Meet Anne Anderson</h1> <article> <h1>Meet Anne Anderson</h1> <p>Tedh — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:02:00 GMT</p> <p>So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them.</p> <p>I saved the best for last. Anne Anderson. While Jessica may be the friendliest one on the team - Anne is the KINDEST. She's always there to cheer you up. Always happy to see you. She knows her way around the CRM System, and can design a pretty kickin' system for you. Some of you know what I'm talkin' about! And Anne can write some mean documentation! </p> <p>Anne has had a huge impact on how our CRM team interacts with each other and the direction we have gone over the past 2-3 years. She helped me personally a lot when I finally came over to this team from Infrastructure. I'm so glad I've been blessed to be on a team with her - and hope it continues for a long, long time!</p> <p>So - that's it. I've written something about everyone on the CRM Team. Greatest Team at the greatest company! Thanks again to all of you!</p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Meet Bart Sneary</h1> <p>Tedh — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:55:00 GMT</p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">Bart Sneary runs the show these days. He does a darn good job of it too. He leads by example, is never afraid to get his hands dirty, and ALWAYS looks at a situation with a "big picture" attitude. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">If there was one thing I would complain about Bart - he walks too quietly. Startles me when he comes up all of the sudden. When he first started at Inetium, we were in our old 3600 building office. At the time, my back faced you while I was in my cube. He ALWAYS had me jumping out of my seat when he came up. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">So - when we moved to the new office at 3500 (yeah - I know - real far move...), I opted for a desk that faces the masses. Somehow he STILL startles me most of the time! I swear he doesn’t walk, he glides!</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">But aside from that, Bart has been amazing to work with. Attention to detail, an ear to bend for any reason - and he makes us take and enjoy our time off! He's the great combination of supporting the employee and insuring the customer is taken care of. And a great mentor at that!</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">(Yes - reviews come up in a couple months. But that's not why I wrote it, I swear!)</span></p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Meet Cindy Zitzman</h1> <p>Tedh — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:42:00 GMT</p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">Cindy came to Inetium and quickly showed us she can take on our most complicated, ever-evolving projects. She's also not opposed to managing even the simple ones, that may make a PM bored. She pretty much puts customer satisfaction first. She keeps us all in line, if we know what's good for ourselves. ;)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">Cindy has been a wonderful teammate to work with, and a great teammate. Thanks Cindy!</span> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Meet Dan Schultz</h1> <p>Tedh — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:32:00 GMT</p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">Kind heart. Big smile. Great sense of humor. Knack for turning a problem in to an opportunity - both for Inetium AND for the customer. Passion for making the customer feel - no, not just feel - KNOW that they are well taken care of. All these and more describe Dan Schultz.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">I've known Dan now for - I don't know - four years? He's quickly become a great friend. He makes you slow down when talking to him. Not in words - "Hey, slow down". No - in his actions. In his relaxed attitude. In his ability to deactivate a stressful situation. This works for customers and us co-workers as well.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">Dan never has anything bad to say about anything or anyone. Maybe, he would say he doesn't do enough for the customers, for us. That is not true - but he feels that way. Well Dan - enough already! ;) It's great to have you on our team buddy.</span></p> <p> </p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;"> </span></p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Meet Josh Dean</h1> <p>Tedh — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:36:00 GMT</p> <p>So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them.</p> <p>Josh Dean. Came to us fairly green in Data Engineering skills. But he had a pretty solid background with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and reporting. Since he's come to Inetium he's proven himself several times over - be it successful deployments, migrations, integration projects, writing reports, keep the customer happy, passing exams - he's done it all, and he does it all.</p> <p>Josh is a PYROMANIAC! Yep - just like the Def Leppard album, Josh likes to play with fire. And fireworks. And fire. He does some amazing firework shows - shows that look like you are at a Kiss concert! Ask him about it, if you get the chance.</p> <p>I like Josh, because he's always even keel. Doesn't matter how stressful a project may get, he's always relaxed. Or maybe that's just his ruse? I don't know. But it works. Thanks Josh! </p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Meet Jim Duevel</h1> <p>Tedh — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:59:00 GMT</p> <p> So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them.