Friday 19 June 2009

How to use Cascading Dropdown List Boxes within an InfoPath Web Form

Introduction

To create user‐friendly web forms, cascading dropdown list boxes is a must, but InfoPath Form Services doesn’t allow you to use them, like you can use them with InfoPath Client.

HOW TO use Cascading Dropdown List Boxes within an InfoPath Web Form.docx

Design the InfoPath Form

1. Create the data connections to the different data.

2. Note:
Be sure the Data Connection is not retrieving the data automatically for the Cascading Dropdown list box. The data connection used for the Main Dropdown list box must be set to Automatically retrieve data when form is opened

3. Add the Dropdown list boxes to your form + link the Data Connection to it

4. Open the properties dialog box of the main dropdown list box

5. Select Browser Forms Tab

6. Select Always



Figure 1. Browser forms options of the Main Drop Down List box

Note:
The next step will open Visual Studio Tools for Applications, be sure to have set the Form Template Code Language to C#, (Menu Tools ‐ > Form Options ‐> Programming

7. Right‐Click the Main Drop down list box, select Programming ‐> Changed Event…

8. Add the following code to the newly created Change event function


9. Add a private function to the FormCode

10.In the Change event function, change the strings to their corresponding values

Publishing the form

When using Managed Code with a InfoPath Web Forms a SharePoint Administrator must validate the form first

1. Use the normal way of publishing, the difference will be that a XSN file will be saved locally.

2. Open the SharePoint Administration Central

3. Go to Application Management

4. Click on Manage Form Templates

5. Click on Upload Form Template

6. Select the XSN, created by the publishing tool in point 1

7. Click on the Upload button

8. Back in the Manage Form Templates Screen, click on the Form Template and select Activate to a Site Collection

9. Change the Site Collection if needed

10. the Ok Button

11. Go to the Forms Library and select the settings

12. Go to Advanced Settings

13. Set Allow management of content types to YES

14. Select Display as webpage

15. Save the new settings

16. Back in the Settings Screen, Click on Add from existing content types link in the Content Type section

17. Select your Form and click the Add button

18. Test your form

Conclusion
This way of working will let us use Cascading Dropdown boxes

Estimating SharePoint 2007 Index Server Requirements

The following information can be used to not only predict the initial size of the index, but can also be used in a modeling capacity to predict growth of the index based on growing content sources

(Pasted from
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/9ccfb27f-ecba-4b7d-b9a0-88fac71478a31033.mspx?mfr=true)

Estimate disk space requirements

Use the following information to plan the disk space requirements for the index servers, query servers, and database servers in your environment.

Index server disk space requirements

To estimate the index server disk space requirements, we recommend that you use the following calculations:

• Size of data crawled = Y
• Size of index on index server = a range of 5% through 12% * Y = X
• Initial disk space = 2.5*X.

A large amount of index server disk capacity is required to accommodate backups, which must reside on the same disk as the index, and to accommodate the merge process when crawled data is merged with the index.

Note:

The volume of crawled data can differ based on the content source. A content source is a set of options that you can use to specify what type of content is crawled, what URLs to crawl, and how deep and when to crawl.

For example, if the content source specifies file-share content, the index size can be up to 30 percent of the size of the content.
You can estimate the size of the content index with the following equation:

Index size = Average size of document * number of documents * 4 x 10-10 GB.

Note that this equation is intended only to establish a starting-point estimate. Real-world results may vary widely based on the size of documents being indexed, and how much metadata is being indexed during a crawl operation.

Query server disk space requirements

Content indexes are propagated from the index server to every query server in the farm. The full index is propagated to the query servers during the query server initialization phase, and incremental changes in the index are propagated on a continual basis. The merging process requires more disk space than what is required to accommodate the index itself.

Given a content index size of X, we recommend that initial disk space be at least 2.5*X for every content index on each query server in the farm.

How DPM 2007 SP1 helps protecting SharePoint

Hi Geeks,

Its great We as SharePoint lovers have fantastic news on backup and restore. My company relies on SharePoint for most of the operations. As SharePoint techies we are looking for a better way to protect and recover their collaboration infrastructures. God listens to our prayers, now Microsoft also has listened to our voices and delivered a complete solution with System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007.

It is not only protecting SharePoint also focused on the primary Microsoft server workloads, DPM 2007 was specifically built to protect and recover SharePoint platforms, Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server™, Microsoft Virtual Server, as well as Windows file services. In addition, DPM 2007 blends the best aspects of continuous data protection (CDP) with traditional tape backup. DPM 2007 continuously protects the core Microsoft server workloads to a DPM server, which then provides disk-based recovery and tape-based, long-term archival storage for a complete data protection and recovery solution.

After implementing DPM 2007 SP1 at my office I feel very comfortable and safe, it's like I'm hiring some on who can take care my day to day activities.

Most interesting thing is DPM presents the data to be protected in the same context as users access it. In DPM 2007, platform owners can manage backups from the perspective of the application. SharePoint administrators simply select the farm to be protected; DPM understands what components need to be backed up.

Similarly, SQL Server administrators choose databases, Exchange administrator's select storage groups, and managers of virtual environments choose virtual machines and file server owners choose file shares.

Because DPM was designed specifically for SharePoint, DPM understands the advanced and distributed architectures of SharePoint technologies that often cause other data protection tools to fail:

When the topology changes – DPM adapts. Leveraging the technology within the SharePoint Volume Shadowcopy Service (VSS) writer, when Content Databases on any SQL Server are added/deleted to the SharePoint infrastructure, the DPM server is made aware of it and can adapt. The DPM administrator simply acknowledges the notification within the DPM administrative console and the new server will be protected on the next scheduled SharePoint backup.

SharePoint is diverse – but DPM is consistent. There are several different kinds of data within a SharePoint infrastructure that must all be protected for the farm to be adequately protected – including SQL Server databases, metadata within the web servers and farm configuration server, as well as files that maintain the indexes for Enterprise Search. Data Protection Manager provides a comprehensive backup solution that encompasses all of those data types across multiple platforms, to help deliver a complete backup solution of the entire SharePoint infrastructure.

SharePoint backup can be challenging – DPM makes it simple. Microsoft has heard from our customers that while SharePoint's infrastructure is empowering to its users, many legacy backup products are unable to satisfy their backup goals. To ensure the success and satisfaction of Microsoft SharePoint customers, Microsoft has focused on delivering a reliable protection and recovery solution with DPM 2007 that truly understands the specific needs for SharePoint protection and meets them.

In addition, DPM 2007 also helps protect SharePoint 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services 2.0, which did not provide a native VSS writer capability. To meet those needs, DPM protects the underlying SQL Server databases and the metadata that completes the solution.

How does DPM 2007 protect SharePoint data

After the initial baseline copy of data, DPM routinely performs ―express full‖ backups which utilize the SharePoint VSS writer, and underlying component VSS writers, to identify which blocks have changed in the entire production farm and content databases – and only sends the updated blocks or fragments. This provides a complete and consistent image of the data files on the DPM server or appliance. DPM 2007 maintains up to 512 shadow copies containing only the granular changes between one SharePoint backup and the next.

Restore the SharePoint Farm

The entire configuration from the farm and the content databases can be restored back to the original platform(s) – including the Configuration Database, Administration Content Database and the Content Databases that were backed up in the Point-In-Time selected.

Restore a Content Database

DPM 2007 can restore a single content database back within the SharePoint farm.

Copy to a network folder or tape for archival purposes

One can also simply take the files from SharePoint and restore them to a network folder for manual purposes or to their own tape for archival or delivery to an auditor.

DPM 2007 restores the selected data set into the Recovery Farm, and then properly manages moving that document from the Recovery Farm back in to the production farm – all from within a single DPM recovery wizard.


Restore a Site Collection
Restore a Site
Restore an individual document


Here I have some screen shots of my DPM environment.




















Wednesday 17 June 2009

Finally we have one place to download all SharePoint Learning Resources

Downloadable content for Office SharePoint Server 2007

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262788.aspx

Title

Description

Updated date

URL

Size MB

Getting started with Office SharePoint Server 2007

Covers basic information about the capabilities of and requirements for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Jul-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91741

1

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91741 ]

Planning and architecture for Office SharePoint Server 2007 , part 1

Covers topics such as planning sites, planning for certain features such as forms and search, and planning for managing documents and records.

Mar-07

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=79552

5

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=79552 ]

Planning and architecture for Office SharePoint Server 2007 , part 2

Covers topics such as determining hardware and software requirements, capacity planning, and planning for security.

Apr-09

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=85548

10.5

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=85548 ]

Governance guide for Office SharePoint Server 2007

Governance is the set of policies, roles, responsibilities, and processes that you establish in your enterprise to guide, direct, and control how it uses technologies to accomplish business goals. The articles in this guide will help you determine the aspects of your Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployment to govern and include discussions of techniques for governing your enterprise's SharePoint IT service and information architecture.

