No-Code SharePoint 2010 Solutions Webinar Q & A

This webinar included several live demonstrations and discussed:

• Designing and documenting the farm infrastructure to support your application
• Installing and configuring SharePoint without writing code
• Building and customizing your site hierarchy
• Creating and managing custom lists
• Custom branding site collections
• Managing site and list security
• Automating your business processes with workflows
• Best Practices for building a repeatable, no-code installation

This webinar demonstrated how to build and deploy business applications from the ground up in SharePoint 2010 using SharePoint Composer, SharePoint Maestro and SharePoint Designer without writing code. Learn tips, shortcuts and best practices for creating your own no-code business solutions.

Webinar presented by:

SharePoint MVP Paul P. Stork
and
SharePoint MVP '04 Jim Duncan

• Question: Will a recorded version of the webinar be made available? I am really interested in your Composer and Maestro products for our custom setups for clients.
  
  Answer: Yes, it is available here
  Note, if you experience issues with the low-res recording, please try the hi-res version for best viewing.
  
  
• Question: Will the presentation slides and demos be made available?
  
  Answer: The presentation is available here and the link to the recorded demos is provided above.
  
  
• Question: When will Composer & Maestro be released?
  
  Answer: October 11, 2010.
  
  
• Question: How do I register for the next webinar?
  
  Answer: Please follow the link to register for our next webinar entitled SharePoint 2010 Readiness; Technology & Business Preparation for Enterprise Implementation
  
  
• Question: How can I reach your Sales staff? We have SP 2007 and need your help.
  
  Answer: Please visit our contact page.
  
  
• Question: Can you email me links to this and your previous 2-3 webinars please?
  
  Answer: These can be found on the “Resources” menu above.
  
  
• Question: Are you going to have any more webinars on SharePoint Designer and/or can we see a previously recorded webinar on this?
  
  Answer: Although we don’t have any additional webinars on SharePoint Designer currently scheduled we expect to have additional webinars on SPD in the future. You can find links to previous Webinars on the “Resources” menu above. If you have specific requests for topics please go to our contact page and send in your suggestion using the description field.
  
  
• Question: Does composer work with Microsoft BPOS SharePoint i.e. hosted SharePoint?
  
  Answer: You can definitely use Composer to plan and document your site structure in a BPOS installation. However, the server infrastructure provided by Microsoft for BPOS/SharePoint Online Standard is a shared infrastructure and doesn’t support third party products to build out the farm. Microsoft does provide an avenue for the installation of custom solutions on BPOS/SharePoint Online Dedicated. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, ShareSquared is in a great position to work with Microsoft towards making Maestro available to customers using the Dedicated BPOS/SharePoint Online offering. We will be pursuing this option in the near future.
  
  
• Question: Do you need Mind Manager?
  
  Answer: For Composer - yes, in the current version. Maestro does not require the Mind Manager UI, however it uses XML files that are exported from Composer (Mind Manager). We plan to remove this requirement in the next major version of Composer.
  
  
• Question: Does any of this apply to small/medium businesses or is it really an enterprise app with high pricing?
  
  Answer: We believe Composer and Maestro will provide excellent value for a small or medium business (SMB) by providing better management of the installation process. Without Composer and Maestro, SMBs either need to accept the limitations and assumptions built into the SharePoint Configuration Wizards or navigate the steep learning curve of PowerShell scripting. We also believe the pricing aligns well with SharePoint pricing and is within the reach of small/medium businesses. For more information please see the SharePoint Composer site
  
  
• Question: SharePoint doesn't use Model database. What is the auto-growth for your databases?
  
  Answer: Currently, Maestro uses the native SharePoint database provisioning methodology by default. This means that SharePoint and SQL Server provide the default values for initial database/log size and autogrowth settings. SharePoint does provide an option to allow the database administrator to pre-create the databases with the desired settings and Maestro will honor that method, making use of databases that already exist (along with the size and growth settings of said databases).
  
