SharePoint list or site templates too large for import / export... use STSADM

I love MOSS! But there are some workarounds that you always need to look into if you want your portal to be happy!

Imagine you spent hours on customizing a site that you want to reuse as a template to create new sites. But you hit a dead-end.

Issue 1:
The maximum DEFAULT size permitted by SharePoint for a list or site to be saved as a template is 10MB. Even though I have received the message unexpectedly on sites as small as 5MB or 6MB.

Anyways the fix for this is to increase the maximum permitted property "max-template-document-size" using STSADM. See command below:

stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname max-template-document-size -propertyvalue 50000000
[Ref: http://blogs.provoke.co.nz/Ari/archive/2007/05/24/increasing-the-maximum-size-of-list-templates.aspx]

You should now be able to export your site template and save it to a local drive on your MOSS box.

Issue 2:
Now it's time to use the newly exported site template just incase you need to create a root site collection (you will need to add it to the available Site Collection templates). Simply use the STSADM command below:

stsadm –o addtemplate –filename c:\exercise.stp –title exercise
[Ref: http://mindsharpblogs.com/kathy/archive/2007/04/10/1685.aspx]

Cheers!

Securing SharePoint application pages (such as AllItems.aspx, etc.) from members within you organization

When "ViewFormPagesLockdown" won't work for you and you still want your AllItems.aspx and other forms secured then you have to write some code.

Let me save you some steps, here is the code for a simple control that you can put at the top of a new master page which is a copy of default.master or any other customized master page you created.

This code will by default redirect anonymous users away from the page and will also only allow specified member groups (that you specify) to access the page.


public class SecureItem: WebControl {
private string mGrantGroups = "";

public string GrantGroups {
get {
return mGrantGroups;
}
set {
mGrantGroups = value;
}
}

private string mRedirPage = "/";

public string RedirPage {
get {
return mRedirPage;
}
set {
mRedirPage = value;
}
}
protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) {
string name = Context.User.Identity.Name;
if (name.Trim() == "") Page.Response.Redirect(RedirPage, true);

if (GrantGroups.Trim() == "") return;
string[] grps = GrantGroups.Split(",".ToCharArray());
bool doredir = true;
try {
for (int i = 0; i < grps.Length; i++)
if (grps[i].Trim() != "" && SPContext.Current.Web.IsCurrentUserMemberOfGroup(SPContext.Current.Web.Groups[grps[i].Trim()].ID)) doredir = false;

} catch (Exception ee) {
Page.Response.Write(ee.ToString());
doredir = false;
}
if (doredir) Page.Response.Redirect(RedirPage, true); // has to be outside of try catch
}
}

Your pages are secure now!

Microsoft PowerPivot - a data analysis add-in for MS Excel 2010 delivers unmatched computing power!

PowerPivot gives users the power to create compelling self-service BI solutions, facilitates sharing and collaboration on user-generated BI solutions in a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 environment, and enables IT organizations to increase operational efficiencies through Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2-based management tools.

Check these links:

Videos
http://www.powerpivot.com/videos.aspx

Demo
http://www.powerpivot.com/demo.aspx (contoso - my best pick!)

Hand-on virtual lab
https://cmg.vlabcenter.com/default.aspx?moduleid=ad3bd3e9-8d2b-498d-94fa-e41e1b09730d

Download PowerPivot - requires MS Office 2010 Beta

Form interactions using the ASP.NET MVC framework - screencast from MSDN Chopsticks

The screencast is a short demonstration on how you can handle form interactions using the ASP.NET MVC framework.

Hyper-V Guest Clustering Step-by-Step Guide - to create highly available resources inside Hyper-V Windows Server 2008 R2 VM

You might have wondered about how to setup Failover Cluster inside Hyper-V Virtual Machines. As you know, the major element of a cluster is the shared storage piece. Inside Hyper-V VMs, iSCSI is the only supported method of providing shared disks over virtual NICs.

Here are detailed steps on how to create Highly Available resources inside Hyper-V Windows Server 2008 R2 VM.

Check this out on Mark's blog

Introduction to ASP.NET's MVC framework

Beginning on the ASP.NET MVC framework would platformize a new approach to web development, based on the model-view-controller design pattern.

Microsoft built this framework on top of ASP.NET to allow this alternative to work with existing features like membership caching, user controls, web services etc.... In this video, Maarten shows you some basics on the ASP.NET MVC framework like creating a new controller action and a view.



Directly from MSDN Chopsticks

SharePoint Server 2010 Beta - Key Features! Marketing gaga.

Here are some key features of "Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010"

Connect and Empower People
Making people more productive is a direct result of enabling them to access resources and knowledge regardless of where they are and what device they have accessible, while providing them with a user experience that increases usability and adoption. SharePoint 2010 provides all of this through cross-device and cross-browser read/write access, seamless integration with Microsoft Office, and an exceptional user experience around accessing, editing, and publishing SharePoint sites, whether inside or outside the firewall.

User Interface
To allow people to interact with SharePoint’s rich set of integrated capabilities in an easy and intuitive way, the Office Ribbon UI has been implemented in SharePoint, providing users with a familiar and contextual experience that drives their productivity even further. This user experience is enhanced by additional technologies that boost usability and by the ability of all users to easily edit and publish SharePoint sites.

