9 Reason Behind Upgrading to SharePoint 2016

Hey Friends,

After the successful 2013 upgrade, We have another 2016 upgrade ready to hit the IT world.
As of now, I have many customer asking me the reason for the upgrade.

Why should I upgrade to SharePoint 2016?  What values SharePoint 2016 will add to my business?  I am already in SharePoint 2013 and I don’t see many reason to upgrade to SP2016?

Personally i believe there are many reason to consider the upgrade. So let me place all of this out here, the reason for the same.

 

Cloud:

Software industry is changing rapidly and everything is moving towards cloud. Cloud is here to stay and for a longer time.
Microsoft wants their on-premises customers to have presence in the cloud. Even though SharePoint 2013 had some capabilities to connect to cloud, I think SharePoint 2016 it is much better. On-premises customers have better path to connect to Cloud and take advantages of it.

 

Stability:

SharePoint 2016 is lot more stable and lot faster. SharePoint 2016 completely is built on cloud and delivered to on-premises customers. The same product was used by millions of online customers. It is considered as one of the most tested and stable product compared to previous versions of SharePoint. As per Microsoft, SharePoint 2016 will be considered as base code for any future versions of SharePoint.

 

Support:

If you are in Moss 2007 or SP2010, you are not supported any more. Move to SP2016 as soon as possible. SharePoint 2010 is already is in extended Support, a near-death mode that will continue until 2020.

Hybrid:

SharePoint 2016 supports hybrid scenarios where you can connect to Office 365 and use some of the exciting features of Office 365 like Delve, OneDrive for Business, Search, and User Profile etc.

 

Data loss Prevention (DLP):

DLP capabilities protects your data where it is stored, when it is moved, and when it is shared. With this feature, you can monitor if any documents that contains sensitive information like, credit card number, SSN number etc and take appropriate action.
DLP feature comes with no extra cost. That means, you don’t have to rely on 3rd part tools any more. This saves your time and money.

Durable Links:

Durable Links can be big reason to upgrade to SP2016. In file share or earlier versions of SharePoint, if you have the move the file or rename the file, the link is broken. In SharePoint 2016, you can move the document anywhere or rename, your links will not be broken any more. This works for all office documents including PDF. This is feature is very help full, if you have book marked the link or shared the URL with external users.

 

Performance and Patching:

With the introduction of MinRole, Microsoft made sure that, SharePoint servers will run at its optimal performance. This not only makes performance better, patching also becomes easy. Since, in MinRole all the services are hard coded, testing the patch becomes easy. In earlier versions, users had SharePoint farm setup in hundreds of combination and it was impossible for Microsoft test the patch for each combination.

 

Upload and DB size:

Earlier version it was 2 GB. In SP 2016, it is increased to 10 GB and the upload is done using background intelligence service (BITS) protocol rather than HTTP protocol. Also, now content DB supports Terra bytes of data.

 

Fast Site Collection creation:

Creating site collections is much faster. While provisioning a new site collection, it makes a new copy the base template at the database level. That means no feature activation, no code execution.

Hope this may have clear all your questions.

Enjoy :) :)

Workflow Subscription Service to Add Workflow Association to a List

Hi Friend,

In this article we will look into a more obvious issue with SharePoint Designer Workflows, i.e. moving SPD workflows from one list to another within same or a different site.
This article will explain the steps on how to automate the Workflow movements from one location to another.
In order to showcase the scenario, we need to set up the prerequisites and in the next few steps we will work on the same.
We are having a list by the name “Orders” in the Parent Site as shown below:

We will create a workflow in Parent Site [that will be copied to the child site later on], let’s call it “Workflow on Orders in Parent Site” and get it associated with “Orders” List as shown in the steps below:

This is quite a simple Workflow with one step performing Logging Operation.
Once this Workflow Definition is Created and Published, we can get the Workflow ID as shown in the Article 1 of this series.

Here we are all done with configuration on Parent Site.
Now lets move on to the child site, where we have got another List by the name “Workflow Testing” as shown below:

Browse the child site in SharePoint Designer and look for the List ID for “Workflow Testing” List as shown below:

Now look for “Workflow History” and “Workflow Tasks” Lists and verify if they are present and if not we need to create them beforehand.

With this we are all done with setting up the prerequisites for this demo.
Now let take a deep dive in the code base to understand its composition-
1.Specify the Workflow ID which needs to be copied from Parent to Child Site
2.Specify the List ID to which this Workflow needs to be associated in the Child Site.

