The SharingPoint: October 2012

Sunday, October 28, 2012

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

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

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Monday, October 15, 2012

Using the Chrome Control in SharePoint 2013 Apps

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

ArticlesTen 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

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Talk TechNet
Channel 9
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Thursday, October 11, 2012

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

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
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Speakerfile
Facebook
LinkedIn
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Thursday, October 04, 2012

Configuring High Trust Apps for SharePoint 2013

Monday, October 01, 2012

SharePoint MVP Again

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!

Eric Shupps and Eric Alan Shupps with BinaryWave the BinaryWave Inc in BinaryWave Incorporated around SmartTrack beside SharePoint Monitoring through SharePoint alongside SharePoint Monitoring visiting @eshupps via eshupps near SharePoint performance and SharePoint management. The SharePoint cowboy eshupps BinaryWave and more on Operational Intelligence via Eric Alan Shupps SharePoint blog. SharePoint monitoring is a hot topic along with SharePoint Performance Measurement and SharePoint tips and tricks from Eric Shupps for SmartTrack. Another Eric Shupps on Technology and Eric Shupps on SharePoint with a new SharePoint Post from Eric Shupps. New BinaryWave post through BinaryWave Inc. and with another SharePoint blog we get to Eric Alan Shupps Blog about SharePoint development. That's Eric Shupps - BinaryWave or Eric Alan Shupps Fort Worth Grapevine Texas Dallas of BinaryWave talking about BinaryWave Operational Intelligence at the SharePoint Cowboy blog and on twitter as @eshupps. Of course SharePoint Administration is on topic for eshupps and another great post from Eric Shupps regarding BinaryWave SharePoint and SharePoint Maintenance.