Mr Sharepoint

Monday, March 7, 2016

Things to document before planning for a SharePoint Migration:

SharePoint Migration

Document Existing SharePoint Server's Topology (preferably in Visio format, use Visio diagrams to represent the existing SharePoint Farm topology),Roles, Hardware/Software Specifications, Installed Updates, Software installed, Language Packs, etc.
Prepare a List of SharePoint Web Applications, Site collections, Managed paths, Host headers, Content /Service Application Databases, service application proxies & service application groups.
Document Central Administration Settings like User Policies, Quota Templates, Data connections, Zones, AAM, Quota Templates, Blocked File Types, Log file paths, etc.
Document All Third-party Software installed on top of SharePoint (Like Nintex workflows, Axceler ,Metalogix Control Point
Document Inventories & customizations like Solutions( wsp files), Workflows, Event Handlers, Web Parts, Features, Assemblies, Site Templates, Site Definitions, Custom Timer jobs, etc. (stsadm -o enumallwebs -includewebparts -includefeatures)
Document Active directory Domains/Forest details. This will help in configuring User Profile Import connection sources, People Picker configurations.
Document Current environment Out of the box Features enabled (Such as Publishing), Enterprise feature Enabled (such as InfoPath Farm Services)
Document Outgoing, Incoming E-mail settings of the SharePoint server
Document all IIS customizations made manually, like Web.config modifications, Add-ons installed in IIS (like Compression, URL Rewrite, HTTPHandlers etc)
Document SQL Server configurations, Content DB sizes, Mirroring, Clustering configuration details
Document any custom solutions deployed in Layout's folder or BIN folder.
Prepare a report on User base with Total no. of users, avg concurrent users, etc
Document custom scripts, automation tools you are running from SharePoint servers (like Monthly storage report generation script, scheduled with windows task scheduler)
Make a Note of current environment's Information Architecture, including Managed Paths, Top navigation, etc.
Document existing Farm's service accounts. Authentication method for all web application .Kerberos applied?
Document Search Settings, including content sources, schedules, Keywords, Best-bets.
Document Email Enabled Lists and Libraries
What is the current Disaster recovery plan? How often backups are taken? Third party software integrated with SharePoint (Like AvePoint, DPM, etc)
Document Infrastructure details such as Load balancer, DNS, IPs, SSL Certificates, Publishing configurations (Like F5, TMG, ISA Server, etc)
Document 12/14 hive Layout folder customizations, File system changes if any
Make a note of all InfoPath Form libraries. You have to update the Form Template URL and You may have to Change the data connections, etc.
Existing Branding Artifacts like Master pages, Themes, CSS Files, Logos, etc.
Document the custom authentication providers (Forms, LDAP, etc) if any
Document the current Monitoring setups like SCOM.
Last but not least - Make sure you have the version control system (like CVS, SVN, TFS, etc) which has all the artifacts including source code, installers, deployment guides.

by Vignesh Ganesan via Everyone's Blog Posts - SharePoint Community

Demystifying the SharePoint My site “Social List”

So this post is regarding the “Social List” which you might have noticed in your SharePoint My site. I’m purposely using the term “might have *” because not everyone would have payed attention to that list in the SharePoint My site. That being said, the purpose of this post is to make you understand what’s the “Social list “in your SharePoint My site and how it works.

Let’s begin with where I find it ….

Go to your SharePoint My site –>Site contents –>Take a look at the items there. You should be able to find the “Social List “as shown in the image below.

What’s a social list?

It’s a default list that’s present in your SharePoint “My site” that displays all the content you’re following.

The url for this will look like: _http://ift.tt/24Nsz57

At times you might see some weird issues while opening your SharePoint My site and the error will say something about the follow feature/social feature not working … Remember in scenarios like that , the culprit could be the “ Social List “ . For some reason if this list gets corrupted, then you might face issues while opening your SharePoint “My site “.

Feature that activates this list:

A hidden feature named “Social Data Storage “in your SharePoint My site takes care of turning on this list. Hence if this feature is deactivated then you won’t be able to find this list in your SharePoint “My site” and would end up facing problems while accessing the my site. I’ll discuss in detail about this feature later on this post.

What’s present inside the “Social list”?

