I noticed today that Google Maps now has a hybrid view that puts street names over the satellite view.

Update: The Image Upload Web Part has been updated.

Heather Solomon blogged about end-user-focused web parts. (Be sure to look at the comments for links to many others.) All are very valid points.

I have a small but helpful contribution: The ImageUpload Web Part.

On a WSS Team site, the default template has an Image Web Part that displays the Windows Logo. I have never seen this logo on a production site. To change the image is easy enough for users familiar with the Web Part page model: Open the tool pane and change the location of the image. This is where it gets difficult for end-users.

What if the image is on the end-user's computer? Most likely, they email the file to the webmaster/developer. It is then uploaded to web server and the URL emailed back to the user. (Or the webmaster/developer is updating the web part.) More industrious users will post the image to a photo gallery. Some will even determine the URL. But there is an easier way.

The ImageUpload Web Part displays a form with a file upload input box. The end user can click the browse button and select the image. The web part stores the image in a document library and automatically remembers the location (URL) and renders the <IMG> tag correctly.

Download the CAB file and source code.

The web part requires a setting in web.config with the location to store the images. And, the end user must have permission to store items in that library. (This second restriction could be alleviated using impersonation techniques from Todd Bleeker or Victor Vogelpoel or Jay Nathan.)

The web part referenced here: SharePoint Vision - Helping end users:

ImageUpload source.zip (573.92 KB)

In honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, we’ve added some NASA imagery to the Google Maps interface to help you pay your own visit to our celestial neighbor. Happy lunar surfing. More about Google Moon.

http://moon.google.com/

 

This article made me laugh out loud:

"In fact, hockey has been fixed, in that veterinarian sort way."

"But since this lockout was all about the 10 or so hard-line owners and their unleashed commissioner getting what they wanted at all costs, hats off to them. Preferably with their heads inside, true, but you get what you can at times like this."

Ray Ratto - ESPN.com

The lastest article in my SharePoint series is available on IntranetJournal.com

Customizing the Quick Launch in a WSS Team Site
This month, Paul provides a solution to automate the linking of documents in a Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) document library to the Quick Launch navigation feature.

The article discusses a custom web part. The web part and its source code are available for download.

"The purpose of the SharePoint Utility Suite is to provide a packaged collection of Tools and Utilities showcasing the rich Object Model that is delivered with the SharePoint Product and Technologies SDK (which includes Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 and SharePoint Portal Server 2003). This package includes code and tool examples that SharePoint Developers and SharePoint Administrators might find useful."
http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/downloads/components/detail.asp?a=724

Thanks to Jessica Gruber

This post is mostly a duplicate and is provided as a reference for others who stop by later.  Thank you to all who participated!

Andrew Connell started us off with good comments (re-posted on his blog).

Arpan Shah found the article entertaining, rather than informative.

Bil Simser would like Mr. Drips to call reality.

Robert Scoble has some ideas.

Maurice Prather has "Five things worth mentioning"

JOPX on SharePoint

The SharingPoint

Ed Brill (IBM)

Daniel McPherson: Only Five Things Wrong with SharePoint

Amanda Murphy discusses the vision

Bil Simser gets us turned around and discusses some positive features of SharePoint.

"Wish List" post by Larry Borsato

Thoughts about the community and the team from Patrick Tisseghem.

Eli Robillard: response to article and discussion of weaknesses.

In response to a post in the ASP.Net forums, here is a routine to upload a file to a document library.

