Author: Bob German

What is Modern SharePoint and Why Should I care?

~ Bob German ~ 5 Comments

The question I get the most these days is, “what is this modern SharePoint you keep talking about?” It might sound like an oxymoron! All my SharePointy friends know about it, and debate the finer points over beer at SharePint, but to the casual user, or someone who’s been working on premises, it may be a bit of a mystery. It’s only available online (at the time of this writing anyway), and is slowly being phased in as developers build it out.

So here it is: Microsoft is on a mission to modernize SharePoint, to save it from fading into obscurity as a once innovative but now persnickety old war horse of a product. This article will explain how they’re doing it, and why you might want to take a fresh look on this stalwart collaboration product.

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Choosing a CDN for SharePoint client-side solutions

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Client-side solutions have been de rigueur for a few years now: they’re cloud friendly, and are generally much easier to deploy than server-side code. SharePoint is an enterprise class content management tool, so it’s only natural to store the client code in SharePoint. That was all well and good until Office 365’s large farm sizes rendered SharePoint’s BLOB cache useless, which makes loading static files much slower online than on premises.

So lately Microsoft has been encouraging – and helping – us all to use a proper Content Delivery Network (CDN) for static content. CDN’s are designed for speed and volume; they even address the speed of light problem by fetching files from a data center that’s near the client. This will help your client-side solutions to load noticeably faster, as seen in this chart.

CDN Comparison in ms

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Two Vantage Points

~ Bob German ~ 2 Comments

I just returned to Microsoft after a six-year adventure at a startup, BlueMetal. It was a great experience, but I was ready for a change, and I was fortunate to secure a great position as a Partner Technology Architect in Microsoft’s new One Commercial Partner (OCP) organization. I’m thrilled!

Now that I’m back, I’m able to blog on MSDN again! So which is it – MSDN, or my own blog at Bob1German.com? Decisions decisions!

For the time being, I’ve decided that “both” is a pretty good option; this will allow regular followers to keep going to the same place, while inviting MSDN readers to the party. So read either one; I plan to post the same content to both places.

Thanks, as always, for your interest and comments!

Securely erase physical drives with dban and Hyper-V

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I’m writing this between jobs – I’ve left BlueMetal, and haven’t started at Microsoft yet. I’m using this time to do a deep clean on my home office, and I’ve come across a number of hard drives that need disposal. But how to do so securely, so data can’t be recovered? And how can I hit a budget goal of, say, zero?

This article from ZDNet offers three options: one software (Darik’s Boot and Nuke – dban), one hardware (Wiebetech’s Drive eRazer Ultra), and one brute force (drive a nail through the platters). The hardware solution would be perfect if I did this every week, but it’s kind of expensive and this isn’t something I’ll use very often. The brute force solution might be good if I had a lot of pent up aggression, but it physically destroys the drive. That leaves the software approach, and a bunch of people recommended dban. But they recommend running it on a dedicated machine because by default it wipes out all connected hard drives and it’s easy to accidentally wipe out everything.

So I had the idea of using Hyper-V, my favorite virtualization tool that’s built into Windows 10 (Enterprise, Professional, or Education editions). Virtualization provides a safe sandbox to run dban, and I can run it in the background on my existing PC.

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Office 365 Developer Review from Microsoft Ignite

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Companion Article for the Overview at the Boston Office 365 Developer Bootcamp

This article could be useful to any Office 365 developer who wants a quick reference to  the recorded sessions from Microsoft Ignite, but it’s also intended as a companion to my opening talk at the Office 365 Developer Bootcamp on October 27, 2017, in Burlington, MA. The talk is intended to show you all the ways you can develop for Office 365. Office 365 includes the Office client programs, such as Word, Excel, and Outlook, as well as the online services, such as Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, etc.

There was a ton of great content at Ignite on Office development and, thankfully, most of it is available online. Here are links to the sessions that are available as recordings, so you can dive into whatever areas you like.

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Office Developer Bootcamp Sponsors on Board

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Some readers may already know that Scot Hillier and I are presenting an Office Developer Bootcamp focused on the SharePoint Framework on Friday, October 27, 2017 at the Microsoft office in Burlington MA. This is a great opportunity to learn SharePoint Framework development, including related technologies, Typescript, WebPack, and React. There are still openings, and it’s free! Please register here to join us!

I’m pleased to announce that we have some great sponsors for this event. Not only will they ensure that attendees are well fed, they were hand-picked as they bring key technologies that every SharePoint developer should know about!

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Building Compliant Team Sites

~ Bob German ~ 1 Comment

Companion article to my session at Microsoft Ignite 2017

Thanks to everyone who attended my session at Microsoft Ignite 2017, Building Compliant Team sites (THR2057). For those who missed it, here is the recording. This article provides links to resources and additional details.

The talk was about how enterprises can manage modern SharePoint team sites in a way that makes compliance easy.

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Creating Reusable React Components for SharePoint Framework Solutions

~ Bob German ~ 4 Comments

Lessons Learned from the #SPShire Project

This is the one of my lessons learned from the Shire Hub Intranet project, based on the forthcoming SharePoint Communication Sites.

The lessons in this blog series are:

  1. Previewing and Opening Office Documents from the SharePoint Framework
  2. Using the OneDrive File Picker in SharePoint Framework Solutions
  3. Creating Reusable React Components for SharePoint Framework Solutions
    (this article)

This project on github contains the sample solution for all three articles.

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Using the OneDrive File Picker in SharePoint Framework Solutions

~ Bob German ~ 2 Comments

Lessons Learned from the #SPShire Project

This is the one of my lessons learned from the Shire Hub Intranet project, based on the forthcoming SharePoint Communication Sites.

The lessons in this blog series are:

  1. Previewing and Opening Office Documents from the SharePoint Framework
  2. Using the OneDrive File Picker in SharePoint Framework Solutions
    (this article)
  3. Creating Reusable React Components for SharePoint Framework Solutions

This project on github contains the sample solution for all three articles.

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Previewing and Opening Office Files from the SharePoint Framework

~ Bob German ~ 3 Comments

Lessons Learned from the #SPShire Project

SPShire

I’m thrilled to be part of an early adopter project building a new intranet for Shire Pharmaceuticals based on the forthcoming SharePoint Communication Sites. Shire is an exciting and innovative company, and the team includes a number of my fellow Microsoft MVP’s as well as teammates from BlueMetal. Last week Microsoft broadcast a webinar from the Boston MTC featuring a cross-section of the development team. Microsoft’s Mark Kashman promised we’d post some of the lessons learned in the project, and this is one of those postings.

The lessons in this blog series are:

  1. Previewing and Opening Office Documents from the SharePoint Framework
    (this article)
  2. Using the OneDrive File Picker in SharePoint Framework Solutions
  3. Creating Reusable React Components for SharePoint Framework Solutions

This project on github contains the sample solution for all three articles.

Continue reading →