</p> <p>I'd like to talk a bit about another Data Engineer on our team, Jim Duevel. Jim came to the team a couple years ago, with a ton of experience with Microsoft CRM and Scribe. He's a rock star. 'Nuff said.</p> <p>As opposed to Bill, who is the LOUDEST person on our team, Jim is probably the quietest. He's pretty laid back, just takes care of business. But get him involved in a softball game - you'll see him get a bit louder when he gets competitive! ;)</p> <p>Jim's a family man - he loves to spend time with his wife and kids. Jim's a sports fanatic. Jim's just plain a cool guy! Jim's a talent we at Inetium are lucky to have on our team.</p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Meet Bill Goergen</h1> <p>Tedh — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:37:00 GMT</p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">Bill Goergen. What do you want me to say? Get's up at 5 AM darned near every morning and runs. Makes us lazy people who like to sleep in look lazy......</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">Bill is the LOUDEST person I've ever met. No - not in normal one on one face to face conversation. But put him on a phone - I swear the person on the other line could put their receiver down, as they can hear him without even using the phone. And when he sneezes... I'm not kidding, he sneezed once, and a customer of MINE thought it was me in our conversation. And I think they spilled their drink a little, they were so startled.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">In all seriousness, Bill is a great guy to work with. And he's tenacious! He will not give up on a problem, until he's found a solution. And he ALWAYS puts the customer first. And he's a riot! Ask him to tell you stories about raising his kids - he has something like a million. Maybe a million and a half. And each one leaves you in stitches.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt;color:black;font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';">Bill is also the other half of Inetium's own "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" - a moniker one of our clients gave us. They even put the Wild Stallyns logo in as their signature when they email us. Pretty good stuff! So is Bill.</span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;"> </span></p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Meet Jessica Noaeiueureilllll</h1> <p>Tedh — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:31:00 GMT</p> <p>So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them.</p> <p>So - I always give Jessica Noaeill guff about her name - she has so many vowels in it! As if I should talk, with my name....</p> <p>It's pronounced 'knoll', I think, or 'noel'. I'll have to ask her again.</p> <p>Jessica is hands down THE friendliest person I've ever met. She is always smiling, and always willing to stop whatever she is doing to answer even the most ridiculously stupid questions I or anyone else (mostly I) would throw her way. And she'll laugh at the dumbest jokes - which is cool, because I love her laugh, and I don't have any kind of joke BUT a dumb joke.</p> <p>Jessica is a master at CRM data migrations, integrations, extragressions - pretty any kinda 'gression you can think of - using Scribe. She knows it's strengths and weaknesses, and how to make it do what you need it to do. Even if it can't do it - she can get it to do it. She pretty much rocks, that Jessica. You can trust that your project is in good hands when Jessica is part of the project team.</p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Meet Ilja Gregor</h1> <p>Tedh — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:50:00 GMT</p> <p> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p> So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them.</p> </td> </tr> </table> </p> <p>Ilja came to Inetium around the same time as Dana. No - the same day. So they are like Inetium twins! Ilja's real name is Dennis - but he likes to go by Ilja, his middle name. I like Ilja better, personally. It fits him.</p> <p>Ilja is probably the tallest person in Inetium CRM Land. And - he's got the greatest sense of humor that will ALWAYS take you off guard. He's a very "straight" person up front. Serious, professional, etc. But here are a couple examples of emails that came from Ilja recently:</p> <p>Life Skill #1</p> <p>In addition to learning Jscript and CRM functionality, we all need good life skills. </p> <p>This is probably the most important thing you will learn today. Check it out.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2gYHJNT3Y">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2gYHJNT3Y</a> </p> <p> </p> <p>Ilja</p> <p>Life Skill #2</p> <p>Ever been camping and you forgot your flashlight? Make your own: watch this video...</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/855279/mountain_dew_glows_mountain_dew_light_hack/">http://www.metacafe.com/watch/855279/mountain_dew_glows_mountain_dew_light_hack/</a></p> <p>Just a couple examples of things he's shared with us over the last couple years....... </p> <p> </p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Meet Dana Sosa</h1> <p>Tedh — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:02:00 GMT</p> <p> So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them.</p> <p>Dana Sosa is one of our CRM Consultants. She came to Inetium almost 2 years ago, with mucho expertise in Dynamics Great Plains. But not a whole lot in CRM. That quickly changed. You see - Dana is the only person I know who reads techie books for fun. She's practically memorized every Microsoft CRM book, blog post, whitepaper, what-have-you that she's read in her 2 years at Inetium. She's a wealth of knowledge, that Dana - can even tell you what page of what book the information is on, so you can verify her answer. And you can bet she'll be right.