Alex Pearce's Blog

Got sent a new toy this week.  The HP MiniNote - shame its only a demo and its got to go back but I tell you what - its amazing!  I'm trading in my Sony for this bit of kit.

I currently have a Sony 15.4" wide screen and the HP (8.9" widescreen) is at least half the size of it but all the keys on the keyboard are the same size.  I first saw one last week when someone from Birmingham Council came in and showed me it and I started typing straight away unlike the Asus EEE which I still can't type on as its to small for my hands.  The screen is better too - runs at 1240 x 800 and even though some people say the text is too small I can still see.

It's come with Vista Business and went straight onto our network, got 2GB of RAM, 160GB HHD and 1.6Ghz (according to Vista).  I ran Windows Experience Index on the machine and this is what it came back with

Processor: 2.0

Memory: 4.1

Graphics: 1.0

Gaming graphics: 1.0

Primary hard disk: 5.2

I've ordered mine - kids will love it too.  A few member of staff have already said they want one.

At £350 each - its a good price too.

Microsoft are giving away software to students for free.  This is great!  I'm so please that they have decided to set up a scheme that allows this.

Microsoft Dream Spark gives students access to Microsoft Windows Server, Visual Studio, Expressions Studio and XNA to help them become either IT Pros or Developers.

Your local authority or university have to join the scheme but after that you can apply to get it.

I think this is a great step to giving students free software.  Next step - feel licensing to all schools!

https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/

There are several ways to add a banner to the top of your SharePoint site like below.

The banner sits in your global breadcrumb so you need to think about your design of your image

I create my images in Adobe Photoshop and this is the only additional tool used in this how to.

Open up your image editor (Photoshop) and start with a blank canvas that is width of 2200px and height of 100px.

When your SharePoint page loads it will load this image from the left hand side so any images like a logo need to be aligned to the left.  If a computer screen is at 1024 x 800 it will only show the first 1000px.

So add a logo, a bit of text and anything else you want to add.

Save your picture as banner.jpg to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES which is your http://*sharepointsite*/_layouts/images/ folder

We now need to tell the CSS file for the master page that we want to use the banner.jpg image

SharePoint users several CSS files but there is one mail file called CORE.CSS

You will find the CSS files in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\STYLES

Open CORE.CSS in notepad and search for globalbread

Under globalbreadcrumb you will see the following

.ms-globalbreadcrumb{
font-size:8pt;
text-align:right;
background-color:#ebf3ff;
padding:2px 10px 2px 5px;

}

You need to add a line of code to say background-image:url("/_layouts/images/banner.jpg");

If you save the file now you will see your banner at the top - but you will not see the full 100px in height.

Finally - Set the padding to

padding:2px 10px 79px 5px;

You should now see your site with a banner at the top

A few months ago I posted a PDF of what a school in Christchurch, UK had done with SharePoint which included making their own webparts.

I met up with the guys from Twynham and it was a great meeting which also include the representatives from Shirelands.

I had a email from Dave at Twynham the other day to say he has made some videos of the use of SharePoint in the school and has published them on the internet.

These are great thing to look at if your looking at implementing SharePoint are you school.

http://www.twynhamschool.com/supportinglearning/

I've been playing around a lot with Silverlight 2 recently, I'm find it a lot easier to code than version 1.

In many of the schools I have been to, they have had a proxy server for all their internet traffic.  I created a bat script that wrote to the registry and asked the user to either type 1 to turn the proxy on or 0 for off.  It worked great but wasn't easy on the eye and one network I went to it stopped the users from using command lines.

So I thought it was time to create something that was more graphical.  It would also solve the issue of a user typing 2 on the above script and causing errors in the registry.

So this is what we are going to create

Download the Microsoft Expression Blend 2.5 March Preview (available at time of writing this post).

Create a WPF Application and call it ProxyEnableDisable

Add 2 buttons and name one Proxy On and the other Proxy Off

Now we want to let our users know what this silverlight application can do so we'll provide them with some instructions

We've done everything we need to now in Expression Blend so we need to move the project over to Visual Studio.  Make sure you save your project.

Over on the write hand side you will see Solution 'ProxyEnableDisable'. Right click here and click on Edit in Visual Studio.

This should have now opened up Visual Studio.  You will see the same layout above, down the right hand side.  Double click on Windows1.xaml.  This is the silverlight coding.  If your using Visual Studio 2008 you will see the xaml code and a graphical view of our project.

