Happy Earth Day!

Howdy everyone!

It's Earth Day today, http://www.earthday.gov/, and in a bit of interesting timing, it's also the first day of the SharePoint VConference (virtual conference) over at the SSWUG site: https://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring09/sharepoint/.

Participating in virtual events are a great way to be green, as you save money on travel, hotel, wear and tear on your luggage, clothing, you, etc.

This time, for this vconference, I did sessions concerning getting the most out of WSS, seeing as many of us (all of us?) need to be able to stretch our time and dollars as far as we can. The sessions start with exploring the built-in web parts available with WSS. The point of the session, for me, was to give you an idea as to what's available in order to have you consider how useful they can be for you. Exploring, very, very quickly, the settings, views, zones, and configuration of the web parts. In addition, I have to admit that I was also focusing on getting the audience to understand web parts so they can use them for dashboards.

Why? Because the second session took those web parts, well at least the list view and content editor web parts, and make them into dashboards. I created two dashboards, one for users and one for management, during the session, securing them as well, then added them to the quick launch. Part of what I was doing with the dashboards was preparing you for the idea of having the resources of a site self-contained in that site.

Why? Because the final session was how, after setting up nice web parts and good dashboards, you can create a template out of the site itself. So it helps to show you how and why, first hand, centralized resources are useful in a site.

The final session, of course, covers how to create a site template out of the site used in the previous two sessions. It starts with what to consider, self-references, how to maximize the size limit for templates, how to create the site template, how to apply a site template, and then how to check to see if it really works and how to tweak it to be appropriate in the new place. I focus in particular as to what you might want to do with a site template, and what to worry about.

(and, because I had one minute and thirty seconds left, I tossed in a "contact us" page and showed an example of using google maps in the content editor web part by using the source editor-- just for those who stuck it out for all three sessions)

Now, for you, my dear readers, I will give you some insights into the sessions from my view, behind the scenes. Last time I recorded vconference sessions, I was really, really nervous and was suffering from a bit of food poisoning (had to eat at an airport on the way there...). This time, I had some real problems on the flight there (lost luggage, delayed flights, then cancelled flights, then a really, really late arrival-- 3 am my time), didn't get to sleep until 5am my time.

Needless to say, I was pretty groggy while at the studio. Sigh.

For the session slides, I was torn. I could have a few graphic filled slides and all demos, or I could have text that could be used as notes so attendees could use them later and a lot of demos. I went for word filled slides, and simply stated that I wouldn't be reading them all during the session, just hitting the highlights. I did try to go over as many as I could to a certain extent, but I also did simply do much of the content, then just gave some slides a mention.

Also, I was really afraid, because I was going to be going so fast to build web parts, dashboards, then site templates, that I was going to lose the more inexperienced viewers. So I might've gone too slow during the explanation portion of the session (tell them what you're going to do, tell them/show them how to do it, tell them what you did). If so, please forgive me, dear readers, I meant well. ; P

Finally, my big issue is, I am used to presenting exactly 1, 1.5, 3, or 6 hour sessions. For this vconference, I had fifty minutes. That's it. I lost ten minutes out of my carefully crafted Frugal Admin content.

And it did kick my butt a little. But, I tried to avoid compromising the content as much as I could.

So now you know, this is where I was while doing my sessions for this conference. I was exhausted, distracted by the truncated time, worried about not giving enough backstory so the attendees could follow along, worried about pacing (because of the loss of the ten minutes and my exhausted habit of rambling-- made worse when I am alone in a room instead of having a live audience), and determined to give you as much hands on proof of what works and what it looks like as I could.

If you want to see what I am talking about, my session are going to be broadcast tomorrow, Weds., April 23rd, 2009. If you are interested, feel free to register (not free, but pretty cheap) for the vconference at http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring09/sharepoint/. Feel free to use my tell-a-friend code VCTAF502105-0, or the discount code SPVCCASP09. Keep in mind that you can also sign up for the on-demand feature, meaning you can download the videos to see review later.

