To AD or not to AD, that is the Question.

It has always been a point between System Admins vs

SharePoint Admins. Active Directory and SharePoint Group Permissions.

Should you use or not AD Groups in SharePoint instead of the native SharePoint

groups? Many have found wondering on implementing solutions without really

taking a look at the actual needs for the enterprise.

I found a very simple solution or "mind state" that can quickly put to rest

on how to choose and properly set permissions, depending on your IT environment.

1. If you have consultants working on the server, until they are a full employee,

you don't want anyone snooping around in your AD. In this case, allowing

them to add and manage users in SharePoint is the proper course.

2. We all know you can have file level management, but do you really want to enter

this world of chaos? Do you really want to manage all content at a file level permission?

This is ridiculous and very time consuming, simply there is no need. In a large

SharePoint environment, allowing users to manage at a file level is not the recommended

course. As a matter of fact, most companies simply do not allow it. So how do you manage

files and all other SharePoint items?

You use both, Active Directory and Custom SharePoint Groups. I say custom, cause in reality

and in most cases only 3 groups are actually needed and you can name them almost the

same as the naming convention used in AD. Example:

3. Create three SharePoint groups for a portal:  XYZ CONTENT MANAGERS,  XYZ CONTRIBUTORS, XYZ READERS.

Content managers have full control of their portal, contributors can add and edit items, readers can only view.

In AD create a Main SharePoint Group in which all sub group will be stored. It should look like this:

SHAREPOINT GROUPS --(top level)

            SP XYZ -- ( Portal Group Name )

                        SP XYZ CONTENT MANAGERS

                        SP XYZ CONTRIBUTORS

                        SP XYZ READERS

In SharePoint simply add the AD group name into the SharePoint designated group. In AD, add the user to their respective

AD Group to allow the proper access. If in SharePoint you have a document library that only contributors should have access too,

in the setting for that list, set permission not to inherit from the parent site, and add the group that should have access.

If you keep this "process" you will have a very organized SharePoint permission structure. More to come on Active Directory and SharePoint.

Fasty.

The Mighty PDF and SharePoint 2010

This is one of those things that “p@@@s” folks to no end concerning SharePoint, still for the reason as to why Microsoft did not include PDF file type as part of the backend so your document libraries portal will recognize the files automatically, eludes me.

After careful testing, I found a method that works and can have your portal running with PDF files right away.

You need the following: Assuming your on 64bit Environment...

Download and install on the SharePoint server Adobe’s 64-bit PDF iFilter http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025

Download the Adobe PDF icon (select Small 17 x 17) – http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html

Give the icon a name or accept the default: ‘pdficon_small.gif’. Save the icon (or copy to) C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES

1. Edit the DOCICON.XML file to include the PDF icon

a.     In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XM

b.    Edit the DOCICON.XML file (I open it in WordPad)

                                          i.    Ignore the section <ByProgID> and scroll down to the <ByExtension> section of the file.

c.     Within the <ByExtension> section, insert <Mapping Key=”pdf” Value=”pdficon_small.gif” /> attribute. The easiest way is to copy an existing one – I usually just copy the line that starts <Mapping Key=”png”… and replace the parameters for Key and Value.

                                          i.    Save and close the file.

d.    Add PDF to the list of supported file types within SharePoint.

e.     In the web browser, open SharePoint Central Administration

f.     Under Application Management, click on Manage service applications

g.    Scroll down the list of service apps and click on Search Service Application. Within the Search Administration dashboard, in the sidebar on the left, click File Types

h.     Click ‘New File Type’ and enter PDF in the File extension box. Click OK

i.      Scroll down the list of file types and check that PDF is now listed and displaying the pdf icon.

j.      Close the web browser 

Stop and restart Internet Information Server (IIS) Note: This will temporarily take SharePoint offline. 

Perform a full crawl of your index.

Note: An incremental crawl is not sufficient when you have added a new file type. SharePoint only indexes file names with the extensions listed under File Types and ignores everything else.

When you add a new file type, you then have to perform a full crawl to forcibly identify all files with the now relevant file extension. That’s it. If you now perform a search, PDF files should be displayed in results where they match the search query, along with the PDF icon on display in results. The icon should also be visible in any document libraries that contain PDF files.

When you click on a PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader will open automatically in the browser.



Wealth of Microsoft Sharepoint Web Parts.

AMREIN ENGINEERING AG, has a huge list of SharePoint Web parts. These web parts enhance the SharePoint experience. With their dedicated core implementation, you can load these web parts and begin implementation immediately. Best of all, some are for free and others are on a 30 Day evaluation. Needless to say, they have everything for anyone and the price is very reasonable.

I have personally used some these web parts and I didn't encounter problems with the installation. Most of them include instructions "how to" perform a Sharepoint2010 installation too.

Here are some examples: 

"Spotlight On.." Web Part,   "Tip of the Day" Web Part , Lightbox Web Part,   Weather Web Part,  Slideshow Web Part, Flash Rotator Web Part, Currency Rates Web Part, Media Player Web Part, Map Chart Web Part, Google Chart Web Part, Bullet Graph Web Part, RSS Feed Ticker Web Part,  SQL Viewer Web Part, Google Map Web Part, Quick Poll Web Part , Audio Player Web Part, Google GeoMapper Web Part, SQL Chart Web Part, EWS Calendar Web Part, Podcast Web Part, Image Rotator Web Part..etc.

Link: http://www.amrein.com/apps/page.asp?Q=5728


Fasty

MOSS 2007 Column Wrap

This trick is awesome for those pesky forms that have large amount of characters per line or even multiple lines. There is simply a better way of keeping things neat and visible without having to scroll horizontally.
 
1.Browse to your list and click ‘New’ (Item)
On the File menu, select ‘Edit with Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer’
This will launch SharePoint Designer (SPD). In SPD, add a web part zone to the page.
(‘New Web Part Zone’ is on the Web Part task pane)
2. Click the ‘Click to insert a Web Part’ hyperlink and add the Content Editor Web Part
Save the page (which will customize it from the site def)
Back in your browser, refresh the new item page
Click ‘Site Actions’, ‘Edit Page’
3. On the CEWP, click the ‘edit’ drop down and select ‘Modify Shared Web Part’
Click the ‘Source Editor’ button and type in the following:
<style type="text/css">
nobr {white-space: normal}
</style>
4.Click ‘Save’, and ‘OK’ and you should see the long column names wrap immediately.

Enjoy!

Fasty

Real Templates for Sharepoint 2010

SharePoint 2010 like its predecessor is rough around the edges. Unless you custom code it and make every site a publishing portal, simply there is no real way to get that desired corporate look fairly easily.
So.. are we doomed?  Not anymore. I introduce, MASTER THEMES. (http://www.masterthemes.net).

Pretty much the only trusted place where your money really pays. As you may already be aware, there are short comings in trying to find SharePoint 2010 Themes. At my current job we purchased one of the packages. The installation procedure couldn't be more simple. The reason for this is because they actually wrote the code for themes and they simply work very well.

Is it worth the money? I will spin it this way... Example:  Let’s say you have an environment with different browsers and operating systems. Everyone needs some sort of centralized document management, hence SharePoint 2010. But the pages collapse, some look funky, in others it does not work at all and the problems just keep coming on. Simply you can't make every browser happy unless you spend an enormous amount of time coding the pages. 

With Master Themes, right from the beginning, all of our sites and portals became compatible with: Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari on OSX, IPAD2 Safari. So what happened?  Master Theme happened. I have not found a library list nor a custom SharePoint Form that did not work while using a Master Theme.

The verdict?  I recommend it if you can spend the money. They have various levels of these themes. Start with the lowest and later you can upgrade by applying the difference in cost.

Fasty.