Hi gang - today we reach the end of Chapter 7 of Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices - which focused on Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). I have a few random coolisms and then end by pointing you to 'day SharePoint man Bill English.
enjoy the read...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford | CEO at SMB Nation | www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC) MBA, MCSE,MCT, CNE and other stuff!
###
Additional WSS Cool Stuff
Enough SPRINGERS step-by-step for a now. I want you to, in your free time, click around WSS and explore the following cool features (I will drill deeply into these areas in my advanced SBS book, so consider this a sneak peek!). You will want to use some or all of these cool things in the real world of SBSing to truly add value.
Documents
Granted, you’ve already worked a lot with documents in this chapter, but I highly recommend you delve deeper into the documents area to learn more. By clicking on Documents and Lists, you can see the types of documents that are suggested for storage in WSS. You will appreciate the descriptive text.
BEST PRACTICE: The incoming fax archive and its functionality to
the fax service (more in Chapter 9) is unique to SBS 2003.
Pictures
This link defines itself but you might use this area as a photo archive.
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Resources
Here are some pointers to some additional SharePoint resources. This chapter, while capable for launching you into using WSS in SBS 2003, is only a start. You have much work ahead of you to master WSS!
Bill English books
Buy anything written by Bill English, a leading SharePoint consultant and author (he is also a SharePoint MVP). You can search on his name and the word “SharePoint” at Amazon to find his latest offerings. As of this writing, his current book, The Administrator’s Guide to SharePoint Portal Server 2001 (Addison-Wesley), is being updated.
By the way, a quick search on Amazon on the term “SharePoint” resulted in a shocking lack of books on this super cool application area (as of late 2003). I’m sure that’ll be remedied within a few weeks as more books hit the stands.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
And how could you forget that I’ll provide more and more SharePoint secrets in the context of SBS 2003 in my forthcoming advanced SBS 2003 book. Keep monitoring www.smbnation.com for details.
SharePoint Web sites
Because I’m such a fan of Bill English books, you can’t be too surprised that I’d recommend his excellent SharePoint Web site: www.sharepointknowledge.com. Microsoft’s own site for SharePoint is excellent at www.microsoft.com/sharepoint. Searching on Google with the term “SharePoint” resulted in numerous hits including www.sharepointtips.com, www.sharepointcode.com, www.sharepointsample.com, and many other sites! Many of these sites are excellent resources (and the most current resources available).
SharePoint courses
During the depths of the technology recession in the early 21st century, some members of the SBS development team whispered in my ear that I should take the Microsoft Official Curriculum course for SharePoint. And given that it was August (read slow dog days of summer) and my billable hours were down, I went back to school to learn SharePoint. I was led to believe I’d be glad I did once SBS 2003 shipped. The advice was well-founded, because once SBS 2003 hit the streets, I felt I knew WSS reasonably well. You should heed the same advice and go take some courses on SharePoint. As of this writing, the SharePoint curriculum is being revised and you are encouraged to check the Microsoft training site at www.microsoft.com/traincert for the most current course listings. For the record, I took course 2095: Implementing Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001, and I was very pleased (note this is the old SharePoint product).
Bill English delivers SharePoint courses and workshops. Check www.sharepointknowledge.com for his latest offerings. As of this writing, Bill is offering a summit (a four-day course typically in Orlando, Florida, or Anaheim, California, for $2,495) at www.sharepointsummit.com (Figure 7-29).
Notes:
Figure 7-29
Take in some sun in Orlando, Florida to attend the SharePoint Summit!
There is also a SharePoint Boot Camp offering in the US. Visit www.sharepointexperts.com for details.
Summary
This chapter had both a technical and business message focused on WSS. On the technical side, you worked with many primary elements of WSS including the document management and Intranet portal features. On the business side, you were exposed to some value-added thinking about how WSS can extend the SBS network and provide real solutions to real business problems, such as managing information inside a small business. WSS is one of the more important and popular features in SBS 2003, so you should use it to deliver your services as an SBSer to end users in the organization.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
SQL Server with WSS in SBS 2003
TGIF! Today is Friday and I am posting up a few pages from my Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best PRactices book for your public consumption! I plan to post up until SBS 2008 ships!
The topic today is integrsating SQL Server with Windows SharePoint Srevices (WSS) in SBS.
enjoy...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, CEO at SMB Nation, www.smbnation.com
Micosoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA and other stuff!
PS - we are holding an amazing Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) and Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) party in Seattle over the weekend of Oct 4-6...help us LAUNCH!
###
SharePoint and SQL Server 2000
And you thought I’d wait until the final section of the book to delve into SBS 2003 premium edition matters (fooled ya). There is a little bit of horse and cart going on here. I can’t really wait until the SQL Server 2000 chapter to address WSS and SQL Server, so here goes.
The Big Advantage
There is a building consensus in the SBS community that WSS will sell a helluva lot of SBS 2003 premium edition. Why? Because SQL Server 2000 is contained with the SBS 2003 premium edition. And with SQL Server 2000, you can do more stuff with WSS. The big advantage of using SQL Server 2000 with WSS relates to the searching capabilities.
BEST PRATICE: In other words, and I stress, the searching capabilities ARE NOT available if WSS is deployed with WMSDE/MSDE (which is the configuration in SBS 2003 standard edition). WSS without the
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
searching capability could be considered a half-baked Alaska without the flame!
There is little debate that the SBS premium edition is the better fit for organizations serious about WSS. Think about it. How enthusiastically would WSS be embraced if users hit a limitation on searching the document corpus? It would be a show stopper!
BEST PRACTICE: So you’re now completely sold on the SBS 2003 premium edition. But what if you purchased the SBS standard edition first and are just now coming to appreciate the mystical powers of SQL Server 2000? How can you get from point A (standard edition) to point B (premium edition) without raiding the piggy bank and spending the lunch money? Simple. Use Microsoft’s step-up vehicle that basically charges you the delta difference between the standard and premium prices (as of this writing that would be $900 USD). Full how-to-buy details at the Microsoft SBS site: www.microsoft.com/sbs.
As a journalist, I’m honor bound to share a few limitations of WSS. There is limited file type search support out of the box (assuming you are using SQL Server 2000 that provides searching capabilities). Search will only be natively performed against the following file types.
• .doc
• .xls
• .ppt
• .txt
• .htm
In a moment, I point you to some iFilters to extend WSS’s document support. Another limitation is that you can’t search sub-site content from a top-level site. And only one language per database is supported. The language issue is
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
especially important to SBSer as the majority of SBS sales are overseas (where mulitiple languages are often spoken in a single country).
SQL Server 2000 Configuration
To use SQL Server 2000 with WSS, you’ll first need to install it using the installation guidance provided to you from the How to Install link (which launches a document titled “Completing Setup for Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Premium Technologies”) on the SBS 2000 premium edition fifth Disc splash screen. (Chapter 13 of this book is also an ally of yours installing this database application.) You’ll perform the actual installation by clicking the Install Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Install SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3a on said fifth Disc splash screen.
If you have the SBS 2003 premium edition, you’re welcome to install SQL Server 2000 at this time or wait until you’ve read this book and return to this page to implement WSS with SQL Server (remember to dog ear this page - get the SPRINGERS pun!?!?).
After SQL Server 2000 has been installed, you need to configure it for WSS. This is also documented, starting on page four, of the “Completing Setup for Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Premium Technologies” document. Specifically, you will complete the steps to:
• Upgrade the instance of MSDE used for Windows SharePoint Services (page 4). See Figure 7-25 for a key configuration page in this configuration process.
• Install SP3a to the SHAREPOINT instance of SQL Server (page 5). Be sure to catch the note at the bottom of page 5 for stopping the MSSQL$SHAREPOINT service when you upgrade the instance (you really have to do this). Don’t forget to restart this service (and the MSSQLSERVER service) after you complete this configuration step.
• Review the SQL Server Collation Settings discussion (page 9).
Notes:
Figure 7-25
Selecting the Full-Text Search option is critical to invoking the advanced search capabilities in WSS when combined with SQL Server 2000. Please don’t miss this step.
So how about a before-and-after view (like weight loss ads in general interest magazines). Before you installed SQL Server 2000, if you went to SharePoint Central Administration on the SPRINGERS1 server machine and tried to configure full-text searching, you received the message seen in Figure 7-26. But as you can see in Figure 7-27, after SQL Server 2000 was installed configured, SQL Server 2000 is now providing the default engine for WSS, Full search capabilities are now enabled. Right on!
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-26
Before. Look at the message on the far right column.
Figure 7-27
After. It’s SQL Server 2000-based search time, baby! When you click OK here, you will get a progress screen as the change is made.
Advanced Searching Topics
So now that you’re using the search capabilities of SQL Server 2000 with WSS, you might be interested in more factoids.
• Mechanics. WSS allows SBS users to search all Web site content on a virtual server basis. In SBS 2003, the WSS virtual server is titled “CompanyWeb.” Subwebs inherit the search settings from parent sites.
• Home page search field. When you integrate SQL Server 2000 with WSS, a new search field appears on the Home page in the upper right. This search field is not present prior to integrating SQL Server 2000 with WSS.
• IFilters. Did you notice a few pages back that the document search capabilities were Microsoft-centric (e.g., a Word document with the .doc extension). What would you do if you needed to search a third-party document such as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file? You would go to www.sharepointknowledge.com (a resource I discuss in the next major section) and click the IFilters link on the left. You would then see the IFilters and Protocols page (Figure 7-28) where numerous IFilters for Abode, AutoCad, WordPerfect, and lots of other file formats are listed (even ZIP files).
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-28
This is your “go to resource” for IFilters that allows different document types to be searched in WSS when SQL Server 2000 is installed and configured.
The Case for SharePoint Portal Server
Microsoft’s SharePoint site is a great resource to compare WSS versus its big brother product, SharePoint Portal Server (SPS). There is an excellent white paper that allows you to decide when to deploy either of the SharePoint offerings. Visit www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/evaluationoverview.asp and download and read SharePointEvaluate.doc.
