The Document Information Panel is a feature of Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint. This feature is designed to allow users to enter information about the document they are working in. This information can then be used as live fields throughout the document and can even be delivered and synchronised to SharePoint as metadata columns to assist in content classification and retrieval.
Tomorrow night at this months MOSSIG (Microsoft Office System Special Interest Group) meeting, I will be discussing the Document Information Panel and how it can be customised without code and integrated into SharePoint by using Content Types. This is an open event and anyone is welcome to attend, I just ask that you send an email to register@mossig.net to assist in determine correct catering.
This is an extract from this months MOSSIG newsletter about my session.
In addition, Ed Richard will also be presenting at the meeting on "Increasing business productivity by making good use of OpenXML, SharePoint Events and Word Content Controls".
As I mentioned in my previous post, at this years TechEd in Sydney, Paul Turner from SDM and myself presented a session on customising the approval workflow for web content management in MOSS. Paul has been busy writing the full blog post and has published the Part 1 and Part 2 over on his blog. Paul will be adding to this series of posts over the weekend say stay tuned.
At this years TechEd in Sydney, Paul Turner from SDM and myself presented a session on customising the approval workflow for web content management in MOSS. During the session we showed how to add a non-human element, particularly the HTML Tidy utility, to the workflow. Paul showed a wrapper class (tidy.cs) that he adapted from a VB version into C#. During the session we also stated that we would make this available on my blog and also create a detailed blog post about the process. Since the session, I have been asked several time for a copy of the code so here it is. The full blog post will be forthcoming.
tidy.cs
TechEd Australia 2008 is finally here. Today is the Student day and other pre-day, gives me time to get comfortable in the speakers room. This will be my first TechEd as a Microsoft employee so lets see if it is any different or exciting from the inside.
Intlock have been in the market since 2005, selling its SharePoint Usage Report solution. Intlock have developed a web analytics reporting solution for SharePoint 2007, it is called CarioLog 2007. There are three models of the solution; Lite, Professional and Enterprise. The basic set of reports (Cardiolog Lite) is completely free, and you can add more reports to the solution. More information on the various models and pricing can be found here.
Additional Report Bundles
CardioLog comes with basic reports that provide excellent web analytics over SharePoint. There are also additional report bundles that are targeted specifically for each solution workload listed below -
The additional reporting bundles will be available for purchase during September 2008. More information about the basic reports and additional report bundles can be found here.
Now that MOSS is officially supported on SQL Server 2008, you might be looking for information on how to upgrade to SQL Server 2008. Below are some useful links that may assist;
Upgrading to SQL Server 2008
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb677622.aspx
How to: Upgrade to SQL Server 2008 (Setup)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144267.aspx
Using Upgrade Advisor to Prepare for Upgrades
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144256.aspx
On the SharePoint Team Blog this morning is an exciting announcement about support for SharePoint technologies in a virtualised environment. Most importantly is our support for 3rd party virtualisation software.
"Today we’re excited to announce support and licensing updates for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 running in virtual machines. This is part of a larger announcement affecting multiple Microsoft products, including Exchange Server, SQL Server and SharePoint Server.
As of today, we formally support SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 running under Hyper-V through our normal support channels. In addition, we now offer support for SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 running in 3rd party virtualization software that is certified through our Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP). The SVVP is an opt-in program that non-Microsoft virtualization providers can choose to participate in. A list of participating vendors is here.
We’re working on performance and deployment guidance for SharePoint Server 2007 running under Hyper-V that will be published in the next few days on Microsoft TechNet. This blog post will be updated with a link as soon as it’s published.
We have also updated our license terms to allow you to take full advantage of virtualization mobility by waiving the limitation on short-term reassignment (the 90-day license reassignment rule) for SharePoint Server 2007. Effective September 1, 2008, the new rule allows you to move your server licenses and software running instances from one physical server to another as often as you like in the following circumstance – both servers must be located within one or two datacenters within 4 time zones of each other.", SharePoint Team Blog
Today Microsoft released the source code for the Silverlight Blueprints for SharePoint—based on the Silverlight Beta 2 release. The Silverlight Blueprints for SharePoint provide a way for developers to better understand how to integrate Silverlight applications with SharePoint. Silverlight is an incredibly popular technology and with the increase in SharePoint adoption we’re finding an increased call for integrating technologies like Silverlight with SharePoint.
In this release, you’ll find five blueprint samples:
- Hello World
- Media Player
- Slider Control
- Custom Navigation
- Colleague Viewer
Included in the release are documentation for each of the samples and the source code (go to the Releases tab of the CodePlex site). Also posted to the site is an FAQ document. In the coming days and week, we’ll publish additional screen-casts and any other supporting documentation we create or that is provided to us through the developer community.
