Corrections to 10232 Designing and Developing Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Applications

In Lab7 Exercise 1, you need to change the SharePoint path in the solution to point to the correct site.
After completing Lab 9 exercise 1, the first web part still has an error message.Problem is a damaged GUID in the web.config BindingRedirect. Explantion is here:

http://www.bluedoglimited.com/SharePointThoughts/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=313

Lab 11 gives an error importing the solution file.

Solution is to make sure the Visual Studio Solution has a short path name by bringing it closer to the root.

Lab 12 Exercise to is missing the OK step to create the web app and the site collection.

Module 12 Optional Exercise 3 needs to change the SharePoint site path in the properties of the solution.

Lab 14 Exercise 1, the error message at the end of step 4 can be ignored.

Step 5 is missing a step to add the Unit Test to List of Tests, this can be done with drag and drop.

Step 7 should be changed to find text “Libraries” rather than “Contoso Performance List Test”.

https://www.kamtm.com/url/u.aspx?C6D89ED9A26478095

Corrections to MOC 50469 SharePoint 2010 End User Level II

Page 8 Step 9 should be Intranet site not My Portal site

Page 108 Remove heading for Task 19, is duplicated

Page 108 Second Task 19, before step 2 need to save the workflow

Page 168 Task 2 wrong path for lab file should be 01_Lab01

Page 171 Step 7 don’t get error so can jump to step 10.

Page 172 Step 3, make sure correct user shown, caching can cause a problem here.

Page 199 Step 3, the site collection feature is called SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure

Page 235 Step 11 Need to add a site column called classification to a content type called MyDocument based on Document. Need to add this content type to Shared Documents also.

Ascentium Branded Commerce Server 2009 R2

Just tested the latest version of Commerce Server 2009 R2 with Ascentium branding. Worked just like the previous Microsoft branded version. The only non branding difference I could spot, is that it did not check for the Cross Scripting Engine before installing. Although there are other minor changes listed in the documents here. We hope to use this version in the classroom in parallel in our next class and then switch over to this version for future classes.

Commerce Server Inventory System Part 6

Creating an Inventory Catalog

The process of creating an inventory catalog is straightforward and relatively simple. Inventory catalogs are created through the Catalog Manager, and then product catalogs are mapped to them.  A product catalog can only be mapped to one inventory catalog, but an inventory catalog can have many product catalogs.

The pro golf shop requires only one inventory catalog, but both the base and virtual product catalogs must be mapped to the inventory catalog.  The reason both catalogs are mapped is that inventory quantity must be allocated for both the online retail customers and the trading partners.

A default inventory catalog already exists, called Default.  This catalog cannot be deleted, and will be used for the golf pro shop inventory catalog.

To create the inventory catalog, you can use the Catalog Manager.

           1.       Click Start > All Programs > Microsoft Commerce Server > Catalog Manager.

           2.       Under the View pane, click Inventory Catalogs.  After you have selected the inventory catalogs view, the Task pane will update to show tasks specific to inventory catalogs.

           3.       Double-click the Default inventory catalog.  This will open the inventory catalog properties window.

           4.       The Base Properties tab is selected by default (Figure 4-7).  Since we added the Inventory Catalog Id property definition to the Inventory Catalog Metadata, and it is a required property, you must specify a value.  Note that this property is on the base properties tab, rather than the custom properties tab.  This is because the Display as Base Property value was set to True on the property definition.  If it had been set to False, this property would be on the custom properties tab.

Figure 4-7

           5.       Click the Product Catalogs tab (Figure 4-8).  By default, no product catalogs have been added to the default inventory catalog.  To add our catalogs, click the Add Catalog button.

Figure 4-8

           6.       The Product Catalogs screen will list all the available product catalogs that can be added to this inventory catalog (Figure 4-9).  Since a product catalog can only be mapped to one inventory catalog only unmapped product catalogs are displayed.  Either select both the ProShopCatalog and TradingPartnerCatalog, or click the Select All button.  Click the OK button to continue.