BEST PRACTICE: Time for a tad of plain Texas talk. WSS is going to be the best fit for SBSers in 99 percent of the cases. Why? Because SPS is really more oriented toward the enterprise with multiple sites, etc. SPS costs a lot of money ($5,619 USD) which is several times the cost of SBS 2003.
There was a time, in the spring of 2003, where it looked like the
cool stuff (like searching and robust document management) was
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
only going to be available with SPS. But Microsoft changed its mind
and put much of the cool stuff, the stuff important to SBSers, down
into the WSS product. Amen!
Current Topic: SharePoint versus Content Management Server
During the Spring 2003 GTM hands-on labs, students asked what some of the differences were between SharePoint and Content Management Server. Aside from pointing out feature and user interface differences, I replied that the difference was philosophical. SharePoint (WSS, SPS) can be viewed as an internal tool (although as you’ll see in Chapter 8, it can be accessed externally with Remote Web Workplace) and Content Management Server is focused externally to rapidly post content to public sites.
In mid-October 2003, CRN published an article that discusses the Content Management Server team joining the SPS group. If you’d like to read it, visit http://crn.channelsupersearch.com/news/crn/45155.asp. Synergy between the two products is another key point in that article.
The topic today is integrsating SQL Server with Windows SharePoint Srevices (WSS) in SBS.
enjoy...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, CEO at SMB Nation, www.smbnation.com
Micosoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA and other stuff!
PS - we are holding an amazing Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) and Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) party in Seattle over the weekend of Oct 4-6...help us LAUNCH!
###
SharePoint and SQL Server 2000
And you thought I’d wait until the final section of the book to delve into SBS 2003 premium edition matters (fooled ya). There is a little bit of horse and cart going on here. I can’t really wait until the SQL Server 2000 chapter to address WSS and SQL Server, so here goes.
The Big Advantage
There is a building consensus in the SBS community that WSS will sell a helluva lot of SBS 2003 premium edition. Why? Because SQL Server 2000 is contained with the SBS 2003 premium edition. And with SQL Server 2000, you can do more stuff with WSS. The big advantage of using SQL Server 2000 with WSS relates to the searching capabilities.
BEST PRATICE: In other words, and I stress, the searching capabilities ARE NOT available if WSS is deployed with WMSDE/MSDE (which is the configuration in SBS 2003 standard edition). WSS without the
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
searching capability could be considered a half-baked Alaska without the flame!
There is little debate that the SBS premium edition is the better fit for organizations serious about WSS. Think about it. How enthusiastically would WSS be embraced if users hit a limitation on searching the document corpus? It would be a show stopper!
BEST PRACTICE: So you’re now completely sold on the SBS 2003 premium edition. But what if you purchased the SBS standard edition first and are just now coming to appreciate the mystical powers of SQL Server 2000? How can you get from point A (standard edition) to point B (premium edition) without raiding the piggy bank and spending the lunch money? Simple. Use Microsoft’s step-up vehicle that basically charges you the delta difference between the standard and premium prices (as of this writing that would be $900 USD). Full how-to-buy details at the Microsoft SBS site: www.microsoft.com/sbs.
As a journalist, I’m honor bound to share a few limitations of WSS. There is limited file type search support out of the box (assuming you are using SQL Server 2000 that provides searching capabilities). Search will only be natively performed against the following file types.
• .doc
• .xls
• .ppt
• .txt
• .htm
In a moment, I point you to some iFilters to extend WSS’s document support. Another limitation is that you can’t search sub-site content from a top-level site. And only one language per database is supported. The language issue is
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
especially important to SBSer as the majority of SBS sales are overseas (where mulitiple languages are often spoken in a single country).
SQL Server 2000 Configuration
To use SQL Server 2000 with WSS, you’ll first need to install it using the installation guidance provided to you from the How to Install link (which launches a document titled “Completing Setup for Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Premium Technologies”) on the SBS 2000 premium edition fifth Disc splash screen. (Chapter 13 of this book is also an ally of yours installing this database application.) You’ll perform the actual installation by clicking the Install Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Install SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3a on said fifth Disc splash screen.
If you have the SBS 2003 premium edition, you’re welcome to install SQL Server 2000 at this time or wait until you’ve read this book and return to this page to implement WSS with SQL Server (remember to dog ear this page - get the SPRINGERS pun!?!?).
After SQL Server 2000 has been installed, you need to configure it for WSS. This is also documented, starting on page four, of the “Completing Setup for Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Premium Technologies” document. Specifically, you will complete the steps to:
• Upgrade the instance of MSDE used for Windows SharePoint Services (page 4). See Figure 7-25 for a key configuration page in this configuration process.
• Install SP3a to the SHAREPOINT instance of SQL Server (page 5). Be sure to catch the note at the bottom of page 5 for stopping the MSSQL$SHAREPOINT service when you upgrade the instance (you really have to do this). Don’t forget to restart this service (and the MSSQLSERVER service) after you complete this configuration step.
• Review the SQL Server Collation Settings discussion (page 9).
Notes:
Figure 7-25
Selecting the Full-Text Search option is critical to invoking the advanced search capabilities in WSS when combined with SQL Server 2000. Please don’t miss this step.
So how about a before-and-after view (like weight loss ads in general interest magazines). Before you installed SQL Server 2000, if you went to SharePoint Central Administration on the SPRINGERS1 server machine and tried to configure full-text searching, you received the message seen in Figure 7-26. But as you can see in Figure 7-27, after SQL Server 2000 was installed configured, SQL Server 2000 is now providing the default engine for WSS, Full search capabilities are now enabled. Right on!
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-26
Before. Look at the message on the far right column.
Figure 7-27
After. It’s SQL Server 2000-based search time, baby! When you click OK here, you will get a progress screen as the change is made.
Advanced Searching Topics
So now that you’re using the search capabilities of SQL Server 2000 with WSS, you might be interested in more factoids.
• Mechanics. WSS allows SBS users to search all Web site content on a virtual server basis. In SBS 2003, the WSS virtual server is titled “CompanyWeb.” Subwebs inherit the search settings from parent sites.
• Home page search field. When you integrate SQL Server 2000 with WSS, a new search field appears on the Home page in the upper right. This search field is not present prior to integrating SQL Server 2000 with WSS.
• IFilters. Did you notice a few pages back that the document search capabilities were Microsoft-centric (e.g., a Word document with the .doc extension). What would you do if you needed to search a third-party document such as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file? You would go to www.sharepointknowledge.com (a resource I discuss in the next major section) and click the IFilters link on the left. You would then see the IFilters and Protocols page (Figure 7-28) where numerous IFilters for Abode, AutoCad, WordPerfect, and lots of other file formats are listed (even ZIP files).
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-28
This is your “go to resource” for IFilters that allows different document types to be searched in WSS when SQL Server 2000 is installed and configured.
The Case for SharePoint Portal Server
Microsoft’s SharePoint site is a great resource to compare WSS versus its big brother product, SharePoint Portal Server (SPS). There is an excellent white paper that allows you to decide when to deploy either of the SharePoint offerings. Visit www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/evaluationoverview.asp and download and read SharePointEvaluate.doc.
BEST PRACTICE: Time for a tad of plain Texas talk. WSS is going to be the best fit for SBSers in 99 percent of the cases. Why? Because SPS is really more oriented toward the enterprise with multiple sites, etc. SPS costs a lot of money ($5,619 USD) which is several times the cost of SBS 2003.
There was a time, in the spring of 2003, where it looked like the
cool stuff (like searching and robust document management) was
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
only going to be available with SPS. But Microsoft changed its mind
and put much of the cool stuff, the stuff important to SBSers, down
into the WSS product. Amen!
Current Topic: SharePoint versus Content Management Server
During the Spring 2003 GTM hands-on labs, students asked what some of the differences were between SharePoint and Content Management Server. Aside from pointing out feature and user interface differences, I replied that the difference was philosophical. SharePoint (WSS, SPS) can be viewed as an internal tool (although as you’ll see in Chapter 8, it can be accessed externally with Remote Web Workplace) and Content Management Server is focused externally to rapidly post content to public sites.
In mid-October 2003, CRN published an article that discusses the Content Management Server team joining the SPS group. If you’d like to read it, visit http://crn.channelsupersearch.com/news/crn/45155.asp. Synergy between the two products is another key point in that article.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Office and SBS Integration Points with Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)
Happy hump day - we are almost nearing the end of Chapter 3 in Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices wherein we are studying Windows SharePoint Services. As you know - I am posting up a few pages per day from my book for your pleasure.
enjoy....harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford | ceo at smb nation | www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE, MCT and other stuff!
###
SBS 2003 Integration with WSS
Those “dev dudes” on the SBS 2003 development team slipped in a few points of integration between SBS 2003 and WSS that need to be highlighted.
• Remote E-mail Access (under Links). This allows you to view your Exchange-based e-mail via Outlook Web Access (Chapters 6 and 8 discuss this area more).
• Remote Server Management (under Links). This spawns a Terminal Services session to manage the SBS 2003 server machine (Chapters 4, 8, and 11 discuss this functionality more).
• Add User Wizard/Add Template wizard. Adding users and templates automatically get WSS roles
• Client and Server home page setting
• EICW: publishing intranet takes care of publishing the intranet virtual server in IIS
• Import Files Wizard from Import Files link from the Internal Web Site.
Office 2003 Integration with WSS
Something I plan to emphasis during the SMB Nation Summit worldwide tour in 2004 (www.smbnation.com) is the integration of Office 2003 with SBS 2003. Nowhere is this integration more apparent than how Office 2003 ties into WSS. In this section, I’ll discuss Shared Workspace, metadata promotion, and Meeting Workspaces and give examples of Access 2003 and FrontPage 2003 integration.
Note that I won’t dwell on another integration feature, Document Workspace sites, because that’s what we’ve basically been working with in this chapter. But for the record, Document Workspaces are clearly an Office 2003/WSS integration point.
Shared Workspace
You have already seen one such tie-in already. Revert back to Figure 7-11 and observe the Shared Workspace element on the right-side of the Word document.