We need to start adding come code to the buttons.  We'll give it a x:name and then add a click handler for both of the buttons.

Find the line of code for the button with the content that is equal to Proxy On and add x:name="On".  Also type click and click on <NewEventHandler>.  This will allow us to add come C# handling code to this button.

Your line of code should now read

Do the same for the Proxy Off button but instead of giving the x:name the value of On - call it off

This is the last bit of XAML coding for this project.  The window1.xaml should now read

Expand the Windows1.xaml and click on windows1.xaml.cs

We're now going to add some C# coding that will write to our registry to either add turn the proxy on or off depending on which button the user clicks on.

We need to add a reference to our C# code.  At the top add Using Microsoft.Win32;

The below code will turn the proxy server on.  The 4th line down is where you are telling the registry to either have the proxy server enable or disabled.  The value of 1 will turn the proxy on where 0 will disable it.  Add the line of code to both of your button event handlers remembering to change that 1 to 0 for proxy off.

If you press F5 now you will be able to turn your proxy server on and off with a simple application

Now its all yours to be customised.

Don't forget to install Silverlight 2 on your clients before rolling it out.

Click here to download the bat file

Click here to download the application

Click here to download the source code

Microsoft Education UK are running a vendor days on the 21st May.  It should be a really good day as they have arranged for 23 different companies to come and talk about their SharePoint solutions including companies such as RM, ITWorx, LP+ and Nisai Academy.

Some of these including fully hosting products, in house products, library systems and VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments).  It should be a great day.  Here is a full list of all the vendors that I have taken from the Microsoft UK Schools Blog.

1. Nisai Virtual Academy

2. MicroLibrarian Systems – Eclipse

3. RM – Kaleidos Learning Platform

4. Hunterstone/ER4L – eLibrarian and Content Server

5. Scholaris Learning Gateway

6. Etech – StudyWiz

7. Parabola Marking Records

8. Business Insights Group – Student Billing

9. ITWorx – Catalyst Provisioning (MLG)

10. LP+ Learning Gateway

11. Arc – Vitaelity ePortfolio

12. NetMedia Education – MyClasses

13. eLearningForce – SharePoint LMS

14. Fronter VLE

15. WinVision – Digital Portfolio

16. Core Education – Talmos Primary

17. Cambridge University Press – Global Grid for Learning

18. Morse - Wisdom

19. eCopy

20. Digi-Link – Revelation

21. K2 – K2 Workflow

22. Houghton Mifflin – Learning Village

23. Visual Software – SIF Agent Wizard and Zone Integration Server

If you want to attend click here and book for free.

See you there

Back at Christmas I showed what SharePoint looked like on a Apple IPhone/ITouch.

The other night I was babysitting my god daughter and after she had gone to bed I turned on the Nintendo Wii to play a bit of Mario Kart but when I turned it on I noticed it had the internet connection.  I understand you have to pay for this to be added to your Wii.  As it loads the browser it says it is powered by Opera.

The TV is a Samsung 32" - great picture.

I entered, using the Wii remote pointing at the screen, the address of my test site and load the page.

This is the same screen you get when entering your password.

I'm using ISA 2006.  The text boxes aren't the same size but still work.

Front page loaded normally but doesn't fully fit on the screen.

Same for the calendar - not the whole calendar fits on - only a few dates

On the bottom of the Wii remote is the 'B' button.  If you hold that down and move the controller in the direction you want to see, you can navigate around the page.  In the image below you see me moving it down from top right to bottom left

I’ve sent a lot of people information about SharePoint and Microsoft Learning Gateway so thought it was time to put it all together in a single post. It would be great if you could add more links to resources.

SharePoint 2007

• Microsoft SharePoint Site
  • http://office.microsoft.com/sharepoint
• SharePoint User Group UK
  • http://www.suguk.org
• SharePoint User Group UK: Education Forum
  • http://suguk.org/forums/31/ShowForum.aspx
• SharePoint Community Portal
  • http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/sharepoint

Educational SharePoint add-on (Free)

• SharePoint Learning Kit
  • www.codeplex.com/slk
• Microsoft Learning Gateway Refresh
  • www.codeplex.com/lg
• Advanced Wikis, Blogs,
  • www.codeplex.com/cks
• Community Kit for SharePoint Education (Site Template)
  • http://www.codeplex.com/CKS/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=1463
• Moodle WebParts for SharePoint
  • www.codeplex.com/Moodle2003WP

