Compelling SharePoint 2010 Features and Enhancements

After parsing the information from last week's SharePoint Conference 2009, I've come up with a list of SharePoint 2010 features and enhancements that might make it worth considering an upgrade. Some of these features are in SharePoint 2007 but have been improved in 2010, like the concept of content types. Some of these features are new, like tagging and rating.

Administration

• Services a la carte via Service Applications; Can build your own
  
• Performance enhancements
  
• Throttling
  
• Tens of millions of documents per library
  
• Multi-tenacy - Keep content separated via application level security
  
• Claims (SAML) based communication - sort of like Kerberos for external authentication
  

User Experience and Content Management

• Managed Metadata Service
  
• Enterprise Content Types
  
• Tagging and Rating (Taxonomy & Folksonomy)
  
• Content Organizer (routes content based on pre-set policies)
  
• Records Management (in place or upload to record center)
  
• Delete, Hold in-place, Archive with Link options
  
• Social features, social search, social bookmarking, search for user content
  
• My Sites: Customizable My Site templates, org chart, user's activity feed
  
• User Profile Service; Sync data from multiple sources into SharePoint profile
  
• Unique document IDs
  
• Visual Upgrade from 2007 sites - gradual or immediate
  
• Cross-browser support (IE 7+, Firefox, Safari)
  
• Improved mobile support
  
• SharePoint Workspace for offline collaboration
  
• ...and Office online applications
  

Development

• SharePoint Designer as a respectable development platform
  
• Visual Studio templates for SharePoint development
  
• InfoPath and Visio development of web forms and workflow (along with SharePoint Designer)
  

I plan to post more detailed blog posts on certain topics as time permits. For now this should give you a taste of what's coming in the new SharePoint.

SharePoint Conference 2009

I arrived in Las Vegas on Sunday to attend the SharePoint Conference 2009. I came exited to learn about all of the new enhancements and features of SharePoint 2010. Two days into it I can say that this is definitely one of the most useful conferences I've ever been to.

I'm here with about two dozen of my colleagues and another 7000 or so of our closest SharePoint friends. Sessions have ranged from the overview keynote by Steve Ballmer and Jeff Teper, user experience improvements, social media, topology, administration, upgrade from 2007 to 2010, development with InfoPath, SharePoint Designer, and Visual Studio.

Two more days of sessions that are getting more and more advanced. Day 1 and 2 had many 100-300 level sessions. Tomorrow and Thursday have more 300-400 level sessions.

When I get some time I'll post some notes from the sessions I attended. What I can say now is: SharePoint 2010 is a big step up from 2007. I want to be working in 2010 sooner rather than later.

Oh, BTW, SharePoint/Office 2010 public beta will be released sometime in November 2009 with the final product release sometime in the first half of 2010.

Still here

Yep, I'm still here.

Been in and out of SharePoint for the past five months. Mostly in.

Looking forward to the SharePoint Conference 2009 in Las Vegas from October 18-22 and the release of more information about SharePoint 2010.

More to come.

Results Show: SharePoint Saturday DC

The most recent iteration of the SharePoint Saturday franchise, SharePoint Saturday DC, was held yesterday at the Microsoft Technology Center in Reston, Virginia. The day went very well, thanks to Dux Raymond Sy and his team of event coordinators, volunteers, and sponsors! Over 200 people were there and most of the sessions were packed and a few were standing room only!

There were a variety of session topics, including Dan Lewis's Social Computing talk, Tom Resing's Business Data Catalog presentation, and Jonathan Distler's overview of Arlington County, Virginia's SharePoint pilot. All-in-all, there were twenty-eight sessions plus an open "Ask the Expert" discussion in the lobby.

Dan Usher and I presented our talk SmartCard Authentication: Considerations, Options, and Pitfalls with SharePoint during the last session of the day, 4:45-5:45. Surprisingly, we still had the energy in us to have a lively discussion about security, SmartCards, and how they fit into a SharePoint implementation.

View the slides on SlideShare or download the PowerPoint file (PPT or PPTX) which includes the slides plus notes and resource links.

View Online (slides only)
SlideShare

View PowerPoint (slides + notes/resources)
PowerPoint 2003 (PPT)
PowerPoint 2007 (PPTX)

A video of our talk may be made available at some point, and I'll post it here if it does.

Speaking at SharePoint Saturday DC

In recent months there has been a series of interesting free weekend events called SharePoint Saturdays centered around the topic of--what else--SharePoint! Well, SharePoint Saturday is coming to the Washington, DC, area!

Dan Usher and I are scheduled to present together on the topic of smart card authentication with SharePoint 2007. The talk is entitled SmartCard authentication: Considerations, options and pitfalls. Oh my!

With the ever present risks of data integrity and non-repudiation, several organizations have begun to utilize smartcards for authentication to systems. With the greater number of SharePoint instances being stood up within organizations, ensuring the smartcards can be used to access data is key. In this session, we'll discuss smartcard authentication, considerations when determining the appropriate architecture, options for integration with different authentication providers and implementation pitfalls.

There are a few different ways you can integrate smart cards (or other two factor authentication) into a SharePoint instance. We'll talk about the various methods, including the option of using a custom membership provider.

There is a special food drive going along with the event. Check out Dux Raymond Sy's explanation on the SharePoint Saturday DC website.

Search Settings in SSP gives error "Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream"

There was an odd error that we have been seeing in one of our SharePoint 2007 server farms. When trying to access the Search settings page in Central Administration's Shared Services Provider, the SSP gives this error:

"Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream."

It ends up that it's an issue with the SSL certificate that is installed on the "Office Server Web Services" IIS instance. Somehow it gets corrupted when .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 is installed.

Microsoft knows about the issue and has a fix right here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=962928

Custom Smart Card Authentication and SharePoint

One of the great new features of SharePoint 2007 was the ability to utilize multiple means of user authentication: Active Directory, LDAP, SQL, and more. This is nothing new, and since the advent of MOSS 2007/WSS 3.0 the use of non-AD authentication via Membership Providers has been well documented.

What if you need to use PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) certificates and/or Smart Cards (like Common Access Cards, aka CAC)? There are a few ways to do this, depending on how the user certificates need to map to your account store. If you use Active Directory, there are built in ways to map certificates to users and have IIS handle the handshake. Or you can use a third-party system or SSO. This assumes you have a defined user directory and pre-defined certificate mappings.

But what if you need to accept PKI/Smart Cards, but do not have a master user directory (AD, LDAP) of everyone who will attempt to access the site?

The Concept:

• Use a custom ASP.NET Membership provider to accept and read PKI certificates (using IIS)
• Create and login to a NEW account (AD, LDAP, SQL)
• Forward the user to the SharePoint site.

Very similar to this idea from Adam Buenz.

Easy? We shall see.