@sharepointdev: My First Week on Twitter

randalli — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:29:00 GMT

I signed up for a twitter account last week under the alias @sharepointdev: http://twitter.com/sharepointdev.

The inspiration came from an NPR segment about companies using twitter to monitor tweets about their products or brands (e.g., Comcast). I thought about it a while and I came to the conclusion that this was an ideal way for me to monitor forum activity because I often don't have time to read and respond to MSDN Forum postings because of my busy schedule. But with only 140 characters, I can usually point people in the right direction and get them unstuck when they choose to write a post related to "SharePoint" or other keywords I search for and monitor. Having worked with the SharePoint product team for over 5 years, I am also in a unique position where I sometimes know just enough information about a wide variety of issues.

The Verdict
I was really happy with my first week on twitter and what I learned or helped people with. I picked up over 30 followers, and I even got looped into some conversations back and forth related to something that might have otherwise been a source of frustration (e.g., updates and patches) for some of the folks out there looking for help. I am thinking of twitter as an open forum where I can take the pulse of where SharePoint users are asking for guidance.

Here is an overview of where I pointed people over the course of the last week. I saw one issue come up twice (Excel Services), and overall I was able to answer several questions using existing resources on MSDN and TechNet:

@niphal: Here is an Office Online page with an introduction to SharePoint Designer and its features/capabilities: http://tinyurl.com/5k7qe5 about 17 hours ago from web in reply to niphal
@jmMcL: Have you tried creating a new view (do you have permissions to)? What are the current settings of your list? about 22 hours ago from web in reply to jmMcL
@top_book: You can also preview chapters 2 and 3 [of Inside Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by Ted Pattison] online on MSDN: http://tinyurl.com/5ml9nt 12:50 PM yesterday from web in reply to top_book
@JDWade: We appreciate the feedback and the suggestions; I passed these along to the TechNet site manager and will follow you from now on! 12:36 PM Oct 21st from web in reply to JDWade
@travelingdarren: SharePoint Performance and Capacity Planning Resource Center on TechNet: http://tinyurl.com/5zqc4t 12:10 PM Oct 21st from web in reply to travelingdarren
@JDWade: The Updates Resource Center on TechNet is intended to guide SharePoint IT Pros through updates: http://tinyurl.com/36hlpf 11:56 AM Oct 21st from web in reply to JDWade
@bfgreen: The Excel Services Resource Center on MSDN could give you a starting point: http://tinyurl.com/52mo6a 8:14 AM Oct 21st from web in reply to bfgreen
@pseale: Check out our MSDN article about Creating a Custom Timer Job in SharePoint (written by AC): http://tinyurl.com/3vbe2o 1:35 PM Oct 15th from web in reply to pseale
@TheRecruiterGuy: Here is a showcase of some of the best-implemented WCM sites for SharePoint out there right now: http://tinyurl.com/4dllwq 7:19 AM Oct 15th from web in reply to TheRecruiterGuy
@spleendini: Check out How To Create a Minimal Master Page in SharePoint + the Wiki comments on MSDN: http://tinyurl.com/5kzrou 7:16 AM Oct 15th from web in reply to spleenboy
just published on MSDN: Performing Incremental Crawling with the BDC in MOSS 2007: http://tinyurl.com/3u7em9 2:40 PM Oct 14th from web
@UMLGuy: Here is the 7 Dev projects PDF: http://tinyurl.com/ytvres. And here is a free MOSS VHD you can download: http://tinyurl.com/366tzc. 10:54 AM Oct 13th from web in reply to UMLGuy
@pseale: Here's a great article for working with large lists in SharePoint: http://tinyurl.com/yrv6xd 10:12 AM Oct 13th from web in reply to pseale
@UMLGuy: A good place to start is with the SharePoint Administrator's Companion from MS Press and Bill English: http://tinyurl.com/3luxrk 9:09 AM Oct 13th from web in reply to UMLGuy

All in all, I'm going to continue to monitor any tweets I come across that mention "sharepoint" or other keywords and tags (such as "bdc" or "authentication" or "web parts"), as well as the people I'm following. If you're a SharePoint developer, IT Pro, consultant, or solution provider, feel free to follow me and I'll do the same to keep tabs on what's going on out in the community. We've often got an answer or at least a direction we can point you toward. Also, check out my feed for what's recently been published! http://twitter.com/sharepointdev.

SharePoint Workflow Guidance and Best Practices

randalli — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:11:00 GMT

I had a question today about SharePoint Workflow "Dos and Don'ts" and I thought it might be a good idea to share the response more broadly.

I'm also working on compiling a list of Best Practices for Custom Application Development in SharePoint, which will be published next month on MSDN as part of a larger MSDN/TechNet series on the subject of guidance and best practices. Stay tuned for updates...

SharePoint Workflow Resources

The Workflow Resource Center on MSDN is a good place to start for guidance: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb421687.aspx.

**Update 8/29: Here is a great Workflow Best Practices paper as well: Developing Workflow Solutions with SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows Workflow Foundation

This blogger also did a good job compiling links within the SDK and to other MSDN & Web resources, as well as other sources of Best Practices for Workflows:

http://blogs.msdn.com/socaldevgal/archive/2007/07/06/does-your-sharepoint-workflow-look-like-this.aspx

Also, the downloadable MOSS SDK has a lot of workflow templates and samples.

Knowing when to use SharePoint Designer (SPD) workflows v. Visual Studio (VS) workflows

A good place to start is with the freshly updated SDK: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms461944.aspx.

There is also this guidance offered in the SharePoint team blog:

SPD is geared toward the Web Designer/Business admin. It's easy to learn, and you don't have to write any code. You can put together a lot of workflows with just sequence of actions and conditions. The other cool thing about SPD is that you can deploy remotely (vs. VS, where you have to deploy on the server box)

However, there are a few limitations (deploys to one list at a time, no InfoPath forms, only sequential workflows). So you will want to use VS if…

· You need to create a workflow that can be deployed to all lists in a site collection.

· You want to use InfoPath forms for your workflow

· You need more actions than the ones available by default in SPD

· You want to use state machine workflows

Hope this helps,

Randall

SharePoint Content and Resources : SharePoint Designer

@sharepointdev: My First Week on Twitter

SharePoint Workflow Guidance and Best Practices