March 2004 - Posts

• Sharepoint Portal Server 2001 SP3 Released

  I got this from kbalertz this morning. 837017 Description of Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001 Service Pack 3 Excerpt: SUMMARY Microsoft has released an update to Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001. Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001 Service Pack 3 (SP3) contains updates that are based on the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Initiative, and it contains the latest fixes for Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001. Because this service pack is cumulative, it also contains all the fixes that are included in earlier SharePoint Portal Server 2001 service packs. Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001 SP3 is divided in five parts. All five parts are required. This article describes how to download and install Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001 SP3.   Posted Mar 25 2004, 03:28 PM by Unclaimed Blog with no comments

• Inventory Tracking in a Sharepoint List?

  I'm thinking about tracking inventory -- specifically servers, PCs, laptops, and other assets that have a clear value, user-assignment, serial numbers, and other things like service contracts, online information, tracking dates and stuff like that. All of these things seem so easy for Sharepoint, but getting them all together seems challenging.  A/D integration is already there, so it's not like I have to have an employee database.  Having this information in a list seems very easy too.  Adding the maintenance contracts almost seem like it's within my grasp, because I could add the contracts in one list and reference them in the inventory list. By “tracking dates“, I mean I'd want to have a button or some action I could take called “verify” so that when I saw a given asset and verified that it exists and is in the hands of x user, the timestamp would update so I would know how current my inventory list is. By “online information”, I mean accessing a url with some of asset's information as part of the URL.  One example is Dell equipment -- I know that http://support.dell.com/blahblahblah?serial=XXXXX will get me the warranty, downloads, system configuration and all sorts of stuff for that system.  I want to be able to access it directly from this list. So I wonder if 1) this is a Sharepoint Administrator task because it really is pretty easy, 2) this is a Sharepoint Developer task and will take a little or significant development work or 3) there's a 3rd party product already that will do this.... or that can do it in some other system and integrate with Sharepoint. Come on, participate int the discussion.   Posted Mar 19 2004, 04:54 PM by Unclaimed Blog with 2 comment(s)

• How to use a Sharepoint list for Word 2003 Mail Merge?

  Ok, so now I finally have a good reason to use mail merge, and I have this absolutely fantastic sharepoint list that I've been tracking my Exchange 5.5 -> exchange 2003 mailbox moveswith... and I'm wanting to send an email to each user after migrating them, telling them stuff like mailbox size, number of items, when the move started and how long it took.  All of this data is in a sharepoint list that is updated from my migration actions. However, when I go to mail merge to select the data sources and browse to the list location, I can't see it.  There doesn't seem to be any way to access it. Seems I have to export and link to excel and then export?  That seems a waste of integration.  Am I missing something?   Posted Mar 14 2004, 02:29 AM by Unclaimed Blog with 1 comment(s)

• Various Sharepoint 2003 and Exchange integration points

  I was recently asked about Sharepoint and Exchange integration (2003 on each).  I decided to document a few that I knew of 1.  Link to Outlook This is a button on contacts or events lists that lets Outlook 2003 add a pst file named Sharepoint Folders and it links to the data on the site.  It’s read-only, but you could make the home page for that PST be the Sharepoint site for easier viewing.  The link to outlook feature seems more to me to be where someone can public a calendar, but not want too much collaboration.  For example, a holiday schedule, company meeting schedule, etc, can be made available for people to be able to view from Outlook without having to go to a web browser.  Another nice thing about OL2K3 is that you can compare these calendars with others side by side. 2. Searching Public Folders  With SPS you can index Exchange’s public folders with the search engine so that all that precious public folder content is searchable.  You’ll want to look at content sources and indexing in Sharepoint administration. 3.  Displaying Public Folders in a web part. Since exchange web-enables public folders, you can create a web part that displays that content.  IE, http://exchangeserver/Public/IT/Helpdesk will display the IT/Helpdesk public folder via OWA.  So you add the Page Viewer web part to a page and point it at that URL.  See http://www.spsfaq.com/customising.asp?postid=668 for more info.  The key here is to add ?cmd=contents to the end of the url if you don’t want the navigator pane on the left. 4. Smart web parts (can't remember where these are in 2003) Some of the web parts that come with SPS allow you to add a web part to a page that actually takes the users outlook info (calendar, inbox, contacts, tasks) and put them into the page.   If you have more, go ahead and let me know.   Posted Mar 12 2004, 03:00 PM by Unclaimed Blog with 1 comment(s)