SharePoint+CRM Six

SharePoint 2010: Tip of the Day - Finding what level of SharePoint 2010 is installed?

2011-10-27T18:51:00.003+11:00

This is a quick tip bought to by SharePoint Six!

Tip 1: To quickly find out the build level of SharePoint 2010 using Powershell, use the following commands:

$farm = Get-SPFarm
$farm.BuildVersion

Tip 2: For a list of build numbers, go to Joe's blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/sharepointjoe/archive/2011/02/01/sp2010-sharepoint-2010-build-level-and-version-numbers.aspx

Tip 3: For the latest patches, go to this site: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff800847.aspx

SharePoint: I'm presenting at SharePoint Saturday Sydney 2011

2011-08-02T18:16:00.000+10:00

I'm so excited! I'm presenting at SharePoint Saturday Sydney 2011!

I'll be discussing about "Applying Content Type Hubs and Managed Metadata To Improve Document Management in the real world". Hope to see you all there on the day for a fruitful session!

The abstract for the session is below:

"SharePoint 2010 offers a suite of new and enhanced capabilities, which if utilised effectively in select business scenarios can bring enormous value to organisations. Document Management is one area where SharePoint 2010 offers many new features and benefits. This session covers two new document management capabilities: The Content Type Hub and Managed Metadata. Douglas will walk through the anatomy of Content Type Hubs and Managed Metadata, recommended approaches, constraints and how to best work around these constraints. A number of typical document management scenarios will be used throughout the session to demonstrate the concepts and keep it real. If time permits, he will also share some C# code snippets which support the scenarios described."

For more information:
http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/sydney/Pages/meetings.aspx

SharePoint 2010: PSConfiguration issues with GetUserPropertyFromAD call

2011-04-14T19:00:00.002+10:00

Problem
As I was installing SharePoint 2010 at client site, I came across an error I've never seen previously. During the SharePoint 2010 "Configuration Wizard Step 3 - creating configuration database", the operation failed.

Symptoms
The error in the Configuration Wizard was:

Failed to create the configuration database.
An exception of type System.Collections.Generic.KeyNotFoundException was thrown. Additional exception information: The given key was not present in the dictionary.
System.Collections.Generic.KeyNotFoundException: The given key was not present in the dictionary.
at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowKeyNotFoundException()
at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.get_Item(TKey key)

Matching Error in the installation logs was:

04/14/2011 10:51:06 9 ERR                    Task configdb has failed with an unknown exception
04/14/2011 10:51:06 9 ERR                    Exception: System.Collections.Generic.KeyNotFoundException: The given key was not present in the dictionary.   at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowKeyNotFoundException()   at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.get_Item(TKey key)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility.GetUserPropertyFromAD(SPWebApplication webApplicaiton, String loginName, String propertyName)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPManagedAccount.GetUserAccountControl(String username)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPManagedAccount.Update()   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPProcessIdentity.Update()   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPApplicationPool.Update()   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication.CreateDefaultInstance(SPWebService service, Guid id, String applicationPoolId, SPProcessAccount processAccount, String iisServerComment, Boolean secureSocketsLayer, String iisHostHeader, Int32 iisPort, Boolean iisAllowAnonymous, DirectoryInfo iisRootDirectory, Uri defaultZoneUri, Boolean iisEnsureNTLM, Boolean createDatabase, String databaseServer, String databaseName, String databaseUsername, String databasePassword, SPSearchServiceInstance searchServiceInstance, Boolean autoActivateFeatures)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication.CreateDefaultInstance(SPWebService service, Guid id, String applicationPoolId, IdentityType identityType, String applicationPoolUsername, SecureString applicationPoolPassword, String iisServerComment, Boolean secureSocketsLayer, String iisHostHeader, Int32 iisPort, Boolean iisAllowAnonymous, DirectoryInfo iisRootDirectory, Uri defaultZoneUri, Boolean iisEnsureNTLM, Boolean createDatabase, String databaseServer, String databaseName, String databaseUsername, String databasePassword, SPSearchServiceInstance searchServiceInstance, Boolean autoActivateFeatures)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationWebApplication.CreateDefaultInstance(SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, SPWebService adminService, IdentityType identityType, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.CreateAdministrationWebService(SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, IdentityType identityType, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.CreateBasicServices(SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, IdentityType identityType, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.Create(SqlConnectionStringBuilder configurationDatabase, SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, IdentityType identityType, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword, SecureString masterPassphrase)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.Create(SqlConnectionStringBuilder configurationDatabase, SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword, SecureString masterPassphrase)   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.CreateOrConnectConfigDb()   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.Run()   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

The cure
I checked the permissions for the SharePoint installation account on the MS SQL Database - it seemed to already have the correct security roles assigned (dbcreator and securityadmin).

I then noticed this line in the error logs: "Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility.GetUserPropertyFromAD"

It's now apparent that psconfig is failing when trying to read a User Property from Active Directory. It turned out the domain had been setup so that domain accounts do not have access to read AD Properties. I simply gave the "Setup Administrator" and "Farm Account" accounts read permissions.

SharePoint 2010 - SharePoint 2010 just got quicker. The latest patch is doing it’s job!

2010-07-16T09:51:00.001+10:00

I’m running Windows 7 on a Dell Latitude E4300 4GB RAM with SharePoint Server 2010 installed for development and demo purposes. In the beginning SharePoint was running with an acceptable performance, but sometimes there would be a little wait here and there.

A few days ago Microsoft released an update for SharePoint Foundations 2010, which it claimed would improve stability and performance.

Guess what? After it was installed, I browsed my SharePoint sites using Chrome – man, it was lightning fast! Was it Chrome? Don’t think so. Same quick response in Internet Explorer 8! The performance is noticeably MUCH quicker. Great job guys!

This is the patch I installed:
Update for Office SharePoint Foundations 2010 (KB2032588)

“Microsoft has released an update for Office SharePoint Foundation 2010, 64-bit Edition. This update provides the latest fixes to Microsoft WSS 2010, 64-bit Edition. Additionally, this update contains stability and performance improvements.”

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=f6f1d567-a21f-4770-80ba-f7d6e05f11aa

SQL Versions – Tip of the day

2010-06-09T23:49:00.001+10:00

I was installing SharePoint 2010 – wait, what about the pre-requisites?
- SQL 2005 SP3 with Cumulative update package 3
- OR SQL 2008 SP1 with Cumulative update package 2

So what version have we got? Here’s the tip of the day (for me and to you to share), run this SQL Query to find out:

SELECT serverproperty('productversion'),
serverproperty('productlevel'),
serverproperty('edition')

This should give you information to determine the version number, the release level (RTM or Service Pack), and the edition (Express, Standard or Enterprise).

For convenience, I’ve added the version numbers required for SharePoint 2010:
- SQL 2005 SP3 - 2005.90.4035
- SQL 2008 SP1 – 2007.100.2531.0

For more version numbers go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321185.

Referenced from this Microsoft KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321185

From Developer to Architect?

2010-05-12T00:11:00.001+10:00

For a few years now, I’ve been coding on .NET, SharePoint, and the like. I went to University and learnt about Object Orientation. I hardly noticed nor appreciated the many OOP concepts that I’ve unconsciously applied to my coding/solution design. Dare I say it, I think this may describe many developers with around 2-4 years of coding experience up their belts.

I recently started reading a few articles online and came to realisation of the extent to the level of OOP concepts that have actually been applied. It made more sense why some of solutions worked better than others (of which include both .NET and SharePoint solutions).

Like many others, I’ve just had the time to understand and learn how to use API’s and/or how to ‘structure’ code to get the job done in the least amount of time with the best quality (least amount of bugs), but never to understand some software architecture concepts. Take my tip, re-learn the concepts that reflect what you already know – a design pattern.

Here are the links I have referred to:

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 – Certifications?

2010-03-11T18:08:00.001+11:00

I just read an official note that there will be new four SharePoint 2010 certifications – and they are not specific to either SharePoint Foundation 4 or SharePoint Server 2010.

These exams are:

70-667: TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring
70-668: PRO: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Administrator
70-573: TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development
70-576: PRO: Designing and Developing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Applications

According to this blog post, the exams are expected to be available in June/July timeframe. More details here.

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 – ItemAdded/ItemAdding List Event Receivers and SPFieldUserValue.User not returning SPUser

2010-02-02T19:16:00.001+11:00

The Problem
I recently had to develop an Event Receiver that would require reading off the SPUser object of the item. What I found is that, at times when the exact name of the user is entered (and you click OK on the NewForm.aspx page without clicking the check name button), the SPFieldUserValue will return

–1;#domain\username

rather than

23;#domain\username.

This is a problem when you try to access the SPFieldUserValue.User (SPUser type) property and it returns null.

The Solution
The solution was to get the SPFieldUserValue as a string, and then use the username to then try and resolve for the SPUser object. My rough cut out code is attached – quickly modified for this example. (*Use at your own risk. Is also why I don’t usually post code on my blog!)

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Beta 2 – How to recover data from an unattached content and restore it to a (or another) site

2009-12-08T22:28:00.002+11:00

A new feature in SharePoint 2010 is the ability to recover content from an unattached database (also tested to work for attached databases). The following are steps to do this (in case I forget in the future).
Note of warning: Screen shots and directions in this entry are based on SharePoint 2010 Beta (v. 14.0.4536.1000) and may change without notice.
I. Export from Database
1. Within Central Administration v4, browse to “Backup and Restore” section in the Quick Launch

2. Click “Recover data from an unattached content database”:

3. On the “Unattached Content Database Data Recovery” Page, enter the database server and database name of the source database to restore from, select “Browse content”, and click Next:

4. Select the Site Collection from the Database, the site from the database and the List as required, select “Export site or list”, and click Next (Note – this screen shot is based on a Beta version, and it appears that even though you have the correct site collection selected, the URL shows the central administration url. Only the relative URL is correct here):

5. Type in a file share location (ensure the SharePoint Farm account has owner access to this folder in Windows), and click Start Export:

6. Wait for the job to complete:

7. Files will be created in the share directory (Note: Contents of the .cmp file can be opened as a cab file – just like most other wsp packages):

II. Import to new Site
1. Open up the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell

2. Let’s assume we have already created a blank site to be restored to @ dougleung.com. We will now restore to that SharePoint Site:
Run this command in the Management Shell:
Import-SPWeb –Identity [url] –path [path]
eg. Import-SPWeb –Identity http://dougleung.com –path \\servername\folder\exportfile.cmp

3. Your contents from your export file (in this case the exported Announcements list) will be imported to the dougleung.com site.

