Mobile SharePoint

One of the great new features of SharePoint is that it has support for mobile devices built right in. You don’t need to do any special configuration.

So here’s what you see when you visit this blog with a web browser using the URL http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/blog.

However, if you are using a mobile device to access the information you probably want something more stripped down to reduce the download time. If you do, then simply add /m to end of any SharePoint site. So, in the case of my blog go to http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/blog/m and you’ll see:

which is a listing of the recent entries and if you click on one you’ll see:

You’ll get the same information but you’ll get in a “leaner” form, which is perfect for mobile devices.

As I said in the beginning the mobile accessibility is automatically configured with SharePoint right out of the box, nothing more to do. Also, don’t forget that all this functionality comes with a product that is free for you to download and is already included with SBS 2008. How could you ask for any more?

New video

I have created another quick video based on the blog post I did about configuring Usage Analysis processing on Windows SharePoint.

<img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-b9ZUEeJyreY/UQO3NTex6EI/AAAAAAAAH-A/3fm3-oBy1hQ/video146f9a96915c%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('3f535a71-3b5c-42c1-ba6f-d6ee3aa0ab35'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "

http://www.youtube.com/v/l52vEpldE_s?hl=en&hd=1“;” alt=””>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l52vEpldE_s

The only difference in the video is that I spend a little time towards the end showing what the results are from the Usage processing and what the reports actually look like.

As always send me any feedback or suggestions (director@ciaops.com).

SharePoint Usage Analysis

Hands up if you knew that Windows SharePoint includes a basic Usage Report similar in some ways to Google Analytics? Now the tough question – who also knows how to enable it (since it isn’t by default). If you answered No to either question, then this post is for you.

The first step is to check whether Usage Analysis is enabled on your Windows SharePoint site. It isn’t on SBS2008 Companyweb so I’ll use that as my example. Log into the SharePoint as an administrator and select Site Actions in the top right of the screen. You’ll only see Site Actions if you have the appropriate rights.

From the menu that appears select Site Settings.

In Site Settings select Site usage report in the Site Administration section.

If you see a screen like show here chances are the usage analysis has not been enabled. Next step is now to enable it.

Run the SharePoint Central Administration from the server console via Start | Administrative Tools | SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.

Select the Operations tab, then click Usage analysis processing under the Logging and Reporting section (at the bottom left).

Click to Enable logging and usage analysis processing. You will also need to choose time when usage processing will run. Usage processing can be intensive so select a time of low load on your server. Click OK when complete.

You will not be able to view any logs until the scheduled processing runs. After that you should see something like that shown above when you return to Site Usage Report. Here you can select to view a number reports of you site’s access. This can be extremely handy when you need to get a feel for the usage of your site.

For further information about configuring Windows SharePoint to take advantage of all the product has to offer please visit www.wssops.com for information about the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide.

PDF icon in SharePoint

Now that you finally have Windows SharePoint up and running on SBS 2003 or SBS 2008 via (companyweb) you start uploading documents. When you upload Microsoft Office Documents like Word and Excel you see a nice icon next to the document, however when you upload an Acrobat document (PDF) you don’t.

As you can see from the above screen shot there are 3 files in document library. The bottom two being Excel and Word files automatically have a little icon to the left denoting the type of file, however the first file is actually a PDF and as you can see there is no distinguishing icon.

Unfortunately by default SharePoint doesn’t include a PDF icon, however with a little bit of configuration you can add it. Here’s how:

Firstly, you’ll need to download a suitable PDF icon to use. A good one can be found at:

http://www.adobe.com/images/pdficon_small.gif

and looks like:

Download the file and save it into the directory c:\program files\common files\Microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\template\images on the SharePoint server.

Next locate the file c:\program files\common files\Microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\template\xml\docicon.xml on the SharePoint server. Right mouse click on the file and select edit.

Locate the element where you will see entries for each icon starting with <Mapping key=”…. Enter the following on a new line:

The name of the file must match the name of the PDF icon you downloaded. Note that the extension names in the docicon.xml file do not have to be in alphabetical order so it is best to place the entry at the end of the existing list.

When complete, save the file and exit the editor.

Go to the DOS prompt on the SharePoint server via Start | Run | Cmd and type iisreset to restart IIS.

If you now refresh the page you should find the PDF icon displayed like so:

Just because you have now have a PDF icon doesn’t mean that your PDF documents will be indexed by SharePoint (which is possible). That also needs to be configured, but that’ll be the subject of a future post.

This information can also be found in my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide along with exactly how to configure PDF search. Not only that the Guide has a vast array of information about not only installing and configuring SharePoint but also how to get some of the best add-ons for SharePoint up and running to provide your installation with additional value and functionality.

SharePoint Designer is now FREE!

It just keeps getting better for SharePoint users doesn’t it? Microsoft has just announced that the tool that allows you to customize SharePoint sites, SharePoint Designer, is now FREELY available! Yes, I did say free and Microsoft in the same sentence.