Another thing to keep in mind concerning sessions you've downloaded, is you can pause and rewind the video so if, during the live session, there was a bit that went too fast, with the on-demand version, download it, and rerun the session, pause where you need it.

Just a thought. : )

Happy Earth Day everybody!!

Okay, NOW the book is on Safari

I've been recovering from the flu for the last several weeks (man, that fatigue never seems to go away...), so I've been a bit behind in keeping up with my emails.

Imagine my surprise when I received an email from Safari Books Online saying that my book is live on their site.

So, with great fanfare I would like to report that my book, "Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0" has been available on Safari Online, http://www.safaribooksonline.com/, since the 26th of March (meaning it's definitely there now).

If you've been looking for it, feel free to use this link: http://techbus.safaribooksonline.com/9780470127285.

Safari books online offers digitized versions of technical books for use as part of a subscription service. In some cases, depending on the publisher, the books can be downloaded in part or whole.

So for those of you looking for a digital version of the book, this might be the place for you.

As for those of you that simply wanted to buy my book in PDF format directly from Amazon or Wiley-- well, the publisher still can't seem to figure out what happened with the digital version of the book...

...Meanwhile, the people over at Safari books online went out of their way to laboriously digitize 1100 pages of WSS goodness themselves. I am grateful. : )

Let me know what you think of the digitized version by the way. I for one would simply be glad for an easier way to search for content than what's available in the hard copy book now.

I'd also like to give a shout out to Yolanda and Asif, who both pinged me with updates concerning my book's digital debut delays. I bet your help, especially Yolanda's, were essential for the eventual availability of my book online. Thanks.

More things for the Frugal Admin to talk about-- SharePoint Designer is now free

Howdy everybody.

As of today, SharePoint Designer is available as a download for anyone to install-- for free. That's right, free. Download it here (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/FX100487631033.aspx).

And because it's free, I can add it to my Frugal Admin series.

So far the series currently consists of sessions that focus on getting the most out of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for free. Some of the sessions build, such as how to get the most out of the built-in web parts, then how to make dashboards out of those web parts, and then how to create a site template out of the site you just set up with all those nifty web parts and dashboards.

I also had standalone sessions, like how to exploit the internet for great, free WSS related stuff, how to setup Active Directory Account Creation Mode, and tips and tricks concerning setting up external access, portals, etc.

Now I can also add the icing to the cake to get more out of WSS-- using SharePoint Designer 2007. I hope to have sessions up for the last two quarters of 2009 concerning using SPD to customize WSS (branding, master pages, etc), increase the usefulness of lists, web parts, workflows, and more. Stay tuned for more info on these sessions and were to see them later in the year.

Darned docx and other trials and tribulations...

I have been doing a lot of beta testing in an attempt to get on top of the new OS versions coming out (Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2). I am going to have to do a lot of work in them once they release, so I felt it important to work on the different features while they were in beta, so if I needed support there'd be lots of it.

And I know that once WSS goes into beta, I will be very distracted with testing that and no longer spending time on the OS's.

When I beta test an OS, I spend a lot of time building various iterations of virtual machines containing different types of installs and configurations. Also, I tend to spend a lot of time on the desktop of said OS, installing things, doing work, trying to see what works, what breaks, and what's significantly changed.

This also means that, while I am on these desktops, life goes on. I get emails with attachments, read the newsgroups, etc.

But, because those test machines, no matter what I do on them, can be wiped at any time and reloaded, I need to avoid installing anything that takes a lot of time, or requires a lot of licensing.

This means that I tend to avoid installing Office, because of the need to activate. Even Word Viewer is rather annoying because I have to install it, then the darned file converter-- and still it can't seem to open all docx files cleanly.

So what happens when I am working on one of those test machines and I receive an email with a docx attachment?

Well, I can pay for, download, and install a docx converter. That works pretty well. But that means that the file is now a .doc file, and I can't save it as a docx file to send it back (like the case of an application-- in docx of course-- that I had to fill out and send back, pronto).

