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Mauro Cardarelli Profile |
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The SharePoint 2010 Developer/Architect Learning Curve
Mauro Cardarelli
P style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class=MsoNormalSPAN style="LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';FONT-SIZE:10pt;"I’ve had the opportunity over the last few months to lead some developer focused training sessions on SharePoint 2010.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANFor those who have not begun the process and are interested in being SharePoint 2010 developers/architects, I must warn you (even if you have previous SharePoint and/or .NET expertise) the task is quite daunting.SPA [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 20th '10 |
Win one of 15 copies of Essential SharePoint 2010
Mauro Cardarelli
PIMG style="WIDTH:102px;HEIGHT:135px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dnGmIJTXL._SL135_.jpg" width=102 height=135nbsp;nbsp; IMG style="WIDTH:480px;HEIGHT:131px;" src="http://event.on24.com/event/11/21/78/rt/1/images/thumbnail/network_world-use.jpg" width=480 height=211/P
POur SharePoint 2010 book should be available shortly.nbsp; In that spirit, Network World is running a contest to give away 15 free copies.nbsp; Simply answer a (very simple) trivia question about the book and you [read].
Posted: Sun, Jul 4th '10 |
SPWeb: Difference between AllUsers and Users Property
Mauro Cardarelli
P style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class=MsoNormalSPAN style="LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';FONT-SIZE:10pt;"Quick Quiz: Recently, I wrote a very simple web part that returns a list of users who have access to the current SharePoint site.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANThe code snippets below show two approaches I tried.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANDo you know the difference in the results?o:p/o:p/SPAN/P
P style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class=MsoNormalB style="m [read].
Posted: Mon, May 17th '10 |
Policy for Web Applications’ Firedrill
Mauro Cardarelli
P style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class=MsoNormalSPAN style="LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';FONT-SIZE:10pt;"‘Help!SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANAll of a sudden, all users can view all (including private) content in SharePoint.” … Never the good start of a conversation (especially on a Friday afternoon!).SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANHere’s the deal – Users are reporting open access to once private information in SharePoint.SPAN style="mso-spacerun: [read].
Posted: Sat, May 8th '10 |
SharePoint View Stuck in ‘Loading…’ State
Mauro Cardarelli
P style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class=MsoNormalSPAN style="LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';FONT-SIZE:10pt;"I was presented with a WSS 3.0 site containing a document library with a collapsed grouping on a metadata column.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANA problem was reported where every time a user went to expand the grouping the interface appeared to get stuck in a ‘Loading…’ state (with no document results ever returning).o:p/o:p/SPAN/P
P style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10 [read].
Posted: Fri, May 7th '10 |
SharePoint Site Migration Tidbit
Mauro Cardarelli
P style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class=MsoNormalSPAN style="LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';FONT-SIZE:10pt;"Recently I had to move some WSS 3.0 sites from a development server to production (post upgrade from WSS 2.0).SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANI used the stsadm import/export pair to create the necessary files to facilitate the move.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANAn interesting thing happened…o:p/o:p/SPAN/P
P style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class=MsoNormalS [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 15th '10 |
Publishing Button Disabled in SharePoint 2010
Mauro Cardarelli
PI came across an issue a few days ago where we had a publishing site in SharePoint 2010 that would not allow pages to be published [kinda makes it hard to be productive! :) ].nbsp; The Publish button was disabled and the Submit button threw a "STRONGEMThe form cannot be rendered. This may be due to a misconfiguration of the Microsoft SharePoint Server State Service. For more information, contact your server administrator/EM/STRONG." error.nbsp; After a little digging I found this useful A href= [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 8th '10 |
Code Snippet for SharePoint Links List Query Web Part
Mauro Cardarelli
P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;"SPAN style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"Recently, I had to “throw together” a quick web part (this is SharePoint 2007) that queries a links list (located on another site) and returns the associated items as a bulleted list.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANThe goal was to use this web part in a site definition so all sites created would have a dynamic reference to hyperlinks managed in a single source. [read].
Posted: Thu, Apr 1st '10 |
Where Does SharePoint Still Fall Short?
Mauro Cardarelli
P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;"SPAN style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"I was interviewed by a collection of SharePoint enthusiasts last week and was asked a number of very interesting question about the current and next releases of SharePoint.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANThe one I found most intriguing was “With all the great things in SharePoint 2010, what do you think is the one thing that still falls short?”SPAN style="mso-s [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 16th '10 |
Another SharePoint Upgrade Success Story
Mauro Cardarelli
P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;"SPAN style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"This is one of those “this is what I did and it worked but don’t necessarily try this at home” posts. o:p/o:p/SPAN/P
P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;"SPAN style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"Here is the scenario… We had a WSS 2.0 environment that had some data deleted (remember the days of no recycle bin!).SPAN style [read].
Posted: Fri, Mar 5th '10 |
Free SharePoint 2010 Book Chapter Available
Mauro Cardarelli
PWell, we did it!nbsp; We are in the final edits of our SharePoint 2010 book, EMEssential 2010 - Overview, Governance, and Planning/EM, and are looking for an early June availability./P
PAs a sneak preview, we are releasing one of the chapters, "Planning for Governance", as a free download.nbsp; Click A class="" href="http://www.jornata.com/books/" target=_blankhere/A to visit our book site and download the chapter./P
PIMG style="WIDTH:123px;HEIGHT:163px;" height=163 src="http://www.jornata.com/ [read].