Education SharePoint add-ons (Purchase)

• Course Builder VLE
  • www.sharepointlms.com
• Scholaris VLE for SharePoint (available from Ergo
  • www.ergo.co.uk
• Provisioning tool for SharePoint Learning Kit and other VLEs. Information pulled from MIS System
  • www.salamandersoft.co.uk

SharePoint/Education Website

• Microsoft UK Education Site
  • http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/
• Microsoft Schools Blog
  • http://blogs.msdn.com/ukschools/
• Microsoft Education
  • http://www.microsoft.com/education
• Microsoft Education Test Drive Website
  • http://www.microsoft.com/education/testdrive/
• Live@Edu
  • http://my.liveatedu.com/

Microsoft Learning Gateway

• Introduction to Microsoft Learning Gateway
  • http://www.sharepointblogs.com/ajp/archive/2007/12/19/introduction-to-the-microsoft-learning-gateway.aspx
• Microsoft Learning Gateway Website
  • www.learninggateway.net
• Demo Sites
• Community Kit for SharePoint: Education
  • http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/sharepoint/cks/se-alpha
• Microsoft Demo Site for Education
  • http://www.runaware.com/microsoft/en-us/edu/td

Case Studies

• Shirelands Collegiate Academy
  • http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=201511
• Long Eaton School
  • http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000000162
• Leeds Learning Gateway
  • http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000001225
• Other Education Case Studies from Microsoft
  • http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/search.aspx?IndTaxID=1570
• Twynham School
  • http://www.sharepointblogs.com/files/folders/ajp/entry12906.aspx

Resources

• Resources for Education: Microsoft SharePoint
  • http://www.sharepointblogs.com/files/folders/ajp/entry14774.aspx
• Learning for the Future: A Vision of Connected Learning Communities. Microsoft document on BSF and the Microsoft Learning Gateway
  • http://www.sharepointblogs.com/files/folders/ajp/entry15753.aspx
• Building Schools for the Future Showcase
  • http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/building.mspx
• Connected Learning Gateway: BETT Presentation
  • http://download.microsoft.com/documents/uk/publicsector/ppt/Connected%20Learning%20Gateway.ppsx
• Industry Insiders Blog on SharePoint Learning Kit
  • http://blogs.technet.com/industry_insiders/pages/introduction-to-scorm-and-sharepoint-learning-kit-slk.aspx

Videos

• Shirelands Learning Gateway
  • http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/resources/Files/201511/Shireland_Learning_Gateway_in_Action_1500k00.wvx
• Long Eaton
  • http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/resources/Files/4000000162/LongEatonOfficeandVistainAction384k.wvx
• BSF Showcase
  • http://download.microsoft.com/documents/uk/education/bsf/BSFShowcaseTrailer.wmv

The Future

• Silverlight Coding
  • www.silverlight.net
  • www.silverlighters.co.uk
• New Line Learning Showcase at BETT
  • http://www.sharepointblogs.com/ajp/archive/2008/01/17/silverlight-with-sharepoint-and-excel-for-education.aspx
• The Revolution in Education: A personal statement on the future of IT in Education
  • http://www.sharepointblogs.com/ajp/archive/2008/02/27/the-it-revolution.aspx

I received a thank you present this week for some work I did for a school and my contact there gave me a SharePoint Mug!  How cool is this!!!

It has the 6 pillars of SharePoint and also says..." People Tell Me That I Am The SharePoint King"

Thanks Greg...stay in touch...

I've seen a few requests recently for the SLK install documents to be updated to show how to install SharePoint Learning Kit onto a single server environment. This is something that I encounter a lot with my installs so thought it was time to do a post about it.

When you install MOSS or WSS3 onto a single server the install wizard automatically installs SQL 2005 on the same box but when you go to create your SLK database you get the below error message! 

Install SLK onto a Single Server

Having installed MOSS or WSS on your single server download SharePoint Learning Kit from www.codeplex.com/slk

Extract the SLK zip file in a new folder.

Run AddSolution.cmd - This will add SharePoint Learning Kit to your farm

To add it to your default site you need to run DeplySolution.cmd

This has now deployed the MyAssignment WebPart to your default site and add the SharePoint Learning Kit Feature but now you need to create the SLK database.

