SharePoint 2010 has some amazing integration with Office 2010. For instance, if you are creating a meeting invitation in Outlook, and you want to create a Meeting Workspace in SharePoint 2010 for the meeting, you can do so with just a few clicks of the mouse directly from Outlook while creating the meeting notice, and the invitees will be automatically added to the SharePoint Meeting Workspace, provided they have access permissions on the site.
However, Microsoft has hidden the menu items that will let you carry out this action, so you first have to make the menu item “Meeting Workspace” available in the new meeting form in Outlook. Click here to download and watch a short video that shows you how to do that.
If you prefer reading to watching a video, this blog post from Glyn Clough explains it also.
Happy SharePointing!
(NOTE: This post only relates to SharePoint Server 2010, sometimes referred to as the Enterprise version of SharePoint. )
SharePoint Server 2010 allows web databases to be created in MS Access, then published to a SharePoint Server site. Access Services running on the SharePoint Server site powers the database in the browser.
I’ve been having problems getting reports to display correctly in the browser, in 3 environments. Here’s what was needed to solve the problem. Maybe this will help someone else.
1. VM environment
In my own virtual machine, I had to turn on ASP.Net session state (not to be confused with State Service). This post by Mark Arend showed me what I needed to do. His explanation made it very easy, and my reports started working correctly.
2. Hosted SharePoint environment
I have a commercially hosted SharePoint Server 2010 environment that I use for development and testing. Reports were not working in that environment. Here’s the error message I was receiving:
They turned on session state, and the reports were still not working. But now, the error message was slightly different:
I googled the error message and found this post by Jonathan Masts that led to a technet article that explained how “To install the Reporting Services Add-in for Connected Mode”. My host provider followed step 3 of that section of the article (modify the rsreportserver.config file to add the ADS extension) and voila! my reports worked like a charm! I’m guessing that ADS stands for Access Data Services.
3. Client environment
I’m doing some development work for a client, and I’m getting the same “ADS” error I was getting in the hosted environment after they turned on session state. Hopefully, this post will provide the fix needed to get the reports working in that environment as well.
Happy SharePointing!
Keith Hudson
My proposed term for someone who is skilled at helping business users analyze their business processes and streamline them using SharePoint automated solutions built entirely with the SharePoint GUI and SharePoint Designer.
I witnessed an exchange on a SharePoint discussion group recently that caused me some thought. It illustrated what I believe is a need for new language concerning SharePoint. It also raised a warning about how IT sometimes jumps to conclusions, to the disservice of many.
Someone new to SharePoint whom I’ll call Jane (names changed) posted (among other things):
“I am VERY new to SharePoint and would like to gain skills and knowledge.” No mention of what areas of SharePoint were of interest to Jane, except that she is a contractor and can’t expect to get any training from the company for whom she is working.
In response, a very kind SharePointer (I’ll call him Fred) offered his advice as follows: Continue reading
Here is a post I just put up at www.spmastery.com
When creating a workflow in SPD 2007 that sends an email, you can put text in the subject line, like this:
I’ve started a videocast called Sharepoint Mastery Showcase on my site at www.spmastery.com. Check out the first episode.
Let me know what you think of it, and what topics you’d like to see addressed in the future.
(cross-posted from www.spmastery.com)
1. If you want to move a virtual image from one folder to another (to clean up your folder structure, for instance), you can’t just move the vdi file – you have to register it in VirtualBox so it knows where to find it. Once you have moved the vdi file in Windows Explorer, start a command prompt and go to the folder holding the vdi file. Issue the command: vboxmanage.exe internalcommands sethduuid <vdiname.vid> (where <vdiname.vdi> is the name of the vdi file, including the extension).
2. Now go into Virtual Box, select File/ File/Virtual Media Manager/Add and select the vdi file from its new location.
3. At the Virtual Box main menu, select New to start the Virtual Machine Wizard.
4. Name your new machine, select the appropriate operating system, then go the next page and allocate memory to it.
5. On the next page of the Wizard (Virtual Hard Disk) select “Use existing hard disk” instead of “Create New Hard Disk”. Navigate to and select the moved vdi image. Then click on “Finish” to create the virtual machine.
This method creates a new virtual machine in Virtual Box. You can delete the old machine from Virtual Box.
Has anyone experimented with moving an existing virtual machine without using the “New” wizard in Virtual Box? I haven’t succeeded yet in accomplishing this.
