Using SharePoint Search as a Research Content Source

Back in Office 2003, Microsoft introduced the concept of the "task pane."  The task pane was a panel that appeared on the right side of the Office interface (at least for the "first class" Office products).  The task pane represented a few different functions -- from showing the status of a document in SharePoint, to allowing you to manage permissions on a document.   Included with these functions was something called the "Research" task pane. 

The Research task pane allows you to search various information sources using basic keyword-type searches.  For example, if you highlight a word in a document and right click, you see a function called "Look Up."  When you select that option, the feature searches through the dictionary (for example) for the definition of the term you highlighted.  You can see this function in figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1 The context menu allows you to lookup a term in Office 2007

When you execute this function, the Research task pane dutifully appears on your right.  By default, the task pane appears to the right and displays the search result. In addition, it exposes a number of other sources that the search can be executed against (shown in figure 1-2).

Figure 1-2 The task pane and the content sources.

When I first saw this feature, I thought it was a way to extract additional dollars out of buyers of Office, since a good number of the research sources were premium sites that wouldn't allow you access to the content without a subscription.  However, I then noticed a link at the bottom of the task pane labeled "Research Options."  Clicking on this link allows you to control what sources are included in your task pane, as well as allowing you to add addition sources as shown in figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3 The Research Options dialog

As it turns out, it's easy to add your own sources, in addition to enabling ones already defined within Office.  In fact, one of the best sources of "research" is SharePoint.  SharePoint's own search web service is already setup to be included as a search source (MOSS, not WSS). 

To add your SharePoint site as a search source, follow the instructions below:

1. Click on Add Services button
2. Type in the URL of the SharePoint search service.  The default URL for the search web service is: http://[server_name]/_vti_bin/search.asmx.  Simply replace [server_name] with the host of your SharePoint site.
3. Click on OK and Office will validate the selection to determine whether there's a compatible search service.  
4. Once Office validates the search service, it will show you the name of the search service available to be included.  The service name will be the name of the primary MOSS site where search is hosted.
   
   
   
5. Simply click on Install and your MOSS search service will be added to your research source.

Once you've added your own internal search as a source, any lookup done within first class citizens of Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access), can use that source to look up terms and return search results, just as any other source.   When users click on a search result, Internet Explorer automatically opens, preserves the search results in pane on the left side of the interface and show the specific, chosen result in the main window (as shown in figure 1-4).  Now, all users have to do is navigate the various results until they find the one they feel meets their requirement.

Figure 1-4 Search results preserved in IE

This feature is particularly valuable for organizations that need to connect employees with content throughout the enterprise.  In addition, it adheres to a good rule of thumb about portals: don't make your employees leave the applications they're comfortable using -- surface the functionality in the applications where they do their work

IIR/SharedInsights Portals, Collaboration and Content Management Conference

[UPDATED: 25 November 2007 - Slight flow changes to the content]

I've just returned from the IIR/SharedInsights Portals, Collaboration and Content Management conference.  While I've been speaking at this conference for a few years, this year's conference was a bit unique.  Unlike past conferences, where the vast majority of the attendees were more business oriented and "non-denominational" when it came to technology, this year's attendees were more technical and were very interested in specific technologies -- a good many of them interested in SharePoint.  It seemed that many of the attendees were either starting to implement or had implemented "phase 1," a smaller percentage were making their final decisions around what portal platform they would implement in the coming months -- almost universally, SharePoint was in the product mix, if not the chosen portal platform (hence the interest).  However, there still seemed to be a lot of basic questions about how SharePoint would fit in the enterprise.  To that end, I wanted to recommend a book written by some former colleagues of mine.  It's called Essential SharePoint 2007. 

Amazon.com: Essential SharePoint 2007: Books: Scott Jamison,Mauro Cardarelli,Susan Hanley ISBN: 0321421744 ISBN-13: 9780321421746

What makes this book somewhat unique in the space (since there are absolutely tons of book on SharePoint 2007) is that it takes a less technological route.  The book focuses on business usage more than technological implementation.  I would recommend it as good starting point for anyone interested in SharePoint -- whether or not you're technically inclined.  In addition, CMSWatch also has a number of reports which compare SharePoint to other tools in the ECM/Portal space.  These reports would also be valuable for anyone considering SharePoint.

Now, even in the SharePoint 2003 days, there was great interest in SharePoint -- organization's interest in 2007 is not really unique.  In a good majority of the cases, the Windows SharePoint Services component was and is a very big leap in accessible (easily obtained and easy to install) collaborative technology, but it is also just darn easy to use for the vast majority of typical Office users.  Contributing to this ease of use is the fact that the technology is directly integrated with Office -- even people with older versions of Office can use it (you don't have to match SharePoint's version with your Office version).  However, the 2007 version (and WSS v3) seems to have created a great deal more buzz.

From what I heard from attendees, most organizations were hoping to leverage the portal capabilities found in MOSS.  There was a slightly smaller group interested in pure team collaboration management -- project teams need a place to deposit assets and work from one "song book."  Finally, there were those groups who felt that SharePoint was almost a "blight," but needed to figure out how to manage it (my guess is that these individuals got caught in the WSS explosion that occurs in many organizations). 

If I were to identify the biggest changes/advantages, it would be in two categories: 1) expanding content management capabilities and 2) improved extensibility.  On the content management side, web content management tops the list.  This feature allows you to manage traditional web sites using SharePoint.   In addition, Microsoft has added new forms of contribution with the addition of Wiki and Blog templates.    When you add these capabilities to the business intelligence and forms processing features, Microsoft has taken SharePoint native content management function to a whole new level.

For the developer types, 2007 represents a leap forward in extensibility, where almost everything inside of SharePoint is accessible through the object model.   For example, you can write your own authentication provider, to enable SharePoint to use something other than Active Directory to authenticate users (unheard of in SharePoint 2003).  It's also now possible to easily add new interface elements to native SharePoint administrative screens using the "features" capability.

For those of you who might be interested in some of the content at the conference, IIR has posted some podcasts on their web site.   More podcasts will be posted as time goes by (include my own).  If you're interested in attending the spring conference, you can find more details on the IIR web site (you may want to wait a few days before searching around, since the current conference is still running as of 8 November).

More on Remote Access

As a follow-on to my post on the remote access tool GoToMyPC, I recently discovered another service called LogMeIn.  This service provides similar functionality, but has a free subscription option (a price most people can live with).  The free subscription does not allow file transfers, remote sound or other bells and whistles found in the premium subscriptions, but does provide basic remote control options.  Here's the service comparison page on the LogMeIn web site, which provides a detailed breakdown of the functionality offered through the free and "pro" versions of their service.

During the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to use LogMeIn extensively -- remote controlling a client server -- and found it to be reliable and easy-to-use.  In all cases, I had good bandwidth available, so I can't speak to its performance over lower bandwidth connections.  That said, if you're looking for a quick and easy tool to provide basic remote control of either a desktop or a server, you should give LogMeIn a look.

Interesting Excel 2007 Bug

I came across a blog entry from from Lori Pearce's "All Things SDK" blog regarding an Excel calculation bug. Turns out there is what appears to be a serious flaw in certain calculations in Excel. The actual calculation is irrelevant, it's the result that matters. Calculations with results that should be 65,535 and 65,536, in addition to about 10 other results produce very strange and highly inaccurate results. For example, if you multiple 77.1 x 850, the answer should be 65,525, but instead yields 10,000. However, the real problem, as explained by the Excel team (specifically David Gainer) is the following:

"This is an issue in a function that puts numbers in cells, so the values in Excel's memory are actually correct. Imagine A1 contains =77.1*850 ... Excel actually calculates the correct answer, and you can see that if you use VBA to check the value for A1 - it will be 65535. But in the function that takes that value and formats it to be displayed on the screen, for the values described above, there is a bug. Any calculations based off that cell will be accurate too."

