Highlights:

• Ability to edit your masterpage in the HTML editor of your choice i.e. Dreamweaver, Visual Studio, or SharePoint Designer 2013.
• Ability to configure the basic colors of your site from a single theme file.  (Replacing the PowerPoint themes in SP2010)

These two options alone provide a more flexible and straight-forward mechanism for branding your SharePoint 2013 site.

Example screenshot:

Step 1: Login to your Office 365 tenant:

Login into your Office 365 SharePoint
TIP: Ensure to select the “Keep me signed in” option on your login screen.

Step 2: Obtain the location of your masterpage files:

• Navigate to your SharePoint site’s masterpage gallery:
• Site Settings > Look & Feel > Design Manager
• From left navigation > Create Themes
• Locate and copy the path provided by Microsoft for managing your design files for your site: “Map the following location as a network drive: [your path]“

Step 3: Create a shortcut to (map) a network drive to your masterpage gallery:

Instructions for Windows 8: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-shortcut-to-map-network-drive

When you create a shortcut  to a shared folder or PC on a network (also called mapping a network drive), you can get to it from Computer or File Explorer without having to look for it or enter its network address each time.

Step 4: Edit your masterpage in the web editor of your choice:

From my experience in SharePoint 2013 I prefer to use Visual Studio for editing and saving changes to the masterpage(s).  I have found Dreamweaver to work as well and provides a decent design-time preview and standard features you expect in a web editing tool.

Browse to the mapped drive you created.

TIP: If you receive an error while attempting to open your mapped drive I have found the following to be an acceptable work-around: Navigate to site settings, under Web Designer Galleries choose Masterpage and page layouts link.  Next, from the masterpage and layouts folder, locate the File tab in the ribbon and select “Upload Document” On the upload document screen select the “upload files using Windows Explorer instead”  You should see your masterpage gallery open in windows explorer.

Once you have navigated successfully to your network drive containing your design files I recommend creating a new folder on the root masterpage gallery to organize all your design files (masterpage, images, CSS) into a single folder.  Consolidating your custom masterpage files in to a single folder aid in setting virtual paths to your masterpage’s resources and once published provide a visual cue for others to properly assign custom masterpages to thier sites.

• Make a copy of the Seattle.html or Oslo.html file and rename appropriately i.e. MyCompanyMaster.html.
• Copy this file into your new custom masterpage folder.
• Create new subfolders for your masterpage resources i.e. “Images” and “Styles”

Your folder structure may look similiar to this:

Right-click the MyCompanyMaster.html file in windows explorer and edit the file in the web editor of your choice.

TIP: Ensure you are always editing the .html version of the masterpage and not the .master version.

Your standard Seattle.html may appear similiar to this:

Locate the sections in the masterpage mark-up you would like to alter i.e. add a div for the footer, add or remove snippets, insert HTML markup, link to your custom CSS and image files, etc until the masterpage meets your design requirements.

FYI: In design view SharePoint inserts a commented section highlighting the placeholder for the content that gets rendered on the page at runtime.

TIP: Do not edit any of the built-in SharePoint controls or sections directly, rather navigate to the design manager tool and use the Snippets tool to update properties and then copy the provided mark-up back down to the appropriate section in your masterpage.  This will minimize errors in the Design Manager.

Lessons learned:

The page content area is largely in a div with the id=s4-workspace.

<div id=”s4-workspace”>
<div id=”s4-bodyContainer”>

In the example screenshot above I placed a footer at the bottom of the page that required more flexibility than what appeared the built-in control supported.  To accomplish this I located the correct location in the Seattle masterpage to place a container div proceeding the page content and applied custom CSS styles to ensure the footer always displays below the content of the page.

Example of mark-up changes:
<!–SPM:<SharePoint:ScriptBlock runat=”server”>–>
<!–SPM:var g_Workspace = “s4-workspace”;–>
<!–SPM:</SharePoint:ScriptBlock>–>
<div>
<div class=”grass”>
</div>
<div class=”hills”>
</div>
<div class=”skyline-left”>
</div>
<img style=”position:absolute; bottom:60px; right:0px;” src=”Images/skyline-right.png” alt=”Sound Community Bank” border=”0″ />
</div>
</body>
</html>

Step 5: Saving and previewing your changes on SharePoint:

Saving to SharePoint:

When completed with your edits simply choose save file from your web editor and the changes will be applied to the version in your SharePoint masterpage gallery.  You can preview your masterpage using the Design Manager from Site Settings, Design Manager, Edit masterpages.  If the conversion was successfull your custom masterpage Approval Status will be set to “Draft” and may appear similiar to this:

Previewing on SharePoint:

• Click on the MyCompanyMaster link to preview your new masterpage.
• If there are any errors reported with your markup ensure to update the masterpage to correct errors and save.  From my experience the typical errors are isolated to HTML formatting issues i.e. a div tag is missing a closing tag etc.
• When satisified with the results navigate to the MyCompanyMaster file, select … and publish a major version.  Only published versions will be displayed in the list of available masterpages that can be applied to a site.

