SHAREPOINT conference 2012

[olds]

Never heard of Sharepoint till recently at some conferences. That tells me I am probably going to have to learn it.

 

[Wyndru]

Most development can be done using Microsoft's tools such as Sharepoint Designer and InfoPath. For the 10% to 20% of tasks that can't be developed with those, you would need Visual Studio.

Sharepoint architecture can be tricky. Are you responsible for building the server infrastructure as well?

I helped out with setting up the server, but I didn't do the configuration for sharepoint. I basically just set up a vmware virtual server with sql server 2008 r2 sp1 and the consultants took it from there.

It's for a school district, so they use it partially as a student management system as well as a web portal for both internal (teachers) and external (parents). I know there are quite a few devs on staff that are customizing it, but I don't know what tools they are using.

It's really got the teachers pissed though since this is the 4th student management system they have had to learn in the last 5 years. The amount of data that NY BOE requires is ridiculous, so a lot of independent developers have problems keeping up with our standards, especially if they aren't in the state and aren't normally accustomed to providing so much data. They keep track of EVERYTHING these kids do. It's scary how much data is collected these days.

I don't know if sharepoint will be customizable enough for what they need, but they are going to give it a shot. It's looking good so far.

 

[SandEagle]

Never heard of Sharepoint till recently at some conferences. That tells me I am probably going to have to learn it.

just remember: when rolling out to users, don't call it sharepoint. they'll then be focused too much on 'sharepoint' technology and terminology. come up with a cool project name and introduce it as that.

 

[GregGreen]

And to think, one well-placed bunker buster bomb right now could rid of the world of so much evil.

This

 

[mb]

I chuckle when I see the amount of hate towards Sharepoint. Yes, it is my job, but I can sympathize with users too.

Add me to the list of haters. I have to use it at my job and I dread it each time I have to use it.
When I look at it, I think - there are so many ways they could make this better.. and yet, here we are with this pile of garbage.

Weak search, poor file management, vanishing tables, server maintenance... constant server maintenance.

And they thought I was crazy when I refused to only keep copies of my work on SP. It'll be backed up they said. HAH! I was the only one not two weeks behind in the crash of summer 2012!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Add me to the list of haters. I have to use it at my job and I dread it each time I have to use it.

When I look at it, I think - there are so many ways they could make this better.. and yet, here we are with this pile of garbage.

Sharepoint is an awesome platform, but it can be clunky for document management. In fairness though, just about any web-based document management system is clunky. Microsoft has done a decent job at integrating their office applications to work with Sharepoint but even still, there is a definite learning curve. Users want to just save a document and move on; they don't want to have to enter metadata, content types, retention policies, etc.


As a custom application platform, Sharepoint is nice. I can develop apps in days or a few weeks which would take our Java/Ruby programmers months to develop.

Weak search, poor file management, vanishing tables, server maintenance... constant server maintenance.

I don't like second-guessing other IT professionals, but quite honestly, something isn't right with your Sharepoint environment. I've made a lot of mistakes in my own environment as I learned it over the years and it is far from optimal (particularly my SP 2007 farm), but we've not had any of these problems. Of course, I also was an infrastructure person and made certain I put serious hardware behind the farm. Putting big hardware behind a product can mask a lot of issues.

Sharepoint (particularly SP 2010 and above) is an INCREDIBLY complex product. I liken it to an ERP system in terms of complexity.

And they thought I was crazy when I refused to only keep copies of my work on SP. It'll be backed up they said. HAH! I was the only one not two weeks behind in the crash of summer 2012!

IT couldn't retrieve your documents?

 

[mb]

Sharepoint is an awesome platform, but it can be clunky for document management. In fairness though, just about any web-based document management system is clunky. Microsoft has done a decent job at integrating their office applications to work with Sharepoint but even still, there is a definite learning curve. Users want to just save a document and move on; they don't want to have to enter metadata, content types, retention policies, etc.


As a custom application platform, Sharepoint is nice. I can develop apps in days or a few weeks which would take our Java/Ruby programmers months to develop.

You are very right about that part. I liked our old system of just using network storage. With an organized tree structure and Windows Search 4.0 it was just so effortless.

I don't like second-guessing other IT professionals, but quite honestly, something isn't right with your Sharepoint environment. I've made a lot of mistakes in my own environment as I learned it over the years and it is far from optimal (particularly my SP 2007 farm), but we've not had any of these problems. Of course, I also was an infrastructure person and made person I put serious hardware behind the farm. Putting big hardware behind a product can mask a lot of issues.

Sharepoint (particularly SP 2010 and above) is an INCREDIBLY complex product. I liken it to an ERP system in terms of complexity.

There is something very wrong with our SP. It was a management idea that is mostly run by management (with no IT background) and little support from our IT dept who is too busy with the dozens of other systems we have (ahh the glory of acquiring other companies). Our SP is a very out of the box experience.

IT couldn't retrieve your documents?

They did, but it took 2 weeks. In the mean time, everyone else had to repull data from the source(s) while I still had my files.
Now, if the SP and the hard drive on my work PC crash... then I'm screwed too.