Guide to Conditional Content on Mobile Devices in SharePoint
July 5, 2012
Waldek Mastykarz is a software developer and SharePoint Server MVP. In his post, “Conditional Content on Mobile Devices the Easy Way in SharePoint 2010,” Mastykarz looks at some issues with displaying content in SharePoint on mobile devices. The author explains the issue,
Although mobile devices lower the bar for accessing information on the Internet they have their restrictions, such as screen size or bandwidth. In order to deliver optimal experience to your visitors you not only have to consider laying out all the different elements on the page, given the limited screen size, but also have to think about the amount of information you want to serve to your users to ensure that your website will load fast.
Mastykarz adds that responsive Web design allows you to ensure that your Web site is easy to use and content displays well in the limited screen space. He also provides guides and code snippets for enacting conditional content on mobile.
It seems that the experts at Fabasoft Mindbreeze understand the value of powerful search and mobile access to add more efficiency for SharePoint.
. . . makes company knowledge available on all mobile devices. You can act freely, independently and yet always securely. Irrespective of what format the data is in. Full functionality: Search results are displayed homogenously to the web client with regards to clear design and intuitive navigation.
With the full functionality of Fabasoft Mindbreeze for Enterprise and united on-premise and Cloud data, users will be able to act quickly in business matters with smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Read more about the full suite of solutions at http://www.mindbreeze.com/.
Phillip West, July 5, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Richard Paterson Assesses Mobile Access Options for your SharePoint Site
June 19, 2012
Mobile access is no doubt becoming the ubiquitous and a go-to source for users as the office extends well beyond physical office walls. In “SharePoint on Mobile Devices: The Options,” Richard Paterson takes a look at ways to expose SharePoint portals on mobile devices, including out-of-the-box mobile SharePoint views, Responsive Design, Mobile Web Apps, and native apps.
Paterson points out that mobile views are not ‘one size fits all,’ rather the delivery style you choose depends on your target audience, target device, and site content. While an out-of-the-box SharePoint mobile view is simple to implement, it gives you only basic navigation around sites, lists, and document libraries.
Paterson has this to say about a framework solution:
A framework such as Mobile Entrée can provide a richer experience than the out of the box views and will normally provide an API to code against, making extensibility and customization of the functionality intuitive. They will normally operate on templates which allows for powerful front end customization. Views can be made available for different devices, e.g. you might want a two column layout on a tablet, whereas on a phone you would want just one. Frameworks will make form building simpler and also presenting back graphs and tables often used in Business Intelligence easy and more cost effective to implement.
If your site is geared toward news, marketing, or communication, Paterson suggests that a Responsive Design may be best, but it is lacking if you need forms or functional parts. A native device app can give you big results for the user experience, but Paterson explains it also requires the largest investment.
Paterson’s reviews are not comprehensive, but definitely provide a good introduction to mobile options. You may consider the read if you’re looking to beef up your site’s mobile experience. You may also consider adding a third party solution as a means to expand mobile offerings while also saving valuable time and investment resources. We like the feedback we’ve seen about Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile.
Here you can read about the Mobile Search solution from Mindbreeze:
Smartphones and tablets are constant companions, indispensable in the business world. Information needs to be able to be exchanged at all times and wherever you are. Easily. Quickly. Securely. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile makes company data available on all mobile devices. Regardless of whether you have a BlackBerry®, iPhone®, Windows Phone or Android™ Smartphone or a tablet such as the Apple iPad, Samsung Chromebook/GalaxyTab or Blackberry Playbook, you can act independently and freely – yet always securely. Irrespective of what format the data is in. Full functionality: the display of the search results is homogenous to the tried and tested web client in terms of clear design and intuitive navigation.
Read more about the Fabasoft Mindbreeze Search Solutions that easily integrate into your SharePoint farm at http://www.mindbreeze.com/.
Philip West, June 19, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
MIndbreeze Mobile for SharePoint
November 8, 2011
Mobile devices are quickly gaining ground on personal computers as the primary entry point to the internet and other online resources. Any discussion of enterprise software is incomplete without devoting attention to mobile access. Waldek Mastykarz analyzes the effectiveness of SharePoint 2010’s mobile device support in, “Inconvenient SharePoint 2010 Mobile Redirect.” Mastykarz’s main complaint with SharePoint mobile access is its unsuitability for internet-facing Web sites because its lack of support for anonymous users. We learned:
Not only is the standard mobile experience useless on an Internet-facing website, but it also cannot be turned off. The mobile redirect is baked into the request processing module provided with SharePoint (the SPRequestModule HTTP module) and there is no on/off switch provided that you could flip to make it go away.