(cross-posted from www.spmastery.com)
I’m creating a virtual machine for Sharepoint 2010 in Virtual Box right now. When you are creating a virtual machine in Virtual Box, it’s a great idea to create a base image and clone it in order to save steps if you need a second virtual machine, or you mess up on the first one and have to redo it. (See my blog article [here] on cloning a VirtualBox Virtual Machine to learn how to make the clone).
Here’s what I include in my base image:
Server 2008 R2
Guest Additions
Shared Folder
By including all those things in my base image, I can keep all my installation files on my host machine in the shared folder, and access them quickly from the virtual image.
I also include in the description for each virtual image the password for the image, and notes about what that virtual image contains.
I hope this is helpful to you.
(cross-posted from www.spmastery.com)
While setting up a virtual Sharepoint 2010 environment, I learned some lessons about using Virtual Box, Oracle’s free virtualization software. NOTE: I’m running Windows 7 Pro on a machine with 8 GB of ram.
Here’s what I did to clone a base virtual machine so I would not have to start from scratch if I ran into problems.
1. I added the VirtualBox program folder to my path variable in My Computer by going to Computer/Properties/Systems Settings/Advanced System Settings/Environment Variables/System Variable and editing the Path variable. That saves me from having to use the full path for the VBoxManager.exe executable every time I want to use it.
2. I took a snapshot of the current state of the VM, then collapsed the snapshots into the parent image. (Instructions for doing so can be found at http://srackham.wordpress.com/cloning-and-copying-virtualbox-virtual-machines/. Note that VirtualBox’s verbiage is confusing. Discarding a snapshot means to combine it with the parent image. In the version of VirtualBox I am using (v (3.2.8) the command is “delete snapshot” rather than “discard snapshot”.
3. In Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer), I made a copy of the vdi file. The vdi file was 8.05 GB in size, and the copy operation took about 6 minutes. I renamed the vdi file to meet my needs.
4. At a command prompt, I navigated to the folder where the vdi file was located, then issued the following command: vboxmanage.exe internalcommands sethduuid <vdiname.vid> (where <vdiname.vdi> is the name of the cloned vdi file, including the extension).
5. In Virtual Box, I selected File/Virtual Media Manager/Add to add a new hard disk image. I navigated to and selected the vdi I had just created so I could now choose it when creating a new virtual machine.
6. At the Virtual Box main menu, I selected New to start the Virtual Machine Wizard.
7. I gave the new machine the same name as the cloned vdi file (not strictly necessary, but it helps me keep them straight), selected the appropriate operating system, and allocated memory to it.
8. On the next page of the Wizard (Virtual Hard Disk) I selected “Use existing hard disk” instead of “Create New Hard Disk”. I navigated to and selected the cloned vdi image. I then clicked on “Finish” to create the virtual machine.
That method of cloning the vdi was much quicker than using the VBoxManager command “clonevdi.”
(cross-posted from www.spmastery.com)
Sharepoint has been around long enough and has matured enough that we need to start letting front line knowledge workers use it to accomplish their tasks, just as we let them use Word, Excel and Access. We need to recognize that along with all else it is capable of, Sharepoint is a wonderful productivity tool for the end user.
Microsoft is missing the boat just as badly on this point as anyone else, I suggest. Every Microsoft Sharepoint certification I have seen is designed for Sharepoint developers, and requires extensive knowledge of both Sharepoint infrastructure and customization. Many companies won’t let their end users have site collection owner permissions in Sharepoint, let alone allow them to use Sharepoint Designer. Sharepoint is now almost 10 years old, and Microsoft has finally announced an end-user certification, but hasn’t yet delivered it.
Its time we recognize that there are several levels of end users, and develop a simple training and certification process so we encourage them to improve their skills and build their own solutions in Sharepoint.
Why not borrow some symbolism from the world of martial arts, as the Six Sigma program has done, and create an easy to understand, easy to administer standard for knowing an end user’s skill level in Sharepoint? I propose the following:
- White Belt: Basic Sharepoint User
- Green Belt: Basic Designer
- Brown Belt: Site Owner
- Black Belt: Site Collection Owner
- Ninja: Advanced design skills using Sharepoint and Sharepoint Designer
In a follow-up article, I will set out the requirements that I think should apply to each of these skill levels.
What do you think? Do we need a new way to think about Sharepoint from an end-user perspective? Or is the old way working just fine?
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