SharePoint – InfoPath /cache clearall

So continuing my InfoPath self education.

1. I publish a new version of the InfoPath form to the Forms Library
2. I then create a new form based on this template
3. In Browser – I see the new form
4. In InfoPath – I see the old form

So it appears that InfoPath is caching the older version of my template and using that.

• I clear the internet temporary files - didn't do it

A quick search lead me to this explanation: http://blogs.msdn.com/michael_yeager/archive/2008/07/09/infopath-cache.aspx

And sure enough,

start –> run –> InfoPath /cache clearall

Indeed clears out my cache, and now when I create a new form from SharePoint it is using the latest template

What befuddles me is that Michael Yeager says that InfoPath should be checking the version automatically so I don’t understand why it wasn’t doing that.

Here’s another more user-friendly way of removing a form from cache

File –> Fill out a form…

You can also "Get update of this form" from this dialog.

SharePoint – how do you stay on top of all this stuff?

SharePoint is a big product – and getting bigger.

People have wondered – how do you stay on top of all the new developments?

This is one trick I’ve found via Twitter – works relatively well.

1. You will of course need a twitter account
2. Go to the twitter search page and look for users.  Find “sharepoint”
   http://twitter.com/search/users?q=sharepoint&category=people&source=find_on_twitter
3. You will see a bunch that comes up on top – sorted by # of followers:
   • sharepointbuzz is crazy – as far as I can tell – this re-twits anything anyone says about #sharepoint (that’s useful).  I followed for a bit and decided that was too much reading.
   • SharePointMVPs is a good one – basically this one twits whenever one of the SharePoint MVPs writes a new blog (or white paper) – HIGHLY recommended
   • SharePoint is the MS official one – not necessary if you are already following the SharePoint team blog RSS
4. Read twitter on the go – in your iPhone or BlackBerry or Windows Mobile
5. If you see a topic that’s interesting, flag it with “favourites”
6. Review your twitter favourites a couple times a week.

Bingo!

Stay on top of all the up to date #SharePoint news

Anyone has a good tip about how to catch up on the old stuff between 2007 – 2009 let me know…

SharePoint – thoughts on sharepoint.microsoft.com

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com had a face lift.  I decided to go have a quick look and make some comments.

Nice bits

• The site looks cleaner
• It is running on SharePoint
• Sign-in is tied with Windows Live (passport)

Horrible bits

• View Source was horrifying – I had hoped it may be running on SharePoint 2010 – but it looks like it’s still MOSS 2007
  • Big viewstate
  • Big initialize data for SilverLight
  • These are all things I’d hope to see disappear when we finally see SharePoint 2010…  I guess I’ll have to keep waiting.

Awesome

• Great HTML comment in the footer of the page:

<!---

Developed by Celina Moser Baginski

For questions and/or comments, please email me at

[email protected]

--->

• Given that this is on every page – I assume it’s on the master
• I can’t fine Celina Moser Baginski when I went to browse around http://www.consejoinc.com/ though.  Makes me wonder – if you don’t talk about your employees on your company’s own site, why would you let them put their email addresses directly into the master page of your client’s site?

SharePoint – Microsoft Certified Masters, and why I should care

A couple of weeks ago, the first batch of MCM: SharePoint were announced.

Curiously, I went to see what it takes to be a SharePoint master.

Initially, I had assumed that it was just going to be a higher level of certification after you’ve completed the 4x MSTS: SharePoint certificates.

First reaction was: woah US$18,000?  Hmm… sounds a bit crazy.

Realizing that it is a 3 weeks training course made the money side more acceptable.

Seriously, if a company will send their top SharePoint architect on a 3 week full time training, US$18,000 – this must be some serious crack.

But then starting to read about what they say after completing the training

http://www.harbar.net/archive/2009/05/07/reality-check-microsoft-certified-master-for-sharepoint-2007.aspx

It begins to dawn on me that this is not your average level yet-another-certification.

It is a massive amount of work, time, effort.  In fact I would argue that the money aspect quickly went out the window with the shear amount of work that’s required to actually make it, and pass it at the end.  If you can take that much time off from client work to get through the course, by all means go for it!

Here are more materials.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/master/Sharepoint/default.mspx

So finally, what does this all mean for me?

For now, as a personal goal - I’ve decided to chew through the pre-reading list.

http://www.dynamicevents.com/MCM/MCMSharePointPre-Reads.pdf

They even provided a nice checkbox column for me to tick them off as I go…  nice!

I think if I can get through these 81 documents before SharePoint 2010 comes out it’d be awesome!

SharePoint - On the verge of launching a new release of a SharePoint site

On the verge of launching a new release of a public SharePoint website and I came across this list (from shanselman’s twitter actually).

15 Essential Checks Before Launching Your Website

Here’s how we fared:

1. Favicon – checked and done!
2. Titles and Meta data – checked!  Actually SharePoint comes with quite a bit of baggage, but we started with a clean masterpage so this is not too bad.
3. Cross-Browser Checks – checked!  IE6, 7, 8, FireFox, Chrome, Safari + iPhone.  RichHTML editing is limited to IE for now – but there’s a release soon afterwards to upgrade to Telerik’s RadEditor Lite.
4. Proofread – not enough :-(
5. Links – checked - using both SharePoint’s internal reports and SSW Link Auditor – hopefully the content editors don’t put in bad links from now til launch…
6. Functionality Check – checked!  My biggest fears are that in the sprint until launch, if we accidentally break an existing feature that was working previously, so far my fears have been unfounded.
7. Graceful Degradation – not checked…  I think I’m going to feel guilty for saying this one, but I just don’t think it’s relevant to check for JavaScript now.  Especially on a SharePoint site.
8. Validation – no - it’s SharePoint.  This is going to be a tough one to tick off.
9. RSS Link – checked – may be.  One of the features of this release, unless we have to cut it.
10. Analytics – checked – both the SharePoint reports, as well as Google Analytics that was used for the old site
11. Sitemap – checked – SharePoint does this naturally
12. Defensive Design – checked.  SharePoint allows for 404 to be customized
13. Optimize – not enough.  We’re utilizing quite a few performance tricks we have up our sleeves, but ultimately there’s just not the level of control in SharePoint vs. say a custom ASP.NET application
14. Back Up – checked
15. Print Style Sheet – need to check again.  This was working previously but we’ve had some work done on the site in the last two releases and I’m a bit worried about our good ol’ print css.

So we scored 10/15.  Ticked off most of the easy ones.  Have quite a few really tough ones left.  Wish us luck!