Friday, December 2, 2011

General Information on Workflows

I get asked a lot about workflows.  I have yet ran across a good course.  If you have let me know.  So I am putting together a list of workflow resources here.  I hope this helps.

Workflow Resource Center
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff819861.aspx

Channel 9 Deep Dive Video
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Open-Specifications-Plugfests/Windows-File-Sharing-and-SharePoint-Protocols-Plugfest-2011/SharePointWorkflows

Good article to start
http://www.sharepointproconnections.com/article/sharepoint/SharePoint-Designer-2010-Workflows.aspx

Videos and references from Microsoft
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-designer-help/CH010373544.aspx


Orbit one setup list to auto create sites.
http://www.orbitone.com/en/blog/archive/2011/03/25/automatic-provisioning-sites-with-sharepoint-designer-workflow-and-powershell.aspx

Can you execute powershell from SPD?  Yes you can.  More here.
http://www.ilovesharepoint.com/2011/02/poweractivity-2010-advanced-sharepoint.html

Visual Studio - Site level workflow
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee231574.aspx

Video and Labs
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/gg620624

Books (still looking for 2010 book)
"Workflow in the 2007 Microsoft Office System" is the best book for SharePoint Workflows
http://www.amazon.com/Workflow-2007-Microsoft-Office-System/dp/1590597001

SharePoint Update

Sharepoint Versions
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/aaronsaikovski/archive/2011/10/31/sharepoint-2010-build-versions-updated-with-links.aspx

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

SharePoint Foundation is missing ...

Most Missed from SharePoint Foundation

Audit Settings
In site collection you can easily setup auditing and view audit reports

Management Metadata
Taxonomy made easier with MMS

Search
Search Express

Ref
http://sharepointgalaxy.blogspot.com/2011/12/versions.html

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

RBS - Remote Blob Storage


TEchnet Oveview of RBS
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748607.aspx

Important: The local FILESTREAM provider is supported only when it is used on local hard disk drives or an attached Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) device. You cannot use the local RBS FILESTREAM provider on remote storage devices such as network attached storage (NAS).

From SharePoint Joel - Config RBS
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sharepointjoe/archive/2011/02/01/sp2010-configuring-remote-blob-storage-with-sharepoint-2010.aspx

RBS - Remote Blob Storage - Technet - Install and Config
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee663474.aspx

More on RBS (more step by step config)
http://blogs.inetium.com/blogs/bcaauwe/archive/2011/05/15/remote-blob-store-rbs-and-sharepoint-2010-part-1.aspx

Todd Klindt – Step by Step RBS install on SharePoint 2010
http://www.toddklindt.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=174

SQL and RBS video
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263420.aspx

Microsoft Whitepaper on RBS - Author: Russ Houberg, KnowledgeLake
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=210422

Custom RBS Provider
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-NZ/sharepoint2010programming/thread/adc46ab2-1275-4076-a2a4-89cf0a040163

September SharePoint Updates

Published the week of September 26, 2011

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262043.aspx
New articles
Critical state of this rule indicates that the Word Automation Services is not running when it should be running (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by enabling the Word Automation Services timer job.
Implementing Claims-Based Authentication with SharePoint Server 2010 (whitepaper)   Describes how SharePoint Server 2010 administrators can use claims-based authentication to control user access to internal SharePoint Server 2010 Web application resources, and also external resources.
The settings for Word Automation Services are not within the recommended limits (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by changing the settings for Word Automation Services.
Use Visio Services with Secure Store   Describes how to use Visio Services with credentials stored in Secure Store to refresh data-connected Web drawings published to SharePoint Server 2010.
Variations design considerations (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes design considerations for planning a variations infrastructure within a publishing environment, and makes recommendations about how to approach common scenarios.
Verify each User Profile Service Application has an associated Managed Metadata Service Connection (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by editing the connections for the User Profile service application.
Verify each User Profile Service Application has an associated Search Service Connection (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by editing the group of connections for the User Profile service application.
Verify that the critical User Profile Application and User Profile Proxy Application timer jobs are available and have not been mistakenly deleted (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by editing the rule definition so that the configuration is automatically repaired.
Web Analytics: Verify that the Site Inventory Usage Collection timer job is enabled for all the Web applications serviced by the Web Analytics service application (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by changing the settings of the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Site Inventory Usage Collection timer job.
Updated articles
Timer job reference (SharePoint Server 2010)   Changed the default for the User Profile Service – User Profile Language Synchronization Job from 1 minute to daily.
Upgrade paths from Search Server 2008 or Search Server 2008 Express   Added descriptions of supported and unsupported upgrade paths.

Published the week of September 12, 2011

New article
Best practices for capacity management for SharePoint Server 2010   Provides information about capacity and performance best practices for SharePoint Server 2010.
Updated articles
Automatic update setting inconsistent across farm servers (SharePoint Foundation 2010)   Added permissions information.
New-SPPerformancePointServiceApplication   Added the following parameters: DatabaseFailoverServer, DatabaseName, DatabaseServer, DatabaseSQLAuthenticationCredential.
Set-SPPerformancePointServiceApplication   Added the following parameters: DatabaseFailoverServer, DatabaseName, DatabaseServer, DatabaseSQLAuthenticationCredential.

Published the week of September 5, 2011

New articles
Alternate access URLs have not been configured (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by changing the default zone URL.
Best practices for search in SharePoint Server 2010   Describes best practices for configuring and maintaining search in SharePoint Server 2010.
Designing pages for quicker downloads (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to reduce the page-load time of a SharePoint site for WAN environments.
Estimate performance and capacity requirements for large scale document repositories in SharePoint Server 2010   Contains guidance about performance and capacity planning for large-scale document management solutions. The article focuses on the performance characteristics of document libraries as size increases and on throughput of high volume operations, such as policy update and retention.
Plan for administrative and service accounts (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes the accounts that you must plan for and describes the deployment scenarios that affect account requirements for SharePoint 2010 Products.
Product / patch installation or server upgrade required (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by deploying updates or upgrading.
Web.config file has incorrect settings for the requestFiltering element (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by changing the requestFiltering settings in the Web.config file.
Updated articles
Configure the Secure Store Service (SharePoint Server 2010)   Added detailed steps for configuring the service application.
Configure the unattended service account for PerformancePoint Services   Added information about data access requirements.
Create a PerformancePoint Services service application (SharePoint Server 2010)   Added procedures for registering an application pool account.
How to configure AD FS v 2.0 in SharePoint Server 2010   Added link to a video that illustrates how to configure Active Directory Federation Services version 2.0 (AD FS) in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.
Maintain profile synchronization (SharePoint Server 2010)   Added information about turning off the incremental synchronization timer job when you reset the synchronization database.
Plan browser support (SharePoint Server 2010)   Added a list of supported mobile browsers and a change to the guidance for Safari 4.04 on non-Windows operating systems.
Technical diagrams (SharePoint Server 2010)   Added a link to the Excel Services data refresh flowchart.
Video demos and training for SharePoint Server 2010   Added "Configure SharePoint Server 2010 with AD FS trusted claims" video.

October Updates

Published the week of October 31, 2011

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262043.aspx
New articles
Manage crawl load (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to configure the search system to help prevent or resolve performance issues in which a SharePoint farm is accessed at the same time by users and the crawler.
Plan security hardening for extranet environments (SharePoint Server 2010)   Details the hardening requirements for an extranet environment in which a SharePoint Server 2010 server farm is placed inside a perimeter network and content is available from the Internet or from the corporate network.
Updated articles
Capacity management and high availability in a virtual environment (SharePoint Server 2010)   Updated with statement of support for live migration in a virtual farm.
Database types and descriptions (SharePoint Server 2010)   Corrected support for mirroring the social tagging database in a farm. Mirroring is supported.
Search the enterprise from Windows 7 (SharePoint Server 2010)   Added a link to a video that shows how to search SharePoint sites from Windows 7.

Published the week of October 24, 2011

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262043.aspx
New article
Scale test report for very large scale document repositories (white paper)   Provides details about results of a test lab that was run at Microsoft to show large scale SharePoint Server 2010 content databases.
Store and manage business intelligence content in a central location (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to create and use a Business Intelligence Center site to store and centrally manage business intelligence content.
Use Visio Services with complex data queries   Describes how to use complex data queries with Visio Services by using SQL Server views.
Updated articles
Configure Excel Services data refresh by using the unattended service account (SharePoint Server 2010)   Added a video demonstration showing the procedures covered in the article.
Connect a filter to a report or a scorecard by using Dashboard Designer   Added a link to information about how to configure cascading filters, a capability that is available in SharePoint Server 2010 SP1.
Downloadable content for SharePoint Server 2010   Added eReader formats available for these downloadable books: "Business continuity management for SharePoint Server 2010," Remote BLOB storage for SharePoint Server 2010," and "Technical reference for SharePoint Server 2010."
Use Visio Services with Secure Store   Added video demonstrations showing the procedures in the article.

