So we've come to the end of the year and just when you though that you'd wait for a while before updating SharePoint again we have a new update. Well actually this is quite important since from January if you still have note moved to at least service pack 1 for SharePoint you'll be told by MSFT support to get your deployment upgraded. So what's in this update. (I haven't had time to test these out in length but here is a round up anyway) Like I mentioned in my previous posts these updates provide the base framework for future enhancements and are related to stability and performance. Refer to my earlier post about how to apply the updates. Blog post about December SharePoint Cumulative updates from the SharePoint team blog. Please note that if you are installing/deploying a brand new SharePoint farm make sure that you include all t ...[Read More]

One of the important aspects when a SharePoint project has been initiated and completed (successfully or otherwise) is who supports what in terms of the deployment and various SharePoint related components. Previously I posted about what you would need to do in terms of starting a SharePoint project and what you need to know from a project managers point of view. This post is about what happens or should 'ideally' happen after your core SharePoint deployment has been carried out. Again these are only some example important technical aspects that I am highlighting. Each deployment will be unique so it's up to your project team and business to identify the approach for your post deployment support and maintenance of SharePoint as well as the supporting core infrastructure. For example if we take some of my points about core infrastruc ...[Read More]

I finally got my copy of Michael Sampson's new book "Seamless Teamwork".   Seamless Teamwork helps people in collaborative teams envision how to accomplish their work using Microsoft SharePoint. The purpose of the book is to demonstrate how SharePoint can be used to support team collaboration, innovation and the carrying out of daily business activities.   I recommend this book if you are a project/program manager or a team member of an organisation who has a SharePoint deployment and want to understand the context of how and when to use SharePoint to help form a team and work towards achieving an outcome. Michael's way of writing brings home some very common scenarios that typical projects go through and outlines how SharePoint can actually help facilitate the process. It's purely from a perspective of using the out ...[Read More]

Thanks to everyone who came to my session at the Christchurch SharePoint User Group and Matt (Btw Matt is doing 1 post a day about SharePoint related development until Xmas!), and Gary for organising the event. This post is aimed at covering off some key points which I  wanted to clarify. I introduced a planning framework and wanted to clarify that I use this depending on various factors and the engagement that I am doing. Initiation or Pre-deployment should answer questions related to your existing infrastructure and how you manage these. This is the stage where you will spend some time analysing your current processes and also how you may need to establish some ownership and guidelines to what you want to achieve in the longer term with your SharePoint deployment. Governance and Capacity planning can be a lengthy exercise if no ...[Read More]

Session Topic: Unleashing the Power of Data Views using SharePoint Designer 2007 This month we have Alex Dean giving you the ins and outs of mastering SharePoint Designer and how easily it can beused to create rich applications in SharePoint. Alex plans to demonstrate the following. Introduction to using List Views in SharePoint Demonstration on how to create a custom view on a SharePoint list and apply conditional formatting Demonstration on using Data Views to show SQL driven data in SharePoint Demonstration on using Data Views to show XML data in SharePoint. Demonstration on how to effectively use Data Views with relational data Questions and Answers Presented by Alex Dean (MCT) Alex Dean is a recent addition to the NZ workforce, originally from Germany with British background. After studying Business Information T ...[Read More]

Matt from Christchurch SPUG invited me to come and talk at the November SharePoint UG in Christchurch. Matt has done an awesome job promoting the use and adoption of SharePoint for the local developer community. So I am off to Christchurch on 25th November to talk about SharePoint Planning and Governance. SharePoint Planning and Governance Practical steps for ensuring that you get the most out of your deployment SharePoint just installed as a product adds little or no value. And once installed and configured it is essential for organisations to understand the planning, roles, responsibilities and ongoing review required to leverage the initial investment in SharePoint. Governance for SharePoint is applied both from a systems and process point of view by using built in tools and adopting a flexible business enabling framework. In this ...[Read More]

Recently after I had configured a SharePoint farm I ran into this little error relating to the Search indexer. Found out this was related how the loopback adapter tries to resolve addresses when using Windows Authentication. The result is no matter how many times you try to crawl your SharePoint content sources (sites) you will get access denied for the Search content access account. Detailed error message on the event log as follows. Event Type: Warning Event Source: Office Server Search Event Category: Gatherer Event ID: 2436 Date:  04/11/2008 Time:  10:32:31 a.m. User:  N/A Computer: WLGSPDSPOINT02 Description: The start address <http://myporal> cannot be crawled. Context: Application 'SSPKBPRD', Catalog 'Portal_Content' Details: Access is denied. Check that the Default Content Access Account has access to this content, ...[Read More]

OK, I know that a lot of SharePoint deployments out there have not even upgraded to Service Pack 1. Previously I blogged about why you should upgrade to Service Pack 1 and that any new SharePoint farms being deployed should be using the SP 1 MOSS/WSS build. Microsoft has made a recent announcement that service pack 2 will be made available soon. I don't have a definite date yet. Let me highlight to you why you need to ensure that you have a proper process in place to update and manage your existing SharePoint deployments. When I talk about "deployments" I refer to your DEV > STG > PRD environments and that all of these should be patched and updated so each one has the same service pack and hot fix levels. One of the issues that you may have is that in order to update your existing SharePoint servers you will have to sc ...[Read More]