Here's an example of the bug shown in Excel 2007

In all, there appear to be 12 results in 9 quintillion that produce flawed output in Excel.

From what I can tell, Microsoft is working on a patch and this bug does not affect earlier versions of Excel. Here's an entry from the Excel and Excel Services Team Blog with a more in-depth description of the issue and what they're doing to address it (also written by David Gainer).

The original blog entry for Laurie's post can be found here. More background on the generally difficulties in executing math functions in a computer can be found in the following blog entry on Wolfram's blog by Mark Sofroniou "Arithmetic Is Hard--To Get Right."

SharePoint 2003 SP 3 Released

A new service pack has been released for both SharePoint Portal and Windows SharePoint Services (2003/v2). The KB article on the update can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923643.

Thank you to Ian Morrish at WSSDemo for posting a link to the KB article.

Recycle Equipment to Save Capital

Many small businesses are increasingly pressured to upgrade their systems -- spending money on both hardware and software -- to keep their technological systems running smoothly. Unfortunately, there is also pressure to conserve funding and manage cash. Consejo, like many of our customers, faces this challenge as well. However, we've found one small way to do both -- upgrade our hardware while spending less.

As a consulting firm, we perhaps have more hardware and software demands than the average small business -- technology is literally our business. As a result, we're constantly upgrading, changing and moving hardware and software. However, we do not have always have all of the funding necessary to meet our immediate needs. To balance our need for faster hardware and our ability to "pay for it," we suppliment our new equipment with used and/or refurbished equipment. The sources of this equipement tends to be varied, depending on our needs and expectations, but the cost discounts over the equivalent new equipement help us manage our funds more effectively and give us the needed hardware performance boost.

For those of you who might interested in some of the places you can find refurbished and/or used equipment, I have provided a list the categories below. In each category, I have tried to provide an example. Please understand that any vendor listed in this blog entry does not imply a specific endorsement. In addition, you should absolutely do you own research to ensure you find the right vendor for you firm.

• Off Lease Equipment
  Lots of medium and large organizations lease their equipment to help them manage both cash and keep their infrastructure current. Once the equipment comes off lease, the financing companies that held the note will auction off the equipment. Occassionally this is done through the equipment manufacturer or sometimes through a used equipment dealer. Either way, smaller firms can acquire this equipment, which is typically 2 to 3 years old, for 50% to 70% off the original pricing (sometimes more). On example of an "owned" (owned by a financing company) reseller of off lease equipment is 2nd-Byte.
  
• Vendor "Factory Outlet"
  Major hardware manufacturers often have a refurbishment program. Refurbished machines ("refurbs") come in two varieties: a) equipment that was damaged or flawed during the manufacturing process and repaired or b) equipment that was purchased by a customer and returned (once the equipment is unboxed, it can not be sold as new). Typically, refurb customers can save 20% or more off the cost of similarly configured new equipment. Also, this type of equipment tends to be more technological current when compared with other sources of "not new" equipment. One example of a factory outlet is Dell's Factory Outlet.
  
• Used Equipment Dealers
  The name says it all -- previously used equipment being resold. Used equipment dealers market all sorts of used equipment and their sources for this equipment are varied (unlike the off lease companies). However, they tend to be a good source of "quality" used equipment, meaning that they tend to ensure the equipment is operational prior to being shipped to their customers. Further, some vendors offer warranties on the equipment of varying lengths -- sometimes as long as new. One example of a used equipment dealer is Stallard Technologies.
  
• EBay
  Good old EBay. What can't you find there? Ebay tends to host a lot of used equipment "stores" as well as being a source for individual sellers of used equipment. Obviously you should check the seller feedback scores before buying, but you can find some great deals on equipment. In most cases, the sellers offer a DOA ("dead on arrival") warranty, but that is usually it. As a side note, Dell officially sells some used and/or off lease equipment through EBay through the member ID dell.computers.

