Merit Matters Blog - Microsoft SharePoint

Displaying a File, Folder or Web Page in the Page Viewer Web Part

nospam@example.com (Boris) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:12:50 -0400

The Microsoft SharePoint Page Viewer Web Part can be used for displaying a Web page, file or folder on a Web Part Page.

Note: You can use the Page Viewer Web Part only in a browser that supports the HTML IFRAME element. Displaying a file or folder requires Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Here are the steps how to do this:

Go to the correct site.
Open Site Actions and select Edit Page.
Click Add a Web Part in the section you want the web part to be displayed in.
Choose the category Media and Content and select Page Viewer Web Part. Click Add.
The Page Viewer Web Part is added to the page. Click the Edit Web Part option in order to link the contents.
A) If you want to display a web page it's very straight forward. Just select Web Page and type in a URL under Link and the URL will be displayed.

B) If you want to display a folder, type in a network path to that folder under Link and the folder content will be displayed.

C) If you want to display a file content, type in a network path to that folder along with the file name under Link (e.g. \\shared\manuals\XYZ\User Manual XYZ 2013.pdf) and the file content will be displayed.

The file opens either in a separate browser window or inside the Web Part if the application that opens the file supports inline activation for that file in the browser window.

SharePoint Client Object Model for Silverlight: Uploading Files Over 2MB

nospam@example.com (Boris) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:33:15 -0400

The commonly used method for uploading files in SharePoint’s Client Object Model API is the Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SaveBinaryDirect method.

For example, calling:

public static void SaveBinaryDirect(

ClientContext context,

string serverRelativeUrl,

Stream stream,

bool overwriteIfExists
)

should be quite enough to get through. However, when it comes to Silverlight, the developer is limited to the Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Silverlight namespace, and the SaveBinaryDirect method is not available there. The alternative is to use the more straightforward approach by instantiating the FileCreationInformation object and to use it for adding new files to the SharePoint folder, like so:

FileCreationInformation fci = new FileCreationInformation();

...

File file = list.RootFolder.Files.Add(fci);

However, one would yet again face an issue if the size of the file that needs to be uploaded is larger than 2MB. It is necessary to fully read the file prior to calling the Add method. The following method ensures just that:

private byte[] ReadFully(Stream input)

{

     byte[] buffer;

MemoryStream ms;

     int read;

     buffer = new byte[input.Length];

     using (ms = new MemoryStream())

     {

           while ((read = input.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)

          {

               ms.Write(buffer, 0, read);

          }

          return ms.ToArray();

     }

}

Now, regardless of their size, the method for uploading files looks like this:

public File UploadFile(string fileName, Stream fileStream, bool overwrite)

{

    FileCreationInformation fci;

StringBuilder sb;

    File file;

    fci = new FileCreationInformation();

    fci.Content = this.ReadFully(fileStream); //Calling the previous method

    fci.Overwrite = overwrite;

    fci.Url = fileName;

    file = list.RootFolder.Files.Add(fci);

    return file;

}

Happy coding!

Microsoft SharePoint 2010: The Business Collaboration Platform

nospam@example.com (Josh Richards) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:20:34 -0400

The capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 work together to help your company quickly respond to changing business needs. Using SharePoint 2010, your people can share ideas and expertise, create custom solutions for specific needs, and find the right business information to make better decisions. For IT, SharePoint 2010 helps you cut training and maintenance costs, save time and effort, and focus on higher business priorities.

Whether you deploy the platform on-premises or as a hosted service, the capabilities of SharePoint 2010 work together to help you quickly respond to business needs using data-driven insights and solutions that are faster to develop and deploy.

Deliver the Best Productivity Experience

SharePoint 2010 helps your people be more productive. It offers a familiar Microsoft Office experience so that people can easily access the business information they need to get their jobs done.

