New SharePoint site gone live !

For close to FOUR months, we’ve been working on a big SharePoint publishing site, which has just gone live today !

It’s ready for action – so come and take a look :

www.melbourne.vic.gov.au

The team involved a bunch of OBS developers, testers, BA’s and project manager – as well as a team from City Of Melbourne (CoM) – thanks to all the folk in the Business Information Systems (BIS) department.

Here’s a few tidbits about the new site :

• Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Publishing site (MOSS)
• Custom master pages, page layouts & CSS
• Approx 25 custom coded webparts & user controls
  • including AJAX enabled image gallery & post-a-comment
• Custom search controls for input & search results
• Telerik, AKS and ARF – to allow for W3C WCAG AA (Accessibility)
• Multi-lingual capabilities for Melbourne Library
• Different visual design for various sub-sites within the site hierarchy
  • Implemented using ‘alternate CSS’ (see below)
• Mapping will be be included for phase 1.5

Here’s some screen shots of “before and after” :

Home Page

 

Landing Page

Content

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… and, here’s some screen shots of the different ‘sub site’ pages.  These all use the same webparts, navigation and other controls – with a different style & background image.  

Enterprise Melbourne :

North Melbourne Recreation Centre (NMRC) :

1200 Buildings :

Office of Knowledge Capital (OKC) :

Melbourne City Baths :

 

ArtPlay :

Arts House :

Signal :

==========================================================

Was a BIG effort from lots of people – some trial & tribulations – and a big success in the end. 

Thanks to all involved – let’s have a beer to celebrate !

10,000 tweets FTW !

Windows 7 – share your wireless broadband connection

One of my favourite ‘gadgets’ of late is definitely my “3” card – it’s awesome to simply plug in a USB key, and be online – via Wireless Broadband (3G/HSDPA). 

I’ve been able to use email, browsing, twitter and even a CITRIX remote desktop connection whilst in a cafe, or sitting in my car – even on a moving train !

One of the cool things I uncovered recently was the ability to share this connection, using Internet Connection Sharing.

I was able to use this technique in a cafe with a buddy from Microsoft, as well as in the office workplace – 7th floor of a CBD office building.

Get online

Before you begin, make sure YOUR laptop is online, using your wireless broadband connection.

Adhoc Wireless Network

The first step is to set up a wireless network, so that the other laptop/s can add a connection to your laptop.

• Open the Network and Sharing Center in Windows 7
• Click Set up a new connection or network

 

• Scroll down and select Set up a wireless adhoc network

• Can just click Next on the ‘info’ screen

 

• You will need to choose a Network name to identify your wifi network
• Also, can change the Security type – I just left it as default
• Pick a value for the Security key - and take note / remember it
• You will need to tell the other person connecting

• Then click Next
• Make sure you click the button to Turn on Internet connection sharing

 

• And – that’s it !  
• Just click Close – and YOU are done…

Connect to wireless network

Now you can tell your friend to try it out.

They’ll need to choose to connect to a wireless network – and enter the password you’ve chosen.

You’ll be able to check if they’ve connected or not when looking at the network info fly out from the Network Notification Icon (on the lower right side of the taskbar)

After they’ve connected, they should be online using YOUR wireless broadband connection – how easy is that !

Good luck – “go get your nerd on” – with a friend !

Sometimes, the system administrator will BLOCK the ability to use Internet Connection Sharing – I found this out the hard way when trying to setup the same connection as above – with ME as the ‘client’ – not the ‘host’. 

If this is the case, you’re pretty much screwed – it ain’t gonna work.

Windows 2008 R2 – configure Wireless (WiFi)

When installing Windows Server 2008 R2 on a laptop, it’s often useful to make use of the Wireless networking – usually quickly picked up by Windows 7 – but needing some config to get it working for Windows Server 2008.

It makes sense I guess, you wouldn’t normally have a SERVER that requires a wireless connection – hence, it’s OFF by default.

