New Theme’s for SharePoint

It’s always nice to see new theme’s for SharePoint sites, in some ways I wish that Microsoft would bring out more than they do. But Just noticed this blog post from Michael Gannotti on 10 new SharePoint theme’s.  You can find them on the Microsoft Web Site here!

Install MOSS 2007 on the Windows 2008 Platform

Recently I began the process of rebuilding my internal compnay environment to a Windows Server 2008 base for all systems that were supported on the platform.  This included installing SharePoint onto the server 2008 platform.

So after backing up my old environment and building my brandnew Intranet server on 64bit windows server 2008 platform (previous was on 32bit) I niaviely installed my MOSS install disk in the DVD drive and hit install….

This is the point that most IT professionals dread, support the application on the platfrom is there but are there instructions on how to install the app, of course not!  At this point my great friend Google came to the rescuse and I started reading a number of blogs on how other people have gotten round the issue  of installing MOSS on Server 2008.  Simply put here is how I did it:

1.  Get a MOSS 2007 install that has Service Pack 1 included with the install (my install media did not, hense my issue in the first place).  The best thing I found was to download the trail version of MOSS + SP1 from the Microsoft Web site, you can find the 32bit version HERE and the 64bit version HERE.  Also note that the download is around 400Mb so for those of us on slower links give yourself a little time.

2. Next, once you have the download run the install on your Windows Server 2008 environment. From this point there are two options:
A – During the install wizard use your compnay license key to install the product (Recommended).
B – If your compnay license key is an old one I have read posts that state you need to use the trial key that comes with the download.  In this case install MOSS on Server 2008 with the tiral key then go into Central Admin and ‘Upgrade’ the install to you compnay license.  (not 100% sure on the details of this one as I was able to do option A).

Following this you should have a fully functioning MOSS 2007 install on the Windows Server 2008 platform.

Let’s hope that Microsoft soon release install media with the full MOSS + SP1 application so we don’t have to play around as much!

I also found these blog posts handy while sorthing this out for myself:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/03/07/moss-2007-with-sp1-slipstream-officeserverwithsp1-exe-released.aspx

http://www.mindsharpblogs.com/ben/archive/2007/12/16/3837.aspx

http://edge.technet.com/Media/Installing-MOSS-2007-on-Windows-Server-2008/

Back in Action + SharePoint Designer

Well it has been a little while since I have posted anything to my professional blog. I guess that has been for a number of reasons (long and complicated) but I am now very much back in the MOSS technology seat and once again working on pushing the envelope with new ideas and situations for MOSS 2007 to handle.

Now to get back in to the MOSS stuff I’ve come across a series of SharePoint Designer videos that may be of some use to people trying to get a hold on the new Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer Application.

User Interface and Design Tools

http://office.microsoft.com/home/video.aspx?assetid=HX102200491033&width=0&height=0&startindex=0&CTT=11&Origin=HA102199841033

Custom SharePoint Sites

http://office.microsoft.com/home/video.aspx?assetid=HX102200491033&width=0&height=0&startindex=1&CTT=11&Origin=HA102199841033

Create and Modify Pages

http://office.microsoft.com/home/video.aspx?assetid=HX102200491033&width=0&height=0&startindex=2&CTT=11&Origin=HA102199841033

Create and Modify Rules Based Workflow Application

http://office.microsoft.com/home/video.aspx?assetid=HX102200491033&width=0&height=0&startindex=3&CTT=11&Origin=HA102199841033

Build Composite no-code SharePoint Application

http://office.microsoft.com/home/video.aspx?assetid=HX102200491033&width=0&height=0&startindex=4&CTT=11&Origin=HA102199841033

Visual Studio Integration

http://office.microsoft.com/home/video.aspx?assetid=HX102200491033&width=0&height=0&startindex=5&CTT=11&Origin=HA102199841033

It’s SharePoint but it doesn’t look like SharePoint…

One of the largest complaints about creating a SharePoint site is that they always look to ‘SharePointy’ (yeah a technical term) but I have just been reading this blog entry on the ECM team that have built the Hed Kandi web site built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal 2007, and it DOES NOT look like a SharePoint site.

The article is a good read and although there was a lot of effort that went into the site (more than most clients want to spend) the results are fantastic!

Beta, Beta, Beta (and throw in an RC or two)

Sometimes you just have to laugh,  This coming year we are going to see so many new products come out on the market.  The biggest of course is going to be Microsoft Vista.  But supporting vista we have all the desktop and backend server applications that we increase functionality (in the long run is my guess), anyway i’m off topic…

Recently I bought a new laptop and with that I was talking to my  MS usergroup rep who mentioned that I should be running  Windows Vista RC 1 (build 5600) so having a nice new laptop I have – check!

Now since I do a lot of work with SharePoint and look after the Brisbane SharePoint Users Group I also thought that I should be running up the new Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh – Check!

Now since I am running vista and I want to run MOSS 2007 in a clean server environment on my laptop I need to load up either Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server.  I have chosen Virtual Server becuase A. i’m not sure that Virutal PC has ANY support on vista yet. and B. I want to have a closer look at how IIS 7 (Beta) works in vista!  Now in that you can’t just load up the current Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 you have to load the new Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta… Check!

So here I am waiting for the Virtual Server Beta to finish downloading and load yet another beta on my brand new laptop, I honestly don’t know how healthy this is for everything that I am working on but at the moment I have no choice.  But perhaps I am painting this portrait with a few too many dark colours.  My expereince with these beta products from the RC’s and Tech Refreshes onwards have been great. I love the smooth UI and potential for the knowladge workers or the world to have all the information they require at the tips of their fingers through technology like RSS feeds, sidebar widgets and content queries (SharePoint), but at the same time I think that over the next 12 months we (I am mainly refering to tech’s here) are in for some growth pain as these products emerge into the market and begin thier true maturity cycle!

MOSS 2007 Styles, Themes and Site Def’s

Currently working with the MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007) beta I am having to opportunity to work on some custom ‘look & feel’ items for the site.  From what I have observed from others that are working with MOSS there apears to be some aprehensiveness (spelt right?) around how to apply the custom look and feel.  So here is my point of view on where they apply

• Style Sheets – Able to be applied to a single page or over a site (through the master template). Ability to quickly impliment, but the Portal and WSS sides both inherit styles in different ways
• Themes – Also able to be applied to a single page or over a site.  Theme’s contain style sheets + content (ie images) specific to the theme. More time is required to setup a theme but it can been applied accross both Portal and WSS sites if created correctly!
• Site Definitions – The ulitmate look and feel.  Site Definitions can set the entire layout for a page or a site from including style sheets and its own master template variations through to including custom built controls that are automaticly applied when a site using the site definition is deployed.  The draw back to using a site definition is that people are still learning how to use them in MOSS and they take a large amount of time to get up and running. the advantage is flexibility!

Over the next few weeks while I get to know MOSS a little better, i’ll post a little more and more than likely i’m going to put together a presentation to present at the BSPUG!