Working with PDF files in Sharepoint 2010

Sharepoint 2010 doesn't offer the best PDF experience out of the box, but it can be quicky improved applying the recomendations from this two articles:

• Opening PDF files in the browser instead of downloading them
• Displaying PDF logo and Indexing PDFs

Removing Sharepoint’s 2010 Left Nav Bar

Most of Sharepoint Page Templates and Masterpages include a left navigation bar. To remove it, we have two options:

1. Implement a custom master page, or simplier,
2. Create a (layout) page that removes the master’s nav bar by:
1. Declaring an empty Content Placeholder for PlaceHolderLeftNavBar

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server"/>

2. Modifying the div’s styles

<style type="text/css">
    body #s4-leftpanel {display:none;}
    .s4-ca {margin-left:0px;}
</style>

Taken from the Kraft and Kennedy blog.

Office 2010 64-bit and the Datasheet View

I’ve just updated my notebook to Office 2010 64-bit, and suddenly, the Datasheet view in my Sharepoint 2010 sites started to give the following error:

The list cannot be displayed in DataSheet view for one or more of the following reasons:
- A datasheet component compatible with Microsoft Sharepoint Foundation is not installed.
- Your web browser does not suport ActiveX controls
- A component is not propelry configured for 32- or 64-bit support.
After wondering what was wrong, I came across this thread.
Apparently, Sharepoint 2010, even being 64-bit, requires the 32-bit ActiveX Datasheet.
Luckily, we can install the 32-bit ActiveX as part of the
“2007 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity Components” that can be downloaded here.

Sharepoint 2010 Accessibility Compliance Tests

Yesterday, Tim McConnell posted a very interesting article stating what to expect from SharePoint 2010 in terms of Accessibility. Since Accessibility is a topic which is very related to compliance, I’ve decided to run a few tests against a Validation Tool to get a more objective picture.

Considering that we are still evaluating a “Release Candidate” version, the results are promising.

Fact Sheet

• Sharepoint Test Bench
• Sharepoint 2010 RC installation
• Using default “Publishing Site Template” Homepage,
• Added a calendar and a list web part
• V4.master applied instead of nightandday.master applied by default.
• Enabled Anonymous access
• Validation Tool
• Using TotalValidator v6.3.0
• Parameters:
• HTML Validation: none
• Accessibility: (see table)
• Check for broken links: no

Results

US Section 508	Passed!
WCAG v1 A	Passed!
WCAG v1 AA	4 errors E821 - 1 instance E833 - 3 instances
WCAG v1 AAA	(idem)
WCAG v2 A	6 errors E871 – 3 instances E872 – 1 instance E886 – 1 instance E892 – 1 instance
WCAG V2 AA	(idem)
WCAG V2 AAA	(idem)

 

Full Report

Total errors found:
6 (WCAG v2 A: 6)

Page Layout

The line numbers refer to lines in the original source.
Any with a line number of '0' are implicit tags added by Total Validator:

39 E872 [WCAG v2 3.2.2 (A)] The submit button is missing:
     <form name="aspnetForm" method="post" action="default.aspx" id="aspnetForm">

134 E871 [WCAG v2 1.1.1 (A)] Link text is missing:
     <a id="HiddenAnchor" href="javascript:;" style="display:none;">

158 E871 [WCAG v2 1.1.1 (A)] Link text is missing:
     <a href="#" tabindex="-1" style="display:none">

158 E871 [WCAG v2 1.1.1 (A)] Link text is missing:
     <a href="#" tabindex="-1" style="display:none">

259 E886 [WCAG v2 1.1.1 (A)] Do not use the 'alt' attribute here:
     <input name="ctl00$PlaceHolderSearchArea$ctl01$S3031AEBB_InputKeywords" type="text" value="Search this
     site..." maxlength="200" id="ctl00_PlaceHolderSearchArea_ctl01_S3031AEBB_InputKeywords" accesskey="S"
     title="Search..." class="ms-sbplain" alt="Search..." onkeypress="javascript: return
     S3031AEBB_OSBEK(event);" onfocus="if (document.getElementById(&apos;ctl00_PlaceHolderSearchArea_ctl01_ctl04&apos;).value
     ==&apos;0&apos;) {this.value=&apos;&apos;; if (this.className == &apos;s4-searchbox-QueryPrompt&apos;) this.className = &apos;&apos;; else
     this.className = this.className.replace(&apos; s4-searchbox-QueryPrompt&apos;,&apos;&apos;);
     document.getElementById(&apos;ctl00_PlaceHolderSearchArea_ctl01_ctl04&apos;).value=1;}" onblur="if (this.value ==&apos;&apos;)
     {this.value=&apos;Search this site...&apos;; if (this.className.indexOf(&apos;s4-searchbox-QueryPrompt&apos;) == -1)
     this.className += this.className?&apos; s4-searchbox-QueryPrompt&apos;:&apos;s4-searchbox-QueryPrompt&apos;;
     document.getElementById(&apos;ctl00_PlaceHolderSearchArea_ctl01_ctl04&apos;).value = &apos;0&apos;} else
     {document.getElementById(&apos;ctl00_PlaceHolderSearchArea_ctl01_ctl04&apos;).value=&apos;1&apos;;}" style="width:170px;" />

402 E892 [WCAG v2 1.3.1 (A)] Use CSS for presentation effects, use <em> or <strong> for emphasis:
     <menu class="ms-SrvMenuUI">