This is one major way Office 2003 and WSS interact. A workspace is an area, hosted on a server (read SBS 2003), where colleagues can share documents, information, and hugs. The features of a shared workspace include document libraries, task lists, links lists, members list, and e-mail alerts. All shared workspace tasks can be performed in Office 2003 applications.
BEST PRACTICE: The Shared Workspace task pane opens automatically when you open an Office 2003 document that is stored in a WSS document library. In addition to displaying Web site data in the Members, Tasks, Documents and Links tabs, the Shared Workspace pane provides information about the active document on the Status and Document Information tabs:
The Status tab is pretty darn cool. It lists important information such as whether the document is up to date, in conflict with another member’s copy, and whether it is checked out. The Document Information tab tells you stuff like modified date, etc.
Metadata promotion
Another Office 2003 integration point with WSS is metadata promotion. To understand the context of this discussion, consider the following. In a traditional document management solution, each document has a profile. The document profile consists of descriptive fields with information about the document (i.e., what the document is about). These fields are called metadata.
BEST PRACTICE: You’ve likely worked with profiles and metadata at the document level for a long time and not necessarily even known it. How? Simply open any existing document from any Microsoft Office product (e.g., Word) and select File, Properties. The document property sheet that appears is a profile and the data in the fields (such as your name in the Author field) are metadata.
In a WSS document library, the columns of the document library (list columns) are the fields for the document profile. If you wish to add a field to the document profile for the library, you simply add a column to the WSS document library. The user-created columns of metadata fields automatically become populated
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
fields in the file properties of the document. It’s that easy! Whenever a user uploads a document to the library, she will be prompted to complete the metadata for the document. Note if you upload a document and make some off-line changes to the file properties of the document, said changes will be added as metadata in the document profile on the WSS document library.
BEST PRACTICE: I’m really starting to cross a boundary here and move into a discussion on InfoPath, an Office 2003 family member. InfoPath is an editor that looks kinda like Word and is a backend application that manages forms. These forms are akin to the file properties for a document except these forms use the data via XML to create much more meaningful metadata (a property sheet in Word just sits there).
For example, a company uses InfoPath and has a forms library with expense reports. The employee opens the new expense report form, enters data and saves it. This structured data is extracted by the accounting system.
More on this with specific procedures in my advanced SBS 2003 book.
Meeting Workspaces
A Meeting Workspace is a Web site for centralizing all the information and materials for one or more meetings. Prior to the meeting, attendees use the workspace to publish an agenda, attendee list, and relevant documents. During or after the meeting, the workspace can be used to publish meeting results and track tasks. A user is typically invited to the meeting via an e-mail request and they click a link to join. You will recall from the SBS 2000 Best Practices book in the Exchange Server chapter when I turned you on to Exchange Conferencing Server that this type of invitation with a link capability was present in that conferencing environment.
There are five types of Meeting Workspace templates in WSS:
• Blank Meeting Workspace. Requires customization to meet your requirements
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
• Basic Meeting Workspace. Includes all the basics elements to plan, organize, and track your meeting. Predefined lists (and associated Web Parts) include: Objectives, Attendees, and Agenda.
• Decision Meeting Workspace. Similar to the Basics Meeting Workspace but also focuses on the ability to review document and record decisions during the meeting. Additional lists beyond the “basics” include Document Library, Tasks, and Decisions.
• Social Meeting Workspace. Oriented toward planning parties and social events. The lists include Attendees, Directions, Image/Logo, Things to Bring, Discussions, and Picture Library.
• Multipage Meeting Workspace. This is the same as the Basic Meeting Workspace but allows multiple pages.
You can create a Meeting Workspace either in WSS or via Outlook 2003. From WSS, simply click Create (from the top link bar) and select Sites and Workgroups beneath Web Pages. Then complete the information for the workspace site you want and click Create (when writing this I created a monthly meeting site for SPRINGERS and I encourage you to do the same). Then select a template on the Template Selection page (I selected the Decision Meeting Workspace). Click OK. And that’s it, Your screen should look similar to Figure 7-22.
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-22
Something not widely emphasized in other SBS 2003 learning avenues, like the hands-on labs, is the Meeting Workspace capability of WSS. Use it!
BEST PRACTICE: The online help in WSS has excellent support for
Meeting Workspaces and I encourage you to delve deeper here.
Access 2003 Integration
First off, it’s big assumption time. I’m assuming that you’ve run (not walked) and installed Office 2003 on your client computer to track with me (you heard me mention this in other chapters such as Chapter 6 in the Exchange and Outlook discussion). That said, let me explain how one of the killer applications, Access 2003, integrates with WSS.
There are five integration points between Access 2003 and WSS:
• Export to WSS. Here you simply specify a site during the Access 2003 export keystroke sequence and the fields are mapped automatically.
• Import from WSS. This is a wizard-driven import of Lists and Views of Lists from WSS.
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
• Read/Write live link to WSS. Think of this as revisiting Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE).
• From WSS to Access 2003. WSS exports stuff to Access 2003. Access 2003 then creates a linked table and reports.
• Lookup field support. Full support for the database lookup function in WSS.
Excel 2003 integration
Something that’ll excite many readers is the simplicity with which you can send Excel 2003 data to a WSS list. You’ll do that right here, right now.
1. Log on as NormH at PRESIDENT with the password Purple3300.
2. Start Microsoft Excel 2003 from Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Excel 2003.
3. In Excel 2003, create a simple spreadsheet with financial information.
As you’ll see in a moment, I created a quick-and-dirty DuPont ratio model (if you don’t know what that is, no worries - it’s an MBA thang!).
4. Select Data, List, Create List. The data is converted to a list.
5. Select Data, List, Publish List. As seen in Figure 7-23, on the Publish List to SharePoint Site - Step 1 of 2 pages, complete the Address field to point to the Breeder1 site you created earlier (http:/ /companyweb/breeder1) and then select the Link to the new SharePoint list checkbox. In the Name field, give a descriptive title such as SPRINGERS DuPont Ratio Model and under Description type something like It’s Norm’s MBA in action!
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-23
You are creating the list to publish to WSS.
6. Click Next.
7. Confirm the column format on the next page (Step 2 of 2) and click Finish.
8. Click OK when the Windows SharePoint Services dialog box notifies you the list was successfully created.
9. Launch Internet Explorer from Start, Internet. The Springer Spaniels Limited Home page appears.
10. Click Breeding Workspace under Links. Click Lists in the left column. Select SPRINGERS DuPont Ratio model under Create List.
11. Observe the list in Figure 7-24. This is Excel 2003 data being presented in WSS and it’s active. Go ahead and horse around here. Change values, insert a row, add data, and see how it affects the list in WSS and Excel 2003. Yee-haw!
Figure 7-24
This is a great way to integrate Office 2003 and WSS in SBS 2003. This example could be the basis for you to go forth and create an EIS (discussed in this chapter) on the SBS network.
BEST PRACTICE: Another cool SBS 2003 WSS and Office 2003 integration point involves looking at a list in a data sheet and copying and pasting stuff from Excel. Here is what I mean. Create a data sheet in WSS and click the List in Datasheet option. Then open Excel 2003 and create a business spreadsheet populated with business data. Then right-click on your Start toolbar and select Tile Windows Vertically. At this point, the data list in WSS and the business spreadsheet in Exchange will be lined up. Then drag and drop the business data from Excel into the data list in WSS. This integration method, only possible with Office 2003 or higher, is another way to transfer data and is very efficient.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
An individual I know who uses this approach likes it because it allows you to see the Excel-based business data line up correctly in the WSS data list. Seeing is believing.
FrontPage 2003 integration
This integration point is very simple: good looks! FrontPage 2003 can best be integrated with WSS is to make the pages look better. Kinda like the popular American television show Extreme Makeover meets WSS in SBS 2003! More conservative folk would say it allows you to create professional-looking, high-quality pages. Enough said.
BEST PRACTICE: To the extent practicable, PLEASE try to have all of your client machines upgrade to Office 2003. I propose that the integration of WSS with Office 2003 is the “killer application” or a sufficient reason to undergo this upgrade. Am I all wet on this proposition? Then voice your opinion to me at sbs@nethealthmon.com!
Note my advanced SBS 2003 book will have much more discussion on Office 2003 and even SBS-specific integration with WSS! Stay tuned.
enjoy....harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford | ceo at smb nation | www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE, MCT and other stuff!
###
SBS 2003 Integration with WSS
Those “dev dudes” on the SBS 2003 development team slipped in a few points of integration between SBS 2003 and WSS that need to be highlighted.
• Remote E-mail Access (under Links). This allows you to view your Exchange-based e-mail via Outlook Web Access (Chapters 6 and 8 discuss this area more).
• Remote Server Management (under Links). This spawns a Terminal Services session to manage the SBS 2003 server machine (Chapters 4, 8, and 11 discuss this functionality more).
• Add User Wizard/Add Template wizard. Adding users and templates automatically get WSS roles
• Client and Server home page setting
• EICW: publishing intranet takes care of publishing the intranet virtual server in IIS
• Import Files Wizard from Import Files link from the Internal Web Site.
Office 2003 Integration with WSS
Something I plan to emphasis during the SMB Nation Summit worldwide tour in 2004 (www.smbnation.com) is the integration of Office 2003 with SBS 2003. Nowhere is this integration more apparent than how Office 2003 ties into WSS. In this section, I’ll discuss Shared Workspace, metadata promotion, and Meeting Workspaces and give examples of Access 2003 and FrontPage 2003 integration.
Note that I won’t dwell on another integration feature, Document Workspace sites, because that’s what we’ve basically been working with in this chapter. But for the record, Document Workspaces are clearly an Office 2003/WSS integration point.
Shared Workspace
You have already seen one such tie-in already. Revert back to Figure 7-11 and observe the Shared Workspace element on the right-side of the Word document.
This is one major way Office 2003 and WSS interact. A workspace is an area, hosted on a server (read SBS 2003), where colleagues can share documents, information, and hugs. The features of a shared workspace include document libraries, task lists, links lists, members list, and e-mail alerts. All shared workspace tasks can be performed in Office 2003 applications.
