SharePoint Forum and SharePoint Forum Web Part

UPDATE:
Please read the latest news about the Discussion Forum Web Part here:
http://www.zimmergren.net/archive/2009/09/01/tozit-sharepoint-discussion-forum-solution-for-wss-3-0-and-moss-2007-released-today.aspx

Enjoy!

A lot of people have been bugging me about the Discussion Forum WebPart I've created for SharePoint (WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 alike, of course). Therefore, I decided to give you some update as to what's going on.

First of all...

The main reason for me being a little more passive with the blog the last couple of (1-3) months is due to the fact that I've had a hell-of-a-lot to do, both professionally and personally.

Sneak peak of the Web Part

Following here, are some screenshots of the current layout of the Forum Web Part which people have been longing for.

Note (nice-to-have): The Web Part is 100% compatible with any theme you choose. If you alter or change the current theme, the Web Part will play along nicely with those changes - as seen in the last screenshot!

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Note: The following screenshot is using the built-in "Petal" theme, with no further modifications to the Web part
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Features of the Web Part

Everything is based on generic SharePoint lists! No databases needed!
Also, the authentication for the forum relies on the authentication-method you're using for your SharePoint installation. Hence you don't need any additional configuration of the Forum Web Part. Just add it to your site and you're done.

Forum, Thread and Post sections
- Any number of forums can be created
- Each forum can contain any number of threads
- Each thread can contain any number of posts
Optimized for performance
- Since a few upgrades in the underlying code, the Web Part now spins like a cat and have been tested for up to 120 000 posts in 10 forums and a huge amount of threads - no problem!
Breadcrumbs
- [Home] - [Forum] - [Thread] - [Post]
- Exist in the header and the footer
Stastistics
- The footer on each page contains stats on the forums including
  - Total number of posts
  - Total number of threads
  - Total number of forums
  - Latest activity
    - Author
    - Date and Time
    - Thread (title with link)
Forum Management
- Create, Edit and Manage existing forums, threads and posts as Administrator
- Management-permissions can of course be given to anyone, using your default SharePoint Groups
Theming
- The Web Part supports all built-in themes
- The Web Part supports most custom-built themes, as long as you're using the default css-classes

SharePointForum.com

Part from being busy with all the aforementioned goodies, we're currently starting up www.sharepointforum.com - which will be the first site to really test the Forum WebPart beauty out before it's thrown into the hands of the people.

SharePointForum.com is an initiative taken by one of my fellow Swedish SharePointians, Daniel Bugday. I joined up with him and together we're bringing SharePointForum up front to be the new Swedish SharePoint User Group - with over 200 registered members already!

During the week to come (this week, and perhaps also the next week) is all about setting up the new hardware we've got for the servers. Once that's done, we're opening the doors to all your people who've already registered - and ofcourse to any number of new members.

Do I need to be a Swede?

Of course you do not need to be a Swede to join our User Group. We've opened the door for everyone, and everyone is invited. In fact, by reading this - consider yourself invited!

Sounds Awesome with a combined SharePoint Forum and User Group - Where do I sign up?

Hold your horsed a week or two, once the new server is up we'll be using a whole new and improved authentication system with a much easier way to manage members - as well as a much more intuitive interface for logging in etc. for you guys!

When we launch for real, I'll be sure to update you :-)

Thanks for tuning in, and as always - any questions per email will be answered, but I prefer you keep them to the comments here :-)

See you around

Technorati Tags: SharePoint, Forum, Forums, SharePointForum, Web Part, MOSS 2007, WSS, User Group

Published: Aug-12-08 | 379 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Forum WebPart, Egypt and new litterature

UPDATE:
Please read the latest news about the Discussion Forum Web Part here:
http://www.zimmergren.net/archive/2009/09/01/tozit-sharepoint-discussion-forum-solution-for-wss-3-0-and-moss-2007-released-today.aspx

Enjoy!

Hi people. As many of you guys already know I'm off to Egypt for a well deserved vacation for 2 weeks now. I'll be back on track June 4th with lots of new material to blog about.

Here's a quick status of all things going on:

SharePoint Forum WebPart

The SharePoint Forum WebPart that I'm currently developing is shaping up, but there's still things that needs to be take care of before I can throw it into the wild. I was hoping to get it out as a beta already, but more prioritized things came up and I had to postpone it a few days.

