Thom Robbins: SharePoint Tips and Tricks

Windows Mobile Developer Day

Thu, 22 Jul 2004 21:25:54 GMT

Windows Mobile Developer Day is fast approaching. Please make sure that you register and attend! We have some great speakers lined up around some awesome content.

Hope to see you there!

Windows Mobile Developer Day

Date: August 18, 2004

Time: 8:30-4:15

Event Description:

Is your code going mobile? Have you wanted to learn how to develop and implement mobile solutions within your applications? Using nothing but the code these sessions will help you learn how you can develop and implement these types of solutions. Come and join us for a one day Developer’s solution workshop. These sessions are designed to provide a complete overview of the Compact Framework from the ground up and how it can be used within your application environment.

Agenda:

8:30 – 9:00 – Registration

9:00 – 10:30 - .NET Compact Framework Overview.

10:30 – 10:45 – Break

10:45 – 12:00 – Occasionally-Connected Application Development.

12:00 – 1:00 – Lunch

1:00 – 2:30 – Data Storage Best Practices

2:30 – 2:45 – Break

2:45 – 4:00 - .NET CF Tips and Tricks

4:00 – 4:15 – Wrap Up/

Code Camp II: The Return!

Thu, 22 Jul 2004 15:20:34 GMT

*********CALL FOR SPEAKERS*********

Developer Code Camp II: The Return!

October 16/17, 2004

October 16 – 8:30 AM – 9PM

October 17 – 8:30 AM – 4PM

Microsoft Waltham

Schedule: http://radio.weblogs.com/0131777/CodeCamp2/code2.htm

General Call for Speakers

Code Camp II is looking for speakers and session leaders.

Code Camp II: The Return is looking to be even bigger and better than anything we have done before. The secret is you! This is a New England developer community based event that requires both speakers and attendees. The continuing goal of the Code Camps series is to provide an intensive developer to developer learning experience that is fun and technically stimulating. The primary focus is on delivering programming information and sample code that can be used immediately. The event is free and all slides, manuals and demo code are provided free!

This two day camp is hosted in our Waltham facility. As a community based event this is a general call for speakers and session leaders to help make this event a success. Based on your feedback, Code Camp II will now feature two types of 1.5 hour sessions and three defined tracks

Do you have something to say?

Requested Session Types:

Code focused presentation – These are presentations that include both power points and code demos. Given the audience that is attending it is important that a large amount of the presentation is focused on code and coding related techniques. Sample topics include How To and Best Practice Sessions.

Chalk Talks – These are new to the Code Camp. These sessions are designed as a facilitated discussion around a specific topic. No pre-canned demos, or pre-prepared code samples allowed! They are presented as a free form facilitated discussion that leverages the expertise of the presenter and the combined knowledge of the group to explore a specific topic.

Additionally, based on feedback we are sponsoring the following three tracks. All presentations must fall into these tracks to be considered. One of the strongest pieces of feedback from the last Code Camp was to provide a better organized set of tracks:

Code Camp Tracks:

Smart Client – This track is designed for presentations or chalk talks on topics related to Smart Client related development topics. This includes Windows Forms applications, Microsoft Office or mobile devices.

Web Track – This track is designed for presentations or chalk talks about Web based development that includes ASP.NET and Web Services.

Data Track – This track is designed for presentation and chalk talks about data storage technologies that includes SQL Server and XML.

********Submit Your Sessions********

Please complete the following and return it to trobbins@microsoft.com by September 15.

Once your session abstract is received we will review and provide scheduling for the selected sessions by October 1. All slides and code samples for the presentation must be delivered by October 14. If we are unable to fill all the time slots for the two days, the code camp will be shortened. It is the community that makes this event a success!

Name:
Company:
Email:
Phone:
Session Type:	Chalk Talk/Presentation (Select one)
Track:	Web/Smart Client/Data (Select one)
Level	200/300/400
Session Name:
Session Description:

First Look SharePoint Portal Server 2003

Thu, 08 Jul 2004 20:26:22 GMT

First Look SharePoint Portal Server 2003

CLICK HERE TO DISPLAY OUTLINE

Course No. 11001

3 hours

$0.00

Day Sessions

	Starting	Ending	Where
	7/22/2004 9:00:00 AM	7/22/2004 12:00:00 PM	Microsoft Waltham	Thu

Call 800-370-2791 for group scheduling or to bring this course onsite

First Look: SharePoint Portal Server 2003

Presented jointly by Pinnacle Training and Internosis

Please join us for a first look at the new Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and find out how this product helps information workers function more efficiently.

