I spent an enjoyable couple of days down in Houston this week, where I was privileged to speak to SharePoint TechFest Houston 2015. Thanks to Sean, Andrea, and their team for having me.
Here are the slides from the two sessions I did.
Hello SharePointers and welcome to this (Almost) Halloween edition of the SharePoint Community Newsletter. Happy Trick-or-Treating this weekend!
(Sponsored) Join a Webinar: Asset and Equipment Management in SharePoint – Nov. 10 & 17
Crow Canyon will share information on how SharePoint can provide an effective platform for managing assets and equipment. See how to gain a clear view of all your hardware and software assets and equipment, as well as maintenance tasks, faulty equipment, contract renewals, loss prevention, and more. Join us!
LINK: http://spvlad.com/1MirBRy
MSFT Q1 2016 Earnings: Stock Pops, Details “Cloudy”
Microsoft reported earnings after the close yesterday, EPS of $0.67 a share non-GAAP, versus $0.59 estimated and revenue of $21.66 billion non-GAAP, versus $21.03 billion estimated. Check out the Good, the Bad and the Ugly in this analysis by Matthew Bailey
LINK: http://spvlad.com/1NARAY0
Want to automate boring Office 365 tasks?
Are you tired of creating users in Office 365, assigning licenses, adding users to Distribution Lists? If yes, you need to learn PowerShell for Office 365! By using PowerShell for Office 365, you can automate all the boring administrative tasks, and deliver a better, faster and more consistent service to your users! Check out this Pluralsight course to learn more on PowerShell for Office 365.
LINK: http://spvlad.com/1VXll7f
Wrapping the Promoted Links Tiles on a page
By Default, the Promoted Link Web Part does not automatically wrap on the page. Read Robin Witcher’s tutorial on how to make your Promoted Links Webpart look good!
LINK: http://spvlad.com/1LYGBF1
Responsive video – Enhance SharePoint default player
It seems like the default media player is not the right tool for responsive design scenarios. This player might could be replaced with a custom one, but this custom one might not integrate perfectly into SharePoint.
Let’s take a look how the behavior of the built-in media player can be improved to meet responsive requirements
LINK: http://spvlad.com/20anG3P
Office Lens now includes Office 365 support for iOS
Two of the top requests from our Office Lens users are support for Office 365 accounts, at work and school, and enhanced business card scanning and storage. Today we’re excited to deliver both of these features, making our pocket scanner app even more useful for business professionals, teachers and students.
LINK: http://spvlad.com/1MiwqKR
If you want to create a file plan for your records management environment in SharePoint, Microsoft has a template available on Technet, which is document-based. Although this may serve as a basis for smaller companies that start with archiving activities, the template leads in a direction that is different from what is used in most RM technologies, supported by records management practices. In this post I describe a method to bring these practises to SharePoint. This is draft part of my book Records Management and metadata, Digital archiving in SharePoint Online and Office 365, which will be published in januari 2016.
Similar items (document types, functions or processes) may be combined across the various business units, or they may be separated for each business unit. Both methods have their drawbacks and advantages. When a specific item is searched, it may be helpful to have a hierarchical classification in which the first level is the main process or the department, for example. Within a SharePoint record center, there is also the issue that document libraries should not become unmanageably large. The maximum number of items in a view for SharePoint Online (Enterprise) is 5,000 items at present. On the other hand, smart views may be created within a document library, which facilitate the creation of relevant cross-sections for the documents present.
The following is a basic working method for arriving at a process-based retention schedule:
Set up a main structure for ordering by standardizing the list at as high a level as possible. This avoids a situation where every department invents its own set of document types for processes that you actually want to streamline as much as possible at record level, such as project management. Creating a structure for ordering was the final step taken here, but it is probably more efficient to standardize after the first processes, and to establish best practices accordingly with which subsequent processes should comply. Not only does this create a recognizable structure and you have an influence on the desired detail level this way, it also provides an important reference point for implementation in SharePoint. Here, too, the functional requirements come first, but a workable system can only be created by already factoring in implementation during the process. Standardization offers the possibility of basing similar document types on a shared content type in SharePoint. As a result, the records management solution becomes much easier to maintain.
For further reading on SharePoint from a business perspective visit my blog SharePoint, Enterprise Architecture and anything between
Have you ever needed to generate a unique identifying number, sort of like the ID column in a list? Well, until I started learning the REST APIs, I had no idea how we could ever do this in SharePoint. With the adherence to the OData standards, we can do this and more using eTags to manage concurrency.
Concurrency control is a thorny problem in computer science. It refers to the situation where more than one person requests to change (either via update or delete) a piece of data stored somewhere. The only way you can tell if someone else has changed the data before you try is to read it from the source again. In the meantime, someone may have changed the data – lather, rinse, repeat.
People come up with all sorts of fragile concurrency control in their applications, and you see the results of that in systems from time to time. Have you ever scratched your head and been *sure* that you updated something, only to see the old value(s)? It may have been poor concurrency control that caused it.
In the prior SOAP-based calls supported by SPServices, we had no reliable way to manage concurrency. In most cases, we would build things so that the last person in wins – whomever requests a change last overwrites any prior changes. This is fine in many, many cases, but if more than one person is likely to make changes to data – and you want to manage those changes cleanly – it falls down fast.
With the move to using REST more fully in SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint Online in Office365, we have very strong concurrency control capabilities. For this to work well, the standard implements a concept called “eTags” which lets your code know if there is a concurrency problem. This works well because there is a collaboration between the server and the client about what constitutes a change and how to manage it.
Let’s look at my unique identifier problem as an example to explain how this all can work for you. In an application I’m building, I need to generate unique Document Set names based one a set of rules. In other words, it’s not sufficient to use something like the Document ID Service – I need to be able to build the names using some of my own logic which manifests the business rules.
