSFAQ0303172 - What limitations are there to using SharePoint Designer?

Backup/Antivirus
SPSFAQ050325 - What is the best Antivirus tool for SharePoint 2007?

Managing
SPSFAQ0803166 - How different versions of Office work together with the 2003 and 2007 versions of SharePoint?
SPSFAQ0803165 - Can I get a 64-bit ifilter for PDFs and MOSS 2007?

Downloads
SPSFAQ090368 - Where can I download some White Papers on MOSS 2007 implementations?
SPSFAQ090367 - Where can I download a good reporting tool for MOSS?
SPSFAQ090366 - Can I find some info on modifying alerts in MOSS?

Viva TechEd!

2007-06-04T01:50:00.000+01:00

I spent the day helping set up our Echo Technology booth 253 at TechEd and it looks brilliant! We will be giving demos of Echo 2007, specifically how to deploy and update workflows, web parts, features and solutions etc. This of course works from Dev to Test to Production too. Soon we will be adding the content migrator addin and a few other things in the works.

We're also part of a Booth Bingo competition which will give you a chance to win an Xbox 360. And a few more surprises. Our booth is in a sort of SharePoint Alley with our partners Syntergy who do content syncing, which complements our structure syncing well.

Some big news coming soon...

2007-05-10T17:28:00.000+01:00

I made a big decision about my career recently that I will soon be able to share with you guys. As you know I have been an independent SharePoint Consultant since 2001 and MVP since 2002, CV here, but now I have finally made the leap to a full time job with a company that I think will be delivering the only esssential tool for SharePoint Administrators and indeed Consultants and Developers.

In all the time I have been doing this work, this is the first time I have been convinced that something is an *essential* tool to have with SharePoint 2007.

Details soon, in the next week, I promise!

I have added some KB articles, go here to take a look.

Posts on a whole range of topics.

2007-04-18T04:48:00.001+01:00

As I said before, I have loads of stuff to put on the site!

Managing
SPSFAQ0603132 - Does Microsoft Dynamics work with SharePoint Server 2007?
SPSFAQ0603133 - Why do Alerts not work in Outlook 2007?

Extranet
SPSFAQ040310 - How do I enable Kerberos Authentication for MOSS 2007?
SPSFAQ040311 - How can I secure SharePoint Server 2007 for an Extranet?

Installation
SPSFAQ020320 - How can I evaluate 3rd party products that migrate SharePoint Portal 2003 to MOSS 2007?

Customising
SPSFAQ0303171 - Can I increase the default size of a site template from 10mb?
SPSFAQ0303172 - What limitations are there to using SharePoint Designer?

Some essential FAQs for admins of MOSS

2007-04-15T01:21:00.001+01:00

Another few essential FAQs for getting started with SharePoint Server 2007, and there are more to come as well.

Managing
SPSFAQ0603157 - Should I have more or less Site Collections in SharePoint Server 2007?
SPSFAQ0603158 - How do I add support for crawling PDFs in SharePoint Server?
SPSFAQ0603159 - How should I set up administrative or service accounts for SharePoint Server 2007?
SPSFAQ0603160 - What are the Microsoft Application Templates for SharePoint and how can I use them?

Downloads
SPSFAQ090365 - What is a good starting point for planning my SharePoint architecture?

Links
SPSFAQ0803164 - How do I get started with editing the CSS in SharePoint Server 2007?
SPSFAQ0603161 - Where can I start online administrator training for SharePoint Server 2007?

Finally getting more up to date!

2007-04-15T01:21:00.000+01:00

I have put over 90 links in the KB articles section, lots of interesting stuff in there, go take a look!

I have also added to the books section, I have more to add, but it is a sunny day and I want to get away from this PC.

Also the Jobs section is much changed, it is sort of a third party system that will let people look for jobs to do with SharePoint.

I have put in more ads again, hopefully they are not too intrusive.

I have so much more stuff to put up here, but this is a start.

Back to basics: Licencing, versions and the price of MOSS 2007

2007-03-26T12:39:00.000+01:00

Hi All, this is my first real update of the FAQ part of my site in quite a while. I have updated the blog, but I needed some good stuff to start updating the FAQ with. So I have started with the fundimentals: Versions, Licencing and Price. Hope you find it useful.

SPSFAQ010346 - What is the difference between MOSS 2007 Standard version and MOSS 2007 Enterprise version?

SPSFAQ010347 - How do I know work out the licencing for MOSS 2007, especially with an Internet facing site?

See you in Berlin, Orlando, Sydney etc.

