Content Query or Content Search in SharePoint – Which is Best?
One of the most common requirements in any SharePoint environment is the aggregation and summarization of content across lists, libraries, sites and site collections. Administrators could not easily achieve these requirements without custom code until the introduction of the Content Query Web Part (CQWP) in SharePoint 2007/2010. The CQWP gave administrators a useful out-of-the-box method for collecting data from various lists into a consolidated view. Even better, it could aggregate data from different sites – something the built-in List View Web Parts could never do. But, the CQWP certainly has its limitations – the number of sites it can query is limited, modifying the display requires expert XSL transformation skills, and the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting required to execute its queries can place a significant load on the infrastructure, especially when used on heavily trafficked pages.
Recognizing these limitations, Microsoft introduced the Content Search Web Part (CSWP, sometimes referred to as “Content by Search”) as part of the on-premise release of SharePoint 2013 and eventually in Office 365 tenants. By this point, most customers should at least be familiar with the CSWP and how it functions. The real question now is which one should you use – Content Query or Content Search? The answer, of course, is it depends. The following is a collection of basic guidelines to help you make an informed decision. For more information on how to use and extend each one, refer to the Additional Information section at the end of this post for related articles, presentations and blog posts.
– See more at: http://www.itunity.com/blog/content-query-content-search-sharepoint-2013-office-365-602#sthash.1Is1v2Nz.UVQGGuhp.dpuf
SmartTrack Operational Analytics for SharePoint
Articles
Ten Steps to Optimize SharePoint Performance by Eric Alan Shupps
Webcasts
Eric Shupps – Secrets of SharePoint Part 5: Configuring Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Optimal Performance
Creating End User SharePoint Solutions for Performance and Scalability by Eric A. Shupps
SharePoint 2010 Performance Enhancements for Administrators with Eric Shupps Microsoft
SharePoint Server 2010 for the ASP.NET Developer
Eric Shupps on Following Best Practices and Avoiding Common Errors with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Development
SharePoint Performance and Capacity Planning Essentials from Eric Alan Shupps
Eric Shupps on Troubleshooting Common Performance Problems in SharePoint 2010
Videos
Channel 9 Interview with Eric Shupps SharePoint
TechTalk – Different Views on Social Computing
Eric Alan Shupps talks SharePoint Post-Deployment Planning and Management
Podcasts
SharePoint Pod Show – Design for Performance eith Eric Shupps
SharePoint Pod Show – Test Driven Development with Eric Shupps
Run As Radio – Eric Shupps Improves SharePoint Performance
Social
Eric Shupps – ConferenceHound
Eric Shupps on Talk TechNet
Eric Alan Shupps on Channel 9
Planet SharePoint Eric Shupps profile
Eric Shupps Lanyrd
Eric Shupps MVP Profile
Eric Alan Shupps About.me
The SharePoint Cowboy Tumblr
Eric Shupps on Speakerfile
Eric Shupps – Facebook
Eric Shupps LinkedIn Profile
Eric Shupps Google+
Twitter – @eshupps
Solving SharePint 2013 Search Configuration Errors
Also bear in mind that the Search admin account requires read/write permissions to the folder in which the index files reside. As this account should *not* be a local administrator it’s very likely that it won’t have access to the folders that hold the primary and replica index files. Be sure to assign the appropriate permissions on each server in the topology which contains an index partition (the default location is “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server\Applications” which, ideally, should be changed as part of the provisioning process). Possible error messages which indicate your search admin account may not have the correct SQL or folder permissions include: “Content Plugin can not be initialized – list of CSS addresses is not set.”
“Unable to retrieve topology component health states. This may be because the admin component is not up and running”
“Topology activation failed. No system manager locations set, search application might not be ready yet”
“Could not access the Search database. A generic error occurred while trying to access the database to obtain the schema version info.”
There are a lot of blogs, forum posts, and articles with all sorts of advice on how to deal with these errors, most of which prescribe repetitive un-provisioning and re-provisioning of service applications. Although those solutions may apply to your environment at some point, before going down that road first ensure that the Search admin account has the proper database and file permissions, as no amount of provisioning will overcome basic security limitations.
