We will now look at the setup required on our Exchange server to complete the task; this is the same in Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010.

The first step is to create a new send connector so in Exchange Management Console navigate to Organization Configuration|Hub Transport and click the send connectors tab. In the actions pane on the right click “New send connector”


Enter a descriptive name and select internal from the dropdown list then click next on the next screen you will have to enter the FQDN’s of your SharePoint server.


Click next; on the next screen enter the IP address of your SharePoint server and make sure that Route mail through the following smart host radio button is selected.


Click next; the next page asks about your authentication settings leave this at the default “None” selection.


Click next; At Twynham we have all the Exchange roles on one Exchange box so the next screen asks for the address of the hub transport server which should be picked up automatically during the setup of the send connector but you can add one manually


Click next and then new and finish your send connector for SharePoint is now setup and we can continue to the next step.

We will now look at the setup required on our Exchange server to complete the task; this is the same in Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010.

The first step is to create a new send connector so in Exchange Management Console navigate to Organization Configuration|Hub Transport and click the send connectors tab. In the actions pane on the right click “New send connector”


Enter a descriptive name and select internal from the dropdown list then click next on the next screen you will have to enter the FQDN’s of your SharePoint server.


Click next; on the next screen enter the IP address of your SharePoint server and make sure that Route mail through the following smart host radio button is selected.


Click next; the next page asks about your authentication settings leave this at the default “None” selection.


Click next; At Twynham we have all the Exchange roles on one Exchange box so the next screen asks for the address of the hub transport server which should be picked up automatically during the setup of the send connector but you can add one manually


Click next and then new and finish your send connector for SharePoint is now setup and we can continue to the next step.

We are working on a continuing SharePoint 2010 support project for a group of school one of the features they require is the ability for students to be able to have a drop box to submit their work to teachers, this is a perfect example of the use of mail enabled document libraries in SharePoint so I thought while I am writing this up I may as well share how to setup this function. This post will be divided into five parts:-

1)      Configuring SMTP on the SharePoint Servers
2)      Configuring Exchange 2010 to route mail to SharePoint
3)      Configuring Active Directory
4)      Configuring SharePoint 2010 Central Admin
5)      Document Library Configuration

Configuring the SMTP service on SharePoint 2010

The first step we need to do in the setup is to add and configure the SMTP service on one of our SharePoint web front end servers. I will be setting this up on a farm configuration with 2 web front end servers and 1 application server.

The SMTP service is vital for mail flowing into SharePoint so your first port of call is to log onto your chosen SharePoint server and open server manager and navigate to features here we can add the SMTP service



As you can see from the illustration below after the service is installed the server MAY require a restart in my case this was not needed but it may be needed on your server so please be aware that you may have to have some down time in your setup so plan accordingly.




As you can see from the illustration above the setup of the service is now complete and no restart was required. The next step is to configure the service through IIS manager on the server, for this you will need to use IIS manager 6 here at Twynham we install this role during the setup of our servers but you may not, if not installed open Server manager|Roles|Add Roles|IIS 6 Management Compatibility through this interface which you can see below we can manage SMTP



Right click on SMTP Virtual Server and choose properties once open click on the access tab and then click the Authentication button “Anonymous Access” should be ticked.



Next step click OK and then click the Connection button and ensure that “All except the list below” radio button is selected and click ok



The final button to click is the relay button and make sure that “Only the list below” radio button is selected and also make sure that you see a tick in “Allow all computers which successfully authenticate to relay regardless of the list above”



You can also fine tune the permissible message size by going into the messages tab this could be crucial for students sending in attachments via email so please make sure this is set to a reasonable limit.



You will find that all the settings are pre-set out of the box the only setting that you will really need to check is the Start-up type on the SMTP service by default this is set to manual so obviously change this to automatic



"A quick Note from the field is that I have found that if you restart your exchange server you will need to restart the SMTP service on your SharePoint servers, we route our internal mail from an ISA server to Exchange 2010 and this needs to be done after each restart of the Exchange box.”