While keeping up with the technological Jones' can be difficult, judicious purchasing of used or refurbished equipment can lessen the investment, but provide most or all of the value of new equipment. The next time your firm needs to upgrade equipment, you should consider these or other sources before you buy new immediately. As an additional benefit, buying used or refurbished equipment will keep that machine out of a landfill that much longer and help reduce the global landfill footprint for old computer equipment.

REVIEW: Remote Access with GoToMyPC

Often being involved in or running a small business requires you to be in many places at once. You need to take a meeting with a customer, but you're meeting at their location, not yours. However, you still have to access data that may not be portable, simply not loaded on the laptop you have with you or you don't have your own machine immediately accessible. Alternatively, what if you're home (not actually working) and need to access a file on your computer in the office? What do you do? If you're like many customers I meet, you either have to anticipate your need (loading that valuable data on your laptop or a USB thumb drive) or you do without (in many cases this really isn't an option, but more a consequence). You could also turn to a "corporate" solution of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that allows you to remotely connect to your businesses network to retrieve your data. Certainly a VPN is the ideal solution for true remote network connectivity, but it also comes with the burden of being somewhat complex to setup/configure and requires you to spend more money on equipment and/or support. Further, VPN-type connections are frequently blocked by corporate networks and, sometimes, your local coffee shop's WiFi network. So what can you do? The answer could be a web-based technology like GoToMyPC.


GoToMyPC is a technology that was aquired by a Citrix a few years ago, but has been around for quite some time. Essentially, it enables a user to remote control a PC using a web-based Java application. What does this really mean? Well, no matter where you are, if you have an Internet-connected computer and a web browser, you can access that machine at home or work or somewhere entirely different. GoToMyPC allows you not only to control the machine, but also transfer files between the "guest" (the machine that is controlling) and the "host" (the machine being controlled). Having tested this service under a number of different circumstances (and connection speeds), I can attest to the utility of the service. The following is just a partial list of some of the ways I've used the service:

• Remote access to files stored on my office desktop
  I travel a great deal and occassionally will put something on my desktop while I'm in the office, but forget to pull it off of that machine before I leave. With GoToMyPC, I just connect to that machine and transfer the data I need.


• Accessing applications not loaded on my laptop
  I have been using QuickBooks to manage my business since Consejo started. While I've recently started using the Online version of QuickBooks, I had previously used the Professional version. Since the data can only realistically exist in one place, I needed a way to access the application when I wasn't in the office. I could have loaded it on my laptop, but I also didn't necessarily want sensitive financial data "out in the world" where something bad could happen. Using GoToMyPC, I was simply able to "dial in" to my office desktop, do what I needed to do in Quickbooks and get out.


• Remote Support
  When you're the "technical" guy in the family, you tend to get a lot of "help desk" calls from relatives. In my case, I get these kinds of calls frequently enough to warrant a solution where I didn't necessarily have to step my relatives through a troubleshooting process. It's often much easier for them to simply call, tell me they're having a problem and I remotely connect to their machine. Once I've connected to their machine, I have the option of "showing them" how to correct their problem, simply fixing the problem for them or scheduling a time when I can connect later to do some more investigation.

This list is obviously not exhaustive, but it is a realistic picture of what I've used the service to accomplish. I can honestly say that I use the service a few times a day for almost all of the applications in my list. While it is clearly targeted at controlling a single machine, once you're connected to that single machine, you have the option of using a Windows-included technology like Remote Desktop to control other machines within the remote network (this is good for remote network administration of servers or other machines connected to the same network as the host). For me it has been well worth the $179/year subscription fee (you also have the option of paying around $20 monthly).

In short, GoToMyPC is an excellent technology for providing secure and relatively reliable (as reliable as the Internet connection you have) remote access.