Iberian SharePoint Conference

I would like to share and invite you all for the Iberian Peninsula Conference of SharePoint, this is the first time the Latin speaking countries join together in the Iberian Peninsula to make large conference about SharePoint in Madrid to share their knowledge and experiences.

This Conference will be made in Madrid at 10 of October with a lot of SharePoint speakers from Latin america and Iberian Peninsula and well known SharePoint Speakers.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​On the 1st Iberic SharePoint Conference, the main experts from Spain and Latin America will be present, along with prominent international references of the platform. We will have MVP's and International Experts of the platform like Gustavo Vélez, Fabián Imaz, Ricardo Muñoz, Christian Buckley, Joel Oleson, Rodrigo Pinto, Andre Lage and Jethro Seghers. At a local level, all SharePoint.
Office 365 and related platforms MVP's will be involved, Alberto Díaz, Mario Cortés, David Martos, Juan Carlos González, Daniel Seara, Luis Ruiz Pavón among others, as well as prominent references of the SharePoint community like Edin Kapic, Miguel Tabera, Adrián Díaz or José Quinto.​
http://www.iberiansharepointconference.com/en/speakers

A big thanks to "Juan Carlos González Martín" because is making a lot of effort to make this event possible.

SharePoint Code Analysis Framework - Review

If you are a SharePoint  Administrator the tool Microsoft SharePoint Online Code Analysis Framework (MSOCAF) will be a very usefull to validate code from internal developers and solution from external companies and help you mantain a good SharePoint performance .

 

The Tool generates reports that you can send to the code  source owner  and tell them, that you don’t accept their solution in your environment  because don’t follow the best practices “same for Sandbox Solutions (is depreceated in 2013)”, since they have to install, they should also have the power to block the installation in the case the solution impacts the SharePoint performance.

This tool was created to validate code from SharePoint on-premise and Office 365 dedicated.

The first thing you should do is the MSOCAF installation.

The following prerequisites would be installed if not present on the system:

SharePoint 2010:

• Windows Installer 3.1
• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

 

SharePoint 2013:

• Windows Installer 3.1
• .NET Framework 4.5 SP1
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013

 

Install the software and open the Office 365 Code Analysis Framework.

Create the following Folder Structure in your Drive:

• Root
• Installation scripts
• Release Documents
• Solutions artifacts
• Source code
• Test documents

For this example I added a WSP solution example “Filter.wsp” in the folder Solutions Artifacts, the SharePoint Solution should be dropped here (Farm, sandbox, etc…).

After you add the solution return to the MSOCAF Solution Wizard and select “Next”

 

The next window will give you the Tests and Rules the solution uses to validate the Solution code and configuration and click “Next”. There you selects the "Root" Folder that was created before and click "Analyze".

 

After you click Analyze, the solution starts to make the code validation of your solution. In the end a report will be generated with the results from the Code Validation.

You can also access to a Html/Excel Report in the Page to have a more detail and send to the Code owner for a review of their code.

 

Example of the report where you can  see all the details of the errors and the recommendations you should follow to correct.

 

One nice feature is the validation of the code for a upgrade to SharePoint 2013, you can also prevent possible issues for a Migration to the new Version.

 

Hope you can see the real potential of this tool in the validation and start to prepare a future migration of the SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013 and also use  the new version.

 

Microsoft Documentation about this code validation:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18128

“SharePoint Online Custom Solution Developers Guide_Office 365 Dedicated Plans_Oct 2012.docx”

PS: I recommend give a look in the project "SharePoint Code Analysis Framework (SPCAF) BETA" for code review, i will make a article about this solution.

 

Hope you like this article,
André Lage

Easy Enterprise SharePoint Branding Tip SharePoint 2013

How much SharePoint Branding can you really make in a very restrictive environment? 
This is a question i always have when have to make restyling for a SharePoint Site.

I work with a lot of enterprise environments where you can't change and touch Master Pages, Page Layouts or change existing CSS, apps, sandbox, etc etc... because of Companies Brands Policies, what is understandable, but gives you some area limitation where you can develop your presentation Page/Design and show the essential content for the final user.
That will implicate create specific solutions folders with your custom "JS/CSS/HTML/XML" files to support you design  to response specifics Client requests. 

One thing I learn from users is the Main Page, is the Key for a successful Site and after some common sense and reading about how our memory works, easily identify that Visual Memory is a key point for a successful site.

The Main Page should be easy to understand and should give you exactly what >60% of users want, a strong, colorful and understandable images that values more than 1000 words....

Can we eliminate the Text "NO", but we can reduce to Minimal.

In my point of view is essential to keep the User the most time possible in the Main Page unless is not possible to give a response for the client request and redirect to other page.

One of the strategies that was develop in SharePoint 2010 and continue with 2013 is the ability to use Modal Dialog to grab parts of Content in the existing SharePoint Site/ External and show in the Main Page with redirect to other Pages. 

When you are making styling here are some things users hate and complain and you should remember:

• Too much data/text in the Main Page.
• Too much clicks to go anywhere.
• Redirects to Lists/Document Libraries or Features inside SharePoint Site that is not Page Content like "Publishing"... 
• Scrolls (specially horizontal ones)
• Sensibility when selecting colors
• Buttons don't interact (e.g "mouseover")
• Heavy tree view Navigation  (i use "Algorithms graph" concept and users liked more....)

For this example, want to show a example on how we can create in the Main Page a Link button to open Documents in a Modal Dialog without Out of the Box Ribbon.

When a Document Library is accessed the Master Page Content appears and  the Ribbon reacts when a item Area is selected. 

One option to remove the Master Page content in the Document Library View is add the Parameter "isdlg=1".
This option will activate the class name "s4-notdlg" of the CSS that hides the content of the Master Page but will not hide the Ribbon associated with the View.

Here a example of Url to have a clean :
http://[Site]/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?isdlg=1

One option will be edit the Page of the Document Library View and add a Web Part "Script Editor"

After the Script Editor Web Part is added you can add the following JavaScript to Hide the Ribbon Area "s4-ribbonrow" when the Page is on Modal Dialog "isdlg=1" in the site URL:


<script type="text/javascript">
document.getElementById('s4-ribbonrow').className = "s4-notdlg";
</script>

This option give us the permission to view the Ribbon when the Modal Dialog is not active and only Hide when a normal user want to view specific content. 

After this changes are made we need to create a new Link or image link in the Main Page where the users should have access to a clean view of Document in the same Page.

Here a example where is added the Image and call a Modal Dialog to the clean Document Library View.

After we click the Button or the Link Text the Modal Dialog will show with the documents and with a clean view without Ribbons.

This is a simple example, there are other ways of doing this example and only want to give a very straightforward way of making it.

This are my personal thoughts and experience with some customers, nothing more...

Hope this article is useful and can help you,
Kind regards, 
André Lage

SharePoint MVP for the 4th time

For the 4th time i was nominated SharePoint MVP, was a very important year to me in the personal life and that take some of the time to make and also learning all the new Features from the SharePoint 2013, but this new year will bring me the time to create new articles in different Services in the SharePoint World.


The year of 2012 that was very important to Microsoft for the new way of work in Microsoft Products and of course the Cloud.
More than ever learning and experience with a good planing is the most important factor in the success of a good implementation or reorganization of the existing system, remember all decisions we take in life reflects in everything, inclusive in the special times that can change your life...

Thank you all for the support and a excellent year,
Kind regards,
Andre Lage