SharePoint and Business Intelligence Data
August 4, 2016
Lucky for me one of my dogs is a member of TechTarget. I was able to read “Three Ways to Import Power BI Data into SharePoint.” The headline caught my attention because I had just checked out the wild and crazy assertions Recommind made for importing Encase data into its patented Autonomy IDOL like system. The trick is to pay extra for the connector.
Well, no need to spend more money with SharePoint because it can import data from Microsoft’s own business intelligence systems and even urls. Now before you jump up and down about importing data from urls, keep in mind that urls often present some darned exciting information to users. Importing directly can be a thrilling experience. Make sure you have taken a deep breath and have plenty of space for the exceptions and, of course, the data.
The write up presents two methods which strike me as a bit more straightforward. One can import business intelligence data from Excel. There you do. A SharePoint installation can use Excel data. I am not eager to fiddle with the results of the import because some text, programmatic instructions, and the Fancy Dan formatting can produce interesting results. But, hey, the write up says it works. Set aside some extra time to twiddle the resulting information.
The third approach is more interesting. The use case involves importing “raw data.” Here’s the really clever trick, gentle reader:
The report data can be saved as a comma-separated values file. Now, simply upload the CSV file to a SharePoint list within your team site.
I am not sure my understanding of “raw data” corresponds to information in a report, but what do I know? Not much.
What’s remarkable is that SharePoint, after all these years of hyperbole, does not provide seamless data interchange among Microsoft’s own products. Never fear. When the import does not produce information usable in SharePoint, just call a Gold Certified consultant. That’s a user friendly way to deal with a really unusual task like sharing information with SharePoint.
Ah, Microsoft. Ask Cortana for help in locating an expert who can do the sharing thing.
Stephen E Arnold, August 4, 2016
A Hefty Guide to Setting up SharePoint 2013 Enterprise Search Center
March 8, 2016
The how-to guide titled Customizing SharePoint 2013 Search Center on Code Project provides a lengthy, detailed explanation (with pictures) of the new features of SharePoint 2013, an integration of the 2010 version and Microsoft FAST search. The article offers insights into certain concepts of the program such as crawled properties and managed properties before introducing step-by-step navigation for customizing the result page and Display template, as well as other areas of Sharepoint. The article includes such tips as this,
“Query rules allow you to modify the users keyword search based on a condition. Let’s say when the user types Developer, we want to retrieve only the books which have BookCategory as Developer and if they type ‘IT Pro’, we only want to retrieve the Administrator related books.”
Nine steps later, you have a neat little result block with the matching items. The article outlines similar processes for Customizing the Search Center, Modifying the Search Center, Adding the Results Page to the Navigation, and Creating the Result Source. This leads us to ask, Shouldn’t this be easier by now? Customizing a program so that it looks and acts the way we expect seems like pretty basic setup, so why does it take 100+ steps to tailor SharePoint 2013?
Chelsea Kerwin, March 8, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Concept Searching SharePoint White Paper
October 22, 2015
I saw a reference to “2015 SharePoint and Office 365 State of the Market Survey White Paper.” If you are interested in things SharePoint and Office 365, you can (as of October 15, 2015) download the 40 page document at this Concept Searching link. A companion webinar is also available.
The most interesting portion of the white paper is its Appendix A. A number of buzzwords are presented as “Priorities by Application.” Note that the Appendix is graphical and presents the result of a “survey.” Goodness, SharePoint seems to have some holes in its digital fabric.
The data for enterprise search are interesting.
Source: Concept Searching, 2015
It appears that fewer than 20 percent of those included in the sample (not many details about the mechanics of this survey the data for which was gathered via the Web) do not see enterprise search as a high priority issue. About 30 percent of the respondents perceive search as working as intended. An equal number, however, are beavering away to improve their enterprise search system.
Unlike some enterprise search and content processing vendors, Concept Search is squarely in the Microsoft camp. With third party vendors providing “solutions” for SharePoint and Office 365, I ask myself, “Why doesn’t Microsoft address the shortcomings third parties attack?”
Stephen E Arnold, October 22, 2015
SharePoint Revealed
September 23, 2015
Microsoft SharePoint. It brings smiles to the faces of the consultants and Certified Experts who can make the collection of disparate parts work like refurbished John Harrison clock.
