Vyapin Blogs

We have made a significant release of our powerful SharePoint list management solution – SPList Manager for SharePoint 2007 (SPListM) version 1.2.

The following are some of the improvisations made to the product solution in this new release:

1. Support to Forms based authentication: SPListM now supports Forms Authentication validating the users against the corresponding SharePoint environment. SPListM would support websites configured with Forms based authentication mechanism.
2. Supports Fully Qualified Domain Name format: SPListM now supports a Fully Qualified Domain Name, i.e. ‘username @domain’ format in its entire validation schema.
3. Profile Manager Tool: Users’ logon information can be stored as User profiles and the same can be retrieved without necessarily entering the credentials every time. Profile manager supports both Windows based and Forms based authentication credentials. Using this, the users can just select their corresponding credentials without manually entering them every time when connecting to SharePoint.
4. Folder options: SPListM now allows users to create folders (if unavailable) on the fly and helps in restructuring folder hierarchy during content migration. The folders to be created can be defined in the external batch descriptor file.
5. Web Services Component Indicator: It is now easy to determine the existence of Web Services Component. The Web Services Component Indicator would now determine the presence of Web Services Component in the corresponding destination SharePoint server. The user can access the same from the Tools Menu of the application (ToolsàTest SPListM Web Service). This would avoid Web Service Component mismatch, if any.
6. SPListM application can now run on Windows 7 / Vista / XP computers. SPListM Web Services component can run on Windows Server 2008 and 2003.

For a free 30-day trial version or to upgrade to the latest version of SPListM software, visit the product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/splistm/sharepoint-2007-list-management-tool.htm .

We have come out with a significant major release of our flagship SharePoint document migration tool, DocKIT for SharePoint 2010 / 2007.

DocKIT v4.0 now supports Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 in addition to its support to the earlier versions of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS 3.0).

DocKIT in addition to its support to native SharePoint 2010 environment has come out with the following new features:

1. Extended support to Business Connectivity Services: Business Connectivity Services (BCS) is all about keeping the users connected to external databases and other sources of enterprise data (LOB systems). BCS is an evolution of Business Data Catalog (BDC) feature in SharePoint 2007, allowing the users to better integrate external data to the SharePoint portal. DocKIT through its support to BCS / BDC ensures that users can map their existing line of business applications into the SharePoint portal, thereby allowing the users to leverage on integrated information.
2. Support to Managed metadata: Managed metadata resembles the ‘Lookup Columns’ of SharePoint 2007. Unlike Look Up columns where it was impossible for the users to share metadata across site collections, Managed metadata is not site specific. Managed metadata has a centralized repository of pre-defined metadata that can be replicated for use throughout the SharePoint environment without having to define them every single time. DocKIT helps users retrieve the metadata values from ‘term sets’ associated with the Managed Metadata column.
3. Supports Document Sets: Document sets allow users to bundle related documents and treat them as a single entity. With DocKIT, the users can migrate multiple documents from file repositories and manage them better by assigning metadata to these ‘compound documents’ through an external metadata source.

DocKIT with its support to SharePoint 2010 features such as ‘Ratings Column’ data type, ‘Asset Library’ etc. would help organizations achieve a better collaborative environment by allowing the users to leverage on the extended features of SharePoint 2010.

The interesting information is the latest version of DocKIT supports both SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2007 environment within the same version of the product. This means our DocKIT customers do not have to invest twice (lower TCO) in a SharePoint document migration solution, one for each SharePoint version and can also quickly adapt / transition to the new version using the familiar interface.

For a free trial version of DocKIT for SharePoint 2010/2007 please visit our product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/sharepoint-2010/dockit/sharepoint-migration.htm.

Information Technology Audits have been made mandatory as it is now requisite for many organizations to keep track of users’ access to critical information assets. IT audit systems and procedures must broadly address the following requirements or objectives:

• maintain data integrity
• safeguard information assets
• allow organizational goals or objectives to be achieved effectively
• use resources efficiently

Audit logs detailing events and changes to information have to be maintained as a part of organizations’ compliance needs. Increased vulnerability to security threats has also made companies to record events and manipulations to information assets to maintain data integrity and also withstand external threats.

Imagine auditing a SharePoint environment which hosts huge voluminous business critical information in SharePoint sites and lists with numerous users making changes to them constantly. Keeping track of this information trail is an uphill task and following are some of the challenges a SharePoint administrator would confront in auditing a SharePoint infrastructure:

Admin Report Kit for SharePoint (ARKSP) through its in-depth audit reports makes it easy
for
administrators
to audit their SharePoint infrastructure. The following are some of the Built-in reports that provide critical audit information addressing the above challenges:

1. Web-Application Page Visits: Page Visits reports pages visited by users corresponding to a specific site within a web application.

   Fields reported: Front End Web Server, User, Web Application, Site URL, Page URL, Client IP Address and Visited Date.

   The report can also be ‘Grouped By’ to report information corresponding to the users and would give better insights on ‘who accessed what’.

2. Audit-Deleted List/Site: Audit-Deleted List/Site reports give information about deleted lists and sites within a site collection corresponding to a given date range or for the given number of days. You can group this information to view details such as the date of deletion and the user who deleted the lists/sites.
   

   Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, List URL, Occurred and Performed By.

   Grouping the above report by ‘Performed By’ field would give the user a better perspective of the List and Sites deleted by a user over a period of time.
   

3. Audit-Group created/deleted: Audit-Group created/deleted reports give information about groups that are created or deleted at a site level in the last ‘N’ days. The report can also be generated for a specific date range. Details such as the user who created or deleted the groups are also reported.
   

   Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Group Name, Occurred and Performed By.

   The above report when grouped by ‘Performed By’ field reports the above information from a user perspective and would retrieve details of groups added or deleted by a corresponding user.
   

4. Audit-Group member added/deleted: Audit-Group member added/deleted reports retrieve information about the members added/ deleted within a group in the last ‘N’ days.
   

   Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, User Name, Group Name, Occurred and Performed By.

   Grouping the report by ‘Performed By’ field values reports group members added or deleted by the corresponding user.
   

5. Audit-Permission Inheritance Changed: Audit-Permission Inheritance Changed report displays changes made in permissions inheritance corresponding to items, folders, lists and sites within a site collection. The scope of the report can be confined to specific date range or can include changes in the last ‘N’ days.
   

   Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Event Name, URL, Occurred and Performed By.

   Grouping the above report by ‘Occurred’ field values reports the above information from a date perspective and the user can view the changes made in permission level date-wise.

6. Audit-Permission Level Added/Deleted/Modified: Audit- Permission Level Added/Deleted/Modified reports display any changes made in permission levels corresponding to a site. Permission Level newly created, modified or deleted is reported at a site level.
   

   Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, URL, Permission Level, Occurred and Performed By.

   The above report when grouped by the ‘Performed By’ field values displays information about who modified what corresponding to the permission levels.
   

7. Audit-Permissions Changed: Audit-Permissions Changed report displays information about changes in permissions settings of individual users and groups corresponding to a particular site. The date and time of occurrence and the modifier are also reported here.
   

   Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, URL, Groups/Users, Occurred and Performed By.

   By grouping this report using ‘Performed By’ field, you can answer a very fundamental question: who changed what?
   

8. Audit-Search: Audit-Search report provides information on the searches made by users across the site. The scope of the search i.e.at a site level or at a site collection level is also reported. The keywords used in basic search or the conditions imposed during Advanced Search options are also reported.
   

   Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Query, Search Scope, Occurred and Performed By.

   The above report when grouped by ‘Occurred’ field values displays the details of searches made within a date range.

9. Site Permissions: Site Permissions report displays information about permissions defined across individual Users and Groups corresponding to each site.
   

   Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Groups/Users, Account Type, Description, Group Owners, Permission Levels and Members.

   The report can also be ‘Grouped By’ Users and Groups to know which individual users and groups have what permission levels corresponding to the site.

10. Site Security: Site Security report gives information about various security settings defined at a site level.

    Reported fields: Web URL, Web Title, Allows Anonymous Access, Anonymous state, Allow unsafe updates, Authentication Mode, Has External Security Provider, Inherits Role Assignments, Inherits Role Definitions, Request Access Enabled and Request Access E-mail.

    Grouping By authentication mode retrieves the security settings defined in accordance to specific authentication mode.

11. Site Visitors: Site Visitors report displays information about visits made by users corresponding to a site.
    

    Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, User, Total Hits, Recent Month Hits, Recent Day and Recent Day Hits.

