Minimum na Kinakailangan Security Para sa InfoPath Form

I needed to meet a security requirement for an InfoPath form today. In this business situation, a relatively small number of individuals are allowed to create a new InfoPath form and a much wider audience are allowed to edit it. (This is new-hire on-boarding form used by Human Resources that launches a workflow).

To meet that objective, I created created two new permission levels ("create and update" and "update only"), broke inheritance for the form library and assigned permissions to a "create, update" user and a separate "update only" gumagamit. The mechanics all worked, but it turned out to be a little more involving than I expected. (If you feel a little shaky on SharePoint permissions, check out this blog post). The required security configuration for the permission level was not the obvious set of granular permissions. To create an update-only permission level for an InfoPath form, I did the following:

  1. Create a new permission level.
  2. Clear away all options.
  3. Selected only the following from "List permissions":
    • Edit Items
    • View Items
    • View Application Pages

Selecting these options allows a user to update a form, but not create it.

The trick was to enable the "View Application Pages". There isn’t any verbage on the permission level that indicates that’s required for update-only InfoPath forms, but turns out it is.

Create-and-Update was even stranger. I followed the same steps, 1 through 3 sa itaas. I had to specifically add a "Site Permission" option: "Use client integration features". Muli, the description there does not make it seem like it ought to be required for an InfoPath form, but there it is.

</dulo>

Technorati Tags: ,

Na “Nasa pagitan” Pakiramdam; Pagmamasid sa SharePoint Consulting

Sadly, phase one of my last project has come to a close and the client has opted to move ahead by themselves on phase two. We did our job too well, as usual 🙂 I’m now between projects, isang espesyal na oras para sa mga consultant na staff tulad ng aking sarili (as opposed to independents who must normally live in perpetual fear of in-between time 🙂 ). We staff consultants fill this time in various ways: Working with sales folk to write proposals; filling in for someone or backing up a person on this or that odd job; studying; Blogging :). It’s hard to plan more than a few days in advance. At times like this, while I have a bit of time on my hands, I like to reflect.

I’m almost always sad to leave a client’s campus for the last time. We consultants form a peculiar kind of relationship with our clients, unlike your typical co-worker relationship. There’s the money angle — everyone knows the consultant’s rate is double/triple or even more than the client staff. You’re a known temporary person. As a consultant, you’re a permanent outsider with a more or less known departure date. Pa, you eat lunch with the client, take them out to dinner and/or for drinks, buy cookies for the team, go on coffee runs, give/receive holiday cards — all the kinds of things that co-workers do. On one hand, you’re the adult in the room. You’re an expert in the technology which puts you in a superior position. Sa kabilang dako, you’re a baby. On day zero, consultants don’t know the names, the places or the client’s lingo. Most times, consultants never learn it all.

When things go well, you become very well integrated with the client’s project team. They treat you like a co-worker in one sense, and confidant in another. Since we don’t have a manager-style reporting relationship with the client, the project team often feels a little free to air their dirty laundry. They let their barriers down and can put the consultant into an awkward position, never realizing they are doing it.

Consultants often don’t get to implement phase two and that never gets easy for me. I think this is especially hard with SharePoint. Phase one of of your typical SharePoint project covers setup/configuration, governance, taxonomy, basic content types, at iba pa. and in many respects, amounts to a lengthy, extremely detailed discovery. That’s how I view my last project. We did all the basic stuff as well as execute some nice mini-POC’s by extending CQWP, implementing BDC connections to PeopleSoft, introduced a fairly complex workflow with SharePoint Designer, touched on basic KPI’s and more. A proper phase two would extend all of that with extensive, almost pervasive BDC, really nice workflow, fine tuned and better search, records center, excel services and probably most important, reaching out to other business units. Pero, it’s not to be for me, and that’s sad.

Based on this recent experience, I think it’s fair to say that a proper enterprise SharePoint implementation is a one year process. It could probably legitimately run two years before reaching a point of diminishing returns. Details matter, mangyari pa.

That’s the consultant’s life and all of these little complaints are even worse in a SharePoint engagement. As I’ve written before, SharePoint’s horizontal nature brings you into contact with a wide array of people and business units. When you’re working with so many people, you can see so many ways that SharePoint can help the company become more efficient, save time, do things better… but you don’t always get to do them.

I often look back to my first job out of college, before starting a consulting career 1995. We did get to do a phase two and even a phase three. Those were nice times. On the downside, gayunman, that means that that would mean a lot of routine stuff too. Managing site security. Tweaking content types. Creating views and changing views. Dealing with IE security settings. Restoring lost documents. Blech! 🙂

Despite my melancholy mood, I can’t imagine a place I’d rather be (except at a warm beach with a goodly supply of spirits).

I can’t wait to get started implemented the next enterprise SharePoint project.

(Apropos of nothing, I wrote most of this blog entry on an NJ Transit bus. I don’t think I made any friends, but one CAN blog on the bus 🙂 )

</dulo>

Technorati Tags:

Linggo ng nakakatawang: “Ang mga ito ay Hindi NA Bad”

Bumalik malapit sa 1999, Ako ay gumagasta ng maraming linggo out sa Santa Barbara, CA, nagtatrabaho para sa isang client, leaving my poor wife back here in New Jersey alone. I dearly love my wife. I love her just as much today as I did when she foolishly married me 1,000 years or so ago. Sa isang lugar sa kahabaan ng linya, Ako likha ng parirala, "special fear", as in "Samantha has special fears." She as a special fear of "bugs", na sa kanyang mga hindi lilipad o ladybugs, but rather microbes. She’s afraid of this or that virus or unusual bacteria afflicting our son, o sa akin, but never really herself. (Siya ay isa ring espesyal na takot sa vampires, maliit na larawan masasamang mga manika (lalo na clowns) sa ilalim ng tubig at aksidente; siya ay out-lumaki ang kanyang espesyal na takot ng mga tao bihis sa Santa Claus outfits).

Minsan, my co-worker and I decided to drive up into the nearby mountains near Ohai. At one point, we got out of the car to take in the scene. When we got back into the car, I noticed that a tick was on my shoulder. I flicked out the window and that was it.

Iyon gabi, I told her about our drive and mentioned the tick. The conversation went something like this:

S: "Oooo! Those are bad. They carry diseases."

P: "Well, Ako flicked ito out ang window."

S: "They are really bad though. They can get under your skin and suck blood and transfer bugs. You better check your hair and make sure there aren’t any in your head!"

P: Sa malakas na boses: "My God! CAN THEY TAKE OVER YOUR MIND???"

S: Literal na reassuring sa akin: "No, ang mga ito ay hindi NA masama."

</dulo>

Technorati Tags:

Mabilis at madali: Awtomatikong Buksan ang InfoPath Form Mula sa SharePoint Designer Email

I-UPDATE: Madjur Ahuja points out this link from a newsgroup discussion: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms772417.aspx. It’s pretty definitive.

===

We often want to embed hyperlinks to InfoPath forms in emails sent from SharePoint Designer workflows. When users receive these emails, maaari nilang i-click ang link sa mula sa email at pumunta nang direkta sa form na InfoPath.

This monster URL construction works for me:

http://server/sites/departments/Technical Services/InformationTechnology/HelpDesk/_layouts/FormServer.aspx?XmlLocation=/sites/departments/Technical Services/InformationTechnology/HelpDesk/REC REM RED Forms/REC2007-12-18T11_33_48.xml&Source=http://server.corp.domain.com/sites/departments/Technical%20Services/InformationTechnology/HelpDesk/REC%20REM%20RED%20Forms/Forms/AllItems.aspx&DefaultItemOpen=1

Replace the bolded red text with the name of the form, as shown in the following screenshot:

imahen

Note that there is a lot of hard-coded path in that URL, as well as a URL-encoded component. If this is too hard to translate to your specific situation, try turning on alerts for the form library. Post a form and when you get the email, view the source of the email and you’ll see everything you need to include.

Astute readers may notice that the above email body also shows a link that directly accesses the task via a filtered view. I plan to explain that in greater detail in a future post.

</dulo>

Technorati Tags:

Pag-iisip Tungkol sa Commercial mga Produkto

Ko bang ilagay up ng isang SharePoint Designer extension ng proyekto hanggang sa CodePlex mas maaga taon na ito at kahit na talagang ito ay medyo limitado sa saklaw, Tantyahin ko na itong ma-download sa pamamagitan ng 40 upang 60 (marahil kahit na 100) companies in just about two months. That indicates to me that there’s a market for that solution and if I were to successfully commercialize it, na maaaring isalin sa isang mahusay na halaga ng beer 🙂

Ang aking background ay talagang marami pang iba sa pagbuo ng produkto at alam ko kung ano ang kinakailangan upang dalhin sa isang top-bingaw produkto, na taliwas sa isang proyekto CodePlex kinagigiliwang libangan, to market. In my antesedente, Ako ay may pananagutan para sa produkto R&D for all software products. The difference between then and now is that I’m a consultant now working for an (mahusay na mahusay) consulting firm (Conchango). Dati, Mayroon akong isang buong kumpanya sa likod ng akin at sa harap ng akin, selling and supporting the products we brought to market. Ngayon, Gusto kong mapag-isa.

Mayroon akong ilang mga ideya ng produkto sa isip, but I think the easiest would be to create a commercial version of the above-mentioned CodePlex project that uses that as a starting point and extends it further. My fuzzy off-the-cuff thinking is to charge something like $100 para sa isang walang limitasyong lisensya developer at $500 per production web front end. I think I would also give away the source code.

Kung mayroon kang mga saloobin o mga karanasan na handa mong ibahagi, mangyaring mag-iwan ng komento o email sa akin nang direkta. I’d like to hear opinions like:

  • Ay ito ang lahat ng may halaga?
  • Praktikal na mga mungkahi para sa marketing, pagkolekta ng pera, nagbabaha-bahagi.
  • Pagpepresyo.
  • Suporta.
  • Anumang iba pang mga komento na gusto mong umalis.

It’s "easy" upang makabuo ng mga ideya ng produkto at ipatupad ang mga ito, though many dozens of hours of work are required. The other stuff is not as easy for me.

</dulo>

Technorati Tags:

Linggo Umaga ng nakakatawang: “Si Jesus Dapat Die”

Binili namin ang aming mga unang (at lamang) "luxury" car back when hurricane Floyd nailed the east coast of the U.S. We got a LOT of rain here in New Jersey and ilang araw na lumipas before life returned to normal. Just before Floyd struck, gumawa kami ng isang alok para sa isang ginamit Volvo 850 GL at pagkatapos Floyd struck, ito ay nagdulot bahay.

It was our first car with a CD player. Like most new car owners, nagpunta kami ng isang maliit na mabaliw CD, revived our dormant CD collection and went on long drives just to listen to CD’s in the car. Like all fads, this passed for us and we ended listening to the same CD over and over again. Sa aming kaso, ito ay Si Jesu-Cristo superstar.

Ang isa sa mga (marami) makinang na piraso sa rock na opera ay Sung sa pamamagitan ng pagtatatag ng mga uri ng relihiyon, pinangunahan ng Caiaphas, the "High Priest". They sing their way into deciding how to handle the "Jesus problem" and Caiaphas directs them to the conclusion that "Jesus must die". The refrain on the song is "Just must die, dapat mamatay, dapat mamatay, this Jesus must die". You hear that refrain a lot in that piece.

Sa oras, my son was about three years old. You can probably see where this is going.

I came home from work one day and my son is in the living room playing with toys and humming to himself. I’m taking off my jacket, Naghahanap sa pamamagitan ng mail at lahat ng aking mga karaniwang walk-in-the-door bagay-bagay at ako biglang mapagtanto na lamang niya sinasabi, hindi tunay na pag-awit: "Jesus must die, dapat mamatay, must die." I was mortified. I could just see him doing that while on one of his baby play dates at a friend’s house — marahil ang huling petsa ng pag-play sa kaibigang iyon sanggol.

We pulled that CD out of the Volvo after that 🙂

</dulo>

Nagustuhan Google Tanggapin ang Aking Live Spaces Blog Sa Program ng AdSense

I-UPDATE: Tulad ng 03/09, I have found no way to integrate my live spaces account with Google Adsense. Microsoft’s system here seems to prevent all of the technical mechanisms that Google provides would-be adsense hosters. I tend to believe this is mainly a side effect of the security they’ve built into live spaces, not a direct effort to disable Adsense.

Ito ay hindi isang SharePoint post, ngunit maaaring maging ng interes sa mga blogger sa pangkalahatan.

Someone commented on their Windows Live Spaces blog that Google affirmatively denied their application to participate in AdSense. She theorized that Google denied her because Windows Live Spaces hosts her blog. Gayunman, Kamakailan lamang ako ay natanggap sa programa para sa aking live na mga puwang blog, kaya ang patakaran ay alin man sa binago o Google tinanggihan ang kanyang para sa ilang iba pang mga kadahilanan.

Talaga, Hindi ko makita ang anumang halata na paraan upang isama ang Google AdSense sa aking live na espasyo, but it’s a start 🙂

</dulo>

Technorati Tags: ,

Pagpapatupad ng Master / Detalye ng Relasyon Paggamit ng Custom na Mga Listahan

Forum users frequently as questions like this:

> Hello,
>
> Mangyaring sabihin sa akin kung may anumang mga posibilidad upang bumuo ng isang pasadyang listahan na may
> master at detalye ng uri (tulad ng mga invoice) without using InfoPath.
>

SharePoint ay nagbibigay ng ilang mga out ng mga tampok kahon na sumusuporta sa mga uri ng mga kinakailangan sa negosyo na katulad ng.

Kalimitan, one links two lists together using a lookup column. List A contains the invoice header information and list B contains invoice details.

Use additional lists to maintain customer numbers, product numbers, at iba pa.

Use a content query web part (in MOSS only) and/or a data view web part to create merged views of the lists. SQL Server Reporting Services (SRS) is also available for the reporting side of it.

Gayunman, there are some important limitations that will make it difficult to use pure out-of-the-box features for anything that is even moderately complex. These include:

  • Size of related lookup lists vs. "smartness" of the lookup column type. A lookup column type presents itself on the UI differently depending on whether you’ve enabled multi-select or not. In either case, the out-of-the-box control shows all available items from the source list. If the source list has 1,000 mga item, that’s going to be a problem. The lookup control does not page through those items. Sa halip, it pulls all of them into the control. That makes for a very awkward user interface both in terms of data entry and performance.
  • Lookups "pull back" one column of information. You can never pull back more than one column of information from the source list. Halimbawa, you cannot select a customer "12345" and display the number as well as the customer’s name and address at the same time. The lookup only shows the customer number and nothing else. This makes for an awkward and difficult user interface.
  • No intra-form communication. I’ve written about this here. You can’t implement cascading drop-downs, conditionally enable/disable fields, at iba pa.
  • No cascading deletes or built-in referential integrity. SharePoint treats custom lists as independent entities and does not allow you to link them to each other in a traditional ERD sense. Halimbawa, SharePoint allows you to create two custom lists, "customer" and "invoice header". You can create an invoice header that links back to a customer in the customer list. Pagkatapos, you can delete the customer from the list. Sa labas ng kahon sa, there is no way to prevent this. To solve this kind of problem, you would normally use event handlers.

It may seem bleak, but I would still use SharePoint as a starting point for building this kind of functionality. Though there are gaps between what you need in a solution, SharePoint enables us to fill those gaps using tools such as:

  • Kaganapan handler. Use them to enforce referential integrity.
  • Custom columns: Create custom column types and use them in lieu of the default lookup column. Add paging, buffering and AJAX features to make them responsive.
  • BDC. This MOSS-only feature enables us to query other SharePoint lists with a superior user interface to the usual lookup column. BDC can also reach out to a back end server application. Use BDC to avoid replication. Rather than replicating customer information from a back end ERP system, use BDC instead. BDC features provide a nice user interface to pull that information directly from the ERP system where it belongs and avoids the hassle of maintaining a replication solution.

    BDC is a MOSS feature (not available in WSS) and is challenging to configure.

  • ASP.NET web form: Create a full-featured AJAX-enabled form that uses the SharePoint object model and/or web services to leverage SharePoint lists while providing a very responsive user interface.

The last option may feel like you’re starting from scratch, but consider the fact that the SharePoint platform starts you off with the following key features:

  • Security model with maintenance.
  • Menu system with maintenance.
  • "Master table" (i.e. custom na mga listahan) with security, built-in maintenance and auditing.
  • Hanapin.
  • Back end integration tools (BDC).

If you start with a new blank project in visual studio, you have a lot of infrastructure and plumbing to build before you get close to what SharePoint offers.

I do believe that Microsoft intends to extend SharePoint in this direction of application development. It seems like a natural extension to the existing SharePoint base. Microsoft’s CRM application provides a great deal of extensibility of the types needed to support header/detail application development. Although those features are in CRM, the technology is obviously available to the SharePoint development team and I expect that it will make its way into the SharePoint product by end of 2008. If anyone has an knowledge or insight into this, mangyaring mag-iwan ng komento.

</dulo>

Quick Tip: Bahagi ng nilalaman Query Web, Lookup Haligi Halaga at XSL

I have a column name in a content type named "Real Estate Location".

That column is of type "lookup".

Ako nabago <CommonViewFields> at ItemStyle.xsl upang ipakita ang mga haligi.

Isang simple <xsl:sulit ng piliin =…> Ibinabalik ng likod ng isang panloob na halaga na kasama ang ORDINAL data posisyon, tulad ng:

1;#Miami

Upang makuha ang pantao-friendly na halaga, gamitin xsl substring-pagkatapos, tulad ng ipinapakita:

<xsl:value-of select="substring-after(@ Real_x005F_x0020_Estate_x005F_x0020_Location,'#')"></xsl:halaga-ng>

Gamitin ang diskarteng ito sa tuwing ikaw ay nagtatrabaho sa paghahanap ng mga halaga sa XSL transforms at kailangan upang makuha ang pantao-friendly na halaga.

<katapusan />

Technorati Tags: , ,

SharePoint Beagle Disyembre Maglabas Up & Mabuhay

Marami sa kilala mo na ito, but the December edition of SharePoint Beagle is live.

Ang bawat artikulo ay nagkakahalaga ng pagbabasa sa aking opinyon.

I want to give a little extra bump to my colleague’s article (Natalya Voskrensenskya). She provides a screen-shot extravaganza while describing how she used custom lists, workflow, SharePoint Designer, data views and other elements to implement a self-service training feature in MOSS. She describes techniques that can be applied in many different business scenarios. Check out her blog while you’re at it.

Don’t forget to check out ang aking mga artikulo as well 🙂 I wrote about using MOSS to help an HR department manage open positions.

</dulo>