BEST PRACTICE: The Shared Workspace task pane opens automatically when you open an Office 2003 document that is stored in a WSS document library. In addition to displaying Web site data in the Members, Tasks, Documents and Links tabs, the Shared Workspace pane provides information about the active document on the Status and Document Information tabs:
The Status tab is pretty darn cool. It lists important information such as whether the document is up to date, in conflict with another member’s copy, and whether it is checked out. The Document Information tab tells you stuff like modified date, etc.
Metadata promotion
Another Office 2003 integration point with WSS is metadata promotion. To understand the context of this discussion, consider the following. In a traditional document management solution, each document has a profile. The document profile consists of descriptive fields with information about the document (i.e., what the document is about). These fields are called metadata.
BEST PRACTICE: You’ve likely worked with profiles and metadata at the document level for a long time and not necessarily even known it. How? Simply open any existing document from any Microsoft Office product (e.g., Word) and select File, Properties. The document property sheet that appears is a profile and the data in the fields (such as your name in the Author field) are metadata.
In a WSS document library, the columns of the document library (list columns) are the fields for the document profile. If you wish to add a field to the document profile for the library, you simply add a column to the WSS document library. The user-created columns of metadata fields automatically become populated
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
fields in the file properties of the document. It’s that easy! Whenever a user uploads a document to the library, she will be prompted to complete the metadata for the document. Note if you upload a document and make some off-line changes to the file properties of the document, said changes will be added as metadata in the document profile on the WSS document library.
BEST PRACTICE: I’m really starting to cross a boundary here and move into a discussion on InfoPath, an Office 2003 family member. InfoPath is an editor that looks kinda like Word and is a backend application that manages forms. These forms are akin to the file properties for a document except these forms use the data via XML to create much more meaningful metadata (a property sheet in Word just sits there).
For example, a company uses InfoPath and has a forms library with expense reports. The employee opens the new expense report form, enters data and saves it. This structured data is extracted by the accounting system.
More on this with specific procedures in my advanced SBS 2003 book.
Meeting Workspaces
A Meeting Workspace is a Web site for centralizing all the information and materials for one or more meetings. Prior to the meeting, attendees use the workspace to publish an agenda, attendee list, and relevant documents. During or after the meeting, the workspace can be used to publish meeting results and track tasks. A user is typically invited to the meeting via an e-mail request and they click a link to join. You will recall from the SBS 2000 Best Practices book in the Exchange Server chapter when I turned you on to Exchange Conferencing Server that this type of invitation with a link capability was present in that conferencing environment.
There are five types of Meeting Workspace templates in WSS:
• Blank Meeting Workspace. Requires customization to meet your requirements
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• Basic Meeting Workspace. Includes all the basics elements to plan, organize, and track your meeting. Predefined lists (and associated Web Parts) include: Objectives, Attendees, and Agenda.
• Decision Meeting Workspace. Similar to the Basics Meeting Workspace but also focuses on the ability to review document and record decisions during the meeting. Additional lists beyond the “basics” include Document Library, Tasks, and Decisions.
• Social Meeting Workspace. Oriented toward planning parties and social events. The lists include Attendees, Directions, Image/Logo, Things to Bring, Discussions, and Picture Library.
• Multipage Meeting Workspace. This is the same as the Basic Meeting Workspace but allows multiple pages.
You can create a Meeting Workspace either in WSS or via Outlook 2003. From WSS, simply click Create (from the top link bar) and select Sites and Workgroups beneath Web Pages. Then complete the information for the workspace site you want and click Create (when writing this I created a monthly meeting site for SPRINGERS and I encourage you to do the same). Then select a template on the Template Selection page (I selected the Decision Meeting Workspace). Click OK. And that’s it, Your screen should look similar to Figure 7-22.
Notes:
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Figure 7-22
Something not widely emphasized in other SBS 2003 learning avenues, like the hands-on labs, is the Meeting Workspace capability of WSS. Use it!
BEST PRACTICE: The online help in WSS has excellent support for
Meeting Workspaces and I encourage you to delve deeper here.
Access 2003 Integration
First off, it’s big assumption time. I’m assuming that you’ve run (not walked) and installed Office 2003 on your client computer to track with me (you heard me mention this in other chapters such as Chapter 6 in the Exchange and Outlook discussion). That said, let me explain how one of the killer applications, Access 2003, integrates with WSS.
There are five integration points between Access 2003 and WSS:
• Export to WSS. Here you simply specify a site during the Access 2003 export keystroke sequence and the fields are mapped automatically.
• Import from WSS. This is a wizard-driven import of Lists and Views of Lists from WSS.
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• Read/Write live link to WSS. Think of this as revisiting Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE).
• From WSS to Access 2003. WSS exports stuff to Access 2003. Access 2003 then creates a linked table and reports.
• Lookup field support. Full support for the database lookup function in WSS.
Excel 2003 integration
Something that’ll excite many readers is the simplicity with which you can send Excel 2003 data to a WSS list. You’ll do that right here, right now.
1. Log on as NormH at PRESIDENT with the password Purple3300.
2. Start Microsoft Excel 2003 from Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Excel 2003.
3. In Excel 2003, create a simple spreadsheet with financial information.
As you’ll see in a moment, I created a quick-and-dirty DuPont ratio model (if you don’t know what that is, no worries - it’s an MBA thang!).
4. Select Data, List, Create List. The data is converted to a list.
5. Select Data, List, Publish List. As seen in Figure 7-23, on the Publish List to SharePoint Site - Step 1 of 2 pages, complete the Address field to point to the Breeder1 site you created earlier (http:/ /companyweb/breeder1) and then select the Link to the new SharePoint list checkbox. In the Name field, give a descriptive title such as SPRINGERS DuPont Ratio Model and under Description type something like It’s Norm’s MBA in action!
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-23
You are creating the list to publish to WSS.
6. Click Next.
7. Confirm the column format on the next page (Step 2 of 2) and click Finish.
8. Click OK when the Windows SharePoint Services dialog box notifies you the list was successfully created.
9. Launch Internet Explorer from Start, Internet. The Springer Spaniels Limited Home page appears.
10. Click Breeding Workspace under Links. Click Lists in the left column. Select SPRINGERS DuPont Ratio model under Create List.
11. Observe the list in Figure 7-24. This is Excel 2003 data being presented in WSS and it’s active. Go ahead and horse around here. Change values, insert a row, add data, and see how it affects the list in WSS and Excel 2003. Yee-haw!
Figure 7-24
This is a great way to integrate Office 2003 and WSS in SBS 2003. This example could be the basis for you to go forth and create an EIS (discussed in this chapter) on the SBS network.
BEST PRACTICE: Another cool SBS 2003 WSS and Office 2003 integration point involves looking at a list in a data sheet and copying and pasting stuff from Excel. Here is what I mean. Create a data sheet in WSS and click the List in Datasheet option. Then open Excel 2003 and create a business spreadsheet populated with business data. Then right-click on your Start toolbar and select Tile Windows Vertically. At this point, the data list in WSS and the business spreadsheet in Exchange will be lined up. Then drag and drop the business data from Excel into the data list in WSS. This integration method, only possible with Office 2003 or higher, is another way to transfer data and is very efficient.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
An individual I know who uses this approach likes it because it allows you to see the Excel-based business data line up correctly in the WSS data list. Seeing is believing.
FrontPage 2003 integration
This integration point is very simple: good looks! FrontPage 2003 can best be integrated with WSS is to make the pages look better. Kinda like the popular American television show Extreme Makeover meets WSS in SBS 2003! More conservative folk would say it allows you to create professional-looking, high-quality pages. Enough said.
BEST PRACTICE: To the extent practicable, PLEASE try to have all of your client machines upgrade to Office 2003. I propose that the integration of WSS with Office 2003 is the “killer application” or a sufficient reason to undergo this upgrade. Am I all wet on this proposition? Then voice your opinion to me at sbs@nethealthmon.com!
Note my advanced SBS 2003 book will have much more discussion on Office 2003 and even SBS-specific integration with WSS! Stay tuned.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Advanced WSS topics in SBS 2003
Hello folks -i am harry brelsford, author of Windows Small Buinsess Server 2003 Best Practices and I am posting up a few pages a day of the "purple book" until SBS 2008 ships. Today we look at some advanced topics in Windows SharePoint Services in the SBS 2003 product. Good stuff Maynard!
cheers...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, ceo of SMB Nation www.smbnation.com and your fellow Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE, MCT and other non-sense.
PS - we got a hellva SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) launch party happin' in Seattle in early october. Check out my Web site for event details!
###
Advanced WSS Topics
I’m still planting WSS seeds for you to march forward with, and this section cultivates a garden of advanced SharePoint topics. These include meeting and greeting the options on the Modify Shared Page menu, learning how to use the management and statistics, server-side stuff and Office 2003 integration and using SQL Server with WSS.
Modify Shared Page
You’ve actually already peeked at this option in an earlier procedure, but this area warrants more discussion. Here I’ll explain each of the options.
• Add Web Parts. You’re quite familiar with this option because you added a Web Part earlier in the chapter.
• Design this Page. It’s human nature and certainly the nature of SBSers to fiddle around. The SBS development team has provided a great start with the default Home page, but experience has shown that SBSers ask the following question early and often: “How can I modify the Home page?” Obviously, adding Web Parts (above) is one way. The other is to fiddle with the design via the option. Go ahead and play with it under the SPRINGERS methodology, as you can’t do any real harm.
• Modify Shared Web Parts. This option is to modify existing Home page elements, including the announcements, site image, and link.
BEST PRACTICE: A popular modification right here amongst SBSers is to modify the site image. You can make the page better reflect the
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
company’s image by displaying the company logo instead of the Windows Small Business Server 2003 logo. See the default site image (Windows Small Business Server 2003) in the upper right corner of Figure 7-16.
• Shared View. This reveals the shared view that you are accustomed to at this point. A change made to the Home page is observed by everyone. This is the default view in SBS 2003.
• Personal View. There is some real power in WSS in creating personal views, where different users have a different WSS experience. Remember earlier when I spoke to the EIS creation process to report financial information. This is how you might do that, allowing executives to see sensitive financial information that isn’t appropriate for the rest of the staff.
Management and Statistics
Another thing to learn all about is the Management and Statistics area. From the home page, this is easily accessed from clicking Site Settings followed by Go to Site Administration under Administration. You will now see the Top-level Site Administration page. The Management and Statistics section has a link that allows you to view site usage data, which provide the metrics that let SBSers know how effective their efforts are in delivering a compelling business portal. This is analogous to some Web monitor tools (e.g., hit counters) that are used in the world of e-commerce.
WSS Backup and Restore
There was a very interesting and timely discussion on the Yahoo! SBS newsgroup in mid-December 2003 that discussed backup options for WSS in SBS 2003. This is a dialog between two leading SBSers (note the following public discussion is unedited):
SBSer #1 thoughtfully comments with the initial posting:
Generally, if we restore an individual SharePoint file,
we need to have a file-based backup image of your SharePoint documents. As I know, there are two ways to
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
perform file-based backup for your SharePoint database. For your convenience, I included the methods below:
Method 1. Use NTBackup.
===================== According to our test, we can map the folders under \\companyweb
as network drives now. Thus, we can use NTBackup to back up or restore the files in these folders (network drives) directly. To do so,
please follow the stepsbelow:
1. Map the \\Companyweb\Foldername
2. Run NTBackup and back up the network drive.
3. When you need to restore one file in this folder, simply run NTBackup to restore
Method 2. Use Stsadm.exe.
===================== If you have enabled the recovery of SharePoint files, you can recover a
file or list item by restoring the entire site from a backup to a subsite of http://companyweb, selecting the file or list item that you want to restore, extracting
it, and uploading it to its original location. To enable the recovery of individual SharePoint files, please use the following procedure:
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Scheduled Tasks, and then click Add Scheduled Task.
2. Click Next on the first page of the Scheduled Task Wizard.
3. Click Browse, go to %SystemDrive%\Program
Files\Common Files\MicrosoftShared\Web server extensions\60\Bin, and then double-click Stsadm.exe.
4. Select how often you want this task to run, and then click Next.
5. Select the time you want to run the schedule, and then click Next.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
1. Enter administrator credentials, and then click Next.
2. Select the Open advanced properties when I click finish check box, and then click Finish.
3. On the Task tab in the dialog box that appears, in the Run box, type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o backup -url http:// Companyweb –filename target path -overwrite, where target path is where you save the backup of your internal Web site. Click OK. You must type the quotation marks.
If you have enabled this before, you can follow the steps below to restore the missing files:
1. Click Start, click Command Prompt, and then type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o createsiteinnewdb -url http://companyweb/sites/RestoredSite -ownerlogin DOMAIN\administrator -owneremail administrator@DOMAIN.local
-databasename STS_RESTORE, where DOMAIN is your server domain and administrator@DOMAIN.local is your administrator¡¯s e-mail address. Include the quotation marks as part of the path. Press ENTER.
2. Type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o restore -url http://Companyweb/Sites/Restoredsite -filename target path -overwrite, where target path is the location where you chose to save your SharePoint backup. Include the quotation marks as part of the path. Press ENTER.
3. Open Internet Explorer, and in the address bar, type
http://Companyweb/Sites/Restoredsite. The site that appears is the same as your company Web site.
1. In the restored site, navigate to the missing file.
2. Right-click the file, select Save Target As, and then select a location to which to save the file.
3. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for all missing files.
4. Open your company Web site, navigate to the location where the missing files should be, and then on the SharePoint toolbar, click Upload Document.
NOTE: The second method is provided in the SBS Server help. You can findthis by the following steps:
1. Open Server Management.
2. Click Standard Management->Backup.
3. Click Restore Sharepoint files in the right pane. However, if you have not performed either method above to enable file-based backup, I am afraid that we may have
to restore the entire database.
SBSer #2 thoughtfully replies:
Just realize that there are certain things to be aware of regarding method #1:
1)
it is not a method supported by the SBS Dev
Team
2)
you need to have a separate network place on
your server pointing to the each sharepoint document library, etc. you want to back up individual files from. Note that you cannot have a single network place
just pointing to companyweb 3) NTBackup will not restore files back into the Sharepoint database. You will have to restore to an alternate location, then manually upload the file back into Sharepoint.
SBSer #1 reverts back and ends the thread:
Have to laugh though... that’s a cut and paste from a Microsoft support person posting.... but I have heard that #1 is not the preferred method. Thus my comment about using #2.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
BEST PRACTICE: Be sure to catch the comment about the Restore SharePoint Files link under Backup (Server Management, Standard Management). Right now, please click over and read the Small Business Server Help and Information page (that appears upon click) on this topic.
Server-Side: SharePoint Central Administration
Much of what we have discussed so far has been on the client computer-side. You’ve interacted with WSS from Internet Explorer from NormH’s PRESIDENT machine. But there is a server-side to WSS you should know about. In this section, you will observe the file types that are blocked from uploading and learn about the native antivirus protection. You will correctly use SharePoint Central Administration to do this (see my Best Practice in a moment about the best server-side tools to use).
1 Log on as Administrator to SPRINGERS1 with the password Husky9999!.
2 Click Start, Administrative Tools, SharePoint Central Administration.
3 On the Central Administration page, select Manage blocked file types under Security Configuration.
4 Observe the default file extensions that are blocked. You can add or delete file extensions to this list. These are file types that can not be uploaded into WSS. Click OK.
BEST PRACTICE: Compare the list of blocked file extensions here compared to SMTP sink blocked file types discussed in Chapter 6 (see the attachment blocking discussion) and shown back in Figure 4-14 when the E-mail and Internet Connection Wizard (EICW) was completed.
1 On the Central Administration page, select Configure antivirus settings under Security Configuration.
2 Click the Show me more information link and read about the requirements for virus protection in WSS. You can then click the About virus protection link to learn even more. Close the help window.
1 Select the following antivirus settings: Scan documents on upload, Scan documents on download, Attempt to clean infected documents.
2 Click OK.
3 Close the Central Administration page.
BEST PRACTICE: In Chapter 11, you will be strongly encouraged to download and install a trial version of Trend Micro’s PortalProtect for SharePoint, a WSS compliant application that will exploit the antivirus settings you just configured.
BEST PRACTICE: When I was teaching SharePoint technologies on the Spring 2003 GTM hands-on lab tour, a common challenge for students was to keep it all “straight” and remember where they were in WSS. You’ve already seen at least four ways to interact with WSS:
• Springer Spaniels Limited Home page when you launch Internet
Explorer on a client computer
• Server Management console on the SBS 2003 server machine (see Internal Web Site under Standard Management)
• SharePoint Central Administration on the server. USE THIS ONE for administrative management of WSS.
• Microsoft SharePoint Administrator. BEWARE: this is FrontPage Server Extensions management, not truly WSS. DO NOT USE THIS ONE. This is a distant sister technology to WSS.
There is actually a fourth way to interact with WSS: Web folders. To see this, go to a client machine (e.g., PRESIDENT) and launch My Network Places from the Start button. Observe the Web folders related to CompanyWeb (the default WSS virtual server in SBS 2003). At this point, you should see General Documents and Jones Family.
cheers...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, ceo of SMB Nation www.smbnation.com and your fellow Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE, MCT and other non-sense.
PS - we got a hellva SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) launch party happin' in Seattle in early october. Check out my Web site for event details!
###
Advanced WSS Topics
I’m still planting WSS seeds for you to march forward with, and this section cultivates a garden of advanced SharePoint topics. These include meeting and greeting the options on the Modify Shared Page menu, learning how to use the management and statistics, server-side stuff and Office 2003 integration and using SQL Server with WSS.
Modify Shared Page
You’ve actually already peeked at this option in an earlier procedure, but this area warrants more discussion. Here I’ll explain each of the options.
• Add Web Parts. You’re quite familiar with this option because you added a Web Part earlier in the chapter.
• Design this Page. It’s human nature and certainly the nature of SBSers to fiddle around. The SBS development team has provided a great start with the default Home page, but experience has shown that SBSers ask the following question early and often: “How can I modify the Home page?” Obviously, adding Web Parts (above) is one way. The other is to fiddle with the design via the option. Go ahead and play with it under the SPRINGERS methodology, as you can’t do any real harm.
• Modify Shared Web Parts. This option is to modify existing Home page elements, including the announcements, site image, and link.
BEST PRACTICE: A popular modification right here amongst SBSers is to modify the site image. You can make the page better reflect the
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
company’s image by displaying the company logo instead of the Windows Small Business Server 2003 logo. See the default site image (Windows Small Business Server 2003) in the upper right corner of Figure 7-16.
• Shared View. This reveals the shared view that you are accustomed to at this point. A change made to the Home page is observed by everyone. This is the default view in SBS 2003.
• Personal View. There is some real power in WSS in creating personal views, where different users have a different WSS experience. Remember earlier when I spoke to the EIS creation process to report financial information. This is how you might do that, allowing executives to see sensitive financial information that isn’t appropriate for the rest of the staff.
Management and Statistics
Another thing to learn all about is the Management and Statistics area. From the home page, this is easily accessed from clicking Site Settings followed by Go to Site Administration under Administration. You will now see the Top-level Site Administration page. The Management and Statistics section has a link that allows you to view site usage data, which provide the metrics that let SBSers know how effective their efforts are in delivering a compelling business portal. This is analogous to some Web monitor tools (e.g., hit counters) that are used in the world of e-commerce.
WSS Backup and Restore
There was a very interesting and timely discussion on the Yahoo! SBS newsgroup in mid-December 2003 that discussed backup options for WSS in SBS 2003. This is a dialog between two leading SBSers (note the following public discussion is unedited):
SBSer #1 thoughtfully comments with the initial posting:
Generally, if we restore an individual SharePoint file,
we need to have a file-based backup image of your SharePoint documents. As I know, there are two ways to
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
perform file-based backup for your SharePoint database. For your convenience, I included the methods below:
Method 1. Use NTBackup.
