Displaying Features’ version in the Site (Collection) Features Overview(Waldek Mastykarz, SharePointblogs)

For each solution we develop for our customers we reuse a set of internal components we have developed – a kind of baseline library. As we use it we fix some errors and add some new functionality. To distinguish the different releases we modify the version of the assembly containing all the logic and the feature version as well. While working on several projects at the same with different project teams we found it quite difficult to check the assembly version each time you want to be sure you are using the latest version.

SharePoint Deployment Essentials and Resources(Joel Oleson, MSDN Blogs)

With a number of recent simplified releases I wanted to share what I’d call the SharePoint Deployment Essentials… First My Simplified Favorites, then some more verbose resources.

 

 

Simplified Deployment Resources (My Recommendations)

 

• Governance Checklist Guide (I consider this a deployment checklist)
• MOSS Deployment Project Plan Sample (Project 2003 format, Project 2007 format)
• Governance/Business/Service Plan Template
  

NavBar ID Attrib in ONET.XML file can prevent application of site template(Sean Harrison, SharePoint blogs)

Just For Posterity Department:

I was trying to create my first custom Site Definition. This was my first foray into ONET.XML other wonders.  I thought I was making some simple changes, but creating a site with my new Site Definition (by choosing it from the site template list) kept failing.  In the browser, SharePoint displayed this helpful error message:

 Cannot complete this action.Use A Builder With JavaScript In WebParts(Adam Buenz, SharePoint Shelter)

It is pretty easy to use JavaScript in your WebParts, and people that know me, know I frickin despise JavaScript. I really, really do. I know sometimes I have to use it, but I would prefer if it didn’t exist, even though I might start warming up to our old friend as Orcas since it is supposed to have better debugging and intellisense support (finally).

SharePoint Branding Design Gotchas(Heather Solomon, HeatherSolomon.com)

I have pulled together a list of items in SharePoint 2007 that may haunt your custom branding if you don’t take special note to address it in the interface.   Often while branding SharePoint you can get wrapped up with just working with a single web page while changing your design.  There is a large application to worry about and this list will hopefully help you avoid bits and pieces of the old SharePoint look popping up on you after you are done branding SharePoint.

Installation and Setup – Preparing your Server Environment(Gregory, Rodriguez, SharePoint blogs)

Proper planning is crucial to the successful implementation of any MOSS 2007 Farm.  Below is guide to preparing your server environment by creating the proper accounts and simplifying permissions by making of use of Active Directory groups.

Three Options for Better Usage Data(DougW, eLumenotion.com)

The usage data reports in WSS and MOSS aren’t terribly useful. I’ve been meaning to find an alternative for awhile and a couple weeks ago a convergence of events drove me to it. As I mentioned in an earlier post I have a small ecommerce site now and the search engine optimization process is ongoing. I’m using a canned solution that supports Google Analytics. Around the same time the rug store opened, a friend suggested I consider using FeedBurner for my blog.

WSS FAQ additions and corrections LXXV - 7th - 13th October 2007(Mike Walsh, Mike Walsh.bilsimser.com)

Customisation - steady progress(Peter Morath, Sharepoint blogs)

It’s been a while since I last blogged - with the work I am doing at the moment I haven’t had time!

I have been given the task of creating new site definitions complete with branding and functionality. I’m still waiting to go on my SharePoint Designer course but having played with my virtual environment for the past month I have picked up quite a bit

Custom Field Validation With SPFieldValidationException(Adam Buenz, SharePoint Shelter)

There was a post in the newsgroups wondering how when constructing a custom field type how one might build a small generic validation function in order to verify the harvested user input. There is provided the SPField.GetValidatedString method, which is overridable, that can be used in order to achieve this since it will take the object input provided by the custom field type and provide a workable string representation.

Overcoming the limitations of the SharePoint Solution Generator(David San Philippo, mtelligent.com)

When you install the Visual Studio 2005 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (VSeWSS), you get a neat little tool called the SharePoint solution generator. You can point this tool at any existing sharepoint site and it will produce a Visual Studio Solution that includes the major components of the site. When you compile the solution you get a SharePoint Solution file (wsp file) that can then be used to deploy the solution as a Site Template on any SharePoint server using the STSADM tool.

Tell me about your blog!(Paul Galvin, paulgalvin.spaces.live.com)

If you maintain a blog that is at least minimally connected to SharePoint, please let me know in comments.  I would love to add you to my blog list.

If you maintain a blog that is not connected to SharePoint but want me to add it anyway, let me know.  I’ll may create a separate blog list.

