Brian Caauwe

Presenting at MNSPUG in October

2008-09-25T14:45:00Z

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 Minnesota SharePoint Users Group on SharePoint Administration topics. Here is the official release:

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.

Discussion points include

STSADM
Catastrophic vs. more granular backup/restore methods
The Content Migration Wizard

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.

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.

["Brian"]

OMG where did my "Title" go?

2008-07-25T14:00:00Z

If you have ever needed to deal with Site Columns and Content Types you probably have come across the dreaded "Title" column and maybe felt creative and changed it to a different name, and figured if I need to change it back, I can change it back... right?

I've come across many clients that have changed the column name, then tried to change it back to "Title" only to come across this taunting dialog box

"The column name that you entered is already in use or reserved. Choose another name." You may be thinking, you let me change it, why can't I change it back?

The good news is, with the magic that is PowerShell you can. If you open PowerShell and get your $site and $web objects you can retrieve your "broken" field by calling $web.Fields["fieldName"] or in my case $web.Fields["PowerShell"]. Looking at the properties of that field you will notice the "Title" property is what you had previously set, along with a LOT of different properties for that field.

In order to change it back to, simply modify $field.Title = "Title" and process a $field.Update(). Below is a sample set of calls to reset the field back to "Title".

After the you have updated the field in PowerShell you will want to make sure to push that change to all content types based on Item. Go to your top level site and locate the Item content type where you will see the column back to "Title".

Go ahead and open up the site column from the "Edit site column in new window" link

If you had also changed the group away from the OOTB group and want it "hidden" again, change the group back to _Hidden and click OK.

NOTE: If you have a large site collection with many subwebs this process can take some time to complete. Also if you have any workflows or any custom event that is targetted to that old name the possibility that it is now reset to Title is good, make sure to check your processes.

["Brian"]

Site Definition visibility property

2008-07-17T19:46:00Z

I was helping a co-worker of mine today determine why the Site Directory site definition was not showing up as an option underneath a Publishing Portal and found a nice property for site definitions I never knew existed. By the way, it turns out that in order for the Site Directory to show up as an option you need to have the PortalLayouts feature enabled, which of course is a hidden feature but is also enabled as a dependency from the Office SharePoint Server Standard Site Collection feature or...(read more)

Content Deployment Wizard

2008-07-17T12:21:00Z

Even though this news is a little more than a month old, the SharePoint Content Deployment Wizard, created by Chris O'Brien has finally reached Release 1.0 and can be found on CodePlex . I have recommended, and used, this tool for various migrations where we have needed to re-organize content within new sites. The best part about this tool is it's fully used through a GUI so all types of people can use it. To see how to use the tool visit Chris' blog here . Since webs are always bound...(read more)

Tech Ed 2008 - IT Professionals 06/12/08 Recap

2008-06-13T17:18:00Z

Another day, a whole lot of additional information gained from being here at Tech Ed. I stared out the day with an interactive session with some individuals from Microsoft IT who showed us all the various uses of the Content Query Web Part. An extremely useful tool, once you get passed some of the configuration hurdles. The most exicting session of the day was the PACKED Interactive Theatre with the "Ask the experts" SharePoint panel. The moderators of the session where Shane Young [MVP...(read more)

Tech Ed 2008 - IT Professionals 06/11/08 Recap

2008-06-12T03:41:00Z

Another extremely productive day at Tech Ed. This day I primarily focused on the technology that is true and dear to my heart... SharePoint The first session of the day highlighted the Solution Accelerators built for SharePoint. This session included a ton of information about the new Asset Inventory Tool (currently in beta through Microsoft Connect ... can't wait to try this one), SharePoint Capacity Planning tool , SharePoint Monitoring Toolkit , and the Cross-Site Configurator . The next session...(read more)

Tech Ed 2008 - IT Professionals 06/10/08 Recap

2008-06-12T03:26:00Z

This being my first trip down to Orlando for Tech Ed (or any official Microsoft conference for that fact), I had to come down here with a plan to make sure I hit everything I wanted to. That all began today with the keynote from Bob Mugila and ran through the rest of the day. One of the main announcements from the keynote was that MS SQL 2008 has now officially hit RC0. For those of you that want to start to play with this, the download can be found here . My main focus for the day was to hit sessions...(read more)

