Often with the applications we build on sharepoint it would be much easier to analyse the data if we could do a straightforward SQL join between two lists, just as you would with two tables in SQL, but, alas, this is not catered for out of the box. I have managed to do it with a DVWP and data sources in SharePoint Designer but this was only really useful on simple and small amounts of data. So I was quite ecited by this project I have stumbled across on CodePlex yesterday - SLAM. It looks to take the list data in sharepoint and copy it out to SQL so that you can then run standard SQL queries against it. There seems to be some management built in as well, so very promising. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but will certainly give it a go next time we need to do some reporting on SharePoint list data.

Quote from their site:

Most developers who have used SharePoint as an application development framework have run into the realization that SharePoint is NOT a relational database. In fact, the accepted wisdom is if you need relational tables, use ASP.NET/SQL straight-up, not SharePoint.

Enter SharePoint List Association Manager (SLAM). In short it allows you to define relationships (one to one, one to many, many to many) between SharePoint lists (or Content Types) and then leverage those relationships in webparts or custom field types using familiar and straight forward SQL queries.

Find it on Codeplex at http://www.codeplex.com/SLAM.

AS part of our planned expansion and due to the increasing projects, we are looking to hire again.

If you have skills and experience in one (or ideally more) of the following, then we would love to hear from you...

• asp.net web development (not necessarily SharePoint specific but web services, controls, linq, ajax, script etc)
• SQL 2000 - 2008 (Database Administration, Analysis Services, Reporting Services, development)
• InfoPath Forms (Client and Browser based forms, customised programming)
• Windows Workflow Foundation (SharePoint workflows, long running workflows, using the foundation for business logic)
• Design (concept design, html, css, general graphics)
• SharePoint architecture (creating portals, configuration, customisation, configuring web parts)
• PowerShell
• Project Management and Client Management

We offer a realistic package with opportunities to extend your skills - Conferences, MS Certification, User Groups, Networking etc. The roles are based in our Wolerhampton office with occaisional travel to client sites.

If you are interested, then contact us

STRICTLY NO AGENCIES !!! We have a current policy of not using agencies for recruitment, so please, if you are an agency, do not bother to call, email or spam us.

Working on a new intranet site for a client I was puzzled when only the homepage of the root site collection would appear in search results. We have site collections on managed paths below the root site and those weren't showing either. Crawls were running but the crawl log showed "Some parts of this document cannot be accessed". I checked the sharepoint logs and the windows event log, then googled away as usual but there weren't really any further clues, everything seemed to be as it should be.

I tried a reset all content on the search index and this made no difference, next up I tried a new content source as I had I noticed some blogs and forums had mentioned an error meessage saying

The start address http://intranet/sites/sitename is not valid for this content source type.

So I tried creating a content source of SharePoint Sites pointing at the site collections on managed paths, these also gave this message - Ah!, progress I thought as it gave another clue. But alas, no further clues were to be found. In the absence of any further hits on google revealing an insight that would solve it. I tried a restart on the Search Service and the Timer service followed by a full crawl. And straight away the crawl log started to give me more than just one hit on the new location, by the end of the crawl there were all the results I had been expecting first time round.

The only thing I can think confused it was that we recreated the site collections several times during deployment and that caused it to get confused.

I hope that little gem helps you out of a spot if search isn't bringing back the results you're expecting.

 

A strange thing that I came across...

While trying to add a solution to the farm using stsadm -o addsolution -filename e:\RikobbaMasterPages.WSP I was given the error message RikobbaMasterPages.WSP has an unsupported file extension and cannot be added to the store. strange.....

As noted here and here the file extension above is capitalised and the stsadm appears to only like lower case! (the file above had been manually renamed)

So - the file extension for a solution MUST be lower case

It shows that you can still learn something new about SharePoint every day

I'm quite often asked about training resources for SharePoint. One option, provided via Microsoft, is a package that you can install onto your SharePoint farm.

"The Training includes videos, interactive tutorials, and articles. In addition, the material is SCORM compliant. You can easily add or remove training topics to fit your business needs. The Training also includes a reporting function that allows an administrator/trainer to track learners’ completed training topics. You can customize the Training to fit the look and feel of your own Office SharePoint Server site. "

The details and package can be found via Microsoft Download

Alternatively, you can download a desktop version for individual use

Todd Carter has posted some interesting info on using stsadm -o preparetomove with a SharePoint Farm with the infrastructure update or later installed - basically you don't need to anymore - read more here.