A new version of the MOSS and WSS SDK was released on August 29th. Amongst other things it includes updated documentation for the records management APIs as well as several completely new articles on utilizing remote BLOB storage with SharePoint. The APIs for remote BLOB storage were added with SP1 but in my opinion have not been very well documented until now.
For all those interested in SharePoint best practices, there is a conference Sept. 15-17 devoted to it. Looks like they'll have some good sessions. More info can be found here: https://www.sharepointbestpractices.com/
The podcasting kit for SharePoint has been released on codeplex. It provides podcasting and enhanced social networking built using SharePoint 2007 and Silverlight 2.
Key Features include:
- Listen and watch audio/video podcasts, anywhere on your PC or mobile device (Zune, SmartPhone, or any podcasting device)
- Share content by producing your own audio/video podcasts and publish them on PKS on your own.
- Connect and engage with podcasters via your integrated instant messaging program
- Find the most relevant content using the five star rating system, tag cloud, search engine and provide your feedback via comments.
- Get automatic podcast updates by subscribing to RSS feeds fully compatible with Zune and other podcasting devices
- Simple RSS feed based on a defined podcast series
- Simple RSS feed based on a person
- Dynamic RSS feed based on search results
- Play podcasts in real-time using Microsoft Silverlight and progressive playback
- Retrieve instant ROI and metrics with the ability to track the number of podcasts downloaded and/or viewed, instant feedback via rating system and comments, and subscribers via the RSS feed
- Access the richness of SharePoint to extend the solution: workflows, community
sub-sites, access rights, editorial and more
- Customize your own PKS User Experience
It can be downloaded here:
I was asked recently how to display the file size in a content query. After a bit of digging I was able to find the appropriate field names and use some xsl from the search results to properly format and display the file size.
Here's how to do it:
1. Export the .webpart file for the content query you want to have the file size.
2. Change the CommonViewFields property in the .webpart file to look like the following:
<property name="CommonViewFields" type="string">FileSizeDisplay,Computed;File_x0020_Size,Lookup;</property>
3. Save the .webpart file
4. Import the .webpart file and put it on a page
5. Add the following to the end of the itemstyle.xsl:
<!-- The size attribute for each item is prepared here -->
<xsl:template name="DisplaySize">
<xsl:param name="size" />
<xsl:if test='string-length(@FileSizeDisplay) > 0'>
<xsl:if test="number(@FileSizeDisplay) > 0">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="round(@FileSizeDisplay div 1024) < 1"><xsl:value-of select="@FileSizeDisplay" /> Bytes</xsl:when>
<xsl:when test="round(@FileSizeDisplay div (1024 *1024)) < 1"><xsl:value-of select="round(@FileSizeDisplay div 1024)" />KB</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise><xsl:value-of select="round(@FileSizeDisplay div (1024 * 1024))"/>MB</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
6. Create a new style in the itemstyle.xsl and include the following where you want the file size to appear:
<xsl:call-template name="DisplaySize">
<xsl:with-param name="size" select="size" />
</xsl:call-template>
7. Select the style you added the file size to in the properties of the CQ webpart
Codeplex is Microsoft's open source project hosting website. There are currently over 100 projects for SharePoint this site. I am going to highlight some of the projects that I have found particularly useful as well as some that have been useful for our customers and other developers here at speakTECH.
WSPBuilder - http://www.codeplex.com/wspbuilder
This tool builds SharePoint soution packages (WSPs) for you based on a folder structure. Basically the tool will create a folder structure similar to the sharepoint 12 hive and will create a WSP based on the files you drop in there.
SharePoint Governance and Manageability Tools - http://www.codeplex.com/governance
This is a collection of tools from MS IT that provides some of the tools that Microsoft uses to manage their internal SharePoint deployment. It includes tools for 2003 and 2007 including:
WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007--
Microsoft IT Site Delete Capture 1.0 - Simply captures sites that are deleted by end users and backs them up to disk using the event model. You have a recycle bin, but this is basically a site recycle bin (available only to administrators). (Works with WSS 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007)
MS IT Site Life Cycle Management 1.0 - Notify, Backup then Delete Unused Unneeded sites (Works with WSS 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007)
MS IT Usage Reporting Framework 2.0 - Simple reporting framework to gather usage and storage metrics on WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007 and works with multiple farms. Note the caveats with SQL read queries listed on the framework homepage (direct select statements against the database).
MS IT Toolbox - The SharePoint Toolbox is a set of MS IT tools starting with the copy timer for analyzing latency and it's impact on SharePoint uploads and downloads. Be sure to check this workspace for other tools.
SPS 2003/WSS 2.0--
MS IT Recycle bin 1.2 for WSS 2.0 and SPS 2003 - Capture files deleted in WSS 2.0 and SPS 2003 in an administrative recycle bin. This tool was first released on GotDotNet and published here for convience. There won't be any new updates to this tool.
MS IT Spreport for WSS 2.0 and SPS 2003 - This SharePoint Reporting tool does a read only object model scan for usage information, measures and metrics. This tool was first released on GotDotNet and re-published here for your convenience. Would love to see someone build this tool for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007.
MS IT People Picker (requires SPS 2003)This people picker is designed to provide an easy to use picker based on entries in the profile database. It requires that SPS 2003 be installed, but it provides people picking capabilities to WSS 2.0 sites underneath the portal. Originally posted on GotDotNet.
MS IT Database Split tool (WSSSplit.exe) This tool automates splitting large Windows Sharepoint Services Databases into several smaller Databases. Based on an input, the process locks, backups, deletes and restores a SiteCollection. Originally published on GotDotNet.
Search Web Parts -
There are a couple of nice Web Part projects to enhance the search results pages in MOSS. The first is for a faceted search, http://www.codeplex.com/FacetedSearch/ , that provides a dynamic grouping of facets from search result metadata. The second is the frequently searched keywords webpart, http://www.codeplex.com/smartsearch/ that basically displays commonly searched keywords from all users.
Forms-based Authentication Tools - http://www.codeplex.com/fba
This project from Stacy Draper includes basic features for managing user accounts in a SharePoint deployment utilizing forms-ased authentication. It basically allows you to manage users and roles.
STSDEV - http://www.codeplex.com/stsdev
This tool from Ted Pattison creates the boiler-plate code and file/folder structure for several types of SharePoint projects as visual studio solutions. Including the Empty Solution, Simple Feature Solution, Feature with Application Page, Web Part Solution, Web Part Solution with CAS Permissions, and Web Service Solutions.