SharePoint Online Search: Add a Refiner for Content TYpe

This is yet another in the “Things that Make You Go Hmm…” category. If I only had a nickel…

I would think that one of the most common needs on a search results page would be to add a refiner by Content Type. After all, we all have robust, sensical information architectures in place to improve performance in our organizations, right?

When we create a new search results page in a Search Center, we get a few refiners out of the box that look oh-so-promising.

First there’s ContentTypeId. We all know that Microsoft uses big, ugly ids and GUIDs under the covers all the time. Sometimes they translate easily into whatever they represent. This isn’t one of those times.

Well, what about contentclass? That looks sort of almost useful. But it isn’t. Values like STS_ListItem_DocumentLibrary won’t really help anyone.

Oh, I know. Let’s add the ContentType Managed Property. That’s what works almost everywhere else. Well, except here, as the values don’t make sense to humans, as they are things like application/pdf Document or application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.pres… Yes, the ellipses are appropriate here. Who know what that means?

Finally, I found a blog post from Henri Merkesdal that retrieved my sanity. There’s a property way down the list called SPContentType that does exactly what we want.

Ahhh. That’s much better. Thanks, Henri!

by Marc D Anderson via Marc D Anderson's Blog

Metadata navigation on publishing sites using the Oslo masterpage

You might be familiar with metadata navigation in SharePoint – a handy feature that allows users to more easily find items in large lists/libraries using configurable filters. We activated/configured metadata navigation and were able to use this feature using both of the out-of-the-box masterpages (Seattle and Oslo) and for a while all were happy in SharePoint-land.

(For more info on how to configure metadata navigation I kindly direct you to the office support page)

Picture 1: Metadata navigation on the out-of-the-box Seattle (left) and Oslo (right) masterpages

Until one faithful day we decided to copy the Oslo masterpage we were using at that point and customize it. After our changes we found that the metadata navigation pane was missing. After some investigation it turned out that even if we edited the default Oslo masterpage the filters would still be gone. The Seattle masterpage did not suffer from this problem: no matter if we copied it or modified the original version the filters would still be on the page.

Picture 2: Metadata navigation on customized Seattle (left) and Oslo (right) masterpages

To explain why this happens I’ll have to take a small step back and briefly talk about the SharePoint publishing features with regards to masterpages:

(for more info about the publishing features I again kindly direct you to the office support page)

• Normal, non-publishing, sites only have a single file per masterpage, which has the .master extension (e.g. Seattle.master, Oslo.master, …). This file can be edited directly using SharePoint Designer or any other editor.
• Publishing sites have two files per masterpage, one .master file and one .html file (e.g. Seattle.master and Seattle.html). The .master file can no longer be edited directly but will be generated by SharePoint whenever the .html version is updated.

Turns out Oslo.html does not contain the snippet for the “TreeViewNavigationManager”, the control responsible for adding the filters to the page. The Oslo.master file however does contain this snippet. This is why the filters were there when we first activated the Oslo masterpage but stopped showing up as soon as we copied it or made any customizations: SharePoint would parse the .html file and ‘translate’ it into a new version of the .master file, this time without the “TreeViewNavigationManager”.

Picture 3: TreeViewNavigationManager in the Seattle (left) and Oslo (right) masterpage files

Once we found out what the problem was we were able to easily fix it by adding this snippet to our copy of the Oslo.html file (I advise against editing the out-of-the-box masterpages and prefer to work with copies), just below the “sideNavBox” tag.

