Improvements in SharePoint 2010

Based on preview from Jessica Meats from Microsoft 03-Jul-2009


In no particular order...


Office web apps - There will be Office web apps that allow you to open and do basic editing of Office documents without having the client (e.g. Word) installed. Apparently works in any browser and looks like it's a web-server installed program so probably comes with SharePoint Server, possibly also a free download to Windows Server.



Ribbon – All Office apps will use the ribbon, including Outlook and SharePoint



SharePoint Workspaces – Is the new name for Groove and is MASSIVELY improved so now supports lists as well as document libraries and meta data. Way way way better so now SharePoint genuinely has work offline capability. Can also edit web pages offline.



Office Outspace – Much better integration between Office apps and SharePoint. So when you save to SharePoint from a Office app you see a really cool interface for meta data, where to save it etc.



Email storage and archive – Now set up to use SharePoint instead of Exchange Public Folders to save emails. Effectively goes into the records management system.



2-way BDC – Business data catalogue changes from read-only to read-write.



Browser support – Safari and Firefox users become 'first class citizens'. Question mark over IE6.



Accessibility – A lot better



Scalability and performance improvements



PerformancePoint Server – Is now included (in Enterprise version) so BI functionality massively improved, including the ability to show graphs in SharePoint pages without 3^rd-party products



Meta data much better - Now in hierarchies so it can support a classification scheme or taxonomy. Auto complete in meta data entry and support for folksonomy



Web content management – Big step up here. Much easier to use SharePoint for websites.



EDRMS – Big improvements here too, SharePoint can now compete better with more established document and possibly record management systems



Collaboration and social networking – My Site becomes a social networking hub that works like Facebook e.g. you can leave messages on people's profiles like the Wall and others can see it. Improved blogging.



Expert finder



Simultaneous editing of Office documents – By multiple people. So sections of the documents are checked out to you.



Search improved – Thumbnail previews, related searches, phonetic name lookup. We think the enterprise version has FAST search included

SharePoint administration user accounts (MOSS and SP 2010)

Account	Account Name	Scope	Used By	Needed at	Requirements
Install Account	DOMAIN\SVCMossSetup	Farm	Person Installing	Setup	Member of the administrator group on each Web front-end (WFE) server and application server computer in the farm. Member of the following SQL Server groups with SQL Security administrator and database creator rights on SQL servers.
Farm Administrator Account	DOMAIN\SVCMossFarmAdmin	Farm	Central administration site application pool identity	Setup	Member of administrators group on each WFE server and application server computer in the farm with SQL security administrator and database creator rights on SQL Servers. Database Owner (DBO) for all databases and additional permissions on WFE server and application server computers are automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed.
SSP Admin Process Account	DOMAIN\SVCMossSSPAdmin	Farm	SSP Timer service; SSP Web services SSP App Pool Identity	SSP Creation	No configuration is necessary. The following permissions are automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed: DBO for the Share Service Provider (SSP) content database, read/write permissions for the SSP content database, read/write permissions for content databases for Web applications that are associated with the SSP, read permissions for the configuration database, read permissions for the central administration content database, and additional permissions on WFE server and application server computers.
Crawl / Content Access Account	DOMAIN\SVCMossCrawl	Farm	Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search service	SSP Creation	Must be a domain account, but must not be a member of the farm administrators group. Permissions automatically configured for this account when SharePoint is installed include the following: read/write permissions for content databases for Web applications, read permissions for the configuration database, and read/write permissions for the Windows SharePoint Services Search database.
Content Account	DOMAIN\SVCMossContent	App	Web Applications	App Pool Creation	No configuration is necessary. SQL Server privileges that are automatically assigned to this account are member of Database Owners Group for content databases associated with the Web application, read/write access to the associated SSP database only, and read permission for the configuration database. Additional privileges for this account on WFE servers and application servers are automatically configured by SharePoint.

SharePoint PDF iFilter Installation Guide

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
[Indexing Server]

1. Install the PDF IFilter (see below for a list of available IFilters)
2. Add the .pdf file type to the index list:
   1. Open the Registry Editor (Start > Run > regedit)
      
   2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Applications_<GUID>_\Gather\Search\Extensions\ExtensionList
   3. Add a new String Value
      
      1. Value name: <next value in line>
         
      2. Value data: pdf
3. Change the registry keys pointing to the IFilter's GUID 
   1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf
   2. Add or change the (Default) key value
      1. Old value:
         {4C904448-74A9-11D0-AF6E-00C04FD8DC02}
      2. (Foxit  x64 PDF IFilter) New value:
         {987F8D1A-26E6-4554-B007-6B20E2680632}
      3. (Adobe  x64 PDF IFilter) New value:
         {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}
   3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf
   4. Repeat step (b) above
4. Perform an iisreset
   