Additional options: You do have the option of creating your own HTML layout from scratch and providing you meet some requirements i.e. the mark-up is XML compliant then SharePoint will convert your html to two files, a masterpage.master file and a masterpage.html file.  This option provides significant flexibility to brand your SharePoint similiar to your internet facing website and/or design mockups from your design team.

Helpful links:

How to: Convert an HTML file into a master page in SharePoint Server 2013
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj822370.aspx

Add snippets to a master page or a page layout in SharePoint Server 2013
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj822367.aspx

Have fun!

Rod.

I have been working with SharePoint since way back in 2000 when I started at Microsoft, with every release of the product the upgrade process has been getting easier. If you are upgrading only content databases, no significant customizations are detected, and are not planning on upgrading MySites then upgrading SP2007 to SP2010 is very straight-forward using the database attach method, virtually bullet-proof from  my experience over a multitude of SP2010 upgrades both small and large. If however significant customizations are detected (covering in more detail in subsequent post) have been deployed and/or you are upgrading MySites (focus of this post) then a successful migration requires a solid assessment and planning to limit impact to the business. I always strive to limit the impact of the upgrade on the business keeping the production upgrade in as short of a window as possible: “Everyone leaves on Friday with SP2007 and comes in on Monday with SP2010″:)   To that end sharing a few of the lessons learned during recent SharePoint 2010 upgrades for those of you in the planning stages of an upgrade.  Not a comprehensive guide, for a more comprehensive list of upgrade planning steps the place to start is the SharePoint 2010 Upgrade documentation on TechNet.

Tip #1: Perform Database Attach as the upgrade approach: Database attach is the best upgrade approach providing you put the necessary time into planning the upgrade including planning for several test upgrades particularly if you are upgrading MySites as well. Also provides a viable rollback plan if production upgrade fails-reset the databases to read/write while you address upgrade issues and schedule another pass-live to fight another day:)

Tip #2: Perform Test Upgrades and document results: Always perform test upgrades on a virtual machine in advance of production upgrade to resolve issues and verify a successful upgrade path.

• Document: Document successful  upgrade path based on test upgrades, including environment variables and PowerShell  scripts with the assumption you could follow step-by-step on production      upgrade. Great documentation to provide IT for future reference as a runbook.
• Test on production hardware and configuration: Consider a test upgrade pass on the new SP2010 production environment prior to actual production upgrade to identify and address environment variables prior to actual production      upgrade weekend i.e. web part caching issues in production environment  where NLB is configured, web.config modifications, SMTP out-bound and  in-bound email,  Alternate Access Mappings, IIS Bindings, all general configurations. You do not want to address these during actual production upgrade for release!
• Hint: Plan for available free disk space of 3-times the size of the content database or  user profile database you are planning to upgrade. When upgrading a database exceeding 100GB expect the upgrade process to take some time. I was upgrading a content database of 100GB in one scenario and noticed the upgrade progress stayed at .30% complete for some time, after a duration of 2 hours it eventually upgraded so don’t end the process too soon. Monitor the SharePoint upgrade log file if you suspect it’s taking too long.

Tip #3: Provide adequate time to identify and address customizations:

• STSADM Pre-Upgrade Checker and PowerShell Test-SPContentDatabase are  required. If you are not familiar with STSADM already then could be rough going:) Overall, being proficient in PowerShell is a pre-requisite skill  for SharePoint 2010 upgrade.
• Consider how best to deal with the Fab 40 templates and provide ample time if you need  to provide support in SP2010 for existing Fab 40 sites.
• Determine the need to upgrade InfoPath form administrator templates in Central Administration Form Template Library as these may have to be upgraded manually and there could be custom dlls that need to be migrated as well.
• Plan for addressing custom applications, services, and custom and/or third-party web-parts.
• Transfer the customizations into the test upgrade environment and test thoroughly.
• Consider transferring customizations you plan to keep to production environment prior to actual production upgrade and test against production environment to eliminate environmental variables to address during production upgrade i.e. web part caching issues in environment where NLB is configured, web.config modifications, SMTP out-bound and in-bound email, Alternate Access Mappings, IIS Bindings, and all general configurations.