(Note: For a good walkthrough on Search provisioning via powershell, refer to this post from Ryan Bushnell and the Search cmdlet reference on TechNet)
SmartTrack Operational Analytics for SharePoint
Articles
Ten Steps to Optimize SharePoint Performance by Eric Alan Shupps
Webcasts
Eric Shupps – Secrets of SharePoint Part 5: Configuring Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Optimal Performance
Creating End User SharePoint Solutions for Performance and Scalability by Eric A. Shupps
SharePoint 2010 Performance Enhancements for Administrators with Eric Shupps Microsoft
SharePoint Server 2010 for the ASP.NET Developer
Eric Shupps on Following Best Practices and Avoiding Common Errors with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Development
SharePoint Performance and Capacity Planning Essentials from Eric Alan Shupps
Eric Shupps on Troubleshooting Common Performance Problems in SharePoint 2010
Videos
Channel 9 Interview with Eric Shupps SharePoint
TechTalk – Different Views on Social Computing
Eric Alan Shupps talks SharePoint Post-Deployment Planning and Management
Podcasts
SharePoint Pod Show – Design for Performance eith Eric Shupps
SharePoint Pod Show – Test Driven Development with Eric Shupps
Run As Radio – Eric Shupps Improves SharePoint Performance
Social
Eric Shupps – ConferenceHound
Eric Shupps on Talk TechNet
Eric Alan Shupps on Channel 9
Planet SharePoint Eric Shupps profile
Eric Shupps Lanyrd
Eric Shupps MVP Profile
Eric Alan Shupps About.me
The SharePoint Cowboy Tumblr
Eric Shupps on Speakerfile
Eric Shupps – Facebook
Eric Shupps LinkedIn Profile
Eric Shupps Google+
Twitter – @eshupps
SmartTrack Promotional Video
Converting Word Documents to HTML in Powershell with DefaultWebOptions
Eric Shupps BinaryWave eshupps
In working on a SharePoint-related project I found myself needing to convert a large number of Word documents to clean HTML while maintaining the integrity of the embedded images. So I turned to PowerShell to automate the process but found it wasn’t as easy as I had hoped. After digging through some rather unhelpful MSDN documentation (is there any other kind?) I finally figured out how to force it to do what I wanted.
If you’ve ever used the “Save As Web Page” option in Word, then you know that the HTML it creates is a complete mess, full of Word styles and formatting options, and nothing you would ever actually use on a real web page. Thankfully, there is a “Web Page, Filtered” option that strips most of the nonsense out of the resulting markup. But for some reason it still insists on exporting down-sampled GIF images instead of full-fidelity…
View original post 308 more words
Hiding Toolbars in the SharePoint 2010 Chart Web Part
SharePoint Server 2010 ships with a nifty Chart web part that displays visual data from a number of sources – SharePoint lists, BDC, Excel services, etc. It’s a handy control and one that was sorely missing from the 2007 version. It provides a number of chart options, including pies, lines, bars, cones, scatters, etc. in both 2D and 3D. Neat…but (and there’s always a ‘but’)…it has one very annoying characteristic that drives site administrators crazy. When you drop it onto the page, it displays a toolbar with links for “Data & Appearance” and “Advanced Properties” to everyone with more than basic read permissions.
We certainly don’t want everyone to see that – too much temptation to click on those links and blow up our pretty little graphs. Well, ok, should be easy enough to turn that off, right? Wrong.
Somebody, somewhere, forget to include the ubiquitous hide toolbar switch that’s on most other out of the box web parts. While trying to figure out a workaround for this nice little undocumented feature, I came across a lot of links to this blog post by Nick Grattan in which he suggests editing the page in SharePoint Designer and changing the web part properties manually in the markup. That’s all well and good but anyone who has ever heard me speak at a conference knows that I am not exactly the world’s biggest fan of using SPD to edit pages (that may be understating it a bit, sort of like saying the Pope is a little bit Catholic or Texas gets a bit warm in the summertime). So what to do…
Read more from Eric Shupps
Articles
Ten Steps to Optimize SharePoint Performance
Webcasts
Secrets of SharePoint Part 5: Configuring Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Optimal Performance
Creating End User SharePoint Solutions for Performance and Scalability
SharePoint 2010 Performance Enhancements for Administrators Microsoft
SharePoint Server 2010 for the ASP.NET Developer
Following Best Practices and Avoiding Common Errors with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Development
SharePoint Performance and Capacity Planning Essentials
Troubleshooting Common Performance Problems in SharePoint 2010
Videos
Channel 9 Interview with Eric Shupps SharePoint
TechTalk – Different Views on Social Computing
SharePoint Post-Deployment Planning and Management
Podcasts
SharePoint Pod Show – Design for Performance
SharePoint Pod Show – Test Driven Development
Run As Radio – Eric Shupps Improves SharePoint Performance
Social
ConferenceHound
Talk TechNet
Channel 9
Planet SharePoint
Lanyrd
MVP Profile
About.me
Tumblr
Speakerfile
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google+
Twitter
Using Multiple Displays and Projectors with Windows 8 and Lenovo W520
When Lenovo started shipping hybrid graphics in their W500-series workstations, it was a great improvement for road warriors who need both full-power graphics when connected to a power source and long battery life on the go. This is achieved by the presence of two video cards – an integrated Intel chip side-by-side with an nVidia Quadro GPU. The nVidia drivers ship with software that automatically switch between graphics modes based on the current power profile.