Sub ProcessPostedFile(ByVal fileUpload As HtmlControls.HtmlInputFile)
    Try
    ' get the filename and stream
    Dim fn As String = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(fileUpload.PostedFile.FileName)
    Dim stm As System.IO.Stream = fileUpload.PostedFile.InputStream
    Dim contents(CInt(stm.Length)) As Byte

    stm.Read(contents, 0, CInt(stm.Length))
    stm.Close()

    ' get the library path
    Dim docLibPath As String = Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings("DocUploadPath")
    ' first, get the site containing the library
    Dim site As SPSite = New SPSite(docLibPath)
    Dim web As SPWeb = site.OpenWeb
    ' then get the folder
    Dim docFolder As SPFolder = web.GetFolder(docLibPath)

    ' delete the file if it exists
    Dim docFile As SPFile
    Try
        docFile = docFolder.Files(fn)
    Catch ex As Exception
    End Try

    If Not docFile Is Nothing Then
        docFolder.Files.Delete(fn)
    End If

    ' save the file
    docFile = docFolder.Files.Add(fn, contents)

    Catch ex As Exception
        Context.Trace.Warn(ex.ToString)
    End Try
End Sub

File containing the web part described in my Intranet Journal article series.

DocLibQuickLaunch.zip (13.4 KB)

Only Five Things Wrong with SharePoint

Well, thats what I think the headline should have been. <sly grin>

Renaud Comte has an example of using CSS to alter the look of the WebPart title bars. (The formatting is a bit off, but the CSS is near the bottom.)

Thanks to all who have joined in! I'm sure that the net result will be a better product!

[UPDATE: This post is being continuously updated as I become aware of other comments.]

Andrew Connell started us off with good comments (re-posted on his blog).

Arpan Shah found the article entertaining, rather than informative.

Bil Simser would like Mr. Drips to call reality.

Robert Scoble has some ideas.

Maurice Prather has "Five things worth mentioning"

JOPX on SharePoint

The SharingPoint

Ed Brill (IBM)

Daniel McPherson: Only Five Things Wrong with SharePoint

Bil Simser gets us turned around and discusses some positive features of SharePoint.

"Wish List" post by Larry Borsato

Thoughts about the community and the team from Patrick Tisseghem.

Eli Robillard

George Tsiokos put together a creative solution for displaying RSS/ATOM feeds in a web part page. His SharePoint RSS/ATOM reader service will create a .DWP for a Data View Web Part. No assembly to install; no editing of web.config; no programmer involvement; I LOVE IT!!!

There is also a downloadable version for the technically advanced. Thank you George!

Microsoft's evangelist could help elevate the discussion about SharePoint.

Mike Drips published an article today on Informit.com titled "Five Things Wrong With SharePoint." I have a few issues with his points. Please read his article and then my comments below. (The numbered items apply to the five things in Mr. Drips' article.) Feedback is encouraged!

Things Wrong in "Five Things Wrong With SharePoint"

#1. It's a crappy mish-mash of multiple technologies

"...you find a great many of the core files are written in JavaScript."

My definition of "a great many" would be somewhere between one-third and one-half. I looked in the "60" directory on my server. It contains 408 folders and 6,324 files. The number of JavaScript (.js) files: 39!! That is .6%.

While Microsoft training does not offer a class on JavaScript, there is no lack of training providers.

Mr. Drips complains that professional programming SharePoint requires knowledge of many technologies. Let's look at this list:

CSS, HTML, XML	What high-end web applications do NOT use these?
ASP.Net (the platform) Visual Studio.Net (IDE)	When developing using a different environment (WebSphere, Java), wouldn't I also need to know the platform and IDE?
Language (C# or VB.Net)	Again, an issue in any environment

By the way, the same list of technologies applies to the blogging tool used for to write this post: dasBlog.

#2. The development team is playing the Longhorn card

While "four years of no product improvement" is likely, how many enterprise-wide applications are upgraded by customers every year? The required investment in migrating and testing makes it hard to justify repeated upgrades. (I have seen many organizations with Windows 2000 servers still running because the applications they support are working fine.)

#3.  There are two SharePoint products, which is confusing

• How many Office products are there? (http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/howtobuy/compare.mspx)
  
• How many Visual Studio products are there? (http://msdn.microsoft.com/howtobuy/vs2005/)
  
• How many Windows XP products are there? (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/default.mspx)

I don't think this should be "tagged" on SharePoint when it applies to a lot of the Microsoft product line.