As part of these names, I need to generate a unique, sequential number. In other words, the first “thing” will be named something like “AAAA-0001”, a subsequent “thing” may be named “BBBB-0001”, the next might be “BBBB-0002”, then “AAAA-0002”, etc., where each of the numbering schemes is independent. The Document Set ID in the list won’t do it.
As you can see, we have a unique numbering scheme based on a step in a process. (There are more varieties than just AAAA and BBBB.) We need to keep track of each unique scheme separately.
We’ve got a Configuration list in a SharePoint site. I’ll often build one of these lists for a project, and it simply contains parameter name/value pairs, along with a description of how it is used.
As you can see, for each step in the process, we’re maintaining a unique “last sequence number” in the Configuration list. (Yes, our real step names are more descriptive than AAAA, BBBB, CCCC!)
To make this work, I’ve got a function that does the following:
In this particular application, the likelihood of two people clicking the “Get Name” button at the exact same time is very low, but we still want to manage this eventuality so that we don’t end up with two Document Sets with the same name.
The call to the function looks something like this:
$.when(ProjectName.Functions.GetNextSeq(ProjectName.DataSources.Steps.Abbreviation)).then(function() {
nameInput.val(ProjectName.DataSources.Steps.Abbreviation + "-" + this); });
});
I call GetNextSeq with the abbreviation for the step, e.g., “AAAA” or “BBBB”. Because the GetNextSeq function passes back a jQuery promise, I can say basically:
Wait until $.when GetNextSeq is done, then build up the name for the Document Set
The GetNextSeq function looks something like this:
ProjectName.Functions.GetNextSeq = function(abbrev, p) {
// If we've passed in a deferred object, then use it, else create a new one (this enables recursion)
var deferred = p || $.Deferred();
// Get the information from the Configuration list
ProjectName.DataSources.Configuration = {};
ProjectName.Promises.Configuration = $.ajax({
url: _spPageContextInfo.siteServerRelativeUrl +
"/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('Configuration')/items?" +
"$select=ID,Title,ParamValue",
method: "GET",
headers: {
"Accept": "application/json; odata=verbose"
},
success: function(data) {
/* Looping through the list items creates a JavaScript object like:
{ "LastSeqAAAA" : { paramValue: "3", ID: "1", etag: "3" },
{ "LastSeqBBBB" : { paramValue: "103", ID: "1", etag: "110" }
etc.
*/
for (var i = 0; i < data.d.results.length; i++) {
var thisParam = data.d.results[i];
ProjectName.DataSources.Configuration[thisParam.Title] = {
paramValue: thisParam.ParamValue,
ID: thisParam.ID,
etag: thisParam["__metadata"].etag
}
}
// Next, we try to save LastSeqXXXX back into the list, using the eTag we got above
$.ajax({
url: _spPageContextInfo.siteServerRelativeUrl +
"/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('Configuration')/items(" + ProjectName.DataSources.Configuration["LastSeq" + abbrev].ID + ")",
type: "POST",
contentType: "application/json;odata=verbose",
data: JSON.stringify({
"__metadata": {
"type": "SP.Data.ConfigurationListItem"
},
"ParamValue": (parseInt(ProjectName.DataSources.Configuration["LastSeq" + abbrev].paramValue) + 1).toString()
}),
headers: {
"Accept": "application/json;odata=verbose",
"X-RequestDigest": document.getElementById("__REQUESTDIGEST").value,
"X-HTTP-Method": "MERGE",
"IF-MATCH": ProjectName.DataSources.Configuration["LastSeq" + abbrev].etag
},
success: function(data) {
// If the write is successful (response 204 (No Content)), resolve the promise with the value we should use for the sequence number (padded with leading zeroes)
deferred.resolveWith(pad(ProjectName.DataSources.Configuration["LastSeq" + abbrev].paramValue, 4));
},
error: function(data, a, b) {
// If the server sends back a 412 response (Precondition Failed), then we have a concurrency issue, so call the function again with the existing deferred object
if (data.status === 412) {
ProjectName.Functions.GetNextSeq(abbrev, deferred);
}
}
});
},
error: function(data) {
alert('API error: ' + data);
}
});
// Return the deferred object to the calling code
return deferred;
}
There’s one other function I call above, and it’s just a little utility function used to pad the sequence numbers with leading zeroes.
function pad(num, size) {
var s = num + "";
while (s.length < size) s = "0" + s;
return s;
}
While my requirements here may not match yours, the basic method probably will sooner or later. We want to read a value (item) from a list and then make an update to it based on some user action. Using eTags, we can do this reliably.
You don’t need to care what the eTag values are, but SharePoint seems to use a number much like a version number to manage this. If the item has been edited once, you’ll probably get back “1”, twice, probably will give you “2”, etc. The key here is, though, that you don’t care what the eTag value is: just whether it has changed. Even that doesn’t matter, as the 412 response from the server lets you know this is the case. By sending in the prior eTag value with your request, the server can tell you if there’s a problem. It’s up to you to handle that problem.
What if we want to do things the old way, like we did with SOAP? We simply omit the “IF-MATCH” parameter or pass “IF-MATCH”: “*”, meaning “I’ll accept any old value of the eTag – write away!”
Resources:
Transitioning to a new lifestyle – it sounds so good in theory and I’m sure it will all end well, but the changeover is quite an assault on the senses.
Sleep becomes a distant memory. All the noises are new and you can’t tell what’s just a creaking house settling down versus something really wrong. It’s a legacy of the fear paradigm we are trapped in on this planet – at every turn you are told you are not safe. There is no evidence to believe I am unsafe in my new home, but still; the back of your mind niggles in the dark of night when you’re lying there alone. So the fear won over and the alarm systems reactivated just for peace of mind. Perhaps tonight will result in some real sleep. It’s been 2 weeks since I had a full 8 hours and I am struggling with it.