Posted: Tue, Mar 2nd '10 |
How Many Site Collections Do We Need?
Mauro Cardarelli
P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;"SPAN style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"I get asked lots of questions about SharePoint.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANOne of the harder ones to answer is “how many site collections do we need?”SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANWhy?... because, in my opinion, there is no right answer.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANSharePoint implementation is a very personalized experience where you, [read].
Posted: Sun, Jan 31st '10 |
SharePoint Admins - Can I get five minutes of your time?
Mauro Cardarelli
P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;"SPAN style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"Dear SharePoint Administrator,o:p/o:p/SPAN/P
P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;"SPAN style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"I know you are busy.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANI know those business folks and corporate executives are driving you crazy with demands for additional SharePoint functionality.SPAN style="mso-sp [read].
Posted: Sun, Jan 10th '10 |
Migrating to SharePoint 2010 is like…
Mauro Cardarelli
P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;"SPAN style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"One of my favorite roles is that of storyteller.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANI like to talk about real-life experiences and, when appropriate, use an analogy to drive home a message.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANWith the upcoming release of SharePoint 2010, I have heard lots of questions about the new features as well as the potential challenges of up [read].
Posted: Sat, Dec 19th '09 |
What If You Throw a Party and Nobody Shows Up
Mauro Cardarelli
FONT face=Calibri size=3
P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;"SPAN style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;LINE-HEIGHT:115%;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"I was a panelist at a SharePoint 2010 session last week at the Gilbane Boston Conference.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANGood times. Best question?SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANI was asked what I thought the biggest risk associated with SharePoint 2010 might be.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANI told a story from my early [read].
Posted: Wed, Dec 9th '09 |
Interesting Read: The new content editor WebPart in SharePoint 2010
Mauro Cardarelli
PSPAN style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"Recently, Sahil Malik wrote an interesting blog post entitled “The new content editor WebPart in SharePoint 2010” where he highlights the exciting new updates to the CEWP.SPAN style="mso-spacerun:yes;"nbsp; /SPANRead the full post A href="http://blah.winsmarts.com/2009-11-The_new_content_editor_WebPart_in_SharePoint_2010.aspx"here/A.o:p/o:p/SPAN/P
PSPAN style="FONT-SIZE:10pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Arial','sans-serif';"I wrote years ago that [read].
Posted: Sat, Nov 28th '09 |
Living in SharePoint “Mixed Mode”
Mauro Cardarelli
It was 3 years ago this month that I configured and deployed my first SharePoint 2007 solution (running on beta software). At the time, I told myself that for some short amount of time I needed to live in SharePoint “mixed mode” (term stolen from the SQL Server authentication option). To me, “mixed mode” meant having to support customers who were running SharePoint 2003 or 2007. The challenge with it, of course, is differences in functionality, administration and general configuration [read].
Posted: Sat, Oct 17th '09 |
Sunday Morning Business Intelligence Lesson
Mauro Cardarelli
First, apologizes to my non-sports fan readers. I, too, get that face tightening, head turning expression when a corporate executive tries to relate business performance to some sports concept. However, in this case, there is a lesson (I hope!)…
It’s football season. That means that I, like many other sports geeks, manage a fantasy football team (where the goal is to assemble a collection of NFL football players, aggregate their performance statistics and hope that this week’s total poi [read].
Posted: Sun, Oct 4th '09 |
Budgeting for SharePoint 2010
Mauro Cardarelli
I am doing some guest blogging work for tek-tips forum on SharePoint. Here is my first piece on budgeting for SharePoint 2010... http://tek-tips.nethawk.net/blog/budgeting-for-sharepoint-2010
Here in New England the foliage has begun to appear, signaling two things: flurries are not far behind and it is budget season.
Ah, budget season; that time of year when CIOs and IT Directors look into their crystal balls and try to predict the technology budget figures necessary to help drive business pro [read].
Posted: Wed, Sep 30th '09 |
Using Microsoft Translator on my Blog
Mauro Cardarelli
Have you seen Microsoft Translator? I stumbled upon it last week and ended up requesting an invitation code to use it on this blog. Check out the orange box on the left side. Select any language from the dropdown and the content on this blog will automatically be translated. I'm international! You can read about Microsoft Translator here on the Microsoft team blog. Key tidbits...
What it is: Built on top of the Microsoft Translator AJAX API, it is a small, customizable widget that you can [read].
Posted: Tue, Sep 15th '09 |
Planning Your SharePoint 2010 Upgrade – Part 2: Education
Mauro Cardarelli
In the early days of SharePoint 2007, I spoke of my excitement about the concept that SharePoint enables all users to be “consumers” AND “producers” of corporate knowledge. That excitement still holds true today. As I now look to SharePoint 2010, my focus has shifted toward a new role offered by this next release, “influencer”.
Here’s my logic… SharePoint 2010, without breaking any NDA restrictions, most certainly will take SharePoint to another level around social computing. [read].