</p> <p>Dana is prolly one of the coolest people I work with! She has a tremendous sense of humor, and can hang with the best of them in a battle of wits. She's a great parent - and couldn't be more proud or supportive of her kids. And she's the only person I've seen get tackled at one of our company outings - Terry Tate style - and live to tell about it. Well - she's the only person who's ever been tackled at an Inetium function. But she quickly bounced back, and proved she's tougher than nails.</p> <p>I have the privilege of sitting next to Dana at work - definitely a day-brightener. No, Dana, I'm not being sarcastic here. I don't think I am anyway?</p> <p>Thanks Dana, for being who you are!</p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Meet Jeremy Winchell</h1> <p>Tedh — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:07:00 GMT</p> <p>So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them. </p> <p>This post is all about Jeremy. What can I say about this guy? He's a snappy dresser. He's from Wisconsin, but he acts like a Minnesotan. ;) He's smarter than I, but he doesn't act like he is. He knows, or can figure out, almost everything there is to know about Microsoft CRM. And he's a great friend.</p> <p>Jeremy started at Inetium in the Infrastructure department, along with me. We had some "adventurous" Active Directory migrations together. If you are a client of ours, and work with Jeremy, and he starts to say "oh, we'll be done by tw....." - CUT HIM OFF MID-SENTENCE. It's the Winchell curse, I tell you!</p> <p>No - Jeremy's attention to detail, dedication to customer satisfaction and communication skills are what make him a great consultant. And more. He's definitely a huge asset to our team, and a great guy to know. If you have the privilege of working with him, you'll see what I mean.</p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Meet Ryan Toenies</h1> <p>Tedh — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:48:00 GMT</p> <p>So - in the spirit of celebrating Inetium's 10 years, and everything that is great about the company, I thought I'd do a series of blog posts on each member of the Inetium CRM Team. You may know some ....many... all of us. But I just wanted to drop a couple sentences about each of my co-workers, to show how much I appreciate working with and knowing them. </p> <p>I'll start with Ryan, as he's the "rock that our CRM team was built upon". Ryan WAS the CRM team just six short years ago. Yep - one guy. He used to implement and support Saleslogix back in the day, before Microsoft's product came out. I believe he did everything, from installation to business analysis, although I was not here to witness so I'll have to go on what I've heard. Inetium quickly moved to Microsoft's CRM product, and Ryan was in at the ground level even before the product was actually released.</p> <p>Inetium was poised to make its mark as a Microsoft CRM partner from the beginning, all because of Ryan's passion for the product. He still has that fire, and continues to inspire us to this day. No - I don't say this because I work for him. He's not my boss (Get it Ryan - you're not the boss of me!). It's true. Anyone who knows Ryan knows he has drive like nobody else. And he's a true geek! He just plain loves tinkering with new technology, new gadgets - and even today loves to get his hands dirty, so to speak, when there is a new product or add-on released for CRM.</p> <p>When I started at Inetium, I was on the Infrastructure team. I had the privilege of working with Ryan pretty closely on some CRM 1.0 implementations and through all the pain and success, I learned a lot working side by side with him. Not just about the product - I learned a lot about how to make a customer feel like they are the only person on this earth. I learned about how he truly cares about your pains, issues, concerns as a customer. A lot of Ryan's desire to make Inetium the best consulting company on the planet (Yes - the entire planet. And that is just starters for Ryan - I'm sure he's got his sites on Mars already, and we just don't see that in our pipeline yet) - anyway - a lot of Ryan's desire to make Inetium great is still carried on and taught to new hires as they come on board.</p> <p>I really do look up to Ryan, and I'm glad to have a friend like him at work.</p> <p>So - enough of that. Ryan's a great guy, we get it! I'll move on to another amazing co-worker in my next post.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Inetium 10 Year Party</h1> <p>Tedh — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:39:00 GMT</p> <p>Inetium is 10 years old - wow, hard to believe! </p> <p>I've been with the company only 6 of the last 10 years. But even in that short time, I've seen it grow from at the time around 25 employees to somewhere around 100. And we've grown up too.</p> <p>So we celebraed our 10 year anniversary in style Saturday night. We enjoyed a very cool slide show by Kris Nyreen, that took us down memory lane. We enjoyed speeches from our co-workers - both old and new (one of them from an employee who has been with us only a couple months I think) - that were funny, nostalgic, touching. And we got to hear from Keith Rachey, the founder of Inetium, as he spoke of the beginnings, some of his fondest memories, and the vision of where this company is going.</p> <p>One thing that strikes me about Inetium - and inspires me still - several of the people who started this thing and helped make it what is is today are STILL here. And they STILL believe in what we are doing. Well - so do I. and I'm blessed to be able to work with such amazing friends every single day.