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RSS Feeds in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0)

RSS feeds are an out-of-the-box Web Part in MOSS 2007.  In WSS 3.0, you can have RSS feeds too, but it's a little more work.  Very simple really.  My complements to Mr. Gunnar Peipman's ASP.NET blog for these easy configuration instructions for getting RSS Feeds into WSS 3.0:

1. Move to SharePoint page you want to add your blog feed.
    
2. Open this page in edit view and add new Web Part called XML Web Part.
    
3. If Web Part is added to page then open it's settings window.
    
4. On the field XML Link insert your blog feed URL. Check out if link is correct and content is receivable by clicking the link titled as Test Link.
    
5. Push button titled as [XSL Editor].
    
6. XSL editing window is opened and now insert XSL code given below. When inserted click [OK].
    
7. If everything is okay then you should see your blog's last titles as bulleted list.
    
8. If you see your blog entries in bulleted list then it is okay to save edited page.
    
    

XSL you need is here. Take it using copy and paste.

---

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    exclude-result-prefixes="xsl">
    <xsl:output method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>
    <xsl:template match="/">
    <div>
   <xsl:apply-templates select="rss/channel"/>
    </div>
    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="rss/channel">
    <xsl:variable name="link" select="link"/>
    <xsl:variable name="description" select="description"/>

    <ul><xsl:apply-templates select="item"/></ul>
    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template match="item">
    <xsl:variable name="item_link" select="link"/>
    <xsl:variable name="item_title" select="description"/>
    <li>
    <a href="{$item_link}" title="{$item_title}"><xsl:value-of select="title"/></a>
    </li>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>


Six Enterprise Class Computer Technology Solutions for Small Businesses

Not too long ago, as a panelist on the Mercer Chamber “Cloud Computing” Business Technology Forum, I was asked by an audience member what one thing could small businesses do – with respect to computer technology – that would result in the single, most dramatic improvement to their company’s bottom line.  Certainly, a thought-provoking question that immediately led me to answer, wrongly, that a typical small business could dramatically improve its communications effectiveness by simply getting their e-mail inboxes connected to a hosted Exchange server.  While, on the surface, this response could prove out to be accurate in certain situations, a more fundamental opportunity was lost, and I continue to rue the disservice my lack of insight showed to our audience members. 

Every small business owner faces a multitude of entrepreneurial challenges in the course of their daily work: sales, marketing, delivery of goods or services, insurance, payroll, taxes, etc.  And business owners are typically smart people, that like to feel in control of their destiny, and they could be anywhere on the map in terms of their knowledge and comfort-level in driving decisions related to their business computing environment.  They could be former CIO’s as likely as they could be accountants, chefs, designers, or engineers. 

Thus, any question where a business owner is grappling in what may (or may not) be unfamiliar “business computing technology” territory requires a consultative approach to uncover the multiple layers of the specific needs of the individual’s business environment.  So, it being the first week of January, I’m making a new year’s resolution to – first and foremost – understand any potential business prospect’s needs before recommending any particular course of action.

My new pat answer to any such “silver-bullet” question will be along the lines of: “let’s take a look at what you have now, and what your needs are.”  That being said, there are a few things that I can review in 5-10 minutes, here, that I hope might start your wheels turning along the lines of, “Oh, I didn’t know that kind of thing was available for small businesses, I thought that was only available for bigger-budget, corporate computing environments.”  I’ll offer now one business tool and six separate low-priced / high-impact computer technology capabilities that – given the appropriate situation – could offer small businesses dramatically improved employee productivity and greatly reduced risk of data loss.

So, I mentioned in the opening my new year’s resolution to not jumping in with both feet to offer solutions without first understanding the needs of the small business.  Honoring this commitment, I’d like to suggest to those with questions about business / computing technology to not go it alone.  Reach out SyncraTec or to other fellow chamber member businesses that would be happy to sit down with you, and review your current situation.   Your typical computer consultant, myself included, may have been born with an engineering mentality where we’re ready to start solving problems right away.  The technology assessment process puts the brakes on solving the problem until we understand exactly which problem, or problems, are having the greatest adverse effect on your business.

Our business technology assessment will address the following topics:

· Business Demographics

o   How long have you been in business?

o   Organizational structure?

o   How many locations?

o   How many employees?

o   Annual sales?

· Current Information Technology Landscape

o   Existing computer network?

o   How is the computer network used with respect to the business processes in your company?

· Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) Analysis

o   Where would you like to see your business in three to five years?

o   What obstacles have to be overcome to achieve those goals?