Posted: Thu, Sep 10th '09 |
Why I'm an Obsessive Learner
Mauro Cardarelli
As I sit here this afternoon, trying to finish some writing on the SharePoint 2010 book (and not being too distracted by some Gemini stuff I was tinkering with), I am reminded of a term I use often in self-description: "obsessive learner".
I have several friends who have reached very senior positions in their organizations who often call me crazy for the late nights and weekend work I do "learning the next new thing". I argue that the greatest value I offer as a service provider is to be useful [read].
Posted: Sat, Sep 5th '09 |
The Four F’s of Blogging
Mauro Cardarelli
I’ve mentioned in my last couple of posts the concept of building your SharePoint environment from the inside (you) out (SharePoint). While this makes perfect sense to me, I was reminded yesterday that not everyone has access to the contextual details that live in my head… so let me give an example.
You’re in the process of building out your SharePoint deployment and you’re running down the list of native functionality. You come across ‘Social Computing – blogs and wikis’ and thi [read].
Posted: Fri, Aug 21st '09 |
SharePoint RFP Guidelines
Mauro Cardarelli
A friend passed along a link to an article by West Monroe Partners entitled SharePoint RFP Guidelines. It makes for interesting reading, especially if you are in the early stages of deploying SharePoint. I have never been one to state that a successful SharePoint deployment requires external expertise; I have known several companies that have used internal resources exclusively to take SharePoint a long, long way. That said, I have never been a fan of “let’s just deploy it and see what ha [read].
Posted: Thu, Aug 20th '09 |
Planning Your SharePoint 2010 Upgrade – Part 1: Inventory
Mauro Cardarelli
I took a few days off earlier this week to spend some quality time with the family on the beach. Nothing like a game of catch by the ocean to highlight the really important things/people in my life. Fortunately/Unfortunately, I had internet access the whole time so I could stay connected to all things SharePoint 2010. Oh the insanity! We’re in this “quiet” period, pre October conference, so there is a fair amount of speculation and exaggeration out there (especially in Twitter land). [read].
Posted: Fri, Aug 14th '09 |
SharePoint, Employee Directories and Temporary Employees
Mauro Cardarelli
What is Mary’s phone extension? For many, the answer involves looking to the right or left of their computer monitors to a piece of paper tacked to the wall that lists all employees and phone numbers. I know; not the most efficient method… but it works. At some point, someone has a ‘eureka’ moment and realizes that you can use SharePoint and the native ability to import Active Directory profile data to (pretty easily) build an employee directory. Hold on. Like all things, you need t [read].
Posted: Sat, Aug 1st '09 |
Thinking Through Charting Options in SharePoint
Mauro Cardarelli
“You know what would be really cool? We could add scorecards and dashboards to our SharePoint environment so executives can get direct access to reporting and analytics.” Oh, if I only had a dollar for every time I have heard that!
Business Intelligence is a core component of MOSS. SharePoint is a very good medium for report and data delivery. Simple. The challenge, I think, is deciding what means you will use to deliver this reporting (assuming that you don’t want to just add hyperli [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 29th '09 |
Excellent BI Read on Data Quality
Mauro Cardarelli
I stumbled across an interesting blog post this morning by Vishwas Agashe entitled “Don’t shoot the messenger, attack the message! How to avoid data quality issues from derailing BI initiatives”. Read it here. Vishwas makes a very compelling case for talking about data quality BEFORE you begin a business intelligence initiative. Good stuff.
One of the challenges I have seen in pushing forward BI (which is very much an overused term these days) is clearing some misconceptions around the [read].
Posted: Thu, Jul 23rd '09 |
Making a Case for Thought Leadership in SharePoint 2010
Mauro Cardarelli
Thought leader is a buzzword or article of jargon used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights – Wikipedia
OK, ok, I mentioned the “g” word (governance) in my last post and I’ll probably do it 100 or so more times in the coming year. Today, however, I want to throw out a term that I think will be almost as important with SharePoint 2010 [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 20th '09 |
Planning for SharePoint 2010
Mauro Cardarelli
Yesterday, I (and just about everyone in the SharePoint community) posted a link to the SharePoint 2010 sneak peek videos. So, unless you live under a rock, are sitting on some beach with no internet access or (like my wife) don’t give a hoot about SharePoint, you have seen the videos. First impressions? I’m guessing your thought process was something like this…
· Holy bleep! We need to get to this version ASAP…
· Looks like there is some infrastructure work to be [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 14th '09 |
SharePoint 2010 Sneak Peek Now Available...
Mauro Cardarelli
Let the excitement begin! Check out http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/default.aspx. It's (probably) your first look into some of the new features in SharePoint 2010. There are some short video clips with firsthand presentation into some of the functionality and presentation in the next version. A definite must see... [read].
Posted: Mon, Jul 13th '09 |
The Responsibilities of Having an Online Identity
Mauro Cardarelli
Last week, I began using Twitter (follow me at @maurocardarelli). I did not do it on impulse; I did not do it because it’s what hot/hip. I came to it after much analysis and (you guessed it) planning. I’ve made a commitment to make it part of my routine.
Here’s the challenge… I’ve blogged for 5+ years. I’m an obsessive LinkedIn user. I started using FaceBook several months ago. How can I possible manage “one more thing”?
