UPDATE: 04/25/08: Ilikuwa kuambukizwa juu ya baadhi posts blog na kupatikana kiungo kwa makala hii: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/032608-microsoft-sharepoint.html?page=1. I make note of it because in addition to asking, "how do I learn sharepoint?", some people ask "why should I learn sharepoint?". That article partly answers the later.

Katika miezi kadhaa iliyopita, a dozen or more folks from across the planet have been emailing me and asking the general question, "How do I learn SharePoint?"

I’m hardly authoritative, but I’ve had some success (and trying to get better all the time) so I thought I’d document my personal road map. Others may find it valuable.

Before I do that, I just want to observe that it’s obvious to me, based on these personal emails and the even greater number of MSDN / SharePoint University posts of the same nature, that there is huge developer interest in getting up to speed with WSS/MOSS. I wonder what it’s going to be like a year from now … easier to find good SharePoint talent? The same? Are folks committing themselves to the platform at a rate sufficient to keep up with demand for good resources? How could you even figure something like that out short of a WAG?

Paul’s Roadmap

I was full time employed by the good folk at Conchango while I followed this road map. This means that from a learning perspective, I was actively engaged in projects as I followed the steps I outline below.

Some Basic Terms

For people entering this world, there are two key acronyms:

• WSS: Windows SharePoint Services
• Moss: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

WSS is "free" in that it’s bundled with windows server 2003 (or at least can be downloaded from MS). I put quotes around free because you need a box, a valid O/S license and probably SQL (though there’s a "free" kind of SQL as well).

MOSS is built on top of WSS and extends it. There is no MOSS without WSS. MOSS is not free.

Perhaps not day one, but soon after you’ve got some basic familiarity with the platform, it’s important to learn the differences. Kwa mfano, a powerful web part, the Content Query Web Part, is a MOSS feature and not available WSS. People often make the incorrect assumption that CQWP is available in WSS and then end up scrambling for a stop-gap measure when they realize their error.

Hit the Books

I started working with WSS/MOSS on about 01/02/2007. I had a little prior experience with SPS 2003 but very little. To get myself started, I purchased the two books listed here (http://paulgalvin.spaces.live.com/lists/cns!1CC1EDB3DAA9B8AA!203/).

I started with the big blue administration book. Naturally, it covers administration. Wakati huo huo, it provides a survey of all MOSS features (and WSS features as well).

Kwa ajili yangu, it’s not so important to remember all the various details (until it’s time to get certified) but it’s good to know the boundaries. (I follow this same approach in 1st person shooters I play on the xbox or PC — I enter a room and tend to make a counter-clockwise loop until I get back where I started. I just feel better knowing the shape of the box I’m in.)

After reading the big blue book, I would read the entire Inside WSS book. It dives deeply into issues that developers care most about.

Create a Virtual Environment

In order to do any development or properly use the environment, you need a full blown windows server operating system with SharePoint Designer, Studio ya Visual 2005 (2008 works, but some useful tools have yet to be ported as of the writing of this article), InfoPath 2007 and some other stuff. There are many good blog entries describing this process. I’d have a look at these two:

• How to Create a MOSS 2007 VPC Image: The Whole 9 Yards – SharePoint Reporter Blog
• How to build an optimal developer VPC for SharePoint Development – Blog

Aidha, Andrew Connell shared his experiences with VMWare here:

• Microsoft’s virtualization products vs. VMWare’s offerings

Use your favorite search engine to see what other people do. It’s a useful learning exercise in and of itself.

Spend a few minutes angrily denouncing the fact that you need a server environment on which to do development. Lakini … don’t bother blogging about it or posting it to MSDN forums. It’s already been done 🙂. Badala yake, embrace it and move on. You’ll be better off for it.

Get Certified

I believe that the MS SharePoint certification path, which consists four exams, is exhaustive. I suggest that you follow their online preparation guide and do your best to understand each of the areas of the test.

Mimi do not suggest that you take the exam just to pass it. Mimi do not suggest that you use one of the "brain dump" style 3rd party "tools" for passing MS tests. If you can take the test, pass it based on a combination of your own directed study and hands-on experience, you’ll be a stronger developer and job candidate for it.

There are four tests in two "tracks":

Developer:

• TS: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Huduma 3.0 – Matumizi ya Maendeleo
• TS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – Application Development

Admin:

• TS: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuring
• TS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuring

I recommend that developers study for all of these exams. You’ll be strong for them, though I suppose if you skipped the admin exams, you would get by.

I found the WSS version to be considerably more challenging than the corresponding MOSS versions, much to my surprise. I was in a class recently and several others made the same point.

While I was studying for the 70-542 mtihani (MOSS development) I tracked my study resources. These may be helpful to you as well: http://paulgalvin.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!1CC1EDB3DAA9B8AA!192.entry

Plug Yourself Into the Community

The SharePoint community is vibrant, strong and growing larger all the time.