Dogs barking – all.day.long; all.night.long. There are pros and cons to living in a complex that doesn’t allow pets. The people party all day and night, but there’s no dogs barking. The cats fight all night, but nothing a glass of water can’t fix instantly. In the ‘burbs however, everybody has dogs; big dogs, little dogs, medium dogs – and those dogs are highly alert. (More on dogs in a future blog). Getting used to the barking has been challenging as well as understanding which barks means something versus them just being bored.
In between silences – I lived next to a highway for 9 years where the traffic was deafening 24/7. Here there is only the occasional schmuck that must drag race up the one road (thanks so much biker…), but apart from that, it’s really pretty quiet on the traffic front. Once the dogs have settled down, and the world has gone to sleep, all you hear is the wind blowing through the trees. It’s like that right now. It’s so beautiful – but suddenly it’s too quiet, so you lie there, listening.
Birds – I love birds, just wanna be surrounded by birds. But not at 3 in the morning when they have decided it’s now time to wake up. 3am?! What sort of time keeping is that? I thought they are supposed to chirp just before dawn. They did at my old house, not so here. My property is surrounded by trees and the birds nest in droves, the chirping is LOUD. It took a week, but am now sleeping past the 3am bird wake up call at least.
I’ve been a night owl for a decade – working late into the night when it’s quiet so I can get things done. It was nothing for me to be up till midnight or later working, then sleeping till 8am the next day. No such luck in the ‘burbs. The domestic workers, gardeners and fitness freaks start arriving at 6am, which means the dogs go ballistic and there is no sleeping through that lot. I cannot function on less than 7 or 8 hours sleep, so now I have to reset my body clock to go to sleep at 9:30pm the very latest to be up by 6am. By 2pm in the afternoon I am so exhausted I can barely function. My body does not know what’s hit it. It’s tired and confused and not impressed with the new arrangements.
Trading traffic pollution for light pollution – no highway noise here, but there are 3 glaring, bright orange street lights that flood this entire garden and house. I barely even need to put on lights inside it’s so light. Kinda messes with the ability to see the moon and stars, although this is the city so that’s not easy anyway. The first part of garden planning is to put up dense, fast growing trees to block that out so I can make the magical garden I have planned.
Being able to be outside a lot – I had honestly forgotten what this was like. My previous place was so noisy that I didn’t want to go outside plus there was nowhere really to go. But being able to move any time you like and give your body a break from the computer is really an incredible gift. I get to look into trees from every corner of the house and there are lots of doors that I leave open so I can wander in one side and out the other, I love it. That patio is just my most favourite place and I can sit there and just ponder the wonders of life on it. I can now go for walks every morning and not be asphyxiated by carbon monoxide from the traffic, and I do. But you know what my other favourite thing to do right now is? Sweep!
It took me 3 days to sweep the driveway to rid it of the seeds from the leopard trees. I sweep the patio every day. I sweep the leaves that wander inside. When I am stuck on a problem, I stop, pick up the broom and sweep. Don’t under-estimate the power of the simple things in life. Being a middle class citizen means I’ve had most things in my home, car and garden done for me by workers; but doing something arbitrary like sweeping has given me a real sense of connection to my new home. Go figure.
I’m sure this will all be a distant memory in a year from now, but right now though I am going through a complete lifestyle change. The sedentary sloth trapped in a small space has been let out to breathe and move and it’s not that easy. But I’m out of excuses now so I have to step up to the plate I served myself. My whole body is sore but it’s a pain of love and gratitude for the incredible space I have landed in.
Oh, I see I’ve missed a seed; gotta run!! Till next time…
Recently had a question about Wrapping promoted links and thought it might help to share what we are doing on our site. We have a Script editor web part on the page below the Promoted Links web part.
Here's what it looks like:
The Script Editor contains the following Snippet:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ift.tt/15195HW "></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function () {
var currentRow = 1
$('.ms-promlink-root').each(function () {
if ($(this).html() != "") {
var numberOfLinksPerRow = 4;
// local variables
var pre = "<tr><td><div class='ms-promlink-body' id='promlink_row_";
var post = "'></div></td></tr>";
var numberOfLinksInCurrentRow = numberOfLinksPerRow;
// find the number of promoted links we're displaying
var numberOfPromotedLinks = $(this).find('.ms-promlink-body > .ms-tileview-tile-root').length;
// if we have more links then we want in a row, let's continue
if (numberOfPromotedLinks > numberOfLinksPerRow) {
// we don't need the header anymore, no cycling through links
$(this).find('.ms-promlink-header').empty();
// let's iterate through all the links after the maximum displayed link
for (i = numberOfLinksPerRow + 1; i <= numberOfPromotedLinks; i++) {
// if we're reached the maximum number of links to show per row, add a new row
// this happens the first time, with the values set initially
if (numberOfLinksInCurrentRow == numberOfLinksPerRow) {
// i just want the 2nd row to
currentRow++;
// create a new row of links
$(this).find('table > tbody:last').append(pre + currentRow + post);
// reset the number of links for the current row
numberOfLinksInCurrentRow = 0
} // move the Nth (numberOfLinksPerRow + 1) div to the current table row
$(this).find('.ms-promlink-body > .ms-tileview-tile-root:nth-child(' + (numberOfLinksPerRow + 1) + ')').appendTo($('#promlink_row_' + currentRow));
// increment the number of links in the current row
numberOfLinksInCurrentRow++;
}
}
}
});
});
</script>
Disclaimer: I did NOT write this script. My former assistant, Chip, found a posting or talked to someone (maybe Hugh?) about this. Just don't know who/where he got it from. In fairness to the writer, I needed to put up this disclaimer.
