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Product Review: SharePoint IntranetFactory and Modeler

| SharePoint 2010 Business User | April 13, 2011

So you decided that your company could benefit from an intranet. Or maybe you found that the existing intranet doesn’t fit modern day’s requirements. You convinced your manager or CxO and in doing so you found yourself a project sponsor. So basically you’re about to start up an intranet project. First things first, so you want to define your business requirements or revise the existing ones that were used to conceptualize the existing intranet years ago. Most likely, you fire up Excel and start collecting Must Haves, Should Haves, Could Have and Would Haves. On the side you draw some sketchy wireframes in PowerPoint. Alternatively you may be using Visio or Balsamiq. Once you’re done, you have a look at the company’s list of IT suppliers and agencies. Three of them you send your functional specification and request a proposal. All three of them respond within four weeks by sending you their quote for realizing your intranet the way you want it. You notice that all three of them propose using Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Server. That makes live a lot easier when it comes to comparing those three proposals. You also notice that all three of them sent you a rather hefty document with a lot of emphasis on producing a concept. And this is where you start to ponder. Haven’t all three companies before produced intranets for different clients? Are your requirements so much different than any requirements they’ve come across before? The more you think about it, the more you are convinced that there must be another way. Factory … IntranetFactory! Isn’t there such a thing as an IntranetFactory?

Yes, there is. Surprisingly enough, it’s actually called the IntranetFactory. It basically incorporates a lot of knowledge that has been accumulated over the years by intranet experts. This expertise has been ported to the SharePoint Intranet Modeler. It is a unique tool for rapid and interactive prototyping of a SharePoint site independently from its real implementation. Even better, you don’t need to install anything. It’s simply available for everyone as a free service in the cloud. Once you’ve registered and logged on, you can access the Modeler via your browser. On the landing page you’ll find your own model, models provided by the IntranetFactory team and models shared by others. To get started, you simply copy an existing model. I decided to copy the sample model provided and used that to create my own template. Curious as I am, I immediately clicked “view wireframe”.

modeler sample model

(Click image to enlarge)

When I moved my mouse over the various placeholders for web parts, a comment popped up with a brief description of that particular web part. Somehow I immediately loved it and just wanted to add my own web parts, delete existing ones and just simply play around with it. I was hooked. I closed the wireframe and on the Modeler’s landing page clicked “edit model”.

model sample edit model

(Click image to enlarge)

In the left panel I noticed a “Content & Applications” and “Sites & Pages” section. I decide to drag a new page from the panel onto the tree structure shown in the main window. I quickly went back to the wireframe to discover that the new page was now visible in my wireframe. This was easy! Still I didn’t know how to add web parts to the page. In the main window, I clicked the page I just added and in the toolbar the “Edit Content” button became enabled.

modeler sample edit content

(Click image to enlarge)

The screen was reloaded and now I could drag web parts from the left panel onto my new page shown in the main window. Life was never easier before! I became cocky and decided to delete all pages from the sample model I copied and started from scratch with my own model.

modeler 0001 sketchy wireframe

(Click image to enlarge)

I simply created a landing page and a couple of blogs and sites below it. In a real world, I would not have stopped here. But for now, 5 minutes down the line, I was happy with the result. I could see how this tool would substitute all my hard work drawing wireframes using Visio or Balsamiq. Still, I didn’t feel made redundant … yet. I could also imagine how I would take this sketch and show it to customers. Actually, working with the SharePoint Intranet Modeler is so dead easy that they can work with it themselves.

But the product is called IntranetFactory for a reason. In addition to the online Modeler, you can download the IntranetFactory. This download actually consists of two components. One is a SharePoint solution that needs to be installed on your SharePoint Farm. The other is the Model Connector. The Model Connector can actually read the model I just created in the cloud and synchronize it with a real SharePoint site. Without going into much detail here, I can say that I was able to install both components without any trouble. It goes without saying that you need to have installation rights or else you can’t add a farm solution to your SharePoint installation, deploy it and activate its features. Synchronizing took only a couple of seconds and when I logged on to my updated SharePoint site, I was really flabbergasted to find my model now alive and kicking.

So am I -a hardworking SharePoint Consultant- now out of work? I guess not. I strongly believe that with the IntranetFactory a company can save itself a lot of time and money to get the first 80% of their requirements realized. And it’s exactly this 80% that is more or less the same for every company. For a SharePoint Consultant this could mean that he can quickly jump to the more interesting bit, namely implementing the remaining 20% requirements.

Of course there are a couple of things to watch. A SharePoint installation needs proper governance from both business and IT. If this sounds new to you, please first read http://sharepointmagazine.net/articles/avoid-newbie-mistakes-10-steps-to-successful-sharepoint-deployments. Part of that is currently covered by the IntranetFactory in that changes to the model can be synchronized down to the real world SharePoint intranet. However, there is more to SharePoint than just lists and libraries. As we all know, everything in SharePoint is a ContentType and this is something I missed in the current version of the IntranetFactory. However, I contacted the team at IntranetFactory.com and they assured me that they are currently working on an extended version that will allow (among other things) for designing SharePoint ContentTypes as well. However, you’ll only need custom ContentTypes if you run into requirements currently not covered either by SharePoint’s out of the box web parts or by IntranetFactory’s own set of web parts called the SharePoint Intranet Suite.

I can really see how the IntranetFactory will save companies time and money whilst giving them a lot of freedom when it comes to shape their intranet over time.

Hey, did I actually mention that I really like the idea of people sharing their wireframes? Good ideas are seldom.

Visit the product page on the SharePoint App Market here: http://www.sharepointappmarket.com/ads/modeler-for-sharepoint-by-intranetfactory/

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A SharePoint Learning Kit Primer

| SharePoint 2010 Business User | March 31, 2011

So I was procrastinating as usual. Already for some time, I knew I wanted to download SharePoint Learning Kit (SLK) but somehow I was distracted again and again. Working for one of Switzerland’s leading E-Learning specialists, it really would make sense if we could offer a simple and cost effective E-Learning Portal solution for SharePoint

Start to imagine the benefits for a Trainer. He has been asked by the management of Fabrikam to make sure all of its employees complete a Compliance Training. He simply uploads his Web Based Compliance Training package to a SharePoint library that resides in a SiteCollection that has been configured as an E-Learning Portal. Once uploaded, he can assign that training to any number of SharePoint users without the need of capturing those users by hand. They simply are taken from the authentication provider SharePoint is told to integrate with e.g. Active Directory or an SQL Membership database when using Forms Based Authentication. Continue to imagine the user’s experience when he or she navigates to the E-Learning Portal that is part of Fabrikam’s SharePoint Intranet. When the welcome page loads, first thing he notices is a comprehensive overview of all courses that are assigned to him. Simply clicking the assignment will start a Web Based Training player and everything is on a roll. Did I mention the manager quickly checking up on overall progress?

For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume the Use Case in the previous paragraph is accurate and complete. Next logical step would be to test it against the SharePoint Learning Kit. Simply go to http://slk.codeplex.com, download the latest stable package and make sure you start by reading the installation instructions that are part of the download package. I used a simple SharePoint 2010 Foundation environment as I’m a thrifty person and like to make sure that it’s compatible with the “SharePoint on a Shoestring” paradigm. Installation basically is as simple as executing the AddSolution.ps1 PowerShell script that comes with the download package. Once installed, the solution should be deployed to a web application. At this point, SLK is not yet configured. You need to go into the Central Administration and explicitly tell SLK which SiteCollection(s) you would like to configure as an E-Learning Portal. When configuring the first SiteCollection, you are asked to create a separate MS SQL database. Hence it is important that the identity running the Central Administration ‘s application pool in IIS has enough rights to create a new database on your MS SQL server or else the installation may fail. When configuring any subsequent SiteCollection, you can choose to use the already configured database or create a new one, depending on your need to create independent E-Learning Portals. You’re almost done. Only three more steps are required before you can take the SharePoint Learning Kit for a spin. First you need to enable the SiteCollection and Site Features so that the SLK functionality is activated in your E-Learning Portal. Activating the SLK Feature(s) will transform any document library in your E-Learning Portal into a storage space for E-Learning content. It will also provide three additional permission sets. Using these permissions, SLK can differentiate between Trainers, Learners and Managers tracking progress. Secondly, you need to create groups and assign them those unique permissions. Last but not least, you need to edit the welcome page and drop the Assignment Web Part onto it. If all went smooth, your E-Learning Portal should look similar to mine, shown in the following image.

sharepoint learning kit assignment web part

(Click image to enlarge)

