Asif's Blog

Review for book ‘Beginning SharePoint 2010’ by Wrox

Mar 10

Asif RehmaniSharePoint Books, SharePoint 2010 No Comments

Just starting out with SharePoint 2010 or even SharePoint in general? The book ‘Beginning SharePoint 2010 – Building Business Solutions with SharePoint’ is an Awesome resource to get your hands on to get you up and running quickly!

First of all, this book is written by veterans (Amanda Perran, Shane Perran, Jennifer Mason, Laura Rogers) in the SharePoint community and not just from an outsider’s perspective which helps tremendously since it has been my personal experience (teaching on SharePoint for 6 years now) that it is not the easiest thing to teach effectively.

This book starts directly by hitting on the major areas of SharePoint that a beginner should understand real well to make good use of this platform. Topics like Sites, Workspaces, Lists, Libraries, Workflows, Site Columns, Content Types, Branding and more are discussed in detail. Not only how to use these things, but in which scenarios would you want to utilize each. The business reasoning for using, for example, a particular site or list template is extremely important for the long term success of your SharePoint deployment.

Another really good thing about this book is that it can be used just as well by people who already understand the fundamentals and now want to dive deeper into advanced topics like Records Management, Business Connectivity Services, Forms Server, Search management and of course the understanding of implementing a plan for governing the whole thing. Once you go through these topics in this book, then you get a better understanding for how these pieces all fit together on the platform. However, if you do want a deeper dive on each of these topics, I would recommend picking up a book which covers just that subject.

One more thing I would like to mention is the inclusion of exercises in this book – a great idea in my mind for folks who learn kinesthetically (like myself). Following these exercises, you can actually experience the beauty (as well as the gotchas) of SharePoint.

My recommendation: Buy it for yourself or your end users. It’s worth the price!

Review of Professional SharePoint 2010 Administration

Nov 29

Asif RehmaniSharePoint Books No Comments

Review of Professional SharePoint 2010 Administration book by Wrox publishing.

Authors: Todd Klindt, Shane Young, and Steve Caravajal

Short review:

If you are or will be in charge of administering SharePoint 2010, please don’t think twice and pick up this book. You’ll definitely need it!

Longer review:

A very critical message that unfortunately many people miss about SharePoint is that it is truly a ‘platform’. Many of the solutions that you will need on this platform are already created for you such as Sites as containers for content, Lists and Libraries, Security framework, Enterprise Search capability, Business Process management, Forms management and more. No need to recreate the wheel by creating any of these components using code. Rather ‘enhance’ what’s already there by administering and configuring it properly. This is where this book comes in. Todd, Shane and Steve do an Awesome job at hitting on all the major areas that you will need to consider when rolling out SharePoint 2010 in your organization. Use it to plan, install, configure and then maintain SharePoint 2010. 

Important areas that the book covers -

• Architecture planning before even thinking about installation
• Upgrading from SharePoint 2007 to 2010
• Installation and configuration of SharePoint 2010
• Securing SharePoint (including usage of the new Claims based authentication) and its content at various levels
• Tour around the Central Administration
• The backup and restore capabilities
• Configuring Service Applications (Managed Metadata, User Profiles, Business Connectivity Services, PerformancePoint Services, and more)
• Branding in SharePoint

I would definitely recommend buying this book. You will not regret it. Guaranteed!

Also, if you are looking for video instruction on how to accomplish many of the tasks and configuration steps in SharePoint 2010, check out SharePoint 2010 Fundamentals DVD. Let me know if you have questions.

Free Chapter from Real World SharePoint 2010 book

Nov 15

Asif RehmaniInfoPath, SharePoint Designer Books No Comments

Our Real World SharePoint 2010 book is finally available now. One chapter each from 22 MVPs. That’s a lot of ‘expert’ content and hopefully will be beneficial for folks looking to get deep into SharePoint 2010 (this book is also available on the Kindle).

The chapter that I wrote in the book focused on ‘Automating Business Processes using InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010’. Wrox publishing has decided to make this chapter available to download for free here. Enjoy!

SharePoint Designer 2010 ebook on the Kindle

Nov 15

Asif RehmaniGeneral, SharePoint Designer Books No Comments

Beginning SharePoint Designer 2010 book now available on the Kindle:

Also available on the Nook and as an electronic eBook to read on other devices.

Electronic books – SharePoint Designer 2010 and Real World SharePoint 2010

Nov 11

Asif RehmaniGeneral Books 1 Comment

Since I have gotten my Kindle, I have become a huge fan of it! I wish I could read Everything on it. Bunch of folks have asked me at the past SharePoint Connections conference if SharePoint Designer 2010 is available on the Kindle. Answer: not yet… BUT… it is available on the Nook already and it’s available as a PDF download. Here are the links to it:

PDF – Adobe Digital Edition

http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/Beginning-SharePoint-Designer-2010.productCd-1118014936.html

Nook

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Beginning-SharePoint-Designer-2010/Woodrow-W-Windischman/e/9781118013892/?itm=1&USRI=Beginning+SharePoint+Designer+2010

I also contributed one chapter to Real World SharePoint 2010 book. That book is also now available in Adobe format here:

http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/Real-World-SharePoint-2010-Indispensable-Experiences-from-23-SharePoint-MVPs.productCd-1118013239.html

Beginning SharePoint Designer 2010

Mar 26

Asif RehmaniGeneral Books 2 Comments

Back in 2008, Woody Windischman, Bryan Phillips and I (Asif Rehmani) teamed up to write a book on SharePoint Designer 2007. The main reasons we wrote that book are because we really believe in SharePoint Designer and felt that there was just not enough ‘good’ information out there in the market about how to use it effectively. In fact, even till this day if you go to Amazon.com and read the reviews for the product, you will see that the prevailing viewpoint of reviewers is the complaint of not having a good user manual for it. In my humble opinion, I think we did a pretty good job at documenting a lot of abilities of this product in our book. My only regret is that the book came out so late in the market (it was published in Jan 2009). I truly believe that if this book was available earlier, it could have saved lots of unnecessary pain to many people who went about using SPD in a not so effective manner.

