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A tweet came up tonight that I thought I would get my lazy butt doing something about: I pointed @tareqsartawi to @toddbaginski’s post Which SharePoint 2010 Site Template Is Right For Me? and while Todd does go over the templates and gives a brief rundown of them, there’s not a lot of meat to what you get with each template. So for Tareq (and anyone else who’s out there) here’s a more detailed breakdown of the site templates in SharePoint 2010. This is part 1 of a four-part post as I got p... [read more]

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to a conference… Click on the image to see the full sized version. My wife, @PrincessJenn, rocks the house. I bow down to her uber-PhotoShopping skillz and the fact she actually did this without me asking her.

I am pleased to announce the availability of the first version of the SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit. In this toolkit we’ve included a couple of tools that were shipped releases and are now adapted to SharePoint 2010, along with two new tools. ·         User Profile Replication Engine 2010 (UPRE2010): this tool got a complete overhaul and was converted to PowerShell. It now allows you to replicate Profile and Social data between ShareP... [read more]

Previously I did a compare and contrast entry about DotNetNuke versus SharePoint. Now its time for WordPress to have a turn. Don't worry, there's more to come (Drupal, Joomla, Central Desktop, Box.net, etc.) but I've been working with WordPress for a few years now in personal blogs and sites and frankly I'm really, really impressed at the software. Architecturally it's no SharePoint and isn't the silver bullet that everyone touts SharePoint as, but for what it can do it does a good job. So here ... [read more]

Do you have questions about SharePoint? Want to learn more about the recently launched SharePoint 2010?  By popular request, SharePoint MVPs from around the world are participating in a live chat event about SharePoint. These Q&A events are a great opportunity to tap into the vast knowledge of these industry professionals who are regarded as the best in their field.  Please join us on Wednesday July 21st at 9am PDT! Learn more and add these chats to your calendar by visiting t... [read more]

Body: One of the first things I did when I sat down with the project manager and service managers on a SharePoint deployment is RACI charts.  I’m a big fan of them.  It gets a lot of the arguments flushed out for who is responsible.  More than that it shows accountability and who needs to be consulted and ultimately the informed.  Sure no one wants to be left out, but some times it just needs to be spelled out clearly, so the teams and parties involved can understand how this virtual team is bei... [read more]

The only way to do software development for SharePoint is really a Virtual Machine. Yes, with SharePoint 2010 you can install it on Windows 7 and Vista and with some hacking you can get SharePoint 2007 to run on Vista. However I’m talking about real development for real men (and women!). For that we setup virtual machines (VMs) and usually run the whole SharePoint stack on it (SharePoint, SQL Server, Visual Studio, SharePoint Designer, Office, etc.). One of the key advantages of running in a V... [read more]

Body: In my continued pursuits to connect with the SharePoint community around the globe, and recent attempts to connect with SharePoint LATAM, I’m excited to announce two new venues… I’ll be speaking at TECHED Brasil!  Last year this was the largest Microsoft event in LATAM! This is my first Teched in South America, but my second speaking gig there (remember SPC Peru 2009? I do!).  I have two sessions lined up for Teched Brazil.  It’s going to be great to finally connect with that community. ... [read more]

I’ve been impressed a couple of times by what I’d consider significant events that a decade ago would have spread by someone creating a web page and then word of mouth gaining in strength through links and SEO (Search engine optimization) and months later a page might be relevant for the right search term.  Might get passed around in email.  I can’t hardly imagine how word of mouth would have spread this in the past for something that didn’t make it as “newsworthy.” Seeing the plight of the Iran... [read more]

Good luck to Owen Allen, Former Sr. Product Manager at Microsoft.  My good SharePoint friend Owen Allen is on to bigger and better things.  He was in the latest round of layoffs at Microsoft.  He had been most recently working with the SharePoint Partner ISVs.  That partner team was really stripped down with this latest round.  He’s got a great attitude and is very upbeat.  I wish him the best of luck. A couple of recent success stories from the MS Layoffs in the SharePoint World… who stayed in... [read more]

One of the most interesting new feature of SharePoint 2010 is something called Sandboxed Solutions. Think of it this way. In 2007 we have solution packages, WSP files that are packaged up with all kinds of goodness (Master Pages, InfoPath Forms, Web Parts, Custom Actions, etc.). Whenever we want to deploy these, we need to hunt down our IT guy and hand him over the package to run on the server and deploy, using the farm account. Only then can we activate the feature on our site or site coll... [read more]

Body: I’ve seen a lot of confusion with various people’s approaches to Windows PowerShell.  Customers are First there’s the aversion to Windows PowerShell as a "language” and something that will take time, a class, and tons of ramp up.  Many decide to put it off until they are forced to learn it for something.  Let me give you some practical guidance so you can start to approach it and understand it’s not all that bad…  As you work your way through this blog, you’ll also find resources from... [read more]

First you should see the official word by viewing the webcast from MS: Jean-Francois LeSaux, EPM Lead Architect, Microsoft Corporation, Project Server 2010 - Coexisting with SharePoint Server 2010. Webcast Agenda: The Challenge Deployment Scenarios Pros and Cons Deployment Procedures Resources Then I want you to consider these arguments: Sure now Project is build on SharePoint Server Enterprise edition adding tons of value to the already existing service apps, BUT… If you have Project as a... [read more]

