SharePoint BUZZ

Did you love the 40 Application templates that Microsoft released, here are the links in case you have not downloaded them already: Download Remaining 20 Of 40 Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Server (WSS) 3.0 Download 20 Of 40 Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Server (WSS) 3.0 Hey, why not go under the hood and read up on what their best practices were and how they created these applications: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is a technology of Windows Server that offers an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services. It is also a platform for developing Web-based business applications. Taking advantage of this capability, Microsoft has developed forty Application Templates to provide out-of-the-box solutions to address the needs of common business processes, such as coordinating a Help Desk or tracking marketing campaigns. This white paper describes how Microsoft developed the Application Templates, identifying best practices for how to work with core capabilities within both Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Designer 2007, with the goal of empowering customers and partners to create their own applications. Here are the major chaptors in the document:

Here's some links to the best articles on SharePoint 2007 in the blogosphere: SharePoint Team blog provide us with a Visio logical architecture design samples file to give you a jump start on your own design and a Debugger "Feature" for SharePoint community. Thank you SP Team! SharePoint Solutions blog released free Utility Quickly and Easily Configures Forms Based Authentication for SharePoint Ronalus simplified everyone's life by providing stsadmWin 2007 Corro'll Driskell at Mindsharp blogs about Audiences by design…. Or, Not as enabling audiences on a library allows the user to target content to a specific group of people however you do run into problems when configuring audiences on a document library with multiple content types Penny Coventry has a great post on Performing a SharePoint Gradual Upgrade using STSADM Find it hard to use the new Ribbon interface? Then try AddInTools, which will revert the Office 2007 Ribbon interface to the classic Office 2003 menu driven interface Harber has updating his popular Application Pool Manager Recycler - which is a must download for SharePoint Administrators / Developers Joel Oleson has two great posts on Master Page and Themes on WSS sites in MOSS discussing the differences between site.master and system.master; while his post ROI from File Shares to SharePoint discusses security and value between both approaches

Microsoft has just released four new example master pages. For you branding and customization freaks, why not check out these master pages and learn from their internal bits. You will need SharePoint Designer 2007 for the installation of master pages. For installation instructions, check out the download page. Microsoft has made available four sample master page sets compatible with the Application Templates for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to showcase some of the customization options master pages provide. Master pages are a feature of ASP.NET 2.0 that work the same way in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 as they do in ASP.NET 2.0. Using master pages, you can create a single page template and then use that template as the basis for multiple pages in an application, instead of having to build each new page from scratch.

Just installing the Application Templates that were released last month on a new server farm. Installing these application templates is pretty straight forward. Let me walk you through the installation as there are steps to do, I have broken down the installation into sections: Application Template Core Installation Walkthrough Application Template Install Walkthrough How To Implement Application Templates Application Template Uninstall Walkthrough Many of the these examples are from the Knowledge Base articles, the documentation from the downloads and also from numerous blog posts. I have linked in as many references and inspirations for this post and I hope you find that its worthwhile to have all the information in one spot. Application Template Core Installation Walkthrough Before installing any Application Template, you must first install the Application Template Core (download link below) solution.

Were you unable to install the latest 20 sample SharePoint 2007 applications? Well MVP Dustin Miller was able to post the appropriate installation instructions. The SharePoint team has confirmed they were a bit too hasty in documenting the installation instructions for the 20 server admin Application Templates. The instructions are as follows: To install the Application Template Core solution: To deploy the Application Template Core solution on a server running Windows SharePoint Services, follow these instructions below. Note that in order to complete the following installation, you must have Administrator rights to both the Windows SharePoint Services site and server on which it is to be installed. Download the solution .EXE file to your computer. Run the .EXE file to unpack the template file to a location on your computer. Select the solution file, ApplicationTemplateCore.wsp, from the extracted distribution. This solution file will be added to the Windows SharePoint Services solution store. On the Windows command line, run "stsadm -o addsolution -filename ApplicationTemplateCore.wsp". Next, run "stsadm -o deploysolution -name ApplicationTemplateCore.wsp -allowgacdeployment". Additional attributes may be required based on your Windows SharePoint Services configuration. For example: Standalone: [ -local | -time <time to deploy at> ] Farm: [ -immediate | -time <time to deploy at> ] Then run "stsadm -o copyappbincontent". The Application Template Core solution has now been added to the solution store and deployed on the server. To install a server admin Application Template: Each server admin Application Template is deployed in the Windows SharePoint Services environment as a solution. To deploy a solution on a server running Windows SharePoint Services, follow these instructions. Note that in order to complete the following installation, you must have Administrator rights to both the Windows SharePoint Services site and server on which it is to be installed.

Microsoft has just released the remaining 20 of the 40 application templates for Windows SharePoint Server (WSS) 3.0.  The first 20 application templates were released just a month ago Download 20 Of 40 Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Server (WSS) 3.0.  The next set of application templates, the server admin templates, have been released and they are: Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management The Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management application template helps employees manage requests for out of office days. Team members post days they will be unavailable and can use the system to assign their responsibilities to others during those days. The application template helps team leaders manage requests for vacation and provides dashboards showing which users are signed up for a set of responsibilities. Budgeting and Tracking Multiple Projects The Budgeting and Tracking Multiple Projects application template helps project teams track and budget multiple, interrelated sets of activities. The template provides project management tools such as project creation, assignment of new tasks, Gantt Charts and common status designators. It helps team members consolidate the status of multiple projects into a single view, tracking progress against a set project budget and timeline. Bug Database The Bug Database application template helps development teams collect and track information about bugs in their code. The template allows bugs to be logged with information such as reproduction steps, category, comments, priority and severity of the bug. Bug categories can specify category owners so users can quickly determine the appropriate bug owners. Call Center The Call Center application template helps teams manage the process of handling customer service requests. The application template helps teams manage service requests from issue identification to cause analysis and resolution. Role-based dashboards display relevant information for each service request and a knowledge base can help track related documents and items previously used to solve past call center issues. Management focused dashboards track performance with metrics such as average resolution time and service request performance history.

Mark Kruger's has just posted everyone about the Demo SharePoint Application Templates for v3! availability of the Fantastic 20 (of 40) application templates available for demo. You can at this very moment, demo the following application templates: Board of Directors Case Management for Government Agencies Classroom Management Clinical Trial Initiation and Management Competitive Analysis Site Discussion Database Disputed Invoice Management Employee Activities Site Employee Self-Service Benefits Employee Training Scheduling and Materials Equity Research Integrated Marketing Campaign Tracking Manufacturing Process Management New Store Opening Product and Marketing Requirements Planning Request for Proposal Sports League Team Work Site Timecard Management After checking the demo,