5. Perform a Full Update on the Search content indexes
   1. Open a Command Prompt on the Indexing Server
      
   2. net stop spsearch
      
   3. net start spsearch
      
   4. cd "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\BIN"
      
   5. stsadm.exe -o spsearch -action fullcrawlstop
      
   6. stsadm.exe -o spsearch -action fullcrawlstart
      [Web Front End Server]
      
6. Copy the ICPDF.GIF () file to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Template\Images"
7. Edit the file C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\Template\Xml\DOCICON.XML
   1. Add an entry for the .pdf extension
      <Mapping Key="pdf" Value="icpdf.gif"/>
      
       

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
[Indexing Server]

1. Install the PDF IFilter (see below for a list of available IFilters)
2. Add the .pdf file type to the index list:
   1. Go to Central Administration, then to the Shared Services Administration Web of the current SSP, go to Search Settings and next to File Type
      
   2. Add a new file type pdf
      
3. Add the .pdf file type to the index list:
   1. Open the Registry Editor (Start > Run > regedit)
      
   2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Applications_<GUID>_\Gather\Search\Extensions\ExtensionList
   3. Add a new String Value
      
      1. Value name: <next value in line>
         
      2. Value data: pdf# Change the registry keys pointing to the IFilter's GUID 
   4. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf
   5. Add or change the (Default) key value
      1. Old value:
         {4C904448-74A9-11D0-AF6E-00C04FD8DC02}
      2. (Foxit  x64 PDF IFilter) New value:
         {987F8D1A-26E6-4554-B007-6B20E2680632}
      3. (Adobe  x64 PDF IFilter) New value:
         {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}
   6. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf
   7. Repeat step (e) above
4. Perform an iisreset
   
5. Perform a Full Update on the Search content indexes
   1. Open a Command Prompt on the Indexing Server
      
   2. net stop osearch
      
   3. net start osearch
      
   4. Go to Central Administration, then to the Shared Services Administration Web of the current SSP, go to Search Settings and start a full crawl of all locations containing PDF files
      [Web Front End Server]
      
6. Copy the ICPDF.GIF () file to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Template\Images"
7. Edit the file C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\Template\Xml\DOCICON.XML
   1. Add an entry for the .pdf extension
      <Mapping Key="pdf" Value="icpdf.gif"/>

Available IFilters
Adobe PDF IFilter 9.0

• free (always good !)
• 32 bit: the IFilter is included with Adobe Reader. You must download and install the whole Adobe Reader package onto the server.
• 64 bit: download the standalone x64 IFilter(64 bit released recently, applies to the [Indexing Server])

Foxit PDF IFilter v1.0

• free for desktops, servers require a license
  
• 32 bit and 64 bit (IA64 currently being tested, applies to the [Indexing Server])

Setting up a vanilla virtual environment in SharePoint 2010 only once and reuse it forever!

One of the first things you might need to start working in SharePoint 2010 is to set an environment to work with. I personally recommend to work in a virtualized environment so you can take VM snapshots and safely roll back to them if things get.. err a bit messy :)


I've been recently using Sun Virtual Box, it's quite reliable, fast, easy to use and guess what? support 64-bit integration! So you can start by creating a new VM with SharePoint plus any features you want.


Creating a fully opertional vanilla VM with SharePoint is quite a long and tedious process to undertake but fortunately you won't need to do that again if you keep that VM as the main template and then take copies of it whenever you need. To successfully rename a SharePoint 2010 VM follow the steps below. 


 1. Copy the VM to the desired localtion and start it.


2. Change Alternate Access Mappings
Central Admin > System Settings > Configure alternate access mappings
Click on each entry under 'Internal URL' and change to use the new machine name, keeping port number and zone the same
After editing each one, you'll need to change the dropdown 'Alternate Access Mapping Collection' back to Show All


3. Run the stsadm command
stsadm -o renameserver -newservername -oldservername
after running this on RC, I received a CryptographicException in OWSTIMER.EXE, however this didn't seem to stop it working correctly
if you do get the exception, probably best to check the Timer Service is still running after the final restart (below)


4. Rename the machine in the OS
Start Menu, right-click 'Computer' and select 'Properties'
Click 'Advanced System Settings'
In the Computer Name tab, click 'Change...'
Enter the new name, then restart


Your new SharePoint 2010 VM is ready to use.
Happy Programming!