Figure 4-9

           7.       Click the Save And Close button to finish.

Once a product catalog has been mapped to an inventory catalog, inventory data can now be associated to your products or product variants.

Adding Inventory to SKUs

Now that the product catalogs have been mapped to an inventory catalog, inventory data must be added to the SKUs.  The SKU can either be a product or product variant, depending on how the catalog was defined.  If a Variant Id was specified when the product catalog was created then inventory information resides at the product variant level.  If a Variant Id was not specified when the product catalog was created then the inventory information resides at the product level.

The golf pro shop has product variants, and consequently inventory information must be entered for each of the product variants.  To add inventory information to the pro shop product variants, you must use the Catalog Manager.

           1.       Click Start > All Programs > Microsoft Commerce Server > Catalog Manager.

           2.       Under the View pane, click Catalogs.  After you have selected the catalogs view, the Catalogs tree view pane will display all the product catalogs.

           3.       In the Catalogs tree view pane, expand the ProShopCatalog catalog, the Golf Clubs category, and select the Drivers category.

           4.       Double-click the “Calloway FT-5 Driver” from the Category and Product Details list.  This will open the product properties screen.

           5.       Now that the product catalog has been mapped to an inventory catalog, a new tab called Variant Inventory Properties is.  Select the Variant Inventory Properties tab.

           6.       On the Variant Inventory Property tab (Figure 4-10) you will see a grid that contains all the variants in rows and all the inventory SKU metadata as columns (Figure 4-10).  For a non-product variant catalog this tab is called Inventory Properties (Figure 4-11).  By default four inventory SKU properties are required: Status, Onhand Quanitity, Stockout Threshold, and Warehouse Location (the property definition you added to the inventory SKU metadata).  Enter values for each of the variants.  Make sure to set the status to Enabled, the onhand quantity greater than 0, and the stockout threshold to 1 (indicating that there must be at least one SKU available to be considered in stock).

Figure 4-10

Figure 4-11

           7.       Once all the inventory information has been added to the product variants, click Save And Close to finish.

Now that inventory exists for the product variants on the golf pro shop, you could actually begin to sell your products online (assuming you have already developed the Web site).  Since inventory exists for products, such as golf club drivers, they are considered in stock and can be purchased.  For most online Web sites, however, you will probably want to turn on some special inventory handling, such as inventory back-ordering and pre-ordering.

Based on my book on Commerce Server. Part 7 to follow soon. Part 1.

MOS 2010 Study Guide for Microsoft Office SharePoint

I was invited to take the Beta version of the user exam for SharePoint, officially called Microsoft Office Specialist, SharePoint 2010. This was the first time that I have taken a Microsoft Office Specialist exam, though I have taken around 50 Microsoft Certified Professional Exams. But they are quite different, basically it is a simulation of SharePoint and one is assigned many different tasks to perform. Great fun.

After getting the certification I am teaching the SharePoint user interface to two students who would also like to write the exam. Since I had received it as part of a review program, I decided to use Geoff Evelyn’s MOS 2010 Study Guide for Microsoft® Office SharePoint® from O’Reilly. The books is a good match to the exam objectives, I did not spot an exam objective that is not covered here. The intended audience would be someone who has been working with SharePoint for a while, and wants to write the exam. The book does not work as well outside the intended audience, for example, a SharePoint beginner. The exercises do not work just doing them in order, as an instructor I had to fill in the gaps and do some preliminary work to get the exercises to work. Another example, page 24 mentions content types but they are not explained until page 75, where they are explained very well. A step in the direction of giving more SharePoint background is the only companion download to the book, a 13 page Appendix: Overview of SharePoint 2010.