<!--SPM:<SharePoint:SPNavigationManager id="TreeViewNavigationManagerV4" runat="server" ContainedControl="TreeView" CssClass="ms-tv-box">-->        <!--SPM:<SharePoint:SPLinkButton runat="server" NavigateUrl="~site/_layouts/15/viewlsts.aspx" id="idNavLinkSiteHierarchyV4" Text="<%$Resources:wss,treeview_header%>" accesskey="<%$Resources:wss,quiklnch_allcontent_AK%>" CssClass="ms-tv-header"/>-->        <!--SPM:<SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="TreeViewAndDataSource">-->
                <!--SPM:<Template_Controls>-->
                        <!--SPM:<SharePoint:SPHierarchyDataSourceControl runat="server" id="TreeViewDataSourceV4" RootContextObject="Web" IncludeDiscussionFolders="true"/>-->
                        <!--SPM:<SharePoint:SPRememberScroll runat="server" id="TreeViewRememberScrollV4" onscroll="javascript:_spRecordScrollPositions(this);" style="overflow: auto;">-->
                                <!--SPM:<SharePoint:SPTreeView id="WebTreeViewV4" runat="server" ShowLines="false" DataSourceId="TreeViewDataSourceV4" ExpandDepth="0" SelectedNodeStyle-CssClass="ms-tv-selected" NodeStyle-CssClass="ms-tv-item" SkipLinkText="" NodeIndent="12" ExpandImageUrl="/_layouts/15/images/tvclosed.png?rev=41" ExpandImageUrlRtl="/_layouts/15/images/tvclosedrtl.png?rev=41" CollapseImageUrl="/_layouts/15/images/tvopen.png?rev=41" CollapseImageUrlRtl="/_layouts/15/images/tvopenrtl.png?rev=41" NoExpandImageUrl="/_layouts/15/images/tvblank.gif?rev=41">--><!--SPM:</SharePoint:SPTreeView>-->
                        <!--SPM:</SharePoint:SPRememberScroll>-->
                <!--SPM:</Template_Controls>-->
        <!--SPM:</SharePoint:DelegateControl>-->
<!--SPM:</SharePoint:SPNavigationManager>-->

  Picture 4: TreeViewNavigationManager: copied into the oslo_copy.html file

And voila:

Picture 5: Metadata navigation: fixed Oslo masterpage

(This is a copy of my blog on our company's WordPress account, click here to read more blogs written by me and my colleagues)

-

Matthias De Cock

K2 Consultant @ Spikes

-

by Matthias De Cock via Everyone's Blog Posts - SharePoint Community

Web Services in SPD 2013

Introduction

I was asked to create an Expense solution, where users can select their payment currency when completing an expense form to populate an Expense list. The currency field of the form is a dropdown list lookup field of the Currency list.

I will be focusing on the latter list for the sake of this post. This list consists of a Month, Source (index currency), Target (currency we are trying to retrieve) and Rate (exchange rate) columns. When entering data in the Currency form, all fields except the Month and Target fields will be populated via a workflow and therefore auto populate the dropdown Currency field in the Expense form. I’ve done it this way as the list administrator wants to manually change the Month field at the end of each month.

So how do I find a solution for this business requirement? Well I could have the administrator just visit an external website to get the exchange rate values, copy and paste them in the Currency list. This means the user may have to do more work and is likely to make a mistake in typing the exchange rate figures, not to mention that it would not be a good user experience. Lightbulb, it is possible to connect to an external service and pull in live data into SharePoint for later use.

In cases where there is an existing web service that you need to access – either a public one, or perhaps a private web service that is hosted by your company – SharePoint Designer 2013 provides an action that you can use to call the web service. There is no longer any need to rely on a developer when you need to call an existing web service. 

Web Services in SharePoint Designer 2013 Workflows

Creating a custom web service is much easier than creating a custom action. Not only that, but whereas a custom action could only be used by the workflow in which it’s installed a custom web service is portable and can be used by any number of consumers. While SharePoint 2013 can consume any type of web service, it is easiest (recommended) that you use web services that accept and return data using the standard OData formats of Atom or JSON (JavaScript Object Notation).

In SharePoint 2013 workflows, you call a web service using a new action introduced in SharePoint 2013 named “Call HTTP Web Service”. This action is flexible and allow you to make simple calls to a web service easily, or, if needed, you can create more complex calls using HTTP verbs as well as allowing you to add HTTP headers. In my workflow, I created a variable that stores the URL, I wish to call. Figure 1 shows the Call HTTP Web Service action.

Figure 1. SharePoint Designer 2013 stage showing the Call HTTP Web Service action

The Call HTTP Web Service action lets you specify any of several request methods, including GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE. This lets you tell the web services, specifically RESTful services, what to do on the service that you’ve specified with the URI property on the activity.

The second stage of working with web services involves submitting data to, and receiving data from, a web service, which you do by using either the request or response properties on the Call HTTP Web Service action. Note, however, that rather than as a stream, data is passed as a complex structure using the Dynamic Value object.

Dynamic value data structures are formatted as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) strings. There is a series of activities associated with the DynamicValue type that can be used to count the number of items in the response, extract values from the response, or build up a new structure for updating or creating items. Below are the steps for doing this. 

Create a customer list

1. In SharePoint Designer 2013, I created a custom list and name it "ExchangeRates". 
2. Renamed the default Title field to Month (we’ll get the current rates at the end of each month). 
3. Added the fields Source, Target and Rate, all of the type String shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Creating the Customers list in SharePoint Designer 2013

Create the workflow

1. In the SharePoint Designer 2013 navigation pane, select the Workflows option.
2. On the ribbon, click the List Workflows button and select your list. In this example I selected the “ExchangeRates” list that I created earlier from the drop-down list.
3. I have named my workflow "XRates" and left the description blank as shown below in Figure 3.
4. Set the Platform Type to SharePoint 2013 Workflow and click the OK button.

Figure 3. Creating a new List Workflow using SharePoint Designer 2013

Before starting the workflow, I had to get the correct URL in JSON format. I found an XML site feed that I could parse onto this URL - “http://ift.tt/1NXtoAR” to get the data back in JSON format. Normally one would have to “Build this Dictionary (Output to Variable: dictionary) in the workflow to handle HTTP request. You would then add two headers like below and in Figure 4;

• Accept: application/json;odata=verbose
• Content-Type: application/json;odata=verbose

Figure 4. Build a Dictionary window in SharePoint Designer 2013

However, by adding “?$format=json” after the feed URL you need not build a dictionary with headers to handle JSON data because adding this will format feed into JSON data.

Query the web service for the customer details

Now that the workflow has been created, we’ll want to enable it to call a web service, which we do by adding a Call HTTP Web Service action (explained earlier) to the workflow’s default stage.

• Click on the link labelled “this”.
• To the right of the Enter the HTTP web service URL text box, click the builder button (…) to open the String Builder dialog box.
• In the String Builder, I entered this URL: http://ift.tt/1NXtoAT?$format=json initially.
  • This is a free currency api site that shows the exchange rate from GBP to USD only.
  • To get another currency, change the “USD” part of the URL to another currency code.
  • The first part of this URL changes the latter XML part to JSON format.
• You’ll now select the currency code part of the URL and replace it with a Dynamic value.
• To dynamically create the URL, use the “Add or Change Lookup” button in String Builder. In the resulting Lookup for String dialog box, set the “Data Source” to “Current Item” and set the “Field from Source“ to “Target” as shown in Figure 4. The resulting URL string should be; http://ift.tt/1mcBTNF[%CurrentItem:Target%].xml?$format=json.

Figure 5. Dynamically creating the URL for the web service request

• Click OK on the Lookup for String, OK again on the String Builder windows to set the new URL. Set this to receive results from the web service, next we store the results in another variable.

• In the Call HTTP Web Service action, click the response link in the action and create a new variable of type Dictionary, I named it “varAllResults”.

• The entire Call HTTP Web Service action is not likely visible, since it is a long sentence in the designer. Scroll to the right and notice that the response status code is stored in a variable called “responseCode”. I tried this a few times and so I have “responseCode3”. This is convenient, and something that can be written to the workflow instance’s statistics page in the workflow history list.

• Add a Log to History List action after the Call HTTP Web Service action and set its message to write the status code for the response to the log, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 6. Writing the Web Service Response Code to the History List

Extract values from response

Now that we have the web service response stored in the “varAllResults” variable, the next step is to extract these values and place them in local variables.

To do this, we’re going to add Get item from dictionary actions to the workflow. The path to the item from which we’re going to extract a value has to match the structure of the response and be in a specific format. A good way to figure this out is to enter the URL into the browser to see the response that comes back. Pasting the URL earlier in the browser I get JSON data as show below in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Viewing the URL in a browser

Notice that the results are nested within the object called “result”. Therefore the path to the field “source” in the web service response is “result/source”. I elected however to pass the initial path to another variable using a “Get item by name or path from dictionary (Output to item)”.

You can view the data structure in a free “JSON Viewer” here - http://ift.tt/mVvXH2, http://ift.tt/ZMDzw8 or download a standalone application named “JSON Viewer” from http://ift.tt/1NXtoAZ. Using the URL from earlier, you would copy the contents in the page and paste it in the “Text” tab, the “Viewer” tab is shown below in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Free online JSON Viewer showing data structure

In actuality, I added four “Get item by name or path …” actions, one to get all results and three to get all fields. I got all fields in “result” from “varAllResults” and passed them onto a variable named “varCurrentVals”. From this variable, I want to get a “source”, “target”, “rate” individually. I placed this in a loop so that “The contents of this loop will run 1 times since the URL is dynamic and will be changed by the user input in the “Target” field.

I put this in a loop because I had set URL dynamically earlier in the workflow before the loop (this may not be necessary). A loop is more useful when you count the number of items in a Dictionary and loop through it getting values by count. My loop will run 1 times as shown below in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Extracting Values from the Web Service Dictionary Response

Update or Set the list item

The final step is to update or set the list item using two of the Set field in current item actions. These set the fields in the list item to the values stored in the variables I created earlier, shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Update the List Item

In the form, the administrator creates a new item by entering the “Month” and “Target” fields per currency and the workflow will fetch and populate the “Source” and the “Rate” fields. The workflow will run again on modification of the same list item as the business requirement is get the exchange rate once a month. The URL is set dynamically from the Target field. If a new Target is entered equals that retrieved from the REST call then the “Source” and “Rate” fields will be populated.

And finally, we complete the Transition to stage section of the workflow stage.

1. Add a Go To Stage action
2. Save and publish the workflow
3. Select End of workflow

Test the workflow

1. Open a browser and navigate to your list in my case the “ExchangeRates” list.
2. Added are seven exchange rate abbreviations or codes and the current month per entry. This is done only once as the workflow is designed to run again when modified. When the month is modified from say “Dec” to “Jan”, the current exchange rate is then fetched.
3. I’ve design the workflow to “Start workflow automatically when an item is created” and “Start workflow automatically when an item is changed”. You can manually start the workflow for testing
4. At this point the workflow will start and will query the web service.
5. To see the result, I navigated back to the “ExchangeRates” list and refresh the page. It might take a few refreshes for the workflows to complete, but eventually it should look like the image in Figure 10. You should see list updated. Below you can see the “Source” and “Rate” columns populated. To get an update Rate, you’ll modify the list item.

Figure 10. List Items Updated by the Workflow

SharePoint 2013 introduced a new workflow architecture facilitated by a new product, Workflow Manager 1.0. To ensure that all custom workflows worked regardless of the SharePoint 2013 deployment choice, either on-premises or hosted in Office 365, all workflows are now 100 percent declarative. The added support for calling web services from SharePoint Designer 2013-authored workflows provides a more flexible, powerful workflow authoring process than in previous versions.

Microsoft introduced support for calling web services in Workflow Manager using the new Call HTTP Web Service action in SharePoint Designer 2013. Workflow Manager also introduced support for creating structures to submit to web services as well as consuming their responses using the Dictionary variable type. When creating workflows, use the Dictionary type and associated actions in SharePoint workflows that use external web services.

by Larry Saytee via Everyone's Blog Posts - SharePoint Community

Reimagining a New Security Model for SharePoint

SharePoint's old security model was conceived in a different era. Let's imagine what a new security model might look like.

In my last post, we looked at the humble beginnings of SharePoint as Microsoft Tahoe, and pointed out that the security model really hasn't changed in the 15 years since then. Even today in SharePoint 2013 and Office 365, the basic approach to managing permissions is more or less the same:

We manually compile lists of people, then grant them permissions to stuff.

OK, so SharePoint's old model was conceived in a different era, under vastly different circumstances and hasn't much evolved. Let's try and imagine what a 'typical' organization's requirements for a brand new security model might be.

We'll stick to use cases around information management and collaboration, and avoid any specific technology. We're thinking about the enormous volumes of documents, spreadsheets and presentations, in various states of polish and approval, of various levels of sensitivity and importance, and stored in file shares and online systems.