With the upcoming release of SharePoint Designer 2010, we have teamed up once again to write another book. The title of the book is Beginning SharePoint Designer 2010 by Wrox publications and the target release date is middle of 2010 – right after the product gets released. Even though we are writing under the Beginning series, rest assured that there will be a LOT of detailed information on SPD in the book. SPD 2010′s interface and functionality is so different from SPD 2007 that this book is going to be almost a complete rewrite for us. The SPD 2007 book will continue to be needed by anyone who is still using SharePoint 2007 (Reason: SharePoint Designer 2010 is not compatible with SharePoint 2007). Each of us is a SharePoint MVP, but we have different areas that we focus on within SharePoint. We have divided the book chapters between us keeping our complementary skills in mind to provide the reader with the best viewpoint we can offer about each area of functionality. In addition to the explanations we will provide on each functional area within SPD, there will be plenty of examples in each chapter to walk you through step-by-step scenarios on how to create the actual solutions. We think that these examples will be truly indispensable for readers who prefer hands on experience with the product.

We have high hopes for this book and our goal is that this book will be indispensable to any SharePoint professional whether they play a role of a server administrator, site collection administrator, site administrator, designer, developer or IT professional. Our belief is that to truly take advantage of SharePoint 2010, you need to be proficient in SharePoint Designer 2010 and our book will serve as your guide in your SharePoint adventures to make you into a SharePoint rock star!

Chapter from our SharePoint Designer book available on MSDN now

Jun 17

Asif RehmaniGeneral Books, SharePoint Designer No Comments

Chapter 15 from our book (Professional SharePoint Designer 2007) is now available for free on MSDN. Bryan Phillips wrote that chapter. Congrats Bryan!

Here is the location of that chapter:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd819165.aspx

Professional SharePoint Designer book on sale now

Dec 31

Asif RehmaniGeneral Books No Comments

The Professional SharePoint Designer 2007 book that I co-authored with Woody and Bryan has finally hit the shelves. I hope this book can help fill the knowledge gaps on this Awesome (but often misunderstood) product.

Professional SharePoint Designer book – Table of Contents

Oct 02

Asif RehmaniGeneral Books No Comments

Following will be the Table of Contents for the SharePoint Designer book (currently due to come out by Dec 31, 2008).

Disclaimer: As with any pre-release book, changes to the TOC are possible.

Part I, “The Basics”

Provides an overview of SharePoint Designer, SharePoint technology, and their relationship to one another.

Chapter 1: Exploring SharePoint Designer

Chapter 2: SharePoint from the User’s Perspective

Chapter 3: SharePoint from the Administrator’s Perspective

Chapter 4: SharePoint from a SharePoint Designer’s Perspective

Part II, “Customizing the SharePoint Look and Feel”

Shows how to use SharePoint Designer to customize various aspects of your sites.

Chapter 5: The Anatomy of a SharePoint Page

Chapter 6: Using SharePoint’s CSS Editing Tools

Chapter 7: The Anatomy of a Theme

Chapter 8: Publishing Master Pages and Layouts

Part III, “Applications without Programming”

Shows how SharePoint Designer can create many powerful applications that in the past would have required considerable programming effort.

Chapter 9: Building Your Own Workflows

Chapter 10: Working with SharePoint Data

Chapter 11: Advanced Data Access: External Data and More

Chapter 12: Working with Forms

Part IV, “Programming on the Client Side”

Demonstrates some tools provided by SharePoint and SharePoint Designer to enable even more custom interactivity.

Chapter 13: The Content Editor Web Part

Chapter 14: The SharePoint Client-side Object Model

Part V, “Beyond SharePoint Designer”

Takes you far past the built-in capabilities of SharePoint Designer with extensions, add-ins, migration, and conversion tools.

Chapter 15: Creating Workflow Elements in Visual Studio

Chapter 16: Custom Web Parts

Chapter 17: SharePoint Designer Add-ins

Chapter 18: A Little Administration

Appendix A: A Brief History of SharePoint and SharePoint Designer

Professional SharePoint Designer Book

Sep 21

Asif RehmaniGeneral Books, SharePoint Designer No Comments

Let me first start by saying that SharePoint Designer (SPD) is not for everyone. I believe it does have its place with the Power Users, and Site Administrators within the organization, but if not used properly, it can severely damage your sites and potentially your whole Portal.

My reasons for liking it are the following features in SPD:

1. Creating Sites and Lists and Libraries within those sites
2. Being able to backup your sites or site collections. Also, you can restore your site at any location
3. Designing powerful Workflows for a list or library within a site
4. Using the Data View web part to create mashups of data from a variety of sources
5. Reporting on site usage
6. Working with the Web Content Management features of SharePoint (creation of Master Pages and Page Layouts based on Content Types)
7. “Prettying” your sites using Cascading Styles – using SPD makes it pretty easy to manage this process

And that’s not all… there’s even more stuff you can do with SPD.

Over the years, I have presented many conference sessions (at Microsoft’s SharePoint Conference, SharePoint Connections and SharePoint Advisor) on a variety of topics within SPD. So it just seemed natural to foray into writing more formally about the product and educate people on the intricacies of using SPD. With that said, I would like to officially announce at this time that I, in conjunction with a couple of co-authors, am writing the Professional SharePoint Designer book by Wrox publications. The release date is set to the end of this calendar year. Here is a snapshot from the book’s web page on Amazon: