SharePoint 2013 First Looks for ITPros and Developers

 

I will be presenting two FREE First Look clinics this Thursday and Friday at MAX Technical Training. You can attend these sessions in person at MAX's Mason, Ohio training center or remotely using any PC.

• MS-40027 First Look: What's New for Developers in Microsoft SharePoint 2013
  January 3rd, 2013 9:00 am - 12:00 pm EST
  Click here to register: http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=43826
  
• MS-40028 First Look Clinic: What’s New for IT Professionals in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013
  January 4th, 2013 9:00 am - 12:00 pm EST
  Click here to register: http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=44107

Just for fun, when registering add a note that "Mike sent me!" (Or maybe… "Attending in spite of Mike")

 

MS-40027 First Look: What's New for Developers in Microsoft SharePoint 2013

More info here: http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=43826

This 1/2 day instructor-led developer first-look course provides an overview of the new features, functional areas, product enhancements, and application models in SharePoint 13.

At Course Completion

• Provide an overview of the new features, functional areas, and product enhancements in SharePoint 2013.
• Summarize the key features of the SharePoint 2013 application development platform and describe the key features of Marketplaces.
• Explain what a SharePoint-Hosted app is, and describe how to build a SharePoint-Hosted app.
• Explain what a Cloud-Hosted app is, and describe how to build a Cloud-Hosted app.
• Describe how developers extend Office Application user interfaces by creating Apps for Office and publishing them in different catalogs.
• Describe how to create and code a simple App for Office that interacts with document content.
• Describe improvements in Manage Metadata Services, Enterprise Content Management and Web Content Management in SharePoint 2013.
• Describe the new social networking functionality available to SharePoint 2013 App developers.
• Describe how the new capabilities of the SharePoint Search engine can be used in SharePoint Apps.
• Describe how to query the index from a SharePoint-Hosted app using CSOM.

MS-40028 First Look Clinic: What’s New for IT Professionals in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013

More info here: http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=44107

This 1/2 day instructor-led first-look clinic explains the new and improved product features as applicable to IT Professionals and how to install, deploy, manage, and administer SharePoint Server 2013. It also provides information on how to integrate SharePoint Server 2013 with key applications and how to maintain and troubleshoot SharePoint Server 2013.

At course completion:

• Identify the major new features in SharePoint 2013 for IT Pros
• Discuss the major architectural changes in SharePoint 2013
• Describe the major changes to the BCS and the search service
• Describe the new BI and composites features in SharePoint 2013
• Describe the new content management and compliance features
• Identify the new features for social computing and mobile users

 

.

Fun and Games with Site Collection Administrators

 

SharePoint has three kinds of Site Collection Administrators: Primary, Secondary and "other". When you edit the list of admins in Site Actions, Site Settings there is just a list of admins with no indication of kind. So who is the Primary? What happens when the list is edited and the Primary and / or Secondary is removed? Then who's the Primary?

This article has two parts:

• Background on Site Collection Administrators
• Weird Fun and Games

I did my testing in SharePoint 2010, but expect similar results in both 2007 and 2013. I'll test those when I get a chance.

Background

A Site Collection Administrator is:

• a user assigned to the SPSite.Owner property. They are displayed in Central Administration as the "Primary site collection administrator".
• a user assigned to the SPSite.SecondaryContact property. They are displayed in Central Administration as the "Secondary site collection administrator".
• a user added in Site Actions, Site settings as a site collection administrator. They are not displayed anywhere in Central Administration. They are added in the site using Site Actions, Site Settings, Site Collection Administrators. (Both these admins and the Primary and Secondary admins have their SPUser.IsSiteAdmin property set to true.)