You want to look at the following to start:

• Blogs
• Vikao
• Codeplex
• Twitter

Blogs

If you don’t understand RSS, stop everything and learn it. It will take 10 minutes to learn it, maybe another 10 minutes to find a web based RSS reader (I like google’s reader, www.google.com / msomaji).

Start by adding this blog to your RSS reader 🙂

Ijayo, add www.sharepointblogs.com to your reader. They aggregate many blogs into a single feed.

Over time, you’ll find blogs that are not aggregated that way. Just add them individually.

I subscribe to a few dozen blogs which I’ve accumulate over the last year. Kama unataka, I can export my list and email it.

Hatimaye, you may want to start your own blog. I personally think that a series of blog entries describing a "newbie’s" progress learning WSS/MOSS would be an interesting series. I wish I had done that myself.

Vikao

I actively participate in two forum groups: MSDN and SharePoint University.

Forums are excellent places to learn. People ask questions ranging from the very simple ("How do I create a site column") to the panicked ("My server is down!") to more hypothetical design questions.

Once you get a flavor of the environment, venture out and start replying. Short of directly interacting with a customer, nothing is better than this for hands on experience.

Codeplex

Kwenda www.codeplex.com.

Check it out and search for SharePoint projects.

Subscribe to the daily summary Codeplex feed in your feed reader.

Add any new SharePoint projects to your feed reader.

Hatimaye, after reading the forums and facing down your own WSS/MOSS demons, consider putting together your own codeplex project.

Twitter

As I write this blog entry, a lot of SharePoint folk have started using Twitter.

It’s hard to characterize Twitter. You’ll just have to check it out yourself.

Hitimisho

That wraps up my roadmap and makes me current. I just started using Twitter two weeks ago.

WSS/MOSS is a very cool platform and the community is growing all the time. Use community resources to improve your skills and enjoy the journey!

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Kujiunga na blog yangu.

UPDATE: An anonymous person in the comments posts this link: http://www.atidan.com/atidan-collaboration-kit.php

Forum watumiaji mara nyingi kuuliza swali kama hili:

"I would like to have a calendar at the site level that is populated by events from subsite calendars. Ideally, watumiaji katika subsites kujenga matukio ya kalenda, and will have the option of marking them as ‘public.’ Events marked as public will dynamically appear in the shared site calendar. Thus the shared site calendar is a roll-up of all public events from all subsite calendars."

Ni WSS 3.0 au MOSS 2007, it is not possible to directly configure a "roll-up" calendar. Calendars exist on their own, huru ya kalenda nyingine yoyote.

Kujenga kalenda roll-up, kufuata moja ya njia hizi:

1. Use a Content Query Web Part. This is the easiest solution for MOSS users (WSS haitoi CQWP). CQWP, kwa bahati mbaya, does not provide a calendar view of data out of the box. It does provide enormous rendering flexibility (kuona hapa kwa mfano mmoja) lakini kwa default, shows its results in simple list format. In many cases, CQWP pengine uchaguzi mzuri.
2. A more programming-oriented solution would be to use event receivers. Implement event receivers on the subsite calendars that keep their public events in sync with the master calendar. As a given subsite calendar is modified, reach out to the master calendar and update it as needed. This option is available in both WSS 3.0 na MOSS.

There are probably other clever solutions to this problem. If you have one or know of one, tafadhali kuacha maoni au email yangu nami update hii post.

</mwisho>

Kujiunga na blog yangu.

Tunaweza, lazima na wala kujenga maoni mengi katika orodha SharePoint (hati maktaba, desturi orodha, nk). SharePoint always lists available views in alphabetical order. We cannot change this using out of the box functionality. If it can be done via customization (na mimi nina uhakika unaweza), ni mbali ya kiufundi kwa ajili ya mtumiaji yako ya kawaida mwisho.

Kama unataka kudhibiti utaratibu ambao SharePoint orodha ya maoni inapatikana, tu prepend ya simu au barua kwa jina maoni, kama katika:

1 – Kwa Aina Material
2 – Kila Nyaraka
3 – Kutokana Tarehe

-au-

A – Kwa Aina Material
B – Kila Nyaraka
C – Kutokana Tarehe

I have also created views whose purpose is strictly to feed a KPI. I have been following this naming convention:

Z_KPI_[maelezo]

That causes my "KPI" maoni kuonekana chini ya orodha.

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Kujiunga na blog yangu.

Leo, I was working with a client and describing how to modify the content query web part and display additional bits of information from a content type.