This is big news as it means probably the three best tool for improved productivity in a business, Windows SharePoint, Search Server Express and SharePoint designer are now all FREE to download and use. Combine this with the new Windows Foundation server that has just been announced (and assuming it will run SharePoint) you can now drop a high quality Intranet solution into a business for very little money.

If you want to see the video of the announcement about SharePoint designer click – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=901f0335-63da-4e9c-bfbe-4ed22a92d276#filelist

To actually download SharePoint Designer to start modifying your SharePoint site click – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42&hash=gw61uO9NAwuBCXKIqV1LhuYD9Omkv5eLYQkFoqVFMUp9BZFnh8BuAaLkZa3gI1ndEgvoXQhF9vcR7Oy0%2fSJPLg%3d%3d#filelist

and the Homepage for SharePoint designer is here – http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/FX100487631033.aspx

All Windows SharePoint Operations Guide subscribers will receive this free version of SharePoint Designer in the May DVD release.

I’m excited!

Web Edition

I’ve been doing some investigating into some questions I’ve had for a while around Windows Server 2008 Web Edition. Web Edition is a basic version of Windows Server that is really only designed to run web sites. It won’t allow the installation of high end database applications and also has certain memory restriction. The good thing is that it is cheaper than Windows Server Standard given it is designed for a single purpose.

I have always wondered –

Q1. Will Windows SharePoint Services run on Windows Server 2008 Web Edition?

A. Yes it can.

Q2. Will Search Server Express 2008 also run on Windows Server 2008 Web Edition?

A. Yes it can.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a screen shot of my test machine.

The top windows shows Search Server, the middle window shows Windows SharePoint and the lower window shows the system is running on Windows Server web.

My preference is normally to run Windows SharePoint and Search Server Express on a separate machine for performance and reliability reasons. That would always require an additional Windows Server license (typically Windows Server Standard). Even though both Windows SharePoint and Search Server Express are free it makes doing things this way pricey. However, now that I know you can use the Windows Server 2008 Web Edition it significantly reduces this price, making it a very viable option in my opinion.

So what you could provide is a stand alone server running Windows Server 2008 Web Edition, Windows SharePoint and Search Server Express. Not only does that give you a great intranet solution but it also provides a search solution for all the documents and public folders in your network. If you then install this configuration on a virtual machine (i.e. no hardware cost) all you are up for is the cost of Windows Server 2008 Web Edition. That’s a a lot of functionality for very little cost.

So, if you are thinking about a stand alone SharePoint / Search Server Express server you can definitely achieve that using Windows Server 2008 Web Edition.

Default location

For those who are not aware, when you install Windows SharePoint Services v3 onto a machine and you use the Basic install

SharePoint will also install Microsoft SQL Server Embedded Edition (SSEE) onto your system and do so into the C: Drive! By default the location is C:\windows\sysmsi\ssee\msql.2005\mssql\data as shown below.

This means that SharePoint data and indexes (including search data) will reside on your C: drive. Thus, as the amount of SharePoint data grows the free space on you C: drive will shrink. Normally the C: is also the boot partition that holds the Windows boot files. If that drive starts to get full it will generally make your system unstable.

Unfortunately, if you use the basic install there is no way to avoid this. The best option then is to move the SharePoint databases straight after installation to a data drive. You can do this using the SQL management tools which are available via the command line (messy) or via a free downloadable GUI tool from Microsoft. You simply need to detach the databases using the SQL tools, move the files (both MDF and LDF) to another location and then reattach using the SQL tools again.

SBS2008 has exactly the same issue as, by default, the SharePoint databases live on the C: drive. The great thing about SBS 2008 is that it has a built in wizard that will move the databases (detach, move, re-attach) for you automatically. The recommendation is to always move these data files immediately after installation as SharePoint databases can grow very large, very quickly.

SQL database management is something that I cover extensively in my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide. So, if you have SharePoint installed on a system and the C: drive is running low on space check C:\windows\sysmsi\ssee\msql.2005\mssql\data to see whether the databases are filling the disk. If so then you should shift them elsewhere as they are only going to continue to grow.

SharePoint Guide – April

The latest update of the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide has been released for subscribers. One of the major additions this month, is a new chapter titled – tutorials. In here you’ll find out how to do things to improve your use of SharePoint. The first three tutorials are:

– Connecting to Outlook – How to link SharePoint with Outlook

– Creating linked fields – How to utilize look up fields in SharePoint

– Configuring a basic workflow – Implementing a basic workflow

Over time this chapter will continue to grow with step by step instructions about how you can get the most from Windows SharePoint.

I’m also excited to announce that next month (May) will be the first birthday of the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide (who would have ever thought?). I’m planning some special offers to attract new subscribers plus a swag of additions as a thank you to existing subscribers, so stay tuned for more details. As always, I thank my subscribers for their ongoing support of the Guide, without them it would not be possible and remind them to go to the download site for the latest updates which are now available.

If you have any questions about the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide or suggestions for inclusions please contact me (director@ciaops.com).