Tech Ed 2008 - IT Professionals

2008-06-09T21:47:00Z

I arrived in Orlando, FL this afternoon to attend Tech Ed 2008 for IT Professionals. During this time I am planning on networking with many individuals of the SharePoint Community along with attending various sessions to increase my SharePoint base knowledge. My other main goal for the week is to obtain both SharePoint application development certifications by passing the following exams: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 – Application Development (70-541) Microsoft Office SharePoint...(read more)

Fabulous 40 Application Templates - Timecard Management

2008-04-28T13:49:00Z

The Timecard Management template is a part of the site admin templates provided directly from Microsoft here . This template is based off of a site template (.stp file) which can be installed by a SharePoint administrator by either uploading it into the Site Templates gallery or installing it globally using stsadm. The Timecard Management template was designed for Project Tracking / Product Management business area and the official description is described below: The Timecard Management application...(read more)

Fabulous 40 Application Templates - Help Desk

2008-02-25T14:53:00Z

It's been a while since I've been able to continue my Application Templates series, but we move on to the Help Desk template which has some neat customizations that you can take onto your own projects.

The Help Desk template is a part of the server admin templates provided directly from Microsoft here. This template is based off of a site definition which needs to be installed by a SharePoint server administrator using stsadm. The Help Desk template was designed for the IT / Operations business area and the official description is described below:

The Help Desk application template helps teams manage the process of handling service requests. Team members use the application template to identify a service request, manage identification of the root cause and track solution status. The application template provides role-based dashboards displaying information relevant to customer service representatives and managers, including performance history.*

Features:

By using a site definition when you create a site based off of this template it automatically activates the custom features associated with this template. The custom features that are automatically activated are:

- Knowledge Base Keyword List

- Knowledge Base Knowledge Base List

- Help Desk Experts List

- Help Desk Service Request List

- Help Desk Support FAQ List

- Help Desk Tasks List

- Help Desk List Instances

- Help Desk Modules

- Knowledge Base Provisioning Handler

- TSA Post Provisioning Event Handler

The Keyword List, Knowledge Base List, Experts List, Service Request List, and FAQ List features create the schema for those lists where the Help Desk List Instances create the actual lists when the site is created. The most interesting features are the Help Desk Modules (which contains a couple Data View web parts AND SharePoint Designer Workflows) and the Knowledge Base Provisioning Handler (contains event handler).

Custom Libraries:

Knowledge Base – The Knowledge Base document library has content types automatically associated with it, Knowledge Base Document and Knowledge Base Article. These content types automatically provide some custom lookup columns which tie into the Keywords list and also allows you to reference Related Articles.

The Knowledge Base Article content type is based off of the Wiki format, however because the document library is not based off of the WebPageLibrary template, you cannot use the page linking features, this is probably why the included the Related Articles lookup field so you could have some document linking functionality. Because you are only able to link documents together through the lookup field, the Incoming Links feature used with Wiki Pages is no longer valid. However the inline history is still available on the article’s content.

Application Pages – The Application Pages document library is an out-of-the-box document library that automatically contains pages used by help desk personnel. The pages included in this document library contain various Data View’s and the individual pages should have their permissions managed based on personnel functions/roles.

Custom Lists:

Experts – This list works very similar to a regular contact list, but is trimmed down to work for the Help Desk template. It also includes a lookup column referencing the Keywords list, that that an expert can be defined with multiple keywords, making it easier to allocate the correct resource to an issue.

Keywords – This list defines the keywords available for use in Service Requests, Knowledge Base Articles and Expert association.

Service Requests – The Service Requests list is the main list for this template. It uses various column types including; single text, multiple text, person or group, lookup, choice, date and time, yes/no, and calculated. This list also has the Article Request workflow associated with it to flag if an article should be created based on a service request. There are also many custom views on this list to help different roles manage service requests in different ways. It should be noted that this list uses the Service Request content type which has some columns that do not show up in the NewForm.aspx. You may start to think that they customized the NewForm.aspx, however instead of customizing the page, some columns in the Service Request content type have the property ShowInNewForm set to FALSE. There are similar properties for the Display Form and Edit Form that you can set on individual columns if you define them through an XML definition or you can change individual column properties using PowerShell.