In this article I am showing you how to set limit for SharePoint 2010 site collection using Quota Template. Here I am using Power Shell to define Quota Template.

A quota Templates defines the storage limit for the maximum amount of data that can be stored in a site collection.

When the site collection reaches the Quota template defined by Administrato, it triggers an e-mail alert to the site collection administrator. Quotas can be saved as quota templates so that we can apply them to any site collection in a SharePoint farm.

Create Quota Template

1. On the Start menu, click All Programs.

2. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

3. Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

4. At the Windows Power Shell command prompt type the following command:



5. You will get a Power shell command prompt like below



The Syntax to create Quota Template is as shown

$Customquota = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPQuotaTemplate
$Customquota.Name = "ProjectQuota"
$Customquota.StorageMaximumLevel = 1048576
$Customquota.StorageWarningLevel = 524288
$Service = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService]::ContentService
$Service.QuotaTemplates.Add($Customquota)
$Service.Update()

- Name - You have to give the Quota Template name as string value.

- StorageMaximumLevel –Is the maximum size for your site collection(In Bytes).

- StorageWarningLevel-Will give email message if the Quota template reaches the value specified in this column(In Bytes)

Please find the command in action



To change the quota template for a site collection by using Windows Power Shell.

The Syntax Change the Quota Template for a site collection.

Set-SPSite -Identity "Site URL" -QuotaTemplate "Template Name"

- Site URL- is the URL of the site collection whose quota template you want to change.

- Template Name -is the name or GUID of the replacement template. 

Sharepoint Document Management is among the most well-respected and reputed of all document management systems. The proper and organized management of documents is essential to the success of any business. Sharepoint is one of the better systems designed to help companies expertly manage their documents.

Sharepoint gives organizations the tools to handle day-to-day operations with programs that they are already familiar with, for instance, Microsoft Office applications such as Word and Outlook. Sharepoint also supports every stage of the document life cycle.

ASPHostCentral.com, as one of the SharePoint 2010 Hosting Providers, proudly confirms that we do support both SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Server Hosting.



During the document management planning process, companies tend to follow certain steps. They often times first determine document management roles. This will generally involve determining who in the organization will be involved in the document management process and in what role. Sharepoint can help individuals identify who these employees will be. This can be especially helpful for companies or executives who don’t have much experience in this regard.

Next, it will be necessary for organizations to figure out what documents will be needed. These will include forms used daily and those that will only be used sparingly. Again, companies will find that Sharepoint will walk them through this process.

The proper organization of documents is important to every company. When it is done correctly and in a way that is intuitive to those who will be using the documents, life becomes much easier for everyone involved. Using Sharepoint, companies will find that they are able to organize documents in a variety of ways including document libraries and records repositories, amongst others.

In addition to the aforementioned, companies will also find that they are able to organize documents based on content type (policies, metadata, workflow processes, etc.). This helps create much needed consistency when it comes to the management of a company’s documents, which is extremely important. Having a document management system in place which that makes accessing and working with documents easy, will help companies save both time and money. Workflow planning, content control and the development of information management policies are also made possible using Sharepoint.

Overall, Sharepoint is a very good document management system. The proper management of documents is crucial to the smooth running of an office or organization. Document sharing, collaborative authoring, archiving and keeping confidential documents protected are just a few of the document management capabilities Sharepoint offers users. Companies in need of a quality system to manage their documents should consider it. It will require that a company own certain hardware and software programs, which is something that will need to be taken into consideration before a company opts to use it as their document management system

You can provision managed metadata column into the content type.

You need to add the “Metadata” column into the site columns and content type using element xml file, and also need to connect the field to metadata column in the feature activation.