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Beta – Developer Resources

2009-10-22T18:30:00.000+11:00

I was browsing around to dig more on SharePoint 2010 developer resources trying to get my head around more SharePoint 2010 knowledge. Some very useful resources for starters:

Get Started Developing on SharePoint 2010
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-au/sharepoint/ee513147.aspx
This page includes 10 series of video tutorials on SharePoint 2010 development with topics including Building SP 2010 Web Parts, SharePoint 2010 concepts, Accessing SP 2010 data with server/client side APIs, Access external data with BCS, SP 2010 Workflows, Creating Silverlight UIs for SP 2010 solutions, Sandboxed solutions and Dialogs and Ribbon controls for SP 2010.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 SDK:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd776256.aspx
This SDK has been publicly online since the SharePoint 2010 Sneak Peak web site was available.

The main important links I want to put up for myself are:
What’s New in SharePoint Foundation 2010:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee539826%28office.14%29.aspx

What’s New in SharePoint Server 2010:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee557323%28office.14%29.aspx

Looks like I am on a steep learning curve… yet exciting and worth while!

Office Web Applications (Tech Preview) in Windows Live

2009-09-18T08:03:00.001+10:00

We’ve seen Google Docs, we’ve see Microsoft Office – but we haven’t yet seen Microsoft Office applications running as a Windows Live service. The Windows Live team announced on their blog today the release of a ‘Tech Preview’ to a “select group of SkyDrive" customers”.

As the a consumer, I am extremely delighted on the news as I was never really a fan of Google Docs. It’s great to get free access to a fully functional and fully featured MS Office over the web :)

Sounds interesting? Check out the Video below.

Source: http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!41451.entry?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=434146655

MOSS 2007 – User Profile Imports and LDAP Cheat Sheet

2009-08-05T17:18:00.001+10:00

I’ve tried to get an instance importing but still with no luck – there must be something else preventing it from importing… Anyways, I decided to write down my research for the day:

Default SharePoint settings are:

Search Base: dc=domain,dc=company,dc=com
Base Query: (&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user))

Options:

Options for Search Base:
- Can define a specific OU to base the import on. eg. ou=Sydney,ou=Department1,dc=domain,dc=company,dc=com

Options for LDAP Filter Query:
Get all accounts with email address:
(&(objectCategory=Person)(objectClass=User)(!(userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2))(email=*))

Get active accounts – filter our disabled AD accounts:
(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2))

Get accounts in the Department1 OU:
(&(objectCategory=Person)(objectClass=User)(memberof:1.2.840.113556.1.4.1941:=(CN=Authenticated Users,OU=Department1,DC=domain,dc=company,dc=com)))

Get accounts with a first name:
(&(objectCategory=Person)(objectClass=User)(!(userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2))(!(!givenName=*)))

Good References:
Scope of Query – Base, One Level, Subtree: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa746467%28VS.85%29.aspx

LDAP Search Filter Syntax:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa746475%28VS.85%29.aspx

Importing Specific group into SP User Profile Store with LDAP:
http://mindsharpblogs.com/wayne/archive/2005/06/15/497.aspx

LDAP Attributes:
http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/Logon/LDAP_attributes_active_directory.htm#LDAP_Attribute_

A Nice LDAP Attribute Table:
http://www.it.ufl.edu/projects/directory/ldap-schema/attributes.html

Assemblies – A good read on AnyCPU, x86, and x64

2009-08-05T09:11:00.001+10:00

Just read the following blog spot by Eugene Rosenfeld, a MOSS MVP, about assembly compilations. In my opinion, a very good to read article:

http://thingsthatshouldbeeasy.blogspot.com/2009/08/anycpu-x86-x64-whats-difference.html

Time Capsule 2006 to 2009 - The Technologies of a technical consultant

2009-07-14T22:18:00.007+10:00

I was sitting on the train today, thinking about the technologies I have worked with in the last three years. And you know what? I have to say web technologies have developed extremely quickly (Well of course it is!). Being a consultant allows me to indulge myself into the latest technologies, and most of the time, take the latest technologies for granted.

Sometimes I think it is actually quiet an effort to keep up (yet I have to for my passion and profession). What I mean for example is say, you install an SDK for Silverlight 2.0, work with it a little while, then you will find yourself installing the SDK for Silverlight 3.0 (And of course with that Visual Studio 2010)! It is hard work to keep up, but it is worth it!

I've worked with SharePoint 2003, I'm working with SharePoint 2007 technologies and now with the sneak peak at the exciting SharePoint 2010, I have to say being a techy guy is the best job in the world! It is very rewarding to see Microsoft listening to customers, giving them what they want. I dig the new BCS, I dig the new ribbon within the web browser, I dig multi-item checkouts, I dig the new developer tools, I dig the new backup and restore tools, I dig the new central admin.....I dig it, I dig it, I dig it! Then again, it is hard work to keep up, but it is worth it!

Anyways, the purpose of this is to keep a time capsule of the (non beta) technologies I have played within the 3 yr period. Who knows how many of these technologies will stay in my list? Here goes...

2006-2009:
Microsoft Technologies

C#/VB
ASP.NET
.NET 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5
SQL 2000, SQL 2005, SQL 2008
Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Microsoft CRM 3.0
Microsoft CRM 4.0
WSS 2
SharePoint Portal 2003
WSS 3
MOSS 2007
MS Office 2003/2007
Microsoft Search Server 2008 and FAST
Silverlight 1.0
Silverlight 2.0
Internet Explorer 6.0/7.0/8.0

Third Party

Javascript and AJAX
JQuery
Flash
DotNetNuke
SugarCRM
Meridio
HP Trim

Silverlight 2.0 – Silverlight Apps calling asmx web services

2009-07-02T15:38:00.002+10:00

A while back I worked on a Silverlight application that was hosted in SharePoint. The Silverlight application was to call a web service written by a third party vendor in .NET 2.0.

Problem
As what we all normally would do in a Silverlight app is to call this web service. However, I got the following error when my application tries to call the asmx web service:

“An error occurred while trying to make a request to URI 'http://localhost:1000/webservice.asmx'. This could be due to attempting to access a service in a cross-domain way without a proper cross-domain policy in place, or a policy that is unsuitable for SOAP services. You may need to contact the owner of the service to publish a cross-domain policy file and to ensure it allows SOAP-related HTTP headers to be sent. Please see the inner exception for more details.”

Solution

After some research, I found a recipe to get it going again:

Create a new file within the web service application (at the root of the requesting domain), called clientaccesspolicy.xml with the following contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<access-policy>
<cross-domain-access>
<policy>
<allow-from http-request-headers="*">
<domain uri="*"/>
</allow-from>
<grant-to>
<resource path="/" include-subpaths="true"/>
</grant-to>
</policy>
</cross-domain-access>
</access-policy>
Create another file within the web service application(at the root of the requesting domain), called crossdomain.xml with the following contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<cross-domain-access>
<allow-http-request-headers-from domain="*" headers="*"/>
</cross-domain-access>

After adding these policy files, my app started working. Hope this helps.

References

http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2008/04/06/silverlight-cross-domain-policy-file-snippet-intellisense.aspx

http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2008/06/10/silverlight-services-cross-domain-404-not-found.aspx

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 – Renaming a MOSS Server

2009-07-02T11:01:00.001+10:00

This is the N-the time I’ve had to rename a SharePoint server, and every time I keep on forgetting the exact steps… so these are notes for the (Technical) me.

Change each alternate access mapping for MOSS 2007/WSSv3 deployment in Central Admin reflecting new server name
Register the change with SharePoint, using:

stsadm -o renameserver -newservername <newname> -oldservername <oldname>
Rename server in Windows
Restart server
Post restart, update SharePoint farm credentials using:

stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin <domain\domainuser> -password <password>
Run an iisreset
Check the accounts used in application pools within IIS, update to reflect new machine name accounts
Rebuild the search index (remove and recreate)
Operation Complete!

Source: http://www.sharepointblogs.com/mirjam/archive/2007/08/06/renaming-a-moss-server.aspx (Thank you Mirjam)

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 – An iPhone Client to view SP Content?

2009-06-24T10:03:00.001+10:00

SharePoint comes standard with the support for mobile browsing – and if you’ve used it, you would have to say it does the job. But what if you now you feel like bringing surfacing the information on an iPhone (Besides browsing SharePoint sites directly from Safari)? The product would no doubt be a very attractive app for use on the go.

So recently, I stumbled across quiet an interesting product ‘iShare’ from Spyk software: A SharePoint Client App for the iPhone.

The iShare app allows users to login using Windows Authentication or SharePoint Forms Authentication and view, search and create content within a SharePoint Site. There is a list of files which this little app can open:

Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)

Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)

Microsoft Powerpoint (.ppt, .pptx)

Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xslx)

Images (.jpeg, .jpg, .tiff, .gif)

Web pages (.html, .htm, .aspx)

Text Files (.txt)

Contacts (.vcf)

Now, I do not have an iPhone neither have I used this application – so I cannot comment on the product… so give it a shot and leave a comment :) Apparently you can get it on the iPhone Apps Store.

http://www.spyk.com/Products/iShare/Pages/iShare.aspx

Here are some screenshots from the iShare site:

Windows Presentation Foundation 4 in VS 2010

2009-06-23T16:37:00.001+10:00

I don't usually blog about things other than SharePoint or CRM... but this is just really cool – not new as we’ve all seen this on the surface, but new as it can work on Windows 7! In the video, the speaker has used a Codeplex project “MultiTouchVista” (http://www.codeplex.com/MultiTouchVista) in conjunction with a “Windows 7 Multi-touch driver” to enable user input for multi-touching on normal mice.

Having asking Google more… there’s apparently much Developer resources on multi-touch: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsTouch

Now… I wonder if anybody out there has written a track pad multi-touch driver? I don’t want to plug-in more than 2 mice into my Dell XPS!

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - Fixing a failed WSS v3 and/or MOSS 2007 SP1/Infrastructure Patch Upgrade

2009-04-08T19:30:00.008+10:00

The Upgrade Process
I was upgrading an environment (MOSS version 12.0.0.4815) in the following manner:

Check all Timer jobs have run to completion in the existing environment
Check no errors with WSP
Install WSS v3 SP1 Patch (Skip Configuration wizard)
Install MOSS 2007 SP1 Patch (Skip Configuration wizard)
Install WSS v3 infrastructure Patch (Skip Configuration wizard)
Install MOSS 2007 infrastructure Patch
Following the prompts for the Configuration Wizard (PSconfigUI).

Okay, so far so good.

The Problems
In the middle of the configuration wizard, it seemed to have stayed on Step 5 for hours. Looking at the Event Viewer, errors with messages:

“Content index on Search could not be initialized. Error The content index is corrupt. 0xc0041800.Component: bd72df39-396a-472f-8a1a-db6c3241e922”

Checking Upgrade.log (in 12\Logs\), unveiled some Exception errors.

