A blog by Pilothouse Consulting
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Office 365 for SharePoint hosting
Sep 12th
I decided to take a look at Office 365 to let Microsoft host SharePoint for us, but it turns that Office 365 wants to do a lot more thanjust SharePoint hosting for you.
Here is our current collaboration/document management setup
- We host our own SharePoint server on a dedicated server which is probably an overkill as far as the hardware goes, but it nice to have.
- We let Google apps handle our email. Google docs are ok, but I prefer SharePoint for document and list management.
- Our main public website uses a simple solution of DreamWeaver + SVN
The initial setup process for Office 365 is very simple. My initial impression of the admin page was really good.
I did not move email hosting to Office 365 as it was not my intention and Google seems to be working just fine, plus Android in it integration is great.
I was a bit disappointed with the way SharePoint was set up. It seem like you get one site collection and you are forced to have a top level site with a custom publishing master page. Collaboration and document management are supposed to take place at the sub sites.
-
http://pilothouse.sharepoint.com – main site collection setup with a custom publishing master page. The intention here is that you would move your public website here.

-
http://pilothouse.sharepoint.com/teamsite – sub site with a team site template
I believe that Office 365 would be better off just focusing on internal collaboration and document management instead of trying to build a so so external site on SharePoint. After looking around this setup I decided that I like the flexibility that we currently have with our SharePoint setup and will not be moving anything to Office 365 just yet. Also, I don’t have a Windows 7 phone to see how well the integration works; I assume for some organizations it will be important.
Overall, I never felt that the publishing feature was how you start selling SharePoint ot a business that has not used SharePoint before, but ti certainly seems a strategy for Office 365. We’ll see if they change it soon.
We recently updated our sharepoint training dates. Click here to see the schedule.
SharePoint 2010 Summer Class Schedule Posted
Mar 30th
All of Pilothouse summer classes are for SharePoint 2010. Our last SharePoint 2007 class was held last week in Las Vegas. It is unbelievalbe that we run 2007 classes for almost five years (starting in June of 2006). SharePoint 2007 is definitely a great product, but as not as good as 2010.
Click here check SharePoint 2010 training schedule.
SharePoint Training DVD Labs Updated and Fall Schedule is Up
Aug 14th
We have updated the labs with minor bug fixes that we found over the last three months. You can get the latest updates
If you are interested in a class our SharePoint Training Fall Schedule is up:
Virtual Image User and User Profile Creation PowerShell Script Update
Aug 12th
For user profiles demos, it’s nice to have some sample profiles in there. For SharePoint 2007 image, we used a script to populate Active Directory users with the proper information and then just do an import to SharePoint. For SharePoint 2010 image, instead of using Active Directory. we are using local user accounts, so the script had to change. Now we take the user profile information from the same CSV file that’s used to create local accounts.
Here is the PowerShell script:
# SharePoint 2010 Workstation create users and user profiles script
# Pilothouse Consulting, Inc. Feel free to distribute and modify it.
$computer = [ADSI]"WinNT://$env:computername"
$userslist = import-csv users-list.csv | Select username, fullname, firstname, lastname, department, jobtitle, manager, skills, email
foreach($singleuser in $userslist)
{
$user = $computer.Create("user", $singleuser.username)
$user.SetPassword("Training45")
$user.SetInfo()
$user.FullName = $singleuser.fullname
$user.Description = "SharePoint sample user"
$user.SetInfo()
}
$site = Get-SPSite "http://abcuniversity"
$serverContext = Get-SPServiceContext $site
$upm = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileManager($serverContext)
foreach($singleuser in $userslist)
{
$accountName = "abcuniversity\" + $singleuser.username