This configuration works great until the machine is connected to an external monitor or projector via the VGA port. For some reason, the nVidia software is unable to automatically balance the output between both video cards when the display is duplicated. Many users have resorted to disabling one or the other video cards in the BIOS, which works fine but requires that the change be made manually each time to computer is rebooted (assuming that the user wants the low power mode at some point – if the machine is always plugged in then it’s really not an issue).
There is, however, a way to get display duplication working with the auto-switching Optimus mode. All the configuration options are there in the nVidia control panel but the configuration isn’t very intuitive. Here’s how to make it work (this holds true for both Windows 7 and Windows 8, although the sub-menu text in the control panel is a bit different between driver versions)…
Read more from Eric Shupps
Articles
Ten Steps to Optimize SharePoint Performance
Webcasts
Creating End User SharePoint Solutions for Performance and Scalability
SharePoint 2010 Performance Enhancements for Administrators
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for the ASP.NET Developer
SharePoint Performance and Capacity Planning Essentials
Troubleshooting Common Performance Problems in SharePoint 2010
Videos
Channel 9 Interview with Eric Shupps
SharePoint TechTalk – Different Views on Social Computing
SharePoint Post-Deployment Planning and Management
Podcasts
SharePoint Pod Show – Design for Performance
SharePoint Pod Show – Test Driven Development
Run As Radio – Eric Shupps Improves SharePoint Performance
Social
The SharePoint 2013 Chrome Control
In the new SharePoint 2013 App model, there are essentially two ways to host apps – within SharePoint itself or from an external web site (also known as “provider hosted” or “autohosted”). One of the disadvantages of external apps is that they don’t look or feel like SharePoint. All the familiar navigation menus and shortcuts are missing, resulting in a stark contrast between the default SharePoint visual experience and whichever app is currently being used unless the app developer went the extra mile (or ten) to style their app.
While this isn’t really a bad thing – the app is fully functional and can communicate with SharePoint – it doesn’t quite lend itself to a cohesive user experience. To bridge this gap, Microsoft allows developers to import a very basic version of the SharePoint 2013 chrome into their apps without having to manually create matching HTML controls. The functionality for this can be found in the SP.UI.Controls.js file located in the new /_layouts/15 directory. To use the chrome control, first add a reference to SP.UI.Controls.js (make sure you’ve already loaded the requisite JQuery files and other dependencies), then add an empty <div> to your page markup at or near the top of the page..
Read more from Eric Shupps
Articles
Ten Steps to Optimize SharePoint Performance
Webcasts
Secrets of SharePoint Part 5: Configuring Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Optimal Performance
Creating End User SharePoint Solutions for Performance and Scalability
SharePoint 2010 Performance Enhancements for Administrators
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for the ASP.NET Developer
Following Best Practices and Avoiding Common Errors with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Development
SharePoint Performance and Capacity Planning Essentials
Troubleshooting Common Performance Problems in SharePoint 2010
Videos
Channel 9 Interview with Eric Shupps
SharePoint TechTalk – Different Views on Social Computing
SharePoint Post-Deployment Planning and Management
Podcasts
SharePoint Pod Show – Design for Performance
SharePoint Pod Show – Test Driven Development
Run As Radio – Eric Shupps Improves SharePoint Performance
Social
ConferenceHound
Talk TechNet
Channel 9
Planet SharePoint
Lanyrd
MVP Profile
About.me
Tumblr
Speakerfile
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google+
Twitter
Using PowerShell to Set List View Parameters in SharePoint Web Parts
While working on some modifications to the SharePoint 2010 blog site template I ran across an interesting problem. I was trying to duplicate the functionality of a particular web part; in this case, the Posts web part which outputs a formatted display of list items on the Category.aspx page of a blog site. The default web part was listed in the contents page (reachable using the “?contents=1” query string parameter) as a basic XsltListViewWebPart, which meant that I should be able to drop the Posts web part from Lists and Libraries in the web part gallery, set the view, and get the desired results. If only it were that simple.
