Jun26

SharePoint Saturday Charlotte Session Follow-up

Well SharePoint Saturday Charlotte is now behind us. I had a really great time. Thanks again to Dan Lewis and company for putting together a great event. It was great to catch up with everyone and especially meeting some new folks like Laura Rogers, Heather Waterman, and Shadeed Eleazer. I’m hoping to make it to some more SharePoint Saturday’s soon.

A couple follow-ups on my session on using a SharePoint Build Environment. In case you missed the SharePoint Saturday Charlotte site you can also download my presentations and the demo build script project.

I also wanted to share a solution on a issue I reported in my session related to WSPBuilder. In my experience WSPBuilder at times exhibited a very long build time for solution packages, sometimes as much as 5-10 minutes. A recent community post on codeplex provides a solution to the issue. It would appear that wspbuilder historically made use of reflection to gleam information about references, in a recent release they moved over to a a mono related project called Cecil that is causing the performance impact. Checkout http://wspbuilder.codeplex.com/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=56751 for more details and the fix.

SharePoint Saturday Charlotte – Speakers

Published: Jun-26-09 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jun18

Charlotte SharePoint Saturday This Weekend – See Everyone There!

Wow what a busy week. Lots of activity on the community front this week for me. Had a great meeting last night with the rest of the Triangle SharePoint User Group Leadership , we’ve got some really great plans and announcements coming up for the SharePoint community in Raleigh. The new TRISPUG site is coming along nicely and we’ve just opened up registration. I’m ending the week with a trip out to Charlotte for SharePoint Saturday event with some of the rest of the B&R crew (Michael Lotter, Nas Ali, and Becky Isserman) and also my family in tow (we’re spending Sunday at the Great Wolf Lodge – fun fun fun). I’m really looking forward to the event. I’ve been doing a good bit of work behind the scenes with SharePoint Saturday but I’ve only made it to the first event. It’s been great to see the success that Michael has had with the SharePoint Saturday concept. I’m looking forward to catching up with folks that I really wish I could see more often (new and old acquaintances).

I’ve been doing my Back to Basic – Feature Development session for my last few speaking engagements and I thought a new presentation would be a good change. I recently finished an engagement with a client helping them setup a build environment for SharePoint and it was such a good experience (both challenges and fun stuff), with lots of questions from the client, that I thought the community might get some value from it as well.

Ease Your Deployment Burdens by Setting up a SharePoint Automated Build Server

Every project can benefit from the practice of implementing a build server. From daily builds to continuous integration, the benefits have never been in dispute, but many have felt that SharePoint has too many complexities to be supported in a build environment. In this session we’ll see how with the use of msbuild and some custom build tasks we can make the process of compiling, solution packaging, testing, and deployment very straightforward.

Not registered yet? Checkout http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/charlotte/default.aspx . Look forward to seeing everyone there!

Published: Jun-18-09 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jun12

The Scourge of Corporate User Group Ownership

The catalyst for this post was a comment by Chad Grieves to my previous post on the Introduction to the Triangle SharePoint UserGroup. I don’t know Chad and he doesn’t identify himself beyond his name or his company but he implies that he’s part of the leadership of the original Raleigh SharePoint User Group. It would appear that he is upset that we started a new SharePoint usergroup in Raleigh (TRISPUG). Based on searches he is or was associated with ThoughtBridge as an Account Executive (e.g. Sales) for the Carolinas and ThoughtBridge is\was the “sponsor” of that group.

Chad’s Comment:

“Josh, reading through your information I see several false statements. We started 2 1/2 years ago, the Raleigh SharePoint Users group, along with Microsoft as the "go-to" managed partner in the Carolinas. We are far from fledgling with over 50 companies in attendance. We do it every 2 months at the request of the participants. I believe you are associatted with tek Systems- are you a Managed Partner in the SOutheast for Microsoft? I know of a handful in the Carolinas and you were not one of them... it is my understanding you are a staffing firm wanting to get into the MOSS project business..please make sure you update your blog to include factual information-“

With the original groups’ last reported meeting being last year I believe, the group’s site (www.sharepointusersgroup.com/RSug) being down, no communications I’ve heard of to the community in almost a year, all of my emails going unanswered, past members saying the group fizzled, truly how can anyone assume otherwise? Is the original group still providing any type of service to the community?