if ($upm.UserExists($accountName))
{
$up = $upm.GetUserProfile($accountName)
}
else
{
$up = $upm.CreateUserProfile($accountName)
write-host "user" $accountName "profile created"
}
$up["FirstName"].Value = $singleuser.firstname
$up["LastName"].Value = $singleuser.lastname
$up["PreferredName"].Value = $singleuser.fullname
$up["Department"].Value = $singleuser.department
$up["Title"].Value = $singleuser.jobtitle
$manager = "abcuniversity\" + $singleuser.manager
$up["Manager"].Value = $manager
$up["SPS-Skills"].Value = $singleuser.skills
$up.Commit()
write-host "user" $accountName "profile updated"
}
Here is the CSV file:
username,fullname,firstname,lastname,department,email,jobtitle,manager,skills
davegreen,Dave Green,Dave,Green,Graphic Design,DaveGreen@abcuniversity.com,Professor,bettytwain,Presenting
lucysmith,Lucy Smith,Lucy,Smith,Chemistry,LucySmith@abcuniversity.com,Professor,martharollings,Researching
bobjohnson,Bob Johnson,Bob,Johnson,Graphic Design,BobJohnson@abcuniversity.com,Student Researcher,davegreen,Researching
davesmith,Dave Smith,Dave,Smith,Graphic Design,DaveSmith@abcuniversity.com,Student Researcher,bobjohnson,Researching
martharollings,Martha Rollings,Martha,Rollings,Chemistry,MarthaRollings@abcuniversity.com,Department Head,administrator,Researching
judybright,Judy Bright,Judy,Bright,Chemistry,JudyBright@abcuniversity.com,Student Researcher,lucysmith,Presenting
tracywright,Tracy Wright,Tracy,Wright,Chemistry,TracyWright@abcuniversity.com,Student Researcher,lucysmith,Researching
alexbrown,Alex Brown,Alex,Brown,Chemistry,AlexBrown@abcuniversity.com,Professor,martharollings,Presenting
kellybrennan,Kelly Brennan,Kelly,Brennan,Chemistry,KellyBrennan@abcuniversity.com,Student Researcher,lucysmith,Researching
georgemason,George Mason,George,Mason,Graphic Design,GeorgeMason@abcuniversity.com,Student Researcher,davegreen,Researching
gregwalter,Greg Walter,Greg,Walter,Math,GregWalter@abcuniversity.com,Student Researcher,lisasimmons,Researching
clairejohnson,Claire Johnson,Claire,Johnson,Math,ClaireJohnson@abcuniversity.com,Department Head,administrator,Presenting
lisasimmons,Lisa Simmons,Lisa,Simmons,Math,LisaSimmons@abcuniversity.com,Professor,jeffbridges,Researching
jonstew,Jon Stew,Jon,Stew,Graphic Design,JonStew@abcuniversity.com,Professor,jeffbridges,Researching
bobbush,Bob Bush,Bob,Bush,Math,BobBush@abcuniversity.com,Student Researcher,lisasimmons,Presenting
marysimmons,Mary Simmons,Mary,Simmons,Math,MarySimmons@abcuniversity.com,Student Researcher,lisasimmons,Presenting
donnabridges,Donna Bridges,Donna,Bridges,Graphic Design,DonnaBridges@abcuniversity.com,Professor,bettytwain,Researching
jeffbridges,Jeff Bridges,Jeff,Bridges,Math,JeffBridges@abcuniversity.com,Department Head,administrator,Researching
jerryboss,Jerry Boss,Jerry,Boss,Graphic Design,JerryBoss@abcuniversity.com,Professor,bettytwain,Presenting
bettytwain,Betty Twain,Betty,Twain,Graphic Design,BettyTwain@abcuniversity.com,Department Head,administrator,Presenting
administrator,SharePoint Admin,SharePoint,Admin,Chemistry,administrator@abcuniversity.com,SharePointer,davegreen,SharePoint
You can modify the scripts for your own demo environment, or if you going through SharePoint Training DVD labs, just run these on the current image. All the future images will sample user profiles.
Microsoft is Killing Kin
Jul 1st
I am not surprised. I have a friend that works on Kin team and he told that they got the marketing and training of Verizon reps all wrong. They missed their sales targets considerably. Also this shows how difficult the entry into this consumer phone market is at this time. That’s why Microsoft’s best bet is the enterprise.
Microsoft marketing in general should really take some lessons from Apple. For example, SharePoint materials/main website could be so much simpler. I know that SharePoint offers a lot and it’s difficult to describe everything. That’s why it’s better to describe less.
Also, I recently saw a leaked presentation on Windows 8 and it was fifteen slides long. Do you really need 15 slides to describe something that can be done in at most five?
- Fast start up time
- Facial recognition/automatic login
- Ability to use external Displays (TVs) easily
- USB 3.0 support
- Fast switch between accounts
I promise that my next post is going to be technical.