2007-03-05T14:05:00.000Z

I was recently at the SharePoint Conference in Berlin, and my main impression was the scale of the thing, 1000s of attendees and 100s of 3rd party vendors exhibiting. SharePoint is in a very healthy state.

Although, after one too many beers on the first night, I was not in a healthy state myself. I don't remember the details of the conversation, but I came away with a good impression of the Web Part skills of Bamboo Solutions from Sweden.

I was also impressed by the web-based, graphical Workflow designer from Nintex. Anything that makes the more powerful tools in SharePoint easier to use gets full marks from me.

Here are some other upcoming SharePoint events:
SharePoint Connections, Orlando, FL, USA, March 25-28
APAC SharePoint Conference, Sydney, NSW, Australia, May 15-16
Tech·Ed 2007, Orlando, FL, USA, June 4-8

Dev Connections will have another SharePoint Connections event in the Autumn too I am sure.

We're not worthy!

2007-02-08T12:12:00.000Z

Once again Joel Oleson hits on the main things I want to know about for SharePoint administration and planning. Here are three articles I will single out.

Should I go x64 with SharePoint? Joel covers that question here. He says the following:

"Here's my recommendation... If you expect to store more than 5GB go with SQL Server. If you plan to support more than 5000 users I'd seriously recommend the x64. With low usage systems you may not see the ROI, but you may find the cost is minimal. If you're looking for an improvement or greater difference in end user performance on a system that isn't using more than 3GB you won't see it."

He also mentions there is not an ifilter for PDF for x64 yet, so be warned.

Next is NLB and Kerberos. I have a feeling Kerberos is going to grow very big, mainly because it will help bridge the divide between network and internet authentication. And NLB is my best friend because it keeps a farm going even in one server is down, and allows for patching without downtime. Some great tips there about keeping sessions sticky and having a second NIC. Read more here.

Finally, is Global and Multilingual deployments, and doing staged deployments of code and content from authoring to production environments.

All here.

Why can't we build this on SharePoint?

2007-02-07T08:17:00.000Z

I found this article interesting because I never really got on the "Web 2.0" bandwagon, even though I have been blogging for years and understand the problems of information structuring and taxonomy thanks to many years of working with networks, the interent and SharePoint.

For the record, I think SharePoint is way better than a simple wiki and web 2.0 is a nice idea for the internet, but not process driven enough the way businesses need to be. For that SharePoint is a much better fit.

http://fastforwardblog.com/2007/02/06/why-cant-we-build-this-on-sharepoint/

This article is interesting because it points to one possible direction SharePoint could go in. I especially like the focus on the individual rather than the group. SharePoint is seen to be focused on the group ro the organisation. However, My Site is an excellent opportunity to make the focus on the person. By the way, I think the name My Site is annoying, it is like "My Little Pony" or something. What about just calling it "SharePoint"? or Locus, or FocusPoint or something.

The SharePoint SDKs are out.

2007-01-23T10:21:00.000Z

The RTM versions of both our SharePoint SDK downloads are now available to Download. While these are mainly for developers, they are still the number 1 reference documents for SharePoint under the hood.

Install the MOSS SDK and ECM Starter Kit
Install the WSS SDK and Workflow Starter Kit

Five things most people don't know about me.

2007-01-15T13:06:00.000Z

I've been tagged (thanks Ivan!) by this meme like so many people.

1. I love the sea and am a qualified PADI open water diver, as well as learning Body Boarding this year in Enniscrone. I hope to retire to there one day.
2. I've a (very) small collection of rare Tarot card decks. One is from 1909, and was handed to me by a guy while I reading fortunes in Dublin one summer many years ago. I also have a deck issued in 1973 with the release of the James Bond movie Live and Let Die.
3. I boycott Nestle.
4. I once taught a course in Eastern Philosophy at University College Dublin.
5. I have a Level 61 Gnome Mage in World of Warcraft.

So, here's my 5 who have to do the same!
Nikander and Margriet Bruggeman
Gary Bushey
Bill English
Loke Kit Kai

Capacity planning information available.

2006-11-23T08:33:00.000Z

Hi all, MS has published the documents you will need for Capacity planning for WSS and MOSS, http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2006/11/22/planning-for-capacity-boundaries-estimating-performance-capacity-requirements-additional-factors-and-tools.aspx.

So obvious I forgot to post it!

