Yearly Archives: 2008

Faking Exchange Support in OS X Leopard

I recently took the plunge and bought the new MacBook Pro (well my company bought it for me).  The workflow is completely different and frustrating at times, but when you get the hang of it it’s worth it. My iPhone experience was so positive that became a victim of the “iPhone Halo.”

That being said, making the migration is painful in some areas. One of which was how I handle the lack of productivity software I had in Windows—namely Microsoft Outlook.  As I search around there are a few options in attempting to tackle this problem.

  1. Use VMWare Fusion or Crossover to load Windows and then Outlook.
  2. Use Microsoft Entourage.
  3. Find a way to use the native OS X applications (iCal, Mail.app, and Address Book).

Using Virtualization Technology

This seems straight forward enough on the surface, but on the inside it’s fraught with problems.  First, the idea of using a virtual machine to load productivity software doesn’t seem, well, productive.  This is especially true when I have to dedicate a gig of precious memory to the VM (granted I have 4 GB).  I tried it, and I was able to use it without problem but I wasn’t happy with this option.  I became discontent with it when I started using Mail.app for my personal e-mail. I love the simplicity of the application, and I wanted to use it full time.  I should say I tried Crossover, and I didn’t like it at all. VMWare’s unity feature is far better.

Use Microsoft Entourage

I went out and got a license of MS Office 2008 for Mac.  Word, Excel, and PowerPoint aren’t bad, but they pale in their Windows counterparts. After using the ribbon for so long now I love it. Office 2008 has a “ribbon” of sorts, and it’s not that bad. For quick document work it works fine. If I need more then I can use my virtual machine. However, this isn’t the case for Entourage.

Microsoft Entourage has to be one of the worst e-mail clients I’ve ever used. Sure, it connects to Exchange without a problem, but when you have expectations it will work like Outlook it is very disappointing.  I tried it for a while, and I decided it simply doesn’t cut it. The way you add recipients in e-mail is awful, and I quickly found out that you can’t do HTML e-mail in Entourage which means no embedded links. Epic fail. I hated it, and it made me look to the third option.

Faking Exchange Support

I say “faking,” because the support isn’t native to the OS X apps. Recently, Apple unveiled that the next version of the OS dubbed “Snow Leopard” will have native support for Exchange 2007 in their apps similar to the iPhone (which I use without complaint). But right now my company uses Exchange 2003 which I don’t know if it will be support in Snow Leopard, and it isn’t to be released until next summer.  That leaves a long time for frustration. Surely, there must be a way to do this right?

After searching extensively I discovered I’m not the only who has struggled through this. What surprises me even more is the lack of a third party vendor to fill this void. I would’ve happily paid several hundred dollars for this, but there is nothing out there to accomplish this. It is obvious that only until recently is Apple taking the enterprise environment seriously with Exchange support (no matter how much they may despise it).  I fortunately was able to find a solution in the mean time. Here is my recipe:

Ingredients

  1. Microsoft Entourage (bear with me)
  2. Mail.app
  3. IMAP enabled in Exchange
  4. Dock Dodger

Preparation

The preferences pane in Entourage

The preferences pane in Entourage

I discovered that Entourage supports sync services to send calendar events and contacts to the native OS X programs. OK, this is a good start.  As you can see in the screenshot go to Entourage — Preferences and select Sync Services in the left panel.  Then check both boxes to send calender events and contacts to the native applications.  This will via a background service take care of the synchronization from the native apps to Exchange. When you select the option to sync you will receive a prompt, and you will want to choose “Merge Entourage items with Sync Services items” which will allow bi-directional sync between the two. So if you add an event in iCal it will go to Entourage and then Exchange, and if I add an event in my iPhone it will go from Exchange to Entourage to iCal. Not pretty but it works.

Then we have the e-mail issue. This was by far the most difficult and frustrating part. When you create accounts in Mail.app it allows you to create Exchange accounts which is a misnomer. What it means is it will attempt to use Outlook Web Access to send/receive, but it also means you’ll be really using IMAP on an Exchange server.

I found an article which outlines setting up IMAP on Exchange. I had to sweet talk my boss, and he sympathized and helped.  They set up IMAP (Exchange is above me), and that led me to now getting closer to being free of Entourage.  When you set up an account under the Exchange heading you’ll be asked to specify a mail server (such as mail.yourdomain.com) which will come from your Exchange admin. You will also give it the address where you access Outlook Web Access (your webmail address). I was then able to successfully download messages. I had some problems with SMTP. My company uses RPC over HTTPS to connect so I had to use the Password option and specified my credentials (for the username I had to use domain\username).  Then I was up and running!

Cleaning Up

Now it’s working. It’s not pretty, but I wasn’t expecting it to be. It was a utilitarian effort, and it succeeded in accomplishing my goal. But it wasn’t as seamless as I wanted. Entourage would always show up in the dock and also the application switcher. Now I never want to see Entourage anywhere, and I found Dock Dodger. This is a freeware program that removes running applications from the dock and application switcher. By simply dragging the Entourage icon into the app it removed it. Before I did that I click on the icon in the dock and decided to open it at login (as I’ll always need it).

You’ll also notice dialogue windows for the send/receive. I haven’t found a way to completely remove them, but if you close it when it’s running it will go away. Unfortunately, on reboot it comes back. I hope to find an answer to get rid of the dialogue.

Concluding Thoughts

I can now use the native apps, and I am up and running. Entourage now uses around ~75 MB of memory which is much better than the 1 GB option with VMWare Fusion.  I am happy for now, and I look forward to Snow Leopard when I can completely axe Entourage from my life.