#4. Support for SharePoint is lacking.

In my experience, blogs that are written about a product are usually focused on solving problems, not being critical. Maybe it is just the echo chamber effect...

I think it is wrong to categorize "nearly all" the bloggers as apologists for Microsoft. I don't apologize for Microsoft. I am trying to help others.

Things Right in "Five Things Wrong With SharePoint"

#3. There are two SharePoint products, which is confusing

As I mentioned before, this applies to a lot of the Microsoft product line.

#4. Support for SharePoint is lacking.

Is it time for Microsoft to close down the microsoft.public.sharepoint.teamservices newsgroup?

In my biased opinion, there are other good community resources not mentioned: SharePoint Blogs and SharePoint University forums.

5. Microsoft has not stated a strategic direction for SharePoint

Sad, but true. There is a lot of "customer evidence," but I can't find a roadmap.

---

Mr. Drips' conclusion, however, is somewhat positive:

Despite its lack of support and direction from Microsoft, SharePoint Portal Server still remains a viable product for an Intranet portal, document library, and company forum. To make all of those pieces work takes a tremendous amount of effort and education that — unfortunately — is not readily available to the end user community.

I am doing my best!! The Intranet Portal aspect is covered on IntranetJournal.com.

When using document libraries in SharePoint try to avoid the temptation of creating nested folders.
Edward Ferron: SharePoint Tips #1

I wholeheartedly agree! I have lost count of the number of times that I am asked why documents in a folder are displayed inside a web part. The "list" nature of document libraries is just not compatible with folders, IMHO.

I went so far as to create a document library template that has a text column named "Folder" and groups the entries on that column.

In an interview with BusinessWeek, David Downing was discussing his company's system to target ads to cable viewers based on the "clickstream" of viewer's remote controls: (The emphasis is mine.)

Q: Will people have a chance to opt out of this if they want?
A: You'd have to ask the cable companies who are our clients. The hope is that consumers will actually want to opt in. If cable companies can earn more ad revenue, cable bills may stay low or even go lower.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jun2005/nf20050628_8566_db061.htm

Newsflash: Cable bills are not low. And they will never go lower!!!

I wrote before about the Apress eBookshop, focusing on the reduced price of the books. One other benefit: the PDF files are searchable! A perfect feature for a reference book or users guide.

I am reading the new book from Apress titled SharePoint 2003 Users Guide, written by Seth Bates and Tony Smith. So far, I have only made it thru the first 6 chapters, but I wanted to get my thoughts published as I go along.

The first half of the book covers the core SharePoint features and in my opinion covers them very well. The book provides step-by-step instructions for most tasks, as a Users Guide should. This book is also a good reference for users familiar with WSS who are transitioning to SPS. There are many places where the text takes the "pieces" from WSS and SPS and stitches them together.

Sprinkled throughout the chapters are tips. I found many of these to be very helpful. As an example:

"When filtering a paged view the filter is applied to the entire list, not just the items on the currently displayed page."

The best content that I have read so far is the coverage of lists. The introduction to the chapter on Custom Lists has the following quote:

"Lists in SharePoint also allow you to control how the information is displayed, who has the ability to alter or view the information, and whether new content must be approved before it appears in the list. The ability to customize lists allows SharePoint content structure and data to be maintained by business users rather than having to rely on your IT staff."

This is a very powerful idea, and every content manager should keep this in mind. In my experience, the best SharePoint installations occur when content managers understand this idea and exploit SharePoint's features. The rest of the chapter provides all of the information a user would need to follow this advice.

The chapter on the built-in lists (called Template Lists) is recommended for all WSS/SPS users. The authors cover each list type in detail and contain examples of common uses. In particular, I liked their coverage of the lists in a meeting workspace.

The second half of the book covers SharePoint-based solutions (Document collaboration, Meeting Managment, etc.). Look for another post when I complete those chapters.