Document library discovery

When you come to Sharepoint from a files and folders background you tend to simply replicate the same structure within Sharepoint document libraries. In many cases this is probably not your best option.

Case in point. My external Sharepoint site Supportweb has a Document Library called Documents. In here you’ll find all sorts of documents I’ve created and uploaded. Many are available for free but there is also a whole swag that are only available to subscribers. Initially, when I started uploading to the document library I created a whole lot of sub-folders and placed the relevant documents in these folders. For example, I had folders for Exchange, SBS and so on.

Now the problem was when I wanted to find a document that was about Exchange server on SBS. Was it in the Exchange Folder or the SBS folder? Also, people more versed in Sharepoint than me suggest that the best idea with document libraries is to dump everything into a single location (no sub-folders) and then use Sharepoint’s in built filtering capability to find what you are looking for.

Now this made a lot of sense to me so I was considering relocating all my documents from their sub-folders to the top level folder. This wasn’t going to be an easy task and may have involved re-assigning the rights to each document again. BUT I found a better way!

I simply created a new Sharepoint view called Complete that displayed all the files, even those from sub-folders in a single page! I then made that view the default view so it is what you see when you first enter the document library now. The original All documents view is still there (simply change the view name in the top right of the Documents library and change the view to All documents to see how it used to be).

How easy was that? Geeze, I love Sharepoint. No re-keying, moving files and so on. Simply create a new view of your data. I added an additional column to the entries so that the documents can easily be sorted by using Sharepoint (just click on the column heading to bring up the filtering options for that column). Even updating the records was a piece of cake. I simply changed the view to Datasheet view (like Excel) changed the records for that column and returned to the Standard view. Geeze, I love Sharepoint!

So image a Sharepoint document library like a phone book, full of data. If you create a view of this phone book (say just family and friends) everything except the records matching your criteria are not displayed. The records are still there in the phone book but you don’t need to see them. Now image you create another view for all your business contacts. You can easily swap between views to display exactly what you need without the need to see irrelevant data. Bottom line is that phone book data is always there. Whenever you update or change something, the record in the phone book also gets changed. One set of data but many ways to view the data. You can even have different views for different people, but the underlying data remains the same.

So if you are thinking about creating folders underneath a document library don’t bother, just dump all the data into the one location and use filtering to find what you want. If you already have a document library that is full of sub-folders, create a new that allows you to view all the files together without sub-folders. Again, same data, different view.

Geeze I love Sharepoint!

Companyweb to SBS 2008 Migration

For documentation of how to migrate Companyweb on SBS 2008 please see the following link.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc527602.aspx

This is constantly being updated from the documentation team so that should always be your first referral for information now and in the future.

Don’t forget our Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide (http://wssops.saturnalliance.com.au) for information about installing, migrating and maintaining Sharepoint on SBS 2003.

I think there’s a step missing

I’ve been working through the suggested Microsoft Companyweb migration from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 and I think that a step has been overlooked.

In the document:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc527482.aspx – Steps Performed on the Destination Server

towards the bottom there’s a section called “Create a new Windows SharePoint Services Web application named OldCompanyWeb”. At the bottom of this section it says:

15. The Operation in Progress page is displayed. This operation takes approximately 30 minutes. The new Windows SharePoint Services Web application is created, and the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 CompanyWeb database is upgraded to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

16. The Application Created page is displayed. It notes that you need to reset IIS to finish creating the new Web site. You will do this in a later procedure. Close Central Administration for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Problem as I see is that you need to create a Site Collection by returning to the Application Management tab and selecting the option Create Site Collection (or click on the link in displayed in page above). If you don’t do this then companywebold is not created as a site and you’ll never see if you try and type into the browser.

All that I see is missing that you need to Create a Site collection, call it companywebold, select a Team site template and you’re done.

However, the documentation goes into checking the Site Level Administrator (which won’t work unless you have created a top level site) and then does an iisreset and says:

You now have a working Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web site that is named OldCompanyWeb and that contains the structure and documents of your old Windows SBS 2003 CompanyWeb Web site.

From what I see, that won’t be the case unless you insert the additional step to create a top-level site.

What a pity

Here’s another great community based Sharepoint project but unfortunately it only runs on Microsoft Sharepoint Office Server (MOSS). Damm.

Podcasting kit for Sharepoint

That aside it is a great example I think of how using Sharepoint as a basis for you information storage is a good move. I expect in the future to see more and more releases like this that are built on the Sharepoint framework. Sharepoint is simply a tool. It allows the easy capture, sharing and location of disparate data. Best of all it is easily customized without the need to write one line of code, yet it can be extended to what you see above as well.

All in all a very flexible product.

Here’s a quick summary so far

If you want a quick summary of what I’ve found so far about Companyweb on SBS 2008 then download this PDF. I’ll try and keep adding updates to it once I find out more.

Also don’t forget another PDF document I did about installing SharePoint v3 on SBS 2003.

I think I know why

I have been pondering why Microsoft have a manual migration process for Companyweb from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. My conclusion is that in SBS 2008 there are at least two special items – Fax Center and Archived E-Mails, that would be lost if you did a straight old to new migration. So, the safest option is simply migrate to a backup site (oldcomapnyweb) on SBS 2008 and let the user copy data from there.