No matter which view I picked, all the web part showed was a standard list view with rows and columns, not the nicely formatted view with the calendar page image, title link and summary information that I was after. Since it was a stock list view web part I knew it was using a view to fetch the data and then transforming it in XSL but there didn’t seem to be any way to force it into using the correct view. Assuming that the view itself might be hidden from the drop-down selector, I turned to PowerShell to see if I could find out what was going on. I began by iterating through the web parts on the page to find the one I wanted and writing out the view ID…
Read more from Eric Shupps
Articles
Ten Steps to Optimize SharePoint Performance
Creating End User SharePoint Solutions for Performance and Scalability
SharePoint 2010 Performance Enhancements for Administrators
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for the ASP.NET Developer
SharePoint Performance and Capacity Planning Essentials
Troubleshooting Common Performance Problems in SharePoint 2010
Videos
Channel 9 Interview with Eric Shupps
SharePoint TechTalk – Different Views on Social Computing
SharePoint Post-Deployment Planning and Management
Podcasts
SharePoint Pod Show – Design for Performance
SharePoint Pod Show – Test Driven Development
Run As Radio – Eric Shupps Improves SharePoint Performance
Social
Configuring SharePoint 2013 High Trust Apps
The SharePoint 2013 Application Model supports app development for both cloud and on-premise environments; however, there are distinct differences between the two implementations. In the cloud, apps rely upon an external authorization process to validate that an application hosted outside of SharePoint – in a vendor’s data center, for example – is allowed to communicate with the SharePoint site where the app has been deployed. Within the enterprise, it is unlikely that an authorization server will be present or even necessary; rather, apps developed and deployed internally are assumed to have “high trust”. In order to facilitate a high trust relationship in the absence of a pre-configured authorizing entity, a specific set of configuration tasks must be performed for each app that will be deployed…
Read more from Eric Shupps
Articles
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Ten Steps to Optimize SharePoint Performance
Webcasts
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Secrets of SharePoint Part 5: Configuring Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Optimal Performance Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Creating End User SharePoint Solutions for Performance and Scalability Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint 2010 Performance Enhancements for Administrators Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for the ASP.NET Developer Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Following Best Practices and Avoiding Common Errors with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Development Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint Performance and Capacity Planning Essentials Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Troubleshooting Common Performance Problems in SharePoint 2010
Videos
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Channel 9 Interview with Eric Shupps Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint TechTalk – Different Views on Social Computing Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint Post-Deployment Planning and Management
Podcasts
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint Pod Show – Design for Performance Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint Pod Show – Test Driven Development Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Run As Radio – Eric Shupps Improves SharePoint Performance
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy on ConferenceHound
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Talk TechNet
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy on Channel 9
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy on Planet SharePoint
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy on Lanyrd
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy MVP Profile
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy About.me
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy Tumblr
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy Speakerfile
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy Facebook
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy LinkedIn
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy Google+
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy Twitter
SharePoint MVP for Another Year
Well, it’s that time of year again, and Microsoft has seen fit to keep me in the MVP program for another go around. This will be my sixth year as an MVP. When I first came into the program there were only a few dozen SharePoint MVP’s – now there are hundreds all over the world. The yearly MVP summit used to be an opportunity to catch up with old friends you didn’t see very often but with the growth of the group (which is still quite small compared with groups like SQL or ASP.NET) it’s now become a way to meet new people you might not have even heard of before.
For those of us who have been around a while, the quarterly renewal cycles can often be bittersweet – sometimes we have to say goodbye to friends who have moved on or focused their community efforts in other directions. Despite what some people on the outside who have no knowledge of the inner workings of the program may think, it still takes a lot of work to attain and retain MVP status. You don’t have to be the brightest technical guru or constantly on the speaking circuit to become an MVP (although both of those certainly help) but you do have to put in the hours contributing to the community in whatever fashion suits you. Not everyone has the capability or flexibility to continue contributing at a high level – life and circumstances change and sometimes there’s just not enough hours in the day. It’s sad to see good people leave the program but always exciting to meet the new kids on the block.
So congratulations to all the new and returning SharePoint MVP’s. With a new product release on the horizon it’s going to be a busy year ahead. Be sure to join us all in Las Vegas on November 12th – 15th for SharePoint Conference 2012 for lots of learning and plenty of partying!
Articles
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Ten Steps to Optimize SharePoint Performance
Webcasts
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Secrets of SharePoint Part 5: Configuring Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Optimal Performance
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Creating End User SharePoint Solutions for Performance and Scalability
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint 2010 Performance Enhancements for Administrators
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for the ASP.NET Developer
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Following Best Practices and Avoiding Common Errors with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Development
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint Performance and Capacity Planning Essentials
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Troubleshooting Common Performance Problems in SharePoint 2010
Videos
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Channel 9 Interview with Eric Shupps
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint TechTalk – Different Views on Social Computing
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint Post-Deployment Planning and Management
Podcasts
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint Pod Show – Design for Performance
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – SharePoint Pod Show – Test Driven Development
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Run As Radio – Eric Shupps Improves SharePoint Performance
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy on ConferenceHound
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy – Talk TechNet
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy on Channel 9
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy on Planet SharePoint
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy on Lanyrd
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy MVP Profile
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy About.me
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy Tumblr
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy Speakerfile
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy Facebook
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy LinkedIn
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy Google+
Eric Shupps eshupps SharePoint Cowboy Twitter
 |
 |
 |
 |
The SharePoint Cowboy 
You must be logged in to post a comment.