Tip #4: MySite Upgrades:

• For MySite upgrades do not forget to create or upgrade the MySite host and set MySite      host URL in Profile Service Application prior to upgrading MySites.
• Create a new web application to host MySites when possible,  I have found no issues with deploying a new site collection for the MySite host rather than upgrading the SP2007 MySite host with the exception of scenario where the MySite host was originally created in the default web application on port 80. Recommend hosting the MySites site collections as part of a separate web application providing a level of isolation for MySites.
• Use PowerShell to upgrade MySite SSP and provision UPS application pool etc. Ensure you reference the correct Shared Services Database typically SharedServicesDB etc. rather than the MySite content database when activating User Profile Service Application.

Tip #5: Plan to address the Dreaded User Profile Synchronization Service not starting… You have successfully upgraded your content databases via the recommended database attach upgrade and proceeded to the MySite upgrade process. After completing the upgrade of the profile db following the steps on TechNet to the letter and in preparation had reviewed the UPS Architecture when you advance to the step to configure your profile service application settings i.e. to set the MySite host link SharePoint on the Profile Service Application management link it returns an error page instead of the expected  administration page. Potential cause: the user profile synchronization service is not started.  On more than one occasion I noticed the profile synchronization service was stuck on starting in the manage services administration page for more than 10 minutes after provisioning and activating the UPS and until the service is started you will not be able to access the manage profile service application page.

Resolution: There have been many posts dedicated to resolving the profile sync stuck on starting. Here is one of my favorites http://www.harbar.net/articles/sp2010ups2.aspx that includes significant detail and troubleshooting steps.  TechNet article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg750253.aspx   Recommend reviewing these posts in cases where following the steps I outline below are not successful. There are cases where permissions have not been set properly in AD, NetBIOS issue, or security access issues with the FIM Services themselves that will require access to both SharePoint, SQL, and Active Directory to resolve.  In such cases I involve IT Admin/IT Services team and in some cases contacting Microsoft support. In one case with MS support assistance uncovered changes made to the AD containers were causing synchronization errors.

Quick steps to try before getting too deep into the weeds that has worked for me over the course of several SP2010 Upgrades.

• Ensure you have installed SharePoint latest SharePoint 2010 cumulative updates http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb735839
• Ensure the ForeFront Identity Management Services are enabled and set to manual start and configure to run under your service account. DO NOT START YOURSELF-the user profile service will attempt to configure and start these services automatically.
• Start the Profile Service application from Central Administration (in addition to the Profile Synchronization Service)
• Reboot the SharePoint server.
• Verify FIM  services are started. Hint: You can view FIM services in action using the FIM Client located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\Synchronization Service\UIShell\miisclient.exe
• Verify the Profile Synchronization Service and User Profile Service status are both reporting as ”Started” and no longer “Starting”
• If the Profile Synchronization Service status is still stuck on starting, try setting the FIM Services to “Automatic-Delayed Start” then Reboot once more.
• At this point your profile synchronization service status should be reporting as started, review errors in event log, and if successful you will be able to access the Profile Sync Settings page and verify the user profiles have been successfully imported, configure your MySite settings etc.
• Hint: Do not be shy about deleting the UPS application and re-activating using PowerShell from scratch once more to ensure all configurations are correct.
• Consider turning off the SMTP service to disable email during user profile upgrade to avoid emails being sent out to Managers from the MySite Cleaner Timer Job.

Summary:

Performing database attach upgrade is a great approach for planning an upgrade that limits the overall impact to the business and provides best roll-back plan. Plan for several test upgrade passes to get to a successful upgrade pass, particularly if upgrading customizations and/or MySites. Document the test results as part of a step-by-step upgrade guide that includes each step, environmental variables i.e. server names, service accounts, database names, general configurations, list of customizations, and accompanying PowerShell scripts will help make the actual production upgrade go smoothly.  Also consider the additional step of performing a test upgrade on the planned production environment to identify and address environmental variables early. Plan out the production upgrade tasks, activities day by day, including all tasks, resources, and estimated time necessary for copying databases from production, estimate for performing database upgrade, and allocated time/resources for performing post-upgrade testing.

Most importantly, bring coffee.

Rod Stagg
SharePoint Practice Manager and Architect http://www.rstagg.com

Self service BI tools are compelling in SharePoint 2010 in conjunction with SharePoint SQL Server 2008 R2 and upcoming SQL Server 2012.
Adoption of SharePoint is being driven by organizatizations seeking a unified Infrastructure reducing impact to IT freeing time for strategic initiatives

LINQ and integrated Voice Messaging worth looking into, shows presence in SharePoint 2010 and an interesting feature in Outlook that summarizes cm in text and search.

Unified Communications offer potential ROI opportunities.

For the past several years, our employees have helped make the holidays very happy for many local children.  Because of thier thoughtfulness and generosity, these children woke up to presents and a wonderful Holiday Season.   Last year you helped a homeless family of six move into an apartment for the holidays – and if that wasn’t enough, fulfilled the kid’s wish lists! 

Again, this year we have a wonderful family who is going through some hard times.  A single mom with four children who works full time but struggles to make ends meet.  Last year, she was only able to get a few gifts for the youngest child.  We thought it be great if we could make this holiday a good one for all of them and knew this family would appreciate any help we can offer.  

This year we have a Holiday Gift SharePoint!

How SharePoint can help:
In previous years we sent out an email similiar to the above.  Thanks to the generousity of our employees many of the gifts came in time for the holidays, some even 2 or 3 times! 

Increasing Participation:

To increase participation we made the SharePoint accessible to more employees and also partners by enabling claims-based authentication and providing access through the firewall. 

Happy Holidays!

Steps:

1) Convert your dataview web-part to XSLT in SharePoint Designer

2) Locate the SharePoint:SPDataSource control in code view

3) Locate the SelectCommand section and add the webs scope to your dataview web-parts SelectCommand directly preceding the select query:

SelectCommand=”<Webs Scope=’Recursive’></Webs>&lt;View&gt;&lt;Query&gt;&lt;OrderBy&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;Order&quot;/&gt;&lt;/OrderBy&gt;&lt;/Query&gt;&lt;/View&gt;”

4) Add or Modify the WebUrl parameter in your <SelectParameters> section of the datasource ontolr and update the DefaultValue to {sitecollectionroot}:

<asp:Parameter Name=”WebUrl” DefaultValue= “{sitecollectionroot} “/>

5) Save the page, open in browser and export dataview web-part to your computer.

6) From Site Action, Site Settings select the link to the webpart gallery and upload the web-part to the web part gallery or Import the web-part on any site page.

Exporting/Importing SharePoint webparts 

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/manage-and-share-web-parts-and-web-part-pages-HA010024106.aspx#BM4

Have fun.

Rod

<SharePoint:SPDataSource runat=”server” DataSourceMode=”List” SelectCommand=”<Webs Scope=’Recursive’></Webs>&lt;View&gt;&lt;Query&gt;&lt;OrderBy&gt;&lt;FieldRef Name=&quot;Order&quot;/&gt;&lt;/OrderBy&gt;&lt;/Query&gt;&lt;/View&gt;” UseInternalName=”True” IncludeHidden=”True” ID=”datasource1″><SelectParameters><asp:Parameter DefaultValue=”{5942043E-EC50-41A2-8A06-513CA392FE65}” Name=”ListID”></asp:Parameter><asp:QueryStringParameter QueryStringField=”RootFolder” Name=”RootFolder” Type=”String”></asp:QueryStringParameter><asp:Parameter DefaultValue=”0″ Name=”StartRowIndex”></asp:Parameter><asp:Parameter DefaultValue=”0″ Name=”nextpagedata”></asp:Parameter><asp:Parameter DefaultValue=”100″ Name=”MaximumRows”></asp:Parameter><asp:Parameter Name=”WebUrl” DefaultValue=”{sitecollectionroot}”/>
</SelectParameters><UpdateParameters><asp:Parameter DefaultValue=”{5942043E-EC50-41A2-8A06-513CA392FE65}” Name=”ListID”></asp:Parameter>
</UpdateParameters><InsertParameters><asp:Parameter DefaultValue=”{5942043E-EC50-41A2-8A06-513CA392FE65}” Name=”ListID”></asp:Parameter>
</InsertParameters><DeleteParameters><asp:Parameter DefaultValue=”{5942043E-EC50-41A2-8A06-513CA392FE65}” Name=”ListID”></asp:Parameter>
</DeleteParameters>
</SharePoint:SPDataSource>

Jordan

Interesting post by Johns Brunswick, Senior Consultant for Oracle Corporation:

http://aiimcommunities.org/e20/blog/you-dont-want-facebook-enterprise

Overview
Provide the ability for selected individuals who need to continue to maintain data in Excel and also share the data with users via SharePoint taking advantage of all SharePoint’s built-in features for lists. 

This solution provides the ability for Excel users to select data stored in their Excel spreadsheet and synchronize the data to a custom SharePoint list eliminating the sometimes redundant and time-consuming process of entering each item individually.

