The pre-requisite for using the indexing connector (according to the download page for the backend components)  is that you must be running FAST for SharePoint 2010.

If you are only planning on using SharePoint 2010, i.e. its built-in indexing and search capabilities, you can still index and search for Excel-based reports. You could also create a dedicated tab for them in the Search Center, but would require a manual process to tag reports in order to make them discoverable as a separate scope of results versus embedded along with all other documents that match a given search query. You won’t get the thumbnails or built-in preview, but for Excel you can still ‘view in browser’ thanks to Office Web Applications. The feature you cannot create outside of FAST are the custom refiners. FAST also does some more advanced funky indexing stuff around querying the data sources within the reports.

If you want to give the BI connector a go and are running FAST with SharePoint 2010, here’s the links to download:

• Microsoft BI Indexing Connector for FAST – Backend components
• Microsoft BI Indexing Connector for FAST – Frontend components

Welcome to the new Office hub

Today, Microsoft finally unveiled Windows Mobile 7. To find out all about it, take your pick of the headlines on Techmeme.

Why am I blogging about it?  Just one line matters (well, a few others are also quite interesting but this is the one SharePoint customers have been waiting for):

“You can access any document from your Sharepoint server with editing and creation functionalities on your phone.”

- Source: Know Your Mobile

About flamin’ time

References:

• Techmeme News Feed: Windows Mobile 7 details announced
• Know Your Mobile live blogging the press conference
• In depth coverage from Gizmodo
• Microsoft press release

Please Note: This article was originally posted on the parent site: http://www.joiningdots.net

Microsoft has a proof of concept built on SharePoint – Looking Glass (must stress: It’s a proof of concept (PoC), no mention of an actual working solution yet and Microsoft PoCs often have a dash of smoke and mirrors about them):

But wafting the smoke aside and stepping around the mirrors, the concept is sound. There are plenty of tools on the Internet for visualising trends from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. (Twistori is a pet favourite of mine for simply observing the world in a conversation) But few go beyond visual analytics. This video explores how to integrate ways that enable you to act on the trends uncovered, what happens next. Interesting stuff. Bet the Microsoft CRM team just love it!…

The workshop consisted of four sessions, containing a mix of presentations, hands-on demonstrations and plenty of discussion. Here is part 1:

Part 1 was all about setting the scene. First, exploring ‘what is enterprise search?’ Second, an introduction to the current products in Microsoft’s search portfolio. Note: at the time, the FAST acquisition had not completed.

Key messages from the presentation:

• The most common question asked is ‘Why can’t our search be just like searching on Google?’ To begin answering that question, we need to define enterprise search – fundamentally different to Internet search. One of the challenges within many organisations has been that there is no dedicated focus on improving search. Instead it is often a feature of a larger project, such as an intranet replacement or new document management system. Before Google came along, that’s how the major Internet portals treated search…
• Enterprise search technologies usually fit in one of three layers:
• The simplest solutions help find what you know exists. Products are either free or low-cost and focus on ‘unstructured’ content, i.e. documents, email and web pages. Desktop search is available from the likes of Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. Network search tools include Microsoft Search Server, Google Mini Appliance and IBM/Yahoo Ominfind
• The mid-tier typically provides a base platform for enterprise search, relatively inexpensive and focused on common requirements. Solutions should include security trimming (filtering results based on who you are and what you have permission to see) and indexing multiple sources of content. Some solutions start to move beyond unstructured content to also include people search (directories and social networks) and structured data (integrating business applications). This is the hunting ground for SharePoint Server 2007 and the Google Search Appliance.
• The top-tier provides advanced indexing and search capabilities, such as automatic classification of content, concept-driven search interfaces and integration with business intelligence tools. Leaders in this space include Autonomy, Endeca and FAST.
• Whilst advanced search is often the goal, many organisations would benefit from first identifying what content needs to be found. Is it just about documents? How accessible are those documents? And should enterprise search also include business applications and the ability to find people? We often prefer to seek answers from each other in the workplace… These are all questions that need to be answered if you want to implement an effective enterprise search solution.
• Microsoft products and services span three areas of search: the web (Live.com), the desktop (Windows Desktop Search) and the intranet/company web sites (SharePoint Server 2007 and Search Server 2008)
• Intranet search includes the ability to find documents, business data and people. Federated connectors enable results to be returned not only from multiple different content sources but also from multiple different indexes. The table in the presentation shows what features are available per product.
• Desktop search enables individuals to query their own content, such as private email and locally-stored documents – content that is often difficult to access by intranet search tools.
• Web search trends are worth following to see what’s likely to be coming down the line for enterprise search. On Live.com, concept-driven results enable you to refine your search query. If you do a search for videos, hovering over the video will start it playing inside your web browser…

To download a copy of the presentation (3.3Mb): MS-Search-Pt1.pdf

Filed in Library: Microsoft SharePoint | Microsoft Search

Technorati tags: SharePoint | MOSS 2007 | Search Server | Enterprise Search

A simple example – some data about product sales. Here’s a traditional approach: a table of data and a chart visualising the results.

