November 2007 - Posts

• Custom site template in Sharepoint

  Sharepoint has a number of standard site templates that ship with the product and are all quite useful. There is also a huge amount of templates that are available for download from the Internet. Unfortunately none of these are useful if you are trying to brand you solution based on your company logo and colour scheme. This blog will illustrate the ability of Sharepoint to customize the look and feel of a site and save it as a site template for future use without having to resort to using SPD (Share Point Designer). The first step is to create a new site or site collection by using the "Blank Site" template. I will use the following illustration to represent the before image: There are a number of options available under the site settings screen that make it possible to customize the look and feel of a site. I will be discussing them one at a time. The first option is called "Title, Description and Icon": This screen allows you to change the following options: Setting Description Title: This allows you to change the name displayed at the top of the site. Description: Used as a tool-tip to explain the purpose of the site. URL: Allows you to change the Icon in the top left hand corner of the site by specifying and alternative URL to and image file. Alternate Text: This text will be displayed if the image can not be found. URL Name: Allows to to change the URL that is used to navigate to this site. Remember that all URL's are virtual and stored in the database. Another option that is available, is the ability to change the navigation bar on the left to a tree control instead of a list of hyperlinks. This is done by navigating to the site settings page and selecting "Tree View". From here it is a simple matter of de-selecting the "Enable Quick Launch" checkbox and selecting the "Enable Tree View" checkbox. You can leave both options active, but unless the user is running at a very high resolution, you will not be able to view both. Try both options to see the results. When branding at site you typically want to change the colours and logos on the rest of the page. There is now two ways to do this: Apply a site theme by navigating to the site settings page and selecting "Site Theme". This is the old way of applying a different look and feel that was used in SPS 2003. The themes are located in the 12 hive under the themes directory. To create a new theme is a very manual process of using a tool like SPD or Front Page to create new Gif , JPEG , CSS files and many others. There are a number of standard themes available and more can be downloaded from the Internet. The second option is to use Master pages that came with the .NET Framework 2.0. This is the preferred way of applying a custom look and feel to a Sharepoint site. Typically the master pages are created in SPD and then uploaded to the master page gallery in the site collection. In this blog I will show you how to apply a master page that has already been uploaded. The creating thereof will be covered in later blogs explaining the use of SPD. The first example that I will discuss is the application of a standard theme that ships with Sharepoint. This is done by navigating to the site settings page and selecting the option called "Site Theme".   There are 18 standard themes available to choose from and you can preview them by selecting them in the list on the right. Select the one that you wish to use and the click "Apply". This will then immediately apply the theme to the current site. The second example is how to apply a master page template to a site. This is done by navigating to the "Site Settings" page of the site and selecting the "Master Page" option. The final example of this blog will be based on a master page template. This screen allows you to select a master page from the drop down list that has already been uploaded to the site collection. Each time you select a different master page it will preview in a small windows below the list. Once you have decided on the master page to use, select the "OK" button at the bottom of the screen. Once you have applied the master page and any other custom settings, the site should look like this: The last thing that we need to do is save this site as a site template so that we can re-use it to build other site without having to re-do all the customizations. This is done by going to the site setting page and selecting the option called "Save site as template" as illustrated in the following image: There are a number of settings on this page that I need to discuss: Setting: Description: File Name: Site templates can be exported from on site collection or even server to another. This is done by exporting the site template from the site template gallery into and .STP file. The name allocated here is the name that will be used for the file. Template Name: This is the logical name that will be used to refer to the template when selecting it. The template selection occurs during the creation of a new site or site collection. The template can be found under a tab called "Custom". Description The description will be displayed to users when then create a new site. This helps the users to select the correct template for their needs. Include Content This will save all existing content like documents in document library's with the template. This is useful for things like project management templates where standard documentation always needs to exist in an template. Once the template is saved it can be used over and over again every time a new site or site collection is created. Related Blogs: Overview of features, templates, site definitions, solutions in SharePoint SharePoint - The TEMPLATE folder in the 12 Hive Posted Nov 21 2007, 09:33 AM by Neil with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Sharepoint

• Multiple content databases per Web Application

  One of the most common questions that people ask once they have deployed either WSS or MOSS is how to scale the solution once people start using it. There are various ways in which this can be achieved, ranging from NLB clusters on IIS to SQL server database clusters and more. In this particular blog I will focus on taking one web application and splitting it across multiple databases or even servers. When you create a new web application a content database is automatically created. This can be viewed by opening the management console, selecting the application management tab and clicking the "Content Databases" hyperlink. A number of settings regarding the database can be observed and changed from here: Setting Meaning Name: The logical name chosen for the Database Status: Ready or Off-Line Number Sites: Current Number of Site Collections in the database Warning Level: When an email message will be sent to the site administrator Site Limit: Maximum number for Site Collections than can be created per database. A new content database can be added to the web application by selecting the "Add a content database" button on the toolbar. Ensure you have selected the correct web application on the far right of the toolbar. The following screen provides a number of options that can be configured. Most of these setting are self explanatory and have been referred to in the previous illustration, but there are some that I would like to discuss in more detail. Setting Meaning Database status The status of the database can either be "Ready" or "Offline". The "Ready" status implies that new site collections can be created in the database. The "offline" status implies the reverse, but this does not imply that new sites cannot be created in existing site collections. Search Server When working with the search service it seems that on the surface that one web application can only be associated with one search engine. By splitting the application into multiple content databases this problem can be overcome. Remove content database Select this option when you want to remove a content database from the web application and click "OK" Once the database has been created it should look as follows: The next step is to create a new site collection in the new database and prevent it from being created in the original content database. This is done by editing the original database settings and changing the database status to "Offline". This will not prevent the site collections in this database to be unavailable or inhibit the ability to create new sites in existing site collections. It will merely prevent new site collections from being created in this database. Create a new site collection by navigating to the "Application Management tab" and clicking the "Create Site Collection" hyperlink. Ensure that you create the site collection in the correct web application. After creating the site collection, return to the content database screen and it should look as follows: Note the number of sites per database setting. The ability to split the web application into multiple databases is useful for company's with remote sites that want to use the same web application. In this way the database can be located local to the remote site on a separate database server. Related Blogs: Installing MOSS with a remote SQL Server Backup and Recovery in Sharepoint  Sharepoint Server Topologies Posted Nov 18 2007, 07:47 AM by Neil with no comments Filed under: Sharepoint

• Conferencing Add-in in Outlook for OCS

  The topic on first read seems fairly insignificant, but it caused me quite a bit of distress over a couple of days. I recently went to Prague to attend a BPIO training session about Exchange 2007, Office Communication server and Live meeting. The training was delivered on Beta material and as usual for a Microsoft Training Course everything worked, until I got back to the office. Coming back to South Africa I was all fired up and ready to go, so I decided to build my own VPC's to simulate what I have learned. Needless to say, this was easier said than done. I started by downloading the evaluation version of OCS, Communicator Client, Communicator Mobile and Live meeting Client. Through lots of struggle I got the whole Unified messaging scenario working ( I will write some others blogs about those experiences) and then I remembered an add-in for outlook that we used on the course. The add-in was used to schedule live meetings in the outlook calendar with other people and in the beta version it was called the live meeting add-in for outlook. Therefore it was logical that I go and download the latest add-inn pack form the Internet. I went and searched Google (I know I am supposed to use Live.com) and search for the words "Live meeting add-in for Outlook". The results were almost instantaneous and I downloaded the add-in and installed it. The download was called "LMAddinnPack.msi". When I tried the configure the add-in to link it to OCS the dialog boxes, it looked entirely different than what I expected based on my experience on the MS training course. I therefore concluded that some significant changes have occurred from the beta version and attempted to connect the add-in to my OCS installation. Every attempt I made failed and eventually I stared searching for a solution on the Internet. All my searches failed to find a solution due to the fact that I was searching on the key words "Live Meeting Add-in". This was due to the fact that the client software is called "Live Meeting Client" After many days searching for a solution a came across an obscure reference called "Conferencing Add-inn for Outlook". I search for a download, found it, installed it and there was the dialog box I was expecting in the first place. The correct add-inn to link Live Meeting Client from outlook to OCS is therefore called the "Conferencing add-inn for Outlook" and can be downloaded from the following location (ConfAddins_Setup.exe): http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102368901033.aspx?pid=CL100605171033 Based on my limited understanding of Microsoft politics it seems that the split occurred in the Unified messaging department within Microsoft. The UM department used to own and develop three different products called Exchange, Office Communication Server and Live Meeting Server. An internal decision within Microsoft has decreed that the Live Meeting Server will move outside the UM division and be made available as a hosted solution for customers on an subscription basis. Office communication server on the other hand still offers conferencing facilities, but does it in an different manner. Hence the split in the add-inn tools for outlook. I hope this article saves some people some distress and time!!!! Posted Nov 16 2007, 01:54 AM by Neil with no comments Filed under: OCS

• Installation Procedure for MOSS

  Unlike the other Microsoft products like Exchange, SQL Server or ISA, the installation of Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server is quite different. Like most technical people in IT the install procedure of most products is running the setup executable, leaving the defaults as they are and then selecting finish. We then go and look for the "Admin Console" and start studying the product form there. Unfortunately if you try this with MOSS, there is no admin console. There are also a number of other areas of the installation that people miss or do incorrectly. During all of the training session that I have done on WSS and MOSS, there are a number of places that people make mistakes. I have therefore decided to create a quick step guide to help people through the process. The following steps will be explained in greater detail further in the document. 1: Install Binaries from CD 2: Run Configuration Wizard 3: Start Services 4: Create the first SSP 5: Create first Web Application 6: Create first Site Collection 1. Install Binaries from CD The first step is to install the binaries from the installation CD. This is done quite simply by running the "setup.exe" from the CD, but you have to decide whether you are installing the 32 bit or 64 bit version. There are also different version of Sharepoint that you can choose from namely: WSS , MOSS Standard, MOSS Enterprise and MOSS for Search. I will not elaborate on the differences between these versions in this blog, this I will discuss in another blog. After installation the binaries are copied into a directory called the "12 Hive". This is just an abbreviation, because the install path is quite lengthy ("C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12"). All of the files required to run Sharepoint are installed in this folder and no files are copied into the "Inetpub" directory at this stage. 2. Run Configuration Wizard Immediately after installation the "Configuration Wizard" will launch. If not, a shortcut can be found on the "Programs" menu under the title "Office Server". This wizard is used to create the web admin console that is used to configure the rest of the components. A number of things need to be in place before using the wizard: 1: IIS needs to be installed Local 2: Service account needs to be created on Active Directory Remote 3: SQL Server 2000 (sp 4) or SQL 2005 needs to be available Local or Remote 4: Need to be logged in under an Local or Domain account with Admin Rights Local or Remote   The wizard will prompt you with a number of questions that you need to provide answers for: 1: Are you creating a new farm or are you joining an existing farm. 2: Name of the SQL Server to be used. 3: Name of the Configuration database 4: Whether this machine will be a front end web server or SSP only   Once all the information is provided and you select finish, the wizard will create the admin console. This is achieved by creating a web site, application pool and configuration database. This process takes about 10 minutes and then you can use the admin web console. 3. Start Services on Server The services used by MOSS can be configured by using the admin web console which can be found under "Administrative Tools". Open the admin console and select the "Operations" tab, then select the the link called "Services on Server". There are a number of services that can be started on the server that do a number of different things, but there are only three that are critical to complete the install process successfully. Windows Sharepoint Services Web Application - this should already be started otherwise the admin console would not work. Windows Sharepoint Service Help Search - used to do searching at site collection level Office Sharepoint Server Search - required during the configuration of the SSP that will follow. Each of the services will prompt you with configuration screens when started, but I will not be discussing those details in this blog. 4. Create the first SSP The "Shared Service Provider" is the main differentiating between WSS and MOSS. It provides an additional management console that is required to configure and manage the additional services that are installed with MOSS. These services include the following: 1. Profile Used to import information people information 2. Business Data Catalog Connections to external database systems 3. Search and Indexing Catalog all information in the Enterprise 4. Excel Services Server side calculations of Excel Spreadsheets 5. Audiences Targeting content to certain users 6. My Site Private site for each user in Sharepoint 7. Usage Reporting Usage analysis of user activity   To create an SSP select the "Application Management" tab and then select "Create and configure this farm's shared services". The following screen allows you to create a new SSP by selecting "New SSP" from the toolbar. The creation of the SSP is probably the most complicated part of the MOSS installation and therefore I will be spending some time defining the various areas: 1. SSP Name This section requires you to provided a logical name for the SSP and the ability to create a new web site. It is important to create a new web site! Do not install into the default web site as you will break anything else running there. I will discuss the process of creating a new web site in section 5 of this blog. 2. My Site Location The "My Site" component will create a new "Profile" database in SQL server and a new web site. It is possible to create a virtual directory in one of the existing web sites, but it is a better practice to create a completely new web application. 3. SSP Service Credentials The SSP consists of a number of sub systems that enhance the capabilities of MOSS. These sub systems have to run within a particular security context as determined by the service account. Normally the privileges of this service account needs to be quite high. 4. SSP Database All the metadata and configuration data contained within the SSP needs to be stored somewhere. This will create the SSP database. 5. Search Database The search service forms part of the SSP and is configured from here. The search service needs to store security information about what content is available to which users. This is stored in the search database that will be created. 