SharePoint Conference Seattle, Day 4

So, the conference has already been finished for a few days. I still have some comments about Day 4 around.

IBP302 – Managing the Data in your database using the DataView Web Part… No Code Needed!

This session got my attention because of the No Code Needed and because “normally” data is provided to sharepoint using the BDC. I’ve also used the DataView Web Part to show list data in a different format using XSLT. I knew you could do databases but not that you can edit data entries. Eventually this looks a lot like the DataGridView like you get with normal ASPX applications, only rendering is done using XSLT and you can have different sources (like SPLists). The functionality provided is very powerful and easy to create. For simple database activities this is very nice. A thing I don’t like that this is all done in SharePoint designer. This isn’t really handy for deploying to a customer location using a SharePoint Solution/Feature. There must be some good way to do this, but I haven’t looked into it. We’ll probably end up copy and pasting the ASPX files into a Custom Site Pages project that was shown the day before. This isn’t very nice but it still provides easy development within SharePoint Designer.

There are some small cases where the data editing fails because of data type transformation. This can be solved by changing the CommandSync attribute to false in the code of the data connection. This can all be found in the code view of SharePoint Designer. The command allows you to edit the SQL statement and do a convert() function in the SQL statement.

AG400 – Security under the hood in Microsoft Sharepoint Products and Technologies

This was the second session that I attended from Ted Pattision. The man always speaks very fast and this was again the case. Nevertheless, he provides loads of information and again this session was very useful.

The first thing that Ted does is create a new site using STSADM. If you use the UI you will get extra SharePoint groups. With STSADM you do not. Then he started up MS Access to retrieve information from a SharePoint List. The fun thing about MS Access is that it will not obey the hidden property of a list and simply show it. Now you can view the User list of SharePoint. This list is located on every site and holds the users that are allowed on the site. When you add groups a group is shown in the list. If you add a group and then access the sharepoint site from a user in that group, the user gets added to the hidden user list. This is for auditing, hence you would only know the group. SharePoint Permissions are inherited throughout the site, list and item level. Until you break the inheritance. This also shows a SHAREPOINT\System user that is always available. The SHAREPOINT\System group is used to mask the IIS identity that is really used. This helps security on the front-end. As a SharePoint user you will not know what IIS Identity is used. If you want to do things as that user in code, you should use the RunWithElevatedPrivileges.

The session then went on to show how form authentication works and what you should do to set it up. This also showed how Zones work and what they do. If you want to have Forms authentication and normal AD integration, then you need two zones. For the form based authentication you’ll need a database to store users and passwords. This can be done using the aspnet_regsql.exe program. This simply creates the database that is used when you use the normal ASP.net authentication provider out of the box. You only need two tables from the database, but it’s more easy to create them with the aspnet_regsql.exe program.

Then there was another session to this section, although all permissions are done on a site collection level and inherited. You cannot deny a user access. This can be done within central administration under Web Application Policy settings. Basically the policies defined there overrule the site collection settings.

ECMS207 – MOSS Meets DOD Certification

As you might know, sharepoint has done a DOD 1505.2 certification program. This session was about the (free) add-on package that enables a new record center that is DOD 1505.2 certified. A lot of features where added to do this, downside was that the OOTB record center isn’t available anymore.
Some things that I got from the presentation:

• Records get a unique ID
• Non-electronic documents can be stored. This basically provides a stub for a real document.
• Categories are added so records can be placed in a category
• The category provides the retention policy etc etc.
• Search Improvements (search within you search query, different result page, no managed properties needed)
• Records can be related so it is clear they belong together
• Security can be based on record category

Conclusion/Final notes

Although this was the last day, some nice sessions where held and it was good seeing those being continued to the end. The event didn’t have a real last session or keynote at the end which wasn’t that nice. In general there was loads of information and I can’t wait to try stuff myself!

Also, it is nice to see that people are actually reading this. This can lead to funny situations at K2 Bar-drinking-events :P

SharePoint Conference Seattle, day 3

Here’s the roundup for day 3, hope you can get some out of this. My idea is to provide links and stuff. I might update articles later on to add links.