Secondly there are no false statements in my post. I’m not implying I started the previous SharePoint group in Raleigh, I’m saying that myself and others are stepping up to fill the absence that currently exists for a SharePoint community in Raleigh. I am NOT associated with Tek-Systems, Tek-Systems is just very nice enough to host the facilities for our meetings and they also support other groups in the area such as the Triangle .Net User Group. A few searches with my name and reading through some of my blog can easily confirm this.

But this is really about a bigger issue beyond a single user group and probably my most important point. There is nothing that bothers me more then a company that uses a user group as an extension to their PR and Sales departments. Chad I think your comment speaks for itself. User Groups are not partners with Microsoft (managed or otherwise), they are partners with the COMMUNITY. This parasitic type of behavior that I see from companies and user groups is never a good thing for the user group in the long run because its the business interests that drive the group not the community interest. Once those business interests change or the companies goes under so does the group. In my opinion this is very self evident in the relationship between ThoughtBridge and the previous Raleigh SharePoint user group (and from what I understand the old group in Atlanta as well). In Chad’s comment he refers to a managed partner status and of course he’s referring to ThoughtBridge and his role as account executive of the Carolinas. So falsely accusing me that I’m part of a staffing firm trying to drum up business is a bit like calling the Pot calling the kettle black heh?

Now let me be very clear I have no issue with ThoughtBridge as a company nor Chad. I really don’t know much about ThoughtBridge other then what bing (you like that plug MS hehe) would tell me. The ThoughtBridge site is down so I’m not even sure if they’re around any more so it may be a mute point. I just don’t like the trend that I see out there of companies creating or taking ownership of a user groups. Consulting, Staffing, Product firms will always play a very important role with User Groups because without their sponsorship (key word sponsorship) usergroups could not exist. It’s also great outlet for company employee’s to network with others in the group and we encourage that. The networking that takes place in usergroups is one of the great benefits beyond the technical presentation but its important that usergroup leadership remain independent and impartial to the community.

As for TRISPUG, as I mentioned in my first post introducing TRISPUG but I will reiterate, we will never be associated with any company outside that of a sponsor relationship. Our group will NEVER be owned by any company. Our leadership will and is made up of members from throughout the community. We owe that much to the community as every other usergroup does.

I would encourage any company who wants to get involved with Usergroups to do so, it can be a great value, just don’t go out and try to start your own please :).

Published: Jun-12-09 | 1 Comment | Link to this post

Jun01

Triangle SharePoint User Group (TRISPUG) Meeting – Tuesday Jun 2nd

This months meeting will be a little more informal then usual. We had several requests for some general discussion and since we have speakers booked up for the next few months I thought this was a good time. Unfortunately my son’s first T-Ball game is tomorrow night so i won’t be able to attend but I’ll be interested to hear about any spirited discussions that may occur. Look forward to seeing everyone next month.

For more details on the meeting and the Triangle SharePoint User Group please visit http://www.trispug.com.

Published: Jun-01-09 | 1 Comment | Link to this post

May22

Introducing Ava

No this isn’t a new CodePlex project but it is a project of sort. Last Thursday, May 14th, my wife brought a beautiful little girl to the world – Ava Mae Ruth Carlisle. A healthy 7.4 pounds and 21 inches long. It’s been a few years since we’ve had a newborn in the house (our son Evan is 5) but it’s a strange thing how your mind represses the memories of lack of sleep and just keeps the cute baby moments. Well the cute baby moments are definitely here but also are the sleepless nights and changing 5 diapers in a row lol. Needless to say I may be quite for a few weeks. Anyway here’s to cute kids!

Published: May-22-09 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

May06

Introducing the Triangle SharePoint User Group (Raleigh NC)

I’ve had so many questions in the last few weeks related to the Triangle SharePoint User Group, formerly the Triangle Developer’s Guild, formerly the TRINUG SharePoint Focus Group (AKA SIG) so I thought I’d clear up the confusion and share some of the future plans for the group.

TRINUG SharePoint Focus Group

Last year I started chatting with some of the the other leadership at TRINUG about possibly having a short series on SharePoint. There seemed to be some interest from the membership and I felt that although there was another fledgling SharePoint User Group in Raleigh it was very IT and Business focused (like many other SharePoint user groups IMO) and that it didn’t cover very many developer related topics. With the base of TRINUG largely being made up of developers I thought this could be a nice niche to fill. A few months later we kicked off the first SIG meeting, not really a user group meeting, but more of a coordinated topical discussion. To my surprise we had more then 25 people show up when i was only expecting a dozen at most. This got me thinking that there was a bigger community in the area then I thought that needed an outlet such as a user group. This is the basis of why many folks still refer to us as the TRINUG SharePoint SIG (which is perfectly fine – I love the association with TRINUG).

Raleigh SharePoint Developers Guild

After a couple meetings I decided that with the amount of interest and participation reaching small user group levels that it would be a good time maybe to try to formalize the group into a user group, hence the Raleigh SharePoint Developers Guild. I was sensitive to the fact that there was already a SharePoint User Group in Raleigh and I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. I reached out to some contacts I found on their website but didn’t get any responses and unfortunately they had day time meetings (middle of working hours for many folks) and met every two months which made it difficult to reach out to them personally. As i worked to get some speakers, scheduling meetings, and building an organization I found I quickly got overwhelmed. After a couple last minute cancellations by speakers that caused me to cancel a couple meetings I decided I needed to take a step back and regroup and get some help. This takes us up to the current.

Triangle SharePoint User Group (TRISPUG)

A colleague of mine, Michael Lotter, offered to provide his assistance to the group and I think that provided a much needed injection of motivation and support. As we started planning out the year we were recently speaking with some other SharePoint community folks. I found out that the main sponsor for the previous Raleigh SharePoint User Group had been acquired by another company and that it appeared to have fizzled out (not confirmed but general consensus). With this knowledge Michael and I decided to go forward with attempting to pick up the reigns in Raleigh for the SharePoint community and broaden not only our focus but also our community reach, hence the latest (and final incarnation lol) the Triangle SharePoint User Group.

What is the goal of the Triangle SharePoint User Group

Very simple, providing an outlet for the SharePoint community in the greater Raleigh Durham area. Just like any other user group we will be bringing together speakers from not only our local area but from the greater region, and at times national and in the process we’ll be bringing together our own SharePoint community. In the near future we will be sponsoring local SharePoint events as well.

Although both Michael Lotter and I work for the same company this user group will not in any way be affiliated with our company outside the role of sponsorship that is available to any other company. I think there is an impression that many SharePoint user groups (and sometimes correct IMO) are nothing more then just an extension of the marketing arm of a company. This will not ever be the case with TRISPUG period. I feel very strongly that a user group must be paired with the community it serves and its priorities and goals and not that of any company.

Although most of our base at the moment are developers anyone involved with SharePoint, especially SharePoint developers, understand the importance of being well rounded and that means having an understanding of IT, business, and end user related challenges as well. With this in mind we will be broadening our topics to include IT and business related topics with the hope of additionally expanding the community to include topics also of interest to that category of folks.

Where does TRINUG now fit in? I think we’ll always have a relationship with SharePoint. Heck we use both the TRINUG site and their distribution list to help get the word out. Very soon they will both be running off of the same SharePoint User Group Portal application. Many of our attendees hear about SharePoint from TRINUG meetings and announcements. Without TRINUG there would be no TRISPUG and our relationship will continue.

Have some thoughts? Like to make some suggestions? I’d love to hear them. Drop me a line.

We meet the first Tuesday of each month, interested in attending? Checkout the group’s site at http://www.trispug.com.

Published: May-06-09 | 4 Comments | Link to this post

Apr30

Michael Gannotti – Raleigh SharePoint Dev Guild – Tuesday May 5th.

Michael Gannotti will be presenting at the next Raleigh SharePoint Developers Guild meeting on Tuesday May 5th. More details can be found at http://www.sharepointdevelopersguild.com.

Baby Steps – Implementing Knowledge Portals and Communities in the Enterprise

In this meeting Mike will be covering how to implement a phased approach to leveraging SharePoint social computing features to create knowledge portals and communities. Coverage will include corp cultures and resistance, changing perceptions and work habits, as well as the technical implementation (all using out of the box components with no coding required - config vs custom).

The meeting starts at 6:00. Pizza and beverage will be available courtesy of TekSystems. Hope to see everyone there.

Published: Apr-30-09 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Apr17

SharePoint Smart404 Project Update

The SharePoint Smart 404 Project is a free project located on Codeplex that provides enhanced 404 support, Vanity Redirection, and custom exception logging and error pages to SharePoint (Both WSS and MOSS). The main goal of the project was to provide a simple to activate Feature and customizable user experience for “Page Not Founds” (404) and simplified vanity redirects. Although I had additional ideas for the project shortly after the launch, as is typically the case, both family and work scheduled forced me to set it a side for a while. The initial release of the project was functional but had some limitations and annoyances that this latest release will hopefully help out.

