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It seems that Twitter is the topic of the week among SharePoint bloggers. You’ll find all trends, from the enthusiasts like Joel Oleson and Mark Miller, to the sceptics like Eric Shupps who thinks that Twitter has already jumped the shark.
Where do I stand? Well, somewhere in the middle. I am now on Twitter as Path2SharePoint (note the subtle name adjustment to fit in 15 characters). Here’s what decided me: sometimes I wanted to relay interesting blog posts, but didn’t want to write a blog entry just for that. Twitter seemed to be the right answer. I also witnessed some interesting use of Twitter, like Mark Miller’ s coverage of live events.
However I can see the downside too. What if the Fail Whale suddenly jumps in one of Mark’s live events? And generally speaking I would agree that there is too much noise. This is the reason why I haven’t started following anybody yet. For now, I prefer to rely on search and hashbars to try and find tweets of interest.
New to Twitter? Wondering what the Fail Whale is? Then watch this video: “Twouble with Twitters”. Enjoy!
I have just released the “Easy Tabs Web Part” for SharePoint 2007. Check out the demo, the video and the Web Part for download on my SharePoint site:
http://www.pathtosharepoint.com/pages/easyTabs.aspx
The Web Part can be used on a SharePoint 2007 site by anybody who has design or full control permissions (it is actually based on a Content Editor Web Part). The installation does not require server access.
Update [5/24/2009] In addition to the swf format on my SharePoint site, the screencast is now available on YouTube. Duration:1min25.
Update [5/26/2009] Thanks all for the great feedback (comments and e-mails)!
I have added a twin Web Part to the download section, for those who want another set of tabs for another Web Part zone on the same page.
I am also going to add two sections on the site, one for FAQ and another to track known issues.
Update [5/29/2009] Version 2 now includes cookies. Reloaded pages will remember the active tab. This is useful for example when you switch between different views of a calendar (Mark’s comment), or if you use sorting/filtering options on list columns.
I am flying to sunny San Diego today. One busy week, with plans to talk about SharePoint dashboards, catch up with old friends and watch the news about the swine flu.
I noticed on Andrew Connell’s blog the announcement of the Los Angeles SharePint event on May 10th, and I hope I can make it. Just wondering who is going to drive me back to San Diego…
In the past months, I have tried to make contact with a couple SharePoint organizations in Southern California (user groups for example). No luck so far… Well, I’ll keep trying!
I found great interest in the charting solution recently proposed by Claudio Cabaleyro (and relayed on endusersharepoint.com).
Claudio had the smart idea to leverage the SharePoint grouping feature, to collect the data needed for the chart. One advantage of this solution is that the script is generic and can be applied as is to any list.
Note that the initial solution allowed only one list per page. See updates here and here to deal with multiple lists.
One limitation is that the solution relies on Google charts, which means that your data is going to travel over the Internet. This is fine for public information, but not suitable for secure data.
So I adapted Claudio’s script to make it work locally, using a charting tool. Here is a first demo:
http://www.pathtosharepoint.com/Pages/BlogsMap.aspx
I have already mentioned in previous posts several third party Flash/Silverlight/JavaScript charting tools. My favorite is FusionCharts, as it offers the largest range of charts. For this demo, I am using FusionMaps v3. The map is based on a flash file stored in SharePoint. It pulls data from the SharePoint list on the right (Claudio’s method), then adds color coding based on the value.
I have partnered with FusionCharts, and in the months to come you’ll see more demos and tutorials that showcase their products. The charts come in two flavors, the complete v3 version and the free v2 version.
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