10 January, 2013

Workflows in SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Workflow Interview Questions

Q. What is a workflow?
Ans. Workflows are the way an organization functions, a series of actions that correspond to a work process, such as the process for purchase orders. SharePoint 2010 helps you automate these workflows, thereby increasing the efficiency and productivity of the organization.
Q. What are the types of workflow that you can design in SharePoint 2010.
Ans. you can design List Workflows, Reusable List Workflows and Site workflows using SharePoint designer 2010.
Q. What Reusable List Workflows and Site workflows ?
Ans.
Reusable List Workflows -
You can create a reusable list workflow (reusable workflow) in the top-level site in the site collection, and that workflow can be made globally reusable — meaning that the workflow can be associated to any list, library, or content type in the site collection. You can also create a reusable workflow in any subsite in the site collection; this workflow is available for reuse in that particular subsite.
Site workflows - A site workflow is associated to a site — not to a list, library, or content type. So unlike most workflows, a site workflow is not running on a specific list item. Because of this, many of the actions that are available for items not available for site workflows.
Q. Can you modify the Out-of-Box workflows in SharePoint 2010 ?
Ans. In SharePoint 2010, you have an option to customize the Out-of-Box workflows. The four most popular workflows in SharePoint Server 2007 — the Approval, Collect Feedback, Collect Signatures, Publishing Approval workflows — have been completely rebuilt as declarative reusable workflows, meaning that they are now fully customizable in SharePoint Designer 2010.

Q. What are events, actions, conditions and steps?
Ans. Let’s look at this one by one.
Events - An event is what starts or initiates a workflow. Events can also be used to manage the timing of actions within a workflow, such as waiting for the status of an item to change. There are three events that can start a workflow:
* An item is created.
* An item is changed.
* A workflow participant clicks a start button on the SharePoint site.

Actions –
An action is the most basic unit of work in a workflow. SharePoint Designer 2010 provides a set of ready-made, reusable actions for you to incorporate into your workflow.
For example, your workflow can:
* Create, copy, change, or delete list items (including documents).
* Check items in or out.
* Send an e-mail message.
Conditions - When you design a workflow, you can use the workflow editor to create rules that apply conditional logic to SharePoint sites, lists, items and content types. A rule establishes a condition where the workflow performs the associated action only if that condition is true. For example, you can create a rule where the workflow sends a reviewer an e-mail message only if an item is created by a specific person.
Q. What are Parallel and Serial actions ?
Ans. When you have more than one action associated with a condition, the actions can be set up to run at the same time (parallel) or one after another (serial), the default.
Q. What are the Types of forms associated with the workflow ?
Ans. With SharePoint Designer 2010, you can create three types of workflow forms:
Initiation form – An initiation form gathers information from the workflow participant when they start the workflow. It is automatically generated when you create the workflow in SharePoint Designer 2010. Initiation forms are displayed to users when they manually start a workflow on a given SharePoint item. With an initiation form, users can specify additional parameters or information about the workflow as it applies to the given SharePoint item.
Task form –
A custom task form allows workflow participants to interact with tasks in the Tasks list specified for the workflow. With the Custom Task Wizard, you can easily create custom form fields and add them to a custom task form. When you finish designing the workflow, SharePoint Designer 2010 automatically generates the InfoPath or ASP.NET forms for your custom tasks.
Reusable workflow – association form – A reusable workflow, by default, only provides the fields common to all items, such as Created and Modified by. This is because a reusable workflow isn’t by default associated with a list, library, or content type. An association form enables you to associate fields with a reusable workflow so that the fields will be available when you design and run the workflow.
Q. When are these forms get created ? And how do you customize it ?
Ans. SharePoint Designer 2010 automatically generates the forms, but you can customize them by going to the settings page for the workflow, in the Forms section, click the form you want to customize. Workflow forms are either InfoPath or ASP.NET pages. They are stored on the SharePoint site with the workflow source files.
Choose a workflow authoring tool (SharePoint Server 2010)
Workflow Stages

07 January, 2013

Insert a PayPal button in a public-facing webpage: SharePoint 2010.

You can provide a PayPal button on a webpage in your public-facing website. PayPal is an online payment service that provides users with a secure way to send money to you without leaving your site. This form of payment can speed up the delivery of products and services, and also provide secure transactions for both buyers and sellers.
 Note   
  • Before you can add a PayPal button to your site, you must have a PayPal account. To set up a PayPal account, visit the PayPal site.
  • The procedures in this article apply only to public-facing websites and webpages.
When you insert a PayPal button, it’s added in line with existing content:
1.      In your PayPal account, create a new button, and then select and copy the HTML code for your PayPal button.
2.      Open the website in your browser, and then click Member Login on the home page.
3.      On the top-navigation bar in the site, click Website.
4.      In the website, click Web Pages on the Quick Launch.
5.      Click the Pages tab on the ribbon.
6.      Select the check box next to the webpage where you want to add a PayPal button, and then click Edit.
7.      In the webpage, click to locate your cursor where you want to add the PayPal button.
8.      Click the Insert tab and then, in the Gadgets group, click PayPal.
9.      In the PayPal dialog box, paste the HTML code for your new PayPal button.
10. Click OK.
Reference: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-sharepoint-online-enterprise-help/insert-a-paypal-button-in-a-public-facing-webpage-HA101848175.aspx

05 January, 2013

Download SharePoint 2010 books FREE

Some of the most SharePoint 2010 books are listed below. These are popular and useful SharePoint books for developers. You can download SharePoint 2010 books pdf free.