Constant Business Change

If there is one thing that stands out about organizations in general, it is how much and how often things change. Strategies, priorities, structures, products, services, markets, people and positions. Roles, teams, departments, functions and systems appearing and disappearing. Political change. Environmental change. Economic change.

Change is so prevalent, it is possibly the only real constant!

So, our new security model has got to be designed for this. Flexibility to accommodate change, to adapt and respond swiftly when it happens - and keep information secure at all times - has got to be where we start.

Accuracy

Fundamentally, information security is about connecting people with the information they need, and keeping them from the information they shouldn't have. 

Permission configurations (and their deliberate absence) are the mechanism we use to connect (and separate) people and business information. Permission configurations grant or deny access for people to information. X person has Y access to Z file.

We're dealing with huge volumes of files, and many, many people. So, a typical organization may have thousands or even millions of individual permission configurations.

A business decision lies behind every single one of those configurations. Each configuration needs to be an accurate reflection of the business requirements. Accurately ensuring that the right people only have access to only the right information is how we minimise the risk of accidental or malicious internal security breaches.

But the ground under those business decisions doesn't stand still. We've already noted the prevalence of business change. A person may require access to a document today, but should not have it tomorrow. It requires constant review and maintenance in response to change. 

'Hackers' may make the headlines, but this is how the majority of security breaches actually arise:Permission configurations inaccurately reflecting business requirements which constantly change.

The scale and complexity of the challenge is immense. But hey, nobody said it should be easy!

...oh, wait...

Quick and Simple

People are busy. They have jobs to do, targets to hit, deadlines to meet. They create and use information to do what they do. When it comes to information security, and they need it to happen reliably and in the background.

So, if the tools and processes around keeping information secure aren't simple, out of people's way quickly, and largely automatic - people will find another way to get things done.

 

Robust and Reliable

For people to trust the systems we give them for securing their information, they need to inspire confidence. If a business user grants access to their information to a certain set of people, they need to trust that those are the people who will get that access.

There can't be any hidden back doors, or extra people they don't know about. The system has got to do what it says on the tin - no ifs, no buts, no complications.

Otherwise, users will either avoid the system because they don't trust it. Or they will use it anyway, hope for the best, then a security breach happens, the business is damaged, trust is destroyed, and those users avoid the system next time anyway.

(...ever wondered why such a common complaint about SharePoint relates to poor rates of adoption…?)

 

So maybe these are four fundamental requirements we can start from:

1) Accomodating constant change,

2) Accuracy,

3) Quick and Simple, and

4) Robust and Reliable.

In my next post, we'll use these basic four requirements as a lens to look at a real-world business scenario, and see how SharePoint security stacks up.

 

Thanks for reading,

Peter

by Peter Bradley via Everyone's Blog Posts - SharePoint Community

Will you be able to leapfrog from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2016?

Microsoft’s unveiling of SharePoint 2016 this past May revealed a plethora of cool new features coupled with improvements to existing technology, such as integration with the cloud. There is seemingly something for everyone: admins can enjoy zero downtime patching, users can search Office 365 & on-premises SharePoint via a singular interface, and pro-cloud security experts will love the move to cloud-based authentication via SAML. There’s one group, though, that is expectantly awaiting further clarification… and they have about 6 to 9 months of impatient finger-tapping ahead of them: SharePoint 2010 users.

In previous versions, SharePoint upgrades took a step-by-step approach. For example, SP 2007 users needed to take a pit stop at SP 2010 before moving on to SP 2013. All of the signs indicate that this process will again be the case for those who wish to upgrade from 2010 to 2016.

The reasons behind this are based on the architecture used for 2016: SharePoint 2016 was built on 2013 technology; specifically, with regards to the treatment of Site Collections. SharePoint 2010 databases need to be upgraded to SharePoint 2013 before continuing the upgrade to 2016 (i.e., Site Collections must be in SP 2013 v15 mode, not SP 2010 v14 mode).