===================== According to our test, we can map the folders under \\companyweb
please follow the stepsbelow:
1. Map the \\Companyweb\Foldername
2. Run NTBackup and back up the network drive.
3. When you need to restore one file in this folder, simply run NTBackup to restore
Method 2. Use Stsadm.exe.
===================== If you have enabled the recovery of SharePoint files, you can recover a
file or list item by restoring the entire site from a backup to a subsite of http://companyweb, selecting the file or list item that you want to restore, extracting
it, and uploading it to its original location. To enable the recovery of individual SharePoint files, please use the following procedure:
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Scheduled Tasks, and then click Add Scheduled Task.
2. Click Next on the first page of the Scheduled Task Wizard.
3. Click Browse, go to %SystemDrive%\Program
Files\Common Files\MicrosoftShared\Web server extensions\60\Bin, and then double-click Stsadm.exe.
4. Select how often you want this task to run, and then click Next.
5. Select the time you want to run the schedule, and then click Next.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
1. Enter administrator credentials, and then click Next.
2. Select the Open advanced properties when I click finish check box, and then click Finish.
3. On the Task tab in the dialog box that appears, in the Run box, type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o backup -url http:// Companyweb –filename target path -overwrite, where target path is where you save the backup of your internal Web site. Click OK. You must type the quotation marks.
If you have enabled this before, you can follow the steps below to restore the missing files:
1. Click Start, click Command Prompt, and then type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o createsiteinnewdb -url http://companyweb/sites/RestoredSite -ownerlogin DOMAIN\administrator -owneremail administrator@DOMAIN.local
2. Type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o restore -url http://Companyweb/Sites/Restoredsite -filename target path -overwrite, where target path is the location where you chose to save your SharePoint backup. Include the quotation marks as part of the path. Press ENTER.
3. Open Internet Explorer, and in the address bar, type
http://Companyweb/Sites/Restoredsite. The site that appears is the same as your company Web site.
1. In the restored site, navigate to the missing file.
2. Right-click the file, select Save Target As, and then select a location to which to save the file.
3. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for all missing files.
4. Open your company Web site, navigate to the location where the missing files should be, and then on the SharePoint toolbar, click Upload Document.
NOTE: The second method is provided in the SBS Server help. You can findthis by the following steps:
1. Open Server Management.
2. Click Standard Management->Backup.
3. Click Restore Sharepoint files in the right pane. However, if you have not performed either method above to enable file-based backup, I am afraid that we may have
to restore the entire database.
SBSer #2 thoughtfully replies:
Just realize that there are certain things to be aware of regarding method #1:
1)
it is not a method supported by the SBS Dev
Team
2)
you need to have a separate network place on
your server pointing to the each sharepoint document library, etc. you want to back up individual files from. Note that you cannot have a single network place
just pointing to companyweb 3) NTBackup will not restore files back into the Sharepoint database. You will have to restore to an alternate location, then manually upload the file back into Sharepoint.
SBSer #1 reverts back and ends the thread:
Have to laugh though... that’s a cut and paste from a Microsoft support person posting.... but I have heard that #1 is not the preferred method. Thus my comment about using #2.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
BEST PRACTICE: Be sure to catch the comment about the Restore SharePoint Files link under Backup (Server Management, Standard Management). Right now, please click over and read the Small Business Server Help and Information page (that appears upon click) on this topic.
Server-Side: SharePoint Central Administration
Much of what we have discussed so far has been on the client computer-side. You’ve interacted with WSS from Internet Explorer from NormH’s PRESIDENT machine. But there is a server-side to WSS you should know about. In this section, you will observe the file types that are blocked from uploading and learn about the native antivirus protection. You will correctly use SharePoint Central Administration to do this (see my Best Practice in a moment about the best server-side tools to use).
1 Log on as Administrator to SPRINGERS1 with the password Husky9999!.
2 Click Start, Administrative Tools, SharePoint Central Administration.
3 On the Central Administration page, select Manage blocked file types under Security Configuration.
4 Observe the default file extensions that are blocked. You can add or delete file extensions to this list. These are file types that can not be uploaded into WSS. Click OK.
BEST PRACTICE: Compare the list of blocked file extensions here compared to SMTP sink blocked file types discussed in Chapter 6 (see the attachment blocking discussion) and shown back in Figure 4-14 when the E-mail and Internet Connection Wizard (EICW) was completed.
1 On the Central Administration page, select Configure antivirus settings under Security Configuration.
2 Click the Show me more information link and read about the requirements for virus protection in WSS. You can then click the About virus protection link to learn even more. Close the help window.
1 Select the following antivirus settings: Scan documents on upload, Scan documents on download, Attempt to clean infected documents.
2 Click OK.
3 Close the Central Administration page.
BEST PRACTICE: In Chapter 11, you will be strongly encouraged to download and install a trial version of Trend Micro’s PortalProtect for SharePoint, a WSS compliant application that will exploit the antivirus settings you just configured.
BEST PRACTICE: When I was teaching SharePoint technologies on the Spring 2003 GTM hands-on lab tour, a common challenge for students was to keep it all “straight” and remember where they were in WSS. You’ve already seen at least four ways to interact with WSS:
• Springer Spaniels Limited Home page when you launch Internet
Explorer on a client computer
• Server Management console on the SBS 2003 server machine (see Internal Web Site under Standard Management)
• SharePoint Central Administration on the server. USE THIS ONE for administrative management of WSS.
• Microsoft SharePoint Administrator. BEWARE: this is FrontPage Server Extensions management, not truly WSS. DO NOT USE THIS ONE. This is a distant sister technology to WSS.
There is actually a fourth way to interact with WSS: Web folders. To see this, go to a client machine (e.g., PRESIDENT) and launch My Network Places from the Start button. Observe the Web folders related to CompanyWeb (the default WSS virtual server in SBS 2003). At this point, you should see General Documents and Jones Family.
Monday, August 4, 2008
SharePointables in SBS 2003 (WSS in SBS)
Happy Monday Mornging To YOU!
I am posting up more SharePointables today from Chapter 7 of Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices. As you may know - I am the author of the "purple book" and I am posting up several pages a day until SBS 2008 ships. I consider this my way of giving to the SBS COMMUNITY!
Enjoy learn more about SharePointables in Windows SharePoint Services and remember this BLAST FORM THE PAST: Wasn't it a SharePoint date bug in late November 2003 (Thanksgiving Weekend) that caused fits for theearly part of the SBS 2003 product lauch cycle? YEP! It was folks like Wayne Small and Jeff Middleton holding a workshop in Australia that discovered it along with Microsoft aussie MArk o'Shea!
Enjoy the read...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, CEO at SMB Nation, www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC),MBA, MCSE,MCT, CNE and other madness!
###
BEST PRACTICE: Another SBS client I have who is starting to greatly benefit from WSS is a real estate company with a HUGE photo library of commercial real estate properties. Keeping the photos organized was historically a major problem and one that WSS has solved in a single stroke of the proverbial pen. And we didn’t have to deploy Adobe’s new Photoshop Album 2.0.
Lists
Business people are slaves to lists! So the inclusion of built-in common lists, such as announcements, will sit well with the business folks using the SBS network. You can create your own lists to meet your specific needs, which is the beauty of the list paradigm in WSS.
BEST PRACTICE: That is a key point I don’t want you to miss: creating custom lists. Whereas Microsoft masters on the SBS development team have made sound decisions about the common lists required in a business, they can’t hope to know the unique requirements you face. Ergo, you can to add massive business value in WSS by creating lists that meet your specific needs. These could be needs that were never even anticipated by Microsoft (or even me!).
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Pay particular attention to the Help Desk list. This is unique to SBS 2003 and is a really cool technology management feature. It is shown in Figure 7-19 with a user request that I’ve added (Elvis can’t print...). Please create a similar request now. I’ll relate this to the Administrator’s view of Remote Web Workplace in the next chapter.
Figure 7-19
A user needs help!
I highly recommend you also horse around with the Vacation Calendar (also unique to SBS 2003), as seen in Figure 7-20. This provides a centralized calendar for employees to make entries for out-of-office experiences, including vacation. My concern here is that you might be creating an “island of information” outside of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 (Chapter 6). You do have the ability to link it back to Outlook by clicking Link to Outlook (you’ll then reply Yes to a request to add a folder to Outlook 2003). By doing so a SharePoint Folders object is added to the Exchange Server 2003 organization and a calendar object titled Springer Spaniels Limited - Vacation Calendar is created (Figure 7-21).
BEST PRACTICE: So said vacation calendar concerns so noted, how about some perspective on why the SBS development team added this to WSS in SBS 2003. What the SBS development team members found with numerous customer site visits is that most small companies maintained a manual vacation calendar on the wall of the kitchen. The vacation calendar in WSS is intend to replace the manual calendar. It’s not meant to compete with Public Folders.
While you and I are this topic of what was presented to you (vacation calendar), let me share with you what wasn’t presented in SBS 2003. The SBS development team decided not to present WSS contacts and tasks (which you’d see in the full WSS on a non-SBS 2003 implementation) in order to prevent small business confusion. You should use the Springer Spaniels Limited Contacts in Public Folders for your contact sharing needs. Shared tasks could also be a Public Folder object.
Figure 7-20
NormH is getting away for a few days of skiing, according to the vacation calendar at SPRINGERS!
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-21
The ability to populate a calendar object in Exchange/Outlook assists in overcoming an “island of information” fear about using the vacation calendar in WSS.
Discussions
The newsgroup meets SBS 2003! This is your chance to internally deploy a threaded newsgroup discussion in the organization running SBS 2003. This can be a more effective way to communicate business matters versus e-mails, because it’s easier to preserve the discussion over time. That way, a new employee who “didn’t get the e-mail” is able to follow the important business discussion. Just promise me that you will actively manage the newsgroup to minimize DRAMA!
Surveys
Why not? Why not create a survey to find out what folks think about business, technology, or event politics at the small business? There are entire management texts dedicated to business communication, facilitation, feedback, and sampling, so I’ll just plant the seed here and make you aware that a very simple survey vehicle exists for your use. USE IT!