Wireless LAN Service

To kick-start the WiFi in Windows Server 2008, just follow these steps :

• Open the Features list
• Scroll to the bottom, and choose Wireless LAN Service

 

After this has been installed, you (may) also need to start the service :

• Open Administrative Tools > Services
• Location the WLAN AutoConfig service
• Make sure it’s set to automatically start
• ….and start it up, if not already running

 

You should then be able to add a Windows Network connection, and you’ll be online in no time.  

This is essential for grabbing updates, and some web surfing – although there are always a multitude of prompts & message boxes – sometimes can be a hassle.

That’s it – too easy, eh ?!?

XBMC + Office 2010 strangeness (?)

Unlike most other folk I know, I don’t have an XBox 360 – instead, I’m still loving my original black & chunky XBox. 

This is purely for XBox Media Centre (XBMC) – we watch all our TV shows & other media including pictures & MP3’s.

Works nicely with Windows 7 – I have a file share on my PC in the study – and the XBox (XBMC) has a config for the file share :

<bookmark>
    <name>MEDIA</name>
    <path>smb://xbmc:pwd@99.99.99.10/MEDIA/</path>
</bookmark>

This connects using SAMBA, a fairly ancient file share protocol – one of the original and best.   Was essential for UNIX file shares, back in the early 90’s – which I did a fair bit of, before the Windows revolution.

Anyway – Windows 7 just accepts these user connections via “Windows File Sharing” – and all is well.  

Until – Office 2010….  What the ?

Wanting to check out the new features, I installed Office 2010 x64, and was loving the new Outlook, Word and Excel programs.

BUT – when I went to view a TV show from XBMC – it kept prompting me for login and password.  

There had been a power outage – so I re-booted my PC, router & all – to make sure all was OK.  Still no joy.

Checked cables, login accounts, passwords, cables – and via my laptop – and all seemed well.   *ggrrr*

In a “scratch-the-head” moment, I wondered about Office 2010 – uninstalled it & re-booted – and then XBMC could connect to the PC again…!   

Go figure !

I thought I’d prove it again – and installed Office 2010 once more – this time, choosing specific options. 

And – the XBMC setup was fine this time.   *shrug* 

Phew – mission accomplished – I was running out of ideas…

Sorry – but I can’t really remember what options I removed – we only use the home PC for Word, Excel and Outlook – and OneNote.

I ditched Access, InfoPath, SharePoint Workspace – and the DEV bits & pieces.  I’ve got my work laptop for those ones…

So – if you’re like me, and in the dark ages with a trusty on XBox 1, and having troubles with XBMC – might be an Office 2010 Beta issue…(?)

Or – could simply be the Curse Of The Wookie (COTW) at play.

Windows 7 Boot From VHD –> SharePoint 2010

With the recent release of SharePoint 2010 Beta (Beta 2 if you call the initial CTP as the initial Beta), there’s a bunch of folk installing like crazy, keen to have a first look & play with the new product / features.

Being a 64-bit only release, there’s a ‘change in the wind’ as far as how you’d create a SharePoint VM.   Virtual PC has been my friend for soooo long, but no more.  (“It’s not me, it’s you”)

Running Windows 7 on my laptop means that I could either use Virtual Box (Sun) – or VMWare – or have a Boot to VHD configuration.

Having never done this before, it was a little trickier than I thought it would have been. 

Much of this was discovered after reading a great article from Scott Hanselman about the full spectrum of all matter pertaining to Boot from VHD

I’m only re-telling the tale, with a SharePoint flavour (ie. how *I* did it – thanks Scott !)

And – some dudes on Twitter helped too.  Thx @alexanderb + @kiwibommy.

The premise is that you create (or re-use) a Virtual Machine Hard Drive (VHD) – and configure the drive (mount it) to be able to dual-boot from it.  Cool, eh ?

The catch is that it must be Windows 7 RTM or Windows Server 2008 R2.  (had initially tried the following with zero success – and released I had Windows Server 2008 RTM by mistake)

Anyway, I need a new Windows Server x64 installation for SharePoint, let’s get going.