What makes them special:

• All Site Collection Administrators have full control over the entire site collection and can see all content. (unless limited by Central Administration, Applications, User Policy)
• Only the Primary and Secondary admins receive administrative email alerts for the site collection (Quota exceeded warnings and Site Use Confirmation and Deletion notices)

Finding them with Central Administration

Finding them with Site Actions, Site Settings

Finding them with PowerShell (just the Primary and Secondary here:

$site = get-spsite http://sharepoint/sites/training
$site.Owner
$site.SecondaryContact

Or for all Site Collections in a web application:

Get-SPWebApplication http://sharepoint | Select -ExpandProperty sites | Select url, owner, secondarycontact | ft -AutoSize

Now for the Fun and Games!

I created a new site collection and assigned:

• Primary Site Collection Administrator (Owner):  susanj
• Secondary Site Collection Administrator (SecondaryContact):  samc

I confirmed the admins in:

Central Admin:

Site Actions, Site Settings:

PowerShell:

Get-SPSite http://sharepoint/sites/test1 | select url, owner, secondarycontact

Url                           Owner             SecondaryContact
---                           -----             ----------------
http://sharepoint/sites/test1 SHAREPOINT\susanj SHAREPOINT\samc

 

Now I add two more Site Collection Administrators from Site Actions, Site Settings:

No change in Central Administration as these new admins are not the Primary/Owner or Secondary/SecondaryContact and have been added as "other site collection admins". (Their IsSiteAdmin property has been set to True.)

For PowerShell we need to add one more request to get the list of "other" admins (IsSiteAdmin=true)…

$site = Get-SPSite http://sharepoint/sites/test1
$web = $site.RootWeb
$web.AllUsers | Select UserLogin, IsSiteAdmin 

UserLogin                IsSiteAdmin
---------                -----------
SHAREPOINT\samc                 True
SHAREPOINT\administrator        True
SHAREPOINT\stellas              True
SHAREPOINT\susanj               True
SHAREPOINT\system              False

So now I have:

• Primary Site Collection Administrator (Owner): susanj
• Secondary Site Collection Administrator (SecondaryContact): samc
• Additional admin: stellas
• Additional admin: administrator

 

Now for the fun…

I logged in as Stella and then using Site Actions, Site Settings I removed sam and susan (the Primary and Secondary). So who is now what?

• Primary Site Collection Administrator (Owner): stellas
• Secondary Site Collection Administrator (SecondaryContact): none!
• Additional admin: administrator

Then I added susan and sam back:

• Primary Site Collection Administrator (Owner): stellas
• Secondary Site Collection Administrator (SecondaryContact): none!
• Additional admin: administrator
• Additional admin: samc
• Additional admin: susanj

I then tried all kinds of combinations of adding and removing admins from Site Actions, Site Settings and from Central Admin.

Learnings

• There are two kinds of Site Collection Administrators: the ones who receive site event emails, and all of the rest. Except for the emails, they all have the same permissions.
• The order of site collection administrators in Site Actions, Site Settings does not tell us who is the Primary or the Secondary. The order is simply the order the users are found in the SPWeb.AllUsers collection, sorted by DisplayName. There is no way to find out who the Primary or Secondary is except for Central Administration and PowerShell.
• If a Primary Site Collection Administrator is deleted from Site Actions, Site Settings, a replacement is automatically selected using the first person found in order by ID. (ID's are assigned in the order users are added to the site collection. First user is ID #1, etc..)
• If a Secondary Site Collection Administrator is deleted from Site Actions, Site Settings, a replacement is not automatically selected. A Secondary Site Collection Administrator can only be added from Central Administration or by using PowerShell.

Obvious, right?

 

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a

SharePoint: Use my local drafts folder

 

Update: In SharePoint 2007 the "Use my local drafts folder" checkbox was checked by default. In SharePoint 2010 and 2013 it is not checked by default. Turns out that this is an Office default and not a SharePoint default and can be changed from the Options screen of Word or Excel. See here for how to change this default: http://techtrainingnotes.blogspot.com/2013/03/sharepoint-change-default-for-my-local.html

When checking out a document SharePoint 2007 and later offers an option to automatically download a copy of the file to your local machine.

   

Selecting this option will download the file to your computer into a SharePoint Drafts folder inside of your My Documents folder.

   

When you later check in the document, SharePoint will automatically upload the file from the SharePoint Drafts folder. The file is also automatically deleted from the drafts folder. The file will also be deleted if you Discard the Checkout.

If you cancel the upload you will also cancel the check in.

So far, a very hand feature!

 

There is an unexpected side effect of the "Use my local drafts folder" option…

• Check out a document with the Use my local drafts folder option
• Later return to the library and download the document
• Edit the downloaded file and then upload back to the library
• When you later check in the file, the copy of the file downloaded to your drafts folder will be uploaded, overwriting your previously uploaded file!

 

What about Security?

Just something to think about… do your users know what's in their draft folders? Is there any content getting downloaded into laptops and forgotten about?

 

.

Weird problem with SharePoint Designer workflows and Office 365

 

I wanted to add a quick little workflow to a SharePoint Online / Office 365 (2010) site using SharePoint Designer 2010. When adding the workflow all I got was a blank screen.

My steps:

• Open SPD 2010 and open the Online (2010) site
• Click Workflows, click new List Workflow, select my list, enter a title and description, click OK
• and…  nothing… no workflow editor, no error message, just a blank workflow list

                          

Note that this was a SharePoint Online 2010 site, not a 2013 site.

The fix?

Create the workflow using SharePoint Designer 2013! SPD2013 can create both 2010 and 2013 style workflows, but when used with a 2010 site it can only create 2010 style workflows.

Here's the KB:

You have problems with workflows or receive errors in SharePoint Designer 2010
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2794961

.

CincyPowershell with Microsoft IT Pro Technical Evangelist Keith Mayer

 

Reminder for Cincinnati area PowerShell nuts!

Thursday, December 20, 2012, 6:00 PM at MAX

On December 20th, we will be joined by special guest speaker Microsoft IT Pro Technical Evangelist Keith Mayer. For this event, he will be speaking on Hyper-V and PowerShell. To learn more about Keith, visit his blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/. We want to give Keith a great event too, so spread the word!

.

SharePoint 2010–Hiding "Sign in as Different User"

 

The "Sign in as Different User" is a bad idea for a lot of reasons, but the two biggest are:

• Security on the computer where "User B" wants to access SharePoint. While at this computer they could perform any number of actions as "User A".
• Mixed experiences when using software other than a browser. As an example, "User B" can "Sign in as Different User" on the "User A" computer. Everything done from the browser, such as adding list items, is logged as "User B", but many actions performed from Word, Outlook and other tools will be logged as "User A"

"Sign in as Different User" is available from the Welcome menu and from the Access Denied page:

                     

 

How a Site Owner can hide "Sign in as Different User"

You can hide the "Sign in as Different User" option by adding a small block of JavaScript code to your site's master page just before the </body> tag.

<script type="text/javascript"> 
var doc = document.getElementsByTagName('ie:menuitem');  
for (var i = 0; i < doc.length; i++)  
{
    itm = doc[i];
    if (itm.id.match('LoginAsDifferentUser') != null)
      { itm.hidden=true; }
 } 
</script> 

Note: You can still "Sign in as Different User" by navigating directly to the Access Denied page:
  http://yourserver/sites/yoursite/_layouts/AccessDenied.aspx

 

How a developer or server administrator can hide "Sign in as Different User"

As there are two ways a user can get to the "Sign in as Different User" option you will need to make two different changes, one to the Welcome menu and one to the Access Denied page.

Warning:

• Changes to ControlTemplates and Layouts folder impact all users on all sites in the farm!
• Changes to the pages in the ControlTemplates and Layouts folder need to be documented as farm rebuilds or service pack updates could overwrite your changes.
• You should make a backup copy of any files you edit.
• All changes must be made identically on all web front end servers.

Updating the Welcome menu

The Welcome menu is implemented as an ASPX user control (.ascx) and is stored in the …\14\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES folder. Editing this file impact all users on all sites in the farm. You may want to use the "Site Owner" solution listed earlier in this article. Another option is to create a copy of the Welcome.ascx file and modify selected master pages to point to the custom version of the file.

1. Open the Welcome.ascx file (or your custom copy) using Notepad or Visual Studio from
       …\14\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES 
2. Find the MenuItemTemplate with the ID of ID_LoginAsDifferentUser
3. Then do one of the following

• Delete the MenuItemTemplate control
• Add these two options to the MenuItemTemplate control to limit the display of the menu item to only Site Owners
     PermissionsString="ManageWeb"
     PermissionMode="Any"

Updating the Access Denied page (AccessDenied.aspx)

1. Open the AccessDenied.aspx page using Notepad or Visual Studio:
      …\14\TEMPLATE\AccessDenied.aspx
2. Find the following code:
     <asp:HyperLink id="HLinkLoginAsAnother"
     Text="<%  $SPHtmlEncodedResources:wss,accessDenied_logInAsAnotherOne%>"
     CssClass="ms-descriptiontext" runat="server"/>
3. Then do one of the following:

• Delete the code
• Wrap the code in a comment block
• Wrap the code in a SPSecurityTrimmedControl with a permission level such as ManageWeb (see this article) so Site Owner can still see the option.

<Sharepoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl runat="server" PermissionsString="ManageWeb">

  <asp:HyperLink id="HLinkLoginAsAnother"
  Text="<%$SPHtmlEncodedResources:wss,accessDenied_logInAsAnotherOne%>"
  CssClass="ms-descriptiontext" runat="server"/>
</SharePoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl>

 

.

Cincinnati SharePoint User Group

 

The December meeting has been canceled!

http://www.CincinnatiSPUG.org

January 2013 Meeting - SharePoint and SQL Server

Lisa Gardner will present on SharePoint and SQL Server

Lisa Gardner
Microsoft Premier Field Engineer
SQL Server
US PFE - Central Region

SharePoint is a rapidly growing application that relies heavily on SQL Server. In this session, we will discuss what a DBA needs to know to successfully manage instances hosting SharePoint databases. What configuration options are best for a SharePoint workload? What kind of maintenance should be performed? How should databases be provisioned? What the heck are all these databases for anyway? We will also discuss some nomenclature and key components of SharePoint to help DBAs better communicate with SharePoint application teams.

This presentation is aimed at DBAs who have to manage SharePoint databases, but it definitely pertains to SharePoint administrators as well.

• Outline:
  • SharePoint Overview
  • SharePoint Databases – what they are, best practices, sizing guidance
  • SQL Server Configuration, Setup, and Maintenance for hosting SharePoint
  • What to look out for – common

 

 

See you in January!

http://www.CincinnatiSPUG.org

SharePoint 2007 PowerShell cmdlets

 

This article includes the 2007 functions to emulate the SharePoint 2010 cmdlets used in my series of articles in SharePoint Pro Magazine. The first article, Exploring and Inventorying SharePoint Using PowerShell, is here: http://www.sharepointpromag.com/article/sharepoint-server-2010/exploring-inventorying-sharepoint-using-powershell-144834 . Part 2 is here: http://sharepointpromag.com/sharepoint/windows-powershell-scripts-sharepoint-info-files-pagesweb-parts with part 3 to follow.

Check back over the next week or two as I expand this content and add links to download the PowerShell module…

While this little project will in no way include all of the 500 SharePoint 2010 cmdlets, it will provide a core set of cmdlets needed to run my auditing and inventorying SharePoint 2010 PowerShell scripts. These cmdlets are implemented as PowerShell functions so you can study them and enhance them or even use them as models to create additional cmdlets. There will also be links to a download you can simply load them as a PowerShell module.

 

As a teaser… here's a starter set…   (check back in a few days for the full article)

Save the following as SP2007cmdlets.psm1:

#Notes:
# The scripts below are from http://TechTrainingNotes.blogspot.com 
# These scripts may be used in your projects but may not be republised in any form
# Formatting data found in SP2007cmdlets.format.ps1xml  (optional)

function Get-SP2007help
{
"Currently implemented cmdlets:"
"  Get-SPFarm"
"  Get-SPWebApplication"
"  Get-SPSite"
"  Get-SPWeb"
"  Get-SP"
}

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")


function Get-SPFarm()
{
  [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm]::Local
}


function Get-SPWebApplication ($url)
{
  begin
  {  $foundit=$false
     if ($url -ne $null) { 
       $foundit=$true; 
       [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication]::Lookup("$url") }
  }
  process
  {
  }
  end
  {
    if ($foundit -eq $false)
    {
       [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService]::ContentService.WebApplications
    }
  }
}



function Get-SPSite ([string]$Identity, [string]$ContentDatabase)
{
<#
.SYNOPSIS
 Returns all site collections that match the given criteria.
.PARAMETER computername
  The computer name to query. Just one.
.DESCRIPTION
 The Get-SPSite cmdlet returns either a single site that matches the Identity parameter, or all the sites that match the Filter parameter for the specified scope. The scopes are the WebApplication, ContentDatabase , and SiteSubscription parameters. If none of these scopes is provided, the scope is the farm. If the scope is specified with parameter, all sites in that scope are returned.
.PARAMETER Identity 
 Specifies the URL or GUID of the site collection to get. The type must be a valid URL, in the form http://server_name or http://server_name/sites/sitename, or a valid GUID (for example, 12345678-90ab-cdef-1234-567890bcdefgh).
.PARAMETER ContentDatabase
Specifies the GUID of the content database from which to list site collections.

The type must be a valid database name, in the form  SPContentDB01, or a valid GUID (for example, 12345678-90ab-cdef-1234-567890bcdefgh).
#>

  begin
  {  $foundit=$false
     if ($Identity -ne "" -or $ContentDatabase -ne "") { 
       $foundit=$true;
       if ($ContentDatabase -ne "")
       {
         if(Test-TTNIsGuid($ContentDatabase))
         {
          Get-SPWebApplication | select -ExpandProperty ContentDatabases | where { $_.id -eq "$ContentDatabase"} | get-spsite
         }
         else 
         { 
          Get-SPWebApplication | select -ExpandProperty ContentDatabases | where { $_.name -eq "$ContentDatabase"} | get-spsite
         }
       }
       else
       {
         if ($Identity.toLower().StartsWith("http"))
           { New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite("$Identity") }
         else 
           { New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite([guid]"$Identity") }
       }
     }
  }
  process
  {
    if ($_ -ne $null)
    {
      $foundit=$true;  $_.Sites
    }
  }
  end
  {
    if ($foundit -eq $false)
    {
       Get-SPWebApplication | Get-SPSite
    }
  }
}


function Get-SPWeb ($url)
{
  begin
  {
     if ($url -ne $null) { (New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite("$url")).OpenWeb() }
  }
  process
  {
     $_.AllWebs
  }
}


function Test-TTNIsGuid ($guid)
{
  # TechTrainingNotes helper function
  ($guid -match "^[A-Fa-f0-9]{32}$|({|\()?[A-Fa-f0-9]{8}-([A-Fa-f0-9]{4}-){3}[A-Fa-f0-9]{12}(}|\))?$|^({)?[0xA-Fa-f0-9]{3,10}(, {0,1}[0xA-Fa-f0-9]{3,6}){2}, {0,1}({)([0xA-Fa-f0-9]{3,4}, {0,1}){7}[0xA-Fa-f0-9]{3,4}(}})$")
}

Save the following as SP2007cmdlets.format.ps1xml: 

( file to be posted with the complete article )

. 

SharePoint 2013 First Looks for ITPros and Developers

 

I will be presenting two FREE First Look clinics this Friday at MAX Technical Training. You can attend these sessions in person at MAX's Mason, Ohio training center or remotely using your PC.

• MS-40027 First Look: What's New for Developers in Microsoft SharePoint 2013
  November 30th, 2012 9:00 am - 12:00 pm EST
  Click here to register: http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=43826
   
• MS-40028 First Look Clinic: What’s New for IT Professionals in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013
  November 30th, 2012 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm EST
  Click here to register: http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=44107

Just for fun, when registering… add a note that "Mike sent me!"  (Or maybe… "Attending in spite of Mike")

 

MS-40027 First Look: What's New for Developers in Microsoft SharePoint 2013

More info here: http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=43826

This 1/2 day instructor-led developer first-look course provides an overview of the new features, functional areas, product enhancements, and application models in SharePoint 13.

At Course Completion

• Provide an overview of the new features, functional areas, and product enhancements in SharePoint 2013.
• Summarize the key features of the SharePoint 2013 application development platform and describe the key features of Marketplaces.
• Explain what a SharePoint-Hosted app is, and describe how to build a SharePoint-Hosted app.
• Explain what a Cloud-Hosted app is, and describe how to build a Cloud-Hosted app.
• Describe how developers extend Office Application user interfaces by creating Apps for Office and publishing them in different catalogs.
• Describe how to create and code a simple App for Office that interacts with document content.
• Describe improvements in Manage Metadata Services, Enterprise Content Management and Web Content Management in SharePoint 2013.
• Describe the new social networking functionality available to SharePoint 2013 App developers.
• Describe how the new capabilities of the SharePoint Search engine can be used in SharePoint Apps.
• Describe how to query the index from a SharePoint-Hosted app using CSOM.

 

MS-40028 First Look Clinic: What’s New for IT Professionals in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013

More info here: http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=44107

This 1/2 day instructor-led first-look clinic explains the new and improved product features as applicable to IT Professionals and how to install, deploy, manage, and administer SharePoint Server 2013. It also provides information on how to integrate SharePoint Server 2013 with key applications and how to maintain and troubleshoot SharePoint Server 2013.

At course completion:

• Identify the major new features in SharePoint 2013 for IT Pros
• Discuss the major architectural changes in SharePoint 2013
• Describe the major changes to the BCS and the search service
• Describe the new BI and composites features in SharePoint 2013
• Describe the new content management and compliance features
• Identify the new features for social computing and mobile users

 

See ya Friday!

 

.

SharePoint 2013 Exams

 

The SharePoint 2013 exams are starting to show up!  As I prepare for these exams I will collect and share my notes. Of course all of these notes will only be from my prep and will not be updated after I take the exams.

If you are looking for the 2007 exams… well it's too late for all but one, at least according the exam pages at the Microsoft Learning site (70-631 expires 3/31/2011, 70-630 expires 9/30/12, 70-541 expires 6/30/11 and 70-542 expires 1/31/2013).

If you are looking for the 2010 exams and notes then see here: http://techtrainingnotes.blogspot.com/2010/02/sharepoint-certification.html
If you experienced at SharePoint 2010 then I would recommend taking the 2010 exams before taking the 2013 exams. There should be a lot of overlap in the core content that will help you with the 2013 exams.

MCSE!

Notice the new name for the certification, MCSE, not MSITP. And now "MCSE" = Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert, not Microsoft Certified System Engineer.

For SharePoint Administrators:

Windows Server 2012 certification plus the two SharePoint 2013 exams. Let me say that again… Windows Server 2012 certification… plus the two SharePoint exams gets you the MSCE. (Some more info here.)

For Windows Server 2012:

You will need to have the Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) certification for Server 2012. For this you will need:

• Windows Server exams 70-410 plus 70-411 plus 70-412
• Or the "SharePoint 2010 MCITP: SharePoint Administrator" plus 70-417

For SharePoint 2013, the above plus:

• Exam 70-331: Core Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013   (my study guide coming soon)
    http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-331
• Exam 70-332: Advanced Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013  (my study guide coming soon)
    http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-332

 

For SharePoint Developers:

(coming soon!)