BEST PRACTICE: Much of the SBS-specific cool stuff in WSS I’ve highlighted so far is the result of the insight, wisdom, and fortitude of a Microsoft SBS program manager named “Dean” (we’ll use AA rules here to protect his full identity). Dean “owned” WSS in the SBS 2003 time frame, and he had the vision to see both the business and technical dimensions to this tool kit. Please point your positive vibes towards Dean! And Dean, take a bow!
I am posting up more SharePointables today from Chapter 7 of Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices. As you may know - I am the author of the "purple book" and I am posting up several pages a day until SBS 2008 ships. I consider this my way of giving to the SBS COMMUNITY!
Enjoy learn more about SharePointables in Windows SharePoint Services and remember this BLAST FORM THE PAST: Wasn't it a SharePoint date bug in late November 2003 (Thanksgiving Weekend) that caused fits for theearly part of the SBS 2003 product lauch cycle? YEP! It was folks like Wayne Small and Jeff Middleton holding a workshop in Australia that discovered it along with Microsoft aussie MArk o'Shea!
Enjoy the read...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, CEO at SMB Nation, www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC),MBA, MCSE,MCT, CNE and other madness!
###
BEST PRACTICE: Another SBS client I have who is starting to greatly benefit from WSS is a real estate company with a HUGE photo library of commercial real estate properties. Keeping the photos organized was historically a major problem and one that WSS has solved in a single stroke of the proverbial pen. And we didn’t have to deploy Adobe’s new Photoshop Album 2.0.
Lists
Business people are slaves to lists! So the inclusion of built-in common lists, such as announcements, will sit well with the business folks using the SBS network. You can create your own lists to meet your specific needs, which is the beauty of the list paradigm in WSS.
BEST PRACTICE: That is a key point I don’t want you to miss: creating custom lists. Whereas Microsoft masters on the SBS development team have made sound decisions about the common lists required in a business, they can’t hope to know the unique requirements you face. Ergo, you can to add massive business value in WSS by creating lists that meet your specific needs. These could be needs that were never even anticipated by Microsoft (or even me!).
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Pay particular attention to the Help Desk list. This is unique to SBS 2003 and is a really cool technology management feature. It is shown in Figure 7-19 with a user request that I’ve added (Elvis can’t print...). Please create a similar request now. I’ll relate this to the Administrator’s view of Remote Web Workplace in the next chapter.
Figure 7-19
A user needs help!
I highly recommend you also horse around with the Vacation Calendar (also unique to SBS 2003), as seen in Figure 7-20. This provides a centralized calendar for employees to make entries for out-of-office experiences, including vacation. My concern here is that you might be creating an “island of information” outside of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 (Chapter 6). You do have the ability to link it back to Outlook by clicking Link to Outlook (you’ll then reply Yes to a request to add a folder to Outlook 2003). By doing so a SharePoint Folders object is added to the Exchange Server 2003 organization and a calendar object titled Springer Spaniels Limited - Vacation Calendar is created (Figure 7-21).
BEST PRACTICE: So said vacation calendar concerns so noted, how about some perspective on why the SBS development team added this to WSS in SBS 2003. What the SBS development team members found with numerous customer site visits is that most small companies maintained a manual vacation calendar on the wall of the kitchen. The vacation calendar in WSS is intend to replace the manual calendar. It’s not meant to compete with Public Folders.
While you and I are this topic of what was presented to you (vacation calendar), let me share with you what wasn’t presented in SBS 2003. The SBS development team decided not to present WSS contacts and tasks (which you’d see in the full WSS on a non-SBS 2003 implementation) in order to prevent small business confusion. You should use the Springer Spaniels Limited Contacts in Public Folders for your contact sharing needs. Shared tasks could also be a Public Folder object.
Figure 7-20
NormH is getting away for a few days of skiing, according to the vacation calendar at SPRINGERS!
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-21
The ability to populate a calendar object in Exchange/Outlook assists in overcoming an “island of information” fear about using the vacation calendar in WSS.
Discussions
The newsgroup meets SBS 2003! This is your chance to internally deploy a threaded newsgroup discussion in the organization running SBS 2003. This can be a more effective way to communicate business matters versus e-mails, because it’s easier to preserve the discussion over time. That way, a new employee who “didn’t get the e-mail” is able to follow the important business discussion. Just promise me that you will actively manage the newsgroup to minimize DRAMA!
Surveys
Why not? Why not create a survey to find out what folks think about business, technology, or event politics at the small business? There are entire management texts dedicated to business communication, facilitation, feedback, and sampling, so I’ll just plant the seed here and make you aware that a very simple survey vehicle exists for your use. USE IT!
BEST PRACTICE: Much of the SBS-specific cool stuff in WSS I’ve highlighted so far is the result of the insight, wisdom, and fortitude of a Microsoft SBS program manager named “Dean” (we’ll use AA rules here to protect his full identity). Dean “owned” WSS in the SBS 2003 time frame, and he had the vision to see both the business and technical dimensions to this tool kit. Please point your positive vibes towards Dean! And Dean, take a bow!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Web Parts in Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) in SBS 2003
Yo - the journey continues in Chapter 7 of Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices. Today I am posting up some pages on WEB PARTS in Windows SharePoint Services...so cool!
enjoy the day...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, ceo at smb nation www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE and other stuff too (MCT, CNE yadda yadda yadda)
PS - we are hosting a SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server (EBS) 2008 LAUNCH PARTY on October 4th in Seattle...be there!
####
Web Parts
This is really cool. You’ll add a Web part from Microsoft’s Web part library to the Springer Spaniels Limited Home page in WSS.
1 Logon as Administrator on the SPRINGERS1 machine with the password Husky9999! Launch Internet Explorer from Start, Internet. The Springer Spaniels Limited Home page should be displayed.
2 Also assuming your computer is connected to the Internet, launch another Internet Explorer session (Start, Internet), and browse to www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/downloads/components/default.asp (SharePoint Products and Technologies Web Component Directory). I selected Top 5 Components under Component Downloads on the right side. I then selected the Web Part to view RSS Newsfeeds (which can be accessed directly at www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/ downloads/components/detail.asp?a=336). Click Download Now and I Agree on the license page (Component Disclaimer) that follows.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
When the File download dialog box appears, save the file (RSSFeedReaderSetup.msi) to My Documents by selecting Save. You will import this Web part into your site in a moment. Click Close.
BEST PRACTICE: Have a pleasure moment and surf around the Microsoft Web Part Gallery. There is some cool stuff here that you’ll likely want to add to your own WSS pages on your real-world SBS networks.
And why did I not take you to the built-in online gallery of Web parts in WSS (from Modify Shared Page, Add Web Parts, Browse)? Because on two SBS 2003 server machines that I built for this section of the book (according to exacting SPRINGERS standards), I found that the online gallery didn’t completely install. Other SBS 2003 server machines I’ve worked with did not have this problem. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why the Web parts install on some machines and not others. Hmmmm. Further discussions with Microsoft resulted in their agreeing to look into this behavior but I have no update to share with you as of press time.
1 Double-click on the Web part - RSSFeedReaderSetup.msi-and install it by clicking Next several times, agreeing to the license and Close.
2 Click on the Modify Shared Page in the upper right of Springer Spaniels Limited Home and select Add Web Part, Browse.
3 Select the Virtual Server Gallery and select RSS FeedReader under Web Part List.
4 Click Add on the lower right. The Web part is added and a RSS FeedReader entry is made on the Home page at the top (you’ll see the end result in a moment). Your result should look similar to Figure 7-17.
5 Click the open the tool pane link under RSS FeedReader. I’m going to have you add a technology news feed but you could certainly go out and find the RSS news feeds of your choosing (even dog breeding news!).
6 Launch another copy of Internet Explorer (Start, Internet) and visit W2KNews at www.w2knews.com. Copy its RSS feed links:
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
http://www.w2knews.com/rss/index.xml and http://www.winxpnews.com/rss/index.xml and paste into RSS Feed URLs text box on the right side in WSS. Click OK.
9. Enjoy the technology news that will now stream across your screen!
Figure 7-17
Welcome to the wonderful world of Web Parts in WSS. Congratulations on your first implementation. There are hundreds of cool Web Parts out there.
BEST PRACTICE: I’ve now given you enough ammunition to go forth and add real business value on the SBS network. My advice here would be to really learn about all the business-related Web Parts out there and create an Executive Information System (EIS). If you’re not aware, an EIS is a business tool that was popular in the late 1980s for giving executives push button clicking to their financial information. EISes were typically based on the green light, yellow light, red light metaphor. In modern times, the Oracle Small Business Suite, based on NetLedger, is an example of this concept. But not to
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
be outdone, you can create a kick-ass EIS in SBS with WSS. Go forth
in the pursuit of profits!
enjoy the day...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, ceo at smb nation www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE and other stuff too (MCT, CNE yadda yadda yadda)
PS - we are hosting a SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server (EBS) 2008 LAUNCH PARTY on October 4th in Seattle...be there!
####
Web Parts
This is really cool. You’ll add a Web part from Microsoft’s Web part library to the Springer Spaniels Limited Home page in WSS.
1 Logon as Administrator on the SPRINGERS1 machine with the password Husky9999! Launch Internet Explorer from Start, Internet. The Springer Spaniels Limited Home page should be displayed.
2 Also assuming your computer is connected to the Internet, launch another Internet Explorer session (Start, Internet), and browse to www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/downloads/components/default.asp (SharePoint Products and Technologies Web Component Directory). I selected Top 5 Components under Component Downloads on the right side. I then selected the Web Part to view RSS Newsfeeds (which can be accessed directly at www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/ downloads/components/detail.asp?a=336). Click Download Now and I Agree on the license page (Component Disclaimer) that follows.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
When the File download dialog box appears, save the file (RSSFeedReaderSetup.msi) to My Documents by selecting Save. You will import this Web part into your site in a moment. Click Close.
BEST PRACTICE: Have a pleasure moment and surf around the Microsoft Web Part Gallery. There is some cool stuff here that you’ll likely want to add to your own WSS pages on your real-world SBS networks.
