FlyView - SharePoint Site Menu And Navigation Tool

Introducing FlyView for SharePoint Online, 2016, 2013, 2010 and 2007

I like to introduce one of the SharePoint tools I have been working on lately, for SharePoint Online, 2013, 2010 and 2007.  A tool that is designed to improve SharePoint user experience.

A SharePoint user would know what this phrase means 'Working on it...'. It means the time it takes for us to browse through the layers of SharePoint sites, libraries and folders of our SharePoint intranet and team sites and discover SharePoint content.

The SharePoint User Experience - Today

The present SharePoint experience involves a lot of page loads and as such delivers a 'Stop n Go' user experience. No doubt Microsoft have improved their SharePoint products a lot and in the world of collaboration they stand out form the crowd, however SharePoint users often complain about the difficulties in exploring and discovering SharePoint content. So much so sometimes it is said if you want to hide something then store it in SharePoint. Definitely it is not that it is due to SharePoint product design. In part it could be because of a number of factors such as bad governance, inefficient information architecture, lack of processes and standards, SharePoint search not properly configured etc. However yes, to some extent the problem exacerbate due to the way SharePoint offers the user to navigate the sites, click by click, page loads by page loads.

Furthermore the absence of breadcrumb menu in SharePoint Online and SharePoint 2013 (even limitations with SharePoint 2010) doesn't help either. Often you find yourself lost, not knowing where exactly you are, how did you arrive here and how to get out of here.

Result:

Whatever could be the reason, in the end it is the end users who suffer. They love SharePoint but complain about the user experience, delivering a kind of love-hate User-SharePoint relationship.

Solution: FlyView for SharePoint, a lightning fast SharePoint Site menu

I decided to give it a try, with one of my best friend, and ended up with developing FlyView for SharePoint. We wanted to bring back the true love of SharePoint to its users. Researching and creating a product (in an evolutionary way that took about two years of product development and refinement including failures :) ) that would address the navigation challenges in SharePoint in an intuitive way. I humbly hope it would genuinely help the SharePoint users in getting most out of it.

So what is it?

It is a chrome web browser extension for SharePoint that you can add to your browser in seconds. FlyView detects when you visit a SharePoint intranet or team site (where you need to authenticate) and adds a self hiding Site menu nav bar on the top of the site as an overlay.

Now as you move your mouse on this nav bar it reveals it's self expanding menu and sub menus. You are essentially gliding through the SharePoint site structure. Your landing page doesn't change and you see everything that you are allowed to in FlyView, your focus is on the structure and files/documents. It significantly reduces the page loads and thus optimise the network bandwidth too.

See FlyView in Action here

Any concerns?

You do not need to install anything on the server or the desktop (apart from the chrome extension). It is developer in pure javascript and can only perform the actions on your behalf. That is if you are not allowed to do something then FlyView couldn't either. Also it is a ready only tool that reads the site structure and helps you navigate the site very fast.

Testimonials and Feedbacks:

I personally use it and a big fan of it. I can see it has increased my productivity where I spend less time in discovering SharePoint content and more time in consuming the knowledge.

In a short period of time we now have over 600 users and have received some great user feedback (see on chromestore) which is very encouraging and enable me to keep moving forward.

What's Next?

A server version and a SharePoint Online app is on it's way which will enable the organisations to deploy it once and have it available in all major browsers including Internet Explorer and on mobile devices such as IPads. The users will not have to install anything as it will be installed on the server.

Additionally soon I will be releasing the History and Favorites features (Feb 2016) which will further improve the speed with you which you could navigate the SharePoint sites and libraries.

Follow us on twitter for the updates : Aurorabits
Visit our website: www.aurorabits.com 

Microsoft Azure Dev Camp - Australia Oct 2014

Microsoft is running Dev camps in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on the following dates

Sydney

10 October 2014 – Register

11 October 2014 – Register

Brisbane

31 October 2014 – Register

1 November 2014 – Register

Melbourne

21 November 2014 – Register

22 November 2014 – Register

From the program details it looks to be an interesting event for all those interested in Microsoft Azure platform

"At this Cloud Dev Camp you will learn how to use the new Microsoft Azure features and services including Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines, Websites, and Visual Studio 2013 to build and move a variety of apps to the cloud.  You will see how to build websites, mobile applications, and enterprise-class applications. The Microsoft Cloud Dev Camp is a great place to get started with Microsoft Azure development or to learn what’s new with the latest Microsoft Azure features."