I read “Microsoft SharePoint ECM Suite for Content Management.” The write up explains that SharePoint became available in 2001. The write up does not reference the NCompass Labs’ acqusition or other bits and pieces of the SharePoint story. That’s okay. It is 2015. Ancient history in terms of Internet time. Also, what is content management? Does it include audio, video, and digital images? What about binaries? What about data happily stored on the state of Michigan’s mainframes?
Jack Benny’s Maxwell reminds me of Fast Search’s 1998 approach to information access. With Fast Search inside, SharePoint delivers performance that is up to the Maxwell’s standards for speed, reliability, and engineering excellence.
The write up reveals that SharePoint evolved “gradually.” The most recent incarnation of the system includes a number of functions; specifically mentioned in the article, are:
- A cloud based service
- A foundation for collaboration and document sharing
- A server. I thought there were multiple servers. Guess not.
- A designer component for creating nifty looking user experiences. Isn’t Visual Studio or other programming tool required as well?
- Cloud storage. Isn’t this redundant?
- Search
I prefer a more modern approach to information access. The search systems I use are like a Kia Soul. The code often includes hamsters too.
Here’s what the write up says about search:
Microsoft FAST Search, which provides indexing and efficient search of content of all types.
I like the indexing and “efficient” description. The content of “all types” is interesting as well.
How well does Fast Search in its present incarnation handle audio and video? What about real time streams of social media like the Twitter fire hose? You get the idea. “All” is shorthand for “some” content.
I am not captivated by the whizzy features in SharePoint and its content management capabilities. I am not thrilled with building profiles of employees within an organization. I am pretty relaxed when it comes to collaboration. Phones work pretty well. Email is okay too. I work on documents alone and provide a version for authorized individuals to review. I need no big gun system necessary needed. Just a modern one.
What about Fast Search?
Let me highlight a few salient points:
- The product originated in Norway. You know where Trondheim is, right? Oslo? Of course. Great in the winter too. The idea burst from academia prior to 1998, when the company was officially set up. That makes the architecture an agile, youthful 17 years old.
- In 2008, Microsoft paid $1.2 billion for a company which was found wanting in its accountancy skills. After investigations and a legal proceeding, the company seems to have had revenues well below its reported $170 million in 2007. Until the HP Autonomy deal, this was a transaction that helped fuel the “search is a big payday” belief. At an estimated $60 million instead of $170, Microsoft paid about 20 times Fast Search’s 2007 earnings. After the legal eagles landed, the founder of Fast Search found himself on the wrong end of a court decision. Think lock up time.
- Fast Search is famous for me because its founder told me that he was abandoning Web search for the enterprise search market. Autonomy’s revenue seemed to be a number the founder thought was reachable. As time unspooled, the big pay day arrived for Google. Enterprise search did not work out in terms of Google scale numbers. Fast Search backed out of an ad model to pursue an academic vision of information access as the primary enterprise driver.
- The Fast Search solution which is part of SharePoint has breathed life into dozens of SharePoint search add ins. These range from taxonomy systems to clustering components to complete snap in replacements for the Fast Search components. Hundreds upon hundreds of consultants make their living implementing, improving, and customizing search and retrieval for SharePoint.
Net net: SharePoint has more than 150 million licensees. SharePoint is the new DOS for the enterprise. SharePoint is a consultant’s dream come true.
For me, I prefer simpler and more recent technology. That 17 year old approach seems more like Jack Benny’s Maxwell than a modern search Kia Soul.
Stephen E Arnold, September 23, 2015
Sinequa and Microsoft SharePoint: The Emperor Has No Search!
September 9, 2015
The French are endlessly entertaining. A number of information access outfits have emerged from the super sophisticated French academic machine. Most of these outfits are mostly unknown outside of France. I am not sure about the reason. For example, have you been keeping pace with the push of Antidot, Dassault Exalead, and Polyspot into the US market? Are you tracking the Spotter acquisition? What about the open source search solutions available?
I was in the wilds of Canada. A reader sent me a link to a LinkedIn thread about Gartner’s absolutely fantastic analyses of enterprise search. (Nope, don’t fret. I won’t rehash my earlier comments about this brilliant piece of work. I will not remind you that the report omitted a few outfits.)
On with the mission.
The post was/is “Don’t Forget These Solutions That Did NOT Qualify for 2015 Gartner MQ on Enterprise Search” and written by a professional at the consulting firm Search Technologies. (Search Technologies has some of its roots in the Excalibur/ConQuest/Convera era I believe). The “MQ” is the author’s way of referencing the Gartner Magic Quadrant. Yes, indeed, it is magic.