  
• Question: Is there a way to back out the changes done by SharePoint Designer?
  
  Answer: As mentioned during the webinar, one of the enhancements in SharePoint Designer (SPD) 2010 is that most actions don’t lead to customized files like they do in SPD 2007. Like SPD 2007 there is an extensive UNDO capability accessed using [Ctrl][Z] until you close the application.
  
  
• Question: How can we migrate the changes done by SPD in dev/test to production?
  
  Answer: SPD 2010 is still primarily designed to be a tool used by business users in a production environment. One new option available for migrating changes made in SPD from dev to test to production would be to save the site as a Site Template in SPD. This will create a .WSP solution file that can be imported into Visual Studio. Once imported it can be modified and re-packaged for deployment to a different environment.
  
  
• Question: If I have already created your 2010 farm, can I use composer to document settings and use maestro to scale-out farm if and when the time arrives?
  
  Answer: On initial launch, Maestro will be able to generate a map of a WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 farm. Shortly after launch we will be releasing an update to Maestro that will include the ability to generate maps of SharePoint 2010 farms. With the map of your existing farm in hand you can model a scale-out with Composer and implement the scale-out with Maestro.
  
  
• Question: Does composer have the capability to "inhale" the current 2007 settings and display map?
  
  Answer: The short answer is “Yes”, however it is actually Maestro running on one of the servers that will inspect the farm and generate an XML file for import into Composer where the map is displayed.
  
  
• Question: Could I use Maestro to build test and development environments, based on a production "map"?
  
  Answer: Definitely. You would of course need to modify the map (or XML) to reflect the differences between the environments, such as domain and/or server names. But being able to easily replicate environment settings is one of the primary goals of Composer and Maestro.
  
  
• Question: We want to deploy a brand new SharePoint 2010 without migrating our 2007. What would be the best approach and how to move just the 2007 content?
  
  Answer: After building out your new SharePoint 2010 farm you could use a “Database Attach” upgrade method to bring in your content [databases] from your 2007 farm. More information about upgrading can be found in this blog post or by watching the recorded of our previous webinar on SharePoint Readiness
  
  
• Question: Which tool was use to implement SP without writing code?
  
  Answer: SharePoint Composer was used to plan, design, and document a SharePoint farm without writing any code. Maestro was used to build (implement) the farm without writing any code. SharePoint Designer was used to customize and extend SharePoint without writing any code.
  
  
• Question: Can you use SP Designer 2010 with SP 2007?
  
  Answer: SharePoint Designer (SPD) 2010 can only be used to edit SharePoint Foundation or SharePoint Server 2010 sites. You cannot edit previous versions or non-SharePoint web sites. SharePoint Designer (SPD) 2007, which can be installed on the same computer as SPD 2010, can be used to edit these environments.
  
  
• Question: Using BCS with Oracle DB's, any detail on how to leverage that feature? Will the implementation be similar to what was shown in the demo?
  
  Answer: BCS in SharePoint Designer (SPD) 2010 cannot directly create an external content type for an Oracle database. To do that you will need to create and import an XML file that specifies an ODBC connection to the Oracle database by using Central Administration. Once imported you could use the resulting External Content Type in SPD 2010 to create an External List.
  
  
• Question: Will you have 24/7 technical support for SharePoint Composer & Maestro?
  
  Answer: These are design and deploy products that are not ordinarily used in time-critical situations however, we will have premium support packages that cover this type of support on a pre-paid basis. Basic support will be provided on our forums.
  
  
• Question: Does SharePoint Composer provide a daily/weekly/xxx full farm backup option?
  
  Answer: SharePoint Composer does not currently provide options for configuring backup so you should use other methods to configure backup. There is no built-in scheduling system for backups. To schedule a backup, we recommend that you create a backup script by using Windows PowerShell, and then use the Windows Scheduling service to run it on a regular basis.
  
  
• Question: Which version of MindMap do you need?
  
  Answer: SharePoint Composer supports MindManager versions 8 and 9.