James Callaghan

Category: Technology

  • Provide feedback directly to Microsoft about Office 365

    Provide feedback directly to Microsoft about Office 365

    I have just discovered that you can give feedback about your experiences using Office 365 directly to Microsoft using their online feedback form (http://msft.it/o365feedback) thanks to a Tweet from Jennifer Mason.

    The Office 365 Twitter account shortly replied with a useful link to provide feedback.

    It is a great tip for those working with Office 365, SharePoint Online and Yammer etc who want to pass on feedback to Microsoft about their experiences using Office 365.

  • The Deployment Guide of all SharePoint 2013 Deployment Guides

    The Deployment Guide of all SharePoint 2013 Deployment Guides

    Let me introduce you to the Deployment guide for Microsoft SharePoint 2013. Anyone deploying, installing or configuring SharePoint 2013 absolutely must read this!

    This particular Deployment Guide is 674 pages long and like no other. It was published by the Microsoft Office System and Servers Team at Microsoft back in October 2012.

    It is such a great guide and is packed full of information. Reading through the deployment guide, I discovered some neat little tricks and refreshed myself on some pretty important best practices which are always a good exercise.

    Download it now, get reading and share it!

  • SharePoint Site folders coming to SharePoint 2016

    SharePoint Site folders coming to SharePoint 2016

    This post is part of SP14 Keynote highlights series where I provide some highlights of the next version of SharePoint. These highlights are from the SP24 Conference Keynote that Bill Baer delivered.

    SharePoint Site Folders

    How many occasions have you tried to access a document in SharePoint, but end up having to click through a long set of links to find it because you can’t remember the URL? OK, this is not an everyday issue, but we do use SharePoint to store documents and we use SharePoint sites to create contextual containers to store documents in. In someways, these SharePoint sites slow us down from accessing documents harder.

    In the next version of SharePoint (SharePoint 2016) we might find a new method to access Document Libraries called Site Folders. Site Folders will provide a list of all Sites that we have access to that contain Document Libraries (a.k.a Site Folders or Site Libraries) and will be available from OneDrive for Business.

    Site Folders coming to SharePoint 2016.
    Site Folders coming to SharePoint 2016.

    Users will be able to click-through into individual Sites from the Site Folders page to easily discover Document Libraries each site contains.

    Libraries visible through the Site Folders area coming to SharePoint
    Libraries visible through the new Site Folders area coming to SharePoint 2016.

    I wonder how this will impact how with architect document management solutions. Search is becoming more and more powerful than we are shifting to an era where Information Architecture and Taxonomies become less relevant (or maybe more relevant behind the scenes), time will tell!

    I have an idea what Microsoft is trying to do here, watch this space as I’ll provide my own mock-up with an example soon.

    Discover more

    Join me over the next year as I discover more news and information about the next version of SharePoint and Office 16 by following my #Office16 tag.

  • OneDrive for Business to store Outlook Attachments

    OneDrive for Business to store Outlook Attachments

    This post is part of SP14 Keynote highlights series where I provide some highlights of the next version of SharePoint. These highlights are from the SP24 Conference Keynote that Bill Baer delivered.

    OneDrive for Business to change the way we distribute and store Outlook attachments

    We all do this. We need to send a file to someone via email and we just attach the file to the email and press send.

    60% of mailbox storage is allocated to attachments.

    What we should all be doing, of course, is saving the attachment to SharePoint and including a link to the attachment instead. Microsoft may be about to make this much easier in the next version of SharePoint and Office (SharePoint 2016 and Office16) by slipstreaming the entire process and integrating Outlook with OneDrive for Business in Office 365.

    Send a link or attach a copy - integrating Outlook with OneDrive for Business
    Send a link or attach a copy – integrating Outlook with OneDrive for Business

    Attachments will be stored in a “Attachments” folder in the user’s personal library in SharePoint Online, known as OneDrive for Business.

    Attachments folder in the next version of SharePoint - SharePoint 2016.
    Attachments folder in the next version of SharePoint – SharePoint 2016.

    Each attachment will be secured to those on the recipient list of the originating email.