3.Instantiate Object of Workflow Service Manager Object using Context of Child Site
4.Instantiate Object of Workflow History List in Child Site
5.Instantiate Object of Workflow Tasks List in Child Site

6.Set Workflow Details before copying it to Child Site

• Set Workflow Name
• Specify if the workflow is enabled
• Specify the Workflow Definition ID
• Specify the Workflow Status Column Name
• Specify the Target List ID
• Specify supported Event Types

7.Setting Workflow Properties

• Setting Workflow List IDs
  • Task List
  • History List
• We need to Set “FormData” property to blank if we don’t want to set any specific value, but must set this property.

8.Finally call “publishSubscriptionForList” function of Workflow Subscription Service to get the workflow published on to the target list.

Once this code gets execute without error, sure enough we will get the workflow created in the child site and associated with the specified list.
Following are the steps that we can take to verify if the Workflow is copied and associated as expected on the Child Site:
1.Browse the Child Site and navigate to the Workflows section and see if we get “Workflow on Orders in Parent Site” workflow created

2.Browse the Child Site in Browser and navigate to the “Workflow Testing”, see if Workflow Status Column with the Name “Demo Subscription Added” is created.

3.Start the workflow on any Item in the list and see if it is working as expected.



Hope this article provides you a brief idea on how can we make use of Workflow Subscription Services to add the Workflow Association to a specific list.

Helpful URL & Location on SharePoint

Hi Friends,

One more helpful blog to SharePoint.

Going to Site Setting and realizing that option is not available may be nightmare for some of us sometimes.

So please check the below URL for the same.

1. Sign in as a different user
/_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true

2. Change Site Master Page
/_layouts/ChangeSiteMasterPage.aspx

3. Page Layouts and Site Templates
/_Layouts/AreaTemplateSettings.aspx

4. User Information List:
_catalogs/users
_catalogs/users/simple.aspx

5. Sandboxed Solution Gallery:
/_catalogs/solutions/Forms/AllItems.aspx

6. All site content page (Site content):
/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx

7. Site settings page:
/_layouts/settings.aspx

8. Site collection features(CASE SENSITIVE):
/_layouts/ManageFeatures.aspx?Scope=Site

9. Site features:
/_layouts/ManageFeatures.aspx

10. Get the version of the SharePoint server (Patch level):
/_vti_pvt/Service.cnf

11. Web Part Maintenance Page:
?Contents=1

12. Save Site as a template
/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx

13. Master Pages library
/_catalogs/masterpage/Forms/AllItems.aspx

14. Master Page Gallery
/_catalogs/masterpage

15. Site Column Gallery
/_layouts/mngfield.aspx

16. Site Content Types
/_layouts/mngctype.aspx

17. Managed Metadata (Subset used terms on site)
http(s)://[url]/Lists/TaxonomyHiddenList/AllItem.aspx

18. Test Sample Page (If trouble with username in site)
http(s)://[url]/_catalogs/users/simple.aspx

19. Site Manager (Site Structure)
/_layouts/sitemanager.aspx

20. Site Navigation
/_layouts/15/AreaNavigationSettings.aspx

SharePoint Admin Interview Question

Most Common SharePoint Interview Question

1. What is SharePoint ?
 
 Answer: SharePoint is a web application platform in the Microsoft Office server suite or SharePoint is a browser-based collaboration and document management platform from Microsoft.

2. What are Zones:
 
Answer: Different logical paths (URLs meaning) of gaining access to the same SharePoint web applications.
 
Five Zones: 
Internet

Intranet
Default
Extranet
Custom

 

 3. What is a Site Collection ?
 
Answer: A site collection contains a top-level website and can contain one or more sub-sites web sites that have the same owner and share administration settings.

4. What are content databases ?
Answer: A content database can hold all the content for one or more site collection.

5. What is a site? 

 Answer: A site in SharePoint contains Web pages and related assets such as lists, all hosted within a site collection.

6.   What are Web Applications in SharePoint?
 
Answer: An IIS Web site created and used by SharePoint 2010. Saying an IIS virtual server is also an acceptable answer.

7. What is an application pool?
 
A group of one or more URLs that are served by a particular worker process or set of worker processes.

8. Why are application pools important?

They provide a way for multiple sites to run on the same server but still have their own worker processes and identity.

9. What are My Sites?

Specialized SharePoint sites personalized and targeted for each user.

10. What is the difference between Classic mode authentication and Claims-based authentication?

As the name implies, classic authentication supports NT authentication types like Kerberos, NTLM, Basic, Digest, and anonymous. Claims based authentication uses claims identities against a against a trusted identity provider.