    Grouping this report by User reports the total number of visits including the users’ recent visit to the corresponding site.

12. Audit-Checked In/Checked out Items reports: Audit-Checked In/Checked out Items reports provide information about individual list items that are Checked In and Checked Out pertaining to a specific list in a site.
    

    Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, List Name, Item URL, Occurred and Performed By.

    The above report when grouped by ‘Performed By’ fields displays the items Checked In and Checked Out corresponding to a user. The same when grouped by ‘Occurred’ field values would display the items Checked In and Checked Out corresponding to the specific date.

13. Audit-Copied Items: Audit-Copied Items report retrieves information about individual List items that are copied from a source list location to a destination list location. The Source URL and the Destination URL of the copied List items are also displayed.
    

    Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, List Name, Source URL, Destination URL, Occurred and Performed By.

    Grouping the report by ‘Performed By’ displays the individual list items copied corresponding to a user.

14. Audit-Visited/Deleted Items: Audit-Visited/Deleted Items reports give information about individual list items corresponding to a list that were visited/deleted.
    

    Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, List Name, Item URL, Occurred and Performed By.

    The above report when grouped by ‘Performed By’ field values displays the items visited or deleted corresponding to specific users.
    

15. Last Deleted items/Modified items: Last Deleted Items and Last Modified Items reports display information about individual list items that were deleted and modified for the last ‘N’ days.

    Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Item URL, Item Name, Deleted By/Modified By User name, Deleted/Modified by Display Name, Modified/Deleted Date, Created By-User Name, Created Date, Last Modified By-User Name, Last Modified Date and Size (in MB).

    Grouping the reports by User name reports list items modified or deleted by the corresponding user for a corresponding date range.

16. List Activity: List Activity report displays the First and the last activities with related users’ names corresponding to the List.

    Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, List URL, List Name, First Activity Item Name, First Activity Item URL, First Activity Date, First Activity-User Name, First Activity-Transaction, Last Activity Item URL, Last Activity-Item Name, Last activity Date, Last Activity-User name and last Activity-Transaction.

17. List Folders Security: List Folder Security report generates information about the Groups/Users and their permissions assigned to each folder and its sub folders corresponding to the list.

    Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Base Template, List Name, Folder Name, Folder URL, Groups/Users and Permission Levels.

    Grouping the above report by Users and Groups gives a meaningful perspective to the permission levels granted for Users and Groups corresponding to the Folders and sub-folders.

18. List Hits: List Hits report retrieves information about the number of visits made in the last ‘N’ days along with the most recent visit information corresponding to the list.

    Reported fields are: Web URL, Web Title, List name, Total Hits, Recent Month Hits, Last Accessed Day and Last Accessed Day Hits.

19. List Item Security: List Item security displays information about individual users and groups and their permission levels assigned against individual list items.

    Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Base Template, List Name, Item URL, Item Name, Users/Groups and Permission Levels.

    Grouping the above report by Users/Groups reports permission levels associated with Users and groups corresponding to a list item. Grouping the report by permission levels would gives the users an indication about who has the most privileges granted against specific list item.

20. List Visits: List Visits reports total visits corresponding to individual list items over the last ‘N’ days.

    Reported Fields are: Front-end Web Server, Item URL, Item ID, Total Visit Count, Item Name, Item Visit URL, Visit Count, Action, Visited By, Visited Date and Visited Time.

    Grouping the report by ‘Visited By’ reports the visits made by the corresponding user over the specific date range.

21. Newly Added Items: Newly Added Items report displays the individual list items that were created over the last ‘N’ days.

    Reported Fields are: Web URL, Web Title, item URL, Item Name, Created By-User name, Created By-Display name, Created Date and Size (in MB).

    The above report when grouped by ‘Created By-User name’ displays the list items newly created by the user. Grouping the same in order of their ‘Created Date’ would display list items that were added corresponding to the specific dates.

Page Visits Report - An Example

Let us take an example where the SharePoint administrator intends to generate a report on visits made corresponding to a page within a site and individual list items within a list. Let’s see how ARKSP makes it easy for the administrators.

Screenshot of Audit-Page Visits report:

The above screenshot shows the Audit-Page Visits report (Quick Reports à Site à Audit-Page Visits) corresponding to the specified site. The report displays information about the Pages visited by the specified users in the last 30 days.