Well , if you need to take a look at what’s present inside this list , please use “ SharePoint Designer “ and try to open it .

This is what you would find inside the “Social list” ….

Social Data storage feature:

As mentioned earlier, the Social data storage feature takes care of turning on this list. The GUID of this feature is “FA8379C9-791A-4FB0-812E-D0CFCAC809C8”.

While troubleshooting “My site” or “following” issues, please make sure that this feature is activated on your My site.

Since this is a hidden feature, you need to use a tool called “SharePoint Manager ” from Codeplex or PowerShell to check if this feature is activated in your My site.

Using SharePoint Manager:

Install this in a machine which has SharePoint on it and expand the Mysite web app .
Expand the sites option
Search for the problematic user’s Mysite
Expand the list of features
Look for a green plus symbol next to the feature

Check the screenshot below ….

Using PowerShell command:

Get-SPFeature -Site http://ift.tt/24NsApI | Sort DisplayName | FT DisplayName,Id

Things to know:

There are certain features that gets activated in a user’s My site only when a user tries to visit his My site for the first time, during this process SharePoint will trigger the “My site instantiation process” which will create the user’s My site . In addition to that there are few other features in your My site which doesn’t get activated until you start using it (Ex: Your My site Blog). The feature related to the My site blog won’t be activated in your My site until you start using the Blog in your My site.

A user cannot follow a site, a person, a tag or a document without having a My site set up for him first. If you try to do, SharePoint will throw an error stating that you don’t have a My site yet and will prompt you to create one.

by Vignesh Ganesan via Everyone's Blog Posts - SharePoint Community

Custom Image Slider in SharePoint

How to slide Image in SharePoint Page Using NIVO Slider Plugin, JQuery and SPServices.

I am going to use Script Editor built-in Web Part for this purpose.

1. Download NIVO Slider from here

2. Extract nivo slider zip file and add following file to your site assets or any other document library which you use to store libraries. I prefer site assets

a. jquery.nivo.slider (JS File)

b. nivo-slider (CSS File)

3. Navigate to themes in Extracted Folder. Find bar, dark, default, light folder.

Open each folder copy arrows, bullets and loading gif and add it to picture library or any other library which you use for keeping pictures.

(Remember you can’t keep more than one image with same name so will have to rename arrows, bullets and loading like arrowsbar , bulletsbar , loadingbar so on.. for each folder bar, dark, default, and light.)

Now open CSS of each folder bar, dark, default, and light find url and replace URL with respective gif url which you currently saved .

4. Add modified bar.css, dark.css, default.css and light.css to your site assets.

5. Add JQuery and SPServices library to your site assets.

6. Create Document Library named it CompanyPicture.

7. Add some pics to CompanyPicture document library (I am using Demo picture from Nivo-Slider demo).

8.Add Script Editor Web Part to your page.

Gearbox-->Edit Page-->Insert-->Webart-->Media and Content-->Script Editor --> Add

9. Add reference of JQuery, SPServices, JQuery nivo slider, JQuery nivo, nivo-slider css, bar.css, dark.css, default.css, light.css which you have added in site assets to Script Editor Web Part.

10. Add below code to your Script Editor.

$(document).ready(function() {

loadImage();

});

function loadImage(){

$().SPServices({

operation: "GetListItems",

async: false,

webURL: _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl, // or any other site url where your CompanyPicture document library reside.

listName: "CompanyPicture",

CAMLViewFields: "<ViewFields>"+

"<FieldRef Name=\'FileLeafRef\' />"+

"</ViewFields>",

completefunc: function (xData, Status) {

$(xData.responseXML).SPFilterNode("z:row").each(function(){

var FileLeafRef = $(this).attr("ows_FileLeafRef");

var splitdata = FileLeafRef.split("#");

var splitdataneed = splitdata[1];

var addlist = "<a><img src=\"http://your site name/CompanyPicture/"+splitdataneed+"\" /></a>";

$("#slider").append(addlist);

});

$('#slider').nivoSlider({

effect: 'random',

slices: 15,

boxCols: 8,

boxRows: 4,

animSpeed: 500,

pauseTime: 3000,

startSlide: 0,

directionNav: true,

controlNav: true,

controlNavThumbs: false,

pauseOnHover: true,

manualAdvance: false,

prevText: 'Prev',

nextText: 'Next',

randomStart: false,

beforeChange: function(){},

afterChange: function(){},

slideshowEnd: function(){},

lastSlide: function(){},

afterLoad: function(){}

});

}

});

}

</script>

</div>

Check your site.

Feedback is highly appreciated.

Thanks

by Amir Reza via Everyone's Blog Posts - SharePoint Community

Sending Reminder via workflow

I was asked to create a workflow for a document library. This is sometimes known as a Document Management System (DMS). The document library has metadata fields. This means that there will be a second popup window after the file upload “Add a document” window. The workflow “Start workflow automatically when an item is created” and “Start workflow automatically when an item is changed”. The workflow has five stages. There are two types of users, an Owner and an Approver.

An owner (which is the “Created By” field renamed) is the user that upload a document and an Approver approves or rejects documents. The stages are Draft, Pending (Valid Owner and Invalid Owner), Approve and Reject. The users are updated by email at every stage of the workflow. In addition to this, the workflow should sends reminders to the Approver to approve or reject a document upload if they haven’t done so within a time period. It also sends emails to the approver in advanced to review a document prior to the review date. To facilitate this, I created three calculated columns named “Due Date”, “Reminder Date” and “Review Date”.

A reminder email is sent only on the “Due Date” which is 7 days after the document has been uploaded if the approver hasn’t approved or rejected that document. After the document has been approved or rejected, a reminder email is sent 7 days before the “Review Date”, this is the “Reminder Date”. Review Date is “Modified” plus 180 days. Reminder date is Review Date minus 7 days. Seems simple enough right? Well I came across a few issues.

Using the “Pause for 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes” action wasn’t a good idea as the workflow did not work. No emails where delivered. It is as if the workflow pauses mid-way through in the pending stage. I tried a few tricks that did not work. I decided to separate the workflows. By that I mean have a second workflow, a 2010 workflow to be exact. In this workflow I had all the reminders. Again, same as the 2013 workflow this one “Start workflow automatically when an item is created” and “Start workflow automatically when an item is changed”.

As shown below, a Due Date email is sent, when it is today (ignoring time) and when Status (a local string variable based on Approval Status) equals 2 which is the Pending Approval Status. An email is sent also when Reminder Date equals today (ignoring time) and Status equals 0 or Approved Approval Status. Finally, an email is sent when the Review Date equals today (ignoring time) and Status equals 0 or Approved.

In conclusion, I had the bulk of my conditions and actions are in one workflow and the reminders are in another. I have seen different methods such as using “Add 0 months, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes to date (Output to Variable: date)”.

However, I prefer using calculated columns to send reminders because it is simple and it works!

Figure 1-1: Reminder stage

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

SharePoint and Office 365 Tips and Tricks Webinar Downloads

Thanks to those of you who were able to join with Karim Roumani and myself during the SharePoint and Office 365 Tips, Tricks and Tools webinar. Some may have missed the tweets with links to the power point slides and information about the tool that was demo’ed. Thanks for your requests. Download or view my [&hellip

The post SharePoint and Office 365 Tips and Tricks Webinar Downloads appeared first on CollabShow.

by Joel Oleson via CollabShow

Get Certified in 2016 with Microsoft Certification Booster Packs

With SharePoint 2016 out sometimes this spring and other connected services such as Azure and Office 365, 2016 is a great year to add some certifications to your transcript. Microsoft Learning just introduced a new special offer called Microsoft Certification Booster Packs to help you get certified!

Microsoft Certification Booster Packs

There are multiple Booster Packs you can buy and we will look at the options here. I will be referring to prices in the United States in this article, however they might be different in other countries. In the United States, a Certification exam at normal price is 150$. Here are the Booster Packs that we have:

1. Practice test + Certification exam

Want to know what’s on an exam? Take a practice test and find out. The practice test is available online and valid for 30 days, so you’ll have plenty of time to prepare.
Cost: 200$

2. Certification exam + 4 retakes

Sometimes it’s smart to add a little insurance to important undertakings. With 4 retakes you’ll get plenty of chances at success.
Cost: 200$

3. Practice test + Certification exam + 4 retakes

Pull out all the stops and give yourself every advantage. With a practice test, you can spend quality time preparing—plus 4 extra retakes give you exam-day peace of mind.