6. Index Server The Index service and search service does not have to exist on the same server. The drop down combo box therefore allows you to select another service. This will only be available if you created more that one SSP. The catalog file that the index services will use to store the data will by default end up on the C: drive. This is not a good idea, change it to a larger disk.   5. Create the First Web Application Now that the main configuration has been done, we can start by building the infrastructure to host you first portal site. The explanation that follows will be the same procedure as referred to in the previous section when creating a new web site or application. Navigate to the "Application Management" tab and the select the hyperlink called "Create or Extend Web Application". This version of MOSS 2007 will create the complete web site and application for you. The previous version forced you to create it in IIS manually and the extend it from within Sharepoint. The above dialog box will be used to create the new web application, but once again there are a number of areas to look out for: 1. IIS Web site Always create a new web application and specify a logical name that is descriptive of the purpose of the site. Each web application in IIS must have an unique port number in IIS unless you provide a proper domain name in the "Host Header" field. Remember to register the domain name with an DNS server either internal or external to you network. A directory will also be created under the "Inetpub" directory, but this is only to host extensions in the form of web parts as most of the content will be stored in the content database. 2. Security Configuration Authentication for MOSS is done through IIS using either "Active Directory" , Anonymous or SSL. Please note that if you use anonymous, all access to the site is "Read Only" regardless of you network credentials. SSL will require a digital certificate issued by an CA either internal or external to your network. 3. Load Balanced URL The URL is created based on the settings defined earlier when creating the web application, but if the DNS entry is different then you might want to change this. 4. Application Pool Application pools is a new feature with IIS 6.0 that allows each web application to run in a different process. This allows each application to be started and stopped independently from one another. Another important aspect is the identity of the application pool that will be used to connect to external resource outside of IIS. Therefore the service account used here will used to connect to SQL Server. Ensure that this account has a valid logon in the SQL Server. 5. Restart IIS This is where most people break the creation of the web application. Once all the settings are complete on this page and you select the "OK" button, IIS will start the creation process. Before you can see the web site, you will have to run an "IISreset" from the command line. Most people are impatient and run the "IISreset" before the creation process is complete and therefore the process fails. Rather run and "IISreset /noforce"  that will allow IIS to complete all IIS threads before initiating a restart. 6. Database Name Each web application will have its own content database to store all its information. This section allows you to specify the server, database name and account with sufficient privileges to create the database. 7. Search Server Each web application can be connected to a different search server depending on how many SSP's you created. Quite often this option is disabled. This is normally caused by not starting the search service or not configuring the SSP.   6. Create the first Site Collection Even though we created the web application, we still have nothing to look at. This is because there is no content, features or web parts configured in any logical format. This is achieved by creating a site collection within the web application. It is important to note that one web application can have many site collections within it, each with a different template applied. Each site collection can have many sub-sites creating separate hierarchical structures within the web application. Navigate to the "Application Management" tab and select the option called "Create Site Collection". Once again there are a number of things to take note of to do this successfully: 1. Web Application You must select the web application in the drop down list that you created in section 5 of this blog. Most people leave the default and then they create the site collection under the admin web site. 2. Title and Description This will appear on the home page of the site as a description of the purpose of the site. 3. Web Site Address Site collection are normally created in a virtual directory called "Sites" under the path of the web application. Give a name to your site collection and it will appear as a virtual directory under "Sites". 4. Template Templates is a discussion by itself, but I will summarize it here. Sites consist of features, web parts and style sheets, Templates is a fast way of getting a site up and running without having to define it yourself. I prefer a "Blank Site" as it allows me to configure these things myself. 5. Administrator Each site collection can have its own administrator that does not work in IT. This will give a "Power User" in a certain department complete control within this site collection. MOSS was designed with delegation of authority in mind. 6. Quota This allows you to limit the amount of disk space that can be consumed by this site collection. Additional templates can be define under the "Application Management" tab and then selecting "Quota Templates".   This is the bare bones version of getting MOSS up and running properly. The last tip that I will give you is to follow the task list in sequence as defined on the "Home" tab within administration console. Related Blogs: Sharepoint Server Topologies Overview of Shared Service Providers in Sharepoint Joining a WFE server to a Sharepoint Farm SharePoint - Applications, Site Collections and Sites A developer's 101 to installing Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Posted Nov 15 2007, 06:45 AM by Neil with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Sharepoint