Moving sharepoint around

Using SQL to do the backup and restore seems to be the better method,than using the backup and restore within Sharepoint itself. so here's the skinny from microsoft

To instal sharepoint with SQL on a different box, here is the recipe.

File level restore in sharepoint

Out the box, you can only restore sites, but you could use this little article to rejig the SQL back end to create a recycle bin, again those nice people at MSD2D come up with the goods

Microsoft now has an undelete web part and its only 68k! wow thanks microsoft

Using .CAB files to deploy webparts

It beats the hell out of it deploying web parts the old fashioned way, i.e. compiling the .dll and putting it in the .bin and all the rest of it.

Those boys and girls at MSD2D have an interesting solution using .CAB files

guismigrate: its a cracker

If you're suffering with smigrate try this handy guismigrate tool, its also generates log files in useable formats

Conference at Reading University

On the 13th April Microsoft is hosting a conference entitled:
SharePoint Solutions for Public Sector and Not for Profit Organisations

Looks interesting.

Breadcrumbs and more in sharepoint

Do you find sharepoint navigation a little bit annoying, for example why do I need to go the top right of the page to go up the tree of sites, well as luck would have it, the belgian bomber has done it again with this breadcrumb web part for you to use and enjoy.

Security problems....

The problem as related in MSD2D

"Site groups are automatically applied to the portal’s home area and therefore the whole portal if the sub-area’s security setting is not changed. Moreover, sub-area cannot contain site groups that are not applied to the parent area. This is due to the fact that an area inherits either all or part of the site groups applied to the parent area"

So in the instance that a user is a reader at the home area but admin further down, what can you do?. Well what about

"...creating a security group in AD. In the portal’s “manage users” page, set “domain users” as readers. This will give all the domain users reader’s permission. Then in the “topics\divisions\sales” area’s “Manage Security Settings” page, assign administration permission to domain group “Sales”. After these steps, every member of the “Sales” group will have administrator’s permission regarding “topics\divisions\sales” area and reader’s permission regarding other areas. Later you can add or remove members to or from the “Sales” group to assign or revoke administration permissions to or from actual windows accounts".

mobile users can sychronize off-line content

Digilink seem to have an interesting, and reasonably priced product for allowing the synchronization of data saved offline with sharepoint portal and windows sharepoint services called revelation.

Multi-page surveys how-to

Ted Teng at Msd2d has a trick for tweaking a survey to make it run across multiple pages

Web parts in standard forms

Why can't an administrator have web part gallery access in their standard forms? Well you can, those nice people at MSD2D have a solution which they call a 'Web part farm'

Want to create ASP.NET's on a box that has sharepoint installed?

Two tricks. If the ASP.NET is to work within sharepoint then create the webapplication within /_layouts directory

BUT

If you don't want anything to do with sharepoint, you'll find your sharepoint errors out, so you need to set up an 'excluded managed path' See more in admin help pages.
or
Go to Sharepoint Central Administration
Configure virtual server settings from the virtual server list page
Choose a virtual server
Choose Define Managed paths
and you can exclude a particular virtual directory (amongst other things) from being managed within sharepoint. Upshot you can create an ASP.NET app that has nothing to do with sharepoint.

CAML in the desert

Collaborative Apllication Markup language is what you've been thirsting for, as the microsoft site has it:

Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML) is the XML-based language that is used to build and customize Web sites based on SharePoint™ Team Services from Microsoft®.

CAML can be used to do the following:

* Provide schema definition to the Web site provisioning system about how the site looks and acts.
* Define views and forms for data and page rendering or execution.
* Act as a rendering language that performs functions in the DLL like pulling a value from a particular field.
* Provide batch functionality for posting multiple commands to the server using protocol.

Why would you use CAML as opposed to just using Microsoft FrontPage® or other editing tools?

* To make universal changes, such as adding a new logo to the main pages of every site you create.
* To define a content type, such as for adding Flash movies to the SharePoint team Web site.
* It provides the ultimate in customization and flexibility; manipulating CAML allows you total control over the site provisioning system, for instance, when creating a list or adding a view.

read the whole article

Patrick Tisseghem's : Belgian Bomber

If you don't know, its probably on this blog Also he's a Galaxy 500 fan, in shorts he's an all round good egg.

Put down your web parts!

No more brain ache with web parts instead use user controls!! (that's right the really easy one's to use) and get SMARTPART to do the work for you.

Version 1.0.0.0 of smartparts which allows connectable web parts to be created with user controls and has sorted out some security issues....read more from the man Jan to whom we're all so grateful

A microsoft article written again by Jan Tielens giving all the inside track

wppackager

Install webparts across mulitple servers, use wpackager at the microsoft site

introduction to creating custom controls

Microsoft article should help to understand the for runners of web parts.

open web part links in a new window.