· Primary Pain Points

o   What are the three largest pain points in your business?

o   What frustrates you the most regarding technology?

o   What technology features or functions get you excited?

· Regulatory Compliance

o   What regulatory or compliance issues do you face regarding your industry?

Again, this is just a sample of the questions we’ll ask to get the conversation started.

The review will typically last approximately two hours, and should be just enough to get an idea of what if any technology areas are primary concerns, to the point of limiting productivity, holding back growth, or representing unnecessary risk.  Often times, we visibly see signs of relief when business owners can share their pains, hear about potential solutions, and begin to envision a technology environment that will provide peace of mind.  Such confidence will come about when you have systems that you know are efficient, organized, accessible, secure, and reliable.  You’ll hopefully find the productivity boost that will help you get over the next hurdle; experience less frustration from trying to keep your software up-to-date, secure, and synchronized; and enjoy a better quality-of-life that comes about when you’re spending much less time on your computers and more time doing what you’re passionate about.

At some point today, though, you’ll likely want to know what products and services you can get that will offer you that elusive peace of mind.  I’ll take the case of a small business with anywhere from two to ten employees; keeping in mind that these solutions could easily scale to companies with ten to fifty users.  Let’s say the business has a central location, with several employees working in the office, (and possibly subcontractors) working remotely (from home, say), roving geographically, or all of the above.  What are the possibilities, you ask, of a small business this size of getting what I like to call “enterprise class information technology?”  Actually, I think you will be very surprised, especially when you combine: “enterprise class information technology” with a “small-business budget.”  So, I’m going to tell you what kind of essential functionality is available for small businesses, and how to go about getting it. 

If you have a small business that has its sights set on growing; then, at some point, I’m almost always going to mention the possibility of installing an on-premise server at the company’s home office.  A server benefits a growing small business in many ways.  First-and-foremost, a server is a reliable data storage platform for all of the documents you need on an everyday basis.  The server can have redundant hard drives and redundant power supplies.  A server can allow for the creation of a network or computer domain wherein access to data is controlled based on the user’s access privileges.  A server allows for sharing of resources such as the hard drives on the server computer itself, printers, scanners, faxes, and internet connections.  One very powerful thing to know about servers is that they enable you to store all of your data in a shared, centralized location; which can easily be backed up.

Also, when you’re working in a networked computing environment, you can have all of your documents saved to the server whenever you’re online, so if your PC crashes, you don’t lose any data.  Programs can typically be re-installed, but you don’t want to lose data.  If your computer does crash, imagine the convenience of firing up any other computer on your network, logging in as yourself, and having the system recognize you, your “desktop,” your documents, and your “Inbox” (your e-mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks).  Servers also provide for more efficient access to the Internet with a shared connection, and integration with your hardware firewall, which separates the outside Internet world and from your internal domain, the security of your data.

Servers are available now-a-days that can accommodate up to 15 users, which can easily be setup in a small office environment in just a couple of hours.  The price of such a server may surprise you.  A machine capable of handling a small office computing environment could run just over a thousand dollars; with a powerful processor, plenty of RAM, and redundant hard drives.  This machine would enable remote access for employees that needed to get to files on the server, it can run multi-user applications software, and perform as a rock solid file and print server.  The thing to note about this entry-level server, and the reason the price is so low, is that all the software licensing is included. 

In order to configure the server for remote access, we recommend two (as opposed to one) NIC cards (Network Interface Cards) be purchased with the server, and you must obtain a static IP address from your internet service provider (e.g., Verizon, Comcast, or other), and then setup a “DNS record” that lets the Internet find your server without you having to remember the IP address.  The good news is that an information worker can then connect to the network via the established VPN connection, and work from home with access to all of their network resources, as if they’re physically in the office.

The server, itself, can have its data backed up, over the Internet to an off-site location with a trusted provider.  The way this might work is that a local copy of all the data on your server is backed up onto a storage device that is dedicated to the purpose of off-site backup, and then moved off-site.  Again, the storage unit could be located in the business owner’s home, or the location of a trusted service provider.  The data de-duplication technology on these dedicated backup devices, now-a-days, is so powerful, that actual incremental file backups can be done periodically, over-the-Internet, with minimal bandwidth.  Individual files can be restored instantly, as required; or whole systems can be restored in the case of a disaster by bringing the remote backup storage device back on-site.  Such off-site backup services can not only be cost-justified based on the risk of losing everything in a disaster, but could also be considered a time-savings because they’re much more convenient and reliable than the old tape drive systems.

