Argh, where have all my blog posts gone?! (and other things)

So things have been busy at casa Callahan, and I have been writing blog entries using live writer, and posting them up to this blog with a scheduled publish date. I have been bad in that, after uploading, I didn't check the blog to make sure they took.

And now I've gotten my comeuppance, when coming to the blog and seeing that at least six blog entries have not actually been publish.

Argh!

Okay, so there should have been a detailed blog entry about how to enable PDF ifiltering and associating the correct PDF icon to PDFs in SharePoint Foundation 2010 (there was some confusion that it couldn't be done. Ppfftt). There was an entry following TechEd about the hands-on labs that were available to TechEd attendees (with one I wrote for multi-tenancy), my wanting to go to SharePoint Conference 2011 and what an "Unsung Hero" is, then an entry about me actually winning a slot at SPC as an "Unsung Hero". There was also a post about my upcoming events, such as the wonderfully fun User Group Meeting in Cleveland (those folks are great!), and SharePoint Saturday Columbus (well, I was afraid that Multi-Tenancy session might not be popular (I had one student)). Things happened, I chased storms and attended SharePints. Much fun was had by all.

Now what I have going on is this:

SharePoint TechDay, San Francisco
Organized by: PAC IT Pro
Date (currently scheduled): September, 23rd, 2011
Time: 10am-5pm (apx)
Speaker: Me
Cost: $99

Pac IT Pro is sponsoring a SharePoint TechDay featuring Me as the speaker. The session is currently listed at the incredibly low price (for a custom, 6 hour, essentially day long class) of $99, and scheduled for September 23rd (rain date of October 18th, if necessary). It's going to be a "Kitchen Sink" session, covering as many topics as I can fit in 6 hours (and those who know me, know I can pack six hours with a lot of info). The main point of the class is going to be "say you inherited an existing SharePoint Foundation installation-- what would an admin do to get up to speed that first day?" or "a day in the life of an SPF admin". The content is going to include everything from, "how can you tell what type of installation this is", "what kind of permission/group/user structure does it have", to managed paths, web application security, monitoring the server, what's it's disaster recovery look like, and more. In addition, at each point, I'll cover what these things are, why you need them, and some pros and cons on how they *should* be set up in most situations. I'll also be hitting some basic points, for better understanding overall, on common things like the difference between web applications, site collections and sites- for those not sure which they should really use, when. The session is going to be a practical, almost entirely demo experience, where the attendees can walk away with a real sense that they saw real work be done and with a good set of tools to better understand what they have, and what they might need to do when they get back to the office.

The session is primarily for SharePoint administrators who are relatively new, or have been around for a while (maybe they were thrown in the deep end of an implementation) and need a clearer understanding of the full picture of how to administer SharePoint, what it is, what it does (and doesn't do), and other essentials. Advanced administrators (particularly those advanced in a large enterprise environment) and Developers are welcome, but the content is geared to an audience of IT pro admins that need a more solid grip on the ins and outs of SharePoint.


The catch to the event is I needed at least 30 people to register before the event could be held (they pay for my travel and hotel from the attendee fee, not enough attendees, no me). Right now there are about 28 people registered. So, really I need two more people to reach my 30 person goal. However, keep in mind that the room can hold more than 60 people (or so I am told), so there will absolutely be no cut off concerning registering. Register right up to the day of the event, I'd be happy to have you there. Remember that the fee for the event is $99-- cheaper than even some of the other, shorter TechDays that have been held this year.

After the TechDay in San Francisco on the 23rd, I will then be preparing to go to Anaheim California to work the Hands-On Labs at the SharePoint Conference 2011. I am really psyched about going, because there was no way I could afford to simply pay to attend. I lost my MVP just at the time they were doing the call for speakers, so I couldn't even apply to speak at the event. If I did not volunteer for the event, I would definitely not get to go. But the volunteering process just didn't seem to be open to people like TechEd is, so I could not figure out how to get in. Then I got told about the "Unsung Hero" contest. It sounded "interesting"-- and the reason I put that in quotes is, the unsung heroes would not simply win a pass to the event, no. They would win an opportunity to work at the event for free in exchange for a conference pass. So that was how to volunteer for the event.