If you need to open links in a new windows those nice people at msd2d have the answer:

This is a no-brainer... I have struggled to figure out how to have my links open in a new browser window and some of the examples I could find out there really looked tough, but thankfully this was far easier that I originally thought. Maybe this will help somebody else. Just create your links list, open the page that has the list view on it in FrontPage and right-click on the list, and click “Convert to XSLT Data View“. After it is converted, you can simply right-click on one of the links and select “Hyperlink Properties” and change the target frame according to your preference

see the whole article here, you may need to register

Getting Usage Statistics on Sharepoint Portal 2003 Areas

This comes from this microsoft blog

"There are pages available in Windows SharePoint Services that will allow you to obtain usage statistics for WSS Sites. However, this is not the case for Areas in SharePoint Portal Server 2003. There are no built-in hyperlinks in the Admin pages for viewing usage statistics for a give Area.

Does this mean that usage statistics are not available for Areas in SPS 2003? No, it just means that you have to know a backdoor URL to get to the pages that display the stats. Here is the format of the URL:

http://{your portal name}/_layouts/1033/usageDetails.aspx

This URL will take you to a usage statistics page for the Home Area of your portal. (Note: the 1003 is the designator for you language, so it will be different if not using U.S. English).

If you want to look at usage statistics for a Subarea, for instance, News, you would modify the URL to look as follows:

http://{your portal name}/News/_layouts/1033/usageDetails.aspx"

Microsoft eat their own dog food!

Why hasn't Microsoft designed its site in Sharepoint? they have and they call the process eating our own dog food, see how it tastes, I think you'll find it's chock full of tasty morsels of sharepoint information.

Style sheets and accessibility

Each user can have their own choice of style sheet with which, for example, they could get a personalized view of sharepoint. How!? you cry, in I.E. you can specify a bespoke style sheet for your users, see how here.

Need a help file for users to understand the basics of sharepoint?

Here is a help file from Microsoft for non-technical users to aid them in performing those everyday tasks

Want to customize just about anything in sharepoint portal?

Look no further than this microsoft articledescribing the SPS CSS style sheet reference.

sharepoint SDK and code example

Sharepoint SDK and handy C# code examples, there's talk of them eventually doing them in VB.NET. Check out the skinny on editing templates and themes.

Free sharepoint development tools

Free development tools from ontolica very cool

Another microsoft wonk with a useful page of links

Lamont Harrington with some very useful stuff about sharepoint.

User training and sharepoint

What about showing users how to do what they want within sharepoint using captivate by macromedia. This could be used to create walk-throughs demonstrating the process of creating areas, lists and so forth.

information architecture for Sharepoint

microsoft introduction to structuring your portal

Wiki vs Sharepoint

An argument between some open-source Wiki enthusiasts and Sharepoint portal prognosticators who will win, you be judge

Web part library add-on for visual studio

WebPartTemplatesforVSNetSample2.EXE

Is SPS and XP SP2 a good idea?

Well the story is a little mixed but Paul Thurrot has done a survey see what you think.

Don't forget if you've got XP SP2 and Virtual PC 2004 you'll need to put on SP1 for PC 2004

Beautiful CSS design

A list apart will show you how to create cross browser enabled, usability aware cascading style sheets. In particular check out their sliding doors example.

As a weary coder you may find consolation at the Zen Garden

Need economical bullshit?

Look no further

Where's the HTML viewer then?

Its here

what's the difference between spin.exe and spout.exe

As the rwhitepaper advanced migration scenarios says:

"The two document library migration tools developed by Microsoft are Spout.exe and Spin.exe. Spout.exe, the Document Library Export Tool, is a Microsoft Windows program that reads Web Storage System–based document libraries and exports (or outputs) the selected content as a collection of files in a format that is understood by the import program. Spin.exe, the Document Library Import Tool, is a Windows command-line program that reads the collection of files created by Spout.exe and adds the documents and associated descriptive information to the selected portal area, portal site, team site, or personal Web site on the server running SharePoint Portal Server 2003"

stsadmn getting you down?

Try this GUI from microsoft

or read this article which should help understanding the backup scenarios that it can be used within

xtra office web parts

For free and gratis web parts to allow pivot tables in sharepoint and much much more.

SQL query your SPS using natural language queries...

Microsoft SharePointPSSearch SQL Syntax Get at the SQL syntax to build your own search based functionality.

RSS feeder web part

This smiling goat provides an RSS feeder and from what it looks like some other interesting web part related things.

Undeleters and Document management add-ons

sharepoint experts so they would have you believe, home of the 'power recycyler' tool, which pretty much as its name suggests undeletes data deleted from sharepoint portal server.

NintexA horrible looking site, but powerful tools allowing undeleting, audit trails and oh so much more.

web parts partially demystified

web part checklist A web part checklist before you can trully say 'it works.'

Useful links

SPS FAQ A Very useful site, which contains links to useful information on the microsoft site

Windows sharepoint demo lots of information though the article about editing the links template is enigmatic.

Sharepoint customizationDon't be put off by the lurid colour nor the Front page logo there is some solid informtion about sharepoint just bejond the first page.

Eric's links has some links that he would like to share and we thank him for them.

A microsoft wonks blog but hey its full of useful information, so who are we to complain.

Another microsoft employee's sharepoint centric weblog Userful webparts given away for free and gratis who could ask for anything more.