"First, you configure the CQWP to connect to its data sources, then you export it to your workstation, modify <CommonViewFields>, upload, remove the original and now it’s ‘primed’ to display those other columns. Ijayo, open up SharePoint designer, navigate to the site collection root and locate ItemStyle.xsl. Copy one of the templates as a useful starting point. Go back and modify the CQWP to make use of this new template. Hatimaye, modify the template to render your new fields! (Don’t forget to check it back in so that other users can see the results)."

It’s all quite clear to me (and most of us SharePoint developer types) what’s going on and how it’s quite nice, kweli, that the data retrieval aspects of the CQWP are so well-separate from the data presentation aspects. Lakini, it’s not so easy to explain, is it?

<mwisho />

To filter for a query for the Yes/No check box entitled "PG Milestone", configure CQWP kama hii:

Hii ni mwingine mmoja wa wale dhahiri-mara moja-wewe-know-it lakini maswali ngumu-kwa-kupata-jibu-kwa: Jinsi ya kuchuja juu ya sanduku Ndiyo / Hapana hundi kutumia hoja maudhui ya mtandao sehemu.

kwanza tafuta matokeo I find using the search term "filter yes/no content query web part" ni nje gorofa vibaya, hivyo nimeona d kuweka hii up huko na kuona kama anaweza kuchukua nafasi ya matokeo yasiyo sahihi katika matokeo ya kawaida tafuta.

Ni rahisi kabisa: True values = "1" and false values do not equal "1" (pretty retro, kweli).

Katika mfano wa hapo juu, I created site column of type "Yes/No (checkbox)" named "PG Milestone". I added it to a doc library, uploaded nyaraka chache, kuweka thamani kwa wanandoa na majaribio yake.

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UPDATE 12/04/07: Kuona hii Microsoft KB (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923589) kwa habari kuhusiana.

Kweli, zinageuka ni, lakini tricksy MOSS alikuwa na kufanya ni vigumu.

My customer does some development work on his MOSS site over the weekend. It’s a bit of a jumble as to what he actually did, lakini matokeo ya mwisho ni hii:

• He tries to add a site column called "Quantity" na MOSS majibu: "The column name that you entered is already in use or reserved. Choose another name."
• He attempts to add it to another environment and that works. Kwa hiyo, "Quantity" si jina zimehifadhiwa.
• He tries to find an existing site column named "Quantity" in that site collection. He cannot find it.

Mimi alifanya baadhi ya utafiti, and even some coding, akaongezeka falsafa na hatimaye kupatikana kwamba safu aitwaye Kiasi gani, kwa kweli, exist. It was in the "_Hidden" group. Hence, sisi hakuweza kupata hiyo kupitia interface user SharePoint.

Jinsi gani kufika huko? I do not know, lakini nina nadharia (au kama mke wangu bila kuiita, "blah blah blah"). Mahali fulani kwenye mstari, a Fabulous arobaini template was added and probably activated at a site in the site collection. It was then deactivated (au tovuti kuondolewa). The site column, hata hivyo, remained but in the "_Hidden" group. If someone knows better, tafadhali napenda kujua kupitia email au baada ya maoni katika.

SharePoint was telling the truth. It’s hardly worth pointing out that that message is not as helpful as it could be. It would be nice to see that message fork into two different messages in the future: 1) Kusema kwamba jina safu ni akiba au sio. 2) Kama siyo zimehifadhiwa, kuonyesha tovuti, au angalau kundi, ambapo jina safu tayari kutumika.

</mwisho>

Wiki hii, sisi hatimaye kuzalishwa tatizo kwamba alikuwa kuripotiwa kwa mtumiaji kijijini: Alipojaribu kuuza nje yaliyomo ya orodha ya kuutumia, mambo ingekuwa wanaonekana kuanza kufanya kazi, lakini basi Excel ingekuwa pop up kosa: "Cannot get the list schema column property from the SharePoint list". She was running office 2003, windows XP and connecting to MOSS.

I searched Internets na kuona baadhi ya uvumi lakini hakuna 100% definitive. Hence, hii post.

tatizo: Kusafirisha maoni kuutumia kwamba ina tarehe (tarehe = data aina ya safu).

Nini kazi kwa ajili yetu: Convert the date to a "single line of text". Kisha, kubadilisha nyuma ya tarehe.

That solved it. It was nice to see that the conversion worked, kweli. It was quite nervous that converting things this way would fail, but it did not.

Mdudu hii ina kutupwa kivuli kubwa zaidi ya aina tarehe data katika akili ya mteja, hivyo sisi ni kwenda kutafuta jibu slutgiltig kutoka Microsoft na hopefully mimi itabidi baada na update hapa katika kipindi cha pili cha muda mfupi na jibu yao rasmi na taarifa hotfix.

Rejea nyingine:

http://www.kevincornwell.com/blog/index.php/cannot-get-the-list-schema-column-property-from-the-sharepoint-list/

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2383611&SiteID=1

<mwisho>

Kujiunga na blog yangu.