With a basic server operating system providing for the necessities, and remote access and backups addressed, you can begin to get creative.  First, I want to follow up on something I already mentioned.  If you have a networked environment with an e-mail server, you can log on to any machine, and your “Inbox” will follow you around.  Basically, your email, contacts, and calendar are on the server, and wherever you log on, you’ll get access to all of your data, including indications on the latest e-mails that you’re already read, etc.  A common problem with small businesses is that they use POP3 e-mail, which is basically Web-based e-mail provided by Internet Service Providers (ISP’s); large and small.  So, you have your e-mail account that you access via the Web, and you download some of the e-mail to your work computer, and some of the e-mail to your home computer.  Now, your e-mail is basically fragmented.  The same could happen with your Contacts and your Calendar items.  And, here, I want to be clear that the $1,000-server I specified earlier does not include the kind of e-mail server that will solve this problem.  There is however another answer for small businesses, though, that will allow you to have all the convenience of enterprise-class e-mail, for a low monthly per user fee.  Such a solution will allow you to have synchronized data access to e-mail, contacts, and calendar items; no matter which device you access it from, including mobile devices.  The service will also provide you with domain-name e-mail, if you don’t already have that, and will enable you to easily transition from a Yahoo, Comcast, or Verizon e-mail account to your new e-mail account by reliably forwarding all e-mails sent to your old e-mail account to your new e-mail account.

Now, back to the creative stuff.  I’m a little ADD myself, and a news junkie too.  And I used to spend a lot of time reading articles linked from my favorite Web site, Google News.  Whenever I opened my internet browser, I’d open up Google News, and there would be dozens of fascinating article headlines tempting me to click and read more.  These days, I find myself more productive; and I believe my clients find their employees to be more productive also, because now when they open their internet browsers, their home page is your company’s corporate intranet.  Even if you’re a small company, if you have a low-cost server like the one we’ve discussed today, you can actually force all of your domain users to have their home pages be your corporate intranet.  That means that before they read about the Eagles-Cowboys rematch, or any news – real or hyped-up gossip; they’re going to see their own overdue action items, your corporate pronouncements – in short – topics that should be grabbing their attention.  I’m not advising that you block Internet access to any particular web sites, but it’s nice to know you could – with the power to control internet access, and hundreds of other behaviors of any users / computers on your computer network.

The “corporate intranet scenario” is always a good conversation starter, but – beyond that – the out-of-the-box functionality of the server software we’ve discussed today provides for new ways of bringing efficiencies to how you manage your business processes, communicate, collaborate, and share information.  Consider the case of a customer proposal that’s being worked on by several team members in sales and marketing, with input from the design, engineering, or any other operational group.  Does it make sense for that one document – the proposal – to be passed around to multiple users, at the same time, allowing different users to make edits to the same document?  (Having fun yet, keeping track of the revisions?)  Because that’s not feasible, one lucky person usually gets stuck incorporating all the edits.  But what if a late change comes in, and your “editor” is not available?  You’d want to know with confidence which is the latest version of the document, access it, and make the necessary changes. 

Or, what if you find that you’ve taken a wrong tack, or just plain accidently deleted a whole section.  You’d like to revert back to the previous version, or it might be two versions prior that represents the last decent copy.  How would you like to be able to allow everyone who has input, to incorporate the edits they need to, but only one at a time, by having to check documents out to make changes, whereby nobody else will be able to make changes to the document until the live document is checked back in?  As with any great platform (think i-Pod), developers can build a thousand (or a million) “apps” that can run on this platform, and they have.  The platform is called SharePoint, it’s dedicated to business productivity, and you might be surprised to learn that if you already have a Windows Operating System, then you probably already have all the software licensing you need to get you started.

I’ve touched on six enterprise-class computer technology solutions for small businesses that can be purchased and deployed with minimal capital investment.  But please don’t forget my new No. 1 rule for 2010: “diagnose before you prescribe.”  And also, before I summarize the list, be aware that in certain cases, you can get access to these technologies on a trial basis, so you can try it before you buy it – always a good question to bring up to your computer technology partner.  In any case, here’s your list of ingredients to get started with enterprise-class information technology on a small-business budget:

· Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation (2-10 users)

· or Windows Small Business Server 2008 R2 (5-50 users)

· Remote access via VPN requires the server (obviously), two NIC cards on the server, a fixed IP address (from your Internet Service Provider, may add a few $ to your monthly internet access bill), and an “A record” (a DNS record that your ISP can also setup for you for free)

· Remote off-site backup; available in the form of a purchased dedicated device, or monthly service.