    Outlook attachment store in OneDrive for Business.
    Outlook attachment store in OneDrive for Business.

    Benefits of storing attachments in OneDrive for Business include reducing overall email storage requirement but what do users care…general they don’t, not about storage requirements anyway. But what about providing themselves and their recipients with the ability to collaborate on attachments centrally and even use Co-Authoring. Imagine how much email traffic will be reduced because everyone has access to the same attachment.

    Outlook attachments stored centrally in OneDrive for Business.
    Outlook attachments stored centrally in OneDrive for Business.

    There are times when storing attachments centrally SharePoint 2016 or whatever it becomes will be useful but not in all examples. Most of us are fortunate to live in a very connected world but there are times when we’re not so connected. This exciting change would mean at the time an email attachment would not be accessible, even though the original email is available on mobile for example. I look forward to hearing what others think about this new feature.

    Discover more

    Join me over the next year as I discover more news and information about the next version of SharePoint and Office 16 by following my #Office16 tag.

  • Command surface in SharePoint Online updated

    Command surface in SharePoint Online updated

    This post is part of SP14 Keynote highlights series where I provide some highlights of the next version of SharePoint. These highlights are from the SP24 Conference Keynote that Bill Baer delivered.

    Updated Command Surface in SharePoint Online

    The Command Surface that is available at the top of List and Library pages is being updated in SharePoint Online over the coming weeks. A message about this change has been available in the Office 365 Message Centre (MC4558) for some weeks now.

    Command surface coming to SharePoint Online.
    Command surface coming to SharePoint Online.

    The change is intended to simplify access to common commands. The commands are now enlarged, include icons and there are additional commands to sync, edit, manage and share documents.

    Close-up of the new command surface coming to SharePoint Online.
    Close-up of the new command surface coming to SharePoint Online.

    While this is not a new feature to SharePoint, it does demonstrate the continuous investment and development that is happening in Office 365 and SharePoint Online. Better still it is a further example that Microsoft is listening to customers – in this example, how commands were not easily accessible and hidden in the ellipsis menu.

    Discover more

    Join me over the next year as I discover more news and information about the next version of SharePoint and Office 16 by following my #Office16 tag.

  • “Shared with Me” coming to SharePoint

    “Shared with Me” coming to SharePoint

    This post is the first of my SP14 Keynote highlights series where I provide some highlights of the next version of SharePoint. These highlights are from the SP24 Conference Keynote that Bill Baer delivered.

    “Shared with Me” coming to SharePoint

    Something to look out for in the next version of SharePoint (possibly SharePoint 2016 or Office16) or even soon is a summary of documents and folders that have been “Shared with Me”. It appears that the “Share with Me” page is already available in SharePoint Online, however, the summary of folders shared with you isn’t.

    Folders Shared with me summary in the next version of SharePoint.
    Folders Shared with me summary in the next version of SharePoint.

    It’s pretty self-explanatory but a list of documents or folders that have been shared with you will be displayed in your OneDrive for Business site.

    List of items Shared with me in the next version of SharePoint.
    List of items Shared with me in the next version of SharePoint.

    I wonder if this might extend to include scenarios such as multiple environments or Office 365 sites, to create a true consolidated view of files that have been shared with you. I’m always searching my inbox to find emails from colleagues where they have shared files with me in one single place for this information would be well received.

    Discover more

    Join me over the next year as I discover more news and information about the next version of SharePoint and Office 16 by following my #Office16 tag.

  • On-premises lives on, SharePoint 2016 & bye Outlook attachments

    On-premises lives on, SharePoint 2016 & bye Outlook attachments

    In this post, I share information about On-Premises SharePoint, highlights of SharePoint 2016 and see how Outlook attachments (bye-bye) are changing as we know them.

    Firstly I’d like to congratulate the SP24 Conference (#SP24Conf) organisers for delivering an awesome conference this week. The format was new and a challenge for those involved I’m sure. It worked very well aside from the twenty-first-century hiccup or two. I look forward to the next one when the crew have all recovered and caught up on their sleep. Maybe I might be able to get a speaker slot next time where we might hear more about SharePoint 2016!