Cost: 225$

Remember that for the retakes, the standard policy still applies, so if you fail five times, you will need to wait a year before trying to get that exam again!

WHEN IS IT AVAILABLE?

This offer is available for purchase from March 7 to August 31, 2016.
Specific exam voucher and practice test expiration dates are listed in the FAQs on the special offer page.

WHO CAN GET THIS?

This offer is available to customers and partners worldwide.
MCP exam vouchers in the Booster Pack must be used within 6 months from purchase (including all retakes.)
Practice test vouchers in the Booster Pack must be activated by February 28, 2017, and are valid for 30 days from activation.
Please visit the FAQs and full T&Cs on the special offers page for more details.

More Information can be found here: http://ift.tt/1p2G7ci

What exams do you plan to take in 2016?

Follow me on Social Media and Share this article with your friends!

Get #Certified in 2016 with #Microsoft Certification Booster Packs. Three different bundles https://t.co/IKLBS6pYuh http://pic.twitter.com/XMgMnM3C7i

— Vlad catrinescu (@vladcatrinescu) March 7, 2016

Leave a comment and don’t forget to like the Absolute SharePoint Blog Page on Facebook and to follow me on Twitter here for the latest news and technical articles on SharePoint. I am also a Pluralsight author, and you can view all the courses I created on my author page.

The post Get Certified in 2016 with Microsoft Certification Booster Packs appeared first on Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu.

by Vlad Catrinescu via Absolute SharePoint Blog by Vlad Catrinescu

Are We on the Cusp of a Citizen Developer Revolution?

I ran across an article on ZDNet today entitled The advent of the citizen developer. In the article, Dion Hinchcliffe posits that we may finally be at the cusp of a citizen development revolution.

Yes!

I’ve been arguing for years – in one way or another (See, for example, The Middle Tier Manifesto: An Alternative Approach to Development with Microsoft SharePoint) – that the citizen developers in any organization are the lynch pins to IT success. This gray area, where the work isn’t just configuration and isn’t “real” development has been critical to the success of SharePoint in many organizations for years. What we call it is less important than what it is: the lifeblood of technology use and success in the modern organization.

Image from The advent of the citizen developer

Unfortunately, the response from most IT departments is that these very capable citizen developers will simply screw everything up and – oh, no! – require support the IT department can’t provide. This attitude is truly at IT’s peril. Instead of being seen as having a customer service attitude, they become known as the “NO! people”. “NO!” should almost never be the answer; this simply sends end users off to use external tools, which are usually far better that what IT provides to the organization. Thus, the very security that IT claims to be protecting falls apart. The end users are happy, but only in violation of corporate governance, whether it is explicit or not.

When I speak at conferences I often talk about IT offering Functions as a Service (FaaS) to the organization. (For example, see slide 12 in my recent presentation at SharePoint konference 2016 in Munich Alternative Approaches to Solution Development in SharePoint and Office 365.) By providing a set of reliable building blocks, whether vetted external JavaScript libraries or internally developed functionality that citizen developers can incorporate in their solutions, IT simply must get on board with this work. Offering consultative services in support of citizen developers must be cheaper and more productive than not doing so in the long run, though I can’t point to a study to prove it.

Even Microsoft is starting to understand how important these citizen developers are. At the recent SPTechCon in Austin, Seth Patton, the Global Senior Director for SharePoint and OneDrive product marketing even had a slide in his keynote acknowledging that citizen developers *exist*, which is a HUGE step forward. If Microsoft is thinking about empowering citizen developers, shouldn’t you be?

‘Continued developer empowerment’ from Seth Patton’s SPTechCon Austin 2016 keynote

Here’s hoping that now and into the 2020s become the decade(s) of citizen developers, even though they have been around as long as there has been computing. If it weren’t for the dabblers and hobbyists inside organizations, we wouldn’t have evolved to the places we’re in now. These people are the ones who push the envelope in directions that makes sense to the business, not just to some power grabbers in IT.

by Marc D Anderson via Marc D Anderson's Blog