</p> <p>So - congratulations Inetium! And I'm looking forward to 10 more years! </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Accelerators for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Posted On CodePlex</h1> <p>Jeremy Winchell — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:44:00 GMT</p> <p> On Friday, Microsoft posted 3 of the 8 accelerators on CodePlex. I've listed all of the accelerators below and provided a direct link to the download for the ones that have been released. As more of these are released for download I will update these links below for quick and easy access.</p> <p>- <a href="http://www.codeplex.com/crmaccelerators/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=19071" class="null">CRM Notifications</a> <br />- <a href="http://www.codeplex.com/crmaccelerators/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=19077" class="null">Event Management</a> <br />- <a href="http://www.codeplex.com/crmaccelerators/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=18959" class="null">Extended Sales Forecasting</a><br />- eService Portal<br />- Enterprise Search<br />- Sales Methodologies<br />- Business Productivity<br />- Analytics</p> <p>To access the main Codeplex website for the accelerators, <a href="http://www.codeplex.com/crmaccelerators" class="null">click here</a>.</p> <p>- Jeremy</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Official Release of SPAdvancedSearch v1.0</h1> <p>emau — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 03:14:00 GMT</p> <p>Alright... so I've finally completed the official release of my CodePlex project (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.codeplex.com/SPAdvancedSearch">SPAdvancedSearch</a>). It will revolutionize searching within SharePoint.. well, not exactly. But it is pretty sweet IMHO. The underlying architecture is interesting and is <em>somewhat </em>described in the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.codeplex.com/SPAdvancedSearch/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=18511">documentation </a>on the site. I've had the vision for quite some time, but I haven't had the opportunity to implement it. The general pattern that I took is pretty basic... Taking more complex web part configuration settings (above and beyond the traditional data types supported OOTB) and using custom XML serialization to persist them in the web part. I've include a synopsis of the SPAdvancedSearch project below. </p> <p></p> <p> <h1><a name="_Toc212041403"><em>SPAdvancedSearch Goals</em></a></h1> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%;">The goal of the SPAdvancedSearch project is to improve the ability for end-users to perform advanced property-based searches in SharePoint without requiring knowledge of the property-based syntax (i.e. DocumentCategory:Proposal, etc.).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>For quite some time I wished that the user profile search in SharePoint was available for finding content other than user profiles.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>This project seeks to bridge that gap.</span></p> <h1><a name="_Toc212041404">SPAdvancedSearch Overview</a></h1> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%;">Since the out-of-the-box search input provides many configuration options, I decided to derive from Microsoft’s Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.SearchBoxEx web part to inherit the “goodness” it provides.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>The derived web part “intercepts” the advanced search link by providing an expand / collapse panel with flexible managed property advanced search options.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>In addition to providing a basic text box input UI, the advanced search web part allows for configuring “Choice” values similar to SharePoint’s Choice field type.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>Future enhancements and considerations are included later in this document.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>One interesting note to point out is that this control does not alter the way that the OOTB SharePoint search control performs queries.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>Instead, it makes use of the same QueryString driven approach (i.e. results.aspx?k=Some Key Words Here).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> </p> <p>Check it out: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.codeplex.com/SPAdvancedSearch">http://www.codeplex.com/SPAdvancedSearch.</a></p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Version 0.5 of SPAdvancedSearch</h1> <p>emau — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:32:00 GMT</p> <p>Have you ever wondered why the OOTB MOSS search box didn't include the same functionality that the people search provides? If you haven't noticed, the People Search box provides an in-page advanced search experience to easily search by managed properties (i.e. Department, Location, etc.). I've recreated this functionality for the using a CEWP and JavaScript; however, that's not necessarily a scalable solution. As part of my preparation for the upcoming <a target="_blank" href="http://www.devconnections.com/shows/FALL2008SP/" title="SharePoint Connections" class="null">SharePoint Connections</a> conference in Las Vegas, I've started a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.codeplex.com/SPAdvancedSearch" class="null">solution</a> for this on CodePlex. It's functional, but I have more work to do...</p> <p></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.codeplex.com/SPAdvancedSearch">http://www.codeplex.com/SPAdvancedSearch</a></p> <p>The code and general information is available; however, I haven't created an officially released WSP. Here are some highlights...