The Solution
So then I cancelled out of the setup (which took a while to cancel – actually it didn’t cancel until I ran the following command), and ran the following command to force the upgrade of the SharePoint environment:

psconfig -cmd upgrade -force

Checked the version numbers and the existing sites I had - That seemed to have fixed my issues

Alternative
Alternatively, the stsadm utility can be used (though I didn't have to use it):

stsadm -o upgrade -forceupgrade

For more details on this command:
Upgrade: Stsadm operation (Windows SharePoint Services)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288073.aspx

Upgrade: Stsadm operation (Office SharePoint Server)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263413.aspx

References
Command-line reference for the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard (Office SharePoint Server)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263093.aspx

Install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by using the command line
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc752946.aspx

Microsoft SharePoint - Version numbers

2009-04-02T16:45:00.004+11:00

It's been the Nth time I've had to checkup the version of SharePoint that is installed on a Farm - and I am now finally keeping this here for my own notes.

All these times I've been hitting back on a very nice post by Penny Coventry that contains a list of SharePoint Patches and respective version numbers:
http://www.mindsharpblogs.com/penny/articles/481.aspx

The easiest ways I use to check version numbers are:
1. In Central Admin, Site Actions > Site settings:

OR

2. In IIS, right click on the web application and select properties > 'HTTP Headers' tab, under Custom HTTP Headers section:

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - Understanding performance considerations in SharePoint OM

2009-03-09T11:30:00.003+11:00

A colleague, Fernando Felman has highlighted a very useful and interesting blog spot by Andreas Grabner that walks-thru scenarios and looks into the performance of SharePoint when under various SharePoint object model calls.

Though quite a few points in the post are obvious to the developer, I still think it is worth a good read :)

The article:
SharePoint Object Model Performance Considerations
http://www.infoq.com/articles/SharePoint-Andreas-Grabner

Live Framework: Creating a Silverlight Mesh-enabled web application in 8 steps

2009-02-22T23:14:00.002+11:00

I stumbled across this pretty awesome how-to article that talks about how to create a Silverlight Application that utilises features from the Mesh!

Enjoy...
Live Framework – creating a Silverlight Mesh-enabled web application in 8 steps

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - SharePoint Lookup Field Relinker Utility

2009-02-21T16:58:00.004+11:00

I've had a dig into my code stash, and found that I actually have a tool to help reassociate SharePoint lookup fields to lists. You'd only every really need to reassociate if the list referenced by the lookup field has an altered GUID. The GUID of a list would change if it has been deleted, or if you migrate a list from one environment to another.

I'm quiet flat out atm, so I'll post some more information in the next week or so with instructions on how to use this tool.

Background
This tool was used as part of a migration plan across servers using site backup and restore. The restored site ended up with lists that had lookups that did not associate with the appropriate columns. This is because the ID of the list in the new environment is different after a restore. Therefore the stored lookup field definition will no long be validly pointing to the correct ID of the list column that it was associated with - hence the need for this tool to reassociate such lookup fields with the relevant list columns that it references from.

Hopefully this little tool could help save alot of pain in migrating lookup fields in lists.

Some notes on the utility:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This tool was developed to reassociate or fix SharePoint lookup fields to lists in a site.

This tool is able to:
1. Relink lookup fields
2. Relink multiple lookup fields from an XML definition (Bulk tasks)
3. View Field Schema

This tool is useful in the following scenarios:
1. A list a lookup field is pointing to has been deleted and needs to be linked to a different field in a different list
2. A site backup is made and is restored in a different environment - The lookup fields will no longer link to
the field even thought the appropriate lists may be created. This tool will help relink the fields

Requirements for this tool to run:
1. Must login as Site Administrator - as the code will delete the lookup field and recreate it (Did not use RunWithElevatedPrivileges() for security purposes.)
2. Tool must be run on a WSS v3.0 or MOSS 2007 Server directly
3. Sorry, this tool has only been tested on an English environment - but theoretically should still work
with other localisations of SharePoint instances.

Where to download:
http://www.codeplex.com/SPLookupLinker

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - Calculated fields VS Computed fields

2009-01-20T20:32:00.008+11:00

Audience
This article is intended for SharePoint Developers. Non-Developers, can understand what SharePoint can do thru this article. As I couldn't find much about this topic on the net, I thought I'd write about it :)

Introduction
SharePoint, being apart of Office, inherits a feature that is familiar amongst Microsoft Excel users - aka the "Calculated Field", which allows the user to specify a formula to determine the value of a field based on the value of other fields.

Recently I've had a go at trying to combine multiple reference fields into one field in SharePoint. Whilst there are many ways to do it (with an event handler, workflow, or calculated fields), I'd like to present to you a very clean solution based on a "Computed Field" type.

Computed fields are used by standard SharePoint components. For example, in a Blog Site there is a list named "Posts". This list contains a field called "PostedByWithDate" - which is a combination of a "Published" date-time field and a "Created By" person field. The output not only contains a combination of "Publised" and the "Created By" values but also includes custom text:

To show you what I mean, this is the "Posts" list, and their values:

Time to Play with Computed Fields
So what can we do with this? We can set the value of a computed field conditionally thru some field reference definitions!

Lets start by looking at the definition for the computed field (I'll assume you read the SDK to understand this):

<Field Name="OnBehalfOf" ID="{e9d780a5-ac18-4a04-ad63-39c6a7417212}" DisplayName="OnBehalfOf" Type="User" Required="FALSE" SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3" List="UserInfo"
Description="Use this field when you are posting on behalf of the blog owner" ShowField="ImnName" UserSelectionMode="PeopleOnly" UserSelectionScope="0" StaticName="OnBehalfOf" ColName="int3" RowOrdinal="0" />

Original
The original field definition for the PostedByWithDate field (Which I extracted from the SharePoint Blog Site Definition contains):

<Field Name="PostedByWithDate" ID="{a1944d80-14e6-a71c-b235-3a28329f14b1}" Type="Computed" ReadOnly="TRUE" DisplayName="$Resources:posts_schema_blgfld_postedbywithdate;" Sortable="FALSE" SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3"
StaticName="PostedByWithDate">
<FieldRefs>
<FieldRef Name="Author" />
<FieldRef Name="PublishedDate" />
</FieldRefs>
<DisplayPattern>
<HTML><![CDATA[Posted at ]]></HTML>
<Column Name="PublishedDate" Format="TimeOnly" HTMLEncode="TRUE" />
<HTML><![CDATA[ by ]]></HTML>
<Field Name="Author" />
</DisplayPattern>
</Field>

SharePoint Magic

Now what I did was create a copy of this column (in a new Site Template - remember it is not supported only if you modify existing SharePoint Site Templates), and modified it like the following:

<Field Name="PostedByWithDate" ID="{a1944d80-14e6-a71c-b235-3a28329f14b1}" Type="Computed" ReadOnly="TRUE" DisplayName="$Resources:posts_schema_blgfld_postedbywithdate;" Sortable="FALSE" SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3"
StaticName="PostedByWithDate">
<FieldRefs>
<FieldRef Name="Author" />
<FieldRef Name="OnBehalfOf" />
<FieldRef Name="PublishedDate" />
</FieldRefs>
<DisplayPattern>
<HTML><![CDATA[Posted at ]]></HTML>
<Column Name="PublishedDate" Format="TimeOnly" HTMLEncode="TRUE" />
<HTML><![CDATA[ by ]]></HTML>
<IfEqual>
<Expr1>
<Column Name="OnBehalfOf" HTMLEncode="FALSE" />
</Expr1>
<Expr2></Expr2>
<Then><Field Name="Author" /></Then>
<Else><Field Name="OnBehalfOf" /></Else>
</IfEqual>
</DisplayPattern>
</Field>

The node is used for fields to allow for custom presentation of information. nodes can be added to introduce logical conditions for how data is presented. gives the field if-else logic; in this case, it checks if the value of the "OnBehalfOf" field is equal to nothing, and if it is, return the value from the "Author" field, else return the value from the "OnBehalfOf" field.

Very straight forward indeed :) The result can be seen in the screen shots above - when the OnBehalfOf field is blank, the value in the "Created by" field is shown with the date.

Some References:
Field Element: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms437580.aspx
DisplayPattern Element: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms977561.aspx
IfEqual Element: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms948315.aspx

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - SharePoint Designer Workflows does not automatically start

2008-12-09T22:59:00.004+11:00

Today, I created a SharePoint Workflow with SharePoint Design 2007, selected the options for it to be started upon the creation of a new item and upon the modification of a new item. It didn't start!

However, if I enable the option to start the workflow manually, and do so, the workflow starts!

A google search lead me to an answer:

This behavior occurs because a security fix in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 prevents declarative workflows from starting automatically under the system account. After you install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1, declarative workflows do not start automatically if the following conditions are true:
The Windows SharePoint Services Web application runs under a user's domain account.
The user logs in by using this domain account.
The site displays the user name as System Account.

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947284

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 - My Sites and "Portal Site Connections" to change breadcrum behaviour

2008-10-09T17:30:00.003+11:00

Summary
My Sites have proved to be a true value-add to any organisation as it does improve social personal information sharing (and alot more). It is easy to setup and logical to use.

There are however still several glitches when it is first setup in an environment. For instance, many users have found that once they navigate to their MySite, there is no link in the breadcrum back to the main Intranet Portal (as illustrated below):

Luckily, there's a setting called "Portal site connections", once this setting is set, you would have modified the behaviour of your My Site breadcrums (as illustrated below):

Making the configuration change
Assuming we want to make this change to all My Sites under the current "My Site Host", we will need to perform the following steps:

1. Login to My Sites as the My Site Host owner (in my case this user is administrator)
2. Browse to the "My Profile" tab
3. Click "Site Actions"
4. Select "Site Settings" from the Site Actions menu (or http://mysiteurl/_layouts/settings.aspx)

5. Click "Portal site connection" under Site Collection Administration

6. Select Connect to portal site and fill in a URL and link name (example illustrated below):
7. Click "OK"

Notes: When you now go back to the "My Profile" tab, you will see the change immediately. This change will only be valid for any new "My Sites" that are created (Not the MySite host or My Profile tab. Yes, personal sites aka the "My Home" tab) . For "My Home" tabs in existing "My Sites", you can either recreate the My Site, or make the same configuration via the following instructions:

1. Login to My Sites as the My Site Host owner (in my case this user is administrator)
2. Browse to the "My Home" tab
3. And follow from point 3 in the instructions above

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - New SharePoint SDK

2008-09-09T08:57:00.005+10:00

In the most recent MSDN flash are the following updates to take note of - some new SharePoint SDK releases:

Download the SharePoint Server 2007 SDK (Aug 08 1.4 Refresh)
The August 2008 update of the SharePoint Server 2007 SDK contains documentation for new and improved features in the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers and new conceptual, procedural, and reference information. You can also view the August update online.