The same report to show information from an users’ perspective i.e., who has accessed what over the last 30 days by grouping this data using the ‘Performed By’ field.

Screenshot of Audit-Page Visits-Grouped By-’Performed By’:

The above screenshot shows the Page Visits made by the user “SHAREPOINT\system”. The page visits information is reported from a users’ perspective.

Let’s see how ARKSP enumerates the individual list items visited by users in the last 7 days.

Screenshot of Audit-Visited Items report:

The above screenshot shows the Audit-Visited Items report (Quick Reports à List à Audit-Visited Items) corresponding to the List. The report enumerates the users who visited the List items in the last 7 days.

The same report can be customized to display the above information according to date, meaning the visits can be reported date-wise based on the time stamp of the visit.

Screenshot Of Audit-Visited Items-Group By-Occurred:

The above report displays the Visited Items and their corresponding information based on the occurrence i.e., date and time of the visit. ARKSP with its multi-dimensional reporting allows users to generate meaningful reports across various perspectives and provides valuable insights to administrative users.

ARKSP with its insightful and customizable reports reduces the SharePoint administrators’ overhead in auditing the SharePoint infrastructure.

For more information about ARK for SharePoint 2010 visit our product homepage at:

http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/sharepoint-2010/arksp/sharepoint-2010-reports.htm

Admin Report Kit for SharePoint, our powerful SharePoint administration and reporting tool is now officially released in line with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 release. It is our first official product release for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010.

ARK for SharePoint 2010 with its 80+ out-of-the-box reports presents configuration information about various objects associated with the SharePoint environment. The following is a brief summary of the Built-In reports available:

1.Web Application Level reports: Information about Web application settings and features, site collection details, site collection administrators, site collection workflow templates, site collection features, web application user permissions, e-mail settings, content database definition, site collection quotas and limits information, page visits corresponding to the web applications.

2.Site Level reports: ARKSP at a Site level reports information about Sites & Sub-sites configuration details, site security settings, lists created in a site, alerts, site features, site permission levels, site people & groups, site permissions, site content types, site hits summary, page hits, site visitors, web pages, web parts utilization, recycle bin, list templates and audit event reports corresponding to the site.

3.List Level reports: ARKSP reports List Summary and Configuration, List activity, Modified date of the List, List permissions, Security associated with the List items, List Visits and List Hits, Newly added List items, Recently modified/deleted items, Version history, Audit event reports, Available List Columns, Workflows, Views, Templates, File Types, List Size and List of checked-out documents corresponding to the List.

For a 30 day trial version please visit our ARKSP product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/sharepoint-2010/arksp/sharepoint-2010-reports.htm

We have come out with a new version of our SharePoint administration and reporting solution - Admin Report Kit for SharePoint 2007 (ARKSP). ARKSP version 3.7 comes with the following new inclusions:

1.Permissions Report enhancements: Additional information is now reported in the List Permissions Report. New fields like Account Type, Description, Group Owner and Group Members are added. List Permissions report gives information about the permissions associated with the individual users and groups. The account type of the users and groups, Group Owner and Group members are some of the critical information that is made available from now on.

2.Database Truncation: ARKSP now allows the user to clean up the database created as a result of Power Export tasks. The option to truncate the application database can be accessed from ‘Tools?Application Database Truncation Settings’. The database would be truncated based on the frequency defined in the truncation settings.

3.Blocked File Types report: ARKSP through the Blocked File Types report enumerates the list of file types that are blocked from downloading and uploading corresponding to the specific web application. Web application and the Blocked File Types are the fields that are reported.

4.Regional Settings Report: Regional settings report retrieves regional information defined against a site within a web application.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Locale, Title, Time Zone, Calendar, Alternate Calendar, Work Days, First Day of Week, First Week of Year, Start Time and End Time.

5. Invited Users-Feature Status: Invited Users-Feature Status report enumerates the list of invited users to the site and their activation status information corresponding to the Enterprise Site Collection Feature and Enterprise Site Feature.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Enterprise Site Collection Features, Enterprise Site Features, Account Display Name, Account Name, Account Type and Permission Levels.

