Bill Baer /bɛːr/

I’m pleased to announce the availability of the Microsoft IT Site Delete Capture 1.0 feature for SharePoint Products and Technologies. The Microsoft IT Site Delete Capture feature 1.0 is a shared component library (DLL); by registering the Microsoft IT Site Delete Capture feature 1.0 shared component library in the Global assembly cache, SharePoint Products and Technologies administrators can intercept both site/web delete requests and archive the site/web to a resource local to the web front-end computer or UNC path before the site/web is removed the configuration and content databases.

This will be the first of a multi-part series covering SQL Server 2005 Database Mirroring and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0/Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. This post will cover an introduction to SQL Server 2005 Database Mirroring, an overview, and the basics to include considerations and integration with SharePoint Products and Technologies. Part 2 will cover implementing SQL Server 2005 Database Mirroring with SharePoint Products and Technologies using NTLM authentication and dedicated (DAS) storage and failover examples.

One of the great features in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is the ability to co-host both path-based and host header-based site collections within the same server farm and content databases. Now that you’ve introduced host header-based site collections to your server farm, how do you quickly identify those site collections within a server farm or content database that also hosts your path-based site collections? In this scenario the object model is extremely useful in reporting on those site collections, the Web application, and content database where they reside.

Since my original post Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System Available! , I’ve received several comments and requests for information on how to create custom rule definitions that can be used with the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System. The article below references the basic steps required to create and use custom rule definitions.

One of the most common and discouraging issues related to maintaining a blog or any other system permitting user-driven comments and moderation is the persistent annoyance of spam and related content. Unfortunately measures such as Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA’s) have become increasingly susceptible to being bypassed or relegated to a best-available security measure in the prevention of spam partially due to the increasing capability of technology and problem solving investment by hackers more commonly through the addition of a human workforce, often compensated, for solving various CAPTCHA puzzles.

Jingmei Li has put together a great post detailing partner solutions supporting SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 migrations; these solutions are useful in situations where any of the three supported approaches do not fit within the scope of a business’ plans for migration and upgrade. Read the entire post here http://blogs.msdn.com/jingmeili/archive/2007/03/13/evaluate-partner-solutions-that-support-migration-from-sps-2003-to-moss-2007.aspx.

In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 host header-based Site Collections can coexist with path-based site collections within a Web Application or optionally reside on multiple Web Applications. Gradual, in-place, and database migration upgrade approaches can be applied to Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 server farms in scalable hosting mode. This differs from Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 where a server farm was configured to run in scalable hosting mode preventing the introduction of path-based Site Collections to the server farm.

I’ve updated my post Understanding PRESCAN.EXE Errors to include two new errors and solutions. Read more here: http://blogs.technet.com/wbaer/archive/2006/12/22/prescan-errors-what-they-mean.aspx

Understanding Solution Packages Solution packages are designed to provide the ability to develop and deploy reusable site and feature definitions, web part files, templates, assemblies, and code access security policies across one or more server farms. A solution package is a cabinet file that can contain, site and feature definitions, web part files, templates, assemblies, and code access security policies. A solution package contains a web manifest that that defines the list of features, site definitions, resource files, Web Part files, and assemblies to process when the solution is deployed.

In Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007/Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 webtemp*.xml contains a set of <Template> elements within a <Template> element that contain a set of site definitions available in the Template Selection user interface and define how to instantiate a Web site. elements where the <Configuration> element does not contain a <ProvisionAssembly> (Example 3) attribute indicate the <Template> element applies to a single site definition and not a portal site definition.