That is all well and good but what I can’t understand is why Microsoft simply doesn’t save these “special locations” as templates and then have the user add them in manually later if required. I have been testing that exact concept and it seems to work pretty well so far.

From what I see it is going to be far easier to migrate Companyweb directly from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 and then add in the “special locations”.

First looks at SharePoint on SBS 2008

So I have spent a little time fiddling with Sharepoint (a la Companyweb) on SBS 2008 and have the following observations:

1. During the default installation it appears that Sharepoint data and programs get installed onto the C: partition. This seems to be the case with all the applications. You need a minimum partition size of around 65GB to complete the install. You maybe able to change this if you use the answer file method of installation. If you have a lot of existing Comapnyweb data or plan to then it is probably a good idea to relocate the Sharepoint data before you get too much further along the implementation.

2. It appears Companyweb is installed using the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Embedded Edition. This means that there is no database size limit but it also means that the Sharepoint farm can’t be expanded and the Embedded Edition of SQL can’t be upgraded. It also means by default that the Sharepoint data is on the C: drive under the Windows directory.

3. The move Sharepoint data wizard works really well. Running this wizard will allow you to move your Sharepoint data to another drive on your system. When you do move the data it simply replicates the same directory structure on the new drive. By default this means you will end up with a Windows directory on the drive under which will be the Sharepoint data (maybe confusing later on?). Interestingly, the wizard is smart enough to actually move the current content database rather than just the file. In my case because I had done a migration to a new content database I was afraid that it wouldn’t relocate it because it was a different name. But nope, it moved it. The wizards appears to move the data file, config file and search files by detaching the SQL databases, relocating them and reattaching. Pretty neat I’ll admit.

4. The default Companyweb installation has an item ‘Fax Center’ clearly the intended destination for faxes. Under this it has a number of sub-folders for incoming, outgoing faxes etc. Since my Companyweb migration was going to cream this I saved it as a template and then added it back to Companyweb after the migration, with exactly the same name and the fax configuration wizard picked it up. So it appears that if you delete ‘Fax Center’ in Sharepoint you can recreate it provided you use the name ‘Fax Center’ and the Fax configuration wizard will pick it up as a destination to route faxes. I’d like to know a bit more about how this actually works and how I could direct faxes to different document libraries I admit.

5. I noticed that Companyweb has a item ‘Archive emails’. I wonder what that is for? I wonder whether Exchange 2007 can archive old emails into this? That would be pretty cool if it could. Something worth further investigation when I get a chance. Anyone out there know?

6. Companyweb is obviously now 64 bit (since SBS 2008 is 64 bit) combined with the addition of more memory and better disk speeds the performance is much quicker than it was before. Admittedly, this was only a test machine but I get the impression that Companyweb will perform pretty well in new SBS 2008 installation. This will hopefully mean that more people will use it!

7. I am not sure whether Companyweb will forgo inbound emails because it is on the same box as an Exchange server. This was the case previously in SBS 2003 but maybe different in SBS 2008, I’ll need to look into that. If you go for SBS 2008 Premium you can always install Sharepoint on the second server and configure inbound emails there I suppose. I have the feeling that Companyweb still won’t support inbound emails but I can’t say definitely until I do some more research.

8. The migration of Companyweb from SBS 2003 appears to migrate the data to a new site called Oldcompanyweb on the SBS 2008 server. As I have said previously, I haven’t fully tested this but it is going to mean a bit of work for people who have invested a lot of information in the old Companyweb. Don’t forget all those people who have implemented Sharepoint v3 on SBS 2003 as well, there doesn’t appear to be anything in the migration notes about that. I think there are probably easier ways to migrate the old Companyweb data but I need to understand what Microsoft recommends before I make any assumptions. So another thing to the ‘to do’ list.

So there you have it. A few quick impressions of what I see of Companyweb on SBS 2008. There is still plenty of testing to do but from what I see so far I think Sharepoint v3 on SBS 2008 will work pretty well.

SBS 2008 Companyweb migration success

Here’s good old http://companyweb on SBS 2003 running under Sharepoint v2

Now here’s the same http://companyweb running on SBS 2008 after I had migrated all the content across:

There’s no trick photography, sleigh of hand or digital retouching here I have successfully been able to migrate Sharepoint v2 data from SBS 2003 to Sharepoint v3 in SBS 2008.

Having been able to migrate successfully before from Sharepoint v2 to Sharepoint v3 I knew that it would be possible but wanted to make sure on SBS 2008. I will admit that there is trick or two unique to SBS 2008 I had to overcome before I could get it working but nothing major. Now that I know it can be done I will go back and work on improving the process further.

Subscribers to my Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide (WSSOPS) will soon be see a new chapter dedicated to the full migration process of companyweb on SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. If you aren’t a subscriber then you are going to face some hurdles but nothing that isn’t insurmountable given the information current out there on the Internet. I will save you a bit of time and say that you can’t simply backup Sharepoint v2 and restore it to Sharepoint v3. The rest you’ll just have to work out for yourself, sorry.

I need to have a closer look at migration options that Microsoft now has with SBS 2008 but I have a feeling that they don’t have anything for Companyweb, which I think will concern quite a few people. I may be wrong but I’m sure there are plenty or people who will want to migrate SBS 2003 companyweb to SBS 2008 companyweb but maybe I’m wrong?