6.List Hits-Monthly Usage: List Hits-Monthly Usage report gives information about the number of visits corresponding to a list for the last 31 months or for a specified month range. The visits are categorized month wise.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Title, List Name, Total Hits, Month1, Month2, ….. , Month31

7. Page Hits-Monthly Usage: Page Hits-Monthly Usage report gives information about the number of visits corresponding to a page in a site for the last 31 months along with the last accessed data.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Page URL, Last Accessed Date, Total Hits, Month1, Month2,……, Month31

8.Site Hits Summary-Monthly Usage: Site Hits Summary-Monthy Usage report presents detailed information on the number of visits corresponding to the site for a specified month range or for the last 31 months.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Total Hits, Month1, Month2,……, Month31.

9.Site Visitors-Monthly Usage: Site Visitors-Monthly Usage displays the number of times a user has visited each site for a specified month range or for the last 31 months along with the recent accessed date.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Site Visitors, Last Accessed Date, Total Hits, Month1, Month2,….., Month31

ARKSP’s new usage reports are certain to help SharePoint administrators monitor and administer the SharePoint resources effectively.

Also, we have launched ARK for SharePoint 2010 recently. It would be our first SharePoint 2010 product version, besides DocKIT for SharePoint 2010 (beta). You can read more information about this new version and download a 30-day evaluation copy from:

http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/sharepoint-2010/arksp/sharepoint-2010-reports.htm

Our flagship SharePoint migration solution, DocKIT is out with a beta version for SharePoint 2010. DocKIT for SharePoint 2010 fully supports SharePoint 2010 environment with the following additional new features:

1.Support to Business Continuity Services: Business Continuity Services (BCS) is an extension to the Business Data Catalog provision of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to integrate external data to the portal. BCS with out-of-the box features, services and tools allows deep integration of external data both online and offline. BCS is all about connectivity and is all set to provide connectivity support to external databases and other data sources. DocKIT with its extended support to BCS would allow users to leverage on the external data source.

2.Support to Managed Metadata type: Managed metadata type is about having a centralized collection of pre-defined metadata and managing them independently from SharePoint columns. Metadata values are assigned by referring to the centralized metadata ‘repository ‘. DocKIT helps users assign metadata to the corresponding documents through a metadata file by retrieving the specific metadata value from the term set corresponding to the Managed metadata column.

3.Supports Document Sets: Document Sets are special containers allowing users to treat a document collection as a single entity. It is yet another ‘Folder Content Type’. DocKIT allows users to migrate documents from specific file locations and get them grouped as a document set. Assigning metadata to the document set could be easily done through an external metadata file.

4.Support to Asset Library and other SharePoint built-in columns such as Ratings: DocKIT extends its support to Asset library, a powerful content management feature in SharePoint 2010 allowing the users to share rich media assets without necessarily reproducing them. New SharePoint Built-In columns like Ratings column are also supported by DocKIT. Like the other SharePoint columns, ratings for documents can be updated using an external metadata file.

DocKIT ‘s new features are certain to extend the out-of-the-box functionalities of SharePoint 2010 and add value to enterprise content management at an enterprise level.

For a free trial version of DocKIT beta for SharePoint 2010, visit the product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/sharepoint-2010/dockit/sharepoint-file-migration-tool.htm

Organizations are looking into ways to increase workforce productivity and particularly in the context of ‘flexible work hours’ and ‘work from home’ practices, access to information anytime and anywhere is the need of the hour. Information must be available for employees working ‘offline’ to work and collaborate. Exporting SharePoint document library contents, list items and associated metadata and file attachments to file systems manually would prove a daunting task for SharePoint users. SPList Export for SharePoint (SPListX) was engineered after a considerable research on the above lines.

The new version of SPListX makes use of ‘Search Criteria’, a powerful feature which allows the user to export SharePoint contents to file systems based on ‘Search results’. SPListX leverages the enterprise search feature of MOSS 2007 by providing the user with ‘Basic Keyword Search’ and ‘Advanced Search options’ and allowing the user to drastically cut down the time involved in exporting contents to file repositories. Hence, the user can retrieve related information spread across various lists, collate and classify them to derive meaningful information.

This blog post would discuss in detail as to how SharePoint users can use the ‘Search criteria’ feature in SPListX to export those relevant search results to the Windows file system.