Okay, end of story, right? It’s not possible, move along, there’s nothing to see here…

But then we have this tweet from Microsoft Senior Technical Product Manager Bill Baer:

Of course the Twitter replies were overwhelmingly positive for obvious reasons. Who wouldn’t want to skip a step and go straight to the latest & greatest version without the hassle of juggling databases?

From a business perspective, enabling SharePoint 2010 users to easily upgrade to SharePoint 2016 makes a lot of sense. A substantial number of organizations still use SP 2010, and many of them are interested in transitioning to enterprise platforms with more cloud-centric features. An easy transition to SharePoint 2016 would enable 2010 users to gain quick access to more cloud-friendly features, such as Office 365 Experiences.

SharePoint 2016 (both on-premises and cloud) makes it easy for end-users to connect and enjoy Office 365 features, such as Groups and the Video Portal Experience. The integration of cloud and on-premises features in the SharePoint/Office 365 universe represents the hybrid approach that Microsoft is keen on promoting.

In a nutshell, Microsoft is moving inexorably towards the Cloud. The more organizations that get on-board the SharePoint 2016 Express Cloud Train, the better. The intent and business reasons are clearly there, but is a jump from SP 2010 to 2016 possible from a technical standpoint?

That’s the million dollar question. The fact is that we’re just ending Q4 2015… and Q2 2016, SharePoint 2016’s expected release date, is still about 6 months away. Nothing is written in stone and it would be a marketing (and technical) coup―from Microsoft’s standpoint―to surprise the IT world with direct migration support for SharePoint 2010 users.

by Scott Restivo via Everyone's Blog Posts - SharePoint Community

SPONSORED: SharePoint Add-ins to improve productivity and user adoption!

Community Blast Provided and Sponsored by CIRRUS SOFT. This information was provided by vendor for community education on product. No official review was performed by Vlad Catrinescu.

We all know that to get the most from any technology simplicity, ease of use and added value are the key ingredients.

With the SharePoint ShortUrl (http://ift.tt/1RrMr8T) and the SharePoint Document Merge (http://ift.tt/1Oa17CO) Add-ins this is delivered!

SharePoint ShortUrl

SharePoint ShortUrl is a SharePoint Solution that allows the creation and use of vanity and shortcut hyperlinks fully integrated within the SharePoint environment.

SharePoint ShortUrl Features and Benefits:

• Create custom named shortened hyperlinks from within SharePoint.
• ShortUrl Click Analytics / Tracking.
• Very easy to install (Lightweight solution file activated to Web Applications and Sites).
• Very easy to use, no training required.
• Fully integrated into SharePoint.
• Multiple ShortUrl’s to the same destination.
• ShortUrl’s remain the same even if an items properties are changed (such as a document name is changed).
• Priority feature to redirect old bookmark links.
• Feature packed (choose as required for your environment).
• Increase productivity and user adoption!

SharePoint ShortUrl Compatibility:

• SharePoint Online (Add-in), SharePoint 2013, 2010, 2007 (32 & 64 bit systems).
• Web: http://ift.tt/1RrMr8X
• Office Store: http://ift.tt/1RrMp0N

SharePoint Document Merge

SharePoint Document Merge is the simple, fast and clean way to merge SharePoint list data into predefined Word, Excel and PowerPoint document templates with NO CODE! Also merge multiple Word Documents into 1 Single Word Document from Document Libraries.

SharePoint Document Merge Features and Benefits:

• Save data entry time and increase productivity by merging SharePoint list data.
• Very easy to install. Very easy to use, no training required.
• Tightly integrated into SharePoint. Easy access via Ribbon Menu and Items Context Menu.
• Simple Template creation using Merge Field (Word) or Placeholders (Excel, PowerPoint).
• Specify output SharePoint document library and customise document file names.
• One click automatic creation of multiple Merged Documents!
• Merge multiple SharePoint list data into 1 Single Word Document (Choose to merge multiple Word documents to 1 single document).
• Merge multiple Word Documents into 1 Single Word Document from a Document Library (Choose to merge multiple Word documents to 1 single document). Versioning Aware!