Download the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK (Aug 08 1.4 Refresh)
See the latest additions to the Windows SharePoint Services SDK. Find conceptual overviews, programming tasks, and references for Windows SharePoint Services. View the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK online.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Best Practices Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2007

2008-09-08T18:30:00.001+10:00

What is the best way to do something in SharePoint?

Recently, the SharePoint Team Blog announced the SharePoint Best Practices Series (http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/08/29/announcing-the-sharepoint-best-practices-series.aspx).

The series includes a "Best Practices Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2007" site, which includes all guidelines about implementing Search, Publishing Portals, My Sites, Team Collaboration, SP Development, and more!
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb736746.aspx

Tech-Ed Australia 2008

2008-09-02T23:00:00.004+10:00

If you are going to Tech-Ed in Sydney this week, you can catch a few very interesting SharePoint/Search sessions:

OFC315 - Why Findability Should Be an Organising Principle for Your SharePoint Server 2007 Deployment. Presented by Ivan Wilson (SharePoint Gurus) and Ben Curry (MindSharp)
OFC301 - Form Processes in Minutes, not Months. Presented by Ivan Wilson (SharePoint Gurus) and Ben Walters (SDM).
MVP307 – SharePoint Monitoring – How to measure the success of your SharePoint implementation. Presented by Ivan Wilson (SharePoint Gurus)
OFC302 Stop Searching... Find it! With Microsoft Enterprise Search. Presented by Gayan Peiris (Microsoft)
OFC405 Creating Solutions with the Business Data Catalog. Presented by Ishai Sagi (Unique World)

Also another interesting one with Silverlight and SharePoint:

OFC303 Enhance the SharePoint User Interface with Silverlight 2.0. Presented by William Cornwill and Craig Harrowfield

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - WSS and MOSS VPCs

2008-07-18T19:50:00.000+10:00

I just discovered Microsoft provides VPC's for SharePoint evaluation. If you are a little lazy and don't already have a VPC, these maybe a good starting point:

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 VHD (24 July 2007):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=67f93dcb-ada8-4db5-a47b-df17e14b2c74&DisplayLang=en

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 Developer Evaluation VPC Image (3 July 2008):
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1BEEAC6F-2EA1-4769-9948-74A74BD604FA&displaylang=en

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - Changing service accounts and service account passwords in SharePoint

2008-07-17T18:40:00.000+10:00

I was trying to change passwords for my VPC and I stumbled across these very nice articles.

This Microsoft KB talks about changing the service account/service account password for WSSv3 and MOSS2007:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934838

Joel Oleson's article talks about some additional tips including updating Search Service credentials:
http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2006/08/22/712945.aspx

Microsoft CRM 4.0 - Browsing documents more effectively in Microsoft CRM 4.0

2008-07-15T22:47:00.006+10:00

Ever thought browsing thru attachments in Microsoft CRM 4.0 was painful? You had to open the Entity window (ie. Contact/Account/Quotes...) and then go to the Notes tab, then scroll down to the attachment you need. Seems like alot of clicks to me.

Luckily, the guys at mscrm-addons.com released a tool a tool called "Document Summary". The "Document Summary" is available in the "Documents Core Pack for MS CRM 4.0", which includes a range of other tools such as WordMailMerge, SharePoint Integration, Send to PDF, and more.

I haven't used it myself yet, but I've seen the demo video. Here's how it looks like:

So far it looks pretty good. Point, click and browse. Simple, and very nicely done.

I don't work for mscrm-addons.com, so I'm not trying to sell their products.

For more information:
http://www.mscrm-addons.com/Products/AddonsforMSCRM40/DocumentsCorePack/tabid/130/Default.aspx

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - Including/Excluding a list in the Search Index

2008-07-15T22:12:00.003+10:00

Have the search results in your WSS/MOSS environment been ugly with all that list data? Did you want the content source to include content excluding list data?

In SharePoint, the content in each list can be configured to be included or excluded from being indexed in search crawls.

Through the SharePoint UI, this option is called "Allow items from this list to appear in search results?" and is located in the Advanced List Settings:

Through the SharePoint API, this option is exposed as a property called "NoCrawl" (for the list named "Hidden From Search List"):

SPSite site = new SPSite("http://siteurl");
SPWeb web = site.RootWeb;
SPList list = web.Lists["Hidden From Search List"];
list.NoCrawl = false;
list.Update();

After this property has been updated, the next time SharePoint Search crawls, it would skip indexing the list with a NoCrawl value of false.

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 and Microsoft CRM 4.0 - Custom Field Types for MS CRM 4.0

2008-07-01T21:54:00.003+10:00

I came across a great article by Karine Bosch and Patrick Tisseghem about creating custom field types in SharePoint that exposes CRM 4.0 data via BDC. The first article includes a link to download the sample.

Here are the links:
Overview - http://www.u2u.info/Blogs/Patrick/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=1789
Detailed How To - http://www.u2u.be/Res/Article.aspx?ART=CRMSharePointCustomField

The highlight here is the ability for the user to search for a CRM record (whilst checking details on the record) to attach to a SharePoint list item.

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - Sample Event Handler to set Permissions

2008-07-01T21:37:00.003+10:00

I recently had to dig up something I learnt in the past so, here it is - a good example posted by Ishai Sagi to show a great example for:

Getting a list item in the event handler
Impersonating another user totally (without using RunWithElevatedPrivilages)
Changing permissions for an item
Creating a new permission role in a web site
Checking if a role exists or not

http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2007/03/sample-event-handler-to-set-permissions.html

IIS - Web Application Proxy Settings for internet access

2008-07-01T09:36:00.005+10:00

This post is to remind myself the configuration settings required in web.config to enable a web application to access the internet via a proxy.

Within the Configuration node in web.config for the web application...


<system.net>
       <defaultproxy>
              <proxy bypassonlocal="true" proxyaddress="http://ProxyAddress:PortNumber">
        </defaultproxy>
</system.net>

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 - Saving a Site as a Site Template

2008-06-29T23:31:00.008+10:00

There's a page in SharePoint that allows you to save a Site directly as a Site Template to the Site Templates Gallery. The URL is http://(sharepoint site)/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx

Apparently, there is no link in the settings page to this url in SharePoint.

With this, you can customise a site, and then save it as a template for future use. This serves as an alternative to using the stsadm backup and restore command.

Here's a screenshot of what the page looks like.

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - SharePoint Branding Tool v1.7.0 (Custom tool for themes, masterpages, site logos...)

2008-06-17T00:57:00.004+10:00

This is an update for this article.

I've been quiet busy recently but I was still able to squeeze some time into improving this tool. I can't think of anymore to improve on without over-doing it. That being said, feel free to send me a post on my blog for suggestions. I hope it will be a useful tool.

You can get the tool at codeplex

http://www.codeplex.com/BrandingTool.

Here is the readme:

SharePoint Branding Tool v1.7.0 Released

This tool can be used apply the following actions for multiple Site Collections, and Child Sites:

-modify Themes,
-modify MasterUrl (Master Page),
-modify CustomMasterUrl (System Master Page),
-modify SiteLogoUrl (Site Logo),
-modify SiteLogoDescription (Site Logo Alternative Text),
-modify AlternateCssUrl (Custom CSS Style Sheet)
-view various properties of sites and themes at a glance

Selection of sites can be filtered by the Site Template used.

In this version I have made the following enhancements from feedback:
-UI Improvement: Less intrusive messages
-UI Improvements: Status Strip for operation reporting, etc
-Different SharePoint language version support (Dynamic install path support - for Spanish support)
-Improved error message reporting
-Improved operation reporting
-Configuration file support

And here are some screen shots of the new app:

Remember the tool not only does the job using the SharePoint Object Model, but it also allows you to do it through the SharePoint UI:

You can get the tool at codeplex

http://www.codeplex.com/BrandingTool.

Microsoft Visual Studio - Web development quickie tip: Quick GAC deployment

2008-05-11T23:43:00.009+10:00

I've been across this one so many times before, so I'm adding this entry to remind myself how to automatically deploy compiled libraries to the GAC and recycle the application pool after a successful compilation in Visual Studio 2005/2008:

Add this on the post build events of the Class Library project for quick GAC deployment

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\gacutil" -i "$(TargetPath)" | C:\Recycle.vbs

Then create a VB Script file using Notepad in location C:\Recycle.vbs:

strAppPoolName = "DefaultAppPool"
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject _
("winmgmts:{authenticationLevel=pktPrivacy}\\" _
& strComputer & "\root\microsoftiisv2")

Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("Select * From IIsApplicationPool Where Name = " & _
"'W3SVC/AppPools/" &strAppPoolName & "'")

For Each objItem in colItems
objItem.Recycle
Next

Wscript.echo "Recycle Completed"

Change the value of the variable "strAppPoolName" to the name of the application pool that needs recycling.

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - Stsadm extensions

2008-03-25T21:37:00.003+11:00

"The branding tool is out. What next? How about an stsadm tool for themes?"

After a search on google, it seems Gary Lapointe has beat me to it:
http://stsadm.blogspot.com/2008/01/apply-theme.html

He's created a very useful list of stsadm extended commands found here.
(http://stsadm.blogspot.com/2007/08/stsadm-commands_09.html)

The source code can be downloaded here:
http://www.thelapointes.com/blog/stsadm.zip

The installation file can be downloaded here:
http://www.thelapointes.com/blog/Lapointe.SharePoint.STSADM.Commands.wsp

Here's a listing of the additional commands:

createquotatemplate

editquotatemplate

setmastersitedirectory

setallowaccesstoonlinegallery

disableuserpermissionforwebapp

enableuserpermissionforwebapp

setselfservicesitecreation

connecttoportalsite

setsitegeneralsettings

setuserprofiledefaultaccessaccount

setuserprofileimportschedule

gen2003to2007profilepropertymap

migrate2003profilesto2007

setpictureurlnewpath

setsitenamingformat (use mysitesettings instead)

enuminstalledsitetemplates

enumavailablesitetemplates

addavailablesitetemplate

removeavailablesitetemplate

enumnavigation

addnavigationnode

setnavigationnodes

copynavigation

enumfeatures

copycontenttypes

enumavailablepagelayouts

fixpublishingpagespagelayouturl

repairsitecollectionimportedfromsubsite

convertsubsitetositecollection

setsitedirectoryscanviewurls

enumtimerjobdefinitions

exportlist

importlist

copylist

getlistschemaxml

enumunghostedfiles

reghostfile

deletelistfield

moveweb

managecontentdbsettings

addsiteadmin

deleteweb2

mysitesettings

upgrade2

enumpagewebparts

movewebpart

setwebpartstate

retargetcontentquerywebpart

replacefieldvalues

applyupgradeareaurlmappings

publishitems

setlocalsitedirectory

import2

setsearchcenter

replacewebpartcontent

enumeffectivebaseperms

createwebapp

deletewebapp

exportlistitem

importlistitem

copylistitem

deletelistitem

setnavigationsettings

enumprofileprivacypolicies

setprofileprivacypolicy

enumprofileproperties

editprofileproperty

exportlistfield

importlistfield

updatelistfield

deletelist

copylistsecurity

updatelistview

setsspacl

createsearchscope

updatesearchscope

addsearchrule

setauditsettings

setusageanalysis

adduser2

adduserpolicyforwebapp

addlistitem

exportlistitem2

movesite

applytheme

retargetgroupedlistingswebpart

sitewelcomepage

enumwelcomepages

createcontentdb

createsiteindb

exportcontenttypes

exportsitecolumns

importsitecolumns

setanonymousaccess

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - SharePoint Branding Tool v1.6.0 (Custom tool for themes, masterpages, site logos...)

