When saving a site as a site template (found in Site settings and Site Actions) it will in SharePoint 2010 be saved as a .wsp file and stored in the Site collections solution gallery. This makes it very easy to reuse and redeploy the site template to other site collections or to other farms. It also means that the Site template gallery we had in the previous version is no longer needed or available in SharePoint 2010.

When the solution is saved it will automatically get activated so that if you want to create a new sub site within your site collection the Site template will be available directly after it is saved. So when choosing Site actions and New site it will be available there as seen below.

So what about saving a Site collection as a site template? Well since end users are not able to create Site collections from the UI you need to find a way to apply your new site template without having it to be deployed globally. Microsoft has thought of this so when creating a Site collection from Central administration you have the option to select “select template later”.

This option does not only mean that when browsing to the site the first time you are able to select any of the available templates but you are able to upload a new Site template and by doing that the wsp will be saved in the new Site collection solution gallery. Quite neat isn’t it?

As you can see below, we are browsing to the new site and from there we have the link to our Site collection solution gallery. There we can upload the .wsp-file containing our site template. Next time we browse to the site collection root our new site template will be available under the custom tab.

The first script that is now available only on CodePlex is the Enum-SPContentDatabases script that is made for SharePoint 2007 and helps administrators to get a list of all content databases for all Web applications within a farm. The output format is either xml or csv. The script can now be found here: http://sharepointpsscripts.codeplex.com/releases/view/53114

My original blog post about this is found here: http://mysharepointofview.com/2010/01/enumerate-all-content-databases-using-powershell/

So let’s move on and discuss the latest poll results and the next question.

Last time the questions was: Are you comfortable with you Disaster and Recovery plan?

The results are unfortunately what I expected. Almost one third don’t have one, 38 % says it contain gaps! It’s horrifying that only 23% answers yes to this question. Especially since SharePoint environments now days very often contain business critical information. To bad it’s to often that these Disaster and Recovery questions are first brought up and put on the table first when something bad happens to the environment. Don’t you agree? As long as things works no one complaints. If the farm goes down, well, you will probably hear about it…

So this made me think about how often sensitive or business critical information is actually stored in SharePoint and if any extra precautions are taken or considered when putting that kind of information in there. So, Do you store Business Critical information in SharePoint? And with Isolation I mean in a like separate Site Collection, separate Web application, Web application different application pools etc. to be able to easier restore the information.

For now, you find the information here: http://blogs.technet.com/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2009/04/16/service-pack-2-for-the-2007-microsoft-office-system-due-to-ship-april-28th.aspx’

The last two weeks have been quite hectic and therefore it’s been a while since last time a wrote something here. However, most of the time has been spent on SharePoint end-user education and the finalization of some deployments so I shouldn’t complain I guess. Especially in tough times like this when all newspapers still hve ”financial crisis” written all over the cover each day. But even if the companies are very restricted with their money and careful with investing in new projects I still feel that SharePoint is boiling hot. I (almost) daily get request from companies or get are involved in prestudies and evaluations regarding SharePoint. So I guess that if you are working within the field you know what to spend your time on.

Is that your feeling as well?

In waiting for coming posts I would like to recommend the SharePoint Podshow site (http://www.sharepointpodshow.com/) where the SharePoint MVP’s Rob, Nick and Brett share there knowledge and interviews with other MVP’s and SharePoint related persons. They have now released their 20thshow and they are all worth listening to. I have downloaded them and listen to them on my way to work, an excellent way of starting the day.

But hang on, there will soon be some new posts on PowerShelland we are soon entering a new month with a new fivelist. 

Giddy-up for now!

It should also be mentioned that this function is not for publishing whole sites lists and web parts.

Within short you will notice, more frequent postings, things to download and screencast to watch.

Hope you will enjoy it as much as I will!

Let’s skip the tech-talk for a while, after all the technique is not the tricky part here (or am I just getting spoiled from all great tech-guys that solves all the tricky things for me?)

One of SharePoint’s strengths tends often to be its weakness. What I mean is that SharePoint as a platform offers so many different possibilities that the business (or IT for that matter) doesn’t know where to start. By experience, I’m fully convinced that in more or less every department within a company, no matter what kind of business or size, can improve processes, routines or their way of working with help from a solution built on SharePoint and by that increase the productivity. Because that’s what it’s all about. Increased productivity.

When the IT department decides to change from Windows XP to Windows Vista or to upgrade the Office suite t 2007, the business case is often built on, more secured and stable environment, standardizing or the maintenance agreement from Microsoft or third-party vendors is about to end. But it’s very unusually built on better productivity for the Information Workers, people like you and me.

So, how can SharePoint contribute to increased productivity?
That’s a question with many answers. The first thing we need to do is to listen to the business and understand what causes frustration in their daily work and after that we can look at how best use SharePoint to support their needs.
Is it simpler sharing and access to information or the document management that needs to be better, is it a place to collaborate in projects and work with task lists, calendars and issue tracking? Is it an intranet or extranet solution with possibilities to approve the information with an automated workflow process before it’s released? Maybe the search needs to be improved?

There are surveys that indicates that Information Workers spend as much as 9 hours a week to search for the right information and that 75% of the information is semi or completely unstructured. This is where the productivity can be improved, but the business needs help. They need help to shape their SharePoint environment so that it supports their needs and this is where it so often fails.

What happens is that it creates a gap between IT and the Information Workers. SharePoint is a relatively easy to learn as end user but what’s needed is a common way of working, an overall structure and guideline for how to work with and use the SharePoint environment.

The gap has to be closed and the solution is spelled Governance. A governance function needs to be involved from day on if not your implementation should end up in the same information and structure chaos that you came from.
Another common mistake when implementing a collaboration platform like SharePoint is that the implementation project is compared with how you implement a new application or roll out a new standard client. It does not necessarily have to be more difficult but it is a couple of different questions that needs to be handled. But whenever that is done there is no end to the possibilities, the productivity and the quality will increase.

Hopefully we will see a first beta of the next SharePoint during the end of the first quarter next year. What happens then is left to find out but SharePoint is for sure here to stay.