Service Request Tasks – This list defines tasks created from the Article Request workflow. This list contains a Link and Outcome column that aren’t defined by any content type associated with this list, nor have I found where an end user would input any information into those columns.

Support FAQs – The Support FAQ list is a custom list that lets you create quick answers to common issues. Once again there are a few lookup columns in this list, Related Articles and Keywords.

Custom Pages:

Default Page

The default home page for the site contains many regular list view web parts showing current Announcements, recently updated FAQs, related Links, and the current users active Service Requests.

They have also modified the quick launch, or current navigation, to include some common actions for this site like creating a service request. Also if you are a member of the Help Desk Staff the quick launch provides you instant access to the dashboard Application Pages you have access to.

Service Representative Manager

The Service Representative Manager page is a great example of a dashboard created using Data View Web Parts. All, except the My Tasks web part, of the web parts on this page have been created using the Data View Web Part. The Average Resolution Time web part is an example of how you can create a custom KPI using Data View Web Parts. This dashboard also contains two other Data View Web Parts to give the service representative manager a bar chart representation for Overall Service Request Status and Overall Service Request Priority. The Service Requests web part is another Data View Web Part that references different list views of the Service Requests List. To get further information on how some of these customizations have been created, take a peek at the Application Templates Under the Hood document provided from Microsoft (Dashboard section begins on page 24).

Knowledge Manager

The Knowledge Manager page is another example of a dashboard that can be created using multiple list views. The My Documents, Recent Additions, and Recent Changes web parts are just different views of Knowledge Base library. The Common Actions web part is another Data View Web Part that gives the Knowledge Manager direct access to activities they would do on a daily basis. The Knowledge Base Article Requested web part is yet another web part that uses a list view. In order for items to be shown in this view it needs to be marked for the knowledge base as well as not have an article associated with it.

Service Representative Home

The Service Representative page is another application page that is made up using different list views of similar data. The Unowned Service Requests, Service Requests Owned By Me and Service Requests Assigned To Me web parts all bring different data to the service representative that logs into this page. The Experts web part also is a nice touch so the service representative have a list of people (associated to their expertise) they can contact for individual service requests.

Workflows:

There is one SharePoint Designer workflow attached to the Service Requests list when you create a site based off of this template

Article Request

The Article Request workflow is set to automatically start when an item is created in the Service Request list. This SharePoint Designer workflow is a simple two step workflow where the first step waits for the Status column to equal Closed, once the item is set to closed, it moves on to the second step where it checks of Mark for Knowledge Base is set to Yes, if so it then creates an item in the Service Request Tasks list.

Installation recommendations:

If you are looking to create a site based off of this site definition you probably have noticed many modifications you would need to make in order to use this in your environment. The first thing you will need to do is assign permissions to the Application Pages for the different roles in your organization. Setting permissions on those pages will trim the pages for Service Desk Reps, Knowledge Base Reps and Help Desk Manager. I would also extend/create alternative workflows on the Support FAQ list for content approval, create an article based off a template when a task is assigned to an individual, etc.

Other modifications that could be made are creating custom data view web parts to create a KB article directly from a service request (much like the data view web parts in the Board of Directors template), or other common tasks.

I would also clean up some of the views, especially the extra columns showing in the Service Request Tasks list default view, as well as removing the Service Representative Dashboard page that is in the Application Pages library.

If you have other recommendations you would like to share, please let me know by commenting to this post.

*Description reference URL here

["Brian"]

Site Recycle Bin - issues and recommendations

2008-01-25T15:03:00Z

The Microsoft IT Site Delete Capture tool located on the CodePlex is a highly recommended tool for SharePoint Administrators by the IT Pro community, however we have noticed a few caveats with the default installation, and would also like to clarify some common misunderstandings.

When you install the set of features for the site recycle bin all existing webs in your farm will NOT have the necessary features activated to run the site recycle bin code, so you would need to activate the feature called MSITSiteFeature manually on all web. You can activate this feature by either making it visible through the SharePoint UI, by changing the hidden property on the feature to false (only downfall of this is it then allows any user with full control to deactivate the feature). Another method of activating this feature would be to add it through code, here is an example on how to add the necessary feature to a single web using PowerShell.

Along with the wanting to make sure your existing webs have the needed feature enabled, you also need to know that the MSITSiteFeature is only stapled to specific site definitions by default. If you want to staple the needed feature to ALL site definitions go to the MSITSiteFeatureStapling feature directory (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\MSITSiteFeatureStapling) and edit the FeatureStapling.xml file, which is located in the FeatureStapling folder, and add the following line to add the global site definition right above the STS#0 line.

Once this is added ALL new sites created from a site definition will have the necessary features activated however if you are creating sites based off of existing site templates (.stp files) these will not inherently activate the needed features to enable the site recycle bin. The reason for this is when you create a site based off a site template, feature stapling does NOT apply, even though the site is based off a site definition that feature stapling is enabled on. The only way to have your new sites, that are created based off of site templates, to have the site recycle bin enabled is to recreate the .stp file based off a site that you manually activate the MSITSiteFeature feature.

If others have different suggestions on how to get existing sites enabled through a script OR other ways to get sites created based off of site templates (.stp files) to automatically activate the needed feature, please add comments.

["Brian"]

Fabulous 40 Application Templates - Board of Directors

2008-01-08T16:07:00Z

The Board of Directors template is a part of the site admin templates provided directly from Microsoft here. This template is based off of a site template (.stp file) which can be installed by a SharePoint administrator by either uploading it into the Site Templates gallery or installing it globally using stsadm. The Board of Directors template was designed for the Business Management / Finance business area and the official description is described below:

The Board of Directors application template provides a single location for an external group of members to store and locate common documents such as quarterly reviews, shareholder meeting notes and annual strategy documents. The template also tracks tasks, issues and calendar items so board members have a single location to view information relevant to them.*

Lists:

Announcements – Normal announcements list

Board Events – A calendar list with two workflows attached and a custom DispForm.aspx page with multiple Data View web parts

Contact List – Normal contacts list

Discussion – Items are auto-created in here when a new board event is created

Links – Normal links list

Tasks – Has a meeting lookup field, also a Tasks view that points to the DispForm of a blank meeting

Document Libraries:

Board Information – Normal document library

Meeting Documents – Has a meeting lookup field, also a Meeting Documents view that points to the DispForm of a blank meeting

Meeting Minutes – Has a meeting lookup field, also a Meeting Minutes view that is points to the DispForm of a blank meeting, also a minutes document is auto-created when a board event item is created.

Workflows:

There are two SharePoint Designer workflows attached to the Board Events list when you create a site based off of this template

Create Meeting Minutes Workflow

The Create Meeting Minutes workflow is set to automatically start when an item is created in the Board Events list. It creates a new Word document with the name of the board event along with assigning the meeting lookup field, on the new document, back to the board event that started this workflow.

Create Discussion Workflow

The Create Discussion workflow is set to automatically start when an item is created in the Board Events list. It creates a new discussion thread with the name of the board event along with assigning the meeting lookup field, on the new discussion thread, back to the board event that started this workflow.

Board Events Display Form:

The Board Events display form contains multiple Data View web parts that display all Meeting Minutes, Meeting Documents, Discussions and Tasks associated with that meeting. The Data Views’ that reference document libraries have an extra link that brings you to the document libraries All Items view. The Discussion and Tasks Data Views’ have a custom link to create a new list item that is automatically tagged with that board event.

Home Page:

The default home page for the site contains List View web parts for the Announcements, Board Events, Links and Tasks lists. The Tasks list web part is set to the My Tasks view.

The quick launch, or current navigation, has nothing customized and only contains selected lists and libraries.

Installation recommendations:

If you are looking to create a site based off of the Board of Directors site template some of the custom views, that take you to a blank meeting, in the Meeting Documents library, Meeting Minutes library and Tasks list will easily confuse the target audience for this template.

There are also previous versions of the two custom workflows attached to the Board Events list, it would be good housekeeping to remove them.

The My Tasks web part on the home page also shows all of your tasks whether they are complete or not, you may want to only show the tasks that are no complete, or create a good procedure to clean out the tasks after a meeting has completed.

I would also change the view for the Links web part on the home page, it contains the type column that that isn’t needed.