Keyword Search and Advanced Search options:

As stated earlier, SPListX makes use of a basic keyword search and an Advanced Search feature and allows the user to export SharePoint contents to the file repositories. SPListX through its ‘browse option’ allows the user to select the SharePoint document, list items with associated metadata and file attachments to export them on to the file system. Using the basic keyword search, the user can specify the keywords based on which the SharePoint contents are populated and exported. Users can fine tune their search results by applying the Advanced Search option. The advanced search option leverages the advanced search feature of SharePoint to allow users to precisely export the relevant SharePoint contents.

Screenshot of SPListX-Advanced Search options:

SPListX is built over the most familiar SharePoint’s advanced search feature. The advanced search option allows the user to fine tune the search results based on the following three provisions:

i) Result Type based search: SharePoint has only certain standard result types such as Documents, Word Documents, Excel Documents and Presentations. SPListX on the other hand supports all result types including SharePoint lists such as Announcements, Discussion Boards, Tasks, Survey etc. Search results falling under the corresponding Result type are alone reported for the user to act on.

ii) Imposing Scopes: SPListX also allows the user to impose ‘scopes’ to the search results. Scopes are search rules that are defined in SharePoint Shared Service Providers Properties and can be readily imposed to the given search results thereby fine tuning the results to a larger extent.

iii) Conditional export: SPListX also provides for property based conditional export of SharePoint content. The users can select from the default properties or create their own properties and apply logical conditions to precisely export SharePoint document library contents, List items with their associated metadata and file attachments. This allows the user to consolidate, reorganize and hence optimize the search results.

Search Tuner options: With the ‘Search Tuner’ option the users can fine tune their search results to include from a wide range of options available.

Screenshot of Search Tuner:

Search across site farm: Search Tuner is a significant feature that empowers the user with an array of options as above. The user can invoke a search across all sites corresponding to a site farm by choosing the ‘search across all content in the index’ options. The search can very well be confined to the current site and its sub sites by choosing the other option.

Handling duplicate records: Search Tuner allows the user to effectively handle duplicate records existing in multiple locations. The user can choose to trim duplicate search results and retain only the original source.

Stemming: The process of retrieving information related to a ‘root keyword’ is called as stemming. For example: If ‘Run’ happens to be your search keyword, stemming would involve words such as ‘running’,’ ran‘ etc. as these words are derived out of the base keyword ‘run’. It is left to the discretion of the user to include stemming results to the search results. Choosing the option ‘Include only relevant results’ allows the user to choose only the relevant results corresponding to the search option.

Search Tuner also allows the user to confine the search to process only the list items with their associated metadata and file attachments. It also provides for the search to include List view URLs, Site URLs relevant to the given search keywords.

Search Validation: SPListX through its ‘Search option’ task type allows the user to Trial Search and validate the Search results before performing a live search. This allows the user to troubleshoot some of the common errors reported thereby saving time involved in error prone searches. Trial Search also allows the user to compare results with the SharePoint search results and look for deviations if any. The search results can also be exported into various file formats and can be used as an input batch file for exporting SharePoint list contents in SPListX’s Batch File based export task.

Search Tag option: Users can now tag their search results in their destination using the ‘Search Folder Tag’ in the Search option task type (Destination Folder options). The folder can be tagged by virtue of its Content Type, Author Name, Time Stamp etc. This allows the user to manage the exported contents better.

Screenshot of Search Folder Name Mask:

The above screenshot shows the Search Folder Name Mask with various options to tag the destination folder with. The folder can be tagged with the values corresponding to the listed Macros to classify information exported and to manage them effectively.

SPListX’s Search criteria come with an array of options allowing the user to exercise full control over the document migration / document export process. It fully leverages the MOSS 2007’s formidable content search features and empowers users with an easy, flexible and reliable methodology to export enterprise-wide information to file systems.

For a 30-day free trial version of SPListX, visit the product home page at
http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/splistx/sharepoint-2007-list-export.htm or contact our sales team at sales@vyapin.com for any pricing related queries.

Businesses process and share enormous information today, thanks to SharePoint collaborative environment in which most of them operate. It is no simple task to make information available in the collaborative environment by importing them to SharePoint Lists from various external information sources.

