Hybrid BCS – Part 2 – Create an OData Source

 

The BCS hybrid scenario supports connecting only to an Open Data protocol (Odata) source. If your external data already has an OData service endpoint, then you can skip the creation of an OData service endpoint portions of this procedure.

Using Visual Studio 2013, create an empty ASP.NET web application calling it NorthwindWeb, and follow these steps:

Add an ADO.NET Entity Data Model

 

  1. Right click on the project and choose Add >> New Item
  2. Select Data under Visual C#
  3. Select ADO.NET Entity Data Model
  4. Call it NorthwindModel.edmx
  5. Click Add
  6. Select Generate from database in the Entity Data Model Wizard
  7. Click Next
  8. Choose New Connection if you do not have an existing connection, or connect to an existing one
  9. Click Next
  10. Select Entity Framework 5.0
  11. Select all the tables
  12. Click Finish
  13. Compile the project.

Add a WCF Data Service

  1. Right click on the project and choose Add >> New Item
  2. From the Web node choose the WCF Data Service 5.6 item
  3. In the Name text box, enter Northwind
  4. Click on Add
  5. Edit the code for Northwind to update the following: 

     

     

     

    1. public class NorthwindCustomers : DataService <NorthwindEntities>
    2. Replace the comments in the InitializeService event handler with the following: config.SetEntitySetAccessRule(“*”, EntitySetRights.All);
  6. Compile the project.

This should be for creating an OData Source.

<< Prevoius – Part 1 – Introduction to Hybrid BCS Architecture

>> Next – Part 3 – External Content Type Configuration

SharePoint 2016 Release is Q2 of 2016

 

Last week, the Microsoft Office Team announced the general availability date of the SharePoint 2016 server to be in Q2 2016, and the beta version should be available later in Q4 2015. This is a change of a previous anticipated date of the RTM in Q4 2015, however the product team hints about the new features of the SharePoint 2016 servers and what the product will offer in the vNext.

Just to be clear here, that Q2 2016 is the calendar 2016 year and not Microsoft’s 2016 fiscal year that starts July 1st, 2015.

We can have many predictions or assumptions why this push of the release date to the spring of 2016, but all we know that the product team has given us some high level headlines of what’s coming up next year:

  1. Improved User Experiences to enhance:
    1. Mobile Experiences;
    2. Personalized Insights; and
    3. People-Centric File Storage and Collaboration.
  2. Cloud-Inspired Infrastructure that includes:
    1. Improved Performance and Reliability;
    2. Hybrid Cloud with Global Reach; and
    3. Support and Monitoring Tools.
  3. Compliance and Reporting to offer:
    1. New Data Protection and Migration Tools;
    2. Improved Reporting and Analytics; and
    3. Trusted Platform.

You can refer to the product team blog for a brief explanation of the new and enhanced experiences with SharePoint 2016.

Also, there is a Technology Adoption Program (TAP), available for organization to get enrolled in. The TAP program allows companies to have early access to the SharePoint product that gives partners number of advantages, such as providing input and feedback for future releases of SharePoint; developing a close relationship with the product teams; and receiving Pre-Release information about SharePoint.

We should know more about the SharePoint 2016 server at the Microsoft Ignite conference in Chicago from May 02-08, 2015.

More info to share in the upcoming weeks.

 

SharePoint Online drops Public Website

​Last month, Microsoft announced a distinctive change one of the SharePoint Online features. The publishing site in Office 365 will be deprecated as of January 2015.

In a a KB Article (3027254) released December 23, 2014, that the Public Website feature of SharePoint Online will soon be dropped. Public Websites is a publishing site feature intended to give clients the ability to put up public web sites quickly using the Web Content Management features of SharePoint.

Existing customers will be notified this month that the service will be completely shut down in 2 years, and new clients will not have access to this feature.

Microsoft's reason that it has always promised the clients to deliver the upmost value to their clients, and the decision is to partner in the future with 3rd party software to deliver public facing websites. The announcement of the partnership should be revealed this month, so we will have to wait and see who is the next big player with Microsoft in the WCM world.