There was no guarantee that I would get in, competition was pretty fierce, but I managed to win a slot as an Unsung Hero, and although the hotels are ridiculously expensive out there (my credit card is groaning), I am going to SPC 2011. Woo hoo! I will be working the SharePoint Hands-On Labs, and proctoring the post-conference administrator's deep dive session. So I hope to see you all there.

Finally, to top off the year, I am going to do my first speaking engagement in a country whose natives don't speak English as their first language-- Sweden. I am pretty nervous about it. For those who know me, you know I have food allergies that are kind of specific-- namely gluten and corn. In the US, those are two things that are in everything. But it turns out that Sweden is very gluten-free friendly. Especially the city I'll be in, Stockholm. The McDonalds there even offers gluten free burgers and fries. They don't even have that in the US (but they should).

So the event I'll be working is the SharePoint and Exchange Forum 2011 (known as SEF 2011, which seems to be a very popular acronym in Sweden). I'll be doing two sessions, chosen by the organizers: SharePoint Design Fundamentals, and Monitoring your SharePoint Foundation server at no extra cost. The first session's title worries me-- because it's not necessarily only about design. It's really about what you are designing, and suggestions on how to design it. Like what kind of implementation should you do (given your situation), then what kind of namespace, permissions, comparing web apps, to site collections, to subsites for organizing people and content. Using AAM, managed paths, and more. All in an hour of course, so it won't be as deep as a six hour course (like the one I'm doing to the TechDay in San Francisco). I hope that my title is okay on that. If you have any suggestions for a better title, please let me know as soon as you can. Maybe I can ask the organizers to tweak it on the website.

So that should catch us up. I'll be churning out the PDF iFilter article in a few days, I may post it to it's original date though-- but I'll also give you all a heads up on it in case it slips out of your RSS because of the date. Other things I am looking into, besides all of the travel I am doing these days: I put in proposals for speaker sessions for the Cincinnati SharePoint Saturday. It'll be a long drive for me, but I had to cancel on a user group meeting I was supposed to speak at, and I'd like to make it up to them. In addition, I'd like to get back to doing live (then recording) sessions online again. Freebinar, now called AnyMeeting, didn't really work that well for me, so I am considering livestream. It doesn't have all the tools that AnyMeeting does, and I could go back to that in the future if necessary, but at least the livestream records well and does do live chat during the event (just like anymeeting).

Thanks to all for your patience. I'm still here, chugging along, believe it or not...

My "Mastering Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010" book is releasing for purchase on Valentines day!

UPDATED UPDATE:
Just a quick update-- the book, Mastering Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, is in stock and available on Amazon, Prime shipping, two day delivery. (Yay) Interestingly, almost as soon as they had some in stock to sell, they were down to one book. I have to assume that is because of the pre-orders. And if that is the case, big thank you to all of you who pre-ordered.

http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Microsoft-SharePoint-Foundation-2010/dp/0470626380/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IW4IHPKD5J3PF&colid=1DPHWYF9PWK9R

Due to the difference in the name on my SharePoint books, the WSS book has "C.A. Callahan" on it, and the SPF book just has "Callahan", Amazon has had some confusion concerning the byline for the books, and which book goes to what author page. They are sorting it out, but if you do notice there is some oddness there, they are working on it as we speak.

In addition, we have sorted out the tiny, little mistakes in the original product description of the SharePoint Foundation book, so now it more closely represents the content inside.

 UPDATE:
Turns out that the book is available from the Wiley site to purchase today (Valentines day): http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470626380,descCd-tableOfContents.html, but it is not yet available on Amazon (I must admit, I was a little disappointed). I will be updating this post with the actual date the book will be available for shipment from Amazon as soon as I find out.

.....

