Sharepoint support in Scotland for searching email

If permitted by administration levels Sharepoint can allow searches to dig deep into email folders ensuring that nothing stays lost.

Biztalk in Scotland – what does Biztalk Pipeline Execution mean

Pipelines allow messages to be processed before and/or after they pass through the Message Box. The execution activities can transformation or even encryption type activities. Biztalk

Sharepoint support in Scotland for search relevance

Inbuilt to the search facilities in Sharepoint is the ability to ascertain relevance by looking at various parameters such as anchor text and depth within a menu structure.

Web development in Scotland – be regular

One of the things that many website owners do is forget to keep things updated. Try and build in some regular activity to review and update your website. As web developers we see the benefits from regular updates – it keeps the customer coming back and it also helps with SEO.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for searching documents

The Enterprise Search facilities within Sharepoint allow documents to be searched fast to retrieve the information needed. When adding documents you can also add meta data to ensure that Search works fast and effectively every time.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk Message Box

The Biztalk MessageBox is a SQL Data Database where the messages pass through. Easy.

Web developers in Scotland – video

As web developers we are often asked to add video to websites. We use DNN and have our own control that makes that dead easy. We basically hook into YouTube. If you prefer to host your own videos and do your own streaming then you will need a server capable of that.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for targeted audiences

By defining content based on the type of visitor or audience who may find it of interest Sharepoint websites ensure that users obtain relevant and interesting content at all times. The result is a system which can target content at specific audience types.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk Send Port

A Biztalk Send Port accepts messages from a Message Box and then sends them on. However, the Send Port itself can have Maps or Pipelines associate with it allowing the message to be altered prior to its onward journey.

The Send Port is a highly flexible Biztalk endpoint to allow messages to reach their end destination.

Web development in Scotland – using RSS

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is supported by almost all good CMS packages. Basically it allows your website to publish some of its copy as an easy to digest string of text. Not only is that preferable to some humans – the search engines also like it. An of course your own site can include RSS feeds from other sites if you want to publish other businesses news. As web developers we prefer to publish our own RSS feeds rather than use other folks.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for website personalisation

Personalisation features well within Sharepoint providing the user with the comfort of having some control over the environment that they work in. RSS feeds, for instance, are one area where a user can potentially define their own preferences.

Biztalk in Scotland – what does Biztalk pub/sub mean

In Biztalk the term pub/sub is used. All it means in crude terms is that messages are subscribed for (subscription) by the Send Ports – ie they declare what they want. And the publisher (Pub) is in essence simply broadcasting or notifying the interested parties.

Web developers in Scotland – size

Size isn’t everything but in the web development world size does matter. Websites that have “depth” will by their nature probably attract more attention than thin websites. As web developers we find that the most compelling way to build depth is to add news and resources making the site genuinely interesting to the web visitor.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for managing tasks

Sharepoint supplies various techniques for creating and managing tasks with workflow being such a core part of Sharepoint alerts notify users of the tasks required of them and a specific users task list will follow them around the areas or connected websites as they move around the Sharepoint controlled environment.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk Receive Port

As the name suggests a Receive Port takes messages into the system if enabled to do so. If handling XML then XSLT transformations can be applied to handle multiple different message types making the Receive Port potentially very flexible. Once a message received it is passed through the Message Box (a SQL Database).

Web development in Scotland – structure

When you are laying out your website it is important to think about the website menu structure. As web developers we have got used to going this and it sort of becomes obvious. For new comers think about logical groupings of products and services and keep them together. For SEO purposes ensure that you don’t put too many different things you do on one page – ideally one page equals one message.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for site templates

A variety of site templates are supplied with Sharepoint to ensure a consistency of look and feel across the enterprise regardless of what the visitor or user is looking at. Portal, mini sites, libraries and search results can all take on a common look. And if desired you can of course design your own templates.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk Port

The physical in and out areas of Biztalk are called Ports. As you would expect you can have a Receive Port (for accepting incoming messages) and a Send Port (for dispatching outgoing messages).

Web developers in Scotland – copy

The copy on your website is the arguably the most important thing on your website. As web developers we have taken the view that it’s easier for us to do the first draft and then let customer’s tweek it. We have found that it can be a bit of a challenge for some folks new to the web to come up with the correct copy. And of course ideally it should be written with SEO in mind. So we do the first drafts to get things moving fast.

Nonetheless copy with a strong sales message is essential.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for workflow management

To administer documents potentially for compliance issues Sharepoint comes with a variety of predefined workflows (though you can design your own). Typical of the ready to go workflows are those for seeking approval, gaining comments, getting sign off and even time based expiry of documents.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is a Biztalk artifact

A Biztalk artifact simply refers to the various elements within Biztalk that makes the whole system operate. For instance Orchestrations, Pipelines and Ports are all Biztalks artifacts.

Web development in Scotland – images

Choosing images for your website can be hard work but needn’t be expensive. As web developers we use online stock image galleries which are relatively cheap. We tend to look for series of images so that we can keep a consistent feel through the site. And we also tend to prefer images on a white background so that they give maximum flexibility when laying out the website.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for document publishing

Sharepoint allows documents to be shared easily but importantly when a document is uploaded a workflow can be invoked – either from a predefined workflow list or a specific custom built workflow specific to you business. This ensures that review and approval can be managed and administered easily, ensuring your published documents meet your quality and compliance requirements.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is the Biztalk Business Rules Engine

The Business Rules Engine within Biztalk allows non technical folks to modift parameters to influence the underlying behaviour of the Biztalk system. It ensures that when simple changes are required that these can be made a t manager level rather than at a technical level.

Web developers in Scotland – layout

Once you have settled on a CMS you need to think about web layout. The web development capabilities of most CMS encourage the web developer to choose a layout template. That makes good sense and as you look around the web you will see that the vast majority of websites are laid out in a fixed column type style.

A good layout shouldn’t confuse the website visitor – so stick with something akin to a newspaper layout and you won’t go far wrong.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for wikis

Wikipedia may have trail blazed the way but more and more organizations are seeing the benefit of setting up their own internal wikis to ensure that best available information is presented to the workforce. Wikis within Sharepoint are an effective way of spreading knowledge throughout your business.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is Biztalk Business Activity Monitoring

BAM or Business Acitivity Monitoring in Biztalk is simply a way to monitor and report on the activities that Biztalk is carrying out. In essence it’s a reporting tool.

Web development in Scotland – we use DNN

The web development package we use is the unlikely named DotNetNuke – DNN. It’s written in .Net and as we are very experienced in Microsoft .Net development it made good sense. We have extended it significantly to add in lots and lots of extra functionality and capability.

Although a Microsoft based CMS it’s an open source package – BSD. That makes it a great platform to use are there are lots of experts out there.

Sharepoint support in Scotland for form creation and reliable data

Sharepoint provides the capability to create web based form to let your business gather information effectively. Forms can check data on entry to ensure that the data is valid before being stored in your databases.

Biztalk in Scotland – what is the Biztalk Orchestration Designer

The Biztalk Orchestration Designer is a visual designer to let you build simple flows to control activity based on the content of the messages passing through Biztalk. Because of its visual nature it allows designers and business analysts to discuss things easily.