And why did I not take you to the built-in online gallery of Web parts in WSS (from Modify Shared Page, Add Web Parts, Browse)? Because on two SBS 2003 server machines that I built for this section of the book (according to exacting SPRINGERS standards), I found that the online gallery didn’t completely install. Other SBS 2003 server machines I’ve worked with did not have this problem. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why the Web parts install on some machines and not others. Hmmmm. Further discussions with Microsoft resulted in their agreeing to look into this behavior but I have no update to share with you as of press time.
1 Double-click on the Web part - RSSFeedReaderSetup.msi-and install it by clicking Next several times, agreeing to the license and Close.
2 Click on the Modify Shared Page in the upper right of Springer Spaniels Limited Home and select Add Web Part, Browse.
3 Select the Virtual Server Gallery and select RSS FeedReader under Web Part List.
4 Click Add on the lower right. The Web part is added and a RSS FeedReader entry is made on the Home page at the top (you’ll see the end result in a moment). Your result should look similar to Figure 7-17.
5 Click the open the tool pane link under RSS FeedReader. I’m going to have you add a technology news feed but you could certainly go out and find the RSS news feeds of your choosing (even dog breeding news!).
6 Launch another copy of Internet Explorer (Start, Internet) and visit W2KNews at www.w2knews.com. Copy its RSS feed links:
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
http://www.w2knews.com/rss/index.xml and http://www.winxpnews.com/rss/index.xml and paste into RSS Feed URLs text box on the right side in WSS. Click OK.
9. Enjoy the technology news that will now stream across your screen!
Figure 7-17
Welcome to the wonderful world of Web Parts in WSS. Congratulations on your first implementation. There are hundreds of cool Web Parts out there.
BEST PRACTICE: I’ve now given you enough ammunition to go forth and add real business value on the SBS network. My advice here would be to really learn about all the business-related Web Parts out there and create an Executive Information System (EIS). If you’re not aware, an EIS is a business tool that was popular in the late 1980s for giving executives push button clicking to their financial information. EISes were typically based on the green light, yellow light, red light metaphor. In modern times, the Oracle Small Business Suite, based on NetLedger, is an example of this concept. But not to
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
be outdone, you can create a kick-ass EIS in SBS with WSS. Go forth
in the pursuit of profits!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
WSS-based Collaboration in Windows small Business Server 2003 (SBS)
Happy Saturday to you. I am posting up a section from Chapter 7 of my book,Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices, here for your consumption.
Today we discuss Windows SharePoint Services and using the platform for internal collaboration.
All goodness - lots of fun....harrybbbbb
Harry Brelsford, ceo at smb nation, www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA and all the other stuff: MCSE, MCT, MCP,CNE, CLSE, CNE and CNP
###
Intranet Collaboration
This section honors the roots of WSS: both its intranet and collaboration heritage. You will add an announcement to the SPRINGERS Home page, add a Web part, and create a “subweb” page to add financial data from Microsoft Excel. What I hope you’ll draw out from this section is you’ll see the Digital Dashboard roots of WSS. (If you worked with Digital Dashboard, you’ll be right at home with WSS.)
Announcements
This is simple to accomplish. You will add an announcement to the Home page for SPRINGERS. Perform the following procedure.
1 If necessary, log on as NormH to PRESIDENT with the password Purple3300.
2 Launch Internet Explorer from Start, Internet. The Springer Spaniels Limited Home page appears.
3 Click on the Add new announcement link. The Announcements: New Item page appears.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
1 Complete the following fields. In the Title field, type AKC MVP Awards Announcement! In the Body, type: Great news from the AKC. Our beloved Curtis, Fredrick, and Ross were selected by the judges to be AKC MVP dogs and will join the AKC Hall of Fame. Needless to say, this increases the market value of these dogs significantly, which is what the MVP award is all about! Congratulations to our favorite dogs. Go ahead and play around with the fonts and formatting.
2 Click Save and Close to return to the Home page. Your results should look similar to Figure 7-14.
Figure 7-14
The announcement is all positive for SPRINGERS and the AKC MVP awards.
Subweb
You’ll now create a subweb. This allows you to build up the WSS site structure into a rich intranet portal. Most commonly, you’ll see a team on a project create a subweb to manage its communication, project-related documents, coordination and so on. It’s a mini-Home page for a specific purpose if you will. You will create a Web Part Page here and then in the next section, add a Web Part.
1 The assumption is you are still logged on as NormH to PRESIDENT and Internet Explorer is displaying the Springer Spaniels Limited Home page.
2 Click Create.
3 Scroll down to the bottom to Web Pages and click Web Part Page.
4 On the New Web Part Page, type SPRINGERS Cool Stuff in the Name field. Accept the default layout and the location to save. Click Create. The result should look similar to Figure 7-15.
5. Click Home. Figure 7-15
You have created a subweb page to house Web Parts for SPRINGERS.
Links
You will now link the SPRINGERS Cool Stuff page to the Home page. And you’ll link the Breeder1 workspace from earlier in the chapter as well.
The assumption is you are still logged on as NormH to PRESI-DENT and Internet Explorer is displaying the Springer Spaniels Limited Home page.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
1 Click Documents and Links.
2 Select Archived Documents under Document Libraries.
3 Select SPRINGERS Cool Stuff and then carefully highlight and copy (CTRL-C) the URL in the Address field. You’ll need this exact address in a moment.
4 Click Home and then click Add new link under Links on the right side at mid-page.
5 Click in the URL field on the Links: New Item page and paste (CTRLV). Complete the Description field: SPRINGERS Cool Stuff. Type text in the Notes field if you so desire.
6 Click Save and Close. Observe the new link.
7 You will now repeat the process to create a link for the Breeder1 workspace. This is easy to do by simply clicking Add new link and providing the following URL: http://CompanyWeb/Breeder1. Be sure to type a description for the link, such as Breeding Workspace. Your Springer Spaniels Limited Home page should look similar to Figure 7-16.
8 Test both links.
BEST PRACTICE: Note that the during the Fall 2003 SBS hands-on lab tour, many people confused the Links user interface element for the Links selection in the upper right (which is part of Internet Explorer, not WSS). Please don’t make that mistake here.
Notes:
Figure 7-16
Linkage baby! Notice the link you created on the lower right side.
Today we discuss Windows SharePoint Services and using the platform for internal collaboration.
All goodness - lots of fun....harrybbbbb
Harry Brelsford, ceo at smb nation, www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA and all the other stuff: MCSE, MCT, MCP,CNE, CLSE, CNE and CNP
###
Intranet Collaboration
This section honors the roots of WSS: both its intranet and collaboration heritage. You will add an announcement to the SPRINGERS Home page, add a Web part, and create a “subweb” page to add financial data from Microsoft Excel. What I hope you’ll draw out from this section is you’ll see the Digital Dashboard roots of WSS. (If you worked with Digital Dashboard, you’ll be right at home with WSS.)
Announcements
This is simple to accomplish. You will add an announcement to the Home page for SPRINGERS. Perform the following procedure.
1 If necessary, log on as NormH to PRESIDENT with the password Purple3300.
2 Launch Internet Explorer from Start, Internet. The Springer Spaniels Limited Home page appears.
3 Click on the Add new announcement link. The Announcements: New Item page appears.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
1 Complete the following fields. In the Title field, type AKC MVP Awards Announcement! In the Body, type: Great news from the AKC. Our beloved Curtis, Fredrick, and Ross were selected by the judges to be AKC MVP dogs and will join the AKC Hall of Fame. Needless to say, this increases the market value of these dogs significantly, which is what the MVP award is all about! Congratulations to our favorite dogs. Go ahead and play around with the fonts and formatting.
2 Click Save and Close to return to the Home page. Your results should look similar to Figure 7-14.
Figure 7-14
The announcement is all positive for SPRINGERS and the AKC MVP awards.
Subweb
You’ll now create a subweb. This allows you to build up the WSS site structure into a rich intranet portal. Most commonly, you’ll see a team on a project create a subweb to manage its communication, project-related documents, coordination and so on. It’s a mini-Home page for a specific purpose if you will. You will create a Web Part Page here and then in the next section, add a Web Part.
1 The assumption is you are still logged on as NormH to PRESIDENT and Internet Explorer is displaying the Springer Spaniels Limited Home page.
2 Click Create.
3 Scroll down to the bottom to Web Pages and click Web Part Page.
4 On the New Web Part Page, type SPRINGERS Cool Stuff in the Name field. Accept the default layout and the location to save. Click Create. The result should look similar to Figure 7-15.
5. Click Home. Figure 7-15
You have created a subweb page to house Web Parts for SPRINGERS.
Links
You will now link the SPRINGERS Cool Stuff page to the Home page. And you’ll link the Breeder1 workspace from earlier in the chapter as well.
The assumption is you are still logged on as NormH to PRESI-DENT and Internet Explorer is displaying the Springer Spaniels Limited Home page.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
1 Click Documents and Links.
2 Select Archived Documents under Document Libraries.
3 Select SPRINGERS Cool Stuff and then carefully highlight and copy (CTRL-C) the URL in the Address field. You’ll need this exact address in a moment.
4 Click Home and then click Add new link under Links on the right side at mid-page.
5 Click in the URL field on the Links: New Item page and paste (CTRLV). Complete the Description field: SPRINGERS Cool Stuff. Type text in the Notes field if you so desire.
6 Click Save and Close. Observe the new link.
7 You will now repeat the process to create a link for the Breeder1 workspace. This is easy to do by simply clicking Add new link and providing the following URL: http://CompanyWeb/Breeder1. Be sure to type a description for the link, such as Breeding Workspace. Your Springer Spaniels Limited Home page should look similar to Figure 7-16.
8 Test both links.
BEST PRACTICE: Note that the during the Fall 2003 SBS hands-on lab tour, many people confused the Links user interface element for the Links selection in the upper right (which is part of Internet Explorer, not WSS). Please don’t make that mistake here.
Notes:
Figure 7-16
Linkage baby! Notice the link you created on the lower right side.
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