Here is an invite from my friends at Microsoft to learn more about Cortana Analytics Suite‚ Data Lake‚ Azure SQL Data Warehouse and new features in Power BI as well as how to ensure your upgrade from SQL 2005 is going to go smooth, since the end of Support is coming really soon!
You are invited!
The rise of machine learning and advanced analytics‚ combined with cloud unlimited capacity for data storage & computation marks a unique point in history. This is an incredible opportunity for organizations to innovate with agility and drive incredible impact using data‚ and this opportunity is here today. Join Microsoft and industry experts to explore how Microsoft Data Platform solutions and services can help you to crunch the huge amounts of data available to your business‚ discover insights and turn them into results.
Top 3 Reasons To Attend:
Also‚ with SQL Server 2005 End of Support coming soon‚ if you are still using this legacy technology‚ it is critical to develop a migration plan. We will guide you on how to ensure a successful move to SQL Server 2014 to secure your data and realize significant gains in performance and scalability.
Cities and Dates:
| Calgary | 29-October | Registration page |
| Montreal | 27-October | Registration page |
| Ottawa* | 26-November | Registration page |
| Toronto* | 9-10 November | Registration page |
Agenda*
| 9.00 AM | Registration |
| 9.30 AM | Keynote: Data Innovation |
| 10.30 AM | Enabling action with data: Advanced Analytics & The Internet of Things |
| 11.30 AM | Lunch and Microsoft Partners presentations |
| 12.30 PM | Interactive Data: Visualization and Story Telling |
| 1.30 PM | Modern Enterprise Data Warehouse: What’s Under the Hood? |
| 2.30 PM | SQL Server 2005 End of Support. Time to upgrade |
| 3.30 PM | Closing |
|
|
The post Microsoft Data Platform Days Coming to Canada in October appeared first on Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu.
Hello SharePointers, and welcome to this weeks newsletter!
1. (Sponsored) Ethical Hacking Webinar: Creating a Shadow – October 28th
Ethical Hackers are in demand, using their knowledge for the good of the company. Join LearnNowOnline expert Rafiq Wayani as he shares information on how to not only create a log of someone’s behavior on a computer (also called a shadow) but also how to properly read the output it generates. Register now!
LINK: http://spvlad.com/1RW2Z6h
2. Want to learn PowerShell for Office 365?
There is a new course on Pluralsight from Office Servers and Services MVP Vlad Catrinescu on PowerShell for Office 365. This 3 hours and a half course doesn’t only focus on the list of commandlets, but also shows how you can automate boring tasks and deliver business value using the magic of PowerShell.
LINK: http://spvlad.com/1VXll7f
3. Office 365 Task and Project Management with MVP Treb Gatte
Check out this interview of Project Server MVP Treb Gatte on Office 365 Task and Project Management by Christian Buckley!
LINK: http://spvlad.com/1OS7Y85
4. Ignite 2016 moves to Atlanta in September
Last week we told you that Ignite 2016 in Chicago got cancelled / postponed. Microsoft confirmed that Microsoft postponed the big event to September 26-30, in Atlanta. Check out the blog post for all details and Pre-Register now to save! (No payment required yet!)
LINK: http://spvlad.com/1NTXW7M
5. Easy timesheets and reporting solution in SharePoint
A small nonprofit organization needed a better process for time tracking and reporting. Our solution is to let users enter their time data into a SharePoint Online list by way of an InfoPath form. And we use Excel to display the data in a dashboard. Learn how to do an easy Out of the box solution using Infopath!
LINK: http://spvlad.com/1NTYv1w
If you're looking for HR Solutions and you own SharePoint... Check this out!
The post Enterprise HR Solutions on SharePoint with Lanteria appeared first on CollabShow.
For those unfamiliar with the project management space, its amazing to think that even with Microsoft Project seemingly the default project management software, there is no obvious "winner" in the category. In fact, Microsoft Excel is more commonly used to build out task lists and work breakdown structures than is MS Project. Of course, my first real experience with SharePoint back in 2005 was deploying Project Server (well, trying to deploy it and get the analytics to work) with SharePoint as the reporting repository.
And following the history of project and portfolio management solutions, Microsoft was very slow to move this business system category to the cloud, with a number of online project management solutions popping up between 2000 and 2004 while Microsoft was insisting that the future belonged to on prem. Thankfully that's all cleared up now, and Microsoft is focusing on solving the productivity needs of project management teams -- and task management. Which is what this interview is all about.
I'm not sure when exactly I met Treb Gatte (@tgatte), Project MVP and principal consultant at Tumble Road. I started running into him at events a couple years back, but got to know him when he started attending the local SharePoint user group (www.PSSPUG.org) and SharePoint Saturday Redmond (#SPSRED) events. Of course, given my background in project and business analyst roles, I've always felt an affinity toward the technologies in the space, and Treb has become my go-to expert on what is happening in the world Microsoft Project, Project Server, and now Office 365 Planner. I recently caught up with Treb between events and asked him to share his opinions on the history of tasks in SharePoint, and what is happening in the project space:
[Christian Buckley] Treb, I always like to kick off these interviews with the origin story: how exactly did you get your super powers? Maybe you can share some of your background, such as how long you have been an MVP, technologies that you've focused on over the past couple decades, and what your company focuses on today.
[Treb Gatte] I started out as an AS/400 RPG developer after graduating from Louisiana State University, doing document management projects and projects involving working with very large datasets of the time (100 Million rows per table). My first day in industry, 4/30/1990 is the same day that Microsoft Project v1 was originally released. Interesting coincidence. I got my MBA from Wake Forest University in NC, which lead to doing Process Development in a Business Incubator, during the Dot Com days.
