Mart Muller's Weblog

November the 23rd, the Dutch Information Worker User Group will have its 3rd meeting. This evening we will focus on the MOSS 2007 Business Data Catalog as well technical as the strategy behind it.

Register here and see the agenda here. (sessions will be in Dutch).

Via Arno I ran into an interesting set of blog postings about PowerShell and what you can do with it in SharePoint. To be honest, it is the first time I noticed this and it seems to be quite interesting in some scenario's.

What is PowerShell?

"PowerShell is 'DOS for the .NET generation' (c) and its a fantastic way to both interactively control SharePoint via its Object Model from a command line and to create scripts that can be run in a batch."

Anyway, to give you an impression and some hands to start with:

• Windows PowerShell 1.0 RC2 (update package)
• PowerShell and SharePoint - Oh Yes
• SharePoint/PowerShell 1: Make me a Portal
• Presentation Slides ans PowerShell code

With thanks to Daniel for mentioning!

The Explorer View feature that is included with Windows SharePoint Services and is also available in Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server lets users access files stored in the SharePoint database using the familiar Windows Explorer interface. To the end user, this appears to be a very simple and robust feature. In reality, it is the result of a complex series of interactions between many individual components provided by separate Microsoft products.

This white paper is an effort to accomplish three things:

• Provide an overview of the Explorer View architecture.
• Document the causes and resolutions of problems you are likely to encounter when using the Explorer View in a corporate environment.
• Describe basic troubleshooting steps to be performed before engaging Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS).

Download here

One of my first posts ever was about the problems and inconsistancy of SharePoint layout pages. Read it here and here...

Anyway, my first impression of MOSS 2007 beta 1 was quite good, looking at masterpages, features and the design options with SharePoint Designer and WCM options. I have to say, there has been some great improvements!

But then, the longer I work with MOSS 2007 (beta2tr), the more problems I run into. I've posted before how to avoid tables in the default SharePoint menu control, but one of the most annoying things are the use of CSS in template pages. For example, the searchresults.aspx page:

 

(inline styles - click to enlarge)

 

 
(more styles and inconsistant html - click to enlarge)

I guess, consistant styles and html is low priority in the SharePoint team. I'm still hoping the RTM will solve these things...

We do not want to stand still in technology and, especially as MS gold partner, we want to use the latest products like Office 2007 and MOSS 2007.

The new Office file format is used within our organization. Expecially with the developer options and the 'openess' of the new format, we are very happy and see lots of business options. Yesterday, as announced, the new Xml Paper Specification (XPS) was released to version 1. Another choice for us to make: PDF or XPS?

Although Microsoft has released viewers and compatibility packs for the new formats so older versions can deal with the formats, the question still is: will the rest of the world follow? We've experienced some problems with using new formats: colleagues and customers that cannot open the file. It's worth a discussion.

So, what do you think of using the file format? Are you happy loosing Adobe Reader? How should we deal with the fact that not all people can open the file format? I'm looking forward to your comments!

Version 1 is online [via Andy]

The XML Paper Specification describes XPS documents. An XPS Document is a paginated representation of electronic paper that is described by an XML-based language. XPS Documents are open, cross-platform documents that allow customers to effortlessly generate, share, print, and archive paginated documents. Microsoft has published the XML Paper Specification and made it available royalty-free.

XML Paper Specification v.1.0 (October 2006)
XPS License Overview

Justin Chandoo (Sr. Product Manager SharePoint Search) has released some information about the number of documents that are supported in different MOSS 2007 licences. Straight from the article:

"As we approach RTM milestone for SharePoint Server 2007, I am extremely pleased to announce that the out of the box maximum recommended document limit for search in SharePoint Server 2007 is 50 million documents in a single index limited by hardware. SharePoint Server can support multiple indexes, so deployments above 50 million documents are possible on a custom solution basis. If you have a requirement for searching more than 50 million documents, please contact your Microsoft representative.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Search (Enterprise Edition) also has an out of the box maximum recommended document limit of 50 million documents in a single index. There is no technically enforced document limit, but this product is limited to having only one index.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Search (Standard Edition) has a limit of 500,000 documents and is also limited to having only one index.