The author explains several workaround options for mobile access, but is quick to mention that no workaround is seamless and none completely fix SharePoint’s limitations. A solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile is a better overall fit for this and other SharePoint shortcomings. We learned from Fabasoft that:
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile uses a browser-based Client that is specifically adapted to the requirements of smart phones such as BlackBerry, iPhone and Android. Only three kilobytes of memory and the installation of one single certificate are required. After these steps are taken, the corporate installation of Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise – and thus all connected data sources – can be accessed through the usual Mindbreeze URL.
Additionally, Mindbreeze maintains continuous checks of existing access rights. Improving the users’ experience, every information object can be opened in Mindbreeze mobile in a preview mode that features the accompanying metadata. Enterprise solutions are useless without effective and efficient mobile solutions. Look into Mindbreeze as a good solution for increasing the usability of SharePoint’s mobile enterprise access.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 8, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Microsoft Takes SharePoint Criticism Seriously
July 16, 2015
Organizations are reaching the point where a shift toward mobile productivity and adoption must take place; therefore, their enterprise solution must follow suit. While Office 365 adoption has soared in light of the realization, Microsoft still has work to do in order to give users the experience that they demand from a mobile and social heavy platform. ComputerWorld goes into more details with their article, “Onus on Microsoft as SharePoint and OneDrive Roadmaps Reach Crossroads.”
The article states Microsoft’s current progress and future goals:
“With the advent of SharePoint Server 2016 (public beta expected 4Q 2015, with general availability 2Q 2016), Edwards believes Microsoft is placing renewed focus on file management, content management, sites, and portals. Going forward, Redmond claims it will also continue to develop the hybrid capabilities of SharePoint, recognizing that hybrid deployments are a steady state for many large organizations, and not just a temporary position to enable migration to the cloud.”
Few users chose to adopt the opportunities offered by Office 365 and SharePoint 2013, so Microsoft has to make SharePoint Server 2016 look like a new, enticing offering worthy of being taken seriously. So far, they have done a good job of building up some hype and attention. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and he has been covering the news surrounding the release on ArnoldIT.com. Additionally, his dedicated SharePoint feed makes it easy to catch the latest news, tips, and tricks at a glance.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 16, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
SharePoint Grasps for Relevancy in the Realm of Social
June 2, 2015
Ever since the rise of social platforms, SharePoint has attempted to keep up. While many users would say that these attempts were struggled behind the majority of social technology, Microsoft was making an effort to keep their enterprise heading in the social direction. The battle has been long and hard and Redmond Magazine gives the latest update in its article, “Microsoft Looks To Bring Social Back to SharePoint with Office Graph.”
The article describes how Microsoft is more or less stuck between a rock and a hard place in their game of social “keep-up”:
“Not that an enterprise-class team and document collaboration vendor should try to match the capabilities of what are, more often than not, a collection of unsecure, noncompliant, sometimes untested tools . . . But here’s the rub: if you don’t offer end users the tools they want, and make key features available on the mobile devices (and operating systems) they want to use, all of those security, auditing, compliance, and reporting standards will become irrelevant because people won’t use your platform.”
So Microsoft continues to battle for relevancy. Its latest move is Office Graph, and analysts are optimistic that this social layer may finally be a way for Microsoft to deliver on its promise of personalized and intelligent social solutions. To stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the social world of SharePoint, keep an eye on ArnoldIT.com, in particular his SharePoint feed. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and follower of SharePoint. His reporting offers a succinct insight into the developments that affect productivity and user experience.
Emily Rae Aldridge, June 2, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
SharePoint Is Back and Yammer Is Left Behind
May 28, 2015
Many old things become trend and new again, and even that holds true with software, at least in principle. The old functions of SharePoint are withstanding the test of time, and the trendy new buzzwords that Microsoft worked so hard to push these last few years (cloud, social, collaborative) are fading out. Of course, some of it has to do with perception, but it does seem that Microsoft is harkening back to what the tried and true longtime users want. Read more in the CMS Wire article, “SharePoint is Back, Yammer… Not So Much.”
The article sums up the last few years:
“But these last few years, Microsoft seemingly didn’t want to talk about SharePoint. It wanted to talk about Office 365, the cloud, collaboration, social, mobile devices and perpetual monthly licensing models. Yet no one appears to have told many of the big traditional SharePoint customers of these shifts. These people are still running SharePoint 2007, 2010 and 2013 happily in-house and have no plans to change that for many years.”