[CB] You've hit some of my favorite dot com era buzzwords. Nicely done. What was your first official "project management" job?
[TG] A Project Management Tool Implementation project at Wachovia Bank caught my eye, which turned out to be one of the first ever done using a new Microsoft product called Project Server 2002. New beta tool and no documentation meant learning a lot directly from the Microsoft team. I left that role to join the Project Engineering team at Microsoft in Redmond for several years, focusing on Business Intelligence. I went on to learn about the consulting world while working for a Microsoft partner teaching and implementing Project Server. Once I was on a first name basis with the United crew between Seattle and Newark, I decided to take over management of the Project Server instances at Starbucks here in Seattle. Finally, I got the entrepreneurial bug and founded TumbleRoad.com, where we design and implement Project and Power BI based solutions. We also do a great deal of custom product and process training as well.
And to answer the first part of your question, I’ve been a Project MVP now for three years. I’ve written books on Project and I currently write a blog for CIO Magazine.
[CB] As you and I were discussing recently, the project management landscape has evolved -- even over the past 5 years. Dedicated hosted solutions in the space have been around for more than a decade, but the rise of more simplistic web-based tools seems to have forced the more structured, enterprise-scale solutions to rethink their cloud strategies. Of course, I am not as plugged in as you are. What is the state of project management in this new era of cloud services -- specifically, from a technology standpoint?
[TG] We are living in interesting times in the project management space. There’s a few different trends which are creating shifts in what we are seeing.
First, the economic downturn of the past few years meant a lot of companies didn’t hire PMP Certified Project Managers and designated on hand resources instead to serve as Project Managers. These “incidental PMs” didn’t have the requisite knowledge to use Microsoft Project or any of the various other formal tools well. Their focus was on getting the work done, usually doing management by checklist. If they were using a Project Management tool, the plans were used primarily for coordination and communication and not for formal scheduling.
Second, the economic downturn also meant a lot of companies downsized workforces. However, they didn’t downsize the businesses as well so now less people are spending more time doing more operational work than before. Time that would normally be spent working on projects. This greater demand for operational time also tended to fragment the work day, leading to less effective use of time for project work. All of this leads to lower project throughput.
Lastly, new work management methodologies and tools have arisen, which focus on managing conversations and information flow rather than managing schedules. These methods and tools tended to be more adaptive, easier to learn and worked better in the more chaotic work place. Some tools like Trello are visual and are free, two very attractive aspects for many small and medium sized companies. Most of these new tools are cloud based, allowing groups within a company to adopt them quickly, when they need it, without IT involvement. Formal tools were regarded as not supportive of these new methodologies, hard to use, costly and you had to get IT involved to implement it. This meant you might get the tool two years after you needed it.
Large companies still want the formal Project Management tools. The question is: what is the Fortune 500 of tomorrow going to use?
[CB] The free tools certainly have been changing things up. I am a huge Trello fan, because it's just simple and flexible, and most important to me -- it doesn't try to do 20 things while excelling at none of them. It's just a simple kanban list management tool, which for me is perfect. But there are other tools which scale much better to small to medium-sized business needs, such as Basecamp. With all of these options now available and gaining more attention, where does Microsoft fit into all of this?
[TG] Microsoft Project has traditionally been the tool of Professional Project Managers and was first introduced in 1990. It’s a powerful scheduling engine and does that job very well. Microsoft Project holds one of the largest market share segments in the PM space. You can usually hire people with Microsoft Project experience pretty easily. However, the market is growing increasingly fragmented.
[CB] Great points. Between MS Project and Excel, it's safe to say that Microsoft is the leader in project management tools….but for PM professionals, the field is wide open, with no truly dominant player.
[TG] True. There are literally hundreds of tools out there for managing work. Project Server, introduced in 2002, added consolidated resource management, cost management and portfolio management functionality. It offers a much more robust feature set than most of the smaller players, but in the end it all comes down to understanding your requirements.
[CB] While at Microsoft, my team owned most of the SharePoint sites within Online Services, and a common request was for us to help teams build out basic project management and reporting solutions. SharePoint lists are actually a great was to capture and track projects, and with a little bit of elbow grease, can even serve as a portfolio management solution for an organization. But I've always thought Microsoft was missing an opportunity to introduce people to the more advanced features of Project. When they announced the deprecation of tasks capability in SharePoint 2013, people were upset -- but we were promised a better solution. And now we have the recent announcement of Office 365 Planner, formerly Project Highlander, which does some of what SharePoint could do around task management -- but its really something different. Do you see a shift in how Microsoft is approaching the space?
[TG] The shift reflects the market need for better support of collaboration and managing the conversation. Visual tools like Planner are good at managing knowledge work and this keeps Microsoft in the game. Being willing to not push Project for everything work management related is a big change for Microsoft. What’s missing is the Operational work management piece that is consolidated with the other work management tools.
[CB] For many organizations, using Project, SharePoint team sites and lists, and even Excel (and to some degree, Excel Services) was simple and “good enough.” But with the rise of web-based tools such as Wunderlist and Trello, as well as Basecamp and seemingly hundreds of others, the space has become crowded. How does Microsoft keep things simple while also gaining new customers? I know this is a big question, but what are thoughts on how Microsoft can/should cut through the noise?
[TG] This is a huge challenge for Microsoft. Almost every Office tool today provides a way to manage a task. Excel is Project’s biggest competitor. Adding more products increases the risk that customers may choose the wrong tool for the need. Outside of Office, other tools like Team Foundation Server also do task management. The lack of a clear channel through the products makes it confusing for the customer to find their way.
