MOSS

South Florida Code Camp

MOSSLover — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 18:30:42 GMT

Thank you all for attending my session at the code camp. If you guys have any further Silverlight and SharePoint Questions shoot me an email on the contact form.

Here is a link to my presentation:http://cid-8e2654c5f01e6069.office.live.com/browse.aspx/CodeSamples
Here is a link to some code samples:http://cid-8e2654c5f01e6069.office.live.com/browse.aspx/CodeSamples

SharePoint Saturday Chicago Slides and Code Samples

MOSSLover — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:36:22 GMT

As promised here is a copy of my slides: http://cid-8e2654c5f01e6069.office.live.com/browse.aspx/Presentations

Here is a copy of my demos: http://cid-8e2654c5f01e6069.office.live.com/browse.aspx/CodeSamples

If you have further questions let me know. I had a good time. Thanks for all the questions. It was the best of all 50 sessions.

A big shout out to Kris Wagner and team for putting on an excellent event in Chicago. Kris had brain surgery earlier this year and carpal tunnel surgery. He is one of the coolest people in the community. I would like to call him a good friend. Congrats for finally getting his much deserved MVP. He is someone to follow as an example in the community. I hope that he has many easy year to come. If you haven’t patted him on the back lately send a good tweet to @sharepointkris.

SharePoint 2010 Upgrades and Deployments…A Learning Experience…

MOSSLover — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 04:35:58 GMT

The past few months I’ve been playing architect and admin, rather than developer. I have worked with a couple 2010 environments for play and work and at least one upgrade. So here are just a few tidbits that you might not know that I’ve found…

When working with the blank site definition you have to activate the taxonomy features through stsadm if you want to use managed metadata. Here is a good article: http://neoassyrian.blogspot.com/2009/11/enabling-taxonomy-features-on-site.html
There is a bug if you want to attach the Profile Synchronization Service to a Service Application that uses your old Shared Service Provider Database. Until they fix the issue it’s not worth the trouble unless you have a lot heavily invested into your old SSP. You can migrate the database and write a custom script or look into a third party tool to do the trick.
Spence Harbars article on setting up the User Profile Services is the best one out there. I have read it and memorized most of the article at least 50 times. If you are implementing this feature go here: http://www.harbar.net/articles/sp2010ups.aspx. This is the most painful piece of SharePoint 2010. No matter how many times I work with this functionality it always seems to surprise me.
Managed metadata is great for organizing and creating a document library structure that is by far better than a folder system. You need to make sure all the taxonomy features are turned on and the service application is setup. It was by far one of the easiest features to setup.
FAST Search is the second most painful feature to use with SharePoint 2010. You need to follow the Technet article to the letter. If you see something in the service application that states you are missing and administrative component delete the service applications that you created. The service applications must run under the search service account.
SharePoint Designer is still not quite where I would like it to be in the permissions department. You can go into General Settings in Central Administration, but all the checkboxes feel like all or nothing. You can give no one the ability to use SharePoint Designer or people with design rights and full control the ability. I wish there was a checkbox in permissions that said “allow SharePoint Designer access” and if it was not checked that person did not have the ability. If you turn off the ability to use client side programs, then the users can no longer launch office documents. I am very disappointed.
The “Fabulous 40” does not always migrate well despite what some of the blog posts say. It’s going to be a trial and error when you upgrade. You might get a good outcome and you might not. These templates were meant for demos and not for production. I would just dump them and move on. There are some third party versions for 2010, but they are not officially sanctioned by Microsoft. They may or may not work. Use them at your own risk.
My Sites…The database may upgrade, but there is a little trick. You have to get the users to click on the my sites. If you are deploying you need to make sure that you go to the application and add a path for “personal” (or whatever path you are using) and check the “wildcard” box. Then you need to make sure that you create a site collection with the template called “My Site Manager” under the “Enterprise” templates. You need to turn on “Self Service Site Creation” under the my site application too. If you do not go in and set these options, then users cannot create my sites. It’s not quite as easy as it used to be.

Some of these things I’ve told you might help you out. Some of them might not. I figure it never hurts to throw a couple items into a blog post that you learn. Someone in a few months or a few years might find these items helpful. Some of you might never read this blog, but that’s ok. The two of you who are reading thanks for the support. I’ll try blog more as I learn more about 2010. Just because they dropped the Office in MOSS doesn’t mean I’m switching names. It’s all about nostalgia.

Technorati Tags: SharePoint 2010,Upgrade,Deployment

Deploying Multiple WSP Files Using Powershell

MOSSLover — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:31:15 GMT

I was playing around with some scripts today while I was working on an upgrade. I didn’t want to individually write out the names of files in a batch file and I wanted to create a quick Powershell Script. If you are using SharePoint 2010 you can use these lines of code in the Powershell Manager to deploy only .wsp files to your SharePoint 2010 Web Applications:

$dir = [directory]

$list = Get-ChildItem $dir | where {$_.extension -eq ".wsp"}

foreach($my_file in Get-ChildItem $list){Add-SPSolution -LiteralPath $my_file.FullName}

foreach($my_file in Get-ChildItem $list){Install-SPSolution -Identity $my_file.Name -AllWebApplications -GACDeployment}

Basically, you throw in the directory into a variable, then you throw the files into a variable in Powershell filtered by .wsp. Then you loop through the files and add the solutions to the store, then loop through the files and deploy them to the web applications. You can change the scripts accordingly. I figured this would be something you all could use so enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Powershell,SharePoint 2010,Deploying Multiple Solutions

Dude, where is my list instance?

MOSSLover — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:00:39 GMT

I saw an MSDN Forum post today, so I looked for a ListInstance Hidden property in SharePoint 2007 features. There is none, but interestingly enough there is one in 2010. I wondered what would happen if you did this:

It hides the entire list from SharePoint Designer and the browser, however you can hit the list by typing in the url in internet explorer. Pretty cool stuff. Enjoy guys.

Technorati Tags: Feature,List Instance,SharePoint 2010

More Changes...

MOSSLover — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:18:37 GMT

Stuff has changed drastically for me in the past two to three years. I moved over 1000 miles from Saint Louis. I go outside and I get up in front of crowds with less issues. Now I'm changing jobs again. I'm not really sure what to say here. I was obviously unhappy and I needed to do something different. So quit two days ago and I guess it worked out that I end with B&R this Friday, then head to TEC and SPS Huntsville and a week from this Monday I start my new job at Gig Werks. I'm not sure what to expect or where I'm heading, but I think it's a step in the right direction. I won't really know what kind of impact this will have on my life for at least another 6 months to a year.

For some reason I can't sleep tonight and I think it's really a reflection of my last day. Tomorrow is an ending and a beginning at the same time. So it's both kind of sad and exciting. I don't know why I'm really excited to go to Disney Land for the second time ever in my life time. I get to ride the Teacups. For the longest time when I was a kid I wanted to go to Disney Land. I wanted to ride the teacups. In 2007, at the age of 25, I rode the teacups for my first ever visit to LA. That was the start of finally syncing up with my childhood goals. I wanted to live near a major city. I wanted to visit all the major cities in the world. I wanted to see everything and meet everyone. This job change will probably turn into something great I just don't know it yet. I'm walking again outside my comfort zone and stepping into uncharted territory. In 2-3 years I'll probably write another blog post how this week lead to something great. It just stinks when you have to leave behind something you know and love. I will miss all my current colleagues, but I'm sure I'll gain some new ones and keep in touch with the old. To 2010 being a great year for change and hopefully by the end of the year I can say I went to Europe. To reaching my goals and my dreams. Don't let anyone stop you from getting what you want in life (unless you are axe murderer please don't kill anyone that's just wrong). Have a good weekend everyone!