Now let’s see what we can do with Excel 2007.

Data bars

Data bars are great for showing quick comparisons between data without needing to create a separate bar chart. In the example above, we can see that we are selling more nuggets than anything else despite the budget suggesting widgets would be the best seller. To set up data bars, simply select the columns and, from the Home tab in the Office ribbon, select Conditional Formatting and choose Data Bars. Then select the color you want to use.

Icon sets

Icon sets are key performance indicators (KPIs). Great for showing if the data represents good, bad or indifferent results.

Tip: The default behavior for icon sets is to display green when the value is above 66%, amber when it is above 33% otherwise red. In just about every case, you will want to change the behaviour. To do so, in the ribbon go to Conditional Formatting and select Manage Rules. For the icon set you want to modify, click Edit rules and make your changes. In this example, I want a green light if the sales variance is 1 or above (i.e. met or exceeded target), amber if sales are within 20% of budget, otherwise it’s a red light for the sales team.

Icon sets have two major shortcomings. First, there are only 3 indicators of performance. In the above example, widget sales are far closer to hitting the amber mark than gizmos, and gadgets only just reached amber. An alternative feature to use is called ‘Color Scales’. Not as pretty, but gives a better range of indicators:

Here you can see gadgets are amber, but widgets are nearly there too. Gizmos are deep red – beyond saving.

Back to relying on charts

The second shortcoming with icon sets as key performance indicators is that they give no indication about trends. Sales of nuggets look great, but is it expected or a surprise? In the image below, I have create line charts for each product and stripped away all the chart gumpf to convert them into ‘spark lines’. Now I can see that widgets have had a sudden drop whilst nuggets have had a sudden spike. And gizmos seem to be heading to oblivion.

Compare this information to the original example – It contains exactly the same data but you can instantly interpret a lot more from the information and it takes up less screen space.

For more information about designing useful visualisations, including spark lines and bullet graphs, see previous blog post: Designing Dashboards

Related blog posts:

• Dashboard Design
• Excel Web Access 101

Filed in library under: Microsoft Office; Microsoft BI

Technorati tags: Excel

http://www.sharepointsharon.com/blog/2008/07/sharepoint-for-web-sites-or-not.htm
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Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is marketed across 6 solution segments: collaboration; portals; search; content management; business intelligence and business processes. One question I often get asked by customers is whether or not to use SharePoint for building public web sites. As with most things I.T.-related, the answer is ‘it depends’.

Reasons to use SharePoint for building public web sites:

1. You need a web content management system
2. You have a SharePoint strategy
3. You bought the licences

SharePoint is not about designing great visual and interactive web site experiences. For that, consider using the Expression suite or other similar tools. SharePoint is about web content management: separating creating content from site design and management; enabling people to author/edit and publish content using just a web browser; applying workflow and version control to manage publishing of content and manage design changes to templates, pages and elements (such as images) within pages

If you’ve bought into using SharePoint as a platform for information management internally within your organisation, then it makes sense to consider using it externally as well. Users will already be familiar with how it all works and what the user interface looks like

If you’ve paid for SharePoint Server 2007, you’d be daft to go and use something else unless you have a specific reason to not use SharePoint. Even if the something else is free, you’re just adding in another technology and complicating your environment. Make sure you can justify that extra effort.

There are always two sides to every coin, so what are the reasons to not use SharePoint for building public web sites. If you answered No to the three reasons to use it, the writing is on the wall. There are a couple of additional scenarios I can think of:

1. You want AAA accessibility compliance
2. You want to build a Web 2.0 site

Accessibility compliance and SharePoint were not designed to be in the same room together. SharePoint uses an awful lot of tables to control layout of pages. A big no-no if you are aiming for top level accessibility compliance. If you are just after A compliance, the Accessibility toolkit for SharePoint will fix a few gotchas (like labels) and you should be sorted. If you want AA compliance, it is going to take a bit more effort. If you want AAA compliance, you are writing your templates from scratch, replacing most built-in styles and eliminating the use of web parts.

If you are planning to create a Web 2.0-style site, encouraging participation with forums, blogs and wikis, the templates and features that come out of the box with SharePoint will probably be found wanting. They are great for getting started internally and ideal for organisations who have never before used such tools as part of everyday business practices. But the bar is a set a little bit higher for public-facing web sites. People are used to the likes of Wikipedia, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and countless other Web 2.0 applications. You have to aim high if you want to build something similar.

If you are planning to use SharePoint for building public web sites, here are some additional free tools to enhance what it can do:

• Community Kit for SharePoint – published on Codeplex. Offers enhanced wikis, blogs and templates for community-driven web sites
• SharePoint Forums Web Part – published on Codeplex. An improved version of the Discussion web part for forums and discussion boards
• Accessibility Kit for SharePoint – published on Codeplex. Guidance and modifications to achieve accessibility compliance
• Silverlight Blueprint for SharePoint – Microsoft software+services – integrate rich media capabilities within SharePoint

For more links and information, see SharePoint for WCM in the library.

Technorati tags: SharePoint; SharePoint 2007; MOSS 2007