Collaboration, Technology, and New York

Displaying a rich text field in a view

There’s a couple of 3rd party products out there..

But the simplest way to do this is to use a DVWP and convert the field to a label

LIc sunset

Extracting email from Active Directory

While building a workflow in SharePoint Designer I came across the problem of sending an email from a Person field with multiple values.

I discovered that the value coming from AD was:

357;#Peter.Ward@ABC.com; 357;#Paul.Smith@ABC.com

To get round the problem of the email address containing numbers and #. Build a string in SPD and have the AD lookup values returned as:

BLOB Storage

Been looking at Remote BLOB Storage….given that the content db has run out of gas on a project I’m working on.

This is my finding

RBS overview

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 can work with Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) and Microsoft SQL Server to optimize database storage resources.

Before you implement RBS which is complicated, look at is it worth it See here Plan for RBS (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

In this article:

• Introduction to RBS
• RBS providers
• Using RBS together with SharePoint 2010 Products

Introduction to RBS

In SharePoint Foundation 2010, a binary large object (BLOB) is a large block of data stored in a database that is known by its size and location instead of by its structure — for example a Microsoft Office 2010 document or a video file. By default, these BLOBs, also known as unstructured data, are stored directly in the SharePoint content database along with the associated metadata, or structured data. Because these BLOBs can be very large, it might be better to store BLOBs outside the content database. BLOBs are immutable. Accordingly, a new copy of the BLOB must be stored for each version of that BLOB. Because of this, as a database’s usage increases, the total size of its BLOB data can expand quickly and grow larger than the total size of the document metadata and other structured data that is stored in the database. BLOB data can consume lots of space and uses server resources that are optimized for database access patterns. Therefore, it can be helpful to move BLOB data out of the SQL Server database, and onto commodity or content addressable storage. To do this, you can use RBS.

RBS is a Microsoft SQL Server library API set that is incorporated as an add-on feature pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express. The RBS feature enables applications, such as SharePoint Foundation 2010, to store BLOBs in a location outside the content databases.

Storing the BLOBs externally can reduce how much SQL Server database storage space is required. The metadata for each BLOB is stored in the SQL Server database and the BLOB is stored in the RBS store.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 uses the RBS feature to store BLOBs outside of the content database. SQL Server and SharePoint Foundation 2010 jointly manage the data integrity between the database records and contents of the RBS external store on a per-database basis.

Custom actions SharePoint Designer

A nice feature in SP 2010 is the ability to add custom actions to a list drop down menu.

From this:

To this

Notice that graphics can also be added:   The custom actions, can include:  kicking off workflows, going to a URL, or creating a new item…..even in another list.

This is a huge benefit for the user experience, as there is less clicks (yeah!!!!)  and the user can select multiple workflows, from options from just glancing at an item in a list…..

This is done through SharePoint Designer:

Steps:

1. On the Custom Actions tab, click Custom Action in the New group, and then click Display Form Ribbon.
2. In the Name box type Kick Off workflow. In the Navigate to form list, select
the workflow for the list.
3. In the Button Image URL (16×16) box, click Browse, and then select the image you want to use, such as workflow.gif.  In the Button Image Click OK.

Simple

Why Business Intelligence Solutions with SharePoint 2010 Seminar

I’m speaking at a breakfast event:

Where and When:

Microsoft NJ Office – NJ 101 Wood S, Iselin, NJ - Sea Isle Room

Date & Time: Thursday, November 17, 2011, 8:30am-11:30am

To Register:

To register for this event, please click on the following link Microsoft Link:

http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=157854

Lookup field. Problems.

I discovered this issue the other day.

Scenario:  Lookup field intending to bring back the Title field of a Web part page in another list.

There’s a problem.

When you create a web part page in a library, the name of the web is what you define it as, not the title.  The Lookup field type, can’t look up the name…..Only other fields like the title.

How do you get round this?

Create a SPD workflow to populate the title field, when the field is modified.

Gantry park LIC – Sept

101 Tower at night

A very long camera exposure.

Bridge to Brooklyn