As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I've found that one of the most compelling features in an enterprise search solution is faceted search, which enables users to refine a large number of results quickly by selecting categories.  SharePoint Server 2007, which provides a compelling search solution that integrates well with the rest of SharePoint, lacks native faceted search. 

But have no fear; a team, led by Leonid Lyublinski (a Senior Consultant at Microsoft Consulting Services), has released a Faceted Search solution on CodePlex, complete with a recent update.

It's worth a look. Here are some comments about the new release, straight from the official enterprise search blog:  http://blogs.msdn.com/enterprisesearch/archive/2008/08/12/announcing-faceted-search-v2-5.aspx.

Oh...and if you haven't checked out CodePlex, it's a fantastic site filled with open source projects designed to run on the Microsoft platform. Add your ideas and make a code contribution!

I hope everyone in the USA had a fantastic 4th of July!  I watched the fireworks in Boston...what an amazing show.  Which leads me to today's topic...governance.

The number one topic that my customers ask me about is SharePoint governance. What does governance mean?  It means determining what users can, should, and should not do, as well as who is responsible for permissions and what policies are in place. In short, SharePoint governance uses roles and responsibilities, policies, process, and technology to clarify ambiguity, manage company goals, and ensure overall long-term success of your SharePoint environment.

To that end, here are a couple of resources that I've authored that help with SharePoint governance:

1) This article: SharePoint Governance: Considerations for a Successful Deployment

2) This book: Essential SharePoint 2007

I had the opportunity to spend the day in Microsoft's new office in Cambridge, MA. The facility is wonderful! The Boston Globe has some good coverage of the Concept Development Center in today's paper...check it out:

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/06/30/microsoft_seeks_next_big_idea_in_cambridge/

Meet the Authors!

FREE COCKTAILS AND FINGER FOODS!

BOOK AND SOFTWARE GIVEAWAYS!

I'll be there along with Microsoft’s own Steve Resnick, Richard Crane, Chris Bowen, and Rob Walters, along with Vitale Caturano’s Mauro Cardarelli, will be on-hand to meet, chat, and sign their books.

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

Microsoft Technology Center

890 Winter Street, Waltham MA

4:00 – 7:00 PM

FEATURED BOOKS:

·         Essential SharePoint 2007 by Scott Jamison, Mauro Cardarelli, and  Susan Hanley

·         Essential Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) For .NET Framework 3.5 by Steve Resnick, Richard Crane, Chris Bowen, and Rob Walters

·         Accelerated SQL Server 2008 by Rob Walters, Michael Coles, Robin Dewson, Donald Farmer, Fabio Claudio Ferracchiati, and Robert Rae

Click Here to Register

I've had several people ask me what the difference is between .MSPX vs the standard .ASPX extension. 

The answer is that Microsoft uses the .MSPX extension to generate custom XML-driven HTML content. Microsoft created a custom HTTP handler to process requests for the custom .MSPX extension. 

Check out this great site that is designed to help .NET Developers to learn to build solutions with SharePoint: http://MSSharePointDeveloper.com

·         User Management

The site includes some great info, such as:

·         An Introductory Whitepaper

·         Benefits of SharePoint for Developers

·         A SharePoint VPC

·         Hosted MSDN Virtual Labs in C# and VB.NET

·         Video Interview with SharePoint MVPs

·         Screencasts

·         Web Casts with SharePoint MVPs

·         Quickstarts

·         Labcasts

·         Presentation Download

·         Hands on Labs Download

·         Additional Resource Links

Check it out!  http://MSSharePointDeveloper.com

I get a lot of questions regarding the use of SharePoint as a solutions platform. I personally think it's a great tool for many (but not all) applications. The reason?  SharePoint lends something that we like to call the "productivity tier," which is missing from most platform architecture stacks.  We're all used to the UI tier, application tier, and data tier.  Those three, however, fail to address a common requirement, which is being able to accomodate things like frequent changes to business processes, human workflows, tie-in with unstructured information, and data or visualization mashups that an end-user might want to create.  SharePoint can help with all of those scenarios.

So let's say you're going to use SharePoint as your platform. Then the main question I get is "give me a methodology for team-based SharePoint development that combines custom code that I write and content that will be managed inside of SharePoint".

To that end, here's a great doc:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=65F21935-CBC0-4178-8C08-4C56F721C87D&displaylang=en

The document suggests implementation scenarios, tools, and development environments for SharePoint-based solutions.  It's quite handy.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Now that MOSS 2007 has been out for a while, I'm getting a lot of requests for deeper knowledge and guidance. In that regard, I’m pleased to announce that we've recently released Advanced SharePoint videos and whitepapers on TechNet.

The SharePoint team has released post-SP1 hot-fix rollups for both WSS and MOSS. If you haven't installed SP1 yet, be sure to take some time to plan your deployment. And then review and install these rollups:

WSS Post-SP1 Rollup:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941422
MOSS Post-SP1 Rollup: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941274

One of the most popular requests I see from customers regarding enterprise search is to be able to refine search results by category with a simple click.

The best free way to enhance MOSS 2007 search with this type of feature is via the free faceted search web parts out on codeplex: http://www.codeplex.com/FacetedSearch

Want to check it out?  Here's a live demo: http://www.wssdemo.com/Search/Pages/results.aspx?k=search. Check out the "Search Facets" section on the right.

The new 2.0 release encapsulates foundation changes in the design and code, that provides perfect balance between accuracy and performance.

Highlights:

• Multi-thread processing. 1st thread runs for up to 500 facets synchronously, while the 2nd thread is running asynchronously against up to ~30,000 facets
• Client side refresh (not AJAX) that updates only Facets web part w/o page refresh
• Web part connections to pass Facet settings to the Bread Crumbs
• Extended facet schema now supports:
• Facet icons. Default icon per Facet name complimented by an icon per Facet value
• Friendly names for facet values
• Exclusions. Allow exclude facet when values match pattern
• Built-in wild-card match, especially useful for exclusions
• Improved search syntax, added supports for sentences and quoted phrases

This release includes numerous fixes and complemented by extended documentation.

I just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone about the SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool.

Official description:  The SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool comprises models of both Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) that allow you to explore the necessary infrastructure for either deployment based on usage requirements. This tool uses the System Center Capacity Planner 2007 (SCCP) as an engine to provide for data collection, visualization, simulation, and report writing. The tool can be used in pre-sales and feasibility studies of a deployment project to give you a rough estimate of hardware requirements.

The tool is able to consider variations in usage, size of installation, networking technology, scale, and availability.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb961988.aspx

According to Forrester, 2008 will be the year that Web 2.0 will make it big in the enterprise, with SharePoint being a huge part of it.

Check it out:  http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/013008-forrester-predictions.html