Find out how to create a complete view of your business using SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Discover how having immediate access to up-to-date, relevant information can increase productivity. Learn how to make it easy for business units, teams, and individuals to share knowledge across the organization. Learn how you can make the most of your organization's intellectual capital by utilizing the industry-leading search technology in SharePoint Portal Server.

Get the information you need about the relationship between SharePoint Services 2003 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to decide whether to deploy SharePoint Services alone or with SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

Spend the morning with us and we'll show you how SharePoint Portal Server seamlessly connects individuals, teams, and knowledge so that people can take advantage of relevant information across business processes to help them work more efficiently.

Creating Custom Site Definitions

Sun, 27 Jun 2004 03:27:53 GMT

Each front end Web Server in a Windows SharePoint Server solution contains at least one Webtemp.xml file that is by default located in the c: Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions60TEMPLATE1033XML folder. This file is used to store the site definitions that are available within the Template Selection page used for site creation as shown below in Figure 1. In this example I will create a new Site Definition for the Engineering team that is based on the existing Team Site definition. More…

SQL Reporting Services Introduction

Fri, 28 May 2004 01:34:35 GMT

If you haven’t had a chance to check out SQL Reporting Services, I would highly recommend it. The product is actually pretty amazing. I had the opportunity today to present an overview of for some customers and as promised, I have posted the slides here for download. Also, for your reading pleasure, is the PDF format of my recent article that appeared in the .NET Developers Journal (INETA choice edition) download.

Automating Cleanup

Mon, 10 May 2004 03:20:26 GMT

I was visiting a customer last week that had recently deployed SharePoint within their enterprise. The good news was that it had caught on like wild fire within in a relatively short period of time. Users had created almost five thousand sites and the number was increasing. The main focus of our conversation was around how they could manage these. They certainly didn’t want to delete those sites that in use, but were afraid of large amounts of static data.

In order to implement this there are two important things to remember

Enabling Site Collection

Making sure that the virtual server is set up to allow the checking for sites activity.

From the Virtual Server List select the server to manager
Select the Configure site collection use confirmation and deletion

Complete the Configure Site Collection Tab

Notification Customization
After we spent some time working in their test area, we came up with a set of parameters that made sense for their enterprise. They then wanted to customize the email that users would receive for notification. This is done by modifying the Deadweb.xml file.

Example of the Standard Deadweb.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Email>

Confirm SharePoint Web site in use

</ConfirmationSubject>

<![CDATA[Please follow the link below

to your SharePoint Web site to confirm that it is still in use.

If the site is not being used, please go to <a href="|1">|1</a>,

and select "Delete This Site" to remove the Web site.

You will receive reminders of this until you confirm the site is in use, or delete it.]]>

</ConfirmationBody>

</Confirmation>

ACTION REQUIRED: Your SharePoint site collection is about to expire

</AutoDeleteSubject>

<![CDATA[To extend the expiration date for this site

collection, click the link below: <a href="|0">|0</a>

Otherwise this site collection, including all of its subsites, might be deleted.

If this site collection is no longer needed, you can delete it by going to <a href="|1">|1</a>, and selecting

"Delete this site".

Please note - When a SharePoint Web site collection is deleted, all Web sites, content and information which

were part of the site collection are completely erased. The site can only be restored if a backup exists.]]>

</AutoDeleteBody>

</AutoDeleteWarning>

</Email>

This file is located in the localProgram FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions60TEMPLATE directory. This is a Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML) based file. This is an XML based language used in Windows SharePoint Services to define sites and lists. CAML is used extensively throughout WSS in both code as parameters and the SOAP messaging. Essentially CAML is used for two types of rendering. The first is to define the type of data rendering and to construct HTML.

Configuring access requests for a list or document library

Sun, 02 May 2004 20:45:22 GMT

Configuring access requests for a list or document library

You can allow users to request access to a particular list or document library by changing the settings for that list. If access request is enabled for a site collection, by default it is enabled for all lists in that site collection. If access request is disabled for the site collection, you cannot enable it for a specific list. You cannot configure a separate e-mail address to use for access requests at the list level — requests are automatically sent to the e-mail address specified on the Manage Request Access page for the site collection.

Note You must be a member of the Web Designer or Administrator site groups for a site to change request access settings for a list.

