record management workflow and search, CSS packaging and … KINECT
13:30 IW session, back watching John Holliday and Agnes Molnar @molnaragnes about Record Management again but this time hopefully we will hear a bit of workflows integration to “maximise the benefits of in-place record declaration”
Record management is such a grey area that I never actually used it fully with my clients. I am now learning that you have special web parts only for showing records out of the box in SharePoint.
A debate started regarding someone having a client with 100 years of retention policy for documents and therefore SharePoint cannot answer this requirement, however we all agreed that the issue here is not the tool or method but it is the issue with any system, even a manual archiving cannot be guaranteed HOWEVER the workflow will not change, the tool vehiculating the workflow might.
“in-place record management” is used when both Record declared documents and non-record declared documents can be in the same library, user is already used to one way to retrieve documents, no need for an extra way.
Location-based rule: cannot be used when using in-place record management.
To enable in-placed turn on the feature of same name in the site. Then enable the “manual record declaration availability”.
An item can be declared as a record by the user but also by workflow or retention policy.
Once item has been declared as a record the item cannot be edited anymore.
IRecordDeclarationHandler is the event handler that is built-in in the record, that developer can leverage thought code.
“Is that available in the cloud” : you can put custom code in the sandbox BUT you can’t put custom code in the cloud.
use “record declaration history” to log all actions on record (just like a workflow task)
15:00 back with Cathy Dew who is now co-presenting with Paul Schaeflein
What does the designer need to prepare to handover to the developer so that the developer packages it ?
Copy the source code of the master page in a text file and send it to the developer
Copy the source code of the CSS file in a text file and send it to the developer
Questions to ask yourself:
Where are the files developed (make sure they are on the server, on the content database, change links if needed..)
Is the dev team working in any customisation too?
What is involved in them ? (webparts, HTML, XML..) useful to know in advance make things consistent
Tell developer (if they don’t have this best practice) to wrap their custom webpart within a DIV so that we can then style it in CSS
Paul is now demonstrating how he packages it into a solution.
In his solution Lori has an element “MasterPageGallery” and “CSS” folder
Paul drags and drops the master page file into the MasterPageGallery in visual studio and the elements.xml is automatically updated.
CKSDev can also be used to add the branding elements to a solution.
Some images have to be on the sharepoint file folder such as the image of the feature otherwise SharePoint will not load them
When master page is deployed to SharePoint using the solution, the MasterPage is now showing in the master pages library in the site but it should NOT be edited there since the file is ghosted, the real file is in the file system. The master page should be editedand repackage in VS and redeployed to make sure it stays ghosted.
To make sure that new sites created under the customised site will take he same master page and CSS, Paul creates an event receiver “when site is provisioned” in visual studio, and adds a few lines of code.
It wa amazing the number of questions that came to Paul about how to do this or that in visual studio such as “how do you debug code” This made me think that many of us here have a good understanding of front end design, but not enough of
This topic of packaging a branding is invaluable for me as I do a lot of branding but do not always have the option of packaging them, I have started doing that recently using CKSDev and now have s better understanding of what CKSDev actually does in the background.
16:15 something different for once “you all had a long day… This is just a bit of fun”, I am watching Daniel McPherson @danmc showing us a “Microsoft KINECT to browse SharePoint data.
Really ???
Dan is opening a standard SharePoint 2010 live team site and showing the standard libraries and lists. And now that we know what the site content is, he is now opening the KINECT Interface that he developed (I suppose) which shows a METRO interface for accessing the same libraries we have on the SharePoint site. Dan then browse through the files and show how to open an image.
The session is really fun when he tried to show a move he recorded for COPY operation and the KINECT responds “the MOVE operation has been selected” oups..
Dan explains that it’s not ready but the SDK is there so it may improve in the next months/years.
The METRO interface is more and more used, he doesn’t know if office15 has it and none of us is allowed to confirm or infirm anyway.
After this short fun demo Dan is now talking about the future of KINECT and where this is going, facial recognisant and more. All those information are available on the Internet.
