What's The (Share)Point?

Author: David Petersen

  • SharePoint Saturday – Indianapolis / New Orleans

    I have been confirmed to present at SharePoint Saturday – Indianapolis on January 30, 2010 and SharePoint Saturday – New Orleans on Febuary 27, 2010.  I’ve never been to Indianapolis or New Orleans, so I’m looking forward to it.  I will presenting the same presentation I did at SharePoint Saturday – Kansas City – What I Wish I Knew Before I Implemented SharePoint.  Watch out for flying mood dudes!

  • Determining SQL Requirements for SharePoint

    Joel Oleson has a good post about determining your SQL server requirements in your SharePoint implementation.  A good resource for planning.

    10 Key Questions Determining SharePoint SQL Server Count

  • Great SharePoint 2010 Planning Reference

    Here is a list of SharePoint 2010 Architecture and Planning links.  I am mainly capturing this link for future reference!

    http://rdacollab.blogspot.com/2010/01/sharepoint-2010-planning-and.html

  • Omaha SharePoint User Group

    I presented at the Omaha SharePoint User Group last night (12/16/2009).  Good meeting and a great discussion.  I did the same presentation that I did at SharePoint Saturday – Kansas City.  One thing I did find out was that my tag that has my contact information was password protected.  Talk about a downer.  Here’s a cool little application that allows mobile phone users to capture information using their phone camera and then my tag doesn’t work.  Oh well.  Not everything can go perfectly.  I have updated my tag settings and updated the tag on this website in case someone wants to try it again.  Let me know if you use the TAG and what your results were.

    For more information about the Omaha SharePoint User Group or other Microsoft user groups in Omaha, go to the Omaha Microsoft Technology Group website.

    Omaha Microsoft Technology Group

  • SharePoint Saturday – Kansas City

    I presented “What I Wish I Knew Before I Implemented SharePoint” at SharePoint Saturday in Kansas City on 12/12/2009.  This is a 100-level presentation that is meant to be a general overview of the process of implementing SharePoint.

    I enjoyed my time there and for those in my session, you can download the slide-deck here.

    Also, for reference, here are a list of links that I referenced during the session.

    SharePoint Shepherds Guide for End Users

    EndUserSharePoint.com

    SharePoint Deployment Planning Services

    SharePoint Website at Microsoft

    WSSDemo.com

    Slide Deck: SharePoint Saturday KC 2009 I Wish Id Known That

    You can also get my contact information from my tag.

    ********  UPDATE ***********

    I was informed that my tag was password protected.  Lo-and-behold, it was and so I created a new tag.  This one should not be password protected.

    ******** UPDATE ************

    Dave Petersen Contact

  • Will You Relocate?

    I receive calls daily about my availability as a SharePoint developer.  Are you seeking employment?  Are you presently available?  Can you talk?  All of these questions I am sure are a result of my continually updated resume on Dice.com.  As a SharePoint Consultant, I am always interested in talking to people about new opportunities.  It’s how I make my living.  I love talking to people about SharePoint and I spend quite a bit of time developing a network of personal and professional contacts.

    I employ many different techniques.  From social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, to writing on this blog or living blogging at different events, I try to promote my interest in SharePoint.  I like to help people discover the exciting world of SharePoint and so I participate in User Group meetings and attend different conferences.  Most recently, I attended the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009 in Las Vegas.  You can read my post about that experience here.

    Inevitably, the question comes.  Are you willing to relocate?  Now – I have to ask you.  If you are recruiting for a SharePoint Developer position in Chicago, are you telling me that there are not any SharePoint developers in the Chicago area willing to look at an opportunity?  Will a company actually move a person just to fill a developer position?  Maybe I’m naive.   I was just talking to someone about a couple of positions in Washington DC.  I continually see positions out there.  Are there no developers in the DC area?  Now – for short-term projects, I will travel – no problem.  For a long-term situation – I would need to be able to telecommute.  But please don’t ask me to move my family to New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, California, Seattle, Denver or St. Louis.   I’m sure they are all nice cities, (I’ve visited most of those), I’m just not interested in moving there.

    But – if you want me to move to the Springfield, Missouri area – then let’s talk!

  • Exporting List Data

    If you have list data that you want to use in another application, what are some ways to get to that data? That was the question posed by a recent requirement from a client. Fortunately, SharePoint presents us with some creative ways to get to the list data.

    1. Export to Excel. This is a good, and quick, way to export data out of SharePoint so that you can use it in other programs. Once you have it in Excel, you can further export it into different formats. The most common is as a comma-delimited text file. I am not an Excel expert but it is quite easy to Export To Spreadsheet from the Actions menu and then save the Excel file in, say, a CSV format. From there, many applications can import that text file. But what happens if one of the SharePoint fields are large text fields that could contain commas and line feeds?
    2. Export to Access. For quite a few data export requirements, I tend to use this way. Access has better import/export functionality. I can save the exported list data in many formats. How do you do this? From the Actions menu, select Open With Access. [Note: this isn’t available in Document Libraries]. From there you can decide whether you want to maintain a local copy or just link to the list. Once you have it open in Access, you can export it in a number of different formats.
    3. If your third part application can call Web Services, SharePoint exposes a lot of functionality via Web Service.  Web Services are beyond the scope of this article but you can find plenty of information on MSDN, like Windows SharePoint Services Web Services.

    What are some of the ways you deal with the requirement of external applications using list data?  I would love to hear your comments!

  • Veterans Day 2009 (Here’s To Brothers)

    Cpl. Paul Flewwellin and Sgt. David Petersen
    Cpl. Paul Flewwellin and Sgt. David Petersen

    Yesterday was the Marine Corps 234th Birthday.  As our custom, I called my bro’ Paul and wished him a Happy Birthday.   We hadn’t talked for about a year but it was as if we were still onboard the USS Raleigh in the middle of the Persian Gulf talking about our dreams, goals and our wives.  We didn’t know each other very well before that deployment but by the end of the deployment, we became brothers.  It’s been about 16 years since I’ve seen him.  When we talk, we speak about how fun it would be to get back together.  Another year passes and we do it all over again.  Our kids grow older, our hair gets grayer (or in Paul’s case – becomes non-existent).  But one day a year, we are back on that ship.  Laying on the deck staring up into the vast theater of stars provided by God, talking about life and solidifying our bond as brothers.

    It is with this fond memory that I wish all who served a Happy Veterans Day.  The bond we share is deep and only fully understood by those who have served.  God Bless those who are standing in harms way today – forming the bonds that will last them for the rest of their lives.

    Semper Fi.  I Love Ya ‘Bro.

  • Dealing with the [Today] problem in SharePoint Calculated Fields

    Today I was presented with a problem that I thought should have been easy.  Create a calculated field that displayed the number of days that had passed from an [EndDate] field.  My first thought was to use a calculated field with a function  =[Today]-[EndDate].  When I got that, I was informed that calculated fields could not use [Today] or [Me].

    A quick Bing informed me that a number of people had run into this same problem. There were references all over of a hack that would have me create a field called [Today] and then use it in the calculated field and then delete the bogus [Today] field.  That was really a hack since it didn’t fully work.  That hack only calculated [Today] based on when the item was last modified.  It wasn’t dynamic.  You could have saved a lot of trouble by just using the [Modified] field.

    More searching didn’t turn up any other solutions.  I tried various vbscript/excel functions in the calculated field to no avail.  Then I started thinking clientside.  I figured that if I could identify the fields in the list display, I should be able to manipulate them with jQuery.  A quick search turned up a nice little piece of code by Paul Grenier on EndUserSharePoint.com.  He has written a series entitled jQuery for Everyone and one of his articles was on Replacing [Today].  In his article, Paul talks about replacing a DateTime field with an Aging calculation. His article calculates a DateTime from the last modification date.  That works – but it didn’t work for me. What I needed was to calculate the difference between any date set by the user and the current date.  My solution was to create an [Aging] field of type Calculated.  The formula that I used in the calculated field was =[EndDate] which is the date I need to calculate the difference on.  I then modified Pauls code to use the [Aging] field and I also modified his date calculations to only calculate for the date and not hours or minutes.  The result ended up looking like the illustration below.  Thank you Paul for your awesome tutorial on jQuery in SharePoint.  I learn so much.

    testaging

  • SharePoint Conference 2009 Reflections

    SharePoint Conference 2009 is officially over and of course, the big news is SharePoint 2010.  I can say that any company actively developing MOSS 2007 solutions should take a serious look at upgrading to 2010 as soon as it is released.  In fact, you should already start planning for the upgrade – it is that good. 

    Based on all that I have seen this week, I can say that I will be recommending an upgrade as soon as possible for everyone I work with.  Why?  Well, that will be in another post.  There has been so much information to digest, that I am going to have to get my thoughts together so I can put something down that presents some semblance of a rational thought.  My immediate goal is to put together a “Top 10 Reasons I Think You Should Upgrade Right Away” document.  When I’m finished, I’ll post it here also.

    I want to say a big Thank You to the staff of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.  The art of moving 7,400 people from session to session and feeding them efficiently is no small task.  You performed wonderfully and it made my experiece even that much better.  I was always greeted with a smile and  I thank you for that.

    For those who I have met here at the conference – it has been my great pleasure.  I enjoy meeting new people and this conference was no exception.  In fact, it was exceptional.  I met folks from the land of my heritage, Denmark (where we all agreed that people left Denmark because of the weather and then settled in parts of the US with climates similar to Denmark).  I shared a beer with a few guys from Poland.  I enjoyed listening to Huey Lewis with a couple of folks from New Zealand (I’ll fly there anytime to work) and had a nice conversation with Nicolas Georgeault of France.  I met Dux, Margo, Patrick, Nina, Malli, Francois, Colleena, Lisa, Talia, Christian, Danny, Sigalit, Catherine, Julie, Peter, Clint and many more.  I met a few folks from Omaha – we’ll have to make sure to meet again at the next SharePoint User Group meeting.  I received an awesome business card from Kevin Bluer (I’ll bet it’s a moo card).  SharePoint folks are surely a social and passionate bunch. 

    Of course – there are also those who I have met previously at other SP conferences.  Joy, Kevin, Becky, Mark, JD, Cathy, Laura and Lori.  Some I will see again in December for SharePoint Saturday – Kansas City.  I finally met a samurai named Mike, who filmed a video podcast with a cute little fairy (never figured out the fairy outfit) and the famous Dux of DuxQuax.com.

    Most of all, I came away feeling good about my decision to foot the cost of this conference.  It reinforces my decision back in 1999 to “hitch my wagon” to Microsoft.  They are the software that businesses use, everyday.  SharePoint is becoming as important to business as Office is and I feel good that I am in a position to help them make the most out of their investment in Microsoft products.

    Thanks Microsoft for a great conference. Thank you Las Vegas for an “interesting” time (I was only propositioned once).  I am already looking forward to the next one.