Asif's Blog

Spotlight on SharePoint Video Tutorial DVDs

Apr 29

Asif RehmaniInfoPath, SharePoint, SharePoint Designer InfoPath 2010, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Designer, SharePoint Videos 3 Comments

Do you learn best by watching examples/demonstrations? Do you want the ability to be able to watch the videos anywhere you are regardless of presence of an internet connection? If the answers to these are yes and yes then you might find that our DVD-ROM based video tutorials are just what you need! We are dedicating this newsletter to highlight our top DVDs and provide you with some more information on what you should expect to find inside of each video tutorial package.
 
SharePoint 2010 Business Connectivity Services
Business Connectivity Services (BCS) is one of the Most powerful features in SharePoint 2010. You can use BCS to easily integrate data from your external systems into your SharePoint environment. The videos in this tutorial show you how to take advantage of this functionality in your SharePoint environment. Create lists in SharePoint which show your line of business application data (such as from custom databases, SAP, PeopleSoft and more) or show that information using pre-built BCS web parts. You will also learn about how to make BCS associations to relate two different connections. All of this and a whole lot more is all taught in this video tutorial package.
 
Reporting Services using SharePoint 2010
The introduction of Reporting Services 2008 R2, using the SharePoint 2010 add-in with the free Report Builder 3.0 authoring tool, provides an excellent way to create powerful reports for your business needs. These video tutorials show you how to take advantage of Report Builder’s design concepts to create reusable datasets and report parts from multiple sources. Also, easily create visualizations of your data such as sparklines, databars, charts, indicators and more. The end result is transformation of live data from multiple sources into powerful and meaningful reports inserted right within your SharePoint sites.
 
SharePoint 2010 Fundamentals
If you need to start out with the basics of SharePoint, this is the video tutorial to pick up. However, even if you are an intermediate SharePoint user already, you are guaranteed to pick up other tricks and tips along the way. It covers topics such as customizing sites, navigation, document management, list management and more.
 
SharePoint Designer 2010 Fundamentals
Once you have mastered the fundamentals of SharePoint 2010, it’s time to dive into this video tutorial which will present you with all of the opportunities you have to create no-code customizations and solutions on top of SharePoint using SharePoint Designer 2010 (a free product). SharePoint Designer lets you create views of your data (fetched from lists, libraries, databases, web services and more) directly on any page within your site. In addition, you can automate processes using workflows, customize site metadata, security, list/library schema and a whole lot more.
 
SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflows
Ready to dive deeper into all that SharePoint Designer 2010 Workflow capability has to offer? Pick up this DVD for demonstrations of various opportunities you have to produce workflows in SharePoint Designer. Learn how to create list based, reusable or site workflows and what the difference is between the three. Also, you will see how to package these workflows and transport them from one site collection to another when needed.
 
InfoPath 2010 Fundamentals
InfoPath is ‘the recommended tool’ to create and modify forms in SharePoint. Learn how to create form library, list and workflow forms using InfoPath designer. Already have forms created using Microsoft Word or Excel? The videos in this DVD will guide you on how to migrate those forms into InfoPath. You will also see how easy it is to fetch information from your data repositories like lists, libraries and even databases into your InfoPath forms to present to your users.
 
Check out our complete collection of video tutorials on DVDs. Have an idea on a subject area we should consider for our next batch of DVDs? Just comments on this post or fill out our contact form to let us know and we’ll definitely consider it!

My MSDN article on using SharePoint Designer and InfoPath to Automate Business Processes

Mar 01

Asif RehmaniSharePoint Designer InfoPath, SharePoint Designer No Comments

A few months back, I had written an article on using SharePoint Designer 2007 and InfoPath 2007 to automate business processes. The solution uses InfoPath to create a powerful electronic form, publishes it to a SharePoint form library, then routes that form through a workflow process using a workflow created in SharePoint Designer. Creating your business scenarios in this fashion will let you design true end to end solutions, without using any code, that will save you Tons of time!

This article has finally made it onto MSDN. Check it out here in its entirety: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff355359.aspx. You can also check out the video/screencast for this whole process here: http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/automate-business-processes-using-infopath-forms-and-sharepoint-designer-workflows/

Free Webinar Thursday (10/29/2009) – Introduction to SharePoint Designer 2010

Oct 28

Asif RehmaniEvents SharePoint Designer, Webinar No Comments

Asif Rehmani presented this session at the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009 during the week of Oct 19, 2009.

SharePoint Designer 2010, a free application, is “The Preferred” tool to design powerful no-code solutions and applications in SharePoint 2010. In this session you will get a broad overview of the capabilities of the tool, from site customizations such as modifying Site Metadata, managing Site Security, or creating Site Content, to building List or Site based Workflows and connecting to a variety of Data Sources. You will also learn about the new ribbon interface of SharePoint Designer 2010 and shows how best to take advantage of this application by showing the new bells and whistles that come with this product.

Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/994486001

Free webinar on SharePoint Designer Data Views

Sep 30

Asif RehmaniEvents SharePoint Designer, Webinar 2 Comments

We are back once again with another free webinar. This one is going to be all about using Data Views in SharePoint Designer to get to… well Data of course . This presentation will focus on how you can get access to SharePoint List data and then manipulate it as needed. However, keep in mind that Data Views can be used to get to any type of external data as well (web services, databases, xml files, rss feeds and more..).

The webinar is scheduled for 10/1 at 1pm Eastern. Come join us if you got time: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/983842921

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

Free Webinars on InfoPath /SharePoint Designer Workflows and Reporting through SharePoint

May 17

Asif RehmaniEvents InfoPath, SharePoint Designer, Webinar No Comments

My colleague at Captare Training, Coskun Cavusoglu, and I are presenting two free Webinars. Details are below. Hope to see you (virtually) there:

Yes You Can! Powerful Forms Creation

InfoPath Forms with Integrated SharePoint Designer Workflows – Live Webinar

Date: Wednesday, May 27th

Time: 2 to 3 pm Eastern (1 to 2 pm Central/11 to Noon Pacific)

Forms and workflows are essential to business processes. Companies usually rely on programmers to create the forms and workflows using code. NOT ANYMORE!

SharePoint MVP Asif Rehmani delivers this powerful webinar! If you have access to Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer you can create powerful data driven form solutions on your SharePoint sites. InfoPath gives you the ability to pull data from databases and lists, and create forms with data validation and conditional formatting. SharePoint Designer’s workflows let you then design multi-step workflows centered around the form collected data. In this presentation you’ll see how to design a robust form using InfoPath and then design a workflow using SharePoint Designer to route it appropriately.

You can register here for this webinar.

Put the Pedal to the Metal – Encore Presentation

Reporting through SharePoint – Live Webinar

Date: Thursday, May 21st

Time: 2 to 3 pm Eastern (1 to 2 pm Central/11 to Noon Pacific)

SharePoint guru Coskun “Cujo” Cavusoglu will be your driver and discuss how Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services has two gears: Native and SharePoint Integrated. Native mode is like driving on a highway (smooth and fast) but there is a speed limit. Incorporating Reporting Services into MOSS via SharePoint Integrated mode enables users to put the pedal to the metal and speed through tasks.

We will explore how the integration works and how to get the most out of your investment if you set up Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated mode. You will learn the functionalities that didn’t make it to the integrated mode, or unsupported scenarios, that you should be fully aware of before putting the foot to the floor. Both pros and cons will be discussed.

You can register here for this webinar.

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: