Digicon Corporation Blog

Fix for Drop-down Menus Hidden Behind Flash

2010-12-10T09:58:00.000-08:00

Recently, for the second time in my career, I was confronted with the problem of drop-down menus hiding behind a Flash element of a web page. Just Google "drop-down menus hidden behind Flash", and you'll discover that this is a widespread problem. Requests from developers begging for solutions abound throughout the web. But the standard suggestions to increase the z-index of the navigation div, or to specify the wmode value as "transparent" in the Flash object and/or embed tag, do not always work.

Here's what does! Use CSS to dictate the placement of the navigation div and the Flash div. Then, in the code view of your software, drag the code of the Flash div above the code of the navigation div. Because browsers load pages from top to bottom, this trick will cause browsers to load the flash first, and the navigation second. But your CSS styles will force the placement of the elements properly on the rendered web page with the navigation positioned above the Flash.

Social Computing in a Business Environment

2010-11-18T06:36:00.000-08:00

I have presented on Social Computing in a Business Environment a couple times at SharePoint Saturdays. During the presentations, I find that the biggest challenge in organizations is not the fact that the technology can’t support it, but how the business executives support it (or fight it). So, I thought it was time to bring it to the forefront.

What is Social Computing?

The dictionary states “Social Computing is a general term for an area of computer science that is concerned with the intersection of social behavior and computations systems”. For those of us that don’t speak dictionary, social computing is using computers to perform normally social conversations. Basically, it is computerizing the water cooler, suggestion box, vendor lunches, user groups, customer forums, and the news. Some social computing examples include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GovLoop, MySpace, FourSquare, AdultFriendFinder, Match.com, and many other WebsitesThatMashNamesTogether.

After mentioning AdultFriendFinder I often hear the room make a hushed “huh?” sound. Right, AdultFriendFinder, Match.com, eHarmony and Yahoo Personals are all social networks and when businesses are approaching policies and decisions with social computing, this has to be taken into account.

It is not just the website though; you also need to concern yourself with the media. With mobility becoming not only another means to market your website, but to connect to other sites using mobile applications, a company needs to keep this small fact into account… 90% of the population of the United States owns a mobile phone. According to Wikipedia (the master source of all statistical information sarcasm) 285 Million mobile phones were in use in the United States in December 2009. Nearly all of those phones have the ability to either text, surf the web, and/or receive email. Social Computing is another piece of this puzzle…the forgotten piece. By using the smartphone, a user can instantaneously publish news as it happens to the web. You could be taking video of a car crash involving the CTO of your company one minute and the next minute the stock of your company has tanked due to uncertainty of the CTO’s condition.

On the other hand, an employee may use the suggestion box for an idea that makes millions of dollars in revenue by making a simple change in one process.

What are the Advantages?

Of course there is the logical choice of free marketing. Does it really make a difference though? Gartner thinks so. In the November 2009 paper “The Business Impact of Social Computing: Real-World Results for Customer Engagement” they highlight three cases where social media increased customer engagement and product or service utilization. Keeping in mind the rule of threes, it makes sense to use more than one way to communicate and retain current and potential customers.

Customers are looking for the experts. Providing expert advice through customer communications provides your customers with the proper guidance while making you the expert if that field. On the other hand, receiving expert advice through social computing is also a huge advantage. If you have an issue with your car, you have a choice of asking your techno-wizard friend who also repairs his own car, or you can post a query on 2carpros.com and have a certified technician guide you in the right direction.

Market research and discussing the market trends help business better understand the target audience as well as see where the competition is heading. Competitor’s information can make or break winning business. An example of this is the transition of Chevy Chase Bank to Capital One Bank. During the “big change”, Capital One converted over the website normally used to a completely new site. This directly affects any supporting applications such as Mint.com which you may use for money management. They also changed how the secondary security worked but change it from a PIN to letter authentication to a “what is the name of your mother’s child’s dog’s name when you were 2 years old”? By using and watching social media to receive customer intel, Capital One tried to alleviate many of the customer’s angst, but when all was said and done, the issues still existed.

In response and by watching social media, M&T Bank began marketing heavily using the weaknesses of the Capital One transition as part of the marketing tool.

The customer can affect not only your existing and future business, but they can also change the direction of the company. One case in point is a company called SWSoft. SWSoft started as a small software development company that created control panel software for application and server hosting providers. The company made small technological changes to adjust for the constantly changing need of hosting providers. However, a customer suggested virtualization software for the Mac, SWSoft took the charge and ran with it. Within days, the software was created and presented to Apple for approval. Since then, SWSoft changed the company name to reflect the extreme success of the Parallels software.

Recruiting has always used social computing to a point. But with the addition of LinkedIn and Spoke, recruiting has also taken on a new look. Anymore, the operative way to find people is by performing LinkedIn searches for the right person in the right location. But new constrictions for recruiting include requirements to have at least 3 recommendations in their profile. Sales people are often required to have 500+ connections before being considered for hire.

There are more advantages to using social networking, but the real question comes down to whether or not it is worth it. It really depends on your approach and your product or service being promoted.

What are the Pitfalls?

Much in the same way you wouldn’t want your second cousin to put words in your mouth, companies are extremely wary of having individuals make improper corporate statements. This can place the company at risk for a law suit. But sometimes a law suit is the easy way out. Companies have died from statements to the press and within the community. It is the most complicated aspect of the business world…the separation of personal and business life.

Pitfall #1: Incorrect “Expert” Information. “We just closed a deal with Wal-Mart” can be a deadly statement even if it is true. If the contract has not been signed and someone makes this statement is problem number one. Even if the contract is signed, Wal-Mart may have a clause in the contract stating you cannot make such an announcement. Add to this the fact that by making such a statement you could artificially push your stock price up would be a SEC issue. Once you pushed the stock price up and the real announcement was about to be released that the “Wal-Mart deal” was for the light bulbs in a section of a single Wal-Mart store, there is a sudden whoosh sound as the men with uniforms take you off in an orange jumpsuit to match the one Martha Stewart had.

Pitfall #2: Political Views. If you are often representing the company as the expert in SharePoint uses for business and you decide to write a blog entry about how you support the Libertarian party and the candidate running for office in your home town, you have a strong chance of alienating the Democrats, Republicans, and Green party people that regularly track your movements and listen to you advice in business. There are 3 things that should never be discussed in a business environment (unless that is your business): Politics, Religion, and Sex.

Pitfall #3: Religious Views. Even stating you are agnostic can be deadly for business. Making statements about religion, or even commenting on what is happening globally can be perceived as an insult. Lastly, and this one is most often missed, by just using the word “bless” you are inferring a religious context.

Pitfall #4: Global Commentary. In the late 1993, I went to the hardware store to pick up some supplies and in the middle of the store, an man was discussing the deaths of the Navaho people due to what he believed was the “filth the savages were living in” and that he if they can’t manage to bathe, then that is what happens. I am Native American and took this as an attack directly. I promptly walked up to him and asked to see the store manager. After being escorted (by him) to the office I promptly launched into a dissertation on how ignorant he was about the Hantavirus and how his loudly expressed opinion on the “filth the savages were living in” is the one reason I will never shop in the store again. I then addressed the manager and informed him that the customer service runs in tens. “I will promptly walk out of here and tell at least 20 people about my experience which will likely disseminate to 10 others. I am but one person that has brought this to your attention. For every one person that complains, there are ten that do not. So let’s count this up real fast. If nine other people have not complained and they told their story which went to 30 people each, you have the strong potential of losing 310 customers.” One year later, the hardware store was closed.

Pitfall #5: “Indecent” Postings. Indecent is a word that scholars have been arguing for decades. The perception of that is different for each person. Having booth babes at the Electronics show in Las Vegas is likely to have two effects: Bring all of the geeky males over to have a chance to talk to the hot female and at the same time sell the goods they don’t necessarily need, and insult some of the women’s sensibilities. However, if a shirtless Alex O’Loughlin was standing there handing out literature on the G-15,000 ultimate gaming wizard wand with see-through electronics, there is a good chance that the women would not have a problem with it and female usage would skyrocket. To be fair, some companies are marketing with indecency and making it work. One company that has managed to pull it off is Go Daddy and the Go Daddy ads. The fact that they are proud that some of their ads cannot be aired during the Super Bowl is the appeal of the company promotion. But they tend to be the exception and not the rule.

Indecent extends beyond the statements though. If a company employee is constantly surfing AdultFriendFinder.com, this can be construed as sexual harassment for any coworkers that catch a glimpse of the screen. Additionally, if a person is in the comfort of their home and come across a coworker or a customer on a similar site, it can also create a challenge in the work place. Therefore, you really need to protect the company and define as clearly as possible how social media is handled inside and outside of the work place.

How does a company protect itself?

A company can’t really. All a company can do is create incentives to protect itself while at the same time promote itself. It is a delicate balance that cannot be easily audited and has few legal statues to support it.

To start it all off, you need to start with adding a Social Media policy to your employee handbook. If you already have a social media policy, you need to make sure everyone is trained on the policy. After asking many people if they have a policy the response is most likely a “no”. For the purposes of this paper, I have narrowed down three of the policies I have had the pleasure to shred. The first one is a strict policy that basically eliminates the use of social media.
Policy #1
It is against company policy to use any type of blog or social network for business communications.

It is against the policy to discuss anything dealing with your job to include:
• Co-workers
• Likes and dislikes of the job
• Anything products, services or customers that the company supports
• Any of the company locations

All employees are required to allow for company auditing of all social media accounts. Employees are required to disclose the user ID and social media site to human resources. Employees are required to accept all invitations and connections to their social media site from the company account.

Violations of this policy are subject to disciplinary action to include the possibility of employment termination.

As extreme as this policy may sound, it is not out of the ordinary for the 5-7% of the companies that are completely against social media. On the other hand 29% of the companies that do not believe they need a social media policy and have documented the reasoning behind it. Michael Hyatt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers states:

Your company doesn’t need a social media policy and here are five reasons why:

1. Your people can be trusted. In my experience as a leader, people pretty much do what you expect. If you expect them to be honest and trustworthy, they will be honest and trustworthy. No, I am not hopelessly naive: I know some people misbehave. But why punish the many because of the few? Deal with the exceptions as they occur. Most people will do the right thing if given the chance.

2. Social media are just one more way to communicate. I honestly don’t understand all the fuss about social media. It’s just one more way to communicate. Do you have a “phone policy”? an “email policy”? a “fax policy”? Technology is neither good nor bad. It’s what people do with it that is the issue. And honestly, I don’t care if people are updating their Facebook status “on company time.” (Is there really such a thing any more?) Instead, I prefer to focus on the results the employee delivers and let them manage their time.

3. More rules only make your company more bureaucratic. Before the election, someone asked me what my political affiliation was. I laughed and said, “I’m a Libertarian, but only because I don’t have the guts to be an anarchist.” I don’t think you can legislate morality. (That’s not to say that legislation can’t be immoral, but I digress.) You can’t come up with enough rules to guarantee that people will do the right thing. Too many rules only make your organization slower and less likely to embrace the change it needs to survive.

4. Formal policies only discourage people from participating. In my opinion, you want to encourage your people to engage in social media. Doing so puts a human face on your brand. It meets customers where they are congregating. It makes everyone an ambassador for your organization. But formal policies discourage this. They make people hesitant. No employee wants to get in trouble, so they just avoid the very thing you want (or should want) to encourage.

5. You probably already have policies that govern inappropriate behavior. This is the real kicker. You likely already have an employee handbook in place that speaks to what is appropriate and what is inappropriate. At Thomas Nelson, for example, our handbook provides various examples of “Personal Conduct Violations.” We specifically forbid:
o Insensitivity to customers
o Spreading false statements about other employees or the company
o Profanity
o Abusive language about a supervisor or co-worker
o Unauthorized release of confidential information
o Disruptive or inappropriate behavior
o Discriminating or harassing behavior towards a co-worker
o Indecent or immoral behavior

Although Michael has some valid points, it follows down the same line as cell phone usage while driving. There is already a law for inattentive driving, but to make sure it is in the forefront of everyone’s mind, laws are redefined to eliminate the ambiguity and ensure there is a clear understanding of expectations.

To come up with the middle road, it is really best for the company to determine what the priorities are. The following is a sample of a policy found on About.com (a social media site).

Policy #2

Why This Policy is Necessary

Zipline International understands that many of our employees enjoy sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm for our industry online and we encourage these activities. We also encourage employees to expand their knowledge and understanding of our industry by interacting with their colleagues online and in traditional meeting environments.

At the same time, management is responsible to protect the privacy, security and image of our company, customers and stakeholders. This policy is intended to foster an open and expressive environment while at the same time maintaining corporate security.

Private Use of Social Media, Websites and Blogs by Employees

Employees that are tasked with maintaining blogs and websites, or establishing a social media presence on behalf of the company, are guided by a separate policy addressing these responsibilities. Unless you are specifically asked to do so, you are not authorized to speak on behalf of the company. When sharing information about our industry or your area of expertise, please make it clear that your are offering your own opinions.

Non-disclosure of Confidential Information

Never reveal information that is covered by the non-disclosure agreement that you signed before coming to work at Zipline. In addition, never disclose information that has not already been made public by the company. This includes, but is not limited to, new product announcements, financial data and staffing changes. Do not use company logos or trademarks without permission.

Maintaining Positive Communications

At all times, be respectful of our company as well as its employees, customers, vendors and competitors. Remember that you are ultimately responsible for your online behavior and should avoid content or actions that are defamatory, pornographic, proprietary, harassing, libelous or threatening. You can be sued by employees, competitors or any other individuals affected by such content.

Protecting Physical and Information Security

Do not share specifics of the company's Security or Information Technology practices. In addition, never share specific information regarding the layout of our physical plant. Such details can be abused by unethical individuals to breach company security.

Policies will only take you so far when it comes to protecting the company. Having other measures in place such as network monitoring and web control device, and system policy objects can help a company limit the access to “acceptable” social media. Having access to AdultFriendFinder may not be against your social media policy. It may be against a computer use policy. Having people on Facebook all day may not be against either a social media policy OR a computer use policy…but it isn’t necessarily productive. Having web control devices helps control access time and web site access to social media sites.

What are Easy Ways to Promote Social Computing?

I am going to start with what I know best…SharePoint. SharePoint is a portal capable of not only collaboration and document sharing, but it also takes social computing to the next level. SharePoint 2010 specifically includes a feature called My Site which allows for individual customization of how information is displayed. For example, through My Content, I am able to display document libraries most important to me from my business portal, and have my Twitter and Blog feed into the page as well.

With newsfeeds, I am able to have the RSS feeds from the site I monitor that directly affect me such as Microsoft SharePoint blog, and I am able to track my tagged features in my business portal.

Tagging and Notes are an additional feature in SharePoint 2010 that allow for people to tag content in accordance with the relevance they feel it deserves. It is much like a peer review of the value of the document.

Blogs are built into SharePoint as a template and are easy to deploy. Discussion boards and suggestion boxes are web part components that are added to any page within the SharePoint environment.

As an added bonus, the auditing feature allows for you to control where you social networks are connecting through. By adding web parts for social media such as the Facebook Kit for SharePoint, the SharePoint to LinkedIn Connector, or the TwitterPublicTimeline web part, companies are able to limit access to a single location instead of the entire corporate network. Auditing ensures you can track how often pages are being hit.

SharePoint Saturday Richmond

2010-11-18T06:15:00.000-08:00

Here comes another SharePoint Saturday!

SharePoint Saturday is one of the best community building and learning environments out there. I say this not only because I try to be a part of it, but because the presenters really want to help people understand and learn the technology. Of course, you could go out there and pay between $900 and $3000 for a 2 day - 5 day conference and training session, but those same speakers are very likely going to be giving their time and money to present at SharePoint Saturday as well.

For example, one of the best presenters out there is Dux Raymond Sy. He is a prolifent speaker and is often presenting at the other conferences such as SharePoint Symposium, Best Practices Conference and more. He will gladly hop on a plane and travel to San Ramon, California or Kansas City, Missouri to present for free at a SharePoint Saturday.

But who pays for the SharePoint Saturday to take place? The vendors...and they don't pay a whole lot since it is mostly the cost of the venue, swag, food, and door prizes. How popular is it? Extremely! Besides being a free conference, the attendees get lunch and swag. Add to that the networking opportunities and it is priceless. THIS is why we do it. Often there is a wait list for these events. The only one so far that I have seen that waded through the wait list was SharePoint Saturday DC which had 921 attendees and was held at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia.

This is such as valuable group that we suggest it to our customers continuously. So, SharePoint Saturday Richmond, Virginia is December 4. If you are closer to South Florida though, I suggest SharePoint Saturday South Florida instead on December 4. More details about SharePoint Saturday are available at http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/

Last plug: I will be presenting on one of my favorites: Disaster Recovery and SharePoint 2010, Are You Ready? Come by and say Hi!

Getting the GUID or internal field names of items in SharePoint

2010-10-20T10:19:00.001-07:00

Many times during developing a SharePoint solution, we need to get the GUID of a list item, content type or a field but SharePoint does not display these GUIDs in an obvious way. In this post, I will discuss two ways that you can use to get the GUID of these items to be used during development.

One way to get the GUID is simply to navigate to the list settings page, copy the url, it will look like this:

http://YourServerName.com/_layouts/listedit.aspx?List=%7BEEF4F8B7%2D27D4%2D4A81%2D9E51%2D6A588EEF8D94%7D

The string after the List= is the encoded GUID i.e.

%7BEEF4F8B7%2D27D4%2D4A81%2D9E51%2D6A588EEF8D94%7D is the encoded GUID. Now you need to decode the GUID using one of these online tools (There are many resources online for encoding and decoding URLs that can do the same trick as well)

http://urldecoderonline.com/ (The is the best tool because you can copy the entire URL and it will break the URL to its complements which provides you with the list item very easily)

http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder/

http://www.albionresearch.com/misc/urlencode.php

the decoded URL will look like this:

http://YourServerName.com/_layouts/listedit.aspx?List={EEF4F8B7-27D4-4A81-9E51-6A588EEF8D94}

so the list GUID is {EEF4F8B7-27D4-4A81-9E51-6A588EEF8D94}

To get the ID of a content type, navigate to the content type in the site content type gallery copy the string after the ctype of the URL and decode it, again, using one of the above tools. For example,

http://YourServerName/_layouts/ManageContentType.aspx?ctype=0x0107&Source=http%3A%2F%2FYOURSERVERNAME%5Flayouts%2Fmngctype%2Easpx

Encoded Content Type ID 0x0107

Decoded Content Type ID 258

You can also apply the same technique to get the internal names of fields by using the string after the Field=

http://YourServerName.com/_layouts/fldedit.aspx?field=WorkPhone&Source=%2F%5Flayouts%2Fmngfield%2Easpx%3FFilter%3DAll%2520Groups

Retrieve the Passphrase in SharePoint 2010

2010-10-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

Contributor: Hossam Behery
Adding another server to a SharePoint farm is an easy task if you have the Passphrase that were used to create the farm initially. This “Passphrase” is needed to be able to add a new server to the farm. I have not seen any way to retrieve the passphrase if you forget it, this is where PowerShell can help you rest the Passphrase.

Just make sure that:

1. The account that you are using has the right privileges Securityadmin server role access on the SQL instance and the db_owner role in a database.

2. Administrative permission on the local computer.

• From your Start menu select “SharePoint 2010 Management Shell” or Start, “Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products”, “SharePoint 2010 Management Shell” then click run as administrator to cover the second requirement above.

• Type the following command:

$passphrase = ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText -Force

This line will prompt you for a password and then stores the secure version of your password in the $passphrase variable.

Use the string that you want to use as your passphrase; I used “changePassPhrase” as an example as shown above.

Now type the following command:

Set-SPPassPhrase -PassPhrase $passphrase -Confirm

Then you need to confirm the passphrase and then ask you if you are sure that you want to change the passphrase to the password you typed.

After that, you can join your new server to the farm using the passphrase that you just updated.

Create a Development SharePoint 2010 Environment on Windows 7 Part 2

2010-10-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

Contributor: Hossam Behery
Creating a development environment for SharePoint 2010 is much easier now with two options, you can deploy SharePoint foundation on Windows 7 or deploy your environment on a virtual machine. In any case, these steps will guide you through the process:

• First you will need a x64 laptop or (desktop) with at least 2 GB RAM (I suggest 4 considering that you will be running Visual Studio as well)

• The process is not that complicated but it must be done in the exact sequence otherwise you will get errors in different steps during the installation.

• Here are the steps in order:

• Follow the steps in my pervious post.

• You will need to download the SharePoint.exe file for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation (WSS 4).

• We will need to change a line in the install configuration file so we start by extracting the SharePoint.exe file using the command prompt as follows:

• Go to the search box in windows and type command prompt

• Right-mouse the command prompt link and click the Run as an administrator.

In order to extract the installation files to C:\SharePoint FoundationExtract – You can name the extract folder anything you like but I used this name as an example. Type the following command in the command prompt window:

SharePointFoundation.exe /extract:c:\SharePointextract

Now all the installation files are extracted in the C:\SharePoint extract folder on your hard desk.

CAUTION: Do not use winzip or winrar (or any other software extraction tool) because they usually break the folder structure and this may cause errors while installation. Trust me, it puzzled me initially and I lost some time getting an error, stating that I do not have the right language on my system, until I figured out that the installation file can’t find language setting for the WSS.

• Find the config.xml file at:

\SharePointextract\files\setup

based on the command line I used, I should find the file in:

c:\SharePointextract\files\setup\config.xml

• We need to edit the configuration file to allow for client install because out of the box, SharePoint can only install on windows Server OS.

Add the following line at the end of the file before the tag:

Save the file as config.xml in the same location.

CAUTION: Make sure the capitalization is correct!

• The modified file should look like this:

Follow the following link to install and configure IIS on windows 7.

1-Install the following additional prerequisites:

Microsoft FilterPack 2.0. At a command prompt, type the following:

c:\ SharePointextract \PrerequisiteInstallerFiles\sync\Synchronization.msi

(where c:\ SharePoint extract is the location where you extracted your SharePoint.exe)

2- Download and install the Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0 Redistributable Package.

Make sure that you select the right set of files that corresponds to your machine.

3- Download and install the Windows Identity Foundation

4- Install the SharePoint Foundation by running the command:

c:\ SharePointextract \setup.exe

(Again, where c:\ SharePoint extract is the location where you extracted your SharePoint.exe)

I will detail the installation process in the next blog.

Create a Development SharePoint 2010 Environment Part 1

2010-10-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Installing software requirements for SharePoint Foundation on Windows 7:

Contributor: Hossam Behery
When you try to install SharePoint foundation on Windows 7, the installer will check for the prerequisites and will not install unless these features re installed. That will not be a problem when you are installing on a Windows 2008 server because you will have the option to run the prerequisite installer. But running the install pre-requisite option (Prerequisite.exe) on windows 7 will not run. Also, you must install SQL server before installing SharePoint Server but if you are installing the SharePoint Foundation, you do not need to worry about the SQL Server as the SharePoint Foundation installation will install configures SQL Express 2008 during the installation process. To prepare you windows 7 machine for SharePoint Foundation installation, I recommend following these steps:

Configure IIS by following these steps:

1- Go to control panel then select Turn Windows features on or off under the Programs and Features group.

2- Go to the Internet Information Services section of the Windows Features dialog box

3- Expand the Web Management Tools, then expand the II6 Management Compatibility section. Make sure you have the same configuration as the figure below:

4-Now expand the World Wide Services section and the Common HTTP Features sections: Configure these sections as figure below:

5- Expand the Health and Diagnostics section, the Performance Features and the Security Features then make these sections as figure below:

6-Click ok, Windows will install the features as shown below:

Then you will need to restart for the new configuration to take effect.

At this point your machine is ready to install SharePoint Foundation as I will explain in my next blog.

Using InfoPath and SharePoint Workflow: Create a task link to open the form in the browser.

2010-10-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

If a user clicks on the link, the form will be downloaded and if the user does not have InfoPath installed on the machine, then the user will not be able to review the document.

In the following text, I will provide a very simple solution to this problem so that the user is presented with a link that opens the form on the server directly.

Here are the general steps involved:

1- We will create a custom task list to separate any tasks created by the work flow from other site tasks.

2- Go to the custom task list you created in step 1 and disable the custom task sending the e-mail.

List settings --> Advanced settings then under E-Mail Notification

3- Select No for send e-mail when ownership is assigned?

4- Create a workflow that sends the e-mail notification for the form.

Below is a sample workflow I created for this demo:

The first action in the workflow is to create a variable to the URL of the form. To do this, select set workflow variable from the Actions menu.

5- On the variable name, select create a new variable and give it a name, in this case I named the variable FormURL.

6- In the value part of the action, click the Formula button and set the values of the look up as shown below:

Data Source: Form Library (the name of your form library)

Field from source: Encoded Absolute URL

In the “Find List Item” Section of the look up, select:

For the field: ID.

Value: click the Formula button, and then set the values to:

Data Source: current item

Form From Source: Workflow Item ID

What we have done in this look up is to get the absolute URL for the item in the form library by whose ID matches the custom task list that has the matching Item ID.

The lookup should look like the figure below:

To explain this, when a task is created in a task list, the workflow adds 3 fields to the task.

Workflow Item ID (the ID of the item that the workflow was initiated from- in this case the form item).

Workflow List ID (the ID of the List where you can find the item that the workflow was initiated from

-in this case the form library).

Workflow name: The name of the workflow that created the task in the task list.

7- Once you have set up the variable as shown in the figure, you have the URL of the specific item you need.

8- Next, add send e-mail action (do not configure it now, we will configure it later).

9- Now open a form from your form library and copy the URL from the browser address

The URL will look like this:

10-Now remove the section in red (between location=) and (source) and add:
Name of document to create a hyperlink using the document name.

11- And add [Document URL look up] instead. The code should look like the lines below:

12- Now, go to the send e-mail action that you created before and select it (do not double click to open it).

13- Once it is selected, go to the ribbon and select advanced properties.

14-Select the body by clicking the button as shown below:

15-Paste the code from the note pad.

16-Replace the [Document URL look up] by selecting the text then click the ADD or Change Lookup button.

17-In the Lookup, select Workflow variables and parameters as the data source and the FromURL variable you created earlier.

18-Now the final step here is to replace the Name of document with a look up to the document name as follows:

Data Source: Form Library (the name of your form library).

Field from source: Name

In the “Find List Item” Section of the look up, select:

For the field: ID
Value: click the Formula button, and then set the values to:

Data Source: current item
Form From Source: Workflow Item ID

As you noticed, the setup is the same as the first look up but this time we selected the Name from the Form Library.

19-Now, set up your workflow to start automatically when Item is created.
You can customize your e-mail further and add company logo or any other html formatting that you need.

Using InfoPath and SharePoint Workflow: Create a task link to open the form in the browser.

2010-10-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

Contributor: Hossam Behery
One of the options that developers have while working with SharePoint is to use InfoPath forms and custom workflows. Another advantage is the ability to use InfoPath to integrate with SharePoint to provide rich web forms that can be configured to enhance the user’s experience by setting default values and using filtering and views. The challenge in this scenario is not in the ability of handling the forms on the server (which is managed by the SharePoint when using web enabled forms) but with how the user who does not have InfoPath client installed interacts with the task e-mails sent for the workflow tasks. For example, look at the first link in the e-mail and you will quickly notice that it has an .xml extension.

If a user clicks on the link, the form will be downloaded and if the user does not have InfoPath installed on the machine, then the user will not be able to review the document.

In the following text, I will provide a very simple solution to this problem so that the user is presented with a link that opens the form on the server directly.

Here are the general steps involved:

1. We will create a custom task list to separate any tasks created by the work flow from other site tasks.

2. Go to the custom task list you created in step 1 and disable the custom task sending the e-mail.
List settings > Advanced settings then under E-Mail Notification

3. Select "no" for send e-mail when ownership is assigned?

4. Create a workflow that sends the e-mail notificaton for the form.

Below is a sample workflow I created for this demo:
The first action in the workflow is to create a variable to the URL of the form. To do this, select set workflow variable from the Actions menu.

5. On the variable name, select create a new variable and give it a name, in this case I named the variable FormURL

6. In the value part of the action, click the Formula button and set the values of the look up asshown below:

Data Source: Form Library (the name of your form library)

Field from source: Encoded Absolute URL

In the “Find List Item” Section of the look up, select:

For the field: ID

Value: click the Formula button, and then set the values to:

Data Source: current item.

Form From Source: Workflow Item ID.

What we have done in this look up is to get the absolute URL for the item in the form library by whose ID matches the custom task list that has the matching Item ID.

The lookup should look like the figure below:

To explain this, when a task is created in a task list, the workflow adds 3 fields to the task.

Workflow Item ID (the ID of the item that the workflow was initiated from- in this case the form item)

Workflow List ID (the ID of the List where you can find the item that the workflow was initiated from-in this case the form library)

Workflow name: The name of the workflow that created the task in the task list

7. Once you have set up the variable as shown in the figure, you have the URL of the specific item you need.

8. Next, add send e-mail action (do not configure it now, we will configure it later).

9. Now open a form from your form library and copy the URL from the browser address.

Now remove the section in red (between location=) & (&source) and add > Name of document

And add [Document URL look up] instead. The code should look like the lines below:

http://YOURSITE.com/demos/_layouts/FormServer.aspx?XmlLocation=[Document URL look up]&Source=http%3A%2F%2FEdatadynamics%2Ecom%2Fdemos%2F%2FARF%2520Library%2FForms%2FAllItems%2Easpx&DefaultItemOpen=1

Now, go to the send e-mail action that you created before and select it (do not double click to open it)

Once it is selected, go to the ribbon and select advanced properties.

Select the body by clicking the button as shown below:

Paste the code from the note pad.

Replace the [Document URL look up] by selecting the text then click the ADD or Change Lookup button.

In the Lookup, select Workflow variables and parameters as the data source and the FromURL variable you created earlier.

Now the final step here is to replace the Name of document with a look up to the document name as follows:

Data Source: Form Library (the name of your form library)

Field from source: Name

In the “Find List Item” Section of the look up, select:

For the field: ID

Value: click the Formula button, and then set the values to:

Data Source: current item.

Form From Source: Workflow Item ID.

As you noticed, the setup is the same as the first look up but this time we selected the Name from the Form Library.

Now, set up your workflow to start automatically when Item is created.

You can customize your e-mail further and add company logo or any other html formatting that you need.

Considerations for selecting a SharePoint hosting provider

2010-10-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

SharePoint hosting is not a new capability. In addition to the standard single instance hosting by a managed service provider, SharePoint has been available in a hosted service provider model since Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 (WSS 2.0). Microsoft tried to deliver hosted multi-tenant WSS 2.0 using bCentral until it was sold off to another hosted service provider. The problem is that it has only been WSS 2.0 or WSS 3.0. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 did not have the multi-tenant functionality available for hosted service providers to use. But with the release of SharePoint 2010, this all changes and the providers are looking very carefully at how and when to deliver it for general use.

This brings new questions to light on how to choose the right hosted service provider for your SharePoint environment. Here are some suggestions for your selection process:

1. How long have you been a hosted service provider?

With companies realizing that the "cloud" is an upcoming strong revenue stream, many companies are starting up their own hosted service offerings to expand their offerings. The more seasoned companies have the hosted provider processes documented and supported and do not have the challenges of learning how to support a cloud offering.

2. What types of migration processes or tools do they use?

The most complicated part of moving to a hosted service provider is the migration of the data. If the provider does not have the automated migration tools in place, there is often a lack of understand the difference between migrating from the single instance WSS 3.0 environment to the hosted multi-tenant SharePoint 2010 Server environment. If there aren't tools in place, you may want to find out how long they expect to move the data and how.

3. What are the service levels offered?

Service levels are just one way to determine how confident the hosted service provider is about their own infrastructure, software configuration, and support. The latter is often overlooked by providers because their objective is to keep the application running, and not how quickly they will answer the phone when you call. When reviewing service levels, do not forget to check the maintenance windows. This can be a big issue for 24/7 customers if the maintenance window is every evening between 8PM and 5AM and the service levels are only measured between 5AM and 8PM.

4. Are there contractual penalties associated to the service levels?

If the company has a failure or disaster, having service levels does not make a hill of beans without some payment or reduction in monthly costs.

5. What are the Microsoft Certified Competencies?

Much like any other Microsoft Gold Partner, each one has competencies in certain fields of service certified by Microsoft. Microsoft certified competencies are verified by Microsoft to have the certified personnel and good references to receive the competency. The SharePoint hosted service provider should have at least two: Hosting Competency and Portals and Collaboration Competency. There are plenty of other competencies that may be relevant for your need, so ask for the entire list.

6. What is the disaster recovery plan?

Most hosted service providers have a disaster recovery plan that can be sent to each customer. It is not usually highly detailed but it will provide enough information to make an informed decision or at least to prompt more questions. Pay special attention to how long it will take for the provider to get your environment back up and running after a disaster and find out how they define a disaster. Some may consider it equipment failure, while others consider it an act of nature or terror.

7. How are they configured for SharePoint?

Since SharePoint 2010 is still facing challenges for multi-tenant, it is prudent to find out how they deliver the SharePoint environment. At this time, nearly all hosted service providers are installing SharePoint in a stand-alone model on virtual machines (VM). This ensures that all of the resources assigned to that server are readily available. However, with the VM model, you are paying for it. Dedicated processors, memory and disk mean that resources are not as fully utilized as the multi-tenant model, thereby making it more expensive.

8. Do you have backend or central administrator access?

Customizations are often held up due to this issue. In the old multi-tenant model, customizations were often prohibited to protect the integrity of the system as a whole. In many VM stand-alone models the case is also true. The hosted service provider has to support the operating system and the SharePoint environment as a whole and will lock down that functionality to protect themselves. However, the provider may allow changes to the configuration upon request.

9. Is anti-virus included?

Anti-virus for SharePoint? I know. I hear that a lot. Yes, anti-virus for SharePoint. You are moving and storing files on the SharePoint environment much like the file system you may have used in the middle ages. The file server required an anti-virus, so why wouldn't you have one on SharePoint? In cloud service models, anti-virus for the SharePoint environment is often an additional cost.

10. Do my employees have to log in every time?

This question is relative. If you have an active directory environment and want the SharePoint site to have the same credentials and login ID and password, this is an important question. I know that I hate getting a pop-up box when I am in the office. I expect the company system to know exactly who I am. However, if the company is mostly virtual and spread out all over the world, this may have no relevance.

11. Am I losing out on functionality by using a hosted service provider?

You can assume that alert notifications in SharePoint will work as normal. However, incoming email addresses to document libraries may be a different story. Ask the provider if all of the SharePoint functionality is available.

12. Are there other service offerings on top of SharePoint?

Some additional offerings to consider are archiving and compliance for SharePoint, PDF filters, multi-server configuration for the security-minded, and application integration (Exchange, OCS, Project Server, Dynamics CRM).

13. Price?

I know. Do I really have to add this? Answer: Yes. Because after all is said and done, you have to decide if the available options are going to work for your company. What you may end up realizing is after all is said and done, it may be easier to place a SharePoint environment in-house and pay for remote managed services. Another point to note is that not everyone prices the same way. In cloud environments, you may have hourly fee + per seat, monthly fee + per seat, monthly per seat fee, or monthly bulk seats fee (e.g. 50 seats included).

This should move you down the track of selecting your hosted SharePoint provider. I am sure there are more items that may directly affect you that I haven't touched on such as data center security and processes, locations, and financial stability, but these are the items I hear about the most.

SharePoint Saturday DC Federal

2010-09-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

SharePoint Saturday DC Federal will be held October 16th, 2010 at the Booz Allen conference center in McLean, VA. Digicon's SharePoint team will be in attendance.

Check back frequently for updated information, or visit http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/dcfederal/default.aspx

SharePoint Saturday - Baltimore

2010-08-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

Just a heads-up that the SharePoint Saturday/Baltimore event is close to being sold out.

Register here: http://spsbmore2010.eventbrite.com/

SharePoint User Group DC Meeting - August 12

2010-08-16T10:12:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was one of the best user SUGDC meetings so far. The crowd was large and included some high-profile attendees such as Stacy Draper (2 time SharePoint MVP). Everyone was there to see and hear Janis Hall and Roberto Palhano present on Governance and Dix Raymond Sy present on Planning, Executing and Controlling a SharePoint project. After using all of my fingers and toes multiple times, I figured out there were 52 attendees at the meeting with 15 additional people online for the meeting.

Janis and Roberto presented very well on the challenges and pitfalls so many companies have with governance (or the lack thereof) in a SharePoint environment. Their insight into the subject was extremely insightful and had significant participation from the group. I learned so much from the presentation, I had to come back and review our governance plan again to make sure we didn't miss anything.

The follow-up act for a well delivered presentation could only be done by Dux. The SharePoint Sensei and author managed to deliver a 60 minute program on how to plan, execute, control and manage SharePoint 2010. It made me laugh, it made me cry and most of all, it affirmed how I have been managing SharePoint 2010 projects from start to finish. If you have the chance to see Dux in person, by all means do so. If you want to see Dux's SUGDC recorded presentation, simply go to http://www.fedspug.org/.

A special thank you to everyone who attended. Please attend the next SUGDC meeting on September 9. That was a blast.

Topics from SharePoint Saturday NYC (SPSNYC)

2010-08-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

Digicon's resident SharePoint expert, John Burkholder, gave two presentations at SharePoint Saturday NYC last Saturday, July 31. His presentations, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity in Sharepoint 2010, and Sharepoint 2010 in a Multi-tenant and Hosted Environment are posted on Digicon's web site at:

http://www.digicon.com/SharePoint/SPS/SPSNYC_073110_DisasterRecovery.html

http://www.digicon.com/SharePoint/SPS/SPSNYC_073110_Multitenant.html

SharePoint Saturday New York - July 31

2010-07-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

Another wonderful day scheduled for July 31. I love going to NYC for the night life, the pizza and the atmosphere. Everything is moving al the time and when I finally leave the city, I often want to be back in it.

During the 81 degree partly cloudy day, I will be in the Microsoft Manhattan office giving one of the two presentations:

Hosted and Multi-tenant SharePoint 2010
Saving SharePoint 2010 (Disaster Recovery)

The Hosted and Multi-tenant SharePoint 2010 is a presentation I gave in May for SharePoint Saturday DC. The Saving SharePoint 2010 is a new presentation for me and I can only assume, the audience will be considerably higher than my special interest presentation targeted to the hosting providers and large corporations. As it stands now, the presentation is long and a bit dry (which I hope to fix with sound and special effects), but I hope to trim it down slightly in order to have time for questions.

#SPSNY is full. In fact, there appears to be a wait list of 70 people right now and it doesn't appear to be letting up. This sounds a lot like #SPSDC last November. I firmly believe that the group is underestimating the amount of interest in these conferences...and the amount of growth.

I look forward to seeing everyone at New York.

Adding Servers to a SharePoint Farm

2010-07-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Adding another server to a SharePoint farm is an easy task if you have the Passphrase that was used to create the farm initially. This “Passphrase” is needed to be able to add a new server to the farm. I have not seen any way to retrieve the passphrase if you forget it, this is where PowerShell can help you rest the Passphrase.

Just make sure that:

1. The account that you are using has the right privileges: Security admin server role access on the SQL instance and the db_owner role in a database.

2. Administrative permission on the local computer.

From your Start menu select “SharePoint 2010 Management Shell” or Start, “Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products”, “SharePoint 2010 Management Shell” then click run as administrator to cover the second requirement above.
Type the following command:
$passphrase = ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText -Force

This line will prompt you for a password and then stores the secure version of your password in the $passphrase variable.

Use the string that you want to use as your passphrase; I used “changePassPhrase” as an example as shown above.
Now type the following command:
Set-SPPassPhrase -PassPhrase $passphrase -Confirm
Then you need to confirm the passphrase and then ask you if you are sure that you want to change the passphrase to the password you typed.

After that, you can join your new server to the farm using the passphrase that you just updated.

Contributed by: Hossam Behery, Lead SharePoint Architect at Digicon
http://hossambehery.blogspot.com/

SharePoint Saturday DC - May 2010

2010-04-27T14:06:00.001-07:00

I am one of the 84 presenters at SharePoint Saturday DC this round. At first, the expected audience was to be 800 people. Last check though, the expected crowd is 900 and #SPSDC can accommodate 1200. I think they may make it.

I am now doing prep work for my SharePoint 2010 in Hosted and Multi-tenant environments. My mind riveting presentation on how more than one customer can use SharePoint 2010 is expected to draw a huge crowd in the special interest category. I expect to see 6, maybe 7 people attending. Either way, I know there are some people who want to know the differences between SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010…even if it is a handful.

I love SharePoint Saturday. Yes, it is a free way to learn more about SharePoint, and network with other SharePoint professionals, but I honestly like it because of the content types. SharePoint Saturday is broken into End User, Administrator, and Special Interest (my presentation). I like the classroom style environment where you move from session to session based on your own interest.

Did I mention free lunch? Yes, the vendors that are in the walkways with their flyers and toys and tools for SharePoint are buying everyone lunch. Doesn’t everyone need free t-shirts, pens and notepads? It is my once every 6 months way of speed dating the vendors.

So, if you want to learn more about SharePoint on May 12, and you are in the vicinity of Annandale, Virginia, swing by and see my session!

Publishing InfoPath Form to SharePoint Server - URL Not Valid

2010-03-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

I was trying to publish some Infopath forms this week and I got an error “ the following URL is not valid” I searched for info trying to figure out the reason for the issue and there were many different solutions to the problem. Here is a list of what I found from different sites – None worked for me:

http://sharepointcoding.wordpress.com/tag/infopath/
I already have a site at the root so that was not the solution for me.
http://littletalk.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/publishing-infopath-to-sharepoint-the-following-url-is-not-valid-error/ Same as above.
http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2007/02/publishing-infopath-to-sharepoint.html

Although Ishai is suggesting that you should stop the Event Notification service on the server before you publish then re-start it again as soon as you finish publishing, I did not want to stop the service. This is because the service is running on a production server and there are other related services that require the System Event Notification service to be running.

What resolved the solution in this case is the following method:

By comparing two servers, the non-working site had this missing host header line item. The X-Powered-By: ASP.net was there in both sites but the non-working site was missing the MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices: 12.0.0.xxxx (depending on the service pack version). By comparing the other sites on the non-working server I was able to get the correct value for the service pack in my case it was 12.0.0.6219.

Now the server is fixed but the client machine still needs to update a few keys in the registry so that it can find the server. To do this, regedit.exe and find the key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Internet\Server Cache\
Delete entries for nonworking site (they are in this format http://theNon-WorkingSiteName).
You can also Version DWORD to c (12) but it is better to delete all the keys so that the next time you connect, these keys will be updated.

Backup and Restore Using SharePoint Designer

2010-03-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

There are several errors that may occur when trying to restore a site using SharePoint Designer. "Cannot find ... exportsettings.xml" is the most common error. This is caused by SharePoint Designer stopping after the first of the exported cmp files is expanded and the software not picking up from the second file and continuing.

So far, Microsoft has missed the boat on this fix. It appears the Sharepoint Designer simply doesn't continue the extract (/a) switch when assembling the cmp file for download. I have seen some workarounds out of the web, but they are tedious especially for large sites. Here is what we have managed to come up with...