Jul-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=121944

1

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=121944 ]

Planning an extranet environment for Office SharePoint Server 2007

Covers planning recommendations for deploying Office SharePoint Server 2007 in an extranet environment.

Mar-09

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=93372

1

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=93372 ]

Deliver accessible solutions (white paper)

Provides information and guidelines about the issues that organizations face when delivering accessible Web solutions, including those built by using Office SharePoint Server 2007 .

Jun-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=121797

1

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=121797&clcid=0x409 ]

Best practices for developing accessible Web sites (white paper)

Provides information about designing and developing accessible Web sites in Office SharePoint Server 2007 . This document is intended for users who are familiar with Office SharePoint Server 2007 , ASP.NET, and .NET development.

Jun-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=121877

1

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=121877&clcid=0x409 ]

Workflow security in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (white paper)

Provides an overview of which aspects of workflow behavior IT professionals need to be aware of in order to understand how they can configure and deploy Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 workflows more securely.

Oct-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=132121&clcid=0x409

1

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=132121&clcid=0x409 ]

Internet presence scenario ( Office SharePoint Server 2007 )

Provides an end-to-end scenario that outlines how to plan, design, build, and maintain an enterprise's Internet presence Web site based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 . This scenario focuses on the design, creation, and deployment of an Internet presence site in a large enterprise.

Nov-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=136967&clcid=0x409

1

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=136967&clcid=0x409 ]

Plan and configure availability within an Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm

Provides information about planning and configuring availability within an Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm.

Dec-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=137143&clcid=0x409

1

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=137143&clcid=0x409 ]

Deployment for Office SharePoint Server 2007

Covers installing and configuring Office SharePoint Server 2007 in a new deployment.

Mar-09

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=79589

4.5

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=79589 ]

Upgrading to Office SharePoint Server 2007

Covers upgrading to Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Jun-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=85556

1

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=85556 ]

Deploying Office SharePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 1

Changes in Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 and instructions for deploying the service pack.

Dec-07

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=105621&clcid=0x409

1

Download as .doc [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=105621&clcid=0x409 ]

Download as .pdf [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=105626&clcid=0x409 ]

Installation guide for Office SharePoint Server 2007

This guide provides the information you need to successfully install Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to a stand-alone computer or simple server farm.

Jul-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=106632

1

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=106632 ]

Design and build sites for Office SharePoint Server 2007

This guide provides prescriptive guidance that can help you and your team build custom enterprise sites by using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 — such as company-wide portal sites or Internet presence sites.

Jul-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110087

1.46

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110087 ]

Administering enterprise search for Office SharePoint Server 2007

Includes guidance and procedures for configuring and maintaining search features in Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Sep-07

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=100254

1

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=100254&clcid=0x409 ]

Security for Office SharePoint Server 2007

Describes how security is implemented in Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Jul-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=94375

2.5

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=94375 ]

Web publishing and planning guide for Office SharePoint Server 2007

Covers features you can use to implement the structure, navigation, and appearance of Web sites and to control how your sites are authored, approved, and published.

Jul-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=92330

0.63

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=92330 ]

Records management guide for Office SharePoint Server 2007

Covers general records management planning considerations and guidelines for configuring Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Jul-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=92720

0.6

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=92720 ]

Document management guide for Office SharePoint Server 2007

Covers document management features that you can use to control the lifecycles of documents in your organization.

Dec-08

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=92638

0.5

Download [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=92638 ]

Estimate performance and capacity requirements for InfoPath Forms Services environments (Office SharePoint Server)

Hi,

This is a TechNet article witch we found very very important when comes to form server deployments, Estimate performance and capacity requirements for InfoPath Forms Services environments (Office SharePoint Server), geeks who works in large scale form server deployments should consider all the factors which are elaborated in this article.
Read carefully and deploy successfully.

Estimate performance and capacity requirements for InfoPath Forms Services environments

Cheers


Tuesday 16 June 2009

SharePoint 2010: Improvements to Lists architecture

Found this very interesting and thought of sharing this info with you..................

Bill Gates: “And so in the case of SharePoint, we’ve got these lists that in some ways are better than tables.
They have rich behavior that is not you don’t see in SQL tables, but then in SQL you have very rich behaviors, including the flexibility of queries, and kind of scale that you can do that goes beyond what you have as lists. So what’s the answer? What you want to get to is having SQL not just have these lists at a layer above the database, but actually have those be native capability, and literally take the richness of tables, but enhanced to do things like we do with lists.
So in the next version of SharePoint we take a big step in terms of being able to put a table in, and have all that SQL capability, or be able to take a lot of those list-type features and have those against tables. This is the kind of roadmap thing that we should probably get into in the breakout sessions, talk about how far we’re going in 14, and get feedback about that. The direction is pretty straightforward. You want list semantics to be in the database engine itself, so that the kind of rich data types, and scaling, and query capability that you almost take for granted when you’re in a SQL environment, that you have those without giving up the reasons that we invented lists, because of the approachability and capabilities you have there.“


So its clear we going to have a big boom in 2010.............................get ready for it...............

Project server 2007 Deployment walk through

Hi ,

Its an interesting document...................

Now you can download Microsoft Project Server 2007 Deployment walk through videos and its from microsoft, if you are concern about best practices of deployments then its for you, im sure you will love it....................

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=A33A6559-85E1-41E5-B209-4D96A114405F&displaylang=en

Friday 12 June 2009

How to install SharePoint

Hi all
Its been a very busy week going to over, learned a lot through incidents by the way will go to the topic.

This is just a try to make this SharePoint installation easy for the new comer’s, there ware days in late 2002 ware I was searching for such documents to install SharePoint ware I didn’t find any in the web.

click here to download

Friday 5 June 2009

Document Imaging with SharePoint

This is an Interesting post which i saw in http://docudruid.com/ , Amila is a ECM consultant with tons of experience, works in a leading ECM Solution Specialized Company in Sri Lanka. In future you can see more of his findings.

this is a post I saw interesting when I was reading his blog. ECM lover would find interesting.

you may be asking me what is ECM and how it works with SharePoint Amila elaborates it here...

http://docudruid.com/2009/03/10/document-imaging-with-sharepoint/

Welcome Amila to SharePoint Sri Lanka.

Monday 1 June 2009

Important Information on Service Pack 2


We take product quality seriously and make every effort to avoid and resolve issues that adversely impact our customers. Unfortunately, we have recently discovered a bug with Service Pack 2 (SP2) that affects all customers that have deployed it for SharePoint Server 2007.

During the installation of SP2, a product expiration date is improperly activated. This means SharePoint will expire as though it was a trial installation 180 days after SP2 is deployed. The activation of the expiration date will not affect the normal function of SharePoint up until the expiration date passes. Furthermore, product expiration 180 days after SP2 installation will not affect customer’s data, configuration or application code but will render SharePoint inaccessible for end-users.

We are working to release a hotfix to automatically fix this issue. A manual work-around is currently available and involves customers re-entering their Product ID number (PID) on the Convert License Type page in Central Administration. For more information and detailed steps please read this KB article. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs)

We want to assure our customers that this issue does not impact data integrity or their SharePoint deployment in any other way.

For your convenience, below are some answers to questions that you may have and we will update this blog post with a link to the hotfix as soon as it’s available.

We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause you.


Q&A

Which products are affected by this?
Applying Service Pack 2 to any of the following products will result in this issue: Office SharePoint Server 2007, Project Server 2007, Form Server 2007, Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express.
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is not affected by this issue.

What can I do to fix it?
To work around this issue customers will need to re-enter their Product ID numbers (PID) on the Convert License Type page in Central Administration. Please see this KB article for detailed steps. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs)

Customers can also wait for the hotfix (available for free from http://support.microsoft.com) to resolve this issue.

Product ID numbers (PIDs) can be retrieved by logging into the Volume Licensing Service Center.

Note: For Search Server 2008 Express the only way to resolve this issue is to apply the hotfix.

What is Microsoft doing to fix it?
Microsoft is working on a hotfix and public update for the product. We will update this blog post with details and a link to the hotfix as soon as it is available.

Do I need to update all of the servers in my farm?
No. The Product ID number only needs to be entered once.

What if I haven’t installed SP2 yet but want to? What should I do?
You can continue to plan for and install Service Pack 2 for SharePoint Server 2007 with the additional step of re-entering your Product ID number after the installation is complete by following the instructions in this KB article. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs)

Does this issue impact anything else?
The issue only activates the product expiration date. The activation of the expiration date does not affect the normal function of SharePoint up until the expiration date passes, at which point SharePoint will be inaccessible for end-users. This issue does not affect customer’s data, configuration or application code.

I can’t find/don’t know my original PID, where can I find it?
Product ID numbers (PIDs) can be retrieved by logging into the Volume Licensing Service Center.