Published the week of October 17, 2011

New articles
Configure Information Rights Management (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to configure Information Rights Management (IRM) in SharePoint Server 2010 and how to implement a Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) server.
Configure policy settings on user profile properties and personal and social features (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to use Central Administration in SharePoint Server 2010 to configure user profile policy settings and personal and social features policy settings.
Plan Information Rights Management (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to use Information Rights Management (IRM) to enable content creators to control and protect their documents, and also describes how SharePoint Server permissions relate to IRM permissions.
Updated articles
Back up a farm (SharePoint Server 2010)   Corrected guidance about backing up the farm where a User Profile Synchronization Service exists.
Configure the Secure Store Service (SharePoint Server 2010)   Added a video demonstration covering the steps necessary to create a Secure Store service application.
Configure the unattended service account for PerformancePoint Services and Create a PerformancePoint Services service application (SharePoint Server 2010)   Added a video demonstration of the procedures.
Downloadable content for SharePoint Server 2010   Added eReader formats available for these downloadable books: "Governance guide for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010," "Upgrading to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010," "Deployment guide for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010," and "Profile synchronization guide for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010."
Install and configure RBS (SharePoint Server 2010)   Corrected the msiexec syntax for installing the RBS client library on all additional Web and application servers.

Published the week of October 10, 2011

New articles
Configure Excel Services data refresh by using embedded data connections (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to configure data refresh in Excel Services by using Secure Store and embedded data connections.
Configure Excel Services data refresh by using the unattended service account (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to configure the unattended service account in Excel Services.
Deploying SharePoint Server 2010 updates on mission critical sites   Provides an end-to-end approach to deploying and testing a software update on a mission-critical SharePoint Server 2010 farm.
Updated articles
Use Excel Services with Secure Store (SharePoint Server 2010)   Updated to separate the Secure Store scenarios into individual articles.
Database types and descriptions (SharePoint Server 2010) and Plan for disaster recovery (SharePoint Server 2010)   Updated to correct information about log shipping support for the social tagging database.
Excel Services overview (SharePoint Server 2010)   Updated to include additional information about features available in Excel Services.

November Updates

Published the week of November 14, 2011

New articles
Database has large amounts of unused space (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by shrinking the database.
Databases exist on servers running SharePoint Foundation (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by moving the databases to a separate server.
Databases require upgrade or not supported (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by installing software updates.
Databases running in compatibility range, upgrade recommended (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by installing software updates.
Databases used by SharePoint have outdated index statistics (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by editing the rule definition so that the configuration is automatically repaired.
Databases within this farm are set to read only and will fail to upgrade unless it is set to a read-write state (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by setting the databases to read-write.
Drives used for SQL databases are running out of free space (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by freeing disk space on the database server computer or decreasing the number of days to store log files.
One or more servers is not responding (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by connecting the server to the network, restarting the SharePoint 2010 Timer service (SPTimerV4), or removing the server record from the SharePoint topology.
The Application Discovery and Load Balancer Service is not running in this farm (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by starting the Application Discovery and Load Balancer service on at least one server in the farm.
The local machine is not joined to a SharePoint server farm (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by creating a new farm or adding this computer to an existing SharePoint farm.
The Security Token Service is not available (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by restarting the Security Token Service application pool.
The timer service failed to recycle (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by changing the schedule for the Timer Service Recycle job so that it does not conflict with other long-running timer jobs.
Web Analytics: Monitors the health of the Data Analyzer Light component (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by adding more staging databases for the Web Analytics service to balance the load.
Web Analytics: Monitors the health of the Logging Extractor component (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by adding more staging databases for the Web Analytics service to balance the load.
Web Analytics: Monitors the health of the User Behavior Analyzer component (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by adding more staging databases for the Web Analytics service to balance the load.
Web Analytics: Verify that there is a data processing service started when there is a web service started (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by starting the Web Analytics Data Processing service on any server in the farm.
Web.config files are not identical on all machines in the farm (SharePoint Server 2010)   Describes how to resolve the SharePoint Health Analyzer event by making the Web.config files identical on all front-end Web servers in the farm.
Updated article
User Profile Replication Engine overview (SharePoint Server 2010)   Added that the account should have Manage Social Data permission for social information replication.