Create a VHD

Work out where you want to put the VHD file – you might need 20-30GB of room

• Open a DOS Command Window
• Type the command :  DISKPART
• Create a vdisk using the following command

create vdisk file=”<drive><directory>\<filename>.vhd” type=<fixed|expandable> maximum=<size>

As an example, I created a 30GB file (VHD) with “FIXED” size using the following :

create vdisk file=”c:\vm\sp2010\sp2010.vhd” type=fixed maximum=30000

This takes about 5-10 minutes – to allocate the disk space, and get the VHD sized up. 

You can also go for “expandable” – which will just take a second, and expand as it goes.  But, performance is not as good – better to go for “fixed”.

Take note of the file name, drive and folder you used – write it down.

Boot from Windows Server DVD

Now you need to grab your Windows Server 2008 DVD – this needs to be the “R2” version, doesn’t work from Windows Server 2008 RTM – you need R2. 

That’s not advice – it’s a requirement.    

Shut down your PC, and re-start, and choose to boot from the DVD.  

• When you boot from the DVD, you’ll see the ‘loading files’ screen for a few minutes.

• Next, the “Install Windows” page appears

• Click Next
• Click Repair My Computer

• When you see this next screen (below), press SHIFT-F10

DISKPART (part II)

You’ll now be seeing a DOS command prompt, for some reason with the home directory of X:\sources\

• Type DISKPART
• Type the following to assign your VHD

select vdisk file="d:\vm\sp2010\sp2010.vhd"     

attach vdisk

• IMPORTANT : The directory where you have your VHD file is actually been upp’ed a drive letter – with C:\ now becoming D:\  (confused me for a bit…!)
• You can view the drives available using the command LIST DISK (within DISKPART)

OK – now that the VHD has been mounted, it’s officially a drive – and you can install Windows Server, as if it was another hard disk.

• Type EXIT to drop out of DISKPART
• And then EXIT again, to close the command prompt

Install Windows Server 2008

The tricky stuff is now out of the way.

You’re then back at the pretty graphical “Install Windows” page

So, what are you waiting for – click Install !

• Click through until you get to the ‘choose the drive’ page

 

• Create a partition on the new drive (the magical VHD)
• Format the drive and click Next
• … and go ahead and install Windows Server 2008 R2 like normal.

It will ask to re-boot, and after re-starting, you’ll see the ‘boot manager’ screen

Make sure to choose Windows Server 2008

That’s all there is to it !

Next up – need to do a few things on this new “VM”…

• Configure Wireless
• Not on by default in Windows Server 2008
• Need to ‘add feature’ for the Wireless LAN
• And then actually start the service.
• Install Microsoft Office 2010
• Install SQL Server 2008
• Install Visual Studio 2010
• and then – install SharePoint 2010 !   

……more adventures to follow, as I get into the install of SharePoint 2010.

Infrastructure documents within Central Admin

Within the Central Administration site for SharePoint, you can navigate through a multitude of pages for the various web application settings – and farm security & feature settings.

One thing I never stopped to think is that it’s still a SharePoint “team site” – and you can use it as such.  

Whenever we’re installing and configuring a SharePoint implementation for a client, there are often build documents, and configuration and installation details in DOCX or PDF format. 

Also, Disaster Recovery, and other information related to SQL Server and Exchange – and Active Directory (AD) configuration for People & MySites information.

Here’s a quick tip – why not store these documents within Central Admin ?!?

• Open your SharePoint Central Admin site
• Click Site Actions > Create
• Click Document Library
• Give it a name
• …and then upload some documents !

Of course, you can go back to the Central Admin landing page, and click Site Actions > Edit Page to include new webparts.

In this screenshot, I’ve added the document library to the top-right :

… very cool, eh ?  

Here’s a few other ideas to use Central Admin as a “team site” :

• Announcements list for server outages
• Contacts list for server admin, and other technicans & vendors
• Calendar for planned maintenance and outages
• Tasks lists for ‘deployment plans’  

NB.  There already is a tasks list on the home page for Central Admin – how many people actually look at it – or use it ??   