Wakati wa mwisho siku mbili, I have participated in two meetings during which we presented the results of a SharePoint project. The CIO and his team joined the first meeting. That’s standard and not especially notable. The IT department is obviously involved in an enterprise rollout of any technology project. The second meeting expanded to include a V.P. kutoka masoko, kadhaa wakurugenzi anayewakilisha Utumishi, Vifaa, Viwanda, Capital Miradi, Ubora, Ununuzi, Kampuni ya maendeleo na idara nyingine za (ambao baadhi yao walikuwa hata moja kwa moja kushiriki katika awamu ya sasa). That’s a mighty wide audience.

Katika maisha yangu kabla ya, I primarily worked on ERP and CRM projects. They both have a fairly wide solution domain but not as wide as SharePoint. To be fully realized, SharePoint projects legitimately and necessarily reach into every nook and cranny of an organization. How many other enterprise solutions have that kind of reach? Not many.

SharePoint clearly represents an enormous opportunity for those of us fortunate enough to be in this space. It provides a great technical opportunity (ambayo ni namna fulani akageuka juu ya kichwa chake hapa under "Technologies You Must Master"). But even better, SharePoint exposes us to an extensive and wide range of business processes through these engagements. How many CRM specialists work with the manufacturing side of the company? How many ERP consultants work with human resources on talent acquisition? SharePoint exceeds them both.

Kama kitu chochote, siyo kamilifu, lakini ni damned mema mahali pa kuwa.

On the SharePoint forums, someone occasionally asks about "changing the label of Title" or about "removing title from lists".

Bottom line: Don’t do it!

Cha kusikitisha, the user interface allows a one-way change of that column label as shown:

Title is a column associated with the "Item" aina ya maudhui. Many, wengi, many CT’s use this column and if you change it here, it ripples out everywhere. There’s a good chance that you didn’t intend for that to happen. You were probably thinking to yourself, "I have a custom lookup list and ‘Title’ just doesn’t make sense as a column name, so I’m going to change it to ‘Status Code’ and add a description column." But if you follow through on that thought and rename ‘Title’ to ‘Status Code’, every list’s title (including document libraries) changes to "Status Code" and you probably didn’t intend for that to happen.

The real problem is that this is a one-way change. The UI "knows" that "title" is a reserved word. Hivyo, if you try and change "Status Code" back to "Title", it will prevent you and now you’ve painted yourself into a corner using paint that never dries 🙂

So what happens if you already changed it? I haven’t seen the answer we all want, which is a simple and easy method to change the label back to ‘Title’. Right now, the best advice is to change it to something like "Doc/Item Title". That’s a generic enough label that may not be too jarring for your users.

I have few other ideas which are on my to-do list of things to research:

• Contact Microsoft.
• Do something with the object model, maybe in conjunction with a feature.
• Figure out the database schema and manually update SQL. (You should contact Microsoft before doing this though; it will likely void your support contract).

If anyone knows how to solve this, tafadhali post comment.

Update late afternoon, 11/15: I found this link that describes a method for creating a type of list that does not have a title column: http://www.venkat.org/index.php/2007/09/03/how-to-remove-title-column-from-a-custom-list/

Takriban wiki moja iliyopita, I started up a codeplex project that provides a simple and reasonably generic method for adding custom action functions to SharePoit Designer workflow. It’s described here: http://www.codeplex.com/spdwfextensions. Beyond simply providing a framework, it also aims to provide a set of useful functions that will make SPD more useful/flexible/powerful.

Hapa ni sasa makala iliyopangwa kwa ajili ya toleo 1.0: https://www.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ProjectName=spdwfextensions&ReleaseId=8280

Kama mtu ana maslahi yoyote katika mradi huu, tafadhali kuacha maoni au kuanza / kuongeza mjadala hapa: http://www.codeplex.com/spdwfextensions/Thread/List.aspx

Hapa ni seti ya sasa ya kazi ambayo wamekuwa coded (ingawa si kikamilifu kupima kama ya 11/08/07):

Kazi	Description (kama si sawa kama Net kazi.)
Num-entries()	Returns the number "entries" in a string as per a specified delimiter. Kwa mfano: Num-entries in a string "a,b,c" with delimiter "," = 3.
Kuingia()	Returns the nth token in a string as per a specified delimiter.
Urefu	String.Length
Nafasi()	String.Replace()
Ina()	String.Contains() Returns the word "true" or the word "false".
Substring(kuanza)	String.Substring(kuanza)
Substring(kuanza,mwisho)	String.Substring(kuanza,mwisho)
Toupper()	String.ToUpper()
ToLower()	String.ToLower()
StartsWith()	String.StartsWith() Returns the word "true" or the word "false".
EndsWith()	String.EndsWith() Returns the word "true" or the word "false".