Bypassing the SharePoint Dialog on Form Views
One of the great new features of SharePoint 2010 is the Dialog Framework. I like how the modal dialog appears when uploading a document to a document library, displaying an error message from an event handler, and so on. Sometimes, however, the forms can be a little busy and you may prefer to see your add or edit forms in “full screen.” Take the Task List below, for example.
There is a lesser known setting in the list settings that will take care of this for you. When looking at your list, go to List Settings –> Advanced Settings. At the very bottom of the page, the last settings is Dialogs.
Change the Launch forms in a dialog? setting to No. Now when you add a new item to the Task List, the add form will be displayed in the primary browser window rather than in a dialog.
2010: A Year of Foundations
I decided I was not going to recap 2010 in a blog post, but I changed my mind. This has been a very, very active year for me. It all happened fast, and I think the fruits of it are yet to come. That is why I say it was a year of foundations -- on many levels.
Professionally
I got a little more out of my comfort zone this year. I started the year out speaking at a SharePoint Saturday event in Indianapolis. It was by far the largest professional group I have spoken to until then. Although I have played guitar for and spoken to much larger congregations, this made me a little more nervous. It was an unfamiliar audience with a very broad degree of experience. In August, the jitters went to a whole new level when I spoke to a breakout audience more than twice the size at devLINK (with a major head cold) immediately following Tim Huckaby's keynote address. In addition to getting more comfortable with speaking to larger professional audiences, I gained some great experience in how to prepare presentations and engage audiences.
In the second quarter of 2010, I was awarded the INETA Community Champions award for my work in the Microsoft community. My focus is on SharePoint, but I work with other products as well. My community work this year included leading the Evansville SharePoint Users Group, hosting a local SharePoint 2010 launch, speaking to other user groups in the mid-west, and speaking at the two regional conferences listed above. Online I was active in the Microsoft TechNet forums and the SharePoint Overflow forums. I taught classes, beta tested products, beta tested exams, earned new certifications, and even did a little writing (which you will learn more about in the future).
Our company grew. Our clients (the best clients in the world) seemed to have a productive year. We reaped a lot of fruit from our hard work, but again, I think most of the fruit remains to be seen. Much of 2010 was laying the foundation for great things in 2011. I'm looking forward to a great year professionally -- more stretching and getting out of the comfort zone.
Personally
Personally, I could go on for days. I love my family. My wife is a rock -- one of the pretty kinds. Karen is such a hard-worker and so supportive of her family. My kids are starting to come to their own. Jaelyn is on the student council and got some great roles at the community theatre. She started playing tennis in addition to soccer and has taken a real liking to it -- she'll be a force to be reckoned with. She still has one of the most beautiful voices I've heard, and she never misses a beat on the piano while she's singing. Jenna made the cheerleading squad and is having a blast with it. She's a power forward on her school's basketball team and plays on a great traveling team. She loves hanging out with her friends and enjoying a good laugh. I don't think I've ever seen a kid catch on to things so quickly -- from technology to board games to sports. She even caught on to math a little better this year. I've much to be proud of as a husband and father. We had a couple of great road trips -- hiking at Shawnee and kicking back at Cedar Point, Marblehead and the Kalahari in northern Ohio.
I started playing guitar again after a several month hiatus. I play frequently with a group of great musicians at Bethel Memorial Church in Princeton. I organized and coached our community's first girls junior high tennis team. It was a foundational year there, too. Many of our girls learned to play tennis for the first time, and next year they'll be very competitive. I started coaching basketball at the grade school again -- this time as assistant for a good friend. I love working with the fifth graders and seeing how much better they are at the end of the season compared to when they started. In addition to the above, I somehow became president of the Junior Titan Soccer Club. I'm honored to do it. There are big shoes to fill there, but we have a great soccer community and my kiddos love the game.
My incredibly gifted and hard-working brother-in-law Darvin (affectionately known as "Durr") retired from the Army just days ago after 20+ years of loyal service. Darvin has sacrificed for his country -- home and abroad -- including several tours to Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan. I appreciate the sacrifices Darvin and his family have made, and I wish him a blessed retirement/next chapter of his life. I'm also proud of my little sister Lana who decided to go back and get her teaching degree. She aced college and her student-teaching assignments. She's going to be an amazing teacher!
Conclusion
I honestly don't know how we squeezed it all in. My head was swimming at times for sure. Time off at the end of 2010 has been great for clearing my mind and renewing focus. Even by my own standards I've taken on too much, but I'm not willing to give any of it up at this point. I'm blessed to be a part of all of it.
Looking forward to a great and ambitious 2011! It's going to be exciting right out of the gate. Hope your 2011 is blessed and productive as well!
Is SharePoint Slow? I Don’t Think So…
At last count, I've deployed SharePoint at over 40 companies. Maybe closer to 50 at this point...I really should update the list. One thing I don't think I have ever heard is "why is SharePont so slow?" Ok, maybe on the first one or two, but that was SharePoint Services 2.0.
The question was asked recently at SPOverflow. I chimed in with some things to consider. Some other veterans added to the list. As a result, we have a pretty healthy checklist of considerations to optimize SharePoint performance in your environment. I emphasize in your environment because out of the box, SharePoint performs. Period. To be fair, I don't install SharePoint on undersized hardware and I build out the farm with multiple Web Front End servers when the situation calls for it. But if bandwidth is a problem in your environment, for example, you may have issues. That is not a SharePoint problem, that is a bandwidth problem. You get the idea. There are many helps on TechNet for helping you plan out your farm. Be sure to check them out.
Chalk One Up for the Music Industry…and Tradition
This is my first attempt at blogging from the phone. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Sometimes I get excited about the weirdest things. Late last month a judge ordered LimeWire to take its P2P (peer-to-peer) music stealing service offline. I'm an amateur musician at best (will likely never lay down a track), so why do I care? Well, not only was this a victory for some of my friends who are in the industry, but it hit me in another personal way -- one you might not expect.
Music has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. I have an uncanny ability to remember where I was the first time I heard a song. I like how hearing a song reminds me of moments in the past. I love how when you put on a good pair of headphones you hear sounds and harmonies you didn't hear before even if you've already heard a song a thousand times. And movies -- they sure make an impact on the success of a single. If you don't believe me ask Celine Dion or Bryan Adams. I like how music evolves and how artists forge new genres -- there is no end to the creativity. I'm intrigued by how songs I didn't like 20 years ago sound better to me now than they did then. I especially enjoy when an artist writes his or her own songs as an expression of his or her feelings. Music was likely the earliest form of self expression and it is sure to last forever. Everyone needs an outlet I guess, but to me it is more than that. I can't imagine life without music.
My two beautiful daughters are wired the same way. When we get in the car, even if only to drive a mile, it's "turn on the radio!" And that is precisely why I celebrate the demise of LimeWire -- because stealing music (and other media) is not only a serious offense, but also endangers a great tradition.
Rewind (gulp) 25 years. I remember taking a pocket full of quarters to play Pacman for the very first time at a Rexall store in southern Indiana with my Walkman pumping tunes into my ears, of course. A few years prior, I remember listening to WRAY (even before it was a country station) on the army radio I got for my birthday. I remember dropping quarters in the juke box at a diner on the way to Florida, and watching my friends dance to virtually every Michael Jackson song at SkateWorld in Princeton. I also remember saving up my lawn mowing money until I had enough to ride my 10-speed to 3D (Danner Discount Department stores) to buy the cassette I had saved for. The generation before me did the same thing...only they bought 45's. We will leave 8-tracks out of the story because it will only detract from the real point.
One thing I don't ever remember doing, however, is stuffing a cassette in my pocket or sneaking a compact disc out of a store in my overcoat. I wouldn't even think of stealing an album -- and chances are neither would you. So technology has made it easier to steal songs, and even much less risky (if not socially acceptable), but it doesn't make it right.
But here's an angle you may not have considered: what did P2P sites like the LimeWires and Napsters of late do to our children's appreciation of music? Out of one side of our mouths we criticize them for being unappreciative and taking things for granted. At the same time, we are equipping them (if not coercing them) to abandon integrity and tradition.
One of the favorite gifts in our house has become the iTunes card. It's sad that many would consider me a sucker for actually paying for music. Imagine their reaction as I admit that I find great pleasure in paying for our music. It is one of the seemingly few remaining ways I can relate to my teen and 'tween in a cultural sense. Sure, the medium has changed, but the premise is the same. They are just as excited to earn and redeem that card as I was to earn dollars and buy cassettes back in the day. If I make them work for the cards, or make them wait until an occasion arrives where I can gift one to them, they tend to be more thoughtful with their selections and more appreciative of their purchases. It takes me back to the aisles and aisles of musical paradise at 3D where there were so many good albums to choose from, but enough money in my pocket to buy just one. I must admit, though, that I'm jealous of them for being able to preview songs for free and purchase singles at less than a dollar. It was a real downer blowing ten bucks for a tape only to learn that the first single released was the only good song on it.
Well that was a wordy post to be my first from the phone! I think I have carpal tunnel in my thumbs now. In closing, we were driving home "from town" tonight and Daughtry's "September" started playing from the playlist. All conversations ceased as our daughters sang along with every word. It's a classic for sure. It gets that reaction every time it plays when the girls' friends are riding with us, too. I flashed back to some old Bon Jovi and Van Halen tunes. I recalled how earlier in the year we sang them at Karen's high school reunion and everyone knew the words by heart. I have no doubt that a couple of decades from now the conversations will stop at a high school reunion as my daughters sing along to "September" and recall the day they downloaded it from a store called iTunes. I know, right?
SharePoint on the iPhone? You bet!
While I am still waiting on the new Windows Phone to arrive at my carrier, I keep an eye on what is happening with SharePoint in the iTunes App Store for the iPhone. There have been a couple of SharePoint apps in the past, but I did not think that either of them was ready for prime time. I'm not sure that is true any more. In fact, I have found a couple that I am particularly fond of: Moshare and iShare.
I got to work testing these apps on a couple of sites I have hosted at fpweb. Configuring the iPhone settings for the site was easy...I won't even get into it. Once I had a site set up in both apps, I started noticing some differences right away.
Moshare has a great user interface. The New label stands out great. There are options to sort the lists alphabetically, by created date or by modified date. A count of all the items in a list is also displayed. There is a modern-looking, intuitive menu for the application. One thing that is missing -- and it's a biggee -- is the ability to browse and add items to a custom list. Notice in the screen shot above that announcements, links, calendars and so forth will show up. I can even browse the items in a document library and preview documents right from the phone! To get the full benefit of SharePoint, though, I need to be able to work with my custom lists, and iShare allows me to do just that.
You will notice that the user interface for the iShare app is not as flashy, but it is very functional. I still get a count of the items in a list, although I do not get the New indicator. There is a search function -- a very nice add. But the difference maker in my opinion is the ability to view custom lists. Why is that important -- because now I can eliminate half of the apps on my iPhone! Not only can I see my SharePoint calendar, tasks and document libraries from my smart phone now, but I can also create custom lists for project management, an employee directory, a sign-in board, and so forth. I no longer need "Remember the Milk" to keep track of tasks. You get the point. If you are wondering if lookup columns to another list is supported in the app, the answer is "yes, it is." By the way, this app supports both SharePoint 2010 and 2007 (WSS 3.0) -- how cool is that?
For a few years, I have been giving presentations at regional conferences on taking advantage of SharePoint's platform services. The Web is chock-full of blogs on using and customizing the default SharePoint user interface, but is lacking in demonstrating uses for desktop or mobile apps via SharePoint's rich REST API or Client Object Model. I feel like these apps are great examples. It is SO EASY to create a custom list in SharePoint. Now I can access my lists from anywhere. I'm sold.
Did I mention both of these apps are free right now? Both of them also support multiple accounts, so I can browse as many SharePoint sites as I want. If you have an iPhone and a SharePoint site, check these out. I am sure you will agree this could open up many more opportunities for you to implement mobile apps at your workplace.
I’m a SharePoint Overflow “Fanatic”
This weekend I apparently became the first person ever to earn a Gold badge on SharePointOverflow.com when I earned the "Fanatic" badge. The badge does not really speak to my participation or problem-solving abilities (the reputation metric does that), but it does speak to my consistency in visiting the site.
I mistakenly reported on Twitter that I had earned the "Enthusiast" badge, but that was weeks ago. James Love jumped in quickly to set me straight on the badge name.
If I ever make it to the UK, I hope to meet "Jimmy" in person. We have tag-teamed a few answers in the forums together...the guy knows his stuff. You talk about a "Fanatic" -- the guy has earned an incredible reputation on the forum seemingly overnight. He darted up to the top 4 in reputation in record time. That, my friends, is a "Fanatic." Still, I'm honored to be in such good company.
I thought it would be a good time to follow up on my July post on Comparing SharePoint Forums. I'm obviously enthusiastic and even fanatical about SharePoint Overflow. I have visited it every day for over a hundred days -- both answering questions and asking questions. One of my questions was recently answered by a newbie on SharePoint Overflow for which I am grateful. A more difficult question about Excel Services has been posted since August 20 and has no solution (although apparently information I included in my question was able to help another reader). The question has had 291 views on SharePoint Overflow in just over two months. I posted the same question on the Microsoft SharePoint forums on the same day. It has had 674 views there and, although one thoughtful person tried to help, still no resolution. I would have thought it would have fared better on the Microsoft forums since the product teams are said to monitor those forums as well.
So I have been staying active on both forums still -- and there are still things I like about both of them. However, I find that I do gravitate to SharePoint Overflow on a daily basis, so if I had to choose a favorite it must be my favorite. I still appreciate the fact that SharePoint Overflow has only one forum for all questions, and I still cringe every time a moderator on the Microsoft forums moves a question to a different category or spends more energy correcting a user on the proper way to post a question than on providing a solution (although they are necessary evils considering the current taxonomy). On the other hand, I hope that more people will start participating on SharePoint Overflow by posting questions/answers and by voting for questions/answers they found helpful.
Ironically, I may be the only one who even cares about comparing the two forums, and I really do like them both. So that really makes this whole exercise a little futile. I wish I could say I only brought it up because I was bored, but it has been at least a decade or two since I have had time to be bored. I guess I must have a little OCD in me after all!
The Six Pillars of SharePoint 2010
I recently completed a seven part blog series on the "Six Pillars of SharePoint" on our SharePoint Team Blog at Keller Schroeder. If you are new to SharePoint, or even new to SharePoint 2010, then this would be a good series for you.
Next Thursday, September 30, I will be presenting at the Evansville SharePoint Users Group on "SharePoint 2010 Editions Comparison." I will cover the similarities and differences among SharePoint 2010 Foundation, SharePoint 2010 Standard Edition and SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Edition.
I also wanted to take time to point out our company blog at Keller Schroeder. You can keep up on what is happening with SharePoint at Keller Schroeder, or you can see news related to all of Keller Schroeder's products, services and events.
Recap from devLINK 2010 in Nashville
devLINK 2010 ended today, and I've got to tell you that was one excellent conference. John Kellar and his leadership team obviously work really hard. This year the conference sold out with around 900 attendees. There were around 150 breakout sessions and opening/closing keynotes. Tim Huckaby pulled off an amazing keynote to kick the conference off. As fate would have it, he mentioned some of the cool things his company has done with WPF and SharePoint just minutes before I was to deliver the first SharePoint development session of the conference. So I was caught a little off guard when 120-130 filled the room -- me, on the third day of antibiotics and antihistamine battling a terrible sinus infection.