I’ve been working with and watching the End User SharePoint model.  While I don’t get a ton out of all of the end user articles, I do find his model is working awesome and occasionally I’m very fascinated in the creativity that’s going on with the various contributors. I personally have been able to monetize the blog to help cover some of my SharePoint user group and SharePoint Saturday and community travel which has been awesome.  My next example of this is Portugal and Norway… User Groups I pl... [read more]

Microsoft patterns & practices is excited to announce the release of: Developing Applications for SharePoint 2010 SharePoint 2010 introduces new ways of developing applications for the SharePoint platform. With SharePoint 2010, you can build multi-tenant, hosted applications on an infrastructure that is scalable, secure, and stable. You can create powerful, data-driven solutions using SharePoint lists or external data. You can create client-side functionality that takes advantage o... [read more]

Sandbox solutions are a great feature on the SharePoint 2010 platform.  But as these solutions are deployed in various locations across your farm or site collection, the question of how to manage them arises. We’re providing a PowerShell script to help you with this.  It’s pretty simple but can be extended to do more in order to fit into the tools you’re already using to manage your farms and site collections. Let me describe what this script does:  Every Sandbo... [read more]

Rough Cuts on Safari Books Online allow you to read books as they are being written.  My book SharePoint 2010: Best Practices for Upgrading and Migrating is ready to go to the printer so now is a perfect time to check it out and read up on Upgrade.  This won’t last long.  The code below is good for 45 day access to the book online as a sneak peak. Rather than just share the cards at special events, I want my readers to have full access to the book to check it out first for themselves. Use Coupon... [read more]

I was recently working through the information that is published and reading up on the latest content on upgrade.  More has been written.  As I’ve worked through the information I came across tidbits here and there that I believe are essentially to planning the real options that are available. It’s true that not everyone will want their site administrators to decide when the upgrade for their sites will happen.  These options will come in handy when you’re trying to combine the binary upgrade an... [read more]

Found this bit of information buried in a larger document.  I’ve found it’s valuable in upgrades.  Feel free to ignore it if it doesn’t relate to you.  I recently had a conversation with the tech doc folks for the protocol docs and they told me, Yeah.  If you can help bring visibility to content that’s buried that you think is important… go for it. [Feel free to cut and paste and link back to us].  Here’s one of those cases. In the MSDN article on “How to: Create a Custom Field Type” “If you ha... [read more]

18-19 October 2010 Where: Clarion Hotel, Skanstull Södermalm, Stockholm Who Organizes it?  Goran Husman SharePoint MVP in Sweden of HumanData Get more information from the site: http://www.seforum.se/Pages/default.aspx (Yep it’s on SharePoint!) Tel: 08-5100 1200 | www.humandata.se | Kontakt: beatrice.husman@humandata.se More information in Swedish: De 30 första som anmäler sig före 30 juni får ett presentkort på brunch på Clarion Hotel. Välkommen till SEF 2010!SEF är den främsta konferensen i... [read more]

Body: The Experts Conference Europe SharePoint 2010 It’s time to start planning your fall conference line up, so it’s there when you get back from your summer break. One of the key ones to add to your calendar is in Düsseldorf, Germany 4-6 October 2010.  TEC – The Experts Conference – is the key event for deep dives.  It’s the premier event to drill down and really get to know the experts.  In this three day conference you’ll have better access to more experts in sessions designed to be more l... [read more]

    Keynotes: Bill English and Steve Fox Speaker Bios Course Catalog Info on the conference: The SharePoint Technology Conference, October 20-22 in Cambridge, MA, is the world's premier independent event for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server technology and services. The format includes 80+ technical classes, workshops and breakout classes with content geared to IT professionals, business managers and developers.  It features a dozen Microsoft MVPs, 35 expert MS speakers and solutions from 50... [read more]

Over the weekend there were a number of stories about some challenges with a critical patch.  I posted a blog “SharePoint Vulnerability and Hotfix Recommendations” suggesting that you may want to wait until more detail was available.  Now we have the feedback and detail. The SharePoint Team has responded with a blog titled “Installing KB938444” tracking a small number of customers who have the issue after installing the patch via windows update.  The small business server folks also have a pos... [read more]

We’ve been tracking a small number of customers that have experienced issues after installing KB938444 through Windows Update.  After the reboot at the end of installation we’ve had reports of Windows SharePoint Services sites and Central Administration being inaccessible with the error, “HTTP 404”, “Server Error: …” or “Cannot connect to the configuration database”. This issue only affects Windows SharePoint Service v3 standalone installations that use the Windows Internal Database (wYu... [read more]

Body: SharePoint has been pretty luck over the years to avoid the focus of hackers and those looking to create exploits. About a month ago a vulnerability was reported for SharePoint relating to a possible exploit of a 0day elevation of priviledges via a DOS attack to help.  The workaround at the time was to disable the help feature in SharePoint. V1.0 (April 29, 2010): Advisory published. V2.0 (June 8, 2010): Advisory updated to reflect publication of security bulletin. <update (June 22, ... [read more]