When I talk to folks who are new to SharePoint, I d [read].
Posted: Sun, Jul 5th '09 |
Programmatically Create an InfoPath form with ASP.NET
Mauro Cardarelli
I worked on a project a while back where I needed to develop a .NET based web application that collected data and submitted the results as an InfoPath form in a SharePoint form library. It had some very cool features (like binding dropdowns to SharePoint lists and hiding/showing administration fields based on SharePoint security... this allowed all adminstration to be done with the SharePoint UI). The coding was loosely based on this posting (http://www.bizsupportonline.net/infopath2007/progra [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 1st '09 |
SPTech Conference Recap
Mauro Cardarelli
I spent a few days this week at the SPTech Conference in Boston, doing a session on requirements gathering for SharePoint and working the Nintex booth with Mike Fitzmaurice. First, some observations…
· Solid attendee base. Given the economy, I wasn’t sure how attendance would look but there were lots of eager SharePoint’ers from all over the country.
· There are still lots of people brand new to SharePoint. Very cool! I especially like their commitment to “going s [read].
Posted: Sat, Jun 27th '09 |
Dealing with a SharePoint Security Breach
Mauro Cardarelli
This week a friend of mine told me about a SharePoint related “incident” at his company where it was discovered that someone had posted a spreadsheet that contained sensitive employee data. The file was not properly secured (discovered via a keyword search) and quickly was removed; no damage was done. Nonetheless, it got me thinking about the appropriate steps to take during such a scenario… and, if you know me that means having a plan.
Mine has two categories (below):
Reactive
· [read].
Posted: Sun, Jun 21st '09 |
Thought For the Day…
Mauro Cardarelli
I love learning. Because my job requires me to be people facing, I am constantly challenging myself to be a better story teller (which I find to be the most impactful way of teaching). To that end, I look for short stories or (even better) pictures that drive home a key component of my business philosophy. So…
I came across a great blog post (found through a LinkedIn group on Business Intelligence). It was written by Peter Thomas and is called “Data – Information – Knowledge – Wi [read].
Posted: Fri, Jun 12th '09 |
Who Do You Know Who Knows…
Mauro Cardarelli
I did a presentation on Social Computing at an event yesterday sponsored by Microsoft and NewsGator. Great turnout and excellent questions from an engaged audience. One of the more interesting topics was the Social Network Graph (see below) presented as part of the NewsGator Social Sites. There is an obvious ‘wow’ factor with a compelling image like this. The challenge is around getting past it and understanding the true business value. There were a few folks in the audience interested [read].
Posted: Fri, Jun 5th '09 |
SharePoint Technology Conference Coming to Boston
Mauro Cardarelli
The SharePoint Technology Conference is coming to Boston and is now just weeks away! I'll be doing a session on requirements gathering with SharePoint so come on by. Also, I will be assisting in the Nintex booth with Mike Fitzmaurice so if you miss my session feel free to walk the expo center and stop by the booth.
Get conference details here and the conference brochure here.
See you there! [read].
Posted: Tue, Jun 2nd '09 |
Quality Reading -- Using Analysis Services Data in Excel Services
Mauro Cardarelli
One of the cool things about having Excel Services in your toolbox is that you are able to deliver some very powerful ad hoc reporting against Analysis Services data. Do this in a single server virtual environment and all is pretty simple and straightforward. Try it in actual (production) distributed environment and you are bound to run into configuration issues. Because of this, I have passed along Tom Stegemans' multi-post instruction reference to several frustrated SharePoint implementers. [read].
Posted: Sun, May 24th '09 |
Delivering Social Computing Business Value with SharePoint
Mauro Cardarelli
Are you taking advantage of the native social computing tools within SharePoint to make a difference within your organization? Are you interested in learning how? I am presenting a session entitled "If you build it, will they come?" at an upcoming event sponsored by Microsoft and NewsGator. This is a half-day, no charge event in Waltham, MA.
Social computing has been a hot topic in many of my client facing presentations. It is a subject that is near and dear to me as it sits at the core of [read].
Posted: Sun, May 17th '09 |
Makeover for Groove: SharePoint Workspace 2010!
Mauro Cardarelli
Did you hear the news? Groove has been rebranded... read the full details here.
Heads up – Groove is getting a new name as of the coming release of Office 2010. Please welcome SharePoint Workspace 2010!
The name makeover is in concert with the direction the product is going. SharePoint Workspace will provide easy access to SharePoint content (or content from any server that implements the publicly documented protocols) in an effort to provide a seamless online/offline experience.
SharePo [read].
Posted: Thu, May 14th '09 |
Installation Instructions for SharePoint 2007 SP2
Mauro Cardarelli
By now, you have probably heard that SP2 for SharePoint 2007 is available (read the details here). The changes in SP2 cover three main areas:
Performance and Availability Improvements
Improved Interoperability
Getting Ready for SharePoint Server 2010
The release of a new service pack is always a good time to assess your Disaster Recovery plans as well as the overall health of all your SharePoint environments (production, development, etc.). Take a moment and revisit disk space, Event log erro [read].
Posted: Sun, May 10th '09 |
SharePoint Perspective – Hurry Up or Go Slow?