Commerce Server Inventory System Part 5

Building the Inventory Catalog

Creating the Inventory Catalog

The process of creating the inventory catalog is straightforward and relies on the same tools used to create product catalogs. Before you create the inventory catalog, however, take the time to determine if your inventory needs require any changes to the inventory schema. Is there additional information that you’d like to store along with your inventory data that the default schema doesn’t support? For instance, would you like to store information about the inventory’s location in the warehouse? Maybe, in addition to naming your inventory catalogs, you want to store the unique identifiers used by your partners to help identify the catalogs. There are many difference scenarios that may justify changing the inventory and adding additional metadata to the inventory schema. Make sure to take the time to think these scenarios through before you begin to extend the inventory schema, although it is possible to add additional metadata to the schema at a later time.

Extending the Inventory Metadata

Extending the inventory schema is no different from extending the catalog or property schemas. The first step is to define a property definition to define the data you want to store along with your inventory data. Once the property definition has been defined, you can then add the new definition to either the inventory catalog metadata, thereby extending the descriptive data related to the inventory catalog, or to the inventory SKU metadata, thereby extending the descriptive data related to inventory SKUs.

The golf pro shop requires that our inventory catalog has an inventory unique identifier associated with the inventory catalog. This unique identifier is passed along with exports to trading partners, so that the trading partners know which inventory catalog they received. Additionally, all SKUs must have a warehouse location number that relates to the SKUs location in the warehouse. To accomplish this, you must first create two new property definitions: Inventory Catalog Id, and Warehouse Location. These two property definitions should have the following characteristics:

Property	Inventory Catalog Id	Warehouse Location
Property Name	InventoryCatalogId	WarehouseLocation
Display Name	Inventory Catalog Id	Warehouse Location
Data Type	Text	Text
Multilingual	False	False
Display On Site	False	False
Specification Searchable	False	False
Free Text Searchable	False	False
Minimum Length	0	0
Maximum Length	128	128
Assign To All Product Types	False	False
Store For Data Analysis	False	False
Display In Products List	False	False
Is Required	True	True
Default Value
Display as Base Property	True	True

Table 5-2

When defining property definitions for the inventory catalog and inventory SKU metadata, make sure you do not select the Multilingual property. If the Multilingual property is set to True then the property definition will not be available for selection within the inventory catalog and inventory SKU metadata. This is because the inventory catalog and SKUs have no concept of multilingual values, and are specifically excluded.

Now that the two property definitions have been defined, you must associate each of them as metadata to the appropriate entity. To assign the Inventory Catalog Id to the Inventory Catalog Metadata, you can use the Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager.

1. Click Start > All Programs > Microsoft Commerce Server > Catalog and Inventory Schema Manager.
2. Under the Task pane, click Edit Inventory Catalog Metadata. This will open the Edit Inventory Catalog Metadata screen.
3. Select “Inventory Catalog Id” from the Available Properties list, and click the Add button. This will assign the property to the assigned properties list (see Figure 4-5).

Figure 4-5

4. Click the Save and Close button to finish.
The process for extending the inventory SKU metadata to include the Warehouse Location is similar to extending the inventory catalog metadata, except that you click the Edit Inventory SKU Metadata from the task pane and then add the Warehouse Location to the Assigned Properties list box (see Figure 4-6).

Figure 4-6

Now that the inventory catalog schema has been extended, you can create your inventory catalog. Since the two property definitions were created with the Display as Base Property set to True, these property definitions will display as base properties for the inventory catalog and the inventory SKU screens rather than custom properties. Creating the inventory catalog will be in our next blog post in this series.

Based on my book on Commerce Server.  Part 6 is here.  Part 1.

Book Review: Pro SharePoint 2010 Search

Just read the book Pro SharePoint 2010 Search yesterday, looking for gaps in my understand of search. It is a good coverage of SharePoint Search, it does not cover FAST Search. That the authors had real life experience was obvious from the coverage also of third party, I found this part especially interesting. Also enjoyed the brief discussion of the search algorithm. The discussion on changing the ranking model was good, and some of the issues with changing the user's language settings were clearly explained. I would recommend this book. I received it as part of a review program.