Now we’ve set up our E-Learning Portal. However, to test it, we need a Web Based Training (WBT). For those of you, who haven’t one lying around, I suggest you go back to codeplex and download the source for SLK as well. Unpack the zip archive and locate the Solitaire.zip file in the Samples\Solitaire directory. This zip file is your WBT. To better understand why a zip file can be your WBT, you need to go online and research the definition of SCORM. Basically, it is the de facto industry standard for e-learning interoperability (Source: http://www.scorm.com). SCORM tells E-Learning producers how to package their content so that any SCORM-compliant player can start, pause, stop and complete the course. Since SLK also installed such a player as well, we should simply be able to login to our E-Learning Portal as a Trainer, upload the zip file to a document library and create an E-Learning Action using the documents context menu (ECB) as shown in the previous image. Assigning a course to a Learner will make the assignment appear in the Assignment Web Part. From this point on, the Learner will find his assignment in his E-Learning Portal and can start, pause, stop and submit his course simply by clicking the assignment’s title in the Assignment Web Part. The Learner’s interaction with the WBT is constantly fed back to SharePoint using the SCORM interface. This interface is in fact using a clever JavaScript API that handles communication between the opener browser window and a popup window that is in fact the SCORM-compliant E-Learning-Content-Player.

There is a lot more to tell about the SharePoint Learning Kit. However, altogether I found it extremely easy to install and handle. It’s a perfect start for anyone who is looking to satisfy basic E-Learning requirements for hosting, playing and tracking E-Learning materials when there is a SharePoint Intranet around. Also, I found that Richard Willis is doing a great job keeping the community alive at codeplex. You can also check the ad for SharePoint Learning Kit at http://www.sharepointappmarket.com/ads/sharepoint-learning-kit/.

A SharePoint Learning Kit Primer http://bit.ly/hz3zbe #in
March 31, 2011 10:36 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@mavawie
Marco van Wieren

 

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Collaboration with Partners, Suppliers and Clients: A SharePoint Extranet

| SharePoint 2010 Business User | March 31, 2011

In the last couple of months we have been busy dealing with clients who wanted to setup a SharePoint 2010 extranet. The use cases varied from sharing meeting minutes, regulations and other documents with a couple of partners in a closed user group environment available on the internet to being able to host hundreds of project portals, all for different closed user groups.

sharepoint 2010 extranet

(Click image to enlarge)

The first hurdle when setting up an extranet collaboration portal for a closed user group is finding a decent way to authenticate users. Some clients opted for using their Active Directory as a data source for members. This has an advantage in that it is possible to increase the level of security using ISA server or its predecessor UAG. However, this puts an extra burden on IT and could still potentially allow users access to the company’s domain. This is where Microsoft ASP.NET’s so called Forms Based Authentication (FBA) comes into play. Using ASP.NET it is possible to create a SQL database that will act as a directory for users that have access to the extranet portal. With some additional tools, business users can add and remove users from this directory, so there is no increased burden on the IT department. The biggest disadvantage of this approach, however, is that each extranet portal requires its own SharePoint web application. That means that the IT department still needs to help setting things up. In a scenario where a project manager wants to quickly deploy a project portal for collaboration with his partners, suppliers or clients this may not be the ideal solution. Also, SharePoint is known for its limits and one such limitation of SharePoint is that server performance will break when you have little more than twenty web applications running on a server. So if you wanted to deploy 100 extranet portals you would end up needing five servers.

To overcome these challenges, we have extended the basis ASP.NET FBA software so that extranet portals are created as site collections rather than web applications, whilst still being able to keep up a reliable security model, meaning that user A cannot access extranet collaboration portal B if he’s not been explicitly added by portal B’s site collection administrator. Also, the owner of portal B does not have automatically access to portal A, C etc.

With each extranet portal being a site collection rather than a web application the number of portals has become virtually unlimited which is great news. In addition, we’ve developed a SharePoint 2010 solution that fully automates the creation of such an extranet portal. So no hassle for IT. Simply by filling out a form, a power user can create a new extranet portal and delegate ownership of that portal for example to the project manager. The owner of the portal can then continue giving partners, suppliers and clients access to his portal simply by adding them to the user directory using their email addresses. Users receive an invitation email with an activation link to set their password and have the option to reset their password when they have forgotten it.

With SharePoint 2010 it is also possible to run both FBA and Windows Integrated Authentication in parallel. This means that domain users can access the same extranet portal simply from the local intranet by firing up their Internet Explorer browser without the need to enter a user name and password.

Our solution builds on top of SharePoint 2010 Foundation. This means that you can start deploying extranet portals almost for free. The only license you need is the windows server internet connector.
If this sounds interesting to you, please feel free contacting me using the form next to my ad http://www.sharepointappmarket.com/ads/sharepoint-extranet-manager/.

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