The day has finally come. As of Monday Feb. 14th, 2010, Valentines day, Mastering Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010-- the book I've been working on for at least a year-- has been printed and is available for purchase (and shipment).

http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Microsoft-SharePoint-Foundation-2010/dp/0470626380/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IW4IHPKD5J3PF&colid=1DPHWYF9PWK9R

The cover of the book has gone through a few incarnations. First, it was going to look like my previous Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 book; a white Mastering Series cover with burgundy and black text, and a compass on the bottom half of the cover. Kind of classy.

Then, I discovered that the cover had been changed, showing a stark, white server room with people in motion, and an orange box in the middle containing the title of the book.

But, as of last week, I noticed yet another cover for the book- hopefully, this is the cover that will be the final one- of a person standing at a workstation in front of a server rack (in a room full of servers apparently), all in silhouette, with a green box in which the name of the book is located. I rather like the look, and green is my favorite color.

The first part of the description of the book, something I did not write, is not entirely what the book is about (the publishers do try). This book is basically the updated version of the last- so it is a comprehensive look at SharePoint Foundation (as much as I could cram into about 1300 pages) from the ground up:

• From how to plan and prepare for SharePoint Foundation, to both types of installation (a chapter is devoted to each)
• To how to use SharePoint (from the interface, to web parts, to lists, libraries, sites, subsites, workspaces, site collections and web applications)
• To how to administer SharePoint (users and permissions, maintenance, monitoring, and disaster recovery)
• To more advanced topics, such as a detailed, step by step look at how to migrate from WSS 3.0 to SharePoint Foundation, to an introduction to PowerShell for SharePoint, and a quick reminder of how to use STSADM (SharePoint's command line administration tool)
• And finally advanced installation and configuration- covering detailed step by step information of how to, install additional servers for the farm, with a detailed overview of how to load balance them (using Windows Server's own network load balancing service as an example), as well as how to set up SSL, Kerberos, external data types using Business Data Connectivity (or BCS for some people) and SharePoint Designer 2010, and finally, a quick look at what an administrator needs to know about installing Office Web Apps.

As you can see, this book contains far more information than just what has changed since the last version (and doesn't really go into Exchange Server at all). Instead it is a one stop shop to help server administrators master SharePoint Foundation, giving you the grand tour, cover to cover.

And keep in mind-- there are bonus chapters on the web for the book: one is a lot of extra material, things I wanted to keep in the book but didn't have space, concerning extra coverage of web parts, lists and libraries. The other is about 24 pages of tables that go along as an addendum to the PowerShell and STSADM chapter. It is an extensive and convenient list of PowerShell and their corresponding STSADM commands, organized loosely by where their equivalent setting would in Central Administration. This bonus material is being completed and uploaded as we speak (well, you know what I mean), so feel free to stop by and grab them (the link to the content is listed in the introduction to the book).

So if a thorough and detailed book intended to give IT administrators mastery over SharePoint Foundation (and deep preparation for the foundational functions of SharePoint Server 2010 as well), then this book may be for you.

Special thanks to all of my reader reviewers and loyal attendees over this last year. The reader reviewers read every version of every chapter, giving me precious feedback, and answering my questions about if the information I was covering was what the readers want and if how I covered it will work for them, given the fact that all of this stuff had to be fit into just 1300 pages (or less-- the last book, without all the new features of SharePoint Foundation, was 1100 pages). It was a long, rather arduous labor of love for me, and is flatly all written for the audience of the WSS 3.0 Mastering book and all the students, attendees, and others who need a thorough, practical explanation of SharePoint Foundation. I tried to give you all what I would have needed if I was looking for a book to teach me, as server admin, what I needed to know to get my server up and running, and keep it running through thick and thin. Remember, this is not in any way a book for developers. There is no coding (except, maybe, when explaining how to use PowerShell), this is just for administrators who actually manage SharePoint, from top to bottom.

There should be a link on the right side of this blog that takes you to the Amazon page for ordering Mastering Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, for your convenience. Feel free to give it a click and take a look (you can see if the cover has changed again, for starts...).

Something to remember: Now that the book is done, I will be posting a lot more on this blog, as this is the way I keep in touch with my readers concerning changes to the product due to service packs, new things I've learned, and any presentations I am doing-- particularly the free ones, I want to do a lot of free presentations in relation to the book.