Screenshot from a table in Excel spreadsheet:

This scenario is part of an overall solution that takes advantage of SharePoint’s out-of-the-box features including SharePoint Designer workflows and custom lists to provide an online database for event tracking, a database of subject matter experts, workflow processes for resourcing, and incorporating scoring data imported from pre-populated reports downloaded in Excel format.  
In addition the solution uses the new document sets in SharePoint 2010 to allow user to upload and share supporting files and tag supporting files at a folder level eliminating redundant input.

Configuring SharePoint

• Create a new custom list to serve as a public list that will display the data to end-users.
• Create a new custom list to serve as an import list supporting the import workflow process.  This list is created directly from the Excel spreadsheet using the Excel Add-in’s Publish and allow Sync command (more later on this).
• Create a new site column named BulkImportID and that will be added to both the Import List and Public list.  
• Create a new SharePoint Designer workflow to handle the import process.  Set the workflow to execute when a new item is added to the Import List. 
• Add logic to the workflow detect whether a new item should be added or whether the item has been previously added to the public list requiring only an update to the list item.  The purpose of the BulkImportID is to be used to evaluate the workflow condition.
• Using the create item function in the workflow populate the public list with the appropriate values from each newly added item in the import list and set the BulkImportID for each added list item. Delete each list item in the import list using the Delete Item function when the workflow has succeeded for the item.

Installing and Configuring the Excel Add-in

• Install the Excel Add-in to the user’s desktop or laptop (individuals contributing data to the system) This provides the mechanism to synchronize the data from the user’s Excel spreadsheet to the Import List in SharePoint.
• Save the spreadsheet as Excel 2003-2007 format as described in the Excel Add-in configuration instructions.  You can also create a copy of the original to support the import process to maintain the original’s advanced features.   
• Configure the Excel spreadsheet for the Excel Add-in on the Excel spreadsheet by completing the configuration steps.  Create a new table in Excel with your data and use the Publish and allow sync command to deploy your Import List for the first time.  Optionally add a new worksheet to each spreadsheet where the  user can copy in the specific data they need to import to SharePoint preserving the source worksheets.

Advantages

• Users can continue to use their Excel spreadsheets for advanced computations, offline access, and custom formatting while also being able to share the data via SharePoint. 
• Users can bulk-import pre-populated spreadsheets and reports provided by other systems into SharePoint. 
• Custom filtered views including progressive filtering can be created and shared via SharePoint not provided in Excel auto-filtering. 
• SharePoint Designer workflows provide a non-code mechanism to both import new items into the Public List and also detecting existing items for performing updates.   

Using the Excel Add-in:

Deploy Excel Add-in to selected users who will be importing data from Excel to SharePoint

Brief Description This add-in works with Excel 2007 to allow you to synchronize data in a table with a list on a SharePoint site.

Download from MSDN http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=25836E52-1892-4E17-AC08-5DF13CFC5295&displaylang=en

Configure Excel spreadsheets for Publishing and Synchronizing Excel 2007 Tables to SharePoint Lists

Summary: In Microsoft Office Excel 2007, the ability to synchronize the data between a table and a list in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services is deprecated. This article describes an add-in that enables you to update the information in a SharePoint list from Excel 2007.

Configuration Instructions
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb462636(office.11).aspx#Office2007SynchronizeSharePointListfromExcel_Synchronizing

Important considerations when using the Excel Add-in.

• Create your custom “Import List” directly from the Add-in using the Publish and allow sync command in the Table Tools-Design tab of your Excel spreadsheet provided by the Excel Add-in.  You can add your own fields to the Import List later and synchronize with Excel. 
  Think carefully about what fields you want as required fields and the desired order in your spreadsheet before provisioning the Import List since the field order is difficult to re-arrange once the Excel spreadsheet is connected to SharePoint. 
• Take advantage of the ability for the Excel spreadsheet to incorporate pick-lists from the columns in your SharePoint Import list. 
• There is a limit of 6 fields if I remember correctly and you are not able to provide for multiple selections but very usefull for maintaining data consistancy and case where selecting users from AD would be usefull.
• A common confusion I have seen on MSDN for users implementing the add-in is the Publish and allow Sync command in the Excel toolbar.  Some users attempt to select this command to sync the data with SharePoint.  This command is only used to provision the initial list in SharePoint bound to the Excel table and not used for updates.  For updates right-click anywhere on the Excel table and use the additional features added to the context-menu to sync data (see screenshot above)

Conclusion

There are circumstances when users need to continue to use existing Excel spreadsheets and adding each data item to SharePoint individually would be both redundant and time-consuming.  Using the Excel Add-in in combination with custom Import Lists and SharePoint Designer workflows provide one mechanism for bulk-uploading data from Excel to SharePoint.