    I managed to stay up for three sessions before calling it a night (a late one at that – 2 am UK time. I was delivering an Azure briefing at the Microsoft Offices in London the next morning. But I did manage to attend five other sessions towards the end of the day. Hopefully, in a few weeks, we will have access to all the sessions when I’ll try to watch as many sessions as I can when the time arises.

    SharePoint 24 Conference - Keynote delivers important industry news and SharePoint 2015 highlights.
    SharePoint 24 Conference – Keynote delivers important industry news and SharePoint 2016 highlights.

    SharePoint 2016 highlights and more…

    I’d like to share some highlights I learned during the SP24 Keynote that Bill Baer’s delivered. It’s important news for all those involved in the industry to hear at this time. More importantly, it demonstrates again that Microsoft is continuing to share more and more with us long before they would have done before.

    SP24 Keynote available on YouTube
    SP24 Keynote available on YouTube

    SharePoint On-Premises lives on

    With Microsoft investing so much in their Cloud products whether that’s Office 365 or Microsoft Azure, many have thought that time had been called for the On-Premises version of SharePoint. Well, that time is not in sight – not yet anyway!

    So the next version of SharePoint that we’re shipping in later 2015 will in fact not be the last version of SharePoint server that we ever ship.

    Sure we’ll see features and changes to these Cloud products more often especially Office 365, long before we see them On-Premises. We might not see some features at all but Bill said, “Microsoft will continue to develop in On-Premises for as long as there is demand for it”.  SharePoint 2016 is not going to be the last.

    We are going to continue to ship SharePoint server on-premises as long as there is a demand for SharePoint server on-premises!

    Not only that but SharePoint 2016 will ship towards the end of 2015.

    In late 2015 we are going to launch another version of SharePoint server to our on-premises audience.

    SharePoint 2016 highlights

    On top of the On-Premises news, Bill also demonstrated features from the next version of SharePoint – SharePoint 2016. Here are some highlights from the Keynote:

    The close integration with Yammer was clear once again and more Office Graph functionality seemed to be visible since the demonstration during the SharePoint Conference 2014 (#SPC14).

    We also learned about Remote Index. This will make it possible to push On-Premises Search Indexes to Office 365 to provide a single search experience and result set. A unified search index in Office 365 along with Office Graph will create an awesome experience for end-users.

    Outlook is the first program that many of us launch on a typical working day yet we have many other sources of information. Expect to see changes to Outlook that will help us access this information and deliver more than just email to us.

    A further change to Outlook and SharePoint 2016 that we’ll see in the next version is the removal of email attachments as we know them with the help of OneDrive for Business. Users will continue to attach files to their emails but they’ll be saved to their OneDrive for Business Document Library and shared with all to, cc and bcc addresses via a URL in the email. This is a really exciting change and I look forward to discovering more about soon. The net result is users will have continuous access to the latest files and can use features such as Co-Authoring.

    Discover more

    Join me over the next year as I discover more news and information about the next version of SharePoint and Office 16 by following my #Office16 tag.

    #InBillWeTrust

  • Working with SharePoint’s Second Stage Recycle Bin in PowerShell

    Working with SharePoint’s Second Stage Recycle Bin in PowerShell

    I thought I’d share a PowerShell script that I’ve created to perform a few tasks against a Site Collection Second Stage Recycle Bin (SSRB) in SharePoint.

    Remove-SecondStageRecycleBinItems.ps1
    Remove-SecondStageRecycleBinItems.ps1

    The requirement was to delete items that were older than a set number of days from the Second Stage Recycle Bin (SSRB). A record of each item deleted also needed to be added to a report.  But SharePoint can do this already I hear you say…well yes if a Site Collection quotas and the auditing features are used. In this scenario neither could be.

    To display items in the Second State Recycle Bin in a table I used this command.

    $site.Recyclebin | where { $_.ItemState -eq "SecondStageRecycleBin" -and $_.deleteddate -le $dateDiff} | Format-Table -Property Title, Web, DeletedBy, DeletedDate -Autosize -Wrap

    Then to remove each item from the Recycle Bin I used the delete command.