</p> <p><em>This preview release includes:</em><br />*Ability to define SharePoint Managed Properties in the advanced search pane using xml<br /><br /><em>Version 1.0 will be released in mid-to-late October and will include:</em><br />*Custom toolpane for defining managed properties (no more xml).<br />*Automatic display of the advanced search panel via configuration on the toolpane<br />*Automatic display of the advanced search panel on results pages when a query has been executed<br />*Removal of managed properties used in the search from the "keyword" input box to improve user experience<br /><br /><em>Version 1.5 is planned to include these additional features:</em><br />*Ability to define a choice list as a value type in the advanced search panel<br />*Ability to define a lookup list as a value type in the advanced search panel (limited to SharePoint lists)<br /><br />The advanced search web part derives from the OOTB MOSS Search Box web part so all of the base functionality is available. Once placed on a search entry and / or results page, the web part can be configured to display managed properties of your choice.</p> <p><a href="http://www.codeplex.com/SPAdvancedSearch">http://www.codeplex.com/SPAdvancedSearch</a></p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Sort Values in Pick Lists</h1> <p>bgoergen — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:42:00 GMT</p> <p> <span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Sometimes, it is the little things that make a difference.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>If you talk to our friends at Microsoft, they are pretty adamant about it…Pick lists in CRM should not be too big.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>Admittedly, they are a little vague about how big is “too big” but the message is pretty consistent.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>Pick lists with too many values can degrade performance, <span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>create maintenance issues, and the make the user experience less than satisfying if they have to scroll through dozens or even hundreds of items to find the values they need.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">However, in real life there are some legitimate reasons why pick lists get pretty big and that won’t change in the near future.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>In working with pick lists recently, we encountered a situation that seemed like an error in the system and it took some investigating (and frustration) <span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>to find the way out. I</span><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">n this case we had added a large number of values to a pick list and sorted the valued in ascending order (a</span><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">phabetically).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;"> </span></span><span style="mso-no-proof:yes;"></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>We saved the list, added the field to the form, published the entity, and everything worked as expected. </span></span><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">We then went to create an Advance Find view to allow users to query the field.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;"></span><span style="mso-no-proof:yes;"></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">However, in building the query, there seemed to be numerous missing choices in the Available Values list.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>In this case we were looking for “e-commerce” but it seemed not to be one of the available choices.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">After some investigation, it turns out that the values are sorted differently in the look up field than they are in the attribute field.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"></span>The Look Up field sort is case sensitive so the sort order is as follows:</span></p> <ul> <li> <div style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">First - Values starting with non-alpha characters.</span></div> </li> <li> <div style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;"> Second - Values that start with upper case letters.</span></div> </li> <li> <div style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">Third - Lower case letters are at the bottom of the list.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span></span></div> </li> </ul> <p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">When we had entered the values in the attribute pick list, some of the values were entered starting with lower case letters, some legitimately (e-Commerce) and some unintentionally. </span><span style="mso-no-proof:yes;"></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">This is not a big deal when your pick lists contains a relatively few number of values and you can visually search the choices.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>However when the number of values gets larger you tend to rely on the sort to help you find the values you are seeking.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>In that case it is helpful to know that some of choices may be relegated to the bottom of the list depending on how they were entered into the attribute.