Thanks to the adrenaline rush from Tim's keynote (did I mention he was amazing?), I was able to pick up some steam. I only had 45 minutes to deliver a 75 minute presentation. Even after running over by five minutes, I was still not able to completely finish. I will post the code on my blog soon -- on a new page I added just for code. The reviews of the session were mostly good. Despite stating in the session description that my objective was to guide .NET developers when to develop on the SharePoint platform and introduce them to the SharePoint Object model, and my verbal disclaimer at the beginning that it wouldn't be a code-filled session, there were a handful of people who still expressed their desire to see more code. After all, this was devLINK -- where code rules and slide decks drool. So it was my first time there...give me a break! Call it a rookie mistake. Let me come back next year and I'll "code the far outta ya." Here is the slide deck for the "Intro to SharePoint Development" session.
The audience for the InfoPath session was a bit smaller as anticipated. We demonstrated how InfoPath can be used to replace paper forms and automate common business processes. We developed a simple workflow using a custom SharePoint list and a workflow developed in SharePoint Designer 2010. Then we demonstrated how to streamline that workflow using InfoPath. Using codeless rules and actions, we can show users only the views of a form that they should see and use buttons on the forms to move the workflow along with a minimal amount of clicks. The slide deck is below. A complete walk-thru will also be added to my labs page. The room came up with some great ideas for the InfoPath product team -- including the ability to share data connections and rules across forms, and the desire to inherit forms (instead of using lackluster form parts).
Test SMTP Server for SharePoint Outgoing Email Settings
I have been trying to find a good solution for a test SMTP server for SharePoint for some time. Like many others, I have unique requirements including: 1) I run a SharePoint development instance on my Windows 7 laptop, 2) I run SharePoint test instances on virtual machines, and 3) I do many SharePoint demos from my laptop -- sometimes without an internet connection. Since SharePoint requires you to use a SMTP server that allows anonymous access, that somewhat limits one from using an ISP account as well. It is frustrating to demo a workflow without the ability to send an email.
I recently discovered an open source solution for developers that captures SMTP traffic on the developer machine and doesn't actually send it. This works perfect for demos for me. The solution is called smtp4dev. Here is how it works.
Once you have downloaded and installed smtp4dev from codeplex.com, double-click the icon in the system tray and click the options button on the dialog that appears. Switch to the server tab and put your computer name in the Domain Name field. Note that the smtp4dev instructions suggest that you use localhost which in most cases would be fine. However, in the Outgoing Email Settings in SharePoint, I received an error saying the localhost smtp server could not found. I got around the error by naming the domain and smtp server the same as my workstation.
Once you have smtp4dev configured on your SharePoint server, open up SharePoint's Central Administration. Go to Manage web application --> highlight your web application --> General Settings --> Outgoing Email. Fill out the screen similar to below.
After that, you are good to go! I opened up a calendar on my SharePoint 2010 Team Site and added an alert. It really doesn't matter to whom the alert would be sent as this tool intercepts all outgoing emails from your test server. Then I added an event to my calendar. A few seconds later, the smtp4dev icon in the system tray notified me that it had intercepted an email. I double-clicked on it and I saw the following:
When I double-click on the email message in smtp4dev, Outlook opens on my workstation displaying the alert email.
It's that easy! I saw one report that smtp4dev would not work when you do not have a live internet account. However, I disabled the wireless interface on my laptop and it still worked for me just fine. From what I can tell, this is going to be perfect for doing SharePoint demos. I'm sure I'll use it for years to come. I want to think Robert Wood for contributing this excellent solution.
Links to Some SharePoint Resources at Microsoft.com
I have created some TinyURLs for some links that I refer to often when giving SharePoint presentations or answering questions in forums.
To see what features are available in which edition (Foundation, Standard, Enterprise) of SharePoint, refer to the SharePoint edition comparisons page at:
http://tinyurl.com/sp2010editions
To download the SDK (Software Development Kit), including documentation and code samples for SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010, visit the Microsoft Download Site at:
To get started with SharePoint development, check out the presentations, videos, source code and hands on labs available in the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Developer Training Kit at:
http://tinyurl.com/sp2010devkit
To get help making the right development and architectural decisions, visit the SharePoint Guidance Patterns and Practices site at:
