The panel discussion was GREAT. Turns out that Jeff Eaton (the Drupal guy) has quite a following! Just to show you how diverse the panel was here is a picture of me and Mike Essl (http://mike.essl.com and Mr. T and Me) I am the one on the left. Really, it was great to be considered in with such talent as George and Tiffany from Palantir.net, Jeff Eaton, and Mike. I was clearly the “business guy” but happy to say I was not representing the most expensive CMS system on the panel! Read More →

In my Search presentation at SPC I demonstrated how to tap into Internet Explorer and Firefox’s search capability to detect open search definition files on the server. The technique is quite simple and the resulting effect very powerful. Open search defines where the browser can send a search query to the current site. It also enables visitors to save the settings of the current site as a search provider in order to send a query from any browser session. Read More →

Links My Blog https://ableblue.com/blog Social Networking with MOSS http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/488d329d-306a-436d-a9fa-4b1e4037c8a61033.mspx Blogs and Wikis in business http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/sharepoint/bb400751.aspx CKS:EBE & EWE Wiki http://www.codeplex.com/cks Social Computing for SharePoint http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/capabilities/collaboration/social.mspx SharePoint Team Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/ Mike Gannotti’s blog http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/mikeg/default.aspx News Gator http://www.newsgator.com/ Code My In Common With Web Part: SCP2008.ICW.Zip Thanks to everyone who attended, I had a GREAT time! Read More →

Well, after a significant final push the CSK:EBE Team has released version 2.0 of the Community Kit for SharePoint: Enhanced Blog Edition! The details are on the SharePoint Team Blog. After I get my life back after the conference I’ll write more about the details. (Plus I have to upgrade this site!) Thanks to everyone on the team, I am really proud of this effort. Read More →

The February version of the SharePoint SDK has been released! The notice is on the SharePoint Team Blog. As they say, while you are there update your Visual Studio Extensions for SharePoint. Read More →

I just finished a strange troubleshooting session. While attempting to start the WSS Search Service the process would create the database and then error out with “File not found”. There was a bit on information in the Event Log, but it all pointed to “File not found”. I finally tried to launch regedit.exe and received the message: "Registry editing has been disabled by the administrator." Turns out there was a group policy in effect that limited the rights of the service account. Read More →

I’ll be speaking at South by Southwest Interactive on the Content Management System Roundup panel on Tuesday, March 11th from 10-11a.m. I will represent SharePoint, while the other panel members will represent the other options available in the CMS space. It will be a short format as we only have an hour. Now all I need to figure out is how to cram everything that SharePoint does into a 10 minute talk! Read More →

I just had the pleasure to present at the Sleepless in Dallas event. Contestants receive 8 hours of training in SharePoint and then are split into teams. The teams receive a challenge and then have all night to design, develop and present a solution using what they learned. My presentation on SharePoint Master Pages and Page Layouts. I covered how to create and troubleshoot master pages. The tool that I created to facilitate the process is my Page Anatomy master. Read More →

I am happy to announce that I will be presenting three topics at the SharePoint Conference 2008 in Seattle March 3-6. Advanced Search Configuration and Management Organizations intending to implement a search solution in SharePoint often approach this “technical problem” by asking “What do we need to index?”. While this approach may yield results they are usually less than optimal. The approach presented in this session begins with the user and drives to determine what the user needs and wants in their search experience. Read More →

I have been working on updating many of my “fundamental” skills lately. CSS and XSLT are two indispensable SharePoint skills that I find most SharePoint professionals lack. (Don’t get me started about basic HTML!) I recently picked up a book on CSS and the only good part of that book was that the author referenced HTML Dog. For all I care the other book could have only been one page stating “Go buy the HTML Dog book! Read More →