Open Central Administrator and go to the Operations tab

Under Data Configuration click on Default Database Server

You will see Default Database.  This is normal called {yourserver name} followed by OfficeServer.  Copy this information and click cancel

Now click on Application Management at the top

At the bottom you will now see a new area called SharePoint Learning Kit Configuration.  Under that area click on Configure SharePoint Learning Kit.

In the Database Server box, paste the same information you copied from the default database.

Now when you click ok you will be able to create the SLK database needed for SLK to work.

A quick tip - if you open Configure SharePoint Learning Kit with Create New Database unchecked - it has connected and created your database for you.

I've been in many forums and discussions about how Microsoft's new file format is unfair on the education industry.  More than ever, more users are accessing electronic documents from schools not just staff and pupils but parents, local community and businesses.

I believe that its all a load of rubbish (trash), the fact that people say 'you shouldn't use Office 2007 because you won't access to files from home.'  Its a matter of training and communication!  Making the end user aware of how they can access the files with compatibility packs and free views all provided from Microsoft.

Another solution is still to use Office 2007 but save your files as DOC files.  This is something you can set at your GPO level if you download the GPO templates from the web so users auto save it as a doc file.

Another solution is using the SharePoint file conversion tool built into SharePoint 2007 which converts your DOCX file to a HTML file.  Down side to this tool at the moment is that it doesn't add your images but here's how to do it, a few tips and some things you might find useful.

Enable the use of DOCX to HTML in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Open your Central Administration for your farm

Go to the Operations Tab and click on Services on Server

Ensure you have both Document Conversion services start.  These have to be started on all front end servers

Click on the Operations tab in Central Administration.

Under External Service Connections click on Document conversions.

Select your web application, check yes under Enable Document Conversion and then select your Load Balancer Server.

When you go to your SharePoint site and to your document library you should see Convert Document.

You must have Office SharePoint Server Publishing enabled in your site features for it to convert the file.

Here are some useful links.

• Office 2007 Compatibility Pack for Office 2003
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en
• Word 2007 Viewer
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3657CE88-7CFA-457A-9AEC-F4F827F20CAC&displaylang=en
• Excel 2007 Viewer
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1CD6ACF9-CE06-4E1C-8DCF-F33F669DBC3A&displaylang=en
• PowerPoint 2007 Viewer
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=048dc840-14e1-467d-8dca-19d2a8fd7485&displaylang=en
• GPO templates for Office 2007
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=92D8519A-E143-4AEE-8F7A-E4BBAEBA13E7&displaylang=en
• Save your Word file as a PDF
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4D951911-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en

On the sites I setup for education I always add a content editor web part with the below text.  Two basic links to the free Word Viewer and Adobe Acrobat.

Click here to download the DWP file and add it to your site.

Came across this document on the internet the other day and wanted to share it with you.  Its a must read if you anything in sharepoint!

Topics include

• What's New
• Test drive software and labs
• MAV and Browser Support
• Development and Integation
  • Wed parts: Instructional and Docial Networking
  • Business Intelligence (SAP Integration)
  • SQL Server 2005 and Reporting Services
• E-Learning for users and Administors
• Department of Defence 5015.2 Certification
• Downloadable Books
• External SharePoint sites.

This week wasn't just the SharePoint conference in Seattle but it was also CEBIT in Hannover, Germany.

This show was massive,  I mean massive.  Over 5000 companies over 26 halls.

I live in Birmingham near the NEC which is next to the airport and I thought this exhibition hall was big but Hannover is massive.

I had the delight of Samsung flying me over with a tour of their stand and free entry to the show.

They had some amazing new technology including an 82inch HD TV which was very clear and bright and also the worlds smallest colour laser printer and projector.

I was over to talk about my ideas of connecting the Microsoft Learning Gateway with their Samsung Q1 which is a UMPC.  Fingers crossed we'll start seeing those in the near future.

I also got chance to have a look around the show.  Didn't get enough time to look around the whole show - would have needed a week to do that but I did get to the Microsoft stand.  I thought the Samsung and T-Mobile stand was big but this one took up half a hall.  They had partners on the stand and showing off all the latest technologies including SQL2008 and Windows Serer 2008.  I wanted to get a few fliers about Windows 2008 as I'm presenting of the product next week and thought it would help.  Surprised and disappointed that they had nothing in English or Germany.

Over all I had a great day and thank everyone at Samsung for the day.