11. What is Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint ?

SharePoint 2010 provides a new set of technologies known as Business Connectivity Services for retrieving, editing,updating, and deleting data from external systems(for e.g. data from ERP or CRM database). BCS enhances the SharePoint platform’s capabilities with out-of-box features, services and tools that streamline development of solutions with deep integration of external data and services.

12. How is BCS Different from BDC in SharePoint ?

Even though the BDC made it relatively easy to create read-only solutions that display data in the Business Data List Web Part, it was not so simple to create a solution that enabled users to make changes and write that data back to the external store.BCS, on the other hand, provides you with Read-Write capable connectivity from Client and Server to Database, WCF/Web Services and .Net Sources. A Developer can now use SharePoint Designer 2010 and VS 2010 rapid development tools to access

external data. 

13. What is CAML?

CAML is Collaborative Markup Language.

it is a XML based Language used in SharePoint Foundation to define fields and views used in sites and lists.

 14. What are Webparts?

By using web parts, you can modify the content, appearance, and behavior of pages of a SharePoint site by using a browser. Web parts are server-side controls that run inside a web part page: they're the building blocks of pages that appear on a SharePoint site. 

15. What is the Lifecycle of Webpart? 

Oninit
OnLoad
CreateChildControl
EnsureChilControl
SaveViewState

OnPreRender
Page.PreRenderComplete
Render
RenderContents
OnUnload    

16. What is Content Type Hub?

A Centralized site collection on which we will create all our site columns and Content Types and through the Managed Metadata Service Application, these Content Types can be used across our SPFarm. i.e., other site collections can use these content types. Read More about Content Type Hub 

17. What is Cross Site Publishing?

Cross-site publishing feature is used to store and maintain content in one or more authoring site collections and display the content in one or more publishing site collections. 

18. What are the Step involved in Configuring SSL Certificate

Create Self Signed Certificate on IIS 8

Import Self Signed Certificate to SharePoint Store

Add this Self Signed Certificate to trust Management in CA

Configure IIS Binding

Configure AAM Settings.

19. What is Minimal Download Strategy is SharePoint 2013 ?

Minimal Download Strategy is a new technology in SharePoint 2013, which reduces the total amount of Data that browser has to download, when user navigate from one page to another page. When MDS is enabled, the client processes only the difference between the current page and the requested page.

Example:

http://<your site url>/_layouts/15/start.aspx#/SitePages/test.aspx

If MDS is disabled, the above page URL will be

http://sp_site/SitePages/test.aspx

 20. What is Blob Cache?

Disk-based Caching for Binary Large Objects
Disk-based caching controls caching for binary large objects (BLOBs) such as image, sound, and video files, as well as code fragments. Disk-based caching is extremely fast and eliminates the need for database round trips. BLOBs are retrieved from the database once and stored on the Web client. Further requests are served from the cache and trimmed based on security.

  

21.What are the types of Mas ter Pages in SharePoint 2010

V4.master

Default.master

minimal.master

simple.master

  

22. Difference between Farm solution and sandbox solution

Farm Solutions:

·         Hosted in the IIS worker process (W3WP.exe), run code that can affect the whole farm.

·         If you deploy any feature or retract any feature the whole application pool got recycled.

• Since they are scoped as farm level, they have full trust access to all the resources.
• When the Sand boxed Solution property is set to False, selecting Build\Deploy will deploy the solution to the Farm Solution Gallery.
• Farm solutions are installed and deployed

Sandboxed Solutions:

• Sand boxed solutions are hosted in the SharePoint user code solution worker process (SPUCWorkerProcess.exe).
• It never restart the IIS application pool
• Scoped at Site collection level
• When the Sandboxed Solution property is set to True, selecting Build\Deploy Solution deploys the solution to the site collection Solution Gallery.
• Sandboxed solutions are uploaded and activated.
• We can't create Application pages in Sandbox solutions.Beacuse Application pages are stored in the 14\TEMPLATES\_LAYOUTS and when we deploy as sandbox we don’t have permissions to the physical folder.
• We can’t create VISUAL web parts in Sandbox solutions.
• We can’t use code to connect to the external web services or to database
• Visual Studio attaches the debugger to the SPUCWorkerProcess process that the SPUserCodeV4 service in SharePoint automatically triggers and controls

 23. Steps for configuring incoming outgoing email setting 
 

Install the SMTP service
Configure the SMTP service
Set the SMTP service to start automatically
Configure outgoing email for a farm by using Central Administration

Configure Incoming.
 

24. what is the difference between Site template and site defination

Site Template : The first option for getting the SharePoint Designer changes beyond the current site is to take the site you have modified with SharePoint designer and save it as a template. You can download the template and upload this to another site collection and can create a site based on this template. Whenever you need a new site you can create it from the site template you have created.

