12/11/2008

Managed User Profiles by Shared Service Provider

Once upon in time, I decided to change my display name on a SharePoint Team Site, simply I clicked on my current display name.

Then clicked on "Edit Item", suddenly, the below picture jumped to my monitor's screen!!!

It was a 12.1" LCD of my IBM ThinkPad X61 Tablet PC (I desire to say IBM, but its Lenovo actually) anyway I expected to see a picture like this:

I did modifications to my profile thousands time before, but what is happening now?! Just to know what is the reason, I created a new Site Collection, gone to my profile page, clicked on "Edit Item", ok, anything was as usual; I changed my display name also my email address, and saved it. Anything was absolutely normal but then, all the sudden, I saw my old name top of the page! Gone to my profile page again, yeah, it's my old name, clicked on "Edit Item"; it's not possible to modify anything!!!

After 15 minutes being confused and looking for bugs, asking my colleagues, restarting my machine, I realized that my thousand modifications before was on a WSS's Team Site, NOT on a Team Site under MOSS 2007. Ringing a bell … J

User Profiles are managed by Shared Service Provider in MOSS 2007. It's necessary to keep same user profiles on all sites in the farm. You are able to manage any single property of user profiles centrally and keep them stable on huge number of Team Sites, Personal Sites and Portal Sites.

What is Shared Service Provider? It's a really cool thing; SSP will Provide some Services on the entire farm as Shared, for example My Sites provided by SSP, so from a team site, your portal site, your Internet facing site or anywhere on the farm, when you are clicking on the My Site top of the page, you will redirect to same personal site. Search is provided by SSP also, so you are able to search across the entire farm, from a specific site. Excel Service is a shared service also, so users can get calculation services from a shared Excel sheet. Let's come back and talking about amazing features for managing user profiles across the corporation's server farm.

User Profiles can be imported to the SharePoint Farm from Active Directory, a third party LDAP or custom business application. You can map any desired property of user profiles by the external properties from active directory or your corporate directory.

From the Shared Services Administration go to the User profiles and properties:

So, there are cool features and you you are able to manage user profiles across the farm.

Let's go back and see how you can change your display name, work email address etc.

An administrator can do it for you through shared service administration.

First, import user profiles from Active Directory to the SSP, then go to:

Shared Services Administration: SSP > User Profile and Properties > View User Profiles

Here you can edit Name, Email etc.

Your changes will take effect imedialy at My Sites User Profiles, and will replicate to all other sites across the farm after a while. ( I don't know how much time it takes, or by witch conditions ? but will happen less than an hour. )

Allow users to change their user profiles through My Site.

Shared Services Administration: SSP > User Profile and Properties > View Profile Properties

Here you can edit policy for any properties of user profiles.

By selecting " Allw users to edit values for this property " users will be able to change value through their My Sites. Make sure to select "Replicable" chek box, so properties will replicate to all sites after a mystery time!

Remember, if you do a user profile import again, all SSP user profiles will be replace by active directory, then SSP will update My Sites and My Sites will update all otther sites entire the farm. So, do your modifications in your LDAP's Corporate Directory.

Posted at 5:37 PM by فره وشان | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/5/2008

Application Design and Development by SharePoint 2007 (Part 1)

SharePoint 2007 is a serious application platform; you will find huge number of companies that developed products top of SharePoint especially based on WSS 3.0. Microsoft will also create next generation of web applications based on SharePoint. I got really surprised right now, during this blog post, when I received a new post from SharePoint Team Blog about Microsoft Azure Services Platform!

Anyway, I've been looking to find kind of methodology about how to develop based on SharePoint, not just developing web parts, but architecting and building whole business application or solution top of SharePoint. I couldn't find any, we have Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF) or Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF), but they are bigger than our requirement, we just need an step by step recommendations to design and develop solutions by SharePoint. So I started to organize my thoughts and my experiences to recommend kind of framework or methodology for our local use at SharePoint Solutions Persia. If you know any official methodology or recommendations from The Microsoft, please ping me a note.