    $site.Recyclebin.Delete($_.ID)

    The full script is shared below. Remember to review, rename and test this script before using it in a production environment.

    One quirk I found while creating the script was that through the web browser, SharePoint reported the time each file was deleted correctly whereas, in PowerShell, the time was not honouring GMT summer time.

    British Summer Time in SharePoint vs. PowerShell
    British Summer Time in SharePoint vs. PowerShell

    Enjoy and delete carefully!

  • Some light reading after the SharePoint Conference

    Some light reading after the SharePoint Conference

    I’ve managed to pickup some reading materials while in America that are going to keep me busy for some weeks.

    Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Administration

    First up was a book (Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Administration) I picked up at the AvePoint during a book signing during the SharePoint Conference.

    Two of the Authors Randy Williams and Chris Givens kindly signed it for me – it was really great to meet these two authors after many years of reading their books.

    Authors Randy Williams and Chris Givens at AvePoint book signing.
    Authors Randy Williams and Chris Givens at AvePoint book signing.

    Alcatraz 1259

    Second up was a book (Alcatraz 1259) from Alcatraz Island signed by the author Willam G. Baker himself who happened to be there just after finishing his parole aged 81. He is one of the last living cons who served in US Penitentiary Alcatraz and shares his account of life there in the book.

    Alcatraz 1259 author William G. Baker during book signing.
    Alcatraz 1259 author William G. Baker during book signing.

    I hadn’t appreciated the history of the Island, the Penitentiary or the prisoners and guards up until the audio tour. Up until this point I had just seen it as a prison in America that featured in the movie The Rock but the Island has a fascinating past – one that I am looking forward to learning more and more about.

    I’ve struggled to put Bill’s account of life on the Island down since we brought it – once done I’m going to find a guards account of life on the Island among others.

    MCSA Windows Server 2012 exams

    During the SharePoint Conference, I took the opportunity to update my Microsoft Certifications – more about that another day.

    To complete the Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) in SharePoint I have to pass 70-410, 70-411 and 70-412 also making me a Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) in Windows Server 2012.

    MCSA Windows Server 2012 reading
    MCSA Windows Server 2012 reading

    Happy reading I guess.

  • My Microsoft Certification Challenge

    My Microsoft Certification Challenge

    The SharePoint Conference has sadly finished and our holiday has started. We are currently staying in a lodge on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon for a few days…slightly different from the Venetian where we’ve spent the last week.

    Having passed 70-331 and 70-332  at the SharePoint Conference (#SPC14) I have decide to take the Microsoft Certification Challenge and work towards updating my existing certifications and getting new ones over the next 180 days.

    My Certification Challenge
    My Certification Challenge
    1. MCSA for Windows Server 2012 (70-410, 70-411, 70-412)
    2. MCSE for SharePoint (70-331, 70-332)
    3. MCTS for Office 365 (70-323)
    4. MCITP for Office 365 (70-321)
    5. MCSE Private Cloud (70-246, 70-247)

    Wish me luck!

    PS. Microsoft Learning have a really useful Certification Guide available – the Windows 8 App is great and there is a PDF alternative if you don’t have Windows 8.

    Microsoft Learning and Certification Windows 8 App
    Microsoft Learning and Certification Windows 8 App
  • Bill Baer meets Florence

    Bill Baer meets Florence

    This evening I have had the great pleasure of meeting Bill Baer and his wife.

    Meeting Bill Baer
    Meeting Bill Baer

    With @jamescallaghan and family @ SPC14. pic.twitter.com/nfEjXmeHjy

    Try to meet these lovely people during the conference – such a pleasure. Takeaways…got to the #SCP14 welcome reception, keynote keynote keynote, sub-keynote sub-keynote sub-keynote, attendee party, and ask the experts (what’s next…MCM)…

    Bill Baer & James
    Bill Baer & James

    Thanks for finding the time to meet with me this evening, Bill – I look forward to repeating this in the future. You’re a true inspiration and someone I’ve looked up to since getting started with SharePoint.