I tried open office, I tried star office, abiword, and google apps. No such luck.

Then I stumbled upon a simple online word processor that I'd tested years and years ago, along side Writely (which was bought by Google)-- Zoho Writer.

Simple, innocent Zoho Writer, not fast, not elegant, can easily open and save docx files without fuss. Yes, some of the formatting is lost, but most of it, the parts that count, stay.

So if you absolutely, positively have to open that file and read it (and even edit it) right away-- then zoho writer (http://www.zohowriter.com/) might be the choice for you.

((and it's also nice because I don't need to install anything, anywhere. it's all online, so if I can activate the machine, I can read those pesky attachments))

It's those little things we find that become the most useful. Especially if those things are free, which zohowriter is.

Speaking of free, and things that can be installed easily on machines that may be wiped and reinstalled at will-- I also have been messing with portable apps (http://portableapps.com/). I've known about them for a while, but really didn't get into them that much because I often work with virtual machines that don't support removable USB drives and the like. But Windows 7 has driven me to it.

I am not really against IE8, but it is really, really slow to download anything. And, in their infinite wisdom, MS has removed the built-in email, calendar, and newsgroups client from Windows 7. So if I want to have those things to use, I am encouraged to install Windows Live, which I really don't like.

So Windows 7 doesn't have email, calendar, contacts, or newsgroups capability. And IE8 is an okay browser, but really bites for download management.

What's a grrl to do?

Why download the portableapps suite of course. It contains, among other things, a portable version of Abiword (a simple word processor), Mozilla Firefox (which has a download manager), Thunderbird (email), Sunbird (calendar), as well as a Sumatra the PDF reader, Clamwin (a simple antivirus program- no realtime protection though), CoolPlayer + (a media player), and even some games.

The point of portable apps is they are to be installed and run from an external drive or USB stick. That way you can save stuff, pop out the stick (or detach the drive), go to the next machine, and use it from there. Nothing left behind on the other machine except the portableapps menu app.

You can also add a bunch of other apps to the menu for your use-- all open source of course. I personally love and use Audacity, as well as VLC media player. There are literally dozens of useful, small, free apps that you can have access to at a moments notice from any machine running Windows.

For those of you who work with VMs that don't support USB devices, I just created a vhd file as a "second drive." I add it to the machine I need for, and remove it when I am done. Then, if I need it for a different machine, I add it before booting up. I can't hot swap, it's true, but it still works as far as not losing anything. Just remember to save files to the portable apps drive, not to the local "My Documents" (why is the "My" back with Windows 7? Who wanted that?). That way they go with you to the other machine when you move the drive.

Now I know that none of this has anything directly to do with WSS, but they're still nifty things that I thought I might share, for those of you who might find them handy.

Woo hoo! My book's going on Safari!

Howdy,

I know that there have been requests made on this blog, and sent to me directly, requesting a digital form of the "Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0" book. And on that front I have no news.

My editor is working on it...

Meanwhile, I got a request from someone concerning Safari Books Online (http://safaribooksonline.com). They wanted to know why my book wasn't available there.

So being a good girl, I called Safari Books Online to find out. After a few messages and callbacks, I am happy to announce:

Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 will be available on Safari Books Online as of the end of February!

So for those of you who have a subscription, or would like to get one, my book will be available through them very soon.

I consider this a step in the right direction concerning those of you who want my book in digital form.

((please make note, I have no control over how the book is digitized or displayed by the safaribookslonline people. I have no idea what it'll look like, but I'm sure it'll be nice to be able to do a search for terms, rather than thumb through the index.))

Thoughts, plans, hopes, and dreams. Hello and welcome to 2009.

Howdy Everybody.

My apologies, again, for falling behind on my blog.