Site Defination : Site Definitions are the foundations on which all sites and user templates are built. 

Site Definition is collection ox XML and .aspx file.

Site Definitions are predefined components needs to be included when a site was created inSharePoint server.

Site Definition contains information of Web Part , Lists, Features and navigation bars to be included in the site.

25. Powershell command for Backup and Restore

Backup-spsite  -Identity http://dotnetsharepoint  -path C:\TestBackup.bak

Restore-SPSite -Identity http://dotnetsharepoint  -path C:\TestBackup.bak 

26. Steps for SharePoint Installation

1. Run Microsoft SharePoint product preparation tool 

(After you complete SharePoint Product preparation tool, you can also install Patches)

2. Run Setup which will install MS SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Express Edition, and Sharepoint Product.

3. Run Microsoft SharePoint Configuration Wizard, that will install configuration database, content database, SharePoint Central Administration website and it will also install your first Sharepoint Website.

4. Configure Browser Setting

5. Perform Post-Installation Steps.  

27. Steps for SharePoint Migration from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013?

1. Create the SharePoint 2013 farm and configure and tests the environment.
 

Installs the new SharePoint 2013 farm and configure and tests the new environment. Set the SharePoint 2010 Farm to Read Only, so that user continue to have access to the old farm during the upgrade process on the new farm.

 

2. Copy the SharePoint 2010 Product DB.

Backup the Read Only Content DB, Service DB and Config DB on SharePoint 2010 Farm.
Restore a copy of the DB to SharePoint 2013 Farm and sets the DB to Read Write Mode.

3. Upgrade the Product DB and Service Application DB

Configure Service application and Web Application and install all the customization in the old farm to the new farm and then Upgrade the Content DB by using the power shell Command Mount -SPContentDatabase.
Upgrade of DB is Successful.

4. Upgrade the SharePoint Site Collection.
Site owner is the in charge of upgrade on the site collection
  

27. What is managed metadata?

Managed Metadata is a hierarchical collection of centrally managed terms that you can define, and then use as attributes for items in SharePoint 2013.

 28. Powershell Command for Backup and Restore Subsite

 Export-SPWeb http://dotnetsharepoint.com/sites/dotnet/dotnetsharepoint/ –Path "C:\BackUp\DotNetSharePoint.cmp" -includeusersecurity  
               
Import-SPWeb http://dotnetsharepoint.com/sites/dotnet/sharepoint/ -Path "C:\SiteBackUp\DotNetSharePoint.cmp"  -IncludeUserSecurity -Force

28. What is Distributed Cache service

The Distributed Cache service provides caching features in SharePoint Server 2013. The microblog features and feeds rely on the Distributed Cache to store data for very fast retrieval across all entities. The Distributed Cache service is built on Windows Server AppFabric, which implements the AppFabric Caching service. Windows Server AppFabric installs with the prerequisites for SharePoint Server 2013.

The Distributed Cache service, which is built on Windows Server AppFabric Cache, is set to run in a collocated mode on all SharePoint 2013 Servers by default, using up to 10% of the server's total physical memory.

29. What are Device Channels in SharePoint 2013
Ans: With device channels in SharePoint 2013, you can render a single publishing site in multiple ways by using different designs that target different devices for example mobile devices etc.These device channels can each be given a different master page and CSS file to give users a more optimal viewing experience.For more Info see Plan device channels in SharePoint Server 2013 

30. What are the Search Components?

Answer : 

Search component name	Description
Crawl component	Crawls content sources to collect crawled properties and metadata from crawled items and sends this information to the content processing component.
Content processing component	Transforms the crawled items and sends them to the index component. This component also maps crawled properties to managed properties.
Analytics processing component	Carries out search analytics and usage analytics.
Index component	Receives the processed items from the content processing component and writes them to the search index. This component also handles incoming queries, retrieves information from the search index and sends back the result set to the query processing component.
Query processing component	Analyzes incoming queries. This helps optimize precision, recall and relevance. The queries are sent to the index component, which returns a set of search results for the query.
Search administration component	Runs the system processes for search, and adds and initializes new instances of search components.

31. What are the Search Databases?

Answer

Search database name	Description
Crawl database	Stores tracking information and historical information about crawled items such as documents and URLs. It also stores information such as the last crawl time, the last crawl ID and the type of update (add, update, delete) during the last crawl.
Link database	Stores unprocessed information that is extracted by the content processing component and information about search clicks. The analytics processing component analyzes this information.
Analytics reporting database	Stores the results of usage analysis.
Search administration database	Stores search configuration data.