2006-11-21T10:24:00.000Z

You can now download the final version of WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007. Details here as well as links on how to upgrade from B2TR: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/11/16/announcing-the-rtw-of-wss-and-office-sharepoint-server-2007-standard-and-enterprise-evaluation.aspx

Planning Security in MOSS 2007

2006-11-06T11:31:00.000Z

My favourite MOSS blogger is Joel, he's just posted some useful links on planning the security in MOSS. It covers authentication, policies and rights management. Take a look!

What else should I do?

2006-10-02T07:58:00.000+01:00

If you are planning your WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 infrastructure now, here's two things you should be looking at: Antivirus and Monitoring, with Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), don't say I didn't tell ya!

The Planning worksheets for Office SharePoint Server 2007 will also help you with Capacity Planning and more.

The Technical Refresh of Beta 2 is out.

2006-09-19T09:12:00.000+01:00

Hi All, The Technical Refresh of Beta 2 is out. Details are on the MS SharePoint Blog here. The install process may look a bit messy, but it is not too hard, and you will have to do it if you want to upgrade to the retail version! This link also has information on how to patch the Beta 2 install files so you can install B2TR from scratch. Best of luck!

Installing and upgrading the Beta to the Retail version.

2006-07-13T13:23:00.000+01:00

Bill English has done a nice job of describing the process of installing SharePoint 2007.

Here is the link

In case it looks like the site has been to quiet lately, don't worry, I am writing a new cheat sheet for SharePoint 2007. It will be finished when I know enough about the new version myself :-) I am also working on a major overhawl of the site, so watch this space!

The steps to upgrade from Beta 2 to the final release version (RTM) will be:

1. Apply the beta 2 Technical Refresh Patch
2. Uninstall SharePoint, I am guessing without deleting the databases.
3. Reinstall the final RTM version of SharePoint and reattach the databases.

Sounds a bit tricky, but it does mean that you could start deploying SharePoint now.

More info from Joel's blog here. One well worth keeping an eye on as it is full of very good information. Thanks Joel!

The V3 beta is available for download!

2006-05-23T17:20:00.001+01:00

http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/getthebeta.mspx

SharePoint 2007 is now available for download. The quickest way to get it installed is to download WSS v3, then on an Win2003 SP1 Standard Edition server, give it the application server role, install Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation Runtime Components Beta 2.2 (Build 3807.7), and Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. Then set the web server to ASP.NET 2. Then install WSS v3. Not too hard, but I find a clean install of Windows is the best thing to guarantee it works. Full install instructions are included in the download. Good luck!

S is for SharePoint, that's good enough for me.

2006-05-15T21:03:00.000+01:00

What's new in SharePoint, in Sesame Street Markup Language :-)

S is for Search with AND, OR, +/-, Siebel and SAP.
H is for How Happy I am to Have Master Pages to control style.
A is for any Authentication with Anything, Accessibility, and Audiences and Column Templates.
R is for Report Center Sites, Recycle Bin, RSS, Rollups of your docs across sites, Records Management, Relevence and Ranking in Search.
E is for Enterprise Content Management and Extensibility and Programmability with ASP.NET 2.0
P is for finding People (Knowledge Network), Policies and Auditing and Processes like Workflow.
O is for Offline, with Outlook and Groove.
I is for Interactive Business Intelligence and InfoPath forms in your browser.
N is for Navigation and Networking people via Wikis and Blogs.
T is for Telephones, now SharePoint works on Mobile devices.

As SharePoint grows, and it has sold 75 million CALS to 10,000 customers, it still have the same problem it always had. No-one seems to be able to grasp what it is! The term "Office Server" says it all to me, but the danger is it will become so fragmented and obscure it will try to do too many small things and forget to do the big things well, which are Search, Online/Offline publishing, Collaboration, and now BI and Workflow. Time will tell!

SharePoint Products and Technologies Community

2006-05-15T12:27:00.000+01:00

SharePoint Products and Technologies Community

This is an excellent addition from Microsoft for people looking for the SharePoint online community: http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/community.mspx

And I got a link there too :-)

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Demo

2006-05-15T10:16:00.000+01:00

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Demo

Microsoft is starting to promote Office SharePoint Server 2007 themselves now, and this is the link to that information. I have not said much here yet, I'm waiting until I have something interesting to say!

Here is another useful set of links I found to OSS stuff, thanks to Joris for it!

Please welcome... "Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007"

2006-02-16T20:54:00.000Z

A large kitten has escaped the bag, the new SharePoint, I guess out later this year despite the name, will be called...

"Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007"

"Office SharePoint Server 2007 will become the single server that unifies portal and content management, business insight and business process capabilities to enable customers to collaborate more effectively, make more informed decisions and control content across line-of-business applications."

Business Intelligence

Here is more on the BI (Business Intelligence) features of SharePoint. Note the mention of "Create and share server-based spreadsheets." Interesting huh?

Project and Communicator

It will work more closely with Project and Communicator, something I definitely welcome, I think Project overlapped rather than integrated with SharePoint before.

"Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, the new name for a significantly updated release of Microsoft Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003, will deliver improved information management and teamwork solutions through integration with new Microsoft Office SharePointÂ® Server 2007 capabilities, as well as inclusion of Microsoft Office Communicator."

There is something called Office Project Portfolio Server, that goes with the existing Office Project Server ang gives users a view of the entire life cycle of multiple projects rather than just the ability to execute one project.

Son(s) of FrontPage

There are two products to replace FrontPage, one will be called "Office SharePoint Designer 2007" and will be used for workflow too.

"Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, partially based on Microsoft Office FrontPageÂ® 2003 technologies, is part of the next-generation Web design tools that will help customers create and customize Microsoft SharePoint Web sites and build workflow-enabled applications using SharePoint Technologies."

The second is "Microsoft Expression Web Designer, the next-generation tool for designing dynamic, standard-based Web sites, to deliver a complete set of tools for Web design and development."

More on this here "Q&A: Microsoft Unveils Next Generation of Web Authoring and Design Tools".

The Empire's New Groove

Here is how the various versions of Office will be divided up. I notice Groove 2007 in there, along with Groove Server, Microsoft Office Live Groove and "Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007". Interesting to see Office Live mentioned more too.

Office Forms Server 2007

"Office Forms Server 2007 will provide a scalable, security-enhanced, standards-based solution that centralizes control and management of electronic forms by allowing customers to use a common Web browser to interact with information. It will help streamline organizations’ forms-driven business processes with existing systems." Though it looks like InfoPath will continue to only be bundles with the Enterprise and Professional Plus versions of Office. Oh, there are now seven versions of 2007 Office.

Notice as well, MS is calling it the "2007 Microsoft Office" system instead of Microsoft Office 2007... Don't ask me why!

More hints on Office12

2006-02-09T09:21:00.000Z

There is plenty of info out about Office 12 if you know where to look. You can subscribe to the beta program here. Arpan Shah's WebLog mentions the fact that SharePoint search will be able to search Business data, even in third party databases. He also mentions a few other features he likes. I would talk more about my own opinions, but I can`t, I am under an NDA!

The SharePoint Team Blog is definitely the place to look for intriguing hints. Jonathan Kauffman, Group Program Manager for SharePoint Portal Server mentions that item-level security and workflow will be included.

Look down the right hand side of that page to see who else in MS is blogging about SharePoint, they are all sharing good stuff.

He also mentions the first approaches to migration and upgrading I have seen out there. He also mentions support for other browsers, which is good news.

Another piece of good news, Mark Harrison has linked to a free promotion of Sybari Antivirus software for SharePoint available untill June 2006.

More cool free stuff, some really nice wree WSS themes from Infotech Canada.

The Admin Guide for SharePoint has been updated to include
using Windows SharePoint Services with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Windows Server R2.

I will be speaking at SharePoint Connections April 2-5. This will be the first major SharePoint convention this year and will have lots of good SPS2003 and even some vNext information at it. Other SharePoint MVP speakers include Daniel Larson, Bil Simser, Brad Smith, Patrick Tisseghem and Scot Hillier.

I will be talking about best practices for configuring Search, how to create a good Taxonomy and how to Administer SharePoint effectively.

Oh, and the hotel is 15 minutes from Walt Disney World as well as having voted one of the best swimming pools in the USA on Tripadvisor :-) In case you needed further convincing...

Some more hints on the Project Server like features in SharePoint vNext here and here.

And another good tip from Mart Muller`s weblog is around restoring Documents.

The Quick Launch Web Part is also a great improvement on the default navigation in WSS.

Another big update! Version 3 of SharePoint will make 2006 a very busy year for us SharePointers. I hope I can keep on top of it all!

Finally, a real update!

2006-01-09T13:48:00.000Z

This update has some real new SharePoint stuff, not just my fixation on Google!

There is all manner of goodies, first is something useful for when the account SharePoint was installed with changes or needs to be changed. This lists in brief everywhere you will need to go to fix this, note, in a server farm, this may be more than one machine:

SPSFAQ0602155 - What do I do if the user account SharePoint was installed with is deleted, the password changed, or needs to be changed?