Office Integration
Microsoft Office is, by far, the most commonly used business productivity software in the world. Office has always been about automating tasks and providing people with choices in how they get things done. Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 provide users with a seamless integration of capabilities that span across Client and Server, often without users even realizing that both are involved.​

Anywhere Access
Mobile work isn’t just for the sales force anymore. Today, most businesses support telecommuting, and they expect employees to be “always on, always connected,” even when they are away from the office. SharePoint 2010 offers a diverse set of capabilities that extends people’s access to resources and allows them to be productive regardless of the tools or devices they have available.

Cut Costs with a Unified Infrastructure
Driving cost efficiencies and accomplishing more with the same resources is possible through the consolidation of business productivity solutions onto SharePoint 2010. The ability to deploy any of the integrated capabilities and new enterprise-class management tools to intranet, extranet, and Internet sites, as well as the choice of on-premises installation or hosted services, paves the way for optimizing IT resources and significantly lowering the total cost of ownership of business productivity solutions.

Platform Consolidation
The rich set of integrated capabilities for business collaboration provided by SharePoint 2010, in addition to its enterprise-scale manageability, will enable more customers to retire niche solutions and focus new solutions on SharePoint. This will accelerate their ability to drive efficiencies, allowing IT departments to achieve more impact with the same resources.

Deployment Choice
Nowadays, IT is required to support scale agility, allowing its business collaboration platform to be scaled up and out quickly, based on changing business needs. SharePoint 2010 provides IT with the flexibility of choosing whether to deploy on-premises or in the cloud, thus enhancing its ability to support any given scenario while optimizing resources and remaining relevant and efficient.

IT Productivity
With business collaboration and productivity becoming instrumental to success, IT departments are required to do more with no additional resources. With SharePoint 2010, robust management tools enable IT to multiply its impact and achieve a higher degree of effectiveness with the same resources.

Rapidly Respond to Business Needs
In times when business volatility is on the rise and time-to-market is key, SharePoint 2010 enables all users (end users, power users, designers, and professional developers), to customize the out-of-box platform and deploy solutions that will enable them to address specific business needs more quickly and more effectively. SharePoint 2010 includes tools and capabilities that allow businesses to maximize the impact of existing investments and knowledge, and to provide all users with bi-directional interaction with line-of-business data. These tools and capabilities make it possible to shorten the time between recognizing a business need and delivering a business productivity solution to address it.​

Developer Productivity
In alignment with SharePoint’s approach of doing more with no additional resources, investments like integration with Visual Studio 2010 will enable customers to rely on existing programming expertise to enrich the SharePoint platform and increase the quality and ROI on their investments.

Data Connectivity
A major advancement in SharePoint is allowing users, regardless of their technical expertise, to interact with line-of-business data, surface it in their SharePoint sites, analyze it, and make updates to be reflected in the external data source itself, such as ERP and CRM systems.

Composite Solutions
Enabling users to address specific business and collaboration needs, while relieving IT from the need to be involved all changes to the platform, is made possible through a rich set of tools and features that allow users to create no-code solutions and to deploy those solutions in an easy and secure manner.

Phew! For those who want to lure their Boss-es!

Installing SP 2010 Beta - round one! Can I run a 64-bit guest OS on my 32-bit host OS?

Many of my SharePointer buddies have begun playing with the Beta on different environments. Some have got through easily and some stuck with Step 1.

If you are running a virtualized environment and want portability for your 2010 goodies (SP 2010, VS 2010, Office 2010) you would want to ask yourself, can I install a 64-Bit OS i.e. pre-req Windows Server 2008 R2 on my guest OS that is currently running a 32-bit XP, Vista or Windows 7.

Well, VMWare has supported this since 5.5 and if you want to run a pre-check, download and run this utility. The utility from VMWare will let you know whether a 64-bit Guest OS is possible on your hardware or not!

Plus, not all 64 bit processors will work for a 64 bit guest OS (noted!). Here's a pdf showing a compatibility list of hardware that is capable to run a 64-Bit guest OS.

Good luck!

SharePoint SandBox beta - a site for sharing tips and discovering new tricks about SharePoint

About SharePoint SandBox
The site is a collaborative SharePoint community of practices, guidelines, hints, recommendations and "tips & tricks" for SharePoint Developers and Administrators. All content is based on personal experience or gathered from different books, magazines, forums, newsgroups and others open sources. Current recommendations and practices cover different areas - from design and architecture to development and customizations. All information represented on this site is tagged, discovered and collaborative. It is Designed & created by Michael Nemtsev

http://sharepoint-sandbox.com/index.php
You will have instant access to tons of hot topics to read and learn about SP 2010 and ofcourse the good old, MOSS 2007! One thing I never understood, scratch scratch... Why did they use php to build that site, aren't we talking about SharePoint here?!?!?! :)

Enjoy, Signing out...!

MS Office 2010 Beta now available for download

Download Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta from the MSDN evaluation center: Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 and related products offer a business communications and collaboration platform. It presents several exciting advances for developers by offering substantially expanded platform services, a big leap in tools productivity, and longer strides as an open/interoperable platform.

But, before you start to dirty yourself with this pre-release, make sure you read the release notes

Don't tell me that I didn't warn you!
Go get it!