Developers can look at the solution on codeplex or contact Dan directly.
ISCLondon day 2. Record management, CSS, and SharePoint project process
9am, I managed to grab a coffee and croissant on my way to the Westminster room to watch John Holliday (http://johnholliday.net) talk about record management: “building and using SharePoint-friendly File Plan“.
File planning tools : ” notepad can be a great tool for planning”, something the simpler the better. Others use Word, Visio, mind-map (that’s me!), excel, infopath
1st challenge when planning: size. this is driven mainly by existing retention schedules.
An interesting figure from John: the typical number of document types in small companies is 50 to 100, but for most companies it is actually 800 to 1000.
- What is needed for File Plan Automation: be clear about hat is going to happen (the actions) at the end of the retention period.
- Essential record management steps: 1. create information policies , 2. create the content types/libraries/folders where to use those policies, 3. Attach information policies, 4. Setup Routine Rules.
Moving on to “Infopath File Planning Solution” and describing how a XML scheme can be quickly developed and deployed to SharePoint using powershell I have the feeling that most of the room have no idea what John is saying, since most are Information Worker. But that’s fine since they will have the knowledge of what is possible to do with record management and will then work closely with developers and information architects to achieve it.
Unfortunately the demo Site broke just before the demo and john could not show what he intended to so we did not see his record management solution in action.
The solution is downloadable on John’s blog.
One thing to bear in mind is that this was one method offered and is not THE method that answers all since it’s always a case per case basis to implement retention policy and record management for a company and even a department it may be different.
10:30 sitting in Bob Foster session “why HR always something different”, his voice (and sense of humour!) is very familiar from listening to his SharepointPodcast (http://www.sharepointpodshow.com) with Nick and Brett. I have met Bib a few years ago in a SharePint after the conference and almost didn’t recognise him since he went for a more corporate suit and tie look this year. It suits you well Bob don’t worry!
SharePoint Center of Excellence (COE) should be a must-have in most companies.
importance of the “Build vs. Buy” process. Which is quite a thorough project plan by itself.
To Bob ‘s experience the majority of clients may take around 2 months to got through this processs.
Once the process is completed Bob goes through a presentation to the department or client requiring the solution. A comparison table is a good way to visually lay down the various 3/4 options and compare the same items such as Cost, Security, Reliability (of the vendor if external solution is selected) etc.
I have to say that this session was not right for me so I will not write much more about it, the subject “why Hr..” was not exactly about the HR department but more about “how to respond to requirements, plan it, cost it, present it and get a decision.
11:30 I am back into my basis and what I enjoy most (strangely! As it can be quite a headache in SharePoint) : branding, by attending Cathy Dew http://sharepointcat.com “tips and tricks for CSS and SharePoint“.
I am not hoping to learn much at this session but again it’s reassuring to attend a talk which will confirm that what I am doin is the right thing. Hopefully I will finish this writing with the 1 tip I have to leave the room with.
173 CSS files in the 14hive ! But it doesn’t mean that you need to replace all.
Best practice with applying an alternative CSS is to use it through a custom Master page.
Use the “after=…” to load the custom CSS and make sure core will be loaded after.
To add custom CSS to a layout page using the “ContentPlaceholderID”.
Cross browser support: avoid separate CSS file for differ browser but use [if] in the HTML to call different class name within the same CSS file instead.
Print view CSS file can be invoked, bear in mind that different browser will have different Print view.
Themes: “somebody thought that SharePoint could use templates the same way you have templates in Word or PowerPoint (…) use themes and I dare you to not have your eyes bleed”… big laugh in the room ! “Theme don’t look bad.. Until you click Apply”
I totally agree with Cathy, themes are ridiculous I SP2010, I heard another speaker at a SharePoint Saturday saying similarly “would you like if you paint your wall and anybody visiting can paint it on top?” (since any other site owner can change it)
Cat is now showing how to build a themeable CSS in SharePoint, which I am not going to report here since there are lots of articles on the net but specially because I just don’t advertise doing this, so lets skip to the next point.