2008-03-24T20:02:00.007+11:00

This is an update for this article.

I spent a few more hours trying to update the user interface and to make the tool a little easier to use.

Update 1: New options
The interface is more refined and has shortcuts to open the site directly from a context menu. New items in the "File" menu for easy access to SharePoint Theme files and folders.

Update 2: More Information at a glance
I've added an extra DataGrid View to show properties of the selected site or selected theme. This version also shows the theme preview.

Update 3: Easier to use interface
I've reduced the pop-ups and tried to bring is all together in the one window.

Enjoy!

You can get the latest (v1.6.3) SharePoint Branding Tool here:
http://www.codeplex.com/BrandingTool

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - SharePoint Branding Tool v1.5.1 (Custom tool for themes, masterpages, site logos...)

2008-03-20T19:52:00.009+11:00

I got a little bored and a little sick at home, so I started finishing off some code I worked on with my colleagues Andrey Shchurov and Alexandre Bacchin (I'm no geek though).

This is meant to be a tool that will aid the Web Designer or the SharePoint Developer in applying look and feel to their SharePoint sites. It also doubles up as a great tool to update multiple SharePoint sites manually (including MySites).

This is how the tool looks like. You can select from a list of web applications, select the sites to apply changes, and then apply your theme! (If you've got lots of sites, that's ok, you can filter them by the site template the site uses)

It's got other features as well to quickly update your MasterPage URL, and your Applications MasterPage URL(CustomMasterUrl) as well:

So this is before the Theme application:

This is after. It doesn't only apply it for the top level site, but also did it for one of the child sites (which is 2 level below the above site):

Need to change the site logo and description for multiple sites? No problem:

Boom! In just a few seconds just took a few seconds...

And the Master Page URL? How does it work? Here's a screen shot:

After the update of the property via the code:

Not to mention, it also logs what it does in a text file, so it's easy to revert in case of mistakes. It's developed with .NET 2.0 and uses the SharePoint 2007 API, so it'll work with WSSv3 and MOSS2007.

The code doesn't have good naming conventions, but we'll leave that to be a to-do. For now, I've tested it enough to prove it works with no problems. Any suggestions of feedback, please post it on the codeplex page.

A newer version is available. More information here:
http://sharepointsix.blogspot.com/2008/03/microsoft-sharepoint-2007-sharepoint_24.html

You can get the SharePoint Branding Tool here:
http://www.codeplex.com/BrandingTool

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint

2008-03-08T10:39:00.004+11:00

I'd have to say this is pretty exciting stuff from Microsoft. Examples of implementation of SharePoint components using Silverlight! The most impressive blueprint is the social networking tool which sources its information from the User Profile that is ultimately imported from AD.

Impressive because, it surfaces the information in a very intuitive UI, and not only that, it also links back to the user's public "My Profile" page.

For more information, the Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint site is:
http://www.ssblueprints.net/sharepoint/

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - MySites and Facebook (Part 1)

2007-12-22T11:21:00.000+11:00

A little background on my work...
I would like to start this blog off with a little background into myself... actually if you've been reading only my blog articles, you'll probably still be under the impression that I may have only have knowledge and interest in Microsoft CRM. Making that assumption would be invalid, because as a matter of fact, I am ALSO engaged in SharePoint work!

Over the last few months I have been busy developing SharePoint that I haven't got the chance to blog anything about CRM. I actually had a dilemma if I should start posting SharePoint posts on this blog, as the main intension of this blog was to discuss about CRM and SharePoint integration.

I have come to a decision to dedication this blog to to all new technology with a focus on both CRM and Sharepoint (not only CRM-SharePoint integration).

Back to the topic
So back to the topic of MySites and Facebook...

-Intro
Over the last year, I have worked with various clients on Corporate Directories, web 2.0 tools, collaboration tools and tools that help businesses improve communication and personal information sharing. This work surrounded a SharePoint component called MySites.

-History of these technologies?
MySites has historical roots all the way back to SharePoint 2001! MySites didn't exist in SharePoint 2001. From an article I found from Microsoft, in SharePoint 2001, the "MySite" concept was...

"a workspace is used to group a collection of personal dashboards, and little, if any, use is made of the top-level workspace dashboard. Each personal dashboard site consists of the Home dashboard page and an additional Reports subdashboard page."

In SharePoint 2003 Portal Server, MySites (Personal sites) was an official component. Here is an official extract about what it is:

"...in SharePoint Portal Server 2003, all users...with the Create Sites and Create Personal Site rights automatically have a personal site created for them when they click the My Site link on the portal site home page.

My Site is a personal SharePoint site created on the portal site that provides personalized and customized information for each user. Your personal site consists of two views: A private view for personal information that only you can see, and a public view seen by everyone else. The private view is shown by default when you view your personal site."

Users were able to search and view other users profile information, based on information from Active Directory and other information entered by that user.

SharePoint 2003 Portal Server: Public MySite

SharePoint 2003 Portal Server: Private MySite

In SharePoint 2007 (MOSS not WSSv3), this concept and idea has evolved even more with new SharePoint web parts like the RSS Viewer, In Common Web Parts, Colleague Tracker Web Parts, Document Agregation web parts and more...

With these components and a few others, businesses can enable employees/users to through the works social network to find information and access much tacit knowledge. (There was also once an introduction of the Knowledge Network concept which extends on tacit knowledge sharing, but Microsoft has not yet official released this component.)

MOSS 2007: Public Sites

MOSS 2007: Private Sites

MOSS 2007: Custom Tabs and role based templates
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA102147321033.aspx

And.... Facebook? According to wikipedia:

"Facebook is a social networking website, launched on February 4, 2004. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a former Harvard student. Initially the membership of Facebook was restricted to students of Harvard College. It was subsequently expanded to MIT, Boston University, Boston College, and all Ivy League schools within two months."

The highlights of Facebook which businesses are interested in is the way in which personal information can be shared across the network without having two users being online at the same time. I recall from the facebook f8 conference video Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that Facebook allows for a larger communication channels between users.

Facebook has an interface for user information, web 2.0 collaboration applications and tools, and widgets that allow for this to happen. Recently, Facebook exposed their API, allowing the outside world to develop applications that can pull information from Facebook, that can integrate into Facebook, etc.

-A possible new way for Customer Relationship Bonding/Management??
I had a few open-ended ideas and questions on social networking within the enterprise which could start you up for a good deep thought.... some of these:
* Facebook contains groups for universities, companies and interests. Perhaps we could do the same for all customers, employees/ex-employees, and stakeholders of the company to share information?
* Can we use this technology to improve how the customers, employees/ex-employees, and stakeholders feel they bond with the company? (On top of sending personalised letters from MS CRM and analysing data)
* Can we import this information into CRM systems to form even more accurate reports about customers?

-What have I done to MySites?
A recent client, there were requirements for the business to implement an advanced "Phone Book/User Directory". They had a look at SharePoint MySites and decided that it is perfect for their use, and not only that it had tools very similar to Facebook (which many people are hooked onto!)

The requirements evolved and hence now after a few months of development and hard work, they've got themselves their own "Social Networking tools" with part Facebook capabilities.

In the next few articles, I will discuss on the what I have done and the challenges I had to get it all working... Stay tuned...

Microsoft CRM 4.0 - Whats new reading material...

2007-12-22T11:13:00.000+11:00

If you've had access to MS CRM 3.0 and want to know more about MS CRM 4.0.. theres a very good material here which talks about what is new in Microsoft CRM 4.0:

http://download.microsoft.com/documents/australia/dynamics/CRM4.0_Whats_New.pdf

Microsoft CRM 4.0 - Installing it... where to start? The Implementation Guide!

2007-12-22T10:58:00.000+11:00

With the release of the downloadable Microsoft CRM 4.0 trials, you'll also need the implementation guide. If you've installed MS CRM 3.0 in the past, this is official documentation from Microsoft on how to install Microsoft CRM.

Here is the link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1CEB5E01-DE9F-48C0-8CE2-51633EBF4714&displaylang=en

Microsoft CRM 4.0 - Trial Product Downloads available Now!

2007-12-22T10:52:00.000+11:00

Microsoft has released its latest CRM trial software on the Internet for downloads!

"Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available as a 90-day trial version at the Microsoft Downloads center. The download page will be updated with new languages as they are released."

Download the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Trial Versions in either 32 or 64-bit!
Download the Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook (For On-Premise and Hosted Editions) 32 bit!

Download the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Data Migration Manager 32 bit!
Download the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 E-mail Router (On-Premise and Hosted Editions) in either 32 or 64-bit!

Source:
http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2007/12/18/microsoft-dynamics-crm-4-0-ready-for-download.aspx

Microsoft CRM and Silverlight - "Adding client side business logic to CRM forms using Silverlight managed code"

2007-12-22T10:24:00.000+11:00

Silverlight is an exciting technology with a very high degree of highlight and focus for web technology enthusiasts because it has the potential to bring to the web user an enhanced, lifted and interesting user experience.

Microsoft CRM, being a technology that is closely shaped by business processes, has also a very strong focus on usability. CRM technology is data and information based, and how well we utilise the information from these systems is, in my opinion, very closely tied with the effectiveness of usability.

Microsoft CRM is a very exciting and fun product to develop (technically and business wise) with because it offers the flexibility and power to adapt to a business's needs. Just imagine if we surface the information from CRM and create new applications to embed within the CRM application, the possibilities that I see are quiet "uniquely" cool and awesome!

I found the following post by Arash, which talks about developing a basic Silverlight 1.1 (Javascript and C# Managed code) application. This is the starting point for the imaginations to become a reality...

http://blog.arash.cc/post/Adding-client-side-business-logic-to-CRM-forms-using-Silverlight-managed-code.aspx

Microsoft CRM 4.0 - Get Ready for 4.0 Titan (Part 2)

2007-10-10T02:47:00.000+10:00

Because the NDA agreements have dropped (meaning that details of the Titan CTP can now be publicly released):
http://www.stunnware.com/crm2/topic.aspx?id=TitanBeta2

Hence, now we will get some new screen shots. Stunnware's post is a good source:
http://www.stunnware.com/crm2/topic.aspx?id=TitanBeta3

Philip Richardson, the Microsoft CRM Lead Program Manager, has actually created a load of Screencasts:

Titan: Import/Export Customizations

Titan Screencast: Add Multiple Users

Titan: Web Import

Titan: Duplicate Detection

Simon Hutson's blog also talks about some technical aspects of Events/Call-outs (now known as Plug ins)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Tidbits - Advanced Events

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Tidbits - Event Architecture

Stay tuned for more information. =)
I may start posting about various aspects of the Titan myself =)

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - How to Videos for Users

2007-10-10T02:24:00.000+10:00

I came across some very useful videos hosted on YouTube in around June 2007 by a company called "CRM On Target". Although they are for CRM 3.0, I'm sure there are still many people who will find these training videos useful. Enjoy!

Microsoft CRM: Importing Sales Lead Records

Microsoft CRM: Importing Contact Records

Microsoft CRM: Creating a New Field

Microsoft CRM: Creating an Activity Related View

Microsoft CRM: 'Send Direct Email' Button in Outlook

Microsoft CRM: Assigning Tasks from Outlook

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Awesome CRM Search "Vista CRM Search Gadget "

2007-10-08T21:19:00.001+10:00

I was browsing around, and came back to this blog which I read a while back. It was posted back in April 14th this year, but only now I had the chance to go thru what Joris has done for the CRM community.

Its a CRM Search application that consists of a Vista Gadget, and a search web application. Whats awesome is you can add it into IE7 as a search provider! The search works across multi entities, so it makes things very convenient.

Hum.... why does it looks like an application I saw in the latest CRM 3.0 demo VPC?

Vista CRM Search Gadget
http://blogs.msdn.com/joris_kalz/pages/Vista-Microsoft-CRM-Search-Gadget.aspx

Microsoft CRM 4.0 - Get Ready for 4.0 Titan

2007-10-08T20:31:00.000+10:00

The word "Titan" has been mentioned many time already, but because it is still in its CTP3 stage, people who have been involved in the CTP3 have not been able to say much about the product due to agreements with Microsoft. That being said, there have been quiet alot of resources available online, which I thought I'd link into a single article.

CRM Titan Books:
Working with Microsoft Dynamics(TM) CRM 4.0
http://www.amazon.com/Working-Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-4-0/dp/0735623783/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_a/002-5076879-0816004

Programming Microsoft Dynamics(TM) CRM 4.0 Developer Reference
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Microsoft-Dynamics-Developer-Reference/dp/0735624275/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b/002-5076879-0816004

Sneak Peaks
ISVs on Titan
https://owa.uniqueworld.net/OWA/redir.aspx?URL=http%3a%2f%2fblogs.msdn.com%2fcrm%2farchive%2f2007%2f09%2f10%2fvideos-crm-isvs-talk-about-titan.aspx

Titan Screencasts from Phillip Richardson
On this particular blog from the CRM Team Blog, they give out very strong highlights of the features that will be part of 4.0 Titan.
http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2007/10/03/titan-first-look-videos.aspx

Feature Peaks
Guy Riddle's Blog "Titan" NDA Lifted
http://guyriddle.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5D4E0DC4D1513384!210.entry

Training
Metro - CRM ISV Training (Only for ISVs enrolled into the Early Adopter programme)
http://guyriddle.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5D4E0DC4D1513384!211.entry

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Call-Outs in CRM to create new SharePoint Sites

2007-07-09T22:31:00.000+10:00

This article was kept in my draft stash for quite some time now, and I found it really useful and relevant to another post, which I published not long ago.

This article is a technical tutorial on developing call-outs for Microsoft CRM to create new SharePoint sites. Call-outs are custom "logic" that is executed as a result of a CRM workflow reponse.

The article is listed below:
The purpose of the integration is to create collaboration sites on SharePoint 2007 as new accounts or opportunities are created in Microsoft CRM
http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/MOSS_2007-CRM_Integration.asp

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - SharePoint Configured as a CRM Tool (DIY tutorial)

2007-07-09T22:29:00.000+10:00

This is an interesting flash movie that teaches on how to customise a SharePoint Site as a CRM application.
http://www.sharepointhosting.com/tutorials/sharepoint-sales-crm/sharepoint-sales-crm.html

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Third Party Tool to extend Document Management capabilities of CRM using SharePoint

2007-07-09T21:50:00.000+10:00

In a previous post, I've discussed about hosting a SharePoint Site as a tab within an iframe in a CRM entity UI. Many people are not developers, and so would need to rely on third party products. KWizCom have always been creating some very good SharePoint add-on products and this time they've created something for just that purpose I mentioned. They created a product which they call the "CRM Connector to SharePoint".

This product not only places a SharePoint site into an entity, but it also creates a new SharePoint site for every entity you create (for the more technical, it comes with a call-out/plug-in for CRM). It supports MOSS 2007, SPS 2003, WSSv3 and WSSv2.

For more information, see the following extract from http://www.kwizcom.com/ProductPage.asp?ProductID=186&ProductSubNodeID=192:

KWizCom CRM Connecor to SharePoint, now supports MOSS 2007 - enables users to better manage documents linked to any CRM entity (Account, Lead, Product etc.).
These document management capabilities are based on Microsoft SharePoint Services, and provide CRM users with the ability to:

Create document libraries and folders
Link documents to any CRM entity
Search for documents from within MS CRM interface
Expose documents to users who are NOT CRM users
(and do not have CRM client license)
Enables sharing applications beyond a single team-site scope

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 - SharePoint Configured as a CRM Tool?

2007-07-09T21:32:00.000+10:00

When SharePoint was first released I recall having a conversation with a fellow colleague about the possibility of customising SharePoint as a CRM application.

A company called "BPA" did exactly just that, and named the product "Easy CRM SharePoint" (Easy CRM software solution for Microsoft SharePoint). They have flash demonstrations for this CRM application, and it proves to be very interesting indeed! Click on this link to see it: http://software.crm-sharepoint.com/default.aspx.

So how did they do it? Does it integrate core CRM functionality into Outlook? Would it be better than Microsoft CRM 3.0 itself? Well, having a bit of a look into it, it appears they've used a series of lists, calendars and custom web parts to contribute to CRM functionality. They've even got lists of reports, offline access, an Outlook connector (to attach emails to items) and more. However, as compared to Microsoft CRM 3.0, it does seem like a little child, but I'll leave that to you to judge.

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 (KB 927751)

2007-06-30T14:32:00.000+10:00

Microsoft has released an update for MS CRM 3.0 for both the client and server components on the 25th June 2007. The update rollup 2 contains all fixes that were included in update rollup 1 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0.

To download a copy and for more details click here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=81674da5-ffef-492a-a7b1-7e1f1951b05f&displaylang=en

Remember to read all additional information included on the page before installation.

Microsoft CRM - An old marketing video for Microsoft CRM!?

2007-06-27T23:13:00.000+10:00

I forgot how I came across this youtube video, but it seemed quite cute... looked like those kids were using the old MS CRM 1.2! Anyways here it is...

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Integrating the CRM UI into SharePoint (Page Links)

2007-06-27T20:20:00.000+10:00

CRM UI in SharePoint? Easy as 123!
I've been thinking of ways to directly integrate the CRM interface into another web application or web page, such as SharePoint. As a result, I've compiled a list of CRM links for various datagrids used for showing sets of records from CRM. These URL's can be embeded into a SharePoint 2007 page using either a "Site Aggregator" or "Page Viewer" Web Part.

If the page was to be embedded into an iframe within a web page, it is important to note that Internet Explorer may restrict access to it for security purposes. These security settings, however, can be disabled/enabled within Internet Explorer. Otherise a simple frame could be used.

Almost anything can be displayed using these URLs giving the situation satisfies the following:
1) The user account used to log into the client machine has the permissions to access Microsoft CRM records.
2) Integrated Security is enabled, so that credentials are passed
3) The user has access to a particular entity

And finally... the list of links for Microsoft CRM 3.0:

DataGrid Lists
Accounts - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=1
Contacts - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=2
Opportunities - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=3
Leads - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=4
Marketing List - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=4300
Reports - http://crm/CRMReports/home_reports.aspx
Activities - http://crm/workplace/home_activities.aspx
Calendar - http://crm/workplace/home_calendar.aspx
Articles - http://crm/workplace/home_answers.aspx
Queues - http://crm/workplace/home_workplace.aspx
Competitors - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=123
Products - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=1024
Sales Literature - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=1038
Quotes - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=1084
Orders - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=1088
Invoices - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=1090
Quick Campaigns - http://crm/MA/home_minicamps.aspx
Campaigns - http://crm/MA/home_camps.aspx
Cases - http://crm/CS/home_cases.aspx
Contracts - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=1010
Services - http://crm/_root/homepage.aspx?etc=4001

Miscellaneous
Advanced Find - http://crm/AdvancedFind/AdvFind.aspx
CRM Help - http://crm/help/default.aspx

For convenience during customisation, I've also posted the following links for settings and customisations in the following article:
http://sharepointsix.blogspot.com/2007/06/ms-crm-30-crm-settings-pages.html

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - CRM Settings Pages

2007-06-27T20:14:00.001+10:00

For convenience during customisation, I've also posted the following links for settings and customisations:
Settings Pages
Settings - http://crm/tools/home_tools.aspx?pid=0
Customisation Menu - http://crm/tools/systemcustomization/systemcustomization.aspx
Entity Customisation DataGrid - http://crm/tools/systemcustomization/systemcustomization.aspx?PID=01
Import Customisations - http://crm/tools/systemcustomization/systemcustomization.aspx?PID=03
Export Customisations - http://crm/tools/systemcustomization/systemcustomization.aspx?PID=03
Subjects (Taxomony for Knowledge Base) - http://crm/tools/home_tools.aspx?pid=08
Advanced View of Settings - http://crm/tools/home_tools.aspx?vid=1

Microsoft CRM - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Center

2007-06-13T23:56:00.000+10:00

Theres a new Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Center on the Microsoft Site for all one-shop-stop information on CRM Developer resources!

The link is:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm/default.aspx

Read here for more info:
http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2007/06/08/new-microsoft-dynamics-crm-dev-center-on-msdn.aspx

Microsoft CRM 3.0 and MOSS 2007 - CRM and SharePoint Integration

2007-06-05T19:07:00.000+10:00

I've recently been looking at the integration of Microsoft CRM 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 and my findings were pretty promising!