Please feel free to leave me comments or post to my errata account (servergrrl.wss at gmail dot com) if you find any errors or issues with the book. I was, by far, not the only person who worked on the book (it turns out it takes a village to write a book). And between me rushing to finish (or rushing my contributors), and the technical editor, developmental editor, copy editor, proof reader, production editor, compositor, and even indexers, things I wrote, and pictures I took, may have changed far outside of my control by the time the book is printed (notice the number of editors, they are in charge of editing sentence structure, grammar, layout, capitalization, and more, and can do so without me). If there is an error, I really, really want to know personally-- so I can fix it here for you and all who might need to know the correction before they come across it too.

I'm happy to have done this work for you. I hope you enjoy it.

SharePoint Foundation 4 Admins session- the remix.

Hi there everybody,

An observant anonymous reader of this blog discovered, not too long ago, that Microsoft had deleted the recordings of the sessions I'd done last year. I had them posted in a previous blog entry, and I apologize to those of you who might have tried to access those links.

To make it up to you, I am going to re-record those sessions, by offering them, live, for free, again. This time I will be using Freebinator to broadcast the events. This product is free, runs in the browser (no client to download and install), but it does use flash heavily, so be forewarned. In addition, the reason it is free is it is ad driven, so be prepared to see advertising. I know that's unfortunate, but it has a bunch of features that are really nice (such as giving me control over my recordings).

My first re-recording session will be tomorrow, 2/1/2011, at 1p Eastern time (until 3p, or whenever we're done). The topic will be "Preparing for SharePoint Foundation and Standalone Installation." I will post the registration link here. Please realize this is the first time I will be broadcasting using this product, so I will be expecting feedback concerning performance.

http://www.freebinar.com/PIID=ED52DE8589

Please note that I am testing out the registration form, and there will be a survey form after the session as well. This session and all others will be recorded. This includes not just my shared desktop, but the text chat where your can make comments and ask questions. Please keep those comments and questions safe for work. Thanks.

SharePoint Foundation 4 Admins series, session recordings

Well, the holiday season is upon us, and the year draws to a close.

My SharePoint Foundation 4 Admins, free, live, online training sessions are done. I did four scheduled sessions and two ad-hoc sessions.

Of the six sessions, I did manage to record four of them. Here they are:

Session 2, Complete Installation and Configuration
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/view?id=Z6662P

Session 3, Users and Permissions
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/view?id=M62SS5

Session 4, Business Data Connectivity (probably my favorite session, lots of fun)
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/view?id=NH45P6

Session 6, Multi-Tenancy (watch me type out every command, no smoke and mirrors here)
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/view?id=KRQ2N7


Keep in mind that these sessions were done for my peeps during a time when I was really working hard meeting deadlines for the Mastering Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 book, so I didn't get much time to prep (hours in most cases). The sessions were run from my laptop (with my iphone headset for a mic), in my dining room, using VMs from the server I am/was using for the book. They are about as live and candid as a session can be.
So if you missed the sessions and would like some free training, feel free to use the recordings. The recordings will expire about a year from the date of the sessions (so by the end of autumn 2011, they'll no longer be available).

Thanks for reading the blog. Thank you for those who attended the sessions, and have a happy holiday.

Live SharePoint Foundation Presentation series: Session 3, Users and Permissions, this Thursday!

I thought I'd get a jump start on letting you all know about the third session in my four part SharePoint Foundation for admins series. These sessions are completely free, live, and online. So if you're (or someone you know is) interested in free SharePoint Foundation training, the third of my sessions will be held on Thursday of this week (11/11), at 3 pm Eastern.

The session will be recorded (if the technology gods allow it), and it will be for 90 minutes (give or take). The contents essentially map to the Users and Permissions chapter of my upcoming Mastering SharePoint Foundation book, and will delve into Users, Permission, Permission Levels, Groups, Inheritance, and more. From Central Administration and Farm Administrators, to breaking inheritance, with a touch of PowerShell, this session will give you some simple, clear insights into what is often a muddy subject.