· Automatic “backing up” or synchronization of all working documents from PC/laptop to server; requires only that the folder in question be configured with “My Documents Redirection” (a.k.a., Offline Files).

· Having e-mail inbox “follow you around” is available, standard, with Windows Small Business Server 2008 R2, or available on a per user, per month fee (30-day trial available) with Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation.

· Having all domain-connected computers connect to your “corporate intranet” when they log on is configured on the server; and the “corporate intranet” itself is collaboration / document management software that can be installed on the server out-of-the-box.

I strongly believe you’ll be able to leverage these technologies not only to give you peace-of-mind regarding critical system reliability and data protection, but also to gain the boost in productivity that can help take you and your business to the next level.

All this; and I haven’t even mentioned what Windows 7 can do for you yet!

Ian

Ian G. Smith
SyncraTec Solutions, LLC

Enterprise-class information technology
on a small-business budget

267-266-5596 (cell)
215-310-1750 (office)

www.syncratec.com
ismith@syncratec.com

Hosted Exchange - Experience a Dramatic Productivity Boost
Windows Server 2008 Foundation - A Starter Server for Growth-Minded Businesses

List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

The List Web Part for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 provides a way to view and update Microsoft Dynamics CRM records using a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 Web site. Microsoft Dynamics CRM users can create shared or personal List Web Parts of Microsoft Dynamics CRM records from a SharePoint Web site, open records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 from the List Web Part, and create connected List Web Parts.

http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3B6EB884-EC15-4288-A2A3-D0B47E057458&displaylang=en

WSS 3.0 Search Error 2436 on SBS 2008

Cause

You receive above warning events because WSS 3.0 Search service is trying to crawl the WSS content via the URL – remote.domain.com, which is mentioned in above event.  Windows Small Business Server 2008 includes a loopback check security feature that is designed to help prevent reflection attacks on your computer.  Therefore, Kerberos authentication on the Default Content Access Account fails if this URL does not match the local computer name and is not registered in the system as an additional Service Principle Name (SPN).

Resolution

To resolve this issue, it is recommended to manually register the URL in your system. To register this URL, please use the following steps,

Note: We recommend that first backup your registry settings.

Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0
Right-click MSV1_0, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.
Type BackConnectionHostNames, and then press ENTER.
Right-click BackConnectionHostNames, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type the URL mentioned in the above warning event (e.g., remote.domain.com), and then click OK.
Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the IIS service.

You may experience SharePoint Search issue when browsing http://companyweb on SBS 2008 server and specifically, you are seeing below 2436 errors in your Application event log every several minutes.

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Windows SharePoint Services 3 Search
Date:          4/29/2009 4:20:05 PM
Event ID:      2436
Task Category: Gatherer
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      server.domain.local
Description:
The start address <sts3s://remote.Domain.com:987/contentdbid={d4078aab- ce82-4581-8d4f-973e1e6eac23}> cannot be crawled.

Context: Application 'Search index file on the search server', Catalog 'Search'

Details:
Access is denied. Check that the Default Content Access Account has access to this content, or add a crawl rule to crawl this content.   (0x80041205)

SBS 2008 / SharePoint Integration - Connect to Outlook Button is Missing

Windows Small Business Server 2008 comes with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0) automatically configured as the companyweb SharePoint site.  One thing that we found missing on our out-of-the-box implementation, and we'd have to assume that this is the default scenario, is that the Connect to Outlook button is missing to provide SharePoint / Outlook integration.

We were able to get this working by following this simple procedure:

• Go to SharePoint Central Administration
• To to Application Management
• Go to Authentication Providers
• Click on the Default Zone (the word "Default" is the hyperlink)
• Click the Radio Button to Enable Client Integration.

I didn't notice that the Default zone was a hyperlink at first, so even though I was on the right track, I didn't see the solution right away.  Hopefully, this will save some people some time.

SharePoint Corporate Intranet / Extranet Installation Offer

SyncraTec will be kicking-off a new marketing campaign to install and configure Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0) to serve as corporate intranets / extranets for small businesses.  Dependent upon the current configuration of the computer network, this configuration can be done for minimal $.