The links to get to the Silverlight Blueprints for SharePoint are:
- http://www.ssblueprints.net/sharepoint
- http://www.codeplex.com/SL4SP
The SharePoint Team have announced that SharePoint is now officially supported running on SQL Server 2008 (http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/08/15/sql-server-2008-support-for-sharepoint-products-and-technologies.aspx).
"You may already be aware of the recent RTM announcement of SQL Server 2008. We are happy to announce that Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 & Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 now support SQL Server 2008. Our documentation has been updated to include support for SQL Server 2008. Please refer to:
In the next few weeks, we will publish a TechNet article that describes the benefits of running SQL Server 2008 with SharePoint Products and Technologies. Here, we’ve highlighted a few of the benefits that SharePoint customers inherit when choosing to use SQL Server 2008:
1. Improved Manageability
Manageability and governance is important for SharePoint as well as the SQL Server database engine. Now administrators can also benefit from the new management features introduced in SQL Server 2008 – from Policy-based administration to back-up compression. For details, please refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645579(SQL.100).aspx.
2. High Availability
Availability in SQL Server 2008 has been improved through enhancements in data mirroring. For details, please refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645581(SQL.100).aspx.
3. Enhanced Data Security
The SQL Server 2008 database engine introduced new encryption functions that enhance security. SharePoint administrators can take advantage of these new encryption features by simply turning on transparent data encryption (TDE). No additional changes need to be made on the SharePoint side. For details, please refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645578(SQL.100).aspx.
Last but not least, don’t forget to apply SP1 on SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Keep in mind, SP1 is also a requirement for installing on Windows Server 2008.
Stay tuned for the TechNet article! ", Jie Li, Technical Product Manager, SharePoint
Spencer Harbar has a great article that lists the hotfixes that have been released since SP1 which he is keeping up to date. I will stress as per Spencer, "You shouldn't deploy these willy nilly unless you are experiencing issues - it's best to wait for the regular "roll up" packages."
Click here for more information.
I have been collecting M&M chocolate dispensers and other M&M memorabilia for the past seven years. Tonight I decided to create a new blog to share my collection with others who might also collect similar items or might just be interested in having a look at them. I have over 70 items in my collection and will be posting images of the collection.
Check out my collection at http://mandmcollector.wordpress.com/.
There are only 67 days now until Tech.Ed Australia 2008. Microsoft are now giving you an extra two weeks to register for the $250 Tech.Ed Early Bird discount. By extending the deadline to 11 July Microsoft is giving you even more chance to maximise your Tech.Ed investment and an opportunity to take advantage of your budgets in the new financial year.
Have some fun with www.faceinhole.com. Place your face or your friends face into a well known picture; Thanks for the link Chris.
Grumpy Wookie (Chris O'Connor)
CodeJedi (Me)
The SharePoint and Enterprise Search teams have posted articles about the release of some SharePoint WebPart to provide integration of FAST ESP into SharePoint.
"It’s been around 45 days since the acquisition of FAST Search and Transfer closed and we’re moving quickly to provide interoperability for Microsoft customers between FAST ESP and Microsoft SharePoint Server.
The first deliverables from this work are a set of FAST ESP Search Web Parts for quickly integrating results from FAST ESP into SharePoint Server 2007 and a FAST ESP Search site template.
Using these Web Parts and Site Template SharePoint administrators will be able to quickly and easily build FAST ESP-based search sites inside SharePoint 2007 by simply dropping in and configuring the appropriate components.
The Web Parts and Site Template are available as a free download (both compiled code and source code) from CodePlex at www.codeplex.com/espwebparts and are part of the Search Community Toolkit.
Some of the FAST ESP search capabilities that can be exposed within SharePoint Server 2007 using these Web Parts include:
• Search Box Web Part -- Search box for query term submission and includes “did you mean” functionality for query correction
• Result List Web Part -- Displays search results and supports sorting, pagination, and navigator-based filtering
• Navigator Web Part -- Displays dynamic navigators that profile search results across a set of pre-defined dimensions and allow users to refine the search through navigation clicks
• Breadcrumb Web Part -- Displays the search term(s) and list of navigators used to obtain the current result set
The FAST ESP Web parts are designed to be open and extensible, and we’re actively encouraging customers and partners to download them, customize them to align with their branding and extend them to fit their search and user experience requirements.
Expect the features, functionality and range of ESP Web Parts to grow through contributions from the search developer community as well as further contributions from the FAST & Microsoft Search Team!". FAST & Microsoft Search Teams.
Microsoft have a great resource for SharePoint Developers, MS SharePoint Developers. You can watch videos casts, read white papers, download VPCs and learn lots from the How to Develop series. Check out this highly valuable resource.