Of my findings, ways to integrate Sharepoint 2007 and Microsoft CRM include:

* Presenting CRM data in Microsoft's CRM list web part (More Info)
* Exposing basic lookup/view functionality from the CRM list web part
* Presenting KPIs, Reports, and CRM data with MOSS 2007 Excel Web Access Service
* Presenting CRM data, KPIs and more using MOSS 2007's Business Data Catalog (BDC) and BDC web parts (More Info)
* Exposing CRM data through MOSS 2007 Enterprise Search functionality using BDC
* Presenting CRM records in a SharePoint 2007 RSS feeder web part using the RSS adaptor from Microsoft (More Info)
* Storing CRM documents in a Sharepoint Document Library to leverage versioning control and better management (More Info)
* Integrating SharePoint 2007 document library with CRM information using a third party tool (c360 Word Mail Merge or MSCRM-Addons WordMailMerge)
* Integrating a SharePoint 2007 page into the Microsoft CRM interface as a sub application or as part of a tab using iFrame
* Using a CRM workflow and a CRM call-out assembly to create a Sharepoint workspace for a CRM record
* Using MOSS 2007's workflow (or an event handler) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) to create a CRM record when a subsite or list item is created.
* Presenting CRM Reports in Sharepoint using SQL Reporting Services web parts (Report Explorer and Report Viewer)

And more...
* Remembering the fact that Microsoft CRM is built on SQL, other applications can be created pulling data from filtered views (It is best practice to only use filtered views created by CRM.)
* Remembering that Microsoft CRM offers web services, other applications can be created to leverage off CRM's web services. Data security of the CRM data provided by the web service is inherited from Microsoft CRM when the you authenticate whilst connecting.
* Remembering that Microsoft SharePoint also offers web services, and hence call-outs can leverage off SharePoint functionality!

A small number of Blogs/Articles which I've read as a part of my research:
* Sharepoint Integration Approaches http://mscrm.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!534230C9D7A90B1B!390.entry
* Sharepoint with MS CRM 3.0 http://microsoftcrm3.blogspot.com/2007/01/sharepoint-with-ms-crm-30.html
* Microsoft Dynamics CRM Official Site http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/default.mspx
* Microsoft CRM Integration & Customization: SharePoint Document Gateway http://www.albaspectrum.com/Customizations_Whitepapers/Microsoft-CRM-Integration-Customization-Sharepoint.htm
* Microsoft CRM Integration & Customization: SharePoint Document Gateway http://ezinearticles.com/?Microsoft-CRM-Integration-and-Customization:-SharePoint-Document-Gateway&id=26933
* Microsoft CRM 3.0 SDK http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa682866.aspx
* Reporting Services WebParts - Walkthrough http://blogs.sqlxml.org/bryantlikes/articles/628.aspx
* SQL Server Reporting Services Web Parts Review http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2005/01/21/358073.aspx
* Questions I asked on the CRM Community Site http://www.microsoft.com/Businesssolutions/Community/NewsGroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.crm.deployment&amp;amp;amp;tid=d6f67d53-fe75-4d6f-8bf8-d4fe79b15e5f&cat=〈=en&cr=US&sloc=en-us&amp;amp;amp;m=1&p=1
* Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007(MOSS 2007) And Microsoft CRM Integration http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/MOSS_2007-CRM_Integration.asp

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Common URL Links

2007-05-11T18:18:00.000+10:00

When adding new records in CRM, it could involve many clicks. So how can we simplify the steps involved in adding new records?

You can create Microsoft CRM records directly using the following links below (Assuming your CRM url is http://crm:5555):

- For Accounts: http://crm:5555/SFA/accts/edit.aspx
- For Contacts: http://crm:5555/SFA/conts/edit.aspx
- For Opportunities: http://crm:5555/SFA/opps/edit.aspx
- For Cases: http://crm:5555/CS/cases/edit.aspx
- For Products: http://crm:5555/Products/product/edit.aspx
- For E-mail: http://crm:5555/Activities/task/edit.aspx
- For Task: http://crm:5555/Activities/task/edit.aspx
- For Campaigns: http://crm:5555/MA/camps/edit.aspx
- For Custom Entities: http://crm:5555/UserDefined/edit.aspx?etc=[objectTypeCode]

Where [objectTypeCode] is the code for your custom entity. This number starts from 10000 and increments for each entity that is created.

The object type code can also be checked at:
http://crm:5555/sdk/list.aspx

These could potentially be bookmarked, placed in links lists with SharePoint, or on any other web page.

If you were to edit existing records, the following query string would be added to the URL of choice above:
?id={[GUID]}
For example,
http://crm:5555/SFA/conts/edit.aspx?id={A1D15D8B-9BFF-DB11-9AD6-0003FFB88FB7}

GUID's are generated by CRM when a record is created. This value is stored in the CRM SQL database and can be retrieve via the query string when viewing a record in CRM.

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - SDK V3.0.7 Updated

2007-05-08T00:33:00.000+10:00

Microsoft Released a MS CRM 3.0.7 SDK on the 1st of May 2007.

To read more about the SDK and download the SDK follow this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9C178B68-3A06-4898-BC83-BD14B74308C5&displaylang=en

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - c360's Word Mail Merge

2007-04-29T20:03:00.000+10:00

A while back, I mentioned that MSCRM-AddOns.com released a version of Word Mail Merge that integrates with SharePoint (http://sharepointsix.blogspot.com/2007/03/ms-crm-30-updated-addon-for-crm.html).

A few weeks ago, c360 also released a version with equivalent functionality:
http://www.c360.com/WordMailMerge.aspx

Word Mail Merge allows you to merge CRM data into Word documents and save it to SharePoint directly!

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Hiding Tabs and Fields

2007-04-24T18:20:00.000+10:00

Sometimes there comes a need to hide fields and tabs in a CRM entity form (including System fields which we can't get rid of). You can't delete them during customisation because they have been locked. The attributes associated with these fields are Business Required, and cannot be modified. What can you do?

Rather than hiding a field at a time, we can hide the these fields by moving them into a "hidden" tab. Here's the trick to do this:
-In the OnLoad event of the form, insert the following code and enable the Event.

crmForm.all.tab4Tab.style.display="none";

Where "tab4Tab" is is the ID of the tab. The only thing you need to change is the integer. The number corresponds to the order of the tab. The order number begins with a 0.

Make sure the OnLoad Event has been enabled, and make sure you test the code in preview mode before publishing the changes. Keep in mind that there are limitations to this approach, as only eight tabs are allowed at most in each form.

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Useful SharePoint Integration Links

2007-04-17T14:38:00.000+10:00

The following are links from the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 site, which contain tutorials and elements useful for integrating Microsoft CRM data/functionality into SharePoint. Have fun!

* The List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 (Installed on any SharePoint Web Part Page)
http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/using/deploy/crmwebpart.mspx#EWB

* Create a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 dashboard with SharePoint Portal Server
http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/using/deploy/integratesharept.mspx

* Displaying Microsoft CRM Business Data in SharePoint Web Parts
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms913709.aspx

* Display a SharePoint document library in a Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 form
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms913709.aspx

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - E-mail Tracking in the CRM client for Microsoft Outlook

2007-04-02T23:53:00.000+10:00

If your tracking functionality is either disabled (grayed out) or if Outlook prompts you to say that you have insufficient permissions to track an e-mail, it probably is because the role of the user for which you have logged into the system with, does not have the appropriate permissions.

In order to allow the tracking of e-mails, the user needs to be able to:
1) Create a new activity (Since tracking an E-mail essentially means creating an activity in MS CRM 3.0)
2) Read and Append to queues (For the CRM E-mail Router to read the original e-mail from the CRM mailbox)

Hence, the role that needs tracking permissions shall have the following checked:
1) Create permissions for Activities
2) Read and Append to permissions for Queues

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Mobile Clients

2007-03-31T22:37:00.000+10:00

I was surfing around and found some very interesting CRM Client products for the mobile device! Check them out below...

CRM Client for the BlackBerry:
http://www.tendigits.com/

CRM Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0:
http://www.gotdotnet.com/codegallery/codegallery.aspx?id=8e65fc13-4073-406c-879c-442faf78f2c8

Note: The 2nd link (GotDotNet) is due to be phased out on 24/Apr/2007 - if you want to download the client, do it quick!

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - New CRM 3.0.6 SDK

2007-03-31T19:23:00.000+10:00

Microsoft Released a MS CRM 3.0.6 SDK on the 29th of March 2007.

To read more about the SDK and download the SDK follow this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9C178B68-3A06-4898-BC83-BD14B74308C5&displaylang=en

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live - Sneak Peaks...

2007-03-26T15:15:00.000+10:00

I was looking around the web looking for Microsoft Dymanics Live news... and found this EXCITING site with screen shots:

http://www.microsoftdynamicslive.com/default.htm

The web site is all about Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM, CRM as an online service. It mentions that "The first set of processes that will be available online are the marketing, sales and service capabilities offered within Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM."

Process: AdCentre Integration
This screen shot shows the AdCentre Integration, which is really a central location to access all online marketing campaigns. It integrates with Microsoft AdCenter (https://adcenter.microsoft.com/Default.aspx).

Source:
http://www.microsoftdynamicslive.com/adcenter_screenshot.htm

Collaboration: Collaboration Screen
This screen shows how you accounts in your CRM can be setup to become partners whom can collaborate with your organisation!

Note that this Microsoft Dynamics Live service also allows for "both structured information from ERP and CRM systems and unstructured information in the form of documents to be connected via SharePoint technology."

Pretty neat! It even allows you to control access to certain Web Parts (Campaign Activities, Campaign Art, Campaign Budget, Campaign Documents, Contacts and Planning Tasks)!

Source:
http://www.microsoftdynamicslive.com/collaboration_screenshot.htm

I can't wait to get my hands on it!

SharePoint 2003 & 2007: SharePoint 2003 to 2007 CSS Style sheets

2007-03-21T23:42:00.000+11:00

I was having a look at the differences in the Styles used in SharePoint 2003 and SharePoint 2007. I discovered that whilst most of the CSS styles are available, many have been rewritten in SharePoint 2007. In addition to that, these styles have now been placed in different CSS files!

The 2003 Generation:
In WSSv2, all SharePoint styles are defined in OWS.CSS in the folder on the SharePoint host Server:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\STYLES\OWS.CSS

In SharePoint Portal 2003, in addition to the styles in WSSv2, extra styles are defined in SPS.CSS in:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\STYLES\SPS.CSS

The 2007 Generation:
In WSSv3, all SharePoint styles are defined in CORE.CSS in the folder on the SharePoint host Server:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\STYLES\CORE.CSS

In MOSS 2007, in addition to the styles in WSSv3, extra styles are defined in PORTAL.CSS in:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\STYLES\PORTAL.CSS

I also found in the folder, a group of other CSS files...

