Sharepointology

Silverlight 3 is a major update and delivers a ton of new features and capabilities.

You can read more about Silverlight 3 in the following blog posts:

• What’s New in Silverlight 3? (silverlight.net)
• Silverlight 3 Released (Scott Guthrie)
• Silverlight 3 Released! What is new/changed? (Tim Heuer)
• Biggest Suprises in Silverlight 3 (Shawn Wildermuth)
• Silverlight 3 Released – Exciting Stuff Here! (Dan Wahlin)
• Silverlight 3 and Expression Studio 3 (RC) Released! (Jeff Barnes)
• Welcoming Silverlight 3 RTW (Pete Brown)
• See the Light: Silverlight 3 & Expression 3 Launch (The Silverlight Blog)
• Get Silverlight 3 and Microsoft Expression 3 Now (The Silverlight Blog)

Intranet, Extranet and Internet best practices. (Steve Smith, Spence Harbar)

• If you need an extranet, VPN could be an option.
• If you have 2 Web Front End servers, one for Intranet and one for Internet, keep both web applications on both servers, it’s easier to update.
• Web Application Best Practices:
  • Don’t allow servers to access the internet.
  • 64 bit hardware.
  • Use Network Intrusion Detection (Host based detection causes extra server load).
  • Consider Transport Layer Security(SSL, IPSEC) between servers carefully, it’s complex.
• SSL Best Practices:
  • Offload from SharePoint.
  • Sticky session on NLB (see white-paper on combined knowledge site).
  • Use port 443.
  • Use A Records in DNS.
  • Use fixed IP Addresses.
  • Use SSL for Central Administration (password sent over the network).
  • ForeFront Anti-Virus for SharePoint.

Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft announced that Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 has been released to the Microsoft Download Center.

I’ve updated my SPOShowBirthdayWebPart on the SharePointology project on Codeplex.com.

SPOShowBirthdayWebPart is a webpart that will display all users whose birthday is coming up in x days.

Changed in V2.0:

• Replaced username by Firstname and Lastname.
• Made Name column link to the user profile page

Download SPOShowBirthdayWebPart v2.0.

Prerequisites
This webpart uses the RunWithElevatedPrivileges function to impersonate the administrator in SharePoint Server 2007. After you do this, you may receive the following error message when you try to enumerate all user profiles:

“Access Denied. Only an administrator may enumerate through all user profiles.”

Microsoft released a hotfix package for this bug “SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: May 8, 2008″,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952294

Designing and branding using Custom Site Definitions. (Eric Shupps)

• http://sharepointcowboy.com
• Themes – SharePoint Designer – Site Definitions.
• Site Definitions:
  • Pro
    • Packaged customization.
    • Easy migration.
    • Best performance.
    • Complex functionality.
  • Con
    • Difficult to create.
    • Programming.
    • Only for new sites.
• upgradeSolution – STSADM

Read the rest of this entry »