Although, this decision has been a difficult for the product team, I personally think that it is a smart move by Microsoft. There are few 3rd part solutions that offer great WCM capabilities and it is only smart to partner with them to provide the best solution in SharePoint Online.

If I want to take a guess who would be the 3rd party vendor to provide WCM solutions within SharePoint Online, it would be Sitecore. Earlier this year, Microsoft and Sitecore announced a strategic alliance to work together in delivering solutions to their client base.

Time will tell, but I would definitely bet that Microsoft will start offering Public Website features with SharePoint Online using Sitecore services.

SharePoint 2013 vs. 2010 – Part 6 – Mobile Support

​The experiences from SharePoint Server 2010 have been improved to make end users more productive on devices that have a smaller display. Additionally, some new features have been included. Here are some of the new and enhance features: New features Enhanced features

  1. Optimized mobile browser experience: SharePoint 2013 offers improvements to the mobile browser experience. Depending on the mobile browser, end users have one of the following experiences:

    1. Classic view. This view renders in HTML format, or similar markup languages (CHTML, WML and so on), and provides backward compatibility for mobile browsers that cannot render in the new contemporary view.
    2. Contemporary view. This view offers an optimized mobile browser experience to end users. The view renders in HTML5. This view is available to Mobile Internet Explorer® version 9.0 or higher for Windows Phone 7.5, and for Safari version 4.0 or higher for iPhone 4.0.
  2. Office Mobile Web Apps: In SharePoint 2013, Office Web Apps provides browser-based companions to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft OneNote. When Office Web Apps is installed on SharePoint Server 2010, Office Mobile Web Apps is also installed on the server. Office Mobile Web Apps enables users to open documents in the mobile web application by using a mobile browser.

With SharePoint 2013, Office Web Apps is no longer a companion product installed on a SharePoint Server. Instead, Office Web Apps Server is a new stand-alone server product that delivers Office Web Apps functionality on your private network. Although these are now separate products, Office Web Apps Server continues to enable Office Mobile Web Apps, making them available to mobile users who access SharePoint sites.

  1. Mobile browser redirection: To access a site using the optimized mobile browser experience, a new feature called Automatic Mobile Browser Redirection must be activated on the site. When activated and a mobile browser is accessing the site, this feature checks the mobile browser to determine if it is capable of handling HTML5 or not. If the mobile browser supports HTML5, the contemporary view is rendered; otherwise, the classic view is rendered.
  2. Push notifications: SharePoint 2013 supports applications on mobile devices (such as smartphones, tablets, and so on) that should receive notifications from a SharePoint site. Notifications can include events that happen in the site, such as when a user adds an item to a list or updates an item. For mobile devices to receive such notifications, device applications must register with a SharePoint site. Once the device is registered, you can write event handler code to interact with Microsoft Push Notification Service or notification services of other mobile device platforms. Notifications are sent from the server where the application is hosted to the registered mobile device application.

SharePoint 2013 vs. 2010 – Part 5 – Business Intelligence

BI in SharePoint 2013 provides comprehensive BI tools that integrate across Microsoft Office applications and other Microsoft technologies. Here are some of the new and enhance features: New features Enhanced features  

  1. Excel BI:

    1. Data exploration improvements: Users can more easily explore data and conduct analysis in reports that use SQL Server Analysis Services data or PowerPivot data models. For example, users can point to a value in a PivotChart or PivotTable report and see suggested ways to view additional information. Users can also use commands such as Drill Down To to conduct analysis.
    2. Calculated measures and members: In Excel, users can define calculated measures and calculated members by using Analysis Services data.
    3. Enhanced timeline controls: Users can easily create timeline controls in Excel to display information for certain periods of time in reports and dashboards.
    4. In Memory BI Engine (IMBI): The In Memory multidimensional data analysis engine (IMBI), also known as the VertiPaq engine, allows for almost instant analysis of millions of rows and is a fully integrated feature in the Excel client.
    5. Power View Add-in for Excel: Power View ("Crescent") is powered by the BI Semantic Model and the VertiPaq engine, and enables users to visualize and interact with modeled data by using highly interactive visualizations, animations and smart querying. Users will be able to present and share insights with others in the organization through rich storyboard presentation capabilities.
    6. Independent PivotChart and PivotTable reports: Users can now create PivotChart reports without having to include a PivotTable report on the same page.
    7. Trend analysis: Excel supports the ability to conduct trend analysis from cells in PivotTable reports that use OLAP data, such as Analysis Services cubes or PowerPivot data models.
  2. Excel Services:

    1. Data exploration improvements: Users can more easily explore data and conduct analysis in Excel Services reports that use SQL Server Analysis Services data or PowerPivot data models.
    2. Field list and field well support: Excel Services enables users to easily view and change which items are displayed in rows, columns, values, and filters in PivotChart reports and PivotTable reports that have been published to Excel Services.
    3. Calculated measures and members: Excel Services supports calculated measures and calculated members that are created in Excel.
    4. Enhanced timeline controls: Excel Services supports timeline controls that render and behave as they do in the Excel client.
    5. Application BI Servers: Administrators can specify SQL Server Analysis Services servers to support more advanced analytic capabilities in Excel Services.
    6. Business Intelligence Center update: The Business Intelligence Center site template has been streamlined. It not only has a new look, it is easier to use.
  3. PerformancePoint Services:

    1. Dashboard Migration: Users will be able to copy entire dashboards and dependencies, including the .aspx file, to other users, servers, or site collections. This feature also allows the ability to migrate single items to other environments and to migrate content by using Windows PowerShell commands.
    2. Filter Enhancements & Filter Search: The UI has been enhanced to allow users to easily view and manage filters including giving users the ability to search for items within filters without having to navigate through the tree.
    3. BI Center Update: The new BI Center is cleaner, and easier to use with folders and libraries configured for easy use.
    4. Support for Analysis Services Effective User: This new feature eliminates the need for Kerberos delegation when per-user authentication is used for Analysis Services data sources.
    5. Customize your Dashboards to match your Company style: In PerformancePoint Services in SharePoint 2013, users can use styles to have greater flexibility in the look and feel of their dashboards and the SharePoint themes.
    6. PerformancePoint Support on iPad: PerformancePoint dashboards can now be viewed and interacted with on iPad devices using the Safari web browser.
  4. Visio Services: The following feature are all new in SharePoint 2013:

    1. Maximum Cache Size: A new service parameter, it is located on the Central Administration Visio Graphics Service Application Global Settings page. The default value is 5120 MB.
    2. Health Analyzer rules: New corresponding Health Analyzer rules have been added to reflect the new Maximum Cache Size parameter.
    3. Updated PowerShell cmdlet “Set-SPVisioPerformance: This cmdlet has been updated to include the new Maximum Cache Size parameter.
    4. Commenting on drawings supported: Users can add meaningful comments to a Visio Drawing (*.vsdx) collaboratively on the web via Visio Services in full page rendering mode.

 

SharePoint 2013 vs. 2010 – Part 2 – ECM

Enterprise Content Management in 2013 My second has to be about Enterprise Content Management in SharePoint 2013. The records management and compliance features in SharePoint 2013 provide improved ways to help you to protect the business. The records archive and in-place record retention from previous versions of SharePoint Server are still supported. SharePoint 2013 adds:

New features

Enhanced features

  1. Site Retention: Retention policies that are applied at the level of a site.
  2. eDiscovery: A site collection from which you can perform eDiscovery queries across multiple SharePoint farms and Exchange servers and preserve items.
  3. Mail as a record: In-place preservation of Exchange mailboxes and SharePoint sites — including list items and pages — while still allowing users to work with site content.
  4. File shares: Support for searching and exporting content from file shares.
  5. Export: A tool to export discovered content from Exchange and SharePoint.

Site-based compliance Compliance features of SharePoint 2013 have been extended to sites. You can create and manage retention policies in SharePoint 2013, and the policies will apply to SharePoint sites and any Exchange team mailboxes that are associated with the sites. Compliance officers create policies, which define:

  • The retention policy for the entire site and the team mailbox, if one is associated with the site.
  • What causes a project to be closed
  • When a project should expire.