SPRoleAssignment Crazy Caveats

MOSSLover — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:11:14 GMT

I’m not sure if this bug exists on any other environment, but here are a few issues I ran into when trying to use SPRoleAssignment and SPGroup:

When trying to use Web.Groups[“GroupName”] it basically told me the group did not exist, so I had to change the code to use Web.SiteGroups[“GroupName”].
I could not add the Role Assignment to the Web and run a Web.Update() without adding an additional Web.AllowUnsafeUpdates= true; , however on my virtual machine I could do a Web.Update() without the extra piece of code. I kept receiving an error in my browser stating that I should hit the back button and update my permissions.

So after fixing those two issues I was able to copy the permissions from a page item into a Site for my migration. Hopefully, one of you can learn from my error messages if you have any issues in the future.

Technorati Tags: SPRoleAssignment,MOSS,SPGroup

Upcoming Presentations

MOSSLover — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:07:33 GMT

Conferences:

SSWUG.org VConference, 4 sessions, April 7,8, and 9, Register at http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring10/uvc/
SharePoint .org Conference, 2 sessions, April 18-21, http://www.sharepointconference.org/Pages/default.aspx
The Expert's Conference, Silverlight, April 25-28, enter the code "Gambit" when you register at: http://www.theexpertsconference.com/general-information/sharepoint-training/
SharePoint Saturdays:
SharePoint Saturday Charlotte, Silverlight, April 10th, Regiser at http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/charlotte
Code Camps:
New York City Code Camp, March 6th, Register at http://ny.codecamp.us
User Groups:
TRISPUG, March 2nd, Register at http://www.trispug.com/default.aspx
Central NJ .Net User Group, March 11th, Register at http://www.njdotnet.net/

SharePoint Saturday Boston Slides and Code

MOSSLover — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:57:28 GMT

Here is a link to the slides and code samples on my Sky Drive: http://cid-8e2654c5f01e6069.skydrive.live.com/summary.aspx?sa=624379842
In the future I will be doing a bunch of Stickam test presentations. Check this blog for information and my twitter account. I need more practice and I think Stickam or some other sharing outlet would help a lot.

Migrating the Publishing Pages for Fun and Profit

MOSSLover — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:58:01 GMT

This week and the following weeks I will be working through a ton of recursive functions to move a rather hefty page library into a Site Collection and subwebs. I figure while I am having some “fun” you guys will profit will a few of my scripts. For any of you out there who are interested in how to create a publishing page in a library here is a little sample code on how to copy items from the page content area and create a new page then replace a welcome page. Here is a small sample:

PublishingSite PubSite = new PublishingSite(NewSite); //pass in an SPSite Object
PageLayoutCollection SiteLayouts = PubSite.GetPageLayouts(false);
PageLayout MyLayout = SiteLayous[“urlforlayout”];
PublishingWeb PubWeb = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(Web); //pass in an SPWeb Object
PublishingPageCollection Pages = PubWeb.GetPublishingPages();
PublishingPage MyPage = PubWeb.GetPublishingPages().Add(ChildItem["Name"].ToString(), MyLayout);
MyPage.ListItem["Page Content"] = ChildItem["Page Content"];
MyPage.ListItem.Update();
MyPage.Update();
MyPage.CheckIn("New Page Creation");
PubWeb.DefaultPage = Web.GetFile(MyPage.Url);
PubWeb.Update();

So basically if you look at the top you get the Publishing Site and then you get the Publishing Web. What you want to do next is get one of the layout pages. You could instead of hard-coding in a URL step through a foreach loop and search for the specific layout that you want. What you want to do next is create a new page and then give it the name of the old item, so it will create the item with the same page name and you want to pass in the layout page from the previous step. Next you want to get the Page Content from the Content Area in the “Page Content” field and then update the page. Remember you need to check the item in before you set the welcome page or you will receive a fun little error message. Then you can set the Publishing Web’s default page (welcome page) to your page and update the Publishing Web. I learned the hard way by not updating the Publishing Web the first few times. You also need to remember that you should turn on the flag for Web.AllowUnsafeUpdates otherwise you will not be able to create a page or update anything at all in code. After you are done turn this flag off as a good practice. Remember to dispose all SPWeb and SPSite object if necessary or wrap using statements around everything. I hope you enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Publishing Pages,Page Creation,MOSS