Mauro Cardarelli
OK, it feels like I was just days into full recovery from writing the last SharePoint book with Scott Jamison and Sue Hanley when we have started talking about Table of Contents and delivery dates for the SharePoint 2010 version. Oh my!
As I started thinking about dates (beta, launch, SP1, etc.), it occurred to me that customers looking to adopt SharePoint will hit a “fuzzy” period when choosing a version of SharePoint to start with will become more challenging. Here’s what I mean… Le [read].
Posted: Wed, Apr 29th '09 |
Testing Your VBA Coding Skills -- OfficePalooza
Mauro Cardarelli
Back in the day, PS (Pre-SharePoint), I was quite the kick-butt VBA developer. I built many a system, some still going, using Excel/Word/Access/PowerPoint. Because of this, I watched with great interest the countdown to go-live for the new OfficePalooza. If you haven't seen it, take a look. They are running a contest over the next few weeks with coding challenges in both Novice and Experienced levels. I did the first two this evening, for the thrill much more than the glory, and I have to s [read].
Posted: Tue, Apr 21st '09 |
SharePoint and the Need for Cross-Browser Design
Mauro Cardarelli
I’ve written a few posts about SharePoint and cross-browser compatibility. The message being that as you design your SharePoint environment you must be aware of the user experience for non-Internet Explorer users. This is especially true for internet facing websites. Unlike corporate environments where you may be able to set policy on browser usage, the internet facing world allows full freedom of browser selection. My experience has shown that this can produce minor and major functional o [read].
Posted: Sun, Apr 5th '09 |
What is an Executive Dashboard?
Mauro Cardarelli
This just in… A recent research report states Business Intelligence is in the top 10 initiatives for CIO’s this year.
How many times have you seen the above statement? The answer probably gives some indication of just how old you are! Think about it, every year there are multiple sources (research reports, technology magazines, etc.) that say that this is the year BI is at the top of the IT budget food chain. Why is that? I have two guesses. First, delivering business intelligence for a [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 30th '09 |
Talking Through the 10 New SharePoint Themes
Mauro Cardarelli
Have you seen the 10 new themes for SharePoint? If not, check out the image below. I must say they are very nice and offer some decent options for branding your team sites. But... before we post an announcement on the portal and advertise them let's talk through what this really is...
First, let's assume various roles in your SharePoint environment and ask how these themes affect you:
Business User
Cool! Can I rebrand my project site this morning?
No. These themes need to be deployed t [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 23rd '09 |
SharePoint/Office Integration with Firefox
Mauro Cardarelli
A while back I wrote a post on browser compatibility with SharePoint ( see here for details). Obvioulsy, there are functional shotcomings with non-Internet Explorer browsers. Recently, I got an email from a reader pointing me to a new project on Codeplex on SharePoint/Office integration with Firefox. I downloaded it and it is actually pretty slick. Honestly, I have not come across much demand for such functionality as most internal SharePoint applications allow IT to enforce consistent (IE) [read].
Posted: Fri, Mar 20th '09 |
Staying Current in Today’s Technology World
Mauro Cardarelli
Last week, I took (and passed) two SQL Server 2008 certification exams (Business Intelligence Development and Implementation and Maintenance). It was almost 12 years to day from my first Microsoft certification exam. I mentioned this to a friend and he asked how I could possible stay active enough in the newest technologies to continue to take certification exams. My answer was “one part passion, one part fear”.
I’ve always been an obsessive learner so I have a pretty good routine on [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 11th '09 |
Version History on List Attachments
Mauro Cardarelli
"If SharePoint provides document version history and I include a document as an attachment on my (non-document library) list, will that attachment also be under version management?"... Answer: No
From the Microsoft KB article 943136 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943136)... "This behavior occurs because attachment versioning is not supported for lists in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. If you want to use Version History to keep track of attachments in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, create a [read].
Posted: Wed, Mar 4th '09 |
SharePoint Saturday, March 14th - Boston
Mauro Cardarelli
Join SharePoint architects, developers, and other professionals that work with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for ‘SharePoint Saturday’, on Saturday, March 14th, 2009 at the Microsoft Office on Jones Road in Waltham, MA. SharePoint Saturday will be an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your l [read].
Posted: Mon, Mar 2nd '09 |
My New New Thing...
Mauro Cardarelli
It was interesting to read the announcement of the Microsoft Search Roadmap that came out of FASTForward last week. As someone who has strong ties to SharePoint and equally strong interest in enterprise search, I am extremely pleased. It was five years ago when I wrote my first article on search and SharePoint (SPS2003 at the time). Typical (for me), I made a family analogy on my impression of search in SharePoint… “I’ve equated the SharePoint search results with my seven year old daugh [read].
Posted: Thu, Feb 19th '09 |
Great Article on SharePoint Data Recovery
Mauro Cardarelli
A colleague recently sent me a copy of an article on SharePoint Data Recovery ("Deep dive into SharePoint data recovery: HOT SPOTS" by Lauren Whitehouse). It’s a great read for anyone concerned about maintaining SharePoint uptime and what you need to think about.
Lauren notes that “research finds that 36% of SharePoint users believe their backup processes don't provide an adequate level of protection. And 36% say a SharePoint downtime of 60 minutes or less would have an adverse affect on [read].