Here is the solution:

1.    You need to add a new field element of the type “TaxonomyFieldType”. 

<xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
 <Field ID="{46138ADB-1778-4E05-8371-114006F725A0}"
    Type="TaxonomyFieldType"
    DisplayName="Locations"
    ShowField="Term1033"
    Required="TRUE"
    EnforceUniqueValues="FALSE"
    Group="_Custom"
    StaticName="Locations"
    Name="Locations"
     />
</Elements>

2.    Add this filed to the content type, just need to add a new “FieldRef”

<FieldRef ID="{46138ADB-1778-4E05-8371-114006F725A0}" Name="Locations"/>

3.    Now we have to connect this field to managed metadata service(MMS).

For this we need to create an event receiver for the feature. Right click on the feature  and select “Add event receiver”.
Uncomment the “feature activate” code and replace it with the following code.  

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
 {    
              SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite;    
             Guid fieldId = new Guid(“{46138ADB-1778-4E05-8371-114006F725A0}"   
             if (site.RootWeb.Fields.Contains(fieldId))
             {
                       TaxonomySession session = new TaxonomySession(site);        
                       if (session.TermStores.Count != 0)
                       {            
                            var termStore = session.TermStores["Managed Metadata Service"];            
                            var group = termStore.Groups.GetByName("Locations Group");            
                            var termSet = group.TermSets["Towns"];                    
                           TaxonomyField field = site.RootWeb.Fields[fieldId] as TaxonomyField;           
                           field.SspId = termSet.TermStore.Id;            
                           field.TermSetId = termSet.Id;            
                           field.TargetTemplate = string.Empty;            
                           field.AnchorId = Guid.Empty;            
                           field.Update();        
                      }   
                }
} 

This method will check if the field has been deployed. We used Guid to retrieve the filed as defined in the XML.  Your term store group definition should look like this.                              

If it is different then you need to change the “group name” and “term set” name in the feature activation according to your MMS environment.

Now you deploy your content type and can test it by creating a new list from that content type.

The result with the metadata column is shown in the below picture.

1. Change the top site to the theme of your choice using the normal method in Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Theme.
2. Navigate to the top site to see the newly applied theme.
3. View the HTML source of the SharePoint page using the theme you want.
4. Look for a link tag containing the .css file for the applied theme.  It will look something like this:
   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" id="onetidThemeCSS" href="/apps/afe/_themes/Belltown/Bell1011-65001.css?rev=12%2E0%2E0%2E4518"/>
5. Copy the href value to your clipboard or to a text file if you like.  It should look something like:
   /apps/afe/_themes/Belltown/Bell1011-65001.css
6. On your top level site, go to the Site Actions > Site Settings > Master Page screen.
7. Scroll to the bottom where the Alternate CSS URL section is.  Select the "Specify a CSS file..." option.
8. Paste the path copied from the href above into the text box.
9. Check the Reset all sub-sites to inherit this alternate CSS URL option.
10. Click OK.
11. Navigate to your sub-sites and verify the theme has been applied.

This topic explains the article about SharePoint 3. In case, you are looking for SharePoint 3, you can always consider ASPHostCentral and you can start from our lowest Standard Plan @4.99/month to host your SharePoint site.

What’s New?
There are a lot of new features in Windows SharePoint Services v3. The first thing that most Mac users will notice is an updated user interface that renders much better on the Mac in both Firefox and Safari. The new templates render well and you'll notice better performance when you are customizing your sites and pages from the Mac.

Windows SharePoint Services v3 ships with 6 standard site templates. These templates include some of the site types your familiar with from v2, plus a could of new ones:

- Document Workspace
- Team Site
- Blog
- Wiki
- Meeting Workspace
- Blank Site

The two most commonly used templates are probably the Document Workspace and the Team Site.

A Document Workspace essentially acts as a very smart folder, which supports collaboration on one or more shared documents and supporting files. The Document Library folder supports check in/checkout and versioning and the site features a Task list and a Links list that a group can use to track assignments and progress on the document.

A Team Site is very similar to a Document Workspace, but the scope is usually wider, serving the needs of a larger group of individuals. Team Sites feature a Document Library, an Announcements List, a Calendar, Contacts and a Quick Links list by default.

