Yesterday, I was in San Antonio at the San Antonio SharePoint User Group meeting (SASUG) where I enjoy where Paul Schaeflein (MVP) discussed the proper usage of elevated permissions and impersonation.  Paul an excellent job, I learned a couple new things.  After the meeting, we enjoyed a couple SharePint's and margaritas at the Firehouse Pub & Grill.  This was a good crowd.  I will be speaking at the next meeting over "SharePoint 2010: Extranets and Authentication".  I look forward to seeing this group again.

So I have been very quiet for the last several months.  I have also been very busy.  On February 8th, 2010, I finally completed my last qualification to become a Microsoft Certified SharePoint Master.  My journey started early in 2008 when the program was announced.  I was accepted into the program on my second try.

My first attempt (during the interviews) was a humbling lesson where it highlighted my strengths and it opened my eyes to areas I had not ventured into.  I had been working with SharePoint for about four years around that time.  Through much determination and perseverance, I read the pre-reading list with 81 items and sought out opportunities with my clients to exercise my growing knowledge.

My second attempt was still a humbling lesson, SharePoint is an enormous platform and framework which can be used in so many ways.  The news was exciting, I was accepted into the fourth MCM rotation.

The three weeks in Seattle were brutal and exhausting, but every day I could only think "awesome".  Every candidate and instructor is very skilled, knowledgeable, experienced and on top of their game.  The experience and knowledge shared during the three weeks makes the entire process worth every bit of effort, time and, of course, money.  I have to add that this certification is not for everyone.  It is very difficult, very challenging and it will impact your life and family.  The pre-reading really is a requirement and it still may not be enough. You have to read all of it before you get there if you are to succeed.  You should also experience as much of it as well.  I cannot say enough about the support my family has given to me.  I spent countless weekends, holidays, car trips and rides reading, practicing, discussing and breaking SharePoint in new creative ways in preparation.  The entire last year (and some) has been one of the most rewarding years as a result of this journey.  I hope to continue this journey as we welcome SharePoint 2010 and I look forward to contributing to the SharePoint community.

The question of how much does WSS or MOSS cost to license is always being asked.  Getting the information is not always that easy either, so I will provide a quick summary and the appropriate links to follow to simplify this.  One thing to highlight is that the licensing and versions of the "MOSS Suite" changed as of April 1, 2009.  What that means is that Forms Server 2007 was discontinued as a standalone product, SharePoint Designer 2007 is free now and PerformancePoint Server 2007 is now included at no cost with MOSS 2007 Enterprise.

The licensing model for WSS 3.0 is different from MOSS 2007.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Licensing

WSS 3.0 "conforms to the Windows Server 2003 licensing model".  What that means is that WSS 3.0 is part of Windows 2003 Server for free.  You have to license Windows 2003 Server properly to use WSS 3.0.  Will your WSS 3.0 site serve as an external facing site, internal for your employees or both?

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Licensing
 
MOSS 2007 is licensed separately based on the following versions:


Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet Sites (no CALs required)
-This is you external facing site (anonymous)


Office SharePoint Server 2007 (CALs also required)
-This is you intranet site, you have to buy CAL's for each user.   To use MOSS 2007 Enterprise you have to buy both an standard CAL and an enterprise CAL for each user.

Client Access License
Office SharePoint Server 2007 Standard CAL
Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise CAL

The MOSS 2007 search engine is basically Microsoft Search Server 2008 but it is integrated and not a standalone product.  Microsoft Search Server 2008 is available as a standalone product:

Microsoft Search Server 2008 Licensing


Microsoft Search Server 2008 (no CALs required)
Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express (no CALs required)     Free Download

Supplemental Licensing Information for Windows SharePoint Services
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/sharepoint/bb684457.aspx

Windows Server 2003 R2 Client Access Licensing Overview
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/caloverview.mspx

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Related Technologies pricing
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/FX102176831033.aspx?ofcresset=1
- Always go to the Microsoft site to verify the latest pricing and licensing.

I know this probably is one of the most common posts out on the web (for .Net coders), but I can never seem to find it when I need it. So it is here for my reference.

When you are trying to debug an ASP.Net page and you need to see the form collection after a POST or the QueryString (for convenience) for a GET or POST, simply copy the method add it to a page and call it from one of the Page Lifecycle Event Handlers, such as OnInit, OnLoad, etc. I think it is poor practice to hide this output in the body of a page as a comment so I am not doing that (and strongly recommend that you don't do that either) ... simply remove the code or call (if you add it to a library as a static method). I have seen too many people leave the output as commented (html) code ... simply bad.

Nonetheless, here is the code snippet:

/// <summary>
/// Display the QueryString Collection and Form Collection information for a ASP.Net Page
/// </summary>
private void RenderRequestInfo() {

//Iterate the Request.QueryString collection
Page.Response.Write(string.Format("<b> Request.QueryString ({0})</b><br />", Page.Request.QueryString.Count.ToString()));
foreach (string queryItem in Page.Request.QueryString) {
Page.Response.Write(queryItem);
try {
Page.Response.Write("='" + HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(Page.Request.QueryString[queryItem]) + "'<br />");
} catch (Exception ex) {
Page.Response.Write(string.Format("=[Error during render.] {0}<br />", ex.Message));
}
}
Page.Response.Write("<br />");

//Iterate the Request.Form collection
Page.Response.Write(string.Format("<b> Request.Form ({0})</b><br />", Page.Request.Form.Count.ToString()));
foreach (string formItem in Page.Request.Form) {
Page.Response.Write(formItem);
try {
Page.Response.Write("='" + HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(Page.Request.Form[formItem]) + "'<br />");
} catch (Exception ex) {
Page.Response.Write(string.Format("=[Error during render.] {0}<br />", ex.Message));
}
}
Page.Response.Write("<br />");
}

Cheers!