The latest version can be found at http://sharepointsmart404.codeplex.com/ .

For those of you who have already installed the project you may want to consider deactivating the feature and removing the solution. I unfortunately do not have an upgrade process from the previous version to the current but if requested I could probably provide you some manual steps if needed.

Some of the new\fixed features include:

1) WSS Support: The 404 page no longer has a MOSS search control by default on the page. A custom simple webpart that is part of the project now provides “Best Bets” search functionality.

2) FireFox: Firefox 404 redirects should now work properly

3) Exception Handling: Custom error pages and error logging is now supported.

4) Vanity Redirects: Vanity redirects no longer require absolute URLs.

5) General: The project now uses WSPBuilder and general quality and reliability updates have been made.

I’ve created a short introductory webcast showing an overview of the functionality provided by the Smart404 Feature and also a quick overview of the Visual Studio project and its moving parts.

Introduction to the SharePoint Smart 404 Feature Webcast

Before getting started, please note that I have not done extensive testing of the deployment of this release. I plan to spin up some VMs with different configuration to ensure that installation and deployment is smooth. Because of this I have labeled this release as a beta release. Over the next few weeks I hope to find some time for additional testing and fine tuning prior to the final 1.0 release. Saying that I’ve had no problems with the installation on my 2 development VMs and one of my production environments.

Some Sample Screenshots of the Smart 404 in action:

Custom 404 Page

Custom Error Page

Error Log

I want to thank everyone for their feedback and suggestions. Keep it coming. Feel free to drop a line in the discussion threads at the project site http://www.codeplex.com/sharepointsmart404 or drop a line on my blog.

Published: Apr-17-09 | 5 Comments | Link to this post

Apr07

Raleigh SharePoint Developers Guild – CLEAR!!!!

For those of you who have never watched House or an episode of ER “Clear” is what is called out prior to jump starting a heart back to life. Well the Raleigh SharePoint Developer’s guild, which has been on life support for the past few months , is now showing signs of life again with some help from new volunteers. As many of you know my travel schedule for work frequently came into conflict with coordinating activities for the guild and being available for events. Fortunately some great community folks such as Michael Lotter of SharePoint Saturday fame have stepped up and will be helping to coordinate and schedule events. I’m very much excited to get things rolling with the group again and growing the SharePoint community in the Raleigh/Durham area.

We have a tentative event scheduled for May 5th (First Tuesday of the Month), with specifics coming out in the next couple days which will be available at http://www.sharepointdevelopersguild.com . Interested in speaking? Got suggestions? Want to volunteer? Drop me a line in my blog comments. I’d love to hear from you.

Published: Apr-07-09 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jan15

Thanks SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach!

I drove up with Michael Lotter, Becky Isserman, and Nas Ali from the B&R crew last Saturday to speak at SharePoint Saturday in Virginia Beach. Thanks to everyone who attended my session, Back to the Basics – An Introduction to SharePoint Feature Development and Deployment. With my session along side Joel Oleson I was really only expecting a handful of folks so I was pleasantly surprised when we counted over 60 and we had to bring in extra chairs. Michael Lotter, Susan Lennon, and a host of volunteers did a great job at putting the event together. I was amazed to see over 200+ registrations for a SharePoint specific event outside of a DC or New York. I look forward to speaking in D.C. and other SharePoint Saturday events in the near future.

As usual my favorite part of speaking at events is hanging out in the speaker lounge talking with all the other great speakers. I really enjoyed talking with Joel Oleson (formerly from MS) and Thomas Eckels from Quest Software and I had a great chat on SharePoint development tools (or the lack there of lol) with the guys from Susquehanna technologies. I had the pleasure of chatting with Todd Bleeker for a bit and I have to say its rare to find someone who can outdo me in the talking department and the amount of knowledge on SharePoint in that man’s head is truly impressive.

I met a lot of great people at the event. If you have a SharePoint Saturday event come to your town I’d highly recommend attending. It has great coverage on many aspects of Sharepoint from development and administration to end user content.

For those of you interested or request the following are links to my presentation material:

Back To Basics - Feature Development Source (zip)

Back To The Basics - Feature Development Slides (pptx)

Published: Jan-15-09 | 2 Comments | Link to this post

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