The author pointed out that Gartner ignored based on its extensive quantitative and poetical analyses Endeca (an Oracle outfit), Microsoft SharePoint (owner of the outstanding Fast Search & Transfer Technology from the late 1990s), Elasticsearch (which is now Elastic and inking deals in second string outfits like Goldman Sachs), and MarkLogic (which I think may be a data management system).
The meat of the thread was this comment by one of France’s most prescient experts on information access, who is also hooked up with Sinequa and presumably reflects the collective insight of that firm, which was founded in 2002.
Sinequa wrote:
Sorry, Graham but SharePoint is not an enterprise search platform. [Editor: We fixed the punctuation and spelling of SharePoint, gentle reader.]
Okay, there you have it. Two outfits disagree about search in SharePoint. Both are in the search game. Both are clearly wizards and mavens in the search thing.
I would humbly submit that Microsoft indeed does offer search in SharePoint. The methods can be mind breakers. See, for example, this write up about crawled properties in SharePoint 2013.
Better yet, check out the “Search in SharePoint 2013” from the horse’s mouth or as Donald Trump prefers, the horse’s whatever.
I want to reflect on what the statement “Sorry, Graham but SharePoint is not an enterprise search platform.”
My thoughts are:
- Sinequa is an enterprise search platform. If SharePoint is not an enterprise search platform, therefore, you, gentle reader, must license the French system Sinequa to deliver you to information access heaven. If you sign the deal in Paris, you may be delivered to an okay French restaurant.
- SharePoint is a box of Legos. Once a licensee builds something like a content management system for employees, there is absolutely no way whatsoever to look up if the person in the next cube or on contract and working from Starbuck’s is in the system. Wrong. Dear, dear Microsoft provides. Goodness, even Windows 10 offers a way to find a person if an expert has cracked the SharePoint and Windows 10 permissions and access codes.
- Sinequa is just reminding a consultant that real information access vendors do not make silly mistakes. I find that when I mispronounce a French word or phrase, native French speakers are ever so helpful. My fave is faire le pont, which means take more days off.
Why do I trouble myself to write this?
First, the silliness of arguing with the Gartner’s mathematical analyses of enterprise search vendors warrants not one whit of criticism. Perfection has been attained. This is not a European Philae lander bounce around thing.
Second, Sinequa feels strongly that Graham definitely needs to be set straight. Who better than a vendor of information access systems which was sidestepped by Microsoft when it was tire kicking before the 2008 Fast Search acquisition? Is there a sour French whine?
Third, LinkedIn loves these threads which attract a robust two comments. There are so many LinkedIn members involved in enterprise search. I mean two comments. Be still my heart.
What’s that say about Gartner? What’s that say about enterprise search? What’s that say about LinkedIn?
Answer: Three Michelin stars for paupiettes de porc.
Stephen E Arnold, September 9, 2015
What Might be Left Out of SharePoint 2016
August 25, 2015
When a new version of any major software is released, users get nervous as to whether their favorite features will continue to be supported or will be phased out. Deprecation is the process of phasing out certain components, and users are warily eyeing SharePoint Server 2016. Read all the details in the Search Content Management article, “Where Can We Expect Deprecation in SharePoint 2016?”
The article begins:
“New versions of Microsoft products always include a variety of additional tools and capabilities, but the flip side of updating software is that familiar features are retired or deprecated. We can expect some changes with SharePoint 2016.”
While Microsoft has yet to officially release the list of what will make the cut and what will be deprecated, they have made it known that InfoPath is being let go. To stay on top of future developments as they happen, stay tuned to ArnoldIT.com. Stephen E. Arnold has made a lifetime career out of all things search, and he lends his expertise to SharePoint on a dedicated feed. It is a great resource for SharePoint tips and tricks at a glance.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 25, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Insights Into SharePoint 2013 Search
August 25, 2015
It has been awhile since we have discussed SharePoint 2013 and enterprise search. Upon reading “SharePoint 2013: Some Observations On Enterprise Search” from Steven Van de Craen’s Blog, we noticed some new insights into how users can locate information on the collaborative content platform.
The first item he brings our attention to is the “content source,” an out-of-the-box managed property option that create result sources that aggregate content from different content sources, i.e. different store houses on the SharePoint. Content source can become a crawled property. What happens is that meta elements from Web pages made on SharePoint can be added to crawled properties and can be made searchable content:
“After crawling this Web site with SharePoint 2013 Search it will create (if new) or use (if existing) a Crawled Property and store the content from the meta element. The Crawled Property can then be mapped to Managed Properties to return, filter or sort query results.”