Download link is http://www.wowebook.be/category/sharepoint/

Recovering Linux after Windows Install

It has always been a very common problem among the users when they install Windows after LINUX, The master boot records from the memory are Lost and they are written  for windows only systems, So here is the way to write Master boot records or rather installing grub again so that LINUX gets back to work

1. Boot the Desktop/Live CD.

2. Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal)

3. Start grub as root with the following command:

* sudo grub

4. You will get a grub prompt (see below) which we will use to find the root partition and install grub to the MBR (hd0,0)

* [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For
the first word, TAB lists possible command
completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename. ]

grub>

Type the following and press enter:
find /boot/grub/stage1
Using this information, set the root device:
grub> root (hd0,1)
Install Grub:
grub> setup (hd0)
Exit Grub:
grub> quit

5. Reboot (to hard drive). Grub should be installed and both Ubuntu and Windows should have been automatically detected.

6. If, after installing grub, Windows will not boot you may need to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (That is a small “L” and not the number 1 in menu.lst)

* Open a terminal and enter :
gksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
Or, in Kubuntu:
kdesu kate /boot/grub/menu.lst

Your Windows stanza should look something like this: Tiitle Windows XP/Vista # You can use any title you wish, this will appear on your grub boot menu
rootnoverify (hd0,0) #(hd0,0) will be most common, you may need to adjust accordingly
makeactive
chainloader +1

Differences between Linux and Windows is directory structure

One of the most noticeable differences between Linux and Windows is the directory structure. Not only is the format different, but the logic of where to find things is different.

Introduction
In Windows, you use this format to access a directory D:\Folder\subfolder\file.txt
In Linux, this is the basic format /Folder/subfolder/file.txt

You'll notice that the slashes are forward slashes in Linux versus backslashes in Windows. Also, there is no drive name (C:, D:, etc.) in Linux.
At boot, the ‘root partition' is mounted at /. All files, folders, devices and drives are mounted under /. Though it is not apparent from this example, it is important to note that files and folders in Linux are case sensitive.
/Folder/subfolder/file.txt is not the same as /folder/subfolder/file.txt.

Linux Directory Structure Overview

The Directory Structure in Unix & Linux are a unified Directory Structure where in all the directories are unified under the "/" Root file system. Irrespective of where the File System is physically mounted all the directories are arranged hierarchically under the Root file system.

The Linux Directory Structure follows the "Filesystem Hierarchy Structure (FHS)" maintained by the Free Standards Group although most of the distributions sometimes tend to deviate from the standards.
Let’s have a quick stroll across the different directories under the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Structure.

"/" Root
The Directory Structure starts with the Root file system "/" and is indeed the root directory for the whole structure.The partition where / (the root directory) will be located on a UNIX or UNIX-compatible system.

/boot
The /boot directory contains the Boot loader files including Grub or Lilo, the Kernel, initrd and system.map config files

/sys
This contains the Kernel, Firmware and system related files.

/sbin
Contains the essential System Binaries and System Administration tools essential for the system operation and performance.

/bin
Contains the essential binaries for users and those utilities that are required in single user mode. examples, include cat, ls, cp etc.

/lib
Contains the library files for all the binaries held in the /sbin & /bin directories.

/dev
The /dev directory contains the essential system files and drivers.

/etc
The /etc/directory contain essential System configuration files including /etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf, nsswitch.conf, defaults and network configuration files. These are mostly host specific system and application configuration files.

/home
All the user home directories are held under this directory with the exception of the root home directory which is kept under /root directory. This directory holds users files, personal settings like .profile etc.

/media
A generic mount point for removable media like CD-ROM, USB, Floppies etc.

/mnt
A generic mount point for temporary file systems. This comes handy particularly when troubleshooting from CDROM etc. wherein you might have to mount the Root file system and edit configurations.

/opt
A rarely used directory in Linux for Optional Software Packages. This is extensively used in UNIX OS like Sun Solaris where the software packages are installed.

/usr
A sub hierarchy to the root file system which is a User data directory. This contains user specific utilities and applications. You will again see a lot of important but not critical file systems are mounted. Here you would again find a bin, sbin & lib directory which contains non-critical user and system binaries and related libraries and a share directory. Also found here are the include directory with include files.

/usr/sbin
Contains Non-essential Non-critical system binaries and network utilities.

/usr/bin
Contains Non-Essential Non-critical command binaries for users.

/usr/lib
Library files for the binaries in /usr/bin & /usr/sbin directory.

/usr/share
A platform-independent shared data directory.

/usr/local
A sub hierarchy under the /usr directory which has Local System specific data including user and system binaries and their libraries.

/var
The /var directory is mostly mounted as a separate filesystem under the root where in all the variable content like logs, spool files for printers, crontab,at jobs, mail, running process, lock files etc. Care has to be taken in planning this file system and maintenance as this can fill up pretty quickly and when the FileSystem is full can cause system and application operational issues.

/tmp
A temporary file system which hold temporary files which are cleared at system reboot. There is also a /var/tmp directory which holds temporary files too. The only difference between the two is that /var/tmp directory holds files that are protected at system reboot. In other words, /var/tmp files are not flushed upon a reboot.
Then you have the virtual (psuedo) file system /proc which reside in the memory and is mounted under the Root holding kernel and process stats in text file formats.