What's The (Share)Point?

Author: David Petersen

  • SharePoint Conference 2009 Goodness

    I’m here in LasVegas enjoying the SharePoint 2009 conference.  I’ll post more later but here is a video of Huey Lewis and the News from the beach party last night.

  • Live Blogging

    EUSP-LiveBlogger I’m planning on LiveBlogging during the conference and the link above will take you to the Live Blogging feed.

  • What I Wish I Knew Before I Implemented SharePoint

    I just submitted my presentation for SharePoint Saturday – Kansas City on 12-12-2009. I have given many presentations but never at a SharePoint conference.   I am stoked!   Here’s a brief outline.    I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions.

    I wish I knew that before I implemented SharePoint!

    I have heard that statement many times. In fact, I have uttered that exact phrase at least once! Because of the different ways SharePoint is introduced into organizations, sometimes things just don’t go right. This session will help you formulate a plan and give you pointers to successfully implement SharePoint in your organization.

    Topics Covered

    1. What are we building? Beyond the hype!
    2. Who’s playing? Selecting your team.
    3. Don’t forget HAL. What hardware do we have?
    4. Lock it up. What security?
    5. Someone has to install it!
    6. Wire Me Up! Why wire frames are your best friend.
    7. Sites, Webs, Libraries, Lists! Lions, Tigers and Bears. Oh my!
    8. Governance. The who, what, when, where, how.
    9. You say meeta, I say meta. Beyond the file system.
    10. Train! Stay on track.

  • SharePoint Install Smooth Sailing!

    This is a great reference for when you are installing SharePoint. A great reference for all of the different User accounts needed by SharePoint.

    Best Practice for User Accounts When Installing MOSS

  • Another example of how JQuery can help your site!

    I like this post because it illustrates how JQuery can make your UI code more efficient. Look at the code examples in this post. What once took 6 lines of code only takes one using JQuery. Of course, you have the overhead of loading the JQuery framework – but if you are doing a lot of client-side manipulation of the user interface then look to how JQuery can help you be more efficient.

    Low impact text changing in SharePoint with jQuery

  • Free BBQ!

  • Why does making a Lookup site column an indexed field break my CAML Query?

    I created a custom timer job definition that processes email-enabled list items. Since these list items were created from email, I extract certain email header information from the email and save that information as meta-data.

    One of those site columns is called EmailSource. This is a Lookup field using the Title field of the EmailSource list as the value. My timer job queries the main list to find all list items where the EmailSource IsNULL and then I extract information from the email headers, and then find the appropriate EmailSource from the EmailSource list and write it to the EmailSource field in the main list.

    It has been working pretty slick for the last month or so. Recently, I thought that I would try to improve the response of the main list views by setting the EmailSource site column as an indexed column. Since most of the views are created filtering on the EmailSource field, I figured that this would be an ideal candidate for indexing. As soon as I set the EmailSource site column as an indexed column, my query for IsNull started returning 0 (zero) items, even when I could see that there were list items that didn’t have an EmailSource value.

    My query is:

    <Query>
      <Where>
        <IsNull>
          <FieldRef Name='EmailSource' />
        </IsNull>
      </Where>
    </Query>

    Now – normally, when the EmailSource field is NOT set as an indexed column, this query would return all list items where EmailSource didn’t have a value. As soon as I set EmailSource as an indexed column, the query would always return zero items, even though I knew it should return some list items.

    As soon as I removed that field from the indexed columns list, the query began to work correctly again.

    So – I ask you. Why would setting a field as an indexed column break a query?!!!!

  • Live-Blogging from SharePoint Saturday – Ozarks

    I’m currently Live-Blogging at SharePoint Saturday – Ozarks in Harrison, Arkansas. Click on the frame below to follow all of the live bloggers here or follow the tag #spsozarks on twitter. My twitter name is @DIPetersen

  • SharePoint Developer Position – Omaha

    If you are a SharePoint developer and want to work with me – contact me for more information.

    Leave a comment with your contact information (I will not make it public) and I’ll get in touch with you.

  • Configure disaster recovery across SharePoint farms by using SQL Server log shipping

    Microsoft has provided updated information for setting up farm DR with log shipping. Even if you haven’t set up DR w/ log shipping in your environment, it is a good read to gain valuable DR knowledge.

    Configure disaster recovery across SharePoint farms by using SQL Server log shipping.