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Calibri','sans-serif';mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:'Times New Roman';mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;">As we said when we started…sometimes it is the little things. </span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Initial Release of the SharePoint Search Administrator Toolkit</h1> <p>emau — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:56:00 GMT</p> <p>While preparing for my upcoming <a target="_blank" href="http://www.devconnections.com/shows/FALL2008SP/default.asp?c=1&s=123" title="SharePoint Connections" class="null">SharePoint Connections</a> presentations in Las Vegas, I decided to release some SharePoint Search solutions to CodePlex. My first release is an extension to the MOSS Shared Service Provider that provides administrators with the ability to configure managed property weights and length normalization, carefully modify standard MOSS ranking parameters to tune relevance, and execute the ranking update process. I know... it's not that exciting. There are other <a target="_blank" href="http://sharepointsearch.com/cs/files/folders/searchtools/entry2527.aspx" class="null">options</a> for configuring these relevance settings in MOSS (EXEs and custom STSADM extensions); however, this is the first option that I have seen that is fully integrated into the SSP. Check it out and let me know what you think...</p> <p><a href="http://www.codeplex.com/SPSearchAdminToolkit">http://www.codeplex.com/SPSearchAdminToolkit</a></p> <p></p> <p>Additional information and screen shots are available on CodePlex... </p> <p>So what's next on my plate for release? Since someone already created a search as you type feature on CodePlex, my next project will be a "fancy" advanced search extension that provides an advanced search UI similar to the MOSS people search advanced search input.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Client Configuration - Some Tidbits of Information</h1> <p>Tedh — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:29:00 GMT</p> <p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">Microsoft CRM Online Client Configuration – Some Tidbits of Information</span></p> <p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;"> </span></p> <p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">So this information may not be helpful for probably the majority of CRM Online implementations – but for those few who have aggressive firewall rules, you may find this helpful.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>If you do have your firewall configured to allow access to specific URLs only, you will need to obviously know the URL of your CRM Online organization (</span><a href="https://'company'.crm.dynamics.com/"><span style="font-size:small;color:#0000ff;font-family:Calibri;">https://’company’.crm.dynamics.com</span></a><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>This will get you in to CRM via Internet Explorer.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>But you will also need to know of a handful of other URLs that allow you to configure the CRM Online Client for Outlook.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>They are:</span></p> <p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;TEXT-INDENT:-0.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;"><span style="mso-list:Ignore;"><span style="font-size:small;">·</span><span style="FONT:7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">https://dev.crm.dynamics.com – this is the URL your client is trying to access when you hit the screen to authenticate to the Microsoft CRM Online environment (when you click ‘Next’ on the first splash screen in the CRM Configuration Wizard)<br style="mso-special-character:line-break;" /><br style="mso-special-character:line-break;" /></span></p> <p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;TEXT-INDENT:-0.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;"><span style="mso-list:Ignore;"><span style="font-size:small;">·</span><span style="FONT:7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">https://login.live.com</span></p> <p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;TEXT-INDENT:-0.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;"><span style="mso-list:Ignore;"><span style="font-size:small;">·</span><span style="FONT:7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">https://*crm.dynamics.com (will include your URL, as well as signin.crm.dynamics.com and a couple others (</span><a href="https://'companyname'.api.crm.dynamics.com/"><span style="font-size:small;color:#0000ff;font-family:Calibri;">https://’companyname’.api.crm.dynamics.com</span></a><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">, etc)</span></p> <p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">As I said, you may never run in to this.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>But if/when you do, I hope this helps.</span></p> <p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;"><font face="Calibri">Oh – and if you are doing a deployment of CRM Online, keep in mind that you can only set up 3 Live IDs from a single IP address per day.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span>While this is not a CRM limitation, CRM Online does rely on Windows Live as the method of authentication.