Saving Documents to A SharePoint Document Library

I love the idea of saving documents to a SharePoint Document Library.  Their are several great things about it:

• You only have to keep one document name - not a different document name for every revision you create.  Just make sure that you turn "versioning" on in your Document Library if you want to take advantage of this.
• Everybody knows where to find the document.  Network Shares can be all over the place.  If you have a pretty logical structure for your SharePoint Site, you will always know where to find certain types of documents.  For example, if you have a Site for each customer or client, and just have one Document Library per customer, then you know that's where you save documents for that customer, and that's where you look for documents for that client.
• You can e-mail the documents (especially internally) to fellow employees by simply copying the shortcut of the document (right-click and "copy shortcut", then paste the link in your e-mail instead of attaching document).  This way, "rogue" versions aren't floating around everywhere; and your inbox won't get bloated with attachments.
• Make your Document Library into a Network Place, so that you can easily save documents to it on the fly.  (But, please see one word of advice on this below.)

One word of advice when creating document libraries: don't use spaces.  Some programs (a lot of programs) won't be able to "Save to your document library" if that document library has spaces in the path.  The program will convert the spaces to %20 (you've all seen it), and it will get all confused, and tell you that you can't save the document to your document library, bummer.  Note that Office 2007 can handle this "blank-spaces-in-the-document-library-URL-path-problem," but again, lots of other software can't.

Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is Now Free

As of April 1, 2009, Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is a free download for all SharePoint customers.  It is available at http://www.microsoft.com/spd

SharePoint is a top-tier Microsoft product with huge adoption by the I.T. community.  SharePoint can be used to consolidate disparate I.T. investments onto a common application development platform for enterprise content management, portal, and rich collaborative apps. Think of it as a super-platform that you can use to develop all your applications.

Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is a standards-based Web design tool.  It has a rich out-of-the-box workflox designer, and also allows power users to build and customize their own sites.

An example of the usefulness of Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is in creation of Workflow for use on your SharePoint site.

Windows SBS 2008 Executive Briefing

On May 19th, 2009; SyncraTec Solutions, LLC will be hosting an Executive Briefing on Windows Small Business Server 2008 in Mt. Laurel, NJ.  We'll start at 1:00 p.m. with a boxed lunch and half-hour networking opportunity.  At 1:00 p.m., Jack Marino, of Sunhillo Corporation will present on how far they've come since the bad-old-days of slow-and-unreliable internet connections, lack of remote access, and lost e-mails; to a Windows Small Business Server environment that provides secure and reliable data connections, e-mail anywhere, and organized backup strategies.

On tap next, we have one of Microsoft's top technology speakers: Stephen Deming is an engaging speaker with outstanding breadth and depth of knowledge on an extended range of Microsoft products, and more importantly, how that technology can be put to use to help you get your work done more efficiently.

Running the anchor leg will by yours truly.  I'll be demonstrating Ten Things You Can Do Today with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.  Many organizations have Windows SharePoint Services, and may not even realize it.  If you have Windows Servers, you have the licensing you need to install WSS and begin using it today.  I'll show you how you can get started with this business application to help your company communicate and collaborate more effectively.

Again, lunch will be provided, and if you have any questions about what kind of technology would be most useful to help your company grow, this would be a great place to start.  Register Here.

SharePoint RS

Reporting Services - SharePoint Integrated Mode is a great way to deploy your SQL Server Reporting Services reports.  Once the environment is configured, running the reports couldn't be much easier.  Basically, users can launch reports with a single-left-mouse-click from a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Document Library.  If parameters are included in the report, the user would then have to select the date range, for example, of the report, and then the report rendors in the report view.  From there, you can export to Excel or .pdf.

Setting up the whole thing can be tricky, though; especially if you've got separate servers for your Database and SharePoint site.  Hint: you'll need to put on your Kerberos / Set SPN hat.  (Easy when you know how.)  You can also make the SharePoint site Web-accessible if you add SSL certificates to both the database server and the SharePoint server.

One of our clients found that deploying and running reports using Dynamics SL 6.5 with Business Portal 3.0 was rather difficult.  Well, the running of the reports was problematic at least because the Dynamics SL Application Server (separate machine used exclusively to run user reports) kept hicupping and that basically stopped the report service.  Meanwhile, when users do run reports, they don't get any feedback for about one minute in a best case scenario.  Then, when the report doesn't show up after a minute they don't know whether to wait a little longer, or call I.T. to check to make sure the report server is still running.  Not a great scenario.

When deploying a reporting solution, or any I.T. solution, you will want it to be one that users will readily adopt.  And they will adopt it if it is easy to use and gives them the information they need.  All signs are positive that SharePoint RS will accomplish those two goals.

Oh yeah, you'll also love how easy it is to deploy reports from within the Business Intelligence Development Studio.  How about right-mouse-click -- deploy.  Nice.