Some updates are handy fixes or practical little scripts:

SPSFAQ0302168 - In a survey, how do I change the text 'Specify your own value'?
SPSFAQ050222 - Script that finds all your site collections and makes a seperate backup of each
SPSFAQ0302169 - How to make a calculated column that says how old an item is in days etc
SPSFAQ0302170 - How can I validate SharePoint file names on upload?

Some explain aspects of SharePoint well:

SPSFAQ0602153 - How do I get started understanding Reporting Services for SharePoint?
SPSFAQ0602154 - Scoping and Configuring the Content Index for the Site Directory in SharePoint Portal Server 2003
SPSFAQ0802159 - What is the difference between using Biztalk vs Windows Workflow Foundation for Workflow with SharePoint?
SPSFAQ0802160 - Can SPS2003 support ASP.NET 2.0?

Some are clever extensions to the application or give you the ability to make your own:

SPSFAQ090264 - Multiple Document Library Browser Web Part
SPSFAQ0802160 - Is there a good way to display Windows Folders in SPS?
SPSFAQ0802156 - Programming Role-based Security in Web Parts
SPSFAQ0802158 - How can I check for broken links in SPS?
SPSFAQ0302169 - A good way to display a users inbox in SPS

Some look to the future, and since it is 2006 now, a fitting thing to end on:

SPSFAQ0803161 - First look at Excel Server and SharePoint
SPSFAQ0802157 - Slide decks from PDC2005

I hope you have a happy new year.

update: last but not least: Sharepoint Reporter and The Blog of Luis Du Solier G

Imagine if Google did SharePoint.

2005-10-31T22:20:00.000Z

I saw this article about Google's intention to get into the corporate space via search not big news of course, but there is a Web Part in beta to allow the Google Search Appliance and the Google Mini to crawl data stored in Windows Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows Sharepoint Services based sites. They already crawl everything else, and the Google mini costs about $3k and no extra hardware to buy as far as I can make out, and no need for lots of costly windows licences either.

Now, imagine Google designed a web-based portal tool and put it on the Google Mini that had blogger, gmail, picasa, google mini search, wikis, news, newsgroups and was designed to be a corporate intranet portal. They'd be a right on SharePoint's turf wouldn't they? Oh, don't forget the Blogger addin for Word...

CIO Today - Infrastructure - Microsoft's Back-Office Blitz

2005-10-27T13:38:00.000+01:00

CIO Today - Infrastructure - Microsoft's Back-Office Blitz: Here is a good article on the positioning of SharePoint in Microsoft's new range of products. It shows that SharePoint is Microsoft's best example of a browser-based application to compete with Google, and importantly it integrates Office, the WWF and Dynamics.

SP2 for SPS is out.

2005-10-19T22:52:00.000+01:00

Here it is folks, the main reason to keep up with the service pack for SharePoint so you can migrate to the next version v3 whenever that's ready.

Service Pack 2 for SharePoint Portal Server 2003 has been made available from the Download Center

SP2 introduces support for the following:

Support for running on 64-bit machines in 32-bit emulation mode
Support for Reverse Proxy and Alternate URL support
Support for IP-Bound virtual servers
Support for off-box SSL termination
Support for SQL Server 2005

Lastly, SharePoint Portal Server 2003 with SP2 will be Kerberos-enabled by default.

SP2 for WSS is out

2005-10-04T23:05:00.000+01:00

Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Server is out now, and the main things it does is do a lot more with configuring IIS with WSS, support for SQL Server 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0, as well as adding support for Firefox.

My fellow MVP Bill Simser has done such a good job of documenting this, I'll just link to his excellent blog, thanks Bill!

However, if you're running SPS, not just WSS, some of the IIS stuff won't work untill SP2 for SPS ships, so, look out for that.

SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint!

2005-09-15T20:06:00.000+01:00

Here's a little movie about the new SharePoint, if you've been having infoverload the last few days, it's a bit waffly, but worth watching, plus here's a long list of new v3 features. Thanks for that Dustin!

And here's another SharePoint Movie from Channel 9 You see a tiny bit of the UI: there's diffs and version history on list items and documents, compliance, linking Outlook, AD, and SPS. RSS 2.0 feeds are enabled per list and per site. Outlook has an Aggregator and so will IE7. YOu can do Wikis too. This is like a editable encyclopedia.

Alerts will allow you to ask for very specific alerts like "If Bob changes any high priority items on this list". There'll be 2-way sync between Outlook and SharePoint, so you can share your tasks or calendars.

Existing Web Parts will still work! And the UI will be easier to customise through "Master Pages" Change once, see it everywhere. More updates soon!