I was working away on a spreadsheet and had a balloon pop up in the corner! 

Didn't know Vista did this - nice surprise.

Vista just gets better and better and no I'm not on SP1 yet!!!

I really wanted to go to the SharePoint Conference in Seattle this year but couldn't get the finance but have been keeping a close eye on blogs to find out what is going on.

I've been wanting to get Silverlight into my SharePoint for a long time now and at the conference they announced Silerlight Blueprint for SharePoint.  Have a look at the link below

http://www.ssblueprints.net/sharepoint/

I really wanted to go to the SharePoint Conference in Seattle this year but could get the finance but have been keeping a close eye on blogs to find out what is going on.

I've been wanting to get Silverlight into my SharePoint for a long time now and at the conference they announced Silerlight Blueprint for SharePoint.  Have a look at the link below

http://www.ssblueprints.net/sharepoint/

I've just been reading an article that Computing wrote after an interview with Bill Gates entitled 'The revolution is only just beginning'.

http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2209036/gates-outlines-vision-future-3801135

Bill Gates talks about how he believes IT is only in its early days with multi-core processors, cheaper hardware, more portable devices and online services to come.  He also covers the topic of online services and how we will be able to access our personal documents from home, office, shopping centre etc...

So how does this affect the education our kids - and their kids will have?  Will this be the end of schools and lessons taught over the internet on portable devices while kids are sat in the coffee shop of the local shopping centre?

Technology will be the key tool in delivering lessons both in and out of the classroom.  Devices that are portable, easy to use and sexy looking are what kids want -something separate from their personal devices but something it will connect to.

Kids want to be away from school and need that cut off point just as much as we may want from our work lives.  Whether this is because they don't enjoy school or exam stress, they still need that separation but when they do want to access the system they should be able to from any device, personal or school owned to warrant their enthusiasm.

The importance of a single delivery tool is essential to this like the Microsoft Learning Gateway or Live@edu and being able to combine these into a single sign on.  All devices should be able to access any kind of web page, documents or service allowing this 24 hour access from anywhere.

This adds a lot of pressure on the IT Support team and all staff in a school.  It's the responsibility of the IT Support team to make sure the system is available 24 hours a day, secure, reliable and relevant.   As for the rest of staff, it's their responsibility to add content for the pupils to find when they are having trouble with their course work or homework.  It's also their responsibility to make sure they add content for pupils who just want to find out information on the subject and make it relevant for the pupils learning instead of all sorts of information you can find in search engines.

As a Network Manager myself I have to make sure that these services are available and secure and staff are regularly adding information.  I will soon be asking for each teaching department to audit their area so relevant information is always there.

I saw a video the other day which talked about how students in education today will be doing jobs in 10 years time with technology that is not yet developed!  We need to ensure we get the technology and education correct now to ensure the future for us all.

My team and I have been playing with Windows 2008 Server RTM and have been playing with the downloadable feature from Microsoft which is Windows Media Services 2008.

It's a very easy program to download and we are going to be using it to stream videos made in our school and also sound tracks made by our podcasting team and music department.

Back in July I published Steve Sofian Media Player web part for him as his blog was down and would like to thank him again for his work.

I just added the Media Player Web Part to a site and in the source field for the video location added the media streaming URL something which is like mms://mediaserver.domain/video100

It worked fine. 

Useful Links

• http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/serve/prodinfo2008.aspx

• http://www.sharepointblogs.com/ajp/archive/2007/07/18/media-player.aspx

• http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008

• http://www.stevesofian.net/

Was looking through a few web pages and came across a document that will show you how to get the terminal server apps webpart for Windows 2008 into your SharePoint environment.

Problem is you have to have SharePoint on the same server as your TSapps on your Windows 2008 box.  Can't wait for someone to come up with the webpart to be on a remote SharePoint server.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/1/0/b106fc39-936c-4857-a6ea-3fb9d1f37063/Step_by_Step_Guide_to_Customizing_TS_Web_Access_by_Using_Windows_SharePoint_Services.doc

I got sent an article the other day which is on Twynham School who have implemented SharePoint 2007 in their school and used SQL Server 2005 Reports to give students and teachers live access to reports, timetables and grades etc

Have a look at the article and leave any comments you may have.

I personally think that have done a great job and look forward to meeting up with the guys from the school.

Download and view it here. Click Here

http://www.twynham.dorset.sch.uk/