So it seems that with the returned focus to on-premises SharePoint, users are pleased in theory. However, it remains to be seen how satisfying SharePoint Server 2016 will be in reality. To stay tuned to the latest reviews and feedback, keep an eye on ArnoldIT.com and his dedicated SharePoint feed. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search with an interest in SharePoint. His reporting will shed a light on the realities of user experience once SharePoint Server 2016 becomes available.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 28, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Microsoft Goes Mobile with Delve
April 30, 2015
Microsoft has made enhancements to the core functionality of Delve, as well as rolling out native mobile app versions for iOS and Android. ZDNet breaks the news in their article, “Microsoft Delivers iOS, Android Versions of Delve.”
The article begins:
“Microsoft has made native mobile versions of its Delve search and presentation app available for Android phones, Android wear devices and iPhones. Delve presents in card-like form information from Exchange, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online and Yammer enterprise-social networking components. Over the coming months Delve will be adding more content sources, including email attachments, OneNote and Skype for Business.”
This seems like a Microsoft component that has great potential for mobile use, since its focus is “at a glance” information retrieval. Keep an eye on ArnoldIT.com to see what Stephen E. Arnold has to say about it in coming months. Arnold has made a career out of following all things search and enterprise, and he reports his findings at ArnoldIT.com. His dedicated SharePoint feed collects a lot of interesting reporting regarding SharePoint and the rest of Microsoft productivity offerings.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 30, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Mobile Office 365 Usage on the Rise
April 16, 2015
A recent study by harmon.ie has found that Mobile Office 365 is growing quickly among its users. Mobile is a huge consideration for all software companies, and now the data is proving that mobile is the go-to for even heavy-hitting work and enterprise applications. Read more in the AppsTechNews article, “The state of mobile Office 365 usage in the workplace – and what it means for SharePoint.”
The article begins with the research:
“24% of harmon.ie mobile users are now using mobile Office 365 in the cloud, compared to 18% six months ago. Not surprisingly, the most popular activity conducted by business users on mobile devices was online and offline document access, according to 81% of the vote. 7% most frequently use their mobile devices to add a SharePoint site, while 4% prefer to favourite documents for later offline access.”
Retrieval is still proven to be the most common mobile function, as devices are still not designed well for efficient input. To keep up with future developments regarding mobile use in the enterprise, stay tuned to ArnoldIT.com. Stephen E. Arnold has made a career out of following all things search, and his SharePoint feed is an accessible place to stay tuned in to the latest SharePoint developments.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 16, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
SharePoint Usability Workarounds
December 25, 2014
SharePoint is known as the most widely used enterprise solution, but it is definitely not known as the most friendly to use. CMS Wire substantiates that claim in their latest article, “4 Ways SharePoint Navigation Breaks Usability Best Practices.”
The article begins:
“There’s been a lot of interest lately from business users and SharePoint site owners in SharePoint’s usability (or lack thereof), but the issue doesn’t seem to receive as much attention as other topics. When experts talk about SharePoint, they focus on migration, administration, governance, development, cloud, and mobile. Any mentions of usability take a backseat and are only brought up by usability enthusiasts. It’s time to bring this subject to the forefront.”
The author then goes on to list at least four ways that SharePoint Navigation breaks usability best practices. These may seem like minute points to the outsider, but SharePoint managers will find that they make a great deal of impact on the usability and user satisfaction of their implementation. Stephen E. Arnold also reports similar findings on his Web service, ArnoldIT.com. He has made a career out of all things search and frequently reports on tips and tricks for SharePoint on his dedicated feed. Readers may find it helpful for their continuing education.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 25, 2014
Microsoft Turns SharePoint Points Users to Yammer
November 11, 2014
SharePoint is a longstanding leader in enterprise search, but it continues to morph and shift in response to the latest technology and emerging needs. As the move toward social becomes more important, Microsoft is dropping outdated features and shifting its focus toward social components. Read more in the GCN article, “Microsoft Pushes Yammer as it Trims SharePoint Features.”
The article begins:
“Microsoft quietly retired some features from SharePoint Online while it enhanced mobile apps, email integration and collaboration tools of Yammer, the company’s cloud-based enterprise social networking platform. Microsoft MVP and SharePoint expert Vlad Catrinescu posted that the company was removing the Tasks menu option, and the Sync to Outlook button will also be removed. Additionally, SharePoint Online Notes and Tags were deprecated last month.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search. He keeps a close eye on SharePoint, reporting his findings on ArnoldIT.com. The article hints that Microsoft is leaning toward moving to Yammer all the way, meaning that additional features are likely to be retired and collapsed into the new infrastructure. To keep up with all the changes, including the latest tips and tricks, stay tuned to Arnold’s specific SharePoint feed.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 11, 2014
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