Cat now explains the concept of CSS sprite file for loading one file instead of many at one time, a concept that has been in used for a while now and I used it when I have graphic designers producing the images for me.
Html.ms-dialog .customPageWidth{ is the class to use when editing MODAL WINDOW in SharePoint and Cathy says that nobody blogged about it yet, so remember this class when dealing with modals. (change colour of ribbon only for the modal window for instance)
ribbon: Cathy advise to only change the colour and only to a dark colour, many clients want to change it but avoid
Remember to test data sheet view when changing CSS classes !
2 tips in your CSS file that I am already using: keep all the main colours you use at the top of the file, and use a strong colour like “fuchsia” to preview a change on your page.
!important tag: we try not to use it, but sometimes you have no other choice
Changing the favicon showing at top of each page: Cath has a WSP to replace it in the master page ready for download on her blog.
So far today I really enjoyed the session with Cathy Dew the most, she is a great presenter, making the session very entertaining by bringing real life stories and a good humour to the plate.
Just like yesterday Lunchtime is also knowledge-sharing time, so I am watching a demo of an intranet site,that has been revamped by partner http://Raona.com, to make it fully social with integration with Twitter, LinkedIn and a nice branding very “metro” looking which is the way windows8 mobile phone navigation is. They seem to have gather what SharePoint MySite and social features is lacking and designed their sharepoint intranet to fill that gap.
Next I will be checking record management and workflow integration.
Read MoreISCLondon 2st half day
12:45 if you have the thirst for it, there is no real break at #ISCLondon, SharePoint is the language being talked on every floor and every room.
Even having lunch you can turn to the person next to you and relate with a SharePoint subject in common, compare deployment and experience, the day can be really rich.
I am now sitting in a partner showroom @infragistics showing their “SharePlus” tool to bring SharePoint to blackberry, iPhone and Android mobile devices via in-app solution. Nice slides of real life usage such as the New-Zealand earthquake when the devices recorded the geolocation and pictures into SharePoint, however no screenshots of the app itself or technical “how it works” details.
1:35 IW403 building the travel request solution part 3, planning and building the user interface by Jennifer Mason @jennifermason and Mart Hugues @MattMoo2.
Jennifer explained that there will be no non-out-of-the-box features at this session, and we will try to bring the maximum we can to the user using the OOB features! Just my cup-of-tea then !
Jen showing extensively the info path web part “it is my FAVOURITE web part in 2010″
She is using a simple yet clever trick for giving feedback to the user that is often forgotten when the form is submitted: change the current info path view to a different one showing a message “form has been submitted”.
“A lot of people don’t take advantage of using SharePoint views” Jen is right, a lot can be done OOB and too many site owners Only have 1 view per list which is quite a shame.
“Remember that views does not mean security”, many users are confused with this but it has tour clear that even a private view can be accessible by all users as long as they have the urls.
Next Jen and Matt are showing connected web part to filter a view on a page by a value selected by the user.
I asked the question to Jen to know when she chooses to use infopath in a custom list and when she would use it in a form library and was just confirmed into my feeling and what I do in my work “it depends”the more complex the form gets,the more likely you are to use form library. Myself I tend to predict how likely business is to change their requirements and if I can predict that such change in the forms may involved code behind the form and if so I would favour form library as code behind is not available list.
2:45 reporting in BI by Darvish Shadravan and Laura Rogers
Here we are talking about self service analysis, business reporting, parameterised and operational reports (more advanced reports with ssrs)
“scorecarding style”= think of it as what the CEO needs to see on one screen. Typical tool to create those is performance point, others are excel services and ssrs but with more work to be done.
Laura : “To me SSRS are Better than dataview webparts”
Darvish: “Perf point is ideally suited when you have Cubes as the data”. However it can also connect to data in excel services, SharePoint list and other. Perf point is great to drill down in the data.
Laura is then demonstrating how to customise a page with a dataview webpart in SPD (SharePoint designer), showing the pain it is to use Conditionsl Formating to show/hide an image or icon in a column of a dataview. This looks really cool the first time but becomes a real pain when having too many conditional Formating on the same view when editing is needed.
Laura has over 20 screencasts of dataview webpart examples on her blog At http://sharepoint911.com/blosg/Laura
Tip from Darvish when setting the KPIs with users “start at the low expectation first” not the best case scenario at first.
SSRS is not installed out of the box, it needs to be configured on SQL standard version and any SharePoint version.
PowerPivot requires enterprise version of SQL server.
Laura now demonstrating SQL Report Builder : create a SharePoint library, add the e content types for Report builder (data source, data set and report) she creates the data source, the data set in a few seconds and then the report using report builder.
Tip for Laura: since report builder doesn’t give the option to know who the user is, you can do the same using the Current User webpart on a page and connect it to the report webpart for filtering.
Darvish showing a Performance Point dashboard page and how he created it using PP designer.
4pm: I have to say that by this time I am a little bit feeling the long day on my shoulder already so I will refresh myself with a bit of knowledge sharing in MySite in SharePoint and why it is cool… Or is it ?
I am sitting at Bob Fox IW505 session labelled “working with my site and what makes them special”
Apparently Microsoft has totally relooked their internal MySite so that it looks very much like Facebook, can anyone confirm that?
Bob explaining that users can also create a blog within MySite however it means that they could blog non professional subjects as well and potentially this is a problem in some companies. Seems to have been an issue at Microsoft in the past anyhow … #mystery
Don’t put anything you don’t want people to see on the Shared Documents area of MySite.
To my question “why would you put personal stuff only into MySite” Bob responded “I returned you the question “why would you.” hmmm….
The only way to make MySite work is by putting information on the profile, such as old schools, skills, Uni, speciality …
Here is the fun section : “social feedback” this is where user can rate “I like it” and add “notes” to a page, not convinced.
Bob is now literally reading the text on the slides, he may be a bit jet lag?
“I am now going to show you what we don’t want you to do ” and he is demo-ing creating a new site under a MySite. S that we can experience that a MySite is just a site like any other, except that each site is a site collection and the user/owner of his MySite,has full access to it including deleting it. This raised a few question such as “can we hide the site action to the end user” answer is yes by using branding but not recommended by Microsoft. However it is necessary in some organisations.
Ok, I think I am done with Mysite subject, didn’t learn anything really, would have be useful to see real life example of how companies use this for crowd sourcing for instance but since Microsoft is one of the but cannot show their own screenshots we cannot see anything but believe.
Off to partners evening and SharePint !
ISCLondon 1st half day
Here I am sitting in the Queen Elisabeth II conference Center for the Keynote starting the yearly conference now expected by most SharePoint professional: the International Sharepoint Conference.
Something like a month ago while checking my twitter stream what got into me when I replied to Matt and volunteered to blog about the event ? I am not sure, but I will try to do that.
9:00 A very professional combined knowledge video presentation opens the keynote in a very Apple-like fashion, showing Steve Smith explaining the preparation of 4 months it the conference.
One delegate is specially mentioned by Steve as Chris has been travelling from Australia just for the week!
“some don’t care about the content but ask Where is the party” CK got that covered too, monday evening is lots of prizes to give away and SharePint in the local pub, Tuesday evening is the official party in a private club with Cabaret theme.
Steve announcing the next SharePoint conference 2013 dates: 15-17th April 2013.
9:45 CS701:
Similarly to Peter I attended “real world, building a global Business Intelligence Extranet, from End Users to a support and Operations” by Martin Hatch @martinhatch.
As a Sharepoint consultant I always find valuable to compare what I do and advise my clients with other real world similar projects so I decided to Check out how BI is approached it his session.
The client:
Martin is showing his client without being able to name it, a pharmaceutical company with 3,500 servers, 2,800 vm servers, 14 pintabite of data, not all SharePoint.
With over 10,000 customers in 100 countries, up to 250,000 users, some data being public
Over 70,000 SQL server analysis cubes !
Each user may have separate unique permission …
Administration of the system was targeted for less than 20 people.