Creating a Planner tool for Office 365 allows Microsoft to create an easy Work Management on-ramp for a large user base, to adopt Microsoft technology for work management. If Planner data can scale up and out into other work management tools like Project, people will tend to stay with the Microsoft suite as it will simply be easier. If we get Power BI integration, the overall integration makes it a much harder decision to use other products.
[CB] I agree -- it will be a challenge for Microsoft, but it is a massive opportunity. Of course, with the growth of Office 365 and Microsoft’s push into PM-lite capabilities, I have to ask: what do you think is the future of server-based project or portfolio management? It's been your bread-and-butter for a while, so I'm interested in your perspective.
[TG] There’s a lot of companies out there who need project and portfolio management but aren’t quite ready for the organizational rigor. Resource Management is now the most common pain point for companies, especially after the recent economic downturn.
A coherent PM Lite strategy gives Microsoft a way allow these companies to use Work Management while giving them a way to grow into a Project/Portfolio Management solution. I do see more demand eventually for Project and Portfolio Management, but the growth rate won’t be the same as Office 365.
If all of the work management products are aligned, work items should be able to be spawned from any Microsoft product (OneNote task, Outlook task, TFS, etc.) and be able to scale up to a Project plan in a straightforward way. Project work should be more accessible and be able to flow down into mobile applications like Wunderlist.
The other change I see coming in Project/Portfolio Management is more off the shelf vertical solutions. Many smaller companies can’t afford a custom-built “perfect” solution. It’s easier for them to buy something close enough to their needs and gain value quickly. The challenge for Microsoft is to enable the monetization of content and configuration, something that they’ve historically not done. This isn’t an app per se so the Office Store approach doesn’t quite fit here. Power BI is close with the Content Pack idea but we need a more holistic solution pack that can be installed over Office 365 and Power BI.
[CB] Where does the industry need to go, in your opinion? If you were Supreme Leader of all things project within the Office family, where would you make changes?
[TG] There’s no clear ownership of Task across Microsoft the way that there is for Document or Spreadsheet. I think this is needed if they truly want to fulfill their Productivity objectives. By assigning an internal champion for all things Task, the messaging, planning and enhancements around Task management (and project management by extension) becomes more cohesive and consistent across all tools. Microsoft’s strength is its ability to integrate functionality across its massive suite of products. It’s time to do the same for Tasks.
As always, some great insights from Treb on what is happening within the SharePoint space around project management tools and practices. If you have more questions about the discussion above or around Project and Project Server, you can reach Treb via email at treb.gatte@tumbleroad.com or through Twitter at @tgatte.
Thank you again, Treb, for taking the time to chat., See you at the next PSSPUG meeting.
I am extremely happy to announce that my second Pluralsight course has been published over the weekend and this one is on PowerShell for Office 365. PowerShell is a must-know tool for every Microsoft sysadmin as well as application admin, and with companies moving to Office 365 more and more, mastering PowerShell for Office 365 will be a very useful skill to have!
In this course, you will learn how to use PowerShell to manage Office 365 services. You will learn how to connect and manage users and licensing, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Compliance Center and last but not least, Skype for Business Online. You will learn not only how to change the advanced settings that are not even available in the user interface, as well as how to automate those boring tasks you’ve wanted to get rid of forever.
What I really wanted to do in this course, is not only give you a list of commands, but put the listener in real scenarios and have a lot of automation scenarios where we can use what we learn, in an actual business case. Almost every chapter has one or more Automation Scenarios that are explained from both a business point of view as well as technical.
The course is a total of 3h30 minutes, and is available to all the Pluralsight subscribers. All the scripts showed in the demos is available for download for those who have the Pro Subscription. Click the image below to go to the course page on Pluralsight
The post New Pluralsight Course: PowerShell for Office 365 appeared first on Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu.
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SharePoint 2016 IT Preview
I've recently seen some new blog posts in relation to SharePoint 2016. Many are short and uninformative, possibly because Microsoft hasn't let the cat out of the bag because it is just an IT Preview – right. They are also possibly adding more features before the full release next year.
SharePoint 2016 IT preview is indeed just a preview for the IT folks. According to Microsoft, this is only a preview. It is quite clear that is more to come in terms of new or improved features.
I have noticed some new changes that I'll like to share (everyone including external users - sorry). The free version of SharePoint also known as "SharePoint Foundation" has been dropped. There is no longer a free version of SharePoint. With SharePoint growing popularity, I guess Microsoft believes that it does not need to give it (though limited) away for free.
SharePoint Foundation is no longer available in the SharePoint Server 2016 release. It's all going to be SharePoint server. The installation would create everything as one user. If you do single server with SharePoint 2016 it is a single SharePoint Server, but it is all just SharePoint. It just puts all the SharePoint roles on a single box.
This is a single server install that they had before that would require an installation of SQL express instance that nobody knew how to manage. That is until you start to get problems which normally was in relation to memory problems as SQL server memory hungry.
After installation, you'll notice some new changes in configuration features;
You'll also notice some new and or improved Web Parts;
Full installation, and other new features can be seen in this blog post named "SharePoint Server 2016 features and Step by Step to setup and configure", here - http://ift.tt/1W0fvCa.
A small nonprofit organization needed a better process for time tracking and reporting. Our solution is to let users enter their time data into a SharePoint Online list by way of an InfoPath form. And we use Excel to display the data in a dashboard.
The organization has two paid employees and the rest are volunteers; the board also consists of volunteers. The paid staff registered their hours in an Excel file. The employees work irregularly and they get more money for work that they perform at night or in the weekend:
|
|
00.00 – 07.00 |
07.00 – 22.00 |
22.00 – 24.00 |
|
Monday – Friday |
30% |
|
20% |
|
Saturday |
30% |
|
20% |
|
Sunday and holidays |
100% |
50% |
100% |
Each month, the Excel file was mailed to an external agency for salary processing. The payroll administrator then had to calculate, based on the Excel file, how much the employees should be paid for the irregular hours in addition to the fixed salary. The requirement is to calculate this automatically, because the external agency bills the organization for all of this manual compilation and calculation and that is getting too expensive. The solution I have made uses the following table for premium pay.