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes;"> </span></font></span></p> <p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">Some helpful information:</span></p> <p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">CRM Online Client Download:<br /></span><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e8e6c81a-b7b2-4e57-8599-604967617396&displaylang=en"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e8e6c81a-b7b2-4e57-8599-604967617396&displaylang=en</span></a></p> <p style="MARGIN:0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">Fiddler – great tool to use to gather web browser trace information:<br /></span><a href="http://fiddler2.com/fiddler2/version.asp"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:Calibri;">http://fiddler2.com/fiddler2/version.asp</span></a></p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Presenting at MNSPUG in October</h1> <p>Brian Caauwe — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:45:00 GMT</p> <p>Ok, so it's been forever since I was able to throw a post out here, but I figured this was important enough to write while getting ready for the day. On October 8th I'll be presenting at the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sharepointmn.com" title="MNSPUG" class="null">Minnesota SharePoint Users Group</a> on SharePoint Administration topics. Here is the official release:</p> <p style="padding-left:30px;"><em>At this event we will dig into components of SharePoint Administration. We’ll start by reviewing terminology for SharePoint Administration. Next we’ll dig into Backup and Recovery in SharePoint. Finally we’ll look at ways to move SharePoint content around using various tools and techniques.</em></p> <p style="padding-left:30px;"><em>Discussion points include</em></p> <ul style="padding-left:30px;"> <li><em>STSADM</em></li> <li><em>Catastrophic vs. more granular backup/restore methods</em></li> <li><em>The Content Migration Wizard</em></li> </ul> <p style="padding-left:30px;"><em>While this topic focuses on SharePoint Administration topics it will be valuable for non-administrators to understand the capabilities of SharePoint as well as for Developers who will learn new ways to automate administrative tasks in SharePoint.</em></p> <p>So, if you are interested in some high level conversations about SharePoint Administration from an IT Pro level (with a sprinkle of developer stuff thrown in there too), please come and add to the discussions. Hope to see you there.</p> <p><span style="FONT-FAMILY:'Courier New';">[<span style="COLOR:#a31515;">"Brian"</span>]</span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Hiding the Add Existing Button in a CRM 4.0 Grid</h1> <p>Jeremy Winchell — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:33:00 GMT</p> <p> This is a great post from Dave Hawes that shows you how you can hide the Add Existing button in CRM 4.0. You can use the same piece of code to hide almost any of the buttons on a Grid.</p> <p><a href="http://blog.davehawes.com/post/2008/04/23/MSCRM-4-Remove-Add-Existing-xxxxx-button.aspx" class="null">Click Here To Read The Article</a></p> <p>- Jeremy</p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Embedding a Direct Link In An E-Mail - CRM 4.0 Version</h1> <p>Jeremy Winchell — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:03:00 GMT</p> This post demonstrates how you can leverage the Plug-In framework to quickly and easily embed a URL inside of a workflow e-mail in CRM 4.0....(<a href="http://blogs.inetium.com/blogs/microsoftcrm/archive/2008/09/21/embedding-a-direct-link-in-an-e-mail-crm-4-0-version2.aspx">read more</a>) </article> <article> <h1>Scribe Software Announces Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Promotion</h1> <p>Ryan Toenies — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT</p> <p>Scribe is offering promotional pricing for customers needing to migrate data to their Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online application. From now until December 31st, 2008, Scribe is offering deeply discounted pricing for their Migration and Integration products for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. </p> <p><strong><em>Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Migration Offers:</em></strong></p> <ul> <li>Scribe Certified Resellers - $395 (60 day term license)</li> <li>End Users - $1,195 (includes training for Workbench, CRM adapter, 2 hours of consulting, and monthly workshop)</li> </ul> <p><strong><em>Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Integration Offer:</em></strong></p> <ul> <li>Scribe Certified Resellers Only - $2,495 (Supports up to 15 users, includes 1 year of maintenance, CRM adapter, and the Microsoft Dynamics GP adapter)</li> </ul> <p>If you are looking at Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and need to migrate data from legacy CRM applications this is definitely the right tool to use. Contact Inetium for additional information.</p> <p><strong>:: Ryan ::</strong></p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>VS Live Conference: Day Two</h1> <p>vbullinger — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:26:00 GMT</p> Day two of the VS Live conference is over, as is another day of lectures. Again, I attended a lot of lectures on WPF and Silverlight all day. In the evening, though, I sat in on a lecture on the new .Net MVC Framework. I was interested in seeing what they did with the MVC concept I learned about back in college. Today's lectures were given under the assumption that no one was a complete newb. There was a keynote in the morning by Mary Jo Foley, author of a book about the post Gates-era Microsoft...(<a href="http://blogs.inetium.com/blogs/vbullinger/archive/2008/09/09/vs-live-conference-day-two.aspx">read more</a>) </article> <article> <h1>VS Live Conference: Day One</h1> <p>vbullinger — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:55:00 GMT</p> Well, the first day of the VS Live conference has finished, and Ben and I have been in lectures all day. Ben was sitting in on lectures on LINQ and similar topics all day, I believe. Haven't touched base with him since the lectures ended, though, so I don't know how it's been going for him. I spent the day listening in on some pretty fun lectures. WPF and Silverlight have been the main topics, and there are enough of those to last me through tomorrow, too. The first lecture wsa kind of...(<a href="http://blogs.inetium.com/blogs/vbullinger/archive/2008/09/08/vs-live-conference-day-one.aspx">read more</a>) </article> </main></body></html>