I don’t think I have ever checked through and done ALL of the tasks listed !    *eek*

FullTextSqlQuery throwing exception – this site is not assigned to an indexer

Following on from my presentation at SharePoint Saturday in Melbourne, I thought I’d relay a tip to those looking to code a webpart or such using FullTextSqlQuery.

During the development of my code, I was getting errors when running the following code :

FullTextSqlQuery fullTextSqlQuery = new FullTextSqlQuery(SPContext.Current.Site)
{
    ResultTypes = ResultType.RelevantResults, 
    QueryText = stringBuilder.ToString(),
    TrimDuplicates = true,
    EnableStemming = true,
    StartRow = 1,
    RowLimit = 200,
    TotalRowsExactMinimum = 300,
    IgnoreAllNoiseQuery = false,
};

//Return the search results to a ResultTableCollection
resultTableCollection = fullTextSqlQuery.Execute();

What was happening in the UI was a message stating :

Your search cannot be completed because this site is not assigned to an indexer. Contact your administrator for more information.

Took me a few DAYS of investigation to work a fix – as the code was compiling, and executing – just couldn’t connect to the Search Service within SharePoint.

And it turns out that my code was somehow causing a COM Exception within the WSS Search Service – and was listed in the Event Viewer also. 

I was having to go to Control Panel > Services – and re-start the “Windows SharePoint Search” service.

What’s going on !

Well – you may be aware that there’s a separate web service for both WSS and MOSS.  It follows that you can use the API to interact with either of these – and my code was incorrectly trying to use the WSS not MOSS class libraries.

The core issue was with my project references within Visual Studio

The key to my discovery was with this code :

ResultTypes = ResultType.RelevantResults, 

When I tried to add the option for “SpecialTermResults” (aka BestBets), I was getting a .NET error – saying ‘invalid member’ or something :

ResultTypes = ResultType.RelevantResults, ResultType.SpecialTermResults,  

But – this is within the SharePoint class library from MSDN.

It was then that I realised my FullTextSqlQuery class was referenced from :

• using Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Query   // WSS

– instead of

• using Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Query   // MOSS

It follows that the project file (DLL) references were wrong also. 

And yep – swapping them out fixed the problem !    *phew*

So – if you’re having this error – then check your solution/project references :

WSS Search

DLL : C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.dll

NameSpace : Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Query

MOSS Search

DLL : C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\ISAPI\Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.dll

NameSpace : Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Query

Kinda obvious in the end :

• If included as “SharePoint” only – it’s WSS
• Need to have “Office Server” for MOSS

Wish I’d known all this earlier – it would have saved me a few stressful days !

SharePoint Saturday – Search

Today is Melbourne’s turn to host SharePoint Saturday – with a bunch of presentations, demos and a panel session – all discussing SharePoint – and the entire event is FREE – for the people, by the people.

Lots of great topics about SharePoint 2010 – all the new features, developer need-to-know’s, Office 2010 client, and 3rd-party product demo’s such as Nintex, and K2.

I’m doing a double-up session with Tim Wragg (StarGate) – about Enterprise Search within MOSS (2007).

He’ll be showing some of the customisation and configuration that you can achieve with OOTB components for SharePoint – and I’ll then discuss the extensibility story with search – using the SharePoint SDK & API.

Here’s a few of the topics I’ll be covering :

• Create a custom coded webpart with C# – new UI for Search
• Call to the SQLFullTextQuery class to retrieve search results
• Demo of a utility to assist – called SharePoint Search Service Tool (CodePlex)
• Discussion of CustomProtocolHandler to extend even further
• Search Admin using code – for creating scopes, properties, etc

Hope to see you at the session – I’ll load up the PPTX (slide deck) after all is said and done – and you can have a look at your leisure.

UPDATE :  Here’s a link to the slide deck from today’s session (~1.8MB zip).   .

…and here is the prank BSOD I used – thought I’d get a few more “gasps” or “laughs”…

I guess if there were MORE people there – might have helped…

Liam is now two !

This post contains no SharePoint.   This isn’t the MSDN article you were looking for.  

You can go about your business.  Move along, move along….

[ Family nostalgia warning….    For my future nostalgia to be more precise…. ]

With all the recent craziness, I hadn’t taken time out to write up a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our lovely Liam – also known as Lee’s, Flea-man or Lee-Lee.

We’d arranged to have a birthday party on the day (Oct 25th – also our wedding anniversary) – and had the family over for a BBQ & games.

Liam was excitedly opening his presents – with an “Oh Wow !” with every one, and getting MORE amazed with each opening.   Ohhh WOOOWW !!   

One of the games we played was musical statues – dancing to the Wiggles, and then everyone stops when the music stops.  I asked Liam if he wanted a different song (expecting Hi-5, or similar) – and he says “Swash !   Jungle !” 

Yep – he was asking for Slash, and “Welcome To The Jungle”.  I put it on, and he squealed in delight, and began moshing around with Cameron doing air guitar !   (very proud Dad here)

He’s such an amazing little boy – he is always laughing, and has some amazing facial expressions.  So hard to remember all the stuff he’s doing every day :

* He does this funny little “ooohh !” noise, with an in-breath sound (can’t describe in typing) – even when looking at picture books, and turning a page.

* Does a little karate chop move saying “Eee, haaw” – it doubles as a Cowboy “yerr-harr” – and whatever else

* Loves his brother Charlie, always giving him kisses on the forehead

* Words are more and more forthcoming – he was saying “Thank” until recently – only just realised the word is ‘plural’. 

* HIs favourite bed time toy is Baxter – a Myer Christmas bear.  Cameron also has the one from his first Christmas (Henry) – we’ll get one for Charlie this year too.  Baxter is doing fairly well – lots of squeeze & hugs – Liam calls him “Bagger”

* He knows all of our families names, Femron for Cameron, and Charwee for Charlie – and Chrowee for Chloe.  He even lists all his Aunties & Uncles, and cousins – and has 99% nailed counting to ten !

* He just loooves Buzz Lightyear, pointing at every page in the Toy Story book – and saying “ooohhh ! Buzz !”  He carries around a little action figure toy – holding him up and saying “BUZZ !!” 

* If he’s wanting to play a game, he’s known to say “Dad, Dad !” and snap his fingers to get my attention – and then “C’m here” (beckoning me to him)

* He got a little plastic bowling pin set for his birthday – which he loves to play.  It took a while to realise that “Muup” was actually “Set ‘Em Up” – ha ha.

* He’s a ‘routine’ kid – he needs to have his placemat to be square – even putting down his fork to move the placemat to be straight

* When doing teeth, the step stools in the bathroom have to be in the right place – one for each lad, blue & white.  He’ll swap them if they’re wrong.

* Even when putting him in the bath once – he was kicking and yelling “No, Nudie”, and I realised he wanted to do the standard nudie run – before happily getting in the bath.

* Says “Do It !” when he wants to do something, like feeding or playing (meaning “I want to do it”)

* Bounces lots on the trampoline with his brother Cameron – actually, he pretty much follows him everywhere – partners in crime, that’s for sure.

* Liam has to have the worst ever bed hair – just a hilarious birds nest most mornings.

* Has a cheeky grin and laugh, and loves doing a deep sounding “hoo hoo” laugh for fun, accompanied with an “arrr” like a pirate – complete with another type of karate chop.

* He’s still wearing his boots to bed, it has never troubled him – he puts them on without a fuss every time – truly.  Of course, there is often is a giggle game where I put one foot in, and he pulls is out again and laughs.  He’ll continue to wear the boots until he’s four – currently a day sleep, and overnight.

—————-

Liam is  two already – can’t believe he’s growing up so fast.  Thankfully, we haven’t seen any sign of impending “terrible two’s” (yet ?)   

I’m sure there will be – but the fun & games – and conversations – will only get better too.

Happy Birthday little dude, thanks for a fun two years !  

Love Dad.  x