Keynote – Greg LeMond

Greg LeMond was a pro-cyclist who won the tour du frans a few times. Apperantly he’s a hero. For my the keynote wasn’t all the inspiriting and good. So, not much to report on that.

DM309 – Best of Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 for SharePoint Deployments

The reason I went to this sessions was because I haven’t seen anything about the new 2008 stuff that is coming. For Windows Server 2008 I’m very happy, IIS 7 management really changed and performance should be better. Installing MOSS or WSS on Windows Server 2008 is quite easy. You only have to know that SP1 for WSS/MOSS should be slipstreamed into the install. For WSS this package is already available, for MOSS this isn’t available yet. Some other info on WSS/MOSS SP1:

• Windows 2008 Support :)
• Ajax Support
• Stsadm –o mergecontentdbs
• Last 32 bit version!
• New People picker

For windows server 2008 some new features are introduced if you look at them, most of them are for management and performance improvements, including native 64bit support.
SQL2008 sees a lot of new features. The session went into the encryption and compression on database level. This is interesting for sharepoint since we can now store data compressed and encrypted on the database level.

ECMS400 – Sharepoint Tools for Style Advanced Technique for Branding SharePoint

This was the second session by Heather Solomon, which I think has a very nice blog and is quite unique out there being a female. That sad, the session was great and had LOADS of tips and tricks on sharepoint designer and altering the layout/design of the page. Here’s the list I wrote down:

Never edit core.css

This was also pointed out by MSIT in an earlier session. Again you should override the CSS’s in core.css in a separate css file that can be included in the master page. This also means you will not select a different css file. You leave core.css in place and add another CSS file to override the CSS properties from core.css.

Images

You can place them on a lot of places. The nices way to use them is to put them in a doclib but not the one that you get with the Publishing feature. This Images gallery is for content-images. This means that you can create an extra image lib to put layout images in there and store the images that belong to content in the one that you get with the publishing feature. You can also put images in the 12-hive or somewhere else on the server. If you put them in the 12-hive, create a directory for it! Do not override the default images that are located in the 12-hive. Another options is to just put images somewhere on a webserver. As long as they are readable for the same users.

CSS tricks

CSS @import can be used when you are building themes. Themes are easily selected and can be created inside SharePoint Designer. Problem is, once enabled files are copied and you (as a web designer) lose control over the themes already deployed. CSS Import is a great trick for that, basically the themes only have css imports and you put the imported files somewhere where you can change them.

In general a great sessions with loads of tips and tricks!

Lunch

Check out the picture to see how nice the weather was!

IBP01 – Rendering Data in SharePoint Using AJAX and LINQ

This session was actually split up in two. One was AJAX and the other was about LINQ (duh!). The AJAX was based on quering a web service and using that for AJAX. This is very nice functionaliteit because you use a webservice to retrieve data that is used within your website. The AJAX was implemented into a web part. To get AJAX you need to download ASP.NET Ajax 1.0 and follow a guide. To use a web service within AJAX you need to have a ScriptService attribute on the webservice. The result of the web service needs to be serializable and a small adaptation to the ASMX file must be made to read the code from the GAC in stead of the .CS file. When that’s all done, the WSDL file is changed to go into a ASPX file and some attributes are added. Lots of small details! Eventually you get a web service that can be called from Javascript and used for AJAX. This javascript is then used in a normal web part to do some magic.
Another cool trick was to add ‘debugger;’ to javascript, then VS2005 will stop running there and you can step trough the javascript!
Then the session went on with LINQ, to be more precise, LINQ2MOSS. This is a LINQ solution that lets you query WSS items, like lists. This is very nice because LINQ can do joins. Now we can use a LINQ query and join data from SharePoint lists. Although it is not recommended to do this, it is possible and provides great possibilities! In the end of the demo, Steve Peschka (the presenter) actually joined and XML file, SharePoint list, SharePoint Document library and a database into one result. Great stuff if you ask me. There are concerns about performance and that sharepoint now will be used as a database (hey, you can do joins!). In the end, the conclusion is that you really get nice extra functions to help you out when it is really needed.