Another useful option was mad possible by a user’s request: making it possible to add query string parameters to crawled properties. This allows more information to be displayed in the search index. Unfortunately this option is not available out-of-the-box and it has to be programmed using content enrichment.
Enterprise search on SharePoint 2013 still needs to be tweaked and fine-tuned, especially as users’ search demands become more complex. It makes us wonder when Microsoft will release the next SharePoint installment and if the next upgrade will resolve some of these issues or will it unleash a brand new slew of problems? We cannot wait for that can of worms.
Whitney Grace, August 25, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Integration of Elasticsearch and Sharepoint Adds Capabilities
August 24, 2015
The article on the IDM Blog titled BA Insight Brings Together Elasticsearch and Sharepoint describes yet another vendor embracing Elasticsearch and falling in love again with Sharepoint. The integration of Elasticsearch and Sharepoint enables customers to use Elasticsearch through Sharepoint portals. The integration also made BA Insight’s portfolio accessible through open source Elasticsearch as well as Logstash and Kibana, Elastic’s data retrieval and reporting systems, respectively. The article quotes the Director of Product Management at Elastic,
“BA Insight makes it possible for Elasticsearch and SharePoint to work seamlessly together…By enabling Elastic’s powerful real-time search and analytics capabilities in SharePoint, enterprises will be able to optimize how they use data within their applications and portals.” “Combining Elasticsearch and SharePoint opens up a world of exciting applications for our customers, ranging from geosearch and pattern search through search on machine data, data visualization, and low-latency search,” said Jeff Fried, CTO of BA Insight.”
Specific capabilities that the integration will enable include connectors to over fifty system, auto-classification, federation to improve the presentation of results within the Sharepoint framework, applications like Smart Previews and Matter Comparison. Users also have the ability to decide for themselves whether they want to use the Sharepoint search engine or Elastic’s, or combine them and put the results together into a set. Empowering users to make the best choice for their data is at the heart of the integration.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 24, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Gazing Into the Crystal Ball for SharePoint’s Future
August 20, 2015
As soon as one version of SharePoint is released, speculation begins on the next. After all, it keeps the fun alive, right? While Microsoft has already redoubled its commitment to on-premises versions with its upcoming SharePoint Server 2016, experts still wonder what the future holds. Read more of the predictions in the Redmond Magazine article, “What Does SharePoint’s Future Hold?”
The article begins:
“As we sit and wait for the general availability of SharePoint 2016 next year, members of the product team have already started to talk about vNext. Not as far as specific features, mind you, but commenting on the fact that Microsoft will continue to provide an on-premises version of the platform as long as the market demand is there . . . Microsoft recognizes that on-prem will be around for a long time, if not mostly in the form of hybrid environments.”
Users will no doubt be anxious to flesh out what “hybrid” really means in their environment. Additionally, security and ease-of-use will continue to be top priorities going into the future. To stay on top of the latest developments, stay tuned to ArnoldIT.com for an easy to digest rundown via a dedicated SharePoint feed. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search, and provides an expert opinion in a one-stop-shop format.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 20, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
SharePoint May be Last Remaining on Premises Hold Out
August 18, 2015
In conversations surrounding enterprise software, the on-site vs. cloud debate is not a new one. However, it is one that is heating up. Microsoft’s announcements relating to SharePoint Server 2016 and its continued support for on-premises infrastructure definitely stoke the fires of that conversation. CIO takes on the debate in their article, “Why SharePoint is the Last Great On-Premises Application.”
The article begins:
“While it seems like almost every piece of IT is moving to cloud these days, there are still plenty of reasons to keep SharePoint in your server room – where it belongs . . . SharePoint Server is such a sticky product with tentacles everywhere in the enterprise that it may well be the last great on-premises application. Let’s explore why.”
The article goes on to delineate many reasons why on-site is still favored among IT professionals. Only time will tell if the cloud really is able to completely take over, or if the market will demand continued access to on-site solutions. Until the verdict is clear, stay on top of the latest updates on both sides of the aisle with ArnoldIT.com. Stephen E. Arnold is a lifelong leader in search, and his dedicated SharePoint feed is of particular value for SharePoint professionals.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 18, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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