Faster adoption with a familiar user interface:SharePoint 2010 gives your people a familiar experience with the Microsoft Office Fluent™ user interface and a set of capabilities that works across the SharePoint and Office product families. With this familiar and intuitive user experience, your people can use their PCs, browsers, and mobile devices to become more productive and efficient.
Continued productivity regardless of location: Mobile work isn’t just for the sales force anymore. Today, most companies expect their people to be “always on, always connected,” even when they’re away from the office. SharePoint 2010 offers a full set of capabilities that can help to increase productivity by giving people access to resources, regardless of the tools or devices they have available.
Rapid results with ready-to-use capabilities: SharePoint 2010 helps your people work together better with out-of-the-box personal SharePoint sites—My Sites—and pre-defined site templates (such as team sites and enterprise wikis). Everyone can easily customize their sites with SharePoint Web Parts and the new theming engine, making everyday tasks easier to accomplish.

Cut Costs with a Unified Infrastructure

SharePoint 2010 helps you reduce costs by consolidating intranet, extranet, and Internet sites on a single platform, on-premises or in the cloud.

Reduced costs through platform consolidation: SharePoint 2010 offers a rich set of integrated capabilities and a single, scalable platform, helping your company and customers reduce costs in several ways. As people begin to work together better and faster, IT can focus on higher business priorities. Plus, by consolidating solutions on SharePoint, you can be sure that everyone is using the same resources and the right information to make better business decisions.
More choice with on-premises and hosted options: Your collaboration platform must be able to scale up and out quickly as your company changes and grows. With SharePoint 2010, you can deploy your environment on-premises or in the cloud, letting you make the decision based on business needs, not technology constraints.
Proactive platform management: SharePoint 2010 can help IT save time, effort, and cost. A full set of rich administrative tools makes it easier and faster to manage your platform, freeing you to focus on other critical business needs.

Rapidly Respond to Business Needs

SharePoint 2010 gives you the best of both worlds: out-of-the-box applications and a platform for customized solutions. You can use the features of SharePoint 2010 just as they are or quickly create secure and easy-to-use solutions for specific business needs.

More value with existing tools and skills: Connections between SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Visual Studio® 2010 mean that your development team can create and deploy custom solutions on the fly. Using familiar tools and interfaces, developers can apply their current programming skills to a specific business need and help to solve it, quickly and effectively.
Two-way interaction with line-of-business data: SharePoint 2010 allows everyone, regardless of their technical expertise, to interact with information from databases, reports, and business applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. What’s more, people can surface the data in their SharePoint sites, analyze it, and make updates to be reflected in the external source itself.
No-code custom solutions for specific business needs: With SharePoint 2010, you can quickly create no-code solutions and deploy them in an easy and secure way. From simple sites to complex applications, there’s a code-free solution for almost every business need.

Learn more about Microsoft SharePoint 2010!

Microsoft SharePoint for 21 CFR Part 11 Compliance

nospam@example.com (administrator) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:36:07 -0500

Does your collaboration software give everyone access to all information every step of the way?

Compliance to 21 CFR Part 11 may seem daunting. Although many solutions claim 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, the cost of these systems is often prohibitive for all but the largest life sciences organizations. At the same time, many solutions are difficult to deploy and even harder to use, which further limits their ability to create compliant-environments quickly and effectively.

Fortunately, MAXLife helps Life Sciences companies comply to 21 CFR Part 11 without added complexity.

For companies who need to track unstructured data - such as work instructions, specifications documents and standard operating procedures - in accordance with 21 CFR Part 11 regulations, Merit Solutions has extended the capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint for use as a document management and quality control solution. These Life Sciences companies can now simplify compliance by utilizing the capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint for complete document lifecycle capabilities, including automated workflows, audit trails, and full versioning support.

For more information on using Microsoft SharePoint for 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, please contact us today.

Simplify Business Processes with Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010

nospam@example.com (administrator) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:09:08 -0400

By adopting Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, companies that use Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions can reap significant gains in process efficiency. Incorporating powerful collaboration and communication technologies, Office 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 can help streamline complex business processes that require interaction across functions and roles.

Collaborate with Control
New co-authoring features included in Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 help simplify processes by eliminating the back-and-forth exchange of e-mail messages and attachments when drafting business documents, making it easier for multiple people to contribute to that document at the same time. As a result, the final version of the document can be distributed more quickly since the need to reconcile and edit changes can be reduced or eliminated.

E-mail communication plays a critical role in business processes, and new features in Microsoft Outlook® 2010, such as Mail Tips and Quick Steps, help employees manage their correspondence more effectively. External List folders can be configured to pull relevant information from Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions and make it available to employees in Outlook 2010, even when they are offline.

Extend the Reach of Business Data

New features of SharePoint Server 2010 can make Microsoft Dynamics ERP data accessible to more people across the organization. The External Lists feature displays ERP data in a SharePoint list and can enable users to change and update data from within SharePoint, according to validation and permission rules managed by the Microsoft Dynamics ERP solution.

The Fluent user interface is now consistent across Office 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010. This makes it easier to expose relevant tasks and actions when working with Microsoft Dynamics ERP information, and is aligned with the user interface design approach being adopted by Microsoft Dynamics solutions.

Microsoft SharePoint as the Document Management System

nospam@example.com (administrator) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:18:52 -0400

When organizations do not have any kind of formal document management system in place, content is often created and saved in an unmanaged and decentralized way on scattered file shares and individual hard disk drives. This makes it hard for employees to find, share, and collaborate effectively on content.

This demo showcases how to utilize Microsoft SharePoint as your document management system. Microsoft SharePoint supports your organization's document management needs by providing a broad set of document management capabilities. Learn how to efficiently set up SharePoint document libraries, how to create and upload files, and manage your document library. We will also take a look at Microsoft SharePoint versioning, permissions, and approval workflows.

View the demo:
Microsoft SharePoint as the Document Management System

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics AX Integration Scenarios

nospam@example.com (administrator) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:59:03 -0500

In an effort to help companies improve efficiencies through enhanced communication and collaboration, Microsoft recently developed 30 applications for Microsoft Windows® SharePoint® Services. These applications were tailored to address the requirements of specific business processes (the link to these applications can be found in the “Relevant Resources” section). In addition, the applications served as a starting point for partners and developers to build deeper Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services solutions.

This white paper, which is presented as a follow up to the 30 applications for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, details three different scenarios showcasing how a company could benefit from integrating these applications with back-end Microsoft Dynamics AX data. Each scenario is further split into three distinct benefit categories: View Microsoft Dynamics AX Data via Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, Update Microsoft Dynamics AX Data via Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, and Collaborate in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services then Upload Data to Microsoft Dynamics AX. An overview of each scenario is presented below. The companies described in these scenarios are purely fictional. The functionality showcased is also fictional and is intended to illustrate potential application capabilities.

View the white paper:
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Microsoft Dynamics AX Integration Scenarios

Demo: Problem Solving with Enterprise Search

nospam@example.com (administrator) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:15:58 -0500

Improving customer service is a top priority. Solving customer support issues often requires access to information and expertise spread across the organization that needs to be gathered quickly and effectively.

Whether workers are trying to troubleshoot an application issue, resolve problems in product development, or develop a blueprint for future business models, the ability to access the right data quickly is important. See how Windows technologies leverage Enterprise Search to help users solve problems faster and more efficiently.

View the demo:
Problem Solving with Enterprise Search

Managing 21 CFR Part 11 Compliance with Microsoft SharePoint

nospam@example.com (administrator) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:33:10 -0400

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States designed Part 11 of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR Part 11) to help ensure that life sciences companies can use electronic records and signatures that are equivalent to those based on paper and ink. However, initiating and maintaining Part 11 compliance can be complex and costly. The 2007 Microsoft Office system simplifies compliance with support for the complete document lifecycle. In fact, much of the functionality necessary for Part 11 compliance is built into the Office system, including workflow, audit trails, digital signatures, and full versioning support.

Although many solutions claim 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, the cost of these systems is often prohibitive for all but the largest life sciences organizations. At the same time, many solutions are difficult to deploy and even harder to use, which further limits their ability to create compliant-environments quickly and effectively.

To rapidly address 21 CFR Part 11 challenges, the 2007 Microsoft Office system is the ideal choice. New technologies built into the 2007 Microsoft Office system can help in the following ways:

Simplify the management of complex compliance process

Users can easily initiate a wide range of automated workflows directly from Microsoft Office Word 2007 or Microsoft Office Excel 2007, including reviews, approvals, edits, requests for digital signatures, and feedback
Administrators can track each workflow and monitor how it performs overall, as well drill down into specific instances of a workflow
Content types allow administrators and compliance managers to pre-define templates so that all new documents of a given type are automatically assigned the appropriate policies, such as workflow, resulting actions, and expiration

Perform detailed audit analysis

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 allows administrators to audit key events within document libraries and monitor global events on a site (such as search, user changes, and changes in content types and columns), which creates evidence of who accessed which resources at what time
A central administration site makes it easy to configure various settings for auditing, such as selecting specific events to audit
Auditing functionality can be extended using a Web service or by using the audit log service object model, so other applications can provide a full audit when their files are stored on a SharePoint site

Protect data with more powerful security features

Users of the portal are authenticated automatically based on their role and user information from Active Directory
Information Rights Management (IRM) policies can be applied to both individual documents and entire libraries, making it easier to get consistent use of IRM across a set of documents without creating extra work for individual users
The applications of the 2007 Microsoft Office system automatically assess the authenticity of digital signatures and signed documents, and alert the administrator if there are any discrepancies
A records repository facilitates security-enhanced document management processes, including content collection, consistent policy enforcement, item retention and holds in response to external events, and content expiration

Reduce administrative costs with new tools and formats

New, XML-based file formats for Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel 2007, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 can allow these documents to easily integrate with existing and future line-of-business systems
Office Open XML Formats use ZIP compression technology, so documents take up far less space than the previous formats, which means shorter transmission times and a smaller impact on storage
The Office Customization Tool simplifies customization simple and efficient by replacing the many wizards that were necessary in previous releases of the Microsoft Office

Leverage deployed Microsoft technologies

Roll out a 21 CFR Part 11 solution quickly, with minimal training, leveraging the familiar Microsoft products you have already installed
Maintain a low total cost of ownership by extending investments in Microsoft products
Take advantage of a rich network of technology partners who are well-versed in Microsoft Office technologies and 21 CFR Part 11 implementations

Learn more about Merit Solutions' 21 CFR Part 11 Compliance solutions.

Microsoft SharePoint Featured in The New York Times

nospam@example.com (administrator) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:09:06 -0400

The article, by Ashlee Vance, is entitled, "Microsoft’s SharePoint Thrives in the Recession". Below are a couple excerpts from the article.

"Hang around at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters for five or ten minutes and someone dressed in khaki pants and a blue shirt is bound to tell you about the wonders of SharePoint — one of the company’s most successful and increasingly controversial lines of software.
Think of SharePoint as the jack-of-all-trades in the business software realm. Companies use it to create Web sites and then manage content for those sites. It can help workers collaborate on projects and documents. And it has a variety of corporate search and business intelligence tools too.
Microsoft wraps all of this software up into a package and sells the bundle at a reasonable price. In fact, the total cost of the bundle often comes in below what specialist companies would charge for a single application in, say, the business intelligence or corporate search fields."

Check out the SharePoint Server 2007 Demo, or view a Sneak Peek of SharePoint 2010.

Introducing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 - Demo and Sneak Peak Video

nospam@example.com (administrator) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:02:02 -0400

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is the business collaboration platform for the Enterprise and the Web that enables you to connect and empower people through an integrated set of rich features. Whether deployed on-premises or as hosted services, SharePoint 2010 helps you cut costs with a unified infrastructure while allowing you to rapidly respond to your business needs.