For more details check Microsoft Azure Dev Camp Oct 2014 Australia

Fixing sql server 2012 edition upgrade failed error on azure with SharePoint 2013

Issue:
I was facing an error "sql server 2012 edition upgrade failed" while trying to setup a SharePoint 2013 farm on a virtual machine in Windows Azure cloud. It would fail when I run the Complete SQL 2012 setup wizard. I followed this article  http://blog.appliedis.com/2013/10/17/sharepoint-2013-in-azure-a-dev-environment-in-15-minutes-or-less to setup the farm and the domain.

Cause:
The article was written for an older image of the server  however, I believe the issue is with the latest server image (at the time of writing this) "Visual Studio Professional 2013 Update 3 Windows Server 2012"that I selected. Although it suggests you can run the vm for six months in evaluation mode but SQL server setup would fail if you try to setup the sql instance with  'evaluation' license selected. Also didn't get much help from the Microsoft server setup guides pre-stored on the VM, I think they are outdated now.

FIX:

Anyways, I thought to use the SQL Server 2012 key from my msdn ultimate subscription ( The key was not available directly and  had to download SQL server 2012 Standard x64 edition  iso image). I downloaded the image directly on the azure server from msdn. I then tried to do the edition upgrade by running the SQL setup from the downloaded iso, edition upgrade was successful but 'Complete SQL server 2012.." wizard would still fail. Tried to setup the whole new sql using the msdn version but it failed too.

Then the last attempt was to run the SQL setup (SQL Server installation centre) from msdn ver, copied the product key from there (Edition upgrade option), ran the 'complete sql server 2012..' wizard (from the very intuitive windows 2012 UI, huh..) and used the key instead of selecting evaluation license.
It worked!

After finishing up SQL setup ran the script ConfigureSharePointFarmInDomain.ps1 and it worked like a charm!
Hope it helps someone as this 15 minute setup took about 4-5 hours of my time (while repeatedly saying why Microsoft why!).

PS: Do you experience degraded performance on Azure VMs? right now running my azure VM with 8 cores and 14GB RAM but I feel my local VM with 4 cores and 5GB RAM performs better than the Azure vm.

Update: I checked with Mitch Denny and acknowledged that he himself had experienced the same and explained the reason is that (which logically makes sense) not all the datacenters have the same/latest hardware, some have got older CPUs etc and it takes time for Microsoft to upgrade the hardware. This is a bit bizarre though as you would pay the same amount but you may get sub par performance form the data-centre closer to you. Furthermore it is an issue in sizing the environment (definitely an issue when I find my 3 years old 4 core 8gig local VM outperforms an azure VM with 8 cores and 14GB ram in Microsoft's Southeast Asia's datacenter). Personally I think there are other contributing factors too like efficiency of Azure in virtualising the hardware for the hosts.

SharePoint 2010 - Two different Ampersand character symbols

It might be something trivial but it just ate a couple of hours of my time while debugging my SharePoint code. I thought to share it with others in case someone will be struggling with the same issue.
My code was failing to do a successful comparison between two similar looking strings.
I was trying to match the Taxonomy terms to find a matching term. The following value comparison might look equal but looking it closely you would say there is a bit of difference

Nut & Fruit = Nut ＆ Fruit

The two ampersand characters are different, the one on the left was from the termset, while the one on the right from a single text field in a list. Anyways the resolution was simple, just update the termset with the standard character '&'

A quick resolution was to slightly modify my code to take care of this special scenario

 if (termVlaue.Contains("&") && term.Name.Contains("＆"))
                    {
                        if (term.Name.Replace("＆", "&").Equals(termVlaue))
                            return term;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        if (term.Name.Equals(termVlaue))
                            return term;
                    }

SharePoint 2010/2013: System.IO.FileNotFoundException on setting master page

If you are trying to set a master page to your newly create or imported site through code and getting the following error
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: The file{path}.master/ does not exist.  
at Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime

then try this in your code: [some sites suggested to use {subsite}.ServerRelativeUrl but it won’t work for the sitecollections under multi-level managed paths, so it is safer to use the sitecollection object].

newSubWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
newSubWeb.CustomMasterUrl = newSubWeb.Site.ServerRelativeUrl + "/_catalogs/masterpage/{mymaster}.master";
newSubWeb.MasterUrl = newSubWeb.Site.ServerRelativeUrl + "/_catalogs/masterpage/{mymaster}.master";
  newSubWeb.Update();
powershell script for any further troubleshooting:
$web = Get-SPWeb "http://{subsitepath}"
$web.MasterUrl = "/{sitecollectionpath}/_catalogs/masterpage/{masterpage.master}/"
$web.CustomMasterUrl = "/{sitecollectionpath}/_catalogs/masterpage/{masterpage.master}/"
$web.Update()
$web.MasterUrl
$web.CustomMasterUrl
$web.Dispose()
hope it would save someone else’s time.                               

Installing SharePoint 2010 on Windows 2008 R2 using AutoSPInstaller – Lessons learned

(Note: The issues might be fixed with post-Mar 2013 releases of SP 2010 and/or AutoSPInstaller)

1. Known Issues and Resolution

1.1 Input XML file should have the name of the current server

If you are running the autospinstaller scripts one by one on the servers then ensure you have the server name specified at least once, with a search role, in search service application configuration section. This is a bug in the scripts, even if you have disabled the search service application it will still go inside the search section and will abort if doesn’t find the name of the server there
.

1.2 Rerun PowerShell if it fails after installation and before running the configuration

There is a known issue where the powershell will halt after installing SharePoint and before configuring the farm. The resolution is simple and straight forward. Rerunning the ‘AutoSPInstallerLaunch.bat’ will resolve the issue and execute the remaining configuration steps.

1.3 Create search services manually

If the installation scripts fail to create the search service application then create the service manually. If for some reasons the search service application cannot be created and gives errors then one possible resolution could be detaching the server from the farm and deleting the farm databases (worked for us).
1. Step 1: Run the powershell command psconfig –cmd configdb –disconnect
2. Step 2: Using SQL Management studio, delete all of the SharePoint databases.
Ref here for more details: http://www.scottjamison.com/blog/2009/12/rebuilding-your-sharepoint-2010-farm/
 

1.4 Fix windows security token service. Remove and add the server

If ‘Claims to Windows Token Service’ fails to stop/start properly then try the following
1. Find the service instances running on the farm
2. Identify the ID of the service instance of the ‘Claims to Windows Token Service’.
3. Attempt to stop it
a. Get-SPServiceInstance -Identity IDHere | Stop-SPServiceInstance
4. If it fails to stop then attempt to delete the service instance
a. $badjob = Get-SPTimerJob | where {$_.name -like "job-service-instance-IdHere"}
b. $badjob.delete()
c. Restart timer service
d. Attempt to stop the service again through powershell
5. If the above does not work then the other option is to remove the server from the farm and add it back

a. Login to the server using the Install account where the service is failing

b. Run the SharePoint 2010 Configuration wizard and remove the server from the farm

c. Verify the sites and app pools have been deleted from the server

d. Login back to the server and rerun the SharePoint 2010 configuration wizard

e. Add the server to the farm again

f. Finish the SharePoint and the Farm configuration wizards

g. Verify the server has been added back to the farm

h. Verify the service can now be stopped and restarted.

 

1.5 Error Adding Index or Crawl Components

There is a possibility that SharePoint central admin will be stuck at adding an additional crawl or query component. In order to resolve this issue simply restart the SharePoint 2010 Timer Service and SharePoint 2010 Farm Administration Services and then try again

Installing SharePoint 2013 on Windows 2012 – Lessons learned

I have recently installed and configured a 3 server SP 2013 farm in in azure cloud. Like to share some lessons that I learned  (Note: The issues might be fixed post Mar-2013 releases of SP 2013 and Autospinstaller)
The key lessons learned
1. AutoSPSourceBuilder should not be used for SP 2013 to prepare the binaries (slipstreamed). It caused issues both in win 2013 and win 2008 R2 env with SP 2013. So manually copy the SP 2013 files to the SharePoint folder (and do not include cu Dec 2012, you can install later)
2. AutoSPinstaller on win 2012 doesn't install the required pre-requisites and configure the server properly, instead (I am going to test with) use the scripts from here first http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/DownloadInstall-SharePoint-e6df9eb8 and then run AutoSPinstaller