Scope of Applications

First and foremost, what kind of applications we are going to develop top of SharePoint? What kind of applications are suit to be run by SharePoint features and functionality?

Off course building a payroll or accounting system by SharePoint is possible but it's not a good idea. But gathering the list of salaries for this month from the payroll system and showing them to manager on his personal site, or announce him about top 10 incomes from accounting system, is the exact applications of SharePoint.

But I'm not talking about architecting this kind of applications; they are good ideas to make a portal solution more useful and operational. I'm talking about those applications that will store and work with data inside the SharePoint, building an application with SharePoint itself.

SharePoint is great for storing Unstructured Data, mechanism of categorizing, taxonomy, presenting and most important finding data is amazing, so it's obviously great for Unstructured or Semi-Structured Business Applications.

Those Tracking and Collaboration applications for example:

Project Tracking
Help Desk
Custom Issue Tracking
Sale Management System
CRM ( it's obviously possible, I'm suggesting Microsoft to use SharePoint for the next generation of Microsoft CRM )

Any applications related to Documents, Forms and Flow of them on the organization like:

Office Automation Applications
Human Resource Management
Proposal Accelerator

Get idea from 40 Application Templates from Microsoft top of WSS 3.0

Benefits

What are the benefits? Building applications top of WSS 3.0 versus developing them from the scratch by .Net Framework?

For a .Net Web Application you need .Net Framework, Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server for hosting your application, and since WSS 3.0 is a free Windows Service offered by Windows Server 2003 and 2008, so you will pay nothing more, but you will get lots benefits, some of them are:

You will not think about how to architect Users, Groups and Roles, WSS 3.0 will provide you a rich architecture for managing users, groups, roles, permission levels and you can define security for your sites, lists, document libraries and any items you will store on your application, it's completely integrated with Active Directory, and you can also plug your custom authentication model.
You will use great Document Management features of SharePoint to store and manage documents of your application.
You have search functionality of SharePoint, which is almost impossible to develop by yourself.
Backup and restore mechanism which is ready made by SharePoint.
Expensive Administration Architecture, Coherent User Interface, and most important, out of the box integrations with Microsoft Office and other Microsoft technologies.

Let's go back and talking about WSS 3.0 Application Development Methodology (WSSADM), keep in mind that it's NOT same as STSADM! It's a Five Step approach I'm recommending to use for building applications top of WSS 3.0.

I will do my bests to describe it by enough details and arrange it on proper order.

Step 1) Defining your Data Model

One of the first steps for traditional application development is Database Design, we have same approach here, but remember reading from and writing to SharePoint's databases is not supported. For developing an application top of SharePoint we have nothing to do with Database designing, it's one of the most advantages of SharePoint that will allow designers and developers to design and develop applications without thinking about database. SharePoint will create proper tables and columns based on your design, and you can use your full potential to stay as a designer and architecting the best solution for your business needs. So, what you are going to design as your Data Model?

What information you need to store on the SharePoint?
What are the basic lists of your solution?
Witch columns you have on those lists?
What kind of relations you will design between those lists?
Do you have any documents in your solution?
What kind of Document Libraries you need to store your documents?
Is there any Metadata that you will describe those documents?
What is the relation between your Document Libraries and Lists?
How you will categorize your documents and lists?
Are there any critical columns that you will use on different lists and document libraries? We will call those columns as Site Columns, define your Site Columns.
Do you have especial type of contents that will use on different Lists and Document Libraries? We will call them as Content Types, Define those type of contents that you will share on your solution.
How you will arrange Lists and Libraries on different Sites, Sub sites and Site Collections? What is the relation between those sites? Will you send data between sites? Or do you need to have cross site views and reports?
Do you need access to external data? If yes, where are those? What kind of access you need? Will you update those data or just need to read them?