SPListM, our list management solution makes it extremely easy for the user to import and update list items in a SharePoint environment. The information or the list items that are to be imported are usually held in a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet or CSV format. In fact, our previous blog post was about the limitations the users would confront when using an Excel spreadsheet to import data to a SharePoint list
(http://www.vyapin.com/blogs/index.php/2010/03/02/importing-microsoft-excel-spreadsheet-data-to-sharepoint-2/).

This blog post would discuss how SPListM would help the users address some of these list management issues in SharePoint.

1. SPListM supports standard data types / columns: SPListM supports all standard data types such as, single or multiple lines of text, number, currency, date and time, calculation, lookup, hyperlink etc. SPListM can help the users with data pertaining to almost all business data types such as People, Lookup, Business Data etc.

SPListM through its compatibility with the Business Data Catalog feature has the ability to retrieve information associated with a reference column from the back-end data source. It acts as a connector and fetches related information stored across tables. The same is the case with Lookup columns. SPListM helps users retrieve all the values in the reference column corresponding to the Look Up column. The following screenshots would demonstrate SPListM’s support to ‘Look Up’ data type:

The Property Name ‘Department’ being defined as a Look Up column allows the user to choose from the options based on which the corresponding List items are updated as follows:

The above screenshot shows the column values, the Look Up->Department refers to. SPListM fetches the corresponding data and makes it easy for the user to update the List Item based on the options listed.

2. Import data to all SharePoint list types: SharePoint has in it numerous list types like Project Tasks, Calendars, Surveys, Issue Tracking, Links, Discussion Boards etc. which exist for more specific business reasons to organize information. SPListM helps users update list items to any of these list types, including custom lists created by the user. Updating the list items manually would be a daunting task for the user. SPListM can make use of a simple batch descriptor file to accomplish this task. In fact using an external metadata file allows the user to update more than one data fields for a particular list item simultaneously. The following screenshots would better explicate this:

The above screenshot shows an external batch descriptor with the corresponding Lists and the updates to be made to the corresponding SharePoint list. The field ‘Base URL’ denotes the Lists to be updated. As you can see, SharePoint List Types such as Tasks and Calendars can be updated through SPListM.

Screenshot of SPListM-Lists in a SharePoint site:

The above screenshot displays the SharePoint lists corresponding to the given site URL. The Lists pane displays SharePoint list types such as Tasks, Calendars and Discussions etc. The corresponding Lists can be selected and the necessary updates can be done using SPListM.

3. Automated List items update: Take a situation where in a huge chunk of business information undergoes constant updates and the same information has to be available to everyone through SharePoint. In this situation, the list has to be imported every time it undergoes a change or the changes should be replicated in the SharePoint list manually. SPListM can make amendments to the existing data in list items in an automated import task, which can be scheduled to run at periodic intervals. In SPListM, you can make use of the basic mode wizard or an external metadata file to update the SharePoint list.

Consider the situation where the user has to update the project status daily at the end of the day or update file / document attachments from another source in a SharePoint list. If it is has to be done manually, he or she has to look at each list item and update the corresponding entries. SPListM on the other hand would allow the user to define the changes to list items in a separate batch file. If the task is a daily routine, all he or she has to do is to define the changes in a batch file and schedule it for automatic list updates. The task would get executed automatically and the changes can be made without much difficulty and human intervention.

4. Ability to maintain versions: SPListM allows the users to maintain versions to effectively track changes to the list items. It also allows the user to go without storing minor changes as a separate version, depending on the user preference. In other words, maintaining version history of list items is left to the discretion of the user and SPListM effectively does what is expected out of it.

Screenshot of SPListM Versioning Settings:

The above screenshot shows SPListM’s ability to store changes in list item as a new version. It is left to the discretion of the user to enable the changes to be stored as a new version or to make the changes in the existing version.

5. Conditional Import of data: SPListM allows the users to conditionally import data, a feature that would help users to precisely import documents out of huge silos of information. The users can define complex logical conditions at multiple levels to ensure that the list items or records satisfying the conditions alone get updated. The updates can be done either through the basic mode wizard or through an external metadata file depending on its complexity.

Consider the following table containing Employee details. SPListM allows the user to selectively import these details to SharePoint. The user can impose import conditions satisfying which the data is imported. The conditions as said earlier can be imposed at multiple levels and precise information can be imported.