The Excel files gave very little insight into the hours spent by the two employees. The board wanted more control over the work performed by understanding the hours spent.
The current Excel files gave the employees insight how many hours they worked and how much leave they have available. This functionality should remain available.
The organization is already using Office 365 for non-profits, which is provided free by Microsoft through TechSoup. TechSoup is an organization that governs software donations for non-profit organizations.
Because the organization is currently already using Office 365 and SharePoint Online, I chose to enter the hours in SharePoint. An InfoPath form ensures a correct input and validation. The reporting is done in Excel and displayed on a dashboard in SharePoint with the Excel Rest API.
Below I will describe the steps I followed to create the solution.
The core of the solution is a list in SharePoint. I’ve created a subsite below the existing teamsite for that list. This is needed to give the external agency only access to the solution. At first I had created a list in the existing teamsite, but then the account for the agency could not refresh the data in Excel. The account needs read permissions on site level to refresh data and we don’t want the external agency to see the rest of our teamsite.
I called the subsite ‘Timesheet’ and on the subsite I created a list called ‘Time Entry’. To prevent the two employees from editing each other’s entries, I changed the item-level permissions. You can reproduce this step as follows:
Go to the list setting, select Advanced settings and at Item-level permissions select ‘Create items and edit items that were created by the user’.
Create the following columns.
On the following columns I set these settings:
- Title: default value ‘Time entry’
- Year: default value ‘2015’ (update each year)
- Week: minimum and maximum allowed value between 1 and 53
- Day: choice column with every day of the week and holiday
- Time Period: choice column with the choices from the table above (00:00-07:00, 07:00-22:00, 22:00-24:00)
- Work Type: choice column with different work types as choices
- Task: choice column with different tasks as choices
Next, I’ve edited the ‘New item’ form. We use InfoPath to allow the employees to enter their data quickly and easily. We are aware of the fact that InfoPath will be phased out, but we can continue to use it for years anyway.
I didn’t use the option in the Ribbon to edit the form, but I started InfoPath and by using the wizard we will get the right settings. The reason is that InfoPath then gives you more options, like the option to include repeating tables. We want the employees to be able to enter their hours for the entire day or even the entire week in one go.
You can reproduce this step as follows:
Start InfoPath Designer and chose SharePoint List.
Fill the URL of the SharePoint site.
Chose for the list you just created.
At Advanced Option select ‘Manage multiple list items with this form’, allowing the employees to enter all of their hours for the entire day or the entire week in one form. Click the Finish button.
On the loaded form, you see all the fields displayed vertically. Remove Title, Employee and Year. Move the other fields next to each other, horizontally, and it should look like the image below. Probably you want to add a description above the form to explain how it works. Every separate item is a separate row in the form and will become a separate item in the list: different tasks, or the same tasks in different time periods etc.
Next, we need to set a couple of rules to prevent wrong data being filled in by the employees.
First of all, we want the field Employee automatically filled by the current user’s name. Right-click on Employee under Fields and select ‘Field Properties’.
In Value fill in this formula: substring(userName(); 19; 255)
Secondly, we want the irregular hours premium pay (called ORT) to be filled automatically. To accomplish that, the columns ‘Day’ and ‘Time Period’ has to be filled first, before we calculate the ORT percentage.
So we create a rule that the Time Period only can be filled if the Day also is filled.
In the ribbon click on ‘Manage Rules’ and select the column Time Period.
Select New and then Formatting.
Fill in a title and in the Condition field you select ‘Day is equals to blank’. If this condition is true, then the column must be disabled. Check ‘Disable this control’.
Then we create a rule that will fill the ORT field with the correct value. Choose New and then Action.
I will pick one rule as example: On Sunday night the employee will get 100% ORT. The rule will have this condition:
If Day is equal to Sunday and Time Period is equal to 00.00-07.00 and the task is not Vacation/leave then the ORT field must set to 100.
There will be another 10 rules for calculating the ORT. I added the full table with rules below.
We need to add vacation/leave to the condition. The employees will fill in the form how many hours holiday they have used, but never can get ORT (premium pay) over this hours. To prevent this we create an extra rule on the Day column.
Select the column Day, choose New and then Formatting.
Fill a title and as condition select Task is equal to blank. If this condition is true then the column should be disabled, check the ‘Disable this control’ option.
Finally we create a rule that will empty the columns Time Period and Day when Task or Day are changed. If we do not do that, it would still be possible to get premium pay on vacation/leave.
Below I add the rule on the Day column, but you also must do it on the Task column.
Choose for New and then Action.
Don’t fill any condition, so that the action will always be executed on any change of this field. As action we set the fields value must be equal to “”, we just don’t fill anything in here.