SharePoint Document Merge Compatibility:

• SharePoint Online (Add-in), SharePoint 2013, 2010.
• Web: http://ift.tt/1Oa18Xs
• Office Store: http://ift.tt/1RrMrpc

 

SharePoint ShortUrl and SharePoint Document Merge Video Demo’s

See just what these Add-ins can do! With the below video demonstration:

Provider Details

CIRRUS SOFT LTD is the UK based Software Consultancy that provides superior experience and expertise in Software, Web and Cloud related technologies.

We work with our clients to build the most intuitive, powerful and scalable Software solutions designed to maximise productivity and streamline business processes.

At CIRRUS SOFT LTD, we believe that we can achieve more together. Our solutions and approach is largely driven by the business benefits for our clients and we ensure that we deliver within budget and on time.

• Web: http://ift.tt/1Oa17CM

by Vlad Catrinescu via Everyone's Blog Posts - SharePoint Community

SharePoint Add-ins to improve productivity and user adoption!

Community Blast Provided and Sponsored by CIRRUS SOFT. This information was provided by vendor for community education on product. No official review was performed by Vlad Catrinescu.

We all know that to get the most from any technology simplicity, ease of use and added value are the key ingredients.

With the SharePoint ShortUrl (http://ift.tt/1RrMr8T) and the SharePoint Document Merge (http://ift.tt/1Oa17CO) Add-ins this is delivered!

SharePoint ShortUrl

SharePoint ShortUrl is a SharePoint Solution that allows the creation and use of vanity and shortcut hyperlinks fully integrated within the SharePoint environment.

SharePoint ShortUrl Features and Benefits:

• Create custom named shortened hyperlinks from within SharePoint.
• ShortUrl Click Analytics / Tracking.
• Very easy to install (Lightweight solution file activated to Web Applications and Sites).
• Very easy to use, no training required.
• Fully integrated into SharePoint.
• Multiple ShortUrl’s to the same destination.
• ShortUrl’s remain the same even if an items properties are changed (such as a document name is changed).
• Priority feature to redirect old bookmark links.
• Feature packed (choose as required for your environment).
• Increase productivity and user adoption!

 

SharePoint ShortUrl Compatibility:

• SharePoint Online (Add-in), SharePoint 2013, 2010, 2007 (32 & 64 bit systems).
• Web: http://ift.tt/1RrMr8X
• Office Store: http://ift.tt/1RrMp0N

 

SharePoint Document Merge

SharePoint Document Merge is the simple, fast and clean way to merge SharePoint list data into predefined Word, Excel and PowerPoint document templates with NO CODE! Also merge multiple Word Documents into 1 Single Word Document from Document Libraries.

SharePoint Document Merge Features and Benefits:

• Save data entry time and increase productivity by merging SharePoint list data.
• Very easy to install. Very easy to use, no training required.
• Tightly integrated into SharePoint. Easy access via Ribbon Menu and Items Context Menu.
• Simple Template creation using Merge Field (Word) or Placeholders (Excel, PowerPoint).
• Specify output SharePoint document library and customise document file names.
• One click automatic creation of multiple Merged Documents!
• Merge multiple SharePoint list data into 1 Single Word Document (Choose to merge multiple Word documents to 1 single document).
• Merge multiple Word Documents into 1 Single Word Document from a Document Library (Choose to merge multiple Word documents to 1 single document). Versioning Aware!

 

SharePoint Document Merge Compatibility:

• SharePoint Online (Add-in), SharePoint 2013, 2010.
• Web: http://ift.tt/1Oa18Xs
• Office Store: http://ift.tt/1RrMrpc

 

SharePoint ShortUrl and SharePoint Document Merge Video Demo’s

See just what these Add-ins can do! With the below video demonstration:

Provider Details

CIRRUS SOFT LTD is the UK based Software Consultancy that provides superior experience and expertise in Software, Web and Cloud related technologies.

We work with our clients to build the most intuitive, powerful and scalable Software solutions designed to maximise productivity and streamline business processes.

At CIRRUS SOFT LTD, we believe that we can achieve more together. Our solutions and approach is largely driven by the business benefits for our clients and we ensure that we deliver within budget and on time.

• Web: http://ift.tt/1Oa17CM

The post SharePoint Add-ins to improve productivity and user adoption! appeared first on Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu.

by Vlad Catrinescu via Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu