Setting some context

Like on almost everything in life, there are different opinions on using site collection quota.

In his blog post “Controlling Sites Sizes with Quotas” Michal Pisarek proposes to use Site Collection Quotas and they should be one of the first things to be considered in your SharePoint Governance plan.
I do agree with him, but I also firmly disagree.

Why don’t I agree with the obsessive (IT) need to implement Site Collection Quota?

During a workshop I was delivering to the business key stakeholders for a SharePoint project (it was a workshop to gather business requirement for a SharePoint implementation) the topic of quotas presented itself. Without telling or asking anything about quota, the business representatives came up with this question. Technically it is not a question because the is no question mark in the sentence, it was more like a proposal or even a requirement.

“If our Enterprise IT strategy directs us to use SharePoint and use this tool to share files between countries and continents then we don’t need (read want) quotas.”
(They were at this moment not able to share information on file shares easily between different countries since file share servers are hosted in the office or country where the files were primarily stored)

Now, from an IT perspective this is a NO-GO because IT wants to (draconic) keep control on disk space consumption and storage capacity planning.

So my response to that was (I was also surprised of this statement, but understood exactly what they meant) asking them on how they can assure that only relevant information will be stored in their sites.
That old, outdated content will be removed. You know, people tend to start cleaning up disk space when they run out of it. And how can we make sure they will not have (too much) duplicates in their sites. And that’s for me the part where governance enters the discussion.

So what is a possible solution?

My solution is not just 1 solution. It is a combination of different solutions that can fulfill the business requirement (the need for “unlimited” disk space and freedom just like they now have on their file share) is not to use Site Collection Quota (or use a very big quota) and define content types (something you should always do on your SharePoint sites)

After defining the content types, you can configure retention policies on these content type. Just to make sure that legal documents don’t get deleted, after 2 years. And you probably don’t need to have your minutes of meetings available for 7 years in the production environment.

An extra step (and maybe a highly recommended one, although  I’m lacking real life experience with this as we speak (Jan 2012)) is that this retention policy actually moves files out of the SharePoint SQL database into another system. Like a tape or a BLOB. There are tools available on the market where you can do storage optimization and create rules that will move documents (or versions of documents) to a BLOB. So you offload these document from the underlying SQL database to alternate tiers of storage like a SAN. This will benefit the sizes and numbers of content database, but it is also a good thing for search and indexing. If you can keep the relevant content in your content databases lower, by off loading these files to BLOB, the overall performance of your database will not decrease (or decrease less) compared to when you keep all these files in the database.

Delivering Business value or loosing control over disk space capacity?

My point of view is that these solutions provide value to business users. Even though IT people will most probably freak out on the thought about not defining a quota, when you define the technical governance correctly and have the proper tools (like Docave Storage Manager from AvePoint  and Storagepoint from Metalogix) you’ll be able to provide a trustworthy solution.
Defining and configuring site collection quota requires less effort then defining  enterprise wide content types, retention policies combined with offloading the SQL server.
But I think it is worth it.

 

BIWUG is hosting an interesting evening on SharePoint 2010 Multilingual User Interface.

I also heard from the president of the BIWUG  that the #SharePint will be organized with actually pints :-)
So no #ShareCola or #ShareMinutemaid but actually real Belgian beer, hence a real #SharePint!

Doing a SharePoint project in a multilingual environment can be tricky. In this BIWUG session we will focus on how the new MUI (Multilingual User Interface) allows for multilingual collaboration scenarios.  We will show you how MUI and the SharePoint variations framework relate to each other.  Next to showing the out of the box features we will do a deep dive for developers explaining how to use the MUI framework in SharePoint custom solutions. The session will wrap up with some best practices and pitfalls as well as a round the table discussion to exchange ideas. 

<Update>

I heard there are some books that need a new owners. #bookGivaAway with special thanks to WROX.

</Update>

Agenda:

18:00-18:30 – Welcome and snacks

18:30-19:30 – SharePoint MUI – Part I  (Speakers: Andy Van Steenbergen & Joris Poelmans)
19:30-19:45 – Break
19:45:20:45 – SharePoint MUI – Part II  (Speakers: Andy Van Steenbergen & Joris Poelmans)
20:45 – … SharePint!

I hope to meet and greet you all there.
You can use the link here under to register.

 

On Thursday October 27th BIWUG organizes an evening full with great information. I’ll be a part of that, speaking about SharePoint Governance. Or we can also call it Governance for SharePoint. I’ll also participate in the second part of the evening where we’ll talk about the past, the present and the future of BIWUG. Oh yes, for the record, the third part of that evening will also involve some me, but in the form of attending and trying to get a good conversation and meeting great people at the #SharePint.

During this session I want to give the attendees a different view on Governance. Most probably (and hopefully) a view they didn’t thought at before. Yes, I’m talking about the softer side of a SharePoint deployment.

This is the sessions abstract : Stop thinking about features features features when talking about governance. When designing governance for a SharePoint implementation, a lot (not to say all) energy and words go out to technical stuff, SLA’s and not to the things that define the business value. And the business value is not only a perfect technically tuned and performant SharePoint farm (if that even exists).

This evening will start at 18:00 in the offices of Microsoft (Leonardo Davincilaan 3 , 1935 Zaventem).
If you are interested in this session and haven’t subscribed yet, it can get tough to get in. 74 people already registered for this session and it’s sold out.

 

Business case:
We have a document library with files. These files all have specific files level permission. A user can only see files (s)he is allowed to see, and the permission level changes during a workflow. When the document get the status finished, a workflow will remove the contribute right for the contributors and set a read permission for these users. There are also about 30 metadata columns. Some of these columns are just status fields used in a workflow, other ones (about 22) are actual properties of this document.
The library is used to collaborate on files that have a limited time span. When the documents are finished and the responsible people have approved them, they need to be move to a archive.

There are 2 easy ways to do this. (I only discuss solutions without having access to a console on the server to execute STSADM command, nor use solutions that required Visual Studio). Besides these 2 options, you could also execute an STSADM –export of write custom code.

1. Create a template from your library with content
2. Create a template from your library without content and move the content using explorer view.

Method one has some restrictions and side-effects. First, the content of the library cannot be more than 10 MB. This limit is in most cases very restrictive, and therefore not the best solution. Also, you can do this only once, since every year the content will change, and you might not want the have a document library template in your template gallery for every year.
You can change the maximum value (10 MB limit) via “stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname max-template-document-size –propertyvalue xxxxxx” (xxx being the size in bytes). But hen again, (power)users don’t have acess to the console, so I don’t consider this an option.
We would also have an issue with the item level security since item level security is not maintained in a template.

The second solution is in my opinion a better, more flexible and stable solution.

1. Create a template from your library using this procedure:

Settings > Document library Settings > Save document library as template
Under the Permissions and Management > Save document library as template

Fill in File name, a Template name and a description for your template, and don’t select Include content. The Template name is the name that will appear when your want to create a document library.

That’s all for the creation of a document library template. This template will now be available when you create a new library or list and appears in the List Template Gallery at http://mySharePointSiteURL/_catalogs/lt/Forms/AllItems.aspx

1. Create a library based on the new template

The next step is to create a new library based on the template we you created in step 1

In the Quick Launch, click on View All Site Content (or click on Site Actions/View all Site content). This will direct you to the /_layouts/viewlsts.aspx page and shows and overview of all Libraries and lists in your site.

Click create and select the templatename (the one you created in step 1).
Fill in the Name and description and other information.
Once this library is created, validate that all columns exist. (via Document Library settings)

Open the newly created library in Windows Explorer View and open the document library with the source in Explorer view

Then select the documents that you want to move, (using Shift or CTRL and click the documents) and drag them to the destination library.

That’s it.

 

I was working on a workflow that assigns a unique approval number to an approved item. Despite the fact I made this workflow using Nintex, it is possible to create this workflow with SharePoint Designer (using the calculate function)

Requirements:
We have a list, where users can fill in a request to increase the quota of their site. The governance has decided that the IT department is responsible for the capacity, hence they need to be the approver of this request.
When a request has been approved, it should receive a unique approval number. The rest of the process is not relevant for this blog post.

Solution:
By using a combination of the ‘created date’ and the list item ID we can create a unique number. It was not required to use sequential number (was even preferred not to do this)

Setup:
In the custom list there are a lot of columns, but these are the once I have used to calculate a unique value for the approval number

Workflow variables:

ApprovalCalc : Text
ApprovalNumber: Number

Actions

In Nintex I created a Math Operation. It is configured to do “(Listlookup Current Item Approvalpart1) + (Listlookup Current Item ID)”.
This will result in having a number that is formed by  the number of days of the creation date (based on December 31 1899 being value 1) added with the itemID.
This value will be stored in the ApprovalCalc variable.
Then we have a build dynamic string action that build a string “STS- {WorkflowVariable:ApprovalCalc} and stored this value in the ApprovalNumber variable. (IT people wanted to have a prefix STS-).
The next action updates a list item called Approval_Number with the value of the ApprovalNumber variable and then other actions like sending emails and creating tasks is executed.

 

I wrote a post about how to use the workflow status in another workflow or in a view.
When I was changing views on a custom workflow that was created by Nintex I ran into issues.  I wanted to display all items were the workflow was not Approved. So as a logical next step, I would just need to change my view and filter on the status (filter on “is not equal 16″).  But this didn’t work. It showed all items, even the ones that were approved.

I then edited the list in Datasheet and found out that Nintex is using other numbers then SharePoint (or the Workflow Foundation) does.

Apparently Nintex uses these status indicators:

 

In this article I will explain you how you can add a Google or Bing map to your Collaboration site. Actually, you can use this for all kinds of sources.
Prerequisite: You need to have Site Owner rights to modify pages (adding web parts)

1. The first thing you need to do is to add a Content Editor WebPart
   
2. Click on Site Actions and then on Edit Page
   

1. Select the Web Part zone where you want to display the map
   
2. Scroll down to the Miscellaneous section and select the Content Editor Web Part and press ADD
   
3. Then click on the Edit / Modify Shared Web Part
   
   
4. In the right part of your screen the you’ll see the Content Editor Web Part details. You can set your own title in the title field under Appearance. Now you have to copy the code of your google/bing map into the webPart. Click on Source Editor and the editor will popup.
   
5. Paste your source (which you can find somewhere on the google of bing page (mostly under embed in website) Copy the HTML code
   1. For Google :
      
   2. For Bing:
      

You can of course customize your map by clicking the customize and preview link.

1. Paste the HTML code in the Editor and click on Save
   
   
2. Then depending on ‘where’ you created this page, you need to click on Exit Edit mode in the right corner (under Site Actions) or Check in and Share Draft on the top of the page

Note: If you are doing this from within a HTTPS site, you will get a popup when you access this page to inform you that some information that is displayed isn’t secure and it will ask to display the secure data. If you select yes here, the map will be displayed, of you choose no, it won’t be displayed.

 

A new year, which has already been there for about 3 weeks, now gives me the opportunity to set some goals. While you could also do this on another date, the New Year seems to be the perfect timing for New years resolutions.

I didn’t document my shipping list for 2010 so I can’t do a retrospective, but I’ll not make that mistake twice. So for all my loved ones, all people that know me, and also all readers of my blog I will have a shipping list for 2011. But it will be a SMART Shipping List. SMART stands for

While I know not my whole shipping list will be SMART, I’ll try to create an as SMART as possible list.

Participate more in the SharePoint Community

By creating blog posts, tweeting, present at the BIWUG. This is a continuous process and is easily measurable by the number of blog posts and presentations I delivered. I would like to present the first time at the BIWUG before the summer holiday.

Find and have more peace of mind.

While I understand and realize this is a really difficult objective, I have put it on the SSL. I would really like to have more peace of mind, and need to rebalance my work life with my family life. This will not be easy since I will participate more in the community and insist on participate more in my family life. I’ll know when I have more peace of mind when I’m more relaxed, happy in life and not too stressed. And I would like to reach this by what I will (try to) ship in 2011 Valentine’s Day.

Lose some weight and do more sport.

I would like to weight around 73 to 74 kg again (that’s about 161 lb). My current weight is around 76 kg (167.5 lb) now. To get that result I’ll eat healthier and will start running again. This year will not be a marathon-running year, but I would like to set a good time for 10 km (6.2 Miles) by September. And that good time would be around 50 minutes.

Get certified CMAS 2* diver

There is a relation with the previous objective and this one. Although you don’t need a real good condition, I see that if I look at a lot of other scuba divers, I’m pretty sure that it will help. My target date to have the certification is September, but I must assure myself that I’m a 2* worthy before summer holidays.

Read more books.

This year I would like to read 1 book every 3 weeks. I might read more, at least that’s what I hope, but I set the limit of 1 book per 3 weeks to have a achievable objective. I consider audiobooks also as a book and since commute quite a lot (about 3 times a week for 2,5 hours), this seems like an achievable target.

Do a SharePoint 2010 project.

While I’m working on a very interesting project at this time (preparing the global deployment and starting up SharePoint governance) in the chemical sector, I would like to do a SharePoint 2010 project. The timeline is very clear, it has to be this year, and I mean to start it, not to deliver it.

Get back on the GTD train, be more productive.

While I am convinced that GTD (Getting Things Done®) is a very good system to manage my actions, I fall of the train regularly. This year should be the year that I stay on board and actually become a good GTD practitioner. I’ll do my best to stay on board by rigorously do my weekly review since I discovered this is my weak point. I’ll perform the weekly review every Friday after lunch. A part of this weekly review is cleaning up inboxes, so an extra sub-objective is to achieve on a regular base #inboxzero.

 Use Bing as a default search engine.

While Google rocked for ages, Bing seems to be a good alternative. So starting this week, I am using Bing as my default search engine. I will force myself to use Bing for at least 1 month.

 

Since it is almost Christmas I decided to create a reading list to inspire people, and to have a quick overview of available reading material on SharePoint 2010 and related product. So if you’re partner is into SharePoint, you might find a last minute Christmas present in this list.

I have organized the books in 3 levels. The fist one are books for non-developers and non IT-PRO. They are high level SharePoint, organizational or quit generic. The second one are books for IT-PRO’s, and the third one are books for (power)users of SharePoint but also related software like Office 2010 and Infopath. I don’t have a chapter dedicated to development books, since I don’t know really much about development, hence I can’t add these kinds of books to my ‘wish list’.

SharePoint books for non-developers or IT-PRO’s

SharePoint books for IT-PRO’s

SharePoint 2010 and related products for the (power)user

 

Some of you readers were fortunate to attend Tech-Ed Europe last week in Berlin (8-12th November 2010), others, like me, did not had the opportunity to attend. I consider Tech-Ed as a broad-based conference, while I (try) to focus on SharePoint only. So you’ll rather find me attending a SharePoint only conference like the European Best Practices SharePoint Conference, which is hosted by Combined Knowledge in London from April 11th-13th 2011. I’m also really interested in attending SharePoint Conference 2011 hosted by Microsoft on Anaheim, CA on October 3rd-6th 2011.

Anyway, for everybody who didn’t attend Tech-Ed Europe, or who would like to see sessions (s)he didn’t follow, there a lot of presentations and sessions available online at the Tech-Ed website.

SharePoint and Office specific presentations can be found via this link : http://www.msteched.com/2010/Europe/Tracks/OfficeSharePoint

Or an overview of all sessions : http://www.msteched.com/2010/Europe/Browse

Have fun watching these presentations and I hope you learn some things :-)