I promise to get it up and running as soon as I'm back from the pyramids!

Inside the Index and Search Engines: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

I purchased MVP Patrick Tisseghem and Lars Fastrup's latest book, Inside the Index and Search Engines which will cover a lot of the ground when it comes to enterprise search. I've started to read it a bit now, and it's quite well written with many good samples. This will be the only litterature I'm bringing on my vacation to Egypt on monday ;)

Egypt - I'm off for a 2 week vacation by the pyramids

On monday I'm going to Egypt and I'll stay there for 2 weeks on a well deserved vacation. As aforementioned, I'll take on the "inside the index and search engines"-book while down in Egypt during some "lazy hours" and will probably have some nice feedback regarding this book when I'm back.

See you around

See you around when I'm back, with even more material on different topics regarding SharePoint.

Keep up the good work people, and I'll just sip some Mojitos, Egyptian Whiskey and eat some good food for the next two weeks.

Published: May-16-08 | 34 Comments | 0 Links to this post

SharePoint Forums WebPart : What's going on?

Update: This product is available as per this article: http://www.zimmergren.net/archive/2009/09/01/tozit-sharepoint-discussion-forum-solution-for-wss-3-0-and-moss-2007-released-today.aspx

As a follow-up to my previous blogpost: "Forum Web Part for SharePoint" I thought I'd let you know the status of my personal pet-project.

I've been getting alot of feedback regarding the Forum WebPart which is soon to enter it's beta-testing stage. Thanks for the feedback in terms of the comments to my previous blogpost and all the emails I keep getting regarding the SharePoint Forum WebPart.

Status

The status of this project is as follows:

I'm currently trying to get as much done on the SharePoint Forum WebPart as I possibly can on my (few) free hours right now. I've got tons to tend to before I go to Egypt in May (which by the way will be awesome).

I plan to release it for alpha-/betatesting before I go on vacation to Egypt though, and I've been getting some response as to whom might be interested in testing it.
Unfortunately not everyone left their email, which makes it hard for me to contact those individuals.

So if you're not sure, or know that you didn't send over your email but you want to try the WebPart out, add a comment here and include your email. ;)

This is what the SharePoint Forum WebPart currently looks like:

Basic overview of all availible forums
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Basic overview of threads in a forum
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Basic features:

Forum Management

Manage what forums exists (Using the default SharePoint interface)

Thread Management

Manage threads (Using the default SharePoint interface)
Create new threads (Using a custom interface) - ugly as hell

Post Management

Manage posts (Using the default SharePoint interface)
Create new posts (replies) - also ugly as hell :)

Breadcrumbs

[Home] > [Forum] > [Thread]

Forum Statistics

Last post
Last poster
Total posts
Total threads
Total forums

Paging (WebPart Property, meaning you can set this property yourself to a desired amount of items per page)
Theming

Supports all built-in themes
Supports custom made themes
(All styles for the forum is using the built-in SharePoint CSS classes)

etc. etc.

Feedback, suggestions, comments and all of that

This is still a work in progress, and I'd like for YOU to leave a comment with suggestions about functionality, accessibility, usability, usage, features etc.

Thanks for tuning in, see you around!

Published: Apr-28-08 | 1658 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Forum Web Part for SharePoint

People have been requesting a better discussion forum functionality than the one in SharePoint by default. I took that request and made it into a new personal project of mine.

Currently the forum looks like any forum you see on the web, but it's using- and is based entirely on SharePoint and the SharePoint database (no need for additional SQL setups etc).

I can only give you a preview of how it looks so far, there's still some issues to take care of before the first beta will be released for those interested in testing it out.

The Forum WebPart supports theming and therefore you can simply design your own theme, or use a built-in theme in order to modify the look and feel to adjust itself to your SharePoint site.

As seen with one theme
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As seen with another theme
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Feedback please

Some people have requested to be betatesters for this WebPart when it's being published to beta.
If you're interested in being a betatester, please leave me a comment and you'll be one of the first to try it out.

If you've got some comments and/or suggestions in general for a Forum Webpart like this, please leave a comment.

Thanks for tuning in again, see you around!

Published: Apr-15-08 | 68 Comments | 0 Links to this post