So, Defining Data Model is to answer above questions and defining below structure:

Site Columns
Content Types
Lists & Columns
Document Libraries and Columns
Site Collections, Sites and Sub Sites
External Data Sources and how to use them

If you can do your Data Model design more close to your real requirements, production of your ideas will be done faster and with best quality.

I'm looking to find a proper tool for documenting above definitions, if you know some, please ping me a note.

Posted at 2:21 PM by فره وشان | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

9/5/2008

Localization is NOT Translation

Since we don't have Persian Language Pack for SharePoint, some software companies are working to support this language for their clients. We at SharePoint Solutions Persia have a community for support this language; and I want to share some important points about Localization.

Localization and creating a language pack for SharePoint is 2 different phases itself:

Technology of adding a new language and producing language pack.
Localizing so many XML files with huge size of strings.

The first section is possible only by Microsoft official tools, but the second one simply is translating more than 50 Resource files which include thousands strings, can be translated by 2 experts during 3 months. But some important points should be mentioned for section 2 which I listed here.

Any word selected for an original term must be unique and repeat everywhere

Otherwise, not only users would be confused, but the software will not work properly. For example if you use a term in Workflow infrastructure and different term in user interface, system will encounter some problems to perform the related workflows. Also recovery is disaster or impossible most of the time. We localized SharePoint in different steps, and then spend sufficient time to use it practically for discovering and removing eventual errors or improper words and phrases. After all of these we start the next step and translating another part. So it is not recommended to translate and type this product with 2 experts in 3 months!

Using standard glossary of Microsoft for localizing SharePoint

It is important to use same terminology and standard glossary of Microsoft that will be used to create Persian Language Pack for 2007 Microsoft Office Systems. Because of it, we have endeavor after making this synchronization. The existent glossary approved by Microsoft in Dubai office does not have desired quality, whereas it contains many Arabic phrases!

Localization based on application of pages

In our method, localizing pages and applications and templates is based on cognition of page's concept and usage. Although this method takes more time to get result, but the result is guaranteed as a high quality product. So our product has implemented practically in our projects since 2006, even before releasing the final version and Arabic Language Pack by Microsoft and it's still under development after 2 years!

No WORD by WORD translating

His is common method of translating but not recommended for a the critical application platform like SharePoint, because there is some parts in this technology that are not known and in use, although we have experienced it practically during 6 years. So the best to do is to leave some parts we don't know without translating. Of course these parts are not related to the user interface but in administrative parts.

Conceptual localization considering user interface

The principal parts of user interface must be translated so attentively. Phrases should be selected according to their meaning and usage. You should attend to the elegancy and proportion of phrase length, interface output or delete some words because of it, or maybe use Latin word or an Icon instead. This process is developing during the practical projects.

Add Persian language Locale with Microsoft standards

Most of the companies, who have started to localize the software, are changing the English language or Arabic one, via 1033 or 1025 Locale, while you should add 1065 LCID which is related to Persian Language. Following this method is more significant when a new product would be created base on this language. Obviously the products based on a language do not work on another language. So this is very important to add 1065 Locale as Microsoft's standard for other languages.

I did enough efforts to standardize this language or to contact Microsoft for supporting this language, and I will share all Resource Files for public download here when I have permission from the Localization Team. As a reference to prove vast requirement and market demand of Persian language for this language take a look to a list of 25 Online Persian SharePoint Sites, can you imagine number of companies that are using SharePoint on their corporate Intranet? I will guaranty, more than thousands!

Posted at 6:30 PM by فره وشان | Category: General | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

1/5/2008

e-learning solution by SharePoint Learning Kit

I'm getting so proud when I see ADL SCORM certification of SharePoint Learning Kit (SLK), Congratulation! For your great works, SLK's team members.

Here you can see some snapshots from my old experiences, before the birth of SharePoint, and taking all my time and energy working on it since 2002.

I had an idea a couple of years ago about using SharePoint technology as a platform for a comprehensive e-learning solution, but I has no ready customer to invest on , and now I'm so excited to see an open source project at Microsoft, based on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for developing a Learning Management System (LMS).