I took this from Mirjams blog. I have verified that it works. I am adding it here so that I can find it when I need it, and as I mentioned, it works great.

Renaming a WSS3 or MOSS server requires very specific tasks in a specific order. If you don’t follow the following instructions precisely, the chances are that you may need to reconfigure your whole MOSS environment.

Here are the steps to take, and the order in which to take them if you want to rename a server that has WSS3 or MOSS already installed and configured on it:

*** NOTE: Use only letters, digits and minus for the machine name (so no underscores), max 15 characters.

1. Change each alternate access mapping for your WSS3 or MOSS deployment in Central Administration:




• Open Central Administration, "Operations" Tab, "Alternate access mappings" link


• Modify each mapping item to reflect your newly chosen server name





2. Use stsadm.exe to invoke the "renameserver" command option:




• Open a command prompt window


• cd "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN"


• stsadm -o renameserver -newservername <newname> -oldservername <oldname>




3. Rename your Server via Change Name Operation in Windows Server 2003:




• Start Menu | Control Panel | System, "Computer Name" tab, "Change" button.


• Input your new server name




4. Reboot the server NOW.


5. Update the MOSS farm creadentials




• After reboot, open command prompt


• cd C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN


• stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin <domainuser> -password <password>




6. iisreset /noforce


7. Check all application pool identities in IIS, update where the old machine name is still there.


8. If you already have a search index drop this, and rebuild it


9. Congratulations, your server is now renamed.

Below, I am making a list of the tools I use most frequently for MOSS development, diagnosis and some maintainance.

SharePoint Manager 2007

http://www.codeplex.com/spm

This tool is a MOSS swiss army knife. It traverses the MOSS object model and displlay the properties for a vast number of MOSS objects. The tool also allows the user to make changes on the spot and commit the changes to MOSS. I can't emphasize enough how good this tool is.

U2 CAML Tool

http://www.u2u.info/Blogs/Patrick/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=1315
This tool makes building and testing CAML queries a simple task. It connects to MOSS and allows you query build live queries and test them accordingly.

Web Service Studio 2.0

http://mattharrah.com/blog/web-tools/net-web-service-studio-20/
This tool allows you view SharePoint through it web services. I use this tool for verifying data, extracting xml to verify and assimilate MOSS objects. Through it you can invoke webmethods interactively by providing a WSDL endpoint. The tool fetches the WSDL, generates .NET proxy from the WSDL and displays the list of methods available. Then you can invoke any method (with custom input parameters). The SOAP request is sent to the server and the response is displayed in the UI.

WSP Builder

http://www.codeplex.com/wspbuilder
This tool This tool is used for create web solution packages (wsp) from a folder structure. There is also a Visual Studio Add-in which allows you to build a wsp for a project at a time. This tool saves hours of configuration and testing per project. This tool is a must for building SharePoint solutions.

FireBug (for FireFox)

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843

This tool integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. It allows you to explore and modify the document object model (DOM) of a Web page. This includes the styles, style sheets and other resources. The Developer Toolbar can be pinned to the Firefox browser window or floated separately.

IE Developer Toolbar

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e59c3964-672d-4511-bb3e-2d5e1db91038&displaylang=en

This tool allows you to explore and modify the document object model (DOM) of a Web page. This includes the styles, style sheets and other resources. The Developer Toolbar can be pinned to the Internet Explorer browser window or floated separately.

I will add more tools as I remember and/or encounter them. I will use the MOSS Tools label.

I recently had a meeting with a client where it was asked if SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) still suffered from the SharePoint 2003 limitations. I began testing and ran into no limitations. I stopped at 190 fields successfully. I also tested the 190 fields with content types, and adding and editing documents using the content type.

Background

In SharePoint 2003, the following limitations were well known (1):

• 64 Single line of text and Choice (drop-down menu or radio buttons)
• 31 Multiple lines of text and Choice (check boxes (allow multiple sections))
• 32 Number and currency
• 32 Hyperlink
• 16 Date and time
• 16 Lookup
• 16 Yes/No
• 8 Calculated

Findings

I found Microsoft literature specifying the following “guidelines for acceptable performance” for columns (2):

• 2,000 per document library
• 4,096 per list

“This is not a hard limit, but you might experience library and list view performance degradation as the number of columns in a document library or list increases.”

I found a blog article where Ishai Sagi tested the performance of creating 2000 text fields. Here is a summary of his findings:

I looked into SharePoint 2007 to figure out exactly how Microsoft overcame the limitations in SharePoint 2003. SharePoint has a table called “AllUserData” where they have the following fields:

• 8 datetime (DateTime)
• 12 float (Number, Percentage)
• 16 int (Integer)
• 16 bit (Boolean)
• 32 ntext (Note)
• 64 nvarchar (Text, Url, Choice)
• 8 sql_variant

In a nutshell, if the limit of any of the column types is reached, SharePoint uses a second row to begin populating the data. The new row will have a field called rowOrdinal incremented to 1. Therefore, if the column once again exceed their limit, the rowOrdinal will be incremented to 2 and so on.

1 - To read more about the SharePoint 2003 limits: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823555

2 - To read more about the SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) limits: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787.aspx

3 - To read more about the performance testing of columns: http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2006/06/sharepoint-2007-column-limits.html