I'd finished all the work I needed to do for the SSWUG vconference in November, and was working on a two part vcast (of which I have the first half done and mostly edited) that I'd mentioned in one of my last posts, when my video card crapped out. Since, in my case, my video card is part of the motherboard of my machine, I had to wait weeks and weeks for it to be fixed. Falling weeks and weeks behind on blog entries, podcasts, vcasts, and work of any kind that required my trusty laptop.

Then the holidays came. Pushing my productivity down even further.

Then, on January 1st of 2009, I was sent an email congratulating me on being awarded an MVP- SharePoint Services.

Yup, for the year of 2009 at least, I am an MVP! Woo hoo.

That means I will be able to go to the infamous MVP Summit, visit the Redmond campus, meet the program team for WSS in person, and more. This is particularly important as the next version of WSS is right around the corner (well it may not be out til 2010, but there's got to be some beta testing to do), my timing is pretty good.

And now here I am, working on doing some more sessions for the spring SSWUG vconference (more on that in a second), planning for travel to the summit, and trying to get back to my vcasts and other things for this blog.

Concerning working on content for the vconference: I've been thinking of doing a full series of sessions, in part at the conference, or in whole. I may only be able to prep for about three for the conference, and may do the rest here.

You see, I have a problem coming up with titles for my session proposals (which are often, if accepted, used as session abstracts). The content is easier for me, describing just what I am going to do in the session and why that might be interesting. I can do that. But catchy titles? Not so much.

Because I was recently made an MVP I was able to send in some session proposals for TechEd 2009 (of course, I got the MVP code the day of the deadline, so I only had time to send in two). However, I really just didn't feel I did a good job with creating a catchy title for the proposals-- ones that popped, ones that really effectively sold what I was cookin' (so to speak).

Troubled, when I was asked to do some more sessions for SSWUG's vconference in the spring, I wasn't confident that I could really generate some good titles. And everyone knows it's the title that attendees (and the curious) click on. If the title isn't right, no one will bother to read the description.

So I hemmed and hawed, and hemmed some more. I thought of "Super Duper Admin Tricks" and "The Secret Life of WSS: things that even MOSS can't do". But they didn't quite fit for me.

Then I thought of something. Really, a lot of my motivation with sticking stubbornly to evangelizing WSS (instead of MOSS) is because I cringe at the idea of paying out the nose for something that isn't entirely going to be used. There are so many things that WSS does, for free, that there are good, solid reasons to never install MOSS. I like getting the most out of my servers, and their features for the money I spend, before I spend another penny.

And if I need to spend more money, I want to know why, exactly what I need to buy, and exactly what it needs to do before I write any checks.

And that's why I like doing presentations about WSS. Because I like to show you what you can do with what you have. Help you get the most out of the free product before you have to buy the server product, the standard CALs, and even the additional enterprise CALs. Push the envelope, think outside the Admin box.

In the very least, show you it's limits so that you clearly know where the line is, and when it's time to pay for the server version of SharePoint.

In a word, I like to be frugal.

And because that sums up the point, the underlying motivation of a lot of my sessions, I've decided to do a "The Frugal Admin" series (well, if I don't get any feedback telling me not to).

Ideas I have for the series (please let me know which you like):

The Frugal Admin, How to get the most of the built-in web parts: Don't just accept that your home pages are boring. Put some life into them without spending a penny. Explore the existing web part templates and broaden the horizons of existing list view web parts. Push them to the limit and turn your bland, hum drum home pages into the spectacular, useful, web part pages they were meant to be. Wow your users, impress your boss, and never wonder if you could have built yourself what you just paid some one else to make. Know for sure what your options really are, without any additional cost.

The Frugal Admin, Do it yourself dashboards. or maybe How to make your own Dashboards, without being a developer or SharePoint Designer: Dashboards are easy, depending on what you want to do with them. Why pay for one when you can roll your own. Come see the secrets of the simple dashboard; how to create the views, the web parts, and the web pages that make a site's home page more relevant from management to worker. See how far you can go out of the box before you spend a dime.

The Frugal Admin, Make your own Custom Site Templates. So you think only Microsoft can come up with useful site templates? Think again. Don't be trapped into thinking that if you want a nice site (especially one you'd like to deploy in a few places) you have to pay a developer to create it. Come see how we wrap up this three part series by bringing together the fancy web parts and dashboards to create our own unique site templates. Filled to the rim with useful goodness. With tips and tricks concerning workflows, resource libraries, and more. Learn how to make your templates self referencing, so they can pack up and go without having any extra files to worry about. Elevate your status, become that much closer to a WSS expert by seeing how it's really done-- all without special developer training or expensive additional software. Create the templates you wish Microsoft had thought of after attending this session.

The Frugal Admin, Exploiting what's out there. So you need to create a new user group site, or your managers want you to create a time sheet site to track each department's hours on sharepoint related projects. Maybe your IT department want's their own helpdesk site. Well, before you start either trying to create those yourself, or find someone to pay who will-- consider looking online at the resources already available from Microsoft and Codeplex. With the Fantastic 40 templates, Groupboard 2007, and the Community Kit for SharePoint, you've probably got all bases covered, and then some-- for FREE. So before you start making promises to anyone, stop by this session and get a glimpse of the good stuff, and discover all those pre-made templates before the need to make your own wears you down.

Stepping back a bit--

The Frugal Admin, So you're considering installing WSS? A quick run down on what you need to install WSS, tips concerning licensing, Authentication (AD, and a few of its cheap alternatives- AD Account Creation Mode and Forms Based Authentication), Planning, and a quick overview about Design. Consider who you want to use SharePoint and how they're going to use it. Know what you're getting into before you start, and you'll always save money in the end. Don't be surprised, plan ahead. (for those experienced admins, you might want to stop by to get some insight into why, sometimes, it is a good idea to install SQL and SharePoint on the same server... for those tips and more, stop by the session, it'll be worth it)

For those experienced Frugal Admins, I'd like to go into detail about getting more out of SharePoint doing Intranet/Extranet deployments (not always the cheapest thing to do, but I'll show you how to squeeze every penny out of it), The nitty gritty on ADAC, the inside scoop on Directory Mangement Services (and why it's rather a wet balloon), and more. There are also some interesting tools for those admins- for free of course- that's I'd like to explore, such as the administration kit for Sharepoint, and some of the solution accelerators, as well as good ol' Search Server Express.

<>

So what do you think, would these sessions be worth attending? Anything you'd like to see that I haven't mentioned? Feel free to comment. Kthxbai. ; )

Hmmm, something fishy about importing subsites to be top-level sites

I was working on some vcasts for this site when I stumbled across something I wish I'd put in the book (see I am still working on it, almost a year after printing...). So without further ado, here's the thing:

You see, I have a subsite that I like to use in my conference presentations to demonstrate this and that. It's a contracting site that I've filled with custom lists, fields, columns, content types, dashboards, views, and lots of data. I like to demonstrate how to create nifty site templates with it, how to manipulate data, connect lists, and more.

So it was a natural progression that, when I wanted to demonstrate custom permissions and how to work around applying an .stp file (the single file that a site template gets packed into) to a top-level site, I'd make an export of that contractor site and use it for the demo.

So I exported the contractor subsite (and the two child subsites off of it-- one for a blog and one for a wiki).

I then made a new site collection and imported the export file to it... and found that not only did none of my workflows 'port, but that the default, three-state workflow was deactivated for all sites in the collection.

?!

I knew that workflows and alerts don't port well, but I was surprised that the default workflow for WSS was disabled. That was unexpected.

But here is why it happened in my opinion (with a shout out to James Finley, who patiently listened to me rant and kindly repeated himself over and over, with screenshots, before the issue was resolved):

When a site collection is made, the top-level site gets created and a site template and site collection features are applied (in the case of WSS 3.0, that means the three-state workflow).

