This is part 2 of a multi part series on how to use Content Types and SharePoint Search to build search solutions. In this series, I am using the case of a Site Directory as the example. If you are looking for the entire series, start with “Stop Using the Property Bag” to understand my point of view. Then read Part 1 to build your content type for this article.

Foundation: Create a Custom List with a Custom Content Type

This is probably the shortest section of the series. It is actually very easy to create a Custom list and associate a content type. It is tricky to find unless you have done it a few times.

In my post Stop Using the Property Bag I outlined my solution for creating a Search Based Site Directory. This is the first in the series directed at implementers for how to accomplish the task using a methodical approach. I present this approach in my sessions on search. It is an iterative 6 step approach to working through a content search project. In the following series of posts, I will use these 6 steps while I create a Search Based Site Directory.

I spend a fair amount of time on SharePoint.StackExchange.com and a very common question there is “How can I search for SharePoint Sites” the most common response, from those of us who like to help, is “Execute a query for ‘ContentClass=STS_Site OR ContentClass=STS_Web’ and you will get a result set of Site Collections (STS_Site) and Webs (STS_Web) that you have access to.” While this answer is technically correct, there is a larger subtext to this routine question. What I find most often is that the real question is “How do I create a searchable catalog of sites, with metadata, to which I have access?” This is where I find the most common response is terrible advice “Use the Property Bag!”. I SCREAM at my monitor “NOOOOOOO!!! Don’t use the property bag. I know you CAN, but it does not mean you SHOULD!” The problem, I find, is that there are many examples and posts on how to use the property bag as a “solution” to this often-asked question and nothing on what I consider the “right way” to answer this question.

Congratulations! You have a new team site. Right there on the home page is that beautiful Getting Started web part. Have you ever thought, “I like the way that looks. I want that for my visitors!”. You start poking around and find that it’s a bit more complicated than you thought. In fact, the “Getting Started” web part isn’t even where you start. In this post, I’ll show you a couple quick tips to create a great looking iconic navigation system for your site. In less than 10 minutes.

I am pleased to announce that I will be teaching Configuring Hybrid Workloads for SharePoint and Office 365 for the World Education Alliance, this partnership of amazing training companies includes Combined Knowledge, Mindsharp and Critical Path Training, the world-wide leaders in SharePoint and Office 365 Training. The course consists of 9 modules and hands on labs covering the most popular Hybrid topics, including:

• Domain Preparation
• Azure Active Directory Synchronization
• Hybrid OneDrive and Sites
• Hybrid Search and On-Premises Search Configuration
• Hybrid Taxonomy
• Hybrid Extranet and External Sharing
• Hybrid Self-Service Site Creation
• Hybrid Auditing
• Monitoring and Troubleshooting the Hybrid Configuration

The course will be presented online June 5^th-7^th for EMEA time zones and June 12^th-14^th for US time zones. You can connect from anywhere and get 10% off with the code: RubysDad

While performing several upgrades for my clients I have encountered all sorts of issues that hinder and even prohibit a content database upgrade. Most of these issues can be traced to a single source, a person with too much permission and too little knowledge (about SharePoint, about programming APIs, about databases, etc.). This is the world of “I know how to do X and since I am an administrator, I’ll do Y.” (See: if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail or the Harbar corollary: “Just because you CAN doesn’t mean you SHOULD.”) The problem, you see, is this is very short sighted. It pushes the problem off to the next poor soul who should deal with the REAL issue that was preventing you from being successful in the first place. In my class Upgrading Your Farm to SharePoint 2016 I cover many of the issues that you may encounter in your upgrade, but today I found one I did not cover, so I figured I’d do a quick post on it. Other tools I have built for InfoPath came from ideas in Brian Cartmel’s post on brute forcing InfoPath with PowerShell automation: PowerShell Automation

Last year I was introduced to the amazing work of Brian Pendergrass, Russ Maxwell, Brent Groom and Eric Dixon in the form of the SRx Core the SharePoint Search Health Reports. This suite of reports was created to help evaluate, monitor and maintain on-premises SharePoint farms by providing DEEP feedback and analysis of the SharePoint Search Service Application. The core is a set of “tests” that you can run collectively or independently and in detail to determine the overall health of your SharePoint Search Service Application (SSA).

I am very proud to announce that my new course, Upgrading Your Farm to SharePoint 2016, is now available on Pluralsight.com!

The class was built based on my experience and that of others with whom I collaborated to ensure that we had a broad range of coverage for the MANY issues we have all seen in the field. Based on that experience, this class is about 60% prevention, auditing and fixing issues before you attempt to upgrade. I always prefer to resolve issues in the current environment before we go into the new environment. In the auditing modules I also show a trick for documenting your farm with Visio.

Now that my new Pluralsight course Upgrading Your Farm to SharePoint 2016 is nearly complete, I thought it would be a good time to get back into blogging about what I have learned along the way. First off, upgrades can take a LONG time. The more you practice and the more you learn (and fix) the better you will become at handling the little issues that inevitably pop up. In my case I created all of the problems that I encountered in my upgrade, so I knew what was coming, and I STILL ran into unexpected problems (I am looking at YOU workflow!).

Years ago I worked for a captivating and motivational man that believed in the BHAG. The Big Hairy Audacious Goal. He did not approach these goals timidly, the way our competitors played safe, waiting and watching others to make the first move. No. He took the initiative, he lead from the front, he set the standard and ultimately was copied by others who claimed to have the same vision. This idea of a BHAG really stuck with me. I am a goal setter, I always have been, small and large, short term and long, I try to take the time to envision where I want to be in the future and then map out a plan to get there. From little goals like “I am going to run in an Official 5k Race” to larger goals like “We are going to produce the best SharePoint Administrator training available on the market”.