* Calendar.CSS
* Control.CSS
* Core.CSS
* datepicker.CSS
* EWRDefault.CSS
* Help.CSS
* HtmlEditorCustomStyles.CSS
* HtmlEditorTableFormats.CSS
* Menu.CSS
* OWSNOCR.CSS
* PORTAL.CSS
* RCA.CSS
* SiteManagerCustomStyles.CSS

Where else could CSS call a home?
In SharePoint 2007, theres an ability to package your page layouts, site templates, etc as a Feature. In the following folder, you may find the CSS style sheets to such Features:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\PublishingLayouts\en-us

CSS Styles...
Wondering what styles are for, and how they look like? Heather Solomon's written some references for these styles for both SharePoint 2003 and SharePoint 2007.

SharePoint 2003 CSS Reference Chart
http://www.heathersolomon.com/content/sp03cssreference.htm

SharePoint 2007 CSS Reference Chart
http://www.heathersolomon.com/content/sp07cssreference.htm

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Updated Addon for CRM

2007-03-08T09:39:00.000+11:00

About 2 weeks ago, Mscrm-addons.com released a new version of the WordMailMerge add-on.

The new features are rather "Powerful" as it integrates with SharePoint. Using MSCRM-Addons.com's WordMailMerge, you can now generate documents with CRM data, and save it directly to your SharePoint Sites! Wonderful, if you are using Sharepoint to store and share your documents.

And the goodness doesn't just stop there! You can now even store the WordMailMerge Document templates in Sharepoint! So no more of those shared-folder days... Links to your generated documents can be attached to your CRM letter activities. SWEET!

The following is a screenshot of their customisation:

And two links to demo videos from MSCRM-Addons:
1. Create letter and save it into Sharepoint
2 . Send a created letter as PDF and save it into Sharepoint

Source MSCRM-ADDONS.com: http://www.mscrm-addons.com/Default.aspx?tabid=82

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - What updates should you install?

2007-03-06T17:52:00.001+11:00

We should always install the latest patches on the CRM server and clients... Here are some useful links to these updates.

MS CRM 3.0 Update Rollup 1 (Released 11/30/2006):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=08BADB01-4984-458E-96E6-4F08622CFE63&displaylang=en

For a list of the fixes in the Update Rollup 1 (Last Reviewed: 26/02/2007):
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=922815

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 clients for Microsoft Office Outlook Compatibility Update (If Using Vista and Office 2007)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=740E1B3B-11C3-4AEF-B2E3-8309E0CF1BB0&displaylang=en

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Using MS CRM 3.0 without Microsoft Exchange

2007-03-02T08:45:00.000+11:00

In a previous post, I mentioned that Microsoft CRM 3.0 could be used without Microsoft Exchange. The following table is an extract from a Microsoft White Paper regarding the options available for MS CRM 3.0 when MS Exchange is not available:

For the full White Paper, refer to:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2417E918-2E30-41DB-A3B2-2F800BF76FFE&displaylang=en

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - C360.com and MS-CRM-ADD-ONS.com Word Mail Merge

2007-02-20T18:13:00.000+11:00

I was looking online for some good add-on software to do better mail merges in MS Word with MS CRM 3.0 data. Here's some add-ons available:

* c360 Word Mail Merge
* MSCRM-ADDONs.com Word Mail Merge
* Microsoft Business Data Lookup Snap-in for MS CRM 3.0

It appears that C360 and MSCRM-ADDONs.com are selling the same software but just branded differently. Interestingly enough, their pricing on Word Mail Merge appears to be the same. C360 provides revised user guides, and sometimes more bug fixes to Word Mail Merge. Yet, MSCRM-ADDONs.com provides an extra add-on called "AutoMerge", which works with MSCRM-ADDONs.com's Word Mail Merge to generate documents as part of a MS CRM 3.0 workflow!

Hang in there, because there's always a third option (which is free!) - the BDL Snap-in. This Snap-in is available for Microsoft Word/Excel 2003, and 2007 and provides an interface to browse through MS CRM 3.0 data. It also allows the user to attach a document to a CRM entity or activity. Nice. One BIG BUT! This snap-in doesn't seem to work with MS Word fields/Mail merge. It simply inserts text into your document.

So what is your choice here? Stick with these options? or... reinvent the wheel? Test these products out, and find out for yourself. If you need custom development, I could always be reached douglas.leung@uniqueworld.net :)

Here's some useful links:
* MSCRM-ADDONS.com http://www.mscrm-addons.com/
* C360 http://www.C360.com/
* Microsoft Dynamics Snap-ins http://www.gotdotnet.com/codegallery/codegallery.aspx?id=b44f8ee7-4d2b-4e39-9bfb-1119fffbe018

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - E-mail Classification

2007-02-19T19:14:00.000+11:00

In a recent UniqueWorld project for a customer, there was a need for all outgoing e-mails to be attached with a E-mail Classification.

This requirement was simple, yet it posed many challenges for Microsoft CRM 3.0 e-mail approaches (Send Direct E-mail, Send E-mail, Quick Campaigns). After much research and development, an awesome solution was finally reached! The solution integrates with the MS CRM 3.0 Web/Outlook Clients and proved to be a great success.

If you have similar issues with E-mail Classification in your organisation, please do not hesitate to contact UniqueWorld!

Our website is @ http://www.uniqueworld.net. Alternatively, contact me on douglas.leung@uniqueworld.net.

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Regular updates and hotfixes

2007-02-19T08:48:00.000+11:00

One of our customers at UniqueWorld asked me about Microsoft CRM 3.0 updates and hotfixes, so I thought I might include this URL in my blog:
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 updates and hotfixes
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908951/en-us

This site is updated and maintained by Microsoft on a regular basis, so do make sure this is your first point to look when you have problems with your MS CRM 3.0 installation.

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - MS CRM 3.0 E-mail Router supports Microsoft Exchange 2007

2007-02-17T16:50:00.000+11:00

In addition to the previous post on the updates to the CRM 3.0 Clients for MS Outlook 2007, there is also an update available for the CRM back-end. Introducing an update to the CRM E-mail router!

Q: What does it do?
A: "This update allows the distribution of Microsoft Dynamics CRM e-mail message forwarding rules to mailboxes that are located on computers running Exchange Server 2007.
...The two components that are installed and configured are as follows:
* The Microsoft Dynamics CRM-Exchange E-mail Router Service
* The Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Rule Deployment Wizard"

This is an awesome update providing that the MS CRM 3.0 E-mail Router couldn't be installed on MS Exchange 2007. So here's where to download it:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f7656f0f-4195-4a7d-b654-2786787e1422&displaylang=en

What is Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 E-mail Router?
This is an optional component of Microsoft CRM 3.0, which when installed provides the ability for Microsoft CRM 3.0 to incoming/outgoing track e-mails. MS CRM 3.0 would still function without the e-mail router, however, it would mean e-mail tracking will become unavailable.

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - CRM 3.0 Client for Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Windows Vista Support

2007-02-17T16:31:00.000+11:00

Microsoft released (on 5/01/2007) an update to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 clients for Outlook. This update enables the support of the client for Windows Vista-based and Microsoft Office 2007-based systems.

Like its predessor releases of the CRM Client, there are two clients, namely:
* The desktop client (For multi users with individual logins)
* The laptop client (For only one user, working offline).

The installation files, implementation guide and related files can be downloaded Here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=740E1B3B-11C3-4AEF-B2E3-8309E0CF1BB0&displaylang=en

Microsoft Office 2007 - Extending the User Interface

2007-02-15T19:17:00.000+11:00

When MS Office 2007 was released, you can't disagree with the fact that one of the biggest highlights was the User Interface! I went to a Office 2007 Beta Developer Deep Dive course and they taught us how to extend ribbons and the user interface, now on MSDN, they teach you the lot in detail! It's definitely awesome what you can do with these ribbons!

Go check it out:
* Extend The 2007 Office System With Your Own Ribbon Tabs And Controls
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/02/ribbonx/

* Ribbon
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905530.aspx

* Jensen Harris' Office Blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/

Microsoft CRM 4.0 - The next version codenamed "Titan"?

2007-02-15T18:56:00.000+11:00

I've had this article typed up a while ago, but only then did I have the time to publish it! Anyhow, I am extremely excited about the next version of MS CRM 4.0.

And as the Microsoft Announcement article says:

Jan. 10, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that it is previewing the next major release of Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM — code-named “Titan” — with a broad range of partners through the company’s Technology Adoption Program (TAP). The new version introduces an advanced multitenant architecture, and uses a single code base to support on-premise deployments as well as software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployments through hosting partners and through the upcoming Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM service....

...The “Titan” release is an evolution of the popular Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 product, and will offer a smooth upgrade path for existing on-premise and SaaS customers. It reinforces Microsoft’s long-term strategy to provide customers with the power of choice, with the ability to choose on-premise or SaaS deployments and access rich CRM capabilities within Microsoft^® Office Outlook^®, through a Web browser, and from a broad range of mobile devices...

...The “Titan” release of Microsoft CRM and the new Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM service are targeted for mid-2007. The Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM service will initially be available in North America; plans for international expansion of the service will be announced at a later time...

I got overly excited over "Titan" and therefore went straight to talking to our Microsoft Counterpart to join in the TAP scheme! Check this blog more for the good news!

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Entity Identifiers "GUIDs" and Importing Contacts

2007-01-22T01:37:00.000+11:00

GUIDs
I've read quiet some articles on google groups about GUIDs in CRM. So what are they? They're simply Unique Identifiers which MS CRM 3.0 uses to identify various entities.

These GUIDs can be found in the CRM SQL databases or in the entity detail window:

*When you get to the contact detail window, press CTRL-N to open the page up in a new window with an address bar.

Usually if you have an account linked from a contact, you will find in the SQL database table ContactBase a column, which contains GUIDs which correspond to accounts, and a column, which contains the owners/CRM Users GUID. It is not best practice to modify data directly from the CRM SQL database, but when the need comes, it does work. Make sure you backup your database before doing so!

If you need to update Account information, the data is stored in the AccountBase table.

Importing CRM contacts
When exporting CRM contact lists and importing them again, you will it may give you an error if you also include the contacts relating Account. The way to link these up in a csv file is to include the GUIDs of the Accounts in the Account column in the CSV export file. I managed to get this working nicely :)

Speaking of which, remember to remove all carriage returns and line breaks as well as double quotes from the original data before importing!

Microsoft CRM 3.0 - Hiding Views

2007-01-22T00:12:00.000+11:00

Scenario
Doesn't it get annoying when you see CRM 3.0's system views which came out of the box?? You can't delete them either!

The solution? Simple. Create a Team called "Hidden", and add the views you want to hide to the team. Remember not to assign any CRM user the the team, and presto!

Proves to be a good work around. Enjoy!

The Fix
To make a new team, login as Administrator and goto: Workspace > Settings > Business Unit Settings > New

To add a System View as a share item to the team you've just created goto: Workplace > Settings > Customizations > Customize > Contacts > Forms and Views

Double click on the System View to open the View Window, and select Actions > Sharing...

Select the Hidden team created and click OK:

Notice how the public view has become a private view:

Lastly, publish the contacts entity to submit the changes.