Adding a choice list for User Profile Information within MySites

This issue has come up a couple times recently as a few clients have started to use their MySites more frequently. In one case, they wanted to give users a list of Projects that they were assigned to that users could add themselves. Rather than have the users manually type in the information, leading to typo's and misspellings, I created a custom lookup list within a new Profile Property.

From within the "user profiles and properties" under the Shared Services and Administration home page, click "Add Profile Property".

From the new property screen, enter in the info for name, display name, property type, and then click the check box for "Allow Choice List".

Then further down the page under "Choice List Settings" , select "Defined choice list" and at the bottom you can browse to and upload a file (has to be a CSV file), then you will have your choices listed.

 and now the users will be able to pick from them when editing this property on their "MySites" page:

This new property is indexable and searchable, thus providing greater information about your users.

Microsoft entering Health Care arena with SharePoint

I came across this link via twitter, thanks to @pswider. Microsoft will announce a "HealthVault" software product based on SharePoint (Assuming MOSS here) as a hosted solution. Over the past year I have been involved with several projects in the HealthCare industry using SharePoint and this could be a huge step for Microsoft. Now there will be all sorts of security/privacy concerns about having personal medical data out in the "cloud", and they are valid, but the potential benefits should outweigh those concerns.
Most Hospitals/Medical entities use SharePoint extensively, and if there can be a standardization of the process as well as an easier implementation of the solution (in terms of the documentation and referral process) this will be quickly adopted and become standard all across the industry, after some initial growing pains.

3rd Party Backup Tools for SharePoint

Many clients ask about the capabilities of the native SharePoint backup and that usually leads to the disclosure that while it is an effective tool, it does have some limitations. Most notible is the lack of a true "Item level" restore option without doing a whole restore to another environment and manually moving the data over.

I came across the following site in my travels and needed it again this week for a client to get more info on several available applications. While I have had experience with some specific applications (AvePoint, CommVault, NetApp), there are many others that could be a better fit for your company. This link will take you to the excellent SharePoint Reviews site and specifically to their backup and recovery product reviews.

Again having knowledge of these utilities will ensure you make the correct decision for your particular situation.

SharePoint Mulitple Field (Connected) Lookups

Another project, another roadblock thrown up by SharePoint.
We needed the ability to look up multiple values off of one field-basically we needed a Phone, Fax, email based off of a name. This is where Codeplex comes into play, and the Connected Lookups Solution that Leonid Lyublinski of Microsoft created, fits in with this need.

This solution creates a new Column Type for your list, Connected Lookup Field, that uses the basic lookup functionality and upgrades it considerably. It creates a "Parent Column" that is the reference point for the subsequent "Value Columns". This is what it looks like:


There are some limitations in regards to list size (1000 items seems to be the most it can handle) as well as some nesting issues that Leonid references here.

The Code itself is available for Download from Codeplex here. It is an automated install, very simple to perform, and once it is installed, very easy to use.