The Blog site is a new feature in Windows SharePoint Services v3. A blog is simply a list of stories posted with the latest item at the top of the list. This makes it easer for readers to scan a list they've seen for the latest news from the blog. The Blog site in SharePoint v3 also features an RSS feed and the ability for others to comment on blog posts. This ability to comment on posted items allows for the exchange of ideas between the author of the blog and the readers and even between the readers themselves.

Another new site template in SharePoint v3 is the Wiki site. A wiki is a site that allows any authorized user to edit a page quickly and easily. One of the features of the wiki that make it a powerful tool for collaboration is the ability to instantly create a new page based on a term in the current page. Adding double brackets around a word in a paragraph creates a hotlink to a new page in the wiki. Wikis work well as sites where group knowledge is stored and retrieved. For example, you can use a wiki to store information about configuring machines on the network. As the information around that topic changes, admins and users can update the data on the pages of the wiki so that the information is always up-to-date. Wikis can also be used for brainstorming, research, and for planning. Individuals and groups can use a wiki to store meeting notes and other textual information that needs to be updated on a regular basis. SharePoint v3 wiki pages work well on both the PC and the Mac, but only the PC version running in Internet Explorer features a WYSIWYG editor. Users writing to a SharePoint wiki on the Mac will need to use simple HTML markup for formatting and linking.

A Meeting Workspace is a site used to track meeting notes and schedules. At launch SharePoint v3 is scheduled to provide 5 different workspace types.

Finally, the Blank Space is just that, it's blank. This means that you can start a site with just the content you want.

New Content
The version 3 SharePoint sites features an updated Create Page where you can add many of the features I've mentioned already to an existing site. This means you can add additional Document Libraries, Wiki pages, tracking calendars, and even sub-sites to an existing SharePoint site.

The content page types that can be added to a SharePoint v3 site are broken into 5 categories; Libraries, Communications, Tracking, Customer Lists, and Web Pages.

Library types include the Document Library, the Form Library, the Wiki Page Library and the Picture Library. The only library type that might prove difficult for Mac users to use is the Form Library. Form Libraries depend on features found in Microsoft InfoPath, which isn't available on the Mac. The other library types should work fine, except in cases where functionality is dependent on an ActiveX control, for example, when you want to export a list to a spreadsheet.

Communications page types include Announcements, Contacts, and Discussion Boards. Of these, the Discussion Boards feature is interesting in that the boards created in SharePoint v3 have the look and feel of modern web discussion boards and the interface is easy to use from the Mac.

The Tracking page types include Links, Calendars, Tasks, Issue Tracking and Survey pages. One of the most exciting new features of SharePoint version 3 is the Project Tasks tracking page type. This new page type provides a Gantt Chart view that allows you to instantly see the status of items in a project list. This is a great feature for users managing small projects and it works well on the Mac

A Typical Workflow
The workflow is very similar in SharePoint v3, but the user interface is different so it's probably worth walking through a typical document sharing workflow from the Mac. The document workflow for SharePoint v3 is fairly straightforward and consists of the following steps. In our example, we'll add a new Microsoft Word file to a document library from the Mac.

1. Create your new document in Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac and save it somewhere on your local machine.

2. In your SharePoint v3 document library, click upload and use the Upload Document page to add the file you created in Word to the SharePoint document library.

3. The document is now available in the SharePoint document library.

To modify this file, a Mac user should follow these steps to ensure that the file is locked while they work on it and is then updated properly on the SharePoint site.

1. Check out the file by mousing over the file name in SharePoint and click Check Out in the dropdown menu.

2. Click on the file name to download the file to the Mac.

3. Work on the file in Word and save your work.

4. Click Upload in the SharePoint document library to open the Upload Document page.

5. Use the browse button to add the document to the Name text box and make sure that the Add as a new version to exiting files checkbox is checked.

6. Click OK.

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