More Information

WCAG v2 A Errors

• E871 - 3 instance(s): Describe the purpose of a link by providing descriptive text as the content of the <a> element. The description lets a user distinguish this link from other links in the Web page and helps the user determine whether to follow the link. The URI of the destination is generally not sufficiently descriptive. See http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H30.html (displayed in new window)
• E872 - 1 instance(s): You must provide a mechanism that allows users to explicitly request changes of context. The intended use of a submit button is to generate an HTTP request that submits data entered in a form, so it is an appropriate control to use for causing a change of context. See http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H32.html (displayed in new window)
• E886 - 1 instance(s): Although HTML may allow the 'alt' attribute here, it should only be used on image submit buttons. User agent support for this attribute on other types of form controls is not well defined. Other mechanisms are available to label these controls. See http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H36.html (displayed in new window)
• E892 - 1 instance(s): Tags that are being used purely to create a visual presentation effect should not be used. You should use CSS to control layout and presentation so that users and their aids may control it. See http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G140.html (displayed in new window)

Installing SharePoint 2010 RC: First Notes

I’ve just finished installing Sharepoint 2010 RC, and even when I found the setup process to be very straightforward (at least if you installed MOSS 2007 sometime) there are still a few tricky steps that I thought I could share.

Platform Setup

• Install Windows 2008 64-bit
  • Remember to activate “Application Server Role” and “Web Server Role”
• SQL Server
  • I recommend doing a full install, instead of using the bundled SQL Server Express
  • Install SQL Server 2008 64-bit
  • Install SQL Server 2008 SP1, 64-bit.
  • Install SQL Server 2008 Cumulative Update 2, 64-bit.
  • The final build number should be 10.00.2714.
  • Test the installation accessing the server with the SQL Management Studio and browsing the sample database.

Installing SharePoint 2010 Prerequisites

Download the installation package from here. Then launch it. (14.0.4730.1010_OfficeServer_none_ship_x64_en-us.exe)

Click on “Install software prerequisites”. The installer tool will download and install all prerequisites for you. If you don’t have Internet access from the server, you should manually download and install all pre-requisites listed here.

Then, simply follow the wizard steps.

 

Installing SharePoint Server

After finishing installing the prerequisites, click on  “Install Sharepoint Server”, enter the Licence Key (Beta key: PKXTJ-DCM9D-6MM3V-G86P8-MJ8CY), accept the licence terms and follow the wizard steps.

When the installation wizard finishes, clear the “Run the Sharepoint Product Configuration Wizard now” checkbox. Directly executing the Configuration Wizard would require us to provide a domain account (not local) as administrator. To workarround this, we’ll create an initial Configuration Database using the PowerShell command new-SPConfigurationDatabase.

Configuring Sharepoint 2010

After runing the installation wizard, follow this steps to create an initial Configuration Database using PowerShell. (More info on provisioning Sharepoint 2010 using PowerShell here).

Next, launch the Sharepoint Products Configuration Wizard. It will recognize the previously created Configuration Database and will offer us to stay connected or disconnect from the existing farm. Choose to stay connected and click “Next”.

Then, specify the port in which the administration site will be installed. Use a number easy to remember (My pick is 1024). Then pick the security setting that best fits your environment (default = NTLM) and click “Next”.

Finally, the wizard provisions the Administration Web Site on IIS.

  

And that’s it. :-)

On the next post, I’ll review the first steps to configure the newly created Sharepoint 2010 farm, using the “Farm Configuration Wizard”.

Sharepoint in Plain English

Microsoft has just released this great video describing typical team collaboration pains and the support provided by Sharepoint. Clear, simple, and based on real life.

Well, I guess I'll have to review my presentations. I'm still using the "Knowledge Management" speech, that is clearly becoming obsolete. In the Web 2.0 era, users don't want their companies to "capture, store and publish" knowledge in centralized systems for them, they want to do it themselves! Productivity, personal and collective productivity. That's what users want.

SharePoint in Plain English

Pitty, I kinda liked the introduction I used about mercantilism, capitalism and Drucker's Post-Capitalism and knowledge as an asset.

Sharepoint 2010: Not supporting IE 6

Tom Rizzo, director of Microsoft SharePoint Server, announced at TechEd that SharePoint Server 2010 will not support Internet Explorer 6. Having to deal with 64-bit only servers was one thing, but this will be much much harder to explain to customers.

The web goes one direction, others go the opposite.

Next Office Groove will be SharePoint Workspace 2010!

Even when we all tend to work and live in a 24x7 connected world, there are still cases in which off-line content is still needed. In Sharepoint 2007, off-line functionality is supposed to be provided by...Outlook 2007! Akward, to say the least. You can sincronize lists and read documents locally, but it is not enough to provide an off-line experience at least similar to the on-line one.

Since clearly the strategy of using Outlook as the off-line client for Sharepoint content does not scale up, Microsoft is reshaping Office Groove to become the off-line tool for Sharepoint users. Yesterday the team announced that the next Groove version will be called SharePoint Workspace 2010!

With good off-line support, a broad range of opportunities will open for the on-the-road information worker. Imagine mobile information workers sincronizing their netbooks at home before leaving, working all day long with the data without caring about conectivity and then sincronizing at the end of the day.

Having a tool that always keeps an updated local copy of content, will certainly help people to rely more on the server copies and avoid making manual local copies that lead to versioning issues.

Sharepoint 2010: 64-bit only

It's been made official. The Sharepoint Team announced that Sharepoint 2010 will be 64bit only. And this means:
1) The product itself will be 64bit only
2) Will only run on 64-bit Windows Server 2008
3) Will only run with 64-bit SQL Server 2008 or 64-bit SQL Server 2005

Why? Due to performance and scalability reasons, Microsoft says. Well, I don't know. I simply can't buy the reasons...