To summarize, we now have the following rules on the following columns:
|
Rule on column |
Name rule |
Condition |
Action |
|
Day |
Empty Time Period |
None |
Set a field’s value: Time Period = (empty) |
|
Task |
Empty Day |
None |
Set a field’s value: Day = (empty) |
|
Time Period |
Set ORT 100 Sunday night |
Day = Sunday and Time Period = 00.00-07.00 and Task != Leave |
Set a field’s value: ORT = 100 |
|
Time Period |
Set ORT 30 night |
Day != Sunday and Day != Holiday and Time Period = 00.00-07.00 and Task != Leave |
Set a field’s value: ORT = 30 |
|
Time Period |
Set ORT 20 evening |
Day != Sunday and Day != Holiday and Time Period = 22.00-00.00 and Task != Leave |
Set a field’s value: ORT = 20 |
|
Time Period |
Set ORT 100 Sunday evening |
Day = Sunday and Time Period = 22.00-00.00 and Task != Leave |
Set a field’s value: ORT = 100 |
|
Time Period |
Set ORT 100 Holiday night |
Day = Holiday and Time Period = 00.00-07.00 and Task != Leave |
Set a field’s value: ORT = 100 |
|
Time Period |
Set ORT 100 Holiday evening |
Day = Holiday and Time Period = 22.00-00.00 and Task != Leave |
Set a field’s value: ORT = 100 |
|
Time Period |
Set ORT 50 Sunday |
Day = Sunday and Time Period = 07.00-22.00 and Task != Leave |
Set a field’s value: ORT = 50 |
|
Time Period |
Set ORT 50 Holiday |
Day = Holiday and Time Period = 07.00-22.00 and Task != Leave |
Set a field’s value: ORT = 50 |
|
Time Period |
Set ORT 0 day |
Day != Sunday and Day != Holiday and Time Period = 07.00-22.00 |
Set a field’s value: ORT = 0 |
|
Time Period |
Set ORT 0 leave |
Task = Leave |
Set a field’s value: ORT = 0 |
For reporting, we will use Excel. Go to the Time entry list and click in the ribbon on ‘Export to Excel’.
By creating a couple of PivotTables, we give insight in some details about the time entries. Firstly, we create a table with ORT information for the payroll administrator. We share the Excel file with the administrator so he/she has access to the latest premium pay information.
I created a couple of tables and charts to give some insight in the hours spent. I saved the file to a Document Library on SharePoint.
To make these insights easy accessible for the board, I’ve created a dashboard on a page in SharePoint. By using the Excel Rest API, you can show the tables and charts on the page as images or html. You can do that as follows:
You can access an overview of all available tables and charts using the API. Enter the following url in Internet Explorer, substituting the names of your tenant, site, etc into the address:
https://[tenant].sharepoint.com/sites/[SiteCollection/[Subsite]/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/[Documentlibrary]/[Excelfile].xlsx/Model
You will see the screen below.
When I click on Charts, I see all available charts. I created a chart for the hours an employee spent in a week on a task. When I click on the name of the chart I will get to see an image. I copy the url in the address bar and on the SharePoint page I choose adding a new picture by url and paste the url.
The url looks like this:
https://[tenant].sharepoint.com/sites/[SiteCollection/[Subsite]/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/[Documentlibrary]/[Excelfile].xlsx/Model/Charts('ChartHoursEmployeeTasks')?$format=image
When I choose a table and click on the link I will get a 404 error. I get this url:
https://[tenant].sharepoint.com/sites/[SiteCollection/[Subsite]/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/[Documentlibrary]/[Excelfile].xlsx/Model/Tables('TableHoursBalance')?$format=atom
This is a known issue in the API. You can work around this issue by changing the last bold text to ‘image’ or ‘html’. Then you will see the table as an image or in html.
Below you will see a part of the dashboard we use.
We have built a timesheet that employees use to register hours by entering them in an InfoPath form that saves the data to a list in SharePoint Online. Rules in the form guide the user and calculate the premium pay (ORT) they are entitled to. The payroll administrator automatically gets an overview of the premium pay the employees should get, in addition to their regular salary. And the board can see what the employees have done for that money, in a dashboard based on Excel charts and tables displayed on a SharePoint page by way of the Excel Rest API.
This solution has been used for nine months now, and the users are very happy with it: it is easy to use, less error prone and far less time-consuming than the old way of working.
Ten months and one week after making the decision to move, it’s finally done – the great adventure to find a new home and start a better way of living! The process aged me 100 years but it’s done and a new adventure has commenced.
The original idea was to buy a farm and live off the grid but the Universe wasn’t down with me doing that right now. Still, the new spot looks like a farm house and has enough ground to fake being on one. Sometimes the Universe doesn’t give you what you want; it gives you what you need, so now it’s “start where you are, use what you have, do what you can”.
The plan is to turn my place in Midrand, Johannesburg into a self-sustaining, self-maintaining, lush, urban food forest based on permaculture principles; then teach others how to follow suit. A new website called The Right Fork has been started to store all the info you will need, (although my mom thinks it’s much funnier to call it Veroniqueville). :)
The ground has been sorely neglected. It’s a desert of dead, bare sand and half dead everything else. The first week focussed on only 2 things – getting the door and window locks changed and working, and watering the garden. Within 3 days it was already looking greener.
It’s funny; at one stage I just wanted a lush green lawn to go and lie on – now that I know better, I look at gardens like that and see a water hogging wasteland instead of the tropical glamour punted in the magazines. All this grass will come out eventually, watch this space.
So why “The Right Fork”?
It’s about coming to a crossroads in your life and having to make a decision about which path you’re going to choose. I “woke up” a couple of years ago to the fact that the way we humans live on this planet is not great and have been singularly driven to start doing something about it ever since. It’s also about choosing love over fear; compassion over hate and revenge. It’s about coming face to face with some pretty hectic challenges and having to choose your reaction to each one. This has not been an easy journey and the temptation to go to “the dark side” is ever present; but the force is strong in this one and light will prevail! :) It’s about taking responsibility for everything that happens in your life, good or bad. It’s about understanding that the power of choice is presented to you a hundred times a day, not just in the big life events.
It’s too overwhelming to try and change the governments and banks bleeding us dry, or multinational giants wrecking our environment – but changing ourselves and how we live is something each one of us can do. I had to take a whole lot of left turns before getting to the right fork in the road; which road will you choose?