Because the sessions are live, participation is encourage (otherwise, why not just record it?). Come one, come all to the third of the four SharePoint Foundation sessions for admins I'm offering this year.

The link to the session is: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/join?id=M62SS5&role=attend

The facebook event page-- if you have a facebook account and would like to RSVP for the event (so I have some idea of how many people will be there), get extra info, see who else is attending, and follow up on the event-- http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174037039280378

Live SharePoint Foundation Presentation series: Session 2 - Complete Installation & Configuration Today!

Howdy all!

For those of you interested in some free training, the second of my four LIVE, online sessions will be held today at 3pm Eastern. The session will be primarily live demonstration of how to prepare for a Complete, farm installation of SharePoint Foundation, from preparing for managed accounts, to how to set up outgoing/incoming email, Business Data Connectivity, etc. See how to set up a web application and the first site collection.

In addition, get an insight to the Mastering SharePoint Foundation 2010 book itself, as the virtual machines used for these presentations are the same ones used throughout the book.

Since the presentation will be live, you can ask questions and interact with the presenter (well, me). There could even be a few hilarious bloopers you can't get in a recorded webcast.

Come one, come all the the free session today. Link: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/join?id=Z6662P&role=attend

For those interested, here's the facebook page for the event if you'd like to chat with other attendees, leave comments, and get extra information (requires a facebook account): http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=107804215952877

Callahan's SharePoint Foundation Live Presentation Series starts tomorrow!

Hi everyone!

I am currently editing the Mastering SharePoint Foundation book, and felt I needed to get out there and give you all a chance to see what is in the book, live, in the form of four 90 minute sessions loosely mapping to chapters in the book. (I could do more if there is interest, I've got a lot to talk about.) They are currently scheduled to occur every Thursday for four weeks starting with this week.

The first session will start tomorrow, Thursday 10/28/2010 at 3:00pm eastern time. The session will start with an introduction, of course. I'll want to make sure everyone can see and hear everything. I prefer to do pretty interactive sessions, so although all the audio will be me, I will be expecting Q&A comments, and status updates from my attendees so I can work with them during the session. Try that with a recording. ; )

Following the introduction will be a look at how to prepare and plan for implementing SharePoint Foundation. Once we've got that covered, we'll do a standalone installation of SharePoint Foundation, live, so you can see exactly what happens when SPF is installed, from prerequisites, to configuration. Then we'll take a look at the interface itself (time permitting).

Keep in mind that most of the session will be real, live demos of SharePoint, I don't really do a lot of slides (there will be some, for reference, but I'm more of a "show it to you rather than talk about it" kind of person).

The second session will cover how to do a Complete installation of SharePoint Foundation. Exploring more deeply how to create a web application and site collection, as well as manually configuring services that the Standalone installation did automatically.

The third session will cover users and permissions. This session addresses managing users, groups, permission levels, breaking inheritance, as well as quick glance at farm administration and the new delegated administrators group for Central Administration. See what has changed in terms of permissions and what hasn't.

The fourth session is actually still open to a certain degree. It will be an advanced session, mapping to chapter 16 of the book, but the attendees will decide (I'll be polling) the topics. The options are topics like Business Data Connectivity service, creating and using external content types, external lists and lookup fields using SharePoint Designer, introduction to Multi-Tenancy, Install, configure, administer Office Web Apps, and more.

If you have a facebook account, you can sign up to attend by visiting the event's facebook page at  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139913466056832&ref=nf

There is no obligation to sign up, it just makes it easier for me to get a ballpark idea of how many people are going to attend, it lets you know who else is attending, and it lets you make and receive comments and updated information about the session. Later, because the session will be recorded, I can post a link there for the recorded session (I don't control the file location).

The direct link to the event is: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/join?id=F3F92M&role=attend

The sessions will be live meeting events, so be prepared to install live meeting 2007 client in case you don't already have it. These sessions are hosted by Microsoft through my MVP account. I will gladly do as many as my attendees (you) would like until the end of December (unless I am renewed, then I can do more). At this point, I've only got four planned. There will be audio, so be prepared if that will bother your co-workers.

I would love to see you all there.