Introduction To Nintex Workflows and Forms 2010

I have recently attended a 3-day training ‘Introduction to Nintex’ and thought to share what I learnt, I have created a mindmap, it was easier to do this then writing an article and i think it would be easier for you to read too. (click the image below to view it in full-size)

Update: Besides Nintex Forms, I have posted another review blog post on KwizCom Forms,as infopath forms alternative 

Nintex workflows and Forms - 2010

 

 

What

Main features

• A SharePoint integrated workflow tool

• Offers a visual WF Designer with ootb 130 actions, a form designer, cloud based Nintex Live services visual workflow monitoring

• Out of the box workflow actions, inlcude actions for sql, web services, MS CRM, AD etc

Key Components

Workflow Designer

• Visually design workflows that are attached to 'content types, sites, lists & libraries

• support for single value and collectional variables

• supports reusability through workflow templates, action snippets, action sets and user defined actions,

Forms Designer

• Develop forms that are integrated with list/libraries

• Develop forms for famous mobile phones/tablets using out of the box layouts

• Publish the form on Nintex Live to make them available through internet

Nintex Live (cloud services)

• Set of specialised Nintex services that can be integrated with your workflows

• It is like a 'service store' where free/trial/paid services are being added

• Some example of currently available services are translation, EMail verification, Sms, audio conversion tools, weather, news, facebook posts, twits, amazon ec2 services, dropbox/bing/google-drive/sky-drive services, office 365 services

• make nintex forms accessible from mobile devices/tablets

Licensing Costs (approx, needs verification)

• Workflow standard: $10,000 / WFE . $15,000/wfe for enterprise

• Nintex Live is included with all versions of Nintex Workflow 2010 and Nintex Forms 2010 •Nintex Live requires a Software Assurance subscription

• Nintex Forms 2010: seaprate license is required

• $3000 / server support costs

Why

• next step from out of the box SharePoint Designer workflows

• Easy to use, fully integrated with SharePoint (features, ribbon menu )

• Visual designer with visual flow monitoring

• Nintex Live cloud services

• 130+ actions plus for/if-then controls can automate a lot more than just workflows. can be used to avoid developing custom even handlers to perform actions like delete a list item on create etc

• 130+ actions plus for/if-then controls plus scheduling options can help in implementing timer job functions without any coding

• connect.nintex.com with high user participation. 60,310 users have contributed to 23,766 threads and 25,429 posts.

Limitations

• Expensive for farm with multiple WFEs, may costs close to K2 Blackpearl costs

• Sometime workflow won't work for no apparent reasons and you will have to find some workarounds (this is what was expereinced during the training)

• No workflow debugging, you have to rely on notifications (old js days) or uls logs (out of the box log entries, you cannot add your own)

• Does not support calling web services asynchronously

Resources

http://connect.nintex.com/ Nintex Connect allows you to discuss technical issues related to Nintex products , to ask questions, to share answers and to provide feedback. It also gives access to our Nintex product knowledge base (for Software Assurance customers), learning materials, whitepapers and RSS feeds.

SharePoint 2010 | Office 2010- Live Launch event on May 12

From Microsoft Official Sharepoint Site

Watch Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division, announce the launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 on May 12, 2010 at 11 a.m. EST. The live keynote focuses on the next wave of productivity that delivers:

• End user productivity across the PC, phone and browser
• IT choice and flexibility
• A platform for developers to build innovative solutions

Join the virtual launch event with Microsoft executives, product developers, partners and customers to:

• Find out how peers and partners are already seeing benefits to their business by leveraging the next wave of productivity.
• Submit your questions through live Q&A.
• Participate via blogs, tweets, social media networks, commenting, and more.

View on-demand breakout sessions showing how Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 meet the unique challenges people and businesses are faced with today, and provide the solutions they need for tomorrow.
Save the Date: Microsoft Office + SahrePoint Launch Event
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