*Description reference URL here

["Brian"]

Fabulous 40 Application Templates - Absence and Vacation Schedule

2008-01-02T15:37:00Z

The Absence and Vacation Schedule template is a part of the server admin templates provided directly from Microsoft here. This template is based off of a site definition which needs to be installed by a SharePoint server administrator using stsadm. The Absence and Vacation Schedule template was designed for the Human Resources business area and the official description is described below:

The Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management application template helps employees manage requests for out of office days. Team members post days they will be unavailable and can use the system to assign their responsibilities to others during those days. The application template helps team leaders manage requests for vacation and provides dashboards showing which users are signed up for a set of responsibilities.*

Features:

- Absence and Vacation Schedule List Instances

- Absence and Vacation Schedule Modules

- Absence Type

- Absences

- Responsibility Adoption

The Absence Type, Absences and Responsibility Adoption features create the schema for those lists where the Absence and Vacation Schedule List Instances create the actual lists when the site is created. The most interesting feature is the Absence and Vacation Schedule Modules which contains a couple Data View web parts AND SharePoint Designer Workflows.

Custom Lists:

Absence Type – This list defines the types of absences an employee can enter, along with if that type requires approval.

Absences – This list defines absences that employees request and contains a default calendar view.

Responsibility Adoption – This list defines responsibilities that employees setup for themselves and who is the contact for the responsibility when they are out of the office.

Custom Pages:

Default Page

The default home page for the site contains a Data View web part called Pending Approval which displays all requests that are in pending status along with a direct link to Approve or Reject the item. This is a nice touch since all of the views on the Absences list does not contain the Title (with or without context menus) to update or approve a request, however an individual has the ability to approve their own request.

They have also modified the quick launch, or current navigation, to include some common actions for this site like submitting a request for a new absence and add a new responsibility adoption.

Absences Display Form

The Absences display form also contains a Data View web part for Responsibility Adoption for the user that the absence is tied to. The Data View web part also contains a direct link to add a Responsibility Adoption item. When adding a Responsibility Adoption item, you are adding the responsibilities and contact for your account NOT for the users’ absence item you came from.

Workflows:

There are two SharePoint Designer workflows attached to the Absences list when you create a site based off of this template

Setup Workflow

The Setup workflow is set to automatically start when an item is created in the Absences list and looks to see if the Absence Type requires approval. If the Absence Type requires approval then it sets the Status to Pending Approval, otherwise it sets the Status to Approved.

ApproveReject Workflow

The ApproveReject workflow is set to be manually started only. Once this workflow is kicked off it sets the Status to the value defined from the approver in the initiation form along with any comments the approver may have assigned.

Installation recommendations:

If you are looking to create a site based off of this site definition it would be wise to modify the Absences list to require content approval and attach an approval workflow to make it so that only the individuals that can approve / reject requests to the list have that option.

*Description reference URL here

["Brian"]

Fabulous 40 Application Templates

2008-01-02T13:59:00Z

You have probably heard of the “Fabulous 40” site templates when looking for easy ways to deliver a SharePoint environment to your end users. In the coming months I plan to post a series on all of these application templates to provide you with a better understanding of what they are. I will try to provide some visual examples along with a standard set of information about each template (i.e. based on a site template/site definition, what content is already included, workflow functionality, installation suggestions, etc).

If you want to get a head start on getting more information on the Fab 40 here are a few URL’s, on TechNet, that can give you a little more information on the application templates:

- Descriptions of Application Templates

- Application Templates grouped by Business Area

- Application Template Datasheets

As I start this series of posts, please provide feedback on the type of information you would like to see more of / less of in these posts.

["Brian"]

SharePoint Designer Workflow issues in SP1

2007-12-28T19:14:00Z

As I was testing out some workflows in a development environment earlier today, that has SP1 applied to it, I was running across some weird issues with some SharePoint Designer workflows. If I had a SharePoint Designer workflow attached to any list or library that was set to automatically start (either when an item is created or modified) the workflow wasn’t starting at all. At first I was looking through my logs to see if there was anything showing up because of something in my configuration, and of course nothing was showing up. The worst part is if I changed the workflow to be able to start manually, the workflow kicks off and completes as expected.

After much troubleshooting I found a forum post that suggested if you are logged in as the Farm Admin account workflows that are set to start automatically will not start. So I created a test user with normal permissions, created a list item with that user, and BAM the workflow works as expected.

I have never seen this issue before pre-SP1, so I can only assume is has to do with one of the security enhancements that SP1 included.

If you have come across this in a pre-SP1 environment, please let me know… then more testing can continue

["Brian"]