Please give:

• Your blog URL (obviously)

Adding Back Lookup Columns in the Provisioning Handler(David San Philipo, mtelligent.com)

When you point the SharePoint Solution Generator at an existing site, the biggest ommission in the code that is generated is that lookup columns disappear from any list that contains one. This is a big problem as it probably will have a cascading affect to your views, webparts and other areas of the site.

Additional Morning SharePoint Reading: MOSS 2007 and ISA 2006, HTML to SharePoint ASPX, Sites - Blogs - Wikis, and Deploying Web Part Pages in WSS(Michael Gannotti,  Michael Gannotti’s MikeysGBlog)

Couple of quick additional SharePoint reading goodies before I dash for another cup of coffee.

• Microsoft MVP Liam Cleary has a very good post up on “MOSS2007 – Publish MOSS2007 behind a couple of ISA2006 Servers“
• SharePoint Space has a good follow-up to his posting on Word Docs to SharePoint ASPX. This one is titled “Convert html to Sharepoint aspx page“

Installing SPS2003 on a machine with MOSS2007(Robin Meuré, glorix.blogspot.com)

In these times of upgrading/migrating/using MOSS 2007, it’s hard to find development machines without MOSS installed on them. Now MOSS is, of course, not the problem when you want to install the 2003 version on it as well.. but .NET 2.0/3.0 are! Since 2003 was built for .NET 1.0/1.1 and since SP2 it had .NET 2.0 support.

Managing Enterprise Metadata with Content Types and Search(Joel Oleson, MSDN blogs)

The SharePoint MVPs have done it again.  This time Robert Bogue, an architect who often finds himself on the the fence between the IT Pro and Dev worlds.  His background combined with his technical writing abilities lend great insights that are enlightening to say the least.

934525 and 932091. Are they really that bad?(Girish.Rajan, technet blogs)

We had a case today where the customer installed 934525 and maybe 932091 as well and his WSS 3.0 came down.

Having read about this before on;

http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2007/10/09/sharepoint-v3-security-update-kb-934525.aspx

Announcing Community Kit for SharePoint: Virtual Earth Maps on SharePoint(Lawrence Liu, MSDN Blogs)

Microsoft’s Virtual Earth technology powers the maps on Live Search and many other web-based applications, but many people have wondered how to get VE maps to work on SharePoint. Several months ago, the SharePoint Designer team blogged about a way to integrate VE maps with a SharePoint list, and it was very well received. My buddy, Ian Morrish, was even inspired to put together a quick proof of concept.

World Clock and Weather Web Part from Bamboo Solutions(Mauro Cardarelli, blogs.officezealot.com)

“Back in the day”… I wrote a blog entry on how to use some fancy javascript to build a world clock web part for SharePoint 2003.  It was not the most elegant solution but it did allow global companies (or companies with global customers) to present times across various geographic locations.  Point of fact, it was a pretty popular feature to a few portals I built.

“Content Type is still in use” error when trying to delete an InfoPath Form from a Form Library(Michael Lotter, SharePoint blogs)

When using InfoPath forms as Content Types you’re bound to run into the error “Content Type is still in use”, when trying to remove an existing InfoPath as a Content Type. From my experience you will not be able to remove any InfoPath form Content Type from a Form Library that has submitted InfoPath forms based off that Content Type.

How to Customize the User Information Page (Part 2)(Zac Smith, provoke.co.nz)

Liam Cleary recently wrote a blog post on how to “Hide the My Settings link” which is part of the welcome menu. Although his solution is perfectly valid and probably quicker and easier than the alternative solution that I offer - It did have some issues.

Announcing the Community Kit for SharePoint: Internet/Extranet Edition Forms-Based Authentication solution!(Lawrence Liu, MSDN Blogs)

As many of you know, one of the best new features in WSS 3.0 (and consequently MOSS 2007) is the way it leverage’s ASP.NET 2.0 to support for forms-based authentication or FBA along with the ability to support multiple authentication providers. Steve Peschka’s post from more than a year ago was one of the first to discuss this feature, and it remains the most widely read and referenced entry on the SharePoint Team Blog! So, it’s obvious that the FBA feature struck the right cord with many people, and practically all Internet facing SharePoint-based web sites use it for authentication.

geekSpeak - SharePoint Features with Paul Stork(llangit, Channel9)

Catch this engaging episode of geekSpeak with guest expert MCT and SharePoint developer Paul Stork.  Here Paul explains and demos a commonly misunderstood aspect of SharePoint development - the use of SharePoint features.