I would like to thank Nick Dawson (my Pownce buddy) for empathizing with my struggle and pointing me in the direction I needed.

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Brand SharePoint, and Let Me Help You Do It!

However you use the term “branding” (and some of us agree it is misused when applied to SharePoint) many companies still need to do it.  The problem often comes when we start a branding project we simply don’t know where to begin.

My company, Mixon Consulting, asked me to write a curriculum on branding SharePoint with my extensive experience with user interface design.  Once I learned the details on how to use the SharePoint platform I was able to put together a curriculum that helps individuals through the painful process.  I’m please with the result, and I look forward to teaching it and help others with the task. Here is an overview of the curriculum:

  • Understand the SharePoint platform
  • Become acquainted with the differences between various SharePoint interfaces
  • See how Microsoft constructed a default interface and how to change it
  • Learn the common tasks SharePoint Designer can help you complete in the effort
  • Learn how to use technologies such as the data view and data form web parts
  • Utilize SharePoint web content management (WCM) features to deliver instant value to your organization
  • Create custom master pages, stylesheets, and pages

What Makes This Class Unique?

You might be wondering that after seeing the list above. After all, there are other training companies that provide the above in a curriculum.  There are, however, some serious differences that you’ll get from someone versed in user experience and web standards development.  Here are a few:

  • Use free and open source tools to understand an interface
  • Learn how to distill functional business requirements when doing design work
  • See how information architecture plays an important role in designing interfaces
  • Have the opportunity to converse with someone with nearly a decade of interaction and interface design
  • Get access to resources to help you in your branding effort
  • Learn how to find answers when you need them

If you want more information you can see the official marketing materials on Mixon’s site.

Register Today!

Registrations are being accepted today.  The first class will be on November 11th for three days, and it is $795. If you register by the 30th of this month you’ll get a $50 discount.  Here are links to register.

  1. November 11th — 13th
  2. December 10th — 12th
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The Pains of Altering the SharePoint UI

Hirschs Branding Effort

Hirsch’s Branding Effort

I was recently tagged to “brand” a SharePoint installation for Hirsch Pipe & Supply Co.  I knew it would be an interesting challenge, but I had no idea how bad it truly would be.

SharePoint is built on ASP.NET 2.0 which I had worked with in my previous job. I found ASP.NET very powerful and flexible. Master pages, App_Themes, CSS Friendly Adapters, and more made working on ASP.NET interfaces relatively painless.  Knowing that SharePoint utilized master pages I thought it would be much easier than it was.  However, it turned out to not be the case.

The Default Master Page

I was immediately struck by the mess that is the default master page.  The master page is laid out with, of course, tables which is reminiscent of why Microsoft is such a joke in the designer world.  Well, I decided to rip out the tables, and surely that would make it easier right?  No.  It turns out that SharePoint only uses one standard ASP.NET control (the navigation control), and the rest are SharePoint specific “delegate” controls which made layouts with CSS difficult.  These are of course stored on the file system, and the only way to edit them is to create painful features.  It looked as though I was stuck with extensive tables for much of the layout.

When I did yank out much of the table layouts it only opened up a headache down the road.  It was actually more painful to try and layout it with CSS then just sticking with the table layouts.  What made it difficult are the extensive nuances in the SharePoint interface that are dependent on others.  For instance, I would lay it out in CSS, but when I went to edit the page to add web parts everything went awry due to dependencies on extensive tables for layout.  I was able to lay out the majority of the default master page with CSS, but I ended up reverting to tables for the main content area due to pain after pain. I did go with Heather Solomon’s minimal base master page for publishing sites which was a better start then I had.

The CSS

The fun doesn’t stop there.  SharePoint has a core stylesheet that is over 4,000 lines long.  I’ve dealt with more styles in one shot, but looking at the stylesheet you would think a 10th grader created them.  There is a lack of shorthand, units of measure, and extensive IE proprietary styles.  Add onto the fact there are no comments in the stylesheet it is absolutely useless to attempt to decode it.  You also can’t simply remove the core styles; well, you could, but it’s another headache that is ultimately not worth tackling.  It’s again easier to deal with the bad then try to make it better.

SharePoint does allow you to specify an alternate stylesheet which does, thankfully, get rendered after the core styles.  The cascade becomes your best friend in altering the styles.  You’ll also notice the “classitis” that abounds in the master page and core styles.  They all have a prefix of ms– which is unneeded and unhelpful.  I wasn’t surprised to find a lack of advanced CSS 2 selectors due to the pressure to support IE 6, but they are hardly any descendant selectors which would drastically decrease the amount of classes in the markup.

The JavaScript

I know Microsoft is now supporting jQuery which we can only hope will reduce the amount of “obtrusive” JavaScript through the site.  It reminds me of how I wrote JavaScript back in the day.  Attempting to decode the core JavaScript is a puzzle I didn’t even attempt.  You are once again forced to use proprietary JavaScript instead of taking it on to write it any better.  If they did abstract the obtrusive JavaScript it would drastically decrease the complexity of the markup sent to the browser. I did end up using jQuery to set the size of certain divs, and I also attempted to clone() and append() DOM elements but it proved fruitless.

Hope for SharePoint vNext

I hope, first that I never have to alter the SharePoint UI again, but that the next version of SharePoint will construct a better default UI with the following changes.

  1. Use CSS for layouts.
  2. Ditch the delegate controls to use more of the standard ASP.NET controls (or at least improve them).
  3. Use a well-commented core CSS file with advanced selectors to eliminate the need for classes.
  4. Switch to an unobtrusive JavaScript model.
  5. An increased focus on accessibility for public-facing sites.
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