DM400 – Best Practices for SharePoint Solutions

This session was presented by Ted Pattision who lots of people know. It’s funny seeing him present something in real life. The presentation was about SharePoint deployment and how you should do that. Of course STSDEV was named and then it went on with the details on how a STSDEV created project worked. This wasn’t all new to me, what was new was Application Pages and Custom Site Pages. Application Pages are deployed to the _layouts directory of the 12-hive. Custom Site Pages are deployed into the sharepoint site itself. SharePoint designer can’t do anything with it anymore because it’s created by a solution (this is actually good!). A caveheat to this is that SharePoint doesn’t override the files when you redeploy the solution AND it doesn’t delete the files when you retract the solution. You should do this in the featuredeactivation event via code.

SharePoint Conference Seattle, Day 2

Update is a little slow, lots of things to do here, the rest of the days will probably be when i’m back at home :S

AG300 – Your data is in SharePoint, Now What?

This session was presented by Adam Buenz, he works at the US Navy and had a talk about compliance, records management and audit trails. The session was future extended by another speaker who explained something about IRM in sharepoint.

Adam Beunz was really happy with the Record Center from SharePoint. At first I didn’t understand this. The OOTB functionality isn’t all that great. An overlooked possibility is to extend the Routing facility which basicly opens up lots of options. Another thing that passed was that you could (via code) get the ‘hold’ documents and move them to physical storage. Like the Custom Route, this is non OOTB functionality but it does provide extensions to use the Record Center which helps user experience.

For the custom route you need to inherit from the IRouter interface, this gives you one method (OnSubmitFile). This can all be deployed as a feature.

The talk then went on the SharePoint auditing and the conclusion only is that it’s reporting/statistic facilities aren’t enough. Custom tooling can be created for that which allows the right reports and statistics. This also showed some nice VSTO integration, showing the audit trail of the document on a side pane of the document itself.

BAS400 – Building an automated expense reimbursement rocess using InfoPath and SharePoint

This session showed a no-code solution in InfoPath and SharePoint designer which is nice to see, it did show some less nice stuff about InfoPath (click ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, annnndd.. ok). That development experience isn’t very nice, but its nice functionality and it showed that SharePoint Designer is quite powerful for workflow. One site picked up on this session was sharepoint-elearning.com.

BAS301 – Leveraging the Power of Excel Services to Build Rich SharePoint Applications

This session was presented by Dan Parish and showed a demo of Excel services. In general in showed the overall things you can do with Excel Services. I didn’t know much about this so it was a good starting point for me. It showed a nice case with a User Defined Function (UDF) that can be used inside the Excel sheet. UDF’s are created using a normal Class Library which has some extra properties to enable it for use as UDF. After that it needs to be deployed via the Shared Services Administration Center.

After this session my colleagues and I had some discussion how, when and if you can use Excel services. I’m quite positive but some colleagues where negative about this. Guess we just have to try.

ECMS311 – How Microsoft IT Designs and Creates Enterprice Portals on MOSS2007

This showed how to create enterprice portals withing MOSS2007. There where loads of tips and tricks and a shorter version of the CQWP presentation I had the day before.

Here are the tips I wrote down:

• Use as less master pages as possible, use more page layouts
• Start with the BlueBand masterpage of use the empty master page that’s out on the net
• Content Types are very powerful, use them if you can
• Never edit core.css, override the CSS in a separate file
• Use the CSS Link Server Control to include your own CSS files
• Cache is powerful, learn how to work with it and be aware of what its doing (for debugging)
• If you enable debug in web.conf, the view source will show how the cache settings are set
• Only go to production with Solution files, this is extra work, but pays of in the end (for testing etc etc)
• If you use Solution files, also make batch files to install them, this makes installation as easy as possible
• Master pages and Page Layouts CAN be deployed via features
• If you use code and have errors, use PortalLog and/or SPException
• SharePoint lists can be big, just remind that you only want to show 2000 items at once. So, more items in a list are fine (150k is OK) but make sure the user only sees <2000 items per view (for performance)
• If you use the BDC, always do a full crawl

The tips itself aren’t that great, you probably want some reasons for it. Then you should have been here in Seattle :)

Gala Evening – Museum of Flight

In the evening there was a nice Gala diner at the Museum of Flight. Nearly every Dutch attendy had a nice orange shirt they got from Microsoft The Netherlands. We got loads of reactions to the shirts and had a very nice time at the diner.