From a team site that you want to allow users to request access. Select Modify settings and columns

Select Modify settings and then select Change permissions for this document library

Select Manage Access Requests

Make sure that the check box is selected

Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and TechNet Present:

Sun, 02 May 2004 16:11:31 GMT

Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and TechNet Present:

The Summer of SharePoint - Webcast Series:

Migration, Deployment, Integration and Customization

Get in-depth information on SharePoint Portal Server 2003 deployment, migration, integration and customization during May and June. This series of webcasts, presented by Microsoft subject matter experts and partners, is designed to help you to get the most out of your SharePoint Portal Server 2003 deployment and to introduce you to new topics and capabilities.

MAY

Migrating to SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (Level 300)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=26806

Wednesday, May 05, 2004 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Michael Herman, Founder and CTO, Parallelspace Corporation

This presentation will review several recommended strategies and solutions for upgrading and migrating to Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Join us for this webcast, which includes demos of the new SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Document Library Migration Tools.

SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Advanced Migration Scenarios (Level 300)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=26822

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Michael Herman, Founder and CTO, Parallelspace Corporation

This webcast presents specific scenarios related to migrating from SharePoint Portal Server 2001 to SharePoint Portal Server 2003. These scenarios include: Multiple Departmental Workspaces Per Server; Single Workspace with Complex Document Libraries; Single Workspace with Multiple Personal Dashboards; Search Portal with Multiple Indexing Servers; and Migrating Between Different SharePoint Languages.

Migrating Lotus Notes Applications to VS.NET, SQL Server, Exchange 2003, and SharePoint (Level 300)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=26912

Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Sudeep Trivedi, CTO, Casahl Technology, Inc.

Learn the factors involved when extending and/or migrating Lotus Notes applications to the Microsoft platform to consolidate messaging and collaboration infrastructures. We'll show you how you can use the newly updated Microsoft/CASAHL Lotus Notes Application Analyzer and CASAHL ecKnowledge 8.1 to analyze, extend and migrate Lotus Notes and Domino data and applications to Microsoft SharePoint, InfoPath, SQL Server, VS.NET, and Active Directory. Join us as we explore ecKnowledge features that smooth the integration and migration process, and identify an intermediate period of coexistence between Notes applications and the new Microsoft .NET applications generated by ecKnowledge.

SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Integrating Enterprise Applications (Level 200)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=26943

Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Appuswamy Kannan, Service Line Architect, US Services – National Services, Microsoft Corporation

Many organizations have large investments in enterprise applications. Integrating these applications into a portal offers many advantages but can also be a significant challenge. This session describes the integration technologies supported by Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, with specific emphasis on how to integrate SharePoint Portal Server 2003 with major enterprise applications by SAP and Siebel.

SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Organizing Sites and Topics (Level 200)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=27200

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Drew Baldacci, Microsoft Corporation

See how to use Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 as a tool to organize and navigate throughout your enterprise. We'll examine how to use the site registry to catalog and navigate SharePoint sites, and use the Topic functionality to organize and present information stored throughout an organization in any of a number of forms and locations. Join this webcast to learn how to configure the navigation of the site, set up collaborative areas, publish information, and customize the look and feel of the portal.

SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Personalization, Profiles and Audience Targeting (Level 200)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=27325

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Chris Barnard, Senior Technology Specialist, Microsoft Corporation

Description: Take an in-depth look at what SharePoint Portal Server 2003 offers in the areas of personalization, profiles and audience targeting. Learn about the how this area of SharePoint Portal Server 2003 has been invested with vigorous development, and see how the personalized portal experience can make users more productive by allowing them to discover, organize and receive information that is personally relevant to their roles and interests.

Customizing SharePoint Portal Server 2003 with FrontPage 2003 (Level 200)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=26986

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Matthew Panzano, Senior Business Productivity Specialist, Microsoft Corporation

Description: Learn how to use Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 to customize portal sites that have been created with Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 — from the fonts and formatting to the text and graphics on pages on the sites. At the same time, SharePoint Portal Server also has its own tools and utilities that best manage and edit some key enterprise portal functionality. Join this webcast to learn when and where to use FrontPage, and when to use SharePoint Portal Server tools for the most power and efficiency when customizing your portal sites. The presentation will emphasize methods that are straightforward and flexible when using FrontPage to customize portal sites created with SharePoint Portal Server.

JUNE

SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Deploying Shared Services (Level 300)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=28242

Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 8:00 AM-9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Michael Herman, Founder and CTO, Parallelspace Corporation

Description: Are you deploying or evaluating SharePoint™ Portal Server (SPS) 2003 for an intranet portal infrastructure and need to support multiple sites? In this webcast we’ll present SPS 2003 Shared Services and show how its set of centrally managed, highly scalable, core portal services can be re-used across multiple portal sites and multi-server "farm" configurations. Join us to learn how a Shared Services environment provides the right services to portal sites within a server farm, including Enterprise indexing, search and retrieval services; Self-service, centrally-managed notification services; Audience definition services to support content targeting; User profile creation and management services; and Single sign-on services.

Digital Asset Management for SharePoint Products and Technologies (Level 200)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=28244

Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 8:00 AM-9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Tim Bigoness, Scene7, Inc

Description: Does your organization need digital asset management (DAM) and the business advantages of consistent, memorable branding, but with an eye on cost control? Scene7® for Microsoft® Integrated Portal Technologies brings robust, low-cost digital asset management (DAM) capabilities to Microsoft Office Systems 2003. And the combination of Scene7 and SharePoint™ Products and Technologies can form a media collaboration platform that enables companies of any size to deliver rich, visual communication of their products and services, reduce IT management costs as well as training and productivity resources – all from tools used every day. Join this webcast to find out how to do it.

SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Deploying as an Extranet (Level 300)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=28245

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 8:00 AM-9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Robert Ginsburg, Version3, Inc

Description: Do you need to implement an extranet or DMZ in your IT infrastructure? Have you considered using SharePoint™ Portal Server 2003 to get there? Join this webcast for significant guidance and a progressively technical exploration of the issues and options related to deploying and accessing SharePoint Portal Server 2003 outside the network as an extranet or in a DMZ.

Migrating eRooms, Windows File Services and Exchange Public Folders to SharePoint (Level 300)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=28246

Tuesday, June 22, 2004 - 8:00 AM-9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Veli-Matti Vanamo, Hewlett-Packard

Description: A challenge for any enterprise is to ensure that its people are connected to the right information in order to collaborate effectively. In many cases legacy content repositories already exist and accumulate valuable information into knowledge silos. Microsoft® SharePoint™ Products and Technologies provide the next generation collaborative services for today’s information workers. Learn from practical experience how to approach migrations from legacy platforms to SharePoint Products and Technologies. Join this webcast to learn how to reduce cost, provide new capabilities and harvest your information assets to their fullest with a move to SharePoint Products and Technologies.

SharePoint Portal Server Infrastructure Implementation Best Practice (Level 300)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=28248

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 - 8:00 AM-9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Kenton Gardinier, Senior Consultant, Convergent Computing

Description: In this session you'll learn real-world best practices on building a SharePoint™ Portal Server (SPS) 2003 document management solution. This session is packed with infrastructure planning, design, and sizing recommendations and best practices taken from the trenches of some of the world's first production implementations of SPS 2003. The session addresses lessons learned on capacity planning, maintenance, backup and recovery, topology, and more for SPS 2003 and SQL Server 2000 farms in organizations with zero downtime tolerance, the need for clustered databases for SharePoint servers, and global information access to SharePoint data.

SharePoint Implementations in the Real World (Level 200)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=28249

Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - 8:00 AM-9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Colin Spence, Consultant, Consultant

Description: Windows SharePoint™ Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 offer so many choices during installation and implementation. How do you decide the best way to use these products to meet your business needs? In this session we will share tips, tricks, design decisions, best practices, and lessons learned from enterprises that have successfully implemented Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Learn how to use SharePoint as an Intranet replacement, as a portal to all line of business applications for an organization, and as a document sharing and information management system. Join this webcast for technical SharePoint implementation solutions that solved real world business needs.

ALL WEBCASTS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR ON-DEMAND VIEWING AFTER THE ORIGINAL BROADCAST

The Quick Web Service Guide

Sun, 25 Apr 2004 22:34:31 GMT

The Quick Web Service Guide

The Windows SharePoint Services Web Services provided in the Microsoft.SharePoint.SoapServer namespace provide numerous methods for accessing site content. These include methods for working with lists, site data as well as methods for customizing meeting, document workspaces, imaging and search. The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) interfaces used in these services provide .NET developers with object models that are used to create solutions that work with both WSS and SPS. The Web Service interfaces are integrated with the server-side object models of the Windows SharePoint Services assembly, and their design has been optimized to reduce the number of roundtrips transacted between client computer and server. Read More

Search Exclusions

Sun, 25 Apr 2004 18:25:35 GMT

I was recently working with a customer and they had a unique requirement that required one of the SPS areas be excluded from the search. In order to exclude an area from the search perform the following steps.

From the SPS home page

Select Change Settings from the Actions menu

From the Settings tab select the Search tab

Creating Site Locks

Sat, 10 Apr 2004 03:10:16 GMT

There are many reasons that an Administrator may need to place a site lock. The most common reason seems to be maintenance. In case you need to apply a site lock the following are the steps necessary.

Start the SharePoint Portal Server Administrator from the Start menu.

Select configure site quotas and locks from the Virtual Server list page

Select Manage site collection quotas and locks

Enter the name of your site and click View Data

Select the type of site lock that you want to apply.

Adding content prevented – Disables file upload capability within WSS and SPS sites.

No Access – Disables access to the entire site.

Editing a WSS Site

Tue, 16 Mar 2004 02:39:38 GMT

In talking with a customer today I realized that many times we often forget the easiest ways edit a Windows SharePoint Site using FrontPage 2003.

Opening a Windows SharePoint Services site in FrontPage 2003

With FrontPage 2003 open, on the File menu, click Open Site.
In the Site name box, type the address of the Web site, such as http://my-site or http://wwwmyextranetc.com, then click Open. If prompted enter the user name and password for the site. The Web site will then open.

Here is my favorite and the way that I usually edit sites –

Tip: You can also open a site in FrontPage 2003 by browsing to it in Internet Explorer, and then clicking the Edit with Microsoft Office FrontPage button on the Standard Buttons toolbar.

SharePoint Indexing Basics

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 20:21:35 GMT

One of the best features of SharePoint is searching. Administrators and developers really must have a good understanding of how the indexing subsystem works in order to properly configure the portal site. With this in mind I put together what I think is a good Introduction to SharePoint Indexing Basics.

Maintain Zen with your SharePoint Site

Wed, 25 Feb 2004 21:39:10 GMT

In doing some research I ran across an interesting whitepaper that I had never seen before. It provides some great guidelines on how to maintain a happy and healthy Sharepoint site. Although, what I had seen from customers and also, what I had been told was further bore out about the upper limits of SPS.

To maintain optimum server performance and ease navigation of the document libraries and folder structures, use the following guidelines as the upper limits when organizing your files:

1,000 files in a folder
1,000 folders per document library
1,000 document libraries per site
50 megabytes (MB) per file

When a site is maintained within these parameters, typical throughput is as follows:

10 saves per second per content database
300 reads per second per content database

Check out the article

New Tips and Tricks Document

Wed, 18 Feb 2004 19:16:50 GMT

If you are new SharePoint. A new tips and tricks document has been posted that has some great information.

Learn how to perform a number of basic tasks in a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 environment. This white paper will help you learn to use SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and will introduce you to the basic features and principles of portal site navigation and customization.

New SDK Published

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 23:49:39 GMT

It keeps getting better. I just saw that we have posted a new version of the SharePoint SDK. I have just downloaded it and will take a look at it. From the site it says that it has some new information about

"This SDK also includes new documentation for the Web Part Page Services Component (WPSC), which is a client-side component that adds dynamic capabilities to your Web Part Page by providing Web Part discovery, notification, and state management services used by Web Parts; and for Windows SharePoint Services RPC methods."

Download the SDK

Programming Microsoft InfoPath - A Developers Guide

Sun, 08 Feb 2004 00:25:55 GMT

For those of you who know I have been patiently and diligently working on a new book for Programming Microsoft InfoPath. The book was really something that I feel pretty passionate about. Working with developers with and on projects every day enables me to see a variety of different aspects - everything from architecture considerations to pure heads down coding. No doubt I am pretty exposed to the entire spectrum of development. I approached this book with exactly that in mind.

The book is designed to present how to develop both with InfoPath and how it fits into your architecture. I made sure that I covered not only the heads down aspects but also, the architecture design patterns. This includes the many different aspects of things to consider -everything from BizTalk Server 2004 to SharePoint Portal Server 2003. I think these are all important development aspects for all to understand. I am really happy to say that the writing process has wound down and the editing process is coming to a close. I am supposed to receive the final proofs this week, cut the final CD and then it’s off to the printer. I understand from the publisher that the book is due out the third week of March.

Writing a book is an interesting and time consuming process. It definitely takes patience and time. So I have to say that I am glad it is almost over. The book is available for order from both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Exploring WSS

Sat, 07 Feb 2004 23:29:00 GMT

I have been doing a lot of work with customers around Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) recently. I am really impressed with the features and power that is available within this free add-in for Windows Server 2003. The best part is that is that it is totally an ASP.NET application. It provides document management, forms management, portal pages and a lot of other stuff. I was a little surprised at some of the documentation. I know the product is new and there is literally new content coming out everyday around it. So, I wanted to stat documenting some of the things that I found interesting about it as a developer. With that I have published by my first installment of Exploring WSS – What Can I do with a Web.Config?

Let me know what you think

Managing Blocked File Types

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:38:08 GMT

Governance is a concept that encompasses the idea of security around a portal deployment. It is a pretty broad idea that covers many different areas. One of these areas is the types of files that are supported for upload and download within Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS). By default, WSS provides the ability to restrict certain kinds of files, based on their extensions from being added to the document store. For example, one of the default extensions blocked is any file with the extension “.exe”. Additionally, WSS will also block multiple combinations of this extension for example, the following are also blocked.

Myfile.exe. (period at the end)
Myfile.exe.{1234.4567} (appended string)
Myfile.exe::extraInfo (additional append with a ::)

When you install SharePoint the following is the default list of extensions that blocked.

Ade, adp, app, asa, asp, bas, bat, cdx, cer, chm, class, cmd, com, cpl, crt, csh, dll, exe, fxp, hlp, hta, htr, htw, ida, idc, idq, ins, isp, its, jse, ksh, lnk, mad, maf, mag, mam, maq, mar, mas, mat, mau, mav, maw, mda, mdb, mde, mdt, mdw, mdz, msc, msi, msp, mst, ops, pcd, pif, prf, prg, printer, pst, reg, scf, scr, sct, shb, shs, shtm, html, stm, url, vb, vbe, vbs, wsc, wsf, wsh

This list of controlled extensions are blocked on the entire farm and maintained by the SPS configuration database.

Last week I was working with a customer on a project that required the upload of a blocked extension (.asp) type for their Intranet portal. The maintenance of these file types are controlled through a central administration screen called “Managed Blocked File Types” that can be accessed as the Sharepoint Administrator through the following ways.

From the SharePoint Console:

Select Start -> Administrative Tools -> Sharepoint Central Administration
Select Security Configuration
Click Manage blocked file types.

From the Main Portal Page

Select Site Settings from the from portal page
Select SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration
Select Windows SharePoint Server Central Administration
Select Manage Blocked File Types.

From within the “Manage Blocked File Types” they are managed by:

Deleting the extension that you want to allow
Typing the extension that you want to restrict

It is important to remember that this should not be done lightly and should always accompany a serious discussion about possible security implications within your portal governance structure. I wouldn’t argue that there is valid reason, but always review and understand any possible security implications that may result in this.

Maximum SQL Server Database Size

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 17:07:25 GMT

Today's trivia question -

What is the maximum database size supported by SQL Server 2000?

I spent a fair amount of time looking for the answer. I found a few different answers but the most consistent answer that I found is what I am going to go with.

-Max. Database size: 1,048,516 TB
-Max. file size: 32 TB

If you have a better answer please let me know!

Sharepoint Customization Toolkit

Sun, 25 Jan 2004 01:48:18 GMT

While doing some reading I ran across this new resource that has been posted.

http://www.sharepointcustomization.com/default.aspx

Frontpage has come a long way is the perfect visual designer for both SPS and WSS.

Showing ASP.NET errors with WSS

Wed, 14 Jan 2004 01:12:54 GMT

Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) is a fantastic product that is part of the Windows Server 2003 operating system. WSS is actually written using ASP.NET and leverages many different aspects of the .NET Framework. By default, WSS provides its own error messages that most of the time provides enough information and data needed to troubleshoot errors. I recently ran across a problem today that I just couldn’t figure out. To solve the problem I needed to see the ASP.NET error that was occurring. Actually, this is pretty easy to do. Here are the steps:

1. In the Local_Drive:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions60TEMPLATELAYOUTS folder, change the name of the global.asax file to global.bak.

2. In the web.config file in the same folder, change customErrors = "On" to customErrors="Off".

Can you name the web services exposed in SPS 2003?

Tue, 13 Jan 2004 03:11:44 GMT

One thing that I always like to point out to new users of SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is that it contains several built in Web Services. These are the following:

Area service

This web service provides an interface for remote clients to access and maintain the area based interface within SharePoint Portal Server.

SPS Query service

This web service provides an interface for remote clients to interface with the SPS query service

UserProfile service

This web service provides an interface for remote clients to access and interface specific user profiles.