One sure sign that I have been head down, nose to the grind stone, working, is when friends ping me “Are you OK?” or “Where have you been?” I raise my head, blink my eyes and says, “Oh, sorry, yep, I have been a little busy.” This post should bring you fully up to speed on what’s been going on with me for the past couple months from a SharePoint perspective.

Critical Path Training SharePoint 2013 No-Code Solutions for SharePoint Class

Critical Path has just released the SharePoint 2013 No-Code Solutions class for SharePoint 2013 (both On-Premise and Office 365). I assisted by authoring 4 modules and delivered the class in Tampa to an audience of over 30 students. You may know that Critical Path Training offers courses in person and as webcasts, but did you also know that they offer classes through Remote Classroom Instruction? RCI is a great way to get everything you expect from In-Person training without the expense of travel. We create a virtual training environment and broadcast the whole classroom experience. Our crack technologists even wire the classroom for sound so the students can hear what’s happening in the room. All questions are answered live and the whole class is recorded. (During the breaks our very own DJ Paul plays tunes so everyone benefits from his music collection too!) This class rounds out the SharePoint 2013 content offering from Critical Path Training, we have been teaching our IT Pro Class, SharePoint 2013 Administrator’s Survival Camp and the Dev class, App Development with SharePoint 2013 since the product was released.

The MOSS Show

I have been teaching and talking about SharePoint 2013 Search for quite a while now. My buddy Hilton Giesenow at the Moss Show asked me to join him for an interview recently and I could not refuse. Hilton was the reason MJ and I traveled to Durban, South Africa a few years ago for TechEd Africa. Aside from a great conference I was blown away by what an amazing and beautiful country it was. The food, the people, the food, the animals, everything was awesome! So here it is, me talking about SharePoint 2013 Search and rambling on about other topics.

SharePoint 2013 Search Classes

For more than a year I have been planning, noodling, thinking and wanting to produce “something” in more detail and depth than a 75 minute lecture on SharePoint Search could provide. My vision for the class was to start with setting up the search service the right way and then take the student through to the front end delivery of search results. I thought about a book, but feared that my schedule and lack of focus would let the project die on the vine. So I took a friend’s advice and just wrote a table of contents, an abstract really. Something that I KNEW I could produce. Then I submitted that as a 4 session half-day class or 7 session full-day class. While I waited for the responses from the Conference Crowd, I started working on the presentations and demos, again, taking the wire-frame approach. Each presentation had about 3 demos and a couple main points to teach. From there I built my classes.

Enter Pluralsight

If you have not heard of [Pluralsight](http://www.pluralsight.com/, stop reading and go there now, sign up for a free trial membership and check out the vast array of classes. The tag line might be “Hardcore developer training” but have a closer look, they have TONS of GREAT SharePoint content from authors you know and love like Ted Pattison, Andrew, Scot and even Sahil are in there! I worked with Scot Hillier, who had just completed his class SharePoint 2013 Search Development for Pluralsight, to craft a class that covers SharePoint 2013 Search Back to Front, without overlapping his content. In my “soon to be released class” I cover:

• Overview
• SharePoint Search Overview
• Requirements
• Architecture
• Concepts
• Planning
• Configuration
• Managing the Topology
• Provisioning
• Content Sources
• People Search
• Advanced Configuration
• BCS and BCS Permissions
• File Shares
• Managed Metadata
• Authentication and Anonymous Crawls
• AAM
• PowerShell Administration
• Results Presentation
• Result Sources
• Crawled and Managed Properties
• Query Rules
• Display Templates
• Refiners

Troubleshooting

• Troubleshooting with ULS Viewer
• Troubleshooting with Fiddler
• Troubleshooting Display Templates
• Monitoring and Throttling

While I enjoyed the whole process, the troubleshooting segment really came together well. It’s content I have never seen presented before, and it’s not just for Search. These techniques can be applied all over SharePoint.

Today, the course is being reviewed and should be published SOON. (It is LIVE on Pluralsight.com.) The truly GREAT thing about working with Pluralsight is they don’t stifle my ability to teach this content LIVE, so at the upcoming Conferences I will be presenting modules from the class, new sessions and some of my most popular sessions revamped based on my recent client experiences!!

SPTechCon Boston 2013

SPTechCon is in Boston from August 11-14, 2013 I’ll be doing a half day version of my Implementing SharePoint 2013 Search class on Sunday and a Session on Monday on SharePoint Search that is an overview of the system for folks who are new to SharePoint Search or folks who want to learn more about what’s in the box. There’s still time to register and use the code MCDERMOTT for a discount.

SharePoint Connections, Las Vegas

SharePoint Connections is back in Las Vegas, NV Sept 30-Oct 4th. Packed with great presenters and topics galore! I’ll be presenting my two favorite 75 minute developer sessions:

• Developers Approach to Social Applications in SharePoint 2013
• Developing Search Applications in SharePoint 2013

Each of these sessions provides strategies for handling SharePoint 2013 from a developer’s perspective. The Search and Social interfaces have been vastly improved. I’ll cover what’s new and how to incorporate them into your development.

This conference covers much more than just SharePoint (though we do have the most fun!) Check it out!

SharePoint Intersection, Las Vegas

SharePoint Intersection runs from October 27th – 30. This conference is another chance for you to catch your favorite speakers and their favorite topics. For me, I am presenting, a bunch of sessions:

• SharePoint 2013 Search – Back to Front. This is the full day version of my Search class. At this conference I am excited that I’ll have the time to include a whole module on search system extensions and development concepts for working with SharePoint 2013 Search. This is a demo rich session. I plan to add more content from my previous sessions that I did not have time for, like a demo of content processing enrichment that I have been working on.
• Developing Social Applications with SharePoint 2013
• Developers Approach to Social Applications in SharePoint 2013
• Display Templates and Query Rules

Then, not to be missed, [http://www.aghy.hu/Agnes Molnar](http://www.aghy.hu/Agnes Molnar) is presenting a post-conference session called Architecting the Optimal Enterprise Search Strategy that nicely complements the implementation work I am presenting at the beginning of the conference.

Register with code “MCDER” and $AVE!

Vacation!

Oh, and in the midst of all this MJ and I took Ruby to California for some much needed vacation! Here is a picture of the happiest dog on the planet at a beach affectionately known as Dog Heaven, right here on earth.