Using SharePoint Learning Kit , you can store and manage your e-learning courses based on SCORM 2004 second edition and IMS+ standards, on SharePoint document libraries. It also supports learner-centric and instructor-led (assigned) workflows, allowing assignment, tracking and grading both e-learning and non e-learning contents.

As you know there main components for a complete e-learning solution.

Learning Management System or LMS/LCMS, you can use SLK, and no other products can be much better, because we are using great functionality and facilities of SharePoint in the bed. Also you can easily customize it with your other requirements and applications especially using Workflow Foundation as a platform.
Authoring tools, there is a lot of free software and tools for creating SCORM Compliant contents, you can use them to create your courses and then you will publish them to a document library on a SharePoint site. I can also suggest Macromedia Authorware and its most powerful content authoring I ever seen. It receives AICC compliance certificate. Also, once upon in time on the Microsoft web site, there was a useful authoring tool by the name: LRN Toolkit 3.0, but it seems completely faded from the earth! If you hear any voice of it, please ping me a note.
Virtual Class, you can use Microsoft Live Meeting, and as you know it's integrated with SharePoint and we have some web parts for accessing your meeting from SharePoint sites.
Communication & Collaboration tools, using Microsoft Live Communication will be a perfect solution for real time communication (RTC) including text, voice, video, shared whiteboard, application sharing and so on. Especially you can customize its client, Office Communicator for your university or company needs, and so fantastic, you can use an AJAX client Office Communicator web access, zero installation and configuration on the client side, just a web browser! Also, about collaboration, I don't know a better solution than SharePoint 2007.

SLK is a free and Open Source solution that will install on WSS 3.0, WSS is also free and you have its license with Windows Server 2003, we at SharePoint Solutions Persia created a Persian Language Pack for SLK, its also free and you can download if from Persian SharePoint Solutions.

As you can see, there is a comprehensive, complete, fantastic solution for implementing e-learning solution, and it's completely free!

Posted at 3:41 PM by فره وشان | Category: SharePoint Solutions | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/5/2007

Microsoft is NOT a Black Box !

A main reason for migrating to the Linux & Open Source projects in some organizations is an idea like this: Microsoft is a black box, no source code available, we don't understand how it works, we can't trust on it, and so on.

I wanna say to my colleagues it's not completely true, first and foremost, Microsoft Shared Source Iinitiative.

Through the Shared Source Initiative, Microsoft is sharing source code with customers, partners, and governments worldwide. The Shared Source Initiative encompasses the spectrum of programs and licenses offered by Microsoft to various communities of customers, partners, developers, and other interested individuals.

Microsoft has a vast licensing programs for accessing source code to the: governments, developers, OEMs, system integrators, and… for products like: Windows, Windows CE, Windows Academic program, Microsoft Office, business solutions and a huge set of developer tools.

It's very interesting for me that not only review the source code but: debugging, modifying, distributing and even commercializing! And still an strong intellectual-property protections.

You can see the complete list of products and the way you can access source codes here

I also wanna say that Open Source projects is not only for the Linux & J2EE platform, there is a lot of Open Source projects and developer communities working on the .Net and Microsoft technologies that you can joint and download thousands of source codes, for example, take a look at the work spaces below:

CodePlex

Got Dot Net

Source Forge

Finally, off course it's possible to do almost anything that Microsoft did, by Linux & open source projects, but it's all about paying your time & money. In other hand you must research and develop all of your requirements by yourself. Take a look at the speed and variety of technology and integration of systems; it's almost impossible for you to be a company like Microsoft. So, just think about your business requirements and find the best solution with proper time and budget, and forgot about those Microsoft Anti-Microsoft things.

Posted at 3:17 PM by فره وشان | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

4/5/2006

WSS versus MOSS

As you know we have two products related to Share Point technology, WSS (Windows SharePoint Services) & MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server previously named as SharePoint Portal Server or SPS).