To back up a site, you must have administrator permissions for that site, but you do not require administrative access to the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

1. Go to: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310618 and download and install to the directory c:\cabsdk.
2. Create a subfolder c:\cabssdk\bin\SharePointBackup and create a c:\cabsdk\bin\SharePointBackup\temp folder
3. On your SharePoint Site, create a document library named SharePoint Temp
4. In SharePoint Designer, on the File menu, click Open Site.
5. In the Open Site dialog box, browse to and click the Web site that you want to back up, and then click Open.
6. On the Site menu, point to Administration, and then click Backup Web Site.
7. In the Backup Web Site dialog box, to include all sub-sites of the current Web site in the backup, select the Include sub-sites in archive check box.
8. Click Advanced, enter the SharePoint Temp document library within the site for temporary file storage, and then click OK. Note: Backing up a Web site requires a location to store temporary backup files.
9. In the Backup Web Site dialog box, click OK.
10. In the File Save dialog box, select the location where you want to store the .cmp file. Note: this part is not important as you will be creating the .cmp file manually.
11. In the File name box, type the name for the file, and then click Save. Note: If the site that you are backing up or restoring is large, the process can take quite a while.
12. Go to your SharePoint site recycling bin and locate the files it created (there may be more files if the site is bigger) and restore those files.
13. Using My Network Places, open the Sharepoint site and the temp document library. Copy down ALL .cmp files. The snt file is not necessary.
14. Determine which file it the first file of the cabinet files by sorting by name. It should be the top cmp file. This will be your firstcabfilename.cmp
15. Open a Command line to the c:\cabsdk\bin directory. Run the following command without quotes “extract /e /a c:\cabsdk\bin\sharepointbackup\firstcabfilename.cmp /l c:\cabsdk\bin\sharepointbackup\temp”
16. At the command prompt to the directory c:\cabsdk\bin and run “cabarc N SharePointRestore.cmp SharePointBackup\temp\*.*” (without quotes) Note: SharePointBackup\*.* should actually reflect the complete path to the subfolder you created and dumped the extracted files.
17. Using SharePoint Designer, with the destination site open, on the Site menu, point to Administration, and then click Restore Web Site. Note: You MUST restore to a blank site.
18. In the File Open dialog box, browse to and click the c:\cabsdk\bin\SharePointRestore.cmp file, and then click Open.
19. If the site that you are backing up or restoring is large, the process can take quite a while.

The Dog Should Always Wag the Tail

2010-03-01T14:24:00.000-08:00

A question was posted on LinkedIn about how the industry is dealing with the lack of SharePoint talent when companies are deploying. In my opinion, they aren't. In order to better understand this point of view, I am going to give you a scenario.

An energetic and technology driven systems administrator wants to stand up and play with SharePoint in his company of 200 people in order to get his hands on it and see what it can do. He stands it up and shows how document management and shared calendaring works to his boss and co-workers. The out-of-the-box functionality of SharePoint creates enough interest that the company adopts it and starts rolling it out to the entire company.

The proud technician is happy he was able to fit a technology in that will move the company forward.

A few months later after the new sales manager starts, he requests a reporting capable excel services, and a business intelligence application for his department. This is what he had at his last (Fortune 500) company and it made the group overall more productive. Welcome to the business requirements phase of the plan.

The technologist is now over his head. He understands the administration of the SharePoint environment as far as creating new site and sub-sites, making lists with custom fields, and alerts, but now we are talking about more development, business analysis and architecture. The company makes the demands on the IT department...which has a hard time completing the tasks.

One of two things happen. One, the company figures out that it cannot support the requirement either technically or monetarily and scraps the idea completely. Two, the company finds the money necessary to hire outside consultants to deploy and train the users how to use it effectively. The latter are often companies realizing they need to keep up and stay ahead of the competition. The former are strictly focused on the bottom line and are willing to be a little behind the competition.

Either way, this is what I have discovered over the years, technologists are the tail of the business dog. The tail can wag the dog only until the dog discovers and chases its own tail...then the dog wags the tail. The dog should always wag the tail.

Paging Dr. Who...

2010-03-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

How your cloud provider interacts with you can be overlooked. You may be able to email customer support if there is a problem and wait for the allotted 24 hours for a response, or you can always call...if they have phone services available.

Most cloud computing environments (especially the large ones) have forgotten that it is not just providing a service, but it is providing you with the information you need BEFORE you (the IT person forced to sit in the basement under the leaky water main) are asked why the system is not responding as it should.

Cloud services should focus more on the service aspect than the clouds. I am so funny. Where was I? Oh, so, cloud services are often more about how much does it cost for me to stand up a virtual machine rather than:

• who will contact me with a problem;
• what is the problem and who is fixing it;
• when will the problem be resolved;
• why did this happen;
• where is the resolution to prevent it from happening again;
• how does this affect my organization?

A company with a strong customer support group will already have these answers in place and ready. A very strong support group will tell you what is happening with your machine before it happens so that you can collaboratively resolve the issue. Of course, even with all of the monitoring and management by the best tools of the environment in the cloud will not always predict the arising black death of a server. So, you may have to make a phone call.

I like the way we do this part...In a normal environment, you will call the help desk and be placed in queue with the elevator music playing in your ears. After sitting in queue what seems like a lifetime, you finally get the tier 1 support person who you are certain:

• does not have a clue as to what you are talking about;
• does not speak your language;
• does not have permission to resolve your issue;
• can't find your account number because you have a name;
• has to escalate the issue to someone else because they have no idea what a VM is;
• or all of the above.

We do it slightly differently...we put highly qualified people from the U.S. on the front line with the power to create, destroy, and fix the issue on the first call. We count on them fixing more than destroying.

Digicon Corporation Blog

Fix for Drop-down Menus Hidden Behind Flash

Social Computing in a Business Environment

SharePoint Saturday Richmond

Other methods to get the Content Type ID

Getting the GUID or internal field names of items in SharePoint

Retrieve the Passphrase in SharePoint 2010

Create a Development SharePoint 2010 Environment on Windows 7 Part 2

Create a Development SharePoint 2010 Environment Part 1

Using InfoPath and SharePoint Workflow: Create a task link to open the form in the browser.

Using InfoPath and SharePoint Workflow: Create a task link to open the form in the browser.

Considerations for selecting a SharePoint hosting provider

SharePoint Saturday DC Federal

SharePoint Saturday - Baltimore

SharePoint User Group DC Meeting - August 12

Topics from SharePoint Saturday NYC (SPSNYC)

SharePoint Saturday New York - July 31

Adding Servers to a SharePoint Farm

SharePoint Saturday DC - May 2010

Publishing InfoPath Form to SharePoint Server - URL Not Valid

Backup and Restore Using SharePoint Designer

The Dog Should Always Wag the Tail

Paging Dr. Who...