 

.

SharePoint Admins… are you Windows Server 2012 MCSA certified?

 

The public certification exams for SharePoint 2013 will not be available until the first of the year. But… new for the SharePoint Server Administrator is the requirement to be “MCSA: Windows Server 2012” certified. (details here: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-sharepoint-server.aspx)

This is going to be a surprise to many SharePoint admins and something they need to get working on if they plan to be SharePoint 2013 certified. Existing SharePoint 2010 “MCITP: SharePoint Administrator” certified folks can upgrade by taking Exam 417.

Training:

The following classes are available to help get your there: 20417A: Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012 (5 Days) or 20410A plus 20411A plus 20412A (15 days total).

Here's the links to the exams:

70-410 Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012

70-411 Administering Windows Server 2012

70-412 Configuring Advanced Windows Server 2012 Services

70-417 Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012

.

Searching the MSDN and TechNet forums for SharePoint 2013

 

I'm doing a lot of 2013 work right now. Learning it, preparing for the exams, writing courseware, getting ready to deliver training sessions… all of which send me to the MSDN and TechNet forums to find stuff. The only problem is, there is no obvious way to search a single forum.

Use the Wiki Luke!

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/6453.how-to-use-the-search-in-the-msdntechnet-forums-and-library-en-us.aspx

There is a forum wiki article all about search and the tips there seem to work great for everything except for the SharePoint forums. The official way to search a single forum is to enter the following into the "Search TechNet with Bing" box on the TechNet pages or "Search MSDN with Bing" box on the MSDN pages:

keywords meta:Search.MSForums.GroupName(forumname)

The forumname is the name listed in the URL of the forum:
   http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointadminprevious/threads

There's a problem though… recently Microsoft rearranged and renamed many of the SharePoint forums. Instead of giving them useful names like 2013, 2010 and 2007 they called them (in the case of the admin forums) "sharepointadmin", "sharepointadminprevious" and "sharepointadminlegacy". (Makes you wonder what they will do when the next version is released!)

Second problem… to use the above tip you have to start in the right page. I have always thought that the forums were the forums. TechNet and MSDN where just two brandings of the same content. Doing a basic search in either returns content from both. Doing a basic search for a DEV topic in TechNet finds the DEV content and displays the DEV forums with a TechNet URL. (the same is true for basic searches in MSDN finding admin content and displaying it with an MSDN URL)

But when it comes to searching in MSDN for a SharePoint admin forum, it fails. I.e. Entering "meta:Search.MSForums.ForumName(sharepointadmin)" into "Search MSDN with Bing" will get zero results.

Repeating the same search in TechNet works! I.e. Entering "meta:Search.MSForums.ForumName(sharepointadmin)" into "Search TechNet with Bing" works!

 

Google to the Rescue?

OK, currently it looks like the best way to search the forums is by using Google.

Enter the following into Google: (Thanks Robert Aldwinckle!)

keywords inurl:sharepointadmin site:microsoft.com intitle:2013

The text for inurl is the forum name as found in the URL to the forum.
  http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointadmin/...

Setting intitle to 2013 removes the "legacy" forums from the results.

So now I can search the "SharePoint 2013 - Setup, Upgrade, Administration and Operations" (sharepointadmin) for info about "Quick Launch":

Quick Launch inurl:sharepointadmin site:microsoft.com intitle:2013

 

So the forums actually came to the rescue in the end!

To see the discussion that led to this solution see here:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/reportabug/thread/1b94ec41-c2c7-406f-aa03-81179b40b1ce

 

.

SharePoint 2013 Requirement: "The SharePoint parsing process crashes"

 

Yah, I know, it's just the title of a KB patch. But it sure looks like it's a requirement that SharePoint must crash Windows Server!

Minimum software requirements:
The SharePoint parsing process crashes in Windows Server 2008 R2"

 

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