August 2006 - Posts

Offline access to SharePoint data

posted Thursday, August 31, 2006 3:31 PM

One of the more useful features in the next SharePoint is the ability to take data with you offline. So many times in the past I had to meet with a client in their office so the day before I would download all my documents stored in SharePoint one by one. What a pain! Now with MOSS 2007, I can do it all in one click!

Extranet access is one possible way to avoid the need to download local copies, but you still have the problem of needing an internet connection. Being at the client site, sometimes IT security makes it a big pain to get internet access (ie. have to get permission, need to authorize the machine, dynamic or static ip, WEP/WPA key, ...). There are so many other things you have to worry about, why deal with another issue?

So how do you do it? Very easy! Just go to the document library you want to access offline, click the Actions menu and click Connect to Outlook:

Outlook then will ask you whether you want to connect to the list or not. The first time I tried this I wasn't prompted with the dialog, while the second time I saw this screen:

Once you confirm OK, Outlook will create a new SharePoint Lists folder and download the documents to that folder.



What happens when you update your document library with new documents? Outlook will detect the new documents once you refresh the folder, but will not automatically download them.

You can selectively download individual files you want or hit the Send/Receive button to download all the documents. Unfortunately Send/Receive button did not work reliably for me: sometimes it would work, other times nothing would happen. Hopefully this is just a Beta 2 bug.

So what can be linked for offline Outlook access? A quick review of all the lists and documents on my personal site, I found these linkable to Outlook:

  • Calendars
  • Contacts
  • Data Connection Libraries
  • Discussions
  • Document Libraries
  • Form Libraries
  • Picture Libraries
  • Project Tasks
  • Tasks
  • Wiki Pages

These items can also be linked for offline access, but they go through Access instead of Outlook:

  • Announcements
  • Issue Tracking
  • Links
  • Lists
  • Surveys

That's quite a list of data you can suck on your laptop before a client meeting!

 

with 4 Comments

WSSv3/MOSS07 Web Part Cheat Sheet

posted Wednesday, August 30, 2006 9:55 AM

There are plenty of guides out there detailing how to create a new Windows SharePoint Services v3 web part, so I won't write another one here. Those walkthroughs are great, but sometimes I just want a quick outline of the steps needed to get things done. So while creating my own web part, I kept track of the steps and created my own simple outline. Here it for your use:

  1. Create the Web Part
    1. Create the DLL project in VS2005.
    2. Add Reference to System.Web.dll.
    3. Create a new Class file, inherit from System.Web.UI.WebControl.WebParts.
    4. Override the Render method and use writer to output the content of the web part.
    5. Strong name the assembly if installing to GAC.
    6. Compile.
  2. Deploy Web Part (updated 11/2/06 with B2TR)
    1. For strong named assemblies, follow these steps:
      1. Copy your assemblies to the C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\[site directory guid]\bin folder or install to the GAC. Note assemblies in the \bin folder have less priviledges than those in the GAC. Test your web part to make sure there aren't any security problems.
      2. Modify the site's web.config and add a <SafeControl> entry. Should look something like:
        <SafeControl Assembly="[Web_Part_Assembly_Name], Version=[Version_Number], Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=[Public_Key]" Namespace="[Namespace]" TypeName="[Class_Name]" Safe="True" />
    2. For non-strong named assemblies, follow these steps: 
      1. Copy your assemblies to C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\[site directory guid]\bin folder.
      2. Modify the site's web.config and add a <SafeControl> entry. Should look something like:
        <SafeControl Assembly="[Web_Part_Assembly_Name]" Namespace="[Namespace]" TypeName="[Class_Name]" Safe="True" />
  3. Configure the Web Part in SharePoint
    1. Go to Site Settings, Galleries, Web Parts, click New.
    2. Select your web part and click Populate Gallery button. Make sure the web part now shows up in the web parts gallery. If the web part doesn't show up in the list of New Web Parts, may need to iisreset.
  4. Edit a page and add your web part in from the Gallery.

Note that these steps are for WSS v3 Beta 2. These steps may change at RTM. I'll try to keep this up to date if things change.

For more detailed walkthroughs of how to create ASP.NET 2.0 style web parts for WSS v3, here are some resources/links:

with 5 Comments

SharePoint 2007 Beta 2 at Vertigo

posted Tuesday, August 29, 2006 10:12 AM

Lately, I've been playing around quite a bit with the next version of SharePoint coming out with Office 2007 so I thought I'd share some thoughts/comments on my experience.

First of all, note the name change yet again:

  • Version 1: SharePoint Team Services
  • Version 2: Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) Version 2 and SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) 2003
  • Version 3: Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) Version 3 and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) 2007

While I understand the reasoning behind the name change, cmon guys.. stick with a name already!

There has been a ton of architectural changes between 2003 and 2007. Here are some highlights:

  • Now built on top of ASP.NET 2.0 and leveraging many of the new features such as Web Parts and Master Pages.
  • Sharepoint truly acts as an ASP.NET web application, no more ISAPI handlers. Instead Sharepoint uses ASP.NET HttpHandlers.
  • Flexible authentication! Building on top of the provider model of ASP.NET 2.0, Sharepoint now supports pluggable authentication providers!

Some more exciting changes from the admin perspective:

  • Everything is now a site. No more weird distinction between sites and portals.
  • Built in recycle bin. Now the user can undelete their own files without having to call you up to restore from backup!
  • 3-tier administrative interface. At first this was confusing to me, but after reading about it some more... now it makes sense.

 And finally some changes from the user's perspective:

  • Much better My Site with support for blogs!
  • Nearly everything supports RSS feeds.
  • Any list can be opened up in Outlook, which creates a locally cached copy of the list.
  • Tabbed interface, drop down menus, Ajax data retrieval.

I really can't emphasize how many new features they've packed into the new Sharepoint. My list of features here are just some of the more interesting changes I've learned these past few days. I can easily see tons of books written for this release filling up an entire bookshelf at the bookstore.

I love most of the changes Microsoft made to Sharepoint, but unfortunately tons of new features come at a price: confusing UI. Version 2 was really confusing. In version 3, things are a bit easier with some of the UI improvements, but I still find myself hunting down the location for a setting or trying to remember where I configured an option. I hope the road to RTM includes some more time to review the user experience and to improve on some of the more confusing aspects (just looking at the Admin screen and all those links gives me a headache!). Otherwise, I am really excited about the new SharepPoint and can't wait to see it released!

 

with 6 Comments

Microsoft Releases Windows Live Writer

posted Monday, August 14, 2006 11:55 AM

Microsoft released the Windows Live Writer last Friday. After my disappointment with Word 2007's blog addin, I decided to give Live Writer a try. Will the impressive feature list win me over? Keep reading to find out!

I won't go over the features as the homepage does a good job describing each of them. Instead I'll just share my experience in setting up the client and then writing and publishing this post from the client to Vertigo Blogs (Community Server 1.1), assuming it works ;).

Installation and Setup

After installing the application, I was prompted with the usual account setup screen:

Since I'm not posting to Live Spaces, click Next.

I'm posting to Vertigo Blogs, so Another weblog service.

Now you have to enter in your blog information. This screen tries to scan your blog for the correct xmlrpc location, but if it can't find it, the next screen shows up.

The usual select a blog screen. Surprisingly Microsoft has provided an extensive list of blog engines here: Windows Live Spaces, Wordpress.com, TypePad, Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, WordPress (custom), Radio Userland, Community Server, dasBlog, Custom (Metaweblog API), Custom (Movable Type API). Not only is this list impressive, but this dialog goes a step further to make entering the data easier. Instead of selecting a drop down and then forcing you to hunt down the xmlrpc location, this dialog goes the extra mile and provides the standard xmlrpc location for the blog engine you selected. So all you have to do is replace the server name! Very cool!

If your account is associated with multiple blogs, select one here:

A few more dialogs later, you're finally done and staring at a blank window ready to post!

 

Writing your Blog

So now it's time to write your blog.

Preferences

As with all applications, the first thing I do is see what options I can configure. Here's Live Writer's Preferences:

The HTML templates are a nice feature, but too bad we can't create custom templates. Plugins look interesting. I wonder what kind of plugins there will be. And of course we have our Ping Servers. Have to let everyone know when you create a new post!

Pictures

Of course, arguably the most important task of any blog post is adding images. I posted my frustration with Word 2007's support for this, how does Live Writer handle this?

According to the product page, Live Writer supports the newMediaObject method in the MetaWeblog API or FTP. It's great to finally see some standard support.

Once you add an image into your post, the right side bar changes to Image Properties with 3 tabs of extensive options:

Great stuff... unfortunately once again Community Server ruins everything and causes this error message:

Here's the dialog to setup a FTP server:

I'll test this out later with other blog servers.

Editing Draft Posts

If you're like me, publishing to draft and then editing, tweaking your post is an important part of the blog workflow. Live Writer supports this very well with my testing. Opening up an existing post is a simple task of clicking Open, selecting your blog account, and then selecting the post you want to edit:

Unfortunately, can you guess it by now?... Community Server fails once again when trying to republish as a draft back up to the server:

Publishing

One of my complaints with Word 2007 blogging is not having the ability to edit the meta data of the post. I'm glad to mention here that Live Writer doesn't suffer from this same flaw. At the bottom of the page is a Properties bar. When double clicked on, it opens up to allow editing of the post meta data.

One awkwardness I noticed is when you "Save Draft" locally, Live Writer saves it for you. You cannot select a file to save as. For those who blog on different computers, you will have to Publish as Draft up on your blog instead of using the local draft. I would like to see the ability to let the user save to a particular file to make it more portable. People who might want to run Live Writer on a memory stick (if that's supported) and blog on different computers will find this feature annoying.

Other than that, I found everything else worked as expected. Spell check works as advertised, but there is no live spell checking (red squiglies underneath spelling errors as in Word).

Once you're done with your post, hit the big Publish button and you're done!

Reactions & Comparisons

Comparisons to Word 2007's blogging addin is inevitable. After going through my first post with Live Writer, I believe Live Writer clearly wins hands down over Word 2007. How is Live Writer better? Many reasons:

  • Does not have the bloat of being part of Word 2007.
  • Simple, non-cluttered, easy to use UI.
  • Everything works as advertised (not counting server limitations).
  • HTML view of your post.
  • Huge support for many blog engines and the great UX of adding a supported blog.

Since Word is Microsoft's flagship application, I'm sure the Word team is not taking this defeat lying down. Who knows, Live Writer could just be a stripped down version of the final Word blog addin.

Even though Live Writer is in beta, I had no problems nor crashes and everything works great. I definitely recommend anyone who blogs to give it a try, especially since it is free! This is a very easy to use application that is arguably the best out there. Good job Microsoft and I can't wait for the final release!

Edit 8/15/2006

Similar to my post on Word 2007 blogging, I also tested out Live Writer with my WordPress-based personal blog. Read all about it here!
with 183 Comments

Word 2007 Blogging

posted Tuesday, August 01, 2006 7:19 PM

As most people know, Microsoft Word 2007 supports embedded blogging. Unfortunately it doesn't work with Vertigo blogs (CS 1.1) so I had to actually copy/paste this post from Word to CS' post editor.

Too bad it didn't work, as my initial impression with Word blogging is that it is really easy to use. The good news is it actually uploads clean HTML, none of the gunk HTML that Word is so well known for in past versions.

Advantages

  • Spell checking: I initially misspelled Word as Wrod and it fixed the spelling automatically for me. Even the previous "Wrod" has the well known red squiggly underneath it.
  • Posting as Published or Draft.
  • Having the nice large Style selector in the ribbon or the task bar on the right is really convenient.
  • Saving posts locally as an ongoing work.

Disadvantages

  • Does not support categories.
  • Image support is flaky. It only supports FTP and HTTP (WebDAV). If you select FTP, images are uploaded to your specified FTP site and the embedded image urls point to the FTP location. Also if you update a post with an image, Word will upload the same pictures again and abandon the old pictures. For those who like to edit their posts frequently, like myself, this will get annoying really fast.
  • No HTML view. I can understand how HTML view might not be suited for an environment such as Word, but since I couldn't post this directly from Word to my Vertigo blog, there is no way for me to cut and paste this content while keeping all the formatting.
  • Does not allow editing post metadata. What I mean is the post date, an excerpt, comments customization, etc. When you use Word to create a post, you are trusting Word will set these values correctly.
  • And to follow up on the previous point, my experience with Word 2007 Beta 2 blogging support shows that it has trouble with dates and times. I've tried it on different blog servers and each exhibits some weird problem. The date could be off by a few hours, or up to a few years! The problem could be related to this post, so I won't blame Word completely on this issue.

So as you can see, using Word as blogging client is a mixed bag. While it does have a nice UI and makes the simple things really easy (ie. posting only text), it also has faults that make blogging much more complicated than need be. To me, Word blogging support still feels like a hack added in at the last minute. However, I can definitely see the potential here, so if the Word team can iron out some of these bugs and add some more flexibility, Word can definitely become the next killer app for bloggers!

How is it a hack? Well take a look at this error message:

Besides the spelling and grammar mistakes, it looks like someone took the lazy way out in catching errors. The only way to diagnose the source of this problem is to use a http proxy to take a look at the xml being passed between your desktop and the server.

As for not working with Vertigo blogs? Well it's Community Server's problem, not Word's blogging problem. I have successfully tried Word blogging on many other blogging engines, including CS 2.0 which works, so I know it's not Word's problem.

*Edit*

Here's my experience with Word 2007 support with WordPress.
with 8 Comments