Featured Highlights:

New User Interface including the new Ribbon
Web Edit
Silverlight Web Part
Rich Theming
Multiple Browser Support
Visio Services
SharePoint Designer
Business Connectivity Services (the evolution of the Business Data Catalog)
SharePoint Workspace
Rich Media Support

View a sneak peak overview video of Microsoft SharePoint 2010:

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Demo

Business Intelligence: Thriving in Economic Uncertainty

nospam@example.com (administrator) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:04:00 -0400

To address the challenges of doing more with less, competing for funds in a tighter credit market, and reassuring cautious stakeholders and investors, you need to increase visibility into your financial and operational performance. This paper addresses how Business Intelligence can help you reduce costs, make smarter operational decisions, and continue innovating so you can survive - even thrive - in today’s economy.

Read the white paper: Business Intelligence: Thriving in Economic Uncertainty

Five Ways Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Can Save You Money

nospam@example.com (administrator) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:29:17 -0400

In this paper, we look at how Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies can help you to reduce TCO and maximize ROI for your enterprise solutions.

SharePoint Products and Technologies provide a comprehensive suite of features in all areas of information management, and can enable you to consolidate all your enterprise solutions into a single, manageable platform. Many of the world's leading companies, such as MTV and the Bank of America, are already realizing benefits from the adoption of these technologies. The paper focuses on five specific ways in which SharePoint Products and Technologies can save you money. When you adopt SharePoint Products and Technologies in your organization, you can:

Reduce IT costs and complexity
Reduce development costs
Simplify management and training
Improve employee productivity
Enhance the effectiveness of customer service and sales teams

View the white paper now: Five Ways SharePoint Can Save You Money. (UPDATED: Link Now Works)

SharePoint Browsers Compatibility

nospam@example.com (Boris) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:20:03 -0400

Microsoft SharePoint, being a web application, is not dependant on the platform the user is running on. The only requirement is a web browser, capable of cooperating with SharePoint sites and pages. Since SharePoint is a collaborative technology oriented mostly towards the corporate environment, it is important to review the browsers being used prior to the implementation.

This brings up a fairly important question: Which browsers are compatible with SharePoint features? Microsoft divides commonly used web browsers by this criterion into two levels: Level 1 and Level 2:

Level 1 browsers take advantage of ActiveX features and offer the richest user experience. They provide the complete functionality of all SharePoint sites and all the features.
Level 2 browsers allow only the basic functionality, consisted of reading and writing SharePoint sites. Since there is no ActiveX support, the user experience is notably reduced.

The browsers that do not belong to any of the two levels are incompatible with Microsoft SharePoint.

Level 1 browsers are Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7. They are the only ones that provide users with the full benefits of SharePoint implementation and integration. They cooperate well with all applications from Microsoft Office suite, especially the 2007 edition, which extends the capabilities of the SharePoint even further.

Level 2 browsers, however, do not. The browsers that belong to this group are Mozilla Firefox 1.5+, Safari 2.0, Mozilla 1.7, Netscape Navigator 7.2 and Netscape Navigator 8.1. As stated before, these browsers are capable of only the basic operations involved with SharePoint sites, which is really not much. There is no extension to Microsoft Office, no drop-down menus, no multiple files upload and so on.

It is obvious that the users are pretty much bound to the choice of Internet Explorer, no matter how high or low their demands for the SharePoint features are. Furthermore, Internet Explorer runs only on Microsoft Windows, which ties the users to that platform as well. The basic idea of the web applications is to be platform-free, which doesn’t seem to be the case here. This appears to be an issue of a considerable importance.

Prior versions of Microsoft SharePoint Services and Microsoft SharePoint Office Server, the current being the 2007 edition, had no compatibility with browsers other than Internet Explorer whatsoever. We can only hope, and we should hope, that these cross-platform and browser compatibility issues will be completely resolved in the future.

For detailed browser compatibility with SharePoint, you might be interested in:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263526.aspx
http://www.utexas.edu/its/sharepoint/answers/ts_browser.php