Suppose if the user wants to selectively import data into SharePoint, the user can impose conditions using SPListM. In the given example, if the user wants to have only the details of employees who are either from Sales or Marketing department, SPListM allows the user impose a logical “OR” condition to support the given cause. Take a look at the following screenshot:

Screenshot of SPListM-Conditional update of list items:

The following screenshot shows the SharePoint site with details of employees from Marketing or Sales departments:

In all of the above scenarios, SPListM helps users address most of the common issues confronted in their daily SharePoint usage. SPListM could very well prove to be indispensable tool for your SharePoint environment particularly for the list management challenges that one could face.

For a free trial version of SPListM, visit the product home page at

http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/splistm/sharepoint-2007-list-management-tool.htm

Our flagship SharePoint migration product, DocKIT for SharePoint 2007 has come out with a feature rich new version. This new version of DocKIT for SharePoint 2007 v3.9 is a significant release from the solution’s usability standpoint. Usability is something that we keep constantly improvising on.

Our DocKIT customers would now be bestowed with the following provisions with the new release:

1. Web Services Component Indicator: DocKIT has in it now a provision to indicate to the user about the existence of DocKIT Web Services component in the destination SharePoint server. The user has to specify the SharePoint site URL and its corresponding credentials to verify the existence of DocKIT Web Services component. It can be accessed from the Tools Menu of the application (Tools–> Test DocKIT Web Service). The new feature is expected to avoid any Web Services Component mismatch. DocKIT Web Services component indicator has been incorporated based on suggestions from some of our DocKIT’s customers.

2. Support for Forms Authentication: DocKIT now supports a Forms Authentication validating the users against the corresponding SharePoint environment. With this feature, DocKIT extends its support to websites configured with Forms Authentication validation type. DocKIT would automatically initiate Windows Authentication or Forms Authentication depending on the destination SharePoint site configuration settings.

We also added forms authentication to our SharePoint to Windows file system migration tool, SPListX quite recently: http://www.vyapin.com/blogs/index.php/2010/03/10/splistx-for-sharepoint-2007-v31-released/.

3. Elapsed Time Display: Users can view the time taken for a particular task to migrate documents to the destination SharePoint document library. DocKIT now keeps the user informed about the time involved in migrating documents and this would help the user in scheduling migration tasks.

4. Profile Manager Tool: Users now can define the User Profiles and their credentials through the Profile Manager tool. Windows-based credentials and Forms-Based credentials can be defined through this. Using this, the users can just select their corresponding credentials without manually entering them every time.

For a 30-day free trial version or to upgrade to the latest version of DocKIT software, visit the product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/dockit/sharepoint-2007-file-migration.htm.

We have made a significant and much improvised release of SPListX for SharePoint 2007 version 3.1 recently. We have included a powerful feature to export documents and list items from SharePoint lists based on ‘Search Criteria’ provided by the user. This new feature uses the built-in SharePoint Search facility in the background to deliver the results.

With the new SPListX for SharePoint 2007 version 3.1, users have the following new provisions:

1. Search Criteria: Export SharePoint list items with file attachments, version histories and metadata based on SharePoint Search results. Previously the user had the choice to export list items through the browse option or export them using an external batch file. Now, with the new ‘Search Criteria’ feature choice, the user can search for matching list items to export using Keywords or Advanced Search options at a site collection level or farm level. This feature was designed to leverage SharePoint’s Search feature, which is its value proposition.

2. Search Validation Settings: The user can validate the search results for a given search criteria (Keywords or Advanced Search). The ‘test search’ feature helps the user to verify the search results, thereby allowing the user to fine tune the search criteria to retrieve better results.

3. Support for Forms authentication: Prior to the current version, SPListX allowed only the users registered with the corresponding Active Directory domains to be validated against the SharePoint environment. But with the current release, SPListX supports users registered outside the Active Directory environment too. SPListX would initiate Windows authentication or Forms authentication automatically, depending on the destination SharePoint site.

4. Fully qualified domain name format: SPList X now supports a fully qualified domain name, i.e. username@domain format in all its user validation.

The ‘Search criteria’ function and the other functionalities were eagerly awaited by many our existing customers. SPListX with these new features incorporated is certainly bound to add value to your existing SharePoint infrastructure.

For a 30-day free trial version of SPListX, visit the product home page at: http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/splistx/sharepoint-2007-list-export.htm