Answers to some FAQs:

Q: What is a “document” in terms of Search?

A: A document can be anything from a Word or PowerPoint file, to a web page, an individual SharePoint list item, one people entry, or an SAP customer record. 

Q: Does a very large document count as more than one item?

A: No. For example, a 10KB Word file and a 10MB Word file are each considered one document.

Q: What is considered to be an “average document size”?

A: This really depends on the content sources and file types that make up a corpus – so “average document size” can be very different for different customer environments. With Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, we now index individual list items (which was not the case with WSS 2.0). As a result, in environments where WSS 3.0 lists are used heavily, the large number of such small “documents” can reduce the average document size to as low as 10KB. Customers making limited use of WSS 3.0 lists will most likely see a larger average document size based on the overall composition of their corpus.

Q: What is the maximum number of indexes supported by SharePoint Server 2007?

A: SharePoint Server 2007 supports a maximum of 20 indexes. SharePoint Server 2007 for Search (Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition) supports only one index.

Q: What are my options if I purchase SharePoint Server 2007 for Search (Standard Edition) and my needs grow?

A: If your search needs exceed the 500,000 document limit of SharePoint Server 2007 for Search you can upgrade to SharePoint Server 2007 for Search (Enterprise Edition) which has no technically enforced document limit. In addition, you can upgrade from SharePoint Server 2007 for Search Standard or Enterprise edition to SharePoint Server 2007 if you wish to take advantage of the enhanced search and integrated information management functionalities provided by SharePoint Server 2007."

Read the complete article

Lawrence has created a Windows Live Search macro feature to search the SharePoint Community. Great initiative, which filters the results to the ones you're looking for. Just added it to my search providers in IE7.

Go searching on http://search.live.com/macros/lliu/spsearch

In WSS2, we've ran into several problems when it comes to querying document libraries with the SPQuery class. The problem with this method is, that it works great on lists, except is cannot deal very well with folders in a list (Document Library, Forms Library, etc). From the SDK:

"SPQuery can only get the items in the current folder; SPQuery will not get the items in subfolders. This is the design feature in SharePoint Portal Server 2003. To get the items in subfolders, it is necessary to change to the subfolder in SPQuery first. Also it is necessary to specify the format for using dates in the query. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/spptsdk/html/tscSPQuery_SV01013584.asp) "

One of the limitations of document libraries, is that the performance will drop when putting more then 1000 documents in a folder (probably because of the view). Especially when putting a large number of documents in a library, you will have to use folders.

No problem so far, but looking at the SPQuery class, it will only return listitems per folder. So, when using folders, you will have to recursively look in all folders and subfolders, to query all the documents. For 20 folders this will mean you will have to perform 21 queries, a big problem when it comes to performance!

So, this made me think there should be a solution for this problem. Steve triggered me with his article about capacity planning in WSS 3, to look more into the problem. And guess what, the article says 2000 documents per folder, not a big improvement there. And looking at the SPQuery class in WSS3, it still has the same bevaviour when it comes to document libraries.

Then I remembered Patrick telling about a new class, called the SPSiteDataQuery, which can be used to query data in site collections. Great invention, which is also the solution for querying a complete document library at once!

SPSite site = SPControl.GetContextSite(this.Context); SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb(); SPSiteDataQuery qry = new SPSiteDataQuery(); string date = SPUtility.CreateISO8601DateTimeFromSystemDateTime(DateTime.Today); qry.Query = "<orderby><fieldref name="Title"></orderby>" + "<where><geq><fieldref name="Created">" + "<value type="DateTime">" + date + "</value></geq></where>"; qry.Lists = "<lists servertemplate="101">"; qry.ViewFields = "<fieldref name="Title">"; qry.Webs = "<webs scope="SiteCollection">"; DataTable tbl = web.GetSiteData(qry);Great way to do more with queries, expecially when it comes to document libraries (and many other scenario's)!

Via Bink some more Office RoundTable product pictures and movies.

 

First two pictures are RoundTable camara's which construct the image on picture 4. Picture three is a Wireless USB adapter for a headset.

More here

We start to hear more and more about Unified Communications lately. It is something we at Tam Tam are really looking forward to integrate into our new telephony infrastructure. Unified Communications is cool!

Today, MS published a story about RoundTable, a new UC application for conferencing calls.

"RoundTable is a table-top device, not much bigger than a traditional speaker phone at the base. It can be connected to a standard PC to offer synchronized voice and video conferencing. The device creates a 360-degree, panoramic video of side-by-side images of everyone who is taking part in the conference. It tracks the flow of the conversation, so the image and voice of the person who is speaking are spotlighted. People across many locations can attend meetings together virtually.

RoundTable works with Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Live Meeting, allowing companies to integrate virtual presentations, shared whiteboards and file sharing into their audio/video conferences. If someone misses a conference call, the RoundTable sessions can be can be recorded and viewed later."

Read the full story here

Thanks to Stef for mentioning it:

“I've finally released my first component in the PortalBuilder SDK for SharePoint 2007: the Visual Studio WSSv3 Feature Project Template. It automatically references the WSSv3 XSDs in your deployment, which gives you full intellisense for your project's CAML.  It also uses MSBUILD tasks and targets to automatically activate and install your feature in your environment. (It's built for developers who know how to write features... it won't write your feature for you).

 

After WSSv3 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (about a month away) I'll refine it a little and start packaging up the SDK components into a nice installer. For now though you'll just have to put the zip file in your documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates. Download it at workspaces.gotdotnet.com/sharepointconnections, and let me know how it works for your developer teams. “

 

Download here

New in WSS 3 MOSS 2007 is the Data Connection Library, which is a library for storing data connections. One of the purposes of a data connection library is storing data connections like web services that are used in InfoPath.

For one of our customers, we created an InfoPath form that used external web services for retrieving and storing data. The form worked fine, but once published to a forms server, the form could be opened in a browser, but the web services returned an error in the web form. When looking at the event log, it reported that the data connection to the web service wasn't trusted.

InfoPath (2007) has the option to convert a data connection to a UDCX file in a SharePoint library. Once deployed the InfoPath form again with the new data connections in SharePoint, the web services are trusted and they work perfectly.

Another great new feature of MOSS 2007.

More info:

• http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library...
• http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/f/?en-us/library/44e91039-e88f-4088-a97e-1d090a23a1651033.mspx

One of the new site templates in WSS3 are Blog and Wiki sites. MS had listened very well to the feedback they got from WSS2/SPS2003. At Tam Tam I've done many SharePoint projects where organizations liked the idea of creating blogs... see here and here. Same thing for Wikis, a powerful tool for organizations to deal with knowledge. Hey guess what, look here ;).

Microsoft has now released a whitepaper about using blogs and wikis within organizations... with SharePoint 2007 of course. Thanks to Lawrence for mentioning.

Download it here

Arpan mentions a link update of a whitepaper called Understanding Workflow in Windows SharePoint Services and the 2007 Microsoft Office System.

Although I also mentioned it last month, I think it is a very useful document in understanding the process and options regarding workflow. I get a lot of questions about how and where to start with workflow in WSS3/MOSS 2007 and this document is describing most of it.

October 25th is the date that Microsoft will close down its Office Preview site and will release Office 2007 to manufacturer later this year [edit]. Around that time, the TR cannot be downloaded anymore and the support pages will move to http://support.microsoft.com.

Time flies when you're having fun! ;)

I've been struggling with masterpages a lot the last few days. To create one I used the SharePoint Designer which is quite easy. Within a few hours you can easily create a whole new design with a custom CSS.

So far so good. In WSS3 you can set the masterpage of a site using SharePoint designer, just rightclick the new masterpage and set it to default.

This method however, does not set al the new created sites with the new masterpage. So, how can we deploy the new masterpage?

• Put the new masterpage in the following directory: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\GLOBAL
• Go to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\GLOBAL\XML and open de ONET.XML.
• At the bottom of the page add a new masterpage entry so it will look something like this:

<Modules>
<Module Name="DefaultMasterPage" List="116" Url="_catalogs/masterpage" RootWebOnly="FALSE">
<File Url="[any name].master" Type="GhostableInLibrary" IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="TRUE" />
<File Url="default.master" Type="GhostableInLibrary" IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="TRUE" />
</Module>
</Modules>

This code will automatically put your custom masterpage into the masterpage gallery when a new site is created.

• Change the default masterpage to the new one. Look for the following line: <Configuration ID="0" Name="Default" MasterUrl="_catalogs/masterpage/default.master"> and change it to your new masterpage.
• Hit save, and do an IISRESET.

Now create a new site and the new masterpage is set automatically.

Beware that when you create a masterpage with SharePoint designer you cannot just export the masterpage to the filesystem, because it will mess up your masterpage code. You can better copy the masterpage code to notepad, and save it as your masterpage on the filesystem.

Enterprise Content Management in MOSS 2007 has been improved a lot. Microsoft has listened to the needs of organizations and has put focus on ECM solutions.

Not surprising that MS and EMC have agreed on an alliance, to achieve better ECM solutions.

Via PressPass:

EMC Corporation and Microsoft Corp. today announced a new enterprise content management (ECM) alliance aimed at helping to enable organizations to become People-Ready with their compliance, regulatory and other critical business data. This alliance enables information workers to take advantage of the Microsoft^® tools and applications they use every day to access and contribute to the critical business processes available in their ECM infrastructure. As part of this strategic alliance, EMC will introduce a set of new content and archiving products that enable tighter integration between the industry-leading EMC Documentum ECM platform and Microsoft solutions and platform technologies. This announcement builds on the existing EMC and Microsoft alliance. (The previous announcement about their relationship is available at http://www.emc.com/news/emc_releases/showRelease.jsp?id=4095).

EMC will bring to market new solutions that seamlessly integrate the EMC Documentum platform with multiple Microsoft solutions and platform technologies including Microsoft Office SharePoint^® Server 2007, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, SQL Server™ 2005 and enterprise search solutions. Microsoft provides content management capabilities in SharePoint Server 2007 today. With this new alliance SharePoint users can take advantage of the advanced ECM capabilities of the Documentum platform. Information workers will be able to access the Documentum platform natively from within Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the Microsoft Office system, enabling users to leverage the power of the Documentum platform in areas such as advanced records management, business process management, imaging and rich media from their preferred Microsoft applications.

Read complete article

By the way, check out my Michiel's blog for more ECM.

Will take place at February 12th - 14th 2007 in Berlin (Germany).

"As your enterprise continues to grow, so does the need for centralized coordination of its communication processes and its information management. But SMBs can equally benefit from a system that helps them coordinate all processes efficiently.

At the 2007 SharePoint Conference in Berlin, Microsoft and selected partners will introduce you to leading-edge solutions enabled by SharePoint Server 2007.

In over 50 lectures, round tables and industry-specific user reports spread over three days, we will show you how to:

• easily create, manage and monitor content and processes across the entire enterprise;
• ensure 24x7 access to all business-critical information, find specific information quickly, and make well-informed decisions accordingly;
• further improve communication and collaboration among your employees, customers and suppliers;

…all that from your familiar office environment!

Place your reservation now!"

Go to the SharePoint Conference website. Hey, it's made in MOSS 2007 :)

Thanks to Mark for mentioning