Posted: Fri, Feb 13th '09 |
There are no people or groups to show in this view...
Mauro Cardarelli
One of the pretty slick (and native) WSS web parts is the Site Users web part. It allows you to dynamically display who has access to that team site. You can configure it to show one of the following:
Show people and groups with direct permissions on this site
Show people in this site's member group
Show people in the group:
I like to use the third option where I create a SharePoint security group (e.g. Students) , give that group access to the team site, then show the membership so everyone [read].
Posted: Tue, Feb 10th '09 |
Applying 'OR' Search Logic Between Two Managed Properties
Mauro Cardarelli
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on some basic syntax for constructing search queries that execute specific MOSS searches. One question that has come from that posting is how to implement 'OR' logic when working with Managed Properties. As an example, let's say you want to look for a keyword in the title of a document or in its description (but not necessarily in both). The URL query syntax does not include any special indicator for implementing 'OR' logic so you will need to use the CONTAINS [read].
Posted: Wed, Feb 4th '09 |
My Take on the PerformancePoint News
Mauro Cardarelli
By now, you have probably heard about Microsoft's decision on the future of PerformancePoint Server (Microsoft Business Intelligence Announcement Q&A). Kudos to friend Chris Webb for breaking the news... at least to me!
As a technologist who has always had a strong passion for Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence, I was excited by the news. I agree with Patrick Husting that this will now offer performance management (which I place in the "hardcore" Business Intelligence category) [read].
Posted: Sun, Jan 25th '09 |
Final Agenda for Our SharePoint Event
Mauro Cardarelli
REMINDER: Our complimentary 1-day SharePoint event is this Wednesday, January 28th, at the Microsoft office in Waltham, MA. You still have time to register at www.vitale.com/sharepoint.
The full agenda is below. I'll also post slide decks through this blog at the end of the week. [read].
Posted: Sat, Jan 24th '09 |
SharePoint Adoption -- the Netflix Effect
Mauro Cardarelli
I have always been an advocate for maximizing business value with SharePoint by growing its usage slowly around core initiatives. Many have probably heard me utter my “crawl, walk, run” approach for building out SharePoint functionality. There have been times, however, when some folks have been confused by this philosophical statement. What’s the story behind the message? So, I have tried to find a better way to express the meaning… the Netflix effect.
About a year ago, on the sugges [read].
Posted: Wed, Jan 21st '09 |
A Personal Invitation to Our SharePoint Event on January 28th
Mauro Cardarelli
Dear Friend,
Happy New Year! I am reaching out to you today to tell you about a SharePoint event that my team and I have put together. Over the past few years, we have been fortunate to have worked with some great customers who have found creative ways to make a measurable business impact with their use of SharePoint. As we enter into 2009, a year that most certainly will challenge all of us due to the current economic climate, we will need to find ways to “do more with less”. The danger [read].
Posted: Wed, Jan 7th '09 |
Another SharePoint DVWP Tidbit
Mauro Cardarelli
Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2009 is another exciting one in the SharePoint community...
Let's start the year off with another way to use the Data View Web Part (DVWP). As many of you know, I am a huge fan of the DVWP; it allows you to take SharePoint to the next level... without writing code. Here's the scenario: You want to feature a "promotion" on your SharePoint page(s) that has an interesting graphic that, once clicked, redirects you to another location (inside or outside the site) [read].
Posted: Tue, Jan 6th '09 |
My Interview with ECM Connection
Mauro Cardarelli
As a follow up to my recent webinar on paer-based document processes and SharePoint, I did an interview with ECM Connection. I tried to cover some of the main themes I presented during the webinar.
You can download the entire interview here. [read].
Posted: Wed, Dec 24th '08 |
Showing Tagged Documents in a DVWP -- Part II
Mauro Cardarelli
In my last post, I wrote about how to use some business sense to influence the design of multiple document author columns. Today, I want to put my techie hat on and discuss how to use a little XSL to fix an annoying display issue.
Let's assume that you have a metadata column called Stages that allows multiple selections. The tagger selects one or many matches simply by checking off checkboxes. When you use that column in a DVWP, you notice that the selected values are connected with commas (i [read].
Posted: Mon, Dec 15th '08 |
Showing Tagged Documents in a DVWP -- Part I
Mauro Cardarelli
Those who know me, met me, or attended one of my speaking engagements have probably heard me state that SharePoint is "two parts Business to one part Technology". That's what drew me to it years ago and that's what keeps me going today... SharePoint, more than any other product I know, forces me to think (as both a technologist and a business person). Here's an example:
You have a document library filled with high value business content and you have been disciplined through the design phase to [read].
Posted: Sun, Dec 14th '08 |
SharePoint Thesaurus Utility -- My Early Holiday Gift
Mauro Cardarelli
In my opinion, the thesaurus in SharePoint ranks in the top 10 of least used capabilities in MOSS. There are three main reasons. First, not many folks know that it even exists. Second, those who know and want to use it are often confused on how to use it. Third, and most importantly, those who REALLY care about it and know the organizational business language do not know how to (and don't want to) manipulate an XML file that sits buried on the server.
Case in point, what is the likelihood th [read].