MOSS implemented top of WSS and adds a huge set of features and facilities to the great foundation of WSS, but still MOSS will uses WSS as its core technology.

Also we know that WSS is a free license software as a service by Windows Server 2003, and we can implement large scale of collaborations and business solutions based on SQL Server, Active Directory, WSS & Visual Studio 2005.

All these tools help us implementing solutions and running enterprise projects so fast and with a minimum budget!

As a solution provider of these technologies with 5 enterprise and operational projects based on WSS, I'm an adviser to my colleagues: only use MOSS when you really need at least 30% of its features.

I think we can use WSS for free to implement a huge set of solutions and applications, and we can implement some features of MOSS that you really need them by WSS 3.0, keep in mind that MOSS implemented top of WSS, and you can do same, but we must decide a trade off by time and budget, as a result: if you need just some small features of MOSS, you can use WSS and develop those features top of it instead of using MOSS.

Briefly, Implementation of MOSS has some loads about money, administration, maintenance and most important: training of users to use, and I advise choose it only on the really enterprise organizations and only when you more than 30% of its facilities.

In other projects you can use WSS for free as a light, really functional and stable platform, and it has a wide object model, letting you to add almost any features you need!

Posted at 4:13 PM by فره وشان | Category: Technical | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/5/2006

Persian Language for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

Congratulations! Persian users all around the world. Now you can use Microsoft Outlook Web Access in Farsi! Yeah, it's fantastic.

Exchange Server 2007 is the latest version of Microsoft Mail Server, and Outlook Web Access is a great feature that users can access their mail box, calendar, tasks and other functionalities of Outlook simply through a web browser. When you are using Outlook Web Access, it seems that you are using your own Outlook, but there is no Outlook installed on your computer, so you have a web base Outlook with you any where you can find a web browser and an Internet connection. This enhanced web interface that simulate your Outlook, is available by a lot languages and now included Persian.

I know also about start of a project on American University of Dubai for Supporting Persian on Microsoft Office 2007 & Windows Vista. Sounds good, waiting for a great announcement by me about official language pack of Microsoft for SharePoint 2007!

I'm just a bit worry about quality of these localizations, for example, take a look to the snapshot above, even on this logon page you can read an statement that has completely wrong logical meaning! Unfortunately in the previous official Persian Language Pack for Microsoft Office 2003, I can show you a lot grammatical, logical and conceptual faults! Sometimes you will see a train of Persian words and on the full stop station you will get no meaning!

Microsoft Officially will follow supporting a new language through Local Language Program. The Local Language Program is a global initiative that fosters the development and proliferation of regional language groups, enabling them to preserve and promote their language and culture while benefiting from continuing IT advancements. Through this collaboration with local governments to offer citizens the ability to customize leading, value-based Microsoft® software applications with local language capabilities, people around the world will be able to work with PCs -- some for the first time -- in their native languages. Individuals will be able to build skills, open opportunities and realize overall IT progress. Through the Local Language Program, local and regional government participants can localize Windows, Office and other Microsoft products. Read more…

As you see, this program is based on collaboration of local government and Microsoft, so who is the government of Farsi speakers worldwide? This is the main issue.

Right now, it seems that Persian is locating under Arabic language! Ok, it doesn't matter, but, please do some collaborating with us, there is several years we are localizing Microsoft products, we implemented some approaches to enhance quality of localization, and I know some talent candidates who are in love helping Microsoft to get Persian market.

I hope the team of 15 AUD students lead by Dr. Khalid Khawaja as a supervisor and Dr. Mulhim Al-Doori as project manager, will found a perfect IT glossaries to include the new terminology of Windows Vista, Office2007 and SharePoint 2007. I'm trying to add SharePoint because comprehensive and coherent terminologies will success the efforts.

I'm sure Microsoft will find direct approach, but speed of delivery and quality assurance of products we are looking for.

Posted at 4:00 PM by فره وشان | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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