How may environments ? Typically people in the room always have 3 or 4: dev, test, live… At Martin’s client they had… 9 !
Dev, system test, integration testing, acceptance testing, stage/per-production, production, support, sandbox/prototyping, R&D.
Production environment surprisingly is running on a single web-application with 3 web front end. This was due to kerberos authentication.
Clustered SQL instance for SharePoint with an 8-core 64gb RAM, over 30 content db created in advance. 1 site collection for each client proved to be quite flexible for moving them around between content database using powershell cmdlets.
Each component/ service application. Is using a dedicated server. For instance excel services reporting services, performance point, central admin: all in separate server instance,.
Main challenges they found :
- multi-language UI which in SharePoint works with browser detection but doesn’t really work properly. For instance fr-fr is recognised from browser settings but fr-be (for Belgium) is not.
Some thing for English US is recognised but not… Guess what : English GB. 60 languages were used in the end. They decided not to use language variations to auto translate words because the name of medicines are mostly in Latin, however they were careful to translate Links.
Custom list was used to find the translation, and a ContentQueryWebpart extended to display the result of the lookup.
- 24/7/365 availability : pretty simple IT PROS best practice= all servers were in load balancing and SQL mirroring.
- data retention challenge: how to keep old “versions” of a cube? They used a dedicated hardware to store the cubes, bespoke SSIS services
- permissions: probably the biggest challenge they had as it was the heart of the system, if this didn’t
Work the whole project would be canned. The issue was to control who has access to data vs. who control the reports. For instance a user in HR may not create report but the one creating reports may not have access to the restricted data. A complicated task was to give or remove access to a user to a cube but make sure that it would not break another access to that user. They spent a good 6 months preparing all the scenarios for the permission model.
The permissions solution used a bespoke SQL database to “map” the relationship between each entities and custom workflows to automate the actions and some SSRS reports to answer queries such a “why user A has access to data source Y”.
- SharePoint limit: Martin found out that after adding 15,000 custom permissions to items in a same SharePoint site, the top site would add all those as “limited access” (we have all experienced that) and the consequence is that the top site would just start crashing. They had to use some third party tools to fix this.
DEV TRACK: “customising VS for your needs” by Wictor Wilén http://wictorwilen.se and Walden Mastykarz @waldekm
Since the release of VS 2010 SharePoint developer tools those tools are Easeier to use, Powerful and Extensible.
Since I am not developing much anymore, I learnt a few things within the first minutes of the presentation:
- I didn’t even know that you can know use the Server Explorer to browse your SharePoint server content in VS2010 and import objects into VS.
Waldek is very proud to be the first one to actually show CODE at the conference 
He is demonstrating how to add a simple event receiver on a content type in Visual Studio as long as the SDK is installed, it’s one of the option of the New Item dialog box.
then demonstrating how “cool” VS lets us create a SharePoint item as a SPIT SharePoint item template, for re-usability when creating a new item from a template it will generate the whole folder structure for us.
Wictor is now showing the “easy way” on how to create a custom ready-to-go VS template. Using the downloaded extension “export template” it. Will create a VSIX file ready to install.
now the “quick and dirty” way: Wictor shows how a custom wizard can be designed and write all actions through code, the output will then be available in the “new project” dialog box on VS and if the template is installed in each developer machine it means you can standardise your solutions structure for all development.
Here we are talking about standardising programming environment so that all developers will know where web parts need to go, sp items etc. And there is no confusion when a developer joins the project.
Visual Studio Gallery website gives a large list of extension and allows developers to upload their own.
one interesting question was about the “experimental instance of Vs” which allows to mess with the stup of VS without saving the settings so developer can test something without making it for real in their environment.
I have to say that just the “simple” bits of VS2010 were already losing me slightly since I do not develop but I find this very very useful because it gives me the right argument to defend standardisation and release process with developers involved in my projects.
Now breaking for lunch, there is a massive queue and people eating standing juggling with their ISC free bag that could not go to cloakroom, their plate and a glass, I need to find a room to sit !
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