In order to import a site, you must already have a site address to import it to (it doesn't create an address for itself). Because it is going to be applying the template and settings it used previously, there is no need to have a template applied to the new site because it's going to be written over. As a matter of fact, usually, importing to a completely clean new site address offers the best results. Generally, having no artifacts left to write over is cleaner and safer. This has always worked for me when moving subsites and what I tell people...

(( in contrast I must admit, I have very successfully imported over an existing site completely with no problems-- much to my dismay. ; ) I have also had a few hiccups when importing to a site with an existing template-- in front of a live audience-- as well.))

When you export and then import a subsite as a subsite to an existing site collection, the site collection features are already active, so they're available for the imported site.

And when you want a subsite to be the top level site of a site collection of its own (ie, working around not being able to apply a .stp template to a new site collection), you would normally use STSADM to do a createsite without a template, then import your exported site to it.

BUT, if you do that you run the risk of having no site collection features.

Why? James and I surmise that applying the template to a top-level site is what activates the site collection features for the entire site collection. No features at the top-level site means no features in any subsites either.

Think about it, you are importing a subsite to a top-level site-- when that subsite wasn't the one that had those features set originally, it depended on the top-level site of the its collection to do that. Therefore, that import file doesn't have the necessary hooks to start features. Without a template pre-applied, when you import, the site collection workflow doesn't activate at that site address when you import. Instead, you have to go to that top-level site's "site collection features" and activate it manually after the import is complete.

The solution (without manually having to activate the feature every time you import)? If you are going to apply a import to a new site collection's top-level site, apply a template to it first if you want the built-in site collection features. At the command line it's really easy. In the GUI it's even easier, you can't create a new site collection without applying a template.

((or, do what I did once, create a fully functioning site there first, then import over it. It made me sad, but the site collection features were active...))

An example of the commands I am referring to:

a simple export of a subsite: STSADM -o export -url http://wss2/contractors -filename file://dc1/backups/contractors.cmp

a simple site collection creation (with the standard team site template applied): STSADM -o createsite -url http://wss2/sites/contractors -owneremail person@sample.org -ownerlogin domain\siteadmin -sitetemplate sts#0

a simple import of the subsite to the new site collection as the top-level site: STSADM -o import -url http://wss2/sites/contractors -filename file://dc1/backups/contractors.cmp

((note that the export, import, and createsite commands have many more parameters than I am using here, this is just the simplest examples possible))

That also brings me to an old but interesting thought-- as to why MS decided to offer their fantastic 20 sites for site collection administrators as templates instead of import files? Why, in the end, did they end up having to split up the way those sample sites (site admin and server admin) were installed-- making them harder to adopt and apply?

There had been some speculation as to why MS did that. Site templates have shortcomings, one of which is the 50 to 500MB content limit. Also, there are things that don't move well, that work better with export/import.

But, those fantastic 40 templates (even the 20, less fancy site admin templates) were meant to encourage people to extend the use of SharePoint, and especially to purchase and use SharePoint Designer. That meant that Workflows had to 'port intact, for anyone who wanted to use the those sample sites. That means the sites for site admins had to be packaged as templates and not imports, because the workflows won't travel easily any other way.

((of course, an off-shoot of that is if a site is packaged as an .stp file, it can be installed by someone with only site administrator permissions-- hence the categorization. remember, it's not an unexpected or unfortunate shortcoming, if you can consider it a feature...))

And it explains why there are 20 site admin templates that are simple .stp template files, and why 20 are packaged as full solutions (with an additional application template core). Some of the sample sites were just too fancy to package as templates, and had to be offered with separate moving parts instead.

Getting back to the point of this post-- The subject, as to why importing my subsite as a top-level site deactivated the three-state workflow, bothered me. And because of that, I felt it important to let you know that it happened, how it happened, and how to fix it.

It's just one of those little things that might become a big thing at the end of the day on Friday when you thought it would be a piece of cake to move that nifty subsite to a top-level site like your boss asked you to...

.. so you've been warned. As always, check your site features, site collection features, security, versions, and alerts before considering the job done. You know workflows and alerts will be a problem, but check everything, just in case.