When a project begins, the project owner creates a SharePoint site and an Exchange team mailbox. The project owner selects the appropriate policy template, and invites team members to join the project. As the team adds documents to the site, sends email messages, and creates other artifacts such as lists, these items automatically receive the correct retention policies. When the work has been completed, the project owner closes the project, which removes the project's folders from the team members' user interface in Microsoft Outlook®. After a certain period of time, as specified by the policy, the project expires, and the artifacts associated with the project are deleted. Discovery Center SharePoint 2013 introduces a new site for managing discovery cases and holds. The Discovery Center site template creates a portal through which you can access discovery cases to conduct searches, place content on hold, and export content. For each case, you create a new site that uses the Discovery Case site template. Each case is a collaboration site that includes a document library which you can use to store documents related to the management of the case. In addition, you can associate the following things with each case:

  • Sources: Exchange mailboxes, SharePoint sites, or file shares from which content can be discovered.
  • Queries: The search criteria, such as author, date range, and free-text terms, as well as the scope of the search. Queries are used to identify content to export.
  • Discovery sets: Combinations of sources, queries, and whether or not to preserve content. Discovery sets are used to identify and preserve content.
  • Exports: A list of all of the exports that have been produced relating to the case.

When there is a new need for discovery — for example, a legal case or an audit — a user with the appropriate permission can create a new case, add sources of information to be searched, create queries to identify the specific material to be located, and then execute the queries. The user can then preserve the sites and mailboxes in which content was discovered, retain the items that matched the queries, and export the items. When the case is closed, all of the holds associated with the case are released. In-place preservation In SharePoint 2013, content that is placed on hold is preserved, but users can still modify it. The state of the content at the time of preservation is recorded. If a user modifies the content or even deletes it, the original, preserved version is still available. Regular users see the current version of the content; compliance officers who have permission to use the eDiscovery features of SharePoint 2013 are able to access the original, preserved version. Preserving content is similar to placing it on hold, with the following enhancements:

  • Documents, list items, pages, and Exchange Server 15 mailboxes can be preserved.
  • Preservation is done at the level of a site. Preserving a site preserves the contents of the site.
  • Users can continue to work with content that is preserved. The content remains in the same location, and users can edit, delete, and add new content.
  • A user with the permission to perform eDiscovery can access the original version of preserved content.
  • You do not have to preserve an entire site or mailbox. You can specify a query to define the preservation scope, and preserve only the content that matches the query.

Discovery export SharePoint 2013 includes the Discovery Download Manager, a Windows 7 application that you can use to export the results of an eDiscovery search for later import into a review tool. The Discovery Download Manager can export all of the content that is associated with a discovery case, including:

  • Documents: Documents are exported from file shares. Documents and their versions are exported from SharePoint 2013.
  • Lists: If a list item was included in the eDiscovery query results, the entire list is exported as a comma-separated values (.csv) file.
  • Pages: SharePoint 2013 pages, such as wiki pages or blogs, are exported as MIME HTML (.mht) files.
  • Exchange objects: Items in an Exchange Server 15 mailbox, such as tasks, calendar entries, contacts, email messages, and attachments, are exported as a personal storage (.pst) file.

An XML manifest that conforms to the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) specification provides an overview of the exported information. Enterprise-wide eDiscovery With SharePoint 2013, you can centrally manage eDiscovery across multiple SharePoint farms, Exchange servers, and file shares. From one discovery center you can:

  • Create a case, define a query, and search SharePoint 2013, Exchange Server 15, and file shares throughout the enterprise for content that matches the query.
  • Export all of the content that was identified.
  • Preserve items in place in SharePoint 2013 or Exchange Server 15.
  • Track statistics related to the case.

To implement eDiscovery across the enterprise, you first select one farm to host the discovery center. The Search Service application that is associated with this farm becomes the central Search Service application, for eDiscovery purposes. You create a proxy to the central Search Service application in each SharePoint Server farm that contains discoverable content, and configure the central Search Service application to crawl file shares that contain discoverable content. SharePoint 2013 automatically discovers the connection to Exchange Server 15. Any content from SharePoint 2013, Exchange Server 15, or a file share that is indexed by the central Search Service application or by Exchange Server 15 can be discovered from the discovery center.