Posted: Thu, Dec 4th '08 |
Giving Someone SharePoint User Profile Management Rights
Mauro Cardarelli
Scenario: You have given someone rights into SharePoint Central Administration but when she clicks on 'User profiles and properties' (see image below) she is prompted for credentials and is denied access. How do you allow her to manage user profiles?
Answer: Click the 'Personalization services permissions' link and edit the rights for this person (or associated group). Make sure 'Manage user profiles' is selected. [read].
Posted: Sun, Nov 30th '08 |
Using a Little XSL Magic in Your MOSS Search Results
Mauro Cardarelli
I love to hate XSL. It drives me absolutely crazy sometimes to get the syntax just right (XSL is so unforgiving) but, when things work, you can do so much with so few lines of code. Here's a snippet I used recently to add a hyperlink in a MOSS search result to allow the user to ignore all other criteria used and just focus on a specific managed property. See my previous post on helpful hints on search url syntax.
This snippet create a hyperlink that executes a new search with just a managed p [read].
Posted: Thu, Nov 27th '08 |
Tips & Tricks With the SharePoint Search URL
Mauro Cardarelli
I have been building a custom interface for executing MOSS search queries. I thought it would be a relatively simple exercise in manipulating the search results URL to pass parameters based on requested actions. It turns out, based on the scarcity of documentation, that it was not so easy! As always, I took good notes so I could share...
Let's start with some basics. You can really do a lot with the search URL simply by setting the appropriate URL parameter. The two most obvious are 's=' wh [read].
Posted: Mon, Nov 24th '08 |
Webinar: Automating Document-Centric Processes within SharePoint
Mauro Cardarelli
I am working with the folks at eCopy on an upcoming webinar entitled "Automating Document-Centric Processes within SharePoint". Details on the session are below. You can register for it here.
General Event Information
Odds are someone, somewhere in your organization is using Microsoft SharePoint. Leveraging your existing investment and knowledgebase in SharePoint can be a springboard to achieving success with your business process management (BPM) initiatives. Just as critical to your success [read].
Posted: Fri, Oct 31st '08 |
Attachment Size Limit Question
Mauro Cardarelli
Got this question a few days back and thought I would share the answer (as I have seen it posed a few times)...
We have emailed enabled a discussion board and it works fine except for emails with attachments greater than 2 MB in size.
We are using the default for document libraries at 50MB (and we dont have an Exchange limit)...the email just gets rejected.
Is there a size limit on attachments? If so, can we change it?
The answer is that this is not a SharePoint problem; it is an SMTP server lim [read].
Posted: Thu, Sep 25th '08 |
SharePoint Users and Administrators Needed for Microsoft User Research
Mauro Cardarelli
I recently received an email from a friend (Karen Angelli, a UX Designer for Microsoft Office). She mentioned that they are working to improve the user experience of SharePoint for the next release, which has some very interesting changes to the UI. They will do remote usability studies for this release, but they need help in finding good participants!
Here’s the blurb:
SharePoint Users and Administrators Needed for Microsoft User Research.
Microsoft User Research conducts thousands [read].
Posted: Tue, Sep 9th '08 |
Installing a Language Pack for MOSS
Mauro Cardarelli
The multi-lingual capabilities in MOSS are very cool. You can create sites in non-English languages simply by installing the appropriate language pack. This is especially slick when you are using variations (will cover this in another post). Note, the installation process is not very intuitive so I’ll provide details below.
1. Download the appropriate files.
a. For MOSS, you will need the MOSS and WSS files
b. Remember there are specific 64bit versions
c. On each of the dow [read].
Posted: Tue, Aug 12th '08 |
Troubleshooting Web Parts in a Restored Portal Environment
Mauro Cardarelli
I have always felt that one of the greatest features in SharePoint, going back to the 2003 version, was the ease at which you could restore a copy of your environment. Having that backup file can prove to be very powerful in setting a development copy of your portal or even restoring in the event of a real disaster. A key piece of this process is to understand what is NOT carried over in a backup. First, custom web part files (i.e. dll's) which typically reside in the /bin folder of your port [read].
Posted: Sun, Aug 10th '08 |
If I Only Had 5 Questions...
Mauro Cardarelli
I had an interesting challenge posed to me recently. I was asked to offer design assistance on a new collaboration environment for a collection of virtual teams. The goal was to provide each team with a SharePoint site where they could post content and use native SharePoint tools for collaboration and communication. The challenge was the environment needed to be built very quickly so there was no time for information architecture design sessions. In fact, I couldn’t even talk to anyone to [read].
Posted: Fri, Aug 1st '08 |
Finding an SSP's Application GUID
Mauro Cardarelli
I am writing a whitepaper on using the MOSS thesaurus and came upon an interesting problem. One of the first challenges in using the thesaurus (XML) file with SharePoint is finding the right one to edit! A collection of thesaurus and noise word files is created on the file system for each Shared Service Provider (SSP). If you read any documentation on this process, you'll learn that you need to navigate to the appropriate Application GUID folder for your SSP. This is straightforward if you o [read].
Posted: Thu, Jul 24th '08 |
Are You a SharePoint Shepherd?
Mauro Cardarelli
Recently, I coordinated a meeting where I had one client visit another to tell her SharePoint story (from design through implementation, the good and the bad, lessons learned etc.). This is a very powerful experience as users new to SharePoint get to hear the “real” stories around effort, success and challenges and, most importantly, get to hear validation for the value of proper design. Anyway, as I was sitting there, I heard my client make reference to her responsibilities to “shepherd [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 16th '08 |
Interesting Summer Reading
Mauro Cardarelli
A friend recently passed me a copy of “If Only We Knew What We Know” by Carla O’Dell and C. Jackson Grayson. It’s an interesting read for those of us invested in the knowledge management discipline. This book, while a few years old, is a great though provoker for those in the midst of intranet and collaboration tools development. It offers a good balance of what to expect from people and technology to enable knowledge sharing and reuse in an organization.
Chapter 1 sets you immediat [read].
Posted: Tue, Jul 8th '08 |
Coming Soon - SharePoint Magazine
Mauro Cardarelli
Click here for more details... [read].
Posted: Wed, Jul 2nd '08 |
Best Practices for Using SharePoint for Public Websites
Mauro Cardarelli
I recently received a copy of a new analyst report entitled "Best Practices for Using SharePoint for Public Websites - A Business Person's Guide" (I was interviewed as part of the research). It's an interesting piece for those considering using MOSS for their internet facing websites. While I can't give too much away (it is a for-purchase report), I can say that it offers practical advice on how to manage the branding (i.e. using a professional design team), building the right team, and levera [read].
Posted: Fri, Jun 27th '08 |
Limiting the SharePoint People Picker List
Mauro Cardarelli
Found another goodie in MOSS SP1... By default, a web application that is tied to Windows Authentication will search the entire Active Directory to resolve user names. This is great for a corporate intranet but what if you are building something smaller that is intended for use by a particular Organizational Unit (OU)? You would want the People Picker to be limited that that smaller group (so other employees could not be added). Right?
There is a new operation for stsadm available with SP1 ca [read].
Posted: Wed, Jun 18th '08 |
SharePoint and Web 2.0
Mauro Cardarelli
There is a big Enterprise Web 2.0 conference here in Boston this week. One of the sessions is on how Wachovia is using SharePoint collaboration and social networking tools. There is an interesting article in InformationWeek this week that covers this subject in more detail. Read it here. For me, there are two big takeaways...
1. As I have always felt, with the right planning and implementation, SharePoint can have a major impact on how an organization collects and shares information. "To co [read].
Posted: Tue, Jun 10th '08 |
Calculating an Aging Column in SharePoint 2007
Mauro Cardarelli
Here's an interesting problem... with a more interesting solution!
Let's say you want to create an Aging column in your document library (i.e. the number of days since the document was last changed). Since SharePoint supports calculated fields, this should be easy. Right? No. The challenge is using the 'Today' function in a calculated field. When you try to use it, SharePoint throws an error with a reference to Today being a volatile function. How to get around this? Do the following...
1 [read].
Posted: Wed, Jun 4th '08 |
Web Service to Query Active Directory Attributes
Mauro Cardarelli
Been on a coding kick lately... My colleagues and I are working on some custom SharePoint workflows and one of them requires obtaining some user data from Active Directory. A great way to handle this is through the use of a web service. Once implemented, this is something that can be repurposed, whether through other workflows or InfoPath forms or custom applications. The code snippet below is a method that accepts an AD attribute (example: ‘co’ is Country) and returns the value for the c [read].
Posted: Mon, Jun 2nd '08 |
Aggregating Data From Different SharePoint List Types
Mauro Cardarelli
The Content Query web part is a great tool for rolling up data from different SharePoint lists. One of its limitations is that is does not aggregate list items across different list types. Here’s a scenario I recently came across…
We were building a knowledge repository that contained documents in a document library and links in a link list. Both lists have the same custom metadata, as each item represents information about a specific topic. Our objective was to create one interface th [read].
Posted: Sat, May 24th '08 |
Great MOSS Search Training Resource
Mauro Cardarelli
The Enterprise Search Blog has a post about new training material for MOSS search configuration. It's 17 hours (over 14 modules) of online tutorials. This is good stuff.
The 14 recorded presentations are based on training modules from a three-day, in-person training course ‘Implementing and Deploying an Enterprise Search solution’.
The presentations provide details about key Enterprise Search capabilities in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Check out these sessions here.
Module [read].
Posted: Thu, May 22nd '08 |
Quick Workflow Tip - Creating a Hyperlink Behind Text in Email
Mauro Cardarelli
Q: How can you create a hyperlink behind text in an email that is generated through SharePoint Designer workflow? The interface does not have a way to insert a hyperlink.
A: Simple HTML...
Type Click Here in the body of the email and it will look like this once received: Click Here [read].
Posted: Thu, May 22nd '08 |
Quick Follow-up on Using SharePoint's Web Services
Mauro Cardarelli
Per my last post, it is very easy to use SharePoint's web services to access things like list data. Here's one troubleshooting note...
Let's say you implement my example but when you run your application you get a "Microsoft.SharePoint.SoapServer.SoapServerException" error message. The first place to look is your web service URL. If your list data exists on a subsite (i.e. http:///) then your web service reference should look like:
http:////_vti_bin/Lists.asmx [read].
Posted: Tue, May 20th '08 |
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